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🎶🎶🎶 🎶🎶🎶🎶 Welcome to First Works Baptist Church. If you could please stand with me. Turn your song books to song number 422. Now just leave thy throne. Song number 422. Song number 422 in your hymnals. On that first verse. Thou didst leave thy throne and thy kingly crown when thou camest to earth for me. But in Bethlehem's home was there found a room for thy holy nativity. Oh come to my heart Lord Jesus there is room in my heart for thee. Heaven's arches ring when the angels sing proclaiming thy royal decree. But of lowly birth is thou come to earth in great humility. Oh come to my heart Lord Jesus there is room in my heart for thee. The foxes fell rest and the birds their nest in the shade of the forest tree. But thy couch was the sod O thou son of God in the deserts of Galilee. Oh come to my heart Lord Jesus there is room in my heart for thee on the fourth. Thou camest O Lord with thy living word was set thy people free. But with mocking scorn and with crown of thorn they bore thee to Calvary. Oh come to my heart Lord Jesus there is room in my heart for thee. On the chorus on that last one of course. When the heavens shall ring and the angels sing at thy coming to victory let thy voice call me home saying yet there is room there is room at my side for thee. My heart shall rejoice Lord Jesus when thou comest tallest for me. Great singing let us pray. Father thank you for this wonderful and beautiful night you've given us. Father I just pray for your message and for the preacher and just please bless the singing as we sing out to you Lord. We love you in Jesus name. Amen. Go on and please be seated. Get your hand out. Get your hand out. Oh come oh come Emmanuel. Get your hand out. Oh come oh come Emmanuel. Anybody need a hand down. Go ahead and please raise your hand. If you need a hand out. Usher. Please raise your hand. On that first verse. Oh come oh come Emmanuel. And ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here. Until the Son of God appear. Rejoice. Rejoice. Emmanuel. Shall come to thee oh Israel. Oh come oh wisdom from on high. Who ordered all things mightily. To us the path of knowledge show. And teach us in his ways to go. Rejoice. Rejoice. Emmanuel. Shall come to thee oh Israel the third. Oh come oh come great Lord of might. Who to your tribe on Sinai's height. In ancient times did give the law. In clouded majesty and all. Rejoice. Rejoice. Emmanuel. Shall come to thee oh Israel the last. Oh come oh branch of Jesse's stem. Unto your own and rescue them. From depths of hell your people say amen. And give them victory o'er the grave. Rejoice. Rejoice. Emmanuel. Shall come to thee oh Israel. Great singing. All right great singing thank you for being here this evening just a few announcements here before we see your next song, which will be all Holy Night. Wonderful song there for Christmas Eve. Just a few announcements before we continue here of course our services are as follow Sunday morning is at ten thirty Sunday evening at five p.m. And then we have our Thursday night Bible study at seven o'clock you see the so many times in teams the list of expecting mothers. If you can keep them in prayer and of course the important reminders there at the bottom of course today is our Christmas Eve service thank you for coming tonight. After the service alligator and hamburgers and sausage links will be provided so. The dead creature will be in the fellowship hall. And then the burgers will be cooked outside but for those is going to bring a man so it's going to be basically the same thing as the morning. Well there'll be two lines and so after this the last long I'll pray for the food and then we'll be dismissed and you can line up there in the back. To have either or and so we're looking forward to tonight's fellowship. And then of course next Sunday December thirty first is our New Year's Eve service men's prayer nights coming up on Friday January fifth seven p.m. at the church building and then Sarah and Giovanni's weddings coming up on Friday January twenty sixth. Please make sure you RSVP by December thirty first on the right hand side there is a QR code that you can use to scan in order to RSVP. And then you see just the regular reminders at the bottom please make sure you silence your phones during the preaching so as to not be a distraction. During the service let's take some so many numbers from this past week Salvations from Monday to Thursday any Salvations from Monday to Thursday. How about Friday and Saturday. One OK. Anybody else. How about this afternoon Salvations for this afternoon. Two OK. Anybody else for. Four OK. Anybody else. OK. Keep up the great work. Let's go to see our next song. Oh holy nights. It is Christmas Eve. So if you could please stand with me as we sing one of the more powerful songs that you can sing for Christmas and let's sing with power and think about the words. Anybody else in a handout. Please raise your hand ushers. Please raise your hand if you need a handout. On that first verse. Oh holy night the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear savior's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining. Till he appeared and the soul felt his word. A thrill of hope our weary world rejoices. For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn. Fall on your knees. Oh. The angel boy. Oh. He. Oh. When Christ was. Oh. Oh. Me. Oh not. Led by the lie. Oh. Really. Me. With. His. We stand. So. By. The stars. Me. Me. Oh. Oh. Oh. Yes. In all our trials. Born to be our friend. He knows our need. To all. This is no stranger. Behold. Your King. Before. Him. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Him. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. His. His. His. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. Oh. His power and glory evermore proclaim. His power and glory evermore proclaim. Great singing church. As the ushers come forward for the offering, please turn your Bibles to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. Good evening, tonight we're in Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20 and the Bible reads, And after the upper were ceased, Paul called unto him to the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. When he had gone over those parts, and he had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece. And there abode three months. When the Jews laid weight for him as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. And there accompanied him into Asia, Sulfatyr, of Berea, and unto the Thessalonians, Aristarchus, and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timotheus, and of Asia, Tychicus, and Trophimus. These going before are terried for us at Troas. We sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, and upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until the midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down for the third lock, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down and fell on him, and embraced him, saying, Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, he had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought a young man alive, and were not a little comforted. And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Asos, and intending to take in Paul, sofore he had appointed, minding himself to go afoot. And when he had met us at Asos, we took him in, and came to Mytilene, and we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios, and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trigolium, and the next day came to Miletus. Paul, determined to sail by Ephesus, became he would not spend the time in Asia, for he hasted it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. And whether it come to him, he said unto them, You know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by lying in wait of the Jews. And I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance towards God, and faith to our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years I cease not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver or gold or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. When he had thus spoken, he kneeled down and prayed with them all. And they were wept sore and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him. Sorry most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more, and they accompanied him unto the ship. Let's pray. Dear Lord God, thank you first and foremost for sending your son Jesus Christ to be born of a virgin, to die on the cross for our sins, Lord. And we just thank you for this church you've given us, Lord, and we thank you for pastor. We pray that you bless him right now and feel what the Holy Spirit is. He preaches unto us and that us and the congregation are edified by the preaching, Lord. We pray this all in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Okay, we're in Acts chapter 20 this evening, and the title of my sermon tonight is Preventing a Predatory Environment. Preventing a Predatory Environment. Here in Acts chapter 20, the Apostle Paul is going to depart from the Ephesians here, and of course he has all of these elders who are essentially pastors that he's admonishing before he leaves and possibly to see them no more. And one of the warnings that he gives and one of the admonishments that he states is probably one of the most powerful in the chapter, and that's in verse 29, that says, For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. So according to the Apostle Paul, he knows he has enough common sense, he knows enough about the Bible, and he knows enough about what the Bible says about