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

you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you you thank you for joining us once again on a Sunday night here at Stronghold Baptist Church at the but this time we'll go through our announcements. If you don't have one of these bulletins, zip your hand up real high. We'll make sure that we get one out to you. If you open up to the first page, you will see the service time's listed here. Sunday morning at 10.30. Sunday evening again at 5 p.m. Wednesday night at seven is our Bible study. We will be in Malachi chapter two this week. We've got the soul-winning opportunities listed there as well as the salvations and the baptisms for the month of February. So the year's starting off great. Praise the Lord, lots of salvations. A lot of people saved. There's a lot of soul-winning. We had a soul-winning marathon already, but what a great start to the year. So let's go ahead, and we had a baptism this morning also. We'll add that to the count, and then let's go ahead and count up any salvations to report for today. So three, four, one, two, and now is that the same four or different four? Okay, no double counting here, no double dipping. One per team. You said two, brother Jess? Okay, two, one, amen. Now that's your led someone, right? All right, good job, congratulations. Before we continue on, I just wanna say how encouraging it is and how exciting it is, and hopefully you're all excited. We have young people in our church, teenagers that have been getting people saved recently, multiple young people that have been, whether it's their first one or first few or whatever, people have been getting people saved, and the young people are doing this, and I think that's awesome. I think that's super exciting and super encouraging, so keep up the good work. Young people, really appreciate your efforts in going out and doing this. It means a lot. It means a lot, of course, to the Lord, but it means a lot to all of us. We think that sometimes kids might not think there's much that you can do, and there's a lot that you can do, and it is encouraging to me as a pastor to see y'all out there and doing this stuff, so honestly, keep up the good work. That's super exciting, good job. How many over here? One over here, and then one back there? And then, brother Vernon, what was the? 11, right, yeah, praise God. Did everyone kinda go to the same area? I mean, there's lots of Salvation's report, so this is great. Oh, you didn't see any other groups? Okay. Okay, I-20 and like the 85-ish, or not? Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, yeah, cool. Great, well, I'm gonna count these up, because there's, I need my glasses. 13, 24, 24 Salvation's, that's great. And then there was actually two Salvation's, one from Friday and one from Saturday that got unreported during the announcements this morning, so I wanted to make sure I add those right now. I was told about those individually, so that's one, that's probably, I'll have to look at our records, that might very well be a record for Salvation's, yes, sir? One yesterday, I didn't get it. Oh, one for yesterday, okay, thank you. One yesterday, it wasn't reported yet. I did get that one, brother Jeff told me about that. That's the same one, I assume. Yes, sir. Is there anything else to report for outside of today? Cool. But I was saying, I think that 24 might be a, that might be a new record. I don't know, I'll have to look at our records. For anything that's not like a marathon day, right, just a normal Sunday, that's really good, that's cool. So, great job. Yes, the weather's getting nice, I hear people are out and about, and when you go to receptive areas, man, it's really good. I'm jealous, I'm envious. No, I had a good time, I was at the retirement home today, so that went really well. All right, continuing on here, we got the offering totals down there at the bottom of the page through the month of February. Pray requests, continue to pray for the ladies with child and everyone else who's on our list. Had some good news from brother Will, that he's got a lot of interviews scheduled for this week, so hopefully that will pan out and pan out quickly to be able to start working as soon as possible. Shield of Faith Baptist Church, Pastor Jones. Yes, sir. I forgot to fill out a card, but I'd like to put my mom back on the list. She's having- Similar or different? Is it- Different stuff. Different stuff now? So, since the vaccine kind of destroyed the bacteria in there, her doctor, she has said that some other, I forget what it was called, but another kind of bad bacteria kind of moved in. Okay. It was causing problems there too, along with ulcers at the same time too, so. So, would it be like digestive, bacterial problems? Is that appropriate? It's still stomach problems, right? Yes. Yeah, it's part of the digestive system, right? So, your GI stuff. I'll put that. Digestive system issues. We'll put that. So, we're adding Faye Henry to the list. Again, she's been battling with that. If you remember in the past, where she's been on and off the prayer list for dealing with some various issues. So, now she still has some gut problems. So, we'll pray for her that everything will resolve hopefully quickly and get back to full health. So, the ulcers don't help in that area at all. It obviously kind of makes things a lot worse. So, we'll pray for her. And any other updates to prayer list? All right, on the next page. Of course, we're still in February, so don't forget that we are finishing off the challenge for February, the digital detox. If you've been involved with that, you already know about that. And then we're starting right up on March 1st with the prayer challenge. So, that's why I want to make sure this is in print here. Everyone's aware of this because this is one of those every single day things that in order to meet this challenge, you are gonna be completing this every day, 20 minutes of prayer as a minimum requirement to meet this challenge that you are investing in dedicated prayer time, which also will include the prayer lists. So, make sure you're praying for everyone on this list in part of your prayer time, which means you have to have this with you in order to complete the challenge for every day. So, I recommend taking a photo of this with your phone. Most people have phones. You could take a picture of it, then you know you have it with you. And then if you miss a week that's maybe updated, you at least have a prayer list to work off of. Obviously, take these home with you too, wherever makes the most sense when you do your prayers to do that. So, that's the March challenge. We gave away a lot of prizes this morning. Is there anyone who completed a challenge, either December or January or Hebrews chapter six, that did not receive their prize and is not waiting for something else to be brought in? All right, I feel pretty good. We had a decent attendance this morning and I think everyone got their stuff. So, cool. And like usual, the chocolate is gone. I have to just keep that in my mind. If ever I'm struggling to find prizes, hey, just get some chocolate. They're guaranteed to be, to go quickly. So, all right. We had our ministry luncheon today. Lots of people interested in security teams. Looking forward to that, to finishing up with all that. Now, I had mentioned it with the team members or the people who are at the meeting today, but if you've been involved in any of the meetings and you're not currently already participating and on the schedule for things. So, meaning like if you're in the music ministry, you've been in the music ministry, you're part of the program and everything, that's fine. You don't have to get back to me. But what I'm interested in is the people who have gone to some of these meetings who are interested in doing something you haven't already been a part of. And maybe it is the music ministry, but whatever you haven't been a part of, I wanna hear back from you now after sitting in on all of these meetings and whatever everything's about. And let me know what you're most interested in first. So, put your name at the, whatever ministry you wanna be a part of. If it's the security ministry, if it's the music ministry, whatever you like the most, whatever is most appealing to you, put that first. In addition to your available service times that you're planning on being able to commit to. And then list all the different things, if it's more than