Good morning everyone and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
You can all find your seats.
We will get started.
Thank you all for coming.
We're gonna start this morning's service off
in song number 17.
One, seven, 17.
Song number 17, One Day.
the heaven was filled with his praises.
Sing it out on the front.
Great, sing it everybody.
Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day.
We thank you for everyone that's gathered here.
We thank you for this opportunity to come together
and to learn and to grow as Christians.
We ask, Lord, that you fill Pastor Shelley
with the Holy Spirit and help him to preach
an edifying sermon unto us so we can walk out
better Christians for your honor and glory.
It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, next up we have song number 442.
Song number 442
So we're doing something new
The second song of every service is going to be a repeating song for the whole week so we can learn the songs a little bit better
Song number 442 we gather together is the first of these
Sing it out on the first
for coming to St. Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, just lift your hand nice and high.
One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory
passage. Jude 1, we're getting close to getting this wrapped up. Probably have a grace week, but
if you are trying to memorize the entire chapter, you've got to get it dialed in the next few weeks.
For our verse of the week, kids can get a special ice cream treat on Wednesday nights if they come.
In the inside service and soul winning times also our church stats on the right is a list of several expecting ladies
We have a lot of ladies are expecting in our church. Please be in prayer for them upcoming events
This week is gonna be our Nassau Bahamas missions trip and we're really looking forward to it
Please pray that everything's gonna go smoothly
It looks like, you know, God willing everything goes to plan. We're gonna have a larger group than we had two years ago
So we have more people coming out. It's a big missions trip. It's a big opportunity
Of course anytime you have, you know, big missions trips big opportunities or sometimes big oppositions to you know
So, you know, just pray and just
You know, just go with us in spirit, even if you can't go with us in person.
And I know a lot of people are going to be out and visiting this week in the Bahamas.
So just please pray that the trip goes smoothly and that we do big work.
I don't know if we can catch up to evangelism or ban it, but we're going to try really hard, okay?
So, but, you know, at the end of the day, it's great to have this opportunity to go out there.
It's a huge blessing to visit a nation like this and preach the gospel.
And so, even if you can't make this trip, and I know maybe you have that fear of missing out,
you are going to miss out, but...
allow that to motivate you to maybe, hey, try to go to another trip, you know, in the future or
come with us. There's going to be more missions, trips, and events than you can possibly attend,
but you know, just allow that to kind of, if you're feeling that feeling, just use that to
motivate you to prepare yourself for maybe the next one or be excited to go with us the next time.
But we're really looking forward to it and I'm excited.
If you are a part of our group you should have gotten an email this morning of just some friendly reminders about the trip
just as far as like make sure you're bringing your passport and
clothes of course money for food and things like that so just if you
Check your email. Just look out for that email. If you have any questions or whatever, please you can text me email me or
Evangus fur is also helping with this trip is and so we're gonna be doing our
best, but really looking forward to having a great trip.
Pastor Bruce Mehe is going to come preach for us October 19th.
The fall swap is October 26th.
We have a Texas chili cookoff October 31st.
Faith Award Baptist Church is going
to have a missions conference November 5th through the 9th.
I was invited to preach that Thursday, which I believe is
the 6th.
So I'm going to be out there on the 6th.
I'll still be here that Wednesday preaching,
but I'll be preaching the next night in Faith Award.
And God willing, it's gonna be about our Bahamas trip
and the works that we were able to accomplish out there
and just encouraging people to consider the Caribbean
and going out into that area to preach the gospel
because honestly, it's gotta be one of the most receptive areas
in the world right now.
And so, you know, we need more hands on deck
and more people going out there.
You know, specifically even the Nassau Island,
I think it's about...
250,000 locals. The island usually has around half a million people at it, typically, just
because there's so much tourism and so many people constantly coming and going, but just
the natives and locals are about 250,000 people alone, so there's a lot of people to reach
just there. There's other islands, Freeport, because I think the Bahamas is actually a
a conglomerate of a lot of islands.
It's just that most people live on about three of them,
Nassau being the most populous.
But there's other areas, you know, Jamaica
and other places that people have been to
that are also receptive.
And so the Caribbean, you know,
I was really skeptical a long time ago.
Someone told me about doing a missions trip to the Bahamas. I said I'm never gonna do that because people are not gonna believe me
They're gonna think like yeah, you're going on a missions trip to the Bahamas
In fact, it's not it's not even a joke that I watched this one guy making a skit like some like old
I have be guy making a skit pretending like he was gonna go on a missions trip to the Bahamas
And I was thinking like we are going on
they actually think it's a joke, they think like it's not serious, and it is serious, you know?
So, you know, we want to take these opportunities as they are, and, you know, I feel like God just
likes us enough to allow us to go to beautiful places and get to preach the gospel, so it's just
a win-win-win. But, you know, missions conference is going to also highlight
other areas and other parts of the world, you know, works that are being done,
places like the Philippines, Mexico, other parts of the world. You know, I've talked about Fiji.
That whole part of the world also seems like there's a lot of doors of opportunity as well.
And that side, plus, you know, Europe is starting to have some revival and some different opportunities
out there. Obviously, Africa is always a receptive option. So
There's a lot of places to go preach the gospel, but this one's really easy for us, so that's like why I like to emphasize it.
I'm also going to be preaching for Pastor Dylan Oz at Anchor Baptist Church, November 23rd.
They're having their one-year anniversary, and so that's going to be exciting to go out there and just celebrate with them.
Please pray for them, and please continue to encourage them.
The Turkey Bowl, November 29th, where we can go and throw the football around.
Ladies Christmas Party, December 5th.
Christmas Caroling, December 8th, Cookie Bake Off, December 21st.
And if you've never done that with us, let me just tell you, it is a fierce competition.
But it's also super awesome. People continually impress us with their cookies,
and so we have some awesome bakers in our church, and so it's honestly a really cool event that we get to host.
I always look forward to it greatly, and so the Cookie Bake Off...
December 21st. Christmas Candlelight Service December 24th and then men's preaching and
pizza December 31st on the back is our prayer list. If you have prayer requests or if you
would like to have us update anything please email us so that way we get things accurate
in there. We have also our monthly newsletter that we get from our evangelists in the Philippines,
And in September, he ended up having, and him and his church and other soul-owners with him, ended up having 600 salvations.
So, praise the Lord again for the great works that are going on out there.
They are just a machine, just a machine, just constantly pumping out big numbers every single month, it feels like, and doing a great work.
They've also had started their more recent church plant, and it's been going pretty well.
He sends me the church stats every day that they have it.
And I think I saw they had like 20 people in service on Sunday morning this morning.
And so that's really good considering, you know, just a brand new church
plant and everything like that.
So just being prayer for their church and what they're doing out there.
You can read the entire newsletter.
I'm not going to read all of it, but.
They say that they have had five thousand three hundred and thirty four salvations for the year, so
They have I think they've may have eclipsed the numbers from last year already. I think that they've already kind of
Eclipse those numbers or at least they're close to so they've been doing a great great job
also
Verdi Baptist Church of Pastor Matthew Stuckey in the Philippines was also mentioned in here because they have like some connections
And they have a lot of soul winners there. They get to go in schools
They mentioned that they had almost a thousand salvations just from one of their events
So just like one of their events going into like the schools and going those areas and preaching the gospel
they were able to get a lot a lot of salvations and
Evangelist or Bannock is still out there able to partner with them and work with them and try to encourage them
And so that's great.
to see, you know, people doing these big works and, you know, it really should fire us up to do
even bigger works, you know, to work harder when we see the success and the results that these
people are accomplishing over there. And it also reminds us of why we're supporting a missionary
in the Philippines, why we're trying to do church planning. I think we even have some people that
have been there for a while that just came visit our church today, ask them about the Philippines,
ask some of our other people that have been there. We've had a lot of people visit and
And I've pretty much heard consistent testimonials about it's a great opportunity to do a lot
of soul winning and get a lot of people saved.
So thank you so much to the people that go out there and support our missionaries, support
our evangelists.
A lot of people give money to our evangelists and we appreciate that too.
So he has a couple prayer requests, just pray for him.
For more soul winners, laborers, good weather.
Please continue to pray for RG's mother and then also she's expecting so she's expecting in November
So that's really soon. Please be in prayer form is RG as well and keep her in your prayers. So that's pretty much it
I guess oh, he says down here that they have a YouTube channel
So I guess he hasn't arrived yet. I don't I don't understand
I don't understand how people have YouTube channels, but it's not something I can do
But that's pretty much it as far as announcements. We'll go ahead and sing our
Psalm of the week so it's in our black special Psalm and hymn binder so we
have our Psalms in there it's Psalm 11 so Psalm 11 sing it out nice and loud
See you now on the first
I'll be the portion of their kind for the righteous Lord.
Love and righteousness is countenance.
Don't behold, don't behold me upright.
Lord, what art my trust?
Great singing, everybody.
Would you please turn your Bibles to Proverbs chapter number 10, Proverbs chapter number
10.
10 the Bible reads, the proverbs of Solomon, a wise son maketh a glad father, but a foolish
son is the heaviness of his mother.
Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivereth from death.
The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish, but he casteth away the substance of the wicked.
He becomeeth poor that dealeth with a slack hand, but the hand of the diligent maketh rich.
He that gathereth in summer is a wise son, but he that sleepeth and harvest is a son that causeth shame.
Blessings are upon the head of the just, but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
The memory of the just is blessed, but the name of the wicked shall rot.
The wise in heart will receive commandments, but a prading fool shall fall.
He that walketh uprightly, walketh surely, but he that perverted his ways shall be known.
He that winketh with the eye, causeeth sorrow, but a prading fool shall fall.
The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life, but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked.
Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all sins.
In the lips of him that hath understanding, wisdom is found,
but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.
Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.
The rich man's wealth is a strong city, the destruction of the poor is their poverty.
The labor of the righteous tendeth to life, the fruit of the wicked to sin.
He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction, but he that refuseth reproof ereth.
He that hideeth hatred with lying lips, and he that uttereth a slander is a fool.
In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin, but he that refraineth his lips is wise.
The tongue of the just is as choice silver, the heart of the wicked is little worth.
The lips of the righteous feed many, but fools die for want of wisdom.
the blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he added no sorrow with it it is as
sport to a fool to do mischief but a man of understanding hath wisdom the fear
of the wicked it shall come upon him but the desire of the righteous shall be
granted as the whirlwind passeth so is the wicked no more but the righteous is
an everlasting foundation
As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes,
so is the slugger to them that send him.
The fear of the Lord prolongeth days,
but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.
The hope of the righteous shall be gladness,
but the expectation of the wicked shall perish.
The way of the Lord is strength to the upright,
but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
The righteous shall never be removed,
but the wicked shall not inhabit the earth.
The mouth of the just bringeth forth wisdom,
but the fro-word tongue shall be cut out.
The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable,
but the mouth of the wicked speaketh fro-wordness."
Let's bow our heads forward to prayer.
Father in heaven, we thank you for this day and for our church.
