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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] Anchor Baptist Church. We're going to go ahead and get started this evening. If you'll grab a hymnal, find a seat. Turn to 413. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus. Hymn number 413. 4-1-3. 413. We'll sing there on the first. Stand up. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers of the cross. Lift high his royal heaven, lift us not suffer loss. From victory unto victory, his army shall be leading. Till every vote is vanquished, that Christ is born indeed. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus, the trumpet all obey. For to the mighty conflict, witness his glorious day. He had a man now serving against the numbered fold. Let courage rise with danger and strength to strength upholds. Stand up. Stand up for Jesus, stand in his strength alone. The arm of flesh will fail you. You cannot trust your own. Put on the gospel armor and watching unto prayer. Where to be called for danger? We never want to care. Lord, I just pray that you'd be with us each as we go our separate ways after this service and that you would just keep us and guide us. These things we pray in Jesus' name, amen. For our next hymn, if you would, turn to 335. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go. 335. 335. We'll sing there on the first. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. It is heaven to me where ever I may be, if he is there. I count it up through the tear. It is cause to bear. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. If maybe I must carry the blessed word of life across the burning deserts to those in sinful strife. And though it may my lot to bear my colors there. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. It is heaven to me where ever I may be, if he is there. I count it up through the tear. It is cause to bear. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. But if it be my portion to bear my cross at home, while others where there's hurt, then it's beyond the bill of soul. I'll prove my faith in him, but bless his judgment there. And if he stays with me, I'll go anywhere. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. It is heaven to me where ever I may be, if he is there. I count it up through the tear. It is cause to bear. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. It is not mine to question the judgments of my Lord. It is not mine to follow the meanings of this word. But it's my go for stay, for whether here or there. I'll be with my Savior, present anywhere. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. It is heaven to me where ever I may be, if he is there. I count it up through the tear. It is cause to bear. If Jesus goes with me, I'll go anywhere. You can look back decades from now and remember being here. I thank you all very much for making this a very special day. We have a lot of people from out of town and out of state. Who came from California today? Can I get a raise of hands? Alright, God bless you. I see that hand. What about Washington? Washington, alright. Texas? There we go. Any other states I missed? Ohio, sweet. Well thank you guys. It's been a great day. Thank you to RNN BBQ for the great food and all the work that people put in. Setting up the church, cleaning up and just serving for the events. It was wonderful. And of course, thank you to Pastor Shelley and his family for just being a great pastor for this church and a great role model for me. It was my honor and privilege to work at Steadfast Baptist Church and to learn ministry there. So I couldn't have asked for a better pastor and also Pastor Thompson, thank you cause I was a member of your church too and you definitely made a big impact on me and molded me as well. So it's very fitting to have these two men with us this evening preaching. And of course the name of our church is Anchor Baptist Church. You know the Bible says which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast. And you know I love Sure Foundation Baptist Church. I love Steadfast Baptist Church. And of course you know we have the Lord Jesus Christ as an anchor. We have the word of God as an anchor. We have eternal security as an anchor. We have the local New Testament church as an anchor. You know these are things we want to anchor our lives to in this church. That's our goal. That's our vision. So I can't thank you all enough. Thank you to the members here of this church who have been a satellite ministry for six years without a pastor that have just been people that are just God fearing people that just want to serve the Lord. They're not going to some giant facility with all the special events and the special you know things but they just come here and serve God. They come here and go soul winning. They come here and preach the Bible and listen to preaching and fellowship with God's people. And they are a great example the Christians that are here. And now finally this is an independent church. And so I'm very excited and honored to be your pastor. I'm thankful for this opportunity. So and also thank you for our musicians that are helping this evening definitely makes the services really great. We have extra musicians so thank you to you guys. So let's go through some announcements really quickly you'll see on the front is our Bible memory passage of the week Hebrews chapter 6 verse 16 our church verse does come out of this chapter. So that's why we chose it as our first chapter to memorize anyone who memorizes this and can quote it to an adult non family member by the end of this chapter is going to be able to choose from a couple of different prizes. We'll have gift cards to choose from, or if it's still here. We do have a nice anchor Baptist Church coffee mug, and this could take cold or hot. So that's one option there. And also we do have anchor Baptist Church hats with a nice leather patch there. Now this is available to anchor Baptist Church members, but I will say this also be available to people who came to the ordination. So the people that are here that came to the ordination. If you guys can quote that chapter, and you know you got to be honest you got to tell me that you did I'll I'll take your word for it, then I'll make sure to get you guys your choice of that as well. So, thank you all again for being here on the front if you do look at our service times listed there Sunday morning 1030am Sunday evening at 430pm and Wednesday evening we've been going through the book of First Samuel at seven o'clock on Wednesdays. Our soul winning times are listed there. All those meet here at the building you'll just notice that the soul winning time in gold is our soul winning Saturday rally. And the only difference between that and a normal soul winning time is we have a short 10 or 15 minute sermon by one of the men here that give us a soul winning challenge. We sing a song get filled with the spirit, and we go out into the community and go soul winning. Yesterday I think we had six or seven different groups of soul winners. We had 14 salvations. So Saturday is usually a really good time. It's a good time to invite people to church. It's fresh on their mind I think it's easier to get them to come on Sunday morning. So I always have loved the Saturday soul winning time, or nursing home ministry times and dates are listed there if you partake in that ministry make note of that. Also do remember that December 1st the nursing home ministry is cancelled. So that will pick back up on December 8th. Our year to date statistics are listed there and normally I would have people text me for numbers but since everyone's here and I don't necessarily have all of your phone numbers I'm going to ask for a raise of hands with the number of how many people you had saved. So if anyone had anyone saved today raise your hand with the number that you had please. Got you Christian. Five. Okay. Alright. How many? Okay. Okay. 15 salvations today. Great job soul winning. Praise the Lord for that. So that puts us over 500 for the year as a congregation here. So congratulations to the soul winners here. Great job. On the right is our list of expecting ladies. Please pray for Mrs. Reed and her pregnancy. Upcoming events December 9th we're going to meet here at the church building at 630 p.m. for some Christmas caroling. Probably going to Nichols Hills or the rich area of OKC. That's going to be a fun time. They always are the ones that decorate their houses really nice so might as well go there. December 20th is the ladies Christmas party. December 21st is our Christmas soul winning push. Which is going to be a normal Saturday soul winning rally except we're also going to cater some food and coffee for that. As people are thinking about Christ around Christmas it's a great time to go soul winning so make sure you're here for that if you can. December 31st is going to be our New Year's Eve party. That's going to be started at 7 o'clock p.m. with a men's preaching night. So if you want to preach for that there's a sign up sheet in the back. You got to wear a shirt and tie. You got to preach out of the King James Bible unless you're using the other versions to make fun of them or preach against them. But we're looking forward to that. And then of course there's going to be games after, food, fellowship. You're welcome to stay till midnight or longer if you'd like. Giving is listed there. If you want to give to Anchor Baptist Church you can scan that code or you can always write a check to Anchor Baptist Church. That works as well. On the back you will see our prayer list. If you have any prayer requests just make note that in our bulletin I did update our contact information in the front. So you'll see our website which is almost ready to be deployed. And thank you to all the software developers that have been helping with this project as well. I really appreciate it. It's almost ready. It looks super cool. I'm excited. And then like I said that new email address is listed there. New phone number and all that good stuff. So again I want to express my thank you to you guys, to Pastor Thompson for preaching tonight, Pastor Shelley and his family. I love you all. Thank you guys. Let's go ahead and go to our third song. Alright if you'll grab your hymnal turn to our third hymn for the evening. Number 210, Wonderful Grace of Jesus. Hymn number 210 and I do