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Please be still, Master, with anguish of spirit, I fail in my greed to be. The depths of my sad heart are troubled, Awaken and save, I pray. Torrance of sin and anguish, Soon for my sinking soul. When I perish, I perish, dear Master, Oh, taste it and take control. The winds in the brush shall obey my will, Please be still. Would I hurt the wrath of the storm to sea, Or demons or men or whatever it be? No water can swallow the ship where lies The Master of ocean and earth and skies. The host shall sweetly obey my will, Please be still, please be still. The host shall sweetly obey my will, Please be still. Master, the terror is over, The hell and new street we cast. Her sights will look nearer, And death is within my breast. Later, O blessed Redeemer, We'll leave thee alone no more. With joy I shall make the blessed harbor, Impressed on the blissful shore. The winds and the waves shall obey my will, Please be still. Whether the wrath of the storm to sea, Or demons or men or whatever it be, No water can swallow the ship where lies The Master of ocean and earth and skies. The host shall sweetly obey my will, Please be still, please be still. The host shall sweetly obey my will, Please be still. All right, dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be back here this evening. And I pray, Lord, that we just continue to come to your house so that we can hear your word. Preach once again so we can be edified some more, Lord. And help us to come out with a new way of thinking so that we can change whatever needs to apply to our lives. And I pray that everything be done for your Lord and that you worship your name. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, for the next song, song number 130, 130, Yesterday, Today, and Forever. Still he loves to say, The sick will heal the sick and weak. To the Lord, still the tempest glory to his name. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus' never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus' never glory to his name. We who are in hearing need are near. We who are in hearing need are near. We who are in hearing need are near. We who are in hearing need are near. We who are in hearing need are near. Today, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus' never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus' never glory to his name. We who live on raging hills, walk upon the sea. Still can watch the wildest, tempest eyes on Galilee. He who wept and prayed in it, wishing it simmity. Drinks with us each cup are trembling in our agony. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus' never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus' never glory to his name. As of old, he walked in peace with the two of high. So through all life's way, he walked in never near our side. Soon again shall we behold him, least and Lord of three. But who still we miss in Jesus' hands, he went away. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change but Jesus' never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change but Jesus' never glory to his name. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, you can lift your hand nice and high and we get you a bulletin. We have our Bible memory passage, John chapter 1 verse 51 and we're finishing that chapter. On the inside, we have our service and soul winning times as well as our church stats. Is there any soul winning that did not get reported to our soul winning captains or anything for the last few days that does need to be reported for any reason? All right, that's just for today. Who would you go out with again? Okay. Is there anything outside of that? Is that you and Max? Okay. All right, great. Keep with the good work on soul winning. Also on the right, we have the list of our expecting ladies. Continue to pray for them. We have our prayer list. Please submit those via email if you have any requests. Our next admissions trip, man, we had a great participation. I think we had about 22, 25 soul winners or something that came out for the entire trip and we had 177 salvations and man, it was very receptive among a lot of the immigrants that were there right along the border and so it was a lot of fun going down there and obviously it was also very fruitful so try to make it down there at least once a year and hopefully we'll be returning. We've done trips to Reynosa and we've done trips to Matamoros. I think we might try to go to Reynosa the next time but both are very receptive and they're a lot of fun. Maybe we'll just do a combo. Maybe we'll do like a Reynosa for a couple of days and Matamoros. We've never really done like a really long trip. We've always kind of done really short ones so maybe the next one we'll do a little bit longer trip considering how fruitful they are. On the back, we have our church reminders. Please just continue to make sure to pay attention to these. No running in church. Please no playing on the stage. Please have your children supervised at all times. Also the mother baby room is for mothers and the children only. Children should not be in the mother baby room without their parents at any time so please don't let them get in there without your supervision. Also the gliders are for nursing and pregnant mothers. Please allow them to use those. Also children shouldn't be using the ice machine or the refrigerator without assistance. Also please don't have them roaming the building during the services so we want to make sure we're keeping those rules. Upcoming events, we have November 19th, the baby shower for the Cooley's. November 23rd is our Thanksgiving dessert fellowship. December 2nd is the ladies' Christmas party. December 6th is our Christmas caroling. And then we have the congratulations to the Holden family and I butchered the name apparently. I apologize about that. It's not Hayley, it's like Hallie. And so it's Hallie Elizabeth Holden and she was born November 8th at 2.24 p.m. weighing 5 pounds 5 ounces measuring 18.7 inches long. So congratulations to them. And I think that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements are concerned. We're going to go ahead and go to our psalm again. Psalm 149, if you get out your extra handout. Psalm 149. Psalm 149, you can turn to your white handouts or to your Bibles to Psalm 149. Praise ye the Lord, sing to the Lord a new song And His praise in the congregation the saints Let Israel rejoice in Him that made Him Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King Let them praise His name in the dance Let them sing praises unto Him With the temple at heart For the Lord taketh pleasure in this people He will build Him by the meekness of the Lord Let the saints be joyful in Him, glory Let them sing aloud upon their beds Let the high praises of God be in their mouth And not to wedge it sore in their hand To execute vengeance upon the heathen And punishments upon the people To bind their kings with chains and their Nobles with better desire To execute upon them the judgment Retent, dishonor, have all His saints Praise ye the Lord As the offering plates go around, please turn your Bibles to Isaiah 51. That's Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah. Isaiah 51. Isaiah 51. The Bible reads, Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you. For I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion, he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody. Hearken unto me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation. For a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near, my salvation is gone forth, and my arms shall judge the people. The isle shall wait upon me, and on my arms shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment. And they that dwell therein shall die in like manner, but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of the revileings. For the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool, but my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation from generation to generation. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Awake, as in the ancient days and the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which had dried the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransom to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. I, even I, am he that comforted you, who art thou that shouldest be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the son of man which shall be made as grass. And forget is the Lord thy Maker that has stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and has feared continually every day because of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor? The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should fail. But I am the Lord thy God that divided the sea, whose waves roared, the Lord of hosts is his name. And I have put my words in thy mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth, and say unto Zion, Thou art my people. Awake, awake, stand up, O Jerusalem, which has drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury, thou wast drunk in the dregs of the cup of trembling, and wrung them out. There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she hath brought forth, neither is there any that taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought up. These two things are come unto thee, who shall be sorry for thee, desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword, by whom shall I comfort thee? Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as a wild bull in a net, they are full of the fury of the Lord, the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted and drunken, but not with wine. Thus saith thy Lord the Lord, and thy God, that pleaded the cause of his people. Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury. Thou shall no more drink it again, but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee, which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over, and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to them that went over. Let us pray. Father, we thank you for this great church and we thank you for our pastor and his family. Thank you, Father, for blessing such a great trip to Mexico and thank you for giving people a soft heart and just a willingness to hear your word. And Father, as we go through trials and temptations in this life, no matter if we win the battle or we lose the battle, help us to grow from every situation and become better Christians. And I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So we're here in Isaiah 51, and I want to just kind of pick out a verse from this chapter. I'm not going to really go through too much of the context of this chapter, but there was a verse here that kind of really stuck out to me, and it's in verse 7 where the Bible reads, Harken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their reviling. And I feel like in reading this verse, it really just kind of stuck out, the fact that you're not supposed to be afraid or you're not supposed to fear the reproach of men. And really, this phrase is something that you find consistent throughout the Bible that those who love God, those that try to serve God, are going to end up experiencing the reproach of men, the reproach of men. And that's the title of the sermon this evening is The Reproach of Men. Now, Isaiah is an interesting book. In fact, it's probably, in my opinion, one of the most clever books of the Bible because God is able to weave so many different narratives all together in one, and Isaiah is constantly giving us so much prophecy, and not even just a singular prophecy, but really it's like multi-layered because a lot of Isaiah, its primary context is about the impending destruction that's going to come from Babylon and how Israel and Jerusalem are going to be destroyed from Babylon. And as you get into the latter chapters of Isaiah, especially here we're now in chapter 51, he kind of gives them a little bit of hope, and he talks about how even though he's going to destroy them, he's going to bring them into captivity. They're going to be in exile in Babylon. Eventually, he's going to bring them back, and he's going to prosper them. And you can see this similar pattern consistent in the Bible even further beyond this to where you're going to have a future Babylon that's a spiritual Babylon. You're going to have other instances where you're going to have the destruction of God's people, but then you have the ultimate restoration again with the millennial reign of Christ, and you kind of have the new heaven and the new earth, and so Isaiah often kind of interweaves all of these concepts into one and is constantly talking about them. It might even be very difficult to sometimes catch all the layers or understand every verse because of all those themes running through it, but again, the purpose is not to really slow down and pay attention to Isaiah. That's for another sermon. I really just want to pay attention to this verse because if you notice at the start of it, he says, Harken unto me, ye that know righteousness. And you know, God has a different expectation for those who know to do right, and he has a different expectation for those of us who have been saved and gone to church and know the Bible, and of course, the more that you know, the more that God's going to hold you responsible. But the world, the unsaved, they don't know the law of God. They don't know the knowledge of God. They don't have these things, and so of course they're not going to follow God's law. They're not going to serve the Lord. They're not going to be righteous. They're going to have a bad outlook on life. They're going to say horrible things, blasphemous things. That's almost expected, but he's saying you guys shouldn't be like that. You guys are supposed to be different, and it says the people in whose heart is my law, fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be afraid of the reviling. Here's something that I think that America doesn't quite understand is the fact that being Christian is unpopular. Being Christian is unpopular, and why I say that is because in America, we've kind of had a history and a heritage of just Christianity as almost like a state religion. It's basically the one religion. I remember going to political science in college, and my professor got up and said, in order to be the president of the United States, you have to check off several of these boxes, and he said one of them was being Christian. And of course, I mean, I don't know, but virtually every president has always been Christian. Now, of course, we understand Joe Biden's not a real Christian, but I'm just saying that they all claim. We don't really have any atheists that are going to be president, most likely, because we're supposedly a Christian nation. But because we have this pseudo-Christianity in America, there's this idea that you can be Christian and popular, that you can basically be Joel Osteen, you can basically be TD Jakes, you can be Kenneth Copeland. But that's not a real Christianity. That's not what the Bible is teaching. That's not real righteousness. So the fact that they're loved just illustrates the fact that they're of the world, because the world hears their own and the world loves their own. But those that are truly Christian are going to have the reproach of men, as we see consistent in the Bible that those who are godly, those that do the right thing are constantly the offscoring of this world. They're rejected, they're despised, they're mocked, they're ridiculed, they're laughed at, they're hated, as the Bible describes. And, you know, there's a lot of blessing that comes with being Christian. There's a lot of joy, there's a lot of peace. But in reality, if you're going to serve God, if you're going to be righteous, there's another thing that comes with this. It's the reproach of men. You will have to suffer persecution. You will have to suffer people not liking you for being Christian. And God is giving us a clear instruction here that we're not supposed to be afraid of that. We're not supposed to allow the reproach of men to intimidate us, to cause us to fear or be afraid of being a Christian, of serving God, of being righteous, of doing the right thing. Go if you would to Psalm chapter 31, go to Psalm chapter 31. So I have three points this evening on the reproach of men. Number one is that we're not supposed to be afraid of the reproach of men. We're not supposed to be afraid of the reproach of men as clearly evidenced in this chapter. Think about the interesting thing about Isaiah is he's not even writing to the heathen. He's writing to the children of Israel and then he's saying like, you guys need to not fear the reproach of men. Kind of reminds me of Christians living in a Christian nation of how it's like, even though you live amongst these people, you're going to still suffer the reproach of men. And don't we see even people like Jeremiah suffering the reproach of men even though he's amongst his own people. It's because they're all fake and imposter and they're not really Christian. They're not really servants of God. They're not really the children of God. And so they're of course going to reproach him the same as any unsaved group of people. And in fact, most of the time your persecution is going to come worse from the fake Christians than from the world. You know who persecutes Christians the most is the fake Christians because it really irritates them the fact that they're not actually godly. It really irritates them the fact that they're not really saved. It really irritates them that they don't have the favor of God. Whereas a lot of these people that are not that religious, they don't really care. They just genuinely have a lot of apathy. But the people that care, man, does it bother them when people are actually serving God the right way because it just reminds them of the fact that they are not serving God correctly. Psalm 31, look at verse 11. I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbors, and a fear to mine acquaintance. They that did see me without fled from me. So you see, the psalmist is bringing up the fact that, man, all of my enemies, they just reproach me. And especially the people that live near me, especially the people that are close to me. And of course we understand that the psalm is often David talking about himself and then prophetically speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ because the Lord Jesus Christ is ultimately the one that suffered the greatest reproaches, the greatest rebukes. Of course you say, what is a reproach? It's not a word I probably have ever heard outside of a biblical context, out of like a