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

Thank you very much. Welcome everyone to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats and grab your song books. Turn to your hymnals. The song, 194 Since Jesus Came Into My Heart. 194 Since Jesus Came Into My Heart. Watch me on that chorus. 194 Since Jesus Came Into My Heart. What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart. I have lied in my soul for which long I had sought since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea billows roll. Since Jesus came into my heart. 194 on the second. I have ceased from my wandering and going astray since Jesus came into my heart. And my sins which were many are all washed away since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea billows roll. Since Jesus came into my heart. I'm possessed of a hope that is steadfast and sure since Jesus came into my heart. Dark clouds of doubt now my pathway obscure since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea billows roll. Since Jesus came into my heart. There's a light in the valley of death now for me since Jesus came into my heart. And the gates of the city beyond I can see since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy like the sea billows roll. Since Jesus came into my heart. I shall go there to dwell in that city I know since Jesus came into my heart. And I'm happy so happy as onward I go since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o'er my soul like the sea billows roll. Since Jesus came into my heart. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father thank you for this day and thank you for our congregation and for the privilege of gathering as a church to hear the word of God preached and to sing praises to you. Pray that you'd fill us all the Holy Spirit and that you bless every aspect of this day. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. All right for our second song 183 Oh How I Love Jesus. 183 Oh How I Love Jesus. 183 Oh How I Love Jesus. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing. It's worth. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. It tells me of a savior's love who died to set me free. It tells me of his precious blood the sinner's perfect plea. How I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. It tells me what my father had in store for every day. And though I tread a darksome path. Oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. It tells of one whose loving heart can feel my deepest woe. Who in each sorrow bears a part that none can bear below. Oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus. Oh how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. Good morning. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift up your hand nice and high. Our ushers are more than happy to get you a bulletin. And on the front we have our Bible memory passage, John 1 verse 42. Any child able to quote that for our midweek service can receive an ice cream treat immediately following. Also we have on the inside our service times, our church wide so many times. These ones meet here at the building. And then we have several regional so many times. They meet in different parts of the city in different areas. And so if you have any questions you can see the respective leaders. And they'll help you. It definitely is all over. If you have any questions you can always email the church as well. And we would love to help you identify a location or so many time that works best for you. And even if it doesn't, we're always available to try and find a time to go soul winning with you. So if you want to go soul winning, there's really the only reason you're not going is because you have not because you ask not basically. So we want to take you out. We want to help you. We have four soul winning captains and we have several soul winning lieutenants that organize all of our soul winning for whole church as well. And they're also available to go soul winning. So we definitely want to encourage you and help you to participate. It's a life-changing experience to go out and preach the gospel to someone and to try and help them get saved. It's honestly very easy but it can be intimidating until you do it. Then once you do it you're like wow this is really easy. I should have been doing this my whole life. So I encourage you to participate. We also send our information SARS soul winning maps and data and everything like that to our soul winning captains. So make sure to continue doing that for us. On the right we have the list of our expecting ladies. Please keep them in your prayers. Also if you have any other additional prayer requests that you would like the church family to be in prayer with you on, you can email that or you can fill out one of our communication cards and just slip that into the offering plate. One other note I should have said while we were in the soul winning section, we are still having our baptism competition. Now I don't know how but the west side is just like tearing it up. They're leading our baptism competition. I think if I understand the totals they have like four. So I'd have to double check because this can change a little bit but I think they have four. I think the Oz and the Urbanics have two and and then I think the Millsteads have one. So it's still within reach and we still have till the end of the year. But as a reminder because we didn't award a winner in the previous cycle, it's a double prize at the end of the year. And so and even some of you you you people in here that don't go soul winning but you're in a tribe, just at least pray for your soul winners because you still get rewarded from their labors. So you could just at least be in prayer that people get saved and come and get baptized. But we're still doing that and I'm really excited about it. We've had a lot of baptisms and we want to keep that going. Also on the back we have some upcoming events. The Shreveport Louisiana Soul Winning Marathon is a great opportunity to do some extra soul winning. It's definitely a very receptive area. There's a sign-up sheet on the back table as well as September 25th is going to be our Sundays on Sunday. So if you participate with us on our soul winning immediately following, we have Sundays and it went really well last uh Sunday that we did that. So I'm definitely excited to do that again. I think everybody enjoyed that. Also we have our conference that's going to be coming up in October. It's the sixth through the eighth. It's called the Heritage of the Lord conference and this conference is dedicated to the kiddos, to the youth. And so there's not very many conferences like this so I'd really encourage you to to try to participate and bring your kiddos. It's going to be a lot of fun stuff for them. We are going to have a spelling bee again on the Saturday. We also are going to have some other kid-friendly activities and events, sword drills, all kinds of different stuff like that. All the preaching is going to be geared towards the youth and so I'm really I'm really encouraged to know that a lot of people want to invest in our children and care about their children and having lots of children so that we can have events like this. And so please and again we'll we've already ordered them. We've already ordered like special invites but when you get them I would encourage you to try to invite your cousins or neighbors your friends you know those that have children to an event like that and so we can have a lot of fun. Also October 9th so that's the so we have like a joint sewing 29 so oh September 29 is a Sunday Sundays sorry September 29 is what okay October 29th is the last Saturday of every month is the soul winning blitz and because we're doing Shreveport September we're just combining with that one but the next Saturday we're gonna have one in Arlington and it's been going really well. Do we have numbers from yesterday? What was the do we have a count okay we maybe didn't capture it but I know that it's been really receptive everybody over there's been saying it's been a lot of great soul winning so that's also another opportunity the last Saturday of every month. One other thing it didn't get slipped into the bulletin but I want to at least put the date out there we are having a music recital for the children as well it is on November 5th so November 5th is a Saturday it'll probably be sometime in the afternoon but the recital is for any of the children that want to play an instrument or they can even sing now when it comes to the instrument piece they can kind of pick whatever they want when it comes to the voice though we would prefer that that's only a hymn, psalm, or a spiritual song and if you have if it's not in like one of our books just ask for guidance on that but if you play the trumpet, violin, piano, cello, anything like that flute you know kazoo you can you can play you can participate in our recital and we want to encourage the children to practice and play now there is one thing we go to a you know a hard preaching church okay so you have to you have to be able to take things your kids have to be able to perform in order to participate so there will be like a essentially a rehearsal like a week or two before and they have to be able to come up on stage perform and be able to do their piece otherwise we would just ask them to wait to the next time around so we just don't want we just want to make sure everything runs smoothly for the recital itself and we don't have any children that are just a little too nervous and we get that it's okay that's why I have a recital rehearsal but we just want to let you know that your kids do need to be prepared like a week or two beforehand we'll have a mini little rehearsal just to make sure they feel comfortable coming on stage and playing and everything like that and then if they feel comfortable then we'll definitely enter them into the rehearsal so I've been to a lot of rehearsals where I wish they had or I'm sorry I've been to a lot of recitals which I wish they had a rehearsal beforehand because you go and it's just like wow that was awkward right so we're gonna try and just help everyone with that and I'm really there's like so many exciting things that are going to be happening the next few weeks and months also we have a Spanish mission strip that's going to be happening in November as well most likely the following week but I don't want to give you the dates