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Join in a song with sweet accord, Join in a song with sweet accord, And thus around the throne, And thus around the throne, We're marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful Zion, We're marching on to Zion, The beautiful city of God. Let those refused to sing, Who never knew our God, But children of the heavenly King, But children of the heavenly King, May speak their joys abroad, May speak their joys abroad. We're marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful Zion, We're marching upward to Zion, The beautiful city of God. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets, Before we reach the heavenly fields, Before we reach the heavenly fields, Or walk the golden streets, Or walk the golden streets. We're marching to Zion, The beautiful city of God. Then let our songs abound, And every tear be dry. We're marching through Emmanuel's ground, We're marching through Emmanuel's ground, To fairer worlds on high, To fairer worlds on high. We're marching to Zion, Beautiful, beautiful Zion, We're marching upward to Zion. All right, great job, everybody. Let's all pray together. Thank you, Lord, so much for Steadfast Baptist Church and allowing us all to gather under one roof together, and praise you, Lord. We love you, and we just ask you to bless the service in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, for our next song, let's go to song number six. Song number six, Beneath the Cross of Jesus. Song number six, Beneath the Cross of Jesus. Beneath the Cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand, The shadow of a mighty rock Within a weary land, A home within the wilderness, A rest upon the way, From the burning of the noontide heat, And the burden of the day. Upon that cross of Jesus, At times can see, The very dying form of one Who suffered there for me, And from my spit and heart with tears, To wonders I confess, The wonders of His glorious love And my own worthlessness, I take across Thy shadow For my abiding place, I ask no other sunshine Than the sun. Content to let the world go by, No, no gain nor loss, My sinful self, my only shame, My glory all across. All right, great job, everybody. Thank you so much for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you need a bulletin, lift your hand nice and high. One of us just can come by and get you a bulletin. On the front, we have our Bible memory passage, Revelation 1-10. Any child that's able to quote that can get an ice cream treat, but you got to be able to quote it, all right? Also, again, we have our movie tickets for our films, and then we also have the preserved Bible DVDs that came in, and they're really nice to have. They also still have the QR code on the back, so if you talk to somebody and you want to give it to them, just ask them if they have a DVD player, they can watch it. If not, you could just say, hey, just scan the QR code or give them the movie ticket and everything like that as well. But people that can, we'd love to give these out to them and encourage them to watch it. It is the same as the online version. It's just the credits are a little faster, so that's pretty much all I have as far as material. But on the inside, we have our service time, so many times, church stats. Please continue to update your soul winning captains on that. We have our expecting ladies list. Please be in prayer for all of them. We also have a prayer list that we go over on Wednesdays, so we would like to just pray as a church family for those that are here. We have the Negaras we've been praying for. We've been praying for Miss Lucy. We've been praying for her mother. We've been praying for Brother Cameron's leg. We've been praying for Brother Pendleton. Also been praying for Brother Wallach's friend, Juan, his cancer treatment, the Cooley stepdad's cancer treatment. Brother Paul's father's kidney's health. Also been praying for Suhail's fiance, that her traveling and peace process would go smoothly. Also, we've been praying for Miss Ophelia's daughter, who had been diagnosed with inflammation of the heart. We've been praying for Miss Linda for vehicle and job. Also, we've been praying for the Zeminos on the passing away of the grandmother. And so that's pretty much all I have in our bulletin. We can say a quick word of prayer for our church family. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for this evening, for this beautiful day. Thank you for giving us opportunity to have church. Thank you so much for our ladies that are expecting. I pray that you would please be with them, strengthen them, help them during the pregnancy. Please help their children's development. Please give them a timely birth. I pray that you'd also bless our church family that is struggling with health concerns and not just our church family, but our friends and our relatives and other church members that are of like mind. I pray that you please give them, please give them healing. Please give them grace during their time of need. I pray that you would just help them. Please give them joy and peace during their affliction. I pray that you'd also help our friends and family that need travel requests, people that need jobs and that need just daily necessities. I pray that you just help give them favor. Please continue to help our church to be bold and preaching the gospel and that we would continue to be edified by one another. And we just thank you for all you give us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. On the back, we have the note about the baby shower on the 15th for the Negueros. It's from 2.30 to two, I'm sorry, from 12.30, 2.30 p.m. and its address is there in the bulletin. Please also RSVP to Mrs. Milstead that really helps us with planning events. The Mother's Day tea is the 15th on May. We have some church reminders there. Also upcoming event, the Bahamas missions trip is coming up soon. Please just pray for us that everything is gonna go smoothly. And it looks like we have over 60 people that are planning on going out there. And so definitely have opportunity to do a great work for the Lord. And so just pray that everything would go smoothly and that we will have free course while we're there. That's pretty much all I have for announcements. So we can go ahead and go to our third song. We're gonna do Psalm 126. Psalm 126. You can use your handouts or even a King James Bible there. Psalm 126. All right, that was Psalm 126. Psalm 126. Everybody's singing out real loud on the first. When the Lord turned again that captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us. We are glad, turn again our captivity. Oh Lord, as the streams in the south, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us. Ye that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad. All right, great job everybody. Now as the offering plates are being passed around, go ahead and turn in your Bibles to Ecclesiastes chapter one. Ecclesiastes, sorry, Ecclesiastes chapter number one. If anyone doesn't have a Translators to the Reader packet, just raise your hand and it's coming around there. Brother Dylan is passing them out, he'd be happy to get one to you. Ecclesiastes chapter one, the Bible reads, the words of the preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem, vanity of vanities, sayeth the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What profit hath a man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun? One generation passeth away and another generation cometh, but the earth abideth forever. The sun also ariseth and the sun goeth down and hasteth to his place where he arose. The wind goeth toward the south and turneth about unto the north. It whirleth about continually and the wind returneth again according to his circuits. All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full. Under the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again. All things are full of labor, man cannot utter it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be, and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun. Is there anything whereof it may be said, see, this is new? It hath been already of old time which was before us. There is no remembrance of former things, neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come with those that shall come after. I, the preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem, and I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven. This sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith. I have seen all the works that are done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit. That which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which is wanting cannot be numbered. I commune with mine own heart, saying, lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem. Yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge, and I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly. I perceive that this also is vexation of spirit, for in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you, Lord, for the midweek service. I pray that you fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit now, and help him to preach this message to us. Help us to learn, Lord. And Father, I pray that we would be safe as we all go our separate ways after the service. We love you. And in Jesus' name, I pray. Amen. Amen. So I'm actually continuing a series that I had started over a week ago on the translators to the reader. And so we were kind of going through this. This is part