Neo-Independent Baptists

I want to go in a little different direction as we

continue on this series of what it means to be a Baptist, we

went through the entire acronym of what the Baptist distinctives

are and then we talked about what, you know, we talked about

what makes a Baptist a Baptist. But then we talk specifically

about what it means to be an independent Baptist.

But we really were looking at that from the perspective of

somebody who is looking at it from the outside, looking in

somebody who is looking at the Independent Baptist Church, if

you will, but I want to sort of look at it from the perspective

of those on the Inside looking at ourselves for a couple of

weeks. And then we're going to move

into a different topic, a different series.

But second Timothy chapter 3, and verse number 10 will use as

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

a jumping-off point here tonight says this, but they'll has fully

known my Doctrine manner of life.

Purpose, Faith, long-suffering, charity patients persecutions

afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch at Iconium lystra,

what persecutions? I endured.

But out of them. All the Lord delivered me yea

and all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer

persecution, but evil men, and seducers shall wax worse and

worse deceiving and being deceived, but continue.

Thou in the things, which thou Hast learned and Hast been

assured of knowing of whom thou Hast learned them.

And that from a child thou Hast known the holy scriptures, which

are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith, which

is in Christ Jesus, all scripture is given by

inspiration of God and It is profitable for Doctrine for

reproof for correction for instruction, in righteousness.

That the man of God may be perfect throughly, furnished

unto all good works. Now, great passage.

And obviously, those last couple verses talk about what our basis

of everything we do ought to be, and of course, that is the word

of God. Everything we do ought to be

based on the word of God, but I think we look back at verse 10

and 11, really, though, verse 12 and 13.

And you see that that The Closer the Coming of Christ is and the

closer we get to his return, the closer we get to going home to

heaven, the more we're going to see people turning away from the

faith, more. We're going to see people

turning away from what they know to be right, or what they've

always taught and what they've always always learn and always

been taught and what Paul is telling Timothy in verse 14, and

in verse 15 is continue doing the things that you learned

because you learned them from the word of God.

Continue doing what you've done. Done because you know who you

learned them from and and, and you've seen that, you've seen

God work in your life. You seen God work in other

people's lives. Why would you change from the

from where you were and for some time now we had there's a

movement that's been growing among Independent Baptist that

would push the Independent Baptist Church in particular.

And I say that in a with a broad stroke but Independent Baptist

Church is In a contemporary direction.

And you know one of the things one of the beauties of the

Independent Baptist Church is where independent, right?

We're not we're not based basing what we do on something that

somebody in a hierarchy system tells us we have to do or

whatever else we do, we feel God wants us to do in this church

and other independent Baptists are free and have the freedom to

do, what they feel. God wants them to do and their

church. And we've talked about that a

lot because just because They have that freedom does not mean

that we have to fellowship with them if they're going in the

wrong direction. And that's what that's what

we're seeing really across the board.

In a lot of these Independent Baptist Churches, is this push

in a contemporary Direction, it's not just well, they do

things a little bit differently than we do.

It's a desire to move in that direction, and I think you could

arguably say that it's Loosely grouped around, Josh Tice, you

might not even a heard that name.

He's certainly not the first one that's ever gone in a

contemporary Direction, but he kind of made It mainstream.

He took what was? What was an independent Baptist

Church. His dad is a pretty well-known

relatively. Well known at least Independent

Baptist, pastor and has been for a long time and has always kind

of stood you know for the truth of the word of God and stood on

the King James Bible and stood for the things that

traditionally Independent Baptist and for and Josh Titus

really took all of those things and just completely went in the

opposite direction with him, still claims to be an

independent Baptist Church, and many people have asked him, why

are you independent? Obvious when you were not really

anything like Independent Baptist and he his answer is

well there's a lot of problems in the Independent Baptist

Church but there's a lot of problems in other denominations

to. So we're just going to stick to

being an independent Baptist, but it doesn't stand

traditionally for what Independent Baptist and for he

is one of the first ones, honestly, as an independent

Baptist to to start using a different version of the Bible.

