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and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels. And prevailed not, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were to cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ. For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. And they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, all ye heavens, in ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! For the devil has come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman, which brought forth the man-child. And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth. And the dragon was wrought with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her sea, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for this time now that you have given us to hear the preaching of your word. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Let us pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Look at Revelation chapter 12, verse 1. The Bible read, And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet. And upon her head a crown of twelve stars. And she being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and it cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman, which was ready to be delivered, for it to devour her child as soon as it was born." Now, Revelation chapter 12 is an interesting portion of the book of Revelation. The timeline kind of starts over, and you have a lot of symbolism and a lot of imagery, and it's talking about the devil trying to essentially kill the Lord Jesus Christ, preventing his birth, wanting to destroy him from coming and being the savior of the world. But the point of this scripture that I really want to focus on is there in verse 4, where it says, His tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven. And this is where most people believe, and I think it's pretty clear from studying the scriptures, this is where the devil takes a third of the angels from heaven with him down out of heaven. So essentially, this is where you get the term fallen angels, where angels, they've come down from heaven. You see that the devil has been the influence in taking them down. And really, the concept that I really want to preach on is not really about Revelation. It's more about this concept of the devil dragging others down with him. And the fact is, a lot of people want to drag other people down with them. And the solution to this is very clear, and it's the title of the sermon. Say goodbye to losers. Say goodbye to losers. Now I have seven losers that we need to avoid this morning, okay? Go if you would to John chapter number 10, John chapter number 10. The first loser that we need to say goodbye to are those that want to drag you down into hell with them. And the devil wants to drag as many people into hell with them as possible. He does not want to be there alone. He doesn't want to be cast out of heaven alone. He drew a third of the stars with him. Now that's quite impressive when you think about it. I mean, these are angels in heaven with God. Somehow the devil is able to plant such a horrible idea into their mind to cause them to want to come with him out of heaven. So if the angels can be deceived, you better know it, mankind is deceived, and it's a lot higher numbers. I mean, the devil is one who wants to drag people down. He wants to kill them. He wants to destroy them. And we see he was the influence of sin in the world. He came unto Eve and Adam, and he wasn't content being cast down out of heaven by himself. No, he wants mankind to sin with him, doesn't he? He wants mankind to stumble and to die. So that's why he comes under the woman. That's why he tempts Eve. That's why he's whispering in her ear is why he wants to drag her down with him. He wants her to also sin like he sinned. And the devil wants to drag as many people specifically to hell as he possibly can. Look at John chapter 10 verse 10. The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill and to destroy, I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. Now this is a pretty broad verse, but we've applied to the devil. The devil wants to do anything and everything that's harmful. He's not your buddy. He's not your friend. He's not someone to worship. These people who call themselves Satanists are completely deceived. The devil doesn't love anyone. The devil doesn't care about anyone. He wants everyone to be drug down into hell with him. Could you, if you went to second Corinthians chapter number four, second Corinthians chapter number four, and in fact, it is the devil's agenda to deceive as many people as possible. That's basically his job. That's basically his goal. That's why God even allows him to exist is to deceive people. And we even see after the devil is thrown into hell, after he's thrown in there for a thousand years, he's loosed again. God allows the devil to come back out of hell, which is, is kind of astounding. It's kind of a miracle. And you say, why? So you can deceive the nations so that you can try and gather as many people against them as possible again. So the devil is basically the archetype. He's the antithesis of Jesus Christ. He's the antithesis of God. He is the lie. Jesus Christ is the truth. And that lie wants to drag as many people over to their side as possible. There's a constant war. Jesus wants to drag you into the truth. The devil wants to drag you into lies. Jesus wants to take you into heaven. The devil wants to take you down into hell with him. In Corinthians chapter four verse three, the Bible says, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost and whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not less the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God should shine under them. Now what kind of a wicked, sick, disgusting person just wants everyone else to suffer? The devil. That's who. And you see this attribute in a lot of people too. But the devil is the thesis. He is the main arc, you know, enemy of everything that is holy and righteous. He hates the light. He hates God. And so he wants to blind the minds of every person on this earth to drag them down into hell with him. Go to Matthew chapter number seven, Matthew chapter number seven. Now when I was thinking about this topic, when I was thinking about this subject matter, frankly, there's too much Bible. It's virtually the whole Bible is this concept. It's weaved in and all kinds of different places. And so we have too much scripture to look at this morning, but I'm going to try and boil it down and try to keep it to a few different points. But really I want to focus on the solution to how do you avoid this problem of people dragging you down? You literally have to avoid them. You literally have to get away from them. You have to flee them. Some people need to be completely avoided. And when you don't avoid these type of people, they will drag you down. Now praise God, I'm preaching to a lot of saved people this morning. I'm preaching to mostly the saved, if not all the saved. And so you're not going to be drugged down into hell, but the whole world is. Outside these walls, people are being drugged down into hell, left and right. That's why the Bible says in Matthew chapter number seven, look at verse 13, enter ye in at the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in there at. So the devil has paved a path. He's basically built the road to hell and he's trying to lead as many people down that road as possible. He wants to destroy as many people as possible. The word straight here means narrow and notice those that are going to hell. It's a wide gate, isn't it? It's a broad way that leads to destruction. Now you say, how would I avoid this problem, Pastor Shelley? How would someone avoid this? Well, in Matthew seven, look at verse seven. It says, ask and it shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be open and you for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and him that knocketh. It shall be open. So the world today, if they would just decide in their mind, I want truth today, I want to know who God is. I want to find my creator. The Bible says if they would just ask, if they would just seek, they would find. And in fact, we pretty much try to knock on every door that we can possibly find and get to. Yet who wants to get saved? Those that are ready, those that are seeking, those that are interested and guess what they find. When we come and we knock on their door, look, I believe with all my heart, if someone wants to get saved, God is going to give them a way to be saved. A soul winner is going to come in their path. Someone that's saved is going to come in their path and they're going to give them the gospel. They're going to give them the right answers. It's not that hard if you're interested in truth today. It's not that hard to realize the King James Bible is the most popular book in human history. It's not that hard to figure out what's the truth and the lies today is the fact that most people aren't interested in the truth and you say, why? It's because the devil is constantly dragging them down. The devil is constantly leading them astray and blinding their minds and distracting them with all kinds of lies. Here's one of those distractions, Matthew 7 verse 15, beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. So a lot of people, they get half interested in the truth. Well, let's just try church. Let's try the big one on the corner, right? But then they have a problem because there's a false prophet there and they go and they just get their ears tickled today and they get drugged down with the false prophet. Look, false prophets today are trying to drag people down to go to 2 Peter chapter 2, 2 Peter chapter number 2. We have to understand that the devil, he's only one person and you know, I use the word person is just to describe who he is being or whatever chair you've been, whatever you want to call him. He doesn't have the