two, and if you have one of these papers, really, if you just kind of flip the first page, and they don't really have numbers on them, but they have titles. We're going to start with the highest personages have been columninated. It's there on the back of that first page. It's kind of where we're going to be starting again. Just to give you a little bit of a backdrop, especially if you didn't already join us previously. This was attached to the King James Bible when it was originally translated in 1611. And it is exactly what it says it is. It's from the translators to the reader. So it's just to give you a little bit of a history and some information regarding the King James Bible. I think that it's very beneficial because it gives us a little bit better understanding of the Bible that we have. Additionally, they use a lot of scripture in the translators to the reader. And I like to look them up. And so I find that it's beneficial and it provides us with a little bit more education. Some things to be noted about this. Number one, it's not scripture itself. So anything it says is never going to be always true. It could have human error or flaw to it. Yet I do find that I agree with almost all of it. It does seem to be very well-written. Another thing you'll notice is I find that when you read the translators of the reader, it's very difficult language. It's very difficult to be understood, which is in sharp contrast to the King James Bible itself. And so there are parts of the King James Bible that are a little bit more difficult, a little wordier. I think 2 Corinthians is kind of a difficult section of scripture in places. And at times it reminds me of how this is written. But what's amazing about reading this is to see how the King James has written such plain English at that time. And it's just that our society has dumbed itself down so much that the King James Bible seems like difficult language and it really isn't. And I find that the more you educate yourself, the more you learn, the better you have just a grip on the King James Bible itself. And the first portion of this that we've already read, it's briefly summarized in kind of the last sentence. So if you just look at the sentence right above where we're gonna start, it says, so hard a thing it is to please all, even when we please God best and do seek to prove ourselves to everyone's conscience. So essentially they describe how anything that is good is still gonna have critics and people are gonna still criticize and go against the things that are good. And so you can't win everybody over, you can't please everyone. And they started out by explaining how even great men like King David was hated and had people attack him and King Solomon, people got mad at him for wanting to build the temple. And they're saying, it doesn't really make sense why people get mad at us for wanting to give you the Bible and to give you such a great work of literature, but for whatever reason, people are gonna be against it because even the best things are spoken against. And so that's just kind of the essence of the first portion that we had looked at. If you look at the next title though, it says the highest personages have been columninated. So he starts off with the best things and then he says, not only are the best things spoken against, and that's what columninate means is to speak against or to attack verbally, then he's saying the highest personages, meaning the king or the governor or the highest leader, whoever it is, whoever's of a high position of authority, even they are going to be spoken against and attacked verbally. He says in this, if we start reading, if we will descend to latter times, we shall find many the like examples of such kind and rather unkind acceptance. The first Roman emperor did never do a more pleasing deed to the learned, no more profitable to posterity for conserving the record of times and true suppitation than when he corrected the calendar and ordered the year according to the course of the sun, and yet this was imputed to him for novelty and arrogance and procured to him great obloquy. So he basically points out, the translators of the reader point out that even when a Roman emperor did something great such as correcting the calendar or updating a calendar to be a solar-based calendar, they end up getting attacked for having done this work as being arrogant or somehow you're just doing this for your own personal benefit, when really he's just saying, look, I'm just trying to be accurate here and identify how we calculate a year. And there's been actually various calendars throughout history that people have used. You also have the Jewish calendar, which is a way to calculate time and history and months and seasons. And really we are based on a Roman-based calendar system and we're based on the sun-based system, a 365-point such and such day calendar and we have our leap year. But even that is not exact. There's still even a little bit off from that entirely. But of course, every four years you have a leap day and that leap day is to kind of round up because it's about 365 and a fourth days is how long it takes for the earth to rotate around the sun. Now, of course, flat earthers won't understand anything that I'm saying right now. And of course, they would speak against this Roman emperor. You know, how dare you? Do you not understand? You know, their little mobile aisle design where the earth is just kind of like the sun just kind of spinning on top or something. But you know, that if the sun was just spinning on top of the earth, you would see it no matter where you're at. You know, it doesn't really explain how darkness works. So then they have to build like this cone, this lampshade that goes around it. But then by doing that, you don't have half the earth with sunlight and half in darkness. You would only have like a third or fourth at best that's spinning around. And then this is completely nullifies time zones, the observable reality that we have. On top of that, you can go to certain places in the world, Antarctica or towards the polar caps, and you can watch the sun go all the way around in the sky and never actually dip down because of the way the earth is tilted towards the sun. Again, also disproving, flatter stupidity. And that's what the flatter theory is, it's stupid. And people who believe in it are either stupid, wicked or both. And that is something that I don't have to change. You know, that's just a timeless truth. But he's saying, look, this Roman emperor tries to correct the calendar, tries to do a scientific achievement, and then everybody speaks against him and attacks him for it. That's essentially what's being described here. So the first Christian emperor at the least wise that openly professed the faith himself and allowed others to do the like for strengthening the empire at his great charges and providing for the church as he did, got for his labor the name Pupilas as who would say a wasteful prince that had need of a guardian or overseer. So the best Christian emperor for the love that he bear unto peace thereby to enrich both himself and his subjects and because he did not seek war but find it was judged to be no man at arms. Though indeed he excelled in feats of chivalry and showed so much when he was provoked and condemned for giving himself to his ease and to his pleasure to be in short the most learned emperor of former times at the least the greatest politician. What thanks had he for cutting off the superfluities of the laws and digesting them into some order and method? This that he had been blotted by some to be an epitomist that is one that extinguished worthy whole volumes to bring his abridgments into request. So just bringing up how emperors that they seek peace they're considered sissies or something like that, right? You bring everybody into peace and you're not this strong warrior or something. You're this strong warrior, this bloody guy. They're just basically saying you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't, nobody's gonna end up recognizing the achievements that you have. Not only that, when you correct laws or you seek for peace, you bring in achievements, people will speak against you. It says here, this is the measure that has been rendered to excellent princes in former times even cum bine facerent malae adire for their good deeds to be evil spoken of. So it gives you the Latin and then the Latin is rendered as for their good deeds to be evil spoken of. And that is a quote from Romans chapter number 14, which I'm like so-so on if that's really using the right context here, because Romans chapter 14 is about receiving him that is weak in the faith but not to doubtful disputations. And that's the whole context of Romans chapter number 14. And essentially what the Bible is saying is that not everybody is gonna be a zealous, on fire, sold out Christian. Not everybody is just full of faith and is just really mature, ready to serve God, and they understand all the doctrine. There's gonna be people that are likely tempted with sin, they're likely tempted to fall away, they could have problems. And the Bible constantly warns about, the apostle Paul says that he tries not to eat meat, sacrifice, and idols, so as to cause a stumbling block upon his brethren. He doesn't want for him to be seen taking liberties as a license to sin and then causing weaker or other brethren to not understand why he did that and being like, oh, sweet, let's worship false gods or let's eat meat, sacrifice, and