but he came lowly, you know why?
Because he's emphasizing the importance
of that which is spiritual over that
which is the physical appearance.
So the Bible says, stop being so vain.
The Bible says he's despised and rejected of men.
Well, how am I gonna find someone?
How, you know, how am I gonna get married?
Well, how about you like pray, you know?
We're having a prayer and stuff, right?
How about just being a godly person, you know?
And let me just say this,
what you do to get 'em, you gotta do to keep 'em.
If you're attracting people because of your plastic surgery,
because of the bone smasher, you gotta keep that up.
Folks, we're fearfully and wonderfully made.
Some more than others, I know.
But at the end of the day, you know what?
At the end of the day, what matters,
I'm not trying to be cheesy here, right here.
The N-word man is what matters in the eyes of God, okay?
And again, if you're chopped, you're chopped.
Stop complaining about it.
Do the best with what you can.
Lose some weight, lift some weights, lose some weight.
You know, get your confidence from the Lord.
Be a confident, virtuous person.
And you know what, that stuff is attractive.
Because if you're only focusing on your appearance, you know what, you're going to attract vain
people.
And let me just remind you that the Bible tells us favor is deceitful and beauty is
vain.
Why?
Because it will eventually fade, folks.
Beauty and handsomeness, all this stuff fades.
We grow older.
You know, I know young people hate to hear this, and they just don't like the idea.
But sorry, this is the way life is.
You think you're chopped now?
Wait till you've just been in the grave for like an entire year?
Decomposing and just, yeah, that's how it is.
I'm giving you the reality here.
Look, you know, if you look good, if you feel like you're attractive and you're beautiful,
you know, praise God that God made you that way, but it's not always going to be there.
So you better make sure that you work on that which is of substance.
Be a godly, pure, virtuous person, and that's what you should focus on, okay?
Not place an emphasis on your look smashing and the bone crushing and all this nonsense
that people are doing.
It's absolute vanity.
And look, this guy Clavicular, he is super wicked, super evil, super wicked, not godly
by any stretch of the imagination.
He's an absolute fornicator.
There's videos out there of people asserting that he's a sodomite.
He's absolutely vain.
He has nothing godly or virtuous to tell anybody.
He literally was interviewed by this guy, and he's saying, "What do you think about
JD Vance?"
He's like, "Oh, he's subhuman."
I don't even know what that means.
He's like, "Who do you think is going to win?"
I think Gavin Newsom is going to win, not because of his policies or anything, just
because he feels like he looks better.
That's all it is.
He's like, "Gavin Newsom is going to win because he's just a mogger."
But these are the people that you look up to.
He's not basing anything off of any conviction, any policies, any beliefs.
He's just like, just because he's just handsome.
Talk about empty and vain.
Let me read to you from 1st Peter chapter 3 verse 2 says, "While they behold your chase
conversation coupled with fear, who's adorning, let it not be that outward adorning of plating
the hair and of wearing of gold and of putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man
of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit,
which is in the sight of God of great price."
So the Bible is saying here, and obviously this is referring to women, but it's absolutely
true. He's saying, you know, what you should work on more than the plating of the hair,
the gold, the pearls, all the outward, you know, adornments is you should focus on the inward man,
making yourself godly, getting favor with God, being righteous in the eyes of the Lord.
Okay. Now, let me, let me say this regarding, let's talk about steroids for a minute, shall
we? PED, steroids, just that whole, that whole thing. Okay. Now look, you know, in our church,
you don't get excommunicated for, for, for, you know, taking steroids. I have pastor friends who
actually said, if you're doing steroids or any, you know, performance enhancing drugs, that you
will be excommunicated from their church. And, you know, I don't a hundred percent agree with that,
but I can understand why he would be so extreme about it. I don't personally have that policy
in our church. I don't believe it's right to just excommunicate someone for doing steroids.
