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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats and grab your song books. We're going to start out with song 110, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. 110, All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Song 110. Let's sing it out. All the Way My Savior Leads Me. What have I to ask beside? Can I doubt His tender mercy? Who, through life, has been my guide? Heavenly peace, divine discomfort, Hear my faith in Him to dwell. For I know what e'er He called me, Jesus, doeth all things well. For I know what e'er He called me, Jesus, doeth all things well. All the Way My Savior Leads Me. Cheers, entwining, path I tread. Gives me praise for every trial. Feeds me with a living friend. Though my weary steps may falter, And my soul abhors may be, Gushing from the rock before me, Lo, what spring of joy I see! Gushing from the rock before me, Lo, what spring of joy I see! All the Way My Savior Leads Me. All the fullness of His love Curved with rose to be His promise In my Father's house above. When my spirit from immortal Wings its flight to realms of day, This my soul through endless ages, Jesus, lend me all the way. This my soul through endless ages, Jesus, lend me all the way. Good singing. Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you that you have led our church over these years. I pray that you would continue to lead us and just help us to be thankful for all that you've done in our lives. I pray that you bless this service. Help us to sing out tonight with love in our hearts for you. We love you, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Alright, for our next song, let's go to 114, The Great Physician. One hundred and fourteen. One, one, four. The Great Physician now is here, The sympathizing Jesus. He speaks the drooping heart to cheer, O hear the voice of Jesus. Sweetest loud and seraph song, Sweetest name of mortal tongue, Sweetest care O ever sought, Jesus, blessed Jesus. Your many sins are all forgiven, O hear the voice of Jesus. Go on your way in peace to heaven, And wear a crown with Jesus. Sweetest loud and seraph song, Sweetest name of mortal tongue, Sweetest care O ever sought, Jesus, blessed Jesus. All glory to the dying land, I now believe in Jesus. I love the blessed Savior's name, I love the name of Jesus. Sweetest loud and seraph song, Sweetest name of mortal tongue, Sweetest care O ever sought, Sweetest care O ever sought, Jesus, blessed Jesus. And when to that bright world above, We rise to be with Jesus, We'll sing around the throne above, His name, the name of Jesus. Sweetest loud and seraph song, Sweetest name of mortal tongue, Sweetest care O ever sought, Jesus, blessed Jesus. Please make sure you're turning that into your soul winning captains on the right, a list of several expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for those that are mentioned here. Special note, please make sure you're praying for our trial on June 3rd. Upcoming events, there is a wedding on June 8th for Joshua Garcia and Cynthia Navajo at 3 p.m. June 21st to the 23rd is a Friends Conference, the Red Hot Preaching Conference at Verde Baptist Church in Sacramento, California. A note for the Chicago Soul Winning Marathon, they had 80 Salvations yesterday but for the whole Friday and Saturday they had 102. Definitely it was a great soul winning trip and really was encouraged to see a lot of like-minded brethren out there and to hang out with some of them. There was over 60 soul winners. A lot of people from our church went there. I know the Brooks drove up there. Brother Robertson drove up there. We had a lot of people with us. Brother Diego, Brother Oz, Brother Rich, Brother Alex, his fiance. I'm probably forgetting somebody but there was Brother Malton came out there with us and I got to see some people from Faith Ward, from Stronghold, I'm not Stronghold, Shur Foundation and then both their main church and a lot of people from their plant so it was a great, great trip. Also we had the congratulations to Sophia Bunch this morning for graduation and I think we even have a couple more for next week. Also the congratulations to the Vias family on the birth of Sloane Capri. She was born on the 25th at 4.12 am 9 pounds 12 ounces and 21 and a half inches long. Congratulations to them. That's really all I have as far as announcements. Go ahead and sing our psalm of the week Psalm 149. Psalm 149. Alright let's sing it out together Psalm 149 Let is rejoice in him that made him Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King Let them praise his name in the dance Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and heart for the Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautify the meek salvation Let the saints be joyful in glory Let them sing aloud upon their beds Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and love to legends born in their hands to execute vengeance upon the Eden and punishments upon the people to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with measures of iron to execute upon them the judgment printed this honor have all his saints praise he the Lord As the offering plates are being passed around please turn to Daniel chapter 4. Daniel chapter number 4. Daniel chapter 4. Daniel chapter 4. The Bible reads, Nebuchadnezzar the king unto all people nations and languages that dwell in all the earth peace be multiplied unto you I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me how great are his signs and how mighty are his wonders his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his dominion is from generation to generation I Nebuchadnezzar was at rest in mine house and flourishing in my palace I saw a dream which made me afraid and the thoughts upon my bed and the visions of my head troubled me therefore made I a decree to bring in all the wise men of Babylon before me that they might make known unto me the interpretation of the dream then came in the magicians the astrologers the Chaldeans and the soothsayers and I told the dream before them but they did not make known unto me the interpretation thereof but at the last Daniel came in before me whose name was Belteshazzar according to the name of my God and in whom is the spirit of the holy gods and before him I told the dream saying oh Belteshazzar master of the magicians because I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in thee and no secret trouble at thee tell me the visions of my dream that I have seen in the interpretation thereof thus were the visions of mine head in my bed I saw and behold a tree in the midst of the earth and the height thereof was great the tree grew and was strong and the height thereof reached unto heaven and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth the leaves thereof were fair and the fruit thereof much and in it was meat for all the beasts of the field had shadow under it and the fowls of the heaven dwelt in the bows thereof and all flesh was fed of it I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed and behold a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven he cried aloud and said thus hew down the tree and cut off his branches shake off his leaves and scatter his fruit let the beasts get away from under it and the fowls from his branches nevertheless leave the stump of his roots in the earth even with a band of iron and brass and the tender grass of the field and let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let his portion be with the beasts and the grass of the earth let his heart be changed from man's and let a beast's heart be given unto him and let seven times pass over him this matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and setteth up over it the basest of men this dream I king Nebuchadnezzar hath seen now thou o'bel to Shazzar and declare the interpretation thereof for as much as all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known unto me the interpretation but thou art able for the spirit of the holy gods is in thee then Daniel whose name was Belteshazzar was astonished for one hour and his thoughts troubled him the king spake and said Belteshazzar let not the dream or the interpretation thereof trouble thee Belteshazzar answered and said my lord the dream be to them that they hate thee and the interpretation thereof to thine enemies the tree that thou sawest which grew and was strong whose height reached unto the heaven and the sight thereof to all the earth whose leaves were fair and