I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with the Holy Spirit
and bless the sermon that you've laid on his heart
and help us, Lord God, to pay close attention.
to the message this morning and apply it to our lives.
We love you in Jesus' name, I pray, amen.
Amen.
Proverbs chapter 10, look at verse 12,
the Bible says,
Hatred stirreth up stripes,
but love covereth all sins.
Obviously the attitude that we should have
towards people is to love them.
And you know, there's a time and a place
to cover things up and to look the other way
and to not bring things into light.
because you genuinely love this person,
you don't wanna cause problems,
you don't wanna attack them,
you don't wanna hurt them,
you don't wanna harm them.
And really, that's what the Bible describes
as a loving attitude.
Whereas the opposite,
hatred is trying to cause people problems,
trying to strive with people,
trying to cause an issue.
And you have to balance these two thoughts a little bit
because, you know,
while the Bible is saying here,
love, cover, it all sins,
that doesn't mean that that can always be
the course of action.
Because, at the end of the day, once someone crosses a certain line and is just attacking
you so much with so much hatred, it causes the strife.
Because if you always let everything go and you never defended yourself or defended other
people, well then there would never be a strife.
The strife is that there's actually some kind of contention because someone...
crosses lines too much, or goes too hard,
and then it causes that strife.
Whereas the loving person is trying to make it
a situation where you're not gonna have strife,
you're not gonna have conflict,
is trying to let things go and move on.
And what I wanna do is I wanna preach a sermon
this morning on the idea of when people, you love attack.
When people, you love attack.
Now this affects all of us,
and it affects us even if we were not Christian.
In life, there's going to be people that you love, that you like, that you want to be friends with that attack.
that go against you, that cause problems, that separate from you.
This is not a Christian problem, this is a life problem.
We're all going to experience this.
The Bible talks about this in great detail in the New Testament.
Jesus Christ describing all kinds of family drama and family issues
and different separations and people falsely accusing you
and all kinds of different things that are going to happen.
And I think it's important for all of us to try and have the right attitude
when these things happen.
How do we handle them?
How do we, you know, what do we do?
What does it look like?
What happens when someone you love,
someone you care about attacks you, falsely accuses you,
goes against you, is doing things you don't like,
is separating from you, all these different things?
Well, go through to 1 Corinthians chapter 13.
I have four simple points this morning.
Number one, you should just give them grace.
Our default should be to give people grace
and love covers all sins,
and we should try our best
to not make a big deal out of things,
to allow people to even...
you know, smite us on one side of the cheek
and just turn to them the other side also.
You know, that should be our default,
that should be our first response,
that should be how we respond
when someone lies about us,
when someone attacks us,
when someone says something evil,
we should try to extend grace towards this individual.
And of course, the Bible used the word love here
in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, it's a famous chapter.
It doesn't use the word love, but it used the word charity.
But charity, I believe, is true love.
They're the same word.
It's just using a different term here.
It's a synonym.
And when we talk about true love,
it gives, again, these same ideas
of covering things up, of letting things go,
not having to just necessarily reciprocate evil for evil
or hatred for hatred or railing for railing
or lying for lying or whatever.
But giving people grace what is grace unmerited favor things. They don't deserve they don't deserve because the Bible says eye for an eye
That's just that's equal
But what is grace not giving eye for eye turning the other cheek letting things go
That's what grace means. Okay, not reciprocating in an equivalency. What's just giving people exactly what they deserve
That's what justice is. Okay, that's why God is both just and loving because he's just in sending us to hell
but he doesn't give us that justice.
He gives us mercy and grace by allowing us to go to heaven.
But that justice was poured out on his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And so we can see that God is both just and merciful.
And when it comes to us, our default or our desire
or our attempt should always be to give people grace
and not what they deserve.
And the more grace we show towards people,
You know, the more God's gonna show us grace
and be merciful to us.
And we have to understand that we constantly
are transgressing against him,
so therefore we should try to be gracious
towards our brothers and sisters in Christ
and people in this world,
because we want God to be as gracious as he can with us.
Does that mean that there isn't limits?
No, of course there is,
but we're just talking about our default.
We're talking about our initial response,
how we should try to respond
when someone initially attacks us.
First Corinthians chapter 13 verse four says this,
Notice it doesn't say charity suffereth forever,
charity suffereth long.
Meaning that it's not gonna just immediately respond,
it's gonna first give that grace, right?
Then it says, and is kind, charity envyeth not.
Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
doth not behave itself unseemly.
Seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked.
Thinketh no evil.
You know, people that are easily triggered
and easily provoked don't have charity.
They don't have love someone that is you know hard to offend is someone that has a lot of charity and has a lot of love
Someone that's very easy to trigger and very easy to offend does not have love
That's why you know that the left and Democrats don't have love
They consider and say love is love, but you know what they're so easily triggered. They're so easily offended
They take everything personal and they just obfuscate and lie about what you even said and they call you all these names
You know name calling is not loving
You know when they say you're racist and you're misogynistic and you're homophobic and you're just you know, there's all you're a fascist
It's like I tell you what I believe you want to murder me for what I believe and then I'm the fascist, right?
Oh, you're just so evil and just you're a malefactor and, you know, whatever labels
are name-calling they give you, you know, that's not what we should be like.
You know, we shouldn't be going around just name-calling to name-call.
You know, obviously someone lies and we say, hey, you're lying, you're a liar, you know,
that's kind of fitting.
But I don't think it's beneficial and helpful to just start throwing out labels and accusations
that aren't even true, that aren't even real, that's not loving.
If we're going to give someone an insult, it should be accurate.
It should be true.
And when it comes to charity, you know, we should be not easily provoked.
They call us names.
We don't have to reciprocate and call them names.
Back, right?
Says, think it's no evil.
You know, this is a big point.
We shouldn't be assuming the worst of people.
We should always be giving people the benefit of the doubt.
We should try to, we should try to think like, OK, this looks bad,
or I know they did this, but what's the like best?
possible way to interpret the facts like what is what is you know if I was in
their shoes and I did this will be some justifications will be some reasons why
I did this why are they saying these things and trying to say like hey maybe
this is why they're doing it or I can kind of see where they're coming from
even though they may have tack me even though I may have disagree with it I'm
not gonna think evil I'm not gonna insinuate that you're conspiring against
me like King Saul did King Saul's thinking the worst of people whereas we
should think the best of people and try to give them the benefit of it out when
It says, beareth all things, believeth all things,
hopeeth all things, endureeth all things.
So again, you're always hoping for the best.
You're wishing for things to be good.
You're trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.
You're trying to believe them.
You're trying to give them credibility where you can.
This is what charity looks like.
And when it comes to us, when people attack us,
whether this be your mom, your dad, your brother,
your cousin, your sister, your friend at church,
your spouse, your boss, anybody.
that's out there, we should try to, you know, first give them grace and say,
hey, let's not just reciprocate. Let's just kind of give them...
Let's not give them what they deserve. Let's just kind of be kind to them.
Let's reciprocate. Good for evil. This should be our default.
Go to Ecclesiastes chapter number seven. Ecclesiastes chapter number seven.
You know, this should be how we act. When people attack you, this is how you should act. And look.
maybe this is contrary to popular opinion
or what people that don't like me would say,
but I've had so many people attack me in my life
that I did not respond, that I just let it go,
that I don't care about,
and you know, you say, well, I never see that, exactly.
I never heard about that, exactly.
That's the thing, you know, obviously people that are really good at this you never realize that there was even a problem
Look, I'm not I'm not gonna reveal a lot of things
But I'm just saying there are tons of people that I've had serious problems with big issues. I've had to confront them
I've told them that they're wrong. I've done all kinds of things with them and no one in here knows
And no one's gonna know, because there's just no point.
There's just no point in me rubbing people's nose in things
or, you know, going over the top or saying,
this guy attacked me or this guy said something negative
or this guy disappointed me or this guy did wrong
or whatever, and just go around
and just air out all this dirty laundry
and just constantly telling everybody
all the bad things and negative things they've said are done.
You know, that's just not a good attitude.
I've had, you know, just in my family and extended family and all these things.
I've had just countless attacks, lies, false accusations, unbelievable things said about
me.
And, you know, like this is, I've had people tell me that I'm just preaching against family
members by name behind my pulpit all the time.
And I'm like you guys know when am I when am I criticizing or saying negative things about my family members especially by name
It just doesn't happen. Okay. I'm not like that. I don't want to be like that
Even the old I'd be I think I've seen a lot of these pastors
They'll criticize their wife behind the pulpit and I don't like that at all
I think that that's wrong.
I don't want to give shade to my wife.
And I mean, it's easy for me because my wife
never makes a mistake, but I'm just saying, like,
it's a joke, folks, okay?
I'm just saying, like, I don't want to sit here
and even pick my wife apart, you know,
for things or pick other people apart, you know,
and I'll bring up things that happen in our church,
but I try to do it in a way sometimes where no one knows.
Maybe the person that I'm talking about knows, okay?
But other people don't know.
because I don't want people to feel uncomfortable
or feel like they are being identified
or isolated in the congregation.
You know, that's just kind of weird.
And when it comes to people attacking us,
you know, sometimes you can just let it go.
And what does the Bible explicitly say here
in Ecclesiastes chapter seven, in verse 21?
Also, take no heed unto all words that are spoken,
lest thou hear thy servant curse thee,
for oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth
that thou thyself likewise hath cursed others."
You know, just because someone said something negative about you
or criticized you or talked trash on you,
you don't even have to do anything about it.
You can literally just do nothing about it.
And boy, I'm telling you, this happens a lot,
you just don't know about it.
Why? Because that's what's the point.
The point is that you don't know about it
because I'm not going to make a big deal about it.
You know, I'll give you one clear example of this.
I was at Pure Words, because, you know, in the years ago when I was going to Pure Words
all the time, preaching every Thursday night for three years straight.
I went down there and I had been friends with Pastor Grayson Fritz for a while.
I had invited him to preach.
He had come a couple of times.
Then he kind of ghosted me and didn't want to preach for me and was backing away and
I didn't know why.
But nevertheless, I wasn't caring.
I was living my life.
One of my church members comes up and he's like, hey, Pastor Fritz has been mentioning
you from the pulpit, like saying negative things about you.
I don't know.
I was just like, okay.
And he's like, are y'all like not friends or whatever?
And I was like, I don't know, I thought we were friends.
Like I asked him to preach, he said he didn't want,
like he backed out on me, but whatever, I mean I'm not,
in my mind, I still think I'm friends with people
unless they've told me otherwise, you know what I mean?
And then I went, I think like, months later someone actually shared the clip with me of what he'd actually said.
It was something like, you know, do I think that Pastor Shelley preached the stupid things?
Yes!
You know, he's like screaming it from the pulpit or whatever.
And, you know, after hearing that I was just like, well that's kind of disappointing because I really like Pastor Fritz.
And I really enjoyed, he came and preached for us at our first FBBF conference and I really liked it.
I thought he was a really cool guy.
I thought that, like, he had an interesting life.
I mean, he was a detective, he had cool stories,
he was fun, easy to talk to.
