Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
well praise the Lord I want everybody to get your Bibles out I need to get mine out this morning we're going to start in Matthew chapter 23. Lord has given me a word this morning entitled straining at Nats straining at nets and there's actually several areas but let's go to Matthew 23 it's actually verse 24. but we'll probably read the verses surrounding this passage living in a crazy world right now crazy world um so many things going on so many things that we need to deal with Matthew 23 is Jesus addressing the religious leaders the the rabbis the Pharisees the Sadducees and again I've said this many times in preaching the gospel over the years that I don't know we in the church world and even in the world system itself we tend to think that the Pharisees and the Sadducees were these bad evil guys that um were in a false religion but that's not the case the Pharisees and the Sadducees were the religious leaders the spiritual leaders the teachers the doctors of theology the doctors of divinity of their day and they were walking in the religion of Jehovah Yahweh the god of Abraham Isaac and Jacob the god of the Bible the god of Creation The God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ they were not in a false religion they were not Islam they were not Buddhism Hinduism Shintoism this is what you have to understand these are people the Pharisees that Jesus addressed here these are people who studied the Bible these are people who spoke Hebrew and Greek the great Dr gameo of the Pharisees who taught at a school and taught the Apostle Paul when he was Saul of Tarsus so when you realize that Jesus had to rebuke these people so soundly and so firmly the equivalent of that today would be the pastors and the prophets and the Ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ who are willing to stand up and speak against the pastors and teachers and Prophets of our day that are not Discerning the times and the seasons and that are teaching false Doctrine or that have bad motives see listen they didn't want to crucify Jesus because he healed the sick they didn't want to crucify Jesus because he cast out demons or raised people from the dead the Pharisees and the Sadducees the
religious leaders they wanted to cast they want they wanted to crucify Jesus and have him cast out because he just didn't fit in their theological little church system and he exposed the sin in their heart he exposed the false teaching in there in their heart and he exposed the false motives the wrong motives in their heart listen I'll tell you this much right now if you're a pastor Prophet evangelist Apostle teacher you're a minister of the fivefold minister of the gospel and you're not rebuking other leaders that are off you're not following Jesus because boy did he right there's a lot of people say you shouldn't but I'm just going to tell you he did now let's think about this let's fight let's fast forward to today right before I read this passage in Matthew let's let's fast forward to so many Christians that are on there high and mighty religious piety horse over trumps uh tapes from 2005 11 years ago or he was caught on a hot mic making some lewd comments about women and sexual references and we got these Christians now all of a sudden on their high and mighty high horse going um oh he's terrible terrible um you got those stats pull up your uh your post you make let me give you a little stats that the church of Jesus Christ right now who's got their fingers pointing at Donald Trump something he did 11 years ago uh even like Dr Michael Brown whom I am quickly losing respect for some folks better get off this uh this high horse as Christians because we got Christians right now saying oh they're not going to vote for Trump or they're not going to support Trump you've got all this crazy stuff going on because of something he said 11 years ago let me tell you something when I went through my divorce as a pastor and I lost everything my church my job my home my car when I lost everything when everything was taken from me when all my friends forsook me when all the church people and Christians forsook me back in 2001 let me tell you if I had a hot mic on me several times you would have liked what you heard either
amen you understand people go through different seasons of their lives and I don't believe there's any Christians out there who don't go through some dark Seasons or some discouragement or some depression or some disappointment or some hurt or even some intense periods where they're attacked by temptation to for of lust that they don't give in to it listen you you guys aren't going to fool me I know that the most you know Godly Pious one of you every now and then the cuss word sits out I know it does so don't act like you're holier than that problem is is that you're not famous you're not running for president and you don't have microphones hadn't had microphones on you for years or you would have been caught there's a lot of pastors out there would have been caught now let me just read some statistics here because America has a sexual sin problem and the Church of Jesus Christ those who call themselves Christians who even call themselves true Born Again Spirit-filled Christians who have repented and loved Jesus and loved the word of God let me just tell you that there is a rampant problem with sexual lust perversion pornography lust of the eyes lust of the flesh it's it's rampant in the church folks and and listen I'm not hearing this is this message today is not