idols. There's no problem with this. And so the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 14 is trying to say, I'm not gonna eat meat if it's gonna end up causing my brother to stumble or have a problem or be offended. I would rather just not even eat meat because the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. Now that hurts my heart a little bit because I'm a Texan and I love brisket, but according to the Bible, brisket is not the kingdom of God. Bacon is not the kingdom of God. You could technically be vegan and still be a Christian. It's weird, I know, but you can. Okay. Also, the Bible says that we're not even supposed to despise him and that's tough. Sometimes you're kind of like, what's going on with your brother? But you know what? You're supposed to still be nice to the guy. And of course the vegan is not supposed to get mad at me for eating delicious meat. And I'm not supposed to get mad at him for not eating delicious meat. And I'm not supposed to do anything that would violate his conscience or cause him to be offended or to think, oh, because you would say, well, how is eating meat going to cause a vegan to stop serving God? But at the same time, if to someone, they think something's very sinful and they're watching you just do this activity that they in their minds thinking very sinful, they might look at that as like, well, you don't really care about following God's commandments or you're really brazen to break God's commandments. And that might cause him to think, oh, then I can be brazen to commit God's commandments too. Or someone that you might have respect for in a position of authority, but do you see them sin? It can sometimes cause you to be discouraged and be more likely to sin. And so he's basically just saying, let not your good be evil spoken of, and is what the Apostle Paul's bringing up in the sense that, you know what? Even though me eating meat is not a bad thing, it's good. I just don't want people to then get the wrong idea, get confused, and then end up saying something wrong or having the wrong idea or getting confused. And then I'm basically this bad Christian or something like that. And so in this particular section, he's trying to say their good deeds are evil spoken of, but there was nothing wrong with the Roman emperor creating a good calendar. There was nothing wrong with some of these things that they point out. Whereas the Apostle Paul's trying to kind of bring up doubtful disputations. And again, not everything in the Christian life is an obvious black and white issue. There is plenty that's a black and white issue. Fornication is a wicked sin. It's just black and white, okay? When it comes to all manner of things that are mentioned in scripture very plainly, adultery, drinking alcohol, there's certain things in the Bible that are just very clear, this is a sin. But then there's gonna be certain situations, there's gonna be certain areas where people might differ in their interpretation. They might look at a particular passage or a way to practice. And just because they have a different view doesn't mean that we want to attack them or act like they're bad. And I think that what we can learn from this though, for their good deeds to be spoken of, let us not be the individual that speaks evil of good Christian men and women on something that's not necessarily an obvious right or wrong issue. When there's possibly different interpretations, and it's not like you're gonna not think that you're right. Everyone thinks that they're right, okay? Of course, I'm right on every issue. It's just that you haven't figured it out yet. No, I'm just kidding. Everyone believes they're right, otherwise you would change your mind, right? If you thought you were wrong on something, you'd immediately change your mind, but then all of a sudden you'd be right again. So you're always right on every issue in your mind. But that doesn't mean you're actually right. And what we have to realize is that it's okay to be wrong. And it's okay to also be careful in not asserting your opinion. Well, you know what? I personally believe A, but I could be wrong. This person believes B. And you know what? I can respect that person believing B, even though I think they're wrong. I still think it's A. You know, I still believe this is the correct doctrine. Let me give you an example, okay? I'll give you so you're not just hearing blank speech. I believe that Jesus Christ died on Thursday, okay? Some people believe Friday, some people believe Wednesday. They're wrong, okay? But you know what? It doesn't mean that they're a bad Christian for believing that, okay? And it wouldn't be fair for me to be like, you can't go to a church where they believe in Good Friday. If you go to a Baptist church that believes in Good Friday, you're wicked. You know, there's things like open or closed communion. And to me, this is a very clear, doubtful disputation in the sense that it's not obvious exactly how you should interpret that. But some churches will have no fellowship with other churches based on their view of communion, where they say, well, is it open or is it closed? It's like, who cares? Like, really, you're gonna not be my friend because I might let a visitor partake in communion. And it's like, that's a dividing fellowship issue for some people. And that's, to me, speaking evil of someone's good deeds, right? Because what are you doing? You're allowing someone to partake in the Lord's Supper and to have fellowship with you, but then they'll speak evil of you for doing such a thing. And so we don't want to get in this attitude where just because someone's different than us and even maybe wrong, like a vegan, okay, that we would want to say, you're not a good Christian because you're a vegan. Because you know what? I guarantee there's plenty of people that don't eat meat that are still great Christians and better than most Christians. And then there's gonna be people that eat meat and are terrible Christians. You know, it's not like that's the deciding factor. And it's not like understanding end times eschatology or understanding the exact timing of the Passover or understanding every single picture of Christ in the Old Testament or explaining every single, you know, little finer point of the New Testament is the separating factor of whether someone's good or bad. You know, we should have a more basic approach to this. Like, hey, do you believe salvation by faith? Okay. Are you King James only? That is already a really good person, okay? You're already on a really good start. Let's not just then start lambasting people on minor differences, on these little things, because then we'd be like these people, where he's saying, you just, you criticize this, you know, Roman government, you know, this Roman emperor for creating a calendar. And we don't want to be that individual that can't support people that are different than us. You know, we want to like people that are on the right side of the aisle. That doesn't mean I wouldn't contend with them. That doesn't mean I wouldn't explain to them why they're wrong about issues. But at the same time, I can still be friendly and not necessarily go over the top and speak evil of their good deeds. Notice this also. Neither is there any likelihood that envy and malignity died and were buried with the ancient. No, no. The reproof of Moses taketh hold of the most ages. You're risen up in your father's stead and increase of sinful men. What is that that hath been done? That which shall be done. And there is no new thing under the sun, saith the wise man. And saints, even as your fathers did so to ease. Now, there's a lot of quotes here, but notice we read Ecclesiastes chapter one to start the service. And I like this, you know, he's quoting here, there's no new thing under the sun, saith the wise man. That's not necessarily relevant to the immediate context, but he's just bringing up this point that people that have done, or people that do great things or in high positions of authority are going to be spoken against. And it's not like, well, that used to be the case, but now we respect our leaders. No, it's the same thing. There's no new thing under the sun. Even the highest personages, the best pastor is going to be spoken against. The best king is going to be spoken against. The best leader is going to be spoken against, okay? And it's not Biden, he's not the best leader, okay? So don't be afraid of speaking against that reprobate, okay? But he's saying good people. He's saying like, you know, the king, or I don't know what it is, president of Uganda. Is it a president? Does anybody know? The president of Uganda is spoken against for wanting to be against disgusting sodomites. And it's like, you know what? That's being columninated. That's being spoken against for the wrong reason. That's an honorable charge to have people speak against you for that. That's a great reason. And you have to understand that truly, truly the experiences that we have today are not any different than the experiences that people have had in the past. And I think there's a big movement right now to try and confuse people and think like, we're living in the most unique time in human history. But I will submit to you that everything that's happening right now has happened in some form in previous generations. Albeit, maybe technology itself is a little bit different and we have some different means by which things have escalated or increased quickly. But liberals have always existed. Trans trainees have always existed. Sodomites have always existed. Jews with predatory banking practices have always existed. The Catholic church has virtually always been around. There's always been heretics and weirdos and freaks. And you learn about the Spanish Civil War. It's like exactly what happened right now with us. You learn about all kinds of different things that have happened throughout history. You see that we really just go through a lot of cycles and really mankind just keeps going through all the same kind of cycles over and over and over again. And we're just in one of those really bad cycles right now. But they happen. Now the good news is that those who love God and serve God continue to come out of it. Notice that the gates of hell have not prevailed against the church. We're still having church today. 