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

Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Welcome to Shur Foundation Baptist Church. Take a seat and grab a hymnal. Turn to song number 55 when the role is called up yonder. Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Great singing brother Alex will you open us in a word of prayer. Father God thank you for bringing us here today. Thank you for our church. We pray for those that couldn't make it today. We ask you to bless our worship here in song and as we learn your book in Jesus name we pray amen. Amen our next song is in song number 61. We'll never say goodbye song number 61. Song number 61. On the first. We say goodbye in parting with loved ones here below. We always hope to meet again as on our way we go. But our hearts are grieving for those we never meet. We'll say goodbye in sorrow till we meet at Jesus feet. We'll never say goodbye in glory in the morning over yonder. We'll never say goodbye in glory. We'll never say goodbye up there. Our children leave the home nest for school or wedding bells or countries call or mission field. We take them far as well. Now wedding bells are happy and God's way always right. And absent ones will greet them in the city always bright. We'll never say goodbye in glory in the morning over yonder. We'll never say goodbye in glory. We'll never say goodbye up there. We greet and part with dear ones. We say hello goodbye. And letters bind our fellowship. We miss them though we try to feel them always near us. And follow them with prayer. But parting days are ended when we meet them in the air. We'll never say goodbye in glory in the morning over yonder. We'll never say goodbye in glory. We'll never say goodbye up there. Oh happy glad homecoming with Jesus in the sky. For sometimes he seems far away. Though always if we try. We find him near to help us. His spirit dwells within. But only perfect union when we have been entering. We'll never say goodbye in glory in the morning over yonder. We'll never say goodbye in glory. We'll never say goodbye up there. Good morning everybody. Welcome to your Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through some announcements. If you need a bulletin just lift up your hand and one of the ushers will bring you a bulletin. If you need a bulletin just lift up your hand. On our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says let all things be done decently and in order. It's 1 Corinthians chapter 14 verse number 40. And our inside page there we have just a quick message from me to you. And for our visitors if anybody is visiting this morning. It's just a little short blurb from me there. And just kind of telling you it's an independent fundamental Baptist church. We're King James only. We're soul winning. Salvation by faith alone and we're family integrated. We sing the old hymns and psalms and spiritual songs. And I'd like to just let you know that we're also at a time aside after the service to talk about spiritual matters. Just feel free to come and talk to me. Not scary to talk to. I might seem scary sometimes but I'm really not. I'm like a big teddy bear. But anyway also if you are not 100% sure if you're saved and you'd like to know for sure. Please see me myself after the service or one of the ushers. They're the guys that have the pin on their jackets that say usher on them. Down below is our service times. Our Sunday morning service. Our preaching service is 10 30 a.m. We're going to start a short series this morning and it is going to be about being decently in order. So just some things that to start the new year off right or just like to kind of get more organized and kind of shore up some things that might be wanting or lacking that we need to get better at. Just we're doing good. Our church is great. But you know this is the time of year when you know it's nice to just kind of shore things up and give some reminders about things and just to make our church better. It's not necessarily something that's designed to make everybody feel bad and that I'm mad at people or something. So I just want to kind of preface that series by saying that. So don't say well he's going to chew us out next week and the week after this and the week after that. I might a little bit but don't take it that way because I just want our church to be the best church it can be. And obviously I believe our church is an excellent church. But you know when we have things decently or decent and in order in our church you know that's the best thing that we can do because God is a god of order. So anyway our Sunday evening services we're going to get back to Exodus and we'll be in Exodus chapter 29. I'm going to be preaching about the consecration of the priest. So last chapter we learned about just the priests garments and what they were supposed to wear and kind of what some of those things might have represented. They had specific things that they were supposed to wear. And now Moses is going to be asked to actually consecrate the priest and to ordain them to the ministry. And then Thursday Bible study we finished the book of Jonah so we're going to be on to a new book this coming Thursday. And we're going to find out all together me included what book that's going to be. So I haven't picked a book yet but I'll have one guaranteed by Thursday. So all right. So anyway our sowing times were listed there below. I want you to note on Sunday afternoon we're going to be starting that at 1 o'clock. So we'll be in here at 1 o'clock. I just forgot to ask Rylan and I forgot to change it myself. But that's going to be a 1 o'clock start time from now on. So just so we can get out there a little bit earlier and that gives us a little more time out sowing. So that means I got to cut my sermons a little bit earlier. So but if you can't get church if you can't get food down your gullet in 50 minutes then you're doing it wrong. So you get a half hour lunch at work. You know unless you work in Washington some places they make you take an hour lunch which is kind of annoying because then you get that half hour then get off of work earlier. I'd prefer to do that. But anyway that's neither here nor there. But anyway those are the other the other sowing times are listed below. We do have sowing at different times during the week. We've actually I think we pretty much have sowing every day of the week except for Wednesday. So anyway so you can go sowing whenever you want. Sowing is when we go and share our faith in the community. And our mission is to not just invite people to church but also to win people's souls to Christ at the door or on the street or wherever we find people. So and if you're running late to any of the sowing times make sure that you text the group leader in the WhatsApp group so they can get you a partner and get you a map that you can go on to. And then if you look down you can see the praise report we've already had 13 salvations for January so that's great. We had 80 salvations in December. Really good. I think that's the best December we've ever had. Unless it was some kind of like sowing a marathon or something. We did have a sowing a marathon but we still had a lot of people saved. You know I think we had like 41 salvations in Indianapolis but that means we had 39 salvations just outside of those times so that's really good for December. Those are the numbers I like to see. And then last so we've had 13 so far this year and we're off to a great start and last year we had 563. And we haven't had a baptism yet but we had 42 last year. Last week's attendance was was pretty rough. We've had some people out sick and we have had people out of town so pretty soon we'll get everybody rounded back up and healthy and back into church hopefully. So the upcoming events. We're currently in the New Testament challenge. That's 30 days or 31 days you got to finish the New Testament and that is at the pace of 9 chapters a day. So who all is doing the challenge? Who all has finished the challenge? Okay one person. And then I think Brother Rick Messler has finished the challenge. Who's on pace? Oh Josh finished that's right. He's behind the glass. I can't see him. He's the man behind the glass. Yeah Josh did finish I forgot. So a couple people have finished and that was probably really grueling because I have a hard time keeping pace just because of all the other stuff I'm doing. But I'm behind as of now because but I still have till midnight to finish you know getting kept up or whatever. So anyway but yeah keep up the good work and don't lose heart if you miss a day. You know you just have to read you know 18 chapters the next day so or take one of your grace days or whatever. But anyway so keep up the good work on that and at the end you'll get a nice prize and you'll have that accomplishment of the fact that you read the New Testament one more time. Or if it's your first time doing the challenge then you'll have that accomplishment that you read the New Testament. And then just move on and read the rest of the Bible at your own pace. And you know you should probably try to read the Bible at least one time per year. And so anyway our Spirit Men's Spiritual Leadership class is starting up again. We took a couple months off for just the holidays and stuff like that. But so this coming Tuesday we're going to have our class start back up again it's going to be at six o'clock. So guys be here if you're not going to be able to make it for some reason please let me know. And February 3rd and 4th we have the official launch of Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Indianapolis. So that is the launch weekend. Saturday February 3rd at 10 a.m. I'll be preaching a morning service there at 11 30 a.m. to 1 p.m. There'll be a lunch and fellowship provided by the church. 