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I feel like traveling on, yes I feel like traveling on.

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I feel like traveling on, I can't believe all these bright and clear.

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I feel like traveling on, it's glittering towers, the sun outshines.

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I feel like traveling on, let heavenly mention shall be mine.

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I feel like traveling on, yes I feel like traveling on.

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I feel like traveling on, my heavenly home is bright and fair.

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I feel like traveling on, let others seek a home below.

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I feel like traveling on, with sleazy power, ways are full.

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I feel like traveling on, yes I feel like traveling on.

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I feel like traveling on, my heavenly home is bright and fair.

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I feel like traveling on, the more has been so good to me.

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I feel like traveling on, until that blessed home I see.

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I feel like traveling on, yes I feel like traveling on.

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I feel like traveling on, my heavenly home is bright and fair.

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I feel like traveling on.

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We praise thee, O God, our Redeemer, Creator.

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In grateful devotion our tripping we bring.

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We lay it before thee, reveal and adore thee.

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We bless thy holy name that reigns as we sing.

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We worship thee, God of our fathers, we bless thee.

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Through life's storm and tempest, our guide, take us now in.

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When peril o'er take us, thou wilt not forsake us.

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And with thy help, O Lord, mightst atonement.

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With voices united we praise as we offer.

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And gladly our songs of true worship we raise.

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Thy strong arm will guide us, our God in design.

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To thee our great Redeemer, forever we pray.

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One day wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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One day make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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O precious is the blood that makes me white as snow.

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No other mount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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And for my part endless I sing, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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For my plenteous life be, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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O precious is the blood that makes me white as snow.

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No other mount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Nothing can force it untold, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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Not a good plan I have done, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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O precious is the blood that makes me white as snow.

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No other mount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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This is all my hope and peace, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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This is all my righteousness, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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O precious is the blood that makes me white as snow.

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No other mount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

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I will sing the wondrous story of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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from now on the land is known and glory, for the cross and power of the east.

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Yes, I'll sing the wondrous story of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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sing the wondrous story of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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I was lost but Jesus found me and I will sing the wondrous story

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of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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I will sing the wondrous story of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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sing the wondrous story of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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I was lost but Jesus found me and I will sing the wondrous story

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of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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I will sing the wondrous story of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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sing the wondrous story of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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days of darkness, hope, and glory,

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days of the times of the time,

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of what the saints, the sinners, and the unbidden,

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sinners in the life,

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is to say the wondrous story of the Christ, the Ivorian,

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sing the things the saints have done,

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the things that the Lord is to say.

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There's no speed to trust in Jesus,

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just to take him at his word,

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just to rest upon his promise,

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just to know the Saint alone,

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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him,

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how I pray to him more and more,

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Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,

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the Lord craves to trust in you,

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oh, how I seek to trust in Jesus,

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trust in trust his cleansing blood,

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just in simple way to plunge him,

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in the healing cleansing blood,

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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him,

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how I pray to him more and more,

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Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,

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the Lord craves to trust him more,

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yes, there's speed to trust in Jesus,

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just from sin itself to cease,

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just from Jesus simply taking life and rest,

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and joy and peace,

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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him,

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how I pray to him more and more,

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Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,

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no more grace to trust him more,

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I'm so glad I learned to trust him,

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precious Jesus, sing your praise,

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and I know that thou art with me,

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will be with me to the end,

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Jesus, Jesus, how I trust him,

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how I pray to him more and more,

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Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus,

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no more grace to trust him more,

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and may it be that I should be,

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and it rests in the Savior's blood,

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Thine before me, who caused his pain,

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before me, who will, will death pursue,

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Amazing love, how can it be,

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that thou, my God, should die for me,

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Amazing love, how can it be,

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that thou, my God, should die for me,

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He left His Father thrown about,

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so priestly embedded His grace,

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Gave deep himself among the love,

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and left for Adam's helpless grace,

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did His mercy all limits and free,

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for oh, my God, it found thou me,

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Amazing love, how can it be,

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that thou, my God, should die for me,

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All my prison spirit lay,

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that's now been sinned, and nature's died,

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Thy mighty views of quickening reign,

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Thy hope the dungeon flame defied,

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my dreams fill all, my heart was free.

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Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.

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It's wonderful to see everybody here tonight. If we can go ahead and find our seats, we will get started

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with this afternoon's first song, and once you've found a seat, let's grab a hymnal,

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and we'll go to song number 114 together.

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Song number 114, one of my favorites, the great physician.

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Song number 114, the great physician, now is near, the sympathizing Jesus.

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Let's all sing that out together.

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The great physician now is near, the sympathizing Jesus.

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Oh, friend, Lord, speak the truth, be hard to cheer,

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oh, hear the voice of Jesus.

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Sweetest note and seraphs sung, sweetest name on mortal tongue,

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sweetest carol ever sung, Jesus blessed Jesus,

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your many sins are all forgiven, oh, hear the voice of Jesus.

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Go on your way in peace to heaven and wear a crown, and Jesus,

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sweetest note and seraphs sung, sweetest name on mortal tongue,

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sweetest carol ever sung, Jesus blessed Jesus,

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oh, glory to the dying lamb, I now believe, oh, Jesus,

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I love the blessed Savior's name, my all-defeating, oh, Jesus.

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Sweetest note and seraphs sung, sweetest name on mortal tongue,

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sweetest carol ever sung, Jesus blessed Jesus,

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and when to that bright world above we rise to be with Jesus,

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we'll sing around the throne above his name, the name of Jesus.

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Sweetest note and seraphs sung, sweetest name on mortal tongue,

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sweetest carol ever sung, Jesus blessed Jesus.

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Great singing, everybody. Let's open up the service now with a word of prayer.

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Well, we just want to come to you and thank you once again for this great church and the

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opportunity to be here and sing unto you. We thank you for giving us the great

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physician to heal our sins and forgive us and save our souls, Lord. We just ask now

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that you fill us with his spirit and bless the service, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray.

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Amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number 266.

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Song number 266. We sung it once this morning. We'll sing it again this afternoon.

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Honey in the Rock. Hopefully you're paying attention.

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Song number 266. Let's all sing that out together.

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Oh, my brother, do you know the Savior, Who is wondrous, kind, and true?

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Who is wondrous, kind, and true? He's the rock of your salvation.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Leave your sins for the blood to cover.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Have you tasted that the Lord is gracious?

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Do you walk in the way that's new? Have you drunk from the living fountain?

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There's honey in the rock for you. Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Leave your sins for the blood to cover.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Do you pray unto God the Father?

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What will thou have me to do? Never fear, he will surely answer.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Leave your sins for the blood to cover.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Then go out through the streets and byways

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preach the word to many or few. Say to every fallen brother,

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There's honey in the rock for you. Oh, there's honey in the rock, my brother.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Leave your sins for the blood to cover.

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There's honey in the rock for you. Great singing, everybody.

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Welcome to Stavaz Baptist Church. If you haven't got a bulletin, you would like one.

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Just lift your hand nice and high. On the front, we have our Bible passage, Romans 10.

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And then on the inside, our service and soul winning times, our church stats.

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On the right, we have a list of expecting ladies. And someone told me that we could add the naiam's

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to that list. So congratulations to them. That's exciting. Also, congratulations to

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our soul winners for the Azle and Carthage soul winning marathons. A lot of hard work out there.

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Upcoming events, we have a choir practice after the evening service. We have mega marathon April

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4th. Easter Sunday is April 5th. Our kids' choirs are going to be performing that Sunday morning.

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And so highly encourage you to come and participate for that. We have the anti-Azle

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conference May 20th through the 24th. On the back is our prayer list. And then there is a QR code on

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the back if you'd like to help register for the mega marathon, just so we have an idea. We'll

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probably just be meeting here at the church. And just like 9 a.m., have some breakfast,

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go out soul winning. Probably be around 15, 20 minutes maybe around the church area. We'll

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have lunch and then do another round in the afternoon. So of course you can join us for as

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much as you would like all day. Just the morning, just afternoon. Probably not just lunch, okay?

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I don't know if we're monitoring, but you know, please try to at least go soul winning at least

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for a few minutes, all right? So, but no of course we're excited about those events. And

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that's pretty much all I have as far as announcements. We're going to just go ahead and sing

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our Psalm of the Week Psalm 147. Psalm 147.

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All right, that was Psalm 147. In your black binder with the laminated pages, Psalm 147.

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Sing our Psalm of the Week.

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For it is good to sing praises unto our God. For it is pleasant and praises come

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thee, the Lord of the hill of Jerusalem. He gathered together the outcasts of Israel.

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He healed the broken and hardened, binded of their wounds. He jelled it the number of the stars.

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He called it their Lord. He called it their Lord by their names. Great is our Lord

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and of great power. His understanding is infinite.

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The Lord lifted up the peak. He cast it up, and down to the ground. Sing unto the Lord with

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thanksgiving. Sing praise upon the harp unto our God, who covereth the heavens with clouds,

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who prepared it, rain for the earth, who made it fast. As to grow upon the mountains,

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he giveth to the beast his proof, and to the young ravens' quick pride.

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He divided not in the strength of the horse, he taketh the pleasure in.

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The names of the men the Lord take it. Pleasure in them did. Fear him in the

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hope in his mercy.

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He cast it forth, his eyes like corn.

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Scatter the whole across like ashes.

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Scatter it over across like ashes.

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He cast it forth, his eyes like corn.

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So to him stand before his fold.

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He sent it now, his word and of death, then he caused his way to flow.

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And the waters flow, he showed with his word unto Jacob,

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his statutes and his judgments turned to Israel. He has not dealt so with any nation than that is

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O his judgment. They have not put their faith in the Lord.

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All right, great job everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around,

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let's open our Bibles to the book of Acts chapter number eight. That's Acts chapter number eight.

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Acts chapter number eight.

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The Bible says, and Saul was consenting unto his death. And at that time there was a great

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persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem. And they were all scattered

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abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen

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to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church,

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entering into every house and hailing men and women committed them to prison.

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Therefore they were scattered abroad, went everywhere preaching the word.

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Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. And the people with

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one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did.

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For unclean spirits crying with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them,

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and many taken with palsies and that were lame were healed. And there was great joy in that city.

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But there was a certain man called Simon which before time in the same city used sorcery and

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bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one, to whom they all gave

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heed from the least to the greatest, saying, this man is the power, the great power of God.

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And to him they had regard because that of long time he had bewitched them with sorceries.

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But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God

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and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women.

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Then Simon himself believed also. And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered,

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beholding the miracles and signs which were done. Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem

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heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John,

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who when they were come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost.

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For as yet he was fallen upon none of them. Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.

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Then laid they their hands on them and they received the Holy Ghost. And when Simon saw that

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through laying on of the apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, saying,

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saying, give me also this power that on whom so ever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Ghost.

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But Peter said unto him, thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of

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God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not

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right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the

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thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness

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and in the bond of iniquity. Then answered Simon and said, pray ye to the Lord for me,

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that none of these things which ye have spoken come upon me. And they, when they had testified

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and preached the word of the Lord, returned to Jerusalem and preached the gospel in many villages

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of the Samaritans. And the angel of the Lord spake unto Philip, saying, arise and go toward the south

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unto the way that goeth down from Jerusalem unto Gaza, which is desert. And he arose and went,

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and behold a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, queen of the Ethiopians,

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who had the charge of all her treasure and had come to Jerusalem for to worship, was returning.

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And sitting in his chariot read Isaiah the prophet. Then the spirit said unto Philip,

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go near and join thyself to this chariot. And Philip ran thither to him and heard him read

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the prophet Isaiah and said, understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, how can I,

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except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.

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The place of the scripture which he read was this, he was led as a sheep to the slaughter.

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And like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth. In his humiliation,

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his judgment was taken away. And who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the

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earth. And the eunuch answered Philip and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this,

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of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture

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and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water.

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And the eunuch said, see here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said,

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if thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said,

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I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still.

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And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him.