wicked people to have the understanding that when the leadership is gone, when righteous people are absent, grievous wolves, referring to infiltrators, we can say they're false prophets, reprobates, wicked individuals, workers of iniquity, will see that as an opportunity to enter in and essentially destroy the flock, take advantage of the flock, molest the flock, take advantage of them in some way, shape, or form. And he even says in verse 30, Also of your own self shall men arise. So he says that the source of these workers of iniquity comes from two streams. One of them comes from the outside, right, that seeks to infiltrate within and take advantage of people. But then he says that there's going to be people who come out of even the church. And what he's referring to there is, he's not referring to safe people who are doing this, he's referring to wolves in sheep's clothing. So you have the wolves from the outside entering in, not sparing the flock, but then you already have wolves that are within the church disguised as sheep in order to deceive the flock to take advantage of them. He says, Also of your own self shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. So he's warning them here and he's saying, you know, when I'm gone, these people are going to try to get in and take advantage of individuals, deceive disciples, speak perverse things, and at the end of the day, they're not going to spare the flock. They have no mercy and so beware of these grievous wolves. And if it was true in Acts chapter 20, it's so much more true today, where people try to infiltrate churches to take advantage of the innocent. And this evening I want to talk about some of the things that we do as a church, some of the things that I do as a pastor to prevent predators from infiltrating from the outside and also from just being here in our church already, if they are, from staying in our church. Obviously, you know, it's going to be a lot easier if predators wore a sign that said I'm a predator, right? At that point, we can just deal with them, but we can't go around just thinking that being suspicious of every single person and essentially thinking that everyone is a reprobate, you know, we need to make sure, but here's the thing is that we need to make sure that we have discernment, that we have wisdom, that we exercise that wisdom and that we pray unto the Lord to make manifest our folly of these infiltrators so that we rid them of our congregation. Now, what's one of the reasons that I'm preaching this? Well, there is a documentary that recently came out within the last couple of weeks, I think, and the documentary is called Let Us Pray, and it's P-R-E-Y, and it's essentially exposing some of the abuse that has taken place within some independent fundamental Baptist churches. And as far as I know, the documentary is actually highlighting three specific churches, two of which that I'm pretty familiar with, one of which I don't really know as much, but two of them is First Baptist Church of Hammon, and then you have Faith Baptist Church of Wildomar, okay? Now, let me say this is that, obviously, when you have the world promoting this type of film and this type of documentary, you know, there's obviously going to be a little bit of truth in it, and in fact, I would say probably the vast majority of what they're saying regarding the abuse is true, right? And there's a lot of evidence to prove that, but, you know, they're going to mix in a lot of railing with it, and I don't think it's right that this documentary is put out to lump up all independent fundamental Baptist churches, because basically that's what they're doing. You know, I think it's very much right that they call out the churches that are responsible, the pastors who are responsible for this. However, to lump every fundamental Baptist church, which is an autonomous church, right? They're autonomous churches, meaning they're independent, they don't have anything to do with one another, they govern their own church and just lump them in with a bunch of pedophile-loving churches. It's not right, okay? And let me say this, I don't believe First Baptist Church of Hammon is a pedophile-loving church, okay? You know, there's some things that have taken place in times past under different leadership, and obviously there's a time when they even had a reprobate for a pastor known as Jack Scott, he was definitely a predator, he is what Acts chapter 20 is talking about, and he did take advantage of individuals. And, you know, he served time in jail, and unfortunately he's out right now. But here's the thing, the current pastor of that church, which is John Wilkerson, from what I know, he's a righteous person, he has nothing to do with any of that stuff. So for people to protest his church and criticize him, even though he was not there when that stuff took place, in my opinion, it's wrong to do, okay? It's a waste of time. But I will say this, you know, it's good that they call out Faith Baptist Church though. Faith Baptist Church and Pastor Bruce Goddard, because he is very much guilty of defending pedophiles that have been discovered in his church, and essentially getting on his church members and berating them if they're going to research and, you know, get all the details. He signs with these predators, he has defended them in times past, and when information came to him about predators, you know, he stayed silent about it and didn't go to the authorities. So that guy should get called out. And you know what, his church should be protested, he should be called on the carpet, and in fact, he should step down from being a pastor and go find something else to do, not be a man of God, because he's a fake man of God. The guy has no integrity. And he favors wicked people over the innocent and the victims. I think that's wrong. And so, you know, even though I'm pretty sure the vast majority of the documentary is really stupid, because it's meant to kind of paint independent fundamental baptism with a broad brush, you know, they're right about Faith Baptist Church. And, you know, I've been calling out Bruce Goddard for a long time because of that. Because he's in Wildomar, we have members in our church that left their church because of that very reason. And, you know, they're getting protested not for good, not because they're preaching the word of God, it's not because they're suffering persecution for righteousness sake. You know, they are suffering persecution because of the fact that they are protecting predators. You know, and so that's what they get. So I believe he should step down and not be a pastor because he favors the wolf over the sheep. It's wrong to do. Okay. But here's the thing is that I want to just make it very clear where we stand on this. And let me just say this is that our ministry here, most of you, if not all of you already know this, is never or has never and will never be in favor of pedophiles. Okay. We're not for reforming them. I don't want to welcome them in our church. Even if you had some pedophile come into our church and said, I want to change my ways, I'm looking for Jesus, I would kick them out. Because I don't want pedophiles to be in our church. You know, if it were up to me, all the pedophiles of this world would be publicly executed by hanging. It feels up to me. But obviously it's not up to me. And so I think they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But, you know, if it were up to me, then I'll just die. Because there are a bunch of wicked pieces of trash. And so the pastor who defends that wicked piece of trash, who violates the innocent, is a wicked person himself. So I want to talk about some of the things that I do as a pastor and what we've done as a church to prevent this. Now, this is not to say that it's not going to happen in our church because, you know, we can't be all places at all times. Our church is not perfect. However, this will minimize the opportunities that predators can potentially have in our church. Because some of the guidelines that we've instituted, some of the things that I've done, in order to prevent them from violating the innocent in our church. And, you know, a lot of these pastors, they really take a weak stance on stuff like this. Because they're afraid that their church members might leave because of it. Or they might have some former predator in their church or something like that. But, you know, I don't care if I lose members over this. I don't care if people think I'm too harsh on this. I don't care if the media comes down on me or whatever it may be. You know, this is what's right to do. This displays integrity. And who cares what people think about me anyways? Who cares what people think about our church? Who cares what people think about our doctrine? They hated Jesus, so they're going to hate me, they're going to hate us. So who cares? So who cares? It's better to just do right and preach what the Bible says and take the right stance on this to avoid grievous wolves entering in. Now, let me read you a couple of verses here. Go with me if you want to Zephaniah chapter 3. After Zephaniah, we're going to go back to the New Testament, to 2 Peter chapter 2. I'm going to read to you from Ezekiel 22. You find Zephaniah, it'll take you a while. So, that's why I'm telling you to go there first. Not Zechariah, Zephaniah. Let me read to you from Ezekiel 22 verse 25. It says, there is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law and have profaned my holy things. They have put no difference between the holy and profaned. Neither have they shown difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. One of the