church setting or something like that. But a reproach is simply, if you look at a dictionary, to express disapproval, criticism, or disappointment. So someone expressing disapproval, criticism, or disappointment. Now we all know what those words mean, don't we? So you understand what the reproach of men is, is when people are criticizing you, disappointed in you, they have some kind of disapproval of the decisions that you're making. And that's what a lot of Christians are going to experience, just like their Lord and Savior experienced for them. Go to Psalm 69. Psalm 69, you know in this chapter it also says, For I have heard the slander of many. Fear was on every side. While they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life. They were constantly plotting the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Constantly slandering him. And if they're going to slander the Lord Jesus Christ, you have to realize they're going to slander you. But look at what it says in Psalm 69 verse 9. For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee are fallen upon me. And so the Lord Jesus Christ is basically saying, you know, this is a prophecy of him, how he is going to experience all of those reproaches. He's going to take that burden and take that guilt and take that shame and take all that embarrassment upon himself. And, you know, it's interesting that verse 9, if you kind of think of where that's at in the New Testament, because the zeal of the house has eaten him up, what was it that caused Jesus to get so zealous? It was the fact that they were buying and selling in the house of God, weren't they? And when Jesus went up and down the temple, he's like overturning the tables and everything like that. Do you really think that when everybody saw that and all the tables were flipped over, they liked Jesus after that? I guarantee they were pretty mad. They're probably disappointed, probably disapproved. They probably criticized him for that, didn't they? But you know what? Jesus is going in there cleaning house. And sometimes when you have to clean up a mess, people get upset about it. And I think a lot of people don't like the new IFB because, frankly, we're flipping over a lot of tables. There's a lot of tables that people have built up in churches these days. There's a lot of buying and selling. They're making the house of God a house of merchandise these days. And because we don't want to do that, because we rejected that, and we're not trying to be covetous, it just pisses a lot of people off. And they end up trying to approach us, criticize us, disapprove. They have all this disapproval and disappointment and criticism because they don't like you doing things right. And it's no different than when they hated Jesus Christ. Go, if you would, to Psalm 74. You might just flip the page one page and look at verse 10. O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme thy name forever? Now, I can resonate with verses like this. Isn't there some days where you're just kind of like, how is this guy not dead? You know, you look at this guy, and he's just blaspheming, and he's just riotous, and he's just wicked. And he says things, and you're just thinking like, man, what's going on here? And, of course, the psalmist is being a little bit exaggerative. He's using a little bit of hyperbole here, but he's just expressing his true feelings. It just feels like this has just been so long, and it's just taking forever. And it's so funny to me, you know, talking with Dylan. We spent a lot of time on the trip because they were traveling together and stuff. And he's just like, you know, Pastor Shelley, we were in the Hearst Building this year. It feels like it was like 10 years ago. And it's funny how, like, this one year has felt like almost an entire lifetime, just this one year. And it just kind of makes me think of verses like this. Like, you know, sometimes you go through seasons of life where they just feel like they take forever. You're waiting for something. You're anticipating something. And it makes me think of Duncan and R.G. finally getting together. You know, that felt like probably a couple decades for them or whatever. But, you know, eventually it finally happens and then time speeds up again. You know, time has a weird way of relating to us where sometimes it feels like things are going slow. Then they go fast. They go slow. But ultimately, as you get older, you realize it just was so fast. You know, things just seem to go really at a quick pace. But when you're upset about something, time slows down, doesn't it? You know, when you go to bed and everything's good, you wake up, it was fast. When you're hurting, it takes all night for the night to go through, right? And so it's just kind of a consistent human experience that when things are kind of negative, it seems like time slows down. And yet time didn't change. Time is just consistent. A second's still a second. A day is still a day. And, you know, the Lord's a lot more patient than we are. So to the Lord, you know, even the way we get frustrated, we might be unable to cope with these things the same way He does. He gives us these experiences to learn patience and to learn how to deal with these situations. But no matter what they say about the Lord, and even though it may be seeming like it's taking a long time for the Lord to deal with it, He is going to deal with it. And so we shouldn't be afraid of how long it takes for God to remedy a situation. We just have to allow, we have to wait on the Lord. We have to trust in His timing for these events. Look at verse 18. Remember this, that the enemy hath reproach to the Lord, and that the foolish people have blasphemed thy name. It's funny that we have to, this guy's like, I'm going to remind God. You know, like, as if God forgot or something, right? But it's like, it's like we get so frustrated, we're like, hey God, you know, is this going to take forever? Don't you remember? Like what's going on, right? Verse number 22. Arise, O God, clean thy own cause. Remember how the foolish man reproacheth thee daily. Like, oh man, this is a problem. Notice this is daily. So of course, you know, God doesn't forget these things. But we see the psalmist being frustrated, praying unto the Lord, crying out to the Lord. And you know, really that's something that God wants us to do. When we are frustrated, when we are fearful, when we have these problems, we're supposed to just pray unto God and ask Him to help us. And you know what? He likes that. God likes it that we're constantly asking Him and seeking Him because it just shows that we're ultimately relying on Him. He likes us being patient about it because it ultimately shows we're relying upon Him. When we try to take things in our own hand or solve the problem ourselves, God's displeased because it shows that we don't really trust in Him. We're trusting in ourselves. And so the Lord wants us to constantly be patient, trusting in Him, allowing Him to take care of it. And of course, you know, that has an aspect of fear because the longer it goes on, the more perpetual it is. Sometimes it feels like, oh man, I really got to take care of this in case it's worse. You know, or the problems escalate. Or, you know, I can't just let this guy go on. You know, I got to get in there. But really we should always wait. You know, you can think about Saul. Saul was impatient and afraid and waiting for the sacrifice. And Samuel he thought was supposed to come and it didn't come at the time appointed. And so he took everything in his own hands. And you know, we don't want to do that. We don't want to be hasty. We don't want to take things in our own hands. We want to constantly just wait and say, you know what, the Lord's timing is better than my timing. Go to Job. Go to Job chapter 19. It's right before Psalms so you go back a little bit in your Bible. Job chapter 19. And let's look at verse number 3. Now, the thing I wanted to bring up about this is that if we understand Job in the Bible, he's considered one of the greatest guys ever. I mean, especially at the time that this is written, he's considered the greatest guy, period. I mean, he's a man that eschews evil and he's upright. And God even is like telling the devil, like, have you considered my servant Job, as if Job's the greatest guy to ever live. And if Job is the greatest guy at this time, which I believe is very clear in Scripture, yet he experiences reproach, then how much more should we experience reproach not being Job? And it's like, well, I think I'm Job. Okay, well, you can think that all day long. But even if you are Job, that still means the rest of us aren't because only one person can be Job. Okay, so even if there is a Job alive today, it doesn't really matter because 99.999% of us are not Job. And if Job can suffer reproach, then how much more can we suffer reproach? Look at Job chapter 19, verse 3. These ten times have you reproached me. You're not ashamed that you may make yourselves strange to me. You know, Job is frustrated. His friends are coming here constantly reproaching him. You say, what's reproach? Expressing disapproval. Criticizing. Being disappointed. And, you know, if you read Job, they're just constantly hurling accusation after accusation against Job. Kind of sounds like slander on every side. And he's just, like, thinking, like, what? I'm