(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Amen, all right well we've had a great conference this year and we've had some great preaching this year and I really appreciated it and thank you choir for that song and it's good to be reminded during these times of crisis with viruses and lockdowns and right it's good to be reminded my hope is Jesus and that's good there. Well I'd like you to notice there in Acts chapter number 11 and verse number 26 the Bible says this and when he had found him he brought him into Antioch and it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people and the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch and today I am preaching on the subject of make Baptist independent again and I want to preach to you on the subject of being an independent Baptist and I want to begin by laying down just by way of introduction laying down some things that we believe in regards to the doctrine of the church and the reason I want you to notice there in verse 26 is because the Bible says that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and that's what a church is, a church is a congregation, it is an assembly of believers and just like I said by way of introduction as we kind of lay down the foundation of the doctrine of the church you know something we believe as independent Baptists is that churches are local assemblies they are assemblies congregations that meet together that assemble together locally we do not believe in the universal church there is no such thing as a universal church because the word church means congregation it means assembly so unless there's not going to be any universal church until the day that we're all gathered together in the clouds in heaven you know at the rapture that's the only time that there will be a universal church when all believers are gathered together but in the Bible what you find is the concept of local assembly local churches and we could go to a lot of places to highlight this I'm not going to do that but I'll just remind you that in the book of Revelation you remember the book of Revelation begins with seven letters to seven churches in Asia and you'll notice that those letters begin unto the angel of the church of Ephesus and the church in Smyrna and in Pergamos and in Thyatira in Sardis in Philadelphia in Laodicea these were local assemblies the dispensationalists today they want you to think that these seven churches were seven church ages but the Bible doesn't teach that they were local assemblies congregations that met in those locations they assembled themselves with the church so we believe that a church is a local assembly and there is no such thing as a universal church you're there in Acts 11 go to Acts chapter 20 if you would and look at verse number 28 I'd like you to notice secondly by way of introduction not only do we believe that churches are local assemblies but we believe that churches are self-governing organizations Acts chapter 20 and verse 28 notice what the apostle Paul he's speaking to the leaders of the church of Ephesus there he says this take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers notice he's speaking to the leaders and he says look the Holy Ghost has made you an overseer to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood the Bible teaches that in a church you'll have a pastor and you'll have deacons you'll have spiritual leadership that is supposed to be the overseer that is supposed to be the rulers that's another word the Bible uses that is supposed to be those that take oversight and you say well why would you have a ruler the Bible calls the pastor a ruler in the book of Hebrews why would you have a bishop or a pastor or an elder these terms are used interchangeably an overseer someone that takes oversight 1 Peter chapter 5 you don't have to turn there you stay in Acts in fact go to Acts chapter 15 if you would while you turn there I'll read to you from 1 Peter 5 2 the Bible says this feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof this is Peter speaking to the pastors taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind so a church is supposed to have leaders that take oversight locally it's a self-governing we use the word autonomous the word autonomous means it's self-governing what does that mean that means we're not part of a denomination that means that every local church has a local self-government and there's no headquarters somewhere there's no Vatican somewhere there's no board of directors or president or pope or prophet that's telling us what to do here at Verity Baptist Church we're a local church this is what we believe as independent Baptists we believe that churches are local we believe that churches are self-governing in fact I'll give you a definition I teach our church people this when it comes to what is a church because there's a lot of debate about what a church is and people think they can meet with their you know with their buddy in a living room and call that church you know but the Bible is clear about what a church is and I'll just tell you how we define it here at Verity Baptist Church we define a church we believe that a church is a local assembly of believers who have banded together under the leadership of a pastor for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission that's what a church is and by the way when you stop doing that you're no longer a church Pastor Mahiel talked about it where God would remove the candlestick hey there's a lot of local assemblies of believers under the leadership of a pastor that are not fulfilling the Great Commission that's not a church there's a lot of local assembly of believers meeting at a coffee shop and there's no pastor that's not a church a church is a local assembly of believers who have banded together under the authority of a pastor for the purpose of fulfilling the Great Commission and with that we believe in the autonomy of the local church let me just read this this is from our doctrinal statement we believe and I wrote this all right I didn't copy and paste it we believe in the autonomy of the local church this means that we are independent of all denominations conventions and fellowships we have Jesus Christ in the Bible as the head of our church and the pastor as the human leader of our church must admit himself to the Word of God we reject any leader that usurps the authority of Christ as the head of any church like a pope a prophet a president a board of elders or a board of directors and here's what I'm telling you we are independent Baptists and what that means is we believe that churches are local assemblies not a universal church and they are self-governing assemblies not a denomination now you say well Pastor Humanities why would you preach this at the Red Hot Preaching Conference when you have a bunch of people from other churches that come together because I want you to understand that we also believe that local self-governing churches can fellowship with other local self-governing churches the Bible teaches that you find this concept in Scripture are you there in Acts 15 look at verse number 4 Acts chapter number 15 and verse 4 notice the Bible says this and when they and you can read the context if you'd like later the word they there is referring to Paul and Barnabas and when they were come to Jerusalem and they were come to the church in Jerusalem the Bible says they will receive notice of the church of the church in Jerusalem and of the apostles and elders the spiritual leadership of the church in Jerusalem and they declare all things that God had done with them skip down to verse 22 they have this big meeting there and you've got Paul and Barnabas who are from the church of Antioch and they go up and have this meeting with the church in Jerusalem this was the first you know Red Hot Preaching Conference you know we've got a bunch of people here from churches from Faithful Word Baptist Church and Steadfast Baptist Church and you know Pure Words Baptist Church and Sure Foundation Baptist Church and Shield of Faith Baptist Church you know they were coming together here we see believers yeah they were so local separate assemblies but in the book of Acts they would fellowship together they would meet together and discuss things look at verse 22 then pleased it the apostles and elders that's the leadership of the church in Jerusalem with the whole church to send chosen men of their own company so they're sending men from the church in Jerusalem to notice Antioch to the church in Antioch remember the church in Antioch is the church that laid hands on the apostle Paul and sent them out as a missionary notice they sent