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

🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good evening everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could please find your seats and grab your song books. We're going to start out with song number 30, Nothing But The Blood. Song 30, Nothing But The Blood. Song 30, Nothing But The Blood. 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Let's open up in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, thank you for our church and thank you for the free gift of salvation and for your son's death, burial, and resurrection. Pray that you bless the service tonight. We love you in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, for our second song, let's go to 165, O Worship The King. 165, O Worship The King. Song 165. 🎵Music🎵 🎵O Worship The King🎵 🎵A Lord Elshaba🎵 🎵And gratefully sing🎵 🎵His wonderful love🎵 🎵Our shield and He vendor🎵 🎵The ancient of days🎵 🎵A million in splendor🎵 🎵And girded with praise🎵 🎵O tell of His light🎵 🎵And sing of His grace🎵 🎵Whose role is the light🎵 🎵Whose care of His ways🎵 🎵His chariots of wrath🎵 🎵Beneath the earth as warm🎵 🎵And our kids live down on the wings of the storm🎵 🎵Thy bountiful care🎵 🎵What love can recite🎵 🎵It breathes in the air🎵 🎵It shines in the light🎵 🎵It streams from the hills🎵 🎵It descends through the plain🎵 🎵And sweetly distills in the blue and the rain🎵 🎵Frail children of God🎵 🎵And people as well🎵 🎵In Thee do we trust🎵 🎵Or find Thee to fail🎵 🎵Thy mercies how tender🎵 🎵How firm to the end🎵 🎵Our maker, defender🎵 🎵Receiver and friend🎵 This is an old one, sorry. But I think we're on verse, what, 27? This one says 24, so. All right. Thank you. And, again, I made an announcement. Hopefully I'll have something you can look at. But we've ordered some really nice drink flasks, pretty drink flasks. I don't know what you call it. Tumblr, Tumblr, sorry. Whatever that means. And they're really nice and they're monogrammed with the name Steadfast on them so you know that they're legit, all right? And so I'm just putting it out there to encourage you as a reminder. There will be other prizes as well. So that's just to say to encourage you to get it out there. Service time, soul winning are there. Church stats, please make sure you're turning that in to your soul winning captains. We have on the right a list of several expecting ladies. Please help us in prayer for them. Also upcoming events. We have the Cedar Hill Soul Winning Marathon. And if you can only participate in just the morning or evening, please still just do it. So we'd love to have you out there. We should have some donuts in the morning. And we'll also have some lunch. So pretty much all you have to do is just show up and go soul winning and eat some food. I mean, it's really a win-win-win. So I highly encourage you to do it. Also, it's a great time to try and invite people to church. People are a little bit more prone to want to visit an Easter service or something like that. In fact, there's some people that are Easter only Christians. And you know what? We'll preach their socks off if they come here, all right? We won't change anything about their desire to come to church anymore often. But it'll just be a blessing to have some visitors. Also, preaching class, April 6th. April 9th through 10th is the Verity Youth Rally. April 13th, Shreveport, Louisiana Soul Winning Marathon. We've got a sign-up sheet for that as well. I highly encourage you to participate in that event if you can. Just because it's a really receptive area. And it's been a lot of fun every time we've been out there. So I highly encourage you if you can make it. May 5th is a spring swap. It's items of value that you no longer want yourself. Just as a friendly reminder, if you are planning on donating any large items or you would like to use this as an opportunity to get rid of some kind of a large item, especially furniture or anything heavy, normally we don't even allow it at all. But this is what I'm going to allow. You can put it in one of our groups and say, hey, I want to bring this to the spring swap. And if you have someone say, I will pick that up or I will take it that day, then you can bring that item. But only bring the item if you have an already agreed upon person that wants to take it because otherwise we won't have an easy way to get rid of any unwanted larger items. And so other than that, if you just bring small stuff, we have people that are willing to take that and kind of get rid of it. But larger items, if you do have any plans for something like that, please just put it in the group right before or pretty close to and make sure you have someone lined up that would like to take that for that particular day. The back has our prayer list. Please be in prayer for our church family. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements are concerned. We're going to sing Holy, Holy, Holy, our third song. All right, let's sing together Holy, Holy, Holy. Holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy holy, holy, holy, holy holy, holy, holy god almighty all thy works shall praise thy name in earth and sky and sea as the offering plates being passed around please turn to Colossians chapter 4 Colossians chapter 4 so the bible reads masters give unto your servants that which is just and equal knowing that ye also have a master in heaven continue in prayer and watching the same with thanksgiving with all praying also for us that god would open unto us a door of utterance to speak the mystery of christ for which i am also in bonds that i may make it manifest as i ought to speak walk in wisdom toward them that are without redeeming the time let your speech be always with grace seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man all my state shall declare unto you who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the lord whom i have sent unto you for the same purpose that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts with Onesimus a faithful and beloved brother who is one of you they shall make known unto you all the things which are done here Aristarchus my fellow prisoner saluteth you and Marcus sister's son to Barnabas touching whom ye received commandments if he come unto you receive him and jesus who is called justice who are of the circumcision they only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of god which have been a comfort unto me Epaphras who is one of you a servant of christ saluteth you always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of god for i bear him record that he hath a great zeal for you and them that are in Laodicea and them in Hierapolis Luke the beloved physician and Demas greet you salute the brethren which are in Laodicea and Nemphis and the church which is in his house and when this epistle is read among you cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans and that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea and say to Archippus take heed to the ministry which thou has received in the lord that thou fulfill it the salutation by my hand by the hand of me Paul remember my bonds grace be with you amen let's pray dear heavenly father thank you for the precious blood of christ and for salvation i ask you to open our understanding now to your word and please help pastor Shelley as he preaches it in jesus name amen i want to look at verse 17 in this chapter and say to Archippus take heed to the ministry which thou has received in the lord that thou fulfill it this is a pretty simple verse at the end of this epistle but i felt like it's a very profound truth and he's really trying to talk to a specific brother in Christ Archippus and he's telling him you've received a specific ministry you need to take heed make sure that you actually do your job make sure that you finish your job make sure that you're doing the ministry that you have received and i think so many of us we don't necessarily take seriously the ministry that has been given to us you know Archippus is not a main character in the bible he's not someone that's mentioned very much in the scriptures maybe some people think well i'm not the apostle Paul well you know who's also not the apostle Paul Archippus oh i'm not a pastor well i don't know that Archippus is well i'm not full time staff member at this church or something okay we don't know if Archippus is necessarily but you know what all of us have received a ministry all of us have been given the opportunity to preach the gospel and we're part of the ministry of reconciliation and we need to make sure that we take heed to whatever ministry we have received and that we fulfill it you know whether that be playing the piano whether that be song leading whether that be soul winning being a soul winning captain whether that be a soul winning lieutenant whether that be just a soul winner whether that be a husband a wife any of the things that we have we need to make sure the things that we received of God that we take them seriously and we finish the course now i'm emphasizing this because this is what we should do but here's the problem many people are not going to do what is being instructed and what i want to preach about this evening is this christian cancel culture christian cancel culture and unfortunately there's so many christians that participate in cancel culture and they don't fulfill the ministry that they've been given and by not fulfilling the ministry they've been given they actually affect other people greatly we need to be careful about the ministries we've been given because what we do affects