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And then let's look back to about verse number 39 and get a little context here. But Luke chapter 22 is a very lengthy chapter of the Bible, has a lot about Jesus's final moments here leading up to his passion or the gospel as it were. And in verse number 39, it says, and he came out and when as he was wont to the Mount of Olives and his disciples also followed him and when he was at the place he said unto them, pray that ye enter not into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast and kneeled down and prayed saying, father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And the title of my sermon this evening is this, not my will, not my will. As I was thinking about just being a man and what that means in the Bible and specifically even being a mighty man, I find a consistent theme in scripture that men, if you want to describe what a man is, it's someone who does things that they don't want to do. It's someone that's willing to do hard things that no one else is willing to do. That's considered the man. It's the man's job to take out the trash. It's the man's job to kill the scorpion. It's the man's job to get rid of all the wasps. And I'll be honest, I never sit around and think like, man, I just wish I could go kill some wasps right now. It's not like the most enjoyable task I've ever had in my entire life, but someone's got to do it and we're not going to send the baby out there. We're not going to send the toddler out there, you know, as the man, you have to go out there. You have to kill the wolf. You have to put down the lion. You have to fight the bugs and the insects and take out the trash. There's just certain jobs that are a man's job and you don't really make something a man's job. No one else wants to do it. It's a difficult task. It's not something that they want to do, but no one else is going to get the job done and it's a necessary task. So you step up to the plate and you be the man and you just get it done. And here's the thing. There's only one person that can take care of our salvation. It's Jesus Christ. You know, when Jesus Christ is sitting here praying and he's begging the Lord, he's begging the father, he's saying, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. You know, in other passages and other parallels, he's saying, hey, if there's any other way, hey, if there's any other option. If anybody else will volunteer, if there's any other kind of plan here, let's do that. But what is the problem? There's only one plan and there's only one person that can do that plan and that's Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ, he gets to the point where he says, you know what? Not my will, thine be done. Go if you would to first Corinthians chapter number 13, first Corinthians chapter number 13. Now, why is it that there's a temptation not to do things that are difficult, hard, step up to the plate? It really just boils down to being selfish. And if we think about it, not my will is the antithesis of being selfish, right? If you're selfish, it's my will. If you're not selfish, it's not my will. The Lord Jesus Christ was not selfish by going to the cross. The Lord Jesus Christ was not selfish by descending down from heaven and becoming a man. The Lord Jesus Christ wasn't selfish by humbling himself and becoming a servant. The Lord Jesus Christ wasn't selfish by ministering unto people that were very resistant, even literally reprobates and enemies and having to go through all the sufferings that he went through. No, he did that not as his will, but the father's will. And we have to realize that as a man, you are going to have to grow up. And what is the thing that separates a child from a man? It's often just being selfish. When I look at a person and they're between the ages of 20 and 30, I don't know if they're a man or not. You know what determines it? How selfish are they? And when I look at a guy that's 25, 26, 27, and he's just super selfish, it's like this guy's not a real man yet. Whereas you could look at someone that's 20 and they're a very selfless person, they're laying down their life and helping other people, and they've basically changed who they are internally, you can look at that person and say, that's a man right there. And we see throughout the scripture even very greatly used men of God were very young when they were used. But why were they used? Because they weren't selfish. You know, you look at a Solomon, 18 years old, leading an entire nation. Can you imagine if we were just, just from our perspective, what if our pastor was 18 years old? What if we were all submitting to an 18 year old? Can you imagine the king of the entire country? Now obviously that's not anything compared to the great Biden that we have, you know, of him leading the charge. But I mean, 18 years old is not old at all. I mean, very immature, naturally speaking. Yet what made Solomon so great for the position is he was not a selfish person at the beginning of his ministry. And in fact, he prayed that the Lord would give him wisdom, not for his own benefit, but rather to bless the people. Because when the Lord told him that he could pray for anything, most people would think of something selfish. Like, well, give me strength or give me might or give me women or give me money or give me fame or give me my enemies or whatever. You know, the Lord was like, because you didn't ask for all those things, I'm going to give you everything that you could ever want. I'll give you the wisdom and the women and the, you know, he got a lot of women. Okay. A little too much. All right. Thousands, a little too much. Okay. That's just like, wow. I mean, you can't remember any of their names. Okay. Fortunately in the Bible, half of them were probably named Mary, right? So that you got like, you know, especially if they were from Mexico, then you were just locked in. And that's probably where they came up with that. He's just like, I'm sick and tired of trying to remember these people's names. So I'm just kind of, you know, or, or it's funny, you know, the Kings always rename people. It's probably every time they said the name wrong, they were like, actually, it's just a new name I gave you. It's like, you're married. It's like, no, I'm Catherine. It's like, I changed it to Mary. I didn't forget. I changed it. Okay. Right. I didn't forget her anniversary. I changed it. These are tips to help you in your marriage. Okay. First Corinthians chapter number 13. Look at verse 11. When I was a child, I speak as a child. I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. Notice that the Bible teaches a growing up. There's there's something that you're changing about yourself. There's something that you're doing differently about yourself. And anybody that's had children understands a very clear reality. They are selfish. They only are concerned with themselves. I mean, one of the most enjoyable words to use mine is just, that's mine, mine, mine. It's never yours. They don't know what that word is. There'll be a foreign word. It's never like, well, this is your toy and this is your room. This is mine. This is my toy. And as a man, unfortunately, you don't get to have this attitude of it's mine, right? You have to share everything with your wife and with your children, with everyone else. And even though it's truly yours, and that's kind of the picture of God the Father, God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, they're sharing with us. They're giving us of their benefit, of their wealth. I mean, we don't have any wealth except for what God's given us. We like to think of ourselves as like, oh, I earned it or whatever. God gave it to you. Even the farmers like to brag, but it's like God's the one that rained on those crops. And God's the one that gave you the previous crops with the seeds in them already ready. And he gave you all the instructions and he made the miracle of it growing. And he did the miracle of keeping it from growing up and producing and doing all the things. And then it's just like, look what I've done. I mean, that would be like me bragging about my wife giving birth. It's like, yeah, I contributed at least a couple of minutes in this whole process, right? It's like from a grand scale picture, you know, she's going to be pretty upset when you say that you had a big part to play there. OK. Right. And it's like God looking down from heaven. He's like, really? Oh, yeah. You worked really hard there, buddy. That was impressive. You know, it's like the toddler helping mom and dad with their daily tasks, making dinner or mowing the lawn or doing these type of things like I helped. And it's just like, sure, you know, and you give a bat on the back and it's like, but we need to have the right mentality and not get this prideful, you know, selfish attitude of it's mine. I've got it. It's all about me, because really it just shows you haven't grown up yet and that you're not a real man. A real man is not a selfish person. A real man is not going to say my will. It's going to say not my will. It's going to look at the will of other people. And it's really important. Go to Philippians, chapter number two, go to Philippians, chapter number two. So I'm just kind of by way of introduction, just kind of introducing this topic. And then I have a couple of points that I want to go over this evening. But I think from a scriptural perspective, I don't necessarily I can't really point to a verse that says a real man does things he doesn't want to. But I think when you look at all of these verses, you can kind of come to that conclusion. That's really where it's drawing you to, because we see Jesus not wanting to die on the cross, doing it anyways. There's a tendency in all of us that want to just kind of stay a child. You know, the Peter Pan syndrome, where you never want to grow up. But you have to say, nevertheless, I need to grow up for the benefit of what? My wife, my children. We can't just be in a complete society of children. And it looks like the previous generation, they want to just hang on for so long. I mean, they still want to be 28 years old, living in their mother's basement, playing video games, working a dead end job. And it's like you got to eventually grow up. You really think that China is just going to let you just like our whole country just get drunk and parties and plays video games and they're never going to invade, take us over or destroy us or Russia or any of the other countries. I mean, you're going to become a complete slave to the world when you don't grow up and learn how to be a man and do some of the hard tasks, just like your house. If you don't start getting rid of the bugs, pretty soon the bugs will take over. If you don't get rid of the past, the past will take over. I mean, I try to get rid of wasp every year, multiple times every year. But this spring, I mean, there was like 20 nests and like I had to kill like 50 hornets. I mean, just it's just like from one year. I can't even imagine if I wasn't doing that on a regular basis, what it would look like. Well, actually, I do, because you go soul winning and you run into some of the apartment complexes and it's like there's 10,000 just like hanging by the door and you're just like, how do you, you know, deal with that or whatever? And it's like, well, it's apartment. They don't care, right? Because they're not a real man. I guess there's not a real man living here because no one's willing to take care of that task. OK, but Philippians, chapter number two, look at this as in verse three. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. So notice we're getting the same thought, the same concepts. He's being really explicit here that the Lord Jesus Christ wasn't caring about himself. He was caring about others. And that's our attitude is that we should care about other people. And it's not about my will. It's about God's will. And it's about helping other people and blessing other people. I mean, when's the last time you were more concerned with someone in this room's paycheck over your own or their car over your car or their house over your house? Or anything, you know, their family over your family. It's really easy for us to all be so conceited and only care about us and our family and our job and our house and our problems and our everything. You know what, as a Christian, you're supposed to esteem other better than yourself and say, you know what, how can I help other people be blessed in their marriage and their relationships and their jobs and doing good for them? That's even the whole point of going into ministry. It's not to lift yourself up, but it's rather to help other people. It's to build other people up and to help them and encourage them, even if it's a detriment to yourself. Even if you have to suffer a little bit, it hurts your career or it hurts your livelihood or it hurts your bank account or it hurts your car. I mean, have you ever seen my truck lately? Houston's been doing a toll on that thing. I mean, it's barely hanging on. I mean, I bring it in and they're like freaking out. They're like, you've got to replace everything on this. I'm just like, you tell me that every time. I'm going to do it when I have to, okay? I feel like I'm like those sandals in the wilderness that God just keeps being sustained. My truck is just like, I don't know how it's staying up. There were some times where it was rough because it was like I opened the door and the handle broke and then I was just like, I grabbed the other handle brakes and then I go in the back and the other one is just like, but you know what? Who cares? It's a truck. It's going to be destroyed eventually and we'll all be driving Teslas and the government will tell us where to go, okay? So you know, go to Hebrews chapter number 13, Hebrews chapter number 13. What's the title of the sermon? Not my will, you know, and I, and I really just want you to, to think about a real man doesn't do things he wants to do. Okay. Because if we all just did what we want, we would