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

Hi, Cora! Hi! Oh! That actually makes sense. Uh, you can go too. It's like settings or something. It needs to be, uh, what is it? It's the two on two. All right, welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If we could please find our seat and grab our hymnals. Welcome and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If we could please find our hymnals. Turn to page 129, Rock of Ages. If we could please grab our hymnals. Turn to page 129, Rock of Ages. Page 129, Rock of Ages. Rock of ages clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy wounded side which flowed be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal no languor know? These for sin cannot atone. Thou must save in thou alone. In my hand no price I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling while I draw this fleeting breath. When my eyes shall close in death, when I rise to worlds unknown, and behold the on thy throne, Rock of ages clap for me. Let me hide myself in thee. Great job. Let's pray. Lord Father, we just thank you for this day. You have graciously given us, Lord. Thank you for all the salvation that we won today, Lord. We ask that you bless the rest of the service, Lord. Bless the rest of this week. Get us home safely, Lord. We love you. We thank you. We pray. Amen. All right, if you would, please turn your hymnals to page 316. That's page 316. I have decided to follow Jesus. Page 316. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided to follow Jesus. No turning back. No turning back. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. Though none go with me, still I will follow. No turning back. No turning back. The world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me. The world behind me, the cross before me. No turning back. No turning back. Good job. Good evening. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. Sorry I don't have a bulletin for you physically. Just as a reminder, our church-wide so many times are going to be meeting where we're at. And the ladies' time that was originally Tuesdays at 10.30 is now going to be Thursdays at 10.30. It is a regional time, so if you'd like to go, you just get the contact information with my wife. And she can help you with that. Also on our bulletin, we had the stats for this year. We had 1,765 salvations for the year, as well as 35 baptisms. Now, we did conclude our baptism competition. And, you know, it's sad results. I don't have the prize with me, so I'm going to wait until next week to reward the team. But it was a double win. And, you know, I don't know if they cheated. No, I'm just kidding. But, unfortunately, you know, I can only carry Dylan so far. And so, you know, our team didn't do that great. But we are, we'll probably do something again in the future as far as a tribe competition. I appreciate everybody that did participate in the baptisms. And we had a lot of baptisms while we were even in temporary locations. And so, thank you to everyone who participated in that. I will be definitely rewarding those. And as a reminder, again, that was an entire tribe, it was an entire tribe prize. So, even if you did nothing, you were absolutely the worst person in our church in that regard, you still get rewarded if you're on the right tribe. So, you know, that's just how it works sometimes. And we had our list of expecting ladies continue to pray for them. We have our prayer list. Pray for the Negreras, for Ms. Lucy's mother, for Cameron Hall, for Brother Pendleton, for Brother Goodwin. Brother-in-law David, we're praying for his salvation and cancer treatment. We're praying for the Garcia's son-in-law and his family. Her daughter, that they would be stationed close by. Also praying for Brother Suhel as he's traveling. And we're praying for Brother Alex for a job. We've been praying for the Wallocks for their health and their friend Juan for cancer treatment. And then praying for the Zermino family due to the passing of their grandmother. That's really all I have as far as announcements for this evening. Make sure to pay attention to just email communications and everything like that. Also, please continue to submit all of your soul winning information to your soul winning tribe captains. That way they have your information. And if you send that to them, make sure to send who you, like if you went soul winning with someone, say me and so and so had this much at this time or whatever. So that way they can accurately get all of the data recorded for you. And that just helps us with motivation and just tracking kind of our progress so we can continue to stay. We can stay informed about good areas to go, what we're doing as a group and everything like that. Obviously the numbers, we don't really know. But, you know, God knows and it helps us to have an idea of what kind of work goes into getting that many people saved. You know, we have dozens and dozens of people going soul winning all year. And that's what it takes to get, you know, thousands of, you know, salvations or two thousand salvations. It was not one person's effort. It was the whole church. And, you know, that's a lot of people's lives that were impacted by our church. And I believe, you know, sometimes we may not see the fruit of our soul winning from year one of when you do it, but it may be several years down the road. So you never know what kind of blessings God's going to bring us from all the things we've been doing. And, you know, you just keep getting thousands and thousands of people saved just every single year. You know, eventually we're going to see a lot of that fruit and we're going to see a lot of the blessings from that. But of course, where are the nine? You know, they're down at the Catholic Church or whatever. No, I'm just kidding. They're down doing whatever they want. So keep up the great work on the soul winning. And again, if you have any questions or concerns, you can always contact me. One thing to note, we are going to be trying to release our film January 30th in theaters. I am curious about that. Who's planning on it on Monday night, January 30th? Who's like, I'm going to come watch this thing? OK. Might have to get a big theater. All right. Just making sure. All right. I just wanted to have some kind of idea how many people we might have to pay for. So we might we might pack it out. I don't know. We might even have to do two showings. I don't know. We'll have to kind of figure out how how many people they can accommodate. Usually when you have free food and movies, people show up. So church evening, church that evening. It's like whatever. What's our third song? One twenty seven. All right. Come on down. We're going to sing our third song. All right. Twenty seven. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to take him at his word. Just to rest upon his promise. Just to know thus saith the Lord. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust him born. Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to trust his cleansing blood. Just in simple faith to plunge me. Need the healing cleansing flood. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust him born. Yes, tis sweet to trust in Jesus. Just from sin and self to cease. Just from Jesus simply taking life and rest. Oh, yeah. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust him born. I'm so glad I learned to trust the precious Jesus, Savior friend. And I know that thou art with me, will be with me to the end. Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him, how I proved him o'er and o'er. Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus. Oh, for grace to trust him born. Great job offering praise while being passed around. Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 9. That's 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Jesus, how I trust him born. 1 Corinthians chapter 9, the Bible reads, Am I not an apostle? Am I not free? Have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord? Are not ye my work in the Lord? If I be not an apostle unto others, yet doubtless I am to you. For the seal of my apostleship are ye in the Lord. My answer to them that do examine me is this. Have we not power to eat and to drink? Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles? And as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas? Or I only in Barnabas have not the power to bear working? Who goeth to warfare any time at his own charges? Who planted the vineyard and eateth not of the fruit thereof? Or who feedeth the flock and eateth not of the milk of the flock? Say I these things as a man? Or saith the same also? For it is written in the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? Or saith he it altogether? For our sakes, no doubt this is written, that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things? If others be partaker of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power, but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ. Do you not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple, and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? Even so had the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. But I have used none of these things, neither have I written these things, that is done unto me, for were to die, then that any man should make my glory void. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory up, for necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me, what is my reward then? Verily that when I preach the gospel, I may make the price without charge, that I abuse not my power in the gospel. For though I be free of all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law is under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. To them that are without the law is without the law, being not without law. But unto the law to Christ, that I may gain them that are without the law. To the weak became I as weak, that I may gain the weak. I have made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. I do, for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you, knowing not that they which run in a race run off, but one receiveth the prize, so run, that you may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertain, so I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body, and bring it unto subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. Let us pray. Father, thank you for this great church. Thank you for the great works of 2022. Let us look to 2023 and even do greater works, Lord. I pray that you will just bless Pastor and his family, and please allow the Holy Spirit to be upon you today, helping to preach with power and authority, help us to be attentive, help us to become better Christians this year, and work on weaknesses, like Pastor preached about this morning, and help us to be doers of the word, not hearers only. I pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Let's look back at verse number 24, the Bible reads, Know ye not that they which run in race run all, but one receiveth the prize, so run that ye may obtain, and every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one that beateth the air, but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. And so the Apostle Paul is giving us an earthly example of a spiritual truth that in a human race everybody's running, but only one person wins. Only one person is going to win that race. And what you have to understand about God is He is going to reward us according to the works that we do, but He's not going to necessarily just measure us based on everybody else. And you know, I think of a race, obviously if there's a single race, it's kind of this concept that you see in colleges and some high school places where the professor grades on a curve. Who's ever been in a class where they graded on a curve? Okay, so a lot of people have done this. Grading on a curve is a phrase where essentially instead of the professor actually grading your score on a numerical metric, he basically grades you based on everybody else. So to give an example, if he gave a test, and on the test there's a hundred questions, and you get seventy of them correct, we would think of that as being okay, seventy percent. However, professors that grade on a curve, if the highest score is seventy, then he turns that seventy into a hundred. And he gives that person an A plus just because they had the highest score. So you can think in a singular race where okay, well I'm faster than these guys, and even though you all are slow and non-athletic, you could like potentially win just because you're just faster than those guys. And I think in the world that we live in today, there's a lot of Christians, there's a lot of churches and everything, that are kind of looking at themselves as they're running in a race with just the few people that they notice around them. And they think that God's grading on a curve, so even though they're slow and out of shape and just have a horrible race time, they think God is pleased with them because their viewpoint is that God's grading on a curve. But I'm going to show you in the Bible that God does not grade on a curve. And when we look at this race, it's not just you and a few people, it's every single person that's ever run. Now if you think about that, what is Jesus Christ in the race? That is the apostle Paul in the race, that is Peter in the race, that is David in the race. And so when we quote unquote compare ourselves, instead of looking at the losers around us often as we do, we should look to the great men of the Bible and we should look to the Lord Jesus Christ himself as our standard rather than constantly grading everything on a curve. Now I'm going to go to a lot of places in the Bible this evening, but go if you want to do Ezekiel 22. I want to prove to you that God's not grading on a curve, okay? Ezekiel 22, verse 29. And of course, you know, there's only one person that's going to ultimately receive the ultimate prize. And so, you know, when we're living our lives, we have to realize we are all competing in a sense. And, you know, there's a lot of motivations to serve God, but one of them should simply be just even the reward. You know, there's nothing wrong with looking at the world, because you will have to live with the consequences of your life for all of eternity. What you're doing right now is going to determine your entire eternity. So if you don't, if you're not motivated by reward, you're really just being foolish, because exactly, you're going to spend eternity exactly based on how you live this life and the decisions that you made and how you're running that particular race. So you want to do the best that you possibly can, because you're going to have to experience that forever. This is your one time to lay up a savings account, spiritually speaking. This is your one time to be rewarded for work. You know, there's coming a day when you can no longer do the work. You can no longer do the sacrifice. You can no longer give of your time, effort and energy and money, just like a child that grows up. You know, once a child turns 18, 19, 20, 21, whatever your number is, and they move out, you can't start parenting at that point. You can't say, you know what, you're not that great. Let me parent you now. It's like there's going to come, you know what, it's over. And so you need to parent your children now and you need to serve God now. This is the time to serve God. There's never been a greater time than right now to serve God. There's never been a more important time than right now to serve God. And you have to realize that God is not measuring you based on the other people in this room. God is not measuring you based on all the other independent Baptists in this area. God is not measuring you based on all the Christians in Texas. You want to know what God is measuring you? This book. This is how God is measuring you. And if we all are just so pathetic and lame and unwilling to be holy for God, He can choose to use none of us. Let me prove this. Ezekiel 22, look at verse 29. The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy. Yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found none. You know, God didn't say, well, just give me the best that you got. Give me the guy that's just the fastest or give me the guy that's the most holy. He said, I was looking for someone that met my standard and no one met it. And you know, God has certain standards matter where you dip below. It doesn't count. It doesn't count. He's not going to use that person. He has to destroy the, you know, God ended up destroying the children of Israel. We're reading about it in Hosea a lot, but he totally got rid of the children of