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All to Him I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. For now indeed I find, Thy power and Thine alone, Can change the leper's spots, And melt the heart of stone. Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. For nothing good have I, Whereby Thy grace to claim, I have washed my garments white, In the blood of Calvary's lamb. Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. And when before the throne, I stand in Him complete, Jesus died my soul to save, My lips shall still repeat. Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe, Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow. Amen. Pastor Shelley, would you open us in a word of prayer? Thank you Father for giving us the opportunity to come here again and celebrate all things you've done for us. We pray that you bless all the people that have saved our soul this evening and those that have the seed planted and the seed unwatering. We pray that you continue to bless us throughout the week. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, our next song this evening is going to be number 143, Blessed Assurance. Song number 143. Let's sing it. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, Oh, what a poor taste of glory divine! Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight, Visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending, great from above, Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest, High in my Savior and happy and blessed, Watching and waiting, looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, Praising my Savior all the day long. Amen. Thank you so much for coming again this evening. We have a couple announcements to make note of. On Thursdays, the soul winning time is now going to be at 5 30. So there's no longer a Wednesday night, sir, a soul winning, but we'll move that to Thursday. So if you'd like to participate, just show up here at the building at 5 30. And then also please keep Mrs. Poorman in your prayers, who's expecting. Also, we have the the greatest announcements, our newest church members, Rachel Gertrude, Catherine Smith and Emerson Mayhill. Please be in prayer for both of them and their families. Also, we have a big list of guest preachers. I'm not going to go through all those again this this evening, but I just encourage you and exhort you to please thank them when they come and just be really hospitable to unto them. So I'm really excited for having all them here and me to be back again on June 14. Also, we have the Bible memory passage and we have the ladies event in honor of Mother's Day. Again, we'd like for all ladies to attend if possible, and they can bring their nursing boys. The church will be providing their food and refreshments. Also, just some house rules. Please make sure that your children are not running around in the church and that they're under parental supervision. Also, if you can just help us kind of clean up the building. Just take your trash and throw it away after the services and everything like that. The other announcement that I was going to make is June 18th, 19th, and 20th is leading up to Father's Day and there's going to be a men's kind of a conference retreat that we're going to have in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. So any men that would like to participate and attend, we would love for you to come down there and join us. Announcement for soul winning, we had 17 soul winners out this evening or this afternoon and we had 19 salvations. So praise the Lord on that. That's really great, really exciting. So keep up the great work on soul winning. We know our labor is not in vain in the Lord. So with that, let's go to our next song. All right, the next song this evening is going to be number 419. 419, song number 419, Sound the Battle Cry. Let's sing. Sound the battle cry. See the fullest die. Raise the standard high for the Lord. Heard your armor on, stand firm everyone. Rest your cause upon his holy word. Roused in soldiers, rally round the banner. Ready, steady, pass the word along. Onward, forward, shout aloud, Rosanna. Christ is captain of the mighty throne. Strong to meet the foe, marching on we go while our cause we know must prevail. Shield and banner bright, gleaming in the light. Battling for the right, we never can fail. Roused in soldiers, rally round the banner. Ready, steady, pass the word along. Onward, forward, shout aloud, Rosanna. Christ is captain of the mighty throne. O thou God of all, hear us when we call. Help us one and all by thy grace. When the battle's done and the victory's won, may we wear the crown before thy face. Roused in soldiers, rally round the banner. Ready, steady, pass the word along. Onward, forward, shout aloud, Rosanna. Christ is captain of the mighty throne. Amen. All right, while the offering plates are being passed around, please turn if you would to Isaiah chapter number 54. Isaiah chapter number 54. All right, Isaiah chapter 54. Isaiah chapter 54. Bible reads in verse one it says, Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud. Thou that didst not travail with child, for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married. Sayeth the Lord, enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth thy curtains of thine inhabitations. Spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shall break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the gentiles and make the cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou shall not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded. For thou shall not be put to shame, for thou shall forget the shame of thy youth and thou shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood anymore. For the maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as woman forsaken in grief and spirit and a wife of thy youth when thou wast refused, saith the Lord. For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies I will gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. For this is as waters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be wrought with thee nor rebuke thee. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord, have mercy on me. O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest and not comforted, behold I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires, and I will make thy windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones, and thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shall thou be established, thou shall be far from oppression, for thou shalt not fear, and from terror, for it shall not come near thee. Behold they shall surely gather together, but not by me, whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. Behold I have created this myth that bloweth the coals in the fire, and bringeth forth an instrument for his work, and I have created the the waster to destroy. No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment shall condemn. This is the heritage of thy servants of the Lord, and the righteousness of me, saith the Lord. Amen. Look up at verse number one again the Bible reads sing O barren thou that didst not bear bring forth into singing and cry aloud thou that didst not travail with child for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife saith the Lord enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the gentiles and make the desolate cities to be inhabited now in Isaiah chapter number 54 we're coming right off of chapter 53 which is one of the greatest chapters picturing the Lord Jesus Christ crucifixion talking about his death and the sacrifice is going to make for us and obviously when we think about the crucifixion we think about the gospel and we think about people getting saved and Isaiah chapter 54 is leading right off of that and it's talking about the gospel now when it talks about the barren that has not you know has not borne anything yet is not barren okay uh that's talking about the gentile nations okay why because up to this point there's only been one nation that brings forth any kind of fruit and that's the nation of Israel that's that's the God's people at that time is this chosen nation and they're supposed to be the light to light in the gentiles but there's coming a day when that barren the barren gentiles they're going to be the ones that are bringing forth the children and in fact it says for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife so the married wife is symbolizing Israel and it's saying hey those that are desolate they're going to end up bringing forth more fruit than Israel ever did in its heyday and we see that fulfilled in scripture we see that also fulfilled in reality today how the gentile nations they're the ones that have accepted Christ they're the ones that are preaching the gospel the Jews rejected Christ they're cursed they're under the wrath of God now what's interesting though is he talks about a number in verse number two enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes so if you're going to have a lot of kids you got to build the bigger tent right you got to start building out your house a little bit maybe you want to get a third bedroom fourth bedroom fifth bedroom even you know who knows right but as you start to build your family you want to build your