of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas namely Judas, Surname, Barsabas and Silas chief men among the brethren and they wrote letters by them after this manner the apostles and elders and brethren send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in Antioch the church of Antioch and Syria and Silesia here they met together then they send workers this is all scriptural there's nothing wrong with churches of like faith and practice fellowshipping together there's even nothing wrong with churches of like faith and practice sending workers out to other churches to help them in fact we've done that now we've sent men to other churches and there's nothing wrong with it this is all biblical in the Bible you had these local self-governing autonomous churches but they weren't just you know it's just us and no one else they were able to fellowship with other churches they were able to fellowship with other churches of like faith let me give you another example you keep your place there in the book of Acts that's where we're going to be here for a little while but go with me to the book of Romans if you would keep your place in Acts but go to the book of Romans Romans chapter 14 while you turn there let me read to you from Colossians Colossians 4 16 and when this epistle is read among you this is the apostle Paul writing an epistle to the church in Colossae notice what he says and when this epistle is read among you cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea notice how Paul expected that these churches were communicating with each other that these churches were fellowshipping with each other you don't have to turn there but in 1 Corinthians 16 verses 1 and 3 you read about the apostle Paul taking a special offering from the church at Corinth down to the church at Jerusalem the church in Jerusalem was in persecution and they were struggling financially and the apostle Paul had the churches he says gather up a special offering and they sent it out here's what I want you to understand in the Bible you see yes these autonomous self-governing local assemblies but they're also fellowshipping with each other they're also helping each other out they're also working together so look when we have this Red Hot Preaching Conference and of course when you come to the Red Hot Preaching Conference you hear a lot about the new IFB movement and some people don't like that and I understand that but you know when we talk about the new IFB movement please understand this we're not talking about a denomination you say what is the new IFB movement? the new IFB movement is a bunch of local self-governing autonomous churches that choose to fellowship together we just choose to be friends with each other and we do projects together we host big marathons and soul winning events and missions events and conferences and things but there's no denomination here there's no headquarters you didn't come to the national convention of the new IFB movement you know when you came to the Red Hot Preaching Conference hey let me tell you something the Red Hot Preaching Conference is a conference put on by a local independent Baptist church we believe in the autonomy of the local church and I think that even though we can fellowship with churches like-minded churches and I believe it look I'm hosting a conference with a bunch of other you know inviting a bunch of other pastors from other churches and inviting their church members to come out and spend a week with us and have a good time look I believe in that and I think it's right I don't think there's anything wrong with that but with that said we must never lose sight of the fact that we are independent Baptists we are independent churches and I believe and look I know these pastors I talk to these pastors these pastors are my friends I love these pastors I know they understand what I'm saying this morning but I believe that many people involved in what we refer to as the new IFB movement have either lost sight of the fact have either forgotten or maybe they just never really understood what it means to be an independent Baptist so this morning I want to preach to you on the subject of make Baptist independent again we need to have a resurgence and a revival of the autonomy of the local church the independence of a church the self-government of a church and this is not an attack on the new IFB movement because I believe that local churches can fellowship together can assemble, can have conferences and councils can do great works and have missions works together and do marathons together I believe all that is good and we should try to do as much of that as we're able to but never losing sight of the fact that we are independent Baptists now this morning what I want to do is give you four thoughts in regards of what it means to be an independent Baptist and some things that I think maybe some people have lost sight of or maybe some people just never really understood this about the new IFB movement the new IFB movement is not a denomination and you don't even have to call it the new IFB movement if you don't want to call it just churches that fellowship together you know it is churches that fellowship that choose to fellowship together to do projects together to do great things on the back of your course of the week there's a place for you to write down some notes I'd encourage you to write some of these things down this morning number one what does it mean to be independent independent means we don't all have to believe the exact same thing independent means we all don't have to believe the exact same thing now obviously the reason that we can fellowship together is because we believe a lot of the same things and because we believe a lot of the major themes of scripture we believe those things and that's fine but look please don't ever lose sight don't ever get to the place where you get this idea like well I heard this pastor say this and then I heard this other pastor say this and those things were not exactly the same well here's the reason for that we're independent independent means we don't have to believe the exact same thing obviously we believe a lot of same things we believe the same things when it comes to the major issues which is why we fellowship with each other which is why we like each other which is why we want to work together but look independent means we don't all have to believe the exact same thing are there in Romans 14 look at verse 2 Romans chapter 14 and verse 2 for one believeth that he may eat all things another who is weak eateth herbs let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth for God hath received him and look I'm not I'm not gonna break down this passage this morning and I believe that there's a right person and a wrong person in this passage but I'm bringing this up to just show you that the Apostle Paul says look just because two people don't agree a hundred percent on maybe what they believe about this or eating or whatever keeping a certain day he says that's fine he says it's not a problem look at verse 5 one man esteemeth one day above another another esteemeth every day alike let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind you know what the Apostle Paul and then he goes on to talk about the fact that you're not judge another man's servant you're not judge another person for what they believe you know obviously we should all try to know the Bible understand the Bible apply the Bible and in a perfect world we would all believe the exact same thing because the Bible says that the scripture is not of any private interpretation and look you say well why is it that people see things differently because we're all men and we can all make mistakes we can all see things differently or not see eye to eye and you know what the Apostle Paul is teaching in Romans 14 he's saying that's okay if one man esteemeth one day above another and another man esteemeth every day alike he says don't go to war with that guy he says it's fine you know and as independent Baptist independent means we don't have to believe the exact same things now let me let me explain this to you and go with me to the book of Jude if you would the book of Jude it's the last book right before the book of Revelation you have the book of Jude and let me explain to you how pastors handle disagreement on beliefs you've got two types of pastors you've got the pastors who are mature and secure and you've got the pastors who are immature and insecure now you know what a mature and secure pastor does he expects the fact that we're not all going to agree on the same things someone said if you get four Baptist together you'll get five