I only said positive things about him.
I really liked him.
He took a bold stand, you know, against the sodomites,
which I'm just like, man, this guy is awesome.
I just like this guy.
He came in and helped his church
when they were in a bad spot.
And he said that, and I'm just like, okay, whatever.
And I just moved on.
Then like months later, he starts attacking
the whole new IP and other people,
and Pastor Thompson and whatever.
And then finally, I was just like, okay,
now I'm gonna say something.
But again,
I didn't I didn't hear like hey he's saying negative things about you and then go fish him out and try to figure out
What it was I just kind of didn't care and then when I heard it
I still didn't do anything about it because what should our default be mercy grace
Not caring not taking heed to every single word that's spoken to you and look that is one example
I'm telling you this happens all the time. This isn't like a one-off scenario or case
This is just one clear example of this particular situation happening
And look, I wouldn't even be surprised
that people that are still my friends or like me
have occasionally said something negative about me
or whatever.
And you know what?
I don't care.
And you know what?
If someone came up to me and was like,
hey, one time I heard one of your friends
say something a little negative about you,
I'd just be like, why are you telling me this?
Are you just trying to cause problems?
Are you trying to sow strife?
Because hatred stirs up strice.
But love covereth all sins, is what the Bible says.
So I'm just not interested in just hearing
every little negative thing or every criticism.
And frankly speaking, they might even just be right.
Have you ever thought about that?
Maybe sometimes people attack you just because
you did something wrong.
Or you're not perfect.
Or they have a difference of opinion than you.
And you know what?
We should just allow people to have opinions.
And even when I think someone's wrong, I could be wrong.
Okay?
So it's like, why do I have to get so sensitive about every single little thing, and every
little criticism, and every little attack, and everything?
You know, that's not the kind of life I want to live.
And you know, praise God that He's not holding me accountable for every word I've said, every
sin that I've ever committed, every time I screw up, every time I cause a problem.
You know, praise God He's really gracious towards me.
I do not deserve the life that I have or the grace that I've been given by God.
And you know what? I need to constantly remind myself of the grace he's giving me so that I give other people grace.
And maybe some people are just not constantly being reminded of how much grace God's giving them
because you know what? We need to be reminded of that so that we start extending more grace to other people.
Because of the sins that I've committed against God, it's way worse than just occasionally saying something like,
It's like, get over yourself.
You know, people are just so wound up tight
and can't allow someone to give them a negative criticism
or say something negative about them every once in a while.
You know, what the Bible says is here,
hey, don't take heed to every single thing
because you too sometimes talk trash.
You too have sometimes criticized people.
You too have gossiped every once in a while.
You too have done something that wasn't right.
And you know what?
We should just let each other live things down
and we don't have to be a gossip to say everything.
Now look sometimes it crosses a threshold sometimes it crosses a point where it's like hey
This has to be dealt with hey
This was pretty offensive and look there's been plenty of times where people have criticized me has said things
And I did have to confront them or I did bring things up or I did say hey
You can't say this or hey, I don't want to deal with this and I'll just be honest
Because I'm pastor I sometimes confront more issues than I would like to personally like me as a person like
When people criticize me or say things about me and my family,
I would normally just be like, who cares, let it go,
let's not deal with it.
Because I'm the pastor and I don't think it's right
for people to criticize or attack the pastor,
sometimes I force people to either apologize
or deal with issues, just because it's not right
to criticize the pastor, especially if it's an extreme way
or it's really inappropriate or something,
or multiple people know about it or it's kind of public.
It's like, yeah, hey, we're gonna have to deal with this,
not because I really care personally,
but just because we need to just kind of resolve this.
And people that are good just apologize
way move on and it doesn't matter and the people that are bad usually start piling on you know
then they start saying all kinds of horrible things about you and whatever and it's just like okay
well obviously you had a problem and we need to just separate right go to Proverbs 17 just go back
a little bit Proverbs 7 to 17 point number one is this when people you love attack though what
If you actually love somebody, you're going to cover things, you're going to try to, you know, do good under them, you're going to try and help them out.
Obviously, you know, I'm emphasizing this people you love.
I mean, if you really love people, if you really like this person, you wouldn't just be on a hair trigger to call them out on every little thing, okay?
And that's what we should try to do. That should be our default.
I'm also preaching these things as what you should do.
I'm not saying I'm perfect in this area.
I'm not saying that I haven't messed up.
I'm not saying that I've always extended grace
when I should.
I was giving an example of when I did,
but I'm not saying that I always have,
but I am saying I think that's what's right.
So if there's been times where I haven't done this,
I'm sorry, I should have given more grace probably,
but at the end of the day, this is what we should do.
Okay, and we probably all have at times not given as much grace as we should have or handle things correctly
Proverbs 17 look at verse 9
He that covered the transgression seeketh love, but he that repeated the matter separated very friends
You know you have to be careful why are people revealing information is that is the point to help people out of love or is it to just cause problems?
And you kind of notice that sometimes people are talking about things, not because they
love the person, but because they want to shame them, make them look bad, rub their
nose in things, talk bad about them, you know, like, oh, you know, pray for so and so they're
going through a divorce.
And everybody's like, I didn't know that, I didn't know that, I didn't know that.
And it's like, you know, well, that wasn't really trying to help, was it?
And it's under this guy's of praying for them, you know, pray for them, you know, pray for this guy
You know, he's just an idiot and a loser and a weirdo
And you know, especially when people they ask you like hey pray for this person for a situation or a thing
They can't change like pray for this person. They have a really ugly face
It's like, well, and I know this is a hyperbole.
I'm just saying like, don't give these prayer requests
of something that somebody can't even actually change
about themselves or whatever.
That's not sincere.
You know, we pray for people out of sincerity
and you know, sometimes people are just opening up problems
or opening up issues just to cause issues
and we should be careful of that.
Chapter 16 verse 32 says this.
He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty and he that ruled the spirit than he that take of the city
You know, we should also be slow to anger and again when you're defaulting to mercy grace charity
That's gonna help you to be more slow to anger
We should take our time to get upset or to deal with things more harshly than
You know then right at the very beginning go good. Leviticus 19. Go to that is 19 out
I'm not saying that when I give these points,
because that's point one, point one, give them grace.
Point two is that we need to sometimes correct them though.
And I'm not even saying that you can't do
both of these simultaneously.
Sometimes it could be that you give them grace for a while and then you correct them.
Sometimes it could be you give them grace in the sense that you're not going to reciprocate
or you're not going to hold them more accountable than they need to, but you're still going
to give them a correction.
You may still tell them, hey, this was wrong, you shouldn't have done this, but I'm not
going to hold it against you.
I'm not going to treat you differently.
I'm even going to turn you to the cheek.
You just shouldn't have slapped me.
Right?
So you can do both simultaneously.
Don't hear me wrong and think like you can't do both of these simultaneously.
Sometimes you don't even need to correct them, though.
You know, the first point, pure grace would be not even necessarily offering the correction.
It could just be like you're just totally letting it go, not dealing with it.
You could still give grace though and correct them simultaneously.
And the Bible tells us that we should correct people.
Leviticus 19, look at verse 17.
Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart.
Thou shalt anyways rebuke thy neighbor and not suffer sin upon it.
Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people.
But thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
I am the Lord.
So again, this great commandment by the Lord Jesus Christ that
You know, liberals love to quote, love thy neighbors thyself,
is actually in context of actually telling people they're wrong
and telling them they're sinning.
Actually rebuking them and trying to correct them
and not suffering sin upon them,
not just allowing them to do things that are bad.
And when people you love attack you,
many times it's important to tell them that they're wrong.
Say, hey, you shouldn't say that.
You shouldn't do this.
You shouldn't have gone there.
You shouldn't have brought this up.
You shouldn't have gossiped.
You shouldn't have stole from me.
You shouldn't have, you know, ripped me off.
You should, whatever it is.
You know, you shouldn't say these things.
You know, I've had plenty of uncomfortable conversations with people that are very close to me.
As soon as I heard it, hey, they said all this stuff about you.
I said, hey, well I'm going to confront them.
I'm not saying I'm going to treat them differently.
I'm not saying they don't love them.
You know what?
I'm going to tell them that it's clear.
You shouldn't have said this about me because it's not true.
You shouldn't have said, you shouldn't go around having this attitude about me
because it's not true.
People thinking that I'm just really negative towards them.
There was somebody, you know, extended family
that thought that I was just really negative towards them
and I wanted to make it a bunch of it clear.
I've never been negative towards you.
I don't talk trash about you to my family or to my kids
doing anything like you're just dreaming up that I'm just at home just criticizing you 24-7 or
something and it's never even happened once okay and it's not right for you to go around and act
like I'm just over here constantly criticizing you when I'm not doing it and I wouldn't do it
You know, we shouldn't be going around just trashing our parents and trashing our family
and trashing our brothers and trashing our cousins and trashing those that are close
to us.
You know, we should have some love and some grace and have some character and actually,
you know, not bring up these kind of problems.
And you have a problem with people, just tell them and try your best to just keep it between
y'all.
That should be the goal if you can.
Go to Luke chapter 17, go to Luke chapter number 17.
I believe that we have to have some discretion when it comes to forgiveness.
I think the Bible is clear on this.
Some issues, you're going to be able to just let it go without even bringing it up.
Some issues, just literally never bring it up.
Some issues, you have to address, but as soon as you address it, whether they repent or not,
you just still let it go anyways because it's still not big enough for you to deal with.
then there's going to be issues where you have to bring it up
and they have to get it right for you to like restore fellowship.
And then there's going to be some issues that you're never going to forgive, period, okay?
I believe all four of these categories exist in the Bible, okay?
Just like, you know, pedophilia is not a forgivable offense for me, okay?
Being a sodomite is not a forgivable offense, okay?
Damning souls to hell is not a forgivable offense for me.
There are things, you know, taking the mark of the beast is not a forgivable offense to God?
blaspheming the Holy Ghost is not a forgivable offense to God.
There are lines that you can cross and that are just too bad
and you just say, hey, I'm not going to forgive this.
You know, Pastor McMurtry got up and said
that we should be like Erica Kirk
and just forgive this like quote,
sodomite serial killer of Charlie Kirk or something.
And I'm just thinking like, what in the world?
And look.
I understand, like I want to make it clear, I understand that there's some weird stuff
going on with all that, and I understand some people are skeptical of who actually shot
him, but I'm just in this context of actually believing that's the shooter and believing
that was what happened, that some sodomite shot and killed Charlie Kirk and then just
deciding to automatically forgive him, as somehow biblical is wrong.
Okay, it's wrong on so many levels, okay, and that is not something the Bible teaches.
And I think it's harmful to the victims, to the actual victims, because you know what?
They may get up and in a public speech say, I forgive them, but they didn't forgive them
because it's like almost impossible to do it.
It's so against their natural affections and their natural, and it's going to mess them
Oh man I said I forgive them but I really don't still and they struggle with it every day
and then they feel all this conflict and it's like bro you don't have to forgive it.
