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Music Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. It's great to see everybody here tonight. If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started. And for our first song, once you've found a hymnal, go to song number 53. Song number 53, start tonight out with a newer song. Song number 53, Beulah Land. Some might be familiar, some not. If you are, sing it out very loud so we can all follow along. Beulah Land, song 53. Everybody sing it out on the first. I've reached the land of joy divine, And all its riches freely mine. Here shines a hymn one blestful day, For all my night has passed away. O Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land, As on my highest mount I stand, I look away across the sea, Where mansions are prepared for me, And view the shining glory shore, My heaven, my home forevermore. My Savior comes and walks with me, And sweet communion here have we, He gently leads me by His hand, For this is heaven's borderland. O Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land, As on my highest mount I stand, I look away across the sea, Where mansions are prepared for me, And view the shining glory shore, My heaven, my home forevermore. A sweet perfume upon the breezes, Born from heaven, And flowers that never may grow, Where streams of life forever flow. O Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land, As on my highest mount I stand, I look away across the sea, Where mansions are prepared for me, And view the shining glory shore, My heaven, my home forevermore. The zephyr seem to float to me, Sweet sounds of heaven's melody, As angels with a white robe join, In the sweet redemption song, O Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land, As on my highest mount I stand, I look away across the sea, Where mansions are prepared for me, And view the shining glory shore, My heaven, my home forevermore. Great singing, everybody. Okay, now let's open up service with a word of prayer. Lord, we love you, and we thank you so much for this church. Once again, thank you for the ability to gather here to you. We just ask that you help us lift up our voice, help us sing unto you loud, and just bless this church, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 12. One that may be a little bit more familiar. Song number 12, Blessed Redeemer. Song number 12, Blessed Redeemer. All right, sing it out again. Up Calvary's mountain, what dreadful morn, O Christ my Savior, weary and morn, Facing for sinners, death on the cross, That we might save Him from endless loss. Blessed Redeemer, Precious Redeemer, Seems how our seed built on Calvary's tree, Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading, Blind and unheeding, dying for me. Father, forgive him, thus did he pray, In while his blind blood flow fast away, Praying for sinners, while in such woe, No one but Jesus never loved so. Blessed Redeemer, Precious Redeemer, Seems how our seed built on Calvary's tree, Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading, Blind and unheeding, dying for me. O how I love Him, Savior and Friend, Harken, my praises, ever finding, Through years unnumbered, on heaven's shore, My tongue shall praise Him forevermore. Blessed Redeemer, Precious Redeemer, Seems how our seed built on Calvary's tree, Wounded and bleeding, for sinners pleading, Blind and unheeding, dying for me. Good evening, thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you did not get a bulletin, and you would still like one, you can lift up your hand real quick, and our usher can come by and get you a bulletin. On the front, we have our Bible memory passage, Jonah chapter 2, and then on the inside, we have our service times, our soul-winning times. If you have some soul-winning reporting that you need to put, you can put it in our soul-winning chat group. If you don't have access to that, please just ask, and we'd love to add you to that. On the right, we have our list of expecting ladies. Please be in prayer for them. We have a prayer list. If you'd like to add additional prayer requests, please email us. We'd love to put it in there and be praying for you guys. Upcoming events, November 9th is a soul-winning seminar. It's going to be 8 a.m. to have coffee and donuts, and then it starts around 830. Some of our soul-winning captains are offering an opportunity to just get some soul-winning tips, and if you want to just practice with some people and just get a little more comfortable, it's just a great opportunity to sharpen your soul-winning skills. November 16th is the Miami Soul-winning marathon. There's a sign-up sheet out here in the foyer, and it has the details as far as where we're meeting and locating. I put a video out there as well with those same details. You can share it or find it on our Rumble channel, but if also you'd like to sign up, you can do so. We have November 24th is the ordination service for Brother Dylan Oz, and we're really excited. I think a lot of people are going to be traveling up there with us, but even if you can't make it, please just pray that the service and the new church, Anchor Baptist Church, that everything would go well. December 6th is a ladies' Christmas party, and if you want to put that on the calendar, it's a lot of fun. It's a meal, so all the ladies are going to be invited for that. December 9th is our Christmas caroling, so we'll meet here and go out caroling. If you've never been caroling with us, honestly, it's a lot cooler than it seems. It's a lot of fun. People have really enjoyed it, and we actually do the opposite of soul-winning. We actually go to the nice neighborhoods for the Christmas caroling, and so it's a lot of fun, and we've always really enjoyed it, and so if you'd like to participate with us, we'll probably meet in some of the nicer areas and go Christmas caroling. December 25th is a Christmas cookie bake-off, and we'll have that on the 25th. I think that's the one time our church votes every year, and so we let even the kids vote on their favorite cookies and the best designs and stuff, and so it's a lot of fun. If you're here for Christmas, we'd love to have you for that. January 1st, we have done in the past a couple times a New Year's Eve party, but I think because of it being right next to our Wednesday service, we're just going to only do the Wednesday service this year, but we will still have a men's preaching along with a pizza fellowship, and so we'd love for you to join us on the 1st for that event as well. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements in the bulletin. We did have the special handout as well about our missionary, Evangelist Urbanic, who is in the Philippines, and they're doing a great work, and if you'd like to read about his ministry and what he's been doing, you can read about that. We do support them and their family 100%, so that's just something for you to think about. Hey, you support our church. You're supporting this missionary, and you're supporting his works, and I believe that the Lord is blessing that. So that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We'll go ahead and sing our third song, which is our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 148. Sing it out nice and loud. It's in our special handouts, Psalm 148. All right. That was Psalm 148, Psalm chapter 148. Everybody sing it out together. Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the Lord from the heavens. Praise him in the heights, praise ye him. All his angels, praise ye him. All his hosts, praise ye him. Sun and moon, praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens. Any waters that be above the heavens, let them praise the name of the Lord. For he commanded and they were created. He hath also established them forever and ever. He hath made a degree which shall not press. Praise the Lord from the earth, ye dragons and of each fire. And hail snow and vapor, stormy wind, fulfilling his work mountains. In all his fruitful trees, and all cedars' trees, and all cattle creeping, new and flying fowl, kings of the earth and all people, princes and all judges of the earth, both young men and ladies, women and children, let them praise the name of the Lord. For his name alone is excellent, his glory is above the earth, and in heaven he also exalted the Lord. Love his people, the praise of all his saints, even of the children of Israel, the people near unto him. Praise be the Lord. Great singing, everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 6. That's the book of Proverbs chapter number 6. Proverbs chapter 6, the Bible says, My son, if thou be surety for thy stranger, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth, do this now, my son, and deliver thyself. When thou art come in to the hand of thy friend, go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend. Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids. Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler. Go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways and be wise, which having no guide, overseer, or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest. How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man. A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth. He winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers. Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually, he soweth discord. Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly, suddenly shall he be broken without remedy. These six things doth the Lord hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him, a proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief, a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren. My son, keep thy father's commandment, and foresight thou to speak, my son, keep thy father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother. Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck. When thou goest, it shall lead thee, when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee, and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee, for the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life, to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lest not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids, for by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned? So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife, whosoever toucheth her, shall not be innocent. Men do not despise a thief if he steal, to satisfy his soul when he is hungry. But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance of his house. But whoso committeth adultery with the woman, lacketh understanding. He that doeth it destroyeth his own soul. A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. For jealousy is the rage of a man, therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for salvation. I ask you to bless Pastor Shelley as he preaches your word. Please help us to be attentive to it. Please remove distractions. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. I want to look back at verse 26 again. The Bible says this. It says, For by means of a whorish woman, a man is brought to a piece of bread, and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. And the Bible warns that there is a woman that will hunt to destroy people, and will destroy people's lives, and is a dangerous person. Now, I want to preach a sermon, and I want to kind of talk about a carnal application, and then kind of expand this. And hopefully this is something that most of us never have to experience, or have to ever go through, but it is something that does happen, and it's a psycho ex-girlfriend. Okay? And so that's the title of my sermon this evening, is Psycho Ex-Girlfriends. Okay? Now, here's the thing. This doesn't just apply on one side of the aisle. You can have a psycho ex. That's a guy. Flip verse, you know, both ways. And I want to talk about this, you know, because also I think that there's an application we can take and learn from this particular lesson. But there are people out there that are just extremely dangerous that get attached to you, and then they won't leave you alone. And that's kind of the principle of the idea of what we think of as like a, quote, psycho ex-girlfriend. And really, when we think about this woman in here, this adulterous woman, she's going around hunting for some prey, someone that she can take advantage of and destroy their life, an innocent person. And in many cases, I think that this type of a person is kind of similar, where they're dangerous. And I want to look at a lot of principles in the Bible of how you would deal with a person like this, because you never know. You could date somebody and not really think anything negative, and then the relationship ends horribly, and then you just have this person harassing you, attacking you, doing all kinds of crazy stuff. And it's like, what do you do in that situation? Well, I want to keep looking at a lot of different verses here. Go to chapter 7 and look at verse number 5. And I have a lot of stuff that I want to talk about this evening, but I'm really looking at a lot of principles in the Bible on this subject. It says in Proverbs 7, verse 5, that they may keep thee, talking about the commandments and the word of God, from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. You need to be aware of dating people or getting involved in relationships where the person's a flatterer, because the Bible is saying that this person is a dangerous person. So there are people out there that are flatterers. There are people out there that are adulterous in their heart, and they're seeking to hurt you, seeking to destroy you, and you don't want to get entangled with those people, because many times after getting entangled with them, well, they're going to harass you well beyond even the relationship that you initially had with them. They won't leave you alone. Go to Ecclesiastes. Just flip to the right and look at Ecclesiastes chapter 7. Well, notice that the Bible warns about these kind of type people. Ecclesiastes chapter number 7, look at verse 26. The Bible says this. It says, I find more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets and her hands as bands, who, pleased with God, shall escape from her, but the sinner shall be taken by her. So again, the Bible paints this picture of there's certain women. This is not saying all women, okay? Don't quote me on this. This is saying, like, oh, Pastor Shelley hates all women or something. This is a certain kind of woman that is out there that is a snare, is a net, and is going to hurt and destroy people. She's the adulterous woman. She's the strange woman. She's the flattering type woman. And she is bad news. And again, we're focusing in on women. This applies also to men. You can get in relationships with men that are also just terrible bad men will destroy you. Someone like Andrew Tate or Tristan Tate. Those guys are very destructive forces. You would never want to be in a relationship with them. Go back to Proverbs chapter 14. I'm just going to show you a lot of principles real quick, and then we're going to kind of get into some meat of the sermon. But notice the Bible's warning. There are dangerous people. There's this adulterous woman. There's this strange woman which flatters. There's this woman whose heart is snares and nets. And the Bible says that we should avoid this type of a person. The Bible says in Proverbs chapter 14, look at verse 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. Here's another general instruction the Bible says is that we should avoid certain people. When you realize someone's foolish, when you realize they're stupid or just making bad decisions, we should try to avoid that type of a person. So the Bible's telling us, avoid the flatterer, avoid the adulterous, avoid the foolish person. So we're getting like all of these and we're going to kind of combine them into general wisdom and instruction. Now go to the New Testament for a moment. Go to 2 Timothy chapter number 2. I just wanted to quickly lay down some biblical principles, and I am going to share a couple articles online as well of just some wisdom of the world. But I think a lot of the wisdom of the world follows these principles that I'm showing you here in the Bible. So I want to clearly show you some principles in the Bible and then we're going to talk about some other things that even just the world just gives you as general advice in these areas. But the Bible says in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 23, it says, But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes. So here's the thing, sometimes people try to talk to you and bring up questions and try to talk to you about subjects and they're talking about subjects that really are not very sincere, they're not good questions, and it just causes more problems, more of an issue, and we should avoid these type of situations, avoid these questions, avoid these inquiries of discussion, because it just makes things worse. And then I want to go to one more. Go to Titus chapter 3. And so I'm just kind of combining these things. What have we read in the Bible so far? We read in the Bible that the adulterous woman will hunt for the precious life. We've learned that with a strange woman who flatters with you, you should avoid her. You should avoid the woman whose hearts are snares and nets. You should avoid the foolish and unlearned questions. You should avoid the person who has foolish lips. So we're kind of getting a lot of these just general principles. The Bible says in Titus chapter 3 verse 10, a man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition reject. So again, the Bible is telling you when you have dangerous people, when you have flatterers, when you have foolish questions, when you have heretics, like the general wisdom is stay away from this person. This is a dangerous person. You want to stay away from them, not be in their presence. The Bible, I didn't show you this verse, but in Proverbs 26 verse 4, it also tells you to answer not a fool according to his folly, lest they also be like unto him. So the Bible is saying that we should not answer fools according to their folly. Okay? Don't want to go down a foolish road with foolish people. We want to stay away from them. Now go over to Judges chapter 16. Let's get into a story here in the Bible that kind of talks about this particular subject. Now again, title of the sermon, Psycho Ex-Girlfriends. Okay? Number one, you don't ever want to be this person. Number two, if you end up having this type of person in your life, you have to be very careful with them because they're a very dangerous person. Now Samson in the Bible is constantly being with different women that are very dangerous women, women that he shouldn't have been with based on the principles that we already learned, based on the scriptures that we've already seen. He should be avoiding harlots and flatterers and these bad people. He should be avoiding the woman whose heart is snares and nets, but Samson does not do that. So what happens when you get entangled with this kind of a woman? Well, Judges chapter 16, look at verse 4. And it came to pass afterwards, let's talk about Samson, that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek whose name was Delilah. And the Lord of the Philistines came up unto her and said unto her, Entice him, and see wherein his great strength lieth. And by what means we may prevail against him, that we may bind him to afflict him, and we will give thee, every one of us, eleven hundred pieces of silver. It says, And Delilah said to Samson, Tell me, I pray thee, wherein thy great strength lieth, and wherewith thou mightest be bound to afflict thee. So it didn't give a response, but it's clear from the story that Delilah likes this offer and has accepted essentially this particular offer. So we have to think about the story. Samson and Delilah, they're having a relationship, but she's been offered eleven hundred pieces of silver. This is a lot of money. She's offered a great fortune to destroy Samson. And by her going down this path, we can understand a few things. She's done with the relationship. She's already decided this relationship's over with her. She's done with the relationship. But instead of just leaving, instead of just