To Everything There Is a Season SEPTEMBER 13, 2026 Pastor Steven L. Anderson

Amen.

Man, the title of my sermon this morning

is to everything there is a season.

To everything there is a season,

the Bible says there in verse number one,

and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

Then he goes through this big list of different things

and some of these are very positive

and some of them are negative, but that's life.

And the first thing that I wanna point out

this morning from this passage

is that God has a plan and a purpose in this world.

We're not always gonna know what that purpose is,

but that God has a plan and things happen

the way that they do for a reason, right?

To everything there is a season and a time

to every purpose under heaven.

We might look at the way life is going

or the way the world is and be confused

and not understand, but there is a method to the madness.

There's a purpose under heaven, God has a plan.

We don't know what it is all the time,

but it's there.

Go through it to Romans chapter eight.

And of course, as we read the Bible,

we understand more about what God is doing

and we can look at things in this world and our lives,

and the Bible can shed some light on those things

and provide clarity,

but we're never gonna understand everything

just because we're human, we're finite.

God is higher above us than the sky is above the earth,

the Bible says, and so sometimes we just don't see it.

But look what the Bible says in Romans chapter eight,

verse 28, this is one of the most famous verses in the Bible.

We know that all things work together for good

to them that love God,

to them who are the called according to his purpose.

So of course, he has a purpose, he has a plan,

and all things work together for good

to those who love God,

to those who are the called according to his purpose.

It says, for whom he did foreknow,

he also did predestinate to be conformed

to the image of his son,

that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

What the Bible is saying here is that God,

in his foreknowledge, he already knew

who is going to believe in Christ,

who is not gonna believe in Christ.

He knows the end from the beginning.

He knows who is going to get saved and who is not.

The Bible is not saying that he chooses

which people get saved and which people do not get saved.

That is a false doctrine.

The Bible says that God is not willing

that any should perish,

but that all should come to repentance.

He tasted death for every man,

and he says to this world,

whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.

It's up to you to want to take the water of life.

But God did know who was going to be saved.

And so those that he foreknew, it says in verse 29,

he also did predestinate

to be conformed to the image of his son,

meaning that he knew who is going to be saved,

and then he predetermined or predestined

that that person would ultimately be conformed

to the image of his son.

That is his plan for the elect.

That is his plan for those who are saved

that they would ultimately be conformed

to the image of his son

that he, Jesus, might be the firstborn

among many brethren.

So when we get saved, we're on this trajectory

to ultimately someday be like Christ.

The Bible says, when he appears, we shall be like him

for we shall see him as he is.

We're going to get to heaven.

We're going to be like him.

We're going to be conformed to his image.

And then it says in verse 30,

moreover whom he did predestinate,

then he also called, whom he called,

then he also justified, and whom he justified,

then he also glorified.

What shall we say then to these things

if God before us, who can be against us?

And the idea here is that look,

in the nasty here and now,

we might be going through difficult, painful, hard things,

but we need to keep in mind what is our ultimate destiny?

Our ultimate destiny is we're going to be in heaven someday

and we're going to be conformed

to the image of Jesus Christ.

We're going to be like him.

We shall see him as he is.

He will be the firstborn among many brethren.

And so this is an amazing destiny

that we can't even grasp.

How awesome that's going to be.

How amazing that's going to be, right?

And not only that, but God has called us.

He's justified us.

What does justified mean?

Declared us to be righteous,

even though we've sinned so many times.

And people have used the mnemonic,

just as if I'd,

for just justified, just as if I'd never sinned.

Declaring us righteous in his sight,

all of our sins are forgiven.

And so someday we're going to be glorified

with Christ in heaven.

And then he says in verse number 31,

what shall we say to these things?

If God before us, who could be against us?

He that spared not his own son,

but delivered him up for us all,

how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

He's saying, look,

if he already gave this unspeakable gift of his son,

Jesus Christ dying on the cross for us,

you know what?

Obviously he's got great things in store for us.

All kinds of blessings are waiting for us.

He's going to freely give us all things.

I mean, if God's for us, who can be against us at that point?

Why are we worried so much

about all the little things going on in our lives right now,

the enemies, the haters,

all the drama and different things?

The Bible's saying, look, ultimately you're saved,

you're justified, you're going to heaven,

you have this amazing destiny,

you have this inheritance in heaven

that's incorruptible, that fades not away.

You know, who shall lay anything

to the charge of God's elect, verse 33?

It's God that justify it.

Who is he that condemneth?

It is Christ that died,

yea, rather that has risen again,

who is even at the right hand of God,

who also make it intercession for us.

Look, the devil is an accuser,

all of his little minions are accusers

and they're going to lay all these things

to our charge and attack us

and criticize us and hate us

and despitefully use us and persecute us

and say all manner of evil against us

falsely for Christ's sake.

But at the end of the day,

you know what, Christ is going to go to bat for us,

Christ has died for our sins and risen again,

he makes intercession for us,

he defends us, we have an advocate with the Father.

Verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or persecution

or famine or nakedness or peril or sword,

as it is written for thy sake,

we are killed all the day long,

we're accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Nay, in all these things,

we are more than conquerors through him that loved us,

for I am persuaded that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,

nor things present, nor things to come,

nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature

shall be able to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And so what he's saying is, look,

ultimately God has a plan, God has a purpose,

we're all on a certain path, a certain course,

a certain trajectory, and no matter how ugly

that path gets along the way,

ultimately it's all gonna work together for good

to those who love God,

and ultimately we're all gonna be conformed

to the image of Christ, we're all gonna be in heaven

every tear is gonna be wiped away,

all of the accusers of this world

and the arch accuser Satan himself

will ultimately be shut up and it'll be over

and it's gonna be great,

nothing could separate us from the love of God,

you just gotta hang in there and understand

that there's a time and a season for everything

and that you might be going through a dark season

or a dark time, but God has a plan,

there's a reason and ultimately it's gonna work out great.

Go back if you would to Ecclesiastes with that in mind.

So we said number one, God has a plan and a purpose,

although sometimes it might not feel that way,

we might look around and just be confused

and not understand, that's why the Bible's assuring us

to everything there is a season

and a time to every purpose under heaven.

Your time will come, the end will come,

this too shall pass is what the Bible's telling us here.

So we go back to Ecclesiastes chapter number three

and then he gets into some of the details here,

he says a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to pluck up that

which is planted, a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to break down and a time to build up,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance

and what really stands out here

is the positivity and the negativity, right?

We think of being born is a good thing,

dying is a bad thing, planting is good.

I mean ripping up stuff that you've planted, right?

Just tearing up and destroying crops that have been planted.

It seems like you're moving backwards

when you do something like that.

Obviously you've got killing versus healing,

breaking down versus building up,

weeping versus laughing.

