Whatever Happens Next Do Not Comply

The title is, Whatever Happens Next, Do Not Comply. And boy, the enemy was working overtime on this one. I don't know if you follow the Christian Post or the stream.org. If you've heard of James Robinson as well, he's a friend of mine.

He texted me, or actually called me. He read the article and loved it. And so we have this big push.

We're going live. Live. So people can hear this message.

And guess what? Our Internet's down today. Or the live stream. So you're the only ones hearing this.

Unless we release it later, of course. But it's just funny. And then we have all kinds of sound issues we've got to work on after the service.

And other distractions I won't go into. But the enemy wants to discourage God's people. And we need to fight through that.

We need to humble ourselves and get back up and keep fighting again. Now, I actually wrote an article by the same name. Whatever happens next, do not comply.

Oh, I forgot to tell you. Next Sunday, a fireman who was part of 9-11 actually is going to be here speaking. And worship from Ireland.

Special guest worship from Ireland is going to be here. So make sure you're here next Sunday. I'll actually be in Torrance.

I'm speaking in Torrance at a church in Los Angeles. If you know any friends, I believe it's called Rolling Hills Covenant Church. It's been there a long time.

Solid. It was kind of going in a woke direction. And that changed the last couple of years.

It's been hard to get it back on track. And I've been going down there every six months or so and speaking. Just a great body of believers.

It feels like here. You know those churches? And when I spoke in Dallas, Texas, Jeff Wickwire, his church feels just like this too. Isn't it funny? You can tell the living churches and God's people and then you get to others, it's like frozen chosen.

And they're judging you. And so it's just a benefit to be there. And then my wife and I are heading to San Diego to be part of something called Turning Point USA Faith.

I don't know if you've heard of that. So yeah, Charlie Kirk's group put together a large pastors conference. And I'm one of the panels there to talk.

And this is going to be one of the topics. So you're going to hear some of the key elements of it right now. But I want to say up front whatever happens next, do not comply.

The rebel in me claps really loud. And go get them Shane. But here's what's challenging.

We're actually supposed to comply. Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 talks about submitting to the governing authorities. And so our attitude should be erring on the side of grace.

And okay we comply, we submit. But when the government becomes evil and deceptive and tells us to do things that are against God's word that's where we have to take a stand. So on the surface that title is a little, it's in your face? You know, a little bold? But that's what people like.

I remember the first day I just posted the title there's like 1400 shares. People are like yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm like okay, hold on, hold on.

Let's bring it back. We're not Mel Gibson and Braveheart here. Let's back it up a little bit.

But you know what? I've got to say something up front that a friend of mine brought to my attention in the prayer room. And I've known this for 20 years. And I can't believe I didn't mention it at the first service.

And that was when we read Romans 13, it's under Roman authority, right? Roman Caesar was God. And China, North Korea, you have the same things. And I agree with this position, mostly.

And we just have to be careful with it. America is the only government in the world where actually you are the governing authorities in the sense of what the Constitution says. We the people.

So the government is actually servants of the people. And I knew that. I just forgot.

Yeah, obviously. So it doesn't change the context of the verse, of course, but it gives you a different insight to where our Constitution actually says we can push back if the servants are out of order. So do I follow the Constitution or do I follow Biden? You know, see, that's where it's... so when they start to separate there, the Revolutionary War that happened, it wasn't just a bunch of farmers with pitchforks.

It was what they call the law of the lesser magistrate. So the governing officials that were here, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, all those officials, they were governing officials. They rebelled against Great Britain.

So there's a misconception. People think, oh, it's just a bunch of people being rebellious. No, it's the governing officials here forced the hand of Great Britain, and that's where the American Revolution came from 1776.

There's a lot to that. But they fought to give if we the people, so we aren't technically the governing body, but we are a government that elects representatives. That's why we're not a democracy, a true democracy.

We are a republic. So we appoint people. We appoint people as servants.

That's why they used to be called statesmen. They thought about the next generation, not the next election. So these statesmen that we appoint to represent our will.

And that's what the Constitution says. That's our governing document. And that's critical in understanding because Romans under Nero, that was it.

There's no other if, by the people, for the people. And so when I get to Romans 13, just keep that in mind that we have a different dynamic working here. Again, it doesn't change the application of the Bible.

It doesn't mean, okay, well, that doesn't apply to us. It still applies to us. But you have to understand that we have a higher authority God.

And I don't believe, when you say divinely inspired, I mean only the Bible is divinely inspired. But if you read the Founders' works, you read the Constitutional Convention that happened to form the Constitution, you see that they quoted the Bible four times more than any other source. Half of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were ministers of the Gospel.

You see that God was throughout. You see that you couldn't even run for office without a belief in God and Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. You see that God was all throughout our early founding.

And so you can't say that God inspired these people to write the Constitution because it's a separation of powers. Executive, judicial, and legislation branches of the government. And it was actually to protect the people.

And so if you understand all that, you can see more. I remember it was Benjamin Franklin. They're all having they just couldn't come to a consensus.

And if you read, it's interesting, you read their journals and their different writings. It's funny, they were all on the same side of morality. See, that's the big divide now.

The Democrat and Republican parties, it's no longer about paving roads and building buildings and budgeting. It's about moral issues. Huge moral... they were never divided over moral issues.

Sin was sin. From marriage to transgender to abortion. They all agreed on that.

But then now, we've broken that unity in those areas and now we are so divided unlike anything we've ever seen before. So Benjamin Franklin actually said, hold on men, let's call a prayer and fasting meeting. And he said, if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without God's notice, is it probable that an empire can be rose up without his aid? And they actually used Tom, I believe, I remember his first name, Locke's book on the governing, how to write up a government, and there are 1,600 references of the Bible.

