you
I could vouch for that.
Amen.
Brodody.
Last
Sunday or Saturday?
Right.
The Tuesday before last.
Gotcha.
And Vincent?
Thursday?
Awesome.
Juana?
Amen.
Anyone else that I missed?
I'm sorry?
Oh, like for your family?
And that's just to date.
Just in the month of June.
Wow.
Awesome. Thanks for the update on that.
That's great news.
Yes, sir?
Yesterday. Yeah, yesterday's are counted.
Everything that was done yesterday is counted.
Am I missing anybody else?
Awesome. Very good.
And I don't know how tight it's going to get in here.
We have, it looks like we have plenty of chairs.
But as people come in,
if you notice, there's people coming in,
especially your families, and you have a lot of
extra seating in between you and some other people
in your row.
It would be helpful to move
over if that's necessary.
So, appreciate everyone just kind of
keeping your eye out for that. And everyone that's joining
us today, we appreciate you being here.
Let's see. So, salvation,
we'll get into a little bit more with that.
Those are the numbers, the current numbers for the year.
And then, of course, the offering totals received
through the month of June down there at the bottom
of the page. Prayer requests, we have some
additions.
So, we've got
some good news. We're
allocating the good news at the top. The ladies with
children, the pregnant, expecting
ladies, we put at the top of the prayer list.
So,
we've got Mrs. Taylor
is with child.
So, we're very happy to hear about that. Congratulations.
We'll be praying for her. Of course,
we already know about Mrs. Johnson
and she's getting near
to her time
to be delivered. That's
coming up in about a month.
And Mrs. Wenthe also,
we had added her last week.
And then, we also now are adding
Mrs. Weatherby to our list. So, congratulations
Weatherby family.
It's been a very
fruitful month.
Soul winning, obviously. And now,
God's blessed you with another child. So, praise the Lord for
that. Be in prayer for all these ladies
who are with child that
everything will go well with the pregnancies.
Continuing on, are there any
updates further than what's
listed on the list right now before
I go any further on the prayer list? Anyone have
anything to update as new
updates for the moment?
Alright.
Obviously, there's a lot of people we've been praying
for for quite a while. So, please continue to pray
for them. A lot of
significant problems, cancers
and things.
So, please keep everyone else here in
your prayer. And then, down near the bottom,
unfortunately, Miss Abba's grandmother
passed away. So, please pray for the family
and for the comfort
there for all of them.
And then, down
at the bottom, we also added,
Woz brother-in-law
is dealing with the drug addiction. So,
please pray for him as well.
And just a note on this and a point,
you know, we have prayer cards. If you have a prayer
quest, something specific you want to have the church
praying for, you can fill out
the card. And you could always talk
to me, too. Sometimes, there's
issues that people have where it may
not be appropriate to list their name.
Or, you know, there's some
things that
you don't necessarily want public
or people don't want public personal matters
in their life, but we can still pray for
them. So, we could anonymize
to a degree, you know, who we're
praying for. Obviously, God knows all things.
So, we could still pray for them.
The only thing I
don't like doing is just total
unspoken everything, like just
total random prayers.
Give us some type of an idea
and we'll know what to pray for
because I'm definitely one that believes in
specific prayers
to, you know, ask God for
things because we don't just pray going like,
God, just do everything that's good
for me and don't let anything bad ever happen
to me, I'm done, right? Like,
that's not our prayer life, right?
We're thinking about and we're spending time
and we're going to God with specific requests.
So, we want to be as specific as possible.
Obviously, there's a good balance with, especially
with church-wide prayer, with confidentiality and things like
that. So,
anyhow, we love praying for
y'all and
we believe in the power of prayer. It definitely works. So,
please bring these lists home with you
and pray for everyone on our list.
And as we always do, we pray for churches and pastors.
And of course, we have Pastor Mejia with us
this week. So, pray for him.
Pray for his family. Pray for their church.
Pray for the ministry that God's doing over there.
Pray for his safety as he's going to be traveling home
tomorrow. And we appreciate
Pastor Mejia being with us.
And so, please pray for their
church this week. On the next page, of course,
the big announcements, our five-year anniversary.
So, we want to thank you first and foremost
to Pastor Mejia for being here to preach for us
and to deliver a message
from God. And we
appreciate your faithfulness
to serving the Lord.
And for the ministry you have out in California,
it really is an encouragement to all of us
here. We really like hearing all the
good news that you have to report and all
the exciting things that go on there.
You know,
between bombings and
whatever else
you got going on out there,
you got to find the time to make it out here
and bless us with some preaching.
We appreciate that. And also, thank you to
the hard work and service of the Lord
for all of you church members that make
Strong Old Baptist Church a great church.
I couldn't be happier with this church.
I love this church from the
bottom of my heart. I appreciate
all of you. And really, the celebration
today is a big thank you
for all of you and all the work
and all the dedication and all the time
spent and all the prayer and all the
soul winning and everything
that makes this such a great church.
So, thank you all for that. And we're going to be
celebrating by, one, having a lunch
right after church. So, we're going to have lunch
provided. So, stick around if
you're here visiting with us or not, whatever.
We've got plenty of good food,
plenty of options,
lots of meat. We're going to have burgers and hot dogs
and brisket and pulled beef
and pork and all kinds of stuff. So,
plenty of food.
We're going to try to do most of the eating
in this room, but I know it's not going to
hold everybody. So, we're going to set
up some other tables in the auditorium
as well. But before we
get to all the eating after service,
I'd like to get a big
group picture. So, a whole
church-wide picture of
everyone that's in attendance today. And I'm
going to ask you and I'll remind you again at the end of service,
we're going to go right out the
back here and there's an
area in the corner where we're going to just
get everybody together. We're going to get one big
group photo for our anniversary.
So, I'm excited about that. Hopefully
you just please join us for that.
And if you're a little camera shy, just kind of stand
in the back. Maybe get someone in front of you, but
just join us if you would.
Also, in the back, we've got
some inflatables.
So, we've got a big waterslide
like an 18-foot waterslide
inflatable waterslide out back, as well
as a bounce house with another
smaller waterslide.
Those are going to be
open for children and
adults if you want to
participate and have fun with that.