And so one of the things that I wanna point out

from this passage here is that number two,

there are gonna be good times in life

and there are gonna be bad times in life, right?

There is just, it's inevitable.

Nobody is having a good time all the time.

I don't care what their social media says.

I don't care what kind of a facade they put forth.

No one is just happy and jovial

and doing great every day.

It's just not reality.

There are gonna be good times in your life

and there are gonna be bad times in your life.

And you know the Bible says

the good days and the bad days,

God has set the one against the other.

I often think about that when I have a really bad day,

I always think to myself, you know,

tomorrow's gonna be a good day

because it seems to go back and forth a little bit.

And if I have a really good day, you know,

then I'm a little nervous about tomorrow

because you know, that's the way life is.

Is there gonna be good times and bad times?

You're not just always gonna be planting

and always healing and always building up

and always laughing and always dancing.

It's just not the world that we live in.

Okay?

And so it's unrealistic.

And the reason why this point is so important

is so that you don't get all disillusioned

and upset and disappointed

when your life isn't perfect

and when you're not happy all the time.

You just need to understand that reality going in

so that you're not confused

when things go poorly in your life.

Go if you would to James chapter four.

We're gonna come back to Ecclesiastes,

but go if you would to James.

So there are gonna be good times

and there are gonna be bad times.

This is the reality.

You know, when I think about planting

and plucking up that which is planted,

you know, this is one of the most frustrating things

in my life is when you experience like a setback.

You know, because it's like we all have goals

and projects and jobs that we're working on

and trying to get things done.

And then, you know, I think about

when you do something wrong

and then you have to redo it.

You know, have you ever like installed something

and then you have to tear it all out and redo it?

This is the most frustrating thing in the world.

You know, you get something all built

and then you realize you screwed up something

on like step one and then you have to go back

and pluck up that which is planted

and tear it all apart and undo that which you've done

and go backward instead of forward.

It's extremely frustrating in our lives,

but this is something that we're all gonna experience

in life, setbacks.

It's never just gonna be always progress,

always getting better, always improving.

No, they're gonna be setbacks.

I remember, you know, one time somebody was showing me

this marriage book and on the back of the book

the guy was saying, you know, if you follow

my advice for marriage, you're just gonna have this,

this super intense, amazing relationship with your spouse

and then he just said it's just gonna keep getting

more intense every single day.

And I was just thinking to myself like,

that doesn't sound realistic or sustainable.

If this relationship just keeps getting more intense

and just, it's just like, wow, eventually

I guess you're just gonna explode.

You know, like, what does that even mean?

But the reality is, no, nothing's ever just gonna get

better, better, better, better, better, better, better.

It's just, it's just stupid to think that way.

You know, and I was thinking about

the history of our church and you look

at the history of our church and you know,

I was looking at different numbers,

like you look at attendance numbers,

you can look at salvation numbers,

you can look at these different stats.

And you know, it's never just gonna be a perfect curve

of just growth and improvement.

You know, there are gonna be certain years

that you really just hit it out of the park best year ever,

you know, and just have all these great results.

But it's not like every year we have to top last year

because if we had to top last year every single year,

we'd get super frustrated and it was just,

because it's just unrealistic.

It's just dumb to go through life thinking

all everything's gonna be better this year than last year.

Well, probably not.

There are gonna be good days, bad days,

good years, bad years.

There are gonna be improvements.

There are gonna be setbacks.

There are gonna be problems.

It's just the way it is.

And so we need to understand

there are gonna be good times and bad times.

And it is not God's will

that we just be happy and joyful

and enjoying all the time, only rejoicing.

Look what the Bible says in James chapter four, verse eight.

It says, draw an eye to God and he will draw an eye to you.

Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,

and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.

Be afflicted and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned to mourning

and your joy to heaviness.

Humble yourselves on the side of the Lord

and he shall lift you up.

And so we see here

that it's not gonna be all laughing.

Sometimes it's more appropriate that we be weeping

and crying and mourning than laughing.

It's not just happy laughing every day.

Why?

Because the sadness and the sorrow and the mourning

ultimately makes us a better person, right?

The Bible's talking about here,

cleansing your heart, purifying your heart,

cleansing your hands, getting humble.

If we were just happy

and everything was going well all the time,

we'd get too prideful, we'd get puffed up

and we'd just be hashtag winning

and just everything we touch turns to gold, right?

This could cause us to become arrogant, prideful people.

Go back if you would to Ecclesiastes chapter seven.

So we need some setbacks, we need some sadness,

we need some pain, we need some heartache

in order to keep us humble and to purify us.

Look what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes chapter seven.

So we're mainly in chapter three,

but jump over to chapter seven.

We'll get some of the same ideas.

Verse one, a good name is better than precious ointment

and the day of death, then the day of one's birth, right?

There's a time to be born and a time to die.

The Bible's saying, you know, in many ways

the day of death is superior to the day of birth, right?

Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.

Okay, look what the Bible says in verse number two.

It says it's better to go to the house of mourning

than to the house of feasting.

For that is the end of all men

and the living will lay it to his heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter.

For by the sadness of the countenance,

the heart is made better, right?

No pain, no gain.

Not just physically, but even spiritually.

The Bible says the heart of the wise

is in the house of mourning,

but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth, right?

Idiots, bozos, dumb people,

they just want to party and have fun all the time.

They don't want to get serious.

They don't want to go through anything negative

or go through any sadness or sorrow or soul searching

or tribulation or afflicting of the soul.

They just want to just party and have fun all the time

because they're idiots.

That's what the Bible says.

Look at verse number five.

It's better to hear the rebuke of the wise

than for a man to hear the song of fools.

Fools, the singing here is a reference to,

again, merry making, having fun, partying.

They're in the house of mirth.

It's just woo, they're singing and having fun.

But it's better to hear the rebuke of the wise

than for a man to hear the song of fools.

Here's another word for the rebuke of the wise.

How about the preaching of God's word?

Because that's what preaching is, right?

Preach the word.

Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all-long suffering and doctrine.

We'd rather hear the rebuke of God's word

through preaching than to just,

hey, let's just party and let's just listen

to the song of fools and just sing and dance and happy.

No, there's some negative things in life

that we need to come to grips with

and come to terms with

and spend some time in the house of mourning.

Not to be a downer or anything.

We're not gonna call the church

house of mourning Baptist,

but if you did, I'd still go there.

It says in verse six,

for as the crackling of thorns under a pot,

so is the laughter of the fool, this also is vanity.

So if you think about thorns under a pot,

if you make a fire and you put the pot over the fire

and so you're cooking in the cauldron

that's over the open fire.

And if you think about the crackling of thorns

under the pot, usually when we think

of building a quality good fire,

we wanna have like a log of wood in the fire,

something that's thick and dense and serious

and that has some substance to it,

that's the thing that's just gonna burn

for hours and hours and hours.