things, let me finish reading here, verse 27. Her princes in the midst thereof are like the wolves ravening the prey to shed blood and destroy souls to get dishonest gain. You know, one of the things that is very common, and of course the Apostle Paul is telling us in Acts chapter 20, is that a lot of the people who are guilty of this are spiritual leaders. Now, why is that? Well, because of the fact that predators will often seek to get a position of leadership in a church in order to gain access to the innocent. This is why it's important for not just me, but it's important for you to know what the Bible says about these things. So you don't just blindly trust whoever is leading you. You filter them through these principles that we're going to look at this morning, or this evening, excuse me. Zephaniah chapter 3 verse 1, it says, Woe to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city! She obeyed not the voice, she received not correction, she trusted not in the Lord, she drew not near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring lions, her judges are evening wolves, they gnaw not the bone till the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons, her priests have polluted the sanctuary, they have done violence to the law. You know, when I think of a verse like that, I do think of like a jackscop. Because he used his position of authority to become a light and treacherous person. He did it to pollute the sanctuary, which is the house of God. And he did violence to people in the church and really destroyed a lot of what First Baptist Church built. And so this is talking about these spiritual leaders, or just leaders in general, who actually end up becoming the ravening wolves. Not necessarily the wolves who are coming from without to come within, but rather those who are already in, who are preying on the innocent. Let me read to you from 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 14, it says, Having eyes full of adultery that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls, and heart that have exercised with covetous practices cursed children. So here he says that the false prophets, these infiltrators, have an agenda to beguile, to deceive unstable souls. Unstable souls referring to a person who might be a babe in Christ. They don't have all the common sense available to them. They're unstable emotionally, they're unstable spiritually. And so false prophets will often go to people like that to take advantage of them because they have no one protecting them. And they don't have the discernment to say, this person's a bad individual, I need to stay away from them. Let me read to you from Jude verse 12, it says, These are spots in your feast of charity, implying that these infiltrators are so bold that they'll eat with you. They'll feast among you. They're in your feast of charity. It says, when they feast with you, feeding themselves, listen to this, without fear. So it's so brazen that they're willing to come into the congregation of God and act like they're one of you, feast among you, without fear, without worry. Clouds they are without water, carried about with winds, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit twice dead, plucked up by the roots. It goes on to say in verse 16, actually let me read to you from verse 18, how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves sensual, having not the Spirit. Now go to Romans chapter 13, Romans chapter 13. I just want to go over some of those verses there to talk about the fact that the agenda of an infiltrator often is to target a specific group of innocent individuals who the Bible would label as being an unstable soul. And so obviously the motive for myself and for our church, for you as a Christian, is to stabilize you. It's to mature you, to help you to grow in discernment so that you're not easily deceived by some infiltrator, some wicked person, some deceiver. We don't want Christians to just stay babes in Christ with no Bible knowledge and no discernment. You need to get some smarts about you. You need to make sure that you ask God for wisdom, that you ask God to give you discernment, not to just remain this perpetual suspicious person, but that you're able to discern and determine, is this person bad? Is this person trying to take advantage of me? And so that's why the warnings in the Bible are always there to make sure that our antennas are always up. And this is something that was greatly lacking in the old IFP, which is why all the churches that are being highlighted in this documentary are old IFP churches. You say, did they mention any new IFP church? No, because the new IFP church practices what we're going to talk about tonight. But they did mention Pastor Anderson, though. You know, Pastor Anderson is in that documentary. You say, well, what do you do? Preach the Bible? They just have them quoting Bible verses, because that's the only thing they can get them on. You say, why do they put them in there? Because they want to lump him in. They want to lump the new IFP in with these old IFP churches who have this problem of predators coming into their church. A lot of the old IFPs become like the Catholic Church, where predators are coming in, and once they violate the innocent, the pastor there just kind of moves that person around, puts them in a different church, in a different Bible college. And you know what? I'll be honest with you. I'm surprised Jack Treiber's not in that documentary. You know, if you guys ever want to make a part two, you should go to North Valley Baptist Church and Jack Treiber, you know, with Cameron Giovannelli, Mike Zachary, a bunch of predators. That's for your season two, if you want. Just giving you some ammo there, because they should be called out. Alright, so what do I do, and what does the church do to prevent predators from preying on the innocent here at First Works Baptist Church? I'm going to give you a couple things that we do, and if you don't know these things, you will learn them tonight, okay? Number one, and these are in no particular order except for this one. Number one is this. I emphasize the importance of authority. So why did you pick that as the first one? Well, one of the things about this documentary that it points out is that they'll often claim that because these Baptist churches teach authority, that's kind of like the foundation for these predators to essentially gain access to the innocent, because they have this authority complex. Where it's just like, you know, question authority, and this is your authority, so even if they do this or whatever, if they commit these crimes, that's the authority, don't question the authority. This Bill Gothard type of a mentality, okay? And so what they do is they take that biblical doctrine of authority, because it is a biblical doctrine, and they claim that that's the reason why people are taken advantage of in these churches. But I'm going to tell you right now, that's actually the way you prevent predators from infiltrating churches, and I'm going to explain to you why. Let's read it here, Romans 13, in verse number one, it says, Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers, for there is no power but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God, and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. So we're not necessarily referring to spiritual leadership here, we're actually referring to governmental authority. And he's saying there that rulers, these governmental authorities, are not there to terrorize people for doing good things. They shouldn't terrorize us for preaching the gospel, for having church. Because God never instituted rulers and authorities of this world to terrorize people for being law-abiding citizens, and for doing that which is pleasing in the sight of God. Then what is the purpose for these rulers? He says, wilt thou then not be afraid of the power, do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same. In other words, don't be afraid of the authorities, because if you're not committing any crimes, why be afraid? That's for those of you who are constantly, you have your police radar when you're driving. You know, there's a police right around the corner, and you know, why are you, you know, the wicked flee when no man pursueth. But the righteous is bold as a lion. If you're not doing anything wrong, then don't worry about it. It says in verse 4, for he is a minister, referring to that ruler of God, to thee for good. In other words, that these rulers, a part of disciplining the wicked and those who are criminals, they're actually supposed to protect and serve us. He says, but if thou wilt do that which is evil, be afraid, for he beareth not the sword in vain, for he is a minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil. So God deputized the rulers of this world to punish people for committing capital crimes. So in other words, you have an individual who's committing pedophilia, it's the government's job to kill that person and put them to death so they no longer re-offend. You understand? That's actually the government's job. Now, unfortunately, there's a revolving door of pedophiles in the prison system, right? And so sometimes, even in the prison systems, you know, there's a certain other justice that's carried out in those prison systems, but that's a sermon for another day. Let's just say that, you know, they behave as those who are revengers to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil, okay? And thank God for that. He says, wherefore ye must be subject, not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake. You say, well, why read that in context of being under authority, in context of, you know, infiltrators and predators within the church? Why is that important to know? Well, because of the fact that, folks, I know my place as a pastor. Say, what do you mean by that? You know, I'm a pastor and I have authority in this church, but I know my boundaries, which means that if someone is caught doing criminal activity in our church and I know about it, I'm not the type of pastor, which a lot of them, they exist, where it's like, well, I have the authority over this church, we're just going to keep it in-house. Folks, when there's criminal activity, we go to the authorities. So if a person is ever guilty of, for example, God forbid that, for example, a pedophile were to infiltrate our church and violate some innocent person, I would go straight to the authorities. I wouldn't sweep it under the rug. I wouldn't just keep it under wraps, keep it within the families, just try to solve it in-house. 