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

🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Dramatic Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Four, two, six. On the first. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this day. Thank you for bringing us together to worship the birth of your son, Lord. And Lord, please fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit. And thank you for everyone that's here. Help us to have a wonderful Christmas after this. If we can honor and glorify your name, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, second song is going to be song number 430. While shepherds watch their flocks. Song 430. While shepherds watch their flocks. While shepherds watch their flocks. While shepherds watch their flocks. While shepherds watch their flocks. While shepherds watch their flocks. While shepherds watch their flocks. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bullets in, you would like one. Just lift up your hand nice and high. Thank you for coming an hour early. That way I can preach a two and a half an hour sermon this evening. And I'm just kidding. It'll be like three or something, you know, under. But thanks so much for coming. We have cookies immediately following the service. And boy it is some fierce competition out there. I'll tell you what, Baptists know how to cook. But we definitely know how to eat even better. So please definitely join us immediately following the service. And we're going to have a few instructions. I'm going to try and give them again one more time right before we're dismissed this evening. Just so we can remember. But there is going to be three colored beads. There should be signs posted on what they represent. But we're voting on the best tasting cookies, the best decorated, and then the most creative. So you say, what does that mean? You get to decide. All right. So this is your own truth. All right. No, I'm just kidding. And you get to vote. I mean, it's basically a free for all at this point. I guess by the end of year we're just so tired, just like do whatever you want. Now, but we'll let everybody vote that tried the cookies. And after we're done, we'll tally it up and we'll have a couple winners. And so if you go into our fellowship room, try to just walk all the way to the opposite side and kind of start at that table. And then you just work your way in a circle all the way back out of the room. And then we're actually we have drinks kind of at the last part of the table, too. So just try to grab everything one try one time through. Don't necessarily get every single cookie. Maybe if you're a family, you can all share a bite of a few different ones and everything like that. So try to be respectful of that. Also, try to help your kids. So, you know, we don't have a lot of waste there. But people worked really hard on these cookies. And so we want to make sure that we're enjoying them appropriately. I'll give you again those instructions one more time right before we're dismissed. But thank you to everybody who participated. We couldn't have an event without you guys doing this. And I know a lot of ladies really worked really hard on this. So thank you so much for that. On the inside of our bulletin, we have our service so many times. We have our expecting ladies. We have several to be in prayer for. We also have our prayer list. Please be in prayer for those who are on our prayer list. If you'd like to be added to our prayer list, please email us and we'd love to add you. We try to update this weekly. On the back, we have the note about the upcoming events. And you already made it to the cookie bake-off. And then the 31st, we're going to have a New Year's Eve party as well. So if you're in town or if you'd like to visit with us, we'd love for you to be here. I missed an important email this morning and I apologize. But congratulations to the Cotes on the birth of Josiah Micah. He was born on the 23rd, 11 p.m., 6 pounds, 13 ounces, 19 and a half inches long. Yeah. That's exciting. I have a picture. I'm sure you can see it. It looks great. Okay. Terrific, folks. Okay. So but we'll put that in the bulletin so you all get to gander. And that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We're going to go ahead and sing that third song, which is Psalm of the Week, Psalm 15. So if you have a special handout that makes it a lot easier or if you just want to use your Bible, Psalm 15, where the rich are going to lead us. All right, everybody. Psalm 15. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. Great singing. As the offering plates are passed around, please turn your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10. We'll read the entire chapter as is our custom beginning in verse one. The Bible reads for the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers the run to perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body has thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. Above what he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not. Neither had his pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also was a witness to us. For after that, he had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now, where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin, having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he had consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he is faithful that promised. And let us consider one another to provoke on the love and a good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as he see the day approaching. For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace. For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord, and again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but called to remembrance the former days in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions, partly whilst ye were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me and my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for Christmas and for the opportunity to glorify your son Jesus Christ and the free gift of salvation. I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now and enable him to preach the sermon you've laid on his heart with boldness. And also, Lord, help us to receive the message. Give us ears to hear so that we can walk out of the building more complete Christians. We love you and in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. I want to go back to verse 24 where the Bible says, And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and unto good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as ye see the day approaching. Now the Bible brings up the concept of us assembling ourselves together, and that's what we would call church. Church is a congregation or assembly of believers, and the Bible emphasizes church over and over in the New Testament. But it also gives a clear commandment in Hebrews chapter number 10, not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together, which is what we would call church. And the title of my sermon this evening is this, We Need Church. We Need Church. And when I talk about church, I'm not talking about a building. I'm not talking about an organization. I'm talking about the assembling of believers together where we congregate together as a group of believers, and that is what we call church, and that we need church. Every single person in this room needs church. I need church. And what really motivated me to preach a sermon about this is just how I was personally thinking about how I need church a lot. And I know that I'm not an exception. I think that everyone needs church. And go over to Luke chapter 8 for a moment. Go to Luke chapter number 8 in the Bible. But today, church is being attacked. It's being villainized. It's being looked at as superfluous, not needed, and extra. Or perhaps it's just full of hypocrites, or that it's become commercial, or there's all these different accusations laid at the church. And sometimes it's very warranted, considering the fact that many churches today have become apostate. There's a lot of false doctrine that's crept into churches. There's certainly a lot of false prophets and wolves that have destroyed a lot of churches. There's been a lot of people that have genuinely been victimized, or taken advantage of, or hurt by churches. There's really bad people who have gone to church and hurt people at that church. So I'm not going to try and say that there isn't problems with church, but at the end of the day, we still need it. We still need church, whether or not it's perfect, whether or not there's been problems, whether or not there are issues out there, whether or not every church is always doing right, doesn't mean that we should forsake church. We should address those issues every single time. But you know what we need? We need church. And church is an important institution. I've argued this before, and I'll argue it again. I believe that church is the most important institution we have, because frankly speaking, you know, not everybody's even going to get married. Not everybody's going to even have a family. But you know what? You can always have the institution of church. You can always have the institution of church, and Christians can always go to church. There should be a church out there somewhere, because Jesus Christ said that the gates of hell are not going to prevail against the church. And