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answer back to heaven by thy grace we will see the glorious banner waving hear the trumpet blow in our leader's name will triumph over every foe hold the fort for I am coming Jesus signal still wave the answer back to heaven by thy grace we will fierce and long the battle rages but our help is near onward comes our great commander cheer my comrades cheer hold the fort for I am coming Jesus signal still wave the answer back to heaven by thy grace we will great singing let's open up in a word of prayer Heavenly Father thank you for this great morning and thank you for the opportunity to be gathered together freely as a church I pray that you would bless us all this morning help us to sing out to you with understanding and love in our hearts for you and pray that you just fill us with the Holy Spirit we love you in Jesus name amen all right for our second song we're go to 229 since I have been redeemed 229 since I have been redeemed I have a song I love to sing since I have been redeemed of my Redeemer Savior King since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name I have a Christ that satisfies since I have been redeemed to do his will my highest prize since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name I have a witness bright and clear since I have been redeemed dispelling every doubt and fear since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name I have a home prepared for me since I have been redeemed where I shall dwell eternally since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed since I have been redeemed I will glory in his name since I have been redeemed I will glory in my Savior's name good morning thank you so much for coming to steadfast Baptist Church if you need a bulletin lift up your hand nice and high one of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin on the front we have the Bible memory passage Revelation chapter 1 verse 3 anyone that can quote the entire passage will receive a prize as well as we also have a midweek challenge for all the kiddos so for 18 or under and you can quote the verse in the midweek service you can also get a treat we have on the inside our service so winning times also pay attention we have we have regional so many times that meet virtually every single day is in coordination with our churchwide soul winning you got a soul winning opportunity there just pretty much every day in the DFW area if you're interested in any of the regional sewing times just contact one of the respective leaders and they would love to get you that information also please turn in your soul winning numbers to our soul winning captains so that way they can make sure to capture all of your data we also have our list of expecting ladies we have our prayer list if you have any prayer requests that you'd like the church to be in prayer for please email those in we'll send them we'll put them in the bulletin the best we can and we do try to update it weekly so if you have continuing things or updates please just give those to us so that way we can make sure to have an accurate bulletin upcoming events March 15th is gonna be the Old West Wednesday we had an email sent out asking people to kind of give us an RSVP on that just so we can kind of plan it is gonna be a dinner and a service and just a lot of fellowship activities and so I'm very excited once we kind of have this officially everything kind of designated I'll send another email out just giving people an anticipation of what all things to expect but we will have like a photo booth area so you know cowboy hats are definitely encouraged and you can dress up and we'll have a we'll have a fun night and we'll celebrate and I'm really excited about it April 1st it's gonna be a Dallas Texas so many marathon April 24th of the 29th is the Bahamas missions trip and I think that's really all I have as far as announcements are we can go ahead and go to our third song for the morning 315 in your hymnal song 315 take my life and let it be song 315 we're going on a third song if our song leader will join us we'll sing our third song for this morning all right right 315 take my life and let it be 315 take my life and let it be song 315 take my life and let it be take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love at the impulse of thy love take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee take my voice and let me see always all me for my king always only for my king take my silver and my gold not a mite would I withhold take my moments and my days let them flow in ceaseless praise let them flow in ceaseless praise take my will and make it thine it shall be no longer mine take my heart it is thy know it shall be thy royal throne it shall be thy royal throne good singing as the offering plates are being passed around please turn your Bibles to axed chapter number eight ax chapter number five I'm sorry ax chapter number five you acts chapter five the Bible reads but a certain man named Ananias with Sephira his wife sold a possession and kept back part of the price his wife also being privy to it and brought a certain part and laid it at the Apostles feet but Peter said Ananias why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land while as it remained was it not thine own and after it was sold was it not in thine own power why has thou conceived this thing in thine heart thou hast not lied unto men but unto God and Ananias hearing these words fell down and gave up the ghost and great fear came on all them that heard these things and the young men arose wound him up and carried him out and buried him and it was about the space of three hours after when his wife not knowing what was done came in and Peter answered unto her tell me whether he sold the land for so much and she said yea for so much then Peter said unto her how is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord behold the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door and shall carry thee out then fell she down straightway at his feet and yielded up the ghost and the young men came in and found her dead and carrying her forth buried her by her husband and great fear came upon all the church and upon as many as heard these things and by the hands of the Apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch and of the rest durst no man joined himself to them but the people magnified them and believers were the more added to the Lord multitudes both of men and women insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them there came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem bringing sick folks and them which were vexed with unclean spirits and they were healed every one then the high priest rose up and all they that were with him which is the sect of the Sadducees and were filled with indignation and laid their hands on the Apostles and put them in the common prison but the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said go stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life and when they heard that they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught but the high priest came and they that were with him and called the council together and all the Senate of the children of Israel and sent to the prison to have them brought but when the officers came and found them not in the prison they returned and told saying the prison truly found we shut with all safety and the keeper standing without before the doors but when we had opened we found no man within now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests heard these things they doubted of them were unto this would grow then came one and told them saying behold the men whom he put in prisoner standing in the temple and teaching the people then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence for they feared the people lest they should have been stoned and when they had brought them they set them before the council and the high priest asked them saying did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name and behold he have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us then Peter and the other apostles answered and said we ought to obey God rather than men the God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom he slew and hanged on a tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins and we are his witnesses of these things and so is also the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him when they heard that they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them then stood there up one in the council a Pharisee named Gamaliel a doctor of the law had in reputation among all the people and commanded to put the Apostles forth a little space and said unto them ye men of Israel take heed to yourselves what you intend to do as touching these men for before these days rose up Thetis boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men about 400 joined themselves who was slain and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught after this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing and drew away much people after him he also perished and all even as many as obeyed him were dispersed and now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this council or this work be of men it will come to naught but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found even to fight against God and to him they agreed and when they had called the Apostles and beaten them they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go and they departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name and daily in the temple and in every house they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ let's pray father in heaven I pray Lord that you would bless we're in Acts chapter 5 let's look at verse 28 again the Bible says saying did we not straightly command you that you should not teach in this name and behold you have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us then Peter and the other apostles answered to me saloon hanged on a tree him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a Savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins and we are his witnesses of these things and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God have given to them that obey him when they heard that they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them then stood there up one in the council a Pharisee named Gamaliel a doctor of the law had a reputation among the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space now in Acts chapter number five we have the story of the Apostle Peter and John they're being rebuked by the council for essentially preaching the gospel and they're going through Jerusalem and they're preaching under the crowd and of course the Jews that are in charge don't like this because they