other people now go view into john chapter six i want to prove this from a lot of places in the bible this evening but i kind of have three reasons why christians go down this dark path there's kind of three different categories i see when we talk about different people participating in this cancel culture and what is cancel culture well there's a lot of ideas out there you could look at things online essentially it's just pressure to cancel someone or cancel something cancel culture is the idea of to shut something down or to cause something to diminish in some way and many times people are participating in cancel culture albeit that may not be their direct response they may not say like i want to shut this down or i want this to stop but their attitude or their actions help foster a christian cancel culture and probably the number one way in which christians participate in cancel culture is by quitting and think about it when the world tries to exercise cancel culture what is their main goal their main goal is to find someone or find a ministry or find a business and say stop going there unsubscribe don't follow them don't listen to them they're basically trying to get you to quit on them that's what they're trying to do that is their goal that is what cancel culture is all about is to get people to quit on a particular individual or perhaps a business or you could really put anything in there in that category but a lot of people in the bible were active participants in christian cancel culture they were part of the problem and one of the main things that happens is christians quit and when they quit it's causing a cancel culture and we need to make sure that we are not those kind of people we want to be like archippus and take heed and not be a quitter now john chapter 6 look at verse 60 now verse 62 he's saying like what if you saw me go back to heaven that's important for the context of this chapter because john chapter 6 jesus makes it abundantly clear he came down from heaven and he calls himself the bread of life and he says that this is the bread that came down from heaven so he's commenting on his sermon specifically or on his teachings saying well what if i literally went up there would you still be offended he's saying you're offended at the idea of me telling you i came down from heaven what if you literally saw me go up to heaven or come down from heaven like what if you literally even saw it would that also offend you now he's wondering if they're offended ok and by saying in verse 62 and 63 what he says he's just doubling down he's not like oh this offends you i'll stop talking about that i'll stop preaching about that he just he just adds to it he's like well what if you just saw me go back up to heaven then you know not only did i say that i could i could just go up to heaven like he's not he's digging into his doctrine you know the right response when people are offended with the word of god is not to say like oh i'm sorry i'm not going to talk about the bible anymore say hey this is this is what the bible says why are you offended at the bible what if you know i did even more kind of like david's attitude when he's telling his wife like hey i'm going to dance and be even more vile in the future like i'm not going to stop dancing for the lord i'm not going to stop praising god just because you don't like it hey if your wife doesn't like you praising god well praise god anyways i mean that's what the bible says hey you don't like this preaching well i'm going to preach that way anyways now he says in verse 64 but there are some of you that believe not from that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him that is cancel culture many many of the disciples of jesus christ literally quit on him after preaching one of the most powerful sermons ever i mean jesus christ is making it abundantly clear that he's the bread which came down from heaven that he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him i mean john chapter number six is an amazing section of scripture that jesus christ preached to them audibly and i guarantee there is so much more to this sermon than just what's even read on this page i mean jesus christ said many things that we don't even have written and they literally quit on him and here's what i know if people are going to get up after the sermon and leave after jesus preaches one of the best sermons ever why would i ever think that people won't quit my church after i preach sermons i'll never preach a sermon as good as the one that jesus preached in john chapter six it'll never be that good and even the greatest sermon i could ever deliver whatever that was and however you would ever quantify that let's just say you could objectively say this sermon was the best sermon ever for some reason it wouldn't even surprise me if people literally quit the church because of that sermon you know what you shouldn't be surprised when people walk away from god or the things of god or church if they walked away from jesus like if they're literally leaving the word manifested and think about this i don't give y'all free food like he does we're not in the middle of the wilderness and i'm just giving you free bread i can't even heal any of you unless god by a miracle allows my prayers to come and intercede but like i can't just lay hands on you and recover like jesus was i've never gotten a guy that was blind and gave him sight i mean think about they're walking away from jesus christ folks if they're walking away from jesus christ don't be surprised when people walk away from church today from pastors today i don't care what pastor is it's like oh well if this is a good pastor then they wouldn't walk away no people walk away from jesus like it you shouldn't be surprised that people are going to quit when it comes to christianity in fact the longer you stay around the more you should never be surprised i mean if you've been in a church for a long period of time you see it change all the time people coming and going people coming and going and look it's not to say that these people are bad i'm not trying to be down on these people i just don't want you to have unrealistic expectations and think that this is shocking or surprising that people are coming and going you should expect it you should anticipate it and you need to expect it because if you don't it could affect you in a really negative way because when people quit it affects other people you want to know why many left because some started leaving and then just once you get a few people going it's just lots of people start going lots of people are going to be affected by a quitter go to john chapter 21 go to john chapter 21 you know this is what jesus said will you also go away hey after everybody left he looked at his 12 disciples hey are you going to quit too i mean what if literally 90% of the church just stood up and left right now you would feel pretty awkward like am i supposed to leave like you'd think like what do they know that i don't know but then here's the question it's like are you going to go away if 90% of the people or 98% of the people quit serving jesus christ are you going to go away also and what did peter say lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life it's like why would i give up on church i mean where else am i going to go like go to the cowboys game go watch march madness go start reading the book of the quran no one's going to do that just out of the sheer boredom i mean the thing is just complete trash no king james bible believing christian could ever read the book of quran without trying really hard like that is more difficult than virtually any other task it's just so boring i mean what are you going to do you could make more money you could go have some fun you could go sleep or whatever but it's like that's all vain oh will everybody else quit ok we'll let them quit peter's like hey where would we go that doesn't even make any sense thou hast the words of eternal life you know what church is the institution that jesus christ died for why would i walk away from church no matter how many people quit no matter how many people walked away and because we're a smaller church because we're a newer church we've definitely grown a lot every year i mean if you just look at the sheer number or just the quantity of people is actually seeing growth almost every year but i don't want you to think that that's always normal or always natural that a church is always going to be growing many times churches kind of ebb and flow and they could go through any stage at any period of time and it's not even necessarily indicative of how well the church is going because of the fact that let's look at many churches that are growing like a weed you know why they're growing because they're literally a weed and then sometimes a lawn needs to be cut and you know what it looks better after it's been cut and sometimes the lawn needs to grow and it looks better after it grows let's not sit here and wonder hey am i going to go to church because it's growing or shrinking or anything no no no no just go to church because that's the right thing to do hey the ministry that God's given you that you've received make sure you fulfill it it doesn't matter what anybody i mean none of us are going to probably ever have to go through what Jeremiah did where he's literally just by himself serving God and just a complete reprobate nation please God let us not turn into Jeremiah you know i don't want to be tested in that way i sure hope there's a lot more Christians that stay