More Than A Sermon

Welcome back, truth seekers from around the world. It's time for an updated edition of this podcast. I'm recording one message and putting it out on all the platforms. So whatever platform you're listening on, pray that you are well. You, your family, and the world we live in. It's been about, I think, pushing 90 days since we all last spoke to one another. And I'm just so thankful for the continued messages, words of encouragement. And I'm just so thankful for this audience. One of the most, honestly, the most faithful, for lack of better words, you know, group of people that I've had the opportunity to be surrounded by. So thank you for the continued words of kindness and encouragement.

And as we continue discerning truth. Now, again, as I mentioned, I think in the late winter or early spring of this year, We can't really call ourselves truthers if we're not holding up Christ first and foremost. That is, he is the way, he is the truth, he is the life, and that has to be of the utmost importance. People may be aware of secular lies, 9-11, Waco, but the real meaning behind that and the true fight between good and evil that we see beyond the veil, if you will, But the reason I came on today, I've been up since four in the morning, so it's that lunch struggle.

Forgive me if I stumble, and we had a service last night, so if my voice is a little raspy. And by the way, the pressure drops up and down here with the weather. You know, I pulled out the cream for the coffee for the wife the other day, and it was out for maybe 15 minutes, and it had like expanded like it was going to blow up.

So the pressure here has been crazy. We've had a lot of up and down pressure systems here. We actually had three days in a row, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, with no chemtrails whatsoever. My wife and I have been pretty fired up. And I said, well, you know, there's a lot of big events coming up. There's rumors of some things going on in Europe on Saturday. And of course, we have the elections that everybody's talking about in 12 days.

So I just figured they're saving up all their ammunition for the skies for those timeframes. However, I just wanted to share with you kind of my journey over the last 90 days because, you know, now I'm in that seat, I see that is certainly way more than just a sermon. And it's been a blessing, you know, to be in a pastoral leadership position at Pilgrim Chapel here in Harrington, Delaware.

The responsibilities, the challenges, the blessings. The first thing I decided to do, because anytime a new pastor comes in, Some people leave the church. Some people, you know, come to the church and you can't take it personally. But we instituted a homecoming service that we had on the 11th and we had a great turnout. We had a nice meal afterwards. And last Wednesday, we instituted Wednesday evening services.

We never had those. So we have a Sunday service at 1040 a.m. We have a Wednesday morning Bible study at 930 a.m. We have a Wednesday evening service at 6.30 p.m. We have other things, monthly hymn sings and things of that nature. But those are kind of the three steady things that I run. And of course, you know, your phone's on 24-7. So I have it on right now.

So if I have to hit the pause button, forgive me. But it is so much more than a sermon, right? We all have our favorite pastor's For those of you like me who like to listen to whether it's Adam Fannin or, you know, Pastor Lawson, even though we may not 100% agree on everything. And I tell people, if you agree 100% with someone, you might be in a cult.

You might want to check yourself because even, you know, those of us who are married for decades, right? We still have things we may view differently in this world. It's okay. It doesn't mean we have to, you know, turn that person off. Now, obviously, there are make-or-break situations, make-or-break ideals that we may have, but hopefully you're not marrying anybody who you have that major difference with. Now, the one common thing— I' m actually literally chatting with a guy from Houston right now about the same subject— the two big problems people have is, one, their spouse is not on board with the truth, not necessarily— in some cases, yes, but I'm not talking so much about the church and the body of Christ. I'm talking about whether it's biblical

cosmology or 9-11, and they don't have that person to turn to and to have that type of conversation. And, you know, not necessarily that 9-11 and Waco really have— that conversation shouldn't happen in church. Biblical cosmology, it should be a side item. We shouldn't be afraid to approach it. Last Sunday, you know, we talk about controversial issues for some reason, right? Even though the Pharisees were very plain in their standings in the Bible, I made it very clear to my flock that you're not saved by a zip code. You're not saved by a certain patch of land you may live on in the Middle East. You're either in Christ or you're not. You're either pregnant or you're not. There's no gray area there. You're not saved

by a physical bloodline. And I made that very clear to the church. And I want to tell you, people are hungry for the truth. I think people are more receptive than we give them credit for. But you obviously can't go in and just start unleashing all this stuff. The worst thing you can do is try to change everything all at once. You have to institute it slowly.