Another one of the of the of the, you know, more mainstream

independent Baptists. Anyway, to start using the

contemporary music and the drums and all of that kind of stuff.

F in the in the church services. And so I'm not saying that he is

the leader but he's kind of the de facto head of this Neo

Independent Baptist because a lot of these young pastors are

following him. He has every year what's called

idea day. And he brings people from all

across the Spectrum from all different denominations and

brings them all together in his church and they have, you know,

just sharing of different ideas and things like that.

And so essentially, what ends up happening is your Crossing all

these different boundaries and you are your cross All these

different lines that should never be crossed.

And now, you becoming good friends with people who are in

these other denominations. And I'm not saying that you

cannot be friendly to these people who are in other

denominations. And I'm not saying that you

can't even be a friend to them, but when you become friends with

them, it becomes very hard for you to stand up against the

things that they are doing that are against the word of God and

this idea days really bring in a lot of that together.

But this movement and I mentioned it, but I've heard it

labeled the Neo Independent Baptist But it Embraces this

philosophy and and direction that really gives me.

Pause again, we don't have to agree with everybody and

everything but they're moving in that direction very quickly and

a lot of those that are coming out of this movement.

Many that honest are coming out of West Coast Baptist College.

I think Paul Chapel is the pastor of the church there and I

think Paul chapels church is pretty solid and has been for

quite some time. But you look at the product of

what In produced out of that college at almost every one of

them that's coming out of that college is running in a, in a

liberal contemporary Direction. So, you know, they're leaning in

that direction are gravitating for it but there's a whole host

of others that are doing the same thing.

And so the goal really of this, it's just going to be kind of a

short little series here a couple couple weeks, maybe

three. But the goal is really to

address the underlying errant philosophies that are driving

these people in that direction and and the approaches that

these Neo independent Baptists are taking.

And if we can't name it and point it out, then we can't

protect against it. And I'm not, you know, I'm not,

I'm not controversial, just for the sake of being controversial

and I don't like, I don't like confrontation and all that

stuff, but it's, it's, we are in danger of it.

Changing us completely as Independent Baptist, and we're

typically, you said, you were Independent Baptist.

It meant that you stood for something.

Now, It's got it's gotten to the point where it doesn't really

mean that anymore. Same way when it used to mean.

If you said you were Baptist that you stood for certain

things doesn't mean that anymore and it's sad to see it.

Moving in that direction, The Independent Baptist were

independent fundamental Baptist. We're literally independent,

fundamental Baptist for all the things that we talked about over

the last few weeks, we stood for the fundamentals of the faith,

and many are moving quickly away from that.

Now, let me give you a little bit of a background turn over to

Matthew chapter 22. But growing up, I was privileged

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

to attend an independent Baptist Church, an independent

fundamental Baptist Church. And from the time that I was

born until I was 23 years old, I went to the same church.

Dr. Roger vogon, was my pastor, he started for him, Baptist

church in Chesterton. Indiana in 1970 and within a

decade of the church being planted they had, they had seen

some tremendous growth and and to some, it was kind of

considered one of the leading churches in the in Independent

Baptist circles. But as a child, all I knew was

that of the Independent Baptist world, it was kind of a bubble

that I grew up in. I didn't know, there was

anything outside of that and I'm not saying that that's a bad

thing. I'm glad for that opportunity

when I when I calculate God's blessings on my life near the

top of that list is my upbringing and independent

fundamental Baptist Church. But I've read a lot of people, a

lot of books and things of people who look down on that and

some who even despise their independent Baptists Heritage

more and more. Are being written of people who

are escaping The Independent Baptist movement, and the

Duggars are kind of the newest addition to that crowd.

And, you know, I forget which one it is they all start with J

so or to think they do but there's like 40 of them but one

of the one of them is making the rounds.