Israel and the only thing left over was Judah. And they even only got to stick around because of God's mercy. He was using them as just a remnant for Christ to come, but it wasn't, they were just so much more righteous. And ultimately, you know, when we look at our church and we look at ourselves, we need to not measure ourselves based on how everybody else is doing, but rather on how God wants us to perform. Go over to Revelation chapter two, let me prove this even further. Revelation chapter two, but that, that's just a clear example of how if, if there's not someone good enough for God to use, he won't use anyone. It's not like, well, I'll just use the best. He has standards that he's not willing to dip below. You know, there's this philosophy out there and, and I, I think that there's merit to it and it makes sense to me, but there's this idea that, you know what, I'm always going to vote for the lesser of two evils, you know, in a, in a political sphere. But I personally believe that there can come a point where both candidates fall too far below the threshold of being able to vote for where I'm not even going to vote for the lesser of two evils because it's just not, you know, I have to have some level of standard. I can't just always say, you know what, well, I know the Republicans are worse than the Democrats 10 years ago, but I'm just still going to be a Republican because the Democrats are worse. You know, that's not acceptable. You know, we can't just say, you know what, there's Baptist churches all around here and I know that they're worse than they used to be, but let's just join them. That's why do we need to have steadfast Baptist church? You know, why do we need to have another independent, vulnerable Baptist church? You know what? Because we're not comparing ourselves to them. We're comparing ourselves to this and we're saying, I want to go to a church that's like this, not just the got, not just whatever's available. No, no, no. We're going to reinvent things. You know, if my only option is McDonald's, I don't have to just settle for that. I make my own burger. You know, if, if, if brisket was not Texas style everywhere else, you don't have to accept that. You make Texas style brisket at home, right? Brother Ryan. You don't have to settle for garbage. You don't have to settle for some low standard. You know, we need to ask Christians, set a high standard and set a high bar and look to the scripture to know what kind of standards we're supposed to have. Not to look around and say, well, I'm doing better than everybody else. Well, I, I, I feel like I'm doing okay when I compare it. That's a stupid comparison. That's a foolish comparison. We need to look at the scripture. Look at revelation chapter two, verse five. Remember, therefore from whence thou art fallen or repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of his place, thou repent. Now this is the church of Ephesus. Let me ask you this question. Do you think that there was another better church in Ephesus at this time? No, this is the one, this is the one they got. They got one church that God views as a church in Ephesus. But even if that one church does meet God's standard, what is his viewpoint towards it? He says, I'll still take the candlestick away from you. Meaning that God's not like, well, I know this is just the best church I got in this area. But you know what, if the candlestick has been removed, it's not even a church to God. There are so many people that go to church in America today that have the candlestick removed, but they say, well, it's the best one I got. But here's the thing, God doesn't grade on a curve and God doesn't look at you and say, you know what? I know you're going to this non-church, but it's the best that you have, so you might as well. No, no, no. You're just not going to church. You're just not right with God. You need to find a real church. Now, of course, it doesn't have to be the best church on the planet. You know, if you go to a church that's using the King James Bible, that's soul winning, it's got the right gospel at least. I mean, that's my deal breakers. If they don't have the right Bible and the right gospel, I don't even believe it's a church. And if they're against soul winning or anti-soul winning or something, then I wouldn't go there either. I mean, but at least if they got the right gospel, they got the right Bible and they're willing to encourage soul winning or they'll help you with soul winning, then that's fine. I think that you're still going to church, but you know what, we have to have some standard. We can't just say, well, I know that this church isn't soul winning. And I know that they're kind of mixed up on the gospel. And I know they're using the NIV every once in a while, but it's the best that I got. No, you need to do better. You need to find something else. Look at chapter three, verse one, and unto the angel, the church and Sardis write, these things sayeth he that at the seven spirits of God and the seven stars, I know thy works that thou has a name that thou livest and art dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou has received and heard and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thus a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments and they shall walk with me in white for they are worthy. So here's another church. And when I look at Sardis, it almost seems like they're a little bit further degraded than Ephesus. Like Ephesus is on the cusp of getting their candlestick removed. Sardis is like, they already kind of got it removed, but they just still had some people just kind of still trying to serve God in that area, maybe going to that church. And God's just trying to revive it saying like, look, if you guys at least repent, you guys could come out of this. But otherwise, you know, God's going to destroy that church in that area, too. Because it's not like, well, God just is going to have at least a church in every area. Nope. If the people are not willing to serve God, God will just take that church out of that area. And that whole area won't even have one. Look, there are parts of this world that do not have a good church at all. They're everywhere. And sometimes people think like, oh, well, I want, you know, the faithful word Baptist church in my area. You will never have it. There is one faithful word Baptist church and it's in Phoenix, Arizona. And if you want to go there, you have to go there. And a lot of times there's going to be areas that the entire generation, our generation, never going to have a good church in that area. And instead of grading church on a curve, why don't you grade church Bible and say, you know what, I'm going to have certain levels of standards. And if it doesn't meet that standard, I will not go there. But you know, people that were going to a good church and then they just started going to a church that literally teaches repent of your sins. I'm not saying like, kind of, I'm saying like, they preach repent of your sins. They don't do soul winning. They do street evangelism. There are people that come to our church and then they'll go to an NIV church. And it's like, you don't have any standards. You're grading this church on a curve. Well, but they have pretty music. Well, it's better than all the other churches in that area. Well, it's close to my house. You know what, that's garbage. Because you know what, God doesn't grade on a curve and he doesn't look at the building and say, well, I know that it's meeting my standard, but it's just the best that you got. Go for it. No, no, no, it's unacceptable. It's unacceptable and God's not going to use them and God's not going to use you if you're going to go to below his standard. Go over to 1 Timothy chapter number three, 1 Timothy chapter number three. This is a consistent theme in the scripture that God is not grading on a curve. He has a set standard and he does not want anybody to ever drop below it. It's his desire that everybody would meet his standards. And so we have to look to God's standards. Now, obviously God is gracious, so you have to understand this. Am I saying that a church that's not even really in God's eyes a church, that no one in that building could ever get anybody saved? No, I think that they can. And I think that it happens. I think that every once in a while, you're like NIV, fun