You have to support it with Scripture. People in churches are very traditional. Even the smallest of things, I'm going to move this plant over here, people will say, why did you move that? Many churches are very traditional. Not that there's anything inherently wrong with that, but being, you know, one of my majors are church planning and revitalization, many of the books I've read and the professors I've talked to and the special guest videos we've had, they all say the same thing. The one constant you hear in a church is, we've always done it that way. And when you ask them, well, why is that? Nine times out of 10, they can't give you that answer. And if it's not based in scripture, then they should be

open to change, right? If you're a business owner, right? I had to pause in case you didn't catch that there. And you're losing money every day and you don't change something, chances are you're going to go out of business. Now, does that mean you don't mess with doctrine? You don't change the way the Bible is presented? You don't stop talking about sin, right? A lot of these prosperity pastors, they're all about feel good and be your best you, and they'll send around the offering plate a few times.

But it's our It's our job as a pastor to challenge people, to provoke people, to get them to self-examine themselves, not against Fox News or Wikipedia or even your favorite podcast, but against the Word of God. Am I, you know, am I walking like Christ? Am I pleasing Him? But then there's so much more as you start to climb the rungs of Christianity, right? From salvation, and then you work your way up. You become a disciple. And then, of course, the goal is to be a disciple yourself.

And that's how the church is supposed to work. Now, I am trying to finish up my book. Obviously, the book that came out much earlier in the year, You Are Not Who You Were, was part one. Part two is the Disciple Makers Handbook, and I hope to have that out in the next few weeks. And that is really... Something that I tried to emulate a little bit, in no way, shape, or form is it, you know, am I trying to plagiarize it? But Disciples Shift by Jim Putnam was very inspirational in my journey to, you know, my call to pastorship. So yeah, that'll be out here in a few weeks as well. You can check up all the updates on our website. It hasn't moved, Foundations in Faith. Our buddy Joe and his program, Joe Harper,

Reformed Truth or Ministries. His radio program airs every Friday at 1 p.m. As a matter of fact, this coming Monday, which is what, the 26th, I have all his podcasts running back to back. They start at 9 a.m. Eastern time Monday on the 26th, and they finish at like 8.04 a.m. Tuesday. It's like 23 hours. And he breaks down the Old Testament.

in amazing ways. Obviously, he touches on other things as well, but the way he looks at Genesis, and yes, biblical cosmology, and the Nephilim, and those things. But doing it from the Bible, just amazing stuff, really amazing stuff. But when that book drops, I'll put that there. I do have some emails from that website I need to catch up to you. I just ask for your patience and mercy, because again, when you take over pastor, that comes first and foremost, the responsibilities, the challenges, Um, I mean, I wasn't even in there for a week. I was in the hospital a few times visiting people, a home visit yesterday.

And that's our job. It's our duty. It's our calling. And I enjoy it. I'm there to lean on people. And this is something everybody can do, It's just lend an ear to somebody, let them vent, let them, you know, a lot of people don't, maybe you are that person. Maybe you don't have anybody who you can lean on, but that's so important. But, you know, being a pastor is so much more than preaching. It's not just preparing a sermon every Sunday. And that's, I was guilty of that too, right? I would go listen to a sermon and I would say, what, you know, what's this guy talking about? Well, maybe not giving enough grace. Now, again, if they're going against doctrine, you know, you're not living the life you preach upon, you're twisting the word, that

should be called out. But it's so much more than just a sermon. Again, it's visiting the people that are hurting, praying with families, answering difficult questions, you know, saying, hey, Pastor, can I talk to you? And asking very deep theological questions. And you have to be honest, you know, I'm not really sure. You know, what's the hot topic now? Once saved, always saved. I had a great conversation with a young lady from California who, you know, her family's looking to come out here middle of November to visit the church and possibly move out here. And we all have those difficult questions, and you just can't guess. You can't give your opinion. If you're not 100% sure, it's okay to say, well,

let's sit down and let's open the Bible. Let's look and see what the Bible says, right? discipling believers and just helping people with their daily struggles. And I still see it. And I get those messages all the time. During my sermon Sunday, I challenged people. I looked right into the camera. It's something I've never done before during my sermon. It was the Holy Spirit. It wasn't me.

