Amen.
I wanna look back at verse 12, the Bible says,
let no man despise thy youth,
but be thou an example of the believers
in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit,
in faith, in purity.
So now this is an admonition of course to a pastor
and this is to young Timothy as the Bible would indicate
he's a youth according to the Bible.
What is that age?
I don't know, but he's younger
and the Bible is telling him though
to be thou an example.
And really that's kind of the title of my sermon
is just to be a good example.
And being a good example, I think
there's a lot of elements to it.
Of course there's a lot of ways
that we should be an example,
but I think in some ways being an example
is often doing something that other people are not doing.
You know, to be an example is not following
because you're really more of a follower
than setting an example, being a leader.
So I really look at this passage as a commandment
to be a leader, to do things that other people
are not doing and to set yourself apart and doing good.
It's very easy to set yourself apart and doing evil,
but it's much more difficult to be a good example
and to do what's right, to oppose evil,
to oppose wickedness, to not necessarily go with the crowd
or go with the stream, go with the flow,
but rather to set a good example and be different.
And in this world, unfortunately, evil is just abounding.
The Bible says that the whole world lies in darkness.
And so unfortunately we just see
just so much corruption in our government.
We see so much corruption in the world.
We just see so many evildoers and so many bad things.
And you kind of sometimes get
what I would call blackpilled on humanity
or you kind of lose faith and humanity as a whole.
But the thing is, is what's to help us
is for some people to step up and be a good example.
And you know, that's what we need.
We need more people to be a good example
and not just pastors.
I believe that this of course is a nomination to pastors
but that we need other people to be examples.
And notice, Timothy doesn't even have to be
an older person to be a good example.
He's a young person and yet he can be a good example.
And I think that everyone in this room
should strive to be a good example for their peers.
And whether you realize it or not,
there are people looking to you and how you behave
and how you perform and you are in some ways influencing
many people that you don't even realize.
Let alone the people that you should probably realize
that you're influencing, whether that be your family,
your spouse, your friends, your church.
Many of us are greatly influenced by the people around us.
And when we see good examples,
it can inspire other people to do better
and to do good as well and to follow like suit.
The counter is just as true
where people are setting a bad example
where a lot of people follow that bad example as well.
But I really wanna give you the admonition
to try and be a good example.
Of course in this context we have in word,
meaning I believe you could look at this
as the word of God.
You could also just look at this in his word,
what he says, the things that he says
is he's a good example.
Preaching the right things,
preaching the right doctrines,
preaching the word of God, faithfully.
In conversation, this is typically what we think
of as lifestyle, not necessarily your words,
but really just the manner of life,
how you carry yourself, the decisions that you're making.
In charity, this is your love.
Charity is how you love other people.
So being an example of loving other people,
doing good under other people,
in spirit, of course, having the right attitude
towards the things of God,
having a holy spirit in a sense,
the leading of the spirit of God.
And of course in faith,
trusting God when you can't see it,
it doesn't make sense.
Believing God's word
when you don't necessarily see it happening,
but you're trusting God.
And then in purity, keeping yourself pure
from the evils of this world,
from the wickedness of this world.
So there's a lot of different ways
that we can apply this.
But I wanna get a few more examples
before we dive into our application.
Go to Philippians chapter three.
So you're gonna go back to the left,
just a hair.
Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians.
Chapter number three.
And I wanna look at verse 17.
Brethren,
be followers together of me
and mark them which walk.
So you have us for an in sample.
So the King James Bible occasionally uses
this little bit different word in sample.
It's the same thing as we think of example, okay?
It's just worded, it's just spelled differently,
but it's basically the same thing.
And notice he's saying,
hey, some people we have to point out are bad
so that you can make sure you follow us
because we are the good example, they're the bad example.
Of course, in the context here,
the apostle Paul is talking about the unsaved Jews.
So the unsaved Jews and the synagogues at their time,
these are bad examples, these Judaizers,
people trying to lead the Christians astray
into believing work salvation,
believing and following the commandments to get to heaven.
You know, their judicial system that is corrupted
where they're hypocrites
and they have all these man-made traditions
that go against the things of God.
He's saying, hey, we gotta mark these people
or even Christians that have been in their churches
and have apostatized or started speaking perverse things
to draw away disciples after themselves.
Hey, we have to mark those people
so that you know, hey, you need to follow us, right?
Be followers together of me and mark them which walk
so as you have us for an example.
Now, again, in the context of Philippians 3,
notice what it says in verse two,
beware of dogs, beware of evil workers,
beware of the concision for we are the circumcision.
So Philippians 3's context is mainly about Jews
if you realize kind of what he's saying here
because the concision is talking about those
who have been circumcised physically but not spiritually,
not in their heart and so he's warning,
hey, be aware of these dogs.
He's not talking about literal animals, you know,
phyto or a chihuahua or a pit bull.
He's calling people dogs.
Now that's a pretty derogatory term
but unfortunately there are people
that are way worse than dogs.
There are people that are more evil than animals
and they act like animals in the sense
they seem to have no conscience,
that they're ferocious, that they act beastly
and so he's just saying, hey, beware of dogs,
beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
Okay, and we need to mark those people
and warn against those people
and you need to follow us, we are the good example.
The apostle Paul is saying, I'm a good example.
Now, here's what's funny.
If anybody actually got up today and said,
hey, I'm a good example,
what do they call that person?
Prideful, exactly.
It's just like, oh man, you're just so prideful.
You think you're a good example
but here's the thing, the apostle Paul
is not trying to brag in himself.
He's just saying, look, we are sincere.
We're the legitimate form of Christianity.
You need to be following our example
and it's not about him though.
He's following Christ.
He's following the word of God.
He's saying, hey, we're a good example
not because I'm a good example
because this is good and I'm trying to do this, okay?
It's not that he's perfect.
It's not that he's trying to glorify himself.
He's just saying, I've recognized
this is the right pattern
and what these people are doing is not the right pattern
so we need to mark those people
and you need to follow us
because we are the ensemble.
We're the example.
We're what's good.
You need to follow us.
You need to be like us.
And let me just explain this.
You should be like a new IB pastor
because let me tell you something.
They're the good examples.
They're the ones that are zealous
for the things of God,
going soul winning,
preaching the hard truths of the Bible,
telling you to keep the commandments
and look, even if one of them was imperfect,
even if they were secretly hypocrite,
it wouldn't matter because you're ultimately
just following the Bible
and you're just trying to follow people
that say they're following the Bible, okay?
That's the whole point.
There's no point in following someone
that's obviously bad
and telling you not to follow the Bible.
You should try to follow the guy
that is following the Bible.
Albeit no one's perfect.
No one will arrive.
No one will always do it right.
You know what?
We should follow the Bible
and follow those who are following the Bible.
We should follow the Apostle Paul's in our life
because he's the one following Christ, okay?
Now I want to go to first Peter chapter five,
go to first Peter chapter number five.
Notice the Bible's bringing this up a lot
about examples or in samples.
People you should be following.
People you should be looking up to.
And what's sad in this world
is, you know, help Lord for the godly man seeseth.
It's sad when there's just very few good examples.
You know, isn't that pretty much
what the Bible teaches?
I mean, isn't that what Psalm 12 is teaching?
Help Lord for the Godly.
It's not saying everyone's godly.
Everyone's good.
Everybody's awesome.
We got all these wonderful people
and all these wonderful pastors
and just everybody's good.
Now the Bible kind of paints the opposite picture
that it's like help Lord
because there's virtually no one good.
There's just like not very good examples.
There's very few options.
You look in the biblical record.
I mean, you have examples in the Bible
where the Bible says God is looking for somebody
and he says I found none.
That's pretty sad.
Like, why am I supposed to think like,
oh, back then God couldn't find a single person
but today everyone's good.
Today every pastor's a good guy
and every church is a good guy.
And it's like, you know,
these fake Christians, all of them like each other
and they just hate us.
Like we're the only bad Christians, you know?
And it's just like, it's kind of the exact opposite
in many cases.
But look at first Peter chapter number five,
look at verse three.