preaching church or whatever. Every once in a while, someone gets saved despite all of their problems. You know what? That's because God is gracious and he's still trying to let some work go through, but God is going to use those greatest who are following the commandments correctly and who are meeting all the proper standards. God even used Ahab at one point in the Bible and Ahab is super screwed up. He's letting his wife run the family and Ahab is a terrible leader, but God used him for one moment. And you know what? I still believe, look, some of these churches will accidentally preach the truth every once in a while and they'll actually read a Bible verse that makes sense and sometimes the Holy Spirit can still work with what he's got. So it's not like when you go to these other churches, they can't, it's just a complete zero, but effectively it is, you know, they're not really getting things done. Also, you know, first Timothy chapter three is going to give you the qualifications of a pastor or the qualifications of a Bishop. Now there is a lot of pastors in America that do not meet this list right now. And you would also say, well, what does that mean? Does that mean they could never get someone saved or never read a Bible verse or never interpret correctly or never say something right? Of course they can, but God's not going to greatly bless the guy that's not even meeting these standards. And you know how I know that's true? You know how I know that's true? Show me the guy that doesn't meet this list that we look up to and thinks, great. Because, because it's not like it couldn't exist. I mean, you got people like Greg Locke out there, divorced his wife, married the secretary, and is now pastoring some kind of crazy, weird psycho church where they go to like gay bar events or trans events and they have church service right outside of it. I'm not joking. But you know, I'm not that interested in having church service like that and going and looking and they're trying to street preach at these people that are taking their children. I mean, there are people that have taken their child to a doctor to have them surgically altered for life, destroying them physically. And then they're like, let's go have church out there and try to preach John 3.16 to them. It's like, you're such an idiot. When you could go to the neighborhood and actually preach the gospel to someone that wants to hear. You're going to try and take these pedophiles, these predators, and you're going to try and preach to them to try and what virtue signal about how great you are and how manly you are. But you know what? God's not using Greg Locke in a great way. Why? Because he doesn't meet God's standard. Look at verse one. This is a true saying. If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desire the good work. A bishop then, notice this, must be blameless. Then he say, well, just give me the best you got. Just give me what, you know, well, I know that the whole world's kind of screwed up. The world's kind of wicked, every center, just, you know, if it wasn't for God's grace, no one could be a pastor. You know, this is the logic that comes from losers like Josh Gander, who literally taught that no one could meet the qualifications of a pastor. Well, then what's the point of this chapter? It's like, here's the qualifications, but you know what? No one can meet them, so we don't even need them. And it's like, I wonder why he came up with that doctrine. Oh, yeah, because he didn't meet the qualifications. Isn't it always, you know, it's never a guy that meets the qualifications that's like, you know what, I don't think the qualifications matter. It's always the guy that conveniently doesn't that, what, wants to be a pastor, isn't it? And show me that guy doing a great work for God. You know, we need to have some kind of, and look, God doesn't have light standards. Look at this. I mean, blameless, the husband and wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which were without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Let me make something clear. You know, this church is not going to ordain people to have this position just because they're better than everybody else in the church. They have to at least meet God's standard. And then they have to meet what I perceive as the right kind of standard. And you know what, there's going to be tons of people that maybe they're the best person in church or they're doing good, but you know what, they're not meeting God's standard. And you know what, I'm not going to go against what God said and say, well, it's the best that we got. We better give somebody a Sardis Baptist church. You know, we have enough Sardis Baptist churches out there. We have enough Ephesus that are about to lose their candlestick. We don't need another one. And when someone is not even willing to get to that kind of a standard, why would I ever want to ordain that person? You know, and I'll say this, I will never ordain somebody if it doesn't fit the sheet. Like I don't have to ordain anybody. No one is going to say, Pastor Shelley, you must ordain people. You know what, if no one ever wants to meet the standard, then I'd never want to ordain anyone. People have to meet the standards of God's word. For me to get, you know, God's not grading on a curve for pastors, folks. And the last thing we need is more garbage pastors. The last thing we need is more pastors to quit, to give up. I mean, as a pastor, you have to be the tip of the spear for other people. And there's so many, I mean, humanity as a whole is just going straight down in the toilet. And we need men that are willing to pick people up and carry them with them, you know, into a better way of living. And look, people are putting beans and chili, folks, I mean, it's getting bad out there. Even in Texas, I mean, you'll see it, you can go to the restaurants around here and they'll do that. Brahms. I heard, does this. This is why. Okay, folks. There's probably other bad rep there too. Okay. And we don't want to just let communism and Marxism and all this kind of stuff enter in to our country. We don't want liberalism to enter into our churches and we don't want our church standard of our quality to dip just because we're grading on a curve. You know, when you start grading on a curve, you know what happens? The quality of education dips. That's why you have a standard. And that's why you don't deviate from the standard. You know, if you would to Luke chapter seven, go to Luke chapter number seven, you know, as a church, we need to set the bar high. And of course, Jesus Christ did the same. You know, when Jesus Christ even came and he was preaching, you have the great sermons on the that he preached. He didn't lower the standard of God's word. He increased it. He said, Hey, of course you're not supposed to kill, but you know what? You're also not supposed to even hate your brother in your heart. Yeah. You're not supposed to commit adultery. You're not even supposed to look at another woman the wrong way. You know, Christ is constantly telling, Hey, he's not trying to lower the bar. He's trying to bar and say, look, I'm not just following the letter of the law. I'm following the spirit of the law because I have standards in my life. Luke chapter seven, look at verse 28. For I say unto you, among those that are born of women, there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. Does that sound like someone that doesn't care about standards or anything? I mean, God is literally ranking every single person. How could, Hey, here's the guy that's the greatest. You know how God knows that because he's ranking every single one of us, every single one of us has a number assigned. And I don't know what that number is, but I know that I'm not the greatest for sure. Go to Matthew chapter 11, go to Matthew chapter 11, Matthew chapter 11, look at verse 11. Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women, not risen a greater than John the Baptist, not withstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. Again, John the Baptist is considered the greatest. You know, why are we Baptist? Well, John the Baptist is the greatest, right? Number one, it's better than the Methodist. He's better than the Episcopalian and the Pentecostal. And you know, John didn't even do any miracles. You know, these, these signs and wonders people, they're not even as good as John the Baptist, which did no miracle. Isn't it cool that John, I mean, think about what John the Baptist did. He went out in the wilderness and he preached and he baptized people. That's it. And he's the greatest. You don't have to do some magical thing. I mean, he did no miracle. All just preach the Bible because you know what? That's really what God just wants. God just wants people to preach the Bible and to do it. That's what he, you know, this is the whole duty of man, fear God and keep his commandments. I mean, you know, some people think like, well, I can't do some great miracle or I can't go out and reach the whole world. You know, John the Baptist didn't even reach anybody. He just went to the wilderness by himself and let them come to him. But you know what he did do? He preached everything the Bible said. He never held back. He looked at the Pharisees and he called them out for the wicked people that they were. I mean, that's what John the Baptist is like. He's someone that preaches the Bible and preaches the word and he's considered the greatest. And we should look to John the Baptist standard, not the Baptist street down on the corner. Not the Southern Baptist convention. Because you know what? They're the most compromising organization out there. They got freaks like JD Greer, which JD, I've already preached against this guy a lot, but I need to preach against him again. All right. You ready? Buckle up. JD Greer was the president of the Southern Baptist convention. He preached at one of their big conventions or some big convention they was invited to speak at. He said that we need to be the friends of the LGBTQ community. And he talked about inviting them into your home. What kind of a pervert freak is he? But recently he had a new podcast where he's talking about trannies and these disgusting freaks, men dressing up like women and then demanding that you call them a her. So they said, Hey, JD Greer, what do you think about calling trannies by their preferred pronouns? You know what he said? He said, I kind of err on the side of grace. So I think we should just give them the respect and use their preferred pronouns. This is a Baptist? I mean, talk about taking Baptist into the mud. I mean, this guy is so far from John the Baptist, a guy that's going to literally look at a dude in a dress and call it a she. I mean, that just makes me think that he's a faggot. I mean, JD Greer, the president of the Southern Baptist convention, the former president is literally saying that Christians should call transvestites by their preferred pronouns. I'll tell it to go to hell. That's what I'll tell it. That's the pronoun I'll use for it. It's an, it's not even a she or, you know, according to John Christus dome, it's not a woman because that'd be degrading to women. It's not a dog because that'd be degrading to dog. It's worse than all beasts. It's just so degraded. He'd rather go to hell than ever be a fag for one second. And then we have Baptist doing, why? Because they grade on occur folks. And they're not looking at the standard of God's word. Show me the verse that says call transvestites by the preferred pronouns. You know, it's so funny to me. People those, I think that homosexuality is a sin, but I don't really agree with what you're saying. And I'm like, okay, well show me that verse. Show me the verse that says it's a sin. Is it the same verse I'm quoting? Is it Leviticus 20, 13? Is that where you get that doctrine from? Cause it is. So isn't it so convenient, they'll always tell you it's a sin, but they'll never give you a verse. They never want to show you a verse. Show me a verse in the King James Bible that says homosexuality is a sin. They don't want to show you that verse. That's not the standard that we should have. You know, my standard is not quoting Gandhi. I mean, how many Baptists they get up and they say, you know, the Bible says that we're to love the sinner and hate the sin. What kind of standard is that when you're quoting a non-Christian as your source of doctrine? Where in the Bible does it say that? It never says that anywhere. And that's what's happened. We live in a society where people let people like J.D. Greer become their pastor. Why? They didn't have no standard. They were just grading on a curve. Well, J.D. Greer is better than the next guy down the street. It's garbage folks. We should stop saying, well, you know what? I know it's just, it's GMO and I know it's got green stuff growing on it and I know it's overpriced, but I'm just going to buy it anyways. No, no. You should have standards and say, I'm not going to eat Indian food, okay? You got to have a standard somewhere. You got to have a line in the sand somewhere and, you know, when it comes to the Christian walk, you got to have some standards for your pastor, for your church, for yourself. Go to 1 Corinthians 5. Let me prove this. You know, I could go to other passages. Jesus Christ said that he was greater than Jonas. Jesus Christ also told us in Matthew 5 that there's going to be some which are called the least in the kingdom of heaven and some which are called the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. So don't fool yourself. You are either going to be one of the least or one of the greatest people in heaven and it's based on now. It's not on a curve. It's based on God's standard. It's not like, well, you know what? I did better than everybody in this area. I did better than all the Christians in Watauga. Well, you could still be like the worst Christian ever. You know, I mean, we have such a foolish idea of what the real standards are. You know, when I read about the translators of the King James Bible, these men were so smart and the average person, it seems like in those days, was so much smarter than us. It's embarrassing, folks. I mean, these people are speaking five, seven languages fluently. Not just like they could read it, like fluently. I mean, one of the translators, Lancelot Andrews, had 21 languages at his disposal. I mean, who in here can speak four or more languages? No one. This guy can speak 21. And then, you know, it's funny, people will be like, oh, he got that translation wrong. It's like, dude, you don't even know what Greek is. Most of the translators on these modern Bibles, they could not even tell you hello in Greek because they speak an Araspian pronunciation. They don't even, they have a made up pronunciation for Greek and they don't even speak it. And it's not even a conversational Greek. It's one where they just look up in a lexicon what the Greek word does. And really what they're reading is English. They're looking at a foreign word in Greek and reading the English definition and then lying to you and saying that they speak Greek. They don't even know what Greek is. You know, it's just, and then they want to tell us that the translators of the King James Bible that spoke Greek fluently that they translated it wrong. Well, what you have to say, and you know what's so funny about the same group of people is every time they interpret anything in the Bible, they say, well, in order to interpret this correctly, you have to go back to that era and understand the context of that time. It's like, yeah, but they don't do that with translation work, do they? Isn't that convenient that you always have to translate the Bible in that time, but you know, the actual translation work going back in time is we're smarter now. We have so much more knowledge now, yet we don't. We as a society are very foolish. The average person back in the day was so much smarter. You know, when you look at movies like Apollo 13, who's watched Apollo 13? I've seen it. All right. It's a good movie. If you notice what they had to do, they had to calculate like extreme calculus in their head with pencil and paper on the fly. All the people are waiting for NASA. None of us, I don't know, I speak for myself. I doubt almost any of us could even do any calculus calculations on the fly like that. Most college students going to school right now, you get an advanced calculator to even do calculus work. You know, you look at SAT scores dropping. You look at linguistic skills dropping, vocabulary accounts dropping. I mean, it's funny to me, I was talking with Brother Jorge, and, you know, he really passes well for a native English