Chapter number five, Galatians chapter five,
if you don't have a Bible,
there should be one under the seat in front of you,
being Galatians chapter five.
Galatians five, the Bible reads,
stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ had made us free,
and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised
that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Christ is of no effect unto you,
whosoever of you are justified by the law.
You are fallen from grace.
For we, through the Spirit,
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth anything
nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh by love.
You did run well.
Who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
I have confidence in you through the Lord
that ye will be none otherwise minded.
But he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment,
whosoever he be.
And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision,
why do I yet suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross ceased.
I would they were even cut off which trouble you.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty.
Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh,
but by love serve one another.
For all the laws fulfilled in one word even this,
thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
But if ye bite and devour one another,
take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
This I say then, walk in the spirit,
and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh.
And these are contrary the one to the other,
so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
But if ye be led of the spirit,
ye are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these.
Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envies, murders,
drunkenness, revilings, and such like.
Of the which I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past,
that they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance, against such there is no law.
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
with their affections and lusts.
If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.
Let us not be desirous of vain glory,
provoking one another, envying one another.
Brother Drew, will you pray for us?
- You guys are there in Galatians chapter number five.
We are going to look in at verse number 15,
but before I do that,
while you have your place there in Galatians,
I'd like to say, first of all, happy birthday to my dad.
We came up for his 51st birthday,
or came down, I guess.
Now, this is the weirdest thing now,
'cause I'm gonna get into this a little bit.
In Spokane, it's got me all mixed up,
'cause people will talk about, oh yeah, Seattle,
it's just west of here.
Or, and I'm like, wait a minute, that's super weird,
'cause usually it's north from Vancouver, yeah?
Or like this, the time that became evident one time was,
my coworker was like, tell me to put in this little stub
thing, and he was like, face it towards Seattle.
So I'm like, okay, north, right?
Bam, he was like, not Canada, Seattle.
So it's kind of got me all jacked up up there.
But it's good to see you all again.
You guys should say it's good to see
most of you all again, okay?
I can't tell you which is which,
but you'll have to figure that out for yourself.
But in all seriousness, before I get into my sermon,
I just wanted to give you a little bit of an update
of what's going on in Spokane.
We left Spokane, we left here, excuse me,
to go to Spokane in April.
We've seen a lot of awesome things since then.
The first thing I want to talk about
that has been really awesome for us
is that we had 95 salvations in 2025.
And we were really shooting for 100
and we didn't get there.
Going up to like New Year's Eve though,
we had 92 salvations.
And then Ms. Victoria was trying to put the team
on her back and she was like,
"I'm gonna get us to 100."
And she got three salvations on New Year's Eve,
but it got us to 95, not quite 100, okay.
But it was still a really good effort
and that was only with basically not even a full year
of going up there and doing the soul-warning
with everybody there.
So it's great to see even just one person saved,
let alone 95 people saved, yeah?
The people up there, very hard-working,
they're very faithful to the soul-warning,
they're very faithful to church and I appreciate them a lot.
And it was kind of a bummer not to get to 100,
but the silver lining of it was that now
for 2026, we have a perfect goal
that we can get to for 100 people.
And I kind of gave like a sermon a little bit ago
on the different goals that I was kind of looking forward
to in 2026, and I'll tell you what,
the people up there took those goals
and they are running with it.
'Cause I told them, I was like,
we gotta get 100 salvations.
They're like, oh yeah, let's go, 100 salvations.
So even just so far in January,
we had nine salvations just this month.
And one of those salvations was from, me and Brother Ryan
just did a recon mission, if you will.
We're doing like the spies thing, like the biblical thing.
We're going to spy on Canaan, basically.
Me and Brother Ryan went up there.
We just didn't see any giants or 10 foot,
or any big old grape clusters, whatever.
But Brother Ryan and I were on a native reservation
in Nespelum, Washington, is what I wanna say.
It's basically right by Grand Coulee Dam.
It's like 20 minutes away from that.
And everyone was native there.
And everyone was super receptive to the gospel up there.
And it really kind of touched my heart.
It just made me realize that there's so many areas
out there that need the gospel
and that need people to go out and reach them.
And it was a really good privilege.
Like me and Mother Ryan, it was just the two of us up there
and we knocked probably about, I would say maybe like 35,
maybe 40 door, maybe a little bit more than that.
It was kind of hard to gauge.
We only got the one salvation,
but I'll tell you what, the people were receptive.
When they opened the door to talk,
even though it was freezing cold outside,
they wanted to hear the gospel.
And Brother Ryan talked to this guy named Dion,
who he didn't get saved,
but he really got him going in the right direction.
He went from not understanding the gospel at all
to perfectly understanding the gospel,
but just having a couple doubts about it,
so he didn't want to believe right then.
Which should be a lesson to us as well,
that when we're out sowning,
we're not gonna get everybody saved that we talked to.
You need to learn that sometimes when you're there,
you're just planting the seeds or you're just watering.
You're not always gonna get everybody saved
that you're talking to.
That's okay, though, because if we move people
towards believing on Jesus Christ, we've done our part.
'Cause our part is to preach the gospel to every creature.
We can't control whether they accept it or not, yeah?
But then I talked to a guy up there as well
who was a Jehovah's Witness
or just starting to become a Jehovah's Witness,
and he got saved, praise God.
That was the one salvation we got,
but I knew that that guy was gonna get saved,
or I knew someone was gonna get saved there,
and here's why.
When we went out to knock on those doors there,
we talked to this really sweet,
sweet, sweet Catholic lady, very nice,
but it was freezing cold outside, like I said,
and she had like a nice wood stove in her house,
so we were just like, in there, it was super warm.