attributes of God. He can't be in every place at the same time. He can't talk with every single person individually. So therefore he has a lot of minions. He has a lot of people, you know, minions like CNN, MSNBC, you know, movies, television, music. He just has a lot of preachers and pastors, so called. They look like ministers of righteousness, don't they? But inwardly they're ravening wolves. Look, the majority of pastors in America are wicked satanic minions of the devil. They don't have the gospel. They're not leading people to the Lord Jesus Christ. Rather, they're going to drag other people down with them into hell. Every Catholic church is a den of iniquity. It's a place where they're basically worshiping the devil with all of their imagery, with all the idolatry. The Bible says what they're sacrificing, hey, their communion service is to the devils and their little crucifix. Oh, it's to Jesus. That's not Jesus. That's a devil. That's a demon that they have. It's a demon that they pray to. A demon called Mary, a demon called, you know, whatever they want, Jesus. Even though obviously that's the name of our savior. It's another Jesus. It's not the right Jesus that they're praying to. And it's a Satan, you know, influence that's coming into these churches and leading them astray. Second Peter, chapter two, verse one. But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there should be false teachers among you who privately shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious ways by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of. Now, the word pernicious means dangerous. So it's basically saying they're going down a dangerous path. Why? Because their path leads to hell. And a lot of people follow false prophets all the way into hell. I've talked to a lot of people out soul winning and they say my dad's Catholic and his dad is Catholic and I'm going to I'm going to stay Catholic. And I'm like, can I just show you what the Bible says? Not interested. Look, they're just following a dangerous path, a dangerous road. And look, the devil wants to drag as many people into hell. He doesn't care if you're really close to the truth, but never find it. You say, well, I mean, the Catholic Church is a lot closer than Hinduism. Yeah, it still leads to hell, though. Well, the non-denom church, it seems pretty close. It seems they do a lot of good things. They help people. They have a food pantry, Pastor Shelley. Didn't you know that? They give food to people. They give food to people that go straight to hell. Well, I mean, that sandwich isn't going to do you much good in hell. Well, at least I went to hell full. You know, I didn't die starving, you know, going to, you know, look, I would rather die starving and go to heaven than have every delicacy you could ever imagine on this earth and split hell wide open. And at the end of the day, the devil is trying to drag as many people down as humanly possible. Therefore, that's why I get so angry when people don't, you know, at the door, they're like, I go to St. Mary's. I don't want to take it from a good church. And I'm like, that guy's going straight into hell. You need to be telling him that's a terrible church. I would rather you be offensive. Then tell them that's a good church. I'd rather you just like, yell at their face. And look, I'm not saying this is what you should do. Okay. I'm not saying do this. I'm saying I would rather I would be less upset with you if you said that church is wicked, you know, right then say, well, I don't want to take you from a good church now, you know, seriously, this person's literally injecting poison into their body, into their mind every time they enter those doorways. And that poison could send them to hell, it could turn them into a reprobate sooner sooner than later, you know, try to get a person in America that's old, that's Catholic saved. Good luck. Like that actually goes to the church, you know, someone that's faithfully attending that church is older. I mean, it's done. These people aren't interested in the gospel. So that tells me there's a turning point when they just got fully done with the Lord Jesus Christ and with truth. Now we're talking about some major false province, the Catholic church, maybe other churches, but even amongst ourselves, the Bible warned us, didn't it? It said there'd be false teachers even among you, right? Now I've experienced this. I've seen this and there's a lot of false teachers and false prophets and people that are creeping the churches and their sole goal is to damn other people. Now let me give you a classic example. All right. This is something called classic because they'll never, it'll never get tired. Tyler Baker. Tyler Baker is a classic example of someone creeping into a church and teaching a damnable heresy. So as the drag is many people to hell with them as possible. And look, he drug a lot of people out of my sending church, faith, Lord Baptist church with him. Why? Because he's of the devil, my friend, and he's dragging other people down with him. You know what they should have said? Goodbye to the loser. That's what they should have said. Goodbye loser. You know what? As for me and my house, we're going to believe in the Trinity. As for me and my house, we're going to believe the scriptures. We're going to believe the Bible. You can go kick rocks, but you know what? These types of people, they don't feel satisfied believing the truth and leaving. They have to drag as many people down with them as possible. So you know what they do? They email everyone in the church. They text every single person in the church. They make videos attacking the church that they're going to and send it to everyone and try to just infiltrate and affect everyone's mind. They try to invite everybody over to their house and try to be so sweet and so nice to them and they're so kind. I just can't believe this guy's bad. I mean, he bought me a present on my birthday. You know, this guy gave me a computer. This guy gave me a back massage. You know, that's weird. Don't be bragging about that one. This guy, you know, I mean, whatever it is, they talk so sweet. They talk so nice. He bought me dinner. He grills a good steak. I doubt it, but you know, whatever it is, they're going to try and drag you down with them. And look, the devil is not going to drag you down insulting you all the way. He's going to entice you all the way down with them. Hey, look at this beautiful fruit. Why don't you try it? Why don't you try to make you wise? What does he try to tempt them with bad knowledge, with bad information? And that's what these type of people will do. They'll come up to you and they'll try to creep up and they'll try to whisper in your ear and tell you all these things. They'll flatter you brother so and so I know you're so smart and so wise. I know you're not a respecter of persons. I know that that's what they say to Jesus, right? You're no respecter of persons, Jesus. I know you don't care for any man's person. You're a sharp thinker. I know you think for yourself. What do you think about that verse in the Bible that says the earth's not really a globe? That verse doesn't exist. Say goodbye to the loser. What do you think about this verse? Don't you think that makes Jesus the father? No, it doesn't. Get away from me, you freak. Look, when someone comes up to you and just gives you a really over the top compliment, be really afraid of the next sentence. Be really afraid of what they're about to say after that. Hey man, you're such a good preacher. You're so good looking. You're such a great guy. You're so smart. You're so wonderful. Something about dangerous is about to be slipped in. Think about with Ehud, you know, he comes up there, he offers a gift and it's just like dagger and look, we like him. He's like a good guy, but he uses the same tactic, doesn't he? Everybody uses the same tactic. They come and they try to be all friendly and kind and nice and they just want to slip in the knife. You know, here's another wicked false teacher, Sam Gipp. Sam Gipp wants to drag as many people down with him as possible, going around and teaching nonsense heresies like the fact that Jesus is not his Messiah. Now I can't think of a better verse to describe Sam Gipp than the one that we just read where it says, denying the Lord that bought them. You know, I know Sam Gipp is going to go to hell because he says that Jesus is not his Messiah because if Jesus is your savior, you're not going to go to hell. So for him to just sit there and literally deny the Lord that bought him, deny the Messiah, deny the Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, I mean, what more do you want him to say? He even says that he'll never even call him Jesus. He'll call him by another name because that's not really his name. The guy is wicked. He's a rucktard. He doesn't believe the scriptures. All of his argumentation for the King James Bible is usually false too. Look, he's a bad tree. He's a bad source of information. He's wicked and he wants to drag as many people into rucktardation with them as possible. And look, it is stupidity. Go over to Proverbs 11, that's my second point. Other people will drag you down, not just into hell. Fortunately, I don't think anybody in this room is going to be drug into hell because you're already saved. But you know what they can drag you down into? Stupidity. There are people that literally want to drag you down and make you dumber, make you less intelligent, make you a moron. It's called television. It's called movies. It's called the public fool system today. They're not teaching children how to be educated, how to be wise. They're teaching them how to be dumb, how to be foolish today. If you take the average teenager from the public school system today, they are a literal moron. And I say that because it's true, not because I want to just attack people. They literally know nothing. They have about zero education. The education system is