2,000 years after Christ, we're still having church. And look, this is a great church. This is a wonderful... I mean, if we're going to really examine history and think of all the church options you could have had in the past, this is a pretty good option. I mean, do you really want to live in Europe where you're forced to go to the Catholic church where you had to hear a sermon in Latin? I mean, we got a little Latin here, but you got the English right after that. Do you want to be in a Latin church where you only got the Latin? No English, you have no Bible, nothing in your lap. I mean, you think this is boring? How boring do you think it would be if I'm just up here like, Cume, bine, fascerent? You'd be like, what is happening? You know, that would be weird. No one would get any real edification from that. And if you didn't go to church, you could be arrested, fined. You have all kinds of indulgences going on in the church. Not only are you going to a bad church, think about what you have to be witnessing in the church. You have to be witnessing the most disgusting people coming in, worshiping with them, them paying for indulgence. Can you imagine someone walking up and being like, I need to pay for my adultery this weekend. Wouldn't that be pretty offensive to watch and see people doing these kinds of things and saying these kinds of things? And you have to just go along with it, people getting up there speaking blasphemy, speaking false doctrine, being under the threat of death for actually being a real Christian, wanting to homeschool your children, you could be put to death. I mean, we think we have it hard today. You don't even, you've never read history. Read Fox's Book of Martyrs, okay? And boy, is that not an uplifting message, okay? But it is kind of uplifting because you look at it and it's just like every one of these great people was willing to just die and they didn't even care. They were like, they were actually happy. In fact, some of the martyrs when they describe them, they're just talking about how sighted they were to die. They had opportunities to not be tortured or put to death and they were like, no, no, no, you put me to death. You torture me. Like, I'm not accepting deliverance. It's like, that's their attitude, you know? And like, you read about as being 90-year-old men and they're just like, they're still on fire. They're just like, you gotta bash my head out, you know? You're not gonna get away with this. You know, you better pony up. They were excited to die for Christ. And I mean, look, you only get to die once, folks. You know, you can't be burned to death and drowned. You know, you have to pick, okay? You can't die of everything. You only get one way to die. And what a glorious death to be a martyr for Jesus Christ. And you look at this world today and it's getting weird and dark and it's like, sure. And everybody wants to die in their sleep. But you know, in heaven, in heaven, do you want to be like, yeah, I died in my sleep. I was going to the Southern Baptist Church, you know? We quit using the King James. I was like, that was a glorious death, wasn't it? Or do you want to be like, you know what? I stood up to Biden and Big Mike and, you know, I got my head chopped off in front of all. I mean, that would be more glorious, right? I mean, that would be cooler. So it's like, the more dark our world gets, you know, the martyrs in Fox's Book of Martyrs would have been like, bring it on. They wouldn't have been like, we need Trump to rescue us. Please, Trump, will you make sure that we can all have our trannies in the right bathroom? I mean, do you think Trump's going to rescue you from anything, folks? Come on, let's be realistic. What is he really going to save you from? He's the one that brought all the COVID vaccines in here. He's the one that said that Caitlyn Jenner can use whatever bathroom it wants. I mean, he's the guy that says that he's going to protect us from a foreign and hateful ideology against sodomites. Oh, I'm so glad he's going to protect me from that. How about he protect me from sodomites? You know, I like that. I mean, the guy, oh, he's going to build a border wall. Is that to keep people out or to keep me in? You know, you can always look at these things two different ways, folks, okay? Because when the tribulation hits, I'm thinking like Mexico looks like a good direction ahead. I'm thinking like, how do I get over there? Where the gospel, the soul winning's good, the food's still, I mean, they still got the vodka, okay? You know, they still got carne de vodka. I mean, that's great. They got corn, the tortillas, they're very good, okay? So you got all kinds of good options over there. I mean, I don't know about Trump, okay? The Mexican president said that America is being run by a Jewish mafia, and boy, he sounds right, you know? I'm thinking like, I wish my president would say that. But you know what, the highest personages have been columninated, and you know, they're going to just, they're just always going to attack. Go to Acts 7, that's the other quote we had here. Acts 7 with Saint Stephen. You know, do you think Saint Stephen's looking down from heaven disappointed that he died? And you know, let's be honest. Any of us that would die, especially prematurely, you know, 30s, 40s, 50s, you know, some age that you're not really supposed to die, there'd be some level of disappointment. You know, there'd be disappointment in the sense that maybe you didn't get to have more time with your spouse, you didn't get to see your children grow up more, you didn't get to have another chance to have brisket, you know, whatever, whatever stuff. But after 20, 30, 40, 50 years, everything that you know would have changed to the point where there's nothing to even miss anymore, right? I mean, do you think that Saint Stephen at this point is missing out on anything? All his loved ones are already gone too, and they're up there with heaven anyways, right? So it's just a momentary, you know, disappointment, quote unquote, even if you were to be able to quantify that. But at this point and from eternity now, it's like, I'm so glad I got to be a martyr to influence the Apostle Paul and all the converts that the Apostle Paul had and the churches that were started and the great movements that were made. And think about his legacy. His legacy is not extended just in his immediate family, but it's for all of us to look at. And how much more powerful would it be for you to die as a martyr for Christ now and have a legacy for 100 years that changes the course of Christianity for 100 years than it is for you to just live and die in your sleep? And no one to know that you even existed. And frankly speaking, America really hasn't had any great martyrs of its recent past, if you think about it. I mean, who are the great Christian martyrs of American history? In fact, most of the great Christians, I don't know about them. And it's like, arguably, were they very great? Were they really even leaving a big mark? You know, I can think of Jack Hyles was a great Christian. You know, he set a pretty big mark, started a lot of fundamental Baptist churches. You have people like J. Frank Norris, who definitely left a mark. But America hasn't really experienced a lot of great martyrs, and that's what really turned a lot of people to the faith is the martyrdom and the people that really were willing to lay down their lives. And Stephen is a great martyr of the faith, but in order to be martyred, he had to come across people that just hate the truth so much. Look what he says in verse 51. He's stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You do always resist the Holy Ghost. Notice this though, as your fathers did, so do ye. So the Apostle Stephen is making a very important point here. It's not like only the generation of Jesus Christ hated Jesus and weren't gonna believe in him. He's saying, no, no, no, no. All the people of the past that were wicked, you're just like them. And let me tell you something. Today, there are people just like the ones that stoned Stephen, just like the ones, they're just like Cain. They're just like all of the false prophets. They're just like Judas. There is Judas' walking around the day, and Cain's, and Balaam's, and Kor's, and every kind of wicked person they have walking around. It's the same Pharisees, the same Sadducees, the same everything, because there's no new thing under the sun. And as your fathers did, so do ye. Meaning, you cannot escape the verbal assault any generation. Whatever person does something great for God, they are gonna be attacked. So we'll never have that individual where just everyone loves them. Who is that anyways? I