to condemn Christians because I'm going to admit all of us in our Christian Life are going to wrestle with lust or anger or hurt or offense or unforgiveness we're gonna we're these things are gonna rise up in us at times sometimes stronger than other times and we're not always going to resist them and be Mr and Miss holy right but these are some statistics all right and I'm just going to read what my wife posted because I think it was beautiful about this whole subject and believe me it'll make sense when you understand what I'm talking about straining at gnats and swallowing the camels we're going to read a minute but this is yesterday at 6 30 p.m my wife posted if Donald Trump was recently truly born again as Dr James Dobson says he was right then his sins from 2005 are forgiven praise God for the blood of Jesus and his wonderful forgiveness some Christians who are snubbing their noses at Donald Trump's past failures had better hope and pray their past or present sins are not paraded for all to see got a feeling that some people running their mouths right now are about to get exposed right just take a look at what Christian men are doing according to this 2014 Charisma article the statistics for Christian men between 18 and 30 years old are particularly
striking Christian men not unsaved men men who claim to follow Jesus Christ as their lord and savior 77 percent look at pornography at least monthly 36 percent view pornography on a daily basis that's more than one-third and that is a habitual sin 32 percent admit being addicted to pornography and another 12 percent think they may be so that gives you what 44 percent of Christian men saying they may have a problem an addiction and I will say this listen there's been studies done to show that frequent looking at pornography and especially from a young age does cause chemical changes in the brain that will affect you all of your life okay call it erototoxin you know your mama and daddy used to say pornography would rotch your brain literally does literally does proved it okay the statistics for middle-aged Christian men ages 31 to 49 are no less disturbing 77 so that it's the exact same 77 look at look at pornography while at work in the past three months 64 view pornography at least monthly 18 percent it meant to being addicted to pornography and another eight percent think they may be even married Christian men are are falling prey to pornography and extramarital sexual Affairs at an alarming rate 55 percent look at pornography at least monthly this married men 35 percent had an extramarital affair while married so the the church world better be careful about pointing fingers at people's lust issues or sexual problems because we we full of it okay and this is my point now I'm not this morning I'm not justifying sexual immorality pornography lust this is not justifying it it is sin and habitual practice of it will get you into demonic trouble it'll get you in trouble with God it'll begin to separate you from God to begin to hinder not only your relationship with God but begin to hinder your relationships with people around you and like I said it'll begin to cook your brain but then let's talk about women for a second let's just talk about women I saw one
lady today you know because the big attack right now on Donald Trump oh how could he be so you know so crude toward women let me ask you something how many of you have heard of the the book that came out 50 Shades of Gray and the movie that followed do you know that 80 I mean this was a best seller this top the Harry Potter series and this is about a woman allowing herself to to be you know in the s m stuff right I don't know how worse you could get right now think about this hold on a second think about this 80 percent of the Millions of copies of that book that were sold both in the UK and here in the U.S 80 were women and then when the movie came out the movie made 585 million dollars at the theater primarily women I remember seeing some people on my Facebook that I grew up with some women getting together going we can't wait to go see 50 Shades of Gray so it's not just a man problem so all this talk let me let me just say all this talk about making women objects listen we're we're in the season now well what did the Apostle Paul said we would be in a season when judgment would come that men would be with men and women with women we really we really you know when Paul he talked about in second Timothy 3 when he said in the last days perilous times will come he said man will be lovers of their own selves blasphemers disobedient to parents one of the things one of the words he used there in second Timothy was incontinent that doesn't mean you can't hold yourself you know keep yourself going to the bathroom on yourself I know that's the way we use it but it literally means in that passage in the Greek unable to control yourself in the area of sexual lust the King James has another word called concupiscence that's sexual love fornication is actually committing fulfilling sexual lust that you're not supposed to fulfill the word fornication pornia sound familiar that's the word I'm just saying look I'm not here to beat you up but if if if this sexual sin problem
