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

When he said whosoever will, Jesus included me too. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. When the Lord said whosoever, he included me. Jesus included me, yes, he included me. When the Lord said whosoever, he included me. All right, with that, we're going to have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for announcing me back here this evening. And first thing I want to thank you for is for this church, Lord, for the spiritual family, Lord. And I thank you for the blessings that have been to me. And I pray that we just continue to serve you and give you glory as we go out and win some souls and use our talents to serve you and to worship you, Lord. And I pray that this service would be a blessing to all of us as we hear your word preached to Pastor Shelley. And I pray that you fill it with the Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. For the next song, we're going to song number 309. 309, Dare to be a Daniel. A song number 309, Dare to be a Daniel. 309, 309. A song number 309, Dare to be a Daniel. dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known, hold the gospel banner high, haunt the victory grand, Satan and his host, if I had shot for Daniel's ban, dare to be a Daniel, dare to stand alone, dare to have a purpose firm, dare to make it known. Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift your hand nice and high and we'll get you a bulletin. If you still need one, on the front we have the Bible memory passage, Psalm 146. Was there anybody that had quoted John chapter one that did not receive their prize this morning? Is there anybody who's like that? All right, we need to get a gift card over there. Oh, oh, sorry. Dose. Here we go. All right. I was just thinking it was Liam, but I'm just kind of kidding. There you go. All right. Congratulations to you guys. Good job. All right. And I told the earlier group I like chocolates and I'm just kidding. Also, we're doing a new Bible memory passage, Psalm 146. We have the song as well and it's a pretty easy way to try and memorize it is through song a lot of times, but it is still a little different to actually just quote it rather than to sing it, but I would encourage you to work on that and again we'll hand out prizes for the entire chapter as well as kids that are able to quote the verse of the week can get a treat at the midweek service. On the inside, we have our service, our soul winning times, our church stats. Just in case I didn't capture it, is there any soul winning that was not already reported to your soul winning captains or anything like that for the last week? Is that just you and your family or? Okay, great. Is there anything else for the last few days? Okay. All right. Keep up the good work on soul winning. Also on the right, we have the list of expecting ladies. We have our prayer list. Please continue to pray for everyone mentioned there. We have on the back some church reminders and then we have the upcoming events, Thanksgiving dessert fellowship. November 23rd, we have December 2nd is our ladies Christmas party. The dessert fellowship, it's just going to be immediately following the service, just FYI. You want to bring whatever desserts you have and basically we're trying to fatten up before we have Thanksgiving so that way you have even more room for Thanksgiving and enlarge our stomachs. Not just our steps, but we want our stunt. I'm just kidding. Obviously, that's what we'll be doing, Thanksgiving dessert fellowship. December 2nd is ladies Christmas party, 6 to 9 p.m. It is nurselings only. If you're a dude out there, watch all the kiddos. As I always say, you can always throw peanuts at them or if they like popcorn or something else. My kids like popcorn and hot chocolate, so there you go. December 6th, Christmas caroling and then December 10th, it's not on the bulletin, but just I wanted to let everybody know again. December 10th is going to be our Dallas soul winning marathon, so we're going to go kind of over on that side of the DFW area and do a lot of evangelism over there. It'll be morning and afternoon. We'll feed you some breakfast. We'll feed you some lunch and you go out there and preach the gospel. It's like a quadruple win or something like that, so it'll be a lot of fun. We'll need to get a sign-up sheet and have people sign up just so we can anticipate what kind of a lunch crowd we're going to have, but we'll get one of those going, so make sure to sign up when we put that up there, probably Wednesday. That's pretty much all I have in regards to announcements. We're going to go ahead and go to our third, we're just going to do Psalm of the week. Psalm 150 in our special handouts. Yeah, that's Psalm 150. Psalm 150 in our white handouts, or you can turn to your Bible, so Psalm 150. Praise ye the Lord, praise God in His sanctuary. Praise Him in the firmament of His power. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him according to His accelerateness. Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise Him with the psaltery and paw harp. Praise Him with the timbrel and hands. Praise Him with stringed instruments and organs. Praise Him upon the heavens. Praise Him upon the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that had breath. Praise the Lord. Praise be the Lord. Praise God the Father. Praise God the Son. Praise God the Holy Ghost. Praise God in three persons. All right, and with that, we're going to go to our fourth song and that is 188. 188, the love of God. Again, that's song number 188, the love of God. 188. The love of God is greater far than Tom Cook Penn can ever tell. It goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. The guilty pair bow down with care. God gave His Son to win. His every child He reconciled and parted from His sin. Oh love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong it shall forevermore endure. The saints and angels song who hold time shall pass away and earthly thrones and kingdoms fall when men who here refuse to pray on rocks and hills and mountains call. God's love so sure shall still endure. How measureless and strong redeeming grace to Adam's race and saints and angels song. Oh love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong it shall forevermore endure. The saints and angels song who we would be the ocean fill and where the skies of parchment made were still restock on earth the quill and every man ascribed by trade to write the love of God above would drain the ocean dry nor could the scroll contain the whole through stretched from sky to sky. Oh love of God, how rich and pure, how measureless and strong it shall forevermore endure. The saints and angels song. As the offering plates go around please turn your bibles to Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9 the bible reads and Saul yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the lord went on to the high priest and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues and if he found any of this way whether they were men or women he might bring them bound onto Jerusalem and as he journeyed he came near Damascus and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him Saul, Saul why persecutest thou me and he said who art thou lord and the lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and he trembling and astonished said lord what will they'll have me to do and the lord said unto him arise and go into the city and it shall be told thee what thou must do and the men which journey with him stood speechless hearing a voice but seeing no man and Saul arose from the earth and when his eyes were opened he saw no man but they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus and when he was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink and there was a certain disciple at Damascus named Ananias and to him said the lord in the vision Ananias and he said behold I am here lord and the lord said unto him arise and go into the street which is called straight and inquired in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus for behold he prayeth and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight then Ananias answered lord I have heard by many of this man how much evil he had done to thy saints at Jerusalem and there he had authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name but the lord said unto him go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the gentiles and kings and the children of Israel for I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake and Ananias went his way and entered into the house and putting his hands on him said brother saw the lord even Jesus that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest has sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight be filled with the holy ghost and immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales and he received sight forthwith and arose and was baptized and when he had received meat he was strengthened then was saw certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus and straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the son of God but all that heard him were amazed and said is this not he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests but Saul increased the more in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelled to Damascus proving that this is very Christ and after that many days were fulfilled the Jews took counsel to kill him but their laying weight was known of Saul and they watched the gates day and night to kill him then the disciples took him by night and led him down by the wall in a basket and when Saul was come to Jerusalem he is said to join himself to the disciples but they were all afraid of him and believe not that he was a disciple but Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus and he was with them coming in and going out of Jerusalem and he spake boldly in the name of the lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians but they went about to slay him which when the brethren knew they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of the lord and in the comfort of the holy ghost were multiplied and it came to pass as Peter passed through all quarters he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lida and there he found a certain man named Aeneas which had kept his bad eight years and was sick of the palsy and Peter said unto him Aeneas Jesus Christ maketh thee whole arise and make thy bed and he arose immediately and all that dwelt at Lida and Saron saw him and turned to the lord now there was a certain disciple