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Music Good afternoon everyone, welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you all could find your seats, we'll go ahead and get started. We're going to start this evening off in song number 13. Must Jesus bear His cross alone? Song number 13. I need you all to sing it out nice and loud. Song number 13. Must Jesus bear His cross alone and all the world go free? Sing it out on the first. Must Jesus bear the cross alone and all the world go free? No, there's a cross for everyone and there's a cross for me. The consecrated cross I'll bear till death shall set me free. And then go home, my crown to wear, for there's a crown for me. Upon the crystal paving town, at Jesus' pierced feet. Joyful, I'll cast my golden crown and His dear name repeat. O precious cross, O glorious crown, O resurrection day. He angels from the stars come down and bear my soul away. Great singing everybody. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this church. Thank you so much for everyone that's gathered here. Thank you for all the souls that were won out solemnly today. We ask, Lord, that you please put your Holy Spirit upon Pastor Shelley so he could preach an edifying sermon unto us so we can walk out better Christians for your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, next up we have song number 28. Alas, and did my Savior bleed? It's a little bit similar to another song so don't get confused. Song number 28. Alas, and did my Savior bleed? Sing it out. And did my sovereign die, would he devote That sacred head for so much a worm as I? Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned upon the tree? Amazing, pretty grace unknown, and love beyond debris, Well might the sun in darkness shine, and shine his glories in, When Christ the mighty maker died, for men the creatures hid, The drops of green can ne'er repay The debt of love I owe, Here Lord I give myself to thee, Tis all that I can do. Thank you for coming to the Baptist Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bulletin you would like one. You can lift up your hand nice and high or ushers can come by. We are on Jonah chapter 2 verse 7. On the inside we have our service and so many times as well as our church stats down below. On the right we have the list of expecting ladies in our prayer list. Upcoming events, we have the Texas Chili Cook-Off on the 31st. If you would like to participate in the competition you can bring your chili at least before 6pm. Miami Soul Winning Marathon is November 16th if you would like to participate. Also congratulations to Brother Oz on the upcoming ordination on November 24th for the Oklahoma City Church. It is going to be Anchor Baptist Church and so we are really excited for him. On the back we have the congratulations to Matt and Sierra Ili on the birth of Lazarus Paul. He was born on October 17th at 2.30am weighing 8 pounds 1 ounce and 19.5 inches long. Congratulations to them. That's really all I have as far as announcements. We will go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week, Psalm 146. Psalm 146. All right, that is Psalm 146. Just like this morning it's in a little bit of a different key so just sing it out nice and loud. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live, will I praise the Lord? I will sing praises unto my God, while I have any faith. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of Man, in whom there is no help. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth in that very day his thoughts perish. Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord, the Lord is God. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. Of heaven and earth the sea, and all that there in it which keepeth to forever, which execute in judgment for the oppressed which giveth food to the free, the Lord who sent the prisoners. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. The Lord who liveth the eyes of the blind, the Lord raiseth them then. Far, bow down the Lord, love it, thou righteous the Lord, preserveth the strangers, he reliveth the Father, this and widow. Praise ye the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul. But the way of the wicked, he turneth but upside down. The Lord shall reign forever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord, praise he the Lord. Great singing everybody. As the offering places are going around, would you please turn your Bibles to Revelation chapter number 2. Revelation chapter number 2. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O Zion, unto all generations. Revelation chapter number 2, the Bible says, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil. And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I am somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God. And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things saith the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. I know thy works and tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death. And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write, these things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges. I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seed is. And thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith. Even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass. I know thy works, and charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience, and thy works, and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you none other burden. But that which ye have already, hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my Father, and I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I thank you for this day. I thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, which took stripes in his body for us. Thank you for the Gospel. I ask you to bless Pastor Shelley, help him to preach with boldness. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. I want to look at verse 5 again. The Bible says, Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. Now, in the book of Revelation in chapter number 2, we're addressing seven different churches. This is kind of the first half here that's mentioned in chapter 2 specifically. And it mentions here in verse number 5 that a candlestick would be removed from a particular church. Now, that language becomes a little bit less confusing when you compare it with chapter 1, verse 20. It says, The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches. So, when God is using this metaphor of a candlestick, the candlestick is a picture of a church. And so, when the Bible is saying that God is going to remove thy candlestick, he's kind of saying, I'm going to remove thy church. Now, I don't know how much of this is metaphorical or even just physical, that God would literally just physically remove the church or just kind of in a metaphorical sense. He kind of takes away his blessing or his recognition of this particular church as a church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you think about what a candlestick even does is it holds up multiple lights. A candlestick is basically, especially if we think of the, quote, famous menorah, it's holding seven candlesticks up at once. And according to the Bible, we are those candlesticks. We are that light which is to shine, and by being stuck into or implanted into a candlestick, that is allowing our light to shine. And what is that light? That light is Jesus Christ in us, which is the gospel which is in us. This is also described here as the first works, which, of course, we understand getting saved is the first step in becoming a Christian. There really isn't any step before getting saved. Now, of course, once you're saved, then you should get baptized. That's the second step. Then thirdly, then you want to start reading your Bible and going to church and following all the commandments. Of course, there's many steps beyond salvation, but the first step, the first work, the most important thing that we could ever think about is preaching the gospel. And the Bible warns that if a church ceases to preach the gospel, if they leave their first love, if they stop doing the first works, that they could lose their church. They could lose their status of a church. And that's really where I'm getting the title of my sermon this evening is what can destroy a church? What can destroy a church? And the first point is if you stop soul winning, if you stop preaching the gospel, if you stop being evangelistic, well, then really, you have