just killed Jesus and so it makes them look bad they've done miracles and everybody there's really a lot of momentum behind the Lord Jesus Christ and they're really struggling with that particular movement with this we these men now they really just want to destroy them they want to kill them but they're afraid that if they kill these men the multitude will revolt riot they might even cause the chief priests to be killed so they basically just fear the people that's the only reason they're not killing them or destroying them but for some reason a man named Gamaliel he stands up and he basically tries to give them some kind of advice here now Gamaliel is according to the Bible especially at this point probably not saved I mean I don't see any reason why we could indicate that he's a saved man he was according the scripture the instructor of the Apostle Paul so we understand that he would have been of the sect of the Pharisees the Bible describes him as a doctor of the law and had in reputation so he's one that knows the Bible really well even though arguably he's just not really safe and we don't want to run too far with this guy's doctrine per se but I do like the advice that he's about to give in the scripture here and I believe that God put it in the Bible for a reason and it says here in verse 35 and he said of them you men of Israel take heed to yourselves what you intend to do as touching these men now if you think about the circumstance that a lot of the chief priests and a lot of the Pharisees they genuinely think that Peter John and Jesus are just bad some of them are wicked of course and we understand that but a lot of them are really just wrong they're sincerely wrong about their intentions they have the wrong view of worshipping the God of the Bible and Gamaliel is trying to point out hey anytime there's a controversy like this and we don't really know you know for sure who's right in this particular circumstance and we've seen them perform this amazing miracle well let's let's consider our options here and he says in verse 36 for before these days rose up thudus boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men about 400 joined themselves who was slain and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught so he says hey remember there was this other bozo thudus and he rose up and I mean he garnered a pretty big crowd 400 men is a lot I mean that's probably about double what we have here today that's a lot of people to rise up after a particular leader but they said hey we didn't really do anything we just let it go and then what happened it ended up just basically panning out because the guy was a bozo and it wasn't really a work of God it was meaningless says a verse 37 after this man rose up Judas of Galilee and the days of the taxing and drew away much people after him he also perished and all even as many as obeyed him were dispersed so this guy's a tax protester it sounds like and basically gets a big rebellion gets a bunch of people to follow after him the Bible doesn't record the exact number but it does say according to the scripture do a much people so a lot of people followed after this guy and they said well we just let him alone nothing ended up happening from that guy as well says in verse 38 and now I say and you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this council or this work be of men it will come to not but if it be of God you cannot overthrow it less happily you be found even a fight against God so he says look if this is just a random guy drawing away disciples after himself it's just a man-made doctrine it's just a man-made thing let's just leave him alone because it eventually just pan out and just burn out and nobody will really care and he says but what if we're wrong what if these guys are actually of God and this is a really important movement of God then you're really just fighting against God you're not even fighting against these people and of course who wants to fight against God you know while the Jews you know are not necessarily the best people on the planet they do all have a fear of God they do all claim to believe the Bible and they seem to you know at least have some kind of recognition of God and they realize this doesn't make sense to fight against God and I like his vice here he said in verse 38 let them alone just let them alone and you know that's one title of the sermon but the title of my sermon this morning that I'm gonna come up with is really the points that I'm gonna bring up it's called frenemies fools and fakes frenemies fools and fakes and and really what I think is important for us to realize is that we don't always have to get involved with every single person every single situation shut everything down on our own sometimes there's a point to just let them alone sometimes there's just a you know the damage is done the the disagreement is never going to be resolved so let's just leave them alone anyways because if they're of God why would I want to fight God and if they're a bozo let God destroy them or let God take care of them I don't really have to necessarily worry about this particular issue so what I want you to go to is Luke chapter 17 for a moment go to Luke chapter 17 in the New Testament I want to prove a few things before I get into my points now number one I'm not saying here that we should just ignore the world around us not saying that we shouldn't call people out I'm not saying that we shouldn't fight against false doctrine of course the Bible tells us to earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints right of course the Bible tells us to fight the good fight of faith of course the Bible has plenty of examples of people being called out of false doctrine being called out and we want to do those type of things but think about the context here they weren't just going to preach against them they were going to lay hands on them and possibly physically destroy them and the Bible is saying no no no let's not just kill these men let's not just throw them in prison and lock away the key let's just leave them alone and see what happens and of course you know we don't wage a physical battle so of course we don't want to ever engage in some kind of a physical battle where we're trying to force people to become Christian you know it's not the holy crusades not the holy wars we're not gonna go around and say believe in Jesus or we're gonna hurt you you know that would not be the right way to approach Christianity that's not gonna even get true converts I mean there's plenty of people that are Muslim but they're not Muslim because they really believe in the book of the Quran it's because they've been forced to or they live in a society or a culture where if they're not Muslim they're gonna be killed their family could be taken advantage of hurt they're not gonna have any business relationships and so a lot of times people are a religion based on coercion and you know Christianity while the Catholic Church has coerced a lot of people Christianity by and large has never forced people to be Christian you know we're not trying to shove our doctrine down other people's throats you know we go out and we knock on doors we're allowing the gospel to be the power to draw someone into salvation we're allowing the gospel message to draw people to church we're not forcing anybody we don't want to force our doctrine on anyone we want people to genuinely believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and to be saved but of course there's going to be disagreements and you know just because it's a work of man and I like Amelia's advice here doesn't mean that's always gonna happen either though that they're gonna pan out or they're gonna just basically burn out I mean think about the Mormons they didn't really burn out yet did they or think about the Catholic Church that hasn't burned out yet has it you know there's a lot of different false religions that can still gain a lot of steam and they can grow sometimes you could even expose somebody as being a bad person and and showing how they're really wrong and you would think like well their church is gonna be destroyed but you know sometimes they go really liberal and their church grows you know a person I could think of is like Greg Locke you know Greg Locke had an independent fundamental Baptist Church I don't know exactly how many was running but you know I'm not gonna put a number on it because I'd be wrong but I think it was a medium-sized church and he ended up running away with the secretary and starting like a whole nother church situation well now his church is exploding and and for sure it's got to be more people than he had before they're having big tent meetings and revivals quote-unquote where they have thousands and thousands of people coming and they sing these big long songs and everybody gets all emotional everything like that so you would think like well I guess that's a move of God not necessarily but at the same time you know when it comes to a particular person being bad while it's good to expose that individual it's good to expose their doctrine we don't want to necessarily be like the Pharisees though or we're trying to round them up and throw them in prison or harass them or troll them or just be kind of a general nuisance to these people sometimes you just have to let them alone and eventually you know let God deal with it and of course we live in a time in an age where apostasy is probably going to abound so we can't necessarily defeat apostasy by physical force we just have to let those things go but even within the realm of saved people you could have a saved pastor and another saved pastor that are generally just not going to agree and have problems with each other and I think a lot of times it's still the right advice is to say hey let's just let this guy along now if someone does something wrong what does the Bible teach you should do correct them you know someone does you wrong trespasses against you reprove them tell them they did wrong now what happens if they say you know what you're right I'm sorry what is the Bible say well the Bible commands you to forgive them look at Luke 17 verse 3 take heed to yourselves if thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him and if you repent forgive him and if you trespass against these seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him now does this sound like a suggestion or a commandment it's commandment thou shalt forgive him so the Bible actually teaches if someone trespasses against you ask for forgiveness you have to forgive them it's not even an option it's not like using discretion according to the scripture you must forgive them you have to just decide you know what I'm gonna forgive and forget and just move on and just like God did that for you you're supposed to do that for your brethren just like you