 We obviously need to talk about good churches and we need to talk about bad churches. We're gonna start talking about good churches, highlighting some good churches in the weeks to come. But a good way to know that you have a good church is to make sure that your church or the prospective church doesn't have these problems. And these are problems that you wouldn't even think would show its head probably 30, 40 years ago, but you're seeing happening more and more. Some of the things you see in some of these churches, and I wanna go over some of the things that are happening, oftentimes it stems obviously from the head, but whatever the head or whatever the leadership is giving, they're only giving what the audience desires. In other words, if there's an appetite for it, they'll feed you that. There's no restaurant that will keep serving something that they know the patrons do not like. If there's something on the menu and it just doesn't sell well, people aren't buying it, well, we're gonna take it off the menu. We're gonna replace it with something that people like or give them more of what they like. There are places that only give just chicken. And I mean just chicken, just basic chicken. Why? Because folks wanna kind of come in, get it quickly and leave. What's that place in and out burger? They don't have a big menu, just give them what they want and let them get going. A lot of churches do the same thing. Why? Because now churches are starting to do what? It's starting to cater to the people. It's not that the people are coming to hear what God wants them to hear. The pastor is bringing to the people what they want to hear. We'll cover that pastor's later, but the Bible says the time will come when they will not endure. Sound doctrine, they will have itching ears. And if they've got itching ears, well, someone's gotta scratch or tickle those ears. Why? Because, well, you know what? It can bless me. It can make me out to be something that I want to be. So because of that, I wanna make sure that I give nice, happy thoughts from a pulpit. Now, I may not tell them that they can have everything they want or I might tell them they can have everything they want, but the one thing I want to do for many of them is just to make sure that what I'm giving them is nice, happy words. Let's not even worry about sin, right? The spirit of the Lord is upon me to declare the year of God's favor, to announce freedom to the captives, the recovery of sight to the blind, good news to the poor. Isaiah went around declaring favor, freedom, victory, all those that would receive it, those that would let those words take root, would sing. So let's just go ahead and make the body feel good about itself. Let's make the body enjoy itself. Let's not teach anything or if we do, let's only teach the good parts of the Bible. Let's only teach what makes them feel good. Because again, if you offend certain segments of the society too much, well then they'll leave. You know what I can do? I can take my business elsewhere. You're not the only church in the town. Matter of fact, you're not the only church on this block. I can go across the street or down the street or around the corner. As a matter of fact, there's one church I've just been dying to go to. There's one church I just, I wanna go to so bad, why? Because they give me what I like. They get me, they understand me. As a matter of fact, they get me so much so that they, they're my kind of people, right? They can, the way they preach, the way they do things, it just reminds me of me, right? We don't make it rain on booty cheeks. We don't make it rain on strippers. I got, I got, I got, I got, I got. Now I'm still bothered by the whole thing about a man. I don't know what's more offensive as a man, the makin' it rain part or him dropping it down. Well, we've got people that want to be worldly and so because I want them, then I've gotta be worldly right along with them. I understand trying to kind of meet them where they are but it doesn't mean that you compromise and go into being something that you're not supposed to be. That you compromise the word, you compromise your integrity, you compromise all those things because they'll get it. I've got a younger audience and listen, I'm all for someone having a younger audience. That part is good. If you can get you a younger audience of people, if you've got young folks, 20 year old, 30 year old and so forth that are coming, that's a good thing. But I promise you this, you don't have to dumb it down. You don't have to bring it down. You can make them ascribe to where they ought to be. As a matter of fact, the Bible says we ought to do this. He says like newborn babes is longing for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation if you have tasted the kindness of the Lord. Well, that's for young and old. Make them desire the word. You should be able to preach the word if you're the pastor, if you're the leadership team. You should be able to preach the word in such a way to where when they hear it, it opens up. You can make it relate. No one is expecting the 40 or 50 or 60 or 70 year old pastor to be like the 20 year old, try to be hit and so forth. No, we don't need that. Honestly guys, we really don't. What we really need more than anything else is just the word. We need pastors. Yeah, we're breading my pocket. We need pastors who want to preach the word, who by the way know how to teach the word. The word that's used there when Paul is speaking of what God has given, notice in Ephesians 411, he says, and he gave some apostles of some prophets, but then look right here. He says that they must be, the last one is pastor, teachers. So they have to be pastor, teacher, meaning they must teach. That's the whole point. There's two parts to that. That is the Pomeanus, which is the shepherd. So they're keeping them, they're guiding them, they're holding them. Sheep do what? Sheep straight. Sheep go off. Sheep do not walk in a straight path unless they are following another sheep. I don't know if you understand that guys. And if you think about it, it's kind of how we do, but it's how sheep do. Sheep don't walk in a straight line. Constantly they will veer off, nibble here, nibble there, nibble there. Next thing you know, after a few too many nibbles, they're way over there. So the shepherd has to kind of stop and go and get the other shepherd, I mean, the other sheep. So what must he do so that he didn't have to go too far off? Make sure that he's shepherding the entire sheep, the entire body, kind of keeping up with all of them. Have you ever tried to teach something and people are on different levels? Somebody is more advanced, someone is less advanced, and you're trying to teach them all? Well, it's a hard task, but it's a task that you desired. The Bible says that if anyone desires this task, if it says that you desire this task, you desire it, so it's up to you to desire it. Not up to anyone else to force upon you, it's up to you to desire it. Are you with me? So we've got pastors who would rather not do that. Yeah, it's difficult, but what they would rather do is, they would rather just get it to the world. They would rather be like the world, and they would like to resemble the world, and they do so because they're not good or adept at kind of preaching the word, what would they do? They'll turn around and just help themselves with these different props and things. Now, I'm not one that, I don't necessarily have a big problem with props, I really don't, but sometimes the props can kind of get in the way. Made to be up in a tree. You come down, because there's only one person this tree is made for. Come away with me, work with me, watch me, walk with me. This is the invitation of Jesus, Matthew 28. He says, are you tired? Are you worn out? Are you burned out on religion? Get away with me, and I will give you rest for your soul. The props with the pink, that can be a problem. Yeah, that can be a problem. The props with the pink, somebody said Barbie. You know what? Yeah, I guess it is. I guess it is like Barbie. Yeah, that can be, that bothers our male-ness, so to speak, that's a whole lot of peak, and that's a whole lot of brightness in his hair, but that's how pastors are becoming now. Pastors are more like, I want someone to see me. I need to stand out. Pastors nowadays, listen, don't be surprised, and we're seeing more and more pastors who are flamboyant. We've got the victory. Now, from your belly, God is exalted. The devil is defeated, and I still got the victory. I give you 30 seconds to scream real quick, and I say, sister, I still can't hear you. Extra flamboyant, and a touch of flaming, just a tad bit, but yeah, that, there's a certain level of decorum and respect that the pastor ought to exhibit. Certain things ought to exude from the pastors or from the pulpit, from the church, from leadership, and everybody's getting a little, I'm looking at the comments, and yeah, the comments are funny. There's all sorts of things that come to mind when you see my little sweet, you know what? Yeah, little sweet, huh? Or Cat Williams, Snoop, yeah. That's just not how you, when you see the pastor, certain things should take hold. Certain images should take hold, right? Not necessarily a grandfatherly picture, but a person who seems to be walking towards God. Which again, necessarily means they must be faithful, which necessarily means they must be in the Word. Remember, Timothy is told this by Paul, he says in second Timothy chapter two, verse two, he says, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others. You see the point? Teach these or entrust these to