the fruit thereof much and in it was meat for all under which the beasts of the field dwelt and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation it is thou o king that art grown and become strong for thy greatness is grown and reacheth unto heaven my dominion to the end of the earth and whereas the king saw a watcher and an holy one coming down from heaven and saying cue the tree down and destroy it yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth even with a band of iron and brass and the tender grass of the field and let it be wet with the dew of heaven and let his portion be with the beasts of the field till seven times pass over him this is the interpretation o king and this is the decree of the most high which shall come upon my lord the king that they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven and seven times shall pass over thee till thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots thy kingdom shall be sure unto thee after that thou shalt have known that the heavens do rule wherefore o king let my council be acceptable unto thee and break off thy sins by righteousness and thine iniquities by showing mercy to the poor if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility all this came upon the king Nebuchadnezzar at the end of twelve months he walked in the palace of the kingdom of Babylon the king spake and said is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty while the word was in the king's mouth there fell a voice from heaven saying o king Nebuchadnezzar to thee it is spoken the kingdom is departed from thee and they shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen and seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will the same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar and he was driven from men and did eat grass as oxen and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hairs were grown like eagles feathers and his nails like birds claws at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven and mine understanding returned unto me and I blessed the most high and I praised and honored him that liveth forever whose dominion is an everlasting dominion and his kingdom is from generation to generation and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand or say unto him what doest thou at the same time my reason returned unto me and for the glory of my kingdom mine honor and brightness returned unto me and my counselors and my lord sought unto me and I was established in my kingdom an excellent majesty was added unto me now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honor the king of heaven all whose works are truth and his ways judgment and those that walk in pride he is able to abase Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Father in heaven I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with the fullness and power of the Holy Spirit now as he preaches your word to us and I pray Lord that you would enable us to be attentive to the preaching of your words so that we may make necessary changes in our lives and serve you better Help us to glorify you in everything we do. We love you and in Jesus name I pray. Amen. Amen. I want to look back at verse 17 the Bible says this matter is by the decree of the watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent that the living may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and seteth up over it the basest of men and really this chapter is just emphasizing one main point and that is how Nebuchadnezzar has been lifted up in his heart and is very prideful about his status about his power about his wealth and he attributes that to himself you can kind of see in verse 30 says this the king spake and said is not this great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power and for the honor of my majesty so we see how he's lifted up about himself he believes that all of the possessions that he has all the fame and the fortune and the power and the might that he has is a result of him but what does the Bible say in the verse that we just read it says specifically that the God is giving it to whomsoever he will and in some cases he's even setting up over it the basest of men so from God's perspective he's saying sometimes I give the worst men the scummiest individuals the least deserving people the most popularity that there is and what I want to talk about this evening is just the idea of popularity popularity because unfortunately many people falsely attribute popularity to their own self worth or thinking that they're somehow a great person due to popularity whereas God is actually calling out here and saying sometimes he will make the most popular person from the worst of our society like the most scummy individual or the worst of our society is sometimes the most popular individual in the world well this is not hard for us to understand today when we have people like Joe Biden running our country okay and it's not like Joe Biden is some great individual from our society but rather is one of the basis of men in many different ways but notice the emphasis here verse 25 says again and I'm just this is a long verse look towards the end of it it says till thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will so he punishes Nebuchadnezzar and causes him to be an outcast and be like a physical animal in many senses shame him and embarrass him and notice it's until he knows until he recognizes you did not put yourself in this position I put you in this position so God is humbling him lowering him so he would recognize that it is God that gives popularity to whom he ever determines is worthy of that for whatever reason even in verse 32 you see it again mentioned here that the seven times shall pass over thee until thou know that the most high ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will so God sets up people and puts people down however he decides and sometimes he puts people in positions of popularity and positions of power and authority that do not deserve it and in fact are some of the most evil and wicked and scummiest people on the planet so we should not allow popularity to be our determining factor on judging someone's character on determining if they are a person of value now sometimes it can be a great person that's very popular sometimes it's a very scummy person that's popular but popularity in and of itself we have to understand this is a gift from God that he gives it to whom ever he desires to have popularity in that moment now go to Deuteronomy chapter number 8 go to Deuteronomy chapter number 8 what is popularity well generally speaking and you know looking at a dictionary one definition that I like is just that you're commonly liked you're commonly liked and popularity in and of itself is very contextual in the sense that you can have popularity in all kinds of different spheres of your life when you're young especially if you went to public school there was a realm of popularity that's associated with being in public school being one of the popular kids in school but you could be popular in school and literally no one knows who you are outside of school it's only in that sphere it's only in that realm that you're considered quote popular you could be popular in church you could be popular in your family you could be popular among your friends you could be popular at work you could be popular in your city, state, country, yay even the world and popularity is very relative it's relative to all manner of spheres of influence or circumstances and many people are popular within certain realms sometimes people they're popular online or they're popular in their chess club or they're popular at school or they're popular at church and sometimes people are popular in one environment and not popular in another environment where they're popular when they do cosplay but they're not popular in the world they're not popular in normal society and so realms of popularity they're very very relative and I think a lot of people experience forms of popularity most people are never going to be popular from a world perspective it's a very small number of people but we can all experience and see people that are popular in all kinds of different spheres of life and that's what I'm talking about I'm not talking about just only being the king of the world obviously Nebuchadnezzar is arguably the most popular person in all of the world at that time the most recognized the most known and not everybody is going to be