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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] It is that time. We're going to go ahead and get started this morning. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you would, find a seat and grab a hymnal. Our first hymn this morning will be number 195, I Will Sing of the Mercies. This is hymn number 195, 195, I Will Sing of the Mercies. We'll sing there on the first and only verse. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing. I will sing, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. With my how, will I become thy faithfulness, thy faithfulness. With my how, will I become thy faithfulness to all generations. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing. I will sing, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever, I will sing of the mercies of the Lord. Amen. We'll open with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, for another opportunity to gather freely, to sing praises in your name and to hear preaching on your word. Lord, I pray that you would just be with us for this service, that you would incline your ear to us as we sing praises out unto you. Lord, I also pray that you would open our ears to the message that Pastor Shelley has prepared for us and that you would just have us ready to receive and apply the message to our lives. These things we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, for our next hymn, turn, if you would, to 228, I Love to Tell the Story. Hymn number 228, 228, I Love to Tell the Story. Let's sing on the first. I love to tell the story of onsing things above, of Jesus and his glory, of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story because I know it's true. It satisfies my longings as nothing else can do. I love to tell the story, will be my cleaning glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story, more wonderful it seems than all the golden fantasies of all our golden dreams. I love to tell the story, it did so much for me. And that is just the reason I tell it now to thee. I love to tell the story, will be my cleaning glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story, it's pleasant to repeat what seems each time I tell it more wonderfully sweet. I love to tell the story, for some that never heard the message of salvation from God's holy Word. I love to tell the story, will be my cleaning glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. I love to tell the story, for those who know it best seem thundering and thirsty to hear it like the rest. And when it seems of glory, I sing the new, new song, will be the old, old story that I have loved so long. I love to tell the story, will be my cleaning glory, to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love. Amen. Good morning, thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church, it's good to see you guys. I wish my family was here because my wife really wanted to come but the kids were very sick and so we didn't feel like we could bring them this time. But it's great to be up here, it's great to see Brother Oz again and it's great to have you guys be here on a Sunday morning. If you didn't get a bulletin you can lift your hand up nice and high and one of the ushers can come by and get you a bulletin. Also we have our Bible memory verse, Hebrews 6 verse 10. And then also it's great to have Evangelist Fur here with us this morning too so make sure to say hi to him. Also on the inside we have our service time, soul winning times, nursing home ministry, the Oklahoma stats. And then on the right we've been praying for the Reeds who are expecting, that's exciting for them. Upcoming events, we have our chili cook off October 31st and then the FWC missions conference is November 6th through the 10th. Brother Oz is going to be preaching out there and so at least if you aren't going to go just pray that his travels go smoothly and that the conference would go really well. And chili cook off, man sometimes you just keep winning. Beanless chili competition, I don't know. I guess that's just going to soil some people up here but that's how you do it in Texas and it's okay. We're bringing some of that Texas spirit up here with us and so that's a great, great idea. I guess you can always default that I'm the pastor still or something like that but we'll see what happens later in the future. On the back is a prayer list so please be in prayer for our church family. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We'll go ahead and just sing our third song, 259 Jesus Saves, 259. All right, 259, 259, 259. We'll sing there starting on the first. We have heard joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Spread the tidings all around, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Bear the news to every land, find the schemes and cross the waves, on the virtues our Lord's come in. Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Cloth it on the rolling tide, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Tell to sinners far and wide, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing the islands of the sea, echo back the ocean caves, verse shall keep her to believe, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing above the battle strife, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. High is death and endless life, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Sing it softly through the gloom, when the Lord through mercy craves. Sing in triumph o'er the tomb, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. In the midst of mighty voice, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Let the nations now rejoice, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Shall salvation full and free, highest hills and deepest caves, this our song of victory, Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Amen. Great singing this morning. As the offering plates are being passed, please turn if you would to Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter number 12. Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office, so we being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith, or ministry let us wait on our ministering. Or he that teacheth on teaching, or he that exhorteth on exhortation, he that giveth let him do it with simplicity, he that ruleth with diligence, he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Let love be without dissimulation, abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good, be kindly affection one to another with brotherly love, and honor preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer, distributing to the necessity of saints, given to hospitality, bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not, rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another, mind not high things, but condescend to men of low estate, be not wise in your own conceits, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, give him drink, for in so doing thou shalt heap holes of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're thankful for this church, thankful for those who are gathered here today. I pray, Lord, that you give Pastor Shelley a special blessing and help us, Lord, to say the word that he has for us today and apply it to our hearts, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. A chapter, it says in verse 18, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. And this is a really important commandment we have in the Bible is to not avenge ourselves. And when I think about the word avenge, I kind of think of revenge as kind of an idea. And avenge, according to the dictionary, says inflict harm in return for injury. So it's where you have the purpose or the intent to harm someone as a recompense or in return for something that they've done unto you. And the Bible says that we should not avenge ourselves, that we should allow God to avenge us of wrongdoing and when someone harms us. I want to go to another place that kind of has the same idea. Go to Matthew, chapter number 5. But you'll also notice it said, if it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. So this does not mean, and I think what we want to be careful of is that we don't want to just take these few verses and kind of give an imbalanced view of how to handle situations. We want to make sure that we're applying them to all the appropriate context. But Matthew, chapter number 5, also says in verse 38, So according to the Bible, if someone were to smite you on the cheek, you just turn to him the other cheek. So we kind of have a couple verses here that are kind of giving us this idea of not avenging ourselves, of allowing someone to slap us on the cheek and then turn the other cheek. But I don't want us to then take those verses to then mean that we can never defend ourselves or that we could never fight evil in any way. You know, this would be a bad policy for criminal law enforcement or something like that, right? Or for civil duty or all kinds of different things. How about home defense? That wouldn't really make a lot of sense. Go to Matthew, chapter 24 now. Go to Matthew, chapter 24. I believe that the