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And when they were come up out of the water, the spirit of the Lord caught away Philip,

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that the eunuch saw him no more. And he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was founded as Zotis,

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and passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea.

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Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this day. I thank you for the souls that were

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saved today. Thank you for our church out in the Philippines. I pray that you would bless everyone

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out there, Pastor Stuckey and Evangelist Urbanek and all the other laborers out there working

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I pray that you would please bless our trip to Barbados as well. Please let it be successful.

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And I pray that you would fill Pastor Shelley now with your Holy Spirit and help him to preach

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your word to us in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. The title of my sermon this evening is built not

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bought. Built not bought. Now I want to focus in here on verse number 19. The Bible says,

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this is Simon the sorcerer saying, give me also this power that on whosoever I lay hands

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he may receive the Holy Ghost. But Peter said on him, thy money perish with thee. Now here in this

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particular passage, we have Simon the sorcerer. He wants to basically be a person of power influence.

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He wants authority and in a spiritual context, because the Bible says in the times past,

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he wanted to be a sorcerer to just basically bewitch people and make them think that

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he is someone that God likes. Did you notice what they said about him in this particular chapter,

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that he had the great power of God and people kind of have this respect

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under him in times past. They thought like, oh man, this guy is like the great power of God.

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Look at verse 10. This man is the great power of God. So what is this guy wants to be a preacher.

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He wants to be a pastor. He wants to be an influencer in a spiritual context.

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People want to be sometimes a political leader. Sometimes people want to be a teacher. They want

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to be a university professor. They want to be a high school teacher. They want to have some kind

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of influence in educational systems. Sometimes people want to be the CEO of a particular company

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and they run and manage companies. Or somebody wants to be the coach of a winning football team

34:54.560 --> 35:01.760
or a winning basketball team. This guy wants to be in ministry and he wants to be in a spiritual

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context, looked at as the man of God. He wants this title. He wants this accolade. He wants this

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position here. And in times past, he could also not acquire it properly. So he tricked people.

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He deceased people. He uses spells or sorcery or whatever. We call him Simon the sorcerer.

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He used deceptive means as to which to pretend like he's somehow a man of God

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and he bewitched the people, the Bible says. Lots of people thought he was awesome.

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But as soon as a preacher comes in, a lowly preacher is preaching the Bible, they all just

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drop him like a bad habit and they're basically like, oh, this is legit. This is real. And

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then he actually sees real power. And you can kind of see like this guy before had fake power. He had

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kind of a deceptive power. He had a trickery, some kind of deceptive means. Was he really using

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demonic forces to bewitch people? Was it a charade? I don't know. I don't think the Bible's

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like real clear on that in this particular story. I think both could possibly fit. I tend to believe

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it's probably fake. And look, most Pentecostals today, most word of faith movements, most of

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these non-denominational charismatic churches, they don't have satanic power. They're just fake,

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folks. Okay. A lot of people think they literally have Satan's power or something. No, it's all a

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charade. It's a lot of fake stuff. I remember, you know, a lot of these guys that get up and they're

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like, God's telling me there's a woman in the room and this woman's really upset and her name starts

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with a B with a B with a B with a B B. And then it's just like, you know, they're like,

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who knows what I'm talking about? I'm sorry. This is real. Okay. They're like sitting here

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doing this kind of stuff. Well, there was one guy got caught doing this and basically people

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come to these conferences, come to these churches and at the front they're filling out a visitor

36:58.480 --> 37:03.440
card, just like we do. Right. And on the back it would say, Hey, is there anything we can pray for

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you about or anything like this? Right. And so what they would do is his wife would talk in the

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earpiece. She'll be reading the prayer requests of the cards of the people that had come in.

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And it'd be like, Hey, you know, there's this lady Betty and she's worried about her mom.

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And he'd be like, but Betty and it's like, is there a Betty out here that's like worried about

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her mom or something like that? And then Betty would stand up and he's like, how did you know

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that? He's like, I sense that you live like in the lower Southeast. Cause of course it has their

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address on the card, you know, and whatever. And it's just like, they're getting up there.

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And sometimes you're kind of sitting here thinking like, how do these guys just picking out random

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people? And of course, Betty's too stupid to put two and two together to realize she put all this

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information on a card. Okay. And they're obviously just reading the card. Okay. But I'm just telling

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you a lot of it's just fake. It's just kind of trickery. It's just like deceiving people.

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Look, I do think the devil has some power and obviously the magicians in Egypt did do some

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interesting miracles and it's possible that they were actually doing some things. Obviously the

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Bible talks about lying signs and wonders. So yeah, there's going to be crazy stuff. It seems like

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people that are demon possessed have supernatural strength or something like that, or at least they

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can push the body limits beyond what a normal person can do as far as their strength or tolerance

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for pain. So yeah, I'm not going to say there isn't some of that, but most of it's fake and

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probably Simon's probably a lot of it's just fake. It's a lot of deception. So when he sees

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the apostles coming in, laying hands on people, they're filled with the Holy Ghost. They're able

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to maybe speak a language that they've never spoken before or have some kind of miracle of healing

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or, you know, just these things. He's like, wow, that's like actual power. That's like real power.

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And I want that. And he's willing to pay money in order to get it. He wants to buy it because he's

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thinking like, I kind of like being in charge. You guys now are getting charged. You guys getting

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the recognition. You're getting the stuff. I want that. So he wants this ability. Now,

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he's thinking there's nothing wrong with wanting to be used by God. There's nothing wrong with

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wanting to be a disciple. There's nothing wrong with wanting to have God do miracles through you

39:27.280 --> 39:31.920
or do great works through you. There's nothing wrong with wanting that. But here's the thing.

39:32.480 --> 39:40.080
The ministry is not for sale. And these men that are doing this work, they did not buy their way

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into this position. They worked their way into this position. They simply forsook all that they had

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and they just simply followed Jesus. And look, they didn't follow Jesus for five minutes.

39:50.960 --> 39:55.920
They followed Jesus for years. Not only they followed Jesus for years, they had to go through

39:55.920 --> 40:03.600
some really difficult persecution, some affliction. Obviously, Peter had to be converted at one point

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because he thought he was willing to die and he really wasn't yet. And so he had to kind of go

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through that experience to recognize, okay, I actually need to be willing to die. Look,

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if people are just willing to just pay money to get this power, that doesn't mean they're willing

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to die. That doesn't mean that they're going to preach a sincere message. That doesn't mean

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they have the right motives. And of course, the one guy that didn't have the right motives,

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he's already killed himself. So we don't care about him. Okay. Judas Iscariot died and went to hell

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and God's not going to use him. But you know what? The ministry, for the most part, you can't prevent

40:34.720 --> 40:41.120
Judas, but you know what? We shouldn't be selling the ministry. The ministry should not be for sale.

40:42.320 --> 40:46.160
And someone that wants to buy their way in the ministry should be rejected.

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They should not be embraced. They should be rejected and not allowed into those positions.

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Someone that's trying to buy their way in or pay their way in. And what's kind of a shame and a

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mockery of Christianity, in my opinion, is how in today's world, essentially, as long as you pay for

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Bible college, you basically get an ordination certificate. In many cases, it doesn't really

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matter if you panned out. It doesn't really matter if you're preaching super hot sermons. It doesn't

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matter if you've been faithful. Frankly, it doesn't matter if you're married and have kids

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and meet all the Bible qualifications. It's just like, did you graduate? Have you paid your dues?

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All right, here's your certificate. Bye. It's like, look, the ministry should not be for sale.

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And you know, many Baptist churches in America and in the world today,

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their biggest moneymaker is their Bible college. Why are we making the ministry this business where

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we're basically selling it to people and offering money like whoever can pay can basically be a

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pastor, whoever's going to spend the money. And look, it's expensive because not only just paying

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for the class, but not getting a job or spending more time working at the church and not working

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out in the secular workplace or not building a career. Those are sacrifices not everybody can

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make. That's going to cost money. That's going to cost time. It's going to take effort. And look,

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I'm not saying that there shouldn't be a sacrifice to be in ministry, but at the end of the day,

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you know, the reason why people are doing it is because they know they will for sure make it to

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the end. If it was like, Hey, you can put all this money, all this time and all this effort,

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and it's not going to pan out. How many people would sign up for Bible college now?

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And of course the women only sign up so they can get married, which again, it's like, that's a bad

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model. Why are they going to Bible college if they don't really want to be in Bible college just to

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get married? Like it's just, it's kind of a screwy system. It doesn't really match anything

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the Bible teaches, but obviously, you know, someone goes, moves, puts money in, is vesting,

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is going to a church, wants to be a pastor one day. That's great, but there is no guarantee. And

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there should be no guarantee. But you know, again, the Bible college route is just like,

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buy your way in, pay your way in. You're going to make it. And like, that's not right. We should

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have a philosophy that, Hey, the ministry is something that you build and work towards.

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And if you, if you make it, you make it. If you don't, you don't, but you cannot buy it.

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That is not acceptable. It is not an option. What did Peter even say here? He said,

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thy money perished with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased

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money. What is the gift of God that we're talking about here? Obviously, we're not talking about

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salvation. We're not talking about eternal life, but the Bible does talk about the gift of the

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laying on of the hands of the Presbytery, which was handed down from the elders that had laid hands

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on the other pastors and had ordained them. The idea of ordination, ordination is a gift.

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It's a gift to have a man of God lay hands on you and ask God to bless you and for God to send you

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and to do his work. That is a gift. It's a special honor. And what the Bible is saying is that it

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should not ever, ever, ever be something that was determined based on money. It's not like, Hey,

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I'm not sure if I'm going to ordain you or not. And money has any impact on why that's going to

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be the decision. If that is the case, it's wicked, it's evil, it's wrong. It's not what the Bible

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teaches. Notice what he's saying here. He's saying that his money's going to, you're going to die.

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God's going to kill you for thinking you could buy your way into this position,

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for thinking you could buy your way into having this status. And that money has anything to do

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with this particular situation. He says, that's neither part nor a lot in this matter, for thy

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heart is not right in the sight of God. You can have a desire to be a pastor and that is good.

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The Bible says, if you desire, you know, the office of a bishop, you desire a good

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work. Paying money to get in that position is wrong. Again, I'm not saying, obviously there's

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going to be indirect costs to trying to be a minister or getting the ministry. We get that.

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There could be sacrifice, but we're not paying some guy money so that he'll ordain us.

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That's wicked. That's evil. It should not be for sale. I didn't give Pastor Anderson a dime

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to ordain me like he would have accepted it. And honestly, if I offered him money, it should have

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been like an instant no. Your heart's not right with God. I mean, think about what Peter's saying.

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Not only is your heart not right with God, you're just going to die with your money.

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I mean, that's what he's saying. Thy money perished with thee,

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because your heart's not right with God. Now he says in verse 22, repent therefore of this

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thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.

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He's like, it's possible God won't kill you if you pray and ask God for forgiveness right now.

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You better just pray right now because this is super wicked. It's super evil. You have an evil

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heart. This is horrific. I mean, Peter is just horrified and scandalized by this.

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Like thy money perished with thee. How dare you want to buy this position? How dare you even offer

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me money to have the gift of God? How dare you cheapen the ministry by saying, oh, you can just

46:26.480 --> 46:33.120
pay your way in or buy your way in. I mean, it's not, what are we, the US Senate here? You just buy

46:33.120 --> 46:38.800
your way into politics now. Just buy your way into everything. Buy your way into Harvard. Buy your way

46:38.800 --> 46:45.440
into some company. Look, the ministry should not be for sale. And if someone wants, someone's rich,

46:46.080 --> 46:52.240
they do not get to just jump ahead and get to buy their way into being a pastor or being a minister.

46:52.240 --> 46:55.680
And you know what? If someone's willing to ordain someone just because they're rich,

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they're wicked too. They're evil too. You should not just ordain people because of money. That is

47:04.800 --> 47:09.200
wicked. That's evil. And of course, verse 23 says,

47:09.200 --> 47:12.320
For I perceive that thou art in the golf of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.