so bad, usually they can't even write and read very well. Their communication skills are very poor. If at best they would have to use like Word, you know, Microsoft Word or something to fix all theirs. If you just handed your average 16, 17 year old kid that just goes to the public school system a piece of paper, a blank piece of paper that said, write for me a story. It would be so bad. Their handwriting might not be able to read it. First of all, their handwriting would be so bad. On top of that, they probably wouldn't even use any words above like a fifth grade reading level. Most of the words would be misspelled. They would have run on sentences. Look, in order to graduate from the eighth grade back in previous generations, like time of George Washington and some of these other people, in order to pass the eighth grade, they had to recite like a whole thing that they had written in Latin. They had to write like a whole paper in Latin and then recite it in Latin. They would have to write full-length papers and full-length pages. Look, the education system is going straight down to the toilet today. And people want to drag you down with them. Look, if you homeschool your children, they should be 10 times wiser than the regular school children. Even if you don't try hard. I mean, it's so bad. People today are so foolish, they're so stupid, they don't even know how to speak grammatically. They don't understand words or knowledge. They look at the King James Bible, I can't read that. Who has a really hard time reading this book? Don't raise your hand, all right? It's not that hard. You can get used to it a little bit. I mean, some of the ETH on the extra words and things like that. This is not a hard book to be understood. You take older books, they're very difficult to be understood. Now there's some certain parts of the Bible that are difficult to be understood just because it's a complicated subject, but the words themselves are not complicated. And most of the time people say it's hard to understand because it goes against their doctrine. Let women keep silence in the churches. Well, that's really hard to understand. That's not hard to understand. You just don't want to believe it. Belief, fornication, that's not hard to be understood. You just don't want to believe it. You know, the husband of one wife is the pastor. That's really hard to understand. No, it's really easy. The Bible is super easy. Whosoever believeth. Oh, that's a really loaded question. That's a really loaded statement there. You have to study the Bible really hard to figure that one out. No, it's that simple. The Bible is very simple. It's plain language. It's easy to be understood. But so many people today want to destroy others with stupidity because they don't like standing out as a dumb person. So they have to drag everyone else down with them. Proverbs chapter 11, look at verse nine. And hypocrite with his mouth destroyeth his neighbor, but through knowledge shall the just be delivered. So notice this hypocrite, he wants to literally destroy his neighbor with his mouth. But how do you escape him through knowledge? People want to destroy you. They want you to look bad. They want to drag you down with them. But what you can do to escape them is knowledge. Look at Proverbs chapter nine, Proverbs chapter number nine, and look at verse number six. The Bible says forsake the foolish and live and go in the way of understanding. Now because of this verse, this is why I will never ride in the car with someone who's driving that's a flat earther. Never. The Bible says forsake the foolish and notice what it says and live. Now you think I'm joking. I am not joking. If someone's a flat earther, they tell me, and they're about to drive, I will never get in their car for a second. They might drive me off a cliff, literally. They might just get in an accident because they're so stupid. They don't even understand what the shape of the plant is. Look I don't want to get in a car with this type of person. What kind of judgment is someone that has a flat earth? A drunk person is probably a better driver than they are. When you're driving, you have to make all kinds of certain judgments and decisions quickly. When someone's already failed on the judgment factor, the Bible says forsake them. Look if I had a flat earther working for me, immediately fired. Look if they're operating heavy machinery or equipment, they should not be allowed. Look it used to be you had to take aptitude tests for jobs. I'm not joking here, okay? I'm being dead serious. It used to be when you show up for a job, you'd have to take an aptitude test and if you can't pass the aptitude test, they're not going to hire you. And it's just general knowledge, general information because if you're stupid, you're going to be stupid in all areas. Not just one. If you've already proven to be a flat earther, look the sky's the limit on stupidity for you. And I don't want to be around you. You know what I say to those people? Goodbye. Goodbye to the losers. You say, are you sad when you lose people because they're flat earth? Nope. I'm ready to lose more. Hey, if this side of the church is all flat earth, I'm ready to kiss you all goodbye. Every single person. I don't care. I'm ready to say goodbye to all the losers. I want none of them on my life. What is the Bible commanding me for sake? The foolish. If you don't think the flat earth is foolish, I mean, you're, you're the problem. And literally that's not the only thing that's foolish, my friend, but the Bible is pretty clear. What should you do when you find out that someone's foolish? Get away from them as soon as possible because you're going to become like them. Go to Proverbs 13. Go to Proverbs chapter number 13. Life is too short, okay? I'm literally in the workplace and look, nothing makes me more upset than stupid people. I mean, they make me so infuriated when I explain something to someone and it's just like, and then you just, you just keep explaining to them. It just drives you insane, especially when it's just real simple, when it's just real obvious. Okay. This is why everyone gets so mad at the left, right? Because you just explained something real simple, something that's just true. And then they just deny reality. They just deny facts. Look, that's so frustrating. It's so frustrating to talk to somebody that can't be reasoned with, that can't be logical, that's too dumb to get the information. You know, when I, pretty much a lot of jobs that I've had, I've had to train other people and I worked in the bank and, uh, I was a senior credit analyst and they would just hire any bozo off the street, it felt like, and it was real frustrating because it paid so low. I mean, the pay was so low. It was like $31,000 as a starting, as the starting salary, which unless you're just a single person, I mean, that's, that's too low to support a family. I mean, that's just not really a lot of money. And so the only people that can, you know, are qualifying for this job or getting this job have no other options. Okay. No one else will hire it. So it's just a bunch of dunces, a bunch of people that have nothing going for them. They're just silly people. And so I would have to train them and it was so frustrating. It was like, you just give them simple instructions. You just give them an easy things to do and they just can't figure it out. And it's just like, I don't want to do this rest of my life. I don't want to sit here and train literal morons. I don't want to sit here and train idiots on how to do things. I'd rather work with people that are smarter than me. I was like, life's too short. I would rather surround myself with people that are much more intelligent than me and hang out with them. So honestly, that's what I did. I got into a new career path. I got into a career path where I was doing software development and I worked with two guys that are easily more intelligent than me. Very intelligent, very wise, especially in their occupation and their career. And I'm still really good friends with one of them. The other one, I just don't talk to them much. I'm still probably good friends with them, but you know, these are really great guys as far as they're really, they're great family men. They're great providers, but I mean, they were really intelligent. And that was the thing that draw me to them. That's what attracted me to going and working in this place is I want to learn from people. I don't want to constantly be drug down with the stupidity and your, uh, idiocracy. I want to actually be edified and built up by other wise people. And look, the Bible teaches this, look at Proverbs 13 verse 20, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. The Bible says your friends are going to affect you. The people you surround yourself are going to affect you. If you go to Joel Osteen's church, you're going to become fake, effeminate and stupid. That's what you're going to do. Cause you know what he attracts fake, effeminate, stupid people. That's what he kind of, that's what he attracts. That's what his church is filled with. And if you want to be like him, go to his church, you know, whatever church you surround yourself with, that's what you're going to end up being like, you're going to be like the other men. So that's why I want to go to a church where everybody's strong and manly and godly and loves the Bible and is intelligent. And look, even if our church whittled down to five people, I'd rather be around the five people that are actually wise, smart and manly than a thousand effeminate, stupid morons. Because I don't want to be destroyed. And the Bible's warning me here that if you're a companion of fools, you will be destroyed. So you know what the answer is? Say goodbye to losers. Once you realize someone's stupid or a fool, get away from them as quickly as possible. Go to second Timothy chapter number two, second Timothy chapter number two. And look, I don't want to be around these