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You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You All right, good evening everybody and welcome to steadfast baptism It's great to see everybody here tonight if we can go and find our seats We'll go ahead and get started And for tonight's first song we'll start in song number 327 Higher ground song number 327 Song number 327 higher ground Down Everybody sing it out together on the verse i'm pressing on the upward way Still praying as i'm onward bound lord plant my feet on higher ground Lord lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven's table land A higher plane that I have found lord plant my feet on higher ground My heart has no desire to stay Though some may dwell where these abound my prayer my aim is higher ground Lord lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven's table And a higher plane that I have found lord plant my feet on higher ground I want to live above the world though satan starts at me are hurled For faith has caught the joyful sound the song of saints on higher ground Ground lord lift me up and let me stand my faith on heaven's table land a higher plane I want to scale the utmost high and catch a gleam of glory bright On to higher ground lord, lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven's table All right, great singing everybody let's all open up with a word of prayer Lord, we love you and we just want to thank you again for this great church For these great people, uh, we just ask you to bless this church and uh fill it with your spirit and it's in jesus name We pray. Amen All right for the next song Let's go to song number 160 Song number 160 crown him with many crowns Song number 160 crown him with many crowns Crown him with many crowns The lamb upon his throne Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns All music but his own Awake my soul and sing Of him who died for thee And hail him as thy matchless king through all eternity Crown him the lord of love behold his hands and sigh Rich wounds at visible above In beauty glorified No angel in the sky Can fully bear that sight His wondering eye at mystery so bright Crown him the lord of life Who triumph o'er the grave Who rode him for yes to us But for those he came to save His glories now we sing Who died and rose on high Who died eternal life to bring That is the blessing of Crown him the lord of heaven One with the father known One with the spirit though him give From yonder glorious throne To thee be endless praise For though her doubts last died He thou O Lord through endless days Adored and magnified Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you would still like a bulletin or if you didn't get one you can lift up your hand real quick. One of our ushers can come by and get you guys a bulletin. And on the front we have our Bible memory passage. We're on Psalm 58 verse 10. If you are working on the whole chapter we also have a prize for those who can quote the entire chapter. Word perfect. And you have to quote that to a non-family member. So anybody in the church you can quote that to. Also on the inside we have our service time, soul winning times and church stats. Please make sure that you're turning those in to your soul winning captains and lieutenants. Also on the right please be in prayer for our expecting ladies. Also we have our prayer list which I'll go over this evening and we'll continue to pray for. There on the top line we have Miss Rebecca Negara and I actually spoke with them today and I guess she's been doing a lot better. And so we're going to probably take her off of the list but we're going to be doing a lot better. And so they just wanted to give us that update. Also Miss Lucy's mother, she has unfortunately been declining very fast and it's become very serious and so please be in prayer for her and for her mother. We've been continuing to pray for brother Cameron and his leg. We've been praying for the Wallachs for their daughter who's pregnant. We've been praying for their daughter who's pregnant. We've been praying for their daughter who's pregnant. We've been praying for his niece Hattie unfortunately. I think she was 12 years old if I remember correctly and she has a brain tumor and so it's very sad for her. Also I've been in prayer for the Cooley Stepdad cancer treatment. We've been in prayer for brother Oz, his brother and then we've been praying for the Scotts for health. We've been praying for James' grandmother, her vision, health and salvation and so we'll continue to pray for her. Also Miss Mara, we've been praying for her daughter and their living situation. So we have a lot of prayer requests in there. Also if you'd be in prayer for brother Suhail, Miss Lori May and so we'll just say a quick word of prayer for those that were mentioned. Thank you Heavenly Father so much for our church and for this opportunity to have church this evening. Thank you so much for all of our ladies who are expecting. I pray that you continue to be with them. Please help them. Please give their children just a timely birth and I pray that you'd also be with our church family that has a lot of health issues, a lot of sicknesses. I pray that you'd also be with our church family that is struggling and going through sadness and going through difficulty. I pray that you'd help them through that. I pray that you would help us with our family members that need to hear the gospel, need salvation. I pray that you give us boldness to find the opportunities to preach to them and to try and get them saved and I pray that you'd also soften their hearts. I pray that you'd also just help us with the opportunities that we need for our church family and for favor and I just thank you for what you've given us already. I pray that you'd also bless our upcoming cookout that we're going to have at the end of the month that I pray you would just help us to reach people and to help people get saved, not only saved but also plugged into church or reading their Bible and to serving you and I pray that you would just help us to be a bright and shining light in this very dark world. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. On the back we have the note about the baby shower for Mr. Meno and her baby girl that's Saturday, September 30th and so that's coming up pretty soon. Please RSVP to Ms. Milstead about that and it is nursing's only preferred that is we're kind of asking you guys to help out, watch the kids as I always say you can always throw peanuts at them and if you need to you can go to Five Guys or Logan's they have free peanuts so you can go there you can get a bunch and then you go home and you just throw them at the kids and that will keep them distracted for a while. Also we have upcoming events, we have the cookout and then we have the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship October 12th through the 15th. We had included a little handout schedule of events in our bulletin if you'd like that or if you don't have one you can see us after the service and we can help you out with that but very excited about our lineup. We have some amazing preachers coming in, we have some awesome activities and I actually anticipate a lot of people I've talked to are planning on coming from out of town and so I think we're going to have a big event and so I'm really excited about that and we're going to try to be really hospitable as best we can. Obviously we'll be crammed in here in a tight space but it'll be fun and family reunions are always awkward anyways so there you go. November 4th is the Abilene Texas Soiling Marathon and then again the congratulations to the Lugo family on the birth of Lemuel He was born on the 27th 1237 pm weighing 8 pounds 12 ounces and 19 inches long. Congratulations to them, it's very exciting. Everybody doing good? Alright great. Like I said it's better it's all L's than K's for you guys so there you go. I still need to ask him what he's doing for the next set of children that he's going to have but we don't need to get ahead of ourselves. We'll go ahead and sing our Psalm of the Week Psalm 146 Psalm 146 sing it out nice and loud if you know it Alright that's Psalm 146 in your laminated handout or in your King James Bible Psalm 146 sing it out real loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse sing it out loud in the verse Alright now as the offering plate is being passed down go ahead and open up your bibles and brother Ben will give us the chapter we're in Romans chapter 13 Romans chapter 13 the Bible reads let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisted the power resisted the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation for rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil would thou then not be afraid of the power do that which is good and thou shalt have praise of the same for he is the minister of God to thee for good but if thou do that which is evil be afraid for he beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil where for you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake for for this cause pay he tribute also for they are God's ministers attending continually upon this very thing render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honor to whom honor oh no man anything but to love one another for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law for this thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not kill thou shalt not steal thou shalt not bear false witness thou shalt not covet and if there be any other commandment it is briefly comprehended in this saying namely thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself love worketh no ill to his neighbor therefore love is the fulfilling of the law and that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed the night is far spent the day is at hand let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof let's bow our heads for a word of prayer father in heaven we