faithful men, faithful men who are able to teach others. Now notice what he says, he didn't say, he did not say, excuse me, which you saw. So he's not even talking about, he's not even talking about the actions, the miracles, the signs. No, he's not after you doing the exact signs and wonders that he did. He says, no, the things which you have heard from me, not the things which you have seen me do because that's not necessarily for you to do, but the things that you have heard from me. And so commit those, have those things committed to faithful men, men who are going to want to study the Word, teach the Word, just like Paul. Now remember, because you've got these folks that wanna see something you wanna put on a show. You wanna give them signs. And so if your church is a church where it's a party atmosphere, if your church is a church where there's a lot of stuff happening, there's a lot of entertaining going on, there's fireworks, there's, now listen, as far as the music is concerned, there's not a whole lot of prohibition on the music, but there might be a lot of prohibition on kind of how you present the music, the lights and the firework. I don't know that you necessarily, maybe it's just me, maybe I'm a little too old fashioned, but maybe you don't need fireworks and smoke machines with the praise and worship team. That's just me. Call me old fashioned, call me an old foggy, but I don't think you really need that. What you really need more than anything else is just the Word. If your church is trying to present a show, you might have a problem. Jesus says this about folks that just wanna see something. And if your church is like this, well then what do you do? You're catering to this evil and adult generation that seeks after a sign. And so what was Jesus' response? I'll give you a sign. I'll give you a real good sign. The sign that I'm gonna give you is going to be what? The sign of Jesus or the sign of Jonah being dead and buried in the grave. That's the sign. If you want that sign, if you're good with that sign, well then amen. Other than that, I don't have anything for you. Now, what you're gonna see, and can I just tell you this, I saw this and you just couldn't help but put this. I could not help but put this clip in here. I get wanting to be relatable. I get that. I get wanting to be creative. I get as a pastor wanting to go the extra mile to show the people that you're with them. But sometimes you might have to go a little bit overboard and I think this was happening with some of the pastors. These pastors, these preachers, leaders, not just the pastors, but all those in leadership. If there was ever such thing of a pastor doing too much, if there's an example of a pastor doing too much and not looking pastoral, I think this is it. This gon' make your head rock, rock, rock. This gon' make your speakers knock, knock, knock. This gon' make the... Marcus Ryder's is somebody's pastor. He's somebody's pastor and I'm sorry, but that just does not instill godly confidence in me. It looks like kids playing here a guitar, he actually happens to have a guitar, so I hooked up, but I wish I would see my pastor doing that. On the roof at that, no, we're not gonna do that. Now, if that's what his church likes, so here's what's hard to happen. If your church likes that, then maybe you need to do a better job of teaching your church. Maybe you need to do a better job of leading your church. Maybe you need to do a better job of growing and maturing your church. If your church is not interested in growing the people, if the church is not interested in the wellbeing of the people, if they're not interested in shepherding the people, Jesus makes a statement to Peter. Disaster Peter's fallen or Peter has denied Christ verbally and left, gone back to his trade. He's back with Jesus, been walking with Jesus all this time. You leave Jesus, you deny him, what is Jesus' response to him? Let's go to John 21, 15. And he says, so when they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, now this is, remember, you'd been part of this group, Peter, and then you denied me, and you denied me over these hot coals. So let me go ahead and just make breakfast over these hot coals. And so he asked Peter a question. He said, Simon, do you love me more than these? He said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said, tend to my lambs. He said to him a second time, Simon, son of Peter, Simon, son of John, I'm sorry, do you love me? He said, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. He said to him, shepherd my sheep. Cause again, that's what pastors are supposed to do, shepherd my sheep. Then he said to him a third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was grieved because he said to him a third time, do you love me? And he said, Lord, you know I love you. You know all things. You know that I love you. Jesus said to him, tend to my sheep. Why is that important? Because I don't need you putting on stunts. I don't need you playing air guitar. I don't need you doing any of those things. Just give the word. Now, if you are good at giving the word and you are good at dealing with the problems, the issues of the sheep, guarding the sheep, shepherding them, then you're fine. If you have a particular personality that might be attractive to some people in your doing your job, in other words, you can preach the word, you can teach the word and you can do so in a way that let's say it's entertaining to people but you haven't compromised the word, that's fine. If you can do so to where you can make it relevant and people like this, yeah, I enjoy hearing him give the word. Well then, amen. If when you shepherd people, your heart and passion comes out, they see that you love them. If your church doesn't have that, well then church, you've got a problem. If your church, now, sometimes guys, your church might not feel that way. Now it could be you, let's just be honest. Sometimes people feel like that their church is not the right church for them and while they may want to blame the church, it might actually be you. Could be. If it's a bunch of people that are also feeling the same way, well then maybe we have a problem, but you owe it to yourself, it's incumbent upon you that if you've got a problem with your church, go to your church. You are a family. And we're going to come back to this in a second or again, I should say, but remember how we are described by Paul as a church body. He says for even as the body, we are a body is one and yet many members. And although the body though, they are many are one body, so also is Christ for by one spirit, we were all baptized into one body. So all of us are part of this body. We were baptized into it and there's different parts. You are no less important of a part of the body than the pastor, the elders, the deacons, the people in the choir, the ushers. No, you are just as important. And guess what? Your word, your feelings matter. They absolutely do. And so we'll come back to this whole issue about being a body. But if you have a problem with your church, if the pastor is doing something, elder doing something, one of the members is doing something, then because we're part of the body, I should be able to have my voice heard. If you don't have that kind of a body, because again, some churches are just too big, too big to maintain the organism. Now, there is no limit on how big a church can be. There is not. There is no limit on how many members. Is 1,000 members too much? What about 5,000? What about 10,000? What about 20,000? No, that's not too much because you can have elders and deacons to help you. So granted now, there are a lot of large churches, but there might be large because you've got some bad teachers, some bad preachers that appeal to the world. That doesn't necessarily mean that a large church, a mega church is a bad thing. Remember, all throughout the Bible, we see large bodies of people being led by God with a man or men. Think about Moses. Moses was shepherding by himself early on well over a million people. That's a lot of people. One, yet he's not a pastor, but he's functioning as this priest, as this go between the people and God. And so 1 million plus people, it's a lot. And then he says, let's pick some elders. Even still, a million plus people, that's a lot. Same thing in the body. We see the first day, the body's attitude and there's thousands upon thousands. Now they all weren't in the same locale, but still a large church doesn't necessarily mean that it's a bad thing. Hello, prodigal daughter and everyone else that said hello that I couldn't see. I'm sorry. You can ask me a question and just a little bit on fire for Jesus. Matter of fact, let me hold you and so you can ask a question towards the end if that'll be okay with you. So if you're a church, matter of fact, I'll tell you what, no, if you do have a question in regards to this about churches, then feel free to shoot. This is, don't go on it. We can be interactive here. We can be interactive. By the way, I figured out if I can see that, I can go over here and do it over here. I figured out, remember the other day, remember the other day the computer froze up on me, the video froze up on me? Figured out, I think I figured out why. There was something that was sending a hundred something gigabytes, using it up to our gigabytes all at once. And it was just, I don't know where that came from. So still don't know why, but I think I may have it figured out. I might, I might. So I'll freeze up on you again because if you notice, I look a little clearer. I look a little clearer. So anyway, so if you've got an issue with