Be a Good Example - Pastor Jonathan Shelley | Stedfast Baptist Church

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.

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.

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

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.

1 Samuel 17 · chapter mention

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.