Talking about pastors,
neither as being lords over God's heritage
but being in samples to the flock.
So that's why I said it's not always example.
Sometimes it's in sample, same thing, same word
in essence as far as what it's trying to communicate.
And he's trying to say, hey,
pastors should be a good example to the flock.
Meaning that their lifestyle,
what they're doing should be what you're trying to do.
You know, you think about it
like even just the qualifications of a pastor
like that's kind of what every guy should be trying to do.
Be a good husband, be married, have kids, ruling well,
having a good reputation, not drunk.
I mean like, pretty much just everything
in the qualifications is just being a good Christian.
Just being a good person in general.
The pastor's supposed to do the work on evangelist
so that the congregation will what?
To evangelism, go out and preach the gospel.
So you know, pastors should be someone
that's evangelizing, going on missions trips,
loving the loss, trying to get people saved,
preaching the gospel.
You know, how many pastors a day
never give the gospel to anybody?
You know, it's kind of sad.
It is like, that's not a good example.
You know, you have churches
and you have whole movements of religion
where the pastor's not even married.
How is a guy that's not married supposed to get up
and all educate us on marriage?
Now I know there's some guys out there
that think they can, okay.
I know there's a lot of single guys out there
that are the greatest husbands
that have ever walked the planet
but you know, don't you think that they might struggle
to understand the nuances of marriage
when you've never been married?
Don't you think it would be hard
for some of those never had kids,
has zero kids to be able to really explain
all the difficulties of child raising
and just all the different,
I mean, you know, it's kind of absurd
to think this guy is our example.
Here's a guy who doesn't go soul winning.
He doesn't have a family.
He doesn't have a wife.
Yet, he's gonna tell us all what we're supposed to do.
That's not an example.
Okay, that's like a bad example.
And so I think why the Bible wants a guy
that's married as kids
so that he can relate to everyone.
Because if he was lacking in one of those areas,
well he's gonna probably lack
in being able to essentially help people
and empathize in various situations
and he's there as an example
for everybody to kind of follow in general.
Him and his family of course
because his wife and children are supposed to be
in behavior while they're in the church as well.
You want the wife to be sober and not a slanderer.
You know, faithful in all things.
And so it's important for them
to be setting this good example.
Because many times people will,
they kind of like set the pastor and this family
as like the ultimate bar.
And I don't think that that's necessarily right.
I'm just telling you kind of what it is.
Like wherever the pastor's at or his family,
it's kind of like where other people
will put as their maximum.
And that's not necessarily right.
You know, and praise God,
we have people in our church
that go soul-winning more than I do.
They don't say like,
oh, well, I want to max out at whatever pastor's shell is doing
or people go on more mission strips than I will
or you know, people that have more kids than I do
or people that, you know,
it's not like you have to limit yourself
to whatever pastor's shell he does, right?
But in some cases many people
won't even try to go above that anyways.
So if the pastor's setting a really low example,
well then it's just not going to challenge the congregation.
And so it's important for the pastor,
for the wife, for the children to set a good example,
to be leading and doing good.
They don't have to be the best,
but at least they're setting a good example
so that many people can follow.
And of course we want other people in the church
to do likewise.
You know, there's people in the church
that go soul-winning and they're an example to me.
They encourage me.
They cause me to want to improve
or do more or work harder.
There's people in here that do great things
for their wife and they are a good husband
and it motivates me to be a better husband.
There's wives in here that serve their families
and set a good example and encourage me and my wife
and our family to want to do more and help other people.
There's people in here that have great kids
that are really respectful and really precocious
and it causes us to be like,
man, we want to train our kids to be like their kids.
And it's just good examples
or just encouraging other people to be good examples.
And whenever you're setting a bad example
or a low example, well it just kind of,
it causes a lot of people to follow and like footsteps.
So it's important for us to have good examples
and in many cases, you know,
you'll be like your pastor in many ways.
Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter one.
And one way that I think is really interesting,
it seems like for the most part,
people kind of believe like their pastor, you know.
It's just like it doesn't matter.
Just people just, everybody just kind of agrees
with their pastor and the pastor is just always right.
And that's not necessarily true.
The pastor isn't necessarily always right.
But as for me, like in picking a church
or where I want to go to church,
I kind of wanted a church
where the pastor is right for the most part
because I kind of want my family and me
to kind of like be in lockstep.
You know, I don't want it to necessarily be
a constant fight or something
or I don't want my kids and me to be at odds.
I even remember growing up in the church,
I was growing up, it was pre-trib.
And my dad was not, my dad was not pre-trib.
But I kind of would side with my pastor,
even though my dad wasn't pre-trib at all.
And you know, I wish that my dad maybe explained his position.
He was just kind of not pre-trib.
He wouldn't tell you why or like verse or something.
He just knew, he was like, pre-trib is not in the Bible.
And he's just like, so, you know, it's like,
but the pastor's saying it, you know, whatever.
And so like sometimes it creates this weird conflict.
And you know, again, if your dad says something different,
you know, you should take key to what your dad says,
you should listen to your parents,
you should consider what they have to say.
But you know, at the end of the day,
the pastor's not always right.
But you know, hopefully it's not like a constant,
you have to go home and explain why
Pastor Shelley's wrong, okay?
If you have to explain why Pastor Shelley's wrong
after every sermon, you might find a different church,
okay?
But you know, hey, if that occasionally has to happen,
then go for it.
But you know, you kind of want to go to a church
where you look up to the pastor,
you like what he's preaching,
you like what he's teaching.
That's really important to me, you know?
I want to go to church where the pastor's
gonna teach me the Bible and I'm gonna agree with him
on most things, on the big things for sure, okay?
Look at verse Thessalonians chapter number one
and verse number seven,
because people are gonna believe like their pastor.
So hopefully you just believe right by accident.
Verse seven, so that you are in samples
to all that believe in Macedonian okay?
Now this is not just a person, this is the whole church.
And it's saying this entire church
is setting a good example.
So it's not only important for the pastor to be an example.
It's not only important for his wife
and his children to be an example.
It's important for the whole church to be an example
because a church will sometimes be an example
to another church.
You know, when a church sees,
hey, set fast Baptist church is being evicted
for preaching, you know, this sermon.
But you know what?
The pastor didn't take it back
and the church sides with them
and the church is still following around in hotel rooms.
They don't even know where they're going to church
since then in the morning, they just know they're going.
I mean, there was a point in time
where we were sending out the address
like an hour or two hours before
we were actually having service.
And I know some people are getting nervous
because they're kind of like, I don't want to really ask
but it's like an hour, you know, like, I got to know,
like, where are we going, Pastor Shelley?
And it's just like, all right, here we go.
This is where we're going.
You know, it was funny, we were meeting,
I told people like, don't bring visitors.
I'm like, no one knows where we're going.
Don't share the link.
And they're just like, hey, I brought this visitor.
He didn't want to get baptized.
You know, it's just like, what?
We had like more baptisms
when we were like in the hotel church
that we'd had like a few months prior or something.
It was funny.
I mean, I was just like, dang it,
I have to go get in the pool or whatever.
He's like, but you know, at the same time,
I'm like, I'm praising God that there's a baptism,
of course, you know, currently speaking,
it was kind of like, what the heck, you know,
how do we have all these visitors in the hotel
that want to get baptized?
But you know what, praise God for the baptisms.
Praise God.
And you know what, that sets an example.
You know, first works, they got bombed
and then they're just like,
hey, we're still having church, someone's backyard.
You know, and it's like, that's a great example.
Now, of course, when you live in California,
you can do that, you know, you live in Texas,
it would have been a different, you know, animal
to having it outside, okay?
But it's just like, hey, church is going through
persecution and rallying around the pastor,
rallying around the truth, being steadfast.
You know what, that's a good example
and it's example to other churches.
Church is going out and doing big missions trips,
inspires other churches to go and do big mission trips.
Church is going and saying, hey,
we got this many people saved.
I guarantee, I guarantee that the new IB
saying how many salvations we got in 2025
caused a lot of our enemies to be like,
we need to do soul-winning a little more.
And you know, is that really that bad?