Blackstone's commentaries of the laws of New England that they were using referenced Scripture for every law they had. And let me tell you, crime is a lot less when the punishment fits it. Like things that people just get a slap on right now, you were toast.

You rape and you hurt a child, death penalty. That's just the way it was. I understand grace and love and all these things, but if you don't have the punishment fit the crime and you dumb down these things, that's where we're running into trouble.

You see all these videos of people just running into stores? You think that's going to stop? That's going to just feed more and more and more. Look at what we can get away with. It's just the decadence of society and so many leaders have their heads stuck in the sand on these issues.

But you have to get back to God. We have to start there, Republican, Democrat, whatever you want to call yourself, you've got to get back to God. And that's why we say it's about principles.

It's about principles. Principles. Not necessarily parties.

Principles. For example, I think he's right under Gascon, right under the DA. He's going to be in our area.

I've been asked to go and pray at the event. He's registered Democrat, but everything he believes is biblical. Well, that's interesting.

So you look at, and he's wanting to unseat him because you're protecting the criminal and hurting the victim by these things. Because I believe you can still have good police force. You can have jails that do the right thing.

And you can do all these without having to capitulate and hurt good people. What about if prisons would let the Bible back in to the degree they used to? And let chaplains. Oh, they do that? Yeah, but they also don't really promote it.

A lot of them shy away from it. Depends on who the lieutenant is and different things. I've tried to get into a lot of the prisons.

Some are, but some don't. I remember a story. It's one of the worst prisons in the Bible Belt.

Years ago they had a documentary on it and how they brought in the Bible, the Word of God and teaching and discipleship. And there was no more fights breaking out. People are becoming pastors in the church and the prison.

They said it's a completely whole different environment. Because see, you have to change the heart. You have to change the heart of the person.

And so that's kind of the underpinning. And I won't be able to get through all the notes. I'll tell you right now up front.

But let me just state up front. What happens next do not comply. What I mean by that is if you look at different places, mask mandates are coming back.

I think it was Lionsgate who was acquiring it in Hollywood. And contract tracing, pushing the vaccine. I've got all of this information in my article for you.

President Biden was even going to ask Congress about developing new vaccines, requiring shots for all Americans. And so I thought, you know what, we need to speak on this issue because in many cases we are to comply, but when compliance becomes capitulation, which means surrendering what we know to be right, then we are operating in fear, not faith. So that's the key.

Yes, we comply as Christians. We submit. We recognize those in positions of leadership.

We respect the position. But when they start to do things that are unhealthy and harmful or against God's Word, we have to really take a step back and handle it the right way. Did you know that a lot of people avoided dying in the fires? Why? Because they didn't listen to the police and stay in the barricades? They broke those barricades and went out into the water, actually, and saved their lives.

Now I don't think the police were trying to be bad. They were trying to enforce. They just didn't know.

But sometimes complying is dangerous and harmful. I don't even want to get started on this, but having kids wear masks all day? I mean, you know, it's just not how that breeds disease and contamination and things like that. And really, again, I don't want to go into that and get into the weeds there, but we know that something could be coming because of all these new pushes.

Just this weekend, have you seen where New York is required or they're asking all citizens to wear masks for this holiday weekend? Maybe elections coming up. I don't know. Could be.

They call it the election variant. So here's where I'm really torn. Because I feel like you, many people, you're angry, you're upset, but we can't let that come out of us.

We can't be the angry, tirade, rebellious, in-your-face thing. You guys are laughing at me. I don't know if I said anything.

But anyway, I prayed for this guy at the first service. I felt bad for him because it really hit home. He was that angry guy.

He goes, I'm even flipping people off online. I'm like, you go to this church and you're doing that? What? I'm like, stop. Stop.

I know you're angry. But see, the more time you spend with God, the more time you spend with His Word and you're praying, out of that prayer closet will come the filling of the Spirit. Then you can navigate these waters.

Then you'll have a holy righteousness, a holy boldness, and God will do amazing things with that. He doesn't do a lot with anger and arrogance. Last I checked.

Anger worketh not the righteousness of God. Now, it can be the right type of anger pointing the right direction, like anger over the abortion industry. Usually emotion prompts us to do something.

We get sad. You go to a memorial service. You go back home and you hug your kids more and you hug your spouse longer.

Then you want to work on things at home and spend more time with them. Then life comes in and you go to another memorial and those emotions draw you back. Same thing with seeing the travesty that's going on in our nation with the sex trafficking.

That type of anger, if it propels you in the right direction, is really good and the direction it should propel you in is on your knees. First and foremost. First and foremost without a shadow of a doubt.

So let me talk about point number one. Point number one. This is so critical.

We are supposed to err on the side of grace. So you'll see, sometimes in Paul's writings and other writings, you can tell they're erring on the side of grace. Same thing with Romans 13.

You err on the side of grace. Here's why. There's something inside of us called the rebel within.

So if you do nothing, guess who's going to take over? The default mechanism in your heart. If I don't do anything, I'm just going to lash out and get angry and get upset. So what do we do? We react.

They react in anger. Have you ever sent that text and my wife showed me I can delete my text now right after I send it. I didn't know you could edit.

Edit. Oh shoot. And you react.

React. Instead of Lord, spending time with him, fueled up, filled up, prayed up, and then you respond the right way. Because I'm not talking about backing down and just complying, but you respond the right way.

You love the person and you err on the side of grace. See, erring on the side of grace keeps the flesh restrained. It doesn't let it control you.

You control it by erring on the side of grace. What does that mean? Well, it just means to ponder. Settle.

Don't react. Because often when we react, what's coming out? An emotion. Did you know anger is a secondary emotion? Often it's secondary.

Something first happens and then we respond in anger. Versus reacting in anger. Versus responding later.

More often than not we must be slow to speak and live with humility. We don't know what someone is going through. And I made a confession at the first service.