already having a bad day. And then you have to criticize me on top of that? Then you have to come alongside and just do even worse? And isn't that frustrating? That's how the devil works. You know what the devil's going to do? He's going to persecute you. And then he's going to bring people in your life to criticize you on top of it. Because it's like one thing to get a brick through the window, right? That's the persecution. But then you've got Job's friends coming along, like, you deserved it, buddy. You were asking for it, you know. Well, maybe you're a little more righteous. Maybe if you preach a little better, you know, maybe you're more godly or whatever. Then you get all of Job's friends coming around, and it's just salt in the wound, isn't it? And, you know, that's of course what the devil loves to do. I heard this really wicked thing one time. There was a family where they're trying to follow God's commandments and having children, like the Bible says, be fruitful and multiply. But for whatever reason, you know, they have problems having children. And even sometimes they may experience a miscarriage. And this family had a miscarriage, and one of their family members is saying, oh, well, that's like God cursing you because you're going to that church and you're trying to do all these things. You're in a cult or whatever. And it's like they're trying to add salt to the wound of going through a really horrible experience. And it's like trying to what? You know what they're trying to do? They're trying to discourage them from having more kids is what they're trying to do. And they're trying to discourage them from going to a good church. And they're trying to discourage them from serving God with their lives. But let me tell you something. Miscarriage is a reality of life. You know, most families probably will experience that. And I don't believe that there's something wrong with the person. You know, we don't want to be Job's friends and be like, oh, you had this problem because you're just so wicked or whatever. You know, there's no way to prove that. Bad things happen to good people. You know, don't be a Job's friend when negative things happen to people. You're supposed to be an encouragement. You're supposed to be a blessing. You know, he says miserable comforters are you. You know, it's like when someone goes through loss, don't then pile on. You know, you're supposed to help that person bear their burden. You know, and of course when people go through difficulty, struggle, have problems, we don't want to go around and just constantly add fuel to the fire there. Go ahead to 1 Peter, chapter number three, 1 Peter chapter number three. But the reproach of men will surely come. If you serve God, you try to have a godly family, you try to live, you know, righteous, you want to have godly children, you want to go to a good church, you want to read the Bible, you want to go soul winning. You know, you're going to suffer reproach. You know, it's guaranteed, it's locked in. But we don't want to let that terrify us or terrorize us and to stop serving God. Because that's the goal. The goal is to stop people from serving God. You know, I've even heard the people that protest at church, they say, oh, our goal is just to intimidate people to not show up. And they're like, our only goal. Because they're like, we won't affect Pastor Shelley. Great, I'm glad you got the message, right? We won't affect, you know, the members, Dylan's long gone, you know, whatever. But some of these weaker people, they might not show up if we reproach them a little bit, you know, if we scream at them a little bit, if we put a little bit of pressure on them. And, you know, it's true. There are people that get intimidated by it. I've had people even admit to me, they're like, you know, I don't want to come to church because of the protest or whatever. And, you know, I mean, it's sad, it's a sad reality, but it is a reality. But we don't want to let the enemy win by reproach us because, you know what, then they're going to reproach you harder. Whenever you give in, I mean, have you ever seen how everybody that apologizes to the left never, ever, ever, ever, ever wins? And whenever they apologize, they're not like, okay, let's let it down now. Then they just fire you and pile on ten times harder. You cannot win with these people. You know, the worst thing to do is to negotiate with a terrorist. You know, you don't negotiate with terrorists. You don't apologize to terrorists. You don't try to go soft on terrorists. You know, you have to just realize some terrorists exist and so you have to fight them back. You have to, you know, ignore them if possible, fight them back, shut them down, but you do not make a deal with them. Do not make a deal with the devil. You don't make a deal with these evil, wicked people. You know, they're never going to stop. They just want to constantly terrorize you. And we have to realize that we shouldn't be afraid of their reproach, of their disapproval. You know, if the devil is disappointed in what I'm doing, that sounds like a compliment. I mean, have you ever thought about that? It's like, man, if this person wearing a Love is Love shirt doesn't like my church, I feel like my church is good. Why would I want that person to like my church? Why would I want the devil and his minions to be like, I don't mind that church or whatever? It's like, no, I want them to hate my church. I want them to despise it because it's just so good, it's so righteous, it's following God's command, it's effective. You know, it's reaching people, it's getting people saved. You know, there's a reason why I believe the devil attacked Steadfast Baptist Church. It's because you guys are being so effective in serving God. You know, if we didn't have a church that was effective at reaching the loss and doing right, why would the devil waste time on us? You know, he wastes time on us because, frankly speaking, he thinks that it's going to gain him traction. But if we remain steadfast, it's a double win because not only did he not win, he wasted all his resources on someone that it didn't even work on. And you have to realize, like, sometimes people are just a shield for others. And to prove this, I saw an article about a Catholic church in Ireland. So there's a Catholic church in Ireland and their sermons are not called sermons, they're called homilies. Who grew up Catholic? Okay, a few people. So homily, right? That's what they call it. It's kind of where they preach a little bit. It's usually not quite like, you know, our preaching. But they'll still preach. This Irish Catholic priest got up and he said, and I'm going to paraphrase, but I'm going to try and be pretty close to exactly what he said. But he just said, you know what, there's a lot of sin in our culture and people are afraid to preach against sin. And it's even being legislated. There is sin being legislated by our government. You know, abortion is being legislated in our government and sinful. Homosexuality and transgenderism is being legislated in our country and it's sinful. And, you know, we need to preach against these things. More or less, that's what he said. Well, then guess what? The Catholic Church fired him. And then they issued a statement that said, this is not what Christianity stands for. We're so sorry to everyone that was offended. This is not the message that we want to communicate. And I'm thinking like, man, how bad is Ireland? Like, whoa, unto Ireland. When you can't, I mean, I make fun of it. You know, some preachers are like, homosexuality is a sin. You know, and they're like ducking. That was real for him. But let me say something. You know, that would never happen in America. Why? Because steadfast Baptist Church is in America. They're never going to, you know, they're not going to attack that guy. They're going to go find the guy that's saying, you know, put a bullet in your head. You know, they're going to go find the guy that's preaching Leviticus 2013. You know, they're going to preach, they're going to find the guy that's actually doing some damage. Okay. But let me say this. If steadfast didn't exist, if they were Baptist Church didn't exist, and Verity Baptist Church didn't exist, all our friends didn't exist, and the Southern Baptist didn't exist, and the other independent Baptist didn't exist, and just like everybody else didn't exist, then you'd have these little Catholics out there like, homosexuality is a sin. You know. And they would be protested. Because, you know what, it's not like the devil is going to do nothing, folks. He's going to attack someone. So what he's going to do, he's going to attack whoever is the biggest threat at the time. So by us just existing, by us just having a church, we're shielding and protecting so many churches in this area. And you know what, some churches, even good churches, and you know what, they're not thankful for it. But let me tell you something. Jesus Christ shielded a lot of people that are not thankful for it. And we have to realize someone's going to bear his reproach. It's not like the reproach of Christ is going to disappear. Someone's going to have to bear it. And if it's you, you know, don't let that intimidate you or make you afraid. The Bible says that we're supposed to glorify God. Now, I want to read some passages here. We're