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

1 Samuel chapter number 8, the title of my sermon is Don't Give Up on the System. Don't give up on the system. Let me give you the context a little bit with this chapter. So in 1 Samuel chapter number 7, the children of Israel have finally defeated the Philistines because if you remember earlier in the book of 1 Samuel, the Philistines defeated the Israelites and they took the Ark of the Covenant away and the Ark of the Covenant was brought back to the land of the Philistines. Eli fell out of his chair and broke his neck. Eli's sons have died. And so Israel is at a low point where they've lost everything and they're enslaved to the Philistines. But then Samuel rises up as this great judge that God raised up and he delivers them from the Philistines and they defeat them and they have their freedom and independence. And then after that, Samuel judges them for many, many years, sort of like when you're reading the book of Judges and they go through this cycle where they get enslaved to a foreign power and then they cry out to the Lord, they get right with God, and then God sends a judge to deliver them. And then once he delivers them, there's a certain period where things are good. So the land rested for 20 years, it will say, or the land rested for 30 years. So in Chapter 7, Samuel is basically that judge who rises up. He calls the people to repentance. They get right with God. He leads them against the Philistines. They are delivered. And then Samuel in Chapter 7 continues to judge Israel. The Bible says in Chapter 7, verse number 15, and Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. This is after he's led them to victory and freedom. And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah and judged Israel in all those places and his return was to Remah for there was his house and there he judged Israel and there he built an altar under the Lord. So that's sort of the happy ending to the saga about Samuel and the Philistines and all that. But in Chapter 8, we get into a new phase. So many, many years have gone by. The children of Israel have been at rest for a long time. Samuel has been judging them. And it says in verse number 1, it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now the name of his firstborn was Joel and the name of his second Abiah. They were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his ways but turned aside after Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment. Then all the elders of Israel gathered themselves together and came to Samuel and to Remah and said unto him, Behold, thou art old and thy sons walk not in thy ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. Now they've been under the system of the judges for many hundred years, over 400 years, but now all of a sudden they want to throw out that system that God had ordained for them in the Mosaic law of having a judge to rule over them. And now they want to have a king to be like all the other nations. Now the idea with having a judge was that he wasn't supposed to be a king, it's that he's a judge. And so God is actually the one that's reigning over them. The Lord is their king and the judge is just there to preach God's word and to actually just interpret God's word to people and take care of disputes and things by looking to God's word. It's sort of like today in our government we have a judicial branch and a legislative branch and an executive branch, right? And what are the purposes of each of these branches? The legislative branch is the one that makes the laws. And then the judicial branch is the one that interprets those laws. And then the executive branch is the one who executes or carries out the law. And so if you think about it, in God's system the executive is God in a sense, right? Or just the people in general are the executive. Everybody sort of carries out the will of God. And then the legislative branch, well there isn't one because they've got the Mosaic law and it doesn't change and they just live by that. And then the judge just sort of interprets God's law and leads the people in that way. So that was the system, but now they want to throw out that system and say, well no, we just want to have a king and be like the other nations. Now why do they feel this way? Well because of the fact that Samuel's sons are not walking in his ways. Samuel's a great guy, he's a powerful man of God, a great preacher, a godly man. And he even talks about a little bit later how he hasn't taken any bribes, he hasn't ripped anyone off, he's been very honest in his dealings. And all of the people testified to the fact that Samuel for decades had done good service and not taken bribes or done anything dishonest. But yet unfortunately the Bible says in verse 3 of this chapter, his sons walked not in his ways. Now this is why a hereditary system is not a good idea because it's not a guarantee that someone's sons are going to be the same type of leader that they are. And so that's why this idea of having a king where his son automatically becomes king and his son automatically becomes king is a bad idea because a lot of times these type of dynasties will degenerate over time because of the fact that they're not merit based. So it should be that positions of leadership are based on the person's individual merits, not just the fact that they are just automatically in because they are a child of the previous leader. It should be merit based, not based on a bloodline. Now what's funny here is that they are rejecting the system of the judges because of the fact that Samuel's sons don't walk in his ways, but here's the thing, the system of the judges was never meant to be hereditary and the Bible never said, oh, it's going to be this dynasty of judges and everything. So they've kind of added something to this of, well, Samuel's this great judge so his son automatically becomes judge and then all of a sudden they're wondering why the system doesn't work. The system isn't working because it's not God's system. It's God's system with a twist and what they need to do is just say, okay, if Samuel's sons aren't following in his ways, let's just get someone else to be the judge. Let's find a new judge and the Bible says in Exodus and Deuteronomy how they're supposed to go about looking for the right kind of judge and what kind of men would do a good job filling that role. That's what they're supposed to do. Seek out a new judge, but