to ask yourself, what's the point anymore? Like, what's the point of a church if we are not trying to reach anybody with the gospel of Jesus Christ, if we're not willing to do the first works whatsoever? Now, I want to go to some more passages. Go to 2 Corinthians. We're going to come back to Revelation, but go to 2 Corinthians, chapter number 4, if you would. And I want to look at a couple other passages here about this particular point. But, of course, the Bible isn't explicit on what the first works are. But I believe when we consider the metaphor of what it's being said, the candlesticks holding the light up, when we think about it being the first work, when we think about it being the first love, when we think about God taking this so seriously that he would remove their candlestick, it becomes pretty obvious that what we're talking about is preaching the gospel. Now, in 2 Corinthians, chapter number 4, the Bible is also alluding to the idea of the importance of the gospel. Now, it says in verse 1, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. We should be a public ministry, making it very clear what we're doing. We're not the Freemasons. We're not hiding what we believe. You don't have to go to some Mormon temple to figure out what we're doing. No, we try to manifest what we believe. We put all of our sermons out there. And you know, by being so public and so honest all the time, it sometimes causes a lot of issues. It causes a lot of problems. It causes people to get mad at us and for people to attack us for what we believe and what the Bible actually says. But we're not trying to do anything tricky, crafty, deceitfully. But we want to make sure everything we're doing is out in the open, is real obvious, and we're telling everybody what our intentions are. Verse 3, But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them of a loss. The worst thing we could do is hide the gospel. Now, obviously sometimes things don't have to be super public. Obviously when we've had internal issues or we have internal disagreements or perhaps we have some kind of a church discipline issue, you know, I try my best to not put anything like that online or on the internet or whatever. That's just something amongst us. Now, people that hate us will sometimes try to send that information out to try and attack us. But generally speaking, you know, we try to keep some of those things private because love covers a multitude of sins. You know, if you actually love people, you're not trying to just shame people unnecessarily or cause people some kind of harm or not allow them to live things down. You know, especially when they get it right, we should just let people live things down. But at the end of the day, you know, sometimes we still have to deal with stuff. But the one thing that we should not be hiding in any way is the gospel. The one thing that our church should not be trying to conceal or be kind of crafty about is what we believe about going to heaven. Like, isn't it weird if you would email a pastor or you'd call a pastor on the phone and be like, what do you believe about repentance? And they're like, I don't want to answer that question. You're thinking like, what do you mean you don't want to answer that question? Or what do you think you have to do to be saved? Well, you know, there's lots of ideas out there. There shouldn't be lots of ideas. Just tell me exactly what you believe. Well, I just believe it's repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? You know, it means different things to different people. You know, we shouldn't be vague. We shouldn't beat around the bush. If someone wants to know what we believe about repentance, we should be really clear. You know, that's why I like on our doctrinal statement, it clearly says, hey, repenting of your sins is not a necessary requirement for salvation. So people know, like, hey, these people are serious. When they say faith alone, they mean it. When they say it's a free gift, they mean it. When they say once you're saved, you're always saved, they mean it. And we're not hiding that. I get frustrated when I'm trying to find out information about a church and they have nothing about salvation. I've seen this. You look at a doctrinal statement, it'll basically say, like, hey, we believe that the Bible is the word of God, generally speaking, in the originals. Okay, wow. That was an impressive start to your statement. And then it's just like, we believe that God is a holy, triune God, and we believe in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and we believe in his second coming, and we believe that the Church has two ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper, and that's it. And you're just like, okay, so you told me almost nothing because virtually every single general church believes that. I mean, unless we're talking about a cult, unless we're talking about maybe some weird, extreme schism out there that exists, like, almost everybody agrees on that. I mean, even the Catholics. I think the Catholics generally agree with that statement, maybe. Maybe they'll get a little bit squeamish on the baptism. I don't know. But I'm just saying, like, it's like we don't want to have a doctrinal statement that says, hey, we don't believe anything different than anybody else, just a vain utterance. We want to be clear, hey, this is what we believe on salvation. Hey, we hand out a pamphlet that tells you exactly how to get saved. Hey, we give you a video card that tells you exactly how to be saved. Because if our gospel be hid, who is it really hid from? It's not hid from us. It's hid from the lost. Amen. And why? In verse 4, So according to the Bible, we want to make sure that the gospel is being shown brightly so that the lost can actually get saved. And when we go out and preach, verse 5, And ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. You know, when we go out, we're not saying, like, hey, I turned from sin. Be like me. Hey, I cleaned up my life. Be like me. Hey, I did this great work for the Lord. Be like me. No, we go out and we tell them the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and we preach Christ crucified, and that's all we preach. Because that's what gets people saved is what Christ did for us, not what we do, not ourselves. Verse 6, Now this is a verse that I think we need to really think about. Because, you know, there's been this argument out there, and I'm not saying it's, like, the worst argument, but I think it's a bad argument, that says, well, it's the Bible that gets people saved, and it's God that gets people saved. We have nothing to do with it. And it kind of, like, really undermines soul winning. It really undermines the importance of sharing salvation by faith to faith. But think about what this verse is actually saying. Just pause for a moment and really dwell on verse 7, because this is important for a soul winning church. But we have this treasure in the Bible. No. For we have this treasure in heaven. No. For we have this treasure in what? In earthen vessels. So where is this treasure? Where does the gospel exist? Where is the gospel located? In earthen vessels. What is that? That is us. It is saying that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that we don't want to hide exists inside of us. And that we are the ones that are bearing forth the gospel message. That we are the ones that are going to help get people saved by opening our mouths boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. Why do you think it is that God even gave you the mouth on your face? You know why God gave you a mouth? So that you could open it boldly to preach John 3.16. Not so you could go around and brag about yourself and talk about how wonderful you are and talk negatively about other people and tear people down, but rather preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Because you have that gospel inside of your heart, inside of your soul, and when you open your mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, that is what can get someone saved. And notice it is not about us though that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Obviously why it is effective is because we are not preaching ourselves. We are preaching Christ and Him crucified. So it doesn't matter what vessel. It matters that the vessels do it, but it doesn't matter which vessel it is. It is important that we as vessels are used by God, but it does not matter which of us God uses. It matters that the gospel is being preached. And we have to realize and humble ourselves and recognize that we are important. You know, sometimes people think that being humble is thinking lowly of yourself, but actually in many cases humility is actually realizing the value that you have and making sure that you are using what God has given you or what other people have given you and taking it very seriously. Taking it very, very seriously. Now it says in verse 8, we are troubled on every side. Yet not distressed, we are perplexed, but not in despair, persecuted, but not forsaken, cast down, but not destroyed. I love that. Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body, for we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh, so then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe and therefore have I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you, for all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God, for which cause we faint not. You know why we don't faint? You know why we don't give up? Because we understand that the only way to get people saved is for us to just keep going. And you know what? Sometimes we're troubled on every side, but we keep going. Sometimes we're distressed, but we keep going. Sometimes we're perplexed, but we just keep going. Sometimes we're persecuted. Sometimes we've been cast down. But you know what? If you haven't been destroyed, just keep going. For the just man follows seven times and riseth up again, and we just have to keep fighting and keep fighting. And you know what? We bear in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we bear the sufferings and the afflictions and the wounds and the whatever that Jesus went through, we can bear them in our own bodies, and we just don't give up. Why? Because if we give up, then the whole world is going to die and go to hell. If our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. When we give up, it doesn't just affect us, it affects other people. We must bear the gospel of Jesus Christ, because when you stop, you know what? Your church stops to be a church. You know what can destroy a church? When we quit preaching the gospel. Go over to Revelation chapter 3. Go back to Revelation and go to chapter 3 for a moment. What can destroy a church? Stop preaching the gospel. Every church needs to hear a message about this. Every church needs to be warned that we must be preaching the gospel. The world is getting darker by the second. The world is getting worse by the second. And we don't need less churches. We need more churches. And we need more churches to be preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And no matter where you find yourself in life, make sure that you're always part of a church that is making it an importance to preach the gospel. For me, it's like, number one, they have the gospel right. Number two, they have the right Bible. And then number three, that there's an ability for me to go out and preach the gospel. Because without those three, you really are going to be in a hard spot. I really can't even hardly recommend a church. Number one, if they don't have the right gospel, it's not a church. Number two, if they don't have the right Bible, you're really not following the right leader. And number three, if they're not really doing the soul winning, they're either in danger of losing their candlestick or they don't even have one. And again, not every church is super zealous. Not every church is just on fire. Not every church is preaching the gospel super hard. And I don't think that God is just looking down and not recognizing them as a church. But in general, we don't want to get to a point where we're dancing and flirting with the idea of Christ looking down and saying, you guys haven't even, you've lost your first love. You don't even care anymore. I want to be in a church where there's a spirit of soul winning, where there's a fire and a zeal for soul winning, where we understand the importance of it. Because at the end of the day, when we die, the only thing that's going to really matter is who we've brought with us to heaven. All of our sins will not even be remembered. All of the accomplishments that you had that were carnal won't matter. It won't matter if you were rich, poor, ugly, handsome, smart, fun, had been married, wasn't married, had lots of kids, didn't have lots of kids, had a great job, didn't have a great job, drove a fast car, never drove a fast car, had a Tesla. Nobody cares. Like, I think it'd be cool. I've never driven one. I thought it'd be cool to drive one like one time maybe, just, it might be fun. But I may never get to. And that's okay, because it doesn't matter. It just like literally doesn't matter. There's still lots of places I'd like to travel to. I'd like to get more places on my passport. I'd like to have more kids. I'd like to accomplish all kinds of great things. But you know, at the end of the day, all of that is pretty much vanity anyways. The only thing that really matters is preaching the gospel and getting people saved and following God's commandments. To fear God and to keep His commandments is the whole duty of man. And when we look at a church, you know, when a church has lost sight of preaching the gospel, it really has lost sight of what's the point anyways. We're supposed to be getting gathered together to be encouraged to preach the gospel more effectively, to edify one another, to build each other up, and to rally the troops so that when we go out throughout the week, that we're ready to have the boldness and the character and walking in the spirit to preach the gospel. Revelation chapter 3, look at verse 1, And unto the angel of the church and Sardis write, These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou liveth, and art dead. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Now, I'm only bringing these up because he kind of puts several churches in jeopardy, but he's not as specific in every single case. But in this particular case, notice again, he's criticizing their works. So there must be something wrong with their works. I would assume the first works is probably likely in the same category. I mean, they have a name that they live, but they're dead. If you're dead, it doesn't sound like you're producing fruit. If you're not producing fruit, well, it doesn't sound like you're preaching the gospel. So it seems like this church is also potentially in the same boat, in the same category, where there's some issue with their works. And you know what's going to kill a church? Their works, or the lack thereof, really. Look down at verse 14. And unto the angel the church of the lay of citizens write, These things say of thee, Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou, neither cold nor hot, I would, thou wert, cold or hot. So then, because thou art lute warm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth, because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and in need of nothing. And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Notice again another church that's described as having an issue with their works, saying that they're lukewarm. They're not hot, they're not cold. And specifically, though, when he describes their status, he's saying, well, they have all these works in the sense that they have, obviously, a lot of goods. They must have some good programs. They must have, you know, all these different things to, like, look at and think, like, we must be a great church. I mean, notice what it says. They're increased with goods. They have need of nothing. They say, we're rich. But what's the problem? They're technically, according to God, wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. And they haven't been buying what? Gold tried in fire, that they would be rich. What kind of riches are they lacking? They're lacking spiritual riches, which would, again, I believe, correlate to 1 Corinthians 3. They don't have gold, silver, and precious stone. They have wood, hay, and stubble, meaning, again, another church that's lacking in that first work, that's lacking in preaching the gospel, and, again, they're another church in jeopardy of losing the status of their church and being destroyed. And let's be honest. None of these churches even exist today. All these churches are gone. Churches are gonna come and go. There's never gonna be, like, a church that's just, like, this one church that's probably just gonna last for hundreds and hundreds of years. Now, I'm sure that there is a few out there. Someone's gonna be like, I found this