Episode Transcript
If you take God's precious word and turn to Proverbs chapter 14, verse 28, we need the air conditioning on.
Does anyone need the A C on?
You do?
Hold all right.
Earth or was that broken out of the building?
Sir.
Oh.
Hang on here.
We'll get this done here.
We'll get it.
I see fans all over the place.
I don't actually think it's very Proverbs 14, 28.
The title of message tonight is Never an Island.
Never an island.
In his famous poem, No Man is an Island, John Doan wrote, you may never know where that came from.
No man is an island unto himself came from here.
No man is an island entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.
I love how the Proverbs takes to so many different truths, so many different topics.
And uh someone told me last Sunday after uh after the service, last Sunday we covered a lot, but we ended it with us with salvation.
And one of the men said, maybe we ought to preach on that some more, you know, more often.
And I said, well.
We teach verse by verse and that way when it comes up we teach it.
And that way we never miss anything.
We hit all topics.
And uh we never want to just teach on salvation all the time, or else saved people will be hearing the same stuff they already know.
And so, uh, but we don't want to neglect it Because people who need it, and there were some here who needed it Sunday.
I know, I know for a fact.
And uh so people who need it need to hear it.
So I just thank God that we're able to go verse by verse and hit so many different topics that are needful for us to learn.
Hello, Crystal.
So good to see you online tonight.
So it takes a group of people to support one individual.
Never think that just one person can uh can handle everything on his or her own because you can't It takes a whole community to support one individual.
Nobody produces everything on their own.
If you think you do, then quit going to the grocery store.
Right?
You think you do, quit going to the doctor.
Quit turning on the news.
Every day that we get up, we're relying on a lot of people to support us.
And we need to remember that.
See, each man is a as the poem just What we I just read says, each person is a piece of society.
And no one should think that they can stand alone.
Now proverb tonight teaches us the importance. of maintaining the public's welfare in a nation, as well as the importance of a ruler, to never forget that no matter who that ruler is, no matter how powerful that ruler thinks he or she is.
Without the people that ruler is leading, that ruler's nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
The Bible says, if you look now with me in our verse tonight, in the multitude of people.
The multitude of people.
Now here's what it doesn't say.
It doesn't say in a big crowd.
Do you know what you do in a big crowd?
The individual gets lost in a big crowd.
Doesn't say in a big crowd.
It doesn't say in a large gathering Our subject tonight is the abundance of people.
And people are the greatest natural resource on earth.
God gifts people with so many different gifts, so many different talents that are needed in a nation. that are needed in a society for the public good.
He's gifted some in manufacturing.
I look out uh we're we're redoing downtown Tyler And uh, I mean it's getting a total makeover downtown.
They spent a lot of money.
It's gonna be beautiful when they get through, and I look out from my office and I'm watching them reconstruct all that and there's some talented folks out there on the ground working with concrete and brick and heavy equipment and things like that.
But God's gifted some people in manufacturing and housing and development and medicine and science exploration.
Physical fitness, psychology, farming, music, food industry, warfare Inventions, the ability to invent, the ability to govern, the ability to teach, and the list just goes on and on and on.
The more talent a nation has the more comfortable and the more powerful a nation will become.
And if you're going to get a lot done as a nation, It's simple.
You're going to need a lot of people.
All there is to it, you're going to need a lot of people.
If you're going to defend the homeland, you're going to need a lot of people.
They didn't send One person, there's an old saying, one riot, one ranger.
Well, that's not real.
It's not real.
That ranger just a man.
And uh, but you uh you you're not gonna send one person over to uh Iran to take care of all that.
It's gonna take a lot.
And so we're talking about the multitude of people tonight.
It's needful.
It's a benefit.
And in the multitude of people, if you look down your text, is the king's honor.
Boy, politics is at the forefront, it seems like of Every day that we live, if you watch the news, it seems like the news focuses on tragedy. in politics and usually not good politics, usually controversial politics.
But because politics affects our everyday lives so much.
We may not realize it, but it does.
It's at the forefront every day of what's going on in America.
And so the multitude of people is the king's honor.
Now, what does that mean?
Well, think about it.
Suppose a fellow were to somehow go to seven points.
There's no one here from seven points, right?
Okay, just making sure.
Don't want to offend anybody.
But suppose a fellow were to go to seven points, and he were to manage to talk all the citizens of seven points. into anointing him to be the king of seven points.
No longer a city, no longer a mayor.
No longer a police chief or anything like that, but a king.
He would go and say, look, I could really boost this place up.
We could really we could really be something if I didn't have all the restrictions of the Texas Municipal Code and all this other stuff.
It just make me king.
And I'll rule seven points, and we're going to be a mighty wonderful nation.
