Thank you everybody for joining us on the "Baptist Bias" special episode.
This is the first night of our FBBF conference here in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas area.
And we have two guest preachers this evening, Pastor Bruce Mejia and Pastor Roger Jimenez.
Hopefully they'll be joining us on the show as well this evening, while we talk about
a really important topic, the war on God's Word.
Thanks again for joining us for another episode of the "Baptist Bias."
This is a special broadcast where we're doing a kind of a pregame show before the conference
this evening.
And if you want to check out the sermons for tonight, you need to go to the Rumble channel
for Steadfast Baptist Church where you're going to be able to hear Pastor Bruce Mejia
and Pastor Roger Jimenez preach this evening.
In fact, we're joined this evening with Pastor Bruce Mejia.
Why don't you say hi to us?
Did you check the cameras before you got on or what?
Did you check the cameras?
Yeah.
You guys got my coffee.
That's pretty good.
Do you need more coffee?
Mascarpone?
Maybe.
Okay.
Well, I saw the first comment in our live stream was asking, "When is the Rod of Iron
podcast coming back?"
And so I feel like I just had to ask that question.
Yeah.
I don't know.
We put a pause on that for a little bit.
You kind of destroyed us there.
We have to take a break on it to everyone forget about the jokes.
I just think it's funny that that's the first thing people are asking about on our show.
When's Rod of Iron coming back?
Yeah.
Apparently our show's not good enough.
They're just like when's the real show coming back?
Yeah, I guess we have these mics really close for everybody to hear well, but if you don't
mix that iron with Myri Clay, that's where it kind of breaks down.
So thanks so much for being here.
Hopefully Pastor Minnis might make it so he can be on the show with us tonight as well.
Benz, want to say hello to everybody.
How's it going, everyone?
It's great to be here.
I'm always excited to be at a conference.
In the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship, this is the third one that our church has
done so far.
It's always a great time.
If you're not here with us live, I just want to echo what Pastor Shelley said.
Go to the Steadfast Baptist Church Rumble channel right now so you can check out Pastor
Mejia's sermon, Pastor Jimenez's sermon, and then tomorrow Pastor Berzins and Pastor
Randerson will be preaching for us.
You don't want to miss out on this.
Go to the Rumble channel.
But I'm really excited.
We have a really interesting topic tonight.
It's the Fire-Breathing Baptist Fellowship, how could you not be pumped up?
Now I think both of you guys, you were here for both of the previous conferences we had,
right?
And you were preaching at both.
Is that correct if I remember?
I think I preached at one of them, and that was a life-changing conference, of course.
But yeah, it's a very memorable conference.
Did you preach at the Sampson Park one, or no?
I don't know.
You guys moved to so many places.
I can't remember.
I don't really know where you guys were at.
I'm kind of curious.
I know you preached for me over there.
I'm kind of curious where you guys are going to be next year.
Yeah.
It's hard to keep track.
Well, it's like you got to catch them all, you know, it's just like a different phase
every week.
And so it's that we're in that growth spurt phase, I guess, where you just change every
single week.
So no, but thanks so much for being here again.
And hopefully this will be even more life changing than last time.
Hopefully not.
Side joke there.
Yeah, but we're glad you're here.
Now this topic, the war on God's world, I'm sorry, the war on God's word is not just hyperbole.
It's not just something that we're just making up here.
There are people out there saying literally that they want to attack King James onlyism
and attack our view on scripture.
And I think you got a clip from somebody.
This guy is a former pastor.
He got voted out by his church, but he has just pretty much gone full on scale war against
King James onlyism.
And I want to play a little clip here.
It's clip number three, Jonathan Burress, the war on God's word.
And I just want to hear from the horse's mouth that there really are pastors out there attacking
this position.
Video responding to comments that I've received over the last three weeks in response to videos
regarding Isaiah 14, 12, Daniel 3, 25, and my subsequent firing for stating that modern
English versions were accurate in their translations of those two verses.
Weeks later, I continue to get hundreds and hundreds of comments on YouTube, Facebook,
Twitter, private messages, and even some texts and phone calls.
As one friend told me, I took a stick to a hornet's nest.
Well, for the sake of everyone, that hornet's nest needs to be knocked down.
It needs to have gasoline poured on it.
It needs to be destroyed.
Why?
Because King James onlyism is divisive and dangerous to the body of Christ.
It also causes some to have a negative opinion of a wonderful translation that has been
tainted by a vocal minority of people who hold that a particular Bible translation is
to be held in a higher regard than any other, not based on preference, but based on an unbiblical
and illogical conviction that it is the only inerrant, inspired, infallible word of God
for the English-speaking people.
So there you hear it.
This guy "pastor" Burris, even though he got voted out of his church, so I don't know he's
pastoring anymore, but this guy is saying that he wants to pour gasoline on King James
onlyism.
What are your thoughts when you hear that, brother Ben?
Well, I think of somebody who hates the King James Bible.
Now, he's going to deny that, but the reality is he's set out to make Christians feel less
confident in the word of God.
That's what he's trying to do, is make Christians feel less confident about the Bible, about
God's preserved word.
And in doing so, he's overthrowing people's faith, in a sense.
I don't know if you've heard about this guy before, but what do you think about, or have
you heard of some of these other pastors?
I have been pastors that are walking away from the King James, or now, in my mind, kind
of going this deconstruction route, getting away from King James-onlyism, fundamentalism.
What do you think about that?
Have you heard about other people like this?
Yeah.
I mean, they make the same argument that this guy just made, and he actually made a statement
that honestly I do agree with, and that is that King James-onlyism is divisive, and it
absolutely is, because it divides and makes a distinction between that which is correct
and that which is incorrect.
And he talks about how it's divisive in the body of Christ, and I agree with that as well,
because it removes that which is an error from the body of Christ.
It cuts off that which doesn't belong there, and it takes a strong stance on what is true,
whereas the modern versions of the Bible all agree with one another, even though textually
they don't.
Philosophically, they do, and King James-onlyism seems to stand alone and say, "Well, you
guys are all wrong."
Well, and it seems like he was suggesting that there is no such thing as a superior
translation.
I mean, does this just mean all translations are equal as long as they're not King James?
How does that even work?
If you have a church and you need to read the Bible and you believe they're all equal,
then what do you use?
Any and all translations, I guess.
I mean, at that point, everything is fair game, and they would say that there's no
way that the inspiration of God's Word can be preserved through a translated Bible.
That's their position.
Well, you experience this personally because one of his friends is somebody that you used
to be in church with, Pastor Brian Sams, who actually took his church away from the King
James.
What happened there?
Well, the first ever pastor that I had, actually right after getting saved, I went to his church
and he turned out to not be King James only at all.
He started out with that position, but he moved his church off the King James and actually
uses very similar talking points to this guy in claiming that it's divisive and that we
need to move away from it and that the other Bibles are totally okay.
They're fine.
He's actually created a program, this pastor, to transition, is what he calls it, transition
other independent Baptists away from the King James Bible and to the NIV or the ESV or
the new King James.
And I think it's just horrible.
But I want to echo what you said real quickly.
Jesus Christ, he said that he came not to bring peace on earth, but rather division,
a sword.
And so it would make sense for this doctrine to be divisive.
But you know what I say to that?
So what?
It doesn't really matter.
Brian Sands and Jonathan Burris, they just need to get over it.
Yeah, it is divisive.
Well, and if we look at where the division is, those who ended up dividing and being
on the King James only side versus those who are not, what's the fruit difference between
these churches?
I mean, which churches are the ones that are more conservative, more fundamental, care
about what the Bible actually says, are doing God's commandments, doing the soul winning,
standing for faith alone?
I mean, it becomes pretty clear who's right on this issue just based on the fruit.
I mean, do you not see an obvious difference between churches that are King James and
ones that are using modern versions, Pastor Mia?
Yeah, I mean, all across the board, when you look at churches that use the modern versions
of the Bible, you can look at all types of, regarding their preaching, for example, they
often are churches that don't preach against sin or specific sin, and they end up redefining
what sin is.
They are people who compromise and tolerate abominable things, and not only that, but
when it comes to the fruit of converts, for example, you know, they don't necessarily
have a whole lot of converts because of the fact that they preach a false gospel.
And that should have come, that should come as no surprise because the Bibles that they're
using often have a convoluted gospel.
It's very misconstrued.
It's very confusing.
And so if they're using that to preach from, obviously the congregation is going to get
all mixed up.
I've knocked on the doors of people in Southern California, people who attend these types
of churches and as much as they claim to be Christian and they claim to be believers in
Jesus, when it comes down to the matter of salvation, they can't give you a clear answer.
Well, why is that?
Well, because they're going to one of these churches that are using these modern versions
of the Bible that are confusing them.
And so there's a definite distinction between our doctrine and their doctrine based upon
the Bibles that we use.
And you know, to me, I think that if I went to church and I was told, well, no translation
is perfect.
You know, they all have problems, they all have issues, you know, we don't really know
exactly what the Bible really says.
But that would not encourage me to read it.
That wouldn't encourage me to study it.
As opposed to if I'm going to church where they say this is exactly what God wants us
to understand, you can trust every single word, I feel like that's going to make me
appreciate the text more, take it more seriously, want to read it.
And where you have just this cornucopia of translations where they're all kind of right
and kind of wrong at the same time, it seems like there's no way to really have edifying
conversations, change people's minds, take the text seriously, and it forces all of these
people if they want to get serious to learn Greek, right?
They have to learn Greek and go back to the original languages and study and really just
become a student of what I would say gurus.
People like James White, there's a new guy, Mark Ward, and they also have videos on this
subject.
This is the second we have of James White and you can tell this Jonathan Burris is not
like a scholar on his own, he's just simply regurgitating what many of these other pseudo
intellectuals and fake apologists for the modern versions would say.
But I want to hear a clip from James White real quick, let's play this clip one.
These individuals like Stephen Andrews could never engage, never engage the world in any
kind of meaningful apologetic at all.
And they don't.
They don't.
And these guys come along because they're so easy to defeat.
Yeah, I mean, I feel like the world loves us and they love our doctrine.
And that just sounds like really reasonable.
What do you think about that Pastor Maria?
Well that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the eyes of God.
And so if he's claiming that the world does not like Pastor Anderson and churches like
ours, I mean, he's only validating that we are of God because of the fact that the world
hates us.
And so why would the world be comfortable talking to us?
Why would the world be in agreement with us?
I mean, we're not, we're not equally yoked together with him.
What fellowship has, what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness?
And so he's kind of self-condemning himself right there because if people, if the world
is agreeing with him, he's basically saying that he's not of God.
I think that's a great point and kind of on the, if I take, you know, his train of thought,
he's trying to suggest this idea that they would love, the world loved to debate Pastor
Anderson because they can so easily destroy him intellectually and that all of his ideas
are just so easily defeated.
My question would be then why is he one of the most censored people on the planet?
Why are churches like ours some of the most censored churches on the planet?
If our ideas are just so obviously wrong and easily defeated, you know, there's certain
ideas like this, like the flat earth theory, that's not censored on online because it's
such a dumb idea and such a foolish doctrine.
They love putting that out there and knocking it down just to show how foolish it is.
I would submit to you that the reason why we're being censored is because they cannot
defeat our arguments because our arguments are coming from the Bible and the Bible is
the truth.
Just like Stephen, when he was confronting the Jews, they just got to a point where they
had to close their ears and just run upon him in mad fury because they could not defeat
his arguments.
They couldn't gain, say, his wisdom.
And so the only option left was to censor him, was to shut him down.
And so it's funny to me that this guy pretends like the world can so easily defeat our arguments.
Where are all these videos debunking?
It's just simply just shutting it down, attacking, ad hominem attacks.
There's no way to engage the King James Bible intellectually and defeat it.
And I think that this guy is blowing smoke here.
Well, what about the fact that he claims that the world can defeat Pastor Anderson's arguments
or his doctrine or any one of ours.
That Pastor Anderson and his church and our churches win thousands of people to Christ
every single month.
And we're constantly converting the world to God's word, to the way the Word of God
teaches about salvation, what the Bible says.
I mean, we have fruit to prove that.
We have comments in our church who formerly did not believe what the Bible says.
And then we came to them and showed them what the Bible says.
And we converted them.
And now they're like us.
So what about that?
And in just a matter of minutes.
I mean, we could take someone that's been a Catholic their whole life, decades.
And in 15, 20 minutes, completely change their mind and turn them towards the things of God.
There's been people who were in the modern versions.
And in just sheer minutes of showing them why the modern versions are corrupted, they
change their mind and become King James only very quickly.
Why is it that we can so easily convert people over that are at least humble or willing to
listen if our arguments are so outdated?
I mean, is this not the experience you have going out evangelizing, Ben?
I've actually had people who own an NIV on multiple occasions when I show them an Acts
837 that's missing or another verse that's missing and they just go, "Here, take it."
There was even one lady who the NIV was gifted to her by a relative who she really cared
about and she still said, "Go ahead, take it.
I don't want it.
It's missing scriptures."
So yeah, people can very easily be swayed.
But here's the thing that James White is trying to say.
He's trying to make the point that you, Pastor Mejia and Pastor Anderson as well, the pastors
of the New IFB and other King James Onlyists, cannot engage in apologetics because that's
what he talked about.
He said you can't engage in any meaningful apologetic while holding to the King James
Only position.
And to that I say, well, why does that matter?
I mean, aren't you guys more interested in going and knocking on the everyman's door
and giving them the gospel on their doorstep?
Are you really that concerned with whether or not James White thinks he can go out and
defeat a Muslim in a debate or something like that?
Because the last time I checked, that's not exactly the focus of your guys' ministry.
Sure.
And I mean, you know, Pastor Anderson literally did have a sit-down kind of interview discussion
with James White.
And at the point that Pastor Anderson was proving him wrong, James White just totally
shut down the conversation, wouldn't even discuss doctrines that he disagreed with,
even though he had no justification or support for his view.
And so how is it that if Pastor Anderson's view were so bad that James White couldn't
just easily defeat them, as opposed to he just simply ran away from the conversation?
Because again, this guy's not truly an intellectual, he's a pseudo-intellectual, he's intellectually
dishonest about many of the things that he says.
And look, frankly speaking, if Pastor Anderson debated James White, he would wipe the floor
with him.
It's not even funny.
And so, you know, I hope one day that this happens.
I know that there's been talks about it in the past, but, you know, "Hey, James White,
why don't you put your money where your mouth is?"
And I would love to see you defeat Pastor Anderson on King James-only-ism.
I believe that any guy in the New Ivy could hold his own against James White in this discussion
because the truth is more powerful than his intellect.
He might be a better debater or might have more experience in that arena, but you know
what?
The truth is always more powerful no matter how weak the orator is.
And so, you know, I'm just hoping that someday we get to see that smack down because I just
think that that would be funny.
There's another clip here of Mark Ward and it's hard to even listen to this guy because
he sounds like a literal faggot, but you know, you can be the judge of this conversation.
I want to offer you some hard-won counsel on how to carry the burden of love for people
caught in one particular transgression, a very widespread trap called KJV-onliism.
My counsel begins with answering the question.
What transgression exactly are KJV-onli Christians caught in?
The answer isn't immediately apparent.
Most KJV-onli Christians are just trusting their pastors, who have told them that 1)
the King James is the only truly trustworthy translation, and 2) the King James is the
only Bible translation based on the pure Hebrew and Greek texts.
Both of these things are, I believe, not true.
My KJV-onli brothers tell me, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceeds from the mouth of God."
So we have to have every word, they say.
But is this really what Jesus intends to say in this verse?
I've covered this elsewhere, but the fact is that Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy, and
he doesn't actually quote the relevant verse with word-for-word accuracy and perfection.
He changes Lord to God.
For one thing, take a look for yourself, even within the King James.
I just can't get from this verse, Matthew 4:4, to perfect Bible translation, without
a number of leaps that the Bible does not demand or endorse.
That's my speech berathing, dude.
I think that effeminate people feel awkward around him, so he's beyond the sin of effeminacy
there.
How do you sound like that much of a homo?
Because you hate the King James Bible.
If you hate the King James Bible, you start sounding like that, and so that's why you
want to be King James only, and it sounds more Texan.
I reckon the sufferings of this world are not worthy to be compared.
So that's my little spiel for Texas.
Of course, everybody coming here loves Texas, and they appreciate it, and they know that
it's the promised land, and they've never been in a better country in their life and
this part of the world, and so you're never going to find better advocates than Pastor
Mia and Pastor Minas for Texas and how wonderful it is.
And so, no, we got over 80 people in the chat, we got a lot of people here.
If you've got a question on this topic that you want to drop in here, we could ask it
while we're here on the air, and you know, this guy, I don't know, it's hard to even
want to respond to this guy because it's just, listening to him is just like, such just nails
on a chalkboard.
Did you even hear anything that you even care to comment on?
Well, I do think it's kind of funny that he's like, he's putting this Rukhmanite understanding
of King James, he's projecting this Rukhmanite understanding of King James only as an on
to us, and saying like, well, see, it's not a word for word quotation of Deuteronomy,
therefore your doctrine is false, and it's like, we never said that it had to be.
We understand that words are a vehicle by which you communicate meaning.
And so yeah, obviously, if they're synonymous language, it's fine.
Every time these people, it's like every time they want to attack the King James only position,
they go after ruckmanism.
How about you go after what normal King James only people believe?
Yeah, it's the retarded step cousin of King James onlyism that we wish wasn't even there.
And so that's the only thing they can really attack, because of course, there's some over
the top views of King James onlyism.
But you know, believing that it's God's inspired preserve word, and it's the only translation
that should be used is the most logical conclusion.
And it's evidenced by its fruit.
Of course, you know, believing that the underlying Greek or Hebrew are inferior to the King James
is a bizarre idea that sometimes recmanites or people like that get, or this double inspiration
view of scripture.
But you know, at least they're using the right Bible.
I would I would rather give them the recmanite using the right Bible than these than Mark
Ward, you know, and I get it like, you know, sure, the the
recmanites are off and wrong and they have some problems.
But at least at least you know which Bible they're going to use.
You know what I mean?
Yeah, there's no doubt they'll be using the King James.
That's for sure.
We don't have to doubt that or worry about that.
But what do you think, Pastor Mahia, about this fag loving idiot?
Well, I mean, just the way he talks kind of gives away what kind of Bible he uses.
And so I never want to be a person who's characterized by criticizing the Bible.
