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

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right, everybody. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. Glad to have y'all here this Sunday morning. Let's go ahead and take our seats and take out your red hymnal there and turn to song number 90, Jesus, Lover of My Soul. Again, that's song number 90. Song number 90, Jesus, Lover of My Soul. All together. Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly, while the near waters roll, while the tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven, God, O receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs my helpless soul on thee. Leave I'll leave me not alone, still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed, all my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with the shadow of thy wing. Thou, O Christ, are all I want, more than all in thee I find. Raise the fall and cheer the faint, heal the sick and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name, I am all unrighteousness. Violent, full of sin I am, thou art full of truth and grace. Plentiest grace with thee is found, grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams abound, make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, a fountain heart, freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart, rise to all eternity. Amen. Good singing. That's a very hard word of prayer. Dear Father, we just thank you that we could be gathered together in your house this morning to hear the preaching of your word. And I just pray you would speak to us this morning to help us serve you better, help our eyes and ears to be opened unto the preaching. And bless Pastor Shelley right now. Fill him with your Holy Spirit. Give him wisdom and boldness as he preaches us your word. And bless us as we go out soloing today that we could reach our community around us. We love you, Father, and we pray these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Next is going to be Psalm 126. It's going to be in that white handout. Hopefully you have one in front of you. If you don't, you can raise up your hand and an usher will try and bring one to you. If not, you can always pull out your Bible because it's going to be word for word out of Psalm 126. And that's Psalm 126. All together. When the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion, We were like them that dreamed. Then was our mouth filled with laughter, And our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them, The Lord hath done great things for us, Whereof we are glad. Then again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy, They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them, The Lord hath done great things for us, Whereof we are glad. He that goeth forth and weepeth, Bearing precious seed, Shall doubtless come again, Shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, Bringing his sheaves with him. Then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them, The Lord hath done great things for us, Whereof we are glad. Amen. Good morning. Thanks so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you don't have a bulletin, slip your hand real quick and we can have an usher come by and get a bulletin to you. On the front we have our Bible memory passage of the week, Exodus chapter 20. And we're on verse number 14. Anyone that's able to quote that that's 18 or under at our midweek service can receive an ice cream treat. On the inside we have our service times as well as soul winning and then we have our church stats. We'll go over those in the evening. If you have any numbers to report for our expecting ladies, please keep all of them in your prayers. And we also have a prayer list. If you'd like any continued prayer or additional church prayer, please submit those via email or you can fill out one of our communication cards and just slip it into the offering. Also we have our ladies' tea that's coming up in honor of Mother's Day. It's going to be this Saturday. And if you have not signed up, there is still an opportunity for you to go. But today is that day. So you need to sign up by today. And there's still a sign up sheet. If you haven't signed up, please sign up. If for whatever reason you can't physically be here but you want to sign up, you can send an email. I know a few people have already emailed wondering if they can still get in. Hey, if you emailed us, you're in, all right? But you've got to email us because we've got to make sure we have everything prepared for you. So today's the day. It's going to be a great time of fellowship. And it's for mothers and their daughters and nursing's only. It's from 2 to 4 at the Rose Garden Tea Room. And we would really encourage you to participate. If you have any questions, please just see my wife and she can help you with any other additional questions. On the back we have other events. So we've had our sports days. And also we have Pastor Joe Jones. He's going to be coming and preaching for us on May 16th. And then we have our men's conference, which I really need you to also sign up today for the men's conference as well. So if you want to go on the men's conference, I need that information put on there. And I'm going to send out an email this week with all the details and other information pertaining to that. But we have Pastor Steven Anderson. He's going to be coming out and preaching for us on that Friday evening. And so that's going to be a really special treat. And then also we have a couple soul winning marathons. June 12th, Ardmore, Oklahoma. And then June 3rd, we have a Dallas-Fort Worth marathon. And then I'm also pleased to announce that another upcoming event you need to mark is we're going to have the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship again. So praise the Lord for that. Yeah, that's exciting. It's going to be October 6th through 10th. So that's a Wednesday through Sunday. And I don't have all of the events scheduled exactly yet, just because we still have to figure out who all is coming and everything like that. But we have several pastors that have already committed to coming. Lots of great people are going to be here preaching for you. We are going to do our spelling bee. So I'm going to try and get that out as soon as possible, a booklet. But it's going to be words in the Bible. And we'll probably have about three age groups. So kind of a younger, a middle, and then kind of an older. And pretty much anybody 18 or under will be able to participate in that if they want to. Obviously completely free. There will be prizes and everything like that. But I'll give you a booklet. And it will be like a normal spelling bee. It's just we'll use Bible words and everything like that. I may, for the older group, have an extra list of some other words too, just in case we get some really smarty pants in there or whatever. But, you know, if they can spell melasheleh hashbaz or whatever correctly, then we'll have to kick it up a few notches or whatever. I'll try to get a booklet. And we're going to do that. We're going to have the ice skating again. We're going to have a singles event. We're going to have a teen event. And so we're going to have all kinds of really cool stuff that's going on. Lots of preaching and soul winning and fellowship and everything like that. So I really encourage you to come out. It's going to be tight in the building. And so, and some things like parking stuff. So I'm going to try and ask you guys to do some special favors for me during that conference. We have so much parking that's, you know, still very close. Like we have the Target parking lot over here and we have some back areas. So I'll probably ask our church family if they don't mind parking a little bit further away so that our guests can park closer. And we may even have to utilize some of these back room areas a little bit. So, but I'll give you more details as we get closer. But I'm really excited about this. You can be planning for it. And I'll try to make a video pretty soon announcing this event. But it's going to be a great time. Our last conference that we had was a huge success. And it was a lot of fun, a lot of great preaching. And so I'm really excited to do