And I just challenged the people. I was like, I know it's 2026. It took me five years to find this church. I understand that there may be a church building on every corner, but it's hard to find doctrinally sound where you truly feel welcomed at those type of churches anymore. But you just have to do your best.

If you've tried three or four places and given up, I just implore you to get back out there, go on the church's website, and then just step inside. You'll know pretty quickly, nine times out of 10, just by the way you're welcomed sit through the sermon, you know, how are they worshiping? Is everything they do, are they glorifying God? You know, are they showing that fear of God, which is another thing I mentioned on Sunday. Again, it's not my job to tell other churches how to worship, but when I see a stage and smoke machines and flashing lights, that doesn't scream fear of God. To me, that's showmanship. That's just my opinion. And that's just what I believe. You're more than welcome to disagree 100%. But

without a doubt, one of my biggest concerns, and that's the next book I'm going to get back into, The Church We Were Called to Be. I've got a rough draft done. We have to get back to basics. And I get all your concerns that so many churches, so many denominations have drifted away from the most basic of biblical teaching. And when I say that, I'm not I'm not Billy Graham 2.0. I'm not the end-all be-all of pastors.

I've been doing this for, you know, three months, right? I have barely, you know, a quarter of a year under my belt. But, you know, the Lord has set me up for this, you know, leadership in the military, understanding how the world works. You all, these podcasts were a part of my journey into this pastoral leadership. The things that have happened in my life, sometimes we say, why did this happen? Well, have you learned from it?

Have you taken wisdom from it? Something that I struggled with just a few years ago, someone came into my office yesterday after Bible study and were telling me about this problem. And I said, I lived this problem just three or four years ago. And I gave them my perspective. And, you know, pray to the Lord it helped them. But there's a reason why. why the Lord puts you on a journey. And take your struggles that you either currently have or you have had and use them to help someone else. And here's the other thing. You don't have to be. You can still be grieving. You can still be going through something and lend someone else a hand because I can assure you, I can assure you that somebody is going through something worse. You can be that

beacon of light for someone, and maybe the both of you together can drag each other to the beach out of that ocean of trouble that you're dealing with. So it is a concern to me that so many churches have drifted away. I don't see genuine fellowship. I see churches that are really good doctrinally, and they're not welcoming, or they have the doctrine twisted. or they don't welcome anybody.

There's nothing worse than walking into a church, not shaking, not one person shaking your hand, right? Like it's a club. A friend I know told me a story where they had a visitor, and it's a rare occasion when they get a visitor. And one of the people said, hey, you're sitting in my seat. Literally, somebody came in, a visitor sat down, and a few minutes later, the regular congregant came in and said, hey, you're in my seat. Now, again, does that usually happen? No, of course not. But here's what I'll challenge you with. When you go out to a restaurant and you have a bad meal, did you stop going out to eat? Of course not. In many cases, you'll even go back to that same restaurant, right? You went to the Texas Roadhouse and they overcooked your steak.

The potato was hard and, you know, the chili was cold. But two weeks later, you went back. Or you still go out to eat, right? You have a couple, one or two or three bad experiences at a church, which, yes, that is one or two or three too many, 100%. But we don't give up. Why am I saying this? Well, because, you know, the stats that we're seeing, you know, between 60 and 70% of people who say they are Christians don't even step foot in the church once a year. Well, I can still worship at home, but the Bible commands you to not forsake the fellowship, right? The book of Hebrews chapter 10 or 11 tells us not to forsake the, you know, the ecclesia or the ecclesia, depending on how you pronounce it. Ecclesia is the correct way to pronounce

that Greek word. But we are called, followers of Christ are called to gather together, to encourage one another. to lovingly correct one another, to observe the Lord's Supper amongst one another, and all these type of things. And again, does the church have to look like a big building with a steeple with the stained glass windows? No. You can start at a coffee shop with like-minded people. You can start in a home with people who just want to study the Bible. Some of the biggest and most successful and doctrinally sound churches started in homes, started in coffee shops. But you can't forsake the assembly. And, you know, I was guilty of that for a while, too. I got very disappointed and distressed, and I thought the church

was completely lost. But we can't bring it back while standing on the sidelines. And again, I try not to practice or I try to practice what I preach. And Maybe we need y'all to get back in the church and keep it, instead of walking away, which I get it, there's some topics that are no deal, right? They're deal breakers for us. But maybe that pastor doesn't want to have that conversation about biblical cosmology. Does he still have a sound doctrine on the gospel of Jesus Christ? Well, then maybe we should show a little compassion because... I mean, it took me 50 years to even tolerate it, right?