And you say oh well then how are we going to get this person to you know let go of their hatred
and let go of this pain and let go of these issues. You put the faggot to death.
And then they have closure.
The closure is putting a bullet in his head,
not telling her, hey, Erica,
you need to forgive this faggot.
No, you put him to death and then you can let it go, okay?
And it's a shame that we have pastors in our country
saying, yeah, let's forgive him or whatever.
No, let's put faggots to death.
You know, we need some men in this country
to actually preach what the Bible says on topics.
And I don't like this. I'm uncomfortable. Well, the sermon just started, all right
Be uncomfortable, but let me tell you something. I'm not gonna forgive a faggot that murders my spouse
He can go to hell. All right, and hopefully as soon as possible
Now, obviously, I don't believe in vigilante-ism.
I think the government should do it.
But he should have a speedy trial,
and if convicted, if we actually have all the evidence,
if it actually doesn't look like, you know,
the FBI wrote all those text messages,
then, hey, let's convict and, you know, do what's right.
I think that guy should get a fair trial.
I think we should investigate all the different things that happen.
Make sure the gun actually matches and the bullets actually match and we actually have
video camera footage of him that doesn't look grainy from hundreds of yards away that
seems suspicious, okay?
I think we should have better evidence than that and make sure that we're convicting the
right person, okay?
And even if it's your beloved Israel, then, you know, let's convict.
And I know people are like, it's so obvious.
I don't know. I don't really care.
It's not really my realm of authority.
But what I do know is this, I'm not going to forgive the killer no matter who it was.
Now, if it was somebody that's not a fag and they genuinely repented,
I think that you would potentially be obligated to forgive them.
But that guy's on the other side of the aisle, okay?
What does the Bible actually say in Leviticus 17, verse 3?
It says, Take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if he repent, forgive him.
Why would this verse even exist if you just automatically forgive some sodomite that killed your spouse with no repentance?
The whole point of this verse is that you don't forgive people until they repent.
Okay, and again, what what does the forgiveness mean here?
The forgiveness means here that you're not going to restore fellowship that you're not going to have the same
Relationship with them that things are going to be different until they get it right
That's what the forgiveness means here not a meaningless platitude is saying I forgive
That's meaningless and you know it's really meaningless for someone like Erica Kirk to say I forgive this guy
That she's never gonna see never gonna hang out with have no relationship with well
Then it's again
It's still kind of meaningless to say that because we all know her emotional state is not gonna feel good towards this guy and
She needs resolution through proper justice
Okay, and again if someone were to do something so egregious as to murder a loved one
And they weren't a reprobate and they genuinely said sorry and were genuinely remorseful
I think you could forgive that person
I mean, God forgives murderers, God forgives people that have done that kind of an evil,
but at the end of the day, they would have to repent and they should still be put to
death.
Murderers should be put to death.
Okay, especially in first degree, and I understand there's varying degrees
I'm talking about what the Bible talks about first to remurder should be put the death. That's crystal clear
You know there should be rare rare exceptions to something like that, and it should be that the rule is they're put the death
Okay, obviously, I think judges should always have the capability of mercy, but it should be for really good reasons
not just, you know, willy-nilly,
not just because of the same skin color or something.
That's ridiculous.
Go to Matthew chapter 18.
So point one is this, when people you love attack you,
you give them grace.
Point number two is when they attack you,
you can correct them.
You should correct them.
Hey, if your brother trespasses against you,
rebuke him.
And if he repent, then forgive him.
And the Bible says, you know, how many times?
Endless.
That's the point.
Jesus saying seven times seventy, he's not saying four hundred and ninety,
he's using it as kind of a metaphor or a euphemism for the idea of doing it always.
Even it happened seven times in a day.
You just, hey, if they're genuinely sorry, we always have to just kind of let it go and move on.
But you know what, many times we have to correct them.
We have to say, hey, you're wrong, you did wrong, you need to repent, you're in the wrong.
Here's the third point though is when people you love attack you sometimes you have to defend in truth
Sometimes you have to defend in truth now in Matthew chapter number 18. It brings up kind of this
Situation where someone's offended you or trespassed against you and you have to confront them on these Matthew 18 verse 50
Moreover thy brother shall trespass against thee go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone if he shall hear
The adults gain thy brother notice point one again trying to keep it between y'all then it says this
But, if you will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word may be established.
And if ye shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church, but if ye neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican.
Look, you could love your brother in Christ, you could love somebody in church, but they trespass against you, and they won't get it right, and eventually you have to do a church discipline.
And at the end of the day, you're choosing to defend the people in the church against the person that's the transgressor.
And who am I choosing to defend?
It's not the person I like.
It's not the person that gives more money to church.
It's not the person that is the same skin color as me.
No, it's the person that was right.
You defend in truth we identify this one's wrong. This one's right
We all agree you have to repent you have to get it right and then we're defending hook
We're defending the other person in truth. We're not deciding who to defend
Based on who we like we're deciding who to defend based on what's right and what's true
And again, this is really important.
When people love you, attack, you have to defend in truth.
And look, sometimes people are not just attacking you,
they're attacking your family, they're attacking your wife,
they're attacking your kids, they're attacking your church,
they're attacking other people, and you have this conflict.
Who do I side with?
Do I side with this person, or with these group of people,
or this side, or that side, how do I decide?
Truth, truth is who you're gonna defend.
You're gonna defend greater, small,
You know, rich or poor, based on truth.
You're going to hate covetousness and you're going to decide things based on truth.
Not what's convenient, not what helps you out the most, what's truth.
Let's take it to this example.
What if it's a pastor versus my church members?
Well, you know what? I'm not loyal to you more than I am to my friend. You know, I'm loyal to the truth
So my pastor friends, right? I'm gonna side with my pastor friend against the church
Or if my church is right then I'm gonna defend them over as pastor because it doesn't really matter
About positions how it affects me what matters is what's right
What's matters is truth and defending people in truth, you know first Corinthians five church discipline
We defend people in truth
Go over to Matthew 10, you know the Bible says that the father should not be put to death for the children
Nor the children be put to death for the fathers, but every man shall be put to death for his own sin
What happens when you have a conflict between wife and child?
Now here's the thing I
Just as a as a human try my best to always side with leadership and I always side with especially downstream leadership
So, let's say I believed genuinely that my wife was in the wrong against my children.
I would still just side with her in public and in private, correct her, because I don't
want to undermine her authority, okay, and I want to be careful to be unified with her.
Obviously, you know, sometimes we can correct.
If it was a big enough deal, we might have to talk in private
and say, hey, we're gonna have to dress this with the kids
and say, hey, we're changing, you know, this was wrong,
we apologize and whatever and fix the issue.
But you know what, I want a default to side with authority.
But in general, I still need to defend people in truth.
And let me tell you something, I also needed to defend
my wife against my children.
And vice versa, brothers, sisters, cousins, whoever it is.
And look, you know, we don't.
Hold other people responsible though for other people since if my child does something wrong. I'm not gonna blame my wife
If my wife does something wrong, I'm not gonna blame the kids
You know, we don't blame someone else just because of their proximity to the person,
because of their relationship.
If one spouse does something, I'm just going to automatically blame the other spouse.
And, you know, I think because we emphasize that everything rises and falls on leadership
and the importance of leadership, sometimes men get blamed for the bad actions of their
wife and that's not fair either.
Sometimes wives get blamed for the bad actions of their husbands and that's not fair.
You know, everybody should be judged according to their own sin and their own issues
and people should not, you know, skate-goat personal responsibility.
And let me tell you something children, you are responsible for your actions.
You're responsible for taking your own Bible to church
and you reading it and you getting saved and you getting baptized
and you paying attention in the sermon. Hey, if your brothers and sisters are going to pay attention,
It's nuts to them, you pay attention, you read the Bible, you memorize the verses,
you know everyone is responsible for their own actions.
And at the same time, we need to make sure that we're defending people in truth
and we need to be taking personal responsibility for our own actions.
And we have to understand that in life, when you serve God,
you will have conflicts even within family.
There's going to be people that you love that attack.
Look at Matthew chapter number 10, look at verse 34.
Think not that I'm kind of sinned peace on earth. I came not to sin peace but a sword
For I'm come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foes
Shelby they have his own household. What does the Bible say? The Bible is like expect to be family drama and conflicts
You know, it's weird when people are confused that family conflicts exist
Look if you serve God family conflict will exist and look
I am not a person that's trying to cause family drama.
I am not trying to cause issues with my family.
I am not trying to attack my family.
I'm not trying to go against my family.
I'm not trying to separate from my family.
But let me tell you something.
They'll do it to you all day long
when you try to serve God.
They'll lie about you, attack you, separate from you,
do whatever, and it happens.
And these are people that you love.
What happens when people that you love attack?
Well, number one, I give them grace.
Number two, I correct them.
And number three, I defend those that are being attacked in truth.
If my wife's being attacked by someone else in my family, I'm going to defend her in truth.
If we are attacking people, I'm gonna defend them in truth
and say, hey, we were wrong or I was wrong or whatever.
You know, we should always defend those who are right.
It doesn't matter how, who the dynamics are,
mom, dad, children, whatever.
We defend those that are right
and we should only care what the Bible says
and who we're going to defend.
And you have to understand,
there's gonna be times when there's conflicts
between parents and kids and kids and parents and wives
and all this stuff.
And it's like, who am I gonna side with?
Whoever is right.
Obviously, in many cases, we already know who's right
because there's authority structure,
and when things are not crossing biblical boundaries,
authority's always right.
We should just side with authority,
and just do what authority is saying.
Does that mean that authority can't make mistakes? Of course it can, and if it crosses a biblical boundary, then we say,
sorry, we got to obey the higher power, but at the end of the day, if you really think about it,
you're always supposed to obey authority because at the highest point is God, and he's always right, and the Bible's always right,
so you're always obeying authority because we always side with authority.
Now, when lower authorities get it wrong, yeah, we side with the higher authority, but at the end of the day, authority is right.
We like authority, we like the people that are in charge,
we should love those people that are in charge,
and we should give them the benefit of the doubt
at the end of the day.
You know, you shouldn't be surprised, though,
when you see men of God and people
that are serving God fiercely
to have opposition from all angles,
from their wife, from their kids, from whatever.
It's gonna happen.
I mean, show me stories in the Bible where it's not happening.
I mean, it's virtually...
95% of the men of God have serious family drama issues and almost all of them have kid issues.
You know, it's just the Bible.
You know, I've already preached this ad nauseam, but I'll mention it again.
You know, Noah is pretty much the greatest guy.
He gets off the ark, he's definitely the greatest guy at that point.
I mean, there's only eight people, alright?
I mean, he's in the top ten for sure, you know?
He has three kids and he has three, you know, their siblings. Their siblings are really close in age
They're only like a one or two years apart same parents same household same arc
There's not a lot of people to hang out with and ham is just wicked as hell. How do you explain that?
It's because ham is wicked as hell. It's that simple
How do you explain Cain killing Abel he's wicked I mean it's just it's that simple
It's that easy, it's consistent, and look, it's not just one guy, it's just the whole Bible.