So if your ministry is based off of tearing down the word of God and criticizing King
James onlyism, that should say something about that person, you know, if that's what their
ministry is based off of.
But you know, I don't think he has a leg to stand on.
You know, a lot of the things that he's pointing out, it's kind of a straw man argument because
again, like what you said, he's attacking Ruckman ism, which we're not Ruckman.
We don't hold those views.
We don't believe in that.
And so why don't you attack our principles and the principles that we live by what we
try?
Well, we why we believe the King James Bible is the inspired and preserved word of God
and not trying to kind of circumvent that and attack ruckmanism, attack what we believe.
Yeah.
And how about the language?
Oh, you know, we need to rescue these King James onlyists.
They're caught in a transgression and all this kind of language to make it appear as
if something's wrong with us or that we have some kind of issue that we need to be saved
from courtesy of Mark Ward, apparently trying to be our savior.
I hate this gaslighting, condescending, patronizing language that the enemy uses sometimes.
Give me a break, a recovering fundamentalist type view, right?
Of course, of all the problems in the world, when we talk about the Israel and the Palestinian
conflict, inflation, foreign wars, Ukraine, election integrity, border crises, probably
the most important issue is the fact that some people like the King James Bible a little
too much.
You know what I mean?
Of all the problems out there, all the false doctrines, the Joel Osteen, the TD Jakes,
the snake handling, Pentecostals, I mean, you know, the people that really need to be
rescued are those recommended.
I mean, it's like, give me a break.
Like, is that really the people that are the worst and the people you need to spend and
dedicate your life to "rescuing"?
And what I notice is these people that start attacking the King James Bible, they end
up repeating a lot of arguments that you would hear atheists or that you would hear Muslims
or that you would hear like all kinds of people that just even hate Christianity use.
And it gets to a point where I'm thinking like, "Do you even believe the Bible at all?
Like, do you even have any confidence in scripture whatsoever?"
And it's just kind of frustrating to me when you see these type of people go down this
road because it's like this deconstruction movement starts with King James onlyism and
then they just become an atheist eventually when they get all the way down the road.
And I feel like that's kind of a common theme with these individuals and they're the men
that are crept in unawares, like Jude mentions, and it's someone that we should earnestly
contend with.
People that are anti King James only, I do think it's important for us to fight those
people.
I just don't see how anybody could logically think that you should fight King James onlyism.
I mean, this doesn't really add up to me.
What do you think about this deconstruction movement and people attacking those who are
King James only?
Well, my question is, if you're going to attack us, what is it about our ministry and about
the converts that you find people need to be saved from?
The fact that they're assured of their salvation, the fact that they love doctrine, they love
the Bible, they're raising their families for the Lord, they're loving their wives as
Christ also loved the church, they're reverencing their husbands, they are raising their children
and nurturing the admonition of the Lord.
I mean, are these things bad?
Because this is the fruit of being a King James only, isn't it, Pastor Jimenez?
And so what makes you think you have to save us from the King James Bible if the King
James Bible is producing this type of fruit in our lives?
The person you should be saving is the individual who's within these non-denom churches that
isn't assured of their salvation.
They're constantly doubting.
They're constantly involved in sin.
Their lives are wrecked.
They're going through divorces.
They have all, it's just like a cesspool of sin in the church.
Well, that's a byproduct of the Bible that they're using and the preaching that they
have.
They need the saving, not us.
You know, what we need is for people to understand what our position is.
And we need the liberty to be able to preach the Word of God so we can continue to convert
others, to Christ, to teach him the Bible, and to live a prosperous Christian life.
Amen. Well, we brought in the big guns to rescue us on the show. Pastor Roger Menes, thanks so much
for joining us. You got to get really close to your mic just so people can hear you really well.
But why don't you say hi to everybody? Thank you for having me on the show. Sorry I'm late.
We had some problems with our flight, but it's good to see you. Good to see you, Pastor Mejia.
And I'm glad to be here. Glad to be here for the conference. Glad to be here for the podcast.
Yeah, considering history, I'm impressed that these guys came back. And so we're great to have them
at the Fire Beating Baddest Fellowship where you never know what's going to happen,
but you know that it's going to be fire. And so I'm excited to hear these guys preach.
My lawsuit has officially closed, so that's the only reason I'm here.
I was actually not allowed to interact with you.
Well, you know what? Ours did too. So hey, you know what? Praise God on that.
And you know, the Lord is good. And so I'm glad you guys are here and you're still my friend.
It's like all obstacles to try and get you to not be my friend. I'm in Texas. You have people
attack you just because you show up. And so the fact that they're still willing to come back here
makes me feel like maybe I do really have some friends. And so I appreciate you guys being here.
We're talking about the war on God's word. And we kind of put a few clips here from James White,
a few other guys who kind of have made it their life's mission to attack King James onlyism or
people who believe in the King James Bible. Some of their arguments lean towards Ruckmanism,
but at the same time, they're just kind of generally against King James onlyism.
Is this something that you feel like you've experienced or seen people who are kind of
just dedicated to attacking the King James Bible? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's definitely
a movement of people out there that have just like you said, the names you gave, people who
have just kind of made it their mission to try to just discredit the King James Bible. And again,
to me that just shows that the King James Bible, it really is the Word of God. Because show me the
movement of people out there that are just really, you know, other than us, you know, that are really,
but we're against all, you know, modern Bible versions, right? But just show me the people
that are just like, "No, just the NIV. That's just, you know, anything but the NIV." Because
that's really, and even the people that aren't against the King James, a lot of like the liberals
today, they have this attitude that's just like anything but the King James, you know, like,
whatever you want to use, the ESV, the NIV, even the new King James, but just the King James,
you know, that's really archaic or whatever. So the fact that there's just a target on the King
James Bible, I'm actually going to talk not about this specifically, but I'm going to talk about this
in my sermon. Whenever there's a target on anything, that should give you an idea that the devil's
against, you know, the devil's doing that. There's a target, show me the churches that are being
attacked, like the new IFB churches. Show me the Bible has been attacked like the King James Bible.
So just the fact that there is a group of people that are trying to destroy the King James Bible
and trying to keep people from using it, should tell you something about the fact that it's the
Word of God. Amen. I think that's a great point and you know when we talk about the King James
Bible and some of these people that attack it, what I find interesting is they're they're always
quick to tell you all the problems. They'll say oh I know all kinds of problems and issues with
the King James but you know they never seem to tell you like so since we've identified all these
problems we're going to come out with the the actual right version or like you said they're
not pointing to the NIV and saying this is it but if you truly believe that you had identified
let's just throw a number 100 errors or 200 or whatever the number is why wouldn't you then
work towards getting that corrected making that a published work and getting it out there so
everybody can actually have the word of god instead of continuing to just be this guru
of like well i know what all the errors are and i know what the bible really says but
you guys don't really know it's like why don't you just get it dialed in for us as opposed to
just constantly telling us how bad it is why don't you just show us why don't you just go ahead and
make your little translation of the bible that's the perfected version right and it doesn't seem
like anyone really that's not king james only has a bible they point to and just say like this is it
have you ever heard pastor me as someone say like this is this is the english version that's
superior to all other versions i've only had people say you know i would go with these three
you know this is my personal favorite but it's like they're never really solid or they don't
really take a stance on one particular bible which as a christian would concern me if a person who
claims to know so much about the bible doesn't really know which bible to use and claims to be
so knowledgeable about the underlying scriptures and uh can tear apart the king james bible but
isn't really sure themselves as far as what bible they should use it's like when people uh want to
criticize us what we believe about salvation but they don't even know themselves if they're safe
you know it's just kind of like if you're not sure of that if you don't have the confidence then who
are you yeah and of course they'll say this is what they kind of say sometimes well it's the greek or
it's the hebrew but even then you know they're using the nesli alon 28th edition they're not
even necessarily dialed into a specific greek text the greek text is constantly changing just
like the english texts are constantly changing and so they just simply would admit their position is
we don't know what the bible really says we're just kind of guessing we're still researching
we're still trying to find it and it's like why would god want us to be on an endless quest
to find the word of god and never have it why wouldn't he just want us to all just all have
it readily available for every single person instead of just one guru out there just trying
to find it randomly i mean are they ever going to find it ben well that's the difference between
the two positions you have one position that says the word of god must constantly evolve based on
new discoveries of alexandrian manuscripts or the cbgm method they're going to use to
bring the na 29 into existence and then the other position that says hey the word of god is stable
it hasn't changed the received text hasn't changed the hebrew masoretic text hasn't changed the king
james bible hasn't changed and it's never going to change that's the two that's the difference
between the two positions but unfortunately uh there's a movement out there and you had
brought it up earlier with my pastor he got sucked my old pastor got sucked into this
the movement that says it's time to transition away because the word of god is constantly
changing so it's time to transition away from the king james and this was his big argument that he
made and i want to get your guys's response to this he said the reason why i took my church
off the king james bible is because i knew it was going to happen eventually that the next guy that
i ordained to take my church over would no longer be king james only because the king james bible
is becoming history we're moving on we're evolving we're progressing and you know the way i would
think about it is not if the new ifb has anything to say about it but what do you guys think about
that this idea that you know what there's going to come a day when no one's using the king james
anymore and so you kind of have to change now rip the band-aid off now that was his attitude i mean
that logic sounds like a parent saying like the reason that i gave my children marijuana is because
i knew that someone eventually was going to offer it to them like what kind of a ridiculous
argument is even that you know that doesn't make any sense i do want to take a moment if it's okay
being on the baptist bias and having pastor mahiya sitting next to me with this cup here to just ask
for mascafe yes i thought you were going to say to praise texas just because i i figure that both
of you guys love texas more than anybody about coffee yeah get this man a coffee he's actually
legitimately getting good ones okay well you know john john lennon said that he was that the beetles
were going to be more famous than jesus and he's dead and jesus is still the most popular person
in the world and the king james bible is still the most popular book in human history and just
like your former pastor said you know unfortunately he's going to die and the king james bible is
still going to be marching on and it's funny that the king james bible's history why do our churches
keep growing good point and why do why do even better sermons keep getting preached you know
pastor mahiya where he's tearing it up and la and la i mean you don't think of la is the bible belt
here okay like la i feel like is just like evil and it's like hollywood and whatever but he's
reaching people and arguably one of the most evil places in the world with that old archaic king
james i mean how you doing it pastor mahiya well you know the bible says that the word of god is
quick and powerful sharper than any two-edged sword and so to that man who thinks that the king
james bible will be history it'll be history to him because he's not using it but to those of us
who do use it it remains powerful it's capable of changing lives and restoring marriages winning
people to christ and making a huge difference even in the state of california you know because it's
the word of god and so to him you know he just has a defeatist attitude and obviously he doesn't
believe the king james bible is the word of god but he's just a defeated type of a person where
it's just like well i'm just gonna accept the defeat sooner so my successor you know he's
already transitioned into this new modern version but the reality is this is just kidding oh
i'll take it no i'll take it i'll take it yeah i mean i think the the the proof that the king
james bible is the word of god is the fact that it keeps staying in circulation and it's always
being used not just being carried to church but it's actually being read in church people are
just buying it and putting it on their coffee tables they're actually reading it every single
day they're actually memorizing it they're utilizing it to win people to christ i mean
it's constantly being used yeah i always hammer this in with people who get confused on the topic
fluid versus stable you know what i mean and it's like our text is stable it will not change it's
been preserved by god and that's true for the underlying greek and hebrew that it's predicated
on and it's true for the english translation as well what kind of a weak leader just openly admits
like if i ordain someone they're going to totally change their doctrine and be against whatever i
taught like that's like a terrible pastor terrible leader terrible mentor and it's like if you're
teaching somebody something and then they totally go against it it's like did you believe it or
like what are you even trying to say there i mean he claims he changed his mind and and look i don't
think that you're going to ever have a perfect succession rate you know obviously watching the
bible great men train up people and then they kind of let them down they fail they have issues they
have problems but if the vast majority of your fruit isn't even like you to me it kind of
questions your leadership you know i see churches like west coast and or at least the bible college
west coast and lancaster which is where he came from that's okay that brian sams came from there
i see a lot of them he's in the bottom right hand corner of the screen my former we have a clip we
can play clips so people are familiar but that's your former pastor yes we can play clip here in
second but again it seems like it's lancaster is that correct west coast yeah they they constantly
are pumping people out who change and they're not baptists and they're taking baptists off the sign
they're not king james anymore they're not fundamental anymore and and to me that almost
seems like a failure of a ministry if you're pumping people out that aren't even like you at
all like obviously you're going to always have differences you're going to be a little bit of
variance maybe some random bad apple every once in a while that's going to happen i get that
but if you're just consistently pumping out people that are nothing like you it kind of makes me feel
like you're not even holding to strong standards and and strong convictions yourself let's play a
clip from this brian sanson we talked so much about him let's get a face to the name here
clip number four brian sams this is this is why ben the baptist is the way he is
but i i also value the practical aspect of this subject and maybe nothing is more practical
than how really does a person move forward to use or to preach from a different translation of the
bible and their actual ministry context because that's a question i get a lot about i my history
is independent fundamental baptist king james only no pants on women it kind of cuts the context
yeah and obviously i no longer believe that and i've had guys ask me online um did you not believe
this when you were you know at such and such ministry and the answer is yes um i am okay to
say um i have changed on this subject so i put together a talk on um the translation transition
how to go through the translation transition so let's talk about that it's funny to me that this
guy basically admits that he took his pants off and put him on his wife and wants everybody to
know that he no longer is the way that he is i mean what guy wants his wife in a pair of pants
that's that's weird and you know it just comes from the same heart of just attacking the bible
attacking the fundamentals it would be embarrassed it would be so embarrassing to me if i had sent
this guy out and then i hear him saying these kind of things i mean you know you've sent several
guys out and they're all still you know rock solid i mean how would you feel if this was your
protege this is your guy that you've ordained well i would be publicly attacking him
that's what i would do i'm i'm thankful that the guys that i've sent out so far have not made me
look bad or anything so pray watch out pastor jones yeah but um but yeah i mean obviously
everyone we're all gonna eventually send some guy out that does something stupid hopefully not that
but um i mean you can just tell by the clip that these guys they're they're they think they can't
reach people with old-time religion conservative christianity the king james bible so what they're
really i mean they're you know and they use these term transitioning like is this really the age
that you want to be using that term yeah yeah we can tell you're transitioning but and you're
mentioning oh you're getting your wife in the pants i mean same conversation out of the abundance
of the heart the mouth speaking so there's something odd going on there but but they they
have this idea that they have to become liberals to reach people and what the new ifb is showing
the world is that you don't you know i mean steadfast is thriving first works is thriving
last night at verity baptist church it's our wednesday night bible study we're studying the
book of hebrews right now we just started chapter 2 we had 204 people show up on a wednesday night
to go through a verse by verse study of the book of hebrews and i thought to myself like
this is like the i felt like a little bit of revival like the fact that there's 200 people
that are just you know i can hear them turning the pages i can see them taking notes they're
studying the bible and what these guys need to realize is that there are people out there who
want the truth who want to learn the bible know the bible live the bible and they don't have to
compromise and bring in a rock concert and wear a v-neck shirt or whatever he's wearing you know
black shirt yeah you know what i mean like this trendy style um that's all i see when i see that
clip i definitely see the transition yeah he's been transitioning a while what do you think about
this pastor mia yeah just to echo what pastor amena said i mean the fact that he is um into
this ministry of transitioning people from bibles to bibles and it's showing it in his practical
life as well that he's transitioning his wife he's transitioned his beliefs and the bible says to
meddle not with them who are given to change you know we should be associated with people who are
like landmarks they're steadfast they're unmovable always abounding in the work of the lord and so
the only thing that we should ever change is the renewing of our minds when it begins to regress
or go back to the world or things that are not according to scripture we need to change our minds
using the word of god but other than that you know not change bibles not change our biblical
convictions not change our ministry practices keep it as is you know we need stability in a
world that's constantly changing and transitioning one it doesn't make logical sense even in the
world like if you know someone goes and starts a business they start out back they start a new
location of outback and then they say you know we're kind of transitioning away we're going
to get away from steak we're going to have like a vegan meatless option and we're going to kind of
change the name we're going to drop it out and we're just going to be called back and then you
know we're just going to kind of change the style it's not going to be like australia themed anymore
it's going to be indonesian and it's just like what's the point of sending people out to start
an outback and then them transition into this weird indonesian back meatless restaurant
like it just seems like a total failure it's like you don't want to send out somebody that
can start something completely different you know it seems like the person wasn't even being genuine
when they said hey i want to start an outback i want to serve steak i embrace the ozzie culture
of you know this restaurant it's like this person is kind of like snuck in and is now kind of
transitioning and changing the entire paradigm i mean it makes sense that not everybody's going
to be the exact same and have all the exact same preferences we're not talking about preferences
here we're talking about serious core major doctrine i mean when you talk about a king james
only church almost every time the number one statement on their doctrine or their statement
of faith is a is talking about the bible and the king james bible specifically so we're talking
about the top of the list the most important issue the number one thing that you would think
someone would believe in and they're changing that i mean if you went to a church and they're
changing the number one issue isn't that a red flag then it's an enormous red flag not to mention
the fact that the church brought him on as a pastor he wasn't the one who founded that church
they brought him on as a pastor and before bringing him on they wanted to make sure
that this guy was king james only that was a big priority for the congregation there at the time
and he claimed yes i am and i'm a hardcore king james only guy and then of course a few years
later does this but i wanted to mention and it's so important and i blame him okay pastor shouldn't
be influenced by the right-hand man but this guy had a right-hand man and i remember he was your
dylan awes like your dylan awes this guy i found out when i was going to that church loved james
white even though it was a king james only church and here we are a few years later and we can see
the results the consequences of that poison introduced into the ministry it's heartbreaking
for me to see that i really you know have good memories of going to that church that guy was an
excellent preacher but unfortunately has totally compromised well i better make sure dylan doesn't
like james white and so as we kind of get closer to wrapping up this conversation i want to remind
everybody you want to check out these sermons you can't watch it on this stream you got to go to our
rumble go to the steadfast baptist church rumble we're going to be live streaming the services from
that channel also you can check it out at godresource.com and so if you don't know where to go you can
always email us steadfast baptist kjv@gmail.com just ask for the link we email out the links every
single service time so that way you can check them out and it's going to be some great preaching
this evening you want to make sure you check it out we're talking about the war on god's word here
and and we've kind of talked about just kind of the fact that it exists there's people doing this
obviously a lot of their decisions are kind of leading to a lot of liberalism
but just in in the world today this attack on god's world i'm sorry on god's word how do you
guys see this as affecting people's view on life or like what what is kind of a practical application
you see from this attack that you really are worried that people are kind of getting sucked into
pastor me here what is what is kind of a big ramification of this attack that you're seeing
now that you think is is kind of concerning well when it comes to from the world's perspective
you know the world is constantly changing politics are constantly changing people are
constantly lying there's no integrity in the world and so the place where you expect to find
integrity and stability is in the local new testament church because their their their
principles and doctrines and convictions are founded upon the bible but if that church is
constantly transitioning changing their beliefs and they're not stable then they just become they
become just like the world where is the stability you know the church is supposed to be the pillar
and ground of truth but if they're constantly changing what they believe they cease becoming
that pillar because of the fact that the foundations have been removed and so i think
it's important for the world to have churches that stick to one bible they stick to those
convictions and they stick to that for generations on end amen well they need to get the truth from
somewhere and people are searching for it's hard to find if the church can't give them the truth
no one will what about you pastor jimenez do you see do you see something really affecting people's
lives or or something as a consequence of this attack on the king james bible that it really
kind of bothers you yeah absolutely i mean i agree of course with everything that pastor mahiya said
but i would add to that that i would say the obviously we we fight the king james issue
but i think maybe something that we don't always consider or we don't really see is that
all of these modern bible versions coming out plus all these people attacking the king james
what it really does in my opinion it devalues the word of god because no longer today is there is
there just the kind of the theme of what you guys have been talking about this standard of forever
oh lord thy word is settled in heaven this is it this is god's word period there's a big question
mark right and that's where we start that's where the for the attack on the word of god begins with
uh the devil in the garden of eden questioning god's word there's a big question mark in the
minds of of people because churches are transitioning away pastors themselves are
questioning the bible whether this is really the way it's supposed to be translated or what this
really means so in people's minds there's always this question mark so we get up and we preach
you know thus say the lord with authority and people that are not understanding the kingdom's
issue they they think well does it really say that does the bible really say that so i believe that
there's a devaluing of the word of god when you question it when you counterfeit it uh it makes
people not value the real the true word of god of course which for us is in english is the king
james bible and i would say that is a major i want to say an unintended consequence but i don't think
it was unintended but it's maybe the unseen consequence that there's just not a seriousness
being taken to the word of god anymore can i just say from a layman's perspective you've
preached a sermon build your life on the bible you've repeated it in other sermons that you've
preached as well yeah and from my perspective as a church member i would find it hard to be
motivated to do just that to build my life on the bible if the bible i have in my hand is incomplete
if it has errors if it's screwed up in some way if it's not every word of god if my entire
livelihood if everything that i do if everything i eat sleep and breathe is going to be based on
the word of god then i would want it to be perfect and knowing that it has all these errors and
mistakes and problems would act as something that actually hurts my ability to do that and makes me
not as motivated to do that yeah well and i don't know if this is necessarily the most important
application but one that comes to my mind when i compare the king james issue and and people
are using the modern versions is it seems like people are never going to stand on biblical
standards when they use these modern versions and this guy already brought up the idea of women
wearing pants it seems like you're probably never going to find an niv church where all the women
are dressed in dresses and you're probably not going to go to an niv church where the men are
dressed in suits and ties and you also are not going to have these people doing it because
of the fact that they're not even armed to defend their lifestyle decisions whereas these people in
our in our pews they have to go back home to their brothers and their sisters and their parents and
their co-workers and everybody and defend their lifestyle and when they don't have that sharp two
edged sword of the king james bible to say look what deuteronomy 22.5 says look what the bible has
in this issue and the modern versions often weaken these points change them or twist them
then you end up seeing them not even actually holding to biblical standards not being empowered
many of these modern preachers are not even using a singular version their sermons are filled with
an niv here an nlt here a message here which makes it impossible for the layman to go out into the
world and actually combat people because they're not going to carry five bibles with them to show
all the random points of some kind of a doctrine they have whereas people that are the king james
bible they've got their sword in their hand they're ready to slay false doctrine they're
ready to get people saved on a moment's notice and they're really able to live the christian
life successfully, defend their lifestyle, defend their arguments. And we have an entire army of
people going out there and combating the enemy. Whereas I feel like these modern versions are
taking the weapon out of the hands of Christians, not allowing them to live successful Christian
lives. They're not suited with the armor of God. And frankly speaking, they're not doing anything.