church and it's been here for 700 years or something. But I'm just saying, like, generally speaking, you're probably not gonna have some, like, on-fire, soul-winning, hard-preaching church for super, super long. It just isn't very likely because one generation comes and then they just don't know what to do. One generation comes and then they just destroy the works of the previous generation and just whatever. You know, you only get what you have. Churches come and go. Churches go good. Churches go bad. Churches pop up. Churches get destroyed. I mean, churches just are all over the map. When you look historically, when you look in the Bible, I mean, think of the church at Galatia. They're already screwed up on the gospel. That was quick. Like, they haven't even gotten out of the apostolic age and they're already, like, in serious issue. The seven churches which are in Asia, which is probably the area that Paul spent the most time in, I mean, that's where he's really getting things kicked off, really getting started. I mean, look how many serious issues they already have. Why? Because the devil hates the church. Because the devil wants to destroy churches and the devil is constantly trying to destroy the work of God. And so churches are gonna constantly have to be populating and repopulating and going out and planting and multiplying and whatever. And you're not gonna have the same caliber every single time. No church is gonna be the exact same. But no matter what, there will always be church because the gates of hell should not prevail against the church, okay? But that doesn't mean that any individual church couldn't have problems. Any individual church could always have problems at any point. And what's gonna destroy it? Stop preaching the gospel. So if we want to stay a church that's blessed by God, it's not about the leadership. It's about us as a group preaching the gospel. If we stop preaching the gospel, well, then that can destroy a church. Now I want you to go back to Revelation 2 and look at verse number 14. So point one is this. What can destroy a church? Stop soul winning. Here's another thing that can destroy a church. Look at verse 14. But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block for the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate, repent, or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. Another thing that can destroy a church is false doctrine. And we see that being mentioned here that these particular individuals, they hold the doctrine of Balaam. Now the doctrine of Balaam is kind of two-part. One is eating meat sacrificed unto idols. The second is fornication. And if you go back to Acts, which we're not going, but if you go back to Acts, there's a point in time where the Apostle Paul is kind of talking with the other apostles, and they're just saying, like, what instructions do we need to give unto the Gentiles? And this was basically the two-fold instruction that they needed to give them back then, too. They're saying, like, hey, we need to make sure that they're not eating meat sacrificed unto idols and that they're not committing fornication, because these are just, like, the two biggest issues of that time and of that era. Today, we really don't necessarily struggle with eating meat sacrificed unto idols. Like, that's not typically a huge thing for us. I think that the halal meat might actually be a violation of that, but you can go fact-check me on it. But, you know, for the most part, we're probably not buying too much halal. And we don't really live in India, so we're not necessarily in an area where there's constant sacrifice. Plus, Paul said, like, when he went to these Asian restaurants around town, he didn't even ask for conscience' sake, okay? So when you walk in and they've got the little cat going like this or whatever, you know, they've got the little Buddhas on the wall or whatever, you probably just shouldn't ask any questions, okay? Or just don't eat there. That's another option, okay? I would never recommend Indian food, okay? I don't like Indian food. I've never eaten Indian food. I have no plans on ever eating Indian food. I hope that you never eat Indian food, but I can't condemn it, okay? Now, here's the thing. Somebody's going to freak out about that, okay? Someone's going to say that I'm literally endorsing Indian food after this comment. But I'm just telling you, I do not like it, do not recommend it, don't want it. And, in fact, by you eating it, you're, like, encouraging more of those people to come here and make more of the restaurants. So I really don't like it. But I can't condemn it, okay? If I could, I would. Show me the verse in the Bible. I'm ready to condemn it, okay? You know what I mean? Someone's going to have to break fellowship with me after this sermon, right? But we have to be wary of false doctrine because that can destroy a church. Now, go to 1 Timothy 4. Go to 1 Timothy 4. The Bible says in verse number 13, "'Til I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.'" So a really important instruction for leadership is to make sure that people are staying in line step and lockstep with the doctrine, and that's what we believe. Verse 14, Presbytery is like another idea for a group of elders. It says in verse 15, "'Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.'" What really preserves a church is staying true to its doctrine, staying true to its beliefs. When a church loses its core beliefs or changes its core beliefs, that's when the church becomes unstable. You know, we want to make sure that we're not in a church where we're constantly trying to figure out what we are. Like, are we Calvinists? Are we not Calvinists? What do we believe about, you know, Jesus coming? Did Jesus already come? Did he not come? Is it metaphor? Is it real? Like, you know, hey, we already know Jesus is coming. He hasn't already come, folks, okay? No locusts out of hell were released or anything yet. You believe that you're a weirdo. We also are not Calvinists, and no, God's not going to force me to change my mind on that, okay? And so, you know, we want to make sure that we're not changing which Bible. Look, there's King James fundamental Baptist churches today dropping the King James Bible. There are King James fundamental Baptist churches dropping soul winning. There are King James Bible soul winning churches just changing all kinds of stuff. Now, look, if you're wrong on minor things or you need to clean up some doctrine, hey, we're all capable of changing a little bit, modifying a little bit. I'm not saying stay stuck on something wrong, but at the end of the day, we shouldn't just be constantly changing doctrine. We should have already known what we believe. We should already be locked in. You know, the people that are preaching the Bible should have read it many times over and over and already know what it says. They're not changing their doctrines on hell. They're not changing on who Jesus is. They're not changing on the Trinity. They're not changing on these major issues. People that are given to change are somebody you're not supposed to meddle with. Meddle not with them that are given to change, the Bible says. And so we want to make sure that we are avoiding false doctrine and people that are constantly changing on a hair trigger. Go to 2 Timothy 1. 