- Hi everyone, welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
Thank you for coming this Wednesday evening to our service.
It's good to see you.
Let's take our seats and open up our hymnals to page 262.
That's gonna be the light of the world is Jesus.
Page 262, the light of the world is Jesus.
Page 262, lead out with us on the word.
Steadfast Baptist, if you pray that the sermon
would edify us and you would open the scriptures to us
in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Turn to page 25, wounded for me.
Page 25, for me.
- Ain't to know that Jesus is coming for you
and coming for me.
If you didn't already get a bulletin,
lift up your hand nice and high.
One of our ushers can come by
and get you guys a bulletin for the week.
We are in Romans 10 verse 10 for our Bible memory passage.
On the inside is service and soul winning times.
Also we have our church stats down below.
We've already started off the year doing a great work
but we'll just continue to keep up effort
and the energy and the zeal.
Honestly, I think that this is gonna be another great year.
We have a lot of potential, we have a lot of programs
and missions trips and events and things scheduled
but of course we still should work really hard
on our daily and weekly soul winning.
So please get involved and keep up the good work.
On the right is a list of our expecting ladies.
Several to be in prayer for.
Down below is some upcoming events.
In February 27th and 28th,
advertised a Texas A&M college soul winning marathon.
And that's going to be kind of helped by Brother Diego.
So he's actually from that area.
Truly special to him.
I've been down there a few different times
for other soul winning events.
And it's honestly a pretty great area to go down.
Those people are in the cult of the Catholic church,
but more importantly A&M and they need the gospel, okay?
So, but great opportunity.
Go down and do some soul winning.
The Foley's are having a baby shower on the 7th.
There's details on the back.
Brother Foley's wanting to help lead a soul winning marathon March 21st in Carthage, Texas.
That's where he's from.
And so, excited to have a couple different marathons there.
The soul winning mega marathon is going to be April 4th and so we'll definitely be doing
a big push of soul winning.
That's the day before Easter, so Easter is April 5th this year.
On the back is the announcement about the baby shower's details if you'd like to participate.
It's from 12 to 2, please RSVP to Mrs. Souther and if you'd like to get them a gift, the
register at Amazon.
Nursing's only preferred.
On the below list is our prayer list.
We try to keep this updated, so if you have continual prayer requests or you want to add
something, just please email us and we'll try to get that in here.
Please continue to pray for the Garcia's for health.
Please pray for Brother Suhail's mother's health.
Continue to pray for Brother Billy's mother, who has surgery.
He also had a cousin, Adam and his wife Gabby, they're dealing with a death and some difficulty
with their children.
Please pray for them.
And then he's been praying for his son.
Also continue to pray for the Spurgeons.
We're also praying for the Urbanics, for their grandmother, and for also their pregnancy.
If you'd please be in prayer for Miss Ginger's niece, who's in the ICU for pneumonia.
Please pray for Brother Evan's health and also his work.
We're also praying for the Canaries brother, for his health and salvation.
Please continue to pray for Brother Christian for his work, and then if you would pray for
Brother Robertson for his health.
So we have several in here.
We'll say a quick word of prayer as a church family.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church.
Thank you for all these ladies who are expecting.
I pray that you please be with them with their pregnancies, and please help them with a timely
birth.
Please help them to have a smooth recovery.
Thank you for those who have recently given birth and their children.
I pray that you just bless them.
Please help our church family that's just been sick and we've had illness.
I pray that you just help us all get healthy for people to be able to get back into church.
I pray that you would be with these lingering issues or these chronic issues, these bigger
sicknesses.
I pray that you would please just give favor unto these friends and family members and
brothers and sisters in Christ.
Those who are not saved, if you'd give us the opportunity to also get them saved, please
give them patience and comfort during their difficulty.
I pray that you'd bless those that need work, that you'd help them to find a good job, that
you would bless them and give them favor.
I pray that you would just continue to bless our church's missions trips and our events
and all the work that we do.
It would be honor and glory of your son's name and Jesus' name we pray, amen.
That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements.
We're going to go ahead and sing our third Psalm of the week, I believe.
Remember the number, 67, Psalm 67.
(Psalm 67)
Plates will be passed around at this time.
You can turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy, chapter 18.
Deuteronomy, chapter 18.
Chapter number 18, the Bible reads, "The priests, the Levites, and all the tribe of Levi shall
have no part nor inheritance with Israel.
They shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire in His inheritance.
Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren; the Lord is their inheritance
as He hath said unto them.
And they shall be the priests due from the people, from them that offer a sacrifice,
whether it be an ox or sheep; and they shall give unto the priest the shoulder and the
two cheeks and the mouth.
The first fruit also of thy corn, of thy wine, of thine oil, and the first of the fleece
of thy sheep shalt thou give him.
For the Lord thy God hath chosen them out of all the tribes, to stand to minister in
the name of the Lord, him and his sons, for ever.
And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel, where he sojourned, and
come with all the desire of his mind into the place which the Lord shall choose, then
he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God as all his brethren the Levites do,
which stand there before the Lord.
They shall have like portions to eat beside that which cometh of the sale of his patrimony.
When thou art come into thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt not learn
to do after the abominations of those nations.
There shall not be found among you anyone that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire, or that causeth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter,
or a witch, or a charmer, or a consultor with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
For all that do these things are an abomination unto the Lord, and because of these abominations
the Lord thy God doth drive them out from before thee.
Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God.
For these nations which thou shalt possess hearkened unto observers of times, and unto
diviners.
But as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren
like unto me, unto him ye shall hearken.
According to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly,
saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God, neither let me see this great
fire any more, that I die not.
And the Lord said unto me, They have spoken well that which they have spoken.
I will raise them up a prophet for among their brethren like unto thee, and will put my words
in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them, and that I shall command him.
And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he shall
speak in my name, I will require it of him.
But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded
him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die.
And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we say the word which the Lord hath not spoken?
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to
pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken.
But the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be in church, thank you for Setfast Baptist
Church and thank you for all the soul winning and people that are getting saved.
I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley with the Holy Spirit to preach unto us and
help us to take the preaching to heart, Lord, and to make applicable changes in our lives
to become better Christians.
Praise in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Deuteronomy chapter 18, the Bible says in verse 1, "The priests, the Levites, and all
the tribe of Levi shall have no part nor inheritance with Israel.
They shall eat the offerings of the Lord made by fire and his inheritance.
Therefore shall they have no inheritance among their brethren.
The Lord is their inheritance, as he hath said unto them."
So here in this passage, it's bringing up the Levitical priesthood.
This is one of the tribes that was separated, sanctified, and set apart to not actually
inherit the promised land, meaning that they don't get any possession.
They're not going to own any of the land there in the country.
They're simply designated to live where the temple is going to be, or the tabernacle.
Obviously they have a tabernacle now, but eventually the temple, in either situation,
they're just basically pertaining to the house of God and the service of the things of God,
and they don't really have any kind of personal property, as it were.
And so they're just basically supposed to live in proximity to the temple, to the tabernacle,
wherever that is, and just live a life just serving God and doing the things of God.
And they're not really getting what we would call like a secular job.
They're not going to be doing things where they're trying to make money.
They're simply there to serve God.
So they rely on the tithes and the offerings to end up paying their wages, in a sense.
Obviously some societies in history have had less need on a currency or like money per
se.
It's a lot more of a barter and trade type of a system.
And so they're just getting their goods taken care of.
When we talk about their food, their money is typically tied up in their livestock or
in their cattle or in their wheat or in their oil and all these different things.
And so that's a kind of a symbolism of money for them.
But the Levites, again, they're not going out and working the field.
They're not going out and tending the sheep.
They're not going out and taking care of cattle.
They're doing none of this whatsoever.
They're simply relying upon all the rest of the nation to stay godly and to essentially
work and bring in the tithes, bring in the offerings, bring in the money.
And then the Levites can pertain to the things of God.
Now if the Levites were having to go out and work the field and take care of cattle and
whatever, then what happens to the things of God?
What happens to the house of God?
Well, then those diminish.
And those are not taken care of, and essentially the worship of the Lord, the house of the
Lord, the Word of God, everything is just taken down a notch and it's going to not be
as effective.
And so, you know, some people that get mad about tithes, offerings, or giving to church,
you're really showing contempt for God or the things of God because in order for them
to be thriving, in order for them to be hitting on all cylinders, people have to be bringing
in their tithes and their offerings and bringing them to the Lord.
Now, on the flip side, the Levites have to be people that essentially are not covetous,
that they're not selfish, that they're not really worried about having possessions and
having houses and chasing money because you can't chase money and serve God.