being a wicked sinner and then when you called upon the name of the Lord and you believe in Jesus Christ you got all your sins forgiven we're supposed to treat our brethren in the same manner in the same way whenever they're sincere now of course if someone was obviously being fake or lying about their apology I'm not saying you have to forgive them you know obviously we could decide whether or not they're just lying to you or something but if if you can give them the end of the doubt seems like they're genuine you should just always forgive there's not really another option there some people would say this well if you were really sorry would you do it again according to the Bible it doesn't matter because if they do it to you again seven times in the same day you still have to forgive them I'm just saying sometimes people will just lie to you obviously in that case we wouldn't necessarily have to forgive that person as a commandment but if someone seems sincere is making a genuine step towards repentance of saying I'm sorry I shouldn't have done that I changed my mind then we are to forgive them but that does not mean and and I want to make this clear that does not mean that in order for you to forgive someone or in order for you to let something go they have to apologize because you know we live in a world where many people are going to do you wrong trespass against you make mistakes and they're not going to get it right they're not going to ask for forgiveness and you basically have one of two options harbor bitterness towards that individual or forgive them and as a godly Christian it's better to just usually just let it go you've already dealt with the situation you said hey you did it wrong here's where you're wrong I rebuked you I corrected you you have the balls in your court and you know you gave them space to repent but what happens when they still didn't well a lot of times it's still better to just say you know what I'm just gonna ignore it I'm just gonna let it go because there's no point me just constantly holding this over your head and just constantly dragging you through the ringer on this now let me prove this in another place go to Matthew chapter 5 Matthew chapter 5 I want to make sure that everything you hear me saying this morning you're seeing from the Bible but the Bible gives clear examples of forgiving people when they don't deserve it there's plenty examples where people do wrong and people let it go despite the fact that they never apologize they never got it right and I'm not saying this is always the case you know if someone is an axe murderer I'm not gonna just let that go right if someone's a pedophile that's not something you just say like well let's just let it go not a big deal you know I'm gonna hold a grudge against people that have those serious of a sin I mean in fact according to the scripture if someone commits a sin unto death the Bible says you're not even supposed to pray for them so then how could you let it go I mean you're not gonna let that go okay so there's gonna be certain sins that are just too grievous too extreme for you to let it go typically that's in a reprobate category okay but even very bad it's bad sins like adultery the Bible talks about people getting over adultery letting that go in a sense or forgiving someone I mean think about Hosea we've been going through this in our midweek service when did Hosea's wife say I'm really sorry for committing adultery I'm never gonna do it again but didn't he stay married her didn't he stay committed unto her so you can even let a very extreme sin go potentially regardless of the other person's attitude towards you but let's go to a more realistic example okay Matthew 5 verse 38 you have heard that has been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I say unto you that you resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also think about this verse does this verse say if someone smites you on the right cheek wait until they ask for forgiveness and then give them the other cheek no it just says hey they smack you on one side of the face just turn and say like here now of course what is what is the meaning of this verse is it really just saying let people smack you around that's not exactly what it's saying but it's basically just talking about someone does you damage someone disrespects you someone causes you harm unjustly unjustified this is not someone physically assaulting you or attacking you if someone's trying to hurt you you need to deal with that situation immediately I am NOT a Christian that would say like please just beat me up you know that's stupid you know I'm not for that I believe you should defend yourself you should defend your family but you know someone's slapping you around that's not really them trying to physically hurt you as much as just hurt your your feelings or hurt your pride or disrespect you in some kind of a way so according to the scripture what Jesus said someone smacks you turn them the other cheek did Jesus do this yes even physically because when he is confronted by Caiaphas and the chief priests he's standing there and he answers the high priest and then one of the guys there just smites him and he's like why smite us thou me he's like hey testify of the evil that I did but why'd you smite me and you know what he essentially turns me of the cheek because throughout that whole process they just keep beating him and beating him and beating him he just takes it and takes it and takes it so you can take some slaps around the face you can take evil according to the Bible it says resist not evil now it also says in verse 41 and I'm sorry let's read verse let's let's read verse 40 and if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have thy cloak also and his search of compelling to go a mile go with him twain give them that asketh thee and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away you have heard that has been said thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy but I stand you love your enemies bless them that curse you do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you that you may be the children of your father which is in heaven for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on the good and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust for if you love them which love you what reward of you do not even the public is the same and if you salute your brother and only what do you more than others do not even the public and so be therefore perfect even as your father which is in heaven is perfect so according to Jesus Christ we're supposed to love our enemies now to me this has to be in every case a saved brother if you have someone that is saved and they're your enemy they're causing you harm they smack you on the cheek they've taken your coat they've taken your cloak they've asked you to go further with them and do more than they originally agreed they broke their agreement whatever the situation is you're still supposed to love that person according to the Bible we are to love those that are saved period there's not an exception there's not a situation King Saul has tried to kill David over and over and David still loves him you know Saul was a terrible friend to King King David at the time just a servant and yet David continually loved Saul to the bitter end that doesn't mean that Saul it was his best friend and I'm sorry that doesn't mean that David was Saul's best friend they hung out with each other he's he's doing his bidding for him anymore he had to separate from him but at the end of the day we're supposed to love the Saul's in her life go go to 1st John chapter 4 go to 1st John and I want to look at a lot of Bible today because I think this is a teaching that is not something that we typically hear as much it's also not the most enjoyable sermon because we typically our flesh our flesh wants to fight like our flesh wants to hear like every time I'm wrong we're gonna get him back twice and you're just like yeah we're gonna get him you know he smacked me around well we're gonna we're gonna top on his head you know we're gonna we're gonna drum him you know I mean the thing about sports this is every time in sports it's like someone dunks on you it's like well I'm gonna dunk on you with both hands you know or I'm gonna step on your head while I you know do a triple dunk or you know it's like it's always this it's like trying to get even or do more or get them back you know they punched me in the head but now I'm gonna break their arm or it's like always an escalation you know that's the flesh speaking the spirit says you know what I can just let it go the spirit says I don't have to get even with every single person the spirit says we're supposed to love our neighbor and we're supposed to love our enemy first John chapter 4 verse 20 if a man say I love God and hated his brother he is a liar free that love is not his brother whom he has seen how can he love God whom he have not seen so we cannot love a brother or sister in Christ we do not love God now of course love sounds cool because the world tries to make love into something that it's not go to go to Mark chapter 9 go to Mark chapter 9 the world love is returning good for good that's what love is love is really liking someone that's doing something awesome right love what is love to the world I really like pizza therefore I love it what is love to the world I love Tom Brady because he won the Super Bowl for my team oh I love this person who gave me money oh I love this person who is dating me and doing nice things to me oh I love this person I mean that is not love love is doing good to someone that did evil unto you love is liking your football team even though they lose that means the Cowboys must really have a lot of loving fans okay because they never do them good and people still like them I don't get it right that's what love is apparently you know all these bandwagon NFL fans they don't love anyone someone that says they love everyone does not love anyone you know love is when someone does your own you know love is when your spouse does something bad and you still love them and you you know what love is staying married to someone for 50 years because I guarantee in those 50 years they did a lot of terrible things to you because it's called marriage it's called life you know but that was love love is not just getting divorced every two years and marrying another person that's someone that doesn't love anyone but themselves there's a lover of themselves and they're a selfish person and you know when it comes to Christianity we cannot say that we have this great love for God when we can't love anybody that doesn't like us if you only like people that like you you don't love anyone in order to really love someone you have to love someone that doesn't always do you good isn't always