And we see that they're not only not doing things, they're being destroyed. They're being attacked
and they're being defeated because they're not wearing the armor of God. They don't have the
shield of faith. They don't have that sort of the spirit to counter attack and counter assault.
And I think that it's really detrimental to the layman when they can't know what the Bible says.
For the Bible scholar that thinks, "Oh, it's okay for me, but what about the average plumber and
electrician and lady in the church?" They're not going to become a professor of Greek. They're not
going to go and study all these things. And what you're really doing is destroying their faith.
And it kind of just makes me sick when I think about it. We're getting close to the end, so I
want to give you guys a last chance to any final thoughts or something you have on the topic you
want to share. Pastor Mejia, is there something else that you kind of thought of that you were
wanting to share? Yeah, just to piggyback off of what you're saying is I think one of the biggest
consequences worldwide would be the fact that these modern versions are accelerating apostasy
in churches. And it's going to end up coming to a head where the Antichrist is going to have,
is going to inherit a world which is just ready to accept them because, not because necessary of
politics, not necessary because of the politicians or the Republicans or the Democrats, but because
of churches who have apostasized because they use these modern versions of the Bible. What about you,
Pastor Jimenez? Do you have any kind of final thoughts or something else you wanted to say here?
Absolutely. I would say the same application that you guys made, you guys were making the application
to the church member in the pew, but I would say that the same application applies to the preacher
in the pulpit because, you know, we are obviously fighting battles and we are dying on certain hills
for the word of God and for certain things that we believe, but these pastors that are not King
James only, the reason they're not fighting, the reason they don't take stands, the reason they
don't really take a strong stand on anything is because they don't have a word of God that they
can look at and say I'm gonna die on this hill, you know. So I think that that is something that
is very important for us to understand. I would say another thing that people should just remember
when it comes to this subject is that for a long time there was this great game, you know, and of
course back in the dark ages of course the Roman Catholic Church was like we're the only ones that
can read the Bible right I can understand the Bible nobody could you need us and we still have
that today you know the whole reason the Bible is translated in English was to get away from that
right Latin game and Greek games that the common man could have the Bible but now we're just playing
an English game with all these English versions where the common man is still being told well you
have 300 versions but you don't know which ones right because it could change in it and in moments
notice and you're still not sure so you still need us so it's absolutely I think it's I think you
hit the nail on the head and I've thought about that too it's like we're reverting back to the
papacy and we're going back to where essentially you have to have a pope or a priest tell you what
the Bible says because no one knows except for them and that's why it's like if you really know
what the Bible says then why don't you give us the translation once you empower the people
and they want to steal the power away from the people away from the King James Bible away from
Jesus Christ and give it to themselves and these people are just really it's funny they accuse
us as being popes and setting up kingdoms but they're the ones that are really trying to
establish a cult of personality trying to draw a following after them and you know what is going
to be the legacy of James White you know he's not really pointing people to a church or a ministry
it's just it's all about him Alpha Omega Ministries and his podcast so when he dies he's not even
leaving anything to anybody else trying to create more debaters or something it's like at least you
guys have these churches where even if you left you still have this church and you have people to
follow in your footsteps and you sent out other men that have started other churches and you know
you actually have some kind of a movement towards the future empowering other individuals whereas
I see these gurus are just enriching themselves empowering themselves taking on a lot of the
glory um you know then what does James White have to offer the world when he goes apparently an
amazing intellect that we should all be in awe of and an ability to debate people I mean come on
that is the most important issue of our day is your skill at debating atheists and muslims clearly
tattoos right or some man clearly apostasy a church right that you can go to and hang out with Jeff
Durbin Jeff Burbin okay does he drink during the sermon just to prove how spiritual he is or how
does that work probably that's why he preaches what he does yeah well you know what you're talking
about i'm preaching a sermon tonight um entitled building and battling and um what people don't
understand is that we do a lot of battling but we also do a lot of building and the only thing that
makes going to battle worth it is that you're fighting to preserve what you're building yeah
the problem with these king james deconstructors is that they're just battling yeah they're not
building anything so like you said when they die what's gonna be left what's what are they gonna
put on a tombstone fought the king james bible till the end like and lost yeah and lost what did
you do what did you accomplish what did you build i'm all for battling i think we need to battle
but we need to build and and and if and if our movement ever became you know west borough baptist
where we're just battling but we're not building then it's not really worth it either i hope that
i don't stick around long enough if we turn into that but uh you know i don't think we will that
sounds like an exciting sermon uh you you got to make sure you're checking out a rumble we got
pastor mahiya we got pastor minas here we got a ton of people in the house it's going to be packed
if you're anywhere in the dallas forward area you can make it you know come out tonight come out
tomorrow night we've got another round of great preachers coming in um it's the fire breathing
baptist fellowship it's really exciting it's a lot of fun a lot of people in this area love coming
out here and seeing these california boys come preach for them and letting them realize what the
promised land is truly like and so we really appreciate them coming out here and we got it
we got to make texas seem a little bit better to these guys because sometimes i hear in their
preaching you know they they have a they have a conflicted heart on this issue and uh we need
to win them over a little bit more no i i appreciate that they love where they're at and they they love
building the ministries that they have in california and they love it out there i guess
they what do you have better weather and all these other things you like to brag about stuff
like that but that your governor's still gavin newsome and so you know greg gap is not any better
let's be honest folks soon he will be all our president yeah he might be you know him in a big
mic or something like that but uh pastor mio how can we find us you got just a few seconds here
if we want to catch you after this where can they hear your sermons they can listen to my live
streams on rumble just look up first verse baptist church you can go on our website fwcla.org or if
you want to uh tune into some other content contact me personally you can always follow me on instagram
wild olive tree what about you pastor emanus where can we find you you know the best way go
to band but not bound dot com band but not bound dot com and sign up for our email list you'll get
everything you need that's the best way to do it all right that's going to do it for us on the
baptist bias ben why don't you sign us off that's it for the show god bless you all we're going to
get to the fire breathing baptist fellowship now until next time we'll talk to you guys again
very soon on the second last one here we go and open up my father thank you for this beautiful
evening thank you for all these christians gathered together that want to serve you i
pray that you bless every person here pray that you would fill this room with the holy spirit as
we sing praise to you and i pray that you would anoint the preachers that will be preaching
tonight for us we thank you for them we love you in Jesus name we pray amen all right for
our second song flip back 409 the fight is on 409 the fight is on 409 the fight is on
because i am
my ankle just a hair so i'm trying to stay off of it i'm not trying to be a liberal with a
chair up here all right so uh it's the fire breathing baptist fellowship and we're fundamental
to the core and we've got a great evening for you we're really packed in here and that's exciting
so i did make a small provision where we kind of set out and carved out a little bit of our stage
space here because if you have kiddos between the ages of five and 16 and you feel like they're
going to behave themselves very well then you can allow them to come sit up on the stage they can
even sit on these altars if need be and that way we could free up just a little bit more room
we do have a couple overflow areas we have a tv and speakers out here that people could sit out
there if they needed to we also have a fellowship room that people could use but we would prefer to
have as many people in here as possible and so as soon as i'm done with announcements if you have
some kiddos that would like to come on down and then if we have a little bit of space our ushers
may at some point ask you to move just a hair just to accommodate a few people if you'd please be
really kind and gracious about that because we'd love to put as many people in here as possible
and uh you know you none of you are svp'd so we didn't expect any of you all right so uh no i'm
just kidding but uh we're really glad that you guys are here um we should have shirts are they
still outside is that accurate okay um hopefully we have the shirts outside uh we did run out of
some of the little like really big sizes and we're ordering more we already did actually
the problem is we're just not going to get them by the end of the weekend but if you didn't get one
and you're here you let us know and we'll mail one to you all right how about that does that sound
okay all right so but we do have a lot of shirts we have plenty so i think for most people that's
not a problem but if you're uh one of you're an extra large person person of size that they call
you then we might need to get you one of those special ordered shirts all right so if you didn't
get a bulletin you need one with your hand nice and high we've got a double feature this evening
so i'm going to try and go pretty quickly through the announcements um we also should have a schedule
that's inside of your bulletin of the events so that way you can kind of understand this evening
we are having cookies and ice cream for everybody immediately following the service
we also are going to be hosting a pastor's dinner just for the pastors and so they will have some
time to just kind of say hello but if you'd please let them escape so they can have dinner this
evening that would be really appreciated so you know if you do get to talk to them try to keep it
brief shake their hand tell them they did a good job if they did a good job and then you can let
them escape so they can have dinner as well this evening but we really appreciate you guys being
here tomorrow night just as a reminder service is going to start one hour earlier so it's going to
be 6 p.m tomorrow night but we are going to feed you dinner so you know you can you can show up
early and hungry and we'll feed you spiritually and physically also there is a coffee time
tomorrow morning that's mentioned there for the ladies this is ladies and their nurslings only
so that really that announcement is for all you guys you got to watch the kiddos for us all right
and we want to enable the ladies to have a really good time be able to enjoy and fellowship so
please you know just throw some peanuts at them it's early in the morning so you know i'm i'm
sure you could kind of figure something out take them to the park whatever also there's an event
there the address is listed if you'd like to participate it's all ages are welcome and of
course all of our events are completely free we also have soul winning here that's going to meet
the billing 230 if you'd like to be partnered up and if you've never been soul winning we love you
we want more of you okay we love people that have never gone soul winning because we love to have
people that are excited to learn and to train and i'll tell you what every single one of our
soul winners love silent partners and so you show up we would love to take you out and even if you
are a talker we love you too okay we love all of you all right just show up and help going soul
winning with us um also tomorrow night we have a double feature pastor burzins and pastor anderson
saturday there is a spelling bee here at the church for all kids 16 to ages of five there's
three different age groups it's all words in the king jane's bible um also there is soul winning
on saturday it's going to be immediately following the spelling bee and then we have a afternoon
activity we're going to be hanging out and then there's also going to be a men's activity if you
want to participate in those again everything's free if you need um and again the activity that
we're having we're going to be bringing uh equipment and everything but if you have your own
you can bring it but uh also uh brother dylan if you have any questions he's a great resource you
can ask him on that uh you can just hook up with him and he'll give you all the details for that
sunday pastor thompson will be preaching for us and the wolf killer is already here and so you know
we're gonna have to get him like a quadruple excelsior i don't know uh he's he's definitely
head and shoulders above the people um and then i'll be preaching on sunday afternoon so uh really
really appreciate you guys being here of course if you have any questions you can ask one of these
men in a maroon jacket there are ushers they do a really good job um if you need water or anything
like that there is a water fountain and stuff there's bathrooms around the corner we do have
bottle water if for some reason you needed that um also we have two mother baby room areas we have
one right here right up the sanctuary and then just past the bathrooms there's another one these
are for mothers and their children only and children should never be in there alone so they
should always be accompanied by their mother also it is a place to listen to the sermon so
it's not a place to hang out and chat and play games or anything like that shop you know it's to
listen to the sermon so please be respectful of that we'd really appreciate it but that's pretty
much all i really have as far as announcements we're going to go ahead and sing our third song
this evening it's song 145 it is well with my soul right song 145 it is well with my soul
don't want to rush this one watch me on the timing 145 it is well with my soul
145 together to being passed around he's turning your guys genesis am i chapter four
just as a reminder what pastor said about your kids coming up you're comfortable with
them coming up you can do that at this time but it came to pass that when san ballot heard that
we builded the wall he was wroth and took great indignation and mocked the jews and he spake
before his brethren in the army of samaria and said what do these feeble jews will they fortify
themselves will they sacrifice will they make an end in a day will they revive the stones out of
the heaps of the rubbish which are burned now tobiah the ammonite was by him and he said
even that which they build if a fox go up he shall even break down their stone wall here oh our god
for we are despised and turn their reproach upon their own head and give them for a prey in the
land of captivity cover not their iniquity let not their sin be blotted out from before thee for
they have provoked thee to anger before the builders so built we the wall and all the wall
was joined together under the half the rub for the people had a mind to work but it came to pass
that when sand ballot and tobiah and the arabians and the ammonites and the ashtadites heard that
the walls of jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped and they were very
wroth and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against jerusalem and to hinder it
nevertheless we made our prayer unto our god and set a watch against them day and night because of
them and judah said the strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed and there is much rubbish
so that we are not able to build the wall and our adversary said they shall not know neither see
till we come in the midst among them and slay them and cause the work to cease and it came to
pass that when the jews which dwelt by them came they said unto us ten times from all places whence
you shall return unto us they will be upon you therefore i said i in the lower places behind
the wall and on the higher places i even set the people after their families with their swords their
spears and their bows and i looked and rose up and said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the
rest of the people be not ye afraid of them remember the lord which is great and terrible
and fight for your brethren your sons and your daughters your wives and your houses and it came
to pass when our enemies heard that it was known unto us and god had brought their counsel to not
that we returned all of us to the wall every one unto his work and it came to pass from that time
forth that the half of my servants brought in the work and the other half of them held both the
spears the shields and the bows and the habergens and the rulers were behind all the house of juda
they which build it on the wall and they that bear burdens with those that laid it
every one with one of his hands rod in the work and with the other hand held a weapon
for the builders everyone had his sword girded by his side and so build it he that sounded the
trumpet was by me and i said unto the nobles and to the rulers and to the rest of the people
the work is great and large and we are separated upon the wall one far from another in what place
therefore ye hear the sound of the trumpet resort ye thither unto us our god shall fight for us
so we labored in the work and half of them held the spears from the rising of the morning till
the stars appeared likewise at the same time said i unto the people let everyone with his servant
lodge within jerusalem that in the night they may be a guard to us and labor on the day so neither
i nor my brethren nor my servants nor the men of the guard which followed me none of us put off
our clothes saving that everyone put them off for washing let's bow our heads for a word of
prayer father in heaven we thank you so much for this conference i pray that you would bless all
aspects of it and that you fill the pastor uh pastor jimenez with your spirit now and enable
him lord to preach the sermon that you've laid on his heart with boldness and help us to pay
close attention and apply the message to our lives so that we may meet so that we may be more complete
christians we love you and in jesus name i pray amen amen all right well thank you very much for
being here tonight and of course i'd like to begin uh by saying thank you to uh pastor shelly and
mrs shelly for their kindness and their friendship and their invitation to be out here for the fire
breathing baptist fellowship and i'm excited to be here i have my beautiful wife with me uh so i'm
of course excited that she's here uh for the uh conference as well and for the evening that we
are here and i'm excited of course to spend some time with my pastor friends and i look forward
to fellowshipping with all of you uh later on tonight well we'll see we'll see how how later on
it is um but we you know i'm looking forward to it i'm gonna ask if if it'd be okay maybe i can
ask for these sessions somebody give me a water i would appreciate oh it looks like there's one
here can i drink this is this is it dylan's no i'm just kidding i'll uh i'll take this one thank
you very much i appreciate that all right well we're there in nehemiah chapter number four and
tonight i'm preaching on the subject of this water doesn't want to fit in there um i'm preaching on
the subject of building and battling and uh i'm going to show you tonight that this is a theme
this this idea of building and battling is a theme that is seen throughout the bible and i think
it's seen the most clearly in the story of nehemiah and in nehemiah chapter four i'd like to begin at
verse number one just to kind of give you the context and kind of build into it it's interesting
to me because we see nehemiah in in chapter four and leading up to it of course he's building the
walls of jerusalem and what we see in how he is treated i think that there's some parallels to
what we have seen with the new ifb as the new ifb has built up over the years and this conference
tonight this crowd here tonight is a testimony to that and thank you by the way to you for being
here and for taking time on your busy schedules to come out for a service like this i want you
to notice that with nehemiah as it was with the new ifb when things began to happen first they
when i say they i'm referring to the enemies they had indignation against us notice there in verse