It was like, man, maybe I'll just let her talk
for a little bit longer.
But she was telling us this story
about her near-death experience,
'cause everybody has apparently been to heaven before, okay?
She was like, yeah, I went up to heaven,
and she was like, oh, and I saw my mom,
which was, it was kind of sweet,
she was kind of teared up about it,
but she was just waxing really, really long with this story,
kind of like I am right now, okay,
with this introduction,
but she was waxing really long with it,
and she was like, and by the way, everyone goes to heaven.
And I'm like thinking, that's not a Catholic belief,
what in the world?
She was like, everyone goes to heaven.
She was like, I saw my neighbors, I saw my teachers,
I saw my coworker, there's no other place to go
except for heaven.
Like, that's kind of weird.
So then I just was like, after she told me that story,
I kind of cut it a little bit short,
and I was like, hey, well, we're showing people
that the Bible says you have to believe on Jesus Christ
to get to heaven, or you'll die and go to hell.
Do you believe that?
She said, oh yeah, I believe that.
So then I was like, okay, you know what that is?
All it is is a distraction from someone
that wants to get saved in that area.
So I was like, listen, miss, I don't wanna be rude.
I was like, well, we gotta knock this whole area,
so we gotta go.
Like, thanks for inviting us and everything like that.
But sure enough, 10 doors later, I meet this guy
who's a Jehovah's Witness.
He just started to study with them,
and I knew that there was hope for him
because when I asked him, "Do you know for sure
if he died you'd be on your way to heaven?"
He said, "No, I'm not sure."
So I was like, "Oh, well, there's definitely hope there,"
because that's not a Jehovah's Witness answer.
What do the Jehovah's Witness say when you say that?
They say, "I don't wanna go to heaven,
I wanna go to paradise earth," right?
So I was like, "Okay, there's hope for this guy."
So the only thing that they really had sunk into him
was that they tried to teach him
that Jesus Christ wasn't God.
But that's obviously super easy
to show people from the Bible.
There's multiple, multiple scriptures
you can show people about the Trinity.
So once I got him convinced on that,
low hanging fruit, he believed on Jesus Christ
and he got saved.
The reason I'm telling you that story though
is because I was thinking about it,
like how close that guy probably would have been
to becoming a two-fold more child of hell.
And it made me realize like,
it's a real war that's out there.
I think we kind of lose this sometimes,
but like people are really hanging in the balances.
There's people that if we don't reach,
the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses will reach.
So we need to do our part and go into all the world
and reach them first, everybody that we possibly can,
and preach them the gospel
and give them an opportunity to believe
before they get brainwashed by these cults,
before they get brainwashed by these wicked false religions.
But that should be a lesson to you as well
that, you know, kind of going into this,
that when people are trying to distract you at the door,
it's 'cause there's someone
that's gonna be stayed around the corner.
Just take my word for it.
If someone's trying to tell you some stupid story,
cut the story short because there's someone
that wants to get saved,
and this also goes with arguing as well.
Don't spend your time sitting there
in a debate with someone
because these things are not profitable.
The Bible says after the second admonition,
you're supposed to reject the heretic and keep on moving.
So when you're talking with someone,
you can win a debate,
but is it worth it to win a debate with someone
if you don't get your real goal accomplished out there,
which is winning people to Jesus Christ?
We need to keep these things on our mind.
Going forward into this though,
sorry, I'm yapping up here a little bit.
That's another thing I learned in Spokane.
I learned how to actually talk a little bit, okay?
You guys remember the little 30 minute sermons
that I was doing?
Not so anymore, okay?
Up in Spokane, the fact that my dad's son
has come forth and the fact that I can preach
long sermons, okay?
Like my sermon series in 1 Corinthians,
I had a sermon series on chapter seven
that was like five parts.
Five part sermon series.
That was a big boost for me at least, okay?
But moving forward for like the different kind of things
that we've accomplished in Spokane so far,
and I will have a sermon, okay,
so just hold on with me for a second, okay?
I know I'm yapping, my bad.
We had an Old Testament challenge
that I also posted up in the Soul Winning Group up here
that we had nine people participate in
and actually complete to the end of the challenge.
Which is, I mean, I think it's an incredible feat.
'Cause the New Testament challenge, as hard as it is,
it's a month dedication, with some willpower,
you can really push through that.
But the challenge, the way I had it spread out
for the Old Testament, that it was nine months,
so that you didn't have to read, like,
just a crazy amount of chapters in a short amount of time
from the Old Testament.
But we had nine people complete that.
So anybody that completed that,
and the New Testament challenge,
finished their Bible cover to cover,
which is a huge thing for so many Christians,
because a lot of Christians nowadays
don't finish their Bible cover to cover at all.
And so that should be an encouragement to you as well.
If you haven't finished your Bible cover to cover,
you need to get on that as a Christian,
because the Bible says that we don't live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
And that is found in the King James Bible.
But we also had a record high attendance of 40 people
this year for a non-guest speaker,
which I thought was really cool.
That building, it feels like it's packed,
because it has a little small room, okay?
With the 40 people, I was like, that's pretty awesome.
But that's a step up from, since that phony Chad
tried to destroy that church up there.
And that also made me think about this
with the 95 salvations we got.
There's nothing more that Chad would have loved to do
than to destroy that church
if there was no church out there doing the soul winning.
But praise God that we still have a church
in Spokane, Washington that's doing the soul winning
because so many churches won't.
Because that means 95 people are going to heaven now,
despite the work of wicked and bitter men
that try to destroy our movement,
try to destroy the church that we have up there.