opinions you know you can't expect that everyone is going to agree especially our crowd I mean we're feisty and we're warriors and we're standing you know you can't expect that everyone is going to see eye to eye on every little thing you know what a mature and secure pastor does when he comes to an event like the Red Hot Preaching Conference he expects that there's going to be people who stand up and say things that he doesn't agree with I mean Pastor Mejia talked about it in this conference Pastor Thompson got up and preached something Pastor Mejia didn't agree with and you know the only reason you know that is because we told you about it there's no Twitter war right now going on there's no Twitter war right going on between Pastor Thompson and Pastor Mejia you know why? because mature pastors, secure pastors expect they expect that we're not going to all agree 100% on everything they realize look all of us hear another pastor say things that we don't agree with that we don't think is right that we would not say that or believe that or do that let me explain to you what every independent Baptist thinks when they hear another pastor say something they don't agree with you know what they think? they think this that guy's wrong that's what they all think and you know what a mature and secure pastor expects that you know what an immature and insecure pastor does? a mature pastor expects it an insecure pastor exploits it you know what an insecure pastor does? you know what an immature pastor does? you know someone who he's insecure because everybody in this church is listening to Pastor Anderson everybody in this church is listening to Pastor Jimenez everybody in this church is listening to Pastor Mejia or Pastor Thompson you know what an insecure and immature pastor does? he doesn't expect the fact that we're all going to disagree from time to time but he exploits the fact that we're all going to disagree from time to time so you know what they do? they wait till they find something that we don't just agree exactly the same then they try to exploit that well let me show you why I'm more spiritual let me show you why I'm more fundamental let me show you why I'm more right with God but you know I feel bad for these guys because they're taking the wrong approach and look they do this to me they attack me they try to tear me down thinking that somehow it's going to help their influence and look even with their attacks on me I want to help them you know because this is not going to help you this is the illustration I think of whenever I think of this imagine if my wife and I were having problems right? imagine if I was just a lousy husband and my wife is just fed up with me and I'm just always ignoring her and I just come home and I play video games and I'm just not a good provider and I'm just not you know spending time with her and loving her and my wife just gets fed up with it and I decide man I got to do something about this I know what I'll do I'll just explain to my wife how lousy all the other husbands are I mean honey you think I'm bad let me tell you about it soon you think it's going to help my marriage? now look I may successfully get my wife to hate all the other husbands but that's not going to make her love me you know what I need to do? become a better husband in fact when I become a better husband I don't even have to tear any other husbands down and these guys they think oh well you know everybody in my church is listening to this other pastor and so I got to tear them down no how about you just become a better pastor everybody in my church is listening to this other guy preach why don't you become a better preacher? everybody in my church is you know he's got all the influence you know what an immature insecure pastor does? he exploits it you know what a mature secure pastor does? he expects it you say pastor what do you do? because I love the fact that a lot of our church people listen to other pastors in this movement it helps me sometimes it helps me when they rip face about something I'm like great now I don't have to do it glad they helped you but you know from time to time they teach things that I don't agree with I teach things that I don't what do you do? you expect it so what do you do? you just love your people you're there for your people you teach great doctrines you teach them hey here's what we do at Verity Baptist Church here's how we do it people all the time say well at this other church I say hey that's great but here at Verity Baptist Church here's how we do it you expect it and you just train your people look you just try to become a better pastor you just try to love your people look and this is what I want to tell these guys because they're all like well you know I don't like somebody pastoring my people online well get used to it this is the world we live in everyone's online everyone's listening to everybody online say well what do I do about it? look do you realize this? you have the home court advantage they listen to you Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night why don't you just preach better sermons? why don't you just become a better communicator? why don't you spend more time with your people? love your people be there for them hey husband don't think that tearing down every other husband is going to make you better you need to become a better pastor independent Baptist means that we all don't have to believe the exact same thing you say yeah but that's a problem because if we don't believe the same things you know what a mature insecure pastor expects it and an immature insecure pastor exploits it let me say this because you know you preach this and people always want to take it to extremes oh well we don't all believe the same thing so I mean it's fine if I believe oneness right? you know what let me explain something to you there are some things that are not up for debate there are some things that we must agree on in order to fellowship and if you're gonna stop fellow if you're gonna stop believing certain things and you say what are we gonna do we're gonna take your ordination away we're not a denomination but you know what we're gonna stop hanging out with you we're gonna stop being friends with you there are some things that we must all agree on are you there in Jude? look at verse 3 beloved this is Jude under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost notice what he says beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation Jude said I wanted to sit down and write a letter to you about salvation you know and in the Bible you have a lot of letters about salvation Paul wrote a lot about salvation the doctrine of salvation Peter and different people wrote about things that accompany salvation things you ought to do after you get saved Jude said hey I sat down to write unto you of the common salvation he said beloved when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and to exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which once once delivered unto the saints you know what Jude said? Jude said I sat down to write about the common salvation but when I began to write about the common salvation I realized that what I really need to write about was the fact that we must earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints you know that there are some things that we've got to fight for? hey salvation is something we fight about salvation is something we earnestly contend in the faith for you know and I want to bring this up you know it's the Red Hop Preaching Conference so I'll do what I want say why is that? because I'm an independent Baptist you know some of our church people have been getting attacked on social media lately and here's the thing about you know the very Baptist Church family they don't have a pastor or a pastor's wife that is on social media you know I'm not on Facebook my wife's not on Facebook so we don't get to be there to defend them whenever they get attacked on social media so unfortunately our church people they just have to wait till the Red Hop Preaching Conference for their pastor to defend them you know and you know let me just go ahead and say this I'm not against pastors and pastor's wives being on social media I realize that it's a great tool to reach people and connect with people and influence people but I will tell you this there are some pastors and pastor's wives who ought to be ashamed how much time they spend on social media I want to talk to you about being a keyboard warrior you're the most keyboard warrior there is look you got to be embarrassed how much time if you spend as much time soul winning as you spend on Facebook you might