reciprocal in their actions towards you mark chapter 9 look at verse 38 and John answered him saying master we saw one casting out devils in thy name and he followeth not us and we forbade him because he followeth not us I mean this guy's not in the new IFB he shouldn't be allowed to preach the gospel right no no that's not what it says what is it what is he and Jesus said forbid him not so there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name that can lightly speak evil of me where he that is not against us is on our part so according to the Bible someone that's doing a good thing for God but has nothing to do with you leave him alone leave him alone now I went through this foundation because this is not what we're talking about today I wanted to give you all the examples of what we're not talking about and then we're gonna get into where we're talking about what I'm not talking about this morning is this someone that did you wrong and asked for forgiveness automatic forgiving I'm not talking about people that do you good because we don't you know who cares we already love those people automatically people that do you good it's easy like them here's another category I'm not talking about people that are not attacking you have nothing to do with you you know churches that are going out and preaching the gospel and they have nothing to do with you they don't talk to you you don't know them why would you ever be against that person notice what he said in verse number 40 for he that is not against us so did these people get attacked did they have something happen against them no no it's not that person so we have a few categories the repentant people that are doing good people that are just leaving you alone of course we would never want to attack those people leave them alone to bless them do good under them but when we think about Matthew chapter 5 when it's talking about loving your enemies and blessing them let's curse you this is a completely different category this is people who are actually doing you wrong these are people that are attacking you these are people that are against you that have done something against you that's that's bad go to Acts chapter 13 go to Acts chapter number 30 they disappointed you they left you out to dry they lied to you they took advantage of you they aren't a good person I mean there's there's so many scenarios that fit this particular category okay and in Acts chapter 13 we have a story about the Apostle Paul he's going out to do a great missionary work with Barnabas there's no question that Paul and Barnabas are of God that they their mission is arguably the most important mission in the world and they have someone that's supposed to serve them now how do you how important of a job do you think it is to be the servant of the Apostle Paul I mean you could almost argue this is the second most important job in the world because number one is the Apostle Paul number two would be helping the Apostle Paul do his job right I mean this is not of low importance this is not like it's a minor thing this is someone that was plugged into a powerhouse ministry doing great works for God it was the Apostle Paul Barnabas and their servant John John Mark now it says in verse number two and they ministered to the Lord and fasted in the Holy Ghost and separate me Barnabas and solve for the work wherein to I've called them and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them they sent them away so they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed on Seleucia and from thence they sailed to Cyprus and when they were at Salamis they preached the Word of God in the synagogues of the Jews and they had also John to their minister so notice the Bible says that John was their minister specifically was John sent out by the Holy Ghost directly no it was Paul and Barnabas were separated they're sent out but you know they can't just do everything on their own they need other people to help them John marks there to be their minister now if John marks their minister what does that mean it means that the Apostle Paul and Barnabas can focus on the ministry they don't have to worry about food as much or accommodations he's like a personal assistant you know just doing all the carnal things so they can focus more and more on the spiritual things doesn't mean John Mark wasn't spiritual but why is he there he's there to assist them and to help them so that the work of God can go forth more successful you know I have an employee that helps me and you say what's his job title yes it's actually yes sir you know what is his job duty yes sir you know it's just like but you say why do you have one of those so that the church can run more successfully so you can focus on things that I don't have to you know so I can just be like hey here you go and if I didn't have someone to help me you know what that would be making my life harder it would make it where I couldn't focus on things as much it'd be disappointing if I didn't have you know the size of work that we're doing as a church it would be really really hard if I didn't have at least one person dedicated to help me you know when we were having pure words and Oklahoma City where I was going there preaching almost every Thursday that's hard it's hard with the schedule it's hard to make that commitment 52 weeks out of the year and so having another person on staff that I can say like hey just go on go this Thursday for me because I got to go to this other one or I got a I got a switch or whatever and you know most of the time it wasn't even I'm taking a day off I'm just switching I'm just like you go here so I can go there and you'll be really hard on a church where you guys have full-time jobs how are you gonna take off a whole Thursday or whatever and go so it was a big blessing for me to have this kind of individual so you know if if brother Dylan just like quit out of nowhere or if I had a servant that just quit out of nowhere it would really be awful it would really suck you know one of the main reasons I've been hired doing is I was like I need to find someone that won't quit me because you know you know someone just drops me like a bad habit you know that's gonna be hard on me and it's harder place that person with someone that's gonna be trustworthy and so you know that's what I liked about Dylan now did he have other skills I don't think so but you know he was loyal so and we can work on that you know we can build him up and we can train him and we can get him better you know what I liked about Dylan is he loves the Bible and he was really loyal and you know that's that's hard to build into someone that's hard to get out of someone and you know why would you want someone loyal well I don't want them to be a John Mark because even if it's the greatest person with lots of skills but they drop me like a bad habit well that doesn't that doesn't do anything for me okay even a guy can't do anything but it's there is at least some benefit okay you can least carry water or whatever but look what it says here in verse 13 now when Paul and his company loose from pathos they came to Perga and Pamphylia and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem so just you know they get started they're ready to go they got John it looks good and then he just quits immediately it's like what now is this a good thing no it was a horrible thing it was a really bad thing okay folks there wasn't anything good about it go to Acts chapter 15 now good acts chapter 15 the Apostle Paul has to do all of their journey they don't have this minister and look when you're on the road good luck replacing good luck getting another guy you know and even if you were gonna get another guy John Mark could have still been there and you could have got that other guy too and it just kind of multiplied a lot faster losing this person's really a detriment to the situation and it caused a lot of problems who knows we don't even know all the fallout resulting from this but it's it's definitely frustrating to lose people on this type of a situation acts 15 look at verse 36 and some days after Paul said unto Barnabas let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord and see how they do so the Apostle Paul did a whole missionary journey he came back and he's like all right Barnabas round two let's go and Barnabas determined to take with them John whose surname was Mark it's like wait a minute but Paul thought it not good to take him with them who departed from them from Pamphylia and went not with them to the work so he's like all right let's go around too and he's like yeah let's grab John Mark it's like what am I what what the guy that dropped us like a bad habit on the first trip yeah that guy well now wait a minute wait when does Barnabas say yeah John Mark's really sorry apologize to everyone Oh John Mark got it right John Mark asked Paul for forgiveness John Mark's a really great guy we don't know any of that now I can't say that he did or didn't a hundred percent but we have no indication of that all we know is that Mark just dropped him like a bad habit and now the sudden Barnabas is like let's bring him again and what did the Apostle Paul said hey it is not good now in his mind why is he saying that he's saying there's a problem with John Mark John Mark has caused serious problems this is not good does the Apostle Paul trust John Mark no now wait a minute is John Mark saved yeah no one's doubting a salvation we're not talking about just a bad person but you know this first category that I have I want to talk about is people that I would call frenemies frenemies now sometimes that's a really negative word but the reason why I'm using it is because it's like you can't really tell if this person's a friend or an enemy you can't really tell if they're just a bad friend or if they're just really a bad person okay and so that's why I'm using this category of frenemies when someone does you wrong it doesn't get it right sometimes it's hard to tell is this person just a bad friend or is this person just a bad person okay and of course a bad friend could end up getting redeemed a bad person's never gonna end up getting it right and we understand that but we don't necessarily know where this person's at but that's what I would put John Mark in this category he's kind of frenemy because if they take John Mark again and he bails on them again Wow it's almost like an enemy it's almost like sabotage it's almost it's like a really bad situation and he almost goes from just being a just kind of a bad friend just being like really bad and we don't even know what his intentions I mean this is just it's kind of a dicey situation and the Apostle Paul doesn't necessarily want to go down this road with him again and according to the Bible there's a great contention between them it says in verse number 39 and