Now, doing, all these interviews with all these talk show, you

know, liberal media talk show, host not even not in the

Christian world at all about how, you know, stifled Feeling

it was to be growing up in a home that had standards and that

stood on the King James and all of these other things and wrote

a book about it, making the rounds about how difficult it

was and how she found Grace. I find it so interesting that

the people who find the grace of God, really are just using that

as an excuse to drop all the standards that they grew up

with, it's amazing how that works.

But I read a book. It's been a couple of years ago

that I read it but it was and I wouldn't even recommend it for

the spirit of the author. But Called I fired, God.

It was a woman who actually grew up independent Baptists and her

husband actually, wrote a bunch of songs for the wilds, and

then, and then they left, they left the movement, got out of

it, you know, escaped in the middle of the night type thing.

You know, it's just it's amazing to me how these people, how

these people think, but I mean not only did she turn on

Independent Baptists? She turned on God.

She turned against everything that Is, you know, that is that

is right and good and everything else, wrote a book called I

fired, God. And I rarely, rarely have I ever

done this, but I threw the book away when I got finished reading

it, her spirit was just so horrible in the way that she

talked about all these things and, and but now let me pause

here and say that that some of these, some of these people have

legitimate reasons for feeling the way that they do.

And I do hurt for those who experience because there are

there has been many Independent Baptist Churches over the years.

Especially in the 70s and 80s and 90s who are horribly

mistreated people and should never have treated people the

way that they did and those people that were treated that

way, you know, I understand, even though obviously, you know,

I know people who were treated that way and are doing just fine

today. So you can use any excuse that

you want to to get away from God.

And that's really just what it is is an excuse.

But you know, Do they experience some kind of abuse or

manipulation or some other horrible experience within the

confines of an independent Baptist Church and that happened

a lot. And the sad thing is a lot of

that was covered up and a lot of it was swept under the rug or

they were just shuffled to another Independent Baptist

Church and and you know it was hidden and and and that's why I

made this very very clear in our workers training that we did a

couple weeks ago. That anything that happens

that's even remotely similar to that.

Here is going to be It's not going to be covered up and, and,

and we're going to protect our kids as much as we can, from any

of that kind of emotional abuse or physical abuse.

But I can say that, that was not my experience.

I didn't experience any of those things, I can't say that that's

the same for everybody that grew up in Fairhaven.

I don't know every one of their experiences, but I didn't

experience that at all and I'm, you know, Fairhaven, obviously

was not perfect during the formative years of my life.

In fact, there are, there are few things that I look back and

say that I'd probably never do that and And in our church.

But there are several things that made a profound impact on

me, then, and still shape who I am today.

One of them is that I was blessed to attend a church where

people loved God and each other. And that's significant because

Christ was asked in Matthew chapter 22 and verse number 36

Matthew 22 · chapter mention

Master, which is the greatest commandment in the law.

Verse 37. Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt

love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

And with all thy mind, this is the first thing.

Right commitment and the second is like unto it.

Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself.

I think it's so funny that you know, this whole really the

lgbtq and all these other people in the crowd, you know.

They stick that verse out in their yard, Thou shalt love, thy

Neighbour as thyself and they completely ignore the rest of

the Bible, but it's true. It's an it is in the Bible.

Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thyself, right?

And who's your neighbor? It's not the person that just

lives right next door to you, on either side?

It's your fellow, man. It's your fellow Christians.

At your fellow. Whoa, everybody, right?

We ought to love people and I think we make a huge mistake

when we don't, but I was blessed to attend a church where people

love God and loved each other and love people and right along

with that, I was blessed to attend a church where Souls were

saved and baptized regularly and that makes a huge difference

Christ. Commissioned his church to go

into all the world and preach the gospel to Every Creature,

right? And then baptized them and help

them grow and disciple them. And of course, our church, the

church that I grew up in used a The different tools to

accomplish that saw Souls get saved in nursing homes.

I saw Souls get saved on door to door.

Visitation. I saw him get saved in the bus

ministry as so I'm get saved in summer camp programs and almost

every week in the regular meetings of the church Souls

were saved regularly, turn over to Jude.

Because the third thing is, I was blessed to attend a church

where the pastor taught me to take a strong stand for the

truth and not just taught that but actually lived it.

