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Alright, we're in Numbers chapter 13, look down at your Bibles at verse 29, it says, The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains, and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. And the title of the sermon this morning is How to Receive an Evil Report. How to Receive an Evil Report. Now in this passage of scripture, we find the story of the 12 spies. This is a pretty popular story that most people know about. God has already promised the children of Israel the land. He's already told them, Hey, you're going to go in there. You're going to possess it. You're going to do great works. I am with you. This is yours. And he instructs Moses to send out 12 men to search it out and to take a consensus of the produce, the people, and just the condition of the land. Now he's not sending them out there to basically say, Hey, see if you can overcome it. He's not sending them out there to see, Hey, see if they're greater than you. Hey, go see if you're capable army wise or fighting wise to be able to overcome the land. He just said, Go search out the land and take a consensus. Look what you're going to overcome. Look at what you're going to inherit. Look at what you're going to have. That's what he's telling them to do. Look down at verse 17. And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan and said unto them, Get you up this way southward and go up into the mountain and see the land what it is and the people that dwell therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many, and what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad, and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether intense or in strongholds, and what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether it be wood therein or not, and be of good courage and bring the fruit of the land. And that time was the time of the first stripe, excuse me, the first stripe grapes. So he's telling them, Look, take a look at all these things. And he said, Be of good courage. You know why he's telling them to be of good courage? Because obviously there's people who are greater than them. They're stronger today. But he's telling them, Go there to see the challenge. See what you're going to reap. See the rewards and be ready to basically overcome that. That's what he's telling them. So they searched the land for 40 days. After that, they brought the fruit of the land, the clusters of grapes, which is great. He's basically saying, Look, look what's over there. It's motivation of what we're going to overcome. Look at verse 27. And they told him and said, We came unto the land whether thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey. And this is the fruit of it. He's like, Man, this is a good land. Here is the fruit of it. It's a land flowing with milk and honey. And let me say this. They should have just stopped right there. They bring a good report, but let's read verse 28. Nevertheless, all downhill from there, nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land. Hey, that's true. I mean, he's telling the truth, right? And the cities are walled, very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. So they're bringing the evil report. And it's not necessarily their fault that they're doing this because they're telling the truth. But this whole attitude that comes behind it, nevertheless, what are they doing? They're instilling fear in the hearts of the people. What they should have said is, hey, these people be strong that dwell in the land. And the cities are walled and very great. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak. Nevertheless, it's a land that flows with milk and honey. Nevertheless, look at the clusters of grapes. So as we read in the beginning of the service, they bring up this evil report. And the report, basically, what is a report? It's an account of something or an event that has taken place. And what is an evil report? Well, partially, basically, an evil report is explaining what has taken place, but something that's taken place that's not good, a misfortune, something evil that has been fallen, a people. And look at the response of the people. So they bring up this report. They tell the good, but then they emphasize, overemphasize the bad, right? They overemphasize the evil, and look at the response of the people because of it. Look at chapter 14 and verse number 1. And all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night. And all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and the whole congregation said unto them, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God that we had died in this wilderness? And wherefore had the Lord brought us into this land, to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be prey, were it not better for us to return into Egypt? Good night. Talk about discouragement. These people are like, would to God that we just forget about this whole thing and we just go back to Egypt? You little sissy. Didn't you see the clusters of grapes? Didn't you just hear it's a land flowing with milk and honey? Don't you see it's a great opportunity? And yet what do they do? They emphasize the evil. They emphasize the challenge. They emphasize it to the point where they discourage the rest of the people from going up and inheriting the land. Now the interesting thing about this is that it's 10 spies who actually came back and gave this evil report. Two spies, Joshua and Caleb, are the ones who are like, hey, we're able to overcome it. Let's do this. And they're like, no, no, no, no, they're too big. We're like grasshoppers in their sight. You're exaggerating. These aren't Nephilims. You need to get your head out of the book of Enoch. Those don't exist. You're not in their eyes as grasshoppers. You're exaggerating and you're causing fear in the hearts of the people. And they said once in a while, let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt. I mean to the point where they're just like, let's just forsake this entire thing. And just think about what the Lord is possibly thinking at this time. This is not my intent of showing you the land. The intent was to motivate you, to make you strong, to unify you, to unite you, to make you strong to go in to overcome the land. And then all of a sudden, it's just like the opposite effect, it's like, well, let's just go back to Egypt. Now that's not what God wanted. And this is not the kind of attitude that God wanted his people to have. Now let me say this, is that this week as a movement, we've received an evil report, haven't we? It was a very evil report. And unlike the story that we read here, a lot of it was true. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, obviously, you need to catch up a little bit. But Donny Romero has stepped down from being the pastor of Steadfast Baptist Church because of prostitution, weed, and gambling, amongst other things. Oh, you shouldn't say that out loud. This is the problem with old IFB churches. And I'm getting ahead of myself here. We're not trying to cover anything up. And anybody who has a public ministry is to rebuke publicly, this is to be exposed publicly, so that we don't try to conjure up in your imagination what the possibility of the sin was. We'll just tell you, hey, it was prostitution. Hey, we'll tell you, hey, it's alcohol, or it's weed, excuse me. It's gambling, it's sin, it's wicked. This is the evil report that we received today. And obviously, you know, a lot's changed within the last couple of days, right? You know, he stepped down, and he's caused a lot of turmoil in the lives of a lot of people. And this isn't the message today, but just understand this, sin will not just destroy you. Sin will affect everyone around you. So before you decide to get involved in some sort of sin, thinking that it's only gonna affect you, you know, you need to stop acting so selfish, and recognize that your sin will affect everyone else. Your family, your church, your members, people who look up to you will be affected by it. But this isn't the only evil report that we received this week. Another evil report is Adam Fannin, the so-called evangelist of Steadfast Baptist Church of Jacksonville, has taken it upon himself to completely divide and cause dissension. Oh, man, but he has a right, though. He's done all the work. He's Steadfast, they're Steadfast Baptist Church of Jacksonville. They're a satellite church. They're not an independent Baptist church. People tell me, how are you gonna call yourself, Brother Mejia, an independent fundamental Baptist church if you haven't gotten independent? I'll tell you why I do that. Because look at the sign outside. It's called Faithful Word Baptist Church. Faithful Word Baptist Church is an independent fundamental Baptist church. We are a satellite of that church. So the independence that we're talking about is the independence of Faithful Word Baptist Church of Tempe. We're just a satellite. And until the future, when eight months or whatever, if I get ordained or not, it doesn't matter, that'll change. But until then, we're an independent fundamental Baptist church. But here's the thing. Who's the pastor of this church? Pastor Steven Anderson's the pastor of this church. Who oversees this church? Well, obviously, on a day and week in, week out basis, I'm the one who's overseeing the church. I oversee the affairs of the church. I try to shepherd the people of the church. I preach the message of the church. I'm responsible for the soul winning, the baptisms, and all these things, the footwork of the church. But ultimately, the one who's in charge of me is Pastor Steven Anderson. Oh, you're brown-nosed. No, you're an idiot who doesn't understand authority. You're an idiot who speaks evil of dignities. We need to learn structure. And look, we should never have in our church an attitude of speaking evil against dignities. The only time we speak evil of dignities is when that dignity is not saved, they're preaching a false gospel, or they have done what Donny Romero has done, or what Adam Fanon is doing. And I don't want any sympathizers in our church for Adam Fanon. And if you sympathize for that rebel, come talk to me after the service. We have no room for that. You have no understanding, you have zero understanding of structure, leadership, and authority. And I don't want to get ahead of myself, but this is just all introduction. Let me just start by saying that Adam Fanon is not the victim here. He's making himself out to be the victim. He's not the victim. Who's the victim? Leslie Romero's the victim. Her children are the victim. Steadfast Baptist Church of Fort Worth are the victims. The members of Jacksonville are the victims. So stop being selfish and think upon those who are actually afflicted by this trial. So before anybody wants to come to the aid of Adam Fanon and cuddle him, but he's put in so much work, let me explain something to you. And I'm speaking from experience, and I'll tell you why. What's happening to Adam Fanon is something that took place with me years ago. When I was at Pacific Baptist Church, we started a satellite church in the city of Monterey Park, okay? And I was the quote-unquote evangelist of that church. My father-in-law sent me there to be the evangelist, to help out, to oversee the church. And the goal was for me to become the pastor of that church. That was the goal. That was his goal. That was his vision. That's what he wanted. He went into the hospital. Something, an evil report, something evil befell him. He went into the hospital. New leadership came in. When new leadership came in, he decided to replace me. Now at first he said, you know what, you're in charge of that until further notice. And I said, I'm here to help. And by the way, during that time, there were members of that church plant who came to me and said, hey, we need to go independent. Now's the time. You're our pastor. And I said, no. That's not the way we do things here. And look, I wasn't even married at the time. And I told him, I said, look, and here's the thing, old IFB, they don't care whether you're married or not to become a pastor. So just put yourself in those shoes as of now, okay? And I told him, I said, we don't do that here. I said, he's allowing me to oversee the church as of now. What's important right now is that we pray for the Esposito family because they're going through a tough time. The church is going through a lot of turmoil because Pastor Esposito is in the hospital right now. And we need to take care of that. We need to separate. No. And I