faithful to church and look there's thousands in this country it's not like we're even close to that but even if it happened you should say you know what i'm going to fulfill the ministry that God's given me i'm going to stick it out no matter what but when you quit it affects other people it hurts other people look at john chapter 21 look at verse 3 Simon Peter saith unto them i go fishing they say unto him we also go with thee notice after the death burial and resurrection well i guess in his mind you know he's you know not necessarily sure about all this but he at the same time you know the death burial and resurrection Peter kind of he faltered he stumbled he got backslidden in a sense like he thought he was willing to die with Christ he said though none go with thee he's like i'm going to die with you i mean that was Peter's attitude and then he denies Christ multiple times so he just gets super ashamed and i think just because of that sin or because of that issue he's just well i'm not going to serve God anymore so he just kind of quits and just now he's i'm going to go i'm going to just make money and i think that that's how it works for a lot of people i think that a lot of people it's not like they're just necessarily or just a bad person or whatever maybe they just get backslidden or they commit a sin or they do something embarrassing or they make a mistake or they have an issue and instead of just trying to like work on that issue or fix it or just embrace the mercy and grace offered to them they just decide to quit because they find that easier and then they just what's the one thing to focus on if you're not going to focus on church just making money right just go back to business just make money but you know when God's giving you a ministry to fulfill Peter it's not going to go that well i mean look what it says in verse 3 they went forth and entered into a ship immediately and that night they caught nothing oh you're going to make money Peter? have fun this makes me think of like some of us preachers that have gotten a lot of hate online it's like it'd be funny if it's like okay now I'm just going to quit church and quit pastoring I'm just going to try and make a lot of money and be popular with the world I've already ruined that like they're not going to like me they're going to be like weren't you that hate preacher? yeah we're not, bye you know it's like I could I have way more chance of doing well making money while staying serving God than if I just quit and just like hey I'm just going to focus on making money and catch nothing literally now again most people that go to our church or whatever they don't care at all I'm just saying like that's kind of funny, it's Peter it's not just like a random person or a random disciple of Jesus this was Peter the guy that literally cut off a Roman's ear this guy can't go back to the world hey you've been given a ministry Peter do that ministry do the work that God has given you be faithful no one forced you to be Peter but continue being Peter you decided to leave your father's business then leave it you know you made that decision get all the way in and focus on the ministry make sure that you're keeping the ministry the focus go to Numbers chapter 32 and notice when Peter quit other people quit too this is what you don't understand people will never understand is how you personally affect other people when you quit it affects other people I saw this video and it was a dad and he was just saying this is the reason why I work so hard and then he's like he's in his car and he's driving home and he gets to his garage his garage is going up his daughter is already standing in the garage waiting for him and he said every single day I come home she's waiting for me she's like 8 or 9 years old just a normal little girl and she's like hey daddy I'm glad you're home and he said the reason why I don't give up on life and the reason why I keep working hard is for that person right there and you know what why would I want to give up on life or get blackpilled on life there's so many people looking up to you and even if you didn't even have children just everybody has so many people in their lives that are looking to you and they like you and they're encouraged by you even young single guys in this room I guarantee that there's other young single guys in this room that look to you and like your example like your zeal and you're motivating other people people are excited to go to church and go soul winning and read the Bible because you're reading the Bible people are zealous they like the fact that you're steadfast they like that you have courage they like that you're in the fight and you know when you quit other people are discouraged and it affects them greatly I guarantee all of you don't realize the impact you have on other people you may think a little bit but I guarantee there's so many more people that are impacted by you and your presence than you give credit for and often myself I think of tons of people that I don't see like when I go to church and I'm thinking I want to see this person and then I'm a little bit disappointed that I didn't get to see them or that I haven't seen them or that they don't get to participate or that they're not there I'm always missing people and I wish I could see them now look at Numbers 32 now the children of Reuben the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle and when they saw the land of Jezer and the land of Gilead that behold the place was a place for cattle the children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses and to Eleazar the priest and unto the princes of the congregation saying Adoroth and Diabeneh and Jezer and Nimra and Heshbon and Eleali and Shemban and Nebo and Beon even the country which the Lord smote before the congregation of Israel is a land for cattle and thy servants have cattle oh it's just a perfect fit this is for cattle, we got cattle, hey wherefore said they, if we have found grace in thy sight let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession and bring us not over Jordan and Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben shall your brethren go to war and shall ye sit here and wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord have given them the word wherefore in the Bible means why why are you discouraging the heart of your brethren we're just going to go homesteading for a while we're just going to go and build a farm and just have fun and just relax you guys go fight the battle you guys go do the work of the Lord we are just going to build wealth and just enjoy and just have fun you know what, this is not the life this is the life to build and enjoy and to have fun this is the life to work and to work for the Lord and do the ministry of the Lord and to not discourage our brethren because if I just say you know what, nuts to Steadfast Baptist Church I could make more money putting more effort and energy to making money which again apart from God just like cursing me or not giving me favor I absolutely could make way more money if I put all my effort and energy into just making money I know how to make money I know how Jews and money and gold and real estate work I could make tons I know how business works I know how to make money other people know how to make money hey, that is not my goal in life your goal in life should not be to just see how wealthy you can possibly get now look, when I clock on at work when I have the work hat on maximize revenue there is nothing wrong with trying to earn as much as you can and do a great job but here is the thing, I take that hat off and I make sure that that is not the primary hat that I wear and I am putting on the ministry hat and I am putting on the thing that God has given me and I am making sure I am taking care of that as my main priority and we need to make sure that what we do is not discouraging the heart of the brethren this is a selfish attitude so many Christians are just selfish they only think about themselves they only think what is good for them they are not willing to be burdened for other people and you know what, sometimes you have to think about this going to church reading the Bible, going soul winning praying for people it is not about you, it is about other people and you know what, going into the promised land to fight the enemies was not necessarily always about you because you are not going to inherit all of it you are going to inherit a small portion of it but you know what, you are going to conquer tons of it for other people and you know what, church is a blessing to other people do not think about serving God as what you are going to only get out of it because then you just have that selfish bug and eventually you just find yourself on the other side of Jordan I am pretty sure cattle did fine in the promised land considering the fact that they were literally offering thousands and thousands of bullocks with Solomon I think that cattle did fine it was just an excuse it was just that they are lazy it was just that they were selfish and they were a quitter why do people quit on Jesus? because they are selfish they quit and they give up and what is the response? well, look at verse 8 when I sent them from Kadesh Barnea to see the land for when they went up under the valley of Eshkol and saw the land, they discouraged the heart of the children of Israel that they should not go into the land which the Lord had given them and the Lord's anger was kindled the same time and he swear saying, surely none of the men that came up out of