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Then answered Simon and said, Pray to the Lord for me that none of these things which

47:15.680 --> 47:23.520
ye have spoken come upon me. Now, good thing about Simon, he's kind of like wrong first a lot,

47:24.240 --> 47:29.680
but then he at least gets right. Right? He's a sorcerer, wrong, but he gets saved. Then he's like,

47:29.680 --> 47:33.280
hey, I want to buy my way in the ministry. Wrong. But then he's like, all right, please forgive,

47:33.600 --> 47:40.160
please forgive me. I was wrong. This isn't right. And he gets right. Okay. Some people just stay

47:40.160 --> 47:46.480
stuck on stupid though. Okay. And they get called out. They get proven wrong. It's clear that what

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they're doing is just inappropriate. It's not biblical. It's not faith. It's not Christianity.

47:52.720 --> 47:58.160
But then they just keep doing it anyways. Now, I'm preaching this sermon for a reason,

47:58.800 --> 48:03.120
because it's what the Bible teaches, number one. All right. But number two, there was a sermon

48:03.120 --> 48:10.000
preached by someone called Built But Not Bought by Jared Pizarski at a Red Hot Preaching Conference

48:10.000 --> 48:15.680
event. Now, what's interesting about this guy is he recently became the pastor of Verity Baptist

48:15.680 --> 48:21.840
Church. And it's come out publicly by multiple witnesses, including himself, that in order for

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him to take this position, he paid a large severance to Roger Jimenez so he could become

48:28.160 --> 48:34.880
the pastor of that church. And the only way that Roger Jimenez was going to let go of this position

48:34.880 --> 48:40.560
and give it to somebody as long as that severance got paid. So here's some question. Let's just

48:40.560 --> 48:43.360
think about this for a minute. Okay. We're going to dwell on this thought for a little bit. All

48:43.360 --> 48:54.640
right. You have somebody that's on staff at Verity, Pastor Matthew Stuckey. He's your first employee.

48:55.600 --> 49:01.360
He's been pastoring. And just for a handful of years, he started like multiple churches,

49:01.360 --> 49:07.520
running four churches. He has, I mean, he has like, I don't know, I don't want to say the numbers,

49:07.520 --> 49:11.920
because I'm probably gonna be wrong. But I think it's well over 70 people coming on a Sunday morning

49:11.920 --> 49:17.200
to his main church service. Probably has over 100, I think he has over 100 church members,

49:17.760 --> 49:26.160
and all of his churches combined. I mean, doing very well, big numbers, multiple churches. Not only

49:26.160 --> 49:33.040
that, he sent a guy to Poland, and they have a church plant. I mean, the Philippines is reaching

49:33.040 --> 49:42.320
Europe better than we are. We need the Philippines to lead the fort, you know, into Europe. And I

49:42.320 --> 49:46.320
think the Poland church has been doing like a lot of soul winning, getting a lot of people saved over

49:46.320 --> 49:52.000
there. He's reaching a lot of people in just that whole part of the world. I mean, Australian people

49:52.000 --> 49:56.640
are coming to his church, and they, you know, have been part of his church. Because I've been over

49:56.640 --> 50:01.200
there, I've visited, there was people from Australia that were there in his church that had moved to his

50:01.200 --> 50:08.000
church from Australia. And look, Australia is just like a paradise. Like, it is a carnal paradise

50:08.000 --> 50:12.880
to live there. To move to the Philippines, you know, it would be different, it would be just a

50:12.880 --> 50:18.960
different lifestyle for most Australians. So that just shows you the spiritual condition of Australia,

50:18.960 --> 50:23.200
that somebody willing to move to the Philippines potentially, just to go to church, just to find a

50:23.200 --> 50:26.800
good church. You know, because that part of the world, there's not a lot of great churches,

50:27.440 --> 50:30.720
you know. And I'm not saying there isn't some good churches in Australia. I know that

50:30.720 --> 50:34.720
Pastor Kevin Sepulveda is a friend of mine. I've been to his church. I really like him. I really

50:34.720 --> 50:39.440
like his churches and stuff like that. I think it was mostly because, you know, the passport bro thing,

50:39.440 --> 50:46.240
you know, I get it, right. But at the end of the day, it's just like Pastor Stuckey has been over

50:46.240 --> 50:52.880
there getting more people saved than virtually any other church in the world. Just killing it. He's

50:52.880 --> 51:00.560
been on staff. He's the bookkeeper for the church. He was said a couple different times that if

51:00.560 --> 51:06.000
anything happened, he should become the next pastor of the church. Okay. But let me ask you this

51:06.000 --> 51:12.000
question. Do you think for one second, if Pastor Stuckey had come to Sacramento to help,

51:12.000 --> 51:17.120
he would have personally paid Pastor Amen as a severance so that he could step down?

51:17.120 --> 51:18.320
No.

51:18.320 --> 51:19.360
Would have never happened.

51:20.480 --> 51:26.240
So wait a minute. Are we deciding, like, who's the best candidate here? Or are we deciding who can

51:26.240 --> 51:32.800
pay the severance? Who can give money to this particular position? And who's willing to just

51:32.800 --> 51:37.760
buy their way into this particular position? Someone that was given a church of, I don't know,

51:37.760 --> 51:45.200
40, 50 people and run it down to like a dozen. And then shut the doors. And then buy their way

51:45.840 --> 51:51.840
into this other ministry. I mean, if we're looking at the pedigree, why, how about Pastor Aaron

51:51.840 --> 51:58.560
Thompson? Someone that was ordained by Verity Baptist Church. Has several churches also.

51:58.560 --> 52:04.720
Has like four or five churches. Has also been a part of Verity Baptist Church. You know, I'm

52:04.720 --> 52:09.280
just saying like, it's not like there wasn't possibly other options. Those are insiders,

52:09.280 --> 52:15.120
let alone outsiders. What about Pastor Bruce Mejia that's in California already tearing it up?

52:15.120 --> 52:21.840
He's got mad aura. Okay. Number one. Not only that, I mean, Pastor Mejia was visiting Spring

52:21.840 --> 52:27.360
Crest Baptist Church in Houston today. I heard they had over 50 visitors in their service this morning.

52:28.560 --> 52:34.400
Like 90 people in service, 50 visitors from that kind of aura. You know, that might help a church

52:34.400 --> 52:41.360
like Verity, you know, if you're just totally going into the tank, you get someone like Pastor

52:41.360 --> 52:46.480
Mejia really pumping up a church and just like going, I'm not saying you would be the pastor.

52:46.480 --> 52:50.320
I'm just saying like, even if he just helped and was leadership and you're asking him. And look,

52:50.320 --> 52:55.760
sometimes when you have a scandal, you know, you need an outsider. That's not walking in and saying

52:55.760 --> 53:01.200
like, hey, let's just under the table, pay some severance or just pay all this money so that I

53:01.200 --> 53:06.320
can just have this particular position. Okay. That's not the right way to handle things.

53:06.960 --> 53:10.560
And it's funny that you preach a sermon called built but not bought, but then you literally

53:10.560 --> 53:18.240
don't build a church. You destroy your church and then buy your way into Verity. Talk about irony.

53:19.120 --> 53:23.120
In his announcements, Pastor Zarnske's announcements about all this fraud and all

53:23.120 --> 53:28.320
this scandal. He literally says, quote, if money can fix it, we'll be fine.

53:31.680 --> 53:36.720
Where is the chapter and verse on that? Where does the Bible say any problem is

53:36.720 --> 53:43.760
supposed to be fixed with money? That sounds like buying stuff, not actually doing things based on

53:43.760 --> 53:50.320
faith. And look, you know, whenever I was going to take over steadfast and try to help steadfast

53:50.320 --> 53:54.080
Baptist church, you know, I didn't want to come up here and be the pastor of steadfast Baptist

53:54.080 --> 53:59.280
church if they didn't want me. Like that doesn't even make sense. Okay. I don't want to come up

53:59.280 --> 54:03.440
here and, and, and pastor a bunch of people that were kind of like, yeah, you were number four on

54:03.440 --> 54:13.040
my list. Okay. But wait a minute. Did they have the church decide that the church have any like

54:13.040 --> 54:17.120
saying, did they have a meeting where they had all the men of the church make a public video and say,

54:17.120 --> 54:23.920
we want Pizarnsky or it's just, well, it's already been bought and paid for.

54:25.360 --> 54:31.200
The paperwork's already been signed because I was willing to pay. Why pick this person? Were they

54:31.200 --> 54:36.240
most qualified? Were they the most faithful? Were they the person that everybody wanted?

54:36.240 --> 54:41.200
Or were they the one that had the paycheck? Cause I'm willing to bet there was almost nobody on the

54:41.200 --> 54:48.640
planet that would have paid that severance except for him. I mean, if there was another person,

54:48.640 --> 54:54.240
I'm just not aware of it. I'm just saying, I just doubt it. Did they present pastor Stuckey? Did they

54:54.240 --> 55:00.880
present pastor Thompson? Did they present pastor Mejia? You know, it's just kind of a shame because

55:00.880 --> 55:04.560
the ministry should not be for sale. Being a pastor of a church should not be for sale.

55:05.760 --> 55:10.320
And you know, ministry should be something that you build, not buy anyways. Go to Matthew chapter

55:10.320 --> 55:15.520
seven, go to Matthew chapter number seven. You know, whenever I took over steadfast Baptist church,

55:15.520 --> 55:20.240
obviously there's more people here than at Pure Words Baptist church. But at the end of the day,

55:20.240 --> 55:27.440
I didn't, you know what I didn't do? Drop Pure Words like a bad habit and just shut it down.

55:29.360 --> 55:35.840
You know, what we did, what I did do is drive there every Thursday for just basically year

55:35.840 --> 55:44.160
after year after year. And then it was still running more people whenever I ordained somebody

55:44.160 --> 55:52.000
over that church than when I left it. It was running more people than whenever I had, you know,

55:52.000 --> 56:00.720
moved back over here. But it's like Pure Words is, man, it's like a five hour drive on a Thursday

56:00.720 --> 56:07.600
morning, four hours back. I mean, I would leave about 10 a.m. and I'd get home about one o'clock

56:07.600 --> 56:13.840
every Thursday. And I mean, that wasn't fun. Limited my job opportunities, limited all kinds

56:13.840 --> 56:18.560
of different things. It was grueling. You know, when you're driving, when I was driving back home,

56:18.560 --> 56:23.760
it was like about 1130 up to that point, it was fine. Once it got about to be midnight,

56:23.760 --> 56:28.080
it was sketch. All right. You know, sometimes when you're driving and then all of a sudden you're

56:28.080 --> 56:35.360
like, I don't even know how I got here. Wow. Just tell you, there's a lot of those. And I was kind

56:35.360 --> 56:40.880
of like, dang, this is not good. Like, this is just not, you know, healthy, obviously. But at the end

56:40.880 --> 56:44.320
of the day, it's like, you know what? I'm not, it's not about me. It's about like, hey, these

56:44.320 --> 56:48.320
people need somewhere to go sawing and have a church or whatever. I'm not going to just sit

56:48.320 --> 56:52.800
here and just close up shop because it's hard. It's like it's four or five hours. It's like,

56:52.880 --> 56:57.520
hold fast is like two or three hours or something like that. It's like, you can't,

56:58.480 --> 57:02.000
you can't even figure something out. But again, there's probably not anything there to preserve

57:02.000 --> 57:05.520
because it's already been, you know, peed on so much that it's just basically there's not much

57:05.520 --> 57:12.560
left anyways. But again, it's like you give somebody a 40 person church and they run it down into the

57:12.560 --> 57:20.880
ground. Why would you think having a bigger church makes that better? He that is faithful in that,

57:20.880 --> 57:26.160
which is least is faithful also in that, which is much as what the Bible teaches. So it's like,

57:26.160 --> 57:32.480
okay, let's give Pastor Thompson. He has this small church plan of 30, 40 people. Now he's running

57:32.480 --> 57:38.160
well over a hundred, has multiple church plants, been doing it for years. Okay. Pastor Stuckey,

57:38.160 --> 57:41.680
you have this small little small soul winning group in the Philippines. Now you're running four

57:41.680 --> 57:47.280
churches and you paid everything out of your own pocket, literally because we've been stealing from

57:47.280 --> 57:55.920
you and you still rocked it and knocked it out of the park. Okay. Pazarnsky also, there was multiple

57:55.920 --> 58:00.240
witnesses claiming he was taking the missions money and also just putting it into their general

58:00.240 --> 58:06.880
fund too. So this guy runs that into the ground. It's like, who are we going to pick here? Who do

58:06.880 --> 58:12.240
we want as options here? And I get it. When I took over steadfast, you could say that I didn't meet

58:12.240 --> 58:16.800
the qualifications to take over this church. I would agree with you. It's like, Hey, here's

58:16.800 --> 58:25.120
a pastor that has been barely, you know, pastoring. He's young, he's inexperienced. Like is he the

58:25.120 --> 58:32.880
ideal candidate? No. But you know what? It wasn't like there was a lot of options. Okay. It wasn't

58:32.880 --> 58:40.080
like, it was what? Chad Morgan? I mean, I don't know. It was basically just people that were maybe

58:40.080 --> 58:45.840
not quite there yet or just hadn't been, you know, ordained or something like this. And look, yeah,

58:45.840 --> 58:49.920
I did meet the qualifications of a bishop. I'm not saying that, but I am saying this. I probably

58:49.920 --> 58:55.040
wasn't the ideal candidate, but at the end of the day, you know what? I paid $0 to come up here.