people. Let's let's name some names this morning because it'll make it better. Seth book out. This guy is a complete moron. This guy is a complete idiot. He is a fool. And if you are his companion, you will be destroyed. Now let me prove this with another person's name, Ben Shannon. Now I've given a lot of time for this guy to repent, but this guy is just digging in and he is wicked just like Seth book out. And you know why? Because he's hanging out with Seth book out because he moved in with Seth book out. Look, Ben Shannon would have been better off living on the street than living with Seth book out because the guy's a moron. The guy's a flat earther. He is wicked. He constantly attacks godly men, you know, that I love and that I think that are great. He is a, he is a horrible person to be around. He's a flat earther, which already you should be like, I don't want to touch that person with a 10 foot pole. But then on top of that, he's a railer. He is constantly attacking good men. He's a despiser. Those that are good. And guess what these people like to do. They don't like to just leave and be quiet. What they want, they want to go on texting campaigns, don't they? They've got to go on email campaigns and they want to drag as many people down with them as possible. They want to drag as many people into the flat earth with them as possible. And it's stupidity. It's, it's moronic and it'll make you look like an idiot. It will destroy you. If you follow their path, if you follow their direction, you need to just say goodbye to losers. Life is too short. And when someone reveals to you that they are a fool, you need to say goodbye. You need to get away from that person. And I'm warning you not because I'm going to do anything about it. I'm warning you because God will do something about it. God says that you'll be destroyed. God says you'll become dumb like they are. If you want to become a fool, hang out with fools. Go listen to them talk and listen to their nonsense and hang around them. But I don't want to. Look what it says in second Timothy chapter two verse 16. But shun profane and vain babblings, notice this, for they will increase into more ungodliness and their word will eat as that the canker. Canker is like cancer, of whom is hymenaeus and Philetus. There's your names. Oh, I don't like the way you name names. Well, Paul did. He says, Hey, I want you to be real clear where the cancer is coming from. Seth book out and Ben Shannon cancer. And look, 13 people left this church after I preached against the flat earth. And I say good riddance. Goodbye to the losers. A lot of people that don't come here anymore. It's like 50% chance they're a flat earther. It's a bad morning to miss. I'm just kidding. Look, I say goodbye to the losers. I don't care. I hope you leave. I want you to leave. I want to constantly get rid of bad people, of losers, of wicked people, of fools, because I don't want this church to become stupid. You know, when we have visitors come in and they talk to everybody and they're wearing a tin foil hat, they're gonna be like, I've never come back to that church. That church is full of idiots. That church is full of morons today. It's like if I walked into Joel Osteen's church and find trannies and freaks and effeminates, I'm gonna be like, see ya. I don't want to come to this church. I don't want to be around that and subjugate my family to that. The Bible says to shun them, to get away from them. And notice what it says in verse 18, who concerning the truth of the earth, saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the faith of some. So notice it's not just good enough for them to teach false doctrine. They have to drag others down with them, don't they? They have to destroy other people's faith also. And we see this constantly. I see this all the time where a bad person, where a stupid person infects other people with their stupidity and it drags them down with them. It takes them out. And you say, well, how could they have avoided that? They had to say goodbye to the loser. You have to say goodbye. If you don't say goodbye to losers, you will become a loser. It's a sobering message, but I don't want you to be an idiot. I don't want you to be a fool. I don't want you to be a loser. Look at chapter three, verse six, talking about more wicked people says in verse six for of this sort of day, which creep in the houses and lead captive, silly women, laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth. Now is Janice and Jamboree, those are names again, withstood Moses. So do these also resist the truth, men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith. Look, he's pointing out people that are going in, their sole goal is what? To creep into someone's house and to lead them astray. He's going to take women and he's going to lead them astray and he's going to try to destroy their faith and try to hurt them and try to harm them. There is constant loser. There is constant person that wants to come in and affect your mind for evil, affect your mind with stupidity, affect your mind with moronic behavior. And so that's why when we read God's word, we understand it's wisdom and knowledge. That's what we should be elevating, not stupidity. And if I have a bad reason of believing something, I need to fix it because we don't want to just stay morons and stupid. I don't want to teach my children how to be foolish. I want to teach them how to be wise. God often uses some of the wisest people on the planet, like Solomon. David is a very wise person, someone writing all the different Psalms. Look, the apostle Paul is one of the smartest guys you would ever have come across on the planet. Look, God is going to greatly use those that are wise. He's not going around finding bumbling idiots to go and fulfill his job, fulfill his work. No, he's finding people that have faith in God's promises and they study to show themselves approved. A workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. You know what that tells me? This guy is smart. This guy is wise. This guy is studying the Bible. He knows what he's talking about. You can't come up and disprove him from anything in the Bible. You might from your logic, you might from your dumb reasoning, from your foolish thinking, but you know what? He's airtight when it comes to the Bible. He studied it. He's made sure he understands it and he can run laps around you with the Bible. That's the person that God's going to use. That's the person that's not going to be ashamed, but when you don't know the Bible, you will be ashamed. When you don't know the scriptures, you're going to look like a moron. You're going to look like a fool. That's why you should avoid these type of people. Look at verse 12. Yea, and all that will have Godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived, but continue thou and the things which thou has learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou has learned And that from a child that was known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee what? Wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. The Bible makes you wise. It never would make you an idiot, would never make you a fool. It's the wisdom of God here, okay? It's the truth. The truth will never de-educate you. The truth will only ever educate you. And so all of our preaching needs to be teaching people things, admonishing them, educating them, instructing them. Look, the Bible's for correction. It's for reproof. It's for instruction and righteousness. It's teaching. It's learning material. It's not. We don't throw out the learning when we show up at church. We don't throw out the facts. We don't throw out the truth. No, we have the truth here. We learn the truth. We gain information from the scriptures, from the Bible, and we're reminded of the truths we've already learned. Go to Proverbs 14, Proverbs chapter 14. The Bible warns in Romans 16, now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause the visions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them. Now again, it's fun to preach against other people, but this is going to be a pretty hard sermon so let me say this. Why would you show up at church where you're supposed to learn? You're supposed to not be a fool. You're supposed to not be stupid and not have a Bible in your hand. I blame on you when you walk through these doors and you don't have a Bible in your hand and you're not looking at the scriptures and you're not turning with me. Do you want to be stupid the rest of your life? Do you want to be a fool for the rest of your life? Why would you not look at God's holy word when we're in his house to read the scriptures? Yeah, it's fun to heehaw at all the morons. You're going to be the moron when you don't look at the scriptures, when you don't read the Bible. Look, I have to sit here and spend a whole bunch of time preparing a sermon and you don't want to look at the Bible with me? It's a lot quiet for now. Look at Proverbs 14 verse 7. Go from the presence of a foolish man when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge. The Bible says, hey, when you recognize someone's an idiot, get away from them. And look, I don't want to be around stupid people. I don't want to be around foolish people. I want to be wise. So I'm going to get a Bible in my hand and I'm going to go find a wise person and I'm going to learn from him the scriptures. I'm going to say, hey, this person put a lot of time, effort, and energy to stand up here and to teach me something. I don't want to just walk away as stupid as I was when I walked in. And you know what? Our measure of intelligence should not be against the world. It should be to this book. And none of us measures up. None of us. It's not even close. When I think about how much information is in this scripture, I feel very inadequate. There's so much of the Bible that I don't even understand. And look, there's plenty that I do. But at the end of the day, I need to constantly