Egypt from 20 years old and upward shall see the land which I swear unto Abraham unto Isaac and Jacob because they have not wholly followed me God got super mad at the children of Israel and he swear but not the swearing that everybody else is thinking hey, notice that the Lord swared you know what swearing means? making a promise not using four letter words folks, sorry, that's a different kind of anger that you were thinking about God swear that these people aren't going to enter in the promised land the only swearing the Bible talks about is promises now, look at verse 13 and the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel if we read the whole context and the whole chapter it's just God's super angry, super mad super frustrated God gets angry at people when they quit God gets mad at people for quitting why? because of how it affects other individuals when they want to quit, it affects other people when the spies went in the land and said nah, let's quit, let's not go in the promised land God got mad at them God gets mad when people are giving up, God is not pleased with Peter for giving up and not going out and catching I mean, Peter's an expert fisherman for him to not catch any fish it was an obvious sign from God saying like no, I'm not going to let you succeed when you're a quitter, I'm mad at you just like God didn't let the children of Israel enter the promised land and enjoy what? the blessing of the Lord and the prosperity of the land they had to wander in the wilderness it's the same when the fisherman gives up well, now God's not going to let you catch fish the way that you caught fish in the past but you know what? when you're doing the Lord's will, he'll bring in the promised land and you'll succeed in both areas of life you know, it's silly, it's like I want to succeed financially well, giving up on God is not the way I want to succeed financially look, the people that are succeeding financially are ungodly they are super wicked people they're not like backslidden Christians I never run into these backslidden Christians who are just like, man, I'm killing it you know, I I decided to give up on church and then I found it at Amazon you know, it's like, no that's not how it works okay, and look I'm sure that there could be some temporary success I'm sure maybe they have some a little bit of pleasure and everything like that but you know, many times people are going to thrive just as much or even better when they stay faithful to God don't think that like well I have to forsake God to succeed financially or in this world you don't have to, there's plenty of people in the Bible that succeeded just as financially as anybody ever Solomon, Job Abraham they didn't give up on God and then God made them the wealthiest men to ever live okay and God can give you great wealth God's not afraid to give wealth unto good people but you know what, those people were faithful to God and even Job he lost all of it and then he got it all back God may cause your finances to come and go the Apostle Paul talked about how he went through different times where he had a lot and then he didn't have very much different seasons of life but you know what, no matter what happens to us financially it shouldn't matter because our goal is to fulfill the ministry that we've been given and praise God, when I die my net worth doesn't come with me it's given my children and you know what, if I give my children a whole bunch of money or not any money it doesn't really matter it really doesn't matter and in fact, many times when parents give tons of money to their kids their kids end up being horrible people and I'm not against giving wealth to your children don't hear me wrong but we should be careful because giving money to your children can sometimes ruin them it would almost be better that they get it later in life after having worked really hard than giving them when they're really young or they haven't done anything or they haven't accomplished anything you know, I feel like I was very foolish as a young person if I had been given multimillion dollar trust at age 20 or 22, I guarantee I would have made some really bad decisions at that age even now, I'm not even saying that I'm wise enough to handle that kind of money today you know, probably better just get rid of most of it because money can corrupt people's minds and hearts and attitudes you know, what do I need money for? I already, we live in Texas we eat like kings like, the brisket's not gonna taste any better the steak isn't gonna taste any better, folks the steak isn't gonna taste any better I mean, I love ribs I feel like, when I make the ribs that I make I'm like, they're not gonna get any better, folks like, I've figured it out okay, my wife's rolls she's figured it out you give me millions and millions of dollars the rolls aren't gonna get any better the brisket and the ribs I mean, it's not gonna get any better yeah, could I have a bigger house? sure, but you know what? clean it now I don't wanna mow the lawn now yeah, you could, you could do I could do a few more things, I could maybe go on a few more trips but it's like, if you gave me endless amounts of wealth I mean nothing really needs to change I don't really need anymore that's why you look at these rich people and they have like, 40 cars it's like, what's the point? you just look at 39 of them I can go online and look at any car right now I can just go to the car dealership and I can just look at it too oh wow, that's a cool car you know, and they think like, I don't wanna drive it because then it'll bring the value down and I can wreck it you know, you live in Dallas it's not even that fun anyways, because traffic is terrible okay imagine you have this fancy sports car and then you have to go drive in traffic it's like, that's extra frustrating at least when you have a V4 you don't even care you're just like, whatever, I'm slamming the gas go fast, you know go over to 2 Timothy chapter 4 you know, quitting on God doesn't solve any problems for you it's just a selfish attitude and it's gonna make things worse in the long run, for sure and we as Christians we need to be careful that we're not participating in this cancel culture because here's the problem, when you quit not only are you hurting yourself you're gonna hurt other people in the long run we need to be careful what we do, because it affects a ton of people and this is found all over the Bible I'm just kind of focusing on some verses that talk about people giving up look what it says in 2 Timothy chapter 4 verse 10 for Demas hath forsaken me having loved this present world and has departed on the Thessalonica Cretans, Galatia, Titus, and Dalmatia here's some great guys there are probably some of the greatest Christians at the time that they were faithful there are probably people that you're thinking like this guy is really dedicated to the ministry but then he gave up it's sad it's sad, but you know what don't let it affect you if Demas forsakes you don't let it affect you when other people quit when other people give up in fact, look at the Apostle Paul in verse 16 at my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me hey, there could be times when literally no one's on your side now again, I don't think that we'll ever get to that extreme but we should anticipate if the Apostle Paul is being forsaken by every single person you know what, we should anticipate that there could be people that may quit or forsake us, but you know what let us fulfill our ministry don't be the person that just says well, if everybody else is going to quit I guess I'll quit too if everybody else gives up, then I'll give up no, no, no, you stay steadfast no, you fulfill the ministry that you've been given no, you don't go down that road look at chapter 1 2nd Timothy chapter 1 look at verse 15 the Bible says this thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me of whom are fight jealous and homogeneous it's so crazy to think about how the Apostle Paul is literally single-handedly founding Christianity all over the world and then towards the end of his ministry tons of people have turned against him I mean, tons of churches that he founded personally he's like got these people saved ministered to them, and loved them and done good unto them and they've turned away from him he's saying like a whole section, like a whole part of the country has turned away from him you know, it if it wasn't in the Bible it'd be hard to understand how it works sometimes but here's a practical application it's like Pastor Anderson has like single-handedly built people's churches and then the whole church has turned away from him it's like all of Florida is turned away from Pastor Anderson yet he like single-handedly almost built all these churches got people saved, got them plugged in got them zealous, got them into a specific church and then now they've turned against him and they don't even like they wouldn't even welcome him in the church they wouldn't even let him preach at the church and it's like he single-handedly was responsible for getting them to the place that they're at now again all the time people are ministered to multiple people, it's not like just one person individually I'm sure that every one of us and everybody in Florida and everybody in all these other places that they've had multiple people that have ministered to them and affected them positively but I'm just saying like many times there's a single person that had the biggest influence or was the kickstart or a major impact and it's so weird how people