3 Ways To Destroy a Good Church - Pastor Matthew Stucky | Stedfast Baptist Church

All right, well, it's great to be here

at Steadfast Baptist Church.

And I've actually preached here a couple of times before.

And for those of you that have been here for a long time,

you might remember that,

but it was actually way before Pastor Shelley

was actually the pastor.

And so going back like nine years, 10 years,

a really long time ago.

And it's great to see some of the same faces

and just seeing a lot of new people as well.

I mean, the church has really grown since then.

And I just want to thank first Pastor Shelley

for just giving me the chance to be here today.

But not only just that,

I think most of you are kind of aware of my story

and everything that happened at Verity Baptist Church.

And the thing is when you become a missionary,

you know, you're going away from secular work, you know,

and the thing is I didn't go on deputation.

I didn't go around to a hundred churches begging for money.

And so when everything blows up at your church

that is sort of helping you or kind of not really,

it kind of leaves you in a pretty desperate situation.

And you know, honestly, Pastor Shelley and I,

honestly, we didn't meet each other

or know each other that well from the U.S.

I mean, one time I think in Sacramento we met

and talked just very briefly, one time in Arizona.

And, you know, but he really reached out to me

to be a friend to me.

And the thing is everybody will say that you're,

they're your friend, but you know,

actions speak louder than words.

And quite honestly, he reached out to be my friend

and I just want you to know what kind of pastor you have

because honestly, a lot of people are gonna say

a lot of things about your pastor and they already have,

they already do, they criticize this church,

but it's like on a personal level,

he reached out to me to be a friend

when honestly I just didn't have anything to offer.

And that is the kind of pastor you have.

So you should be very thankful for this church,

stay dedicated, stay faithful, you know,

because you do have a great church,

you have a great pastor and a lot of people here

that love God.

Now, we're here in Matthew chapter 16

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

and the name of the sermon is

Three Ways to Destroy a Great Church.

Three ways to destroy a great church.

Notice what it says here, verse number 13.

When Jesus came into the coast of Cesarai, Philippi,

he asked his disciples saying,

whom do men say that I, the son of man, am?

And they said, some say that thou art John the Baptist,

some Elias, and others Jeremiah's are one of the prophets.

He sayeth unto them, but whom say ye that I am?

And Simon Peter answered and said,

thou art the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus answered and said unto him,

blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,

for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,

but my father, which is in heaven.

And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter,

and upon this rock I will build my church.

And notice the next phrase,

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Now, I think oftentimes we're kind of reading the Bible

and there's a lot of language,

we kind of just read over it

and don't really stop to think about it.

I mean, that's kind of a strong statement, isn't it,

that the gates of hell

will not prevail against the church?

Now look, we don't believe in one universal church,

what we believe in is local churches.

So this is a promise given to a local church

like Steadfast Baptist Church.

What the Bible is saying is that when you're serving God,

you will have persecution, you will have fights,

yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus

shall suffer persecution, not just the individual,

but also the churches that are doing something for God.

But the Bible promises the gates of hell

will not prevail against that church.

Look, this church has been protested.

I mean, this church has had bank accounts shut down.

I mean, it's like I always give the wrong location

for this church.

I always say, Hearst, Texas, you know,

I'm living in the past.

I mean, you were like all over the place,

going from area to area, taking off YouTube,

taking off all these social media platforms.

I mean, there's persecution.

There's a fight, but I look around

and it seems like the church is still going strong.

It seems like you're still soul winning.

I mean, and the salvation numbers,

let me just check here.

Year to date, 6,698.

I'm not sure if it's that state side here or is that?

I mean, that is a lot of salvation.

I mean, we're talking like 700 salvation per month.

I mean, it seems like the gates of hell

are not prevailing against it.

But unfortunately, if you are a church

that is doing something big for God,

you are one of the few.

And what that means is Satan will greatly attack

those churches that are doing something big for God,

because quite simply,

there's just not a lot of great churches out there.

And this is one of the great churches

that exist in this world

where there is gonna be a battle

every single day until the end.

Now go to your Bible to 1st Corinthians chapter 10.

1st Corinthians chapter 10.

Now look, a sermon like this

is always important at a great church

because honestly, great churches come

and great churches go.

There can be churches that are great churches

and they last for a while

and then they just fall apart.

I mean, in fact, I believe my sending church was like that.

I believe they were once a great church.

I think they once really stood

for their name Verity of Truth.

But I wouldn't say that in 2026.

Now the thing is that church still has a building.

They still have people that show up,

but they're not like they used to be.

And the thing is there is only a small minority

of truly great churches in this world.

Now look, I'm thankful for all of the Baptist churches

throughout the world that have a soul winning program

and they do a little bit of soul winning every week

and that's great.

Because if I lived in that area,

I'd be happy to have a church that was right on the gospel

and I could join for soul winning.

You know, there's a difference between, you know,

seven or eight people out of a church

this size going soul winning weekly

versus most people going soul winning.

There's a huge difference.

It's not the same at all.

There's truly a small group of great churches

that exist in this world.

The Bible says here in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 12,

1 Corinthians 10:12

But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted

above that you are able,

but will with the temptation also make a way to escape

that you may be able to bear it.

Now on the direct context,

we're talking about the individual

and the Bible is saying take heed lest ye fall

because many people do fall.

But you could also apply this to a church

and you could say to a great church,

hey, you know what?

We've seen other great churches kind of fall apart.

So take heed lest ye fall.

Make sure that this church doesn't fall apart.

Now the great thing about this

is God does give us a template

on what you need to do as a church

to stay strong, to stay zealous

and still be a great church five years from now,

10 years from now, 20 years from now.

The Bible actually tells us.

Now go to Revelation chapter two, Revelation two.

Now, you know, part of why I'm preaching this sermon

is, you know, when I went to the Philippines,

it was only a couple months after that

that this church went through a pretty big trauma, right?

I mean, there's just no other way to say it,

but the old pastor was just with prostitutes

and honestly, you probably know more details than me,

but pretty major and grievous sins.

Not just small sins, but major sins.

And you know, here's the truth.

Outwardly, everybody was trying to encourage

this church to keep going,

but you know what a lot of people were thinking,

including myself?

I don't know if this church is gonna last.

I'm just being honest to you.

I was like, I mean, is everyone just gonna move away

from this church because it was so bad eight years ago?

I mean, it was horrible.

It's like, is this church even gonna last?

And of course publicly, everyone's trying to encourage,

but I'm just saying, this is what people thought

about this church eight years ago.

And so I wanna show you what the Bible actually says

about what actually destroys a great church

because that was major sin, major problems.

And then afterwards, I mean, people are getting kicked

out of this church left and right.

It's like from an outsider's perspective,

it's like, what is going on there?

See, one thing you gotta understand

is if a leader becomes very corrupt,

that means there's gonna be a lot of issues

within the church.

And see, the one great thing this church did

is actually just put all the information out there,

hit rock bottom, don't hide anything, let it be known.

You say, why?

Because then you can start to rebuild.

When churches hide information,

it's just gonna make it a million times worse.

You're never gonna recover.

It's like, you can just hit rock bottom,

it's embarrassing, it's horrible, just admit it,

just let it out, and then you can start to rebuild.

But unfortunately, a lot of churches don't do that.

