Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world.
so that all may know Christ. Join us now. For a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church. Located in Kernersville, North Carolina. Numbers chapter 11, verse 24.
Let me begin. We're going to give you this passage. And Moses went out. and told the people the words of the Lord. and gather the seventy men of the elders of the people.
and set them round about the tabernacle. And the LORD came down in a cloud and spake unto him. and took the spirit that was upon him. and gave it unto the seventy elders. And it came to pass that when the Spirit rested upon them, They prophesied.
and did not cease. But there remained two of the men in the camp. The name of the one was El Dad, and the name of the other was Medad. They said, L dad, me dad, hell dad, okay. Notice this, and the spirit rested upon.
them. And they were of them that were written. but went not out. unto the tabernacle. And they prophesied.
and the camp. And there ran a young man. man, excuse me, and told Moses and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy. And the camp. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My Lord Moses, forbid them.
Stop them. They shouldn't be doing this. And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? Would God that all the Lord's people were prophets. And that the Lord would put his spirit.
upon them. Interesting passage. Let's dig into it. Lord, we love you. Thank you for all that we've done.
And thank you for all that you've done. And thank you for all that you've allowed us to do. And Lord, even today, I think of all the work that just goes into every Sunday, from nursery to sound to choir to specials to preaching to greeting, Lord, to parking cars, to opening up doors, all the vacuuming and cleaning that went on beforehand. And we could just go on and on. I think of orchestra and getting instruments, bringing instruments, all these different things.
Well, we do it. For you. And Lord, I pray that you would allow us as we close this day. at least in your house, that we would Glean something from your word, something that we need to hear. Not just individually, but tonight, Lord, I think especially as a church.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, so let me explain this if I can real quick. God ordered the Jewish elders to appear before him for a special anointing. And it was on the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land.
Obviously, you would know that. And so God gets these elders, 70 of these elders, and he brings them to the tabernacle. And they encamped the tabernacle. And God pours His Spirit upon them and they begin to prophesy. They began to preach.
And that's a wonderful, wonderful thing. But what happened was, there were two of the elders. that did not come with the rest of them to the tabernacle. They were still back at the camp. And as soon as God poured his spirit upon the 70 elders there at the tabernacle, all the way back at the camp, these other two that had not gone with the rest of the group.
Let me say this again. They weren't with The big group. And God poured His Spirit out upon them, and they began to testify in the camp. And the first thing I would say is this. Where do you think that prophecy and preaching was more needed?
At the tabernacle where it was just the elders, or at the camp where the people were?
Okay, but here's what happens.
So these two guys are prophesying in the camp. And everybody in this story, I think, meant well. But this young man, we don't know who it was, he shows up, and here's Moses, and here's Joshua. Joshua's kind of a second man to Moses. And this young man shows up and he says, Hey, these two elders that weren't with the group.
There at the camp Prophesying. And Joshua jumps in, I'm sure meaning well. And he tells Moses, listen, stop them. They weren't with the group. They weren't with the 70.
They weren't there as a tabernacle. And let me just read it again in that context. Look at verse 29. And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou. Thou for my sake, he's like Moses is saying, Are you bothered by this?
For me, is that why you're so bothered by this? Let me explain something to you. Notice what he says: Would God that all the Lord's people. Would God everybody was preaching. Would God everybody was trying to share the truth.
Notice what he says. And that the Lord would put his Spirit upon them. Tonight we're dealing with this Um subject an elitist Attitude. An elitist attitude. You see, Joshua believed.
only the select group. that gathered. have the right to prophesy. But that's not what Moses thought, and even more specifically, It's not what God thought. God poured His Spirit on these two men just like He did the group over here.
But because these two men, look at me now. We're not part of a certain group. There are certain people that felt they don't have the right. to do what the group does. Are you getting me a little bit tonight?
Are you smelling what I'm cooking a little bit here?
Okay. I'm going to give you the verses.
Now we're going to go to Mark chapter 9. We're going to go Old Testament, we're going to go New Testament. Let's go to Mark chapter 9. And just in case you have any questions. Um This ought to answer them.
