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

keep paying for another moment. Yeah, it's going to be a really hard moment. It's going to be a really hard moment. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right, good morning, everyone. Welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you would, turn to your first song, to song number 424. That's song number 424, O Come All You Faithful. Song number 424, O Come All You Faithful. Thank you. On the first. O come all ye faithful, joyful and child of God. O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and be holy, born by King of Angels. O come let us adore, O come let us adore. O come let us adore, O come let us adore. O come all ye faithful, 424 on the second. Sing, O come all ye faithful, truthful and child of God. Come and be holy, born by King of Angels. Sing, O come let us adore, O come let us adore. Come and be holy, born by King of Angels. Al chambei as adorn Him, O chambei as adorn Him, Christ the Lord! Yea, your victory is born this happy morning, Jesus, to thee we are born! Word of the Father, now in flesh appeared, O come, let us adorn Him, O come, let us adorn Him, O come, let us adorn Him, Christ the Lord! As we assemble together that we can glorify as we worship your name, may you bless the service and fill past your shelter with the Holy Spirit, so you can preach your word to us in Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, for the next song, song number 426, on the next page, 426, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. That's song number 426, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day. They're both familiar carols play, and wild and sweet the birds bring me, a peace on earth with little to pay. I thought how as the day had come, the bell-freeze of old Christ in them, had rolled along the broken sun, the peace on earth will fill to Him. When He was there, I laughed my head, there is no peace on earth except for Him, who strong and wise for some, the peace on earth will fill to Him. And will the bells for loud and deep, God is not dead, nor doth He sleep, the wrongs shall may the strike prevail, with peace on earth, the fills to pay. They'll ring Him singing on His way, the world we call from night to day, the boy's sunshine a chance of mine, the peace on earth will fill to Him. Good morning, thank you so much for being in St. Vast Baptist Church. If you don't already have a bulletin, lift your hand nice and high, one of our ushers can come by and get you a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory passage, John chapter one, we're doing the entire chapter, and we're on verse number four. On the inside we have our service, and so many times we have a morning service at 10.30, we have a Spanish service on Sundays at 4.30, the entire service, the singing and the preaching is in Spanish. Also following right after we have our Sunday evening service at 5.30, we have a Wednesday evening service at 7, it is our Bible study, and so we've been going through the book of Genesis, and we're getting into some of the exciting portions of Joseph, and so I'd highly encourage you to participate in our Wednesday services as well. Down below we have our church soul winning times, and our regional soul winning times. Church wide meet here at the building, so if you'd like to participate in any of those, all you have to do is come to the building at the designated time. There is other soul winning times that meet throughout the week, in other parts or areas of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro, and so if you'd like to participate in those, just see the respective leaders that are listed there. We also have our church stats, and one fun thing to note is that we're getting really close to breaking last year's record, and so we need everybody to just really push in these last few weeks here in December to really push ourselves and to try and exceed some of the numbers we had from the previous years, and I think that we can do it, so if everybody continues to participate and really push themselves for soul winning the last few weeks, I think that we can see some of the best numbers we've ever had as a church. On the right we have our expecting ladies. Continue to pray for them. We also have our prayer list, and if you have any additional prayer requests, please submit those via our email address, and we'd love to put that in the bulletin so you can have everybody be praying for you. Down below, we have a little recap from our most recent missions trip. We actually had people travel down on Wednesday, and then all the way until Saturday they were in Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico, which is pretty much the southern tip of Texas. It's all the way down there at the bottom, and it was a great trip. I participated too. I went down there Thursday. I flew out Wednesday night, was there all day Thursday, Friday, and then Saturday morning, and we flew in Saturday night, me and some other people as well, and man, it was excellent. It was an amazing trip. Everything went really well, and so I really appreciate all the prayers and everybody wishing us favor from the Lord during this trip because pretty much everything went perfectly. I even forgot my passport, but they encouraged me that the driver's license would work, and it did. So praise the Lord on that. I still went into Mexico for those few days, and I'm still back in the States, all right? Otherwise, we'd have a La Iglesia Batista Matamoros. No, I'm just kidding, but it went awesome, and really, you know, it's really hard to articulate what soul winning is like in a foreign country until you experience it just because the people down there are so much more receptive. They're willing to listen, a lot more respectful towards soul winning in general, and being in Matamoros was really great. Because of COVID, it's not nearly as populated as far as people just walking around in the streets and people everywhere as it would normally be, but there was still more than enough for all of us soul winners to constantly get people saved, and even though I would say there was probably a lot less people out, it still didn't affect our soul winning because we still saw a lot of people saved. It was very receptive down there. Again, I highly encourage you, if you ever are able to participate in one of these trips, you really need to do it. Also, another good news is that I think I found my new favorite restaurant in the world. So, La Canza Yeria is very good. This restaurant we went to, it's even better than La Fogada. So, man, it was just an epic trip. I'm sure that we'll return, you know, God willing. Reynoso is great too. I mean, really, it's hard to choose between the two because they both have a lot of pros. They're both excellent areas. I did do some soul winning in Brownsville, okay, and I couldn't get anybody saved. I got one person saved, and they only spoke Spanish, and they're from Matamoros. So, I'm just telling you, like, now some people did stay in Brownsville, and they got some people saved, but it really, Brownsville wasn't much different than maybe soul winning here, but what's really different is going across the border, and what's cool about Matamoros and Brownsville is, like, literally, you cross the border, and it doesn't even feel like you switch towns. It's kind of like just going from, like, Hearst to, you know, Euless or Bedford or whatever. Obviously, you've got the security there, but, like, really, the cities run into one another. So, as soon as you cross the border, you just go from one town to the next. I mean, you see the McDonald's from the one side, and then you come over, and you see Garcia's on the other side, all right? So, it's just kind of like, it's just right next to each other, and it takes a little while to cross. It takes about an hour sometimes to get back, but to go into Mexico is easy. I mean, they're just like, come on in, you know? So, I mean, I highly encourage you to ever get an opportunity to go into one of these foreign countries and go soul winning. It's really fun. I felt safe the whole time. It didn't seem dangerous whatsoever any more than going downtown Dallas or something, you know? And so, it was a lot of excitement to be down there. People down there were real hungry for the word of God. I had one guy kind of get mad at me that I wasn't planning a church. I mean, I got him saved, and he's like, where's my church? And I'm like, well, he's like, I said, well, we have one in Texas, and he's like, I can't go to Texas. He's like, I work here. I live here. You know, I want to go to a church here. And unfortunately, I think for a lot of Christians, I was told this, and it makes sense. A lot of them have to travel across the border to even go to a Christian church, just because there's just not really hardly any option outside of the Catholic church in Mexico and these areas. And so, you know, God willing, some person someday will get zealous for, you know, church planning and for evangelism and would want to, you know, maybe plant a church down in Brownsville, maybe have services in Matamoros, or maybe plant a church in Matamoros and Reynoso or one of these Mexican areas, because, I mean, there's so many people. They're really hungry for the word of God. They really need the word of God. And so, I'd really encourage you to participate in those types of trips if you can. On the back, we have a list of upcoming events. The 14th, this Tuesday's Christmas caroling, 5.30. Be here. Afterwards, we'll have a pizza fellowship. The 17th, we have the ladies' Christmas party. That's this Friday, 6 to 9. The Saturday following of a baby shower. The 19th, we have our church yearbook pictures make-up day. And we're going to harass you if you didn't get your pictures, okay? So just this is your fair warning, all right? So just go ahead and sign up, so then you don't have to get harassed. Also, on the 22nd, we have a candlelight service. And if you bake off the 31st, we have the New Year's Eve party. For some details on the ladies' Christmas party, again, it's going to be catered. If you'd like to participate in the gift exchange, please contact my wife, either via Facebook or text. Or if you don't even have either of those, you could just email the church, and she'll contact you. And so, just get in touch with her, and she can give you that information. It is nurselings only. So you guys need to step up to the plate, help your wives enjoy a nice evening this Friday. Baby shower is on the Saturday following, December 18th, in honor of Megan Wood and her baby girl. She's registered at Bye Bye Baby. It's from 12.30 to 2.30. If you're able to bring just a dish to share, there's going to just be a potluck of, I guess, food and desserts. Also, it's nurselings only preferred. So if you can't leave the kids at home, you can still bring them, but we do prefer that way that the ladies can enjoy as much as possible. That's pretty much all that I had for announcements. Last week, I was in Houston and was there at Pure Words, and everything went really great. We did our Christmas caroling down there and had a lot of fun down there. And so, the church down there is doing great. Continue to pray for them and for our church plants. With that, let's go to our third song for this morning. We're going to go to song 145. It is Well With My Soul, 145. 145, It Is Well With My Soul. Song number 145. Whatever thou art, thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. With my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul. Though saints should love them, though trials should come, When faith is blessed, the sure is control. And blessed be God, my helpless is saved, And my ship is on board my sword. It is well, it is well with my soul. With my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul. I see no resistance from this glorious heart, I say not in part, but the whole. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, oh my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. With my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul. And, Lord, face the day when my great age shall be signed. The clouds behold back as a storm, The judge shall resound, and the Lord shall resend. It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul. With my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul. The Bible reads, this is a true saying, If a man desireth the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, Vigilant, sober, of good behavior, Given to hospitality, apt to teach, Not given to wine, no striker, Not greedy a filthy lucre, but patient, Not a brawler, not covetous, One that ruleth well his own house, Having his children in subjection with all gravity. For if a man know not how to rule his own house, How shall he take care of the church of God? Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride He fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them which are without, Lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Likewise must the deacons be grave, Not double-tongued, not given to much wine, Not greedy a filthy lucre, Holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved, Then let them use the office of a deacon, Being found blameless. Even so must their wives be grave, Not slanderers, sober, Faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, Ruling their children and their own houses well. For they that have used the office of a deacon well Purchase to themselves a good degree, And great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus. These things write I unto thee, Hoping to come unto thee shortly. But if I tarry long that thou mayest know How thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, Which is the church of the living God, The pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy, Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached unto the Gentiles, Believed on in the world, Received up into glory. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. Brother God, I just pray now that you would fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit And help him to preach his sermon for us with boldness, Give him clarity of mind, Lord, And also help us to pay close attention to this sermon So that we can learn from it, But also apply it to our Christian lives and make ourselves better. We thank you so much for this church and pray that you protect it from its enemies. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Amen. Let's look back at verse 15, the Bible reads, But if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, Which is the church of the living God, The pillar and ground of the truth. And we have here a real clear statement about the rules or the instructions given in chapter number three Are related to behavior and specifically in the house of God which we would know as church. And so the title of my sermon this morning is this, How to Behave in Church. How to Behave in Church. And this sermon is going to be a very practical sermon, Meaning that I'm not necessarily going to go through and do a lot of deep Bible study, But rather I'm going to take a lot of the clear teachings of the Bible And try to make them as practical and as applicable as possible. Now when you make a sermon real practical and real applicable, It makes people really uncomfortable. But sometimes it helps just to bring clarity to a specific issue, Or to help people understand how to behave themselves. And something we have to realize is a lot of people don't grow up in church, Especially in our church. A lot of people maybe weren't raised in a church, They didn't grow up with parents teaching them a lot of rules, A lot of instructions. And so a lot of times people's behavior is poor mostly because they're just ignorant. They just don't really understand how to behave themselves, Or they've never been taught or no one's ever given them really clear instructions or rules. And so the goal of the sermon this morning is really just to help educate people, And to help bring clarity as far as how you should behave yourself in church. And someone's going to say, Pastor Shelley wrote this sermon for me, And the answer is yes. Yes, every point is for you, okay? So if you come up and you say, Is that point about me? You already know the answer. You don't even have to ask that question, okay? And again, the point of a sermon like this is for us to all get better. No one's perfect. No one's arrived. No one is without mistake or error. And really this is just to help our church be the best that it possibly can be. And when you look at the qualifications in chapter number three, They're for a pastor and for a deacon. What we have to realize is that these qualifications are just a good example for every Christian. You know, it's not saying like only the pastors should exhibit these behaviors and attitudes. It's not saying only the deacon should. It's saying that those two men have to behave themselves in church. Ergo, this is what behavior in church should look like. This is what people should do and act like. And basically this is the same attitudes and the things that we should find in the house of God. Not just among the pastors and the deacons, but among all men that are striving to be a godly husband, a godly father, you know, godly women, godly mothers, godly children. If we want to be like that, then we have to adhere to the standards that are being set forth in the word of God. It's not rules for the pastor, it's rules for everyone. Again, obviously a pastor can't be in violation of all these statutes and then be a good pastor. Obviously the pastor has to meet these requirements and these qualifications, but it's for every single person to model and to look at. So let's look at some of these things. Look at verse number two again. A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach. Now there's a lot of great ones here. Let's first start with apt to teach. Okay, what does it mean to be apt to teach? Basically it's having a high aptitude. You know, you think the word apt is an ability, they have a capability of teaching. One thing that's important in order to be able to teach someone is the fact that you already know. You can't really teach something that you're not aware of, that you have no experience, no education in regards to. It makes me think of when I went to college, I got a bachelor's degree in management. And I started to realize when I was about to graduate and was looking for positions to hire or jobs, no one was going to hire a manager that had no experience in any industry. You know, it didn't matter what industry I wanted to go into, they weren't going to put someone in the position of a manager when they don't even know anything about that industry. They've never worked in that company whatsoever. No, they're going to put someone in the position of a management whenever they've actually worked there, they know the job, they know the company, they know the rules. They've basically been instructed and learned, now they can teach others. You know, a position of management is one who's managing others, teaching others, educating others. It makes no sense whatsoever to put someone in a position of leadership or management when they themselves are ignorant of all the different job duties, tasks, and responsibilities that go into that particular job. The same is true in Christianity in the sense that you don't want to put someone in a position of leadership, instruction, a pastor, or a teacher when they don't know anything about the Bible. That's why it's so important that they actually learn and study the Bible themselves. And so the good behavior of men in our church should be ones who actually learn a lot of the Bible, are knowledgeable about the Word of God, so that they can teach others. So they have the ability to teach others, you know, just like soul winning. We want people that are already saved to preach the gospel. Otherwise, you're not going to get anybody saved. If you don't even know how to get saved yourself, how are you going to get others saved, right? And in the same area, if you want your wife and you want your children and you want those in your life that you have influence over to be godly, you have to first learn how to be godly for yourself. You have to first learn the Word of God and teach yourself so that you're able to teach others. Now, as we talk about as it relates to the house of God, how does this make sense? Well, it's really important that when you show up at church, you pay attention. I don't know if that's like rocket science or something like that, but it would make sense that if you're going to spend an hour here or an hour and a half here, however long it is, that you would actually get something out of the service, right? It's kind of pointless and vain to just show up and just be daydreaming or taking a nap or, you know, thinking about looking at stuff on your phone, wondering when the football game is going to start, you know, thinking about food. I mean, it makes really no sense to show up at church and not actually pay attention. And, you know, one of the best ways to pay attention is to actually have a Bible in your hand and turn all the places that we're looking at this morning. You know, it's weird when guys show up and they don't even have a Bible in their hand. I mean, they don't even want to look at what the Bible actually has to say. If you really want to learn the material, if you really want to get closer to God, it's really important that the men would have a Bible in hand, they're paying attention, they're looking at the Word of God throughout the sermon so they can actually gain from the preaching. You know, the point of preaching is to help you draw closer to the Lord and to learn the Word of God and to be able to study the Bible better and to put things, you know, into practice. And so it's important that you pay attention, that you're looking at the Word of God. And let's get real specific, let's get real practical. And I'll be honest, when it comes to a family unit, the person that needs to pay attention the most is the father, is the husband, you know. Now, I'm not trying to downgrade women, I'm not trying to say that women shouldn't be paying attention. I hope that every woman pays attention to every single word that comes out of the preacher's lips, okay. Every single service, that would be wonderful. But if I have to pick, I'm going to pick that the dad is the one that pays attention the most, the one that's the least distracted throughout the service. And you know what, we're a family integrated church. So here's the thing, I sat through a church that was family integrated and I had lots of children. I have lots of children, okay, and I've had lots of young children. And you know what, while I would sit there, as long as I could hold a child or, you know, help with the children and it's not causing me to be distracted from the sermon, I think that's great. And I think that men should, you know, help with their children and, you know, hold the children. You know, the Bible talks about Moses saying that I bear all these children and being like a nurse, you know, a father that carries, buries a nursing suckling child through the wilderness, meaning that men should carry their little babies. Even though they're not the ones that, you know, give them the milk that they need, you know, they should still bear that burden of a child, hold their children, you know, admonish their children, all these different things. But at the same time, if my child is being a complete distraction, it'd be better if my wife can deal with it than me. And I'm just telling you, you know, ideally, obviously there's going to be exceptions, obviously nothing's perfect and, you know, men should be willing to help. But to me, the Bible is making it really clear that the men are in charge of the home, they're the ones that are responsible for the spiritual matters of the house and so men should be afforded the opportunity to pay as much attention to the service as possible and if your wife misses something, guess who can fill her in after the service? The husband. Now this is biblical, keep your finger here because we're coming back, go to 1 Corinthians 14, go to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 14 in the Bible. And again, I'm not trying to say that women shouldn't pay attention to the service, they should. I'm not saying that, you know, women are worse than men or less than men, I'm just saying that the Bible teaches that the man is responsible for the house, he's the one that should be paying attention and, you know, if someone's going to be distracted, it's better that the wife's distracted because later she can be filled in by her husband. Look what the Bible says in 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, verse 34. Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience as also sayeth the law, and if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for women to speak in the church. Now this is a verse that modern Christians don't like, but I love this verse because it's the Bible. You know, regardless of what verse it is, you should love it because it's the Word of God. And the Bible's making it clear that men are supposed to be the preachers and the teachers and the leaders in the house of God. It's not for women to get up and to preach the Bible and to educate everybody on what the Bible teaches, that's the man's responsibility, that's the man's job, and we need men to step up to the plate and to fill that role, to fill that task, even in the home. Meaning that whenever a wife really wants to know what the Bible has to say, she should be able to ask her husband. Now it makes sense that the pastor, the preacher, whoever it is that's preaching a sermon, he can teach all the men in the room and then the men can disperse that knowledge to their family, to other people. They should be reading the Bible on their own, studying the Scriptures, memorizing the Scriptures. It's not appropriate that the wife gets to just pay attention and the husband doesn't. Really, it should be the opposite. Men should be afforded that privilege and that right because that's how God has ordained it. You say, well that's not fair, well I didn't write the Bible. I'm just telling you what the Bible actually says and I'm telling you the most proper way to behave yourself in the house of God. Now if you have a lot of problems with your kids, one tip would be to train them at home. You know, my wife would often train our children at home that have a little church service. Basically, my wife would put on preaching, typically our pastor, Pastor Steven Anderson, and the children would have to sit there and they'd have to behave. And what was easy for her is, you know, she can just, she doesn't have to go drag them off to a bathroom or something to spank them or whatever. She's right there in the comfort of her home. I mean, they're getting immediate recourse whenever they mess up. And so they start learning how to behave themselves when they're not doing well. And it's not something you have to do all the time, but it's just something that every once in a while maybe you get in a good habit. It can help you if you're struggling in church with a particular child. And it just helps them learn how to behave, how to get better. But obviously, some ages it's impossible to get to that point, right? You can't expect a newborn baby, a six-month baby, a one-year-old baby, an 18-month-year-old baby just to behave. You know, they have to learn how to behave over time and in physical discipline and spanking becomes part of that punishment and learning process. But you can't necessarily expect that. That's why we provide mother-baby areas and mother-baby rooms so their kids can maybe run around a little bit. It's not as distracting or, you know, they can sit in a more comfortable chair potentially. And obviously, we want to try and afford it to be easy for women to still participate in a service, watch their kids and everything like that. It's a balancing act to some degree. But at the end of the day, husbands should be paying attention to the Word of God. And if possible, the wife should take the responsibility of dealing with the most distracting child. Now, if you have two distracting children, all bets are off, okay? I'm just saying, like, in ideal situations, this is how it should work and it should look. Go to 1 Timothy chapter 4, go back. It's really important though that you're looking at the Bible, you're paying attention to the Word of God. The Bible makes it clear. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 4 verse 13. Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, the doctrine. Here's another thing. You should be really paying attention to every part of the service as much as humanly possible. The least amount of distractions is possible. You know, and it's really just disrespectful. I'm just giving you this tip and advice. Really disrespectful to come to a church service where you just don't have your Bible out. You're just sitting here just kind of like slumped and you're just like, you know, you got your phone out. You're just kind of looking, you know, or you're just sleeping, literally. Look, I've preached at other churches where I noticed at least five people sleeping, actively sleeping while I was preaching. And look, I'll just be honest, it feels really disrespectful. And it kind of discourages the preacher even when everybody's just not paying attention, nobody cares, nobody's interested. Even, you know, to the extremity if there was some kind of distraction going on outside or maybe a kid and just everybody's just like looking. Everybody's just like, you know. It starts to really discourage the preacher. You know, it causes the preacher to feel like, is anybody paying attention? And, you know, sometimes they just want to like make a loud noise just to get everybody to pay attention again or something like that. But you know what, that's biblical because the Bible's saying you're supposed to give attendance. Meaning people are supposed to show up, people are supposed to be looking, awake, active, you know, trying to notice what's going on in the preaching and the service. Here's another thing that's annoying is people getting up for any and all reasons. Look, sometimes we have people that are moving around in the service time for a specific reason, right? When people are coming up on stage for, you know, the music, they're leaving the stage to go back to their seat. We have the ushers going up and down the idols to give, you know, the offering plate, the preachers coming and going off of the stage. There's going to be a little bit of movement. But you know what, as someone that's not having to move, you shouldn't. You know, not like, you know what, I want to get another drink from the water fountain. Let's get another drink. You know, why don't you just get a cup of water before the service so then, you know, you can basically make it through the service. Or think like, maybe I should use the bathroom before the service. Or, you know, I can wait to use the bathroom after the service. Now look, I'm not saying if you have to go, don't go to the bathroom. Go to the bathroom, okay? We don't want to ruin as many chairs as possible. But I am saying this, you know, you should plan. You should try to give some respect. You know, if there was a really important business meeting at your work, you wouldn't just want to constantly be like, oh, I got to go to the bathroom. Oh, I need to go out. I need to get a drink. I need to check my phone. I need to do these things. You know, you would, that would seem really disrespectful to your boss. Your boss might get really angry with you. And look, you're here, we're here with God. God Almighty is here with us. Jesus Christ is in the room. We have Jesus Christ in our hands. We should give him as much respect, much attention, much focus as we possibly can. I mean, there's nothing more important than the Bible. You've never had a business meeting as important as the Word of God. You could never be instructed. And, you know, sometimes you miss things that are really great. Sometimes you really miss things that could really change your life and change your heart because it's coming from the Word of God. You know, we want to try and pay as much attention as possible, not just trying to get as much coffee as we can and checking your phone and bath. You know, just load up and get ready to pack down for an hour, you know, or more Sunday morning, all right? Now, here's another thing that's really important when it comes to being apt to teach is singing the songs. Because, you know, the Bible teaches that when we're singing the songs, we're actually teaching one another. Keep your finger here in 1 Timothy 3 and go to Ephesians. Go to the book of Ephesians, flip to the left in your Bible, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians. And look at chapter number 5, the Bible says in verse number 19, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. So the Bible says that we're supposed to speak to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. You know one of the greatest people you can teach when you sing? Yourself. So if it comes to being apt to teach, who is that really focused on? It's really focused on yourself. And here's the thing, one of the greatest ways to just be filled with the Spirit of God, to learn good doctrine is to sing the psalms, sing the hymns. You know, we sing a lot of psalms and it's going to help educate you. You know, the people that don't really sing it, often it doesn't really get as deep down into your heart. You know, songs have some kind of a unique thing that goes with our memory and our body where if you just hear the right tune or you hear the right sound or you hear the right word, it could just trigger like a whole series of verses, lines. Music has a special connection when it comes to memory and just being filled with something. And so it's great that you sing the songs, you sing them loud, and honestly, your example men, your family is going to follow. You know, if you just kind of mumble through the song, it's going to be hard for your wife to want to just belt it, you know, and for your children to want to belt it. You know, if you're up there belting it though, your kids are going to want to belt it and your wife's going to feel like she can sing really loud and it's just going to encourage your entire family to sing the word of God and it's going to admonish one another. But really, you're going to teach yourself. You're going to teach yourself the word of God. You're going to be filled with the Spirit. And when you're filled with the Spirit, this is what I know. People that are really filled with the Spirit, when they hear a really good sermon, they'll come up with points that were not even mentioned in the sermon. Like verses will come into their mind and other places in Scripture and other connections and all kinds of different things are going to happen and practical applications that I never made or the preacher never made, you're