learn. I need to constantly grow. And I want you to grow with me. I don't want to just keep trying to drag everybody into the knowledge of Jesus Christ. And everybody's just still like, oh, it's your son. Hey, guys, who is so in? Oh, no, I don't even have a Bible. There is revelation. Look, you should know the Bible. You should get a Bible. You should learn. You should grow. You should be getting wiser because guess what? You're going in one of two directions. You're either getting smarter this morning or you're getting dumber. Maybe you're just checking out this morning because it's not cartoons. There's not like some fancy picture up here. There's not a woman in a miniskirt for you to stare at. No. Why don't you stare at this? Go to Haggai, Chapter two, Haggai, chapter number two. Look, I want you to not be drug down with the stupid, with the foolish today. Get a Bible, read the Bible, show up at church, get some wisdom, get some education. Otherwise you're going to be destroyed. And we don't want to measure ourselves with the world today. They're so bad. They are so wicked. They are so far from God that you should see a light years difference between you and them. And really, here's your comparison. Jesus Christ, you keep looking at Jesus life and then say, where am I at? Wow, I'm pretty far off. He can quote the whole Bible. He is the word, right? He doesn't even have where to lay his head. He just goes and preaches the gospel and does good and ministers and others constantly. That's a person we should constantly looking at and saying, what does my life look like compared to him? How about just lower your expectations as Paul? Yeah, still pretty a lot farther away than where we're at, huh? Now, not only does stupid people drag you down, but their stupidity will often drag you into a place of negativity. That's my third point. So this verse is not necessarily directly related, but I want to look at it for a moment because it says in Haggai chapter two, verse 11, thus say the Lord of hosts, ask now the priests concerning the law saying, if one bear holy flesh on the skirt of his garment and with his skirt do touch bread or potters or wine or oil or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priest answered and said, no, then said, Haggai, if one that is unclean by dead buddy touch any of these shall be unclean. And the priest answered and said, it shall be unclean. Now there's a principle that you can apply in a lot of areas in the Bible. It's saying, if I take some trash and I roll it around with something that's good, is the good thing going to turn the trash into something that's great or is the trash going to turn the good thing into more trash? As soon as I drop something in the trash, it's trash. It doesn't matter how good it was before. Hey, if I have a nice piece of bread and then I drop in the trash, now it's trash. I'm not thinking like, oh, now the trash is reconcilable. Now it's recyclable. Let's drag all the good stuff out. No, it's saying dirty things make other things dirty. Clean things don't make things clean. OK, that's basically the principle that's being taught here. Now apply that with negativity. Negative people met with a positive person, they're not going to become positive. They're going to make you negative. That's what's going to happen. I've seen it. You think, well, let's just try and encourage this guy. Let's try to get this guy. He's always so negative. We're going to try and make him positive. You're not. He's going to make you negative. That's what's going to end up happening. And look, obviously, I'm all for cheering people up when they go on hard times. But I'm saying there are certain people that everything is negative. Everything is a downer. They're always having a bad day. Every every bad thing that could possibly happen to them happens every week. And it's just always negative. It's always a problem. I want to say goodbye to this loser. My life is too short. I'm tired of all the negativity that exists already. I don't want to fill myself with more negative people. The Bible says be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. Doesn't say good manners fix evil communications. It says the evil communications corrupt your good manners. So you come in, you're all happy and gleeful and they are a downer. Guess what usually happens? They make you a downer now. Well, I was happy until I saw them. I was happy until I found out about all their problems. I was having a good day until I realized all the bad things that are happening to all them. You know, I was having a good day. And then I looked at Facebook and then I looked at the news and then I looked at YouTube and then I looked. And now I'm just depressed and sad and angry, even though it's sunny. Even though I have a great family, even though I have a great church, even though I have a King James Bible in my hand, now I'm just depressed because I hang around with negative people that are so negative all the time. And look, there is more than enough to be negative. More than enough. I mean, just the Kanye West said he's going to run for president now. Can you imagine that? You know, it sounds so silly, but I'm like, I think anything's possible at this point, you know, who knows? And is that any better or worse than Biden? I don't know. It doesn't it doesn't really matter if I try to think about politics, I'm not going to have any positive thoughts. OK, I never think about politics. I'm like, I'm so happy now. I'm so happy when I think about what Trump said or what Biden said or what the news said or what, you know, it's all negative, isn't it? And if you hang around with the news too much, you're going to be a negative person. Look, you say, well, it's really negative right now, it's always been negative. Tell me when the news was positive. It's the book right here, the good news, that's the one time the news is good, right? The gospel. I like being around. Look, you know, it makes me excited when I go out with someone else and they get someone saved. Then I come back and I'm actually excited. You know, you kind of go out sometimes, so when you're a little bit beat down, but then someone gets saved and you're just like, wow, I'm happy now. Now I'm having a good time. I want to be around that person. If we just if we just said, you know what, for lunch today, we're just going to hang out. We're just going to watch the news for four hours. We would all be just like, I want to know why it's just terrible and awful and everything's going to be destroyed. Look, the Bible already told us the whole world lies and wickedness. What do you expect from them? Do you expect them to worship God tomorrow? Well, I'm just waiting for Trump to become a saved Christian. I'm just ready for the left to finally admit that they're wrong. Good luck waiting on that one. I'm just ready for the world to accept truth. You're looking at the wrong place, OK? And I don't want to be around negative people. I want to be around positive people that are excited. Look, Step Fast Baptist Church is going great right now. We have a lot of great things. We have a lot of exciting things that are going to be happening. I'm really excited for the next six months and the next year, and I don't care what the world does. We're going to still do great things for God. We're going to still get soul safe. We're going to still get people baptized. And look, we have a lot of great people in this room. And I don't want you to get drug down by all the idiots and the morons and the negative people. There's negative people. And all they want to do is tear everyone down. Step Fast Baptist Church is such a bad place and they're just a cult and they're so negative. And Pastor Shelley, he just yells all the time and long service. I mean, just negative and negative. Well, you know what? You're a loser. And I'm going to say goodbye to you while we go serve the Lord. We're going to do great things while you're just rolling around in the trash can, my friend. The Bible says the slothful man say there's a lion in the way, a lion in the streets. Look, he's so negative. And you know what? That's my fourth point. Lazy people, lazy people also want to drag you down, not just the negative. Go to Proverbs 26 Proverbs Chapter 26. The Bible warns and all labor there is profit, but the talk of the lips tendeth only to penury. Penury would be poverty. OK, so he's saying sitting around talking all day is just going to make you poor. There's a common denominator between poor people and people that are not ones who just like to gab. People that love to gab often tend to be on the poor side of the scale. Why? Because it leads to poverty. Think about this at your workplace. The people that just want to come and just harass you at the cubicle, the one that wants to come and just constantly gab with you. They're the worst workers. They're the laziest workers. And guess what? They're going to get fired. So if you want to get fired, just sit and talk to them all day. You know what? You should say, I'm busy. Can you come back later? I'm not really that interested. I'm going to get to work. Hey, are we supposed to be here to work today? Hey, we need to go back to work. You start saying that kind of stuff and they'll just leave you alone. But you know what? Those people that just love to gab, they're usually the worst person. They're a lazy person because they have nothing else to do. Look what it says in Proverbs 26, verse 14. As the door turned upon his hinges, so does the slothful upon his bed. The sloth will hide his hand, his bosom. It grieved them to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men. That can render a reason. Looking now, here's the thing. This guy thinks he's smarter than everybody else. He's really just lazy. And because he thinks he's so smart, you know what he wants to do? He wants to let you know about all his foolishness. He wants to let you know about all his conceit. Well, you know, if I was in charge, this is