speaker, being, you know, a second language to him, in my opinion. You know, he speaks English very well, very understandable. And I said, you speak English better than a lot of people that that's their first language. In fact, I joked with him. I said, I bet when you go to some of these black neighborhoods, you don't even know what they're saying. Who that boy? You know, what are you saying? He's like, he wouldn't even know because they don't even speak English, because they haven't even learned it. And look, there are communities in this world. It's not just black people, folks, okay? Go to the trailer park with their spam, and you'll find plenty of white people that don't speak English. Okay, go to Florida, and you'll find a bunch of people, they don't, they can't even read half the words on the page. They're so retarded. You know, if it really, if there was a superior culture, it's probably the Asian culture. They're the ones that usually can read and write and do arithmetic. But there's a glut of white people, black people, Hispanic people. They can't even read. They can't even write. They don't even know anything. And it's like, what kind of standards are we having for our society? And you know, because we're in such a denigrated society, everybody just takes this into the application of Christianity. You know what? Our Christianity should not be this dumbed-down, Ebonics-style Christianity, where we can't even speak the language, where we look at the King James Bible and say, well, I don't even understand how the word's on the page, but I just believe my faith, eh, man? It's like, no, we're going to learn every single word. We're going to learn concupiscence, hey, we're going to have a spelling bee where the kids can spell every single word, and I have to, like, make up words or something. I don't even know, I don't even know how to get them out. I'm nervous about next year, okay? Challenge accepted, all right? But that's the kind of standard. We shouldn't dumb down, well, we need to get the message for our children. No, no, no. How about we get our children to be able to spell every single word in this book? How many adults couldn't even spell half the words in this book? And you know, instead of dumbing down our society and our Christianity, we need to keep raising the bar and stop trying to grade things on a curve, stop comparing ourselves among ourselves, and rather decide, you know, what are God's standards here? God's standards are to get wisdom. With all thy getting, get understanding. You know, the Bible says to be holy. I mean, these are some tough standards. And when it comes to church discipline, is God grading on a curve? Look what he says in verse number 10, or verse 9. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters, for then must he needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such that he would know not to eat. That is God's standard, yet there are so many Christians, there are so many churches that don't care about this standard. They will not throw somebody out for being a fornicator. They will not throw someone out for being a drunkard. And you know, because our society, because American culture drinks alcohol so much, people have just taken the definition of drunkard to such an extreme where it never applies anymore. Yet, if you go to a Muslim country, they know what is up. Hey, when they had the World Cup and guitar, it's like they're giving rules and people are like freaking out. It's like, hey, no fags and boos and whores. And everybody's like, what are you talking about? They're basically just saying no to America. And you know, you talk to Muslims and you say, what's a drunkard? They're not going to say, oh, well, it's the guy that drinks, you know, 50 beers in one night. It's the guy that drinks a couple. And my standard for drunkenness is not the world standard for drunkenness, because the world standard for drunkenness, people will have 10, 11 beers and they can't even stand up straight and they'll say, I'm not drunk. You'll argue with someone, hey, I'm not a drunkard. I only drink Monday through Saturday. What? And you're not a drunkard? What could you do six days a week and someone could not play golf Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, but I'm not a golfer. I lie on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, but I'm not a liar. Anything that you did that often, you would be labeled that individual. And, you know, I've preached whole sermons on this and it's not a whole sermon on drunkenness, but it's like, look, people that are drinking liquor are a drunkard. People that are going to bars are drunkards. Think about you're going to an institution that looks like trash, smells like piss, and the only goal is to go there and pay overpriced amounts of money to get intoxicated. And then you're going to argue with me whether or not you're a drunkard. What's the point of going to a bar to get drunk? That is the only purpose. People that are mixing drugs and alcohol, the only reason is to the toxins, the toxicity level, the intoxication effects of alcohol. You're a drunkard. You know, you drink every day. I don't even care if it's a thimbleful of beer, you're a drunkard. You know, in my standard, I'm not saying, hey, you know what, I like this person, even though they drink a lot, so I'm just going to not care what the Bible says. No, no, I'm going to say, you know what? I have to treat this person as I would a heathen. And look, how would you treat a heathen? Well, this is how I look at it. How would I treat my unsaved coworker? You know, you know what my unsaved coworkers don't do, which, you know, Dylan, I think he's safe, so I don't really have that. But I've worked in the secular world and I still do. I have unsaved coworkers. You know, my unsaved coworker didn't come over for Christmas. My unsaved coworker, I didn't see them on Thanksgiving. My unsaved coworker, I'm not hanging out with them on a regular basis. Yeah, every once in a while we see each other, we might go to lunch, you know, it's not like you can't, you can't avoid that person, right? But you know, when I have a family member in my life that fits this bill, you better, you better know for a fact, it's going to be different. If they claim to be a Christian and they're a drunkard or a fornicator, I'm not going to hang out with that person. I'm occasionally run into them and try to talk to them and try to help them get over this issue, but you know what? I am going to have clear separation from that person and I'm going to distance myself from that person and I'm not going to company with them. The Bible even takes it to an extremity of no not to eat. Yet so many people are grading on a curve. Well, I know people that get more drunk than they do, but are they a drunkard? Because the question wasn't, are they the most drunkard? The question is, are they a drunkard? Well, I know someone that commits fornication than they do. OK, yeah, but do they commit fornication? Because the Bible is saying not to have company with them, period. And you know what, for our church, we need to have the standard and not let it slip. And you say, well, how are you going to grow a church like that? I don't care. We already got more people in here that we can fit, usually. I don't need a drunkard in here. I don't need a fornicator in here. I don't need to covet this person in here because they're in fact, everybody else with their covetousness, they're going to infect everybody else with their extortion. They're going to infect everybody else with their idolatry. The Bible says, hey, get this person out of church and not just church at a fellowship. You know, it's not like some people will be like, well, I didn't see them at church, but is it cool if they come over for the barbecue? No, it's not cool. No, you're not right with God. No, God's not grading on a curve here and saying, well, this guy is not the worst fornicator or drunkard or covetous. It's like, do they meet the standard or not? And you know what? You need to decide for yourself. I have the standard and I'm not going to be a specter of persons. And no matter who crosses that threshold, I'm going to cut them out of my life. And if my church has to go down to nobody, then so be it. But you know what? I'm not going to pastor a church of drunkards. I'm not going to pastor a church of fornicators. Because