Someone could dislike me and dislike our church
and if they go soul-winning, praise God anyways, you know?
You don't have to like me to get someone saved.
You don't have to like me to do the right thing.
But you know what, we probably still provoked
some under jealousy.
We've provoked them under jealousy like,
hey, you probably want to get a part of this.
You know, I've noticed some of these people,
they're going to the same Caribbean islands
we're going to, that's probably coincidence, right?
I don't care, go for it.
You know, I don't own the Philippines,
I don't own the Bahamas, I don't own Mexico.
It's like, hey, go with us soul-winning,
don't go with us, just go soul-winning.
But you know what, in some cases
you're just setting a good example and that's important.
You know, in many cases, I don't think
that I'm ever going to be that liked or that popular,
but just by setting a good example,
even people that don't like you,
they'll sometimes, they'll follow you anyways
or they'll make good decisions anyways.
And you know what we need?
We just need more people to be a good example
whether they're liked or not.
Whether people want to be their friend or not,
whether people go to their church or not,
we just need people to be good examples
and we need churches to be good examples.
We need more churches to say, hey,
you can preach hard on the truth of the Bible
and still exist, still grow, still thrive,
still get people baptized,
still do all the things that you need to do.
Hey, you can give money to missions
and you can still have money to have conferences
and have fun things.
Like, we don't want to sit here and set a bad example.
What is it a good example?
We want people to visit our church
and say like, I liked being there.
I like the spirit there.
I like the people there.
You know, I heard that they're all weirdos
and mentally retarded, Kool-Aid drinking freaks,
but I went there and they're all cool and awesome
and I like them.
Look, I met a guy at Massa
and he said that he was going to
all scripture Baptist church
the last six months or something.
So it's just the last six months of their demise.
He'd never even heard of the new IVB,
but he like shows up and every sermon
is just about how bad the new IVB is.
He's just like, man, I just heard about these people.
They're just all weird and freaks
and just like crazy and whatever.
And then he's like,
then I started listening to their sermons
like they're pretty good sermons, you know?
Like, and then he's like,
and then I started meeting these people.
They're like kind of cool.
And he's just like, you know,
hey, that's a great testimony.
And hey, even if they say that you're weird
and you've turned the world upside down
and hey, they come here, they're also,
it's like, hey, once they meet you,
it's like, hey, I kind of like those people.
They're setting a good example
and they're turning the world upside down to the gospel.
And hey, not everybody's going to like you,
but just be a good example anyways.
And we need a whole church to be a good example.
We set an example.
Our name, Steadfast Baptist Church,
sets an example.
There are many people looking at what we're doing
and they're going to follow like suit.
If we just folded like a deck of cards,
a lot of churches would lose boldness
in preaching the word of God.
But by standing on the truth,
by preaching what the Bible says,
by being very zealous for the things of God
and evangelism, it inspires other people to do likewise.
And we need to do that.
You know, people that like our church
and go through the tribulation, that sets an example.
You know, if everybody just leaves and gives up
and well, I just disagree with how he said it or whatever.
It's just like, well, then other people
will learn from that example
and they'll disagree with their churches.
And you know, not everybody even has a good church to go to.
When people are leaving a good church,
what does that send?
That sends a message to people
that are in a bad church to leave.
You know, I've met these people like,
I can't go to church if it's pre-trip.
It's like, well, you're just going to not go to church?
Like, that's not good.
You know, like, hey, if you can tolerate things
and sometimes you don't agree and you go,
that sets a good example too.
You know, hey, we need to be people
that are just cared, we care about the truth
and we care about getting people saved
and we don't have to like and agree with everything.
We just want to be a good example.
Go to 2nd Thessalonians, chapter three.
You know what's a good example?
That 10-year plaque we have out in the hallway
of people that have been here for 10 years straight.
That's a great example.
You know, what a great example.
Brother Alberto and the Milsteads been here
basically since day one, Miss Lucy in the first year too.
I mean, we've had people that are just tried and true
and I guarantee it wasn't as fun, you know, in the house.
Wasn't as fun when Adam Fannie was here.
It wasn't as fun, you know, when we had
all kinds of protests and threats
and just changing locations and all this stuff.
I mean, it's not always been the best.
There's highs and lows.
But you know, at the end of the day,
like it's a good testimony to say
hey, I've been in a church for 10 years.
Hey, I've been in a church for a long period of time.
I've seen it grow.
I've brought people here.
You know what, that's a good example.
And it shows other people, hey, if they've been here
for 10 years, I could be at a church for 10 years
or I could be a Christian for 10 years.
2nd Thessalonians, chapter number three.
Look at verse number nine.
The Bible says not because we have not power,
but to make ourselves an example
unto you to follow us.
Now again, it's not example, it's in sample,
but it's the same concept.
This is the idea of the apostle Paul saying that
when he went to the church at Thessalonica,
he noticed that some of them were more lazy,
they didn't work at all.
And so he didn't even take a paycheck
from that church specifically.
And he would just work extra to pay his own bills,
just to kind of set an example like
hey, we should be hardworking people.
Christians should not be lazy,
they should be hardworking, okay?
And he wanted to set a good example
of being someone that's a hard worker.
And you know what?
We should all as men be hard workers.
We need to be good examples of hard workers.
Not people that are always complaining,
trying to clock in for 39 hours and 59 minutes
and 59 seconds, and just always upset,
and just like, ah, you know, money, money, money.
You know, nobody really likes somebody
who's always complaining about money.
You know, it's just kind of annoying
to be around someone that's just always trying
to bum money and always complaining about money.
You know what?
You like being around people that just work really hard,
always taking care of things.
You know, they're taking care of themselves.
The Bible says they work with quietness,
meaning that they're not bringing it up.
And like it's not to say that we don't all have struggles.
It's not to say that we don't all have low points.
It's not to say that we couldn't ever use a few bucks.
I'm sure everybody could use a few bucks.
But at the end of the day,
with quietness they're working
and they're not just bugging everybody about money.
Okay, you know, it's just kind of a bad attitude,
a good attitude to someone that's willing,
hey, if I have to do a little bit of extra work
or work a little harder to take care of myself,
I'd rather do that than just, you know,
set an example of being unwilling to work.
There are some people that are unwilling
to work a little extra.
Work an hour late, work a night, work a weekend,
work in the morning, get a second side hustle
going on or something, you know.
There's so many people that are afraid to do that
and won't do that.
And you know what, Paul's setting a good example of,
hey, I'm willing to basically work all day
and all night, sometimes.
You know, God made you strong.
What did He make you strong for, young men?
Just so you can flex on TikTok videos
or something like that?
I mean, you know, guys like to brag about how
they can stay up all night drinking alcohol all night.
They're mighty to drink wine.
Well, maybe God gave you that strength
so you could stay up all night working or something.
Or maybe making some extra money
or taking care of things or, you know,
helping your wife, you know,
when she has a hard time or something.
You know, yeah, you are mighty to do these things.
But you know what, instead of being
a mighty to be a bad example,
why don't you be mighty to be a good example?
Instead of getting drunk and doing drugs
and just, hey, look, I can drink 24 beers
and still stand and talk.
It's like, why is that cool?
You know, that's not a good example.
Be a good example of someone that,
hey, I'm taking care of my family
and I'm, you know, working hard.
And look, I don't think you have to work
any more than you need to.
I mean, if you can make an honest living
on 40 hours a week and you get four weeks of vacation
and you never want to think about another job, go team.
You know, but you know, in America
with the inflation right now,
some of us are having to work double shift.
You know what I mean?
Some of us have to do extra time
and it still feels like you can't catch up sometimes.
And we're all in different life circumstances,
different situations, different priorities, I get it.
But you know what?
We should at least work with quietness
and we should be good examples
of people that are willing to work hard.
Taking care of our family.
You know, you want your wife to look up to you
and say, hey, he works hard.
He's trying to pay the bills.
He's trying to take care of me.
And you know, if I was a young lady
and I was thinking about who I want to marry,
I would want to make sure that the guy is a hard worker.
Because let me tell you something.