that person it's only a few people that are ever going to be that person but we can all experience realms of popularity and when we do experience that if you do experience a sense where people like you or you're commonly liked we should not allow ourselves to be lifted up because of that the Bible says in Deuteronomy chapter number 8 look at verse 11 beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God and keeping his commandments and his judgments and his statutes which I command thee this day lest when thou has eaten and art full and has built goodly houses and dwelt therein and when thy herds and thy flocks multiply and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied and all that thou has is multiplied then thy heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord thy God which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage so notice by getting money wealth having goods it could cause you to end up forgetting God and I would liken popularity in the same way that sometimes getting popularity which is usually directly tied to these financial successes will cause you to forget God or to not think about God and God is trying to warn you just because you have success just because you may get popularity just because you might have wealth just because you might have goods don't forget the Lord thy God and his statutes now he specifically drugged them through the wilderness it says here in verse number 15 who led thee through that great and terrible wilderness wherein were fiery serpents and scorpions and drought where there was no water who brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint who fed thee in the wilderness with manna which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee and that he might prove thee to do thee good at thy latter end sometimes God will also bring you through rough spots in your life to humble you to help you recognize that it is God that gives us everything that we have including our food our clothing our environment our country everything and he drugged them through the wilderness to prove them to see what will you be like when you don't have goods when you're not popular when you don't have money when you don't have wealth how will you treat yourself will you still seek God so God's dragging them through but yet at the same time he's also giving them the promised land and they're going to have great wealth and he's afraid that what they'll do is in verse number 17 and thou shalt say in thine heart my power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth when you have all the prosperity and all the success it's so easy to take credit for it it's so easy to think I'm special and of course with success often comes popularity and people will sometimes think it's about them it feeds the narcissist inside every one of us and you know we often hear this word being thrown out there like this person's a narcissist and really that's just such a bad idea to try and identify some people as narcissists and others as not because everyone's a narcissist to some degree what is being a narcissist being self-involved thinking about yourself everyone does this everyone's a little selfish everyone is a little self-absorbed I mean what do people do do people go online and create accounts for other people or do they create their own personal profile with their own personal pictures and there's an about me section that's narcissism okay albeit that doesn't mean that everybody is a quote narcissist but what I'm saying is that everyone experiences the temptation of being a little bit narcissistic and being self-absorbed and thinking about themselves and whenever we become popular it's easy to attribute that to you and think it's about you and praising yourself and thinking how wonderful you are and we live in a society that is obsessed with self obsessed with popularity obsessed with how many followers they have how many likes they have how many shares they get how much interaction they get and it almost even determines people's mood just based on their popularity alone and we live in a unique generation where we're playing out a weird social experiment where everybody has their own online profiles and their own online persona and their followed and liked and shared and how many friends they have and it's all about numbers and statistics and metrics and just it's about general popularity and if we were to be honest with ourselves a vast majority a vast percentage of our population is a little bit obsessed with how many people follow them or their friends how many people like their posts just their personal influence in the world and they're obsessed with popularity but the reality is we have to understand that God gives popularity to whom he chooses however and whenever and we shouldn't allow popularity to dictate who we are we shouldn't allow popularity to dictate who we think is a good person we should allow the Bible to keep us grounded to keep us humble and if we get popularity to make sure that it doesn't change us for the worst to not allow it to cause us for our hearts to be lifted up because at any moment God could make any person in this room popular if he wanted to. He could make you super star super popular get a lot of attention and he could also take a lot of popular people and he could knock them down to nothing overnight just like that as well and it does not determine based on that person just being a great person or not it's just how it works you know if Hollywood and the mainstream media and the powers that be just want to make someone popular they can make anyone popular it does not matter who the person is what they look like because here's the thing everybody is a little bit interesting humanity is interesting people are cool in general and even people that are weird it's just people like to just observe weird people being weird I mean there are people out there that are very popular and they're just a weird person and here's another thing people like to see people doing cool things well because Hollywood and the media and everything like that whenever they want to make someone popular what they do is they just take that person and they give them really cool things to do and they put them around other cool people and they'll even have people write really cool things for them to say and they just basically are building this person up and lifting this person up and they can basically make or break anybody that they want at any time and sometimes people think like oh it's because I'm so talented and so wonderful there are plenty of popular people that are not very talented not very special there's nothing great about them they're just part of the machine and what happens though is those individuals forget why they're even there and they start getting lifted up and they get puffed up and they start thinking they're somehow better than other people we should allow popularity to allow us to think that we're better than other people and the children of Israel they got puffed up and lifted up and they thought they were better than the Gentiles because of what God gave them and because of who God made them and they look down upon the Gentiles they call them goyim they look at them as cattle they look at them as subhuman because of what because of popularity that they have Govee Wood to 1 Corinthians 4 you know you shouldn't think that you're special just because you're an American American exceptionalism people think because I mean being an American is a certain level of popularity that you don't even realize if I take you I don't care who it is in this room if I take you to Africa you will be a superstar if I take you to foreign countries and foreign nations everyone will want to talk to you and hang out with you and think that you're super cool because you're an American that's it literally that is it it has nothing to do with you actually being an interesting or cool person and it's just crazy but people will think that they're special or they're better because they're American and Americans do believe this Americans by and large just look at other nations and just look down upon them and look at them with scorn and just say we're smarter than you guys we're better than you guys we're stronger than you guys we're wiser than you guys and they don't recognize the fact that the reason why they have the things that they have it has nothing to do with them it has everything to do with the fact that they were put in that situation you were just born