And the same goes for many other people in there, right? So one of the main reasons I came on today was to ask you to reconsider. Maybe, you know, and again, there are great sermons that are available on YouTube, that are available on the internet, but you still have to have that in-person experience. experience, whatever that is. Again, whether it's in a church, whether it's in a coffee shop, whether it's in your house or in the backyard or at the park, it's important to connect with brothers and sisters in Christ and grow your community that way. And again, I get it. So many churches have drifted, but I think part of that is psychological propaganda against us as well, right?

You guys know, I follow protestia.com and all they show all day long is, you know, these LBGTQ impasters and just wacky stuff. And we want to believe that all the churches are like that, right? Just when you watch the people of Walmart on YouTube, not every person in Walmart is that crazy. So maybe that subconsciously affects our perception that, well, every church must just be wacky. Well, that's not the case. It truly isn't the case. And, you know, There's even YouTubers I've stopped watching because it's constant negativity, right? I'm smart enough to know that Kenneth Copeland and Benny Hinn and Greg Locke and all these people are clowns and they're frauds. Joel Osteen, right? But, you know, sometimes you can get sucked into that universe

where it's 24-7 negativity and it's not edifying. Like I used to watch I think it was called Real Talk with Jordan Riley, and half of them were either so obvious, why would I bother watching an expose on Kenneth Copeland? And others were just, you know, he would say somebody's bad, but wouldn't really provide that information. So I just try to stay away from that negativity now. I'm still aware of the deceit in the world today, but I base everything on, does it hold up against the Bible? That's really what it's all about. But it takes us to get back in the church. We need people like you back in the church. I can make a small dent where I'm at. There are people who are awake in these communities, but they don't want to go back to church.

And there's another formal word for this called church hurt. And again, that's another. I have so many books I plan to write. I don't have the time of day right now. It's so difficult. But we need to reclaim the ecclesia. We need to reclaim the ecclesia. Okay? It is a burden for me to watch the church, what it was to what it is. But we can't fix it simply by But like what I'm doing right now, what I was doing before, just sitting behind a microphone.

We have to get back in the church. We have to rebuild the church. I think all these things that are edifying, like my brother Raul puts out great stuff every day. And his buddy Cliff puts out edifying prayer and his story. And of course, Joe and Brett and all these other. And if I'm not saying your name, forgive me. but you get it. There is very high-quality, edifying, supplemental things out there for us to partake during the week, to feed our soul during the week that is Spirit-fed.

But you have to have the ecclesia. We have to get back to our biblical foundations. We have to make sure that our churches do not do not conform to these modern cultures, these traditions, and simply preach the Bible. And, of course, with sermons, preach the Bible, preach the Word, but also, you know, this is what's going on in the world today. How can you battle this? How can you battle that? But it's got to be scripturally based.

And listen, we can disagree with the church and over difficult interpretations. Now, I've made it clear. Here's how I address dispensationalism. I said, when I read Matthew 24 and the Revelation chapters accordingly, I am a post-trib guy. Well, here's what I say. I know many people here are pre-trib, right?

Especially if you have the Baptist flavor, right? many of those are pre-tribbers. And praise the Lord if we get raptured out of here before the tribulation, right? But here's the thing I say to the American people. We have brothers and sisters in Christ around the world in Africa and in Asia, and it's even happening in South Korea now, not North Korea, South Korea, where Christians are being persecuted.