lust problem rules your life you better take drastic measures as a Christian to repent and get delivered from it you hear me now listen I know listen there are people I have counseled people for 30 years now and people who have been sexually molested when they were young or got into pornography when they were young or were raped or something of that nature they have a much much harder time getting free from sexual lust and perversion and and they're tormented it's a it's a war you got to understand I'm not again not trying to beat anybody up because it's a war that we face but it's a war through the blood of Jesus and the name of Jesus and the word of God that as Christians we don't need to be worried so much about everybody else we better make sure before we talk about somebody else we better get before we try to get the speck out of their eye we better get the beam out of our own eye especially in this sexual lust area okay now like I said I'm gonna say this look for for men who are mostly Visual and this is not just men some women are visual and lust at you know have lust issues too what I'm saying is the old I remember all preacher many many years ago used to say you can't help you know if a bird flies over your head but you can help if it wants to build a nest in your hair right I don't have to worry about that though what do you let nest in your in your head right you know I had somebody because of course God gave me a word about Donald Trump and of course the the moment this comes out I got people who who listen you know I'm finding out that people just are listening all over the place they come back are you still going to stand by your support of Donald Trump I said this was never about whether Donald Trump was a choir boy or a Sunday school teacher the word of the Lord to me in January before the primaries God told me that it was God's will his will for Donald Trump to be president of the United States that God said I have put my hand upon him my favor upon him he said I'm turning his heart toward me but he will not become president if my people don't discern this situation and pray for him because he is surrounded by enemies and problems and issues that will take him down and I shared this in January of 2016. see we we better get a grip on something
here we don't elect choir boys to be president of the United States the Beloved JFK was smoking marijuana and having an affair with Marilyn Monroe and he still managed to get us out of the Cuban Missile Crisis we know what Bill Clinton was doing George W Bush was having his homosexual prostitute Jeff Gannon in the White House on a regular basis even in the Reagan White House it was reported and I believe though this was Bush senior the vice president having underage call boys in the White House in 1989. what am I getting at I mean has anybody ever heard some of the tapes of LBJ or Nixon talking in private not for small children and women all these men were presidents Republican Democrat most of them all of them not truly born again and let me just say for you Pious holy people the things that Donald Trump was talking about in that bus in 2005 before I became a true Christian when I was in fourth and fifth grade waiting for school we would all gather outside waiting to go into the school Martin Elementary that's now north side we would stand out on that lawn in the morning and talk worse than that in the fourth and fifth grade unsaved men talk like that I hate to tell you that is the way they talk all the time in locker rooms in private in poker games because a man that does not have any desire to reign in his flesh or has any incentive through wanting to do God's Will and draw near to God if if he has none of that in his life all he's going to be driven by is his sexual lust I don't know why we think an unsaved man is going to act like a saved man stop being naive but what we're talking about here with between Trump and Hillary it's apples and oranges folks Trump was making lewd comments about women because he has a lust issue she's abandoning our ambassador and special forces in Benghazi and letting them die how is that even comparable
today Trump's never handled top secret information and broken the law and put our national security at risk sorry he didn't do that on The Apprentice all these different governments she's she's upset about WikiLeaks leaking all her emails and all these private conversations well maybe if you had a secure government server with the proper algorithms you might not have got hacked but now we find out Hillary Hillary is for open borders this has come out on the WikiLeaks she's for open borders she stated plainly that what she'll say in public is not what she will do in private she says she's going to use executive orders to put gun manufacturers out of business and to make it impossible to get firearms in the U.S you better stop Christians Dr Michael Brown and anybody else stop straining at your little religious gnats and you better wake up to the big picture because if Hillary wins she's going to start marching Christians to concentration camps now called FEMA camps if she wins it's over America will have no hope she will sell us out further than Barack Obama ever dreamed she is evil to her core they don't call her the queen of blood for nothing she went in and killed and destabilized killed Gaddafi in Libya and bragged about it we came we saw he died laughs about it also she could ship use Benghazi as a station to ship weapons U.S weapons through Libya to the Syrian rebels who are Isis there is no comparison you guys no comparison between the two one is a U.N globalist luciferian and the other is just a red-blooded American man I mean it's these things now I'm not again I'm not justifying Trump's Behavior it's what he said was wrong what he did was wrong but
