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

Man, all right, we are in third John, and we'll begin reading in verse number nine where it says, I wrote unto the church, but Diotrephes who loveth to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words and not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church, and the title of my sermon this evening is the Diotrephes mentality, the Diotrephes mentality. Now in this chapter of the Bible, third John, we see a character by the name of Diotrephes, and this is the only time that he is mentioned in the Bible. Now this guy, we don't know too much about him. We obviously could maybe assume that he was an elder or possibly maybe even a leader in the church, and John is just rebuking this guy. I mean, he's calling him out by name, which side note here, that's biblical, okay? You should call the names, you know, people get offended when you say certain names and you call out certain people. It's like, well, you shouldn't do that. You know, they're Baptists. You shouldn't be calling out their names. If they need to be called on the carpet for a specific thing, it needs to be done. That's biblical. You see it throughout the scriptures. The apostle Paul was notorious for this. You know, Alexander and Hymenaeus and Alexander and so on and so forth. He's calling out Demas, okay? Demas has forsaken me. Have in love with this present world, he said, okay? So we see that multiple times. And John is not necessarily one of those Bible characters that you would think he would call the names because he's John the beloved and he has these great epistles where love is mentioned a lot. He talks about the love of God and all these things, but even he's calling out diatrophes. Even he's calling out the names. Why? Because it's a biblical thing to do so. And he's rebuking this man specifically because this guy has a desire to have the preeminence among the brethren. Now, what is preeminence? It simply means to be famous or prestigious, okay? And so preeminence would mean someone who is known or prestigious among the brethren. He wants to be the big shot, okay? We would say in our monitor, he wants to be the guy who's important, the guy that everyone knows. Now, this is a wicked desire to have, okay? This is pride and this is arrogance. To want to be famous among the brethren. That's not a godly desire. That's not a desire that anyone should have. You know, the Bible tells us that if we want to be great, we need to be ministers. We need to be servants, okay? Now go with me if you would to Colossians chapter number one. I'm gonna read to you from Ecclesiastes chapter number three, verse 18, where it says, I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men that God might manifest them and that they might see that they themselves are beasts. For that which befall the sons of men befall beasts. Even one thing befalleth them as the one dieth, so dieth the other. Yea, they have all one breath so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast for all is vanity. And what it's saying there in Ecclesiastes is this, you're gonna go the same way as the beast as far as living and dying, okay? So no one is better than the other person. No, there's no one person who's better than any person in your life because we're all gonna live and eventually we will die. We're not immortal. We're not something that's an amazing creature of God in the sense that we're gonna physically live forever or we can just waste our life away. No, the Bible says we're gonna go the way of every single person. We're all gonna die one day. Now look what it says in Colossians 1 17, and he is before all things, speaking of Christ, and by him all things consist and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. So we need to remember that whenever we have that desire to be preeminent, just be reminded that Christ is the one who's preeminent, okay? Whether in our personal lives or just in the life of the church, he's the most important person in history, in our lives, in the church. Why is that? Because he's the preeminent one, okay? So what we ought to desire for our personal lives is that we exalt Christ, not ourselves. Exalt Christ, not our ideologies. Exalt Christ's words and not necessarily our opinions. Now go back to 3 John, please. But that's not the case with diatrophies, you know, and there's many routes we can take with this sermon, but I'm gonna highlight some things here. Let's read verse number nine again. It says, I wrote them to the church, but diatrophies who love it to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not, wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words. So we're gonna go and see what are the characteristics of someone who wants to have the preeminence among the brethren. Well, number one, he was prating against them with malicious words. Now what does prating mean? Just babbling, saying stupid things, okay? And typically someone who knows nothing opens their mouth to try to make themselves seem as though they know something. But guess what? They know nothing. They're prating about with foolish words, malicious words. And often, what do people do to try to make themselves look good? They try to make others look bad. So someone who wants to have the preeminence among people, you know what they'll do is they'll belittle other people to make themselves look good. And I'm not talking about false prophets, you don't have to try to make them look bad, they look bad on their own. We just highlight who they are and you say, look, this is what the Bible says, this is what they're doing, and it's ungodly, and you know, they kind of expose themselves for who they are. But when you're talking about amongst Christians, a lot of people sometimes, because they want to have the preeminence, they try to make others look bad to make themselves look good. And how do they do that? By baying janglings and battlings and saying stupidity, okay? Now go with me, if you would, to 1 Timothy chapter number one, I'll read to you from Proverbs chapter 11 verse 12, it says, he that is void of wisdom despises his neighbor, but a man of understanding holdeth his peace. Now I touched on this a couple weeks ago, but you know, a man who has understanding, a man who has knowledge is going to spare his words. He's not looking to just flush out everything that's in his heart and just give out all the knowledge and wisdom and the rubies that God provides to him through his word. He's not looking to just, you know, spew out all his knowledge on people. He's going to withhold his words. And in fact, Proverbs 17 28 says he that hath knowledge spareth his words and a man of understanding is of an excellent spirit. Even a fool when he holdeth his peace is counted wise. He that shutteth his lips is esteemed a man of understanding. Often we think, well, you know, well, we can tell if someone's smart, if they're just talking. No, you can tell who's smart by those, by the person who actually withholds his words. He shuts his mouth and he speaks only when he is asked for an opinion. He gives out knowledge when he's asked for it, but he doesn't just willingly just give out all kinds of knowledge and wisdom because eventually people will just think, well, this guy's just being arrogant. This guy thinks he's a know-it-all. This guy is just trying to have the preeminence among the brethren. Look at first Timothy chapter one and verse number six. And look, this is a temptation for a lot of people, but it's sad when someone who's been a Christian for so long, for decades, you know, for years wants to have the preeminence among the brethren. And the way they do it is by saying stupid things via Facebook, via YouTube, whatever it may be. And it's just like, you're making