so much that you love us, and that you've done everything for us, and that you died for us, and saved us, your God.
And Father, I just pray that you would help us to get what we need from the message this morning,
that will help us to be closer to you, to do more for you, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen.
Now, I want to draw particular attention in this passage to some of the verses toward the end, if you would.
Look at verse number 12. The Bible reads,
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He had chosen for His own inheritance.
And then look at verse 16. The Bible reads,
There is no king saved by the multitude of hosts. A mighty man is not delivered by much strength.
A horse is a vain thing for safety. Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy
to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in famine.
Our soul waiteth for the Lord. He is our help and our shield.
Now, let me start out with a little bit of an illustration, and then I'll get right into the sermon.
But the Bible reads in Proverbs 21, 31,
The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord.
Now, look, if you would, at Deuteronomy 17. And while you're turning there, I'll explain a little bit of what I'm saying.
Look at Deuteronomy 17, 15, the fifth book in the Bible, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
Now, all throughout the Bible there's an illustration that God uses about horses.
All throughout the Bible, He uses horses as sort of the antithesis or the opposite of trusting in God for your safety,
trusting in God for protection. The opposite that He gives is trusting in horses and in military might and power.
He says in Proverbs 21, 31, The horse is prepared against the day of battle, but safety is of the Lord.
We just read in Psalm 33, 17, A horse is a vain thing for safety.
Neither shall he deliver any by his great strength.
And then the Bible says in Isaiah 31, 1, Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help and stay on horses
and trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong,
but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord.
And all throughout the Bible, this illustration is used literally over a hundred times as I was studying this.
But look at Deuteronomy 17, verse 15, the Bible reads, and this is a command to the children of Israel.
They have not yet entered into the promised land.
And he's telling them that someday they're going to need a king and they're going to need to select that king.
The Bible says in Deuteronomy 17, 15, Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose.
One from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee.
Thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.
By the way, just a side note, that's why there's a law in the United States of America
that says that no one can be president of the United States unless they were born in the United States.
Did anybody know that law? It's in the Constitution of the United States.
Do you know where they got that from? The Bible.
God said don't ever put somebody in charge who was not born there.
He said a stranger that comes to dwell with you, he said he's going to be just like you,
he has all the same rights as you, but he's not going to be the king.
He's not going to be in charge. And so I just thought that was interesting to point that out.
But this is what he says about the king in verse 16.
But he shall not multiply horses to himself,
nor cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses,
for as much as the Lord had said unto you, you shall not henceforth return no more that way.
Now of course the first king that the children of Israel had was King Saul.
After that the kingdom of God was taken from Saul and it was given to David, the man after God's own heart,
and David was the second king.
Well David had many sons, but God, the Bible says, chose of his sons, he chose Solomon to be the next king in line.
And so there were really only three kings that reigned over the whole twelve tribes of Israel.
There were only ever three because after Solomon, Solomon really messed things up and made a lot of mistakes.
And so that divided the kingdom into the ten tribes and the two tribes, never to be reunited again.
And so the Bible says in Deuteronomy 17, 16 here, it says that the king is not to multiply horses to himself,
nor to cause the people to return to Egypt to the end that he should multiply horses.
Now King Solomon, that third king, let me read what the Bible says about him in three different verses.
And I won't have you turn there, but in 1 Kings 10, 28 the Bible says,
And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt.
And then it goes on to just talk about how many just thousands and thousands of horses he amassed to himself.
In 2 Chronicles 1, 16, the Bible says,
And Solomon had horses brought out of Egypt.
In 2 Chronicles, I'm sorry, there's another verse, I have it repeated here,
but in chapter 10 later on, he said the exact same thing, that Solomon brought horses out of Egypt.
Now David, his father, who had tried to teach him and train him,
who brought him up, who taught him all the things that are in the book of Psalms,
and taught him many of the things that are in the book of Proverbs that he learned from his father,
this is what David said in Psalm 27,
Some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.
He didn't have his trust in horses, or in the military, or in the physical strength.
He said, I'm trusting in God. You remember when David was faced with Goliath very early in his life,
when he was about a 16, 17, 18 year old boy?
When he faced Goliath, he said, you come to me with swords and spears,
he said, I come to you in the name of the Lord.
And David's strength was God, his hope was in God all through the book of Psalms.
He said, God is my refuge, God is my strength, God is my great fortress, God is my hope.
He that dwelleth in the shadow of the Lord, shall be, shall, something in the, I forget,
The Bible is very clear in the book of Psalms that David's hope and trust was in God for protection.
That's where the power was, that's where his military might was.
You remember later on in David's life, he actually counted all the people.
He counted all the soldiers, and God had told him never to do this.
It was something in the law, and I can show you that, but for the sake of time,
he counted every single soldier.
And what happened? God punished him for that.
God sent a plague that killed, I believe, 30 some thousand people,
because David numbered the people, because he wanted to see what his power was.
And God was trying to tell them, look, your strength and your protection,
your safety is not in the number of horses you have,
it's not in the number of soldiers you have, it's not in the military machine you have.
He says, your hope and your safety is in God.
And on and on you'll see this illustration throughout the Bible, Deuteronomy 20, verse 1.
Look at Deuteronomy 17, flip over to chapter 20, verse 1.
And so Solomon did exactly what the Bible told him not to do.
He said, don't multiply horses.
You don't need thousands and thousands of horses.
You don't need that big of an army.
And then number 2, he said, I don't want you to go to Egypt to get the horses,
which Egypt represents the world.
Egypt represents a sinful, wicked place, always in the Bible.
And that's exactly what the Bible says three different times that Solomon
went down to Egypt, he sent his people down to Egypt to get more horses,
to get more and more horses.
But look at verse number 1, the Bible says in Deuteronomy 21,
When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses,
and chariots, and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them.
For the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
And it shall be when you are come nigh unto the battle.
You have to picture this, they're going out to battle against their enemies.
They have all their armies organized in ranks.
And it says, And it shall be when you are come nigh unto the battle,
that the priest shall approach and speak unto the people,
and shall say unto them, Here, O Israel, ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies.
Let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble,
neither be ye terrified because of them.