dwelling place and so it's kind of giving this picture of hey we need to start building a bigger dwelling place to house all of these people so it's kind of a picture here and in the old testament you know we they didn't always have the housing that they do now right it wasn't like a brick home necessarily they have a lot of tent dwellings well in a tent dwelling there's a couple aspects to this that are important you have the rope or the cord and you have the stake now if you're going to be as successful at having your tent stay up through the night you got to drill that stake in really deep into the ground so it's not going to be uprooted by wind or any kind of something that catches a drift on your your your tent and then you're also going to take that rope and you're going to tie it to that stake tie it up so that your tent is up now what he's saying he's got to lengthen those cords so you want to stretch them out okay and make them larger so that you can have a bigger tent but then you also need to strengthen nice stakes why because the bigger the tent the more that wind can catch it and the more that it can fly away the more pressure is going to be coming on those ropes so you have to get a bigger stake and then you have to drip you have to smash that thing down even further into the ground so as for this tent to not be carried away not to be destroyed so we're talking about kind of a carnal truth here right if you want to have a successful house you want to have a good foundation and this is kind of equivalent to having a good foundation to your house you got to get a bigger stake and you've got to drill that thing in so that you can end up building your house okay now i believe that this is a great carnal truth to picture a spiritual truth that we see in the new testament so what is the tent represent that represents the house of god the house of god and if you want the house of god to grow if you want the house of god to be a good dwelling place then you have to strengthen your stakes that those ropes are tied onto and so the title of the evening sermon is strengthen thy stakes strengthen thy stakes and this is a carnal truth that could be illustrated a lot of different spiritual ways but there's going to be storms that come in your life and if you don't strengthen your stakes then your tabernacle is going to fall down your tents is going to blow away it's going to end up being destroyed this is illustrated a lot of places in your bible but go to first samuel chapter number 30 for a moment first samuel chapter number 30 and we could even think about this with hannah and panina panina is picturing israel she's the one that has children at first but hannah is barren and she takes a long time for sure to have a child but she pictures the gentiles who in the latter part she ends up having children and even more than panina did okay so she pictures the gentiles and being more fruitful and more blessed than panina was even though she was the latter one to come into play so that's another picture of the gentiles in first samuel chapter 30 we're going to talk about david but just think about other stories in the bible how about noah there's a storm coming how is noah going to survive that storm he has to build an arc and he has to build a very well-constructed arc if he's going to survive the greatest flood to ever hit human history and in fact our church we have to understand that there's going to be storms that come and try to blow in and try to attack so we have to strengthen our stakes if we want to be successful against those type of storms we think about elijah elijah was going to go on this really hard journey and the angel comes and wakes him up and he's like you got to eat you got to eat some cake here you got to eat this food and then he goes to sleep and he's like nope he wakes him up you got to eat again what is that a picture of it's a picture of strengthening yourself of being prepared against the battle that's before him he's going to have to go a long journey something that's very difficult and the only way to make it through a lot of difficult journeys is you have to strengthen yourself a lot of people work on strengthening their physical body where for what a competition for sports for anything like that and if you want to be successful you want to keep working on your strength but that happens in the christian life too there's going to be big storms there's going to be big challenges and we have to constantly strengthen ourselves now you say how do i strengthen myself well look at first samuel chapter 30 and look at verse number one now this is an interesting story because david's life just keeps getting worse and worse and worse by the chapter i mean he loses virtually everything he's fled from his wife uh his master wants to kill him which none of you have that bad of a boss okay where your boss is throwing a spear at you right but his boss wants to kill him constantly he's constantly on the run the only people that want to hang out with him are misfits those in debt those are distressed those that you know have a bunch of problems they're basically his companions and he keeps getting you know rejected rejected eventually has to flee his own country and go to a completely heathen nation even of the heathen nation he's rejected of the philistines it's just bad news after bad news constant rejection nothing's going well for david then it hits like the ultimate just complete loss i mean this is like the epitome of epitomes here it says in verse one it came to pass when dave and his men were coming to ziklag on the third day that the amalekites had invaded the south in ziklag and smitten ziklag and burned it with fire and had taken the women captives that were therein they slew not any either great or small but carried them away and went on their way so dave and his men came to the city and behold it was burned with fire and their wives and their sons and their daughters were taken captives so imagine you lose your job you lose your house you lose your country you lose your friends and then all of a sudden you come home you lose your house and your wife and your kids pretty much that's about the worst and then what do you have left you just have a bunch of disgruntled guys around okay guess how they feel about you well it says in verse number six and david was greatly distressed for the people spake of stoning him the only people he has left they're mad at him they want to kill him he's literally at the end of the rope so you say wow how am i going to get through this well what does it say it says every it says because the soul of all the people is grieved every man for his sons and for his daughters but david encouraged himself in the lord is god so david ends up strengthening himself in god and he's going to overcome one of the greatest battles of his life at the moment when nothing is working for him it's all been failure it's all been bad he's still going to encourage himself in the lord and then he's going to end up going and defeating the enemy and after that point it's a complete turning point for david's life after that point then all of a sudden saul's going to die david's going to become king seven years later he's going to be coming into jerusalem he's going to become king and you're going to get all the glory of david but at this moment it's bad and let me say this there's going to be moments in your life where it's probably really bad really rough big storms coming and in the middle of the storm sometimes you can get wrapped up in that and think that that's forever like oh this is just the rest of my life now i'm just in the tornado you know i'm just in the eye of the storm i'm just in whatever's difficult you don't realize that there could be great glory or joy ahead of you you could be like jobe and think man i mean i lost everything and he did you know what he ended up getting blessed even more in the latter part of his life than the beginning but he couldn't see that necessarily he'd have to see that through faith by just constantly strengthening himself in the lord even the lord jesus christ he had his moment when he's on the cross that was a rough moment in his life yet the hope set before him is what caused him to be strengthened and to go through so it's the lord that gives us our strength and people today they want to find their strength in other things they want to find it in alcohol they want to find it in drugs they want to find it in fornication they want to find it sometimes even what seems like a good place in their children and their spouse but you can't substitute your strength with your spouse or your children it's the lord that's going to be the one that strengthens us go to second timmy chapter four i'm just kind of laying a foundation this evening for a moment but you have to realize we must strengthen our stakes because if we don't the storms of life will carry us away and maybe you say you know what my life's never been better i mean it's cloud nine right now everything's great you have to realize there's gonna still be storms ahead there's gonna be difficulty and struggle ahead and so that's why it's important to strengthen in the good times in the moments when it is great hey i would rather go and and strengthen my stakes when there is no storm i don't