And of course, Ham, he's not just wicked, he's evil as hell.
He does this weird, perverted thing to his dad, some disgusting, embarrassing thing to his dad.
It's super shameful, and then he tells everybody about it, and he puts it out online, and he posts it online,
so that he can just shame his dad, and you know what, Ham is wicked as hell.
And what does Noah do as soon as he finds out,
curse and becanon, that's what he says,
that's how he responds.
He doesn't say, man, I screwed up as a dad.
Man, you know, I missed that T-Ball game,
so then Ham had to, you know, do this weird molesting
garbage trash to me or whatever.
And it's like, look, I think you can blame parents
for kids' actions.
Okay, don't hear me wrong.
Look, if a dad is taking his kid to the bar and drinking alcohol with him and his son becomes an alcoholic,
we should say, hey, bro, it seems like you're having a bad influence on your child.
Hey, if you're taking your kid to the parlor and telling him to get a tattoo and he's getting tattoos,
he's like, hey, bro, you seem like you're a little bit responsible for your kid's bad actions here.
Okay, but when you're telling your kid to never drink and never get tattoos and you're taking them to church
And you're reading them the Bible and they've out become a drunk and get tattoos. It's their problem because they're wicked
It's stupid. It's stupid to think otherwise
And look as parents you're never gonna be perfect
You're never gonna be right
But it's not right to hold parents feet to the fire for things that they're not teaching their kids that they themselves are not guilty of
And that they're not teaching anyone
That's ridiculous.
I mean, you're now a Calvinist.
You know what Calvinists do?
They accuse all the evil in the world of God.
They say, oh, well, this guy raped because of God's will.
God's allowing them to do that kind of stuff.
And they attribute all this evil into God
and make God the author of evil.
Whereas God didn't want us to ever sin or ever do wrong,
and it's wrong for us to attribute our evil into God.
Just like it's wrong to attribute a child's evil under their parents or a parent's evil under their kids or vice versa
Or all around or spouse to spouse or brother to brother or church to church or pastor to congregation or congregation to pastor
Look, we should allow people to stand on their own feet and take responsibility for their own actions
and
Anything otherwise is heresy Calvinism. It's trash and I don't want anything to do with it
People need to take accountability for themselves and we need to defend people in truth
And we should realize that there's gonna be family conflicts, and you know what?
I'm not gonna sit here and blame other people. I'm gonna blame the person that's guilty
Just like God will you know the Bible says this a prophet is not without honor saving his own country in his own house
Oh, why do your kids not like you pastor?
Maybe it's because the Bible explicitly says that they're not gonna have honor in their house. I mean shit
Should we be shocked by this verse?
Look familiarity breeds contempt folks
You know at some point you might have liked me a lot more in the past
But after a while you're just kind of like yeah, it's long sermons or whatever. It's Pastor Shelley
But boy, I'll tell you you know I run into people in foreign countries or people that don't go to a church and they're excited
They're like this is cool. You know, I get to talk to Pastor Shelley. Y'all are just like I don't want to talk to him
whatever
Gonna Proverbs 19. It's just Pastor Shelley who cares
He doesn't like, you know, my food preferences or whatever.
Well, sorry you're wrong, okay?
You know?
Proverbs 19, verse 26, you know, there's a such thing as bad kids, I don't know if you know this, it exists.
Proverbs 19 verse 26 he that wasteeth his father and chases the way his mother is a son that causes shame and bring his approach
Who's chasing who here?
The son's chasing the mom. So you know what?
This is important guys
if your son is attacking your wife and
Going against your wife's instructions. Don't dare blame that woman
Don't get don't get in her face and treat her negatively if your kids end up becoming bad. You better not blame your wife
If she's teaching them what's right,
if she's going to church, if she's setting a good example,
and some of her kids turn out bad,
you better blame that kid
and not give that mom more grief
than she's gonna already have, and dad.
You know what?
Let's stop shaming people for things
that are just not real.
You know, modern psychology,
isn't it just the classic proverb of modern psychology
that they sit on the couch and go like,
tell me about your childhood?
And it's like, oh mom and dad, they didn't come to my birthday party and they didn't say love me enough
and they didn't, you know, get me my shoes when I was seven or whatever.
And it's just like, what a whiny little brat.
What a whiny little brat.
And you know what, psychology is just really just psycho.
If you ask me, I don't want anything to do with it.
I'm not into, you know, Sigmund Freud, the Jew.
If you want worldly philosophies, you know, this isn't the church for you.
Proverbs 18 verse 5, it is not good to accept the person of the wicked to overthrow the
righteous in judgment.
We should never side with the wicked, the one that's wrong.
Always side with who's right.
Don't accept the person of the wicked.
Yeah, but it's this person.
Yeah, but they're close to me.
Yeah, but I...
It doesn't matter.
Oh, but this person goes to my church, or this person's close to me.
I don't care if it's your Siamese twin, don't accept the person of the wicked.
Go to Job 4.
I don't have it for sake of time.
I would love to explain this more.
But in Deuteronomy 21, you know, the Bible says
that if you have a stubborn or rebellious son,
that he's supposed to be put to death.
And, you know, if the parents just say,
hey, our child is stubborn or rebellious,
then it's just like, done.
The whole town kills him.
And then it says that you're supposed to put evil away
from among you, because it was just understood
anybody that's going against their parents is just evil.
It was the law of the land and in fact if they struck or if they cursed or smite their parents
There's no even like trial or it's just like okay done kill him
There was no like let's figure it out
I mean imagine your child going online making a public video against you and calling you an MF her
You just you just come and show that video and it'd be like did you say this yes death?
I wouldn't I wouldn't even be like did you did you threaten to tear his lizard in half one day on a camping trip?
Abuse abuse
Okay, if that's the biggest story of abuse you're a joke of a person
You're a joke of a person. Okay look in America
In 1600s, if you're a juvenile, if you're a child, and you commit crimes,
you were put in the House of Corrections.
In 2025 America, if you're a juvenile and you commit crimes, you're going to be put in juvenile detention.
Kids, if you steal, the cops will come and take you out of your house and put you in jail.
I don't know exactly all the ages and all the cutoffs and states is different and the crimes is different, but boy
You can be 10 11 12 13 you steal money you commit crimes
You can be put in jail. You can be taken out of your parents arms and put in juvenile detention. I
Knew kids. Hey, they shot people with a BB gun thinking it was a joke put in jail
You don't do stupid things and boy if the government if America is gonna hold 10 11 12-year-olds responsible
We should too
And we should realize, hey, by the time of 16, according to the law in America, in the colonial days,
and even beyond the ratification of the Constitution, kids at 16 years old
that would smite or curse the parents, would just put to death.
And the whole society agreed and understood these things.
Why? Because we hold people accountable and we defend people in truth.
I'm defending the mom and the dad in truth.
And I'm defending them from their brothers and sisters getting corrupted by this bad example.
and by other people being caught by this bad example.
And by society at large, being harmed by this wicked individual
that doesn't respect authority and will never obey authority
and will not take correction.
I don't want that person's society.
I'm going to defend society from them
and I'm going to love society and truth
and side against this child and put him to death.
And I'm not going to blame the parents.
I'm not going to blame whatever.
The Bible doesn't put any blame on them.
It's already embarrassing enough, it's already shameful enough,
you just cited the parent and say sorry it happened to you,
sorry for your loss of investment, let's move on.
That's just reality.
But you know Job's friends can't get over the fact that Job could possibly be innocent
when anything negative happens to him.
And you know there's a lot of people that if they had a bad kid,
everyone would just shame them forever.
Everyone just think they're a bad person forever.
And you know what? That's not right.
There are innocent parents out there that have bad kids.
And there are innocent kids that have bad parents.
It just happens. It just exists.
But you know, you could be like Job's friend.
Look at Job 4 verse 7.
Or where were the righteous cut off?
He's saying anytime someone dies, they were always bad.
He's saying anytime something bad happens to somebody, they deserved it, they're getting what they deserve.
You know, this is a wicked attitude, it's an ungodly attitude, it's a demonic satanic attitude.
Sometimes people are having horrible things happen to them and they're innocent.
You know, go to Job 34.
Elihu is this guy, he just cannot believe that Job could possibly be innocent.
And you know what, there's going to be people out there that just think like,
this guy just can't be innocent, he just has to be bad.
There's no way these things could happen to him.
There's no way he could lose all of his kids and all of his money
and have swords all over his body and be innocent.
And what does Job then do?
He falsely accuses Job of all kinds of things.
Oh, you just, you're not loving.
Job 34 look at verse 7 what man is like Job who drinketh up scorning like water?
Oh, this guy's angry all the time like he always is he's always angry
It's like actually this guy's always happy, but whatever
Verse 8 which goeth in company with the workers of iniquity and walketh with wicked men
Oh, all the friends are just wicked. They're just low character individuals. You know what I mean?
For he has said it probably meant nothing that he should delight himself with God saying all this guy doesn't really care about God
He's insincere. He's got bad compadres. They just love to scorn. They're just always attacking their viciously attacking and all his nonsense
Go to Proverbs 11, go to Proverbs 11.
You know what?
Elihu's a nobody and a loser, and God ignores him.
And look, people that just make up and dream up all these things, God just ignores them.
He's like, who cares about this guy?
Don't be Elihu and don't listen to Elihu.
Elihu has no idea what he's talking about.
But you know what?
Elihu's a bound in this country and a bound in this world.
There should be tons of people that just say, Job has to be bad.
Look at his life.
That doesn't tell us who's right or wrong.
It's not using charity for sure and it's not correcting because he's not correcting anything that Job actually did
He's making stuff up and then asking him to correct things that he never did or is not responsible for has no control over
Here's the fourth point is don't fight dirty now for sake of time because I have I want to make a really long application here
So you better buckle up, but
I'm gonna I'm gonna get through this fourth point quickly, but we should not fight dirty when our family attacks us
When our loved ones attacked us when our brothers and sisters are cracked us when people we love attack us
We should not fight dirty. What does that look like? Don't reveal secret conversations. Yeah, don't use secretly recorded videos
Don't use the narrative of haters.
Don't go digging in the trash.
Don't side with every church discipline person.
Look, when every person that's liking your post
and sharing your information
has been kicked out of a church,
is like a proven railer,
a weirdo, a heretic, a freak,
you're on the wrong side!
Who is on the Lord's side?
Look, just get it through your skull.
This has happened for the last decade that every freak and weirdo and satanist is always
on the same side and they're never on the right side.
Why would they start now?
When you see the proven railers and weirdos and freaks agreeing with your posts, delete
it.
Look, if all these freaks and weirdos ever liked one of my posts, I would feel so embarrassed
and ashamed to just delete it.
I'm just going to rattle off a few verses here for you.
Go over to Psalm 1.
Go to Psalm 1, actually.
I told you to Proverbs 11, but it doesn't matter.
It says,
Proverbs 2019,
he that goeth about as the tail bearer reveals secrets,
therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.
Proverbs 16, 27,
an ungodly man diggeth up evil,
and his lips there is a burning fire.