'Cause when we're on Christ's team, we can't lose, amen?
We're on team Jesus Christ, when we're actually
going out there and preaching the gospel,
we can't lose, so we should always keep
that in mind as well.
And then lastly, we had three church members
that got saved and that have been coming
to the church consistently now.
One of those guys, my wife got saved,
out soul wanting, outdoor soul wanting,
she went and knocked on his door.
He got saved, he bought his nephew,
he got saved from a church member,
his nephew did at our church,
and then we had one more person that came in
because their boyfriend's a Baptist,
and they're like, "You need to go to a Baptist church."
And she said, "This one said it's by a guy
named Pastor Thompson."
Her boyfriend said, "That's a great pastor.
Go to that church."
It's like, "Hey, praise God, right?"
So it's been on the up and up in Spokane,
and I'm really excited to see what God can do there,
especially because, like I said,
one of the things that we're cranking up in 2026
is gonna be the soul winning.
Like my dad was kind of just talking about it,
but I'm gonna do the soul winning marathon
in WSU Washington, so if you're interested,
I'm gonna post some details on that
when it comes a little bit closer.
We're gonna do the soul winning marathon there.
Brother Sean Common's doing the one in UW
in Washington's university,
and then we're gonna co-host a soul winning marathon
in Ellensburg at the university that's there as well.
Then brother David Akers and I
are gonna do a meet in the middle soul winning event
with his church in Idaho and our church up in Spokane,
and we're gonna do another Indian reservation
soul winning marathon.
And then I was talking to my dad and I was like,
you know what we gotta do?
We gotta bring all the foundations together,
all the Sure Foundation together.
I was like, we gotta do like just one giant mega marathon
for this year.
So I don't have the full details on that,
but I do know that we're gonna try to do an event
where we bring as many people as possible
from the different Sure Foundation plants
and from this church to do a mega event,
to preach the gospel.
I think we're gonna do something like that in Yakima
is what we're kinda thinking,
but more details to come on that.
But hopefully that gets you guys all excited
because I'll tell you what, I'm excited about it.
Because I'm excited that we have so many people
that are attending these churches faithfully
and that want to participate zealously in the work of God.
And I just wanna encourage you this morning
that if we put our back to the work,
if we actually push forward
and don't let this world distract us
and don't let the enemy try to take us down,
that we can achieve great things for Jesus Christ
if we just stick to it and stick to the main things
and stick to preaching the gospel
to every creature in this world.
Because if God's for us, who can be against us?
And that kind of transitions into my sermon right here
in Galatians 5, 15.
That was quite the intro,
but the sermon itself will be a little bit shorter, okay?
So it's gonna be just a regular thing, okay?
Galatians 5, verse number 15,
hopefully I didn't lose you guys.
That transitions well into this sermon
'cause the title of my sermon is the main things.
The main thing, let's read Galatians 5, 15.
It says, "But if you bite and devour one another,
"take heed that you be not consumed one of another."
Let's pray.
Dear Father God, thank you so much for this wonderful day.
Thank you so much for everything you do for us.
God, thank you so much for this church
and everybody that showed up to hear your word preached
and took time out of their weekend
to hear your preaching, God.
I just thank you so much for the people at this church
and for all of our church plants, God,
that are faithful to you.
I just pray, God, that you would allow me,
because people are taking time out of their week right now
to hear your word, to preach an edifying sermon.
I just pray that the words I would speak
would help the people in this room
to be better Christians after they're done hearing them.
Do you say I pray? Amen.
Tell 'em my sermon, like I said again, is the main things.
We're here in Galatians five,
and the reason I chose this subject this morning
to preach on is 'cause it's been really near
and dear to my heart lately.
And I think this subject is extremely important
for a church like ours, the subject of the main things.
And more specifically when I say that,
I mean that we need to keep our focus
on the main things as a church.
And what are some of these main things that we believe?
Well, number one is that we are King James only
at this church and that's how we ought to stay
if we want to do any works for God in the future, amen?
Then we also, our big focus is on soul winning.
And also we are once saved, always saved,
salvation by faith alone, by grace alone.
And if you don't believe that,
then you're just not saved at the end of the day.
These are the main things that hold up our church,
the main doctrines and beliefs that we have.
And these are deal breakers and fellowship breakers.
Like, if someone isn't King James only,
if someone isn't one saved, always saved,
if they're against soul winning, if they hate soul winning,
we're not really gonna be having fellowship
with any of those people.
Because these things are the things
that we have to keep at all costs
and that we can't afford to lose as a church.
And by the way, we shouldn't just believe these things,
like partially, we should be zealous about these things.
'Cause I think sometimes, even with the King James Bible,
sometimes people will be like,
'cause the world nowadays kind of scoffs
at the King James Bible, and they're like,
you read that old thing?
It's like, hey, we should be zealous
about the King James Bible
because the King James Bible is the word of God.
All these other modern versions are trash.
Just go do any research on it and you'll find it
that they take verses out,
that they make verses sound like it was written by an AI,
like that it sounds like someone who doesn't know
how to translate a language
is writing these modern versions.
And then you know why?
Like, because we don't need to change the word of God.
We have the perfect word of God already in English.
So there's no reason to add to it.
There's no reason to try to add all their
little dumb scholarly opinions into it.
We have a perfect word of God in the King James Bible.
And we should also be jealous about the fact
that we're soul winning because soul winning
is the driving force of the Great Commission.
I mean, the last thing that Jesus Christ leaves us with
on this earth is to go into all the world
and to preach the gospel.