Bible does teach very clearly that we all have a responsibility to stop evil when it's within our power to do so. And so that's really what I want to focus in on my sermon is just stopping evil. We need to stop evil. And this does not mean that we're avenging ourselves necessarily. It just means that in certain situations we need to make sure that we are stopping evil in its tracks. You know, there's this famous quote that says the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing. And while that's not necessarily a verse in the Bible, I just think it seems like a biblical concept that we can kind of find a lot of places in the text. But I want to show you some clear examples of what the Bible says on this. Look at Matthew 24, verse 43. The Bible says, but know this, that if the good men of the house had known what watch the thief would come, he would have watched and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. So again, here's a context of Jesus giving a parable of a man who, when someone breaks into his house, that he would not just simply say, have everything, but rather he would prevent the evil. He would stop the evil. So if someone's breaking into your house, you know, you have every right to stop the evil. If someone were to try and harm you or hurt you physically, I believe you have the right to stop the evil. Now, of course, the Bible gives us a little bit of discretion here. Obviously, if they're just kind of slapping you or doing something that's not going to really do any bodily harm, it's more of kind of a disrespect thing, or it's light affliction. The Bible says, hey, let's just turn the other cheek. Let's just allow this to go on. We're not going to avenge ourselves. But at the same time, we need to have a balanced view of saying, look, if someone's breaking into my house, if someone's trying to attack me, you know, I have every right to defend myself, even according to the law specifically, that if a thief be found breaking up and it's at night, then even if you use lethal force, that would be justified. Now, I want to go through several other examples, though, of where we need to, at times, stop evil. Go if you would to 1 Samuel, chapter number 3, go to 1 Samuel, chapter 3. Now, I have several examples, so I'm not going to necessarily just read a lot of the context. We'll just kind of jump in the middle of several stories. But Eli had two wicked sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and these were priests that would lay with the women assembled at the door. And it says in 1 Samuel, chapter 3, verse 13, this is God judging Eli. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, and notice this, and he restrained them not. So notice, it was Eli's job, it was Eli's responsibility to restrain these priests to stop their activities. And so, in some cases, God will judge you for not stopping evil when it's within your power and authority to stop the evil. Obviously, it doesn't mean that we always have that, but sometimes it's kind of questionable or whatever. But if you're out in the middle of the public and someone's doing something illegal or criminal, you have every right to even stop that. And sometimes you have an obligation to even stop that. When it's your own sons and when it's the priesthood that you're in charge of, you kind of have an obligation to restrain them. I mean, that's basically what is being communicated here in the text. I want to go to another place. We're going to just skip all the way around, so don't think about where we're going. John chapter 2. I want to go to John chapter number 2. John chapter number 2. And I want to look at verse number 13. Now, this is the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, you know, we think about his ministry. His ministry was to give himself a ransom for many. He was to lay down his life. He came not to judge, but rather he came to minister. And so Jesus Christ's ministry is a very meek, humble servant. He's there to just love the people, give the gospel, heal the sick, raise people from the dead, feed the poor. I mean, he's just basically mostly just ministering, doing good. But at the same time, he occasionally has a couple outbursts, okay? But what we know about the Lord Jesus Christ is he never sinned a single time. Now, when he comes to the temple, he's frustrated by things that are happening in the house of God. Look what it says in John chapter number 2. Look at verse 13. Take these things, hence make not my Father's house and house of merchandise. So, according to the Bible, not everything is appropriate in church. There are some things that are appropriate, of course, and then there's some things that are inappropriate when we talk about the context of church. And there's a couple of contexts here. Number 1, it's not right, I believe, based on the text for us to be buying and selling and making church a business. And again, it's not that it isn't a business. It is a business in a sense. But at the same time, it's a spiritual business and we shouldn't be in it for making profit, making gain, trying to buy and sell merchandise. But even more egregious is the idea and concept that's kind of alluded to is that these money changers are ripping people off on top of that. Not only are they buying and selling, but they're charging these exorbitant amount of money. They're basically ripping off God's people. They're taking God's money and they're making gain of it or they're doing something improper with it. And you know what? Jesus got really mad at that and he walked in and he stopped the evil. He walked in just like Eli should have stopped his sons in the priesthood. We see that, hey, when you have this opportunity, Jesus is there. He's going to try and stop the evil and cleanse the house of God and just make sure that there's nothing inappropriate happening in the house of God. Now, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 5. This principle is also extended to what we would call as church discipline. And church discipline is an idea of essentially enforcing behavior within a church. Now, this has its boundaries, okay? And I think a lot of people get confused on the boundaries of a pastor. I do not believe that pastors have the right to go around and personally enforce his beliefs or standards on the congregation. Like he shouldn't be the pastor police going around and trying to tell everybody, hey, I don't think you should wear that. I don't think you should eat that. Hey, what are you doing online? What are you doing over here? Like the pastor, I believe his responsibility is to make sure that things going on in church are appropriate and that he himself will preach what the Bible says and sometimes, of course, expound on that, maybe even at times alluding to his opinion. But we should also be careful too that the pastor, when preaching the Word of God, that he makes it clear when he's expressing his opinion and when he's expressing what the Bible says. And so there should be boundaries. But there's also boundaries for the church to govern itself and to say, look, you can't allow and tolerate everything in the church. And what we've seen, you know, Eli could have just said, well, I'm just going to let my kids do whatever they want, you know, let the Lord avenge or turn the other cheek, but that would have been the wrong philosophy. He should have restrained them. Jesus could have said, you know what, I know these money changers are doing a lot of bad stuff in here, but let's just leave them alone. Let's just, you know, not worry about it. But no, he drove them out of the temple, didn't he? And even in church discipline issues, there could be this philosophy or this idea that pastors would have where they would say, you know, I know this person is committing grievous sin, but I just don't want to deal with it. I don't want to have to, you know, get involved or something like that. But the Bible makes it clear that we should take action. What does it say in verse 1? It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. And you're puffed up and have not rather mourned that he that had done this deed might be taken away from among you. So when someone commits a certain sin that's kind of outlined in this particular chapter, the Bible is saying you're supposed to take that person out of church. Like you're not supposed to allow that person to be a part of the congregation, a part of the church, because their behavior has crossed a certain line. Look at verse 13. But them that are without, God judgeth, therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person. So if someone is doing something inappropriately, they need to be removed from the congregation. Now, I want to go to Numbers chapter 25, go to Numbers chapter 25. Again, this particular list has some things, fornicator, covetous, idolater, railer, drunkard, extortioner, with such and one know not to eat. So if they fall on this particular list, you know, that's something that should be addressed. And of course, how we should always do things, we should try to address it with the person, and the person should be willing to have a conversation about it, seek whatever