your church, take it up. What I would suggest, guys, is that you take it up as soon as you have an issue. Do not sit on the issue, the problem that you have for a week, for a month, for two months. Now I would say, if you have an issue, you may want to ask someone else, hey, do I, is it just me? Cause it might just be you, but even still, it's your family. It's your family. You have the right to, hey, even if it's just you to ask, hey, I got a question. Now, the pastor, if he's a good pastor or elders, they may have heard this complaint before, this issue before. Maybe the person that you would ask, they don't have this problem with other folks have. And so go ahead and ask, because if you sit and wait and let it just sit there and marry, you're going to be bothered. It's going to be like a burr in your saddle, as they say. And you don't want that. So don't let it just sit and fester and go and ask questions. No, I'm not downloading bootleg movies. No, I don't do that because I know for a fact, you do that. You can get some viruses and bad stuff. For those who are against big churches, for those who are against big churches, oh, it's moving. What do they do? Kick people out, cap memberships? Well, now I'll talk about this issue of church discipline in a little bit, but I think the biggest problem with people that people have with big churches is that big churches tend to be the places where some of the bad teachers are. It is not, let me just say this upfront, guys. It's not that that sin is more rampant in bigger churches. It's not. Trust me, there's just as much sin in small churches as there are in big churches. Now, if you've got 5,000 members and let's say some people are engaged physically with other people, you won't have it as much as you would have in a church with 100 members or 200 members because just by nature, the numbers, but you're gonna still have it there. How much gossiping takes place in a big church compared to how much gossip takes place in a smaller church? Percentage wise, probably the same, I don't know. How much hatred, how much fighting, how much jealousy? Whatever sin you can think of that might find its way in the church, really, every sin. Are you gonna have it in the big churches as well as the small church? Yes. The size of church does not determine how much godliness is in a person. So it's not having a big church, not a bad thing, nor a good thing because what you really want more than anything else is you want people to grow. You want it to grow in two ways. You want it to grow this way vertically with your relationship or their relationship with God and then you also want to grow horizontally because you want more people. You want more people added to the kingdom. If your church, and let me just say this, if your church is not interested in growing, now, if you're in a small town, that's different. We got 50 people in this town and 49 go to this church. All right, get to work on that one last person, but there's only so much growth, that's fine. Now, should they be consumed? That's a different. Being consumed with church, I mean, with church growth, that's a problem, but you should be interested. Here's how. Your church should want to evangelize people. The greatest part of a church is not how many folks can actually sit inside and sit in there. The best part of a church is how many people you intend to go out and share the gospel with. And so you want to train the people that are there to do so at home, on their jobs as they go to the grocery store, all those places like that. Hi Pebbles, how are you sweetheart? Thank you. On the job, you want people to know the goodness of the Lord. You want people to be so excited in your church that they're sharing the gospel people outside of the church. Why is Christianity the only faith where so many believers think anything goes to out of the Lord? Well, it's not that hard to discern, but what's happening is there's just more and more people who are just of the world and they're finding and following pastors who just aren't equipped, who don't have that same concern because, and you can be a well-meaning pastor, but just not ready for it, right? Because you love the word or you're Christian, you got some energy, you like talking. So let me go ahead and start a church. So that can be a problem. And again, people have itching ears and folks see an opportunity because there are people that see this as a means of gain rather than seeing godliness as the gain. Yeah, I'm gonna do that, Micah. I'm gonna start covering different denominations. I'm gonna start off with the different, the different, not denominations, but some of the different cults. Mormonism, Seventh-day Adventists, and do I, well, would I put Seventh-day Adventists as a cult? Well, wait and see. So we're gonna cover that. So, okay. So that's the reason what's happening. Sometimes, again, we've got churches that are catering and meeting the people rather than the people meeting God at the church. So yeah, that's it. The right pastor at a big church is fine. The wrong pastor, the wrong pastor at a small family-oriented church, I had a friend. I may have told you guys this story. I had a friend who, their church, small church, family, and when I say family, I meant that they all knew each other, they got along and so forth. But, but pastor was not a good, not a good guy. And the prophetess, co-pastor lady, she wasn't either. And they just, they abused these people. They had the people paying all of their bills, their mortgages, and so forth. Like, we're a family, but only one family in this group is getting their needs met. At the detriment to the other families. It wasn't like it wasn't a large church. So it can be a small church, a smallest church, a medium-sized church, or a big church. It just depends on the pastor and the leadership. Or what is happening. What is happening. And I told you all this before. Anybody in any position that gets any sort of recognition, it can go to your head. And so you have to be, you have to be grounded. You have to have, you have to be able to deal with the inevitable patch on the back. You have to be able to deal with the men. I really enjoyed that. You have to deal with the attention, the even the unwanted attention, especially if you are a pastor in that pulpit, because what can happen is the men tell you good things about yourself, the women tell you good things about yourself. Some of them might make advances that they shouldn't. And it can go to your head. Especially if you, even, even guys, if you've been a good pastor, it can still go to your head. Because you've been a good pastor. People flock to you. They put their trust in you. And unbeknownst to you, you can kind of inflate yourself. Have you all seen this video? There's a video out there. And I wanna show, I'm pretty sure. I'd be surprised if most of you have not seen this video. I think I've seen it once about this pastor who I think this particular pastor, he might wanna take a break. He's filling himself a little too much. He has an over-inflated view of himself about his importance. As a matter of fact, he says that in the pulpit, I'm important. Hey, hey, hey, don't you lay your head back. I'm important. I'm somebody. Now you might do your English teacher anyway. I'm teaching eternal life here. I love you. You know I love you. Have I convinced you I love you? All right, yeah. You better nod your head, yes. All right, come on, put it out there. All right, you stay awake and you listen to me. You say, well, he may never come back. Well, he ain't here now. And where have you been? Mr. Underwood. And I noticed on the calendar, I'm supposed to marry y'all. What makes you think I'd marry you? You're one of the sorryest church members I have. You're not worth 15 cents. I think I would lead that church. I think it would lead that church because let's just say the little, I think this was a teenager, I think, and was sleeping now. I don't know who knows. Maybe the person was at work late and rather than saying, you know what? I'm gonna stay home. I'm gonna get myself and go to church. Maybe. You don't know. But I would not say that dude is my hero. I would not call them out like that. Remember, you are leading the body, but it's not your body. It's, listen, if your pastor feels like it's his church, we got a problem, Houston. Houston, we got a problem. Because remember, you do something like that. You can run people off. They should know that you love them. Remember, Jesus tells Peter, tend to my sheep. Not, I don't think that's the way to do it. And then you embarrass the guy. Listen, the other guy, he's just sitting there. He's just sitting there. You get on the other guy, but you haven't noticed this guy. And you, yeah, you. I'm supposed to marry you. What makes you want to marry you? You ain't worth 16 cents. Wow. I don't have a problem with tough love. I really don't. But I think you might want to be just a little bit, a little bit wiser than that. I think you want to be a little bit wiser than that because, again, it's still, yeah, I think that might be just a tad bit. I agree with you. You might be overstepping your boundaries just a little bit. Now I don't know if he came back and apologized and so forth. Maybe went and apologized to them behind the scenes. I don't know. I don't know. And even me, even me, listen, I'm better than what he just said. Listen, at least I say that we're worth $5. He says the guy ain't worth 15, what, 15 cents? I said at least we're all worth $5, at least $5. So you said Friendship West is in your neighborhood. I'm not praying for your neighborhood. Just praying for it. Just, I