Mark chapter 9. Look at verse. 33 again verses will be on the screen for you. And he came to Capernaum. And being in the house, he asked them, What was it that ye dismut disputed among yourselves by The way.
What's going on here?
Well, Jesus shows up and the disciples have been I don't know if you would call it bickering. They had been. disputing And so Jesus shows up and he says, what is it that you're disputing about? Look at verse 34. But they held their peace, I bet not.
I'm sure they didn't want to share. Yeah. But they held their peace. For by the way they had disputed among themselves, Who should be the greatest?
Now, I don't know that I've ever gotten into that kind of dispute. I've got to be honest with you. And I've got plenty of pride, I'm sure, in other ways, but I just never had very much. Ammunition for that kind of dispute. I just don't have a lot of evidence to prove to get in on that one.
But all of these guys began to dispute who was going to be the greatest in the kingdom. Notice verse 35. And he sat down and called the twelve. Teaching moment. Time for us to talk a little bit.
And saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all. and servant of all. And he took a child and set him in the midst of them. And when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them, Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name receiveth me. And whosoever shall receive me receiveth not me But him that sent me.
And John answered him, saying, Master, Oh, here we go.
So you thought we were just going to concentrate on this first part. Jesus just gets done. Saying then if you're going to be the greatest, you're going to have to be the servant. And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils. In thy name.
And he followeth not Us.
Now, let me explain this real quick. He is not saying that he doesn't believe in you. That's not what he means by he doesn't follow us. This wasn't an individual that was demon-possessed or a man that hated Jesus but used Jesus' name and didn't believe in Jesus. That's not what he means by he didn't follow us.
What John was simply saying is he isn't part of our inner circle. He's not part of our little group of disciples.
Okay. And he says Notice this again. We saw one casting out devils in thy name. He followeth not us. And we forbade him because he followeth not us.
Us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not. For there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name. That can lightly speak evil of me. For he that is not against us.
is on our part. For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ, verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. What is Jesus saying here? Listen, if somebody does something in my name and somebody does something for me, You need to understand God's going to bless them and honor them for that, whether or not they are part of your group. Amen.
Let's go to another one. Then we'll jump into it quickly. 1 Corinthians 15. Here's Paul. Verse 9.
Paul says, For I am the least of the apostles. That am not meet to be called an apostle.
Now I would argue with that. On the outside looking in, I think there's a lot of argument that Paul was the greatest. Of the apostles. In fact, if anybody I feel like earned the right to be called an apostle, it's Paul. Paul said, I'm the least, and I've not even earned the right to be called an apostle.
He says, Because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God. I am what I am. And his grace which was bestowed upon me. was not in vain.
Paul said, Because of this wonderful thing I haven't deserved that God has given me, I'm going to make sure and do my best that it's not in vain. I'm going to make sure that God didn't waste grace on me, Paul says. Notice this. But I labored more abundantly Then they all Yet not I. But the grace of God.
which was with me. Paul says, listen, I'm the least. I don't even have a right to be an apostle. But the grace of God showed up. And the grace of God did in me what I could not do inside of myself.
And I determined if God's going to show me that kind of grace, I'm going to work harder than everybody else. I'm going to give it everything I have. And at the end of the day, it's not going to be, Paul says, because. Of my effort or my education or my accomplishment. It is all because of the grace.
of God. Can I have an amen for that? Can I ask you something tonight? Do you feel superior? to others in any aspect of your life.
Not many of us would stand up and say, yeah. We would all say, no, no, no, no, absolutely not, preacher.
Well, we're going to dig into this, okay? I want to give you a couple things where you and I have a tendency if we're not careful. to be elitist. Where without saying it, we think. We're better.
We think we're above. We think because They're not part of my group. They're not part of my inner circle. They aren't as educated as me. As Paul said, even with his education, I'm the least.
They might Because they're not as accomplished. And I got to be honest with you, I'm going to dig into this quickly tonight. We're not going to be here long, but we all need to hear this. And I think as much as the individuals need to hear this, a lot of things of what we've talked about so far in this Attitude Series is a lot of interpersonal relationships. But I believe this is just as much about.