I'm going to confess to you right now. Let me see. It didn't take me too long.

I didn't do too well on the first go around a couple years ago. I didn't err on the side of grace. I wasn't filled with joy and love when they told me to put on my mask.

You know these don't work? Nah. And so, we don't know though. For example, somebody might put on a mask to visit their child in the hospital.

Because compliance, in their case, overrides the need to resist. And even people today, they work at a store I go to, I ask them, hey, what's behind that? Are you sick? And they go, I lost a couple friends to COVID and I don't want to get it. So they're living out of fear.

So if I make fun of someone living out of fear, I lose the ability to help them. Or to pray for them. Or to set an example.

Maybe eventually say, you're not afraid? And then you open the dialogue. So anytime that fleshly nature comes out, you really, you kind of hurt the situation more than help it. And then of course, we could stay here for hours and giving, well what about this? What about this? What about this? That's why you need to spend time with God.

There are times when you say, nope, uh-uh. You fooled me once. But fooled me twice.

And you lovingly confront. You explain why. There's articles out there explaining why things like that don't even work.

Hand it to them. And you have to, every situation is different. But as long as our attitude is right.

Does that make sense? As long as it's coming from the right heart, we'll be able to navigate these waters. Many people chided those who got the vaccine to see their grandkids or feed their family. While others rebuked those who didn't get it.

Failing to realize that they did hours of research on the experimental drug and did not want to rush ahead. We now know that many of their concerns are valid. And again, this is why we are an heir on the side of grace.

And that's why this is so difficult. It's a Romans 14. Read that sometime.

It shows how to be graceful in the areas that are non-essential. So you see, most of us agree that the medical industry has provided a lot of good things in the past. But we also know, many of us, big pharma, greed, things that are shenanigans, like censoring videos that dare oppose them.

So you can take a good concept possibly and make it really bad. And there's people on different sides of the aisle. I've talked to people in the military.

Anybody in the military? How many vaccines did you get? Lots. And you have those in the medical industry and nurses, but then there's all nurses on both sides. But then you have others that have a different view of immunology and how the body works and building up natural immunity or natural response versus trusting experimental.

You just have to allow people that freedom. I found that I'm not going to change people. They need to go read someone else, and then they'll change their mind.

Kind of like your kids, right? You try to tell your kids something for five years, then one person talks to them for 20 minutes, and now, oh, I've been telling you that for five years. Right? Yeah. I've been telling you that for five years.

And so, that's how it works with this area as well. It was a hard thing for me because you want to force. Why don't you see? But that's why I think God gives us different views on this.

Now, I will say this. This week, I actually went and reached out to at least 20, some people I knew, pastors and friends who got the initial vaccine, and 99% of them are not going to do it again or move forward or the boosters because more information comes out about all these different things. I don't want to turn this into that type of message.

I just want to be sensitive to both views and share that Christians should not be divided on these non-essential issues. And God will use these things to test us. So, if you're not to be quick to anger, well, you're going to be challenged with things that make you angry.

If you're to be slow, if you're to be quick to listen, you're going to be challenged with things that make you want to talk. If you're to be patient-loving, you're going to be challenged with things that make you impatient and unloving. And I just get just as worked up as anyone on what, because it's so clear.

It's so clear that there is a huge agenda. The government is being weaponized to take out certain political leaders and things like that. It's very clear.

I don't know what the future holds, but thank God we know who holds the future. Isn't that the sanity? And the more you get back and you trust God and trust in His Word, you start to build your sanity back up. And we heard a lot, trust the science.

Trust the science. It's coming back again. Trust the science.

Did you know though that science must be questioned to be legitimate science? But they wouldn't let anybody question anything. No, it's one voice. One type of belief system.

Albert Einstein once said, whoever is careless with the truth in small matters cannot be trusted in important matters. He also said science must be questioned. That's how it grows.

And that's how we improve on things. I won't do it with you today, but if you ever take time, you can find out all the things that science and the medical industry believed 100, 150 years ago, 200 years ago, and what they believe now is not a good idea. Like one of the ones that stands out for me is bloodletting.

It's where they drain all the blood out of you to get rid of the disease. Not a good idea. Not a good idea.

Or DDT that was used for pesticides or something, and now it's harmful. And I remember laying pipeline when I was younger and had something that used to have asbestos in it. And this is fine.

Smoking is good for pregnant women. Coca-Cola is fine. When it was first created, it was actually from cocaine.

And the big thing that was a no, no, no, no, no many years ago was fasting. Don't fast because you'll die in about five days if your stomach doesn't have any food to keep it together. Now, it's the complete opposite.

We realize we are overfed. And we need to limit consumption. All these guys out there on the longevity guys.

You know, you watch your podcasts and things. Now it's changed. Because we learn more.

Remember when fat-free was a big thing? Now they're finding that was not good. Not good. Oh, I could have told you that.

God put avocado, fattening an avocado and all this for reasons. You have to question these things. So here's the main challenge for genuine believers in times like this.

We have to properly balance submission with resisting things that go against God's Word. We have to be bold, but not at the cost of love. And we have to be slow to speak, right? But we also must speak.

We must speak the truth. And then the second point, rarely is passivity the answer. What I mean by that is sometimes it's good to be quiet, calm, wait on the Lord.

I'm just not going to do anything right now. Of course that's biblical. But passivity in itself, the idea is never the answer in and of itself.

It doesn't spark much change at all. Think about all, I mean I could share the writings of the early church fathers with you. How they would be bold enough to confront the culture.

Have you heard the name John Wycliffe before? John Hus, William Tyndale. Anybody have a Tyndale Bible? Two of those three were burned at the stake. Because they were not passive.

They were bold and challenged. The Reformation, you've heard of that big movement. They were bold enough to challenge some things.