going to be able to make on your own because the Holy Spirit is going to be there and to guide you and to teach you and to give you all kinds of wisdom that you're not even just going to get from the direct preaching but just because you're filled with the Spirit of God and verses are being read from the preacher's lips and you're hearing the songs, you know what? God can communicate with you. God wants to commune with you. God wants to help you to become wise. And the more wise you are, the more instruction you have, the more you're apt to teach. The more you have the ability to go and teach others. You know, there's been plenty of times that after a sermon, someone came and they taught me something from the Bible. They came up and they said, hey, when you were preaching this or when you saw, when you said this verse, it made me think of this verse and it made me think of this point and I'm just like, wow, that's great. Yeah, that's a good one. I never thought about that. And you're actually able to teach others. Whereas, you know, when you come back and say, Pastor Shelley, when I was in the bathroom while you were preaching, like, I don't want to learn what happened in there. That was private, you know. But, you know, it's great when you're filled with the Spirit. It was great when you heard the word of God being preached and God is ministering to you and he's ministering to me and we can edify one another and we get all these benefits. Whereas when everybody shows up at church and nobody cares and nobody's paying attention and no one's filled with the Spirit, it's just dead. I don't want to be in a dead church. You know, the word of God is quick and powerful. Quick means living. It's alive. God wants to communicate with us today. God wants to instruct us today. God wants to teach us today. And, you know, that's an important commandment and instruction for us to be apt to teach as men. We're supposed to teach our wives. We're supposed to teach our children. And we're supposed to teach the whole world the gospel. Teach all nations. How are you going to teach all nations when you yourself are a dummy? When you're a fool, when you have no wisdom, and you say, well, why do I have no wisdom? Well, because you don't read the Bible and you don't pay attention in church. And you know what? People that pay attention in church, they'll often memorize large portions of Scripture without even trying. Because whatever preacher they listen to or whatever pastor or whoever, they quote a lot of verses constantly or reading a lot of verses and you'll end up memorizing verses you didn't even try to. Just because you heard it over and over and over again. You learn really good doctrine. You learn great ways to explain the Bible. You know, a lot of times if you're listening to a good preacher, a good pastor, they've thought about certain doctrines for a really long period of time, possibly even years. And they're coming up with some of the best ways to explain doctrines of the Bible. And I can't tell you how many times when I'm listening to a really good preacher, a really good pastor, they would explain things that I'd wanted to know how to explain for a long period of time. And they just put it together so perfectly and they make it so clear. And I should take that and use it myself. Then I can instruct my family and my friends the Word of God. It's a great way to behave in church. It's paying attention so you can be apt to teach. Here's another thing. You know, helping guests. We want to be apt to teach, right? Well, when a guest shows up, they're not going to necessarily know where to turn in the hymnal. Maybe they didn't pay attention. Maybe they don't have good habits of paying attention when the person says the song number. So you can say, hey, here's the song number. Or hand them a hymnal. Or say, hey, here's the song that we're singing. You know, they come in late. Or they weren't paying attention. They don't know where to look. Maybe they don't know how to find the little handout hymnal. You could hand them one of those things. Maybe they come in and they don't have a Bible. Maybe, you know, they say Jeremiah and they're just thinking like, I don't even know, you know, what is that? You just find a Bible with Jeremiah open and say like, here you go, buddy. Here's Jeremiah. Isn't that being apt to teach? Wouldn't it be great if you come to church and the guests feel welcome, they feel like the other church members want them to participate, that they're not looking at them like, you can't find Jeremiah. You know, or they're making you look weird when they're not singing or something like that. You know, we want people to participate in the services. We want them to feel welcomed. We want them to feel like they're a part of our church or the service that they attend. And, you know, one of those ways they can feel that way is by the men in this room helping them. Not just the pastor, not just the ushers. You know, I can't talk to every person necessarily. You know, an usher may be busy doing other things. You know, it's beneficial when other church members can help the guests, can help other people, get the Bible, get the things they need. Look, even if it's not a guest, even if it's just your brother in Christ and you can tell, like, they're looking for a hymnal and there's not another row and you have, like, eight, you're, like, sitting over here with just all these hymnals, just like, woo! You know, hand one to your brother, you know? Or you say, like, this guy's never singing. Just hand it and be like, hey, I didn't know if you had a hymnal. Here you go, buddy. Because then they're going to be like, well, I don't have to sing it. It's like, yeah, yeah, you do. You know, we should admonish one another, encourage one another, provoke one another under love and good works. Encourage them to do the right thing. Helping them, you know, talking to people that maybe aren't a soul winner or not a talker or haven't even gone. When you bring up these conversations saying, hey, I would love to go soul winning with you. Hey, I'm going soul winning this afternoon. Would you want to be my partner? You know, it's real easy. Hey, you live on that side of town? I live on that side of town. Hey, I'm on that side of town on Tuesdays because of work. Could I pick you up? Would you want to go soul winning with me? You know, being someone that's apt to teach is going to be a great way to behave yourself in the house of God. Not just looking down on people for not being as smart as you or as great as you are or as wonderful of a singer or any of these things. No, we want to build each other up, edify one another and teach one another and admonish one another. This is the right way to behave in church is that we're constantly trying to help other people. Not always just thinking about what I'm getting out of the service, thinking about what other people are getting out of the service. Seeing how you can be a blessing to other people. You know, when I went to other churches and I saw visitors, I tried my best to go and introduce myself and say, hey, I'm Brother So-and-So. You know, I go to this church. Where do you live? You know, how's it been? Do you need any help? Would you like some water? Would you like some coffee? And it's like, were you the usher? No. Were you on staff? No. I'm just Joe church member. You know what? I can just be a friendly person. I can just help people and say, yeah, you know, here's where you go. I remember somebody visited our church and they were like, we're thinking about moving here. Do you have any recommendations? And I said, I mean, you know, I said, I'm not an expert, but I'll just give you my opinion. So we went over to the map. I showed them on a map, like, you know, some good areas, some areas I thought were nice and tried to help them. Because I remember when I was moving there, this is the help that I got from Tyler Baker. Every area is nice. I say like a city of 4.5 million. There's like, you know, every area is safe. Every area is the same. Every area is nice. I was like, uh, I don't know if that's true. Guess what? It's not true. Okay. Some areas in Phoenix are a little ghetto. Okay. Some areas are nicer than other areas. Some areas have more accessibility to get to different parts of town. Obviously that's a foolish thing to say. And it's really frustrating when someone asks you for help and you just give them some stupid answer like, oh, the areas are the same. It's like, no, of course they're not. Some areas are better than others. And it's nice to have a friendly person be willing to help you, encourage you, and do these type of things. Go if you would back to First Timothy, chapter number three. Go back to First Timothy, chapter number three. And here's another thing. If it's not permitted for women to speak in the church, as the Bible clearly instructs, okay, that's obviously in connection with preaching and teaching. But it also just makes sense that people are just not talking during the service either. Okay. That it's not like, well, I'm standing over here so all of a sudden I can start talking. Or I'm standing by the bathroom so now I can start talking. Or I'm standing over one of these corners so I can start talking. Or I'm in the mother baby room areas. This is a great time to catch up on the weekend. You know, how are your kids doing? How are my kids doing? Being in the mother baby room is still part of the church service. And as inappropriate as it would be to start having a loud conversation on the front row would be on the back row. Or it would be in any row or in any area. No, you should be paying attention to church. Our church loves to fellowship. I love to fellowship. I really appreciate that you like to fellowship with one another. But not during the sermon. That's really disrespectful. It's disrespectful to the preacher and it's also disrespectful to your other brothers and sisters in Christ who they may actually want to participate. And they may feel awkward when you're talking at them and they're just kind of like, shun the non-believer. No, obviously they might feel compelled to say something or talk a little bit even though they don't want to or they may feel uncomfortable. The best thing to do is to just keep silence. The only instruction should probably be coming from a parent to his child. Like, do that again and they're going to the bathroom. Or whatever it is that you basically have to sit up. Open your Bible. Obviously those type of instructions could be pretty much a minimum as far as speaking in church. And the person that's supposed to enforce this is the father. Is the husband. The husband is supposed to rule his family. Look at verse number 4. The Bible says, One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity. Now gravity is, in this context, you know, with the root word grave. Grave meaning something that's serious, sober. Meaning that your children take church seriously. They don't look at it as a playhouse or a funhouse or just something that's just, oh sweet, we can just act and behave however we want. They should treat church and the things of God with respect. And they should take them seriously and soberly. You know, obviously we have a lot of things at the church that are supposed to be treated with respect. Like, hymnals. You know, hymnals are not a toy. Hymnals are not something that you just, let's see how many we can throw. Let's see how many we can draw in. Let's see how many paper airplanes we can make out of the hymnal paper. Like, no, this would be inappropriate use. It would not be behaving yourself well in the house of God. We want to teach our children to treat the objects and the things of church with respect. You know, cups