1 to 3 30 p.m. there'll be a soul winning session. I'm not sure what the weather's going to be like there it is the Midwest it does snow there. And last time I went there it was kind of like you know balmy like it's been here except for today and like the last couple of days. But so it could be you know snowpocalypse for all I know. But hopefully that's not the case. Hopefully the Lord blesses the weather there. But that's why I only scheduled a couple hours instead of like a full blown soul winning marathon because you know that's that's pretty rough. To be out in that cold temperature for hours upon hours on end. So anyway and then Sunday there's going to be their regular service times and that'll be at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. for their service times. And 7 p.m. on Wednesday nights is their service times. The building is is already secured and they painted the building already. They're putting a room in for the mother baby room. And they're just now we've got to purchase all the stuff and and get it in there. And so brother Justin Zong he he came here and song lead one one Sunday morning I threw him in here just to see if he would burn. And he did great. So but he's going to be the boots on the ground leading that church plant out there in the Midwest. And so we're very happy to start that church out there anyway. And so if you're interested in going to that you're more than welcome to come just let me know. And like I said I'll be flying out there. I'm just flying out Friday coming home Saturday after I'm done preaching. I'll come out. I'll be back here. Lord willing. Anyway so and February 16th we have the married couple sweetheart banquet. It's going to be the Japan. Japan is going to be the theme this year. We've kind of been doing this theme thing for the last several years and it's kind of been fun. You know we dress up a little bit and it's a little bit of cosplay I guess. But it's fun. You know we've had we've had a good time with it. So I think you know the spirit of it's good. So you're more welcome to dress up in that theme. But again make sure it's appropriate for church guys. Don't be showing up in some long robe or something. No man buns and no geisha dresses or geisha girl stuff. OK. And we're going to have obviously some Japanese food. Now I know you're all thinking sushi. But you know we'll see. There's this place called Sushi Ninja. I'm going to try to get it like a hook up. Who's been a sushi ninja or ninja sushi or whatever it's called. That's pretty good. So I'll try. I was thinking about doing like just everybody kind of picks between the lunch menu. And you might get a little bit of you get some some rolls and some tempura and spring rolls. You could kind of pick. I was thinking about doing that. So if you don't like that kind of stuff or if you have some kind of special diet. Then you're out of luck or whatever. You might have to choose something you know more healthy on the option list. Hopefully they have something like that for those that can't eat that kind of food. But anyway or you just don't like it. So you can bring something else if you want or we can try to figure something out for you. So anyway but that is going to be a great time. And Miss Bobby is kind of leading up the decoration and stuff like that. And if you'd like to help to see her on the decorating. And Pastor Jones is coming to preach for us. So I'll be preaching a short message and a marriage challenge for that evening that Saturday. And then Sunday night he's going to be preaching for our church. So that just makes sure everybody comes on Sunday night. Because if you want to hear Pastor Jones you're going to be here on Sunday night. Amen. So I do think about things before I do them. I have purpose behind them. So anyway no it's going to be it's going to be great to have Pastor Jones and Miss Jessica here to visit with us. And then April 8th through 9th that distorted picture of me and Pastor Jimenez there is just kind of from the poster. I definitely look like I have a long face there. So anyway I was looking at it on a small computer screen last night. So I'll try to improve that. But anyway I'll be preaching at the Next Generation Youth rally. It's coming up. It's in April and Pastor Jimenez will be preaching obviously for it too. But it's for ages 13 to 19 and the sign up obviously got chopped off there because I'm in that's just that's my fault. So anyway it's at HTTPS slash slash Verity Baptist Church slash I don't know. Anyway just go to their website and look for Next Generation Youth rally and I'll fix the link next week. I'm sorry Rylan. It's not his fault. It's actually my fault. So I'll take the I'll take it like a man. So anyway I'd like to blame Rylan. I haven't blamed him in a long time but it's actually my fault. So but anyway if you want to sign your kids up to go to this. Now you can go as a family but you do have to if you have younger ones they can go to the youth rally but they just can't participate in you know the like the events part of it or whatever is what I. That's what I gather. Just look at the Web site. It'll tell you what you need to know about that. But you can go to the youth rally as a family. Obviously it's a family integrated church. But you can also have your teens there. You can drop them off. But any under 16 has to have a parent with them. So I think that's the rule. Anyway if if if you don't know the rules of the church they're listed below here below that the next generation youth rally. Little sticker there but a little picture. We are a family integrated church that means the children infants are welcome during the church services please. Use the mother baby rooms and dad baby rooms for your convenience. The mother baby rooms located back in the back there with that little window is and then the mother baby rooms there the dad baby rooms back there. And then also reserve the back rows for families with young children and the rockers and gliders are for pregnant nursing mothers and elders only. And no men are allowed in the mother baby rooms during the services. And after the services we don't want the big kids back. We don't want kids just trashing that room back there. That's kind of been happening. More you start complaining right now but kids are getting into the crawling room and then they're swinging in those swings that are designed for newborns and they're breaking them. So they're just not supposed to be in there. So I want that to kind of stop happening. So please if your children are running around and just in there unfettered and not being watched that's something we need to kind of get a handle on. So anyway so also no one attended children in the building at all. Please watch your children and silence your cell phones please at this time for the rest of the service. And if you need an escort to your vehicle the ushers are available upon request to do that for you. Just tap on the shoulder and ask them to walk you to your car or whatever assistance you need. Just ask the ushers they'd be happy to help you. You can see the donations the ways to give besides just physically through the collection plates and then the ties that we received total for December on the bottom of the page there. And then we had some birthdays that so Tony's not here he's sick. Happy birthday Tony. Happy birthday Bill. And happy birthday Nathan. And none of those people are here so I'm not going to sing happy birthday. I don't think anybody's here. But happy birthday. All right. And if they get they come next week I'll sing happy birthday to them. All right. That's all I have for announcements if you're a first time visitor please take one of our visitors bags on the way out. It's on the way out there's a little table on the right hand side and it has gift bags. Just take one of those bags as a token of our appreciation of you being a first time guest. And we're very thankful that you're here. If there's anything we could do for you please let us know. One of the ushers will bring you a visitor's card to fill out. And if you fill that out and turn it in nobody's going to stalk you or come to your house unannounced or anything like that. We just want a record of your visit so we can be a blessing to you. And one last thing before I step down here. I know it's a long a long announcement session but I have a certificate of baptism that I want to present to Christian. He goes by Christian but it says this certificate is awarded to James Lauren Christian Putnam. So he has two middle names but he goes by the third name here Christian. So it says in recognition of his baptism on the 10th day of December 2023 presented by Sure Foundation Baptist Church signed by me. And it says therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father. Even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans Chapter 6 verse number 4. Come on up James and get your certificate. All right. That's all we have for announcements. Go ahead sing another song and we'll receive the offering. Our next song is song number 92. How can I be lonely. Song number 92. Song number 92. How can I be lonely on the first. One is walking with me over life's uneven way. Constantly supporting me each moment of the day. How can I be lonely when such fellowship is mine. With my blessed Lord divine. How can I be lonely when I've Jesus only. To be my companion and unfailing God. Why should I be weary or my past seem dreary. When he's walking by my side. Days may bring their burdens and their trials as I go. But my Lord is near and helps. Life may have its crosses or its losses or increase. Jesus meets them all with peace. How can I be lonely when I've Jesus only. To be my companion and unfailing God. Why should I be weary or my past seem dreary. When he's walking by my side. In the hour of sad, hour of bitter loss. I can find support and consolation at the cross. Want or woe or suffering all seem glorified. When he daily walks and talks with me. How can I be lonely when I've Jesus only. To be my companion and unfailing God. Why should I be weary or my past seem dreary. When he's walking by my side. In life's rosy morning when the skies above are clear. In its noontide hours with many cares and problems near. Or when evening shadows fall at closing of my day. Jesus will be there always. How can I be lonely when I've Jesus only. To be my companion and unfailing God. Why should I be weary or my past seem dreary. When he's walking by my side. In the hour of sad, hour of bitter loss. I can find support and consolation at the cross. When he's walking by my side. How can I be weary or my past seem dreary. When he's walking by my side. How can I be weary or my past seem dreary. When he's walking by my side. How can I be weary or my past seem dreary. When he's walking by my side. How can I be weary or my past seem dreary. When he's walking by my side. How can I be weary or my past seem dreary. When he's walking by my side. How can I be weary or my past seem dreary. How can I be weary or my past seem dreary. Alright, go ahead and open your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 14. 1 Corinthians 14, if you don't have a Bible there should be a Bible under the seat in front of you. 1 Corinthians chapter 14. 1 Corinthians 14, the Bible reads, 2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God. 3 For no man understandeth him, howbeit in the Spirit he speaketh mysteries. 4 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. 5 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself, but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. 6 I would that ye all speak with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied. 7 For greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying. 8 Now, brethren, if I come unto you speaking with tongues, what shall I profit you, except I shall speak to you by revelation, or by knowledge, or by prophesying, or by doctrine? 9 And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe or harp, except they give a distinction in the sounds, how shall it be known what is piped or harped? 10 For if the trumpet give an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle? 11 So likewise ye, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? 12 For ye shall speak into the air. 13 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification. 