actually get a crowd you spend as much time studying for a sermon as you do on Facebook you might actually preach a good sermon you know I'm just thankful I can say I spend more time reading the Bible this week than I spend on Facebook I spend more time on this sermon this week than I spend on Facebook I spend more time with my wife and with my kids this week than I spend on Facebook so they're getting attacked on social media and they're getting attacked about the doctrine of salvation you know there's this pastor Stacy Shiflett who wrote this book and he wrote in his book his gospel presentation in the book that you got to repent of your sins repent of your sins parentheses turn from sin and somebody brought that up and said hey you know this isn't something that we believe in the new IP look is it controversial to say the new IP stands against repent of your sins I thought that was like one of our main things one of our main things that we believe is that we don't believe you muddy the gospel with the repent of your sins but you know they're just getting attacked and look I understand this the argument is this well when somebody says repent of your sins lots of people use the word repent of your sins lots of people use the word repent there's a repentance you know can mean a lot of things to different people so you have to clarify what somebody means here's the thing I agree with that but when somebody writes a book and puts the words repent of your sins and then in parentheses puts the words turn from sin now I've been accused about being uneducated never read the Constitution because I went to public school I went to Christian school number one but maybe you should have gone to public school because a parentheses here's the definition is a word clause or sentence inserted as an explanation or an afterthought into a passage that is grammatically complete without it oh he said repent of your sins you have to clarify why do I need to clarify he already clarified what it means when he put parentheses and he said to turn from your sins oh no you got to clarify well it's hard to clarify with a guy when you ask him what do you believe I'm not gonna answer your question it's like you're a pastor you get paid to tell people what you believe oh yeah no I missed that one right when Jesus I thought Jesus said hey what you hear in the ear shouted upon the housetops I thought I thought Jesus I thought Paul said that I have not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God like if somebody asked you what you believe you tell them people call me all the time asking what do you believe about this what do you believe about I know they're gonna hate me I know they're gonna talk crap about me I know when somebody calls me and says what do you believe about homosexuals I'm thinking myself why are you calling you know what I believe everybody knows what I believe and I know but you know do I sit there well let me tell you I sit there and go I'm not gonna answer your question look when somebody puts a parentheses to turn from your sins you know what Jonah 3 10 says and God saw their works and God saw their works that they turn from their evil way if somebody believes that you have to turn away from sin to be saved you're not saved that's how you I can't believe you would reprobate someone number one I didn't reprobate anybody number two now we can't say somebody's not saved based on their salvation oh well you will you call you know the problem with the statement you know the the statement of faith is that everybody copies and paste the statement of faith okay let me explain something to you when somebody writes a book if your argument is well I just copied and pasted you know what that's called that's called plagiarism so either way we're calling you out buddy oh no no I didn't write that I copied and pasted okay so you copied and pasted into a book that you sold for profit that's illegal oh no no I wrote it okay then you then you're not saved when you write a parentheses to turn from your sins you know you well you need to clarify I don't need to clarify he just clarified and let me tell you something about this Stacey Shiflett guy because you know hey we we have to be careful about people coming in and trying to influence it's funny how everybody wants to attack me and Pastor Anderson because we're trying to influence their church but when people try to influence our churches we can't defend ourselves let me tell you something about the Stacey Shiflett guy when he first came on the scene he came on the scene because he was he was he was actually exposing Cameron Giovannelli who is a predator pedophile and Cameron Giovannelli was right here in Northern California I mean just an hour and 20 minutes away from right here at North Valley Baptist Church and he put out a video exposing him and I thought great you know I think we should expose all predators we put on our YouTube channel but then Jack Treiber started putting some pressure on this Stacey Shiflett guy I get an email from Stacey Shiflett saying please take down the video and I'm thinking to myself you put the video up let me tell you something when you put something on the internet it stays there please take down the video you know blah blah blah I just respond no I'm new IFB buddy Jack Treiber has no influence on me I said no you know what I got from him the next day and I got an email from the Christian Law Association threatening to take legal action against me if I don't take the video down that's Stacey Shiflett the great giant of the faith doesn't even know that the Bible says you're not supposed to sue your brother in Christ well I guess we're not brothers in Christ because he's repent of your sins you say did you take the video down no never took it down the video is down now the only reason the video is down is because YouTube took it down and YouTube took it down when they took down our entire channel it just all went down but here's what I'm telling you there's some things we fight about there's some things that we don't you know there's some things that I'm just like that's stupid whatever it doesn't matter no big deal earnestly because of the faith we're actually told to fight about salvation we're actually told to fight and you know let me just let me tell you something new IFB pastors this isn't the old IFB where we all are you know alumnis from the same alma mater and whatever you attack my church people don't be surprised if you get called out at the Red Op region conference why would you do that because I'm an independent Baptist I do whatever I want and you know our church people need to be defended especially when they're right what does independent mean it means that we don't have to believe the exact same thing mature and secure pastors expect this insecure and immature pastors exploit this number two go back to the book of Acts if you would and look if you don't like the sermon so far it's gonna get worse from here you might as well find another church number one independent means we don't have to believe the exact same thing number two independent means we don't have to run our churches the exact same way you know independent means we don't have to run our churches the exact same way Acts chapter 15 let me give you an example verse 37 here we have Paul and Barnabas and they're disputing about bringing John Mark on the second missionary journey Acts 15 verse 37 and Barnabas determined to take with him John whose surname was Mark but Paul thought not good to take him Paul thought not good to take John Mark with them with Paul and Barnabas why didn't Paul want to take him because he departed from them from Pamphylia and went not with them to the work they had already taken John Mark with them on the first missionary journey and John Mark you know got homesick and got mama sick and quit on them halfway through and now they're going on the second missionary journey and Barnabas wants to take John Mark and Paul says no we're not going to take him look at verse 39 and the contention was so sharp between them all the drama just drama look there's when you're doing the work of the Lord there's always drama there's always fights and the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed him to Cyprus and Paul chose Silas and departed being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God here you have two guys that want to do ministry differently one wanted to take John Mark the other one didn't and being good independent Baptist they got in a big fight about it got all mad and angry and started fighting with each other and one said fine and Barnabas takes John Mark and Paul chose Silas and went on his way