First Timothy 5, 19 says against an elder
received not an accusation,
but for two or three witnesses.
And then Psalm 11 says this,
blessed is the man that walketh not
in the counsel of the ungodly,
nor standeth the way of sinners,
seat of the scornful. Dude, when you're hanging out with bad people and using their arguments
and saying the same thing they are, you should really check yourself before you wreck yourself.
Okay, I'm going to make a really clear application about this, alright?
And I didn't want to do this, but at the end of the day,
I think this is important and I hope you pay attention
because this is what I want you to do.
I don't want you to treat people that you love
inappropriately and I don't want you to think that I do that.
So I want to make it clear how I do handle things
so that you can take application from this
and you can say, okay, that's how I should handle it.
Because there's this perception that people want to put out there that Pastor Shelley just blows up at people and attacks them for no reason
It's just vicious and just whatever attack dog a weasel, whatever you want to call me
But the reason why many people think that is because of course
They don't see all the grace periods and all the grace examples and all the private
Corrections and all the other events that happen. They just see the blow-up video and then they think like oh wow this guy just flies off the handle
So then I think it's important to just make it clear what actually happens and what the process actually looks like so that you can follow similar steps, okay?
So here's the application I'm going to make and, you know, if you paid attention online
at all, you know, I know I have some visitors, some people may not have paid attention, but
I think you can still benefit from this, but if you paid attention online at all, there's
been kind of this big controversy, blow-up, a lot of videos about, you know, what's going
on between me, Pastor Amenes, and obviously Pastor Anderson as well.
I'm not going to really talk about him, I'm just talking about me and Pastor Amenes and
some of the things that have happened between us.
There's a thing, I love Pastor Amenes.
I think Pastor Minnis is awesome.
I think he's done a lot of great work.
I think he's saved Christian.
He's been a great preacher throughout most of his career.
He's helped us greatly.
I still like him even.
I'm not like anti-Pastor Minnis,
but let me say this, he's made a lot of bad decisions
in the last year or so,
and he's caused a lot of harm to me and to our church
and to other people too,
but I'm just focusing on this.
You know, I want to make it clear that some of the videos that I've made,
I'm not trying to like hurt and harm this guy,
but at the end of the day, I'm going through this process that I explained to you.
And I've showed a lot of grace,
and I just want to make it clear because he's trying to say that I'm just like randomly attacking him
or doing it really quickly and stuff,
and that's just not true, okay?
So I just want to make it clear.
And look, he did help us greatly.
And one way specifically, there's more than one way.
But one way specifically, he helped us get some temporary money,
about $100,000 to help purchase this building.
And that was a big blessing, it was a big help when that happened.
And I feel like I'll always be grateful for him for that.
And I'm not gonna stop being grateful.
But that doesn't mean that if he just attacks me forever,
I'm just gonna lay down and take it forever either.
Because sometimes I have to defend people in truth.
Sometimes I have to defend things in truth and
I have to make it clear what's going on.
You know, as a pastor, it's hard for me to sometimes always balance these things because
at the end of the day, I also have a flock that I'm responsible for.
I can't just only care about my feelings, I have to care about other people's feelings
and how it's going to affect other people too.
And when things start affecting other people beyond me, sometimes then I have to go more
public or deal with things in a more public way.
And it's not fun, I don't like it, but if I feel like people are going to be harmed
by making bad decisions from information or lies, then I think it's important to correct
them.
for that purpose. I don't defend myself on everything.
Anybody that actually knows me or how many attacks are actually being hurled every second
would realize I'm not defending myself that much.
But I will defend myself when I feel like it is necessary to help other people.
I also want to make it clear that, hey, when someone does good unto you
and has been a big blessing, you should be very careful and slow to react to that.
Be very careful and very slow.
So, let's just start with a few things.
How do we handle when people that we love attack us? Okay, well...
Number one thing that I want to say is like you shouldn't take everything personal and I already said that
But what are some examples this and some people just take everything personal?
You know past our menace has come and preached for us multiple times. He preached for us in 2023
He came to our FBBF preached for us and look in that sermon specifically
He said things that I don't agree with that. I don't like
You know what I didn't take it as a personal attack
Because I don't care and I moved on and you know how many people I told that to zero because I don't care
Because people can come to my pulpit and say different things or say whatever they believe or do things
I don't really like and I'm just gonna pick them apart you think that our men's preaching the last time we had I grew
Every single thing that happened that night. No, I didn't
You know what am I gonna just pick everybody apart for that? No, because I'm not like that
You know we can just let people be themselves and do their own things and have some freedom and you know
If you're gonna combine my pulpit
I guarantee preaching by steadfast pulpit has got to be the easiest pulp of the preach behind because it feels like the Wild Wild West
You can do whatever you want
I've already laid a long groundwork
I preach too long and I've said everything that you could possibly say so they're just like I I'm good to go
You know, I guarantee it's got to be of a guest pulpit. It's got to be one of the easiest pulpists to preach behind
when it comes to, you know, the rules.
You know, you can kind of just do whatever you want.
As long as it's true, Pastor Shelley's just kind of like,
whatever, even if it's not true
or it's a personal opinion, sometimes it's let it go.
You know, at our men's retreat, Pastor Mejia,
I'm sorry, Pastor, not Pastor Mejia, sorry.
Pastor Amenes said some things that I didn't agree with,
that I didn't like, that I thought were weird.
Okay, especially in our Q and A.
You know, I didn't pick him apart, I didn't do any issue and I didn't take it as a personal attack.
Look, if a preacher gets up and says his own opinion or says things that he's different than me
or preaches doctrine differently or different interpretations, I don't think that's a personal attack.
I think preachers should be able to preach what they believe the Bible says without it being personal all the time.
And that's why I constantly say, hey, if the sermon seems like it's against you, it's because it is.
Because everybody just takes everything as a personal attack and it's stupid.
So then I just say it is a personal attack. So then you just be offended because at the end of the day
It's stupid to think that everything's about you
It's ridiculous and look pastor
Amen as his priest a lot against cussing saying people that cuss are not Christian or not acting like a Christian and anybody that
Customs is in their home is not a Christian and stuff
I could take that as a personal attack if I wanted you know
I said that's his personal belief and he can believe whatever he wants and it's his pulpit
It's not a personal attack. You know what I didn't do I didn't care
I'm just bringing these things up only to say this sometimes when people are attacking you it's not even real you made it up in your mind
it's not real and
Preachers should be able to preach the Bible without it being a personal attack
Every preacher should be able to say whatever they want from the Bible
However, whenever and it's not a personal attack, you know, it's a personal attack when they say your name
That's a personal attack
And 2024
when there's a big drama with the Pastor Anderson thing.
And, you know, again, that was a big issue.
That was a big problem, it was really public.
I think I was pretty much, apart from Pastor Anderson,
obviously himself and his family,
I was pretty much in the limelight,
you know, the most public opinion out there
of what's going on, someone that's trying to deal with it.
And look, I think I made some mistakes.
I think I did things that I hope I can learn from
and mature from and do differently.
You know, obviously, it's like when you play the game Clue,
At first you kind of think it's this one guy with this one weapon and as you keep going through the game you eventually keep changing your mind.
That's not flip-flop being folks, okay?
When you're constantly getting new information and the mysteries are being uncovered as they roll,
sometimes you kind of have to roll the punches, okay?
But people want to make a big deal about that stuff, it's not real.
No matter what though because of that drama
Obviously pastor men is it decided to just not preach for anybody that was his friends anymore, and I heard this with a great vine
So I contacted him and I asked him and it was it was confirmed
He wasn't gonna preach for us. He wasn't a preach for anybody supposedly and not that year
But even the next year and it was canceling all all the scheduled preaching
So he's just separating from us and you know what I want to say is this you know
Some people might look at this relationship that we're having and be afraid like oh man
I only pass I don't leave past the Shelly's friend because of how he's treating this one guy. Well, okay
If you preach things that are completely different or feel like a personal attack just know this I won't take a personal
Here's another thing that I won't do you can separate from me and you can say you're not going to preach for me and cancel me
And I still will consider you my friend and not think anything negatively about it
So I still considered him a friend and I still rooted for him from afar off
and not only this I
Told him because we were talking about planning the red-hot preaching conference. It was interesting. It was already canceled
but we were talking about it and I
He was considering canceling it which I don't know why you would consider canceling something that was already canceled
But he was considering cancelling it and I told him I said why I know this drama is a big deal
Why don't you do this because it was their 10-year
read-out preaching conference anniversary and I said I'm dead serious because he was thinking about canceling for money
And I said why don't you do this still do it only invite your guys that you've ordained that are your friends don't invite me
And I'll pay for it
And it wasn't a vain thing
It was a real statement and I even have messages to prove that I said that that I made that commitment to him that I offered that
even when he said he didn't want anything to do with me.
I didn't want that to happen,
and I thought it would be negative
for the whole movement as a whole,
and I know a lot of people in our church
would love to go there,
so I just said, hey, why don't I do it?
Just pay for it, you have it, don't even invite me.
And it wasn't like me saying he needs to not invite me
because of my sermon, I didn't know that, okay?
I'm just saying like, I was just saying like,
just to cause less drama.
So know this, you could cancel on me,
and I'll still help you, and I'll still encourage you,
and I'll still even pay for your events.
That's what I would do.
Then he canceled Red Hot, came out, even though he didn't take my offer, he didn't want to do it and I said no problem, you can do whatever you want, obviously.
If you don't want to do it, you're, you're prerogative.
But you know what I didn't do?
And I had this temptation, is I could have announced the FBBF conference as soon as he canceled.
But I said that's insensitive, that would be kind of rude.
So you know what, I waited a while to even announce that we were going to have our FBBF conference or when we were going to have it,
just so it wasn't right on the heels of him saying that to make him look bad or cause him problems.
So you could know that, hey, even if you cancel the conferences or do these things, I'll wait and give you grace on that.
Christmas 2024, I wish him a merry Christmas. And let me say something. My communications with him are pretty much just me communicating with him and him just responding.
2025, I was hoping he would change his mind and I constantly was praying for him to change his mind and for him to be friends with us and preach with us anyways.
In March of 2025, I was cheerleading his church
and I was glad he had good Easter attendances
and was texting my friends about how that was a positive thing.
In April of 2025, I messaged him and reached out to him
and told him that I enjoyed his sermon.
I think it was against Joe Jones, and I'm pretty sure if I remember correctly.
I was like, that was a really good sermon.
And I told him I was praying for him and trying to encourage him.
So you can know you can separate from me, have nothing to do with me
and I'll still pray for you and watch your sermons and encourage you where I can.
And May of 2025, he had the Joe's battle, was raging,
and I just messaged him and said,
hey, I'm praying for you and thinking about you.
In June of 2025, he then decides to preach
against the new IFB by name and trashes us
and tries to call us in a derogatory manner
a new IFB fan club, which I'm like,
well, I am a new IFB fan club.
So I was just like, okay,
well, I'll just embrace that name
because it's pretty cool, number one.