being done with Samson, she's going to figure out how to cash in on Samson and take advantage of him, even though in her heart she's a goner. And here's the thing, a lot of exes, sometimes they're already done with the relationship. They already know that the relationship's over for them, but they're not going to let you know initially because they still want to take advantage of you or use you in some way. And again, this works on both sides of the equation. There are plenty of men who will not marry their girlfriend, but they keep leading her on because they're still reaping benefits from that relationship that they don't want to stop, and so they're not being honest with their partner. And so the same is with Delilah, that she is taking advantage of Samson here and going to destroy him. She's willing to literally destroy him, sell him to be killed physically for money. That is a psychopath. I mean, can you imagine someone you genuinely loved and you cared about that you'd be willing to literally sell out for money? But that is this type of woman, and this is a scary type of relationship to be in where this woman is willing to actually destroy you. Look what it says in verse 10. And Delilah said unto Samson, Behold, thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Now tell me, I pray thee, wherewith thou mightest be bound. Here's the thing. Delilah is trying to get Samson's secret to destroy him for money, and Samson lies to her. Now, which of these do you think was the worst sin? Like, which of these do you think is really the person that's actually the bad person in this story? Like, it's pretty obvious Delilah is extremely evil. But then notice how she pretty much just deceives Samson and tricks him into thinking like, No, you're mocking me and you're lying to me. You know who's the real liar here? It's Delilah because she's trying to take advantage of him and deceive him and trick him. And she's projecting her evil, her sin, upon Samson in many ways. And so she just is wearing him down, lying to him, tricking him, saying, Oh, you're mocking me. Oh, you're lying to me. We see it again in verse number 13. And Delilah said unto Samson, Hitherto thou hast mocked me and told me lies. Tell me wherewith thou mightest be bound. And he said unto her, And he gives her another. So, like, in the story, Samson keeps, like, saying, just making something up, not really giving her a secret, and she ends up calling people in to destroy him, which you would think, like, why would you then tell her the next time? Like, wouldn't you have put two and two together? But it's like, this is what happens when you actually love someone. Did you read what it said in verse four? Read it again. And it came to pass afterward that he loved a woman in the valley of Sorek. When you love someone, you sometimes don't see the fact that they're hurting you. When you love someone, you don't realize that they're actually going to take advantage of you. Sometimes you overlook their faults. Sometimes you make excuses for their behavior, even though they're actually a destructive force. They're actually trying to destroy you actively and harm you. Now, again, don't take any of the advice that I'm saying from a marriage perspective, because we're not talking about marriage. We're talking about dating relationships, okay? We're talking about this psycho who's trying to take this information and destroy her boyfriend, destroy her male companion here, with lies for money specifically. But we notice a pattern here that she's constantly revealing, she's wanting to reveal his secrets to harm him. And this is what you have to worry about. Psycho ex-girlfriends and psycho exes will try to use your personal information against you to hurt you. That's why you have to be very careful with these type of people. That's why you should also just not be in fornication. You should get married. And you get married to someone that you actually love, and you're actually going to fight each other. I mean, according to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, you're not even allowed, or you at least have a right to not testify against your spouse legally, because it's just so wrong, and it's so weird for someone to literally want to testify against their own spouse. I mean, you're one flesh, but for this dating relationship, oh, she has no problem revealing his secrets and taking advantage of him and hurting and harming him. And you know what? That is a psychopath, one that doesn't feel empathy, one that doesn't actually feel bad about hurting and harming other people, but really just has a love of money. Verse 16, It came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death, that he told her all his heart. So here's another thing that psychos will do and exes will do sometimes, is they just pester you over and over and over and over again just to get you to relent eventually, just like, hey, tell me what's going on, do this, talk to me, do this, whatever, and you just get worn down. Did you notice what it said? It came to pass when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him, so that his soul was vexed unto death. Wow, that's some nagging. I mean, she is an expert at nagging this guy and afflicting this guy. Now, here's the thing. Samson made a lot of mistakes in this story. What are some of the mistakes he made? Well, number one, he was around the adulterous woman that's hunting for the precious life. Number two, he's hanging out with the strange woman that flatters with her words. Number three, he's with that woman whose heart is snares and nets. Pretty much check every verse. Check, check, check. Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceiveest not in him the lips of knowledge. Oh, check for her on that one. She's probably even an heretic because she's not of the children of Israel. And what does the Bible say? A man that is an heretic after the first and second admonition, reject. Okay, he's basically like taking every one of the instructions that I gave you and not following it. The Bible says, answer not a fool according to his folly. He should have been like, I'm never gonna tell you. He didn't have to lie to her. He could have just said, sorry, we're not married. I'm not gonna tell you this. Hit the road if you want. But of course, he's just answering her questions, going along with this, allowing himself to be vexed, allowing himself to be taken advantage of and going down a bad route. And we have to be careful because people like Delilah, they have no conscience. They will lie. They will project her deceit upon him and they are a destructive, selfish force. And there are people that are like this in our lives that we have to sometimes avoid and try to prevent from them destroying us. Now go over to 2 Thessalonians, chapter number three. Go to 2 Thessalonians, chapter number three. I'm showing you a pretty clear example of a woman that she's already kind of decided in her heart the relationship's over, but then she's taking advantage of the situation and trying to destroy him further. And this is what happens sometimes in a relationship when it's over, doesn't matter who wants it to be over, how it's over. That person, instead of just moving on and leaving them alone, they try to destroy the other person and they try to hurt and harm the other person. And that's really where I'm kind of coming from from this perspective is like, you need to be careful with relationships. Here's another thing that's important. Maybe you should take dating lightly so that you don't end up getting so involved with someone that they have this tendency to go down this psycho ex-girlfriend route and try to destroy you later, okay? And I'm not going to ask for a raise of hands, but I'm sure there's some people in here that maybe you did date someone or you did have a relationship in the past and it didn't end well and they did crazy things. In fact, I was looking up some stuff online about stories, okay? Some crazy ex-girlfriend stories. So these are things that people did after they broke off the relationship. This is someone that said this. She got her mail delivered to my house when she found out that I was going to break up with her, then wouldn't leave when I did break up with her. I called the police and since she received mail at my house, they said it was officially her residence as well. I had to call my landlord and I had to evict me just to get her to leave. Once she left, he rescinded the eviction notice and I moved back then. So he's saying like, this chick is like sending mail to his house just to be stuck with his house and he can't legally evict her or something like that. So he had to evict himself. Here's another story. She made a key to my house, stole my dog after we broke up, then she called me and told me that she found my dog running loose in my neighborhood and then came to return it. So she's going and sneaking and stealing his dog to pretend like it got loose so that she can go have an excuse to go and return it, but then it says that the neighbor had it all on video. So they ended up catching what she had done. Here's another one. They, quote, helped me pack knowing that I was putting things into storage and they put raw chicken into rubber-made appliances that they knew I wouldn't open for months. Oh, man, that's rough. That's funny because when I was, when me and my wife were young, she actually taught in public school and in the summer, there's nothing to do in her classroom and she had this mini fridge and she brought this mini fridge and we just put it in the fridge, in the garage. So this was the mini fridge in the garage for like three months and now it's time for her to go back to school and I go and I open up that mini fridge and there was just this ball, this green ball of mold and all this weird stuff and I was like, what? And then I like touched it and it just like opened like a gusher and just like burst open. She had left a mandarin orange in there or something on accident and it is just like completely raw. It was gross, okay? I'm just gonna say it. It was weird. Now that wasn't on purpose. That was just an accident but it was just kind of