for water are not hats. They're not like toys. They're for drinking water. We want to be as respectful and take great appreciation for all the things that are in the house of God so as to not seem disrespectful. Not taking advantage of things. And to enforce that is the father. You know, ruling. You know, to rule something means you have rules. If you are a husband or a father and you say, I have no rules for my wife and my children, then you're not ruling. Ruling means that you have rules, or you would correct them if appropriate. You say, I've never corrected my wife or my children. Let me just help you. You're not ruling them then. You know, a ruler is one who makes rules, who enforces the rules on top of that. You know, it's one thing to have rules. It's another thing to actually enforce them and actually say, you know, that's not going to happen again. You're not going to do this. You're not going to wear this. You're not going to act like this. I remember in church, my dad would occasionally let me go sit with my friends during church, but we would sit in the back and talk, okay? That was what I was doing, okay? And my dad noticed, and I got beat for it, and he said, you're never sitting with your friends again. And I said, I didn't like that. But you know what? It was the right decision, and at least my dad was willing to rule his house and say, hey, if I'm going to give you this great luxury, this great privilege of sitting with your friends, you better behave yourself. You know, you better sit right and sit up and pay attention and act right because church is something to be taken serious. It's not just something we just have to do. Well, we're just going to church. I don't know why. It's just something we do. No, you pay attention. You listen. You sit upright. You do that which is right. And you know what? A husband and a father should be ruling his house. If his wife isn't behaving, he should take care of it. If his children isn't behaving, he should take care of it. Go to Titus chapter number two. Just flip the right. It's right there. Titus chapter two. And look at verse number three. The Bible says this. The aged women likewise that they be in behavior as become of holiness, not false accusers, not given much wine, teachers of good things. And it says very specifically that they may teach the young women, and then it gives a long list of things that they teach them. But you know, the best way for an older woman to teach the younger women is through her behavior. You know, if the older women are not behaving themselves in the house of God, the younger women are gonna think that's how I behave. And you know, in a church like ours, we have a lot of young people. The majority of our church is younger, and as far as demographics, we have some older people, and you know, that's good. And really, if you're an older person, you have an even greater responsibility because there's so fewer examples of you that all the younger women are gonna really pay attention to your example. There's not like a plethora of older women to choose from as what is a good example. They're gonna have a few examples, and they're gonna be a really important example of how to behave. You know, how they speak to their husband, how they sit in church, how they pay attention, how they, you know, deal with their children, all the different things that they do. And look at some of this list. You know, to be sober, meaning that they take church seriously. Another thing that they love their husband. You know, they're not sitting constantly blowing off their mouth about their husband because that'll destroy a marriage. And when they look at an older woman saying, well, look, they've made it to 20, 30 years, and look how she talks to her husband. They might get the wrong impression and think that's how they should talk about their husband, and they could end up destroying their marriage way before they get to 20 or 30 years. That's why it's super important that the older women only praise their husband. If you have nothing that you can praise your husband about, then you just don't talk about it. But any and all great characteristics, those are the only things that should come off of your lips. You know, I appreciate this about my husband. You know, it's very uncommonly, it's just very inappropriate for you to just basically say anything negative about your husband. It's wrong. You should just never do it. You know, you say, like, wow, he's overweight, or he's lazy, or he doesn't make much money, or whatever. That's for the pastor to get up and rip on, okay? No, I'm just kidding. You don't want to say this about your husband. You want to praise your husband and not say, like, well, he's a klutz, well, he's bad at this, well, he never does this, you know, he doesn't appreciate me, blah, blah, blah. You know, that's just not appropriate. It's going to give a bad impression to the other women, and it's going to encourage other women to criticize their husbands, too. Typically, when a woman starts criticizing her husband, all the other women, they start thinking about their husband, and they start thinking about, yeah, my husband does that, too. My husband's bad in this area, too. Rather than never saying anything negative about their husband, not bad talking to their husband, that's just not an appropriate way to behave yourself in church. You know, if I get wind about it, I would correct my wife. I would say, honey, you're not allowed to talk about me in that way. You're not allowed to say these negative things about me. You shouldn't say anything negative about me, ever. It's inappropriate, even if it's in your presence. Now, I wouldn't correct my wife in front of other people or publicly, because I think that's not the best way. But privately, when we're alone, I would correct her and say, this is just not something you should say. You shouldn't bring up that story. Women shouldn't try to embarrass their husbands in front of other people, talk negatively about their husbands. Before you say something about your husband, just think about it for a second and say, how is he going to feel about me saying this? Would he feel respected, appreciated in front of other people, or is he going to feel ashamed, embarrassed? Is he not going to like this story? And essentially, you have to keep yourself quiet on those type of areas. Other examples here is it says, to love their children. To be, notice this, discreet. How is it discreet when you're bringing up every negative thing about your husband? And let's face it. You know every negative thing about your husband, okay? You're the expert. You have the history record. You have it all. That's why you have to exercise discretion so as everybody else still has respect for your husband. Because if we got all the wives in here to write a laundry list of all the problems with us, no one would ever respect us again. You know? You're like, man, you guys are terrible. You know? I mean, the list would just be never-ending, okay? Especially for some of us. But at the end of the day, you know, if we actually want to have people respect the men in this room, we need the wives to exercise discretion. You know, and it's the most appropriate thing to do. Chase means that they're obedient. It means if their husband tells them to do something, they actually do it. They're a keeper at home. They're good, obedient to their own husbands. That the word of God be not blasphemed. Notice when you misbehave, it's not just you that looks bad. God looks bad. Church looks bad. Christianity looks bad. When a wife disrespects her husband. You know, when people show up, they're a first-time guest or a visitor in the church service, and they hear you blowing your mouth about your husband, they're like, I don't want to go to that church. All the husbands there suck. All the husbands there are jerks and lazy, and they're a bunch of hypocrites, and it's fraud. You know, it just makes church looks bad. It makes our church look bad. It makes your husband look bad. It brings no benefit to the cause of Christ. And praise the Lord that God, whenever we stand before him on judgment day, we're not going to hear the laundry list of every bad thing we did. We get Jesus Christ imputed righteousness. You know what? And look, you have a husband for a reason. He's not perfect. I know. I'm not perfect. There's no need to tell everybody about it. You know, the one that wants to tell everybody about problems is the devil. He's called the accuser of the brethren, and he wants to go around and tell everybody how bad everybody is, and you know what? That's what women are like when they're doing that to their husband. Inappropriate is not good in the house of God. Go to Exodus chapter 21. Go to Exodus chapter 21. So as a husband, you have to rule your family. You have to rule your wife. You have to rule your children. You have to ensure that they're taking things seriously and soberly. Here's an important instruction for your children, because they're not running around in church, and especially in our building. You know, I would love to have a bigger church. I'd love to have it be more comfortable and all these things, but we've got to work with what we've got, okay? And I think the church we're building we have is great. I love it. I praise the Lord that we have it right now, okay? It's really good for us. It's better than the previous building in a lot of ways, and you know, I think that we should take it, you know, we should appreciate it so that God doesn't want to take it away from us. You know, when God gives you something and you don't appreciate it, often he may take it away. You need to appreciate it and handle it appropriately, and children running around the building is a danger and is a hazard. All people. And look, when kids start running, you can pretty much just put on a countdown timer, someone's going to get hurt, whether it be themselves, they're going to knock over a smaller child, whether they're going to even run into an adult and potentially injure an adult. We have elderly people. We also have pregnant ladies. I don't know, have you seen the bulletin? Here's a lot. Nexus Cooper, Sarah Cardona, Laura Warner, Abrina Johnson, Stephanie Weathers, Cassandra Southard, Megan Wood, Tina Galaso, Natalie Urbaniuk, Michelle Brooks, Lauren Milstead, Stephanie Spurgeon. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. It seems to get bigger every week, not even smaller, which is a blessing. But if God's going to give you all these blessings, you should appreciate them and handle them with respect and not cause any kind of issue or danger or hazard to a pregnant lady. Look at Exodus 21, look at verse 22. If men strive and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no mischief follow, he shall be surely punished, according as the woman's husband will lay upon him, and he shall pay as the judge is determined. The Bible says if two guys are wrestling, arguing, fighting, anything, some kind of a contention, and it causes them to run into a woman, hit a woman, knock over a woman, whatever, and it caused her to actually have her child be damaged or injured in any way, even if it was never purposeful, it was a complete accident, the Bible says that person is supposed to be punished. Why? Because it's a very evil thing, it's a sinful thing, and you should take caution and care around pregnant ladies. One of those would be children acting inappropriately. We don't want children to run and knock into a pregnant lady, or, you know, a pregnant lady is trying to, like, settle a dispute, and look, some children are pretty, you know, strong. I mean, some of your kids are strong, okay? They could do some damage if they're running full force or getting wild or jumping off of things and running into ladies. The last thing you would ever want is your child to literally cause a miscarriage. How would you feel? Do you really want to show up at church and look at someone in the eye and know that you literally caused a miscarriage from you not ruling your child? But that's the risk you run. I mean, just the same risk as some loser getting drunk and driving in his car and then accidentally killing somebody in his car. He may not have meant that, he may not have intended that, but by being completely negligent and completely wicked, he could end up hurting someone because he's putting others in a dangerous situation. And you know what? We need to rule our children and make sure that they're not acting that way. What I notice is that the same offenders are the same offenders often, and it's the same parents not paying attention, and even when an usher or myself instruct the children, they don't care. They don't respect authority. And you know what? As a parent, if some person came to you and said, your child is misbehaving, instead of defending your child, you should be embarrassed and ashamed and fix the problem. If it gets to that level of extremity, I would never hold it against one of you if my child is misbehaving and you came to me. Now, I'll also say this. I don't want your children to come tell me. You can tell me. If your child feels like there's an issue, they can tell you, and then you can come and run interference because there's a lot of tattletales in church, okay? A lot of little kids want to tell everyone. And look, my kids misbehave, your kids misbehave. No child is perfect. The reason we have rules is because they will misbehave. It's expected, okay? It's anticipated. But what should also be anticipated is that the parent is going to fix the problem. And look, if your child is a repeat offender, you need to change your discipline. No, no, Johnny. It's his. Nay. You know, don't be like Eli. Where you're just like, nay, my sons. You know, the Bible gives the rod of correction for a specific reason. And look, when my child is doing something in church that I've already told them not to do, they're not getting a minor punishment. They're going to get a severe punishment because I'm taking church seriously, soberly. It's important that we rule our families in the house of God and we're not causing problems and hazards in the house of God. And God forbid anybody would ever get hurt in the house of God. And you know what? If someone got hurt in the house of God, you know who would take it personally? Me. I would say I'm not ruling well. I'm not enforcing the rules. I'm not doing a good job. And so you know what? It's important that I get up and make the instructions very clear and I tell the men of the church and I tell the ushers of the church and that we enforce those rules and those laws so as to not happen. You know, what a poor leader when you just let garbage and you let evil and you let people run amok. No, we should be a church where people show up and they're like, wow. Everybody is in great behavior. The children are in great behavior. Rather than coming and saying, it's a three-ring circus. I mean, the kids are running amok and everybody's crazy. And look, some people, you know, admittedly have one kid and they're way worse than someone that has eight kids or ten kids. They'll be like, well, you just don't understand I have so many kids. Look, it's not the number of kids. It's the ruler. It's always the ruler. And you know what, the rod of correction works on all the children, okay. That's what the Bible prescribes and that's what we should use to our discretion. Go to Proverbs chapter 15. Go to Proverbs chapter 15. And if a child has to be corrected by another adult because their parent is frankly not present or not available or whatever, that child should respect that other adult's instructions. If my kid was misbehaving and any other adult said stop running or stop jumping or don't use that, my children should say yes sir and quit immediately. And I won't be mad at a parent for instructing my children to follow the rules that have already been laid down by the church. You know, shame on the fact that the parent is not available to even do that or not paying attention. And look, I let my kids, you know, walk over and talk to their friends and they don't have to be, you know, I don't have to like hold all of them on my back or something like that. But at the end of the day, I should have eyes on them. I should be paying attention to what they're doing. At least one of me and my wife should know where our children are at all times. We're paying attention to them. We're not just letting them run amuck and be like, I don't know. As soon as I don't know where my child is, I look immediately and I try to find them. And look, you can't even trust everybody at church. You should never let your children go anywhere where you don't know where they are or where you can't see them, even in church. Okay, you don't want them wandering in the bathroom, wandering outside, wandering, you know. I would love to think that every person in this room is a great person. Statistically, the problem is there's probably some bad people here too. And just because I suspect someone's bad, I can't throw them out of church. I know I get this reputation of just, I just smell something bad and I throw people out of church. But there's sometimes people I think like this person's probably a bad person, but I can't prove it so I have to just let them stay in church for a while. But, you know, and it wouldn't be appropriate for me to get up and be like, hey, I just want to warn you all about this particular individual, you know. Wink, wink, nod, nod. Okay, so you have to use your own discretion too, okay. But, you know, the people that I let watch my children from church without my supervision are zero. No one in here watching my children without my supervision or my wife's supervision. You know, we're there, we're paying attention, we're not just letting other people. Look, I've heard of people letting other church members babysit their kids and then horrible things come out about those people. Like the fact that they're a pedophile. How would you feel that you let your literal child be babysit by someone in the church and then you find out they're a pedophile afterwards? Or that there's a pedophile in the family? Or that there's all kinds of weird abuse or sick, gross, freak stuff going on in their household? Or that they were making adult films? I mean, there's some weird stuff in this world, okay. That's why, you know, my children are not worth, you know, anything else to just give them up to somebody or just let somebody else watch them. And my children, if they're corrected by another adult, they should respect that authority as well. But at the same time, I'm not saying let them babysit. I'm saying that if they happen to be in this situation. Look at Proverbs 15, verse 10. Correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way, and he that hateth reproof shall die. You know, it's really frustrating when you see, when I see an usher of our church. Some man, a leader in our church telling a kid to stop running or misbehaving and they just don't do it. They basically just look at the guy with like complete contempt and I'm thinking like, well, what does the Bible say? Bible, I mean, makes it really clear that correction is grievous unto him that forsaketh the way. You know, a person that has a good heart or is wanting to do right is going to feel embarrassed. If I had an adult when I was a child tell me I was doing something wrong, I felt embarrassed. I felt ashamed. And it's not that I didn't need correction. I need a lot of correction when I was a child, okay. But at least I had enough respect and I think it comes from the parents. And you know what, if you notice your children not receiving correction or instruction from other people, you should fix that problem. You need to fix that problem because it's a very serious problem and they need to learn how to respect authority. Go back to 1 Timothy chapter number 3, go back to 1 Timothy chapter number 3. They say, well, this sermon, I'm not getting a lot of amens. Well, you know, you can just amen in your heart. You know, hard preaching is not preaching against faggots, okay, or the Jews or any of that, you know. Hard preaching is when you actually have to look at yourself and say, like, am I guilty? Thou art the man, right? That's the hard preaching in the Bible. You know, we should not despise prophesying, but rather we should appreciate ways to get better. And look, I personally believe that our church is one of the most well-behaved churches on the planet, okay. When I preach a sermon like this, I don't want you to feel discouraged or feel like I'm mad at somebody, you know, specifically or anything like that. I just know that we can do better, myself included, everyone included. And I want to make sure that we're also preventing a lot of stuff from happening, you know. A lot of this is preventative. We don't want to encourage bad behavior or cause people to not be able to behave. And we have a lot of new people that come to our church, never been to church, don't know anything about church. We want to have them have an easy ability to know what to do, how to behave themselves, how to know what's appropriate and what's not appropriate because oftentimes what will happen is the rules will get slack. And when the rules get a little slack, you have new people show up and they start observing bad behavior or bad habits from others. And they start thinking that that's okay because no one said otherwise. And they just look at bad examples or bad behaviors and they start emulating and modeling those as well. If you see someone doing something that has been clearly preached against or stated as wrong, realize it's wrong. There isn't exceptions. There isn't like, well, this person, you know, the usher's kids are bad. Well, then the usher's kids are bad, you know. Or, you know, the pastor's kids ran. Well, that's wrong, you know. Or so and so that is a great soul winning leader or a great soul. They did something, you know, their wife mouthed off. Or, you know, this great man that's a soul winning leader, he's taking a nap during the service. Not appropriate. It's not like, oh, well, I saw so and so doing it so it's okay. No, we established the rules from the Word of God. And don't let, you know, other people's example, you know, dampen your Christianity or dampen your godliness. You should follow the examples of the Word of God and the Bible and, you know, try to encourage others to follow yearly. And to follow your example, not try to, you know, succumb to the lowest common denominator yourself. Look at verse 2 again. The Bible says, a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife. Here's a really important way to behave yourself in church is to have one wife. It's a shame that there's so many churches today where they don't have one wife, you know. And look, I'm not trying to beat up on people. What I'm saying is our church should decrease the divorce ratio in America. Not increase it. Or not even be the same. It should be better. And we should teach our children that it's inappropriate to divorce and get remarried. Now look, people that are already in that situation, I'm not mad at you, I don't hate you, I'm really glad you're here. And I want you to be here. I don't want to discourage you. You know, my church was filled with 99% people that have been divorced and remarried and they realize it's wrong, praise the Lord. But at the end of the day, we should then work to the next