so it's clear that church is always going to be an option until Christ comes, and we should make it a priority in our lives. People who do not make church a priority are going to fall victim to the facts of life. You're going to fall victim to the facts of life. And Luke chapter 8 is a parable about a man going out and sowing seed. It brings up several different individuals. This is just generally mostly focused on Christians. The first group are those by the wayside who don't receive the gospel and don't get saved. But the next three groups mentioned in the parable of the sower are talking about saved people and how they respond to the Christian life. One basically has no root in himself and is immediately offended. They're already offended. They're ready to leave the sermon already. They're just already upset. They don't like it. They're just gone as soon as you start preaching. In many cases, they won't even darken the door of a church just because they just aren't interested in serving God. They like the free salvation. They just weren't going to show up for church. It's kind of illustrated by Jesus' parable when he heals ten leopards, and only one comes back to say thank you, and he's like, where's the nine? And that's the reality that Jesus healed a lot of people, saved a lot of people, and then that first church service was 120 people. It's not like Jesus Christ only reached 120 people and is several years of ministering all over the tribes of Israel. It's that there was 120 people willing to show up for church. But notice that the Bible focused on the group of people that went to church, not the group that didn't go to church. Because the people not going to church accomplished nothing for God. The people who accomplished something for God are the people plugged in, dedicated, and devoted to church because we need church. And the people that decide, you know what, I don't know if I need church, they allow the things in this world to come in and choke the word, and they become unfruitful. It's mentioned here in Luke chapter 8, look at verse 14. And that which fell among thorns are they, which when they have heard go forth and are choked with the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. So there's a group of individuals out there that allow the facts of life to end up choking the word, and then they end up being unfruitful. They don't produce anything in their lives. They're just basically a zero. They're not accomplishing anything for the kingdom of God. And I would say this, if I didn't go to church, I would totally be that person. And I don't even think that I'm like special or anything like that in any way or any category. I believe if I got out of church, this is me. Why? Because it's so easy to get busy with life. Life is just so busy. I mean, think about one of these categories, just one, the cares of this life. I mean, if you were to look at my list of things to do, it's insane. It's like I have all these things I want to do, want to accomplish. I mean, think about your wife's honey do list around the house. I mean, this thing is a big list. It's forever long, and as soon as you solve everything on that list, there's a brand new one right down the pike. I mean, there is enough to accomplish. There's more than you could ever wish to do in your life, whether that be jobs, getting money, working on your house, building things, buying things, storing things, promotions, all kinds of stuff are out there. I mean, you could be just obsessed with just your job. That could be enough. Then making money, that could be another one. How about just your house, your dwelling place? People spend a lot of time and a lot of money on their house. And look, it's not that these things are necessarily bad. They're not necessarily even sinful, per se. It's just the cares of this life. It's just things, life, you know, wanting to have nice stuff, living your life, doing these things, just being focused on your kids, especially if you have a lot of kids. You know, thinking about their extracurricular activities, sports, and all kinds of events. I know parents that were related to me, they got their sons into soccer. And man, it seemed like four or five nights a week, they were doing something related to that activity, right? They're going to practices, and they're going to games, and they were not only in just like one soccer team, because you have to have club soccer. So you have like club soccer, and then you have like high school soccer, and then you have like camps and stuff like that. So I mean, they're going to the club soccer, and they're going to the games, and they're going to the practices. And that was for like one kid. Imagine if you have like four or five kids, plus a lot of kids, they'll do other things. They have band, or they might be playing an instrument, or they might be doing other extracurricular activities, like maybe they're practicing for the spelling bee, or perhaps they're practicing for chess club, or perhaps they like to do, there's activities in high school that revolve around like working on cars. I can't remember what that's called. There's even like 4H, which is kind of popular around here, where people are dedicated to raising cattle, and they have like show pigs, and they have like show animals, where they go around, they have the rodeo. I mean, there's so many activities, there's so many things to be done. Plus, considering the fact of inflation, you now have to work a lot more hours just to kind of keep afloat. So that's just even more time, more pressure, more activities, more you have to work, more you have to manage, more things. I mean, I'm exhausted just talking about it, let alone how life is. And if I didn't have church, I have so many things that I could possibly be doing right now, I wouldn't carve out any time to be spiritual. It's Wednesday night, well, we've got to go to the soccer game, or we've got to go work on the house thing, or we've got to work on this other business, or we've got to make more money, or we've got to, you know, just relax from the exhaustion of just doing work. I mean, you would be surprised, maybe not, how many of you on a Sunday afternoon, I mean, you've worked hard all week, you came to church, you went soul winning. I mean, people are tired, you know, especially if we crank up the heat. You know, we've got to keep it cold in here for you to shiver, shiver awake or whatever. But I mean, it's just life is hard. How many guys today at home watching their football game or whatever just fell asleep? And it's not even that they don't like the game, it's just they're tired. And you know what, us as men, sometimes life is just tiring. Like you just pretty much taking a nap is like the, sounds like the most amazing thing ever. You're just like, wow, I could take a nap right now and that would be pretty great, you know. That wouldn't really bother me at all. I remember my dad and I would like to watch golf on TV. Boy, that'll put you to sleep, man, I'll tell you what. I love watching golf, but at the same time, boy, you could fall asleep pretty easy, you know, because it's not like, and they scored a touchdown, you know. It's just like, and they, oh, he made the putt, you know. Oh, and they, so it's just like real quiet, real calm, real relaxing. You just hear the birds chirping, you're just like, oh. You just, you fall asleep real easy. And probably baseball, too, because nothing ever happens in baseball. They just strike out or whatever. But, you know, there's all these different things that you could be doing. I mean, just baseball alone. How many games do they have, 180 games a year? That's insane, folks. That's one team. What if you were to watch multiple teams? I mean, there's so much you could possibly do that this is what I know, that if I didn't have church constantly reminding me to read my Bible or to go soul winning or there was no social pressure to be spiritual, I just wouldn't be. I would just be like everybody else, thinking about sports or activities or my job or making money or working on my house or having fun, going to the lake, doing whatever that I think is good because that's just how life works. And the Bible is saying this is the majority of Christians, that they just get caught away with the cares of this life and the pleasures of this life and they end up doing what? Producing no fruit. And what does the Bible say about the next group, verse 15? But that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word keep and bring forth fruit with patience. Notice the contrast between these two groups is one element, the heart. The heart, the one that was doing the fruit had the good heart, the one who is not producing anything, his heart has been choked with the cares of this world and it causes the heart to become hardened. When you don't have church, what happens is your heart gets hardened to the things of God and you start to despise church, not like church, not like the things of God and your heart is turned away from the things of God. That's why we need church to keep our hearts softened towards the things of God, towards the work of God, towards winning people to Christ. It would be really easy for me to just forget the fact that my whole neighborhood is dying and going to go to hell when I'm never thinking about it, never reading the Bible, never going to church. I'm just building and going to activities or doing whatever. But you know