This church did it correctly

and started the process of rebuilding.

And honestly, I remember just being shocked years ago,

it's like, whoa, the church is like twice as big.

Cause honestly, I was not sure

this church was actually gonna last back then.

Now in Revelation chapters two and three,

the Bible gives us seven different churches

and five of these churches

have at least one thing negative mentioned about them.

These five things mentioned in Revelation chapters two and three

can kind of be categorized in three different ways.

Okay?

And the first one is with the outward focus, okay?

Referring to preaching the gospel

and getting people saved.

Here's what it says in Revelation two, verse one.

On to the angel, the church of Ephesus, right.

These things say,

if he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand

who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks,

I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience

and how thou canst not bear them which are evil

and thou has tried them which say they are apostles

and are not and has found them liars

and has borne and has patience

and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted.

Now this is referring to a legitimate and real church

and it's not just a legitimate and real church that existed

but this is a good church.

It's not a Pentecostal church.

It's not a Catholic church.

It's not a church preaching a work salvation.

According to the Bible,

this is a legitimate and bona fide church

and it's not an old bad church.

I mean, there's good things about it.

He compliments it

but then he's gonna criticize it in verse four.

Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee

because thou has left thy first love.

So he rebukes them for leaving their first love.

You say, well, what's the first love?

Well, verse five, remember therefore

from whence thou art fallen and repent

and do the first works

or else I will come into thee quickly

and will remove thy candlestick out of his place

except thou repent.

So the Bible mentions the first love in verse four

and it mentions the first works in verse five.

So there is a connection between the works and the love.

Now look, when a church starts,

it's often gonna start with very few people.

Maybe the pastor and his family,

maybe 15 people, maybe 20 people.

So what do you have to do when a church starts?

You have to go out and bring people in.

Even churches that are not fundamental Baptist churches

are gonna have some form of evangelism or outreach

or whatever they call it to bring people in

because they don't have members.

And of course a church like this,

I mean, they hit the ground running soul winning,

soul winning, soul winning.

You know, we started a church in Melbourne, Australia

and we've been going for about four months

and they had soul winning events before that going on.

They're not a big church at this point,

but they're at 152 salvations for the year so far.

And of course, you know, Australia's not the Philippines

but I'll tell you, man, they are dedicated out there

and they're going soul winning every Saturday, every Sunday.

I mean, they are hitting the ground running,

doing whatever they can, going to malls,

doing, going to parks, doing everything they can

to preach the gospel.

And the thing is when you see churches

that maybe aren't as big as Steadfast Baptist Church

or maybe are not as receptive of areas

if they're zealous for soul winning,

we're like, man, that church is awesome, isn't it?

Right now, yeah.

Because your love is shown by the works that you do.

And what is the big work that comes to serving God

and at a local church?

It's going out and preaching the gospel.

See what the Bible is saying about this church is

they used to love soul winning,

but they've left their first love.

That doesn't necessarily mean

that they don't have any soul winning at all.

But it means it's no longer their first love.

Do you understand the difference?

Because a church can have a soul winning program every weekend,

but their main focus is on the children's program,

on Sunday school, on the Christian school,

or on activities, or on the music ministry.

I mean, there's plenty of Baptist churches

that exist in the world.

They have a soul winning program,

and I'm thankful for that,

but that's not their first focus.

It's not their first love.

They would pour their energy and time into other things,

but not into soul winning.

Look, you don't reach 6,000 plus salvation

unless your first love is soul winning.

And it's like other money this church has been blessed

with this church is like, hey, you know what?

Let's just support missionaries

to get a lot of people saved.

Why?

Because the first love of this church

is wrapped around the first works

referring to soul winning.

Go in your Bible to Matthew 28.

Matthew 28.

And I want you to understand a difference

because I don't know,

I feel like people just don't think about this sometimes,

but people could compare two different churches.

Church A and Church B, okay?

And Church B would be steadfast in this example.

And Church A is just a normal IFB church.

And look, I've been IFB

since before the new IFB existed.

I got saved from someone from the IFB,

so I have a lot of love for the IFB.

And when I'm in town traveling or whatever,

I will look for an IFB church to go to.

And there's a lot of good churches in America.

Yeah, yeah.

Look, you go to other countries,

there's just not a lot of adequate churches.

There's not a lot of churches that are right on salvation.

The Philippines is one of the most saturated countries

with missionaries, but you know what?

When you talk to our members,

they'll say we can't find a church

that's right on the Gospel in our area.

It's crazy.

But in America, this is really the one country I would say

where there's solid churches anywhere you go.

There's other churches.

I'm sure in the Dallas, Fort Worth area,

there are probably other churches that are solid

and decent churches that are right on salvation

and have a soul winning program.

But the way I'm defining it,

I wouldn't label that necessarily as a great church though.

I do think the amount of great churches

is a very small amount.

And people say, well, you know,

church A is a soul winning church

and steadfast is a soul winning church.

But church A is nice.

They don't fight with anybody.

They get along with everybody.

They never preach against anyone.

So therefore, both soul winning churches,

church A is nicer,

therefore A is greater than steadfast.

Isn't that kind of the logic people use?

But wait a minute,

isn't there a difference between getting

10 salvations in a month versus 500?

Look, I'm thankful for the churches

that get 10 salvations in a month.

I think it's great.

But let's not act like these things are equal or the same.

There's a huge difference between going out

and just spending your time on missions trips

and supporting missionaries

and soul winning every single week

versus about an hour once a week on Saturdays,

more focused on visitation

than actually preaching the gospel.

And look, if churches are super zealous on soul winning,

even if they're wrong on a lot of doctrines,

I say, hey, you know what?

That's a soul winning church.

Praise God for that.

Because that is the number one sign

we can see for a church.

Is it a great church?

How many people are they getting saved?

Imagine you had a church that was right on the rapture,

right on all end times prophecy,

against Zionism, right on everything.

But they didn't really do any soul winning.

Is that a good church?

No, and in many ways that might be a really bad church

because it's gonna gather together

a lot of people that love God to do nothing.

See the number one most important thing

is going out and getting people saved.

And what the Bible said is

your first love and first works are connected.

So who are the greatest churches in the world?

The ones doing the most work.

Who are the greatest Christians in the world?

The ones doing the most work.

Who has the most love?

The ones that are doing the most work.

And the problem in Revelation two,

this church, it's not a bad church,

but it's lost its first love.

It's lost its main focus.

This can happen for a lot of different reasons.

One reason is simply because as time goes,

your church grows and you know,

you start just putting focus on other things you never did.

And then all of a sudden,

your focus is no longer on the first works.

Or churches can backslide.

I mean, whatever, there's a lot of different reasons.

But what the Bible's saying is,

hey, your outward focus is the number one thing

you gotta make sure is correct.

It's the most important thing.

It's the first thing mentioned in Revelation chapter two,

leaving your first works, leaving your first love.

Bible says in Matthew 28, verse 18.

Matthew 28:18

Now here the Bible speaks about teaching all nations.

Now when this was written,

the idea of a missions trip was pretty different

than it is today.

I think the primary application here

is getting churches started.

And of course, we want great churches started

all throughout the world.

But in our modern day,

we can reach all nations via different methods.

You reach it via social media.

You reach it via OM or however you pronounce that TV.