told the person, we're not doing that. Now the pastor sought fit to get a married person to oversee that ministry, right? Now this person, obviously, now today, if you tell me my opinion of that person, I'll tell you that person's a false prophet, false teacher, false prophet. But before I even knew of all that, when he came, look, it broke my heart. Why? Because I put a lot of work into that church plan. I discipled a lot of people. I brought people to church. I helped a lot of people. I helped build that church since its inception. And he was gonna come and just completely take my place. He was telling me, he goes, you're stepping down, you're not gonna be preaching anymore. You're not gonna do any of that anymore. And the natural feeling is just heartbreak. It hurts. But you know what? I'm not a stinking little woman. To be led by my emotions, you can't do that to me. Don't you know what I've done here? You know what I did? I submit to you whatever it is that you want. And look, let me explain something to you, okay? If I would've thrown this tantrum and just said, no, I'm the ordained evangelist. You have no right to come here. You know what? He would've fired my rear end. But you know what? Instead of this, I submitted to him, I said, whatever it is you want, I'll do it. Because I wanna help, I wanna be a blessing to the people, and this is gonna happen whether I'm present or not. And this is what he told me. He goes, all right, well then, you can finish your series on Wednesdays. You can finish your series on Wednesdays, because I was preaching on Wednesdays. He goes, you can finish that up, and as soon as you're done, then you're no longer preaching, I'm taking over. And I said, that's fine. He said, what does that have to do with anything? Well, because he allowed me to finish my series, the last sermon that I preached was the sermon where Pastor Anderson came to our church. And that's how we met. So when we met, what happened? Well, the rest is history. Now did I know that then? No. The last sermon I preached, I was heartbroken, but you know what, I kept serving my church. I kept wanting it to be a blessing. And I tried to be an asset to my church, not a liability. And people would come up to me, literally, people would come up to me and say, we don't want him to be our pastor, we want you to be our pastor. And I would tell them, I'm in agreement with the leadership here. I'm in agreement with the leadership here, and we need to submit to what the leadership wants. And I said, I'm not married. He is, he has more experience in the ministry than I do. I'm not leaving. I'm still here. I can still be able to help. I'm just not gonna be in charge. And people would tell me over and over again, we want you to be our pastor, we want you to, and I said, you know what, I appreciate that, but that's not the case here, and we need to submit to the leadership here. He's gonna do a great job. Now, unfortunately, he's a false teacher and a false prophet or whatever. But let's just put that aside for now, okay? But what if I bucked that? What if I fought that? What if I was self-willed? I probably would have never met Pastor Anderson face to face. I probably wouldn't have been able to preach those last sermons that, where God was doing something, allowed us to cross paths, a meaning that was very necessary to take place in order for this church to be planted. I didn't understand that then, but this is how authority works, submit, even when you don't understand. And look, I'm not talking about submit to sinful things. And don't let no one tell you that what's taking place is so sinful. Shut your mouth, read your Bible, you don't know what you're talking about. You know, submitting to biblical authority over the preferences of what the authority wants, there's nothing wrong with that. In fact, it'll work out to your benefit. I'm thankful that that took place, because if not, this church probably wouldn't have been started the way it was. There was something taking place, but it goes to show you, obey the word of the Lord, obey the Bible, and all things will work together for good to them, to love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. Now, let me just say this, is that we're gonna be receiving evil reports throughout our life. So don't have this attitude of, I can't believe this is happening. Get used to it, buddy. This is life. This is life. But we're the new IFB, yeah, exactly. So guess what, infiltrators are gonna come, people are gonna make mistakes, we're sinners. People make mistakes, it needs to be fixed, it needs to be addressed, and we need to move on with our lives. Now, we as members, as men, as church members, and as Christians, we need to know how appropriately to respond to situations like this, okay? And we're gonna hear enough preaching within the next couple of weeks, maybe, about the sins that have taken place, but I wanna specifically address our church and train our people in our church how to respond to something like this. Now number one, let me go through, I got a couple points here that I wanna give, okay? And let me start off by saying this, an evil report is real, I'm gonna give you the contrast between a strong Christian and a weak Christian. And look, what we want in this church is strong Christians. If you're a weak Christian, okay, but guess what, it's time to lift some spiritual weights. It's time to go run some spiritual laps. It's time to grow up. Strong Christians will acknowledge the evil report, weak Christians will sweep it under the rug. The Bible, look at Numbers 13 verse 28, nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land and the cities are walled and buried great and moreover, we saw the children of Anak there and the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. We're just like completely falling apart here. Now what I mean by that point is this, strong Christians acknowledge that the report is evil, assesses it, and fixes it. Weak Christians wanna sweep it under the rug. And the reason I state that is because we have a lot of enemies, obviously, primarily the old IFB or whatever, and they're like, look, I don't know, IFB, all this is taking place over there. The same thing that's taking place in our churches is the same thing that's taking place in your church. The