one the bible says but it came to pass that when san ballett heard that we built the wall he was
wroth and took great indignation and mocked the jews and that word indignation means anger the
word wroth means anger the bible tells us that he was wroth and took great indignation and then
i want you to notice that after they get past that initial indignation then what we see is that they
despise us look at verse two and he spake before his brethren and the army of samarian said what
do these feeble jews notice the mockery they're talking down to them they're despising them will
they fortify themselves will they sacrifice will they make an end in a day will they revive the
stones out of the heaps of the rubbish which are burned now to buy the ammonite was by him and he
said even that which they build if a fox go up he shall even break down their stone walls here
oh our god for we are despised and of course in verse four we have nehemiah speaking and he's now
giving this narrative and he says we are despised and i want you to notice that first they have
indignation then they despise us he says there in verse four here oh our god for we are despised
and turn their approach upon their own head and give them for a prey in the land of captivity
and cover not their iniquity and let not their sin be blotted out from before thee for they
have provoked thee to anger before and i want you to notice this word at the end of verse five
before the builders and the emphasis here is that they are building they are building this wall and
as they're building this the bible tells us that not only did the enemies have indignation against
them not only did the enemies despise them but then we see a transition and this is the transition
that we find ourselves in in the new ifb today is that they're trying to destroy them and they're
trying to destroy us look at verse six notice what nehemiah says he says so built we the wall
and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof for the people had a mind to work i love
i love that phrase that just that phrase right there when it says the people had a mind to work
but it came to pass when sam ballad and tobiah and the arabians and the ammonites and the
astadites heard that the walls of jerusalem were made up and that the breaches began to be stopped
then they were very rough so as they see that progress is being made and things are happening
and getting done then the bible tells us that they were very rough they were very angry
look at verse 8 and conspired all of them together to come and to fight against jerusalem
and to hinder it skip down to verse number 11 notice verse 11 and our adversaries said
they shall not know neither see till we come in the midst among them notice these words and slay
them and cause the work to cease what these people want to do is they want the work to cease
they want the building to stop they want to put an end to it so we see that they start with
indignation then they move to despising and mocking and then they move to conspiring against us nehemiah
said in order to destroy the work in order to fight against them and to hinder it verse 8 and
to slay them and cause the work to cease verse number 11 and what we see in the following verses
is the response that nehemiah now has to take because of these adversaries because of the fact
that they're building and the enemy wants to hinder that wants to stop that wants to destroy that
nehemiah is forced to take a position and if you're taking notes tonight and i notice on the back
of the bulletin there's a place right for to write down some notes maybe you'd like to jot
these thoughts down but i'd like you to notice first uh that there is the position of building
and battling nehemiah had to take a position and it is the same position that you and i
must take today and it is a position of both building and battling and what i'm saying is this
that we must in the christian life like nehemiah both build and battle at the same time notice
verse number 16 nehemiah chapter 4 verse 16 and it came to pass that uh from that time forth notice
the words and it came to pass from that time forth that the half of my servants wrought in the work
and the other half of them held both the spears the shields the bows and the hebergens and the
rulers were behind all the house of judah look at verse 17 they which builded on the wall and they
that bear the burdens with those that laded notice the last part of verse 17 everyone with one of his
hands wrought in the work and with the other hand held a weapon and what we see here is an illustration
of both building and battling these individuals began to build something they began to build the
wall but because the building of the wall made the enemies take notice made the enemies
have indignation against them made the enemies despise them and try to destroy them then the
position that had to be taken by Nehemiah was a position of both building and battling Nehemiah
realized that if the work was going to continue the work was going to have to continue while they
were both building and battling and today we must both build and battle as we attempt to build
for the glory of God and you know this the new IFB is not new to battles and we have fought and
we have had many battles in the new IFB and I'm not just talking about fighting for doctrine and
fighting for the word of God obviously we must earnestly contend for the faith but there have
been enemies out there who have tried to make the work to come to an end to try to destroy the work
and to bring it to cease to cause the work to cease and and let me just remind you of some of
these things that we have done some of the things that as we have tried to build as as as you here
at Steadfast Baptist Church under the leadership of Pastor Shelley have tried to build this
congregation and build this church and co-labor with God to build and labor with the Lord Jesus
Christ as Jesus said I will build my church as you have tried to build this congregation as we
have labored in Sacramento California and tried to build the work that's being done there at Verity
Baptist Church as Pastor Thompson has built in Vancouver Washington and Pastor Mejia has built
in Los Angeles in Southern California as we have tried to build we've also had to take the position
of both building and battling like the builders here in Nehemiah we have had to take a hammer
in one hand and a sword in another everyone with one hand rot in the work and with the other hand
held a weapon. I mean consider the things that we have had to battle
as we have tried to build. As we have tried to build, we've been protested.
As we have tried to build, we've been sued. As we have tried to build,
we've had our channels deleted and canceled on YouTube.
As we've tried to build, we've had our landlords turn on us.
As we've tried to build, we've had
news media lie about us. As we've tried to build,
we've had insurance cancel us. As we've tried to build,
we've had online giving canceled. As we've tried to build,
Pastor Anderson's family got swatted. I mean,
as we've tried to build here at Steadfast,
your bank accounts were hijacked. I mean, as we've tried to build
at First Works, they got bombed. I mean, literally, that's like an actual battle.
That's like a real battle, like a military battle.
And as we've built, we've learned that we've had to take a position
where we're not going to be able to just build.
We're not going to be able to just preach. We're not going to be able
to just reach people with the gospel, disciple new converts, train people
to be soul winners, lead missions, trips. We're not just going to be able to do that.
We're going to continue to do that.
But as we do that, we're going to have to take a sword in one hand and a hammer in the other hand
because there's a position of both building and battling.
We must both build and battle. And by the way,
let me say this, it's the same way in your life. In your Christian life,
you're going to have to realize that the Christian life is a life of both building and battling.
You're going to have to build and you're going to have to battle. Now you might ask, well, why is it?
Why is it that we must both build and battle? And the reason is this, because when we build,
they want to battle. I mean, think about it. Do me a favor, go to the book of Psalms,
keep your place there in Nehemiah, if you'd like, and go to Psalm 120. You probably know this,
but I'd like you to see it. Psalm 120, if you open your Bible just right in the center,
you're more than likely to fall in the book of Psalms. Psalm 120, what have we done? What
is it that we as new IP preachers have done? Because when, when's the last time we protested
somebody? When's the last time we stood outside of a building with a sign that says, "Eliminate
the Jews," which I'm not exactly sure. I'm like, that's a cool sign. I thought you guys put that
on. But when's the last time we protested some pride parade? And of course we don't want to do
that because we don't want to hurt our eyes. But I asked you, what have we done? We've started
churches. We've gone soul winning. We've trained soul winners. We've preached the Bible. We've
preached the Word of God. We've recorded the sermons, posted them online. To do what? To try
to help other believers in other places. To try to help other people who are searching for the truth.
What is it that we have done that has caused us to get into these battles? And the truth is this,
we have to take a position of both building and battling, but the reason is because when we began
to build, they began to battle. When we began to build, when we began to preach, when we began to
reach, when we began to grow, they said we've got to stop that, we've got to bring that work to cease.
The psalmist said it this way, Psalm 120 verse 7, "I am for peace, but when I speak they are for war."
We could say it this way, "I am for peace, but when I post the sermon they are for war."
And the truth is this, that what they hate is the biblical preaching. Go to the book of Acts if you
would, Acts chapter 7. In the New Testament you've got Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts,
Acts chapter 7. Look down at verse number 54, Acts 7-54. In Acts chapter 7 and verse 54 we have
the story of Stephen of course, and at verse 54 he's already got done preaching his sermon,
he's preached a biblical sermon. And if you go back and look at the chapter, all he's done
is gone through the history of God's people and he's preached a sermon about the history of God's
people. Notice Acts 7 verse 54, the Bible says when they heard these things, when they heard
what things? Stephen's sermon. They were cut to the heart and they gnashed on him with their teeth.
I mean they got, the Bible says they were cut to the heart and they gnashed. They were so upset
and so angry, like the guy out there with the sign. Every time another car drove in he's like,
there's more of them. And when they heard these things they were cut to the heart and they gnashed,
look at verse 57, and they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and ran upon him with
one accord, verse 58, and cast him out of the city and stoned him. What was it that they hated? They
hated the preaching, and they hate our biblical preaching, and as a result, as a result, because
we're building people with the Word of God through the Word of God, you are the building that's being
built, ye are God's workmanship, and as we build people with the Word of God, and as we build them
through the biblical preaching, they hate that, they have indignation against it, they despise it,
and they try to destroy it. So we have to take a position, a position of both building and battling,
and as a result, we have a target on our back. Look at Acts 19. Acts chapter 19, you're there in
the book of Acts, just flip over from Acts chapter 7 to Acts chapter 19. Look at verse number 13.
Acts 19 and verse 13, the Bible says, "Then certain of the vagabond Jews exorcists took upon them to
call over them, which had evil spirits, the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, 'We adjure you by Jesus,
whom Paul preached.'" Very interesting how they word that. It's obvious they don't know Jesus or
don't know who Jesus is because they're like, "Hey, we adjure you by Jesus, you know, whom Paul
preached." "And there were seven sons of Siva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so,
and the evil spirit answered and said..." Because these guys, and look, get the context, these guys
walk up to this demon, they want to cast this devil out, and the authority that they're going
to use to cast the devil is, "We adjure you by the name of Jesus." But we don't know who Jesus is,
we don't really know Jesus, but we hear this guy Paul talking about it, and they said, "We adjure
you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches." And then the Bible says in verse 15, "And the evil spirit
answered and said, 'Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?'" And I want you to notice verse
16, "And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed
against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded." I want you to notice that this
story highlights for us that the demon in this man did not know who the seven sons of Siva were,
but he knew who Jesus was and he knew who Paul was. Why? Because Paul was actually building,
Paul was actually preaching, Paul was actually doing something, and as a result Paul had a target
on his back. We talked about it on the Baptist Bias just earlier. Show me the movement of churches
that has enemies trying to stop them and destroy them, like our church. I mean, I don't remember
Calvary Chapel having just an army of people trying to sue them, and last I checked they had
like a Hollywood movie. You know, I don't know, tell me and show me the Life Point Church or
whatever, the movement of churches out there that the devil is saying. You know what the devil is
saying? I don't know Life Point Ministries, and I'm not too sure about Calvary Chapel, but the new
IFP I know, Pastor Jonathan Shelley I know, and look, we've got a target on our backs, which is
why we must take the position of both building and battling. On our last attempt on YouTube,
we keep getting shut down from YouTube and canceled from YouTube. I'm done with YouTube,
by the way, officially. You know, you guys do whatever you want, I'm just frustrated with it.
But I'll tell you the story of our last attempt on YouTube. Our last attempt on YouTube, I went to
one of our staff guys, Brother Shaw, that works for me in Sacramento, and I said, I'll tell you
what we're going to do. We're going to do a secret mission, and we're going to try to get our content
back on YouTube, but we're not going to tell anybody. And I gave him the secret mission,
I told him, I don't even want you telling the rest of the staff guys, because I'm not sure
if I can trust anybody at this point. And I said, look, here's what we're going to do.
We're going to start a separate YouTube channel for every Bible study I've preached. We're going
to start a separate YouTube channel for every sermon series I've preached. And I told him, look,
we're going to get a brand new email address. We're going to get a brand new phone number.
So I told him, you're going to start a YouTube channel with a brand new email address, a phone
number. And then when you go to do it a second time, you're going to get a brand, another email
address. You're going to call our carrier and have them change the phone number on the phone.
And because I'm just going to tell you everything we did, because somebody's going to come up to
me and say, you should have done. Everybody kept telling me what to do. I don't even know what this
means, but we got some VN router thing or whatever that told them we were in Russia or China or
whatever. I mean, we did everything, a different IP address, a different email, a different phone
number. All we did was we just started a YouTube channel called First Corinthians Verse by Verse
Study. All it had was my sermons from First Corinthians. We did another one called Ephesians
Verse by Verse Study. All it had was my sermons from Ephesians. We just went through and did
different channels, never emailed to anybody, never told anybody. We were just putting all the
content secretly out on YouTube. We got to about 11, you know, because it took time to do this,
to re-upload all this. We got 11 different channels out there. And look, none of them
said Verity Baptist Church. None of them had my name on it. It just had the sermons and that's it.
And we had 11 of them. And in one night, all 11 went down on the same night. On the same night,
I'm pretty sure Pastor Mejia's Antipas channel, I don't know where Pastor Mejia's at, but the same
night that his channel went down, our 11 secret channels went down, plus our Help for the Home
channel, which just had puppy shows. That went down. There was a guy in our church that had his
own YouTube channel called BBC Music where he just uploaded music from our church that he started.
That went down. All those sermons, all in one night. And I just know that in YouTube, there's
some demon who's just like, "Mehiya, I know. And Jimenez, I know." We just have this target
on our back and look, we just have to realize that the position of Bible-believing Christianity
is going to have to be building and battling. If we're going to build, we're going to have to
battle. We must both build and battle. Why? Because when we build, they want to battle.
I am for peace. But when I preach, they are for war. So I'd like you to notice the position of
building and battling. But I'd like you to notice also tonight, if you kept your place in Acts,
go back to Luke, if you would. Luke chapter 14, you go backwards from Acts. You've got the book
of John and then the book of Luke. Not only is there a position for building and battling,
but I'd like you to notice also that there is a preparation for building and battling.
Now remember, I told you that this is a theme throughout the Bible. All throughout the Bible,
you find this theme of both building and battling. Now, of course, you see it in Nehemiah.
We saw it in Nehemiah. He talks about the fact that half of his men
rot in the work while the other half had to fight. You say he talked about the fact that
with one hand they build it and with another hand they held a weapon. With one hand they had a sword
and another hand they had a hammer. They were building with one hand and battling with another
hand. We saw that in the book of Nehemiah. But I want you to notice that this is a theme throughout
the Bible. In Luke chapter 14 we have a series of two parables that Jesus gives and these parables
are connected. They have one truth. There are two parables that highlight the exact same truth. And
I want you to notice the characteristics of these parables. Luke chapter 14, look at verse 28. Jesus
said this, "For which of you intending, don't miss it, to build." He said, "For which of you intending
to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost." Whether he have sufficient,
the word sufficient there means enough, to finish it. Less happily, the word happily means by chance,
after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
saying, "This man began to build, and was not able to finish." So in Luke 14, verses 28, 29, and 30,
we have one parable that Jesus gives, and here's the parable he says, "Before you begin to build,
make sure you count the cause." He says, "For which of you intending to build, sit it down first,
and count it the cause." So if you're going to build, you should count the cause. But then Jesus
gives another parable. Same idea as a tandem parable giving one thought with two different
illustrations. Look at verse 31. He says, "Or," he said, let me give you another example, "Or what king,"
don't miss it, "going to make war." I want you to notice that in verse 28 he says, "For which of you
intending to build," we're talking about building. In verse 31 he says, "Or what king going to make
war." Now we're talking about battling. You say, "Why is that?" Here's why. Because the Christian life
is a life of both building and battling. We saw it with Nehemiah. The position of building and battling
is not that we necessarily want the battle, but when we started to build, they began to battle.
And instead of stopping the work, and instead of quitting and saying, "Ah, forget it. We're
not going to do this." We made the decision, like Nehemiah made the decision, that if we're
going to build, we're going to have to battle. What does that mean? That means that you may be
building a church while fighting lawsuits. It means that you may be building a congregation
while dealing with protesters. It is the position of both building and battling. But then Jesus
says, not only is there a position of building and battling, but he says there's some preparation
when it comes to building and battling. He said, "Which of you intending to build a tower, sit it
not down first and count at the cost?" But then in verse 31 he says, "Or what king going to make war?"
Now we're talking about battling. "Against another king, sit it not down first and consulted whether
he be able with 10,000 to meet him that cometh against him with 20,000 or else while the other
is yet a great way off, he sendeth an embassage and desires conditions of peace." Now I want you
to notice that there is an idea here and there's a point that's being made and the point is this,
that there is a cost for both building and battling. It's going to cost you something. Now I want to
highlight for you just real quickly that this is a theme throughout the Bible, building and battling.
It's a theme you see through the Word of God. You may have not noticed it, but once you start looking
for it, I think you'll realize that you see this constantly throughout the Bible. We saw it in Nehemiah.
We saw it here in Luke 14, 28 through 32. But let me just give you some other examples real quickly.