And when things do change in a government, people are bold enough to say, hey, not on my watch. Can you imagine if nobody says anything about what's going on in our nation? With the books in the schools? Have you ever seen those videos where people are reading what's in the actual book? And the school board says, oh, stop reading. Security, get them out of here.

Wait a minute, you're allowing that in the school, you hypocrite. What do you mean? What about if nobody stands up for that? What would happen? Evil would flood into this place. Would it not? Evil would flood into this place.

A guy, me and Abram kind of know John. Reverend John, I don't know how to pronounce his name. Manuchuka or something? Big, black, six foot three.

Guy's been on Fox News lately. He's been going to all these school boards. Have you seen the video? I sent him a message.

He's responded, so hopefully we'll have him come speak out here. I'm going to see him at Turning Point USA. But my thank God brother, going to Florida and reading that.

Going to Texas and reading that. Thank you for doing that. Being bold.

It's waking up people, but why aren't we doing that? We can go to the school board and say, I just want to look you six in the face and tell you this is wrong. Can you imagine? Because all they're hearing now is praise from the other side. Oh, thank you.

Thank you for inclusivity. Thank you for loving me and not judging me. No, that's not love.

That's your harming people. And those who are intolerant really aren't for tolerance. You've heard me talk about that before, haven't you? They're not open to opposing views.

For example, I just answered on Facebook. Somebody said, it's a gay couple, a woman and her gay, I guess they're married probably, and they want to come to the church and ask, are you an affirming church? And I said, well, give me a call and let me walk you through everything. And they ghost me.

They blocked me. And she said, we already know what your stance is because you won't answer my question yes or no. Do I even have the opportunity? Can we talk? Is this Bible? See, don't tell me what I don't want to hear.

It's okay for you to tell me what you believe, but God forbid I tell you what the Bible says. See, they don't want to have a conversation because the truth invites scrutiny. Hey, what does the Bible say? Let's talk about it.

Error will run from it. When somebody's in error, they run from the truth. No, don't confront me.

I've been blocked now. So you can't even talk to people now. You can't even talk to them.

It's amazing. So we have to be bold enough to share our faith. Love people enough to tell them the truth.

But passivity is rarely an answer. All of you have heard this before, but it bears repeating. First we overlook evil.

Then we permit evil. Where are we at now? Then we legalize. Then we promote.

Then we celebrate. And then we persecute. And punish those who call it evil.

I'm convinced, the more I go through the Word, the more I live, I am absolutely convinced that we are not as believers called to be passive. Now, again, there are passive moments. Rest in the Lord.

Wait upon Him. Renew your strength. Go into your prayer closet.

Take some time. But all this put on the whole armor of God. Why? So I can remain passive.

Carrying around the sword of the Spirit and this. But I'm just going to go sit at home and do nothing? It makes no sense. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

And I'm not talking about going and protesting and burning down anything. Please don't misunderstand. I'm actually not even talking about violence.

I'm talking about getting in your prayer closet. Oh, your gun safe is full, but is your prayer closet? That's what I'm talking about. This is how we fight our battles.

We come to worship nights. We come to times of church getting together, and we seek the heart of God, and we fight our battles, and we contend. That's the weapons of our warfare, and that's what God hears.

And this frustration. And I know it's difficult. And I mentioned Wednesday nights.

But if you see where everything's going, you think it would, like the prayer night you think that would be the busiest, like the most attended type of service. But for most people, it's boring. And I hear that a lot.

And I understand that. I've been there. And I've had hard days where I don't want to go.

So I completely understand. But often it's boring because my heart isn't right. If I've spent the first hour or two worshiping and in the Word, and even maybe fasting, and I'm expecting, living with the expectation of God to move, I'm hungry for those things, so I want to fuel and keep feeding on the things of God.

The reason those kinds of things are boring is because we've been feeding on the world all week, and of course it's boring. We have no problem getting back to Netflix. Putting our feet up on the couch for three hours.

But when it comes to the things of God, many times it's very difficult because we're feeding on the wrong things. Jesus was not a pacifist. Amen? I can imagine Him rebuking child groomers and pushers of perversion saying it would be better for you if a millstone was hung around your neck and you were cast into the sea than to ever lead one of these little ones astray.

Now, be clear, He would offer hope. Right? He would offer hope. There's nobody behind His grasp at all.

He would offer hope, but He would also point them to repentance. He would call them out on it. He would say, go in, sin no more.

It was that call to that deeper life with God. Many don't realize that although Jesus obeyed the government from taxation to protocol, things like that, He frequently did not obey the government in spiritual matters. Did you know that there was a government in Israel over spiritual matters called the Sanhedrin? They were the governing body.

Research it. Did He do everything they said? Silly kids. You say this, but this.

You do this, but this. You need to stop healing. You need to stop.

You can't. God's called me. God's called me to do this.

And with the love and the great... Because see, when you know what God's called you to do, and you're walking in that, people can't stop you. They can try to discourage you, which is the big thing that the enemy will use for 99% of us to get us off track is discouragement. Discourage you.

And he will try to discourage you. And you will then have to fight the good fight of faith and reinvigorate yourself. Like David said, strengthen yourself in the Lord.

And the enemy wants to sidetrack you. And so when you're obeying God, and my position is not to obey, I'm not to disobey the governing authorities. Okay, I err on the side of grace.

You're my leaders. I'm to submit to you taxation, representation, different things. But now if you're asking me to do something that clearly goes against God's Word or clearly goes against wisdom too, God has given us, we forget about that.

Sometimes we're so focused on God, show me, write something in the sky, let me run into somebody, give me a dream. Okay, that's okay. But He also gives you wisdom in His Word.

Wisdom is the principal thing. Therefore, get wisdom in all you're getting. Get understanding.