could literally turn against that individual but you see it but here's the thing that discourage you just because they quit on Paul doesn't mean you have to quit on Paul doesn't mean you have to dislike Paul doesn't mean that you have to have the same cancel culture and canceling Paul I mean it's like they're trying to cancel Paul Paul's the only reason they're even in church like the only reason you're saved and in church is because of Paul and then you're trying to cancel Paul now that's Christian cancel culture for you it's like Jesus Christ is the only reason that you're a disciple and doing these things and knowing all this and then they quit on Jesus they quit on Paul and look if they quit on Jesus and Paul you better believe people are going to quit on us because we're not either of those men we're not even close look at verse number 8 be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord nor of me as prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God hey, you don't be ashamed of the apostle Paul that's what he's saying hey Timothy, other people are ashamed of me but you don't be that way look at verse 16 so he's saying hey, when I went to jail this whole section of the world just turned on me and wants nothing to do with me but onosiferous it wasn't hey, God bless onosiferous God bless onosiferous God bless the one guy that didn't quit hey everybody quit, but onosiferous didn't you be the guy that refreshes the apostle Paul that's not ashamed you be like the Timothy and say like hey be a partaker of the affliction don't be a quitter don't turn off and many people will quit but then others here's the next group they won't necessarily quit, they just go soft so a lot of these people you could say they didn't really quit I mean they're still in church they're still going to this Asia church you know there's still people going to church in Florida they didn't quit but they went soft and by going soft they're participating in cancel culture go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12 you know we need to be careful that we also don't go soft and I think the reason why a lot of churches go soft the reason why I believe a lot of churches go soft it's because the pastor cannot handle his church shrinking the pastor cannot handle his church shrinking so what happens psychologically is the pastor says I need to tone down the preaching he thinks that he's preaching too hard or offending too many people and that's why people are leaving so he changes the preaching to try and build up his congregation bring in more people but what he does is he comes soft and then by the preaching getting soft and the pastor getting soft the congregation gets soft and then they start getting you know canceling the hard preaching they can't handle the hard preaching they can't handle the hard preachers anymore and again what is the difference between hard and soft hard is saying everything even the uncomfortable stuff soft is saying I only like the good I only like the comfortable many churches they believe all the Bible but they will only preach the comfortable parts of the Bible they'll also only preach things that won't really make you guys upset that much like that would upset the world that would upset a lot of people that aren't in church but they're like I don't really want to upset you guys for any reason the hard preacher says I'm going to upset you like my goal of the nice sermon I'm not going to make any fags mad this evening I'm not going to make the atheists mad this evening I want to make you mad this evening okay that's what a hard preacher and again it's not like his goal is just to make people mad just to make them mad he's saying you guys need this like I see something in the Bible I'm going to preach it yeah some people might not like that I'm going to preach anyways I'm just going to say what the Bible says anyways now here's another reason here's a reason why people get soft as well not only do they get soft because the preacher gets soft but sometimes it can also happen in another way where the leadership does too much the leadership does too much and I want to show you this 2nd Corinthians chapter 12 look at verse 13 for what is it wherein you are inferior to other churches except it be that I myself was not burdensome to you forgive me this wrong and this is interesting language the apostle Paul is trying to say to this church hey I did something that's kind of harmful to you guys and you know what was harmful to them he wasn't burdensome that sounds confusing he's thinking what do you mean he's saying like I didn't let you guys help me financially I didn't let I wasn't a burden to any of you I was just basically giving everything for free and just only being a blessing and only doing good unto you and somehow I wronged you now he says in verse 13 I'm sorry verse 14 behold the third time I am ready to come to you and I will not be burdensome to you for I seek not yours but you for the children ought not to lay up for the parents but the parents for the children and I will very gladly spend and be spent for you though the more abundantly I love you the less I be loved so here's what can happen is sometimes you love somebody so much or you do good unto somebody so much that you actually cause them to be soft you cause them to be soft because you're doing so much that they end up getting weak imagine if I went to the gym and I'm trying to help maybe my son's a teenager he's older I'm trying to help him lift weights and I give him some weight and he can't lift it or he struggles lifting it and so I just lift it for him or imagine hey you're going out to work out of the gym and you want to do some bench press and you say hey can you spot me and the spotter is just lifting the weight for you well here's the thing over time you're going to get weaker you're going to atrophy because you need to actually be pushed a little bit and do the work so that you get stronger and so sometimes if you do too much of someone else's job for them the more you love on them the weaker and the softer that they get and this can even be a weird thing in like marriage or in relationships that if you're doing too much for your spouse that they could actually grow a little bit of contempt for you like if men don't make their wives serve them their wives will actually not love them as much like you need to make sure that your wife is still serving you now again I'm all for husbands crossing the aisle on certain occasions and doing good hey help with the dishes some help with dinner some help clean some help with the kids some you know what do not take over her job do not take over her tasks and make sure that she's still doing her job because somehow for some reason it actually causes her to love you more and if you do too much she could get so soft or just get so used to it or so relaxed that now all of a sudden it's like she doesn't look at you the same and it's just this weird relationship this is what the red pill community talks about cause they always say like why do girls like the bad boy or like bad guys and here's one reason why that phenomenon sometimes exists is the fact that the guys treat them like trash and don't do anything for them and it causes them those women psychologically to feel like I have to do more to try and gain their attention or to win them over cause the guy that's literally spoon feeding them they have contempt towards them because they're thinking like I don't even do anything and you're just so over the top and again is that the right attitude no should you treat women like trash no that is not what I'm saying am I saying it's wrong to love people no but here's the thing sometimes you need to love people with tough love and sometimes you need to make sure that you're still making them do things hey your children don't do everything for them make them work hard make them put in effort don't just go over the top these parents I mean think about these celebrities and people they're like carrying their dogs around in purses and stuff the dog is going to forget how to walk it's not even going to be a dog anymore it's like hey if you want a wife make sure your wife is being a wife because if you take away the wife away from her then she'll stop being a wife and if you want your children to work hard and be strong and be manly don't be so easy on them don't do everything for them make sure that you are giving them proper opportunity to serve your wife and children are there to serve you you need to make them do labor and I worry sometimes even with church that if you baby the congregation too much and you do too much for them sometimes they go to resent it too and this is the worry I have a little bit with the new IFB is I sometimes worry that our style church or our church specifically we almost give so much stuff away for free like we give people so much stuff for free and free events and we bless people with a social life even if they don't have one and then people start to resent all of it and they don't even appreciate it anymore whereas other churches they're making their people pay for everything and work so hard for it and do all this labor and then sometimes they like it more and it's just like we need to be careful that we as a congregation don't start to resent people for loving us too much again it's not to say that the right attitude is like you're loving me too much so I can be a spoiled brat no we need to be careful that when people are doing good unto us that we don't become spoiled brats that we still appreciate the things that