For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.
Well, can you imagine, I mean, imagine the picture, a great army going out to battle,
usually facing a much larger army, in the Old Testament, when the children of Israel went out to battle.
Usually, it was in a great assembly of kings.
It would usually be Israel versus, you know, Edom, Syria, the Assyrians,
they'd all be joined up coming against them.
And can you imagine the sight of this great army going out to battle,
and as they're approaching the other army, the prophet, the priest, stands up and preaches to the people.
He has all the soldiers lined up, and he says, Fear not.
He says, Don't tremble, neither be ye afraid because of them, for the Lord your God is he that goeth with you.
Well, can you imagine what's beating in the heart of that soldier when he knows God is on our side?
Some trust in horses, some trust in chariots, but we will remember the name of the Lord our God,
and just the feeling in his heart as he knows that he's fighting on God's side,
that God is protecting him, that God is going to keep him safe.
Ezekiel 17, 15, don't turn there, but the Bible says,
But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people.
And for the sake of time, I'm only reading this a few times in the Bible,
but if you read the Old Testament, you'll notice this.
They're constantly going to Egypt and getting more horses.
They think horses are the end, all be all, of protection.
And it says that he rebelled against God, he went down to Egypt to give him horses and much people.
Shall he prosper? Shall he escape to do such things, or shall he break the covenant and be delivered?
He says, You're breaking my law.
I'm not going to fight for you if you're trusting in the arm of flesh, if you're trusting in horses.
Hosea 1.7, don't turn there,
But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God,
and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
Now, let me bring this sermon a little bit into reality.
Let me bring it into 2007.
We're losing our freedom in this country.
I don't know if you've noticed that,
but the freedom that we once had in this country is slowly slipping away from our grip.
You say, What are you talking about, Pastor Anderson?
This is still a free country. Oh, really?
Is that why about half my money is gone before I even have a chance to spend it, literally?
By the time I pay all the taxes?
That's freedom when I'm working.
Let's say I work 60 hours a week.
Well, 30 hours a week, I'm working for Uncle Sam.
I'm working for the United States government as a slave.
The other half of the time, the other 30 hours, I'm working for myself.
That's slavery. That's bondage.
That's a sin against God.
Constantly, we're hearing about in different states across America,
people are being muzzled, what they can and can't say, preachers.
Preachers in Canada are not allowed to preach what they want to preach out of the Bible.
It's against the law.
In Massachusetts, two Baptist pastors went to jail, I heard about,
for preaching against homosexuality, for really getting up and preaching it right.
I mean, it's unbelievable what goes on.
And it's coming in California.
You need another example?
In California right now, the Congress right now is voting on a bill to make spanking a criminal offense
under the age of four years old.
It'll be a criminal offense.
And by the way, by the time your children are four years old, if you haven't spanked them yet,
you might as well just throw up your hands and give up, to be honest.
Honestly, there's hope and you can try and do a good job and with the help of God.
But I'm going to tell you something.
The first four years are the most important development of a child, honestly.
If I had to pick three years of my children's life, let's say I knew I could only raise them for three years.
You know which three years it would be?
It would be zero, one, two.
I'm serious.
It wouldn't be 16, 17, and 18 when their mind's already been programmed, when they've already been.
And that's why it's so stupid to put your kids in front of these television programs that are educational.
We were in the bank the other day and we were sitting across the table from the banker.
And the banker said to us something about TV.
She says something to me.
I said, well, I don't have a TV.
I said, I haven't had a TV in like seven years.
And she couldn't believe that.
And she said, oh, that's great.
But there is some really good educational stuff for the children that really does teach them a lot.
I said, you know what?
I know it's very educational and it does teach them a lot.
That's what I'm afraid of.
I know it's extremely educational.
That's why I don't let them watch it.
Because I don't want the world educating my children with their garbage.
Yes, Sesame Street's educational.
Yes, Barney and Friends is educational.
Yes, The Wiggles is educational.
It's educating them in filth and perversion.
The Wiggles is a big TV show for kids, right?
Isn't that a pretty popular show?
I've seen it all over.
I've walked into people's houses that were Christians and seen it on.
It's four gay men playing in a rock band.
If they're not as queer as a three dollar bill, then you know what?
I'm a monkey's uncle.
And that's where people put their kids in front of them.
And then they wonder why they grow up and they're a little wimp and a little sissy.
I don't know what that has to do with the sermon at all.
But anyway, I was talking to her and she said it's educational.
I said, yeah, I know it's educational.
It's programming their mind.
But the whole point of that was to say that the youngest age is the most critical time.
They're trying to make it illegal in California to where you could face imprisonment, they said.
I think one year in prison for spanking your own child.
I mean, just for taking your child, not abuse, but just taking your child and just spanking them on the bottom.
Taking the wooden cooking spoon as I do and just spanking them on the bottom.
Go to jail for that. Pay a massive fine for that.
Tell me that we're living in a free country in America when that's the kind of legislation
that's even being entertained by our lawmakers.
It's unbelievable.
And Arizona is right behind California in everything, in every way.
They're just trying to be just like California.
And they follow their footsteps in everything.
Cameras everywhere we drive.
You know, you drive through a red light, some camera is going to snap.
You know, you accidentally drive through a red light.
Bam.
You know, 400 bucks.
Happened to me the other day.
I know from experience.
400 bucks.
Bam.
Because I missed a red light because I drive 1,500 miles a week.
And you know, obviously I wasn't right to go through the red light, but it was an accident.
400 bucks.
You know, we're not living in a free country.
We're living in a country where we're being enslaved and controlled by our leaders.
Now, why is that?
Well, think about the government's soft attitude on crime.
And this is more of a Sunday night type sermon, but I'm preaching on Sunday morning.
Sometimes I like to mix things up.
Think about the government's soft attitude on crime.
You can't open the newspaper one day in Arizona without seeing something right here in Phoenix.
I'm not talking about the national news.
I'm talking about in Phoenix some kind of a child molestation going on every single week.
Who follows the news every day?
Do you read a paper every day?
Do you pick it up every day?
We look at it every day.
We pick up the paper every day.
Every single day.
Child molesters, rapists, filthy animals.