that again this year. If you have any questions, I don't have any answers yet. So just hold on, all right. Just hold on tight. But it's going to be a lot of fun. I was in Georgia this past Wednesday. So thanks to Brother Ben for preaching. And also thanks to all those that helped with the baby shower yesterday and participated in that. I was with Strong Old Baptist Church, and they had a fun camping trip. And man, it was great fellowship, lots of good preaching out there. I think he's going to release a lot of those sermons out there and lots of good sermons to listen to. The sermon Pastor Menes preached is a really good sermon, and so I'd recommend that sermon. And so, but lots of good preaching and lots of good fellowship. And it was great to see them as well. If you ever get a chance to be in Georgia, you should visit Pastor Berzen's and Strong Old Baptist Church there in Atlanta. So with that, let's go to our third song, 232, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. Song 232. Again, that's going to be song number 232, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. All together. Tell me the story of Jesus Right on my heart every word Tell me the story most precious Sweetest that ever was heard Tell how the angels and chorus Sang as they welcomed his birth Glory to God in the highest Peace and good tidings to earth Tell me the story of Jesus Right on my heart every word Tell me the story most precious Sweetest that ever was heard Fasting alone in the desert Tell of the days that are past How for since he was tempted Yet was triumphant at last Tell of the years of his labor Tell of the sorrow he bore He was despised and afflicted Homeless, rejected, and poor Tell me the story of Jesus Right on my heart every word Tell me the story most precious Sweetest that ever was heard Tell of the cross where they nailed him Writhing in anguish and pain Tell of the grave where they laid him Tell how he liveth again Love in the story so tender Clearer than ever I see Stay let me weep while you whisper Love paid the ransom for me Tell me the story of Jesus Right on my heart every word Tell me the story most precious Sweetest that ever was heard Genesis chapter 3, the Bible reads, Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both were open, and they knew that they were naked, and they sowed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field, upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception, and sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake, and sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat bread, till thou return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also unto his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothe them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. Let's bow our heads for a quick word of prayer. Father, we thank you for our morning service here at Steadfast Baptist Church. I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit, and help him to preach a sermon. I also pray that you would give us ears to hear, minimize distractions for us, so we can learn as much as possible from the sermon this morning, and apply it to our Christian lives. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. The part of the chapter that I want to focus on here is in verse number 11, where the Bible reads. And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. Now, a very famous portion of scripture, and we have Adam sinning by eating of the fruit off of the tree in the midst of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the Lord commanded Adam not to do this. And the Lord, knowing all things, often still asks rhetorical questions, or he gives people a chance to explain themselves. And he obviously knows the answer. He knows that Adam had sinned, yet he asks them the question, Have you eaten of the tree? And notice Adam's response is the first thing that he says as soon as he's questioned. He says in verse number 13, or I'm sorry, whenever he's being questioned in verse number 12, it says, The woman. The first words out of his mouth is the woman, and what is he doing? He's casting blame on someone else, isn't he? He's like, Hey, did you... God didn't ask, Did the woman eat? God didn't say, you know, why? He's saying, Did you eat? And he's just like, The woman. He just immediately casts blame. He's immediately shifting the blame to someone else. He's shifting it to his wife. And the reality is, this is a common theme throughout the Bible of people shifting blame to other people. They don't take responsibility for their actions. And the title of my sermon this morning is this, Stop blaming others. Stop blaming others. Now, Adam, he blames his wife, but God doesn't just let him get off the hook. He doesn't say, Oh, yeah, that darned woman. You're right. No, no problem. No, he still curses Adam, doesn't he? He still holds Adam responsible for his actions. And the reality is, when you blame others, it still does not excuse your actions. It still is not a legitimate excuse. It still doesn't exonerate you from the wrongdoing in which you've done. No, you're still having problems. He says in verse number 13, And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent. Notice, she does the exact same thing. The first words out of her mouth, The serpent. And notice, we see the same attitude, we see the same behavior of just blaming someone else right away. Not taking responsibility, not saying I did something wrong, but pointing blame at someone else. And this is a huge problem that we have in our society today. Go to Luke, chapter number 14. Go to Luke, chapter number 14. To me, the biggest example of this would be the BLM movement, where they're just blaming everyone else for all of their problems. The reason why they steal? White people. The reason why they do drugs? White people. The reason why they act the way they do? White suppression and slavery. Slavery is the reason why every bad thing that's ever happened. The reason why they stole from Nike this weekend is because of the slavery in the past. Their grandparents were slaves, and the reason why they're on drugs, and the reason why they're not fathers in the home, and the reason why they have all their problems is because of other people. When has BLM ever taken responsibility for anything they've done? When did they say, well, we did screw up a little bit. Well, we did do this thing wrong, or we do have our own problems. All they do is just say the only reason we have problems is because of other people. The only reason that there's issues, the only reason we're poor is because of other people. The only reason that we don't have advantages or privileges in society is because of other people. It's not their own fault. They've done nothing wrong. There's no blame to associate with themselves. It's just someone else's fault, but this is a poor attitude. It's an unbiblical attitude. It's one that is never going to help you. It's not going to create any kind of benefit to society. You need to take responsibility for your actions. But in the same way that the world shifts the blame, Christians do the same thing. Even God's people will start blaming other people for their problems. They shift the blame to someone else, and the reality is God is not going to excuse anyone by blaming someone else. You're still going to be punished. Adam was still punished. Eve was still punished. The serpent didn't have anybody to point to. He didn't even get to speak for himself. He just got cursed, didn't he? And the reality is, shifting blame doesn't help anything. Now, I told you to go to Luke, chapter number 14. Is that right? Let's see a couple other people just making an excuse. It says in verse number 18, And they all with one consent begin to make excuse. So they're bidden to a wedding, and it's a parable about a lot of different things, but these people just begin to make an excuse. The first of them, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it. I pray thee have me excuse. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen. I go to prove them. I pray thee have me excuse. Another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. What kind of a weird excuse is this? Oh, wedding? I can't come. I'm married. It's like, what, the old ball and chain, right? I mean, this guy doesn't sound like a leader. This guy doesn't sound like someone who's, you know, wearing the pants in the relationship. You have to prove your land. I mean, these are just silly excuses. They're just lame excuses. And the reality is, there's no new thing under the sun. People are often just blaming some stupid thing. People are always just shifting the blame to something. They're just giving some kind of a lame excuse. And, you know, it's funny, because this happens even in our churches, where people, they'll tell me they're going to quit the church, and they give me the lamest excuse I've ever heard in my life. And you say, what kind of excuse is that? I literally had somebody, and look, all the examples I'm giving you are not here physically, but they're at other places. But I've had people literally tell me they're going to quit the church because somebody was taking water out of the fridge and didn't go soloing that day. You think I'm joking. I'm not joking. They were saying, and I said, well, did you talk to that person? Did you say, hey, you shouldn't take water unless you go, and somebody's like, no. So they just want me to deal with that, right? And I said, look, who cares? Maybe they need water for some reason. I said, look, I make rules, and we have, you know, policies at the church just to make church run smoother, but there's certain things I'm not going to enforce, okay? You know, when I have a visitor show up, I offer them a bottle of water. Why? Because I'm just trying to be nice. And the person that's quitting church because we're giving out too many water bottles, that's not the reason why they're leaving the church, okay? I had someone say they're going to leave our church because only ordained leadership can baptize. And I'm thinking, like, what? You just really want five-year-old little girls to be able to baptize their friends or what? I mean, like, because we have, they say we're a cult because only ordained leadership can baptize. And I'm just thinking, like, well, show me someone that's not ordained baptizing the Bible. And if you're going to say it's a free-for-all, then what's to stop your five-year-old little girl that got saved from baptizing someone? You know, it's stupid logic. It's just a lame excuse to say I don't want to go to the church anymore. I've had people say, well, the church, I can't come to the church because of all the smells of the church. I'm like, what? I've had people say I can't come to your church because my wife doesn't like the church. And it's just like, look, these are just lame excuses, and in reality, that's usually not the problem. They like to say that, they like to blame other people, they like to shift the blame to something else, but the reality is you need to stop blaming others for your problems and start taking personal responsibility. And people, they don't want to sit there and tell you, I'm backslidden. I'm lazy. I don't love the things of God right now. I'm involved in sin. They're not going to get up and say the reason why I'm quitting church is because I just don't care about other people anymore. I don't care about soul winning. I stopped reading my Bible. I'm sick and tired of not having as much money as Bill Gates. They're not going to sit there and say that, or they're also typically not going to bring up doctrine. You know why they're not going to bring up doctrine? Because as soon as they start bringing up doctrine, you know what you're going to say to them? Well, yeah, but doesn't the Bible say? You're going to start showing them how they're wrong from the Bible, and they don't want to be proven wrong. So what do they do? They bring up some stupid excuse like you're in a cult so that you can't argue with them. Because how do you argue on it's a cult or not? Nobody even knows what a cult is. It's a different definition based on every single person's opinion, and there's no verse on that in the Bible. There's nowhere to say it is or is it a cult or whatever. I mean, it's an easy way to just say, I don't want to go. Stop arguing with me. So they just say cult. That's what they have to say even though they have nothing legitimate to point to. It's not like we believe some weird thing, or we have Kool-Aid, or we took down all of our sermons. You know, I don't know who does that. And then copyright everybody that put all our preaching out there. You know, copyright strikes, and we're preaching things that are completely different than what we preached yesterday. I mean, it's not like we're doing all kinds of weird stuff that you could point to and say that's why it's a cult. They just say, oh, it's a cult. Well, why? Because it smells, you know, and they don't give water to every single person. You know, they don't, you know, whatever the rule. They'll just come up with some really stupid, lame excuse. Why? Because they're backslidden, and they won't take responsibility for their backslidden nature. They won't take responsibility to say, I'm a bad leader. I can't rule my house. So they'll just say, well, my wife doesn't want to go, or my husband doesn't like it, or my family doesn't like it, or it's too strict. They just come up with the dumbest, silliest excuses, and unfortunately some people, they think the excuse is legit. They're like, hey, pastor, show me how, you know, ordained leadership is going to baptize. And I'm like, look, I can. It's not going to fix the problem. It's like, well, why don't you go and talk to that person and say, don't take water bottles, or I'll get you. And I'm like, even if that person never took another water bottle, the person's not coming back to church. It's like, well, why don't you make sure the church smells better? What do you want it to smell like? Everybody has their own preference, you know? Do you want it to smell like Lysol? Do you not want it to smell like Lysol? Like a bluebonnet field, you know? Some people get allergies from that. I mean, you can't win for losing in these type of situations. And the reality is, people just want to blame everyone else for their problem. But you know what I like about the Lord Jesus Christ? He does the exact opposite. Go to Leviticus, chapter number 16. Instead of blaming everybody else, he takes everyone's blame, doesn't he? You know, the real attitude of a Christian is not one that's constantly blaming other people and shifting all their problems onto other people. The attitude of a Christian or a godly person is taking people's problems, taking people's blame. You know, when's the last time someone did something wrong and you took responsibility for what they did? Someone at work screwed up on the job. Your partner, the person that you work with on your team, screwed up and you said, you know what, I should have been more diligent or I should have looked into it. Or did you tell the boss, they screwed up, they suck, fire them, they're over here. Here's their name. Or even maybe you screwed up and then you just blame someone else or tell someone else that they did something wrong. You know, the incredible attribute of Jesus Christ is he's never done anything wrong ever. He never made a mistake. He never said something wrong. He never did anything wrong. Everything he did was always perfect. Yet he ended up taking every blame for every bad thing that's ever happened ever. Now look at Leviticus chapter 16, look at verse 21. Now this is a picture of this. And so we literally have a picture in the Bible of these two goats. One's a scapegoat and one's killed. And they both picture Jesus Christ in different ways. The fact that Jesus Christ is killed for us and then we get to be a scapegoat. And then also the fact that the scapegoat ends up having to bear all the iniquity and all of the blame for everything that's happened. You see a shifting of blame, don't you? The only legitimate shift of blame is all of our sins on Jesus Christ. And isn't it incredible that our example is one who decides to take the blame for something he never did. All the wrongdoing when he did no wrong. All the evil things that were said when he never said anything wrong. That's his attitude. Yet human nature does what? It tries to blame someone else. It