They are losing their lives. And we're like, well, we'll get out of here before the tribulation. There's a lot of people who are going through tribulation right now. It may not be the tribulation, but they are going through tribulation. So maybe the way to look at it is if we get raptured out of here before times get really bad, praise the Lord. But I tell my congregation verbatim, I ask that you keep enough oil in your lamp just in case something Pastor Hobbes was right, and the Lord takes us away afterwards. The entire Bible and our entire history is full of people, again, whether it's Polycarp, Justin the Martyr, so many people throughout church history were martyred for their beliefs. It's okay, right? And it is frustrating

when we see something one way and another person does it, whether it's biblical cosmology or dispensationalism, the truth about geopolitical Israel, and people will hang an Israeli flag, and then you try to teach them John 14, 6, and Galatians 3, 28, and they nod their head up and down, but they can't correlate the difference. Well, You know, those are the things that if we leave the church, we'll never get them to understand. So another thing that I learned, and again, I'm not talking to you, I'm talking to myself as well.

Something that I've learned is we have to be patient. We have to be patient. I can't think of a better word and just express our opinions and all of the stories, especially on the Flat Earth Files, right? We always talk about leaving breadcrumbs, about how it took so long for us to understand these things because we've only had one belief for so long. So maybe we should have more grace on how we address our brothers and sisters over these, what are, at the end of the day, difficult interpretations of Scripture. And I get how we can have grace, but how do we handle it when we are attacked? That's the thing that, you know, I've gotten emails and phone calls and texts about, right? When they bring these things up with grace, that person does not

respond with grace, right? They're ridiculed. They're attacked personally. They may even get questioned with their sincerity, like, you don't really believe that, do you? You're just joking, right? And it's unintentional, but it trivializes us. But what would Jesus do, right? We say that all the time. would he walk out or would he just continue to preach the truth? And if you believe that is the truth, continue to be humble.

And again, that comes from the department of easier said than done. I get it. I 100%, I get it. But, you know, these podcasts for the last six years on one and, you know, three or four on the other four years, it'll be next month, I think, or next week, actually, it would have been four years. Um, Discernment. It is still important today as any time to keep your discernment radar on, right? Continue to examine everything, but I implore you now, try that again, I implore you now, sleep's important, kids.

Examine everything through Scripture, not just Wikipedia, not through some of the websites maybe we've studied over the years, but examine it through the lens of Scripture. And, you know, even pulpits. I tell my congregation almost every week, examine me. Take my words. Go back and listen to the video.

Listen to what I say. And if you disagree with me, let's sit down and talk about it. All those popular Christian personalities, right? The TBNs and even the Turning Point USA and all the famous... You know, people who they say, you know, the truthers out there, the big, big names, you know what I'm talking about, right? Even though they'll have a 33 tattoo on their arms. And the people who claim they are the alternative media hold up their ideas with discernment through the scripture, or I should say through the lens of scripture. Because with all of this being said, here's my main concern for many people today.

It's the danger of isolation, spiritual isolation, right, where we only depend on online sermons. and podcasts, you know, that can, or even fellowship with Zoom calls and things like that, that can encourage believers. And I'm a proponent of them. I listen to them every day, but they should not replace the local assembly whenever gathering is possible, right? And that's straight out of Hebrews, it's 1025, if I'm not mistaken. So, you know, this is a verbal letter of encouragement to you all, if you will. If you all ever want, we actually had podcast listeners already come to the church.

It's been amazing. some of them have been back several times. They live a bit of a distance, so it's a struggle for them to come every single week. But it's refreshing to shake someone's hand and hug someone and, you know, just briefly mention a few things. And then off, I had dinner with one guy for 90 minutes, and we talked about all those things, and that's fine. But I'm driving on. I graduate in May. I'll have my master's degree.

I've had people, you know, ask me. One school reached out, and say, hey, you should go after your master's. I'm tapped out, brother. As much as I'd love a PhD, sorry, not a master's, a doctorate, right? And I'm just, no way. I have so many other things that I want to do. I want more books to publish, you know, and maybe even come back to something in this form next spring.

But I just, right now, I'm buried in schoolwork, The paper, the end of the semester was this past Friday, and the journal I turned in was 36 pages. It was 9,000 words. But, yeah, I enjoy it. I was called to do it for many years. Just like, you know, I knew a lot of the things in this world weren't exactly as they were.