also want to give some instruction on this. Just like this morning this song has two parts. There is a men and women's part. Of course the men will be the lower part in that chorus. The women's will be the higher. If you know how to sing those parts out I encourage you to do so. It sounds great. Especially with as many folks as we have. This could sound awesome. So 210, Wonderful Grace of Jesus. On the first. Wonderful grace of Jesus, greater than all my sin. How shall my tongue describe Him? Where shall His praise begin? Taking away my burden, setting my spirit free. For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the massless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains, partly like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me. Louder than the scope of my transgressing, greater more than all my sin and shame. Oh magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful grace of Jesus, reaching to all the lost. By it I have been pardoned, saved to the utter walls. The chains haven't torn asunder, giving me liberty. For the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the massless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains, partly like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me. Louder than the scope of my transgressing, greater more than all my sin and shame. Oh magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name. Wonderful the grace of Jesus, reaching the most reviled. By its transforming power, making of God's dear child. Purchasing peace and heaven for all eternity. And the wonderful grace of Jesus reaches me. Wonderful the massless grace of Jesus, deeper than the mighty rolling sea. Higher than the mountains, partly like a fountain, all sufficient grace for even me. Louder than the scope of my transgressing, greater more than all my sin and shame. Oh magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name. Oh magnify the precious name of Jesus, praise His name. Okay, and with that, we'll read this chapter together as always as our custom. So if you would, find your places. Second Timothy chapter number four. Follow along with me in your Bible, King James Bibles if you would, and we'll start here in verse one where the Bible reads, I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, shall judge the quick and the dead, that is appearing and His kingdom. Preach the word, be interested in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrines. But the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts, shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. They shall turn away their ears from the truth and should be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things endure afflictions and do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord of the righteous judge shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me, for Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world, and he departed unto Thessalonica, presence to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychias have I sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas with corpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil, the Lord reward him according to his works. Of whom be thou where also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of one Severus. Erast us abode at Corinth, but tryphemus have I left at my litium sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter. Ebulis greeted thee, and Pudens, and Linans, and Claudia, and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. Bow your heads for a quick word of prayer. Heavenly Father we come before you. Lord we just want to give you all thanks, all praise and all glory and all things. Thank you for gathering us together here to work with you in praise. First of all, thank you for the way the day is gone. Amen. It's great to be back tonight and for the first service of Anchor Baptist Church. My husband's dad and the father-in-law of Dylan. I got four lovely grandchildren, five lovely grandchildren. My daughter Nia is here with us too. And so it's a great pleasure to be here. I just want to say thank you for all the hospitality. And thank you for Pastor Shelley, Mr. Shelley, and also the Steadfast family. And now Anchor Baptist family, thank you for everything. And I was trying to think back of the first time I met Brother Dylan who's Pastor Oz to you now. But I'm still going to call him Dylan behind closed doors probably. But he is my son-in-law after all. So also I'll call Pastor Oz in front of other people. I'll try hard. It's going to take a little process for me to do that. But I remember him coming up. It was at the Red Hot Preaching Conference where love is found. Did you meet me before that? You met me at Red Hot. But then you came up and asked for her to be able to talk to you, right? See, that's what you've got to do, guys. You've got to get the father's favor first. That's a very important step. If the father's involved, come up and ask the dad first. Before I wanted to choke him at first, but then I was like, yes, you can. He's like, you want to choke, but then you're just like, bless you, my son. But then he ended up moving to our church and becoming part of our church. I wanted to get to know him and see what kind of a man he was going to be. He's turned out to be a great guy. Being a pastor doesn't mean you're a great guy, but he's a stellar Christian. I'm glad that Jasmine married him. He's winning the race to who can have the most grandkids out of all my children so far. Nia's closely behind. Remy's right there. They're neck and neck. They're always one step ahead. They're always one child ahead. Anyway, thank you for being here tonight. I hope you're not too much in a comatose state because of all the brisket and stuff that you ate today. If you are, we do have a few fun things for the sermon. Hopefully it will keep you entertained. Anyway, the title of the sermon tonight is The Charge of the Pastor. I was kind of struggling with what to preach. I talked to Pastor Shelley a little bit about it. He's like, well, you're only going to get ordained once. It's pretty important to get all these things out. These things are things that a pastor needs to know as they're starting out. Of course, he probably knows a lot of these things. But these are things that are very important for a pastor to know. And Pastor Shelley touched on a few of these things. But I have five charges that are to Timothy. And the end of Paul's ministry here is found in chapter 4 here where he's charging Timothy with some things. Look at verse number 1 here in 2 Timothy chapter 4. It says, So Paul is charging. He's saying, hey, I'm charging you. These are things that I'm telling you you've got to do, Timothy. And he's a young preacher. He's a young pastor. And he's going to lay out some things that are very important for him to go forward in his ministry. He's already written two epistles to him and laid out. There's so many things that there are to cover. But this is the last things he's basically saying to him. And he's laying out some sound instruction. And starting out as a pastor, these are things that you really need to focus on, Pastor Oz. And you're going to be pastoring for a long time. But you need to really strengthen yourself and your ministry early on. And these are things that are very important to get on right out of the gate and never turn back from them. And so Paul gives them these five charges here. So there's five points to my sermon. And they are the five charges that Paul gives here. And they're found in verses 2 through 5. And the charge number 1 tonight is preach the word. Now Pastor Shelley really made a strong point with this. It was a very long point this morning, but it was very needed. We were like, when is point number 2 coming? And it did come at 12.15. But it came. But it seriously was a really important point because a lot of people don't preach the Bible. But what's charge number 1? What's the first point? Well, it's preach the word. Not your opinion. Not what Fox News says. Not what, you know, what Twitter's, what's trending on Twitter. Not what your wife tells you to preach. Not what's popular with your congregation. But what the Bible actually says, it says preach the word. And then it says be instant. Now that term be instant, you know, I'm sure you've had like instant rice, instant pudding. You know, maybe you organics out there, you don't know what that is. But, you know, there are some things that can instantly, you know, you can instantly have them. Like fast food is kind of instant stuff too. But what does this mean? Well, it means to be ready at a moment's notice. Instant. Be ready to preach. Preach the word. Be instant. In season. So, you know, we're in the season of fall. And so that's when you start to wear different clothing. It gets a little cold or you start turning the heat on even though it's 75 degrees out. You guys are weird. But anyway, I came with shorts and a t-shirt, but whatever. It is a little windy out, okay. But seasons, you know, we've changed our clothing based upon the seasons. But what is this talking about? It's talking about being ready to preach no matter what season it is. In season, when it's popular, or out of season. And there's a lot of things in this world that are not popular, like basically the whole Bible right now. It's not popular to preach, is it? I mean, you can basically just open up to any page in the Bible and you preach something out of it and people are going to be upset about it. The world doesn't get it. What do you mean preach the Bible? Yeah, we believe in the Bible. That's the whole reason why we're Christians because this thing has been passed down and going from faith to faith. People have been getting saved out of it for thousands of years. And yeah, guess what? We believe the Bible. And Paul is saying, hey, preach the Word. Be instant. Be ready to preach at a moment's notice no matter what, when it's popular or not, to reprove. That means to tell people they're wrong. To rebuke, that means to strongly tell people they're wrong. And to exhort, to build people up and to encourage them and to do great things for God. With all long suffering. And people will stop right there and be like, oh see, you just have to be nice all the time. No, you can still be mean. And basically, rebuking isn't always being mean. But a rebuke can be just matter of factly