58:55.600 --> 59:00.160
I didn't say, Hey, pastor Anderson, I'll give you $50,000 if you make me the pastor of steadfast.

59:01.360 --> 59:06.000
Would you feel a little different about me if I did that? When you say, Hey, that's weird

59:06.800 --> 59:10.560
that you became the past. How about this? What if there's like three guys that were

59:10.560 --> 59:15.760
well qualified, better options than me. And I said, pastor Anderson, don't ask those guys.

59:16.320 --> 59:21.760
I'll give you 50 grand and just put me in. Actually, I didn't do that. I told her Mero that

59:22.640 --> 59:30.720
Hey, Romero, I'll give you 50 grand. I'll give you 50 grand. Hey, just don't tell pastor Anderson

59:30.720 --> 59:36.560
anything. Give me 50 grand. And we'll tell nobody that you've done anything. We'll say that you

59:36.560 --> 59:41.280
weren't ruling your house well. We'll call it something new, moral sin.

59:46.240 --> 59:50.240
How is this biblical? How is this what the Bible is teaching?

59:52.720 --> 59:57.200
Look, and of course, whenever you actually go through trials and tribulations and real

59:57.200 --> 01:00:01.520
difficulty, you want to make sure that everything you've done is right. You want to make sure that

01:00:01.520 --> 01:00:06.320
you're actually built on the rock of God's word. Look at Matthew chapter seven and look what it

01:00:06.320 --> 01:00:10.400
says in verse number 24. Therefore, whosoever hear these sayings of mine and do with them,

01:00:10.400 --> 01:00:15.680
I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the

01:00:15.680 --> 01:00:21.520
floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a

01:00:21.520 --> 01:00:26.000
rock. And everyone that hear these sayings of mine and do with them not shall be likened unto

01:00:26.000 --> 01:00:30.640
a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came

01:00:30.640 --> 01:00:36.240
and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. And it came

01:00:36.240 --> 01:00:39.280
to pass when Jesus entered these sayings that people were astonished at his doctrine for he taught

01:00:39.280 --> 01:00:45.280
them as one having authority and not as the scribes. Now, what's interesting about this parable

01:00:45.280 --> 01:00:53.520
is that the winds are going to blow period. Look, every church is going to have problems.

01:00:54.240 --> 01:00:58.800
Every church is going to have issues. Every church is going to have disgruntled people.

01:00:58.800 --> 01:01:03.040
Everybody's going to have gossip and fighting and fornication and just all the different crazy

01:01:03.040 --> 01:01:08.480
things. The question is which church is going to stand? The church built on the rock is going to

01:01:08.480 --> 01:01:15.200
stand. The church built on the sand is going to perish. And again, what is the rock? Doing

01:01:15.200 --> 01:01:22.080
God's command, doing the way that God said to do it, following his sayings. What is the sand?

01:01:22.080 --> 01:01:27.360
Doing the world's way of building a church. And of course, we see churches coming and going and

01:01:27.360 --> 01:01:32.800
destroying themselves and just ministries just falling and failing all the time. I mean, if you

01:01:32.800 --> 01:01:40.240
ask banks today, what is the worst loans? They'll always say church loans because there's just

01:01:40.240 --> 01:01:45.520
infinite false prophets and false teachers and churches just come and go like crazy. There's so

01:01:45.520 --> 01:01:50.560
many ministers doing shady things with money. I don't know why. It's just like, it's just a train

01:01:50.560 --> 01:01:57.440
rag. And at the end of the day, you know, we need to not be the kind of people, we need to not give

01:01:57.440 --> 01:02:01.360
fundamental badness a bad name. We say, hey, yeah, we just buy our way into the ministry.

01:02:02.480 --> 01:02:08.880
Come here and pay. No, you know, I would like for people to be able to be a pastor that have no money.

01:02:10.640 --> 01:02:15.120
People that are rich in faith. You know what? Who cares about how much money you have?

01:02:15.120 --> 01:02:19.040
Money should not be a determining factor. And if someone wants to buy their way into ministry,

01:02:19.040 --> 01:02:21.440
if someone wants to pay their way into ministry, we should reject them.

01:02:22.880 --> 01:02:27.040
Now that might be hard for some people, but we should not be willing to allow people to be in

01:02:27.040 --> 01:02:31.680
positions of authority in our church because they bought their way into that position. We should not

01:02:31.680 --> 01:02:38.800
be respecters of persons. We should not elevate the rich unless they deserve to be elevated.

01:02:38.800 --> 01:02:43.760
Now, look, I'm not saying a rich guy can't be ordained. I'm not saying a rich guy can't be

01:02:43.840 --> 01:02:49.280
in ministry. You know, if someone is independently wealthy and they want to be a pastor,

01:02:50.320 --> 01:02:54.240
there's nothing wrong with that. And I would consider ordaining them, but they better not

01:02:54.240 --> 01:02:58.480
get any preferential treatment. And they should not try to use that money in any way to get their

01:02:58.480 --> 01:03:05.760
position to come into the ministry. That would be wicked. That would be wrong. Now, when it comes

01:03:05.760 --> 01:03:11.680
to the ministry, we don't ministry not be bought. We want it to be built. But the disciples literally

01:03:11.680 --> 01:03:18.160
spent years and years with Jesus and going out soul winning and preaching and doing the work.

01:03:18.800 --> 01:03:24.560
You know, there's this temptation for people to want everything to just come to them so easy and

01:03:24.560 --> 01:03:30.080
to just get a quick fix. You know, I want ministry to be something that you actually work for.

01:03:30.080 --> 01:03:35.280
And actually you do. And you know, it'll have quality. You know, churches are healthy when they

01:03:35.280 --> 01:03:41.360
grow a little bit over a long period of time. Churches are not healthy when they grow a lot

01:03:41.360 --> 01:03:46.880
in a short period of time. And so, you know, at the end of the day, it's important to think about

01:03:46.880 --> 01:03:52.480
that kind of growth, just like working out. You're not going to have magic gains. If you did,

01:03:52.480 --> 01:03:57.440
there's something off. You're doing drugs or there's something not real about it. You know,

01:03:57.440 --> 01:04:02.400
you want that slow incremental change. And the same should be with ministry. The same should be

01:04:02.400 --> 01:04:07.760
with the house of God. You know, this church has basically just added about 20 people,

01:04:07.760 --> 01:04:14.480
net 20 people just every year approximately. And again, in order to get a net 20, typically that

01:04:14.480 --> 01:04:20.400
means we're adding like 40, 50 people and we're losing like 20, 30 people. And that's just kind

01:04:20.400 --> 01:04:25.280
of how it is. Churches are always going to lose people. People come and going, moving, backslidden,

01:04:25.280 --> 01:04:29.600
Judas's, whatever. You know, you got everything in anything between. So you're just constantly

01:04:29.600 --> 01:04:34.480
having this like cycle, right? And it's like our church is on average has had about, you know,

01:04:34.480 --> 01:04:39.600
growth of about 20 people coming and going. And I kind of keep all kinds of different statistics

01:04:39.600 --> 01:04:44.480
on this. It's like when I took over Steadfast Baptist Church, we had about, I don't know,

01:04:44.480 --> 01:04:50.240
maybe 120, 125 people on a sheet. But like our services themselves, like our Sunday morning

01:04:50.240 --> 01:04:56.720
service being our biggest service, it was around 90, maybe 100 people if we had like a big Sunday

01:04:56.720 --> 01:05:01.120
when I first took over. Okay. That was kind of the average attendance on a Sunday morning.

01:05:02.080 --> 01:05:09.600
Since then, you know, we've kept about 100 people from that period of time. So when I took over as

01:05:09.600 --> 01:05:16.160
pastor, people that were already here, we've kept about 100 people of that original group,

01:05:16.160 --> 01:05:20.960
which honestly is kind of just a miracle in and of itself. I mean, to keep that high of a number of

01:05:20.960 --> 01:05:28.800
people and considering how just horrific the scandal was of the previous pastor, that's pretty

01:05:28.880 --> 01:05:32.000
incredible. Now, again, some of that 100 people is just the fact that you all pumped out a bunch

01:05:32.000 --> 01:05:37.200
of extra babies. Okay. I get it. But I'm just saying there's about 100 people on the books that

01:05:37.200 --> 01:05:42.880
are prior to me ever becoming the pastor. Now, active members in our church now, we have like

01:05:42.880 --> 01:05:49.200
about 320 or something like that. So it's like 220 people that have basically come here since

01:05:49.760 --> 01:05:55.440
me being the pastor of the church. And look, that is, you could argue, part of what I have built.

01:05:55.440 --> 01:06:01.200
I've added on to what has come in here. Now, again, not like me as a person, it's obviously

01:06:01.200 --> 01:06:06.080
God's building the church and I get that. But what I'm saying is if you're a faithful minister,

01:06:06.080 --> 01:06:11.280
you're faithfully serving in the church, and it's not even just me, it's us. We built this with the

01:06:11.280 --> 01:06:19.840
Lord working through us. Our church has added about 220 new people to this church, to this work. Why?

01:06:19.840 --> 01:06:25.280
Because our ministry is not a bot ministry. It is a built ministry. And if you go all the way

01:06:25.280 --> 01:06:31.040
back to the early days, it was in a house. It was just people coming in. And look, a lot of the

01:06:31.040 --> 01:06:35.520
people that have come into our church have been reached by those early members, by people that

01:06:35.520 --> 01:06:41.120
were making their own sacrifices, by reaching new people, bringing in their family, their friends,

01:06:41.120 --> 01:06:45.440
being nice to the people that came and visited, taking them out to lunch and taking them out

01:06:45.440 --> 01:06:51.120
soul winning and making friends with them. Look, it's been a team effort. And like this church is

01:06:51.120 --> 01:06:56.800
not a bot church. It started in the middle of some living room. And buildings have never been

01:06:56.800 --> 01:07:02.800
great. Especially that tri-layer thing in Sanson Park area. I don't know. I think that was the

01:07:02.800 --> 01:07:09.440
first building. It was like this tri-layer stack thing. I visited it because I came to the one

01:07:09.440 --> 01:07:14.240
year anniversary and it was just like, it was awkward. You came in and it was just kind of like

01:07:14.240 --> 01:07:20.240
this stair step down building. And it was really kind of just narrow, this narrow long hallway.