until that is confirmed but I just want to throw that out there so you're kind of thinking about it that's pretty much all I have though as far as announcements are concerned we're going to go ahead and go to our third song this morning 174 my Jesus I love thee song 174 again 174 my Jesus I love thee sing it out nice and loud 174 my Jesus I love thee I know thou art mine for thee all the follies of sin I resign my gracious redeemer my savior art thou if ever I love thee my Jesus is now I love thee because thou hast first loved me and purchased my pardon on calvary's tree I love thee for wearing the thorns on my brow if ever I love thee my Jesus is now I'll love thee in life I will love thee in death and praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath and say when the death do lies cold on my brow if ever I love thee my Jesus is now in mansions of glory and endless delight I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow if ever I love thee my Jesus is now as the offering plates are passed around turn in your bibles to john chapter 17 john chapter 17 and as is our custom we'll read the whole chapter before the sermon you can follow along silently starting in verse number one john chapter 17 the bible reads there these words spake jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour has come glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify thee as thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him and this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true god and jesus christ whom thou has sent I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do and now oh father glorified down me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee for I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou did ascend me I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine and all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in them and now I am no more in the world but these are in the world and I come to thee holy father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as we are while I was with them in the world I kept them in thy name those that thou gavest me I have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled and now come I to thee and these things I speak in the world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves I have given them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil they are not of the world even as I am not of the world sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth as thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou father art in me and I indeed that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and has loved them as thou hast loved me father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world oh righteous father the world hath not known thee but I have known thee and these have known that thou has sent me and I have declared unto them thy name and will declare it that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them and I in them let's buy our heads for a word of prayer father god we thank you so much for john chapter 17 lord and I pray that you fill pastor Shelley with your spirit now and uh soften hearts in the room lord so that we can receive this message so we can become more perfect Christians and we can apply the message to our lives and keep us safe as we go our separate ways after the service we love you and we thank you for the salvation you've given us in Jesus name I pray amen amen so we're here in john chapter 17 look back at verse 14 the bible reads I have given them thy word and the world have hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil they are not of the world even as I am not of the world sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth as thou has sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth now john chapter 17 is a really interesting chapter of the bible specifically it's a prayer of Jesus Christ to God the father and a lot of times Jesus Christ is praying out loud for the benefit of his disciples or the benefit of us so that we can kind of understand what's going on internally with Jesus Christ and the father but one of the greatest things about this chapter is we literally see Jesus Christ's prayer for us Jesus Christ is praying for us and he's giving God the father a really sincere petition or sincere request in regards to us and while the prayer itself is not necessarily directed to us we can glean from what he told God the father as basically an indirect commandment in essence because what is he wanting for us well he tells God the father in verse number 14 I have given them thy word and the world has hated them because they are not of the world even as I am not of the world now when the when the bible is using the word world here what are we talking about we're not talking about the earth from a planetary perspective we're not talking about the dirt and the trees and the earth because in fact we are of the earth we're all dust we are the dust of the earth so that's not what he's describing what he's describing is unsaved people basically just this world the god of this world he's basically describing mankind that's apart from God that's what the world often represents is just mankind in general humans and specifically we're talking about the unsaved unregenerate lost world he's saying we are not of the world anymore why because we have the word of God okay verse 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world so when he's saying take them out of the world is he saying the earth no he's what he's saying is he's saying the unregenerate the basic unsaved human mankind population he's saying he doesn't want us to be taken from the rest of mankind the rest of the humans on this earth he still wants us to be amongst them and to be dwelling with them but notice he also says this verse 15 but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil so he doesn't want us to be taken from the world he just simply wants us to be delivered from evil or harm because evil while often we think of the word as being something that's sinful or satanic or having that kind of a connotation the word evil often just simply means harm so it just means some kind of affliction or some kind of a damage and so Jesus Christ is wanting us to not be hurt harmed or go through any kind of evil however we're supposed to still live in a dangerous world you know the Bible even says in second Timothy chapter number three that in the last days perilous times should come the word peril means danger so the Bible's saying that it's going to be a very dangerous world that we live in but Jesus doesn't want us to just go and run and hide he wants us to still be in the world just not of the world so we're not going to be like the rest of the world we're going to act different we're going to dress different we're going to behave different we're going to have a different viewpoint on life however we're going to be right shoulder to shoulder with the world as far as our physical location now he said in verse number 16 they are not of the world even as I'm not of the world Jesus Christ was different than everybody else and the fact that what verse 17 sanctify them through thy truth thy word is truth as thou sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth now the word sanctify means set apart so you have synonyms in the Bible holy sanctified set apart consecrated all of these things are similar and the in the essence of you're taking something and you're literally moving it away from everything else and it's different it's special it's unique that's why we call God holy why is God called holy because he's different than everyone else he's unique he's special in the fact that God is always righteous God is all powerful God is omniscient God has all these certain attributes that no one else has and it separates him from everything else it separates him from us it separates him from the world from all of his creation so God is truly holy and we have to realize that Jesus sanctified himself on the earth meaning what he was setting himself apart meaning he was different than everybody else he was unique from everyone else and you say well how is he unique he was following God's commandments and you say well I want to be holy I want to be separate I want to be special unique okay we'll follow the Bible because let me tell you something the world is not following the commandments of God the world does not care what God thinks the world is not following what God's instructions are so if you follow God's instructions you will definitely stand out you will definitely be unique you will be set apart you will be separate okay and that's what Jesus said I separated myself from this world not being like them not acting like them not doing their things so that you also would follow in my footsteps follow my example and be separate like me so when it comes to separation which is a biblical doctrine we have to realize that our example of separation should match Jesus Christ's lifestyle yet when it comes to the doctrine of separation we have varying degrees of extremity on both sides and I've preached several other sermons already on this topic but I kind of have been doing a series on extreme views and really what you have to understand is the Bible is not extreme the Bible is always just right and true and then there's extremes on both ends of the spectrum diverting from truth itself so the Bible while it sounds extreme is never actually the real extremity and I've been modeling that over and over again in all kinds of different areas whether we talked about the death penalty you know extremity is in UK when they had 150 capital punishment laws and then the other extreme is America where you basically never get put to death for anything and the Bible is saying about 17 okay that was that's true there's extremes on both sides right when it comes to clothing the people standing outside are one extreme okay and then the Muslims are the other extreme and then we're in the middle looking like decent normal human beings okay and we're not wearing a carpet over our body or something like that okay we're not dressing like the Amish or something like that and when it comes to separation speaking of the Amish that is one version of extremity that the Bible does not teach the Bible does not teach to be Amish and the opposite side of this would be your liberal Christianity today that