To be a Levite, you have to forsake money.
You have to basically just give up the pursuit of money, give up the pursuit of wealth, give
up the pursuit of possessions, that you're just basically making the Lord your inheritance.
That's what's being emphasized here is that you're making the Lord your inheritance.
Now, anything can be abused and obviously you can have the abuse of the nation by them
not bringing tithes and offerings and that hurts the house of the Lord.
Or you could have the priests who end up getting a covetous attitude or covetous bug and then
they start doing shady things in order to hoard to themselves extra wealth or extra goods.
You could think of like the sons of Eli who are essentially taking offerings that they
shouldn't be taking.
They're not really doing the service of the Lord.
They're laying with the women assembled at the door and then they make people abhor the
offering of the Lord because they're thinking like we're bringing in the tithes and offerings
to God and then you're abusing them.
You're getting fat off of all these offerings and you're laying with these women and committing
fornication and it just kind of makes them sour towards the things of God.
So you have to have men that are going to take this house of God seriously that are
not covetous and then you also have to have a group of people that are not covetous that
are willing to sacrifice and give their tithes and offerings for it to work.
You have to have both sides participate in this particular endeavor for the house of
the Lord to work.
You have to have everything functioning on all levels.
And when we talk about the Levitical priesthood, of course, this doesn't exist today.
We are not under a Levitical priesthood.
We're under the priesthood of Melchizedek.
And so it is different.
There is going to be some variance here.
But the Bible says in the New Testament that we're a royal priesthood.
And so we kind of fall in a similar pattern of, you know, trying to apply some of these
things ourselves.
I don't think that either side of these applies to any of us only.
I think both apply.
Because in some sense, we should all be priests, meaning that we should all be looking to the
Lord as our inheritance.
That we should not be laying up for ourselves treasure on earth, but rather we should be
laying up for ourselves treasure in heaven.
That we should be more concerned with the things of God and the house of God and trying
to serve the Lord.
But then on the other side, none of us are actually like Levites, really.
And so we still have to go out and work and make money and bring in our tithes and offerings
for the church to essentially operate.
And so, you know, we should be able to take application honestly from both sides of this.
You know, we should be able to put ourselves in the shoes of the Levite, and we should
be able to put our shoes in the sense of the hands of the congregation, because we kind
of partake in both of these.
And of course, even the congregation themselves, whether they were Levites or not, they were
still supposed to care about the things of God and make God an inheritance in a sense
spiritually too.
But of course, these pictures are just more exemplifying these attitudes.
The Levites would still eat, notice they ate by fire.
So this is a method of cooking that they would cook with.
They're cooking their meat on fire.
It said additionally in verse three, "And this shall be the priest's due from the people,
from them that offer a sacrifice, whether it be ox or sheep, and they shall give unto
the priest the shoulder and the two cheeks and the maw."
So God kind of just designated sections of the animal as like this is the priest's meat.
Now I don't think that it's necessarily saying that the priest could not have any other meat,
but it's just basically saying like this is just theirs for sure.
Like it's basically this is just owed to them.
You're just going to give them this section no matter what.
These particular cuts of meat, I was just looking it up, but on a cow specifically,
the shoulder is going to be your chuck and pot roasts.
It's going to be flat iron steaks, Denver steaks, short ribs.
Cheek meat is often what people turn into barbacoa, so if you've ever heard of like
barbacoa, that would be something that's typically made with cheek meat.
And then there's also tripe, which is kind of interesting.
But essentially these are kind of the cuts that God is giving unto the priest.
And you know, again, I'm not necessarily an expert on cows, but I would say that these
aren't necessarily all just the best cuts, but they're also not necessarily the worst
cuts either.
So they're kind of like in a middle ground when we think about, you know, that particular
animal.
But they're still, I mean, when we're talking about the cow, we're still talking about premium
meat.
We're still talking about essentially some of the upper echelon sections of meat.
So God doesn't want His ministers to just sit here and suffer and live this aesthetic
lifestyle where they get no pleasure, no joy.
No, they're getting high quality meat.
They're getting good meats here that they're going to roast with fire.
So they're going to cook it in a way that would still be pleasing.
They're going to get to enjoy, you know, the service of God and it's just, you know, serving
God has its joys, you know, some people want to act like serving God is only sacrifice
or only burden or only negative, but that's not true.
Serving God has a lot of joy, has a lot of pleasure.
The Lord wants us to enjoy, the Lord wants us to have pleasure.
There is an attitude out there that thinks, you know, if we go out on a soul winning missions
trip, you know, we can only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and we need to sleep
on the floor and, you know, how dare you have more than two shirts.
And it's just, it's just kind of like this idea that you can't have anything nice and
serve God.
And I don't see that in the Bible.
Now look, John the Baptist obviously lived a very extreme aesthetic lifestyle, but, you
know, Jesus himself didn't.
Okay.
So again, is there anything wrong with living a life of asceticism?
No, not necessarily.
You know, you can be in a camel tuxedo if you want to, but you don't have to, you know,
there's nothing really in the Bible that's saying, you know, either way.
But God is designating, hey, these are the cuts of meat that you would give unto the
priest and of course that would be a sacrifice unto them because maybe they're like, well,
I want those cuts.
You know, I want that particular meat or I want this, but it's like, no, you have to
give that unto the priest.
And so there's a level of sacrifice on their part.
So on both sides are sacrifice.
On the Levites side, they get no inheritance.
They get no land.
They get no possessions.
They don't get to have all the stuff that, you know, the regular people get to have.
And then the regular people, they don't get to just have all of their stuff.
Some of their possessions are just dedicated to the priest and they have to give of their
possessions under the priest.
So on both sides, there is a sacrifice.
On both sides, there's something they have to give up.
There's something that they have to essentially dedicate to the things of God or to the house
of God.
And so there's always going to be sacrifice when it comes to the things of God.
And you know, it's kind of a light sacrifice on the people's part to just give up these
few cuts of meat, whereas for the Levites, it's like a lifetime of dedicated service
and just no inheritance.
It's a more extreme sacrifice.
But you know, being a Christian, there will always be sacrifice.
You know, there's going to be some people that, you know, maybe they're a pastor, maybe
they're an evangelist, maybe they're a deacon, they're going to probably have a little bit
bigger sacrifice than people that are just a normal church member.
But you know what?
Being a three to thrive, soul winning church member is going to have its sacrifices too.
It's going to have its obligations, it's going to have its difficulties.
But you know, it would be really evil, it would be really wrong to just have these priests
give up all the inheritance.
I mean, think about this.
They're going to all go in and fight and kill.
They're going to kill all the Canaanites together, shoulder to shoulder, they're going to go
in and fight, they're going to do the service of the Lord.
Not only that, these guys are dedicating themselves to be holy, clean, pure, you know, so approaching
God on behalf of their brethren, to then just forsake them and not take care of them and
not meet their carnal needs, it's just like a special kind of evil to do that to the people
that are actually caring for the things of God and making sacrifice.
You know, I mean, in my mind, it'd be just crazy to just have people dedicating themselves
to the things of God, making huge sacrifices, loving the Lord, and then for people to not
want to take care of them.
You know, and that's just not been my policy, that'll never be my policy.
I always try to make sure that the ministers at our churches or the people that work for
us, that I take very good care of them.
If there was ever an accusation from anybody that's worked for me, it'd probably be that
I paid them too much money or took care of them too much, then it would be the opposite.
You know, and I would love for these people to even testify, like if they came to me and
said, "Hey, will you give me this?"
And I said, "No."
Or if they were like, "Hey, I want this," or you know, "Can we get something?" or whatever.
It's like to me, we should be just opening our hands and being generous and being kind
and being loving and wanting to bless the Levite.
And again, we don't have Levites, do we?
There is no Levitical priesthood.
Well, what could be the application again today?
It could be, you know, pastors.
It could be deacons.
It could be evangelists.
You know, we have big conferences like, you know, the FBBF conference or whatever.
I try really hard to just spoil the ministers that come and preach to us, you know.
I want them to really enjoy being here.
I don't want to put them in some hotel where they feel like they're going to get knifed
or something.
I'm not like, hey, I got a really nice hotel for you in South Fort Worth, you know, South
Dallas.
We got a really good deal on a room, you know, we're going to put you in there, you know.
It's like, hey, let's get these guys a nice room.
Let's get these guys a nice car.
Let's get these guys, you know, you know, a nice meal.
Let's give them good cuts of beef.
You know, like, let's take care of these guys.
You know, we have our evangelists in the Philippines.
