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

🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 Good evening everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats and grab your songbooks. We're going to start off this evening with song 327, Higher Ground, 327, Higher Ground. Song 327, Higher Ground. 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 Good singing. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for this evening's service and thank you for our church. Just pray for all the individuals that got saved today that they would grow in the Lord, start reading their Bibles and come to church. We love you and thank you for all that you do for us. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Alright, for our next song, let's go to 207, Only a Sinner. 207, Only a Sinner. Song 207, Only a Sinner. 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 Great singing. 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 inside, we have our service soul winning times. Make sure you're still texting and sending in your information to your church. Soul winning captains and lieutenants. Just as an FYI, and this is kind of based on our upcoming events as well. Since brother Oz is going to end up leaving, I'm going to just take on that responsibility of being the tribe captain for the Oz tribe. And we can start that on August 4th, which is that Sunday. So we'll just make that transition. And so if you have your soul winning totals and stuff you've been sending to the Oz tribe, you can just text me that information or send that to me. If you don't have my information, you can contact me and I'll try to send out a message to the tribe. As well when we get closer to that date. Also please be in prayer for expecting ladies. And then of course August 4th, please join us in the PM service for a going away dessert fellowship. And if you'd like to give the Oz a gift, I'm sure they would greatly appreciate that. Again, we don't know the exact time of when he may be heading out of here, but that's a good and safe date. And so we definitely look forward to their next journey in life. And they have to leave the promised land, it's okay. But not everybody can live here. But of course, now they're excited and we're excited to see the Lord work with them in Oklahoma. Also August 15th through the 17th we have the Mighty Men's Conference. There should be a sign up sheet out here. So please make sure you're signing up for that. Dr. Stringer is going to be preaching for us on the 8th of September. October 4th through the 6th is our Heritage of the Lord Conference. And we'll have some guest preachers. Pastor Anderson and Pastor Bruce Mejia are going to be joining us. And so I highly encourage you to participate. Come out. Also, church rules and reminders. Please make sure no one's running in the building. Children shouldn't be on the stage. Also, children should not be in the kitchen area unaccompanied. If you have upset children or crying babies, you can just take them out and then come back in. Or you can still just use our mother baby rooms the entire time. We just ask that mothers would accompany their children at all times while in those areas. Also, just as a friendly reminder, the areas are designed for just basically toddlers and infants to be roaming around. So if you bring in older children, please make sure they're sitting quietly in the service with their mother. Also, we have our quiet times in the afternoons. Please make sure if you stay around in the sanctuary there's no talking. And we have our mother baby room areas are shared for all. If you'd like to read or use an electronic device, you can use our fellowship room. We have a separate prayer list card here. So if you'd like to be prayer for our church, that's there for you. If you'd like to be added or you have an additional prayer request, please just make sure you're emailing that in. Or you could always fill out one of our communication cards. Did we find the... Okay. All right. Good. All right. That's pretty much all I have for announcements. We'll go ahead and sing our third song. We're going to be singing Psalm 139 again in our special handouts. Psalm 139. All right. Let's sing it out together. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked Surely thou wilt slay the wicked O God Depart from me Therefore ye bloody men Depart from me Therefore ye bloody men Do not, I hate them O Lord, I hate thee Do not, I hate them O Lord, I hate thee And I agree With those that rise up against me Do not, I hate them O Lord, I hate thee For they speak against thee For they speak against thee Against thee, wickedly And thy enemies take thy name in vain And thy enemies take thy name in vain Do not, I hate them O Lord, I hate thee Do not, I hate them O Lord, I hate thee And I agree With those that rise up against me Do not, I hate them O Lord, I hate thee I hate them with perfect hatred I hate them with perfect hatred I have them, my enemies I have them, my enemies Do not, I hate them O Lord, I hate thee Do not, I hate them O Lord, I hate thee And I agree With those that rise up against me Do not, I hate them O Lord, I hate thee As the offering plates being passed around Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 13 Romans chapter 13 Romans chapter 13 Romans chapter 13, the Bible says, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God. And they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. For rule is not the right thing to do. series idea of just like controversial topics and when I was thinking about this subject it's not necessarily that everything is controversial to us but sometimes it's controversial to the world or sometimes it is controversial to us and not to the world so it just kind of ebbs and flows but specifically I want to talk about police in light of the Bible and I feel like this subject is a little bit controversial even amongst our crowd but it's pretty controversial in the world today and in the last several years we've kind of had this idea of like a defund the police movement and there's a lot of just ideas about police in general and the defund the police movement is really an idea of trying to eliminate as many officer positions as we have currently like reduce the amount of police force that is in our society and replace them with social workers and social programs and education and all of these other concepts community type concepts that was supposedly better help our society as a whole and so I really just think it's important to kind of get an idea of what does the Bible say about police and what should be our attitude towards police officers in general now I'm gonna go through three different points this evening the first point that I want to make though and I think it's important to put this in context is that police in a sense are appointed by God they're appointed by God and they're ordained of God according to Romans chapter number 13 let's read the first few verses here again the Bible says let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God so God has put authority structures in place in this world and the Bible says generally speaking these powers that exist are ordained of God God's allowing them to have this a power have this authority and so we are to be subject unto them of course in an authority structure there are powers that are higher than one another and we're supposed to give respect to those powers as they fit that little pyramid structure that that hierarchical structure where we have whatever is the most immediate authority above us or power and then as we go further