by your parents you didn't get to choose that there was nothing special about you being born of your parents and of course the liberals take this way way too far way out of context but they talk about white privilege okay but here's the reality there's some truth to that there is some truth to the fact because here's the reality it's not so much that being born white gives you any level of privilege because being white is not better than being any other color of skin but here's the reality the vast majority of Christians in our current world are white and America was founded upon Christian principles and being a Christian and having a Christian nation affords you all kinds of things like wealth and prosperity and intelligence and wisdom just all kinds of blessings come with being Christian so they're really if they were going to be honest they're talking about Christian privilege not white privilege because there's a lot of poor atheist children born in this world that are white that do not have any privilege they're trailer trash okay the trailer trash in our society are not having privilege but the reason that was different is mostly those parents were not Christian and had no Christian values in their life the people that were born in Christian homes with Christian values they often are set up in life as having a lot extra privilege because they're gifted all kinds of wisdom and intelligence and money and because of that they're often more popular who was popular in high school the rich kids how many of those kids went out and worked and earned a dollar that they had in their pockets none of it it was because of their parents it was their parents that gave them all of that wealth but what happens because of their popularity in school they think that they're a better person than poor kids in school than other kids than people in other parts of the world they think because of the fact of who they are and their popularity that somehow determines their character when in fact many of the most popular kids in high school were some of the scummiest and basest of the people in our high school and it could even happen in Christianity or in churches where people think that they're so much better than other people because of the status or the situation they find themselves in the Apostle Paul has addressed this in 1 Corinthians 4 look at verse 6 and what has thou that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it he's saying why in the world would you go around bragging about who you are when the reason why you are who you are is you just got a gift and what is the gift that we're mostly talking about in this context of the gospel he's saying don't think that you guys are better than people who don't have the wisdom of the Bible because they haven't literally received it and you some are better because you've received it the reason why you're saved and the reason why you're a Christian and the reason why you're making good decisions now in your life is because I the Apostle Paul showed up on your door and gave you the gospel you got a gift of the gospel you didn't earn the gospel you didn't earn salvation you didn't make yourself a new man no Jesus Christ caused you to be born again and gave you a new birth and you became a new man as a free gift so then why would you think of yourself as a better person than an unsaved individual because you got the free gift of salvation whereas the worst religion in this context to me is Calvinism because Calvinism literally is the most puffed up ideology in this case and they think that they're so much better than other people and that's the reason why they're even saved because they look at their life and they think of course I'm saved look at how much I've cleaned up my life and I've turned from the reprobate nature into irresistible grace but the reality is many of them aren't even saved and the things that the Calvinists have they receive them from Presbyterian parents from Reformed parents and it wasn't because they're somehow special it wasn't like they did any kind of work but rather they were just given this opportunity and in a sense their ideology of they didn't even do anything it was chosen upon them hey you can't necessarily choose if you're a Calvinist raised that way as a child you know what you can choose to reject Calvinism and you know what you can reject false religion and you can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you can get saved but there's nothing to glory in that you did the only thing to glory in is what Christ did the free gift that he's offering to all of us I can't take credit for being able to breathe oxygen because we all get to breathe oxygen it's free and the reality is there's rich kids today they're taking pride in the fact that they have a nice car that mommy and daddy bought for them and it's like what did you do to earn this car? Nothing and we as God's people sometimes we might think that we're better than other individuals because we live in such a great nation in the state of Texas we have the King James Bible we might look down at other nations and other groups and think you guys aren't as good as us but wait a minute why are you so good because someone gave you a King James Bible and gave you the gospel and gave you a church and gave you the country that you even live in you didn't build this nation you didn't build any of these roads out here you didn't build your car you didn't build all these things that you have other people built it for you and you have so many gifts in your life that you've received why do you think you're so much better? And we as Americans we've inherited a great nation still arguably the greatest place to live on this earth and we did nothing to get it but then we looked down at other nations and think that there's so much worse than us it's like why? Because we're puffed up and we're prideful based on our own popularity we think oh well everybody loves America we must be special there's nothing special about you being American you're not special because you're American you know what there's some of the worst people in the world are American you know what makes someone a great person? Someone that's believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and is saved and the reason why they're great is because of what Christ did for them. Someone that's humble and little in their own sight and actually serves Christ that's going to be a great person but often times they don't get the popularity don't look at popularity as something to achieve in fact look what the apostle Paul says in verse 8 now you're full now you're rich you've reigned as kings without us and I would to God you did reign that we also might reign with you for I think that God has set forth us the apostles last as it were appointed to death for we're made a spectacle unto the world and to angels and to men we are fools for Christ's sake but you're wise in Christ we are weak but you're strong you're honorable but we are despised so the apostle Paul says at that time the apostles were hated of the world nobody liked them they didn't have popularity they had infamy but those in this church they still had popularity and wealth and they had good things and he's saying in relation to Christ if we take reality here who is objectively better the people in this church or the apostle Paul the apostle Paul is better but you know what who's popular that church and the people in the church so is the popularity determining who's the best here no it wasn't popularity and in fact he's saying I think God made us apostles last probably to what to keep them humble because if the apostles are going out and they're just super popular then people might get the wrong idea and think that popularity is what we should strive for rather than being godly and look there's nothing wrong with popularity and in fact the apostle Paul is saying hey I'm glad that you guys are popular I wish you were popular and that we could hang out with you guys and do all these great things but I think God just decided to make us last so that he could build you up and of course the apostles are popular now but they weren't popular then and many times the great people of history weren't popular in their lives they were popular afterwards they were the ones that were resisting they were the ones that had infamy they were the ones that were going against the grain in their time they had to suffer the persecution and the evil of their life but then they live on as