Dr. Vogel and lead in battle, Battles across the United States

for Religious Freedom, for Christians, schools from

morality. And for other things, he took

seriously, the admonition in Jude is only one chapter, but

verse number 3. He says in the second half of

that verse, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort

you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith, which was

once delivered unto the Saints. Dr. Folkman spent time in prison

because he was willing to stand up for his beliefs.

They didn't know it at the time. But Hillary Clinton actually

made her pilot program. Basically, we're forget what it

was called. What's the pilot?

Do you remember what it was called?

Anybody remember what it's called?

It was some program that she came up with were basically the

parents could call the state and they would come and and, you

know, take the kids out of that situation and all this stuff.

Oh, that's a parents kids could call the state but it was, I

forget what it was. If some program that she

started. I mean, this was way back in the

70s and so Hillary Clinton was not a known name really, at that

point. Like she is now, but they ended

up, putting him in jail and he spent he spent a while in jail

there and then of course, they went to court over the whole

thing and and they won the court case Hillary Clinton and her

whole Camp lost that court case. But he spent time in jail for

that because he was standing for the The truth of the word of God

and standing for the rights of parents, to be able to

discipline their children in line with the word of God.

But I also enjoyed growing up in a church where the members

sacrifice for one another and for the needs of the church in

2001, I graduated high school in 2001 and literally the night

after graduation. They started tearing the

auditorium down and because we're planning to remodel it and

remodel the entire Auditorium in the summer before the school.

Started again in the fall and our church completely remodeled

that Auditorium 2005, they broke ground on a multimillion-dollar

education of building but over all those years, all the men in

the church and they had some some things that were done by

outside contractors but the majority of the work was done by

the men in the church. And I mean just every single

Monday night, they called it work party.

Every Monday night for years on end, the men in the church would

get off of work at 5:00 or 5:30 and Come straight to the church

and, you know, eat a little bit of food there and then get busy.

And they had all these different Crews of men that would work and

do different things and they got that building all done.

And I was, I mean, I worked all the way through high school.

I mean, all the way through college and then some after that

as well. But, you know, they work all day

and then spend hours there at night on Mondays, just working

together to get that that work accomplished.

And so, for those reasons, a lot of other reasons, I look back on

my Heritage as an independent Baptist with great appreciation.

And honestly, that's why that has a lot to do with why I'm an

independent Baptist today. But in the last few years,

there's been a movement to discard, or explain away our

past, and to start fresh and to start new.

And, of course, you can, you can go look it up.

If you want to the guy's name. That I mentioned is Josh Tyson.

Spelled te, is he's the pastor of Southern Hills, Baptist

Church in Las Vegas, but he kind of got this movement started.

He wrote A Blog Post that was called the new independent

Baptists. And essentially what he was

doing, was trying to redefine everything that Baptists are and

you can you can go look that up. You can go look that article up.

I think it's still available but and then more recently there's a

group of what you know guys that are known as the millennial

Independent Baptist. Nate Calvert is the guy that's

kind of leading that but he wrote A Blog that was called an

open letter from Millennials and that's why I'm saying you know,

like the openly called themselves millenniums but I see

he's 20 And 30-somethings, you know, that are now.

Pastoring churches, who most of them all grew up in pretty

strong, independent Baptist Churches, who took a stand on

the word of God and for a lot of these other things but mostly

what you notice in both of those articles you know there were

some points that resonated with me because I do think in fact

you want to you want to read a tremendous book especially if

you've been in the Independent Baptist Church for any length of

time. Tom Brennan.

A guy by the name of Tom Brennan, wrote a book called

schizophrenic and he grew up in Independent Baptist, still an

independent Baptist today. But basically what he did is he

took here's all the things that are good about the Independent

Baptist Church. Here's all the things that are

not so good about the Independent Baptist Churches.

Let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

Let's just change the bath, water change, the things that

are not great stick to the things that are good and that

have worked for years and years and years and strengthen those

and get rid of the things that don't work.