instead they just sort of throw out the baby with the bathwater and just want to ditch the whole system and just give up on the whole system just because of these sinful sons of Samuel, instead of just saying, well let's get rid of these guys, they're instead just giving up on the whole system and just getting rid of God's system. I think it's possible for us to do that in our Christian lives as well where there will be a certain system that God has put in place and sinful people will do wrong within that system and instead of just realizing that's a sinful person, this person is the problem. This person has done wrong will instead just toss out the system and say, well it doesn't work or it turns out we need to do things more like the world and God's way isn't working so I'm just going to try something different and get rid of God's plan and just go with whatever America is doing in 2022 and this is a big mistake. God's system is the right system and we can talk about a lot of different systems that God has put in place, whether it's the home, whether it's the local church, whether it's soul winning. We can go down the list of systems and institutions that God has ordained and we need to realize that when things go wrong within these institutions it's not because the system is the problem, it's not God that was the problem when he designed it, no it's just that people are sinners, human beings have free will and human beings tend toward sinfulness and so we are going to have problems in any system in our life because of human error. Families are going to have problems, churches are going to have problems, jobs are going to have problems, governments are going to have problems, why? Because of the sinfulness of mankind. Every single human being is a sinner, myself included, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Any good thing that I do or am is by the grace of God, it's the new man, the new creature that allows me to actually do worthwhile things for God and have a good nature, good heart or good spirit, that's all from the Lord. But in our flesh we tend to be sinful, don't we? I mean the Bible says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it, right? We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God, there's none righteous, no not one. This is just the reality of human nature. Some people are better at outward appearances than others but in general in this world it's a sinful place out there and if we look inside of ourselves guess what we're going to find? All of the sinful tendencies that are there when we think about our flesh, we don't just roll out of bed just automatically wanting to do all the right things and be a great Christian. We have to die to self and die daily and take up the cross and follow Christ and so the problems in this world are not due to a problem with the systems that God has put in place, it's usually because we're not following God's system. Or maybe God's system is being followed and the people within that system are sinful people and they're messing it up. Like okay you've got the right system of the judges but you've just got the wrong judges. Now what was wrong with these guys? Well the Bible says in verse number 3, his sons walked not in his ways but turned aside after lucre. So they have become enamored with the things of this world to the point where they're greedy of gain, they want wealth, they want riches and we know that the love of money is the root of all evil. And so Samuel is not a covetous man at all, they didn't get this from him. Because Samuel throughout the story it's evident and he even tells the people look this is how I am and they all agree yeah you're not a covetous guy, you're not a greedy individual. But yet even though Samuel is not this way, his sons end up being this way, why? Because they're human and human beings can always make the choice to go down that dark path. Any of us could choose at any time to start going down a dark path. We all have our flesh and our sinful nature that's there pulling us toward the wrong values where instead of seeking first the kingdom of God, where instead of hungering and thirsting after righteousness we start hungering and thirsting for the nicer house and the fancy cars and the expensive things and the riches of this world. We all have that tendency to start prioritizing the things of this world and forgetting about the things of God, forgetting about the morality that God wants us to live and the commandments that he's given us. And so his sons are stupid and they don't realize the spiritual inheritance that they've gotten from their dad and instead they just decide to go after the wealth of this world. And because they're in these positions of authority, they abuse those positions of authority in order to get the wealth that they want. So because they're in a position where they're judging the people and they turned aside in their heart after Lucre, now they're going to use their positions as judges in order to make money so they take bribes. And a bribe is of course when someone pays off the judge to give them the judgment that they want. So a judge is supposed to just interpret the law and be fair and impartial, listen to both sides, look what the law says and say, okay, I'm ruling in your favor. You're right, you're wrong, you know, you're going to pay him because that's the way this case worked out. That's what judges are supposed to do but a judge who takes bribes is one where basically you give money to the judge and he just rules in your favor. And this happens all the time. It's probably happening, you know, a hundred times a day all over this world. Judges are being bribed constantly. Now there are many judges I'm sure that have integrity and would never take bribes and they would just take their salary and just be happy with it. But a lot of other judges, you know, they just want to make money on the side so they're taking bribes. They're just receiving money and they're just a coin-operated justice instead of actually doing what's right, they just do whatever they're being paid to do. It's wicked, it's evil, and it's horrible and that's what they're doing. Because they took bribes, they end up perverting judgment, meaning that one person is clearly right but they'll rule in the other person's favor because they're getting paid to do so. So they go after Lucre, which is something that Samuel never went after, which is what made him a good