OM, OME, OME, I don't really know,

but you reach it via doing missions trips.

Right, I mean, there's many ways that you can reach.

But what the Bible's saying is that,

hey, you know what, all of us, every church,

every person, our focus ought to be to go out

and get people saved.

Go to Mark 16, Mark 16.

Bible says here in verse number 15,

and he said onto them,

go ye into all the world

and preach the gospel to every creature.

And the Bible says,

hey, you know what, first go ye, ye being plural.

This is a command given to every single Christian,

every single saved person in the world.

Now look, are there rare exceptions

where people might have health situations

and they cannot go out soul winning?

Yeah, absolutely.

You know, we have people at our church that are elderly

and the idea of them going out for hours

is not really something that they're gonna be able to do.

And you know, obviously there's exceptions,

but look, those are exceptions.

Most of us in this room looking around,

you have the health to go out and preach the gospel.

You have the ability to go out and preach the gospel

and get people saved.

And the Bible's saying, hey, go ye into all the world

and preach the gospel to every creature.

You say, well pastor,

when can I retire from soul winning?

Well, I mean, you can retire

when every single person has heard

a clear presentation of the gospel.

No, this church has reached a lot of people,

but do you honestly believe

that everybody in this area has heard the gospel?

And look, I would say keep going soul winning

until everybody saved, which is never gonna happen,

but at least looking at this verse,

until every single creature,

every single person has heard the gospel.

And until that happens, we're not done.

Then the Bible says in verse 16,

he that believeth in his baptized shall be damned,

but he that believeth not,

or he that believeth in his baptized shall be saved,

my bad, accidental heresy coming out.

He that believeth in his baptized shall be saved,

but he that believeth not shall be damned.

Now, a lot of times people can get confused by this verse.

Obviously people that believe in baptismal regeneration

would use this verse.

Well, notice, it does, I mean,

the Bible says he that believeth in his baptized

shall be saved.

The thing that damns you is not believing,

it says at the end of the verse.

It could literally say he that believeth in his baptized

and goes to McDonald's later today

and reads the Bible 50 times shall be saved.

That's not a false statement,

but that's not saying you have to do all of those things

in order to be saved.

So the question would be,

why does Jesus word it this way?

Cause it is a bit different, right?

And I believe the reason why is,

number one, he's not trying to teach his closest followers

how to get to heaven.

They already know it.

I'm not coming here today preaching a salvation sermon.

I assume you already know that.

I assume you're already saved.

What he's doing is reminding them,

hey, you know what, let's get him saved and baptized.

Let's bring them in, why?

Because you want a church like this

to not just be 200 people or 300 or 400,

but just grow and grow and grow and grow.

And honestly, that's something all of us can be reminded of

because when we go soul winning,

it's hard to bring people in.

It takes effort.

It takes energy.

It's not easy.

Now, the great news about this

is we're not doing this in our own power.

It says in verse 20,

and they went forth and preached everywhere,

the Lord working, notice this, with them.

See, the Bible says that when you go soul winning,

the Lord works with you.

And look, a lot of people would be offended by this,

but the Lord does not work without us though.

The Lord works with us.

God doesn't get anybody saved

without us going out preaching the gospel.

We go out, we don't get anybody saved in our own power,

but you know what, God's not gonna get anybody saved

without us going out and preaching the gospel.

He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

It is our job to go out and preach the gospel

and get people saved.

And when we do that, the Lord works with us.

Go to Acts chapter one, Acts one.

Why didn't this church fall apart eight years ago?

Because this church stayed very zealous with soul winning.

The one thing that I am thankful for about this church,

even with all those problems,

there was definitely a soul winning attitude

at this church though.

You know, when I visited, it seemed like people

were really into preaching the gospel and going soul winning.

But it's like, here's the thing,

if this church had stopped going soul winning

or stopped making it the main focus,

this church would have fallen apart.

Now it doesn't mean that it wouldn't exist.

I mean, you could have a church

where the sign and the name

is just not accurate for the church,

like I don't know, Verity or whatever.

I mean, you could have been called steadfast

and not have really been steadfast.

There could have been 30 people showing up

or 40 people showing up,

but you know what, it wouldn't have been the same

as what you have today.

Bible says here in Acts one, verse six,

when they therefore were come together,

they asked of him saying, Lord,

will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to,

will thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?

And he said unto them,

it is not for you to know the times or the seasons

which the Father hath put in his own power,

but ye shall receive power

after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you,

and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem

and in all Judea and in Samaria

and on to the uttermost part of the earth.

That Jerusalem here, though it is literally Jerusalem,

the application to a local church is the Cedar Hill area

or Dallas Fort Worth, all the surrounding areas.

That's kind of your Jerusalem that you're trying to reach

that is in driving distance, preaching the gospel.

And then it mentions in all Judea.

So even outside of just this local area,

you could think of all of Texas, right?

Maybe you have soul winning events,

you go to trips and get people saved

and somewhere else in Texas and in Samaria,

you could think of the US

and on to the uttermost part of the earth,

it's everywhere.

Now, obviously one church cannot fulfill this.

This church alone could not do that.

The only way this happens is if we do get churches

started in a lot of locations

and of course in the modern day,

you do missions trips to what was at Barbados,

just a week ago or whatever, Mexico City,

in the last month or so, something like that.

And so you do these things to reach people

and you just kind of slowly spread out.

Look, these are the final words of Jesus

before he goes up to heaven.

Imagine you were saying your final words,

passing on information to your kids.

Whatever you say is gonna be what you consider

to be the most important thing.

I mean, have you ever been with somebody

on their deathbed before, maybe a relative?

It's like they are putting out information

that they consider really important.

One of my greatest memories of my life

is just a couple years ago,

I got to be with my dad just right before he passed away

and just my dad was just giving me valuable information

and just sharing things with me

cause he was mentally, completely there.

And it's like when somebody is on their deathbed,

they're passing on what they consider to be

the most important information that there is.

So what is the information that Jesus passes on?

Preach the gospel, get people saved.

I mean, it's really that simple.

Go out, preach the gospel and get people saved.

Go back to your Bible to Revelation chapter two.

Now here's the thing about this.

IFB churches, pretty much every single one of them

would claim that their main focus is to get people saved.

Well, your actions don't really bear that out.

It doesn't seem like that's really what you believe

because you're not doing that.

But see, they get this mindset, well, wait a minute,

we kind of have this roundabout system

where if we start a Christian school,

if we start a Bible college in a roundabout way,

we'll end up getting more salvations

than just by going out every week

and zealously preaching the gospel.

That's what they believe.

It seems like what they believe.

Now what I believe is by and large,

they're too lazy to go soul winning.

And so they kind of have this excuse,

well, this is just our method to reach people.

But we do have a soul winning program.

We do have a visitation schedule on Saturday

where you can preach the gospel.

Look, I'm thankful for those churches that do that,

but 10 salvations a month is not that many.

I mean, look, our church in Australia is not a big church.

They're in the 20s or 30s on a normal Sunday.

152 salvations, you know what that's called?

A lot of soul winning, a lot of work.

I mean, all the churches that you can think of,

new IFB churches, and some are smaller,

but they're getting a lot of people saved.

If you say, how?

Because they're zealously preaching the gospel.

That's why.

Yet a lot of churches, they go soul winning,

but you can't really say that that is

the first love of the church.