tries to shift the blame and put all the blame on other people. You know, we should be willing to take the blame of others at times. And we should be willing to cover people's sins. The Bible says, love covereth a multitude of sins. And we see the ultimate picture of love is what? Taking other people's problems and making them your own. Whereas the opposite of love would be what? Shifting all of your problems on everybody else. That's why you know the BLM movement is not a movement of love. It's the opposite of love. A movement of love would be taking someone else's problems and making them your own. Helping other people. Lifting burdens off of other people. Taking the responsibility from other people. And helping other people. Go to Proverbs chapter 29. Proverbs chapter 29. Jesus took our blame so that we could stand blameless before God. No one stands blameless before God based on anything they did. And it's funny how people say, well Jesus did his part, you've got to do yours. My part was just accepting his free gift. The only reason I can stand before God blameless is because of Jesus taking all my blame. Taking all my responsibility. God's going to look for all the sins that I've done. He's going to look for someone to be responsible for that. And when he looks to me, Jesus is going to be like, here's my blood. It's not going to be anything I did. It's not going to be any good works. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us. And the reality is we should stop blaming other people when we transgress. We should be like Jesus Christ. We should not only take responsibility for our own actions, we should be willing to go above that even. And take the responsibility of other people's actions instead of blaming everybody else. And always shifting our problems and issues onto other people. And pretending like we would be righteous if it weren't for other people. Well, I would go to church if it wasn't for her. Well, I would go to church if it wasn't for him. Well, I would go to church if it wasn't for my kids. Well, I would go to church if it wasn't for the pastor. Well, I would go to church if it wasn't for the employee. Well, I would go to church if it wasn't for the deacon. Well, I would go to church if it wasn't for the evangelist. Well, I would go to church, but there's this family that goes there. And oh man, they just rubbed me the wrong way. I don't like that family. I would go, but I don't like the chairs. I would go, but I don't like the bathrooms. I would go, but, you know, there's people there that aren't perfect. I would go there, but the parking's too far away. Well, I would go there, but I might have to drive. Well, I would go there, but, you know, it's just all these excuses and lame things. And they're just blaming other people. It's garbage. It's not fixing any of your problems either. It doesn't help anything. And ultimately, let me tell you why people do this. Pride. Pride. Look at Proverbs 29, verse 23. A man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. You know, it's not prideful to sit there and say, you know what, I have problems. What's prideful is to say, I have no problem. It's other people's fault. I would do it. What are they doing? They have so much pride in themselves that they can't even take the ownership of their own issues. They have to blame. Oh, I would have served you, God, but the woman you gave me. Isn't that what Adam said? Well, I wouldn't have eaten of the tree, he says. It wasn't for the serpent who beguiled me. You know, everybody wants to just blame someone else and pretend like they would serve God. They would do right. Well, I would go to church if Faith Ward Baptist Church was close to me. I would go to church if my pastor was Pastor Jimenez. You know, I would too, you know. Well, I would drive really far to church if it was a good church, you know. I thought Jesus Christ paid for that church. How's it not good? Who cares if it was the pastor? Who cares? Well, I would go to church if so and so was preaching. Well, I would go to church if the song leading was better. I would if they were going to read the Bible better. You know, just lame, silly excuses shifting their blame on other people. Well, I would go to church if they believed all the correct doctrines that I believe. If they would get on my program. If they would understand how to interpret the Bible like I do. They don't even know what the... The pastor, he doesn't know the real doctrine. I have to teach them. This is the attitude of a lot of people. They won't go to church because they know more than the pastor. They won't go to the church because they know the doctrine better than the pastor. Their policies would be better than the pastor's policies. They would run the church better than the pastor would. Their soul winning program would be better than the pastor's soul winning program. And instead of leading by example, they just blame other people. And that's the reason why they don't want to go to church. And it's funny. When these people tell me these stupid excuses of why they're not going to come to my church. It's not like they're going to a good church down the street. There's nothing wrong with switching from one church to another if they're both a legitimate church. There's nothing wrong with going from a good church to another good church. In fact, if you like one church more, go to that one. Hey, if you're going to serve God more in another church, go there. You say, well, I would be more faithful to this church than yours. I'll send you a recommendation letter. Go! I don't want to stop you from serving God. I don't want to be a stumbling block unto you serving the Lord. But the thing is, they bring up lame excuses so they cannot go to church because of the pride in their heart. They think they're better. And instead of just admitting I have a problem, they just have to say, well, it's their problem. I would serve God if it weren't for what? Pastor, church, those people, this issue, whatever. Just some stupid lame excuse. Go if you would to Exodus chapter 32. Go to Exodus chapter 32. Let me give you some more examples real quick in the Bible of what this looks like. But let me tell you, it's pride. When someone gives a lame excuse for any problem that they have, it's because of pride. Not just church, even at the workplace. In their relationships. Why would be that person's friend if they were a better friend? What are they doing? They think they're the good friend. Well, if they were a good friend like I am, then I would be their friend. When they're at work, you know, well, I would be hardworking if my boss was smarter. Well, I would show up on time if my company knew what they were doing. How many people, how many of your coworkers say they think the company could be run better? Isn't that everybody? What is that? Pride. And look, it's not to say that companies don't have problems. It's not to say that people can't be better. But it's funny how people always want to tell you how they could do it better and they know better, yet they're not in that position for a reason. Because they probably can't. And the reality is, it's a lot harder to lead than it is to criticize. It's a lot harder to do things. Look, Moses in the wilderness was constantly being criticized. Do you honestly believe any person in that congregation could have led better than Moses? Yet they criticized him up and down, didn't they? They criticized every single step that he took. Well, let's take the second guy in charge. Let's just go down one level of the million people that came out. Let's just go down one notch and see if it got better. How about Aaron, right? I mean, if we're going to say there could have been somebody better than Moses, let's pick Aaron. Let's see what happens. Exodus chapter 32. And let's see what happens. Verse 21. And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, Make us gods which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we woe not what has become of him. And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off, so they gave it me. Then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. So Moses departs from the scene. All of a sudden, Aaron's in charge. Immediately, immediately, the