And you know what?
When you open it up, there's always one thing in common about every story.
What is it?
Back in 1996, he was convicted of such and such with a six-year-old.
Isn't that the truth?
If you read it every day, that is the truth.
The year 2000, he was convicted of this.
Then in 2003, he was caught again in Oklahoma.
Oh, by the way, back in 1992, he was caught over here in Casa Grande, Arizona.
And they're just going on and on with all the previous offenses.
Now, why in the world does our government take somebody who has defiled a small child
and put them back on the street after a couple years?
Why?
Do you think that that's what the American people want?
Do you think that's what the majority, if we were to ask the majority of people
if some filthy pervert child molesting animal, yes, they're an animal.
Yes, they're a beast is what the Bible calls them.
He says they are as brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed.
And if you don't know that, you need to pick up the Bible and start reading it,
because that's what it says.
And I can show you that in another sermon.
You can get some of my other sermons, and I proved that from the Bible.
The Bible calls them animals.
The Bible calls them trash.
That's what the Bible calls them.
And do you think that the American people would want to put that guy back on the loose
two years later, three years later, four years later?
You can't reform them.
The Bible says evil man and seducers shall wax worse and worse.
They only get worse.
They don't get better.
That's why they need to be taken and destroyed, the Bible says.
Well, they're not normal, by the way.
They're reprobates is what the Bible calls them.
And so on and on, you'll see this soft attitude toward crime.
Why is the government allowing such a soft attitude on crime?
Why do these judges let these people off with a slap on the wrist for two years in prison?
I'll tell you why.
Because they want you to live in so much fear that you'll look to the government
as your lord and savior.
That's why.
They want you to be so scared that you'll be glad when the police drive down your street every day.
The police drive down my street every single day.
Not a day goes by, and this isn't that bad of a neighborhood.
At least I hope it isn't.
I don't think it is.
Is that why you left?
Is that why you moved away?
But, you know, this neighborhood's not that bad.
The police drive down my street, and this is not a major street.
This is off the beaten path.
The police drive down my street every single day.
Why?
They just added 13% more police officers just this year alone.
They just increased the police.
Increased the taxes on property so that they could put that many more police on the street.
Hey, we don't need more police.
It's a children.
Why do we need more police?
So they can round them up and put them in jail for two years and then let them out again?
What's the point?
What's the purpose?
Just so I can have the police drive up and down my street every day so I can't have any freedom?
So I can't just mind my own business?
Here's a perfect example.
I woke up yesterday morning, Saturday morning, walk out the front door, and you know what I saw?
My Ford Escort out there, my car, every door opened, the trunk opened, the hood opened,
and the passenger window smashed out, glass everywhere.
And, you know, a few things missing.
Just smashed to pieces, took my stuff, and I went out there and, you know, you call the police,
and I'm not faulting the police.
It's not the police's fault because their hands are tied.
I mean, they could take this guy and they could take him and get him booked and fill out the report,
and he's just let out the next day.
It's just a revolving door, you know, down at the jailhouse, literally.
But the police, they said it's going to take us hours to get out because we're so busy today
because there's just so much crime everywhere, everywhere.
There's people being broken into.
There's drugs.
There's perverts.
They're breaking it.
It's a horrible condition, and they're not trying to solve the problem.
All they have to do is put God's laws into practice of the death penalty.
The problem will be solved.
God says death penalty for kidnappers.
God says death penalty for rapists.
God says death penalty for murderers, and I pre-sold a sermon on that.
But all they have to do is put God's judgments into action any time,
or even some kind of a reasonable sense of justice.
But no, they don't want to solve the problem.
They don't want to get the crime out because I'm going to tell you something.
The world wants to control you, and the best way to control you is to get you to live in fear,
to be scared all day long, to be afraid to walk out your front door
that some pervert or some criminal is going to attack you or hurt you.
They want to keep you in fear.
They want to keep you scared so that you'll beg them to control your life,
so that they'll beg them to put in metal detectors and frisk you everywhere you go
and take pictures of you and fingerprints of you everywhere you go
and drive them down your street every single day.
Why?
Because you're so scared that the criminals are going to hurt you.
You just say, good night, just keep me safe, just protect me.
And God says, no.
God says, I can protect you.
The government doesn't need to protect you.
The police aren't the answer. I'm the answer.
Now, you say, and I'm going to tie all this together.
You'll see where this sermon is going.
You say, why is there so much crime?
And I'm going to tell you exactly why there's so much crime.
Number one is the soft attitude on crime by our government,
but that's not even the main reason, to be honest with you.
Let me tell you why there's so much crime.
Same newspaper, Arizona Republic, open it up to the movie review section.
And I check this out from time to time just to look for sermon material.
This is Friday's edition.
This is the new movie that's coming out in the theater right down the street.
I could throw a rock and hit it at the Harkins Theater here in Tempe.
It's playing. Let's see what time it's playing.
It's going to be playing today at 10.50.
Oh, wow, that'd be a good substitute for church this morning.
10.50, 1.30, 4 o'clock, 6.50, and 9.30.
You want to know what this movie is about?
The movie is called Venus, a brand new movie.
It just came out on Friday night.
What gem will Hollywood give us now?
It's a sort of fictional biography.
Here's the description.
It's starring Peter O'Toole and Venus.
In a sort of fictional biography, O'Toole plays Maurice,
an ancient British icon of stage.
He's 74 years old in real life and in the movie, 74 years old,
who becomes obsessed with Jesse, a teenager.
This is what the movie's about.
It's about a 74-year-old man who's in love with a teenage girl,
becomes obsessed with a teenager,
who moves in with Maurice's best acting pal, Ian.
Jesse is related to Ian, but it's Maurice who takes an interest in the girl
and not an innocent one.
This is the review of the movie.
Can you believe this?
It says further down.
Oh, by the way, I highlighted this part.
Remember my sermon on alcohol a couple weeks ago,
how people tried to say that verse in the New Testament where it says,
drink a little wine for thy stomach's sake in that opera.
Use no longer water, but drink a little wine for thy stomach's sake in that opera.
He took their advice.
This is what it says.