thank you for Romans chapter 13 and the lessons in this chapter I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit help him to expound the chapter to us Lord help us to draw connections in your word and to pay close attention to the Bible study this evening and in Jesus name I pray amen amen so we're here in Romans chapter 13 and it seems a little loud and I'm already a loud person so kind of nervous for y'all there we go that's a little bit better thank you we're here in Romans chapter 13 and the context that we've kind of gotten to at this point I believe is kind of a carryover from chapter 12 and when I talked about chapter 12 I brought up the transition that we kind of had in chapter 11 was how it talked about we're the spiritual Israel we're the ones whom God's eye is focused upon we are the ones that are supposed to live the Christian life and to serve God and we're the spiritual heavenly kingdom and so in chapter 12 it just brought up just a lot of instructions I mean there was a lot of different things a lot of different topics just kind of hitting you from a lot of different angles and I believe that chapter 13 is continuing with that same general context that these are just general admonitions that God is giving us as Christians how to behave ourselves and the reason why I believe it makes this break is because chapter 13 begins to really formulate a singular context about one particular admonition in general and in chapter 12 it just was kind of hammering with all kinds of different things lots of little instructions more like a proverb and as we get into chapter 13 we're addressing one particular issue of authority is kind of the focus of Romans chapter number 13 specifically now look at verse 1 that says let every soul be subject unto the higher powers for there is no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God whosoever therefore resisteth the power resisteth the ordinance of God and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation rulers are not a terror to good works but to the evil wilt thou then not be afraid of the power do that which is good now shut up praise of the same freeze the minister of God to thee for good but if thou do that which is evil be afraid free beareth not the sword in vain for he is the minister of God a revenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil wherefore you must needs be subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake so verses 1 through 5 are addressing one particular context and that context is about obeying the higher powers now there's a lot to this chapter but I kind of want to focus a lot of my sermon on these first five verses because it's the main thing that's brought up in Romans chapter 13 and I think it's a really important subject to be addressed especially considering the cultural climate that we find ourselves in right now so you know if the majority of the sermon we haven't gotten past verse 5 don't get too nervous all right I'm just kind of giving you that idea just to start off with but let's just focus on first one for a second let every soul be subject under the higher powers for there is no power but of God now when we think about power it can have a lot of different context we can think of a lot of times power is just strength in general you think about power lifting teams they lift a lot of weight we can think about the power of a vehicle the power of the engine we're talking about the strength or the capability of that particular engine but there's other ways to think of powers is simply governing bodies and the strength or the authority that has been granted unto them and that's really the context that we're really looking at the word power here is we're talking about spiritual and physical or carnal authority and I believe that this specific chapter is addressing both it's not addressing just one aspect it's addressing both carnal power and spiritual power and that they both have the same principle and that principles that you're supposed to obey the higher power so in essence whoever is at the top of the food chain or at the top of leadership those people are supposed to be obeyed without question so who's ever at the exact top of whatever structure is always supposed to be the person they're supposed to obey first and everyone under that person's authority in your life is subs is basically a subservient to that higher power so whenever there's a misalignment of wills then you're supposed to obey the higher power if you find a conflict between two leaders you're supposed to obey the higher power in every single situation so what does this mean practically well let's just talk about a few different examples right if you're working on the job and your boss comes in and tells you to do something but it goes against your company values it goes against see the CEOs wishes or wants for the company or it goes against instructions you've already received from a higher level manager then you're not supposed to obey that lower level manager you're supposed to obey the hopper the upper or higher level managers now just practically speaking if I run into this situation of course how do you handle this well obviously you should try to be peaceable right if your manager comes in and says hey I want you to wear a red shirt and the managers like no we're only wearing blue shirts then you just say well I've already received instruction from this particular manager who said that we should wear blue shirts you know so I think it'd be best to wear the blue shirt and just a friendly reminder may end the discussion right then like okay yeah you're right I forgot or I missed that memo or whatever but let's say they say no you're wearing the red shirt then it say well I feel like it's my job to obey the higher manager so why don't we have a discussion with them why don't we why don't we call them or ask them and if they say well I'm not going to and say well I am gonna contact so-and-so and just let them know that you were asking me to do this and just ask them what they would prefer for me to do because as I understand it I'm supposed to do what he said and I want to make sure that I'm following protocol and following the company policy and so then you can kind of start escalating up the food chain to get the proper response obviously you shouldn't just be on a hair trigger to get your boss fire or in trouble to try to be peaceable at first but at the same time you should not obey the lower level manager you should always obey the higher level manager the CEO and this does happen where there can be conflicting wills conflicting rules and so you want to make sure you're obeying the higher power in a company policy how about in a family structure how does a family structure work well according to the Bible God has put the man above the woman in 1st Corinthians chapter number 11 we have a power structure that's given to us let's just go there for a second go to keep your finger go to 1st Corinthians chapter number 11 because this will help us transition with some of these points but the Bible tells us that there is an authority structure that God has given it's not my opinion it's what the Bible says look what it says in verse number 3 but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ so who is in charge of every single man Jesus Christ and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God now that verse is a little interesting because it doesn't necessarily give you the authority structure all systematically it's kind of like it's in a different sequence but if you put it all together you basically have God Christ the man the woman and you say where are the children well you don't count because you don't have any authority so that's basically you're you're subservient to everyone okay and I do not believe that older brothers and older sisters are the rulers of their younger brothers or younger sisters whatsoever there is not an authority structure they're all equally under the parents now of course a parent could empower a child to be a leader over the other children parents sometimes will ask a certain sibling or ask one of their children to tell their other children to do something or watch over them or give them instructions but they only have authority because their parents gave them that authority they don't have an inherent god-given authority so you don't have to obey your brother or sister unless your parents said you have to obey your brother or your sister and of course there comes a point in people's lives where they're no longer in the authority of their parents directly where they may get married they leave father and mother and they're essentially on their own let's just a first address the the family union we talk about a family unit we need to identify that the man is in charge what does that mean it means that every single decision he has a hundred percent authority over this is not being taught in many churches today it's not being taught in the world today many people try to have a quote 50-50 marriage let me explain something to you 50-50 does not exist 50-50 is a fairy tale that does not exist anywhere because if you always agreed on every single decision then 50-50 could technically exist but here's the reality no two people will always agree every single time so what happens when there is conflict well one person wins and one person loses one person makes the decision one person doesn't one person leads one person follows okay and so that is the question of well then who's the one that gets to win in that particular situation well this is where you end up having marital issues because they don't know who's supposed to make the decisions they don't know who's supposed to lead and so many times you have women leading men and this is just always wrong it's just always not God's plan it's always not the ideal scenario or the ideal situation when there's a conflict between the man and the woman the man should always always