we've been given and we don't take them for granted the apostle Paul, taking him for granted, it's crazy go to 3rd John go to 3rd John you know John Mark was traveling with the apostle Paul and then he ended up quitting now I don't know why he quit maybe he just got a little soft I mean it's probably not a coincidence and then all of a sudden the apostle Paul just rips into Simon the sorcerer I'm sorry not Simon the sorcerer Eliamus and he just like curses him in the name of the lord and then all of a sudden John Mark just departs it's like oh John Mark you can't handle the reprobate doctrine bro oh did you not like Romans 1 there John Mark you got a little soft buddy now again I don't know why he quit maybe it was completely unrelated but it seems like it's plausible and likely that maybe he just couldn't handle the harsh sermon the mean sermon and look isn't that a lot of people they come to the church and they like the soul winning and then they hear the hard sermon and they're just like bye well I know it's in the Bible but I just don't like what he said I don't like how he said it it's just mean they're just mean spirited the apostle Paul was so mean spirited he called him a child of the devil he literally said to Eliamus thou child of the devil thou enemy of all righteousness and then he curses him in the name of the lord and he blinds him literally that was not a nice sermon that was not an experience where you're going to walk away and be like I think he likes this guy but you know what that was in the Bible you know people didn't like it when Jesus was rebuking the Pharisees they got nervous they're like hey you're offending them you're offending the lawyers you're offending us yeah you know Jesus wasn't YouTube safe okay why? because he preached against the Jews that's the number one offense okay Jesus was a Jew well not the way you think now we want to make sure that we don't go soft you know I've always thought this I don't want to look back at church like five years from now and think man the sermons were really hard back then oh wow I could never say that now in church like that would be embarrassing that would be kind of a shame if we ever got to that point you know I don't I don't want to grow just for the sake of growing I'm all for the church growing but you know what I would be more pleased if I look back in time and I say hey we used to be a little bigger but hey the sermons haven't gone soft at all than saying hey we got giant but I could never preach that I could never say that that is not my goal with this church it will never be my goal with this church and if someone ever threatened me like hey I'm going to leave this church because of this sermon or what you said I'll just preach it again because apparently it needs to be preached you know what we should care about the truth not anything else third John look at verse 9 I wrote unto the church but the atropies who love it to have the preeminence among them receiveth us not wherefore if I come I will remember his deeds which he did with parading against us with malicious words and not contenteth with neither did he himself receive the brethren and forbideth them that would and cast them out of the church look there are churches today that will not receive other Christians think about that like there are fundamental baptists that would not let other fundamental baptists go to their church like they agree on salvation they agree on baptism they agree on the King James Bible they agree on eternal security they agree on virtually almost every core doctrine oh but they're not pre-trebor oh but they don't think a bunch of anti-Christ Jews are God's chosen people like literally I was speaking to somebody and I was talking about you know other churches and he said yeah they'll probably never want to work with you or talk with you because of your different views and I'm like that's silly you know it's not like I have to go into their church and preach the synagogue of Satan or something now they need that preached but at the end of the day you know it's not like this is so funny about it it's not like they're preaching their version of that verse it's like you're so mad at me for preaching about that okay why don't you give us the really nice sugar coated version of the synagogue of Satan explain to us how we're wrong on that right? I mean if we're so wrong on these doctrines then why don't you point to all the verses that we're bringing up and give them as in good context well they're just they're soft that's the reason and because they're soft they won't receive other Christians there are churches out there that will cancel you because they're soft other churches today they'll cancel their pastors won't hang out with you they won't talk positively about you they won't even mention you because they're so soft we should never be soft because churches won't preach hard they can never let another person come in and preach hard because they're afraid of being outshined in their own church and let's just be real if I bring in another preacher and he preaches way better than me whatever that means or you resonate with his sermon way more or you like his preaching style more what is something that's likely an outcome of that? maybe you listen to another one of his sermons, right? I mean isn't it realistic to say if I brought in someone you've never heard and he preaches an amazing sermon that you really resonate with and you say wow I really like that you might listen to another one of his sermons you might go online and check him out and then you might even visit his church and in fact if he's such a great preacher some of you might even just move to his church eventually in the future that's a reality that's how real life works so you know what these people are terrified of? Pastor Steven Anderson coming in their church and preaching a sermon way better than they've ever preached before and then people are like I liked that sermon, I'm going to listen to another one and then they listen to another one and they say wow I really like that one too and then eventually life changes, circumstances they say I need to move I might move to Phoenix and those preachers, they're so terrified of losing their congregation and they're so soft they can't let a better preacher come into their church so that's why they have all these failing traveling evangelists come in and preach garbage sermons you know what I've never I've never had the traveling evangelists come in and think wow that's way better than my pastor it's like here's their regurgitated Kent Hovind presentation on how to get saved how to get saved it's like dude we're all saved or reprobate that's it like you're not going to get the reprobate saved in here okay with your just little powerpoint presentation and they just preach the exact same sermon over and over and look the pastor's not threatened by them because number one their church doesn't even exist they're on deportation on deputation it's like these people they're just doing nothing hibernation you're not going to follow the traveling evangelist to the next church he goes and hear the exact same sermon again I mean think about it the traveling evangelist preaches the exact same sermon 150 times you're not going to go follow him and literally listen to the exact same sermon 150 times so there's zero threat to them so that's why they love these guys coming in because number one they don't even care about preaching they don't even want to preach because they're soft let me say something I'm a pastor so I'm going to preach I'm not going to give up my pulpit two or three times a week to a traveling evangelist it's not going to happen that's weird it's weird when pastors don't want to preach why? because they've gone soft because they're afraid of the Bible and they're afraid of other preachers who are willing to preach the Bible why? because the Bible has power and they're afraid of that power and they're afraid of losing their influence and they become deotrophies and they just love the preeminence they just want to say oh look I have 500 people in my church oh yeah? well if you start letting them listen to another preacher you might lose them and they're terrified of that they're scared and they're scared of the fact that they teach false doctrine they're afraid that they've gone soft they're afraid when they see somebody that preaches hard and is pro-soul winning that it's going to cause them to lose power, influence, fame, and money and there's so many preachers that just care about money today they care about notoriety you know what? nuts to me if I refuse to have a preacher preach in my pulpit because he's better than me in fact in fact, this is my philosophy I have the exact opposite philosophy I constantly think like who is the absolute best preacher that I could possibly get to come preach for us? why wouldn't I? that makes no sense and you know if half my church says we're going to all follow that guy because he's better and he's doing more for God praise God he must increase but I must decrease my goal in life is not to see how many people follow me but to see how many people follow Christ and if there's a preacher out there that's better than me and you're going to be more blessed by him who am I to stand in your way? who am I to stand in the way of truth? who am I to stand in the way of somebody getting their marriage right or getting soul winning right or getting on fire for God to literally get so envious of other preachers to say like I'm going to cancel you you know why they're canceling