If he's not a hard worker now,
he will not be in the future.
You want a guy that's going to work hard,
is diligent, is putting in a lot of effort, energy.
And I don't really even care what it is,
just a hard worker in general.
Because lazy people are just lazy,
their whole life for some reason.
If he's always, oh, he just plays video games all day.
That's not a good sign.
He's refusing to work.
He doesn't do anything.
You know, I didn't always have a job,
but in college, you know, I played golf.
And I mean, whenever I was serious about golf,
I would play golf eight, nine, 10 hours a day.
Practice, do workouts.
We'd have to get up at 6 a.m. do workouts.
And for some reason, we had some crazy,
like, ex-AFL guy doing our workouts.
It was like a two-hour workout at 6 a.m.
Then we'd go play, you know, go to school,
play golf all day.
I mean, it wasn't an eight-hour shift.
You know, and you want people
that are willing to go a little bit extra.
Does that going to provide the bills?
No, I didn't become a professional golfer
and I don't make money on golf, all right?
But you know what?
Hard work translates into hard work.
Being lazy doesn't translate into anything good, okay?
And now, was I the best college student?
Did I develop some bad habits in college?
I did, all right?
I got lazy and kind of gave up work.
It's hard, but you know, in general,
you know, we should find men that work hard.
And you know, if Iowa had a daughter
that was about to get married
and this guy is lazy and doesn't want to work hard,
I'd be telling her that's not, you know,
he needs to change.
Or something needs to be fixed here.
You should be looking for a guy.
Why just wanting to be good-looking?
You know, I just want, what was the guy
that Britney Spears dated that looked like a bum?
Kevin Federline, I mean, come on.
Like, this guy looks like a bum, you know?
It's just like, no, don't date this guy or whatever.
It's like, but he's a hottie, you know?
It's just like, no, he's like a bum.
I don't care if he's good-looking or whatever.
You'd be better off marrying some ugly dude
because they're all ugly anyways,
that works hard than some Mr. Handsome
that never wants to lift his fingers, you know,
and actually work hard, okay?
You know, that's way more important anyways.
And again, this is a biblical example
of guys that work hard, you know,
that are willing to do things that are important.
And again, God made you strong for a reason.
It's the work, guys.
Six days south of labor.
Sorry that doesn't fit your little American dream.
God didn't have the American dream and toe here.
I mean, some people aren't even working six days a week
and they're complaining about it.
And it's like, God's saying six days south of labor.
Now, I want you to go to Titus chapter two.
It's just to the right, just a hair.
Titus chapter two.
We need to make sure that we're setting a good example.
We could take the sermon in so many different directions
but I'm just trying to show you how the Bible
is bringing this up of being a good example.
Titus chapter two, look at verse seven.
In all things, showing thyself a pattern of good works
in doctrine, showing uncorruptedness,
gravity, sincerity.
So again, we need to show ourselves a pattern of good works.
I want to go to 1 Peter, just go to the right.
I'll read for you in 1 Corinthians 11.
Be followers of me, even as I awesome of Christ.
In Matthew chapter number five,
the Bible says that we're supposed to let our light shine
so that men may see our good works
and glorify our Father which is in heaven.
So we should be good examples showing our examples.
We should point to the people that we should be following,
following people like Paul that are setting a good example,
following Christ.
And of course, that is our ultimate example is Christ.
Look at 1 Peter chapter number two, verse 21.
For even here in two where you called
because Christ also suffered for us,
leaving us an example that we should follow in steps.
Of course, Christ is our ultimate example.
And I get it, people are like,
oh, I don't follow man, I follow Christ.
That's great.
I'm glad that you have this attitude of following Christ
but here's the reality.
Those who are following Christ are following the Bible
and the Bible tells you to be followers of Paul.
So you do have to follow Paul as he follows Christ.
And most people aren't a pastor.
So you know what the Bible tells you
to go to church and follow your pastor.
So if you're gonna follow Christ,
well, Christ died on the cross and gave you a church.
He purged it with his own blood.
And so if you're following Christ,
you're gonna be following a pastor by getting into church
and obeying them that have the rule over you
and submitting yourselves.
That's what the Bible teaches.
Hey, if you're a wife, you're gonna obey your husband.
In order to follow Christ, you have to obey your husband.
You can't say, oh, I just follow Christ.
Following Christ is following your husband.
Hey, men, if you're following Christ,
you're gonna follow your boss
because you're supposed to treat him like the Lord.
When you're on the clock,
you're supposed to be acting like Jesus is your manager,
like Jesus is your CEO, like Jesus is your boss.
And so, you know, it's usually a scapegoat
to actually do the opposite of what the Bible's saying
when they say this of like, oh, I'm just following Jesus
while they rebel against their human authority
that Jesus put over them.
That's false.
No, you're supposed to obey your human authority.
Hey, children, you're supposed to obey your parents.
And of course, we are following Christ's example.
He was obedient to who?
The Father, you know, Jesus wasn't this rogue agent.
He said, not my will, but thine be done.
Even Jesus Christ himself learned obedience
as the book of Hebrews tells us.
And he submitted to the Father's will.
The Bible says that he did not even come
to earth of his own will, but he was sent by the Father.
He came down from heaven from the Father.
He said, he came down not to do his own will,
but the will of him that sent him.
That's the Father.
The Father sent Jesus.
He obeyed to come down.
He was on the earth and at the time of the cross
in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done.
If Christ can be obedient,
how much more should we be obedient and submissive?
And of course, he was obedient to the cross,
picturing what?
Suffering, persecution, ridicule, shame.
And of course, we as Christians,
we should follow that example saying,
hey, we should be willing to be mocked,
ridiculed and persecuted for the cause of Christ,
even unto death, because Christ is our ultimate example.
And we need more Christians that want to be a good example
in following Christ and not man,
not the pleasure of this world,
not being well spoken of, not money,
but rather serving God, serving Christ,
getting people saved, preaching the truth.
We need more good examples.
I don't feel like there's that many men
that are following Christ.
It's sad, it's sad.
There's not many pastors, not many preachers.
I mean, the Bible warns, beloved believe not every spirit,
but try the spirits, whether they have God,
because many false prophets are gone on the world.
Unfortunately, there's not a lot of good examples.
We need more good examples.
It seems like every day we see more and more pastors
exposed as a pedophile, exposed as a pervert,
exposed as being corrupt, committing adultery,
sleeping with the secretary, sleeping with whoever.
It's just a shame, it's an embarrassment.
We need more good examples.
And of course, that comes with the congregation
elevating good examples.
I want you to go, if you would,
in your Bible to 1 Thessalonians chapter four.
So go back to 1 Thessalonians chapter four.
One of the admonitions in 1 Timothy chapter four
of being a good example is in purity.
And I think this is a very important one
that I want to address.
And it's for you young people.
And I know how it is.
I went to public school, I went to college,
and I know for a fact that there are kids
that are very influential to other kids.
Teens, and some of you young singles,
a lot of people are looking to your example.
And here's the thing, this is what I know,
that if some of the young ladies in our church
that are the most influential that everybody's looking to,
that wants to be friends with,
if they decide to stay pure,
and they're a virgin on their wedding night,
they will inspire a lot of the other kids in this church
to follow like suit.
And I know if some of the good girls in our church,
they decide to not take it seriously,
and they go out and commit fornication
and tell all their friends about it,
they'll probably encourage a lot of those people
to follow like suit as well.
And it's, you know, we're in a church,
there's a lot of kids, look around.
But you notice there's not as many teenagers,
there's not as many older kids,
we kind of have a pyramid going, you know?
We have less at the top.
But that's why it's so important for you young single people
to set a good example right now.
You are gonna have a big impact
on a lot of kids in this church,
and you're gonna affect a lot of other people in this church.
And if you make the right decisions and good decisions,
you will influence a lot of other people,
not only helping yourself, but helping other people.
And the Bible tells us in first Thessalonians,
chapter number four, look at verse number three,
for this is the will of God, even your sanctification,
that you should abstain from fornication.
The Bible is telling us to abstain from this.
This is a direct commandment.