We want to take really good care of him.
We want to make sure that he's living, you know, a life where his needs are being met
and not just being met.
He gets the shoulder, right?
He gets good pieces of meat.
He's not over here having to eat chicken on a stick as his, like, most exotic meal.
The nicest meal he gets is, quote, chicken on a stick, while we're over here gorging
on filet and gorging on sirloin and ribeye and whatever.
Because obviously in America, we can have just virtually anything and everything that
we want.
To me, it makes sense, hey, we should be taking care of, you know, missionaries and evangelists
and deacons and pastors and whoever.
We should want to bless them and do good unto them because that's what the Lord is saying
here.
Look at verse four.
"For the first fruit also of thy corn and of thy wine and of thine oil and of the first
of the fleece of thy sheep thou shalt give him."
Now, you know, some people will say, "Oh, this minister is really fleecing the flock."
But do you know that's actually a commandment in the Bible?
It's literally a commandment for the priest to take the fleece of the flock.
And the first fleece of the flock.
So they're getting the nicest clothing, because again, what we're talking about, we're talking
about clothing here.
They're getting the premium cotton.
They're getting the premium wool.
They're getting the premium clothing.
They're getting the premium meats.
They're getting the first of their oil, the first of their wine, and I mean, oh, you just
say this because you're a pastor, right?
Look, I would say this if I wasn't, because you know what?
It's the Bible, and at the end of the day, we should take care of the ministers of the
Lord.
And you know what?
Someone that loves the Lord loves the ministers of the Lord.
And look, someone that doesn't love the ministers of the Lord, let me tell you something.
They don't love the Lord, because you know what?
Shame on a church that wouldn't take care of their evangelist or their deacon or their
pastor or is going to do them wrong or do them dirty or do things underhanded or whatever,
rip them off.
You know what?
That's wicked.
You know?
And it's not right.
And of course, God's not going to bless you.
You know, you sit here and you think like, "Oh, man, if we just give all these nice
things and we give away all of our goods to this guy, then what's left over for us?"
Well, God's going to pour out, you know, blessings that you can't even contain when
you take care of his ministers.
And let me tell you something.
God's going to dry you up like some dead bones when you don't want to take care of the things
of God or take care of his ministers or bless those kind of people.
You know what?
God is going to cloud up and rain on you whenever you don't want to take care of his people.
And it takes faith to believe in these things.
But God wants us to live by faith.
And at the end of the day, you know, our church's policy and our church's vision is to always
bless the ministers of the Lord and do good unto them and take care of them.
I would way rather be accused of doing too good unto a minister of the Lord than the
opposite.
I never want our church to be accused of like being shady, underhanded, ripping off evangelists,
ripping off missionaries, ripping off deacons, ripping off pastors, not taking care of them.
You know, I would way rather be like, "Oh man, you're just really taking care of that
guy."
It's like, yeah, amen.
Oh, you took all the pastors out to get a nice dinner?
Yes.
Do you really want the opposite to be said of someone?
You know, it's like that doesn't really make sense, you know, in light of these verses.
And look, while these verses do not apply to us in a Levitical priesthood because we
don't have one, we can still make application of every verse in the Bible to us today.
And look, these things are still written for our admonition and they're still written for
our example.
And we should still be able to take something from these passages.
And I'm making it really clear what it is.
We should take care of the people of God.
And look, let's take this away from pastors and deacons and evangelists.
You know who also needs to be blessed?
Soul winners.
That's why our church also tries to just bless soul winners because you know what?
They're also missionaries.
And in many cases, they're giving up their time, effort, and energy.
They're taking time off from work.
They're spending their own money to go on trips.
And look, we can't necessarily, obviously as a church, we can't just like pay for everybody's
plane tickets and cruises and whatever.
But for the most part, we still try to accommodate people as best we can.
We try to get housing when we can.
We try to pay for meals when we can.
And look, when we try to pay for meals, again, we're not just sitting here like, what is
the cheapest thing we can possibly get everybody here?
In many cases, we're doing the opposite.
In many cases, we're like, what's the nicest place we can take everybody to?
What's the nicest thing that we can afford and bring everybody?
It's not like, oh, we're going to have a fellowship for church.
Let's get Little Caesars for their $5 pizzas.
It's like, hey, let's cater Heim's barbecue.
That's expensive.
And look, everybody came.
You know, it's like you have a Heim's barbecue and you're like, I didn't even know you were
still coming to our church.
We're like, we don't.
We just were showing up today.
You know, it's like, OK, well, but here's the thing.
You know, if the soul winners are blessed, though, amen.
And look, even some people get a little bit mad about it because they'll be like, oh,
well, you know, this one person just happened to show up for the one brisket day or whatever.
But then I'm like, yeah, but did all the really good people get fed?
Then who cares?
It's like, oh, well, Judas got food.
Okay, but didn't the 11 disciples get food, too?
Well, let's just care that the 11 got taken care of, right?
Who cares about Judas?
Who cares about the bozo?
Who cares about the rando?
Who cares about the whatever?
You know, you just get so, people just get so nitpicky about stuff.
It's like, why don't we just take care of good people?
Because that's how we should be.
God wants us to take care of one another and love one another and love His ministers.
And you know how you show your love towards God?
How you show your love towards other people.
And if you really love the Gospel, you will want people to love, you know, being around
evangelism.
So it's like, I don't want people to go on a missions trip with me and feel like, wow,
I never want to go on that missions trip again.
I don't want people to go out to a soul hunting marathon and be like, man, I never want to
go on that soul hunting marathon again.
I don't want people to go out soul hunting with us and be like, oh man, they're just
a bunch of cheapskates and just not taking care of us and not trying to do good.
So you know, we try our best to try and make it fun, enjoyable, bless people.
Look, you go on a Bahamas missions trip with us and you'll be like, dang, that was awesome.
Right?
That was a weak amen.
I know some of y'all went on that trip.
You must be tired.
I get it.
But I'm just saying, hey, we try to put together, you know, good events and let it be accused
of us that we spend too much money on our events, that we spend too much money on our
soul winners, that we spend too much money on good food for the ministers of the Lord.
Let that be said of us than that we are cheapskates, that we're, you know, not taking care of
people, that we're not doing good unto people.
You know what?
I don't want that accusation.
And what would be my proof text, well here's some proof text, it's right here.
Now it says in verse five, "For the Lord thy God hath chosen him out of all thy tribes
to stand to minister in the name of the Lord him and his sons forever."
It says, "And if a Levite come from any of thy gates out of all Israel where he sojourned
and come with all the desire of his mind in the places the Lord shall choose, then he
shall minister in the name of the Lord his God as all his brethren the Levites do which
stand there before the Lord."
So verse five says that he was chosen.
I want to keep our finger, go to Hebrews chapter number five for a second, go to Hebrews chapter
number five.
The Bible's really clear that to serve the Lord or to be in a position of leadership,
you're to be chosen.
Now, how do you get chosen?
There's different positions and there's different ways people get chosen, but I believe again
God uses men to choose.
You go to a Pentecostal church, go to a Charismatic church, you go to a non-denom church, and
you go to even many fundamental Baptist churches today.
And what they do is they'll sit here and say, "If you just feel called to be a pastor,
I want you to just walk down the aisle and just put your hand on your heart and kneel
and make a vow to God," or whatever.
And it's like, "I don't believe in that.
I don't believe in that."
And how can a 17-year-old kid know he's going to be called to be a pastor?
And sometimes it's like they'll have a PowerPoint and they're making a video and it's like they're
showing Zambia.
And it's just like, "If God's tugging on your heart, dedicate right now to be a missionary
to Zambia," or to Japan, or whatever.
And look, I can put together a decent video too with some pretty compelling music.
And look, I don't care where it was in the world.
If you put up a five-minute PowerPoint and you show people needing the gospel, you know
what?
I'm going to feel something in my heart and I'm going to feel like I want to go and give
those people saved.
And again, why?
Because we have a calling as Christians to go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature.
But you know what I don't want to do?
I don't want to confuse some 16-year-old with a genuine desire to see someone saved and
the thinking that they need to dedicate their life to being a missionary to Zambia.
That may not actually be real.
I don't want them sitting here and make this vow or something like that.
But look, obviously, in a church that's about missions and missionaries, it's like, hey,
if you got a guy, you got a person in your realm that just fits a certain area and there's
this opportunity and it's working and it makes sense and they're ready to go, and the guy's
like, "Hey, I'm thinking you should probably go here and do this."
That's how I believe the calling of God works.