01:07:20.960 --> 01:07:25.120
And you could tell though when you were there, there's just so many people who are so excited

01:07:25.120 --> 01:07:29.600
and there was zeal. And that's why people keep coming to St. Beth's Baptist Church, right?

01:07:29.600 --> 01:07:33.040
They come for the zeal. They come for the hot preaching. They come for the soul winning.

01:07:33.040 --> 01:07:41.360
They're not coming for the building. No. They're not coming because they get money out of it.

01:07:41.360 --> 01:07:45.280
It's usually a very, it's a sacrifice to come to our church. You gotta, I mean, especially just in

01:07:45.280 --> 01:07:51.520
the gas tank alone. I'm in the gas tank alone, showing up at church. You know, there's just a

01:07:51.520 --> 01:07:57.040
lot of just all kinds of different sacrifices for people to be putting in. And again, that's good.

01:07:57.040 --> 01:08:02.400
We want that kind of a ministry. We don't want to have a ministry where we're buying new members.

01:08:03.200 --> 01:08:07.760
Look, I get ads all the time. It's just like, hey, give us this money. We'll bring people

01:08:07.760 --> 01:08:13.120
into your church. And I'm thinking like, I don't know how that's possible. Do you even know who I

01:08:13.120 --> 01:08:17.840
am? You know, it's like, how can I give you money? It's like, hey, we'll call people and we'll bring

01:08:17.840 --> 01:08:21.440
them into your church. We'll get new visitors. We'll do all this kind of stuff. And I'm just

01:08:21.440 --> 01:08:27.440
thinking like, no, like even if that was real, even if I could literally hand a guy, hey,

01:08:27.440 --> 01:08:31.440
give me a hundred dollars and I'll just bring someone into your church. I don't want to do that

01:08:32.080 --> 01:08:36.000
because as soon as I give this guy the hundred dollars and the guy shows up and the guy hears

01:08:36.000 --> 01:08:44.960
me preach, he's going to leave. He can leave. Okay. It's like, look, the type of people that need

01:08:44.960 --> 01:08:48.960
money or ads or whatever to get into a church aren't the kind of people that want to stick

01:08:48.960 --> 01:08:54.560
around in this kind of a ministry. Oh, but hey, show up and we'll give you an ice cream after the

01:08:54.560 --> 01:08:59.200
service and we'll give you a pizza party. And we've got a volleyball tournament and we've got all

01:08:59.200 --> 01:09:03.440
these, you know, we're going to do movies later. You know, it's just like, why do they do that kind

01:09:03.440 --> 01:09:09.440
of stuff? Because they're trying to buy members. They're trying to buy people into the ministry.

01:09:09.440 --> 01:09:13.680
They're not trying to build people in the ministry. They're not trying to preach the Bible

01:09:13.680 --> 01:09:19.920
and try to get them to actually think about the word of God. We don't want that kind of a church.

01:09:19.920 --> 01:09:23.280
Go through the first Corinthians chapter number three, go to the first Corinthians chapter number three.

01:09:24.640 --> 01:09:29.840
There's many people today that are buying their way into the ministry, buying ministries, buying

01:09:29.840 --> 01:09:36.560
churches. I know that Gateway with Pastor Robert Morris, they bought someone else's Bible College

01:09:36.560 --> 01:09:44.160
and just moved it from California to here. Renamed it the King's University. And then

01:09:44.720 --> 01:09:49.760
after Robert Morris bought a Bible College in California, moved it here, the Bible College of

01:09:49.760 --> 01:09:56.320
their own free will decided to give him an honorary doctorate degree. It's interesting how that works,

01:09:56.320 --> 01:09:59.680
you know. Bible College is like, man, you know what, you deserve a doctorate.

01:10:01.360 --> 01:10:08.640
And then they gave his best friend one too, Jimmy Evans. So they both are now doctors. He's also a

01:10:08.640 --> 01:10:15.360
pedophile that's been in prison. So, doctor Robert Morris. It's just so funny how these things work.

01:10:15.360 --> 01:10:22.240
Look, why would you even want that? I would be embarrassed to say, you know what, actually,

01:10:22.800 --> 01:10:30.160
I'm a doctor. They're like, oh really? What degree did you get? Well, it's an honorary degree.

01:10:31.360 --> 01:10:39.040
I didn't actually go to school. I didn't actually write a thesis. No, no, no, no. I was so awesome,

01:10:39.040 --> 01:10:45.760
they just gave me the doctorate. Oh really? What school is it accredited? Well, no. Who owns it?

01:10:46.720 --> 01:10:47.220
Me.

01:10:50.080 --> 01:10:54.960
How long did the board have to decide on that one to give you this special little doctorate?

01:10:54.960 --> 01:11:02.480
How is that not bought? I mean, come on. You know, in America, anybody can become a pastor.

01:11:03.600 --> 01:11:07.680
There's like some church in Colorado or something like that. All you have to do is just fill out the

01:11:07.680 --> 01:11:12.880
application, pay like 59 bucks or whatever, and you can become an ordained minister right now.

01:11:13.040 --> 01:11:17.600
Why? So that people can marry whoever they want. It's like this little gimmick to where anybody can

01:11:17.600 --> 01:11:22.000
become a pastor so then they can perform weddings. So it's like, you've ever heard this guy, like,

01:11:22.000 --> 01:11:25.520
oh, my best friend's gonna marry us or whatever. It's like, how did they even do that? How's that

01:11:25.520 --> 01:11:31.200
even legal? It's because they went, bought this like Colorado little, you know, ordination mill.

01:11:31.200 --> 01:11:36.320
Just pay the money, pay the 59 dollars, you're a pastor. I mean, that's even worse than Bible

01:11:36.320 --> 01:11:40.800
College, obviously. They didn't even go, they don't even care, they may not even know how to

01:11:40.880 --> 01:11:48.160
spell Jesus, but they're a pastor now, right? They're ordained minister. Like, this is how

01:11:48.720 --> 01:11:53.920
our world actually works and it's sad, it's pathetic, it's lame, it's weird, it's wicked.

01:11:55.120 --> 01:12:02.160
It's wicked for Baptist pastors to sit here and get this. Now you say, well, I think it's honorable

01:12:02.160 --> 01:12:07.920
that he would just pay the severance and the church is eased. Okay, but you're just not spiritual

01:12:07.920 --> 01:12:14.160
because it's wicked. It is wicked to do this. The pastor was refusing to step down or refusing

01:12:14.160 --> 01:12:19.840
to appoint anybody else to the pastor. He has to pay his way in there. That is Simon the Sorcerer,

01:12:19.840 --> 01:12:26.160
folks. And of course, how is Pastor Brissards gonna run a church of a couple hundred people or a

01:12:26.160 --> 01:12:31.040
hundred people or something? He certainly can't build it, folks. He already failed. He already

01:12:31.040 --> 01:12:36.560
proved he can't. He already proved nobody wants to come and hear him preach. He already proved

01:12:36.560 --> 01:12:43.680
he's not gonna build a church. So what's the only way he has to buy it? And he has to make sure that

01:12:43.680 --> 01:12:49.440
nobody else gets that opportunity too quickly. Oh, isn't it interesting? Probably one of the best

01:12:49.440 --> 01:12:52.560
candidates. I'm not saying, I don't think Pastor Suggie's gonna take the job, but I'm just saying

01:12:52.560 --> 01:12:57.200
he doesn't know that necessarily. What's his first step? Oh yeah, fire the guy immediately.

01:12:58.480 --> 01:13:04.400
Your 10-year employee that's making a whopping $26,000 a year, I'm sure that was a lot of money,

01:13:04.560 --> 01:13:07.200
$26,000 a year. I'm sure that was really hurting the bank.

01:13:09.600 --> 01:13:12.960
Doing all your accounting and bookkeeping and soul winning and administrative tax for

01:13:12.960 --> 01:13:18.320
$26,000. It's like, how are you gonna do that cheaper? Okay. You're gonna hire in Mexico?

01:13:18.320 --> 01:13:23.280
Like, I don't even know. It's like, you're already getting the Filipino discount over here

01:13:23.280 --> 01:13:27.120
on remote work. It's like, how are you gonna get that work done cheaper? Just fire,

01:13:27.760 --> 01:13:34.720
and your best employee, your smartest employee, your best preacher, your best evangelist,

01:13:34.720 --> 01:13:39.680
the guy getting thousands of people saved, the reason why everybody thinks y'all are awesome,

01:13:40.480 --> 01:13:44.880
fire him. How does that make sense? Well, when you're trying to eliminate competition,

01:13:46.400 --> 01:13:51.840
makes a lot of sense. When you're trying to not look bad, makes a lot of sense. When you

01:13:51.840 --> 01:13:57.440
don't want anybody to ask questions about what was that 50-50 arrangement, makes a lot of sense.

01:13:59.040 --> 01:14:06.560
Interesting. Well, like, church should not be something that is on the chopping block

01:14:06.560 --> 01:14:13.920
as being for sale. If I were to ever step down or die or whatever, like, my position should not be

01:14:13.920 --> 01:14:20.160
auctioned. It shouldn't be like, who's willing to pay to be the pastor now? It's like, hey,

01:14:20.160 --> 01:14:27.520
who's the most spirit-filled guy? Who's the most qualified guy, right? It's wicked. 1 Corinthians

01:14:27.520 --> 01:14:34.320
chapter 3, look at verse number 6, I have planted Apollo's water, but God gave the increase. So then

01:14:34.320 --> 01:14:38.400
neither is he that plant anything, neither he that watered, but God that giveth the increase.

01:14:38.400 --> 01:14:46.400
Churches and ministries are going to grow if God gives the increase, if God gives the increase.

01:14:46.400 --> 01:14:53.600
And this is in some ways how you can tell who God confirms, because there's man's ordination,

01:14:54.640 --> 01:15:00.400
there's man's choosing, but then there's God's confirmation. And we have to pay attention to

01:15:00.400 --> 01:15:05.680
that because sometimes you may not realize like, okay, well, these guys were picked by man or man

01:15:05.680 --> 01:15:12.720
picked this guy. Yeah, but when God doesn't confirm them, you shouldn't follow them. If their rod duds

01:15:12.720 --> 01:15:17.760
and the other one buds, you follow the bud because God obviously is confirming them.

01:15:17.760 --> 01:15:22.800
And where you see God growing things, you want to be a part of the work that God is growing.

01:15:22.800 --> 01:15:28.880
You don't want to be a part that the man is growing or is growing some strange vine or some

01:15:28.880 --> 01:15:35.760
strange vineyard or some strange plant. And again, a lot of people, they cannot grow things, they

01:15:35.760 --> 01:15:40.800
cannot build things, so they have to what? Buy things. They have to buy a ministry, they have

01:15:40.800 --> 01:15:45.440
to buy a church, they have to buy members, they have to buy all kinds of different things.

01:15:45.440 --> 01:15:51.920
They have to buy salvations. It's out there, man. Look, God is the one that's given the

01:15:51.920 --> 01:15:57.120
increase of this church. And you know what? Praise God for Steadfast Baptist Church because

01:15:57.840 --> 01:16:02.640
it's an honor and a privilege to be the pastor of this church. And I love it and I love being

01:16:02.640 --> 01:16:08.560
with you guys. But at the end of the day, it would have been a miracle if we just were still

01:16:08.560 --> 01:16:16.160
running 100 people. But look, you can't deny the work that God has done in this church.

01:16:16.160 --> 01:16:21.920
And I cannot take credit for it because I've done like nothing to reach people. If anything,

01:16:21.920 --> 01:16:26.800
I've done things to ask people to leave. Now, you could definitely blame me for people leaving.

01:16:27.840 --> 01:16:31.040
You'd be like, you preach this about this person and they left. It's like, yeah,

01:16:31.680 --> 01:16:35.680
you kicked all these people out. Yeah. But it's like people just come out of the woodwork.

01:16:36.240 --> 01:16:38.960
I mean, I can't tell you how many people just show up and they're just like, hey, we moved here.