always get his way now when I say get his way what I mean by that specifically though is that he makes the final decision it does not mean that he always does what he personally wanted sometimes me and my wife have a conflict of what we want preferentially maybe she wants a and I want B and it's addressed she wants a I want B maybe I'll ask her why do you want a and she'll tell me all the reasons she want a and then I'll think about it and I'll end up saying you know what I agree with you let's do a so I got the decision I chose a but I chose a because I recognized that she wanted it or maybe it was a better option or whatever was the right reason to choose a but there's going to be some times where she wants a and I want to pick B because it's just the better decision and I just have to pick B now that's what it really means to be a man is to actually tell your wife no occasionally or to disagree with her to make a decision that's contrary to what she wants and this gives women the opportunity to submit if you never challenge your wife's decisions if you never go against what your wife actually wants she can't even submit because you've never even given her an opportunity to just okay I want a but he picked B so we're on team B we're gonna choose the B option I'm excited about B I'm not gonna complain about B because I didn't get a I'm not gonna be icy because he picked B okay I'm gonna actually be subservient now you could you could say well I let him pick B but I'm gonna treat him like crap so they don't never pick B again you know that's not being very subservient you know that's not being really a submissive wife okay and that happens or it could be like well after he picks B I'm gonna remind him why it was such a terrible decision and complain about it the whole time that's also not being submissive okay so the proper submission is hey I want a you want B but even if you pick B I'm gonna be excited about it I'm not gonna complain I'm on board and I'm willing to abide by your decision making and it's really no different than how men are supposed to act in the workplace and so it you know sometimes women get mad about it they're like well workplace is not you know it's not a marriage sure it's not a marriage but at the same time it's the exact same scenario and it's the exact same situation and if my boss wants a and I want B you know what I'm gonna let him pick a and I'm gonna be excited about a and I'm not gonna complain and and be bitter about it and some of you men you know I would challenge you in this way if you feel like your wife's not really on board when you make decisions she doesn't like how much do you complain about decisions that your superiors make to her because if you're constantly coming home and complaining about the boss at work complaining about his decision-making you're always against them sometimes you're subtly teaching your wife to also have that attitude towards you and so it's important that you yourself you know when you hear a sermon like this don't think like that's right honey are you paying attention you know it's like you should think about hey how do I treat my boss how is it that I speak about the authorities in my life you know and and how do I treat them also this should also be important about how you treat your parents now children are supposed to just obey mom and dad period if there was ever a conflict between mom and dad dad is the one to be obeyed every single time dad's in charge dad is the leader dad is the one who you should obey because why he's the higher power he's the higher authority and of course what if your parents told you to do something that the Bible says not to do well now we found a spiritual power struggle and this scenario you obey the Bible if mom and dad tell you to do something and Jesus is telling you not to then you you obey Jesus every single time if your parents say hey we're not gonna go to church ever again and you end up getting grown up or you have the ability to go you still go to church if your parents say we're not gonna read the Bible you read the Bible if your parents want you to lie you don't lie if your parents want you to do things that are not right if your parents say hey why don't you drink a beer with us and look there are a lot of parents in this world today that will give alcohol to the children and even very young children they'll have them try alcohol they'll have them try drugs they'll have them try all kinds of weird things they'll even let their children watch things that they shouldn't watch they'll put things in front of them that they shouldn't be entertaining or looking at or dealing with and you know as a child you should just say no I'm not gonna do that if mom and dad want me to do this I'm gonna excuse myself from the situation I'm gonna refuse and you know what that's just how it is that's who you should technically obey now most of the time this is not happening kids okay obey your parents all right and I guarantee most of the parents in here probably not going to do these type of things to you but of course if there was ever conflict you obey Christ and God now once you leave the house once you've grown up how do you treat your parents it's kind of a question that I think some people maybe struggle with or don't understand fully but here's the thing once you've left mom and dad as the man of the house you have the final authority and especially over your wife in the sense that your wife no longer has the dad as the higher power he's been replaced it's called replacement theology okay once he gave it's I mean what do we say at the wedding it's like who gives away this bride he's literally giving her away so the authority structure has shifted and you say at what percentage 100% 100% the man is 100% in control of the wife and the father-in-law or the dad of the of the female in this scenario the wife has zero authority over her okay so if dad shows up and says I want you to do ABC it doesn't matter what is what does the husband want every single time there is no exception whatsoever now at the same time though what if you know I'm married I have a wife I don't live at home okay what if but I say my mom's unfortunately passed away but I saw the father that's you know physically here and you know I talked to him what if my dad asked me to do something how should I how should I treat that or what if my dad wants to talk to me or what if my dad wants to hang out with me how should I be why should honor my parents and in fact when we read the scripture the Bible makes it clear that the Jews they were unwilling to pay for their parents whenever they needed help or needed assistance and Jesus Christ rebuked them sharply and we're saying that they're making the Word of God of none effect and you know it's very wicked to not honor your father and your mother even in their old age you are supposed to honor your father and your mother in your old age you say what's the consequence well according to the Bible the consequence is that you're gonna lose life you're gonna lose days on your life when you do not honor your father and your mother you are to honor your father and mother and if my dad gives me an instruction that is not in violation of where God wants me to head in my life or what God has planned for me in my life I believe I'm supposed to obey it and I'll give you a proof text Jonah dabb the the father of the wrecker bites Joe the the wrecker bites were already grown men living on their own but you know what their father or grandfather you know you follow the tree up in the lineage he had commanded them not to drink wine and he gave them a couple other instructions as far as their dwelling places and everything like that they're supposed to dwell in a temporary tabernacle not to have a permanent dwelling and they were obedient under that and God blessed them for being obedient unto that instruction that was given to them by this authority structure so I believe that if my dad were to give me some kind of instruction or ask me to do something even though I don't live with him that I should do it what would be the exception well what if he's asking me to do something that's against the Bible well then I have to obey the higher power again right now I have to go back and obey what God is doing but if my dad is is telling me something you know my dad says hey don't ever wear red ties again I just won't wear red ties because you know what why would I not honor my father when it's like that's not is that really in disservice to Christ for me to do I have to wear red ties to be obedient to Christ no so if my dad says hey don't drink wine or don't do this thing or don't go here or do whatever you know as long as it's not in some kind of a conflict with what Christ wants me to do then I believe I should always obey now my dad says hey don't go to steadfast Baptist Church I'm gonna say I'm gonna go to steadfast Baptist Church why don't you come with me you know I'm not gonna I'm not gonna obey that because that I believe is in conflict with God's clear will for my life okay if my dad's telling me hey why don't you leave your wife I would say never now of course my dad's never said any of these things so don't hear me wrong but I'm just saying my dad's asking me to sin or you know and sometimes parents do this parents will literally get in the middle of marriages and say you need to leave your spouse you know what that is wicked and that is wrong and that is not what the Bible teaches and you know what that is not subject to the higher powers and you should say nuts to that now of course you can still disagree respectfully and say look I love you and and I'm gonna follow you know instructions that you give me within reason but this is not what the Bible teaches and this is not what God wants me to do and so I'm gonna obey Christ here I'm not going to do that and so I want to make that clear but as far as her father if her father wants her to do stuff it has to