14 Therefore, if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me. 15 Even so, ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. 16 Wherefore, let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. 17 For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unproofful. 18 What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. 19 I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with understanding also. 20 Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks, seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest? 21 For if thou verily give thanks well, but the other is not edified, I thank my God I speak with tongues more than ye all. 22 Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also that ten thousand words in an unknown tongue. 23 Brethren, be not children in understanding, howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. 24 In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people, and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. 25 Wherefore, tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not. 26 But prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe. 27 If therefore the whole church become together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? 28 But if all prophesy, and there it come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all. 29 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest, and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. 30 How is it then, brethren, when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying. 31 If any man speak with an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course, and let one interpret. 32 But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church, and let him speak to himself and to God. 33 Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other judge. If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. 34 For ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted, and the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. 35 For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints. 36 Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. 37 And if they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home, for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church. 38 What, came the word of God out from you, or came it unto you only? If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. 39 But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. Let all things be done decently and in order. Brother Drew, will you pray for us? Amen. So like I said in the long announcements that we had, I am starting a new series, and it's a necessary series, and every once in a while we just kind of need to be reminded about some of these things, but I feel like there's going to probably be just like four sermons out of this, and don't think that it's all just going to be negative, a lot of it's positive, and things that we can just add to our church to help us be the most effective church that we can be, and the best church that we can be, because that's really the goal, isn't it? To be like I was preaching about, be perfect. And I'm not saying, again, perfect just means complete, like the best church that we can be. And the first part of this series is going to be covering decently and in order in the church services. So in the church services themselves, and so I'll be preaching about also how to behave yourself in the church of God. So behavioral issues will not be covered necessarily in this sermon. Some things might spill into other services, but I'm also going to be preaching about being decently and in order in soul winning. So outside of church, you know, how we are supposed to conduct ourselves out soul winning, and how we approach soul winning, and those types of things. And really being, you know, God is a God of order, and there's people that say things, and it's really a silly thing that people say, and I know why people say it, but they'll say, I don't really believe in organized religion. But if you read the Bible, the Bible, God is organized. He's not just some slob that just throws things together and expects us to be like that. Well, how do we do church? Well, we just kind of show up and everybody just kind of does whatever they want. And this is what this chapter is kind of outlining, is that God is a God of decency. He wants things to be done decent and in order. The way he wants it done, not the way we want it done. Now obviously, God's also not a micromanager in a lot of ways. He doesn't say, this is how the song service is. There's no chapter that says, here's the order of service for every church. So he lets us operate, you know, in the confines of decency and in order. He doesn't say, well, this is exactly how many songs you have to play in the service. This is how many chapters you read in the Bible. But the Bible does say to give attendance to reading, doesn't it? And the Bible says that we're supposed to prophesy or preach in the services. The Bible says that there's supposed to be someone that rules over the church. That's the pastor or the bishop. The Bible says that there should be deacons if necessary. That there should be an ordained person in charge. And the Bible says that the house of God should be the house of prayer to all nations. It's not just the nation of Israel. It's to all nations. So anybody is welcome to also attend, for the most part, our churches. And we will have unbelievers that come into our church, but the church services are geared toward saved people. But there will be people that are not saved that come in. And our church gets visitors because of the visibility all the time. And people come and people go. We have a revolving door here. Some people come. They like the preaching. They stay. Some people come. They don't like the preaching and they leave. And obviously we're not here to force anybody to be here. And our church is not everybody's cup of tea. And so that's just the way it is. But I just want to make sure that the spirit of this sermon series is not to just beat people over the head. And just get out all my anger and all the things that I've been just storing up from last year to unleash on everybody or something. Now it might seem that way because there are some things that I've been kind of just wanting to talk about and preach about. And I will address those things. And as the pastor, I'm not going to spare. It's one thing to just get up and preach about the things that you guys want me to preach about and that you're like, amen, I like that subject or whatever. But when it comes time to deal with our own issues, that's when it's really hard preaching. When the Bible starts to deal with your sin or your issues that you're not getting right, then that's when people start getting upset about things. So, how dare you talk about my kid like that? I want to preach this series with grace in my heart. That's my intention. But if things get a little rough, this is what I'll recommend to you. If you're mad about it or if you get upset, just internalize that and then just think about it. Chew on what's been said and just if you feel like you need to fix something, then fix it. And if you feel like I'm wrong, then you're wrong. No, I'm just kidding. But anyway, so let's get on with the sermon this morning and it's being decently in order in the church services. So, I'm just going to pray before I start here. Lord, we thank you so much for this gathering of the saints here this morning. I pray that you just help me to have grace in my heart as I preach this sermon and that you would help me and you would fill me with your spirit. Fill this church with your spirit. Lord, you're in the midst of us. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. So, the first point I want to make this morning in this sermon is that church services are not a free-for-all. God is a God of order. Number one this morning, church services are not a free-for-all. God is a God of order. And like I said, people will say, you know, I don't like organized religion. But imagine if we just, you know, threw out all organization and then everybody just got up and had a solo special. Whoever wanted to come up could preach. Any woman or any children could just get up and baptize people. You know, we didn't have a collection. We just, everything was just a free-for-all. How many people would stay at this church? You wouldn't stay. Because really deep down inside, everybody likes to have things organized. And you might not like it because that might not be the organization that you like. But deep down inside, people do like organization and they like things to be done decently and in order. But sometimes, you know, they don't like the boundaries and they like to push the boundaries to a certain extent. So, because we're rebellious to a certain extent. You know, God deals with rebellion. Moses dealt with rebellion with the children of Israel through his whole ministry. And he was like one of the greatest men that ever walked the face of the planet. So, let's look at verse 26. It says, How is it then, brethren? When ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done to edifying. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two, or at the most by three, and that by course, and let one interpret. Now, in the first generation where the apostles were still alive, there were signed gifts that were given to the apostles and that generation. There were what were known as prophets. There were people that had the gift of tongues. Now, the gift of tongues is not when people are barking like dogs and howling at the moon and rolling around on the floor and everybody's, you know, the pastor's whipping people with coats and then they're falling on the ground and slain in the spirit and acting all weird. That's not what this is talking about. I mean, at Pentecost, is that what Peter, is that what the book of Acts describes to you in the book of Acts? That everybody spoke with other tongues and everybody started acting weird and clucking like chickens? No. They spoke their language, whatever tongue that they spoke, the person heard whatever they were saying in their own language. That was the miracle and they used that for people to get saved because there's a communication gap and so God launched, the church was launched off by that miracle, by the power of the Holy Spirit and when Peter preached that sermon on the day of Pentecost, you know, that kind of launched everything. There's 3,000 people saved that day and 3,000 people baptized and so that's a big, strong, big numbers day to get everything launched off and so what Paul's talking about here is, and what it could be talking about also for our modern day, and we kind of have a hard time grasping this thing but at this time, people spoke a lot of different languages. You know, you had the Roman Empire but they also spoke Greek so they spoke Latin and they spoke Greek and a lot of people spoke the language of whatever culture or whatever country they were from. So you had multiple languages being spoken by people. It's not like here where pretty much everybody in this room speaks one