people come up to him. Immediately, they want to start serving false gods. Immediately, they don't want to serve the Lord anymore. And what does Aaron say? Does he say, No, we're going to wait for Moses. No, we're going to serve the Lord. He says, Give me your gold. And the Bible tells us he fashioned a calf. So he's not, like, ignorant of where this calf came from. He didn't forget that he preached that last week. What the most blasphemous thing I've ever seen. He's the one that made it. Yet, he immediately, being questioned by Moses, Moses comes down, he sees them worshipping false gods, commandments. And he's so angry. He's rebuking Aaron. He's telling him, What did the people, didn't you think he could just step in and just be a great leader automatically? That's not always the case, is it? Aaron gets to preach, you know. Where's the... And behold, he set him up a place and has gone about and passed on and gone down to Gilgal. Samuel came to Saul and Saul said unto him, Blessed be the Amalekites, for the people spared the... And he said unto him, Say on. Samuel said, When thou was little in thine own soul, it is not a godly attribute. People can see through it and they just think, Well, I guess you're bad at it and spit for the job. You know, someone that's good is going to identify, I must be doing something wrong. That or to correct that issue or I'm going to take care of it. And it's not saying that a leader would not address problems with people. It's not to say that Saul wouldn't go and say, Look, you guys shouldn't have done this. But I should have been more strict. I should have given better commandments or whatever. But at the end of the day, when you're answering to a superior, when you're answering to someone that's above you, you should not blame other people. You should take the responsibility for yourself. You know, Adam and Eve, you know, when you think about them, that's kind of a marriage. A lot of people blame their bad marriage on their spouse. In fact, let me just... all people. Okay, I've had dozens and dozens and dozens of people tell me about issues in their marriage, ranging and very severe to not that severe, okay, of problems. You know what they never say? I'm doing something wrong. I'm screwing up. They always just... they immediately want to tell me what they're doing. They want to tell me what he did, what she did, all of their problems. They're never saying like, You know, I kind of nag. And I haven't made him a meal in like five weeks. And I didn't clean the house. And every time he tells me to do something, I say, That's stupid. I would do it this way. They just say, Oh, he's mean. And he wants me to just obey him, you know. And he doesn't help with the dishes. And he doesn't help with the kids. And one time he gave me a mean look. And, you know, it's just like... or vice versa. Vice, you know, Well, she won't, you know, love me. And she won't do things for me. And she doesn't clean up. And she doesn't say, Yes, sir, after every statement. Just thinking like, Well, did you even ask her to do that? No. Like, Okay. It's kind of silly. You know, it's just like they just blame the other person. They blame... Look, the reason why you have a bad marriage is because of you. Now, obviously, if you're married to a reprobate, Okay. But let me say this. You married them. And let me tell you this. You're never going to fix your marriage by blaming the spouse. You're never going to be like, You know, our marriage sucks because of you. And they're just like, You're right. I'm going to fix that now. Happily married, you know. You want to fix your marriage? You're in a tiff. You came to church this morning angry with each other. Why don't you just go ahead and take the blame for all of the problems? You say, Well, I didn't do it. Just take the blame anyways. I'm sure you did something wrong. I'm sure if we asked your spouse, they could think of something that you did. Right? And the reality is you need to stop thinking about all the things they're doing wrong and start thinking about all the things that you're doing wrong. Think about all the failures that you have in your relationship. Start thinking about all the things that you're doing poorly. You know, at the end of the day, it's not like a pastor looks at his congregants and thinks like, Wow, this church member is absolutely perfect. They have no problems, you know. And when they complain about the church, they're like, They're so righteous and they're so doing good. We're so wrong. You're right. You know. They have problems, too. They have issues. In fact, some people won't tell me they want to leave the church, and I'm thinking like, Great. I was hoping you would leave a long time ago. You know. And the reality is you say, Why would you say that? Look, I don't want thorns on my side just as much as you do. There are some people that work at your job and you're like, I hope they quit. And sometimes they do, and they tell the boss like, Y'all suck and y'all are bad. And you're just thinking like, Sweet. You're like, I'm so glad they're finally quitting. But in a marriage, you know, you don't want anybody to quit. So you know what? You need to just take responsibility for your actions and improve the things you have. Because that's the only thing you can affect. You can only affect you. You can only decide the things about you. And hey, if you want to be a leader, stop blaming everyone else. Go to Proverbs 20 for a second. Go to Proverbs chapter 20. You say, What's the point of this sermon? Stop blaming others. What's point two? Stop blaming others. What's point three? Stop blaming others. You say, Do you have like a poem? Yeah, stop blaming others. Do you have a song? Stop blaming others. Hey, just one point. I'm just going to drill it into you, and then we'll leave, all right? Proverbs 20, look at verse six. Most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. You know what this tells me? Everyone tells you how great they are, but almost no one is. You know why? Because people are prideful in their heart. People, honestly, look, if we were just to take you and be like, Let's evaluate yourself. They're like, Well, I'm pretty much the best church member. I'm the best soul winner. I know the Bible the best. I'm the best husband. I'm the best father. You know, I'm the best wife. That's what they think about themselves. And they look at other people like, Why can't people drive like me? Why can't people talk like me? Why can't people view the world like I do? Why can't people dress like I do? Why can't people be like me? Because if everybody's like me, the world would be a better place. Yeah, a lot of times that's not true. A lot of times if everybody was like you, everybody would be in the bathroom while I'm preaching. If everybody's like you, you know, we'd have to wait until you show up, because church, you know, you came late to the church service. If everyone was like you, we'd see you every once in a while. If everyone was like you, you know, in some cases, if everyone was like you, you'd all be your every single service. Right? Some people are a good example in some areas. Some people are not. But stop worrying about things you're doing good and start worrying about things you're not doing good at. And stop evaluating yourself and thinking that you're better than other people. Why don't you stop blaming other people for your problems and start addressing the problems you have? Why come to church if you're perfect? Why don't you just go to heaven already? You know, I think we come here to worship the only one that's perfect is Jesus Christ, and we look to him as an example and we try to work on ourselves. And myself included, hey, I'm not perfect. Hey, when people criticize the church, as much as I look at it and think it's a dumb reason or a bad excuse or whatever, I try to seriously think is there a way I can improve this or did I do something wrong or how can I fix it? And sometimes I'm trying to fall over myself even though I know in the back of my mind they're not going to come back. It's not something that I can really fix. Look, I've had people that I want to leave that I'm trying to fix their problems, just trying to be gracious, trying to be long-suffering, trying to help them, trying to figure out what's going on. But at the end of the day, I can only affect myself. You can only affect yourself, and you need to take responsibility and realize you naturally are very prideful. You naturally think. I mean, most people, when there's a job, promotion, opportunity, they think they deserve it. Interesting how everyone deserves it. Everyone deserves to be the person doing every single activity, every single event. They should be leading. They would be the greatest. They should be in charge. You should wait for other people to say, I want him to do it, for other people to look and say, this guy is really good at it. This guy is leading. This guy is doing. Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips, is what the Bible says. But what do most men? It says most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness. Notice, it doesn't even say some people. It says everyone. They will tell every single person how great they are. And look, our society promotes this. Think about every celebrity. Think about every sports athlete. What do they want? They want you to buy their jersey. They're not going around saying, you should buy that guy's jersey. Right? They want you to buy their jersey and have their name on your shoes and have a big poster of them. And they just proclaim everyone their own goodness. And the reason why their team didn't win is because of some other person on the team. It's never the wide receiver's fault. It's the quarterback's fault. And it's never the quarterback's fault. It's the wide receiver's fault. Or it's the O line. Or it's the defense. Or it's the coach. Or it's the general manager. Or it's the fans. Or it's the contracts. Or it's the refs. But it's always the ref's fault, right? It's always just someone cheating. It's just always someone else's fault. People don't take responsibility. They get in their interview, and they're not like, I literally threw three picks. I was lazy this week. I didn't practice. I didn't try hard. I'm on drugs. And when I was looking, it was blurry, and I just threw it. And it was an interception. And I suck. And I'm not going to practice hard this week, either, because I'm still getting paid $20 million a year, no matter what. It's guaranteed money. FYI. I mean, they're not going to sit there and say that. And the reality is, that would be a bad leader. To blame other people, it would be a bad leader to also just sit here and be down on yourself. You need to just say, hey, I screwed up, but I'm going to fix it. Hey, I did wrong, but I'm going to do better next time. Go to Proverbs 26. Just flip the page. Proverbs 26. Proverbs 26. But people love the lame excuses, don't they? Let me give you more lame excuses. Proverbs 26, verse 13. The slothful man saith, there is a lion in the way. A lion is in the streets. Really? Why can't I go to church, Pastor Shelley? There's a lion outside. Well, that's going to be a problem for going to work, too, isn't it? They come up with these weird excuses, and I'm thinking, well, that affects a lot of areas of your life. And here's what the normal person would do. Hey, there was a lion outside, so I shot it. So I killed it, because that was a problem. My kids can't play outside either, so I went ahead and killed the lion. You don't just say, well, I'm not going to go outside because there's lions outside. People just want to have an excuse that sounds legitimate, even though when we hear it, we're all laughing at them, aren't we? But again, this would be legitimate, wouldn't it? If you literally had an 800-pound beast screaming at your door, clawing at it, it may have caused you to not come to church on time, right? I mean, if there was a literal lion outside, and he's just like, roar! You know, it's like, you would have been like, this is a problem. You probably wouldn't have just gone and got in your car. You wouldn't have been like, I'm Daniel, OK? He's not going to touch me. But it's not real, is it? It's just a fake excuse. It's not a legitimate excuse. They're just claiming there's some kind of a problem. They're making something up. Look at the verse before it. See, is thou a man wise in his own conceit? There is more hope of a fool than of him. You know, it's worse than the guy that's stupid and has never learned anything is the guy that has learned, yet still comes up with the lame excuses, the guy that becomes wise in his own conceit. He hatches some stupid excuse. You know, there's some people not coming to church just because they don't know anything about church. They're not even saved. The fool. And you know what? We could get him saved and get him plugged into church. But the guy that says, I won't go to church because you're giving out too many water bottles, there's no hope for that guy. That guy is worse than a fool. He's worse than an idiot. He's worse than a bad person because he's just made up some foolish excuse and now he's full of pride. He's full of pride. He has to humble himself. Let's keep reading in this chapter. Look down. It says, as the door turned upon his hinges, so does the sloth upon his bed. The sloth will hide his hand from his bosom. It grieved him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. In fact, the person that says, well, I'm not going to go to church because, you know, you let only ordained leadership baptize. You could have seven of the smartest pastors in the world preach seven sermons explaining how that's not true and they would still not be convinced. They would still tell you Judas got more people saved than any other disciple. Why? Because they're wiser in their own conceit. They've had some kind of lie, some kind of a heresy. Instead of just saying, you know what, I'm unsaved, I'm a false prophet, I have problems, they just blame other people. You know, it's funny to me when Manly Perry, when we attacked him so hard and I preached against him and exposed all the lies, he's acting like, oh, well, our church, you know, is struggling because people are preaching against me. People are making videos attacking me. And I'm thinking, like, have you ever heard of Pastor Anderson? He has, like, thousands of people making attack videos against him all the time. Why is this church not folding like a deck of cards? Because all the accusations are false. Because they're silly. Look, you don't think that people attack me either? Look, I have people make... There was a person that left our church and they made an attack video on me, like, every single day for, like, months. And our church was growing. Why? Oh, they're attacking. Look, you don't think they attack Jesus constantly? You don't think the Pharisees were constantly pressuring people to stop following Jesus? Yet he kept growing and growing and growing in popularity. Why? Because the truth matters. Yet this person is just making stupid, lame excuses and they become wise in their own conceit and instead of mainly parry saying, yeah, I preach some really dumb crap. Yeah, I'm preaching heresy and false doctrine and that's why they called me out on it. Oh, these people are just trying to attack good pastors. Well, I'm not attacking good pastors I'm attacking good pastors. Sorry, buddy. Go over to 1 Kings chapter 18. Go to 1 Kings chapter number 18. Even the wicked will blame the righteous for all their problems. This is a constant theme throughout the Bible. People just blaming other people and they become wise in their own conceit. They actually start believing their lie. They actually believe, well, if it wasn't for the woman I would have never eaten of the tree in the garden. If it wasn't for the serpent, I would have never disobeyed the Lord. If it wasn't for this pastor, if it wasn't for this family, if it wasn't for this instance, if it wasn't for this reason, I would be serving God. And it's just pride in their heart. They've been deceived by themselves. If a man say, I've not sinned, he deceives himself. This is what the Bible says. And look, there's so many people, they get wise in their own conceit and that's why they'll never fix the problems in their life. The worst thing you can be is someone that cannot be taught. The worst thing you can be is to have someone tell you doing something wrong