difference is we're actually exposing it. What you do is you send Gio Vannelli to a different church to work in a Christian school and claim that he's just a guy who fell. There's a big difference between adultery and pedophilia. Pedophiliacs are wicked people, reprobates who can't be saved who are infiltrators. But we don't have, we don't sweep anything under the rug. That's why when something like this comes out, you just video after video, just hit the refresh button on your computer and say, what's going on, or just refresh that thing. Because we wanna keep people up to date. It's not like this took place, don't ask any questions. We have a rug here, but you have nowhere to sweep anything under here. You know what we do when things get dirty? We sweep it and we throw it in the trash is what we do. We don't allow trash to accumulate on the rug. We don't sweep things under the rug. And this is something that we need to recognize and apply in our daily lives. Look, as an individual, don't just hide sin, confess and forsake it that you may obtain mercy, that you can prosper, the Bible tells us. Those who hide sin, it accumulates and it just blows up. Yeah, I mean, nothing like this has ever happened before. Yes, it has. Have you ever heard of David? David for an entire year was committing this sin and he conspired to kill a person. He's a man after God's own heart. Christians do these wicked acts, unfortunately. Don't be a weak Christian and say, I just can't believe this is taking place. Let's just let not anybody find out. You know, the media is going to find out about it. They already found out about it. But here's the thing, let me give you a news flash here. The media has never been for us. What's the media going to say? The same stupid thing they always say. They're always going to be against us. They're always going to exaggerate everything. They're always going to talk a bunch of crap. Let them, he that is filthy, let him remain filthy. And that's the thing, we're not interested in portraying like nothing has happened at all. What we do is, no, something bad happened. This is what's happened. We're fixing it, okay? Go to Romans chapter 12. Hold your place in their numbers. Romans chapter 12. I'm going to read to you from John 3, 21, it says, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God. He that doeth truth cometh to the light. We don't hide it from the light. We come to the light so these things can be made manifest. We don't try to hide these things. We openly reprove them, rebuke them, because we believe in righteousness. We believe in honesty. We believe in justice. We believe in godliness. And look, no one's perfect, but that doesn't excuse us, it doesn't cause us to want to just hide everything. Look at Romans 12, 17 says, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. Be honest. This day, this guy molested this many people, he fell into sin. Let's not talk about it anymore. You know what you do in the minds of your congregants? You actually cause them to not trust you anymore. Because people will look at you and say, why are you not telling us the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? Why are you defending these people? What have they done? You know, everyone has a right to know. That's what I tell people, look, if you have a question, just come see me after the service, I'll just tell you. If you want to know what's taking place. But look, we shouldn't ever have this attitude, it's like, well, tell me every little detail. We don't need to know every single little detail. We need to know the general aspect of the sin, what's taking place, what's happening. Let everyone know what's in the know. Let everyone in the know, and let everyone know what's taking place, so that no one's left in obscurity, no one's left in darkness to figure out what's happening. A lot of that happened in the old IFB. A lot of it. Where it was just like, what just happened? I don't know what, we just had a church meeting and someone was kicked out, but we don't know why. 1 Timothy 5 24 says, some men's sins are opened beforehand, going before the judgment, and some men, they follow after. So the point is this, strong Christians bring it out into the open, they're not afraid to mention anything. What if it mars your reputation? I'm concerned with my reputation with God. I'm concerned with what God might think of me, what God's gonna think of the church, what God's gonna think of us. And then after that, I need to be concerned with what other people think. You know what, sometimes other people are stupid people who are actually infiltrators themselves looking to try to mar the reputation of the new IFB or Christianity just in general. I mean, you have people online talking about, oh, we want Adam Fanning to be our pastor. The guy's not even in their church. He's probably some diagnostic atheist who just wants to cause more trouble. So don't concern yourself with people like that. Don't worry about that. Go back to Numbers 13. So a strong Christian will acknowledge the evil report. They won't ignore it. A weak Christian will sweep it under the rug. They'll try to move, they'll act like a Catholic institution where they just move the priest around after they do some stupid wickedness. You know, I like what my father-in-law did when some pedophile came to him and said, hey, I'm a pedophile. My father-in-law said, oh, really? Okay, give me a second. He walked away, he came back, he said, where'd you go? Oh, I just called the police on you. They're coming to get you. That's what he did. I thought I could trust you. Yeah, you could trust me to tell the truth. He got up, called the police, they came and got his rear end. That's how you're supposed to deal with stuff. He needs to be restored. This is how you restore pedophiles. You put a bullet in their head. Number two, a strong Christian, here's the important part, look, a strong Christian will still the people. A weak Christian will become hysterical. Look at Numbers 13, 30, and Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are able to overcome it. Look at Numbers 14, verse 1, and all the congregation lifted up their voice and cried, and the people wept that night, and all the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron, and all the congregation