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

Amen. All right. So we're there in Proverbs. We're going to come back and forth to Proverbs quite a bit throughout the sermon. So this is a different kind of sermon that I'm going to be preaching to you guys this morning. The type of sermon that this is, is what I like to call an after action review. Many of you know that since I got here, we've had some problems in the church. We've had, uh, we've had a troublesome individual. Uh, the guy's name is Josh Ellis. Everybody remembers Josh Ellis, right? I didn't want to have to preach this sermon, you know, but I kind of knew that I was going to have to. And you know, I, you know, I've been, I've been thinking about this a lot. Uh, you know, I've been studying this out just cause I kind of had a feeling I was going to have to bring this up at some point. And there's a lot that goes in to Josh Ellis and, and to, to, to forward the sermon. Uh, at this point I'm also going to be preaching against a family that just recently left our church. Um, and you're going to see why here. And I just want you to pay attention. I want you guys to really understand why things happen the way they did. And so it's my goal to go through this and to try to be as clear as possible. So there's no, you know, there's no more questions. There's no more misunderstandings. There's no more plague in the house, so to speak. Uh, some of this stuff might seem harsh to some of you guys. Okay. But it's the truth. I would rather tell you the truth than sweep stuff under the rug. So I'm not the kind of person that just going to sweep stuff under the rug, pretend that everything's okay and just go about my merry way because that's how churches get destroyed. And I don't want to see that happen to this church. I won't let that happen to this church. Um, and, and furthermore, I don't think that we still have a problem. I think that the plague is gone, but you know, again, it's my job just to ensure that and to make, uh, you know, make, make certain that we don't have any more bleeding hearts, any more issues there. So just keep that in the back of your mind as we go through this. So we're there in Proverbs. Look at verse number 28. This is the proverb that we're going to be going off of this morning. It says a froward man. So with strife and a whisperer separated chief friends. Now you might be wondering, what does froward mean? What in the world does that mean? Well, if you can think of the word toward, what does that mean? Means to face toward a direction, right? To face towards something or someone, uh, rather. Well a froward person is somebody that does the opposite, right? Because you got to understand it's not, it says a froward man. So with strife. So what you can see right off the bat that a froward person is somebody who likes contention, somebody that likes to stir up trouble, that likes to cause issues. That's what a froward person is. Another word for that would be a full, but a froward person or the word froward means basically the opposite of toward, right? Somebody who's always going in opposition, right? Somebody who's always clashing, uh, with other people or with ideas, somebody that always just wants to cause stripes, stir up trouble. So it says a froward man. So with stripe and a whisperer separated chief friends. Now we all whisper from time to time, you know, and I, you know, sometimes, you know, you're in church, maybe your wife will lean over and whisper. You guys will be like, what's for dinner? You know, or something like that. That's not the kind of whispering I'm talking to you. If you do that, I'm not mad at you. We're all guilty of doing that. Okay. But the word whisperer in the Bible, every time that it appears, it is very negative, right? So we're not talking about whispering in general. We're talking about a whisperer and the Bible says that a whisperer separated chief friends. And I'll tell you right now, Josh Ellis was guilty of being a whisperer. And the reason why that family left our church is a result of that whispering. It infects other people and that family began to do the same exact thing. Now I'm not going to use their names at this time. Now if I hear from this day forward that they're running their mouths about this church or about my wife or about me, I have a smoking gun. I have a lot more information that I will put out there and it will make their ears tingle for the rest of their lives. So hopefully they're not listening to this. Hopefully if they do though, they will understand that they better not mess with this church because I'm sick and tired of it. And so what do we understand here? A forward person is bad. A whisperer is bad. We can see what they do. We can see how they operate. We can see what they work, right? A whisperer is somebody who tries to conceal a matter, right? And it's usually a negative matter. Now who's ever heard of an animal whisperer? Everybody heard of an animal whisperer? Yeah. Like a dog whisperer, right? Or a horse whisperer. It's basically somebody who thinks or can understand animals, right? Somebody who can attract animals and get close to them. Here's a, here's a quick definition. It says an animal whisperer is a person skilled in taming or training a specific kind of animal. Typically using body language and gentle vocal encouragement rather than physical contact, right? So it's these people that go around and try to tame animals and they, they call them the animal whisperer or they call them whatever animal that they like to attract. They call them that as a whisperer, right? When I was studying this, I looked up the definition of horse whisperer cause you know, I have a lot of people in here like horses and I'm, you know, I'm definitely not a horse whisperer, but I just thought this was kind of funny here. It says a horse whisperer. It says a horse trainer who adopts a sympathetic view of the motives, needs and desires of the horse based on modern horse psychology, right? And that definition applies to any other kind of whisperer, whether it be a lion whisperer, right? A dog whisperer, a snake whisperer, a whale whisperer, or whatever that it's basically somebody who's sympathetic towards those animals who just likes them, who in some instances I guess feels that they can attract them, you know, to, to follow them. And while I was studying this subject out, I watched several videos of different animal whispers. There was this one guy and I remember this video from when I was a kid. It's this guy who basically raised grizzly bears, right? He keeps them on a leash and this, and he wears a judo gi everywhere. I thought that was like, what are you doing? You're wrestling bears here. But, uh, he went on this show, right? And he's got his bears up there and he, you know, he's, he's called the bear whisperer, right? He, he says that bears have always been interested in him since he was a young child that, uh, they've gotten along well with him. Well, while this guy was on stage, this bear just snaps and attacks the bear whisperer, right? And he's trying to like chop them in the head and stuff. It wasn't that large of a bear, right? I mean, you know, considering how large grizzly bears can get, but nonetheless it took him down and it was like biting his arm and a bunch of people on the show pulled him off and whatnot. And I was like, okay, that's a, that's what you get for thinking that you can tame a wild beast and not have any consequences or not have any risk, right? You know, the same thing goes for these people. They call themselves lion whisperers. There was one called a snake whisperer, this little girl over in India. I watched this video with Kylan and Kinley and this is a little girl. They call her the snake whisperer, right? And she lives in India and she basically sleeps next to this cage of cobras, these King cobras. And every morning she wakes up and she feeds them and she takes them to school and you know, and I guess India is just a different beast, man. I don't know. But if I knew somebody was coming to my school with snakes, I'd be out. That'd be my last day of education there. But nonetheless, these snakes are always biting her, right? So they, they lead the video up to, to make you think like, Oh, you know, this is great. She's got this gift. She's, she understands these wild animals. You know, we don't really live in a fallen creation. And that's another side issue that you'll get with these people. But one thing that they brought up at the end is that she's always in and out of the hospital, always having to get medicine because these cobras bite, who would have thought, you know, we'll get into that here in a moment. So that is basically what an animal whisperer is. You know, in the Bible we can see different forms of this as well, right? We have sodomite whispers, right? We have people like Lot and his wife that thought that they could basically live side by side and get along with the sodomites and what happened, right? The sodomites tried to bite them. They tried to attack them, you know, and what else we can see in the Bible and in life is that there's a certain type of a person that I like to call a fool whisperer, right? It's somebody who thinks that they can get along with a fool, somebody who thinks that they can train or tame a fool. But as with the animal whispering, right, as with anything, the animal, the fool is always at some point going to attack or can't attack. And in this situation, what I'm preaching about this morning, that's what happened. So the title of the sermon this morning is When Fool Whispering Goes Wrong. When Fool Whispering Goes Wrong. Turn to Proverbs chapter 30, I'm sorry, Proverbs chapter 13 and look at verse number 20. You type in animal whispering into YouTube and all these videos will come up, you know, when animal whispering goes wrong. And it just made me think of this situation, you know, it made me think about how this family, and by the way, let me just come out right now and say this, this family, it has been confirmed that they've been helping Josh Ellis. There've been numerous sightings. We've gotten numerous witnesses that have seen them and that have heard out of the mouths of these people, right? And before I get into this, I'll probably say this again, you know, whether or not you think Josh Ellis is a reprobate, that's not the issue here. Okay. The thing that we know is that he's a fool. He's a forward person. He is a contentious person and he needs discipline, right? And this family here was very angry that I threw him out of this church. They did not understand why we did that. Now they say he's a good guy. They say he's this, they say he's that. So if you believe that, why would you go against the Bible? Why would you go against God's teaching in his correction program for us trying to help somebody that doesn't make sense. So we kick him out, right? You say, okay, I don't think he's a reprobate. That's fine, right? He's not fit to come into this church because he is a problem. He is a plague, right? And so by them helping him, by them feeding him, by them supporting him, by them being sympathetic to him, what they're doing is they're ruining the discipline that we were trying to do to him to help him to correct him. You see what I'm saying? It's like when you discipline your kids and somebody else comes along and says, oh, don't worry about that. It's okay. Here's a check. Here's a chocolate bar. Here's a chocolate shake. Here's all this stuff. Does that really help that child? No, it doesn't. When we kick somebody out of church and people are bleeding hearts and they're sympathetic towards it and they go and they help that person out, all you're doing is harming what God is trying to do to that person. And so we need to understand that. So if you're there in Proverbs chapter 13, look at verse number 20. It says, he that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. And I will tell you right now, the reason why these people left the church, right? The reason why they left is because they decided to hang out inside with a fool. And the fact that they left means that they are spiritually destroyed and will, I'll get more into that. Go over to Ecclesiastes chapter number 10, Ecclesiastes chapter 10, right? He that