you know and the question we always like to ask as independent Baptist is well who was right right whenever there's a fight you always want to know well who's right so who's right in this situation and I don't want to spend a lot of time on this but let me give you a couple reasons why the apostle Paul may have been right number one Paul is the one who receives the recommendation from the brethren look at verse 40 and Paul chose Silas and departed being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God it doesn't say that about Barnabas what does that mean? that means that the church said okay you guys are going to split up that's fine but we're sending Paul we're recommending Paul we're sending him with our authority so Paul received the recommendation from the brethren here's the second reason verse 39 and the contention was so sharp between them that they departed asunder one from the other and so Barnabas took Mark and sailed into Cyprus here's another reason why Paul may have been right and it's because of this in Acts 15 39 that's the last time you read about Barnabas in the entire book of Acts but yet the rest of the book of Acts is all about the apostle Paul so if you want a couple reasons why Paul may have been right let me, Paul may have been right is you know here's I think some good reasons Paul received the recommendation from the brethren and Paul continues to be the focus of the book of Acts while Barnabas disappears and you say oh wow okay so you think Paul was right I didn't say that I just gave you a couple reasons why Paul may have been right let me give you a couple reasons why Barnabas may have been right you know here's a reason why Barnabas may have been right you don't have to turn there but in 2 Timothy 4 11 towards the end of the apostle Paul's life he said this only Luke is with me take Mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable to me for the ministry here we have Paul changing his mind about Mark you know that pastors and spiritual leaders can change their minds towards the end of Paul's life he says hey take Mark and bring him with thee for he is profitable for me for the ministry so if you want a couple of reasons why Barnabas may have been right well maybe the fact that Paul later on said hey that guy is valuable at one point I thought he was not valuable but now I think he is profitable for me for the ministry you want another reason why Barnabas may have been right here's a little reason Mark ended up writing a little book you might have heard about it it's called the Gospel according to Mark yeah but he quit he messed up you know but sometimes people can get right you say well pastor you've confused me is Paul right or is Barnabas right you know what I think I think they're both right say what do you mean if you study the life of Paul you know what Paul is he's just a hard charger I mean the guy if the guy was a business owner he had been like the greatest CEO that ever lived he took his name brand the gospel of Jesus Christ and took it into the entire world the greatest missionary evangelist church planter preacher you know the soul winner the world has ever known Paul had a ministry he was a man on a mission and look it just I believe you say what do you mean they were both right I just I don't think it was Paul's calling to be Mr. Merciful Mr. helping this young Christian get right and get things going Paul you know he just he couldn't be slowed down by that he was doing great things for God and God blessed him the church recommended him and the entire book of Acts is about him but yet Barnabas Barnabas who's called the son of consolation Barnabas loves John Mark helps restore him to the point where a man like Paul would say about John Mark he's profitable to the point where God would use him to write a gospel and by the way this is how Barnabas is remember Paul before he was Paul his name was Saul who made a havoc of the church when he got saved nobody wanted to talk to him nobody wanted to be his friend who reached out to him Barnabas brought him along you know what I think I think God was using Barnabas God had given Barnabas a spiritual gifts to reach out to people that were struggling that were hurting and he was helping restore them he made the Apostle Paul he made Mark so you say which one was right I think they're both right so why are you bringing this up here's the answer to the question the answer to the question is this not all of us have to have the exact same ministries we don't all have to run our ministries exactly the same you know during the lockdowns Pastor Mejia started that podcast when I saw that podcast I thought to myself this is a great idea this is what I thought to myself I said this to my wife I said this is a great idea this is something great that is probably gonna take off and be really popular and reach out a lot of people and I said this this is a great idea that I will never do are you against it no I think it's awesome you say why would you never do that I'm not cool enough to do it you know what I just go get some puppets do a puppet show I'm just telling you you know that not every ministry has to run the same I promise you though I promise you in fact I know for a fact that there are some guys when we put out our first puppet show there are some guys you know because they're always on their computer on social media who are just watching and they're like huh honey honey we need to order some puppets you know here's what I'm telling you we don't all have to run our churches the exact same way I like the choir if you don't like the choir that's fine I like the orchestra you don't want orchestra no problem you know every church you know what it means to be independent independent means we don't all have to believe the exact same thing but you know what independent also means it means we all don't have to run our churches the exact same way it means that we don't all have to do the exact same things go to the book of Luke Luke chapter 9 Matthew Mark Luke Luke chapter 9 let me give you a third one we're talking about make Baptist independent again what does it mean to be independent independent means we don't all have to believe the exact same thing independent means we don't all have to run our churches the exact same way you know independent means we don't all have to be friends with the exact same people do you know that there are some good people outside of the IFB world Luke chapter 9 verse 49 and John answered and said Luke 9 49 and John answered and said master we saw one casting out devils in thy name and we forbade him because he followeth not with us we forbade him because he's not on our Facebook group we forbade him because he's not in our movement and Jesus said unto him forbade him not for he that is not against us is for us so why do you guys get up and preach against pastors you know the only pastors I preach against are the ones that are trying to hurt our ministry is there some guy out there just minding his own business doing whatever he's saved and he's doing whatever if he's not hurting us hey we Jesus said he that is not against us is for us he that is not against us look we don't have to try to pick a fight wait well it's just us for it no more you know there are people outside the IFB world that are good people I'll be honest with you look I'll be honest with you I don't want to be friends with anybody who's not an independent pharaobaptist are you trying to attack look I'm not trying to attack anybody you say why is that because I am not a friendly guy I'll just be honest with you I'm not that friendly you know I just you know some people they really like to connect with us or whatever I you know I just kind of like to be home and play with my puppets I just like to be home and spend time with my family you know I just I don't spend a lot of time you know talking with people if people call me I like to talk to them whatever I'm just I'm just not that type of person but you know ask me if I care if my pastor friends have friends I don't care let me explain something to you I don't need to approve all of my friends friends I don't need to approve go to the book of Proverbs if you wouldn't if you open up your Bible just right in the center right after right after the book of Proverbs you know that I don't need to approve all my friends friends let me explain them to you number one I don't have the time to approve my friends friends are you serious look I get it if you spend eight hours a day on Facebook and you don't actually pastor anybody and write good sermons and maybe you have the time to dig into everybody's personal detail about what they're doing I don't have