Speak Up For What Is Right

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Yes, we may sometimes bring in some other stories or additional sources, but everything comes right out of the Bible because if it comes out of the Bible, there’s no falsity in there. And no one can have anything to say. They can’t say you are spreading lies or deceit when it’s coming right out of the Bible.

The only way that could be is if I’m misinterpreting the Bible, which, if it was me, it could be. I could be misinterpreting the Bible, but when the Holy Spirit comes through, it is never misinterpreted.

And so that is the power of the Holy Spirit, combined with the Word of God. It is always the truth. Today, we are talking about speaking up. You need to speak up more in life. Now what does this mean? Does it mean you need to speak up about your own opinions?

No, definitely not. Remember when you became a Christian, you made an agreement with God that you will work on crucifying your flesh. You will be dead to self. God wants you dead. The devil wants you dead. God wants you dead to self.

The devil wants you physically dead so you’re in Hell. There’s two big differences right there. Number one: God wants you to be dead to yourself, your flesh, your sin nature, which means dead to the devil and alive in Him.

He gives you life. You’re on fire, living for Him. That’s a huge, huge difference right there. And the devil, he wants you dead because he wants you not living for God. He wants you dead so that you’re either dead, and if you’re a Christian, he wants you dead for sure because then you’d be in Heaven. Yes, he lost you, but you’re not winning anyone else for Christ, or you’re not out there doing your Father’s will.

And so he wants you physically dead no matter what, but let’s prove him wrong. Stay alive and be on fire alive for Christ. We’ve had several sermons about how you need to sacrifice or you need to be a living sacrifice.

You need to be on fire for Christ. You can go to our website, type in all those keywords. I really encourage you; take the time to watch or listen to those sermons. You need to speak up.

Not for yourself, well, yes for yourself, but not for your own desires, not for other people’s desires and wants. You need to be speaking up for the truth. You need to be speaking up for the truth at all times. Now that means in multiple situations, if you see something going on and it’s wrong, you gotta be speaking up.

If you see something going on where someone is sinning, yes, correct them. Remember what the Bible is used for: teaching, correcting, rebuking, and training in righteousness. Speak up. As a person of God, you have a duty to help others become more like God as well. We have a card right here. It’ll be on our YouTube channel. Otherwise, go to our website, and you can search “Always Do Right.”

We have a sermon about that. You need to always do right because if you see a sin occurring, you need to speak up and point it out. Now you don’t call it out in front of a bunch of people. We, we’ve talked about this in other sermons.

If you see someone sinning, you don’t, you don’t make a fool of them or you don’t embarrass them in those situations. That’s not wrong — no, you need to go one-on-one and talk to them and correct them in that with love and kindness.

It’s wrong to be calling them out in front of a bunch of people or to be embarrassing them in a situation. You need to tenderly and lovingly correct and train them to do what is right.

So if you see something bad occurring, now if it’s something in society like a movement or a law being passed, you gotta speak up against it. It doesn’t mean you go out there and protest or you break things. You don’t do it in a sinful way. No, you do it how Jesus would do it: lovingly, tenderly correcting but standing on the truth at all times. Let’s go to Leviticus 5:1.

Leviticus 5:1: “If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about, they will be held responsible.” Do you understand what this means?

This means that if you see something going on, if you have witnessed something or you have learned about something else, and you know what happened, but you don’t speak up, you will be held responsible for that.

That’s a sin. So if you know what the right thing is or if you, for example, witnessed a crime and then the police or whoever are saying, “Hey, we need people to speak up about whatever happened,” and you refuse to speak up, that’s a sin for you. Now, of course, there could be interpretations of that. We have a sermon series on lying for a higher purpose.

You could check that out on our website, or it’ll be in a card. So if, for example, we gave an example, then, like if, if someone were sheltering Jews and the Nazis came to the door and the person’s a Christian, let’s say, and says, “Do you have people here?” Well, would you turn them over to all knowing that they would all be killed? Well, no, that’s not right. So are you going to lie?

Well, if the verse says you have to speak up regarding what you’ve witnessed, is that a sin or are you doing it for a higher purpose? Who is the authority that you serve? And so that’s where discernment comes in.

That’s where the Holy Spirit comes in. You must make sure that as a believer in Christ, you are filled with the Holy Spirit which when you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Then you need to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and that is when it comes upon you, and you receive more gifting and abilities. You have the power of the Holy Spirit within you. You need to use that power and allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you to help you discern what the Bible means and to help you in situations like that where no matter what you do, it could be a sin. But you need to not look to the Earthly authority.

You need to look to the Heavenly authority and realize, okay, wait a minute. If it becomes a sin in the world to own a Bible, and you see someone with a Bible, and the police say, “If you see someone with a Bible, you need to turn them in.”

But you’re not turning them in, are you, sinning because you’re disobeying the authority that God has established on Earth, and that you did not speak up when you heard a public charge to testify?