She will exalt you. She will promote you. Wisdom is so important.

And look, here's a few examples of when authorities were disobeyed. In the book of Daniel, Daniel and three Hebrew boys rejected the will of the king. The king said, here's what you will do.

And they actually said, we can't find anything against Daniel unless we find it against him concerning the law of his God. In other words, Daniel obeys the king. Daniel is the best servant of them all.

And that's the way it should be. Hey, I'll do whatever you want. You're the best employee.

You're the best servant. But now, now you say I can't talk about Jesus anymore? Now we have a problem. Because God put me here to talk about Jesus.

And that's why, did you know that's why most Christians go to jail in China? It's not because they're good citizens. It's not because they're bucking the system, the political system necessarily. It's because they continue to witness.

What about Paul? Did you know he was incarcerated for violating Roman law? What about the Hebrew midwives? Did they disobey? Hey, they disobeyed Pharaoh. That's losing your head time. He wanted them to kill the male children.

So, I mean, you could parallel that with abortion today. You know why we stand up against that. Still to this day, I cannot believe it.

In Palmdale, a pastor told me, he doesn't say anything about abortion. He doesn't think it's necessarily, I mean, he goes, I wouldn't do it. I don't tell people to do it.

But the government, hey, it's law. We have to submit to that. What Bible are you reading? But no, you don't submit to evil.

My goodness, folks. In the book of Matthew, we see the wise men. There's not even three.

Did you know that? We don't know how many there are. Christmas scenes have it with three, but we don't know. We see the wise men not returning to tell the king that they'd found Jesus.

The king gave a command. When you find Him, come back and tell me. Do you know that could have been punishable by death? They said no.

Warned of God by a dream, because I am fear of God, not man. In the book of Acts, the early church did not submit to the government if they were forced to sin or to cause harm. Example from the news.

Maui residents who disobeyed barricades survived the fires. It was in the news. But I don't think the police and things were trying to be evil with barricades.

That's just the way you handle things. But sometimes, if you realize for my safety and what God wants me to do, sometimes you have to break those legislative laws or parameters. And remember, mandates aren't necessarily laws.

They mandate something. Is that a law? So if I break a mandate, hey, we recommend this mandate. And again, here's what's challenging.

There are so many different scenarios that you have to take it to God, and you have to sift through all of this with Him and your own personal convictions and what He's called you to do. Would somebody take the jab and wear a mask to save their job and put food on the table? Probably. I'm not in their shoes.

I'm not going to chide them. So we don't know all these different situations. We don't know what's coming.

My personal belief is America's not going to put up with it anymore lockdown-wise, but that's where I think possibly the mark could come in of where net camp buyers sell. You see everything's tightening, right? Everything's tightening. Be ready when the digital dollar hits.

That's when... Uh-oh. Hey, the Shane Idleman guy, Chase Bank, could you shut them out for a week? You don't think that's possible? Hey, I'm going to go buy groceries. Oh, sorry, sir, you're declined.

Oh, let me use my wife's... No, you're declined. Oh. Can't go get gas for my car.

So you can see the vice, but we shouldn't live in fear. We live in expectation. Because I know ultimately He's on the throne.

Ultimately, you know, and that will really test are our comforts really in? Are we comfortable and has that become idolatry? And again, I know it's difficult. I do not pass this test with flying colors. Do not follow me on how to navigate difficult times.

Follow God. I'm just here to help. Hey, here's where I've fallen.

I've gotten back up. We're going to fight again. God's just giving me a voice.

Not to put people on pedestals, because you'll see them fall. You put anybody on a pedestal, they will fall. They will let you down.

That's why I believe Jesus said, a preacher, a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, among his own friends. Oh, this is just the carpenter. He can't do many of those great works.

He's just, what good things come from what's a Nazarene, Bethlehem, and you know, they knew Him. And so familiarity is definitely, can cause some problems. Believers who disobeyed when they could no longer worship God.

They did disobey when they could no longer. Early Christians were killed because of it. And that's what happened.

That's what you saw with COVID. We realized after 30 days or so, or two weeks, there's a lot of shenanigans. You're driving around and you can't do anything, but the abortion clinic's fine.

Happy Donuts is open. Yeah, we're essential. No, I don't think high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated oils is essential.

Don't get me started. The marijuana place, it's like, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait a minute here. And as you're praying, and fasting, and waiting on God, there's a stirring that happens.

There's a boldness. There's like, this is what God wants us to do. You're not acting out of rebellion.

You're acting out of a desire to please God. And you realize that they're just, you never know the exact conspiracy theories and all these, but you realize that they didn't want churches open, obviously. Could have been out of fear.

They don't want people getting together and spreading things like that. So they said, but you realize, if we can no longer worship God, you know when weirdos come and talk to that camera? Nobody's here. Okay.

You're like, oh, this is weird. You can listen to those sermons still. And they came out good, I praise God, because at first I didn't think I was going to be able to do it.

But then you just realize that people need help and encouragement. And then Facebook put us in jail. It shut down.

And that's when you know too, you've got 250 to 400 thousand views on a message on Facebook. And then it goes to 300. Shadow banning.

And so you start to see, see it's one thing if we're all on the same page. Hey, let's work to this together. Let's look at conflicting, you know, let's look at the ivervectin and let's look at the, you know, what's the other drug they're using and let's, they've been using for, oh, oxycort? Yeah.

Not oxycodone. But yeah, oxycorquin or whatever the names are. Yeah.

You guys know. You know. I don't have to, but no, let's not look at those.

There's only one way, one truth, one life, and that is the jab. So they weren't, you could see that God's people using wisdom. You could see, okay, this isn't, this isn't, you know, science questioning science.