1 Corinthians chapter 6, you know, type of interpretation that many of them take, and just, you know, we don't have to go to the police, we're going to destroy these people's reputation. I'm going straight to the cops. And we're going to wait here until the cops come and you might even get your rear end whooped on your way out. You might just catch a couple licks on the way out. I can't control everyone here. The problem with these dogs is they have no names. So if I ever release them, I can never call them back. You say, what does that have to do with authority? Well, you know, a lot of these people get on these churches because they claim that, oh, they have this authority complex and everyone's supposed to be under authority, but they're lying. Bruce Goddard is not under authority. Why? Because once he found out about what was taking place, he didn't go straight to the authorities now, did he? That shows me that he's not about authority. That shows me that he thinks he's above the law. That shows me that he obviously doesn't take Romans 13 into consideration now, does he? Because he thinks he's above the law. He thinks he's been deputized to take care of that issue and that situation in his church amongst his church members. No, you go to the stinking cops. You get that dude arrested and you make sure you go to the proper authorities. That's what it means to be under authority, my friends. That's what I mean by saying I know my place here. I'm over the spiritual leadership of our church. And you know what? You know what? If there is conflict between brethren, yes, of course, 1 Corinthians chapter 6 tells us that it would be wrong for one brother to take another brother to court and to sue that individual over something that's petty, but we're not talking about criminal things. We're talking about petty things. He owes you 20 bucks. You know, I'm going to sue them. Obviously, we know when it comes to situations like that, that should be dealt with in-house. But not when it comes to criminal things, my friends. And so this is how we know, this is how we can impede predators from preying on the innocent is emphasizing the importance of authority, recognizing everyone has their place. And so, yeah, you know, you're a church member, you're a team leader, you have some position in the church, or you are a well-respected individual. If you hear about some criminal activity, go to the police. Plain and simple. It's not hard. It's real easy. It's three numbers. 9-1-1 and that's it. Take it off your hands. You know, I always give this illustration. My father-in-law, he counseled a lot of people, and one time a guy came to him for counseling, and he basically revealed to him that he was a pedophile, that he struggled with pedophilia. And he thought my father-in-law was gonna be like, oh man, you know, well let's meet on a monthly basis, let me counsel you to help you get over this sin, this abominable thing, you know, God still loves you. As soon as he heard that, he said, okay, give me one minute. He walked out of the office, and he came back and he said the police is coming to pick you up right now. I already called the police. You're out of here. Session's over. Oh, that's not right. He could have rehabilitated him. Pedophiles can't be rehabbed. They can't be reformed. He's lucky that's all he got. And so, this documentary tries to tie in the fact that fundamental Baptist churches emphasize authority and claim that's what they use to take advantage of the innocent. Well, if that's what they're using, they're obviously not teaching or believing or instituting biblical authority, because biblical authority says that if someone goes outside of our area of jurisdiction and is criminal, that we should go to the law for that. And look, if a police officer's gonna come, arrest that individual, and yeah, they might go to jail and get out, but you know what, that's none of my business. You know, if it were up to me, the guy just gets shot in the head and he goes straight to hell. That would be my prayer, that would be my desire, because I hate pedophiles and they all deserve to die. They're a bunch of animals. And God doesn't love pedophiles. God does not love pedophiles. He does not love people who rape children and take advantage of them. God hates them. They're twice dead, plucked up by the roots, and they're gonna split hell wide open once they die. Hopefully, the transportation that takes them there is a very slow and painful death. You say, I thought, you know, you're supposed to love everyone. You know what, yeah, we love people who are not reprobate. But these animals who take advantage of the innocent, there's no love in my heart for them. How are you gonna love a pedophile and love the children that they rape at the same time? Doesn't happen. Go to 1 Peter chapter 2. 1 Peter chapter 2. So we believe in authority here, my friends. Never come to me and, you know, try to take care of some criminal act in-house. Doesn't work that way. You commit murder, I'm calling the police on you. Hey, you murder or reprobate, I'm still calling the police on you. Why? Because that's lawful to do. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we're supposed to execute any of these type of judgments on society. We're Christians, that's not our place. You commit any sort of criminal activity, we hear about it, I'm going straight to the police. Plain and simple. Oh man, but that's gonna be all, bring all types of bad press upon your church. Our church has already gotten bad press. We're used to that. And you know what, the truth fears no investigation. So I'll gladly look at that camera and say, yeah, we turned in that filthy pedophile, we don't allow pedophiles, I don't even know how that guy got through our doors. But we call the police on them, we hate them, we wish they would all die. That's my public statement. Look at 1 Peter chapter 2 verse 12. Sounds to me like God wants us to be under governmental authority. Especially in regards to reporting criminal acts, my friends. And so this will never be a church where we have this skewed, perverse view and perception of what authority is. All authority is, we're the supreme authority here, and we should take care of things in house, and don't go on Facebook, research, all those things, and we'll take care of this, we'll get rid of this individual, yeah, send them off to another church is what you're gonna do, Bruce Goddard. Send them off to another church, another ministry, Jack Treiber. That's not taking care of it. You're spreading the problem to another church. You're sending the wolf to another flock. Look at chapter 3, if you would. So it tells us to submit ourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. So this is a great way to prevent pedophilia, infiltrators from coming into our church, as we teach our congregation what biblical authority is. And look, I'm not talking about calling the police on your neighbor for not getting a vaccine. I mean our country hasn't gotten to that point, I think Canada got to that point at a certain time, or whatever. I'm not talking about stupid stuff like that. That's just retarded. We're talking about legitimate criminal acts. It's not criminal for someone not to get a vaccine. I don't care what these libs talk about. You're putting me in danger, you know, whatever. Look at 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 15. It says, But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear, having a good conscience that, whereas they speak evil of you as evildoers, they may be ashamed to falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. Look at chapter 4, if you would. Chapter 4. So the good conversation in Christ that we should have is to be under authority. So no matter what kind of evil things they say about us, at the end of the day it's just like, well we went to the police. Now thank God this has not happened in our church, and Lord willing it just never happens in our church. As long as we keep instituting these principles, it will never happen. And this is just the tip of the iceberg, by the way, of what we do. I'm just going over the importance of authority. Just to make sure you guys understand that even though I'm an authority in the church, even though we're Christians and this is our church, there are certain things that are outside of our jurisdiction that need to be reported if something happens. So never have this attitude, it's just like, well I'm just going to keep it in house or whatever. Look at chapter 4 verse 14, or verse 15, it says, But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters. Yet if any man suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, let