judge. They go after Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment. And again, what's interesting is that if you go back to Exodus and Deuteronomy and look at the qualifications that they were supposed to look for in a judge, one of the qualifications for the judges was that they were supposed to hate covetousness. He said, you know, find these guys that have these qualities hating covetousness. So not only should they not be covetous, but they should be the type of person that's not even close to being covetous. They're not even on the verge of being covetousness. They hate covetousness. They're as far in the other extreme as possible. And so Samuel fit that bill, but his sons didn't, and so therefore his sons should have not been made judges. But unfortunately, because Samuel is dad, his judgment's a little bit clouded. And sometimes people, when they look at their own children, they give them the benefit of the doubt. They always want to see the good. They want to kind of be blinded to the bad things that are going on. And so therefore, he, you know, makes his sons judges over Israel even though they don't have any character. He doesn't see that. He makes them judges anyway. And then when he goes to defend himself to the people, he doesn't say, aren't my, my sons are good guys. He gets up and says, like, I hate covetousness. And they're like, yeah, we know. But that's not the point. Okay. So because they didn't follow God's plan to the letter, it ends up falling apart. And not only that, even if they had followed God's plan to the letter, human error is always going to be there. The reason the Old Testament in general didn't work out is because of the sinfulness of the nation of Israel. That's just the way life works. So they're basically throwing out the system. It says in verse six, but the thing displeased Samuel when they said, give us a king to judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the Lord, and the Lord said unto Samuel, hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee, for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. So when you throw out God's system, you're not rebelling against that specific person. You're not punishing that certain person that has messed things up. But rather what you're doing is you're actually rejecting the Lord because he's the one who put that system in place. So what are some examples of this? Think about the institution of marriage today. The institution of marriage is under attack today. And if you look at the statistics on marriage, now for the first time in history over the last few years, more households consist of people who are not married than married. So in the United States of America, if you have a man and a woman living together, chances are they're not married. I mean that's incredible. So that right there should show you that the institution of marriage is under attack. If we went from 90 some percent of couples living together are married to now all of a sudden a married couple is the minority. Most households are not centered around a married couple. This should show you that the institution of marriage is under attack. And you have a whole movement out there, a whole group of people, MGTOW, right? Women going their own way. And these men have given up on the institution of marriage. And if you see these guys talk online, they'll say there's no benefit to getting married. It's a bad deal for the man, you know, because why? Because the government will always side with the woman. And you know, all the laws and everything are against men. And so therefore, if we get married, we're basically just putting ourselves in this position where it's a total disadvantage for us and they hold all the cards. We have no recourse. You know, if our wife disobeys or doesn't submit, we have no recourse and everyone's going to back our wife up against us and we're just basically. And this is the attitude they have. And here's the thing, obviously there's always going to be a kernel of truth in these things because obviously we do live in this feminist society that has turned things upside down and that no longer respects a man's right to rule his home, right? I mean, God says that the husband's the head of the wife and that the man is supposed to rule his house, but our society doesn't respect that. Do they? No, they're feminist and they don't believe in wives obeying their husbands. They don't believe in wives submitting their husbands. Even churches, even Christians don't even typically teach or believe that anymore. And so because this institution has been altered from God's original intent, then you have these people that come along, the MGTOWs, who just want to throw out the whole thing altogether and just say, well, because of the feminism and because of the way the laws are and the way our society is, I'm just going to just throw out marriage in general. I'm just going to give up on marriage in general. And you say, well, Pastor Anderson, why should I get married? Why should I participate in this? And the answer is simple, because it is the will of God. That's why. Because God has ordained marriage. God created human beings in the beginning. He created the male and female. And he said that for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let a man put asunder. And you say, well, it's not working. Do it anyway, because God said to do it. And that is enough of a reason to do anything. Don't give up on God's system because of the sinfulness of man. Now, are there bad husbands out there that abuse their authority as husband? And women will say, oh, you know, the Bible says obey your husband, but you know, my husband, blah, blah, blah. Oh, wife's supposed to submit to their husband. This guy's abusive or whatever. But here's the thing, even if a sinful person does wrong within God's system, that doesn't mean we throw out the system. You know, okay, Samuel's sons are bad judges. Okay. But that doesn't mean that the system of the judges was bad. It just means that these guys are bad. God's system is not the problem. And look, when they wanted to get rid of the system and go with something more mainstream, what all the nations around them are doing by having a monarchy, it displeased Samuel. But not only did it displease Samuel, it displeased the Lord. The Lord said, they have rejected me that I should reign over them. By seeking a king, by throwing out the system that I instituted, they have rejected