This is just, here's what we're doing and you're going along with it regardless. And then you see that, you know, of course with the schools and all these things. So that's where when God's people realize we can no longer worship the way God intended and what God is doing, then we have to move forward on that.

But I want to, I want to also clarify this point. It's important. Point number three, we are different but united.

This will help some people, I hope. For every bold Elisha, there's a behind the scenes Obadiah. In other words, Elisha was rough, right? I would love for you guys sometimes to have some, I wish these guys could come and preach sometime.

You think I'm tough, right? You have not heard an Elisha or Elisha or, I mean, can you imagine Isaiah crying out, return to God and just man, these guys are on fire for God. That's what it is. So for every bold Elisha, you also have a behind the scenes Obadiah who would hide the prophets of God.

Behind the scenes, Ahab and Jezebel liked him. He would do stuff behind the scenes, hide his people. Like the hiding place, Nazi Germany.

Same thing. And so you have both these groups of people. How many people love the Gospel of John? Man, that's like, you can go to bed reading that.

Soothing. Relaxing. And then jump right over to Jude.

They are destined to hell, those demonic prophets and it's like, wow. Is this, Jude, so every John you need a Jude. So God gives us different callings for different reasons and we become very judgmental often when we don't, that person doesn't share my type of passion.

You know, Shane, you're bold and loud. Why aren't other people bold and loud? I'm glad we don't have a million people bold and loud. We need the Obadiahs.

That's why God brings Shane and Morgan together. Right? To balance. To balance out.

Same with you. Now if you've got two type A's married together, I feel for you. That's a challenge.

But we have to be united though in exposing the works of darkness. So there will be different callings. Not all pastors, and I understand this, not all pastors are going to be like, say, a Jack Hibbs, right? Thank God for what he does and talks about.

But you should see, I've seen the negative stuff. Like just focus on the Gospel. Just don't go to Sacramento.

Who are you telling him what to do? How do you know God's not telling him to do this? And then you have an Alistair Begg. You hear him on the radio. Man, solid.

David Jeremiah. They don't do nothing like that at all. At all.

And so see, there's different callings. Different giftings. God has put a certain DNA.

He goes, okay, I've called you Jeremiah from your mother's womb. I knit you together to become a prophet to the nation. And let me tell you, a prophet to the nation back then was a bad dude.

They didn't mess around. They got killed. They got thrown into dungeons and miry clay and left for dead.

Nobody wanted to listen to them. The king wanted to kill them. These dudes are bad and loud and abrasive and in your face.

But then you have the others that God creates. No, I want this person to be this way and this way. They're going to go in this way.

All the same going in the same direction, but different callings. Different giftings, I should say. You're designed a different way.

You do things differently. You're the quiet, calm, behind the scenes type. Thank God for that.

Thank God for those who are just doing so much behind the scenes that we don't even see. That they don't bring attention to what they're doing. I just think it's important during this period because the reason I say that, I didn't say this at the first service, I was thinking I just didn't say it, is during that time, that was a game changer, correct? A couple years ago.

I think there's three churches shut down. Friends of mine closed their church. People have moved on that I knew pastoring.

A lot of people would come against pastors. Why don't they speak like you? A lot of times I tell them they're not like me. They're different.

They've got a soft shepherd's heart. I've got a John the Baptist. You're not going to be able to fix that.

Sometimes it's warranted. There was a lot of pastors who didn't say anything. But not everyone, a lot of them are doing things behind the scenes.

And they're not as vocal, correct? They're not as bold. I know a lot of pastors. A lot of these guys are my friends.

Chris Johnson, Grace Chapel, Pastor Sean at Hope Chapel who helped to start the church. Our personalities are like... Right? Completely different. But we're doing the same thing.

And so they'll come and put down these types of pastors, but then other times they'll put down me. Because, oh, that dude, man, I can't stand that guy. He just rocks my... he just shakes up my... man, I was comfortable until I heard him.

But that's what I'm supposed to do. You recognize your calling. I'm supposed to make the uncomfortable feel comfortable.

What Spurgeon said, I'm to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. And that's what you do. That's what preaching does.

Pastor Abraham, I showed him three letters that came in on Facebook. It's so funny for me to see this one lady, a single mom, goes, I was so discouraged this week and I heard last week's sermon, I am so encouraged now. Where other people say, I hate that guy, I'm never coming back.

I said the same thing. I said the exact same thing. What's the difference? Different callings.

God uses me in different ways for different things. He'll use somebody else for a different type of ministry. Or a different type of thing.

Many of you are familiar, Paul Chappell is a friend of mine too, Lancaster Baptist. Man, I could not do what that guy does. Manage the Bible college.

And this large thing that they're doing, this movement, and seminary, it's like incredible. I'm not called to do that. I'm called to do what God's called me to do.

And as soon as you walk into your calling, you'll see amazing things happen. I don't need to go be on TV unless God opens that door. I don't need to do all these things unless God opens the door.

Just trusting in Him. And so I think it's so important because sometimes I see we get divided on the non-essentials. We get stuck on why aren't they doing something.

People even get mad at me because I don't do more for abortion. Or I don't go on more for missions. Or I'm like, dude, with five kids and a church, I'm barely, the water's right here.

I walk around with the water's right here. I cannot take on more stuff. It's hard enough as it is.

Many of you know. And so I don't know why, but that point I think is so important. We say, okay, we're on the same team.

Stop shooting each other. Friendly fire. Friendly fire is very dangerous.

And then point four. Boy, oh boy, you guys. Long sermon today.

But this is important. I'm going to go through this quickly. This comes up a lot.

Context is always king. Here's a verse that people used against me and the church quite a few times over the last couple of years. They would say that we're not submitting to the government by staying open.

So let's read it. Romans 13. Here we go.

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. Okay. Let all of us be subject to the governing authorities.

Got it. For there's no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist are appointed by God.