Now,
it's going to be really important. I hate
being the bad guy and I don't want to
be the one that has to go out there and yell at everybody,
but sometimes it's
just necessary, right? Kids get a little
excited and out of control
and I don't want them to get out of control. So, I'm asking
the parents, please, please, please, please,
please make sure there are people out
there monitoring. In more
than one, we need more than one adult out there
kind of keeping an eye on things. We have
all ranges of kids. We've
got little kids, we've got big kids
and the biggest concern of mine
is that you've got the, you
know, some of the older
kids but not really old
and they're having a blast and have a lot of fun
and they don't notice the little ones around them
and then you've got little ones bouncing all over the place
and their heads cracking. I don't want to have that happen.
So, if parents are
watching,
then we can prevent injuries from happening,
okay? And if things don't
go well, we're not going to do this again.
That kind of should, you know,
that's what happens with events
when things just don't go like
it's going to be up to you. So, please,
anyone that can help out
monitoring, parents, definitely
make sure you know what your kids are doing,
okay?
We're going to give some time
as, you know,
let it go, there's no schedule, but
give some time for smaller kids
to use that bounce house and have fun
with it without the other kids around
them and then we'll allow for other kids
to go in there, things like that. So, as
it's appropriate, you know, parents,
whoever's out there watching the kids,
just pay attention or
decide what's appropriate around that time,
say, hey, we're going to let these little kids have a turn
now and whatever. So, there's also
a little splash pad, too,
and a little bit of shade, so
please enjoy
it, have fun, pay attention
to the hoses that are running through the building.
We've got a popcorn maker, we've got a
snow cone machine over here
for everybody to enjoy.
The only thing I'd ask
for this, as well, is that parents,
or kids, ask your
parents if you want these things,
and parents, your
job is to provide that for your children,
okay? If they want something,
you go help them with it.
So, I want to
have as little, as few
little hands getting into all the
stuff as possible
and try to minimize the mess,
but I do want everyone to have fun,
so that's available. We've got games, we've got
a foosball table set up back there,
we've got a ping pong table way in the back,
all kinds of things. Please enjoy
yourself today as we celebrate.
It's going to be a blast.
Now, I wanted
to bring, I didn't have enough time this morning,
unfortunately, to use my whiteboard. It's my favorite
tool, it's my favorite toy that I got recently,
my big whiteboard. I
am going to complete it, and I will bring it out
here later. I just didn't have time for the announcements
because I like
statistics. I'm kind of a nerd in that way.
I use Excel spreadsheets all the time,
and I track and monitor our progress as a
church, and I just want to
give you a little bit of information
for the past five years
that our church has been in
existence because God's
been doing a lot of great things here,
and we've just been experiencing
growth after growth after growth after growth,
and it's super exciting. Obviously,
those of you who are here, it's been a real exciting five
years to be a part of, but just to bring
everyone up to speed, maybe you haven't been here
very long, or even if you're just
visiting, kind of where we
came from, where we're going
to. This is where we're going
to, by the way. This is
a map of the greater Atlanta area.
This map represents
some, like, nine million people.
So,
this is the goal.
This is
where we're focused on, is reaching
the lost with the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's what this church is all about.
That's what it's been all about from the very beginning,
from the first
service five years ago.
It's about getting the gospel
to the lost, okay?
That's our primary goal.
So, with that in mind, we're going to
start with the primary numbers,
and I'll just give you these. I've got it all
broken down, my month and stuff. I'm not going to bore you
with all of those details, but they will be listed on
the board if you're interested in seeing that.
2018, we had less than half of a year,
but when the church started,
we saw 344 people
saved within those first five
months, essentially, which is awesome.
It's great to have a church start off.
And the attendance is, at that time,
2018,
we averaged 40 people in attendance on
a Sunday morning service. So, it was a great start
to the church, having such a
high number of people
already here, helping the church get
off the ground. And then,
the following year,
we had a really high number of salvations.
The highest year yet,
I think we're going to surpass that this year,
but we had 1,071
salvations.
And that was an awesome first
full year, calendar year, to the
church. The next year,
2020,
there was
708 salvations.
2021, we saw
618 salvations.
2022, we saw 884
salvations. And to
date, we
had 504 until
we counted this morning, so
it's 504 plus
after what we
add up this morning. Now, we take
our salvation seriously here. We don't
just do a one, two, three, repeat after me, and
oh yeah, this person saved, this person saved, and just start
going with crazy numbers. It's
the result of hard work of a lot of
people going out and going so on. As I mentioned, we had
51 people here yesterday,
and we saw 15 salvations
over three hours.
Okay? 50 people
for three hours.
15 salvations is
not some crazy number. If you get that
many people together to go out and preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ,
that's about what you'll see. You'll see
results like that.
People like to mock and scoff at the
soul. You count up these numbers and everything else.
These numbers matter because they're souls.
They're people that were reaching with the
gospel. This is what it's all about. So we want
to keep track of it. We want to see, hey, how are we doing?
Are we being, you know,
somewhat successful, reasonably successful here to see
how we're reaching people?
And the people who scoff at it, you know what?
They're usually people that never go out ever.
They have no idea
how you can
even lead someone to Christ.
And if you're not going out, if you're not a part
of it, if you're a doubter of the
sowing methods here, come out with us.
Join us. See what we do.
See for yourself and you judge
and say, do you really think
that the people who are reaching are
truthful, are honest,
they're understanding the gospel, and they're putting
their faith in Jesus Christ?
Because I think they are.
I mean, what
more can you do? Explain
how Jesus Christ died for their sins
and help them understand the
truth of the Bible and
confront them with the
choice, with the option, with
the truth of their sinful nature,
the truth of the free gift, and they
decide if they're going to put their faith in Jesus Christ,
they call the name of the Lord
and, you know, that's
the gospel. We
question them, we talk with them, make sure people have a good
understanding. Anyways, I'm taking up too much
time this morning.
You preach as long as you want, Pastor me. I'm opening up
the door for you. But
grand total for this
church, over 4,000
people have been saved as a result of
this church being here.
4,129 to date.
So, praise God
for that. It's an awesome
accomplishment, awesome
group of people that love
God and care about God. We've had
85 baptisms
over the past five years
and we're kind of on target with
last year, with this year.
Obviously, we're looking to do
many more with our salvation. And when it comes to salvation,
we look at some years are up, some years are down, and
probably the reason for that is because
some neighborhoods are more receptive than others.
Some neighborhoods, people
just don't really want to listen, but you know, we're still going
out, we're still putting in time. And in other neighborhoods,
people really are hungry for hearing the gospel.
And that's going to be at the end of the day.
So, it's not like, even if you have a year
where your salvation number is down, it doesn't mean that
you're not doing the work.