01:16:38.960 --> 01:16:42.800
Just like, okay, I've never met you. I've never heard of you. I didn't do anything to reach you.

01:16:42.800 --> 01:16:48.960
It's just like, great. It's like, that's not me. It would be so prideful and arrogant for me to

01:16:48.960 --> 01:16:55.120
think like I'm special or something like that. Look, it's just God giving an increase. And they

01:16:55.120 --> 01:17:02.320
say, why? I don't know. Maybe so we get 14,000 people saved last year. That's why God does things

01:17:02.320 --> 01:17:06.480
the way he does. Why would a church destroy itself or diminish? Well, because they're not

01:17:06.480 --> 01:17:13.680
going to do much for the Lord. And we have to honor God's providence. We have to honor God's

01:17:13.680 --> 01:17:20.160
confirmation. I've said multiple times, sometimes people just don't trust God. It's like, God is not

01:17:20.160 --> 01:17:26.160
mocked. For whatsoever man soweth, thou shalt also reap. You buy a ministry, it's not going to work

01:17:26.160 --> 01:17:35.840
out. This guy doesn't preach the Bible. It's not going to work out. Like, it just cannot work.

01:17:36.400 --> 01:17:43.040
It's impossible. There is no way on the current trajectory, Very Baptist Church won't be anything

01:17:43.040 --> 01:17:50.240
but a train wreck. Now, I'm not even saying it can't grow, but it'll grow like a weed if it does grow.

01:17:51.360 --> 01:17:56.080
Because there is no spiritual preaching happening right now. There's no emphasis on the soul when

01:17:56.080 --> 01:18:00.080
you're talking about the Bible. It's not a spiritual preaching happening right now. It's been a

01:18:00.080 --> 01:18:06.240
bought ministry. They've been covering up sin. If you cover your sins, you shall not prosper. Do you

01:18:06.240 --> 01:18:12.800
believe the Bible? Do you believe God's word? Do not be a part of a ministry where people are in

01:18:12.800 --> 01:18:17.680
that position because they bought their way in that ministry. And, you know, slightly different,

01:18:17.680 --> 01:18:21.680
but similar principle, or they're in a position because of nepotism.

01:18:21.680 --> 01:18:27.760
Someone should be behind the pulpit because they worked for it, not because they bought their way in,

01:18:27.760 --> 01:18:34.720
or because they're somehow the nephew, or the cousin, or the son. I mean, how many, how many

01:18:34.720 --> 01:18:41.280
pastors a day are there because their dad was the pastor? And look, I'm not saying that a son

01:18:41.280 --> 01:18:45.440
of a pastor can't be a pastor. You know what? He should have to have worked for that position.

01:18:46.080 --> 01:18:53.120
And probably trained under someone that's an outsider, not just from the direct papa, because

01:18:53.120 --> 01:18:59.600
it's just like, you know, I don't care who you are. People just, for some reason, they just can't

01:18:59.600 --> 01:19:05.200
necessarily see clearly about their own kids. Go to Proverbs chapter 23, go to Proverbs chapter 23.

01:19:07.760 --> 01:19:11.120
This is an important principle, and, you know, at the end of the day, we could apply this to a lot

01:19:11.120 --> 01:19:15.200
of different areas. I have two more that I'm just going to make an application to. I want to mainly

01:19:15.200 --> 01:19:24.080
focus on this first one. Let me tell you, you know, this church, as long as I'm the pastor,

01:19:24.800 --> 01:19:29.760
positions of leadership are not going to be based on nepotism. They're not going to be based on

01:19:29.760 --> 01:19:33.840
anybody spending money. Someone that offers me money is going to be put at the back of the list,

01:19:33.840 --> 01:19:40.320
or just marked black off the list. They are not going to be moved up. You know, what I want to

01:19:40.320 --> 01:19:44.880
see is people that are faithful, that love the Lord, that are going to work hard, they're going

01:19:44.880 --> 01:19:51.040
to show themselves diligent. They don't care either way. They're not, you know, it's dangerous

01:19:51.040 --> 01:19:56.400
when there's people that just like, they just have to be a pastor. So dangerous people. They

01:19:56.400 --> 01:20:01.680
just have to be in ministry. They just have to be in this position. Simon the Sorcerer just has to

01:20:01.680 --> 01:20:08.000
have this power. He just has to have, you know, it's kind of a dangerous thing. Because then you

01:20:08.000 --> 01:20:11.920
say like, oh, so would you keep pastoring for a year even though you've disqualified yourself?

01:20:14.880 --> 01:20:17.200
Roger Minas?

01:20:19.760 --> 01:20:25.760
And then just like be a, I mean, how do you tell people I'm going to step down, I'm disqualified,

01:20:25.760 --> 01:20:30.000
but I'm going to do it next year, and then spend that whole year just attacking people

01:20:30.000 --> 01:20:41.200
about the qualifications? I'm telling you, man, the flesh is bad. Apparently.

01:20:41.280 --> 01:20:47.120
It's a worse thing you think, that's for sure. Okay. But I'm just saying, you know, when there's

01:20:47.120 --> 01:20:54.960
bad preaching, you know, you can't just ignore it. You just can't ignore it. Bad preacher, bad person.

01:20:55.920 --> 01:21:01.920
Here's a second application I want to make to build what I bought. You know, we should build

01:21:01.920 --> 01:21:08.720
and work towards having a healthy body, not buy a healthy body. And unfortunately, we live in a

01:21:08.720 --> 01:21:14.080
society that just doesn't really want to do it the right way. And they're trying to take a lot of

01:21:14.080 --> 01:21:18.880
shortcuts. And, you know, I don't think that's the right move. Look at Proverbs 23 verse 20.

01:21:19.760 --> 01:21:24.560
Be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. For the drunkard and the glutton shall

01:21:24.560 --> 01:21:29.680
come to poverty and drowsiness shall clothe the man with rags. You know, in America, statistically

01:21:29.680 --> 01:21:42.560
72% of Americans are either overweight or obese. 72%. Now I was just, just had a morbid curiosity.

01:21:42.560 --> 01:21:46.400
I was like, what about another country? Cause I have no idea. So I just said, what about the

01:21:46.400 --> 01:21:53.040
Philippines? Cause you know, obviously we like them. They're 40%. So 40% of their population.

01:21:53.040 --> 01:21:57.840
So that's a big difference from America to a country like the Philippines. I didn't compare

01:21:58.800 --> 01:22:01.600
all nations or anything like that. There's probably other statistics, but you know,

01:22:01.600 --> 01:22:07.600
that's pretty high. Now, again, I think that in some cases, people that are classified as overweight

01:22:08.240 --> 01:22:13.600
is probably kind of bogus. Sometimes people can just be athletic or muscular and they're like

01:22:13.600 --> 01:22:17.040
considered overweight. And you're just like, you're not overweight. And I don't think that

01:22:17.040 --> 01:22:22.160
people need to have some kind of a Hollywood image of themselves where they're just bulimic

01:22:22.160 --> 01:22:28.000
and they're just like severely malnourished and way underweight, you know, and we shouldn't compare

01:22:28.000 --> 01:22:32.880
ourselves with the vanity magazines of this world and things like that. You know, all of us should

01:22:32.880 --> 01:22:37.840
care about one thing, just being healthy. Because at the end of the day, being healthy is just going

01:22:37.840 --> 01:22:43.440
to make your life quality better. And it's going to make you a better use for God. One of the things

01:22:43.440 --> 01:22:48.880
the Bible is saying not to do is to not what? Be a riotous eater of flesh. I mean, that's just what

01:22:48.880 --> 01:22:56.880
the Bible says, not to overeat, basically, not to be a glutton. And if I could somehow overeat

01:22:57.520 --> 01:23:02.960
and then not actually gain weight, that's like cheating the system. And look, there are people

01:23:02.960 --> 01:23:07.760
doing this kind of stuff. People that are bulimic. And I'm not going to explain what that means

01:23:07.760 --> 01:23:12.960
because I want to give people ideas, but you know, that's cheating the system. Or statistically,

01:23:12.960 --> 01:23:18.880
one out of eight people are now on drugs to basically just lose weight without doing anything.

01:23:19.600 --> 01:23:26.400
It's like GLPs. There's many different brands of this particular drug. I think the most popular

01:23:26.400 --> 01:23:33.360
is ozempic, but 12 and a half percent of Americans are on this particular drug. And that's just crazy.

01:23:34.480 --> 01:23:40.800
And look, I think it's good to be healthy. And, you know, why are people taking these drugs? Not

01:23:40.800 --> 01:23:47.440
to be healthy, to look good. That's vanity. You know, at the end of the day, we should,

01:23:47.440 --> 01:23:50.560
I don't care about vanity. We shouldn't care about vanity. We should care about being healthy.

01:23:51.920 --> 01:23:57.200
And the Bible is forbidding to even be around people that are these among riotous eater of

01:23:57.200 --> 01:24:01.920
flesh. You know, a lot of people, they'll take drugs. So they're like cheating the system,

01:24:02.560 --> 01:24:06.400
lose a bunch of weight, and then they get off the drug and then they gain it all back.

01:24:06.960 --> 01:24:12.080
Why? Because they're still a riotous eater of flesh. They didn't change anything. They didn't

01:24:12.080 --> 01:24:17.520
create healthy habits. They weren't building a healthy body. They were trying to buy a healthy

01:24:17.520 --> 01:24:23.600
body by buying drugs. And it didn't work. You know, wouldn't it be better to just go ahead and try to

01:24:23.600 --> 01:24:29.280
work towards losing some weight or getting healthier, being strong or whatever, trying to

01:24:29.280 --> 01:24:34.080
build into that system instead of what? Just buying into that system. Now, go through the

01:24:34.080 --> 01:24:36.480
first Corinthians chapter nine, go to first Corinthians chapter number nine.

01:24:38.000 --> 01:24:41.520
It's not a comfortable topic, but it's not a comfortable sermon. So, you know,

01:24:44.560 --> 01:24:49.120
at the end of the day, people want the microwave life.

01:24:52.640 --> 01:24:57.040
What meal is awesome if the only instrument ever used is a microwave?

01:24:59.200 --> 01:25:03.600
It's like you use the microwave to heat up leftovers. Okay. But let me tell you something.

01:25:03.600 --> 01:25:07.120
The reason why it's a leftover is because it wasn't made in the microwave. It was made in a

01:25:07.120 --> 01:25:14.880
good way. Right? I mean, look, if you were to cook a steak only using a microwave, wouldn't it suck?

01:25:16.560 --> 01:25:24.000
I mean, do you think anybody could make great brisket only using a microwave? How about this?

01:25:24.080 --> 01:25:26.000
Only a microwave pizza.

01:25:31.200 --> 01:25:36.000
It's funky. It's AI slop. You know what I mean? There's something off about it.

01:25:36.000 --> 01:25:40.240
There's something funky about it. There's something weird about it. Cheese doesn't melt

01:25:40.240 --> 01:25:46.720
the same in a microwave as it does in the oven. There's just certain things that don't cook right.

01:25:47.840 --> 01:25:52.880
This is just our life. We don't want to have a microwave body either. And look, I'm telling you,

01:25:52.880 --> 01:25:57.280
people are getting plastic surgery all the time. And look, it looks weird.

01:26:00.320 --> 01:26:04.880
I just I don't think it's possible. It's probably out there. But it's like, I don't think it's ever

01:26:04.880 --> 01:26:09.280
happened. I'm like, someone got plastic surgery. I'm thinking, you look better. It's always like,

01:26:09.840 --> 01:26:16.560
I can tell. Yikes. It's like, why are you smiling at me so much? You know?

01:26:18.800 --> 01:26:22.640
They're just like really looking at you. It's like, whoa, calm down.