be checked with me okay but me as the man I still have to honor my father and my mother period and I would even go as to say if her father wants her to do something and I agree with it then yeah she needs to get on board with that right and I have in-laws too I believe that they to some degree have become my parents and that I should also honor my in-laws and honor them and to the best of my ability do what they would have me to do and if they ever needed financial assistance if they ever wanted to call or they wanted to talk to me I would I would help them and you know what my in-laws do call me from time to time and you I do I answer every time you know when my mother-in-law calls me you know what I do I answer the phone and you know what when your parents call you you know you should do answer the phone okay and when they want something when they need something you talk to them now obviously if they're calling you 30 times at work okay it's voicemail right I'm not trying to be silly here I'm not trying to be over the top obviously there's a time and a place to communicate with people we're being reasonable but what I'm not gonna do is I'm not gonna just say you know what I just refuse to talk to them I'm gonna ignore them I'm gonna treat them differently than I would treat other people that I love or care about no no no I'm gonna honor them and I'm gonna respect them and I'm gonna make sure that I'm being obedient unto their instruction because they're a higher power okay and God has ordained this God wants us to do this when Moses was given instruction from his father-in-law how did he treat that he he did exactly his father-in-law said and his father-in-law did make a caveat that was important his father-in-law Jethro did say hey as long as God tells you to do what I'm telling you then do it but you know what it did match and you know Moses did he did exactly what Jethro told him to do and Jethro was not as a physical dad it was his father-in-law and let me tell you something you know what you want to live a long healthy successful life obey your parents and honor your father and your mother even in their old age don't forget them don't neglect them don't ignore them and you know who's going to notice how you treat your parents your children and you know how you're gonna get treated in your old age how you treat your parents you say well I always ignore their calls and I always talk trash on them well guess what's gonna happen when you get old your kids are gonna ignore you and talk trash on you because you know what a man is gonna reap what he sows and I'm telling you right now I want my children to call me and to talk to me and to love me and want to hang out with me and if I need it pay for all my bills okay because inflation is crazy all right and you know what so how should I treat my parents how should I treat my in-laws I should give them as much time respect and as I can now of course some people they have bad influences in their life that a result of parents right you could have parents that are just maybe unsaved maybe they're against church perhaps they're very sinful they have some like very sinful very bad things that are going on in their life and of course at that point I still have to obey the Bible right like so if my father is a raging alcoholic drunkard well first Corinthians 5 tells me I'm supposed to you know have a distant relationship with them you know I'm not supposed to have normal fellowship with that individual I'm supposed to admonish him and tell him hey I want to hang out with you and I'll talk to you but you know what I'm not gonna have fellowship the same until you decide to give up your drinking you know and this is in the context of him being saved you know praise God my father's never drank alcohol and when I say that I mean that he's never drank it like ever he thinks that alcohol is stupid and he doesn't want to drink it he thinks maybe one time he might actually drink us something that was spiked by someone was playing a trick on him but that's the only time he's ever tried alcohol in his life he's 79 years old he's not gonna drink alcohol and you know what praise God for him but I'm just saying if he was a raging alcoholic then that could cause a conflict where maybe I have to distance myself from him but let me say this if my dad was a raging alcoholic and he needed me to help him to have housing or whatever I would still take care of that I would still make sure he was taken care of I wouldn't ignore his calls I wouldn't be mean to him you know I would still admonish him to hey you need to fix this this needs to change your life you can't hang around with my kids right now because you're raging alcoholic you know if let's say my my dad or my father-in-law was just the most annoying person in the world say they're just so annoying and just like obnoxious and and just like I didn't like them I would never stop them from being around my grandchildren or hang out with me or being mean to them you know what that's a it has to be a biblical reason to refuse relationship with them in my opinion now again you have that right as the man to recognize hey this person's toxic for a family I'm gonna keep them away you know obviously if they were an actual predator or something yeah sorry I'll call you when you're in jail you know I'll make the calls you know on Father's Day in jail but like you're never ever gonna be around my family right obviously I get that there could be some extreme scenarios but I'm saying when you're not an extreme scenario honor your father and your mother love your father and your mother do good on your father and your mother treat them well well they don't like the new IP get over it well they say we're in a cult okay well love on them maybe you ignoring them and not talking to them is the reason why they think you're in a cult you know if you want to help them recognize that you're not because you're not okay I don't like you enough for you to be in a cold all right you're not staying with me okay we're not living together and I don't have any kool-aid okay so sorry then talk to your parents hang out your parents you know and and and understand that these principles are here for reason you know why is that a reason because God's our father too and God wants our relationship with us God wants to talk to us and these relationships are very important and how did Jesus treat his father oh yeah perfect obedience I remember how did Jesus treat his father when his father wanted to do something that he didn't want to do oh yeah not my will but thy will be done what if we had that attitude towards parents I guarantee every parent in here with kids they would love that about their children wouldn't you love it if your children just said hey mom and dad from now on it's not my will but thine we've done obviously it's a it's an idealistic thing that'll never happen but that's what we all desire and why would we not want that in our children well how about treat your parents that way and be loving to them and be kind of them so that's a couple context what about a spiritual context you know I believe that there's realms of authority so when you're at the job you know then your boss is in charge right we're talking about the family the man's in charge right what about church when we're in a church context the Bible says the pastors in charge that the pastor is the highest human authority that we have now of course in every one of these categories whether it's your boss at work God's above him whether we talk about the man of the house God's above him when we talk about church God's above them when we talk about the government God's above them okay so in every scenario God's above humanly speaking the pastor is the one in charge and the pastor is the one that's supposed to have authority I've seen many churches don't have the structure they have a congregation is in charge or they have the deacons are in charge or the deacons wives are in charge okay this is not biblical and you know I will not pastor a church where the pastor is not in charge you say oh that's just because you're you're just hungry for power pastor Shelley no no it's because I want to do the things that God said I'm gonna obey the higher power and I don't care what you think you know what there's a reason why you have that bad idea because you're wrong okay because you're power hungry you know who's the real power hungry person ask this question is it the congregation person that says no we should be in charge who put you in charge or is the person that says well let's just ask God and then do what God said oh now we've identified who's the actual power hungry person it's you Cora it's you that wants to supplant the pastor and supplant Moses you know anytime we see a power structure in the Bible God's pretty much just putting it in the hands of one man have you ever noticed that it's like Moses is in charge Joshua's in charge David's in charge it's not like let's just get a bunch of good-hearted people and we'll just empower them or something no no whenever we have the multitudes and the councils and the big groups of people they pretty much are always doing wicked things it's bad you devolve to the lowest common denominator no no no God prefers to just find one really really righteous godly person and just say like you're it buddy you know do do right okay now even within Moses's position and these others they would have underlings right Moses appointed different people that was the commandment given by Jethro and even in a church you can have underlings you could have other pastors you can have assistant pastors then beyond pastors you're gonna have positions like an evangelist and you know for us specifically I believe that it's it's pastor evangelist deacon okay so that would be kind of the general power structure the deacon is basically a glorified janitor so you know he has some level of accountability and authority but you know the