It doesn't mean that God's not blessing.
It could just be, well, now we're hitting some areas
that there's just people who
gotta shake the dust off your feet and move on
to another place.
And that happens. You got the ups and the downs.
But overall, things are going
great. Our giving, the generosity
has been phenomenal. You know, we have
all these events. Everything we do is free of charge.
All the supplies, all
the events, you know,
the church is providing
everything that we do. We've got homeschool field trips,
we've got the big camping trip, we invite people out
to preach for us, things like that. All those costs
are all paid for and have been 100%
completely by
y'all. And the
giving has gone up by
20% or more
year over year over year, which
is just great. The attendance
has gone up year over
year after year. We've had,
let's see, we averaged 40 that first year,
52 on Sunday morning. The second
year, 48
the third year. Like I said, there's a little
bit of a dip, but then 61
on a Sunday morning,
2021, 81
in 2022.
And then now we're averaging
96
in 2023 on a Sunday morning.
So that's what we're doing as a church.
Like I said, I like watching the numbers. I like
seeing the growth. Obviously, you kind of get a
feel for it, but we've got some numbers
to go along with that
showing exactly how we're
tracking as a church. I couldn't
ask for anything more. You guys are great
and I appreciate you all.
And I'm going to finish up the announcements
here.
June challenge, of course, we're
trying to attempt to give the Gospel
to at least one person every single
day of the month. That's a
challenge. If you complete that challenge, you'll get a prize.
Bible memory passage, remember
as in all of Hebrews chapter 8, if you could quote it
word perfect without making mistakes within the timeframe,
you'll get a prize for that.
Upcoming birthdays and anniversaries are listed there.
And then
down at the bottom of the page, the only upcoming event
we have scheduled at the moment
is Pastor Anderson is going to be preaching for us on Wednesday
night, July 5th. So
that is about it for our announcements.
And I'm going to turn the service
back over to brother
Peter, who's going to lead us in our next song.
And
yep, brother Peter, come on up.
Open up your handles again to song number
175.
Song number
175
is just like his great love.
Song 175.
I'm going to try to sing this on the verse.
When I have all
Jesus
Whose love is strong and true
In
heaven
no matter
what I do
I see
the business
of this
when I'm
confessing
all my guilt
to hear
the bells roll away
It's just like
Jesus
It's just like
Jesus
It's just like
Jesus
It's just like
His great love
Sometimes it
allows no trouble
be dear
I cannot
see my
face
lying down
His wondrous love
I need
for heaven's mercy
sing
beholding my
despair
He
bursts the clouds
between
and shows me
He is there
It's just like
Jesus
It's just like
His great love
When
flowers
fall
and wave
upon my hand
when
I see
His worst
and useless
and I will never
dare
For heaven
we hope He gives
and cheers
like sunshine after rain
It's just like
Jesus
It's just like
Jesus
It's just like
Jesus
It's just like
His great love
I can say
forever
But Jesus
love me
now
of all His
care and tenderness
for days
for life of
time
His love is
in and over
and He lives in
waves of pain
When Jesus
whispers
all along the way
It's just like Jesus
who gave the day away
It's just like Jesus
all along the way
It's just like His great
love
John Chapter 2
That was the book of John Chapter 2
Yes, we do customary here
at Stronghold Baptist Church
When we read the entire passage
we ask for the Bible to record it
Amen
Happy anniversary
Stronghold
We're going to be coming out of the book of John Chapter 2
John Chapter 2
The Bible reads
And the third day
there was a marriage in Cana
of Galilee
And the mother of Jesus was there
And both Jesus was called and His disciples
to the marriage
And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus
saith unto him, They have no wine
Jesus saith unto her,
Women, what have I to do with thee?
Mine hour is not yet come
His mother saith unto the servants,
Whatsoever He saith unto you,
do it.
And there were six water pots of stone
after the manner of the
purifying of the Jews
containing two or three
firkins apiece.
Jesus saith unto them, Fill the
water pots with water, and they
fill them up to the brim.
And He saith unto them, Draw out now
and bear unto the
governor of the feast, and they
bear it. When the ruler of the
feast had tasted the water
that was made wine, and knew
not whence it was,
but the servants which drew the water knew,
the governor of the feast called the bridegroom
and saith unto him,
Every man at the beginning
doth set forth good wine, and when men
had well drunk,
then that wish is worse.
But thou hast kept the
good wine until now.
This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana
of Galilee, and manifested forth
His glory, and His disciples believed
on Him. After this, He went down
to Capernaum. He and His mother
and His brethren and His disciples, and
they continued there not many days.
And the Jews passed over was
at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
and found in the temple those
that sold oxen and sheep and doves
and the changes of money sitting.
And when He had made a scourge of
small cords, He drove them all out
of the temple and the sheep and the oxen
and poured out the changers money
and overthrew the tables, and said unto
them that, So doves, take these
things hence, make not my father's
house an house of merchandise.
And His disciples remembered that it was
written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten
me up. Then answered the Jews
and said unto him,
What sign showest thou
unto us, seeing that thou
doeth these things?
Jesus answered and said unto them,
Destroy this temple, and in three days
I will raise it up. Then
said the Jews, Forty and six
years was this temple and building,
and wilt thou
rear it up in three days?
But He spake of the temple of His body,
when therefore He was risen
from the dead. His disciples remembered that
He had said this unto them,
and they believed the scripture
and the word which Jesus had said.
Now when He was in Jerusalem
at the Passover in the feast day,
many believed in His name
when they saw the miracles which He did.
But Jesus did not commit Himself
unto them because He knew all men
and needed not that any should testify
of man, for He knew what was in
man. Let's pray.
Father God, we thank you for Pastor Bruce
Mejia visiting our church. We thank you for the
five year anniversary. God allow
for him to speak with boldness. Allow for us to
receive your word. We praise you and thank you
for all these things in Jesus name. Amen.
Amen. All right. It is great
to be here. Happy fifth year
anniversary to Stronghold
Baptist Church. I'm excited.
Man, this pulpit is way too big for me.
I'm going to spend most of my time here
and here. I don't know about here.
But I'm thankful to be here. I'm thankful
for Pastor Berson's friendship
and his faithfulness
and his persistence, his
work ethic, and of
course, his walk with God and his
leadership here. He's done a great work.
And so I'm happy to be
here with you all.
Go ahead and look at John chapter 2
in verse number 9.