weird. Here's another one. I was in the military at the time and my ex called the base and told them I was passing her secrets. Then she called my mom and told her I died. Then it says the army, she told the mom that the army wouldn't tell her that they were keeping it a secret from her. Then she called his landlord, told him that he also died and that they should release his apartment and then it says this, that ended up me being taken captive by the military. So they found him and arrested him. He said he didn't even know what was going on. He said it took two weeks for the military to end up believing him and releasing him. He said by then the landlord had actually started boxing up all his stuff to sell off. Weird. Here's another one. Two weeks after I dumped her, she showed up at my parents' house to introduce them to her new boyfriend since they were her quote second family. He said they had only dated for six months in high school and she had met his parents twice before this. They lived over two hours away. My mom said the guy was confused and seemed like she had told him she was introducing him to her family. So she took the guy that she had just started dating on a two-hour trip to introduce him to people she barely knew without warning any of them that she was showing up. Then she complained to his sister the next day that I hadn't called her about it. What in the world? Here's another one. This one says, I recently logged back onto Instagram for the first time in a while and the dude started a religion about himself. And I was thinking like, was this Tyler Doka's wife? But you know, I'm just saying like, there are some psychos out there. And look, there was a lot of stories I can't even repeat or I wouldn't even share, but I'm just saying like, there are some weird people that will do weird things and you can't stop them. You can't, I mean, what are you going to do about this person, right? And that's kind of what I want to talk about is what do you do if you actually had a relationship with someone or you had a person in your life that's acting like this, how do you deal with this type of a person? Well, 2 Thessalonians chapter number three, I'm sorry, chapter three, verse two says this. Let's read verse one. I guess it starts in the middle of a sentence here. It says, so finally brethren pray for us that the word of the Lord may have recourse and be glorified even as it is with you and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men for all men have not faith. The Bible says there are some people that are unreasonable. And that's something you have to identify. There are some people in this world that are unreasonable. So it's not like you can explain to them, hey, what you're doing is weird. Hey, back off. Hey, leave me alone. Hey, go somewhere else. Like you can't even explain that to that person because they are unreasonable. And consistently in the Bible, you see the preachers of the word of God, the apostles, Jesus Christ himself, having all these people following them around and attaching them to themselves and basically acting like a psycho ex-girlfriend. And while they don't actually have that psycho ex-girlfriend, they're acting like that type of person would be. And the question is, like, what do you do about this type of a person? Well, go to Proverbs 25. Go back to Proverbs. I want to look at a couple more. I looked up online. I was just kind of curious, like, what does the world say? What would be the world's advice if I said, hey, what do I do about this person? And I found a WikiHow. So, like, they have these WikipediaHow articles that says, like, what to do with an obsessive ex-girlfriend. It says, number one, be kind of blunt when you break it off. And they said, subpoint, make it really clear that you don't want to date her anymore. And I'm like, that seems pretty reasonable. That seems like it's pretty consistent with what the Bible is saying. Like, don't beat around the bush. Just say, like, it's over, okay? Number two, stop all communication with your ex. Don't respond to their texts, phone calls, or emails. Now, isn't that based on the principles that we've seen seem about pretty reasonable? It's like, hey, avoid this person. Go from the presence of this person. Stop talking with this person. Reject this person. Third, change your social media settings. Block her and don't interact with her on social media. It says, for instance, if you like one of her photos or respond to a tweet, she might think that you're still interested in her. So it's better not to engage. They're saying, when these people that are psychos get any attention from you, they think it's because you still like them and want to interact with them. So they can't handle it. So what the Bible is saying is avoid these people. What the world is saying, avoid these people. Because they're just dangerous. The world, again, says this. Make adjustments to your routine. This is their fourth point. Avoid places where you could meet them up. Five, be consistent in your boundaries. So don't make exceptions for communicating with them. It's like basically doubling up. Like, stay away from this person. Don't talk to them. Number six advice, lean on your support system. And that's just the people that actually do like you. It says let them know what's happening so they can help you. Here's another one. Don't bad mouth your ex. But be honest about the things that are bothering you. It says also if you think your ex is getting information about you from a mutual friend, then don't share anything private with that person. So it's like don't be very careful because when these people are the way they are, they will use any and all information against you. They will leak any information. They will try to attack you and hurt you and harm you because they're acting psychotic. And so it's like, you know, try to avoid this person. Don't give them information they can use to hurt you. It just doesn't make any sense. And plus it's saying don't bad mouth them. You know, what does the ex do? They bad mouth you. They're constantly harassing you, attacking you, whatever. But we don't want to play their game. We want to just avoid them. That's what the world's saying. And again, the Bible's clear. We shouldn't be gossip. We shouldn't be a tale bearer. I mean, there's so many verses on these type of subjects that we should realize a lot of this advice is coming from the Bible even. This is what it says, number seven, according to the world. Tell your mutual friends what's happening between you two. Your friends can prevent acts of run-ins. Number eight, let her know when she crosses the line. So be clear and direct. Number nine, take screenshots of harassing texts or posts. And it says specifically just so that you can use that for law enforcement if they're threatening you. And they say this is what many exes will do is they make fake profiles to constantly communicate with you after you block them so that they can keep harassing you. So it's like that's an attribute of a psycho ex-girlfriend is they keep making fake profiles to try and continually harass you and attack you and say all these things against you. Number 10 is take care of your own mental health, you know, talking to a counselor or a friend. Number 11, advise your ex to get counseling. And then number 12, get a restraining order. And this is basically saying like there are some people that will not stop harassing you. They will not get over you. They will not leave you alone. And it's saying you have to do something. Be clear to them, avoid them, block them, don't talk to them, try to keep as much distance as possible. That's the world's advice. And you know, frankly speaking, it seems like it's fitting all the verses that I'm showing you in the Bible on this subject too. What should have Samson done to Delilah? Blocked her from his life. Been like, why are you asking me these questions? Why are you going down this path? Instead of giving her private information that could be used against him, and then she, what, destroys him because he was vexed, sore with her constant urging, constant provoking, constant social... I mean, she's just creating a new private message profile, like a new message, a new profile, just harass him every day. What's your secret? What's your secret? It's like literal torture. I mean, many people, when they're actually tortured, they will confess a crime that they haven't ever committed just to get the pain to stop. And it's like, in this, it's just like, he's just being harassed by her so often, vexed to the point where he was willing to die, that he's just like, fine, I'll just tell you exactly what's going on. And then she uses that to destroy him. Now, I heard you turn to Proverbs 25. Look what the Bible says in verse number 24. It is better to dwell in the corner of the housetop than with a brawling woman in a white house. Look, these people are harassing you. What is the basic of the Bible saying? It's like, better to be away from this person than to be around someone that's contentious, someone that's brawling. Chapter 26, verse 22, the Bible says this. The words of a tailbearer are as wounds that go down in the enemous parts of the belly. Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsherd covered with silver dross. He that hateth, dissembleth with his lips, and layeth up deceit within him. When he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart. The word dissembleth means to conceal or disguise using deceit to basically hide hatred. So this person's hiding their hatred with what? With fair words, with flattery. So they hate you, but they say things that they don't mean, that aren't sincere, to try and trick you and to trap you and to hurt you and to harm you. So it's saying you need to be careful with tailbearers. You need to be careful with flatterers. When you are around someone and they're constantly just sharing gossip about other people, just know this is a dangerous person. When you're around someone and they're constantly talking trash on other people, that's a dangerous person. When you're around someone and you catch them being insincere and it's like, how do you know they're insincere? Because they come to you and they say, man, I can't stand this person. And then that person comes in the room and they're like, oh, I love your dress, it's so pretty. It's like, no, that's a bad person. Because you know that they don't really mean it, that they're not a sincere person. And when you notice this person's not a sincere person, know they're dangerous to you, too. Not just dangerous to that type of a person. The person that flatters others will flatter you. The person that tailbears against others will tailbear against you. And we have to be careful with this type of a person and realize, hey, we don't want to be around the brawling women, the flattering women, the tailbearing women. The tailbearing women, and again, this is both sides of the equation, even men that are like this as well. But you want to be careful with this person. It says in verse 25, when he speaketh fair, believe him not. So just because someone says something nice or sounds good, the Bible's saying don't believe this person. Don't trust this person. Why? Verse 26, whose hatred is covered by deceit, his wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation. So eventually it'll come out. Eventually this person will make it clear that they hated you, they don't really like you, they were lying the whole time. It even says specifically in verse 28, a lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it, and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. So we have to be aware of these type of people. Chapter 27, verse 4, go back up a little bit. I'm sorry, down a little bit. Wrath is cruel and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy? So again, I'm just thinking about a lot of verses that kind of give us some general wisdom here. But you have to realize that many times exes, they lash out and they're so mad because they're envious of your new relationship. So hey, you move on from them or you start dating someone else or you're interested in someone else or just the fact they don't even have you, it causes them to have all this envy and then they get this hatred and then they can't leave you alone and they have to constantly stalk you and harass you and pester you and try to use private information to destroy you because they are, frankly speaking, envious. And some people can't really even be fixed. Look what it says in verse 22. Though thou shouldst bray a fool in his mortar among wheat with a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from it. I would love to say, here's the solution to crazy exes is let's talk them off the ledge. Let's be reasonable with them. Let's explain to them why they're weird. Let's explain to them why they're creepy. Let's explain to them why they're doing unreasonable things. But you can't do that. There are some people that are foolish, there are some people that are heretics, there are some people that are bad and you just have to avoid them. There are just some people in this world that are unreasonable, you have to just stay away from, you can't talk to, you can't engage with, they can't be reasoned with, they can't be placated, they can't be talked down, they're just a psycho. And you just have to say, like, stay away from me. You are a psychopath, okay? Now, I've given you a lot of these general wisdoms, I want to show you other people in the Bible, and this is some men in the Bible doing this. Go to 2 Samuel 14 now, go to 2 Samuel 14. What do psycho exes do? Well, I found an article, I'm reading a lot of articles today because I just want to get some of the wisdom of the world plus what the Bible says, but sometimes the world will tell you things that are biblical and sometimes the world will just help you understand the psychology of what these people are like. But there was an article written by this girl who's basically explaining that she is a psycho ex-girlfriend, okay? And then she's explaining to you why she does this and what her mentality is, okay? She says, these former love interests of our boyfriends have turned us into obsessive compulsive internet stalkers hell-bent on digging up as much dirt as we can via Twitter or Google. So she says when she breaks up with some guy, she becomes this obsessive compulsive person that stalks them online incessantly finding out anything they can about them. That's why you should be careful about what you put online, all right? This is what she said about herself. This is some person just confessing like her fault, I guess, to us. So we're getting the psychology of what this person thinks. She says, I hate ex-girlfriends. So she's saying when she starts dating someone, she ends up looking up all of the exes from this previous person, okay? So she starts dating someone. She immediately finds out who have they dated before. And she says this, I hate every ex-girlfriend. She says all of them. I mean seriously, detest, abhor, despise, want to stuff a plastic bag over their head while they're sleeping, hate them. And she says the simple reason is jealousy. Now then she explains it and she says, number two, the reason why is because the ex-girlfriends make her doubt herself because she says if she's pretty, she obsesses to no end why they broke up and wonders why she's not, why if she's pretty enough for him. So she's basically saying she looks up this previous guy's relationships and she thinks she's prettier than her, then she's obsessed and she's like, oh man, what happened, why is this, like what's going on? Then she says this, on the other hand, if she's not pretty, then I go crazy wondering if he only dates ugly girls and if I'm one of them. So here's the thing, this person is just crazy no matter what. And she's admitting it. She's like it doesn't matter. Whoever it is, I hate her. And I hate her if she's pretty, I hate her if she's not pretty, like she's just. And look, this is how some women are, that they're literally this psychotic, okay. Then she just puts my imagination is my worst enemy. I was like yes it is. She explains this and she goes into detail and she's just basically saying that she just imagines all these things about these people and projects all these things on these people and that's who that is and she comes up with all these crazy scenarios in her head and I'm like this is unhealthy folks and there are people like this. You don't want to get invested around a person like this. I found another article. It said ten signs that you're becoming a psycho ex-girlfriend. So this is another thing to help people realize what these people are like. Here's how you know if you're like this girl or you're a psycho ex. You think about them all the time. Number two, you still have them on Facebook and Twitter. Number three, you stalk them regularly on social media. It says stalking means you've given up your power and you've invested in a failed relationship. It's weird. Why do you invest in a failed relationship? It makes no sense. Number four, you ask his friends about them all the time. Number five, you frequent places you might have seen them just to run into them again. Number six, you still have all the things that they gave you and it says, quote, keeping a shrine to your ex by maintaining a box of his stuff long after you've broken up is going to be weird at best and obsessive at worst. And I think this is what we think of in the movies or what we think about in stories is like the psycho ex is the one that has the shrine. And it's like to me, if you have this, you are a psycho ex. Where you have just some kind of a dedicated little section of your house or closet or whatever and you've got their picture, you've got a cut of their hair, you've got one of their old t-shirts or whatever. And I was trying to think about this and I was like, you know, on the scale of crazy, I was thinking like from a one to a ten perspective. I would think like a person that's wearing their old clothes, like wearing an old t-shirt is like a one and then like a ten would be like a literal voodoo doll with their hair cut out that you're stabbing pins in, okay. And then I was trying to place this idea of like where would you put someone that made a board game of their ex. And I was thinking like maybe like a six, okay. You could have a different opinion than me but I'm thinking like what kind of a psycho path would literally make a board game of their ex, okay. I mean this is a mentally unstable person, okay. Like that is so weird and I'm thinking like what, you don't even know what a voodoo doll is. Like do you even know what witchcraft and these, they're like basically making an effigy of a person that they hate, that they're obsessed with and they're trying to do things to it to try and hurt and harm that person. And they're so obsessed with that person that they're literally making icons and images of this person. I mean this is a demonic dark force. And I'm thinking like how close is that of making like board games and t-shirts and whatever. I mean some exes will get tattoos with their person's name on it or whatever. And I'm thinking this person is mentally unstable folks. Here's other signs you're becoming a psycho ex girlfriend. Number seven, you text and email them. Number eight, you're devising plans to get back together. Number nine, you want to sabotage his new relationships. Number ten, your friends are sick of hearing about him. Yes, you're a psycho. He says you might be hung up on your ex but eventually your friends aren't going to want to hear about it anymore. And it's like this is a serious thing that happens. Now this happens to Christians. I've been talking about this in a context of an actual psycho ex girlfriend or a psycho ex. But this also happens to Christians in a weird spiritual way. And we see this in the Bible. And I want to show you a few examples of this that are kind of crazy. But look at 2 Samuel chapter number 14 and look at verse number 28. So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem and saw not the king's face. Therefore Absalom sent for Joab to have sent him to the king but he would not come to him. And when he sent again the second time he would not come. Therefore he said unto his servants, see