telling somebody something, but it is more strong, isn't it? You can get rebuked just by reading the Bible. But when a pastor gets up to preach the Word, look, Paul's saying there's three different types of preaching here. But reproving should always be part of a sermon that you preach. If you walk out and you just feel good every time you walk out, then something's wrong with that person's preaching. Like Joel Osteen. I mean, he talks about it a little bit today. He's just always smiling, isn't he? He's just always happy. He's just always got a million dollar tooth smile on his face. Don't let the devil steal your joy. He's just always positive about everything. And that's not what we need. We need to be reproved. We need to be rebuked. We need to also be exhorted to do the right thing. Because we will get lazy. We will get apathetic in our Christian lives if we're not encouraged to do the right thing. And that is rebuke sometimes, isn't it? Hey, you're getting lazy. You stop showing up to soul winning. Let me encourage you to get out and go soul winning again. So, and it says with all long suffering and doctrine. Doctrine must be preached. You can't just get up and just not preach doctrine. You have to preach what the Bible says. And hey, guess what? There's doctrine in this book. Doctrine means teaching, doesn't it? And so you've got to get up and preach the Word. That's what Paul says. Verse 3 it says, For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Guess what? We're living in that time right now, aren't we? Where people just, they cannot endure it. But it says, But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. People want to listen to all these different types of preachers. And they do, they heap to themselves all these different teachers. Oh, I like John MacArthur. Dude, they're horrible. They just, they would rather have lies told to them all the time. And they think that those guys are hard preachers. You know, it's funny, independent fundamental Baptist. So one of my old pastors, he said, This sermon changed my life. And it was a Dr. David Gibbs sermon. Literally preached one verse. And the rest of it was just him and his opinion the whole time. I was like, this is life changing? Like, Pastor Anderson's worst sermon that he ever preached. Which I can't even think of a worse sermon he ever preached. But like, I'm just saying was better than that. That wasn't even on the same stratosphere as any sermon of these. I mean, I got guys in my church that preach way better than that. Like, it's just one sermon, one verse and then your opinion for 35 minutes is not preaching. Sorry. I'll take the Bible. So, and then it says, And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned to fables. Why is it so important to preach the word? Because there's going to be a time where people won't listen. And so we got to get it into them while we can. And you're responsible. This is a charge. This is Paul saying, Hey, this is something you have to do as a pastor. Preach the word. Make sure that you're doing it right. Proving, rebuking, exhorting and preaching. You know, being long suffering to do this and doctrinally. Now, when it says long suffering also, I just want to say this. Is that you are going to have to repeat some of the doctrine that you preach. And sometimes as a pastor, you're like, man, I just already taught this last year. And, you know, I've been a pastor for a while now and sometimes I, I'll just be honest, sometimes I get bored preaching something I've already preached before. And, you know, you might say, well, that's, that's wrong, Pastor Thompson. Well, call me wrong. Okay. But sometimes I do get bored preaching things I just preached like last year. But we have to be long suffering because there's people that come into our churches all the time that have never learned this stuff before. And it's not like we just, you know, just because someone comes to our church, it doesn't mean that they know everything in the Bible. We have to remember to be long suffering and to preach doctrine because not everybody gets it. So turn to Acts chapter 20 verse 27. Acts chapter 20 verse 27. Does anybody know what time I actually started? Let me turn that clock off right there. No, I'm just kidding. All right. Acts chapter 20 verse 27. I'll start keeping track now. Acts 20, 20. I'm just joking. All right. Kind of. Acts chapter 20 verse 27. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. So not only, you know, did Paul, you know, tell this to Timothy, but he also, when he was talking to the Ephesians, he said that he didn't shun to declare unto you all the counsel of God. That's the other thing when it comes to preaching the Word, we've got to preach everything. We can't just preach our hobby horses or the things that we like to preach about because there are things I'm sure that Pastor Shelley likes to preach about. And if he really liked to preach about something, you know, he would probably just keep preaching it over and over again. But we have to preach about other stuff. And, you know, Pastor Oz, you're going to have to not be a hobby horser. That's what hobby horse preaching is, where you just get up and preach your hobby horse, the things that you like to preach about. But Paul said, hey, I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God. It's a responsibility to feed the church that you are a shepherd of, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Christ died for the church and he has put you as an overseer of the church and he expects you to feed your church. So charge number one was to preach the Word. Charge number two is to watch thou in all things. Watch thou in all things. Now in sports, and especially when I played football, our coaches like to repeat phrases. And any sport you play, your coach will repeat phrases. Who's played sports in here and you actually played on organized teams? You actually played on organized teams. Okay, so coaches in any sports team or just in the military, who's been in the military? Do they drill, like they call them drill sergeants, right? Because they just like to drill things into your mind, right? So this is kind of something that you should probably, these things are things you should drill into your mind. And this kind of transcends the rest of the sermon. But there is the last thing in this little list here that's going to be part of this point here. But when it comes to coaches, and I coach football. I coached my sons in football until they were able to go into high school. So I not only played football, but I actually coached my son's football teams until they went into high school. But the things that they drilled and that I would drill into kids' heads are that the purpose is that they learn the fundamentals. You learn the fundamentals of the sport that you're trying to get them to learn. So a good coach is going to repeat phrases that stick with you and help you. So what are some of these things, and I remember these things from early on when I first started playing football. And one of those things would be to build character. I'm just thinking of the things that just popped in my head. I'm sure I could think of a lot of other things, but like one of the things is be early. Our coaches were always just harping on us. The first football coaches I had, they would say, be early. Don't get there at the time you're supposed to be there. Get there on Lombardi time. Has anybody ever heard of Lombardi time? No? Does anybody know who Vince Lombardi was? He was the coach for the Packers. He won two Super Bowl championships. But before that, he won a bunch of NFL championships before the merger happened. And he was like a very famous coach, okay? But he had this saying, well people have this saying about him that's called Lombardi time. That means to be there 15 minutes before you're supposed to be there. So if you're supposed to be at church at 4.30, not to be there right at 4.30, but you'd be there at 4.15. So, and I can't always say that I live up to this rule. I'm just saying that this is what they taught me, alright? I'm not saying I always live up to it. But, you know, maybe some of us in here could probably, you know, use this rule in our life when it comes to just everyday life, right? To be there before you're supposed to be. Because those people, those of us that like to just be there and ride the lightning and hope that we're not late for work, right? We like plan to get up at a certain time and then like if anything wrong happens on our way to work, we're screwed, right? We're just like, you know, rushing to the time clock, you know what I mean? But this is something that the coaches just drilled in us. Hey, don't be, you know, don't be there when the game starts or, you know, when you're supposed to be there, be there on Lombardi time. And then one of the other things to build character was that the coaches always made us line up at the end of the game and shake hands with our opponents. Who had to do that in an esport? Okay, now our coaches though, they told us to look them in the eyes, say good game and shake their hands. And we were not allowed to take our helmets off until we got off the field because we were warriors, right? We're football players, right? You don't take your helmets off until you get off the field. But I mean that just got drilled into me, right? And so when I started coaching I would do the same thing and I just thought that was part of good sportsmanship. Have you ever seen though in the NFL, if they take their helmet off and throw it on the ground, what happens to them? They get penalized, they get in trouble. I think you can get kicked out of the game for it, I think in some instances. But it's a safety thing but it's also a respect thing. So anyway, and remembering techniques. They drill into technique. Like you got to, you know, stand that man up. Like, you know, when you're firing off on the line, you stand the man up so that you can fire off and get to the quarterback. But also if you're an offensive lineman, they have you start off. I'm going to have brother Devin come up here and show us an example of a three-point stance, okay? He played football. You played organized football, right? He's a real shy guy but he's a good guy. This is Nia's brother-in-law, yeah. So he's kind of like family. Anyway, so let's show everybody. Wait, how long has it been since you