It says here, When the ruler of the feast
had tasted the water that was made
wine, he knew not whence it was,
but the servants which drew the
water knew. The governor of the feast called
the bridegroom, and saith unto him,
Every man at the beginning
doth set forth good wine.
And when men have well drunk,
then now which is worse?
But thou hast kept the good wine
until now.
And the title of my sermon this morning is
The Best is Yet to Come.
The best is yet to come.
And I want to talk about your church
and what God is going to do in your
church over the next couple of years.
And the fact that even though God has done some
great things in the past over the last five years,
hey, the best is yet to come.
And God is only getting started.
His church is only getting started. Pastor Berson
is only getting started. This church
and the members here are only getting started. Look at this
chapter here. And of course
it's the first miracle that Jesus Christ performs
turning the water into wine. Of course
we know that it's not alcoholic wine.
It is juice is what is
being talked about here.
And it's always funny when people try to use this passage
of scripture to try to justify
their alcoholism, right? They're just like
well, you know, Jesus turned the water into wine
therefore I'm justified to drink alcohol
and get drunk. But you know
it's a really stupid interpretation because of the
fact that the Bible says here that Jesus
turns the water into wine after men
had well drunk. And
the same people who try to use this passage
of scripture to justify drinking
alcohol will say well it's
not a sin to drink. It's just
a sin to get drunk, right?
It's not a sin to drink alcohol. It's just a sin
to get drunk. But men had well
drunk. And then you have Jesus Christ
turning the water into wine which would essentially
mean that Jesus Christ is making them even more
drunk than what they are. And so it's
obviously a contradiction here. This is obviously
referring to regular grape
juice or some form of juice.
But here in this story
he turns the water into wine
they give it to the governor
and the governor is astonished at the fact
at the quality of the wine that's being
put forth here. And he says you know
it's weird. Every man at the beginning of the
wedding, at the beginning of the party, at the
beginning of the festival, they'll put forth
the good wine, right? They're basically saying
you know they put their best foot forward.
But then you know once men have well
drunk, they've had five
cups of juice, six cups of juice,
they're full, they've enjoyed
the wine, they've enjoyed the juice
then the quality of the wine begins to
degrade, right? They start bringing out the Shasta
instead of Dr. Pepper
it's like Dr. Pib or something like that.
They start bringing out the
cheap brands that you get at the 99 cent store.
The bottles
are just really big. You know they're rounded.
Let's just say Shasta. Anybody know what
Shasta is? Okay. They bring out
the pineapple Shasta.
Okay. Because at that point
they're like they've already had the good stuff. Let's go ahead and bring out
the low quality sodas
and the wine.
And he basically says
you know he's very much impressed with the fact that
after they've done that, they
bring out the worst but this particular party
they kept the best for last.
And he's basically
saying here that the
best is still yet to come.
And even though they've had good wine in the beginning
they've had good things
to drink in the very beginning of the wedding
you know the best wine
was saved until last.
And the way I want to apply this
in the Christian life is that the Christian life
you know God sets forth good wine at the beginning.
Very good wine at the beginning
very good
experiences in the beginning
very good things happen and blessings in the very beginning
but you know when men have well drunk
then he puts out the better wine.
So it doesn't degrade with time.
The Christian life doesn't get worse with time
it only gets better.
A church puts forth good wine
at the beginning but you know based upon
the leader you'll see that
the good wine is saved until last. The best
is still yet to come.
And that's how it's supposed to be in the Christian life.
Now obviously there's churches and there's Christians
and you know there's
movements that degrade with
time. But you know the
the principle is still there
and that's not necessarily the fault of God
it's not the fault of the pastor
it's not necessarily the fault of the Bible
it's people who choose to degrade with time, right?
It's people who choose not to improve
themselves, not to get better with
time, they get worse.
But here God
wants us to realize that he's saving the
best for last. This is a reoccurring concept in the
Bible that the best is yet to come.
Go to 1 Kings chapter 10 if you will
1 Kings chapter 10
The best is yet to
come for stronghold
the best is yet to come
for Baptist church
the best is yet to come for
pastor Burzins
the best is yet to come for this church
good days are ahead of you. The Bible tells us
you're going to 1 Kings chapter 10
I'm going to read to you from Proverbs 23 verse 18
for surely there is an end and
thine expectation shall not be
cut off. You know
when you even think about the transition between
Old and New Testament
a lot of great things happen in the Old Testament
because the New Testament a better
Testament. Why? Because this is
based upon better covenants, better promises
has a better mediator
known as Jesus Christ.
Essentially what the Old Testament was showing us
was that the best was still yet to come.
Jesus Christ was going to come.
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 8 in verse number 6
But now hath he obtained a more excellent
ministry by how much
also he is the mediator
of a better covenant
which is established upon better
promises. Jeremiah 29 verse 11
says for I know the thoughts that I think toward
you saith the Lord. Thoughts of peace
and not of evil to
give you an expected
end. Let me say this about stronghold
Baptist church. The best
is yet to come and the half has not yet been
told. Okay. Look at 1 Kings
chapter 10 verse 1. This is of course the story
of the queen of
Sheba who comes to Solomon
because she hears of his fame. Right. It says in
verse number 1 and when the queen of Sheba
heard of the fame of Solomon concerning
the name of the Lord. She came to prove
him with hard questions.
And she came to Jerusalem with
with a very great train
with camels that bear spices
and very much gold and
precious stones and when she was
come to Solomon she communed with him
all of all that was in her heart
and Solomon told her all her questions.
There was not anything hid from the king
when she told her not. So you know she
hears about the fame of Solomon. She
hears about his wisdom
and everything that God is doing there. So
she decides to take a trip to where
Solomon is in order to prove if it's
true. She hears about all this great
news and she wants to go there
to really see if that's what's
taking place there in the land. And of course
he answers all of her questions because he's
the wisest man of the time
and he essentially
answers all her questions. He doesn't
hide anything from her. It says in verse number 4
and when the queen of Sheba had seen all
of Solomon's wisdom and
the house that he had built
and the meat at his table
and the sitting of his sermons
and the attendance of his ministers
and their apparel and his
cupbearers and his ascent by which he went
up to the house of God, to the house of the Lord
there was no more spirit in her.
What does that mean? She was breathless.
She was absolutely astonished
at what was there in the kingdom.