appropriate repentance if necessary, and then move on. Now, of course, when someone is apologizing or trying to take ownership for something, you know, what's not a legitimate apology is saying, I'm sorry that you're offended. Like, if you lie about somebody or you're saying things that are inaccurate or you're railing on them, and then you say, I'm sorry you're offended, like, that's not really taking ownership for whatever action or recompense or something that you've done. You know, we should try to actually understand where the person is coming from and say something like, I shouldn't have said that, or I wish I hadn't said this, or can you forgive me for saying this. Something along those lines at least expresses, hey, contrition, this person did something wrong. Numbers chapter 25, look at verse number 1. And Israel abode and shit them, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people under the sacrifices of their gods, and the people did eat and bowed down to their gods. And Israel joined himself and the Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord is kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges of Israel, Slay ye everyone as men that were joined under Baal Peor. And behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought under his brethren a Midianitish woman in the sight of Moses and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. So we have a setting or a scene where the children of Israel are committing fornication, they're joining themselves unto a false religion through these people, and God is saying you need to hang these people up, you need to basically execute them properly, so that the plague will be stayed among the children of Israel. So everybody is being punished as a result of this particular sin, as a result of this particular issue. And so God is saying you have to deal with this particular issue so that the rest of the congregation doesn't necessarily suffer. So what do you have to do? You have to stop the evil so that way everybody else isn't punished and so that God's plague can be stayed. Now, it also says that somebody is just kind of brazen about it. Like somebody is just walking around like, yeah, I'm just obviously committing open fornication or whatever with this particular woman. It says in verse 7, when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, saw it, he rose up from among the congregation and took a javelin in his hand, and he went after the man of Israel into the tent and thrust both of them through the man of Israel and the woman through her belly, so the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. So the man of God sees the plague, sees the issue, sees the problem, and just immediately goes and stops the evil. Now, again, this is an extreme punishment, right, the death penalty for this particular situation, but also the rest of the children of Israel, the rest of the congregation are suffering from this plague, and if you don't stop the evil, well, then what happens? Other people suffer. And, you know, we see this happening all across America and all across the world today, where when people do things that are evil or people do things that are wrong and they're not stopped, it basically encourages them for more bad behavior. And we see that, essentially, and I'm thinking in Ecclesiastes, it's like, since, and I'm not going to get this right, something about, like, execution is not done speedily, it's fully set in the hearts of men to do evil, something like that. Sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, then the hearts of men are set, you know, to do evil, something along those lines, but basically the concept is the idea that because we're not immediately punishing evil and we don't actually judge evil, then we basically just emboldening people to commit all kinds of sin and wickedness. You know, when you don't put murderers to death, it just increases the murder in society. When you don't have strict and harsh punishments for things like rape and all kinds of different things that are mentioned in the Bible, well, then you're just basically emboldening and encouraging people to go out and do more and more evil. And with this particular example, he can't just allow the fornication to go unsettled. This philosophy is then carried forward into the New Testament because we saw in the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 5, someone committing fornication, they're put outside the church. In the Old Testament, in this particular example, they're put to death. So, obviously, the punishment may differ, but he's dealing with the same particular issue, the same exact same consequence here. And you know what? Issues need to be resolved and sometimes we just have to literally stop evil. Go to Joshua, chapter number 7. Go to Joshua, chapter number 7. Now, again, this concept is going to be applied to every part of our life, right? It's applied nationally, state, from a legal, civil, criminal perspective. It's from a church governance perspective. It's from an individual and family perspective that, you know, when we have this opportunity, we need to act accordingly. Joshua, chapter 7, look at verse 7. Israel turned to their backs before their enemies. For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it and shall environ us round and cut off our name from the earth. And what wilt thou do unto thy great name? And the Lord said unto Joshua, Get thee up, wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? So here's the thing, in the context, the children of Israel, they had won the battle of Jericho, but they lost the battle of Ai. Now they're kind of, he's kind of upset and he's just thinking like, man, are we just going to die out here in the wilderness? I thought you were going to deliver us. I thought you were going to give us, you know, victory over these people. But what does he say? He says, get up, stop crying about it. Verse 11, Israel has sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them. For they have even taken of the accursed thing and have also stolen and dissembled also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies, because they were accursed. Neither will I be with you anymore, except you destroy the accursed from among you. Up, sanctify the people and say, sanctify yourselves against tomorrow. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, there is an accursed thing in the midst of thee. O Israel, thou canst not stand before thine enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you. So, Achan, he sees something that he wants, he covets it, and then he takes it. Now again, like every, every situation in the Bible, we have to understand it's circumstantial. Okay, and you have to understand that sin itself, barring a few handful examples, is pretty much just based on the intent. Okay, because if you, if you slay somebody out of self-defense, there's no crime, there's no issue. If you slay someone because you believe they're going to do bodily harm to you, no problem. Obviously if you lie in wait though, and you're trying to kill somebody, well now all of a sudden now it's a crime. Or if you're being completely negligent, or you did something harmful, then that could also be particularly a crime. Here, you know, he's taking his goods, and there's not necessarily anything wrong with taking the spoils of war. There's nothing wrong with taking a Babylonian garment, or taking, it's not like, like some people might get confused with this story, and think like, these goods are literally cursed. This is your Pentecostals, okay folks? Like Pentecostals will actually think that items are like physically cursed or something like that, or they'll, they'll assume that, you know, there's something wrong with a garment, or with an object, or something like that. And really, even the Apostle Paul makes it clear in the New Testament, that even the idol itself is nothing. It's just wood, it's just stone, or whatever. But it's the intent, it's the purpose, it's kind of like God, God looks at the inward heart. God looks at the heart to judge, like, why is someone doing what they're doing, and that's how God decides to judge people, and that's how God decides to bring about judgment here, is that in his heart, he was being covetous. In his heart, he was desiring something that he shouldn't. In his heart, he was trying to take something that did not belong unto him, and so as a result of that, God is going to curse him and those people that are with him. So, we have this particular example, and the problem is, is that Joshua can't just be like, okay, will someone deal with that, or what's wrong? He has to personally deal with it. He has to address the situation, and you know what, the entire congregation takes Achan out, and they stone him, and they remove all the accursed stuff from them, and then now they have the victory. So you know what, we can't just allow evil to go, and we can't just look at evil and just say like, hey, I notice all this evil that's going on, but I'm just going to hide my eyes, I'm going to pretend like it's not happening, I'm just going to ignore it. No, sometimes we have to just deal