Or are you sinning if you turn in the person with the Bible? You see what I mean? You’ve got to know who and what you’re following, and we follow God, not religion. Not an Earthly thing. We have sermons on that.

We have sermons on respecting authority. Tons of them. I can’t link them all in cards on YouTube, but you can go to our website and search for these things and kind of put together this whole picture of what you need to do and the discernment you need to have.

But the point is, if you see a sin occurring by sin or by wrongdoing, we are talking about things that go against the Bible. So if you see something like that happening, no matter who says otherwise, you need to speak up. Most of the time, it’s speaking up to that person and helping them correct what is going on. Let’s go to James.

James 4:17: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” Now this is more specifically referring to if you know what the Bible says to do and you don’t do it, that’s sin for you.

So when you learn something, when we talked about this in, in the “Always Do Right” sermon, when you learn something, when you know what your duty is — for example, you know God told you in the Great Commission to go out to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and to teach them to do all that Jesus taught you — everything He has commanded you.

You are to teach them to do that, and that’s what Social Media Ministries is, that’s what we’re, we’re doing. We’re living on the Great Commission. We are going into all the world. We are presenting the Scriptures to all nations and helping them understand and interpret the Scriptures in the Bible. So, for example, if you know that you know you are commanded to do that, if you don’t do that, that is a sin for you.

In addition, Jesus told you to go out to heal the sick, to cast out demons — if you don’t do that, that’s sin for you. So if you see someone sick and you walk by or you see someone sick and you’re not helping them get healed, you’re not healing them, laying hands on the sick and they will recover — not they might recover, they will recover. If you’re not doing those things, if you are not doing what God commanded you to do, that’s a sin for you.

You say that’s pretty heavy. It is pretty heavy. It can be very tough. Now, what about if you just try to do those things and you screw up? Is that a sin? No. You need to do what God commanded you to do and trust and have faith that God will see it through, and you need to be doing it how God commanded you to do it. When we talk about sickness, we don’t pray for someone to get better.

No, we command it to get better because we have the power and the authority to do that. Just like demons. We don’t pray, “God, please deliver this person.” No, you deliver him. Get that demon out of there. We’ve had many sermons on demons and how they act and how they operate in this world. We are at war. Us versus them. The people of God versus everyone else. The powers of darkness.

Paul says we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. Our struggle is not against this world. It’s against the things hidden behind the operating shadows — the shadow realm, if you will. That’s who we’re up against, and we have all power and all authority.

So if you see something going on that’s not right according to the Bible, you need to point it out because maybe those people don’t know what they’re doing is wrong. If they’re not a believer, they may not know, and so it’s up to you to instruct them. And then now that they know, they know the right thing to do.

Now, if they don’t do it, it’s sin for them. Maybe you didn’t know that you were commanded to heal the sick. Maybe you didn’t know you were commanded to cast out demons. Maybe you didn’t know you were commanded to preach the gospel to all nations. Now that you know those things, you have no excuse.

Now it’s up to you if you want to learn more about them and then do them, or it’s up to you if you just want to ignore that and be like, “No, I don’t want to do what God told me to do.” That’s up to you. You saw how it worked out for Jonah. We’ll get there. Maybe people don’t know what they’re doing is wrong, though. So let’s go to Proverbs 19:18.

Proverbs 19:18: “Discipline your children, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to their death.” What is this talking about? It means that children, they don’t know right from wrong. A lot of times, they sure know how to do wrong. They get into all kinds of stuff, and as they get older, they learn more, and then they want to try more. And it’s up to you to discipline them.

Now discipline doesn’t mean giving them a beating or taking away privileges or that kind of stuff. Discipline means you need to instruct them because if your child — if you’re upset, that, like

“Oh, they just don’t get it.” Why don’t they get it? You didn’t teach them. It’s up to you to train a child in the way they should go, and when they get older, they will never turn from it. That’s the job of a parent.

Oftentimes, if children misbehave, if children act out, if children are not going on the right path, that’s a poor job of parenting. That’s what the Bible says. This is so crucial that you need to instruct and train your children. They are your responsibility. God gave them to you, and you need to be the biblical parent that God wants you to be, training that child in the way they should go.

Now, does that mean that they won’t act out, that they won’t screw up, that there won’t be problems? No, of course not. They’re learning exactly like you, but as they learn, you need to be there to help them learn. You have to teach it to them.

I said we’d get to Jonah. Jonah helped other people realize their sin. Remember Nineveh. So let’s go there. Let’s go to Jonah. Jonah 3:5 to 10. I’ll burn through these verses. Ready? “The Ninevites believed God.

A fast was proclaimed, and all of them, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth. When Jonah’s warning reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his royal robes, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat down in the dust.

“This is the proclamation he issued in Nineveh: ‘By the decree of the king and his nobles: “Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth.

Let everyone call urgently to God. Let them give up their evil ways and their violence. Who knows? God may yet relent with compassion and turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish.”’

“When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he relented and did not bring on them the destruction he had threatened.” What is the point of this? The Ninevites were living a sinful life.