Verse 6 says, and she
said to the king, it was a true
report that I heard in mine own
land of thy acts and
of thy wisdom. Howbeit
I believed not the words
until I came and mine eyes
have seen it and behold
the half was not told
me. Thy wisdom
and prosperity exceeded
the fame which I heard.
She's saying the half was not yet told.
The best is still yet to come.
And you know that's how the Christian life is. That's how
a church should be. Is that the longer
we're faithful, the more we read the word of
God, the more souls we win,
the more we're consistent in church, we see
that the half is still not yet been told.
You know, we read God's word, we hear about
all the promises that God's going to do in your church
and in your personal life, in the life of your
pastor, in the life of your family, and you believe
it, you might have some doubt, but you believe some
of it, but then when you're actually faithful
and those promises come to pass, you think to yourself
wow, the half was not yet told.
The best was still yet to come.
God was saving the best
for last.
Now, don't misunderstand what I'm saying here.
You know, when it comes to the world,
the best is not yet to come.
This world is going to hell in a
handbasket. This world is
wicked, it's vile, it's
disgusting, I'm sick of it,
I want to go home.
It's a horrible place to be in,
but you know, God has chosen us to be
here to fulfill a work, and we can
still enjoy our time here and our
service here for God, no matter how wicked
it gets, but we obviously understand that the world is
wicked, it's terrible, and it's
only going to get worse and worse. You know, the Bible tells
us that evil men and seducers
shall wax worse and worse.
We can't fool ourselves into thinking
well, you know, churches
are only going to get better, pastors
are only going to get better. Really, at the end of the day,
some churches are just going to go apostate,
right? There's going to be more false
prophets in the end times, more
evil men and seducers that shall wax worse
and worse, but the Bible tells us
that the world is going to get worse, but continue
thou in the things which thou has learned
and has been assured of,
knowing of whom
thou hast learned them.
So obviously we know that
this world is only going to get worse. I mean, the Bible tells
us that iniquity shall abound
and the love of many shall wax cold,
okay? And so let's not
have this type of
attitude and doctrine that's out there
that well, Christians need to permeate
all of society, all of political
and the governor and just kind of
every single establishment in this world
and we're going to just go ahead and usher in the kingdom
instead, you know? Because that's a false
doctrine that's out there that tries to teach
well, Christians need to make sure they run
for political offices
and permeate all the businesses in
this world because we want to take over.
But folks, that's not going to happen until the millennial
reign, okay? That's not
going to happen and in fact, people
who teach that doctrine and are really
big on that teaching are really
are going to be really big on the Antichrist.
Because at the end of the day, the Antichrist
is going to be the one who permeates all of society,
not Christians, okay?
But we obviously know that the
world's only going to get worse and so I'm not referring
to the world, but as the world
gets worse, we as Christians
can only improve in quality
because the darker the night, the brighter
the light, amen?
The darker it gets out there, the more
wicked it gets, the more this
church is going to stand out, the more the
preaching of God's word is going to stand out, the more
lives are going to be changed, souls are going to be
saved, people are going to start seeing it all
the way, just put it that way.
You know, a couple of years ago, people listen to our
preaching and be like, oh man, these people are too
radical, they're so
just kind of out there
and all the stuff they're saying about the sodomites
and everything that they're saying about all these false prophets
but today, now you have
unsaved people saying the same things that we say.
Why? Because they're
sick and tired of all the filth and perversion
that's being pumped through the schools, that's being
pumped through the media and now they're starting to
look at preachers like us and say, you know what, maybe those guys had a
point.
So, you know, I'm okay with
the world getting worse because it's only
going to make our preaching and our type of churches
more appealing to
the public and they're going to start
you know, they're going to get saved, they're going to be
turned to righteousness and so
that's not necessarily an issue here. Now why is
it important to know that the best
is yet to come? Why is it important
to know? Well, number one, you know, it
helps us through difficult times.
The Christian life, as
much of a blessing as it is to be a
Christian, to live the Christian life, you know,
it has its share of trials.
It has a lot of difficulties,
a lot of problems that come along with it,
a lot of heartaches and
if you don't have anything to look forward to
in the future, you know, you can
have the tendency to want to throw in the towel and just give
up, right? Just say, just
forget it all and
you know, I can't handle all these pressures
and all these trials,
these marital issues that I'm having,
financial issues that I'm going through,
you know, spiritual problems
that I'm experiencing, I can't handle it
but if you understand that the best is yet to come,
it helps you to be steadfast, unmovable
and always abounding in the work of the Lord.
Helps you to realize, you know what, it's bad now
but it's only a season, I'm
going to come out of it, our marriage is going to
come out of it, I'm going to come out of this financially,
I'm going to come out of this spiritually,
everything is going to be hunky-dory in the end because
the best is yet to come, okay?
You know, the Bible tells us in Romans chapter 4
verse 18,
who against hope believed in hope that he
might become the father of many nations
according to that which was spoken, so
shall thy seed be and be not
weak in faith, he considered not his
own body now dead when he was about
a hundred years old, neither yet the
deadness of Sarah's womb, he staggered
not at the promises of God through unbelief
but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God and being fully persuaded
that what he had promised, he was
able also to perform.
So what's another reason why it's important for us to
look forward to the best
that's yet to come? Well number two,
so that we don't rest on our laurels,
we don't rest on past
accomplishments. Let me say this,
that is a major temptation
for a lot of churches. I come
from the old IFB, I got saved in the old
IFB church and I was a part
of that particular movement that
we would refer to as the old IFB
and one of the major markers
of the old IFB is that they
like to brag about the things that took place
in the past without accomplishing
anything new in the present.
So they don't want to talk about
the sermons that they're preaching now
and the souls that are being saved now. They always talk
about the things that were done in the past.
What is that? They're resting on their laurels. So basically
they're not thinking about the fact that the
best is yet to come. Their worst
days are ahead of them.
And so if we're not constantly
looking forward to the future and what
God's going to do in your marriage, what God's
going to do in your church and you as an
individual, you can have the
temptation to say, well, you know, I've won my
share of souls already. I've read
the Bible already. I've
fought my battles already
and so I'm just going to go ahead and rest
on those accomplishments and those achievements
wrong, my friends. We as Christians need
to keep doing more things for God.
We can have a better marriage.
We can have a better church.
The things can improve drastically
with time, especially as we gain
more wisdom, more knowledge.
We're faithful. We're consistent.