me. Does that sound like God approves of this? And so we don't want to reject God's system because of the fact that there's a bad husband out there or because of the fact there's a bad wife out there. No, we need to believe in and have faith in God's system. Now sometimes it can be hard to trust God because sometimes we're trusting God, we're following the word of God, and things aren't working out. And sometimes it can be tempting to say, you know what, things aren't really working out the way that I thought they would, and I'm checking all the boxes, I'm doing what the Lord told me to do, I'm following the word of God, and I don't know if this is working out and, you know, it could be easy to be tempted to do what? To just say, you know what, I'm just going to do things the way of this world. I'm just going to throw out the system. But we need to have faith in the system. What system? God's system. Whatever that system is, whether it's marriage, whether it's a local church, whether it's soul winning, whatever, have faith in the system. You know, a verse that I quoted many times is, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. You know, there are so many times in our lives where things don't go the way that we thought they would go or the way that we want them to go, but at the end of the day, I am going to believe God's word no matter what, I'm going to stay the course, I'm going to keep following God's plan, I'm not going to just go back to the drawing board and say, okay, God's system isn't working, let's try something else. Let's see what the world's doing. Let's see what other unsaved heathens are doing and let's try that method and let's not follow the Bible. You know, I'm not going to sit there and say, oh well, you know, if my marriage isn't working out the way that I wanted it to, I'm just going to try a totally different marriage philosophy that's not from the Bible. Maybe we should do a marriage philosophy where I'm not the boss. Maybe we should do a marriage philosophy where my wife doesn't submit to me or where she doesn't obey me and where we have no leader and where it's just 50-50 and it's a partnership and it's a team and whatever and just get some worldly book on marriage and say, you know what, I'm not going to do it God's way anymore, I'm going to try this other way. God forbid, I'm staying with the system. I'm following God's system, I'm going to follow God's word and if it kills me, I'm going to follow God's word. Now, I'm not having a problem in my marriage, I'm just saying in general, I will follow God's plan and God's system even if it kills me because though he slayed me, yet will I trust him. By the way, it's not going to come to that because in life, what you'll find is that if you stay with God's system and if you don't give up on God's institutions and you don't give up on God's plan, you know what you'll find out is that in the end, things do end up working out and all things do work together for good to them that love God and to them who are called according to his purpose but in the short term, it can sometimes seem like God's system isn't working and so let's try something else. Now folks, the local church has done the same thing. Marriage is one example of that but here's another example of that. Is the local church saying, well, we're following God's system and the church isn't growing as fast as we want it to or we're not reaching the world with the gospel as fast as we want to so we're going to throw out what the Lord has ordained for the church and seek after worldly methods and go after the world's philosophies and look how many churches today are forsaking biblical preaching. They're not preaching the whole counsel of God. They're not preaching all the difficult things in the Bible. They're not going out and evangelizing like they did in the book of Acts and preaching the gospel to every creature daily in the temple and in every house. They cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. No, they've just gotten rid of that. They've gotten the sleek marketing campaign. They brought in the worldly music, the worldly entertainment. They've cut down the sermon to be a minimal part of the service and the sermon barely uses the Bible. It's not the whole counsel of God. There's no evangelism as far as going out and actually preaching the gospel. It's more just like a business that advertises, give people the product they want, get people in the door, the people pay, you build the fancy building and this is their new system of the fun center church, I call it, that's not really a biblical Christianity with any meat on the bone. And then what's the fruit of that movement? What's the result of that movement? Well, just go out door to door and go with us and knock doors and ask these people if they know for sure they're going to heaven and you'll see the fruit of that movement because you're going to find a lot of people in these churches that aren't saved and they don't even know the gospel, let alone knowing the rest of the doctrines that God has for us in the Bible. And so we are not going to give up on the system at Faithful Word Baptist Church. We're not going to give up on hard biblical preaching. Biblical preaching that is in the tradition of the preachers found in the Bible where they preached hard on sin, they held nothing back, they rebuked, they reproved, they exhorted with all long suffering and doctrine. We're not giving up on that system, all right? We're going to keep on with the old fashioned preaching and all of that we're going to keep on with soul winning. And let me tell you something, soul winning is not getting easier in the United States of America. It's not getting more receptive out there. Every year it doesn't get more receptive, rather every year it gets a little bit less receptive out there. That's just the reality, okay? It's not getting more receptive, it's getting less receptive out there. As our country is de-Christianized, people are getting hostile toward the things of God, people are getting so busy with other things, people are so into their electronics and gadgets, sometimes just a human interaction at the door might even freak them out a little bit. But the bottom line is that today the soul winning is not getting more receptive out there. If anything, America is getting a little less receptive every year. Back in the 60s and 70s and 80s, if we were a time machine, went back and went soul winning in