And I do think like to a certain degree, you know, steroids has their place in certain instances,
like a couple of years ago, you know, I had this hardcore throat infection and it was just
absolutely destroying me. I mean, it was the most painful throat infection. People were like,
"It's strep. It's strep." It wasn't even strep. They took like, you know, samples of it and they're
like, "It's not strep. We don't know what it is. It's just, you know, we don't know. It's just some
sort of bacterial infection or something." And they couldn't figure out what it was. They're like,
"But you know what? We're just going to give you a shot of steroids." It was like DECA or something
like that. And they're like, "Whatever it is, it'll just go away really quick." And I'm like,
"DECA, huh? Oh, okay. How much?" And it's just like, it's going to be real uncomfortable. The
needle's really long. I'm just like, "I guess we're just going to have to do it." So they gave me
the DECA, and I promise you, 15 minutes after I took it, it literally lowered the inflammation.
And it made me better. And that night, I ended up flying to Sacramento to preach for a conference.
And I was 100% better by the time I got there because of the service. So they have their place
in society. I do believe that. And I do believe if someone is in dire need of them, there are
benefits to them. But let me just be honest with you. Young men should not be doing steroids though.
And none of you have a need for it. You're just trying to look, Max. But again, no excommunication
for doing steroids. Now, this is not me giving you permission to do them because I will shame
it in our church for sure. If I found out that you're doing steroids, I will shame it before
everyone. Fact. No excommunication. But let me say this, no leadership position either though.
So let's just kind of throw out an example, shall we? Let's just do an illustration. We have a music
ministry in our church and the preaching of God's word is the most important thing in our church,
but we love doing the music ministry too. We want people to perform excellent. Brother Adrian did a
great job today. His introduction was a little chopped, but the singing was excellent though.
Your singing was great. I liked it. A lot of potential. I like that new guys are coming up
and people are writing songs and I'm all for the music ministry. I love the orchestra. Brother Alex
does a great job playing the piano. People just love serving the Lord through music. I think it's
great. We have Miss Louisa. She's leading the children's choir and they're doing so great.
The Christmas program was awesome. The Easter singing is going to be great with the kiddos.
She's up there doing all this. She's got Zachary behind him. He's just being flayed all over the
place and kids are singing. I mean, this church is active. It's got motion. Great. I think it's
great. But let's just say, okay, let's just say I find out that... Let me just throw someone out
there. Let's just say that Louisa is doing steroids. Every couple of weeks, she's just
getting a little more, you know, jacked. And then she's getting super angry at the kids,
you know? And then she's just like, "Adam!" And she's just like, you know, "All right,
let's sing." You know? She's just like... We started noticing some changes within Ms. Louisa
because she's on gear now. Okay? Hope you don't mind me using these illustrations. It's too late.
You know, what I would do is I would go up to Ms. Louisa and say, "Hey, you're doing a fantastic
job with the kids choir, but we're cutting this. We're not doing it anymore because you're on
steroids." And you're a bad example to everyone else in the church. You're leading, you're leading
this entire thing. And I can't have people who are involved in the music ministry in any leadership
position being involved in PEDs and steroids like that. So here's your option. You can either stop
doing it and keep leading the kids choir, or if you want to keep doing your steroids, you know,
then we'll just axe the whole thing. That's what I would tell Ms. Louisa. And don't misunderstand
me. Look, folks, I love the music ministry, but I would just completely destroy the music ministry
if I have to. You know why? Because I come from a church and I come from a movement prior to the
new IP movement where the music almost was more important than everything else. Okay. And you know
what? Let me give you an example. It was so important that you can have wicked and vain people
doing the music ministry and no one would ever take them down because they're so talented.
So they wouldn't be called out for anything. The special singers, the song leaders, the orchestra,
you know, the piano player, you know, they're involved in all types of manner of wickedness,
but they will never be taken down. Why? Oh, because they're so talented. I don't, you know,
I'm thankful that you're talented. I'm thankful that you're gifted, but I will straight put an
ax to the ministry of the music. If I find out that you are a wicked person, if you're a vain
individual and have no, we will become an Amish church. If I find out that all the orchestra
members are on gear, you know what I would say? I'd be like, you guys aren't using it, right?