do I want the people who have funded trained and created the entire atmosphere for Isis still to have the White House she wants to bring in all the Syrian refugees possible into this country she's guilty of giving your our uranium to the Russians and she wants to talk about Trump saying Putin's a good leader I'm gonna say this Putin is a good leader God I wish he was the president of the United States it's a man with some guts and some backbone that cares about his people willing to do what's necessary to protect his Nation and folks this whole thing with Syria everybody's sleeping everybody's either consumed with football or consumed with Brad and Angelina Jolie or the Kardashian getting robbed everybody's concerned about this and we don't understand that Barack Obama is pushing us toward world war three with Russia I mean listen I went on the Russian website let's talk about let's just talk about this pull up these these you got the pictures I gave you right number one this is this is from Twitter the Russian Embassy here in the United States this is our Twitter page I went and just took screenshots here's October 4th Russian Embassy the administration of Barack Obama has done all it could to destroy the atmosphere of trust between Russia and the United States why do you think they're putting that on their Twitter feed let's go to the second one Russian Embassy in 1938 England and France betrayed Czechoslovakia in Hitler's favor created conditions that led to World War II what do you think that's about in the United States is betraying their friendship with Russia and it's going to lead to World War III let's look at the next one that's September 30th let's look at the next tweet you got the third one Russian Embassy following hostile steps and statements by U.S Russia decided to terminate implementing agreement on uranium here's the Russian foreign Ministry says we can no longer trust Washington in a sensitive sphere such as the modernization and safety of Russian nuclear power plants if Russia makes the decision to convert particular research reactors to low enriched nuclear fuel we will conduct this work independently meaning no more joint work the U.S just cut off back Channel Communications
Secretary of State Kerry just went on and is trying to blame Russia for war crimes let me tell you the people who created Isis have committed war crimes that would be Barack Obama Hillary Clinton and John Kerry and John McCain and all the rest of the traders in the Republican Party this is what I'm getting at you better wake up and see the big picture of things the big picture the United States what we're doing and have been doing in Syria we are the bad guys the Russians are the good guys and like what Alex Jones said the other day he said when when our government has become so corrupt that we make the Russians look good we have gone way downhill and if Hillary Clinton wins because stupid Christians are worried about some comments he made in 2005 you deserve to go to your concentration camp as she calls them fun camps because for her the tormenting and imprisoning of Christians and Patriots and gun owners and all that to her that's going to be fun you don't understand how evil these people I go all the way back to Hillary and Bill I lived in Arkansas when they were governors they're evil murderers they don't care Trump 's life and record does not even compare to the clintons no comparison but see if your media mind controlled zombies I can't have trouble because he said something bad about women good Lord here's another tweet Russian Embassy this is one of their generals Commander in Syria you know he said to Lou U.S led Coalition no strikes on Syrian troops it threatened Russians who provide humanitarian help you know what that's saying oh you now have a no-fly zone United States in Syria and to enforce that they set in s 300 and S 400 missiles that can and will shoot down any plane that comes into Syria so the United States was talking about a no-fly zone so the general one of our generals said I think the general the chief Joint Chiefs of Staff said they were talking in Congress about issuing a no-fly zone over Syria and one General had to say you know if you do that it's war with Russia this is going on has anybody heard this stuff in the news
this is this is happening right now Russia just moved nuclear weapons into Eastern Europe Colin grad hadn't heard about that what have you no while we sit around and debate like Dr Michael Brown should Christians support a political candidate or should Christian ministers endorse a particular God you Pharisee stop it God told Jeremiah to tell the people of God submit to Nebuchadnezzar and it will go well with you fight him and you die or you go into captivity I'm telling you right now you Christians you fight Donald Trump you're going to get what you deserve this is this is no good and I'm gonna say something else too if Hillary wins and becomes the president of the United States a woman who should be in prison for violating National Security for taking money which is illegal from foreign governments to use in a campaign 200 million from Saudi Arabia she should not be honored as president of the United States in every red state ought to secede from the Union I'm serious we can no longer accept we we put up eight years now with an illegal president who has violated the Constitution the law international law on Down the Line illegal actions in Libya Syria Iraq Iran paid Ransom money to the Iranians I'm sorry but the problem is most people don't know that they're straining at the net swallowing the camera let's let's go let's finally read our Passage that was just your introduction we may be here for a while people have no idea what these people have planned and it's not because you can't the information's there so to the religious leaders out there who are blind guides let's look at this