It's mentioned all over the Old Testament,
all over the New Testament.
This is a big deal to God.
But you live in an American culture
where fornication is almost just accepted
as totally normal and totally expected.
I mean, it is almost anticipated
that everyone will commit fornication,
that it's not a big deal,
that no one is gonna be a virgin,
and you know what, that is what the devil wants you to think,
so that you will follow that example.
But you know what, we need young people in this church
to say, you know what, I'm gonna be a good example,
I'm gonna be different, I'm gonna abstain,
and I'm gonna abstain from fornication,
I will be a virgin on my wedding night.
And look, it makes all common sense,
any guy that wants to take your virginity
that was sincere would have waited,
and every guy that's not sincere, it would have ran off.
That's why it makes no sense, if you're a young lady,
you should just totally, it should make no sense to you
to not wait, you should just try to be pure,
and it's not cool, it's devaluing yourself,
it's causing only problems to yourself,
and look, if you made that mistake,
do the best to stop, and just stay as pure as you can now.
But I'm telling you this, you know, it's better
if we have some of the teenagers,
and some of you young people, and some of you singles,
you be pure on your wedding night.
And if you made a mistake in that area,
don't go bragging about it at all.
Don't go telling other people
and trying to encourage other people to do it.
Go to 1st Corinthians, chapter number six,
1st Corinthians, chapter number six.
You know, I went to public school,
and unfortunately, the culture in public school
was to brag about that.
It was to brag, and act like fornication
was the coolest thing in the world.
And I remember later in college running into somebody
that I went to school with, it was a young lady,
I didn't really know her that well,
like I knew her, because I went to school with her,
but I wasn't like her friend or anything,
I didn't hang out with her that much,
but she was in a conversation
with some of the other guys I went to high school with,
and they're having a very obscene conversation
to say the least, okay?
Talking a lot about fornication,
and this young lady devolves that basically,
she had been the football team's, you know, fan girl, okay?
Every single guy, and she was just talking about it.
And, but this was the weird part about the conversation,
she was trying to explain to this young man
how what she had done was stupid and foolish,
and she wished she had never done it,
and was trying to tell this guy,
you should never commit fornication,
you should wait until you get married.
And it was just, it wasn't me,
it wasn't a fundamental Baptist preacher,
it was a literal whore, like in the biggest way possible,
I mean like the worst whore I've ever heard of
in my entire life, and I wish I could unhear
a lot of things I heard, but she was saying,
and this is only a few years removed from high school,
she's saying I wish I had never done that,
she said it made it not special,
it was a horrible decision, I wish I hadn't done that,
and now I'm just kind of trash to everybody,
and she's like don't do that, don't ruin yourself,
don't defile yourself, they wanna find some Jew somewhere
to lie to you and tell you that it was cool and fun
and they all enjoyed it, it's lies from hell,
it's lies from hell, you will regret it,
you will not be happy with yourself,
you should be a virgin, and you know what,
we need more people to set that good example.
First Corinthians chapter six, look at verse 18.
The Bible says,
Every sin that a man doeth is without the body,
but he that commit his fornication
sinned it against his own body, what?
Know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have of God and ye are not your own,
for ye are bought with a price,
therefore glorify God in your body
and in your spirit which are God's.
So the Bible is telling us, hey,
our body has been purchased by God,
therefore we're supposed to glorify God in our body,
not just soul and spirit, but in our body
and we should abstain from fornication,
we should flee from fornication.
You know, if you have to flee from something,
that sounds like it's dangerous.
Think about other things you would think
you should flee from, like a lion, like a roaring lion.
You don't want to get close to that thing.
Okay, and see, young people don't realize this,
they're too stupid to realize this in many cases,
and I think that parents should try their best
to help kids stay away from dangerous situations.
But let me explain something to you,
if you're a young single, you should just not get alone
with someone you're interested in,
because it's dangerous.
Just like you wouldn't get alone with a lion in a room,
you shouldn't get alone with someone you like in a room,
because it's not like, oh, I wouldn't want to do that.
You will want to do that.
That's the whole reason why
you're supposed to run away from it.
That's the whole reason why
you're supposed to not put yourself in the situation.
If you just don't put yourself in the situation,
you can't do it.
If you constantly put yourself in the situation,
unfortunately you'll probably do it.
Now look, if you find yourself alone with somebody,
you've gone too far, you can still say no,
you can still walk away.
You can still be like Joseph and run, okay?
And that's what you should do, run.
Run, Forrest, you know, just run, okay?
Just run out of the room.
And at the end of the day, you'd be better off.
But I'm just telling you, in many cases,
for most young people, just avoid the situation.
Just say, if you're a young lady,
just say, hey, I don't mind dating you,
but I just don't want to be alone with you.
Because I don't trust myself,
and I want to honor God with my body.
And you know, if you're the one,
then we'll be alone on our honeymoon.
And you know what?
That's what you should try to plan for.
Because if you say, well, I'm a good Christian person,
I just want to, you know, we can be alone.
It's not a big deal.
It's just, you're just messing with fire.
You know, maybe you could just dance around that lion
for a little bit, but eventually he's going to strike.
And so you just got to stay away from it.
Don't put yourself in the situation.
It's just not worth it.
And of course, we need some people
to set a good example.
You know, in this passage,
I know the primary example is virginity.
But in general, we're supposed to glorify God
in our body as well.
You know, I think another way is just being healthy.
You know, we should try to be healthy.
And as men, we should try to be strong.
The Bible has repeated commandments about being strong.
You know, as men, we shouldn't be soft.
We shouldn't be effeminate.
We should be, you know, able-bodied men.
We should try to work hard.
We should try to, you know, be someone
that's a little bit intimidating, okay, physically.
And not necessarily be docile.
You know, the Bible, I believe,
has many men in the Bible that are very clearly strong.
Like, it's not setting this example of a bunch of weaklings,
a bunch of feminine dudes.
It's men that are strong and taking care of themselves.
And you know what?
I don't think that you have to look a certain way.
I don't think the Bible really cares
about physical appearance, but it does,
the Bible does emphasize being healthy.
The Bible does emphasize being strong.
And you know, I think it's important
so you can go soul-winning so that you can work hard.
There's many jobs that take physical labor,
lifting 50 plus pounds, working nights,
lifting heavy materials, you know,
and it takes physical strength, physical endurance.
And you know what?
Men should be physically strong.
You know, it's kind of a shame
and it's kind of embarrassment when men are weak.
You know, why do we have the mighty men's competition?
You know what I didn't want to do?
I didn't want to have the mighty men's competition
and we're all like the McMurtry AI videos.
We're all fat eating fried chicken
or something like this with suspenders on
just so our pants don't buckle, you know,
under something, the pressure or the weight.
Like, that would be kind of a shame
and an embarrassment if we're the mighty men
and we're all just these out of shape,
you know, fried chicken, eaten, you know,
weirdos or something like that.
You know, or these docile guys or something.
It's like, hey, let's have a strong competition, you know?
Let's try to run around.
Let's try to work hard.
You know, I think that's important.
And we should be good examples of that.
You know, if you want your children
to be strong and in good shape,
often they're gonna follow their father's example.
They're gonna follow their father's, you know, footsteps.
You know, play games with your kids.
You know, work out with your kids.
Take walks with your family.
Eat good food.
Teach them about health.
Teach them about hygiene.
You know, take your body seriously.
Take good care of your body.
We need more people to take a good example.
And you know what, praise God
that Christianity is a pretty clean religion.
You know, it seems like some religions
are not very clean.
Hint, hint, wink, wink, Hinduism?
Okay.
I mean, what's all the videos
of them cutting food with their toenails?
Like, I don't, and I'm not,
maybe there's a video of like white Christians doing this.
Sorry if that exists.
I don't know.
I've never seen that.
But that would be gross in our approach.
You know, it's just like,
there's some religions that aren't that clean.
There's some parts of the world that aren't that clean.
You know what, what a shame would be
if a Christian church was like that, you know?
Unclean, non-hygienic, doesn't care about health.
You know, I think we should care about health.
I even primarily eat organic food, not always.