mean, the greatest person ever is Jesus Christ, hated by tons of people, hated by so many, you know, spit upon when he's going to the cross. And yet, why would we think that we would be any different? You can't win them all. You can't please them all. And so this is the setting that we're getting with the King James Bible. Do you feel, just so far, have you felt like they're saying, everybody's going to love this book that we made? Who's getting that feeling? I'm not getting that feeling at all. In fact, it seems like they're already anticipating the fact that many people are going to be attacking the work that they made, isn't it? And let me tell you something, this is one of the most attacked things on the planet. You want to know why? Because it's the truth. Because it's great. Things that are garbage, people don't usually waste as much time attacking because it's just so evident, it's just so obvious that they don't need to. But man, do they need to columninate the things that are great and great men. Next paragraph, it says, His Majesty's constancy, notwithstanding columnination, for the survey of the English translations. So they set up that the best things are columninated, the highest personages, and then they're getting really specific now, they're going to talk about King James. And how he is being columninated, but he has constancy, meaning that he's steadfast despite all this columnination. Says this, This and more to this purpose, His Majesty, that now reigneth, and long and long may he reign, and his offspring forever, himself and his children and his children's children always. They wanted to make sure that King James liked them, okay. Knew full well, according to the singular wisdom given unto him by God, and the rare learning and experience that he hath attained unto, namely that whosoever attempted anything for the public, especially if it appertained to religion and to the opening and clearing of the word of God, the same set of themselves upon a stage to be glouted upon by every evil eye. Yea, he cast himself headlong upon pikes to be gored by every sharp tongue. That's an incredible sentence, okay. Now, I'm going to point out a few things. Number one, what is their personal perspective of King James? Number one, they love him. Now, maybe it's flattering, okay. We could say that. But notice how they view him. They say that he has rare learning and experience. So is King James just some dummy or doesn't understand things? Or do they personally think this guy is unique. He actually understands the word of God and has special knowledge above normal people, above the average person. In fact, I'll even argue that they're meaning this in context of kings, that even among kings, he has rare learning and experience. And it's very true when you actually read King James' own literature, because King James wrote several different pieces of literature. One, he wrote kind of a novel or a letter to his son, trying to tell his son how to be a good king. Excellent literature. It's very clear that King James loved the Bible, had an extreme and high respect for God, and was not a respecter of persons, because he over and over emphasizes in his own literature how you can't trust what the bishop says necessarily. You can't trust what the church teaches necessarily. Your only authority is the Bible, and you should always only give ear to the Bible. And the king needs to be the most learned in the Bible, because he's at the top of the food chain, and God's endued him with so much power, and that he has to set the right example. I mean, King James has a very high regard to the things of God, to the word of God. And so when people will foolishly lambast him or claim, oh, King James is a sodomite. It's like, that's not even close to reality, folks. King James is someone that truly admires the word of God. Now, was he saved? I don't know. I hope he was. It makes sense and reason to think that he probably was, considering how right he was on so many issues. But even if he wasn't, he certainly feared God. He certainly loved the Bible and tried to do the best things for the Lord. Not only that, he really hated smoking. And I just, I appreciate that about him, okay? There's probably not a person I've ever met or heard about that hates smoking more than King James, okay? So if you ever read his literature, boy, does he detest anyone who smokes, all right? And that's just a good, you know, guy in my opinion. Now, it says to be in this sentence that he's, you're setting yourself up on a stage to be glouted. Glouted means to be stared upon by every evil eye, yet he casts himself headlong upon pikes to be gored by every sharp tongue. So he's saying, when you try to do anything for God, when you try to do a big work for God, what's gonna happen is all the enemies are gonna notice you. They're gonna say, oh, here's someone that's trying to speak up for God. Just think about it this way. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are not bowing down to the statue, do you think it was easy or hard to pick them out of the crowd? Really, really easy, because they're the only guys standing. And essentially, that's kind of the essence of Christianity, that there's only usually a few people standing in the crowd, and all the wicked people want to point you out. Hey, look at that guy standing. Hey, King Nebuchadnezzar, they're not worshiping. Hey, they're doing this, and they're gonna attack and go against, and you're just basically setting yourself up to have the worst people attack you. Think of it anyway, in sports, if you're the best receiver, if you're the best shooting guard, if you're the best batter, whatever it is, all of the other team is gonna recognize that, and they're gonna put as much pressure on that individual as possible, right? They might double cover that receiver, or triple cover that receiver. They may not even pitch to the best batter. Sometimes they'll literally just walk the best batter on purpose, just because they don't want to even give an opportunity to hit a home run, or get a base hit, or anything like that. So they'll, or they'll be dirty. They'll try to, they'll do some tricks, or they'll use the seat. And again, it's just the same in Christianity, that if you try to do a big work or public work for God, you know he's gonna notice the devil. You know he's gonna notice his minions. You know, show me a guy serving God with no enemies, it doesn't exist. Some people think like, oh, why do you have all these enemies? Well, if we're serving God, that would make sense. That could be one interpretation. Here's my question, where are your enemies? Where's your pastor getting attacked? Where is your church getting harassed? You know, it's like, how could you live in a world right now that you're not getting attacked? I mean, just mom and pop businesses that don't even like Christ, that take a little stand and get attacked and assaulted. And it's like, your church isn't getting attacked by anybody? It's like, what do y'all believe? What are you doing? In my hometown, the university I'm an alma mater of, they got super attacked and the president got super attacked because he refused to have a drag queen event on campus. He said that it's like embarrassing, it's like the most shameful thing that they could even have. And he like wrote a public letter about it. And then they just have just everyone attacking him. I mean, just all the news is coming out and just slandering him. They found some former alum to say, I'm rescinding all of my financial donations to the university. Oh, is it because you're a faggot? Yeah, that's why, okay. We don't want your dirty money anyways. But it's just anybody that tries to do anything for God or make any kind of godly stand, get ready, people are gonna attack you. And the reason why so many churches are not being attacked is because they're hiding. They're a hiding Baptist, they're a hiding Christian, they're just going off in the cave and they're afraid of Jezebel coming after them. But look, Jezebel exists, she's ready to attack, she's ready to send her minions and it wasn't any different with King James. King James and these translators know there are people ready to attack us, ready to go against us and you be sure to know as soon as you do this, you're gonna be on a stage to be glouted upon by every evil eye and you're gonna be cast upon a headlong of pikes to be gored by every sharp tongue. And so it's just, that is the reality. I don't know what to think entirely but this is sometimes why I sympathize with Trump. Obviously he's not a savior, obviously he has a lot of severe issues, but boy, when he just seems to be getting glouted upon and just spiked by every single individual, you can tell that he must be right on at least some issues. Albeit not a lot, but there are some things that he's right on and just for even being right, even 1% or 10% or whatever you wanna assign to that, they get attacked too. Just anybody that has any level of righteousness, any standards, just they're gonna attack them. And you don't have to be perfect to be attacked. Notice men are attacked. Jesus is the only perfect one. But Jesus is gone, right? So what are they gonna do? They're gonna attack the next closest thing and as soon as they get that taken out, then just the next closest thing and the next closest thing until they've just eliminated any level of righteousness, any light, any truth whatsoever and that is the enemy's goal is to just attack truth. Now if we keep reading, he says, for he