in 1 Peter chapter 3. Look at verse 14. But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled. Notice what the Bible is saying. Hey, don't be afraid of their terror. Let me tell you something. They are terrorists, folks. Their only goal in life is to strike terror and fear into the hearts of men. But we're not supposed to allow Rabshakey to come and shake us. You know, we're not supposed to allow the enemies of the Lord to come and terrify us or intimidate us. We don't let the fiery furnace getting heated up shake our faith. But rather we just say, you know what, we're not careful to answer thee. You know, I mean, as as Liberto says, Leviticus 20, 13 is our favorite verse. I'm not saying that's literally true, but I hey, I'd rather say that than not preach that verse. Look at verse 16, having a good conscience that whereas they speak evil of you as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accused your good conversation and cry. You know, if you don't have anybody falsely accusing you, here's a good question. Are you even worth being falsely accused? Now, here's a really bad one when they're accusing you and it's not false. Oh, man, this false accusing is really bad. Well, how about the people that are being accused and it's legit? You know, that's way worse, right? Let them falsely accuse you all day long. Let them reproach you. Happy are ye, as the Bible says, is the right emotion. Look at chapter four, verse four, wherein they think it's strange that you run not with them to the same excess of right, speaking evil of you. What do you mean you're not going to get drunk this weekend? What do you mean you're going to go to church three times this week? Did you misspeak three? Why would you go to three? What do you mean you're not going to go and watch every football game? What do you mean you're not going to go and get high? You know, marijuana's free in Oklahoma. Come on, let's go. Want to go to the casino? It's like, no. The boss said he's going to give us a free $100 coupon. The drinks are free at the casino. I'll pay for you. No, I don't want to go. What? People will think you're nuts if they said, hey, we'll pay, hey, we're going to give you three free nights at the casino. We're going to give you a free $1,000 poker chip or whatever, and the drinks are free. And you say, no. They would be like, who are you? They would think, like, what's wrong with you? You know what? What's wrong is them, not you. You're not going to run to the same excess of riot. But, you know, when you don't do that, they're going to speak evil of you. They're going to say weird. They're going to say things about you. I remember some of my workplaces, they would have company meals. And before the meal, they would have a free cocktail hour. And you could have anything. You could have Jack and Morgan and whatever else you wanted, okay? Free, just unlimited. And it was like everybody went, except for me and the Mormons, okay? And it was like people would be like, oh, are you Mormon? And I'm like, no. I'm Baptist. And they're like, then why aren't you coming? You know, all the other Baptists are coming. And I'm like, well, historically, Baptists used to think drinking was wicked, okay? Sorry, they changed. We didn't. We were steadfast. Oh, I go to steadfast Baptists. Let me remind you. But, you know, it wasn't cool to not show up. It wasn't cool to go to these things. You know, there was another event that I was invited to at the company outing, and it was like me and my wife are invited, and it's like this super fancy event, all kinds of food, and they're paying for like you could ride horseback carriages, and it's out in the sunset. It's all this amazing stuff. And we're like, well, can we bring our kids? And they're like, no. I'm like, well, then we're not going to go. And they like freak out. They're like, why? You know, get a babysitter or whatever. It's just like, well, no, we're just not going to go. We can't take our kids. And they're like, well, we can't bring your kids because there's going to be a lot of alcohol and adult activities. I'm like, well, I don't want to go. You know? And it's like, ah, I look down upon you. But here's the thing. Even though they may not like that, and even though you could be afraid like, well, am I not going to get the promotion? Am I not going to get the raise? Am I not going to move up in the company and everything like that? You know, that never happened to me. I constantly moved up in the company. I kept getting praise from my bosses. And, in fact, even when I told them that I was going to leave, they were like begging me to stay. And even my CEO, he ended up quickly realizing I was Christian. So you know what happened? He would just randomly walk by, and then he would just sit down on my desk, and he'd be like, give me a Bible verse. Because he knew, you know, that I wasn't like everybody else. But that's fine. You know, even if he didn't like me, you know what? Nuts to them because not everyone's going to like you, folks. You know, maybe I have an easier time dealing with this because I grew up and no one ever liked me, so it's just easy for me to deal with that. But the fact that no one likes me now, it's fine. Like, it doesn't really bother me. Because here's the thing. It just doesn't matter. And all those people that didn't like me are losers. Like, everyone thinks they're a loser now. You know, they were so cool in high school, but now they're just like a loser that nobody likes, that nobody wants to hang out with, and I'm still no one likes me. So I'm the same. They're the ones that had to get, you know, knocked down a couple of notches. You know, you're a Christian. It's like you just live this life of like not caring what other people think about you. And it's great because I never have to worry. I never get upset when someone doesn't like me. It's expected. I'm surprised when people like me. That's how it is. You know, someone brings their family member to church, and I'm all embracing, I'm like bracing for it or whatever, and they're like, they like this firm? And I'm like, oh, okay, you know, whatever. They usually like my wife, so that's good, you know. But me, it's like, eh. But that's fine because it's not, I don't need to win a popularity contest for my feelings to be confirmed. You know, I live my life and I have a lot of joy. I have a lot of happiness even when no one likes me because it's vain anyways if people like you or whatever. I mean, these Hollywood celebrities, everyone likes them, and they're the most miserable people on the planet. So then why do I want to build my life around people liking me or not or build my life around what other people think? You know, that's a vain existence that we shouldn't care about. And if you think that you're going to live this Christian life where everybody likes you, that's strange. Now, what's not strange is being hated. Look at verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice in as much as you're partakers of Christ's sufferings that when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. So he's saying it's not strange when you're approached. It's strange when you're not approached. It's strange when people are not criticizing you. It's strange when people are not disapproving of your actions. It's strange when people don't have disappointment in you and what you're doing. But whenever you are, what does the Bible say? He says that God's glorified. But on your part, He is glorified. You get to think about how Christ ended up suffering for everyone else. You know, when you suffer for righteousness sake, it helps remind you of how much more Christ had to do the same thing, how awful the sufferings of Christ were, and it helps you relate to Christ, and it helps you have more honor and more respect and more glory unto what Christ ultimately did for us. You know, the less you think of sin, the less you think of Christ's sacrifice. The more you think of sin, the more you think of Christ's sacrifice. The more sins you realize there are, the more you realize Jesus paid for, the bigger debt you realize exists. You know, and Jesus gave the parable, as it were, of the woman or the person who 50 pounds are forgiven or 50 talents are forgiven and the 500, and He's like, who loved it more? And it's the guy that had 500. And it's like, you could actually be less sinful than someone, but you realize all of your sins, and it'll cause you to love Christ more just because you're aware of how sinful you are. You're aware of your sins. You'll be aware of really what Christ did for you. And, you know, when you do righteousness and you suffer for it, it's weird to our natural mind. It's weird to the carnal mind, but at the same time, it helps you realize, oh, wow, Christ had to go through that too for me. Christ had to suffer for me. And, of course, it's not strange that it happens. It's going to be common. What does strange mean? It means that it's unique. It's foreign. So he's saying, it shouldn't be foreign that you go through a fiery trial. You know, you come to a steadfast Baptist church, and you're like, man, I've never been to a church that has that many issues, right? Here's another word for issues, trials. But wait a minute. It's actually strange that you go to a church that has no trials. That's the real strange thing. You know, it's strange that you're