But sometimes we have to humble ourselves and just follow the path the Lord has provided for us. So, you know, my vision for Pilgrim Chapel is to grow. Within the next year or two, we want to start a private school, a Christian school, I should say. Plan is to start K through five and then add one grade per year.

I think we sit on four and a half acres. And then... to put my education to work. We want to plant, you know, my goal is to eventually plant another church, right? I've told you guys this story a thousand times. One of my first platoon sergeants, when I first reported, he said, don't ever come to me with a problem unless you have an idea, at least an idea for a solution. So does that mean everybody should go out and become a pastor? No, of course not.

Only fewer called. Everybody should read the book of James. If you think that you want to be a pastor, read the pastoral epistles, 1 Timothy, Titus, and read the book of James. Because the book of James makes it very clear, if you twist God's word, you're in for more of a punishment. You are held, unlike this world, where people in places of accountability, they get away with things exponentially, where they should be held accountable more than the average Joe. Well, when we stand in front of the Lord, we will be held accountable. But we can get into a church. We can lead a men's group, right?

You can create something, right? Reclaiming Ecclesia, right? That's one of the three books I want to put out. Reclaiming the Ecclesia, right? You know, what is nine days from today? Halloween. But what is it really? It's Reformation Day. It's the day a man stood up to the Roman Catholic Church, which may not sound very scary in 2026, but 500 years ago, it was a big deal. Now, am I saying that Martin Luther was the end-all be-all? No, he was a flawed man like everybody else. But he recognized the church was doing something wrong, and he didn't turn his back on it. He called them out. Now, am I telling you to print out your version of that and to go down to the local A Methodist church that has a rainbow flag hanging from it and nail

that on there? No. What I'm saying is for each and every person who's listening to this broadcast right now, recognize your spiritual gift and put it to work. Your spiritual gift may be praying. Become a prayer warrior. Your spiritual gift may be discipleship. Become a disciple. Could be music. Get out there and make that Christian music to the best of your ability. And maybe a few of you were called to pastor. I personally know a few of you who have been through seminary. The Lord needs you today more than ever. And listen, being a pastor is a 24-7 job, right? When I was younger, very young, I'm talking a young boy, I thought the two greatest jobs must be a school teacher and a pastor, because

I figured you had summers off if you were a teacher, and you only had to work one day a week as a pastor, right? I just looked at it as a guy who was semi-retired and kind of came in. Nothing could be further from the truth. All the way down to making sure the hymns for that day align properly doctrinally with that sermon, that that whole service is one right? Continuous construct, praying, learning how to pray out loud, right?

All of those things that we overlook before you actually get in that pulpit and you are actually running things, we tend to overlook. So again, simple knowledge alone isn't the goal here. What we learn from God's Word, that should really change how we live and how we love one another, and how faithfully we follow Christ. And again, Christianity is so much more than a sermon on Sundays.

It's more than a podcast. It's more than winning an argument about Scripture. What is it? It's a life that is fully surrendered to Jesus. We can spend hours debating the world around us, but we can never neglect the the condition of our own hearts. My encouragement to you is very easy. Stay in the word, remain faithful to Christ, love your family, love your friends, find a church, and never be ashamed of the gospel and grow from there.

James 1.22 says, but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own self. Right? Just don't listen to the word. act on it. Walk like Christ, right? Remember what is truth for all of us still, you know, the truth community. My question to you is what is truth, right? Look at John 18, 37 and 38. You know, Pilate said to him, art thou a king? What did Jesus say?

Thou sayest that I am a king to this end of I was born, and for this cause I came into the world that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. So what I said back in, you know, late winter, early spring, everyone that is of the truth hears my voice. More than 2,000 years later, you know, people still ask the question, what is truth? It's right in front of them. We live in a world where truth is determined by popular opinion, what's trending. You know, the institutions create truth. They create their own truthers. They put them on the world stage. Traditions, which again is another thing. that you have to adapt to and have mercy and grace with when you come

to a new church, right? But the truth, the truth doesn't change because public opinions change. The truth is not established by team red or team blue or who votes the most, right? I think it was Raul's girlfriend said, I'm not team donkey or team elephant, I'm team lamb, right? John 14, 6 says, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And I know there's many churches who don't quite get that, right, when it comes to other groups of people. But again, the truth is not merely something we discover. The truth is found in Jesus Christ. God's word is truth. Staying in John, the most powerful one of the most powerful books in the Bible. Obviously, they're all important. But out of all

the books I've read, John, Acts, Romans, I've been all in Hebrews. My goodness. I started my sermon last week. The book of Hebrews, which is officially, right, unauthored, or they don't know who it was, not unauthored. But there's no, right, it's unknown author. But I believe it was Paul, one, because when it was written, two, where it was written, and three, I think it's chapter 13, he mentions Timothy, which is a big sign for me. You know, John 17, 17 says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth, right?