Then ultimately it's gonna break apart

and produce all of these glowing red hot coals

that are useful to provide heat

for hours and hours and hours, right?

But then you have these other things

that you could throw in,

like for example, thorns,

just this kind of like brush, weeds, dry weed,

thorn, crunchy kind of stuff.

And when you throw that crunchy stuff into the fire,

it makes a popping sound,

it's like a crackling and popping and pop, pop, pop, pop.

And it also tends to flare up pretty quickly.

So you throw that kind of,

and this is the stuff that kids love

to throw in the fire, right?

Adults are out there looking for big piece of wood

to put in the fire.

And then the kids,

they wanna throw in all of the crackling,

popping, little crunchies,

throwing them in the fire

because they get more of an instant gratification out of it.

So as the crackling of thorns under a pot,

so is the laughter of the fool.

This also is vanity.

It's not really providing any real substance

or heat or usefulness.

It's more just like,

pop, pop, pop, ha, ha, hey,

and it's just over.

And it's just gone

because it's so empty and so vain

and so worthless of a fuel.

You know, it might be a little bit useful

just to kind of get the fire started or something,

but in the long run,

that stuff is just a short-lived, quick burn, right?

And here's the thing.

The wise is a slow burn kind of a guy.

You know, he's in it for the long haul.

He's in it for years.

He's in it for decades.

He's serious.

He's got a serious mentality.

He's got substance.

He's got something that he stands for,

something that he believes,

something big that he's doing for God,

not just a little,

whew, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop,

and then it's over.

You know, the crackling of thorns under a pot

so is the laughter of the fool.

You know, it's just a worth,

it makes a lot of noise,

gets a lot of attention,

but it doesn't really do anything meaningful that matters.

Look at verse eight,

better is the end of a thing

than the beginning thereof

and the patient in spirit

is better than the proud in spirit.

So going through those bad times,

those hard times, it builds patience.

It makes us humble

so that we're not the proud in spirit.

We're the patient in spirit

and we understand that,

hey, it's not all about beginnings,

it's about ends.

You know, and the day of death

can be better than the day of one's birth.

You know, especially if you're a saved Christian,

death, where is thy sting?

Grave, where is thy victory?

You know, we're going to heaven.

That's great.

So we said, number one,

God has a plan and a purpose.

We said, number two,

there are going to be good times

and bad times along the road.

Learn to embrace both.

Learn to just accept the fact

that it's not all going to be good times and fun

and good vibes only.

You know, there's going to be some bad vibes as well.

And you know, I'm here for it.

But number three,

not everyone is going to be our friend.

So look, God's got a plan.

Don't worry about it.

Number two, there's going to be good times and bad times.

Well, guess what?

There's going to be good people and bad people

and not everybody's going to be your friend.

And not everyone should be embraced as a friend.

Look what the Bible says in verse five.

It says, a time to cast away stones

and a time to gather stones together.

A time to embrace

and a time to refrain from embracing.

A time to get

and a time to lose.

A time to keep

and a time to cast away.

Now again, keep your finger here

but go to 2 Corinthians chapter six.

So trying to get along with everyone in this life

is a fool's errand.

Try to be everybody's buddy, everybody's friend.

This is just as foolish as thinking you're going to be happy

and having a good time every day.

It's just not realistic.

There are bad people.

There are people that you should embrace.

And there are people that you should refrain from embracing.

And sometimes it could even be the same person.

There could be a time to embrace

and a time to refrain from embracing.

You know, when that person goes and gets off the right path

and gets into grievous sin becomes a wicked person.

Sometimes people that were great people yesterday

can be bad people tomorrow and vice versa.

Unfortunately, sometimes great people

don't always finish the course.

They don't always make it to the finish line

and they can become someone very wicked.

Look at 2 Corinthians chapter six, verse 14

and tell me if we should embrace every single person.

You know, the Bible says,

be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers.

For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?

And another word for fellowship would be like,

what do they have in common?

Like what does righteousness have in common

with unrighteousness?

What communion hath light with darkness?

What concord, right?

Concord is like the opposite of discord.

What concord hath Christ with Belial?

Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?

And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

For ye are the temple of the living God.

As God had said, I will dwell in them and walk in them

and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Wherefore come out from among them

and be ye what?

Separate.

Sayeth the Lord and touch not the unclean thing

and I will receive you and will be a father unto you

and ye shall be my sons and daughters.

Sayeth the Lord almighty.

And so look, the Bible is saying that there are some people

that we should not embrace.

People that we should refrain from embracing

and a time to refrain from embracing certain people.

And you know what's interesting is he said,

if you come out from among them and be separate,

sayeth the Lord and touch not the unclean thing,

I'll receive you, I'll be a father unto you

and ye shall be my sons and daughters.

Sayeth the Lord God almighty.

Because here's the thing, sometimes the people

that we tend to not wanna let go of

that are bad people, wicked people,

harmful people in our lives,

ultimately are sometimes family members.

You know, and it's like, man, I don't wanna give up

my relationship with this family member,

but if they're super evil, super harmful,

super just detrimental to your Christian life,

if they're a first Corinthians five kind of person

or somebody that the Bible is telling us

that we should avoid and stay away from,

and what God is saying is if you end up having to give up

those kind of relationships, God's saying,

I'll be that person in your life.

I'll receive you, I'll be a father unto you.

I will be your brother, I will be your friend.

Because again, sometimes we're gonna end up

having to give up friends and give up family members.

This is what the Bible says.

And I mean, Jesus talked about this very specifically.

He said, anybody who gives up for my sake

and for the Gospels, and then he lists off family members

and brothers and sisters and mothers and fathers,

different relationships that ultimately are harmed

by you living for God and serving Christ

and going to church.

And again, you'd think, well, how could anybody

be upset about me serving God, going to church?

Wouldn't all my friends and family just be glad

that I'm not going to the bar

and getting drunk every night?

Wouldn't they just be glad that I'm going to church

three times a week and reading my Bible,

living a clean life, being faithful to my wife,

or in a woman's case, faithful to her husband?

You'd think that people would see this

and say, hey, good for you, buddy.

Even if I'm not there, hey, I'm just glad

that you're living such a clean and right life.

No, that's not the way it works.

No, the Bible says that you're gonna be hated

of all nations for my name's sake.

The Bible says if the world hates you,

know that it hated me before it hated you.

And so unfortunately, Cain killed Abel

because his own works were evil

and his brothers were righteous.

And so there are gonna be rotten people

who try to hold you back and try to prevent you

from serving God, try to corrupt you,

try to hurt you, try to ruin you.

And you know what, trying to just embrace

every single one of these people is just wrong.

There's a time to embrace,

it's time to refrain from embracing.