generation not being 99%. You know, lowering that percentage, lowering that distinction, and having a difference. You know, it's kind of a shame and a mockery when the house of God is no different than the world. You know, people should show up and be like, wow, I like the house of God where men and women actually honor their vow. Where they actually make marriage work. Where they actually have a loving relationship. Where they actually learn what it's like to be a husband and to be a wife. You know, this is the proper behavior in the house of God is for a man to get married and to have one wife till death do us part. Actually maintain that. Also, that he doesn't have a floozy or a girlfriend next to him in church. Go to 1 Corinthians 5. Keep your finger here. Go to 1 Corinthians 5. That you actually make an honest woman out of the woman that you've humbled. Now, look. People are people. And God gave us natural desire. Men like women. Okay? Everything else is gross and perverted. All right? But men like women and it's a natural thing. And the way that you satisfy this, according to the Bible, is marriage. Everything else is inappropriate. It's wrong. In fact, the Bible describes it as being wicked. Okay? Now, if there is a couple that's not married but living together or having intercourse outside of marriage, the Bible says that person's wicked and they're not allowed in church. Because we're supposed to behave ourselves in church. Yet there's a lot of churches this morning where I guarantee there are fornicating couples in the church. There are literally boyfriend and girlfriend in the church. There are literally people just modeling this wicked fornicating lifestyle in a church today because church's morality has declined to such a point where you can literally have horrors and whoremongers in church and they don't even feel bad. They don't even feel like they've done anything wrong. Well, not in this church. Look what it says in verse 9. I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators. That's clear. He's saying, hey, you shouldn't even be around people that are committing fornication. It's wicked. Now, it says, yet not all together with the fornicators of this world, then you couldn't have a job. Okay? Or with the covetous or extortioners or idolaters, then must ye needs go out of the world. So, now, you work with a fornicator, get him saved. Okay? Talk to him, be friendly, whatever. But not in church. Not your brothers and sisters in Christ. It says it very clearly in verse 11. Now, I have written unto you not to keep company if any man that is called a brother, be it a fornicator, a covetous, or an idolater, a railer, a drunker, an extortioner, with such an one know not to eat. But what have I to do to judge them also that are without, not ye judge them that are within, but them that are without, God judgeth. Therefore, put away from among yourselves that wicked person. Notice, in the church of God, you're supposed to behave by having one wife, no girlfriends that you're sleeping with. Zero. None. And if a couple gets caught doing this and they know better, they will be publicly shamed. Publicly shamed. Now, if it was just a couple that got saved last week and they show up and they don't know better, I won't publicly shame them at all. I don't care. But let me warn something, and I'm giving you way advanced warnment because we don't have many teenagers. When your kids become teenagers and they've heard my preaching and they know what's right, if they commit fornication, I will tell every single person in the church. You should be warned. You should realize, if I find out, if I know what you did, I'm going to do it because I'm not going to let fornication run rampant in the house of God. And I'm not going to pretend like it's a minor thing. Where's your grace? Well, it's down the street. Okay? But I don't think they have as much grace as you really think. But you know what? In the house of God, we're going to actually follow the Bible, and the Bible says it's wicked, and you know what? Some people are like, oh, you have to be in the act. No one's ever going to be in the act at church, okay? My friend, it's a lifestyle, and if someone's going to commit such a wicked, heinous act, you know what? I'm going to publicly shame them. Now look, if they're repentant and everything, they can come back in, and depending on, you know, maybe you get grace, but I'm telling you right now, I'm not leaning towards grace on that issue. Someone that knows better and just does that and is not repentant, you know what? We need to call that out, and it's uncomfortable. Now, I'm not saying I'll broadcast to the world, but I will let the people in the church know, because you know, you should feel shamed. You should feel embarrassed for doing such a wicked thing. You say, why? So you won't do it again. If we just pretend like, well, shouldn't do it, what if the couple just, you know, commits fornication, they're going to say, we're sorry, oh, no problem. Next week, hey, we did it, but we're sorry, oh, no problem. How are they going to ever fix that? When they realize the real punishment, they're going to be like, I don't want to do that. I don't want that kind of a punishment. You know, that's the whole point of this chapter. You really think it was comfortable for this guy? You really think this guy felt good when it's like you're reading the epistle? Hey, there's a guy in here with his father's wife. Everybody's like, you know, like, that guy, you know, obviously him. Now, he's not named, so it wasn't the whole world, but the whole church knew, didn't they? Oh, I don't think that's biblical. Well, look, 1 Corinthians 5 is in your Bible, my friend. The apostle Paul made it abundantly clear who was guilty of this sin, who knew better, and the apostle Paul is calling him out. Now, here's the thing. After they repent and get it right, he says, no, let's not hold it against them. Let's treat them with respect, let's bring them back in, show them grace, let's pretend like it never happened. And from God's perspective, it didn't happen after you've gotten repentance and you've gotten forgiveness for it, but at the end of the day, you know, we shouldn't just let these things run rampant in the house of God. We should learn how to behave ourselves in the house of God. This is an important, important rule. Look at chapter 6 and look at verse number 18. Flee fornication. It doesn't say like, well, I think I can handle it. No, no, no, no. Never put yourself in that situation. Don't be alone with someone that you like or could like or anything. And in fact, just men, just don't be alone with a woman that's not your wife unless it's your grandmother or mom. Okay. Just don't be around. I mean, in Kentucky, you can't even say cousins. Okay. So I'm just being honest. Like it's not your mom or grandma. Just don't be alone with them. Okay. That was a joke, but it's serious. All right. Go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 3. The Bible also had said that the bishop was supposed to be of good behavior. Okay. And that's kind of an over encompassing thing, but the Bible tells us what good behavior and in a real specific context. Okay. Now there's a lot of context that we could put that in. We've already been talking a lot about behavior. 2 Thessalonians chapter number 3. Look at what it says in verse number 6. Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly and not of the tradition which he has received of us. Your selves know how you ought to follow us, for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you. So notice what he's saying. We didn't misbehave. We weren't behaving inappropriately. What is that inappropriate behavior? Verse 8. Neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you. Not because we have not a power, but to make ourselves an ensemble unto you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. Notice the Bible makes it abundantly clear that no one should be allowed to get handouts, money, food, clothing, anything if the man is not willing to work. Let me tell you something. In America, in 2021, there is literally a for-hiring sign in every business out here. If you can't provide for your family, it's because you're not willing to work. Now in some countries, in some areas, maybe there's exceptions, but not here, not in this church. Meaning that if some man is not willing to work, is not going out there and making his own bread, you are not allowed to give him money. You are not allowed to give him food. You are not allowed to give him clothing. I didn't say that. God said that. Oh, where's your soup kitchen? It's called get a job. There's my soup kitchen. Where's your bread line? It's get in line for a job. That's where it's at. Now look, obviously if someone's working hard and then their house gets run over by a tornado, go give that guy some food and clothing and help him and love your brother. You know, when you see your brother have a need and he's working hard and bad times, bad luck, bad fortune comes upon him, help your brother, help your sister in Christ. The Bible makes it clear that we should give alms unto the poor. The Bible says that we should help those that are in need. You know what, you should consider the cause of the poor and if it's because they're a lazy jerk, no. And let me make it clear, homeless people are lazy jerks. Here I said it. Oh, well you don't know his story, Pastor Shelley. Yes, I do. He's not working. Well, I was going to try and get this job. That's how they start out their conversation. Well, I was trying to get this job. No, you're just not working. So here's my advice. Get a job. Well, no one will give me a job. You're not trying. How can illegals get jobs and you can't get a job? This guy's telling me like, I don't have a social security number. I'm like, I know a lot of people that don't have social security numbers. They come to my church. And they work. They even tithe. It's like you're just lazy. Because if you were hungry enough, you'd figure out how to get a job. You'd figure out how to find that social security number real quick. It's interesting how everybody else can do it. Why can't you do it? Because you're a lazy jerk. And you know what? I don't want to run and pastor a church full of men that are lazy jerks. It's just, it makes the church look terrible. You're just leeching on everybody else for everything. You're a freeloader. Go to Proverbs chapter 18. Go to Proverbs chapter 18. I'm almost finished. But if not, you just buckle up, alright? You know, one thing that really makes me mad when it comes to freeloading is just like something will get broken at the church. This is my pet peeve. Something is broken at the church and I have to find out by finding myself. And I'm always confused. I'll like walk into the bathroom and it'll be like, you know, the soap dispensers on the ground smashed and like, you know, and it's been like that for the whole day of Sunday. And I'm like, what? Like, the person that broke it could have told me and then the next guy that went in there and the next guy and the next and I'm like, how did no one tell me? You know, it's just bizarre. And if you go to someone's house and you break their stuff, just tell them. Don't just like leave and they're like, hey, did you notice? I don't know what happened, you know? Like Tommy boy when he opens the door, he's like, look what you've done. It's like, no. You know, if you break something, just tell me. You know, I've never hurt anybody when they've broken something. You know, I didn't yell at them. I don't know if it's like people are afraid to tell me or something. It's like, it's like, I'd rather you tell me than just be like, there's these weird