the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed into Cyprus the Apostle Paul did not like John Mark so much that he was willing to lose other friends over it think about this he's like this guy is so bad that if you want to be friends with him we're not gonna be friends we're not gonna work together I mean that's an extreme contention to have and an opinion to have but you know what I believe that it's right and it's good for sometimes you to look at someone and say like I refuse to work with that person because he did bail on them last time and it ends up working out great now that's hindsight but you know what the Apostle Paul then takes Silas and then they go off what happens in the Bible do we follow Barnabas and Mark or do we follow Paul and Silas we follow Paul and Silas so how could I argue that what Paul's decision-making here is wrong it's great and you know what John Mark just fades into it fades into non-relevance non-existence does that mean that the Barnabas and John Mark didn't get anybody saved no I'm sure they got people say but you know if it wasn't even for the one tiny mention of the Apostle Paul later in the books of Timothy where he mentions that Mark was profitable in them we would just assume they did nothing for God because we don't even really know I mean maybe they got some people say but it wasn't really that impactful nobody really knows what happened arguably that's kind of the case because we don't even we don't read about them doing some great thing or getting a bunch of people saved later or a bunch of disciples of John Mark and Barnabas we don't know but you know what there's no real point in the Apostle Paul going around and every town he comes into he's like hey let me tell you about this guy named John Mark he sucks hey did you hear about John Mark let me tell John Mark sucks did you know that hey did you did you hear about John Mark let me tell you about John Mark hey I want do you know about John Mark let me tell you how bad John Mark is is that really the Apostle Paul's ministry for the next several chapters of the Bible no that is anybody have any doubt as to how the Apostle Paul feels about John Mark no we all know exactly how it feels about him but you know it's not very profitable to just go on a campaign against somebody just for the rest of your ministry just because they're a bad person or just because they're a bad friend or just because they screwed up and look frankly speaking it's not like the that John didn't screw up it's not that Mark didn't have serious problems it's not that Mark isn't you know someone to stay away from even it's just is it really profitable to just constantly harass somebody that's done wrong or is it maybe profitable just let it go say hey I don't like you I don't want to work with you bye but you know what you do bye you know you say not gonna talk to you not gonna talk about you not interested in you see you later sucker and isn't it so annoying that when people leave our church they never seem to say this bye it's like they'll stock you forever and they harass you and they troll you and they watch every sermon it's like I think that people that leave our church watch more sermons than when they were here it's like they're more interested in the preaching after they leave when they were even here it's like what is wrong with you and you know none of us sit here and think like oh that's normal it's not normal it's not normal to go around and follow and harass people that you supposedly don't like that you've decided you want to separate from how did you separate from them when you're just trolling around and falling around and doing all these things now I want to get really really specific here for a moment okay and I've kind of built up a context here but there are some people out there that I think fall in this category of where they're saved and they've done wrong and let's make it clear they didn't get it right they didn't apologize they weren't repenting about it they've done wrong they've been called out but see at the same time it's not necessarily beneficial for me to just go on an endless campaign trail attacking that particular individual because it's just not going to benefit Christianity in general you know is it gonna really benefit me to just constantly attack say people for just being a crappy person and never letting anything go because what will happen is then if I make a mistake or someone else makes a mistake then they'll hold it against them for forever and then them forever and there's just this like it just seems like everybody that's in Christianity just holds grudges and is bitter and can't let anything go it has no grace it's like we have a whole religion based on grace and we can never extend grace to any person now these are the people that want to bring up pastor Tommy McMurtry pastor Grayson Fritz pastor Patrick Boyle and pastor Joe major now the reason why I bring up these names is they're people that I've mentioned publicly before and I've called out for various issues different problems that I have with them all in their varying degrees and everything like that but you know at the end of the day is it really gonna benefit me to just sit on an endless campaign trail against these particular individuals if I believe that they're saved no that's not gonna benefit Christianity and frankly speaking people don't go to our church or go to one of their churches something just the general populace looking at this stuff it just makes everyone look bad usually it just makes everyone look you know it's off-putting to everyone when you're just constantly nagging people and holding people you know accountable for every little grievance now again we're not talking about people that believe you know the earth is flat okay if they if I find out that I might re-reenter the conversation we're not talking about people that are preaching that they're Jesus Christ okay like Tyler Doka we're not we're not talking about people that have gone into extreme heresy we're not talking about people that commit just like really grievous awful sins like divorcing their wife and running off with the secretary okay but does that mean that they didn't have serious problems no I believe they have serious problems did I call them out for some of their serious issues yeah have they said some things that I would say are just clear railing and slander yes absolutely are those serious would I want to work with these individuals no but at the end of the day could God use one of these people to go out and get someone saved yes I think that he can and why would I want to sit here and just have a constant beef with these individuals just forever just basically just making Christianity look worse and worse I mean if you've ever noticed anything about our world it seems like America is descending into literal Satanism every second and it's like are these people really the biggest enemy out there are they really the biggest problem out there I mean they're capable of getting people saved right now so it sounds like they're almost on my team from a big picture does that mean that I like them not necessarily does that mean I agree with everything they do absolutely not does that mean the things that I've said about them in the past I've changed my mind no but wait a minute can I just let mark and Barnabas just go and do their thing or do I have to sit here and just every chapter of acts just be like hey reminder mark is a really crappy guy mark is a quitter mark breaks your trust mark does all these bad things I don't think that benefits you know and all these men have preached for me all these men at one point I considered a friend and all these men at one point I liked them but they they cause problems and you know what I offered a correction I offered hey this is wrong you need to fix this but instead of just getting it right they didn't now I have two options or my two options get bitter or just let it go get bitter hold on to that grudge forever or just let it go you know what are the biblical principles we've seen here so far turn the other cheek love your enemies maybe just give them some grace just let them you know we're not talking about wicked evil reprobate people or something like that we're talking about people that made mistakes cause problems well they said something mean well you know what in Ecclesiastes the Bible makes it clear that you're not supposed to harken to every word that's spoken because you've also in your life cursed others no one's perfect I guarantee you said terrible things about people and you know what I necessarily be held accountable for all of those things now when it came to Pastor McMurtry you know I called him out and he didn't receive it and honestly I don't think that we're gonna ever agree you know we're just not gonna agree on these things so basically we could we could just sit here and just constantly attack each other forever on it how I think I'm right and he and his mind thinks he's right or whatever but you know how is that gonna get more people saved how is that gonna reach more people the gospel how's it gonna stop America descending into literal Satanism I don't think it is and it doesn't make any sense now I've made it clear how I feel about these situations and I had videos that I made about it but I just thought you know what it's just better for me to take these things down and to just try to reduce the amount of just constant holding people's feet to the fire on these issues because if I don't every time he says something that I disagree with like in life if I consider you lying about me I'm gonna want to defend myself and then he's gonna defend himself and then I'm gonna defend myself and then he's gonna defend him and it's just gonna be this like never-ending battle and it's like that just doesn't make sense to me what makes sense to me is not waste all my time effort and energy on frenemies just be like let them alone hey I've identified you I've called you out but let's just move on you know if someone's really bad that's different we'll have a different you know way to handle that but from an outsider's perspective it doesn't make sense to air all of your dirty laundry you know when you have a when you have company over they know and I know you have dirty laundry somewhere in your house like there is a place in your house where dirty laundry exists and maybe if you have children soiled laundry okay who has children I have children I mean some of the clothing almost all the time some clothing has some interesting substances on them okay somewhere in the house you know wouldn't be cool to invite people over for dinner and just put all of our dirty laundry on the table is that people are gonna be like do we have to eat you know with this on the table you know it just doesn't really make that much sense now does that mean that the dirty laundry