Well, if that were to happen, seven points would become the laughing stock of Texas.
The kingdom of seven points.
And if that same fellow were to be crowned king of the entire nation, though.
Then even though it's the same man, great honor would be bestowed upon him simply because of the abundance of people that he would be reigning over.
If he's reigning over seven points and just that little few out there, it would be laughable.
But if he's reigning over the whole nation.
That would be quite honorable.
So whether he's the king of seven points or the king of the United States, he's the same man.
The only difference is the number of people he reigns over.
Now the smallest city, the smallest country, excuse me, in the world.
Does anyone want to guess what the smallest country in the world is?
What?
Very good.
Are you Catholic?
Are you just guessing?
You are Catholic, okay.
Vatican City, he's right.
The smallest country in the world is Vatican City.
Do you know who rules Vatican City?
That's correct.
The Pope.
The Pope rules Vatican City.
It's actually a country.
It's a city-state.
It's a it's a all its own sovereign country.
It's ruled by the Pope.
Now in Vatican City, this is no joke, the Pope, you know how many branches of government the United States has?
Three.
Who can tell what they are?
Legislative?
Executive?
Judicial.
In Vatican City, do you know what the legislative branches consisted of?
The Pope.
Do you know who the executive branch consists of?
The Pope.
Do you know who the judicial branch consists of?
The Pope.
He is all of that of that country, that the Pope is the lawmaker, he's judge, he's jury, and if need be, he's executioner.
And here's the kicker.
Did you know there is no legal means, no legal means of removing a pope from office against his will?
He is a true dictator.
Makes up all the rules.
Everything he says goes, and if you don't like it, too bad.
You can't get rid of them.
If a child, because Vatican City is a country, it has citizens If a child is reared up by its parents in Vatican City and his the child's parents are citizens of the Vatican, When that child turns 18, that child loses his or her citizenship.
How about that?
And that child can only stay in the country if the Pope allows.
That's a lot of power.
To automatically lose your citizens if you come there by virtue of your parents.
When you turn 18, you automatically lose your citizenship.
The Vatican is almost entirely surrounded by a wall.
Do you know why that wall was built?
Primarily?
Muslim invaders.
And when we try to protect ourselves from Muslims, and when we try to regulate our citizens, the Pope wants to speak about peace and how we should be more tolerable.
What a hypocrite.
What a hypocrite.
So the the next time You think about the Pope, when you hear the Pope lecture America on controlling its borders and trying to keep Muslims from taking us over And you think about the the No Kings protesters supporting the Pope, getting on the president?
Boy, that's really something because he's a dictator.
He has far, far more power. over his country than the President of the United States could ever dream of having over his country.
There is no Supreme Court.
He is the Supreme Court.
He's everything there.
He makes it all up.
So why is that so important?
Because although he has far more power than the president of our country, he has far fewer people.
See the difference?
He has far more power.
But he has far fewer people.
And that's why nobody really cares what the Pope thinks.
That's why he could say something or maybe he didn't threaten a whole lot because he didn't have much leverage.
He didn't have a whole lot to threaten with He has no power to control our nation.
He has no power to stop what he doesn't like.
He has no power to force us to do what he does like.
Now I guarantee you if he did, he would.
Because he does not have a multitude of people to impose his will upon another country.
He's landlocked right in the middle of a country.
Now, by reading the history of Israel in the Bible, as well as our own experience in this country, We all know what a foolish leader can do to a nation, don't we?
We've seen foolish leaders rise up in our nation.
They can take what a good, wise leader has done and built up over decades, and in a matter of months or years, they can just destroy it.
A foolish leader can do a lot of damage to a nation.
To be successful, a nation needs wise leadership.
You look at Iran and what they used to be like back in the 70s and how they were prosperous, and you look at them now.
To be successful, you've got to have wise leadership.
But listen What we're learning in the Bible tonight is this.
It takes both a wise leader and a multitude of people to make a great nation.
I'll repeat that again.
It takes both a wise leader and a multitude of people to make a great nation.
Here's a kingdom truth for you tonight.
If you're taking notes, write this down.
It takes a great leader to make a great nation, but it takes a great people to make a great leader I'll say it again to think about it.
It takes a great leader to make a great nation.
We all know that.
But it takes a great people to make a great leader.
Without the people, the leader is nothing.
I thank God that We have some folks in this nation that are well educated Very bright, lots of talent and wisdom that our leadership can call on.
I was thinking of Elon Musk when The president called him up to go rescue those astronauts up in outer space.
You can't just call anybody up to do that.
So you could have the most powerful leader, but if it wasn't for that citizen, who's going to do it?
It's not going to get done So it takes great people to make a great leader.