He lets us with that as the last thing
because that is the most important thing that we can do
while we're on this earth.
And faith alone by grace alone is important as well
because if you don't believe that, you're just not saved
and you don't have the right gospel of God.
These are things that we should be zealous about
and things that I'm confident
that we all will be zealous about
lest we don't be called Sure Foundation Baptist Church, okay?
But the reason I chose this topic to preach on
like I was saying is because I believe that our church
cranks out very zealous people,
not just in these mainstream,
or not mainstream, excuse me,
not in just these main beliefs,
but in like our Christian walk in general.
And I wanna first of all say that zeal
is a great thing to have as a Christian, okay?
Because it was by zeal that Jehu slayed
the two wicked kings that was ordained of God
to do so, to execute his judgment,
and that he slayed all the prophets of Baal.
It was by zeal that Jesus Christ commanded
the Church of Laodicea to repent and be zealous.
And it was by zeal that Jesus Christ Himself
went to the temple and cleansed it and flipped the tables over
'cause it was written of him,
"The zeal of thine house has eaten me up."
All those things were done by zeal.
Zeal's a fantastic thing that we should have as a church,
and I wanna make sure that I'm very clear tonight,
or this morning, that we need to be zealous as Christian.
That's a commandment from Jesus Christ Himself.
But when it comes to zeal, okay,
and why I'm talking about this,
'cause I'm sure you guys have heard a lot of sermons
about being zealous, which we should be,
as I just established, right?
But there are some dangers when it comes to zeal
that I think that we should be aware of as Christians,
and maybe more likely to say that there's types of zeal
and types of things that we don't wanna be
too overly zealous about.
And that's why I have you there in Galatians five again,
one more time it says,
"But if ye bite and devour one another,
"take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."
And you might ask, like,
what does this have to do with zeal?
Go back one chapter to Galatians four,
verse number 17, if you would,
Galatians four, verse number 17,
talking about biting and devouring each other.
Paul's telling them to beware of this right here.
But then one chapter before this,
in Galatians four, verse number 17, it says,
"They zealously affect you, but not well.
"Yay, they would exclude you that you might affect them.
"But it is good to be zealously affected always."
And look what he says, "In a good thing,
"and not only when I am present with you."
So Paul is rebuking the Church of Galatia right here.
He's saying, "Hey, you're being zealously affected,
"but not well."
He's like, "And it's good to be zealous in a good thing,
"but not in the wrong things, not in the bad things."
And the reason I'm showing you this is
'cause I want you to understand firstly this morning
in my sermon is that zeal can be a dangerous thing
if you don't have zeal in the right areas
of your life as a Christian.
Or if you're too zealous over areas
that you shouldn't be zealous in.
It reminds me of the verse in the Bible
when it says that you're not supposed
to be righteous over much.
He's like, "Why shall I destroy thyself?"
Because being too zealous on the wrong things
is not a good thing.
And zeal, like I said, and I wanna make that clear,
is a good quality to have, but you need to realize
that there are some dangers that can come with that as well.
And it is a good thing for us to be zealous
in the main things, the main beliefs.
That's why I laid it out like that this morning.
But we have to be careful when we are overzealous
of little things and of things that don't really matter
in the long run, to the point that it would destroy
other people that we need, that they would destroy
other Christians that we need as well.
But also the reason I'm showing you this
is because I want you to see that zeal,
if it's not in the right place, can be wrong,
like Paul is saying right here.
But also that in Galatians five,
I believe that when it's saying that you need to be careful
not to consume and devour each other,
it's because that is a reality that can come from
people being overzealous in the wrong things,
like Paul was addressing just one chapter before this.
Because zeal is a very powerful thing
when we use it to be united against our enemies
and we use it for the right cause
and for on the main things.
But it also can be a detriment to us
if we forget who our true enemy is as Christians
and if we forget what the main things are as Christians
and if we lose sight of the main things.
And when we start to attack people over little things,
we've gone too far as Christians.
Go to Luke four or nine, verse 49.
Luke nine, verse 49.
Zeal's a good thing, but you don't wanna let zeal
make it to the point where you just think
that everyone that isn't lockstep with you is your enemy.
Zeal's a good thing, especially with the main things, right?
But you don't want it to get to the point
where if someone doesn't agree
with every little interpretation of the Bible,
or if they don't agree with every opinion that you have
that you need to attack them,
that they're all of a sudden your enemy,
that they're all of a sudden against you,
'cause that's not the attitude that we see in the Bible.
Luke 9 verse 49 is where you guys are going to,
and I just want you to understand
as the first thing this morning
that zeal can be a really great benefit to us as Christians
when we are united against our enemies with it,
when we're united against the devil with it and his minions,
but when it's flipped on its head,
it can be used to destroy each other as Christians,
and we need to be cautious of that,
and that's what I believe Paul is warning them
of in this chapter.
Look at Luke 9.9,
'cause the thing we need to remember is that
we have a true enemy out there,
and it's not each other as Christians, okay?
Look at Luke 9.9, it says,
"And John answered and said, 'Master,
we saw one casting out devils in thy name,
and we forbade him because he followed with not us.'
And Jesus said unto him, 'Forbid him not,
for he that is not against us is for us.'"
John in his zeal right here,
I mean, it doesn't seem like
he's just trying to be a bad guy right here.
He's zealous, clearly, he's like all about, you know,
the teachings of Jesus Christ, right?
He's a disciple of Jesus Christ.
But in his zeal right here, he goes to Jesus Christ,
he's like, "Hey, I just want to let you know,
there was a guy out here that was casting out devils,
and he doesn't even follow us."
You know what I said?