hope, do you go to Friendship West? If your pastor is more political than pastor, then you need another church. If your pastor is more political, more social conscious than salvation conscious, if he's more like Friendship West, if he's more Black conscious, because your church needs to be more Christ conscious, more centered on the body. You've got, I shouldn't say you've got one job, but really you've got one job. You've got one job, but really it's two jobs. One, preach the gospel. Preach the word. Preach the word. Going through the scriptures. And let me just stop there for a second. If your pastor tends to be only topical, that could be a warning sign. Why is that? Well, here's why. If it's just, now listen, there's nothing wrong with topical sermons. Nothing wrong with them at all. But if it's only topical, you have to wonder are the people throughout the week? Because let's be honest, everyone in that church is not going into the word. So you want to delve into the word. And so wouldn't it be nice? I think it's a, I think it's okay. You go to, you know what? Well, you went to why I used to go, I wonder if we ever cross paths. J.L. says he goes Oakley Bible Fellowship. But if the pastor, listen, topical preaching is good, but if he doesn't do any sort of expository preaching, that means just opening up the scriptures and spouting on it. Let's cover Zachariah chapter two. Well, when was the last time your pastor covered Obadiah or Nahum? We tend to talk about the things that are relevant socially that might be an indication that he is not able to teach, which is a qualification. But he also wants to make people also teach. I mean, learn. So if you've got a pastor that can open, let's say you can, there's a lot of folks in the Dallas area. So a lot of folks in the Dallas area, I see that. Yeah, run from Freddie. Listen, I'm saying this, I'm saying this because of my own personal encounters with Freddie Hain and not a lot of us change. But folks like that, folks, he's a social conscious person and he's more into that, which is fine. Listen, go to the NAACP, go to the Urban League, go to almost say UNICEF, not UNICEF, but what is it United Negro College and I don't know why I would get those two things mixed up. But your pastor, the church, not just the pastor, but the men as well, should be able to open the scriptures in a teaching fashion and make folks say, huh, I didn't see that, I like that. I never noticed that. Wow, you want to inspire them to go and read the word themselves. That's what you wanna do. You don't want them just to say, hey, I can cover this because what we see happening is that there are people who just give it to you because it's current event, they can raise their voice of octave, take it down low, they can speed up and then they can slow it down because they understand homolexic, they understand how to deliver the word and make you feel like you just got something when after a while you go back, you get home and you open up the inside your innards and realize I wouldn't fed anything. I felt good, I shouted, but I wouldn't fed anything. All I got was a high that has no feeling. And when I say feel, I don't mean F-E-E-L-F-E-E-L-I-N-G, I mean F-I-L-L-I-N-G, a feeling. I need you to give me something that won't just make me feel good for the moment, the church needs to give you something that makes you, that lasts you throughout the week, something that you can hold onto a good teaching. Listen, a good church gives you word that has shelf life. Here's what I mean. On this channel, and I've got another announcement coming, but on this channel, there are certain videos that are just good for right now, but the old one majority, I want the videos to have shelf life, meaning that I covered this topic, this topic isn't just for today. Talk about cremation, talk about marriages, talk about this passage in the Bible, talk about that passage in the Bible. Well, that someone can come and look that up next week, next month. When I look at the comments section, a lot of the comments that I get are not on the current videos. The current videos will generate comments, kind of a rush of comments at the moment, but I like to know that people are actually looking at the videos from a year ago, from six months ago, from two weeks ago. That's what the church should be giving you, giving you something that's evergreen and you're taking notes and so forth, you want to have a church that helps you to understand how to work your way through the Bible. It used to be that we used to have to, so it's over there, pick up the Bible and be able to thumb our way through it. Can you find Malachi? Can you find Second Chronicles? Can you find Philemon? Do you know what comes first? First Corinthians or Second Corinthians? Some folks don't know, sad to say. Do you know where the book of Nahum is? Where's Jonah? I mean, now we've got the benefit of having these cell phones or computers and we just type it in and bam, it's there. Okay, fine. But do you know what these books say? The church, if the church is not inspiring you to do so, then go talk to your church and say, hey, pastor, I don't feel like we're being encouraged or inspired to do so. Can I get my thoughts on Darius Daniels? I think I've seen him before, I don't know. I don't know, tell you what I'm gonna do. Tell you what I'm gonna do. As they say, tell you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna look them up. Since I've heard about them, I'll look them up. I don't know much about them. I don't know much about them. Does your church have Bible study? Huh, at a church, what a novel concept to have Bible study. Wouldn't that be wonderful? Hey, pastor, can we have Bible study? We'll win all the time. Okay, let me see if I can get someone to do that for you. No, can you, that's what the pastor, so that's where a red flag will go off. If the pastor, if the pastor is only doing topical, now, maybe he's in a season of just doing topical, that's fine, but I'd like to know that you can open the Bible and exude a text. I'd like to know, one of the things that I used to, that I used to like to do that at two of my former churches, as a matter of fact, at two of my former churches, one where my mentor would do it and then over at an Oakland Bible Fellowship, you all tell me, I don't know if Dr. Evans is still doing this, but on Wednesday night, you'd have the Wednesday night Bible study, but prior to that, there'd be these question and answers. Oh, like when you say Greek pastor, you mean with the Greek letters and so forth? Yeah, I don't, I've gotta cover that because people have been asking me to do that, but on Wednesday night, he would answer questions, they would people submit questions, so he would answer questions. So can a pastor get up and answer, hey pastor, I got a question about this verse, I got a question about that verse, I got a question about can he do that? Now, can he answer every question on the spot? Let me think about that, well, that's fine, that's fine, but he should be able to answer something. And so there can be a problem if your pastor doesn't have that ability. Rather than we see pastors who get this ego because now the church that we looked at, nice sized church, right? But what's going on inside the church? I don't know, but it's causing him to feel like he is somebody special. That should never be because you get inflated and then what ends up happening. You think you are special. Now, the clip about the place, it's a pretty quick clip, but it's indicative of what's happening with a lot of pastors, maybe not to this extent, but it's happening. You are looking at God in the flesh. I see y'all scared to say that. And the word was made. Okay, let me just say this. If your pastor says anything like that, get up and leave. Don't even ask him. Don't even ask him to explain it. Do not ask the pastor to explain it just, all right. Matter of fact, can I get my offering envelope back up through, get up and leave? No, you're not looking at God in the flesh, but that's Brian Karn. That's Brian Karn. You get so much so that you feel entitled. Something happened along the way where your church, your leadership, things that they can tell you what to do. You say this, guys, you say this. Your church is not over you. Let me say that again. Your church is not over you. Oh, he still does, J.O. Okay. Your church is not over you. Your church is not the boss of you. You are, now, they are to be guiding you, but they can't make you do anything and they can make you sit down, but they can't make you, hey, listen, I need you to cut the cable off. They know, can't do that. That's not their job. That's not no, you are following them as they follow Christ, but you still have your household that you are responsible for, but they're giving you keys and tips and we're a body, we're like a family, just like I can't make my brothers or my sisters do something, but we can talk about it. I can make, you know what? My adult children married off, I can't go over to my daughters in their husband's house and say, yeah, do this, do that. No, they, no, but can I talk to them? Can I get enough, do I have, now you should have enough of a respect built up with the members or vice versa to where if they're saying something, you agree with it, like if I say this to my children, they have the option to say no, but now I have the option to cut them off. No, I'm kidding. They can say no, but if it's something that they, okay, this is Pops, this is Daddy He, he said something that makes sense. I don't quite see it, but okay, I'll take his advice because they know well that I love them and that's the