played organized football? Alright, show me a three-point stance. Alright, keep your head facing forward like you're, see? So Devin, I almost called him Brandon because he looks a lot like him. Alright, go ahead and stand up. Why does he remember that? When's the last time you've been in a three-point stance? Did you practice? Oh, middle school. See, middle school. Go ahead and sit down. I just want to show you an example is that he had that drilled into his head and he still can, he didn't practice that before. I told him he's going to come up and do it but unless he practices, he's just lying to me. But middle school, how does he know to get down in that three-point stance like that because, and he hasn't done that since middle school because the coach has probably drilled that into his brain every single day. And so these are the things that you as a pastor, you know, get these things, get these charges drilled into your brain and you will not fail in the ministry. But it's when you're not, you know, watching in all things, that's when the sucker punch comes. And look, even as much as you watch, you're still going to be caught by surprise at things. I mean, you can watch and people will still fool you. You know, things are going to come up that are unexpected. But what does Paul say here? He says, watch thou in all things. So, you know, when you get down in that three-point stance and you're ready to fire out, you're looking at your opponent across from you and you're ready to smash them in the face or smash them, you know, knock them over or whatever. This is the things that the coaches, you know, got you for technique. And, you know, remember your responsibilities. There's another thing that they harped at us. Keep contained. When I play defensive end, you know, if you don't keep contained, what is keeping contained? You're trying to stop that running back from getting around the end and going up the sideline like they love to do and make you look like a fool and run for a touchdown right up the sideline. You've seen it a million times in games, I'm sure. But as long as you keep them from getting to that sideline, you've done your job and the linebacker and the corners and whoever else is supposed to come in and make the tackle. But if you let them get to your outside, you've lost. That was my responsibility is to keep contained. So, I mean, they just drill that in your brain. Now, and then when it comes to safety, mouthpieces. What do you see in college sports and the NFL all the time now? And it just drives me crazy, their mouthpiece hanging out their mouth. And they're whining about these concussions that they get all the time. You know why they have mouthpieces? So when you, I mean, it helps to cut down on the concussions that you have in games. But yet you see them running around, smashing each other with no mouthpiece in. It's like that's why you have them, why you have it dangling off your chin strap when you're not even going to use it. But that was drilled into us. It was a 15-yard penalty if we got caught without our mouthpiece in our mouth. It's safety. And the other thing that they would say is keep your head on a swivel. What does that mean? Well, your neck, your head swivels back and forth, right? If you've ever played football before and you've ever had someone hit you when you weren't expecting it, it's a very awful feeling to be off your feet in midair. Because someone hit you so hard, they ear hold you so hard that you come off your feet and you fall on your back. My eighth grade year, the first kickoff, I was on the kickoff team where, you know, you're one of the guys running down trying to make the tackle. And I got ear holed not once. I got hit so hard I got knocked down, you know, flying through the air. And then I got back up and ran again and somebody else did it to me. On the same play. That's why they tell you to keep your head on a swivel. You've got to look, you've got to make sure nobody's going to hit you like that. And so when you think of watch down on all things, like that would be a thing to think about. Like, hey watch Dylan, you're going to have to, or Pastor Oz, you're going to have to watch and keep your head on a swivel. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14. 2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 14 says, But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. So, you've learned all these great things from a lot of great men. And, you know, of course you've been studying under Pastor Shelley for a long time. You've learned things from me. You've learned things, I'm sure, from Pastor Jimenez and other pastors also. And so you should continue in those things. You know, just, you know, obviously you're going to have your own things you're going to incorporate into your church. But don't forget about the things that you already have learned and stay diligent in those things. You need to watch thou in all things. Listen to what Coach Paul says. Coach Paul of Tarsus. Coach Saul Paul of Tarsus. And what these great men have taught you. They've already taught you these things and don't forget it. And remember the things that Pastor Shelley's taught you. You know, he didn't say to get other people to watch, though. Paul didn't say that, did he? He said, you watch. Now, obviously we can have other people watch for us. But nobody's going to watch like you watch. Nobody's going to see the things the way you see them. Because, you know, I don't know how this works exactly. But, and I'm not saying we have some super mystic powers or something like that. But there's things that pastors see that other people don't see. And maybe it's just because we just, I don't know. We've been burned so many times before. I don't know. You get burned a few times and you're just like, you kind of start seeing the things that people do that are out of whack or something. And you just, you just start seeing them. But like you can't say anything until you know for sure. And so you just kind of watch. But, you know, it's just one of those things. But if you're not going to watch, then you're going to get caught by surprise. And it's not going to be fun. So, you're the shepherd now and you've got to watch out for the sheep. And, you know, shepherds lose sleep sometimes. Shepherds, you know, feel the loss of the sheep to the predators, you know. And look, there's a lot of predators out there. That's what, I mean, why are shepherds watching? Well, they're watching for the health and safety of their sheep. But they're also watching for predators. You know, predators wait until they think that nobody's paying attention and then they strike. And so, what are you watching for? You're watching for a lot of stuff. Who used to watch like the Looney Tunes stuff? The Bugs Bunny stuff? Okay, remember the sheep dog? He'd be standing up on this like cliff area and then the coyote would always try to do some kind of crazy stuff to kill the sheep. And he'd always just like somehow get, figure out his little plot and he'd grab him by the neck and punch him or whatever. Remember he'd like, he couldn't see, he'd always have to like put his bangs up or whatever? That's what you've got to be like. I mean, don't punch him, but, unless you have to. But, look, people will accuse you of not watching over the sheep when you fight battles too. And, you know, but don't let that weakness cling to you. Because people will accuse you of, like when you're fighting battles, they're like, oh, what about those sheep? Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 17. They'll be like, oh, what about those sheep that you're supposed to be watching over while you're fighting these battles? You know, what about the sheep? And this kind of happens to David when he goes to fight Goliath and his own brother is like asking him, what about those little sheep in the wilderness, David? Look at what it says in 1 Samuel 17, 28, it says, And then he starts accusing them, So, is that what David's doing? Is that what he's doing? No, he's coming down to fight the battle. He's coming down and eventually he's going to be the captain. Pastor Shelley mentioned it this morning about this specific, you know, where David had those few sheep and then he became what? The captain of all of Israel. He's going to become the captain of the football team. He's going to defeat Israel's biggest threat and after this moment, he goes and kills Goliath and then slowly he becomes the king of all of Israel and Saul, the biggest guy on the whole battlefield, is afraid to go fight him. But Eliab, what's he doing? He's like, oh, what happened to the sheep, David? You're going to go fight the battle, you're going to go, you know, you just came down, you know, to see what's going on. You're prideful. You're prideful for trying to fight this battle, David. I know that you're the naughtiness of your heart, you're just, you're prideful, you just want to start fights, right? You just want to see the battle. But see, you're going to be in battles and don't be shied away from the people, the naysayers that want to just say that you just want to fight. Look what it says in verse 29, Yeah, it's called the cause of Christ. It's a battle that's worth fighting and sometimes we do have to battle. Sometimes pastors are in battles and it's not fun, but sometimes it has to be done. It says, David's like, yeah, whatever Eliab, you know, and where do we hear about him for the rest of the Bible? Doesn't do much, does he? But David goes on to be a man after God's own heart. And the people answered him again after the former matter. So, you know, don't be like Eliab, church members. When Pastor Oz is going through a battle, be with him. Don't be like, oh, why do you have to get into all these battles? I know the naughtiness of your heart, Pastor Oz. Sometimes battles have to be fought. And don't be Eliab, wives. You know, don't be like an Eliab, Jasmine. That'd be weird anyway, but don't be, you know, Eliab children. No, dad, why are you always in these battles? Hey, just get behind your pastor and follow him and be an encouragement. And like David had a family member that's going against him. This is going to happen. There's nothing more discouraging than your own people questioning every fight, every battle that you lead, every battle you have to fight, someone always having to whine about why we have to get into battles. I mean, just