simply is indistinguishable from the world whatsoever so you have a group of people that are so distinct that you could pick them out from a mile away and then you have another group that you would never be able to tell they're a Christian whatsoever and we simply should not fall into either of those extremes we should be somewhere in the middle where yeah of course obviously we don't stick out so much that you could just immediately tell someone's a Christian but at the same time you can tell there's something different about us you know we have some respect for ourselves we actually behave ourselves in a respectful manner and really a holy manner a righteous manner that God has prescribed now go to the second Corinthians chapter number six second Corinthians chapter number six now I'll give you a little bit of history because I'm going to be bringing up these two groups continually through my sermon and I have three points this morning of of separation that I think are are really important when it comes to the Bible and how people get really extreme views but one is on church itself people get weird views on church or extreme views on church another is clothing and another is culture and really when we look at the Amish versus your liberal Christianity today we see very diametrically opposed factions that believe very differently when it comes to this issue and we want to make sure that our views are consistent with scripture not with tradition not with what other people say not just making up our own arbitrary rules but what does God actually command what does God actually instruct us to do now the Amish are a pretty diverse group in the sense that every Amish group can vary quite a bit and in fact there's another group called the Mennonites and the Mennonites are kind of a split or a faction of the Amish and then the Mennonites are even more diverse so typically Amish they're coming their his their history is coming from a guy named Jacob Amen so that's where you get hence the Amish is coming from Jacob Amen now he uh was a leader in around 1693 so this is a long time ago in the European continent and most of the Amish are kind of a mix of Swiss and German also coming from Switzerland in some places now Switzerland is very close to Germany it's just south of Germany and that's in fact where you get the Geneva Bible is from Switzerland from Switzerland Geneva Switzerland is where we got the Geneva Bible now the Geneva Bible is much earlier in its lineage than per se this Amish type group but that's kind of a lot of its roots and and really the Geneva Bible really suited well the Puritans and the Puritans are a very rigid religious set they believe that church should have no symbols and that in fact the chairs had to be just a wooden bench no backing to it just simply just a hard wooden bench and they very much disagreed with church authority kind of just everybody's in charge it's a free-for-all the bishops have very limited power a lot of times they were anti-bishop and they would just say oh we're all bishops and so they would just kind of have a free-for-all and again there's a lot of varying degrees of this when the these people separated though they're kind of this Puritan group they kind of kept getting more extreme and more extreme over time and eventually they kind of became known as the Anabaptists so the Anabaptist groups were actually the predecessor to the Amish so they're not known as Amish yet they're actually just Anabaptists and then in efforts to flee religious persecution a lot of them came to America and they colonized areas of Pennsylvania Ohio and some of those other areas and eventually they became known as the Amish then the Amish kind of split they became the Mennonite and of course most of their splits were over things like technology and more specifically how to deal with church discipline so the Amish if you were supposed to be church discipline they wouldn't eat with you at all this is actually what first Corinthians 5 says whereas the Mennonites would just not have communion with you at church but they would eat with you and so you know basically have relationship with you outside now what's weird about the Amish that everybody can typically tell is they they avoid certain technologies they basically suggest that some technologies are just too dangerous morally speaking and so they avoid them and they try to live a simpler life but I don't really see that found in scripture where you mix morality with technology you know our church while it's old-fashioned I'm not against technology in fact we live stream our services I'm wearing a really fancy modern microphone this morning we have nice computer equipment that we use for our church services I'm all for technology but I'm not necessarily going to adapt and adopt everything that's new just because it's new either you know we sing the old hymns mostly because new music today is is really just not very edifying it's not scriptural it doesn't have good lyrics it doesn't really follow a biblical principle and a lot of the tunes and music seem to emulate that of the world there's no holiness to it I mean if you go into a modern day church today their rock concert is just kind of a lame worldly concert frankly speaking I mean it's hard to even distinguish the difference between some of these Christian bands and the secular world type in you know instrumentalists or musicians whereas I don't see anybody making the top 10 billboard charts with a hymn or with the Psalms or something and again we're not against new music I've been trying to write a lot of new music putting it to the Psalms I know other people like First Works one of our friends Pastor Bruce Mejia in California they've been writing new hymns and he when I was there and visiting they sang a new hymn that they had written it was really good I liked it so there's a lot of ability to make new music but we want to have our style match that of holiness and righteousness and things like that so of course there's certain layers of understanding separation but when it comes to the Amish you know I'm just trying to give you a little bit of a background now when the Mennonites their group is bigger and some Mennonites are indistinguishable from Amish in the sense that they live where they are kind of in a separate area from the world they live on a farm they have a horse and buggy they don't use electronics they don't use technology or any of these type of things they have a similar church structure whereas other Mennonites can go all the way to the point where they have a normal looking church building and they all work in the professional career in America where they go to they're a doctor or they are a school teacher they basically would be indistinguishable from you and me as far as just lifestyle so and then there's every flavor in between of Mennonite essentially okay so don't get these things necessarily so identified in your mind as just one cookie cutter fits all example sometimes there's a varying degree but what I want to talk about this morning is the extreme version of the Amish and where they're called it's called the old order Amish and specifically they have a set of rules called ordenung and and you depending on if you're German or whatever you can pronounce that however you want okay ordenung or something it's similar to what we think the word ordinance is or order and the German people can help me later they say that word I listen to a German person and I didn't even know what they said I was just like I was like I don't know what they said so I need help with that but my English version of this word is ordenung and their ordenung is basically the set of rules that they have for themselves where there's no public electricity allowed now that's you know I'm just like I don't know why that's so dangerous but okay I like this one no lawsuits now that one's that one's close to my heart okay no cars or tv no polit no running for political office no divorce no gambling and then no telephones now here's the thing some of these sound great you know I love the idea of no divorce I love the idea of no gambling I have no problem with no lawsuits that sounds like a nice society to live in but but why are we just demonizing electricity and why is it that from a biblical perspective we just have to be locked into a specific time frame of technology like well once we hit you know 1850s we're done with technology you know no more advancements no more new technology I mean that's just kind of a strange idea I get the idea of limiting things like telephones and and TVs just because some of the exposure of the internet and things like that so I can see some merit but again I don't want to necessarily live in a society where I can't even do it you know I like the fact that we live in a society where we can pick and choose what we want to do and we have those preferential options of how we want to use these things I like cars you know I live really far away from church if I was to walk I mean if I was to I wouldn't I would have to start like yesterday or something I mean it would be intense to try and walk to church in fact most of us probably wouldn't come to church if we had to walk I mean who in here lives close enough that they might walk okay we got one hand right so that would be you know now I like the convenience of a vehicle also most of us probably depend on a vehicle to get to work who in here doesn't need a car to work okay like a handful of people that work from home right who in here doesn't work from home and doesn't need a car to get to work okay all the ladies know they work from home right but but here's here's the reality is these inventions help us with you know productivity and getting places and there's nothing inherently sinful with a car I don't really know that I've met somebody and they said pastor Shelley I was not a simple person but then I got a car you know it's like okay I mean maybe there's that one speed demon out there or something I don't know but you know cars aren't necessarily the biggest evil they I like them they're enjoyable so their rules though are just very extreme when it comes to separating themselves from society in fact they also live away from society they live on a special part of the land or special part of the property of the United States where they're basically insulated into a specific community or culture that doesn't have these conveniences such