accomplish nothing. I would just go play golf all the time and I would still suck at it and I wouldn't accomplish anything and it would just be a life of vanity and you know, who would be suffering is my wife, is my children, is this world, you know, we see most men in this world are only doing what they want. What do they do? They just go to the bar and get drunk and they just go watch USC and they watch the football game and, and really our society has created so much sports that you can literally just watch sports a hundred percent of the time if you want to. And I'm all for sports. I like playing sports, but you know what? I'm not that big into like, just let's watch other people play sports the rest of our lives. It's really just kind of a vain exercise and it needs to be treated with a lot of caution because we don't want to just get to the point where we're just consuming ourselves on just things that are pleasure because as men we like sport, we like competition, we like fighting, you know, that's human, that's natural. It's there's nothing wrong with it. I'm totally for that, but it's just like anything, sugar, cake, chocolate. I love these things, but we can't just eat chocolate all day, every day. We can't just sustain ourselves on the things that are great. We need to use some temperance and keep, have them have their own place and not let them become an inordinate affection in our lives and say, you know what? Sometimes while I do want to just sit around and do nothing and just watch sports or just hang out or my hobbies or my interests, I need to actually do some work. I need to kill some scorpions. I need to kill some Hornets. I need to get some work done. I need to serve God with my life and kind of decide that, you know what? It's time for me to just be a man and lay that down and not just be consumed with that. And that's the only thing that I participate in. Look at Hebrews chapter number 13 and, and for me, it's real because in the golf world, you can golf your entire life. And in fact, many of the people that many of the people that I know, they do like many of the men, they, as soon as they're done with work, they go golf and then they go golf on Saturdays. They go golf on Sundays. That's their whole weekend. It's a big thing. If you live in a warm climate, you can golf all year. You pay lots of money to be, have a nice golf membership and stuff like that. And look, I don't think there's anything wrong with having a hobby like that or playing fun, but it can become where it's just your life. It's just you're, you're consumed in this hobby. Now, if you're a professional golfer and that's how you make your money, that's one thing, right? But I'm saying like, if you just have a normal job and then you're just consumed in this activity, this game, let's, let's face it. Look, I love golf, but it's a game. Okay. I love football, but it's a game. You know, I love sports, but at the end of the day, it's just simply a game. And it's silly that we just, as men, haven't evolved past games, right? You think it's like, oh, children, they just want to play. And it's like, we don't even play. We watch other people play because you're so much more manly, right, than children. I mean, in fact, children often have a struggle watching games. I remember being a young child and I couldn't stand watching football. I was like, let's go play football. Like I was like, I don't want to sit here and just watch a bunch of overpaid actors and you know, all kinds of stupid stuff going on here. I would rather go out there and throw the football and have some fun and get some exercise ourselves. And to this day, I'm still that way. But as I grew older, I could see the joy and you root for your team and you like these things where you play fantasy football or whatever. Oh, yeah, you know, you make fun of the Larpers, but then you have all this fantasy football and fantasy baseball where you built a team and you're the manager and you're going to play your person. And then you watch like the Tampa Bay Rays play a baseball game. And it's like, no one cares about them or the Jacksonville Jaguars. It's like one of the worst NFL teams in the franchise is like, but I got the running back, you know? And it's just like, you can just waste so much time, so much effort, so much energy on these things that are just vanity. They have no real purpose. They have no real value. And you know what I've never heard? I've never heard a woman say, man, you should watch my husband watch football. He watches football like nobody you've ever seen. I mean, when he watches UFC, it's almost like he's a fighter. It's stupid. They don't like that. They don't think that it's cool. You're not impressing anybody by doing that kind of junk. And look, it could be all kinds of categories. I'm bringing that up just because that's a temptation for a lot of men is to get involved in these activities, sporting events, fighting, these type of things, because inside of us is born a little, there's a fighter somewhere inside of you. And so if you can't do it yourself, you vicariously live through others and you want to see other people doing this. But there is a real fight that you can engage in. There is a real battle that you don't even have to be a spectator sport in. And it's the spiritual battle. It's one where you can actually be a literal soldier going out there and fighting real battles and actually competing and actually contending. But you know what? There's not going to be this vainglory of flexing like, oh, man, I got my PR. I got four people saved in five minutes. You know, and if you do that, it would kind of sound stupid because to real spiritual people, they're like, why are you bragging about it? You know, why are you acting like you're so cool? You know, that's not that cool. But you know, a real valiant fighter is one who's willing to be a Christian when it's not popular. That's cool. You're not getting up there and saying like, we're going to beat the other team and I'm going to shut them down or whatever. It's like saying, hey, I'm going to shut down the devil. Hey, I'm going to shut down the faggots out there and the sodomites and they're not going to stop me. Look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse five. Lay your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as he have for he has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee so that we may boldly say the Lord is my helper and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. He's saying, hey, yeah, I still believe Leviticus 2013, I don't care what man does to me about it. You know, that's a real man is not one who sits here and can wear tights and catch a football in front of a bunch of cheerleaders or something like that. That's not that impressive. You know, it's impressive standing up against this world because you know what I know every time one of these sports athletes, one of these football players accidentally says the truth and actually says that fags are gross. Then they end up apologizing and crying about it later because they're not a real man. Why? Because they can't do the hard thing and they don't say not my will be done because they're worried about their what contracts. They're worried about that money. But what did it say in verse number five? Let your conversation be without covetousness. You know what a real man is like? He doesn't let money rule his life. You know who lets money rule their lives? Whores. So you know what? Real men aren't whores. They're not whoremongers. They're not, hey, oh, I'm going to take away your paycheck. Then do it. Quit threatening me. Just do it already. Because you know what? I'm not going to back down. I'm a real man. I can take care of myself. You know who backs down is women because they can't provide for themselves. You know who backs down is children because they can't provide for themselves. But a real man says, you know what? I can take care of myself. Hey, you want to strip that away? I'll just build something else. I'll work somewhere else. I'll do something else. But you know what? Ask for me in my house. We'll serve the Lord. Amen. Amen. Go to Exodus chapter three. Go to Exodus chapter number three. Hey, not my will. Here's the question. Can you handle the Bible? Can you handle Christianity? Can you handle being a real man? Because you know what? Being a real man is not what the world will tell you. The world wants you to be a real effeminate guy. They want you to be a woman in disguise. They want you to put on the skirt and put on the dress and put on the lipstick and pretty soon it's going to happen. I mean it's already, you know, some of these queers in Hollywood are doing it. Brad Pitt, disgusting freak wearing a skirt. I mean what, I mean how could you ever look at that guy and be like, I want to be that guy wearing a skirt, wearing a dress. And you know, it might seem so repulsive to you today, but 50 years ago it was the exact same feeling for a woman wearing pants. And I guarantee most of you don't have nearly as visceral reaction as Brad Pitt wearing a dress or a skirt or someone wearing drag. It's because they desensitized you. And let me tell you something. You're going to have to raise your kids in a culture where the culture is not as shocked and horrified to see men dressing like freaks. I mean I went to California and it was actually pretty refreshing because I thought it would be like more sodomite than Texas and it was really not that much. But I still saw some of it. I mean I went into, we went into like just a department store or something and the worker there just walks right up in a skirt, like a mini skirt. And I'm just like, what in the world? It's just so disgusting. It's not just, you know, the celebrities that are doing it. I mean it's just the random worker just wearing a skirt. I mean the stupid protesters at our church wear ball gowns and wear all kinds of nasty disgusting outfits. And look, it's, it's going to come down the pike. I mean they're trying to get kids to do this stuff. They're trying to get the teenagers to do this kind of stuff. I mean the Irish already surrendered to the kilts. So what a bunch of queer looking sissies. We're tough. No you're not. I don't care how tough you sound. The fighting Irish. You already lost when you had to put the skirt on. Nobody wins and then puts a skirt on the skirt is for you losing. They're like, I'm going to beat you up unless you put the skirt on and they just put the skirt on and they're like, well like I can't hit a girl. You know, Exodus chapter three, look at verse 10 come now therefore and I will send the interference. God talking to Moses and he's talking through the burning bush and it says that thou may as bring forth my people, the children of Israel out of Egypt and Moses said unto God, who am I, but I should go into Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of it out of Egypt. And he said, certainly I will be with thee and this shall be a token unto thee that I've sent thee when thou has brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and say unto them, the God of your fathers has sent me unto you and they shall say to me, what is his name and what shall I say to them? And God said to Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shall they say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. Now this is a pretty popular passage of scripture in the sense that most people remember Moses was actually hesitant to go and actually deliver the children of Israel out of Egypt. And then you say, why, I'll tell you why, because it's a hard task. Nobody wants to go into the most powerful nation where he's already wanted for murder, already been rejected. He's not, he was kind of a fraud growing up in the sense that they thought he was of the household of Pharaoh, but he's really not. He's this Hebrew and is embarrassing because they hate the Hebrews. And so he basically doesn't want to go back for all the shame, all the threats that could be potentially levied against him. Everyone doesn't like him. Plus his own people didn't even seem to like him because when he was trying to rescue his own brethren, they were basically like, they didn't like him. And it's basically like a black person that was raised in white culture in America today. No one wants them. It's like, no, I'm just kidding. But it's like, you can have this, you can have this feeling where it's like, neither party really wants you. It's like, well, you know, you're not black enough for us, or you're not white enough for us, or you're not what it's like, you know, Moses is an Egyptian enough for them or Moses isn't Hebrew enough for them. So it's like, basically he's in this no man's land where nobody likes him. Nobody kind of wants him around. And of course, how is one man going to deliver millions of people by himself against the most powerful army and military in the world? It's impossible. So the task is as tall as the order could possibly be made. And of course, Moses is going to be a little bit terrified of this. Now I really like this story, this little section here, because Moses kind of does this thing and it's really annoying when people do this, but they do this like fishing for compliments thing, okay? And real men don't fish for compliments, all right? But this self-deprecating attitude, notice what it says in verse 11, Moses said unto God, who am I that I should go unto Pharaoh and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt. Now this is what I like, God's response. And he said, certainly I will be with thee. You know what God didn't say? Anything about Moses. He didn't say, you're a really good guy, Moses. You're really strong. No, you can do it, buddy. He's just like, I'll be with you. It's like, it's not about you, Moses. Moses is like fishing for compliments and God's like, I'm not going to give you one. There's no compliment here, Moses. The only reason it's going to work is because I'm going to be with you. And then when they say like, why are you here? It's just because I sent you. It's not because