heroes of the faith they live on as heroes afterwards and we shouldn't be striving for popularity we should strive to do that which is right go to Psalm 75 being popular is vain being popular does not determine right or wrong don't think that you're so much better than another Christian just because you receive things we could look at other churches and we could look at other people in those churches and think that we're better than them but is it really fair if no one's given them the same doctrine you know it's like some people in the quote new IFB they have a lot of good doctrine but they haven't even read the Bible cover to cover they didn't read the Bible unless they were they didn't read the Bible and learn that they were literally spoon fed that by some of the greatest preachers to live in our generation they literally just watched Pastor Anderson and he literally just handed them some of the greatest doctrines ever that he took hours and lifetime and decades to study and to get to and he just hands it to you for free and then you somehow think you're better than other Christians that haven't been handed that yet it's like why are you so much better than that individual cause the vast majority of every congregation is not researching and studying on their own they're just simply mirrors of their pastor and whatever they're spoon fed and it doesn't make them worse of a person just because they haven't been gifted all the things you've been gifted you shouldn't be looking down at other people and saying I'm better than them because look at all the stuff I've been given Psalm 75 look at verse number 4 I said unto the fools deal not foolishly and to the wicked lift not up the horn lift not up your horn on high speak not with a stiff neck for promotion cometh neither from the east nor from the west nor from the south but God is the judge he putteth down one and setteth up another you notice what the Bible says God is the one that promotes people God is the one that lifts one up and puts one down and when it comes to popularity stop worrying about what you're doing be right with God and he'll give you popularity if he wants you to have it or not sometimes he does sometimes he doesn't go if you would to John chapter 3 go to John chapter 3 you know the Bible says in Proverbs 31 favor is deceitful and beauty is vain you know what makes women popular they're physically attractive but did you realize that the vast majority of a woman's physical attractiveness is just how she was born and her genetics it has nothing to do with her like she can't control that obviously there's a little bit of control women have over obviously just being healthy or in shape or things like that but just generally speaking you know young women they don't even have to worry about that yet many of them have such a high metabolism they don't even have to necessarily worry about those things too much I mean there's so many women today that are super popular and they've done literally nothing to get that popularity they just have a pretty face and having a pretty face will take you really far as far as popularity but you know what does that make that woman a good person in fact many women that are very attractive are some of the most rotten people on the planet most of the Hollywood whores in our society and it's not that they aren't attractive they are attractive but that's their downfall that's their problem you know women want to be attractive but sometimes being attractive is a trap because it causes you to have popularity and it causes you to be prideful and think that you have more value than you really do and to think that you're somehow better than you really are that's why it says favor is deceitful there's something deceitful about popularity and it is because it makes you think that you're somehow special you've done something you've accomplished something when many times you even haven't now of course popularity can be as a direct result of working very hard being diligent doing good and sometimes even popularity can be for the right reason you know it's really popular in the Bible and there was nothing wrong with it how about John the Baptist you know the Bible says that all Jerusalem came out to see John the Baptist that's what you call popularity they all went into the wilderness to find him even you know there was nothing wrong with John the Baptist being popular in fact that was a good thing but let me tell you something John the Baptist didn't go out into the wilderness eating wild locusts and honey or locusts and wild honey and wearing the Canadian tuxedo to become popular he didn't even preach the messages that he was preaching to become popular the reason why John the Baptist was popular is because God lifts up one and sets down another in fact John the Baptist didn't even do any miracles who in the how is John the Baptist popular you want to know why John the Baptist was probably popular there was only one guy in the whole area that was willing to preach the Bible I mean think about it the Pharisees and the Sadducees they're not preaching the Bible and so if you want to hear someone preach the Bible if you want to hear someone preach the truth preach what God is actually saying you had to go driveway out into the wilderness and hear some crazy guy preach the Bible some hairy dude wearing camel skins I mean that's I mean it's kind of weird you're thinking like why would anybody do this because he was the one guy the voice crying out in the wilderness sometimes you kind of wonder like why in the world did anybody come to this church I don't know but I know this it's not me it's probably just this book because if people were preaching the exact same way I was a lot closer to her house you'd probably just go there let's just be honest right it's not about me and we should never think that it's about us we should recognize it's always about Christ the truth is popular John chapter 3 look at verse 26 you know what they're trying to do they're trying to get John the Baptist to be envious of Jesus Christ's popularity hey John you're losing some popularity bro hey your church is shrinking bro hey you were the baptizer you're the Baptist there's a second Baptist in town you were the first Baptist church he's the second Baptist church what do you think about that and what is John the Baptist's response here look at verse 27 John answered and said a man could receive nothing except to be given him from heaven hey I like that attitude hey you know why I was popular because God gave me popularity you know why I had followers because God gave me followers you want to know why I had a message because God gave me a message that's why you yourselves bear witness that I said I am not the Christ but that I am sent before him he that at the bride is the bridegroom but the friend of the bridegroom which standeth in here with him rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom's voice this my joy therefore is fulfilled he must increase but I must decrease notice John recognized that his popularity needed to diminish so that Jesus Christ could have the fullest of the popularity because at the end of the day if you're a minister of Christ if you're a servant of Christ it's not about you it's about Christ and when it comes to popularity popularity may come and go but at the end of the day we need to make sure that our actions are striving for the cause of Christ and not ourselves not like Nebuchadnezzar that's look at what I've built and it's about me no no it's about Christ and it's about what he built you know I really like we went to visit a pastor in Chicago and apparently a lot of pastors called him and told him not to allow our group to use his building something like of all the problems we have in America trying to make sure that we don't use someone else's building is probably number one on the list right of all the activities that pastors need to be concerned with and bothered with is probably calling other Baptist pastors and trying to get them to stop allowing soul winning events at their church I mean think about that think of the absurdity like you're a Baptist pastor of all the tasks you have on your list for that week like make sure that this soul winning group can't use someone else's church why is that on your list of priorities you know why it's because they're afraid of their ministry being diminished they're afraid that they would decrease even though Christ would literally increase even though people might get saved