with the situation. Go to Leviticus chapter number 20, go to Leviticus chapter number 20. And look at verse number 4. Now, this is some serious sins in the book of Leviticus, especially in chapter number 20. These are really grievous sins, and we as a society, we shouldn't just allow grievous sin to happen in our nation. Like, you want to know why America is so bad? It's because we just keep allowing grievous sin to happen in our nation. And we can have this attitude again, of like, well, let's just not avenge ourselves, and let's turn the other cheek, and let's just, it's not my problem. This is what I often hear, and it really frustrates me, is people say like, what two consenting adults do in private is none of my business. Or, it's their body, their choice. Or, you know, just all these different liberal, leftist talking of points, that basically allow people to do evil things to harm individuals without any recourse. You know what, this is what the Bible says in Leviticus chapter 20, look at verse 4. So notice what God is saying. Hey, when you notice somebody doing evil, and you don't stop it, and you hide your eyes, and you pretend like it's not happening, and you should ignore sin, well then God says, then I'm going to hold you guilty for their sin. You know, the Bible even says when someone is doing something evil or wicked, and you say, God bless you, you're a partaker of their evil deed. And so we have to make sure that we're careful that we're not just endorsing things that are wicked, endorsing things that are sinful, that we stop evil when we have the opportunity, when it's presented to us, that we take, you know, these things seriously, because God is going to take things seriously when we're accountable for them. And here's the reality. Of course, this does not mean that I have to right every personal wrong. That doesn't mean that everything's my business. That doesn't mean that I'm necessarily going to get involved in every other issue. But when it's your issue, when you're involved, when you have the power or authority to, you know, basically deal with the situation, the Bible is saying, hey, you should stop evil. Go if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter number 8, go to Ecclesiastes chapter number 8. And let's just be honest. It's not fun dealing with issues. Like, no one wants to deal with issues. No one wants to deal with sin. No one wants to deal with grievous problems. It's just frustrating. Even as a pastor, because frankly speaking, like, I'll just be honest with you, I personally hate drama. I don't know about you guys, but like, I personally hate drama. I've always hated drama. You know, when I talk about like my family and growing up, I was always the kind of person that was just always trying to make peace and just trying to like stop my brothers and sisters from fighting each other and trying to like get the whole family together. And you know, it's just frustrating, especially family drama. I mean, family drama is just one of the most annoying things to me. I always want people to get along. And the reality is just never seems to work that way. Right. A man's foes will be they of his own household. And we all kind of have sometimes conflicts between brothers or sisters or, you know, extended family or these kind of things. And I think that all of us probably could say, like, hey, I have some, you know, tension between some certain family members. We've had awkward things that we don't see eye to eye. We don't agree. And at the end of the day, you know, it's probably never going to be it's never going to be the case where all your family just agrees and you all like each other. Now, I have been to an independent Baptist church. And what was funny about it is there was probably like 100 or so people that went to this church, not entirely, but there's like 500. But out of those, there's like 100 people. They're all from like one family. So they kind of like had the parents and then they had like several kids and then they like had all their kids. And I think they had started with the grandkids or something like that. But like this family, it started with the church like 30 years ago because the church started like 30 years ago and they kind of had just been plugged in. In fact, most of them did stuff in the church. Like they're part of the nursery or part of the Sunday school or that kind of stuff. And it was just kind of funny how there's just like all these different people that are all related to this kind of like one. And maybe some of it was like extended family, too. I don't know. But it was just like it was funny. There was like 100, almost 100 people. It felt like that are all like part of one family or two families or some like, you know, conglomerate. And you're just thinking like, what in the world? Like, I didn't even realize it. Like, I'm just thinking they're just all people going to the church and they're like, yeah, I'm so-and-so's cousin. I'm so-and-so's brother and I'm so-and-so's uncle and I'm so-and-so's nephew. And I'm so I'm like, wait a minute. Is this like an incestual cult or something? Like, wait a minute. Are we in New Jersey or something like that? Like, why is everybody related here? You know, I stumble upon Kentucky or something like that. But no, it was just, hey, these people were in the church. And again, I don't know. Maybe they did have some drama or whatever. But like at the end of the day, you know, I was kind of like, wow, they're kind of lucky to have a lot of family in the same church and things like that. But, you know, it doesn't always happen. But, you know, at the same time, when there is some issue, there is something that we have to deal with. You know, we need to just deal with it properly. I think of another setting that's important is just like a workplace setting. And it says in Ecclesiastes chapter 8, look at verse 9, All this have I seen and applied my heart unto every work that is done unto the sun. There is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. So here's an idea of like having, in my mind, kind of like a bad employee. And this is where I'm just saying like it's kind of it's kind of frustrating to have an employee and have someone that you like and you care about and you've invested in. But they're just not doing a good job. And then you'd have to like deal with that. Right. And you'd have to handle that. And I remember going into business school. One of the advices I got from a manager and I, you know, probably should have taken that advice, but it was like, just don't start family businesses is what I say. And he's like, also never start a business that's 50-50. He's like, do like a 50-149 or something like that because he just said there's going to be inevitable fallout problems, issues. And of course, you know, you don't want to necessarily ruin personal relationships just because of businesses falling out or whatever and people having problems, people having issues. And, you know, that's probably also why it's really important to have independent fundamental Baptist churches. You know, because you're going to probably have at times people just not getting along, not liking each other. And it's not even necessarily they're both like one's bad and one's good. It's just sometimes there's just conflict. And, you know, I always get frustrated by this. And I'm not saying that I'm perfect in this area, but sometimes it's like you don't want to make people have to choose like where they go to church based on personal conflicts and personal dramas. You know what I mean? Like it shouldn't really be based on like I shouldn't go to church based on, you know, personality conflicts or like who likes who or who's the most right or whatever. You know, we're here to serve God this morning and we're here to sing praise unto the Lord and we're here to read the Bible together and we're here to have the Bible being preached and we're all supposed to examine ourselves. And, you know, churches are going to come and go. Leaders are going to come and go. Conflicts are going to come and go. Drama is going to come and go. Church members are going to come and go. You know, at the end of the day, we should all take personal responsibility of, hey, I need to go to church. I need to read my Bible. I can do what the Bible is saying. And, you know, that's the point of me going to church. Me going to church is not about being in a club. It's not about me being a part of a clique or a group or something like that. You know, it should just be simply I'm going to go to the best church in my area. I'm going to go where I can respect and love the pastor. You know, please don't go to a church where you hate the pastor. I don't know why it's so hard to say that. Like, it's so hard for people to believe that. I don't know. It's like you would think, like, hey, we're starting a church and we just want to, like, love the Lord and serve God. And then all these people come in that, like, hate the pastor and want to attack the pastor and want to cause division. And you're just thinking, like, what in the world? But it happens. And, you know, if you try to serve God, if you're really at the tip