my children are too important to me, and I don't want your terrible influence influencing them. And I don't care how much the world tries to make alcohol cool. It's stupid. Alcohol is wicked. Alcohol destroys lies and it destroys our culture and it destroys everything. And it smells like trash or I hate it. I hate alcohol. It causes so much adultery and infidelity. It causes abuse. It makes men just become stupid losers and effeminate. Hey, let me tell you something. Beer makes you effeminate. The hops in it will feminize you on purpose. It'll also make you not bold anymore. It'll make you cower and weak and just effeminate. I mean, why would any guy want that? You should just cut that out of your life and have nothing to do. The people who drink alcohol on a regular basis are losers. Oh, that's mean. You know what's mean is not tell them that they're a loser. You know, it's mean to grade on a curve. Think about this. You go to a class and everybody fails the test. And then the passages are not the teacher says, oh, but you had the highest score, so you're just an A star student. You're an A plus student when they're a little funky, when they literally didn't even get the material. That's foolishness. This is not what if they start doing that with driver's tests? It's like, well, you only hit four cars, but you were the best student because more than four cars. It's like that's a standard. I mean, what if they did that with surgeons, heart surgeons? Well, only half of your patients died from heart surgery. But you know what? The other guys killed way more. So you're our number one surgeon. You know, shouldn't you have certain levels of standards, certain areas where you're just not willing to compromise? Go to First Corinthians three. It's the last place I'm going to return this evening. We could apply this to every area of life, but I'm telling you to get some standards for your life. You need to get some standards for your household. You know, one area. That I would say I'm concerned with. Is just homeschooling. And you know why homeschooling to me? Because the public education system is so poor that if you're comparing yourself to those people, you're really just doing yourself a disservice because those kids are idiots. They're standard, poor standards. When Daniel was compared to the children in his time, the Bible says he was 10 times. 10 times better. And I personally believe that if you do homeschooling right, your children should be 10 times better than the than the public school kids. Not just. Well, they're they're a little bit better. They should be 10 times better if you're doing it right. You know, I fear that a lot of people. Well, you know, I go to a good church and we go soul winning. Therefore, my kids are just going to be smart. Wrong. You have to put a lot of effort, a lot of energy, a lot of attention into your children. Now, of course, you're going to reap a great reward out of this. You don't just let your kids just teach themselves. It's called unschooling. And a lot of people do this. Like the homeschooling. But you know what? As a woman, you should be very busy in educating your children. And, you know, sometimes it seems intimidating. It should seem intimidating because it's your child's future. So you should put as much effort and energy into it as you can possibly put into it. I mean, it's such an important job. It's more important than most of the men. Here's jobs. I mean, we're basically building the Antichrist system. I mean, especially all these guys that are developers and stuff. You know, when I worked for in the medical industry, I was helping, you know, collate all of the medical information for the government. And I'm like, this is going to be used against us. It's like so many people, they work for all kinds of institutions, bringing in the Antichrist. They might even literally work for the Antichrist one day, and we don't even know it. You're you're working for your children, your children. More value and importance. You know, people want to act like we're down on women or something. Look, they have one of the most important jobs. Raising the next generation. The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world. You always want to talk about feminism. You know, women will never change the world by becoming men. For the better. If women truly want to make the world better, they have to do it through their children. They have to sacrifice their lives for their children and they have to put a lot of effort and energy. And look, your standard shouldn't also be this. It shouldn't even be the women in this room. You should get a standard from here. You should look to the children that were educated, like Daniel. You should look to the children that are educated where they're just like certainly dangerous. Twenty one languages. You know, because a lot of people in here probably won't do very good. I'm not saying that because I want that to be the case. I'm just saying human nature is really bad and most people are really lazy. And it takes a lot of pricking and a lot of prodding to get people to even care. And even then you can get I can get up and scream till I'm blue in the face what I want, what I hope people do. And they're ultimately going to typically just do their own thing anyways. It's very hard for people to change. But I'm telling you, you need to find it somewhere in your heart. To put the effort and energy into your children and have a really big stand. You know, as men, you need to create a standard for your house. You know, not just not just letting everybody else pick. You know, when I just let my wife pick everything, sometimes it's not that great. And look, my wife has excellent taste. But, you know, she doesn't even necessarily know the right standard. I have to educate her. You know, when I was dating my wife, I would go over to her house for lunch. You know, we had for lunch those options. Cheesesteaks and taquitos, that was it. And you didn't even get marinara sauce with the cheese sticks. It was ranch only. And you didn't even have salsa for the taquitos. It was ranch only. Now, you know, I hate ranch so much. All right. Like, hey, let me explain to you that there's better food out there. You know, and look, to be honest, my wife's a great cook today, but back when we got married, I got to cook, OK? She didn't know she didn't know a lot of things. But at this point, she's way better than me. I mean, it's it's incredible the things that she can make. You know, I'm so glad that I didn't keep my standard McDonald's. I didn't keep my standard. Some kind of low quality reject food that smells like curry or OK, but well-prepared, fresh, high quality ingredients. And look, you know, the reason why it's so enjoyable to eat a meal that my wife makes is because we have a high standard. And, you know, I give recommendations for food a lot. And you know what? Typically, people tell me that was a good place. Why? Because when you ask me for a recommendation for food, I'm going to have a high I have a high level of standard and less and less restaurants are meeting that. You know, it used to be there was a lot of restaurants you go to. Now it's just like less and less and less. And it's not because I'm changing. They're changing. It used to be Olive Garden was on the table. I would never recommend Olive Garden to somebody now. You know, there's all kinds of things. Why? Because they fell below the standard. And, you know, if I'm going to spend my life eating, I might as well enjoy it. You know, there's two kinds of people, people that eat to survive and people that eat to thrive. You know which one I am. All right. I have to do it. I have to spend money. Might as well do it to the best. You know, I have to have kids. I have kids. I have to raise them. Might as well do the best I can. I might as well, you know, try to have the best marriage that I can. Here's another. I bet I might as well go to the best church I can. I might as well be the best soul winner that I can. I might as well be the best at every occupation that I have. The best father, the best everything, you know, and look at the Bible standard. You know, when I think about being a pastor, I'm not looking at the pastors around me to decide how I'm doing. I'm looking into the biblical standard. How would Jeremiah handle this? How would Moses handle this? How