of you. It's not because you're strong. It's not because you decided to. And here's the really important point. It's not his will. Right? I mean, if there's anything being driven home in this passage, it is not Moses' will to go in there and deliver the children of Israel, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And we see the same kind of hesitancy, which pictures someone for me, oh yeah, the Lord Jesus Christ. Wasn't the Lord Jesus Christ basically saying like anything else, anybody else, but here's the problem. There's one man for one job and it's Moses for the children of Israel. There's one man for one job and it's the Lord Jesus Christ for the gospel. And sometimes there's going to be one man for one job. And in your house, you are that one man. Your wife has one husband, your children have one father and there's one person that can do that is you. You have to be that man. You have to step up to the plate. Look at chapter four, verse 12. The Bible says this. Now therefore go and I will be with my mouth and teach thee what thou shalt say. And he said, Oh my Lord, send I pray thee by the hand of him whom thou wilt send. So he's like, Hey, go, go, go. He's like, well, just send everyone. And it's like Moses tries to keep getting out of this. And what happens at verse 14 and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses. You know, it frustrates God when he tells you what to do and you're just, well, maybe someone else will do it. Maybe someone else will raise my children. Maybe somebody else will get my children saved. Maybe someone else will drag my children to church. Maybe someone else will kill the scorpions or take out the trash or do the work. You know, you shouldn't let, you shouldn't let your wife do your job. Shouldn't make your grandparents do your job for you. Shouldn't let the school do your job for you. You shouldn't let the government do your school, your job for you. You know, you as the man just have to say, you know what? God already told me, I got a job. I got to do it. I'm just going to man up because it angers God. When he already gave you the job duty, he gave you the kit to task to do, and he's wanting you to get in there and do it. Now it gives him Aaron and he ends up telling him that he's going to give him a token for, for doing this. It's kind of mentioned in here that when he returns back, that any worships on the mountain, that that's going to be the token that the Lord was with him. Now I also thought that that was kind of interesting because if you think about Jesus Christ, he also mentioned how there was only going to be one sign given to the adulterous and sinful generation and it was the sign of the prophet Jonas and it kind of pictures the gospel, right? It's also interesting that it's kind of like he's led up to Mount Calvary. That's the one time they'll know that that's Jesus Christ was sent by God. And then when Moses goes through all of those events and then goes up to the Mount, that's also when they'll know that he has the token and the sign. But here's another thing that's interesting for Moses's perspective. He doesn't know if God's with him, like in a, in a real finite, real concrete sense until he's gone there, preached against Pharaoh, gone through 10 plagues, walked out through the wilderness, walked through the red sea, walked through the wilderness and then showed up at the Mount and then God hands him 10 commandments to confirm that God was with them the whole way. So you know what? Sometimes God is going to test your faith by putting you through a lot of difficult tasks over and over and over again. And it's not going to be until hindsight or a long time away that you'll realize, Oh wow, God was putting me through that for a reason. God was testing me for a reason and you know, did I pass the test? And you know what? God prefers it when you don't have to be told twice like Jonah, you know, failed in this kind of mission is Jonah because Jonah didn't want to go preach to the Ninevites. He had the wrong attitude. He said, my will be done, not the Lord's. And the Lord had to punish him for rebelling and then eventually, all right, I'll go preach to the Ninevites. And you can at least admit that it wasn't his will. He never wanted to preach to them. He never liked them. He didn't want to get them saved yet. He did it anyways. Okay. And sometimes you have to do that. Sometimes you have to just drag yourself out soul winning. I am the pastor of a church. I'm the pastor of two churches. And I'll be honest with you. There's plenty of days where I don't want to preach the gospel to people, but I just go anyways. And I just knock on the door and especially in Watauga because those people hate us. And it's just like, you just keep knocking every door, just like cringing for someone to answer. Cause it's just like so unreceptive, but you know what? You just, you just keep doing it. And there's going to be that one person that needs the gospel. And let me tell you something, whether I'm in a good mood or a bad mood, they can still get saved. And they're not going to be like, well, I kind of wish the pastor was in a little bit happier mood when he got me saved that day. That doesn't matter. You know, it's like, was no, was a Jonah in a really good mood when he saved their entire city. He had the worst attitude of any person that's ever gone out and preached, but you know, he preached what needed to be said. And you know, sometimes as a man, you don't do things just because you really want to, or you really like it. It's just because you have to do it. Someone has to do it and you just do it because you're a man. People that don't do things that are hard are children, weak and women, people that do things that they don't want to do that are hard are men. Okay. Now, go over to Mark chapter number four, Mark chapter number four, you know, the Bible says if they'll faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. So your strength is measured by enduring things that you don't want to do. Think about just strength in general. I mean, how do you measure someone's strength? Isn't it by typically how much you can lift or jump or it's measured by some kind of quantity. And if we think about weights when it's lifting, what is the quantity? It's how hard is it? Because if it's five pounds, that's easy. If it's 50 pounds, that's harder. If it's 500 pounds, it's really hard. So we're measuring our strength based on what? On the difficulty of the task. So you can really literally measure your manliness, your manhood by the willingness of you to do difficult tasks. And from a physical perspective, the manliest guy is able to do the most difficult physical tasks. So what would be the spiritual picture? The most spiritually manly person is one who's willing to do the most difficult spiritual tasks. Things that are really hard, really vexing. And you say, well, what is that persecution? Persecution is really how you can tell how strong, how manly a spiritual man of God is. And I'm not talking about a pastor, I'm just talking about a Christian. How strong is this particular Christian? And you know, the Bible talks about how there's different types of Christians. There's Christians that are stronger than other types of Christians. And they're more in my illustration here, manly in essence. Now in Mark, chapter number four, we kind of have the parable of the sower, it's mentioned in several different places. Look at verse number 17, Mark chapter four, verse 17. Now I want to, I need verse 16 because it's just, it's a little better context. And these are they likewise, which are sown on stony ground who when they have heard the word immediately received it with gladness and have no root in themselves. And so endure, but for a time afterward, when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. So what does this look like? Well, in January of 2021, they watched the sodomite deception movie and ate popcorn and thought it was great. And then in June, when the sodomites showed up, they quit church. Hey, they received it with gladness. They really liked the doctrine. They really liked the truth. They really liked the movie. But when the rubber meets the road, it turns out they're not that manly. It turns out they don't have that much strength. And you know what? In the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Hey, when a bunch of dudes and dresses can stop you from going to church, you're weak. How in the world can you literally stop going to a church because faggots are protesting it? That should make you want to go more, not less. I mean, you should be embarrassed that you're not willing to go. You're afraid of a dude wearing a ball gown. You're afraid of a dude in a skirt. You're afraid of a dude in a wig. I mean, with lipstick on, oh, don't go to steadfast. I mean, what are you afraid of? That just shows that you have really no strength. You're all talk and no walk. And you know what? I'm not going to sit here and coddle men that can't even handle a bunch of dudes wearing dresses. It's like nuts to you. Now, you can disagree with someone and still go to church too. Did you realize that? You don't have to agree with me on 100% of things. You could still go to church. You could think like, I don't like how Pastor Shelley said that or this word or, you know, whatever. And you could still go to church because go find me the church where the pastor's perfect and I'll join it. I'll join it with you and we can all worship the most perfect pastor ever. But guess what? Until Jesus Christ is here on earth, you won't have a perfect bishop. Yeah, we got a perfect bishop in heaven, but guess what? God uses the foolishness of me now. And you know what? Foolishness of Pastor Thompson, the foolishness of other pastors and great men of God. But let me tell you something. If you want to pick them apart, we could do it all day long. Everyone has flaws. Everyone has issues. Everyone says dumb things every once in a while. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone does things that are not perfect. But you know what? A real man can endure that. A real man isn't sitting here thinking like, I need to be handled with kid gloves and I can only go to the church where I agree with every single word and every single utterance and they tell me how special I am every time I show up in the building. No, no, no. And I never have a crowd that's hostile to me going to church or doesn't like me or will say anything mean about me. You know what? A real man can just endure some persecution. These people just don't have that same strength. You know, when it talks about plants and stuff and some of these instances, they don't have that root showing that they're missing some strength. You know, I think of root as being kind of like that picture of muscles. You know, he skipped leg day, you know? So it's just really easy to tip him over. He had no root, right? He likes to flex in the mirror. But then when the trouble came, he just trips all over himself, right? Just chicken leg boy. He just can't even handle the real heat. Go to Second Timothy, chapter number two, Second Timothy, chapter number two. And let's be real. Persecution is not my will. You know, I would if I got to press a button saying like, I never have to go through any persecution. Everyone thinks I'm great and everything thinks I'm wonderful and everybody's on my team and, you know, no adversity and no affliction. You know, nobody wants to go through persecution. But it's not my will. It's God's will. Jesus Christ didn't want to go through that. The Bible says he despised the shame. You know, Jesus Christ didn't want to come to his own creation and for them to mock at him and spit on him and lie about him and rail on him. Of course, Jesus Christ deserved for everybody to fall down and worship him and praise the Lord and serve and honor him every day of his life. You know, the majority of his earthly ministry was met with rebellion, resistance, affliction, persecution, lying, railing, slander, attacks, people following him around, constantly trying to get him killed, constantly trying to get everyone to turn on him. I mean, if that's what Jesus Christ's ministry was like, why would I anticipate that the real Christian life isn't going to sound like that? We have all these people falling around, constantly trying to kill you, get you killed, get you turned into the cops, get everybody to turn against you, infiltrating, giving money to even basically, they're using their own money or using God's money to try and trap you or do evil to you. I mean, think about the Sadducees and Pharisees. I mean, they're literally taking God's money to sell out Jesus Christ. And some people that have such low respect for God in the house of God, they would literally steal church money just in an effort to take down a man of God, just to use against him, just to hurt him, just to do evil unto him. And I mean, these are the lowest of the low type of people. No one wants to go through that. No one wants to have to endure that. But you know what? My life is not my will. It's not my will. I'm not here to see what easy path I can travel down. Because then it would ultimately show that I'm a weak link. I can, you know, the water goes down the path of least resistance. And when the Bible talks about Reuben, he talked about him being as water. Why? Because he didn't have any real strength. You know, water just succumbs and goes down to the lowest common denominator and lets everybody else tell it what it's going to do. Whereas a rock tells everybody else what it's going to do. You know, the rock, you conform to the rock. The rock doesn't conform to you. You go lay on a rock and see which one looks different. You'll look different. The rock will look the same. Okay? And that's really how it's supposed to be. We lay on Jesus and we're supposed to look different. Jesus isn't going to change. Hey, lay on the King James Bible for a while and let it change you, the way you look. But you know what comes with that is some uncomfortability. Laying on rocks isn't the most comfortable. I don't even know how Jacob slept with a rock as his pillow. I still get that story. I'm guessing he used his coat as like a buffer. This is my personal thoughts. Okay. Otherwise he's just too manly for me. Okay. I don't know. It's like, I have nowhere to lay my head except for this rock. It's like, Oh, okay. Well, look at second Timothy chapter two, look at verse three. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Hey, he's telling Timothy, Hey, your life's not going to be easy, buddy. You're going to have to endure hardness. Your life is going to be hard. You know, the life of a man is hard. You say, Hey, pastor Shelley, my life is hard. Good. You know, the worst thing would be if you say my life's easy. It's like, well, you're going to get really weak that way. You know, what if you went to the workout and you left and you're like, that was easy. You're not gonna get strong that way. You get strong by bear, like crawling out. Okay. Go work out with Nick Connelly and then, and then tell me that was easy. You know? I mean, the guy is like, you know, insane. He's like, he's got like 120 pound dumbbells and he's just like, he's like, will you spot me? It's like, I'll watch you. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm spotting this guy. Yeah. Yeah. I'm helping him. Yeah. It's like, no, I can't help him. Okay. But at the end of the day, it's like, you want to go to the gym and be like, that was hard. You want to walk away from the workout and be like, that was difficult. You know, if you won the super bowl, you would want it to be like, that was hard. You wouldn't want to play it against a bunch of transvestites or something, but one it's like, Whoa, good job, buddy. Really? You beat a bunch of trannies. You bet. You beat a little kid's team. I mean, in fact, it's kind of like, it makes me think of that ping pong competition where Jacob is like playing. It's a kid at the end. And it's like, that's a no win situation because if you win, it's like, you beat a kid and if you lose, you lost to a kid, you know, it's like, you want it to be the hardest. You want it to be like my long. Okay. He only knows that joke. You want it to be like the greatest ever, right? The greatest team, the, the, the strongest opponent. You want to kill Goliath. You don't want a woman to throw a Millstone and kill you, you know, Bay rack or whatever. You want it to be the toughest opponent. Both hands are tied behind your back. You had no outs and you just MacGyvered it, right? You don't want to have a nuke and you're fighting it's kittens or something. You know, it's like, come on buddy. It's like, we want to have some, some difficulty. And you know, when it comes to the Christian life, let me tell you, the foe is strong. The devil's not a, a, a weak adversary. He is a real threat. He plays dirty. He will come at you in every angle possible. And he'll use all kinds of different tactics to try and attack you. That's why you have to endure hardness. I mean, the devil knows how to get at you. Have you ever read the book of Job? I mean, it's not like the devil's a weak foe here. I mean, he knows how to take all of your money, all of your kids and leave your wife. I mean, this guy, that's like the first country music song ever written. You know, it's like Job chapter one. It's like my dog died and my kids are dead. And my wife's still here. It's just like, I mean, man, this guy's got it. Is we've got a rough life. Okay. I just think it's funny. It's just like, the devil's never like, if you take his wife, you know, then you'll be upset. He didn't bring it up. He's just like, he's whispering in her ear. Say this now. Okay. She's like, okay. Hey, he whispered in Eve's ear, didn't he? Hey, the devil might be whispering in your wife's ear. And you know, sometimes when you're saying no to your wife, you're not saying no to your wife, you're saying no to the devil. You're saying no to the demon that whispered in your wife's ear that was on Hollywood, right? Queen Latifah or Oprah or some female preacher or whatever is going on out there whispering in their ear, some advertisement, uh, what's that stupid side? I hate this Pinterest. That is the devil whispering in every woman's ear. Okay. And making every one of them the most, the most like ill content woman on the planet because they've never made a meal like Pinterest. They've never had an outfit like Pinterest. They've never had a house like Pinterest. They've never had a soft, effeminate husband like Pinterest. And you know, it's like, stop comparing yourself amongst yourself and just be content with such things as you have. And sometimes you got to rebuke the devil out of her. But you know what? That's a difficult task, but you know what? Men arise to the occasion. Men say, you know what? That's dumb. You know, that's, I like your meals. Okay. I like the way you dress me. I don't want to look like a faggot queer. And you know what? I noticed these women, they like faggot queer fashion. I don't know what it is, but it's attracting to them. You know, it's the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh or something there. And we as men need to dress ugly on purpose. Okay. I don't want you to look pretty. All right. You look like a real man and handsome and a little off color or something. Okay. It doesn't need to match. Look at second Timothy, chapter four, second Timothy chapter four. Look at verse number one. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord, Jesus Christ is a judge, the quick and the dead, it is appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, along suffering and doctrine for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust, shall they heap to themselves? Teachers having itching ears and they should turn away their ears from the truth and should be turned into fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, endure afflictions. He's saying, Hey, when the fads show up at church, endure afflictions. When they lie about you, endure afflictions. When your family member rails on you, endure afflictions. When you have to go through some extra adversity in your life, Hey, endure some affliction because you're a man. Hey, and he said, Hey, I'm not just telling you this by myself. Look what he said in verse one. Again, I charged thee therefore before God and the Lord, Jesus Christ. Look, it's not just you. It's not just Paul. He's saying, God is telling you, endure afflictions. Jesus is saying, endure afflictions. And you know what? We must seem so weak and pathetic when we think about what Jesus had to go through and we're not willing to step up to the plate. When we're not willing to endure things. And he's like, I had a crown of thorns shoved down on my head. I was whipped 39 times. I mean, who's been whipped with a cord of lips 39 times in here? I mean, he literally had to have the nails driven through his hands, driven through his feet on the cross for hours and hours. It's like, you, we don't even know what it's like to suffer real persecution. We don't even know. We don't even, it's like, Oh, someone left me a bad message on Facebook. You sound like a queer bait. Okay. Why do you care so much? Maybe you should get off social media and stop acting so effeminate. Real men don't care. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. You know, why can't we have a generation where men aren't offended by words anymore? Oh, he said a bad word. Did that really hurt you? I'm sorry I hurt your tender little heart there. You're so soft. I mean, you're just such a holy man. You can't be, you know, touched with a word. Oh, the word just hurt my heart so bad. It's like, you sound like a woman. I would expect women to be offended by words, not men. What kind of man is offended by language or by words? Not a real man. I mean, he's talking here in doer afflictions. It wasn't words you didn't like. I mean, on the list of big deals, it's like, come on, folks. Look at chapter three and look at verse number eight. Now as Janice and Jamborees withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be manifest in all men as theirs also was. But thou has fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came to me at Antioch at Iconum at Lystra. What persecutions, notice this, I endured. I endured. You know what? Praise God that the apostle Paul was a real man who after getting beaten in his town went to the next town and got beat again, and then went to the next town and got beat again, and then went to the next town and got beat again, and he's like, oh, I won't preach at Stephes Baptist Church. They might say something mean to me. Give me a break. The apostle Paul would walk into our church bloody and bruised to preach the Bible, and you can't even come in because of a bunch of queer little sissies. I mean, you are weak. The apostle Paul was under threat of death. The apostle Paul was under threat of bodily injury. Many times he literally had to experience it physically. They stoned him to death one time. He was whipped several times. He was beaten with rods. He was shipwrecked. He was starving. He was mocked. He was ridiculed. Everything imaginable, infiltrators and false friends and people deserting him and people backstabbing him and people just doing all kinds of crazy things. The Bible says peril of robbers. Hey, he had people steal from him. That verse comforts me because it's like, if apostle Paul can get stolen from, then I can get stolen from, right? It's just like, praise God that the apostle Paul just said nuts to it. I'm going to keep going. What I've noticed is when you just let all that stuff just keep going, you finally get to the point where it's like, hey, I've already been there, done that. Once you've already been beaten to the point of death or you've been stoned to death, what's going to stop you at that point? It's like, oh, you're going to try and kill me again. Shock. You know? Oh, it's that again. Right? And obviously it still hurts every single time. Every single stone still hurt. Every single whip still hurt every single, uh, you know, mockery and ridicule and rod and all this stuff. It's still hurt, but you know what? He endured it. And we, as real men need to endure these kinds of persecutions, these kinds of afflictions and not just let ourselves just be moved by the fear of man, not letting man tell us what to do. I mean, what did Hebrews chapter 13 say earlier? I'm not going to fear what man shall do unto me. I got one life to live and I'm just going to live it. And you know what? If God wants me to be his martyr, then so be it. But you know, most of the time you're running away from nothing. Most people are not going to be martyred. Most people are going to go through this affliction. You know, it was just really the apostles. And in fact, of the apostles, it was only a handful of them that really got it super bad because some of them just got their head chopped off. And while that sucks, it wasn't like you really experienced it for a long time. I've never heard someone complaining after the head was chopped off, right? Like their head wasn't chopped off and they're like, oh, it hurts guys. Can you put it back on my body? It's like, it's lights out. I mean, you got to think about it. It's like, yeah, it might've hurt for like that long. You just got to hope that they like make it all the way through. Now if it was like a dole blade and they kind of just like hacked and they kind of like only went here and then it didn't really work and they're like, all right, reload. You know, then you're kind of like, oh man, you know, or saw an asunder or something. That's the real one. The head chopped off. You're just like sweet, you know, probably didn't feel it. You probably just instantly in heaven, you know, it's not that big a deal. And even if it was the worst pain you've ever felt for 20 seconds, it's 20 seconds guys. Okay. It's, I mean the women go through pregnancy longer than that. They go through the livery longer than that. How are they more manly than us? Gove you would to John chapter number six, go to John chapter six. Now he had mentioned in second Timothy chapter number four that he endured afflictions, but he also brought up the fact that many people would not be able to endure preaching. And you know, when it comes to being a real man and you're deciding it's not my will, you have to decide number one, that you're going to endure persecution. It's not my will for persecution is his will for persecution. But number two, it's not my will when it comes to preaching, it's his will when it comes to preaching, meaning that I'm not going to go to the church to hear what I want to hear. I'm going to go to the church to hear what I need to hear. I'm going to, I'm going to listen to preaching that I don't necessarily want to hear. I think sometimes we are spoiled as the new IFB because we've heard so much good preaching that we really like and really resonated with and was fun to listen to that we get shocked when there's also sermons packed in there that we didn't want to hear. Or there's topics that we're not as interested in, or there's things that the pastor say that it's like, are you talking about me? And it's like, yes. You know, the preaching is not just a big rah, rah, rah, let's just see how much fun we can have while preaching. You know, preaching should actually motivate us. You know, the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter number 12 is supposed to be like an ox goad. It's supposed to basically, you know, no one wants to get stabbed in the side with a sharp prick. Okay. We're just jabs you in your side. I mean, that's what they do to animals that cause them to just jump and go and move when they're being stubborn and rebellious. And so essentially the same picture is supposed to be, you guys are being stubborn and rebellious and the preacher has to kind of try and prick you a little bit so that you'll change. But you know, what's really frustrating is when you prick someone and they don't change because then it's like, well, let's get