It's not the main focus or the main purpose of the church.

Number one is when you lose your outward focus,

that will destroy the church.

It might still exist in name,

but it's not gonna be the same.

And actually go to 2nd Timothy chapter two,

2nd Timothy two.

Number two though, is your inward focus.

And as a church, you need a strong inward focus

of hard preaching, the right doctrine,

dealing with issues and problems,

kicking people out when necessary.

To be strong outwardly, you need to be strong inwardly.

Here's what it says in 2nd Timothy chapter two, verse 20.

2nd Timothy chapter two, verse 20.

But in a great house, there are not only vessels

of golden of silver, but also of wooden of earth,

and some to honor, and some to dishonor.

If, if a man therefore purge himself from these,

he shall be a vessel unto honor,

sanctified in meat for the master's use,

and prepared on to every good work.

So if you want your first love

and the first works to match up,

it's not just focusing on the outside,

you need to have a strong inward part as well.

Now look, this is true as an individual.

It's also true as a church.

I remember when I first started going soul winning,

and I knew that I needed to talk to people

about the gospel.

But you know, I was a college student.

I had a lot of issues in my life, you know,

by no means was I a super zealous Christian.

And I started to preach the gospel,

and I just thought to myself, you know,

man, I don't really have any boldness.

I'm not doing a great job.

And I just came to the realization that, you know what,

if I was more right with God,

then I would be more effective.

So I was like, man, I don't really want to stop

watching these movies.

I don't really want to stop listening to this music,

but I want to get people saved.

And so going soul winning is what changed me.

See, a lot of people have this attitude,

you know what, I'm going to be a zealous soul winner

when I feel like it, when I'm spiritual,

or I'll start reading the Bible every single day

once I reach that point.

But here's why that's wrong,

because your emotions follow your actions.

Got these churches or people that will say,

just follow your heart.

That's about the worst advice you could ever give somebody.

What in the world, man?

A lot of people marry a bunch of idiots and bozos

because they're following their heart.

They've watched too many Hollywood movies

like the notebook or whatever the recent ones are.

And then people could be married

and they just follow their heart to getting a divorce.

And then they got their friends just cheerleading them

saying, man, you know, dump that zero,

get yourself a hero.

Just as garbage.

Why? Because people are following their emotions.

They're following their hearts.

And see, by going soul winning and just doing it,

that's what changed me.

You might be in this room today

and you're not an avid soul winner or you've never gone.

Well, here's the thing.

Instead of waiting to feel like it, just do it

and that will change you.

But the Bible is showing you to be effective.

You need, be effective outward.

You need to have a strong inward.

Here's what it says in Revelation 2, verse 12.

Revelation 2:12

Revelation chapter two, verse 12.

And in the angel of the church in Pergamos, right,

these things sayeth he which hath the sharp sword

with two edges, I know thy works and where thou dwellest,

even where Satan's seed is, and thou holdest fast my name

and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein

Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you,

where Satan dwelleth.

But I have a few things against thee,

because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine

of Balaam, who taught Baelic to cast a stumbling block

before the children of Israel,

to eat things sacrificed unto idols

and to commit fornication.

See what God is saying here, here's a church

and they're allowing false doctrine

to just creep into the church

and nothing's being done about it.

Now the thing is, you're welcome to attend a church

and have different beliefs, but once you cross that line

and you start trying to teach your beliefs

to people at church against what the church is teaching,

you've overstepped your bounds.

It's not like at this church,

you must believe in a post-trib rapture to attend.

But if you're attending the church,

you can't teach your other version of the rapture

against what the church is teaching.

And what's happening in this church is

they're allowing this doctrine of Balaam

to permeate the church.

And here's the reality about most Baptist churches,

they never deal with any problems, ever.

They never kick anybody out of church, ever.

Look, I wish, I wish you could operate a church

zealously soul winning and never kick anybody out

and never have to rebuke people,

rebuke false doctrine or deal with problems.

Let me tell you something, as a pastor,

you have a lot of issues when you run a church.

And the thing is, every single church will have issues.

Here's the difference.

Some churches will just admit it and deal with it

and some will just cover it up.

I mean, how many churches are there

where there's pedophilia going on in the churches?

And they don't tell anybody about it.

They don't make it known.

It's like, man, if somebody gets kicked out of the church

for some massive and grievous sin,

why would you not warn people?

Because you're embarrassed about it.

You wanna keep your reputation.

It's like just admit it, what took place,

but churches don't do this.

And churches will allow people to be at the churches

and teach doctrines opposite of the church,

but they don't kick them out.

They don't deal with it.

Look, I've been at churches before

where during soul winning time, the pastor pairs you up

and you might get paired up with someone

that believes salvation by grace through faith.

You might get paired up with someone

that believes repentance of sins for salvation.

It's a disaster.

And of course, you know, you're trying to be,

I mean, it's the best church in the area.

You're trying to be a blessing.

You don't wanna cause problems.

You wanna motivate people to go soul winning.

It's kind of a rock and a hard place.

I honestly don't even know what the best advice is.

I mean, at my old church that I went to a while back,

you know, in West Virginia,

there was a guy that grew up at the church

and he was the piano player.

And it was obvious from a country mile away

that the guy was a homo.

I mean, it was super, super obvious.

I mean, when we had people that visited the church,

that's like the first thing they would look at me and say,

you know, is that person a homo?

And I'm like,

I mean, you could tell just based on his profile picture

on Facebook.

I mean, it was super obvious.

And I talked to the pastor about it several times

because I got paired up with the guy soul winning before

and I put up with it a couple of times

and you know, I told the assistant pastor,

I said, hey, you know what?

Next time I need to be in a group of three.

It's like, I don't wanna be alone with this guy.

I was giving the guy a ride because he was a teenager

and it's just like, I don't wanna be alone.

It's like, you can pair me up in a group of three.

I don't wanna be alone with the guy.

And I talked to the pastor about it

and honestly, just see, just see, just see, just see,

just see, just see, just see.

Nothing was done about it.

The guy's no longer the church

and he's come out as an obvious homo.

It's like, well, that's not a shock.

I mean, there's one time.

I mean, I was going soul winning

with his father at the church.

And his father was kind of sympathetic to the homos.

Even though he didn't think his son was a homo,

but secretly he probably realized my son's a homo.

And so we were at the door.

I'm the silent partner and it's obvious to me

that the guy at the door is a homo.

He's clearly a fag.

He's clearly a queer.

It's super obvious to look at him.

And then of course he asked the question,

well, what about homosexuals?

What happens to them?

And I'm the silent partner.

I'm not trying to cause problems.

And the father who actually has a homo as a son,

he kind of gave an answer and he said,

about how anyone can believe on Christ and get saved.

And he's like, that's the way that I stand on it.

But brother Matthew over here,

he has a different opinion about the homos.

Why don't you tell them your opinion?

I'm like, what in the world?

And so of course I'm not ready for this question.

I'm not trying to cause World War III

at our local church.

And I just said, well, there's no example

in the Bible of a homosexual going to heaven.

And I just left it at that.

I was like, I don't know what else to say in this situation.

I mean, I've had 15 years to think about it.

I still don't know what I would have said.

It's like it is what it is.

But see, the thing is churches will have issues at them,

but they don't deal with them.