what, when you go to church and you hear the Bible and you go soul winning, you're constantly reminded of, wow, most people aren't even going to go to heaven. Most people are going to die and go to hell. And you know what, that heart, it does something to you and you say, I need to preach the gospel because if I don't do it, this person is going to go to hell. Like half of the people that went soul winning today, if half didn't show up, less people would have gotten saved. There's literally less people on their way to heaven because many Christians will never preach the gospel because they just won't go out and make known the mystery of the gospel. And so we need church to be reminded of the things of God. Point one is that we need to be reminded of why we're here, what we're doing. Christ did not create you to just build a house and live in it. Christ did not create you to just watch TV until you die. Christ did not create you just to go out and have all these sporting exploits and be just the greatest athlete to ever live. I mean, I know all the athletes, they act like God basically wants me to be this amazing athlete and never preach the gospel, false. You would way rather you quit sports and just be a soul winner. Ah, that's terrible. Well, you know what, which life are you living for? The cares of this life, the pleasures of this life, or do you actually in a good heart want to get people saved? Now again, I'm not saying playing professional sports makes someone sinful or something like that, but at the end of the day, you know, is that really the perfect will of God? Is that what he really wants? Is that person's heart really softened towards the things of God? You know, I would argue no. Go to Acts chapter 20 for a moment. Go to Acts chapter 20. The Bible brings this thought up a lot of remembering. What does remember even mean? It's not that you don't know it. It's not that you haven't heard it. It's that you're being reminded. Hey, remember. Remember that you're saved. Remember that you're a Christian. Remember that Jesus Christ died for you. I mean, why even celebrate Christmas? Well, I was hoping to get some good gifts. That's not the right reason to celebrate Christmas. You know how we celebrate Christmas? To remember Christ. To remember what Christ did for us. To be reminded of Christ. That's why it's silly to me when people say, I'm going to skip church because I'm celebrating Christmas. It's like, what? You're going to skip church to remember Christ? How does that even make sense? No, you know what you're doing? You're skipping Christ to remember presents. To remember the cares of this life. To remember the pleasures of this life. You know what we should be reminded of is what Christ did for us. His death, his burial, his resurrection, his ultimate humility to be clothed with flesh. To step down from heaven and become mortal and to become limited like we are. What a humbling experience for him to do such a thing. You know, they have that TV show. It's called, like, Undercover Boss. It's like where the CEO shows up and he's just, like, the low-level employee just to kind of see what it's like. That's a humbling thing. To come all the way down to the level of the lowest person on the rung. You know, from Christ's perspective, that's basically what he did. He came down from heaven and he's this undercover boss going around preaching the gospel and he came unto his own and his own received him not. Can you imagine? Funny. It's like you build a business, you create a business, you're the CEO, and you show up to do the low-level job and they're like, you're terrible. You shouldn't be in this business. It's like, that's how Christ... Christ created the world. He created humanity. He gave them everything they needed and then he showed up and then they were like, we don't want you. It's like, what do you mean you don't want me? I'm your savior. And did he even do anything wrong? No. He was perfect. And we sometimes forget that. We get the commercialized Jesus. We get the long-haired hippie-looking Jesus that looks like a queer. That's not Jesus. Jesus doesn't look like a queer, okay? You might look like a queer, but Jesus doesn't. Cut your hair, all right? And just quit wearing dresses, you Muslims. That's disgusting. You know, no one ever brings that point up. Nobody's talking about how they don't want Muslims invading our country. You know why I don't want them in here? Because they wear dresses. That's why I don't want... I don't want to be around men wearing dresses ever, okay? That's one reason. There's a lot of reasons, right? But it's just insane how people treat Christmas, but they don't even think about Christ. Why? Because they're not going to church, and they're not being reminded of the things that God has done for us. You know, Jesus Christ said in Luke, remember Lot's wife. I wonder how many churches are preaching that message. Do you remember Lot's wife? What does she care about? The things of this life. The pleasures of this life. And you know what? She turned into a pillar of salt. She was good for nothing, because she didn't care about spiritual things. She just cared about riches. She cared about this life. She cared about Sodom, which is bizarre. Why anybody... But you know, for some reason, women have a soft spot for Sodomites or something. It's just bizarre. But you know what? We need to remember Lot's wife. I show up at church just so I can remember Lot's wife. Because frankly speaking, you know, I don't wake up in the morning just thinking, like, I haven't read Genesis 19 in a while. I'll just read that again. I mean, I might be doing my Bible reading, but I'm just not like, that sounds like a good idea today. But you know what? Sometimes you go up to church, and you get reminded of that, whether you want it or not. Christ is just like, hey, remember this? And you know what? America needs to remember that story, because it's going down a dark road. Here's another thing to remember. Acts chapter 20, look at verse 31. Notice that the apostle Paul is saying, hey, I want you guys to remember something. You know how often I taught it to you? Every single day, every single night, for three and a half years. Now, you can complain about me re-preaching things once I've preached it for three years straight, night and day. I feel pretty safe, okay? Notice what he's saying. He's saying, I still want you to remember. Wouldn't you think they would have gotten the message by now? But this just illustrates the fact that we need to be reminded of things forever. We just always need to be reminded. We're never going to grow out of this cycle where, you know what? I've got this forever. You always have to be reminded. Even verses like John 3.16. I guarantee, if you stop soul winning and you stop reading your Bible and you stop going to church in 10 years, you might not even be able to quote it. Or you could quote a lot of it, but you'd kind of mess up on a word here or there. It just wouldn't be as sharp. Even something that clear because of the fact that we as humans need to constantly be reminded of things. We need to remember things. We need church to be reminded. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. Ecclesiastes chapter 12. It's funny to me how many times I preach something and then I have someone come and tell me what I literally taught them. It's usually Ben, okay? But it's so funny. Or this is what's even funnier. You'll teach somebody something or you preach something and then like a few weeks later, a few months later, they'll come and be like, hey, this pastor taught this thing. And you're just thinking like, yeah. Good sermon. It sounds right. Why? Because sometimes we're just so thick-headed, we don't get things the first time or the second or the third or even sometimes when we do get it, we forget it and then we need to be reminded of that over and over and over again. And so we need repetition. We all need repetition. We all need to be reminded. Well, I went to church and I heard everything that I've ever heard. I already know everything. Well, good, but did you remember it? Did you get reminded of it? Is it fresher than it was earlier? Because when I go and work out, many times it's all the same exercises, but you know you have to keep doing them. Otherwise, you'll lose your muscles. It's not like, well, I lifted a dumbbell one time. I'm good. No, you'll lose your arm strength. You have to keep doing the exact same exercises all the time and then you have to go do them again and then you have to go do them again. Otherwise, you're going to lose that muscle mass. You're going to actually lose the strength that you have. You have to constantly do it all the time because that's how life works. And spiritually, you have spiritual muscles that need to be exercised regularly and that's why we need church is because the people that aren't going to church are spiritually, like, just weak and puny. They are Richard Simmons. They've got one-pound dumbbells and they can hardly even handle that. You know, we need to be spiritual giants and the only way is to have church be constantly reminded, reading the Bible, and in Ecclesiastes chapter number 12, look what it says in verse 1. Remember, now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Now, I'll just be honest with you. This verse is a little intimidating because it's like, hey, go ahead and enjoy serving God right now while you don't hate life. He's saying, like, there could come a point in time where you kind of don't even enjoy living. And it just, it makes me think of things. You know, like, I could think of my grandfather saying, I'd always ask him, like, why do you never sleep in? He's like, it hurts too much. And he's saying, like, the fact that I couldn't even enjoy sleeping is terrifying. But, you know, sometimes if you've been injured, you can kind of understand that a little bit. Obviously many of us, some of us in here are a little bit older, but most of us are pretty young, so we don't necessarily understand that. But notice that we're supposed to remember that we're supposed to serve God in the days of our youth. So many, I've actually met a lot of people that when you talk to them, they say, oh, I'll serve God later. Like, when I get married and have a bunch of kids, then I'll start going to church. But I'm young, I want to kind of explore, I kind of want to do things. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that we're supposed to remember that we're supposed to serve God now in our youth. We're supposed to serve, I mean, who's supposed to be that really strong backbone of the church if it's not the youth, if it's not the young men, if it's not the men that are strong and have the capability to put in a lot of extra labor and effort and energy? You know, some of you young, single people, I think you should be striving for marriage, but another thing is why don't you work on yourself while it's easy? Because let me tell you something. It's easy to work on yourself when you're not married. If I didn't have kids and I wasn't married, wow! I could have so much free time. I could read so much of the Bible and work out and read books and do all, I could do all kinds of things. I mean, it'd be amazing the amount of time I could have to work on myself. But at the same time, you know, my life is not supposed to just be all about me. I get married and have kids so I can invest a lot of effort and energy and strength into them. So I can invest a lot of energy into my wife and into my children and having a family. And why do you think it is that God gave you so much strength and so much energy when you're young? It's because you've got to break your back to pay for all this stuff. You've got to be able to work tireless nights in order to pay for all this junk and get through all these kids and get them all raised up. I mean, you young ladies, you're, have a certain window of childbearing. Have you ever wondered why your childbearing isn't between the ages of like 60 and 80? It's because you're not as physically able to have children at those ages, right? When is it that women are basically primed to have children? It's pretty much like 18 to about 45 is kind of that window because that's their window where they have the most strength, the most energy, the greatest ability. That's what God wanted you to do. He didn't want you to go to college and get a job and get a career and waste all your effort and energy on becoming a man. He wanted you to have children. And we need to remember that God gave us youth to serve Him. He gave us strength to serve Him. And I'll tell you what, the people that give God their youth will live the longest and happiest lives. There's even statistics out there that say that women that give birth live longer than the women that did not give birth. Why? And the parts of your body that you don't use are more likely to have injury, cancer, and lots of problems. You know, if you don't use it, you lose it. There's going to be a lot of old people, and I'm trying to be honest with you, there's going to be a lot of old people from our generation that are going to be in the nursing home and they're going to literally be like this. Why? Because that's all they do in their youth. You know how they say, like, don't make a funny face because it might stick that way? That's true. And if you're just, if you're never even doing anything with your body, if you're already living the life of an 80-year-old, wow, you're not going to live to be a happy, healthy 80-year-old. You need to get active, you need to get off of your rear, you need to actually go do something. How about go soul winning? Hey, you want to be soul winning when you're 80? It's happening when you're young. But the people that are just living lives of pleasure and just, I want to just lay back and do nothing, well, God will take you to an early grave. There's a lot of people out there that they quit working at 50, 55, 60, and they just look really old, really fast after that. Because when you stop working, the body just kind of shuts down, it turns off, it quits going. And I don't care about a secular job. But you know what? If you don't have to work a secular job at 50 for the rest of your life, serve God with the rest of it then. Go more soul winning. Go to church more. But you know what you need? You need church. You need to remember, your youth is here to serve God, and you need to go to church to be reminded of why you're even here. You're here as a child of God, as a servant of God. You're not here to serve yourself. You're not here to serve a communist regime. You're not here to serve tiny hats. You're here to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, but I just want to work really hard to pay off all my loans. Well, if you die, then who cares, right? That'll pay them off. Go to Psalm 137. Do you know that? You could have like all these loans and you die and it's just gone. My wife used to work for a student loan debt collection center. And if that person died and they didn't have like a spouse or something like that, I don't even know all the rules exactly. But basically, for the most part, if you died, your debt went with you. It's just gone. Oh, OK. It's by. The children didn't have to inherit that. So it's like, well, I just want to work really, really hard to pay off all that debt and give more money to Chase Bank. What does that benefit you? Why didn't you want to just serve the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you spend all your extra time going soul winning? And look, I'm not against paying off debt. Don't hear me wrong, OK? Debt is a bad, horrible, evil invention. I think we should have zero debt, ideally. But at the same time, if I can choose to spend my whole life paying off my debt and becoming debt free or spending a lot of time serving the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the one I'm going to pick. I'm going to pick serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Because there's plenty of people that are debt free and going to split hell wide open. There's plenty of people that are debt free and they're doing nothing for God, but they followed Dave Ramsey's program to financial success. And you know what? They got obsessed with making money and wealth rather than serving the Lord Jesus Christ. They took their youth and they said, well, I just want to make a lot of money. That's how I serve God. You don't serve God by making, he doesn't need money. God's not up in heaven hoping for a loan. He's not needing some extra handout. He doesn't need to print more currency. You know what he wants? He wants people to actually serve him and get reminded of those things when they go to church. But we need that reminder that we get from church. Who else is reminding you to serve God? When's the last time your employer reminded you to go soul winning? When's the last time the public school system tried to encourage you to read the Bible and do what it says? When's the last time you've seen our politicians or our government get up and praise the Lord Jesus Christ and commission you to serve him? When's the last time our country sent ambassadors to foreign countries to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? When did that happen? Oh, it doesn't. You know who does that? The church. That's why we need church because church is the one that commissions people. Church is the one sending people out to preach the gospel. Church is the one that's printing out flyers saying, read your New Testament. Church is the one reminding you to actually follow everything that Christ commanded you. That's why you need church. Who else is going to remind you? We need church because we need to be reminded. Look at Psalm 137 verse 5. If I forget Theo Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. You know what the psalmist is saying? If I stop serving you, God, just cause my right hand to lose its ability to even work. How many people have that attitude? How many people are thinking like, if I'm not serving God, I want my right hand to stop working. I don't even want to be able to speak if I stop preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. But you know what? Maybe God would do that to somebody. Maybe God would literally cripple someone or cause them to lose their ability to speak because they refuse to preach the gospel or to serve God. I need that reminder so I don't become this guy. So I don't get dried up, so I don't get destroyed because I refuse to serve God. Go to Psalm 20. Go backward to Psalm 20. When's the last time you got reminded of that? We need church to be reminded of the things of God. People have forgotten. Look at Psalm 20. Look at verse 3. The Bible says, Remember all thy offerings and accept thy burnt sacrifice. Look at verse 7. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. How many people in America today are trusting in Donald Trump or the MAGA movement to save their country? How many Christians are just so obsessed with the Republican Party? They're so obsessed with politics. They're so obsessed with signing people up to vote Republican and losing a rigged election. They're so excited to vote for someone that literally brought in the COVID mandates. I don't know if you remember that. That was Donald Trump. They're so excited to bring a president in that released Operation Warp Speed and literally said, I don't care what you put in the vaccines, jab people with them as fast as possible. It could literally be poison. Just put it in there. It's terrific. I mean, this is what our country has turned into is people are trusting in chariots and horses and in Donald Trump, and you know what? We're supposed to remember the Lord our God. That's who we're supposed to remember. And look, I'm not against any man or any woman in general because, look, obviously God uses people to accomplish his will, and we do need men to rise up into political businesses of power. We do need people to take a stand. We do need people to fight evil. But let me tell you something. Our trust needs to be put back in the Lord Jesus Christ and in this book, and until Donald Trump starts saying, we need to bring this back into our government, he's not our savior. He said, I watched him. He went to Robert Jeffress Church. It's not far, in Dallas. Robert Jeffress Church preached in front of all of them, and he said, we need a savior. And he said, it's not me. It's Jesus Christ. I'm like, that's true. But here's the problem. When's the last time that Donald Trump actually championed anything in the Bible? Sounds like a bunch of lip service. That's better than what the Democrat Party is lip servicing, but at the same time, we need to get back to the things of God, and we need to remember what the Bible said. We need to remember what Leviticus says. We need to remember what Numbers says. We need to remember what Deuteronomy says. We need to remember what the Proverbs say. We need to remember what laws were on the books in America when we first founded this nation. We need to remember the First Amendment. We need to remember the Second Amendment. We need to remember the fact that we are endowed with inalienable rights from our Creator, and that Creator is God. We need to remember that the Texas Constitution literally says in the opening line, invoking the blessing of Almighty God. Humbly invoking the blessing of Almighty God. That's how the Texas Constitution starts. And then people say, oh, America was founded on secular principles. Liar! We need Christians to remember that our country was only great because it championed the King James Bible and the Word of God. Do you know why people forgot that? Because they stopped going to church. And preachers stopped preaching what the Bible said. And you know what? We need church. You know what's going to fix America? Church. You know what's not going to fix America? Anything MAGA. It's not. MAGA is just, I mean, MAGA, if you were honest with yourself, MAGA is so much more liberal than Democrats in the 90s. I mean, just be honest with yourself. What did the Democrat politicians stand for in the 90s, make a list, and then compare that to what MAGA stands for today? You would be shocked and horrified at what the Democrats stood for. I mean, the Democrats said that marriage was between one man and one woman. Does MAGA stand for that? MAGA, Donald Trump says he would let Caitlyn Jenner use whatever bathroom it wants. I mean, good night, folks. And then you think that that's going to save our country? You think that that movement has anything to do with God? You have forgotten the Bible. You have forgotten your Savior. You have forgotten the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. You need to get into church and remember who the real Savior is. You need to remember who we should really be trusting, who we should really be afraid of, and what you should really be doing. Go over to Philippians chapter 3. Oh, I already need church. Well, how much brainwashing are you getting? How much Twitter have you been watching? How much YouTube has been sucking your brain dry of reality and truth and facts? Because I guarantee you've shifted a lot, and you've allowed this world to constantly shift you and drag you into the wrong direction and get us all compromised and be like, well, it's not that big a deal. That's not that big of an issue. Look, feminism has destroyed this country to a point when if you said something that's not feminist, it would shock and horrify the vast majority of the population. You might even just get fired on the spot. Like, if you just say, I don't think women should ever vote. Ah! What? And you're like, never. I think they should only wear dresses and skirts. I think they should be pregnant every time they can. I think they should only be in the kitchen. They should make me a sandwich and say yes, sir, whenever I say anything. Ah! All the women in my workplace would freak out. They'd be like, I would divorce you so fast. Like you did your other husband? Yeah, I believe it. Way to go. Wonderful. And now you get a new husband, Joe Biden, who you didn't want anyways, instead of the loving husband that actually married you. You say, how can you say all that, Pastor Shelley? Look, you forgot what the Bible says, because you didn't go to church, because you don't read the Bible, and you need to be reminded of what the Bible actually says. Oh, I've already heard that. No, you haven't. Look at Philippians chapter 3, verse 1. Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you to me. Indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. You know, when I preach these things, it doesn't really bother me. Like, I'm over it. Like, there's no, I'm not shocked by the Bible anymore. And you know what? You guys need it. We all need it. It keeps us safe to be reminded of what's really going on, because the world can just warp our reality so much, and we can get so fixated on the wrong things, have the wrong attitude, the wrong heart, and we need to be reminded of what the Bible says so that we can point to be renewed in our spirit. Go into Romans chapter 12. Go to Romans chapter number 12. We need to be reminded of what's right so that we can renew in ourselves the right spirit. So we're not shocked and horrified by the Bible, but instead we have this emotion, amen. That's right. I like that. I agree with that. Whereas people that have never been to church, that haven't heard the Bible, many times they're shocked and horrified by Christians getting up and expounding what the Bible just literally says. And they get tricked by all kinds of people. How about Vivek Riswamwe? Riswamwe? There's so many Christians out there like, I really like what he has to say. The Hindu? You really like what the Hindu has to say? How far have we drifted from Christianity that we literally like a Hindu politician? Like, if you think that the Democrats of the 90s are bad, you have a Hindu on your side. I mean, think about the Republican candidates right now. We've got Donald Trump. We've got a chick, Haley, who's just all over the place. We've got Vivek. We've got Ron DeSantis. He's like the most normal seeming, but at the same time he licks the boots of the Jews so hard. I mean, he's keeping those things so shiny. You'd be terrified to put him in political office. He'd probably hold a menorah all year. I mean, I don't know what he would do. That guy is just Israel bought and paid for. And I'm telling you what. You think the Republican Party is going to save our country, you are brain dead. People think, like, on the ballot is the future of America. That would be like me saying, all right, I'm going to give you two options. You can either eat rat poison or blow your head off with a shotgun. This is the most important decision of your life. You're like, why does it even matter? I mean, you really just don't understand how bad it is. You think that, like, literally one side's actually on your team. None of them on your team. None of them. The only person on your team is the Lord Jesus Christ. This country is doomed. This country is evil. This country is horrible. And you say, oh, it sounds like you want it to be destroyed. No. But let me tell you how it's going to get fixed. If people start knocking down the doors of church again. If people start reading the King James Bible again. If people start going out and preaching the gospel. That's the only solution. The only solution. Voting Trump into office will not fix our country at all. You know what will fix our country? More people being Christian. And, you know what, we need to be reminded so that we can be renewed. You know what's going to fix America? Renewed Christians. Christians have a new spirit and a new zeal. And they're not focused on how much money can I make next year? I really hope that my business explodes next year. I really hope I get a promotion next year. I really hope that I get that 18th garage door. I really hope I get a new car. That is not going to fix America. You know what, everybody that wants Donald Trump to be elected, that's what they really want. I want Donald Trump to be elected next year so that my 401k goes up. I want Donald Trump to get elected next year so that I can get promoted at my work. I want Donald Trump to get elected next year so that I can buy cheaper gas. That's what they literally think. That's what they literally want. What if people said, I hope that next year I get more people saved than last year? I hope I read the Bible more next year. I hope that my kid gets saved next year. I hope that my kid gets baptized next year. I hope that my neighbor that I've been praying for finally lets me give him the gospel and he shows up at church. I hope that this person in my life that's been struggling with sin quits that sin and gets back into church. What kind of goal like that? That's having a renewed spirit, a renewed zeal saying, I have the right things on my mind. Look at Romans chapter 12 verse 1. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Notice we need to go to church because we need to be renewed on the things of God. What is it to renew, to make new again, to give life to? You know, sometimes our soul becomes dried up with all the things of this world and this life. But you know, if America gets destroyed but you get more people saved, who cares? I mean, does it really matter? Does it really matter that our country is doomed if you can still be spiritual at the end of the day? Like, countries come and go. Empires come and go. But you know what? Christians can just still serve God. Look, I'm not pro our country being destroyed. But at the same time, I can't really personally do much about that. But what I can do is I can affect my life, my family, my wife, my children, my church members. I can affect my neighbors. I can go out and preach the gospel. And I can help other people become spiritual. And that's the greatest thing I can do anyways. That's how I can actually change people's lives. People don't get their lives changed from carnal means. They get their lives changed through spiritual minds being renewed through the Word of God and deciding, I want to serve God because of what the Bible says. You know, I could preach some sermon, be real emotional, and have a Pentecostal service and, Whooooo! And get everybody on this side, Whooooo! And then over there, Whooooo! And then they go and they're like, oh man, that was a lot of fun. But then, you know what's going to happen? Tomorrow they're just going to be the same person. But if you can get a Bible verse to just dagger into someone's heart, sometimes that'll make a change in their life forever. If they start saying, you know what, I'm just going to go to church more faithfully. I didn't go to church as much as I wanted to this year. I'm going to go to church more next year. That, just one decision by itself, could make so many positive impacts in your life. It could cause you to then what? Have more children, go soul winning more, read the Bible more, hear more sermons, be provoked onto what? More love, more good works. We're supposed to provoke one another into love and to good works. Why do I come to church? So I would be provoked into good works. So that I would do more. So that I would be more encouraged. We need this. Go to Ephesians 4. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. I'm going to read a verse from Psalms for you. Psalm 51 verse 10 says, Create in me a clean art, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. You know what we need? We need the right spirit. The world is trying to interject a demonic, satanic, carnal, worldly spirit into our minds and our hearts every day. Every video, every post, every just thing that's going on. I mean, you can't escape out of the workplace. You go to the workplace, you have to now have policy meetings where they're like, we need to use more inclusive language. That's how I feel. I've been in meetings recently where, you know, you have these ladies and they're like, well, I really like how this is worded because it's really inclusive. I wish it said fags go to hell. That's what I wish it said. You know, that's how inclusive I am. Why does it need to be inclusive? Because you know what the goal of the company is? Make money. You know the goal of every company you work for? Make money. Do you think that's what the Bible says? Is that the right spirit? So you go to work and you know what spirits put inside of your heart? Make money, greed, maximizing profit, living of this world. You go into the world and you meet other people, all their weird spirits are trying to entice your mind, your attitudes and your affections. You need to go to church to be reminded of what a clean and the right spirit is, of what God wants you to think, of what God's attitude is, of how God feels about certain subjects. Not what you think, not what the government told you you're allowed to think. I don't care what the government told me I'm allowed to think. I probably disagree with them on everything. They're like the Catholic Church. They got everything wrong somehow. I don't get it. But look at Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17. This I say therefore and testify in the Lord, that he henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Did you notice what the Bible is saying? The unsaved have no life with God. I did not make that up. Did you read what the Bible said? It said in verse 18, being alienated from the life of God. Did you notice what the Bible says? They have zero relationship with God. None. Nada. What do they do? To work all uncleanness with greediness. You go out into this world and that is the spirit, the influence, and the attitude that they're trying to put on you. It's just an attitude of uncleanness with all greediness because they have no life with God. But we allow ourselves, oh, they're Christian. No, they're not. There are so many people that are Christian in Texas and they are not Christian at all. They're working all uncleanness with greediness is what they're working. Look what it says in verse 20, but ye have not so learned Christ. If so be they have heard of him heard him and have been taught by him as the truth is in Jesus. They put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Notice that we need to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. How? And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness, wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place of the devil. 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 to give to him that needeth. 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, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby ye are sealed in the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice, and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Notice that when you have the right spirit, you're tenderhearted. When you don't, you get hard-hearted again. We become hard-hearted when we're not going to church. People that don't go to church have a hard heart. People that go to church constantly reminded of others, thinking of others, being provoked to be kind, forgiving, having kindness, gentleness, meekness, not lying, not taking advantage, not letting corrupt communication proceed out of their mouth, not having envy, not having malice. The world doesn't teach you that. The world is constantly feeding those ideas and attitudes into your mind, heart, and spirit, and that's why we need church, is to be renewed so that we have the right attitude, we have the right spirit, so that we approach life in the way that Christ would have us, that we're tenderhearted Christians. We need to make Christians kind again. We should be the kindest people. You know, I do appreciate that many times when someone visits our church, they literally do give me that compliment. They say, man, the people here are very kind. They're very sweet. They're very nice. But let us never lose that. But you know what would cause us to lose that if we stopped going to church as much? If we start caring about the things of this world too much? Go to Revelation chapter 2. I have one more point that I just want to make. But number one, we need church because we need to be reminded. Number two, we need to be renewed. And number three, we need to be recalibrated. We need to constantly be recalibrated. And what does it mean to be recalibrated? That's to make an adjustment or a correction. So number one, we don't only need to hear what's right. We don't need to have the right attitude. We need to actually do it too. We need to make some change in our life. We need to actually correct ourselves. And you know, you should come to church with an attitude of what can I fix? Not like I'm already good. This would help church so much if people would just come to church saying, like, what can I do better? And they have a heart ready to do better. Not like, I don't know if I want to do that. I don't like that. You know what? Why don't you just get into the program and just say, what can I do better? What can I fix? How can I be a better husband? How can I be a better employee? How can I be a better father? How can I be a better mother? How can I be a better child? How can I be a better soul winner? You know, don't think you've arrived as a soul winner. Get better as a soul winner. How can I be a better church member? How can I be a better Christian? How can I be a better son or daughter of God? How can I be a better ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ? How can I overcome sin that I'm struggling with? How can I have the right attitude? That's what we should come to church as saying, how can I do better? Not, how can he do better? How can the young single guys do better in