walketh with wise men shall be wise. Why is that? Because iron sharpeneth iron, the Bible says, it says, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed. Look, I say this all the time. There's no way that you can side with and hang out with a foolish person and not get bitten. You might think you have the skills to be a whisperer of a fool, but the end result is always going to be your own destruction. Why is that? Because they always bite, right? As soon as the entertainment, as soon as the enchanting leaves, guess what? They strike. If you're there in Ecclesiastes 10, look at verse number 11. It says, surely the serpent will bite without enchantment and a babbler is no better. So surely the serpent will bite without enchantment. So I'll tell you this, the moment that that family decides that they've had enough, the moment that family decides that they're not going to provide the enchantment, the moment they decide they are not going to provide the entertainment for this kid, guess what? He's going to bite. And you know what? He's already bitten them. He's already bitten them. I'm not saying that they've been helping him out the entire time. I don't have any proof of that, but I do have proof that they've been helping him out recently. And so, you know, we just need to understand that this is, this is a bad thing that, you know, this is obviously a teaching they didn't get. This is obviously maybe something they don't believe. I don't really know, but they just got bit by the serpent and that's why they are no longer here, you know? And I'm preaching this sermon to help everybody out. You know, I want to make sure that we understand this so that, you know, you can learn when someone is trying to manipulate you because you know what? Josh Ellis is a manipulator. That's what he is. He's a manipulator. You might say, okay, well I don't think he's reprobating. Look, I said before, that's not the issue. The issue here is that he is a manipulator. He is a bad person and I have proof. We all have proof. You all know that, right? So what does it mean to enchant? The word enchant means to be which, or to influence by charm, seduce, to cast a spell over somebody kind of like a witch might do. It also means to attract or catch someone's attention in a less mystical way. Enchanting has a few meanings. I'm just going to read this, continue reading this definition here. It says, but they all involve seduction. A witch or warlock enchants people they wish to influence through magical spells. A real person enchants in different ways, through jokes, good looks, and charisma. Not only people, but also engrossing songs or shows can be said to enchant. We're from Seattle, Washington area, right? We live about an hour. We used to live about an hour from Seattle and there's this theme park there. It's this big water park and carnival type thing, Six Flags thing. And it's called Enchanted Village, right? Why do they call it that? Because it provides entertainment because it captivates your mind and directs your attention to what's going on there. That's why they call it Enchanted Village. So basically what I'm saying is that Josh Ellis is also a person that enchants other people. And you know what? I'll just say this right off the bat too, because he's a fool, because he's forward, because he is a serpent, one of the things that they do is they prey on the simple. And we're going to go through that here. Now I said that he's a fool and it's true. Here's some, here's just a quick overview of fool. If you do a study on the word fool in the Bible, right? And I just made it through some of the proverbs and some of the Psalms to give you this list here. I'm not going to provide all the verses. I have them. If you want them, there's too many, but number one, remember this is an overview of a fool. A fool is unwise. Everybody understand that a fool is somebody who is unwise, somebody who rejects counsel. Number two, a fool despises wisdom and instruction, right? I have met with Josh Ellis at least twice. I've talked with him several times and each time that boy has decided to reject my counsel every time. And I'm not the only one in here that's met with him. I'm not the only one in here that's had conversations with him. I'm not the only one in here who has tried to help him. He has rejected all of our counsel, all of our wisdom and instruct instruction. Number three, fools are afflicted as a result of their transgressions. You know, the last time that we met with him, you could see that he was afflicted. You know, he was stressed out. He was worried. And why is that? Because he's steeped in sin. He's steeped in transgressions. That's what fools do. Number four, fools hate knowledge. Understand that fools hate knowledge. I didn't say they just don't like it. I didn't say they just ignore it. They hate knowledge. And I will tell you, that is that kid. Number five, any prosperity that they seek destroys them. Any prosperity that they seek destroys them. And we're going to talk about this here in a little bit, but this kid made a video, right? And I don't know what he was thinking. I don't know what this kid was thinking, but he's trying to, and this is just like him. He's always trying to find ways to make a lot of money doing the least amount of work, right? Because he's a lazy person. That's why he does it. And so when I was studying this out, you know, there's verses to talk about this, that anything that they try to do, it winds up destroying them, right? And, you know, we got to move on here. Like I said, this is a hard sermon for me to preach because there's so much I want to say. I know I'm not going to get to say it all. And so just bear with me here. We'll get through it. All right. Number six, shame is their promotion. Shame is their promotion. Ask the family that tried to help him out and giving him a place to stay, if that's true. And they will tell you it is. Shame is their promotion. Number seven, lacking an understanding heart. A fool is a person who lacks an understanding heart. Number eight, they seek wisdom in the wrong places. They seek wisdom in the wrong places. Number nine, they proclaim foolishness. You know, if you go to this kid's YouTube channel, we have screenshots of this. He's promoting all sorts of weird, bizarre videos, like one hour of witchcraft music and all this. I mean, just, just, I can't even read it all. It's too much. If you have questions, we will show that to you after the service. Right? So number nine, they proclaim their foolishness. Number 10, they will destroy their friends. A fool doesn't really have friends. A fool has a temporary investment to gain their forward progress. That's what a fool does. So, you know, people that think that they can whisper with a fool, like I said, they're always going to get bit in the end. Number 11, they make a mock at sin. They make a mock at sin. Understand that. Fools make a mock at sin. Turn to Proverbs chapter 10. Last one I've got for you here. Proverbs. Well, I got two more for you. I've got two more for you. Proverbs chapter 10. Look at verse number 23. Proverbs chapter 10, verse 23. It says this. It is as sport to a fool to do mischief, but a man of understanding hath wisdom. So what does that mean? The Bible says that a fool considers his folly a sport. You know what that means? That means he considers it a welcomed challenge, right? People who play sports, they welcome that challenge, right? They want to, they want that challenge. They want that entertainment. They want that fun. And I'm not preaching against sports right now. I'm just saying, you know, there's nothing wrong with playing sports. I'm just saying that a fool and his folly, he considers it a sport. He considers it fun. Why is that? Because of all the other reasons I've already read to you, right? They don't have an understanding heart. And when you study this kid and when you look inside his life and you talk to him and you try to counsel him and you see the things that he's about, the things that he promotes, you will understand this one thing. He considers it a sport. He considered it, considers it a sport. Turn to Proverbs chapter 12, Proverbs chapter 12. Proverbs chapter 12, verse 15 says this. Proverbs chapter 12, verse 15 says this. It says the way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but he that hearkeneth unto counsel is wise. So obviously, again, for the 90th time, somebody who rejects counsel is a fool, right? But I want you to look at that beginning part of the verse there. It says the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. Let me give you a sample of this here. So you all know the story. Easter Sunday, we had a battle, right? We had to kick Josh out of the church. I told him, you know what? I will meet with you in about three weeks. We'll talk about some stuff because I just need to process this, right? I just need to digest this. I just found out he was living in his van. I just found out a lot of stuff and I was like, you just got to go, right? You can't be here, right? So I take brother Adrian. I should ask you before, you know, before I preach this, I forgot. I'm sorry, brother, but I took him and we met with Josh. Okay. We met with Josh and there was no change, right? There was no change. You know, he did not, he was not interested in changing his desire to be homeless. He was not interested in stopping the blame game, right? In fact, what he did is he blamed brother Briley. He blamed, he blamed brother David and the acres family and you know, and he was just, his mind was he even, he even blamed brother George's wife, miss Stephanie. I I'm at a loss of words, you know, I mean, what do you do with that? Other than understand that it's a sport to a full, to do mischief. Now, after that encounter, after that meeting, I said, you know what? It's clear here. There hasn't been a change. We need to wait a little bit more. We need to, we need to see what's going on here. Uh, man, I, I don't know if it was about a month later, he sends me this text message and I'm going to read it for you. And you just think about Proverbs 12, 15. Okay. Listen to this text message that he sends me. It says this, pastor, I need to come back to church. You know, I'm not a reprobate. Can we please meet again soon as you can. I just want to go sowing again. I just want to see daughter again. Now remember, I'm not trying to, I'm trying not to use names here. You all know the family that left. We have dad, we have mom, we have daughter, right? And I'm not really talking too much tonight or this morning about the two sons. So I'm sure you know who that is because I just want to see the daughter again. I think it has been long enough. Thanks for telling me how to do my job. The problem with this whole thing is I don't remember you, Josh, in my spiritual leadership class. I don't remember you reading the Bible 10 times just to be qualified to even be considered to be sent out. I don't remember that. I don't remember you having a family. I don't remember you meeting the qualifications. I don't remember you doing anything that's righteous, to be honest. And you want to tell me, I think it's been long enough. So I just ignored him. I just ignored him. I didn't, I did not respond. Why is that? Because the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. That text message proves that this fool, he thinks that he's right and he thinks that we're wrong. And you know what? The family that left, they think the same thing. They have been bitten. Understand this. They have been bitten by a fool. They thought they could whisper. They thought they could tame him. They thought they could get along with him. And all they did was get infected with his venom. Turn to Proverbs 13, Proverbs chapter 13. So shortly after I get this text message, I don't know. I think I'll wait maybe a week or two, right? Maybe, maybe it's a week or two. I'm like, okay, I'm just not going to respond. We'll see how he handles it. See, I don't know if there's any hope in this kid's heart at all. Proverbs 13, 16 says every prudent man dealeth with knowledge, right? A prudent person is a good person. A prudent person is somebody who considers how he lives his life. He or she lives life, right? They think ahead, they plan ahead. So we