2 Timothy 1. You know, the Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways, and we don't want to be double-minded. Now, again, you know, some people get really weird with words and definitions. You know, like, people will start saying, like, they'll start throwing this word narcissistic around all the time. And it's like, if you ever have a thought about yourself, you're now a narcissist or something. And it's like, no, that's pretty extreme. Or it's like, if you ever change your mind on anything, it's like you're double-minded. But it's like, let me explain what double-minded actually looks like. What double-minded means is that you can't decide if you're going to go to church on Sunday morning. What double-minded means is you're not going three times a week. You constantly are ebbing and flowing and can't decide how often you're going to church. Double-minded means you don't know which Bible you're going to use. Double-minded means you can't decide if you're going to go soul-winning or not. Double-minded means you can't stick with a job. Double-minded means that you can't stick with a lifestyle. Double-minded means you can't stick with the same wife. Double-minded means you can't stick on the same idea of, like, what you're going to do with your children. Like, those are being double-minded, and that will destroy you. You know, there's so many people, they can't even figure out what church they want to go to. That's being double-minded. Now, if you're watching a murder mystery movie, and as you're watching the movie, it's constantly changing the narrative, and you're getting new facts, and you're trying to figure out, like, I think he's the killer. Oh, no, no, now I think he's the killer, whatever. That's not a double-minded man, okay? Just because when you're getting new information and you're constantly evolving a little bit on your opinion, that's not being double-minded. Being double-minded is not going to church. Being double-minded is not sticking with a job. Being double-minded is not sticking with a wife. Being double-minded is not sticking with the King James Bible. Being double-minded is changing your doctrine all the time. You know, that's what it is to be double-minded, okay? And we don't want to be like that. We want to be in a church where we're constantly picking all these different things, or having double standards, having, like, well, for this person, I treat them this way. For this person, I treat them a different way. You know, we want to have the same type of grace with the same type of standards, the same type of judgment. That is going to help us be not double-minded. 2 Timothy 1, look at verse 13. Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou has heard of me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus, that good thing is committed unto thee, keep, by the Holy Ghost, which dwelleth in us. This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me, of whom are fight jealous and homogeneous. The Lord give mercy on the house of Onosiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me the Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day. And how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well. So we have the Apostle Paul making it clear that we need to hold fast the form of sound words. What is that? That's, again, the doctrine. And even though the Apostle Paul is sticking with clear doctrine and hasn't changed and is the same guy, notice that all these churches are turned away from him. Isn't that crazy? It's kind of crazy to think, like, Paul's same guy, same doctrine, same beliefs, same person, and then all these churches have turned against him. All these churches. And again, why is it? Well, they're ashamed of his chain. They don't like the persecution that he's getting. They don't like what's happening to him. They're afraid of also getting some kind of persecution. But you know what? Onosiphorus isn't ashamed of him. And what God says is that he's going to have mercy on him when he goes through problems because he had mercy on someone else when they had problems. And you know, we should try our best to have mercy towards people and be gracious towards people when they have problems. And look, there's a time and a place to rebuke and reprove and exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. There's a time to call your brother out for sin. But you shouldn't want your brother to be destroyed. That's a very ungodly, unchristian attitude. It really makes me wonder if you're even a brother in Christ if you want your brother to be destroyed. Now, if you want your brother to get things right, if you want to correct him, if you want to say you're wrong, hey, we should all be willing to rebuke our neighbor and not suffer sin upon them. But at the end of the day, we should make sure that we have an attitude of meekness and humbleness considering ourselves, lest we also be tempted, okay? And lest we also find ourselves in a difficult spot or in a problem or some kind of an issue. And you know, the apostle Paul, he obviously struggled and had problems and people constantly wanted to destroy him. And he had very few loyal friends, which is kind of sad to say, you know? For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world and has departed unto Thessalonica, Cretans unto Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. It's like, what are these names of these cities? It's like Disney movies or something, I don't know. I'm like, this guy is really a pretty consistent guy in the Bible, does make some mistakes, obviously goes to Jerusalem when he shouldn't have, and that causes him to end up going into jail for a while or whatever. But you know, his heart was in the right place, he's trying to get people saved, and yet a lot of people turn against the apostle Paul and he even warned them in Ephesus, you know, the elders at Ephesus, he said very clearly unto them that some of them, even of your own selves, some men arise speaking perverse things, trying to draw away disciples after themselves. What did he say was going to be the problem? Them speaking perverse things. Them trying to draw away disciples after themselves. So what is the key? The key is always the doctrine. What is the attack? It's the doctrine again. It's the beliefs changing, the beliefs getting perverted, the beliefs getting to something weird. They're not holding fast the form of sound words, are they? Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 15. Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus. False doctrine just has this ability to just poison you. Just this cancerous teaching. And look, no one is above this. I am not above this. If we listen to cantankerous information, cantankerous poisonous stuff, it will hurt us. It will hurt us. When you just listen to people lying, when you hear people lying about Christians and churches and the Bible, I mean, even just, I'm as King James as you can get, man. I know, okay, I don't think it all has to have E-F at the end, okay, so maybe I'm like one step away from Ruckmanites. Like Ruckmanites are over here, and I'm just like here, okay? But I'm about as King James as you can possibly get. But you know, if I just listen to a bunch of people just attacking the King James position, just hours and hours of them just attacking this, it can cause me to start feeling weird about my position. If I just listen, I mean, there's no way you could ever change my viewpoint on the Gospel. But if I just listen to people just explaining how you can lose your salvation and twisting passages and whatever, it can cause me to get confused at least. It can cause me to just feel weird about, you know, the Bible or something like that. It doesn't matter how much of a doctrine you believe. You know, false doctrine just has as a way and ability to just kind of poison you a little bit. You know, no matter how much I believe soul winning is good and right, it's real easy to let someone just poison you with anti-soul winning doctrine. Anti-soul, where are they? Is it really even working? Do you even know? I'm sure, and it's just like they just want to sit there and poison you. You know, they want to poison you against church, poison you against reading the Bible, poison you against soul winning, poison you against your pastor, poison you against your brethren, poison you against all kinds of different things. Why? Because, you know what, it's effective. It's that little bit of cancer and it just eats at you and eats at you and eats at you and it can destroy your mind. What does it say in verse 16? But shun profane and vain babblings for they will increase in the morning godliness. We have to be very careful that we're not just giving ear to every dumb, silly, bad thing that's out there. And unfortunately, the enemy knows that this works and so they're trying to do this hard. They're trying to just put the most idiotic, foolish, lying, railing, slander things all over the internet and all over everywhere and constantly trying to hurt and harm people constantly. But is it going to help anything? No, it just increases more in godliness. And the word of leaders of the canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past sorority and overthrow the phases of it. Now, this is a pretty serious doctrine here. This is a doctrinal error about the timeline of when Christ is going to come. But notice that their false doctrine can slip in your ear, slip in your mind, and slowly poison you. We need to give more ear to the Bible, more ear to godly preaching than to these profane and vain babblings. If you're listening to just hours of profane and vain babblings and you're reading your Bible for five minutes a day, you're probably going in the wrong direction. And