the time but even if I did I would never sit there and make it a requirement that I approve my friends friends you know what that is that's a cult we're not even a denomination much less a cult I had a pastor call me he's trying to get me to turn against Pastor Anderson of course that's the only time maybe he calls me somebody invites me to preach I'm like oh they must be fighting with Pastor Anderson you know this guy calls me he's trying to get me to turn around pastor and by the way let me just say this let me just if I haven't made this clear you know I've been friends with Pastor Anderson for 18 years I've been friends with him since I was 16 years old I've been friends with him since before either one of us was married since before either one of us was a pastor since before either one of us knew any of you since before there was a new IP since before there was a faithful word Baptist Church since before there was a Verity Baptist Church you know you said why are you saying this because you know our enemies would love nothing more than to just see me and Pastor Anderson just just fight each other and turn on each other let me explain something to you we've been friends for a long time I'm not gonna turn on Pastor Anderson I'm gonna turn on you before I turn on him oh it's because you're a cult no it's called being a friend and look when you've been friends with somebody this long it takes more than a phone call to get you to turn on them are you there in Proverbs 27 look at verse 10 you know what we need we need a revival of loyalty Proverbs 27 verse 10 thy own friend and my father's friend forsake not neither go into thy brother's house in the day of thy calamity for better is a neighbor that is near than a brother afar off go to Proverbs 18 go to Proverbs 18 and verse 24 Proverbs 18 and verse 24 a man that has friends must show himself friendly and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother look we need to just get back to just some biblical friendship Christianity some biblical friendship Christianity that says I'm an independent Baptist and I'm not gonna worry about what another independent Baptist Church is doing and I'm an independent Baptist I don't have to sit there and approve all my friends friends that's cultish that's a cult keep your place there in Proverbs we're gonna come right back to it but go to the second Kings if you would second Kings chapter 3 if you find all the one and two books they're all clustered together for second Samuel for second Kings for second Chronicles second Kings chapter 3 so this pastor called me you know trying to get me to turn on pastor Anderson and of course these guys they never have any Bible to back them up you know I'm getting sick and tired of these like I don't know Southern or non-California preachers I guess or non-West Coast preachers I guess because they always have their little idioms you know this guy calls me say well brother I don't rub shoulders with people that rub shoulders with confidence you know and I've heard that my whole I don't rub shoulders with people that rub shoulders with liberals and you know when they said it to me I thought to myself yeah it's an interesting thought because number one you didn't quote the Bible to me but I thought to myself I wonder if you can find that concept in the Bible that I'm supposed to verify everyone who I rub shoulders with whatever that means you know who they rub shoulder is that a biblical concept so I started actually thinking about it and read as I was reading the Bible and just kind of thinking through the stories and you know this was the the best example I came up with second Kings 3 look at verse 13 and Elisha here you have a man of God said unto the king of Israel and this is Jehoram the son of Ahab what have I to do with thee get thee to the prophets of thy father because they asked him to prophesy they're about to go to war they asked Elisha to prophesy the king of Israel the king of Edom and Jehoshaphat the king of Judah and Elisha said unto the king of Israel what have I to do with thee get thee to the prophets of thy fathers and to the prophets of thy mother and the king of Israel said unto him nay for the Lord hath called these three kings together to deliver them into the hands of Moab notice verse 14 and Elisha said I can't help you because I don't rub shoulders with people that rub shoulders is that what he said and Elisha said as the Lord of hosts liveth before whom I stand surely were it not that I regard the presence of Jehoshaphat the king of Judah I would not look toward thee nor see thee and then he calls for a minstrel and he helps them you just did you catch what I just showed you you know what Elisha just said Elisha just looked at the king of Israel and said I don't like you I wouldn't even talk to you I want nothing to do with you but you know what Jehoshaphat is my friend and you're rubbing shoulders with him so I'll go ahead and help brother I don't rub shoulders people I rub why don't you read the Bible you know Elisha I don't have time to verify all my friends friends that's cultish you say well yeah are you and it's funny because they try to turn around like oh well you don't care who their friends are you must be in a cult no actually it's the exact opposite I don't care who their friends are I must be independent I must be an autonomous pastor of a local church that just doesn't care that just you know what's interesting about Verity Baptist Church is that we have this red hot preaching conference and all these pastors get up and I loved it I thought the sermons this year were probably the best sermons we've ever had and all these pastors get up and they're ripping face and half of our church family is like what are you talking about we have to send out like a group text to the Verity family like okay well what happened was that and like oh wow say why don't they know because I don't care I don't get up and just preach about everything that's going on everywhere because I'm an independent Baptist what does it mean to be independent independent means we don't have to believe the exact same things independent means we don't have to run our churches the exact same way independent means that we don't have to be friends with the exact same people and look if one of my friends wants to be friends with someone outside of the IFB world then just let me be clear read my lips I don't care and if you do you want a cult that's what you want you want a denomination I'm too independent to care go back to the book of Proverbs Proverbs chapter number 11 I said number one independent means we don't have to believe the exact same things I said number two independent means we don't have to run our churches the exact same way I said number three independent means we don't have to be friends with the exact same people here's point number four independent means we don't have to be involved in everybody else's problems Proverbs chapter 11 and verse 13 notice what the Bible says a tale bearer reveal his secrets but he that is of a faithful spirit conceals the matter you know that it is a tale bearer who says oh let me tell you about this situation you know that the Bible says that someone who's of a faithful spirit actually conceals a matter go to Proverbs chapter 20 verse 19 Proverbs chapter 20 and verse 19 he that goeth about as a tale bearer reveal his secrets he that goeth about as a tale bearer reveal his secrets therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips go to Proverbs 25 and look at verse 9 debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself you know that if you have a problem with someone you just go to that person and deal with it debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself and discover not a secret on Facebook and discover not a secret on Twitter and discover not a secret on Instagram debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself and discover not a secret to another you know what let me explain something to you and I've always taught this and I've always believed this at Verity Baptist Church people leave here all the time because they're mad about something and you know what if people leave here and they're mad and they just leave and go quietly we never acknowledge it I never preach against them the funny thing is that there's an entire list of people that I could name right now that our church people have forgotten about I could list probably 10 people right now who if I said their names you'd be like oh yeah what did happen to that guy they all left mad but quietly and we never acknowledged it we just left them alone in fact let me give you the list no I'm just kidding you