a new horse. Let's get a new animal or a new beast because it's like, and when you stop responding to the pricking, when you stop responding or you just decide you're not going to hear it anymore or you're going to quit, you know what? You're just going to go in a bad direction. There's plenty of people that can't hear. They're weak. You know, if you can't hear something that you disagree with and still just endure it, it just shows that you're a liberal. I mean the cancel culture, what is the cancel culture? I didn't like it. Hate speech, right? To them, they just didn't like it. And that's really the big category, just something they don't agree with. They don't like from now. It's like, we're so tolerant and accepting and loving. If you agree with us a hundred percent, it's like, what does that mean? And that's the kind of culture that we're raising where people literally think that if you don't agree with them, they have to change their mind. Like you walk into a restaurant and it used to be the customer's always right and I got that, but it's gotten to such an extreme that it's just like, whatever they say, it's just like, you know, bow down to me, kneel, raise your hand, say that you love black people or, you know, do whatever. It's just like, you know, I'm against racism. Like I totally think that it's fake. It's not even real. Like that's not even legitimate whatsoever. And stupid to believe that one race is better than another. I personally believe that everyone in America should be allowed to be as racist as they possibly want with no consequence because who cares? Who cares? If every single person thinks that white people are stupid and ignorant and dumb and the worthless, why do I care? That's their problem. That's their fault. And you want reality will always prove them wrong. The reason why people don't like racism typically is because a lot of stereotypes are so associated with certain people and they're often true. That's why they don't like them. Like Jews being stingy. That's not racism. That's observing facts. That's having met a Jew in real life. Okay. And look, there are certain stereotypes because it's true. It's like if you go to a restaurant and the restaurant's called Lolo's Chicken and Waffles, everyone's going to be black in there. But I go there too because I like it. But you know what? If I go down to Mexico, guess what my option is? Mexican food. There's not an Italian place. There's not a Chinese place. There's certainly not Indian food because that's gross. But you know what? It's tacos and burritos and enchiladas and whatever. It's just like, you know, I saw some guy, he was like a fireman, this was like a year ago or something, he like bought a bunch of watermelons for his fire department because he worked with a bunch of black guys. And he got fired because it was racist. And I'm like, but did they eat the watermelon and like it? It's like I love watermelon. It's probably my favorite fruit, especially if it's actually ripe and good. I mean, there's almost nothing better than the center of a watermelon. The heart of a watermelon when it's ice cold and it's perfectly ripe. I mean, that thing is delicious. Okay. Why does it have to be exclusively black? I don't know, but it is okay. But why is that a big deal? Why can't we celebrate differences? Why can't we celebrate that people, you know, it's like black people are better than white people like virtually every sport. Why is that, you know, so why, why, why do I have to sit here and pretend like that's not reality? Why do I have to pretend it's called white men can't jump? It's like, you're racist. It's called facts. Have you ever seen us jump? You know, it's just, it's reality. You know, there's a reason why the NBA is filled with black people because they're better at basketball. You know, it's, there's a reason why they're filled in the NFL because they're stronger, faster, more athletic. I mean, that's just, that's just the reality and it's okay. We should accept reality and we should be tolerant of people being different, having different views. And when it comes to preaching, you should stop being worried about agreeing with everything and deciding that you agree with it. You should decide, is this biblical? That's the only thing that should matter. Is it true? And you know, racism has made it where we have to deny facts and reality and, and supportive people's opinions and feelings. And you know what? That is a satanic agenda that's similar to attacking the Bible of, well, I'm offended, so I don't want to hear it. But here's the thing. Is it true? You know, and, and look, even the IFB does this, even our frenemies do this, pastors so-called. I mean, they'll get upset and they'll be like, oh, I don't like the memes and I don't like the things they say, but it's like, but is it true? But it's mean. It's like, who cares if it's mean? Jesus was mean folks. Jesus didn't go around hoping to not hurt anybody's feelings. In fact, at some times it kind of feels like he's hurting their feelings on purpose. I'm just giving my, I mean, read the Bible. It's like, Hey, did you know the lawyer's offended? And he's like, not yet, just wait. I'm preaching. You know, if you think I preach a lot of sermons, have you ever read the gospels? Jesus preached like four sermons in a row. I mean, it just goes from one server. The next, sometimes you're like, I don't know how that connected, but it's Jesus. So he gets to do whatever he wants. Right. But look at John chapter number six and look at verse 63, this Jesus preaching. It is the spirit that quick and at the flesh prophet of nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believe not and who should betray him. And he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my father. From that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him. Why? Because they're weak because they weren't a mighty man. They weren't willing to hear things that they didn't like to hear. They weren't willing to be challenged. They got offended and they just put their tail between their legs and went home. And you know what, if you're going to be a real man of God, you have to sometimes be challenged with the Bible. You know what I like about Peter is he was rebuked by Paul, but you know, he didn't, he didn't quit. He didn't give up. You know, sometimes, you know, even you've seen pastors get calling out of the pastors are calling out of the men of God and not because they're wicked, but just because they made a mistake. You know what a real man does is he just owns up to his mistake and fixes and moves on. He doesn't sit here and rail or dig in or do it. He can actually take correction, you know, and taking correction is a really important role in a, in a person's spiritual manliness. You know, men can take correction. Women struggle with that more children struggle with this more. You know, men should not be the most easily offended. They should not be the least in being able to accept correction. They should be the best at accepting correction. And so you should realize that if you take your family to church, you may be the least offended and you have to try and encourage your family to be likewise, because if you're getting offended, it's going to fall downstream. Your wife and your kids are going to be offended then for sure. Because no one likes for daddy to be, you know, hurt or upset or whatever. So it's like, if dad's talking bad on the church or if dad's upset at the preaching, then everyone's going to be upset regardless of the situation. So you, as a man, you have to internalize your feelings. And sometimes what this does in hindsight, you like regress feelings against really bad people. But at the flip side, I guarantee there's other people that are actually good that you repressed feelings on and you're glad you did. And so it's, there's not a contest and outing Judas before he's Judas. Like, I think everybody has this idea of like, I'm going to catch the next Judas before he lays the trap. But it's like, you know what, let him and build the gallows because he's going to hang himself. Okay. Don't worry about that. You know, just give people the benefit of the doubt, regress, you know, repress feelings. You know, I had horrible feelings about Tyler Baker when I went to faithful word Baptist church, the deacon of that church. And he did a lot of weird stuff, shady stuff, seems selfish, very prideful, not hardworking, seemed like a liar. But I repressed a lot of those feelings because I said, maybe I'm wrong. And you know, this is a health, this is a healthy mentality. Maybe I'm wrong. Because when you, when you at least approach life as maybe I'm wrong, then you can constantly go back to the Bible and prove it back to yourself again and say, okay, nope, no, I'm right. It's like, Hey, maybe I'm wrong here. Let's look at, let's take a step out. Let's look at it from their perspective. And often when you do this, what it'll actually do is it'll strengthen your position. When you dig in and you're not willing to consider other people's approaches or consider other people's ideas, it's actually going to weaken you. If you go out soul winning, it's only going to confirm to you that everyone's unsaved because the more you go out soul winning, the more you realize every single person says that salvation's by works. You're just like, wow, like there's no way to walk away from years of soul winning and not realize everyone else is trusting in works because they just said it to you over and over and over and over again. And so, you know, but if you didn't go soul winning, you could come to a church like ours and be like, Oh, that pastor, he's always preaching against the Methodist and the Catholics and the Nazarene. And I think they're good people. I think they're on their way to heaven. I don't understand why he has to be so mean about it and so callous and use that kind of language. But then it's like you go soul winning for years and you're like sitting here thinking like, yeah, preach harder. Those Catholics and Nazarenes and church of Christ, they're wicked. They do believe in false doctrine. They are damning people's souls to hell. These people are entrenched in all kinds of evil. They don't believe the gospel whatsoever. And you stop getting this stupid idea. Okay. That's why you have to constantly approach life and say, maybe I'm wrong. And you know what? If you have this mentality, then you can hang around Jesus long enough to realize he's right. As opposed to just quickly getting offended and just be like, I don't think I don't agree with that. Bye. Because you know what I've noticed is many times in my life when I thought I was right, I ended up being wrong and I had to change. I had to make changes in my life and I had to learn what the Bible said and I had to conform to God's word and I had to decide, you know what? That is what the Bible really says. And you have to challenge yourself and you know what? This is a healthy approach to your life. A real man allows himself to be wrong. Why? Because it's not my will. It's not about me. It's not about my pride. It's not about being right every single time. It's about the seek and pursuit of truth. That's the most important thing. I don't care what's right as far as I don't have a personal bias. I just want to know what is right. It's like, hey, if sodomites can't be saved, it doesn't really affect me. It's not my personal opinion of I want them to not be saved or I want them to be saved. I don't really care which it is. I just want to know what's true. I don't care if the Catholics are saved or not. I just want to know if they are. I don't care if the Nazarenes are saved or not. I just want to know if they are. I don't care if the Muslims are saved or not. I just want to know if they are. I don't care what I think about how nice or kind or friendly I should be. I want to know what the Bible says, how I should act. I'll be honest with you, many times it's not my will, especially when it comes to preaching. I am the type of person, like if you knew me especially before I was a pastor, my personality naturally speaking is a people pleaser and to joke about everything. So I won't take anything serious and I would try to not be offensive and just try to tell everybody what they'd want to hear. That is my national, personal personality, but you know what? That's not what Jesus wants me to be like behind the pulpit. He wants me to be sober and he wants me to say things that are actually going to be an ox goad and actually rub people the wrong way. And I'll be honest, I was never like that. I mean, growing up, I always tried to mend problems with people and there'd be issues with our family and I'd always just try to forgive everything and let everything go and never approach people, never tell people they're doing things wrong. Because I don't want to just rub people the wrong way. I don't want people to not like me and from a selfish perspective, why would you? But you know, you have to just eventually say, you know what, but this is true, this is right and I'm going to say it and it offends you, that's your problem. Go if you would to Proverbs chapter number one, go to Proverbs chapter one. Not my will. Hey, it's not my will to be persecuted, but I'm going to do it. It's not my will to, when it comes to preaching of what I want to hear being preached of what topics I'm interested in, of what things I want to hear about, you know, and you get, you get these like one trick ponies and you can tell that they're not submitting themselves of the Bible. You know, these like younger creation lists where that's the only thing they care about and it's stupid. And then you end up realizing they had become heretics on all kinds of weird issues because they're not balanced. They're not a balanced Christian, you know, only caring about in times are only caring about the Jews. No, I'm just kidding. Are only caring about, you know, one particular topic. You know, we can't just, or only even being caring about the gospel, you know, you can't just only care about soul