Joab's field is near mine and he hath barley there. Go and set it on fire. And Absalom's servants set the field on fire. Can you imagine? Someone won't answer your call and you burn their field down. That is weird. That is like a psycho. But you know what? That is what Absalom is like. Absalom is so obsessed and so driven to have this relationship with Joab and it's not because he even likes Joab. He wants to use Joab to get to David to take over the kingdom. But he's a literal psycho and he's like a psycho ex-friend. Like he can't get over the relationship. He can't stand that you won't talk to him. And so you know what he's willing to do? He's willing to really commit crimes. He's willing to just hurt and harm and damage things just to get your attention. Now here's the thing. What should Joab have done? He should have never answered that call. He should have never talked to Absalom. Absalom was, like when someone's burning your field to get your attention, that is not a reasonable person. That is not, you want to say like, whoa, bad. Now I've confirmed why I wasn't answering your call. Now I know I shouldn't talk to you. But instead what does he do? He falls for the bait, falls for the trap, talks to him, gets invested. And he allows Absalom to get close to David again to hurt and to harm him. So I'm saying when someone burns your field, you should realize like, okay, this is a person I shouldn't talk to ever again. This obviously crossed the line, crossed the boundary. And even in the world's wisdom, they kept saying like over and over, still don't talk to them. Still avoid them. Still stay away from them. If someone doesn't get the hint, they're weird. You know, if it's like someone's like, hey, let's go hang out. Let's go hang out. And you're like, no. I'm like, let's go hang out. No. Let's go hang out. No. If they're not getting the hint, they're weird. Because a normal person says like, hey, I've invited them like four times to hang out. And they always say no. I'm going to go show up at their house and steal their dog. You know, it's like, no, no. You say, okay, I'm going to leave them alone because I'm a normal person. A not normal person then says, what can I stock on them next? How can I find them on another media platform? How can I message them even more? How can I burn their field down? It's like this person's a psycho. Stay away from them. Don't answer their call. Go over to Nehemiah chapter number four. Go to Nehemiah chapter four. People will do things to you to hurt and harm you. Ham, he gets his father drunk to take advantage of him. What a psycho. Lot's daughters get their father drunk to take advantage of him. Habakkuk chapter number two says that evil people, wicked people, will put a bottle to thy mouth, will put a bottle to thy throat, and basically they're doing it to look upon your nakedness. I mean, the Bible says that some people are trying to hurt and to harm you and to damage you, and you read some of these stories about these psychos, they will not let on what their intentions are, and then they'll try to get you drunk, try to get you to commit sin, try to get you to hurt and harm yourself so they can destroy you because their goal is to destroy you. And you have to say, you know what, I'm going to stay away from this person. Now, in Nehemiah, we have the children of Israel trying to build back Jerusalem. They're trying to build back the house of the Lord. These people love God. They're minding their own business. They're just doing their own thing, but other people hate the work of God. There are people that hate Christianity. They hate churches being built, and all they want to do is destroy churches. All they want to do is destroy the work of God, and that is their life's mission. This is Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gisham. Look at Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 7. But it came to pass that when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabians and the Ammonites and the Ashtodites heard that the walls of Jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped, then they were very wroth and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against Jerusalem and to hinder it. So notice it's like they just hear that people are being successful, and they're just like, we have to destroy this. We can't even allow these people to be successful whatsoever. We have to destroy them, and this is what happens. People break up, and then they hear, oh, they're actually doing really well. Actually, they're in a new relationship. Things are growing really great, and they're like, we have to destroy them now. I have to go and harass them and attack them, and basically I can't allow him to be happy or successful in a new relationship, and so they will go after them, and this is what psycho-exes do from my perspective. So I was just thinking about this, like, what do these people do? Number one, they hyper-focus on your faults. They hyper-focus on your faults. Number two is they want you to have no success ever. Number three, they will trash you to every single person they can think of to try and hurt you. Number four, they will try to convince you that their life is so much better after moving on. And number five, they'll lie about the dates that they're going on to try and provoke you to jealousy. And number six, they'll make shrines. Okay, we already looked at the shrines. But number five is an important point. They'll lie about dates. Seriously, girls and guys, they'll lie. They'll be like, oh, I'm going on these dates with all these people, and they're trying to, like, convince you that they're, like, doing so much better so you'll want to go, oh, really? Well, I want to go back with them now or something. And they'll also try to convince you, like, my life's never been better since I left this person. It's so great now. They were so free. They were so bad. They were so narcissistic. They were so evil. They were so abusive. There's all these accusations about the person just to try to make you feel like, oh, wow, you convinced me. You're so much better now. But again, they're miserable inside. They're miserable because they wouldn't stalk you if their life was so much better. They wouldn't follow you around and harass you, and convince you that their life is so much better. They're not going to show up with their new boyfriend at your parents' house. What? I mean, that's so weird. I mean, these people are just crazy. But you know what? Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gisham, they're the same way. They just hear about the success, and they can't stand it, and they just have to destroy. They have to attack. So what does it say in chapter 6, verse 1? Now it came to pass when Sabalat and Tobiah and Gisham, the Arabian and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had built a wall and that there was no breach left in, though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates, that Sanballat and Gisham sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief. So now, they want to destroy them, but do they go up to them, and they're like, Hey, guys, we want to destroy you. Hey, let's get together. Hey, let's hang out. Hey, let's go have some fun. But why? So they can destroy them. Verse 3, and I sent a message unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down. Why should the work cease, while else I leave it and come down to you? Now, Nehemiah is great, because he knows the verses that we've been looking at and showing. Avoid these people. He did the step that we saw in the world's advice. Be direct. Hey, I'm working. Not going to talk to you. Not going to hang out with you. No. Verse 4, Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort, and I answered them after the same manner. Same. No. No. I mean, can you imagine how annoying this is? You're trying to just go to church, read your Bible, pray, do this thing, and this person's just like, Leave. You're like, No. Leave. No. Leave. No. Leave. No. It's like, You've got to block this person out of your life. And why? Verse 5, Then since then bowed his servant unto me, and like manner the fifth time, with an open letter in his hand, wherein it was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it. Who cares what Gashmu has to say? I don't know. That thou and the Jews think to rebel, for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words. And thou hast also appointed prophets to preach of thee at Jerusalem, saying, There is a king in Judah, and thou shalt be reported to the king, according to these words. Come now, therefore, and let us take counsel together. So it didn't work the fourth times. So they say, All right, fine. If you won't meet with us, we're going to get law enforcement involved. I'm going to come after you. We have all these false accusations that we're going to bring against you to basically hurt and harm you, and we're going to try and get the government to come after you. We're going to try and get people to arrest you and take advantage of you, and we'll say anything. And then he asks me to say it, you know? And then he says in verse 8, Then I said unto them, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou faintest them out of thy own heart. Hey, you're a liar. You're just making stuff up, trying to hurt and destroy and to harm. You're just making stuff up. Why? Because people, when they hate the things of God, they will lie and make false reports and twist narratives and just say anything and everything just to hurt, harm, damage, scare, intimidate, whatever, and they're just trying to hurt the work of God. And you have to ask yourself this question. What are Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gishom accomplishing? Are they building anything? Are they serving God? Are they offering sacrifices? Are they reaching people with Christ? It's like their life's mission is only to try and hurt these people, is only to harass these people. And that's the same thing. It's like, why wouldn't a psychopath girlfriend just start dating new people? Why not just start a new relationship? Why not go start working on yourself? Why not get a new hobby? Why