deacons are servants that's basically their title so it's kind of weird to put them in a high position of leadership when your title servant okay and again it we're all servants of Jesus Christ and I'm not against that but at the same time I believe this is kind of our general power structure of course you have apostles above I believe pastors but we don't have any more apostles okay I know there's an apostle down the street but he's he's not really an apostle okay folks and so that's kind of the general power structure in church so what happens when someone has an idea in the church or someone tells you to do something in the church but it's different than what I said what does the Bible say obey pastor Shelley okay it doesn't matter if it was the evangelist it doesn't matter if it's the deacon it doesn't matter of the soul winning captain it doesn't matter if the soul winning lieutenant it doesn't matter who it was it's like who do we obey we obey the higher power so when you're going soul winning and your soul winning captain is telling you to do something that's different than the evangelist obey the evangelist okay when the soul winning captain is telling you do something different than the pastor obey the pastor right and we can have all these different layers of authority but at the end of the day who is the final decision maker humanly speaking it's the pastor now what if I get up and I tell you do something but the Bible says to do something else you always obey the Bible never ever ever obey me over the Bible always always obey Christ above what the pastor is and you know I don't it doesn't make me nervous to say that like I'm not like oh no I love saying that because that's what I believe personally and because I believe that we're very close to doing what God really wants us to do anyways you know we're not really that far off from what God has designed the church to be and so that's why I love this church you know and I love the congregation I love the people and whenever people have a really strong authority structure and they believe in the structure and they submit and they agree to the structure it becomes a very powerful weapon when you have a lot of dissatisfaction and people aren't on board and you have all these factions and you have the deacons trying to undermine the pastor and the pastor is trying to like get ahead of the deacons and there's all these like power struggles constantly going on the church isn't very effective we shouldn't have any power struggles because it's already established we already know what the power structure is so we need to argue about it we don't need to talk about it we don't need to wonder what we're gonna do we don't have to vote on anything and praise God so many churches are slow to act because they have to vote on everything and in an effort to vote what has happened the the pastor the leadership has to brain dump in the sense they have to provide all the reasons and all the ideas of why they want to make a particular decision and they have to educate the audience and they have to rally everybody on the same page and they have to get everybody to agree with everything and then finally we can make a vote and it just it slows everything down it's not effective many times you get bad people in there making decisions and those of you that have been here in our church for a while think about the people that were here five years ago and then the people here today it's a lot of different people okay and not I'm not saying like every person that's not here is bad or something many great people are doing something else or there's always going to be an ebb and flow but with that so much ebb and flow if we were just letting all random yahoos make decisions where would we really be and I'll tell you there's been some really tough decisions our charges had to make and you know when I sometimes get a general consensus like it there's all kinds of random just like personal opinions out there you know it's like what color it's like blue red purple clear it's like you know it's like all right we're going red I don't want to vote on something like that right hey you know when it comes to a lot of these decisions you need to have empowered strong leadership and they know what they're doing and they're gonna make decisions you know even coming into this church I'd made a video about it and I had said you know I'm not afraid to make decisions obviously I don't want to make them against what the church wants and I'm gonna consider that and that's really important to me but at the same time I said if there's a table that needs to be flipped over well you know someone needs to go in there and flip the table over okay and that's the whole point of why would you even go to the church if you don't agree with the leadership you should just find a different church if you don't like me as the pastor there is literally thousands of other options you can go to any other one of those options and have fun okay have as much fun as you want but I am not going to ever change on this the Bible has a settled and I'm gonna obey God rather than men I'm gonna do what the Bible says in this issue and you know what he's empowered the pastor so as long as I'm the pastor I'm gonna maintain that power okay heard some people say oh you're a pope well you know I don't see a dress on me number one okay I and I'm not doing the Eucharist and I'm not in Rome and I'm not a pedophile so I don't really see what connection you're making here to me and a pope but no I don't agree with that whatsoever okay and there's always been people that attack pastoral authority but really just don't like church and they're really just attacking church in general and they're a power-hungry individual and they're usually very wicked people so you know what I'm not interested in those individuals they can just go start their own cult because that's what they really want go back to view would do Romans chapter 13 so I've laid out a lot of different things I think we could talk about this so much I want to make one more application I think is an important one how about government this is one that I also want you to realize that when we talk about these subjects that we have to create doctrine that aligns with a timeless view not just locked into one specific scenario or one specific situation but rather doctrine is true regardless of time or context okay and God always wants us to obey the higher power regardless of our situation or what time we find ourselves in now I want you to notice something in this verse one again the powers that be are ordained of God I believe that the Bible clearly teaches and I'm gonna prove this we're gonna start flipping to a lot of place in the Bible that every single position of power and authority that exists today God wants it there right now how it is and even the bad ones okay now I'm gonna prove this for a second keep your finger here because we'll come back eventually but go to Acts chapter number five for a moment go to Acts chapter number five and let's just look at a lot of verses real quick Acts chapter number five let's look at verse number 29 for a moment Acts chapter 5 look at verse 29 then Peter and the other apostles answered and said we ought to obey God rather than men so always give this caveat that any time a government gets out of line you should always obey God okay so that's that's crystal clear but let's keep going let's go to chapter 12 for a moment just flip to the right chapter 12 and look at verse 21 Acts chapter 12 verse 21 it's the Bible study so let's look at a lot of Bible here the Bible says and upon a set day Herod a raid in royal peril sat upon his throne and made an oration under them and the people gave a shout saying it is the voice of a god and not of a man and immediately the angel Lord smote him because he gave not God the glory and he was eaten of worms and gave up the ghost here's the thing here it's not a Christian Herod doesn't even care about God Herod is killing God's people the Bible tells us in this chapter that he killed James but what I want you to understand is that even though Herod's a bad King he's a bad dude God is still his boss like God is every single person's boss period and it doesn't matter how high up there in the food chain and so when they disobey disrespect God God can just be so angry at that and just smite them right there in there and kill them so God is deeming Herod not worthy of continuing being in this position of power and so he just takes him out like that and any person in any position of power in the world today God could literally just send the angel and just right then and there dead just dead right on the spot and basically this guy he was such a great orator and then all of a sudden he turned into Mitch McConnell you know just right there on the right there on the spot couldn't even talk go to John chapter 18 go to John chapter 18 this is an important lesson in the Bible and for us to realize that look the people that are in positions of authority and power today God wants them there now you have to understand something about God's will God's will is not always in the context of the idyllic situation or what God wants in an ideal scenario but it could be that it's God's will regardless and I'll give you this example right God wants every person to be saved you'd agree with me on that right I mean the Bible's God's not willing that any should perish but that also come under repentance you know I'm not a Calvinist up here God truly wants every single person to be saved but God also wants anybody who does not believe in him to go to hell so you could look at someone who dies not believing in him and it is God's will for that person to go to hell now was it not also his will that that person would be saved yes it was and that was the ideal scenario that's what God truly wanted to happen but as a result of that person's actions and as a result of what they did