of the spear and you're doing a lot to serve God, you should almost unfortunately expect that bad people will try to ruin that. I mean, you have to think, like, the devil exists, folks. I don't know if you realize this, but there's a real devil and he even has ministers, according to the Bible. Of course, the Bible doesn't even talk about devil singular. It says devils as well. So there's many familiar spirits, there's many demonic spirits that exist that are constantly out here. And, of course, what do you think the devil's whole goal is? His goal is for people to not go to heaven, folks. I mean, the only reason we're really here is to try and get souls into heaven. And I think it's real easy for us to lose sight of that and lose focus of what our main goal, our main vision is, and we can get mixed up on the minutia. But our real goal ultimately should be to go out and preach the gospel. And a lot of the things that we've been bringing up today, they are sometimes necessary to stop evil because it somehow correlates to getting people saved. Because if you think about it, like, people coming into church, buying and selling and ripping people off, that's going to, of course, discourage people to want to go to church. You know, if people are doing things that are weird, that's going to cause people to be discouraged. I mean, Hophni and Phinehas, they were laying with the women and sibyls at the door. They were taking the sacrifice, and that was discouraging people from wanting to go and serve God or wanting to do the sacrifices of God. You have people coming into church with their dad's wife. It's like, well, that's going to cause some problems, right? I mean, that's going to cause people to get confused and weirded out and think, like, what kind of church is this, you know? Or, like, what kind of sins are these people into? You know, if you come into church and people are railing, that's not going to be good for church. I mean, that's going to cause division. That's going to cause discord. That's going to have people not be unified. And then it's going to, what, ultimately all these things are just discouraging people from going out, preaching the gospel, being encouraged, reading the Bible, serving God, doing all these different things. So it's important that when we have the opportunity to stop evil that we're doing it. When people are committing grievous sin and grievous crimes, well, yeah, we need to stop that, because, you know what, murder is really not helping. I mean, someone could be unsaved, get killed, and now they're in hell, you know? Or children or whoever gets harmed or hurt by predators, and sometimes it can cause them to get jaded against the things of God, to be upset with the reality of their situation. And, you know, it wouldn't be the first person to basically hate church because something bad's happened to them, to hate God because something bad's happened to them. And, you know, sometimes bad things happen to you that aren't even your fault. You know, I mean, is it really a child's fault if some predator comes and takes advantage of them? No. But if you look at statistics, I mean, statistically, you know, it's pretty high prevalence that a lot of young women and young men have been taken advantage of or hurt or harmed as a young child. And, of course, that number's skyrocketing because our society's not dealing with it. There's a high likelihood of all kinds of evil and problems happening in this world, people being taken advantage of, people put in awkward situations. And, of course, the devil then wants to take advantage of us and to destroy us when we have bad things happen to us or we're in weird situations or whatever. And what we have to do is we have to try and make sure that we are going to stop the evil. If I have a bad employee or if I have someone under my authority that's causing some kind of problem, the Bible says, you know what, you just need to deal with it and move on. And sometimes that hurts people's feelings. Sometimes that can hurt your feelings. But we have to just deal with it and move on. Go to Luke chapter number 16. I'll show you another example of that. Luke chapter number 16. So, when someone is under your authority that's going to hurt you, you need to get away from that. I mean, you basically have to withdraw yourself and just say, hey, I don't want any issue here and move on. What about Luke 16 verse 1? And he said also unto his disciples, there was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him and said unto him, how is it that I hear this of thee, give an account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward. Notice that the guy doesn't say, oh, this guy is ripping me off, this guy is taking advantage of me, this guy is wasting goods. Let's just not worry about it. Let's just turn the other cheek. Is that his philosophy? Or no, does he say, hey, you're fired. Right? I mean, then he's just basically fired. Now, in this context, he kind of like fires him, but the guy still has like, you know, the ability to basically take advantage of him or something like that. And so, sometimes we have to be careful that when, you know, we have this situation that we're dealing with care, with caution, but ultimately at the end of the day, he ended to stop the bleeding. He didn't want to allow this person to just keep wasting his goods. And, of course, this is a picture of a spiritual picture that we are stewards of the things of God, and we shouldn't just allow the things of God to just be wasted. We shouldn't just allow the Word of God to be wasted by not preaching the gospel. We shouldn't allow the things of God, like the children that God bless us with, to be wasted. We should take opportunity to raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and to teach them to love God and be faithful soul winners. We shouldn't take the silent partners and waste them by not teaching them and training them and helping and encouraging them to go out and preach the gospel. We shouldn't waste the money that God has given us individually. You know, God is blessing us with all kinds of money, with all kinds of opportunities, and we shouldn't be wasting that. And, you know what, we shouldn't be wasting God's money either. You know, whatever God gives us, we should make sure that we're handling it with care and that we're not just going to waste it or blow it on something, but that it's being handled appropriately. Go to Romans chapter number 16. Go to Romans chapter number 16. So, sometimes we just have to stop evil in its tracks and we have to just say, Hey, you're wasting this. Stop it. Just stop. Just stop wasting goods. Okay? Romans chapter 16, look at verse number 17. Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause the visions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned, and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. So, according to the Bible, when someone's causing division and offense in contrast to the church's doctrine, to the biblical doctrines that we have, the Bible is saying specifically that we have to deal with them. What does it say? Avoid them. We have to stop it. You can't just go around and hang out with people that are constantly sowing discord. And let me explain something. I will enforce church discipline on someone for railing, drunkenness, all these different sins, until they're pent, of course. If they are pent, then there's no problem. But at the same time, I can't necessarily enforce you to observe church discipline. And what I notice is, this is what some people will do, is someone will get disgruntled against the church, and they'll leave the church, and then they'll, instead of just leaving, they just start just like falsely accusing the church, and lying about the leadership, and just saying all kinds of horrible things. And it kind of crosses a point where it's like, okay, now this person's like a railer. Now this person is causing division. Now this person is trying to harm the church. And so what leadership may do is they may say, look, this individual that's harming the church, that's trying to cause division, that's trying to sow discord, that's trying to cause problems, you know, this person needs to be marked and avoided. Now of course, you know, my philosophy is that we should try to handle that within a church. I don't want to blast people on the internet, or put out private information and stuff like that. But of course, this is what happens. Sometimes you'll have people do that for you, and you're like, thanks, right? You try to just handle things internally, but then more, it's like, you just have more disgruntled people just like blasting things. And it's like, that's the person that's not loving. That's the person that's not charitable. When they're trying to just hurt and harm a church, they're trying to hurt and harm individuals, and they don't even care who gets burned. They don't even care who gets affected by that, because they themselves are just being selfish. You know, it's selfish to hurt and harm churches and other people just because you don't like them, or whatever. We should make sure that we are trying to do our best to, you