as electricity and even their laws I believe the United States respects some of their laws but it gets a little hairy as far as what they can or cannot do now second Corinthians chapter number six I had you turn here because this is where the Bible does give us very strong commandments about separation itself look at verse 14 be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship at righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what concordeth Christ with Belial or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel and what agreement at the temple of God with idols for ye are the temple of the living God as God has said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a father unto you and you shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord almighty so according to the Bible we are commanded as the Bible instructs be ye separate now here's the question okay does that mean we be Amish does this mean that we now go and live outside of the world and we get a farm somewhere and we just all have our own little society with our own rules and no electricity no we have to make sure we're understanding the context here okay so if it's commanding us to be separate that's not just for no reason it's not like this verse is in the Bible and it's just like okay I don't nothing this is your modern evangelical church where they're literally no different than the world they dress like the world they act like the world they listen to the same world's music the same world's television programs the same world's t-shirts I mean they are indistinguishable from an unsaved person there is nothing different about them and then I would ask this question how are you separate whereas the Amish there's no question they're separate but here's here's my question is that the context of the Bible is that the true separation is bringing up and I will submit to you the answer is no now how do I know that well number one Jesus already told us in John chapter number 17 that we're not supposed to be taken out of the world so it can't be talking about my physical location it can't be talking about where I live it's talking about something else how about this how about church what does it say in this passage that we're not supposed to be yoked fellowship communion I mean where do you have communion isn't communion done in the church concord part agreement now when he contrasts this as to what you're doing wrong he says in verse 16 the temple of God with idols now where would you envision idols existing wouldn't this be in some kind of a religious institution a religious gathering is more likely that they have idolatry in the idol worship the idol worship is typically going to be in their temple and their area of worship in their fellowship and so the Bible is saying you're not supposed to have fellowship with that type of individual or going to that particular type of institution so from my perspective one of the most clear ways that we can understand this this passage is I'm not going to go to a church or a religious institution that's not Christian I'm not going to go and join myself to some other type of religious institute I'm not going to go to some wall in Israel and start I'm also not going to go to some Hindu temple and start bowing down before some statue and feeding it food I mean have you not seen I mean they literally feed these things they'll have a little mini graven image and they just get milk and they just like pour it on it and for some reason the idol never opens up its mouth and drinks it you know it just sits there just like it just falls and they just try to like put food on it I'm not going to have fellowship with that I'm not going to go into that building and then pray to God with them I'm not going to go and join hands with them and feed statues uh you know my kids drop enough food on the floor to get me by through life I don't need to do it with a statue too and when it comes to idols in general you know we really should avoid idols as much as possible obviously we can't necessarily completely avoid just all statues and graven images in America because unfortunately our society and culture has a lot of graven images and idols that exist out there but I'm not going to start praying to God with someone that's also praying to this dumb rock to this idol or this graven image in coordination we don't have any fellowship with that we can't have any agreement with that type of a person it's not like oh well we all worship the same god no we don't you worship a different god and the bible makes it clear in first Corinthians that what they offer and sacrifice on idols they're actually sacrificing on the devils so they're literally offering their sacrifices and prayers to the antithesis of God the devil and to his minions the other devils that are under his authority or influence also just in general just church should not be a safe haven for the unsaved I think a lot of people they get uh they're very uncertain as to why our church seems to preach and behave the way that it does and they think this how are you going to attract people with that kind of preaching well let me tell you something I'm not trying to attract unsaved people with my preaching I would argue that my preaching is not attractive to unsaved people at all virtually speaking you can have exceptions you can have people that just like the truth and they want to hear the truth being spoken but generally speaking when we get up and preach the bible it's very offensive to the world the world is going to be greatly offended by the words of the bible by the instructions and the commandments of God's word I mean just even just on superfluous things like clothing and haircuts I mean I could just get up and start preaching on that according to the bible and almost everyone would be offended that's not already a Christian or believing what the bible says because our cultures become so bizarre and so anti-christian today that most men are dressing like a hillbilly you know freak with with all kinds of long hair and you got all these women with these dyke haircuts dressing like a man it's like you can just instantly offend so many people just from reading the bible out loud I mean I would just get up and just read the bible and they would be so offended already and be like well how are you going to reach people with that kind of preaching I'm not interested in reaching new people when I'm preaching a sermon I'm interested in edifying the congregation of saved believers we're separate you know a lot of churches their church service is geared to reaching unsaved people and bringing unsaved people into the congregation but if I'm going to lower my preaching standard to an unsaved person it's not going to be very edifying for you I mean you guys can go with me all day long we'll go preach the gospel and it won't be offensive and it won't be harsh and it'll be nice and it'll be kind because that's what you should give to an unsaved person is the gospel it should be unique and humble but you know those of you that are already saved you don't get the nice loving mercy all grace all love message you get just whatever the bible says and sometimes it's gracious sometimes it's merciful sometimes it's comforting but a lot of times it's a rebuke a lot of times it's a reproof it's instruction it's some way that you should be corrected and we need that and when we gear our church to unsave people like liberal Christianity does then they don't preach the bible and then when they don't preach the bible you know what happens the congregation just is ignorant of scripture I mean most Christians in this world have no idea what's in the bible you start saying things and they're like that's not in the bible and then you're like what about this verse and they're like whoa old testament well here's the new testament whoa it's like they just don't know they're literally ignorant of so much of the bible because the churches aren't preaching and it causes all kinds of problems and then really what we see is we see no separation from the world our church services to be separate in the world you should not hear the message I'm preaching this morning from other places if you turn into fox news it's not just a repeat of pastor Shelley sermon if you turn on Alex Jones it's not a repeat of pastor Shelley sermon if you turn on CNN it's certainly not a reap it's the antithesis of pastor Shelley sermon okay you're not going to hear in the public school in the university you're not going to hear what the church has to say church has to say because the church is the pillar and ground of the truth and our message should be different what we believe should be different our church should be different but we don't want to go so far in the extremity to becoming the Amish where we draw our church so far away that no one can even come to it I mean how many visitors are showing up at the Amish church virtually no one they're not bringing people in they're not baptizing people the only baptisms they're going to have is from their own children essentially they're not really reaching people or bringing people in or making themselves accessible to that type of a church and and here's another thing that I want to mention though that's a really important point when it comes to this go to Matthew chapter number 10 is you would think that the Amish are so separate but in fact they actually are going to still violate often this commandment of being separate because truly the only ones that are separate are going to be following God's commandments you you get this idea of the Amish are just so separate no let me tell you who's the real separatist us fundamental Baptists are the real separatists they are the real ones that actually believe God's commandments and follow them and Amish are a fake fraud joke when it comes to real separation biblical separation now they may preach some stringent things they may preach some fundamentals but let me explain to you why they're actually typically in violation of this Matthew chapter number 10 look at verse number 34 think not that I'm come to send peace on earth I came not to send peace but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foes shall be they of his own household now isn't it interesting though that every single person that goes to the Amish community all goes to the exact same church it sounds like this verse doesn't apply to Amish people I mean to us and