Was it hard drinking or stomach cancer or both that led to surgery
to remove part of O'Toole's stomach and intestines?
Either way, the ravages of alcohol remain clear in that haggard
and still lively face.
I read a little bit about this guy once I saw this movie ad.
This guy has been a hard drinker for the last 40 years.
He says, I don't regret a single drop of it.
He said part of his stomach and part of his intestine
were removed from such hard drinking.
Yeah, drink a little wine for your stomach's sake.
I don't understand why people, have they been lobotomized
when they're reading the Bible to think that when the Bible says
to drink no longer water but to use a little wine for thy stomach's sake,
it's talking about juice versus just water.
They think it's talking about drinking booze.
So you can end up like Peter O'Toole
with your stomach taken out from alcohol abuse.
And so I tried to read some of his interviews about this movie.
He used the F word in every line.
I couldn't even read the article.
I mean, I had to just put it down
because this guy had such a filthy mouth, such a filthy pervert.
And this is what's playing at the movies tonight.
Go ahead and go see it after the service.
Go get some popcorn.
Go get a soda and watch a movie about an elderly man
who's playing on a teenager.
Hey, what is going on in this country?
And when are we going to wake up and understand
that Hollywood is out to destroy you?
That the television is out to destroy you?
That the radio is out to destroy you?
Hey, they're not trying to protect you.
They're not trying to keep you safe with their little PG, PG-13, R,
NC-17 ratings.
Hey, they want to destroy you.
They want to pervert you.
Why in the world would we be surprised
when there's crime on a rampage?
Why would we be surprised that this week when this movie comes out,
there's even more of it in the paper
because they're promoting it in Hollywood.
They're glorifying it down the street.
People are paying money to get in.
And that man right there, that perverted man
is nominated yesterday for an Oscar at the Academy Awards
for his performance as a filthy pervert.
You say, I don't like this kind of preaching.
Well, then, you know what?
If you don't like this kind of preaching,
then you can go to just about every other Baptist church in this area
and you won't hear this kind of preaching.
And you can pretty much go to almost whatever Baptist church you want
if you don't like this kind of preaching
because you're only going to hear it right here,
right here today only at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
Somebody is going to stand up and call out a spare knock
and say the reason that there's no safety in this country,
the reason that this country is a dangerous place to live
is because of that kind of perversion,
because of that kind of filth in our media,
because of the rap music I'm talking about this morning
that promotes the illicit lifestyles,
that promotes dressing promiscuously,
that promotes defiling and abusing women
and treating women wrongly
and not treating them with the dignity and respect
that they deserve as women.
I'm talking about the movies that promote adultery,
that promote this kind of filth,
that promote everything that's wrong,
everything that's sinful,
everything that's against God.
I'm against it.
I don't have one in my house.
I throw it in the garbage can because I'm tired,
I got tired of letting the world control my mind
and letting these filthy perverts in Hollywood
tell me what I'm going to think about
and what I'm going to think is okay
and what I'm going to think is right
and I'm sick of it.
I said this is going to control my mind.
The Holy Bible, the Word of God
is going to tell me what I think
and I'm not going to let them tell me
what is right and what is wrong and what to think about.
I was thinking about this.
We walked into the mall the other day.
We were done soloing and we walked into the mall
because there was a food court there.
We were going to grab something to eat.
We walked into the mall to the food court
and I looked on both sides
and there's the theater right there
and we saw on both sides
just the images of the movies that were coming out.
I mean it was unbelievable, the images.
I mean everything was just something satanic.
I mean it was weird like occult movies
and other things were just nudity, just filth.
And I told Brother Dave, I said listen,
I said as we walked down this hallway,
I said I'm going to tell you
what each of these movies is promoting.
I said I've never even heard of these movies.
I've never even seen them.
I don't know anything about them.
I said I can just look at it
and tell you what they're trying to teach you.
One of them was some kind of ice age or something.
I said look, evolution.
I look at the next one, illicit relationships.
I look at the next one, I said this one's promoting false religion.
This one's doing this.
And it was so easy.
I mean you don't even have to know anything.
You just walk in and if you're honest,
if you don't have an ulterior motive
and you're just honestly assessing the situation,
I mean you could just walk in and tell what each one's teaching you.
And I told him this, I said listen,
I said I'm a pastor, I'm a preacher.
And when I preach, I don't try to teach everything in one sermon.
Not going to happen.
And that's why I don't really gear my sermons toward visitors.
I'm thrilled when visitors come,
but I never gear my sermon toward a visitor
because I can't teach everything in one service, right?
I mean there's no way.
I mean the Bible's a pretty big book.
And if I try to teach everything, I'm really teaching nothing.
You know I can't teach soul winning and don't sin
and don't watch the filthy movies and also pray
and also read the Bible and also memorize the Bible
and by the way dress right.
I mean I can't teach all that in one sermon, right?
Study the Bible, do this.
I have to just pick one topic.
That's what I was telling them.
I said each sermon that I preach is one subject.
And I'm just really just trying to get across that one subject.
You know if I preach on love the brotherhood,
I'm preaching on loving the people in church.
And that's all I'm really preaching.
That's the main thing I'm trying to get across.
If I'm preaching about the death penalty,
like I said at the police show,
I'm teaching what the Bible preaches on the death penalty.
If I'm preaching on soul winning
as I preached last Sunday morning,
that's really the only thing I'm trying to get across
is just love people, be a soul winner.
Get the unsaved, get them saved, reach them.
If I'm preaching on say like last Sunday night
I was preaching on music, praising the Lord.
That's all it's really about.
And I have to just pick one subject
and just teach that one subject
because there's no way I can cover everything in one sermon.
Well I told them this.
I said you see these movies?
I said these movies are just like church in a way.
Going to this theater is like attending church.
I said the world is not going to just try to cram
everything down your throat in one movie.
You know they're not going to cram all the sin
down your throat in one movie
because they know you're not going to one movie.
You're going to go Sunday morning,
Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
You come here Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
Week after week, you're here, you're here.
If you come here for ten years,
think about it, if you come here for ten years
you've been to about 1,500 sermons.
That's a lot of sermons.
You come here for ten years, if you just came once a week
then you've been here for 500 sermons.