Now look, we should always try to overcome evil with good

and we should always try, if possible,

to live peaceably with all men.

And the more people that we can get along with,

the better, the more of our family members

we can have a good relationship with, the better.

We should be a peacemaker,

we should be striving for those things,

but ultimately we have to understand

that this is impossible to get along with everyone.

It's just not possible.

And there's a time for this and a time for that.

Let me give you a few more verses on this from Proverbs.

You can go back to Ecclesiastes,

but it says, for example, in Proverbs 14.7,

go from the presence of a foolish man

when thou perceivest not in him the lips of knowledge.

Proverbs 13.20, he that walketh with wise men

shall be wise, but a companion of fools

shall be destroyed.

You surround yourself by idiots,

you're just a companion of fools,

you're just surrounded by bozos,

you're gonna end up getting destroyed.

You wanna walk with the wise so that you can be wise.

What does the Bible say in Ephesians 5?

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,

but rather reprove them for it is a shame

even to speak of those things

which are done of them in secret.

And let me just say this right now.

If you have a family member who is a reprobate,

I'm saying if you have a family member

that's a homosexual,

if you have a family member that's a pedophile,

or some other just horrible wicked reprobate,

you should completely cut that person out of your life

and have nothing to do with them ever again.

Why would you wanna have this evil, toxic,

corrupt person?

And it's like, oh yeah, but you know,

we're just gonna show the love of Christ.

The Bible says God gave them over to a reprobate mind.

God gave them up unto uncleanness.

God gave them up, God gave them over,

but you're not gonna give up.

Folks, when God gave up, it's time for you to give up.

But again, we've been brainwashed our whole lives.

There's good in everyone.

Everyone can be fixed.

Everyone can be salvaged, my friend.

Unfortunately, that's not the case.

The Bible says reprobate, silver, shall men call them

because the Lord has rejected them.

There are people that God has rejected.

And at that point, it's time for us to walk away and move on.

And unfortunately, people will just have these horrible

haters of God in their lives.

Just people who just absolutely,

I'm not just talking about unsaved people.

I'm talking about people who hate God.

I'm talking about pervert predators.

And those have these people in their life

because they just feel like,

well, we just never give up on anyone.

Well, good luck with that.

I'm gonna go with what the Bible says,

that there are certain people that,

it's a shame to even speak of what they do in secret.

We need to reprove them.

We need to rebuke.

We need to avoid them.

We do not need to have fellowship and concord

with every single person.

That's not what the Bible says.

Which leads me to my next point.

Number four, there are times when fighting is necessary

in life.

There are times when fighting is necessary.

We said, number one, God's got a plan.

Number two, there are gonna be good times and bad times.

Number three, not everybody's gonna be our friend.

We don't embrace everybody.

Number four, there are times when fighting is necessary.

What does the Bible say?

In Ecclesiastes three, seven,

there's a time to rend.

That means like to tear apart and a time to sow.

A time to keep silence and a time to speak.

A time to love and a time to hate.

A time of war and a time of peace.

So there's a time for fighting and there's a time for peace.

We can't just go through our life thinking

we can just have 100% peace with every person

and with every group all the time.

Unfortunately, it is sometimes necessary

in the Christian life for us to fight.

Now, it's never gonna be necessary

for us to be involved in a physical fight.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood,

but against principalities, against powers,

against the rulers of the darkness of this world,

against spiritual wickedness in high places.

So we're not talking about a physical fight.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,

the Bible says, they're spiritual.

So it's a spiritual fight, it's a spiritual battle,

but there are gonna be times when fighting is necessary.

There's a time of war and a time of peace.

Now, it's funny, there's a popular hit song

in the 1960s whose lyrics are basically this chapter.

Who knows what I'm talking about?

Put up your hand, all you old fogies out there.

All right, just kidding,

because I grew up with song, everybody knows song.

To everything, turn, turn, turn, there is a cease

and it goes through all this.

A time to be born, a time to die

and it goes through and lists all this.

But what's funny is when it gets to the very end,

it's listing everything and saying time to run,

time to sew.

It's pretty much just verbatim from the King James.

But then it's funny, the one thing it leaves out

is the time of war.

And probably just because it's like the 1960s

and there's kind of an anti-war sentiment

and people are thinking about the Vietnam War

and stuff like that.

It's like, okay, I get that.

The problems with Vietnam and everything like that.

But at the end of the day though,

God's word is God's word.

So what they do is they change the lyrics of the song

at the end, instead of saying a time of war

and a time of peace.

It says, a time for peace.

I swear it's not too late.

So it adds this idea of like, hey man,

we can still just have peace.

Well, unfortunately, that's not the way the world works.

And obviously, I don't wanna get into a political thing

or especially not the geopolitics of the 1960s and 70s

because it's not really that relevant.

50-some years later.

But at the end of the day,

obviously the Soviet Union was super evil.

Communism was super evil.

And obviously there are disagreements

about how it should have been handled like,

hey, maybe we shouldn't have teamed up with them

in the first place and teamed up with Joseph Stalin.

But anyway, there are obviously all kinds of disagreements

about how to deal with it.

But at the end of the day, it's evil.

The Soviet Union was evil.

Communism was evil.

The communist China is evil.

North Korea is evil.

This is a wicked, satanic evil ideology

responsible for tens of millions of people being killed.

And at the end of the day,

that's not the only wicked ideology in this world.

That's not the only wicked group of people.

Unfortunately, this world is filled

with evil, violent, wicked, horrible people,

horrible groups of people, horrible governments,

evil agendas that are out there.

And so there is never going to be world peace

until Christ returns.

You know, obviously you can debate each battle

and each war and each situation

and decide what the US's involvement should or shouldn't be.

But at the end of the day,

you will not have world peace

until the Lord Jesus Christ returns.

There is fighting everywhere.

You know, from whence come wars and fighting among you?

Come they not, hence even of your lust,

that war in your members?

As long as there are sinful, greedy, lustful men,

the love of money is the root of all evil

and there will be fighting, there will be war.

And you know, there's never a time

when war isn't going on in this world.

I don't know if you don't know that.

But you might think, oh, you know,

the US isn't at war or Europe's not at war.

So ergo, there's no war going on.

But like in Africa, there's always a war going on.

You know, or other places in the Middle East,

there's just always a war going on.

There's just all these little war lords

and all these different fights

that we may not necessarily have a stake in

or worry too much about.

So we're not watching it on the news every night.

You know, child soldiers in Africa

going around killing people and being killed and stuff.

Look, the world's a messed up place.

The world's a dark place.

You know, it's the anti-Christ

who's gonna seek to bring world peace

without Christianity, without the Lord Jesus Christ,

without the truth of the word of God.

He's gonna try to bring in peace his own way.

But no, there's not really gonna be peace on earth

until the Lord Jesus Christ returns.