Don't hear me wrong.
You know, I try to eat organic foods.
I try to eat vegetables.
I try to eat, you know, all kinds of meat.
You should eat meat, in my opinion, okay?
I mean, the Bible says nothing's to be refused.
If you pray for it.
Hey, you know, there's some religions
that abstain from meat a lot.
Look, go with me to the Greek Orthodox Church.
Don't do it, but in hypothetical theory,
but I went there only because I was trying to learn Greek.
Okay, they had a Greek night school when I was going.
But you go and all the guys are just
these skinny-looking vegans, okay?
And, you know, they try to make, like,
orthobros seem like these chads or whatever.
In reality, they're like out of shape,
nerd, vegan-looking dudes.
Because, like, 180 days out of the year,
they can't even eat meat.
And they have all these weird fasts
and all these weird rituals,
and so they're, you know, just physically different
because of their actual diet.
And so, you know, you look at a lot of people
and their religion is dictating their diet,
is dictating their physiognomy,
is dictating how they behave themselves.
You know, as Christians, we need to be strong.
You know, eating that strong meat, you know,
and enjoying the blessings of the land
that flow with milk and honey.
You know, getting some good fats
and getting some good meats and eating healthy,
you know, organic foods.
I think these things are important.
I think the Bible has these principles
that we can employ in our lives.
Exactly how you do that,
you see, you can do whatever you want,
but, you know, the Bible does teach, you know, to be strong.
The Bible does teach to take care of your body.
And I think that we should all take those things seriously.
I want to go to Hosea chapter one.
So, and I didn't want to go to all the verses
to prove my point on that,
but I'm just kind of giving you general principles.
We should be good examples in these areas.
And one would be, again,
we should set for the good example of good marriages.
And I think this is what I want to emphasize,
is, you know, being a good spouse,
even in the low parts of your marriage.
Because everyone enjoys the honeymoon.
Everyone enjoys the good parts of marriage.
And look, there are parts of marriage
that is not hard at all.
It's only fun and easy.
But that's not going to last.
That's not reality.
You're also going to have extreme lows.
You're going to have difficulties.
There's a reason why the marriage vows are better for worse.
I mean, the wedding day is kind of a high.
It's kind of the better time.
But there's going to be worse.
And for some people, the worst is bad.
You know, this is what's funny to me,
is most people that have really bad marriage situations
are not the ones that complain.
It's the ones that are like somewhere in the middle.
It's like the ones that don't have,
the people that have like the one you're just like,
that's a nightmare.
You know, it's like,
they're not the ones usually complaining,
but the people that kind of have like a normal marriage,
and then they feel like it's like the,
wow, you don't want this one.
Okay.
And, you know, for all of us, it's kind of hard.
You know, there's some bad dispatchers out there
that have put bad examples out there
where they say they never fight.
Okay.
That's a lie.
Okay.
That they don't have any problems in their marriage,
that they're both, this doesn't exist.
Okay.
It's a fairy tale.
Okay.
But at the same time, you know,
to me, the good example is someone that's sticking
with their spouse in a low spot.
Not, it's easy in the high spot.
It's in the low spot.
When they're weak, when they're vulnerable,
when they're going through a hard time,
when they have problems.
And you know what?
You just stick with them anyways,
and you still love them anyways,
and you're still doing good to them anyways.
And you know, this is kind of what
the whole book of Hosea is about.
And it's kind of an example of how God is
to the children of Israel,
how God stuck with them, even in their low spots,
even in their wickedness and their rebellion.
And look, you know, I'm gonna preach on this
and people get offended by this,
but you know, it's biblical.
You know, I'll get up and say,
hey, even if your spouse commits adultery,
you should not leave them.
And people will get mad at me for that.
People will say, well, God wouldn't want me
to be in an unhappy marriage.
Or they'll say, well, you know,
I know that you say that,
but if you say that, you're encouraging people to do bad.
I'm like, I'm not encouraging anybody to do bad.
That would be the same as me going up to the door
and saying, hey, if you believe in Christ,
you'll be saved.
Oh, so now I should murder people?
It's like no one's encouraging you to murder people
because salvation's a free gift, okay?
Yeah, technically, someone commit bad sins
and still be saved, but no one's encouraging that,
no one's promoting that.
And even in marriage, you know,
it's for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
you know, in sickness and health,
you know, you're never supposed to leave them
nor forsake them.
It's till death do us part.
You know, that's why I had a marriage come.
It's called the till death marriage.
It's like, I believe it, okay?
It's not just a expression.
It's not just a cute saying.
I believe it, and I think that you should have it.
Now, does that mean that every time that's easy?
No.
And you know what?
For me, it's not hard because I have an awesome wife.
You know, I'm not like, I'm not over here like,
oh man, it's really hard to hang on, you know.
It's like, I don't wanna let go.
I mean, this is a great roller coaster ride.
I'm just having fun.
Like, there's no reason for me to get off this ride,
okay?
But, you know, for those that actually have
the real bad situations,
this is what unfortunately happens is
sometimes it gets attention.
And everybody's kinda notices it, and it's a big deal.
Well, those are the important times for people to hang on.
Because the set's a really good example.
And you know, here's a bad example in the book of Hosea
where a woman's committing repeated adultery
and is a whore, as the Bible describes.
Look at Hosea 1, verse two.
In the beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea,
and the Lord said to Hosea,
go take under the wife of Hortums and children of Hortums,
for the land has committed great Hortum
departing from the Lord.
Now, that's a weird commandment, okay?
Go marry a literal whore.
But, obviously, he is the married woman
that has a sordid past and has a bad past
and has committed great Hortums.
And he says, hey, go love her anyways.
Go be her husband.
Now, he says in verse three,
so he went and took Gomer.
The daughter of Deblayam,
which conceived and bear him a son.
So, Gomer, he takes his wife, marries her.
No one ever names anybody Gomer ever again, apparently.
But she conceives, the language,
it almost sounds like it's his kid,
but here's the problem.
It's not even his kid,
which is really crazy.
It says, let's just read a few more verses later.
It says in verse number 10,
yet the number of the children of Israel
should be the same as the sea,
which cannot be measured nor numbered,
and it should come to pass.
That in the place where it's said to them,
you're not my people.
There it shall be said to them, you're not,
you are the sons of living God.
So, he has this guy, it's like an object lesson.
Jose has to marry a woman that's a whore.
She conceives twice, and the kids aren't even his kids.
And it's to kind of picture how God
with Israel's relationship was.
It was a whore for a while,
and then it's like producing children
that aren't even of God,
and not even Christian, not even saved,
and they're not even his people.
And it's kind of to show the apostasy of the Jews
and the children of Israel.
They're not his people.
And it says in verse two of chapter two,
plead with your mother, plead for she is not my wife,
neither am I her husband.
Let her therefore put away her hordoms out of her sight
and her adulteries from between her breasts.
Let's say strip her naked and set her as the day
that she was bored and make her as a wilderness
and set her like a dry land and slay her with thirst.
And I will not have mercy upon her children,
for they be the children of hordoms.
So notice the Bible's real explicit,
like these are not children from Hosea.
It's like you marry a woman that was a whore,
and then after getting married, she commits adultery,
and she has multiple children that are not yours.
Now wouldn't this be the,
like all these pastors out there that wanna be like,
now this is the exception for divorce.
Like this would be their exception.
You know, God doesn't say divorce her.
God doesn't say that at all.
Look at chapter three, verse one.
Then said the Lord unto me, go yet love a woman,
beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress,
according to the love of the Lord
toward the children of Israel,
who look to other gods and love flagons of wine.
So I bought her to me for 15 pieces of silver
and for a Homer Barley and for a half Homer Barley.
And I said unto her thou shalt abide for me many days,
thou shalt not play the harlot,
and thou shalt not be a friend of the man,
so will I also be for thee.
So Hosea marries a woman, she commits adultery,
has multiple kids against him.
And then God doesn't say divorce her.
He says, you know what, go love her anyways.
And then he later has to pay money.
He has to pay her to not be unfaithful to him.
This is a weird relationship, okay?