have to go out in the middle of the storm be like i need to go set that stake back in the ground again you know you know i want to make sure it's really good now so that when the storm comes i'm prepared and i'm ready to endure that type of a difficulty or a struggle second timothy chapter number four look at verse number 16 at my first answer no man stood with me but all men forsook me i pray god that it may not be laid to their charge notwithstanding the lord stood with me and notice this and strengthened me that by me the preaching might be fully known and that all the gentiles might hear and i was delivered out of the mouth of the lion and the lord shall deliver me from every evil work and will preserve me in his heavenly kingdom to him be glory forever and ever amen the apostle paul went through a really hard time at one point where he said every single one of my companions all men forsook me that's being a partaker of christ when all men forsake you but he said you know what there was somebody that didn't it was the lord and the lord strengthened me and you know what that was a great benefit because all the gentiles ended up getting to hear the gospel and so never discount your impact in the kingdom of god you have great importance what if saul what if paul had quit would the whole world have gotten the gospel like it did it didn't seem like there was any other apostles doing the works that paul was doing it seems like he labored more abundantly than they all you know why because he let the lord constantly be a strength even though he's beaten with rods even though he was shipwrecked even though he's going through constant difficulty and struggle i mean if i just stood you up here and just beat you to to a pulp you know for your faith you're probably not going to want to share it again the next time there's probably going to be a difficulty and struggle when you go to the next town and you're like so i believe different than you guys they're like what'd you say you're picking up the stones you're like i bet there's a big temptation after you've already been beaten to death virtually to know what that's like to say i don't know if i want to go through that again i don't know if i want to get shipwrecked again i don't know if i want to get beaten with rods again i don't know if i want to be stoned to death again and drug out of the city again and fleeing for my life again but he let the lord constantly strengthen him and he was strengthening these stakes so go to verse number one and i'm going to give you my first i have three stakes that i think we need to strengthen today in order to build the house of god for us to have a good tent and to overcome the storms the first stake here is in verse one and two it says i charge thee therefore before god and the lord jesus christ who shall judge the quick and the dead as appearing in his kingdom preach the word be instant in season out of season reprove rebuke exhort with all long suffering and doctrine the first stake that we need to do we need to strengthen is our doctrine we need to take the doctrine stake and get a bigger doctrine stake and smash that thing down into the ground and you say well we don't have any problems i don't want any problems i want to just take the big doctrine stake and just smash it down as far as we possibly can and say you know what that one's never coming up hey when it comes to the king james bible that was so far down in the ground we're never going to touch another bible i mean we're going to take salvation by faith and it's so far down i mean the ropes down to the ground i mean you don't even you can't even untie it there's no way to go it it's just down there right we want to take the doctrines that we believe in and know and we want to strengthen them now you say how do i strengthen them pastor shelley well it's one thing to know a doctrine it's another thing to be able to teach that doctrine and so we as god's people need to not only just have some general familiarity with the doctrines that we believe we ought to be able to teach them to our friends to our family members when that friend comes to you and say why do you always use the king james bible well pastor says you know the niv's bad that's not a good argument you want to be able to defend your faith you want to be able to point them to scripture you want to take them through the bible and explain your faith be ready to give them an answer okay that's strengthening that stake we ought to know the doctrines that we believe and we ought to be able to teach them to people that's one way we can strengthen them when everybody in the room can teach every doctrine we believe heresy can't creep in when a bunch of people are ignorant though of the doctrines that we believe heresy can creep in left and right you know i've been in a lot of independent fundamental baptist churches where they might be king james only from the pulpit but in the pew it's niv nlt you know it's just a smorgasbord why because they're never teaching that they're never explaining these things the people in the pew don't even understand why they only use a king james bible oh he probably just likes that one or he doesn't have enough money to buy a new bible or something you know who knows right but we don't want that to be the testimony for our church we want to take the doctrines that we believe and slam them deep down into the ground go to matthew chapter seven matthew chapter number seven and i'm not talking just about the king the king james bible we need to also slam the trinity down there way down in the ground and baptism and how about after the tribulation you know not just even the the super fundamental core beliefs but even just any doctrine in all doctrine we want as many doctrine stakes as we can grab a hold of to just smash them deep down into the ground we want our people to be educated and intelligent i don't want us to just always feel like well i don't have any answers as pastor i want every single person to know every single doctrine to the best of their ability i'm not going to push you off the bible college this is the learning institution this is the pillar and ground of the truth right look at matthew chapter seven verse number 24 it says therefore whosoever hearth these sayings of mine and doeth them i will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock and everyone that hear these sayings of mine and do with them not shall be liken to the foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it now i want to point a few things out here it's a pretty famous portion of scripture but we have two people one person builds a house on the rock the other person builds their house on the sand now notice what happens to both of them storms come it's not like the guy that built his house on the rock the storms were like oh we we don't want to go near that rock hey we can't rain on the rock we can't blow wind on the rock no the inevitable storms are going to come so if you have to make the decision where am i going to actually build my house then because you have to realize there's going to be difficulty there's going to be struggle there's going to be opposition and so you want to build it upon the rock what is that rock the rock is this and if we don't have good foundation if we don't have a good doctrine then you know what our house is going to stumble our house is going to fall it's going to be the shifting sands and churches come and go like nothing i mean you try and rent a place and say hey i'm a church they just immediately click why because there's so many churches that just come and go because they're just on shifting sands today and they're just being destroyed a bunch of false prophets coming in and out of these buildings and so we need to make sure that we're building ourselves on that rock because the storms will come go to romans chapter 16 romans chapter number 16 and look at verse number 17 the bible says now i beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary notice this to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them now it's going to be really hard to mark people and tell the church to avoid them when the church doesn't even understand the doctrine hey you know i'm gonna we need to get this guy out for his false doctrine well i don't even understand that doctrine either right if no one believes the trinity then how you're going to throw someone out for not believing in the trinity if nobody believes that the king james bible is the word of god why are you gonna throw someone out for using niv how you gonna throw somebody out for believing salvation by works when most of the church believes is by works so notice you have to have a doctrinal foundation to even exercise this type of a scripture and we need the people to understand the doctrine so then they can realize somebody that's trying to cause a division or offense against that doctrine and say hey you know this is not what we believe here ask anybody ask everybody we're all in lock step on this doctrine and so that's being built upon the rock so that when that storm comes you don't have to listen to it go if you went to first timothy chapter one though or no i'm sorry go to fisians four go to fisians four go back we were there a lot this morning so if we're all built on the same foundation