those days, you know, we'd be getting more people saved. Back then, because it was just more receptive. Why? Because our culture is in decline, Christianity is in decline in general, the country is being de-Christianized. This is just the way it goes. You know, there's nothing that we can do about it. All we can do is reach as many people with the gospel as we can, be salt and light, and in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom we shine as lights in the world, all we can do is reach the individual with the gospel, call God's people to repentance, and try to do what we can within our own communities and within our own circles of Christian fellowship. But at the end of the day, in this country of 340 million people, the trajectory is downward at this point, and that's just the way it is. And that doesn't bother me. It's just the world that we live in, it's the time that we were born in, things are on cycles, they get better, they get worse, and we're on a downward cycle of our country. It's just the way life is. So what? It is what it is. But I'm not going to say, well, you know, soul winning is getting harder, it's getting less receptive out there, so I'm just going to throw out the system and just say, well, let's just try something else, let's just try to put on drama presentations at our local church, and let's just hand out invites to come to some special evangelistic crusade or whatever. No, at the end of the day, there's no substitute for walking out those doors with a Bible in your hand and just walking up to somebody and showing them the gospel from the Bible. How could that ever become outdated? How could that ever become obsolete? How could that ever go out of style, just opening your Bible and showing somebody how to be saved? And you know what? I'm not giving the gospel to strangers, not just the small group of people that you actually know. I'm talking about going into all the world and preaching the gospel to every creature and going out into the highways and hedges and preaching the word of God to people. You know, I'm not going to give up on it because it gets hard. Okay? Now, some countries are way more unreceptive than the US. I mean, the US isn't bad, and honestly, Phoenix, Arizona isn't bad. There are other places we could go in America that are a lot less receptive than Phoenix. Phoenix is a pretty good soul winning. You know, I love Pastor Jimenez and Verity Baptist Church and I love my hometown of Sacramento. And so I love it when I get to go out there and spend time with them. But let me tell you something. I believe that the soul winning is a little more receptive in Phoenix than it is in Sacramento. And thank God for Verity Baptist Church because they're still getting a ton of people saved in spite of the fact that it's a bit of a tough mission field there. But yet, even in a tough place, they're getting a bunch of people saved. I'm sure there are places that are tougher than Sacramento, there are places that are easier than Phoenix. There's a whole spectrum, but I don't care if you're in some European country where it's the most unreceptive place ever, get out and win somebody to the Lord and you're going to be able to do it. You know, we've got people doing it right now in places like Germany and Switzerland and England and Scotland. Soul winning is happening in these places that are way less receptive than the US, but yet soul winning is happening and people are getting saved. Don't give up on the system. Okay? God's system will always be relevant, whether it's marriage. Marriage is always going to be a thing for God's people. Even if the world says, oh, it's outdated, it's obsolete, it's antiquated for God's people. It's not an option. See, we don't have the option to just say, well, I'm just not going to get married. I'm just going to live with my girlfriend because God calls that fornication and it's a major sin and he condemns that. And so we've got to follow God's plan. We've got to make that lifelong commitment, one man, one woman for life and not give up on that system. When it comes to the local church, don't give up on the system. How many people have you talked to that said, oh, you know, I don't go to church because I have this bad pastor and this is what he did or, you know, the pastor ran off with the secretary or the pastor embezzled funds or was drunkard or whatever. And so I had a bad experience or, you know, oh, there was this other scandal or whatever. You know, so many people, they give up on church because they had a bad experience at church. I mean, we talked to people like that also all the time where, oh, I don't go to church because I had this bad experience 10 years ago or five years ago or 20 years ago or whatever. I don't care if it was 20 minutes ago, you know, at the end of the day, stay with the system. Now look, if the church is really a bad place, then go to a different church. If the pastor is a bad pastor, then get a different pastor, but don't give up on the institution of having a pastor, of having a church because it's not the institution that's brought. Maybe it's just that pastor that's the problem or that church that's the problem or those people. Oh, you know, these people at the church, they were gossiping and they were hypocrites and whatever. Those people are the problem, but church as an institution isn't the problem, so don't give up on the system. Yeah. Okay. Samuel's sons are bad judges, but it's not the system of the judges that's bad. It's just those people that are bad and you know what you're going to find is that the church is not the only place that contains gossips and hypocrites. You know where you're going to find gossips and hypocrites in every area of life. I'm sure down at the grocery store, if we were to work out the grocery store as a checkout clerk, I guarantee there'd be all kinds of gossip going on in that grocery store and there'd be all kinds of drama and gossip and backbiting going on amongst the checkout clerks of that grocery store. And you say, well, why bring that up pastor Anderson? Well, because you know, I've talked to people that worked at grocery stores and they say it was like a soap opera at their grocery store. I've talked to multiple people who said, you know, it was like a soap opera and there's all these, you know, romances going sour and all kinds of gossip and backbiting and hypocrisy and things going on. But I guarantee you that we could just start naming