Corporate. Church setting. First thing I want to bring up is this: that there are sometimes we can act like elitists because of church. No, this is my 13th anniversary. This is, I think, the 84th year, something like that.
Um for Kerwin. And I want you to know something right now. We are no better. at Kerwin Baptist Church. than anybody at any other church.
The last thing that I would ever want any of us to do is act like we're better than someone else because we go to Kirwan Baptist Church. Listen to me. I see it happen a lot around this area. How people can act like because they go to such and such church. That they're better.
And can I tell you something? I don't care what other churches tell their people to do, and I really don't care. I am telling you here at Kerwin Baptist Church: we are not elitist because we are Kerwin. We are a bunch of sinners. That have been saved by the grace of God.
And anything this church is, is only because of the grace of God. And anybody in this church, if we're anything, it's only because of the grace of God. And the last thing we ever need to act like is if we're better because of where we go to church. And let's be honest, some of you have met people that act that way because of where they go to church. I know I have.
Just about every week. And I gotta be honest with you that makes me sick. to my son, because you got a bunch of people worshiping a church instead of worshiping God. And if you keep doing that, church is in trouble. If God starts seeing you're going to worship that church more than you're going to worship me, trouble's getting ready to loom.
And I want everybody to know right here: listen to me. This is something that can happen at a church.
Now, listen, we are not the biggest church around here, not by a long shot.
Now, we're bigger than we used to be, and I'm thankful for the growth. We've been around here a long time, and God's kept these doors open.
So, can I tell you something? We're not the biggest. Maybe I think we're the best, but we may not be the best. Or this is, I would want to be nowhere else but here. But I do want you to know something: that I do not want any time, ever, anybody from this church or associated with this church to act in any way that we're elitist or we're better or that or that somehow we have something because we go here.
Oh, you go where? And I don't care what kind of a church it is. I don't care if it's an independent Baptist church. I don't care if it's a Southern Baptist church. I don't care if it's an evangelical church.
I don't care if it's a non-denominational church. Look at me. We are who we are by the grace of God. But that means we're not better than anybody else. And I want it understood here: we're not against anybody.
I'm against the false teachers and I'm against false teaching and I'm against anything that's against this word, but we're not against other churches. And we need to be very careful about that. Let me say secondly that we can become elitist based on color. Yeah, sure. begun to gather here.
Of which I'm a part, although I haven't been a part yet. And they're given some time to pray. And They asked for three requests. And I've been praying about it because I got about a thousand of them. But what three would I want all of these men praying for?
And and The three requests that I've been praying for the most, I'll give you two of them. One is that I have been praying for a while that God will start saving people here at this church.
Now listen, we get people saved here a lot. That's not, I'm talking about. I believe the amount of people that ought to be saved at a church like Curl and Baptist Church. And last Sunday or two Sundays ago, listen, that showed you what can happen if we got some lost people here. If we started reaching out in this community, And church should not be, this is just another comfortable place for me to come on Sunday so I can check off my list and I've come to church.
That's an elitist attitude. And listen, I've been praying for a long time that God would. Sai save people into a greater And it was wonderful just to see God answer a little bit of that prayer. But can I tell you the second thing I've been praying for? That God will make this church racially diverse.
We are not a representation of our community. We are not. And I have been praying and praying. I'm going to tell you something: the last two weeks, God has opened some amazing doors. I've been praying.
Listen, all the way back when Ram and Lulu came here, I said, thank God. We got somebody of some color here. We need some. Thank God. I'm glad you're here tonight, McKenzie.
My wife and I, I'm like, she's gonna think I'm, you know. My wife and I, when McKenzie showed up years ago, we're like, hey, thank God.
Somebody with some personality, you know. Y'all listen, I'm being honest about this.
Now you can sit there and we can think, but listen, none of us, I don't think, feel that way, but corporately we can act that way. And I'm asking you, let me tell you something. You and I. Just because they're not part of my group. Not part of my church.
They're not my color. Can I tell you something? Uh deep south religious people Sometimes they are the most elitist people you can find. And we have got to make sure that that's not us. Because that does not represent this Bible, and it does not at all represent the God of this Bible.