when someone's trying to cause an offense or division we can withstand them we can mark them and we can avoid them we can have nothing to do with them okay but look at fisians chapter number four verse 12 it says for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god unto a perfect man to measure the stature of the fullness of christ that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive so this is that house that's built on the shifting sand when the church doesn't understand doctrine when they don't have core beliefs when everybody's not in lockstep someone can come in with a new doctrine some new wind of doctrine blows in that storm's blowing in and notice it's going to destroy that house it's going to cause problems to that house so we have to take our doctrinal stake and we have to just beat that deep down into the ground so that new doctrines when they start blowing it's like get that one out of here i'm not interested in that false doctrine i'm not interested in the Nephilim i'm not interested in your your doctrine about jesus drank alcohol get that out of here that's disgusting that's blasphemy that's wicked yet when half the church is drunk you know then of course they love that doctrine oh yeah jesus drank wine no he didn't he drank the juice right he didn't drink some alcoholic poisonous beverage but if people don't know that doctrine how you can teach it and how are you going to avoid people that are coming in bringing false doctrine and wicked things look at first to me chapter number one we need to strengthen the stake of the doctrine today and you say what programs you really emphasize of the church is your music program is it the kids program it's the doctrinal program that's the program we really emphasize in this church we want to make sure that we're teaching sound doctrine because that's going to actually protect our church from the winds of false doctrine you know the children's ministry doesn't protect you against false doctrine the music program doesn't protect you against false doctrine all these other things hey they're supplemental they're not the primary the primary that's going to hold the house up is the doctrine we need to beat that one down and teach that one and make sure that one's solid first in the chapter number one verse three as a basati to abide still at Ephesus when i went into Macedonia that thou mightest charge some that they teach no other doctrine so notice he's saying timothy when you're going to a church you don't need to emphasize the bible college oh wait no the the children's program no the doctrine what is it that y'all are teaching here what is it that y'all are believing here it's the doctrine that's the most important point look at verse number you go to chapter four look at verse one chapter four verse one now the bible warns though as we approach at the end there's going to be people that are bringing in false doctrine it says in verse one now the spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils so there's going to be people trying to bring in wicked doctrine false doctrines it says in verse number 16 take heed of thyself and unto the doctrine continue in them for in doing this thou so will save thyself and them that hear thee so notice he's warning there's going to be false doctrine winds blowing in you need to just continue in the doctrine you've already learned strengthen that stake so that you can say not only yourself but even the whole house of god go to titus chapter 2 titus chapter 2 and i'm showing you a lot of verses here because i think sometimes people they're like ah y'all are always about doctrine where's your doctrinal statement and what is it about you're always talking about what you believe yeah because the bible keeps emphasizing it the bible keeps emphasizing the beliefs and the doctrine and what we think you say what kind of church you want to go to one that emphasizes doctrine not one that says well everybody can believe whatever they want just just do whatever you want believe what you want as long as they're okay on the essentials the apostles creed you know as long as it's just jesus the son of god and we're all here and we just we like jesus you know then we can all meet together no we need some more doctrines than that we need to stick to the doctrine and think about doctrine and emphasize doctrine says in titus chapter 2 verse 7 and all things showing thyself a pattern of good works and doctrine showing uncorruptness gravity sincerity so he's instructing titus you need to have strong doctrine no don't be corrupt in your doctrine don't let any kind of leaven into your doctrine you need to keep strengthening it that's being on the rock but look at hebrews chapter number 13 just turn to the right and again i'm showing one more place so that's being built on the rock is having no corruptness show you one more example here of this hebrews chapter number 13 and this is just a sample of verses that talk about doctrine but look at verse 9 this is another warning be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines for it is good it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein so notice we constantly get a reminder hey don't let false doctrine creep in don't let these things come in and the best way to stop imposters and false doctrines and strange things is for everybody to know what the real doctrine is you don't have to understand all the counterfeits there's way too many counterfeits out there what you really just need to know is what the bible teaches and when you understand you know chapters of the bible that's why we go through that on the midweek service we'll try to go through a whole chapter of the bible when you understand the whole chapter and you understand the whole book it's going to be difficult for someone to come bring in some strange doctrine and if you listen to a lot of these false teachers they just cherry pick a verse here and a verse there this version this version parable and it all kind of fits together yet if you understand the bible it's constantly ripped out of context rip out of context and then they put forth something and you could think of a clear statement that contradicts the point that they just taught so that's why we need to emphasize doctrine now go to second john chapter nine so what are those doctrines the king james bible the trinity baptism tribulation you know soul winning we want to know why we go soul winning because a lot of people try to attack that a lot of people kind of come against you you guys waste your sunday afternoons going out and preaching the gospel yeah we got 19 people to call upon the name of the lord how you doing over there with the chips on your chest watching reruns i mean i don't even know why you'd be attacking it right now what do you got better to do now but even then it wasn't any better either ways oh we went we go to the bar and drink out drink poison and watch grown men tackle each other you know it's it's so much better how is that better how that's not a better existence yes a better existence is you know tackling false doctrine and getting people to believe on the lord jesus christ that's what i like and i like being sober anyways but don't think that this stuff can't happen to this church you know when i went to faith board baptist church false doctrine and heresy constantly was trying to creep in there and a major heresy crept in at one point the deacon of faith board baptist church when i was attending as a member there and training to be a pastor the deacon tyler baker he had brought in this heresy that the trinities of false doctrine and that jesus literally is the father like just bizarre and that basically that god does not have a son now he would deny some of these statements but he clearly articulates that god does not have a son that the son of god just means god in physical form that's what he teaches so there is no father there is no son in his doctrine and it's a very wicked heresy it's a very cunning heresy because they can say a lot of things that kind of sound right yet when you start pinning them down and what they believe so did jesus exist before mary's womb and it's like well yeah as the father well did the son of god exist before mary's womb no now you know you're in wicked heresy you're in deep dark land you don't even want to go there okay but there was a lot of people in there there was tyler baker russell bops rick martinez josh hall elliot ray this is a group and all their families like 30 people and you want to know who i hung out with the most when i was going to favor a baptist church tyler baker russell boss rick martinez elliot ray bizarre it's bizarre when you go to church with someone and you have them over your house and you go over to their house and you buy them dinner and you hang out with them and you do good under their kids you go to their birthday parties and then all of a sudden they're saying jesus christ is not the son of god from eternity past you're just like it's bizarro you're like what in the world but you know if i don't have any views on on the trinity then maybe i'd be like well it's not a big deal you know what i actually believe the trinity and i believe the word of god and so at the end of the day no matter how much i like this person or don't like them i'm going to