and further up now for all of us we have varying degrees of authority structures in our own lives and depending on what context or what situation we're in those authority structures shift a little bit so in a family you know the authority structure is essentially if the children have no power and authority okay all of you kids you're in charge of no one your mom is a charge of y'all okay so she is your kind of usually your your immediate power structure or authority above your mom though is your dad and really if you were to come to there was a conflict the dad is the one you're supposed to obey okay but then there's another structure in the family that goes above that and that would be the Bible and so even if your parents told you do something you're supposed to do what God told you what the Bible says above what your mom and dad say so that's kind of that structure that is a complete structure there's no one else in between necessarily or above that now of course some people have different family units if you're raised by your grandparents or you're raised by some other authority figure then it might be a little bit different but generally speaking you know if you have a mom and dad then essentially you know that's the hierarchy structural that's the power structure that exists in the church it's a little bit different of course within the church we have potentially maybe an evangelist or deacons they can exist and then you have a pastor and those layers would go you could even have multiple pastors and but at that point once you get past the pastor then the authority goes again straight to God and we kind of have that structure well within society you're going to have again different layers and depends on what country what state all kinds of different things in our potential or in our specific area we have what we call local law enforcement agents and they're going to usually be the lowest level you know above them they sometimes have sergeants or deputies or whatever and then they're going to have a chief of police then that chief of police is going to potentially have someone that he responds to he has to obey and even within that structure there's even other law enforcement agencies that exist you have state agencies that exist you have sheriffs you also have federal agents and then you know essentially kind of goes all the way up to the president of the United States who's considered our commander in chief so in theory Joe Biden is our commander in chief okay and it's not even just theory it's real to a certain degree it's just crazy that he's in charge of anything right but above him is still God okay now some people get kind of mad at their lowest level that they interact with like we don't interact with Joe Biden on a regular basis we don't have to see him we don't really deal with federal agents we usually don't deal with sheriff's or any of these people but we may run into local law enforcement and sometimes people get mad at those individuals or don't like those individuals or wish they didn't exist or some people believe police shouldn't even exist okay and you know that's a different conversation we're gonna have in a minute but whether or not you believe they exist they are an appointed authority and according to the Bible we are supposed to obey them as long as they are not violating whatever higher power structure or authority has ruled and again that comes from a top-down tier of God president and then we could go all the way down the list to essentially those authority structures that exist okay of course according to our actual government there's someone above the president and that's the Constitution of the United States and in theory you know if they were to tell you something contrary to the Constitution we're supposed to obey the Constitution even okay so you know there is all these different layers and we're supposed to obey them in those different positions and according to the Bible they are ordained of God now if you live in a different country there's different structures but essentially everybody's gonna have police whether you call it police or you call it something else there's pretty much usually just a law enforcement agency that exists there's officers that exist in every country in every area and generally speaking you are supposed to obey them and you're supposed to be subject unto them that's what the Bible is saying verse 2 whosoever therefore resisted the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves basically saying you know just kind of do whatever they say because if you don't you could literally die they could kill you they could take you and put you in prison and so essentially you're supposed to be subject unto them verse 3 for rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil wilt thou then not be afraid of power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same for he is the minister of God to thee for good but if thou do that which is evil be afraid free beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that do it evil so according to the Bible law enforcement generally speaking is a minister of God and it's good and they even potentially bring the death penalty to revenge and execute wrath upon really evil people now if you just look at America generally speaking and we're just talking in broad broad sweeping statements here for a moment though I mean law enforcement local law enforcement most of these people are doing good generally speaking I mean most of them are pretty much they're they're going out there and they're having to deal with ugly situations they're having to deal with murder they're having to deal with rape they're having to deal with theft and all these different things now we can argue all day long about all these people's intentions and corrupt police and they don't do as good a job as they should and blah blah blah but just generally speaking if you're a decent citizen in America right now in 2024 America if you're a law abiding citizen the police really aren't doing much to you at all you don't really have to have much interaction with them and they're generally doing you know mostly good again does that mean that everything they do is right no does that mean that they're enforcing good laws no does that mean that they're catching every criminal that they should no but generally speaking they're doing a pretty normal job I think that it takes a it kind of takes a warping and a perverting of reality to just start thinking that like cops are just only bad and just doing bad all the time like they're just weird and you just must not know a lot about law enforcement because there's just so many bad horrible people in this world they're having to deal with regularly that you and I don't have to deal with that you're just kind of being you're just kind of being naive to reality okay and I want to talk about that in a minute but generally speaking what does the Bible say they're ministers of God to thee for good does that mean that every police officer at every regime at every state of all time have always been good no of course there's been bad law enforcement of course there's been bad governments of course there's been some exceptions but just generally speaking law enforcement is relatively good am I supposed to believe that the Roman soldiers which are basically the local law enforcement at the time of Christ were just all great people and wonderful humans and doing all the right things all the time no but they kept peace they kept civility and Jesus Christ was still capable of doing a great ministry while the Roman