read the Bible. There's battles through the whole thing. There's battles from the beginning all the way to the end. Jesus is fighting at the very end of it. He just lets us chill while he kills all of his enemies. He's like, hey, I got this one. Die. He's just like, so look, you know, if you choose, let me just fill you in on a little secret. If you choose, you know, the side of people that are clearly on the wrong side of things, like what's wrong with you? How can you choose openly to be on the side of someone that's clearly breaking God's commandments, clearly turning aside people, clearly on the side of wicked reprobates, but yet you're going to take that side and then forsake your pastor? That is just bizarre. Clearly, there's bad guys and good guys. There's no mincing who's on the right side. Who's on the Lord's side? That's pretty easy to tell. Who's doing what's wrong? That's pretty easy to tell. Who's doing what the Bible says and who's not? Who's teaming up with the vile haters of God and who's staying on the Lord's side? That's not hard to understand. And if you can't fathom what's going on, then maybe it's time to unplug your computer, get off the Internet, stay off your phone. Turn to Proverbs 31. Well, I'm just not sure who's right. It's really not that hard. When Moses said, who's on the Lord's side, everybody knew. They're just like, all right, we are. He's like, kill them. I'm like, okay. I mean, it wasn't tough. But then he has the Korah rebellion. And then the people are like, you killed the people of the Lord. And they're going to kill Moses and Aaron, who are clearly on the right side. I mean, God split hell wide open, literally, and dropped them into hell. Right? I mean, if you go to hell, are you a reprobate at that point? Yeah? Like, in front of the whole congregation of the children, they're like, hey, get back away from these men. You know, give them a wide berth. Right? And all of a sudden, it's like, ah, ah, then, and then like the next day they're like, you killed the people of the Lord. Like, first of all, did Moses and Aaron kill the people of the Lord, or was it God? And then God's just like, all right, these guys are retards. I'm going to kill all of them and make a nation out of you guys instead. And Moses is like, no, don't do it. I mean, and Moses, he was a good guy. I mean, he really cared about them. Because some people get just caught up in the mix. Not all those people were that stupid, but there were some people that were pretty stupid that were still hanging around, right? But I mean, if they literally drop into hell, how are they God's people? Please try to help me figure that one out. They literally go to hell, and you're like, you killed the people of the Lord. They're not the people of the Lord, folks. Anyway, that's all part of my sermon, but somehow it made it in. All right. Proverbs 31, verse 3. Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings. Another way that you need to be effective is to not give your strength unto women. And look, I'm not trying to be downgrading women or anything. And of course, there's going to be times when you want to go to your wife and talk to her about the things of the ministry, and you're going to probably ask her for advice on certain things. But when it comes time to fight, that's not the time to get the advice. Men go to war. Men fight the battles. And I'm not saying that women don't go and preach the gospel, and they're not into war somehow. I mean, we're all still on the Lord's side together, but the men are the ones that fight the battles. You shouldn't be going to war on the Internet. You shouldn't be going to war, you know, in the trenches with the men. And when a pastor goes to battle, he should be going to war by himself or with the other men. Okay? Why is his mom telling him this? Give not thy strength unto women. Hey, when it's time to lead the church, you know, your wife can have an input. But like, when it comes down to it, you need to make the decision. You need to have the strength. The man is the one that's ruling over the church. It's not Pastor and Mrs. Pastor Oz. It's Pastor Oz. Okay? And I love Jasmine. Of course you know that. But wherever she's at, she's probably in there. But I'm, you know, look, you have to make the decisions. You have to be the man. Men go to war. Men need to be strong. Pastors need to be strong men, not led by their wives, on what to do and how to preach and how to run things. Like I said, listen to advice, but don't give your strength unto them to lead the church. And what church should we go to? What church do you think I should go to, honey? Hey kids, what church should we go to? No, the husband needs to tell his family this is the church we're going to. We're going to stay steadfast. We're going to hold our anchor. We're going to drop our anchor right here. This is where we're going to church. Put the Sunday school programs at the other end. Who cares? So they can watch Jesus in a dress on a flannel graph? That what you really want so your children can be forced into a nursery? I mean this man has traveled state to state trying to stay out of nurseries, right? Jersey Joe? Original Jersey Joe? Amen. Hey, you shouldn't be forced to have your children. I mean we don't want forced vaccinations. We don't want forced nurseries. Anyway, sorry about that. It's true though, right? But the men need to make the decisions. And this shouldn't be Femtard Baptist Church, or Gently Led Mister Baptist Church, or Dwell on the House Top Baptist Church. This should be Anchor Baptist Church led by men. The Bible says, turn to 1 Timothy chapter 6. I never thought I'd see the day where the new IFB men are being led by their women. Preach it. It's pretty sad. And then we're trying to be, people are trying to force us. Well, when are you going to preach on spousal discipline? Well, as soon as there's a Bible verse in here about it. How about that? Oh wait, I don't see one. You know why? Because there isn't one. So why am I going to preach about it? I'm also not in the habit of kicking my pastor friends in the teeth while they're down on the ground either. I'm not going to just throw them a giant concrete block while he's drowning either. Because I'm not a piece of crap friend. 1 Timothy chapter 6 verse 12 says, Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereinto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. But it doesn't say, play patty cake, the good patty cake, baker's man. It says, fight the good fight of faith. It's a fight. We're in a fight. Turn to Jude chapter 1, the only chapter, verse number 3. Jude 1, 3. The Bible says, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. What is contend? It's another word for fight. This life that we live as Christians is a fight. We're fighting, we're contending. What's the faith once delivered? The only faith there is, salvation by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ and its eternal life. There's no works mixed into it. There's no repentance of sins mixed in with that. It's not making Jesus the Lord of your life. It's the one faith that we contend for. And that's a fight we're fighting every single day of our lives. Every time we need to preach it, we need to preach that strong and hard. We fight for faith alone. We fight for faith against mixed works. You know, look, we hear that crap at the door every time we go and preach. We have to undo people's minds and help them change their mind, repent, change their mind about the stupid things that they've been taught all their life at some cult or some weird church that believes false doctrine about the Church of Christ or whatever other Pentecostal garbage church that they went to or even some Baptist churches are teaching this stuff. Well, you've got to have the works or you didn't really... That's not what the Bible says, folks. And we are in a fight. There's no room to be squeamish. There will be blood. It will get messy. I'm not saying real blood, okay? In case I need to caveat that. Pastor Thompson's calling for blood. All right, look at verse 4. It says, For there are certain men, crept and unawares, who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what you have to watch out for, Pastor Oz, is people like this because they're everywhere and they will try to creep in and they will try to overturn the faith of some. But it says they're denying the only Lord God and the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's like, you know, that verse is like, man, but a lot of people say that they believe in Jesus but they believe different stuff. How do they deny Him? Well, they deny faith alone. They deny eternal security. They preach another Jesus. They believe in a false Christ that doesn't save. So it's not really Jesus, is it? They believe in another Christ, another spirit, and they are not really believing the truth. Turn to Ephesians, chapter 6, verse 12. And while you do that, I'm going to have a couple volunteers come up, give you a little wake you up. All right, you guys ready? All right, I'm going to move this over a little bit. Oh, I need help. Can I get a man? I need a man. Let's get that back to the big corner over here. Don't fall over. All right, all the way over there. All right, don't hit him against this. All right, we're going to have a jujitsu match here. I'm going to get out of the way. This is just an interlude to wake you up. You guys can stand up, take a breath with fresh air. All right, so the first, so hold on a second. Let me read the verse. Ephesians 6, 12 says, for we wrestle. So this guy here, he's the true gospel. All right, and the white kid is the work salvation guy. I'm flipping the script now. I'm just kidding. And the big guy, like normally, you know, you would use the big guy for, you know, it's a harder fight or whatever, but I'm flipping everything around right now. So, okay, so it says we wrestle, not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rules of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. So I'm going to let them wrestle real quick, just for a little interlude, just to give you a little picture. But this is flesh and blood, all right? So the first person to tap out, it's going to be a jujitsu, not wrestling, but it's kind of the same thing. Jesus did the first MMA match with Jacob, so it's biblical, and he popped Jacob's leg out of the socket, right? All right, ready? You