That are not things that are strong about the Independent

Baptist movement and so great book.

But so, when I say that some of the things that they say that

they say in and what they wrote some of them resonate because

there are some problems within the Independent Baptist

movement, I hate using the word movement, but that's, you know,

that's kind of how it's become known.

But mostly what you notice in there in the things that they

wrote and have written and honestly are continuing to write

is this this Wanderlust or this dissatisfaction?

With, with the Heritage, the of these men, and I found that hard

to take, but why bring any of this up?

We're going somewhere with this. And honestly, the introduction

here is the longest by far, the points aren't that we have

tonight or not going to be that long but I can assure you that.

I'm not. I'm not confrontational, I'm not

you know I'm not a guy who likes to stick my nose into things

that aren't my business but and honestly, I don't make it a

habit to get into theological discussions on Facebook.

At all, I don't think I've ever done that.

You know, I'll see some things from time to time and, you know,

I'll want to say something about it, but it doesn't do any good.

You're not going to change their mind, they're not going to

change your mind and all it does is get you frustrated and get

them frustrated and, you know, whatever else.

But I think a lot of the men who are sincere, who are seeking for

something different than, the, than what they've seen or what

they've experienced. I think they have a genuine

desire to do, what's right? I'm not.

I'm not questioning their. Dave's necessarily but there's

this younger generation that really has more fully embraced

writing and blogging and you know, Facebook and Instagram and

all these other things, as really a kind of an effective

means of communication and they've attracted a large

audience, that's growing. And that's, you know, in some

ways they're just the loudest voice and so more people are

following them, but I feel that it's necessary.

I feel it's important to warn those who are being influenced.

Are these men and a lot of others that there are serious

dangers involved with the Neo Independent Baptist movement and

there are some who may not quite be in that Neo Independent

Baptist camp, but they're moving very quickly in that direction

and it's a very dangerous dangerous direction to go in.

You only have to follow these men for a short time and that's

all I've followed them to see the radical change that they're

making. And I followed them long enough

to know that it's not something that I want to have anything to

do with. But you know it's honestly and

you can maybe call some of these things Innocent.

But you know this innocent casual look that we're seeing in

churches. Now you know as people are

leading from the platform and and honestly that casual look

many times, just turns itself to completely full-blown

contemporary music and worship and all of these other things

and and abandoning positions on the Bible versions I mentioned

this not too long ago but they just they just had a whole

conference on translation transition how to take your

Heard from a King James Church to one of these other versions

and you know, a couple guys that are kind of leading that charge

but really you know bragging about the fact that you know,

this church was a strong independent Baptist, King James,

only church. And thankfully we've been able

to take it from that position to this position.

Well essentially what happens is, most of all the people who

are strong, King James people left, because you came in and

started taking it in a Neo Direction.

And then you started attracting, NG what you are.

So it's two different churches. You just took their building.

Is basically what you did. But, but, but that's happening a

lot. It's happening a lot and then

they're still calling themselves, Independent Baptist

and still trying to say that they are standing for the

fundamentals of the faith and they're not, they're not and so

that concerns me and leads me to believe that that greater change

is on the horizon. The longer it goes, the more you

can see those changes and you're seeing those changes very

obviously. Now in a lot of these churches

and they're affecting the Raishin, that's coming up in

those churches where you you have your strong independent

Baptist churches that these guys grew up in and they've taken

those strong stands in a weakened them.

The generation that's growing up in those churches is not going

to know anything about the strong stand and the Heritage

that they came from and they're just going to take it into a far

weaker Direction and it's going to end up full-blown, you know,

Hillsong and Bethel and all of these other things.

And and that's not, it's not an exaggeration to say that.

At this crowd is extremely context-driven.

If we don't give people what they want, then they won't come.

And if they don't come, then we can't influence them.

That's their mindset. It's what's known as pragmatism.

The ends. Justify the means as long as we

can get people in. It doesn't matter how we have to

get them in, it doesn't matter what we have to do to get them

in as long as we get them in, and we can influence on.