said to him, would God that we had died in the land of Egypt, or would God that we had died in this wilderness, what is that called, being hysterical? Hey, be still, and know that I am God. Hey, relax, chill out, go take a nap, go get a double-double, go watch Pastor Major's video on James White misquoting the Greek, it's really funny. Go do something else, stop getting hysterical. We have zero room in our church for hysterical Christians, the sky is falling, no it's not, it rains, but it's not falling, take a chill pill, calm yourself, and look, I'm speaking specifically to the men, obviously, women, you know, you can get a little hysterical, that's fine, get hysterical so the man can jump in and help you out, and say, hey, chill out, right? I'm talking to the men here, we need to have emotional fortitude, look, I'm sure there's people who became hysterical at steadfast, but you know, they kind of have an excuse to be that way right now, even though as far as I know, maybe, I'm pretty sure no one has done that over there, they seem like a strong church, I met the men there, they're very strong in the Lord and the power of his might, but look, we as a church, when that type of thing, if it takes place in our church, we need to be strong. You know what we're going to do, we're going to keep sowing, are we going to have church on Sunday? Yeah, why, why wouldn't we? What are you going to preach about, I'm the Bible, but what's going to happen this week, we're going to go sowing, yeah, but what about, Pastor Shelley's going to get ordained there, what are they going to do, go forward? What about Jacksonville, God's going to judge it? Any other questions? We need to just be still, and this is for everything in life, any type of evil report we receive, don't get hysterical, just calm down, and ladies, if you get hysterical, you know, your man better be a strong man to just steal you and say, woman, I'm just kidding, I'm kidding, I'm trying to wake you up, to say, hey, everything's okay, let's be still and know that he is God, let's be still and know that God is in control of everything, we just need to obey him and his commandments, this is not beyond God's scope of ability to fix, you know, if God be for us, he can be against us, the devil's trying to destroy Pastor Anderson, someone told me that, and it's just like, I talked to him, he seems pretty fine, he's doing great, we're laughing over the phone, and I'm not saying the devil's not trying to destroy him, I'm not saying he's not trying to destroy our church, but don't exaggerate. Let's pray for people, but let's recognize, hey, God is for us, we need to be like Joshua, hey, we're able to overcome this, don't listen to these bunch of 10 whiners over here, these bunch of sissy spies, hey, we're able to overcome it, didn't you see the clusters of grapes, didn't you see the silver lining, let's do this, we can overcome this, that's the attitude of Pastor Jonathan Shelley, he's like, man, we're gonna go so, that's the kind of attitude we all need to have, what's gonna happen is 2019's here, we're gonna win more people to Christ, we have a Sony mega marathon coming up, we need not to get hysterical about these things, if I die, if Pastor Anderson dies, don't get hysterical, why, because we're in heaven, amen, peace, see you guys later, what's gonna happen, well God's in control, that's what's gonna happen, and we can rest assured that God's gonna take care of us, no matter what takes place, I'm not saying we don't have emotions, but sometimes we need to get our emotions under control, and it's a shock, obviously, things like this comes as a shock, doesn't it, it shocks the system, but once the system is shocked, you breathe in, you breathe out, you go forward, you say, now what can we do to fix this situation, okay, number three, so a strong Christian steals the people, and look, if people in our church start getting hysterical around you, just be like, hey, whoa, everything's all right, man, yeah, but what are they gonna do, everything is okay, but the media, who cares, chill out, you want some food, we got some stuff over there, there's some strawberries there, go drink some coffee if you want, I want champorado, I'll get you some champorado, you just need to calm down, everything's a-okay in my father's house, okay, a strong Christian will find a solution, a weak Christian will be debilitated by the problem, so look, when there's problems, we need to, as men, we need to find a solution, all right, this is an evil report, but what is the solution, see, people were criticizing Pastor Anderson and Pastor Shelley, after four days, you're just gonna find a pastor, yeah, that's a good idea, because they don't have a pastor, that's too soon, it's not fast enough, they're creating a solution to the problem, all right, I just think they moved too soon, no, you just want to become the pastor, and you want to lord over God's heritage, number 1330 says, and Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once, so what was the solution to the problem, hey, this is what we're supposed to do, yeah, the people are great, cities are wild, this is what we do, we go up at once, maybe we should wait, you know, go back to Egypt, maybe learn from them a little bit, no, no, no, let's just go up at once, find the solution, and I'm not talking about be hasty, I'm talking about if we have a clear solution, let's go with it, number 14, verse 3 says, and wherefore hath the Lord brought us into this land to fall by the sword, that our wives and our children should be a prey, were it not better for us to return into Egypt, no, it's not better, what's better for you is just to go up at once, Proverbs 24, 10 says, if thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small, if you allow problems to just completely debilitate you emotionally, you're weak, I'm sorry, but it's the truth, now, if you're weak, it's okay, as long as you're around people who are strong, to kind of hold you up, because we all get weak every once in a while, you know, we become emotionally unstable every once in a while, but as I mentioned before, don't let that be your life, where you're just constantly up and down, when you're weak, get around some people who are strong, who can encourage you in the Lord, some people who