And so that's a lot of sermons.
So that's why I don't have to give you the whole thing in one shot.
It's because I got 499 to go
in order to teach you everything else that you need to know.
And then there'll be 499 after that.
Well the world's the same way, they think the same way.
They know that if they put all the smut
and all the fills and all the garbage into one sermon,
which is actually a movie,
if they put that all into one movie
you'd be so repulsed by it, you'd be so sickened by it,
you'd say, I'm not going to see that movie.
But all they do is every single one of those movies
down at the theater, every single one of them
just has one thing they're trying to teach you.
One thing.
You see what they're trying to teach with this movie?
Just trying to give you a soft spot.
They're taking an actor who's been nominated
for seven Academy Awards,
who's a really famous actor that everybody knows about,
has a lot of fans,
putting him in there as the main character
so that you'll come and watch this movie
and see his great performance
and you'll learn to have a soft spot
for filthy old child molesters.
Is that unbelievable?
You can hardly even believe that it's true,
but my friend, it's on right now.
Right now, the credits are over.
It's 11.15.
It's been on for the last 25 minutes.
Somebody's watching it right now.
I'll bet you $1,000 there's a teenager
sitting in that theater right now.
I'll bet you $1,000 that there's a teenager
sitting in that theater right now watching that movie.
Why? Why?
Because Uncle Sam doesn't care about keeping you safe
or he would ban that filthy garbage and make it illegal
and keep my kids safe
because Uncle Sam doesn't care about you.
He doesn't care anything about you.
That's why he lets them play that this morning
and that's why he lets them destroy our nation
because he doesn't care about you.
He doesn't love you at all.
But God loves you,
and God is the one that you have to look to for safety.
Don't look to the government for safety.
Don't look for more regulations.
Don't look for more control,
more metal detectors.
We don't need more metal detectors.
I'll show you what we need.
Turn, if you would, in your Bible to the book of Leviticus.
Look at Leviticus chapter 25 verse 18.
Leviticus chapter 25, 18.
And so every time you go to a movie,
and I hope that you never go to a movie again.
I wish you wouldn't, but whatever you choose to do
is between you and God, of course.
But you know what? Every time you go to a movie,
just remember that I said this.
Every time you bring one into your house
and stick it in the DVD and stick it in the VCR,
you remember that I said this.
That every one of those movies is a sermon
that's just teaching you one little thing.
Even if it's just one little thing.
Even if the whole,
oh, but it's a really clean movie, Pastor Anderson.
It's teaching you something.
I'll guarantee you.
It's got one little message that they're trying to slip in.
Maybe they're trying to give you a soft spot for the queers.
Maybe they're trying to give you a soft spot for the child molesters.
Maybe they're trying to push evolution a little bit.
Maybe they're trying to make a little bit of a mockery
of the things of God.
Maybe the main character is a little bit effeminate.
He's got kind of long hair.
There's going to be something in that movie that's trying to educate you.
And maybe one movie is not going to destroy you.
But you don't watch one movie.
You go again and again.
And what's it going to do?
It's just teaching you another sermon.
If you come to this church ten years, you'll probably believe.
A lot of things that I preach from the Bible
have come here for ten years.
But if you watch their trash for ten years,
you'll start to believe what they believe.
And you're not above it.
Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
The Bible says pride goeth before destruction
and a haughty spirit before the world.
Don't think you're so prideful and haughty.
I can watch these movies and they will not pervert my mind.
They will not change what I believe.
They will change what you believe.
But look if you go to Leviticus chapter 25.
And I'm going to show you the first mention in the entire Bible
of the word safety.
The first time this word safety is ever mentioned.
Because remember we saw some trusted horses.
This is the United States.
Some trusted chariots.
But we'll remember the name of the Lord our God.
The Bible says the horse is prepared against the day of battle.
But safety is of the Lord.
Now let's look at the first time safety is ever mentioned in the Bible.
Leviticus chapter 25 verse 18.
Wherefore, which means for this reason,
wherefore ye shall do my statutes and keep my judgments and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land in safety.
You see that?
So what makes a nation safe?
He's speaking this to the nation of Israel.
What makes people safe?
What makes a country safe?
What makes you personally safe?
Well what's he saying?
He says wherefore ye shall do my statutes and keep my judgments and do them.
And ye shall dwell in the land safely.
And the land shall yield their fruit.
And ye shall eat your fill and dwell therein in safety.
See safety is of the Lord.
Your safety is directly related to your obedience to the Bible.
America's safety is directly related to our obedience to the Bible.
Now as the morals continue to decline in this country as they have,
your safety will decline in this country, living in America.
You'll have more crime.
You'll get broken into more.
You'll be more scared about your kids.
That's why I don't let my kids out of my sight.
Because we don't live in a safe place.
We don't live in a safe land.
We live in a scary place.
But God says fear not.
Don't be dismayed.
He says do what I told you to do.
Take care of what I told you to do in the Bible.
And he says I'll keep you safe.
And would the God that America would get back to the Bible,
get back to morality and decency,
and take these people out and shoot them to make these kind of movies,
and take them out and say you're a pervert?
You're a piece of trash?
You're not allowed to make these movies?
You can't play this?
And burn that place down for promoting that kind of filth.
When they play that movie down there,
they're endangering my children.
They are.
Because they're programming the minds of perverts
and they're feeding their perversion
and making it worse.
And so the reason that we don't live in a safe place
is not because we don't have enough police.
We have more police than we've ever had in 2007 in Tempe.
More police than ever.
But it's less safe than ever.
But look, if you would, at Daniel chapter 8 quickly.
Flip over to Daniel chapter 8.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel.
Toward the end of the Old Testament.
And you say, why do you preach this kind of a sermon?
Well, there's several reasons why I'm preaching this kind of a sermon.
Number one, you have to come to the place where your safety,
where your feeling of security,
and all of us want to feel safe, right?
Hey, I've got a security system in my house.
I put in security systems for a living.
I've got a burglar alarm.
I've got surveillance cameras.
I've got fire alarm.
I've got everything.
Because I do it for a living.
And so I put it all in my house.
Man, this place is like Fort Knox.
Okay?
I've got an assault rifle.