named Tabitha which by interpretation is called Dorcas this woman was full of good works and alms knees what she did and it came to pass in those days that she was sick and died whom when they had washed they laid her in an upper chamber and for so much as Lida was Nida Joppa and the disciples had heard that Peter was there they sent unto him two men desiring him that he would not delay to come to them then Peter arose and went with them when he was come they brought him into the upper chamber and all the widows stood by him weeping and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made while she was with them but Peter put them all forth and kneeled down and prayed and turning him to the body said Tabitha rise and she opened her eyes and when she saw Peter she sat up and he gave her his hand and lifted her lift her up and when she had called the saints and widows presented her alive and it was known throughout all Joppa and many believed in the lord and it came to pass that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon of Tanner let us pray father we thank you for this great chapter in the bible we thank you for our church and our pastor and his family father we just pray that you'll fill pastor Shelley with your holy spirit help him to preach boldly this evening help us to be edified and father we have so much to be thankful for lord this great church and and all the healthy babies that you you provide for us and and just all the souls that have been one to Christ lately lord just help us to keep pushing hard and help us to love one another and lord help us to always give you the glory we pray these things in Jesus name amen amen the part of the chapter I want to focus on is kind of the beginning where it says in verse four and he fell to the earth and heard a voice saying unto him Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and he said who art thou lord and the lord said I am Jesus whom thou persecutest it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks and and really I want to draw uh my sermon from this phrase here where he says that it's hard for thee to kick against the pricks and really what Jesus I believe is in essence trying to get Paul to understand is he needs to embrace the pricks rather than to kick against the pricks and so the title of my evening sermon is embrace the pricks embrace the pricks and and really you say what is a prick it's like a mean guy right now a prick is in the bible a long stick often referred to as a goad in scripture and it's pointed at the end and it's used to essentially provoke an animal to prod an animal to try and get an animal to do whatever it is that you want um a modern equivalent here in Texas it's spurs okay so it's a spur and he's like I don't know what a spur is well many of our Texans so I'm just kidding y'all don't try to put beans in your chili no I'm just kidding so a spur is basically it's a sharp circle and it's going to be kind of at the end of a boot that men would put on the end of their uh boots and basically when they're riding on a horse or an animal they basically kind of kick their legs back into the back hide of a horse or whatever animal and it's supposed to be painful and cause the horse to go faster so if a horse is just going to kind of run at whatever pace it wants but if the cowboy wants it to go faster and yeah isn't working you know then you'll start getting it with its spurs and that little prick will cause that horse to even start running and faster and faster and faster so again it's the same concept as what a goad or what a particular prick would do today they even have other devices on a ranch or on a farm they might use what's called a cattle prod and that's kind of the same essence sometimes even have an electronic cattle prod so it's kind of got like a little bit of zap to it it's kind of like that taser you know that you have you know to tase bad guys they have like the cattle prod and it's just and it'll really it'll kind of jolt that cow or whatever in the behind or something like that and it's just basically to get it to do what you want and of course in some cases you really need this when it comes to farming agriculture because a cow or a bull i mean is a beast i mean have you ever seen a cow or a bull in real life these things are giant large animals and you know the cattle industry they've got to wrangle a lot of different of these beasts and it's it's you know even a hazardous occupation many men have been stomped on kicked you know hurt injured even killed by wildlife livestock this type of animal and so it's important that they keep them in line you know it's it's a business for them so they got to kind of manage these cattle and so that's kind of the essence you know even a sheep dog i believe in many cases they'll kind of nip at the heels or kind of bite at certain animals to try and get them to do what it is that they need to do you know to either stay with the flock or to go into the slaughterhouse or you know whatever it is essentially they're trying to get them to do what they want well god is using this illustration god is using this kind of phrase to help us realize that we in the same way as sheep need some pricking every once in a while we need some goading every once in a while we need some prodding every once in a while from the lord and ultimately i find that this verse is actually kind of encouraging now it doesn't sound encouraging on the surface because a prick doesn't sound like fun you know it's it's sharp it's painful it hurts but what's encouraging about this sermon is the fact that or this phrase even is that even when you go off course in life or you're not doing what god wants you to do in your life god can have a way of bringing you back into the fold or putting you back where you need to be and even though that prick might be a little painful in the moment ultimately it's going to be for your betterment it's going to be for your good and it's going to help you to be on the lord's will because frankly speaking you know the bible is a big book we make a lot of decisions every single day how do you always know if you're like really on the course that god wants you to be on or or how do you always know that you're doing what god wants you to do or maybe a lot of people might ask this question of just like what is god's will for my life you know what does god want me to do for my life but you know the apostle paul he's trying about as hard as he can possibly do the opposite of what god wants for him i mean the apostle paul is called to be the greatest evangelist to ever live on the earth and what is he doing he's hailing christians into prison i mean if you if you want to talk about kind of resisting god's will and not doing what god wants for you but that's why god's you know kind of rebuking him here the lord's rebuking him by saying like isn't it pretty hard for you to kick against the pricks you know not only is it not fun to get pricked but imagine kicking some kind of a sharp pointed stick that's going to hurt really bad and what he's trying to say is you know god's not going to stop pricking you and trying to provoke you to do what he wants so there's no point kicking you might as well just go in the right direction because when god gets you going in the right direction he doesn't need to prick you as much and in fact the pricking doesn't hurt or you don't really have the pricks as much in your life the reason why you have so many pricks in your life is because you're not doing what god wants you to do now there's three pricks that i i noticed kind of in scripture that i wanted to talk about this evening number one is punishment punishment is a prick that god will give us but you know of course we want to embrace every single prick that we get but when you're not doing what god wants he can bring punishment into your life to try and motivate you to do the right thing think about the apostle paul right here what happens as a result of kicking against the pricks god ends up blinding the apostle paul wouldn't you say that's a pretty big punishment i mean being blind of all the punishments that could happen to me being blind has got to be one of the top punishments because there's a lot of things that i would rather have happen to me than punishment or i'm sorry than being blind right as a punishment you know i'd rather lose money i'd rather lose all kinds of stuff my job or all kinds i would not want to be blind that would be a horrible punishment but god is using this to try and get the apostle paul to go into the right direction of his life go to hebrews chapter number 12 go to hebrews chapter number 12 we're going to see that the bible teaches that god will punish you but the reason why he punishes you is because he wants you to make some kind of a change in your life it's some kind of a prick used to try and get you to do something different look at hebrews chapter 12 verse 5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children my son despise not thou the chastening of the lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him you know i said we're supposed to embrace the pricks notice he's literally commanding you here to despise not so he's saying don't have the wrong emotional response to punishment don't look at punishment as oh man i'm being punished again i hate punishment but rather realizing you know punishment is a necessary evil at times you know it's something that we need and ultimately even when we are punished we can see oh actually there's going to be a benefit as a result of this punishment and instead of being so discouraged when punishment comes in your life realize that oh i guess god loves me you know as a child you're punished you're going to receive punishment from your parents and of course no punishment in the present seeming to be joyous is what the passage is very clearly saying i'm not saying like getting spanked i'm not saying like getting stuff taken away from you what i am saying though is when it happens you shouldn't despise your parents for that or be discouraged by that but rather realize that your parents love you you know children when your parents punish you or spank you you should realize it's because they love you very much because it's hard to want to punish a child you know i believe the main reason someone punishes a child because because they actually love them you know they have some true desire for them to be better and to do good and so the more you're punished the more that you're loved children okay don't let the world lie to you the world out here would lie to you and say oh if your parents