Cause none of you look Jack. No, I'm just kidding. If I find out and be like, all right, so either
you get off of it or just asking the orchestra, all of it goes down the toilet and we'll just
cut it. If I find out that Alex is on gear, which we obviously know that he's not, and I'm just
kidding. Let's say Alex is on gear and he just wants to take it. You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to say either you're off of it or you can't play the piano. Yeah, but what are
you going to do without a piano? We'll sing a cappella. We'll do a cappella, a compromise.
Cause I saw this too much or just like, well, yeah, but there's such a good singer. There's
such a good piano player. There's such a good song leader. Yeah, but if their character is wicked,
I want nothing to do with it. You know what I'm concerned with? Obviously I want you to do well,
Adrian. I want you to sing well. And I think you do, but you know what? Not at the exclusion of
just ignoring if you're involved in some sin or something like that. It's not going to happen.
Don't think for a second that I will esteem your gifts above your character. Your character is far
more important to me. And you're like, Oh man, then we're all going to quit. Bye. Bye. Kill the
whole music ministry if we have to. Cause I want people of character. And let me say this, you know,
if you are involved in some sort of leadership position and you're following clavicular, step
down tonight, tonight. Okay. If I find out that people are, and look, if you're in the congregation,
you're following clavicular, you're weird, but you know, you can, you can follow them if you want,
but you are weird though. Okay. That's a fact. You're weird though, if that's what you're doing.
Okay. But if you're not in a leadership position, you know, doesn't really affect you much. I'm
talking about those who are in leadership positions. Get what I'm saying? Can I get an amen? And so,
you know, Louisa is just like, all right, I'll stop, you know, kind of take a while to get it
all out of my system though. You know, it's just like, all right, you gotta do what you gotta do,
you know, shave the stash and you know, no ex communication. Cause I don't, I don't really
believe that's, that's, that's the way to deal with it. But I will say that you cannot have a
leadership position. If you're just following wicked individuals and it's out in the open,
you're on steroids, you're bone smashing, you know, what is this nonsense? This is for the world.
This is for those who don't have God. These are people who are without Christ. We have the Bible.
Don't we esteem the word of God? You know, don't think for a second, there's just like,
Oh, you're playing your song leading. You're playing the piano. You're, you know, you,
you're worshiping God with your mouth, but your heart is far from him. And so the Bible says in
judges nine, turn with me if you would to Romans chapter 12, Romans chapter 12, if you would
judges nine, verse three says, and they gave him three score and 10 pieces of silver out of the
house of Belbiroth. Wherewith the Bimalek hired vain and light persons, which followed him. Now,
again, look, you know, cause I'm, I'm sure people are going to come to me after the service and
like, what about this situation though? What if a person needs it in this situation? You know,
obviously like again, in the church, you know, if you're on steroids or something like that,
I'm not necessarily for it, but let's just say you have a steroid number, a testosterone number
of what? What's a really low number, brother John? You wouldn't know because your testosterone is so
high, huh? 300. Is that low? Let's say, let's say it's 100. Okay. And it's making you superefeminine.
You have all this, all these bodily issues and your doctor's like, you need to like, you know,
be on this for a little bit to kind of help your levels get back up or something. I'm not super
educated on that, but I'm just saying if that will, if there's like a legitimate reason to get on it,
that's different. But I don't personally believe any young guy in our church has a legitimate reason
to get on gear. Okay. Well, there is legitimate. I want to get jacked. I got to hit these numbers.
I got to looks max. I got to do this, that and the other. No, why don't you just, why don't you
just focus, why don't you exercise yourself rather unto godliness for bodily exercise profiteth little.
And look, I'm for exercise. I love exercising. We have a gym here. We love to do all the exercising.
I think it's good to be on a cut, to bulk. I think all that stuff is good. And I encourage all the
men to do it, right? But, you know, people can become vain when it's just like you're in your 20s.