supposedly following Christ, yet you never suffer for Christ. And, think about how strange the word of God would be to all these Christians who the greatest conflict they ever had was they mixed up their Starbucks order. Or, the coffee shop ran out of pumpkin spice lattes, and you had to get a chai latte instead or something. You know, I mean, that is like the modern day Christian equivalent. They didn't have my exact size. I had to order it online. You know, this is the modern day Christian suffering. It's going to be hard to be reading some of these verses about Daniel going to the lion's den, and you're comparing it to getting the wrong coffee. And you're comparing it to having the wrong size. Gas went up 15 cents. Oh, man. So I got a Facebook post banned, you know. I couldn't share. It got limited. It wasn't even banned. It was just limited audience or something. It's like that's not the type of suffering that we really see in the Bible, so it's going to be the Bible's going to be kind of foreign to you. It's going to be kind of strange. Whereas, if you're actually going through real persecution, real struggle, people are saying really mean, awful things to you, then the Bible comes alive when you live the Christian life. Verse 14, if you be approached for the name of Christ, happy are ye. I remember that in the previous verse. Happy are ye. For the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. Verse 16, yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. You know, when you suffer, let me ask you a question. Are you glorifying God for that suffering? Are you giving praise to God for that suffering? Because, you know, that'll help you with your approach of men. You know, the approach of men, you're not supposed to fear it. You're rather supposed to embrace it so much that you end up glorifying God that you end up being reproached. Oh, man, this person said this horrible thing about me. Well, glory to God. You know, let's give more honor. What does glory in God mean? Giving praise, honor, or admiration. Well, that gives me so much more appreciation for what Christ did for me. I better serve God even more then. I better get more plugged in. I need to improve my Christian walk. I need to sing more praises unto him. You know, that's what the Bible is telling us. You know, we're not supposed to be ashamed or embarrassed, but rather we're supposed to think, like, how great a God do we have? Because it's contradictory to think, like, why would someone persecute you for doing good? You know, it's like I live in a world where I have personal relationships where people are suffering from sins like adultery. People are suffering from sins of drunkenness. People are suffering from all kinds of horrible fornication and bastard children and just nightmare issues, divorce and separation and just all kinds of weird issues that are going on, right? And then you serve God. You, like, go to church and the whole family is mad at you, not the guy that's committing adultery. It's like the guy committing adultery is welcome at Thanksgiving, but you, for reading the Bible and preaching the Gospel on a Saturday, you're not welcome. And it's like that makes no sense even carnally speaking, folks. You know, it makes absolutely, oh, you work hard and you don't waste money on taxes for drugs and alcohol and cigarettes and then they're mad at you for that. You don't want to poison your body and they get mad at you for that. There's no way that makes sense carnally. You know why it makes sense? Spiritually. It can only make sense because it's a spiritual thing. So when that happens, you should realize, wow, the Bible is right and you should give glory to God for giving you the wisdom to make good decisions. Oh, man, your approach for doing something right, it should remind you, the only reason I'm even doing this is because I have the Spirit of God dwelling in me and I have the Holy Ghost and He gave me this wisdom to make good decisions. Praise God, I'm not a drunkard. Praise God, I'm not a raging alcoholic puking out my guts in the street this evening. Praise God, I'm not doing anything and everything to get the next crack high. Praise God that I don't have a life wrecked with all kinds of sin and wickedness and evil. Praise God I don't have a body filled with tattoos today that are going to sag when I get older and I'm going to look ugly as sin. Praise God that I don't have all kinds of issues and problems. Why? Glorify God for His Word that gave me the knowledge and the wisdom to do those things. Because no, I'm not smart enough to know that. There's nothing great about me. You know what? Praise God that that happened in my life. Out of them, me being ashamed of that, why don't I glorify God that I'm not this evil, wicked, satanic person, that I'm not in the ditch with nothing to live for, that I don't have eight bastard children and STDs galore like all the celebrities in Hollywood. Oh, you fight them in the Baptist, you're only with one woman. Yeah, praise God for that. Praise God. Not only am I only with one woman, she loves me too. You know what? She makes sandwiches for me whenever I ask. She does what I say. I would love for those protesters to tell me about their marriage. Oh, I bet she's doing whatever you tell her. She's not wearing the pants in that relationship and you're like, ah. They're just mad and angry at themselves. When they approach you, we try to think like, oh, man, I'm doing something wrong. You're not doing anything wrong by serving God? You're not doing anything wrong by being married to a godly woman? You're not doing anything wrong. All those women get mad, oh, you're wearing a dress and skirt. Yeah, she looks prettier than you in that dress and skirt, buddy. Oh, you have that long hair. Yeah, it looks way better than your dyke haircut. We can't even tell if you're a dude or whatever. It's gross and dudes are ugly, so there. The woman is the glory of the man. Why? Because he's way better looking than the man. OK. I mean, when Adam saw his, whoa, man. She's more than a man. OK. She's way better looking than a dude. Go to Matthew chapter 10, verse 10. Go to Matthew chapter 10. Look, we get embarrassed about serving God, but it's so stupid to get embarrassed about that. What's embarrassing is being a drug addict. What's embarrassing is having to drink alcohol to have fun. What's embarrassing is being an idiot that doesn't even understand the Bible. Oh, you read the King James, that's too hard for me. OK, you know, you know, what about puzzles? Can you put puzzles together? No, that's too hard for me too, man. You know, it's like when it says pulled, you push at the door, you know. It's like what other things are difficult for you? You know, it's like why is that something to glory in? Why would you glory in saying like, you know, that's too hard for me to read? OK. My seven-year-old does a really good job with that. He's seven. You know, it's like it's not rocket science to learn the King James Bible, folks, to be able to read the words on the page. Now, of course, it takes the wisdom of God to understand it. But again, that's not a human thing anyways. That's being filled with the Holy Spirit. These people that revel in their sin, they're reveling in their own shame. They're reveling in their own filth. It's a pig in the sty bragging about rolling around in dung. And it's like, I'm not ashamed of not rolling around in dung. I'm not ashamed of taking showers, you know, spiritually or physically. You know, imagine if you lived in a world where no one showered, and they all smelled like BO, and they made fun of you for taking showers. You'd be like, y'all are the weird ones, not me. You're the gross ones, right? I mean, but at the same time, we let Christianity seem like or approach like taking showers is somehow bad. No, no, no, no. Being filthy and disgusting is what is shameful. Not serving the Lord is shameful. Being stupid is shameful. Being addicted to all this disgusting filth of this world is what's shameful. Having 20 kids with 15 different women, that's shameful. Your children not knowing who their dad is, that's shameful. Your children not loving you, that's shameful. Your wife not doing what you say whenever you say it, that's shameful. You know, your wife looking like a dude, that's shameful. Your daughters dressing like whores, that's shameful. You know, you letting your kids just go to the public pool system and become communist idiots, that's the shame. You know, I don't look at the college education today and think like, wow, that's the glory of America. That's the shame of America. Boy, you want to talk about something that's embarrassing? Talk about the college. Oh, I have a gender studies degree. That's embarrassing. You should be embarrassed that you paid money to get those lies. I mean, think about it. People are paying tens of thousands of dollars to be lied to regularly. They're going to the Catholic Church being, you know, I'm a Catholic, that's a shame. I think the pope's great, that's embarrassing. I think that Biden's competent, that's embarrassing. I wear five masks, that's embarrassing. Look at Matthew Chapter 10, look at verse 17. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to the councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues. Sounds like Jews. And you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. When they deliver you up, take no thought, how or what you shall speak, for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak. Where does not ye that speak, but the spirit of your father which speaketh in you? And the brothers shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child, and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. You know, the Bible's not painting a picture here of being loved, folks. I mean, it's talking about your brother and your dad turning on you. It's talking about the whole world just hating you. And it's just, it's a constant theme that we see just over and over. Look at verse 25, it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his Lord, but they have called the master of the house Beelzebub. How much more shall they call them of his household? You know that verse is saying, it's saying, look, if Jesus is so perfect and so righteous and has so much authority and they were so afraid of him, and they were still willing to call him Beelzebub, then how much us, who are so much more insignificant than Christ, who obviously even have problems and sins, how much more are they going to call us? And what kind of names and evil will they speak about us? What verse 26 says, fear them not. Fear them not. He doesn't say, oh, well be afraid when they make fun of you. Be afraid when they call you a devil. Be afraid when they say all manner of evil against you. No, no, no. Fear them not. There's nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness, hide on YouTube. That speak ye in light and what you hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops and fear not them. Now I love this next phrase, which kill the body. You know why? What is the greatest fear we all have, being killed? Killing of the body. Why would you not preach something? I don't want to be killed. But you know what he said, preach it anyways and don't fear them that they're going to kill the body. You know what? God wants somebody that says, I am more afraid of God than I am of you. I'm more afraid of not saying what God wants me to say and turning into John Fetterman than what you can do to me. Because you know, you kill me, I'll go to heaven. But you could turn into John Fetterman. I mean, imagine living the rest of your life just like that. Some bumbling idiot, some fool. You know what? God could do all manner of evil against you. You know, he said that he was going to confound Jeremiah before them all if he was afraid to preach the Bible. And you know what? I believe that's the same with us. You know what? You think that your life's hard now. If you stop serving God, just wait. Just wait and see what God might do to you. God might cause you to lose your job, your wife, your family, your kids, your toe. You know, he might cause you to lose it all. You'll just be an off-scoring of everyone. Not just the world, even of the Christians. Everybody will be like, you're just awful. You're just disgusting. You know, we're not supposed to fear them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Look at verse 32. Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. And we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And, you know, I like having that advocate. But when you stop giving knowledge to him, you stop giving praise and honor to him, he stops advocating for you. That's the worst thing you can have. You know, we want to continually confess to the Lord Jesus Christ and continually not be ashamed of him. So that he's not ashamed of us when he tells the Heavenly Father to give you grace for your problems and for your sins and for your issues. Verse 33. But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. You know, it's a sad day when you turn your back on Jesus because he'll just stop, he'll just stop interceding. He'll stop assisting you with God the Father. Verse 34. Think not that I'm come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. And that's a sad reality, but it's so common. And I just, just for, just for my benefit, how many people have had a personal family member, like, strife because of coming to this church? Like, raise your hands. It's like more than half the room, if not almost everyone. And why I made you do that is for this reason. So many people come up to me and they're like, they feel like it's a private issue for them. And I'm like, look bro, have you read this verse in the Bible? Let me show you. This verse is you. You know the Bible is written about you. You are this verse. I am that verse. We are that verse. Okay? You know, Jesus didn't put this verse in the Bible for no reason. He put it in there because it's real, because it's the reality that's going to happen. If that doesn't happen to you, you're like the exception. You know, and maybe would to God we've raised some families that it's not very common in their immediate family, but even then it may still happen. You know, you're going to have brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, cousins and uncles. You're going to have a lot of people that don't agree with you. And even sometimes, it's not like they just don't like it. They're a complete opposite. They're just a complete antagonist to everything you stand for, everything you do. You know what? We're still supposed to glorify God. Because didn't all of his brother not believe in him too? Didn't everybody kind of turn on him too? And you know what? He still did the right thing. You know, he was thinking about you when everybody else turned on him. And we need to think about our brother in Christ and think about the loss and think about the importance of the decisions we're making and not let that intimidate us or scare us, but rather glorify God. Go to Matthew 5. Go back a little bit. Let's look at another verse here. Matthew chapter 5 verse 10. The Bible says, So point one is we're not supposed to be afraid of the approach for men. Point two is we're supposed to glorify God. But point three is we're supposed to rejoice. Remember what we said in 1 Peter? Happy are ye. Chapter three, chapter four, happy are ye. Matthew chapter number five, rejoice. He's saying, hey, why? Because you have a great reward in heaven. You know, I want a great reward in heaven. Who in here is like, I want a small reward. OK, no one. That's weird. Who wants a great reward? OK, lots of hands. All right. Well, let me tell you something. You know, you get that people falsely accuse you. Now, who wants to be falsely accused? But because you get the reward, you're like, yes, right. It's a trick question. It's like, hey, I want a great reward. It comes with a cost, doesn't it? You know, if you want that great reward, it comes with the cost of people falsely accusing you. But you know what? If that's what you really want, if you say, I really want a big reward, Pastor Shelley, then every time you get falsely accused, you should be like, sweet. I just got one. Whereas if you're never getting that, you're like, what's wrong with me? That's what you should really be thinking. Because he's saying, like, you know, ye in all the will of God and in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you're not getting any persecution, you're like, what are you doing, buddy? Rejoice. Verse 13. Ye are the salt of the earth. But if the salt of loss is savour, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out and be trod underfoot. You know, the reason why salt is valuable is because it has a savour. It's salty. And you know what I think about our church? Our church is kind of salty. Some saltiness about us, right? Drama. Always things going on, right? So I don't ever want to be like, you know, remember when we had the drama days? No, I want to stay salty. I want to keep having savour. Because you know what? When salt loses its savour, it's worthless. And you know what? When our church stops being salty, it's worthless. You know, it's like, hey, Pastor Shelley, when are you going to stop causing all these problems? I hope never. When are people going to start liking you again? I hope never. And you're like, that's a weird reaction. Well, the Bible's telling me to be happy, and the Bible's telling me to rejoice. So you know what? I'm so thankful to be a part of this church. Because I've gotten to experience so many great rewards in heaven because of how much we've been reproached. And some of you that have been reproached more than others, you should actually be happier. You should be happy. You should be thankful. Hey, I want a big reward. Well, you know what? Come to the church with the greatest approach then. Come to the church with the greatest disapproval. You know, they don't have the five star. They got the one and a half star. They got the greatest criticism. Oh, there's all these videos and articles attacking you. Oh, I'm disappointed that you want to go to that church. Great. Rack up those rewards for me, you know? That's what the Bible is literally saying. Go to Luke chapter 6, parallel passage. Luke chapter 6, we're almost finished. But I just wanted to kind of dwell on this thought this evening because sometimes we forget about all the blessings that come from being reproached. But you know, Jesus literally just said, blessed are you. He didn't say, cursed are you. He didn't say, woe unto you. He said, blessed. You're blessed. You know, and you talk about blessing. Go visit