point. Does your church know that you love them? The church won't know that you love them if they know that you love yourself more. If the ministry loves itself more, then they can't love you and the church at the same level, can't happen. And so when the church follows you and they'll do what you say, then you kind of feel like, yeah, I got this going on. I can tell you what to do. And so as a result, this is what happens. But if I treated you the way you treat me, but you tell me you love me, you honor me with your lips. It's a quiet church, ain't it? But your heart, far from it, you're playing. I gotta sign it. I could tell you to do something, you play strength, so I won't be no shadow. You sound like your leader, you say you connected, you say God sent you here, I know this is what I'm supposed to be. I love my best, I love my best. That's whatever you tell me, do whatever you want me to do. I do it. Until I say sit down. That's what you want me to do when you say sit down, just look at me. I give you an instruction. You always got an excuse to not obey. Yeah, so he's entitled. Remember when Paul and Barnabas, now we're talking about Paul. There's a person that, man, listen, if Paul were to walk in the room, wherever you are right now, and you're like, man, that's Paul. No, no, no, first of all, hold on, let's deal with this. We've gotta deal with this. That suit is not sharp. Hold on, let me, maybe I miss him. Let's go back to it. What if I treated you the way you treat me? No, I'm gonna disagree. Listen, that may be just me. Now, I could be out of touch. I could be out of touch. I'm not dealing with that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. But then again, I'm a little bit more conservative. I like the darker colors, blues, blacks, dark grays, a little bit of brown, no yellows, but yeah. At least it matches. It does match. We'll give him that. We'll give him that. And then I'm pretty sure he's got the matching gaiters and the belt. So, but notice Paul though, who if you walk in the room, like, man, that's Paul. That's Paul. Paul, let me talk to you for a second, Paul. Can I ask you a question? Paul, man, you're Paul. You're the apostle Paul who gave his head for us. You literally notice what happened when the people esteemed Paul too highly. They're saying that they are some gods that have come down. Paul, you're awesome. Yay, Paul, yay, Paul, yay, Barnabas. What do they say? He says, men, why are you doing these things? We are also men of the same nature, mere men just like you, and preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things to a living God. Not, thank you, I appreciate that. No, the moment that you start getting the idea that folks are idolizing you and they're just, no, sorry, can't do that. Don't do that. Don't do that. Not even with Paul. These are mere men. You do realize that Paul sinned. You do realize that John sinned. You do realize that Peter sinned. You do realize that Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, you do realize that all of these men sinned. Jesus did not. The powers that they may have shown was not their power. It's the Holy Spirit doing it through them. If the Holy Spirit wants to work a miracle through this microphone, you can do it. If the Holy Spirit wants to work a miracle through, I don't know, a fly or through a dog, he can do it. It's not you, it's the Spirit of God. That's the point. Instead of making people out to be something bigger or better or greater, now me personally, I like a church where the pastor's picture is not on the wall. It's not a deal breaker, because sometimes let's say this is an old church and so they just have this custom, this tradition of putting the pastor's picture up. But I don't like it where the pastor, if the pastor's too front and center. It's all about this pastor. That can be a problem if it's all about this pastor. And then what ends up happening is you've got a pastor who kind of wants to keep his legacy going, because he's so full of himself. You made him out to be something special. I'm going to point you to something that is going to be a red flag, not always, but in many cases, I'm going to point you to something that's going to be a red flag. But when that pastor's been so flattered that it's about him, so much so that now you've got pastors who want to pass on their legacy to their child. Now, I don't have a problem in and of itself if the pastor, the next pastor happens to be the pastor's son. I'm not bothered by that, but if the pastor is forcing that, if the pastor is leapfrogging qualified people just because I've got to give it to my, it's not a business, the pastor's ship, the pulpit, the church is not inheritance. Again, this is our body. This is our body, okay? Not just yours pastor, not just yours deacon, but this all belongs to us. And so because of that, handing things down to somebody else, like this person's doing, like he's trying to keep the legacy, who didn't think that this was going to happen? And I will cover you and their family and their creativity. There is no way you could do what you have done and travel from city to city to city, packing out auditoriums and stadiums without the hand of God being upon you. Open your eyes and see no man can do these things. Save God be with him. Or no man can do these things unless the bishop gives it to you, to the pastor to do so, to the daughter to do so. And first of all, she's not qualified because she's a she. She wouldn't be qualified if she was a she, but identified as a he, she's not qualified. But who didn't see that coming? What was the conversation like at the end of the day before in the drive there or over the phone? Hey, this is what I'm gonna do. This is what I want you to do. So Mike, what about celebrating pastor's birthdays and so forth? I don't have a problem with honoring a pastor. I really don't. I really don't. I'm gonna get to that in a second. I'm gonna get to that more so in a second, but I don't have a problem honoring the shepherd, the pastor, I really don't. But as long as it's just not too much, not over the top. Now in this case, this particular pastor, he loves, he's not there all the time. And so because he's not there all the time, you might go to the potter's house and hey, he's not there, he's out doing other stuff, other T.J.G. stuff. So, Nisi the Red, thank you so much for the super chat. I appreciate that. That's a problem. Why? Why is that a problem? Well, because if the pastor is gone all the time, then how can he be a pastor? If the shepherd is not there, how can he be a shepherd? You cannot, just logistically speaking, you cannot shepherd the sheep if the sheep aren't in view of the shepherd. Can the shepherd take a break, go on vacation? Sure, sure. But I'm over here working on this movie project. I'm over here doing this. Got a church way over there. So one of my problems is, I'm not totally against it, but I see it being a problem where you've got multi-site churches. You've got a church over here. Why not? Why not have someone else take that church? Why not train? Like Paul tells Timothy, but on the screen again, he says the thing which you heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach. So the pastor, the church gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Well, you know what? Bob is going to plant a church. Bob's going to plant a church and we give you our blessing. And by the way, some of these folks that live where Bob is on the plant church who are members there, go over there and support them. Matter of fact, become members. We're not so selfish to where we've got to keep this. So I know for a fact, Jay, I don't know if you were there when Conway was the singles pastor. And when he was getting ready to go do his church thing, then Tony Evans didn't have a problem with that or having another person go plant a church and Fort Worth would have you. And hey, we got members that live in Fort Worth or way out north, y'all stay out there. You get fair because they've been trained. That's how it should be. That's the point of it. Not, let me just extend my legacy. That's a dangerous problem, though it happens. There's something dangerous that happens when you give the pastor too much power or he thinks he's got too much power or he takes too much power and no one sees it. No one takes it back. No one says no, no, no, no, because it can be dictatorial. Now you saw on the thumbnail, the church. That church is a church here in Dallas. It's inspiring body of Christ. There's been some issues with the church. Now there was some issues with the church even before certain allegations showed up. Let me see this, hold on. Can you talk about, except Jesus tomorrow because unfortunately there are a lot of people who believe they have, you know what? Yeah, I'll tell you what, I'll do that. I'll do that, I'll do that for you. See how that worked? See how that worked? But there's some issues going on over there. There's some issues going on over there now. I wanna, let me go back to the thumbnail for just a second. I wanna put something on the screen. I wanna put it on the screen and I want you to look at the thumbnail and see something. This is kind of a red flag or potentially a red flag. It's not a total deal breaker, but my antennas go up. I'm gonna put it back on the screen and I want you guys to look at the picture and tell me what you think might be, might be a problem for me. What do you all see in this picture? I don't know if you all see this, what do you see? What could be the problem for Corey? Corey's got a problem and you should too. Not the size of the church. Nice looking church, fairly