know, stop evil, of course, but at the same time, not go around and just lie about people and do whatever. Now of course, if someone does something wrong, and it needs to be called out, you know, there's nothing wrong with calling out wrong things, and then moving on. I've had times where I've had to say, hey, this person's doing this thing, they need to be called out, let's move on. But of course, if someone fixes it or apologizes or whatever, then hey, let's just seek repentance, let's just try to fix it, let's just move on. Because for the cause of Christ, we don't need less churches in the world. We need more churches in the world. And of course, people need to just go ahead, take accountability, fix issues, move on. But we need more churches in America, and why in the world am I going to just sit here and just destroy church? If I got disgruntled against a church, I don't want to just sit here and just talk about it for the rest of my life, and watch all their sermons and comment on it, and just keep hating it, and keep attacking it, and keep saying whatever, and just repeating any gossip, and repeating every accusation. I mean, that is not a godly Christian attitude. You know, it would be nice if when people left the church that they left. You know what I mean? Left up here, too. You know what I mean? It's like they can't just leave. They have to just sit here and just be vicious forever. It's like that ex-wife or something. I don't know. It's like she can't just leave it alone. Not only is she going to divorce you, she's going to trash you for the rest of your life, right? And it's like that's just not where we want to go. But at the same time, sometimes we do have to say, hey, mark and avoid. And what would be helpful is when church members are given instructions like this, that they do it, right? When there's a toxic person that's just going to just attack you, attack your church, attack your friends, attack the things of God, lie, slander, rail, sow, discord. You know, you should try to avoid those people, because all it's going to do is just poison you. A little leaven, leaven is the whole lump, is what the Bible says. And of course, you know, when it comes to these type of things, you can even have false doctrine creep into your ear, and it becomes like a cancer. And then that little bit of cancer gets in there, and it affects the whole body, and then pretty soon you're infected the same way. It's just like sickness. One person's a little sick, and then it spreads to the next person, the next person, the next person. And it can be the same way with division, discord, disunity, whatever. It just starts with one person, and then it just passes to the next, passes to the next. And then pretty soon, it just like really divides churches, breaks up churches. And you know, the devil wins. The devil wins when churches are broken up, when people stop going to church, when people stop reading the Bible. And so we want to make sure that we are trying our best to avoid the people that have been marked. Go to Nehemiah chapter 13, go to Nehemiah chapter 13. We're going to jump into another story here. So we've looked at a lot of examples. I think the Bible's really clear though, even though we are for sure to not avenge ourselves, and even though we are to not go after people. You know, the Bible makes it clear that in 1 Corinthians 6, we shouldn't even sue brothers in Christ. Like we should just handle stuff ourselves. You know, we shouldn't go after people. And you know, unfortunately, our church, myself, I've been embroiled in a few litigation things. But it's just because other people are just bringing litigation towards me, attacking me. Like I don't want to get involved in any litigation with anybody at all, because it's just frustrating. Everybody loses, except for the lawyer. I mean, basically, the only people that ever wins in legal matters is the lawyer. And this is what really sucks about lawyers and all these different people, is they get paid even if they do a horrible job. And here's another thing about attorneys and lawyers, is that if you ask 10 attorneys, you'll probably get 10 different opinions. But because you don't know, if you just go and trust one particular individual, they could tell you all kinds of stuff and it's not even true. And again, I'm not against attorneys. I'm not against lawyers. There are some good lawyers out there. But there's a lot of scam lawyers, too. You need to find like the reputable ones that are like by name only, not the guy on the billboard. OK, typically that's the worst one. Or typically the guy that's like got all these cheap rates, like expert advice for cheap rates. And you're just thinking, like, why is it so cheap? You know, you from my experience and attorneys, you get what you pay for. And, you know, the more expensive attorneys, there's a reason why they're more expensive is because they actually know what they're doing. But you also they all have their own expertise. They all have their own like level of or layer of understanding. And so you kind of have to figure those things out. But like, I don't want to get embroiled with a brother in Christ in some kind of litigation like that. This doesn't make any sense. It's unbiblical. It's not right. And of course, according to the Bible, we should just agree with our adversary quickly while they are in the way. You know, if we can just agree, move on. That's always the best. And, you know, I would love to do that and lots of lots of my previous situations. But, you know, at the end of the day, you know, it is what it is right now here in this particular story. It says in Nehemiah Chapter 13, look what it says in verse 17. This is Nehemiah. Then I contended with the nobles of Judah and said to them, What evil thing is this that you do and profane the Sabbath day? Did not your fathers thus and did not our God bring all this evil upon us and upon this city? Yet he bring more wrath upon Israel by profaning the Sabbath. So Nehemiah is extremely mad because they're like buying and selling and doing all kinds of stuff on the Sabbath day. We don't really have the Sabbath in the New Testament has been fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we've entered into the Sabbath through faith. And that's what's a picture of the gospel. But here specifically, this is an Old Testament principle where they literally were not supposed to be working. They're not supposed to be buying and selling on the Sabbath day. And, of course, that was to be special to picture salvation and to kind of symbolize salvation. But God gave them rest. Now, the Sabbath was not a burden. I think some people get confused about it. It's just basically like businesses weren't open, right? It's like Chick-fil-A. Is it really a burden on the employees that Chick-fil-A is closed on Sunday? No, but it is kind of something that the general populace gets mad about, right? The general populace is like, get in that kitchen and slave me some chicken, you know, and when you're done, say it is my pleasure. All right. And because of demand, we basically changed the culture because in times past on Sunday, everything was closed. And it was kind of just honor church day and it was similar to the Sabbath. And in the same way, basically in their community and their culture, they just kind of shut down business on Saturday on the Sabbath day. So it's like a holiday. And again, imagine you came to work and your boss says, go home, just take a free day. Would you be like, oh, man, this is really hard. This is really burden. You know, this is really bad. But then somehow the Pharisees and the Sadducees, they took this blessing, as it were, God not making us work every single day saying, hey, let's get it. Let's take a day of rest. And then they made it this extreme hybrid thing that has nothing to do with actually the Sabbath and is everything with their weird ideas with the Bible saying. And it's just like, you know, even today, Jews are saying like they can't flip on a light switch and they can't press the elevator button. I was talking with somebody that they apparently they just walk up to an elevator and just wait until someone else comes and like hits the button for them because they can't even hit the button. And then they all their appliances even have this new feature called Sabbath mode. Who's heard of this Sabbath? You're kosher, aren't you? No, I'm just kidding. They have this Sabbath mode where basically your appliance like turns off for that day or something or doesn't work for that particular day. I mean, this is like a over the top extremity of what the Bible is really wanting them to do for the Sabbath. And even in the times past, they had this idea because people would come to the temple for healing and they would not heal them. They would not help them. And Jesus was saying, is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath? And he was mad at the Pharisees and all of the Jews for not just answering yes and just basically just being like, oh, and of course, sometimes people use religion to hide being uncharitable or unkind or not actually having a gracious and loving spirit. So Nehemiah