that meddleth with men's religion in any part meddleth with their custom, nay, with their freehold. And though they find no content in that which they have, yet they cannot abide to hear of the altering. So this is funny, okay? You know what he's saying? He's just saying whenever you talk about anybody else's religion, they are gonna get so triggered and so offended because you spoke against their own religion, even though they themselves don't even like their own religion. It's like basically saying, hey, here's a Catholic who's upset with the Catholic Church, upset with the Pope and you say, who's that? Almost every Catholic. Look, most Catholics actually are very upset with the Pope now. They think he's very liberal. They don't like the direction of the Catholic Church and look, it's not like the Catholic Church is good. I'm not like their number one fan or anything, folks, okay? But you know what, at least they're not the Democrat Party entirely, okay? They still have some standards and they're right on some things and it's just, the Catholic, even though he doesn't even like his own religion, if you say, hey, the Catholic Church is wicked, they'll be like, hey, how dare you attack my Catholic Church? You know, no, no, no, the Catholic Church, it's great, but it's not, but it's great. It's like they can't even figure out what they believe, but it's like, but I don't wanna hear how we should not be Catholic. I don't like the Catholic Church, but I'm Catholic. It's like, well, how about be Baptist? No, no, no, no, no. I'm gonna be a part of my terrible Catholic Church. And not only that, there's other individuals, outside of Catholicism, there'll be individuals who every church is wrong and boy, do I can't stand these people. And essentially, they're right about everything and they've never met a church or a pastor that is right on everything like they are. And so they just can't stand even going to any church because it's like, but this is pastors is wrong on so many things. And you're just like, oh yeah, like what? Well, you know, he thinks Good Friday. Or something stupid, you know, something just retarded like that. And it's just like, okay, but does that mean anything? Does that matter? And it's just like, no, but it's like, well, I just can't go to that church, you know? It's like, no, you're just a troublemaker. Don't be the person that can't find joy in things that aren't perfect. Because let me tell you something, you're not perfect. And the person that can't like any church, they're the problem every single time. Every single time. There are so many churches in this country that I could go to and be a content person. Now, does that mean I would love everything about every church? No. Is there a reason why I'm the pastor of this church? Yes, I love this church. I'm so glad that we have this church. But you know what, I guarantee there are people in this room that disagree with me on things. And they can still like our church. And praise God for you, okay? You're wrong, but I'm glad that you like our church, okay? You know, you don't have to like everything. You don't have to agree with everything to like your church, okay? That would be a ridiculous requirement, then no one, what's the point of you and us gathering together? And of course, you know, it's my job to edify and convince the gainsayer and to, you know, help people, help the weaker brother. But at the end of the day, you know, we're all growing and learning together. No one's perfect. And we don't want to be that individual that can't even find content in what we have. Be like, well, I would like steadfast if it had this. It's like, if you can't like steadfast now, you'll never like steadfast back to the church. Well, I would like Pastor Shelley's preaching if it was shorter. No, you wouldn't. If you don't like it now, you wouldn't like it anytime, okay? And well, I would like it if you didn't use certain words. No, you just wouldn't like it then, okay? Just go somewhere else, right? If you can't find any contentment in the church you're in, find a different church. But if you can't find contentment in any church, you're the problem. And don't be that individual. And there's nothing wrong with us contending for the faith. We should be meddling in religion in the sense that we want to make sure that we're right. The truth is more important than our feelings. And being right with God is more important than our pride. Now he says this, notwithstanding, his royal heart was not daunted or discouraged for this or that color, but stood resolute as a statue, immovable, and an anvil not easy to be beaten into plates. Here's another way to word this, steadfast. I like King James because he's steadfast, right? As one sayeth, he knew who had chosen him to be a soldier or rather a captain, and being assured that the course which he intended made much for the glory of God and the building up of his church, he would not suffer it to be broken off for whatsoever speeches or practices. It does certainly belong unto kings. Yea, it does specially belong unto them to have care of religion. Yea, to know it aright. Yea, to profess it zealously. Yea, to promote it to the uttermost of their power. This is their glory before all nations, which men mean well. And this will bring unto them a far most excellent weight of glory in the day of the Lord Jesus. For the scripture sayeth not in vain, them that honor me, I will honor. Neither was it a vain word that Eusebius delivered long ago. The piety towards God was the weapon and the only weapon that preserved Constantine's person and the vengeance of his enemies. Now, go to 1 Samuel chapter 2. I want to look up that quote real quick. 1 Samuel chapter number 2 in our Bible. But he's saying it didn't matter what people said about King James or to King James or how they attacked him. He didn't care because his ultimate goal is to please God and he's there to be a soldier and not everybody's going to like it. Not everybody's going to be on the program. But, you know, it's important for a king to only care what's right and do that. And, of course, a king is not really a position of authority that any of us will ever have. But there's two offices that I believe are very similar. And, of course, arguably the same. Number one is being a pastor. Being a pastor, it's important that a pastor does not care what people think. He only cares what this thinks. And that my goal should only be to please God. Like, you know, I think there's a lot of pressure on pastors to do things like grow the church. You know, let's bring more people in. But, you know, that'll sometimes affect how you preach. Because, you know, well, are people going to like this sermon or people going to want to hear this? You know, I even struggled with this series. I think, like, are people going to want to hear this? I'm like, a lot of people might be bored or not interested or not care. And I'm like, but I don't care. You know, if you don't want to learn, then you're going to be dumb, frankly speaking. And at the end of the day, you know, I have to pick certain books of the Bible. Maybe certain books of the Bible wouldn't be exciting. Leviticus, right? What if I picked that as the next book that we were going to do on Wednesday nights? Well, we might have lower attendance on Wednesday. Then so be it. You know what? I'm not here to please you. I'm here to please God. And I'm here to edify those that want to be here. And, you know, what if I say, well, let's just only do things that people like. Well, then you know what'll happen? I'll be like one of the churches that I went to where we did the book of Jeremiah as a Bible study. And you know what we did? We did three chapters in Jeremiah. I was shocked when he said we were gonna do Jeremiah. I was thinking like, oh man, this is gonna be intense. And then it was just like one, two, skip a few, and we're done. And I was just like, and guess which chapter we picked? The nicest chapters. Which aren't much in Jeremiah anyways, okay? And I was just sitting here thinking like, man, that was weird. But, you know, if you try to bring in church with a bunch of shallow techniques, then you have to stay shallow to keep everybody too. Some people say, you keep people with what you won them to. You keep people with what you won them to. And here's the thing. If I attract people by having all this smooth, elegant, fun, exciting preaching or whatever, then I have to keep that up. But if I just preach whatever I think the Bible says and I don't really care, then I can just keep doing that. Because the people that were attracted to that, then they, you know, just raw, crude truth. They just like raw, crude truth. They don't care how polished the turd is that you offer them. Okay, and there's a lot of churches offering a bunch of polished turds today. But, you know, I'd rather offer you just raw broccoli or something. You know, it's just like, there's nothing wrong with it. You know, I was like, could you cook that a little better? Probably. But, you know, some people just like raw broccoli. Does anybody like raw broccoli? Okay, a couple people. Thanks for the hand. I see that hand. There's some safe people amongst us. But, you know, here's the more applicable part for all of us, though. It's not just the pastor. It's the husband. It's the father. It's the man of the house. And, you know, the Bible says he hath made us kings and priests. You know, we believe in the priesthood of the believer. And we believe that, you know, the man is a king