The problem is, you're getting them in, but you're not

influencing them for Christ. And if you have to drop every

standard that you have to get those people in, then you cannot

preach the truth or they're going to walk right back out the

door and go to another church. That is not preaching anything

and that's what we're seeing. A lot of these huge

non-denominational churches, but granted context is important.

But the word of God creates new context in the lives of people

that makes the old context obsolete.

You don't need something new, you just need a new Fresh

anointing of the Holy Spirit. That's what you need.

And if the Holy Spirit comes and is freshly anointing, the people

in the church that gives you the motivation that gives you the

excitement that most of them are looking for by moving in this

contemporary Direction. So I want to talk about where

all this ends, what our response should be to those who label

themselves new or Neo Independent Baptist.

So I suppose maybe we should ask the question.

Why should we even have this conversation tonight?

I want to give you four reasons why we have to have this

conversation. Ation, why it truly matters.

And again like I mentioned just a little bit ago, the

introduction is far longer than the actual points.

The first one is this. We should be having this

conversation because it's important, it is important.

These changes that we've looked at and discuss are going to

potentially transform who we are and what we're going to become.

And I don't even know if potentially is the right word,

they are going to transform who we are and what we are going to

become the church. I described at the beginning

doesn't need to be fundamentally transformed right there.

It said I grew up in is doing things the right way.

Even though again, we don't have to agree on everything but

they're doing things the right way.

And they're seeing God do great things in that way.

It needs to keep doing what it's always done and to be

strengthened but it doesn't need a seismic shift in a New

Direction. And so the this conversation is

necessary because it's a very important conversation.

We are literally talking about the direction of the next

generation of Christians. It's a very important

conversation that we have to have.

But the second reason is because you're paying And perhaps this

movement toward the new Independent Baptist mindset is

catching on so rapidly because these men are are doing a great

job at articulating who they are and why they're doing what

they're doing. It's the same thing with a lot

of these younger guys who are who are starting to write and

who are influencing people away from the King, James and who are

influencing people away from good solid Christian music and

who are influencing away, people away from standards in dress and

all of those other things. And I believe there are others

who could benefit from hearing from those who don't see the

need to radically shift and transform, we are and what we're

doing. Now, one of the weaknesses

within the Independent Baptist movement has been a hesitancy

to, right? I think what Josh Tyson they

Calvert are doing is is good in their willingness to write down

their thoughts and try to get that to the the generation that

they're trying to influence. That's how you do, it is through

writing and having those conversations.

Let me add, I don't think it's necessary.

I don't think that that a young man should necessarily, right?

They need a lot of ministry experience.

Since before they start trying to tell everybody else how to

run their Ministry and that's what we're seeing.

A lot of is these guys are young and they're trying to tell

everybody else how to run their Ministries.

But what's happening is they're not influencing everything in a

good direction, they're influencing all these other

guys, these younger guys who want to be like them.

But the problem is these older men who have experienced in the

ministry and who have seen God do great things and who have

stood for the faith? For all these years are not

writing. And there is a, there is a

dearth of good solid, independent, fundamental,

Baptist books out there and so naturally people who want to

read and who have a desire to learn and whoever desire to know

are going to seek out information somewhere and they,

if the only information that's available is from people who are

in this Neo, Independent Baptist Camp, that's who they're going

to read and that's who's going to influence them because you

are who your friends are and what you read.

And what you watch that. I mean, it's what it comes down

to. But this this little series that

we're doing, essentially comes from a desire to allow you to

hear from a side of the Independent Baptist world that

is not trying to fundamentally transform.

It's not dissatisfied with who we are.

And is concerned about where this new movement could

potentially lead folks, who decide to follow them.

So, number three, The reason why this is important is because I

have three children who need the church to be more committed to

the biblical principle than to worldly context.

Their names are Jackson, Alex, and Riley, and your kids might

do Go by different names but your kids are just as important.

And they're growing up in a radically changing world.

Every year new technology is coming onto the scene.

That is that is a presents A new challenge.