None of this is a recommendation.
Did you remember what I said?
In verse number three of chapter two,
lest I strip her naked and set her as in the day
that she was born and make her as the wilderness
and set her like a dry land and slayer of thirst.
God is saying, hey, you better quit committing adultery,
otherwise I will destroy you physically.
It's not like she's getting off, necessarily.
It's not that God isn't mad at her.
It's not like God has to allow her
in this wicked rebellious sin.
It's just, this is a moment of grace.
And God is just saying, hey, if you are a husband
and your wife is not the best wife,
I'm pretty sure she's not the best wife.
It says love her anyways.
And hey, the reverse goes, hey, if you're a wife
and your husband's not the best husband,
you'll love him anyways.
Why it?
Until death do us part.
And hey, if she's gonna keep committing adultery,
well then just let God kill him
and then you're free from them.
But you know what?
God, I believe, is telling us till death do us part.
God hates putting away.
Look at Malachi, just flip to the right, just a hair,
and go to Malachi chapter two.
It's pretty much right, it's the last book
in your Old Testament, right before Matthew.
Malachi chapter two, look at verse 14.
Yet you say, wherefore, because the Lord
hath been witnessed between thee and the wife of thy youth,
against whom thou hast dealt treacherously,
yet is she thy companion and the wife of thy covenant,
and did not he make one?
Yet hath he the residue of the spirit,
and wherefore, one, that he might seek a godly seed,
therefore take heed to your spirit
and let none of you deal treacherously
against the wife of his youth.
For the Lord, the God of Israel, sayeth
that he hadeth putting away.
So don't be treacherous against your wife
and don't put her away.
Here, according to the Bible, we have Hosea
with a wife that's pretty bad,
committed the worst sins I could think of
that you could commit against your husband,
and yet he still loves her, he doesn't put her away,
why, because the Lord hates putting away.
And that's why in the book of Matthew
and Mark and the Gospels, Jesus is not teaching
that you should put away your wife.
He says what God hath joined together,
let not man put us under.
And so, you know, many people will teach divorce.
And of course, why do people divorce?
Usually because they're in a bad, messed up situation.
They're usually not divorcing
because they got a lot of money,
because they just have a lot of money
and no problems and their kids are great
and they're having the greatest intimacy
they've ever known in their entire lives
and it's all great.
I mean, people aren't just like,
I'm just a little too happy.
They're just a little too good for me.
Like, there's usually a problem.
Usually things are messed up.
But you know what, that's when you hang on.
That's when you set the good example
and you're like Hosea and you say, you know what?
I'll love you anyways.
I'll do good anyways.
I'll fight for you in the trenches.
I'll still do good.
And you know what, you set a good example
because unfortunately when people don't,
it's like divorce seems to happen in pairs
or in multiplication.
It's just like one group does it
and then the next does it and the next does it.
And then pretty soon it's the entire comment section
of Cassandra and Merchie's posts on Facebook.
She's all these divorced women saying, you go girl.
Oh, I wasn't joking.
That's real, by the way.
And look, it spirals out of control.
You know what we need?
We need people to say, hey, I'm gonna love my spouse
anyways and I'm gonna do good under my spouse.
And even if they've committed all these horrible sins,
you know, hey, I can still just be married to them.
And I'm not talking about like extreme
reprobate serial killer stuff.
If your husband's a reprobate serial killer, call the cops,
okay?
We get it.
You can love them from prison and afar, all right?
But I'm just saying like,
no one's even bringing up that example, okay?
And most of us, if you were to say,
hey, my marriage problems, let me ask you this question.
Are they worse than Nozea's?
Are you really in a situation worse than Nozea?
And you say, I don't know what God would want me to do.
I'll tell you what God would want you to do.
Love your wife and your kids.
That's what God would want you to do.
God hates putting away, God hates divorce.
And I mean, I can't imagine.
I have to love her.
I don't have to love her, I have to give her money?
That's like, this is a weird situation.
But you know what?
Doesn't that show that he loves her?
Hey, if I have to pay for you to love me,
then I'll pay for it.
I'll buy you whatever.
Let's just, hey, let's fix this.
I'm in, I love you, I'm gonna take care of you.
I'm not gonna leave you, I'm not gonna forsake you.
But I want you to be mine and I'm gonna be yours.
And you know, I think for a lot of people,
you know, if you want your relationship to thrive,
they just want you to feel like you're with them.
Hey, I'm with you.
Hey, I know you messed up.
Hey, I know you screwed up.
Hey, you may have broken my heart,
but I'm still gonna give it to you anyways.
I'll give you my broken heart.
You know, I'll just give you whatever I've got.
I'll give you the 15 shekels that I've got or whatever.
Hey, you know what?
We need people to set a good example in marriage.
Not only being the good couple
that's never fought or whatever,
but also the couple that, hey,
we went through the rough spots
and we stuck together too.
Hey, I loved her when it was hard.
I loved her when she was sick.
I loved him when he was, you know, whatever.
A jerk.
Yes, some guys are jerks.
Ooh, you know, that's not abuse, by the way, being a jerk.
Go if you would to Hebrews chapter 10.
This is the last one I'm gonna mention.
And I'm kind of, I'm already out of time, but look,
we need more people to set good examples in this world.
And we have so few good examples.
So many people just hit the ejection seat,
hit the ejection button,
and we have divorces out of control in our country.
Fornication is out of control in our country.
People not taking their health serious
is out of control in our country.
These are some major problems and we need people,
you know, bad pastors is out of control.
Bad churches is out of control.
And here's the last one I wanna say is
that you should set a good example is,
you know, siding with your church
in a battle or tribulation.
We talked about Hosea loving his wife
in a difficult situation.
You know what, praise God for the people
that set a good example of siding with their pastor
and siding with their church in a difficult situation.
And I think this is very important.
And I think it has major impacts on the church.
Hebrews chapter number 10 is telling us
to not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.
And I think that why this is important is
you're supposed to go to church, period.
I mean, let's read verse 25.
Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together
as the man or some is, but exhorting one another
and so much the more as you see the approaching.
Not only are you not supposed to give up on church,
you're supposed to be encouraging others to go to church.
So not only are you supposed to not say, I'm not gonna go,
you're supposed to be doing the exact opposite,
you're supposed to be bringing people with you.
Saying, hey, come on, let's go to church.
Why are people not wanting to go to church?
Because of all the bad churches out there.
Or, hey, there's problems or hey, it's not perfect
or hey, it's rocky.
But you know what?
You go to church when it's rocky.
You go to church when it's not the greatest.
It's having problems or there's heat
or there's issues or whatever.
Praise God, a lot of people came to church
when the pastor was literally stepping down
from Steadfast Baptist Church.
I mean, we had a family that moved
to Steadfast Baptist Church and their first service
was a service when Ramirez was standing up
saying he's gonna step down from the pastor.
That's crazy.
The timing.
And they're still here.
That's a good example.
You know what?
Praise God for them.
Praise God that there's a family that encourages
other people to say, hey, I'm not here for a man,
I'm here for Jesus and I'm here for Christianity
and I'm here for soul winning
and I'm here for the right doctrines.
And you know what?
Just plug and play.
God will put the new guy in and we'll just keep going.
Because it's not about one man.
And you know what?
At the same time,
we had tribulation in the Jacksonville church.
You know, the Jacksonville church was tumultuous, okay?
They were having all kinds of issues and whatever.
And it was kind of turning into like,
are you with Shelley or with Fannin?
You know, this was like, this is big drama or whatever.
But there is people in that church
that said, hey, I'm gonna side
with Steadfast Baptist Church.
I'm gonna side with the leadership.
I think that this ordained pastor
that wants to take us on is the right guy.
And that was an important decision for many people.
You know, one of the first calls I got
that I remember is from Brother Marcel calling me
and he was ready to throw Fannin's head over the fence.
I'm telling you what, okay?
But you know what he was mad about?
He was mad that this guy's a paid evangelist
and he doesn't go soul winning.
And that's what he told me.
Who wouldn't be mad about that?
That's a reasonable conclusion.
It's like, what?