other preachers? because they're afraid of them and because they're soft stop being soft and be hard hey if you're not a good preacher become a better preacher don't cancel the good preachers you're hurting your congregation hey we got the apostle Paul and Peter and John in the audience but we're not going to let them preach look if you had apostle Paul bring him in the pulpit I'll sit down and shut up like who am I to get here it's just it's ridiculous go if you went to Judges chapter 15 not only that they've gotten so soft that these preachers they literally rejoice when anything negative happens to good preachers you lose a YouTube channel and they're like giddy about it they're like excited oh I'm so glad that Pastor Jason got bad at YouTube or the Baptist bias is gone I'm going to make a video celebrating what's wrong with you like you're so soft and why are you so excited to participate in Christian cancel culture you're such an envious dork you know why you're not canceled on YouTube because you're a dork because literally no one watches your sermons no one can even find them like the reason why your channel can't get deleted is because no one can even find it to find you you're a dork and the reason why you can't get deleted is because no one can even find it to delete it I mean the algorithm is so hard now to find any content I mean your one view wasn't affecting anybody and it's like I'm just so glad that they've been taken off well look I could start a YouTube channel tomorrow and tell no one and get more views still but then it would eventually get deleted and you'd be so excited again but you know what I'm being such an envious dork why would I want to be a Christian that just my whole life is just being envious of other Christians and there's certain Christians out there there's certain pastors out there there are pastors out there that they have YouTube channels dedicated just to mocking the new IFB it's like really of all the problems in the world the new IFB is the worst like why in the world would you just be hyper focused like I'm talking about Christian pastors that believe the same on us they believe salvation by faith they believe in eternal security they believe in King James Bible they're just dedicated and making videos attacking us and then this is the vast majority of their videos oh these people are constantly attacking people we need that meme where this guy's like looking with his eyes like what do you mean that's all you're doing you're constantly attacking Christians you're attacking them constantly to prove how I'm not like that you're a giant hypocrite and a dork and you're just envious but why does he do it he's literally trying to cancel he wants you to not follow not subscribe, not get plugged in you know what, that's silly if there's a pastor out there that I didn't like personally but he's saved and people are following him and being blessed by his ministry he cursed him why should I want you know, it's like I don't want that for people there's been preachers that I've felt like I need to separate from or I've even called out at times but I've noticed, hey look, they have the right gospel they're reaching people I want them to be successful and there's people in all kinds of parts of this country in this world that I'm not going to reach personally why would I want them to not reach them it's silly it's not like I personally have to get everybody saved or doesn't count or you're a church or something it's just such a bad attitude to participate in this Christian cancel culture and here's the third group, number one group is quitters, number two group is the soft people and here's the third group is the cowards there are a lot of cowards out there today that are participating in cancel culture look at Judges chapter 15 and look at verse number 8 and he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Edom so this is Samson he just wins a great battle against the Philistines who are the Lord's enemies verse 9, then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi and the men of Judah said, why are you come up against us and they answered, to bind Samson are we come up to do to him as he had done to us then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Edom and said to Samson knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us what is this that thou has done unto us and he said unto them as they did unto me so have I done unto them and they said unto them we are come down to bind thee that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines and Samson said unto them swear unto me that you will not fall upon me yourselves and they spake unto them saying no but we will bind thee fast and deliver thee into their hand but surely we will not kill thee and they bound him with two new cords and brought him up from the rock this is so sad Samson is their greatest hero Samson is their number one hero he's fighting their enemies he wins a great battle against their enemies and then three thousand of them come and tie them up and give them over to the enemies don't you know that the Jews are our rulers? oh I'm sorry Philistines oh what happens? you preach a great sermon against the Jews that's biblical and then oh the Jews are going to come after your church if you invite this guy to preach for you so they'll just bind you up and deliver you over to them and say hey don't you know the Jews are the rulers over us? yeah but they're my enemy they're the enemy of the Lord why didn't they say Samson they're coming for us join us we're going to fight them we're going to lead the charge why didn't they say I mean he's unstoppable Samson is literally unstoppable he's going to kill a thousand people with a jawbone and ass right after this just think if all three thousand of them joined him they could have just defeated all the Philistines but instead they participate in cancer culture and they say hey I know this is the greatest Christian we have this is the greatest warrior we have this is the greatest fire we have but you know what? we're too much of a coward to fight that's the enemy that is the type of Christianity that we have in the world and look I wish it didn't exist but let me tell you something it exists our country is filled with quitters it's filled with soft people and it's filled with cowards today and you know what? we need some real men some real steadfast Christians who are not going to succumb to the pressures of this world and they're going to say you know what? I'm not going to quit I'm not going to go soft and you know what? I'm willing to fight the Lord's enemies because it's so frustrating how virtually no church will do anything with Steadfast Baptist Church it's so frustrating that churches will say yeah we'll hang out with you yeah you can come participate with us you can do stuff with us and then you make a video saying oh sorry no we can't really do that anymore oh no we don't want to hang out with you anymore I've scheduled and booked preachers and pastors to come preach for us they're all fine they're great then I make a public video about it oh I can't come preach for you now all the time it's ridiculous not only that then they'll slander you too so many Christians they'll just slander you and they'll say evil things about you and they'll attack you and let me tell you something if you're serving God don't think that you won't get slandered don't think that people won't just come out of the woodwork and betray I mean this is betrayal from his closest friends his closest kindred his brethren, his friends I mean 3,000 of them come out of the woodwork to literally tie him up and hand him over to the enemy Christians that would literally tie you up and hand you over to the enemy if they feel threatened I I hate to say this but I guarantee that if literally sodomites came and destroyed our church there would be many Baptists that would say well they deserved it I mean they were fighting with them they deserve or if they said hey you know what we're going to have to take away your building you're going to have to go through lawsuits we're going to have protesters come and protest your church or you can sign this document and we'll put everybody in steadfast in jail I wonder how many churches would sign that document I wonder how many churches would be willing to have some protesters and look that's what they're afraid of oh why won't you do anything with steadfast they're afraid that protesters might show up they're afraid that maybe they could get a lawsuit they're afraid of what persecution and they're a coward and they won't fight the Philistines and so you know what if they won't fight then no one gets to fight well you know what nuts to you because I'm going to still fight and even if you bind me and tie me up and say you can't do it well you know what I'll find another way to fight I'll just get the jawbone of an ass because you know what I'm a steadfast Bible believing Christian and I'm not going to quit because you quit I'm not going to give up because you got soft and you know what I'm not going to quit because you quit well no one's going soul winning well nuts to you I'm going to go soul winning well we're not going to use the KJ's Bible anymore well we're going to use it well my wife's going to put on pants my wife isn't well I make all the meals for my wife well my wife's making meals for me well all my kids wear lavender well my kids aren't it's Easter ok go for it buddy you know what we need to stop being so soft and stop being so effeminate and stop being so cowardly and stop just quitting