soldiers existed okay and so law enforcement is not really having a huge impact on the spiritual so in my opinion we should just kind of stay away and stay out of it and just be a law abiding citizen and just be subject for conscience sake and generally recognize these people are just ministers of God for good okay does that mean every single one no I'm just saying again generally speaking and it even says here in verse five wherefore ye must needs to be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake so being disrespectful and rude and telling cops they shouldn't exist and all this attitude is just not a good attitude it's not really a biblical attitude because according to the Bible you're supposed to consider them as a minister of God you're supposed to give them the benefit of the doubt and we should respect the position above the person okay we should respect the position not necessarily every single individual okay and so we have to be careful that we don't go so overboard and just hating cops because bad cops exist okay but again I see this attitude I hear this attitude and I don't really agree with it is an attitude of like cops shouldn't even exist but wait a minute who are these ministers of God that God's talking about it sounds like these people should exist it sounds like there's somebody out there that needs to exist that's the minister of God that's the executor of wrath and I'm going to prove here in a minute that I believe law enforcement is ordained of God okay but even even more than what we just read but I just want to make it abundantly clear that the Bible is saying positive things about this individual not only that it says this verse 6 for for this cause pay ye tribute also for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing meaning not only should we have individuals that are responsible for taking care of law issues they should be paid that's what the Bible says the Bible is saying that we should have paid law enforcement in Romans chapter number 13 that's what it's saying and I guarantee you this makes perfect sense you actually understand how society works and all the evils that are out there it makes total sense to have paid law enforcement in your local areas okay and it says in verse 7 render therefore to all their dues tribute to him tribute is due custom to him custom fear to him fear honor to whom honor so think about this it's not even saying just money it's saying fear to whom fear and even honor to whom honor meaning that we should pay them some level of respect we should just by default be respectful be kind be courteous okay now go to Matthew chapter 5 here's what I want to explain and some people might get mad about what I'm saying already because there is an attitude out there that just hates all cops there is people out there that just think like all cops are terrible bad people we should always be disrespectful of them they shouldn't even exist they're basically just hirelings or something like they're just the scum of the world and I don't have that attitude I don't think that's the right attitude and I don't want our church to have that attitude especially soul winning okay and then there's this other view that's that's kind of the extreme opposite and I would say it's like what a lot of churches do it's where they kind of worship law enforcement okay so I think we should have a healthy balance right let's not go to this extreme and say like all cops are scumbags who should be spat on and then let's not go to this other extreme of saying like let's just bring law enforcement up and let's parade them on the stage at church because okay why wouldn't we just let's bring all the plumbers up and we're gonna just have it we're gonna have National Plumber Day let's recognize them let's I mean think about it if you were to say like is plumbing important I would say absolutely you know love plumbing right I really like it they have a dirty job that no one wants to do you know hey electricians they're important truck drivers hey I like having food you know like every part of our society is important we can't just start eliminating major professions and it not have major consequences okay but I'm not going to sit here and say like let's make sure to bring up law enforcement and just recognize law enforcement and worship law enforcement as if they're somehow special or something like that no I don't think we shouldn't I don't think we need to do that either okay so again all I have be typically kind of like worship cops and then a lot of new IP churches they kind of like hate cops I want to just be in the middle where I just respect cops okay I don't want to worship you but I don't want to act like you're the scum of the earth okay I want to be somewhere in the middle and I want to kind of prove to you how you know this position makes sense biblically not only does it make sense it's mandated okay but I want to show you in Matthew chapter 5 look at verse 25 for a moment okay this is Jesus Christ speaking he says agree with thine adversary quickly wiles thou art in the way with him lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer and thou be cast into prison notice that Jesus Christ is warning you about officers but he didn't say warning police officers are bad people warning officers just randomly put people in jail no he said hey if someone does something wrong make sure to settle that issue with somebody before they take you to the judge and the judge with their officer will throw you into prison and if you understand even our society our society is built on biblical principles and biblical structures go if you would to Deuteronomy chapter 16 now go to Deuteronomy chapter 16 our current system if for a law enforcement agent to even search your house or go above and beyond they have to go to a judge and they have to get a search warrant they have to actually get judges to approve the actions they're going to take and then they're the officers of the court to go out and make arrests and what do they do when they arrest you they bring you to the court and then the judge has to make a hearing and then based on his determination you're punished according to that judge this is the system that God set up and it's not even like the secondary it was the primary system that God set up is the ideal system that God set up God set up an ideal system of having judges and officers and what we call them as police officers okay same thing this is literally commanded in the Bible in Deuteronomy chapter number 16 look at verse number 18 judges and officers shout thou make thee and all thy gates did you read the Bible I read the Bible what does it say judges and officers shout thou make thee and all thy gates notice this which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout thy tribes and they shall judge the people with just judgment so what is the Bible if you're gonna set up a biblical society based on the ideal situation of the government what does the Bible teach you you would set up local judges with local law enforcement agents that enforce the orders of those judges I mean you have to understand that's basically what America is and you know why it is it's because the people that created America were saying like what do we do like that's literally how America was established and it's so funny to me how people think that it's so horrifying all the things that we bring up in the Old Testament law like how could you want that and it's like you love this country right you think this is the best country right the reason why is because it was a literally established on