You know, when they shall say peace and safety,

sudden destruction will come upon them, the Bible says.

And so what we have to understand is that, you know,

there is a time of war and a time of peace.

We can't just say, you know, oh, it's just peace, man.

It's just a time of peace and I swear it's not too late.

We can just have a time of peace

and we can just fix everything.

Well, yeah, you know, there will be a time

of total world peace when Christ returns.

Okay, but until then,

sometimes we're gonna be at peace,

sometimes we're gonna be at war.

Now, and like I said, in the world somewhere,

someone is fighting a war every day, 365 days a year.

But I'm saying as far as for us as, you know,

just Christians, Americans, you know,

living in Arizona, whatever,

there are gonna be times when we have peace

and there are gonna be times when war is necessary.

But back to the spiritual application

is there's gonna be some spiritual fighting,

some spiritual battles that need to be fought,

meaning that the pastor can't just get up

and only preach positive sermons all the time

and never call out any false prophets,

never call out any false doctrine,

never rebuke anyone.

It's just not real.

There's a time of war and a time of peace.

And so there's gonna be fighting.

And look, here's the thing.

Within the church, we strive to keep the unity

and we strive to have unity and peace.

And you know what?

In order to have unity and peace in this church,

sometimes it is necessary to throw someone out of the church

in order to foster unity and peace, okay?

And a lot of people are offended by that doctrine,

but it's clearly spelled out in 1 Corinthians chapter five

that there are certain sins that get you ejected

from the local congregation, one of which is Rayleigh,

which is the person who just goes around

just making outlandish, wild accusations against people,

no evidence, no proof, there's never any meat on the bone,

but they're just constantly calling out this person

and that person and trashing people's reputations

and gossiping and backbiting and so forth.

You know, those kind of people,

you can't have a peaceful, productive, good church

with those kind of people around.

You know, the person like that,

you try to correct them, you approve them,

you try to fix them, and you know what?

If they don't get it, eventually, you gotta just toss them.

You just gotta throw them out.

You gotta just remove the cancer at some point.

You know, and then everybody feels so bad,

oh, it's so terrible, it's so sad, you know what?

But this is why we need somebody to run the church

who has a sense of some cold, hard justice

and doesn't just get emotional and just say,

oh, well, we just have to be nice to everybody,

we can't throw anybody out, we can't fight anybody.

Look, justice has to be blind, and it has to be cold,

and it has to be sometimes harsh,

but unfortunately, there's a time for that.

Now, there's a time for warmth,

there's a time for compassion, there's a time for mercy,

there's a time for letting things go

and turning the other cheek and so forth,

but then there's also a time of war.

It's a time when you, and look,

especially when the church is in a time of war,

you better be on the Lord's side.

You go sympathizing with the devil when we're at war.

You've got to be on the right side,

you've got to be on the Lord's side.

And this leaves me to my next point,

which is number five, because we said number four,

there are times when fighting is necessary.

Number five is we can't fight every battle

and right every wrong.

So every time is not a time of war

because there's also a time of peace, okay?

We cannot right every wrong in this world.

And when you're young, when you're a child,

when you're a teenager, at least this is how I felt

and I think a lot of children and teenagers feel this way,

they're gonna grow up and just fix the world, right?

It's like, we're gonna fix church,

we're gonna fix Independent Fundamental Baptist,

we're gonna fix Christianity, we're gonna fix America,

we're gonna fix the world.

I mean, look, this is how,

when you start out this way,

thinking that you're gonna right every wrong.

And unfortunately, this mentality can lead

to a lot of stupid bickering and fussing around the house

because basically the kids,

because they have this mentality of fix everything,

it's like they can't let anything go.

So their sibling makes a mistake, says something wrong,

does something wrong, and it's just like,

they just have to die on that hill

of correcting their sibling, or even worse yet,

correcting their parent or something like that

because they just are so right

and they have to prove that they're right

and they have to win every battle and so forth.

And this can lead to just a lot of fighting and fussing.

Instead of just maybe one of your siblings

says something a little wrong or does something wrong

and you just don't, how about you just don't say anything?

Because you don't have to fix every problem

and right every wrong.

Look what the Bible says in verse number seven.

It says a time to random, a time to so,

a time to keep silence and a time to speak.

You don't always have to weigh in on every subject.

What if I told you, you could have a conversation

with someone, someone says something that's incorrect

and you just don't correct them?

Right?

You just keep going.

Now look, there's a time to speak.

There are some times when no,

you shouldn't just sit idly by and silent by

while somebody is saying something horrible

or blasphemous or wrong or whatever.

There's a time when it's appropriate to step in and say something.

Part of this also is depending on who you're dealing with

because the Bible says not to give that

which is holy under the dogs

or to cast your pearls before swine

lest they trample them under their feet

and turn again and rend you.

You accomplish nothing.

The Bible says you reprove a scorn or you just get a blot.

You rebuke a wise man, he'll love you.

You reprove a scorn or and you just end up suffering

and you accomplish nothing.

So, you know, we don't always have to correct,

have you ever talked to someone who just corrects

everything that you say?

It could be kind of annoying

when someone's just super pedantic,

constantly correcting your grammar,

constantly correcting every word out of your mouth,

every little factual detail that's like,

like the spirit of what you're saying is right

but they just wanna just be super pedantic

and correct every little thing.

It can be annoying.

If you're that kind of a person, you can annoy people.

It's also gonna be frustrating for you

just trying to just right every wrong.

You know, you gotta choose your battles

is what I'm saying.

Choose your battles.

You kinda decide like, what's important to you?

What hill are you willing to die on?

What's the most important thing?

And it's gonna change from situation to situation.

And what's the whole message of this,

you know, scripture and Ecclesiastes anyway,

is that look, life is a bunch of different situations

and certain things are appropriate in one situation

and not another.

You gotta have the discernment.

First of all, life's gonna throw things at you

and you just realize, hey, this part of God's plan,

some of it's good, some of it's bad,

hey, I'm in a situation, sometimes I should act,

sometimes I should not act.

You know, you gotta use discernment about life

and what's going on and what is right and what is wrong

because you can't fight every battle and right every wrong.

There's a time to keep silence.

Go through it to Matthew chapter five.

Matthew chapter five.

Not just correcting every single person every time.

Now, here's the thing.

You know, for example, when we have the preaching class

or later in November when we have the preaching boot camp,

we're definitely gonna be doing a lot of correcting people

because the way that you learn is you get corrected.

You go to a boxing gym and they're gonna tell you

what you're doing with your form that's wrong

and they're gonna help you fix it.

If they just smile, hey, doing great, keep going,

you're not really gonna learn much.

If your piano teacher's just always praising your performance

and never telling you about the mistakes,

you're not gonna improve.

Okay, but you know what?