him be glorified, but let him glorify God on this behalf. Go to John chapter 3, if you will, John chapter 3. So obviously the Bible's telling us here, don't suffer as a murderer, don't be a thief, don't be an evildoer, don't be a busybody in other men's matters, make sure you're a law-abiding citizen. And part of being a law-abiding citizen is reporting the crimes when you have knowledge of them. No, snitches get stitches. In the Christian realm, snitches get riches. And God expects integrity and honesty, and you may not agree with everything that the police does, or the government does, but they're still an institution deputized by God to take care of criminals. And look, again, if a pedophile were to be found here and they get arrested, they get taken away, yeah, the prison system is a revolving door and they might get out again, but you know what, it's off my hands. I've done what I could. Look at John chapter 3, what's another thing that we do to prevent predators from infiltrating our church? Explicit hard preaching from the pulpit. So this actually works really good, and it prevents a lot of people from coming to our church, actually, not just predators. Sometimes it even prevents good Christians from coming to our church because they feel like they can't handle the truth. They're like, I don't know if I'm willing to step it up that much. There's Christians who literally don't come to our church because they feel like if they do, it's just a new level of commitment. Like, man, I'm actually going to have to go sowing it. I'm going to have to actually step it up in my Christian life and actually begin to read the Bible and study the Bible, but you know, that's good. Explicit hard preaching keeps the right type of people in church and keeps the wrong type of people out of church. And so when I preach behind the pulpit and tell you that I hate pedophiles and that they should all die, well, if that sound bite gets in the ears of some pedophile who's thinking about coming to our church, they're going to think twice about coming to our church. They're like, what does he mean by they should all, is he going to, if I go in there, is something going to happen? You know, something might, I don't know. Preaching can act as a deterrent, my friends. And so that's why it's important for churches to speak explicitly about doctrine and about how the pastor feels regarding reprobates and pedophiles and sodomites and all those abominable acts under the sun. Because it keeps people like that from coming here. Now, will that prevent it from ever happening? No, but I'll tell you this, it's just not likely that they're going to come here because for that reason. Let me prove it to you. Look at John chapter three, verse 19. And this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. So according to the Bible, people who do evil, they hate the light and they don't want to come to the light. Meaning they hear this type of preaching. They hear this vitriol against child molesters and predators. They don't want to come here because they're afraid. And you know what? They should be afraid. Because, you know, I can't control what my church members do if they find out you're a little pedophile. If you're a little chomo, I can't really control what they do. And I'm not trying to control because, you know, I know my place as a pastor. So I can't really, you know, I see no evil. I hear no evil. I speak no evil. I turn the other cheek sometimes. But here's the thing. The goal would be just don't come to our church. And you know, you might have some reprobate who's brazen enough to try to do so. Entering at your own risk though. Because I'll just say this. This is not your average independent fundamental Baptist church. This is not your average old IFB fundamental Baptist church. We don't operate with that same operation and administration. This is a new IFB church. And if you don't know what that means, just Google it and you'll find out. Plain and simple. And so explicit hard preaching keeps people from coming to our church. You're like, well how are you going to build a church that way? It's not my job to build a church. Jesus Christ is the one who builds the church. And you know what? People who love the... Explicit hard preaching will cause people who love the truth to come to our church. That's why you're here. That's why the people here on Sunday morning were here. That's why we... You say, what did you do to reach people? Tell the truth. Preach the truth. What do you do to keep them? Keep preaching the truth. But you know, when you have this soft-soaked preaching out there, that wants to rehab every cockroach under the sun, then that's what you're going to get as cockroaches in your church. And you might get a decent individual who actually wants the truth, but unfortunately, now they're subject to violation from the cockroach. Because your preaching just is spread so thin to try to cover every God-hater in this world, that now everyone feels like they have the liberty to come to your church and do whatever they want. It's not right, my friends. Church is for believers, it's for hard preaching, and explicit hard preaching will keep that person from ever coming to our church ever again. You should love... I don't need to love a worker of iniquity. My heart hates them. And I want them to know that. I want every pedophile to know that I hate their guts and I never want them to step foot into the house of God. I never want them to darken the doors of our church. I never want to look at their faces. You're like, well I was involved in that a couple years ago. Then you better get the hell out of our church before anybody else finds out. Because you stepped into the wrong church. That's not a good church. No, this is a really good church. This is a really good church. And you know what? I guarantee you, people who've been violated by the innocent wish their pastor would say something like that. Go to Mark chapter 10. So, you know, explicit hard preaching keeps bad people away. And you know, there's been instances where people want to come to our church, good people want to come to our church, but they feel like, man, I gotta like, I gotta like clean up my life before I go there, though. And you know what? Amen. Now, in my opinion, you can come here and clean up your life at the same time, but you know, there's people who come to our church, and they're just like, you know, I gotta make sure I got a job before I came here. Or I have to make sure I have to do this and clean up my life in this area before I came here. That's a good thing, my friends. But it's even better when you keep reprobates out of the church. Now, what's the third way, what's the third thing that we do as a church to prevent predators from infiltrating? This is really important. Keeping a family-integrated church. That's really important. And what's shocking to me is the old IFB have not caught up on this yet. This is one of the best ways to make sure that the innocent aren't violated by predators, if they do infiltrate. Why? Because your kids are always with you. See, a family-integrated church means that we don't have nurseries or Sunday school classes, we don't have these different segments of the church where we segregate the family and place children under the authority of some person that you don't know for an entire hour and subjugate them to the possibility of being violated, which is something that takes place. A family-integrated church means that kids, the women and children, women, children, and fathers, they all stay together. And that's why it gets noisy here sometimes. You know, you have a baby and they're just like, and I have to preach over them. And by the way, let me just make a public service announcement in that regard. If you have a noisy baby, which all of them are noisy, don't sit in the front. Can I put in a request real quick as the pastor? Because by the way, I'm for family-integrated, remember that. But be family-integrated like back there though. You know, props to you guys who are back there with your babies back there. Amen. You say, why? Hey, I'm your pastor, so I love you. Don't get all offended. Don't get soft on me now. Here's the thing, it's hard when I'm preaching and then your baby is just like freaking out for whatever reason. And then, you know, then you have to take the walk. He's like, Whereas if you're in the back, you can just slip out quickly without us having to hear weeping and wailing and gnashing of gums. So do us a favor. You know, this is a family-integrated church, but babies in the back, please. Closer to the door where you can go to the mother-baby room. Now, and by the way, I'm not even against calling the mother-baby room a nursery because that's actually what it is. Nursery is like where a woman nurses her child, so that's the same thing. But the nursery in the old IFB is just like where all these babies are under the rule of like one person or something. Sunday school classes, things of that nature. Whereas family-integrated keeps everyone together. And I really don't understand what's the old IFB's beef with that. What's more wholesome than keeping all the family together? What's more wholesome than having your children sit under the preaching of your pastor? Why have them seated under some teenager or some 50-year-old that you don't know teaching kids? I mean, it's crazy. But you know how old IFB pastors will get on people for wanting that family? I mean, Chris Carey, and he didn't give me permission to say this, but you know, it's too late now. I've already said it. I'm just going to go through with it. In his old IFB church, he was a