yourself look more stupid. You're saying these things to make yourself look smart. But in doing so you're actually making yourself look foolish. Okay. Look at first Timothy one verse six, verse five, excuse me. It says, now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and a faith unfeigned from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling. So the Bible tells us that really our motive for giving the truth or giving the commandments is it comes from a heart, a good conscience and a heart of charity. You know, when people get up to preach or when they make a video about dispersing knowledge or they want to give a Bible truth, that ought to be with the desire to edify someone else, to teach someone doctrine, to be a blessing to someone, to expose wickedness or whatever it may be. But there's certain people that they turn aside from those things. They don't care about the people they're talking to, you know what they're doing? They swerved and have turned aside into vain janglings. Look at verse seven, desiring to be teachers of the law. So what's a teacher? Someone who's preeminent because a teacher is someone who's saying, look, I'm teaching the word of God, make sure you listen so you can learn from what I'm teaching you. Desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor where they affirm. So these guys are getting up and teaching the Bible what they think is the Bible, but they don't even know what they're talking about. You know, I think of, you know, Tyler Doka, for example, who teaches his stupid flat earth doctrine. You know, he desires, he wants to be a teacher of the law, but he don't even know what he's talking about. You know, and everything that he talks about now, every single sermon that he preaches is like in relation to the flat earth. Can't understand the book of Revelation without knowing the flat earth. You fool. You know what that person, he's full of vain janglings and babblings is what he is. Okay. And we ought not to fall into that trap. No, you know what? What will keep us in check is making sure that whatever we're teaching, we're teaching to benefit other people. You know, you preachers who are going to come up here and preach the word of God, as you're preparing your sermon have in mind, Hey, I want to be a blessing to the brethren. You know, I want to prepare a sermon to edify someone, to help someone, whatever they're going through, or maybe to just to teach a truth that can edify the brethren, not to make yourself look good or preeminent among the brethren, you know, not to make yourself look so important. No, we ought to desire out of a pure heart, good conscience, faith on fame, out of a charitable heart to teach the brethren. Now go to second Timothy chapter two, second Timothy chapter number two, and look, sometimes you will come across like good truths in the Bible. And thank God when you come across those gems, you know, I've come, I've read the Bible sometimes and I come across, I'm like, wow, that's awesome. I'm not talking about like a new doctrine. Okay. Cause there's nothing new under the sun, but sometimes you'll come across something in the Bible that you've already believed, but it's from like a different angle, you know, it's a different facet of the diamond that you're looking at. It's a story that basically illustrates that doctrine and gives clarity to that teaching. And then, and then it's just like, wow, that's a gem and you want to teach that to someone that's good. That's okay. But not to make yourself look good, you know, and sometimes people think that people want to come up with these new doctrines for that exact reason, you know, the impeccability of Christ, you know, it's just like, I already know Jesus doesn't sin. You really need to talk about that? You know, is that, is that a doctrine that's being like attacked today or is it a straw man that you're creating to make yourself preeminent among the brethren? You know, look, read the Bible, contend for the faith and the fights will come, you know, you preach the Bible, preach the whole council of God and you, if you preach the Bible in its entirety, you will get people who are fighting your core beliefs that you don't invite into your life. You know, a couple of months ago, you know, the whole baptism thing with Caleb Robertson, that retard, I didn't choose that fight. He came to us, you know, he started criticizing me, he started fighting against me. So therefore, I earnestly contended for the faith and fought against him and we demolished him, okay? But you know, that wasn't to become preeminent, that's to shut his mouth and to subvert anybody who would want to listen to that fool. But I'm not going to create this straw man, you know what I mean, of some doctrine that I want, that I see in the Bible when no one's fighting it. I'm just going to preach the Bible and if someone fights against me in those areas, okay, then I have to defend the faith. Look at 2 Timothy 2 23 says, but foolish and unlearned questions avoid. So there is such thing as a stupid question. Knowing that they do gender strives, and look what it says, and the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient and meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. Now look, this applies to soul winning because when we go out there and preach the gospel, don't look to get into a fight with people. Don't ask stupid questions to unsaved people to try to like prove them wrong or something. I've gone with people and it's just like, they're giving them the gospel and the person's open and they're listening and then the person asks them a question is like, so can you lose your salvation? You know, the guy's like, I don't think so. You sure about that? Are you sure? And the guy's like, well, I guess you can't. See, that's what I'm talking about. Why are you fighting? Why are you doing that? We're not trying to ask, that's a foolish question to ask. And I've seen that out-sowning, okay? When I'm out-sowning people from our church, people have said that and I'm just like, why is he asking that question? That's a stupid question to ask. We're trying to get the person to say it. We're not trying to make them look stupid, you know what I'm saying? So we can't ask foolish questions and look, don't have that attitude. We're out-sowning and it's like, well, can you lose your salvation though? And if they say, well, no, say, move on to the next point and say, yeah, you're absolutely right. And look, there's nothing wrong with giving them the answer every once in a while, okay? There's nothing wrong with that. I want to make sure. Yeah, but you know what? Sometimes it's okay just to give them the answer. So according to the Bible, you cannot lose your salvation. Do you understand that? And if they say yes, move on. Yeah, but they said yes, kind of weird, like, yes. It's like, dude, you just need to move on. Don't leave that person more confused. You need to dissolve doubts when you're out there sowning, preaching the gospel. Don't ask stupid questions, unlearned questions, avoid those things. But even just in general, we ought to avoid stupid questions to answers that no one's even interested in giving. It was like, this is a dumb question. I don't even want to answer this. Is Jesus God? Yes, of course he's God. You sure? Yeah, I am. Can Jesus sin? No. You sure? Yeah, I'm sure. Move on. Titus 3 9 says, this is a faithful saying, these things I will that thou will affirm constantly that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable unto men, but avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the law for they are unprofitable and vain. A man that is inherited after the first and second admonition reject, knowing that he that is such is subverted in sin is being condemned of