you kind of see people doing this. People that kind of stop reading their Bible, stop going to church as much, but, boy, are they just watching video and posts and all this different stuff, and they're just allowing themselves to get poisoned slowly and allowing themselves to get mentally unstable. And then, you know, here's the thing. They're probably not even going to serve God at all. It's not like these people that allow this stuff to happen then just become the most zealous soul winner that you've ever met in your life or something. Now, there could be an exception to that. Obviously, there's great soul winners that have nothing to do with our church or any church like ours. I'm sure that there's great Christians all over this world. But I guarantee most of those great Christians or great soul winners are not sitting around poisoning their mind with stuff all the time. They're probably working hard on their job, reading their Bible when they can, and taking efforts to go out and preach the gospel. And that's what we have to do. And we don't want to give ear to false doctrine because that can destroy a church. If we as a church are just constantly listening to profane and vain babblings, it will destroy our church. It will destroy any church. We have to make sure we're listening to what? Sound doctrine. Look at chapter 4, verse 2. Preach the word. So again, the Bible even warns that there's going to be a point in history where people just don't even care what the Bible says. I'm not against preachers using some stories and bringing in some relevancy, maybe using books and this every once in a while. But you know what? It's weird when a preacher just spends so much time talking about things with no Bible verse. It's like you're 10 minutes in and you still haven't even touched the Bible and you're just thinking, like, what's going on? Like, everything should be rooted and grounded in the Bible and whatever the Bible is saying. And you know what? And whatever the Bible is saying. And as a preacher, we have a responsibility to preach the word. It doesn't say, preach your opinion. It doesn't say, preach your feelings. It doesn't say, preach what you want. It says to preach the word. And you know how you can tell if it's a good sermon or not? Did they preach the word? Are they preaching what the Bible clearly says? And you know what? That's always my number one criterion when evaluating a sermon. Is that what the Bible says? That's the most important. The second most important is, I think, is what is the goal of that sermon? Because just because it's biblical doesn't even necessarily mean that it's very edifying, necessarily, okay? And that's... I'm not saying that the Bible's not edifying. I'm just simply saying that you could take some truth of the Bible and present it, and it doesn't really benefit anybody that much. So we want to think about, like, what is... Is this biblical? And then what's the goal of this particular sermon? Is this trying to edify, help, build, do something to encourage the brethren? And you know what? That's what makes great preaching. Great preaching is it's biblical, and the point is very clear from the Scripture, like, what you're trying to accomplish and that you're trying to edify God's people in some way. And that's what we need in this country. We need more Bible preaching. The problem with America and the problem with churches today is they're not preaching the Bible. They're getting up and just regurgitating. They're already predisposed opinions. They have a preconceived idea in their mind, I know this is right, let me tell you what it is. Or they just basically are regurgitating what the world already believes. And here's the thing, you don't need me to tell you what the world believes. Mostly the world's wrong, okay? We need to be hearing what the Bible says. But you know why people preach the world? Because it's comfortable. You know why people preach the world? Because the carnal mind loves it. Because the carnal mind likes it. You know what? We preach the word of God to prick our hearts and to prick our consciences and to prick our souls to do that which is biblical. Not necessarily what the world thinks or the world likes. But unfortunately, what is going to happen? People are going to turn away their ears and now they just want to hear stories. Look, people love stories, especially when they're funny. I mean, if you think about what is even a comedic routine, it's just stories. I mean, if you listen to a famous comedian, they just start out telling you their story and then at the end of their story there's a punch line and you find it really funny. And then if they're a really good comedian, they'll even have punch lines later down that were related to previous parts of their story and they just wind it all together and it's just basically a professional act of just telling you story after story after story in an interesting way that provokes you unto laughter. And that's what people want. People want to go to church to hear a bunch of stories, feel good messages, laugh a few times and then check off the box, I did something for God. You know what? That is not biblical Christianity. That is not a church. A church is to preach the Word. And it doesn't matter what is in popular demand. We need to preach the Bible and have a church that's contrary to popular demand and what's in line with what the Bible says. Now, I want to go to another place in Titus. Go to chapter 1, verse 9. Titus 1, verse 9, the Bible says this, holding fast the faithful word as he had been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince the gainsayers, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially the day of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake. One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This witness is true, wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men that turn from the truth. Under the pure all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him, being abominable and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. You know, we can tell the true men of God and the true works of God by the fruit, by their works, and notice those who are not of God, they have no good works. Their works are reprobate. They're rejected. We don't see any of the good fruit coming from them. And specifically, we have to make sure that we're holding fast the faithful word as we've been taught. We are, as a church, we are all coming together to hold fast the doctrine of salvation by faith. We're all coming here to hold fast the doctrine of the King James Bible. We're all coming here to hold fast to the doctrines of post-trib pre-wrath, of not believing in Zionism, of believing in the doctrine of the Trinity, of believing, you know, all kinds of different things that are important to understand. And, you know, if we don't have a group, if we don't hold it together, you know, it's going to be lost for this world. We have a duty, we have a responsibility as a church to hold doctrine, and God is going to judge a church when it goes into false doctrine. We as a group of people need to hold each other accountable. Go to Romans chapter 16, go to Romans chapter 16 for doctrine, and not allow the doctrine to go off kilter. You know, if, obviously, if a preacher, a pastor goes awry and starts preaching weird doctrine, the church should question him on that. Now, you know, it's going to be to the discretion of how that church handles it, but at the end of the day, if I say something wrong, you should come up and challenge me on that. And people have done that. You should come up and challenge me after every sermon, okay? Now, when they're wrong, like, 99% of the time, maybe they should take that as, like, maybe I should stop correcting the pastor or the preacher, you know what I mean? But in general, you know, hey, I'm not above being corrected. There's been plenty of times where people have come to me, shown me things, explained their view to point, and I'm thinking, you know what, maybe you're right. Maybe that's a better interpretation, or maybe you're right on this issue. You know, I've apologized for things that I've said that I didn't think were necessarily right, but at the end of the day, you know, for the most part, this church, we are rock solid on the same core doctrine in agreement, and we should continue to be so. Romans chapter 16, look at verse 17. Now beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions 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 speech