language. English. And some of you don't speak it well. But, no I'm just kidding. So we don't really, this is kind of hard for us to grasp but in a church service that people would speak multiple languages and maybe not every, you know, or think about this, if someone came, he was like a Mexican missionary and all he spoke was Spanish, that that person could get up and preach, you know, Paul's basically just like making rules for people speaking in other languages in the church services. So how would it help everybody if I let someone that spoke Spanish get in here and preach a whole sermon to you and only Temo and Alejandra and whoever else can speak Spanish in here were able to understand that? How is that going to help you guys? So Paul's like putting, saying, well number one, you have to do this by course. What does that mean? In order. Right? One after the other. It's like have you ever had a five course meal or a three course meal or whatever? You get one thing at a time. You get the salad and soup, then you get the entrees or whatever and the dessert or whatever. However it's done, that's how it's done. It's done by course. So by course means one after the other. So there's not supposed to be multiple people talking at the same time in church services. There's not supposed to be multiple languages being talked about, being used at the same time. That's because this is disorderly and it's confusing to people. And so everybody's talking at the same time. Everybody's using different languages at the same time. People are preaching at the same time. Everybody's got a psalm. Everybody's got a revelation. Everybody's using all the, you know, it's just confusing. And so Paul's saying, hey, let everything, let all things be done decently and in order. You know, he's explaining to us that the church services and the way you run church should be done correctly. And so if you're going to have someone get up and speak a different language, preach in a different language, there has to be an interpreter. Isn't that what it says? Let one interpret. Someone has to tell people what's being said. And so if I have Anthony up here in Russian speaking, you know, Russian to everybody, then he has to have someone that is interpreting and that by course. So he says a bunch of things in Russian and then the person that interprets that tells you all in English what he was saying. Okay? So in the modern day Pentecostal, they think that this is some gibberish language where they're going like they're, you know, the modern rap group or something. You know, the modern rappers. And, you know, I've ever seen like that Paula White lady. She's just like, just bizarre. The way the people speak in tongues is just bizarre. It's just not real. Okay? It's fake. And you're like, how dare you say that that's fake? Well, it is fake. And when multiple, and then if you're reading along with Brother CJ, it says that women are not allowed to speak in the church. So if women get up and speak in tongues, this angelic holy language or whatever, they're not, they're not supposed to be doing that. So even if that was real, they're not supposed to be doing that. And if the ecstatic, weird tongue thing was real, it'd be one at a time. But how many Pentecostal services have you seen, you know, where they're going crazy and everybody's talking in tongues at the same time? Not biblical. And how many times do you see where someone's actually interpreting what they're saying? You don't see that. You know why? Because it's fake. It's phony. It's not true. And people just, you know, people want a feeling at church. But you know what? If everything's in chaos, that's not how God wants things. And, you know, God doesn't want a bunch of fake weirdos rolling around and acting weird and saying stuff that isn't real or not true. So, again, we don't have this interpreter thing happen a lot, but, you know, Pastor Taffeter went over to Poland and he preached a whole sermon where he's preaching to them in English and they didn't understand English. Like, most of them didn't understand anything he was saying. And so he had to have someone that understood English well enough to tell everything that he was saying in Polish. And so you could actually go look at the sermon. That is biblical. That is right. That is okay. Look at verse 28. It says, But if there be no interpreter, let him keep silence in the church. So is a person allowed to get up and speak another language, preach a different language in the church if they don't have an interpreter? No. And let him speak to himself and to God. So it's just saying you can't do it. So it's not allowed. Let the prophet speak two or three and let the other judge. If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For you may all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted. Now, I guess the modern day thing for this would be, you know, sometimes we have like a men's preaching night or whatever. We don't have all the men get up and preach at the same time, do we? We have them come up one by one. That is decent. That is orderly. It's not a free for all. We pick even the way we pick it. We pick them by like drawing names. And then the next person comes up or I pick who comes up next or whatever. And it says, For ye may all prophesy one by one that all may learn, that all may be comforted, and the spirit of the prophets are subject unto the prophets. So, that's another thing for you to understand that, you know, people will say that they're taken over by God and they're speaking some weird language and all this other stuff and God is speaking through them. What does it say there? The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. The prophet is not out of control or in some kind of trance. They're subject unto the prophets. The prophet is up here. The person that's preaching is up here. They're in control of themselves. Verse 33, For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints. So, if there's something confusing going on, then I would just say this. It's not really a church of God. If it is an actual church of God, then they need to get that in order. And it says, Let your women keep silence in the churches. Now, this upsets people. It upsets women because now we're living in the day where, you know, equal rights and women's lib and all this other stuff. But, you know, this is kind of one of those verses where it's like, well, that was back then, pastor. But the Word of God still applies today. The Word of God still, you know, if we just throw everything out that doesn't apply today because of women's lib or because of queer rights or whatever, there'd be a lot of things that we don't do. But we go by what the Bible says here. That's why we're Baptists. And so, if that's what the Bible says, then that's what we do. For it is not permitted unto them to speak. Now, it's not saying, and I covered this in great detail a few weeks ago, so I'm not going to go super deep into it. But this is talking about preaching. This is talking about amen-ing during the services and things like that. So, it's not saying you can't ever talk while you're inside the building. So, it's talking about during the church services here. It's not talking about, you know, and then if you're not, this next verse, it says, If they will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home. If you don't have a husband at home, you know, people are like, well, could you ask the pastor a question if you're not married? Well, sure you can. Okay? If you don't have a husband, this doesn't apply to you. You know, you can come and ask me questions. It says, For it's a shame for women to speak in the church. So, during the church services, women should not be raising their hands and asking questions or amen-ing or whatever. And it's like, why? Well, because that's what God said. That's why. There shouldn't be a reason. It's just because that's what God said. And it says, What came the word of God out from you? Or came it unto you only? If any man think himself to be a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord. Don't question it. That's what the Bible says. Quit questioning everything. This is like, you know, man just acts like they have the right to question everything that God says. And the last person that should be questioning everything that God says is believers. Believers should not be questioning what God says. When it says it's the commandment of the Lord, you're like, well, I think that man put that there to control women. Is that what you really think? Well, man did write it. But, you know, this is the apostle Paul, who a lot of his ministers, the ones that worked with him, were women. He didn't have anything against women. This is the commandment of the Lord. This is what God says to do. Okay? And it says, But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, brethren, covet to prophesy, that means covet to preach, and forbid not to speak with tongues. So, you're like, well, you're not going to let me get up and speak in tongues? No, I'm not going to let women get up and tell their testimonies in the church either. Not too long ago, we had a visitor lady say, you know, she was like, couldn't I just get up and tell a testimony? And she, like, emailed me that. And I know what's coming next. You know? And then later on I found out that she's a queer. So, like, you know, it's just like, no, you're not going to get up and take over the church services. I mean, Pastor Anderson has this infamous video that people like to just play out of context all the time or whatever, but, you know, he's having a rough day. He's having to throw out some people that were long-time members of his church, Garrett and, what was it, Dominique Davis. He was telling the church that. And then some guy who thinks he's Michael the Archangel walks up to him while he's explaining this to the church and then he's, like, got this letter in his hand. He's, like, like this. And Pastor Anderson's, like, what are you doing? You trying to take over the church services? And he's, like, get this guy out of here. Drag this bozo out of here. And then, you know, it's just like this, you know, he's, like, can I get a little grace? He's, like, no, get out. And he's, like, you know, so he yells at the guy and then they get, they drag the guy out of there. But why is he doing that? Because this is not a free-for-all. Nobody can just, you're not going to just walk up and take over the church services. That is not within the realm of your authority to do. And so, and also, it's just bad timing. Maybe he would have had a little more grace if he wasn't throwing out oneness heretics at the same time as Michael the Archangel is appearing in front of him. Well, people act like he's just so mean for the way he did it, but it's, like, you know, a lot of things, timing means something sometimes. Especially, you know, with Pastor Anderson sometimes. Like, you know, the last thing you want to do when he's already pissed off is come up and say something dumb to him. Or try to take over the church services and read some weird Michael the Archangel