You're there in Luke. Go backwards to Matthew, Matthew chapter 16 if you would. Matthew chapter 16
and look at verse 18. Matthew chapter 16 and verse 18. Notice these famous words from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Matthew 16 and 18. And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock.
Notice what Jesus said. I will build my church. That's building. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. That's battling. He says I will build my church. That's building. But then
he says and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. That's battling. And by the way that's
the church, our church, the local church being on the offense not the defense. When it says the gates
of hell shall not prevail again. Because usually when people read this verse and the idea that they
get in the way that most people preach it is that hell's not going to be able to overcome us. But
it's not the gates of the church, it's the gates of hell. Last I checked when people were on the
offense, they didn't bring their gates with them. The idea here is that we are on the offense, hell
is on the defense, and we are charging the gates of hell. And the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it. People say why do you have to fight so much? Why do you have to preach these sermons
against the sodomites and the homosexuals? Why do you have to preach these sermons about abortion
and drugs and drunkenness? Why do you have to preach these sermons and cause these fights and
cause these battles? Why can't you just build? Well let me remind you, Jesus said I will build
my church and in that process the gates of hell He expects us to battle. The gates of hell shall
not prevail against it. The Christian life is a life of building and battling. You don't have to
turn here. Let me just give you some other examples. Jude 1 3. Beloved, when I gave all
diligence to write unto you of the common salvation. That's building. It was needful for me to write
unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith. That's battling. Psalm 127
verse 1. Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain. That build it, that's building.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman, there's a military analogy, waketh but in vain,
that's battling. I want you to understand that the Christian life is a life of building and battling,
building and battling. Why? Because when you actually begin to build something for the glory
of God, the devil's going to start battling you. By the way, the Bible says this, "Yea, all that
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." If you're building and not battling,
I'd be concerned about what you're building. If you're building and the devil never seems to mind, never seems to care, doesn't seem to be worried about you, you may want to be concerned about what you're building.
We see the position of building and battling. What is it? We must both build and battle. Why? Because when we build, they want to battle. But then we see the preparation for both building and battling. Remember Luke?
He said, "Look, if you intend to build, you better count the cost. And if you intend to battle, you better count the cost. And if you're going to build, you better be ready to battle, because if you're going to build, someone's going to fight you."
That's why, that's why, before you got saved, your family didn't mind that you were on drugs, your family didn't mind that you were an alcoholic, your family didn't mind that your marriage was falling apart, your family didn't mind that your children were running the streets.
But after you got saved, now, now, you're sober, now your marriage is doing better, now your children aren't rebellious, but now they don't like you.
Now they want to fight you. Why? Because before you were destroyed.
But when you began to build, they began to battle. The position of building and battling.
But then we see the preparation of building and battling. And I will say this, that we must count the cause for building and battling.
It's going to cost you something to serve Jesus. Just understand that.
It's going to cost you something to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And why shouldn't it?
It's caused believers all throughout history.
It caused Abraham something when the Lord said unto him, "Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred." Did it not?
It caused Abraham something when the Bible says that God did tempt Abraham and he said to him, "Take now thy son, thy only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and offer him there for a burnt offering."
I mean, it caused Joseph something when his brothers betrayed him and sold him into slavery.
It caused Joseph something to stand for God and serve God and do right when he was lied about, falsely accused, and thrown into prison.
It caused Moses something when the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11 that by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
It caused Daniel something when he was thrown in the lions den. It caused Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego something when they were thrown into the fiery furnace.
It caused John the Baptist something when he was beheaded. It caused Stephen something, we saw it already, when he got stoned.
It caused James something when he was killed with the sword. There's a cause to build and to do something for the cause of Christ.
Should we be carried up in peace while others fought? 2 Corinthians chapter 11, if you would.
2 Corinthians chapter 11, I'd like to just highlight for you, hey, it caused Paul something.
I'd like you to see this passage because Paul really details what it caused him.
2 Corinthians 11 and verse 23, notice what Paul says, 2 Corinthians 11 and 23, "Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool. I am more."
When he says, "I speak as a fool," he says, "I know that I shouldn't be bragging on myself,
and I know that what I'm about to say is not necessarily the best thing."
But he said, "I'm fighting right now. I'm battling. They're attacking me.
And if you want my credentials, then let me just go ahead and give you my credentials."
He says, "Are they ministers of Christ? I speak as a fool."
He says, "I'm going to go and defend myself. I am more."
And then what he lists for us is a series of battles.
In labor, more abundant. In stripes, above measure. In prisons, more frequent.
In deaths off of the Jews, five times received I forty stripes, save one.
Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once was I stoned.
Thrice I suffered shipwreck. A night and a day I have been in the deep.
In journeys often. In perils of water. In perils of robbers.
In perils of my own countrymen. In perils by the heathen.
In perils in the city. In perils in the wilderness.
In perils in the sea. In perils among false brethren.
In weariness and painfulness. In watching often.
In hunger and thirst. In fastings often.
In cold and nakedness.
So what is he describing? He's describing badly.
He's describing the fact that if you're going to build,
it's going to cost you something.
But notice what he says, verse 28.
You say, Paul, why? Why?
Why are you having to go through these things?
Why in strifes above measure?
In prisons more frequent? In deaths off?
Why five times receive thy forty stripes, save one?
All these things. And he says in verse 28, beside those things
that are without that which cometh upon me daily.
Notice what he says. He says, you want to know why I went through all that?
Because of the care of all the churches.
That's building. He says, because I built up some churches.
Because I had the care of all the churches.
And by the way, what he's saying is, while I was caring for the churches,
while I was helping new believers,
while I was helping people restore their marriage,
while I was helping people raise their children,
while I was helping people get victory over addictions,
while I was doing the care of all the churches,
while I was doing the building,
I was also battling in stripes above measure,
prisons more frequent, in death's off.
I mean all these things.
Perils of water, perils of robbers, perils of my own countrymen.
The idea is this that it's going to cost us something
to build and to battle.
And allow me to remind us that though I'm not minimizing
anything that anybody in the new IFB has gone through,
we've gone through protests, we've gone through persecution,
so have you, but let me just remind us
that none of us have resisted unto blood.
We have not yet suffered like Paul and like James
and like Stephen and like these men of God.
None of us have bled at this point for the cause of Christ
other than maybe a paper clip or a paper cut or something.
There's a cost, and I've got to ask you the question,
are you willing to pay the cost?
What if being a member of Stadfast Baptist Church meant you got sued?
What if being a member of Verity Baptist Church meant you got sued?
What if it meant you lost your job?
What if it meant you got thrown in prison?
Because if you're going to build, you're going to have to battle.
You're going to have to be okay with this idea
that because we're building something great for God,
we're going to have to both battle.
So we see the position of building and battling.
And we see the preparation for building and battling.
I'd like you to notice thirdly tonight the purpose of building and battling.
Why do it?
I'd like you to go to 1 Samuel 17, if you would.
In the Old Testament, if you can find the one and two books,
they're all clustered together.
1 2 Samuel, 1 2 Kings, 1 2 Chronicles.
I'd like you to find 1 Samuel 17.
And of course, 1 Samuel chapter 17 is a famous story of a great battle.
And it's a story of a battle between David and Goliath.
And I want you to notice why it is,
and what it is that David states as his purpose for battling.
In 1 Samuel 17 and verse 45, the Bible says this,
"Then said David to the Philistine."
Remember, Goliath gets up there and he's challenging them to a battle,
mocking them, they're all dismayed and they're afraid.
"Then said David to the Philistine,
'Thou comest to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield,
but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts,
the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defiled.'"
Remember, they want to defile.
Look at verse 46, "This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand,
and I will smite thee and take thine head from thee,
and I will give the carcass of the hosts of the Philistines this day
to the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth."
Now I want you to notice this phrase. I love this little phrase.
It's printed on the backdrop of our backdrop back home at our church.
He says, "That all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."
And the stated purpose that David would give for going to battle,
he says, "I battle for the glory of God."
He said, "I battle and I will fight you Goliath and I will beat you Goliath
and you're coming to me with sword and spear and shield
but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts
and He will deliver thee into my hand."
He said, "You want to know why I do it? I do it that all the earth may know."
He said, "I do it that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel."
I want you to understand that we battle.
David battled for the glory of God and we must battle for the glory of God.
We have to battle for the glory of God.
I'd like to tell you about a battle I recently had.
I want to tell it to you because it came as a result of you.
I preached here at the Fire Breathing Baptist Fellowship not too long ago.
And, you know, I'm going to tell you a story, but let me just say this.
I'm not going to use any names because I don't want to get sued, right?
I'm in enough lawsuits and I don't want to get sued, so I'm not going to give you any names.
Let's just call this guy Meth.
I mean, I wouldn't be shocked if he was on Meth.
So, you know, before I keep going any further, I do need to read this disclaimer that my lawyer asked me to read.
I need to read this, okay?
All characters appearing in this story are fictitious.
Any resemblance to real persons living or dead is purely coincidental, right?
So, there's this guy, let's just call him Meth, let's just call him Meth Lookout.
And I get up here at the Fire-Breathing Baptist Fellowship, and I preach this sermon, and I'm just half joking,
but in my sermon I said, "I bet his mother wishes she would have aborted him."
And then he sued me for saying that.
So we went and got lawyers and we beat him in court.
Halfway through the process, his lawyer left him or they had some sort of separation.
He didn't have a lawyer for a while.
So then my lawyer gets contacted by a new lawyer, but this new lawyer,
it's a lady lawyer, she has the same last name.
Look up! And, you know, it's like a relative of his.
And depending on who you ask, because I got different answers from different people,
some people said it was his aunt, other people said it was his mother.
For the purposes of this story, it's going to be his mother.
Because I just love, I just love to think.
You say, well, what if this new lady lawyer with the same last name as Meth Lookout,
what did she come in to do?
She came in to broker a deal where Meth Lookout wrote Verity Baptist Church a check for $10,000
to settle the lawsuit that he brought against us.
And I just think it's poetic justice that I got up and said, I bet your mother wishes she would have aborted you.
He sues me for saying that.
And then his mother has to broker a deal where he pays me $10,000 to settle the lawsuit.
And look, there are two takeaways from that story that I can see.
One takeaway is this, if she hadn't wished she'd aborted you before, she definitely does not.
And the other takeaway is this, it's God.
I mean, you can't even make that up, although I did, for legal purposes.
I got up and said, "I bet your mom wishes she aborted you, then your mom has to broker a deal where you pay me $10,000."
And I think to myself, "To God be the glory."
You say, "Why do we battle? We battle for the glory of God."
Because when we fight, because when we build, and when we battle, you know who gets the glory? God does.
They say it's bad publicity. It's all good publicity.
Anytime the word of God is preached, anytime clips of preaching are put throughout the internet,
and throughout the media, and throughout the news, hey, God gets the glory.
You say, "Why do we fight? We fight for the glory of God that all the earth may know."
That's why we battle. We see the position for building and battling.
We see the preparation for building and battling.
We see the purpose for building and battling.
You say, "Why do we build? Why do we battle? Why do we go to war?
Why do we fight the giants that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel?"
I love that little phrase that's near and dear to my heart because it's,
like I said, printed on the backdrop of our church that all the earth may know.
But I want you to notice it's interesting.
You're there in 1 Samuel. Go to 1 Kings, if you would.
Pass 2 Samuel into 1 Kings.
I want you to notice that this phrase is used pretty much again several years later.
Not by David, but by his son Solomon.
David said that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel.
Solomon said something very similar.
I mean it's obvious that he's quoting his father.
He probably grew up hearing the story of David and Goliath.
The difference is that when David said that all the earth may know,
David said it right before he went to battle.
When Solomon said it, he said it right after he had done building.
1 Kings 8, look at verse 54. 1 Kings chapter 8 and verse 54,
we have the story of the dedication of the temple.
Solomon has built this great temple for God, this house for God.
In 1 Kings 8 and verse 54, the Bible says,
"And it was so that when Solomon had made an end of praying, all this prayer..."
If you look at the verses leading up to this,
we have this great dedicatory prayer from Solomon for the temple.
The Bible says that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer
and supplication unto the Lord, he arose before the altar of the Lord,
from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread up to heaven.
Look at verse 59, "And let my words, wherewith I have made..."
This is Solomon speaking, "made supplication before the Lord,
"beny unto the Lord our God day and night,
"that he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel,
"at all times as the matter shall require."
Verse 60, notice what he says.
He says, "That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God
"and that there is none else."
It's interesting to me, and again I'm highlighting for you,
that this is a theme throughout the Bible, building and battling.
We see Nehemiah saying, "We have to both build and battle.
"With one hand we build, with another hand we battle."
We see it with the parable of Jesus.
He says, "You better count the cost before you build,
"and you better count the cost before you go to war,
"and before you battle."
We see it throughout the Bible, and here we see David.
He goes to battle, and he says that all the earth may know.
And we see Solomon. He builds.
And he says that all the people of the earth may know.
There is the Lord God, and that there is none else.
This is why we build and battle. This is why you build.
By the way, we're actually building right now,
physically building in Sacramento, California.
And by the way, let me just say this.
You've done an amazing job with this building.
It's a beautiful building.
And congratulations on the purchase of this property,
it looks great, it looks amazing.
And I would ask you to pray for us.
We're actually in the process of remodeling a property
that we just purchased.
I know you Texans don't like to go to California,
but if you ever want, I'd love for you to come visit
once we open up our church property.
We just bought this property, it's a beautiful property,
four acres, which again, I know for you Texans
doesn't sound like much, but in California,
that's a lot of property.
Four acres, that's a beautiful building,
a 400-seat auditorium.
And it's beautiful, it's older, we're remodeling it,
but when we're done with it, it's going to be beautiful.
I mean, right now, the four acres are kind of brown,
but they're going to be green,
and we're getting these beautiful Corinthian pillars
that are going to be in the front.
It's got a beautiful steeple.
It's going to be beautiful.
You can see it right off of the freeway,
right off of Interstate 80.
You can see the building.
It's centered on Norwood Avenue,
which is a busy street with thousands and tens of thousands
and probably millions of vehicles that pass by it every day.
Right in front of a Starbucks.
You cannot go through this busy Starbucks.
As you're sitting in the drive-through of the Starbucks,
all you can see is this building.
And we're excited about it.
We're excited about what the Lord is doing.
We're excited to get in there.
We're excited to continue to grow.
And we're excited about what God is doing.
But can I tell you my non-spiritual reason why I'm most excited?
You know why I'm excited?
I mean, I'm excited for a lot of spiritual reasons.
My most non-spiritual reason, although I think it's probably still a spiritual reason that I'm excited,
is because back in 2016, when we had our big protests,
we had all sorts of enemies there in Sacramento that said we were done.
They said they were going to shut us down.
They said they were going to destroy us and cause the work to cease.
They said they were going to protest us till we no longer had a church.
They said that we were done and they were going to destroy us.
And I just can't wait. I just can't wait till these queer, liberal protestors
are sitting in the drive through of Starbucks and they're looking at this building.
And they're like, "What's going on over there? Look at all those cars and it's all green
and it looks like it got remodeled and look at what's going on. What church is that?"
I can't wait till the Church of Christ, it used to be the Church of Christ building,
the sign's coming off. I can't wait till a beautiful lit sign and I wish I could be in
their vehicle when they say, "Verity Baptist Church? I thought they were done!"
I mean, I would love to be in the car. I mean, it's going to be like they're listening to
a Pastor Shelley sermon. They're going to be like, "What the?" I'm not going to say it.
Not only did they not shut down, it looks like they're growing. It looks like they're thriving.
And let me tell you something, we do it for the glory of God. We battle for the glory of God
that all they know there is a God in heaven. We see the position of building and battling.
We must both build and battle. They make us build and battle. Why? Because when we build,
they want to battle. Well, we'd be obliged. There's a preparation for building and battling.
There's a cause for building and battling. We must count the cause. It will cost you something
personally in your life to build for the glory of God. I hope you'll pay it. Because no suffering
in this present time, no persecution in this present time, is worthy to be compared with the
glory that will be revealed to you. We must count the cause. There's a position. There's a
preparation. And then there's the purpose. So why do we fight for the glory of God? Why do we battle
that all the earth may know? Why do we build that all the earth may know? Let me just leave you with this
thought. And it's this. We cannot wait until we are done building to start battling. We just can't.
Some preachers, they get this idea like, "Well, let me get all the building and then I'll get in the
fight." It doesn't work that way. It's building and battling. We cannot wait until we are done building
to start battling. You say why? Because they battle us to stop our building. And we cannot wait until
we're done battling to start building because if we don't build, there's nothing worth battling over.
So you say, well, if we cannot wait until we are done building to start battling because they battle us
to stop building and if we cannot wait to be done battling before we start building because if we don't
build, there's nothing worth battling over. Then what should we do? The answer is that we should
pick up a hammer in one hand and a sword in the other and we should do both. It's building and battling.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for your word.
Thank you for these dear people that would come to a place like this, that would come to a conference like this.
I think because they want to build, they're not afraid to battle. Lord, I pray that you would help us.
I pray that you would help all of us to go home after this conference excited to build and ready to battle.
I pray that we as pastors and preachers would go home with a renewed fervor to build great congregations for God
and to battle in the process and help us, Father, to remember that the Christian life is a life of both building and battling.
In the matchless name of Christ, we pray. Amen.
Great sermon this evening. Thank you, Pastor Jimenez.
And before we have Pastor Mejia preach for us, we're going to sing one song here, song number 81, "When We See Christ."
Song number 81, "When We See Christ."
Sing it out together nice and loud. Song number 81, "When We See Christ."
Genesis chapter 26, chapter number 26. Genesis chapter 26, Genesis chapter 26, the Bible reads,
"And there was a famine in the land beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham.
And Isaac went unto Abimelech the king of the Philistines unto Gerar.
And the Lord appeared unto him and said, Go not down into Egypt, dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of.
So join in this land and I will be with thee and will bless thee, for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries
and I will perform the oath which I swear unto Abraham thy father and I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven
and will give unto thy seed all these countries and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
Because that Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes and my laws, and Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
And the men of the place asked him of his wife and he said, She is my sister, for he feared to say she is my wife.
Lest said he, the men of the place, should kill me for Rebekah, because she was fair to look upon.
And it came to pass, when he had been there a long time, that Abemalek king of the Philistines looked out at a window
and saw, and behold, Isaac was sporting with Rebekah his wife.