new, but there's a huge issue that I have with this church and churches like it. I'll tell you what it is. The issue that I have with that church is if you look at the size of that church, what's the big part that you see? This large sanctuary. It's the large sanctuary. Let me put it back on the screen. I want you to notice something. Put it back on the screen. Now you see this large sanctuary, but if you notice on this large sanctuary, it's more sanctuary than it is places to do other things throughout the week to have services to teach people. That is my problem. If your church is centered around just Sunday, Sunday is so important. Now, smaller churches will be able to have this problem because they're smaller churches. So it's not a small church issue. If you've got a smaller church, a hundred, two hundred, then your sanctuary is going to be the biggest part. That part, it is going to be the biggest part. But what about, yeah, classrooms. What are the classrooms for? Well, because we're a body and we're not a body just on Sunday. We're a body on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Where's the education going on? Where's the teaching going on? Are you following me? That's one of my issues and it's one of the things that I, I got to look at that for a second because too many churches, a good church is not going to be Sunday centered. If your church is Sunday centered, then we got a problem. When we got a problem. Marcus said, well, let's say good, well, don't Marcus, let's say good bye to your property. Marcus has got to go. Goodbye, Marcus. Hate to see you go. See you next, oh, I'll see you next time. God bless you, brother. So that's the problem that I have. Now we'll say this, I will say this at matter of fact, anybody in the Dallas area, go and compare Oakley Bible Fellowship and go and compare Friendship West. Go and compare the two. Will you notice how many rooms for teaching and education and just growth that are there at Oakley Bible Fellowship versus Friendship West? I should put, I wish I had the force out to think about this to put the different pictures up. Now again, it's not a deal breaker, but it's something that I noticed because I want to make sure that you are not just centered around Sunday. Cause if you're centered around Sunday, you put too much emphasis on the show. That can be a problem. That can be a problem. Now, this particular church that we're talking about, they've got some issues and the issues are centered around the pastor. Now one thing that folks can tell you, he runs a tight ship, he keeps a tight reign because it's, he leads that church. He leads that church. I don't know if he's still doing it. I know he was the pastor and leading the choir. I don't know if he still does it now. Well, listen, you might want to let somebody else handle that, if you got to have your hands in everything, then you're not a good pastor. Why do I say that? Because you've got to be teaching and training other people. Now, a smaller church, you're gonna have that. You'll see that more so with a smaller church. But a church this size, and it was a big size church when you see these things happening, then that is, that's, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second, wait, I gotta stop the show, stop the presses, stop all of that. Let me just say hello to Treviah. This is, and I know it's a Treviah one because there might be a few Treviahs in the world. There might be one or two, maybe three, but not that last name. This is, unless you're different, one of the kids, she's an adult now with her own kids, but one of the kids, when I was a youth pastor, she was one of the kids that's there. Man, you just made my day, you just made my day. You just made my day, Treviah. Now, now I can't even continue. Now I can't even continue. But one of the issues that's there, oh, y'all say hi to Treviah, by the way. She said, it's me, it's me. Y'all say hi to Treviah. But one of the issues that's there over at, they call it iBike, is, and this is how you get in trouble. This is how you've got two type of a reign on it. The, there's accusations that have swirled over there, so much so that there's been even people that have covered this, even Vice. Now I get it, Vice is left leaning. Vice has no real interest in church. As a matter of fact, if there were no church, I think Vice might be happy about that. But the fact that it caught their attention, I'm gonna tell you why it caught their attention, and then I'll give you the other side of the story as well. When you start listening to God, Satan will start speaking like God. Some of you are aware you are now, because God knows he's speaking to you, but the devil says, I'm not cutting you loose. So he can teach and preach, and give it in such a way that it's just, not to, not to, no pun intended, but inspiring. It's the name of the church, inspiring by the Christ. And so you can do that. I don't have a problem with even the way he preaches, you know, make it relatable, exciting, and so forth, whatever. But it's the level of power that he has control that might be a problem. Why? Because he's got these different allegations, and I don't mean one allegation, okay. And these aren't allegations that other folks are doing. These are allegations about him. A few too many, a few too many rape allegations. A few too many molestation allegations from males and females, adults and children. And that's the problem. Now, I'll be honest, I'll be honest, because in full disclosure, they tried to indict him, and that didn't happen. Pastor at one of the largest churches in Dallas won't face charges after several abuse allegations. A grand jury decided not to indict Ricky Rush, the founder of Inspiring Body of Christ in Southern Dallas. They say prosecutors didn't present enough evidence to show Rush committed any crimes. Now, so could it be that, now I've heard, I don't know, that it was, the stuff that wasn't a crime still should have been dealt with. The stuff that wasn't a crime still should have been dealt with. And so that's where leadership, which is why if you got a pastor that all the power, if your church is a church where there's all the power seated in just the one man, we got a problem. Because then there's no accountability. There is no accountability. So let's just take some time and talk about accountability in the church. There should be accountability when it comes to the members. Remember, Paul writes a letter, he writes to the church in Corinth, and he says that it's actually reported to me that there is a morality among you and a morality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles. And so what was Paul's prescription? Now, you all think that you're doing well because, hey, listen, I know this and I know that. We're good. No, your arrogance is in the way. And so what does he say? Put that person out. Deal with that person. Deal with now. I'm too familiar with church discipline, but I can promise you this. Church discipline is the first step that you take to get that person to kind of get themselves right. Either to find out they weren't saved or that your off step in your walk get this course correction, but you don't let sin run rampant. You have to deal with sin, period. Okay? You have to deal with sin. Here's a funny thing. Matter of fact, here's a funny thing. I didn't even mean to bring this up, but with me, while things were happening, you all have heard my story. Well, while this was happening, Mr. Revile was one of my youth students. And listen, things were going well. When we started, when we started off, and maybe Trevile, you can remember this, we started off, I don't know, eight, nine, 10 people, before we went to our own church and we were sharing a church building, five, six, seven, eight, nine kids. And then it gets to the point to where we've got 60, 70, 80 kids coming and we had fun. What would we do? We would meet there at the church and we would have games, and we would talk about just goofy games, just little silly, goofy games, just fun games, because these are teenagers. And then after that, we would eat and then we would have Bible study. And kids would bring their friends and people would place their faith in Christ and it was growing. And then, so was my ego. I'll be honest with you. I'll be honest with you because he said the dinner. I'll be honest with you. That stuff goes to your head. And then so what was happening with me and my own little personal life. And then because what was happening with personal life affects the business and so forth. And so, you know what, Corey? Sit your tail down, which was, I didn't like it, but had to happen. And so you cannot allow for sin to run rampant. Deal with that. One, because you care about the name of Christ, you care about the person as well. So you do that. But then what about the elder? And that's why I bring this issue up with that church. Because if there's accusations against the elder, we're talking about, there's gotta be firsthand accusation. Not, hey, I heard somebody said this about that elder. No, that's not no. It has to be, look what it says. First Timothy 517. The elder who rules well, they are to be considered worthy of double honor. So again, if you wanna celebrate their birthday, if you wanna do all those different things, if you want to honor him, fine. Fine. No problem, because he earned that. However, however, that mean that you only honor him. Especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. By the way, that's what a pastor's supposed to do. Preach and teach. For the scripture says you should not muzzle the ox. I almost said it backwards. I almost said, I'll