And if you're in your 20s, okay, like you're in your 20s, you're just like, oh, I gotta get the gear.
You know, I got it. I see Gio back there. You know, I gotta get the gear. And, you know, in order for
me to just get jacked or something. Yeah, but you know, it's an unnatural thing to do, though.
And once you start delving into that, you're delving into vanity, pride, arrogance, emptiness.
You're becoming envious and lusting after things that God did not intend for you to have.
And I think personally that you can reach a certain level of, you know, let me also say this,
okay, before I, before I forget, okay. You know, I think body dysmorphia is good. Okay. You say,
why is that? You know, what is body dysmorphia? It's like when you're not really content with
yourself, you're just like, oh man, I'm just, I'm just not there yet. And the reason I think
body dysmorphia is good is because it gives you a level of shame. Okay. You know, you see these guys
at the gym, they're wearing these huge sweaters, these massive shirts, and it's because they don't
want to show anything off, even though they're big because they got body dysmorphia. It's often
people who don't have body dysmorphia. They don't mind just taking off their shirts and showing
everyone it's just like, well, that looks embarrassing. You know what I mean? So I do think a level of shame
is necessary for sure. But if you're not happy with your body, go do something about it, but
do something natural about it, you know, and don't try to cut corners in life. Oh man, you know,
I'm just going to build 30 pounds of muscle in a year, not happening. It doesn't exist. 30 pounds
of muscle in a year does not, it's not going to happen. I don't even know if you could do that
with gear. Okay. I keep wanting to ask John, but I don't want people to think that he's on gear or
something. You know, I don't know how many, how many pounds of muscle, but it takes like months
and months to build any significant amount of muscle on your body. And even if we are building
muscle throughout the year, because you're bulking, it's fat is also included in that. That's just the
way it works. I mean, you'll see guys who like, were been in the gym for like 10 years and they
look like just, you know, they look mid according to current standards now, but that's just the way
it is. Okay. That's how, you know, it's not like this isn't the matrix where you're just going to
put in a chip until you just know Kung Fu overnight. You know, you got to put in the work for
that stuff. Okay. But here's the problem with this generation is that they don't want to put in the
work. They want the drive through body. They want everything to just be right. Like by the end of
the year, they want to be the IG influencer. They want to look smacks. They want to change everything
folks, invest your time, energy and resources into the things of God and making yourself godly.
And look folks, people who are vain like this are often extremely rude. They're often extremely
wicked and they're very like disrespectful towards others. Why? Because vain people think that
they're better than everyone else. So they have no issue with like you know mocking you or mocking
the way your teeth look or mocking the way your body is or whatever and legitimately mean it.
Because obviously you know the guys in our church we you know we uh we roast each other whatever.
But I'm talking about vain people will say these things and actually mean it okay. And so uh I hope
I made myself clear regarding the steroids and clavicular okay. He's a queer so you know if you
don't want to get mocked for following a queer and letting that be your role model you better unfollow
him today okay. All right let's move on. Here's the third point and it's just how to avoid it.
You guys already know how to do that right. Point number two is the main thing I really
want to talk about tonight. But here's how to avoid vanity. You know have confidence but stay
humble okay. And you know obviously there's an extreme version of this where people are just like
they just kind of self-hate themselves all the time or it's just like they can't do anything
right. But that's an ungodly attitude too. You know God wants us to have confidence in the Lord
right. He wants us to get our confidence our faith from him to be content with who we are in the Lord.