reject them once they've been marked because they're teaching offenses and divisions contrary to the doctrine which i've learned and look there's going to be times when you're just completely confounded by what you thought was your friend and now you realize this guy's wicked this guy's evil this guy's duplicitous and now all of a sudden the church that they loved and praised so much they hate the church that they every word out of their mouth was just this is the best church ever and this is the greatest and our pastor so amazing and so wise and so exceptional and all i listen is preaching every single day and you go around them and it's like they're playing sermons in their car and every shirt is like a church shirt you're just like you know look i hope you like your church but you don't have to go to this extreme okay but then all of a sudden you know like a switch you know it's a cult and they're wicked and they're evil and you're just like what happened to you that means they were insincere it was a lot of flattery is what was coming out of their mouths and you know whenever they got thrown out guess who constantly was texting me and calling me oh yeah these people trying to get me to oh pastor anderson chase and just attacking our pastor and attacking our church and attacking the trinity and so you know what i had to eventually do stop texting them back ignore them block them have nothing to do with them when it says mark and avoid it literally means that and you know what's really hard about it since my wife and some of these wives were really close really good friends and even they had given one of them had given birth you know right at that time and it was really hard it's like do i go and you know hang out with this person or do i stick to my gun stick to my doctrine and you know what i don't think there's anything wrong with blessing somebody but at the end of the day i decided you know what i'm just going to keep my family away and just you know i don't want to touch that heresy i'm not interested in getting involved with wicked heresy and someone that hates my church and hates our pastor and hates these type of things you know what does the bible say go to second john chapter nine i hope he turned there look at verse nine whosoever transgresses abideth not in the doctrine of christ hath not god he that abideth in the doctrine of christ he hath both the father and the son if there come any unto you and bring not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him godspeed now i didn't write these words the apostle john wrote him under the inspiration of the holy ghost and it's pretty severe it says in verse 11 for he that bit of them godspeed is partaker of his evil deeds so when i read verses like this it becomes crystal clear you know what if i don't have this doctrine if i don't actually believe the bible then i'm going to get carried away with every wind of doctrine and all of a sudden all these people that were going to be in our church now move all the way across the country to go join a cult and now they're in a cult tyler baker's cult he started a cult church when his daddy ordained him in six months or whatever and look there's no one in that church but themselves it's a literal cult you say what's a cult when you stop following this and you start following somebody else when this isn't the final answer it's whatever this person's saying that's a cult and that's scary and that's dangerous and you don't want to get involved in something like that that's why this is always the primary you always need to read it for yourself and understand it for yourself and you as the husband as the father you need to take the stake of doctrine and put it deep down to protect yourself from any and all foes any and all wins and you know what i love going to a church where every husband is you know a sheepdog he's ready to take the wolf out he's ready to take any kind of thing why because he knows the doctrine for himself and then we have people like dominique get you know leave the church and then garrett gets thrown out and it was just like all these attacks and all these weird things and look it's not fun showing up to church on sunday morning and you got a smile on your face and then all of a sudden the person that was sitting in front of you is thrown out in front of everybody it's awkward it's difficult when somebody won't leave and you have to drag them out of the building you know when you have a fag walk in and sit on the front row and it's like you got to get out of here and you got to drag that thing out you know what i'd rather do that than let them just sit there and you say well why do you all attract this type of look every church has it they just don't deal with it we have to deal with these things we have to have the right doctrines and when you don't have the right doctrine you're not going to have a leg to stand on if a fag walks into most churches today they can't throw them out because nobody believes in a doctrine that he's wicked so how can you do that you can't you have to first teach them the doctrine go to second timmy chapter 2 second timmy chapter 2 so our first stake that we need to strengthen today is our doctrine and when people get a chance to preach you know what you should do strengthen the doctrine don't shy away from sermons on the king james bible don't shy away from sermons on the trinity don't try away from sermons on baptism these fundamental truths need to be preached and preached and we need to strengthen the doctrine we want our children to know the fundamentals of the faith we want our children to understand what type of church they should go to and what kind of book they should be reading and who's they should putting their ultimate trust in this jesus christ in every aspect of life but another aspect that we need to do and strengthen our stakes is our direction our direction look at second timmy chapter 2 and look at verse number 19 the bible says nevertheless the foundation of god stands sure having the seal the lord knoweth them that are his and let everyone the name of the name of christ apart from iniquity but in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth and some to honor and some to dishonor if a man therefore purge himself from these he should be a vessel unto honor sanctified and meet for the master's use and prepared unto every good work so what does it mean to strengthen well in one aspect it means to prepare yourself right you're preparing for some kind of exerting you know exerting effort or something that's going to be difficult you want to be stronger and so when i am going to be facing some kind of a foe or some kind of difficulty in the christian life i want to be the cleanest vessel that i can when i come to that situation and notice if you clean yourself up if you sanctify yourself if you purge yourself of the iniquities that are going on in your life you're going to be prepared for every good work meaning what there's some works that people cannot do because they have not purged themselves from all the iniquity in their lives there's some people that are going to miss out on opportunities to serve god because they did not sanctify themselves they did not set themselves apart they didn't decide to get the sin out of their life and their sin is going to hold them back from serving god to the fullest of their abilities look if you're laden with sin it's going to be difficult to want to get involved with the preaching you're laden with sin you may not want to get involved with the music or going and doing some kind of a missions trip or going and doing and serving god in other ways i've even heard people they get discouraged by their sin and they don't go soul winning well i just feel backslidden look i don't care what state you're in you should always go soul winning but there's going to be certain opportunities that you could allow sin to creep in and it could cause you to not be prepared for every good work in fact the office of a deacon or a bishop that has a lot of qualifications to it and there could be men that are striving for that or want to obtain that but because they don't sanctify themselves because they don't purge themselves from every single iniquity they're going to end up disqualifying themselves from ever obtaining that type of work the bible says a man that desired the office of a bishop desired a good work but you can't be prepared for that work if you're not departing from iniquity departing from the things that are affecting you look at verse number 23 but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strife so now what is this verse telling me if i'm going to purge myself from iniquity one of the aspects of this is avoiding foolish and unlearned questions that's iniquity i'm not interested in your flatter theory if someone starts bringing to me the flatter theory i think that they're you know mentally unstable and i want to stay away from them like this that's social distancing that i want to enforce okay in fact it's six feet's not enough we like 600 feet at least okay but here's the thing people will bring you stupid questions unlearned questions and i don't want to get entangled in those that's going to distract you from serving god i want to learn the doctrine i'm not interested in understanding