one, that you would like to be participating in. And then return that to me. I don't have a form. You could just write it however you want on a piece of paper, but I do appreciate if you could put it to paper to just help me to be able to organize it and put everything together and then be able to make sure everything is filled and all the ministries are gonna be fully functioning. So I appreciate that. And I'm really excited about the level of interest too. Everyone, everybody's just been so awesome being on board, helping. And even though we didn't have a luncheon for it, we do have cleaning crew. So anyone who wants to sign up for cleaning is always most welcome. And it is very helpful when we have more than one family or more than one person on the calendar to help clean. Because now that we have more space, everything is bigger and more and everything else. Now, I'm also working on trying to purchase some more things to make things a little bit more helpful here with all the cleaning and everything else that's going on. But bear with me. I've ordered a bunch of stuff still, waiting for some things to come in. We're improving, but definitely appreciate all the hard work that everyone's putting in here. It really makes a big difference. Hebrews chapter 7 is our Bible memory passage. We're memorizing now the first 14 verses. And then we'll move on to the next 14 verses after that. We've got seven weeks to get this knocked out. And you could earn a prize if you're able to quote this word perfect out loud within the time frame specified. We've got the upcoming birthdays and anniversaries there for the month of March listed there. A lot of people have events in March. And then on the back are all of the upcoming events. We've been advertising the Next Gen Youth Rally at Verity Baptist Church coming up here in like a week now. It seems it's going to be here before we know it. We've got our homeschool field trip on the 10th. And then again on April 7th, April 8th, we're doing a soul-winning marathon. And actually, anyone that wants to help me organize this, I'd appreciate it. Especially people who live, because I've been wanting to do something that's kind of North-ish. I don't even know exactly what that means. That could go all the way up to Kennesaw, Marietta, or even further up towards, my mind is drawing a blank right now. But anyways, just kind of like up to 75, up that way. I'm open for kind of all of that, anywhere that kind of makes sense to be able to still use church as a home base, but be able to go that way. But my normal routine and my tactics of being able to find what look to be really good soul-winning areas are not panning out for me. So normally I look for one and two star rated apartment complexes. I look for section 8 housing. I look for that type of stuff. And I'm not finding it as easily in that area. But I'm sure there's great areas to go soul. I'm sure there's going to be great areas of soul-winning there. So if anyone knows the area a little bit better than me or has some ideas on where we can go, it would be very helpful if you can provide me with some information on where you think would be a good place to go soul-winning up that way. Because if I don't get help with that, I might be forced to choose a different location. But I do want to kind of accommodate people that are up north and hopefully even be able to get announced early enough to get some people from Tennessee to come down and join us for this event, too. So that's my thought process with that. That's going to be the date. So April 8 is the day before Easter, Easter Sunday. So that's that Saturday. And then May 1 through 6 is a camping trip. So make sure you've signed up for that if you haven't already. That's about it for the announcements. I'm going to turn the service back over to Brother Peter. And he can lead us to the next song. Church, we get over to Amos, song 402, song 402, our best. Song 202. On the first, hear ye the Master's call. Give me thy rest. For me in great art school, that is his test. Do them the best you can, not for reward, not for the praise of me, but for the Lord. Every word for Jesus will be theirs. But he has wrote every one his prayers. Our talents may be few, these may be small. But unto him is to our best our own. We've got for what you've got, we've got their spot. Feeling the smile of God brings its delight. Reading the good and true, there goes the best. All that we think for you be in the best. Every word for Jesus will be blessed. But he has wrote every one his prayers. Our talents may be few, these may be small. But unto him is to our best our own. Amen. Church, we sing this time we'd like for Sunday evening offering. I'd like to ask the ushers to come up and clap up. The church, while the offering plates are being passed around, you can open up your Bibles to the book of 2 Timothy, chapter 4. That's 2 Timothy, chapter 4. Now, as we do customary here at Stromo Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter. I'd like to ask Brother Debbie if you can please do that. Once again, that was 2 Timothy, chapter 4. I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lust, shall they keep to themselves teachers having itching ears? And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things. Endure afflictions. Do the work of an evangelist. Make full proof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all of them also that love his appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me, for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world and is departed unto Thessalonica, Cretans to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry. And Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus will now comest bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works, of whom be thou also where, excuse me, of whom be thou where also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. At my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray, God, that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila and the household of Anesophorus. Harastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at Miletum sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter. Ibulus greeteth thee. Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. Brother Michael Ricardo, can you pray for us, please? Father, God, we just thank you for your word. We thank you for the preaching that we've done today. God, embolden Pastor Burzins with your Holy Spirit. Allow for this word to ring in our ears for us to be able to take it with us. We just praise you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. All right, so this evening, I want to preach on the subject of offensive preaching, just the subject itself. Hopefully, there won't be anything offensive in this sermon. But I want to teach on this subject, really, maybe even more than preach. I want to teach on just the idea of offensive preaching. And this is extremely important in getting ever more important of a subject to deal with in general. And I want to encourage you to not be discouraged when people are offended at preaching, whether it be from a pastor, whether it be from yourself, whether it be from anywhere. When people are preaching the word of God and people get offended, it can become discouraging. It does have an impact on us as human beings. So first of all, I just want to start off by giving some encouragement. One of our own has come under fire recently in the public sphere. So Brother Devin, when he filled in for me when I was sick, preached a sermon. I thought it was a great sermon, and he did a great job. Good job, really good job. A good sermon on when not to compliment people. Very much needed sermon, because Christians today kind of have this idea like you just always are complimenting people. Oh, yeah, good job. Like, two homies are getting married. Oh, yeah, good job, whatever. Some unmarried couple is having a baby. Oh, congratulations. Like, no, no, no. It needs to be spelled out. So it was a good sermon. But there's people out there that literally have no lives, that hate God, that follow new IFB. And I don't know what they would do if we didn't exist. I think we give them purpose for their life to be able to go on social media and just tell other people, ah, look at what these guys believe, look at what these guys are preaching, or whatever. So it's come under fire recently. It's funny, because I was at work on, what day was it? Friday when I messaged