muzzle the mox. Uzzle the mox, no, muzzle the ox. While he is threshing and the labor is worthy of his wages, do not receive, now here it is, do not receive an accusation against an elder except on the basis of two or three witnesses. This pastor's gonna bring up later in days to come. Bring this pastor up in days to come. But in this case with Ricky Rush, there's people with direct contact making these accusations. Where there are two or three witnesses. So it's not, hey, I'm repeating what I heard someone else. So it's not that. And so you have to deal with that. Now, why do you deal with that? If that's the case, then you deal with that person sternly. Church discipline is not just for the body or the people in the pews. It's also for the people in the pool pit. Because again, God understands, all of you got some sin in you. All of you got some sin in you. And so therefore, you can't let that person go as well. Are you with me? So because of that, now you're careful about how you receive an allegation. Let me see something. You wanna be careful about how you receive an allegation but then when the allegation comes, you deal with it. If that pastor is the top dog, then what do you do? What do you do? Because how do you get past him? You really can't. You really can't. Now, because we're a body, let me just read this in chapter 12. Remember, everything about the body is for the building up of the rest of the body. So whatever benefits or gifts you have, it's for other people, not just you yourself, but it's for other people. If I'm good at this, then I shouldn't be just good at this where only I enjoy it, it's for the rest of my family. Amen? And when I say rest of my family, I don't mean my family like wife and kids, I mean family, family like the body. So Paul makes his statement, he says, for the body is not woman but many. If the foot says because I am not a hand, I am not a part of the body. It is not for this reason any less a part of the body. His point is, his point is, his point is. You're okay, my friend, you're okay. His point is, you are not insignificant. You are not insignificant. Now we're looking at the pattern of how the body, the local body should be, okay? We're looking at that pattern. I've seen this happen, by the way, where some people were at a place and they're like, we can't find good churches on that, by the way, there are good churches. Let's dispel that rumor that there are no good churches. There are good churches all over the place. A lot of bad churches, but there's some good churches too. But so what these folks did though, in the meantime, while they were looking for a good church, they would come together and just fellowship. They would read and pray and so forth. And then you know what they decided? They had a bright idea. Got this bright idea. Since we meet together, we're a family. What if we go and what if we find, if we go locate a man who is qualified to lead? We come together about 15, 20 of these people and they just say, you know what? Let's find a pastor to lead us, someone to help us. That way we don't have to go searching for one. We can go find one. So we're all, that works, that does work. But the point is, you're part of the body. Every part of the body matters. The pinky, the thumb, the knee, the back part. What is that part of the foot? The heel of the foot, the back part. We don't think about it, but cut it off. You ain't walking. So every part of the body is important. See how I pronounce my words clearly important? I don't know why. But you matter, walk that way in your church. Not that you're the biggest, baddest, toughest, no. So pastor, elder, deacon, I've got a problem. I'm concerned. And no, you're not caring for doing that. You're not like, you know, these, like the word. By the way, I'd be glad when we stop using that word, Karen, but since I'm using it, you're not a Karen because you are caring. See, y'all see how I did that? Y'all see how I did that? Yeah, if you put some track down and I go to rapping, don't be surprised if it's a hit. Don't be surprised if I can actually. No, I can't rap, I can't rap. But just because you're Karen, by the way, is that where it came from? Karen and Karen, I don't know. We gotta look into it. But the point is, it's your body, it's your church. Okay? Deacon, Dr. Doug. Anyway, let me answer a few of these questions. Oh, okay, on fire for Jesus, send me an email. What is my email address? Oh, Lord. My smart Christian channel, is it, yeah. So, can a moderator, one of you guys put that up in the link, my email address? I just want to repeat the question, can you? Oh, okay, I already answered that question already. I will do this too, Ann, 0103. What type of authority does it, that's a good one, as a matter of fact. That is a very good one. What type of authority does the pastor have? Yeah. What do you think of big youth groups versus small discipleship groups with youth? Well, this is what we were doing now, Grant. We weren't a mega church, or anything like that. We just had, at our height, five, six, 700 people. What we did was, because technically, my responsibility were the young adults to the youth, the high schoolers, junior high, down to the babies. I didn't fool with the babies that much. I had to kind of, hey, this is what we're doing. Let's do this and so forth. But with the youth, we had a good amount of youth, good amount of high school boys, junior high boys, high school girls, junior high boys, so we would try to break them up. We would have sometimes, now sometimes we would do stuff with just high schoolers. Sometimes it's just junior highs together. Sometimes it's boys, sometimes it's girls. Sometimes it's high school boys in one segment, junior high boys, high school girls, junior high girls. Are you with me? So it depends, there is no right or wrong way to do it. It's just, I'd say, let your own church kind of dictate how the best way to go about doing it. I knew it, listen, it's my buddy here, it's my best friend from high school. By the way, the intro that you all heard, that he gave, that's his. That's his, that I don't know what, I don't know what, leave out, I have no idea what that's called. But that's his. So anyway. I'll go back to some more questions. Okay, that was it, okay. I did answer the ones that have more. So guys, this is what a bad church looks like. A bad church, let me just go to my notes to make sure it's, a bad church is pastor-centered. A bad church is entertainment-centered. A bad church is light on the word. No real teaching. A bad church is neutral on sin, non-committal on sin. A bad church has zero accountability. And then here's the most important thing. A bad church has no love for the body. They don't treat you like your body. A good church, conversely, is not pastor-centered. It's not Sunday morning-centered. A good church is centered around the growth of the body. Which is why I say that the large churches, you shouldn't have this large church in this gigantic sanctuary, and that's it. A good church is not into entertainment. Now, does that mean, can a good church, good preaching be entertaining? Sure, entertaining doesn't mean lights and flash and so forth, entertainment just means it kind of keeps your attention. That's fine, that's fine. And can he say it, can he speak it in an entertaining fashion? Sure, just like worship. Let's think about this. The choir or the worship team, they're singing. Can I ask you guys a question? Can I ask you guys a question? Let me ask you guys a question. If the worship team sings and it's not entertaining, aren't you ready for them to sit down? Just be honest. Meaning they can't sing. They're out of tune. It's like, wow, what just happened? Whose cat just got loose? So it's okay for it to be pleasurable. It's okay for it to, I like what I'm hearing. And when he preaches, I like what I'm hearing and the way I'm hearing. I like how he put that out. I like how he made it relevant. I like how he made it fit what I'm saying. I like how he made it apply to my life. One of the things that I was taught, by the way, you guys who are looking for kind of the, who are looking for, if you're a pastor, if you're a preacher, give you a little tip, give you something that it works. Remember this, hook, book, look and took. You open up with a hook. Nothing wrong with that, you draw them in. But notice what's next, hook, book, the book. Give them the Bible. Hook, book, look. What does it say? That's the look. Let's look at what it's saying. Let's work our way through it. Let's expound on it. And then the took, which is kind of a weird way of saying the take, what do you take away? How do you give them something to apply and take home? So I just gave you a wonderful outline. So you wanna deliver the word. I get it if we're reading through numbers or Deuteronomy and the pastor's dry already. He's on the boring side and he's reading slow. And then this person begat that person. And then that person begat that person. And then that person begat that person. And this person begat that. And then you're knocked out of your sleep. And they're tapping you, hey, listen, this time we go home. We didn't already say and took the offer, let's go home. If that's not what you want, I get that. But the word, now that also means something about you. Because a hungry person, when they're hungry, they will gobble up the word. A good church is not word light, it's word centered. It's focus on the word. The star attraction of a good church is the word of God. Amen. A good church is not tolerating a sin. They're loving though, when I say not tolerant, that doesn't mean that, listen, that skirt is too