can help you throughout this difficult time, that's what you need, okay, don't isolate yourself, don't be debilitated, don't just not go forward for God, just be around people who are, and look, now's the time to be in church, and praise God, we got a full house today, man, now's the time to be in church, we're living in the greatest time, but didn't you hear what happened this week, we're still living in the greatest time, oh, 2019 started off rough, no, it started off good, you know why, because God is pruning, don't think of pruning as being something bad, oh man, what if all those people are gonna follow Adam Fannin, that's a good thing, it's another trash can, if he wants to be another trash can, let him be another trash can, you know, and if you're offended by that, then take a hike, because look, again, we don't wanna sympathize with any of that garbage, the Bible tells us, in Isaiah 26 verse 3, that will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on the leader, whose mind is stayed on the pastor, whose mind is stayed on the evangelist, no, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusted, then who, in thee, look, take your eyes off of man and put it on God, stop being this person who's just following a man, I follow Pastor Anderson as he follows Christ, but guess what, at the end of the day, I follow God, I follow Christ, because if something ever, God forbid if something were to happen to him, and he's gone, God is the same yesterday and forevermore, he's never gonna change, he's always there, he will never leave me nor forsake me, he will never let me down, I will never be ashamed, I will never be let down by God, and we as Christians, we're to admire, respect, and follow a human leader, but once that person is gone from the scene, once that person is no longer there, you better make sure that you're following the Lord, loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, I met a lot of people that when my pastor went into the hospital, they're gone, they get out of church, they're no longer there, they're just completely debilitated, you're weak is what you are, you need to keep your eyes on the Lord, okay, and look, we don't serve a dispensational God that doesn't know that this is about to happen, we gotta start a new dispensation, no, we don't serve that type of God, our God knows the end from the beginning, he knows everything, he knew this was gonna take place, and guess what, do we believe Romans 8, 28 or not, all things work together for good, it may not work immediately for good, but we know that it's gonna work together for good in the long run, to them who love God, to them who are called according to his purpose, Hebrews 12, 2 says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despised and ashamed, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God, so strong Christians find a solution, let's figure out what we can do, how can we be a blessing, how can we rectify the situation, a weak Christian would just completely be debilitated by it, now, what's another point that I wanna bring up, number four, strong Christians are realistic, we Christians make a mountain out of a molehill, let's be realistic, there's giants in the land, let's be realistic, you know, they have high walls, let's be realistic, they're strong, but let's be realistic, God is bigger, you know, greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world, if you really wanna be realistic, why weren't these 10 spies saying, yeah, the walls are up, but you know what, God can tear down those walls, God can still use us to make, do something great, God can use us to overcome, God can use us to, no, they just wanna exaggerate everything, there's grasshoppers in their sight, you're exaggerating, stop exaggerating, look at number 13, verse 30, and Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are able to overcome it, but the man that went up with them said, we be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we, and they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, the land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof, seriously, I mean, are you talking about Korah, Dathan, and Abiram? And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature, they're just tall people, and then we saw giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants, and we were in our own sight, not in the sight of the giants, don't skip that, we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight, but how does he know that that's how they were in their sight, they don't, they're just assuming, because it started out by saying we are in our own sight, yeah, because you are a little grasshopper, you little sissy, you little punk sissy, that's what you are, you know, we need to make sure that we view ourselves through the lens of God's scope of saying, hey, you know, we're nothing, but with God, we can do all things, I can do all things through Christ with strength and with me, and if God be force who can be against us, be realistic, but don't exaggerate, this is just going to completely decimate the new IFB, you're exaggerating, shut your mouth, you don't know what you're saying, you're exaggerating is what you're doing, you feel, I mean, there's multitudes of churches who are in the new IFB who are having church today, and they're probably not even preaching on the subject, they're probably preaching on something else, why, because life goes on, look at Numbers 14 verse 6, and Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land and rent their clothes, now why do they rent their clothes? Because the people are being stupid, and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel saying the land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land, if the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give us a land which flow with milk and honey, he's like, look, guys, wake up, if God delights in us, if he's pleased with us, he's going to allow us to have the land. That's realistic. So what do we learn from this point here is simply this, look, don't make a mountain out of a molehill, when someone, an evil report comes into your life, don't exaggerate it because you're going to instill fear in the hearts of people. I remember a couple months ago, we had a visitor come to our