every foolish and stupid question i don't need to learn about your flat earth chart it's ridiculous it's nonsense i would rather learn about the trinity i'd rather learn about the doctrines of the bible i'm not interested in your unlearned questions you know there's this stupid navel gazing heresy that goes around and they say well do you really have to call upon the name of the lord to be saved because the bible says believe doesn't john 3 16 say believe and it's a stupid unlearned question romans 10 9 tells you how to believe okay look it's not intellectual assent that gets someone saved the bible makes it clear that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord jesus and shalt believe in thine heart god hath raised from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the mouth confession is made in salvation look you have to confess in some way now obviously anything that comes from your heart you know can go through the mouth okay so even if i was a mute okay i could still call upon the name of the lord out of my heart you know what there has to be a decision when someone goes from understanding the gospels true to then believing it and you say how do i do that by calling upon the name of the lord that's the vehicle in which someone does it it's not just hey i acknowledge the gospels true atheists will not acknowledge the gospels true i've ran an atheist and say yeah the bible says salvation's by faith jesus the son of god all you have to do is believe and you're going to heaven that person's not saved though you know why because they didn't decide to place their faith in jesus you say well how do they do that they call upon the name of the lord how then should they call on him whom they've not believed okay so obviously there's coordination here and there's people that literally i'm not joking they'll attack your soul winning when you go out so many oh you don't need to pray with them they already believed they they when you asked them the questions they said they understood them look it's not understanding the questions that saves you it's calling upon the name of the lord in faith don't let anybody teach that wicked false doctrine and if they do you should report them immediately because that's not acceptable there are people that will creep into churches and attack soul winning why would they want to attack soul winning oh yes the work of the lord because they're a devil because they're a judas look that's a foolish question well what if they you know what if they believe but never called upon the name of the lord it's like this is stupid if you believe you're gonna call upon the name of the lord that's how you even do it okay it's not intellectual assent here's another one that people say well how come brother and so and so didn't go to church this sunday what do you think that's a foolish question why would you ask that to another person and look that what is that going to do that's going to gender strives in the church why don't you worry about yourself and if you're worried about them why don't you tell jesus and them and just say hey brother i missed you at church i can't wait to see you next week but why do you have to go tell someone else you know people come around you and ask you questions you know what do you think about this guy's sermon i thought it sounded you know like he was teaching you know some heresy what did you think that's a stupid question don't go look people will try to bait you all the time did you hear this what do you think about this you know did you see this video it's like get out of here i don't want to hear this this is nonsense it just gender strikes it creates strife worry about yourself go view into romans chapter 13 romans chapter 13 what direction are you on are you on the conspiracy theory direction train or are you on the bible's doctrine train you know some people they just they're so obsessed with just youtube videos and conspiracies and look that is a bad direction they're going to be like you know burning 5g towers pretty soon and it's just like look that is the wrong fight you know i'm not look you're just ignorant of science and technology at this point if you think that's like causing the coronavirus you know what's causing the coronavirus the media that's what's causing the coronavirus okay if you're going to burn a tower or burn the the news station tower all right but here's the thing don't get look a conspiracy is a word found in your bible and there's a lot of conspiracies that are true but at the end of the day you notice at the end of the rope of all the conspiracies the devil people get so concerned well i think it's i think it's this person who cares they're all pawns of the devil it's the devil that's causing harm and ill and there's constant conspiracy to kill you get over it there's plenty of people that want to murder you and kill you bill gates does not like you okay i don't know if you knew that already just get over it okay and the god's only going to allow him to kill you if he wants it so you ought to worry about the one that's really in control god and fearing him and be concerned with what direction you're headed because if you start heading in the wrong direction god's just going to be like just kick you you know out of it that way i want to be headed in the right direction i want to be departing from iniquity departing from foolish and unlearned questions not getting into strife and all these things i want to be strengthening that doctrine stake look at verse 12 romans chapter 13 look at verse number 12 the night is far spent the days 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 or drunkenness not in chambering and wantonness not in strife and envy but puts you on the lord jesus christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof you know when it comes to the direction of your life what you really need to do is get a stake that's called not making provision and get that beat way down say you know what i'm never gonna get drunk because i'm never gonna go to the bar and i'm never gonna go to the alcohol store and i'm never gonna have alcohol in my house it's gonna be impossible for me to get drunk because i'm not making revision for the flesh you know gets drunk people that show up at bars people that hang out at parties where people are drinking those are the people that get drunk so whenever you don't make provision for the flesh you're not going to commit those type of sins you want to keep your children from committing fornication well if you never let your daughter out of your sight i bet that's going to be a pretty easy way to not allow that to happen right you know what's more important though your personal freedom and time or your children's innocency i know what's more important to me what's chambering chambering is shacking up i'll give you the modern vernacular okay and you know how you avoid that by not getting alone with the opposite gender you know when two young people get alone bad things happen if they're always in public they're always around their parents i guarantee it's not going to happen my presence all right so that's how you protect yourself by not making provision and if there's some area of your life where you feel like you know what that's going to be a strong temptation for me to sin avoid it go nowhere near it okay what would be another way like this well didn't it say strife and envy and things like that maybe you know you have people that text you all the time really juicy gossip maybe you need to just say stop texting me that information or leave that group or leave that area why because if you just constantly sit there and you just want to tell me more did they really tell what they did that no they didn't tell me you know she couldn't have warned that do you have pictures you know send me a screenshot of that one that's just going to cause even more strife and more envy and more problems we need to depart from these things not making provision identifying triggers for us and saying you know what i'm just going to put this big stake in the ground and i'm not going to weigh away from that i'm not going to have anything to do with these type of things avoiding sinful triggers the bible says to flee fornication it's not like we'll skirt around the issue let's just see how close we can get no because when you get close to sin you end up realizing you're all the way in it's like going out into the ocean and you don't realize how far you're out and the tide just keeps taking you further and further and further and you're like whoa i didn't intend to go that far out that's what sin does to you you have to make no provision just don't go out in the ocean you don't have to worry about it then jeremiah chapter 12 go to jeremiah chapter 12 goes my last point my wife doesn't even like it because of the sharks she claims that sharks will get you so if you don't want to get eaten by a shark if you never go in the ocean you're good right i can see your point so that's what it's like in the christian life if you don't want to get bitten by the shark don't go swimming in the ocean look at jeremiah chapter 12 verse 1 my last point this evening righteous art thou o lord when i plead with thee yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper wherefore are all they happy that deal