how I would handle stuff. Things would be getting done so much better if I was in charge. It's like you don't even do your job. You're not even doing successfully what the boss asked you to do. Why do I think putting you in charge would change anything? What it would do is it make us all lazy, because guess what, you'd be dragging us down with you. You know, the great people, they just get to work. They just keep their mouth shut and they just work super hard. Those are the people that are doing great things for the Lord. And let me commend someone to you. How about Pastor Roger Jimenez? You know, Pastor Roger Jimenez, he's not wasting all his time on social media and talking a bunch of gab and going around bragging on himself all the time. You know what he does? He just works really hard. And look, Verity Baptist Church is knocking it out of the park. Think of all the churches they planted. They planted your foundation, Baptist Church, which is now a thriving church. They have about the same attendance we do on a Sunday morning with Pastor Aaron Thompson. Pastor and Thompson has planted a few different churches already, one in Canada, one in Spokane, Washington, one in Hawaii. So he has grandchildren, churches now, Pastor Jimenez. Then he started a church shield of faith with Pastor Joe Jones in Idaho and Idaho. I'm sorry, Boise, Idaho. Then also they have a church plant in Fresno with another guy, Brother Jared Pazarski, I think is the boots on the ground. Then they have Matthew Stuckey going to the Philippines, planting churches. Look, Pastor Jimenez is knocking it out of the park. And you know what he's not doing? Going around bragging on himself all the time, going around talking all the time. You know what he does? He just keeps his mouth shut and does a bunch of work. Look at his example. Why don't you make him your example? And you know what? When he gets behind the pulpit, he's a firecracker. But don't take that as your daily life. Don't think that I walk around preaching sermons 24 seven. OK, that's a bad philosophy. Preaching is much different than how you handle yourself in your daily life. And we need to do less talking and more working today. There is so much work to be done. We don't need to go around gabbing with one another and talking all the time. That's going to cause you to be poor. And let me give you an example. You may not know this name. Some of you might. There's somebody I went to church with at Faith Ward Baptist Church, and they got drug down with Tyler Baker or maybe vice versa. I don't know. His name's Elliot Ray, Elliot Ray. And this guy, he would love to talk about all kinds of vain deceit. He thought he was so wise and so smart. But you know what about this guy? He is a poor derelict loser. He could never provide for himself. He could never provide for his family. He was always a negative Nelly. And any time you're around this guy, everything's a problem. Everything's wrong. His car just broke down. And he, you know, he just got let go of this job and let go of that job. And there's just there's always something negative. There's just always something bad in this guy's life. And, you know, the Bible makes it very clear that if you can't provide for your own, you're worse than an infidel. It also says, go to First Thessalonians, chapter number four. First Thessalonians, chapter number four. That you're supposed to work with quietness. And look, you shouldn't even know my problems because I'm so busy working. I don't have time to just go around and shop my bad problems with everybody. Look, you can tell a bad person when everyone knows they have problems. It's like, well, how do you know that? Well, they come up and tell me there's these people, they just go around and they just talk to every single person. They're just like, oh, man, I just, you know, getting furloughed at work. Oh, man, my car broke down. Oh, man, my fridge broke. Oh, man, my cat got run over. Oh, man, I'm listening to country music now. You know. It's like and they just that's all they talk about. You just you go up to them and it's like they want to talk about the Bible. They don't want to talk about working. They don't want to talk about anything that's, you know, profitable. They just want to sit there and complain because they're lazy. Look, people that are not lazy are not going around airing out all their problems all the time. They don't have time for that. They got to get to work. They got to go. They got to get stuff done. They're not going around just, oh, man, I have all these problems. Look what it says in First Thessalonians, chapter four, verse 11. The Bible says, and you study to be quiet and to do your own business and to work with your own hands as we come in, the Bible says you should work with your own hands. Look, I'm not going to be a welfare for the men in this room. You go to work and you be quiet. And I don't need to know about all your problems. You want me to come tell you all my problems? You got a couple hours? Look, I don't need to go around and brag about all my problems to people. It makes you look pathetic. It makes you look weak. It makes you look like you can't take care of yourself when you go around. And look, all of us fall on hard times. And I'm not down on certain people. Look, I feel bad for people that are in a tough situation. You know, a woman comes to me and she has no one providing for her. I don't feel bad. I love when she wants help. I want to help that type of a person. You know, some guy that's coming to me and complaining to me. That's I don't like that. Why? Because the Bible says I shouldn't like that. Look at second Thessalonians, chapter number three. Second Thessalonians, chapter number three. And look at verse number seven. For yourselves know how you have to follow us, for we have behaved our behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any man's bread for not. Wow. Apparently, the Thessalonians were lazy. They were super lazy. They love to just probably gab and talk. And notice what the Apostle Paul says, I've never eaten anybody's bread for not meaning what? Well, obviously, if someone invited you over for dinner and it's just a friendly get together, he ate their bread. Hey, he does a bunch of work. They pay him some food or whatever that was. He's just saying, look, nobody just giving me handouts. Nobody's just giving me anything. Look, I'm trying to show you how you're supposed to behave yourself. Wow, this is going to ruin our our food pantry, he says. And verse number nine, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves in a sample and you to follow, he says, look, I could have just said, give me bread and they would have to give me bread, but I never did that. You know what I did? I just got a side job just to make sure I could pay for my way. I don't want to charge any of y'all. I don't want to, you know, come up and be like, man, this ministry stuff's hard. And that last beating was pretty rough. Can you take me out back? Can you give me some milk and cookies? Can you give me some food? Look, the Bible says with all quietness that they work with their own hands. Notice the apostle Paul said, I'm going to do that. We shouldn't have men going around telling everybody all their dirty laundry and making them feel bad and say, oh, man, just all this negative stuff. And I just can't provide for myself and all. It's like that sucks. That's what I'll tell you. Too bad. But why don't you get a job? Why don't you go work hard? You know, I'll tell people, hey, when I got let go of a job, you know what I did? I applied at hundreds of places and I got a job in less than two weeks. And I interviewed at multiple I interviewed with the Russians. It was intense. OK, you have lunch with us. And I was like, I'm pretty close to home. You have lunch with us. OK, yeah. I went with you guys with the fishes. No, it's going to it's like, OK, whatever. I'm like, I'm going to get a different job. All right. But if I had to work with the Russians, you know what I'd do? I'd work with the Russians. And you know, I mean, lunch with the Russians. All right. You know what? I'm going to say yes, sir. We're going to have some lunch and I'm going to keep my mouth shut when I'm in that meeting. All right. But this Elliot raised such a sad sack. He just always going around all these, you know, all. We need to raise money for his car and for all this stuff. You know, he doesn't even have enough money to go wash his clothes. He has to go to other people's houses and wash his clothes. I mean, look, I understand that some people get on hard times. But when you're on hard times for two years, when you're on hard times, your whole life, that's not just hard times. That's you being lazy. That's you being a jerk. And look, the Bible doesn't say cater these people. It says have nothing to do with them. Look what it says in verse number 10. For even when you're with you, this we command you that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Oh, man, this guy, you know, I don't have a job. Sounds like you're going to be hungry. Does it say give him a bunch of money, give him a bunch of food? Just look, and I love helping people. I'm not against helping people, but we need to make sure that we're not helping the wrong person. And we should be careful not to be this person going around dragging other people down with us. Now, when I talk about Elliot Ray, you know, now he doesn't even go to church. Now he thinks church attendance is is is not even a thing that you need to worry about. Women need to wear pants. He likes alcohol now. I know who runs this house. His wife, that's who. And there's a whole bunch of other people that are like this. You know, there were some other people at a faith board that recently got thrown out, and they are complete trash. They are complete losers. James and Katie Foster and Sean Barnish, which some of you might know or been friends with on Facebook, these people are losers. And let me tell you