church, and I think I was preaching at end times or something like that, and I went to talk to him, and obviously he walked into the wrong type of a church for him, he was like this ESV guy or whatever, but he was like a native of El Mani, and I was talking about how we're a sowning church and all these things, and he's like, well, look, that's fine that you guys do sowning and stuff, but don't go down Clingerman Street. That's dangerous there. And I told him, I said, we already did it. He's like, you did it? I'm like, yeah, probably, we're going to do it again in a couple months, I said, I think we've already done it again. Well, it's really bad, though, you can get robbed and stuff, and he's just like making a mountain out of a molehill, and I'm like, dude, I grew up in a place like that, that's like home to me, it's good. We send our ladies there, I'm just kidding, and he was just like, well, I'm just saying, I'm like, we're going to do all of El Mani. In fact, we're going to Compton. Compton, Compton, we're going to Inglewood. Aren't you afraid? I'm saved. If I get shot, I just become more famous, amen? So you got to look at the silver lining of everything. It's all good, man. Don't make a mountain out of, but Inglewood is always up to no good. Yeah, that's where we're going to bring the gospel. So people can get saved and learn the ways of the Lord. See, that's how we're supposed to do, we're supposed to steal the people and not, be realistic, yeah, okay, but here's the thing, like when we went to Compton, for example, that's a perfect example right there. I literally, someone literally in the service, when I said we're going to Compton, they were like, what? We're going to Compton? I'm like, yeah, why not? He's like, but it's like, you guys got to be careful out there, and why? What's your deal? You're making a mountain out of a molehill. Dude, Compton was the most receptive place we've ever been to. We led bloods to the Lord. I got to win a guide to the Lord, blooded out from head to toe. The nicest guy I've ever met. You know, and then I told him, hey, now you're covered by the blood of Christ. He got saved. I sent guys to Piru Street, Marcos. That's where all the bloods are at. He said, why Marcos? Because he's not married yet, so if he dies, you know, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. His parents are here. You know, don't make a mountain out of a molehill. And look, our church is for going to Compton over and over again, amen? You know, and we have no room for people to exaggerate problems, to exaggerate. Let's be realistic. These are the sins that took place. These are the evils that have been fallen, steadfast, Baptist church. These are the wickedness, this is the wickedness of Donnie Romero. This is what has taken place, but let's be realistic here. We can still go forward, okay? Now, here's another thing. Strong Christians focus on helping others through difficulties. We Christians focus on themselves and what they can get out of a situation. My son is a very selfish little boy. Why? Because he's two years old. It's just the nature of a child who's two years old. But when a grown man acts like that, there's a problem. The Bible says in Philippians 2, 3, Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in the loneliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. I've prayed more for Leslie Romero in the last couple of days than I probably ever have prayed for the Romeros, unfortunately. Why? Because they need a lot of prayer. Pray for them. Pray for those children. Pray for the church, but pray for the Romeros because that lady's going through a hard time right now. A very difficult time. That's the focus that needs to be to restore them, to help them get through a tough time. To help the church members of steadfast to get through this tough time. Not what we can get out of it. No, now I can be ordained as the pastor. Now I can just take over. No, that's wicked. The Bible says in Philippians 2, verse 19, But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like men who would naturally care for your state, for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ. This is Adam Fannin right here. And this is Pastor Shelley in the very beginning. Look, I'm sure he has a lot on his plate already. But you know what he's doing? He's thinking of others. And this is the attitude that we should always have regardless of the magnitude of the problem. When the problem arises, how can we help them? Not how can we help ourselves. Okay, I'm almost done. We're almost out of time. Go to Psalms 133. Strong Christians bring unity. Many Christians cause dissension and speak evil of dignities. Psalm 133, verse 1, says, Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments. So what is he saying there? So when brethren, a church, dwells in unity, he's saying it's like ointment upon the head. What is ointment or oil a picture of? Holy Spirit. So when brethren dwell in unity, you know what that shows? That the Holy Spirit's power is on that place, on that body. And you know what it says? It goes from the head and it comes all the way down to the skirts. That means when there's unity, it's from the leadership down. When there's unity in the church, everything rises and falls on the leadership, and it makes its way down. So that the entire body of the church is affected by this. That we all have unity. And I love the fact that our church has unity. You come to church, people have said, Man, I love the fellowship here. They don't want to go home. That's great. You know what? Because there's unity. There's a great camaraderie of things that are taking place in our church. Where there's unity, there's the unction of the Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit is here. But someone who does not have unity, who's causing dissension, does not have the Holy Spirit. Does not have the Holy Spirit's power on that life. And in fact, if they're causing dissension, if they're causing division, and they're speaking evil of dignities, that's wicked! And let me make it just very clear. Obviously it's wicked in a large scale, but we don't want to speak evil of dignities on a small scale. Directly or indirectly. I'm not the pastor here. I'm the evangelist, but still, I am the leader who has been deputized to be