this like literally and the most literal way they praised the Bible they said hey we're trying to set up a nation we're looking for laws let's go to the great lawgiver Jehovah and let's let him implement the laws for us this is what we're gonna do and when we were the closest to that we were the best the most successful and it works this government works okay now here's the problem with this system is it said with just judgment okay here's where people get confused is they they look at bad people and they think that the system's bad rather than not recognizing it's the people not the system the American system by and large is not bad it's very well orchestrated very well crafted and it fits a biblical model very well the problem with our system in America is we don't have just people in charge and that we as a nation have turned away from God and forgotten what the Bible teaches on some really important principles and as a result of that that's why we're suffering greatly you know if we recognize who fags and Jews were our country would be a lot different okay if we recognize who Catholics are the pagan idolaters that they are and again how do you learn that from the Bible I mean if we were just kind of like a little bit biblically literate as a nation and we could get discard all the false prophets the Catholics the Jews and the fags as the wicked evil people that they are in our nation it'd be different overnight and we don't even have to change our structure we don't have to change having a president and an executive branch and we don't even have to change the Constitution in fact we just start marking out some of those amendments we'd be really great you know like the 19th amendment let's mark that one off real quick okay there's plenty of amendments there's plenty of Supreme Court rulings that overturned laws that need to be undone like Lawrence versus Texas sodomy needs to be a crime again and you know then we can haggle on the punishment okay but let's just start with it's a crime all right I like starting there which was in Texas in 2000 the law it was illegal to be a sodomite okay and commit an act of sodomy that was illegal in the state of Texas that was the Republican position back then now it's you know we love trainees or whatever because they change every five seconds but you know the problem in our country is not police officers in many cases it's the laws that they have to enforce and here's another problem that I think that a lot of people don't understand is a lot of the injustice in our system specifically is not really police officers it's the judges it's the layers above them that are much worse and that's what's causing a lot of problems did you notice that we need to have just judgment verse 19 thou shalt not rest judgment thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift of blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous so here we understand that what what would cause a problem with this system if judges are taking bribes if judges have a financial incentive to rule in an unjust way it says in verse 20 that which is all together just shout thou follow that thou mayest live and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee so what brings success and prosperity is having good judges that are following the law of God that they're not perverting judgment and specifically with gifts go if you went to Proverbs chapter 29 for a moment go to Proverbs 29 I really just I don't know how after I could show you the verses that I've shown you so far someone would really argue with me about officers being a mandate by God now we can argue exactly what that looks like and some of the details and how many do we need and certain things like that you know of course when it comes to federal agents we can argue about exactly what that should look like but I think I mean generally speaking they pretty much have a God mandate here to ordain officers in certain capacities we should have some and it makes sense think about it this way in the Old Testament law obviously if someone was committing a crime then they need to be captured and brought toward the judge and then they have to get some kind of a sentencing well you know I have a day job I don't really want to have to just like stop my day job every single time someone does something bad and go grab a couple random guys off the street and see if we can haul this guy in and grab him he may not fit in my car seat very well you know like doesn't it kind of make sense that we just pick like certain men that are going to do this regularly and we can pay them and they can have cars that are designed to house someone that's a little bit you know antagonistic right and maybe the car doors even lock specifically so they can't get out and we give them handcuffs so they can kind of arrest these people and we arm them and supposedly they're training okay and they're in fit they're in good shape right like that just kind of makes sense to just pick the cream of the crop of society and we all as a society empower that individual to go out and do this for us so I don't have to do it so the plumber can go plumb and the electrician can go do electrical work right just practically speaking this makes perfect sense in society and we don't necessarily have to all do vigilante justice every single time something happens now again there's nothing wrong with vigilante justice and even in the state of Texas you can technically do a citizens arrest in a very extreme scenario I'm not necessarily recommending this I'm just saying generally speaking and a lot of people do this if someone breaks in their own house you hold them down until the cops show up right and then you just allow the cops to deal with the situation or someone notices something bad happening in society and they take the person out or hold them down or whatever until law enforcement can then take over that still makes perfect sense in society but just generally speaking it's probably better if we just empower a certain group that's chosen out of our society to lead this effort and they're the officers of the court and they're the ones that are trained they're the ones that know the law really well they're the ones that are responsible and in fact our cops today have so much scrutiny on them they all have to wear a GoPro or whatever they basically have to wear a body cam 24-7 much I mean what if we did that to you at your job how many times are they gonna be like you were looking at Facebook you know you or what were you doing you know where are you at I mean they're basically tracked and monitored and every single one of their actions every single thing they said is being recorded I mean that's a high level of accountability that almost no I mean what about you women how many of y'all want to wear a camera that records every single thing you're doing and all your actions and you have someone micromanaging every step and hey you need to get out of bed hey you need to get to work hey what do you say to the kids what do you do it like do you really want that and then we sit here and we complain about police officers even though that's their literal life it's not I'm not like joking literally police officers are being monitored 24-7 every single thing they're doing tons of accountability on that plus just the pressure from our society of hating cops already so much I mean just generally speaking that's a tough job you can see why so many people are not wanting to do it today the pay is not probably as well compensated as it even should be considering the inflation and the stresses and demands that