himself. So again, when it comes to this matter of, you know, I just want to, I want to get into the fight. This is how you get into the fight. Preach the whole counsel of God. You know, when you do that, you don't have to go look for a fight, the fight's come to you. Okay. Now go back to 3 John, we're going to continue reading here. So this guy was praying about, you know, with malicious words and just talking a lot of smack is what he was doing. Asking stupid questions. We don't know exactly what he was asking, but that was part of him trying to be preeminent among the brethren. Look what it goes on to say in verse number 10, wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words. And look what it says here and not content therewith. So that's a, that's a pretty good description right there. Okay. You say, well, what does it have to do with being preeminent? He's not happy with where he's at as a leader. You know, he wants to be the pastor. He wants to be the one to man in charge. He's not content therewith. Okay. He's not content with his leadership position. Go to first Corinthians chapter seven. I'm sorry. Go to number chapter 16. I'll read to you from first Corinthians seven, go to number 16, first Corinthians seven 20 says, let every man abide in the same calling wherein he was called, or if thou called being a servant, care not for it. But if thou mayest be made free, use it rather. For he that is called in the Lord being a servant is the Lord's Freeman. Likewise also he that is called being free is Christ's servant. So you know what, wherever we're called, we ought to be content with that position. You know, people always ask me like, you know, you excited about like being the pastor of faithful word? I'm like, yeah, I'm excited about it, but you know, I'm kind of content where I'm at right now. Like, are you excited about it going independent next year? I'm excited about that, but I'm just enjoying the moment right now. I'm thankful for what I got right now. I'm thankful that I get to do what I'm doing right now. You know why? Because if I'm not content doing this, I'm not going to be content doing anything else. You know, I was content when I was sitting on the pew. I was content when I wasn't preaching sermons every single week. I was content when I was just a soul winner, regular church member, soul winner. I want to be content in any single aspect that I'm involved in. I can't be like, well, I'm only going to be happy if I'm like the leader of the church. If I'm like the pastor. Okay. No, that's stupid. That's a wicked desire. You ought to be content. And this is the problem with diatrophies. He wasn't content with just being maybe just one of the elders, the leaders. So what is he doing? He's giving orders, unbiblical orders to people. Don't accept these people. I'm the leader. You know, obviously he probably wanted to be the pastor there. And look, if you are, if you're disqualified from being a pastor, don't force that. If you're not, you can't be a pastor, you can't be a pastor. Go do something else. Are you any less of a person if you cannot be a pastor? No. You know, but you become a less of a person when you become like diatrophies and you want the preeminence among the brethren. You start putting people down, criticizing other people and not content they're with. You know, you ought to be content and satisfied where you're at. And look, if the Lord opens up doors, then take those opportunities, but don't be some mischievous little snake wanting the preeminence among the brethren and trying to get that position in a sneaky way. I've met people who have become pastors in an unrighteous way. They've lied their way to the top. They've lied, they literally lied their way to the top. They complained their way to the top. They threatened with money their way to the top, believe it or not. That's garbage. You know, I would love to be a pastor, but there's many more things that I can be doing as well. And I can still serve the Lord. You know, even if I never become the pastor, I can still preach the word of God, you know, whatever it may be. But to want the preeminence so bad that you're just not content with what you have, you're wicked for that. Look and if you're divorced, you can't be a pastor. Case closed. That door shut. Go do something else. Oh, I just have this dream. Then get off the onions before you go to sleep and you won't have that dream anymore. But don't try to force that position if you're disqualified already, okay? If you can't have more than two kids, if, you know, whatever the qualifications that we see in the Bible, if you violated those things, move on. Don't be some wicked person who just wants to have the preeminence among the brethren and you just force yourself to have that position. You're a wicked person if that's you, okay? I've met people who are just like, they just want to be a pastor and they'll do whatever it takes by any means necessary. They will become the pastor of the church and they have become the pastor of the church because of it. That's wicked. Now an example of this is Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Look at number 16, verse number one. Now Korah, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, and An, the son of Peleth, sons of Reuben, took men and they rose up before Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown, and they gathered themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto them, ye take too much upon you. Seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them and the Lord is among them, wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord. You know why? Because they didn't lift themselves, God lifted them. God is the one who put Moses in charge. So Moses is not like, hey, I'm the boss, let me, everyone just listen to me. No, God said, Moses is the boss. So everyone listen to Moses. But this wicked mentality, this diatrophies mentality of Korah, Dathan and Abiram is like, no, you put yourself there. No, God put him there. And when Moses heard it, he fell upon his face. This is a humble guy. He's speaking to Korah and unto all his company saying, even tomorrow the Lord will show who are his and who is holy and will cause him to come near unto him. Even him whom he had chosen, will he cause to come near unto him. You could read the story later, but it didn't end well for Korah, Dathan and Abiram. So he wanted to have the preeminence. He just had, he was just de-eminized or whatever the opposite of that is. They went straight to hell after that. But that's a perfect example of someone who wanted to have the preeminence among them. And what did they do? They started criticizing the leader. They started prating them with malicious words. They weren't content with their position and these guys were leaders. Korah and Dathan and Abiram could have just been like, man, this is awesome that we get to be a part of what's going on here. Let's serve Moses. And if God allows us to do more, amen. But these wicked people were not content with the position they had, they began criticizing the man of God and God killed them. Rightfully so. And there's people like that today. They're just, the way they move up is by criticizing others. Okay. Look at, where are we at here? Go to Numbers chapter 12. We also see this with Aaron and Miriam. Now Aaron, I talked about Aaron at the Red Hot Preaching Conference. You know, this guy had issues, man. He, but he was a leader. I mean, he's Moses' brother. This guy did great works. I mean, he's doing the miracles. He's preaching the word of God. He's standing up against Pharaoh. You know, he's doing all those miracles and wonders in Egypt. He's part of that. And he's still not happy with that. Look what it says in verse number one of Numbers chapter 12. And Miriam and Aaron spake against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married for he had married an Ethiopian woman. And they said, had the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses, have they not spoken also by us? And the Lord heard him. Now, one thing I didn't get to mention in that sermon from Friday is we obviously know that Aaron was just a weak leader, but this guy was being led by his sister. Aaron is for Moses. That's his brother. I mean, he's backing them up. They're both going against Pharaoh. He's the one doing the wonders. And then he's like, he goes with Miriam up against Moses. You weakling. So he's basically adhering to his sister. Had the Lord only spoken by Moses, Aaron, he was speaking by you too, stupid. You're preaching God's word. Everything that God told Moses to do, he gave it to you and you're the one saying it. So what are you talking about? But it goes along with the principle of he was not content with his position. Look what it says. Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. And the Lord speaks suddenly unto Moses and unto Aaron and unto Miriam, come out ye three unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out and the Lord came down in the pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both came forth. And he said, hear now my words, if there be a prophet among you, I, the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses. So God is saying here, look, if there's a prophet that I send, I'm going to make myself known to him in visions. That's awesome. He goes, Moses is not even at that level. He's like at a level above that. I speak with him mouth to mouth verse nine and the anger of the Lord was kindled against them and he departed. Now you read the rest of the story. What happens to Miriam? She gets leprosy. By the way, that's why I believe that Miriam was actually the main conspirator of this whole entire thing. Why? Because Aaron wasn't struck with leprosy. Miriam was. So she's probably the one who initiated the whole thing and Aaron being the weakling leader that he is, just went along with Miriam, but Miriam was the one who actually got struck with leprosy. Why? Because she wasn't happy with her position. By the way, she shouldn't have any position. She's not used to bringing any authority. This is the first Pentecostal, you know, woman pastor in the Bible. They didn't work out good for her now, did it? She became a leper, okay? And actually had to be cast out out of the camp for seven days because of her leprosy. Okay. Back to 3 John. So these people who want to have preeminence among the brethren, who want to make themselves look to be important and, you know, all prestigious and famous, they prayed about foolish questions with malicious words, they're not content with their position. And look, if you want to be happy, if you want to be a pastor one day and you want to be happy as a pastor, be happy where you're at right now. Just be content with that. Do what you're supposed to do. God will lift you up and you'll be happy as a pastor, even as you were before you were a pastor, evangelist or whatever it may be, okay? But not only that, we see in verse number 10, it says, wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words and not content there with, neither doth he himself receive the brethren and forbideth them that would and casteth them out of the church. So this guy, there's people coming to the church to potentially listen to him preach. You know what he's doing? He's forbidding them to go there. He's like, they're not allowed here. So what does that show? That shows that these people are insecure. They're insecure leaders. And often these leaders, they're afraid of you influencing their people. This is the diatrophies mentality. This is very reminiscent to the old IFB, okay? Was anybody thinking about that as I was saying that? Yeah. Because it's true. It's like, you can't talk to anybody in their church. You can't befriend anybody in their church because they're afraid that you might influence them with the post-Trib pre-Rath Rapture. They're afraid that you might influence them regarding replacement theology. They're afraid that you might get them to hate homos just as much as you do. So they're like, stay away from those people. Well, look, why don't you just let them talk to whoever they want and why don't you just preach doctrine? Because here's the thing, if you're afraid that they're going to learn heresy, why don't you just teach them doctrine? If you taught them doctrine, they're not going to be tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine, right? But because you're not preaching doctrine, that's why you got to lord over God's heritage to make sure that no one talks to them, Jim Jones. You know, the diatrophies Jim Jones mentality is like, no one can talk to my people. You're just insecure. I even had people tell me like, what if I came to your people and started telling them about the pre-Tribulation Rapture? I told them, go for it. I'm not afraid of that. He's like, are you serious? You're telling me that you would be fine with me going up to them and try to teach them about the pre-Tribulation Rapture? I'm like, yeah, go for it. Because I teach my people. My people are, they're learned people. In fact, that would be good for them. Yeah, it's practice. You know, it would be good for a hardcore pre-Tribulationist to come talk to you, right? To see if you're grounded in what you believe. I'm not afraid of that. That's stupid. Why? Because I'm not insecure. Go talk to whoever you want. I'm not the Pope. I'm the evangelist here. I'm the preacher here. And Lord willing in a year, if I become the pastor, that still doesn't change anything. You can talk to whoever you want. You can go talk to your old pastor if you want. Go visit the church if you want. I don't care. I really could care less. My name is not Diatrophes. Diatrophes is an insecure leader who doesn't want anybody influencing their people. You know? Well Diatrophes, if you don't want that, then why don't you go ahead and teach and preach hard enough and maybe your people will stay there. Why don't you preach and teach hard enough and teach them good doctrine and maybe you'll give them a reason to stay. They don't have to sneak around and come to our church all the time. Go to 1 Samuel chapter 25. But these guys feel like they're so insecure, they feel like they're competing with us. Look at 1 Samuel chapter 25, a good example of this is Nabal. Now Nabal was married to Abigail, which is a godly woman. And man, I feel bad for her. She was married to a reprobate. The guy was the son of Belial. Look at what the Bible says in verse number seven, and now I have heard that thou hast shearers, now thy shepherds which were with us, we heard them not, neither was there ought missing unto them all the way, all the while they were in Carmel, ask thy young men and they will show thee, wherefore let the young men find favor in thine eyes, for we come in a good day. Give I pray thee whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants and to thy son David. And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all the words in the name of David and ceased. And Nabal answered David's servants and said, who is David? Who is the son of Jesse? Who's pastor Anderson? Who's brother Mejia? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his master. Shall I then take my bread and my water, my flesh that I have killed for my shearers and give it unto men whom I know not whence they be? So David's young men turned their way and went again and came and told him all those sayings. And David said unto his men, gird ye on every man his sword. And they girded on every man his sword and David also girded on his sword and there went up after David about 400 men and 200 abode by the stuff. And we won't finish the story there, but basically they're like, all right, we're going to go whoop these guys. If you don't want to receive us after we've done you good, we're going to go ahead and take care of you. Now, God ended up killing Nabal, you know, and obviously it was because of Abigail's inner, she interceded, okay, and godly woman, et cetera. But this is an example of someone who basically rejected, did not receive the brethren. And these guys weren't trying to come do anything wicked. They just wanted some help. And he just like, no, I don't know, David, who are you? But this is reminiscent to even people in the new IFB when they try to, when they just get saved and they go to an old IFB church, what is, what is now the qualification of coming to a church now? You know, do you listen to pastor Anderson? I've literally heard that, that they now ask, do you listen to pastor Anderson? If you do, you can't come here. That's wicked. That's an insecure leader. You know, Justin Zong, the guy who, the Chinese guy who came last week, was it last week? It was the week before, right? I got my weeks off. For the Chinese marathon, he goes to an old IFB church, but you know what? That pastor is pretty legit. He's an old IFB pastor. He's not part of our movement, but he received Justin. They're great friends. He knows where he stands in regards to the sodomites and the poster pre-wrath rapture and times and these other subjects. And he doesn't resist them. He doesn't criticize them. In fact, he befriends him. In fact, they're really good friends. Justin even said that he allowed him to stay at his house right before he came here. So he can have, cause he's closer to the airport. He picked them up. The guy even called me and just said, Hey, how was the marathon? I was like, man, it was great. We just talked about Sony. He goes, yeah, I love Sony. He's like, you know, people think that, you know, Sony doesn't work anymore. He was telling me, but Sony works still, you know? And he was just like, he's like, people think that Sony is supposed to be used to build a church. It's to get people saved. And I was like, well, you know, and his last name was Mejia, Amen. I knew that there's something about that guy I like. But that's the kind of attitude and look, more than likely, we're not going to be like best friends. Okay. Probably not going to have him come preach here. He's probably not going to have us come preach over there, but you know what? I respect him. He's a man that I respect. That's a man who I would say is secure about his leadership. He's not afraid. He's not like, oh, you know, just don't say anything about Pastor Anderson. Don't mention brother Mejia. Don't mention anybody. No. He's just like, that's great, man. You guys are winning souls. That's awesome. That's the kind of mentality you should have. Don't be a diatrophies where you're insecure as soon as someone comes into your church and like, you got to question them if they're associated with the new IFB. You know what? It would do you well if you found out they were a part of the new IFB to say, great, this guy can soul win. Okay. I know this guy's hardcore. That means I could probably start ripping on a lot of stuff that I've been wanting to rip on. And at least I know I'll have one person saying amen the entire time. This guy will back me up because that's what new IFB'ers are. They just want to hear the truth. You know, the condition to say hard preaching, Hey, they're a blessing in the church. But diatrophies, he doesn't want that. You know, he wants the preeminence among the brethren and he doesn't want anybody to be influenced. Don't go on YouTube anymore. You know, these, this is like the Amish mentality. Don't go on Facebook. Don't go on YouTube. Don't listen to anybody on the internet. Me, me, me, me, me, me, me. It's weird. Go to second Samuel chapter 10. Here's another example. Hanen, the king of the Ammonites, second Samuel chapter 10 verse one says, then Samuel took a vial of oil and poured it upon his head and kissed him and said, is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance? I think I got the wrong verse here. We'll skip that. Basically Hanen was, he had the same issue. He basically wanted the preeminence among the people and therefore he actually, when David's servants came to him, okay, to, for, for peace offering, David sent them to basically make peace with them. And what did Hanen do? He shaved off his, their beards halfway, which is, that's bad. Okay. You know, ugly that would look. And then he, they stripped them and sent them home. He couldn't receive the servants of the Lord. He had to shame them, you know, and what do you have in old IFP churches, pastors shaming the new IFP members in there, you know, preaching against them or whatever. And just like, not by name, of course, cause they don't name the names, but they do everything but name the names, you know, anyways, go to Matthew chapter 20. So these guys who, who want the preeminence among the brethren, they're guilty of these things. They're insecure leaders. They prayed about with foolish questions and words, and it's because they want to be famous among the congregation. That's a wicked desire. Okay. Now, is it bad to want to be great? No, I think God is instilled with every one of us to want to be great in the sight of the Lord. And with being great comes along with doing great things. That's not, that's not wicked. That's not bad. That, you know, having a spiritual ambition to do something great is great. That's a, that's a godly desire. And every Christian should have a desire to do something great, but it's the formula that people try to use to get to that point. That's when it becomes wicked. You know, if you use the formula that the diatrophies use, you're a wicked person. Now how can you become great among the brethren? Number one, be a servant, you know, don't Lord over God's heritage, be a servant. Matthew chapter 20 verse 27 says, but Jesus called them unto him and said, ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you, but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant. Even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. So at baseline, the way you become great is you become a servant, be a minister, be someone who's willing to serve other people. Okay. And look, people resist a proud person who wants to be important. They resist that. They're like, I don't want to be a part of this guy's ministry. You know who they like to befriend? People who actually want to help other people, be a servant, you know, people who are sincere and who want to be of help to other people, they attract other people. Okay. And it's interesting because the world, the Gentiles exercise lordship. I mean, you look at these companies and it's just like, they're the boss and they make sure they know they're the boss. They don't work. They don't do anything, but yet they exercise lordship among their employees. You know, whereas God's economy is that we become servants in order to be great in the eyes of God, in the eyes of others. Now why is that? Well, simply because when you become a servant, people see your heart, they see that you're being sincere and people resist a proud person, but they're attracted to those who are sincere, not perfect, but sincere. And what each and every one of us needs is we need sincerity. Okay. We need to be sincere and have a true desire to actually serve people. When you're out soul winning, don't try to gather up a bunch of numbers, sincerely preach the gospel and see people saved and those numbers will come. You see, soul winning is not a competition. I take that back. It's not a competition with