I was like, "Hey, stop casting out those devils."
Jesus is like, "Forbid him not."
Like, "What are you doing?"
He's like, "What does he say?"
He says, "For he that is not against us is for us."
So something we should immediately grasp from this story
is this, is that just because someone
isn't exactly lockstep with us,
just because someone isn't exactly in our circle,
just because someone doesn't exactly believe
every little thing that we believe,
that doesn't mean that they're our enemy.
Doesn't mean that we should be against them,
is what I want you to understand this morning.
Because sometimes I believe
that because of being overzealous of these things
and being on the fight for the main things,
we slip and start to add that kind of zeal
to the little things as well,
and attacking people over little things.
And very clearly in this story, this is not a good thing.
Because as a Christian, we should understand that
not everybody that disagrees with us is a bad person.
And furthermore, we shouldn't be attacking people
that are doing the work of God.
Whether we like them personally or not
is what we see right here.
Whether they're in our little circle or not,
or in our club or on our team or not,
we shouldn't just be attacking people
because they aren't exactly like us.
Because again, this is what happens
when you take your focus off of the main things,
the big things that should be the things that unite us,
that keep us together, is you start to nitpick people
over the little things, over the tiny things,
over the things that really shouldn't be that big of a deal.
And like when you think about what's happening in this story,
it's really insane though, like I was just like laying it out,
it's like, he's like, John is rebuking a man
for casting out devils, is what he's rebuking him for.
Like a great work for the kingdom of God,
he's like, stop casting devils out of people,
you can't do that unless I say so,
basically is what he's doing.
What?
Super weird, super bizarre that he's doing this,
but I want you to understand as well this morning
that when you're being carnal,
the things you do don't make sense anymore.
Because if John would take a step back here
and think about the big picture, the main thing,
the work for the kingdom of God,
he'd realize, hey, if someone is casting out devils,
whether they're on, you know, my team or not,
they're doing a good work, right?
If someone is casting out devils,
they're automatically on your team.
Hello, like, 'cause Satan's not divided against himself,
right, is what the Bible teaches,
what Jesus Christ teaches us.
But, you know, with, it'd be like,
'cause you guys can go to Philippians 1.16 real quick,
Philippians 1, verse number 16.
John is rebuking a man for doing the exact same work
that he and Jesus Christ are doing themselves.
All under the guise of, it's, you're not with us,
so you just can't do that.
It'd be like, imagine, like, if we were out soulening
and we ran into someone who was another Baptist,
from another Baptist church,
or maybe even like a non-denom,
but they had the right gospel.
Imagine us going up to them being like,
"Hey, you don't have sure found dates on your card?
"You gotta pack it up and go home, buddy."
Even though they had the right gospel.
Wouldn't that be insane?
Wouldn't that be carnal?
Wouldn't that be bizarre?
That's kinda like what John is doing here,
unknowingly though, he's being carnal.
And that's what I wanna submit to you is that
this comes from a carnal mindset.
Where like, we don't wanna fall into this mindset
where we think that we're the only good Christians
out there because this is just not true.
There's lots of good Christians all around the world.
There's good Christians out there, we should understand,
that will never take a step in this building,
whether it's by chance or whether it's by area
or whether it's whatever, you know.
And there's still genuinely good Christians, okay?
We should understand that we don't have the monopoly
on being righteous, we don't have the monopoly
on being like doing the work of God.
And truly, when I think about it,
I'm happy for anybody that participates
in the work of God, 'cause you know what the reality is?
Is that the harvest is plenious, but the laborers are few.
So I'm happy whether you call yourself Sure Foundation
or whether you call yourself another Baptist Church,
well, even if you were non-denom,
if you're going out there and preaching the gospel,
guess what, you're not my enemy,
because we need more laborers for the harvest, not less.
We need more people preaching the gospel, not less people.
And we need more people united
and on realizing that they're all on the same team
and not attacking each other,
because all that does is hinder the work of God
at the end of the day.
Like, you know, like we should understand that
with like Paul here, that's why I have you guys
in Philippians 1 verse number 16.
That just because someone necessarily doesn't like us,
or doesn't like me even, or you know, whatever,
they don't, they disagree with some things on our church,
if they are preaching the right gospel,
they are not my enemy.
And I'm not like, I wanna be clear here,
that doesn't mean that we have to be buddy buddies
with everybody out there, right?
This is not reality.
There's some people that you are,
just for your personality's sake,
you're just never gonna be close with.
Just how it is, right?
What I'm saying is you shouldn't just be enemies
with someone just because they're not your best friend,
or just because they're not your buddy,
or just because they don't believe everything
the exact same way that you do.
And this is the attitude that we see from Paul right here.
Look what he says.
He says, "The one preached Christ of contention,
"not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds,
"but the other, of love, knowing that I am set
"for the defense of the gospel.
"What then?
"Notwithstanding, every way, whether in pretense
"or in truth, Christ is preached,
"and I therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice."
Paul's saying here, I'm happy for anybody
that's going out and preaching
in the name of Jesus Christ, right?
That's preaching the truth
in the name of Jesus Christ, obviously, right?
He's like, some people are doing it for my help.
He's like, some people are doing it
to add a flitch into my bonds,
but he's like, nevertheless,
I rejoice that Jesus Christ is named anywhere.
This is the attitude that Paul had
because Paul was a spiritual Christian,
and Paul realized that life wasn't all about him.
Paul realized that his story's
not the main story in everything.
You know what the main story is in this world?
It's the story of Jesus Christ
in his death, burial, and resurrection.
That's the main thing.
That's the big story.