does deceive the hearts of the simple. So again, what would destroy a church? Allowing divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine which you have learned. Okay, so if someone is causing some kind of a division or causing some kind of a contrary issue or causing problems within a church, you know what, we can't just allow that to go unchecked because it can destroy a church. Okay, so we need to be in unity. Go to Ephesians chapter number four. Go to Ephesians chapter number four. So point number one, what can destroy a church is if you stop soul winning. Point number two is false doctrine, and we cannot allow false doctrine to come in and destroy a church. And if people are going to misunderstand, you know, certain interpretations, certain applications of the church to cause division in a church, that can really unravel the work of God. And as a pastor, you know, it's important to keep the flock together. It's important to keep the flock away from being destroyed by predators, by people that have insincere intentions. And another thing, though, that can happen is, number one, we could stop ourselves by stop soul winning. Number two, we could allow false doctrine or predators, you know, false perverters of the gospel to come in and just take us aside and draw people away, wolves that would come in. But here's another thing we could do is we could kind of destroy ourselves. Through our own strife. And this is what I want to bring up in Ephesians 4. There's a lot of verses here, verse 25. It says, Wherefore put away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, if we are members one of another. Now, the Bible's going to give us a list of all these things, but it's warning us against strife. And keep your finger there, but look again at verse number three. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. A church needs to try and keep unity. And if we don't, it can destroy us. Well, what does that look like? That's what verse 25 is, when we're lying to each other. If we're just all a bunch of liars and lying about each other and causing all kinds of problems, like, that's going to destroy a church. Verse 26, Be angry and sin not, let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. So what is a thing that the devil can use to destroy us is not allowing issues to be resolved. Not allowing issues to be resolved. If you're angry with people, if you're angry with situations, we have to resolve those, because if we don't, it can destroy a church. It can destroy friendships. It can destroy all kinds of things. When you have problems, we need to address them and find a conflict resolution. Verse 28, Let him that stole steal no more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have the give to him that needeth. You know, we can't just have people in the church taking things from each other and stealing from one another. That's going to basically unravel the fabric of our church. People need to work with quietness and work with their own hands and provide for themselves and also not be trying to get handouts from every single person. And so we need to make sure that we're not causing strife amongst each other. Verse 29, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. So we can't just constantly corrupt each other, which is to tear down, make things rot and destroy. We don't want to go around trash-talking each other. You know, it just doesn't help. And it's just weird. It seems like there's some churches where it's like their whole goal is to just be a bunch of trash-talking individuals. Like their church is centered around just trashing other people, trashing other churches. Like your church should be about Jesus. You know what your church shouldn't be? It shouldn't be a board game about other churches that you're trashing. Like if you're playing a board game after the service with your members trashing other churches, you have to ask yourself, like, what are you even doing? Okay, that is weird, okay? That is corrupt communication, okay? And it's not edifying at all. It's definitely not ministering grace unto anybody, okay? Verse 30, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed in the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speak be put away from you with all malice. Malice is intentional harm. It's when you want to harm someone. And, you know, that bitterness is a really dangerous thing. Bitterness is when someone has done you wrong or done something you don't like, and you just allow it to fester, and it just becomes a bigger problem, bigger problem, bigger problem, and that strife comes out, and it causes you to really hurt and harm other people. It says in verse 32, and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, had forgiven you. What will destroy churches is unforgiveness. We need to always work on forgiveness. And when you can't forgive people, when you can't let things go, when you can't deal with issues and you just allow bitterness to fester in your heart, it can destroy you and it can destroy a church. We as a church have to have continual forgiveness, one for another, and we should have forgiveness towards our brethren, and we should just let things go. You know, I always say, and I mean it, like, hey, if someone does you wrong, tell them and then move on. We can't just let, if we don't, then we're just going to let that bitterness eat us up and then we'll be defined as the person that, well, so-and-so is just defined as the person who hates this other person. I don't want to be defined by that. Just let it go. Just let go of the bitterness. Just let go of the unforgiveness. Just move on. Just do something with your life that's productive. You know, we don't want to destroy ourselves with this. Go to Hebrews chapter 12. Go to Hebrews chapter number 12. And look at verse number 11. Hebrews chapter 12, look at verse 11. "'Now no chastening for the present seemed to be joyous but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yielded the peaceable fruit of a righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.'" So sometimes God will chasten us and chastise us and it's never pleasant. Otherwise, it wasn't chastisement. If your punishment doesn't hurt, then it's not punishment. Okay? And yet, what is it? What is it? And yet, what does it yield? It yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness. So it can make us a better person. Chastening should make you a better person. It says, "'Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down on the feeble knees and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up trouble you, and there be many be defiled, and thereby many be defiled.'" So according to the Bible, the root of bitterness can trouble us. And look, the devil knows what he's doing. And the devil will allow bitterness to just go unresolved, and then bitterness will turn into just anger and hatred, and then it'll cloud your judgment, and then you'll just lash out at people because you have unresolved bitterness because you're just disgruntled. And boy, I've seen this so much, where people, it's just, they have some little bit of bitterness, and they just hang on to it, and they just hang on to it forever, and they just lash out, and they let it cloud their judgment, and they just have to hate and obsess and just be so nitpicky, and they just can't let it go. And they let it define them as a person. You know, it's not healthy to hang on to bitterness, period. Like, if you don't like someone, you should just forget that they exist and move on with your life. Now, obviously, if it's somebody you have to work with, if it's someone that you have to be around, if it's someone in church, you need to fix that. But I'm just saying, like, if they're not even in your life, move on with your life. Have a healthy life and just get rid of the root of bitterness because it will destroy you. You know, Absalom got a root of bitterness for his brother, and he held on to it for years, and then he finally killed his brother. And then he just gets, like, another root of bitterness against his dad, and then he hangs on to that, and then he turns and just basically Judases his entire dad. And it's like if Absalom could have just let go of the bitterness in his heart, he probably would have been a fine guy. He was not, like, a bad guy in general. He just allowed that bitterness to turn him into a completely different person. And you know what? You can allow bitterness to destroy you and turn you into a completely different person, and it can destroy a