very treacherously thou hast planted them yea they have taken root they grow yea they bring forth fruit thou art near in their mouth and far from their reins but thou o lord knowest me thou has seen me and tried mine heart toward thee pull them out like sheep for the slaughter and prepare them for the day of slaughter how long shall the land mourn in the herbs of every field wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein the beasts are consumed and the birds because they said he shall not see our last end so jeremiah he's asking god when it says wherefore that means why he's just saying why does it seem like all the wicked just keep getting away with their wickedness how is it that the clinton list just keeps getting longer how come they just get their more billions they just get more money and more power and just all their kids seem to be happy and they're buying their next mansion and they're buying another house and the next car he's just like what's going on here i mean they keep killing people and they're getting more money they keep doing more wickedly and it just seems like they're more blessed they set up more you know evil things and and i'm not going to get into the details but just the government today is involved in so much debauchery and filth and sin and smut yet they seem to have more money and more power and bigger houses and more cars and even in fact they have the appearance of being happy aren't they smiling all the time and jeremiah is like i don't get it like what's going on here well he says in verse number five if that was run with the footmen and they have wearied thee then how canst thou contend with horses and at the land of peace wherein thou trustest they wearied thee then how wilt thou do in the swelling of jordan for even thy brethren in the house of thy father even they have dealt treacherously with thee yea they have called a multitude after thee believe them not though they speak fair words unto thee and my last stake that we need to drive in is your defense we need to defend ourselves we need to have our defenses take down even deeper today why because of the storms of life there's going to be storms that come against doctrine there's going to be storms that come with the temptations of sin and there's going to be storms that come with people trying to stop you trying to affect your mind evilly and trying to get you off of the work of the lord and notice even jeremiah god's saying hey some of the people that you really care about the house of thy father they've dealt treacherously with thee he's saying they're trying to get you to stop preaching jeremiah they're coming in even your own brother even your own sister even your own parents they're trying to get you to stop serving god stop doing the right things and in all reality that's trying to get you to stop you look at how happy the wicked are and how happy the celebrities are and how happy the false prophet is down the street hey they have god near in their mouth but their hearts far from them but look how happy they're i mean their church is growing i mean they're just busting at the seams they're building a new building he's got a new jaguar you know i want to preach his doctrine i don't know what it is but he doesn't even know what it is every wind of doctrine right he's just you know don't throw me the church without one but here's the thing we have to make sure that we defend ourselves against false doctrine but not only that even just people that want to tell us hey what you're doing is wrong hey what you're doing here doesn't make sense i don't think you should get involved with it jeremiah you should stop preaching go if you went to acts chapter number 20 acts over number 20 you know they were just waiting for him to halt they constantly were attacking him and ready for him to quit preaching you know what there was a fire in his bones and he was just going to keep preaching the word of god why because he had that defense built in and if we don't defend ourselves if we don't build some defenses some bulwarks in our life today whenever someone tries to attack us we'll just fall to it now i think there's two aspects to our defenses okay one is expectation and the other one is the actual bulwark that you're building okay but if you have bad expectations you're going to usually lose the war we need to have good expectations for what kind of weaponry our enemy has you know if i'm you don't want to bring a knife to a gunfight and you don't want to do that spiritually either you want to know what the enemy has you want to know what they're going to come at you with so that you're ready to defend yourself so you need to have the right expectation and then you need to come with the gun okay to the gunfight right but acts chapter number 20 the apostle paul's warning them he's giving them setting the expectation he says in verse 29 for i know this that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you not sparing the flock also of your own selves shall men arise speaking reverse things to draw away disciples after them therefore watch and remember that by the space of three years i cease not to warn everyone night and day with tears the apostle paul says look there's going to be a lot of wolves that come in and they try to draw away disciples after themselves he says you know how often i warned you every single day and night with tears he said man you guys preach on false prophets a lot not as much as paul whenever i'm doing it every day and night with tears then you can say that i'm equivalent i haven't even exceeded right and look we need to have a healthy balance of preaching okay we don't want to just focus on one area here but this is an aspect of preaching and we need to have the right expectations and you have to realize if you're going to serve god if this church is going to do great things for god wolves are going to try and creep in and we have to warn ourselves against these type of people we have the right expectations go to hebrews chapter 12 hebrews chapter 12 i have a few places left that i want to turn here but one thing that i i noticed with a lot of people and i can even find this myself is with wolves if you think i don't know a lot about wolves but i've just you know studied i've heard people talk about them a little bit but wolves are a predator in which their strength does not come just right to the face okay they're not going to just usually attack people right to the face what a wolf does is they wear you down they just follow you know a wolf has more stamina and endurance so whenever there's a herd that's kind of running they'll just slowly follow but eventually that herd is going to get so tired and so faint that it can't run anymore and at that point it's just going to fall over and it's just going to be easy pickings then the wolf's just going to come up the wolf is not that you know intimidating of a predator he just wants to wear you down he wants to slowly get you to where you can't go anymore and just slowly attack and slowly nod you and slowly get you to just give up and then the moment you give up then they're just going to pounce they're going to wait until there's somebody off by themselves something that's weak some kind of easy target they like easy targets they like low-hanging fruit they like the person that's been wearied and tired and frustrated and you know the thing about wolves is sometimes it just seems like it's just a constant battle because it is because they're just waiting for you to quit they're waiting for you to leave the pack so they can just pounce on you and just infect you with their just fangs and just devour you says in Hebrews chapter 12 verse 1 wherefore seeing we also compass about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and has set down on the right hand of the throne of God for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest he be wearied and faint in your minds you have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin he said you have to understand the Christian life is a marathon it's a race that we need to run patiently lest you what get weary lest you get faint in your minds well I just I can't do it anymore you need to keep going and you have to understand if you have the right expectation hey this is a marathon then you can start making lifestyle decisions that are based on the marathon approach some people try to run the Christian life as a sprint they just get out there and they start sprinting and they're like I can't keep doing this and then they just quit and that's when the wolf comes in and devours you you have to say hey you know what this is a race that we need to just take one step at a time you know we need to be like Jacob with our families and lead on gently lead on softly and not force our families to just go at a pace that they can't keep up with put them in the pressure cooker put them in difficult spots you know maybe you can run that fast but can your wife run that fast can your kids run that that fast why because it's a patient race and if you get too hasty and the things that you're doing you can become very wearied and very faint in your minds and then ultimately quit you know I don't want people to serve God for two years well I can do this definitely for a couple years but then you know no I