know why you don't know the list cause I never acknowledge them but when people leave here and they decide that they're gonna start a campaign against our church start calling everybody trying to get people to turn on us you know when they start talking crap about me and my wife on social media publicly once you cross the line publicly then your name's coming out at the Red Outpreaching Conference you say who are you talking about I'm talking about Chad and Michelle Morgan I don't think you should call their names by name or really like Alexander the coppersmith like Hymenaeus like Demetrius you know in the Bible the men of God are constantly calling out names you say well why do you have to do that you know why I have to do that because they're calling everybody they're calling our staff families they're calling my own family they're calling my mom and dad my siblings you know while they're talking crap about me on social media they're calling my family oh can we do a favor for you you know what that is that's a psychopath okay can I can I help you with something while they're just talking crap about me my wife and my kids calling our staff families calling you say why do you have to call my name because I don't know who they talk to so I'm just gonna say it for everybody Chad and Michelle Morgan are a piece of crap they're wicked people you know there's a situation I don't want to get into details because I'm not a tailbearer there's a situation where a bunch of kids got in trouble in a church like 700 miles from here and they want to call all our church people like oh let me send you all the information let me send you all the screenshots let me let me give you all this information what look why do I need to know what's going on in a church I'm an independent Baptist and you say well why are they doing here's why you're doing it because they want to use that to try to like get me to attack these fellow pastors well you're still friends with them here's the accusation I'm aiding and abetting a cover-up by being friends with a pastor who had some issue with kids look churches have issues all the time there's stuff that goes down at our church and we deal with it and we restore people and many of our church people are thankful that I'm not going around telling all their business to everybody oh you're aiding and abetting a cover-up and it's like okay well are the pastors involved do they know about the situation yeah okay all these kids are living at home under the authority of their parents and all the parents have been made aware yeah then how is it a cover-up well we just want everybody on Facebook to know there's something wicked with your heart when you want every juicy detail you say well you know let me let me just explain to you how I teach our church people here at Verity Baptist Church what gossip is this is how I teach it you should maybe write this down is it my place is it my problem is it my place is it my problem here's what I mean by that is it my place is it do I have a position of authority where I have to deal with this because look if it's my place and you come and tell me something and it's my place my position authority that's not gossip because I need to deal with it or is it my problem and when I say that I don't mean like it's not my problem I mean like is it affecting me is it hurting me is it hurting our church is it hurting you know if it's my place and if it's my problem then that's not gossip but if you want to just go and tell the whole world about something that's neither their place nor their problem you're a wicked person you're wicked as hell it's gossip and there's something wrong with you there's something wrong with your mind and something wrong with your heart when you just want to give out every little detail about situations I'd say you need to get right with God but I don't think that's possible you say well how do I know if it's gossip is it my place is my problem is it my place is my problem and look we're independent baptists Chad and Michelle Morgan they showed up here they wanted me to church discipline Matthew 18 church discipline Pastor Anderson I sat him down I'm like I don't think you understand how this works it's church discipline not I'm the pastor of a church hundreds of miles away discipline but you know what you say well I don't think you should be talking about them well they're talking about me they're trying to hurt my ministry they're trying to turn the people closest to me against me so they made it public so let's do it you know Chad and Michelle Morgan and our church family knows this they showed up and I had to give a public announcement because they had all this drama at another church and they came to me and they said we want to get right we want to put this behind us and you know look the biggest problem that we have as pastors is that we just try to help people too much I think some of the biggest regrets I have in ministry is me trying to help somebody I should have just kicked them while they were down yeah but they come to me and they're like we want to try to get and I said hey you know what if you want to try to make things right if you want to forsake those things which are behind then we'll help you I had a talk with our church family I said this family is coming they've had issues they want to put it behind them and I told our church people that night I said don't talk to them don't try to ask them questions don't try to pry information from them about what happened it's not your place it's not your problem that's exactly what I said they came here I said I said I sat across from a table my desk from Chad and Michelle Morgan I said you can come here I said but I'm going to ask of you what I ask of every member of Verity Baptist Church and it's this that you don't talk crap about other pastors I wasn't asking that of them specifically I asked that of every member if you get on social media and you talk crap about other pastors I don't care you know what the situation is that's not your place and I'm going to become your problem and I said to them I said you don't talk they said we won't and he said to me in fact we're just going to get off of social media completely and this is what I said to him I said I'm not asking you to do that I said I'm not trying to control your life or lord over you or whatever I'm not asking you to do that you can have social media, you can have Facebook, you can do whatever you want I said I just don't want you talking crap about other pastors and he said we will agree to that and we will just put on even above and beyond we're just not going to be on social media at all and then I find out that they have a secret social media account where they're just talking crap about everybody so I take him to my office I didn't yell at them I didn't say anything to me I said is this you? Yeah? okay well this is not what we agreed on and I corrected them could not take correction they tried to stay here for a couple of seconds she sat right over there just mad the entire time thinking what did I do? what did I do? when I put my neck out to try to help you I ask of you and I ask of every member of this church that you not talk crap about you went above and beyond and then you lie about it you have these secret accounts I correct you nicely and you can't take correction then they leave here and they say Pastor Jimenez is in a cult because he won't fight Pastor Anderson no actually maybe I'm just a little too independent maybe your problem with me is that I just don't care what's happening in another church and you know what Chad because I know you're watching let me just explain this to you your wife's fascination with Adam Fannin is weird I'd be worried if I were you I mean let me just say some of you guys need to just watch how your wives act on Facebook and you know ask because everybody's thinking to themselves like man does this guy is he missing something? when your wife is just fawning over some other man it's weird I don't think you should say that well you know what I just want to make sure everybody back to church knows exactly where I stand on it this is the first time you've heard me bring up their name they left a long time ago my thoughts were if they go quietly I don't need to bring them up but when they sit there and contact my family and contact my staff and contact my church members while they're railing on me and my wife trying to turn people against us manipulate people against us I'm gonna call you out and I don't have a Facebook account so I gotta do it here independent means we don't have to be involved in everybody else's problems Proverbs 26 look at verse 17 Proverbs 