Sunday school teacher. And you know, Chris Carey, he's family-integrated. I don't know if you can tell, but he's definitely a family-integrated person. That's what he believes, okay? But you know, he was an old IFB church, so you know what he was doing? He was being a team player. Which everyone should be a team player at the church. So you know what that meant? It meant him being a Sunday school teacher. But then they found out that he was family-integrated. They could not believe he was family-integrated, so they fired him from being a Sunday school teacher. Isn't that wild? It's like, oh, you believe the family should stay together? It's like, shame on you. I can't believe you would not want to segregate your family. And by the way, this is at the church where all that pedophilia is taking place, too, by the way. Go figure. It's crazy! But keeping a family-integrated church where your children sit with you in church, they're under your supervision at all times, as it should be, will minimize, even if an infiltrator does get in, it's going to minimize them having an opportunity to do anything to your kids. Because they're always with you. Which, by the way, keep an eye on your kids. And by meaning keep an eye on your kids, don't just trust anybody with your kids. Even if they're in our church. Plain and simple. If you don't know the person in our church, even if you know them slightly but you don't know them a whole lot, don't let them just go around touching your kids. Plain and simple. Oh, but they're a Christian. Who cares? You don't know them. Don't let them just start touching your kids and try to act like they are close to your family and they love your kids. If you don't know them, have them stay away from them. Amen? Amen! If someone comes and touches your kid and you don't feel comfortable, this is the way you do it in the most kindest way possible. Stop touching my kid. In the most kindest way possible, say, hey, don't touch my kids. That's it. That's a good way to do it. But Family Integrated will assure you that your kids, and now it's more work. And look, the natural route is always more work, isn't it? The biblical route is always more work. Why? Because you have your kids in service so they're loud. You have to teach them how to sit in church. You have to teach them to sit up and listen. I mean, I'm the pastor and I have to watch my kids on the front row here. Because my wife's in the mother-baby room with the other tribe. The other side of the tribe, so they're here. So sometimes you'll hear me from the pulpit correct my kids because they're being too loud or being noisy or not paying attention. But you know what? It's just part of the job and part of the privilege of having a Family Integrated Church. Because I'm a pastor, but I'm still their dad. So it's like I have to correct them from the pulpit and be like, sit up straight, put that away, put your legs down, pay attention. I have to tell them that and just kind of take a commercial. I'm not telling you to do that right now. But good job listening though. And you know what? Family Integrated Church will assure you that your kids actually learn the Bible too. And they'll soak up doctrine, they'll soak up the Bible, they're taking in as much as possible. Don't send them to some little Sunday school class where they get a 15-minute David and Goliath sermon for the 15th time. Because that's the only story that the Sunday school teacher knows. At least here, they'll sing the hymns. You'll hear these kids singing in church. That's a byproduct of a Family Integrated Church. Everyone here has heard my daughter sing. You can hear her on the live stream. I'm not going to stop her from singing. Everyone here has heard TJ sing. Brother T's son. No one's going to stop him from singing. You know why? Because that's God's will. You've got to suffer the little children, right? Allow them to be a part of the service, to hear the preaching of God's Word. And you know what? If our church remains Family Integrated, it's going to cause our children to mature in the Lord faster. To know the Word of God, to value spiritual things, and to be protected. And that's one of the most attractive things of the new IFB is Family Integrated Churches. It's great. It's a lot of work though. Sometimes if we're making clips of my sermons, I'm listening to a specific part and it's just like someone's baby's just going off. That's just how it is. And sometimes we just got to deal with that. And that's okay. But you know what? Small price to pay. Mark 10 13 says, And they brought young children to him that he should touch them, and his disciples rebuked those that brought them. But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God. We're not going to be segregating people from the main service, from their family. You know what? The vast majority of times of churches that segregate their families, the kids end up growing up hating church. Because they never got a dose of the real thing. They're just listening to these Sunday School lessons that are dumbed down with pictures. They're getting them high off of sugar the entire time to make them behave. And they're not getting anything from the preaching of God's Word. All the while their parents are in the service getting something from the Bible. Your children deserve that opportunity too, my friends. Now along with that, teach your kids how to behave in church. Okay? Don't like, oh yeah, we're family integrated so we're just, you know, they're just going to sit in the service. No, teach them how to behave in church. Teach them to sit up, to open up the Bible, to open up the hymnbook, not horseplay and mess around. Teach them how to behave themselves in the house of God. That's your responsibility. And if I have to do it from the pulpit to my kids, you gotta do it from down there. If I can do it from the pulpit to my kids, you can do it from down there. Okay? But throughout the Word of God, we see examples of people hearing the Word of God with their family. I mean, think about Ephesians chapter 6. Right? Because the book of Ephesians, all the epistles are being read in churches. And Ephesians chapter 6, it says, Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Now who's he talking to? The parents? Or he's talking to the children? So it's basically like whoever's reading that epistle, he's reading it and he looks at the kids and he's like, Hey, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. He's addressing the children in church. You know why? Because God addresses the children too. So how can that happen if the children weren't already in the congregation with their parents? The reason that's even possible is because they're in church with them. They're sitting front and center, listening to the preaching of God's Word. That's why it's important and that's where we get family integrated from. I mean, when Titus, when the Apostle Paul is writing to Titus, the letter there, he's talking about, Hey, talk to the young men, talk to the young women, talk to all ages. He's addressing every age of the church in a specific way, implying that everyone's basically together. Okay? Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Family integrated is so important, my friends, okay? And we're not against nurseries. What I'm against is who's watching your kids in the nursery. The mom should be watching her own kids, amen? Oh, you said, Mom, what about the dad? I mean, that's at the dad's discretion. My wife watches my kids. When I'm here, my wife is watching. Every once in a while, you know, I'll delegate that responsibility to myself if I see my kids doing something, but for the most part, that's my wife's responsibility. Okay? To watch my kids, to make sure they're not getting involved in mischief and, you know, running amok and becoming destructive. So family integrated will assure us as a church that molestations will not take place. Because we're not just segregating, we're not sending our kids to some building across the way to be under the leadership of some person that you don't even know. It's crazy, my friends. You don't see them for a whole hour and a half? I mean, their entire life can be ruined in that moment. All right, what's another way that our church prevents predators from infiltrating? Keeping a minimal ministry that majors on the essentials. Hey, what do you mean by that? We don't have bus ministry here. Now, I'm not 100% against bus ministry because of the fact that I know that a lot of people have been saved through the bus ministry. I know people, there's people in our church who were reached through the bus ministry. I know godly people to this day who were reached through the bus ministry. But here's the thing, though, a lot of molestation has taken place in the bus ministry, though. And so, the old IFP has this weird philosophy that if you're going to be a fundamental Baptist church, you have to have a bus ministry. Well, we don't follow that rule. And I'm not saying that it wasn't a productive ministry, but you know what? We can do the exact same thing and produce the same exact results, in fact, even more, just doing so many. And we'll save a lot on gas, diesel. Because with bus ministry comes buses. And with bus ministry comes programs and goldfish and all this extra stuff that you got to do to entice people to come to church. And it blows my mind. And I participated in bus ministry, but I remember thinking to myself, it's crazy how this mom allowed all eight of her kids to come to church with me for the entire day. Because we would literally pick them up like at 8 o'clock in the morning, and they would not be home until like 1030 