Yes, I have an assault rifle in my closet.
Yes, it's semi-automatic.
Yes, it's got a clip full of bullets.
All I've got to do is just slap in the clip,
cock it, and blow the head off of some pervert who walks through that door.
I wouldn't even think twice about it.
Wouldn't even flinch about it.
And I'd be singing, praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
while I blow their brains out if somebody comes into this house
and tries to mess with my family.
Because if they won't do it, then I'll do it in my house.
I'll take you to jail, and then they'll take me to jail then.
And I'll go to jail, and I'll be saying the whole way,
praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice.
Because I'm not going to let anybody walk through that door and hurt my family.
I'm going to protect myself.
And I've got the security.
But you know, that's not really where my security comes from.
My real security is found in the fact that I'm obeying God.
And I know that to the degree that I obey God,
God's going to keep me safe, and God's going to protect me.
And if God allows something to happen,
then that's because it was His will,
because I'm walking in the footsteps that He has for me.
And so, you don't need another burglar alarm.
This is not a commercial for my security systems that I put in.
Don't tell my boss I said this.
But more than a burglar alarm,
you need to be putting your faith in God to save you.
The Bible says in Psalm 121,
except the Lord build the house,
they labor in vain to build it.
Except the Lord keep the city,
the watchman waketh but in vain.
He says, really, the guard who's the watchman who's keeping the city,
the guy who's marching around, you know, with a weapon,
protecting it, the police officer, if you will.
He says, you know what, if God's not protecting you,
He can't protect you.
And that's what the Bible says.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
If God's not protecting you, the police can't protect you.
If God's not protecting America,
the U.S. military cannot protect us, according to the Bible.
I mean, we saw that very clearly in the first verses I was reading.
If God, Jehovah God's hand of protection is not on the United States of America,
no military might can protect us.
A horse is a vain thing for safety, my friend.
But we'll remember the name of the Lord our God.
And if God's not keeping your house, He says,
then you can put in all the security systems you want.
You can put in surveillance cameras like I did and have your car smashed up,
you know, literally like two feet out of the side of the camera.
I went back on the camera, you know, I played back the tape.
Yesterday morning, they're just out of sight.
You can do whatever you want, my friend, but if God doesn't protect that car,
you're not going to get smashed up and broken into.
Are you in Daniel chapter 8? Look at verse number 25.
Here's a quick, is it verse 25? Hang on a second, let me look at my notes.
Daniel chapter 8, I'm sorry, it's verse number, yeah, verse number 25.
I'm in chapter 9, that's the Bible.
Daniel 8, 25, the Bible reads, and this is about the Antichrist,
who's going to come one day.
And this is kind of a tie into our Wednesday night series on the book of Revelation.
But look at Daniel 8, 25, and through his policy also,
he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand,
and he shall magnify himself in his heart,
and by peace shall destroy many.
And he shall also stand up against the prince of princes,
but he shall be broken without hands.
So this is talking about the fact that he's going to exalt himself as God
so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God.
The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians that the Antichrist will claim
that he is God on earth, that he is God in the flesh.
And it says here, by peace shall he destroy many.
Do you see that in verse 25? It says he by peace shall destroy many.
How do you destroy people by peace?
Well, what makes people want peace?
War, violence.
I mean, if we were living in peace and prosperity,
it's, oh man, I wish we could just find some way to have peace.
People would be like, we have peace.
You know, we're fine.
But what happens is when crime is on a rampage,
when wars are being fought all over,
when violence is everywhere where you don't even feel safe in your own home,
that's when you clamor for peace.
And that's when you clamor for government control.
That's when you say, I don't care about my freedom.
I'm willing to sacrifice my freedom for safety.
I'm willing to sacrifice my freedom for security.
I'm willing to sacrifice my freedom for peace.
That's what the United Nations is.
We'll give up some of our freedom to the United Nations
and let them have some control if it will mean peace.
No, it's wrong.
And that's the tool that the Antichrist is going to use someday
to take over this world.
They have a one-world government, peace.
And the Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5,
when they shall save, peace and safety.
This is after they persecuted all the Christians and killed them all.
He says, and when he shall save, peace and safety,
then sudden destruction cometh upon them,
as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
And God's going to judge them, of course.
But peace is going to be the tool that's used.
Peace is the tool that's used to take away your freedom.
Safety is the justification for taking away your freedom.
And if you ask most of the American people,
are you willing to sacrifice a little bit of your freedom
for safety so you can feel safe about your kids,
they'd say yes, yes.
But we wouldn't need all the safety
if we would get rid of that kind of filthy trash
from perverting our minds
and if we would execute the judgments that God has on sin.
Now let me read something for you that's interesting
and I'm almost done with this sermon.
There's a book written in 1958 by a man named Cleon Skouson
who was a former FBI agent for the United States
and he wrote a book called The Naked Communist.
And it was a book about the communist ploy,
you know, to take over America, to take over our system,
to take over our political parties.
And he was in the FBI.
He surveilled people for years.
He saw all the documents.
He knew what was going on.
And so this is what he wrote.
He wrote this book as a warning in 1958.
Listen to what it says
and keep in mind that this was written in 1958.
So this is written before a lot of these things happened.
Let me read for you some of these.
These are the goals of the communist agenda.
They're long-term goals.
Number one, and I'm going to skip a lot of these
for the sake of time,
but permit free trade between all nations
regardless of communist affiliation.
Because this is before that was allowed.
Before we were trading with Red China and everything like that.
Permit free trade between all nations
regardless of communist affiliation,
regardless of whether or not the items could be used for war.
Provide American aid to all nations
regardless of communist domination.
Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation
in the United Nations, which they have right now.
Do away with loyalty oaths.
That's your pledge of allegiance.
Capture one or both of the political parties in the U.S.
They've done both.
Use technical decisions.
Listen to this stuff.
This is from 1958.
Use technical decisions of the courts
to weaken basic American institutions
by claiming that their activities violate civil rights.
That's the ACLU.
Get control of the schools.
They've already done that.
Use them as a transmission belt for socialism
and current communist propaganda.
Get control of the teachers' associations.
Get control of all the student newspapers.