winning. You have to care about baptism. You have to care about the King James Bible issue. You have to care about predators. You have to care about how church is supposed to behave. You're supposed to care about being a husband and how to be a wife and how to be a child and how to be a father and how to be a brother and how to work hard. You need balance in your life and you need to constantly be challenged to hear things that you don't already know and that you don't already agree with. Because let me wake you up to a reality. You are not right with God perfectly. You don't already know everything. You don't already have all the right ideas and the right doctrines. We have to constantly renew our mind with the scripture, with the word of God. Be reminded of things in the Bible, myself included. I constantly am reading things in the Bible and I'm like, yeah, I feel like I wasn't right on that or I've been thinking wrong about this or I need to sharpen myself or, hey, the Bible is giving me a different perspective here than what I was thinking. Because our flesh is going to naturally draw us in the wrong direction, just kind of like a tide out at sea. If you just stand there, it's going to draw you out to sea. You have to constantly walk back towards the shore if you don't want to drown. And when it comes to the Christian life, you have to constantly walk in the right direction so you don't get taken away by the tide of the world and they're constantly taken by the tide of the flesh. Proverbs chapter one says in verse number five, a wise man will hear and will increase learning. Notice that wise men are not talking, they're listening. Why go to church and hear preaching so that you can be wise? You know, fools like to hear themselves speak, that his heart may discover itself. Oh, I didn't know, I'm so smart, it's so wise and that was so clever what I came up with. You know, wise people listen a lot and wise people read a lot. You know, if you want to become a wise person, there's only two ways. It's through listening to good material and reading good material. That is the only way you're going to become a smart person. If you don't do either of those, you're probably not very smart. You're probably just not very wise. It says in a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. Notice also you're not seeking just any kind of wisdom, you're trying to find the right type of person. Now, here's something you understand about wisdom. There's three words in the Bible, knowledge, understanding and wisdom. Knowledge is information. Understanding is the comprehension of that information, what it means. Wisdom is the application of that information and that understanding. So I always use John 3.16. John 3.16, quoting the verse is the knowledge. Telling me that if you believe in Jesus and faith alone in him will take you to heaven, that's understanding what that verse means. Believing that and getting saved is the wisdom there. If you don't do it, you're never wise. So if I understand what the Bible is saying here, it's not saying someone that has the facts of the Bible, it's not saying someone that has the meaning, it's saying someone that's doing the Bible. That sounds like someone that's in church, that sounds like a pastor. That sounds like an evangelist. That sounds like a deacon. That sounds like someone that's actively engaged in reading the Bible and going soul-winding and doing the work and doing the ministry, that you're going to go find that person and you're going to listen to what they have to say. That eliminates every one of these weirdos. Alex Jones is not wise. When did Alex Jones apply John 3.16 in his life? And when does Alex Jones ever go soul-winding? When does Alex Jones go to church? When does Ray Comfort go to church, as a matter of fact? Hey, when is Jordan Peterson going to church? When is Ben Shapiro going to church? These people aren't wise because they're not applying the word of God in their life. Where's all their children that they're not flushing down the toilet with birth control? Where's their godly, God-fearing wife who's meek and quiet and serving them and serving their children? Where's their God-fearing children that are obedient children? You should try to find a man that's actually plugged into church, that's following the Bible. Why do you think he tells the pastor that you're an example to the flock? Because you're supposed to be living that kind of lifestyle. It's not just the pastor. It's every man that should be striving for that, but of course I don't want to go and listen to someone that's not doing it. You know, here's someone I don't want to listen to, Greg Locke. That guy's not wise. The guy who literally runs off with the secretary, divorces his wife, runs off with the secretary, you know what I want to hear from him? Nothing. That guy should sit down and shut up because he's not smart, he's not wise, he's carnal, he's just a sensationalist, he just wants fame and attention, and you know what, he's in the flesh. I don't even think he's saved, but even if he is, he's one of the most carnal Christians that there is. And you know what, I don't care what he says. I'm not interested, I'm not going to plug in, I'm not going to listen to this guy. This guy is not smart, he's not wise, he's not filled with the Spirit of God, and I don't care what he says that's right. Because most of what he's saying is not right because he's carnal. And inside of us, sometimes we hear carnal things and we think it's right because it sounds right, but then you have to look at the Bible and you're like, oh, it's wrong. And you're like, well, I want to go to a church like his. Well, I want to go to the church where they're going to preach what I want to hear. It's like, you want to go to the preach where you're going to hear this from a guy that's doing this. Go into 1 Corinthians chapter one, go back to 1 Corinthians chapter number one. You want to find a man of God that's actually living it, not just can talk it, not can just explain it, doing it. And this would be your advice in every area of life. You want to attain on a wide council, you need to find someone that's doing it. It's funny, I go with Brother Conley to work out sometimes at LA Fitness, and they have all these people getting personal trainers, like helping them work out. And you would never think this person's worked out in their life. And I'm thinking like, I don't want you to be my personal trainer. Why would I want to get advice from somebody? I mean, imagine going and saying like, you know, I want to get a basketball lesson. And this guy's like, well, I've never played basketball, but I'll tell you how to do it. It's like, what? It's like, why would I want to get advice about how to live the Christian life from a guy that's not living a Christian life? Who's not actually doing what the Bible said? Who's not actually following the commandments? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And you know, there's plenty of guys that they look okay on the surface, but then you realize they're not going soul winning. They're not zealous about things in the Bible. They're not preaching the hard things in the Bible. You know, it's so funny. People get so mad at us and our church specifically about the sodomite issue. But when have you heard any of the old IV or evangelicals or any of these people just even preach against them in their own way? What if they just, I mean, isn't it still a wicked sin? Even if you disagree, even if you disagree with the reprobate doctrine, even if you disagree with the death penalty, when are they just getting up and saying it's wicked and it's perverted and they're gross and we should try to put a stop to them? I mean, when are they even just saying that? It's like they think that our approach is wrong. Well, it's like, what's your approach? Put them in the nursery? What's your approach, John Getch, to roll out the red carpet for them? I mean, how's that working? Oh, we'll keep preaching the gospel with them. Well, here's the problem. They're reprobate. And because you don't believe the reprobate doctrine, your plan of action is not going to work. It's like giving a COVID vaccine to someone that has monkey pox. It's not going to help. Now, I don't want to equate the gospel to the COVID vaccine because it's not, that's a bad parallel, but you know, it, you know, it's not going to work. Okay. That's not going to benefit them because they've already rejected the antidote. They've already rejected the cure. It's not, it's really trying to give people like fruits and vegetables to cure AIDS. It's like, that's not going to work. You know, if you're in vegetables, good AIDS, incurable disease, reprobate gospel, it doesn't matter how many times you give that gospel, the reprobate, it's not going to work. Okay. But they don't want to hear the preaching. Look at first Corinthians chapter one, verse 26. The Bible says, for you see your calling brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen the fullest things of the world to confound the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world that can found the things which are mighty. And base things of the world and things that you're despised have God chosen. Yay. And things which are not to bring to not things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. In fact, God is saying the most manly, the most strong spiritual people often from a physical perspective, look like nothing. And you know, when I look at the men in this room and I'm not trying to be mean, when I, when I look at the men in this room, none of us can compete in the NFL, you know, like back in my heyday, you know, past the show, it's like, no, okay. None of us are going to be on the basketball court. We would all, we would all embarrass ourselves 10 times over. In fact, I would look like a child on a basketball court at my height. I mean, cause I remember seeing like an average sized person on a basketball court one time and I was thinking who's the midget and it's like the guy six one and I'm thinking like that guy's taller than me and he looks like a little kid out there on the, on the basketball court. Right. I wouldn't even be able to score. They wouldn't even have to jump and they could block every shot that I ever took and steal it from me. You know, when we compare ourselves to the real world, we're not in this room. Some of us are more athletic than others and I get that, but I'm just saying generally speaking, the world would kick our butts if we're taking the top of the top, you know, from a worldly perspective. But you know what? Who cares about that because he's going to take the foolish things of this world confound the wise. He'll take the base things of this world and you know what? He'll make them shine and then it gives God more glory that someone that's not just the strongest knows they don't have to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger to give you the gospel. You know, he's not there. He's just like, believe on the, you know, I am Arnold. You have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He will pump you up. He will give you the Holy Spirit, believe me, you know, it's like you don't have to do that. I mean, you can have just some random guy works a desk job, walk up with the spirit of God and you know what? He's a real man because he can handle some heat. You know, Arnold Schwarzenegger probably would kowtow to all of these sodomites out there and women and dresses and be afraid of using the wrong pronoun. I'm not going to use the right pronoun. I'll call you a freak or something. In fact, if you, if we go to the drive through, I'll always use the wrong pronoun because we can always tell if it's a man or a woman by your voice. Good luck disguising that. It's like it's your fault for having that voice. Now go if you would do a first Timothy chapter six, I'm going to finish my last point kind of quickly here, but what's the point of the sermon? Not my will. A real man does things he doesn't want to, and let me tell you something. It's not that you want to be persecuted, but you just do it anyways for the glory of God. It's not that you want to hear things that you disagree with, but you need to be challenged with the word of God and you know what? God can use the foolish pastor Shelley to give you the wisdom of God and to teach you something from the Bible and I even have seen it for myself where someone who was not right with God needed to make a change in their life, heard one of the weakest, lamest sermons I've ever heard, but because they use the Bible, that word of God just pricked their heart and they got it right and I'm thinking like, man, if God can use that guy, I mean if God can use a guy who is too afraid to preach and literally has to read his sermon from a piece of paper and is so insecure in his preaching, he preaches for 15 minutes, but then has a radical change in someone's life, then I know that he can work through other men. I know he's working through Pastor Thompson. I know he's working through other people and you don't have to preach a five hour sermon like I usually do, but tonight is six, but if God can use these men, he can use anybody. If God can use me, he can use anybody, but you know what? Don't just get out of church. Don't be weak. Don't be lame. Don't let the world discourage you. Be a real man and do things that are hard and if you think that church is hard right now, you don't even know what it's going to be like at the end times. And I don't know if it's going to be in our lifetime or not, but our church, it may be the easiest to go to our church right now and then it'll ever be in the future. We don't even know. Or for you personally, I mean church might be, we might look back and think like, remember how easy it was in 2022, man, it was so easy and fun and free and we had all this great stuff and we don't know. You never know what a day may bring, sufficient under the days of the evil thereof. We should be grateful that it's really frankly so easy. Look at the world that we