are punishing you it's because they're mean or they hate you it's the exact opposite people that hate you will not punish you you know they will destroy you they'll take advantage of you they'll rip you off but they won't punish you punishment is really a picture of someone actually caring for you and loving you because they they don't want to destroy you they just want you to be better so they're trying to help you by giving you some kind of a negative deterrent it says in verse six for whom the lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son and he receiveth if ye endure chastening god deals with you as with sons for what son is he whom the lord or whom the father chased and not so according to the bible if you never get punished for doing bad things or being away from the lord it's really probably because you're not even saved and it's funny to me because someone brought this up and and i've seen it other cases where they were talking about how they a church was exercising church discipline against them and and it's it's funny because the person was telling me they're like well this church believes like in work salvation and so i told him i'm not gonna go he's like he finally realized and they're like well we're disciplining you from the church because he believes in salvation by faith and i'm like well first of all that's good you know if i get disciplined from a church that believes in work salvation that's great but from their perspective that doesn't even make sense because you would never church discipline someone who's not saved like for being unsaved you know you might discipline them for doing other things but it's like we're not gonna discipline you because you're not even saved right god's not sitting here just disciplining all of the unsaved their real recompense of their reward is often just going to hell that's the true punishment that they will receive but you know what it's not like a chastising where he's trying to make them better of course they'll suffer the consequence of their sins in many cases and obviously they have the way of transgressors is hard but you know what the lord is not constantly punishing evil people for their deeds because he wants them to get saved he wants he wants to constantly give them grace and hopes that they'll get saved and then once they're saved then you'll start punishing them regularly to try and improve their behavior and to try and get them better you know you win over more flies with honey as it were and of course that's how the lord kind of operates in essence if you think about it because he's trying to give grace and extend more long-suffering and patience on the people that don't deserve it to try and get them to be saved but look for thus that are saved you know that grace is different he's going to punish us more often on earth because we don't have a punishment in heaven and those people they're going to get destroyed in hell they're not really going to get some kind of a loving rebuke or a loving chastisement they're just going to receive just a full torturous experience that will never end okay they're going to be rewarded okay for their rejection of the gospel but us that are saved you know we receive punishment so you see you know and this is what i mean by this when you see wicked people just getting away with stuff just over and over and over again they're probably just not saved you know you look at these televangelists that seem to just preach lies consistently and they're just obviously misusing church funds by buying like 20 jet planes you know and just just doing like insane things and it's like they're never sick they just seem to be fine just everything's turned up rose for them no problem it's like it's because that guy's just not even saved you know the saved guy that's just doing all kinds of bizarre stuff god's gonna rain on a ton of bricks on that guy eventually you know of course grace is always there and present you know the guy that saved and and just doing all kinds of weird stuff eventually god's gonna deal with him and is going to bring some kind of a punishment in his life and even us when we're doing wrong you know god will use punishment to try and get us to do right so don't think like oh i'm safe so everything good is always going to happen to me you know lots of times you're going to get punished by the lord specifically the lord is going to do things to you that are going to cause you pain and suffering but it's a temporary pain and suffering to try and motivate you to get turned back to the lord he even says in verse 8 but if you without chastisement were of all the partakers then are you bastards and not sons so you're saying look if you're just constantly getting away with sin there's something wrong with you like there's there's something bizarre because the rest the rest of us when we do things wrong god's gonna sit here and he's gonna tug at our heart you know we're gonna feel really crappy you know we're gonna feel really bad we're gonna lose sleep over it we're gonna lose relationships we're gonna lose money we're gonna lose we're gonna god's gonna do something to us that's going to affect us and it's not we're not gonna enjoy that sin we're not gonna get away with that sin we're gonna feel bad about it and we're gonna suffer recompense for it and we're gonna regret it and it's just gonna be a loathsome thing that we did you know lot wasn't really getting away with the sin you know he's vexed every single day living in sodom and gomorrah and he's vexed every single day his wife turned into a pillar of salt and he's probably vexed every single day living in a cave and he's vexed every single day knowing that he knocked up his own two daughters i mean that guy is not just enjoying life he's just getting punishment after punishment after punishment but you know he didn't embrace the punishment and change his life he just keeps down a dark road instead of realizing like you know what sodom war was a bad idea it's like now i'm gonna start serving god he just keeps going down that wrong road okay and we don't want to be that person we want to embrace the punishment and say you know what i need to make a change in my life now it does make it very clear in verse 11 now no chastening for the present seemed to be joyous but grievous nevertheless afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby so what he's trying to say is when you get punished it's going to be bad in the immediate future or in the immediate present but if you allow yourself to make a change you're going to end up realizing wow that was a blessing that happened to me because now i got this right you know i've had situations happen to me where maybe i was ripped off or i was scammed or had bad things happen to me and you know i don't know entirely if sometimes things are a punishment or not or whatever but what i've looked at it as i've said you know what i'm a better person because of that happening now and i can benefit from that experiencing happening out and i have more character now and i want to make this change in my life now and so just because i go through a negative experience and it's not fun in the in the present doesn't mean afterwards i can't look back on that experience and say you know what i learned a lot from that i'm wiser now i have more character now and i'm going to be making better decisions and i'm in a position now where i would have not been there had not been for that evil that had happened to me okay so we sometimes need to look at the evil as an opportunity to become a better person you know you might suffer some kind of evil in your life but it gives you a possibility becoming a better person and again i'm not going to sit here and say that every negative thing that happens to you is a punishment but it could be you know like a miscarriage is a miscarriage a punishment now here's the thing i'm not saying that it is for sure but i'm also not going to say that it's not and you say how could you say that well didn't david lose a child as a punishment i mean david had a very young child that died as a punishment and so yes i believe a miscarriage could be a punishment it could not be a punishment right we don't be joe's three friends and just say well obviously that's a punishment or whatever it we don't know but what we do know is that that's not fun what we do know is that's evil what we do know is that's a bad experience yet you could take that bad experience and allow it to mold your character and you could become a more empathetic person in the future you could have a greater appreciation and love for children in general and it it can allow you to have a more dependence on god for your joy and happiness rather than you know children themselves obviously children bring joy at times i've heard but you know you really you have to realize like you know my life is not just about children my life's here about god right and and so no matter what relationship just like joe had to lose 10 children you know that can help him realize but at the end of the day i'm still just here for god at the end of the day i'm not going to blaspheme god you know the lord giveth the lord taketh away blessed be the name of the lord and you know what it's better to have loved and lost than loved at all anyways you know that experience is going to make you a better person have more character and integrity in your heart so we can have all kinds of evil but even even if it was a punishment which it could be you know you could lose somebody in your life it could be a punishment lose a job lose money lose all kinds of things and it could have been a punishment and what you should take from that experience is hey is there something in my life that i could change to make it better is this a result of a decision i made or is there something i could do to improve and then allow that negative situation to motivate you to do things better or to get closer to the lord or to try to do things right and make sure that you're not going to have any problems you know joe was perplexed because he's thinking like i feel like i'm doing everything right so i don't understand why i'm receiving this evil you know to me i don't think joe was not considering whether it was a punishment or not i think he just was realizing like i've examined myself and i've examined my life and i don't see any lack so i don't understand this but i guarantee joe while examining his life if you'd noticed you know what i have i've been skipping church and i haven't been reading my bible and i haven't been praying and i haven't been focused on these things maybe