That's the most important thing, and Paul said,
if that's being preached, he's like,
who cares what happens to me?
'Cause Paul wasn't in it for himself.
He's in it for the people out there
that he wants to get saved.
He's like, whether that's for my detriment,
whether that's for my betterment,
hey, I'm just glad that Jesus Christ
is being preached in this world.
Didn't have this carnal mindset at all.
Go to 1 Corinthians 1, verse number 10.
First Corinthians 1, verse number 10.
'Cause going back to John, I wanna just say,
what was John's error in his story?
Why was he faulting?
What was the issue with him?
Is that he's focused on this minor thing of him,
this guy not being walkstep with the disciples or whatever,
and he's missing the bigger picture that this guy,
even though he's not under their same banner,
quote unquote, is casting out devils,
which is a literal miracle, okay?
That's what, I didn't take you to the parallel passage,
but Jesus Christ says who can speak lightly
on a miracle of this part, like,
this guy is doing things by the work of the Holy Ghost,
and John's missing this because he's just being carnal,
because he's focused on himself.
He's missing the forest for the trees, if you will, okay?
But John's perceiving this man to be an enemy
when he's really an ally.
Why is this, though?
You guys are there in 1 Corinthians 1:10.
I'll read for you guys one more time, Luke 9.49.
It says this, it says,
and John answered and said, "Master,
"we saw one casting out devils in my name,
"and we forbade him because he followeth not us."
Why was John telling this guy
that he couldn't cast out devils?
It wasn't 'cause he was a wicked person.
It wasn't because he was preaching a false gospel.
It's not because he was evil.
It's because he said, "He followeth not us."
He's gotta be with us
if he's gonna be doing the work of God.
It's a carnal mindset, right?
But where does this come from?
It comes from a misunderstanding
of who we are as Christians
and thinking that there are just a bunch of teams out there,
that there are a bunch of camps out there.
Now, obviously, we label ourselves things that are good,
so let me caveat this, okay, right?
Old IFB, new IFB, we see these things all the time.
This is so that we can identify doctrines, right?
So that when I'm in town with someone,
I can figure out whether I'm going
to some pedophile-loving Baptist church
or if I'm going to a hardcore Baptist church, yeah?
It's like, I'm not saying that these are bad things,
so don't get me wrong on that.
I'm just saying, like, through all of that,
you should understand that if we are truly saved,
if we believe on Jesus Christ, there is not multiple teams.
There's one team, and it is team Christ, okay?
This is what we see in 1 Corinthians 1.10.
Look at what it says.
It says, "Now I beseech you, brethren,
"by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,
"that ye all speak the same thing,
"and there be no divisions among you,
"but that ye be perfectly joined together
"in the same mind and the same judgment.
"For it has been declared unto me of you, my brethren,
"by them which are the house of Chloe,
"that there are contentions among you."
Why is there a contention?
Look at verse 12, it says,
"Now this I say, that every one of you sayeth,
"I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos,
"and I of Cephas, and I of Christ."
We see the divide here, the contentions,
because you have people saying like, "I'm team Paul."
And you're like, "No, no, no, I'm team Apollos."
And then, "I'm team Cephas."
And then they're like, "I'm team Jesus."
But what is Paul's question to them,
that he answers them?
Look what it says, it says in verse 13, it says,
"Is Christ divided?"
It says, "Was Paul crucified for you?
"Were you baptized in the name of Paul?"
What's the answer to all those questions?
No, right?
Is Christ divided?
Is there just multiple factions within the body of Christ?
It's like, no, Christ is not divided.
He's like, "Paul wasn't baptized.
"You weren't baptized in the name of Paul.
"And Paul wasn't crucified for you."
He's like, what he's saying right here
is that there isn't a bunch of different groups
and bunch of different teams.
It's one team, it's one team within Jesus Christ,
is what he's saying right here.
That it's not split up, okay?
And again, I gave you that caveat
so hopefully you understand what I'm saying, okay?
Don't misunderstand what I'm saying
or you're gonna take me off.
I'm saying that with, you know,
we have the labels on ourselves,
but we need to realize that the work that we have
as saved Christians is all the same goal
at the other day.
We all should be seeking to get as many people
saved possible.
That's our end goal.
And so with that in mind, we should just realize
that there isn't just a bunch of teams in Jesus Christ.
There is just, if you're, this is the team.
It's team Christ or team Satan.
Those are the two teams you have, okay?
That's it.
That's what he's saying right here, right?
'Cause he says Christ is not divided.
So it's like you have, you know,
the saved people that are on team Jesus Christ,
and then you have the devil,
which would have the unsaved one, right?
This is why Jesus Christ says very clearly,
he that's not for us, or he, what did he say?
He said, for he that's not against us is for us, yeah?
'Cause what does that mean?
If you're not on his team, you're on the devil's team.
If you're on the devil's team, you're on Jesus' team.
It's just that simple, yeah?
But with that truth being known to us,
there's a couple things that we should take from it.
And what the heck, these pages all stuck together.
Go to 1 Corinthians 12, verse number 12.
1 Corinthians 12, verse number 12.
Because Christ isn't divided,
because there isn't a bunch of different teams,
because there isn't a cool kids club,
because we all have one purpose, one body, one spirit,
one baptism, like the Bible says,
we all should be striving together for the same goal,
for getting as many people saved as possible,
and we should realize that people that aren't,
you know, maybe not physically located near us,
or that aren't, you know, in perfect lockstep with us
on different doctrines, different beliefs,
as long as these people have the main things,
they don't have to be our enemy.
They don't have to be our best friends,
but they shouldn't be our enemies,
is what I'm trying to say.