Not just somebody randomly at 16 seeing a PowerPoint thinking like, "I'm just called
Zambia."
Look, maybe that person from 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 20, their whole life they just felt called
Zambia and it just works and they just fit that mold and they just feel like that was
somehow God called them their whole life.
I'm not saying don't go to Zambia and get someone saved.
What I am saying is this.
I believe that if your calling is a God calling, if God is calling this in your life, other
men of God will see it and recognize it and will confirm it in your life.
And so you don't have to go through this mystery of like, "I don't know what God's calling
me to do."
It's just like, just ask the man of God and he'll tell you, right?
If you go to your pastor and he's like, you know, Pablo comes to me and is like, "Hey,
I feel called to go to Japan," and I'll be like, "Do you speak Japanese?"
"No."
"Are you fluent in Spanish?"
"Yeah."
"I think you should go on a Mexico missions trip."
That might actually make sense.
And it's a good litmus test for people to recognize like, hey, maybe they need the man
of God to tell them, "Hey, you know, if you have questions in your life, obviously we
should always go to the Bible.
What does the Bible say?
What should I be doing in my life?"
You know?
Young men, young women, probably getting married, having a family, working, getting a job.
There's other things too in our lives.
And so, you know, we can go to the Word of God to look for guidance, but we should also
use the leaders in our lives, the men of God, pastors, and their guidance.
And I believe that the men of God that are going to be elevated to positions of authority
should be chosen according to God's Word by the prompting of the other men of God, okay?
I don't believe in congregational ordination.
I don't believe in self-appointment.
I don't believe in people just declaring themselves, "I'm a pastor now," or, "Hey, I just decide
I'm going to start a cloud ministry."
You know who did that?
Robert Breaker.
I'm not going to judge to him in this chapter, but just, I'm going to have cloud church.
Who ordained you to even do that?
Who appointed you to do this?
How were you chosen?
Now, it's a problem when we look at this text, Hebrews chapter 5, look what it says in verse,
let's just read a little bit of this, verse 1, "For every high priest taken from among
men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he might offer both gifts and
sacrifices for sins.
Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way?
For that he himself also is compassed with infirmity, and by reason hereof he ought,
as for the people, so also for himself, to offer for sins.
And no man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.
So also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest, but he that said unto
him, Thou art my son, today have I begotten thee.
As he saith also in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
So God appointed Jesus Christ, the high priest.
Jesus did not appoint himself a high priest.
And as the Bible clearly indicates in verse four, no man taketh this honor unto himself.
Meaning that people that are ordained should not be taking this honor unto themselves.
To ordain is to choose, it's to pick, to appoint.
You can't self-appoint and self-pick and self-ordain.
You know, we're not Napoleon Bonaparte over here taking the crown and putting it on our
own head.
And, you know, I don't believe in this self-ordination junk.
And pastors who self-ordain, I do not respect their ordination.
Now, look, is it possible in times past if you were like shipwrecked on an island and
you started your own colony and there was no churches and you were there for decades
and you just guys decide to have a church and you say, "I know that it's best to have
someone ordained and we decided to still appoint someone to be your pastor."
Okay, but you're not on that island, Gilligan, okay?
So yeah, your Gilligan exception to congregational ordination does not apply in 2026 America
if no pastor, if no man of God will ordain you.
It's probably because you're a false prophet.
It's probably because you're fake, Adam Fannin.
And let me tell you something, you should not appoint yourself.
And look, just because I can go find 10 people off the street that want to call me pastor,
is not a legitimate ordination.
It's not a legitimate appointing of God.
And you know what?
I reject it and I don't believe in it whatsoever.
I don't want to have anything to do with it.
I don't agree with it.
And I would have never been a pastor from a self-appointment.
If I had gone to Faithward Baptist Church and Pastor Anderson just said, "You know what?
Hey, it's just, I'm not going to do it."
I probably wouldn't even have sought another person.
But I definitely would have either, A, just, okay, I'm just going to have a different alternative
for my life.
Or B, seek someone else that would do it.
But if no one else would do it, then I would just, I would just say, "Hey, it's just not
on the cards.
It's just not right."
But I'm not going to go out there and self-appoint.
You know, it's wicked, it's weird, and every one of these self-appointed bozos are always
a bozo.
Otherwise, show me the amazing self-appointed man of God today.
I mean, it's happening all the time.
You have all kinds of people appointing themselves pastors.
You have all kinds of congregations just randomly making the used appliance salesman their pastor.
Show me that guy being a great pastor.
Of course, that's the church that I grew up in, Trinity Fellowship Church.
There was a church there, a local group broke away from their church.
They split from their church because they wanted to speak in tongues.
They broke away and rejected the doctrine of their church, rebelled against their pastor,
and then they called a used appliance salesman, not a used car salesman, a used appliance
salesman to be their pastor, Jimmy Evans, and he became their pastor.
And they have one of the largest churches in America, Trinity Fellowship Church, which
then helped plant Gateway, you know, which is here in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
And look, the guy's a false teacher.
The guy's a false prophet.
Every time he tells us that he got saved, he says he gave up all his sins.
He doesn't point to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He doesn't say salvation is a free gift by faith only.
He says he looked in the mirror after committing adultery, after, you know, being engaged.
I call it adultery, but he was engaged, he's about to get married the day before and commits,
you know, adultery against his fiance.
And he said, I looked in the mirror and decided that I was going to give up my sin and that's
how I got saved.
Well, guess what?
You didn't get saved still because, you know, it's not repenting of your sins.
And it was interesting that false prophets also have eyes full of adultery, like Robert
Morris, who's a pedophile, literally who committed adultery that we know of for sure and got
caught and is in prison right now.
Robert Morris is in prison.
And look, show me the other appointed guy.
Show me the other self-anointed prophet that's just such a great guy that just loves the
Bible, just loves the word of God.
Look, doesn't exist.
Show me the guy in the Bible that's like that.
Show me the guy in the Bible that just self-appoints, doesn't happen.
It's garbage.
It's fake.
It's not real.
But you know, if you want to serve in ministry, if you want to be that kind of a person, you
know, you just go to church and you just serve.
That's what you should do.
I do not believe the people I respect for good pastors, they're going to hold back some
awesome guy.
Like, I don't think there's just going to be some David that they're going to just sit
here and be like, oh, I got to be, you know, King Saul or whatever.
But even in that situation, God then just took Saul out because he really wanted to
elevate David.
If you're awesome, if you're actually David, God will find a way for you, okay?
But maybe you're just Absalom and you should just, you know, or maybe you're just, you
know, as Adam Fannin, this is what Pastor Thompson calls him.
He calls him a SOB, which is a son of Bicri, you know, so, you know, he's Sheba, the son
of Bicri.
And so, you know, at the end of the day, that guy just should not be appointed.
You don't want anything to do with that kind of a person.
I don't care how YouTube famous Robert Breaker gets.
I don't care how famous Adam Fanning gets or any of these people, he's not that famous.
But I'm just saying, even if he did, it's like, who cares?
Self-appointed Bozos will always be self-appointed Bozos.
She want nothing to do with those individuals.
Go view it back to Deuteronomy chapter 18.
If Jesus didn't self-appoint, how in the world can you self-appoint?
I mean, if even Jesus has to be appointed by God, who are we to do such a thing?
Now it's said in verse 6 and 7, it's said that the Levite come from any of the gates
out of all Israel.
So it's possible that while the Levites should be where the tabernacle is, and they should
be where the temple is, you know, you can't affect where you're born.
Could be that your parents journeyed off, your parents weren't really serving the Lord,
and so a Levite just happens to not be where he's supposed to be.
But then in his heart and in his mind he realizes, you know what, I'm a Levite, I actually need
to serve God.
So as it says, it says, "And he come with all desire his mind in a place which the Lord
shall choose."
So this guy's like, "Oh, no, no, I need to go where the Lord's choosing.
I need to go there.
Then he shall minister in the name of the Lord his God and all his brethren Levites
do which stand there before the Lord."
So I think what he's trying to say is he's trying to say even if a Levite found himself
not active in the service of the Lord or somewhere outside if he gets his heart and mind right
he's allowed to come back and he's allowed to serve the Lord, you know, wherever the
Lord is he can get plugged in.
And in the same way I think this is kind of a New Testament application that we should
take that no matter where or at what point in life you are you get saved or you want
to get right with Lord you should get back into church and start serving him again.
Like God's not done with you.
If you're a minister of the Lord, if you're saved, if you're a child of God, God wants
to use you.
And whether you just got saved and you lived a life of sin before, or maybe you were saved,
got into a life of sin, but now you want to get back, there's never a bad time to start
serving the Lord again.