at night. I would take them, we'd go to Sunday school class, Sunday morning service for the kids, and then we have afternoon program. And then after afternoon program, go get some lunch or some dinner. And then we got Sunday night church, and after Sunday night church, we have night bus, and the night bus drops all the kids off. I mean, they're not home until like really late. And I could never just send my kids with someone for an entire day like that. It's just crazy. And you know what? Think about this, my friends. Most of these pastors of these old IFP churches, they would not do that with their kids either. But somehow they think that's appropriate with other people's kids. That's not right, my friends. And so yeah, bus ministry was used in a great way, but we're not going to have that here because it'll minimize the opportunity for predators to do something. And we can get as much done, if not more, just really just encouraging the church to go out and preach the gospel instead. And here's my philosophy is like, well, you know, how are these kids going to be reached? Reach their parents and you'll reach the kids. The Mexican who has 10 kids, you could either reach the 10 kids or just reach the dad, and you have a higher chance of reaching the entire family. And they'll bring themselves to church. You don't have to bus them in. You just reach the dad and, you know, you figure out a way. I mean, he figured out how to have 10, you figure out how to transport them. And you'll bring them to church. But, you know, a lot of times bus workers and bus captains want to remain in those bus ministries because they have a hard time working with adults. So it's easier to influence teenagers and kids or whatever. You know, you need to grow up and it's time to start working with some adults. Learn how to speak to men, learn how to win the families, the adults, the parents, and have them take care of their own kids. The bus ministry, and I'm not trying to be offensive here, but it's just true, it's just a big babysitting service. It's a massive babysitting service. Can I babysit your kids for 12 hours? That's what it is, free of charge! Now, when I did bus ministry, we got them saved, we got them baptized, and we tried our best to disciple them. And, you know, a lot of them didn't turn out, but some of them did, to become good Christians and they're serving the Lord. But, folks, it's just not worth it. Because you can get the same results, if not better, just doing it the way God instituted it, which is simply by soul winning. Going to preach the gospel, telling people to go invite their friends. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 1. Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. You know, a lot of times, deception is used to get these kids to come on the bus sometimes. You know, it's just like, oh, you'll get this particular prize or whatever, you know, and it's just like, I don't know. I remember, I think it was one of the promotions that they had was like, if you come on the bus, we'll give you like a goldfish or something. But then at the end of the day, we're giving out like these dead goldfish. And you know, the motive behind it is obviously good, because they want to bring them so that we can preach the gospel to them, get them saved, but it's just not worth it, my friends. Giving out dead goldfish, okay? Giving out baby chicks or whatever. And they would do that. I mean, what you do to reach them, you got to do to keep them. And so it's important for us to realize that keeping a minimalist ministry, obviously we have a lot of little ministries here, but the main ministry is soul winning. And guess who does it? The families of the church. So the fathers take their wives and their children, and they go and preach the gospel, and you don't run into any situations with, you know, pedophile bus drivers and pedophile bus workers. No, it's just like the families are together. But you know, I know that's not as glamorous as having five buses outside. And let me say this, you know, a lot of these churches, one of the biggest reasons they have a bus ministry, why? What's one of the biggest reasons they want bus ministry? Someone tell me. So they can brag and for the numbers. So it's like, oh yeah, we run a thousand, but you know what, 600 of those are bus kids. That's how it is. We run this many, but it's just like the vast majority of them are bus kids, and unfortunately, the vast majority of the bus kids are not even saved. Because most bus workers don't even care about their salvation. You say, how do you know? Because I was in the bus ministry, and I knew bus captains and bus workers who can give a rip about whether those kids are saved or not. I didn't see them witness to them. I never saw them preach the gospel to them. They just got them on the bus, got them out, day's work, that's it. And it would frustrate me because I was trying to get my bus kids saved. But these kids, these bus workers didn't care. They were just trying to mark it off to make sure they got their nice little big number on the board. Oh, bus A or whatever brought in 65, 85 kids. Yeah, but how many of them got saved though? And why is it that this bus kid has come for the last eight weeks and is still not saved? I mean, I've literally knocked on doors of houses of people who are like, yeah, I went to a Baptist church, I was a bus kid, and they weren't saved. Happens all the time. Because a lot of the times, the kids are simply a number for the bus. They don't really care about their souls. And so keeping a minimalist ministry here will prevent us from having pedophiles and predators infiltrate a church. You say, yeah, but we have all these, you know, we have bus ministry, and we have these forms that people have to fill out, and they do background checks. It's like, if you do a background check on a person who's a pedophile but has never been caught, can I just speak some common sense into you? What if you run a background check on a pedophile who has repeatedly molested children but has never been caught? Oh, what due diligence? Oh, man, you guys are so careful. What do you do to make sure that they don't molest children? The things that I'm talking about right now. You know, we don't run background checks here because the only background check that we run is for staff members. Well, I don't run background checks on anybody, you know, because of the fact that we don't have ministries. We don't have a membership covenant here. We don't have none of that. Keep a minimalist ministry, no Sunday school classes. And by the way, here's another good reason why we shouldn't have Sunday school classes. It's because they'll get more out of the preaching here in one hour than you get in Sunday school classes when they preach for 20 minutes or something, or teach for 15, 20 minutes some nonsensical sermon that they didn't even put together. They'll get more in an hour sermon. So no Sunday school classes, no nurseries, no children's church, no teenager church, no bus ministry. You dwindle those numbers of molestation down a lot. Because there's minimal opportunity for predators to take advantage of the innocent because the kids are always with their parents. That's why. Where am I here? I must hasten. Go to Philippians chapter 3. Philippians chapter 3. So what do we do? We teach biblical authority. We have explicit hard preaching to deter infiltrators from coming. We keep a family integrated church so the kids always stay with their parents. We keep a minimal ministry that majors on the essentials. Nothing crazy, just soul winning, preaching, living a godly life. Don't have all these opportunities for predators to come in. And then lastly, here's a really important one. And most old IFB preachers will probably agree with what I just said, but this is one that for some reason they just draw the line at. We educate our members on the reprobate doctrine. That's a great way to prevent predators from infiltrating our church. You know why? Because of the fact that, you see, I know the reprobate doctrine. And I have discernment. But what if I was the only one who did? That'd be a problem. Because I can't watch over everyone. So it's better for me to teach you how to have discernment, teach you how to identify a predator, teach you how to identify a reprobate, so that I don't have to babysit you. You can have your own discernment. And red flags can go up when you're around bad people. We educate our members on the reprobate doctrine, referring to the fact that we teach people what these god haters are like, what are their qualities, what are some of the things that they do, so that when you run into them, you stay away from them. Look at Philippians 3, verse 1. Finally, my brother, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you. To me, indeed, is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. All you guys like to do is talk about reprobates. I don't like talking about reprobates. It's just a necessity. Because we need to educate people on what these people are capable of, and what are some of their qualities. Because I can't protect you at all times. I'm the shepherd, but I'm not omniscient. I'm not present. I'm the shepherd, but I'm not omniscient. I'm not present. And so you need to learn what a reprobate is so that when you're home and your uncle comes over, who's potentially a reprobate, the red flags will go up and say, this person's a bad individual. I can't have this person around my kids. I don't want this person to come to my house. And you don't have to call me and say, hey, what are the five qualities of a reprobate again? It's just like, learn what