of his castle. And let me tell you something, as the man of the house, you are not to care what anybody else thinks but God. You are only here to please God. You are not here to please your wife. You're not here to please your children. You're not here to please your pastor. You're not here to please church. You're not here to please your neighbor. You're not here to please your boss. You are here to please God, period. And you know what? We need more men that are going to stand up and say, I am a servant of the Most High God. And that is the only person I answer to. That is the only person I care about what they think. And I don't care what you think. I'm going to do what this says every single time. I'm going to humble myself. I'm going to eliminate the pride I have in my heart. And you know what? I'm going to honor God with my life. Because you know what? This is what this whole passage of scripture that he's bringing up is, in essence, about. Now, in 1 Samuel, look at chapter 2, verse 30, the Bible says, Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed, that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord saith, Be it far from me, for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Now, think about the context of this passage. Who is this being addressed to? Eli. Who is Eli? Eli is arguably the top of the food chain, spiritually, of the nation of Israel. I mean, he is the prophet. He is the top guy. He would be the man of God. But you know what? He wasn't right with God. And you know what? You could be in an area, and there are areas where their pastor's not even that great of a pastor. He's not even right with God. But that's all they got. And here's the thing. You would think, well, I would serve God if I was a pastor. What if your pastor was Eli? Don't let Eli be your standard. Let the word of God be your standard. You know, did you notice what this book was called? It wasn't called Eli. It was called Samuel. And you know why it's called Samuel? Because Samuel honored God. And you know who is lightly esteemed? Eli. Eli gets a little bit of positive mention here, but mostly it's just negative. Because he despised the Lord. He didn't want to follow his commandments. He didn't want to put him first. And it doesn't matter what your environment is. It doesn't matter what other people are doing. It only matters what you're doing. And we can never, ever base, if we're doing right based on our environment, you can only base if you're doing right on this. And so that's why it's so important to read. And look, let me tell you something about the translators of the reader. They've read the Bible. Think about how many quotes they're giving. I mean, they're just giving quotes from every section of the Bible like this. Perfect context almost every single time. I mean, these people know the Bible, folks. They translated it. They must have read it a few times. And you have to understand that no matter who it is, what person tries to do great work for God, you're going to be attacked. And, you know, your attack may come in a subtle form. It could be your mother-in-law. It could be your father-in-law. It could be mom and dad. It could be cousins. It could be sisters. It could be brothers. It could even be children. It could be all men. Of course, a man's foes are they of his own household. And when a man of God decides to serve God, just be it known, you're going to probably have issues with your family. It's just you would be shocked how many people think that they are like the only one dealing with this issue when it's like virtually 90-some percent. It's like almost everybody comes to me and they're just like, hey, you know, I'm having this issue with my family. And what's funny to me is usually the people that complain to me the most about it have the least problems, like the least severe situations. They're like, look, my parents said that our church isn't great. It's like, oh, wow. That's what they said. You know, it's like you don't even know, buddy. OK, it's just like, but look, it's out there. And I've heard, I feel like almost all of it at this point. But, you know, be it known, if you want to serve God and you want to do right, you're going to have some vicious attacks. You know, I've I've experienced this. I'm not, you know, on an island over here not having that problem. I've had the same problem. I have all kinds of people that are close to me say all all kinds of weird things. And, you know, some of them have changed and even gotten better over time. Some have gotten worse. But at the end of the day, I'm not here to please my my parents. I'm not here to please, you know, my in-laws. Shocker. You know, I'm not here to please my cousins. I'm not here to please my aunts and uncles. I'm not here to please any of my family. I'm not here to please my brother and my sister and my nieces and my nephew. And if I were trying, I would never succeed anyways. It's it's it's futile. I'm not here to even please you guys. You know, whenever I get done with a sermon, it doesn't matter to me as much if you liked it or not as if it was true. Like sometimes I walk away from a sermon, I feel like everybody liked it. But I was disappointed how I presented certain things or communicated certain things. I felt like I could have said them better or been more said, maybe more correct. Maybe I made some mistakes or I didn't say things I think the best. Whereas another sermon, people might be kind of like upset and not care and whatever. But I'm thinking like, well, that was what everyone needed to hear anyways. And that was right. And it's like that to me is more pleasing. I look back and I say, wow, I'm glad I communicated that message. You know, there's been times where I've listened back and I thought like that was harsh. But, you know, I was like, but it was true. And you know what? I didn't have regret in that. And there's been times where I was nice, but it wasn't really that accurate. And I'm like, I regretted that in my personal life. Me being nice or kind, but not really standing for truth. I never really appreciate that. But the times I stood for truth. Yeah, I look back and say, you know what? I'm proud that I am proud might be the wrong word, but I was I'm pleased, at least, that I stood for truth. I did the right thing, you know? And of course, at the end of the day, we're here to honor God. You will never be upset with yourself for having honored God. But you will have a lifetime of regret for despising the Lord or going against God's commandments. Of course, it's impossible for you to even know what to do if you don't read the Bible. Look, folks, you got to read the Bible. You got to get a firm grip on the scriptures. You got to study for yourself. And here's another thing. Going to this church, you're only going to get, I don't know, 5% at most of the Bible. If you don't read it, that might even be generous. You get so much more from reading it than just hearing preaching. You won't learn the stories by preaching. You won't learn all the great truths. You won't have all the great comfort from just going to church. You need to read the Bible. And you need to study it. You need to meditate on it. You need to sing it. And that is what's going to really change your life. And we need to truly honor God with our lives. We have so much opportunity for distraction today that I think we miss out on the treasure that we have. So many men died just so you could even have this. So many Christians yearned and went to great lengths to even have any portion of the scripture. And we just have, I mean, I probably have 20 Bibles in my house. I might even have more. I have Bibles in every room just in case I just find myself in that room or something. We're so rich with Bibles. I mean, I have like 10 of the exact same Bible just because I like how it's formatted. You know, I'm just so spoiled with the Word of God. Even on our phone, we could have the Bible just so easy at our fingertips. We have Bible searching software. Think about how much more frustrating it would have been 100 years ago to remember a verse when you didn't have, you know, God resource to go look it up or something. You didn't have some Bible software that you could just type it in and just know exactly, you know, where it's at. I mean, think about all these quotes. They were like, hey, I want to put this quote in there. They're just like, yeah, that's First Samuel chapter two. Yeah, they just know exactly because they actually studied the Bible and read it and know it and meditate on it. And, you know, that's the type of place that we should get to. That's the type of soul winner you should be is the type of soul winner where it's like, you know, I don't have to have like a cue card or something. I don't have to have a map to show me. I can just show you. Now, if you're first starting out, hey, there's nothing wrong with using a map. But, you know, the first time I drive anywhere, I have to use GPS. But I like the second time that I don't have to use it. I like the third time, especially, or, you know, if it's your daily commute, why are you using the GPS? Right? I mean, at some point, you got to learn the road a little bit. And it helps you. It makes you a better driver. And, of course, in Christianity, we need to get to where we're not relying on GPS so much, you know, preaching that we can actually navigate ourselves. We understand the Bible. And, you know, I think the next section is such an important section. I don't want to start it because I'm not