Third, I'm just giving you some app appearance. Do you know sometimes we can get an elitist attitude just because it's based on how somebody looks? They walk in this building and they might not look, and maybe they're dressed a little bit different, and maybe you can kind of tell that, you know, that's that kind of person, or whatever the case might be. Can I tell you something? How horrible would it be that a person comes into God's house and what they face are a bunch of elitist people?
That I have passed judgment on you, that your appearance doesn't measure up to what I would want.
Now y'all don't look at me like this. Am I right about this or am I not?
Now, I know deep down some of you really don't like this. But you need to hear it. Because I'm being truthful. I'm not mad. Listen, I've been guilty of some of these things in years past or whatever the case might be.
Because, you know, man, I grew up in church. I grew up in church every night of my life. And you get used to being around people that look a certain way. I'm talking about how they dress, how they act, whatever. If you pick me up and threw me when I was 15 years old, and well, you couldn't have thrown me, I was pretty big.
But if you would have rolled me over to the If you'd have dropped me in a public school somewhere, look at me, I wouldn't have known what to do. I mean, I was homeschooled. I was in church every morning. I was around my parents and I was around church people. You pick me up, drop me in a public school.
I wouldn't know what was up. I wouldn't know how to act. I wouldn't know anything about that. And can I tell you, sometimes that's the problem. with us as churches.
We're not around unsaved people. We're not light. We're not salt. We just kind of put a cloak over and we're going to hide ourselves. And I'm going to tell you something.
My dad and mom, and I thanked them years ago because. They began to see it and they began to get me involved in some other things because they saw in a trend sometimes homeschooling can become so sheltered that when they get out of it, they go crazy. And so my mom and dad decided, listen, we're not going to do that. And I'm going to tell you, it was awkward for me at first. I mean, they would put me, I went and helped in rescue missions, and I went into some settings.
I'm like, what in the world? And I told you, my dad, just about that time, began every Christmas. He did a whole week-long revival at Trinity Rescue Mission downtown Jacksonville, Florida. I mean, for a whole week at Christmas, I went every night. To revival service at the rescue mission.
All you smell is alcohol and drugs and filth and the stench and different things. And what was my dad trying to tell me? Let me tell you something, Daniel. You are what you are by the grace of God, you are no better than any of these men sitting right here. And you and I better make sure that we do not develop an elitist Attitude.
Based on appearance. Number four, financial accomplishment. May I say something? God did not ever, if He's blessed you, God did not bless you for you to think. that you're better than anyone else.
And I'm going to be honest with you, most of us here at this church, hey, we're not wealthy, but we're on the top percentage of the entire world. in America. We're very blessed. We're spoiled. I know anybody that goes on a mission trip, they come back, they'll tell you this, and it's just you, blah, blah, blah, you know, kind of a thing.
I've been in Japan, I've been in the Philippines, I've been on missions trips and all these things. But, you know, even just recently going back to the Philippines and seeing what some people go with, listen, we're spoiled. But may I say something that nothing in our life should ever make us feel we're superior.
Now I believe in right and wrong, don't you? I'm not saying that we ought to just drop down the walls.
Well, everything's okay, then we don't want to be elitist. No, no, no, no, no. When it's the truth of God's word, that's not elitism. That's truth. But what we're talking about is us who are what we are by the grace of God beginning to think because that person isn't in my group or that person doesn't look like the people in my inner circle.
that we begin to think we're better. I thought about this. What about education?
Now, this is a little bit personal with me. I have the privilege to obviously get to spend a lot of time with Brother Joe. And um Brother Joe didn't really finish high school. I believe he got his GED and Brother Joe never really went to college. He did a few courses, never graduated from college.
Brother Joe just Felt God called her to the ministry and He came over here to this little church here and had 13 people and just started serving. And I don't know about you, God blessed him. But you would not believe at times, Brother Joe, with Tell me and just At times, just tell me some of the things that had happened over the years. How he was looked down on and almost belittled because he didn't have a degree. He didn't have a doctor's degree.
He didn't go to such and such kind of school. He didn't have this. He didn't have that. He wasn't, you know, an educator. And he wasn't an orator.