workplaces and cubicles at call centers and offices and different places, different workplaces where there'd be lying and slander and backbiting and gossip and drama, hypocrites, people that are prideful, people that are stealing, people, folks, it's called sin and it exists in the flesh of every single person and it exists in every institution in this world. You know, you go down to the Christian school, you're going to find it there. You go to the public school, you're going to find it there. You go to the church, you're going to find it there. Every single institution is going to contain these type of things because of the sinful people that are in that institution and because we have a heart as human beings that is sinful by nature, these things are going to happen. But don't throw out God's institution and say, well, I'm giving up on church because I had a bad experience, because of the leader or because of my fellow church members or the ladies or the teenagers or the kids or whoever, you know, all the different reasons you could find why you want to give up on the institution. But you know what? I'm staying with it because it's God's will and the Joles and Abias of this world are not going to ruin God's will for me. They're not going to ruin God's system for me. I am going to do what's right and stay with the system. Is it going to have problems? Sure. Look, every marriage is going to have problems. Every family is going to have problems. There are going to be problems with the children. There are going to be problems in the church. If you don't think so, you're naive. If you think it is going to go through life and everything is going to be smooth and everything is going to be great, you know, you show me a church where everything is going smooth all the time, I'll show you a church that's probably not doing anything. I mean, yeah, we could probably find some church of a bunch of old people and it's just kind of cruising along and there's never any drama. Folks, if there's no drama, there's probably no soul winning. There's probably nobody being baptized. There's probably no big mission strips going on. You know, sometimes there will be drama on a mission strip, but you know, I'd rather have a mission strip, get a bunch of people saved and have some drama than to just say, oh, we never have any drama. We always get along perfectly. Yeah, it's because you're never doing anything. You know, the church that's actually kind of redlining sometimes and pushing hard and working, there's going to be a little friction. Friction is going to produce a little heat. There's going to be a little bit of opposition and there are going to be some bad times, but I'd rather have good times and bad times than to just be a dead, lukewarm church that's not accomplishing anything. You know, you do a bunch of stuff for God, you're going to be under attack by the devil. There's going to be all kinds of infiltrators and all kinds of people coming in and causing problems. There are going to be all kinds of sycophants and weirdos and you know what, I could have said a long time ago, you know, well, I don't want to have this gigantic YouTube channel and be reaching millions of people online because then I'm just surrounded by sycophantic weirdos that are like basically constantly stalking me and emailing me and calling me and I get all these weird people that, you know, stalking me in my personal life and stuff. But at the end of the day, you know, it's worth it because if you're going to reach a bunch of people and preach the gospel to millions of people, then you're going to have to pay a cost for that, okay? It's just the way life is. So yeah, can you find a church that has no issues? Yeah, but they're probably not doing much for the Lord. And you show me the church where the action is happening and I guarantee you there are going to be fights and problems because the devil wants to fight that church and it's filled with human beings and yeah, it's easy to have a church that runs smooth when there's 10 people in it, right? But when you run in over 300, there's going to be more problems. The bigger the church, the more problems there are. I mean, if our church were running a thousand, there'd be even more problems. It's just the way life is. And don't get me wrong because our church isn't having any problems right now. Our church is actually running very smoothly. So apparently we need to do more, you know what I'm saying? I'm just saying, you know, over the years, things are going to happen. And you know, the faint at heart, as soon as things get ugly, as soon as something goes wrong, as soon as there's a problem, as soon as somebody sins or does something, they're just going to just freak out and quit the church. And not only do they quit the church, it'd be one thing if they just quit the church and just went to another like-minded church, another fundamentalist Baptist church here in town. You know, there are a bunch of independent fundamental Baptist churches in town, soul winning churches, King James Bible preaching churches, even in this area. I mean, there are a bunch of them. You know, it'd be one thing if they just got disgruntled with faithful word and just went to another like-minded church. Here's the thing about that. If they, if they got disgruntled and went to another like-minded church, you know what they're going to find at the other like-minded church? They're just going to be basically trading one set of problems for another because it's just everywhere they go, there's going to be human beings everywhere they go. They're going to be trade offs and, and, and they might find a church that has everything, everything they don't like about faithful word, they'll be like, Oh yeah, this church has that. All right. But then that church will have a bunch of other things that faithful word was good at and that they're not good at. And so you're kind of just trading one set of problems for another. It's sort of like divorcing your wife and marrying another wife. You're trading one set of problems for another, you know, you leave your husband and go find some other dude to be married to. You're trading one set of problems for another because you're never going to be married to a perfect person. You never going to go to a perfect church. That's just the way life works. And so therefore, you know, it'd be one thing if people just left and went to another like minded church. But how many times do