not do anything else? Because they have a mental disorder, they have a mental disease, where they're just in a destructive only manner. They have destroyed it. I will destroy. And they will do anything to destroy. That's why you have to say, like, this is a dangerous person. I need to block, block, avoid, stay away, not engage with, not talk to. They are a psycho. I mean, if you went to some girl's house and she showed you a shrine of you, you should never talk to that person ever again. Okay? I'm just being honest. Like, that is the creep, that's the creepy music coming on in the movie. And you're like, I need to get away. Ejection seat, stay away from this person. But you know what? Sometimes you have a sand ballot, Tobiah, Gisham, in a Christian sense, and you also have to say, like, oh, wow, red flags are coming on. This person's not sincere. This person's acting like a psycho. This person has shrines. Like, I need to block, stay away, have nothing to do with, don't engage this type of a person, because they're a dangerous, dangerous person. Now, we keep reading in this story, I want to read just a few more verses here. He says in verse 8, Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou faintest not of thy own heart. Verse 9, For they all made us afraid. Here's the thing that's difficult, is sometimes their tactics work a little bit. Sometimes they do make you a little nervous, uncomfortable, afraid. They can kind of put fear in your heart. Notice it says, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work that it be not done. Now, therefore, O God, strengthen my hands. So I said, you know what? This is uncomfortable. I don't like this person. I hate the fact that they're harassing me. I can't stand all the words that they're saying against me. They want to hurt me. They won't stop. They won't quit. They won't give up. And you know what? It even worked a little bit. It made me a little bit afraid. But you know what? I'm going to pray that God will strengthen my hands anyways. I'm just going to pray that God will strengthen my heart and strengthen my mind, because you know what? Sometimes you're going to have to deal with these uncomfortable people. They're so annoying. Let's look at some New Testament examples of this. Go to Acts chapter 16. We'll finish kind of looking at some examples of this, but you can apply this sermon in a lot of ways, okay? So number one, if you have a psycho ex-girlfriend, stay away from her. If you have a psycho ex-boyfriend, stay away from that particular individual. But then let's go broader, a psycho ex-friend. Maybe you just literally have a friendship that ended and they won't stop believing you. Act the exact same way. And what if it was in a spiritual context? You have other Christians or other people, other pastors, churches, whatever, that are just going down this path of destruction, of just their only goal is to destroy. You want to stay away from that person. You know, it just doesn't make sense. It's not healthy. They're not somebody you want to be around. And we have to be careful. And let's just be honest. This is something that all the great men in the New Testament had to deal with. I'm going to show you. I'm going to prove to you that this is what they had to deal with. Look at Acts chapter 16. Look at verse 16. And she came out the same hour. So it's like the Apostle Paul, he has like a psycho ex demon-possessed lady. I mean, this is like this demon-possessed lady that won't stop following around, won't stop harassing them, won't let them go. And here's something you have to think about. It's possible that psycho exes, especially in the spiritual context, are actually demon-possessed. These people are demon-possessed and that's why they won't leave you alone. That's why they won't stop harassing you. I mean, we've had some protesters that I'm thinking like, they might be demon-possessed. And they just can't. And it's like you guys got to pray like, God, will you please, you know, get this demon or whatever away from us. And you're just kind of like thinking, to me, like Paul, when he said he prayed for a thorn in the flesh to depart from him, the messenger of Satan which buffeted him, sometimes I've wondered if that's like a person. You know, there's a lot of interpretations of that verse. I kind of lean towards it's probably like a person that was harassing the apostle Paul and for whatever reason, God wasn't allowing that person to depart from him even though he wanted the thing to depart from him. And it's like I've had people that were harassing our church or harassing me that I'm just like, please, can this person leave me alone? But this is what I knew. Talking to them was only going to make it worse. Engaging with them was only going to make it worse. Giving them any and every attention only makes it worse because they're attention whores. They're trolls. They just feed off of that. And so the best thing you can possibly do is just ignore them as much as humanly possible. Make clear boundaries. Stay away. Get off. Restraining order if necessary. But that's about as much interaction as you're going to have with them. You're not going to really feed their ego. Give them attention. Never give them private information. Try to get them away from you because they just want to destroy. Now go to Luke chapter 11. Let's see what happened with the Lord Jesus Christ because frankly speaking, you know who had this problem the worst? Jesus. Talk about people just following him around, harassing him that have no good intentions. It's our savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he basically has to go through this nightmare of people just constantly following him around without good intentions. And this is what you have to understand. This is what I don't like. I mean, I just have to accept it. This is what I just don't like about Christianity is that for some reason, if you're doing a great work for God, you attract weirdos. And if you don't think that that's biblical, read the New Testament once, okay? And then just go to a good church for a little while. And you'll just realize that good churches, great churches attract horrible weirdo freaks all of the time. And I don't like that about it. I wish that that didn't happen. And I try my hardest to stay away from these people, but if Jesus has them, we're gonna have them. What does it say in Luke 11, verse 53? And as he said these things unto them, the scribes and the Pharisees began to urge him vehemently and to provoke him to speak of many things, laying weight for him and seeking to catch something out of his mouth that they might accuse him. Doesn't that sound like Delilah when we started our story a little bit? She's just waiting to get that thing out of his mouth that she can use to get him, to try and trap him. And look, this is what these people are like. They're just waiting and they're listening to every word, just waiting to catch something out of your mouth that they can twist, to pervert, to use against you, even if you didn't mean it, even if it was out of context, even if it's insincere. They just want to even catch that out. And they just want to try and twist every narrative. And of course if you actually have faults, you know, Jesus didn't have any faults. I actually have faults, okay? So you could probably even find things that I've said and done that it's like, hey, this is bad, this is wrong, whatever, you don't like it. It's funny to me when people say like, oh, to go to Steadfast Baptist Church, you have to agree with every single thing that Pastor Shelley says. And I'm thinking like, well, I can't go. Because I don't even agree with everything that I say. You know, it's like so weird. But you know what, that's what these people are like. They're just trying to catch anything and everything and they're trying to hurt you and harm you and damage you and they're always recording and they're always sharing everything and you're just like, it's weird. They're the weird people, okay? Go if you would to Acts chapter 17. So Jesus always had this. The Pharisees, the Jews, they're constantly going after Jesus. They're constantly trying to trap him. They're constantly laying in wait. They're constantly trying to get his attention. And you know what, he's always careful. He often answers their questions with questions or won't answer their question whatsoever. And we have to learn from his example that there are some people that are unreasonable. There are some people that are just trolls. There are some people that are just that psycho ex-girlfriend that you have to say, you know what, you're weird, stay away from me. You're weird, okay? And you're dangerous. And you're someone that I don't even want to engage with because you don't have any good intentions at all. Acts chapter 17, look at verse 5. But the Jews, which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort and gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar and assaulted the house of Jason and sought to bring them out to the people. And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren of the rulers of the city, crying. These that have turned the world upside down are coming there also. So notice, not only are the Jews going to harass the Lord Jesus Christ, they're going to harass the greatest Christian alive. Who is it that the Jews harass? Do they harass just some random Christian, just some random backslidden guy that's on his couch eating chips off his chest that thinks you don't even have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved? No, he's not harassing that person. You know who he's harassing? He's harassing the apostle Paul who's turning the world upside down with the gospel. That's the person he's harassing. And sometimes you have to say, like, who is the greatest player on the team? If you're just watching a football game and you see, you know what? They're triple covering this one wide receiver and this other guy, they're leaving wide open. What do you think that that means? Let me explain it to you. It means that guy's the best receiver. And let me explain something to you. When literally all the forces of evil and all