And what I want you to, the firstly,
'cause you guys are going to 1 Corinthians 12, verse number 12,
the first thing I want to bring up with that thought in mind
is that we shouldn't be rejoicing
and we shouldn't be hoping for the destruction of people
that have the right gospel.
Like, what more carnal thing is there in this world
to be happy about the fall of someone
that's preaching the right gospel
just because you don't get along with them personally?
Carnal, vain, worthless is what that is at the end of the day.
It's like, especially in light of just recent events,
it just makes me think,
do people read the same Bible that I do?
It's crazy to me.
There's people out there celebrating like,
"Oh yeah, this guy didn't like this guy,
"so I'm happy his church failed."
Is that the goal?
Is that what we should be thanking as Christians?
Is that spiritual or is that carnal as hell?
I mean, what in the world?
Wouldn't you want as many saved Baptist pastors
out there as possible preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ
just 'cause you don't get along with them personally?
You're gonna be rejoicing that they stumble and fall?
Where's that in the Bible, man?
I thought we were one team.
I thought we were not divided in Jesus Christ.
I thought we had one purpose in mind.
Why would I be happy for the fall of a church
that has, for the fall of a pastor,
for the fall of a man that has the right gospel?
Weird, carnal, bizarre, not of God.
That's not a good thing, okay?
People like, again, I'm saying like,
when I wonder if people have read in the same Bible as me,
it's like, have you read about the stories in the Bible?
Like, I know my dad just preached a sermon here
about, you know, Saul and with David,
and like, I didn't get to listen to, you know,
the majority of the sermon,
but like, don't people read these stories in the Bible
and like, let that change their lives
and how they behave as Christians?
It's insane to me.
Like, we see David crying, weeping, fasting
over a man that tried to kill him multiple,
multiple times in the Bible.
Like, not even just twice,
but like some people will say like,
it's like Saul threw javelins at David twice.
He tried to get him killed indirectly with the Philistines
with trying to marry his daughter off to him.
It's like two times he chased him out in the wilderness
and really more than that,
it's just like the two stories that we hear about.
Multiple, multiple times.
Saul doesn't just say mean things about David,
he tries to kill David.
Hello!
And then it's like, and then at the end of all of that,
David's crying about it.
He's sad that Saul's gone.
You know why?
It's because David was actually a spiritual man.
That's why he's called the man after God's own heart,
because he truly had the love of Jesus Christ in his life.
It's like, if that's the case for a person
who's literally trying to kill you,
how much more should we turn the other cheek
to people that are doing things
that are not even in that same realm,
in that same ballpark?
Like, saying mean things.
Oh, I'm happy this guy's church failed
because he said some mean things to me.
Carnal, I'm not happy for any church
that has the right gospel to fall, period.
I want them all to succeed.
Isn't that right?
Because we're on the same team, right?
We're on the same, there's no dividing in Christ
is what the Bible teaches us.
And I might not get along with someone personally,
and you might bicker back and forth with them,
but it's like, I don't want them to fall.
I don't want their church to fall.
I don't want the gospel that they're preaching there to fail.
I want there to be more Christians out in this world
and more people doing the work of God.
1 Corinthians 12, verse number 12, where you guys are at,
it just blows me away though.
It truly does.
You read about how David treats his enemies in the Bible,
how Jesus Christ treated his enemies in the Bible.
The Bible says that you're not supposed to rejoice
when your enemy falls.
That's inspired scripture, by the way.
When the Bible says that you're supposed to bless them
that persecute you, bless and curse not is what the Bible says.
When it says you're supposed to love your enemy,
you're supposed to love your neighbor as yourself,
that the foundations of Christianity,
do you guys miss that in the Bible?
'Cause clear as day,
clear as day how we should be behaving as Christians.
And it blows me away that people,
oh yeah, I've read the Bible.
Read it again then,
because you're missing a big part of it, okay?
Whether it's the Old or New Testament,
you see that over and over again, good night.
Takes me off, man, it really does, like, I don't know.
I gotta get moving on a little bit though.
Where are we even at in this?
40 minutes, okay.
We just realized that Christ isn't divided
so we shouldn't be celebrating or rejoicing
in the fall of people, even if they are enemies.
If they're saved, like, we should want the best for everybody.
We should want people to repent and get right
is what we really should want from people.
The second thing I wanna bring up with this idea
that Christ isn't divided is that, like,
when we attack other Christians that have the right gospel,
we're attacking the body of Christ, okay?
Look what it says there in 1 Corinthians 12, 12.
It says, "For as the body is one and have many members,
"and all members of that one body,
"being many our one body, so also is Christ.
"For by one spirit we are all baptized into one body,
"whether we be Jews or Gentiles,
"whether we be by bond or free."
What it says, it says,
"And have been all made to drink into one spirit."
The Bible says if we're saved,
we're part of the body of Christ.
We're members of the body of Christ,
what the Bible teaches.
So when you're attacking someone
that is also a member of the body of Christ,
who are you really attacking?
You're attacking Christ, right?
'Cause you're both members of the body of Christ,
is what the Bible is teaching right here.
Like, we shouldn't be attacking anybody
that's a part of the body of Christ,
like trying to destroy them,
hoping that they don't succeed,
because when we do that,
you should realize you're hurting your own team.
You're attacking your own team,
because we're all in one team, yeah?
And this wasn't the last thing,
and this is kinda towards the end of my sermon anyways,
but in first, go to 1 Peter 5, verse number eight,
1 Peter 5, verse number eight.
We should realize that when we do attack each other,
that we're just doing the devil's job for him, okay?