26 and verse 17 he that passeth by and meddleth with strife belonging not to him is like one that taketh a dog by the ears and you know what when you take a dog by the ears you're liable to get bit so you know what you should learn you should learn to mind your own business well pastor why don't you want to get involved you know whenever there's drama in the new IFB number one is if you don't get involved if you don't get involved if you don't get involved in the drama in the new IFB number one I don't have to make a video talking about I'm not gonna get involved in the drama you know what I do I just don't get involved in the drama when you make a video about not getting involved in the drama you know what you just did you got involved in the drama we always want to know you know because they're always trying to get me to fight with pastor Anderson me to fight with pastor Thompson me to fight with you know pastor mayor or whatever because I don't care because that's an independent Baptist church but let me just explain something to you if you must know I always side with the man of God because I am an independent Baptist because I do believe in the autonomy of local church because I do believe that churches should be self-governing whatever the leader of that church said I side with him and you know what I've learned every time I do that I end up making the right choice because then these people go off look when you're making comments you know what I mean wicked as hell enemies of our churches when you're commenting and saying favorable things there's no excuse for that you know we need to be careful about the fact go to Galatians chapter 6 we'll finish up right here and you know the reason that I don't want to just expose everybody's sins you know why because you know what we're trying to do we're trying to restore people Galatians chapter 6 and verse 1 brethren if a man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness don't miss this considering thyself lest thou also be tempted one of the great the golden rule of the Bible what is it treat people the way you'd like to be treated you know what Paul said hey you should consider yourself if I were to fall if my kids were to do something stupid how would I want to be treated these stupid people said they sent me an email with all this crap you know what I thought to myself what if this was my kids would I want somebody to just be reading this delete I didn't read it I didn't need to just delete it consider you know I watch these pastors you know they want to put out their little sermons on the occasions of a pastor you know what I think though you know what the Bible says you know what the Bible says the king of Israel answered and said tell him let not him that girdeth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off that's one of my favorite verses in the Bible it's actually king Ahab who said it but you know what even unsafe people can say good things or bad people can say good things and you know what that means let not him that putteth on his harness boast himself as he that putteth it off here's what he's saying he's saying the reason I don't get up and just talk crap about other pastors and issues in their church and their kids you know why because I'm still raising my kids you know I watch this guy get up let me preach about the qualification of the pastor I think to myself I hope your kids never do something that embarrasses you you know because you know what the Bible says with what measure ye meet it shall be measured unto you again you know what the Bible says the Bible says you reap what you sow you know what the Bible says the Bible says that when it comes ye that are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself lest thou also be tempted and sometimes that'll get you in trouble because when a Chad and Michelle crappy Morgan show up and you think to yourself well you know if it was me what would I want someone to do you know but you say are you mad about it what do you think are you gonna stop loving people though you know what I'm just gonna I'm just gonna keep loving people and let God deal with it avenge not yourself give place unto wrath and preach about it at the Red Hot Breaking Conference you know our attitude our attitude when people sin ought to be this restore such an one how do we do it the way you'd like someone to do it for you the way you'd like someone to do it for your kids the way you'd like someone to do it for your family for your wife ye that are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness considering thyself lest thou also be tempted so here's all I'm saying this morning I'm saying let's make Baptist independent again let's have a reassurance of independence we are autonomous local self-governing assemblies that fellowship together from time to time that do works together from time to time but let's not lose sight of the fact that we are independent Baptist and that means that when we're independent means that we don't have to believe the exact same thing we don't have to run our churches the exact same way it means that we don't have to be friends with the exact same people and it means that we don't have to be involved in everybody else's problems you say what because you're in a cult no actually because I'm independent and I just really don't care let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer Heavenly Father Lord I thank you for these churches represented here this morning Lord I will be the first to admit that every one of these churches has issues Verity Baptist Church has issues we are sinful people trying to do our best of course we're going to have problems Lord I believe that these are the churches that you are using in this country these are the churches that have your Holy Spirit upon them and Lord I just pray that you would help us to remember that we're independent it's that new I F.B. help us to just remember I want us to act like it I don't have to involve myself in everybody else's problems I don't have to know about everybody else's problems if it's not my place and it's not my problem then I don't need to know Lord I pray that you would just help us to realize that we don't have to believe the exact same things we don't have to run our churches the exact same way we don't have to be friends with the exact same people but there are some things we must fight over we must earnestly contend for the faith and major doctrines of scripture Lord I thank you for this group I pray that you would bless this group and Lord I pray that you would bless the rest of today in the matchless name of Christ we pray Amen I want to thank you for being here this morning and I just want to remind you a couple of things first of all if you need to be baptized this morning while we sing you can step out that door and we'll get you situated for baptism and if not then don't forget that we have soul winning at 2 p.m. if you'd like to go soul winning we'd love for you to be a part of that and then tonight at 6 p.m. we have popcorn preaching and then we're going to have Baskin Robbins after the service and then we'll be back for the evening service we'd love to have you we'll have Brother Matt come up and lead us in a final song We're going to sing 414 414, let's sing it out on the first Stand up, stand up, 14 Hold on, stretch that, 413 413 on the first Stand up, stand up, O Jesus We soldiers of the cross Lift high his royal banner Make what's not suffer lost From victory up to victory His army shall be free Till every blow is made And Christ is glory Stand up, stand up, O Jesus The trumping call awaits For to the mighty conflict He makes His glorious day Be that old man who'll serve Him When the eternal number falls Let church rise with danger And strength to strength all the while Stand up, stand up, O Jesus Stand him with strength alone The army fast will build him He will not trust your own For on the gospel of you Embracing the true prayer Where to he calls for danger Remember once again Amen, good singing If you are a guest here from the Sacramento area and you'd like to talk to one of us about salvation, church membership, or baptism The pastor will be at the door, he'd love to talk to you or direct you to someone who's trained to talk to you about that Let's go ahead and bow our heads forward in prayer Dear heavenly father, we just thank you for this morning, the sermon that was preached, Lord I thank you for your word and I pray, Lord, that you would be gracious unto us, Lord, have mercy on us I pray for all the soul owners that are going out today, that you bless them and bring us back to church safely tonight, in Jesus' name we pray, Amen Amen.