this is something the lord's doing to me to try and draw me back to him or whatever i think he would have done that it's just when he's explaining to his friends it's like i don't get it you know i am doing everything that i'm supposed to be doing so obviously the lord's just causing evil because the lord's causing evil and i don't get it i'm not gonna get it i wish i could ask him i wish i could figure it out i don't know and i also think this because joe couldn't even figure it out there's gonna be times in our lives where we'll never figure it out but no matter what happens we can at least say you know what evil's happening and i'm gonna use this as an opportunity to try and draw closer to the lord go over to proverbs chapter number 20 proverbs chapter 20 yet i do believe many cases it will be obvious if it's a punishment or not and this is how i judge it okay i'm going to give you my personal example of how i i judge it whenever there's something evil in my life i try to think about like what is the cause of it like why am i suffering this specific evil and then when i think about what's causing it i think well is the bible telling me to do that thing or not right so it's like okay protesters let's just let's just throw some examples out here right protesters what's the direct cause preaching leviticus 2013 okay but did god tell me to preach that yeah so is that what is that punishment or is that persecution that's that's that's persecution right what if what if i like lose five thousand dollars or something like that and it could be from a number of situations maybe it may be just something in my house breaks and it's like a five thousand dollar repair well then i'll start thinking about it's like well did i use that carefully was i was i a good steward of that or was i using it properly or have i been paying attention to this you know or i think about like hey have i been tithing at church or whatever and and this is when it to me turns into punishment is when i realize wow i haven't been tithing which is not what is happening i'm just giving this example i haven't been tithing and then all of a sudden a verse of the bible comes to mind and it reminds me of that and i'm like oh and then i'm like that's probably why that happened right or it could be something like it you know anything related you know suffering some kind of a relationship issue or at work you know maybe you get yelled at by the boss on the job but he's mad at you for showing up late or for being lazy on the job and then you're reminded a verse in the bible about being slothful and being lazy or whatever that's not you being persecuted because you go to steadfast baptist church folks okay that's you being lazy and showing up late and just being a bad employee so you have to kind of you kind of have to assess the situation think about what's really going on why are you suffering what's the evil that's happening and does it relate to the bible is there a verse that's there and that is going to help you kind of determine you know that punishment that's going on in your life you know when you you can connect the dots then you got to be like you know what i need to get that right and there's been times where i've done that there's been times where i looked in a scenario and i said you know what i i think there's at least one area in my life this could attribute to this i need to fix that area i need to fix that problem i need to get this right in my life so as to make sure whatever future punishment will be avoided as well now proverbs 20 look at verse 30 the bible says this the blueness of a wound cleanses the way evil so do stripes the inward parts of the belly you know the bible says punishment actually causes you to do better and you know uses corporal punishment as an example here but i don't believe the lord is going to usually come down from heaven and get the belt out and whip you okay what he does that is typically he's going to do that to your heart he's going to convict your heart he's going to convict you know your soul internally and you're going to kind of have that that whipping is going to be kind of more an internal whipping but he wants to do that so as to motivate you to get right with the lord to try and make a positive change notice the blueness of the wound cleans of the way evil he's saying look when you get beat pain teaches as my as my boss used to say and you realize i don't want to do that anymore you know you said my children are prone to do evil yeah the blueness of the wound cleans of the way evil as the bible scribes you know the reason why children don't obey is because foolishness is bound in the heart of a child it's not that you're a bad parent because your children are disobedient your children are going to be disobedient whether you're the most godly person on the planet or not what you have to do though is you have to deliver the punishment consistently to try and help them to become a better person and to help get rid of a lot of evil and the same thing about us is god's constantly trying to have to chastise us and scourge us to try and make us better people go to jonah chapter one go to jonah chapter one what's a picture of someone being punished is is jonah now here's the thing sometimes the punishment is kind of obvious like i mentioned of maybe like in an example hey i'm not giving money to the lord and the lord takes away my money right that would that would almost seem like the punishment fits the crime sometimes it's not exactly like that but you can still realize oh this is kind of a result of this i believe jonah is a kind of an example of this you know it wasn't that like jonah was just like killing whales for profit or something and so that the lord's going to throw them into a whale right but do you think that jonah's confused about why this situation happens to him no look at verse one now the word of the lord came into jonah the son of a mitzvah saying arise go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it for their wickedness has come up before me but jonah rose up to flee into tarsus from the presence of the lord and went down the japa and he found a ship going to tarsus so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to go with them unto tarsus from the presence of the lord so let's do my little test here and we're thinking about jonah jonah's given a really specific commandment from the lord do this and then he decides i'm not going to do it now this is what i would anticipate every bad thing that happens to you is because you just decided to disobey god it doesn't matter if your car broke down it doesn't matter if your shoelaces were tied together it doesn't i mean it doesn't matter what exactly is going to happen look you can then attribute a lot of the evil that happens to you as a result to the fact that you're just deciding to rebel against what god said okay because god is not going to just let you get real clear commandments and then you just say you know what nuts to that i don't want to do it i'm just going to go have fun well he's going to ruin your fun look at verse four but the lord sent out a great wind in the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the sea so the ship was like to be broken oh i'm going to go partying vacation in tarsus now you're going to die in the sea i mean you're going to have some stormy winds come your way when you're not following the lord you say oh well going to steadfast or serving god there's persecution yeah but i'd rather have persecution than punishment pick your poison i mean i would rather have the persecution of man than have the punishment of god and of course because god can find you anywhere you go try to hide in tarsus he's there now as you read this entire chapter we realize that they are going to throw jonah into the sea and it says in verse 17 now the lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up jonah and jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights so if you don't want to preach god's message he might throw you into the belly of the well and you know of course this is a horrible punishment the bible likens it into going to hell because that was the symbol of the lord jesus christ going to hell for us is synonymous with how jonah went down into the well's belly and if you think about it's got a lot of similarities probably that weightless feeling of being in in the in a belly of a whale and just just kind of floating around in the sea i mean how do you even know if you're up or down or left or right probably not a lot of light in there probably outer darkness kind of type feeling right where you can't see anything because light can shine through certain objects and you can still have a little bit of light but if you're in the ocean all of the ocean waters and the entire lining of the whale i guarantee that was super dark like you're not seeing anything time is going to seem like forever i mean when you're going through excruciating pain five minutes seems like five hours three days might have felt like an eternity and especially since he didn't have jonah chapter number three you know to learn what's going to happen or jonah chapter two i mean you know when you don't know how long it's going to be sometimes it just feels like it's forever i was sick on like monday or tuesday and it's just like sometimes when you're sick it was like it's like i forgot what being healthy even felt like like i was cold like i had a fever right and it was cold out and i'm like do i always feel this bad when it's cold was there ever a time when it was cold and i just still felt normal and i'm just like i'm just like how long is this going to be and i couldn't sleep and you know when you can't sleep the night takes forever you know it's just like it's just the most excruciating experience and you know for jonah he's going through some excruciating pain here this is some severe punishment i don't think it smelled good i know they make perfume out of whale blubber but i don't think this this stomach was too great smelling i mean i don't even like the smell of fish can you imagine the inside of a fish and the fish that he ate and all the acid that's eating all the other fish and all the other weird junk that's going on i don't even know like how does it work like is he is he swimming kind of and he's constantly having to gas for air and gas for breaths of air is he is he constantly being drowned every once in a while when the whale opens up his mouth and just swallows a whole bunch more ocean water is the ocean water coming and going i mean this has got to be one of the most excruciating