are put on those individuals but you know just generally speaking if we didn't have them we would have a lot of problems now why is it that we still have a lot of problems it's because the people above them are taking a lot of bribes a lot of money and the judges are making bad judgments okay Proverbs 29 look at verse 4 here the king by judgment establishes the land but he that receiveth gifts overthrow with it so we notice that the gifts is where it really comes into play and again you look at a lot of these judges they're getting gifts from people like George Soros they're getting all kinds of gifts from campaign donations from wealthy businessmen other individuals and because of the corrupt judges that affects law enforcement because they know hey if I haul this person to the judge they're gonna let them off they're gonna get off the hook they're not gonna send them to prison they're not gonna deal with them so then the police officers thinking why waste my time or why put my own neck in jeopardy because if I arrest this person that's gonna bring heat on me because the judge isn't gonna actually haul this person to prison or deal with them correctly and so a lot of the time people don't understand that cops seemingly don't do stuff because they know that the judges won't actually enforce the law they even know the prosecutor prosecutors won't prosecute this case so they don't even pursue and places like California they've raised the bar so high on theft that law enforcement just doesn't get involved even though somebody steal something that's a thousand dollars because they know no one will prosecute it so why waste time hauling that person off to the judge even though they've committed a crime and so the problem with the law enforcement isn't the law enforcement it's the laws that they're having to enforce and those laws are being perverted by perverted judges and there's a big problem with judges in our country today we don't have judges that hate covetousness we don't have righteous men that are leading it's a it's a political thing and honestly if we were to fix law enforcement we need to be addressing the judge issue way more than the law enforcement issue than the actual agents and officers because the judges is where we're having so many problems in fact when we had some we've had a lot of problems but one of the problems is when people literally stole over a hundred thousand dollars of our money and we took it to law enforcement and I remember they had a female district attorney for Fort Worth at the time and he said she basically won't approve search warrants or anything like that right now and so just nobody the police and the detectives just weren't doing the job and I remember he said like in times past we would average about 50,000 search warrants a year and he said now we're down to like eight and again this is his testimony I don't know how accurate that is but I mean it seems like reasonable that he's just saying like hey we've had a major reduction and the amount of search warrants that are being approved right now and so criminal activities is skyrocketing people aren't actually being held responsible and it's not because the law enforcement or the detectives or whatever don't want to pursue it and in fact even in our case because I literally I mean I me and Dylan we worked on this stuff and I prepared very specific detailed information I mean I was in my mind handing the police officers like here's a free you know arrest like here you want the detective case here you go I filled it all out for you I mean I had the statutes written out exactly what happened all the evidence all the witnesses all the time stamps all I mean just everything just like here you go and the detective says I agree I believe you he takes to the prosecutor the prosecutor says we don't want to prosecute this so it's like is that really the detectives fault that he doesn't want to pursue it now unfortunately for those criminals you know now the feds are looking into it but you know that's their problem all right not my problem so have fun with them but you know at the end of the day it's you know even if they don't do anything a lot of times it's not the lower level people it's the judges it's the prosecutors it's the whatever and of course they love getting paid off they want to make sure they get all their campaign donations and so a lot of the issues that we have in our society are not with the local people with the low-level people and I just I'm trying to explain this to you so you don't hate on the wrong person please just stop hating on cops just because they exist and just because they have to enforce garbage laws doesn't make them a bad person okay now go to judges chapter 17 go to judges chapter 17 here's the thing if we didn't have them if we really start eliminating them and start putting in social workers here's what you just don't understand someone will rule your area by force whether it's the law enforcement that you empower or someone else but there's no such thing as anarchy anarchy is a fake idea of bad people that want to convince you that anarchy is somehow wonderful and good when really they just want to take advantage of you and they want to destroy you now you do see anarchy a few times in the Bible and judges is probably a pretty good example of what anarchy would kind of look like but it brings up this phrase often in the book of Judges and I just want to look at it it says in Judges chapter 17 look at verse 6 in those days there was no king in Israel but every man did that which was right in his own eyes if you eliminate law enforcement then you have this every man does that which is right in his own eyes this is an extremely dangerous scenario even in America we have experienced some times where we've had more anarchy as a politic as kind of a system and one of those times in history was in the 1920s where you had essentially alcohol being outlawed the temperance movement alcohol was illegal in America and as a result you had a lot of individuals that were called like bootleggers and individuals that were still selling alcohol but on the black market essentially and as a result of this you had large mafias gangsters all kinds of crazy stuff happening because of this time period you had like the Federal Reserve coming in you had a lot of wicked stuff just being coming into America it leads up to the Great Depression America just changed dramatically in this period of time okay the 1920s we have like the Titanic you have a lot of stuff that's interesting in this timeline but it was in some cases called the Roaring 20s and it was really just a lot of immorality a lot of evil a lot of casinos a lot of illegal stuff and law enforcement basically stopped doing their job because of fear of how much power a lot of these mafias had brought in and here's the thing it's not like law enforcement didn't exist it was just they weren't very empowered and a lot of the judges and individuals were corrupt at this time so law enforcement's hands were tied in many cases so it kind of gives you a sneak peek what would it look like if we start eliminating police officers what would happen if we eliminate a lot of positions what if we kind of took away from them a lot of their power and authority what would society look like well it would look like a bunch of gangs ruling over us a lot of mafia ruling over us in fact it was so bad in some parts of America at this time in Chicago specifically they had over 1300 gangs like you're just a fool if you think eliminating cops will solve any problems of yours if we eliminate law