God's hand can be upon us
so much longer so that more can be
accomplished for him. So don't be the kind of
Christian that just says, well, you know, oh
man, that year when we had a thousand, that's
what we want to look forward to. No, I'm looking forward to
the other thousand in the future. They're going to get saved.
More souls that are going to come
down in the future. More soul winners
that are going to be raised up in church.
See, it's not just souls that we want to get saved.
We want to raise up soul winners.
Brand new Christians who have never won a soul
to Christ that are in this building
at this time. Train them
up, disciple them, and get them
to go out and preach the gospel and get people
saved and get on fire for God. The best
is yet to come.
Go to Romans chapter 8, if you would.
Romans chapter number 8.
Folks, the best is yet to come
and although today is a great celebration
of five years
of what God has done in this church, really
today is a day for us
to take an opportunity to look forward
to the next five years. What God's
going to accomplish in the next five years.
And then in ten years, you can look back and say
man, God did some great things, but I'm looking
forward to what God's going to do in ten more years.
In twenty more years. Because the best is always
yet to come. Let me say this.
The best is yet to come
even when it comes to salvation.
Salvation is great.
You know the best is yet to come.
You say, what do you mean by that?
Well, you know, when you first get saved, you're
just like, man, you know, this is great.
I can't lose my
salvation. It's
free. It's a gift.
I'm not going to hell. I'm
going to heaven. My sins
are forgiven. I mean, the list just
goes on and on and on
and on. And it's just like you're in this
honeymoon stage of just
like, I'm saved.
And you just want to talk about it.
You're offending all kinds of family members because
of it. You're offending your friends.
All your Facebook posts are getting taken
down. You're
rebuking all kinds of false prophets
who preach a false gospel. Your
senses, spiritual senses are more keen
to false doctrine. Makes you
really mad when someone's preaching a false gospel.
And you're just like,
this is great.
You know, I'm a born
again Christian. I'm saved.
And that's wonderful. But you know,
let me just say this is the best is still yet to come.
Because when we get saved,
it's the inward man that gets saved. Amen.
It's the spirit
that is brought back to life. It's quickened
once we believe on Jesus Christ.
But you know what? The body is still
dead.
And so as great as salvation
is, and we don't want to take away from how great
salvation is, you know, the greatest days
are ahead of us because of the fact that
every single day we battle this flesh.
The Bible says that the flesh lesseth
against the spirit. The spirit against the flesh.
These are contrary to one to the other
so that you cannot do the things that you would.
And any honest Christian
will tell you that in the Christian
life, you know, Christianity is
great. Serving God is great. It's this
stupid flesh that I can't seem to overcome.
It's like a battle
every single day fighting the flesh.
And you're like, I don't fight the flesh. Well then
you're just a carnal Christian.
Then just say you're defeated.
Then just say you've lost or something like that.
Just say you're not living a Christian life.
Well, I don't really feel that way. I don't feel like I'm battling
the flesh. I just kind of give in to the lust of the flesh.
You know, every once in a while.
Well, you know, you're just a carnal
fleshly Christian because at the
end of the day, God has commanded us
to fight the flesh, to bring it
in subjection, the Bible tells us.
You know, the Bible says, likewise, reckon yourselves
also to be dead indeed and to sin, but
alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin, therefore reign in your
mortal bodies that ye should obey in the
lustre of, neither yield ye your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
But yield yourselves unto God
and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God, the Bible says.
It's a constant war.
Every single day fighting the flesh.
We don't believe the stupid doctrine that once you get
saved, you just come with batteries included, right?
We're just like, oh, once I get
saved, I don't struggle with sin.
It's not even a thing for me anymore.
I was able to kick all these
habits. I just love God
24-7. I just love the Bible
24-7. I just hate
sin 24-7. You liar.
That doesn't exist.
We have to die daily.
We have to constantly, every
day, wake up and make the
conscientious decision to serve
God, to actually
repent of our sins, to get right
with God, to read the Bible. It's
a battle. It's a war.
That's why I say the best
is yet to come because there's going to come a day
known as the resurrection
where our bodies
are quickened together
with Christ and we will no
longer have to fight
our flesh. We will no longer be in the presence
of sin. We don't know what that's
like right now because of the
fact that we've always lived in our flesh,
but there will come a day when
our physical flesh gets saved.
It's also known as the rapture
which takes place after the tribulation.
Amen.
After that day when we're resurrected, when our bodies
are quickened together, we're caught up
to be with Christ in the air.
The dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds and so shall we ever be with the Lord
and that day our
entire flesh will be
saved. It will be redeemed.
This is why the Bible says, in whom you also trust
that after that you heard the word of truth, the
gospel of your salvation, and whom also
after that you believed, you were sealed
with that Holy Spirit of promise which
is the earnest of our inheritance
unto the redemption of the purchased possession, unto
the praise of his glory the Bible says.
God has saved our flesh
or excuse me, he saved our spirit.
Our flesh is not yet saved.
It's on layaway right now.
Understand? He's going to redeem
it completely one day.
And so that's one little thing
that people get mixed up with
they think to themselves, oh you're trying to tell
me that now that you're saved you can just
live however you want? Well no
we've never preached that by the way.
You know, obviously
there's consequences to your sin here on this earth
you can read Hebrews chapter 12 for that
and recognize that the Lord scourges every
son whom he receiveth, right?
He chastens his children
but even above that, you know, our flesh
is not saved at this time. It hasn't been
redeemed but one day it will be
and we will have
the privilege of the experience
of knowing what it's like not to sin.
Not to have to fight.
He said well if that day is going to come
then why even fight it now?
What's the point of even fighting sin now
if you know one day
we're going to be resurrected
and you know we're not
going to be in the presence of sin anymore. I'll tell you
why, because God commanded us to do that.
And so it's important to
obey the commandments of the Lord
and he wants us to be and to
live a sanctified life.
To be sanctified through the
word of God, to be sanctified
through preaching, which is why your
pastor gets up here and rips on sin
to clean up your life,
to be sanctified, to live a life that's
pleasing unto the Lord. To be a vessel
unto honor, meat for the master's
use. Because you know what?
If you're a Christian who's just constantly involved
in sin, you allow yourself to
be overtaken with sinful habits
you're going to be an ineffective Christian.
Not going to be effective at all.
You're going to be ineffective in the service of the Lord.
God wants to use a sanctified
vessel to be used in order to
get people saved and not just that,
to disciple people, to lead your family,
to be a blessing in your church.
That requires you living a sanctified life.
Not a perfect life,
but a life that's being sanctified.