want to be prudent. So it says every prudent man dealeth with knowledge, right? But a fool layeth open his folly. You see, because it's as sport to a fool to do mischief, they can't help but manifest their folly, their foolishness. Remember, folly means foolishness, right? So it says, but a fool layeth open his folly. Now I'm going to talk about this video. So a couple of weeks after I get this text message, right? Somebody who doesn't even go to this church, I didn't ask him for, if I could drop his name, I'm sure he's watching this, but he sends me this video and you'll see him next month. He's going to be preaching for us. So, so he sends me this video link, right? I'm just about to go work on a refrigerator and I'm like, all right, real quick, I got to see what this is about. I click on the YouTube link and it's Josh Ellis's face. I'm like, Oh man. Oh no. Okay. So I didn't watch it quite yet. I sent it. Brother Mike, I sent it to brother. I said to everybody that I can think of, watch this. Right? So I'm like, Ooh, man, I hope this is an easy job. So I can just get a little bit of time and watch this video. Right? All of a sudden I've got my phone here on this customer's counter. Luckily the dude's sleeping. He doesn't care what I'm doing. Right. And my phone starts levitating, right? As I'm like, Oh man, that must've been a good video. So I look, I'm like, wow. Okay. Okay. So I hurry up, I get done. I watch this video and instead of just watching it though, I record it cause I had a feeling it was just going to disappear. Okay. So I record the video and these guys are smart. They did the same thing. They record the video and in this video, right? It's Josh Ellis. He, he makes this video and he, I guess did he, he didn't mean to post that to a channel. I don't think I, we still confused about that, but he makes this video and it's like, he's, he's interviewing for a job position, right? As a, as an English teacher. And in this video, he's, he's talking about how he learned Swedish and he's fluent in Swedish, the Swedish language. And then, okay. And it's like, what? And he's, he's in the video, right? He's auditioning for this job, I guess. And he's like, you know, I taught myself Swedish, you know, and I read the Bible. So I'm very good at teaching English. I read the Bible to the elderly, to kids, to adults. And he's like, and that book's hard to understand. And, you know, so I'm really somebody special here. It doesn't quite say that. I'm paraphrasing the whole video. We'll show it to you guys. Anybody wants to see it? Well, we've got it. We'll I'll show it to you. Okay. And, and, and then in the video he goes, you know, I'm from California, you know, where all the movie stars live. And that explains this beautiful face and whatnot. But this video, I think it was like three minutes long and it was three minutes and whatever, however many seconds of just straight lies, straight lies. And that's after I get this text message. When I saw that video, I said, this kid's never coming back. He's not coming back. But I'll tell you what, I would let him come back before I'd let the family that quit come back. And we'll get into that momentarily. Yes. And trust me, I sought counsel before I said that. You know, that video is Proverbs chapter 13, verse 16, but a full layeth openness folly after I think he realized that we all saw that video. He quickly removed it from YouTube as we thought that he would, because that, that was the final nail in the coffin. That was like, there's no way anybody could argue at that point that this guy has bad intentions. He's got bad intentions. You know, it just goes, like I said, his motive is to feast off of other people. He prays after the simple and that's why the simple have left this church. Okay. I know that's harsh, but that is reality. Turn to Leviticus chapter number 14, Leviticus chapter 14. I was going to try to transcript the whole video, but I figured, you know what, I'll just paraphrase it. If you guys want to see that garbage, you can see it after the service. It was pretty entertaining. I'll tell you that. It's pretty entertaining because I don't remember him ever speaking Swedish while he was here. Does anybody remember that? I remember he said he was trying to learn it, you know, and then that's great, but I didn't know he was fluent in that, you know? So last I heard, he's running around the village teaching people over the internet English. So maybe his audition video worked. I don't know. One thing I do know is that kid is a plague and he was a plague in this house. And I want you to understand that because that is the foundation of why the family that left left. So you're there in Leviticus chapter 14. So Leviticus chapter 14 verses 33 through 48 deals with plagues in a house. And it's God's wisdom to the Levites, right? To basically be able to go into a house and recognize the severity of a plague that is in somebody's walls. Okay. So we're going to go through this and obviously this is good wisdom. This is great wisdom rather physically, right? For example, you go into your house and you, you know, I don't know, you open up the cupboard, you see a bunch of black mold growing, right? And it's kind of embedded in the walls. You know, you need to know how to deal with that. You need to understand that's not something to be taken lightly, you know, and the Bible written this, this chapter is specifically written thousands of years ago has the wisdom in how to deal with that. And that's a great thing. That's another sermon of its own accord. But what we're going to do is we're going to get our points this morning from this chapter here. And we're going to go through this and I'm going to tell the stories that I need to tell. And we're just going to get this done. So point number one, the first thing we need to understand here is that God uses plagues to purge his house. God uses plagues to purge his house. Look at verse 33, Leviticus chapter 14, look at verse 33. And the Lord spake unto Moses and to Aaron saying, when ye be coming to the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession. You see that then look at verse 34 again, look at the last part of that verse that says, and I who's speaking here, this is God, this is Jehovah God. He says, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession. Now, does that mean that God's always putting a plague there? No, but God's saying, Hey, when I put the plague there, this is what you need to do. You don't have to turn there, but I'm going to read for you out of Psalm chapter 66, verse 10. So what you need to understand right off the bat, this here is a picture of God trying of God, purging his house. That's what it's a picture of, right? Listen to this proverb. I'm sorry. Psalm 66, 10 says this for thou God has proved us. Thou has tried us as silver is tried. Look, God tries his people. God sometimes puts you in situations to see how you're going to handle that, to see how you're going to deal with it. Are you going to trust him or are you going to trust the world or are you going to just trust your own wisdom? Right? First Peter chapter one, verse seven says this, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that parishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Look, following the faith is going to come and there's just, it's just a natural thing. There's going to come trials. There's going to come perils. There's going to come tribulations, right? We understand that if you decide to live for Christ, you will go through trials. The only way you're going to survive that is to continuously gain knowledge from God's word, right? That's what this chapter in Leviticus is about. He's saying, when I put the plague there and then we're going to read it, he's saying, this is what you're going to do. This is how you're going to handle it. This is how you're going to overcome it. One more revelation. Chapter two, verse two says this, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou has tried them, which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars. So it's also our job to try other people, to try other doctrines, to try other teachings, to try other things, to see whether or not they meet the criteria that God set forth about them. Right? So it's a good thing when somebody comes in here and says, Hey, I'm somebody special. I'm a prophet. I'm a teacher. I'm a soul winner. Okay, well, let's try you. Let's see if you are who you really say you are. So there's not, there's nothing wrong with us doing that. And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ was doing here to the churches in Asia in Revelation chapter two. In fact, think about this, right? When Jesus chose the 12 and he looked at him and he said, you know, have I not chosen you 12 yet? One of you is a devil. Okay. Why was one of them a devil? Well, because God used that to try the disciples and we get to read that today and we get to glean wisdom and we get to glean understanding from that. And that tries us, that makes us better when we understand those things. So point number one is that God uses plagues to purge his house. And I think it's funny, just like when Jesus started his ministry there right off the bat, there was a devil there. You know, when, when we started this church right off the bat, there was a devil in our church. And you know what? There were people that followed after him, that went a whoring after him. So let's move on here. Point number two, every Christian in this church needs to take ownership and not rent or ship and now rent or ship. I don't think is a real word. I just made that up, but you get the point, right? Every Christian in this church needs to take ownership and not rent or ship. Pastor Menes used to preach. He preaches about this, you know, from time to time. And it makes so much sense. Cause if you think about it, people that rent oftentimes, not always, but oftentimes don't take as good of care of what they're renting. And then they would, had they been actually the owner of it. Right. You know, we have this thing, you know, in the appliance business, all these people are just renters. So they're probably not going to want to pay for the repair. You know, whereas when you go to somebody's house, it actually owns that appliance or they're either going to take care of it. They, you know, they, they, they take ownership of it. And that's how we as Christians need to be, you know, don't come to church with this renter ship type mentality. Well, I'm just here. I'm not the pastor. I'm not this, I'm not anything. You don't need to do that. You need to take ownership, right? Just because you sit in a pew and listen, you know, that doesn't mean that you're any less, right? This church isn't about me. This church is about all of us. This church is a group of Bible believing Christians that have the same goals and the same zeal and that are willing and ready and able to go out into the community and carry that plan forth. So point number two is every Christian in this church needs to take ownership and not renter ship. Look at verse 35 because remember, we're trying to understand how to deal and get rid of plagues in the house. Leviticus 14, 35 look at the verse says, and he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest saying, it seemeth to me, there is as it were a plague in the house. I like how it says that there in the beginning, it says, and he that owneth the house shall come and tell the priest. Maybe if the guy just rented, there'd be a temptation there for him not to say anything. Well, it's not my house. I don't really, you know, I'll just let the owner deal with it. Don't be like that. Oh, it's not my house. I'll just let the pastor figure it out. I can't watch everything that goes on all the time. I try my best, but nonetheless, you know, we need to take ownership in this church. And when you see something that seems like it might not be right, it seems as it might be a plague. It's okay to bring that up. You know, you know, if you see something that's not right, you know, you can go ahead and come to me or come to somebody else and say, Hey, you know, what do you think about this? You know what? Because hindsight is always 2020 and I'm glad that we went through this with that family that