those of us that have actually been serving God for a while we realize that that verse is true I mean man is that verse true you are gonna have fathers and mothers and mother-in-laws and brother-in-laws and sisters and cousins and nephews and everything in between that are going to get so mad at you and refuse to be even your friend for the church that you go to let alone the idea that they would even visit your church or attend your church yet if we live in an Amish commune everybody's lumped in the same church everyone's going to the same church you know why because they're not actually preaching doctrines that separate families if they actually preach what the Bible said this would start happening the only way to keep like these giant families in churches typically is to not preach the Bible because if you start preaching the Bible and you start really drilling into what the Bible says and you start following the Bible's program it's almost impossible that your whole family will all go to the same church with you and I'm just saying I'm not I would love for that to be an exception I would love for someone to prove me wrong on that and be like look we've got grandma grandpa all the kids all their spouses all their kids and all the cousins we're all going to the same church that's almost never gonna happen in a hard preaching church now that may exist in the Catholic church why because it's just all Catholic and they just show up and all eat a cracker and drink some booze and then go home and so it's like everybody can participate in that but when you start actually getting up and preaching real biblical doctrine about salvation separation following God's commandments people start getting offended and not everybody wants to serve God you know Cain and Abel can't go to the same Baptist church together sorry folks and yeah we get it that in the Amish even sometimes some of them break away but it's not nearly as often as the Bible would prescribe and let me tell you why it's because the Amish don't even believe the gospel they believe in a works-based salvation and they don't actually preach the one thing that divides people and the one thing that divides people is the gospel of Jesus Christ is salvation by faith alone what divided Cain and Abel salvation by faith Cain believed in works and Abel believed in salvation by faith and that divided them and let me tell you something you're gonna have family members that are gonna divide from you based on one fact and it's the gospel of Jesus Christ they won't believe in Jesus or they'll believe in a different form of Jesus where it's based on works that's the more common especially in America a lot of people are Christians so-called but they'll be Seventh-day Adventists you know why is it that if I go to any city in America I mean any city of any size and I will find on every corner a Methodist church a church of Christ a Nazarene church a Catholic church a Lutheran church a Southern Baptist church an independent Baptist church why will I find every shape flavor and everything in between it's because the gospel divides and people are always going to splinter so if we live in an Amish community what you're trying to do is you're trying to prevent the natural separation that would happen from truth and the only way to have that is to not have truth if you have a whole group of people tons of generations all living together in unity based on blood and based on family it's because truth does not exist there because the truth will divide people the truth will separate people and that's why they're not really truly separating themselves they're separating themselves to a church of just family but a lot of churches do that Catholics do that the Mormons do that the Jehovah's Witnesses do that you know why is it that everyone that's Mormon is just locked into the Mormon church because there's no truth there the Jehovah's Witness church because there's no truth there you know in a fundamental Baptist church you will have some layers of segregation and distinction now I do believe the Bible teaches train up a child the way you should go when he's old he will not depart from it I do believe that if you raise your children right and you instruct them in the ways of the Lord they can still be an independent Baptist as a child but let's be real and let's be honest most of us in here were not raised by independent fundamental Baptist parents and even amongst many independent fundamental Baptist parents that don't do a very good job they have a lot of segregating even of their own children I mean why do you think most independent fundamental Baptist churches in this era in this you know area even specifically their children aren't even anywhere to be found I mean you go to a lot of these churches and the average age is like 65 the average age is like 70 why is that it's because they didn't instruct their children in the ways of the Lord number one but also that not everybody's gonna follow and and I think that some people in this room have a delusion you think that like your family is gonna serve God with you that's not true necessarily and not even I'm not saying that they're not necessarily saved there's a lot of saved people that are not gonna serve God and then you have to decide for yourself what's more important me hanging out with this family member in this relationship or serving God with my life and you know what the Amish have already picked it's more important to have family relationships than it is to have a church that's standing for the truth and I'll tell you something my church is not designed for family in fact raise your hand if you're my family member that's not married to me you know it's like no one it's like but guess what these are my mother and my brethren that are sitting here they that hear the word of God and do it you know I'm more interested in spiritual family than I am in physical blood family and I'll tell you something I have great family members my dad's really smart he's fun to talk to they're really good at playing games I love my brother and my sister they're fun to hang out with a lot of times they're very quick-witted they have interesting habits and hobbies I love my nieces and nephews I mean I have some cool people to hang out with in my life if I wanted to but let me tell you something I'm more interested in spiritual people than physical blood people the Amish only really care about their family physically but that's not the right kind of separation go if you would the first Peter chapter number three you know the Bible's not commanding for me and my physical family to depart from the world and be separate from the world it's kind of it's commanding me my spiritual family to be different while living with them now let me prove to you beyond any shadow of a doubt the Bible is constantly referring to Christians being in an unsaved unregenerate lost world on a regular basis look at first Peter chapter three verse 16 having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ notice that the Bible is saying you're going to be in a scenario where you have all these people falsely accuse you because you're different than them now how's that happening on the Amish commune it's not because they all live the same they don't have the unsaved world talking to them and interacting with them and then the liberal Christians they're not even different enough for anybody to comment so it doesn't even make any sense so it's it's got to be a different scenario it's got to be a scenario where there's people that are living separate living different in the middle of a bunch of people that are not saved not righteous not godly and then they look at you and they falsely accuse you they say you're the hate group while yelling hatred at you the whole time they say that you're a child molester when they're the child molester i mean they're literally taking their daughters and turning them into boys and then calling you a child predator at the same time it's like but of course it's hard for them to constantly get any traction because people look at our church and they're like they seem pretty normal i remember there was this one person that was like protesting our church or something and then they emailed us and they're like man these protesters a bunch of hypocrites i'm sorry it's like your church is just filled with like lots of happy little children and you're exactly what you say you are on your website and i'm i think it's wrong what everybody's doing to you so i'm gonna stop protesting or whatever it was just like okay because anybody that cares about truth can see the reality and you know what happened we shamed that person's false accusation why by being a godly righteous person by doing that which is right yeah obviously the hardened double blind reprobates will never see it but there's plenty of people up for grabs and they can see the truth okay look at chapter two verse 13 submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the lord's sake whether it be to the king as supreme or into governors as under that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of them that do well that sounds like we're living in normal society since we have to submit ourselves all these kings and all these other governors and everything like that okay look at first timothy chapter number six go backwards to the t's it's right before uh hebrews and falimin you got the first and second timothy and if you look at first timothy chapter number six look at verse number one let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor that the name of god and his doctrine be not blasphemed and they that have believing masters let them not despise them because they are brethren but rather do them service because they are faithful beloved partakers of the benefit these things teach and exhort so according to the bible you're not only supposed to be good to your believing masters but to all your masters now if we live in an amish commune how is that even possible to have unbelieving masters it wouldn't be therefore this is another evidence and a proof that we're just living in the world now of course by chance and by fortune you could be blessed to work for a saved christian that would be a that would be a blessing that would be nice but not everybody gets that benefit not everybody gets to have that opportunity some of us have to just work for the man we have to work for the unsaved unregenerate