poem that, whatever it was that he was going to read. So, you know, and as the pastor, it's my job to make sure that the right people are up here at the right times in our church services, you know, we have a specific order that we do. And you guys are more used to it than you probably realize. But you're used to it, and it's a comfort to know what you're doing. But if you went to another church often enough, it would, you know, if you just went to other churches and saw how disorganized some churches are, it would bother you. Like, oh man, I don't like our church because this one's just, like, a free for all. And that's not what it should be like. It's not a free for all. And verse 40 says, let all things be done decently in order. That's what the apostle Paul said. That's what God's saying. He said, these are the commandments of the Lord. Now, let's look at some, you know, some other places in the Bible where it's very clear that God likes things in order. Let's look at 1 Chronicles 15. Now, and obviously he made the world, and he made the days specifically in order for a reason. You know, he made the plants and all those things that grow out of the earth, and then he made the sun the next day. So the next day, the sun rises on the plants that he made. It's kind of important for plants and trees and stuff to have sun, isn't it? So, God knows what he's doing. And then he made the animals that eat those plants the day after that. He's not a dummy. You know, he knows what he's doing. It's an order of things. So, now look at 1 Chronicles 15. Now, the backstory to this is that they brought the ark, and they didn't take heed to what the Bible said by the way they brought the ark, and they put it on a new cart. And they were bringing it with oxen. That's not how the Bible said to do it. The Levites were supposed to bring the ark. And Uzzah, as the oxen stumbled and the ark was going to fall off, and he grabbed it to steady it, and God killed him and made a breach upon Uzzah. Now, a breach means that he was divided. So, that's what breach means. So, I don't know if he chopped him in half or whatever he did to him. It meant he put a breach on Uzzah. And David was afraid of the Lord that day. But you think, well, that's pretty harsh of God to do that. Well, there's consequences to our actions when we don't do what God says, and that's an example of not doing things after the way that God said. Look at verse 11. So, how does David do it? He calls the high priest first. He calls the sons. He calls the Levites. These are the people that are in charge. These are the chief men. So, leadership gets called first. So, when David, you know, David's the king. He's the leader of the whole nation. Who's he going to call first? He's not going to call all the people underneath those guys to talk to him about something. He's going to call the leadership first. This is order, isn't it? And it says, And he already prepared for it, right? That's order. That you may bring up the ark of the Lord God of Israel unto the place that I have prepared for it. For, and he already prepared for it, right? That's order. For because he did it not at the first, the Lord our God made a breach upon us, for that we sought him not after, what's it say there? The due order. The way that God wants it done. And so, now he's fixing that issue. So, when we're not doing things after the due order, we need to fix those issues and do it right. It says, So, see how it's as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord? It's not as David thought it should be done or as the people thought it should be done. It's as Moses commanded according to the word of the Lord. This is how things are done in God's work. Now, turn to Acts chapter 2, verse 41. Acts 2, verse 41. The Bible says in Acts 2, verse 41, it says, So, what happens before you get baptized? You get saved, don't you? This is talking about, you know, what I was just mentioning about Peter preaching that sermon and people get saved. Three thousand people get saved. And then it says, That's not the right order, is it? When do we baptize people here? After salvation. And do I ask people, are you 100% sure that you are saved before they get baptized? Yeah, I check them before. And when they're up there about to get baptized, what do I ask them? Have you trusted Christ as your Savior and nothing else? And then if they say yes, then I baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, exactly like the Bible says to do. Now, everything I say afterwards is not, you know, those are add-on things. Buried in the likeness of our Savior's death, raised to walk in the goodness of life, or raised in the likeness of his resurrection. Those things aren't necessarily, that's part of Scripture, but it doesn't say that's how you have to say it. But the thing I do have to say is that they're baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, or baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. That is required, isn't it? And it's required that they're saved beforehand. Now, people don't have a little button on their head that glows when they get saved. That'd be really convenient for us, but it doesn't say that, so I have to take people at their word. But my point is, is that God has an order of things. People get saved first, then they get baptized. And it says, in the same day, they were added unto them about 3,000 souls. And what happened after that? Well, they continued steadfastly in the Apostles' Doctrine. So, what is the Great Commission? To teach people how to get saved, get them saved, get them baptized, and then what? To teach them all things whatsoever Christ commanded, right? And so, what the Apostles' Doctrine is, is what Christ commanded, isn't it? And it says, and fellowship. So, what comes after that? Well, you start fellowshiping, you start going to church, and breaking in bread, and in prayers. So, breaking bread is obviously eating together, but it also could be, you know, the Lord's Supper. And I teach that, every year I teach this, that before we do the Lord's Supper, that you should be baptized, obviously you should be saved before you take the Lord's Supper, but also you should be baptized before you take the Lord's Supper. Because you'll never find a place in Scripture where someone gets saved and then they take the Lord's Supper after that. No, they get saved and then they get baptized, don't they? And the first command that we always tell people, the first thing God wants you to do is get baptized, right? What's the order? Saved, baptized, then you can partake of the Lord's Supper. It's not out of order. And so, you're like, well, God says not to police His table. Well, the Bible doesn't actually say that. It says, let a man examine himself. But, I'm still going to give out the required, you know, the requirements that God puts forth, and then, yeah, people can do what they want, but, you know, that's on you at that point. But I still feel like it's my job as a minister of the New Testament to tell people the right order to do things. Look at verse 47, praising God and having favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. So, this is how God designed and set up the New Testament church, okay? And He did it in a specific order. We don't invite people here and baptize them. We don't invite people here and say, hey, everybody take the Lord's Supper and then baptize them and then preach them the Gospel. That's not what we do. You know why? Because that's not the order of things. Now, let's turn to one last passage here. 1 Corinthians 15, verse 22. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, it says, For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in, what does it say there? His own order. Who's the first person to get resurrected? Christ the firstfruits. Afterward they that are Christ's at his coming, then cometh the end. So, you see how it's just like giving an order of things? It tells us what the order is. Christ is the firstfruits, not us. And then, you know, so, you know, obviously this is pretty simple stuff. I'm just trying to show you that God is a God of order. And the way things are done, or the way He wants them done, not the way we want them done. And so, that should spill over into everything that we do. Paul left Titus and Crete for what reason? Why did he leave them in Crete? Anybody know? Yeah, but he was to, you know, the things that were wanting, the things that were lacking, he was, yeah, was elders in every city. So, he wanted to make sure that he took care of that situation, that there was, he left them there to shore up the things that were wanting and fix those situations. So, I would just say this. So, during the church services, when it's time to sing, we need to sing. When it's time to pray, we need to pray. When it's time to read along with the Bible reading, we need to read along with the Bible reading. When it's time, you know, we need to pay attention during the announcements. We need to turn to the Bible passages during the preaching. And men need to say amen when there's something to amen about. And, you know, during the service, we should limit our restroom breaks. You know, don't wait until the service starts for everybody to run to the bathroom. I mean, go to the bathroom before the service starts. And, you know, limit your trips to the mother-baby room. These are just things that are going to be helpful for us to, you know, make the service better. I would say that there should be, it should be like a three strikes you're out policy. If you've had to go in there three times, then maybe you should just stay in there. And obviously, I know that some ladies don't like staying in there. I get that. But people don't, it is distracting when someone comes out of that, in and out of that room ten times in a service. So, and ushers stay frosty. But don't, you know, but don't cause a distraction when there's something to be done outside. And, you know, when all the ushers start running towards the door, then what's going to happen? Everybody's eyes are going to go towards the door. So we got the veil there for a reason. We had that like, that divider there to kind of, you know, cause when people come in late, and that's another thing, don't be late, but we had that there so when people do come in late, cause the tendency, and you've been doing this since you were in public school, if you were in public school, that every time someone walks through a door, everybody goes, just like that. So, we want to limit the distractions during the service. And so what you make a big deal, everybody else is going to make a big deal. And they're going to stop focusing on the service and start focusing on, you know, the homeless person that's screeching out there that you're trying to handle or whatever. So, number two, the order of service is for the believer and the unbeliever. So, I know that this is geared towards, church is geared towards believers, but unbelievers are mentioned in this passage also. Let's look back at our text at 1 Corinthians chapter 14. Look at verse number 23. Paul acknowledges that