unfortunately they deserve hell they're not going to be saved and so then God's will for that person is to go to hell so that's how we have to understand how God sets up powers authorities and governments in this world that not every government is ideally what God wants of course we understand what is the ideal government of God Jesus ruling and reigning or specifically Old Testament he wanted the judges to be the leaders and the rulers but didn't God end up picking Saul now and riddle me this if God never wanted a king why did God pick Saul then because the people rejected God and as a result of rejecting God then God went to the second will that he had for them though the non-idealic will for them plan B for their lives and then he picked Saul okay so sometimes we're not on plan A of what God wants us to do so it gives us plan B of his will and and this is very common this is how we relate sometimes we have things happen it's not necessarily what we wanted to happen but it ends up still going according to our will okay so and let me give you this context I want my sons to obey I want them to always follow my rules but if they don't obey then my will is for them to be spanked or to be disciplined okay and then here's the thing when I discipline them that is according to my will but it wasn't my ideal will I didn't want to spank them I wanted them to obey but as a result of them not obeying well then you get a punishment so here it is God wants us to have a good government God wants us to have an ideal government God wants us to have good leaders that's what he desires for us absolutely but because of our rebellion because of our mistakes because of our problems then sometimes God's will is to give us a bad leader as a punishment as someone as a result of what he ultimately decrees okay and so that does not change the fact though that that bad leader is still God's will and that specific context okay look at John chapter 18 look at verse 33 then Pilate entered in the judgment hall again and called Jesus and said to him art thou the king of the Jews and Jesus answered him sayest thou this thing of thyself or did others tell it thee of me he always he kind of sounds sarcastic to me I don't know maybe he wasn't Pilate answered am I a Jew thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me what has thou done Jesus answered my kingdom is not of this world if my kingdom were of this world then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered to the Jews but now is my kingdom not from him who does Jesus seem like he's thinking killing him here I noticed this word is Jews okay verse 37 Pilate therefore said unto him art thou a kingdom Jesus answered thou sayest that I'm a king I just love I mean this is not kind of like a little crass it's just like hey you're saying I'm a king buddy to this end was I born and for this cause came I in the world that I should bear witness unto the truth everyone that is of the truth here of my voice I just love Jesus is like the ultimate I mean everything he says is so amazing Pilate say than him what is truth what a troll you know I mean what an atheist troll well what is truth well you don't know still don't probably but as we get a little further in Pilate starts getting really nervous about this okay and it's because they want to kill him look at verse 7 of chapter 19 just flip a little bit ahead chapters 19 verse 7 the Jews answered him we have a law and by our law he ought to die because he made himself the Son of God notice that they believe that their law is different than the Roman law this gives us a little bit of insight in the Bible says another place how they could not execute people according to their laws because Romans were above them and I believe again if you we have God's law don't we but can we execute people according to God's law of American law says no I would say no we have to unfortunately obey that higher power in this particular context that's how Jesus modeled it for us and that's how it seems like we should handle ourselves so we're not gonna rebel against the American law currently the Bible then says in verse number eight when Pilate therefore heard that saying he was the more afraid and went again to the judgment hall and saith unto Jesus whence art thou but Jesus gave him no answer then say a pilot on him speakest thou not unto me know as though not that I have power to crucify thee and a power to release thee notice the word is bringing up power hey don't you know that I have the power don't you realize that I'm the one with power I have power to release thee I have power to crucify thee what does Jesus say thou couldest have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above therefore he that delivered me unto thee have the greater sin notice Pilate sin and the Jews are the worst sinners that's always the case in every scenario the Jews are the worst sinners but notice this that where did the power that Pilate possessed come from it came from above so notice that the powers that be are ordained of God are you noticing the same thing I'm noticing the powers that be are ordained of God go to Exodus chapter number five now go to Exodus chapter five this is an interesting thing and I could preach us so much more on this topic but I'm just trying to lay a little bit of a foundation and a groundwork and then maybe future sermons we can build upon this foundation but this is an important doctrine to understand from an authority perspective look at Exodus chapter 5 look at verse 1 and afterward Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh thus saith the Lord God of Israel let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness and Pharaoh said who is the Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go I know not the Lord neither will I let Israel go now I'm not going to read a lot of verses here but I'm just gonna explain a few things who's really in charge don't we already have already established that God's in charge I mean God's the highest authority he's the highest power no question I I don't forsake it time I'm not gonna read a lot of these verses but the Bible says over and over that God is the God of gods that he's the king of kings that he's the Lord of Lords he is above everyone so if God told you to do something wouldn't you just obey period doesn't matter what your human authority is but this is an interesting story because if we really think about it what did God do God is telling Pharaoh to let his people go well why does God have to ask permission of Pharaoh to let the children of Israel go isn't God in charge God is in charge and I believe what God is trying to do for us is he's trying to help us understand that God respects Pharaoh's authority why because God gave Pharaoh that authority so he's not trying to undermine his own authority that he already gave he's trying to help the children of Israel realize this authority structure and let me ask you this question when did the children of Israel leave Egypt you know they left Egypt when Pharaoh gave them permission to leave Egypt he they didn't leave Egypt against Pharaoh's will they actually left Egypt when Pharaoh let them leave Egypt that's that's kind of an interesting point that we think about look at chapter 9 and look at verse 27 chapter 9 and verse 27 I want to show you another verse here the Bible says and Pharaoh sinned and called for Moses and Aaron and said to them I have sinned this time the Lord is righteous and I and my people are wicked so Pharaoh at first is thinking like who is the Lord now we're learning hey he recognizes who the Lord is isn't he he's starting to recognize hey the Lord is the one that's righteous I and my people we are wicked now I think most likely that Pharaoh when he says like who is the Lord that it's it you have to think about the question I don't believe he's saying like who's the Lord I've never heard of this guy I believe that he already knows I mean he is the Pharaoh over a multitude of Hebrews you don't think that he's aware of their religion of their God he's never even heard of it he's unaware he knows Moses even I'm sure he knows who the Lord is for sure he was being disrespectful oh who is the Lord that's what his attitude is now his attitudes changing quite a bit isn't it and that's what God wants to do sometimes to leaders is he wants to wake them up and say like hey buddy I'm still in charge you're still my servant what are you doing like you need to obey me you need to fear me and it wasn't until he lost his firstborn son that he finally woke up and he said all right you guys can leave and he let all of them leave and that is how God took the children of Israel out of Egypt so what how does this relate to us today well go over to Psalm chapter 2 for a moment Psalm chapter 2 I also believe that we should not go outside of the realms of the authority structures that have been given to us based on you know our own whims or desires or or even this idea of quote freedom and again I am the one of the most freedom loving people you'll ever meet in my entire life but at the end of the day I don't think that we should do things that are against the Bible just to get freedom there's in fact many cases where people were subservient and it was according to God's will you know they had to submit themselves into Nebuchadnezzar obviously that guy's not a godly person they Esther said that if her people had been sold as bond men and bond women she wouldn't even said anything it was only the fact that they were gonna literally die and be killed that she decided to speak up for her nation and so there's gonna be times where we may lose freedom as a result of having bad government or them making bad decisions but if it's not a direct violation of what God's commanding us to do then you know what sometimes we just have to suck up and take that oppression okay but what happens when it's in contrast to the higher powers that's where there becomes that that question