want you to be able to serve God for the rest of your life we need to build habits and strengthen the stakes of our defenses and say you know what I need to have the stamina that I can continually endure this and I need to keep going I have the right expectations hey when the wolf comes we'll just we'll chop his head off and roast him and we'll hang him up high and we'll take a little we'll take a little break and just be ready for the next one right and we'll be ready for the next one and we're ready for the next one you say when is it going to quit when you die and go to heaven all right that's when it's going to quit or you could just quit and just let the wolf come and devour you go if you went to Philippians chapter three I only have a few more places I want you to turn but go back to Philippians we need to strengthen that stake of our defenses today by having the right expectations and not only having the right expectations but building a defense inside of ourselves now how do you build that defense well take the first point strengthen that doctrinal stake right look what it says in Philippians chapter number three verse one finally my brethren rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe notice he's teaching the same things and so we need to teach the same things to our children over and over and over again why it's safe there's safety and teaching the same things over and over there's safety in knowing them and understanding them you know you can defend yourself by memorizing the bible you can defend yourself by constantly reading the bible how did David strengthen himself when he was in a really bad place in the Lord hey I'm feeling really weary and faint right now well you know what you need to start strengthening your defenses with this book and start reading about the encouragement in this book and memorize scriptures hey when you go through a difficulty memorize a couple scriptures that help with that difficulty so then the next time you go in that difficulty you can be thinking about that scripture thinking about how the Lord can strengthen you go to first peter chapter four and proverbs 24 that's the last place of return first peter chapter four and proverbs 24 look at verse number 12 the bible reads beloved think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened of you but rejoice and as much as your partakers of Christ's sufferings that when his glory shall be revealed you may be glad also with exceeding joy if we were approached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the spirit of glory and of God rested upon you on their part he is evil spoken of but on your part he is glorified but let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busy body in other men's matters yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorify God on this behalf so according to the bible we ought to rejoice when we suffer as a Christian when we're doing the right thing we're serving God when we're following his commandments and people start making fun of you for that people start attacking you for that people are coming against you you have to fight the wolves and the protesters and just the harassment from friends and from family members you ought to actually rejoice you ought to say hey you know what that's what Christ had to endure Christ had to endure his own brethren not believing in him Christ had to endure with people mocking him and ridiculing him and constantly attacking him the attacks were constant with the Lord Jesus Christ the Pharisees are constantly coming against him and trying to ask him all these questions just nagging him just incessant why because they wanted to hear the doctrine no they wanted to catch something out of his mouth that they could use against him and you know what this is this is your modern day trolls your modern day trolls are the Pharisees where they just constantly harass you trying to get you to say something that they can use against you constantly trying to get you to say something that they can attack you with or use against you in some way and you know what the best thing to do just ignore them most of the time Jesus when they'd ask him questions you just ask a question back let me ask you a question what think ye of Christ you know and then after he explains what that means they're like they are afraid to ask him any more questions he trolled the trolls all right you know he was ready he was ready to contend with them and you know what you're going to get constant harassment from people you know by owning a cell phone I get constant harassment from telemarketers you know what I'm not going to decide to not have a phone living in America you get constant harassment from taxes and the government but I'm not going to move to another country you know there's certain consequences to every single action hey going to a good church you're going to have some people harass you every once in a while but you need to just say you know what I already have that expectation I already have that defense mechanism built I can do this block delete I don't want to you know not interested you know ignore I've already started building I started building those you know muscles and you know I'm strengthening that muscle just delete click delete you know it's not that hard you know what's hard is when people don't already have that expectation and they just feel like a constant barrage of harassment you know look I have constant arrangement of telemarketers and recruiters and all kinds of garbage phone calls especially when your phone number gets put on all these youtube videos you know guess what you get a lot of cool calls all of a sudden you know and I'm like I changed my number I don't know okay but you know what I'm just delete delete block block block and it'll stop there'll be moments when you go through the storm and it sucks but it'll pass and don't think that some strange things happen you look well I would think it not some strange you know thing concerning the fiery try which is to try you it's not a strange thing it happened to all the Christians every Christian had constant harassment and barrage and attack and these things so we have to strengthen that defense stake and say you know what I'm ready for it go to proverbs 24 last mess of your turn so we need to strengthen our stakes today we need to strengthen our doctrine we need to strengthen our direction and we need to strengthen our defense and you know what that'll do it'll be able to give us a bigger tent a stronger tent ready for the storms of life because the storms will blow the tabernacle that's going to stay upright is the one that dug down deep and put that stake way down and lengthen the cords and strengthen the rope and is ready for that battle proverbs 24 look at verse number 10 if thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small so notice the people that faint what was their problem they weren't strong they didn't flex their muscles they didn't strengthen themselves so if we strengthen ourselves then we won't faint in the day of adversity and I you know just telling you the honest truth I don't think that this church has seen real strong adversity it's not even close there but you know what if we love God and we're serving God there's going to be some big adversity in the future so we have to do is we have to strengthen ourselves now in the time of peace hey if the footman weirdy how are you going to contend with the horses there's going to be so much worse affliction and attack how do you know that pastor Shelley read Matthew 24 so much worse and so we have to strengthen ourselves now in the time of peace so that we can be ready for those storms of life it's close and clear thank you father so much for this great instruction for the encouragement for us to constantly strengthen our stakes and to realize that we're strengthening ourselves with your word with your understanding with your wisdom not with our might we're we're little in our own sight we don't have any ability on our own but we can rest strong in your promises and your word that you'll be the one that is our strength and our comforter and our fortress and I pray that we would do our part that we would strengthen the stakes of our doctrine today we'd strengthen the stakes of our defenses and that we would make sure that we're in the right direction in Jesus name we pray amen all right our last song this evening is going to be number 187 out of the normal hymnal song number 187 and I have a sneaking suspicion that we are all at least somewhat familiar with this song it's Jesus loves me song 187 so everyone should have a that should be a good enough reason to sing it out right 187 sing Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so little ones to him belong they are weak but he is strong yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me the bible tells me so jesus loves me he who died heaven's gate to open wide he will wash away my sin let his little child come in yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me yes Jesus loves me the bible tells me so jesus loves me he will stay close beside me all the way thou hast fled and died for me i will henceforth live for thee yes jesus loves me yes jesus loves me yes jesus loves me the bible tells me so amen and with that you are dismissed