Jesus didn't say God's word contains truth. He declared that God's word is truth. Scripture isn't subject to the approval of governments, the universities, institutions, or pop culture, and we can never place the opinions of men above the authority of God's word, right? That verse I quote all the time, Psalms 118.8, right? It's better to trust the Lord than to put confidence in man. And then the first, you know, something goes down, whether it was, The scandemic or something, people go running to men. But we, as Christians, should be willing to examine what they've been taught and compare it with Scripture. Look at Acts 17.11. Another one of my famous quotes in church. The Bereans. They received the

Word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures dailies. Whether those things were so. They didn't go to the local newspaper. They didn't ask Jedidiah down the street if this was true. Even when Paul, the apostle Paul, came in, they examined him and his word against the scripture. We have to exercise the same diligence today. And again, yes, that includes what's coming from the pulpit. Because guess what?

They are men too. And they are flawed as well. So again, our responsibility is not to defend what we've always believed, but to believe what God's Word actually teaches. And of course, that speaks loudly to the Flat Earth Files. And that's one of the hiccups we have. But are we willing to walk away from the church over those beliefs?

Because we know how deep that lie goes and how hard it is to pull people out of that out of that pit, right? There's a lot of difficult verses in the Bible, and we should sit down and study further and look for, be willing to have these type of discussions. And I get it, we don't always get that grace back, and that's something that we just have to pray on and hope it gets worked out. But again, our responsibility is not to defend what we have always believed is true. but to believe what God's word actually teaches us. Maybe you need to say it exactly that way.

And you have to understand, everybody who's listening to this right now knows that the truth will not always be popular. 2 Timothy 4, verses 3 and 4. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they, after their own lusts, shall heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away from their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. So Paul warned that people would actually prefer comfortable messages over sound doctrine. People often reject the truth, not because they can't understand it, but because they don't want to accept what it requires of them. Speaking truth, I'm sure it's cost many of you friendships. popularity, right? Or acceptance. But

we have to be careful not to confuse being controversial with being correct. Galatians 4.16 says, am I therefore become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth. We are not called to make the truth popular, right? Jesus said, if they persecute me, they will persecute you. And if we expect the truth to be popular, then we're setting ourselves up for disappointment. We're just called to remain faithful to the truth with the supporting Bible passages. And that's all we can do is to present it. And if they have a problem with it, they don't have a problem with you, brother and sister. They have a problem with God. James 1.22 says, but be ye doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. Like I said,

It is possible to possess tremendous biblical knowledge and still fail to live according to Scripture. We can expose error in others while overlooking sin in ourselves. We can win arguments and still fail to demonstrate that character of Christ. We are genuinely truthers. That truth should produce humility. repentance, obedience, compassion, and courage. Ephesians 4.15, again, but speaking the truth and love may grow up into him all things, which is the head, even Christ. So the truth without love, that often becomes a weapon of pride. And that is something that, you know, I've seen pastors gain a following and that pride starts to get to them and they start to want to tickle ears to see those numbers go up.

We have to remain humble. Love without truth can become an excuse for compromise. Scripture commands us to hold firmly to both. The greatest evidence that we love God's truth is not how loudly we defend it, but how faithfully do we live it, right? John 8, 31, 32, the truth that sets us free. Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, if ye continue in my word, then ye are my disciples indeed, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Those were the Jews who choose to believe on him. The book of Hebrews were Jews who converted to Christianity. They were being persecuted. Their faith was wavering. They were thinking about going back to the old covenant, the old way, which is the highway to hell. And that's why that author, again,

who I believe was Paul, wrote the book of Hebrews. That's the book that says, do not forsake the Ecclesia. I mean, boy, you read the synodic books, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and you read John, and you read Acts, which is tremendous, the birth of the church, Pentecost, you know, the rise of Paul. All of that. And then you get into Romans and Hebrews. Just amazing words that resonate today more than ever. And they can make the argument for you.