We're accepted in the beloved. That's to be that should be enough for us. You're like yeah but you
know how am I going to get this supermodel if I look like this. Well here's the thing don't get
the supermodel. How about that? You know people have this new generation is just like here's the
wife that I want blonde haired blue eyed and they just have to be this you know this gym bunny or
something. Sometimes those are the most godless women out there. They just have to be and you
know a lot of these expectations comes because of pornography right because because of pornography
because of instagram you have these ridiculous expectation for what you want in a wife because
that's all you're looking at. Wicked! It's just like well you know I just and man all right look
let me just say this okay if you're chopped it's okay it's okay it's okay if you i'm sorry to look
at you cody you know it's okay because cody's married cody's married so he's good if you're
chopped it's okay but you know what you know don't have this super unrealistic expectation
or it's just like you're chopped but you want this you know snow bunny instagram model and that's
all that you want you know you kind of you got to be realistic about things okay miss kelly's just
shocked that i just said that just like you may not know what i'm talking about but you know what
i'm telling you right now people in our church know exactly what i'm talking about where they
have this just crazy expectation and this is why they haven't gotten married is because they're
looking for this leprechaun unicorn woman but let me just tell you let me tell you two things first
of all number one number one is just never going to happen there's a reality to that term it's
true you know what i mean and you know what you know it's okay to think you're like oh man i'm
chopped yeah you know i would just it's how god made us but i'm not going to be like oh i'm chopped
man i just can't do anything about it no because we're christians we're believers we have the holy
spirit of god dwelling within us like god is our heavenly father god can lead us god can bring
someone to us you know the the man who walks with god always reaches his destination okay so number
one yeah you're never going to get that because it's just not going to happen okay that's number
one but number two one of the other reasons why you're never going to get that is because god
doesn't want to give that to you because he doesn't want to destroy your life that's why
you know god protects a man of god from women like that that's not a blessing to have someone
like that it's not a blessing but in your mind it's just like well that's that's what i want
that's what i'm you know i'm just i'm just striving to get you know the instagram model type you
know you need to delete instagram is what you need to do and bring your your expectations back to
reality okay stop being such a vain person and again it's sometimes it's not necessarily the
muggers these good-looking people who are vain sometimes it's just chop people who are vain too
i don't like the fact that you're saying that there's chop people out there it's the truth
can we be realistic here like are you chopped yeah but who cares i'm already married my wife
she's stuck and she doesn't think i'm chopped obviously but you know it doesn't really matter
anymore though but you know what let me say let's say i'm not chopped okay in in 20 30 years i will
be because age sets in and we all become chopped sooner or later we all get chopped okay some just
are chopped sooner than later so you might as well just invest in godly things grow the inward man
and you know what grow your personality grow yourself in godliness learn how to talk to people
have a likable personality okay if you can't change your face it's okay don't bone smash
you know just just work on yourself on how to communicate with people how to have a likable
personality become a person of intelligence a person of knowledge a person who people
enjoy being around and you know what i'm just telling you those are those are the practical
things you should work on not socking yourself in the face and coming to church with a black
eye or something because you did it wrong or something have confidence stay humble romans
12 verse 3 says for i say through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you
not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think soberly according as god
has dealt to every man the measure of faith i love that it says that you should not think of
yourself more highly than you ought to think meaning that to a certain degree we think highly
of ourselves god just says yeah but don't let it get out of hand you should think highly enough
that you have enough confidence that you can go talk to people you can knock on doors you can
preach the gospel you can befriend others you can start conversations you can be a friendly
individual that's the the amount of that's the height that should be in your confidence
but don't think more highly than that okay but not only that let me say this go to jeremiah chapter
9 jeremiah chapter 9 talk about avoiding vanity have confidence stay humble and if you have been
allowed to just accomplish things maybe you're a person who people have complimented quite a bit
in your looks not in our church but just in general people have said that you're beautiful
people have said that you're handsome or whatever it may be you know number one don't let it go to
your head but number two just recognize they caught you on a good day and number three if
you get this regularly just say you know what maybe i mean don't tell them this but just to
yourself just be like you know thank god that i'm you know my wife's gonna be blessed with a good
looking face or something i don't know thank god that my husband's gonna be blessed with a