short. Listen, you said a cuss word out of here. No, listen, I saw you. Listen, Frank, I saw you. Ms. McGillicuddy ran that, walked that way and I saw you looking at her. No, I don't mean that, zero tolerance. Meaning that you deal with people and they're seeing what they're going through. That's what I mean. And there's accountability from the top all the way down. That's what I mean. And then most important, a good church loves everybody else in the church. Amen. Upon what basis should a pastor step down? Whenever that pastor is not meeting those qualifications? The qualifications that we see in 1 Timothy 3 or the qualifications that we see in Titus 1, when he's not meeting those, if he is in sin, then he's gotta step down. That's it. So he has to, and again, you just look at it. That pastor is guided by those. It's almost like you're, what's the word? Your code of conduct at your job. This is how we live on this job. This is what you gotta do. You gotta have your shirt tucked in, nails manicured, no long hair. Well, of course, I think that's out the door now. But that's your code of conduct. And so you just live by that. That's all. Now, let me just say this too, also, when I say amen. You know what, honestly, when I say amen, sometimes I think God's like, I should hit the button. Amen? But no, no, I'm not gonna hit the button. Not yet, I'll let you know. There's no mic drop moment. There's no amen moment. Go ahead and write today. But let me just say this also as we're getting ready to leave. There is no substitute for church. Be at a church. If you have not found a church, well then guess what you should do this Sunday? Go look for another church. If you didn't find a church that Sunday, guess what, next weekend, go look for another church. If you haven't found another Sunday, go to a different church. In the meantime, throughout the week, you're typing, look at up churches. Let me look at this church, let me look at that church. If it's that important. If it is that important. If you are telling me that you don't have a church home and you have been looking for a while, my question is, have you actually been looking? Now, if your standards are, is this way up here? My question is, if your standards are this high, are you that kind of a high caliber church member? Now we got to stop and talk for a second. Some folks, that's why I left the church. Well, maybe the church should have put you out. Maybe the church should have left you. If you expect a high caliber church, are you a high caliber member? In the body, you've got some knuckleheads that need to be in the church. Let me just say that again. If you are, there's too many hypocrites in the church. There's too much this, there's too much there. Well, why aren't you there now? Go there and join the crowd. Why? Because as Jesus says, I didn't come for those that are well. Those that are well who don't need a physician, they don't need a doctor. No, I came for the sick. So if I go to the church, the hospital, you know what I better see? I better see some confidence. Oh, me, I need to see some sick folk, but I need to see these sick folk getting better. I need to see some medicine being applied. Now, by the way, if you get to the point to where you don't need this church, there's a door to let you out. But let's get rid of this whole notion that a church has to be tip top, a perfect 10 for you to be there. He has to preach the way I wanna preach. I gotta hear them use the way. Everybody in the church has to be nice to me. I better not come across a rude usher or some people that's got their own seats. No, no, no, no, no. I don't like the temperature in here. You know what? Go start your own church. You and the devil. You and the devil, go start your own church because there is no perfect church and there's no perfect congregate. That church is messed up, which is where you ought to be because you're just as messed up too. So let's go have a good mess of family and work to grow each other. Well, I've seen some fighting argument. You see fighting arguments at your house, didn't you? You saw fighting argument at the job. You saw fighting. Some of you folks go to Walmart, you got your cell phones out, you see fighting arguments over there, you keep going. So yeah, you're gonna see that. What did you think? What did you expect? What did you expect? Oh, because you have not been going to church. You don't expect people in church to be actual human beings. That's gonna happen. If you think the church needs some help, well then go and help it. Talking about it, doesn't do anything. What it does is it discourages other people, younger people who ask why I ain't going. How many of you all, now you don't know this, but how many of us are the reason why some people don't go to church? We've talked perspective church members out of going to church. Man, I don't like the way they sing. Well, okay, well, so, will you get pretty sing? Well, I can't sing. Well, then shuddy, hush it, quiet. If you don't like the way they sing, again, go find a church. There's some, now, don't trade in the most important thing, the dessert for the meat. The singing, it's important, but the word is the meat. Now, go where you're fed and go where you're growing. If you're growing there, well then amen. But if you're not growing, then you'll find you another church. Let me also say this. A great church isn't great for everybody. That's okay. That's okay. This church is a wonderful church, but it doesn't do it for me. I like this other. Well, amen. Are you growing? Can you be a benefit? Can you be part of the body? And that does not mean that you've got to be in leadership. Go there, join the church, sit down for a second, and I don't mean a second second, I mean a good while. Become part of the family, see how things are, and then let them know you, and then let's just see. Let's just see what kind of member you are. What kind of sheep you are. Cause quiet is kept. The dirty little secret in church is just like there's some bad shepherds. There's some bad sheep too. And so don't be part of the problem and blame in the shepherd. No, you might have a bad shepherd. And if you can't find a church, keep looking. Keep looking like it's air, like it's like it's, search for the church like you search for a job. Search for that church like you swipe and left and swipe and right and up and down on the phone like you looking for a soulmate, a spouse. Do that. Take care of the main thing cause he says, do not neglect the assembling together as some of you that started doing, that's back then, even more so today. Because you can't help us and we can't help you. You don't know, I need prayer, but you can't pray for me cause you ain't at church. Can you be, it's a good question. Christian and not a 10 church. Yes, you can, but you're not being a good one. Just be honest. I'm not saying you, but... Now let's say it's, you're looking, you just don't. That's, but don't keep looking. Make it your aim in life to find you a church. Find you a church. Park somewhere. Maybe I'm at this church right now, temporarily. I'm still looking. Okay, fine. I like what Nicholas says. A finger without a body. That's really what it is. Find some place for the, for the meanwhile. You might find out, you know, I like this. You know what? Have any of you all ever been at a church and the church grew on you? I wasn't sure about it, but the dog on the dog on church, they just grew on me. I didn't know if I was gonna like this pastor. Now I love this pastor. Say something about my pastor. Now I will shoot you. That's not Godly, but you get my point. You get my point. So, find you a place, get you a place, and then hurry up, become a productive member of that church. And sometimes, this is where I'm about to hit the little red button. Sometime being a productive member of the church means being a quiet member of the church, but a moving member of the church. They need the chairs taken down. That's you. They need somebody to sweep the bathroom. That's you. They need somebody to do this in the parking lot to fix that, that's you. Without all the talking, without all the advice. The church is gonna be fine with or without you. We just wanna see if you can help grow the church and be part of a great church. We have a fallen body who's come together, who's lifted up by Christ. That's what the church is. The word for church, I say the good part for the last. The word for church, people think it means the called out ones. It does not. You say it again. It's made up of words that says the called out ecclesia. It looks like called out, but no, the two words that would on their own, say called out, mean they mean a congregation, assembly. No, I'm not. No, I'm not a pilgrim's progress. No, I'm not. So are you part of the body? If not, find your spot. If you're looking, then let us know. We'll see if we can find one. We can help you. By the way, one more thing before we leave. Send an email to info at smartchristians.org. Info at smartchristians.org. I need you to do so for a particular reason. I want you, if you know of a good church, either it's your church, that is if you haven't done so already. If you've done so, then fine. Send a link. Send the name of the church. If it's your church or church that you know of, you've heard of, you think it might be a good church, go ahead and send it. So we can put it on our little church tracker. Amen. In the meantime, guys, I love you all. Look forward, I did, I did, BJ. I got it, I got it, I'm gonna respond. In the meantime, I look forward to you guys. Hope to see you guys tomorrow at the Bible study. But in the meantime, be blessed.