the devil to try to rescue people out of the fire, but we're not competing one with another. You don't want to be the one, you know, 20, got more souls than anybody else in this church, you know, and we ought not to desire to compete with one another, we're a team, we're a team. So don't ever have this mentality that you're competing with one another. No, your mentality should be, let's serve together. Let's go and preach the gospel in the lower room. People will get saved. And even if you get one, two, or even five, amen to all of those, you know, but be a servant, be sincere. That's why it's crazy. It's interesting that most of these psycho reprobates that have been found out, these people aren't sincere, obviously. And these guys are always the ones boasting of how many souls they see save these extreme numbers, you know, which none of them got saved, obviously. And typically the most humble soul winner is the one who actually sees legitimate souls and the amount of people saved. Why? Because they're actually, they actually go out there with the desire and the love to see people saved. And see, that's, that you say, well, how should I prepare going sowing? Well, first of all, genuinely love people. That's a good place to start. Because why are you going sowing? Obviously, we're commanded to do so. But do you go out so that when you come back in, you say, yeah, I got two, five, or maybe I got 10 today. Just don't, I'm telling you right now, you know, I just don't want to like tell everyone, you know, are you doing it to be recognized amongst the brethren? Or are you actually going out there because you want to see them saved? You love the people who you're witnessing to, and you sincerely desire to pull them out of the fire. That ought to be our desire is to go out there and see people safe because we love them, you know, to serve them. How do we serve them? By pulling them out of the fire. Okay. Now go to Galatians chapter number six, Galatians chapter six. What else? Well, here's another way you can become great as you prove your own work. Be mighty among the brethren, prove your own work. Look at Galatians six verse three says, for if a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, that's a horrible place to be, by the way, that stinks, right? For someone to think that there's something when they're nothing, I mean, they're deceiving themselves, right? He deceiveth himself, but let every man prove his own work. And then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another for every man shall bear his own burden. So how do you become great? Look, don't compete with others. If you need to compete, this is the person you compete with yourself. That's good competition for you right there. See, if you want to become great, don't compare yourselves among yourselves because that's unwise, that's foolish. The way you can become great if you have that competing spirit is you make sure you try to outdo yourself. So last year, if you want a certain amount of souls or you want soul winning a certain amount of time, try to beat that. Because here's the thing, just like God told Samuel in regards to Saul, someone who is better than you, right, he was talking about David, I hate to break it to you, there's someone who's better than you too. There's always someone better. I remember when we used to, when I used to train and do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and Muay Thai, my trainer used to tell, he used to say this, he used to say, just remember this, there's always someone better than you. You watch these UFC fights and these matches or whatever, and this guy's been at the top, he's been a champion for so long, and then all of a sudden he gets taken out by some other guy. You know why? Because there's always someone better. Don't ever think you're the best one. You're the best soul winner, you're the best preacher, you're the best this and that. No, you know what? Be the best that you can be and try to outdo yourself, but just recognize this, there's always someone better than you. And here's the thing, if you have this ego, you have this mentality, you're prideful and you're arrogant and you think you're the best, then guess what? When you find that person who's better than you, it's going to hurt. It's going to be like, oh man, my ego. Yeah, because you thought you were really good, huh? You thought you were like the best at your craft. You thought you were just like the best preacher, the best soul winner, the best fill in the blank, but as soon as someone comes in and is better than you, guess what? Now you're hurt. But you know what, if you're competing with yourself, you can care less if someone's better than you, you rejoice at that because you know why? For example, if you're a soul winner and you find someone who's a better soul winner than you, you don't get hurt by that. Guess what? You benefit from that because now it's like, well cool, I know someone who's a really good soul and he's better than me. That means I can learn something from that person. That means I can actually become a better soul winner. But you know the diatrophies, you know what he does? He begins to criticize the better soul winner. He begins to say, oh man, yeah, he's all right, you know, I heard him give the gospel a couple of times. You know, he lacks in certain areas. Well, you know what, why don't you stop criticizing diatrophies and actually learn from that person? Why don't you stop competing with him and start competing with yourself? Why don't you prove your own work, diatrophies? Look, here's the thing is, is that's why diatrophies has this mentality because he's competing with everyone. Don't, stop competing with people. Compete with yourself. Let me give you an example of this, go to 2 Samuel chapter 23. And the way you can become, the way you prove your own work is you need to become mighty. Okay? How do you become mighty? By doing great works. Look what the Bible says in 2 Samuel 23 verse 18, and Abishai, the brother of Joab, the son of Zoriah was chief among three and he lifted up a spear against 300 and slew them and had the name among three. Now don't just breeze over that verse. He just said he lifted up a spear, that's one, against 300. That's a lot of dudes. That's a lot of heads to kill with one spear. And slew them and had a name among the three. Was he not most honorable of the three? For he was their captain, how be it he attained not into the first three. You see, people like diatrophies, they want to become great without doing any work. They want to become great without attempting anything great. They just want the label. I've met people like that where it's just like, you know, they're working for a church and they want, you know, a plaque. They want the plaque with their name engraved in the plaque so people know who he is. Forget that. I want to know the work. And this guy, Abishai, he proved himself. He was honorable. He was promoted to being the captain. Why? Because the guy killed like 300 people with one spear. That is an honorable, that's a lot of work. He was a mighty man. Look what it goes on to say, verse 20, and Benaiah, the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man of Kabziel, who had done many acts, he slew two lion-like men of Moab. He went down also and slew a lion in the midst of a pit in the time of snow. This guy is crazy. So first of all, he, you know, he slays two lion-like men. I mean, of Moab, that means these guys are probably bulky, probably hairy or something. They had like a lion's mane. They probably had a big beard or something, I don't know. He slays them and then he goes down into a pit and slays a lion in the midst, in a time of snow. So you know what that means? That means it's freezing. Yeah, it's slippery. He