This guy's not going soul winning.
He doesn't care about soul winning.
He's an evangelist?
Like that, there's something off about this.
I get you.
You know, another person that was important
is Brother Ben was talking with me.
You know, I didn't tell these people anything to do.
Brother Ben's like, hey, let's have a meeting.
Let's go meet at a park and let's make a video
saying that we support Pastor Shelley.
And I think from that specific event,
like a lot of people were rallied together, went there.
I wasn't even sure if we were gonna continue
a church over there.
But when you see a video of people saying like,
hey, we want a church over here.
It's like, well, hey, we're gonna hang on.
Hey, we're gonna fight for that.
And you know what?
Encourage other people to stay faithful,
to stay steadfast, to stay in church,
and not give up on it.
And you know, we've had lots of great people
that were from Jacksonville
and from that church specifically.
Zealous soul winners, people that love the Lord,
that really stepped up.
And you know what?
It's important how these battles go down
because what you notice is the people
that side with the right side immediately
end up being the people you can rely on.
And the people that are always siding on the wrong side
always seem to just have an issue.
It's like, for some reason,
problems just show everybody's character real fast.
It's just like a quick glimpse into what everybody's like.
But you know, if people didn't step up
and set a good example, if people didn't lead,
if people didn't, you know, do something,
you know, a lot of other people
would fall by the wayside, churches would collapse,
people would get disgruntled,
people would just walk away.
You know, if it's like, oh well, there's protestors
and we're all scared, so no one's coming to a hotel church.
No one's showing up anymore.
How do I even know, like, I'm trying to figure out
what we're gonna do for a building or whatever.
When no one's showing up, now what do I even do?
Do I even need to get another building?
What kind of size, you know, like, what's happening?
You know, it's important for people to, you know,
side with their church, side with their pastor
in a difficult situation.
Did I, I wanna go to one more place,
go to 1st Samuel 17 and we'll finish there.
We need some people that are gonna set a good example
and say, hey, you know what, if my church
is going through a difficulty, I'm gonna stand with them.
We've had people in our church get fired
for going to our church, for taking a public stand
and saying, yeah, I do go to St. Vassar.
Hey, I'll fill the pulpit and I'll preach a sermon
or, hey, you know, I'm not afraid
of siding with God's people.
You know what, that's a good example.
Because again, there's rumblings, people like,
I don't know if I can go to church there,
what if, you know, I lose my job.
But then it's like, someone loses their job
and then gets a better job.
And it's like, okay, well,
are you afraid of getting a better job?
I mean, like, what's the problem here?
You know what I haven't seen?
I haven't seen someone take a bold stand for our church,
a bold stand for the things that the Bible said
and then God forsook them or it didn't work out for them.
I haven't seen it.
You know, why don't you just take the faith?
You know, I haven't seen people say I'm all in on my marriage
and I'm gonna love my spouse as hard as I can
and it's just like totally fails or something.
You know, I see people quitting and giving up
and being disgruntled and murmuring
and not taking anything seriously
and then it always fails for them.
You know what, we need some good examples
to actually take things seriously.
And you know what, do the right thing
when no one else is.
Go into a good church when no one else is.
Standing with a good pastor when no one else.
How about fighting Goliath when no one will fight Goliath?
And of course in 1 Samuel chapter 17, look at verse 50.
So David prevailed over the Philistine
with a sling and with a stone
and smoked the Philistine and slew him
but there was no sword in the hand of David.
David had no way to even kill this guy.
All he did was stun him essentially
and then he took his own weapon and killed him.
God provided the sword for him.
He just went out by faith and he didn't even just go out.
He ran.
He ran towards the Philistine,
socked him in the head with the stone,
slung the stone and then took his own sword
and cut his head off.
And he said, you know what, God's gonna give me your head.
God's the one that's gonna deliver you unto me.
Great faith taking a stand
because he was defying the armies of the living God.
We need men to stand up against the Goliath.
And you know what he was, a youth.
You know what, we need young men in this room
to say I'm gonna serve God.
I'm not gonna be like the other young men in this world
that are chasing fornication, chasing money,
chasing these things.
You know what, I wanna be a steadfast Christian.
I wanna be a Bible believing Christian.
I wanna be a soul winner.
I wanna stand up against the Goliaths of this world.
I'm not gonna just sink and cower in fear
to the faggot agenda of this world.
You know what I'm gonna do?
I'm gonna cut off the head of Goliath.
That's what I'm gonna do.
And you know what, when one guy stands up,
when one little kid, when one youth,
when the youngest brother stands up,
what does the Bible say?
It says in verse 51,
therefore David ran and stood upon the Philistine,
took his sword and drew it out of the sheath.
There having slew him and cut off his head therewith.
And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead,
they fled.
And the men of Israel and Judah arose and shouted
and pursued the Philistines until they come to the valley
and the gates of Ekron.
So what does the Bible say?
Hey, the enemies fled and God's people arose.
Notice because of David's example,
he rallied the entire troops.
What if David said, I'm just a youth, I'm too young,
how am I gonna fight him?
I don't even have a sword.
Well, no one would have fought him
and the Philistines would have just triumphed.
But because one guy stood up,
one guy said a good example.
And you know what?
We're gonna have enemies.
We're gonna have Philistines come out here
and defy the armies of the living God.
You know what?
We need Davids, they're gonna say, hey,
I'm gonna stand in opposition to you.
I'm gonna do what's right.
And you know, even with the whole fanning thing,
this is what I thought when that situation
was going forth.
I said, I wouldn't want to go to church
with fanning as my leader knowing what I know about him.
So I'm gonna publicly expose him
and just give the people that are there a chance
to have the right church and make the right decision.
And you know what?
David just doesn't wanna live in a world
where Goliath used to do whatever he wants.
He's gonna say, you know what?
Someone needs to fight this guy.
Someone needs to take this guy to task.
And you know what?
We need people that are willing to have a church
that's just not gonna succumb to Goliath
and be weak and cowardly like everybody else
and say, hey, you know what?
Even if there's a battle, even if there's a fight,
I'm willing to fight.
I noticed by one person's example, he changed everybody.
By one church's example, it can change everything.
One pastor's example can change anything.
One person, one spouse can change the marriage.
One marriage can change the course of many marriages.
One virgin can change the course of many youths.
You know, one person being strong can be strong for many.
We need some people to set a good example
and stop worrying about yourself
and set a good example for other people.
You know, don't be selfish with your actions.
You are important.
Your brothers and sisters will follow.
Hey, you know what?
If you're the oldest, you need to be a great example
because your brothers and sisters
will in many cases follow your example.
Be a good example for your brothers and sisters to follow.
Obey your parents, do right, be a hard worker.
And if you've made mistakes, fix them
and be a good example.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us
a great example through your son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thank you for men that have followed in his footsteps
like the Apostle Paul and Peter and others.
Thank you so much for all your clear commandments.
I pray that you would just help teenagers and children
in this room to have a desire to be a good example
so the others could follow.
I pray that you would help the youth to desire
to have a pure marriage and to be virgin
on their wedding night.
I pray that you would help those
they've made mistakes to stop and to seek the Lord
and to try and prevent themselves
from going down a worse path.
I pray that you could rise up kids in this room.
There'll be good examples of other kids.
I pray that you would help those
that are struggling in their marriage
that they could be a good example of their spouse.
They could be a good example like Isaiah was.
They could love their wife.
They could love their husband.
I pray that you could help repair
and heal those relationships.
And they could set a good example.
I pray that you would discourage anybody away from divorce,
anybody away from trashing their spouse.
I pray that you would just help restore relationships.
I pray that you would just help us to be healthy
and be strong and to strive for such a desire.
I pray that you would help the men in this room
to work hard and take their strength
and apply it in a biblical and a godly way.
I pray that you would help this church
to have spiritual strength to stand against foes
and to side with their church
and to side with Jesus
and to side with the right things
when they go through opposition.
And I pray that you would help our church
to be a bright and shining example
to such a dark world
so that other churches could follow Christ.
And it's in his name we pray, in Jesus' name.
Amen.