They will have doctrines come to the church

and people are gonna be teaching other doctrines.

They don't say anything about it.

Other churches just let it be known and deal with it.

And then from an outsider's perspective,

you look at that church like, what is wrong with that church?

They're kicking out people left and right.

The difference is other churches

just aren't kicking people out

when doctrines of Balaam and false doctrines are being taught.

Bible says here in verse 15,

So has though also them that hold the doctrine

of the Nicoladians, which thing I hate.

Repent or else I will come into thee quickly

and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

So we see that the issue in the church in Purgamos

is they're not dealing with the issues on the inside.

Verse 18, we also see this with the church in Thyatira.

And under the angel of the church in Thyatira right,

these things say at the Son of God

who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire

and his feet are like fine brass.

I know thy works and charity and service and faith

and thy patience and thy works

and the last to be more than the first.

Notwithstanding, I have a few things against thee

because thou suffers that woman Jezebel

which calleth herself a prophetess

to teach and to seduce my servants

to commit fornication

and to eat things sacrificed on idols.

And I gave her space to repent of her fornication

and she repented not.

Behold, I'll cast her into a bed

and them that commit adultery with her

into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds

and I'll kill their children with death

and all the churches shall know

that I am he which searches the reins and hearts

and I'll give unto every one of you according to your works.

See, the Bible mentions this woman here

in Revelation 2, this Jezebel

who's just teaching to commit fornication

and to eat things sacrificed on the idols.

And look, in many churches throughout the US and the world

there's women inside the church that are running that church.

They're letting it be known how things are gonna go.

They're going out and giving their opinions.

Look, the Bible says it's one person that leads a church.

It's a man and look, women going in

and just teaching things opposite of what the church teaches

that has to be dealt with.

But from the looks of it online

a lot of churches don't deal with it.

They just let anything take place.

Now there's a lot of topics in terms of problems

inside a church I could focus on.

Go to Matthew 5, let me show you here the first one.

And I'm just gonna show you things

that I see as issues in 2026.

One of them is justifying divorce.

Because the Bible mentions idolatry.

Quite honestly, this is not the Philippines.

There's just not a whole lot of idolatry in America

compared to other countries.

It's like whenever you hear people

preaching idolatry in the US

it's often the symbolic idolatry, the idols of the heart.

It's like, you know, in the Philippines

and in some other countries in the world

you got bigger issues than the idols of the heart.

You got literal idols everywhere.

So let's make it more applicable

because there's not idols around every corner here in Texas.

Right?

But there are pastors justifying divorce

around every corner in Texas.

Here's what it says in Matthew 5, verse 31.

Matthew 5:31

It has been said,

whosoever shall put away his wife

let him give her a writing of divorcement.

But I say in you that whosoever shall put away

his wife saving for the cause of fornication

causeth her to commit adultery

and whosoever shall marry her

that his divorce committed adultery.

Now notice in this verse

there's two different words mentioned.

Fornication and adultery.

It stands to reason if they were the same

it would just use the same word.

But it doesn't.

Because fornication is what you do before you're married

and adultery is after.

So the Bible's saying you can get a divorce

except for fornication.

What it's saying is kind of like the example

of Joseph in the Bible.

Where basically he's getting married

and he finds out that Mary's not pure.

And it's like, well, wait a minute.

It's like, you know,

this is the woman that I want to spend my life with

and she's not pure.

I mean, she slept with someone because she's pregnant

and he says I want to get a divorce.

See that would be except to be for fornication.

But see, after you're married,

if adultery takes place, say pastor,

can you get a divorce if your spouse cheats on you?

No.

And look, don't make a railing accusation

that I am justifying adultery.

It's not justifying adultery,

but the fact is you don't divorce

for adultery taking place.

You stay married according to the Bible.

And the reason you have to preach this hard

is because many marriages have a lot of problems.

Many marriages have a mess.

Many marriages have adultery taking place.

And then of course, you know what people do?

They go from adultery and then they lessen that any form.

You know, if you looked at something dirty online,

you committed adultery in your heart.

So you committed adultery,

therefore you can get a divorce.

It's like, no, the Bible says except to be

for fornication.

Now go in your Bible to Judges 14.

Judges 14.

But honestly, I feel like a bigger problem in 2026

than justifying divorce is justifying separation.

Because the thing is, if you suggest to someone

or say it's okay to get separated,

you know what that is?

You can pretend like you didn't tell them to get divorced,

but you know what's gonna take place

six months down the line.

They are going to get divorced.

Look, every marriage in this world has difficulties.

I love my wife.

I have a great marriage.

I'm blessed with the wife and the kids God gave me,

but I would be lying if I said my wife

and I have never had fights, never had problems.

I'd be lying if I said everything is just perfect

all the time.

That's not the way marriage works.

But when you get married, it's for better or worse.

And look, how many things do you have to add after

for better or worse?

In sickness and health?

Rich or poor?

I mean, how many things do you have to add

until you say, okay, it's forever?

No matter what, you do not get divorced.

And when you justify separation,

it is just going down the line of getting divorced.

Look, there's a lot of verses that have been used

to talk about this idea of separation.

Let me just show you stories.

And look, I understand stories

are more circumstantial evidence,

but I'm not sure if they've necessarily been preached

as much.

Let's just see a few examples of marriages

where they separate and let's see what happens.

The first example is with Samson.

Judges 14 verse 15.

Judges 14:15

And it came to pass in the seventh day

that they said unto Samson's wife,

entice thy husband that he may declare unto us the riddle,

lest we burn thee and thy father's house with fire.

Have he called us to take that we have?

Is it not so?

And Samson's wife wept before him and said,

thou dost but hate me and love us me not.

Thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people

and hast not told to me.

And he said unto her, behold,

I have not told it my father nor my mother,

and shall I tell it thee?

Now look, this story does not make Samson

look very good.

He's like, man, if I didn't tell my mom

and my dad this riddle, why would I tell my wife?

I mean, that's what he says.

It's kind of like, wait a minute.

I thought when you got married, two became one

and the closest person in this world ought to be your spouse.

But he says, if I didn't tell my mom and the dad the riddle,

why would I tell you?

Look, there's already problems in this marriage, okay?

Verse 17.

And she wept before him the seven days

while their feast lasted.

And it came to pass in the seventh day that he told her

because she lay sore upon him

and she told the riddle to the children of her people.

And the men of the city said unto him

the seventh day before the sun went down,

what is sweeter than honey

and what is stronger than a lion?

And he said unto them,

if you had not plowed with my heifer,

you'd not found out my riddle.

That's probably more marriage advice there.

Don't call your wife an animal.

Probably not the best thing.

So he's like, I care about my mom and my dad

more than my wife, calls his wife after an animal,

and then it says in verse 19,

and the spirit of the Lord came upon him

and he went down to Escalon and slew 30 men of them

and took their spoil and gave changes of garments onto them

which expounded the riddle and his anger was kindled

and he went up to his father's house.

Translation, he went home to cry to his dad about it.

Right?

Now usually we think of the wife going home to mom

and dad to cry about it, because that's more common.

In this story though, the strongest man,

when it says he went up to his father's house,

is saying he went home to cry and complain

about it to his parents.

But Samson's wife was given to his companion

whom he had used as his friend.

Now look, what happens in the story is,

it's a bad marriage, he shouldn't have married her,

but they did get married.