It's so much easier to win an argument at church by just saying, you know, Brother John 8, 31 and 32. John 14, 6. Galatians 3, 28 and 29. The greatest bondage. Think about this. The greatest bondage that is facing humanity today is not political deception. It's not the bankers. It's the bondage into sin. It's people who stray from the word.

The greatest freedom isn't merely discovering something the world has concealed. It's being delivered by Jesus Christ. Right? John 8, 36. If the Son... therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. So we can uncover every deception in this world, 9-11, Waco, the moon landing, but we can still miss the greatest truth of all if you don't know Jesus Christ. So, wow, I thought this was going to be a 15 or 20 minute update. We're closing in on 50 minutes. I'm going to close with a challenge.

2 Corinthians 13.5, examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves. Are we pursuing the truth because we genuinely desire to know God or simply because we enjoy proving others wrong? Are we as passionate about examining our own hearts as we are about examining the world? Does our pursuit of truth bring us closer to Christ?

Are we growing in faith, obedience, humility, and love. And when everything else is stripped away, where does our confidence rest? In everyone that is of the truth hears my voice, When Pilate asked, what is truth? The question for each of us today is whether we are willing to hear the truth, not just hear it, but to obey it.

We should continue to seek truth wherever honest examination leads us. We should be a discernful people, right? But just don't ever forget that our ultimate authority is God's word and our salvation is found in Jesus alone. So, you know, when we are, right, many people look at the truth as a hobby and we read the Behold a Pale Horses and those type of things. Just make sure you're not taking away from the time you could be spending with God, right? We all have our favorite truth. There's every now and then I'll, if something pops up on the old algorithm, I might spend a few minutes listening to it. But don't ever let it compromise your time with the Lord. Because at the end of the day, knowing the truth about this world, it can't save your soul.

Only Christ can. So Thanks for your time. I went a little longer and I just, I had a few notes, literally just a couple of notes of things I didn't want to forget to mention. But it was nice to be back here. I may be back here again in a month or two. I may not be back here until, you know, the spring or who knows. But, you know, I missed y'all. I've seen some of your messages. I've got some texts, some phone calls. If you're ever... You want to travel to Pilgrim Chapel, you know, send me an email, pilgrimchapelde at gmail.com. We'd love to host you. But, you know, ensure it's the Holy Spirit calling you, not Pastor Hobbs, because I could get hit by a bus tomorrow and you just traveled across the country. So you

make sure you pray on everything that you do. My sincere thanks to all my brothers and sisters out there. You know, there's some of you, a few of you that I chat with every single day, my buddies Raul and Joe. And don't forget, Joe Harper is every Friday at 1 p.m. Eastern Time on foundationsandfaith.net, the radio, and we got the Joe Marathon on Monday at 9 a.m.

till Tuesday morning at 8.04 a.m., 23 hours and six minutes of Joe Harper. Just a great mind, especially in breaking down the Old Testament, not taking away from anything else. It's just, he's amazing to listen to. And everybody else, Michelle and Brett and our buddy Cliff, and just everybody else who I've been chatting with over the days, months, year. Patrick, you know, he's the one who came to church and his family. But just stay blessed, stay in the word.

Make sure you're spending enough time with the Lord. Stay in prayer. Because guess what? When you're praying, when you're listening to worship music or you're in church, you're probably not sinning. That's the key. You're probably not sinning. So anyway, thanks for your time. If you made it to the end and I made some sense, thank you. You all have been a blessing in my life. I have been meaning to do this earlier, but time has been just— this is my one week between semesters, and I have been playing catch-up with so many different things. I'm living on about three or four hours sleep a night, which may be the norm for some of you younger folks, but there you go. God bless you. Keep your head on

a swivel and Christ in your heart. And I'll put some of my contact information in the show description. And please be patient and please allow mercy and grace in my time to respond. I'll do the best I can. God bless you all. Take care.

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