live in. What if you live in any other country right now? What if you live in Canada? I mean you can't just preach Leviticus 2013. I mean you won't have sodomites come and beating down your door. You'll have the feds. You'll have the Montes or whatever. You'll have the little guys on the horses or whatever coming and arresting you with batons or something like that. You've offended the queen. You know, it's like, oh no. Do you still mean it? Yeah, I still mean it. Like there's plenty of countries where you could get killed. I mean they don't have a new IFB church on every corner either. Okay folks, show me that country that has a new IFB church in every single street corner. It doesn't exist. Oh, I have to drive far to church. And it's like, well how about in the Old Testament when they had to walk days' journeys? Think about how much your wife can complain on that trip. She didn't have air conditioning. I mean I always feel really bad for Joseph when I think about that story. He's got to take this merry pregnant on a camel through the night and nobody wants to keep them in. Didn't you think about calling ahead and getting a reservation, Joseph? Boy that reservation sounds pretty good about now, huh honey? All you could afford was the barn, the manger. This is all you could afford? Now I'm giving her a rep. Maybe she was a nice lady. I don't know. But there's no temptation taking you but just common to man, so. First Timothy chapter number six, look at verse one. Let as many servants as are under the yoke, count their own masters worthy of all honor that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed and they that have believing masters let them not despise them because they are brethren but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved partakers of the benefit. These things teach and exhort. So point one is this. If you're going to be a real man, you're going to endure persecution, you've got to endure preaching but you also have to realize your purpose. You have to realize your purpose in this earth. And look, our purpose is not to just do whatever we want. Our purpose, even as men, even though we're the leaders of our home, is still to just submit to all the authorities in our life. And there is no person, there is no man on this planet who doesn't have someone they're supposed to submit to. We all have people that we submit to and in this chapter, it's specifically bringing up your boss at work and it's saying, hey, if you have a saved boss, an unsaved boss, a good boss, a froward boss, it doesn't matter, you just submit because your purpose in life as a man is to just submit and be a good testimony of Jesus Christ and to just work hard. And you know what? Working for a bad boss, yeah, it sucks but you know what? I wouldn't want you to have to do anything hard now, would I? You little girl, you little pansy. I mean, why do girls not play sports? Because they don't want to break their nails. They don't want to get hurt. They don't want to ruin their dress or something like that. Well I don't want you to run your skirt there, honey, by having them do something a little bit hard or actually having to work for a boss that doesn't love you or doesn't think you're wonderful. You know, it'd be nice if these independent fundamental Baptist pastors that are so mad at me, if they'd ever actually had like a real job where their boss actually yelled at them, then they wouldn't be so offended by my choice words when they actually were called a couple choice words. You know, we live in a society where if a boss cussed out his employee, they'd get, you know, the company gets sued or something. Back in the olden days, I mean, they would say anything they wanted to you. I mean, the master would cuss you out and you would say, thank you sir, may I have another? Can I, you know, they would, you know, in the military, they would just call you all manner of names and there was no backtalk. You just accepted it. You're just like, yes sir, whatever you said, you know, do I need to do more pushups now? Okay. And we live in a culture in a society that's totally flipped on its head, but we as Christians can still be the way we should have been subservient, just honest, having integrity, doing whatever our bosses want, even being good under the froward, realizing our purpose in life and just working hard in general. You know, as a man, you're supposed to work hard. You always want to talk about the women being the weaker vessel. Well then why don't you prove it by being so hard working? Why don't you prove it by showing us how strong you are and how mighty you are and how you don't get offended at anything and how you can actually endure all kinds of persecution and endure all kinds of affliction and you know what? You don't always have to mouth off and freak out and get scared about everything and acting like a little girl. Why don't you just show us how you're a man instead of telling us how you're a man. Real men don't need to tell anybody that they're a man. They just are a man. Weak men are really insecure and so they have to always constantly tell. Beware of the guy that's always constantly telling you how manly he is and how strong he is and how, oh man, I just want to go, I would just get those, those protesters and I would just drop them and I would just hurt them and they wouldn't be able to walk and they'd go to the hospital, whatever. And then it's like two weeks later they quit because of the protesters. You're so tough. You're such a man. I bet you would rough them up. You know, the people that talk the biggest talks are usually hypocrites. You got to be worried about the guy that's silent about it. That's the real guy that they got to worry about is the guy that just patiently just walks in, never says anything any day. That's the guy that's the real firecracker. The guy that's constantly getting all upset and constantly riled up and constant, he would do nothing when push comes to shove. I'm just being honest with you. It's backwards, but it's, that's how psychology is. Think about a dog, the dog that just yip, yip, yip, yip, yip, the little dog that's like, if you go, you go like this to like run away, but the big dog that's just running and not barking at you, like he's just dead sprint at you. That's the one you should be afraid of. The German shepherd that the police force have, it doesn't bark. Have you ever seen a train police dog who's ever seen a train police dog barking uncontrollably? They don't do that. They only do that except for maybe when there's a person like a, that a victim and they're holding the leash and they're about to let it go. But typically they're very quiet. Why? Because they're trained assassins and they are ready to take you out and you know what? Real men, real dogs, real everything. They don't have, they don't have a big bark, they have a big bite. So be, you know, don't think of these guys that talk this big talk. They're so strong, they're so mighty. It's just for show. They're insecure about the fact that they actually wouldn't do anything about it. And because they know they wouldn't do anything about it, they have to bark. So as to try and intimidate the opponent because they know they're not going to do anything. So they're like, I'm afraid he's going to actually come over here and I'm not going to do anything about it. So I have to basically say like, Oh, I'll get you man. Don't make me come over there. You know, they're holding me back. Hold me dude. Come on. It's like, it's because he's not going to do anything. Okay. The guy that's totally confident and would just snap their neck in half. He's just walking by. He's just like, whatever. Yeah. Go. Yeah. He's just like, whatever. He doesn't need to say anything. He's good. Jesus Christ didn't need to say anything at just, he could just think it and they would melt like a snail. I mean, he's going to, they're going to be burning in hell for all eternity. He didn't need to go around and pontificate about how strong and how mighty he was and how he could take them down and do whatever he needs to do to them. You know, he's good and you, as a, you, as a man, you don't need to tell me how manly you are. Show me how manly you are. You know, think about James chapter number two. It's like, Hey, you say you have this great faith. Show me thy works. You know, how are you going to, how are you going to have this big talk, but you have no walk. Go to Ephesians chapter five, last place I'm going to have you turn this evening. All good things must come to an end, right? And again, as your purpose in life, you are strong for a reason because other people in your life are weak. Your wife is weak. Your children are weak. So you have to be strong for them. But what is the strength that we've been seeing consistently in the Bible? Not my will. Fine. Be done. Hey, it's not my will for the persecution. It's God's will. It's not my will when it comes to preaching. It's thy will. It's not my purpose in life. It's God's purpose for my life. It's not for me to be whatever hobby horse that I want and how wonderful I can do and all the selfish activities about me and I won my fantasy football league 12 years in a row and I am, you know, the greatest person at beer pong or I'm the greatest, you know, I mean, people like to think about how manly they are with their manly accolades, but you know what? A real man says nuts to my life. Let me elevate other people's lives. Let me elevate my wife's life. Let me elevate my children's lives. Let me elevate the men in my church's life. Let me elevate some person out there that needs to get saved life and let me breathe life into them and strengthen them. And you know, the best men, they are not just strong of themselves. They strengthen others. You know, as a manager, I always went to, I went to college and I got a management degree and I ended up realizing later in life and kind of thinking about these things is a good manager is not one who's a good employee, but is one who can draw out the best from his employees. You know, it's not about you being good. It's about making other people better because if you're the greatest, but you can't get anyone to do better on their own, or you can't encourage people or educate people or train people or give them zeal, you're a horrible manager. You're a horrible leader. You know, a leader, it's not about him just being great. It's about drawing the greatness out of other people. And if you're such a great man, why don't you start drawing the greatness out of your wife? Why don't you start drawing the greatness out of your children? Why don't you start drawing the greatness out of others? You know, don't, it's like in people's minds, they're like, well, I'm a great Christian, but my wife isn't. But to me, that's almost backwards because if you're such a great Christian, you would end up leading your wife and she would be a great Christian too. If you're such a great man of God, then your children be these great men of God. And I get there's exceptions and I get through the Bible, we even see some good men of God have bad children, but let me tell you something is because they forgot the purpose of being a father. And you know what, David, even being the man after God's own heart, where did we see him being a great father anywhere in the scripture? Spending his children, spending time with his children, doing right, you know, because he lost that purpose, ended up being weak in that area and not fulfilling a really important role. And you know what, there's a lot of men in this room that they're only kind of worried about their spiritual journey. They're only worried about their spiritual strength, but you know what? You need to be worried about your wife's spiritual strength and figuring out how to bolster her and encourage her and strengthen her and lay down your life and say, it's not my will. What about her? It's funny to me when men have to try and prove that they're in charge of the relationship because that evidence is that you're not. It's like, I'm in charge. It's like, really? Okay. Why did you have to say that out loud? I make the decisions when my wife approves. As a man, and again, being in charge doesn't mean you always get your way, it just means you make the decision. Jesus was completely in charge, but he just decided not to do his will. He did the Lord's will. And as a husband, if you want to be a great husband and a great father, sometimes you're going to make the decision. Sure, every case you should make the decision, but you're not going to make the decision of what you want. You're going to make the decision of what they need or what they want. I get to make every decision in my family. I make every decision for my household. There's plenty of times where I decide, you know what, even though I would personally want this, this is better for my family, or this is more that they want, or this is going to be more accommodating to them, or this is going to help them. So you make the right decision for them. Ephesians 5, it talks about husbands in verse 25, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. Now, let me ask this question. How good would the church look if Jesus never died on the cross and set an example for us? We wouldn't look very good. We wouldn't have been cleansed up. What if he hadn't given us the Bible? What if he hadn't given us the word of God? If you want your wife to be this great, glorious, chaste virgin, you know what you need to do? You need to start washing her with the word of God. How about read her the Bible? How about take her to church? How about encourage her to go soul-winding with you? My wife was a silent partner for life. I don't want to put a number on it because I'm going to probably remember wrong, but over a year, just going with me and just being a silent partner. But then eventually, she just got to the point where she wanted to preach the gospel. And look, my wife's an excellent soul-winder. In fact, I think that she's better than most guys that I go with because I'm constantly looking at them