and you get offended by it. You should be someone that never gets offended when someone tells you you're doing something wrong. You say, but what if it's not true? Then count it joy that they falsely accuse you. Right? Well, there's all these people making these videos attacking me but it's not true. You should be like, yeah! Woo! Praise the Lord is what the Bible says. And if it's true, then you can say, thank you for helping me fix problems in my life. You should embrace criticism. You should embrace people telling you to do things wrong. The worst people are the people you can't fix any of their problems. They're already smarter than you. They're already wiser than you. They're better than you. They know everything. They've got it all figured out. Why do you go to church and have someone yell at you? Well, because I haven't figured it all out yet. Because I don't know everything. What, do you want me to come here and just congratulate you on being better than me? You guys are so much better than me. How's that going to make you better? How's that going to make me wonderful? And look, every sermon I preach is for me too. I need it just as much as you guys. It's not like I'm better. We all need the Word of God. We all need to look to Jesus. And we need to get deep down in our hearts. We're screwed up. We have problems. And my problems is not because of you. If our church does something bad, it's not your fault. It's my fault. If our church is screwed up, I'm looking like here. I'm not thinking like, well, I would pastor a good church, Jesus, if it weren't for the people. I don't look at the problems in my church and think like, man, they're just so bad. They just won't follow the Lord. I'm thinking like, I'm not preaching good here. I'm not explaining things well here. I'm not doing something correct here. That's what a good leader does is he identifies problems and he says, how can I fix it? Hey, if my family's screwed up, you know what I'm looking? Here. My marriage is screwed up. You know what I'm looking? Here. I'm not going to tell you, well, my marriage is terrible because I married the wrong woman. Well, who made that choice? I did. Right. And at the end of the day, quit blaming other people for all of your problems. Start blaming yourself. Look at 1 Kings chapter number 18, verse number 16. And it came to pass when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said on him, art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel, but thou in thy father's house, and that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou has followed Balaam. So Ahab is just destroying his kingdom. They're not following the Lord. They have false gods. There's been a complete dearth in the land, no rain for a long period of time. For years it's not rained. And what is Ahab going to say? Oh, it's Elijah's fault. Oh, it's the man of God's fault. Oh, it's the preacher's fault. He's the one that's troubling us. And he's like, no, it's you. You're the problem. Think about problems in your life today and ask yourself, why do I have this problem? And if your first thought is someone else, you need to change that. Say, well, my marriage is not the way I want it to be. Is your first thought it's because of them, because of her, because of him? Well, church isn't the way I want it to be. Was that because of the pastor, or is that because of you? You know, my spiritual walk is not the way it is. Well, who's to blame? It's you. Work's not going the way it is. Is that their fault or your fault? And look, at the end of the day, obviously other people have problems too. I get it. And we can identify them and we can address them. But you can't affect that. All you can do is affect yourself. You can make your workplace the best it possibly can by yourself. You can make your marriage the best you can by yourself. Hey, you want to have a great church? Make it a great church. What if every single person in this room said, you know what, I'm going to take personal responsibility for a church and I'm going to make sure it's the best it possibly can be. Wouldn't we have the best church? As opposed to saying, well, our church isn't as good because of other people. Our church isn't as good because we don't have as good a pastor as other people. Is that really? Look, sometimes churches are great because of the people, not the pastor. And frankly, I'd rather go where there's just a bunch of great people and be around them where they're going to take personal responsibility than just sit here and blame some pastor, than blame what he's got going on. Go to Proverbs chapter 30 for a second. Go to Proverbs chapter 30. And you say, are you preaching this because there's some kind of issue? I don't think there's any kind of issue. I'm just preaching this because I want you to stop blaming other people because I know it's normal to blame other people. You know why? Because I do it too. In my mind, I think things are going bad in some area, and I want to blame other people naturally. I want to think it's other people's fault, and then I just realize it's my fault. I realize what Jesus did. He took all of our blame, right? Proverbs chapter 30, look at verse 10. Accuse not a servant unto his master, lest he curse thee and thou be found guilty. Go to Proverbs 9. I want to just go to a few verses real quick. Take personal responsibility for your actions. Proverbs chapter 9, look at verse 12. If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself. But if thou scornest, thou alone shall bear it. Hey, you have a bad attitude in life. It's your fault. And you know who really suffers the most from someone who's unhappy? It's you. If you're unhappy, you will bear that burden the most. You choose to be happy every single moment of your life. Quit blaming other people for not being happy. You want to be happy? Be happy. You say, that sounds easy. It is. The hard part is just stop blaming other people. The hard part is just getting rid of your pride and saying the reason why I'm not happy is because I'm prideful. You can be really happy if you just become really lowly. Because when, hey, well people are criticizing me. I already told you, it's always great. Because if it's not true, blessing, if it is true, it gives you an opportunity to fix something about yourself. You can choose to be happy every moment of your life. You can choose to have joy. Look, the apostles are going through some of the worst things imaginable. And they're happy. You say, how? Because they're just choosing to be happy. They have joy from the Lord. And you say, well, I was hoping my spouse would make me happy. You're going to be disappointed a lot. Go to Galatians chapter number 6. Well, I was hoping my kids would make me happy. You're going to be disappointed a lot. I was hoping my pastor would make me happy this morning. You're going to be disappointed. Hey, don't expect other people to make you happy. There's only one person that can determine if you're going to be happy. It's you. There's only one person that can determine if you're going to be sad. It's you. There's only one person that can determine all of your range of emotions. It's you. Stop blaming other people for your emotional state. Take responsibility. Galatians chapter 6, look at verse 2. Grace be... I'm sorry. Bear ye one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. Every man shall bear his own burden. Hey, instead of thinking how great you are, why don't you prove how great you are? And in reality, you should esteem other better than yourself anyways, what the Bible teaches. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 13. I'm just turning you a few places. The Bible teaches taking personal responsibility for yourself and your actions, and at the end of the day, we all will have to take personal responsibility for actions. And the worst thing you can say when you stand before God, they. The woman. And you know what? Adam can literally say, the woman that thou gavest me. But I guarantee the rest of you, you picked your wife, didn't you? The woman I picked. The man I picked. The man I said yes to. 2 Corinthians chapter 13, look at verse 1. This is the third time I'm coming to you in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Shall every word be established. I told you before and foretell you, as if I were present the second time, and being absent now I write to them, which heretofore have sinned, and to all other, that if I come again I will not spare. Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you is, you word is not weak, but is mighty in you, for though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God, for we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you. Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? Now here's the thing about this verse, and you have to understand it, is Paul is being extremely sarcastic. He is using a lot of hyperbole in his speaking in these chapters because he's mocking them, he's ridiculing them, he's showing how foolish they are, and he's saying, since you're trying to figure out if the apostle Paul, who's done miracles and wonders in front of you, and got you saved, if he's saved, why don't you go ahead and examine yourself there, buddy? And again, he's not saying it like he's really serious, like, you guys need to make sure and examine yourself. He's mocking them. He's ridiculing them. He's saying, since you're seeking a proof of Christ in me, why don't you go ahead and examine yourself there, buddy? Saying, if you can't figure out if the apostle Paul is saved or not, it's probably because you're a reprobate. He said, look, there are certain men of God that you look at and you just know this guy's of God. It's not a question, if you say, and the people that are questioning their salvation, they're the reprobate. They're the freak. They're the ones that have got serious problems. But what do we learn from this? Hey, it's better to examine yourself than other people, isn't it? Instead of being so worried about other people, why don't you worry about yourself? But these people are so worried about Paul, they're not going to examine themselves, and they're not going to make sure that they're saved, and then they're going to die and go to hell, aren't they? Think about the two prayers, the Pharisee and the publican. Who's the Pharisee all concerned with in his prayer? I think that I'm not like this publican. He's thinking about other people. Why didn't he examine himself? Why didn't he think about his problems? He's sitting there glorifying himself. He's like most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I have. I pray. I'm so great. The other man, Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner. Taking responsibility for whose actions? His. Not blaming other people. Not looking at other people. Not worried about other people. Stop worrying about other people. Start worrying about yourself. Go, if you would, to Romans 14. This is the last place I'll have you turn. I'll just remind you, the Bible says that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Now, here's the thing. It says, by thy word shalt thou be justified, and by thy word shalt thou be condemned. Hey, if you called upon the name of the Lord in faith, you're going to be considered righteous and justified in that day. And if you didn't, you're going to have to give an account for all the other words that you said. I don't want to give an account for all those words. I was foolish. I was young. I said a lot of dumb stuff. I said a lot of foolish things. And they're going to have to give an account. And you know what? Probably a lot of blaming other people is what they're going to say. The Bible says that every man's work shall be tried in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. And here's the reality. You, at some point in your life, whether you like this or not, will stand before God. And the Bible says it naked in the fact that you're just completely exposed. There's nothing to hide. You can't hide behind the stuff. You're going to be just there. And you're going to have to answer for everything you did. All the works that you did, whether good or bad. And you know what? You can sit there and you can blame other people all you want, but it's not going to get you any brownie points with God. So stop blaming other people now. Don't wait to start then. Just stop now. Just stop blaming other people for all the bad things. You can't affect other people. Look what it says in Romans chapter 14, verse 9. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother? Or why dost thou set it not thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account, notice this, of himself to God. Every single person in this room will stand in front of Christ and you will have to give an account of yourself, of what you did, of what you thought, of what you said, of how you acted, how good a spouse you were, how good a parent you were, how good a church member you were, how good an ambassador of Christ you were, all the things that you did. So it's time to stop blaming others and start realizing I need to take responsibility for myself and start judging myself. And you know what, being thankful for the people that tell me I'm screwed up on things so I can fix them. Instead of being mad at them and blaming them and getting so offended at every single thing that happens. Let me tell you what, you're going to be great. You know why people leave this church? Because they're going to blame someone else. And I'm not saying they go to another good church. Obviously, go to Verity. Go to the front lines or whatever. Go to Faithful Word. Go to some other church that's great. There's probably good churches here that you could go to. I don't care, but you know what? You should care because you're going to have to give an account for your actions. You're going to have to give an account for everything you said and did to Christ. I don't want to have a bad testimony, and I don't want you to have a bad testimony. Because guess what? I also have to be held accountable for pastoring a church. I don't want to tell them, yeah, we just blamed everybody else. No, we decided today we're going to take responsibility for our actions and stop blaming others. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you for all these chapters and these examples. And thank you so much for taking our blame. Thank you for taking all of our iniquities so that when we stand before God, we don't have to give an account of our sins. We realize the sobering message that we will have to stand before Christ and we will have to account for the works that we've done, the good or the bad, to see if we had any gold tried by fire. If we had anything that was worthwhile, if we did anything of an eternal weight. And I pray that we take that seriously, we take that soberly, we'd realize the importance of that day and that we would be excited about that day. We wouldn't be worried and anxious about that day. We wouldn't think about all of the failures that we have, but we think about all of the successes that we did and we would start taking responsibility for the actions we have and that you could bless us as we seek mercy and grace for the failures we do have. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Amen. With that, let's go to our last song for this morning. It's going to be song number 351, Tell It To Jesus. We don't want to know about your problems. You've got to tell it to Jesus. 351, Tell It To Jesus. Song 351. All together. Are you weary? Are you heavy hearted? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. Are you grieving over joys departed? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Do the tears flow down your cheeks unbidden? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. Have you sins that to man's eyes are hidden? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Do you fear the gathering clouds of sorrow? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. Are you anxious what shall be tomorrow? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Are you troubled at the thought of dying? Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. For Christ's coming kingdom are you sighing? Tell it to Jesus alone. Tell it to Jesus, tell it to Jesus. He is a friend that's well known. You've no other such a friend or brother. Tell it to Jesus alone. Amen. Thank you all for being here this morning. God bless. You are dismissed.