What happens, they separate.

Doesn't tell us how long,

but it's to the point that her father

gives his daughter onto somebody else.

Look, everybody in the story is bad.

Every single one handled everything horribly.

And look, this is circumstantial,

but you're seeing a story where they separate during problems

which everybody has in marriages

and what ends up taking place.

Well, chapter 15, verse one came to pass

within a while after in the time of wheat harvest

that Samson visited his wife and the kid

and he said, I will go into my wife into the chamber,

but her father would not suffer him to go in.

And her father said, I barely thought

that thou had us utterly hated her,

therefore I gave her to thy companion.

Is not her younger sister fairer than she?

Take her, I pray, instead of her.

I mean, this is pretty wild.

You read stories in the Bible

and it's like, man, some of these cultures

and some of these people, it's like, it's pretty crazy.

It's like, well, if you liked her,

then you're gonna like her younger sister, right?

She's more attractive, the younger sister's fairer.

It's like, okay.

Verse six, then the Philistines said,

who have done this?

And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite,

because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion.

And the Philistines came up

and burnt her and her father with fire.

For circumstantial evidence,

does it seem like separation worked out very well

for Samson and his wife?

Did they come back stronger than ever?

Did a couple months away from each other

just fix all the problems?

No, it seems like it's a million times worse.

And the other story you could look at

that I'm not going to for sake of time

is in my opinion, probably the worst chapter

in terms of just worse than Genesis 19,

Judges 19 is pretty violent.

It's crazy.

I mean, Judges chapter 19,

Judges 19 · chapter mention

it's like she gets attacked by a bunch of sodomites,

bisexual, LGBT throughout the night and ends up dying.

But how did that start?

It started because she left her husband.

So the two stories that we see here of separation

did it in well.

So why would you think,

besides the verses that tell you not to separate,

why would you think separating from your spouse

would end up making things better?

Doesn't seem to do that in the Bible.

Now go in your Bible to Proverbs 22.

Proverbs 22.

Look, it sucks that a lot of people have miserable marriages,

but it doesn't change the fact

that you made a vow to God forever.

That's what the Bible says.

You get married and you stay married.

Now again, if there are some people that get married

and they want to keep the marriage going

and then their spouse leaves the marriage

and they can't do anything about that.

But what the Bible teaches is you get married,

you stay married and if it doesn't work out

and they leave you, you got to stay single

as long as that person is alive.

Quite honestly, this is an issue

that's actually pretty big in the Philippines

because it is the only country in the world,

unless you consider Vatican City a country,

where divorce is illegal.

And I used to think that was a good thing,

but honestly it just leads to a lot of problems.

Why?

Because people will separate

and just be living with someone else.

It's like, well, we're not legally divorced,

but we've made an agreement.

Well, I'm sorry, but I don't remember

God okaying your agreement.

Now the good thing is I have gone to church members

that were in that situation.

I told them, you got to end this

because you're legally married

and they did end it and they're great members of this day.

But I've also had the other happen.

People that were nice people

and look, it's very common in the Philippines

so it doesn't feel bad to people

where basically they separate,

they can't legally divorce.

And so there's something in the Philippines,

there's an annulment,

but it's not really the exact same thing here.

And to get an annulment, it's just very expensive.

So what happens is when celebrities get married,

they get married in other countries

so they can legally divorce.

Filipino celebrities will often get married

in America or other countries,

simply so they have the option

to get divorced down the road.

But to the common person,

they don't have the money for an annulment.

I don't know the exact price

but we're probably talking more than $20,000.

It's not something that the average person over there

can really pay for.

So basically an annulment in the Philippines

is pretty similar to a divorce here

even though it's called an annulment.

And so what takes place is people get married,

their marriage is a mess,

they leave each other

and then they both hook up with somebody else.

And often people will say that they're divorced.

It's like, no man, you're not really divorced.

I know you made an agreement

but you're legally married.

And of course nobody's justifying divorce

but at least if you get divorced and remarried

it's not something that's perpetual living in adultery

with the person that you're staying with.

And so unfortunately there'll be people

that are living in open adultery

and it's like I've had to come to them

and look, people that were nice people,

people that are even soul winners

that said, hey, this is what the Bible says.

It's like you can't be at our church if you're doing this.

It's like you have one week to get this figured out.

You have to end this.

And of course if somebody's already living with someone

they don't normally end it.

They end up sticking with that person.

But there's no grounds for divorce.

There's no grounds for separation

and plenty of these people in this world

have bad marriages but you know what?

You get married, you stay married.

And here's the great thing though.

When you invest time and energy into something

you know what normally takes place?

It normally gets better.

Look, the first couple years of marriage

are generally pretty difficult for people.

You get married to someone

and look, you got two sinners that are together

all the time and it's like guess what?

Your personalities will get on each other's nerves

sometimes.

And look, if you had a pastor justifying divorce

during those times you could easily leave

that person during a down moment

when if you would just wait it out

it would get a million times better.

And so no, there's no grounds for divorce,

no grounds for separation.

Something I have in my notes but you know

not really going into too much is just this general idea

of taking away the authority from the father

when it comes to somebody getting married.

I'm thankful that I have the authority

when it comes to my daughter getting married

who is still very young.

You know why?

Because I see a lot of women making stupid

emotional decisions when they're in love

at the age of 18, 19, 20 years old.

A lot of people get married to bozos and idiots

and you want if they had a godly father

and they listen to their father

their father would be like hey no

this is not the right person

and God gave you a mom and a dad for a reason.

And yes, fathers do have the right to say no

that is not the person to marry.

It's not a good person.

You know one of the big things I see

is attacking spanking in 2026.

Here's what it says in Proverbs 22 verse 15.

Proverbs 22:15

Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child

but the rod of correction might drive it from him.

Is that what your Bible says?

The rod of correction used once every six months

but not to the point where it hurts them

shall drive it far from him.

Is that what the Bible says?

The Bible just clearly says you know what

your child is foolish, they need a spanking.

They need the rod of correction.

Now I don't necessarily think it matters

what you use to spank.

I mean obviously for men we're a lot stronger

than our wives so I use my hand to spank my kids

but I know with wives with my wife

sometimes just having an actual object is helpful

because the fact she's not as strong as me.

And so that object can put the fear into those kids

where it's like once they see that spoon or whatever

they're just like I'm sorry, let me make it right

because they're afraid.

They don't wanna get spanked.

The Bible is very clear here that guess what?

You know when you're raising your kids

when they act bad you need to spank them.

Now it's crazy to me because when it came

to just our church getting things taken offline

the biggest reason I've had videos taken down

is just things about spanking.

I couldn't believe it I was like what in the world?

It's like they got very offended when it's like

I mentioned a story when I was a kid

and I was acting up at church and I said

my dad took me out and gave me the worst beating

I've ever had in my life.

And then it's taken down off Facebook,

taken down off YouTube.

It's like this is like hate speech or whatever they said

it's just like the Bible says beat them with a rod.

And obviously the way people use that today

might be different but it's like yeah

my dad gave me a pretty bad spanking.

It hurt.

And I said you know what?

I never disobeyed again.

Ever since that day you know what?

And look I grew up in a Protestant church

so it's pretty boring.

You know it's kind of like Catholic light you know?