jumps down there with a lion and kills it in a time of snow. That is a mighty man, a mighty act. You want to be great? Then you do great exploits, okay? Don't criticize someone else to make yourself look great. Why don't you do something to be great? And look, that's the great thing about the Lord. One of the great things about the Lord is that he allows us free reign to do great acts. He just gives us freedom and liberty to just go do great and mighty works for him. Go do it. Amen. Brother Milan, just hit a hundred subscribers on YouTube, amen. Hey, that's awesome. That's great. I remember when I got my first hundred, I was like, yeah, there's a hundred people who actually want to listen to me. That's the way I saw it. But you know what? God gives us the liberty to do these things, but it's your choice. You could be Diatrophes or you could be Benaiah. You could be Diatrophes or you could be Abishai, but here's the difference between the two. Abishai and Benaiah actually put in the work, okay? So they weren't just a captain, they weren't just great just for whatever reason, they put in work. The guy killed 300 people. This guy jumped in a pit with a lion and killed him on a snowy day. It didn't come by accident. Look at what it goes on to say, verse 21, and he slew an Egyptian, a goodly man. And the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, but he went down to him with a staff and plucked the spear out of the Egyptian's hand and slew him with his own spear. Talk about great works. This guy slew an Egyptian and he's like, I'm coming to you with a staff, but I'm just going to go ahead and pluck your own weapon out of your hand and I'm going to kill you with your weapon. And this guy's remembered for being a great man, a mighty man. That's a great work. That means he basically did the impossible. You want to be great? Do the impossible. And look, this goes back to my sermon a couple of weeks ago, have a big vision. Small dreams move no man's soul. Well, I just have a vision of seeing five people saved in the next year. That's a small dream. You move no man's soul. Have a big dream. Have a big vision. Have big goals. Yeah, but that's everyone else. I don't think I can do that. Well, you know what? You will never do it then. If you have that kind of mentality, then you're right. You will never do it because you're the kind of person that's not depending on God. You're the kind of person that don't think you can do great works for God. The person that God uses to do mighty works are those who say, well, you know what? I'm nothing, but my God is big and I believe that I can do all things to Christ and does the great and mighty works and what becomes great in the eyes of God. Okay. These things did Benaiah the son of Jehoiada and had the name among the three mighty men. He had the preeminence. He was more honorable than the 30. I mean, among 30, he's more honorable than them. That says a lot, but he attained not to the first three and David set him over his guard. Now go to 1 Peter chapter five. So look, how do you become great? Be a servant, be a minister. Okay. Don't look to be like the one in charge with the fancy name and the plaque in front of your desk. That doesn't do anything. Okay. You move no man's soul by that. You don't inspire anybody with that. The way you become mighty is by being humble, serving others, but doing great works as well. Look, men in this church, we need to make sure that we have a mentality to aspire to do something great for God, primarily around this matter of soul winning. Have a personal goal yourself to do something great. Do great exploits, plan for something in the future. You know, we're at the map and you know, Milan's like, what is the next soul winning marathon? I'm thinking, dude, we just got finished with like two, let me like, but that's great. I'm glad there's a mentality like that. I was like, when's the next one. Let's go do, let's go do something else. Let's go do more great works for God. Amen. Because that's what we're made for. We're not made to be like diatrophes. Okay. But the next way you can become great is by being humble. That goes with being a servant, but being humble is very important. Okay. Look what it says in 1 Peter five, six, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. You see diatrophes exalts himself. Whereas these others, what do they do? God actually exalts them. God is the one who actually does it in due time, in due season. You don't have to turn there. James four, six says, but he giveth more grace wherefore he saith, God resisted the proud, but giveth grace into the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you, cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you double minded. And this is the problem with like Bill McGregor. This guy is just building himself up, trying to teach doctrines that everyone knows. No one's fighting him on and he's trying to make himself look good. You know, if you really want to look good, go do a mighty work and God will recognize you for it. You know, don't be this kind of person where you just want to be great and mighty and the way you do is by preying it against others with malicious words like diatrophes. Not content with being where you're at as a divorced man. You know, he's divorced. You can't pass her, but you know what? That's okay. He should have just been content with that, but not only that, he's not humble. You say, how do you know he's not humble? Because he's not willing to admit that he's wrong. You see a humble person will admit when they're wrong and look, we shouldn't have that mentality in our church. Any guy in our church who is prideful and arrogant, if I tell you, you've done something wrong, you know, and there's legitimacy to that, just admit that you're wrong. I don't think any less of you, if you're like, if you're wrong, you know, I think less of you, if you're wrong and you want to admit it, well, I don't think, you know, it's so-and-so's fault or whatever. Just take responsibility. My respect for you will go up. People respecting the church will go up for you if you just admit that you're wrong. Because that shows that you're humble. That shows that you're sincere. I've made mistakes. You will make mistakes. We all make mistakes. I just made a mistake in the sermon. I put the wrong verse. It's my fault. Sorry. I hope I don't do it again, but then, but it happens. You know, that's the right verse, you know, I'm just going to go ahead and skip that. I don't make mistakes in the sermon. That's stupid. I'm a sermon. I'm a sermon. I'm a human being. You are epistles written in our hearts, known and read of all many men. But we need, the way you're humble is by admitting that you're wrong. Okay. Just admit you did wrong. Don't be proud. Don't be arrogant. And if you're wrong, you're wrong. Okay. Go to first Samuel chapter 18, first Samuel chapter 18. I kind of hit on this, but I'm going to, I want to be a little more thorough here is don't compete with your peers. Contend by their side. Okay. You know, you shouldn't compete with your peers. You should contend by their side, right? Philippians 1 27 says, only let your conversation be as it become at the gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs. We stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. So the Bible is telling us that we ought to strive together, not strive together as in striving with one another, but strive together. Okay. Look what the Bible says in first Samuel chapter 18. Now this is a perfect example of what not to do. This is Saul. Okay. Saul obviously in his latter end did not finish well. He was very much jealous and envious of who? Of David. Now David was working for him. Okay. And look at the Bible says in verse six, and it came to