In the multitude of people is the king's honor.
Now look back at the second half of this text.
But in the want of people is the destruction of the prince.
In the want of people is the destruction of the prince.
Now the word want here literally means the end of the people. the cessation of the people, the people coming to an end.
And when the people come to the to an end, the prince is destroyed And notice how the word destruction here, I want you to notice this word destruction means disillusion In other words, it's dissolved, the falling apart of the principality.
So it says, in the want of people is the destruction of the prince.
If you were to have a king over seven points, and all the citizens were to flee, and just the kings and seven points, what kingdom does he have now?
He has nothing to reign over.
So when the people end, that principality is dissolved.
It's over with.
And so the people are absolutely an integral part of a principality.
So you can't be a prince if you have no one to reign over, if you think of it like that.
A leader without followers, as we've said before, is simply a man going on a walk.
Now I don't care who the leader is.
Once the people are gone, the kingdom is over.
Have you ever noticed how Christians are against abortion?
But the people who are against Christianity are for abortion.
You ever notice that?
Do you know what abortion does?
Abortion reduces the multitude of people I was listening to the other day.
They were talking about the alarming birth rate in America and how America will continue to decline.
You have people who want to, and I'm telling you, this is something wrong with folks.
Something wrong with folks.
And scriptures like this point it out.
A society needs a lot of people.
And when a society starts to dwindle down, that society is slowly dissolving itself.
And when you have a nation of people who think it's normal And I know some I know some people have physical problems.
I know they have health problems.
But when a nation thinks it's normal, For a man and a woman to get married, never have kids, and have fur babies instead, that's weird.
That's not biblical.
That's not normal.
That's not healthy.
That's wrong.
When a nation starts elevating animals to the position of people, I saw a great quote yesterday from a man we used to work with, Becky Shepherd.
He's retired now.
But here's his quote.
Cats are people too Cats are people too.
No, they're not.
They're not people at all.
We've got a stray cat that's uh that's uh gotten used to freeloading off of us.
And uh I don't mind keeping a cat around for mice and gophers and things like that.
So I'll put a little food out to attract them because it was feral.
And so when Tammy and I go out of town here pretty soon to see her family, she said, what are we going to do about the cat?
I said, well, it is going to have to learn to to uh go find something and go go go beg somewhere else.
I did break down though, and I got a little something to feed it.
But anyway But that was my initial response.
Because when I and when I leave, I'm not going to care about that cat.
I won't care And if I had if I had a dog, I would care about the dog, I would take care of my responsibility.
But listen, it's weird.
I went to uh a uh uh medical facility a while back.
I cut my my finger really bad a while back When I was pastoring here, I went to one of those urgent care places.
I walk in, check in, I sit down, and there's a dog sitting next to me at a medical facility.
When I'm in a medical facility, I don't have to think about worms and fleas and things like that at a medical facility.
But it's gotten so normal, everyone thinks their dog needs to go in everywhere.
And that the dog's part of the family.
And if you got a dog, listen, I know my parents got a dog.
They love that dog.
I love the little puppy dog, but it's a dog.
That is a dog.
And what we need in a family, a young family, is not animals And I know a family I'm thinking of right now.
All they've ever had is animals.
We need families to have babies.
And then to teach those babies about the Lord, and to teach them how to be good citizens and how to be patriots Teach them right from wrong, and then add to society, and then make a society strong.
But the devil seeks to steal and to kill and to destroy, and that's why he wants abortion.
He wants to murder these babies.
He wants to encourage uh young people to not have children and focus on themselves.
Focus on their careers, focus on this, and they're going to focus on everything inward until they die.
They've left nothing behind when they die.
Nothing.
The devil would rather destroy the United States than strengthen it.
And killing people off is a great way to decline the American birth rate in our nation.
What did the devil do to try to destroy Israel?
He had Pharaoh try to kill all those baby boys, remember?
Exodus chapter 1, verse 22.
Says, and Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
He wanted to weaken that nation.
He wanted to drain its population.
He especially wanted to drain its men who could get work done and who could enter into war.
It's amazing to me that when Israel defends itself, the liberals call it genocide.
But when Christians try to stop the killing of innocent children, they call that a constitutional right.
When God blessed a family or a nation in the Old Testament, you know what he did?
He blessed them by multiplying the people in that family or in that nation.
Every time.
He never says, you know.
And God blessed them saying, quit having so many children and may thy womb dry up abundantly.
He didn't do that.
He always blessed them and multiplied them.
And that was always considered a wonderful thing because it's strength.
So a wise and righteous leader, when we look at our proverb tonight, a wise and righteous leader has to understand That the welfare and the preservation of his people must be his number one priority.