And he wasn't this, and he wasn't that. Can I tell you something? Most of those orators might have been lucky to have 50 people in their church. But Brother Joe loved people. And that's what I'm talking about.
This whole thing of us is Do what you can do, accomplish what you can accomplish, give it your best. Like Paul said, Paul worked harder than anyone else, but he wasn't working hard to show everybody how good he was. He was working hard so that the grace God had showed him wasn't put to loss and it wasn't in vain and it wasn't taken advantage of. And by the way, you and I are here tonight because of the grace of God. God has dumped grace on us sitting in this building.
And you and I ought to work harder than anyone else and go out and give the gospel more than anyone else because God's been so good. to us. Please don't think because you have a bunch of education that you have anything. You are what you are. By the grace of God.
I thought about this, I thought about background.
Now we joke and we pick here, but I am being a little bit serious here. And sometimes we can joke and we can pick, but can I tell you something? Just because somebody's from the north doesn't mean you're better than them. Because I can go preach at a lot of churches up north. And y'all to hear what they say about us.
Oh, how y'all doing? Bless your heart while you go stab everybody in the back with your words. They're right about that. You go up north, they don't like you, they're gonna tell you to their face. They're not going to act friendly.
They're going to look at you. They're going to watch you for a while. And if they like you, they like you. If they don't, you're going to know it. Down south, what do we do?
Hey, how are ya? And then as soon as they're gone, we gossip to each other. I mean, put them down behind their back. Can I tell you something? Listen, sometimes regional...
We can be elitist, but they're from the north. Yeah, you're from the south. Depending on who you talk to. What does it matter? You're from the north, you're from the south, you're from the east, you're from the west.
You are what you are by the grace of God. Oftentimes, because we weren't, we can often sometimes look down on somebody because they weren't raised in church. I've seen this happen with teenagers that were raised. They're raised in church. They know all the lingo.
They know all the terms. They know all the songs. And a teenager will come into a youth group and they don't know all the words and they don't know all the songs and they don't know, you know, this and that. And they came from a different background. This is brand new to them.
And I can watch sometimes as teenagers kind of, what's up with them? You know, what in the world? Can I tell you something? They weren't raised in your little bubble. And you and I, listen, we learn it young.
sometimes to have this elitist attitude. We gotta make sure, look at me. We got to make sure that even though they're not in our group, and can I tell you something when it comes to church, and like I tell you, I'm not against any pastor, I'm not against any church around here, and I want to make sure that nobody at Kerwin Baptist Church talks about another pastor, talks about another church. We are no better than anyone else. And one of the reasons is is because of this very, very thing.
Because you know what? Not everybody was raised like we are, and not everybody does things like we do. But can I tell you, there's a lot of people that don't do things the way Daniel Hautry does them, and God is blessing them. I mean these two guys didn't show up with the 70. They weren't over here in this group, but God's Spirit poured on them too.
And they started prophesying. And instead of These could be, you know, Joshua and the servants, instead of them being glad that they're prophesying, they're mad that they weren't part of a group. Yeah, we can provide a little bit of a message. religious affiliation. See, we talked about church preaching.
No, no, no, I'm talking about.
sometimes religious people. can act elitist. to non-religious people. You come across somebody, oh shh.
Well, they don't go to church. Yeah, they don't go to church. And based on that attitude, I can see why. Yeah, yeah, I think we have a screw. I'm about done.
But I believe with all my heart this is biblical. Do you know We talked about appearance and somebody that might not look. Can I tell you something too? You can become elitist. based on physical appearance, even based on weight.
Somebody's heavy, somebody's overweight. Let me tell you something, you're looking at somebody that's dealt with it my entire life. the looks from people. And you don't know the whole situation. You don't know everything that's gone on.
You know, that person might eat less than you do, but you're blessed with this. ridiculous metabolism, good for you. No listen, the Bible gives principles for the other.
Okay. We're not to be sensual people given to our appetite and things out of it. No, no, that's fine. But can I tell you something? That sometimes a person can look a certain way, and we can just kind of.
Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192. or via the web.
at Kerwin Baptist Church.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin Broadcast today. God bless you.