They didn’t know any better because the devil had them. They were occupied enemy territory. Jonah was a messenger from God. He was sent as a prophet to go and tell these Ninevites, “Hey, you guys. What you’re doing is wrong. You need to turn from it.”

Now, of course, if you know Jonah, he was a little screwy. Jonah went there, and after he told the Ninevites to repent, he went and wanted a front row seat to watch the Lord burn him down and rain down hellfire, and send in the angels to slaughter the city.

And he was actually mad that it didn’t happen. He also didn’t want to listen to God, and so he ended up in the belly of a whale. The guy, I mean, some prophets are a little odd.

People often think the prophets are living in caves, and they run out and honey is dripping on their beard, locust legs coming out of their mouth. You know like, like creepy John, they call him sometimes. John the Baptist. But anyway, Jonah told the Ninevites, “Hey, what you’re doing is wrong.” The Ninevites didn’t know.

A lot of times, if people are in sin or if people aren’t believers, they don’t know when they’re doing wrong. Why? Because they haven’t learned yet. They don’t have the Holy Spirit within them to tell them right from wrong, to give them that discernment. And so that’s why it’s up to you to help them correct, and hopefully they will repent like the Ninevites and turn.

Let’s go to Matthew 18:15. “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.” We’re talking about brothers in Christ. So if a Christian sins against you, you’ve got to correct it between you and them. It doesn’t mean to broadcast it out there or talk about it behind the back. No, that would be gossip. Gossip is wrong.

We have a sermon on no negativity. Check that one out, too. That’s a great message. Let’s go to Proverbs. Again, Proverbs 11:13. Proverbs 11:13, “A gossip betrays confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.”

“A gossip betrays confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.” Don’t be broadcasting things out. You need to go to that person privately and help them realize that what they did was wrong and how it was wrong.

Use the Bible. Correct, teach, train, rebuke — how? In righteousness. You also must be careful not to be tempted by the sin that you are trying to correct. Now that could happen. Make sure when you’re trying to correct it, you’re not going into the sin with them and showing them how and why it’s wrong. They already know. They’ve already done it. They don’t need your example in the sin. They need your example in righteousness.

Let’s go to Galatians 6:1. “Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you may also be tempted.” If someone goes to the strip club all the time, you don’t need to take them back to the strip club and show them why it’s all wrong. Look at this person. Look at this person.

Look at how they’re behaving on there. It’s wrong for them. It’s wrong for the people in the audience. It’s wrong for — No. Look at all the drinking going on. It’s wrong for — look — no. You don’t need to take them into those places.

“Oh, let’s go to the bar — I just lost that. Dang. That’s how that’s wrong.” No, most of the time, if you’re correcting someone in their sin, they already know the sinful behavior.

Let me show you why stealing is wrong. Steal. “Oh dang, the police got called. Now I’m in jail.” Well, that doesn’t do any good. You get the point. You don’t need to show them by example of sinning. You need to show them by example of doing right.

Don’t be confused. When the Bible talks about pointing it out with your brother or your sister, that doesn’t just mean siblings biologically. We’re talking about brothers and sisters in Christ. So when brothers and sisters sin against each other, you need to point it out between them.

Now, if you have non-believers sinning and you take them in, and you point it out between them, between you and them individually, and you try to use the Bible to teach them, they may not be receptive because they are not your brother or sister yet. First, you need to deal with the sin. Then you need to lead them to Christ.

Then you need to point it out with the Bible. So there’s processes. There are processes depending on where they are. So you need to be constantly on the lookout to help others correct their sin. Why? Because it is your job as a believer to help other believers.

Let’s go to 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” We’ve brought this up several times — all Scripture.

So when you have a brother or sister in Christ and they are sinning, use Scripture to help them realize what’s going on. If someone is not a believer, they are not your brother or sister, you can still use Scripture because the Word of God is alive and active.

So it will still speak to them, but you need to lead them to Christ so that they have the discernment of the Holy Spirit. And then they will be able to really understand and interpret the Scriptures in the Bible.

When you go correct these people, do so in a kind and loving manner, not condemning or criticizing them or judging them. Because remember, you were a sinner exactly as they are as well, and sometimes, you still do sin, but as a Christian, you no longer are a sinner because you are redeemed by Christ.

You were a sinner. That’s a distinction you need to identify with and make. Know your identity in Christ. You are redeemed: a son or daughter of the most high God — a brother or sister of Jesus Christ, your savior.

Let’s pray.

Father, thank you so much for this message today. Please give each and every person watching or listening some boldness to speak up for what they believe, to speak up when they see wrongdoing happening.

To speak up when they see right actions happening to help reinforce those, that they would speak up whenever and wherever they are, that they would listen to your Holy Spirit and follow the prompting so that the Holy Spirit would follow that with signs and wonders for others to see and glorify you in Heaven.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Hopefully, this message was good for you. You got something out of it. Consider sharing it with others as well.

Have a great week, and God bless.