doesn't need to get addressed or fixed or clean isn't something that you're gonna do yeah of course it is does it exist yeah it does exist but you know what not all things are expedient and when it comes to someone doing you wrong sometimes you have to decide is this worthy of telling everybody or not and then even if it is do I need to hold on to this forever sometimes you can just let things go and what I've noticed is that especially in our movement it seems like especially online a lot of people don't let things go as soon as they identify someone doing anything wrong it's like I can just attack this person relentlessly forever and I think that is wrong not only that people love to make memes and look I like memes but that doesn't mean that every meme is good number one and it also a lot of people don't know how to make a meme they make a mean it'll make a meme they make a mean or basically they're not funny at all they're just being mean they're just being insulting they're just being rude they're just basically showing like they're just going over the top they're just being over you're just insulting someone and going out to someone you know I don't appreciate that I don't like that that doesn't make Christianity look good how can you say that you love your enemies when you just post all these mean things online all the time about people again I'm not saying that we don't correct people I'm not saying that we can't have a good time I'm not saying that you can't post something that's fun or funny online and you know I love to make fun of stupidity stupidity in general you know what what's the purpose is the purpose just to have fun and to expose some stupid idea or is it just to be mean and if you're just being mean you should just stop doing it there's no benefit to it there's no purpose and what I've seen for these four people instead of being called out for some of the things that they did that's legitimate people go way over the top and just are mean to these people and you know what that does not make us look good if someone does something wrong and then you just go over the top and are mean to that individual it makes you look worse in many cases hey am I for holding people accountable and calling people out you know that I am there's no question here but you know what I don't like is this just mentality of just constantly harassing people and attacking people you know it also would not be beneficial if the Apostle Paul instead of going on his journey with Silas secretly followed Barnabas and and John Mark around every corner just to see if John Mark ever did anything wrong again and be like oh there's John Mark again oh let's tell everybody the new bad thing he did and you know just like it's weird to us the people who leave our church and watch all of our sermons it's the same bizarreness when you decide this pastor's bad but I'm gonna listen all of his sermons anyway I don't like this guy but I'm gonna listen to all the sermons anyway to try and find anything that he could possibly say that I don't like and then I'm gonna talk about it too you're just as weird you're just as gross you know what we should just stop following people we don't like look I do limited research into people I don't like and it's usually not hard if you find someone that's bad you just watch one video drop the hammer and just like instant heresy you're just like wow that wasn't hard you know what if you're having to do 10 20 hours of research to find out how bad someone is you sound like the Pharisees trying to scope out Jesus trying to catch him in his words or something and I even what I seen on a group it was like a Facebook group or something like that someone posting some clip of Pastor McMurtry preaching and they said look at this horrible preaching against people and I clicked and watched the video and I agreed with everything that he said and I was thinking like you're dumb you know it's like it's like people get this hammer in their hand just like someone is bad and it's just like everything they do is bad everything they say is wrong everything you know that's stupid you know or they look at someone that has a mistake and it gets called out publicly and they think they can just lambast this person forever you know or they'll get mad they'll get me they'll be mean to him and I've heard this to their wives to their children and it's like how would you like if every time your wife did something wrong everybody got to bash them forever and make memes and attack them for it's just stupid it's childish it's pedantic it's carnal it's not of God I don't like it I'm not interested in it and let me tell you something I don't police people online you know what I will preach about it and you know what you're not loving your neighbor you don't love God when you're just being mean to people like that why don't you just let them alone why can't you just let them win someone to Christ it's not like oh well you're a bad person you won them to Christ who cares did a lot of bad people win people to Christ in the Bible oh this woman she's been with five husbands let's just make endless memes about her you know what she got someone saved and if she can get someone saved I know these guys could probably you know so it's just silly to sit here and just go over the top and hold their feet in the fire for every little grievance and every little problem now look if they get up and just lie about me publicly and they're causing a lot of issues I'll probably address that you better believe it you know what I don't want is like I think that they might have subtly mentioned something about you okay who cares even if they even if they did mention about me who cares you know I've had people publicly named me and say weird things about me but I didn't feel the need to just attack them back or something or hold them accountable for every word that they said because it's just like just give them grace just let them do their thing who cares you know I hate this idea that we always have to respond to everything we need to get to a place where we don't respond to everything and look sometimes there's that temptation I I've experienced it as well everybody experiences it to always want to right every wrong always defend yourself always go after other people but you know what we need to be careful and be balanced here and take some advice here and say you know what maybe we could just let this one go go to Proverbs 29 go to Proverbs 29 so you know look these men I'm just not interested in just constantly harassing them falling around criticizing everything that they do you know if they want to go and publicly attack me and whatever I might respond but for the most part let's just leave them alone and not just me you and everybody else and you know just why don't we focus on the real enemies of I mean do we not have enough real enemies do we not have enough real problems do we not have enough real heresies and at the end of the day I'm trying to bring in as many new people as possible you know I'm trying to make documentaries like the preserved Bible and trying to drag in somebody that's like a Pentecostal to the King James Bible and get them saved and then start realizing like hey you should be a fundamental Baptist you know if I'm holding another fundamental Baptist accountable for every little minor grievance he's ever had in his life how is that going to make the Pentecostal feel welcome to even mention anything about us you know I've heard this and I think it's probably true there's a lot of pastors out there that like us or like things about us or like our documentaries but they're so afraid to even say something positive about us because they think they'll get attacked you say what do you mean they'll get attacked well they'll say hey I really liked the preserved Bible and then what will happen is everybody will go look up their website this guy does altar calls let's start making memes against him this guy is pre-trib what an idiot this guy's what are you know they'll just constantly go after that person for everything that they're not exactly like me or another preacher or something and it's like you and I know that that has some reality to it and you know what that's that's a bad rep when our movement is known as being the least gracious the least merciful we should be willing to take people that are not like us and say you know what I know that we strongly disagree on a lot of issues and I know you have a lot of issues but I'm not gonna hold all that against you why don't you start coming more towards my side why don't you start realizing like you know why don't we try to be a little more welcoming people and you know I've had tons of people that I've reached out to I've even had pastors booked and then it finds out like you know what I don't really want to be associated with that people I'm afraid of all the fallback and it's like that's frustrating that I can't even go a little bit outside my circle and I'll be honest with you I haven't announced it yet but I have a guest preacher that's gonna come preach for us great guy but he is not exactly like us and you know the worst thing you could do is try to try to force him to be exactly like us it's like why can't we just agree on the things that we agree on you know my test of fellowship has always been King James only and salvation by faith it's like well what about all the other stuff it's not like I don't think it's important folks you know that you know I preach everything in the Bible you know that I think is super important but am I gonna really just sit here and hold people to the grinder on these issues and look even people that are not like that aren't even King James only your salvation by faith we want to still give them some grace to try and win them over to where they could even come into our influence come into our circle of friends get to a point where we could actually associate with those individuals you know one of the people that I'm talking about was not even King James only for a long portion of his life and then he became King James only and you know you're gonna win more you're gonna catch more flies with honey then you are just trying to set a trap necessarily because the best traps have honey in them okay you know if you just if you just basically just try to put a trap out a squirrel trap with no cheese or peanut butter it's not gonna work you got to put some peanut butter in that trap okay and we're not trapping people but you get the analogy right now here's my second category my second category is different so the first category is a friend of me it's like I can't tell this person's a bad friend or a bad person but I'm just gonna let them I'm just gonna let them do their thing anyways the second category is not that person the second category is completely different it's a fool now sometimes these