Challenge that quite honestly, most of us never had to deal

with when we were growing up. New ideas are discussed all

around them from from, you know, new currency to new genders and

everything else and and and so, you know, they're facing a world

that we never had to face and if we don't stand on what we know

to be the truth and if we don't stand for these Godly principles

and we start to bend on those on those things then, Going to be

very easy for them to bend and all the things that that matter

in that area to, they need a church that doesn't change.

They need a Bible that they can depend on by the way, there's so

many one of these not too long from now.

Hopefully I don't know if this year but maybe at the very

beginning of next, I'm going to get into a series on why we hold

to the King James version of the Bible, but just a very practical

side of it is if you're constantly changing your Bible

or if you have and one of these guys that was talking about this

translation transition, You know, he was saying that well we

settled on five versions that we believe are you know are

beneficial and helpful. Well you got five different

versions floating around in your church.

Number one, how do you memorize verses number two?

How is anybody on the same page? When you're reading verses in

the church service, right? Number three every one of those

translations is saying something different.

So, you're reading one thing and getting this out of it this

guy's reading something else because it says Else and he's

getting something completely different out of it words mean

things. And so when you change words,

you're changing doctrines and you're changing everything,

right? So, if you don't have a standard

that you can use as the guide for you to follow, then you're

going to waffle and everything. And if you don't like what this

version says, then go find it a different one.

And you can find something that you like, the way it's

pronounced or you like the way that it tells you, it's okay to

do this. And and believe me, that's what

those translations are doing. And they are, they're making

making things acceptable that are not and so on.

But they need a pastor was going to preach the truth, clearly to

them. Regardless of what the context

is that they may be living in children noticing

inconsistencies and the jury is still out on a lot of these

young pastors, but I think their children, it'll be their

children and the children of their church that are gonna be

the most affected and you're going to see it and you already

are seeing it. You know, I've noticed too that

the a lot of these pastors that preached against things or four

things, all the sudden, they're not against him anymore.

When their kids get to be in high school and start telling

their their Pastor father's. What they're going to do or not

going to do all the sudden the things that they used to preach

for and the things that they used to preach against all the

sudden don't matter anymore. And I mean, a lot of these guys

wrote books on the topics that now they don't even believe

anymore and it happened. When their kids got old enough

to start telling them, this is what I'm going to do, and you

can either like it or I'm going to ruin your ministry.

They may not say it that way, but but they're too weak to even

stand up to their own children on a lot of these things.

And so, you know, these pastors have taken direction from their

kids. It's the word of God and not our

kids, that should determine what's right?

And what direction we have to go in and it's so important that we

do that. But our children are the next

generation of Jannetty. And if we don't give them

something strong to hang on, to their going to change, they're

going to change. And the last reason is because

this has happened before. Why is it?

Why is it important to talk about it?

Because it's happened before. Every denomination and every age

has experienced drifts and changes and shifts.

The Southern Baptist convention is dealt with it right there in

the middle of a battle right now.

In the Southern Baptist convention between a very

liberal faction of the Southern Baptist and a conservative.

Of the Southern Baptist. And there's, I mean, they're

talking about the fact that there's probably even going to

be a split and they're going to go in two different directions

because they're so far apart on these things.

And boy, if you know anything about the Southern Baptist

convention, the Southern Baptist Church over the last few years.

They've taken a nosedive in the wrong direction but there are

conservatives and liberal Methodist churches.

There's conservative and liberal Presbyterian churches, so every

denomination has that. And in fact, it will be Naive to

assume that we're the only ones who have dealt with that kind of

pull from within a lot of pastors have written about this.

That, I mean, a lot of pastors that are dead now have written

about this but it strikes me as funny that a lot of these new

independent Baptists are changing and moving toward more

worldliness becoming more liberal and they think that the

only ones have ever done it, you know it really is.

It's like we're coming up with something new, that you're not.

It's been tried before. It's been done before and it's

always failed. That's why people don't.

Remember, and that's why you think you're doing something

new, they think they're coming up with something new and that

they're being Innovative and how they reach the world.