church. Go to Proverbs 16. Last place I want to look real quick. Proverbs 16. What can destroy a church? Well, number one, if we stop soul winning, what can destroy a church? Number two, false doctrine. But here's another one. It's just strife. Strife, conflict from lying and talking trash on each other and having unforgiveness and allowing bitterness to creep in. We need to work very hard on making sure that we're not allowing strife to destroy our church. Proverbs 16. Look at verse 28. A thrower man soweth strife, and a whisperer separateth chief friends. That will destroy a church. Strife will destroy a church. Whispers, people going around, just trying to poison people against each other, trying to ruin friendships, ruin people from having unity. I mean, what does it say in Ephesians 4 that we're supposed to be endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace? And, you know, you can't allow thrower people and whisperers to come around and poison you against your friends because it can separate you. You know, this can even happen in a marriage where you can allow people in your life to poison you against your spouse. And you know what? You need to cut those people out of your life. If people are talking badly about their spouse or their spouse even, sometimes, you know, and this really is unfortunate, but there's sometimes people that are unhappy with their relationship, but they can't be content with just destroying their own marriage. They have to, like, drag other people down with them. And they basically project all of the issues they have in their relationship onto other people, and they're trying to convince other people, hey, yeah, your husband's bad like mine or your wife's terrible like mine or whatever, and they basically are just sitting here trying to separate chief friends. You know what? You should cut out people in your life that are trying to poison you against your spouse, that are trying to poison you against marriage, that are trying to poison you against your children, that are trying to poison you against your boss, that are trying to poison you against your friends, that are trying to poison you against your brothers and sisters in Christ. You know what? You need to make sure that you're not just allowing these whisperers and these people that are sowing strife and sowing discord to destroy you, because you know what? They have no good intentions. And it's not like they're going to be your friend. Don't be fooled by the guy sowing strife and think like, oh, I need to win him over. He doesn't want to be your friend. He is not your friend. Your friend is not the one going around trying to sow strife and sow discord and trying to cause problems. They're somebody that has their own issues, and you want to stay away from those individuals. You want to be around people that are going to be edifying and building you up. I want to be around people that are going soul winning, not the people that are stop soul winning. I want to be around people that have the same doctrine as me, having the right kind of doctrine. You know what, I want to be around people that are not trying to cause strife. And you know what? That's what we should have in a church. We should have a church of soul winners. We should have a church of people who have the right doctrine. We should have a church of people that are striving for unity and not trying to cause strife. And you know what? When you have those three elements present, you're going to destroy church. Imagine going to a church where they don't have soul winning, they're goofed up on doctrine, and a bunch of people and they're constantly causing strife. Sounds like a lot of churches that are out there these days. And you know what? They're not headed in the right direction. It's not really helping a lot of people. And we don't want to have those things. And the devil knows what he's doing. The devil would love, you know, if he can't stop your soul winning, if he can't stop your doctrine, well, then he'll get in there and he'll try to destroy you through strife. Why do you think the Bible brings that up? You think the Bible is just like, I just want to mention, hey, the devil works this way for no reason. There's no reason to be mentioning this whatsoever. No, no, no. The devil knows that bitterness can destroy people and destroy churches. And we need to make sure that we're not allowing, we're not giving place unto the devil. We have to work really hard on this because your flesh wants to right every wrong, wants to always be right, wants everybody else to pay. But you know what? The spirit needs to just say, let it go. If you have ought against any, just let it go. Just move on. And you know, if you're struggling, here's one thing I want to say. I want to make this clear. If you have bitterness towards someone that you can't let go of, let's resolve, let's figure out a time to just get you all together and resolve it. But do not allow it to just fester. That is not okay. If you can't let it go, let's fix it. But you know what? Do not let unresolved tension just keep building up because it will cause problems. It will destroy people's lives. And you know what? I don't want to police people's personal life. I am the farthest. I hate drama. Okay? I hate it so much you don't even understand. But I can't find, I can't get away from it. I am for peace. But when I speak, they are for war. I'll tell you what. Okay? But at the end of the day, we just cannot allow drama to just destroy a church and destroy the fabric of Christianity. We need to make sure that we're resolving tensions, resolving conflicts. We're not sowing discord. We're not trying to separate chief friends. We're not giving ear to profane and vain babblings. We're not just allowing ourselves to get poisoned against someone and get good doctrine and our friends. We need to make sure that we're endeavoring to keep the unity. That's what can destroy a church. And I don't want this church to be destroyed because of those things. Let's close in prayer, alright? Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this church. Thank you so much for these people. I pray that you would just help us to be a soul winning church as always. That we constantly be steadfast, unmovable. I pray that you would help us to stay locked in on the good doctrine. That we keep preaching the doctrines of the Bible. And number three, that you would help us to keep unity in our church. That we wouldn't be giving ear or heed to false lips and a knotty tongue. That we wouldn't allow ourselves to have discord come in and create bitterness or hatred or envy or variance in our hearts and our minds. I pray that you would just help us to keep endeavoring to keep the unity. And that you would keep using this church for your honor and glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Alright, next up we have song number 64, Shall We Gather at the River? It's a great song about unity. Shall We Gather at the River? Sing it out all together on the first. Shall We Gather at the River? Shall We Gather at the River? Where bright angels meet and draw. With its crystal time forever. Flowing by the throne of God. Yes, we'll gather at the River. The beautiful, the beautiful. The river. Gather with the saints at the river. That flows by the throne of God. On the boots above the river. Where the Savior King we hold. We shall meet and tour of never. Meet the glory of the Lord. Yes, we'll gather at the river. The beautiful, the beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river. That flows by the throne of God. Here we reach the shining river. May we ever burn it down. May we ever burn it down. Grace our spirit will deliver. And provide a room and ground. Yes, we'll gather at the river. The beautiful, the beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river. That flows by the throne of God. On the last. Soon we'll reach the shining river. Soon our pilgrimage will cease. Soon our happy hearts will river. With the melody of peace. Yes, we'll gather at the river. The beautiful, the beautiful river. The beautiful, the beautiful river. Gather with the saints at the river. That flows by the throne of God. Great singing. We have a baptism. Brother Ron is coming for baptism this afternoon. Brother Ron, if you trust in Christ as your Savior, then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Buried in the likeness of his death, raised to walk in newness of life. Congratulations to you so much. Make sure to congratulate our baptism. You are dismissed.