Jesus speaking here we're going to read Matthew 23 verse 23 first woe unto you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you pay tithes of mint and and eyes and coming and you have omitted or Cuban and you have omitted the weightier matters of the law judgment and mercy and Faith these ought you to have done and not to leave the other undone you blind guides which strain at a gnat and swallow a camel wound to you scribes Pharisees for you may clean the outside of the cup and of the platter but within they are full of extortion and excess you blind Pharisee clean first that was just within the cup and the platter at the outside of them may be clean also woven to you scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for you are like unto Whited sepulchers which indeed appear beautiful outwardly but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness even so you outwardly appear righteous to men but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity you're blind you look good on the outside but he says to them you strain at gnats and you swallow the camel we sit here and strain at the little problems of Trump's past and we swallow the camel of Hillary Clinton we strain at Trump struggling with sexual lust when we all struggle with sexual lust foreign we want to argue over Bible prophecy whether it's relevant today or not and it's happening and we're about to have World War III with Russia and everybody's just snoozing along in there and most churches today to keep their little 501c3 tax exempt status wouldn't dare talk like I'm talking this morning they let the government rob their free speech over money I'm sorry our church has never been 501c3 any church I've ever passed never was and I would never allow it to happen you know why because I'm going to say exactly what I want to say I'm going to say exactly what God tells me to say and I don't care about a 501 c 3 tax exempt status money better quit being people's God I know that's one thing's for sure too many decisions of Christians are made over money
I'm sorry but I'm fired up this morning we straining stupid little things you know I'm going to close with this and I promise I will okay there's another thing that we do straining at an ant something small and yet just overlooking the big problem it's called a fence I've seen people leave churches get divorces abandoned friendships and it's usually over a small offense somebody did something you didn't like they said something you didn't like even if it was true I'll tell you this this little story and then I'll finish the fence is a serious thing because in fact what'd I do with that did I ever get the iPad out just just type in Google the definition of a fence and just hand it to me I'll just read it in a second but okay no uh just just online just just I just want the English definition from the dictionary I'll give you the Greek definition in scandalon but but let me let me say this little offense um people are gonna do things that you don't like Christians brothers and sisters your pastor people go do things you don't like or they're not going to do something you think they should right or they're going to say something to you that cut maybe a little bit or hurt a little bit sometimes the truth hurts you don't want to hear the truth right and you get you get your feelings heard over that I mean like you know we had one of our closest friends and couples most of you'll know who I'm talking about get hurt over a sermon that Nancy preached it was absolutely biblical every part of it was biblical and it just cut right through their problem they just exposed the problem in their marriage in their life but instead of being humble and not letting the truth offend them they got offended right okay um if you can make it a little bigger that'd be good um
but this a few let me let me go back a few and this is something I'm telling you have to keep a guard on a number of months ago well I don't know how long ago it was but anyway there was a person that said some things and the way they said them and the way they went about the whole thing it even though I was giving truth and the way they were responding was not truth and the way they responded was very hurtful to me disappointing I didn't really you know sometimes we we get disappointed in situations and so that turns into hurt and disappointment can turn and turns into hurt then it turns into offense um but I didn't really realize I just thought well you know I'm just irritated because this person is just being you know hard-headed and stubborn right but then I had a dream this past week and in this dream this person came in we we came I was in a room and he came into the same room with me and and started with that same little attitude and smirking and saying the same you know well that wasn't the problem the problem in the dream was how I responded because in the dream I said things to him in this dream I couldn't say in church I mean I I cussed him out in my dream uh y'all can say which one I didn't see it I didn't think of my mouth but in my dream but I I woke up going I mean I remember waking up thinking my Lord I don't even use those words when I'm awake and mad right I'm like why am I saying that to him and what the Lord was showing me was I was right he's wrong and even the way he was coming at me was wrong but what it revealed to me was I had let my hurt my disappointment turn into anger and then turn into an offense now here's the definition of offense you want to put it I'll just read it I mean it didn't you got it there this is the second one of course it talks up here the first one is the breach of the law illegal act but that's not what we're talking about we're talking about this one right here annoyance or resentment brought about by our perceived insult or disregard for oneself hello disregard for oneself or one's standards or principles it means the synonyms annoyance anger resentment irritation exasperation wrath displeasure