It's been tried before in the reason, it doesn't last because

it doesn't have the power of God on it.

I'm not saying that we can't use new methods.

There are new methods, I mean, Facebook and Instagram, and the

internet have changed a lot of things.

And I'm not saying that we shouldn't use those as tools

back in the 70s and the 80s and the 90s.

Those were not even tools that Available.

So you have some of these, you know, 70s and 80s and 90s

pastors who are preaching against all this kind of stuff.

And, and I don't think that's helpful.

Either you use the tools that were available to you, and, and

this new generation is using the tools that are available to

them, who had to be wise in how we do it.

But the methods may be a little bit different, but the, the

purpose is not new. And the the stand is not new and

does not need to change. A lot of those things.

That they're changing are not just methods.

It's the doctrines. It's the philosophy, it's all of

those things. And I'm not, I'm not

old-fashioned, merely for the sake of being old-fashioned.

But neither am I for change simply for the fact that we need

to change? We don't need to change.

We can we can be up to date without being modern, right?

We can be, we can be relevant without compromising and I think

that's what we need. We need a relevance without

compromise. If we're not relevant, then

we're not reaching our communities in our world.

We have to be relevant, but we don't need a compromise to do it

and a lot of these Neo independent Baptists are trying

to be relevant, but they're compromising at the same time to

make that happen. So what I've enjoyed throughout

my life has blessed me and countless others and I'm not,

I'm not in a hurry to discard it for something new.

We don't need something new. The men that I've mentioned, and

countless others who are promoting a new way of doing

things aren't the enemy and they never It will be if they're

preaching the gospel, then they're not the enemy but and I

pray for them and I hope that they'll decide to stick to the

real independent fundamental Baptist stands.

I don't have a lot of Hope but I pray that that that will see

some of these young guys come back around and realize that

they're going in the wrong direction.

I'm thankful that we don't have people pushing Us in that

direction. Either, there's a danger in

compromise for the sake of something new, that will get

others in. We just have to, we have to slow

down. We have the truly We seek the

Lord and ask ourselves if what we have and what we've done

really needs to be transformed, or should we just be seeking

God's power? That's what we need more than

anything. We cannot manufacture God's

power, and I believe that that's what a lot of these.

A lot of this new generation is trying to do the trying to

manufacture Revival and the trying to manufacture God's

power. And neither one of those things

can be manufactured. We just need God's power.

We can stick to the old old fashioned independent,

fundamental Baptist truths and doctrines and philosophies and

everything else and they will work.

If we have God's power, it doesn't matter what you change.

It may seem like it's working and it may work for a little

while but eventually it's going to stop when they realize that

there is no power on it. And that's what we need more

than anything is just God's power.

So we're going to talk about this over the next couple weeks

and you'll see as we as we get into it, kind of the direction

we're going to go with it but it's important.

It's important that we pointed out, it's important that.

We make sure that as a church here, at Mount Victory, Baptist

Church. At least we're not going in that

direction. We are trying to stand for the

truth of the word of God, and more than anything.

We want God's power on it because when God's powers on it,

then it doesn't matter. Who does it, nobody cares?

Who gets the glory, nobody cares.

Who gets the credit, and God gets all the glory for it and

that's what we want. That's what we want.

At least that's what our motivation should be.

So we'll talk about that over the next few weeks but let's

pray and we'll be done tonight. Father, we love you and we thank

you for your goodness and thank you for again the truths that we

have in the word of God and the stand that we're able to take.

Because we know that what we have is the truth and I pray

that you'd help us to not change for the sake of change, I pray

that you help us to to be relevant but that we wouldn't

compromise for the sake of relevance and that you'd be able

to use our church because we want your power more than

anything. God, I pray that you would give

it to us. I pray that you give us souls

for your sake and gotta pray that you would again be with

Miss Barbara in the hospital tonight.

God, I pray that you would just help the doctors to get her

stabilized and everything to get back to normal.

And I pray that you just bring us all back here together on

Sunday. Thank you for all that you do

for us in Jesus name. Amen.