But it's like I was sitting in church you know

and I was bored you know I wasn't saved

and you know obviously the church is just

you know not that exciting right?

And so I remember I was just

I don't remember this I just remember the spanking

but I guess I was acting up

and just making noise or whatever.

And of course you know in a Protestant church

or a Catholic church it's super quiet.

There's no noise at all.

So just acting up a little bit was making noise.

My dad took me outside during the service

and gave me a real beating.

Gave me a real spanking.

Man I'm thankful I had a dad that did

what only a very small minority of dads would do.

Because you know most parents that I see

when they deal with these issues

and all of us deal with it you know what they do

they just you know try the candy solution.

Or try whatever.

And it's like I'm not saying every single time

your kids act up you immediately spank them

that's your decision to make with your kids.

I'm not their parent you are.

But I am saying you see a lot of times

where parents you wonder do they ever spank their kids.

Or they give spankings but it doesn't hurt the child.

So it's like what are you doing?

It's like you know you're it's just like

if you're not causing any pain why would that stop them

from acting up.

Look folks when you spank your kids guess what?

They're not gonna die as the Bible says.

You spank them it doesn't kill them.

But it should hurt them.

And I get it your kids will cry

like it's the worst thing ever.

And yet two minutes later they're running around

like nothing happened is that not true?

And look if you give in to your kids

you're basically teaching them

hey every time you don't get your way

just cry about it, whine about it

and then nothing will happen.

It's crazy but see the Bible says

hey you know what your kids act up

they need the rod of correction.

Got a first Corinthians five, first Corinthians five.

You know one of the big issues with churches

is they don't practice church discipline.

Their church becomes a mess it'll be filled full of

railers and bad people and people teaching other doctrines

and they never kick anybody out for any reason

no matter what.

First Corinthians five verse six

your glorying is not good know you not

that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

See the Bible saying here in first Corinthians five

when you got problems at the church

it's gonna spread like a cancer.

It's gonna spread like a virus.

Look when you have churches that start getting filled

full of railers eventually everybody at that church

becomes like that and nothing's done about it

and so it just gets worse and worse and worse and worse.

And the problem is our end goal is to get people saved

but here's the thing if you don't fix things

on the inside of the church that will affect

your ability to get people saved

and it will drastically decrease how many people

you end up getting saved over time.

Go to your Bible to Revelation three, Revelation three.

Why did this church last eight years ago

when it went through the transition?

Because your pastor was willing to kick people out.

He wasn't hiding all the issues at the church

and quite honestly there were a lot of weirdos

at this church at the time.

And it's not like I knew them that well

but just from the things they posted online

it's like what in the world kind of people are here.

I mean it's like the church had grown

there's people at the church

and look there's people that are here

that were there then and you're great people,

great members and you love God.

Yeah there's also a lot of weirdos at the church.

A lot of weird people.

And the thing is if you don't deal with those problems

and not even just weirdos at the church

just bad people at the church.

You say what do you do?

You gotta get rid of them.

It would have been very easy for your pastor

to just give an okay to the evangelist

because that's really embarrassing

that the evangelist turns out to be bad.

And just biologists ordain you

and just your own separate thing and just cover it up.

Isn't that probably what most churches would do?

Look you must deal with the problems on the inside.

Point number one you see in Revelation chapters two

and three is just losing your outward focus.

Point number two is losing the inward focus.

But point three is losing your upward focus.

And I think that the Bible designed these churches

in this way so we can kind of remember it,

the outward, the inward, the upward.

Notice what it says in Revelation three verse one.

And on the angel of the church and sardis write,

these things sayeth he that hath the seven spirits

of God and the seven stars.

I know thy works, that thou hast the name

that thou livest and art dead.

So the Bible's referring to a church

that has a good reputation.

They have a name, they're kind of alive,

they're kind of doing some things,

but they're actually dead.

They're not the same.

So the Bible's basically talking about a church

that would still be considered a great church

and have a good reputation, but they're falling apart.

I can't help but just think of Verity Baptist Church.

I just can't.

It just is what it is.

Because they still had the Red Hot Preaching Conference.

They still had a name.

They still had a reputation.

I can say today that all the zealous people

that were a Verity Baptist, they're not there anymore.

Now look, most people stayed at that church,

but why is it all the zealous soul winners left?

It's kind of like before that took place,

I'm in the Philippines, so I don't really know

what's going on.

And there's a lot of great people that left that church

over the course of a couple years.

And I'd be like, man, that's crazy.

And every time I was told, man,

they just started to backslide.

They got covetous or whatever.

But as it starts really adding up,

you're just kind of wondering what's going on.

Because there are people that were great members.

And then they just kind of slowly leave.

And here's the thing, I mean,

when everything happened six months ago or whatever,

I mean, there were still great people at the church,

not today.

They all left.

It says in verse two, be watchful and strengthen

the things which remain that are ready to die

for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

Remember therefore, how thou hast received and heard

and hold fast and repent.

If therefore thou shalt not watch,

I'll come on thee as a thief

and thou shalt not know what hour I'll come upon thee.

That was a few names even in Sardis

which have not defiled their garments

and they shall walk with me in white

for they are worthy.

See the Bible says here in verse four,

when a church goes through this process of falling apart

and becoming a bad church or just an ordinary church,

there will still be great people that will remain

because you're kind of wondering,

is there a better church in the area?

I've invested years, I've invested time.

Look, if this church fell apart, you know what?

There'd be people that would leave

over different time periods

and there'll still be great people years from now

because you're kind of wondering,

is there a better church in the area?

And what the Bible said here in verse one is,

they have a name.

They have a reputation.

See once you reach a level of success,

it's very easy to kind of stop focusing on God.

This is how I want you to understand this

because honestly this is the main one

I've thought about over the last year

and I can say this that as a pastor

who preaches very regularly,

I just don't really get nervous

when I get up to do public speaking.

And it's not because naturally I don't get nervous,

it's just because I've done it a lot of times

and so you get used to it.

When you first start preaching, you're very scared.

You're like, God, please let lightning

strike this church building.

I don't want to get up there to preach.

And then all of a sudden you gotta get up there and preach.

And so you're really relying on God.

You have a strong upward focus

because you know you have to rely on God.

But as you start to get some success and experience,

it can be very easy to stop relying on God as much.

The same is true for a church.

See, when a church is not going great

or when a church is starting out,

man, you are praying to God,

God, please send me more people.

God, please help us.

But as a church reaches a certain level of success,

it's kind of easy to stop focusing on God

and just thinking that you got it covered.

That you're perfectly fine.

Now it's not just here in Revelation 3

and verses one through four.

Notice what it says here in verse 14.

Verse 14.

And on the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write,

these things say at the amen,

the faith, one true witness,

the beginning of the creation of God,

I know thy works that thou art neither cold nor hot,

I would thou work cold or hot.

So then because thou art lukewarm

and neither cold nor hot,

I will spew thee out of my mouth.

Because thou sayest, notice this,

I am rich and increase with goods

and have need of nothing.

You've had it perfectly figured out, church.

And notice not that thou art wretched

and miserable and poor and blind and naked.

Just this attitude, hey, I'm rich, I'm powerful.

I have need of nothing.

See a lot of churches could be focusing

on getting a nice building

and once they get it, it's like I've reached,

I've reached the point.