gonna have time to finish it. But, again, you know, the last verse here, or I'm sorry, verse, but sentence. He's saying the piety towards God was the weapon and the only weapon that both preserved Constantine's person and avenged him of his enemies. Constantine is a Roman emperor that kind of brought Christianity into Rome. The early parts of Rome, after the, after Christ and his disciples, it was just a martyr, just chaos. Just, I mean, virtually none of the emperors liked Christianity, killed them relentlessly. Christianity was not very tolerated in Rome for a very long period of time. But you know what changed the course? Martyr after martyr after martyr. And, in fact, when you read about it, in many cases, when there would be a couple extreme martyr cases, it would cause a lot of the persecution to cease for a while. They would be kind of, it would kind of like let up again. So it's like without those people, you know, going through that great martyrdom, there would have been worse persecution and more people dying, but because people stood strong and stood up for their faith, it actually spared a lot of people from further persecution or for further shame or for further issue. And so it's important that we stand up now for the weaker brethren. You know, stand up for the future generations. Stand up for our children. Help them to have the opportunity to serve God to the fullest and, and take the tough stands now. Because look, you know, the death culture that exists in our society can't last forever, folks. Pretty soon, you know, our children and their children are going to be the next generation. These deaf people aren't going to be around. You know, the AIDS community doesn't continue to exist. They die and they're not reproducing. So they're, everybody that they corrupt with them is going to die with them. And then we're, our children and their children are going to be the ones that are the next generation. So, you know, if we resist and if we stand up now, we could give them a bright future. But if we just kind of cower and say it's not a big deal, I'm just, I'm so sick and tired of the stupid mantra of like, well, what people do in private is what's my business. If people just leave me alone, what is not my problem? It's like, that's so stupid. Oh, okay. So if they rape and kill everybody but you, that's fine. I mean, how is that fine? How is it, well, if they didn't kill me, then it's fine. Well, if they didn't, you know, stab me, then it's fine. I mean, what logic is this? But they say, oh, well, if you're a pervert but he wasn't a pervert against me, then it's okay. No, no, no. Let's just be against perverts. Let's be against rape and murder and theft no matter who it happened to. Even if it happened to someone we didn't like. Let's still be against it. Let's still be against wickedness. Let's still stand up and fight for the truths of the Bible. And you know, Constantine, I don't even know that he saved, probably wasn't. He brought it in the Catholic church kind of. That's where this guy is coming from. But you know, one thing that did happen from him is he spared Christian persecution from going forward the way it did. And he allowed Christianity to thrive. And you know, to me, this is my hope for Trump, okay? Because I don't know that Trump's going to get saved. But maybe he could just be our Constantine. You know? Even if he makes the Catholic church great again, but he just allows us to do our thing, then praise God. Wouldn't that be nice to just at least have some freedom to go out there and do the right thing? And so, you know, I'm for people that are for liberty and freedom and, you know, I hope that God could even use unsaved people to give us, you know, liberty and freedom. But I'll tell you what. God isn't going to use a Constantine in our life if we're not really willing to take a stand now. He doesn't want to preserve, you know, we'll just perish. He doesn't care to use people that their salt has lost its savor. It's just going to be cast out and trotted and underfoot, you know. We have to actually be worth preserving for God to want to preserve us. If we are not worth our salt, then God is not going to give us any kind of deliverance. And look, you say, well, how is God going to possibly deliver us? It seems impossible. I'll admit it. You know what? So was walking through the Red Sea. That was impossible. I mean, how in the world, how did they get out of the hands of the Egyptians? How did David kill Goliath? How did the children of Israel destroy the Philistines when they were giants? How did, you know, the walls of Jericho fall down? I mean, we see a constant miracle in the Bible, and it's for people that were willing to stand up and fight for God. And I believe that our church is a very important church in the world right now, and we have to keep standing and we have to keep fighting. And I do not believe for one second that the enemies are going to leave us alone. In fact, I believe that the fights might get more intense in the near future. And I want you to be prepared for it. I don't want you to be thinking, like, we've had kind of a season of peace, and I've loved it, okay? But I've been looking to the horizon, and I've been noticing that it's not necessarily going to keep happening. And we're not going to just go to the Bahamas and just get thousands of people saved and no one's going to care. We're not going to just make great documentaries like the Preserved Bible and no one's going to care. You know, we're not going to just keep growing as a church and reaching more people and no one's going to care. I mean, where we're going so many lately, I mean, we're getting people saved left and right, folks. And let me tell you something, the enemy hates that. So be prepared that as we continue to do great and public works for God, you know what, pressure will come. Here's another thing. No one knows where we're at, okay? But what did it say? Hey, when you try to do a public work, be prepared. Our days of privacy may not always be there. The public day may come. And, you know, God willing, we'll delay that. We'll leave some discretion. But I'm just saying, when it comes, be ready. And don't be like, now I don't want to go because there's some adversity. No. Enjoy the adversity. Get excited to actually play a real game. It's easy right now. You know, who wants to win chess against their little kid? You know, you want to play a game against, you know, a real threat. So let's buckle up, buttercup, and let's get ready for the real game. And let's get ready to show our faith for the Lord. And let's do something really, you know, brave for God. And let's wear the name Steadfast proudly and not say, you know, it's easy to go to a big church and have a beautiful building and have, you know, the stained glass windows and to have the pews and to have, I mean, that's what a lot of churches have, right? I mean, go to First Baptist Dallas. I bet that's easy. Dude, they have their own parking garage. The thing is that they have their own, like, city block. The thing's, like, gorgeous. I mean, they have, like, everything you could ever want. That's not hard to go to that church. That would be fun. That's like vacation or something until you hear the preaching and you're like, eh, well. You know, get some grit in your craw and, you know, become a fundamental Baptist. Get excited, learn some words, you know, and get a real King James Bible and let's get ready to take it to the enemy in our next season, all right? Let's go to prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, for giving us the King James Bible and preparing us so that we wouldn't be offended when the storms rage, when the waters beat, when we understand that there's going to be problems in the future. Thank you that we can build our house on a rock. Thank you that we have the opportunity to be steadfast. Thank you that we can tie our anchor to the King James Bible and we have something that we can always be assured of. I pray that when we're tested that we would stay strong and that we would not be afraid of what the enemy could do, but rather we would be excited for the opportunity for you to show yourself strong on our behalf. And I pray that all the men in this room would care to honor you and not to honor themselves. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, in closing, let's go to song number 39. Song number 39, How Beautiful Heaven Must Be. Song number 39, How Beautiful Heaven Must Be. Everybody sing it out real loud on the first. We read of a place that's called heaven. It's made for the pure and the free. These truths in God's word He hath given. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Fair haven of rest for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. In heaven no drooping nor pining. No wishing for elsewhere to be. God's light is forever there shining. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Fair haven of rest for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. Pure waters of life there are flowing. And all who will drink may be free. Rare jewels of splendor are glowing. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Fair haven of rest for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. The angels so sweetly are singing up there by the beautiful sea. Sweet chords from their gold harps are ringing. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Fair haven of rest for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. Great job, everybody. You are all dismissed.