beautiful face or something but just don't let it go to your head or it's just like you know you're
just this this great someone because let's just be honest let's just be honest if you're a good
looking person you know god could just cause you to get in a in a car accident just completely
disfigure you overnight that's a fact he can make you a burden victim if you wanted to right god
can humble you like that and then you know what doesn't matter what you do you could get all the
plastic surgery you want there ain't no looks maxine there's no ascending after that okay and
so have confidence stay humble but also as i mentioned give glory to god for whatever it is
that you accomplish or achieve make sure you give god the credit look what it says in jeremiah 923
thus saith the lord let not the wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the mighty man glory in
his might let not the rich man glory in his riches let him to glorieth glory in this that he
understandeth and knoweth me that i am the lord which exercise loving kindness judgment and
righteousness in the earth for in these things i delight saith the lord sounds like god wants us
to brag about the fact that we know the we know the lord right not in your riches not in your
might not in your wisdom but rather in the fact that you have yes you know a relationship with
the lord right that you know the word of god and that god is working in your life here's the last
verse and we're done go to galatians chapter 5 galatians chapter 5 let me say this by concluding
the sermon and avoiding being a vain person just resist the temptation to envy others okay and
sometimes it just means just getting rid of the temptation period right and i do think a big part
of this is social media the reason i'm even bringing clavicular up is because all of a
sudden he just came up like i know he's been around for a while like he ran some guy over
with his tesla or something but it but it's and didn't really care about it by the way
you know because people like that are past feeling but that's your hero though right you know but all
of a sudden he just pops up and then he's just going viral and his methods are going viral and
he's influencing thousands and thousands of young people to be as vain as he is you know don't envy
sinners recognize that that's vain and clavicular is going to help he's not ascending he's descending
right he's not ascending he's descending and i've heard him talk about god he's blasphemous
he's just like oh the reward of return for being a christian is just not worth it it's just like
okay you know you want to call that ascending but you're about to descend into the lowest parts of
the earth because you're not even saved okay resist the temptation to envy others galatians 525 says
if we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit let us not be desirous of vainglory provoking
one another envying one another you know envy as pastor thompson talked about is the rottenness of
the bones like oh man i just want to be like that and look the the extreme things that people do to
like fix their physical features i mean you have literally people like sticking rods into their
legs to make themselves taller you know what i'm talking about like they get this surgery where
they put these like i think it's like metal rods or something like in their legs and it's like i
don't know like a couple years before they like can actually like like walk around because it's
so on that just to give them a couple inches and other people like well that's not big of a deal
that's crazy but you know i i they just put like heels in their in their like shoes or something
you're short you're short you know that's just how god made you you know if you got if you got
height then praise god that you have height but if you are short who cares just be big for the lord
okay i think this society cares way too much about things that they just cannot control
they're dissatisfied with how god made them not because of the fact that they started off thinking
that way it's because they were influenced by others to think that way about themselves
okay what's the sermon tonight the sermon is this don't be vain stop being a vain individual
work on yourself improve yourself hit the gym get the protein in but you know what don't try to
looks max okay you're chopped you're chopped and it's okay you know you're fearfully wonderfully
made you're accepted in the beloved and you know what someone will like you somebody will like you
okay and you know you're just like i just don't know well grow in your confidence learn how to
communicate and you know improve your personality improve your knowledge the things that you talk
about become more social but even above all that walk with god prudent wife is of the lord right
and so you know work on exercising yourself rather unto godliness and improving the beauty
of the inward man let's pray father we thank you so much for your word help us lord as your people
to avoid vanity and i think it's in temptation for all of us because we live in this world
and keeping up appearances lord and worrying about how we look and obviously we should be concerned
to a certain degree we don't want to just overeat and not exercise and not improve ourselves
uh physically and mentally lord emotionally but we have to recognize that the most important
thing is to improve ourselves spiritually to increase the inward man lord i pray that lord
you'd help us to do so help us to avoid vanity it's all in all its forms we love you we thank you
pray these things in jesus name amen you turn your hymnals to song number 152 security again
that's numbers 152 in your hymnals everyone nice and strong on that first verse more secure is no
one ever than the loved ones of the savior not yon star i above nor the birds got his own dot and and