bad feelings vexation animosity so I I woke up from that dream and I knew the Lord was trying to show me you got an offense with this person and I'm like but I'm right I'm right yes you are but you've let this turn into and annoyance and anger or hurt a frustration do you know what I had to do and I noticed over the past few weeks how prayer time was harder Bible reading was harder everything was harder felt like walking through a swamp up to my you know up to my knees trying to walk through there ever felt like that so you know what you have to do you have to choose to forgive somebody that's annoyed you hurt you caused you vexation caused you anger but let me tell you how to do it because I sat there and even said Lord I don't even know what to do about this yeah I'm tired of this people ignoring me all the time right and I'm sure I enjoy people so maybe this will help all of us right but I said Lord you know okay I let this become an offense so I ask you Lord to forgive me for my for my unforgiveness and attitude and offense toward this person now here's what's amazing because of this situation me and this individual have not talked in weeks not even taught and the moment I did that I don't know if it was the same day or the very next day I get a phone call and we have a great conversation and I realize it's me see when you when you have an offense and you have unforgiveness and you have an attitude towards somebody you put them in a prison and when I forgave him and released that offense it let him out of his prison you don't believe me just read Matthew 18 you find out and that's what I'm talking about straightening in an ad and swallowing a camel even with the fences we think oh it's it's small and we overlook
we Overlook the big thing but unforgiveness and offense is a big deal and that's why right after that I posted on my Facebook I said nothing will take you down faster than letting hurt or disappointment with somebody turn into an offense you you just begin to go spiritually everything you begin to go downhill and what's so bad is most the time the person did do something wrong they did say something wrong or they didn't do something you needed them to do or whatever most of the time you are right you are in the right and they're in the wrong foreign and swallow the net of I'm right and Overlook the camel of I'm offended look 99 percent of people who leave a church leave offended that's just the truth very few people leave a church or Ministry their home Church very few leave because God LED them to leave most of the time it's a fence most of the time and that's never the reason to do anything you don't get a divorce because you're offended you don't leave a church because you're offended you don't leave a friendship because you're offended you shouldn't leave a job because you're offended Christians should be led by the Holy Spirit nothing else amen so I hope we got it all today that was my last point I promise I'm gonna pick on you from now on this is the way it's gonna be let's put this stuff in perspective whether it be with Trump versus Hillary whether what be what's going on in the world with Syria God we are on the verge you guys and we we did our program Tuesday night prophecy Quake radio show it was all on Russia prepares for nuclear war against the United States and NATO gave all the Articles all the stuff that's been viewed already 500 times on just on Facebook alone
so somebody out there is listening now listen I gotta share well I'm not going to share it I'll share it with you all after we after we cut this off nice testimony to share with you guys can you pull that up you got yes last night you read to me from yeah all right let's pray before we do that and I want to share a testimony Father in Heaven I ask you God for your grace and your mercy and the Holy Spirit to come upon all of us Lord as I've shared in weeks past that we have blind spots sometimes and sometimes we're straining at gnats and while we swallow the camels Lord help us to recognize and really discern the times and see the big picture and see our own heart the way it really is father we want to be holy we want to be righteous we want to be free from lust and worldliness and we want to be balanced we don't want to be condemning we don't want to reject people that struggle with the same things we struggle with we don't want to tolerate evil God help us see help everyone see there's a difference between struggling with a lust issue and killing people we've really got to wake up in America Lord I pray there would be Revival I pray for this debate tonight that you would bless and help Donald Trump defeat that Jezebel and we pray God that your kingdom come and your will be done and that you would reveal any place in our heart that we have bitterness hurt disappointment offense and help us truly forgive receive forgiveness and forgive others Lord I pray this in Jesus name amen