left and with Josh, because it's taught me a lot and I'm sure it's going to teach you a lot. If you just sit back and think about it, think about your dealings with these people. Think about your dealings with Josh and you will come up with, with some wisdom. I promise you, if you think back, some of the conversations that you've had, I'll bet that you, your, your discernment level is just going to go up because you're going to be like, man, I remember when he said this and it's like, now thinking back, it makes sense right now. Now it's like, okay, the reason why he said this, the reason why he had that opinion, the reason why he was whispering or whatever the case may be is because of a problem, because of a plague in the house. So there's two elements to this verse. Number one, right? He that owneth the house, we need to have that ownership mentality in this church so that we can protect this church from harm. Number two, it says it seemeth to me, there is as it were a plague. So again, if you see something, it's okay to say something. It's okay to ask, right? It's okay. It's okay to bring these red flags before the congregation. In fact, I'm just going to read one right now to you guys while I, while I've got it on my mind, because like I said, there's so much to this. I'm just going to forget if I don't do this. So one of the issues here with Josh Ellis before this was even before I got here is that he decided he was going to take it upon himself to lead music, not to be the chief song leader. But apparently before I moved here, he decided that he was just going to become a song leader, right? Now, who was the pastor before I was? It was pastor Menes, right? So if you're going to do any kind of a leadership position in the church or make a decision, who does that have to go through? It has to go through pastor Menes, right? That's, that's just the way it is. He knows that, right? We all know that. We all know that he knows that. Now, one day it was a Wednesday, you know, I was at Verity Baptist Church, you know, listen to the Ezekiel sermon after church, pastor Menes sits down and he's just shaking his head. He's like, that boy is trouble, you know? And I knew he was talking about, talking about Josh. And he's just like, I just, you know, my phone, he's telling me that his phone levitated, you know, cause all you guys here had found out about that, that he was trying to take over the music or lead songs. And the family that left, there were some people in that family that were upset. Am I lying? We got witnesses. They were upset, right? They were upset because Josh was trying to take over the music or he was trying to lead music, right? Now with that, pastor Menes is like, what is this kid thinking? What is this problem? You know, and he's just like, you're going to have to deal with this guy when you get there. But brother Chris had this text message exchange, right? With Josh regarding that situation. And this isn't the only one. He also tried to say that he was going to preach the evening service when the faithful word Baptist church guys came here to preach, because remember when they would come here to preach, they couldn't stay for the evening service because of the flight pattern. But with that in mind, just listen to this. And I got brother Chris's permission to read this. Okay. This is brother Chris speaking. He says, Hey, Josh, brother, Chris here. Were you asking about leading music this Sunday? Here's Josh's response. Yeah, I was. I think I actually was asking about it. So I'm sorry. You know, it is what it is. Cats out of the bag now. Earlier this month, then I talked to him about it again recently. And he asked me if I wanted to do this next weekend. And I said, sure, that'd be fun. It's hard because this is written in like Ebonics. So I'm trying to translate this to make it understandable to us. He says me and the daughter, I got that one right, right. Picked out hymns earlier this week and got them all practice for this weekend yester day. Okay. Okay. You see the problem with that? You see the problem on both sides. Now I know, we know the daughter was sweet and nice and this and that, but look, I'm not stupid and it wasn't born yesterday. She should have known better too. She should have known better too. And that family darn sure should have known better. This is wrong. Okay. And the reason why I'm reading this is because I'm going to tell you a story here in a little bit about how after we kicked Josh out, right, they were upset and we had a meeting and I'll get into that here in a little bit. But one of the things they said is that, Oh, he was just joking around about taking over the music. Well, we have this set of text messages here. This doesn't sound like a joke to me and I hope it doesn't sound like a joke to you. All right. So let me see where we are here. So brother Chris tells them, you know, sorry, these things are choppy. You know, my phone's messed up, but it says, uh, next time this brother Chris says, next time, if you're interested in doing something for the church, permission of pastor Jimenez must be obtained first. This is Josh's response. Okay. Well, Hey, I just wanted to try it once. Talk to both of them about that. They seemed like it was nothing. If someone else wanted to try leading one time, sometime they told me the stuff they got from Stucky. I was just interested in trying it once. I didn't want to take over leading music. Sorry. You see that? His folly is being made manifest in these text messages. He's not accepting responsibility. He has no ownership. Why is that? Because he's the plague, because he's the serpent, he's the devil, right? That is what's going on here. And that is, that is who this kid is. He just constantly blames other people. It's it's sickening. Okay. It goes on to say, that goes on to say, I, okay, brother Chris says this, there's some other words here, but it's all jumbled up. He says, uh, brother Chris says, I already did ask pastor and he said no. So Josh says, so never then? What does that tell you? That tells you that he knew that pastor Mendez would say no because pastor Mendez already had a conversation about him, about his behavior in this church regarding other families and situations that have gone on, right? Him trying to discipline other women's children, other men and women's children, him speaking down to other women in the church, him, uh, let's see what else here. Here's the situation. I'll just tell you guys know brother George and his wife, miss Stephanie, right? Well, this kid, Josh, he brought up a perverted cartoon that's on Nickelodeon or it doesn't matter. One of these evil satanic networks. And he starts talking about these things, I guess, in graphic detail, right? And brother Oliver was there. You can ask him, you know, when, when he comes, if you don't believe me, we can ask brother George next week. And if this traumatized brother George's daughter, Elliot. Okay. And so one of the reasons I, when I met with Josh, I asked him, you know, what's up with that? He throws brother Bradley under the bus. It's probably his fault. It's David's fault. That's who he is. He is a blamer. He is an accuser of the brethren. He has a problem. He has trouble. And this is why I said somebody who would side with someone like that. And these people know that these people left our church. They know this stuff. Somebody who would have their heart set to follow him is not welcomed in this church. Not welcome here because there's a breach in your spirit. There's something else going on. There's a bigger problem. That's worse than we think. And you better believe that. So he says, I was talking about like in the future, this is Josh speaking. This is Chris. He said, and this is definitely, this is pastor Mendez right here. Brother Chris says, he said, we can ask brother Joe once he gets ordained and, and it comes out here as the pastor and then he can decide, but not for a few months at least. And he says, okay, sounds good. So, you know, pastor Mendez, obviously he's busy and stuff. He's, he's like, I want you to deal with him. I want you to deal with this kid here. But you see that, that that's a little bit of insight into this kid, right? And it gets worse. It gets a whole lot worse. So nonetheless, point number two, every Christian in this church needs to take ownership. And so my point is that Chris said something. He saw this, say, hey, this is a problem. This is not right. Right? Other people saw it. Brother Mike, you saw it. But David, you saw it, right? You saw that the boy, right? Son, he was upset. And why was he upset? It's because Josh decided to take it upon himself to lead the music. Right? He was upset. And then that family lied to my face. They lied to my face a few months later saying, no, nobody was upset. We supported it. Well, you know, what's funnier than hell is that pastor Mendez didn't support it. So that tells me how you really feel about my pastor. That tells you how you feel about me. And that tells me how you feel about every member inside this church right now. Understand this. I'm not preaching this because they offended me because they didn't. I'm preaching this because they slapped every single person in this room right across the face spiritually. That's why I'm doing this. So point number one, God uses plagues to purge his house. We will get better. This is a good thing. Point number two, every Christian in this church needs to take ownership and not rentership. And actually it's because of that, it's because somebody decided to take ownership that that family left. That was a good thing that they did. Right? People in the church heard what they were doing, how they're supporting Josh and confronted them. They took ownership, right? And they said, Hey, this is not right. You need to make a decision. And thank God they did because I was going to have to do a, I was going to have to do this sermon as a surprise. And that would have been awkward. Wouldn't it? That would have been real awkward, but I did give a warning a few weeks ago when I preached the letter to shield the faith Baptist church. I told you this is a warning shot and thank God they heard it because this was going to get really bad. So let's move on here. Point number three, God has given pastors a protection plan for plagues. Number three, God has given pastors a protection plan for plagues. You're still there in Leviticus chapter 14, look at verse 36. It says, then the priest shall command that they empty the house. And before the priests go in to see the house of the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean. And afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. So we can see obviously the basic application here, right? The priest was to command that they empty the house. Why was he to command? Because he has authority from God, because he has the commandments, he has the training, he has the authority, he has the words, right? The priest was supposed to go in there and say, this is a problem. Get everything out right now. Right? And you know what? When I saw that Josh was a plague, that it was a problem, that he was living in his van. He desires to be homeless. When we saw that on Easter, I said, you know what? And he's dropping the F bombs, you know, on, on miss Rachel. I said, you gotta go, right? That's what I said. I commanded him to leave, right? Because he's a plague. And then what we decided to do is to empty the house. Right? And so that night I basically off camera, off the live stream, I talk, I went over some verses and we're going to go over them again about why we kicked him out. And guess what? The family that left, they were here minus one. And that was mama because mama was angry. Mama was very upset that we did what we did. Why? Because her heart's lifted up and she thinks she knows better than we do. She thinks she knows better than God. And that woman's not ever going to be allowed to step foot in this church ever again. So there's three things, three sub points, basically, of this verse that we're going to go over. Number one, what we can learn from this verse is preach the word. Number two, protect the house. And number three, pastors are to persistently follow up on these issues. Okay? Look at the verse again and you'll