But thank God that the best is yet to come.
Look, I look forward to the millennial reign.
I think about the millennial
reign a lot and I look forward to it.
And you know I look forward to the
fact that Jesus Christ will one day be king
on this earth, physically
ruling and reigning on this earth.
And that
we as God's people get to rule
and reign with him, instituting
those mosaic laws, amen.
You know some more than others
possibly. Some of
those that we hope that he deputizes us for
amen.
You know what I'm
talking about.
I don't want this video to get taken down
so
be careful here.
Somewhere in Leviticus 20 though,
around verse 13 or something like that
you know.
I'm looking forward to that day.
That's why I don't make a big deal about politics
today.
I don't care about politics.
I don't care who's the president of the United
States. I don't care who's the governor.
I don't care who's the mayor.
I don't care for those things because one day
you know I'm going to be a politician too.
Just not in this particular
realm in the millennial reign, amen.
And so I'm working
so that God, so that Jesus
Christ can crown
me as a politician
in the millennial reign.
You know but if Christians are constantly worried
about that stuff and getting involved in those things
you know you're not going to get much in the
millennial reign. You know you're
essentially allowing yourself
to be entangled with the affairs of this
life. We need to be
completely free from those things so we can serve
God faithfully
and with fear. The best is still
yet to come. The millennial reign is still going to
come. The new heaven and the new earth.
The Bible tells us that Christ may
dwell in your hearts by faith that you be
rooted and grounded in love may
be able to comprehend with all saints
what is the length, breadth,
depth and height and to know
the love of Christ that passeth all knowledge.
What does that mean? You know we don't even know about
the best is yet to come.
When we get saved we hear about the love of Christ
but you know what that love
exceeds and goes beyond our
comprehension as the years go by.
It doesn't just stop at salvation
when we walk with God
when we serve God we begin to experience
the length, breadth, depth and height
to know the love of Christ that passeth
all knowledge and the Bible goes on to say to
in Ephesians chapter 4 that he's able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think. What does that mean?
The best is still yet to come.
So we should never have this short
term small vision
of God when it comes to salvation
it's great to be saved and we're thankful
for it but there's so much more
other than that that we have to look forward
to as well.
The best is still yet to come and by the way
you know knowing that the best is yet to come
knowing that there's a millennial reign
knowing that there's a resurrected
body coming for us
all that affliction is but for a moment
because we know that it
worketh for us an
exceeding and eternal weight of glory
so knowing that the
best is yet to come knowing that
there's going to be a recompense for our
sufferings you know what that does for us? It helps us
to kind of push through a hard time
when you're going through a difficult time
when you're experiencing sorrow
and discouragement and depression
you're like bring it on
because I know this is not going to last forever
I know that the best is yet to come
I know that God is saving the best wine for last
He's
put the good wine out already
in regards to salvation
but there's better wine coming in the future
known as the resurrected body
known as the new heaven and the new earth
and let me say this the millennial reign is a
legitimate thing
it's not just a spiritual thing
all these preterists out there
catching momentum this preterist doctrine
that tries to say that
oh the rapture has already taken place
yeah you know someone else said that
in the bible the day when the resurrection
has passed already
and it wasn't in a good way that he was talking about it
these heretics that tried to say that
the rapture has passed and the millennial reign
is just spiritual he's just ruling and reigning
in our hearts
and you know the world is just going to
continue to go on and continue to go on
and nothing's ever going to change
there's not a little millennial reign
there's not a little new heaven and a new
earth wrong false
the bible clearly teaches that these are literal
events that are going to take place
and you know I don't care
for your lame wine
your watered
down wine your corrupted
wine that tries to teach that
these things have already taken place
the best is still yet to come
the bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 15
verse 50 for this corruptible
must put on incorruption and this mortal
must put on immortality so
when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption
and this mortal shall have put on immortality
then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written death
is swallowed up in
victory and so
the best is still yet to come go to Revelation chapter
2 if you would Revelation chapter 2
hey God has set forth
some good wine in the beginning
delicious wine
and I would say that many of you have well drunk
that good wine
but you know what the best is still
yet to come he's keeping the good wine
for last
and so stay faithful
at stronghold Baptist church go to this
church go to
sunny morning sunny night Wednesday
night go to the soul winning meetings
because the best is still yet to come
and what's unfortunate is that some Christians
they won't experience that last
wine they're not going to experience
the fact that the best is yet to come because
they're not faithful long enough to see
it
but it's there
so the best is yet to come when it comes to salvation
how about Bible reading
you know Bible reading is good
but the best is still yet to come
you know when you read the Bible for the first time
and you read it through
and you're like wow this is just
amazing I'm learning
so much oh there's going to be
years on end of learning
the knowledge of God and you
get to look through the layers
of the Bible and learn about
the end times Bible prophecy
and then you start getting into that stage
in your Christian life where you're actually under the ministry
of the Holy Spirit
and the Holy Spirit begins to teach you things out of God's
word it begins to connect
certain doctrines and certain verses with others
and you start realizing
well this is like honey in the beginning but now it's like
meat
you know I was like when I first got saved and I read the Bible
it was sweet as honey
and it was so delicious to my taste
but now it's like eating a ribeye
right
you know it's like when you first got saved
you start reading the Bible
it's like those
what's that word that Texas Roadhouse
rolls
you guys know what I'm talking about
you know you
cut it open you get the butter
slap it on there
and you eat it and then you can't just have
one
you eat a few
and you're eating like
this is so delicious and it's like
it could be a meal in and of itself I'm just
I'm just saying
it's great
you know it's kind of like the
Lucille's biscuits but I don't know if I can compare
it to such a thing because the Texas
Roadhouse rolls are so good
and when you first get
saved you read the Bible it's just like yeah give me some more
slap that butter on there
you're slapping that butter you go to church
and you know Pastor Burson is just
putting that butter on there and you're eating that roll
and you're like more please
so then you come on Sunday night and then you get
another roll and you're just like
you know the Bible is also you know described
as a roll right so then you
eat that and it's like it's so
good and then you're like I want more so you come on
Wednesday night and then you eat
it on Wednesday night but here's the thing you know you start
eating it a lot then it becomes bitter in your
belly you know you start getting a stomach ache just
as the word of God is right but then
you start eating it you eat it but then
the more you grow in the Christian life
then you're like I'm kind of ready for the main course
I'm ready
for like the ribeye
I'm ready for like the I mean what's
a good cut
what's a good cut
filet mignon
yeah you ready for the filet mignon
what's another cut