is mad. God's mad, though, when people are actually working on the Sabbath and an actual real violation. So you have to understand, Old Testament, God's mad when they broke the Sabbath. New Testament, they had these rules that basically weren't even really the Sabbath. And so again, it kind of can be confusing when you look at those distinctions. But again, wrong to work on the Sabbath period, according to the Old Testament statute. He gets mad at them. Verse 19, it came to pass that when the gates of Jerusalem began to be dark before the Sabbath, I commanded that the gate should be shut and charged that they should not be open till after the Sabbath. And some of my servants set I at the gates that there should be no burden be brought in on the Sabbath day. So the merchants and sellers of all kind of ware lodged without Jerusalem once or twice. So he basically stops the buying and selling in the house of God on the Sabbath day, and then they basically just camp outside. And then they're just like, oh, OK, food truck. I can't have the restaurant open, but I can basically have the food truck. And then he gets mad again. Then I testified against them and said to them, why lodge ye about the wall? If you do so again, I will lay hands on you. From that time forth came they no more on the Sabbath. So he says, hey, I'm not going to allow this evil to happen. I first got you out of here. Then you went by the door. And you know what? If you keep doing it, then I'm just going to lay hands on you. But I'm going to stop the evil. I'm not just going to allow evil to just keep going and going against the commandments of God and just doing whatever you want. You know what? Sometimes we have to just say, hey, I'm going to put hands on you, you know, and that's what the Bible says. Now, again, is that avenging yourself? He's not really it's not harming him. It's not even about him. It's just about the things of God and just being upset about the things of God being, you know, taken advantage of or not handled properly. And he's saying, look, you need to fix this. OK, or I'll fix it. Go to Judge's Chapter number eight. Go to Judge's Chapter number eight. And so sometimes we have to do things that are uncomfortable. And I've pre sermons on this. I've talked about this, but one of the things is like I hate taking out the trash at my house. And when I grew up in Kenya, I don't know what it's like here, actually. But in Kenya, we have dumpsters in the alley. You all have dumpsters in your alley. What in the world? I guess I just like dumpsters. I don't know why. But the thing about dumps, like the way our houses were in Kenya, you have like a house and then you have this thing called an alley. And it's it's a roadway in between the next door neighbor behind you. So you don't go you don't go backyard to backyard. You have what's called an alley. And then the alley, you know, you don't really park. There's not it's just basically just a straight way. There's nowhere to park or turn off or anything like that. Some new developments have a, quote, alley, but it's more like a place to go and you park behind your house. But it's not like that. It's basically just an alley and this has a dumpster like every four houses or something like that. Just this big giant dumpster. And so you can just take your trash out and just put it in the dumpster whenever you want. And I'm like, that's nice. But, you know, a lot of houses now you have this little trash can that you have to go put out in front of your house. Who has that? OK, that's that's what it's like here. OK, so we don't even have that where I live now. You just have to put bagged trash in the front and you only have two days of the week that you can do it. And it's just like it's so annoying because if you tried to put it out early, animals get into it. Right. Raccoons or whatever, because I don't even have I can't have a can because if I had a can, they would throw the can away. I was like, oh, this is all trash. Right. So so basically, like I just have just bags of trash that I have to just deal with for days. And I can't put it outside because animals get into it. Like we have so many what we call garbage kitties at our house. OK. And a garbage kitty is a possum. Right. That's what we call it at the house. So we have all these possums that are wandering around everywhere. And the kids love it. They're like, oh, look, it's a garbage kitty. But they obviously are fat because they just survive on people getting frustrated by this and just putting trash out, you know, earlier at the night or whatever. But I try to just not do that. But then you have this other problem is the trash people, they're not consistent at all. And especially the last few like weeks or maybe months have been so frustrating because they used to come pick up my trash at like two. And so then I'm used to just like setting it out at lunch or something like that. But then all of a sudden they're like coming at eleven. I'm like, oh, man, I missed. And you don't want to miss trash day. OK, because you don't have a dumpster. And then like I'm like, OK, now I need to start putting out. And then all of a sudden they started coming like 10 and I missed it again. And then I'm like, I was going to put it out of like nine. And they came in like eight thirty. And I'm just like, no, just like I don't want to have the stupid trash. And I just hate putting out trash. You know, I we'd recently bought some trash bags and they were the right. I guess like spacing. There's like 40 quarts or something like that. But the paper is so thin. The plastic is so thin that if you actually put enough trash to fill something like that, it's basically just asking for it to rip and tear and all kinds of issues. So I'm just like, I hate taking out trash. You can obviously tell by my monologue. But like and I just hate dealing with trash. It's stinky. It's gross. I mean, when you have six children and you have dirty diapers and you have all the other stuff that's going on, all kinds of food and spoilage and diapers or whatever, like we have some rancid trash sometimes. I'll just tell you that, OK? Sometimes even because it takes a few days, it can even produce like flies or maggots or all kinds of weird stuff. And it's just like, oh, it's a nightmare, man. Or you get that worst. If you ever have trashed for too long, it turns into this like liquid sewage that's like rotten smelling or whatever. Sorry, I just hate trash so much, but like what if I just don't deal with it? What if I just don't take out the trash? What if I just don't put it out early enough or whatever? Then I have even worse problems. Then I get the maggots. Then I get the flies. Then I get the sewage smell. Then I like you just it just gets worse and worse and worse. So sometimes we just have to get rid of trash. And again, that's this concept of like we can't just as a whole just say like, well, even if it's not yourselves and do whatever, we'll just we'll just continue to let trash build up. Even in a church, trash can sometimes accumulate and you have things and like you have to just kind of deal with it appropriately. Now, that doesn't mean that every person that comes and goes from church from church is trash. Don't hear me wrong. OK, it's specific people that end up committing really weird sins or railing on the church or just like basically harming the church. And, you know, sometimes it's not even trash. It's like recyclables. You know, it's just like, hey, well, this this is not in its current form how we want to deal with it. So we'll put it in the recycling bin and then we'll bring it back when it's good again. Right. We'll put the paper in there and then we'll recycle the bin or whatever. And, you know, maybe we all need recycling from time to time anyways, we all need a little bit of cleanup, we all need to fix things. No one's perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. And we should always try to make sure that we're fixing them when we are approached with a situation. But at the end of the day, we have to deal with problems. And probably the harshest thing to have to do, of course, in society would have to be executing the death penalty. But, you know, the Bible has that. What does it say in Judges chapter eight and verse number 20? And he said unto Jethro his firstborn up and slay them, but the youth drew not a sword, for he feared because he was yet a youth. So he has to slay the enemy. But you know what? Killing somebody is hard. It doesn't even matter if they're guilty. It doesn't even matter if what they've done is wrong. It's hard to want to deal with a situation like this. And you know what? It can be hard to deal with anyone when you have to do something like this. But we need to have courage and do the right thing. Go to Joshua chapter number one. Go to Joshua chapter number one. What is the courage to stop evil? And what are some of the examples that we've seen so far? We've seen people misusing the house of God. That needs to be stopped. People railing and fornicating and lying and all that stuff in the house of God. That needs to be stopped. People need to stop thieves when they break into their