see this. Then the priest shall command that they empty the house, right? That's preaching the word that's preaching God's authority before the priests go into see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean. So there's a purpose. There's a reason why we have to kick bad people out of church. And it's so that everyone else in the church does not get infected, right? So that everyone else doesn't get the plague and follow suit and get destroyed. There's a reason why we do this. It's never easy. It's never easy when sickness spreads. It's never easy when there's a plague in the house, but you know what? You got to cut it out right off the bat. This isn't something that you can just wait on. And then the last, last part of the verse, it says an afterward, the pre-show go in to see the house. So there's your persistence. There's your followup, right? After we kicked them out, I waited, right? I suspected that they were helping Josh for a long time. And I even did get some reports, but I decided to just let it go because I wanted to apply this verse, right? I wanted to see our house. I wanted to see how they were, how they were handling you guys, how they were interacting, you know, are they spreading bitterness? Are they spreading, you know, any kind of, kind of hate? Are they trying to gain sympathy for Josh? What's going on here? Okay. And so we're going to talk about this here. So look at verse 36 again, actually, no turn to second Timothy chapter four, second Timothy chapter four. So the first thing we're going to talk about here is preaching the word, preaching God's word, right? Leviticus 14, 36, the beginning part of the verse says, then the priest shall command that they empty the house. So second Timothy chapter number four, look at verse one, the second Timothy chapter four, verse one says, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. See all throughout the Bible, prophets, teachers, apostles, men of God always charge. They always command it. Why is that? Because when you believe God's word, you understand that it has authority. That's why the scribes and the Pharisees, they looked upon crisis or the people at that time, you know, they said, they said, wow, Jesus is somebody who preaches with authority. He doesn't preach like the scribes and like the Pharisees do. Look at verse two, 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 lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And you know what? That's what this family did. They decided they were going to heap to themselves this teacher, this video guy, this guy who speaks Swedish, this guy who lives in his minivan and likes it. Another thing that they lied to me about when we had this meeting is they said, he's just living in that van while he transitions. That was back, what, two, three weeks after Easter. And we're sitting here at the end of August and he's still living in that van. And you can do the math here. Winter's coming. Okay. Winter's coming. Where's he going to live? You gonna live in that van? Look at verse four. It says, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned onto fables, but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry. And that should not just be my goal, right? But that's everybody's goal in here to make full proof of this ministry, right? See something, say something. But the key element here is to preach the word, stand up for the truth, right? We always ought to put the truth above our feelings. This isn't easy. This isn't hard, right? A lot of us in the beginning had some good fellowship with that family that left, you know, and I'm not trying to say, look, let's treat them as an enemy, see them out in town and be mean to them. That's not it at all. I'm not even saying they're not saved. I'm not saying they're reprobates. I'm not saying any of that, but I'm saying they're a problem. And you know what? Because they hung out with the plague, they got infected. And as a result, I did watch them try to infect other people. Okay. So let's move on here. So the next one, the next part of this verse that we're going to talk about here is about protecting the house, right? Protecting God's house. Look at verse, hopefully you kept your place there in Leviticus. If not, well, yeah, you should keep there. Go, you know what? I'm sorry, go to second Timothy three. So just go one chapter back. I'll just read for you Leviticus 14, 36 again, which says, then the priest shall command that they empty the house. We got that right. When there's a problem in the church, I need to deal with it. We all need to deal with it. We need to deal with it immediately. But the next part of the verse says before the priests go in to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made on clean. You see, we have to command that this house get emptied before everyone else gets infected by it. You know why old IFB churches are in such perils and trouble today? Because they don't apply these teachings. They get problematic people and they think they can reform them. They think they can help them. You know, sodomites come in, they think they can get them saved. They think that they can whisper them, right? Oh, we're the sodomite whisperers. No, you're not. You're just going to get turned out. You're just going to get turned just like they are. That's what's going to happen. You know, you're going to get bit by them. You're going to, you're going to go the way of Lot and his wife. It doesn't work. Second Timothy three, look at verse number one. This is talking about the last days. It's talking about the attitude of people in the last days. And you know what the key thing is here? Godlessness. Look at verse number one. It says this though also that in the last days perilous times shall come. Look at this next verse for men shall be lovers of their own selves. Covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy. Guess what? That's Josh Ellis to a T. That is Josh Ellis to a T. You know, we were looking at his playlist and he's got all these videos on there about how to increase your jawline, how to get better ads. You know, there's nothing wrong with working out and stuff, but look, what does this say? For men shall be lovers of their own selves, right? He has put himself in how he looks above the truth. He's put all that garbage way, way above anything that we teach here. And you know what? That family of the left, they love their own selves. They'll have their own feelings more than they did this church. It is true. And you know what? Josh is very disobedient to his parents. One of the things he told us when we had that big fight out in the back when we were in the house is he said, I hate my parents. I hate my parents. Now, why the hell would you let your daughter date somebody like that? Think about that. This kid is unthankful. Ask the acres about that. He's unthankful. They tried to help him out. Did he ever thank you guys? He never thanked you once. Did that family ever take that into consideration? Heck no, they didn't. In fact, they try to throw you guys under the bus as being the problem. Look at verse three. It says without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good. You know what? This kid doesn't have a natural affection bone in his body. You know what? I've heard story after story about him being angry with the little kids in this church. When you see these little kids, it should be natural for you to love them and to want to maybe play with them and to help them and to teach them and to want to take care of them and to care about their safety. This kid told me to my face that they were a nuisance to him. In fact, one time I was soul winning with him and this lady looked at her invitation and she says, oh wow, you have kids. I'm like, well, yeah, you kind of have to have kids to be a pastor, but that's a different sermon, you know? And she's like, well, that's great. That's one of the reasons why I don't go to church is because, you know, they always take your kids and this and that. And he goes, well, you don't want to come to our church if you've got kids. Says that in front of my face. You don't want to come to our church if you have kids because we're meeting in a house and it's really distracting. I said, whoa, hold on, man. Hold, wait a minute. I said, we're a family integrated church. Your children are more than welcome in our services. If they get distracted, I'll just preach louder. I can do that. It's okay. It's no problem. She said, okay, I got you. I got you. You know, and she looked at me and she was like, and then I realized we have a problem here. You know, I told him, well, you can't do stuff like that. Why would you do that? I'll tell you why, because it's without natural affection. That's why he's a truce breaker. He's a false accuser. He's incontinent. He's fierce. He's a despiser of those that do good. That's why he blamed all of you guys that are in here. He even blamed the family that took him in and left this church. He was always blaming them, always blaming them, always. This guy, look, he only cares about himself. And for somebody to turn around and say, you know what, I'm going to follow him. I'm going to go with him. It just blows my mind. Verse five, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away. And that's what we did. He had a form of godliness, right? But he did deny the power thereof. You know, he asked brother Remy the first time you met him, you know, do you think you really need the word of God to get people saved? And what was one of the reasons why I was getting ready to kick him out, if you remember, is because he quit bringing his Bible, sowing. It got to the point where he was going up to people's doors, knocking on the doors. We didn't know what he was saying. Why would you do that? Why in the world would you do that? You know what, you know what the family that left told me? Well, his Bible got contaminated. And so he had to throw it away. His Bible got contaminated and he had to throw it away. Because remember, Joshie Boy has this mystical disease called OCD. It's this disease where you have to wash your hands all the time, otherwise you're contaminated. But you can pet squirrels and pick stuff up off the ground, out sowing, and shake people's hands out sowing. I don't understand it. Maybe somebody in here does. I don't know. I've been thinking about, maybe we should hire a doctor to try to explain this stuff to us. I don't get it. But what I do get is 2 Timothy 3. That's what I get. I understand that. We understand that, right? Verse 6, for of this sort, remember for this kind, this type of person, for of this sort are they which creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lust. You want to know why those ladies left? It's because of this verse right here. Because they're laden with sins. The word laden means to be bogged down, heavy loaded. Look, we're all sinners. Everybody in here has sin. Everybody in here sins every single day. But that doesn't mean that we're laden with sins. It doesn't mean that we're bogged down. The reason why their hearts went after Josh is because of this verse right here. Because they're silly. Because they are laden with sins and God has removed their ability to discern truth. That is why. You want to know why people's hearts turn after fools? It's because they're fools themselves. Because they decided to reject counsel at some point in their life. Verse 7, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, right? What were they always doing? All of these people, the family that left and Josh, they're always trying to find new ways to reconcile the situation. Always trying to find a way to bring him back or to make it all work out, right? Ever learning and never able to come to the truth. And when they understood that, they had to leave. Verse 8 says, now as Janus and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds were up for bait concerning the faith, but they shall proceed no further for their folly shall be made or shall be manifest unto all men as theirs also was. And you, us as a church saw verse 9 recently. You know, Josh's folly was made manifest unto all of us. And you know what? That family helping them out, that's a foolish thing. And that was made manifest to us as well. You know, I just