experiences all for what not preaching the bible oh pastor selley why do you preach negative messages because i don't want to because i don't want to go into the belly of a whale that sounds way worse you know most of the preaching in the bible is negative and you know what jonah was told to preach against people and to preach a negative message and you know what a lot of people refuse to preach the negative messages of this world but you know what they're kicking against the pricks i don't want to sit here and kick against god's pricks of the bible how can anybody sit here and read this book over and over and not get mad about anything i mean talk about kicking against the pricks but you know what the preachers of the day they get up and they want to give hope to everybody to vote for donald trump donald trump's running for president you know we have the great hope in america we all need to register to vote and we all need to get out there and get the signs and you know we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna outvote the election fraud what literally that was like the messaging of the 2022 midterms wasn't it who knows what i'm talking about okay yeah they're saying like if we vote enough then they can't cheat hard enough it's like are you kidding me we're hoping that we're gonna outsmart the criminal you know this if we ask really really nice maybe they won't cheat please don't cheat this time pretty please i know that if we come into power we'll probably arrest all of you and you'll go to federal prison or be killed but will you just please not cheat so you know we can get power back it's like that's never going to happen folks and why in the world would i want to put any kind of my hope or trust in donald trump anyways or into the republican party or into this country you know what the preachers need to be getting up and doing is preaching against america instead of glorifying america and saying let's make america great again what do you what do you even mean great in what way explain to me because they'll just say that make america great what does that mean great in what way so you have more money in your bank account so you can go play golf more so you can you know have fun more i mean what is it that even makes america great you know and i guarantee a lot of these preachers what they want is now what the bible's wanting you know to make america great is being able to preach the bible what would be great is if churches were like ours all of america what would be great is if people got up and preached leviticus 2013 you know it'd be great as everybody was wearing a sodomite deception t-shirt you know what would be great is if you you know we didn't have all this transgender nonsense anywhere you know it'd be great if people would stop saying well i'm okay what men do in private just as long as they're not doing with little children what when do the bible say that you know what i'd like is every baptist preacher that thinks homosexuality is a sin is to read a verse from the old testament that says that because you know they'll say that but then i'm thinking like which verse are you basing that on just read it out loud just read what the bible has to say but you know what they're a bunch of jonahs you know a lot of them but you know what they're they're really going to be kicking against the pricks and god is going to punish these people and they're going to receive their punishment you know their punishment is the fact that they have a bunch of women telling them what to do at their church their their punishment is that they don't get up they don't get to get up and preach and all the things they want to preach on you know and i've heard i've heard all the sob stories like there's all these like sob stories about pastors feel like oh it's so hard to be a pastor because you know you have to bear everyone else's burdens you have to be nice all the time and whatever and really what they're trying to say is this i have all these people bitching and complaining about me and i want to preach against them but i can't and it's like hey at this church i have no problem preaching against you you know in fact i've seen these shirts it's like be careful what you do because you might become a sermon you know it's like be careful what you say it might turn into a sermon it's like that's true you know it's like that's how it should be you know and because they're so soft and because they won't preach all the queer baits out of their church then they have to deal with all the queer baits on a regular basis they have they literally have trannies coming to their church services look i've heard it who's heard about it the independent fundamental bad is having trannies coming to their church services i've had people send me like i left this church and then i was going to this other independent fundamental church and they had a lesbian tranny couple sitting up front and we had to be nice to them good night can you imagine i mean you know i'm so glad i don't have these people coming up asking me for marriage counseling or something you know like good night i mean the the punishment that they're receiving is fully reward is fully uh earned as it were but you know god is trying to provoke jonah to make a change in his life because it's hard to kick against the pricks isn't this pretty hard i mean i don't want to do this i don't want to experience this now eventually after praying and and seeking the lord he finally gets spit out verse 10 of chapter 2 and lord speaking to the fish and it vomited out jonah upon the dry land that might have hurt too i don't know i can't imagine being vomited out of a whale's mouth but he's out he's finally out he's like that was good now look at verse one of chapter three and the word of the lord came unto jonah the second time notice that god gives us multiple chances hey arise go in an end of that great city and preach unto it the preaching that i bid thee now this is what i really like about this verse you know what i like about this verse the exact same message you gave him and you say well how do you know what god wants you to do he gave us all the exact same message and he just wants us to do this he wants us to you know it's not like i have to think what i i don't know what god wants me to communicate no i know exactly what god wants me to communicate it's right here and you know when god comes to you and says hey you didn't do this thing he's not like let me change that a little bit no no it's the exact same thing it's the same verse it's the same idea it's the same sin it's the same task you know god doesn't have a special message for you god's not like you know what jonah i know you didn't really want to preach it go somewhere else how about you just preach a happy message then instead notice like same city same message leviticus 2013 for you hey you're a baddest preacher leviticus 2013 for you yep actually the whole chapter for you too oh yeah hey preach against every single sin drinking alcohol drugs fornication adultery lying stealing people not giving of their money effort time energy foolish thoughts all of it for all of you preach all of it it's like well i don't want to preach that and god's like oh no preach it preach it preach every single thing found in the bible and of course you know god uses punishment as a prick to us you know what the second prick is is preaching god uses preaching and i hope that sometimes the preaching hurts because that was the point say you know what i don't like some of this preaching well you know what that's the point go to acts chapter two let me show you this in the bible acts chapter number two this is why it's so important that you go to a church because you need to be pricked on a regular basis and you're going to be pricked through preaching preaching should constantly be pricking you you know if you're going to a church and it's constantly scratching your back that's not church you know a church should be constantly irritating you and provoking you and causing you to feel uncomfortable now i'll say this the more you get right with god though the less you're going to be pricked the more you're just going to enjoy the sermon the more you're going to have fun the people are the most worldly carnal christians boy are they going to get pricked hard and it's almost like they're kicking against the pricks when they come in here and they're just having a bad attitude but look what it says in acts chapter 2 verse 37 now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto peter and the rest of the apostles men and brethren what shall we do so the preaching that peter's giving is like you guys rejected the lord you crucified him now did that really offend john did that preaching really offend james did that preaching really offend andrew and Bartholomew no no no because they're already right all the ones that are wrong though boy did that prick them boy did it sure hurt them when he preached these words but notice that that pricking motivated them hey what what should we do then and we get the great verse in verse 38 then peter send them repent and be baptized everybody in the name of jesus christ the mission of sins and you should receive the gift of the holy ghost and of course the bible tells us that thousands of people got saved three thousand people got saved as a result of that pricking of that you know preaching and of course god uses preaching to prick men in their heart to do what to change make some kind of change of course if you don't believe on the lord jesus christ we want to prick you into believing on the lord jesus christ and being saved but then after getting saved whatever other changes you don't have in your life we want to constantly get you pricked into the heart and cause you to say you know what do i do then this is what you do right here's the change that you need to make go to ecclesiastes chapter number 12 ecclesiastes it's kind of in the middle of your bible right after the book of proverbs you have ecclesiastes chapter number 12 look at verse number eight the bible says vanity and vanity say the preacher all is vanity and moreover because the preacher was wise he still taught the people knowledge yea he gave good heed and sought out and set in order many proverbs you know what i like about this he's kind of like expository preaching if you think about it he's saying he really took the time to meditate on a proverb and explain it and to teach what it's really saying in context verse 10 the preacher sought out sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth the words of the wise are as