And Abemalek called Isaac and said, Behold, of assurity she is thy wife, and how saidest thou she is my sister?
And Isaac said unto him, Because I said, lest I die for her.
And Abemalek said, What is this that thou hast done unto us?
One of the people might lightly have lied with thy wife, and thou shouldest have brought guiltiness upon us.
And Abemalek charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.
Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold, and the Lord blessed him.
And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great.
For he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and great store of servants, and the Philistines envied him.
For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them, and filled them with earth.
And Abimelech said unto Isaac, Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we are.
And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father.
For the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham, and he called their names after the names by which his father called them.
And Isaac's servants digged in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
And the herdmen of Gerar did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, "The water is ours."
And he called the name of the well "Iseq," because they strove with him.
And they digged another well and strove for that also, and he called the name of it "Sitna."
And he removed from thence and digged another well, and for that they strove not.
And he called the name of it "Rehoboth," and he said, "For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land."
And he went up from thence to Beersheba, and the Lord appeared on him the same night and said,
"I am the God of Abraham, thy father. Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee,
and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake."
And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there.
And there Isaac's servants digged a well.
Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar and Azusath, one of his friends, and Phical, the chief captain of his army.
And Isaac said unto them, "Wherefore come ye to me, seeing ye hate me, and have sent me away from you?"
And they said, "We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee, and we said, 'Let there be now an oath betwixt us, even betwixt us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee, that thou wilt do us no hurt as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace. Thou art now the blessed of the Lord."
And he made them a feast, and they did eat and drink. And they rose up beatimes in the morning and swore one to another, and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
And it came to pass the same day that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well which they had digged, and said unto him, "We have found water."
And he called it Sheba. Therefore the name of the city is "Bear Sheba" unto this day.
And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Birai the Hittite, and Bashameth the daughter of Elan the Hittite, which were a grief of mine unto Isaac and to Rebekah. Let us pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this great conference that we're all here today. And we thank you for bringing and collaborating all of the best pastors in the world in one area.
And we're so thankful that we've been given so many great doctrines. I pray that you would just fill Pastor Mihia with your Holy Spirit. Please allow him to preach what he's prepared for us.
And I pray that we would correct ourselves, chase in our hearts, and walk away better Christians. And we just thank you for the opportunity this weekend to fellowship. And I pray that you would use this conference to win a lot of souls to Christ in this area.
And that people would be stirred up to want to serve you, not only be saved, but also serve you and serve your son. And we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Amen. All right. It is great to be here. I'm excited to be at this conference. And let me just put all the parents' mind at ease right off the bat.
I didn't bring any props tonight, so you're good to go. Everyone can stay here. You'll be fine. I'm not hiding anything. You know, you're good to go.
Let me just start off by saying that. Secondly, let me just also say that I love preaching at Steadfast Baptist Church because when I come here, I get to visit all types of parts of Texas.
You know, I get to, you know, because you guys are always meeting in a new place.
And so I get to travel and see different areas of Texas and really do a lot of traveling and, you know, just you guys keep things new here.
So I'm excited where you guys are going to be next year. This is very like the countryside.
So I really enjoyed the drive over here. You just kind of keep it exciting and new.
And so I'm learning a lot about Texas coming over here on a yearly basis.
And so thank you Pastor Shelley.
I do want to thank Pastor Shelley and his wife and Steadfast Baptist Church for a couple of things.
Of course for the invitation to come here and preach.
But also for your stance and for the fact that you live out the name Steadfast, right?
You're steadfast, unmovable, and always abounding in the work of the Lord.
And as a pastor friend to another pastor, I just want to say that your labor is not in vain.
You obviously see the fruit of your work, but you encourage us as pastors.
You encourage a lot of Christians.
You encourage my church members to continue to go forward in the midst of suffering.
And that there's always light at the end of the tunnel.
The fact that you're here is a testament to that.
And so I really love the building here.
It's a great area.
Good signage outside, too.
All types of signage outside that you didn't have to pay for.
They put Steadfast out there.
I mean, you have people even advertising for you.
I mean, I can't do that over there.
That's great.
It's exciting.
So it's a blessing to be here.
We're in Genesis chapter 26.
I also want to thank Pastor Jimenez for the sermon tonight.
That was an incredible sermon of building and battling.
Even though I've been a Christian for 16 years,
there's things that I need to be reminded of as well.
Never think that, "Oh, we're not in a season of battling right now,
so we can just freely build without any distraction or hindrances."
No, we've got to do both.
So I'm very thankful for that sermon.
This is chapter 26 and verse 17.
The Bible reads here, "And Isaac departed thence,
and pitched his tent in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
And Isaac digged again the wells of water,
which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father,
for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham.
And he called their names after the names by which his father had called them."
And the title of my sermon this evening is "Digging Again the Wells of Water."
Here in Genesis chapter 26, this is a fairly familiar story here with Isaac.
And it starts off with Isaac experiencing what his father experienced in his day,
experiencing a famine in the land.
And although Isaac is his son, some of the mistakes that he makes are common,
or should I say some of the mistakes that he makes are the same mistakes that his father made,
but there are others that he didn't make that his father made.
One of them being the fact that he didn't go down into Egypt, right?
It says in verse number one,
"And there was a famine in the land beside the first famine that was in the days of Abraham.
And Isaac went into Abimelech, king of the Philistines, into Gerar.
And the Lord appeared unto him and said,
"Go not down into Egypt, dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of."
And of course Isaac obeys him, and the Lord is saying,
basically don't be like your father who did go down into Egypt.
He's sojourned in Egypt.
And of course we know all of the drama that came with that.
He took law, and he brought back agar, and all of the drama that took place with that.
But Isaac actually chose to obey the word of the Lord.
He stayed, and God ended up blessing him tremendously for it,
even though they were in a time of famine.
And one of the things that I think about when I read this story
is the importance of just remaining where you are, in God's will,
even though you're in a famine, right?
When you're going through a difficult time,
you're going through a financial woe,
you're going through a health crisis,
you're going through tribulation.
It's important that you just stick it out wherever you're at, right?
And we're talking about spiritually speaking.
Stay in church, stay in your Bible,
keep soul winning, even during a time of famine.
Be like Isaac, obey the word of the Lord,
and the reality is this is that God blessed Isaac for staying there.
Even though people all around him were suffering from the famine,
he was able to be blessed of God because he obeyed the word of the Lord.
So he dwells in Gerar, verse number six,
and it says in verse number seven, "The men of the place asked him of his wife,
and he said, 'She is my sister.'"
So this is the aspect where he did follow in his father's footsteps,
and he basically said that his wife was his sister
because he's being somewhat of a coward here,
and he said, "For he feared to say, 'She is my wife,'
lest said he, 'The men of the place should kill me for Rebecca,
because she was fair to look upon.'"
And, of course, we know the story here.
Abimelech ends up catching him sporting with his wife,
and he comes to the conclusion that Isaac and Rebecca are married,
they're together, and he somewhat rebukes him for that,
and he charges everyone in the land,
"Don't mess with Isaac, don't mess with his stuff."
You know, he says in verse 11,
"Abimelech charged all his people, saying,
'He that touches this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.'"
So what happens?
Well, Isaac ends up staying in the land and he sows in that land.
He's sowing in the land and the Bible tells us that he ends up becoming very great in the land.
He ends up acquiring a lot of possessions of flocks.
Verse 14, "Possessions of herds and a great store of servants."
So even in the midst of a famine, God is blessing Isaac because of his obedience to God's Word.
Now, when God begins to bless Isaac, just like when God begins to bless you,
people become envious of that.
They start getting upset. They don't like the fact that you're being blessed,
and they don't have those resources. They don't have that following.
They don't have those church members. They don't have those resources to pull from.
And what happens here, it says there, "And the Philistines envied him.
For all the wells which his father's servants had digged in the days of Abraham his father,
the Philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth."
So aside from all the resources that he had because God was blessing him,
he also had the blessing of the fact that his father dug some wells back in the day
that he could essentially enjoy for him and his family.
And because the Philistines were envious of him, they basically filled it with earth.
They started putting dirt in the wells so that no one can receive from the water of those wells.
They did it out of spite, out of envy.
And we find ourselves in this story here where he wants to acquire the water from these wells,
but they're filled with earth because of the enemies here, the Philistines who are envious of him.
Now, I'm going to get into the story in just a bit, but let's talk a little bit about the well.
Because when you look at the story and other stories regarding wells in the Bible,
there's obviously symbolic nature behind it, right?
And if we were to think right off the bat what a well represents, it represents the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because of the fact that the Bible tells us, you don't have to turn there in John chapter 7 and verse 37,
it says, "In the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying,
'If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.'"
That's exactly what you do at a well. You go to the well and you receive water.
And of course we know that we go to the Lord Jesus Christ to receive that water where no man will ever thirst, right?
And so we know that Jesus Christ is that spiritual well wherewith all of humanity can come to him and drink of the water freely and have everlasting life.
Now what role do we play as Christians in respect to that well?
Well, obviously number one is that we need to be drinking from that well, right?
Right off the bat, obviously we need to drink of the well for salvation.
But even thereafter, the Bible says, "Blessed is he, blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled."
And so in times of distress, in times of anguish, in times of spiritual dryness, we're to go to the Word of God,
not only to be fed spiritually, but that our thirst may be quenched, our thirst for righteousness may be quenched, right?
The Bible says, you don't have to turn there in Psalm 63 verse 1,
"O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee, my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee,
in a dry and thirsty land where no water is."
And so we see that our responsibility in respect to the well is that we as Christians obviously should be drinking from that well, right?
But not only that, if you think about it, we also need to remove the stone from the well.
Because in the Bible you often have a stone being placed on the mouth of a well for various reasons.
It could be so that others don't steal water from that well, so that it's protected from the elements and things don't get into the well and corrupt the water.
But if you think about it, if you think of the story of Jacob, when he comes and he goes to Rachel and he's trying to give her water to drink,
he deadlifts that stone off the well's mouth and he takes it off and he's able to remove it so that Rachel and the flocks can drink of the water there freely.
Well, you know, in like manner, that's our responsibility as Christians, if you think about it.
You say, what do you mean? Well, us as Christians, it's our responsibility to remove all obstructions from the well so that people can drink of the water of life freely.
You know, when we go soul winning, we go soul winning and we know what we're doing. It's not like, hey, I think I'm saved and I want to show you how you can know you can be saved and maybe we can work together and figure out how to be saved.
No, we remove the stone. We remove all obstructions. We're there to give clear and make interpretations, clear explanations and dissolve doubts.
We remove the stone from the well so that people can draw water out of that well and have salvation and know about Jesus Christ.
But if you think about it, also, you know, Jacob, as I mentioned, he deadlifted that.
He did that strong man deadlift of that stone off that well and it required for him to be fit.
You have to be pretty strong to lift that stone off that well's mouth.
Well, unlike Manner, you know, Jesus said no man putting his hand to the plow looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.
It's important that we as Christians are spiritually strong in the Lord and the power of his might.
That we understand what the word of God says, that we can point to the right scriptures.
And when we knock on doors and people ask us plainly about salvation,
we can go to all the pertinent verses dealing with salvation and not leave them wondering or in doubt about eternal life.
And so we are there to remove that stone from the well's mouth in order to remove obstructions, dissolve doubts, make interpretations.
And we need to be fit in order to do so, right?
We need to be vessels unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, prepared unto every good work.
The Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
It's profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, instruction, and righteousness.
But then it says this, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished into all good works.
And so it's important for us to be spiritually strong, to lift off all the excuses, to remove all the obstructions, all the doubts,
so that people can come to the well and drink of it freely, and know who Jesus Christ is, what is salvation, what does the word of God say.
But then another responsibility that we have as Christians in respect to the well,
is that sometimes that well gets filled up with the dirt of this world, right?
It gets filled up with the earth, some uncircumcised Philistine comes, and he fills it with earth,
and he's trying to keep people from drinking of the water of life freely.
He's like the Sadducees that take away the key of knowledge, right?
He's not going in himself.
And like man, these Philistines are filling up the wells with dirt and earth,
and it's our responsibility to dig up those wells once again and revive those sources of water for people to drink of.
Now, here's a couple things I want to mention here by way of introduction.
In regards to this story here in Genesis 26, look at verse 17.
The first thing I want to mention is that these aren't new wells, right?
They didn't just pop up in the days of Isaac. Abraham dug them, right?
He says in verse 18, "And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father."
You know, his father's the one who put in a lot of work to create those wells.
And so by default, in a sense, Isaac is responsible to kind of maintain those wells to make sure that there's no dirt inside,
there's no earth inside so that people can drink of it freely.
But not only that, we see that in verse 18, it says, "And Isaac digged again the wells of water,
which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham."
As I mentioned, there's going to be people today in 2023 that are going to try to stop the wells of God's Word,
and they don't want people, the population in the world, to hear about what the Bible actually has to say about certain subjects, right?
They'll twist it, they will fill those wells with dirt and earth, because they don't really want people to know what the truth is about the sodomites.
They don't want people to know what the Bible says about the Jews.
They don't want people to know what the Word of God says about these controversial topics today, so what do they do?
They fill that well up with a lot of dirt and filth and earth so that the common man can't access that well.
So our job is to dig them up again so that people can drink of it freely.
Look at verse 19. It says, "And Isaac's servants digged in the valley and found there a well of springing water.
And the herdmen of Gierard did strive with Isaac's herdmen, saying, 'The water is ours.'
And he called the name of the well Ezek, because they strove with him."
That was very similar to what Pastor Jimenez said tonight, right?
That when you are seeking to dig out the dirt so that people can be exposed to the Word of God
and what the Bible says regarding various topics, there's going to be a Philistine there.
There's going to be a herdmen of Gierard there trying to stop you, right?
Striving with you, putting dirt in as you're getting dirt out.
You know, putting dirt on your name as you're taking dirt out.
And this is something that we have to expect as Christians, is that as we're building,
as we're digging, we're also going to be fighting as well.
And obviously this isn't just one well, these are multiple wells that he's dealing with here.
So you can imagine how frustrating that is, right?
When you're digging up one well and you make all types of progress, you take out all the dirt,
and then you're like, "Alright, on to the next one."
And they're here, come to Herdman of Girard, and they're filling up that previous well with dirt.
You know, it's kind of like starting a channel, and you put all this work, you make all these shorts,
you take all the time to edit those shorts and the hashtags,
and try to do your due diligence to get those shorts out,
and it reaches a certain amount of views, and people's lives are being affected by it,
and then all of a sudden, here come the Herdman of Girard and just shut it down, right?
They just fill it again with earth.
And let me say this, the greatest modern day Isaac is Pastor Anderson, I'll just be honest with you.
Because it seems as though every week, Pastor Mendez and I, we basically gave up on YouTube.
We're just like, this is not working, I'm done.
Pastor Anderson is just every week, it's like faithful and true, true and faithful.
And you know, he's like running out of verses in the Bible to use for all of these channels that he's starting.
Why? Well, because of the fact that he's digging up these wells to try to get the Word of God, the exposure that it deserves.
And then it gets filled up again with the earth by the herd men of Girard who are striving with Isaac's herd men, right?
But this is how life is, my friends, and it's important that we don't focus on the defeats, but rather on the progress that we made when we took the dirt out of the well.
You see, in my opinion, when I look at my beloved channel that once existed, you know, I could keep thinking about that, and I do from time to time.
But, you know, I'm thankful for the impact that it made because we literally have people in our church right now who were reached through that channel.
But in fact, there's a guy in our church who, he found our church through the YouTube shorts, and he said he was going to a church, and he's like, "Man, I need to start going to this church."
And, you know, his pastor started preaching some weird stuff, and he realized that it was weird because of the videos that he was watching on our channel.
And then finally he just made a decision, "I'm going to see where this church is at," and he ends up finding out it's like super close to his house.
By the way, if you're watching online, if you're super close, look up the address to this church.
Sometimes people just watch online, they don't realize how close that church is to their house.
You know, he realized, "Whoa, this is like down the street from here, this is like super close to me."
And so he comes to the church, and he brings his family, his family gets saved, his cousins get saved, his sisters get saved.
He's getting his family members the gospel, and they're getting saved because they're coming to our church.
And then literally two weeks after he comes, channel shut down.
And he tells me, he's like, "I'm so thankful for your channel, and I'm so thankful I decided to come when I did,
because what if your channel would have been deleted? I just never would have found this church."
So he was thankful for the channel, but now he's so much more grateful just to be in our church.
And so I say that to say that, you know, even though we're digging up some wells and taking out the dirt,
and it may seem in vain sometimes, the labor's not in vain, you know.
We need to focus on the progress that we're making, the people are still being reached,
that people are still coming to church, right,
because of the efforts of God's people, the servants who are digging out the well.
And so just recognize, though, that there's always going to be an ESAC, which is what?
Opposition. People are going to strive with you.
And so don't become frustrated when you're digging up these wells of doctrine,
you're trying to fix your family, and you're trying to fix your marriage,
you're trying to fix your kids, and it just seems like it's a losing battle.
It's never really a losing battle if you're doing it for the Lord, okay?
You're going to have an esek.
Not only that, but look at verse 21, "And they digged another well,
and strove for that also; and he called the name of it Sittinah," verse 22,
"And he removed from thence, and digged another well; and for that they strove not."
So it got to a point where they got kind of tired of fighting with Isaac and his servants.
They're digging a well, then they come and put dirt in it.
They go to another well, and they dig that up, and they put dirt in it once again.
It got to a point where, you know, there's like this well in the middle of nowhere on a street called Texas, right?
Texas, and what's the other one? What's the other street named? Baptist? Church.
You know, you get Isaac, you get Sitna, but after a while you get Rehoboth.
Because it says, "And he removed from thence and digged another well, and for that they strove not.
And he called the name of it Rehoboth, and he said, 'For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.'"
This verse reminds me of Stephas Baptist Church, because, you know, Pastor Shelley's just digging up wells, he's digging up wells.
They're like shutting them down, they're kicking them out, they're just closing down the churches there, the church building.
And he's going from building to building to building, from well to well to well, all because he's just trying to get the living word out.
And they just keep striving with him and striving with him and striving with him.
He's sick, he's sick, he's sick. Well, after a while, you know, they're just like, screw it, I'm not fighting against this guy anymore.
Maybe we'll send this guy right here. He seems like he can make a sign.