prayed, a lot of us in here prayed, prayed to God. You know, if they're not willing to change, please expose it to us. Apparently they weren't willing to change because God exposed it to us. Go to Romans chapter 16. Romans chapter 16. So the next part of Leviticus 1436, we're going to talk about is the last part. Pastors are to persistently follow up on these issues. Pastors are to persistently follow up on these issues. I'm going to read the verse for you again. Then the priest shall command that they empty the house before the priest go in to it, to see the plague, that all that is in the house be not made unclean. And afterward the priest shall go in to see the house. So after the dust settled, after we kicked him out, what do we do? We waited and we observed and we watched to see the damage, to see how bad it really is. Right? Look at Romans chapter 16, look at verse 17, Romans 16, 17 says, now I beseech you brethren, mark them, which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine, which ye have learned and avoid them. Verse 18, for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly and by good words in fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple. You see that the simple comes up over and over and over again in the Bible. When you study the subject of fools, when you study froward people, why is that? Because they lack understanding. Simple people lack understanding. Obviously fools do too, but a fool has taken it a step further and made it into a sport, right? People that are simple, they've just, you know, they're at that stage where they've rejected the knowledge, you know, and why, why is Paul telling the Romans, Hey, get rid of people that are disorderly, get rid of these people that cause divisions. The reason why is because they deceive the hearts of the simple. And when they do that, we can no longer help them. We can no longer train them up, right? That family that left will no longer be able to try and help them. You know, I mean, you know, we, we did try to help, you know, I preach sermon after sermon after sermon here, you know, after we'd had our meeting with them, they all went right over their head apparently. And they had to bail. Turn to second Thessalonians chapter three, second Thessalonians chapter three. But Romans 16, 18 describes the situation to a T for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ. Look, Josh wasn't interested in serving God. If he was, why would he play these stupid games with people? Why would he try to make our church look bad out? So why would he try? Why would he have to always pray with people twice at the door? Who does that? You guys remember when we had the Caldwell Solany marathon, right? So he's, he's talking with this woman, brother T Solany with brother Tameo from Vancouver, brother Tameo. He just leaves him, right? Was that what they, that's what I was with brother Moses, right? We're looking at the, at this going on here. I'm looking at Josh, I'm looking at Tameo. Tameo's looking at me and I know Tameo pretty well and he's not, he's didn't gesture or anything, but he just starts bouncing and I'm like, oh, he's pissed. Something's going on. Sooner or later, I'm like, watch, he's going to come down here, right? And I was like, watch, he's going to come down here, comes down here. And he's like, I don't know what it is with this kid. He just wants to argue. He just wants to debate. He just wants to bring up things that don't matter. He's like, I've tried to correct him. I know he's new. He's not listening to me. He's like, what's going on with this guy? And I'm like, don't worry about it. So he's like, he's like, he's already prayed once with this girl. She doesn't believe the gospel. She believes you got to repent of your sins to be saved. And he's trying to pray with her again. So Josh comes down. I was like, well, that was a tough cookie there. You know, she, I had to pray with her twice. I'm like, okay. So the next day at church, I take him aside. I'm like, Hey man, your soul-winding partner, or I didn't count that salvation in the bulletin. Okay. I didn't count that salvation. And he came up to me, Hey, why don't you count that salvation? I said, yeah, I wanted to talk to you about that. The reason why I didn't count that is because your soul-winding partner said that she didn't get saved. Okay. And he, guess what he does? He tries throwing Tameo under the bus. Well, he's mean. He's he's angry. He's aggressive. He's this, he's that just like he does. And I'm like, okay, so I'll take you up on this. Let's go visit her. Let's go see. He's like, okay. Yeah. I want to give her some videos anyways. Yeah. Yeah. You'll see. So on a Monday, I take Josh over to Caldwell again. We drive over there. We go visit this lady and she's kind of like, what are you doing here? You know, not too happy about it. Clearly she's not saved. She doesn't believe the gospel. I'm like, look, let's just go. All right. She's not going to get it right now. So we leave and he's like, well, I don't know. Do you think we should still count it? I said, did she get saved? Well, no, she apparently she didn't get it. You know, pray to the twice. She didn't get it. Why would we count it? It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous for they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. He's after glory. He's after his own self and his image. That's why he would do that. That's the only reason why he would do that. And it's a dangerous thing when you see somebody that understood that and would still follow suit after him. And you know what? This didn't just happen once. This happened again. In fact, son, right? Our old song leader requested not to go soloing with him anymore because of this crap. And then when we had the meeting said, Oh, he taught me everything. I know he was an effective. So look effective soul winners, bring their Bible. So any, you understand that? I mean, look, if you have the verses memorized, that's cool, but you're not going to get anybody to save without the word of God. And again, that's another sermon in and of itself. Second Thessalonians chapter three, look at verse six. It says, now we command you brethren and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. That is another reason why we kick Josh out. Look, I could go on for hours about why we kicked him out in the scriptures that support it. It says, and not after the tradition, which he received of us for yourselves know how you ought to follow us for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you. Neither did we eat any man's bread for not, but rot with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you. Verse nine, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you to follow us. Verse 10 for even when we were with you, this we commanded you that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Look, you can't get more clear than that, right? Josh Ellis was not willing to work. You know what? He was mooching off of that family. He was expecting them to take care of him. In fact, they had told us several times that if they didn't feed him, he would die. That's what they said. If we didn't take care of him, he would die. When we had that meeting, guess what? Oh, we didn't say that. We didn't mean it like that. You liars. You lying buffoons. That's what they told me and my wife. This guy, dad lied not only to me, but he lied to my wife because the day of the mega marathon, he comes up to her and he's like, I don't know what to do about this kid. You know, he's just, you know, he's complaining and rightfully so, you know, he's like, if we didn't feed him, man, he'd probably die. Yeah, I guarantee you die. He doesn't eat. He doesn't eat well. Right? So they request to have a meeting later on after we kick him out, we bring this up to him and they're like, well, we didn't mean it. We didn't mean that. We were just joking. We were just teasing. Look, even if they couldn't see that he was taking advantage of him, I could see it. And a lot of people in here could see it, right? Because that is what these people do, right? Look at verse 10 again. For even when we're with you, we're with you, this we command you that if any would not work, neither should he eat. There's no difference between that guy, Josh Ellis, and your panhandler that's downtown holding up the cardboard sign. He just does it to the simple inside of churches. It's the same thing. Look at verse 11. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly working, not at all, but are busybodies. So an element to being a busybody, one of the things that makes a busybody a busybody isn't just running in your mouth and yapping and spreading rumors. It's also somebody who will not work. And I told mama this in that meeting and she rolls her eyes and says, oh, busybody, there's a busybody. She's getting all mad. But what does the Bible say? If he doesn't work, look, this guy's a moocher. Look, can I tell the story about the alarm clock? Right? Look, let me ask these guys, they got a lot of stories. When the Eggers family graciously hosted this kid before they knew anything about him, right? They, you know, he had a job working at some, what, fortune cookie restaurant or something, some Chinese place or I don't know, someplace, right? And guess what? He loses his job. Why is that? Because he keeps hitting that snooze button. He wouldn't get up, go to work on time, right? He thought he was going to be able to take advantage of them, but brother Mike's like, ah, you don't know me, buddy. Hey, you're out of here. So he, he kicked him to the curb real quick, right? So he looks around and he's like, okay, well, I can't mess with them. Oh, you, I'll get this family. I'll get, I'll get the family that left. And that's exactly what he did. If we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, it is a disorderly thing, according to God, to not work in mooch off of people in his house. That is a plague. That is a problem. That is not good. He is an able bodied young man that can work. Look, I know tons of people at Verde Baptist Church in Sacramento that work two jobs, just they can afford a small apartment and still go to church and bring their families to a church. You think I'm going to feel sorry for this kid because he's apparently got some disease and he can't, you know, touch certain things. He gets contaminated, got some mental problem. Look, the mental problem that he has has nothing to do with OCD. It has to do with these verses that I'm going over with you. It has to do with him being a plague. Maybe it has something to do with him hating his family, hating his mother and his father. Maybe it has something to do with that. I don't know. Not saying as a reprobate. I don't know, but you'd be the judge. Verse 12, now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness, they work and eat their own bread. Brother Adrian brought this up to him when we met with him. He's like, cause he's telling us about his plans, right? He's trying to go see a therapist, a psychologist to get help with his mental issues. Cause the word of God's not good enough, apparently, you know, and he's talking about working at this call center and this garbage. Brother Adrian's like, look, do you really think that's a good example that, you know, we let you come back to church and you're just living in your van and trying to get free healthcare and you know, stuff like this. It's like, it's a good question. You know, he was like, why can't you like get, get in the trades and just get your hand, you know, just, just work and maybe get a good medical plan. That's good advice. That's righteous counsel. But he rejected it. He didn't want anything to do with that. So verse 12, now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness, they work and eat their own bread. Right? We tried that. Several of you tried that, but ye brethren be not weary in well-doing. And if any man obey not a word by this epistle, note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed. Yet count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. See a lot of people will point to you to verse 15. Oh, are you counting them as an enemy? Well, I am because this goes a lot deeper than just being a busy body, right? Josh Ellis is not somebody who's