you? Was that Friday? Thursday or Friday, I don't know. I don't tell you guys. I get calls from time to time from people that are upset with us and whatever. And I never really answer the church phone anyways. I always call back if it's actually worth calling back, because I don't want to deal with that. So I got too busy with too many other things going on to deal with most of this stuff. So I get this call, and it was just about Brother Devin. But there's no context to the message. It was just saying, well, he's the abomination, and Jesus doesn't hate, and all this other stuff. Yeah, blah, blah, blah, a bunch of just garbage, right? But there was no reference. I'm just thinking, why in the world is someone calling our church about Brother Devin? Like, what did you do, Brother Devin? So I'm thinking, well, obviously something must have happened. Something always happens. This doesn't just come out of nowhere. Something always happens for a reason. And it's usually because someone posted somewhere on the web, and then someone else saw it. And now we've got some more bad ratings on Google for our church. These things, whenever anything happens, then I get some phone calls and everything else, and then it usually just dies off. But I just searched for his name then, and I was just thinking, what could it be? And then it popped up, and there it was. I was like, oh. And I forget the guy's name, and I'm glad I forget it, because I don't even want to say it, because why drive more people to give this guy more of an audience? I don't think he has some huge reach anyway. It's some atheist that, and some of you guys probably already know about it. I don't know if he tweets it, or if it's on Twitter, or what social media platform it even is. I'm never on Twitter. I'm almost never on social media in general anyways these days. So who knows, right? Whatever. He posted this thing with some clip, a Brother Devin sermon, where he was talking about that the homos need a bullet to the back of the head or something. I was just like, OK, well, yeah, we believe in Old Testament law. That ought to be put in place. Everything he said, I didn't have a problem with at all. Like I said, it was a good sermon. But he's all freaking out about that. So then, of course, I find that. I was like, oh, OK, cool. Well, I passed him the link to show him where his little moment, his little badge of honor is by the God-hating atheists that want to point out that we actually believe the Bible. Anyways, I know it's kind of a long story. Shouldn't even be that long of a story, but I'll tell you this much. We could laugh about it, and we know the truth about this, and we know that it doesn't really matter. But as a preacher, I could tell you this much. It does have an impact on you. It's usually not much, but it's there. It's something. There's something about human beings you don't generally like when people don't like you. It doesn't feel good that people are expressing all this discontent and hatred and everything else towards you. As a person, you kind of have a natural instinct to want people to like you. And a lot of times, people go along to get it. There's lots of things that are done and that we'll naturally do. Because we don't like conflict, you want to try to be peacemakers in general. So it's not pleasant going through this sometimes, and especially if it's just continuing going on and on and on, like Pastor Shelley's dealing with and stuff like that. It wears on a person. It does. But that's why we thank God for men of God and for people like Pastor Shelley that just refuse to back down. And they're staying strong and staying consistent because they're able to get through all of that garbage and keep doing what's right. So we need the encouragement, first of all, when things are preached that are offensive to some people out there in the world and they want to call you and complain and murmur and everything else and try to discourage. Well, I want to encourage because the world needs more of that. If we look down at 2 Timothy 4, 2 Timothy is, of course, the second epistle written by the Apostle Paul to Timothy. Timothy was an elder. He was a pastor of a church. He was a preacher. He was someone that was receiving instruction from the Apostle Paul. He was under his tutelage. He's receiving this wisdom. And Apostle Paul is just helping and guiding him in his job to be the best pastor he could be, to serve the Lord the way that he needs to do it. And Apostle Paul is kind of giving him all this instruction, which is why in chapter 4 verse 1 it starts off with, I charge thee therefore before God. He's giving him a charge, which is like an order or a directive or a mission. Here's what you need to do, Timothy. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead that is appearing in his kingdom. Preach the word. Preach the word. That's number one. Timothy, preach the word. And would God more pastors, more believers would be preaching the word and not just a story from their childhood or whatever and filling up all this time of just talking instead of preaching the word. Amen. We need the word preached. Biblical preaching is preaching the word. And then he says this, be instant in season, out of season. So what does it mean for things to be in season, out of season? It means whether it's popular or not. I mean, think about fashion. There are certain seasons when you're supposed to wear white and supposed to wear black and supposed to wear orange. And I don't know what any of that means because I wear the same thing all throughout the year because I'm instant. I don't go along with those fashion standards. I don't even know what they are. In season, out of season, I'm wearing a white shirt and a tie. And it's usually blue. What he's saying is when you preach the word, oftentimes there's different aspects of the truth, different aspects of things found in the Bible that are popular and then other things that are not. And it changes over time, too. Some things that were not an issue, for example, 20 years ago, now all of a sudden are huge hot button issues that is really offensive. And I'm definitely old enough to have seen the drastic changes in culture going more and more godless throughout my lifetime, things that used to be totally acceptable even in the world, world standards, worldly things, on the TV shows, in the movies, all this stuff that nobody would have cared or even blinked an eye at or would have just thought things were kind of funny. Now it's like, whoa, you must be crazy. And people like art artists, all these Hollywood people and musicians and stuff are apologizing now for stuff they put out not even that long ago. Like, oh, I'm sorry I said this or did this. It's insanity. And they don't care. They're not really sorry about it. They made them a bunch of money. They would do it again. They don't care. Because it's not about what's true. It's because there's people, as the Bible says here, and I'll go back and read a little bit more in verse 2. But look at verse number 3. The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. Whereas people, they just simply can't take it. Sound doctrine's being taught. Sound truths from the Bible are being taught, being preached. And there's some people that just won't be able to take it. Just, I don't want to hear it. They're going to stop their ears like they did at the preaching of Stephen and just run on him and just want to kill him. Because they just can't handle the truth. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine. But after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. They'd rather hear, a fable is a fake story. It's fiction. They go, I'd rather have somebody just lie to me, tell me some nice fairy tale, tell me some nice story, make me feel good. Oh, yeah, I got an itch right here. Oh, yeah, that feels so good. You keep telling me more about how awesome and wonderful I am and that hell is super cold and everyone's going to hell. Yeah, tell me more about that. That's what I want to hear. It's a lie. They don't care about that. They heap to themselves. They're just looking for who's going to stand up here and tell me what I want to hear. This is what this passage is talking about. There's people out there that are going to do that. It's happening today. It's happened all throughout history. There's nothing new under the sun. People have been like this for a long, long, long time. In fact, and stay here. I'll just read this for you. I've got another reference going back to Isaiah, in the book of Isaiah. This is from Isaiah chapter 30, verse number eight. The Bible says, now go write it before them in a table and note it in a book that it may be for the time to come forever and ever. And this is God speaking, saying that this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the Lord. It means they don't want to hear it. They don't care about the law of the Lord. They have nothing to do with it. Verse 10 says, which say to the seers, see not. I don't want you to see. I don't want you to prophesy. I don't want you to tell me what the word of God says or what the message from the Lord is. I don't want to know. See not and to the prophets prophesy not unto us right things. I don't want to know about righteousness. I don't want to know about judgment. I don't want to know about what's right. Speak unto us smooth things. Get it nice and polished up and smooth. Oh yeah, that's going to go down real easy. And then he says, this is prophesy deceits, prophesy lies. Well, the more people get wicked and the more they're looking to just be reaffirmed in their wicked lifestyle and the more popular that becomes and the less men of God, there are actually standing up and saying, no, I am going to prophesy. No, I'm going to, it's not going to be smooth. It's going to be hard preaching. It's going to be rough around the edges. I'm going to preach it. And this is the way it is. There's going to be more and more hatred, more and more people offended. Hey, as we get closer to the day of Christ, that's the way things are going anyways. People can't handle it, but we need it. We don't need lies. Who cares about lies? This has baffled me. I preached on this before. I still don't understand it. I don't understand what it is about a lie that someone, who would ever want to waste their life on a lie? What a waste. What garbage. I wouldn't even want to waste 10 minutes or an hour going somewhere where I know someone's going to be lying. Why would I want that? Isn't it just empty? Like whatever feeling, whatever scratch that you get on that itch of what you want to hear, it still is empty on the other end when you know it's not true, if you know it's a lie. I don't get where any satisfaction can come, like I don't understand people like this at all. We need to encourage the people who stand for truth and care about the truth and want to know the truth and not just have their ears tickled. These people went so far, the next verse there in Isaiah 30 says, get you out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. The Holy One of Israel is Jesus Christ. They're like, we don't want to hear about Jesus anymore. Make it stop. This is the cancel culture that we're in right now. I just don't even want to hear. It's so crazy and ridiculous. I got an email this week and this speaks volumes. It's just indicative about how blind, how ignorant, how brainwashed and how much critical thinking has been thrown by the wayside from this email that I read and every single statement, I actually respond. I normally don't respond to people when they write but something about his email made me think that this is probably someone who's younger because of the way they wrote and I don't know this but it's just an impression I got from reading it. Like it seems like a young person and they just made all these claims and every single one was false and just patently false and not just because of what I believe but just, I mean, just, I mean, there's like objectively false. Like you could just look at that and say, like that is just simply not true and people just repeat what they want to hear or what they have heard that they like and just repeat it but it's totally factually incorrect and it's like people don't even care. And I responded and I was just like, look, if you actually, if you ever want to write someone and you want to convince them of something, you need to know what you're talking about. You have to use facts and truth. You can't just make stuff up and just think that people are gonna go along and believe you. You're like, wow, thank you for showing me the error of my way. When some homo lover wants to send me some email telling me why I'm wrong, they start off making a statement that like the Bible never speaks about homosexuality. Not in regards to being right or wrong. It just says the Bible actually doesn't even talk about homosexuality. You can't make this stuff up. Like you must have never ever opened up a Bible once in your lifetime. To say that it doesn't even talk about it, you're insane or you're just repeating things that you've heard. You're willfully ignorant. You don't want to know the truth. It absolutely does. I threw all these verses in there. I was just like, you can't say that the Bible doesn't talk about this. And then they want to say, well, the Bible has been retranslated so many times and reinterpreted. I don't know how many times I hear that, retranslated. No, no, it hasn't been retranslated. Follow this now, if anyone doesn't understand this. There's an Old Testament. The people who wrote down the words of the Old Testament used the Hebrew language. Hebrew, Hebrew, okay, Hebrew. Anyone ever heard of that language before, Hebrew? Look at that, people have heard of the language, great. We know the language Hebrew. And then there's also some Aramaic. Okay, there's another language that's mixed in there. Not much. And then we have the New Testament that was written down in the Greek. Anyone ever heard of Greek? Hey, that's Greek to me. Okay, thank you. I know, I understand you didn't raise your hand, but you all have heard of Greek, okay, I get it. We all know Greek, but we don't know Greek. Some of us might know Greek, don't know. We've heard of it before, we know it's a language. It's a language that the New Testament was written in. Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Hebrew, Greek. Let's just narrow it down to those two things. It was translated into different languages from Hebrew and Greek. Not retranslated, it wasn't like, well, first it was translated into Arabic, and then from that it was translated into Syriac, and then from there it was translated into Chinese, and then from there it was translated, like it's retranslated over, like do you even know what a translation is? No, that didn't happen, it's just not true at all. It wasn't retranslated. It was translated. It was translated in English, it was translated, you know. And the whole point though is to cast doubt on just the, we don't even know what any of this stuff can say. But even that's not true. Even if you want to go to the garbage Bible versions, it's just not true. I mean, you could pull up just about any translation from almost any source manuscript of a Greek or Hebrew text, and it's gonna talk about homosexuality and it's not gonna be positive in every single instance. This is not debatable, it's fact, it's fact. And with basic reading comprehension, you can look at this and say, this is an abomination. This is worthy of death, their blood's gonna be, you know, like, oh, but it's a good thing. Yeah, but God actually endorses that. Like, what planet are you from? Zero critical thinking skills at all. This is the level of education and critical thinking that you have to deal with though. And people don't even care. They don't care about the truth. Now, I'm hoping, I was hoping, the only reason I even spent time answering, I'm hoping like, man, is this just some young person that is trendy and wants to voice out, hopefully they're not some homo themself, and they just feel like, I need to send them this. I don't know, I don't know if there's any hope. For that person. There is hope for some people though. Need to keep preaching. There's definitely people out there that could think. They are, they do exist. But what they need to hear though, is truth. There's a great thing about the truth, is that the truth fears no scrutiny. We don't need to worry about someone uncovering anything. If what we believe is true, hey, everyone can look at it. All day long, yeah, examine it, research it, look it up. If it's true, it's true, it'll never change. It's a great thing about the truth. Lies, lies always change. People just come up with different things. Truth, man, that remains. It's eternal. But this is how he's instructing, back to 2 Timothy chapter four, on how to preach. He's not only saying preach the word, be it in season, out of