people are going to be coming into church services that aren't saved. Look at verse 23, it says, If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, so that could be babes in Christ or new believers, or unbelievers, will they not say ye are mad? And so, that word mad is not something that people use modern day necessarily. Usually people say cray-cray or crazy, you know what I mean? So, insane. So, yeah, and if someone goes into a Pentecostal or a Charismatic church and they see people doing what they do, that's exactly what they think. My dad went to a Charismatic church and when I would have to, when I was forced to go, which I was sometimes, you know what I thought? When I sat back and all of them were talking in tongues and singing, first they would start off singing, it was kind of normal, they were playing their tambourines and whatever. And then all of a sudden it would just start, one person would start talking in tongues and then all of them would start doing it, and it would go on for a long time. Sometimes it would be shorter periods of time, sometimes it would be like, I mean, as a kid, you know, you're thinking, this has been like three hours, it might not have been that long, but it felt that long, and it was just weird. And I would just start laughing. I couldn't help it. And I think that that might have been a detriment to me being saved earlier in life, because it's not like I didn't believe in God, but that kind of stuff, to me, was foolishness. It was madness. And that's what Paul said. If you see people doing that kind of stuff, and again, I don't think Paul's talking about that necessarily, but that is what you see in the charismatic churches. I think he's talking about real, the real gift of tongues that they had at that time, and modern day today would be multiple people speaking multiple languages in a church service, and it being confusing to everybody. Again, that's not something we experience because we don't have multiple languages, but in other places in the world, there are multiple languages that are spoken by people. I mean, you go into certain African countries, or other countries in the world, and there are people that speak multiple languages, and you're like, I speak seven different languages. I speak English and not well. But anyway, do you see how it says the unbelievers will come in and think that it's crazy? So, there will be unbelievers that come in, there will be people that are unlearned in the Bible that come in, and we want the services to be something that they enjoy, and that's not weird and crazy, and that it's in decent and in order. So, what are we shooting for at this church? We're not shooting for crazy. We're not shooting for madness. We're shooting for organized, decent, and just being an IFB church in today's world is already people freaking out over the things we believe anyway, which is just the Bible. Yeah, you think the women can't talk at the church service? Where do you get that from? How about 1 Corinthians chapter 14? You think that divorce and remarriage is wrong? How about Matthew chapter 5 and Matthew chapter 19? Jesus actually saying that in the red letters. When the red letter edition says it, that's Jesus speaking personally. Now, they already think we're nuts. There's already a bunch of propaganda being spread against fundamental churches, and some of it is earned because some fundamental churches are fundamentally wrong in a lot of things. And so then they'll attack the true doctrines of Christianity. They'll say, well, purity is the purity doctrine. It's like, well, what's wrong with the purity doctrine? What's wrong with being pure until you're married? There's nothing wrong with that. Or what's wrong with spanking your children? The Bible says if you spare the rod, you hate your son. But they'll misquote it and say, spare the rod, spoil the child. That's what your boomer grandma used to say, but that's not what the Bible says. It says you hate your son if you don't do it. But then people will get these weird disciplining methods, where they're spraying their kid with a hose and it's 30 degrees outside, or putting hot sauce on their tongue, or spanking them in a way that the Bible doesn't say to do, or blanket training an infant, and if they try to crawl off the blanket, you spank them or something. That's just weird, folks. That is weird. So just do how the Bible says and you won't have a problem. But if you put a baby on a blanket and then put a toy out of its reach, and then say no, they're not going to understand that. If they're six months old or something. Come on. Or three months old. That's just bizarre. Anyway, but to add crazy free-for-all to our service, like an open mic karaoke bar where people are just coming up and singing all these specials and stuff. The first time I ever went to an independent Baptist church, what did I say? Well, my wife can't talk right now, but the first time I ever saw someone get up and sing to a canned music, which is where the music plays in the background, and they get up and sing a special song, I said, what is this, a karaoke bar? That's exactly what I said. I thought it was weird. Obviously, I've been blessed by special music before. I'm not saying that it's evil or wicked, but I thought it was strange. I like congregational singing a lot better, but that's why we do it that way. That can turn into a self-glory type of thing. If people are more concerned about the special music than they are about soul winning, that's where they go off the cliff, and I never want our church to be like that. Anyway, I can handle people not being able to take the preaching or not liking our music or despising the way we do the offering or whatever, but our own failure to be organized and decent is not a reason why a visitor should never come back, or the way that our children behave, or the way that we are with them as visitors should not be a reason why they never come back. They're already going to not come back for whatever reason, but we shouldn't be the reason as to why they didn't come back because of our church services the way that they were. Look at verse 24. It says, But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all, and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest. And so, falling down on his face, he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. So, if prophesying or preaching is happening, and saying that someone that's unlearned or they're unsaved, they're going to be convinced from the preaching. Isn't that what it's talking about? And thus the secrets of his heart are made manifest. Because the Word of God is quick, powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and to the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And the Word of God can pierce through all the false doctrine you've learned for your whole life. The Word of God can pierce through all the trash you've learned from the world in one sermon, in one scripture. It can just cut through all that garbage. And it can affect people. And that's why the preaching of God's Word is so important. And it's not the person that's doing it. It's the Word of God through the Spirit of God that's doing it. And it says they'll fall on their face and worship God and report that God is in you of a truth. You know, it's God working through you and in you. It's not a bunch of people speaking in different languages. Now, let's look at 1 Kings 10, verse 1. 1 Kings 10, verse 1. Now, this is an account of the Queen of Sheba coming to visit Solomon. Now, to apply this to us in 2023, obviously, things are a little different. But if you apply it to church services, our church, how our building is, how our people are, how our servants are. And when I say servants, everybody that's saved should be a servant of the Lord. And so when we look at this, just think about it on terms of church services. In the temple as in, you know, our church coming together as one. Look at what it says in verse 1. And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions. You know, some people, they have hard questions and they want to know about things of God. And when someone comes to this church and they want to ask some hard questions, then we should have the answers. Amen? And it says, verse 2, and she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels and bare spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions. There was not anything hid from the king which he told her not. So, you know, if she had hard questions, Solomon answered them. And this is how it should be when people come to our church, if they have a hard, if someone has a hard question that comes and visits, we should be able to tell them the answer. And it says, when the Queen of Sheba had seen all of Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, the things that they were wearing, his cup bearers, and his ascent, by which he came up unto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. So it wasn't just the questions that she had and the answers that he had, but it was the things that she saw when she was there, isn't it? So, the sitting of his servants, you know, how are people behaving? The attendance of his ministers, you know, I mean we've got a lot of people that do a lot of things around here, how do people perceive the attendance of the people that are ministering here, and their apparel? How are we dressed? How do we look? Does clothing matter? It does matter. I think it does matter. And it says, and his cup bearers, and obviously nobody is my cup bearer, unless I ask you, I forgot my water, you know, some people sometimes have grabbed my water or whatever, but anyway, I'm not Solomon. But, and it says, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord, there was no more spirit in her. She had nothing else to resist. She came with hard questions, she had high expectations, and not only were expectations met, they were exceeded. Look what it says in verse 6. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. You know, I want people to hear about our church and see our church online and go, hey, I want to go and see that church and see if it really is the way that it appears on YouTube, or Rumble, or however it's, or how I hear about it online. And then verse 7, howbeit I believed not the words until I came and my eyes had seen it, and behold, the half was not told of me. And look, that's what I want people to think about Sure Foundation Baptist Church. When they come here, I want it to be like, hey, it exceeded all my expectations. When I came and saw what the church was actually like, what the people were actually like, how the building was, how everything was at the church, how they could answer all my questions, you know, the wisdom that they had, the prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard. That's what I want people to think about our church as. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom. You know, when people come to our church, I want people to see that people are happy here, that people want to be here, that people love this church. And if that's an issue with you, then get happy. And you know what? Sometimes you have to make yourself get happy. If you're not happy, get happy. And sometimes we kind of get bitter hearts about things and we shouldn't be that way. Put bitterness and malice and wrath from you and start loving your church. And you know, if you want the church to get better and you think it's lacking an area, then get better, you know, you get better in that area and lead by example. Because just complaining about things is not going to get it done. Being the squeaky wheel, you know, yeah, you get the grease, but you know, it's better to be the greaser. You know, I guess, I don't know. It's a bad parable. I'm no Solomon, that's for sure. But anyway, and so, she sees how everything is. It's not fake happy. You know, I'm sure you've gone to a church where everybody acts nice, but the longer you go there, they're not really nice. I never want that to be said about our church. It says, blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth in thee to set thee on the throne of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made he the king to do judgment and justice. What a testimony. You know, Solomon, in this stage of his life, was a great king. And he was doing great works for God and, you know, he was obviously blessed of the Lord. Everything was blessed, and that was like the time, the zenith of God's kingdom on earth was during Solomon's reign. A time of peace, a time of great wealth, and, you know, people traveling from long distances. And people travel from long distances to come to our church, and I want them to come, and I want them to have a Queen of Sheba type experience when they come here. And I'm not saying that everything's going to always be perfect, but we should try to make it as good as we can. And, you know, I think our church does have a happy personality. I think our church is very welcoming, and some of this stuff is just like, not damage control, it's keeping up on what we already have going good for us. I think our church is very friendly, and I want to keep that up. So, when people come to visit our church, I want them to see that. I want them to see people happy to serve, and people engaged in the preaching, hearing preaching that's full of wisdom, whether that's me or another man in this pulpit. You know, I strive to have that, you know, if I'm not here, that there's someone in here, and that someone comes and visits us out of town, and that happens, that they're hearing the wisdom of God's Word preached from this pulpit, no matter who is in it. And, you know, obviously I can't do everything myself, and I don't do everything myself, and I'm fully aware of that. It takes this whole church working in their specific tasks and performing their specific roles to make this church special. And do I think this church is special? Yes, I do. I think it's very special. Can we get better at things? Yes, we can. There's always room for improvement. It's like that when you get the report card, you know, you never get A pluses on everything. The teacher always is going to give you, like, an A, not all A pluses, otherwise she's a bad teacher. Because we can always improve. If you think you're best at everything, then you never have anything else to improve upon. So, I think we can always get better. Look at Colossians chapter 3, verse 22. Colossians 3, verse 22. The Bible says, Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh. Now, obviously this is talking about your workplaces, but I would say that it applies to everything that we do. All manner of service that we do. So, it's applying directly in context to our bosses at work or whatever, our bosses out in the world. But, when it comes to the things of God, even more so, it says, Not with eye service as men-pleasers, but in singleness of heart, fearing God. And whatsoever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. So, how much more are the things that actually are for God, specifically? You know, when you're actually working for God, shouldn't we do everything heartily as unto the Lord? And actually, when it's for the Lord, do it for the Lord with all of our heart. It says, Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ. Don't forget that. When you're here, you're serving Christ no matter what capacity you're here for. We are to serve Christ with our life, and it says, But he that doeth wrong shall receive the wrong which he hath done, and there's no respect of persons. So, I mean, I guess in context of this sermon, I mean, if you're blatantly just continuing to display bad behavior in these areas, then, you know, you're just, you're doing it on purpose, and God is not a respecter of persons. He's gonna, you know, he's gonna whack you, just like he would whack anybody else for something that they're doing wrong intentionally. So, now the last thing, and I want to hurry up and, because we got an earlier start time, so, for soul winning, but turn to Ecclesiastes chapter three, verse one. So, point number three is pre- and post-church service instruction. So, I've talked a lot about in-service things, and obviously, our order of service is, you know, we sing a song, we pray. We sing another song, we do the announcements. After the announcements, we take up the, we sing another song, we receive the offering. While the offering is being received, we do like a piano special or something. Then what happens? We do the Bible reading, then the preaching service. Right after the preaching service, we do another song, we close in prayer. That is the order of service. You know how I have that memorized? Because we've been doing it for seven years now. That's pretty easy. And, you know, every once in a while there's special things that go on and whatnot, but we pretty much have the same order of service for everything we do. But pre- and post-church service instruction is, you know, and I'm probably going to forget a bunch of stuff, but I'm just going to go on this scripture here. Verse number one says, To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. So, there's a time for everything. There's a purpose for everything. And, you know, there's a reason why we have certain things in place for before services and after services. You know, just like there's a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant, a time to pluck up that which is planted, and so on and so forth. I'm not going to go through the whole list, but, you know, God's just making the point that there's a time for everything, a purpose for everything, and a time to do things and a time to not do things. So, and I just kind of want to go over a couple of these things and then we'll be done here. So, there's a time to, the first thing I want to talk about is there's a time to give the gospel and a time to forbear. And you're like, well, Pastor Thompson, the gospel is the most important thing. Yeah, I know that. But there's a time to give the gospel and there's a time to not give the gospel. And the time to not give the gospel is the time when, right before the church service starts, when a visitor walks in. Now, you're like, well, I disagree with you. Well, you can disagree with me, but that's my rule. And not everybody understands that, and that's why I'm going over these things. Because sometimes people do things and they don't know or they didn't mean to or whatever, and that's fine. But we had like a thing happen, it's been several months ago, where we had a person and they visited from over an hour away. Like, I'm coming from such and such town an hour away. And the first thing that someone did was grab that person and took them into another room and ask them if they were saved. And they're forcing the gospel upon them and they're just like not giving them options. And then it just pissed me off, actually. It pissed some other people off, too. Because people don't come here so that you can jump on them and get your accolades for you got someone saved at the church. When people come here, they're coming here to enjoy the church services and to see whether this is the church that they want to come to again or not. And they're judging everything that we do, just like the Queen of Sheba did. And if the first thing is, is some weird dude they've never met before grabs them and pulls them into another room and is just shoving the gospel down their throat, they're not going to come back. And guess what? They never came back. And so, but you know, there's times when other people that were members of our church and tried to give people the gospel before the service, and look, I'm not mad. I'm just saying that I don't want that being done. And you're like, well, why not? Well, because if they come in seven minutes before the service is about to start, do you have time to finish with them? No, you don't. If they come in 15 minutes before the service starts, do you have time to finish with them? You might, but you might also get interrupted. And again, they're coming here to check out the church and see what it's all about, maybe get a tour. And the ushers, we train the ushers to do things a certain way. And this is my failure. I've never probably said this to people, but the ushers have a specific way how they're supposed to deal with the visitors. And we have a door usher and a secondary usher, and we have a rotation. And the secondary usher is the one responsible for giving the gospel or making sure they get the gospel by having someone already set up to give the person the gospel. So what's kind of been happening is also, so that's before the service, don't give them the gospel. But after the service, what we've had happening, and again, this is my fault because it's not been communicated, but we have just random people going up to them. But sometimes you have multiple people checks one person multiple times in a service, or they weren't there the last time that person came and then you got multiple people bombarding them again. And so that can be off-putting to people. You know what I mean? So I don't want people to feel smothered when they get here. I want people to feel welcome. I want people to be checked, obviously, and I think that people are doing that in the right spirit. But I just want to make sure that people aren't feeling so overwhelmed and pressured to do things here or being asked if they're saved 13 times their first two visits. So the decently in an order thing, I want to be able to implement the things that we already have are supposed to be set in place and for those things to be done already. So it's basically the secondary usher's job to make sure that that person gets the gospel. So whoever's on that schedule. So if one of those ushers asks you and you're one of those people, if you want to volunteer to be one of those people to give the gospel, that's great. And we'll get that. After the service, if you want to come and talk to me or talk to the ushers and say I'd like to be one of those people to give the gospel, then that's great. And here's the other thing. I don't want women going to men to preach the gospel. I don't want children going to