There's never a bad time to get back into the things of God.
There's never a bad time to pick your Bible up and start reading it again.
There's never a bad time to go back out there in Solon.
There's never a bad time to start serving the Lord.
It doesn't matter.
Hey, if your heart and your mind is right, God wants to use you.
And God can use you.
And you know what?
Nuts to your past.
There's plenty of men of God in the Bible that have rough paths, get backslidden, do
all kinds of stuff.
But you know what?
They get right, and they start serving the Lord again.
And you know what?
Any of us could get backslidden.
Any of us could get away from the things of God, but we should always be reminded, "Hey,
I need to get right with the Lord and find out where He's at and get plugged back in
and start serving God again."
It says in verse 8, "They shall have like portions to eat beside that which cometh of
the sale of His patrimony."
So again, it's focusing on the practicalities here.
I think what it's saying, "like portions," you could argue this is only in the context
of the Levites, like all the Levites kind of get the same portions.
I kind of think it's more broadly interpreted that it's basically saying like he should
get kind of like the same type of portions as everybody else is kind of getting.
And then it has an exception here is patrimony.
Patrimony would be his inheritance.
So technically, Levites could still have some economic status of being a little bit higher
or lower than one another, but it would simply be coming from the only exception would be
his patrimony.
Meaning, again, he's not going out there and trying to like take extra or he's not covet
this on his own.
You can't help but inherit the goods that have been passed down to you from your family.
And so by those circumstances, if his family is doing well, if his family has saved money,
if his family has done good for itself, they can pass those things on and bless their children
with them and that Levite can be blessed.
But in general the Levite's not out there trying to seek just a bunch of money and wealth
and whatever.
He's there to serve God.
Verse 9, "When thou art come into the land with the Lord thy God giveth thee, thou shalt
not learn to do after the abomination of those nations.
There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass
through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter,
or a witch, or a charmer, or a consultor with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.
So sorry, Harry Potter's wicked as hell, Harry Potter should be executed.
Oh, he's a good wizard.
Well, there's no such thing as a good wizard, according to the Bible.
Number one, there's no such thing as a good person, let alone a good wizard.
Oh, but this is a white wizard.
I don't care, burn it, burn it with fire, you know?
I mean, and again, it's not just witches, you know, it's like thou shalt not suffer
a witch to live.
Where's the the Salem wizard trials?
Okay, because, you know, we need to get ourselves rid of this wickedness, this evil,
this satanic stuff, and notice what's mixed in with all this satan, satanic, like, spirit
stuff is is killing children, you know, it's just it's just crazy, it's like they want
to slaughter their own children through fire, you know, and of course, that's that's always
with satanic principles, they want to sacrifice the innocent, they want to sacrifice women
and children and just do all kinds of weird, evil, crazy stuff.
It's like the Epstein files, basically, which it's like, we should burn the Epstein files
along with everybody in it, you know, it's just evil, it's just wicked.
Our nation is being run by like pedophiles that are into satanism and it's just so frustrating
that our country just cares more about watching some stupid Olympics or football or something
than actually dealing with real issues in our nation.
I mean, they can tax us through the roof, they can tariff us and put all kinds of just
restrictions on us and they can increase inflation and they can just completely corrupt our politics
and do insider trading and lobbying, but as long as we get Bad Bunny for the halftime
show then they won't revolt.
How can you not revolt without even being on the TV?
It got the most viewership supposedly, it was like 127 million views, I think it was
the most viewed halftime show of all time, some faggot.
Why do I want to watch some faggot?
What kind of a dude calls himself a bunny anyways?
What a faggot.
I mean, just prove to everyone you're a faggot.
I don't even think the entire show was in English, right?
I didn't watch it, sorry, I'm not trying to pick on anybody that watched it, but it's
my understanding it wasn't even all in English.
Which again, I'm not against foreign languages.
I like foreign languages.
I'm for that.
But it's like, you're in America and you're going to sit here, some faggot is going to
lecture us in some foreign language.
It's like, deport him.
And I'm like, someone's like, I don't know where he's from.
Is it Puerto Rico?
Technically, that's part of the US.
But I'm thinking like, okay, step one, let's just get rid of that.
And then step two, deport, okay?
Now again, I'm sure there's probably some exceptional person that's like saved and nice.
We'll keep them, okay?
But I'm just saying like, by and large, it's just like, you know, I don't want a bunch
of foreign false religion coming into my nation.
And it's not about racism, because you know what, there's a lot of white people, I don't
want their religion coming in our nation either.
It's called Judaism.
It's also called Catholicism.
You know what, I'll ship every white Catholic out of our nation too, because I'm not about
white and black and whatever.
All that's nonsense.
You know what, we should be about Christ.
We should have a nation for Christ.
We should want to elevate the King James Bible.
We should want to elevate the word of God.
We should want to be an evangelistic nation.
We should want to show the world what it's like when a nation actually is humble and
fears God, but real.
Not just lip service, not just this fake pretend, but like a real service of the Lord.
And then they would say, wow, what a wise and understanding people.
That's what they would say.
Not a bunch of like, look at these idiots literally watching a faggot named Bunny.
How could Muslims sit here and have respect for Christianity when we're a Christian nation
allowing that to be the most watched thing on television?
Some faggot calling himself a bunny, not even speaking English.
What kind of a nation are we?
What kind of a world are we like this kind of preaching?
Well, you know what?
This is what God's word says.
We should burn all these satanic, evil, wicked people.
We should kill them.
Verse 12, "For all that do these things are an abomination to the Lord.
And because of these abominations, the Lord thy God does drive them out from before thee."
God destroyed the land of Canaan because of these evil things.
Why would we sit here and think that God wouldn't want to destroy our nation and destroy our
country when that same thing happens?
And even if you think, well, we're Babylon, we're good, yeah, but okay, what about San
Francisco?
I mean, you just want your city to turn into San Francisco, the poop capital of the world?
I mean, do you want to just be, just faggot flags everywhere and just, you know, I want,
I want them to say like, you know, I don't really want to go to Dallas because that's
pretty, that's too close to Steadfast Baptist Church for me.
That's just too close to Pastor Shelley, you know, that's what I want.
They'll have to, you know, settle for Austin, but I'd like to be just so antagonistic.
They don't want to be in Texas at all, you know, like just ship them somewhere else.
Just be so far away, you know, and if, just think about it.
If every pastor in Texas, if every pastor in our city got up and preached like I did,
they probably wouldn't want to live in this area.
They probably wouldn't want to be in this area.
It's just that we don't have enough hair or leg men in our city that actually preaches
against the bunny.
Why?
They're probably going to have the bunny for Easter too, you know.
They're going to have the good bunny.
Because again, for them, it's like there's good wizards and bad wizards, right?
Harry Potter's the good wizard, and then there's the bad wizard, Voldemort or whatever.
Sorry you're not allowed to say his name.
I said it.
He's probably a faggot too.
You know, for Christians it's like, "Oh well, they have the bad bunny but we have the good
bunny."
It's like no.
Stop.
Stop worshipping things that have nothing to do with Christ, that are just not a part
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You know, at the end of the day, it's just so frustrating, and look, you should not participate
in anything that has to do with this kind of stuff.
Now look, I'm not saying that if you entertain media and it happens to have a character that's
like this, that you're evil or wicked or Satan, you know, worshipping, freak or something,
because obviously the Bible contains stories with witches and whatever in it.
But look, if you're watching stuff where it's just praising witches and it's praising wizardry
and it's making them to be the good guy in the story, that's probably crossing a pretty
clear line.
You know, if they're killing the wizard, okay, that's a little bit better.
You know what I mean?
And again, I'm not sitting here trying to just pick apart all your media preferences
because frankly, I don't give a rip what you do, but I'm just trying to give you general
wisdom that if you're letting your heart and mind and affection be put on wizards, you're
not right with God.
If you love wizards more than the Bible, you're not right with God.
If you're going to show up dressed like Harry Potter to church, you're not right with God,
okay?
And look, obviously the devil wants to make this stuff cool and appealing.
I'm sure that the Harry Potter books are really fascinating reads.
They're probably really engaging.
I'm sure the movies are fascinating to dweebs and geeks that like it.
Sorry, I fell asleep during the movies whenever I saw them, so they're so boring.
But I'm sure lots of people loved it, you know?
I'm sure a lot, obviously they put millions and millions of dollars into making these
films seem super cool and super awesome and it's spells and magic and whatever.
Sorry, Satan wants to present himself as cool, but you know what?
We should still burn it with fire.