a reprobate is, educate yourself on these psychopaths so that you know to stay away from them. Now you say, well that's pretty obvious. Yeah, but you know what? Old IFP people don't know what reprobates are though. And it just blows my mind. It blows my mind. And you know what? I was in that group at one point because I didn't believe in the reprobate doctrine. I didn't know what the reprobate doctrine was. But you know what? I grew up with a mom who had a lot of common sense. So even though I wasn't able to put reprobate over a label, over an individual that was a reprobate, I just knew certain people were just bad. I'll give you a personal illustration. When I was 13 years old, we had a neighbor, and this grown man, he liked playing basketball with the kids. He was always playing basketball with the kids. And he was just always there. He was like the fun neighbor. And I liked playing basketball, but anytime he came out, I went inside. Anytime he started playing, I'd just back off. And in my gut, I knew I don't like this person. This person is giving me a bad vibe. I'm not comfortable around this individual. And he would always tell me, why don't you ever want to play with me? And I'd just say, because I don't want to. And I would never tell him to stay away from me. I was just like, I'm done playing. And I'd go upstairs and I'd go do something else. And I never ever played with this individual. And you know what, as a 13 year old, I couldn't really tell you why. It's just the common sense that my mom put within me to beware. It turns out, he was raping his daughter, and he was a major child molester. And that's what he was trying to do to me and to the kids in our neighborhood. And thank God it never happened to me. You know what, because there's something deep down inside that told me, this is a bad person. I don't like the way he looks. I don't like the way he looks at me. I don't like the way he behaves around me. It's just that internal gut feeling that a child gets. And I thank God for that. And you know what the reparative doctrine does? It just accentuates that even more. Because it puts a seal of approval on that gut instinct that God gives us. But it's unfortunate that soft preaching in the old IFB has almost seared that aspect of discernment. Where they don't see it. And they just believe the best in everyone. And they, you know, oh, this is a church, how can that happen in a church? You know, this is God's house, we're Christians. It's just like, why do unsafe people often have more common sense than safe people? It's ridiculous. And so, I think it's important for me as a pastor to teach you, hey, predators exist, you need to make sure that your antennas are up. I don't know if I should use antennas because most of you, do you guys know what antennas are anymore? It's from my generation. We used to use that to like watch TV. I don't know. I don't know if, you know, for you to get your Wi-Fi up, to get a connection going, okay? You're like, you're always talking about reparates. Yeah, because I want you to be a discerning person. Especially if you're a parent. Be a discerning individual and know when bad people are around you. You're like, what if there's a bad person in here now? Well, after this sermon, hopefully they leave and they'll never come back. That's my hope. But my greatest hope other than that is that there's no pedophiles in here, there's no predators in here, and that I'm just educating God's people on how to discern that these people exist and how to identify them when they come across them. Beware of those false prophets. Beware of the individuals who seek to devour the flock. So, these are the things that we do as a church. So, you know, that's why 2024, like I've done every year, I preach a couple sermons on reparates because it's important for our church to be educated and not to be left in the dark. You already know about the love of God. Love of God is already shed upon in our hearts. We're taught of God how to love one another. We don't have to learn about the love of God. It's already shed abroad in our hearts. So, let's get into some deeper things. Let's talk about infiltrators and reparates because that's very applicable to our lives because we will come across these individuals. And you know what? If you have the discernment, and look, don't let the pendulum swing so extreme on the opposite end, though, where everyone is a reparate. You understand what I'm saying? Where it's just like every Tom, Dick, and Harry that you come across that doesn't fit in with your mold of who you think a Christian should be is automatically a reparate. That's a grievous, that is a grievous accusation. Only deserving of a person who is actually a piece of trash reparate, two-fold more a child of hell. Okay? So, be very careful how you use that. But at the same time, you know what? There's nothing wrong with, if you have a gut instinct, you know what the Bible says, you're around an individual, you're like, you know what? I'm not going to have my kids be around this person anymore. There's nothing wrong with that. You have every right as a parent to do so. And if you don't have kids, you have every right to separate yourself from people if you have a bad feeling about them. Plain and simple. You're like, I don't want to seem mean. Be mean! Look, it's better to be mean than to be sorry afterwards and to be regretful later on, you know, because some infiltrator pulled a wool over your eyes. And so, grow in your discernment. This is what we do as a church to make sure that predators don't infiltrate and if they do, that they don't take advantage of any innocent individual in our church. These are the guidelines. These are the principles that we as a church live by. Okay? And there's another one, but I can't say it on live camera, okay? Of what we do to prevent, I'm just joking. Everyone's like, whoa, really? I'm just joking. It has to do with those dogs that don't have names. What am I saying tonight? You know what? That documentary is probably really stupid and there's probably a lot of railing accusations, but I'll be honest with you, there's probably a lot of truth to it, though. So, you know, and I'm always on the side of the victims. And I think First Baptist, not First Baptist, the Faith Baptist church should be called out. I think they need to be persecuted and I think that they need to come down hard on them because shouldest thou help thee ungodly and love them that hate the Lord, therefore wrath is upon thee from before the Lord, Bruce Goddard. So I think the Assyrians should come down on them. I believe the Egyptians should come down on them as punishment for forsaking the innocent and standing with the wicked. Plain and simple. But you know what? Lord willing, it won't happen in our church. Not while I'm here, not while we're here, not as long as we keep instituting these principles and living by these principles, it's not going to happen. Amen? Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the spirit of discernment, Lord. I pray that you help us as your people to continue to grow in this area. And we understand that when we have a hammer, everything looks like a nail. But help us to be balanced in this area, Lord. And help us to not just be gullible and think that every individual is just misled or, you know, maybe they're just deceived or something like that. As parents, we have a big responsibility and a child's innocence can be stripped from them in a moment. And so help us as your people to err on the side of caution. And help us as your church, Lord, to continue to institute these principles of being family integrated. May I continue to preach hard throughout the years to deter the wicked from ever stepping foot in here. Help us to be under authority, recognizing that we should never surpass our boundaries of being in authority, whether in our home or me as a pastor here. The authorities, the governments, the police are always in authority here, Lord. And if we ever hear of anything, of any criminal acts, that we would go to the proper authorities so that they can be persecuted to the full extent of the law. And I pray, Lord, that you'd help us continue to bless our ministry here as we go into 2024. And bless our families, the children, Lord. Protect us. Guide us. Direct us. We love you. We thank you. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Please join us in song number 428, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. Song number 428. Song number 428 on that first verse. It came upon a midnight clear, That glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth, To touch their hearts of gold. Peace on the earth, goodwill to men, From heaven's all gracious King. Oh, solemn stillness lay, To hear the angels sing, Still through the cloven skies they come, With peaceful wings unfurled, And still their heavenly music floats, For all the weary world. Above its sad and lonely plains, They bend on hovering wings, And ever o'er its babble sounds The blessed angels sing. And ye beneath life's crushing load, Whose forms are bending low, Whose toil along the climbing way, With painful steps as slow. Look now, for glad and golden hours, Come swiftly on the wing. Rest beside the weary road, And hear the angels sing on the last, For love the days are hasting on, By prophet bars foretold. When with the ever circling years, Come round the age of gold, When peace shall overhaul the earth, Hence ancient splendors fling, And the whole world gives back the song, Watch now the angels sing. Great singing. All right, so just as a reminder, when you head out these doors in the Fellowship Hall, two lines.