01:26:23.120 --> 01:26:30.240
The face is just so tight. Hey. It's like your whole face is wrinkled, but your forehead is just

01:26:30.240 --> 01:26:36.320
like flat as a pancake. You know, there was like some TikTok video or something. It's like all

01:26:36.320 --> 01:26:40.800
these ladies that work at a Botox office. And they were they were confessing how many times they've

01:26:40.800 --> 01:26:46.320
used it. And it was just like, you can tell, you know, it's like, I it's like, I'm 22. And I've

01:26:46.320 --> 01:26:53.680
used it 15 times. And you're just like, 22. And you're doing Botox. This is like, I'm 30. And I've

01:26:53.680 --> 01:27:03.280
done it 157 times. Just like, I can tell. You look like you're 87 already. It's a vicious vicious

01:27:03.280 --> 01:27:12.080
cycle. It's scary. Look, I am for trying to be healthy. I'm for exercising. I'm for being strong.

01:27:12.080 --> 01:27:16.560
I mean, how many verses say just be strong? You know, as men, I think there's, you know,

01:27:16.560 --> 01:27:21.600
nothing wrong with that. And look, if you could just pop a pill and instantly just be healthy

01:27:21.600 --> 01:27:26.080
and there was no side effects. I mean, could I really get mad at you for that? I don't think

01:27:26.080 --> 01:27:30.240
anybody could get mad at that. But the problem is there's usually side effects. Number one. And again,

01:27:30.240 --> 01:27:35.040
since you didn't build good habits, they're probably not going to last. They're probably

01:27:35.040 --> 01:27:41.120
not going to work out. You know, be better off getting the slow gains of building better,

01:27:41.120 --> 01:27:47.440
of better habits than just trying to get the microwave body. You know, the Bible says here in

01:27:47.440 --> 01:27:53.440
verse 26, I therefore so run not as uncertainly, so fight I not as one that beateth the air,

01:27:53.440 --> 01:27:58.400
but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I

01:27:58.400 --> 01:28:01.760
preach to others, I myself should be a castaway. You know, the Bible says that we should keep our

01:28:01.760 --> 01:28:09.200
bodies in subjection. That's a broad verse. I get it. But hey, I think it's important to have some

01:28:09.200 --> 01:28:15.040
self-discipline. That's more important. And I think God is more happy with you for implementing

01:28:15.040 --> 01:28:20.160
some self-discipline than looking thinner. Go over to the first time before. Do you really,

01:28:20.160 --> 01:28:26.000
I mean, think about it from God's perspective. Do you think God actually cares about the number on

01:28:26.000 --> 01:28:33.520
the scale or cares about your self-discipline? Would God be happier with you because you know what,

01:28:33.520 --> 01:28:39.200
you actually implemented better health habits, better exercise habits, or because you're buying

01:28:39.200 --> 01:28:44.320
drugs so you could just look better to yourself or something. You know, vanity of vanity, say it,

01:28:44.320 --> 01:28:50.320
the preacher who cares about vanity. And look, that's assuming that taking these highly

01:28:50.320 --> 01:28:58.240
experimental drugs won't harm you. Let me tell you something. Do thyself no harm. Running is not

01:28:58.320 --> 01:29:06.160
going to harm you. Jogging, walking, not eating four times a day won't kill you.

01:29:07.920 --> 01:29:13.040
Taking experimental drugs could kill you. Taking experimental drugs could cause you to have all

01:29:13.040 --> 01:29:17.760
kinds of cancer and just kind of issues and stuff like that. And look, I'm not saying this because

01:29:17.760 --> 01:29:23.600
I'm mad at anybody. I don't really care. But let me tell you something. You know what, I don't want

01:29:23.600 --> 01:29:28.800
people to make bad decisions for vanity sake because you know what, I don't give a rip.

01:29:29.760 --> 01:29:33.680
I don't give a rip. I don't think people give a rip. I want people to be healthy.

01:29:34.960 --> 01:29:38.560
I think God wants people to be healthy. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 8.

01:29:39.360 --> 01:29:44.240
For bodily exercise profiteth little, but godliness is profitable unto all things,

01:29:44.240 --> 01:29:48.960
having promise of life that now is and of that which is to come. There's so much pressure on

01:29:48.960 --> 01:29:53.760
people to look a certain way and to have cosmetic surgeries. I mean the fact that

01:29:53.760 --> 01:30:00.560
men are getting calf implants is the most embarrassing thing. Talk about bought, not built.

01:30:02.080 --> 01:30:07.440
You do not want to have fake implants in your leg. You want to build them. I'd rather have

01:30:07.440 --> 01:30:13.200
the chicken legs, folks. Just telling you. And look, body exercise helps a little.

01:30:14.160 --> 01:30:19.200
The Bible doesn't say it's bad, but obviously you want to focus more on the spiritual things.

01:30:19.200 --> 01:30:21.760
And look, couldn't we take this health and apply it to spiritual health?

01:30:24.480 --> 01:30:27.440
You don't want to have a, well, I just go to Easter once a year.

01:30:28.720 --> 01:30:33.680
No, you need to be going to church three times a week and build a healthy habit.

01:30:33.680 --> 01:30:38.400
Instead of, well, I listened to a bunch of sermons real quick. There's some people, they're like,

01:30:38.400 --> 01:30:43.920
man, I just listened to like 20 hours of preaching. I'm ready to go. That person doesn't

01:30:43.920 --> 01:30:48.000
pan out, but the guy that just goes to church three times a week and it's just real steady,

01:30:48.560 --> 01:30:54.320
reads his Bible. Hey, we need to work on our physical health. That's good. More important,

01:30:54.320 --> 01:30:57.520
we should work on our spiritual health. And let me tell you something, the guy that reads his

01:30:57.520 --> 01:31:01.440
Bible every day and goes to church three times a week is probably not going to ever change.

01:31:01.440 --> 01:31:08.560
The guy that just every once in a while shows up at church or just tries to cram here and there,

01:31:09.600 --> 01:31:17.040
he's on a chopping block. He may not pan out. And you know, well, I wake up in the morning,

01:31:17.040 --> 01:31:24.400
I ask chat GBT to tell me about the Bible. Okay. But you know, that's a cheap trick.

01:31:25.840 --> 01:31:29.520
You know, you can use AI to just tell you almost anything in the Bible these days,

01:31:30.480 --> 01:31:34.080
but is that really going to be healthy if you're only letting AI tell you

01:31:34.640 --> 01:31:39.360
what the Bible thinks, what the Bible says? Go to John chapter 13. Go to John chapter 13.

01:31:39.360 --> 01:31:45.200
You know, I use AI all the time. I use the AI for the Bible even, but it is not a substitute

01:31:45.200 --> 01:31:49.120
for good habits. You need to be going to church. You need to be reading the Bible yourself. You

01:31:49.120 --> 01:31:55.840
need to be memorizing the scripture yourself. It should be an added supplement, not just replacing

01:31:55.840 --> 01:32:01.040
your diet. Hey, I'm for vitamins and minerals if you want them, but you know what? Don't stop

01:32:01.040 --> 01:32:06.640
eating apples and just start taking vitamins. Keep eating apples. If you really want to have

01:32:06.640 --> 01:32:11.200
some extra vitamin C, you know, tablets you take every once in a while. Okay. But don't stop eating

01:32:11.200 --> 01:32:16.720
oranges. Don't stop eating food. Don't just think I'm just going to only eat vitamins and minerals

01:32:16.720 --> 01:32:23.120
and have no food. That's dangerous. Okay. In the same way, there's some people that only use

01:32:23.200 --> 01:32:28.000
a devotional. It's like one verse. There are people out there that don't have a devotional.

01:32:28.000 --> 01:32:33.520
They read one verse and then it's like a huge paragraph of like talking about that verse or

01:32:33.520 --> 01:32:39.280
whatever. It's like, dude, just read the Bible. Just read a chapter at least or something, right?

01:32:39.920 --> 01:32:43.120
You know, you're going to be way better off building that kind of habit. Get in a habit

01:32:43.120 --> 01:32:46.560
just reading your Bible. Just get in a habit of memorizing scripture. Get in a habit of going to

01:32:46.560 --> 01:32:53.760
church. It's a lot easier to go to church on Wednesday night when you've gone to church on

01:32:53.760 --> 01:32:58.960
Wednesday night for the last three months. It's really hard to go to church on Wednesday night

01:32:58.960 --> 01:33:05.280
when you've missed for three weeks. Just like in the same way, it's like, hey, it's really hard to

01:33:05.280 --> 01:33:12.080
go run when you haven't ran for six months. It's really easy to run when you do it every day or

01:33:12.080 --> 01:33:16.960
every couple days or whatever. It's just anything. Here's one last point. I'm not going to spend as

01:33:16.960 --> 01:33:22.480
much time on this as I wanted, but we should have relationships that are built and not bought.

01:33:25.360 --> 01:33:31.280
At this church, I think a lot of people want to have good friends and build good relationships.

01:33:31.280 --> 01:33:35.840
You know what? It takes time and it takes effort and it takes energy. You cannot just buy friends.

01:33:36.480 --> 01:33:41.520
Now, you can. It's on Facebook. You can just pay money and people will be your friend or whatever.

01:33:42.400 --> 01:33:46.560
It's not real. It's fake. You don't want to have relationships that are like this. John chapter 13,

01:33:46.560 --> 01:33:52.080
look at verse 34. A new commandment I give unto you that ye love one another, as I have loved you,

01:33:52.080 --> 01:33:58.000
and ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love

01:33:58.000 --> 01:34:04.000
one to another. Now, it's kind of funny because I was thinking about this. I went to the one year

01:34:04.000 --> 01:34:08.000
anniversary for Steadfast and I got to meet Pastor Anderson. I got to meet Pastor Merrill at the time

01:34:08.640 --> 01:34:14.160
and then shortly after, there was a church starting in San Antonio, Old Path Baptist Church with

01:34:14.160 --> 01:34:21.280
Manley Perry. I remember wanting to go out there too because I'm in Texas. I drove down there,

01:34:21.280 --> 01:34:27.680
me and my family, we went to go to that particular event. I don't think that Manley Perry had ever

01:34:27.680 --> 01:34:32.480
met Pastor Anderson before. I could be wrong. Maybe it had happened once or twice. I think that

01:34:32.480 --> 01:34:37.920
was the first time for them to be in person. He came out to preach for a minister to Pastor

01:34:37.920 --> 01:34:47.200
Roger Menes. He gave them both a brand new AR rifle as a gift and publicly presented to them

01:34:47.200 --> 01:34:52.720
or whatever for that thing. Just think about just buying, and I don't know how much money,

01:34:54.320 --> 01:34:58.640
it could be $1,000, it could be $1,500. I think it was a nice rifle or whatever. Just buying

01:34:58.640 --> 01:35:04.720
someone a $1,500 gift the first time you've ever even met them in your entire life or whatever.

01:35:07.520 --> 01:35:10.880
I think that this guy really wanted to be Pastor Anderson's best friend or whatever,

01:35:11.440 --> 01:35:16.640
but here's the thing. You can't be Pastor Anderson's friend with money because here's

01:35:16.640 --> 01:35:23.680
the problem. He doesn't care about money at all. People that want to be your friend, don't try to

01:35:23.680 --> 01:35:26.720
buy someone's friendship. You know what you should do? You should just love them.

01:35:28.240 --> 01:35:32.880
You should actually care about them. You shouldn't lie about them. You shouldn't slander them. You

01:35:32.880 --> 01:35:37.760
shouldn't attack them. The Bible says a friend loveth at all times. A man that hath friends must

01:35:37.760 --> 01:35:44.400
show himself friendly. You want to have good relationships. You have to actually sincerely

01:35:44.400 --> 01:35:49.040
love people and do good unto them. Here's the reality. You have to go through some hard times

01:35:49.040 --> 01:35:53.680
with them probably. You probably have to make some sacrifices for them. You can't just buy

01:35:53.680 --> 01:36:01.360
their love. There are proverbs in the Bible about that. Let's go to Proverbs 14 about this.