houses. People need to stop their covetousness and stop taking things, you know. The Bible says that we should stop division, that we should get rid of people that are causing us harm. That if there's grievous sin that we have to rid those people from society. That we shouldn't be polluting the Sabbath. And ultimately sometimes we have to just fight. And it's not fun. I think that a lot of Christians, including myself, it would be nice to not have to fight. It would be nice to not have to deal with any drama. It would be nice to not have to do anything. You know what? We can't just always be a youth, always be a baby Christian and just say, you know what, I'm not willing to fight. We have to fight the good fight of faith because if we don't fight, who's going to fight? You know, what if our church and other churches like us just disappeared off the face of the earth? Do you think America would be better? Do you think America would be better without the doctrine that's coming from churches like Steadfast Baptist Church, or Pure Words Baptist Church, or Faith Word Baptist Church, or Strong Old Baptist Church, or any church? No, America would be far worse without the doctrine of these churches. What about the soul winners? If the soul winners stop going. I mean, you and I both know that if churches that aren't zealous for soul winning dry up, and they all go to like some of these other churches that don't emphasize soul winning, don't have the same times, then less people are going to go to heaven. Then less people are being reached. And you know, some people are down on soul winning, but it doesn't seem like the non-soul winning churches are thriving. I mean, the heretic churches are thriving. I mean, Life Church is exploding. Transformation Church is exploding online. But you know what? They're not reaching people with the gospel. They're not getting people saved. They're not actually transforming anybody's life. They're not actually renewing anybody's mind with the word of God. And you know what? We need to be willing to fight. And we need to fight the good fight of faith. We need to fight for the things that are right. We need to fight against evil. We need to fight against the things that are attacking the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know what? Sometimes we have to do things that are unpleasant and deal with uncomfortable situations. And you know what? I hate it. I don't like it. But at the same time, we need to have courage and bravery to just do what's necessary. The Bible says in Joshua, chapter number one, he's giving us kind of some encouragement here. And they're about to enter the Promised Land, but the only way to enter the Promised Land is to do something, fight. What does he say in verse six? Be strong and of good courage, for under this people shalt they'll divide for an inheritance the land, which I swear under their fathers to give them. So according to the Bible, we have to be strong, we have to be of good courage, and we have to be willing to fight. OK, what does it say in verse number seven? Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observeth it according to the law of the law, which most my servant commanded thee. Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whithersoever thou goest. Skip down to verse number nine. Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage. Be not afraid. Neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. Look at verse 18. Whosoever be that doth rebel against thy commandment, and will not argue under thy words, and although thou commandest him, he shall be put to death. Only be strong and of a good courage. So according to the Bible, we should be strong, we should be of good courage, we should do that which is right, we should try to honor the Lord's commandments, and at the same time, you know, we have to make sure that we are balancing ourselves. Now we don't want to take this sermon too far, okay? I'm not saying that we just always need to right every wrong and get involved in every single issue. You know, we have some specific examples of people that they find themselves in a situation where they are involved, they need to deal with it, they need to fix things and move on, right? You got churches, you got households, you got businesses, you got individuals, and we want to make sure that we are trying to stay focused on the ultimate goal of getting people saved, but when necessary, stopping evil. When necessary, not allowing evil to just go unchecked, because God could then hold us accountable. We're accountable to God for all the actions that we do. And sometimes inaction is an action. You know, I mean the Bible says, hey, when the sons of Belial were doing horrible things in the book of Judges, that all the children of Israel are supposed to gather together against them, and when they didn't, the tribes that didn't, they were put to death. In Leviticus, in chapter 20, when individuals were supposed to be dealing with sins of Molech and basically kind of a form of abortion as we think, maybe post-birth abortion, but you know, they had to deal with that. You know, it's not right for us as Christians to just lay down and just allow all the abortion, just allow all of the sodomy, just allow all these evils to just go unchecked, and no one's willing to say something, no one's willing to do anything. Now, of course, am I going to personally go out and stop these actions? No. But at the same time, whatever I do have the ability to stop, I want to make sure that I stop. And you know, in our church, when we have people that are needing to be church-disciplined, we need to stop it. And, you know, it doesn't matter who your pastor is, if it's me or some other person in the future, you know, we need to make sure that we are preparing ourselves to stop evil. And we say like, hey, I don't want to get involved in drama. Well, you know, that's a lot of churches today. A lot of churches just simply don't want to exercise any kind of church discipline. They don't want to stop anything. They pretty much allow everything to the point where they literally have trainees coming into the services, where they literally have people committing horrible sins like all kinds of abortion and divorce and fornication and stuff like that, and they're not even trying to discourage it. They're not even trying to say stop. They're not even, they'll even allow it by the minister performing marriages that shouldn't be performed and by engaging in activities that shouldn't be engaged in. And so, you know, we have to make sure that we are stopping evil and that we are not just always just turning the other cheek no matter what. Of course, that should be a default. Of course, we should always try to do what's right and not do harm. But whenever there's a situation, it seems like there's evil. We want to say like, hey, we need to stop that. And then and then we'll be like, OK, we'll let it go and then we'll take care of it. Right. So we want to make sure that when we find ourselves in these situations that we're willing to have courage and bravery to stop evil and that we just don't allow, you know, evil to go completely unchecked in society. Let's go ahead and say a word of prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this church. Thank you so much for Steadfast Baptist Church. I pray that you would just bless the members that are here, that you would encourage them, that you give them strength, that you'd prepare them that whenever something needs to be stopped, that they will be appreciative of it being stopped. Whenever they recognize that the most important thing is going out and preaching the gospel, that they would put that at the forefront of their mind. I pray that you would use this church greatly to reach many people with the gospel, that we could continue to get many people saved and not only could people say that we could turn many to righteousness. I pray the best leadership here. I pray that you would just bless our sowing efforts this afternoon and that you would continue to use us greatly for your honor and your glory. And in Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Alright, at this time, we'll go to our last hymn for the morning. If you'll grab your hymnals and turn to 269. Why do you wait? Hymn number 269. Why do you wait? 269, we'll sing there starting on the first. Why do you wait, dear brother? Oh, why do you tarry so long? Your Savior is waiting to give you a place that is sanctified strong. Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Why not, why not, why not come to him now? What do you hope, dear brother, to gain by a further delay? There's no one to save you but Jesus. There's no other way but his way. Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Do you not feel, dear brother, his spirit of striking within? Oh, why not accept his salvation and throw off your burden of sin? Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Why do you wait, dear brother? The harvest is passing away. Your Savior is longing to bless you. There are danger and death in me late. Why not, why not, why not come to him now? Why not, why not, why not come to him now?