I remember I had a piano teacher

who basically just told me that everything I was doing

is wrong and just giving me just lists of things

that are wrong, just pointing out every dumb little thing

that's just not absolutely perfect,

that I'm not just some expert concert pianist

in every single movement of my body

and just pointing out like basically,

I'm playing the piano, I'm like hitting the iceberg

in the Titanic when it comes to how bad I'm doing on a song

and then she's trying to tell me all these little nuances

and stuff, it was just overwhelming

and this teacher ended up just making me hate piano.

And I was so traumatized, I didn't even play piano

for months and months because this woman

just drained all the joy out of piano playing.

And by the way, this same woman, you know what she said

to me, she said, oh, I can't even listen to any music

because it's just all so wrong.

Like if I just hear music on the radio

or if I just hear, it's just like,

I just can't even enjoy listening to music

because I just hear all the problems.

I'm like, oh, yes, please teach me to be more like you.

Yes, please, how can I keep these lessons going?

Just super picky and just coming at you

with all these tiny, it's like,

bro, I'm just trying to get to first base here.

I'm just trying to learn how to play this song.

But then here's the thing,

but I had another piano teacher

that basically would still always correct me.

Nothing I did was ever good enough for this teacher,

but here's the difference is that every single time I played,

she would give me like one thing to work on.

She'd say like, hey, good job,

but here's one thing to work on.

And it's like, I work on that one thing.

And it was like, okay, hey, you did pretty good,

but let's work on this one thing.

Doing great, but work on this one thing

as opposed to just listing every single thing.

I mean, imagine if we got somebody saved

and they came in and they're brand new to Christianity

and we're just telling them that they have to change

every single thing about their life on day one.

And okay, let's just like, we just got on a clipboard.

Okay, you just got saved 10 minutes ago.

Okay, we're gonna talk about, you know, your job.

We're gonna talk about your clothing.

We're gonna talk about your food, your drink.

We're gonna talk about church, soul winning,

tithing, Bible reading, praying, your music.

It's just going through and just everything,

just unloading the whole truck on that person.

It might be kind of overwhelming

where they're thinking to themselves like,

well, I don't think I'm ready

to just become a completely different person overnight

and just fix everything about my life the first day.

What did the Bible say?

It said, precept must be upon precept.

Line upon line, hear a little, they're a little,

just like babies don't just turn into an adult overnight,

do they?

They have to grow over time

and they have to desire the sincere milk of the word

they may grow there by.

So it's more like you go to church on Sunday morning

and you get something out of the message

and you're like, okay, I'm gonna work on

fixing this one thing.

You know, and maybe there's a sermon on drinking

and it's like, okay, I'm gonna quit drinking, you know?

And then later there's a sermon on fornication.

It's like, oh, I gotta get out of fornication, okay?

Later there's a sermon on Bible reading, okay?

I gotta get into a Bible reading plan.

There's a sermon on prayer.

All right, let's work on praying, you know?

Sermon on tithing, okay, I'm gonna pay the tithe.

I'm gonna give 10%, whatever.

You go down the list one thing at a time

and then you can grow over the course of years

and all of us took years to learn things

and there were things that we were doing wrong

in our Christian life for years.

And then we learned it like years in

and then we're like, okay, let's fix that, let's fix that.

You know, just fixing one thing at a time.

And so again, you can't fight every battle

and right every wrong.

You know, like for example, you know,

there'll be people out there that are kind of

liberal Christians, liberal churches

and they'll reach out and they'll really like

one thing that we taught them.

Like, hey, thank you for your stuff on the King James.

That really straightened me out.

I'm not just gonna write back and back, okay, now here's

a list of all the other crap you need to fix, you bozo.

You know, it's like, obviously it's one thing at a time.

Choose your battles.

Choose what's important and don't just be constantly,

if somebody's a new believer,

if somebody is, you know, just immature in the faith,

they're newer, maybe they're backslidden, whatever.

You know, start with the most important things first.

Try to help that person with big, important things.

Sometimes it's not even your place.

Other times when it is your place, you know,

be gentle and work on one thing at a time

and not just demanding that they get everything right

and we're gonna write every wrong.

We're gonna fix every problem.

Look what the Bible says in,

well, we said there's a time to keep silence, right?

It's time to just let things go, not worry about it.

You know, before we look at Matthew five,

it says in Proverbs, he that passes by and meddles

with strife not belonging to him

is like one that take the dog by the ears.

So the Bible's saying just don't get involved in fights

and strife and bickering that doesn't involve you.

Just feel, but again, we live in this society

where everybody has an opinion about everything.

Everybody's gotta jump in and have an opinion,

even things that they know nothing about.

If you know nothing about it, just set this one out.

The Bible says it's an honor for a man to cease from strife

but every fool will be meddling.

The Bible says it's an honor for a man

to walk away from a fight, right?

So we're not gonna fight every battle.

A lot of times we're just gonna let things go

because there's a time for war.

Yes, there's a time when we need to fight

but there's also time for peace.

And then it says the beginning of strife

is as one that when one leteth out water,

therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with.

The Bible says foolish and unlearned questions avoid.

Knowing that they do gender strifes

and the servant of the Lord must not strive

but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patience.

The Bible's saying, look, don't just get involved

in every foolish question, vein, jangling.

Some topics just don't touch it.

Just stay away from it.

Stay out of it if you don't have something productive to add.

If it's unprofitable, if it's vain, stay out of it.

If it be possible, as much as lieth in you,

live peaceably with all men.

You know, I don't have to right every wrong

in my neighborhood.

You know, somebody might be playing their music

too loud or something, you know,

maybe I'm just gonna shut the window, right?

Maybe I'll just turn on something of my own

in the house to drown it out.

Maybe I'll just put on some headphones or something.

Not like I gotta go be the neighborhood police.

I'm gonna be the HOA, Karen from hell,

just going up and down the street, just righting every wrong.

I mean, what if I just, I mean, look,

I go on walks a lot in my neighborhood.

What if I went on a walk in my neighborhood

and I just, you know, the other day I was walking

and I saw a car that was parked on the street

and had no license plate.

You think I'm just gonna hop on the phone

and just, oh, call the police.

This car is supposed to be registered

or else you can't park it on the public street, you know?

It's like, it's just none of my business.

It's just not my problem.

I'm just not worried about it.

You know, there was like, there's like some camper

that was just like parked on the corner for months

and it's just like, it's like, it's not my problem.

Yeah, it's a little inconvenient

because it's right on the corner.

You have to like drive weird to go around it sometimes

or whatever.

It's just like, okay, get over it, you know?

And it's like, you're just, you're driving on the road

and people are parked illegally.

You know, citizens arrest.

It's just like, let it go.

You don't have to right every wrong and worry about,

you know, especially with your neighbors,

you're stuck with your neighbors.