But it was true. I am a new Ivy fan club, you know
And he said a lot of derogatory things like we actually reach people and they don't and they're just you know
These little fanboys and whatever and just a bunch of whole trash just trashing me and trashing us
And of course, you know people don't realize this
But when people do these kind of things yeah members of my church are like hey
I don't want to go to church right side of the pastor of men is or I don't like these things
You know it does actually affect me and affect members of my church
Sorry that you didn't know about that I know about it
And you know what, I just prayed that he would just change his mind.
But I also did this, when I first heard about it, I clarified with him, I reached out to
him and I texted him and I said, hey, I heard your sermon, are you actually saying you don't
want to be friends with me?
And he's confirmed yet, not going to fellowship with you, blah, blah, blah, he was being kind
of vague about it.
And then I told him, I told him specifically in that thing I said, you're wrong, what you're
doing is wrong, here's the Bible verses of what you're doing is wrong, you're forsaking
I corrected him.
I told him he was wrong, repeatedly.
I told him that I was personally offended at what he was doing
and what he had said, and how he had trashed us and trashed our church.
And I told him I was going to make a public statement about it.
And my public statement didn't include most of that.
It was a really gracious statement, honestly, in comparison with what I texted him.
Because I was way more gracious.
And I made it clear in my public statement that I still want to be his friend and I still recommend it as church.
Even after he trashed me and trashed the new IVB and just tried to use derogatory terms towards us.
And I gave him credit for the things he did and I made it public how he had helped us with all the money and all the things he had done.
Because I wanted people to not think negatively about Pastor Manez but realize how he had been a great person and a great character in the past.
Why would I say that why would I make it public that he'd given us a hundred thousand dollars if I hated him?
I made that public to for people to actually like him and appreciate him and think positively about it
You know, it's not like he single-handedly helped us or something
You know, he lended us money.
Pastor Anderson gave us a huge amount of money.
Let me say this, he gave us.
He didn't lend us, he gave us a huge amount of money.
We had church members in here give us tens of thousands
of dollars in donations.
We had church members sacrificially giving
and doing all kinds of stuff for us to get this building.
The bank came in a huge way to deliver us
and the people that I got to work with
came in a huge way to deliver us.
But let me make it clear, you know who gave us this building?
God is the one that gave us this building.
and God has been the one delivering us the whole way.
And you know what Mordecai said unto Esther?
He said, hey, if you don't come through,
deliverance is gonna come from somewhere else.
Shortly after this.
After making this statement, I was going to leave it alone, I'm not going to do anything.
I see him making these public videos, not necessarily videos, but I guess public pictures
of him and his old church at Treber's church, and his kids with Treber and all this stuff.
Somebody's preached against, and look, some of those people in that picture are my former church members
that I love greatly.
I don't like seeing their kids going to this church not being warned about all the things that have been done.
And I said, you know what, I'm going to basically go against Treeber and make it clear where I stand,
but I've never preached against Treeber.
But you know what, preached against Treeber, passed from Hea, passed from Anderson, and passed from Minutes.
So I just made a clause video of them preaching against Treeber and put it out there
so that maybe my church members, former church, could see it and be warned about that.
You know I made the video in a very careful way. I did not attack Pastor Minas the video has nothing to do against Pastor Minas
It was against Treber. It's clear and that video is timeless
If that video had been released a year prior to that event everyone at Verity would have said this is an awesome video
And I love what Pastor Minas said
And it's a timeless video, and it's still timeless, and it's still not attacking him. It's attacking Treber
Which I don't like
Okay
When I see my four members going there. Yeah, I was gracious in the way I presented that
I could have actually made negative statements about him or or done things to make it look shade on him
But it was simply a video against Treber and I made it in a positive light
Towards pastor Jimenez
He called us the new IP fan club. I was constantly hoping he would rejoin and
You know, I made a podcast
About I think this is a
I'm trying to remember, yeah, I'm not sure what that statement is.
I did call ourselves the new IP fan club and I did embrace that title and make shirts and
all this kind of stuff, but I was genuinely hoping we would rejoin and think about it.
There's nothing stopping him from rejoining that.
He's the founder.
You know, people can leave their own company or get voted out and we hope they come back.
You know what I mean?
He then made Facebook posts, you know, claiming that I was attacking him and telling people to leave his church.
And I said that I still recommend their church, and I did not endorse any other church in the area, and that it was lying about me.
This was like months ago.
Again, every single one of these things has happened. He never called me, he never texted me, he never gave me any heads up to any of this stuff.
All of this is just me just waking up, or showing up, and people are like, hey, did you know he's like, lying about you, or saying this, and I'm just like, oh, okay.
Throughout this process, after all these events have happened,
then I had preached some sermons about, like,
forsaking friends, some things on servant leadership.
Again, he's been taking these as personal attacks,
but let me make it bundly clear.
There's no way this is a personal attack.
There's so many people that think these sermons are about them.
You know who thinks that forsaking friends is about them?
Jason Robinson.
David Bersens.
Jared Przarski.
Joe Jones.
Paul Wittenberger.
You know, there's people that have marriage problems and other issues that I know they
probably think those sermons were about them, because everybody thinks everything's about
them.
You know what I don't do is I don't just instantly think that everything's about me.
Yeah, did some of those things apply to him, probably, but they applied to a lot of people.
I have a lot of private conversations with people.
I do this thing.
I try to preach in a way.
Sometimes if there's an issue in the church,
I'll just be honest with you.
And I think somebody's gonna feel like
the sermon's painted towards them.
I'll pick someone else to pick on
just so they feel less attacked.
That's how I do it.
And if I can, then I may do that.
So most of the time, when the sermon feels like
it's towards somebody,
it's usually actually towards somebody else,
but I just kind of need to take the heat off.
I also had private conversations with a lot of church members
who had expressed to me concerns with their marriage
or family issues based on preachings from Pastor Jimenez.
Wow.
Because he says they never fight.
And you know what, that's hard for a lot of couples
because we all fight.
Yeah.
I fight.
And I just said, well, maybe some of his advice
isn't necessarily the best just because
he hasn't had to necessarily overcome
some of the issues you're dealing with.
And I think sometimes people can have a false positive from an overly or naturally submissive wife.
Now look, if your wife loves God and is submissive, there's nothing wrong with that.
If you're a great husband, there's nothing wrong with that.
But you could be not a very good husband and your wife could just be naturally submissive
just because she's kind of quiet, shy or timid.
And there's a lot of problems there and they're just not exposed to you and you're not aware of them.
And so you sometimes have to be careful of that kind of stuff.
Some of those things, but I'm not bringing those up publicly.
I'm not trying to shame anybody.
But you know what, I think I have the right as a pastor
to tell people what I actually believe about the Bible
when they come and ask me.
I made an FBVF podcast where we brought up
why did Pastor Jimenez leave the new IFB?
And I made it clear that I didn't know.
But here's the thing,
lots of people were coming up to me all the time.
And they were just like, I think this is why he left,
or I think this was happening.
And it was stuff that I thought was inappropriate,
things they shouldn't say, ideas that I didn't like.
And I just kind of wanted to squash all that,
but just making it public and clear,
hey, he hasn't really given a reason,
and I don't think we should speculate
and have these bad ideas.
That's why I literally said in the podcast,
there is no reason to speculate.
And we shouldn't be dreaming up things
that aren't real that we don't know about.
We should just, the reason why we don't know
is because we just don't know.
And it's not our fault that we don't know, but at the end of the day, we should just
be careful and not just start dreaming up worse things than are real.
I even said this, I really like Red Hot, I really like Pastor Menace, and I even said
he was very professional and I really liked his Red Hot preaching conference.
But this is viciously attacking him, okay?
I've had his church members contact me individually
and say a lot of negative things.
But you know what, as one witness, and you know what I do,
I don't receive an accusation against somebody
based on one witness.
On October 1st, or somewhere near there,
this week, I think it was, or early in this week,
me and Pastor Anderson were talking,
and you know what I said to him,
because him and I were talking about dramas,
and I said, you know, there hasn't been a drama in a while,
and we were saying that, and I said,
I don't think there's gonna be any dramas.
and like the foreseeable future.
That's what I told them.
Not for really having to eat those words, okay?
I'm not sitting over here like on a hair trigger
to nuke people or dramatize things or cause problems.
I'm just, I thought there was gonna be no issues.
Then all of a sudden a video was put out.
Again, I didn't get a call, text or any information.
From Pastor Minis saying that I'm a person of low character.
Okay, no explanation, just again, just low character.
You know what I did about that?
Nothing.
Then I come home and I hear he's preaching a sermon
against me and saying that I'm a weasel.
He says that I destroyed the Red Hot preaching conference
single-handedly.
I am the destroyer of Red Hot, apparently.
Which, again, what's the point of that?
Well, everybody loves Red Hot,
so who wouldn't hate the guy that destroyed Red Hot?
I would. I'm mad at the guy that destroyed Red Hot.
But let me be honest with you, I didn't really destroy Red Hot,
but at the end of the day, like, I'll still wear that badge, right?
You know what I did after that sermon?
I still didn't do anything.
Then I had somebody I really loved that's a good person in our church
telling me they don't want to come to our church anymore because of this.
Am I allowed to respond when people are saying that kind of stuff?
Now praise God, you know, they changed their mind and I don't blame them, I don't think
anything negatively about them, they're a great person, I understood what they were saying.
But it's just like, when you see all this stuff, is it fair?
So you know what I did?
I invited him on a podcast to defend himself and all the statements he made.
It's like, oh, I don't want to be friends with Pastor Shelley
because of how he'll treat people.
You mean if you trash me and you publicly preach against me
and you call me a weasel and all this and other stuff,
and then I say, will you come on a podcast
and defend your statements?
Explain how I'm a weasel.
I mean, I put McMurtry on a podcast with me
and I gave him more than 50% of the time to spew his nonsense.
More than 50% of the time to tell me
that Jesus Christ is in temple zero
floating around in the flood or whatever.
Or he could have left, sorry.
He could have left.
It's like, hey, I brought Pastor Anderson and Ken Hovind
on a show and have them get to discuss whatever.
And plenty of times I sided with Hovind
and said I agree with what he's saying.
You know, I like to confront things head on.
I like everything to be open and honest and transparent.
Show me a pastor that's more honest, more transparent,
more telling you what's going on,
more wearing his heart out on the sleeve.
I would love to see that.
I'd love to see more people confronting every issue
and every drama and everything straight on
and just saying, here I am.
So you know, hey, you can trash me and yell at me
and do whatever, and I'll still invite you on a podcast
and give you a chance to defend yourself.
I'll still give you a path to recovery, which none has been offered to me.
I've already been told that he wants nothing to do with me ever again.
I've never said that towards him.
Yeah, I've corrected false doctrine sometimes in my church,
but it's not just about him, it's about a lot of people.
I didn't name him a single time from my pulpit.
He's publicly lying about me then in another video.
This isn't enough, after I made the podcast, we just watched a sermon and said what we
were going to say.
I could critique the sermon.