Says in verse 13, "Thou shalt be perfect with the Lord thy God."
Well, I don't like that standard.
I don't like you preaching against my favorite character of all time.
Well, I'm trying to help you be perfect with the Lord.
I want you to not sit here and not give all of your heart to God.
And it's not that serving God can't have pleasure.
I'm not saying don't have joy.
I'm not saying don't have some characters.
Why don't you like Samson or something?
Why don't you like somebody in the Bible, David?
You can like heroes.
You can have heroes.
You can like things in the Bible.
You can like people.
Why don't you make a pastor your hero?
Why don't you make a missionary?
Why don't you make an evangelist or bannock your hero?
Yeah, you can have some heroes.
I'm not against you having some heroes.
I'm not against you having some fun.
You know, have a bunny and cut its head off and eat it.
You know, like, it was the bad bunny, okay?
You killed it.
But at the end of the day, don't sit here and pretend like you can just love wizards
and witchcraft and whatever and that you're right with God and you're not.
Verse 14, "For these nations which thou shalt possess, harkened unto observers of times
and into diviners.
But as for thee, the Lord thy God hath not suffered thee so to do.
The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee of thy brethren,
like unto me.
Unto him ye shall hearken according to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in
Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord
my God.
Neither let me see this great fire anymore, that I die not.
And the Lord said unto me, They have well spoken that which they have spoken."
So if we went all the way back to Exodus chapter 19 and 20, whenever Moses is like going up
on the mount and he's going to get the Ten Commandments of the first time, God's descending
from heaven and it's on fire and there's all this smoke and there's all the thundering
and the lightning and the Bible says that the earth's quaking and all the people just
lose their minds.
The people are just terrified of everything that's happening and they don't want to talk
to God.
They don't want to hear God's voice.
And they do hear God's voice, albeit I don't know exactly how audible, like how much they
understood all the language.
They definitely are hearing it though in a sense, like they're experiencing it and they're
saying like we don't want to do that again because we just feel like we're going to die.
So from now on we just want you to talk to a man and then we want that man to come and
talk to us.
And so that's how it was set up.
God would talk to Moses.
Moses would then talk to them.
And so God just ordained it that his word would often be communicated through a man,
that a man, a prophet would come and preach God's word.
Now some people, they kind of take the word prophet, especially in the Charismatic churches
or the non-non-churches, and they make prophet mean you just say things in the future.
Like to prophesy or to be a prophet is only telling things that are going to come to pass
or are going to say something that's going to happen in the future.
But that's not exactly how the Bible uses it.
Of course that is one way the Bible uses it, but I believe it's more broadly just preaching
God's word in general.
And of course most of God's word is "prophetic" or ends up saying all kinds of things that
are going to happen in the future or talking about future events.
So by default, if you're preaching a lot of the Bible, you're probably going to talk about
a lot of things that are going to come to pass and a lot of future elements and a lot
of future events just by the nature of how God's word is.
But to preach or to prophesy, I believe is synonymous, that it's not, you know, prophesying
or being a prophet is not limited to only future tellings.
It's just someone that's speaking God's word.
So Moses is a prophet and, of course, he's picturing the Lord Jesus Christ as this intercessor.
We have this intercessor picture through man.
Man intercedes and it's ultimately to show and point to the Lord Jesus Christ being the
intercessor for us, the man Christ Jesus who is to come and intercede and to communicate
and to tell us God's word and to reveal us things.
But of course throughout the Old Testament many prophets were sent unto the people and
they would prophesy and preach God's word.
And of course this is similar to what we have today, go through to 1 Corinthians chapter
1, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, that God has ordained it that people would hear God's word through
man's voice, that men would get up and that men would preach the word of God.
You know of course some crazy people out there think that God is constantly talking to them
in their ear or something, but again they're just crazy.
God will communicate to us through his word, but also he communicates to us through men
preaching his word, so saying it with authority in a sense, right, getting up and declaring
God's word.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 21, "For after that in the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe."
So it's like you need a man to get you saved.
Now again, it's not like the man has a special message.
It's the man is preaching God's word.
That's the special message.
The special message is God's word, but you got to have a man to deliver that to you.
And somebody would say, "Well, that's foolish.
Why wouldn't God just tell me himself?"
Well, that's how God decided it.
And you know what?
It's still smarter than whatever you dream up anyways.
Whatever you perceive as the foolishness of God is still smarter than anything you could
ever dream up.
And God ordained it that by the foolishness of preaching, that's how people will be saved.
So you say, "Oh, how are people in the Philippines going to get saved?
We're going to send men there and they're going to preach the gospel to them.
How are people in Mexico going to get saved?
We're going to send men there and they're going to preach them and they're going to
get saved."
You know, we don't believe in send them a Bible and they'll just get saved on their
own.
We don't believe in just send them a track and they're going to get saved on their own.
Now look, Bibles and tracts help.
They're a positive.
They're a benefit.
They can't hurt in any way, but we believe that salvation is from faith to faith.
We believe that you have an obligation to open your mouth boldly to make known the
mystery of the gospel.
We believe what Paul said, that we have an obligation to open our mouths as we ought
to speak, and that we are to preach the gospel, that we are to evangelize, that we are to
go out and to fulfill the great commission by preaching.
And look, it's not just a pastor.
It's all of us.
We are all ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We've all been given this commission.
If you are saved, you are entrusted with the duty and responsibility to use your mouth
to preach the gospel and to get people saved.
And you say, "Well, what if they won't listen to me?"
Well, then they wouldn't have gotten saved.
You know, we have that story of Lazarus and the rich man, and the rich man's wanting someone
to go and tell his brethren, and he's like, "Hey, you know, even if someone did some miracle,
they wouldn't believe it.
Even if someone had risen from the dead, but they have Moses and the prophets, let them
hear them."
Again, I don't think that it's just saying, like read the Bible, it's just saying people
coming up and preaching Moses, preaching the prophets, and preaching the word of God to
them, if that doesn't save them, nothing was going to work.
And salvation's by faith anyways.
Salvation's not by some miracle, some, you know, extravagant event.
It's not by some carnal means.
It's by the preaching of God's word and simple faith in what that person's preaching.
And of course, we have men throughout the entire Old Testament doing this, and in the
New Testament, we too are preachers, and we should go out and preach the word of God.
But of course, there's a specific prophet that this prophecy was leading up to, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Go to Luke.
I have one actually.
I'll just read Luke 1.
I'll read another passage here, but the Bible alludes to Jesus Christ being that prophet.
Luke 1.76 says, "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for thou
shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways."
So there was a prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ being the prophet before He's even
born.
And of course, that's ordained.
That's being appointed.
You've already been chosen by God to be that prophet.
John chapter number one also loses this, look at verse 21, "And they asked him, 'What then?
Art thou Elias?'
And he said, 'I am not.
Art thou that prophet?'
And he answered, 'No.'"
So notice the people understood that prophecy and they were like, "Hey, are you that one
guy that's being brought up?"
Deuteronomy chapter number 18, when it's bringing up the prophet, that's what's being alluded
to here.
He's like, "Hey, John, are you that prophet?"
And it's like, "No, I'm not that prophet."
Who's that prophet?
It's Jesus, right?
Let's keep reading.
Verse number 22, "They say unto him, Who art thou?
They may give an answer to them that sent us.
What sayest thou of thyself?
He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness.
Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaiah.
And they which were sent were of the Pharisees.
And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizes thou, then, if thou be not that
Christ nor Elias, notice this, neither that prophet.
What is the thing?
He isn't that prophet.
But you know what?
He is a prophet.
Jesus Christ confirms that John the Baptist was a prophet.
So he's still a preacher of God's word.
And just because I'm not that prophet, just because I'm not Christ, doesn't mean I shouldn't
be John the Baptist and preach the word of God.
And notice it's John the Baptist, not John the Catholic, or John the Methodist, or John
the Presbyterian.
Because John the Presbyterian, you know, he didn't have a choice.
You know John the Baptist actually chose to be a Baptist.
And hey, you know what, he chose to preach the gospel, and you know what, he got a lot
of work done.
John the Presbyterian's still waiting at home to be called.
John the Presbyterian's still wondering, you know, why he's so elect.
You know, but you know what, John the Baptist is going out and doing the work, isn't he?
He's in the highways and the hedges and he's preaching the word of God.
I love that our heritage is coming from the greatest man to ever be born among women.
That's a pretty good heritage.
Who's the first Catholic?
I know they want to claim it's Peter.
It's wrong.
He wasn't Catholic.
You know, Peter was married, buddy.