man but we're still supposed to treat them with respect we're still supposed to give them their honor that they are due and treat them as if we would treat christ you know that's a hard task to treat someone that's not like christ at all like you would treat christ with respect with honor and that's what the bible teaches say well i don't agree with that doctrine well look what the bible has to say about you verse three if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our lord jesus christ and the document is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strikes of words where have come with envy strife railings evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness from such withdrawal thyself that was pretty harsh now you want to know who has this attitude the amish because the amish refuse to go and work for an unsaved person they're too good for that but you know what they're proud knowing nothing and they just cause all this strife and contention with the world for no reason and go hide themselves in some kind of a commune some kind of a cult like camp where they just can't serve they can't work with anybody that's not amish even though both of them are unsaved think of the irony i mean the amish they're not even saved christians anyways yet they can't work for another unsaved cult they can't work for the mormon or the catholic or the joe's witness while they're all in the same camp but arguably the amish are more cult-like because they live on the commune isn't that irony and of course everybody likes to think of well what's wrong with just living out you know in the woods and living on a farm and having peace and just drinking raw buttermilk and just just riding on cows and looking up at the sun oh oh you just everything's pure on the amish farm they never have drugs coming in they never have incest on their camp they never have rape and all manner of evil and drug smuggling and government corruption that just doesn't exist on the amish commune because when you take a bunch of people out there they're magically god-following a bunch of unsaved people believing in hardcore works they just love the truth sounds like the catholic church who started paying for indulgences look you think that it sounds so quaint and so beautiful and so nice out there in the amish land look it's full of sin just like anywhere else and they look down upon the world as if we're so much more sinful than they are whereas they got a big beam in their eye oh i don't use i don't use electric electricity who cares electricity is not the biggest sin of this world in fact it's not a sin okay folks having in-house plumbing is nice having modern conveniences and technology is good you know they're so strict you can't even have your horse and buggy a certain color it has to be a specific shade of gray or a specific shade of black i mean that is how strict they are where is that even coming from the bible go if you would to first corinthians chapter number five go to first corinthians chapter five depending on what group you're in the women can only have either a blue or a green dress like a dark green or a dark blue dress that is the only color that they can have on some of the more strict and straighter sex and women they always have to wear head coverings on a lot of these groups and if you're single you wear a black bonnet if you're married you wear a white bonnet but that is the only difference you get to have and some of the more strict amish type groups now some of you ladies are trying to get some kind of a dress cult thing going on but you know i'm just kidding i see the same dresses but you know what that's okay there's nothing wrong with that but it would be wrong if it's like all of you ladies can only wear a certain flower pattern certain green or certain blue i mean that starts becoming a cult folks and i don't have any rules like that in fact people can show up in my church dressed inappropriately and i'm not even going to throw them out for it now when i say that i'm not saying like they're naked or something if they're naked we try to give them clothes and cover them but i'm just saying if they're not exactly dialed in and perfect or what even is the biblical standard where i'm not going to just sit here and start throwing rocks at them in the service you know i try to give people grace and we try to be kind to them and and we'll let the sermon fix those issues but at the end of the day you know people could technically come to my church dress wrong for forever i'm not going to sit here and impose some kind of an edict that makes you all wear a blue dress and wear a certain bonnet then for sure they'd be like you're a cult okay i like diversity and you know sometimes you can even tell amish just buy their clothing alone because it's ugly on purpose i'm also not into that i don't think that women even though i think women should wear dresses and skirts only i don't think they should wear ugly dresses and skirts only whereas the amish is just like what are you doing you know women look the most attractive in dresses and skirts so i'm not then going to try and make it ugly on purpose on top of that like what what's the point of that you know women should be able to express themselves however they want i believe in that area under the authority and leadership of their husband and as long as they're in the boundaries of the bible then yeah and of course the bible brings up things like modest apparel but you know there's a little bit of discretion there when it comes to what that is i'm not going to sit up here and say orange is not a modest color or pink is not a modest color you know that's that's just arbitrary when you start deciding things like that now exposing parts of your body that's just not modest okay or just trying to be flashy to be flashy you know you could the rich people they put like their body is full of sequins or glitter or some kind of a shiny object where it's like bright and glowing and it's like you can tell the difference between a woman that's saying look at me and the woman's just dressing nice on a sunday morning and you know most of the ladies in here dress very nice if not all of them i never you know it would be obvious if someone's wearing some kind of a runway gown or something like that you know when you go into the the department store you can tell the prom dress section everybody know what i'm talking about the prom dress section this is where teenage girls and our protesters go to dress and you know it's real obvious it sticks out like a sore thumb you know that's not modest apparel you know and i don't even think dressing ugly on purpose is modest honestly because you're trying to show that you're more righteous than everybody you know the pharisees are abused for having these long flowing garments you know dudes and dress and drag is not cool that's not biblical and of course why do catholic priests do that so that you'll pay them honor in the in the marketplace even when you don't know them because there'll be a catholic priest walking by you've never seen him in your life but catholics will be like oh father and oh you're just so holy you're just so nice i'm not going to bow down to some predator some pedophile that wears a dress called a catholic priest i'm not going to bow down to this person and you know when i walk up and down the street you know people aren't bound down to me they're not looking at pastor shelly just like you're obviously a baptist pastor you know i've had no one ever even think that i'm a pastor based on my dress alone you know best case if i walk into a fundamental baptist church i've never been to they'll say i'm a missionary they'll be like are you guys missionaries and i'm like no we're not but that's just because we dress nice it wasn't because i'm wearing like a missionary badge like elder so-and-so or something you know that's that's silly too right so we want to dress in a way that is biblical but we also don't have to necessarily dress like the world like liberal christianity i'm not up here in skinny jeans that have holes in them and a metallica t-shirt just to try and fit in with the youth that's silly why why would i want to dress like the world and act like the world you know we're supposed to have relationships with people that are unsaved but the goal of that is to get them saved our closest relationships though are not to be with the unsaved i'm not trying to fit in with the metallica crowd i'm not trying to fit in with the pantera crowd i don't i'm not interested someone's going to tell me these are old bands what's the new rock bands i don't know acd that's not new oh man acdc kurt cobain you know no obviously you know the beatles the eagles the the news hop rock band i'm not going to try and fit in with the world as evidenced by my examples okay i have very limited resources at my disposal but that doesn't mean that i wouldn't talk to someone wearing a metallica t-shirt that doesn't mean i wouldn't go up to them and try to give the gospel hang out with them buy them lunch you know i could even be seen with them just as jesus was seen with publicans and harlots now some people mistake this and they think oh jesus is hanging out at the bar no jesus was not hanging out at the bar you'd why no oh jesus is hanging out at the club jesus was get not getting jiggy with it at the club my friend and no the unsaved worldly people were showing up at his church service and he was talking to them and preaching them or he was going out in the marketplace he's just going out in the public square running into people and having interactions with them he wasn't so holy like the pharisees that say stand by thyself for i'm holier than thou art you know that is the wrong attitude but the other wrong attitude be to blend in with them so much that it's like they're like thinking you're a christian now look at first corinthians chapter 5 verse 9 the bible says i wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators oh i guess we're amish now got to just leave because 99 percent of men commit fornication before marriage verse 10 yet not all together with the fornicators of this world or with the covetous or extortioners or with the dollars for then must he needs go out of the world you know if you're going to get so separated pretty soon you're going to literally be by yourself in the woods because no one's holy enough for you you know jesus doesn't want us to