Rayabboth over here. But you know what? Stand fast, the Lord has now made room for you.
We shall be fruitful in the land. You know, I'm looking at the crowd right now.
I took a picture of the crowd earlier and Pastor Thomas was just like, yeah, look how much the new IFB is just dead.
This is such a dead movement. Look at all this. This is dead.
No, this is way above the Lord has made room for us and we shall be fruitful in the land.
But it required Pastor Shelley and the church to keep digging wells, you know, keep digging and keep digging,
even when it seems like it's a losing battle.
And I guarantee you, Pastor Shelley went through some times where he's just like, what's even the point anymore?
You know what I mean? What's even the point? It's just like we get one building and you get a landlord
and he seems to be greedy of filthy lucres, like you're in, and then he even turns on you and evicts you.
And he's just like, what's even the point? But you know what? Because he was steadfast, because he stuck it out,
because he has the virtue of endurance, now you have Rehoboth, the Lord has made room for you.
And it looks like you're already out of room, which is always a good problem to have. Amen?
And you shall be fruitful in the land, and you have been fruitful in the land.
He says in verse 23, "And he went up from thence to Brashiba, and the Lord appeared unto him on the same night,
and said, I am the God of Abraham, thy father, fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee,
and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake."
You know, I notice here in verse 24, is the fact that God is confirming that he was with Isaac the entire time.
Even when the servants of Gierar are filling up the wells, and it seems like it's a losing battle, God was always there.
And sometimes we have a tendency, and I'm preaching to myself here,
to think that maybe God is a little absent when the blessings are absent,
but the reality is this, is that God's still working in the background.
And he's with Isaac, he's still blessing him, his promises are still going to be applied.
Don't allow the circumstances of life to determine, you know, God's character and his promises. Amen.
We need to realize that God will never leave us nor forsake us.
We just need to keep digging these wells. Go to Jeremiah chapter two, if you would.
Jeremiah chapter two, the title of the sermon is "Digging Again the Wells of Water."
And of course, as I mentioned, the water there can be likened unto Jesus Christ.
It can be likened unto the Word of God.
And it can be likened to spiritual disciplines and convictions and standards as well.
And I want to give you some personal applications to this, and then I'm going to get into some secondary applications later on.
Well, let me just say this is that first and foremost, as Christians, you need to dig up the wells of scripture once again.
You know, as Christians, we can become apathetic towards our Bibles sometimes.
Where, you know, we just don't read our Bible as much as we should.
Maybe you're not consistent in your daily walk with God.
And maybe the things of this world has filled up that well with dirt and earth.
And it's caused it to close up where you're no longer feeding and drinking from that well.
Hey, dig up that well again.
Hey, get fired up about reading the Bible once again.
Hey, turn off the podcast. Turn on Baptist Bias, obviously.
But all the other podcasts, you know.
I would say Rodavime, but I don't know where that thing is right now.
Don't ask me.
Turn off all the other podcasts.
Turn off the YouTube channels and start getting into the Word of God.
Start digging up the wells of your Bible reading once again.
So that you can drink of the water of life freely to be replenished, to be refreshed in the Word of God.
You know, sometimes Christians, no matter how zealous they were, sometimes they can become apathetic towards the things of God.
They can even become apathetic towards the Bible.
Where they're not as excited about reading the Bible as they used to be.
And it's only because you have the lust of other things entering in, the cares of this world,
covetousness, different sins that are choking the Word, and it's becoming unfruitful in your life.
It's filling up that well with dirt.
Well, we need to be like Ehud, the left-handed man who goes to Eglon, the very fat man,
and he puts in that dagger into his belly, and the dirt comes out. Amen.
And that always reminds me, spiritually speaking, of what the Word of God does to us.
That when the Word of God goes in, the dirt comes out.
You're accumulating all types of worldiness, and dirt, and sin, and things that are not pleasing to God.
You've got to put the sword in so the dirt can come out.
It's time to start digging up those wells of Scripture.
And these are all "S's" by the way, Pastor Jimenez.
Scripture, Bible reading, right? This is all under Scripture, by the way.
Because I know Bible is not something you know.
Bible reading, studying the Bible, memorizing the Word of God.
How about hearing the Word of God?
You know, instead of going into your car on your way to work
and turning on country music. I'm assuming that's what you guys like out here.
About your barbecue stain and your white t-shirt and your dog died and all that.
Hey, put on Alexander Scorby and listen to a couple chapters of the Bible
on the way to work and on the way back.
Well, that's my only time where I get to wind down a little bit
and get some nice music in.
You know what? You need to dig up that well again.
And I'm telling you right now is that the longer you put that off,
the more dirt is going to accumulate in that well,
and the harder it is to be able to dig it out to reach that source of water.
It's important for us to make sure that we are digging up the wells of Scripture on a daily basis.
Not only that, but how about this?
We talked about Scripture, supplication, referring to what? Prayer, right?
Digging up the wells of prayer once again.
You know, sometimes Christians, yeah, they can become apathetic towards Bible reading,
but they can also become apathetic towards prayer. Why is that?
Well, because of the fact that maybe they lose faith that it even works anymore.
You know, maybe you have something that you've been praying for for years on end,
and God just hasn't answered that prayer.
After a while, you just start letting dirt in, and you're not visiting that well of prayer anymore.
You're not praying for the salvation of your lost loved one anymore.
You're not praying for that wayward son to come back anymore.
You're not praying for that wayward family member to come back anymore because you lost hope.
But you know, the Bible talks about importunity in prayer, to be persistent in prayer.
It's time to dig up that well of prayer in your life once again and start believing that it actually works because it does.
You know, God is not a drive-through God, by the way.
He's not a microwave God. Everything's beautiful in His time, the Bible tells us.
And sometimes what we need is endurance in prayer.
We need to be able to withstand in the evil day and pray through a situation,
pray through a need, even when the answer to the prayer doesn't come when we want it to.
It's like God, you know, give me patience now, right?
Dig up that well again. Maybe you need to remove certain activities from your life
to make room for prayer in your life.
Maybe if you drive for 30 minutes to an hour a day to work,
maybe 30 minutes should be spent listening to the Bible, the other 30 praying.
Digging up the well of scripture, digging up the well of supplication.
How about this? Digging up the well, once again, of service in your local New Testament church.
I know this, that sometimes Christians can become apathetic towards scripture.
They become apathetic towards supplication, prayer.
But they also become apathetic towards the service of God as well.
Why? Because of the fact that you can grow weary in well-doing.
If you didn't, the Bible wouldn't command us not to be weary in well-doing.
Preach the gospel. Go soul-winding with your church family.
Hey, I see some new instruments here. That's great.
I took away one of my points because I was going to get on you for if you weren't playing a specific instrument.
But that's great. Amen.
But you know what? Let me say this. I know there's someone else here who can play another instrument.
There's always a closet musician in the church. It's true.
There's someone in here right now under the sound of my voice.
You can play the piano. You can play these things.
You have a talent, but you're being hush-hush about it.
What about digging up that well of service once again?
And start using your talents for the Lord.
The spoons or you can play the jug or something.
What do you guys do out here in Texas? I don't know.
Dig up that well of service.
"Being how weary and well-doing for induced season we shall reap if we faint not," the Bible tells us.
You say, "Man, this is a lot." Yeah, Isaac had a lot of wells to dig.
And you know one thing I've learned personally in my life is that when I'm digging up one well of scripture,
another well is getting filled up with earth.
So then I gotta go to that well of service and start digging that up,
but then the supplication well is starting filling up with earth.
Then I gotta go there and dig up that well. You're like, "What's the point?"
The point is that's what God wants us to do.
Sometimes the Christian life is just a balancing act.
Digging up one well and you're like, "Man, I'm making so much progress, but what about your prayer life though?"
"Oh man, I gotta fix my prayer life." Okay, now you got your prayer life going, you got some prayers answered,
but what about your service? You know how to play that one instrument. You can play the spoons.
Now play the clarinet. You know that there's a need in your church. Start serving the Lord in that aspect there,
and then you start doing that, and then another area suffers. That's how life is. It's like the wells before Isaac.
All of them need to be dug up simultaneously. Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the other most parts of the earth.
And of course, there's a well of just separation. Christians, if they're not careful, can implement all these things
and use all those things as an excuse to be worldly, to allow sin in their lives to become worldly.
But you know what? We need to keep digging up that well as well and remove the dirt and the filth from our life
and seek to live a life of sanctification, a life that's actually pleasing unto the Lord.
And here's the thing with that well, it's just like that work is just never done.
Because we'll never be perfect this side of eternity, but we need to keep working that well, removing that dirt, getting right with God.
Jeremiah chapter 2, that was all introduction. Let me give you some main applications here of the stuff that I really want to talk about.
I'm all for you doing all that stuff, so that's good. Do it.
Let me speak to you as a church, to our churches, and let's talk about these wells that we need to keep digging up over and over again.
And of course, probably one of the most obvious ones is the well of doctrines, right?
Look at Jeremiah chapter 2, verse 11. It says, "Hath the nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?
But my people have changed their glory, for that which doth not profit.
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate, saith the Lord.
For my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me the fountain of living waters."
They've forsaken that well. And what do they do?
"And hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water," the Bible says.
Now, what is this reference? It's referring to the fact that instead of going to the God of the Bible for what the Bible says,
instead of going to the Lord, they're starting to worship these false gods, right?
They're going to these false gods, what the Bible refers to as "hewn out cisterns," broken cisterns, that can't hold any water.
They're not strong enough to bear the burden of carrying that water and feeding many.
And he's saying there, "You've forsaken the fountain of living water, you've forsaken the Lord, and you're depending on something else."
And when I think about this in context of what we're talking about this evening, in context of doctrine,
there's a lot of false doctrine that has infiltrated independent fundamental Baptist churches.
And what I find interesting is that when churches like ours preach a specific doctrine, people want to credit us for digging up that well, right?
Like, "Oh, you guys believe that Jesus went to hell? You guys just dug up that new well. That well's been around for a long time."
Long before the new IFB existed, people have been drinking out of that well for a long time, okay?
Go to Galatians chapter three, if you would, Galatians chapter three.
And that's why it's important, my friends, listen to me, it's important that we as churches, and your pastor does it,
Pastor Jimenez does it, Pastor Anderson does it, we're constantly repeating the same exact doctrines over and over and over again.
Why? Because it's important to drink out of that well, over and over and over again.
A well that is being used is a well that's not going to have earth in it.
There's always someone there drinking out of that well.
The Bible says, you're in, where did I have it during Galatians three?
I'm going to read to you from Philippians three, verse one.
Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord to write the same things to you.
To me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
Hey, if Pastor Shelley wants to get up here and just preach on the same well over and over again,
you'd be happy with that because he's keeping that well alive.
He's making sure you can drink out of that same well, making sure that that well stays alive
and well, that people are drinking from it, that people don't forget how it tastes.
So that no earth gets into it. Now, there's a lot of ways we can really apply this, right?
When it comes to doctrine. There's a lot of doctrines we can talk about.
But I'm going to talk about one in particular that's really popular right now,
or should I say it's not popular, and that is replacement theology.
Because everything that's going on right now in the Middle East and all of these
neo-evangelical conservatives are just losing their minds
because it seems as though Christians are kind of waking up to the Jews.
You know, these bunch of people are hypocrites, you know that?
Because I'm obviously against what those in Palestine have done
and the murder of children. Obviously we're not for that.
And you have Christians up in arms about that, and they should be,
but why aren't they up in arms when the Jews do it to the Palestinians?
It's called hypocrisy, my friends.
And now, when you're on social media, all you see right now is people,
"Oh, you know, you got these Christians criticizing the Jews,
stop hating the Jews, you need to pray for Israel, pray for the peace of Israel."
You guys are coming up with this new doctrine, this new well.
Hey, Abraham built that well a long time ago, buddy.
Isaac is just kind of inheriting that well.
This well has been here long before we came onto the scene.
And let me just say this, I said Abraham, but I made a mistake.
It's actually God is the first one to dig that well.
You say, "Well, how do you know?"
Because back in Exodus, he was going to replace the entire nation.
That sign out there, quoting Pastor Shelley, it's gangster, but let me just say this.
It's like nothing compared to what God told Moses.
Because God told Moses, "Let me just destroy all these people.
And I'll just start brand new with you, Moses."
Now, if I was Moses, and this is probably why I'm not Moses, right?
I would say, "Come again?"
Not my will, but thine be done, Lord.
Who's the first one to dig that well?
You have Christians losing their minds over the Jews today.
But at the end of the day, God is the one who first came up with the idea to replace them in the first place.
People think it's heretical, because the Philistines have filled up the well with dirt, though.
You have the Philistines and the servants of Gerar, which is called dispensationalism and Zionism,
constantly creeping into churches via C.I. Schofield, Peter Ruckman, and John Nelson Darby,
and all of these other rucktards that are constantly infiltrating churches,
just preaching this false doctrine that the Jews are God's chosen people,
and what do they do? Go to Genesis chapter 12, right? It's like their text verse.
Well, Genesis 12 says we've got to bless them, and we've got to make sure we don't curse them,
and it's just, look folks, people say that Hitler said, if you say a lie loud enough and long enough
that people will believe it, it actually wasn't Hitler. He was actually quoting a Jew when he said that.