goads and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies which are given from one shepherd so a preacher his goal should be to figure out what to say that will cause people to change not you know it doesn't really matter if you like it or not it's not pleasant words it's not smooth things it's whatever is going to make the change whatever is going to provoke the people into making some kind of a difference in their life that is the acceptable words that's the words of truth because he says the words of the wise are as goads again what's that goat it's that sharp pointed stick that's going to just get in there and I better do something you know some people call my style of preaching bombastic who knows what bombastic even means okay bombastic what it means is is it's kind of a pejorative term in some ways meaning it's a little bit negative what they'll say is they try to emphasize something or make something more exciting than it really is or they're emphasizing something more than it needs to be emphasized or they're yelling about something that we don't really need to yell about so they would say that's a bombastic preaching obviously they would say that is about fire and brimstone preaching everything's just so over-the-top and dramatic and extreme but in my opinion studying the Bible I couldn't be bombastic enough because this is so much more important than you even realize the people that say that it's because they don't think the Bible matters they don't have any real faith in the Word of God you know what I want to try and be as bombastic as dramatic as extreme as over-the-top as I can because I want to communicate to you that you need to make these changes in your life you need to do what the Bible says you know what good preaching will always ask this question about a sermon what am I trying to accomplish like what's the point of this sermon you know of course we want to make sure that we're what we're saying is true but you know not all truth is really gonna benefit you not all truth is gonna be that edifying on a personal level so it's important also consider what are people gonna do with this truth or how will this truth help people or what would it do to encourage them and of course good preaching wise preaching will be a goad which will be uncomfortable and cause you to make some kind of a change in your life something that you're not doing right or you need to improve that's why I say hard preaching is biblical corrective and specific but it has to be corrective otherwise what's the point you know who in here really needs to just be told you're good no one none of us need to be told that we're good we all need to improve we all need to get better and of course what we need is some kind of correction and that correction is a picture of that goad so you know what you need to do is you need to find a church where they're constantly telling you that you suck and you need to get better not that you're good right because if you're constantly just hearing like you're so wonderful and so great you know how are you gonna become a better person you know when I read the Bible I just constantly realize how bad humanity is and how much we fail and how much sin we have and how many issues we have I don't sit here and think like man we're doing good you know you know America right it's like we've got we're screwed up and you read the Bible about all the wicked people and you're just thinking like that is like us you know like this is what our country's like and this is what these people you know it's just so relevant because humanity is just in a fallen state and we have so many issues and so many problems and we constantly need that that provoking we need that goading and we need that pricking so that we can be on the right path God wants us to do that so you know what you need to embrace hard preaching you need to want hard preaching you need to like our preach of course I'm not saying you're gonna like every single thing coming off my lips every time every single time I say it what I'm saying though is that you end up realizing you know I needed that though kind of like medicine you know medicine at least for adults doesn't taste good maybe for kids my kids love medicine I don't get it you know I don't think they're making kid medicine right or something but you know the medicine that I take every once in a while I don't like it you know I was feeling so bad I took some day quill or whatever non-alcoholic folks okay and boy you know I take it and it but it tastes like alcohol in the sense it tastes like trash you know you taste like here whatever but then I feel a little bit better afterwards right it wasn't that I really wanted to drink that I didn't like the idea of it but it's just kind of like a necessary evil to then feel a little bit better have some energy you know less of a headache or whatever the problem is maybe sleep a little bit better or whatever you need and so it's kind of like that has churches sometimes it's a little bit of day quill you know or Nyquil or whatever you're just like I needed that but then you're gonna be better through the week but then your marriage is gonna be better but then your life's gonna be better but then you're gonna feel better but then you're gonna be suffering so many consequences of sin like that headache that you have from all the sin you have or that tired feeling from all this the lethargic attitude that you have about life you know because the world's gonna bring you down that's why we need preaching and the Bible even tells us in 1st Thessalonians 5 the spies not prophesying there can be an attitude where people just don't like preaching anymore why because they're tired of the prick they're tired of the goad they're tired of being told these negative things so they just want the Joel Osteen lifestyle you know God's not mad at you God wants to just do good unto you but it's just a relationship you know what this church is not just hanging out folks you're here to get better you're here to learn a lot you're here to just be pricked and prodded and I'll get the electric one out there and zap you'll see you know every once in a while and you know anytime you do anything like this you get a lot of resistance online there's a lot of noise online you know use the wrong word and people just freak out people lose their mind even if you say it beforehand you say look people are gonna lose their mind if you use this word and then you use it and they lose their mind you're like well there you go go everyone to Proverbs 16 go just backwards a little bit Proverbs chapter 16 to prove that they're not brainwashed they prove that they're brainwashed okay Proverbs chapter 16 look at verse 9 a man's heart devise of his way but the Lord directed the steps you know what God wants to direct your steps and you say how does how's God gonna do that through preaching God will use preaching to literally change your life and whether you realize it or not you soak in so much of preaching like you it's funny to me how many times Ben preaches to me my sermons without realizing like he'll he'll be like hey pastor I want to tell you this point and it was just like bring up you know something that I preached like last week or something I'm like yeah so much a preach sermon on that you know that's a good idea and it's like because you can't really control how much you soak in where you're soaking in all that information from but you know what you know I like about it he's soaking it in you know I like about it because again it's not like I'm special it's just the Bible we're all just soaking in the Bible together we're all just letting the Bible just constantly improve us and make us better and make us wiser and have the right mentality towards life and you know preaching is gonna really change you as a person you will change if you hear a lot of preaching now of course I believe for the better obviously if you embrace it and you're not despising the prophesying but at the end of the day you know preaching is gonna benefit everyone and I even see people they don't like it but they're like better as a person as a result I'm just thinking that I don't care you know you're gonna even be you're gonna be better off when you don't kick against the pricks you know I've seen I see people that come to church and you can tell they don't want to be there like their spouse is dragging them to church their parents are dragging them to church maybe they're even you can kind of tell they're dragging themselves to church at times and you can just see it and they get all like bitter-faced and they just have like issues and they don't like things or whatever it's like but if it's Bible you're supposed to embrace the prick folks you know you see these women they get so bent out of shape when you preach against wearing pants and it's like but isn't that what the Bible says and of course when you just resist that prick you know your life's gonna be harder because what what are pants even benefiting you just looking more like a dyke getting confused as a man every once in a while I mean like not being as comfortable in some cases I mean not being as cute sometimes I mean what is that really benefiting you to do these type of activities you know or women get all mad about you know preach about having children and they'll just oh you know oh that's all I'm here for just a cow you know whatever got my udders out and just milking maid and what it's like but you know the women that embrace that instead of resisting that prick and thinking like ah you know whatever they actually love their lives and all the women that aren't these milkmaids or whatever aren't constantly passing out the utter they're constantly bored and dissatisfied with their life you think that oh you just think your life's so hard and bitter you know go be one of these feminist dykes or whatever their lives look like a train wreck look at what the protesters are doing they don't have any children to minister unto their lives are just so miserable they often kill themselves you know and it's just like great when that happens but you know it doesn't happen enough I think it's because we're not accepting obviously the Scandinavian countries they're more accepting of the homos so they kill themselves more often we're really anti tolerant so it keeps them alive and kicking you know we give them purpose in their life because otherwise they have no purpose at all I mean they have nothing to do whatsoever and so they have to listen to preaching cuz you know it's the only thing that really matters in this life it's interesting why so