Sorry.
He wasn't your little pope.
He wasn't Catholic at all.
Catholics are, you know, down on marriage.
Peter's pro-marriage.
He's having kids.
He's married.
It's John the Baptist.
That's who you look up to.
Look at chapter 6.
There's more on this passage about Jesus being that prophet.
It's actually brought up a lot in the New Testament.
John chapter 6, look at verse 12.
It says, "When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, 'Gather up the fragments
that remained, that nothing be lost.'
Therefore they gathered them together and filled twelve baskets with the fragments
of the five barley loaves which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.
Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, 'This is of a truth,
that prophet that should come into the world.'"
So notice again, they're saying, "Hey, this is that prophet, isn't it?"
Look at chapter 7, verse 38.
Chapter 7, look at verse 38.
"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water.
But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the
Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified."
It's interesting God put this little parenthetical statement here.
It's almost like he knew Catholics would try to over-literalize that, you know?
I don't know, that would be scary, how they would try to literalize that.
But he was like, "Hey, by the way, Catholics, don't try to make your belly have waters coming
out of it."
Verse 40, "Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, 'Of a truth,
this is the prophet.'"
They're like, "Hey, this has got to be that guy in Deuteronomy chapter 18.
We've got him.
This is him."
"Others said, 'This is the Christ.'
But some said, 'Shall Christ come out of Galilee.'"
That's your ex knew I'd be crowded, right?
"Hath not the scripture said that Christ come out of the seat of David and out of the town
of Bethlehem where David was?
So there was a division among the people because of him."
Because you know that Jesus always brings division among people?
Notice that people always have different opinions on Jesus.
And let me tell you who's Jesus.
Oh yeah, it's this right here.
It's the Word of God.
And isn't it interesting?
People always have division on, "Oh, well that's not my interpretation."
Well, your interpretation doesn't exist because what you're saying is not in the Bible.
There's an interpretation and there's just an imagination.
You don't have an interpretation.
You have an imagination.
And your imagination is junk.
You know, it's so funny people like, "Well, that's not how I interpret it."
Almost like 99% of the time, they're not actually interpreting anything.
They're just making stuff up.
Or you say like, "Oh, okay.
What is your interpretation?"
"Well, it's just not mine.
I just don't agree with yours."
"Okay.
What's yours?"
"I just don't agree with yours."
Look, that's not an interpretation.
It's like, "Okay.
Then what does this mean?"
It's just like that Church of Nazarene pastor.
It's like, "Hey, faggot, you know, we should stone them with stones that they die.
Their blood should be upon them."
What does that mean?
"I don't know."
Well, we think it means you should kill them.
What do you think?
"I don't know.
This is not my interpretation."
Okay?
What is your interpretation?
What is it saying?
It's like, he knows what it's saying.
He just doesn't want to believe it.
And of course, Christ will always bring division in this world.
People will just not want to believe what the Bible actually says.
Go to Acts chapter 3.
I want to show you another one here.
Go to Acts chapter number 3.
You know what?
In order to listen to a man, you know you have to do, you have to humble yourself.
In order to be confronted by the Word of God and recognize, "Hey, this is different than
what I think or I believe or my lifestyle," you have to humble yourself and say, "You
know what?
I guess the Bible's right and I'm wrong.
I guess Harry Potter isn't good.
God's right."
It just takes humility.
Whereas I went to church, when I went to church, Harry Potter was a big thing.
Like when I was in high school, it was a big, big deal.
And these churches were coming out with this book called, "Finding Jesus in Harry Potter."
Who's ever heard of this book?
It was a book that was coming out and there was tons of people in my church saying this
thing's awesome and I was thinking like, "It's blasphemous."
I'm like, "Look, if you want to go sneak off and watch it, go have fun, right?"
But don't try to tell me that Jesus is in Harry Potter now.
That's just wicked.
That's just evil.
That's just weird.
But you know what?
That's what people try to do today is they try to make Christianity anything but Christianity.
I saw someone post something about like their church had like a Super Bowl Sunday where
everybody's dressed up like an NFL player, like everybody's wearing jerseys and just
like you walk in it's got like all these football set up all this is like gimmicks and just
they had cars they had like old timey cars set up in the front rows where you could sit
in them like you're at an old time movie theater where you're like watching the show.
I'm just like what is what and then people get mad that we have a nice meal after a soul
winning marathon.
I'm thinking like man you know good night you know it's just that people just don't
even understand.
Like think about the amount of money that these churches are spending for literal nonsense
and then people won't even spend you know two nickels on things that are actually good.
Two dimes on something that's actually real that's actually like the Word of God.
You know it's crazy the Catholic Church I mean those things are just ornate with all
kinds of just weird fat naked baby statues and drawings and whatever and just all kinds
of crazy stuff.
I mean they're going bankrupt because they're having to spend all this money and all this
decoration and art and all the gold and all the fluff and all the pomp for a false religion.
It's like we can't put our money and effort and energy into the real thing.
Acts chapter number 3, look what it says in verse number 19, "Repent ye therefore and
be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come
from the presence of the Lord and ye shall send Jesus Christ which before was preached
unto you whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things which
God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you
of your brethren like unto me, him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say
unto you.
And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be
destroyed from among the people.
So notice there's this special prophecy because look anybody that was a prophet in the Old
Testament if they got up and they said hey this is what God said and they didn't do it
God would destroy them.
Look it didn't matter who we're talking about, we're talking about Jeremiah telling all the
children of Judah hey you got to repent, they didn't do it, destroyed.
You have the prophet Jonah telling Nineveh hey repent, they repent and they actually
get saved.
They actually, even though they were wicked and evil, which is showing replacement theology
by the way, she notices like Jeremiah wants them to get saved and they don't harken and
they get destroyed.
Jonah doesn't want them to get saved but they harken and then they get saved.
Why?
Because the Jews don't want the Gentiles to get saved, the Jews don't want the Gentiles
to come in, the Jews don't want replacement theology just like today.
The Judaizers of today, the Zionists of today, they hate replacement theology.
They act like it's a cuss word.
They act like it's evil, but sorry, whoever hearkens under the prophet is going to not
be destroyed.
And what's that picture?
Jesus preached the gospel and those who believed in him would not be destroyed because they
get everlasting life and they go to heaven, but those who rejected the message of the
Lord Jesus Christ will be destroyed with everlasting destruction.
Everlasting fire, everlasting burning, there's no rest day nor night, there's no ceasing
to exist, that's a false doctrine by Kirk Cameron.
I don't know if that guy's ever been right on anything, but at the end of the day you
have to obey the word of the Lord no matter who's saying it.
I wish that my kids would get this message, go over to your back and we'll finish this.
Look, we all do this, right?
I'm sorry, if you have a lot of kids you really know what I'm talking about.
You will send a kid on your behalf to deliver a message, and you're not necessarily only
saying to the oldest, you're saying to any of them.
You're like, "Hey, tell them dad said, get out of the shower, go to bed, get water, you
know, clean up, do your homework, stop screaming."
This is a lot, okay?
You're sending that message.
It doesn't matter if it's coming from the three-year-old.
You better do it or dad's going to come and he's going to tear you up.
He's going to spank you because it doesn't matter that it was coming from the three-year-old
or not.
It matters that it was coming from me.
That's what matters.
And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter who the messenger is.
You know, it's like if my wife tells something to the kids, it's not any less authoritative
than it's coming from me when we're on the same page.
You know, I don't know why, but for some reason they got this weird idea in their head.
It's like if my wife says something that they don't like, sometimes they'll be like, "Well,
Dad's the one in charge."
Boy, that's a dangerous thing to say because Dad is in charge.
You know what Dad's going to do?
He's going to back up Mom.
And you know what, it doesn't matter because Mom has been empowered by Dad that she's in
charge of those children, and you know what, what she says goes.
You better do what your Mom says.
But you know what, God backed up the Moms, and you know what, you're supposed to honor
your Father and your Mother that your days will be long upon the land which the Lord
thy God giveth thee.
It doesn't matter that hierarchy between Mom and Dad, because let me tell you something,
you're under both of them, and you better obey Mom and Dad, period.
And look, it doesn't matter if Mom's sending a toddler.
It doesn't matter if someone's sending a text message, or an email, or a Pony Express, or
a carrier pigeon.
Look, if the message is coming, you better obey it.
In the same way, if you don't like Pastor Shelley, it doesn't matter, because if I'm
saying what God said, you better obey it, period.
You better obey what the Bible says, and what God's Word says, and what the preaching of
God's Word is clearly articulating, because you know what?