enforcement immediately we would have things like ms-13 crips bloods the sinaloa cartel all these kind of people coming in and just literally taking over the streets of our area and not only that you'd have local individuals just forming large groups of quote gangs and they would enforce the streets and it would be whatever they want they would do whatever is right they're on a constitution state of Texas legislation they don't care their law is whatever they say at that moment just many dictators everywhere that's what anarchy really is it is extremely dangerous at this time murder was off the charts according to some statistics they said in 1926 there was an average of 12,000 murders a year in America lots and lots of murder and you have certain people like Al Capone being a really prominent and well-known gangster he is and again there's different estimates conservatively he was involved directly or indirectly with at least 33 murders some report said 200 some said 400 but just one individual at the time is responsible for potentially hundreds and hundreds of murders and he was a big gangster notorious gangster killing a lot of other gangsters of course but even other individuals as well police officers go to chapter 21 and look at verse 25 it's the same thing this is what it's like and in the book of Judges you kind of notice this just hordes of people just coming around just doing whatever they want you know people just wandering around in little mini militaries and armies and just you know destroying things killing things it's just it's just chaos there's no peace there's no safety there's no civility and the book of Judges is just like a complete failure children of Israel are just completely always under control of either the Philistines or some evil horde and this is how it literally finishes this is how the book of Judges finishes verse 25 in those days there was no king in Israel every man did that which is right in his own eyes it's like it's God is trying to like explain to you anarchy bad anarchy bad anarchy bad what was God's system judges with officers and those judges being righteous judges but the problem was they didn't have the right to judges it wasn't the fact that like oh they brought in police officers bad no police officers aren't bad by themselves obviously individuals could be bad certain officers could be bad but generally speaking that office is not a bad office there's nothing inherently sinful or wrong with that particular position and I would argue it even makes sense biblically now again I want to just tell you a little bit more history go to Acts chapter 5 for a moment go to Acts chapter 5 anarchy is extremely extremely dangerous because if you think you have a problem with bad laws at that point there's no laws and they just do whatever they want gangsters kill whoever they want they walk into your business and just say give us $500 or we're gonna break your legs that's what they say and then you give them $500 and they say you know I don't even like the way you look to me so I'm gonna break your leg anyways and then and we're gonna come back next week make it 750 you're like I don't have 750 well I hope you like your legs and it's like where are you gonna go that's your business you've invested your time your money your energy your family's here well go cry to the cops they don't care there's literally no one to advocate for you plus it's just these gangs are the most powerful individuals with all the weaponry all the money and they say hey if you don't do it we'll kill you your mom your family your wife your children we'll burn your business down to the ground and nobody will care I mean that's what it's like when you don't have law enforcement that's empowered if you think law enforcement shakes you down bad the mafia will shake you down way worse okay now and they don't have they don't have body cams you know worrying about what they're doing or something like that now another part of this history that is interesting is you had huge horrible gangs and they're all glorified on TV and movies and they kind of glorify a certain group of people they don't really talk about these other people that existed but there is these certain gangsters I'm gonna bring up a few other names Abe Bernstein I don't know if you know anything about him he was in Detroit he's by some argued the most deadly gangster to ever live and is the estimated like at least 500 murders attached to this Abe Bernstein now this is what's also interesting about Abe Bernstein he's a Jewish person I don't know I don't know if you understood that but guess what country he's from Russia exactly what happened in 1917 in Russia oh yeah that Bolshevik Revolution again where a bunch of Jews came in and literally assassinated the king and literally took over with anarchy and then slaughter like in the process 50 to 60 million Russians in the process and then this a Bernstein Bernstein comes from there to America what a wonderful person I'm sure he is and with a lot of his Jewish buddies and they formed the purple gang and they're one of the worst gangs who just were ruthless really you could just call it the reprobate game if you just really want to know not only that there was another major gang in New York by getting a guy named Arnold Rothstein so Jewish interesting it's interesting I forgot that history lesson where it was like hey you remember all those gangsters in the past they always talk about them being from it from like Italy right it's like all these Sicilians or something and it's not to say there wasn't some but it's also like a major Jewish thing many of these gangs especially the more ruthless horrible and you know why you didn't hear about the Jewish gangs more than the Sicilian ones you wanna know why because you hear about the ones that got caught and thrown in prison not the ones that are capable of paying off the judges and staying out of prison right and I wonder who's the ones in with the government and all the politicians and have all the money and whatever hmm probably the bankers okay just throwing some stuff out there Arnold Rothstein is really famous though still because he fixed the 1919 World Series so the World Series of baseball he paid a bunch of players on the White Sox to throw the game on purpose because they were heavily favored against the Cincinnati Reds and he bet a bunch of money on the Cincinnati Reds knowing that they're gonna pay like a huge payment because everybody knows the White Sox are gonna win but not when you pay their team to lose on purpose and so he literally fixed the World Series and think about this is the most important you know event for these athletes who played their whole life they're willing to still take money to throw the game and you know some people say like I think professional sports is fake this is prove it's literally fake now I'm not saying every time I'm not saying every single situation some people get really weird at this stuff but to say that there isn't cheating and professional sports or people throwing games on purpose for money it's it's been proven that has happened multiple multiple times there's been NBA refs that have gotten caught for literally cheating on games and so you know there's a lot a lot of cheating when there's all this money on the line and it's called the Black Sox scandal okay but I'm just I'm just trying to throw these things out there because I just don't want you to think like oh anarchy awesome anarchy is horrible and you know who comes in to take over Stines a bunch of Stines will come in okay that's who comes in they try to