guys ready? Two men enter, one man leaves. Oh, I thought you were going to give him a chance. Oh, he's got him. See, sometimes the work salvationist can get you on the ropes there. Get him, get him. Uh-oh. You got to tap. He's going to sleep. Okay. Good job, buddy. Thank you. Good job. All right, I need help. Let's move this back into place. All right, I think it's right there. All right. So see, the true salvation wild. Not because he was bigger or older. All right, so we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but they did, but against principalities and powers. So, hey, we're in a fight. We're in a contention. We're wrestling, but it's not against the flesh. And it says, Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. And look, we all have to put on the whole armor of God. This is a daily thing. This is a daily battle. And we have to learn that we are in a battle. And sometimes we forget that. And we like to just live our life. And so we get sick of the battle sometimes. Sometimes it's easy to just say, Hey, I just want a day off of the battle. And it hurts. Just like I'm sick of this. You know, but take a day off. Take, you know, pastors sometimes they get a little bit of time off. And sometimes I just like, I'll be honest with you, tired of the battle. But it's a battle that we have to fight. And I agreed to be a pastor. So it's my job. And Pastor Oz, it's your job now. This is just day one, baby. So get ready to fight. And, you know, it's exciting. It's exciting to see victories. It's exciting to see a new church start. That's exciting to me. I mean, I've started a new church. So I know exactly what it feels like. You're on cloud ten. It's awesome. So there's going to be great battles. And, you know, we always win when we're on the Lord's side, right? But just know this, that, you know, if you're not watching, the devil's always looking for a chink in the armor. He's looking for a way to win. And we can't give him that way to win. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4 again. But look what Paul said. Paul, you know, in his older age, he'd been through some battles. I mean, he'd been physically beaten, pulled – he'd been, you know, basically almost killed, stoned, and then apparently brought back to life, got up, and kept walking to the next town. I mean, how many of us can say that we would actually do that? I mean, he was a tough dude. And Paul means little. So I'm sure he was just a – you know, when the Bible talks about him, you know, being small, you know, it talks about how he was – you know, people would say he's contemptible. His speech was contemptible. And that he, you know, his letters were weighty, but his speech was contemptible and basically, you know, talking about how his physical appearance looked and things like that. But I don't know a lot of dudes that would get stoned and then get up and walk to the next town right after that. I mean, it was probably pretty brutal to look at. But look what it says in verse 6 in 2 Timothy 4. It says, For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Paul is an example for us to look at. And he was an example for Timothy to look at and for you and me, for Pastor Shelley, for anybody that wants to ever be in the ministry. He's a great example for us to look at. And, you know, I remember a long time ago, I heard Pastor Anderson say this. He says the only way to fail is to quit. And honestly, I've thought about quitting before. There's been times that I've had some dark days in the ministry and I always think about him saying that the only way to fail is to quit. I don't want to be a failure. If I'm going to be a quit, someone just needs to come up and shoot me or something. You know, I don't want people to do that. And by the way, I'll just say this now. If someone says I killed myself, I didn't. Proverbs 27 verse 23. I did not Epstein myself. And everybody knows Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself anyway. Ah, alright. Proverbs 27 verse 23. So when you're looking, I know this has been a long point. I'm pulling on Pastor Shelley here. Long point. But it says, be thou diligent to know the estate of thy flocks and look well to thy herds. So we're still on the topic of watching. You know, watch thou in all things. We're watching for false prophets. We're watching the estates of the state of our flocks. You know, your family and also your church family. Look at Philippians chapter 3 verse 1. Actually, go ahead and skip that one and go to Acts chapter 20 verse 29. Then we'll move on to the third point. Acts 20 to 29. The Bible reads, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. What does it say in the next two words there? Therefore, watch. Very important. We're going back to that. Very important. We're going back to what Paul said. Watch. Therefore, watch. Who's he speaking to? The Ephesian elders. The Ephesian pastors. Therefore, watch and remember that by the space of three years, I cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. People are like, you talk about false prophets too much. Paul, cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears. I mean, I don't want to preach about false prophets every day, but Paul seemed to think it was pretty important. If he preached about it every, he said night and day. Sunday morning, Sunday night. I don't know. It seemed to be pretty important to Paul. Listen to Paul. We've got to watch. So, charge number one was preach the word. Charge number two is watch thou in all things. Charge number three, endure afflictions. Look at Matthew chapter five verse ten. Matthew chapter five verse ten. Now, you've already kind of had some special affliction revelation that's happened to you before you became a pastor. I mean, you're in a film called LGBT Terrorists where you're literally terrorized by terrorists that are sodomite freaks. And so you kind of know a little bit about it. You had a weirdo come up and threaten to kill you. Had to have a restraining order against him. I mean, what, you got a billion views on TikTok or something for some sermon? Didn't you preach some sermon that got people mad or something? I seem to remember something about that. I was lying them up, but yeah, anyway. Something like that. So you've already, you kind of have a little bit of affliction through some of this stuff. But when you become a pastor, just know this, afflictions will happen. If you're doing the right things, you can just accidentally get afflicted. You're like, I was just minding my own business and all of a sudden affliction happens. But what does Jesus say? Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Verse 10, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. See, it says when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil. It's not saying like if. It's saying when and shall. And then it says falsely. It's not about you though. It's about Jesus. They're doing it because of your stand for Jesus. So when you're standing for Jesus, then people are going to attack you. And if you're a pastor, you're like a dart board on the devils. You know, it's like the FBI, you know, or police groups or whatever. They'll have these like things where they have the criminal enterprises and they'll have the heads of those families or whatever up there. And it's like, but the devil has his own. It's like, you know, these pastors probably faces on them or whatever and whatever church they're in. And so you become a major target as soon as this church turned hands. You know, you, you know, Patrick Shelley's, you know, he's already got his face on one. But now your face, I mean, your face is already on one. It was like one of the captains or something. But now, you know, you're, you're solely fixed upon now. So you're going to just expect it's going to get, you're going to get persecuted. But look at Matthew, Matthew 10, Matthew 10, Matthew 10, verse 19. The Bible says, but when, but when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in the same hour what, what you shall speak. For it is not that you shall, that you speak, but the spirit of your father which speaketh in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death. And the father, the child, and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. And you shall be hated, hated of all men for my name's sake. See, it's for Jesus' name, but it says you shall be, you know, it doesn't say you'll be loved by everybody. See, that's what the world thinks. That's what other Christians think, is that we're just supposed to be loved by everybody. Why are you so hated? Why does everybody hate this church? Why does everybody hate Steadfast? Why does everybody hate Sure Foundation? Why does everybody hate Faithful Word and all these other churches? Why? Because of Jesus' name. That's why. They'll go, no, it's because of all the stuff you preach about the sodomites. I know, but nobody else does that, do they? They're all afraid. They're all scared. They don't want to preach the truth. They don't want to preach the Bible. Let's go back to point number one. Preach the Word. They don't like that. So, when the Bible gets preached, hey, we'll get persecuted just for preaching the truth about the Gospel. People will persecute us. We actually got protested by sodomites for putting a tract in somebody's door that was a sodomite. Like, we're trying to love them and we didn't even realize it. If I would have known that that was going to happen, I wouldn't have put it in the door. If I would have known she was a sodomite. So, we're literally trying to love them accidentally. And then they all come to our church and are raging mad because it says that on the back it has the Gospel on the back of it, right? Which mentions hell. It doesn't say if you're a queer you're going to hell on the back of that Gospel invitation. It just says what is, you know, Revelation chapter 20 verse 14 and 15 or something. But anyway, see, you can just be preaching the Gospel and they'll rage against you for no reason. Look at Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19. Matthew chapter 19 verse 28. The Bible says, And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you that ye which have followed Me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, He shall sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for My name's sake shall receive an hundredfold and shall inherit everlasting