many people care about a church that's so small and what Taga Texas and it's like it's because the Word of God's the only thing that's power in this world yeah and they just have to care what we think I mean there's thousands of churches in this area why do you care what we we preach why do you care what we're doing it's because you know we're preaching the Bible and the Bible has so much power it doesn't matter what idiots preaching it it's gonna sound good it doesn't matter what he's doing you know the Bible is gonna be that prick and you know what people don't like those pricks they want to fight against those pricks you know the more you fight against that prick the more it's gonna hurt and you know what the people that come to church like this resisting it's just gonna hurt even more whereas the women and the men and the children that just say you know what that was in the Bible I'm just gonna do it they start loving it they start loving the Bible they start loving the things that it's not a prick to them anymore you know he's trying to tell Paul like stop kicking the prick just just get on the program and your life is gonna be better you're gonna enjoy your life you know instead of just dragging yourself through everything just whatever change it is in your life that God's trying to get you to make make it quit drinking quit drinking alcohol you know that's a prick I mean that's gonna only cause problems in your life I don't I'm just still gonna drink I don't care what pastor Shelley's says well you know if you're a drunkard I'll throw you out but even some people they'll they'll just well I drink in moderation bro and or you still look lame and like a loser anyways drinking alcohol you smell like garbage and you know what your family has no respect for you when you come to steadfast Baptist Church and you drink alcohol you're like what a hypocrite what a loser for having to go and drink horse piss and pay a whole bunch of money to go drink something that's gonna make you look like a complete idiot and sound like an idiot and treat everyone in your life like an idiot but you know what people come to our type of church they'll come to this church and then they'll go drink alcohol and their wife will lose all respect for them and their children will lose all respect for them and their children say well why do we go to church where the dad's not even gonna do what the preacher says but you know what your life is gonna suck because you don't kick against the pricks you know it's not like I'm just making things up here I mean I tirelessly try to go through all kinds of scriptures and verses to prove every single point and you know what if you don't agree with me because the Bible says something different believe the Bible all day long but let me tell you something 90 plus percent of the things coming off my lips are just straight Bible and the thing that you don't like is the Word of God and you know when you just kick against the pricks you might find yourself in the belly of a whale you might find yourself in a ditch you might find yourself in prison for having being a drunk driver and going out and killing someone when you didn't even know what you were doing and frankly speaking let me tell you something if you are drinking alcohol and you get in a car and someone else makes the mistake someone else pulls out in front of you someone else is a reckless driver and you hit them you're still gonna go to jail because you were drinking and driving you know you can do everything right and then God will just come out of nowhere with a big whale and just swallow you whole you know don't sit here and kick the pricks don't sit here and tempt God with your life you know my wife and I have never been perfect and there's been parts in our in our history where we didn't get everything right you know I love that my wife had a fear of the Lord that sometimes when she had things wrong in her life she was like I was afraid God would take something away from me so I just got it right and I heard I heard a woman call me one time and she's talking to me about like oh I my husband won't have any more children with me and then she said she's sad she's crying and she's like got one child and I was thinking okay well do you take that child to church and she's like no and I'm like well how do you know God would even want to give you another child when you're not even doing good with the child that you have you know there's some women that'll say you know what I'm not going to just say no to birth control I'm not gonna just have kids indiscriminately like God wants me to I'm gonna take it into my own hands because I don't want to get pregnant really often or get had too many kids or whatever and then what happens when God just closes your womb because of that and then you never have children again oh how dare you say that well you know what God punishes people in all kinds of ways and if you're just so afraid of having kids and maybe God's just taking away from you then or maybe God will just punish you in all kinds of different ways you know what it's better to just do what God said every single time instead of constantly kicking against the pricks and constant saying you know what I don't want to do that or I don't have the faith to do that you know hey take your kids and put them into homeschooling well I don't want to do that you know it would be uncomfortable it wouldn't be fair to them or whatever you know what the people that kick against that and let their kids go to public school beware there could be some severe consequences of that some severe punishments for that you know don't sit here and just constantly kick against the pricks and say I don't need church I don't need soul-winning I don't need these things you know what God can just rain on you like a ton of bricks and you need a constant prick to go in the right direction go over to John chapter 21 go to John chapter 21 I'm gonna give a last point here that's that's pretty short but number one you know embrace the pick the prick of punishment and number two embrace the prick of preaching we need more preaching today and we need more people that are willing to hear hard preaching you know the fact that our country won't draw itself out to hear hard preaching is a huge problem we need more and more people saying please tell me how to get better please tell me what I'm doing wrong please tell me how I can draw closer to the Lord but because men love darkness rather than light you know they just don't want to go to church they don't want to hear what the Bible has to say they're just living it up pretty soon they'll be in the the belly of a whale John chapter 21 look at verse 14 now this is the third time that Jesus showed himself to his disciples after that he was risen from the dead so when they had dying Jesus saith to Simon Peter Simon son of Jonas love us thou me more than these save them yay Lord don't notice that I love thee he saved on him feed my lambs he saved him again the second time Simon son of Jonas love us thou me he say that I'm yay Lord don't know us that I love thee he saved in him feed my sheep he saved on him the third time Simon son of Jonas love us thou me he does grieve because he said number the third time love us thou me and he said in him Lord don't know us all things now know us that I love thee Jesus say than him feed my sheep hey how can you sit here and tell me that you love Jesus and you just never go so winning and then Jesus is saying oh you love me then feed my sheep then go out to do something you know and of course I love this story because Peter totally failed and Peter's not serving God Peter went back to fishing Peters completely backslidden and of course God's punishing him because he toiled all the night and caught nothing hey you don't want to catch fish for me spiritually then catch no fish physically either it's like so many people like well if I go to steadfast I won't get a good job hey God might just take away your job because you don't go to steadfast how about that you can go out there and toil all night and catch nothing you know what I go to steadfast and I'm employed not by steadfast I have a real job you're like oh but they don't know about you hey I had co-workers sending me articles saying I really mean it like is this you I'm like yeah it's me it's like oh oh yeah you're running out of excuses buddy oh but it's just you okay well how about Pastor Burzins has a real job Oh Pastor Joe Jones has a real job oh you know there's tons of pastors I could point to that have a real job that go out there and work and then people have to cry and complain like I sell hard or I'm being a Christian or it's like you're just lazy that's all it is you don't have any skills or something you know you just have some kind of a personal problem or whatever you know what because if you work for God he'll take care of you he'll provide for you but you know what when you just say nuts to what God's work is for your life he might take away that job you know I have a job praise God but you know what if I decided to quit church and think like well I could get any software job I want or I could go and do whatever I want you know God might just make it where I could never get a job then and just take it all away from me and just people get mad at me or I become John Fetterman I'm just like hey guys I never have anything anymore God could take everything away from me like that he could take away your brain he could take away your spouse he could take away your kids it could take away your money could take away everything you know but I praise the Lord that whenever we do screw up and we're wrong he didn't just punish Peter into becoming John Fetterman he came on to him and he's like hey you love me he's like yeah of course I love you he's like then feed my sheep eat my lambs what are you doing here what are you doing and you know what the Bible says in verse 17 Peter was greed he didn't like it was a prick he's pricking him but he was pricking with what persistence and you know what God will punish you he'll preach at you he'll also provoke you the provocation of the Lord and you know he provoked him himself but also he'll use other people to provoke you now I want to go to a few verses go to Romans chapter 10 go to Romans chapter 10 you know what we need to embrace the punishment that God gives us we didn't brace the preaching that God gives us but here's another thing we need to embrace is the provocation the Lord will give us and you know how he provokes us many times is through other people other people will prick you into serving