people get disgruntled and what do they do? They just quit going to church at all. They just get out of church. They just stop serving God. And next thing you know, they're still on your Facebook friends list or whatever. And they're just promoting all this worldly sinful stuff. And next thing you know, it's all about alcohol and it's all about the partying that they're doing. Or it's just about some super liberal NIV preaching church that they go to now or whatever. And it's just, they just totally go off the deep end and you're like, dude, why did you give up on the system? You know, just one little road bump and you just freak out. You know, I mean, you know, we could go through tons of examples of, of things that freak people out. But you know, a lot of our, a lot of our friends are going through situations where they get protested by sodomites. Now thank God we've been spared from this for seven and a half years now. And so, you know, we went through that phase where we had all the weirdos and protesters and everything like that. But thankfully for the last seven and a half years, it's been totally quiet and doesn't seem like it's ever going to start up again. Praise God for that. And so it's nice, you know, to have peace. But a lot of our, a lot of our church friends, you know, they can't say the same. You know, they're, they're dealing with this for months and months on end. I mean, you look at places like Steadfast Baptist Church. I mean, they're just getting protested month after month after month. You look at Verity Baptist. They were protested for a long time. I don't think they are now, but they were protested for like a year straight or something. You know, our, our protesters never last more than like three weeks. And like I said, it's been almost eight years since they were even here. But you know, thank God for that Arizona sun that really cooks them, like, especially in the summertime, they come out and protest, they're like, forget this, you know, you're just like, I'm like getting up in the morning just Oh God, please give us the hottest day. Please let go global warming be real for once Lord, let it burn. Because we can handle it inside with the air conditioner on Yeah. But you know, they just cook out there. They're just frying out there on the pavement out in the sun, nuts to them. And so, you know, there are a lot of people though, that would quit going to these churches because of the fact that there are protesters outside that you're weak, my friend. If they'll faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. Don't faint in the day of adversity. That's a small price to pay to go to a soul winning church to have to go through some protesters outside or whatever. And that kind of stuff is going on. You know, other other people get sued or whatever, like, you know, we've never been sued. I've never been sued because, you know, I don't own anything. So it wouldn't be it wouldn't be very helpful to sue me. And so, I mean, I own my home, I have a mortgage on it. But here's the thing. They can't take away the house that you live in. They can't take away your primary residence. So you know, I don't have some second house or something for them to take away. They can't take away my primary vehicle, they take away my primary residence. That's all I got. So have fun suing me, there's nothing to take, you know, I don't have any money. But here's the thing, you know, I've seen people quit a church because they were named in some frivolous lawsuit. Okay. You know, one of our pastor friends, his church is being sued, the pastor is being sued and a bunch of the members are being sued. But here's the thing. The only reason that they're being sued is because the lawyer is an activist. It's like they have a free lawyer, because a real lawyer who's just in business would laugh this lawsuit out the door because it's such a stupid, frivolous lawsuit. Like they can't win. And so if you actually go to a lawyer and try to sue someone, if you don't have a good case, the lawyer is going to be like, no, I'm not going to waste my time on this. There's no money in this. And if you had to just pay, you know, $750 an hour to some lawyer, you're not necessarily going to just be suing people unless you have a chance at winning. Am I right? Okay. Here's the thing. These people, it's some sodomite paralegal who works for an activist lawyer, literally. It's a sodomite paralegal who works at an activist lawyer and so they're just suing the church for fun. Like they're just suing the church for kicks because they just want to harass the church. And guess what? On the case of weakling church members, it works. Because basically, you know, the church members, they get served with some frivolous lawsuit and all of a sudden they're worried, you know, the, oh man, I'm going to get sued and you know, my boat and my second home and my RV and whatever. It's like, hold on a second. You know, I don't remember that chapter in Fox's book of martyrs about people getting sued for the cause of Christ. I never read that chapter. I read about people being tortured, people being in prison, people being killed, but I don't remember reading about people who got named in a frivolous lawsuit. And this lawsuit, the one that I'm thinking of, I think it's been going on for literally over five years now. And it's just kind of this ongoing, just kind of annoyance. It's like a, it's like a mosquito buzzing around you, except it's not even like a mosquito because a mosquito actually bites you and takes a little blood out of you. It's more like just a fly buzzing around. It's like, you know, cause the thing's landing on you. But at the end of the day, it can't really hurt you. Okay. But today so many people, they're just afraid of their own shadow today. And so then it's just like, that's it. I'm getting out of church and you know, I don't like the way the pastor handled this lawsuit or he didn't protect me enough. He didn't buy me a lawyer or he didn't do this or what, you know, I don't agree with how he handled it or whatever. It's like, get over it. It's a stupid lawsuit. It's a boogeyman. It's a frivolous lawsuit. It's not going to go anywhere. But even if the lawsuit were real, even if someone were going to sue me and take away my coat, then hey, have my cloak also. Isn't that what the Bible says? If any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat, let them have thy cloak also. So it sounds to me like