on everything and quitting on everyone hey Archippus you need to take heed to the ministry that you've received and thou fulfill it do the job that you've been given well I'm not the pastor neither is Archippus ok but you know what you need to take seriously the job that you've been given the ministry that you've been given I'm so sick and tired of Christian cancel culture you know what makes me more mad than YouTube cancelling my channel or deleting it is when Christians cancel on us when pastors cancel on us when Christians quit you know what it didn't even hurt my heart at all when YouTube deleted my channel in comparison to when someone decides not to go to church anymore you know what I pastor a New Testament local church I'm not in it to just make an online ministry now I do some of the extras because I want to try and reach people and bring more people in and I'm all for going to the world and contending for the faith but you know what if I lost all the internet I'm still going to pastor this church I'm still going to go and knock on these doors I'm still going to try and love the people in this room and you know what the more I love sometimes the less I'm loved but you know what my goal is not to see how much of a popularity contest I can win I've already lost okay I'm not in it for that go to Luke chapter 6 but let's make sure that we don't have this attitude when others quit we don't quit we encourage them to come back hey John Mark get back in the fight and you know what sometimes it works sometimes John Marks get back in the fight and you know what there's no there's no shame in coming back the only shame is in staying quitting no one is mad at you for coming back people are mad at you for not coming back and you know what get harder hey you got a little soft start working out start doing some work start putting in some effort get tough again say like hey I didn't like that sermon but I needed it and don't be a coward cowards accomplish nothing cowards accomplish nothing cowards accomplish nothing nothing has ever been built or successfully sustained through cowardice oh well I'm trying to preserve my life you know what there's a reason why pre-defense does not win in football games there's a bunch of cowards you know it's like they're trying to lose the game on purpose and they usually do it's like hey in Christianity let's not play pre-vent defense sorry if you don't know football it's basically where they stop playing real defense and they just like stand way back and they even let the other team catch the ball on purpose and they're just hoping that maybe they'll tackle them and they just won't score but usually by being so soft on defense and not really playing and just trying to back off a little bit it actually makes it way easier for them to really score sometimes a good defense is a good offense and when it comes to Christianity we should never get off the pedal we need to keep fighting keep pressing keep pushing and I don't want you to ever have this attitude I hate this attitude God hates this attitude hoping that people that we personally don't like get canceled we need to stop Christian cancel culture we should be willing to like other Christians that we don't like how does that make sense well you know what this is what the Bible says rejoice not when thine enemy falleth and let not thine heart be glad when he stumble you know woe to the Christians who are excited when we lose a YouTube channel God doesn't like that you know if I heard that a church that I don't like or a pastor I don't like like they lost members I'm not like of course he deserves that I'm thinking like man that's sad I hope that those people come back or you know I hope that person stays encouraged and keeps fighting the good fight of faith like I don't want bad things to happen to Christians just because they make a mistake or do something wrong you know we should have a charitable attitude we should pray that God will be merciful and gracious to Christians when they sin or do wrong not hope that bad happens to them not just say like well he was a jerk so I guess he deserves it it's a wrong attitude we should always hope for good even for our enemies Jesus literally said to love your enemies how in the world are Christians loving their enemies when they're canceling their own brethren they're binding up their own brethren but you know if it happens to us you shouldn't be surprised no one in this room has an excuse of being surprised you should recognize people will quit five years from now this room if it happens to that it's probably more likely it'll be somewhere else wherever we find ourselves it'll look different people are gonna come and go people that you think are steadfast won't be that steadfast people that you didn't think were steadfast will be steadfast sometimes you're thinking like you're still here I thought you were gonna quit during the sermon like I can't believe you're still here like how are you doing this there have been people that have greatly surprised me in every category there are people that are still going to church and I'm thinking like wow I thought you were gonna be the first to go and then there was people that I'm thinking like wow I never thought that would happen you know people are gonna surprise you demon surprises you you're just like okay Judas surprises people there's gonna be all kinds of different surprises you know what, we shouldn't be surprised think it not strange okay but look at this, Luke chapter 6 verse 22 we're gonna finish here blessed are ye when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall approach you and cast out your name as evil for the son of man's sake you know what, here's the positive news about the cancel culture you're blessed but we should not be the ones participating in it let us not be the ones who cancel let us not be the ones who quit on other Christians let us not be the ones who go soft on the doctrines of the Bible let us not be the ones to rejoice when our enemy stumbles and to be such a coward to not fight for Christianity to not fight for the Bible, to not fight for truth and to fight for freedom we're losing so much freedom in this country we're turning into a communist hellhole how in the world are you helping anything by piling on to Christian cancel culture it's insane let us never be like that this has always been my philosophy let them walk away from you but don't walk away from them always, we should always be reaching out and trying, you know again there are principles where we separate there are times when we exercise church discipline there are some of these things but most of the time it's us trying to say look, I want to be there, I want to be with you I want to hang out, you've got to make a change though change this but it's not like hey I'm just going to walk away from you hey I'm just going to ban you, hey I'm going to quit on you hey I want you to cancel, hey I hope bad happens to you you know what, that's an ungodly attitude and let us not be that way let us be the Christians that are steadfast you know what the opposite of soft is? steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord let it be said of us 5 years, 10 years, 50 years when we're in eternity in heaven 10,000 years from now hey, that guy never quit that guy never got soft that guy was never a coward let us close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us the word of God for giving us such a great example I pray that we wouldn't have people get offended by people who get soft or quit or who just are a coward I pray that people that do these things people that do quit or give up on church or give up reading the Bible or give up soul wedding that we could encourage them that we could come alongside them and bless them and get them to come back to the service of the Lord I pray that people who get soft through the word of God and through good preaching to become more zealous and steadfast and I pray that people who are cowardly or kind of afraid that we get emboldened in them and help them realize that you're on our side there's no reason to be afraid there's no reason to quiver there's no reason to not fight but rather we can encourage them to fight and I pray that when people are falling by beside us I pray that these attributes that wouldn't affect us, that we would dig in closer to the Lord, we'd encourage ourselves in the Lord and we would keep battling in Jesus' name we pray, Amen Alright, for our final song, let's turn to 143 Blessed Assurance 143 Blessed Assurance Song 143 Blessed Assurance Blessed Assurance Jesus is mine Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine Heir of salvation purges of God Born of His Spirit washed in His blood This is my glory This is my glory This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my glory This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long Perfect salvation Perfect visions of rapture the first of my sight angels who send me away from above echoes of mercy with prayers of love This is my glory This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my glory This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long Perfect salvation all is at rest I am my Savior and happy and blessed watching and waiting will be the blood filled with His goodness lost in His love This is my glory This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my glory This is my song Praising my Savior all the day long This is my glory This is my glory This is my glory This is my glory This is my glory This is my glory This is my glory