here to oversee the things that take place here. And no one should speak evil of me. I'm talking about for the sake of the church and the unity of the church. No one should try to talk down on leadership. No one should ever try to talk down on leadership. No one should ever try to speak evil of dignity because that is a characteristic of a wicked person. No one should ever disrespect leadership. In any way, why? Because that is a characteristic of a wicked person. We give leadership the benefit of the doubt until they reveal themselves to be wicked or whatever it may be. And look, if you desire to be a leader in our church, you need to sow good seeds today. Okay? And have a stigma of being a respectful person who does not speak evil of dignities. Whether an example or whatever, directly or indirectly. Learn to be under leadership. Learn to be under authority. That is a good quality to have. That is a quality that I learned from my father-in-law. Hey, respect and follow authority. Amen. That's in all areas of life, not just the church. That's in your family. And you can't expect your wife to follow you if you cannot follow someone else. You know, we need to have all these areas taken care of in our life, okay? But what do I mean by speaking evil of dignity? I'm talking about what Adam Fanon is doing right now. Which is wicked. It's wicked, it's perverse, it's evil. Jude 7 verse, excuse me, Jude verse 7 says, Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities about them in like manner given themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal life. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defiled the flesh despise dominion and speak evil of dignities. We don't want to have an anarchist type of mentality in our church. Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil, said about the body of Moses, Just not bring against them a railing accusation, but said the Lord rebuke thee. But these speak evil of those things which they know not, but what they know naturally as brute beasts and those things they corrupt themselves. You listen to the words that are coming out of people's mouths and you think that's such a stupid thing to say. Yet because they're brute beasts. And that's how brute beasts speak. Saying foolish things against dignities, against leaders. And don't be swayed by the comments section on YouTube either. Bunch of fools who don't even attend church. Bunch of know-it-all grown 30-year-old men in their mother's basement thinking that they can pipe in, speaking things which they ought not to. Acting like they know what they're talking about, they don't know anything. These people are incredible. So what we need to do is we need to recognize, hey, we need to make sure we're under authority, never speak evil against dignities. Here's my last point and I'm done. Go to 1 Corinthians 10. And here's an important point. Strong Christians take heed lest they fall. We Christians are haughty and eventually will fall. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10, 12, Wherefore let him that thinketh, he standeth. Take heed lest he fall. There is no temptation taking you, but such is as common to man, but God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear. Go to Proverbs 16. Hey, take heed lest he fall. Don't think that that could never happen to you. You know, if there's something that you specifically struggle with in your personal life, you need to stay away as far away from that as you possibly can. Because it does create a blemish for the cause of Christ. It does cause people to blaspheme the name of God when a man of God is involved in such sins. It does damage the cause of Christ momentarily, not in its entirety, but momentarily it does. And we need to recognize, hey, we need to take heed lest we fall. Get your family in order, get your walk with God in order, learn to love righteousness, learn to hate sin. Don't take these things lightly. Don't take temptation lightly. Don't take adultery lightly. Don't take fornication lightly. Don't take drunkenness lightly. These are wicked. And the next time you think, man, why you guys gotta preach so hard, this is why we gotta preach hard on it. This is why we gotta call sin, sin, and fornication, fornication. This is why church discipline exists. This is why we slobber from the mouth and shatter from the housetops. To avoid destruction. Look at what verse 18 says. Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. Listen. What Adam Fanner, obviously Adam Fanner is just prideful and haughty. I don't think anybody can, the only people who would say he's not are the people who are just like him. He said, what's gonna happen to him? He's gonna fall. Sooner or later, he's gonna fall. Why? Because I believe the Bible, that's why. Pride goes before destruction, haughty spirit before a fall. And if there's any inkling of you of just sympathizing with him, this sermon better have changed your mind. If not, you better come to me after the service and explain to me why he's not. You better come with the Bible in hand, verses on deck, and show me why he's right. Or if not, just keep your mouth shut. Or just move to Jacksonville. Because there should be no question about this. What's the sermon today, look, this is how we need to deal with receiving an evil report. Not just when someone commits a grave sin like what was committed this week, but also just in general. This is applicable to all areas of life. And the gist of the sermon is this, hey man, let's be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Let's learn to be leaders. Let's learn how to deal with difficult situations and recognize that problems will come. This is not candy land. We don't live in a fantasy land Let's deal with it. When it happens, let's help the people who are involved. When it happens, let's go forward. When it happens, don't have this doom and gloom attitude about yourself. When things like this happen, it's like, alright, so many in India, huh? That's going to sound good. Hey, the seminar of Pastor Man, that's going to be awesome. He's coming to teach, he's going to be preaching, this is great. 2019's off to a great start. More so when he's done, it's going to be great. Everything is alright in my Father's house, amen? It's fire heads and I have a word of prayer.