God expects us to be willing to pay a little bit of a price to serve him. And that might include getting sued and losing something. And like I said, these lawsuits don't even end up materializing anyway. But even if they did, even if it were possible for me to lose my house, even if it were possible for me to lose my vehicle, even if it were possible for me to lose the shirt off my back, I'm willing to die for Jesus Christ. I thought that that's what the Bible said, that we're supposed to have that level of commitment, that we're supposed to be willing to give up everything if necessary. I mean, that's what the Bible says. I didn't make that up. I'm going to be faithful unto death and I'll give thee a crown of life. But today, people freak out about something so small and then they just give up on church, give up on serving God because someone did something that they didn't like at the church or whatever. And so what am I trying to say tonight? Don't be like the children of Israel here where because of sinful man or because the institution isn't being carried out exactly the way God set it up. They just give up on the institution. So whether that's because marriage today in the United States, marriage is not being run the way that God intended in the Bible. The way the law looks at marriage is not the way the Bible looks at marriage. The way that most churches and most individuals today look at marriage is not the way the Bible lays out marriage. But you know what? We still need to stay with marriage. Even if the law stinks, even if society stinks, stay with marriage because it's God's will. The church has problems. The church is filled with sinners. The pastor is not perfect. Stay with the institution. Don't give up on it, okay? Soul winning is getting hard. It's getting unreceptive. It doesn't seem to work as well as it used to. Stay with it. And by the way, there hasn't even been a decline in our soul winning effectiveness because yeah, it's getting harder and more unreceptive but we just have like more people going out. And so we're still able to keep those numbers cranking of getting a lot of people saved. But you know what? Even if those numbers eventually did go down where we're just going out for hours and hours and hours and just barely getting one, two, three people saved, hey, that's still one, two, three people saved and it sure beats sitting around doing nothing. And so no matter how unreceptive it got, I would want to just stay with God's institution. And if the church suffered, if marriage suffered, if soul winning suffered, hey, I'm going to stay with the system. So two things that we would do besides not giving up the system would be number one, make sure you follow the system as close to what God intended as possible which means that the system of judges was not supposed to be hereditary. So that right there was a failure. And number two, sometimes we might just have to swap out a person. Now don't do this in marriage because marriage is for life. But how about this? Before you get married, figure that out. How about that? How about make sure you don't marry a bozo? How about make sure you don't marry a wicked person? Do the swapping while you're in the dating stage because once you're married, there's no swapping possible. But when it comes to churches or pastors, sometimes you need to make a change. Sometimes you need to change. Now I don't think you should just be hopping around churches because like I said, you're trading one set of problems for another. It's just each church has its pros and cons and so you might switch churches because the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. But sometimes you legitimately need to change churches. Sometimes there could be a pastor who's way out of line and obviously needs to be replaced. Obviously if some pastor is drunk or taking drugs or he's got a gambling addiction or he's committing adultery or fornication or something, then obviously, yeah, he needs to be changed out. Obviously if the church is preaching false doctrine or something, yeah, you might need to make a change. But at the end of the day though, swap out the person if necessary. Don't swap out the institution. Make someone else to get married to, but don't just say, I'm not going to get married. Maybe just decide I'm not going to get married to this person. I'm going to marry someone who wants to do things God's way or whatever. But at the end of the day, God's institution works. You're going to be more blessed in the long run if you stay with God's institution and even if things go wrong, I'd rather be in the will of God. I would rather crash and burn in my life in the will of God than to be succeeding outside of the will of God. Right? So, and that's where the verse comes in, though he slay me, yet will I trust him. Stay with it because God said so. And at the end, you know, I've even said to God sometimes, you know what, I've said, God, even though things are going wrong, I'm going to keep doing what you said, God. And if it doesn't work out for me, then when I get to heaven, I'm going to ask you why. You told me to do this and I did it and it didn't work out. And then you're going to have to explain it to me. But you know, whenever I've prayed that prayer, a few weeks go by, a few months go by, and then I end up not, I'm like, okay, I'm not going to have to confront God about that when I get to heaven now, you know, because now it all makes sense. So you just got to hang in there and have faith. Let's bow your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord, and thank you for these institutions that you've given us in our life, whether it's the family, whether it's marriage, whether it's church, whether it's evangelizing, just all of the different things that you've set up, the things you've set up for the workplace or what it means to work and have a job or to own a business, Lord, help us to stay with the things that you've taught us, stay with the institutions and the systems that you've given us, and to just realize that sinful man is the problem, but your system is not the problem, Lord. And I just pray that all of us would deny self every day and take up the cross and follow you so that we would not be those problem individuals, Lord. And when we do run into those problem individuals, help us to just forgive them and move on and just realize that this is the world we live in. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.