and I'm just thinking like, y'all aren't that great at this. My wife is an excellent soul-winder, but you know what? It's not because I'm a specialist because I'm trying to encourage her to do that. And maybe she didn't want to do that for a year. I don't know exactly what her feelings are about everything because she's a woman. Have you ever met a woman? Here's the thing. I don't really care what her emotions are because they're going to change in five seconds. Don't worry about your woman's emotions. Worry about making the right decision because her emotions will adapt to the situation. If you're trying to chase that ever-changing emotional train, you're never going to catch up and it's going to be a lose for the rest of your life. You have to just use the logic God gave you and the wisdom God gave you to make the right decisions for your family and encourage them to make the right decisions and lead on gently so that they can be presented as a glorious bride, as a glorious church. If you want something better out of your wife, why don't you help her get there instead of just wishing she was better? Oh, well, I would serve God better if my wife was better. Actually if you were better, your wife would serve God better and then you'd be serving God better. Your family would be serving God better. Everything rises and falls on leadership. You're the one to blame. Quit blaming everybody else for all your problems in your life. Do something hard. You're like, well, you don't know my wife, Pastor Shelley. Well, I wouldn't want you to have to do something hard, but let me tell you something. You guys in here that might have a harder wife to lead than others, you're going to have a bigger reward when she actually does right, too. It's going to be a bigger payoff when you actually get her on the right train and you're going to draw closer and you're going to have a better intimacy. Think about Jesus Christ when he talked about the people that he forgave in the debt and he's like, who's going to love him more? The one that he forgave the small debt, 50, or the one that he forgave, 500? He said the one that forgave the bigger debt is going to actually love him more. You know what? The more you're going to have a closer relationship with your wife, the harder she is to lead. You think like, well, I'd have a closer relationship with my wife if she just was like the most obedient submissive wife, but you know, a lot of times going through adversity is actually going to draw you all closer. Going through struggle is going to actually help you, but you know what? You have to humble yourself and say, it's not, my life is not about me. How can I make my wife a better person? How can I make my children better people? You know, and if it inconveniences me, then so be it. Hey, instead of watching football and watching stupid things on TV, maybe I just actually sit down and talk with my wife and educate her and read her the Bible and take her to church and whatever I have to do, and she's like, well, she doesn't like to go to church. Okay, well then take her to her favorite restaurant after church. Then maybe she will go. Well, that costs extra money. Well, work harder your job. You know what? If there's a will, there's a way. You know, and a real man doesn't complain about not getting the job done. He figures out how to get the job done. Real men are just sitting here complaining about their wives and complaining about their families and complaining about their situation. They're fixing all of them and they're taking the responsibility on themselves and they're leading and guiding their spouse and leading, guiding their wife. And let me tell you something. Any man in my church that wants to become a pastor, he better lead his wife. I don't really personally want to put a pressure on the wife to be a godly person. I want to put pressure on the man to turn his wife into a godly wife. But it's like, look, if your wife isn't zealous for soul winning, if your wife isn't zealous for church, if your wife isn't zealous for her children, if your wife isn't wanting to serve God, isn't on fire for God, why would I want to put you in charge of a huge group of people to lead them? You know, all women are women. No one's perfect. No one's going to be, you know, the greatest ever. You know what? You want to be a pastor one day, why don't you start with your family because you can all pastor your family. You can all lead other individuals. And look, they're the easiest ones to lead. You think it's hard to get your children to obey? Try pastoring a church. You guys don't want to do anything I say. They always talk about it being a cult and I'm thinking like I can't get them to do anything. These stupid people argue with me about putting beans in chili. I'm thinking like, what are the dumbest doctrines, like the easiest things to defeat? I'm like, I'm trying to give you more strong meat, literally. I'm trying to give you more meat into your palate and you're refusing it for lentils here. I mean, you want a hill of beans here. It's like, you know, you just try and encourage people to have the right doctrine and the right attitude and the right mentality and do that which is godly and it's just people just don't do it. It's not like your wife and your children are special. People are just rebellious. People are just sinful. And you know what? It takes a real man to humble himself and say, you know what? I'm going to sacrifice my life so that the people around me can be better. So that my wife can be a better person. And even if she's only 5% better, hey, that's better than just not doing anything and just being selfish with your life and being selfish with your time and being selfish with your skills. I mean, you're so much stronger than why don't you show us how strong you are and fix your problems, right? Fix all the relationship issues that you got going on. Don't blame other people for your relationships. Don't blame other people for the issues in your marriage or your relationships. Maybe you're just apathetic because you haven't realized it's about his purpose, not yours. Well, I'm not happy with my life. Well, get over it because you know what? Not all of us are called to live a happy life. Have you ever read the Bible? Hosea had to marry a whore. I bet no one... Who in here has to pay their wife money just so they won't whore against them? Please don't raise your hand. Who in here had God directly tell you to marry a whore? Okay. No, he didn't. All right. Well, my wife is hard. It's not as hard as Job's, buddy. It's not as hard as Daniel who got his nuts chopped off. That didn't work out well. I bet that wasn't a fun experience. And he's still manlier than many guys that still have their nuts. Go figure. He'd probably still do better at Job leading his spouse, leading his family. Sometimes you just have to be the bigger man. The bigger man takes the L. He doesn't have to always be right and have to have his pride. Sometimes my wife is right. I can say that because she's not here, all right? Cut that out of the sermon, don't you? Sometimes I'm wrong and my wife's right. And you know what? I have to learn from her. And she gives me lots of good advice and she gives me lots of good tips from the Bible. I can be challenged by my wife and it doesn't intimidate my man card. I'm not worried about, well, actually my wife came up with this idea. I'm thinking like, this is my philosophy. Is it right? Yeah. Yeah. Is it true? Who cares where it came from? Who cares if it came from Abigail or Deborah or whatever? You know, it doesn't matter who who gave you the advice if it came from Solomon's mother or if it came from, you know, anyone, if it's right, even if it came from the world, I just care that it's right. And we need to have this attitude of being a real man is not about what you want. It's about what God wants. If God wants you go through persecution, just say, do it. If God says seven lawsuits, you're just like, yes. May I have another 70 protesters? Can I have another, yeah. It's like, Hey, if he thinks I can handle that, I mean, he's like, Hey, bring it on. Right. I mean, it should, you should actually look at it completely different. You see like, man, God actually thinks we can handle a lot here because the Bible says he won't tip us above. We're able. I mean, they just keep putting weight on the rack. There's this movie. It's called the unbreakable and it was like a kind of an old man who knows what I'm talking about. Anybody unbreakable? What's the guy's name? Bruce Willis. Okay. Bruce Willis. It's like a superhero kind of movie. He like can't be hurt theoretically. And so he's testing his own strength and he just keeps putting weight on the bar and then he just bench presses it and then just put more weight and then he bench presses it. And then he's like tying paint cans and like putting all kinds of stuff and he just keeps lifting it. And it's just like, why can't we be like that spiritually and just say, you know what? Just more weight, more weight. It's like God just puts more weight and you're just like, bring it on, bench, which is like more weight. And of course I can't even lift anything. God's just always, he's my spotter. He's just always lifting. He just makes me look good. He's like, I'm not helping. It's like, he's helping. Okay. It's like, I can't do this. It's just to impress everybody. You know what I mean? But it's not about my glory. It's about God's glory because then when they asked me, it's like, I didn't even do it. It was all a show. He was just lifting it for me the whole time. You know, just like you stand at the edge of the wilderness, it's like Moses didn't open the Red Sea. God did. Moses didn't destroy the Egyptians. God destroyed the Egyptians. When they got on the other side, they didn't sing a song praising Moses. They praised God. And you know what? When we get through our victories and we get through our battles, it's not about Pastor Shelley. I'm weak. I can't do anything. It's going to be a tribute to the Lord and of his mercy and of his grace. You know, we go to the church where we hear God's preaching, not our preaching, not Alex Jones preaching, you know, and we decide that my life is not my purpose, it's his purpose. What does he want me to do with my life? You know, I personally, I would just love to be just, you know, the best golfer in the world or have lots of money and just live a life where I never have to worry about anything. That would be my purpose. But you know what? That's a selfish purpose. It's obviously not even realistic. But I'm just saying, a lot of people drive, like they live their whole life for this purpose. That's not even realistic. They're never even going to be the thing that they even want, they're trying to be. It's just a worthless existence. Whereas, you know what? I have a real purpose. I can be a good husband to my wife. I can be a good father to my children. I can be a good pastor to this church. I can be a good Christian. I can be a good brother in Christ. I can be a good soul winner. I can be a good worker at my job. I can be something that God has actually given me to do in my life. And you know, the Bible says, whatever thy hand find to do it, do with all thy might. We're supposed to realize that it's not about us being a man is not doing what's fun, comfortable, easy. It's doing the hard thing that no one else will do. And let me tell you something, not many people will serve God and America in 2022. Not many people will hear what the Bible has to be said. Not many people will preach it. And you know what? It doesn't just one man that preach it. It's us that needs to preach it. Not many people will go up and the doors and the streets of this community and preach the gospel to people. It's hard work. But you know what? We need to do it. We need to go out there and preach the gospel and drag people into church and get them baptized and preach them the Bible and preacher wise, the Bible and preacher children of the Bible and preacher, our family members, the Bible and preach grandma, the Bible and say, Hey, this is what the Bible actually says. And stop being so cowardly and stop being so weak and stop being so effeminate because you know what? Being a feminine is a sin. We as men are not to be effeminate physically or spiritually. And at the end of the day, my life, it's not about my will. It's his will. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father for this group and this gathering. Thank you for all the men in this room. I pray that the words of God could just resonate in our hearts and our mind that we'd realize that you put us on this earth for a real purpose, that we have a real vision of our lives. And I pray that whatever relationships, whatever situations we have before us, that we wouldn't waste them, that we wouldn't squander them, but rather we would step up to the challenge that you give us hard tasks because you want to challenge us and you want to test us and you want us to show your glory and honor by being willing to work hard, by being willing to go through persecutions, by willing to hear what the Bible says and have our ideas challenged and to humble ourselves and submit ourselves to the word of God and even submit ourselves to our earthly authorities, whether they're right or wrong, whether they're good or they deserve it, but rather we would just humbly serve in the purpose and the position you put us in to submit to those that we submit to and to lead those that you've called us to lead. That we'd realize that if we're going to make a difference in this world, it's with the men in this room. It's not our wives. It's not our children. It's not some other church. It's not some other country. It's the men in this room right now that can make the greatest impact in this world. If they would just get their hearts right, they would step up to the plate, they'd become a real man spiritually and they would decide it's not their will. It's not my will. It's yours that should be done. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.