what they would do. Talk all the time. They have all this time to talk. Look, Katie Foster and James Foster literally had like everybody come over to their house all the time and had parties all the time. Of a 300 plus person church. You know who can do that? People that don't work. I don't have time to invite like five people over, OK? I'm doing so much work. I have guests over and I neglect them because I'm so busy doing all kinds of other stuff. You know, at the end of the day, why would if I have all these people coming over, you know what they like to do? They just like to talk all the time. And then it leads to poverty. It leads to all kinds of weird stuff. His wife, James Foster, would make his wife go out and do all kinds of weird jobs just to bring in the bacon because they couldn't pay, couldn't pay for his own family. She's going around doing like secret shopping and random, weird couponing, weird stuff. And it was just like, what are you doing? Instead of like being in your home, instead of guiding the house and teaching your children, he's making her go out and get odd jobs so that he can just go around and do. I don't know what. Gab, who knows? Now they're just attacking faith a word and they're such a negative, disgusting, lazy and rebellious person. Now, for sake of time, I'm going to skip a few points because I don't know. Number five was rebellious people. Rebellious people want to drag you down with them. You need to tell them to take a hike. Also, just wickedness. Go if you would to Proverbs nine. I'll give you a one verse on this and I want to get my last point this morning. What's what's the essence of the sermon? Look, bad people want to drag you down with them and I don't want to be drug down with them. So you know what I'm going to say? Goodbye to losers. Hey, you're a loser. Thanks for letting me know so I can stay away from you. Thanks for letting me know that you're idiot so I can stay away from you. Thank you for telling me you're a flat earther, so I'll never get in your car and I'll never want to be around you ever. I don't want to be around stupid people. He said, man, this church is hostile to dumb people. Great. This church is hostile to the lazy. Great. This church is hostile to the rebellious. Great. It's real hostile to false prophets. Amen to pedophiles and fags. Look, the church is not for everybody. The church is for the saved. And then on top of that, it's for the faithful. It's not for just any Joe Blow to just come in here and start running church for me, because you know what runs church for me? Losers. People that are lazy and negative and derelict and bums and people have false doctrine. I want to go to a church where people actually love God, where people are actually trying to learn, trying to grow. And you know what? We all start somewhere and you say, well, I'm kind of dumb. Well, just keep your mouth shut then and start learning and start growing in information. Don't go around blowing off your mouth if you don't know anything. And look, wicked people also want to drag you into their own wickedness and to their own filth and their own smut and their own sin. Like, oh, drinking, it's not that bad. Why don't you come have a beer with me? They want to drag you in to all kinds of sin and wickedness. And look, drinking alcohol is wicked. It will destroy you. It will drag you down in the gutter. It will ruin your life. You should never look at it. You should never go around it. You should never touch it. You say, well, I'm going to go in so-and-so's house and they have liquor. Don't go. Say goodbye to losers and everyone that drinks alcohol is a loser there. I said it. You say, well, I drink alcohol. Well, you're a loser. Losers drink poison. Losers drink alcohol today and losers want to take you into wickedness. And hey, you know what? A lot of people make mistakes in the past. If you put that up, maybe you became wise. You know, it's not Budweiser, it's Bud Dumber. It will not make you wise. It will destroy you. It will ruin your life. I've never met someone at the end of their life and I think, man, I wish I drank more. Usually they're thinking I can't get a liver transplant. You know, I can't even think straight. And in fact, this is what they'll say, I hate alcohol, but I have to drink it. I would hate to do something that I hate all the time. People that smoke, that drink, that do drugs. Pretty soon they hate it. Pretty soon they despise it. They realize the drag it is on their life. But then they say, I just can't stop, though. And if you have any opportunity to stop, you need to stop now. You need to stay away from people and situations. Don't even go near it. You know, you can't drink at my house because I don't have any alcohol. You can't drink at the church, there's no alcohol. Hey, I don't go places where there's alcohol ready for me to consume. So guess what? I don't drink alcohol. I don't touch the stuff. I don't even want to look at it and look, Elliot Ray wants to go around and teach how he can drink alcohol and how it's so great. He's going to destroy him and his family. And he probably just wants to drink so he can forget how stupid he is and how lazy is and the fact that his life has no purpose. I mean, if you go to Tyler Baker's church, you have no purpose in your life. I would be I'd be excited to go to work. You know, I wouldn't be looking forward to church on Sunday. I'd be like, oh, church, huh? Have some idiot come and try to teach me the Bible, try to ruin and destroy my life. Proverbs, chapter nine, look at verse 13, a foolish woman is clamorous. She is simple and knoweth nothing, for she said it at the door of her house on a seat in the high places of the city to call passengers who go ride on their ways, who so simple let him turn hither. As for him, the one of understanding, she say that say it to him. Stolen waters are sweet and bread eaten and secret is pleasant. But he knoweth not that the dead are there and that her guests are in the depths of hell. Beware of every woman that finds you men. You want to find a virtuous woman, you want to find a wife, the woman that comes out of the woodwork looking for you trouble. But she's clamorous and she's trying to find him. But notice she's not satisfied destroying one guy. There's multiple guys there. You go to her house and it's like, where are all these skeletons come from? Probably dead bodies come from. Oh, those are all the other guys that I was deeply in love with. Madly in love with for five minutes. And then she'll discard you like a bad habit. But the powers 30 go to Proverbs 30. And look at verse number 20, the Bible 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. There are women out there that want to destroy men. There are women out there. They want to destroy the innocent today and notice it's the innocent that they look for. And as soon as you're not innocent, she'll drop you like a bad habit. She just wants to use you and abuse you and drop you. And look, men are the same way. There's whoremongers out there. They just want to use and abuse women, just like Amnon convinced or was it convinced of Jonah Dabb to what? Take advantage of his sister. The second the second she's no longer innocent, done with. The Bible says he did. He hated her more after that deed that he did than the love, so-called, that he had beforehand. Right. Oh, he just loves you so much. He's going to hate you even more after that, just like the horror that they burn in the Book of Revelation. They hate the horror. They burn her with fire. They despise her. They use her and abuse her today. And look, people want to use and abuse you all day long. They want to come over and they want to use and abuse you as a friend. They want to use and abuse you as a church member. They want to use and abuse you as a parent, as a son, as a doctor, whatever the situation is. There are people that do not care about you, but rather they're going to use and abuse you and they're going to try and drag you into the same sins that they're into alcohol, fornication, adultery. Proverbs 30, verse 20. Look at this woman, such as the way of an adulterous woman. She eateth and wipe with her mouth and sayeth, I have done no wickedness. She just moves on to the next guy, just destroying, destroying, destroying, destroying. And look, there's too many examples this morning. Please take it to your own life. Think, is there anybody dragging me down right now? What you need to do is say goodbye to the loser. Say goodbye to all the losers coming in your path. Look at Proverbs four, verse 14, Proverbs four, flip there quickly. The Bible says in Proverbs one, my son of sinners entice thee, consent thou not. Proverbs four, verse 14. Enter not into the path of the wicked and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it. Pass not by it. Turn from it and pass away. Well, I just can't wait to go to the bar. Avoid it. Flee from it. Flee fornication. Flee wickedness. Flee sin today. Run into the church. Run into God's arms. Children don't ever get involved with this stuff. It will destroy you. I there's too many stories. How many examples do you need of people destroying their lives today? People are trying to drag you down with them. No one likes to drink alone. I've been around a lot of people drinking in my past in college. And you know what? The one thing they care about more than anything is that everyone around them is drinking. Right. I went into a situation and I showed up and there was like 40 people drinking. I was the only one not drinking. It's like ninety eight percent drinking. OK. But the only thing anybody could talk about was me not drinking. Every single person, every single person's focused on. I'm like a focal point in the room and I'm like, y'all do your own thing. Y'all talk to each other. They're just like, here's a beer. Here's here. Here, why don't you drink? Why don't you drink? I stood there and endured that for 20 minutes. And then I just left, which I should have never