News flash. They've muddied up doctrine, my friends, and caused people to think
think that this is the biblical stance for the last 2,000 years folks it's a
fraud now let me reach you from Genesis chapter 12 because we love Genesis 12
amen Genesis 12 verse 1 says now the Lord had said into Abraham get thee out
of the thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land
that I will show thee and I will make of thee a great nation and I will bless
thee and make thy name great and thou shall be a blessing so obviously thank
God that we have a King James Bible that lets us know who this is referring to
because of the term thee obviously referring to Abraham right and I will
bless them that bless thee and curse him that cursed at thee and in thee shall
all families of the earth be blessed therefore pay to make the third temple
come out and make sure you pray for Israel even and rejoice at the death of
the Palestinians because you know Genesis 12 and here's what I have to say
well let me go to Galatians 3 let's go to Galatians 3 first and this is very
familiar to us Galatians 3 16 when talking about Genesis chapter 12 kind of
giving us a little more revelation we know that the New Testament is the Old
Testament revealed the Old Testament is the New Testament concealed so in order
for us to have a plenary understanding of these doctrines we need to compare
both Old and New Testament and not just go to Genesis chapter 12 we need to go
to the pertinent scriptures in the New Testament that describe what's taking
place there and it says in verse 16 now to Abraham and his seed where the
promise is made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one into thy
seed which is Christ verse 28 there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither
bond nor free there is neither male nor female for you're all one in Christ
Jesus and if you be Christ then are you Abraham seed and heirs according to the
promise so this isn't talking Genesis 12 is not referring to the physical
descendants of Israel it's referring to Christ and those who are spiritually
descended from Christ believers now here's what's really funny about the
Genesis 12 interpretation let me tell you a really funny thing about that
that interpretation because again it's like you got to bless Israel if you want
to be blessed and if you curse Israel you're gonna be cursed it's the
superstitious view right say make sure you don't say anything against the Jews
because if you do oh man you you're gonna be cursed well first of all I
thought America's been blessing Israel for how long and look look at the mess
that we're in first and foremost but secondly what they're essentially saying
by that statement is that Jesus is cursed because Jesus is notorious in the
New Testament for cursing the Jews John 844 says ye are of your father the devil
and the lust of your father will you do he was a murderer from the beginning and
abode not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh a lie
speaketh of his own free as a liar and the father of it that's called a curse
and that was in response to them saying that they were of Abraham he's like
there you're not you're you're over your father the devil
Revelation 2 9 and Revelation 3 9 he says they which call themselves Jews are
not but are of the what synagogue of Satan that's called a curse Matthew
chapter 23 when he's preaching against the Pharisees who are the leaders of
Judaism he tells them won't you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites for you can
pass land and sea to make one proselyte and when he is made you make them two
fold more a child of hell than yourselves that's called a curse in fact
all of 23 is an entire sermon cursing the Jews well he's cursing the Pharisees
yeah but at the end of 23 he says Jerusalem Jerusalem because those in
Jerusalem are advocates and adherence to the religion of the Pharisees which is
Judaism so you know you better be careful quoting Genesis 12 in that
manner and say well if you physically if you just curse the nation of Israel
you're gonna be cursed because basically what you're saying is that Jesus is
cursed because he led the way he led by example amen go to 1st Thessalonians
chapter 2 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 hey we need to dig up this well again of
replacement theology because of the fact that it's an old well that was dug long
ago even in Exodus throughout the Old Testament and even more specifically and
abundantly in the New Testament that's a well that was dug by Jesus Christ and
then his disciples by the Apostle Paul the Apostle Peter who by the way the
Apostle Paul is also apparently guilty of cursing the Jews as well multiple
times in the New Testament he's cursing the Jews give me an example alright look
at 1st Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 14 for ye brethren became followers of the
churches of God which in Judea are in Christ Jesus for ye also have suffered
like things of your own countrymen even as they have of the Jews oh well Paul
you better be careful there you're delving into that Genesis 12 round
brother who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have
persecuted us and they please not God and are contrary to all men sounds like
he has a bone to pick sounds like a curse to me but I love verse 15 he's
like they killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and have persecuted
us and they don't please God and is just contrary to all men forbidding why
forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up
their sins all way for the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost that's
called a curse he's saying that nation is cursed until the uttermost that's a
powerful statement right there but we brethren being taken from you for a
short time in presence not in heart endeavor the more abundantly to see your
face with great desire I like how he's able to just transition into that right
he's like going off and then he's just like I miss you guys now keep in mind
who he's referring to here okay because he says that the Jews were responsible
for forbidding them forbidding the Gentiles to hear the gospel that they
might be saved he says they're the ones responsible because the greatest
adversary of the New Testament was the Jew fact they're the ones who crucified
Jesus Christ and even after his ascension they're the ones who are
following the Apostle Paul all around Cappadocia, Bithynia and Galatia they're
going to Greece they're just trying to stop him from doing ministry they are
the greatest adversary of the New Testament they are literally Satan's pawn
in the New Testament used by Satan to try to hinder the gospel of Jesus Christ
and starting churches and so forth so that's what he says is forbidding us to
speak he's referring to the Jews here look at verse 18 wherefore we would have
come unto you even I Paul once and again but Satan hindered us now let me just
explain something to you here this doesn't say like Satan came out with like
a pitchfork he's like trying to stop him in context what is this talking about
he's referring to the pawns of Satan the ones responsible for physically trying
to stop him from preaching the gospel whoa Paul better watch those words man
you're gonna get your your Twitter deleted you're gonna get banned on
YouTube for saying that wait till the ADL finds out what you just said Paul
but you know the funny thing is is that these these Zionist Christians always
want to point to Paul as being the one right Rabbi Paul he's like their poster
boy or whatever Romans 11 because Romans 11 to the Zionist is what James chapter
2 or excuse me Matthew chapter 7 is to the Pentecostal or even the non-denom
person who just says judge not lest you be judged right well Romans 11 the very
first part that's like their favorite part for the Zionist because you know
had God cast away his people which he you know what she did for no God forbid
and then he's just ignore the entire chapter thereafter well you know if you
want to compare with Paul wrote in Romans 11 you got to compare it to what
he's saying right here as well and what he's saying right here is that Satan
Satan you say well how do you always talk about the Jews well because he's
just filled with the Holy Spirit because he's writing these things but under the
inspiration of the Holy Ghost and it coincides with what Revelation 2 9
Revelation 3 9 is saying but they're of the synagogue of Satan so Jesus was
cursed according to the Zionists they say Genesis 12 okay you better be
careful with that because now you're saying that Jesus is cursed because we
have ironclad proof of statements made by Jesus against the Jews multiple times
there you go and here's the thing folks I'm looking at a church right now that
has been cursing the physical nation of Israel and the Jews for many years and
they look pretty blessed to me I'm looking at churches who have been
preaching against the Jews for years on end and they just keep getting blessed
so there's something wrong with the equation here if that's what you think
Genesis chapter 12 is referring to okay you know but we need to make sure as
God's people that we're constantly digging up that well and not allow the
narrative to be changed here and say oh the new IFB they're just a bunch of
Hitler loving Jew haters they're a bunch of Nazis because they're so
anti-semitic with their rhetoric against the Jews they just hate the Jews folks
we love Jews. I love Jews. Don't you love Jews? I love Jews. I had a guy criticize me the other
day he said you're so anti-semitic and I'm thinking to myself you've probably
never witnessed to a Jew in your entire life you stinkin hypocrite I've witnessed
I've witnessed to Jews who are literally oh man I passed my time but let's pray
I'm just kidding it's the only point number one - I don't read military time
either so I don't know what that well I don't know what that means right there
I witnessed to a Jew who literally had the Jerry Curls sideburns you know he he
had the little thing on his head he even gave me one because he wanted to talk to
me and he's like I can't talk to you unless you wear this I just put in my
pocket and you know he didn't get saved but you know I witnessed to many Jews
we've had Jews come to our church we have a former Jew as a convert and
member of our church would you look at that now we'll say this though he told
me he said you know it took everything he had in him to muster up the curse to
come to our church he's heard so much preaching he's like I don't know what
they're gonna think and then he finally came he's like oh man it was just you
guys do love people here you know but he's a member of our church but folks I
guarantee you these people on social media and Instagram and Facebook they're
a bunch of phony Christians who don't even preach the gospel and even if they
go out and preach something that's not the real gospel they preach some Zionistic
gospel and they're damning more Jews with their gospel than we are but to the
Jew first and also to the Greek you haven't witnessed to either one of them
I've literally been in a situation where I witnessed to a Jew and then I witnessed
to a Greek afterwards I knocked on the door and a Greek literally opened the
door I'm like this is great I'm gonna I'm gonna use this in a sermon one day
but folks we need to keep digging up that well and don't allow the public to
try to shame you and try to you know try to isolate you and think oh you guys
are just a bunch of crazies and you believe false doctrine and I can't
believe you're saying about the Jews and look it's sometimes not even worth
talking to these people either because you can show them all types of verses
all types of scriptures you can literally quote Jesus and they're just
like yeah but pray for Israel though and it's just like well Jeremiah chapter 7
says pray not for this people I got one for that too three times in the book of
Jeremiah it says pray not for this people that's a different dispensation
though yeah but okay let's play that game though it was a different
dispensation it was a dispensation when the children of Israel had forsaken the
God of the Bible and began to serve false gods and then rejected the Lord
and therefore God says don't pray for them oh it looks like we repeated that
dispensation today because that's the same exact situation that they're in
today and you know what pray not for this people I'm not praying for Israel
to win any war I'm not for war period but I'm not praying for them to win any
war and you know why I'm against Israel inhabiting that physical land because
they're interfering with God's chastisement on their lives they're
interfering with God disciplining them as a nation for rejecting the Lord Jesus
Christ and you know what these Christians out there who want to pray
for Israel and back them up in spite of the fact that they hate the Lord Jesus
Christ they're interfering with God's discipline on that nation if they truly
love the Jews they would allow God to chastise them and discipline them so
they can get right with God not enable them by helping them to build the third
temple by sending them money by supporting them openly it's like when
people get kicked out of the church you know the worst kind of Christian is a
Christian who stays in contact with the person who's been disciplined from
church where they're supposed to be cast out for the destruction of the flesh
but yet you have Christians that still keep in contact with them they still
text them I still love you brother we'll stay in contact we'll talk every once
in a while folks you're wicked for doing that if that's you you're wicked
you're no better than these Zionist Christians who keep praying for the
nation of Israel and interfering with God's discipline on their lives if you
really want if you really love that nation you would allow the discipline to
take its course for God to work on them and discipline them so that they can get
right with God and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ yeah but they believe in God
the Father they don't believe in God the Father because they don't have the Son
stop saying that I like digging that well we keep that well we keep dirt out
of that well at our church I know you keep dirt I know you keep dirt out of them I know that you keep dirt out of that well pastor Shelley it's the first thing I saw when I
came here you know the guy was standing there and I literally stopped in front of
him I mad-dogged him for a little bit and I looked at the sign I'm like pastor
Shelley yeah you drive by and it's just like you didn't even need steadfast
Baptist Church I just need that sign I'm like I'm in the right place this is this
is this is the church I'm preaching on tonight for sure dig up that well many
doctrines that we can talk about but you know what we need to dig up the well of
replacement theology we need to dig up the well of fervent fundamental Baptist
preaching and keep fiery preaching alive thank God for Pastor Jimenez thank God
for Pastor Anderson thank God for Pastor Shelley who preach hard and Pastor
Thompson who are constantly preaching hard week in week out why they're
keeping that alive no well you guys that's a new well that's a new well the
way you guys preach is a new well no there's a guy by the name of Jack
Hiles you know brother Hiles of First Baptist Church of Hammond and I love
going back to that I love listening to brother Hiles because we have the same
spirit oh that's that's idolatry that's that's idol worship we have the Holy
Spirit guy who messaged me a couple weeks ago and he's like why do you
worship Jack Hiles and I said what do you mean he's like you worship him I'm
like give me an example of how I worship him give me an example of how I worship
well you said that you have the spirit of Hiles that's what you said and I
don't know where there's a verse in the Bible that says that that's idolatry or
something and I shot him second Kings 2 9 let me read it to you says and it came
to pass when they were gone over that Elijah said unto Elisha ask what I
shall do for thee before I be taken away from thee and Elijah said I pray
thee let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me and he said this well said
but you still worship it can't win with these folks my friend but you know what
you say why do you like to listen to those preachers of times past who have
already died and gone to heaven and they're not doing anything more you know
what cuz I like to revisit those wells and I and I like to think that the well
that I'm drinking from is the same well that that man drunk from and that he
experienced the same battles and the same fights and went through the same
trials and had enemies of God fighting him as well and yeah we do have the
spirit of Hiles what's wrong with that he had the Holy Spirit and you know what
some of Christians can use the spirit of house in their churches to come over
here with your foreign spirit devilish spirit of a feminacy and being a little
queer sissy you know we're doing the podcast earlier and we were defining
our eyes with these pastors of these non-denom churches and it was hard to
pay attention to what they're saying because they look so faggoty and they're
all against the King James Bible and just like you know and it's just like
dude this guy has a queer spirit it made me a believer in queer spirits I mean
let's just be honest if that guy were in the Old Testament he probably wouldn't
be allowed into the house of God because the high priest would have thought that
his stones were cut off or something say one word and say you can't come in we
need to keep fiery preaching we need to dig up that well and keep preaching hard
well you know but that gets a little old well then stop being apathetic towards
the things of God and it won't get old to you get fired up get fervent in the
spirit you get so excited about your political stuff get excited about your
football game your baseball game and your soccer I don't even know if anybody
gets excited about soccer here you get excited about your sports or whatever
you know get excited about hot preaching amen keep that well alive keep digging
out that well and you know what yeah we're not on YouTube but I guarantee you
you can type in pastor Jimenez on the web on Google and his sermons will come
up you can type in pastor Anderson his sermons will come up you can type in
pastor Thompson pastor Shelley their sermons are gonna come up and that's a
good way my friends to keep digging out that dirt from that well and keeping
that fire alive for hot preaching I'm not saying every sermon has to be at a
ten where you just constantly scream but you know what I'm sick and tired of
this generation being so soft they can't handle a little volume you know so much
soy in these young people today so much tofu and the young people today they
can't handle the strong meat of the word they can't handle you know an F-bomb
every once in a while I can't handle that too sometime I'll be honest with
with Pastor Jimenez I was like I was like he scared me and then I was just
like well if he said I'm gonna say it too watch out Jeremiah says I'm gonna get me
to the to the great man I'm gonna go to the old path and here's the thing folks
is that we have a lot of men of God today that are preaching hard but it is
a remnant I'll just be honest with you okay and even some of the hardest
preachers out there that people claim to be hard preaching I mean it's not that
hard I'll just be honest with you kind of rubbery you know me because once you
listen to like Pastor Jimenez once you listen to pastor Shelley you know it's
kind of hard to find really hard preaching and you're like oh that's good
you know but you know what one thing you can do is revisit the old wells though I
mean I have some old wells on audio from J. Frank Norris and that man would bring
the roof down and it's funny because he's from the 1920s and I'm listening to
a sermon he's like preaching against women wearing pants and against men with
long hair I'm like what I thought this was 1920 and he's preaching against
worldiness he's preaching against the Catholics he's preaching about hard
preaching and I'm like oh I know what it is it's the same well that's what it is
because when you take all the dirt out and you drink the same from that same
well you realize this is the same water that he drink from because we read the
same Bible we have the same God we have the same spirit and so I love brother
house I just want to say that love the preachers of yesteryear who set an
example for us and you know what you want to call you want to say oh you're
just copying brother house yes oh you're just copying pastor Stephen
Anderson yes you're just copying pastoral minutes yep that's what I'm
doing associate me with those guys the problem that I would have is that you
tell me I'm a copy like Joel Olson or something Dems is fighting words at that
point you so what's wrong with those kind of pastors you know well you know
the Bible says that these are wells without water that's what second Peter
chapter 2 says you know this well right here that well that well it's filled
with water filled with the Holy Spirit these other wells that people are
putting out today those are wells without water yeah they look all nice
they got their little stones or they don't have so but you know they got you
know they got they got whatever to make that well but when you actually look
inside and dig into that well there's no water there clouds without water wells
without water false prophets keep those wells alive and well keep digging the
dirt out of those wells of hard preaching how about just traditional
fundamental families and church services amen that's a good well to keep up why
because Philistines have filled up those wells of the family unit and the church
with dirt with worldliness ungodliness you know I'm looking out here right now
I'm looking at a church I'm looking at a well filled with children which means
that the pastor believes in preaching and he probably preaches a lot on having
a bunch of kids and I think he has a bunch of kids too we need to keep that
well alive and not have this 2.3 family philosophy keep the well alive of
having fundamental families in church services you know I don't see any
purple smoke or purple lights and smoke and mirrors here it looks like this is a
traditional fundamental Baptist Church service it's a good old-fashioned pulpit
got the kids sitting on the floor right here I'm spinning all over them sorry
kiddos got a piano here we got we got traditional music we got the old-fashioned
hymns the old-fashioned King James Bible got ladies wearing skirts men look like
men women look like women I mean this is the well that we need to keep digging up
from and make sure the world doesn't get into that well keep that alive keep your
faggity CCM keep your purple pink lights we call them the LGBT lights keep your
vapors and your smokers to yourself we're doing just fine like this in
2023 we don't need all that smoke and mirrors because the substance is in the
preaching my friends but you know it requires for us as Christians and not
just pastor Shelley not just pastor Mendes not just me not just pastor
Thompson or pastor Anderson it requires the church members as well to dig out
that dirt you know keep up with your church you better change and grow
spiritually with your church don't allow your church to just grow and your
pastors just growing by leaps and bounds and you're just kind of hanging back
still you better be changing for the better for the best too you better be
getting dirt out of your well as well to keep up with this well go with me if
you would to 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 I'm way past
my time sorry pastor Shelley but uh you know it's not my church so you know how
about the well of your marriage you know a good marriage doesn't just happen by
osmosis you got to take the dirt out and stop looking for new wells hey drink
water out of thine own wells the Bible says right be happy with the water
that's coming from your well stop looking to someone else's well why don't
you just take the dirt out of your well and improve your marriage like that
here's a good way to do it take your wife on a date on a weekly basis love
your wife as Christ also loved the church reverence your husband yeah but
we need some more philosophical no that well has existed for a long time and it
has quenched the thirst of marriage for generations it works but let me say this
by conclusion because I'm way I'm way way way out of time here is that as
Christians we need to go back to the old wells let me say this we need to
dig some new wells as well okay dig some new wells because you know the well is
Jesus Christ the well is God's Word but really the well is essentially the
funnel by which we you know come to the water and a well can be also
symbolically representing a Christian people believe through us people get to
Jesus through us right we're not Calvin is here you're in second Corinthians
chapter 5 I'm in first Corinthians chapter 3 verse 5 it says who then is
Paul who then is Apollo's but ministers by whom he believed even as the Lord
gave to every man I have planted Apollo's water but God gave the increase
look at second Corinthians chapter 5 in verse 17 it says therefore if any man be
in Christ he is a new creature old things are past the way behold all
things are become new and all things are of God who hath reconciled us to
himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation to
wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world into himself not imputing the
trespasses unto them and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation the
Bible says. You know I love and I joke and everything about coming here and you
know the fact you guys move around but you one thing I really love about coming
to Steadfast Baptist Church is I always see new faces, new wells, new people that
are being reached. So yeah visit the old wells but let's not rest on our laurels
and just look at the old wells we need to get some converts in it man. Hey I
hope that you would love your church so much that you would bring a visitor to
your church. Like who? How about your family? Like well they hate me. Well your
neighbor they hate me too. Well find someone that doesn't know you. Get the
gas station attendant or something. But you know you should do as a Christian
let me tell you how you can be a blessing to your pastor. One of the
greatest things you can do to be a blessing to your pastor, listen to me, one
of the greatest ways you can honor your pastor is bringing visitors to church to
hear his preaching. Because it kind of shows him like okay they're not ashamed
of it. They want other people to hear this as well. And don't be afraid of what
he's gonna preach on that day or whatever. Well I gotta time it right, you
know what I mean? Like he preached on the reprobates this week so he might not do
it next week or something. Just bring them. Just bring them. And if they don't come
back, go find yourself another well. Go dig some more wells, amen? Dig deep. Go
find some other wells. Bring some other wells to church. Create more converts so
that people can access the living water through them as well. I mean people were
doing it through you, but you know what? We need to find new people that can
also operate in that way, where God can use them as a well to access the living
water, to be saved, to learn the Word of God. That's God's will for our lives, amen?
Dig again the wells of water. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your
word and thank you for the conference, Lord. I thank you for the sermon that I
heard, Pastor Jimenez, and areas in my life that that spoke to me in, Lord, and
I pray that you would help us as your people to give heed to the messages
tonight and maybe there's an area in our lives, Lord, that we need to fix up. We
need to get the dirt out. There's a particular well in our life, in our
marriage, with our children, in our personal walk with God and our
spiritual disciplines that's maybe lacking. The dirt is building up and we
need to dig that up again so the waters can run freely and I pray that you help
us to do so and bless the remainder of the conference, Lord, and all the
speakers that are coming when you fill them with your spirit and your power and use
them in a great way, Lord. We love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus'
name. Amen. All right, another great sermon tonight. Thank you, Pastor Mejia.
We're gonna close it out tonight with song 160, "Crown Him with Many Crowns."
Song 160, "Crown Him with Many Crowns." Let's sing it out with some heart and
some passion. 160, "Crown Him with Many Crowns." "Crown Him with Many..." A few quick
announcements. So, we had 305 people in service tonight. So, praise the Lord on
that. Thank you to all you kiddos. You did such a great job and gave us some
extra seats. So, you guys are gonna be the first to get ice cream and cookies
right out this door whenever I dismiss. So, just wait a second. You waited a
really long time already. You guys can start getting up already. Thank you so
much to Pastor Minnis and Pastor Mejia for those sermons, great sermons. It seems
like they really worked well together since, you know, we really do need to
build and fight and this church has definitely done that. And Pastor Mejia
gave you a lot of good occasions of ways to build. You know, we need to work on
getting that dirt out of our wells. I'm really looking forward to the dirt
getting out of the well of the Rod of Iron podcast and so that we can enjoy
that well again and it's a great blessing. I also want to say one other
thing. You know, we're here tonight definitely due to the Lord Jesus Christ's
blessing and favor but he uses men to accommodate that for us and when we were
in a great time of need, Pastor Jimenez and Verity Baptist Church was very
generous to our church to help us to be able to be here in this building and
honestly, you know, it's incredible because they wanted a building, they were
saving up and we somehow got there before them and they were willing to
even be generous in a time when it may have been difficult or it may not have
made sense but it really showed just the the love of God that these people have
for Christians, for the work of God, for church, for just having charity in their
hearts and I think because of their generosity towards us that's why God has
really blessed them and given them also the opportunity to have a property and
have a building but I just wanted to give God the glory for Pastor Jimenez
and Very Baptist Church for letting us be here tonight so let's give them a
round of applause and so with that again we have ice cream and cookies for you
all to enjoy after the service also t-shirts if you didn't get one try to
make sure that if you're gonna be to any of our events you'd come early and be
safe God bless have a good night I'm a closing prayer thank you only father for
this evening please bless this this time of fellowship please give your home
safely and please continue to help us to get the dirt out of our lives we'll keep
building and fighting in Jesus name we pray amen