I've arrived.

I've said this to people over the first seven years

of our church in the Philippines in hindsight,

I'm actually thankful for everything that took place

because when I started, I felt like I had to scratch

just to survive, scratch and claw just to keep going

and just say, man, God, I'm just gonna keep going

and trust in God and God did bless the church.

And you know what, I warned our members

and things are going better

than they ever have at our churches.

But it's like, as I said to my church,

I said money can be a big blessing.

It can also be a big curse

because that could be the beginning

of the downfall of a church.

You can never lose this attitude

just trusting in God to build your church

because once you do, I mean, the church might exist in name,

it's not gonna be the same.

I mean, we've seen this with people as individuals,

they might start going to church,

they have a lot of problems in their life,

they're trying to rely on God

and then all of a sudden they get a job

and then they quit going to church.

I remember somebody I brought to church in Sacramento

and they were not working,

the mom and their kids are just kind of

living off the government

and I got the son saved

and the mom eventually got saved as well,

they came to church, they got baptized

and then I'm trying to get them to start working, right?

Cause they've learned a little bit,

they're there for a couple of months,

they're reading the Bible

and I would give them a ride to church

and I was just talking to them about

you need to start working,

stay faithful to God, start working.

And I remember the mom got this job interview

and she's just like saying,

hey, can you pray that I'll get this job?

I said, sure, you know, pray for you to get the job.

And she calls me, she got the job, she's super excited.

Never saw her ever again at church

because of course the job said you gotta work Sunday

and it's just like, you stop relying on God.

And look, when you stop relying on God,

everything can fall apart.

Now go back to Matthew chapter 16, Matthew 16.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Look, I believe steadfast Baptist church is a great church.

I think it's an awesome church.

I mean, honestly, I didn't know what the salvation numbers

we're gonna be, but I'm like, man,

this is bigger than I expected.

I mean, this is a lot of salvations.

And you say, well, pastor, you know,

what about everything else?

Well, there's a lot of great things at the church,

but you know, the number one thing I focused on

is salvation.

So whatever you want, it's all about the fruit.

That is the proof of how great of a church you are.

That is the number one proof.

And you can look at it at total salvations,

salvations per person,

percentage of the people going soul winning.

All those metrics matter,

but they're all centered around soul winning.

That's what matters with the church.

But a great church is not guaranteed

to be a great church 20 years from now.

Because look, these churches in Revelation chapters

two and three, are they great churches today?

Well, obviously along the lines, it just stopped, right?

They're not great churches now.

They weren't one time.

And two of these churches,

there's nothing negative about them,

but it doesn't mean that they just kept going strong.

Here's the thing, the Bible's promise is

the gates of hell will not prevail against a great church.

No matter how many protests,

no matter how many bank accounts you get shut down from,

no matter how much social media blocks you,

a great church is not gonna be stopped

due to persecution.

The only thing that's gonna stop your church

is if you allow things to stop your church.

Now honestly, this sermon kind of has two main ideas,

and that's kind of the first idea,

but honestly the reason why I'm preaching it,

that was all introduction.

I don't have much left to preach,

but that's not the main point of the sermon.

You know, something I've heard a lot

over the last year or two years.

And a lot of it came from Verity,

but other churches as well,

where they had all these problems at their church

and people leaving, and you know whose fault it was?

Pastor Anderson, Pastor Shelley,

sometimes me, kind of rising the charts

of being a villain.

But it's kind of like these churches

are trying to destroy us.

It's like man, you know, and look,

I was told to me that by going public with the information

before I'd actually gone public,

it was gonna cause people to leave churches.

It's like, well, how is that my fault?

Like what in the world?

But here's the thing, if the gates of hell

will not prevail against the church,

that's doing something for God.

Do you really think one sermon preached against it

is gonna cause everybody to leave

in the church to fall apart?

Look, if a church is right with God

and there's no problems, it doesn't matter what comes at it.

It's gonna keep going.

Look, I wish, I wish I had the power

to get people to quit going to churches.

That would be a pretty cool power.

I mean, I would use that power.

I don't have the power to do that.

And honestly, one sermon

doesn't have the power to do that as well.

Look, you know, if five years from now,

Pastor Stanley and I hated each other's guts,

but we're still doing the same work

and still zealous for soul winning and heart preaching,

nobody would leave this church

and nobody would leave soul winning Baptist church.

Nobody would.

Why?

Because it's the best church?

Somebody preaching a sermon against you

is not gonna cause people,

and that's not why people left your church.

It's not because somebody exposed the problem.

How is the person exposing the problems

the one causing it?

No, the problem is the problems.

I mean, church is the pillar and ground of the truth.

So by preaching the truth,

how can you blame someone if it's true?

No, what's wrong is when your church changes.

When your church stops being zealous soul winning,

it stops dealing with the issues inside the church.

It stops relying on God.

That's what destroys a church.

But what I did not read in Revelation chapter two and three

is a blame on the new IFB or some pastor

for people leaving your church.

What's the issue of the church of Corinth?

Oh, some of the pastor preached against

the sin in the church.

Isn't that ridiculous?

What's the problem in the church of Glacier?

Well, because somebody pointed out

they're allowing work salvation in the church.

Is that person to blame for that?

No, I'm pretty sure what's to blame

is the fact that you're allowing work salvation.

And look, there's a lot of churches

that have lost a lot of members.

And by the way, you know,

even great churches lost members as well.

But the thing is, you know,

great churches lost a lot of members

that honestly in a way is a blessing.

Cause honestly, you see a lot of these people online

it's like, man, you know,

they can go start their own church.

It's like, we don't necessarily want them at our church.

But you can't blame somebody

preaching a sermon against you

for why your church is falling apart.

I mean, if there's truth to what they're saying,

then fix the issues.

That's why people are leaving.

It's not because of some pastor

that preached against you.

But I'm telling you, I've heard this, you know,

just many times just inside people

that were at the church and ended up leaving

how literally after services,

they'll sit around at some sort of fellowship

and just complain and criticize

the new IFB, Pastor Anderson, Pastor Shelley,

and they are to blame for their church falling apart.

I mean, I'm dead serious in this.

You know, honestly, I've lost a lot of friendships

over the last six, seven months.

I keep trying to remind people,

you realize I'm not the one that stole money, right?

I'm not the one that stole the money.

So why are you mad at me?

You're not mad at the church that covered it up.

You're not really that mad at the pastor that was doing it,

but you're mad at me.

It's like, what in the world?

And what you realize in life,

people believe what they want to believe.

It's sad, but it's the truth.

People believe what they want to believe.

And look, you know what?

If you want a great church

that will actually deal with problems

and be zealous on soul winning

and give you good doctrine and pre-chart against sin,

this is the church to be at in Texas.

It's an awesome church.

It's a blessing to be here.

And look, I want this church.

I hope to be able to come here more often in the future,

but I want this church to be here five years from now,

10 years, 20 years, going stronger than it is today.

Let's close in order prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father,

thank you for allowing us to be here today

and ask you to help us to apply this sermon

to our lives, God, and help all of us as individuals

at this church to be a blessing and help this church,

ask you to help this church remain strong

and all great churches around the world, God,

help us just to deal with issues at the church,

be zealous for soul winning,

but always remember to rely on you.

We pray this in Jesus' name.

Amen.