01:36:02.000 --> 01:36:05.440
The Bible talks about, yeah, some people will be your friend just because you're rich,

01:36:06.720 --> 01:36:12.400
but do you really want that kind of a friend? There's some people that will pretend to be

01:36:12.400 --> 01:36:16.480
your friend simply because of your money or status. You can think about Samson. The Bible

01:36:16.480 --> 01:36:20.880
talks about someone that was Samson's friend. The Bible says they used him as a friend.

01:36:22.080 --> 01:36:29.440
He was just using him. People will use you. Someone paying money to be your friend you should

01:36:29.440 --> 01:36:37.360
be suspicious of. Look, in churches and ministries, beware of people trying to buy your friendship,

01:36:37.360 --> 01:36:44.240
buying your favor, buying their way into positions. Beware of people that are just

01:36:44.800 --> 01:36:48.800
trying to use money to gain position and status. We should be people that are trying to work for

01:36:48.800 --> 01:36:54.800
things. Even with your wife, this might be harsh for you guys, but you know what? You can't buy

01:36:54.800 --> 01:37:00.640
your wife's love as much as you think that you can and as much as she wants you to believe that.

01:37:01.920 --> 01:37:06.960
Hey, buy this vacation, buy this car, buy whatever. Look, as soon as you buy whatever she wants,

01:37:07.680 --> 01:37:11.120
I'm going to tell you a secret. There's something else she wants you to buy.

01:37:11.120 --> 01:37:15.440
And then as soon as you buy that, there's something else she wants you to buy.

01:37:16.480 --> 01:37:22.000
And then just repeat this. Just put this on repeat. That is your life. That will not,

01:37:22.000 --> 01:37:27.280
that will not, you cannot buy her love. You know what? You actually have to spend time with her

01:37:27.280 --> 01:37:32.560
and do things with her and love her and talk to her and care about her. That's what you have to

01:37:32.560 --> 01:37:39.280
do. You have to build a relationship with her. I think some men, they just want to be friends.

01:37:39.280 --> 01:37:44.960
I think some men, they just want to see their wife, you know, just for the things that they get

01:37:44.960 --> 01:37:49.680
out of the relationship. You're not going to have a good relationship. You got to build a relationship

01:37:49.680 --> 01:37:54.320
with your wife. Hey, with God, you got to build a relationship with God. You got to read your Bible.

01:37:54.320 --> 01:37:58.320
You got to pray. You got to meditate on the word of God. And you know, we shouldn't be someone

01:37:58.320 --> 01:38:03.040
that's just trying to buy our way into relationships. You can't do it. It's fake. It's cheap.

01:38:03.040 --> 01:38:07.360
Proverbs 14, look at verse number 20. The poor is hated even of his own neighbor,

01:38:08.080 --> 01:38:13.120
but the rich have many friends. Why are rich people having friends and poor people don't?

01:38:14.240 --> 01:38:20.720
There's a lot of fake people in this world. It's hard to find real friends. And you know,

01:38:20.720 --> 01:38:25.040
at the end of the day, it takes someone actually building into a relationship, putting effort,

01:38:25.040 --> 01:38:30.480
energy into a relationship. It's hard to find a church that's real. It's one that people are

01:38:30.480 --> 01:38:33.920
actually going to put effort, energy and build into. And look, it's hard to find people that are

01:38:34.040 --> 01:38:59.860
piece walks away real나 Потом komma인을 wyp prospective외

01:38:59.860 --> 01:39:01.020
and a lot of energy.

01:39:02.780 --> 01:39:06.580
Don't get into this mindset of getting things quick.

01:39:06.580 --> 01:39:09.580
If you want a great friend, start working on it now

01:39:09.580 --> 01:39:13.200
and put in years of time and effort and energy.

01:39:13.200 --> 01:39:14.420
You wanna have a great marriage?

01:39:14.420 --> 01:39:18.940
Put in years of time and effort and energy.

01:39:18.940 --> 01:39:20.380
You wanna have a great church?

01:39:20.380 --> 01:39:23.500
We're gonna have to put in years of time

01:39:23.500 --> 01:39:25.280
and effort and energy.

01:39:26.200 --> 01:39:27.500
Money can't fix it.

01:39:28.020 --> 01:39:30.820
We can't just be like, hey, we're gonna have a great church

01:39:30.820 --> 01:39:31.660
because of money.

01:39:33.300 --> 01:39:36.300
Yeah, I mean, what if we just got $100 million tomorrow?

01:39:37.100 --> 01:39:38.900
We buy the nicest building.

01:39:38.900 --> 01:39:42.220
It's got a jungle gym, it's got a play place,

01:39:42.220 --> 01:39:44.160
it's got a McDonald's built in.

01:39:46.460 --> 01:39:48.180
It's got a Starbucks built in.

01:39:48.180 --> 01:39:53.180
Free coffee, unlimited lattes, movie theater style seats.

01:39:54.300 --> 01:39:56.560
But then I start preaching trash sermons.

01:39:56.560 --> 01:39:57.760
Does it really matter?

01:39:58.840 --> 01:40:00.840
Then we change the NIV

01:40:00.840 --> 01:40:03.480
because we have to pay for the building.

01:40:03.480 --> 01:40:05.800
Then we just start bringing girls up here

01:40:05.800 --> 01:40:08.360
swimming and swaying and the effeminate guy

01:40:08.360 --> 01:40:10.400
with long hair playing the guitar

01:40:10.400 --> 01:40:12.800
and turning out the lights.

01:40:12.800 --> 01:40:15.000
People don't wanna come to that church.

01:40:15.000 --> 01:40:16.920
We'll just have a Sunday morning only.

01:40:16.920 --> 01:40:18.600
And we'll just start up little campuses everywhere

01:40:18.600 --> 01:40:20.400
because we gotta pay for our building.

01:40:23.040 --> 01:40:25.080
Look, I don't want that kind of a church.

01:40:25.960 --> 01:40:26.960
Money doesn't matter.

01:40:26.960 --> 01:40:28.520
God doesn't want money.

01:40:28.520 --> 01:40:30.680
And we should be someone that's willing to put in the work

01:40:30.680 --> 01:40:32.840
and the effort and energy to have something of quality.

01:40:32.840 --> 01:40:37.320
Things of quality always take effort, energy, period.

01:40:37.320 --> 01:40:39.360
You want a quality brisket?

01:40:39.360 --> 01:40:40.200
Effort, energy.

01:40:41.120 --> 01:40:44.960
There's no cheap way, fast way to have a good brisket.

01:40:44.960 --> 01:40:47.000
There's no way to have a good church quickly.

01:40:47.000 --> 01:40:48.120
Takes effort, energy.

01:40:48.120 --> 01:40:51.600
And let me say, a great pastor, you cannot have it overnight.

01:40:51.600 --> 01:40:54.220
Takes effort and energy, takes great church members,

01:40:54.260 --> 01:40:56.020
great soul winners, great missionaries.

01:40:56.020 --> 01:41:00.220
And look, when you have the quality of the qualityest,

01:41:00.220 --> 01:41:01.340
I don't even know the word.

01:41:01.340 --> 01:41:04.540
You have the, I mean, you have Pastor Stuckey.

01:41:04.540 --> 01:41:06.660
You can't buy a missionary like that.

01:41:08.220 --> 01:41:10.540
You can't buy someone like that.

01:41:10.540 --> 01:41:13.980
And you give them up for nothing, for nickels,

01:41:13.980 --> 01:41:15.180
on the contract.

01:41:17.540 --> 01:41:19.980
Sorry, it just pisses me off.

01:41:19.980 --> 01:41:22.940
Okay, it's just crazy, folks.

01:41:22.940 --> 01:41:24.660
And then to preach the most ironic sermon ever,

01:41:24.660 --> 01:41:26.220
built but not bought, and then you buy your way

01:41:26.220 --> 01:41:27.820
into a church.

01:41:27.820 --> 01:41:29.620
The church that you preached that at.

01:41:30.540 --> 01:41:31.700
Thy money perish with thee.

01:41:31.700 --> 01:41:32.540
It's goes in prayer.

01:41:32.540 --> 01:41:34.140
Thank you heavenly father so much for your word.

01:41:34.140 --> 01:41:35.340
Thank you for these instructions.

01:41:35.340 --> 01:41:37.420
I pray that we would be willing to put in the work

01:41:37.420 --> 01:41:38.980
and effort and energy to have a good church.

01:41:38.980 --> 01:41:41.100
So we put the work and effort, energy,

01:41:41.100 --> 01:41:42.700
and to being healthy, that we put the work

01:41:42.700 --> 01:41:46.620
and effort and energy into having good relationships.

01:41:46.620 --> 01:41:49.540
I pray that you would help to continue to bless this church

01:41:49.540 --> 01:41:52.120
and to grow this church for your honor, for your glory.

01:41:52.120 --> 01:41:54.120
And we understand that we have to put the gospel

01:41:54.120 --> 01:41:55.240
at the forefront.

01:41:55.240 --> 01:41:56.880
It's through your might and through your power

01:41:56.880 --> 01:41:58.560
and through your effort that we are able to have

01:41:58.560 --> 01:42:00.600
so much wisdom and success.

01:42:00.600 --> 01:42:03.160
And I pray that we would never allow these things

01:42:03.160 --> 01:42:05.000
to be cheapened, that we would never allow these things

01:42:05.000 --> 01:42:06.560
to be bought, that we never allow these things

01:42:06.560 --> 01:42:09.800
to be swindled for money or for gain

01:42:09.800 --> 01:42:13.400
or for some kind of a covetous means.

01:42:13.400 --> 01:42:15.320
Rather we keep these things pure from that.

01:42:15.320 --> 01:42:16.920
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

01:42:16.920 --> 01:42:17.760
Amen.

01:42:18.360 --> 01:42:21.360
All right, in closing, let's go to song number 93.

01:42:24.880 --> 01:42:27.480
Song number 93.

01:42:30.880 --> 01:42:34.080
Art thou weary, art thou languid.

01:42:34.080 --> 01:42:36.080
Song number 93.

01:42:37.600 --> 01:42:39.880
Let's all sing that out together.

01:42:39.880 --> 01:42:41.680
Song number 93.

01:42:41.920 --> 01:42:43.160
Song number 93.

01:42:45.120 --> 01:42:50.120
Art thou weary, art thou languid.

01:42:50.280 --> 01:42:55.120
Art thou sore distressed.

01:42:55.120 --> 01:43:00.120
Come to me, saith one incoming, be at rest.

01:43:05.040 --> 01:43:10.120
At thee marks to lead me to him,

01:43:10.160 --> 01:43:14.960
if he be my guide.

01:43:14.960 --> 01:43:19.960
In his speed and hands our wood-fret and his side.

01:43:24.960 --> 01:43:29.960
Is there diadem as monarch that his brow adorns?

01:43:34.720 --> 01:43:39.760
Yea, a crown and very shirty,

01:43:39.760 --> 01:43:44.760
but of thorns.

01:43:44.760 --> 01:43:49.760
If I ask him to receive me,

01:43:49.840 --> 01:43:54.840
will he say, be gay?

01:43:54.840 --> 01:43:59.840
Not till earth and not till heaven pass away.

01:44:04.720 --> 01:44:09.720
Finding, following, keeping, struggling,

01:44:10.760 --> 01:44:14.760
is he sure to bless.

01:44:14.760 --> 01:44:19.760
Saint the Apostle, prophet, martyr's answer, yes.

01:44:24.840 --> 01:44:25.680
I think I've retired.

01:44:25.680 --> 01:44:28.800
Yeah, Brother John's coming for baptism this evening.

01:44:28.800 --> 01:44:31.240
Brother John, if you trust in Christ and your savior,

01:44:31.240 --> 01:44:34.040
then I baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

01:44:35.920 --> 01:44:37.360
Married in the likeness of his death,

01:44:37.360 --> 01:44:38.960
raised to walk in newness of life.

01:44:40.120 --> 01:44:44.760
Make sure to congratulate our baptism.

01:44:44.760 --> 01:44:46.000
God bless you're dismissed.

01:55:09.760 --> 01:55:14.760
Thank you.