Okay, but here's what you have to remember. God appoints the government, but doesn't mean he allows or approves of corrupt government. Here's the thing.

Government is an institution by God. Did you know that? The church, the family, the government. God's idea.

So everybody, oh, the government, the government, the government. No, you better thank God for the government because you would hate to see what it looks like with anarchy and no restraint. So God says, okay, here's what the government is going to do and you submit to it.

So let's read what they're supposed to do. Let's keep reading. For the rulers, the governing authorities are what? Not a tear to good works, but to evil.

So the whole point, the whole reason for government is to be a tear to those who do evil. It's God's restraining arm. It's why I can't go out and kill someone who killed someone.

I can't. But the government can. God's restraining arm, the death penalty.

That's what the whole role of government is to do that. So two things are crystal clear. First, God is calling the government to restrain evil.

So what about when the government restrains good? See, now you've got the whole verse backwards. That's called eisegesis. You're reading into a text something that it does not say.

God would never say, I appointed the rulers to be over you like hard task masters and to make you do evil things. Actually, God wants his people to be set free from those types of things. For when the ruler is righteous, the people rejoice.

But when he's wicked, the people groan. And God would actually put hard task masters over them in Egypt and different areas because of their sin as a consequence to rebellion. So the ideal, the concept of government is basically to be a tear to terrorists.

If we were to put it a different way. Because he says do not do evil because they do not bear the sword in vain. So we've somehow reversed it and say no, now the government clearly, clearly is not on God's side.

And they're causing people to do things that harm kids. Do you know your child can have a transgender surgery and transition and you don't have to tell the parents at some schools? That's beyond. That's child abuse.

And those people should be held accountable for that. Because they're restraining. And so that's where we're having a problem.

A lot of these laws in California that say parents, you can't permit your kids from this. Well now I've got to break that law because it causes me to harm my children and actually disobey God. I have a higher law.

God's law. So see, as long as the heart is right, we can disobey things that cause harm or cause us to reject God's Word. I can't reject God's Word.

But here's the problem, often the heart isn't right. So we do it out of, like the guy I pray for says he flips off people all the time online. And I'm like, no, you can't do that.

It's not, say I love you and do a Bible verse. Can you say flip off? I don't know. Let's edit that part out.

But you guys know what I'm talking about. Do something bad. But see, the heart's not right.

So they're responding, let me get them with this meme. Let me get them with this Instagram post. And your heart's not right.

So then you've got to start there. And then you can disobey in areas where the government is telling you to go against God. The corrective nature of Romans 13, if you keep reading Romans 13 for the reader, it's for me, the reader, and you to cast off our evil deeds.

So you see the whole context there. The government is to restrain evil. If you do evil, be very afraid, because they can put you in jail or even kill you.

And it goes on to say cast off your evil works. So it's written, the corrective nature is to a person to change their rebellious attitude. And don't be a rebellious person.

It's addressing a rebellious, arrogant heart that has a problem with authority, not a humble believer standing for the truth. And that's what really bothered me. I would even see it sometimes.

Some of the moms that were standing up at their school districts and things like that, and well-meaning Christians would post Romans 13 on the feed. I'm like, no, no, no, that's not good. Well, look, it says submit.

It says submit. It says submit. We're supposed to submit.

No, you've got to put it in context. Look at the whole look at the whole, that's ridiculous. So that's what and that's the thing with Romans 13 and the church.

We've been conditioned to have, and actually if you read, you won't be able to because it's hard to get at least it was, but I have something called the Geneva Study Bible. It's the Bible the pilgrims brought over before the new King James. And they're very clear, very clear on what Romans 13 means.

And it's, their language is pretty strong. Like, you know, to defend and defeat tyrants and things like that. Wow, that's a commentary.

Granted, it's not the Bible, but they had an understanding of what that meant. Because they realize and we forget that all authority is given by God. All freedoms, what they call God given freedoms.

God gives freedoms. What the pursuit of happiness and life. So when that pursuit of life and they take away those God given freedoms for our kids we have to say, no, no, no, no, no.

God actually wants them to have those freedoms. And you're causing us to break the law of God. And as you can see there's so many different situations I don't want to get into that.

But I'm going to leave you with this on point number 5. Point 5, the key to conflict, I'm going to leave you with this. You need to be filled up you need to be prayed up and you need to humbly approach the situations. If we allow bitterness and arrogance to guide us, we will hurt others and we will be outside of God's will.

What flows into you is what's going to flow out of you. It's the prayer closet, not political tirades that will help us regain lost ground in these difficult seasons. We've got to get rid of the root of bitterness.

The root of bitterness infiltrates a family, a marriage, and a church. So what that is, I'm going to tell you what I had for ten minutes, I'm going to go to one minute. It's when I have something in me that I'm mad about, I'm angry, I'm bitter.

Have you ever been there? Can't relate? Nobody? Okay, just me on this one. And so because it's a root of bitterness he says pull it out. I'm not pulling it out.

I'm watering it. Giving it miracle grow. And so I have this root of bitterness I'm feeding.

I'm dwelling on. I'm not going to forgive. I'm not going to let this go.

And this root of bitterness now almost picture cancer. It's metastasized. And now it affects everything you do.

You don't want to go to church as much. You don't want to be around your Christian friends as much. You don't want to do much for God.

You're just walking around like critical Kathy. Judgmental Jerry. Think if I can think of some more.

Legalistic Lisa. But that's why the root of bitterness is so important. If you remove that, springs of refreshing from the presence of the Lord can come in and fill your heart.

And I'm preaching to myself. I have to remove offenses all the time. And just not let that grow.

It's one thing if it gets there. That's okay. We all get there.

We're all tempted. But what do you do with that? Do you take those thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ? Let them go and then you're refreshed and renewed? Or do you give it the miracle grow? It's manure. Plants do good in manure.