Matamoros. It's crazy. You see these people, they have literally nothing. See all these immigrants and refugees? They have nothing. And you look at their life ahead of them, and it's like you have nothing either. It's like even if they got in the United States, what are they going to do? They speak French. What if I gave you no money, no food, you can only speak French, and you're just wandering the streets of America? Good luck. Obviously, you're not going to be killed or murdered or whatever that's going on in their other countries, so it's slightly better. But it's like that's a rough existence. And I look at myself, and I'm like, I'm eating at La Consereilla. I am blessed. You know, and I look at the world that we live in today, there's so many people, they're never getting persecuted at all. And I come to my church, and I'm thinking, I must be blessed. You know, they damaged our building, and I'm thinking like, I have to feel honored that they would throw a brick through my, there's so many doors they could have thrown a window through. I mean, they got the church across the street, the church next to them, they got like 10,000 churches this way, and a couple hundred thousand churches this way, and it's like, you picked mine. I got rewarded. Thank you. Praise God. You know, rejoice. And it says exceeding joy. You know, what does exceed mean, to go beyond? It's like whatever joy is, I'm supposed to go above that somehow. They're like, you're too happy. Right, that's exactly what I meant. You know, that's what I'm supposed to have, the triad of emotion. You know, instead of letting the reproach of men cause you to be ashamed and embarrassed and afraid and intimidated, you know, you're supposed to have no fear. You're supposed to glorify God. You're supposed to be happy. You're supposed to rejoice, folks. Luke chapter six, look at verse 22. Blessed are ye when men shall hate you, when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake. Rejoice ye in that day and leap for joy, for behold your reward is great in heaven, for in the like manner did their fathers unto the prophets. He's saying, hey, you want to be like Abraham? Then have people lie about you. Then have people say, you can't come over this Thanksgiving. Woo! It's like, I'm disappointed, I'm still invited to Thanksgiving this year. You know, it's like, I need to figure out how to get separated from. You know, I need to figure out how, I need some more hate coming my way cause I want some more blessings. And, you know, at the end of the day, you know, we're not supposed to want people to just be mad at us, just be mad at us. Right, we're just supposed to serve God and wait. We're supposed to be just good and doing right and helping everybody and loving people and serving God and then the hate comes out of nowhere. You're like, whoa! Sweet. Go if you would to Hebrews chapter 11, the last place I'm going to have you turn, Hebrews chapter 11. There's a lot of verses we could look at and, in fact, this topic's just all over the Bible. I'm going to read for you a passage, 2 Corinthians 12, 10 says, Therefore I take pleasure in affirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. You know, the Apostle Paul says he took pleasure in reproaches. And I'll be honest with you, I do too. And you know what this means? It's like when people make a meme against you, attack you, and it's so stupid and you just have to laugh at it because the meme sucked. They make fun of you and it's like, that was dumb, you know. Or they'll be like, oh, you're so awful, you're a homo. And I'm just like, oh, is being a homo bad? I'm like, I take pleasure in that because you're so stupid, you can't even come with anything original. You're just an idiot, buddy. You're screaming at me, my Jesus doesn't hate, ah! It's like, you're such a moron. You sound like the most hateful person I've ever seen. You know, my Jesus doesn't break your hate, ah! Yeah, he breaches my hate, okay? I'm glad he doesn't breach yours. You're an idiot. You know, and it's just so funny how stupid these people are and how dumb they are. And what idiots say, I laugh at them. I take pleasure in their approaches because they suck at it. You know, it's like, you know, you know who's good at reproaching me? It's my wife. She can make me feel bad. They suck at insulting people, okay? No one can insult you like your wife can, okay? No one can insult you like the people that, you know, actually are wise. You know, these people can't even do it. These people can't make me feel bad. They couldn't even do it if they tried. They're not funny, they're not cool, they're not clever. We laugh at them, we mock at them, it's stupid. Their approaches are idiotic, folks. You know, we can take pleasure, we can take joy in their approaches. Hebrews chapter number 11, look at verse 26. Esteeming the approach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. You know what this is talking about? This is talking about Moses and it's saying he would rather someone protest him and call him an ugly name than have the greatest gold and diamond and ruby jewelry given to him. I mean, instead of a briefcase of $200 billion just set in Moses' lap, he'd rather someone say, you're in a cult. Why? He said the reproach of Christ is greater. Riches than the treasure. Why? Because he realized that he was going to get a reward in heaven and that reward in heaven was infinitely better than whatever monetary goods, whatever fun, whatever pleasures you could have in this life. You know, that's the type of attitude we should have. Look at Hebrews chapter 13, verse 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach. Instead of being afraid of the reproach of men, why don't we gladly carry his reproach? You know, instead of being ashamed of, oh man, we're the most reprotched church in this area, why don't we glorify God that we're the most reprotched church in this area, the most disliked, the most disapproved, the most criticism, the most whatever negative thing you want to throw at it? It's like, why aren't we glad that we get to carry his reproach? You know, why don't we be the guy, think about this, wouldn't you want to be the guy of all the people alive in Jesus' life, wouldn't you want to be the guy that walked up to Jesus and said, hey, let me carry your cross for a little while. Hey, let me take that, let me put that cross on, I'll carry it up to Calvary for you. You know what, that's what he asked us to bear his burden, to bear our, you know, to lay down our life and to carry his cross and to do things that are right in this life. Instead of looking at that as a negative thing, wouldn't you think like that was the greatest privilege ever? You're the guy that gets to carry Jesus' cross up to Mount Calvary for him. And you know what, instead of looking at the reproach as being such a negative, horrible thing, don't be afraid of it, glorify God, and you know what, rejoice in that. You know, I praise God that we get to suffer for righteousness' sake. And you know what, I hope that we continue to carry that cross with the Lord Jesus Christ because you know what, he carried it for me. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us your son and all the reproaches that he had to take, all the evil and the sin that he had to take for us. We understand that we'll never be perfect like your son was, but I pray that we would, when we suffer for righteousness' sake, instead of having an ashamed feeling, instead of being afraid or intimidated or terrified or upset, we'd rather have no fear, that we would rather not be ashamed, but rather have more admiration for the Lord Jesus Christ. And instead of being upset, we'd rather rejoice, and we would be cheerful that we get the opportunity to suffer for righteousness' sake. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, for the final song, song number 227. 227, Saved by the Blood. 227, Saved by the Blood. Sent by the Blood. Saved by the Blood of the crucified God, now ransomed from sin. Sent raised to the Father and praise to the Son. Saved by the Blood of the crucified God, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, my sins are all part and my youth is all gone. Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the Blood of the crucified God. Saved by the Blood of the crucified God, may angels rejoice soon because it is done. The child of the Father joined here with the Son. Saved by the Blood of the crucified God, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, my sins are all part and my youth is all gone. Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the Blood of the crucified God. Saved by the Blood of the crucified God, the Father He's making, His will it was done. Brave prize from my part and His precious Son. Saved by the Blood of the crucified God, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone. Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the Blood of the crucified God. Saved by the Blood of the crucified God, all hail to the Father, all hail to the Son, all hail to the Spirit, the great three in one. Saved by the Blood of the crucified God, glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, my sins are all part and my guilt is all gone. Glory I'm saved, glory I'm saved, I'm saved by the Blood of the crucified God. Amen, you are dismissed, God bless you all, have a good evening.