And you know, if you have good neighbors,

you should thank God for that.

Because it's nothing worse than having nightmare neighbors.

So you gotta strive to get along with your neighbors,

overlook their faults, try to be friendly and nice

or maybe just avoid them if there were.

Like, you know, the neighbor that's got that weird

like transgender faggot poop flag,

just stay away from them.

Right, I'm not saying you're gonna be their buddy.

I'm not saying you're gonna hang out with them.

But you know, it's probably better to just stay away

from them, just avoid them and not sit there

and feel like I gotta fix every problem

in the neighborhood, every landscaping problem,

every parking problem, every noise problem.

I'm the neighborhood watch.

You know, it's just, it's stupid to get involved

in strife when you don't have to.

Just try to get along with everybody the best you can.

Oh, look, sometimes things can be extreme.

Somebody's pit bull is on the loose,

just attacking your children every day or something.

You know, eventually you have to say something.

But I'm saying, in general,

you wanna try to be cool in your neighborhood.

What does the Bible say?

Look at Matthew 538.

It says you've heard that it has been said

an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

And that is a true, and look, Jesus is not undoing

what the Old Testament says.

The preamble of this whole sermon is,

think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets.

He's not saying that an eye for an eye and a tooth

for a tooth is not legitimate.

Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth is God's word.

That is God's standard of justice and God never changes.

He's the same yesterday, today and forever.

But what the Bible is saying is

that we don't always have to right every wrong.

We don't always have to avenge every evil.

We don't always have to fight every battle.

So he says, but I say to you that you resist not evil,

but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek,

turn to him the other also.

What's the Bible saying?

Everyone who attacks you, you don't have to retaliate.

Obviously there's a time for fighting back.

There's a time for justice.

But you know what?

When someone smites you on the right cheek,

you don't always have to fight back.

You could just turn to him the other also.

You know, turn the other cheek.

And you know what's funny?

Is that this is one of the most famous verses in the Bible.

I think this is probably like one of,

if we were to just do like a, I don't know,

family feud survey says,

what are the most top 10 famous sayings of Jesus?

I feel like turn the other cheek

is gonna be on the list.

Who thinks that this would probably be a top 10?

You know, it's probably survey says,

ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Turn the other cheek, you got it.

This is one of the most famous statements of Jesus.

And yet it's funny how people, they don't get it.

They think that if anyone slaps me,

I have to freak out about it.

I have to retaliate.

I have to call the cops.

I have to sue them.

I have to do whatever.

I mean, folks,

this is the most famous statement of Jesus arguably.

And yet, why does nobody believe this?

And look, I made a decision a long time ago

that if someone slaps me in the face,

I will not hit them back, okay?

Because the Bible says that the pastor

should not be a brawler or a striker.

And so I made a decision a long time ago

that if somebody punches me with a closed fist,

then I reserve the right to retaliate.

Because if somebody punches me with a closed fist,

then there's a good chance

that that person is actually trying to hurt me, harm me.

And at that point,

I think that it could become self-defense.

Depending on the situation.

You know, one time I had this granny,

this demon-possessed granny punch me in the face

when I was out of soul,

with a closed fist,

and it didn't hurt.

It was like I was in her dream

and she was doing that where you punch

and you can't get any power.

Turned out I was a character in her dream

and because she was punching me and there was no power.

So here's the thing.

If somebody punches me in the face

that I'm not scared of,

I'm gonna take that too.

I'll take the punch.

But if I'm in a situation where there's real danger

for myself or my loved ones

and I feel like I need to defend myself,

okay, I could see that.

If somebody punches you in the face with a closed fist,

I can see you acting in self-defense at that point.

That's reasonable in some situations.

But you know what?

When somebody slaps you across the face

with an open hand,

that your life is not in danger.

You, because people who are in a real

like knock down drag out fight,

they don't slap with their palms open, do they?

You know why somebody slaps you in the face?

Is they are trying to humiliate you.

They're trying to insult you.

They're trying to offend you.

They're trying to hurt your pride more than your body.

I hope you're listening to me

because this is important,

especially you kids out there.

You know, when somebody slaps you in the face,

it's not like, oh, it's on and Taiwan

and you know, you're just gonna give them everything.

No, when somebody slaps you in the face,

you turn the other cheek.

And look, I've been out soul winning

and had grown men slap me in the face out soul winning

because I, and I wasn't even being mean or rude,

but there are some people out there

that just anything makes them mad.

There are gonna be people out there

who are demon possessed.

There are gonna be people out there

who are just hotheads, just looking for a fight.

They're trying to provoke you into a fight, okay?

And so I've had people get mad at my preaching,

get mad at me out soul winning,

get mad at me in conversation.

And I have been, over the past 21 years of pastoring,

I've been slapped in the face many times,

actually, if you can believe it.

I've had many people, and when I say many,

I'm using the definition of many means four or more.

Absolutely, easily.

I've been slapped across the face multiple times,

many times.

I've had people also just shoved me.

I've had people get mad at me

and just shove me and throw me.

One time a guy shoved me into a window

so hard that the window broke.

Now it was a single pain, admittedly,

and then you look at them wrong and they break.

But this guy shoved me into the window.

Did I punch the guy?

Did I fight back?

No.

Oh, you're just a weird pastor Anderson.

Look, at the end of the day,

we want to avoid fights as much as possible.

You don't know how fights are gonna end, number one.

Number two, winning a fight

is not necessarily pleasing to God.

Just beating somebody up because you can.

There's no virtue in that.

And again, this attitude of,

oh, I don't want to be a whimper or whatever.

Isn't that just pride?

Isn't that just arrogance?

That says, oh, this guy slapped me and I'd prove.

And you know, of course there was the famous incident

a couple years ago when, was it Chris Rock?

Is that the guy's name?

This comedian, Chris Rock,

said something insulting about this other comedian,

Will Smith's wife.

And basically, Will Smith got up out of his chair,

walked up on stage,

and just slapped Chris Rock across the face

like as hard as he could.

And then just went back and sat down.

Now look, I kind of felt like the whole thing

was just kind of staged.

They probably get together in advance

and agree upon these things.

And it's like, you know,

because then they're both,

they both got a lot of mileage out of it online.

They get publicity.

But let's just say that it was real for a second.

Let's just pretend and assume that it was real for a second.

Okay?

Then I would say that, you know,

Chris Rock is basically doing the right thing

by just, he just took it.

Basically he just got slapped real hard across the face

and he just took it.

And he just moved on.

And again, you could argue about whether he deserved it

and blah, blah, I don't really care.

I don't even remember the context.

I don't really care about the context.

The point is a man walked up and slapped another man

and it looked like he slapped him as hard as he could.

Slapped him really hard and the guy was okay.

A grown man slapped him as hard as he could.

Just wham!

And he's okay.