God and we want to be a church that is provoking one another look what it says in Romans chapter 10 verse 19 but I say did not as you'll know first Moses say it I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people and by a foolish nation I will anger you you know God was trying to use the Gentiles to provoke the children of Israel into accepting the Lord and serving him obviously they were so resistant that they didn't allow that to happen to them but he was using other people who broke them look at Romans 11 verse 11 Romans 11 verse 11 I say then have they stumbled that they should fall God forbid but rather through their fall salvation has come under the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousy so the Lord will use that as a prick you know hey you're not getting the job done well let this loser idiot do it just to try and provoke you you know it's like I get up here and and play the piano to try and provoke a good pianist to get up here and play it better it's like clank clank what is he doing it's like get up here you know sometimes God will use the the tone-deaf song leader guy up here to try and provoke the guy that can actually sing to get up here and to appreciate a good song leader and to appreciate people that have musical giftings right you know it's the gods using the Gentiles you shouldn't even gotten saved in comparison to the Israel try and motivate them to do those type of things and you know what personally I felt motivated by the fact that so many churches suck so bad I was like well maybe I could be a pastor just because they suck so bad at church you know and so you could allow people just not doing a good job or inferior quality doing the right thing to provoke you into doing something right go to second Corinthians chapter right and so even if this is what I want to say about this point even if you're not the best Christian even if you don't have the best testimony even if you don't have the best potential what you could do is you could provoke someone better than you to actually get into the fight right like let's say you're just not the best soul winner or something like that but maybe by you constantly going out there you're gonna revoke Wow well if he's doing it then I need to get in there and do that you know if this gringo can preach in the Spanish and get someone saved how much more me that speak fluently in Spanish I mean if Pastor Shelley can get them saved in Spanish anyone could get them saved in Spanish right but can that provoke other people to start actually getting into the into the game you going to church you know if you drive two hours to go to church then how much more are the people that live 30 minutes away it's like oh you have 30 minutes I drive two hours it's like oh wow hard time complaining about that you know it's like oh you drive two hours well I was driving four and a half to Houston how's that how's that do it you know it's like if they can do it how much more you you know if they can drag their wife to church you can drag your wife to church right they look you're like how did you get her here it's like you know what then you got to get the one that's actually loving the Lord there right I mean there's some men that drag their wife to church and it looks like it was kicking and screaming and I'm thinking like these other guys wise aren't even that resistant and they're not taking them to church but you know what we should be allowing the provoking of other people serving God getting plugged in doing right to motivate us to do the right thing second Corinthians chapter 9 look verse 1 for his touching the ministering to the Saints it is superfluous for me to write to you for I know the forwardness or the forwardness sorry the forwardness of your mind for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia that Akkiah was ready a year ago and your zeal hath provoked very many so he's saying you know by seeing you giving and being generous and helping others it's provoked tons of other people to be giving and to help and to assist and to do right you know don't underestimate how much your good works provoke other people go to Hebrews chapter number 10 Hebrews chapter number 10 you know and not all the provoking is even necessarily positive I'm just gonna read for you a verse but in Proverbs 25 the Bible says in verse 23 the north wind driver the way rain so does an angry countenance a back-biting tongue you know what's a good provoke is when someone gives you a dirty look for doing something wrong especially like gossiping you know that's the whole point of that proverb but it's like don't despise a woman or a man who would look down at you for gossiping embrace it and say you know what I shouldn't I shouldn't have said that even if it's embarrassing even if you don't like it just embrace the prick and then just become a better person when you say hey I'm gonna go to the Katy Perry concert if you're like why it's like that's gross it's like don't despise that be like thanks for saving me from such a disgusting place you know oh I'm gonna go get the new Taylor Swift concert tickets oh man they sold out everywhere but I got them it's like no you know you should feel embarrassed let your friends publicly shame you into making good decisions you know like putting beans and chili you should be publicly shamed you know and that way you can end up benefiting from the peaceable fruit of eating chili without beans in it of course right and being you know more Texan which just makes you a better person anyways but even though I'm using a little bit of humor here don't let the point fade on you in a sense that if someone's criticizing you saying don't say that don't wear that don't go there don't hang out with this person don't take that advice don't skip church don't skip soul-winning hey did you read your Bible today hey don't let those things just go by the wayside embrace them and so you know what I need friends that are gonna help me faithful are the wounds of a friend but the kisses of an enemy or deceitful you know we need to be a church that's willing to hurt each other a little bit for our benefit for a benefit for a betterment you know Hebrews chapter 10 Bible says in verse 24 and let us consider one another to revoke unto love and the good works you know we need to consider other people and say you know what I'm not gonna just always keep my mouth shut if you need me to prick you I'm willing I'm willing and able and of course if we're gonna have a good church we're not gonna have people that are only willing to prick people we're gonna have a group of people that are willing to embrace the pricks you know they love that they love the chastisement they love they love the criticism you know when I went to preaching class of faith for word Baptist Church the number one thing I wanted was criticism it's like the last thing I want is praise the last thing I want to do is just preach a sermon at the preaching class they're just like good job way to go it's like how could I do it better like what what do you think would be some way to improve or how do I do this you know he went to college and it was just a good job you know that would be a worthless experience you should go to college to be constantly rebuked and told why you're doing things wrong or you don't have this information or what's right I mean look even on the job you shouldn't want a boss that's constantly just praising you for no reason you should want good honest feedback you should want legitimate criticism because it's gonna help you be a better person and you know what if you really love Jesus you'll never be content with how you're serving him right now you'll always want to be able to serve him a little bit better you know if you love your husband you'll always want to hear how you can be a better wife if you love your wife you're gonna always want to hear how you can be a better husband if you love your parents children you're gonna want to learn how to be a better child if you love your children you're gonna want to learn how to be a better parent if you love your work you're gonna want to learn how to be a better employee you know the things that you love and appreciate you want to get better at not worse and of course that comes through the pricks and when you kick the prick it's just it's gonna be a disaster so let us not kick the pricks that we have in our lives let us embrace the punishment let us embrace the the preaching and any kind of provoking that our brother and sisters are willing to give us let's embrace it rather than fighting against it it's closing prayer they give only father so much for giving us pricks in our lives to help us go in the right direction we understand that ultimately you want to drive us to the place that you'd have us be I pray that we wouldn't be so resistant that we wouldn't ignore the prompt things that you give us but rather we would embrace all of the different pricks that you want to give us and that we would even be more keen to them that we'd be paying better attention and we would desire them so that we could serve you better and in Jesus name we pray amen all right for the final song saw number 227 227 saved by the blood that's on number 227 saved by the blood save our blood of the crucified one now ransom from sin and a new work begun sing praise to the father and praise to the son say by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm say glory I'm say my sister all pardon my guilt is all gone glory I'm say glory I'm say I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one saved by the blood of the crucified one the angels rejoicing because it is done a child of the father joint pair with the son saved by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm say glory I'm say my sins are all pardon my guilt is all gone glory I'm saying glory I'm saying I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one saved by the blood of the crucified one the father he spake in his will it was done great prize for my part in his own precious son saved by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm say glory I'm say my sins are all pardon my guilt is all gone glory I'm say glory I'm say I'm say by the blood of the crucified one saved by the blood of the crucified one all hail to the father all hail to the son all hail to the spirit the great three in one saved by the blood of the crucified one glory I'm say glory I'm say my sins are all pardon my guilt is all gone glory I'm say glory I'm say I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one you are dismissed have a good night god bless