mark okay and look at Psalm 2 for a second verse 1 why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed saying let us break their bands asunder and cast away their courts from us he that said it in the heavens shall laugh now notice in verse 2 it says the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and you know other places in the Bible we could find where it's quoted it says like they set up kings but not by me okay but what does that mean though what it means is that God's not ideally setting that person up God doesn't desire for them to be the leader or the ruler God doesn't want them to be it and they're rebelling against him and setting things up kind of like Saul in the sense that they set up Kings they set up King Saul but not by me in the sense that he doesn't want that but at the same time God allowed Saul and God picks all right so anytime these individuals are still picking wicked people and it's not what God ideally wants he's still orchestrating that event and allowing these leaders to be in the positions and what's funny is when they they're basically saying like you want leader a but we're gonna pick leader B and then God's like fine have leader B but then they think they've won and it was the Bible saying God's laughing about it God's just laughing like oh you think oh you thought you want to be okay here you go you want Biden here you go you know have some Biden right it's like what kind of leaders do you want okay people sometimes don't realize what they want and so he allows them to have really bad leaders and of course he's gonna set up his king if we skip down it says in verse 10 be wise now therefore you kings be instructed you judge of the earth serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling kiss the Sun lest he be angry and he perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed all they put their trust in him look these kings are still subject to God God is in charge go to Daniel chapter before go to Daniel chapter before honestly I have so much more on this topic that I'm not going to be able to cover it but I think it's something that's not necessarily been explored that much and it's an important topic to kind of think about but in Daniel chapter 4 we also see this with Nebuchadnezzar and we see God's will here verse 17 this matter is decreed by the of the Watchers and the demand by the word of the holy ones to the intent of the living may know that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men and giveth it to whomsoever he will and set it up over it the basest of men so the Bible saying that sometimes God will literally take the worst man in your society and make him the leader they say what's an example that Barack Obama the faggot Barack Obama is literally one of the worst people to ever exist and God brought him into positions of power and authority as a punishment and as a curse under a nation for having turned away from him and rejecting the Bible and then you have following in his footsteps Biden which is a close second and look you say oh the election was stolen no you know what's the problem with America America hates God that's why we have these kind of leaders it's because people don't even care about truth and righteousness and church and holiness and the Word of God and you say how are you gonna fix the 2024 election pastor well everybody needs to get a King James Bible that's how we're gonna do it you know it's not gonna fix it voting in person and look I believe that you know God can orchestrate all kinds of events for our benefit if we as God's people would just humbly submit and and honor the Lord like right now it just seems like no one knows what's gonna happen in the 2024 like I mean there's a lot of doors open right now as the way the country could go and I believe that it could go in a real I personally believe it could possibly go in a awesome direction and I also believe it can go in the worst direction imaginable okay I believe both of these are an option and I think that God is deciding based on our response is God are we gonna get God's idyllic will here are we gonna get God's plan B or you know even worse than that it's probably we're further from B probably but you know what I'm saying I mean look God could orchestrate how everyone he could get a lot of really powerful people that are just mad at the global elite tiny hats out there and start putting so much pressure on them that in America could start turning back to God and pursuing righteousness and we could get a leader in into the White House and into our government that would literally just start slamming the hammer on wicked people and our country could come back economically it could come back politically it could come back in Christianity they could start holding YouTube's feet to the fire and forcing them to not be the monopoly they are and allowing the truth to go out there I mean this could literally happen it's it's a it's a possibility there's also a possibility that the direction we're headed right now that every single the political dissidents of Biden are put in jail killed assaulted bribed put into the river and they just start knocking down all the top dominoes and then we go into a literal dictatorship that we don't even have a 2024 election that they literally just go into war and some kind of an emergency plan and just say you know what no more elections Biden is our president whether he's breathing or not and you're just gonna obey big brother Biden he's gonna come up on the screen through AI and he's gonna talk to you and just say you know and you just have to do it anyways like that I'm not even saying that it's an exaggeration that could honestly happen okay and I believe that which direction we go or it could be a lot of things in the middle of course I'm not it's not only one of these extremes okay folks but the leaders that are in leadership right now are God ordained God has ordained them and it is for us as a people to submit to the higher powers one thing that's happening in our government right now is the Constitution is being violated over and over the Constitution is not being followed and what is the highest of power in America humanly speaking it is the Constitution and if we as a nation we're actually going to do with the Bible says we would all obey the Constitution apart from it being out of the line of God's will but I believe that you know what that is a starting place too and we should start holding people accountable for not following the Constitution and the best would be to follow the Constitution because that is what God is ordained that's what God has given us and you know what praise God it's not even a bad thing to follow it's really not even that oppressive it's really a pretty good document it's not perfect it has its issues and I think we should improve it but at the same time you know we should be obeying it and we should be following it and if the government tells me tomorrow to do something that violates the Constitution you know what I should do obey the Constitution and if they tell me to do something that is against what God said you know I'm supposed to do follow God let's get practical if they say hey pastor Shelley you and your family all have to wear face masks well you know what I believe that wearing a face mask is detrimental to my health and I can't breathe as well and my wife's pregnant is detrimental to her health and you know what this is the temple of the Holy Ghost and you know what I believe would be a violation and a sin for me to cause any kind of a physical ailment to my body so I'm gonna say nuts to you now in some cases because I just have to get from point A to B if I was literally forced to wear a mask or not accomplished something and sometimes you make compromises right you know if I'm gonna go on a missions trip somewhere and I decide to wear a mask just so I can get people saved well you know what then so be it sometimes but that's a personal choice of taking a detriment to my health to get someone saved Onesimus did that he took detriments to his health to get someone safe you know what I'm not being forced to do something to help betterment the cause of Christ you know I don't have like this so winning opportunity that I'm gonna lose as a result of doing that then you know what me and my family aren't gonna just injure ourselves on purpose I'm also not gonna take poisonous shots that have not been tested on a whim and just say like hey the government said everybody needs to take this well you know what I believe that's antithetical to what the Bible teaches and it's not for my health and I'm not gonna do it you know if the government tells me hey don't have church I'm gonna have church if the government tells me not to preach the gospel I'm gonna preach the gospel and you know we ought to be God rather than men and we ought to obey the Constitution above what our leaders are doing today who are being anti-constitutional and we should point that out to them and we should rebuke them for not following those rules and they should be trembling in their boots right now because you know what God is holding their breath in his hands God is holding Biden's breath in his hands and doesn't even seem like a stretch that he could just snap his fingers and he'd be gone and then it'd be Kamala okay maybe that's the only reason Biden's still alive I don't know you know you never know why certain people are still alive but it could be worse it could be worse you know maybe Big Mike might run for office you never know where we're headed and what direction we're going you know some people think that Biden is the worst ever but it could be worse what's coming on the horizon whatever is next and let me tell you something our country needs to get serious about the things of God and we need to get humble and start praying and seeking God's face I mean it's so funny to me people are just freaking out about our country right now freaking out