Well, typically, you know,

who here would say I have been slapped

across the face before in my entire life?

I've been slapped, put up here.

Nobody wants to put up their hand.

Everybody's embarrassed.

But I think, you know,

and we're all still here.

We're all alive.

Who knows someone who died by being slapped in the face?

Like being slapped in the face killed them

or that a violent criminal started the assault

by just a slap and then pulled out the chains

and knives and guns and stuff.

Now, you know, that's not really the way it works,

my friend.

And I know I'm spending a lot of time on this point,

but I think it's an important point to understand

is that everybody now is just like,

oh, you touched me.

Oh, you pushed me.

You shoved me.

You shoulder-checked me.

You slapped me.

So then it's just, oh, either A,

I'm just gonna now just beat the hell out of you.

Or B, I'm just gonna call the cops now.

And it's like, hey, look, this guy pushed me.

And look, if you use a magnifying glass,

you can see this little mark here that was left,

you know, and whatever.

And I wanna press charges to the full extent of the law.

Folks, this is not a Christian reaction to sit there

and wanna call the cops on everybody

and beat the crap out of everybody.

You know what the Bible says, turn the other cheek.

That's what the Bible says.

And look, let's face it, unfortunately,

I'm not saying that this is a good thing,

but in marriage, let's face it,

there are husbands that will slap their wives

and wives that will slap their husbands.

You know, I'm not gonna ask

for a raise of hands on this one.

Who's been slapped by your wife

or who's been slapped by your husband?

But you know what, if I did and people were honest,

there'd probably be a lot of hands that would go up

because obviously this is just a thing that exists.

And again, today it's like, oh, you gotta call the cops.

Oh, you got, really, is that what the,

what Bible verse is that?

What Bible verse is that?

And look, don't call me some male chauvinist

because you know what, it's like,

for every time I hear about a wife

calling the cops on her husband,

I hear about husbands calling the cops on their wives.

She attacked me, I had to call the cops.

It's like, bro, just defend yourself.

Like, figure it out, man.

Like you literally can't survive an attack from your wife.

Now look, I'm not, and I'm not talking about guns

and knives and stuff, okay?

Yeah, obviously if you bring a knife

to a gunfight, you're in trouble, okay?

But what I'm saying is, look,

when it's just a bunch of slapping

and you know, oh, but this little drop of blood,

you know, from when, because I had a buddy

and his concubine attacked him,

and I kid you not,

she had to be like almost a foot shorter than him.

This concubine was super petite,

she was like a little Chihuahua

with violence though, unfortunately.

And so his little Chihuahua of a concubine

just kind of went crazy on him,

she's just punching him and you know,

caught him with a fingernail,

made his neck bleed a little,

but she's not over here slitting his throat, you know?

He just needed to just tackle her

and hold her down like a football player or something,

you know what I mean?

But it's like, no, he's got to call the cops and whatever.

But hey, I guess the guy who won't marry you

is probably the same guy who's going to call the cops on you

when you get a little, you know, crazy.

And women get a little crazy from time to time, amen?

It's just life.

But you know what, I'm not going to,

and you know what, I'm going to keep preaching

what the Bible says.

Turn the other cheek.

Don't resist evil.

Whoever will smite you on the right cheek,

turn to him the other also.

If any man will soothe you at the law

and take away thy coat, let him out of thy cloak also.

You don't have to fight every legal battle.

Sometimes it's better to just not sue.

And what does the Bible say in 1 Corinthians 6?

We should not sue brothers and sisters in Christ.

We would rather just suffer ourselves to be defrauded,

just get ripped off, take the loss

and just give him your cloak also.

Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile,

go with him twain.

Not because you have to.

Not because it's right,

but just because it's not worth fighting over.

Give to him that asketh thee,

and from him that would borrow up thee,

turn out that way.

He said, look, everything doesn't always have to be fair.

You don't have to right every wrong.

You don't have to fight every battle.

You don't have to die on every hill.

Let things go.

Let it go is what Jesus is saying.

And I'm out of time,

and that's pretty much the end of the sermon anyway.

I'm skipping a few things,

but at the end of the day,

go back to Ecclesiastes 3.

We'll just quickly close with this one thought

that God will ultimately take care of everything

and he will right every wrong.

We don't have to right every wrong.

We don't have to fight every battle.

We don't have to die on every hill.

God will ultimately do that.

Look at verse 16.

It says,

And moreover I saw under the sun

the place of judgment that wickedness was there.

Isn't this frustrating?

Oh, man, it's a place of judgment.

It's the courthouse and wickedness is there.

They're over here, you know,

letting murderers go free,

you know, because they were

temporarily insane or whatever.

You look at the place of judgment,

wickedness is there.

You look at the place of righteousness,

iniquity is there.

You know, church is supposed to be a godly place.

Wickedness.

The courthouse is supposed to be

a place of justice.

All kinds of wrong

verdicts are being handed out.

You know, I think of Pastor Shelley

in Dallas, Texas, who basically,

you know, had just this total

airtight lease protecting him

and then, you know,

his landlord just evicts him anyway

and just wants to charge him for damages,

which were really improvements.

And because the court just doesn't like

the preaching of God's word,

they just end up just siding with the landlord,

just totally going against

what the, you know, it's frustrating

how much injustice there is in this world, right?

But look what it says in verse 17.

I said in my heart,

God shall judge the righteous and the wicked.

For there's a time there

for every purpose and for every work.

He's saying, look, you know, I saw

the place of judgment, that wickedness is there.

I see the place of righteousness,

there's iniquity there.

But then I just realized, you know what?

In the end, God's going to judge.

He's going to judge the righteous.

He's going to judge the wicked.

And ultimately, it will all be put to right.

So we don't have to fight every battle.

We just need to be patient

and let God take care of things.

And look, I'm not saying to never fight.

There's a time for war and a time for peace.

There's a time to speak.

There are times when we need to speak up

and when it's not right to stay silent.

When we need to open our mouths

and speak truth, but then there's a time of silence.

There's a time

to turn the other cheek.

There's a time to ignore

and let it go.

We've got to use discernment.

God has a plan

and a purpose. Our lives are going to be good.

They're going to be bad. They're going to be ugly.

We've got to just keep going,

keep serving God, keep doing right,

trust Him, trust His Word,

trust the plan

and strive to know

when to

sow and when to rend,

when to gather stones together, when to scatter,

when to

embrace, when not to embrace.

We've got to study the Bible to know

what is the right time and place for everything.

Let's memorize the number repair.

Father, we thank You so much for Your Word.

Lord God, help us to take

these things from Your Word

and put them into practice in our lives.

Help us to be the best Christians

that we could possibly be following Your Word,

trusting Your timing

and continually learning more

about Your will so that we can know

what is the right time

for every purpose under Heaven.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.