Infiltrate the press.
Get control of book review assignments,
editorial writing, policy-making decisions.
Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
Listen to this.
Here's the next one from The Naked Communist, 1958.
Eliminate all laws governing obscenity.
Do you hear that?
By calling them censorship
and a violation of free speech and free press.
Do you see that?
Their goal, part of their goal for gaining control.
What's communism?
You know, it's government control.
It's totalitarian government.
It's where the government runs your life.
It's where they take half your money away before you spend it.
It's where they tell you what to do.
It's where they tell you how to raise your kids.
It's where they tell me how to preach.
It's where they tell you what you can and can't do all the time.
It's a lack of freedom.
He says we have to get rid of the laws governing obscenity
by calling them censorship.
Don't censor.
We have freedom of speech.
We have freedom of the press.
We can make a movie like this if we want.
It's the freedom of the press.
Why is it that it was this communist goal to do away with censorship?
Because he knows that if he can put that kind of filth out,
they knew that if they could put that kind of obscenity into the minds of people,
it would cause crime to increase.
Do you think that some old man who's willing to violate a child or a teenager
would have any qualms about breaking my window and breaking into my car?
Good night.
Those two things are not even in the same ballpark.
Breaking into a car versus that kind of stuff,
they're not even in the same solar system for how wicked and ungodly they are.
So these communists knew that if they could get you to watch that kind of filth all day long
and everyone in our society to watch it,
well, then they're going to go on such a rampage of crime.
We're going to live in such a scary place that's going to help them take over.
It's going to help them take over the totalitarian government.
Listen to this one.
You say, Pastor Anderson, you're nuts.
No, you're nuts if you think that the world we live in is normal.
Listen to this next one.
Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography
and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, and TV.
Number 14, present homosexuality.
And this is in 1958.
This is before any of it had come out of the closet.
Present homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as normal, natural, and healthy.
Listen to the next one and tell me this one hasn't happened.
Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion.
That's your United Methodists.
That's your Episcopalians.
Discredit the Bible.
And that's your The King James Bible is not the Word of God.
It's only in the originals.
It hasn't been preserved.
Discredit the Bible.
And if you don't believe that we can read the Bible today,
then you're discrediting it by saying that this is a wrong translation.
That's discrediting what it says.
Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity,
which does not need a religious crutch.
Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools.
See, this is back when they were still praying in the schools.
On the grounds that it violates the principles of separation of church and state.
Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned,
out of step with modern needs, and a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history
on the grounds that it was only a minor part of the big picture.
Let's turn the page here.
Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
Discredit the family as an institution.
Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents.
That's called putting your kids in school for eight hours a day.
Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of American traditions.
That's your movies. That's your traditional movies.
That, oh yeah, we always watch such and such violent, filthy movie.
He says, create the impression that violence and insurrection
are legitimate aspects of the American traditions.
That students and special interest groups should rise up
and use united force to solve economic, political, and social problems.
Now, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what's going on in this country, my friend.
The morals are being systematically lowered.
The Bible says, we wrestle not against flesh and blood,
but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places.
And I'm going to tell you something.
Every preacher who won't stand up and preach against sin,
every preacher who won't stand up and say,
thus saith the Lord, and just lay it out for you,
what's wrong with the movie theater?
What's wrong with these TV shows?
What's wrong with what's being crammed down our throat as a society?
Any preacher who won't get up and rant and rave and scream and yell about it,
I'll tell you what he's doing.
He's just playing right into their hands.
He's just their tool, because he's not warning.
He's not pointing the finger.
He's just softening it up.
He's helping reduce the morality in this country.
Because if he doesn't say it, who's going to say it?
And so by not saying anything, he's part of the problem.
And he's helping reduce the general morality in America.
He's helping reduce the general morality
in independent, fundamental Baptist churches.
We were out soul-winning the other day.
We met a man that was a song leader of a Baptist church in Tempe.
And he called himself the worship leader.
And we ran into the worship leader, and we asked him, we said,
Hey, God bless you. I'm glad you're a Baptist.
And he claimed to be saved, and his daughter claimed to be saved.
And they gave the plan salvation like they believed right.
And so he seemed like he was saved, too.
He seemed like he really knew what he was talking about.
We asked him, I said, So how's your church doing?
He said, Well, we don't have a pastor right now.
He said, We're without a pastor.
And when he said that, I remembered that I'd actually knocked on a door
of one of his church members several months ago
when I was canvassing the same neighborhood.
And she had told me that they were without a pastor.
So they'd been without a pastor for quite some time.
And he said, Our church is struggling right now
because we had to pull out of the denomination.
Because we're independent Baptists, but he was part of a denomination.
But he said, Our church had to pull out of the denomination.
And I said, Why'd you pull out of the denomination?
He said, Well, this is why.
Because he said, Our denomination, the American Baptist Convention,
the ABC it's called, the American Baptist Convention,
not the Presbyterian, not Episcopalian,
not United Methodist, American Baptist Convention,
they will not take a stand against homosexuality.
And not even just that homosexuality is a sin,
but they will not take a stand and say
that homosexuals cannot be in leadership positions
like pastor or deacon.
That's what they won't make a rule about.
And several of the member churches of this Baptist denomination
in the United States, the American Baptist Convention,
huge denomination, they will not make a stand and say,
No homos will be the pastor or the deacon.
I mean, not even saying they can't come to church,
or not even saying they deserve the death penalty,
not even saying that it's a sin or that it's wrong.
No.
Just can you at least say that they can't be the pastor?
Can you at least say that they can't be a deacon
or a Sunday school teacher?
Can you at least say they can't teach little Johnny
and his Sunday school class?
And they said, No.
They will not make that stand, the American Baptist Convention.
These are the days that we're living in.
This is 2007.
They won't even make that stand.
This is what they said.
There's only seven verses in the Bible that even talk about it,
which is a lie because there are a lot more verses
than I have to talk about.
And they said only two of them are negative.
That's what they said.
Only seven verses even talk about it,
and only two of them say that it's wrong.
And the worship leader's saying to me,
he's saying, I know that's not true.
He said, I know there's more than seven.
But he said, how many times does God,
like let's say he only said no twice.