they don't want people to get saved they want to make sure that their church doesn't lose any members to the new IFB you know why they're afraid of losing members to the new IFB because we're cooler than you guys are but you know what makes us cool this book is what's making us cool we're not popular because we're actually cooler than you we're only popular because of this book we're only cool because Christ is cool the only thing that makes us great is the truth of God's word and if they would just get on Christ's program they could stop worrying about popularity they could stop worrying about losing church members it is a fool's attitude that says why can't I associate with the new IFB because I'm afraid of Pastor Anderson well let me give you a news check not everybody's going to move to Tempe Arizona not everybody's going to leave and go somewhere else some people actually hate the heat now I like the heat some people want to live where it's cold and it snows and it gets 50 below zero you guys are insane I hate hell but I don't hate it so much to live in 50 degree below weather okay I mean and here's the reality lots of people aren't going to just move to one person's church Pastor Anderson doesn't even encourage people to move to his church he tells them to go to their church in their area and they're so afraid of listening to this guy but you know why they're so afraid because they're afraid of being diminished and decreasing nuts to that you know what if everybody just wants to move to some other church that's way better God bless you if you think there's a better church for you and your family who am I to stand in your way you know God forbid anybody from wanting to serve God or do a work for God and I'm there standing in their way for what for popularity what do I need nuts to me if I'm a minister of God and I care more about popularity than the cause of Christ or think that I'm somehow special because of popularity well what if my church shrinks well you know what being a great pastor is not about how many people come to your church stop having that bad attitude well my church runs a thousand oh wow amazing that doesn't make you a great pastor because let me ask you this question are those thousand people people that you personally brought into that building and the answer is no oh you you got that church from someone else that's interesting oh your church that's running fifteen hundred on Sunday morning used to run seven thousand and then you want to tell me how great you are I think a lot of people could take a church of seven thousand and run it into the ground to fifteen hundred and you're afraid of losing that fifteen hundred now huh afraid of losing your bible college so you're going to go and call other pastors and harass them it's not good enough to say no and to not allow it yourself you have to call and harass other people and tell them no too because that's what you're trying to do you're trying to build a ministry of what for popularity it's sick it's the wrong attitude why can't you have John the Baptist attitude that says he must increase but I must decrease and it's not about us being more popular who nuts to us it's not about us it's about the cause of Christ and woe unto us if we ever had the attitude of trying to shut someone else down because they're cooler than us or they're more popular than us or they make better movies than us hey if there's a fundamental Baptist out there that makes a better movie than us let's watch it let's have a movie premiere it's like hey we made a movie about Zionism I want to watch it we made a movie that's better than Sodomite Inception I can't wait to watch it I'll make tickets and I'll pass them out it's like I'm on Christ's team if you're doing better than me let's put you up to bat let's move me out of that position and put me in a different position you know stop having this attitude of well I have to be the most popular narcissist go over to Proverbs 13 the Bible says in Romans 12 be of the same mind one toward another mind not high things but condescend to men of low estate be not wise in your own conceits popularity will cause you to think that you're smarter than you are popularity will make you think that you're better than you are popularity will poison the mind and it's a conceit of the mind don't be wise in your own conceits why can't you condescend to men of low estate mind not high things don't worry about popularity you know they're afraid of popularity and you say like why would fundamental Baptist don't care about popularity oh they do boy let me tell you it's called the sword of the Lord conference it's called guest preachers it's called them getting invited to conferences and being part of fellowships and being a part of publishers and being a part of all these little clubs oh boy let me tell you popularity is alive and well about having the most popular Bible college and being invited to their Bible college and being brought to all these conferences and paraded around getting the big paychecks is the guest speaker nuts to that I don't care if I'm never invited hey I'm on Christ team here I can't work with these people because they're not popular why can't you condescend to men of low estate if we're so low why can't you condescend to us and help us along if we're so weak and we're so pathetic and we we're just not very godly why can't you come over here and show us how to be godly then why can't you love on us because that's not what it's about they're envious they don't have the right attitude they've allowed popularity to poison their mind and our culture is just I mean everybody obsessed with TikTok Instagram and YouTube just obsessed with being popular and let me tell you something the most popular people on these platforms are the scummiest people how about number one on YouTube the Mr. Beast the dude's like second in command is an open tranny like he came out as like a Christian I think Mr. Beast like was saying he was a Christian or whatever and even like one of his main people that works with him also saying he was a Christian one of the main people that worked with him was a Christian he was married had children had the set for life and now he's divorced his wife and come out as a chick and Mr. Beast hasn't separated from that because I guarantee he'd lose his platform he'd lose all of his popularity so he just keeps parading this tranny around with him in videos scummy people you want to be popular on Instagram on YouTube be a complete compromiser have no soul no conviction just do whatever but let me tell you something even these people that have sold their soul to the devil literally it will not last TikTok won't last Instagram won't last YouTube popularity won't last you think of these people that are popular YouTubers and stuff like that anybody's going to care in 20 years from now and a lot of them have a steady stream of gravy coming in but what does the Bible say Proverbs chapter 13 verse 11 wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished but he that gathers by labor shall increase these people that are going out and making dumb videos of themselves making fools of themselves online their wealth will be diminished it will not last forever you have to actually work hard now again it's not to say that there are legitimate entertainment businesses out there there's people that make entertainment and they're going to continue making entertainment you know but let's be honest a lot of these TikTok videos are just completely stupid like PewDiePie I mean is that going to last forever I mean there's people on Twitch that are just playing video games and make tons of money people watching someone else play video games I remember when I was young I would have hangouts I would always have people come to my house and we'd have like eight nine kids come over to our house but back when I was you know a kid you could only have like two or three people playing video games at a time maybe four we'd play like Goldeneye and you know what was terrible watching the other people play what was the coolest thing is when they finally came out with Halo and you could have LAN parties so we would have multiple people bring their Xboxes and we would all get to play but boy when it was you were just watching your friends play video games it was so boring it wasn't fun at all and the reality is video games come and go the person that's super popular pretty soon that video game will become outdated not cool anymore nobody will