the satanic evil people are attacking one person, it should just be like a red flag in your mind, like, wow, that person must be doing something for God. Because I don't think the devil is trying to harass demonic people. I don't think that the devil is trying to hurt and harm his own because a house divided cannot stand. If Satan is against Satan, his house is going to fall. You know Satan puts all of these enemy forces and evil demonic spirits to try and harass people doing something for God. That's who he's attacking. That's who he's focused on. And so it's no coincidence that the apostle Paul, doing some great work for God, is what? Being harassed by Jews just constantly. They're moved with envy. They're siccing on them, the lewd fellows of the baser sort. That's faggots if you didn't know what that meant, okay? They're sending just the most gross, disgusting people to harass them. And they're not content with just harassing them in their area. What does the Bible say in verse 13? But when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the Word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, they came thither also and stirred up the people. They're like, hey, we can't even be content in our own city. We have to follow them around and stalk them and harass them everywhere they go. Was there not another Christian in Thessalonica to harass? No, they can't be content harassing the Christians in their own area because they're lame in comparison to Paul. They have to go find Paul in Berea and go harass him there too. Why? Because the people that are doing the most for God are going to have the most resistance, the most enemies, the most psychos, the most people attacking them. And I'm only saying this because if you actually want to serve God, if you want to do something great for God, you will have psycho ex-girlfriends spiritually. And you have to figure out how to deal with these people. And you know what you don't do? You don't engage with them. You don't talk to them. You don't try to reason with them. You have to avoid them and say, hey, I'm doing a great work. I can't come down. Hey, I'm not going to engage with you. I don't want to be around you. I'm not going to tell you my secrets. I'm not going to tell you things that can be used against me. I want nothing to do with you. Stay away from me. But you know what? No matter how much you say that, they just follow you around anyways. They are a literal psychopath. Go to James 4 and we'll finish. So I just have three Rs as a recap of the sermon, okay? What do you do with a psycho ex-girlfriend? Well, number one, you need to recognize them. You have to recognize them. And I've tried to show you a lot of patterns. The flatterer, the adulterous, the tail bearer, the person that's insincere, the person that's stalking, the person that has a shrine of you, okay? That should be just like an obvious, immediate, like, wow, this person's a psycho, okay? The person that can't stop following you around, harassing you, trashing you to all their friends, trying to convince you their life is better. Oh, my life has never been better since leaving the new IFB. Liar. Oh, I'm just going on so many dates now. Oh, it's so great. You have to recognize this person. Number two, you have to reject this person. You have to reject this person. And look, it's not like, we're not talking about people that just leave a church. We're talking about a psycho ex-girlfriend, folks. Major difference, okay? It's not like there's some people that Paul, and I'm sure there's some people that Paul talked to that had Gamaliel's opinion that was just like, hey, we don't want to be found happily fighting against God. If they be of God, like, let them alone. You know, he's not that person. We're talking about Jews of Thessalonica following you to Berea to harass you and attack you constantly. We're making fake profiles to constantly harass you and attack you. It's like, leave this person alone. You need to reject them. And then number three, we need to resist them, okay? So, and there's a difference between rejecting and resisting. Rejecting is saying, like, I've identified, I don't want to be around this person. But the resisting is, what happens when you get the second letter, the third letter, the fourth letter, the fifth letter? What happens when Delilah asks you again and again and again? What are you going to do when you get called and called and called and then they burn your field? Don't we see a pattern here in the Bible when they ask you a question after question after question? They're trying to wear you down. They're trying to get you to change your mind. You've already rejected them, but because of the constant stalking, the constant harassment, the constant just badgering, sometimes we all have this temptation to give in and be like, fine, I'll give you what you want. Fine, I'll tell you. Fine, I'll talk to you. Fine, you're trying to get the monkey off your back. But you have to realize it doesn't work. It doesn't help. They only want to hurt you. You just have to have thick skin and just say, you know what? I'm done with you, period. Not only have I rejected you, I'm going to resist you. And what does the Bible say in James 4 verse 7? Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. There's only one way to get people to leave you alone and you have to resist them. Now, does that mean they'll leave you alone right away? Not necessarily. The Bible says about the thorn in the flesh, he prayed thrice and God said, my grace is sufficient unto thee. So you know what? You could even have people that just will never leave you alone. And that's frustrating. But at the end of the day, you know what? If you want to serve God, you're going to probably have to deal with this issue. Now hopefully you never have to deal with this issue with actual psycho girlfriends, okay? Hopefully you don't have this issue, but if you do, you can't completely stop it. You could literally have someone just harass you for the rest of your life and you just have to deal with that. You could have that spiritually where someone's just going to attack you for the rest of their life. You know who's someone that's kind of like this? King Saul. Saul will never stop harassing David until Saul dies. And isn't that sad? When sometimes a man of God, someone that was greatly used of God, their only goal in life is just to destroy another person and their only goal is just to attack other people and they're just so fixated on just like hurting David just over and over and over again. And you know what? We need to all take that advice. Just stay away from Saul. Whoever Saul is, it doesn't even mean that Saul's unsaved. Saul is saved. But he's a dangerous person. We have to stay away from him. And you know what? It's sometimes hard because David loves Saul. It's sometimes hard when it's an ex because you loved that person. You cared for that person. You still care for that person. You still have good feelings for them. You still want the best for them. But you have to realize this is a dangerous person. I just have to cut them out of my life. And you know what? We can all pray that the Sauls will fix themselves and that they'll move on. And in many cases they won't. And just to preserve your life, to preserve your mentality, to preserve your faith, and to keep fighting the good fight of faith, sometimes we just have to cut certain people out of our life. And that's a tough message. I'm trying to tell you this because it's real. There are real people that are like Sanballat, Tobiah, and Gisham. There are real people like Absalom. There's real people like Delilah. There's real people like Saul that just want to hurt you and harm you and destroy you. And you have to just say, look, we're done. I've recognized you. I've rejected you. And I will resist you. Let's go some prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us some wisdom in the Bible to have to deal with difficult and uncomfortable situations. I pray if it be possible, if anybody in this room is suffering from someone constantly afflicting them and tormenting them, that you could just remove them from their life, that you could just help that person just be relieved. But we understand that sometimes your grace is sufficient unto us. I pray that you would help all of us have the right attitude and mentality that if we have someone like this in our lives, that we can have the strength to resist them, that we can have the confidence and the power and that even if we're afraid of them, even if we're afraid of their words, that we would just be strengthened by your word, be encouraged by your example. We would know that we're on the right path and that we continue to serve Christ and just ignore all the haters and the trolls and the psychos and the ex-girlfriends and the Sauls, and we would just resist them and just keep our eyes focused on Christ. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, for our last song and closing, let's go to song number 140. Song number 140, We Have an Anchor. Song number 140. Sing it out together on the first. Song 140, We Have an Anchor. Will your anchor hold in the storms of fire When the clouds unfold their wings of strife When the strong tides lift and the cables strain Will your anchor drift or firm refrain We have an anchor that keeps us whole Steadfast and sure while the billows roll Fastened to a rock which cannot move Grounded firmly deep in the Savior's love It is safely portwilled, the storm withstand The port is well-secured by the Savior's hand Through the dampest rain and the wild winds blow Not an angry wave found by workflow We have an anchor that keeps us whole Steadfast and sure while the billows roll Fastened to a rock which cannot move Grounded firmly deep in the Savior's love When our eyes behold through the gathering night The city of gold, our harbor bright We shall anchor fast by the heavenly shore If the storms all pass forevermore We have an anchor that keeps us whole Steadfast and sure while the billows roll Fastened to a rock which cannot move Grounded firmly deep in the Savior's love Great singing everybody. We were all dismissed. Thank you.