just a busy body. He is a bad person. He has ill will. And we've, we've seen that we've seen him. We have the proof. His intentions are evil. His intentions are bad. This goes beyond just being immature. This goes beyond just being a spoiled brat. This guy is a serious plague in the house. So I'm going to go over this meeting again real quick here. Right? So after we kick Josh out now and I'm going kind of long, I'll make tonight short. I promise. All right. So we have this meeting. So we kick Josh out. A little bit of time goes by. Mama doesn't want to come to church. There's perils, you know, dad's emailing me, Hey, you know, we want to have a meeting with you. No problem. Let's, let's have a meeting. Let's discuss. I thought I got everything out after Dylan preached that Sunday night on Easter, but maybe not. Okay. No problem. Let's have this meeting. Right? So we have this meeting in the house. First thing mama says to me, Oh, well, well dad says, Hey, we got to have the meeting right now. We got to have it today. Right? Because this was the only thing that Josh had in his life. And you took that away. This is what I did. Turn around and said, let's go. Let's get in there. I was fuming. I was furious because that guy was the main culprit running around to all of us complaining about Josh Ellis. Right? You see, he didn't have the guts. He didn't have the stones to stop him from dating his daughter. And so he wanted me to kick him out of the church. And then when we did all of a sudden, now I'm the bad guy. Right? So we have this meeting and she's just, she's sitting in the corner, right in room like this. She's like, I just don't get it. I just don't get it. I just don't get it. So I'm like, what don't you get? What don't you get? Well, I don't think he was properly Matthew 18. Look, let me tell you something. I don't have to Matthew 18, a devil. Okay. I don't have to Matthew 18, somebody who's steeped in serious sins that you don't read Matthew 18. I felt like saying, have you ever read the whole chapter? Have you ever read the whole book? Think about that. Probably not. She's probably hasn't read the whole book. Right? So we have this meeting and these people are lying. And she says this, I thought he was a very effective soul in her. Is that why he's praying with people two times? Is that why no man in this church wants to go soul-winning with him? Is that why the wives don't even want to be on the same street as this guy, but he's effective. Doesn't bring his Bible. He's just knocking on people's doors saying who knows what, how is that effective? How is that discernment? How is that not a problem? Right? So we have this meeting and all she wants to do is focus on Matthew 18. Well, I heard you guys were real mean to him out in the backyard. Yeah. You better believe we were because we found out that he's busy body, that he's what he desires to be homeless. And they're like, well, no, he doesn't desire to be homeless. He's just doing it as a transition. That proved to be a lie. Right? I said, you said that he would die if you didn't feed him. So that means, you know, he's not willing to work. He's expecting you to feed him. Oh, we didn't say that. Everything was just lies. Oh, he, you know, and then, and then sons, like he taught me everything I know about soul-winning. Well, now I'm looking at you buddy. Look, I know this is harsh, but we got to have discernment. We need to understand when people are trying to manipulate us. Listen to this. I've got real quick 20 problems with Josh Ellis. I'm going to go through them real quick. We had a list and we have a list that goes from here to that back wall and back again. Here's just 20. Here goes soul-winning without a Bible. Number two, leaving his partners. Number three, dad met with him privately, tried to straighten him out. Didn't work. Number four, dad had asked us to kick him out because he doesn't have the guts to stop him from dating his daughter. Didn't put it quite like that, but that's the situation. And let me just go ahead and say this. Dad's not running that household. Mom's is. And so is the daughter. I get it. You might think it's harsh. It's the reality though. That is the truth. Number five said, if they don't feed him, he will die. Number six, he tried to usurp pastor Mendez's authority with the song leading and preaching when the faithful word Baptist church guys come. Number seven, he's trying to fudge soul-winning numbers, praying with people twice. Number eight, saying weird things to guests, right? Brother Skolk, did he not try to plant a seed in your mind when you first came here about aliens? Look, you want to talk about aliens, go visit Andrew Sluder's church or go visit Treasure Valley Baptist church. You can get out of here. Number nine, trying to obtain contact information from visitors. I heard that the guys in here had a nickname for him before I even came here. Well, not before I came here, but you know, at some point in the early days, what'd you guys call them? You remember something about, I can't remember what it was, but basically one of the things that psychopaths do, okay, is they try to pull an Absalom. They'll sit in the gate and they'll try to gain support when new people come in. They'll try to gain that new guy right when he comes in to see, they'll throw out a little jab to see how he reacts. You know, that's what they do. And that's what this kid would do. Anytime somebody new would come to church, you try to get their contact information, try to get emails and he would try to fellowship with them. You know what? You always pick the weirdos that would come to church and you're not a weirdo and that's why you're still here. But I'm saying there've been some, some people that are bad people that have come inside this church and he's gotten along with them great. And I'm trying to say this without saying too much. And he's, by the way, he's the only person that I know that's brought a faggot inside this church. And it just happened to be on the day I was visiting. What are the odds of that? Where am I at on this thing? Number, all right, number 10. Yeah, number 10, getting along. Oh yeah, yeah. Getting along with every strange, very strange worldly people. Number 11, living in and laden with sins, right? We can go into great detail about that, great detail about that one right now. Number 12, trying to make people in this church look bad while enticing people to go watch rated R movies. I can remember one of my visits here, listening to him talk to people and say, oh, we got to go watch this rated R movie. Why would you want to do that? You know, you shouldn't want to set wicked thing before, you know, wicked things, you know, you know, before our eyes. It's not right. Number 13, choosing to be homeless and live in a van and then lying about it. Number 14, refusing counsel to get things right. Number 15, discussing perverted cartoons and other things in the presence of small children. Number 16, taking advantage of people in the church that allowed them to stay in their home. Number 17, unthankful. Number 18, an accuser of the brother. Number 19, a pathological liar. Number 20, disrespecting women in this church. And that doesn't even scratch the surface. Doesn't even scratch the surface. We look, I've already gone over my time and there's so much more I can't even read to you. Let's move on. Go back to Leviticus chapter 14 and we're going to finish this up. I hope I don't have to make this a part two cause this is just getting old. I'm confident that nobody in here has a bleeding heart towards Josh. I think for the first time we can assemble together without the bitterness and without the trouble and without the bleeding hearts. So point number four, after a person has been kicked out, it's time to assess the damages. Look at verse 37, Leviticus 1437, and he shall look on the plague and behold, if the plague be in the walls of the house with hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall. Now it's time for inspection, right? So what did we do? We kicked him out, right? And now it was time for us to observe the house, to observe the church, right? We are the church. A church isn't a building, but it is a congregation of God's believers. We understand this. Josh Ellis was the plague in our house. And in this verse here, it says that if we see hollow strakes, greenish or reddish, which in sight are lower than the wall. What that's saying is when we look at a plague, right? If it's embedded, if it's been eating the pastor, you see these people's homes and you could read the context on your own time, right? It talks about brick and mortar, right? So these plagues, these leprous type plagues, it would get on the walls. They would be different colors, right? And the priest was supposed to go in there and look and say, okay, this is that type of plague. We need to cut this section out, or it was this type of plague. We need to get the whole house demolished and put this without the city, okay? And so that's what's going on. So the spiritual application here is we need to see how deep, right? How deep and what color the damage was of Josh Ellis, of the plagues. It says which in sight are lower than the wall. Think about this. You ever seen sheet rock that's had black mold or different contamination on it? What do people do? What does a mold company do or a restoration company do when they come and see that mold? They have to cut out that whole section of sheet rock, right? Because it'll eat through that, right? It'll get lower than the wall. It'll eat through that sheet rock and then go into the foundation and into the wood, right? That's the physical side, but the spiritual side is the same thing. This is why we kick people out of church that are plagues, that are bad because they infect other people and you saw that. That's why that family left, right? And so that's what the issue is. Now we have to see what are the damages here, right? Who are the bleeding hearts? And I'm not saying anybody in here, I'm pretty sure that there's nobody left in here that's a bleeding heart, but nonetheless, this is just the order of events that the priest was supposed to do while he inspected the plagues. And it's very similar to what I'm supposed to do as a pastor. It's very similar to what all of you are supposed to do as owners of this church. So let's move on here. Verse 38 says, then the priest shall go out of the house to the door of the house and shut up the house seven days. And the priest shall come again the seventh day and shall look and behold if the plague be spread in the walls of the house. Verse 40, then the priest shall command that they take away the stones which the plague is and they shall cast them into an unclean place without the city. That is the issue here. We cast this guy out into an unclean place in the city and you know what? What I found was a family that had hollow strakes, greenish, some reddish, they were embedded, they were depressions. And the truth of the matter is the family that left this church, I'm going to say four things real quick. They have this, they are holier than thou attitude. And why is that? Because they don't read the Bible. Talks about that in Deuteronomy. We're supposed to read God's word to keep ourselves humble. Anytime you run into somebody that's a Christian that is very arrogant and very proud, I can guarantee you they are not reading the Bible or they're not saved and they're reading it. It's one of the two. Number two, they know better than us. Number three, they're more sympathetic than we are, so therefore they're better than we are. Number four, they think that their hearts are better than our hearts. They think they have a bigger heart than we do. Oh, Pastor Jones is mean. And if you don't believe me, he's told other people in this church that I'm harsh, that I'm a meanie. I'm a meanie. Now I'm going to read you the email that dad sent me. Okay, I'm going to read you this email and we're going to talk about that because there is a great lesson in manipulation in this email here. So last Friday, he sends me a text message, hey, our family decided not to come to church anymore. So, okay, hey, you know, no problem, right? I understand. I knew it was coming. You know, I don't hate you for