pass as they came when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistines, that the woman came out. The woman came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tablets, with joy, with instruments of music. And the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul had slain his thousands and David is 10,000. And Saul was very wroth and the saying displeased him. And he said, they have ascribed unto David 10,000 and to me, they have ascribed of thousands. And what can he have more but the kingdom and Saul, I David from that day and forth. So from that time forth, he was like jealous of David. He was envious of him. This is so stupid, but people still do this today. Look, if I was in Saul's shoes, just think about this. Okay. This is the way I would have thought about it. If they're singing that I would have been like, yeah, I'm slaying my thousands. He's doing 10,000, but guess what? David's in my kingdom. So he's putting in work for the kingdom. So that means there's a couple of other thousands that I don't have to worry about because David's doing it. That's the kind of mentality you have to have. So when you meet someone who's better than you, don't compete with them. Be thankful that they're in our church. You know, if there's a sowing or who comes to our church and he's just like blowing me out of the water and he's just a really good sowing, I'm not going to be like, I ain't that guy from this day forward. This guy is slaying his 10,000 and I'm over here with thousands. You know what I think? I'm like, that guy's in the church. I get to have that person in my church. I don't try to compete with that person. Why would I compete with him? We're on the same team and if he's winning souls to Christ, guess what? We're adding that to the faithful word numbers. So you know what I'm going to do? I want to learn from him because obviously he probably knows something that I don't. I want to go sowing with him because he probably presents something a little differently than I do and I want to learn from that. I'm not going to be jealous or envious because this person wins more souls than I do. You know, if there's a person who comes out with a better quality documentary than me, I'm not going to be jealous or envious of that. You know what I'm going to do? I want to learn. I'm going to watch the documentary and say, okay, I need to learn how to do that. I need to learn how to do this. Yeah, that's way better right there. We're not competing. You know, but the diatrophies mentality is this, is what Saul is thinking right here. Oh man, these guys have subscribed 10,000 to him and I only have a thousand. Saul, you're the boss. He's helping your kingdom and David actually likes Saul. You know, he's helping the kingdom to grow. He's fighting his battles, but now he's like competing with David. Never have that mentality, okay? If someone comes to our church and they're better at something that you were really good at, don't feel threatened by that. If you feel threatened by that, then you got security problems. You're having security is what you have, okay? You know, you're just like, I don't know, where is he from? How do we know he's not an infiltrator? You know, how do we know he's not like a reverberator or something? You're an idiot, if that's what you think. Stop being jealous, go take him out for a coffee and learn from him, because guess what? He will make you better. You see, if you have the mentality that you're competing with yourself, that person's going to help you beat you, because he's going to help you go above your lid. You know, the preview that they showed to the Flat Earth, who's at the conference, the Flat Earth one? That thing was beast. I was like, whoa, this is good stuff right here. This is high quality stuff right here. And I told Brother Oliver, I was like, why are you going to show that before my documentary, man? No one's going to want to watch my documentary after that. What are you doing, you know? But you know what I want to do when I see that? I want to learn from the guy who did that, because he knows some things that I don't. I'm not going to be like, no one needs to know about the Flat Earth, you know, or whatever, you know, it's on the Flat Earth. He's like, no one needs to know. I'm like, no, you know what I want to do? I'm like, man, I want to learn as much as I can from that person, because they know something that I don't. And you know what he's going to do? He's going to make me better, because I'm not competing with him, I'm competing with me. And you know what I lose, is when I start competing with him, because then I just stay exactly where I'm at, and I never grow beyond that. Be the kind of person that competes with yourself, and the people who you think are your competition are actually the ones who are going to help you defeat you. That's how you got to see it. Don't be like Diatrophes, do you want the preeminence among everyone? You know, don't be the guy who's just like, oh, you know, I'm just on an island by myself and no one's fighting with me, woe is me. You idiot, what are you talking about? That's weird, Diatrophes, you know, why don't you just get in the fight with everyone else? Okay, why don't you just preach the whole Bible, and then those who want to, if you want to pick a fight, preach the whole Bible, you'll get a fight. You'll find people who are criticizing you, people who criticize you in the comments, they'll troll your comment section. Don't ask Marcos and Milan, they're getting trolls now, amen, on their YouTube channel. You know, Instagram or whatever it may be, you know, if you preach the whole Bible, you hit on these topics, you will have a fight. You don't have to create a straw, man. You know, and make yourself look like you're like the only one fighting the battle. It's like schizophrenia is what it is. Like what if like Hike came to me after church and he's like, whoever's helping me, this is the guy who's trying to jump me on the side. I would join him and be like, all right, let's go, where's he, where are they at? You know, it's just like, they're around here somewhere. I'm like, Hike, there's no one here. Yes, they are, Bruce. Why aren't you backing me up? Why aren't you helping me? Because there's no one here, Hike. He's just like, I can't believe you, man. You're not your, I thought I was your brother. I'm like, there's no one to fight. What are you talking about? You've lost your marbles. Wouldn't that be weird? But you know, there's a legitimate fight of Hikes being jumped outside by like five guys, you know, I'm all in. There's actually a tangible fight there. So what I'm saying is this, is the diatrophes is, he's a wicked person because he wants to just be important. He wants to be famous. And no Christian should ever be like him. Okay, don't be insecure. Don't be this person who just, you know, exalts himself by putting other people down. Do great works, do mighty works. Be humble, be a servant. And don't compete with your brethren, compete with yourself. And you'll be great for the Lord. Amen? Spire your heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for this day. Thank you for the examples that we see in the Bible. And I'm sure this is a sin that we all struggle with. I know I struggle with it. And these are principles that we see here that we need to be reminded of over and over again. And help us to beat ourselves, help us to compete with ourselves to do better than what we did last year, or even three months ago, and never to have this mentality that we have to compare ourselves among ourselves, because that's unwise. And I pray that you'd help us to exceed our own potential, and to do great and mighty works for the not be like diatrophes. In Jesus name we pray, Amen. Amen. Amen.