adults to preach the gospel. I don't want people that are still in training to go to adults or anybody to preach the gospel. In church is what I'm talking about. After church. And you're like, well why? You let people do that outside of church because it's a different setting. And why would I want someone that doesn't know how to preach the gospel to preach to a person that's a visitor coming into our church and then they, you know what I mean? So I want the most experienced people and I don't want the person, and I'm not trying to sound mean, but if it's the family that has eight children and the mom is supposed to be wrangling all these children for that mom to be the one that's giving the gospel. Unless the dad's already cool with taking care of all the kids or whatever and that's already a pre-thing. You know what I'm saying? We've got to do these things in a specific way, in a specific order so that things are being done right and we're not over-saturating our visitors. And here's the other thing. When a visitor comes and they say, well I heard about the preaching from, I watched this video from Pastor Anderson or Pastor Jimenez or I was recommended to this church by a website from the New IFB or whatever. Or they're a visitor from, they're already plug and play, you know what I'm saying? They already came to the church with the mind of soul winning. Here's the other thing I don't want. I don't want our people to pressure guests and new visitors to go out soul winning. And you're like, well why not? We're supposed to be discipling people. Because, again, when we tell people that we go door to door and knock on doors, you know what they think? I'm talking about people from the community. They don't think like we do. They're not so New IFB yet. So people need a chance to be able to get that. And so when I'm preaching sermons, they're going to be like, because this is how it happens. I'll preach sermons about it and it gets brought up and people are like, well yeah I want to go soul winning. And they're getting pressure from me already. But for a first time visitor to come here and then someone goes right to them and goes, hey you should go out soul winning with us. And then the next time they come, you go up to them again and you're being nice. And again, I'm not saying you're bad or something. I'm just saying if you're constantly pressuring someone to go soul winning that comes and visits our church, they're not going to want to come back. They're not. And I want you to stop doing it. If you're doing it, I don't know who's doing it or if you're doing it, but if you are, stop doing it. And again, I'm not mad. I just don't think it's effective. And I think that it quite possibly could be driving people out of here. And I don't want people that are visiting and trying to get plugged in and learning to feel this huge pressure that every time they walk in, brother so and so or sister so and so is going to say, hey come soul winning today. And what they, you know those memes it's like what they see and what you see or whatever? Or how you view yourself? What they see is you with a cup of Kool-Aid with the crazy Mormon eyes. That's what they see. How you see is like you're just disciplining and it is what you're doing. But just like that scripture said, let the word of God get them right in their heart on that and help them understand that they need to be out soul winning and that that's something that God wants them to do. Let them come to that conclusion on their own. And if they don't come to that conclusion on their own, then they're not going to come to that conclusion on their own. But I feel like they will come to that conclusion on their own. I mean I'm going to use Amanda as an example who used to go to our church. She came to our church for about a month and then she asked if she could go soul winning. And this is how a lot of people that start coming to our church do. I don't ever ask people to come soul winning. I just think they're going to come when they're ready. When they've come to that point. And again, there's hardly anybody that ever goes soul winning in churches and so they're going to come when they hear it preached and I'm going to put the pressure on them. So let me be the pressure cooker for them. Because they're already going to get enough pressure from me, but if they're getting it from me and from our church members, then it's not going to be good. And again, you might disagree with me, but I don't care if you disagree with me or not. That is what I don't want you doing that. I don't want the gospel being preached to visitors. And if you're a visitor here today, I'm sorry this is the part of the sermon that might make you feel uncomfortable. But I don't want the bombardment. Because I want people to feel comfortable. I want people to feel loved. But I don't want them to feel pressure to perform from day one, from service one, and every single time they come to church. It's okay to encourage people to do stuff, but don't get out of hand with it. Because we are soul winners. We forget where we were. We forget that we weren't always soul winners as Christians too. And just one thing about the whole visitors coming from out of town and then people snatching them up and trying to preach the gospel to them. They didn't come to see you. No offense, but they didn't. They didn't come to smell your breath and you corner them. So let them enjoy the services, let them soak it in, and then let the ushers find the person to preach the gospel to them. Don't send children. Women, don't go up to men that you don't know and start preaching the gospel. It's a safety thing, folks. It's a safety thing. And you're like, well, what about out-soul winning? Safety's of the Lord. But you have two women with you. And you have a bunch of men out there too. And it's just a different thing. And if children are here and they need to hear the gospel and you want children that are proficient in giving the gospel to give the gospel to those children, I want you to ask their parents for permission. I think when CJ had his, was it your sister that was here? And their kids got the gospel? Didn't you ask was okay? I don't want people to feel like the children under the stairs are giving their kids the gospel. You know what I'm saying. Let's not make it weird. So hopefully you understand what I'm saying when it comes to all that. And again, another thing for the before and after services. I don't want, this is my new rule and this is etched in stone by the finger of the pastor. If you're not a piano player in this church, you're not playing piano in the services. If your name's not Nia, Callie, or huh? Huh? Huh? Kayla! Yeah, I'm sorry. Good night. If you're not those three people, do not get on the piano for any reason. And I've empowered the ushers to instruct you to get off the piano immediately. I don't care who you are. I don't care what the reason is. The answer is no. Does everybody understand that? Okay, no more. And not just the piano. You see those instruments there? They're very expensive. Don't let your kids go up and play with other people's musical instruments. There's been some issues with that too. It's just, you can't let them do that. I mean, some of these instruments are hundreds of dollars. Don't let your children play with other people's musical instruments. And don't play music right after the church service. The rule is, after the church service, half hour. Now the piano player's going to play a song after we wrap up, which I'm about to wrap up in just a second. I'm sorry. But, I have to say this. So, but I don't want a bunch of piano playing and you know, ring ring ring ring ring, after the service because I want people to be able to talk and hear and fellowship and things like that. So, but even after that, I still don't want anybody on the piano at all unless you're the piano player. Is that understood? Does everybody understand that? Okay, because everybody hearing me. I just want to make sure because, you know, and I don't want, the ushers, I don't want to be the bad guy. I really don't. I don't want to have to just be this nitpicky bad guy all the time. So I'm going to make the ushers do it. So, and you know, if they're having to tell your kids to behave in church, which I'm going to cover all that stuff in the behavior one, then, and you get mad about it. Well, you already know the rules. So if they have to tell your kids to stop doing something, then that means you weren't watching your kids and that you should be watching your kids. And obviously, you know, things happen. But if you're mad because one of the ushers tell your kids to stop doing something that they're not supposed to be doing, then you're wrong. And if you come to me about it and you're mad about it, guess what I'm going to say? Did you know that they weren't supposed to be climbing on the table? Well then, what do you want me to do? You know, I'm not saying the ushers are empowered to spank your kids, okay? But they're empowered to tell your kids to stop. And I want them to go to the parent and say, hey, you know, this is like the 15th time I've told them to stay out of the sugar. And one last thing before I close. This is another one last thing. I've got to say this. No more kids getting coffee, tea, or hot cocoa. No hot water for kids anymore. That's done. That's over with. Is that understood? If your parents get something for you, they're not supposed to be doing that either. You want to have hot cocoa kids, you want to have tea, you want to have coffee, then do it at home. Because I don't want to be responsible for stunting your growth or for scoldings. You're going to be short. Some of the kids, it's too late for you. But, I'm not trying to be mean, but it's become a safety thing too. And I just don't want it to be continuing as a safety thing. So, everything decently in order. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this church and for all the great things that we do. And I pray that, Lord, this was taken in the right spirit. And I try to preach in the right spirit, Lord, but I just pray that we take these things and apply them in our church and in our lives. And these principles. And we thank you for being a God of order that we can follow after the steps of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that you just bless us as we go out soloing. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. One twenty-five, the solid rock. You read, or Green Hymnal's song, one twenty-five, the solid rock. On the first. My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When darkness bails his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. His oath, his covenant, his blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. When he shall come with trumpet sound, oh, may I then in him be found. Dressed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Great singing. Glad to have you here this morning. We'd love to see you tonight. Brother Jesse, will you hand us a word of prayer? Lord, thank you for being able to gather here this morning. Blessed fellowship to come. Amen.