come in either way but you know they're literally in charge and that's just not what you want whether it's in Russia or here now I want to finish with one last point okay point one police officers I believe are appointed by God they're ordained of God but we shouldn't worship them point two anarchy is dangerous so we shouldn't hate cops we should say like hey let's let's balance this and say let's respect that position because we want cops to be empowered and to be able to fight all these individuals and you know why we even have a more normal society is because a lot of cops finally got the courage got the ability to actually conquer a lot of these gangs take over those areas stop a lot of the crime stop a lot of the threat they brought in agencies like the FBI I know you love them but they have major federal agencies intervening knocking out narcotics a lot of these gangsters and ending a lot of this violence okay so whether or not you love all these agencies or not they did actually eliminate a lot of these really horrible people a lot of these gangs and stop them from literally walking into your business and saying pay us money or we'll break your legs and when's the last time that happened to you okay so you have to recognize that they were still ministers of God for good to America generally speaking and they helped eliminate a lot of these gangs and mafias and they still do that work today okay generally speaking so we're not going to worship them we're not going to hate them and here's the last thing though is if a police officer tells you to do something that's not right we ought to obey God rather than men and it says in Acts chapter number five look at verse twenty six this is a context of Peter and James being brought before the council verse twenty six then when 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 be able to fill 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 so here's the thing the officers brought them to the judge who was really at fault here the officers didn't even cause them any violence they did nothing wrong to them can we really hate the officer here or are we mad at the judge for preaching against Jesus and basically trying to stop the preaching the judge is the real problem here it's not even the officer and the officer wouldn't have gotten arrested them if the judge if the council hadn't told the officers to go and arrest them they weren't just wandering around like let's just arrest some Christians today it sounds like fun you know they were just doing their job and they still didn't even do a bad job there was nothing wrong with them just bringing them out the problem is that these councils these individuals these judges these high priests they're the ones that are trying to stop the gospel from being preached and if they're trying to do that well we ought to obey God rather than men so again I'm not necessarily going to resist arrest they didn't resist arrest but you know if they get free again I'm gonna go preach the gospel I'm gonna keep preaching in this name right go to Romans chapter 12 go to Romans chapter 12 so here's the practical application for us today I'm gonna go out soul winning and I don't care if Kamala Harris president Kamala Harris says you can't preach in Jesus name I'm gonna go preach in Jesus name now praise God we don't live in that scenario yet but we can preach the gospel now here's the thing sometimes law enforcement gets confused on this so so what do we do when a when a police officer shows up because they've been got they got a call from some old white person that hates Jesus and we been knocking doors or something and the cops show up you know I don't I don't go you shouldn't even exist you're an enemy of all righteousness you work for George Soros you know I'm just courteous and I just I talked to them normal and usually it's over so quick in fact the last it actually happened here in Cedar Hill recently some loser was mad that I was carrying a gun and called the cops on us or whatever it's like I'm kind of walking away from a door that we knocked and the cops is kind of like walking towards us and he's just like already talking he's like already talking to me and I was already kind of like ready to just you know say like hey we're just out soul winning and before I can even get where he's like I don't even care what y'all are doing someone called so I just had to show up you know whatever just keep going and I like I couldn't get a word in and then I'm just like do you want a card he's like no and then he's back in his car and just drives away and I was just like okay and I was like I like this cop you know he's just kind of doing his job he's just like I don't even care he's like it's obvious you're not doing anything weird you know it's just like bye I mean it was probably like 10 seconds and I'm like I'm not mad at that guy and hey he had to do his job he was called out there he's got to go out there I'm not mad he showed up even if he was like hey ask me a few more questions even if he asked me to look at my ID I don't really care because you know what my name is Jonathan Shelley and I'm a sole winner okay and my every all of my private information is on the internet anyways like do you think I'm really afraid of a local cedar hill police officer looking at my ID but I'm not going to sit here and just be like how dare you I will never show you this you know like like really like what are you winning like I'm being persecuted for Jesus man you better not even look at my ID I'm not going to give you that you know why can't you just comply and just move on and another area white settlement which is should be called like worst settlement was over by our other church and it seemed like almost every Wednesday night when we go out soul winning there the cops are called on us just like every single time and the cops always made me give me my give my ID I'm just like don't you know me by now I'm just like what is wrong with you okay but I still did it and I'm still here and it wasn't that big a deal and you know to me there's just no point and just like pissing the cops off for no reason you know I just try to like and again I'm not going to volunteer information either you know keep your mouth shut but just give them as much as they need I've had a couple cops just be kind of ignorant of the law in Watauga I don't know if you're shocked by that but in Watauga I had a law enforcement tell me like I couldn't do that and I'm like quoting him his own statute of like because at that time we were under a lot of pressure so I like actually learned it but I'm just like well this actual statute proves that we can go door-to-door it's in your own literal law he's just like no it's not yeah can you read probably not but I didn't like that individual but I was trying to be respectful of them and then later you know I talked to the chief of police and stuff and he straightened it out with their officers so they stopped harassing us or soul winning but you know again even if even if they were wrong even if they're going to be really hard-nosed about it because of the society we live in because I know it's not necessarily a big fight I'm usually just going to do whatever they say even if I'm if I'm at an apartment apartment complex and they're like hey you know we kind of want you to leave I'll probably be like no we're just going to keep going because you know we were not soliciting and if they're like no you have to leave then I'll be like okay you know I might be like hey we just want to keep going we're gonna go or hey we got 10 minutes can we just