1 Peter 5, verse number eight.
Look what the Bible says.
It says, be sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary, the devil,
as a roaring lion walketh about.
Well, look what it says,
and this is why I had you in Galatians
in the very beginning.
It says, seeking whom he may devour, yeah?
What did Galatians 5:15 say?
But if you bite and devour one another,
take heed that you be not consumed one of another.
You know what that shows me?
That when we attack each other,
when we devour each other,
when we try to consume each other,
we're just doing the devil's job for him.
We're just making it easy for Satan.
And what does the Bible also say?
That like a house divided against itself cannot stand?
When we're sitting there attacking each other,
we just should realize
that we're letting the devil off easy
because he doesn't have to do anything.
We're already destroying ourselves.
But Lord willing,
we'd understand that it's not us versus each other.
It's not us versus another member in the body of Christ.
It's us versus the devil.
It's us against this world
is what we need to have in our mind as Christians.
If we have that in mind,
it'd probably change the way we treat our brother
and sister in Christ.
Like maybe you wouldn't slander.
Maybe you wouldn't gossip.
Maybe you wouldn't attack your brother
and sister in Christ if you realize
that what you're doing is the devil's job for him.
Maybe you wouldn't sow division.
Maybe you wouldn't sow discord.
Maybe you wouldn't try to split churches
if you realize that you're working
right into the hand of the devil when you do those things.
Some people probably do it, you know,
like ignorantly, right?
I'm not saying that everybody that would do those things
is necessarily unsaved, right?
But what I am saying is this,
is that when you're doing those things,
you're doing Satan's job for him.
Because Satan seeks to devour us,
so when you devour your brother and sister in Christ,
Satan doesn't even have to do anything.
He can just sit back and relax.
And we're letting him off easy.
But the biggest part that I want to bring about this
is this is why I'm stressing this right now, okay?
And this is what I'll pretty much close the sermon on.
Is that when we do this as well,
when we lose sight of the main things and attack each other,
what we're doing is we're hindering the work for God
all over the world, okay?
When we attack each other, when we devour each other,
all that means is less work being done for God.
And it means more division and success for Satan,
is what I want to put in your mind,
is what I want you to take away from this sermon.
And the main things, of course, are the main things.
These are the most important things, and we should,
and I want to be very clear about that as well,
I'm just gonna say this,
I'm not saying about little dumb things
that you shouldn't, you know, fight for.
The Bible says we're supposed to contend for the faith,
right?
When it comes to the gospel, it comes to the King James,
when it comes to soul winning, hey,
it's gonna be fighting right there, okay?
Period, end of day, it's on site for that, right?
It's like, you gotta fight for those things, right?
These are the main things,
I'm not talking about the little things,
the little bickering, the little arguing,
the little dumb stuff.
Maybe, maybe you could turn the other cheek
like the Bible says, like Jesus Christ himself says,
and increase the work of God.
Maybe you could do unto others
as you'd have them to do unto you,
like Jesus Christ also said, the golden rule, you know?
And not treat people the way that they treat you.
Because if you do that, you're no better than them, yeah?
This is Christianity 101,
you guys understand what I'm saying?
Like, this is like the foundations of being spiritual
as a Christian.
But people lose this, and I think that people lose this
because they get wrapped up in the little things.
They're kind of doing what John's doing.
He's like so focused on his team
and he's so focused on like the work that they're doing
that he doesn't realize that there's a way bigger picture
than just the work that John was doing.
Because there's Christians all over the world
that have the right gospel.
And we should try to do our best to, you know,
be in fellowship with them or be an encouragement
to them or be a blessing to them when we can
and not a hindrance to them.
And so just in closing for this sermon,
I would just say this.
My main point of this sermon is just that
you would hopefully understand when I title it
the main things is that there are things
that we should strive for.
You just understand this, just not everything
should be something that you strive for.
And there may not people, there may be people
like I even have in my life that I don't like them.
Okay, and they're sane people, okay?
This can be the case, right?
You don't have to like someone to love them.
You understand that as well?
I mean, that do wonders for a lot of people
in different areas of life.
But like, you understand, like,
just because you don't like someone,
you don't get along with them very well,
that doesn't mean you can't show them
the love of Jesus Christ.
That doesn't mean you can't look past those things
so that we're furthering the gospel.
I mean, this is what God wants us to do.
And I hope that rings clear through this sermon.
And I just say that we need to be careful
of falling into a mindset where we think
that we're the only ones that are allowed
to do the work of God,
that we're the only ones that are even doing
the work of God, 'cause it's not true, okay?
And as much, I love this church
and I love the work that we're doing,
but we're not the only ones that are doing work out there,
okay?
We just acknowledge that and not attack other people
that are doing the work as well
when they have the right gospel
just because they're not locked up with us, huh?
So with that being said, let's pray.
Dear Lord God, thank you so much for this wonderful day.
Thank you so much for everything you do for us, God.
Thank you so much for this church, God,
and for these people.
I just pray that my sermon will be edifying
to the people in this room,
and I just pray that the things I said
would help us, God, in just, in our overarching life,
and just in our day-to-day life, God,
and how we treat each other, God.
I just pray that we would love our brothers
and sisters in Christ, God,
and we'd look past their faults,
and we'd look past the sins they do against us,
because we know that your Son, Jesus Christ,
looked past all of our faults
when He died on the cross for our sins,
and I just pray that we would continue to push forward
and be excited for you,
and to perform your work on this earth,
and to keep the main thing the main thing,
and realize that the more we fight with each other,
the less that we're getting done for your kingdom.
Jesus, may I pray? Amen.