It doesn't matter the preacher, it doesn't matter the messenger, it doesn't matter the
vehicle, it doesn't matter if the dumb ass mouth open and he spake.
You better obey God's Word, period, okay?
And it doesn't matter if a snake talks to you, if it's not God's Word, you don't listen
to it.
Now it says in Deuteronomy chapter 18, let's finish this in verse 20, here's some false
prophets that are going to be brought up.
I don't know if I read all of this, but let's just read quickly and then we'll finish this.
But it says in verse 16, no, we did read that, didn't we?
Verse 19, "And it came to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words, which he
shall speak in my name, I'll require it of him."
So again, that's that destruction.
Verse 20, "But the prophet which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not
commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet
shall die.
And if thou say in thine heart, how shall we know the word which the Lord hath not spoken?
When a prophet speaketh in the name of the Lord, if the thing follow not, nor come to
pass, that is the thing which the Lord hath not spoken.
But the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously, thou shalt not be afraid of him.
So anybody that makes a false prediction, the Bible is saying it is a permanent disqualifier
for life.
If someone gets up and says, God told me this is going to happen tomorrow, if it doesn't
happen, you should never listen to that person ever again.
That's what the Bible says.
And yet, for some reason, it just goes over the head of so many people today.
You know, one of the most famous examples is William Miller of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church.
He predicted that Jesus Christ was returning in 1843 or 1844.
And then it's like 1845.
And they're like, "Well, I think we're off with like a zero, you know, on the year of
Christ or whatever."
Then 1846 came.
And then seven.
And then eight.
And then, "Yeah, sorry.
We're to 2026."
It's a little off.
Yet the Seventh-day Adventist Church still has thousands of people.
Maybe even millions.
Oh.
Like, it should just be immediate.
Like, "Oh, okay.
This guy's a false prophet, a false teacher.
I want nothing to do with him ever again."
Yep.
People do it again today.
Robert Breaker.
Famous, you know, whiteboard pastor.
He made predictions of Jesus Christ coming.
Never happened.
And then he did like multiple years in a row.
I mean, he got like tens of millions of views on YouTube.
I guess that means he's good.
No.
False.
Tens of millions of views.
Oh, yeah.
Who's the number one guy on YouTube?
Mr. Beast.
What an interesting name.
I mean, what do you need?
Like, Lucifer and Antichrist and, oh, yeah, PewDiePie.
I mean, what other kind of names do you need?
It's like, look, YouTube popularity is typically, like, not a good thing.
I'm not saying there couldn't be an exception.
We're talking about these upper echelons and whatever.
It's like, you've got to basically worship Satan or have a stein at the end of your name.
I mean, there's just not really a lot of choices there.
And look, when someone preaches something that doesn't come to pass, it's just a false
prophet, false teacher.
I went to a church, Trinity Fellowship Church, where I grew up, and every year they had a
Zion conference.
I don't know if you couldn't tell, but they were Zionists, all right?
Every year a Zion conference, and they brought in all their preachers.
It was kind of like their Red Hot, you know?
It was like their big conference.
It was their FBBF conference, right?
And they would have the guys get up, and every year they would give all these prophecies.
And there was this one guy, I mean, he would just give like 20 prophecies every year.
He's just getting up, he's like, "God told me this was going to happen, and in September
this is going to happen, and on February this is going to happen."
And you know, I started realizing like my church was trash, and I went back, and so
I went like four years back or something like this, and I started just like, "I'm going
to take some notes on all these prophecies that this guy had."
And I mean, I found like ten just like, you couldn't even ask for a more clear just false
prophecy, didn't happen, just lying, just trash.
And I just thought, "Oh, smoking gun, I'm going to show this to all of my family and
friends and they're going to want to leave the church now, because this guy's a false
prophet.
I mean, look at all he's doing."
And I show him, "Don't care, not interested, doesn't matter, don't want to check it out."
It just boggles the mind.
But then you realize the Seventh-day Adventists exist.
Then you realize people still watch Robert Breaker unironically.
I mean, people still follow all kinds of weirdos and freaks and crazy people.
I just don't get it.
I don't understand apathy.
I don't understand idiocy.
I didn't even believe Flat Earthers existed.
For the longest time, I thought they were all trolling.
I just thought there's no one that seriously is believing this.
They're all just faking and just trying to be a troll about it.
Right?
But then you meet this person, you're like, "Wow, this guy really exists."
There's something mentally ill about this person.
There's people that still believe in geocentricity in 2026 America that are pastoring churches
of hundreds of people.
Like the Catholic Church would have killed you for believing the opposite.
But it's like, can't we at least in the New Testament be like, "We don't want that to
be our pastor."
You know, I don't know.
People will follow anything today.
People are so apathetic.
People don't care about the truth.
People just really just, they just follow anything and everything.
And it just, it just makes you want to pull your hair out.
I'll be honest with you.
But you know what?
I'm just, I'm getting mad and being bombastic because I just don't want you to be that person.
Please don't be an idiot, OK?
Please don't follow morons.
Please if someone makes a false prediction, be done with them forever.
If people are ordaining themselves, be done with them forever.
And people are just into witchcraft and wizardry and whatever, be done with them forever.
OK, I mean this chapter, you know, it's really important.
And look, the Levites, think about what they had to leave behind.
They had to leave behind everything to serve God.
I'm saying leave behind wizards, false prophets, freaks, and weirdos.
I mean, like, it's not even that big of a sacrifice.
Just give them the shoulder.
You know, it's like just give the shoulder to the Levites.
That's all I'm asking, you know.
It's not even that big of a burden, but, you know, at the end of the day, people are still
going to do it.
People are still going to follow weirdos, and idiots, and fools, and it just goes to
show that they don't have humility, that they don't want to hearken unto the Lord.
But what did the Bible say?
The guy that will not hearken unto the prophet, he's going to be destroyed.
Just believe the Bible.
Just believe the Word of God.
Believe people that are chasing this other stuff, and being weirdos, and being idiots,
and being fools, and hearkening the wrong people.
Know that their lives will be destroyed.
Know that their minds are going to be destroyed.
Know that any inheritance they have in heaven is going to be destroyed, even if they were
carnally successful.
What does a man profit if he gained the whole world and yet loses his own soul?
What does it matter if you're saved and you just have millions of dollars, and you have
all this fun, and everybody likes you, and you're the number one influencer, and you
have the greatest YouTube channel, and you have the nicest clothes, but when you get
to heaven, you have nothing.
What does that matter?
What's the point?
As opposed to the guy that sacrifices everything and moves across the country and lives in
impoverished means and preaches the gospel until he dies, you know what?
He's going to enjoy the judgment seat of Christ, whereas the other guy is going to be terrified
of the judgment seat of Christ.
Hey, you know what?
My job and responsibility as a pastor is to try and prepare you for that moment, not for
right now.
I don't really care about right now.
You're suffering, get over it.
I'm not that harsh, but sometimes, but you know what?
Hey, I want you to be happy when you finally make it to the end of the race.
It's like that guy that's running.
Running sucks.
I mean, as soon as you start running, it hurts.
But it's like, I just want you to keep running because as soon as you cross the finish line,
then you're going to be happy that you kept running.
But laying down and quitting and rolling over and doing nothing, you know, it's not
going to help.
And look, some people, they're running still, but they're running in the wrong direction.
That's even worse.
Like if I was not going to be running like in the right direction, I'd rather just not
be running.
I'd rather just be walking in the right direction or laying down.
Like you'd be better off laying down.
It's like some people would be better off just going home and just laying down and going
to sleep than going to the church that they're going to, than listening to the people that
they're listening to, than following the example that they're following.
So at the end of the day, it's really important where you're headed, who you're following.
Let's make sure that we're humble enough to follow this and be Levites and say, "Hey,
you know what?
Our inheritance is in heaven.
It's not here.
I'm just passing through."
Let's close in prayer.
I thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for giving us an opportunity to work for you and
to serve you.
I pray that we take the service of God seriously.
I pray that we would have a love and a fervor and a zeal for the ministers of God, that
we'd love the real men of God, and that we would despise and hate all the fake people
of God and the fake ministers and all the evil satanic witches and wizards and Satanism
that's going on and all the false teachers and false prophets and people leading people
astray.
And I pray that we'd have respect in the prophet that does speak in your name, that does love
your word.
I pray that we would not follow the wrong people, we'd follow the good people which
are speaking your word.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
And for our last song this evening, page 206 in your hymn books, O say but I'm glad, page
206, O say but I'm glad, page 206, O say but I'm glad, let's sing it out on the 1st.