please finish and a lot of times they'll just comply but if they're gonna be hard-nosed I'm not gonna be like you better arrest me right now you know I'm willing to fight you know to the death for the it's like just move on right now again here's the thing if they pass a law in Texas and they say you're not allowed to go so any more it's illegal and law enforcement is going to enforce that order then I will get arrested for it okay but right now when it's not a big deal and it would only be like a bad cop on a bad day that would make a dumb decision and arrest you for that I'm just like I don't want to waste my time getting processed because this cop can't read okay so I might as well just go along with it and just file a complaint later or talk to the chief police or just go to another neighborhood or whatever I'm not like sacrificing or compromising the gospel I'm just trying to be practical and smart here okay so you know again we ought to obey God rather than man but let's be practical about that let's just be logistical about that and say look cops aren't stopping us from going soul winning I mean 99% of our soul winning is completely unharassed by law enforcement so the 1% or the one random time it happens let's just be as nice and respectful and just move on and just we'll come back later right when you're not here okay and we just won't knock on the Karen's door or whatever that called on us or something when we were there but to me it just doesn't make sense to just fight and be antagonistic and just like why do you hate our cops and you're all bad you're all pigs I'm gonna spit on you and you know somebody's gonna like listen to my sermon and be like oh man you're a boomer and you're a compromiser and you're just a bootlicker and whatever and it's like come on I don't care you're a carnal and I bet you don't even go so anyways you loser but what does the Bible even say Romans chapter 12 verse 18 if it be possible as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men it's like do I really need some incel individual online to approve of my sermon no I don't care about you you troll okay I go to a real church and none of us are compromises we walk through hordes of angry protesters for years and look we preached in their face how much we hate them and want them to die literally okay it's not like we're cowards or something or afraid or something like that you know what the Bible tells us to be respectful and to show fear unto whom fear is due and a hey be peaceful as much as possible and you know it's possible for me one day to just say like hey this cops having a bad day alright bye it's not it's not like a death situation here life or death I can just move on and I want our church to have a good reputation and not just have every copy like I hate steadfast Baptist Church I hate all their members they're so disrespectful they just their mean-spirited individuals I'd rather them say like man those people are kind of nice wow those people are pretty reasonable maybe we should put facts of death that's what that's what I want them to think okay not like well I understand why people protest that church they're a bunch of jerks they're a bunch of weirdos and idiots and they don't even understand that we're protecting them from a Bernstein and Arnold Rothstein and a lot of these individuals that would literally come into your neighborhood and rule with an iron fist if you didn't have local law enforcement and so don't just hate on them for no reason go to Proverbs 15 this last verse I'm going to show you but you know what be courteous and you can be firm at the same time say okay this is my right we're not soliciting we have the law on our side on this issue we would like to still go soul-winning if a cop is trying to harass you on this but if you know they're gonna have if they're gonna force their way then I'm just gonna let it happen and I'm gonna be courteous about it and say well you know what officer I'll do what you're saying I just disagree I hope you look into this later you know have a good day right I mean there's sometimes you have to tell people that they're wrong but you still be nice as nice about as you can be peaceable about it move on some of these cops may just be bad people okay but generally speaking most cops are not like that okay Proverbs chapter 15 look at what it says in verse 1 a soft answer turneth away wrath that's just good wisdom you know if if the police are mad let's be nice let's be kind let's give them a soft answer not just you're an enemy of all righteousness you're such a corruptor of the gospel you're such a you must hate Christianity you know like what I just don't think there's a benefit or a pro to that you know and so I think we should try to be respectful give them benefit out be peaceable show fear unto whom fear is due not have a vitriolic attitude but on the flip side I'm not saying worship them I'm not saying we're gonna parade them up here on the stage and clap for them just because they exist you know we want to have a balanced view of law enforcement and of police and you know as a church I hope that you don't take the preaching the wrong way and think that just because I get up here and kind of scream and yell that's how you should just act in life you know that's not how I am as a person I don't just walk in a subway and I'm like make me a sandwich you know I'm like what's with your wicked hairstyle what are you wearing you're such a reprobate you know I'm not like you know I try to walk around and be nice and courteous or respect there's a time to preach and you know what that's behind the pulpit if you're not buying a pulpit don't worry about preaching okay it's just not the time in place and if you want to preach we preach the gospel with the tear in the eye and with kindness and with grace and discernment right we want to be nice people we want to be kind people we want people to think that we have a good religion not that we're just these mean-spirited judge like judgment filled legalist you know people we want them to think hey they're kind gracious compassionate and they're not stupid and think that cops shouldn't exist okay because it just to me it's just not a it's not a biblical viewpoint if you just say let's eliminate all cops you know I think the Bible is really clear on this subject but if you have a question you can always ask me about it but let us try our best when we go so wanting to be respectful them all right let's go some birth they give me father so much for giving us the Bible and and giving us you know ministers of God to help protect us from evil that have to do a tough job in many cases I pray that you would just help society recognize the good parts of law enforcement and recognize the real issues and the real problems that we have with a lot of corrupt judges and if possible I pray that you could just eliminate as many corrupt judges that are in this area you could just expose them that you give if possible raise up people that actually love the law love the Bible love the Word of God if possible change our laws to be more biblical but no matter what I pray that we would have an attitude where we are seeking peace that you'll give us a soft answer to turn away wrath and that we would be respectful and subject to those whom we need to be subject in Jesus name we pray amen all right for a final song let's go to song 210 wonderful grace of Jesus song 210 wonderful grace of Jesus 2 1 0 let's sing it out wonderful grace of Jesus Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Oh Thank you all for coming god bless you are dismissed