life. But many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Like, why do you bring that up? Because sometimes everything has to be forsaken. And, you know, people just don't understand this. They're like, why would your family turn against you? Well, because of Jesus, that's why. Because of the Gospel, that's why. Because of the Bible, that's why. Like, you know, Pastor Shelley mentioned this this morning, it's the same thing. Red letters right there. Sometimes people have to be forsaken because, you know what, they just hate God for some reason, or they hate you because you love God, or they're your enemies because of that. And it's like, children, mother, wife, I mean, it could be anybody in your life. And then people are just so shocked when it actually happens. Oh, the Bible happens! Like, are you a Christian or not? Does the Bible actually come true or not? Like, when it actually happens, you're like, oh, I just can't believe this is happening. Like, really? Do you not believe the Bible? Oh, okay. Well, what else don't you believe in there? Like, any of it? Look, it's 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3. So, you're going to have to learn to endure afflictions. And look, there's some major afflictions that can happen in our life. And look, we haven't really seen what the Apostle Paul has seen, but we just don't know what's in store for us. But we have to be willing to forsake all for the call. And, you know, that is easier said than done. It really is. Look at verse 10, it says, Look, we're all going to get it. Every Christian alive, if you're going to live godly in Christ Jesus, you're going to suffer persecution. But, I mean, in all reality, you know, as a pastor, you're probably going to get it worse. If you're, I mean, it's like Paul said that we're the gazing stocks of the world when he's talking about the Apostles. And, you know, look, I'm not trying to say that we're, you know, worse off, but we kind of are sometimes. I mean, usually when we're being majorly attacked, it's not, I mean, steadfast is different, okay? You guys have had some crazy persecution where you're like, people are going after your jobs, and, you know, that's just stuff we haven't had to deal with. But, I mean, so I can't say that you guys haven't dealt with some of that stuff. You have. But most of the time, it's usually just the pastor that's the target of the persecution. But, you know, not being able to get Airbnbs, that's crazy. I've never even heard of that. But you guys, like, get everything taken away from you. So, it's pretty weird. Anyway, let's move on. So, charge number one, preach the word. Charge number two, watch out on all things. Charge number three was endure afflictions. Charge number four, do the work of an evangelist. Look at Acts 21 verse 8. I'll go through this real quick. Acts 21 verse 8. But this is also important because there's a lot of churches out there that are not doing this. What's one of the charges of Paul? Do the work of an evangelist. The word evangelist is only in the Bible two times. Acts 21, 8 is one of them. Look what it says. And the next day, we that were of Paul's company departed and came unto Caesarea. And we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven, and abode with him. So, what does it mean by that, one of the seven? Well, he's one of the first seven deacons. But now he's called Philip the evangelist. And it says, and abode with him. So, this is around 20 years after Philip first got the Ethiopian eunuch saved. Alright. And it says, and the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy. So, he's got them doing the same thing that he's doing, winning souls. And Philip is a great man of God. I mean, he goes, he gets the Ethiopian eunuch saved. Then he goes, you know, he's already gotten like a bunch of Samaritans saved. And then he goes, he goes to Caesarea and kind of basically just lives the rest of his life there. And it seems like he's becomes just, he just stays as an evangelist. He has four daughters and they preach. So, but this is that same Philip that did all these great things. Like I said, so what is the work of an evangelist? Well, what is Philip known for doing? Getting people saved. That's what an evangelist does. Okay. So, and obviously a lot of everybody here is probably a soul winner, goes soul winning. So, but you're like, well, what's an evangelist though? Well, an evangelist, you know, in my mind goes and gets people saved. But they also probably do church planting work. Like I personally believe in, you know, it never calls Paul an evangelist. But I mean, what is he doing? He's going and preaching the gospel, getting people saved and he's planting churches. Of course, he was an apostle. But I mean, you have to consider the fact that he's already an apostle when he goes to Antioch. And then he gets ordained and sent out again. What's he ordained and sent out as? Apostle again? I don't know. I mean, he just, he's sent out of that church. It just says, separated unto me, Saul and Barnabas. And I mean, it doesn't say he's, again, I'm not trying to say for sure that he's ordained as an evangelist. But he's definitely ordained to do something. It's to go get people saved and start churches, right? So, look at verse 40 in Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8. It says, but Philip was found at Azotus and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea. So, when Paul says, do the work of an evangelist, this is what his life was. Preaching the gospel, getting people saved and then apparently just staying with that work in Caesarea. And basically, you know, he was either still a deacon, but it sounds like he was one of the seven then was an evangelist after that. So, the Bible says in Proverbs 11, 30, the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life and he that win his soul is wise. Turn to Acts 1, 8. Acts 1, 8. So, of course, we know that the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life. So, we produce fruit. Our job as Christians is to produce other things like ourselves, is to replicate what we are. Someone made us a tree. When we started to replicate and be fruit bearing trees ourselves, then we completed that process. To become a tree like the tree that planted us, right? That got us saved, that spread that seed to us, right? And then we became a, so our job is to go out and make other trees likewise. So, the Bible says he's a tree of life and he that win his soul is wise. When Jesus left, what did he say? He said in verse 8, this is the last thing he told the disciples to do, he says, But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all of Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. So, that is the last thing that Jesus said to do. And in Matthew chapter 28, I won't have you turn there, but it says, So, what is the work of an evangelist? The work of an evangelist is to go out and get people saved. So, you're not really doing the work of a pastor if you're not doing the work of an evangelist. So, what does an evangelist do? Jesus said to go into Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the earth. So, your Jerusalem is here in Oklahoma City. And, you know, I'm sure that you're probably going to do missions trips. I'm sure you're going to do some small town soul winning. I'm sure you're going to do some church planting. And some, and you know, you're going to maintain those good works here in the city that you already are in. And, you know, that is something that you have to maintain and continue to do. I see the nice big map. It's great. And there's a lot of places to shade in. And I hope that every time I come here to visit, if you ever let me come back again, after the announcement you're going to make after the service. No, I'm just joking. That that's filled in more. And, you know, that's, you know, Paul said, do the work of an evangelist. You know, this is one of the charges. It's not optional. But yet you have churches all over this country and all over this world that think it's just a little country club where we have potlucks every fifth Sunday and go out and invite somebody to church so that they can preach an eleven o'clock in the morning sermon where they call people up to the aisle and then, you know, they get saved for the fifteenth time. The bus kids that come every Sunday or whatever. Look, that's not what Jesus said to do. And I'm not saying people don't get saved in those situations. I'm not saying bus kids don't get saved. I'm just saying that that's not what he sent us to do. And, you know, I know that you have a passion for souls and I hope that you maintain that and continue to do that. So last point is charge number five, make full proof of thy ministry. Well, how do you do that? All the points above. You preach the word. You watch in all things. You endure afflictions. You do the work of an evangelist. People, you know, what do you mean full proof? How do you prove it? Well, you have to do all those things. And people are going to be able to see, is this church going to thrive? Is Aaron's rod going to bud in this place? Is God going to bless this ministry? Is God going to bless this work? Well, it's going to be abundantly obvious. It's going to be obvious that God has put his hand upon you and upon this church. But make no mistake about it, you do have to prove yourself. You've proved that you meet the qualifications of a bishop. You've proved that. But now you have to prove your ministry. You have to make full proof. That's what Paul is saying here. And Coach Paul has some pretty good suggestions here, doesn't he? And, you know, both epistles that he writes and also in Titus, I mean, Paul, you know, just has so much wisdom. But I would really encourage you to kind of just drill these things into your mind. Just like a coach drills it into his players, you know, to, you know, to make sure you're doing all the right techniques. But drill these things in. Preach the word. Watch out on all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry. Because you have the job and nobody else can prove it but you. So, he said this is a good church. Prove it. I mean, it already is. But now it's not Pastor Shelley's church to be the ruler of. It's your church to be the ruler of. And you have to prove it. Turn to Matthew chapter 7 verse 15. I just got a couple more places to turn and we're going to be done. Matthew chapter 7. Well, how do we know somebody's, how do we know someone's good? Well, by their fruits, right? How do we know someone's a good pastor or a good prophet or whatever? By their fruits. How do we know someone's a bad one? By their fruits. Matthew 7, 15. Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing. But inwardly they are ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles? Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. See, every tree, even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit. How do you prove it? You're going to bring forth that good fruit. This church is going to keep bringing forth, you're going to prove it that way. But a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. How are you going to know someone's evil? How are you going to know someone's wicked? Well, they're not going to bring forth good fruit. It's just that simple. It's really actually that easy. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit. Neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn down and cast in the fire. Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. Now of course Jesus is telling us how to be aware of false prophets but it also he tells us the clue to how we know a good prophet is. I mean hell's not going to split wide open when a false prophet walks into this church. That's not the New Testament way. I mean it would be nice, wouldn't it? It'd be easier. I mean I don't understand why we couldn't still have that but it's not my, you know, God is God, let my word be few. But that would be nice if every time some wicked person came into church all of a sudden hell just opened up and they'd drop into hell and we wouldn't have to worry about them anymore. But we do know this though. We know their fruits. The Bible says you should know them by their fruits. But we know the good prophets by their good fruits, by their fruitful wells, by their righteous tree, by their good tree. Galatians 6 says, but let every man prove his own work and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone but not in another. So I mean, yeah, you do got to prove yourself a little bit here. In the UK they have this term called pudding. Now we know pudding as what? The jello pudding snacks that you eat like, hey I'm going to make some figgy pudding or whatever. Who likes pudding in here? Just be honest. Is this the non-pudding side? What kind of people don't like pudding? I'm suspect. Lord, open up. No, I'm just kidding. I'm kidding. But in England, this might be a shocker to you, but in England anything that you eat after supper is called pudding. It doesn't matter what it is. It could be a savory roll with meat and sausage in it. A Yorkshire pudding is like, when I heard Yorkshire pudding I thought, oh yeah, what kind of pudding is this? I'm like, you know, I thought it was like what we call pudding. But what are we going to have for pudding? When I first went there I was like, oh yeah, pudding. But it's like a roll that comes out of a, you know, you bake it in the oven. I'm like, this doesn't taste like pudding to me. But I learned to like it, okay. But that's the way it is in England. So have you ever heard that term, the proof is in the pudding? Well that actually comes from England. And it's basically like, they didn't used to have refrigerators. I mean, back in the medieval times and stuff like that. So when they'd cook things they'd put them out, you know, and people didn't really know how long they were setting out for sometimes, and obviously the mold doesn't grow right away. Or you don't really know what something tastes like until you taste it. So when you grab something and take a bite of it, the proof was in the pudding, because everything was basically pudding to them. So that's where that term comes from, the proof is in the pudding. So like, some things can look really ugly when you go to eat them, right? But they taste really good. Who can think of something just off the top of your head that doesn't look good, but it actually tastes good? Anybody? Anything? Whoo! We got a church split going on here. Uh oh, I was kidding. Now, um, I can't think, oysters. I get oysters. Oysters look disgusting, but they're very good. Cooked the right way, all right? I don't like them raw, all right? But anyway, my point is, that term, the proof is in the pudding, is a good term. Because, look, people will go, oh the building, it's in a strip mall, and you know, oh the building doesn't have all these great things. That's not a very good building. But, what does that have to do with the quality of what this church is like? The proof is in the pudding. This is a great church. You know, people should test how great the church is, and how, by how great the doctrine is, by how great the sowing is, by how great the pastor is, by how great the people are. You know, not by how great the coffee machine is. Or where it even is at all, apparently. Right? I have this same issue. I saw, like a spindle, with little coffee pods on it, but I didn't see the machine. So, I didn't really look that hard though, I'll be honest. All right? Well, I was with you Pastor Shelley. Well, who cares about what the outside looks like? The proof is in the pudding. Right? So, like, who cares? Green beans looked disgusting to me when I was a little kid. And I remember one time I was like four years old and my mom was like, you gotta eat three bites. And I had these pork chops with gravy and mashed potatoes. And she was making me, you know how parents do that, you gotta eat three bites or whatever. But do what your parents say kids. But like, I even tried, she was like, just plug your nose. And I'm plugging my nose and I'm like taking the bites of the green beans. They didn't even have bacon on them or anything. So, I took the second bite and just puked all over my plate. Ralph, big time. It was more than the reflex, Mr. Shelley. It wasn't, ugh, ugh. It was like, bleh, like literally just all over those pork chops. I mean, like it ruined my dinner. Because they looked disgusting. But now I love green beans. They're good for you. They have nutrients inside them. And with bacon they're pretty good. But anyway, you might meet in a strip mall. You're not in a stained glass million dollar building or whatever. But little is much when God is in it. And who cares about all this luxurious stuff? It's what the fruit's like that matters. It's what the proof is in the pudding, right? Just look at this last verse and we'll be done. Back to 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 8. And this is what really matters. This is what Paul said at the end of his life. He fought the good fight. He kept the faith. And he said in verse 8, henceforth there's laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. So that's anybody, right? Not just pastors. It's not just the pastors that get everything. It's everybody. It's a group effort. But you know, be a good, and obviously I'm talking to you all, but you guys all go steadfast, most of you, right? But hey, be a blessing to Pastor Shelley. Be a blessing to Pastor Oz. And just keep working. And all these things can apply to you. You know, when you're preaching the Bible at the door, preach the Word. You watch thou in all things too. You have a family. You know, watch that you don't get taken aside by all these weirdos. In case you hadn't noticed, there's a lot of weirdos that try to attach themselves to our movement. Endure afflictions. I mean, people will try to afflict you to get you out of the Christian life. And it might be just family members that are messing with you or whatever. But Satan wants to get us out. He wants us to quit. He doesn't want us to finish like Paul did. Do the work of an evangelist. Keep soul winning. That's the other thing. He wants to get you out of soul winning. And make foolproof of thy ministry. Hey, everybody has a ministry in this church. Whatever it is, you have something. If you don't have something to do, I'm sure that Pastor Oz can figure something out for you to do. Someone needs to be the doorkeeper. Someone needs to take out the trash. Someone needs to help clean. Someone needs to straighten up the chairs. You know, everything needs to be done decently in order. And it's a group effort. It can't just be them. It can't just be one person. Everybody needs to chip in and help. Well, it's been a pleasure being here. And I love this church. I loved it when it was steadfast OKC. And I love it now that it's Anker Baptist Church. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this great church. I pray that you'd bless it for many, many years to come. I pray that you'd just strengthen the Oz family and all the church family here. I pray, Lord, that you'd put wise men to help him and for him to be able to lean on. And that the ladies here would rally with their husbands and that, Lord, that they would be help-meets and great ladies of the faith here in this church. Lord, I pray that you would just help them all to have one mind, be in one accord, striving together for the faith of the gospel. I pray, Lord, you'd bless us as we all go our separate ways tonight. And we thank you for this great day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, if you'll grab a hymnal, we'll turn to our last hymn for the evening. Number 134, My Anker Holds. Hymn number 134, 1-3-4, My Anker Holds. 134, My Anker Holds. 134 on the first. 143, There holds word within the deep, Angels cloud to shake the sky. And the tempest rises high. Still I stand the tempest shot. For my anker grips the rock. And I hold my anchor hold. Oh, your wildness then, oh, gale, on my bar so small and frail, I, as race, I shall not fail, for my anchor holds. My anchor holds. I can feel the anchor pass, as I'm eating studded glass, and the gale, oh, unseen, with a heavy string between. Through the storm, I simply ride, through the turning of the tide, and it holds, my anchor holds. Oh, your wildness then, oh, gale, on my bar so small and frail, I, as race, I shall not fail, for my anchor holds. My anchor holds. Trouble's almost found us all. Please, my gale, adore me more, tend to seek to lure us straight. Storms will stir the light of day, but in Christ I can be bold. I'm an anchor that shall hold, and it holds, my anchor holds. Oh, your wildness then, oh, gale, on my bar so small and frail, I, as race, I shall not fail, for my anchor holds. My anchor holds.