want to watch it anymore and it's just wealth gotten by vanity and they think because they're popular right now that they're somehow special but you know what it's vain it's not real and it can change like that go to Acts chapter number fourteen I want to show you an example of that quit chasing popularity and if you ever get popularity don't allow that to change your course of action if you are saying hard truths of God's word keep saying the hard truths of God's word you know what I like about Jack Hyles is even at the bitter end his sermons were fire if you listen to some of the sermons from Pastor Hyles like towards the end of his life I feel like he was preaching harder then than he had even in the past and what's crazy to me to think about is how much he preached against his own Bible calls in his own church at times and it goes to show that even someone that's the pastor of a large church can lose control of his own church can lose control of his own institutions because of what's going on it also just shows you the fact that when you have that many people and that many things going on you know think about Moses I mean Moses couldn't control his group and you know popularity sometimes is the worst enemy oh the church is really successful and we have a lot of money well when you have a lot of money you have a lot of money to lose when you have a lot of popularity you have a lot of popularity to lose when you have a big building you have a lot of big building to lose and sometimes it will cause you to not make the right decisions so you have to constantly try to stay humble and be willing to lose it all whether you have a lot or whether you have a little we've stood against a lot of persecution but would to God even if we had a lot of money even if we had a big congregation and not only when it's just the stakes are a lot smaller but let me tell you something sometimes you go into an area and people like you that like instantly just like you and you have a lot of popularity and it can change like this let me show you an example this is a funny one to me Acts chapter 14 verse 8 and there's not a certain man at Lystra's impotent in his feet being a cripple from his mother's womb who never had walked and the same heard Paul speak who steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed said with a loud voice stand upright on thy feet and he leaped and walked and when the people saw what Paul had done they lifted up their voices saying in the speech of Lyconia the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men and they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Mercurius because he was the chief speaker sounds like they understood that Mercury was closer to the sun than Jupiter thank you geocentrists verse 13 then the priest of Jupiter which was before their city brought oxen and garlands under the gates and would have done sacrifice with the people which when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of they rent their clothes and ran in among the people crying out and saying sirs why do you do these things we also are men of like passions with you and preach unto you that you should turn from these manatees unto the living god which made heaven and earth and the sea and all things that are therein who in time past suffered all nations to walk in their own ways nevertheless he left not himself without witness and that he did good and gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons filling our hearts with food and gladness and with these sayings scarce restrained they the people that they had not done sacrifice in them so the apostle Paul is coming to an area and they perform a miracle and everybody's worshipping them as a literal god and even when they say don't do it they can't even stop them they're still trying to literally worship them as gods this is what you call popularity okay but what's so funny is that was verse 18 verse 19 and there came thither certain Jews from Antioch and Iconium who persuaded the people and having stoned Paul drew them out of the city and that turned quickly and we have all these verses explaining how popular they are and then in just the next verse the Jews came and then just you're not popular anymore in fact we want to kill you wow isn't that the same with Jesus how Jesus is coming into the city in the triumphal entry and they're singing Hosanna I mean they're literally crying out Hosanna blessed is he that cometh the name of the lord and then just moments later they're screaming crucify him wow that was a quick switch wasn't it and it makes me think of and I'm going to attribute this to someone that's not necessarily godly but it's just funny because it happened in popular culture recently but there's this guy named Harrison Butker he's a popular football player from the Kansas City Chiefs and he made a graduation speech recently who knows what I'm talking about okay a lot of people actually have heard what I'm talking about so there's a Catholic college and there's this football player who went to give a commencement at their graduation his name's Harrison Butker he's a kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs who recently won the Super Bowl so he has a lot of notoriety but he came and gave a speech to this Catholic school and he's Catholic so you know it makes sense but apparently he's gotten a lot of attention from the Jews FYI but I just want to read a little bit of this okay so this is I'm just reading his speech that he gave to this college I'm not reading all of them I'm just reading some excerpts while COVID might have played a large role throughout your formative years it is not unique bad policies and poor leadership have negatively impacted major life issues things like abortion IVF surrogacy euthanasia as well as growing support for degenerate cultural values and media all steam or stem from the pervasiveness of disorder well that's not going to make you popular with the news media he said our own nation is led by a man who publicly and proudly proclaims his Catholic faith but at the same time is delusional enough to make the sign of the cross during a pro-abortion rally he has been so vocal in his report for the murder of innocent babies that I'm sure to many people it appears that you can be both Catholic and pro-choice that's some spicy words okay I just put it out there okay says he is not alone from the man behind the COVID lockdowns to the people pushing dangerous gender ideologies onto the youth of America they all have a glaring thing in common they are Catholic well that's it all right this is an important reminder that being Catholic alone doesn't cut it these are the sort of things we are told in polite society to not bring up you know the difficult and unpleasant things but if we are going to be men and women for this time in history we need to stop pretending that the quote Church of Nice end quote is a winning proposition we must always speak and act in charity but never mistake charity for cowardice it is safe to say that over the past three years I have gained quite the reputation for speaking my mind I never envisioned myself nor wanted to have this sort of a platform but God has given it to me so I have no other choice but to embrace it and preach more hard truths about accepting your lane and staying in it now I can keep reading here's the thing he's a Catholic who believes in being a Catholic and you know what's sad how many Baptists wouldn't even say what he said you know what's embarrassing is when Catholics recognize they have a platform and they should use it to promote Catholicism now of course in this speech he literally preaches work salvation he says that his wife and him hope to obtain salvation through their marriage which that is not how you go to heaven folks the honeymoon was great but it's not heaven after that no I'm just kidding it's a joke because my relationship is getting better every day it's all of you I have a permanent honeymoon go over to Luke chapter 6 but the reality is how is this guy who's gotten the popularity to get the opportunity to speak to the whole nation and look all the liberals and the leftists are freaking out and pulling their hair out and screaming and gnashing at their teeth because of what this guy said and of course he preaches against feminism in this saying like generally speaking my wife's greatest accomplishment is being a homemaker which is like amen and amen to my wife being a homemaker because she's the greatest at it no one could