We'll say that again.
A leader of a nation, a leader of a city, a leader of a county, any leader over people has to understand that the welfare of their citizens must be the number one priority.
Because when the people die off The city dies.
When the people die, the nation dies.
The county dies.
When the people die, the family dies.
When the people dies, the church dies.
A good leader will never browbeat his people.
Never.
A good leader will empower his people.
When you see leaders that are knuckling down on their citizens like this and just bearing down on their citizens?
That's poor leadership.
Because those citizens will never be able to arise and flourish the way God created them to flourish.
You know what?
One of the best ways to lead people is?
Let them go free.
Give them certain parameters that they got to operate in.
And once you establish those parameters, you fan that flame and you let those natural God-given talents go.
And they'll get the work done.
They'll get it done.
You try to, Brother Shepard, I had a highway patrol sergeant with me one night.
Well, we was on a DWI step task force, and uh he's driving, or I'm sorry, he's riding in in the car with me, which I did not want.
I want to be by myself.
But he knew I got a lot of drunk drivers and he wanted to be where the action was, so he comes and sits in the car.
And so we're out riding.
And I kid you not.
I'm driving down the road, he'd say, uh, go down that road.
Uh stop that car over there.
Stop that car over there.
Go over here.
Go do this over here.
Well.
I'm like and guess what?
I do everything he says.
I go where he tells me to go.
I stop the cars he tells me to stop.
We hadn't got a drunk yet.
And finally I said, Sergeant, would you like to drive?
Cause if you're i i i i right now he's patrolling.
Said sergeant if you want to drive Come over here and drive, you stop, whoever you want.
But if I'm driving, I need to be let free so I can go where I want to go and I can stop who I need to stop.
He said, all right, Richard, go ahead.
We got a drunk driver But that's what you got to do.
A wise leader has to understand that his people have to be empowered To work, empowered to live, empowered to be, ingenious, empowered to imagine, so they can flourish as God created them.
And when when the people of a nation fail?
then the leadership has failed that nation.
When the people of a nation fail, the leadership has failed that nation I saw an advertisement the other day from uh Zoran Mamdami.
Mandami, whatever his name is.
And he was in New York and they had the TV camera there.
And he's talking to the TV camera.
It's amazing that I'm actually watching.
And he says.
Hey folks, I know that I campaigned on raising taxes on the rich.
And he says, well, guess what?
He came over and he goes, knock, knock, knock on that. on that camera so it looks like he's knocking on the TV or on your phone screen.
He said, guess what?
He says, we are imposing a brand new tax on property owners.
Uh and and he started telling w uh how much how much the tax, the percentage of the tax is going to be.
Anyone else see that commercial besides me?
Nobody else?
It's great, y'all look it up And I'm sitting there watching this thinking, here's a man boasting about taking his citizens' money And then that's why all those citizens, they they said that that was one of the best uh commercials for Miami, Florida that was ever made.
Because it encouraged everybody to leave and go to another place like Miami, Florida.
But when a leader like that says, I'm coming to take your stuff.
And you're going to do what I say to do.
And then he he went to the uh the rental properties the other day, was inspecting rental properties, gonna crack down on landlords Well, I tell you what, if you crack down on renters and make them pay the landlords, the landlords will have money to fix the buildings and they'll keep it up.
And then there'll just be this nice cycle of rent and uh uh uh updates and all this good stuff.
And the landlords would feel comfortable about investing in their building if they know they're going to get a return out of it But when you crack down, crack down, crack down on your citizens trying to bleed them of everything they have.
They're draining their citizenship.
And as the citizens are leaving, then their city and their states are weakening.
A good leader will never browbeat the people.
They'll strengthen them.
A good leader will never overtax his people.
He will empower his people.
He will enrich his people.
A good leader will never think himself better than his people.
Why?
Because he's one of them.
He's simply one of them.
And with that, we'll go ahead and close tonight.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
Thank you, Father.
For letting us know, Lord, what a good leader is supposed to be like, Lord.
One Father who will rule a nation With the good of the people in mind.
I thank you, God, that you are the all-powerful, all-knowing God And at the same time, with all of your power, with all of your infinite authority and infinite wisdom With no one, Father, who can tell you what to do or stop what you try to do.
Even with all of that, Lord.
Everything you do, Father, is with our good in mind.
And that is why, Lord, we need you ruling our land.
That's why, Father, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall one day confess Jesus Christ to be Lord.
And he will one day wear the crown, the great king, Father, who came and lived and died for his citizens. that he may make us citizens of his eternal kingdom, to empower us, to strengthen us, to give us everlasting life and health and peace.
And we thank you so much, dear Lord God.
In Jesus' precious name, Amen