people can you know start out as a friend of me and then go to a fool and then go to my last one fakes and you never really know where they're at always but if you identify someone as a fool it's even more the reason to have nothing to do with them look what the Bible says in Proverbs 29 verse 9 if a wise man contented the foolish man whether you rage or laugh there is no rest why would I want to engage with a fool so if we think about our scenario someone does wrong correct them right but then based on their response is how I'm going to reassociate with this person and if they ask for forgiveness restored fellowship if they're just refusing to get it right I could just let it go and just leave them alone if it's a fool I also want to leave them alone because if I constantly badger back and forth with a fool it's just gonna cause me all kinds of problems look at Proverbs 26 let's go backwards in Proverbs a little bit Proverbs 26 look at verse 6 sorry 26 verse 6 he that sent of the message by the hand of a fool cut off the feet and drink of damage the legs of the lame are not equal so as a parable in the mouth of fools so according to Proverbs 26 6 through 7 the Bible is making it clear like hey fools don't even understand the Bible and anything you try if you try to argue with a fool you're never going to get them to agree I'm not gonna agree with them it's just gonna go nowhere there's no point in trying to engage with this particular individual because they're just simply never going to get it right go if you would to Proverbs 18 I want to read another place Proverbs 26 also said answer not a fool according to his folly lest thou also be like unto him even though you're right if you constantly go back and forth with a fool everybody will think you're a fool everything and look I think this all the time I see all kinds of people put a troll comment on one of my videos and then someone that I even like will go and respond to them and I'm like you just look like an idiot for even responding that person because because their question is so stupid you trying to answer it makes you look stupid you know Matt Wallace's documentary trying to prove that a woman is a woman a lot of you like it's so amazing it's like you look like an idiot for trying to prove a woman's a woman oh you know two plus two equals five no no no two plus two equals four to want me to help you with that it's like you look like an idiot for even trying to explain that to someone it's like the person was it was an idiot on purpose and you look like an idiot for not realizing they're an idiot okay so it's there's no real benefit in engaging with fools and trolls and and these kind of insane people Proverbs 18 look at verse 2 a fool have no delight and understanding but that his heart may discover itself notice that this guy is not interested in education he will not learn he only wants to do one thing hear himself talk and look I've talked to people like this sometimes you call someone up and you spend about 5% of the conversation talking it's like that's not a good conversation I'm not interested in calling people up for them to just preach at me and again what is a fool like a fool is not interested in listening or hearing a fool will just talk your ear off he doesn't want to hear what you have to say he's not interested in what you have to say why would you want to keep engaging with that individual look at verse number six in this passage a fool's lips enter into contention and his mouth call for strokes a fool's mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul so notice that a fool is going to always cause problems so if you think about it many times and you know the Bible says only by pride cometh contention if there's a spat between two people know for a fact someone's being prideful if there is contention someone is being prideful it could be both but it's at least one secondly if there's a contention there's a good chance there's a fool in the situation too not always many times there's a fool in the situation this is never going to really resolve very well and of course if someone sticks to being prideful well then essentially there's never going to be any resolution if someone cannot humble themselves think about it you do wrong and I confront you if you just say okay there was no contention but if you say no I disagree that's contention why because that person is being prideful not to get the correction if you are corrected incorrectly that person's being prideful or having brought up some problem and you're like no no you're actually wrong on this issue you know you don't know you don't understand why you're wrong and they're being private but prides always a part of every confrontation could be both are being prideful okay this is sports teams they both I'm the best no I'm the best not the best it's just like they're both being prideful at that point right but just mark it down only by pride cometh contention let me tell you something every marital spat pride exists pride exists and you say well where does the pride exist unfortunately a woman's supposed to always agree so we already know oh how dare you say that it's you know it isn't it a joke that in every fight the man's always wrong that's like kind of the joke that's what the society says you know the Bible says the woman's always wrong because in every spat you know what she's just supposed to agree so of course only by pride cometh contention and of course you know a guy could be a jerk and be prideful too I'm not saying he can't be but I'm just telling you when there's problem if you're in an argument with your boss at work you know is being prideful you are whenever you're mad at God you know is being prideful you are okay every confrontation every argument every strife and of course if I identify this person as being a fool why would I want to keep going down that road I don't look at chapter 17 verse 10 over a proof enter with more into wise men than a hundred stripes under full does this sound like someone that's gonna ever fix their problem the Bible says he could get publicly beaten and he wouldn't change his mind he won't change his doctrine I can think of people like that go to chapter 14 and look at verse number 7 chapter 14 look at verse number 7 what is the remedy according to the scripture for this individual verse 7 go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge does this say follow him around talk about him all the time harass him troll him no it says go from him it says look once I've identified this person's a fool get away from them let them alone just like we learned about the frenemy let him alone what do we do with the fool we let him alone again look at chapter 12 verse 15 you're right there the way of a fool is right in his own eyes but he that hearkened unto the council's wife you know a fool this is what this is what's difficult for you to understand just because someone's wrong doesn't mean they can ever recognize it according the Bible this fool thinks he's right he justifies himself and people will always justify their sin people will always tell you they were right if they lie about you they were right in the lie they said about you if people rail on you they were right for railing on you if they steal from you well it was right for me to steal from you well if I hit you it was right for me to hit you yes it's just justification you talk to your little children about this why did your brother he was mean first what is that what does that mean I'm justified why did you steal this he stole it from me it's an instant justification why because it's human nature to justify every sin and every wrongdoing that you do but you know what the problem is for the fool he'll never get corrected you say no you were wrong and you're like you're right that's not a fool a fool just say like nope I was right nope yep white white supremacy is the problem you know it's the patriarchy yeah it's just that's always the problem yeah you know it's just capitalism capitalism is a problem it's just like that's not the right attitude that's a fool and this person's never gonna get corrected they're never gonna have any hope Proverbs 9 look at verse 8 reprove not a scorn or lest he hate thee rebuke a wise man he will love thee so let's say I I've corrected someone but now I realize they're a fool if I keep correcting them what's gonna happen they're gonna hate me more and more and more and more it causes me way more problems so if I've identified hey this person's kind of actually just a fool the last thing I want to do is keep correcting them is keep going after them keep showing them how stupid they are because it's not going to really benefit me he's gonna hate me more and more and more and more and more and it's gonna cause serious issues go to Matthew 15 so point one of my sermon or at least the first group that we're talking about is frenemies we should just let them alone give them grace you know King Saul was lying and attacking David but David just let it go moved on tried to stay away from him people that are fools in the Bible you just go from the presence of them you don't want to talk to them you don't want to keep enraging them you don't want to constantly contend with this particular individual because they're never gonna get anywhere you know a person that I think of a fool is an atheist and it was so funny I saw a video clip the other day it was Jordan Peterson I think and Neil deGrasse Tyson or no no it was Joe Rogan it was Joe Rogan and Neil deGrasse Tyson and Neil deGrasse Tyson is like a popular scientist that talks a lot about the Big Bang Theory and what's so funny is his video he was criticizing how dumb the human population is because they constantly buy lottery tickets and go to casinos and they don't understand probability they don't understand statistics and I was I was like okay I agree but isn't that so ironic from the guy that believes in the Big Bang Theory that wants to tell you about statistics and probability he's like you should understand that the chances of winning the water are like basically zero what are the chances of your beliefs buddy talk about a fool talk about someone that's willingly ignorant I mean and he has no excuse of saying he's stupid I mean this guy's very smart in an intellectual way he's very learned he knows a lot of things he understands math and science but then he just totally just is has a blind spot when it comes to the God of the Bible this is not the person that you want to constantly contend with and argue yet isn't that what a lot of Christians do they try to do all these debates with atheists and it's like look I'm not saying that just doing a particular public forum discussion with an atheist one time is a sin or something like that but it's like when that's your life mission and you actually are trying to win over like if the crowd