be better at that than her she's an expert at that she was a great math teacher but she's a way better homemaker way better homemaker there is not a woman out there that wouldn't be better suited as a homemaker now obviously you can't necessarily choose how that works out there's always exceptions to that rule but generally speaking that is what God has called most women to be as a homemaker and if they're given that opportunity God bless them for embracing that role in their life and you know I like a lot of this guy's speech I don't like his work salvation I don't like being a catholic but you know what wouldn't it God there'd be some Baptist that have a backbone and have some position in this world and when they get that position they actually preach the hard truths of the Bible and they don't have cowardice I like what he said hey charity is not an excuse to be a coward and we have so many fundamental Baptist in this country today that are hiding behind the idea of charity but they're a coward in reality and they're afraid of losing popularity but you know what nuts the popularity cause you know what this guy has had his job threatened has had his life threatened many of his teammates thought he was going to get fired he had cheerleaders coming out saying he should get fired and I think they fired her well I don't know read about it if you want cheerleaders y'all are expendable sorry don't think that you're more important than the players okay wow talk about pride I guess that popularity got to her head but here's the problem pretty soon you're going to get old and let me explain something the old chicks aren't the cheerleaders okay that's just the reality you're not a veteran cheerleader for very long what does the Bible say in Luke chapter 6 verse 26 I mean the reality I like this guy's attitude because he kind of says like nuts to it I don't care if I'm popular God's given me this platform I have an opportunity to speak some truth and at least his mind and so he's going to say it and look a lot of things he said were true look what it says in verse 26 woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets you know generally speaking if everyone likes you you're doing something wrong that doesn't mean God can't give you popularity because the reality is not everybody liked John the Baptist in fact the king killed him literally not everybody liked Jesus but at the end of the day they still were popular and they still got some popularity and you know what you can still get some popularity in this world and when you're given popularity say the hard truths of the Bible don't allow it to go to your head and think you're special and try to hold onto it like Nebuchadnezzar because God says hey I can abase you whenever I want and maybe you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this Esther if you're not going to use your platform if you're not going to use the popularity if you're not going to give take the influence that God has given you and use it for good well he might just take that away from you you know what causes you to be lifted up? Humility go to 1 Peter chapter number 5 1 Peter chapter 5 and when you have popularity and your family and your school and your church and your friends and your work and your city and your state you better use that for a cause of Christ and stop worrying about staying popular nuts to that 1 Peter chapter number 5 look at verse number 6 humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time hey if you really want popularity be humble work hard be diligent in fact let's go to one more verse go to Proverbs 22 I'll show you one more verse and then we'll finish you know what I appreciate that there's some people that have a backbone but it's pretty pathetic when it's Catholics it's pretty pathetic when that's the only people and let me explain something to you because I don't want you to get the wrong idea there's a lot of Catholics that dislike what's going on in Catholicism they dislike what's going on and I think a lot of them could be won over to the truth members of the Catholic church are not my enemy Catholic doctrine is my enemy priests of that religion are my enemy Harrison Bucker is not my enemy but you know what he does need to get saved or he's going to split hell wide open and I like a lot of parts of his speech and I like that he's not a coward wouldn't it God we could get that guy saved so he could preach Baptist truths I guarantee there's some Baptists out there that are in the NFL I guarantee there's some Baptists out there that are in professional sports I guarantee there's some Baptists out there that are in high positions of power and authority what did God if they get a platform if they get an opportunity that they would preach the word of God but when they can't even see it behind the pulpit how are they going to be emboldened to preach it on their platforms you know what you need to take the opportunities you have to preach the truth and to not be a coward and not to stand behind it and not worry about popularity but rather say hey I'm going to be little in my own sight and humble myself and if God uses me well then you know what I'm going to use it for his glory and not my own but there can be a way to get a platform humble yourself work hard look what it says in Proverbs 22 verse 29 see is thou a man diligent in his business he shall stand before kings he shall not stand before mean men mean there is not like na na boo boo talking about average for people that actually understand math sorry Flat Earthers have no idea what I'm saying mean means average average you're not going to stand before average men you're going to stand before kings by doing what by being diligent by being hard working by humbling yourself by lowering yourself being a Joseph oh he became popular being a Daniel oh he became popular why because they were humble and they worked hard and when they got their opportunity when they got their limelight they gave all their glory to God and would to God you know I believe that the next generation the young people that are listening to our sermons there could be one of you that sometime God gives a platform there could be one of you that God decides to lift up at some point in time and I hope that you don't allow that popularity to go to your head don't allow the platform to go to your head and don't think I got to keep this by compromising but rather say God's given me this opportunity to stand for him hey Esther maybe you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this and this is your time to preach your opportunity hey you get an opportunity your family stand on the truth of the Bible you get an opportunity your friends stand on the truth of the Bible and don't allow yourself to worry about popularity it comes and goes like the wind nuts to that but let us use it for God's glory and not our own let's close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us the word of God thank you for giving us an opportunity to preach the word of God by being Americans by being Texans by being part of this church I pray that we wouldn't let whatever influence whatever wealth whatever popularity we have to go to our heads but rather we'd use everything we have as a platform to give you honor and glory I pray that we would not be a church that seeks to elevate itself but rather to elevate the gospel and to elevate the cause of Christ and I pray that we would all be motivated that when we get opportunity to speak that we'd speak what is right and not what will keep us popular in Jesus' name we pray Amen All right for our final song let's go to 363 Wonderful Words of Life song 363 song 363 Singing them over again to me Wonderful words of life Let me pour out their beauty See Wonderful words of life Words of life and beauty Teach me faith and beauty Beautiful words Wonderful words Wonderful words of life Beautiful words Wonderful words Wonderful words of life Christ the blessed one gives to all Wonderful words of life Sinner gives to the loving call Wonderful words of life All so freely given Moving us to heaven Beautiful words Wonderful words Wonderful words of life Beautiful words Wonderful words Wonderful words of life Sweetly echo the gospel call Wonderful words of life Offer heart and peace to all Wonderful words of life Jesus only Savior Sanctified forever Beautiful words Wonderful words Wonderful words of life Beautiful words Wonderful words Wonderful words of life Thank you all for coming God bless you are dismissed