He made another video saying that why I'm a weasel and said that basically I told him
privately, which you shouldn't be revealing private conversations, but I wasn't that offended
because what he said wasn't even true.
But he said that I privately told him I was going to fight Pastor Anderson, and I was
going to attack Pastor Anderson.
And I did tell him that, hey, some of my stances had changed about how I personally thought
about his ordination status and things like that.
That was true.
But the other stuff, just like complete lies, exaggeration, not real.
And then I came here and I told y'all that.
I told y'all that I'm going to fight Pastor Anderson and I'm going to attack him.
And it's like, okay, well, what did I say?
I did say that I'm not gonna stop being his friend
and I'm not gonna ban him in his darkest hour
and that I would still potentially preach for him
and vice versa and all these different things.
I mean, like, it's just a nonsense narrative.
It's not real.
And look, I've had church members come to me and say,
hey, I got mad when you said you were gonna break
fellowship with Pastor Anderson
and then you changed your mind.
And I said, when did I say that?
He's like, oh, and that announcements.
And it's like, never happened.
Here's the literal video where I'm saying
I will not break fellowship with him.
But you know, you go listen to the trash can,
you go listen to liars, and low IQ idiots
just lie about people, and then you start getting affected,
and you start thinking like, oh, yeah, I remember
when he said this, that never happened, right?
That's what real gaslighting is.
Yeah, amen.
Yeah, do I agree with everything I said
in those announcements still?
Do I think that I've evolved a little bit?
Sure, but you know what, I preached the whole sermon
about what I evolved on, why I evolved, and what happened.
Go listen to No More Grace For Realers,
and you won't be confused about anything that happened.
It's a long sermon.
I like it still.
But I still didn't get a courtesy call.
He says, oh, I didn't give him a courtesy call or a message.
He's given me zero ever.
And yes, I have texted him.
Yes, I have confronted him.
Yes, I have confirmed the things he said with me.
I did reach out to him multiple times.
And yeah, I think I have a right to defend myself when it's just, I mean, how many times
am I supposed to just take it?
With with no real reason given just saying hey, I'm canceling all preaching. I'm separating
Right he can just separate
then he can I
Mean just out of the blue just preach against the new IV being trashed us for no reason
Then he just makes Facebook posts saying that I'm lying like lying about me and saying that I'm not recommending his church
Or attacking his church never happened
Then he makes a video calling me a low character then he preaches a sermon calling me a weasel then he makes another video
Lying about me at some point am I allowed to respond?
Well in the past he helped you okay great. I'm not against that. I'm for that. I still like you
But, you know, I don't want you to think like, oh, Pastor Shelley just immediately just attacks people, whatever.
No, no, how about all these months, year of just grace time, giving them a bit of the doubt, making video strategically?
I made another video yesterday where I didn't mention him, I just corrected something he said, and it's a timeless video again.
I could have mentioned him, I could have said his name, I still didn't.
Then I made another video saying his name when he was just lying about me repeatedly and trying to just say hey
I'm just doing all these things. I'm a weasel
Because and again, I do believe this if I told pastor Anderson that I support you and
I'm gonna back you and then I called other people and said I'm gonna fight him and attack him and
Then was lying to people and doing these things that is a weasel move. I wouldn't do these it just didn't happen
You know, but is it really a weasel if I told pastors every single thing
That I was gonna say or do is it really a weasel thing that I told my past friends exactly how I feel is it really a weasel
Move to tell all my church exactly how I feel and to preach exactly how I feel or would it be a weasel to conceal how I feel and
Ask people to not put out public statements about what's actually going on and to take months and months and months to actually
Say how you really feel and then randomly just drop bombs saying that you're attacking these people. What's really the weasel move?
But you could believe that, hey, Pastor Shelley is quick to anger or ungrateful or a weasel
or whatever is being mean, but you know what, again, I challenge you to find pastors that
confront things head on more than me, are more open, more public, more transparent.
I would love to see that.
And you know, sometimes people you love attack you, well, hey, I'm going to give them grace
at first, then I'm going to correct them, and then I'm going to offend those that need
to be offended in truth, and you know what, I'm not going to fight dirty.
You can call me a weasel and low character and whatever, but I'm not going to reciprocate evil for evil.
I'm not going to name call and I'm not going to say these things about you.
And let me make another thing really clear.
We should not rail on people that attack us.
I will not tolerate anybody railing on Pastor Jimenez or anybody.
And look, I can't stop people from talking about this.
Everybody wants to talk about it.
But you know you better talk about things in truth and love and try to give grace.
Don't do evil surmising.
Don't speculate.
Don't bring up things that didn't happen.
If you want to talk about things that happened, hey, I think everybody has a right to have
freedom of speech and to discuss things, but let us not rail.
Let us not call names.
Let us not be a church that's going to call pastors faggots and biaches and all this kind
of stuff and go unchecked and unnoticed.
Look, that is not tolerated.
I don't care if it's somebody I dislike a ton.
I don't even dislike pessimists,
but if it's somebody I don't like,
if you're just calling them these inappropriate names,
I'm gonna say, you're gonna have to apologize.
You're gonna have to say, sorry, you can't do that.
And you know what, praise God, we have a great church.
I mean, I don't think our church is like that,
but I don't wanna start.
And there could be a temptation when you see people,
you love to get attacked to kind of get dirty
or kind of, you know, try to get back or avenge yourself.
Don't do it.
Let's give people grace, let's correct them.
Let's defend those that need to be defended in truth and let's not fight dirty
And you know, it's gonna happen. It's gonna keep happening, you know
But hey, I hope that Pastor Menes will just get it right stop lying about me
Repent and we can forgive him and we can move on. I think they're gonna still, you know
Get people saved and do things and look the Northern Kingdom. I'm preaching long, but it's me
The Northern Kingdom of Israel separated from the Southern Kingdom
They're wrong
You know what God still loved the northern kingdom of Israel and God still wanted good for them
God still tried to bless them and God still tried to use them and look
They're not like it's not like churches that have left us or as bad as the northern kingdom of Israel
I'm not saying that but I'm just saying this you know just because someone's not our friend or doesn't like us or trashed us or did
Wrong doesn't mean God can't still bless them and use them and do good under them
And you know we should still pray for their good and anytime Israel's in a conflict God still many times wanted you to help them
Or pray for them or do good under them
Okay, so we should have the right mentality, but does that mean that they were right? No, they're wrong
But God said, you know, when they were going to battle, God said, hey,
let them be, let them go their way, let them be the northern kingdom, don't fight them,
they're your brother and just move on. They're wrong. I'm gonna be with you.
You're gonna be where the blessing of God is. You're gonna be the apple of God's eye.
You're gonna do the great works. You're gonna have the great missions, trips.
You're gonna do all these things. Let them be the northern kingdom and let them do their rebellion.
And you know, the northern kings were afraid that because there was so much blessing,
and Judah, that a lot of people would leave
and come join them, so then they set up idols
to basically keep people away.
And I'm not saying anybody in these churches
said I'm idols, okay, again.
You have to caveat everything these days,
you know what I mean?
But I'm just saying, there could be a temptation
for people to do things that aren't right
in order to keep people
because they're afraid of losing them.
There could be a temptation of people to do things
that are not right
because they're afraid of losing people.
And you know, if you've been to Steadfast long enough,
you know I've not been afraid to lose people.
And many times I've tried to encourage it.
Because at the end of the day,
I'm trying to keep this church pure and clean
and do what's right, and I want God's blessing.
I would rather have God's blessing with a little bit
than have a lot and God not be pleased with us.
And God be mad at us or going in the wrong direction
or having issues.
You know, church size doesn't actually matter to me.
In fact, if we shrunk, it would be so much of a relief
because I don't have to carry about the building and parking
and all those other issues, you know?
I don't want to not grow. I'm not saying that I'm against growing, but I'm not so for-growing that it matters.
Let let God's will be done.
And at the end of the day, you have to realize God is going to prove who's right every time.
The blessing of God will be clear and it'll be evident. And look, we went through this drama over a year ago.
Have you not seen God continue to bless our church since then?
Like, wouldn't you at some point just recognize, hey, I think somebody's budding here and
I think somebody's a bummer here.
You know who's the bummer who's the people that are quitting and losing and failing and preaching weird stuff and backtracking and
Deconstructing and just nuking themselves and who are the people that are getting more people saved than they've ever done before
Growing preaching the hottest sermons ever. They destroy conferences even you know what I mean
And I mean God forbid people would work out a little more and take a few more showers. You know what I mean
I mean boy that's gonna really ruin America
If people got, you know, so offended they lost a little few, a few extra pounds and took a few extra showers.
I mean, man, what a bummer that would be in the world, right?
I mean, it's a joke, people.
It's a literal joke. And yeah, do I agree with every word that comes off my lips? No.
Do I sometimes make mildly inappropriate jokes? Sure.
But you knew that before you invited me to your conference.
Everybody was nervous about what kind of F words I would use.
It's like, faggot.
He's like, okay, good.
I can handle that one.
You know what I mean?
I'm just like, look, let me just warn everyone everywhere.
Do not invite me to a red hot preaching conference
if you don't want it to be red hot.
If you want everyone to like the sermon, I'll say this,
just never invite me, period.
I don't care if it's a red-op preaching conference or not,
no one will ever invite me to a church or an area
and I'll preach and everyone likes the sermon.
It'll never happen.
It's never gonna happen.
Don't invite me.
Be prepared for someone to get upset.
And it's the severely obese, stinky person.
That's the person that's gonna be upset, all right?
And she's gonna complain to her husband
and he's too weak to say anything, all right?
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for our church.
I pray that you would just help us when people attack us,
that we would actually rejoice, that we'd be excited about it,
that we'd realize the blessing to be lied about and slandered and attacked.
But I pray that we would be gracious towards them.
I pray that we would give them the correction they need.
I pray that we wouldn't render evil for evil.
We defend those that need to be defended in truth.
And, you know, I pray that you would just bless our enemies
that, you know, are saved and love God.
You know father forgive them for they know what they not what they do
I pray that you would just bless Pastor Roger Menez,
that you'd bless Verity Baptist Church.
I pray that you would help him to just stop lying
and just repent and get things right.
And even if he doesn't, I pray that you'd just be gracious
to them, help them to still get lots of people saved.
I pray that we wouldn't have a bad attitude
towards those that attack us,
but rather we would just rejoice.
We'd have a good attitude
and we would just focus on what we need to.
Please bless our upcoming missions trip.
Thank you for reminding us that when we do big works,
big attacks may come, but we need to be focused
on soul winning and preaching the gospel.
I pray that you would continue to help our church
to have a good spirit and have unity,
that people wouldn't be led astray by lies
and slander and weirdos.
And I pray that you would help us to just keep serving you
in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Amen.
For our last song, we're gonna go to song number 364.
Song number three hundred and sixty four
Standing on the promises
I'm the spirit of God.
We have a baptism this afternoon.
Brother Joseph is coming for baptism.
Have you trusted Christ as your Savior?
Then I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, buried in the likeness of His death.
Raise to walk in newness of life.
All right.