season, whether it's popular or not, preach. He says reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine. Well, I'll tell you what, when it comes to biblical preaching, when it comes to what a lot of people get offended at, it's the reprove and rebuke part, because reprove is being proven that you're wrong. Reprove, I need to prove this to you again. I need to show you an area here where you're wrong. And rebuke might be a little bit harder way of saying you're wrong. It's not right. This is the right way. And then the exhortation is the lifting up and the building up and the edification, encouragement. Two parts negative, one part positive in biblical preaching. It's all important, but he starts off saying you need reprove, you need rebuke, and you need to exhort. But then you do so with all long suffering and doctrine. Especially in a church setting, being long suffering with people, hey, you're gonna hear the reproving and the rebuking for sure from the pulpit. But we're gonna show long suffering with the people that need to implement changes in their lives. Hearing the reprove, hearing the correction, hearing from the word of God, okay, it needs to sink in. We're gonna give people grace and time to be able to incorporate these changes that are necessary, but not only with long suffering, but with doctrine, doctrine. It's funny, someone, I'm not gonna bring up the reference, but there was someone who used the word indoctrinated today and I'm just thinking like, yes, that is what we're trying to do. You know what I'm trying to do right now? Indoctrinate you. With good doctrine. Good doctrine, I want you to have good doctrine that comes from the Bible. Good teaching, good instruction, yes. I don't wanna be indoctrinated in the ways of the world, I wanna be indoctrinated with the ways of God. There's nothing inherently sinful or sinister about the word indoctrinated. If you're indoctrinated with all good things, with all true things, with all right things, then you're indoctrinated in a good thing. But it's all the more important for the preacher to be able to do these things, to be able to stand on the word of God, to be able to preach this way, because we know the time's coming when it won't be accepted and it won't be acceptable. So you just need to get it done now, you need to get the patterns formed where you're preaching this way. Now, I've got multiple examples here, I want you to turn to John chapter seven. You say, well, Apostle Paul was just kind of an angry guy and he's just trying to make Timothy an angry guy, but that's not how Jesus was, right? They weren't very Christ-like. Okay, well, we're gonna see how Christ-like Jesus is. That's always my favorite thing, when people talk about being Christ-like, well, what was, that was another thing. I've just been dealing with so many things lately, like another thing I don't do very often, but for whatever, it must have been because I was sick. I don't know. Maybe I had some extra time. I responded to a YouTube comment also about something or another, because I don't normally go back and forth on the threads, but there's a couple that I've decided to respond to. It's been so long since I've even done that. And where was I going with this? Oh, Christ-like. So, someone, it's always the John MacArthur sort of, that thing gets more comments than any other video I think I've ever put up. I don't know why so many people love that guy so much, but they said it wasn't very Christ-like for me to call him like a child of the devil or something. Oh, really? So, was Jesus being Christ-like? And I copied and pasted from like the book of John, where he's rebuking the Pharisees, and like literally saying almost exactly what I said about John MacArthur, you know, and then of course it was like all these responses and stuff and I left it at that, but it was just like. Think, think before you speak, like who do you think Christ was? People have this idea of Christ. I swear, I think people must think that like everybody loved Jesus. When Jesus was on his earth, everybody loved him. I mean, he was just, like everyone loved him. And I brought this up at the retirement home today. Do you really think that anyone would have a problem with Jesus if he just went around healing people? They didn't say anything. Let's just say Jesus, because that's one of the things, that's one of the well-known things about Jesus. He did all these miracles, he healed people. And it's one of the things that we love to focus on. It's such a great, positive thing. Hey, Jesus healed the sick, he healed all his people, he did all his great work. And who would ever be angry, except maybe the medical establishment, like big pharma, big pharma might be angry if you had some guy just walking around and healing people, but like that would be it. Everyone else would love someone like that. Everyone would, I mean, he'd be in the news, everyone would love this guy. Why wasn't that exactly the case with Jesus Christ? Because he didn't just physically heal, he taught. He opened up his mouth, he spake words, and the words that he spake were truth, but the words that he spake caused division. So on the one hand, people could look at the miracles and be like, well, I like the miracles, but then he opened up his mouth and said some things that I don't like to people who were witnesses of Jesus Christ. Now, some people love the things he said, and some people didn't. But one thing that is absolutely sure and irrefutable is that Jesus Christ's preaching caused division. And not just by accident, he knew it was gonna happen and he was okay with it. He was okay with it, he's fine with it. It wasn't something he needed to fix or repair, not say things this way because I don't want people to be divided, and oh, we all need to just come together. Look, unity would be great if everybody was behind Jesus Christ. But that's the only way. Behind his teachings, everything he said, instead of being divided, and some people saying, no, I don't like that. John 7, verse 37. Bible reads, in the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this spakey of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Many of the people, therefore, when they heard this saying, so it was based on what he said, based on his preaching, said of a truth, this is the prophet. Others said, this is the Christ. So definitely, people have heard what Jesus is preaching, they're hearing about this water, the spiritual water, that's gonna satisfy them so that they'll never thirst. They're hearing about this, and some people are identifying, going, that's Christ. That's gotta be the Christ. This is the Savior. This is who we've been looking for. But some said, shall Christ come out of Galilee? And they were more skeptical. And they didn't just accept what he was saying, and they didn't just believe it, and they weren't accepting what he said. Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the top of Bethlehem, where David was? Verse 43, so there was a division among the people because of him. People that normally wouldn't have been divided, Jesus comes along, now you've got people divided. Because of Jesus, they're divided. It happens. Flip it over to Luke chapter 12. Luke 12, verse number 51. Luke 12, verse number 51. By the way, suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth. And I think that's what a lot of people thought of Jesus Christ is. I mean, hey, he is the Prince of Peace. Amen and amen. But when he asked this question, suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth, I tell you nay. Since I say no. I didn't come to bring peace on earth, but rather division. Jesus came to divide. God is all about division. You don't believe me? Start reading Genesis one. You see a lot of division. And it stems from light versus darkness. There's division of good and evil. There's, that division has existed since existence itself. Since God's creation. I came to bring division. Verse 52 says, for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided. Three against two and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father. The mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother. The mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. We have a lot of close relationships here, but Jesus Christ is gonna come in and divide people. Even between close relationships. And Jesus is fine with that. Because he knows it's gonna happen and expects that to happen. Why? Because some people will accept the truth and some people won't. And there's nothing wrong with you if your house or if you have people that are dividing from you and don't have anything to do with you because you are clinging to Jesus and they don't want to have anything to do with that. And don't ever think, oh, well, that's not very Christ-like. Well, tell me more about Jesus that you don't believe in and how Christ-like he is. You know, the people who don't believe him want to tell you the most about who he is and how he was and all about him and how you're not following him right. Talk about hypocrite. Turn to John chapter six. I'll read Matthew 10 for you. It's almost a restatement of what we saw in Luke. You're going to John six. I'm gonna be reading Matthew 10, 34 for you. Jesus said this again. Think not that I am come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and a man's foes shall be they of his own household. And then he makes this statement in verse 37. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Christ should have our heart first. He gets that first, that best relationship. We love father, if we're gonna choose. Jesus brings division, but if you're gonna choose to be on the wrong side of that division, Jesus on one side, you've got other people on this side, you say, yeah, but my mom's over there, my dad's over there, you know what? You stay with Jesus in that division. That's where you gotta stay. You can't say, well, I love mom or dad more than, I'm gonna go over here. Not even just separate yourself from, you're on the wrong side. Wrong side of the division, of the dividing line. And you know, anyone that preaches the word of God is preaching division. And it doesn't even have to be intentional. I'm not intentionally just trying to divide people, but you know what? The word of God divides people, and I'm okay with that. Be great if everyone can be in unity, yoked up with Jesus. Just not the case. John chapter six, I also wanna show how Christ-like Jesus was when he handled the criticism, when he handled people murmuring about his preaching. John chapter six, he's talking about being in love with life, he's saying, you know, he preaches his sermon, and a lot of people don't understand it, and they just don't get it. It's like, well, why do you have to say things like that? Jesus, can't you just say things different? That's what they're thinking, at least. That's what they're complaining about. That's what they're murmuring about. But I think Jesus, if we're gonna look at anyone's example, obviously we can look at the Apostle Paul, the instruction to Timothy is a pretty good example for what preaching should be like. But how about we just look to Jesus and his preaching, to what preaching should be like. John 6, 60, the Bible says, many therefore of his disciples, Jesus' own disciples, people listening to Jesus and following Jesus, when they had heard this, said, this is a hard saying, who can hear it? I don't know about that, Jesus. Eaten the flesh, and you know, I don't know about all that, Jesus. I mean, I was with you to a point, but now you've just gone too radical on me, Jesus. That's what they're like. It's too much. Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on a second there. Verse 61 says, when Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, and look, that word murmur is never like in a positive light in the Bible. People are murmuring about something. It's not just whispering, like speaking in a low tone. It's usually like complaining, or something else going along with it. So they're murmuring at what Jesus said. They're kind of saying this, I don't know, what's this guy saying? He's off his rocker, what are you talking about here? He said unto them, so when he knows they're murmuring, he says, doth this offend you? Are you offended? Hey, have you offended? Hey, there's a lot of preaching, a lot of teaching that comes out of this Bible that offends people. Well, how does Jesus handle that? How did he handle it in his day? He asked them, well, hey, are you offended? Are you offended by this? What and if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where he was before? Is that going to offend you? It is the spirit that quickened it. The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life. He gives a little bit of an explanation. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said, therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except that were given unto him of my Father. Now look at this. What did he not do when he finds out they're offended? One thing he did not do was entreat them. Oh, wait, no, no, no, you guys just don't understand. Hold on, don't go. Don't leave. Because what happened, verse 66 says, from that time, many of his disciples went back and walked no more with them. He lost people over this. He lost people over this sermon. He preached this sermon, and people left, and we don't see him going trying to track him down or tell him how they misunderstood him or clarifying his words anymore. He preached the truth. You know what, because he doesn't need to. First of all, Jesus is perfect. Now, not every preacher is gonna be perfect and say things the right way, but Jesus did. And I'll tell you this much, if you're reading the Word of God and you're just preaching what the Word of God says and someone's gonna condemn you for that, okay, forget you then. I mean, I can't say anything better than what the Bible says. People stop following you, okay, well, whatever. And then he says this, and this response shows how much. I don't wanna say he didn't care, because Jesus cares. It's not that people don't care. I care. If people leave the church and they get offended and mad over something that's preached or the Bible, some Bible doctrine, I do care in one sense. I care because I want everyone to be on board and I want people to learn the truth and be able to get on board with good doctrine. So I care about that. I don't want people just leaving then. That's not gonna be helpful for that person. But I don't care in the sense that I'm not changing. Just because you don't like it and left, well, I'm gonna keep preaching what I need to preach. And Jesus is the same way. Hey, he preached the truth. There's nothing wrong with what he said or what he did. And he'd do it again and has been doing it again. And then he says this, then said Jesus says, well, will you also go away? Hey, these guys all left. You wanna go too? Go right ahead. You're free to go anytime you want. That's how Jesus dealt with people who were offended. He didn't change his ministry at all. He didn't soften it up and make it smoother and try to pacify people with it. He just kept preaching the truth. Proof, I kept saying. Turn if you would to Luke chapter six. I got these misconceptions. Misconceptions about who preachers should be. What a man of God should look like. Who Jesus was. I mean, it's crazy how many people just have this weird image of Jesus Christ in their mind. But it's clearly not exactly the same as what we see in the scripture. But how about this? How about what is a man of God supposed to look like? Oh, that's not true. This preacher, again with the comments, people say, this guy sounds so hateful and so whatever and this and that and everything else. It's like, okay, well, should I just be loved by everybody? Is that the right way to be? Should everybody just love me? That's what a lot of people think. Oh, this guy's so great. Oh, he goes to these stadiums and he sells out all these coliseums and everyone just wants to go hear him. Everyone wants to go hear him. The President of the United States invited him to swear him in as he takes the oath of office and everybody loved him and everybody's airing it and no one can say anything bad about who this preacher is. And he goes and talks to the Pope and he goes and talks to the rabbis and he goes and talks to these other guys. And everyone just loves them. Just a great, just everyone loves them. Huh, so this guy's a real man of God was able to do what Jesus wasn't doing. Interesting. We see how Jesus is, by the way, and we're gonna look at that too, Jesus's interactions with Pharisees and Sadducees. It wasn't exactly the same. Now, he did sit down and eat with them but we're actually gonna literally look at a conversation that takes place while he sat down and ate with one of the Pharisees. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Should the man of God be loved by everyone? He's the greatest man of God, invited everywhere, brought out for everyone to see. Well, Luke 6 26 says this, "'Woe, woe is like having extreme sorrow. "'Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you, "'for so did their fathers to the false prophets.'" It's a sign of a false prophet. Just be loved by the world, loved by everybody. Luke 11, last place, I think. Yeah, last reference here I have in my notes. Luke chapter 11. And we're gonna see how Jesus interacted here with one of these Pharisees. Now, look, in all fairness, I'm gonna say this, Jesus didn't always use the same tone or way of speaking with everybody. It was different depending on who he was talking to. So we have to understand that, but it wasn't all one way, super nice, super friendly. Was he nice and friendly with people? Of course he was, of course he was. He was healing people, trying to reach people, having compassion on people, okay? Absolutely, yes. But did he never say anything that might offend somebody? Well, of course not, we've already seen that. We've already seen he's offended people. We've already seen he's dividing people. Let's see how he dealt with one of these Pharisees. Look at verse number 37 in Luke 11. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him. So Jesus' preaching is like, hey, why don't you come and eat with me? Come dine with me. And Jesus did. He said, well, you went in and sat down. Great, okay, sure, I'll come and eat with you. He wasn't opposed to it. Maybe he'd be able to teach some truth unto these guys. Maybe he could get through to them. Fine. And when the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. So this Pharisee's just like, I invited this teacher, this rabbi in to meal, and he didn't even go wash his hands. Can you believe this guy? And he's just like in amazement to himself, just looking at this guy going like, wash your hands. Well, the problem with it, and the reason why he had such a big issue with this, now, in our culture, people wash their hands before they eat. I usually wash my hands before I eat. Not always, because it's not a sin not to. But there's nothing wrong with that at all. There's nothing wrong with holding a tradition and washing your hands and being clean and everything else with that before you. There's nothing wrong with it. The thing that was wrong with the Pharisees was that they had elevated that rule that they made up that you must wash before you eat to be on the same level as the law or commandments of God. So they're making up and adding to God's law by creating these other traditions, which is why he's looking at them going like, wow, that was sacrilege or a sin to them to not wash their hands. And here's this great teacher who's coming in that should know better and he should know all this stuff and he should know he needs to wash his hands but he didn't wash his hands. And this is his incredulity at seeing Jesus going like, I can't believe this. And Jesus knows this. I think that's probably why he didn't wash his hands because he knew that this guy was gonna freak out about it. And he's gonna prove a point. So he sits down and then it says in verse 39, and the Lord said unto him, showing he obviously already knows what this guy's thinking. Now do you Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup in the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. I don't know about you, but the last time someone invited me to a meal, the first thing out of my mouth when I sat down wasn't, hey, you look great on the outside, but on the inside you're full of ravening and wickedness. Hey, nice jacket. I like your coat that looks clean and shiny. Did you just wash your shoes? Man, they shine really nice, but you are a horrible person. You are wicked and just full of iniquity. Look, essentially, this is what he did. That's not polite. Some might deem that offensive. Let me introduce you to Jesus Christ, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. It's not just this one verse. We're gonna keep reading. That's the beginning. Now, look, I think he's probably a little angry that they would even be having this stupid questioning in their mind over him because he didn't wash his hands, but that's me reading into a little bit, but either way, he said what he said. Verse 40, ye fools, did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also, but rather give alms of such things as you have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. So now, he actually gives them, you know, he starts off with the reproof and the rebuke, and it's pretty stern, but he gives them now the teaching, the doctrine of cleanliness, because they're wrong about what it means to be clean. It's not about your hands being clean, man. It's not about the outside. It's about the inside, and he's telling them, look, give alms of such things as you have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. Verse 42, then he goes on, but says, but woe unto you, Pharisees. Look, if you'd have the right heart, and you gave these alms, and instead of being so focused on your money and everything else, and we'll get to that a little bit in just a minute about their tithing and everything, which is this next verse, but woe unto you, Pharisees, for ye tithe mint and rue and all manner of herbs, which mint and herbs, these things are tiny, like it's small amounts. They're getting these really small amounts of an increase, but they're diligent to make sure that they're paying their tithe on that stuff. That's what's important to them. It's this money side of things or whatever, and just focus on that. Now look, we'll see this in a minute. They weren't wrong to do that either. Right. He says ye tithe on the mint and rue and all manner of herbs and pass over judgment and the love of God. I mean, judgment, judgment. Okay, we have to separate these because they're two different things, judgment and the love of God. People like to just talk about the love of God part, and look, that's huge. We'll get to that in a second though, but how about the judgment part? How about good, like righteous judgment, righteousness, from God's law, not your own made up laws and traditions and everything else, God's judgment. Yeah, you just pass right over that. You don't care about God's judgment because you make up these stupid rules about, well, if you, you know, father or mother, whatever you get from me, you consider that Corban or a gift, and Jesus said, you know, you despise the law of God. You make it of none effect by your vain traditions. They completely overlook judgment and the love of God. Look, the love of God is also important. Talk about that this morning with the compassion and everything else. We can't overlook that either. You have to have that. And those are huge, way bigger than whether or not you're tithing on your mint. Seriously, like in the grand scale of things, oops, sorry, I forgot to pay the tithe on my mint. I mean, look, if you've got the love of God and judgment as your primary focus got that right, I think that, you know, while you should be tithing on everything, at least you'll be more imbalanced and focused on the most important things in your life. We could continue to work on the things I need work on, but you know, don't put the least important things to the front. And that's what they did. They cleaned the outside and didn't care about the inside. And that's what he says, these ought you to have done. So the tithing, you ought to have done that and not to leave the other undone. You shouldn't have passed over those things. Woe unto you Pharisees, for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues and greetings in the markets. I mean, he's hitting them right where it hurts. He knows how they are. He knows what they're like. He's sitting down to eat with these guys and he's saying, woe unto you, oh ye who love these greetings and sitting in these fancy seats and everything. Woe unto you. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. And look, he's not just saying this behind some pulpit somewhere either. Just, I mean, remember the context? He was invited to go and eat with these guys. Not that there's anything wrong with preaching the way Jesus did behind a pulpit. I'm just saying like, Jesus was bold. Jesus preached things that he knew would be offensive even to the audience. Cause I could preach things here and people would say, oh yeah, but you're not gonna offend anyone because it's, you know, this audience is, you know, okay, fine. So he went and preached to people who he knew were gonna be offended at what he said. So woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are as graves which appear not and the men that walk over them are not aware of them. Then answered one of the lawyers and said unto him, master, thus saying, thou reproacheth us also. It's funny you should say that, lawyers. So Jesus responding to the critic going, wait a minute, hold on, now if you're saying all that, then that affects me too. Oh no, no, no, no lawyer, no, I didn't mean that about you. It's just these guys over here. That's not how he responds. He's not placating people at all. Jesus preaches like it is. The raw truth. Okay, especially to this group of people who needed the rebuke more than most. They needed to be corrected on this stuff and people needed to hear this and he let them have it. Verse 46 says, and he said, woe unto you also ye lawyers. Great, now you can see a little spotlight from these guys. We'll focus on you for a minute, how about that? For ye laid men with burdens grievous to be born and ye yourselves touch not the burns with one of your fingers. The lawyers, they're supposed to be law experts. In this case it would be the law of God. They're supposed to be these great experts in the law of God and they're so good at telling everyone else the law of God, this is real, how strict the law of God needs to be and everything else. He's like, you don't do that at all. You're a stinking hypocrite. Yeah, you're great at telling everyone else what the law should be, you don't even do it. Woe unto you for ye built the sepulchres of the prophets and your fathers killed them. Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers, for they indeed killed them and ye build their sepulchres. Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles and some of them they shall slay and persecute. That the blood of all the prophets which was shed from the foundation of the world may be required of this generation. From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zecharias which perished between the altar and the temple, verily I say unto you it shall be required of this generation. Woe unto you, lawyers, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge, ye entered not in yourselves and them that were entering in ye hindered. That's a pretty tough statement, man. You're saying like, you guys have taken away the key of knowledge? You didn't, you don't have knowledge, you didn't enter into that knowledge and you're preventing other people from gaining knowledge. Like they're supposed to be these smart lawyers and you're saying, you guys are dummies and you're trying to make everyone else a dummy too. This is how Jesus dealt with the religious establishment of the day. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, he called them out. Many people would be offended at that preaching. If Jesus were walking the earth today and preaching the Bible, people would be offended at him today too, he would be canceled, he would have all the protests and everything else and people would be calling him a hate preacher and everything, I guarantee you. Why, because people haven't changed. They crucified him then, they would crucify him now. I don't think the world is more holy than it was during the Roman Empire. We're kind of very similar. Yeah. American empire. The religious establishment of Jesus' day was lost. They were not serving God. Sure, they'd claimed to believe in Moses and the law but they didn't really believe it. They were just full of hypocrisy. Jesus pointed it out. We need more preaching, pointing out the hypocrisies, pointing out the truth. Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine. We need more of that. Don't let yourself, if someone's preaching the word of God, don't get offended, don't get offended at the preacher, don't get offended at the preaching. Now look, I think it is acceptable to get offended if someone is not teaching the Bible and totally making up their own thing. Okay, now in general, I still don't think we should get offended. I mean, you could disagree but what's the point of getting offended? Just teach what's right, right? But definitely don't get offended when you hear the Bible taught and the Bible being preached. Look, if it's the word of God, it's the word of God. If you're gonna be offended at that, you're offended at God's word, not some preacher's word. If they're teaching the word of God, they're teaching good doctrine, they're making the proper application. Look, as Christians, we ought not to be offended because I'll tell you what, if you wanna go down that route and get offended and everything else, we saw how Jesus dealt with the people of his time that got offended, he didn't go chasing after them. Don't think Jesus will go running after you. You get offended, you just wanna leave, ah, I kinda wanna hear this and I didn't. You don't wanna hear the word of God. Now look, he may be looking for you and waiting for you to come back but he's not leaving or changing to come to you. He'll be right there for you, you wanna turn back to him and be like, okay, I was stupid, I was wrong, I shouldn't have been doubting your word, Jesus, and getting offended at the Bible, I'm gonna go back to you, great. That's what he wants but he's not gonna compromise the word because you got your feelings hurt. And Jesus apparently wasn't worried about hurting everyone's feelings which is evident in the way that he preached. He was worried about hurting the Pharisees' feelings, he wouldn't have said that they were wicked and full of hypocrisy and all these other things. If he was worried about what they thought but what he was more worried about was telling them the truth no matter how much it stings or hurts. And we have to have that approach for the Bible. We love the word of God, we love the preaching of the word of God, we need more preachers, encourage the preachers that come under fire, encourage them and help them to continue, don't stop, keep preaching, keep it up, give the encouragement, we need more of it, this world needs more of it. Let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Dear Lord, we love you, thank you so much for the men of God that you've sent throughout history, dear Lord, especially those that we can look to in the Bible and look to as examples and all the instruction that we have. Dear Lord, I pray that you please help us have a right heart, a humble heart that's open for the rebuke and the correction that we need in our own lives that we would just be able to get right with you, dear Lord, I pray that you would please help us to reach more people, to bring the truth out there and to bring more people to Christ. Dear Lord, we love you, we thank you so much for loving us and for your long suffering and mercy towards us. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, we're gonna sing one last song and then we are dismissed. Right church. Let's go ahead and get your hymnals. This is song number 406. Song 406, who is on the lower side? Song 406. Right church, let's sing this song in the first. Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the king? Who will be his helpers, others wise to bring? Who will leave the world's side? Who will face the throne? Who is on the Lord's side? Who for him will go? By thy call of mercy, by thy grace divine, we are on the Lord's side, slinger we are thine. Not for way of glory, not for proud and wrong, dancer we the army, praise the warrior's song. Run for love and claim it, lives for whom he died, in whom Jesus' name it must be on his side. By thy love for straining, by thy grace divine, we are on the Lord's side, slinger we are thine. Jesus thou hast bought us, not with gold or jamb, but with thine own life, love thy love. For thy fire's end, with thy blessing filling, each to come to thee. Thou hast made us willing, thou hast made us free. By thy grand redemption, by thy grace divine, we are on the Lord's side, slinger we are thine. Fierce may be the conflict, strong may be the foe, but the king's old army, blood can overflow. Blood can overflow, round his standard ranging, victory is secure, for his truth unchanging makes the triumph sure. Joyful in this sleep, by thy grace divine, by thy grace divine, we are on the Lord's side, slinger we are thine. Amen, church, great singing, thank you so much for coming, you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.