have this stupid idea or this stupid mentality of constantly judging everybody and being like well i'm holier than you and i'm holding this look we could even have people in this church like well i'm too holy for some of the other people in our church and they start separating and then they're too holy for that group and then they're just like how holy you're going to get how righteous are you going to be and then you're going to get so holy that you can't even have fellowship with yourself when you sin you're gonna have to start gouging that eye out you know and cutting that hand off because you don't want to be with that wicked sinner that left hand you got over there i mean this is ridiculous nonsense to try and suggest that we're just supposed to go and live in the commune somewhere just go live off in the wilderness somewhere by ourselves no because the bible is telling us that we're supposed to still be around the fornicators and the covetous and the extortioners and the idolaters why to get them saved to preach them to god i mean pretty soon we're all going to be in heaven and i want as many people to be there with us as possible our work will soon be ended and we had one goal getting people saved me being out in the wilderness riding on a cow did not accomplish anything for eternity me going out and drinking raw milk didn't give me some extra special blessing in heaven now you might like the taste of it maybe it's healthier there's arguments on both sides of that i don't really care frankly speaking because if you're going to tell me how righteous you are because of the milk you drink you don't even know what the bible says my friend oh well you know i just can't stand being in the suburban you know area or in the city because i have to drink you know ultra pasteurized milk and it's so terrible or i have to pay twenty dollars a gallon for raw milk or i don't get to see all of the sunset because i have to see smog or you know it's just get over yourself who cares i mean is that is that really what life our life is not to just enjoy and i guarantee you go out there and you're gonna have some hardships you're gonna have some difficulties i'll take all those negatives to have electricity number one and you're like well okay then you're just mennonite you know mennonites still have a lot of these philosophies but they have the electricity go to hebrews chapter number 10 hebrews chapter number 10 and you know i like the fact that at least they put church as a priority but i noticed that even in our group because i i venture to believe that no one in our group is is like really about to join an amish cult but what you could do is adopt effectively the same practices and and what would be the same practice well by extracting yourself from society you get to a point where you start valuing things and prioritizing things above spiritual matters so ultimately by separating yourself into the country and doing these type of things what are you evaluating over church you're actually evaluating family so some people will literally put family above church it's like it's more important for me to see my family on a regular basis and hang out with them than to be in church on a regular basis and while you may not be amish i don't really care if you are not you're essentially doing the same thing that they're doing by prioritizing that type of relationship or that type of scenario you're falling victim to the same thing they're doing and even the liberal non-denom church is the exact same way because by going to a weak watered down liberal church you're going to not affect as many family relationships and you're going to be able to keep those in sync more by going to that church than to going to the right kind i know people that literally their family members are saying if you go to that church we're gonna have nothing to do with you or they it just causes too much to divide or they i'll go to church with this catholic church on easter you know once every once in a while or let's go to the church where it's only sunday morning only so that we can go and hang out on sunday night or wednesday night you know they want you to go and get plugged in to some kind of an institution or program where it de-emphasizes church and it emphasizes family and that is not what the bible teaches look at hebrews chapter number 10 verse 24 and let us consider one another to provoke a love and a good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching so the bible says church will only become more important as time goes on right church is one of the most important it's it's the institution that god son died on the cross for but you know he did not die on the cross for me to maintain a relationship with my blood relatives in fact he brought a sword to that relationship and then he brought unity around church so if i'm gonna think about my life and i'm gonna start planning my life and i'm gonna start figuring out what is the most important thing to me in my life you know i gotta put church above family now i'm not against family i love family i hang out with family i call family i want to see them i would love for them to go to the same church as me but if i have to pick i'm putting that above it i'm just saying well this is this is my number one you're not number one you're further down the list okay and you say well how do i know how to make the decision you've already made this decision whether you like it or not say what do you mean wherever you live whatever job you have and however frequent you're going to church right now i can already tell you which one you prioritized i already know we already know you've already made your priority list is already set it's like what do you do most that's your number one priority if it's work work's your number one priority if it's hang out with your spouse that's your number one priority if it's read the bible and pray that's your number one priority going to church i mean just look at your life say what did i do this week what did i do last week what did i do this month and then we'll know exactly what your priorities are you've already decided because no one is forcing you to do anything and here's my question when you start evaluating yourself and looking at yourself what have you separated yourself unto have you separated yourself unto mtv have you separated yourself under this world have you separated yourself unto family have you separated yourself unto whatever this world has to offer or have you separated yourself unto the things of god and you say well i didn't read my bible this week and i'm not going to church on a regular basis and i don't care about the things of church and i'm not even planning to come to church again anytime soon well let me tell you something your priorities are screwed up and you're not being separate because the separation that god is calling for is for you to not be like this world so much and to be like christ and to read the bible and to put church number one and to put jesus christ number one and let me tell you something there's all manner of fa of fraud and facade out there the amish church or the liberal church or all these other institutions that exist and options out there to try and lull you into thinking that you're separated when you're not real separation is making church a priority and that that church is following the separate principles found in scripture because you could go to church five days a week and still not be separate if you're going to the mormon church you're going to be separated according to the bible go to first john chapter number two so when we think about this number one our church should not be reaching the unsaved and lost as we're reaching the saved and preaching hard sermons on the corrections that are coming from god number two our clothing should not be arbitrary rules but rather what the bible instructs we see in the bible certain commandments about clothing covering our nakedness and being modest but you know what it doesn't say is that you can't wear jewelry in fact some amish groups are so strict you can't even wear buttons the women's clothing as they have a hook and latch or like a eye and hook if you know sewing i don't know sewing okay i don't even i don't know how this works i just didn't realize like button like you know i have buttons okay i didn't realize this was just really distracting from the sermon this morning i can't even find it i mean who knew that buttons are so evil i mean this is the same puritans that are saying the back of your chair is evil because some of you are kind of relaxing in the sermon not paying attention you know if you're on that wood hardened bitch you'd have to sit up and you'd have to pay attention you know some of y'all didn't realize air conditioning is you know that's equal really causing you to feel comfortable during the sermon i mean this is just arbitrary you know in the amish community no mustaches in fact they have long beards but they don't have a mustache and you say why i don't i didn't know this i looked it up apparently they associate mustaches with military i don't even know why and and they're so anti-military that just no mustaches allowed now again i don't care if you have one or don't have one i'm just telling you they're arbitrary rules all the dresses have to be calf linked dresses where does the bible say that it doesn't okay now again if you as a father or a husband want to say that's what my family's going to do go for it i don't care what you do but that's not a biblical command and why would i want to live in a society too where that's literally that's like the rules that's the law of the land i mean this is like california saying no more gas-powered vehicles and 2030 or 2035 i can't remember the exact year i mean that's insane all because of their viewpoint on uh climate change you know why they passed those laws because electronic car manufacturers paid a bunch of lobbying money to the government officials to pass laws like that right that's the one reason yeah it's not like they care about the the climate they get to just pass arbitrary laws so they can make lots of money by forcing everybody to buy their product also since electronic cars can have computer chips in them they can turn them off and on whenever they want they can drive them wherever they want i i don't think they want any control over us do they but again as a church obviously i as a pastor i'm going to