even showed up. OK. But at the end of the day, the only thing they could do is try to get me to drink with them. You know, you you drink, just be around other people that drink. They do drugs, that smoke, that commit fornication. Look, you get yourself men in the room with the wrong woman. You will commit fornication. Women, you get yourself in the room with the wrong man. You will commit fornication. You will commit sin and adultery and wickedness. You go around bad people. Well, my co-workers, they like to smoke marijuana in the alley. Well, I just like to go out there and talk with them and kind of blow off some steam. You're going to start smoking marijuana. You're going to start doing drugs. Hey, these these guys, they like to cheat on the job. They like to take a little bit of money out of the cash register. They like to clock in, you know, 30 minutes earlier than they show up. Hey, they like to not report their money to the government. Look, you're going to become the loser that they are. You avoid that sin. You pass, not buy it. You just pass by it. You don't go around it. Turn from it. Now, go to the mic is seven last point I have. People want to drag you into the trash can. And you say, what's the trash can? Not church. And not steadfast, Baptist Church. They want to drag you to some other place that's a complete and total trash can. And I'm not going to forsake a time. I'm just going to give you the story so you can look them up yourself. But first, Kings Chapter 12 talks about Jeroboam and Jeroboam. He was not content. Allowing the children of Israel to return to Jerusalem to worship the Lord. So he set up a trash can church and Dan, he set up a trash can church and the other, what is it? Beersheba, I think. I think I had my notes, yeah, Bethel. He put one in Bethel and he put one in Dan. So Jeroboam, he puts up two trash can churches where they can worship a false god because he doesn't want them to return. And he says, hey, if they return, they'll end up killing me. He says, if they go back to the real church, they'll realize how wicked I am and how evil I am, and then they'll end up killing me and slaying me. So he sets up two trash can churches. And then God says that became a sin of the children of Israel. So you know what that tells me? You go to the non denomination church, you're sinning. You go to a bad church, that's sinning. You go to the wrong church and that's worse than not going. Look, it's way worse to get plugged into the non denominational fun center than you just miss church. I would rather you miss church than go to one of these wicked churches, one of these trash can churches or just fact that you're just in the trash can, maybe just not going to any church. That's another type of trash can. But people want to drag you down. The devil wanted to drag Job down. He wanted to get him to curse God. And when he couldn't do it, he tried to get his wife to convince him to curse God, too. And I've seen a lot of people get drug out of church because of their wife. You're real manly. Then she puts on the pants and tells you, we're not going back. I know who's in charge. Don't let anybody drag you down. Even your wife. You say, is that biblical, Pastor Shelley? Look at Micah, Micah seven, verse five. Trust you not a friend. Put you not confidence in a guide. Keep the doors of my mouth from her that lies in my bosom. I will say, hey, I don't care how close the person is to you in proximity. Don't let them drag you down. Say goodbye to losers. And look, obviously, if you're married, you need to stay married and you need to love your spouse. You know, you need to do you need to pick your wife up and put her in the car and drag her to church. You needed to be the positive influence in that situation and don't let her drag you down. And you know what? If my spouse truly refused to go to church, I'm going to say goodbye to the loser and go to church. Then I'm going to do everything in my power to bring them with me. And I know men and women that come to church without their spouse, you know. I'd be in church without my spouse. I'd serve God without my spouse. Gove you would do Ephesians, chapter number. Six and Luke 14, last two places of your turn. But this is a hard sermon. Why? Because the devil is on a full skill attack. To drag you down, to destroy you and to attack you and to affect you. And we should do the exact opposite to people. We need to edify people. We need to build them up. Look what it says in Ephesians, chapter number six. The Bible says, Let no in verse twenty nine. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. But that was as good as the use of edifying that it may minister grace under the years. The word edify means to build. And specifically, we need to build one another up, not tear them down, not drag people down. We need to build them up today. So instead of tearing people down into hell, you know what we need to do? We need to build people up and go to heaven with us. We need to go out and preach the gospel and bring people to heaven with us. And instead of tearing people down and the stupidity and idiocracy, we need to make them wise. We need to build them up with education line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little. Instead of being so negative, what we need to do is we need to be positive today. And the Bible says we should think on things that are pure. We should think on things that are lovely, of good report, of virtue. If any praise, think on these things. We need to be a positive influence for the brethren today. We need to build them up instead of being lazy today. Why don't you be diligent? Why don't you be hardworking? Why don't you prove what it looks like to be a hard worker today, to be someone that's dedicated, someone that's a studious person, not someone that's just so lazy and just a derelict and can't get by? Why don't you be like Daniel, where they just say, man, this guy is such a hard worker? Why don't you be like Joseph, where the boss says, I don't even know what's going on in the business? Joseph's just running everything. He's just taking everything. Why don't you be like Jesus Christ, who the own disciples looked at and said he's beside himself. I mean, he won't stop working. He won't take a lunch break. I mean, what's this guy doing? He says, you know what? I have three and a half years. I'm going to redeem the time. Would you really want to say in that three and a half time? Well, I had lots of lunches, though, and they were great. Really good food. Or would you be like, you know what? I remember that time I skipped lunch and I got this lady saved. And then she got a bunch of people saved. Then I got a whole bunch of others. We got like thousands of people saved on the one day I skipped lunch. That's you. You probably couldn't tell it. Can you tell me what you had for lunch exactly one month ago? How about two months ago, about three months ago? But I still can read John chapter number four, can I? People that want to teach you to be rebellious, you need to teach people how to be obedient. You teach children how to be obedient, be a good example. And you know what, children? You teach your brothers and sisters how to be obedient to. The older siblings. You need to be the example of obedience for your younger siblings and stop dragging your brothers and sisters down with you. And don't try to get your siblings into trouble. Don't try to tell them to do things that are wrong, just to see if you can get them in trouble. You teach your siblings do that, which is right. And you say we need to obey mom and dad. We need to do that, which is good. Not influencing them to do wrong, not influencing them to do bad. We need to stop influencing people to be wicked, influencing them to be righteous, showing them a better way of life, not being like the world. You know, when the world looks at the church and says, oh, all of you all commit fornication and adultery and divorce and drink alcohol and dress like the world and act like the world. They're not looking at you and saying, I want to be like you. They're thinking you guys are a bunch of hypocrites is what they're thinking. And the church has become full of hypocrites today. It's frustrating. We ought to be different than the world. And lastly, instead of dragging people into the trash can over there, you need to be dragging people into church. You need to be hearing the preaching. The Bible says in Hebrews Chapter 10, and let us consider one another to provoke and to love and to good works, that's a positive influence, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the man or some is. Our world is going to get so bad pretty soon because no one's going to church. I mean, outside of step past Baptist Church and other handfuls of small church, I mean, no one's going to church. No one's serving God. No one's even trying anymore. And look, the world's going to be waxing worse by the second. It's going to become so evil. And today we say we don't lead church less. We need church more. I need church. I need God's preaching. I need the word of God. And he gives a strong warning. He says, look, anybody that's a loser, anybody you have identified is trying to drag you down. You need to say goodbye to losers. Look at Luke, Chapter 14, verse 26. If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters. Yay. And his own life also. He cannot be my disciple. Now, here's the thing. I don't think most people in this room probably will do that, but I hope a few would. And I'm preaching to you this morning. I'm saying I want you to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. But you know what? There's a cost. You have to say goodbye to all the losers. You have to say goodbye to every single person that's trying to drag you down. And look, there's been plenty of people in this room that I know for a fact people have been trying to drag you down. I know for a fact people have tried to get you out of some of the things I just used to.