people just breaking stuff in my church, not telling anybody. And you know, it's probably that a kid breaks it and then doesn't tell anybody and then people don't know what to do. But you know, even if you didn't break it, you can come tell me. Okay. It's okay. You know, but being a freeloader, you just kind of look at me, you just, you know, when you're walking up and down like San Francisco, you just see trash everywhere. You're gonna be like, I'm not gonna pick that up, right? You know what, when you're in the house of God and you see some trash, pick it up and throw it away. Help out. You know, clean up your area. Clean up your church. You know, clean up the area that you made messy, right? You break something, fix it if you can. You know, you spill crumbs everywhere. Go get the dustpan. You know, don't make someone else have to do it. Straighten up, throw away your trash. You know, this isn't just your bedroom where you get to leave everything on the floor and your mom comes and cleans up after you. This is the house of God, right? But the freeloaders, they just take advantage of other people's generosity. And you know what, in a church, there's more generous people, so it's easier to get away with things. Don't let that affect you. Don't take that for granted. You know, you be a solution, not a problem. Proverbs 18, look at verse 9. He also is sloth on his work as brother to him that is a great waster. I say, well, I'm not the homeless guy, okay, but are you wasting things? Are you wasting materials of the church? Are you wasting resources of the church? You know, you should treat everything with respect, not just throwing stuff around, not just acting like it's just whatever I want. You know, you should ask for permission to use things. You know, ask me for permission. Don't ask anybody else because they don't have the permission, okay? Ask me if you want to use something that's not already been designated or given to you. Now, don't just be a bunch of just moochers on things. Go to Proverbs chapter 12. You know, when you show up to someone's house, don't just open the fridge and start getting stuff out and eating it. You're like, this stuff is good, you know. Now, if they say, hey, there's milk in the fridge, help yourself, do it. You know, I'm not saying don't. But don't look at it, oh, chocolate cake, sweet, I'll take that, you know. I'm loading up, you know. Now, that would be weird, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it be weird if you invite someone over and they just start shopping in your pantry? They're like, oh, I didn't know you had some brisket, I'm taking that home. Sweet. And they're like, I didn't offer. But then some people come to church and it's like they're shopping at church. They're just like, oh, loading up on water bottles and whatever, you know, kind of. Look, here, you can shop all day long in the free cabinet, right? But don't just be shopping at other resources like, oh, sweet, I'm going to take a bunch of, you know, tissues and toilet paper, all the supplies we have and everything. You know, that's here for us to make sure that we can supply the church, you know. And look, if you really need something or you want something, ask. Now, I'll probably give it to you, but it's weird to just take. You know, don't just take stuff from people. You should ask first. And really, you're just being kind of a slothful person and being a lazy person by not even asking. Proverbs 12, look at verse 27. If there's anything you didn't really work for, it's easier to just not even care about it. And a slothful guy, he won't take even what he took in hunting. You know, people that didn't even kill it, it's really easy to be slothful and lazy with stuff that you didn't pay for, that you didn't finance, that you didn't use correctly. The church is run by you, so in a sense, yeah, theoretically, the money's given to the Lord and then we use that to buy stuff, but don't get this entitled attitude of like, well, I'm paying for stuff around here, so I just deserve everything, you know. Or being slothful or lazy or wasteful with the stuff that we have at the church. We want to respect the things at church and have a good example for everybody else. I want to make one last quick point. I'm not going to go very many places. Go to 1 Kings chapter 10, okay? Go to 1 Kings chapter 10. In the Bible, when it talks about the qualifications of the bishop, it says that he has to have a good report of them which we're without. And it's important that we have a good report of them which we're without. When people hear about our church, they show up at our church as a first time visitor, that they actually think that it's a great place. They're not like, oh man, I don't want to go to that place. It's dirty. The kids are running amok. The wives hate their husbands. The husbands don't lead or rule their house. Nobody knows anything from the Bible. You know, in a cult, the only person that has any knowledge is the cult leader, right? But in the church of God, every man should know the doctrines of the Bible and be educated and be knowledgeable. You know, we should be a lot different than the lazy and the slothful, wasting all of our resources, wasting all of our time, putting the good effort and energy, the things that we have. And then our reputation will be heard throughout the world. People hear and say like, wow, I want to go to steadfast Baptist church where the men are actually men, where the men rule their house, where the wives actually respect their husbands, where the husbands stay married to their wives, where they have, you know, a litter of children and they all are well behaved and they love the Lord and they memorize scripture and they show up dressed well and they behave well. And, you know, every single person in the whole room is just knowledgeable and they know the word of God and they're so happy and they're having a good time. You know, when you don't have rules, it's not fun. Go to San Francisco. Go to Seattle where there's no rules, where it's lawless. Go drive in Jamaica and tell me if it's fun or not. I mean, if you have a death wish, the only signs I saw were wear a helmet because it was like encouraging not to die. That was like the only thing I saw. There was no like turn left or right. It's not fun to drive up and down those streets. It's the most stressful thing. And you dive off the road when the bus is coming. I mean, when the big bus is coming, they don't play chicken well because they don't move. I mean, they're just coming straight down the line and they don't care if they're in your side of the aisle because there is no side of the aisle. You know, it's like dirt paths and just crazy things going on. You know what's nice? Having stop lights and having stop signs and even having police that enforce rules and having speed bumps. And you look at it like, ah, I can't drive my car as fast as I want or whatever. Yeah, it makes it safe. And people can actually be happy on the road rather than just being like it's a nightmare. You know, people are crazy. It's lawless. There's no rules. Nobody obeys anything. You know, you have fun when everybody's obeying the rules. You know what would be really frustrating is playing a board game with someone and they don't follow the rules. They just do whatever they want. You know, you just start playing the game and, you know, you're playing checkers or something and they're like, well, I get three turns now. They're like, three turns? That's not fair. And it's like, why just do whatever you want? You know, or they just start picking up your pieces and just throwing them off the board. And you're just like, what was that move? The move called I do what I want. You know, it's like you're not going to play that game with that person ever again. You know, and when it comes to church, it's no different. A church with no rules is not fun. Go to Joel Osteen's church, okay? No rules. Come as you are. Leave as you are. Just have a party or whatever. An entertainment fest. That's not going to be fun. People aren't happy there. People are coming depressed and leaving more depressed. You know, a happy church is one full of rules that are being enforced and regarded with respect. 1 Kings chapter 10, look at verse 4. When the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their peril and his cupbearers and his assent by which he went up onto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom, albeit I believed not the words until I came and mine eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard. Happy are they men. Happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God. Notice when the queen of Sheba came, she'd heard a great thing, but it was better than what she'd heard. And then by seeing it in real life, she blesses the Lord. You know, our church should be where people show up and they're like, it's better than I heard. And they say, praise the Lord. I see the spirit of God in that church. I see the spirit of God in the men in that church. I see the spirit of God in the women in that church. I see the spirit of God in the children in that house of God. And they're happy. Happy. They love the Lord. You know, I've never seen happy people like church. This world doesn't have happy people. They're depressed, frustrated, stressed out. You know, you know what makes people appreciate the house of God? The qualifications of the bishop. If every man is trying to behave themselves in the house of God, you know they have one wife, they're ruling their house, they're educating their children, taking things seriously, they're apt to teach, they'll have a good report of them which are without. Then it'll cause everybody to say, you know what, I want to join the house of God where I can have all those same things too. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for giving us these instructions. Thanks for giving us the opportunity to come to the house of God. I pray that we take it seriously and soberly so we wouldn't look at it lightly. And that we'd realize that all the instructions in the Bible are there to help us, to encourage us to be the best version of ourselves. And I pray that we would always strive to be the best Christians that we can be so as to not blaspheme the name of God. So that we can make Christianity look attractive. So that when people come and they hear of the house of God, that they want to be a part of Christianity. That they want the Lord to be their Lord. That they want to follow the same commandments and they see the benefits of following God's commandments. And I pray that you would just help give us grace in the areas that we need it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Alright, for the final song, song number 421. 421, the first Noel. And that's song number 421 for the final song, the first Noel. The first Noel the angels did say, What to certain poor shepherds in fields where they lay, And fields where they lay, gave he free their sheep, On a fall winter's night that was so deep. Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel, Where by the light of that same star, Green wires that came from country far, To see for a king was there in ten, And to follow the star wherever it went, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel, With star to guide to the fourth class, For Bethlehem it took its rest, And there it did, No stop and stay, Right over the place where Jesus lay, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel, Then entered in those wise men three, Forever and free upon their knee, And offered there with his blessings, Their gold, and myrrh, and frankincense, Noel, Noel, Noel, Noel, Born is the King of Israel. Amen, you are dismissed, God bless. .