is just a bunch of atheists and people that are already saved what's the point then you know it's like I'm not gonna win over the atheist he's an idiot on purpose he's the fool on purpose and all I'm gonna do is draw more ire from those people those people are gonna hate me even more I'll just rebuke them from afar okay Matthew chapter 15 look at verse 12 this is our third group here and this is the fakes Matthew 15 look at verse 12 then came his disciples and said unto them knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying but he answered and said every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up let them alone they be like blind leaders of the blind and the blindly the blind bow shall fall in the ditch now if there's any a group to potentially attack it's the Pharisees but you have to think about what Jesus is actually saying okay is Jesus saying don't preach against Pharisees no he preaches against the Pharisees all the time that's like his most common target I mean if you basically just let the Bible fall open in the Gospels it's Jesus rebuking the Pharisee somehow but wait a minute is Jesus trolling the Pharisees is Jesus going around trying to find Pharisees and try to attack them and try to get in discussions with them or is it the other way around Pharisees are constantly following him around and trolling him but what is his attitude let them alone let them just go do there let them just destroy their part of the world let them go and be false religion because they're gonna fall in a ditch they're gonna destroy themselves but you know what let them alone now we've already looked at these categories we have frenemies we have fools and we have the fakes there's no one else to talk about this is every single person was there ever a time where the Bible says follow these of people around constantly harass them pay attention to them give them free publicity or does it just say let them alone it's a consistent theme isn't it go from the presence of a foolish man let them alone let them I mean these are the red letters of Jesus here folks go to Matthew 21 let me prove to you that Jesus was not trolling the Pharisees but they were trolling him Matthew 21 look at verse 23 and when he was coming to the temple the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching so what happens Jesus is just preaching and then all these people come unto him right chief priests now it gives a little bit more clear depiction of who's there look at verse 45 and when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables they perceived that he spake of them so notice the Pharisees are in this group of people that came unto Jesus to hear him preach not the other way around look at chapter 22 verse 15 then with the Pharisees and took counsel how they might entangle them in his talk notice their goal is just to try and find something they can use against him this is not again a very good method to me it makes more sense when you hear about things and things are obvious to preach against them but to not just go and try and find every dirty secret and every little thing that you can go and use against someone you know that's kind of the attitude of a Pharisee look at verse 23 the same day came to him the Sadducees which say that there's no resurrection notice the Sadducees come to him the chief priests come to him the Pharisees come unto him look what it says in verse 34 but when the Pharisees had heard that they had put the Sadducees of silence they were gathered together then one of them which was a lawyer asked him a question why is it that they're coming to Jesus not because they want to learn they're a fool the way the way that they believe is just right in their mind they're already right so they're just there just a trap attack try to do harm and you know I think sometimes people in our movement can have the same mentality where they think someone's bad and they're just like so so my goal is to just try and get find even worse dirt on them or something it's like just leave them alone and they'll even do this to people and I'm like this guy's probably saved or definitely saved why are you attacking this part leave them alone you know I don't even let you know you know how many Joel Osteen sermons full sermons I've listened to in my life zero you know how many full sermons of TD Jakes I've listened to my life zero Kenneth Copeland zero because I'm not interested in trolling these individuals now of course if some video goes viral of their preaching and some wicked false teaching I might go listen to that and listen to a little more context so that I can expose the stupidity of it you know what I'm not gonna do is just go on their webs let's just see everything the cook hope and preach this week yeah it's like that's like what the Pharisees are doing or hey this guy did something wrong let's go try and attack him and so it's like look don't you have enough to do that's positive can't you do something positive why don't you say like hey maybe I'll just go get someone saved or maybe I'll go out and read the Bible or maybe I'll go to church or maybe I'll actually you know look take my wife on a date maybe you should stop listening to preaching you don't like and take your wife on dates he's like why is my marriage not as good as it is because you're constantly trolling people you know what your wife is not interested in you trolling weirdos she likes it 0% you young single guys you see I'm trying to get a girl to date me or a wife stop trolling people online you will not attract anyone with this and if you do it might be a weirdo too okay because I really being honest I don't think women struggle this that much it's probably more of a man thing I doubt very many women in the world are constantly trolling weirdos videos okay and then that's probably not a good thing anyways what is what is the Bible saying they're coming unto him they're coming unto him look at Matthew 23 now verse 1 then Jesus spake to the multitude and to his disciples so who is the who is the message for in Matthew 23 is it for the Pharisees no it says Jesus spoke to the multitude and his life is he speaking for the Sadducees for the devil and no no no he's speaking for his people he's speaking to his people so again you also have to think about this when I'm correcting a bad person what is the goal of it is the goal just to try and attack that person or is it because I genuinely care about the people in my life my the multitude the people that just need to be aware of this information and you know what Jesus was doing it for their sake because if Jesus was surrounded with scribes and Pharisees you know what he wouldn't have done preached Matthew 23 say what do you mean he wouldn't preach Matthew 23 well because he is taken captive by all of them and you know what he says virtually nothing they ask him question after question after question he doesn't answer them and then they're just like you know art thou the the son of the blessed he's like I am that wasn't a really big speech just I am like you've heard the blasphemy or he says thou sayest it you know the least amount of red letters you have is what he's surrounded by a bunch of enemies okay when's the when does it just get like red red red red red when he's with his disciples and with his with his multitude and the people that he's preaching to so again Matthew 23 is not to just where can I find some Pharisees a rebuke I don't know he's preaching for the people's benefit now of course does he rebuke anybody you better believe it look at it says verse 2 saying the scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses so he starts out with them look at verse 13 but whoa undo scribes and Pharisees hypocrites look at verse 14 whoa undo scribes and Pharisees hypocrites verse 15 whoa undo scribes and Pharisees hypocrites verse 16 whoa undo you blind guides look at verse 23 whoa undo scribes and Pharisees hypocrites verse 25 whoa undo scribes and Pharisees hypocrites look at verse 26 thou blind Pharisee look at verse 27 whoa undo scribes and Pharisees hypocrites look at verse 29 whoa undo scribes and Pharisees hypocrite do you think Jesus named any names this is one sermon and he named the Pharisees like eight or nine times in a row just BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM and then he says in verse 33 he serpents you generation of vipers how can you escape the damnation of hell Jesus came to preach love and just peace not to the Pharisees I mean that's pretty clear I mean he wasn't very nice to those individuals was he so here's the thing I'm not saying hey Pastor Shelley's not gonna preach against people I'm not saying don't call people out I'm not saying don't hold people accountable for their wicked false doctrine what I am saying is let's not troll the enemy and whether that's a frenemy a fool or fake you know what there's not really a lot of benefit and just following them around harassing them making all kinds of means about them you know it let's just focus on who the real enemies are in this world and the right doctrine and of course you know the purpose of the sermon is really because a lot of people attacking frenemies are just people that are just probably bad friends you know what you probably can't attack a literal Pharisee or a reprobate enough for me to ever get mad at you okay so I'm just being I'm just being honest like if it was a sodomite I will never criticize you for anything negative you say about them ever okay you can't you can't criticize them harshly enough to ever offend me okay so don't worry about that but but look not everybody's that person now that's one really specific category people that are not that person I get highly offended when you're really mean to them even if they're my enemy because it just doesn't make sense and you know what there's there's godly Chris I mean some of these men that are being attacked some of our frenemies they didn't even they were a pastor before the new IP was even real was even a thing and they've been serving God with their wife and their children and trying to get people saved and trying to minister unto people for decades and then you just come along because you're more righteous than them and just attack them it just makes you look like an idiot and a fool and you have no grace you're not mature and let's be real a lot of people in our movement are not really that mature they haven't been saved that long you know this is a bad attitude we should look at other Baptist and other say people with this high of you and give them as much benefit of the doubt as possible and you know when they prove us wrong we'll call them out when they go to an extreme we'll deal with it you know what let's just leave them alone as much as two that weren't necessarily always the nicest person to me or whatever you know I'd rather stumble into a bad Christian