would Daniel handle this? How would Jesus Christ handle this? And that's how we should measure ourself. But what do fools do? Look at verse one of chapter three. And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you were not able to bear it. Neither yet now are you able. For you're yet carnal. For where is there's among you envying and strife and divisions? Are you not carnal and walk as men? For a while one sayeth, I am of Apoll, and another I'm of Apollos. Are you not carnal? Who then is Paul and who is Apollos but ministers by whom you believed? Even as the Lord gave there a man. I have planted Apollos water, but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planted anything, neither he the God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. So, you know, these fools are comparing themselves and acting like I'm better than you because I'm a Paul. You know, you could be like, well, I'm better because I go to steadfast and you go to this other church. But wait a minute, that's a foolish sin because ultimately the only thing that's going to judge you is your labor. How much did you like? You know, there are people that go to this church that don't go soul winning. And there are people that go to a lamer church, even if that is true. Yet they go soul winning and they're going to be more greatly rewarded than you are. Because it's not like you walk through the door and God's just like, oh, man, showers of blessing. You are just so look, sometimes reprobates come to this church. They're not getting blessed by God from walking in the door. Unsafe people walk through the door. They're not getting blessed as they showed up. Backslidden Christians come in here. They're not getting blessing just because they walked in through the door. Don't fool yourself and think, well, I show up at church, so I'm good. No, no, no. You are going to be judged according to your own labor. To what you did. Look what it says a little bit later, Chapter four. Let a man still account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. But with me is a very small thing. Be judged of you or of man's judgment. Yea, I judge not my own self, for I know nothing by myself. Yet am I not hereby justified. But he that judges me is the Lord. Therefore, judge nothing before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts. And then shall every man of praise of God. And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, that you might learn in us not to think of men above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another. For who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why does thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? You know what the Apostle Paul is trying to say is, I have no idea beyond John the Baptist being number one. No one knows who's number two. No one knows who's number three. No one knows who's number four. No one knows the number that's on Paul's head. And he's saying it's foolish because you don't know and I don't know. And I'm not going to care. You know, I'm here to just serve God. And we're not supposed to sit here and constantly compare ourselves to one another. We're supposed to simply serve God and do the best that we can to serve the Lord and have his standard in our lives, not comparing one another because it doesn't matter. And the Apostle Paul, he transferred the comparison to him and Apollos because he knows they're let's be honest, they're the Christians around. And he's like, hey, you want to start comparing? OK, compare to me. And then you'd be pretty small, pretty quick. It's like, oh, yeah, how many times do you get beaten and shipwrecked? And I mean, compare your Christianity to Apostle Paul for a minute. The guy gave his whole life to serving God, he was even willing to not get married to serve God. That's a sacrifice. He was willing to travel the whole world. He was beaten. He was willing to be shipwrecked. He was willing to have everyone hate him to preach the gospel. He never stopped preaching the gospel. He's thrown in prison and his response is to sing praises unto God. How many of you, when you got persecuted or something bad happened to you, you immediately started singing praises to God. And how many of you are thrown in prison unjustly? How many of you are beaten unjustly? Now, when we start comparing ourselves to the Apostle Paul, you don't seem so hot. I don't seem so hot. Yet it's silly because we're not supposed to sit here and always grade our, you know, measure ourselves on some kind of a grading system. We're supposed to just look at God's standard and strive for perfection and strive for holiness, not comparing ourselves. Because someone I'm sure there's some weirdo out there, Doug Trowbridge or somebody like I do more so than Paul did. Even if you did. That's a foolish comparison. You just you look to the Bible standard, you set the Bible standard and you always strive for his holiness. And you do the best that you can. And I believe that when you look at grading, ultimately, what it says is like you're not going to put in as much effort. You say, what's the point of the sermon? Put in 100 percent of your effort in everything. Put 100 percent of your effort in a serving God. Put 100 percent of your effort into your children. Stop trying to create ways to not put an effort. When you grade on a curve. Then then you're like, I don't need to put as much effort because I don't need to make 100 on the test. I can make a 70 and get an A plus. No, no, no, no, no. Don't strive for a 70 strive for 100. Don't look at the other churches and say, well, you know what? I know they're going so many once a month. We're going twice a month. Stry for as much so many as you can. As much Bible readings, you can strive for every. You know, we have the New Testament challenge and you know what? You should do that. But don't even hold yourself to that as your limiting factor. Maybe you could read the New Testament twice in this month. Maybe you could read even more. You know, don't limit yourself and what you're capable of. And don't look at everybody else and say like, well, I did the New Testament challenge and a lot of people in here didn't. What's the best that you could have done? And did you do that? What was the most that you could have given to God? And did you give that? Not looking at, well, that poor widow woman, she only gave two mites and I gave ten. Yeah, but she gave all that she had. And do you have? Ananias and Sapphira held back part of the price. And lied to the Holy Ghost and they were killed for it. You know, we should be Christians that are not going to hold back the price of the price. We're not going to do anything in reality. God's not judging us on some random curve, but rather by his standards. And we should look to his standards as the standards for our life and do the best that we possibly can and serve God with all that we have. Whatever your hand findeth to do, do with all thy might. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us a perfect standard, the Bible and giving us the perfect example, the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that we would be carnal and comparing ourselves to one another. Using that to justify laziness. You justify a poor work ethic using that to justify our inefficiencies. But rather, we would look to the perfection of God's word and we would strive for perfection. We would strive to be holy. We would strive to give everything that we have and that we wouldn't hold things back. We wouldn't be people who are going to do just good enough, but rather we would give everything that we've got. And in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. All right, in closing, if you would, please grab your hymnals and turn to page 30. Nothing but the blood. That's page 30. Nothing but the blood. All right, kiddos, this is your one chance to sing as loud as you can. So I want to hear every kid singing as loud as they possibly can. As we say, nothing but the blood. All right, kiddos. I know you like to talk and have fun and yell and scream. So there's your chance to do it without getting in trouble. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, but the blood of Jesus for my part in this I see nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing this my plea, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Good job. You're dismissed.