make rules about the church and we have to we have to govern ourselves in a good way we want to behave ourselves in a wise manner but it could get to a point where it's like a cult where the leader is just basically taking uh rule following to an extreme and here here's an extreme sometimes even church will do this the pastor will try to influence couples in their own home calling people saying you guys aren't dressing right at home you better start dressing right at home you guys are watching things at home that you shouldn't be watching at home i saw you driving to this restaurant you're not allowed to eat at this restaurant i've even heard baptist pastors saying don't make any life decisions without asking me first where to move what job to get who to marry all kinds of things like that i knew somebody told me recently uh there was a kid that was interested in dating another kid from another baptist church and the pastor forbid this teenager from dating another teenager they're both like 18 or 17 and he wants to he wants to date this one but oh no our church is a bad church so he forbids these teenagers from being able to date another teenager from another two independent fundamental baptist churches they can't even date each other the pastor has that much authority i mean you better take a hike if a baptist pastor tries to tell me who my daughter can or cannot date or who my son can or cannot date i mean that is that is becoming a cult and that's not being separate that's being power hungry you know i'll get up here and preach i even preached the whole sermon on preferences because i i want you to do that which is right and i want you to follow my example but i didn't force anybody to do it and honestly after preaching that sermon it seemed like nobody cared it was like a giant middle finger or something and i was just thinking like okay i'm glad i told you exactly how i feel about all these things so you can just do whatever you want but you know what i didn't do crack out the whip and start whipping people into shape but you know when it comes to rule following you know i give preferences and rules and examples so that the men that actually want to become a pastor someday will actually follow the right example because i believe you have to go beyond just the letter of the law and start following the spirit of the law too and if they're not willing to do that kind of stuff and submit like okay you can do whatever you want go wherever you want i'm not going to force you to do anything but hey you want to be a good follower you follow all of the spirit not just the letter of the law and you should follow all of the instructions and the example of your leader but you know what it should be an example of a leader not a dictatorship you know i don't want to force people to do right i want people to do right on their own i won't be able to see an example and then follow that example on their own making that decision not saying well i'll do it if i'm forced to because we have to you know as a leader you have to constantly look at the bible and make up the rules for yourself and you don't want to just have no rules no example you have no standards whatsoever you know i'd rather have a guy have a little bit too many standards than not enough but at the same time he shouldn't be sitting here cracking the whip at people for not following his standards because it's his standards you should crack the whip at the bible this is this is our boundaries to life we're not going to be the amish and just go overboard and just make all these extra rules on top but then we're also not going to be the liberal church that just starts ripping pages out of their bible i mean just won't preach sections of the bible won't tell people things that are negative won't offend people won't get people mad at them i mean i guess that's why they preach for 15 minutes he said why do you preach so long pastor shelley well i have a big book here okay it's got a lot of rules in it it's got a lot of laws a lot of instruction a lot of things that need to be preached and you know what we live in a simple world that needs a lot of extra rebuke because we're trying to be separate here we're not trying to be like everybody else well i don't like that well you can go anywhere else and it will never be like that virtually speaking you know it's very hard to find a church i mean why do you think people drive hour an hour to come to our church it's hard to explain that to me sometimes people are confused because almost every other church people only drive five or ten minutes like that's their max you know maybe 30 it's like how many people in your drive over 30 minutes to church how about on wednesday i mean i mean it's like more than half of our church is driving on a very long distance to even come to church some people are driving even further than that why because it's hard to find a church that will follow god's commands but you know what that tells me their priority is not on gas their priority is not on money their priority is not on where they live their priority is on going to the right church first john chapter 2 look at verse 15 the bible says love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man love the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world the lust of the flesh and lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father but is of the world and the world passeth away and the lust thereof but he that doeth the will of god abideth forever you know the bible is just constantly hammering for us to be separate but we don't want to think that what our view of separation is is extreme no the extreme is going out in a commune the extreme is saying everybody in our entire family extended family cousins and uncles and aunts are all great and they love the same church and we're all zeros for the same church that's extreme to think that it's extreme to think that our clothing should be so modest to the point where we're all wearing the exact same color blue dress and and black shirt it's extreme to think that our culture should be so bizarre where we can't have technology that somehow technology is what's going to separate us from the world look i have the same electricity and plumbing as everybody else and the same computers and the same cars whatever that's that's not a good separation or to be on the other extreme and just say let's let everyone come to church everyone's welcome at church doesn't matter what the bible says all are welcome all clothing options are welcome we won't a guy can come in in a prom dress and we won't kick him out for that a woman can come in and whatever attire she wants and just no problem just no issue you can wear a yarmulke and not get called out you can wear just anything and just all all is fair game no no that's bad or just saying the culture of the world let's be exactly like the world we're going to go hang out with the world and do all the world's things and it's it's inseparable look we don't want either of those extremes we want to be in the world not of the world we want to hang out our co-workers to get them saved but we don't want to get a beer with them we want to dress where it's it's modern and it's in the department store but it's not the horse section we want to have a culture that can be american i mean i like apple pie who likes apple pie i like apple pie okay you're american okay i like steak okay i like technology i like hey i even like god bless america but you know it's just it just hurts my heart a little bit because of how wicked we are you know i like the 4th of july i like seeing fireworks you know i'm okay with a little bit of culture but you know what a culture i don't like metallica yeah you know culture i don't like joe biden you know culture i don't like is the left and so we're going to be christian and we're not going to act like the world and be like the world and bring in all their junk and their their music and their hollywood and their and their filth that's really coming from jews frankly speaking that's a different sermon but we want to make sure that our separation is following the biblical commandment and that we're going no more and no less that we're you know in perfect alignment with hit with the truth and not veering to some extreme let's close in prayer thank you heavenly father for this church thank you so much for giving us commandments i pray that we would not be of this world but you would deliver us from the evil we understand there's a temptation to just go and hide and just try to get away from all the the sin but sin will find us sin is everywhere i pray that we wouldn't get a jaded attitude towards society but rather we would see lost people in a state and condition that needs someone to give them the truth that we'd love people today and then we go out and preach the gospel to them get them saved that we wouldn't have a prideful and arrogant attitude thinking we're just so much better than everybody else and we need to go hide ourselves we also wouldn't have so much of a prideful and arrogant attitude thinking that we shouldn't separate from sin that we can handle it but rather we would stay away from temptations and evil and and i pray that you would just help our church to have the right attitude towards separation and that they would separate themselves according to the bible in jesus name we pray amen amen for our last song we're gonna song 180 isn't the love of jesus something wonderful 180 isn't the love of jesus something wonderful 180 isn't the love of jesus something wonderful there will never be a sweeter story story of the saviors love divine love that brought him from the realms of glory just to save a sinful soul like mine isn't the love of jesus something wonderful wonderful wonderful isn't the love of jesus something wonderful wonderful it is to me boundless as the universe around me reaching to the farthest soul away saving keeping love it was that found me that is why my heart can truly say isn't the love of jesus something wonderful wonderful wonderful though isn't the love of jesus something wonderful wonderful it is to me on the last love beyond our human comprehending love of god in christ how can it be this will be my theme and ever ending great redeeming love of calvary isn't the love of jesus something wonderful wonderful wonderful though isn't the love of jesus something wonderful wonderful it is to me thank you all for coming