Did you know that? So you keep believing all this stuff. And you've got to get rid of that root of bitterness. Two commands that Jesus gave us.

Baptism for new life. We had a couple baptisms this morning. And so we want to have baptisms available for you.

If you say, you know what? I'm done rejecting God. I want to repent of my sin. I need to believe in Jesus.

I want to be baptized today. We will baptize you. Or if when you're a baby, an infant, or a young adult, 12, 13, and it didn't mean anything and God's been kind of tugging on your heart to get baptized, we would love to baptize you and start afresh.

Jesus commanded believers baptism. You believe and you're baptized in front of your friends and your peers. And then finally, communion.

What is communion? It's remembrance. Baptism is reflecting new life. Communion is remembrance.

And this, I'd love to just teach on it one time, the whole sermon, because it's very profound. Communion is you're actually remembering what Jesus did for you. And that's where there's been a lot of debates over the years.

Have you ever heard consubstantiation, transubstantiation? There's one more. It's because the reformers in the Roman Catholic Church, and they believed the Roman Catholic Church, which I don't believe, it actually becomes the literal body and bread of Jesus again. Literally.

Like he's being sacrificed again. There's many problems with that. But they realize that there's something special.

Is it more than a memorial? Is it something sacred? Because you're remembering what Jesus did. And so we'll end with this verse. And you tell me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, which we're doing this morning, you proclaim the Lord's death till he comes. So it's a reminder. Jesus, thank you for the cross.

Thank you for being broken for me. Thank you for that. And we keep doing that until he comes again.

Therefore, whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. Now, the word unworthy, I wish I had more time because it's not that you're unworthy. No, you're worthy because of what Jesus did.

You're worthy. But if you take it in an unworthy manner, in other words, in a manner that doesn't glorify Jesus. Like I'm going to hold on to, I don't care what you say, I'm going to hold on to my bitterness.

I hate that person. But I'm going to take communion. See, your heart's not right.

You're going to take communion and leave the heart and the besetting sin undone? Or if I take communion, I know I'm going to keep sinning. I've got it actually planned tonight. Oh, I can't wait.

That's an unworthy manner because we're remembering that he set us free from sin, yet we're going to go back to the sin and enjoy it. That's why Paul said, make no provision for the flesh to plan ahead to sin. And he said, now here's what's interesting.

Examine yourself. Examine yourself first. Now this, because you don't examine yourself and you take it in an unworthy manner, many of you are weak and sick and some of you have died.

That's pretty powerful. That's the one thing in the Bible that says it could lead to sickness and even death if you keep basically mocking Christ's sacrifice on the cross. Now, people have come up to me and they're really worried and if you're really worried, that's a good thing because you're repenting.

You're like, man, I'm repenting. But if you're callous and callous to this and you're going to keep on sinning and have that angry, bitter, unforgiving heart and you're still going to go into communion, I would really encourage you to take a look at your heart. Because Paul said, if we judge ourself, and see that's part of my calling is to help you judge yourself.

That's why some of the messages are hard. It lets us go deep and look deep into our hearts. He said, if you would judge yourself, you would not be judged.

Isn't that interesting? God judges us and he goes on to say, we're judged, basically we're chastised by the Lord. In other words, when God gets out the spanking paddle, when God pulls out the belt, right? Remember that? Okay. Come on, don't act like you haven't seen the coat hanger or the belt or something.

Can't do it nowadays, but back in the day. My mom, I remember, she'd get mad at me outside, she would grab a switch off a tree. Or remember, soap in the mouth? Right, but God does that.

He chastises us to get us back to Him. And so Paul says, if you judge yourself and repent, you would not be judged, but be encouraged. If you are chastised by the Lord, we may not be condemned by the world.

In other words, hopefully that rebuke by the Lord brings you back to Him. Anybody lost their job and that brought you back? Anybody, your spouse said, oh, by the way, I'm leaving, and that brought you back? Health issue, and that brought you back? Something you thought was all going to be perfectly you know, this is going to work out great and the finances fall apart? It could be God's chastising. God uses circumstances.

I've never yet seen a large, something come out of heaven and spank me. It's usually circumstances, correct? Absolutely. Absolutely.

God will use difficult things to get us to wake up. So we're going to go into communion. You can just take the cup.

Both cups are attached. And during the next song or two songs from now, three songs from now, Blessings is going to conclude here shortly after she does a few songs. Take that cup and get your heart right.

It's for believers. Make that decision today to follow Jesus and you can come up at your leisure. Balcony, you've got it up there as well.

And then also, in addition to communion, I'm going to be in the prayer room with our prayer team. We're there quite a while at the first service, praying for people, for their prodigal sons. Maybe you struggle with anxiety, depression, fear has less gripped you as anger.

Do you feel a demonic stronghold, demonic bondage? We would love to pray for you as well next door. I know Alex and his mom would love to pray for that area of deliverance. We believe in that.

Sometimes you've got to go deeper. You've got to sit and this stronghold doesn't come down sometimes with one hit. You've got to one brick at a time.

I just can tell you as a living witness and dealing with a lot of people, sometimes God doesn't just take things away within a quick prayer. Sometimes it's going deep and deep repentance and looking and trying to release this grip that Satan has had on you in a long time. This is all the Bible.

This isn't some hyper-Pentecostal weird circus environment. This is what the Bible teaches. Jesus said, those who believe on me will cast out demons.

They will address the demonic realm. I don't want to get you too worked up, but it says you might speak in other tongues. Uh-oh.

Here we go. Let's get controversial, right? Well, that's not for us today. Well, I don't know.

I just read the Bible. That's all I do. People want to try to pigeonhole you in certain What does the Bible say? If you stay on that course, you'll be very, very secure.