How many times does he have to say it?
Right?
I mean, he said no once.
Well, that's only in the Bible one time.
What kind of an argument is that?
I mean, how many times does it have to be in there?
Excuse God for not wanting to talk about it
on every page of the Bible.
Excuse God for having a little bit of wholesome content
in the Bible and not just talking about it on every page.
It only says no twice, which is a lie.
That's the American Baptist Convention.
In the United States of America,
Baptists, Baptists, they won't take that stand.
Why?
Because they're the tool of Satan.
They're the tool of the spiritual wickedness
in high places because the Bible says
the light of the body is the eye.
If therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil,
thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
And then Jesus Christ said this,
if therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness?
I mean, the Baptist churches in America
are supposed to be the light.
And he says if the light that's in you be darkness,
how great is that darkness?
What kind of a nation are you living in
where the light is darkness?
Where you walk into a Baptist church
and it's the rock music.
You walk into a Baptist church
and you're sitting next to a homosexual.
You walk into a Baptist church
and you listen to a preacher
that won't stand up and stand on its high two legs
and say I don't care what my wife thinks,
I don't care what you think,
I don't care what anybody thinks,
I don't care what the denomination thinks.
This is what the Bible says.
Take it or leave it.
And that's the kind of preaching
that we need in this country.
That's what we need
and anybody who won't stand up and do it
is just a tool of the enemy.
Because if you're not part of the solution,
you're part of the problem.
He that gathereth not with me,
scathereth Bob is what Jesus said.
You say are you mad this morning,
Pastor Anderson?
Yes, I'm mad this morning.
Yes, I'm angry this morning.
The Bible says God's angry with the wicked every day.
I'm only angry with the wicked on January 28, 2007.
So yes, I'm mad this morning.
Yes, I'm angry.
Yes, I'm preaching on sin.
Yes, I'm standing up and fighting against
the spiritual wickedness in high places.
I'm going to tell you something.
I want this country to exist for my children.
I want this country to exist for your children.
I want this church to continue to exist
and the only way it's going to continue to exist
is if somebody sells the trumpet and says
we will take a stand for God's laws.
We will take a stand for God's rules,
God's morality, God's right and wrong
and that's how we're going to get safety.
That's how we're going to be safe in this country.
And so here's what we're going to do.
We're going to go out and we're going to
knock as many doors as we can,
get as many people saved as we can
and we're going to preach it exactly
the way that God wants to preach.
And if this church grows, great.
If it doesn't grow, fine.
But it will grow because God said
upon this rock I will build my church.
And he wasn't looking at a man.
He wasn't looking at a denomination.
He was looking at the Bible and said
upon this rock I'll build my church
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
This church is going to be built on this rock
and it's going to be built by God
and it's going to be a lighthouse and a beacon
not only of soul winning,
that's only one side of the coin my friend,
not only of reaching people,
not only of love of people,
not only a tear in the eye and a Bible in the hand
and the Holy Spirit in your chest
that you give the gospel to somebody and win under Christ.
Not only that but also a voice that thunders out and says
we are against the sin that's invading this land
and we're against the sin that's making us unsafe in this country.
But let me encourage you this.
The Bible says the Lord knoweth how to deliver the righteous.
And you think about a man like Locke for example
who's in a wicked place in a wicked city.
God said before I destroy the city
I'm going to get a lot out of the city.
I'm going to pull him out.
And I'm going to tell you something.
I just believe that even in the most unsafe,
ungodly society,
I believe in a place where you'd be afraid to even walk out your front door.
I still believe that God can keep you safe.
I mean if you were in Baghdad, Iraq this morning
and you got up and walked out the door,
I believe that God can keep you safe
because God is watching you all the time.
And in the chapter that we read,
I don't know if you noticed the Bible talks about
the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous.
It says God is constantly watching you.
I mean when you wake up in the morning,
when you walk out the door, God's watching you.
The Bible talks about the angels in Hebrews chapter 1.
He says are they not ministering spirits
sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?
I mean God says that the angels are guarding you.
I mean they're there to take care of you,
to serve you, to watch out for you.
And so God is watching you.
God's angels are protecting you.
And God says fear not.
Don't be dismayed. Don't tremble.
Don't be afraid when you hear all the news.
Don't be afraid to stand up, do what's right,
preach what's right, stand for what's right,
read the Bible, obey the Bible, live for God.
And God says I will keep you safe.
You don't have to rely on the United States.
You don't have to rely on the police officer.
He says I'll be your shield.
I'll be your safety.
He says I'll be your protection.
I can keep you safe.
And so don't live a life of fear.
Live a life of righteousness and holiness
and fearless standing for the truth.
Because God says if you fearlessly stand for the truth,
He says I can keep you safe.
I can protect you.
I'm glad today that I don't have to be afraid like the world.
I mean they don't know who's protecting them.
They don't know what's going to happen.
They don't know what's going to happen when they walk out the door at night.
They don't know what's going to happen to their kids.
But you know what, at least I have the assurance to know
that God's watching me 24 hours a day.
God loves me.
And God is keeping me safe.
Remember the horse is prepared against the day of battle,
but safety is of the Lord.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
God, I thank you so much for the safety that you promised
to those who love you.
And God, I just pray that you would keep us safe as a nation.
But Father, if this nation is going to continue the downward spiral,
I hope it doesn't.
But God, if this country continues the downward spiral that it's on,
Father, would you please just keep my family safe?
Would you please just keep this church safe
and the people that are here to love you, dear God?
Would you please keep us safe in this country?
And God, please help us not to have a spirit of fear.
The Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear,
but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
I just pray that you would please just keep us safe
and help us not to fear and live our lives scared.
But God, help us to have the boldness that characterizes a Christian
who loves God and who knows the Bible's true
and who knows that God is on their side.
Father, give us boldness.
Give us a spirit of power and boldness, courage, dear God.
Help us to take the stands that need to be made.
Help us obey you, dear God.
And Father, help us to, at least in our area,
to see how many people we can get saved
and see how many people we can reach with the truth.
And Father, I know that you will bless us for it.
And we love you.
In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
All right, let's sing one song before we go.
Quickly learn a new song.