this. It's, we all knew it. And then Sunday night at 1130 at night, he sends me this email. Why do you think he sends me this email? It's for damage control. Listen to this email. Pastor Jones, we just wanted to send a quick note to let you know that we believe and always have that the doctrine taught at Shield of Faith Baptist Church and other churches in the movement to be biblically sound. We did not leave due to anything doctrinal. It was purely a personal decision. We read that to you one more time. We just wanted to send a quick note to let you know that we believe and always have that the doctrine taught at Shield of Faith Baptist Church and other churches and this movement to be biblically sound. Then where are they today? Why are they hanging out at the village? Why are they letting Josh hang out at Chick-fil-A? Why are they letting him hang out at Chipotle? Why are they letting him meet with a daughter over at the village? Why? Oh, because you believe the doctrines that are taught at this church. Is that why? Is that why you challenged me on Matthew 18? Because you believe the doctrines of this church. You see an ignorant person, somebody who doesn't understand manipulation would take this email and be like, well, so kind. He just wants to leave on good terms. No, this is bad. Says we did not leave due to anything doctrinal. He tells on himself here, we did not leave due to anything doctrinal. It was purely a personal decision. So the reason why they left was not because of doctrine. It was because it's personal. And you know what that personal situation is. It's about Josh Ellis. He says, we respect you in your church and have not found or look for another. That is a lie. That is a straight up bold faced lie. We respect you. Really? Where are you today? Where are you? Why aren't you here? Why'd you take a song leader? Why'd you take a piano player? Why'd you take two soul winners out of our church? Because you respect me because you agree with our doctrine. Is that God's doctrine to stop soul winning? Is that God's doctrine to take people out of ministry? Just leave us short handed. Is that God's doctrine? Do you really respect me? This is somebody who is lying. This is somebody who is trying to manipulate. And you need to understand when people try to flatter you, when people try to butter you up, you better get ready because there's a right hook coming right behind that. He says, we respect you in your church and have not found or look for another. Really? The Bible says forsaking, not the gathering together. We're not to forsake church, but you respect me. You believe in doctrine. You're telling on yourself. He's using flattery. Proverbs 29 five says this, a man that flattereth his neighbor spreadeth a net for his feet. This guy is trying to spread a net for my feet. He's trying to spread a net for you. He's trying to make sure that we don't learn the hard core truth in this whole entire situation. Proverbs 20 verse 19 says, he that goeth about as a tailbearer reveal its secrets. Therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips. I did not respond to this email, nor will I respond to him in future emails because he is a flatterer. He's using flatteries to try and do damage control. He knew that this was probably going to happen. In fact, they told him, if I find out that you guys are supporting that kid, I'm going to bring it up and I'm going to preach against it. He goes on to say this. It is our prayer that our children at least will be welcomed into a new IFB church in the future and that your church will continue to grow and prosper. Really? Is that why you left? Is that why you cut soul winners out of here? Is that why you cut the music ministry out? It's our prayer, huh? You think God's going to hear these prayers? God commands us to assemble together. God commands us to go to church. You think God's going to listen to somebody like this? This is a lie. He says, he's basically saying, look, me and mama have no intention to ever go to church again, but I want our kids to be able to go to a different IFB church. I'll tell you what, if I ever hear that they're, even those kids are going to a new IFB church, you can bet your last dime. I'm calling the pastor up and I'm saying, hey, I want you to be aware of this. Here's the situation. Maybe watch this sermon. Here's everything else I have because I want to protect you. I want to protect your congregation. These people are dangerous. They reject counsel. They reject wisdom. Look, we're not a denomination, right? If that pastor wants to let them in, that's on him, but you better know I'm going to say something about it. I'm going to, why can't they come here? Why can't they let them come here? It's because we know too much about Josh. That's why we know much more than what I've said now. He goes on to say this, we pray for blessings upon your church and we hold no hard feelings. Hold no hard feelings, but that's why you're not here. That's why she would always whisper up here in the front row whenever I would say stuff. Look, you ever walk into a room and felt bitterness and felt contention? Look, we can feel tension. You can walk into a room of two people, three people that are mad at you. And without them even saying anything, you can tell that, right? I could tell she was bitter. I could tell that they were bitter. They were upset. We hold no hard feelings. He's lying. Look, I'm not simple. I'm not falling for this. And that's why I preach the sermon. The title of the sermon is when full whispering goes wrong. You see, what do you mean by that? I mean, the family that has already been bitten by this fool experienced this. They thought they could be a full whisperer. They thought they could train and tame him, but they already got bit. They already got infected. They already got that plague spread throughout their veins and throughout their body. They're oozing out those greenish and reddish strakes that the plague has left. He got them to leave this church, right? I'll bet you this. He's probably got them supporting him. They've been doing it while they were going here and they were bringing them food, right? People have seen them. The Bible says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth. You didn't think that was going to get back to us? You're foolish. If you think that you can hang out with fools and tame them and whisper them, you got another thing coming. 1 Corinthians 15, 33 says this, be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. You will never be a full whisperer. You might think that you're whispering. You might think that you're doing good. You might think that you could convert that person, but it will never work. They will convert you. They will bite you. They will take you on. Look, this person that thinks he's a lion whisperer, these people think they're bear whisperers. They cannot defeat that animal, right? They're not Samson. When one that animal decides to be a beast like it is and turns and rends that person, there's nothing that person can do. And you know what? There's nothing that family that left can do either. Leviticus 14, 41 look at this verse. We're almost done. It says, and he shall cause the house to be scraped within roundabout and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place. Notice that, right? When we see this plague, when we see that it's embedded, the Bible says that we are to pour out even the dust that they scrape off of the walls. That is why I'm preaching the sermon to make sure there's no more dust in here, to make sure it's all gone, to make sure it all gets out, to make sure it goes all into the unclean place without the city. That's why, you know what? You know what's sad? Let me read the first again. And he shall cause the house to be scraped within roundabout. Who's that? The priest, right? The pastor and they shall pour out the dust that they scrape off without the city into an unclean place. You know what this family did? They went to that unclean place and they brought that dust and they brought that plague. They brought those infected bricks into their own home. Think about that. Think about that. Think about the folly. Think about how foolish and stupid that is. They don't know the Bible. They went to the unclean place and said, you know what priest? You know what pastor? You don't know what you're talking about. I'm going to take this nastiness. I'm going to take this filth and I'm going to bring it in onto my own house. And the sad thing is it's going to destroy them. It will destroy them. Look at verse 42. And they shall take other stones and put them in the place of those stones. And he shall take other mortar and shall plaster the house. What they should have done when we kicked him out is they should have replaced that fellowship with the fellowship of the people that are in this church. They should have replaced Josh Ellis with more soul. They should have replaced Josh Ellis with Bible reading. They should have replaced Josh Ellis with the things of God, but they didn't. They did not do that. Instead, they went to the dump and said, you know what? This looks good to me. Let's just go ahead and swan dive in the dumpster, the dumpster of plagues. Verse 43. And if the plague come again and break out in the house, after that he hath taken away the stones. And after he hath scraped the house and after it is plastered, then the priest shall come and look. And behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house. It is unclean. And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the mortar of the house. And he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place. Moreover, he that goeth into the house all the while that it is shut up shall be unclean until they even. That's why they came into this church with bitterness because they were continuously supporting somebody that's a fool, that's a devil, and they couldn't shake the dust off before they would walk into this church. Verse 47. And he that lieth in the house shall wash his clothes, and he that eateth in the house shall wash his clothes. And if the priest shall come in and look upon it, and behold, the plague hath not spread in the house after the house was plastered, then the priest shall pronounce the house clean because the plague is healed. And I like to think right now, I think this plague is healed. I think now that we can go forward. But you know what? Remain vigilant, remain sober because you know what? Round two is coming, or round three rather, right? Round one was Josh. Round two was the family that left. I don't know what round three is going to bring, and it's not a three round or a five round deal. This is life. This is what happens when a church decides to preach the truth, right? The devil says, you know what? Let me test them. Let me try to go after them. So this is why the plague had to be taken out. This is why that Josh had to be removed. This is why that family had to leave. You know what? Because instead of not only because if not, instead of only infecting the five stones, right, it could have spread and taken the whole house with it, right? Let's just be thankful in all things like the Bible says and be thankful it only infected five. Let's just be thankful about that. And you know what? I'll say this too. Right before they quit, we noticed that they were trying to spread their bitterness to other people in the church, not just one family, not just two families, but numerous people have come to me and said, Hey, they said X, Y, and Z. They said this, this, and this. What's going on? So let's, let's be thankful. They were trying to cause division and I've got more. We got to be done because I think this is the longest sermon I've ever preached in my life. So you get the point, right? We had a plague in the house. We dealt with it. It's gone. And let's learn from it. Let's learn how to deal with people that are trying to manipulate us. Let's not be bleeding hearts and let's move forward and get a bunch of people saved. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your word. I thank you for these trials that you put us through, Lord, that we may grow and learn. Please bless the service this evening and the soul winning today, Lord and the fellowship in Jesus' name. I pray. Amen.