about the direction that we're headed but you know what they didn't do today they didn't go to church they didn't crack open their Bible they didn't even pray and it's like do you even really care how can you say that you're just so I care so much I put a American flag up on my house today okay well did you read the Bible though did you go to church today did you preach the gospel it's like why would God preserve our nation because all of us put an American flag up God doesn't care at all about your stupid American flag and he doesn't care about your patriotism you know what he cares about the Bible and the only thing that made America great was the King James Bible it wasn't the American flag it wasn't apple pie it wasn't our founding fathers you know having great signatures on a document you know what it was it was the fact that they honored the God of the Bible that's what made America great and the only true revival this country can ever have is the King James Bible is the Word of God is salvation by faith that is how we're gonna turn this country around and recognizing who the true enemies of the Bible are the tiny hats okay the tiny hats are the enemies of the New Testament and you know we're never going to be successful as a Christian nation when they're in the presidential cabinet when they're in all the high-ranking positions of authority in our country when they control all of the media and all of the money and all of the government I mean we're it's a joke and they have every other pastor is controlled opposition because they teach Zionism oh we got to bless that Jew who's oppressing us we got to just let look I agree let's obey the higher power you know what they're not the higher power you know what they shouldn't even be in their positions of authority the Constitution is the higher power and God's the higher power and you know what we should say nuts to them we should get rid of them and you know what a lot of people are waking up on this issue but we need to keep putting pressure we need to keep waking people up to the truths of the Bible and we need to take Christianity seriously and you know what don't get mad at other people until you fix yourself until you're going to church every time the doors are open and you're reading your Bible faithful and you're going soul-winning and you're seeking God's face and you're praying and you're getting the sin out of your life don't worry what your neighbors doing you focus on you and you start obeying the high power you obey your mom and dad you obey your family members oh I can't believe the direction our nation's headed well when you're a jerk to everybody when you're not even obeying your father and your mother when you're not going to church I mean you know who one of your father's is God what if God said hey are you gonna come to church today what would you think you would say yes sir right I mean if dad's saying hey will you come with me to lunch or you come do this thing or you help me mow my lawn or do whatever it's like yeah because my dad right well my dad's want me to come to the house of God my dad's wanting me to read the Bible my dad's want me to pray my dad's want me to do a lot of things and you know what this is God's world that we live in and he's only allowing me to live in here at his will and if I just say nuts to the things of God why would I ever believe that he's gonna keep America going well I think that America is Babylon so we won't have any problems well you're an idiot because you know what Babylon is a wicked place full of slaves have you read about what they're importing into Babylon it's slaves okay have you read what the Bible describes Babylon where it says where the blood of all the prophets are have you read about how in the Bible that a lot of people's heads were chopped off okay you know America could get real bad real fast okay and what's gonna keep it as nice as possible is us being that salt us following God's commandments us actually respecting the higher power the higher authority and and not allowing ourselves to get sucked into our own selfish desires now let's go back to Romans chapter 13 I'm gonna have to preach the rest of this later all right don't get too nervous okay but verse 1 again we are supposed to be subject into the higher power so there's no power but of God the powers that be are ordained of God we need to realize that every single authority God has put it in our lives your husband what is there because of God obey your husband children your parents are your parents because God picked you to be born of your parents obey your parents men obey your boss at work men obey the pastor or whatever church you go to men obey Jesus Christ in your life take seriously the things of God men obey your mom and your dad and your in-laws and do what they say and take care of them and be loving under them and you know what let us obey the higher powers of our government you know the Constitution and let us hold everybody else that's not following things accountable some people would say well does that mean that the American Revolution was not legitimate I don't know let's apply what I said did America have did America have the right to rebel against the monarch I don't know all the circumstances the fact of that time but I kind of lean towards probably not but think about it how did our nation start then out of rebellion to God's will and if we end up becoming the end times Babylon is that really shocking when you consider it the birth of the nation itself as rebelling to the king as rebelling to the monarch as being this rebellious woman that comes out from under the authority that she had to do her own thing and then she ends up being what the Babylonian whore we like to think look I'm trying to step on some toes right now because a lot of people like American Revolution okay throw some tea in the harbor all right amen let's kill some bricks but let me ask you this question was that really biblical and if it wasn't you know well are we kind of reaping what we sowed are we kind of getting what we got now obviously when we make bad decisions sometimes God still blesses us through that and obviously America was very blessed through you know a lot of events that happen there's a lot of godly people in this country and you know what taxation without representation is a very wicked evil thing and that's kind of maybe a punishment that God brought on the monarch of the UK and obviously look the UK is trash now when the UK is flooded with immigrants and it's a it's it's not the kingdom that it used to be anymore because why they turned away from God why are they no longer relevant really because they turned away from God why were they a mega superpower because King James gave us this okay why is America the way it is because we have the most churches and missionaries than we've ever seen before but as soon as we stop being Christian we stop being relevant we stop being free we stop having power and you know what no matter where we find ourselves let us not be the ones that are guilty of rebelling against the higher powers let us be the ones who are always always in a subject to the higher powers let's go to prayer they give only father so much for giving us a clear understanding of how authority works I pray that we wouldn't be jaded or upset about the powers that are over us but rather we would embrace them and that we would do our best to submit to whatever powers we have and if if we have evil powers above us and an evil wickedness above us I pray that we would still submit when it's within God's boundaries and that we would obey the higher powers when necessary and I pray that as our country is in dire straits we're in a difficult situation I pray that you would help motivate us as your people to be humbled to seek you to take seriously the things of God and that you would give us grace I pray that if it be your will that you would destroy the wicked in our nation that you would judge harshly the evil that's going on in our country all the corrupt judges and the corrupt governors and the corrupt politicians and the corrupt Senate and the corrupt leadership in the White House I pray that you could just expose it and and judge it harshly and if possible just destroy as much as possible and and that we would see a revival back to the truth and back to the things of God and I pray if we don't if we have more oppression if we go down a dark road as a country I pray that you could still bless us and you can keep us in Goshen that you could allow us to do great works that we can still see many people saved and I pray that we would have the right attitude no matter what you pick or what you've ordained no matter what road we go down whether it's evil and oppression or it's revival and prosperity I pray that we wouldn't complain about it I pray that we wouldn't be upset about it I pray that we'd embrace it that we'd realize that we have been brought here for such a time as this and that we would be a bright and shining light no matter what the outcome and in Jesus name we pray amen all right in closing let's go song number 36 song number 36 Christ arose song number 36 song number 36 Christ he triumphed for his woes. He arose the victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with the saints to reign. He arose, he arose, hallelujah Christ arose. Mainly they watched his bed, Jesus my Savior. Mainly they stilled the dead, Jesus my Lord. Up from the grave he arose, with the mighty triumph for his woes. He arose the victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with the saints to reign. He arose, he arose, hallelujah Christ arose. Death cannot be constrained, Jesus my Savior. He tore the bars away, Jesus my Lord. Up from the grave he arose, with the mighty triumph for his woes. He arose the victor from the dark domain, and he lives forever with the saints to reign. He arose, he arose, hallelujah Christ arose. Great job everybody, you are all dismissed.