church? Virtually everything almost, okay? I mean, there's some people in church that need it more than others. But you know, when you come to church, you should be focused on you. What can you do better? And I think some people, they really, really hope when they come to church that I'm going to deliver a message for their spouse or for their children. Like, I'm going to fix your marriage without you having to do anything. I'm going to fix your children without you having to do anything. I'm going to fix your relationships or your issues or whatever. I'm going to give you another pat on the back. And then you can be like, do you see how the pastor is complimenting me? Or, I don't know. It's just like, that's how some people think in their mind. But you know, you should come to church ready to improve only yourself. Only yourself. How can I be better as a person and be recalibrated to what God wants? What are the adjustments God wants to make on me? What are the branches that God wants to prune on me? What are the things that he would have me do better? Look at Revelation chapter 2 verse 5. Notice that they're supposed to remember what they used to do and they have to make a change or God's going to punish them. You know, sometimes people just don't realize God is about to punish you. You need to change so that he doesn't punish you. And what church will often do is it will remind you and renew the right spirit so that you can make the change so that God won't punish you. I don't want punishment in my life. Go to 2 Timothy chapter 4. Actually, just go to Proverbs 1. I'll just read it for you. You don't even need to go there. Go to Proverbs chapter 1. The Bible could not emphasize more the idea that we need to change. That we need to constantly be reproved. You know, 2 Timothy chapter 4, I'll just read for you. But the Bible says, So the Bible says that as a preacher, I'm supposed to constantly reprove the congregation. That's telling you you're doing something wrong. Change. Fix this. Not only that, and sometimes rebuke. Rebuke means the harsh scolding. Oh, I don't like Pastor Shelley. He's always yelling or something. Well, it just sounds like you don't like rebuke. But you know what? The Bible commands me to rebuke. But you know what I've noticed? People have no problem with rebuke when it does not apply to them. Like, if I get up and scream about how disgusting, evil, and vile pedophiles are, none of you are, like, shocked or horrified. And if you are, you can leave immediately. You're like, Yeah! Get them! Preach it! Amen! Right? Because it doesn't apply to you. Right? Whenever you rip on husbands loving their wives, the wives are sitting here like, Amen! You know. Right? You get on wives and all the men are like, Amen! Actually, it's a single guy. Sorry. That doesn't have to go home with his wife. He's saying Amen for everybody else, right? But you get that people are willing for others to change. Why don't you get willing to change? And you know the reason why you don't like rebuke? Because you're guilty. When people say, I don't like him. He's preaching. He's rebuking. Is it because you're guilty? Because you have no problem with rebuke when it's not about you. You have no problem tuning into ESPN and hearing about how some quarterback sucks and is the worst ever and should get fired. You have no problem that the coach should get fired. I mean, I've watched all kinds of things like that. I've watched Jason Garrett for the Cowboys. Who knows who Jason Garrett is? Okay, a few people in here. I hated Jason Garrett. Okay. Like, if the announcers are like, This guy needs to be fired. I was like, Amen! You know, but isn't that pretty harsh? If someone on national television was like, You need to get fired. I mean, what if on national television they said Jared needs to get fired from his job tomorrow? That would be pretty harsh, wouldn't it? I mean, that's pretty extreme. That's like a rebuke or whatever. And people love that. They love it when it's, you know, against somebody that they hate. You know why they don't like rebuke? It's because they are affected by it. It's not that they don't like rebuke. They love, hey, they'll say, Let's go, Brandon. Don't they like that? Or they say, like, Donald Trump should go to jail. It's like if it's their person they don't like, they love rebuke. But when they're rebukes at them, all of a sudden they don't like rebuke all of a sudden. It's like, You like rebuke. You just don't like being rebuked. And you know what? The wise person would say, If I need to be rebuked, I want it. If I need to be rebuked, I want it. And you know what? That's the person that says, I need church. Because there's something in my life that needs to be reproved or rebuked, and I want to hear it because I want to have the right attitude. I know I have a MAGA shirt underneath, but I just want to make sure that, you know, I have the right attitude. No, I'm not saying I do. You do. You're over here hiding your MAGA shirt underneath, but you need to get rebuked, okay? Get an FBBF shirt, alright? We'll replace it. Just don't even wear a shirt. You'd probably be better off, okay? Just kidding. I'm talking about men. Don't get too weird. Proverbs chapter 1, look at verse 22. How long, ye simple ones, will you love simplicity? And the scorners delight in their scorning and fools hate knowledge. Turn, you at my reproof. Behold, I'll pour out my spirit unto you. I'll make known my words unto you. Notice we're supposed to actually make a change when we hear reproof. God doesn't give you an extra round of applause in heaven because you heard correction. They get excited when you actually change. You know, all the angels in heaven rejoice when the sinner repents. Not when he hears the need to repent, but he actually makes the change. You know what? We should be excited when someone makes the change, not that they heard it. Well, I go to church all the time. But did you implement any of the changes? Are you doing what's actually being instructed? Are you actually following what the Bible says? How long are you going to be simple? How long are you going to be stupid, is what the Bible is saying. Go to chapter 9, look at verse 8. Let's just look at a handful of verses real quick. We're just going to fly through some. Proverbs 9, verse 8. Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee. Rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Look at chapter 12, verse 1. Chapter 12, verse 1. Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge, but he that hateth reproof is brutish. That means stupid. Go to chapter 15, and look at verse 10. Chapter 15, verse 10. Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way, and he that hateth reproof shall die. Look at verse 32. Verse 32. He that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul, but he that hearth reproof getteth understanding. Go to chapter 25 for a second. Go to chapter 25, and look at verse number 12. How many Proverbs do you need to be reminded that you need to actually make some changes? Proverbs 25, verse 12. As an earing of gold, and an ornament of fine gold, so is a wise reprover upon an obedient ear. You know, if you don't think that I'm preaching what the Bible says, then go somewhere else. But you know what? Find a wise reprover, and you be that obedient ear. Find a wise reprover, and you be the obedient ear. But we need church today, and we need some obedient ears. Go to chapter 29, and look at verse 1. Chapter 29, look at verse 1. So we're getting the good and the bad. Here's the bad. Verse 1. He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. You know, sometimes when you fall or get set back, you can repent and get back on the same track. There are some ways that you can be destroyed and never get back. There's no path of recovery. It's just you're doomed. You know, I preached a sermon about this. Go to Proverbs 3, go backwards, go to Proverbs 3. I preached a sermon called No Good Option. There are some people in the Bible that literally find themselves in a position where they have no good option. They're just doomed. Like Lot. What do you do when you wake up in a cave and you have both of your daughters pregnant? From you. It's like, I can imagine that phone call. Hey, Pastor Shelley, what's your advice? I got both my daughters knocked up. Click. I don't have any advice for you. You're doomed. What do you want me to say? Like, I don't know. Go back to Kentucky. I mean, good night. Like you can literally, but that person was stupid. That person, Lot made bad decisions. People make really, really, really bad decisions. You know, they're like, oh, I got divorced, and now I'm shacked up with this person, and now I have kids from all these different women. What do I do, Pastor Shelley? I don't know. What do you want me to tell you? Don't make all the train wreck of bad decisions you made in your life? You were hardening your neck, and you weren't going to church, and you weren't doing what the Bible said, and now you're suddenly destroyed. What do you want me to say? Be an example to the young people of what not to do. Go to church and tell them how terrible your life is so that they'll never make those bad decisions. That's what you should do. But as far as fixing your situation, you're doomed. I mean, there's not a way to fix that. Proverbs chapter 3, look at verse 11. My son despises not the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary of his correction. For whom the Lord loveth, he correcteth, even as a father, the son, in whom he delighteth. You know, correction is a loving thing. Go to 2 Timothy 3, that's the last place I'll return. We need to come to church to get recalibrated and figure out what we need to fix. We need to fix some serious things, though. Proverbs 15, 10, I'll just read for you. Correction is grievous on him that forsaken the way, and he that hateth reproof shall die. You know, the Bible just says over and over and over again, if you hate these things, it's going to destroy you, you're going to die. It's grievous unto people that don't want to follow the commandments. But we need church because we need to be reminded of what God actually said. We need to be renewed in our spirit. We need to be recalibrated and make those corrections because God loves us. God wants us to have successful lives. God wants us to be blessed in our lives. And, you know, we're too silly and simple-minded and too easily led astray to do it on our own. We need church. Have you ever noticed how the Bible describes us as a specific animal? What animal are people described as? Sheep. Now, are sheep the most intelligent animals, the most brave animal, the strongest animal? I mean, if you were to describe a sheep to somebody, what would you say? They're weak, they're soft, they're docile, they're easily led astray, they are completely defenseless. They'll literally just fall in a ditch and you'll pull them out and they'll just fall in the same ditch again. I mean, that is a sheep. And then you're like, but I'm a lion. Are you? Or are you kind of a sheep? Do you kind of keep falling in the same ditch? Are you kind of easily led astray? Are you actually pretty defenseless? And, you know, I think that we need to be honest about ourselves and realize that in many ways we're like sheep and that we need church. You know what sheep need? They need to stay with the flock because when a sheep gets away from the flock, he's an easy prey under predators. Under the wolves, under the roaring lion, which is the devil. But when you're in that flock of sheep and you have that shepherd, which is the Lord Jesus Christ, guarding the flock, well now you're going to be led into green pastures and drinking from those still waters and the shepherd's going to beat off the wolves. That's why we need church, folks. When you go out into this world by yourself, it's just going to be terrible. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 16. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Why do we need church? So that we're constantly reproved so that we can be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Not just some good works, all of them. And I'll tell you this, people are not going to do all the works unless they go to church. You can do some of them, you can do it for a little bit, but you're going to burn out, you're going to quit, you're going to get... You're just going to forget. That's why you have to be reminded, that's why you have to be renewed, that's why you have to be recalibrated. Over and over and we need church. You know, we're ending the year. Don't get sucked into the traps of this world. And when you start thinking about the new year, thinking about all the carnal things that you could do, that you wish you could change. Think about the spiritual things, think about church. Make a decision that 2024 is going to be the most you've ever participated in church. The most you're going to get plugged in, the most you're going to do, the most you're going to dedicate yourself towards, because we need church. And you know what, church is not me, it's not you, it's us. It's all of us. We need every single person in here to make up church. And you know what makes this church great? All of us. You know what's going to make... What if only one person made cookies and they didn't even have chocolate in them? It would be like... All these people showed up... I mean, none of y'all came to hear me preach tonight, I know. Y'all are here for the cookies, I haven't seen a lot of y'all in a while. No, I'm just kidding. It's like... Why is the cookie bake-off so exciting? Because there's a lot of amazing cookies in there, from a lot of amazing people. You know what makes this church awesome? You guys. But you know, our church ceases to be awesome when people stop making church a priority. Let us make church even better next year. Let us make Steadfest Baptist Church the greatest church it can be on the planet. And let us emphasize these things because we need it. Let's go to prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us this institution, for giving us all these people. Thank you for touching so many people's hearts and minds and souls that they would be here this evening. I pray that we are reminded of what Christ did for us, how He humbly sacrificed for us. And that we need this institution, we need church, we need the help of others. We need to be reminded of the things of the Bible. We need to remember these things. We need to be renewed in our spirits. And we need to make some changes. We need to recalibrate ourselves towards the things of God. I pray that we will be focused on ourselves being better Christians. And that we would emphasize church more next year than we did this year. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're going to do our last song as a candlelight service. Brother Rich is going to lead for us. We're going to pass out those candles. And while they're passing it out, I'm just going to give you a few more reminders about the cookie bake-off. So as soon as we're done, you can turn those candles back into the ushers. They'll pick them up. And then you can form a line. Again, just go to the far table first where there's plates and stuff. And then just kind of work your way around. Also, you don't have to necessarily worry about boating at first. Just go ahead and just get the cookies and everything like that. Then there'll be beads out on this table in the hallway. Is that still accurate? Okay. There's beads out in this hallway. They're red, green, and silver. The red is best tasting. The green is best decorated. And the silver is most creative. Now you're not going to remember that. And you're going to be like, I want to ask Pastor Shelley. There's signs literally posted everywhere in there, okay? So you never have to ask me again. You can be reminded by the signs in there, okay? And so once you're done eating or whatever, everybody gets to vote one time. You get three beads. You get one green, one red, one silver. Drop them into whatever cup that's set out for that particular cookie. They should be labeled. And so you can put all three in one cup. You could spread the love, however you want to do it. You could eat your votes if you want. I don't care. I don't recommend eating the beads, okay? You don't have to vote. But if you tried the cookies and you'd like to vote, please do. Please don't vote for a cookie if you didn't even look at it or taste it, okay? Please be honest on it. And the way we're going to do our last song is Brother Rich is going to start out with the first candle lit, okay? I'm going to light it just so it's already going for him. There you go. All right. And we're going to have a couple of rushers come up and get this light when the song starts. They're going to come up and down the aisles, and they're going to basically light just the end of the aisle. They're not going to focus on just one person, go to the next one. You at the end of the aisle are responsible for passing it to the person next to you, and then that person passing it until everybody on the aisle gets lit. This is like the gospel, how someone came and gave you the gospel, and then you're responsible to get the person next to you saved and them saved. This is the whole point of why we do this, is we're showing how the gospel is spread from faith to faith, and how we're spreading that gospel message throughout. And we want to be reminded of that at the time of Christ with these lights. And so that's pretty much all I have. We're going to go ahead and get started with our final song of the evening. We're going to dim the lights. Okay. We apparently broke the record for the evening service. We had 191, and I knew it was because of my preaching. No, I'm just kidding. It's obviously for the cookies, right? So technically, that would mean we'd have ice cream as well, and we probably won't set that out. So afterwards, if you still want an ice cream, we'll be passing those out from the kitchen as well. All right. We're going to dim the lights, and we'll sing our last song. All right, everybody. Last song is going to be song number 431, Silent Night, Holy Night. Song 431, Silent Night, Holy Night, 431. I'm your virgin, Father and child, Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace, Silent night, holy night, Let us pray at the sign, Let us pray from heaven afar, Let me also sing hallelujah, Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born, Silent night, holy night, Son of God, once you were mine, Pray in peace, come thy holy grace, With the dawn of revealing grace, Jesus, Lord at thy birth, Jesus, Lord at thy birth, Silent night, holy night, Hark, the swan, led by fire, In the angels, let us sing, Hallelujah to our King, Christ the Savior is born, Christ the Savior is born. Great singing, everybody. All right, I guess let's get started. Music .