you guys don't eat meat here are you guys
vegans or something or what
picanha
my man right here
I'll talk to you after service
picanha
and you start eating it and you're like this is
savory it's delicious
well that's how it is in the Christian life you know you start
you read the word of God once and you're like this is so
sweet but then you years pass
by and you keep reading it and then you start
getting the meat of the word
and then you start bulking up because of the meat
then you start learning deep doctrines
then when Pastor Burzins
preached he preaches a sermon and you're like
whoa I just read that
and you're like he's confirming
what I just read which confirms
that this is the right church to be in
because he's obviously eating
meat too
you don't got a vegan for a pastor amen
where he's just giving you plant
based
preaching or something like that
he's not providing tofu
for you some fake meat
out of the NIV or the ESV
or whatever he's giving you legitimate meat
and you guys are just exchanging
meat and you're just like man this is delicious
well you know what that's what it's supposed to be like
the best is still yet to come
hey those rolls are delicious but the best
is yet to come
it's called the main course amen
the Bible says in Jeremiah
15 verse 16 thy words
were found and I did eat them
and thy word was unto me the joy
and rejoicing of my heart
for I am called by thy name
oh Lord God of hosts you know what I've noticed as a Christian
is that when I first started reading the Bible
I read it out of just enjoying
the honey but now I'm realizing
that
I actually need to read the Bible every single day now
like in order to
sustain me spiritually I need to read it
and the Bible talks about the
word of God being like food man should not live
by bread alone but by every word that
proceed out of the mouth of God
and so you get to a point in your Christian life
where you're reading it because you're
enjoying the book of John but then you start realizing like
no this is part of my life now
I need to read the word of God every single day
this is there's no question whether
I should read the word of God it's like this
it's like you start coming to church
and you're like
that was a great sermon and
you know you're enjoying it you're enjoying
the doctrine but then you start realizing
I need to be in church as much
as I possibly can and now
it's not even a question of whether you should come to church
or not you don't wake up in the morning like
should I go today or what like
what do you feel like doing today you know
ask your wife or something
you think we should go to church now it's just a matter of
this is what we do we go to
church there's no question whether we go to church
this is what you do
you know it's just like you want meat or you
want tofu there's no question
you want meat or you want
vegetables
do you want
meat or do you want you know
a plant based burner
or something beyond meat
it's just like
give me the meat
I don't want that other nonsense
okay but you realize
you need this in order to survive
spiritually hey you need church
to survive spiritually
you need to be in the house of God
to survive spiritually
you say why is that well because
of the fact that this world is getting so crazy
with so many doctrines if you're
a babe in Christ you can get sucked into that
stuff but when you come
to church you not only get helped
doctrinally but you actually become normalized
as well you know I'm sure there's
a couple of weird people in this room you know
little socially awkward individuals
in this room little spiritually awkward
individuals in this room but you know when you come to church
faithfully Pastor Burzins normalizes
you by the preaching of God's work
you know you might be an
introvert here but when you come to
church you're kind of forced to be an extrovert because you got
a fellowship that's part of God's role here
amen God's command here is for you
to fellowship with other Christians
to get to know other Christians to be
friendly with other Christians to be a blessing to
others so it matures you it
helps you and so
when you read God's word
it's like honey but then you want the meat when you come
and hear preaching you want
meat when you're reading the word of God it only
gets better with time okay
what a happy turn
Revelation 2 right
number 3 let me say
this is that great works have been
accomplished at this church but the best
is still yet to come I mean
listening to those numbers over 4,000
people saved
there's churches that will never see that
in a lifetime they
will never see that in a lifetime
so how do you know I've been to churches
where they don't even see a baptism
their entire
like 2 years 3 years of their ministry
I was
at a church one time
where we're actually renting
not the current church that we have now but a previous church
that I helped plant years ago
we were renting from other Baptists
and they had a Baptistry there
and the Baptistry
was just like you know the really fancy
Baptistry in the back where they carve out the wall
they have a little light
they have a little forest scenery
in the back you know
birds in the back and all these things you know
and it looked really nice but it was just always
empty and then
you look over it's like they store
water jugs
inside the Baptistry it's like why don't you just
store water in there instead of just having the jugs there
but they said you know we only have
a Baptistry like maybe once every couple of years
or something but you know what that tells me
it tells me they're not seeing people saved
because the natural byproduct of getting
people saved is asking them to get
baptized and not everyone will
do it but chances
are you ask 10 people who
get saved to get baptized you'll get
about 1 or 2 that say yeah let's do it
and so some churches
they don't see 4000 people saved
in a year they don't get that
many people baptized in a year they
don't see this many people in church in a year
why because they're degrading
they're getting worse they're atrophying as a
church but this church will accomplish
more in the years to come
the roots have been great so far
but the best is yet to come
look what the Bible says in Revelation
chapter 2
and verse 18
unto the angel of the church of Thyatira
these things saith the Son of God
who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire
and his feet are like fine brass
I know thy works
and charity and service
and faith and thy
patience and listen to this and thy
works and the last
to be more than the first
now we're not going to continue reading
with Thyatira because they get
pretty bad afterwards but this part is good though
okay you know they started letting in
lady preachers and all that and that's obviously bad
so we'll go ahead and just stop at verse 19
okay but he's saying there
you know I know your works and then he
says later on and I know your works
the last to be more
than the first so he's
commending them for the present works that they've
accomplished but then he commends
them for the future works that they're
going to do and he's saying you're going to do more
works in the future than you are presently
doing right now and
you know what I think that should be
the vision of every church
to realize 4,000
souls are great
but let's get another 4,000
let's get another 8,000
let's get 10,000
I don't know
that seems a little much for the size of our church
you got a small vision
you got a small weak vision
it's a weenie vision
you need some bifocals
to get you to see in the long term
you need to increase your faith in God
you need to increase your faith in the church
and realize that great works can be
accomplished and will be accomplished
oh great works have been done so far
but the best is still yet to come
yeah you guys have seen some good wine
in times past but you know what
he's saving the best wine for last
he said well how do you know that
you know we're going to do greater works
in the future well I see a
bunch of little kids here
and these little kids are going to be raised to be soul
winners they're going to get saved
they're going to be soul winners and then the effort is going to
double, triple, quadruple
in the coming years
you get more people saved you train more soul winners
there's more labors for the harvest
that's exactly how
it works I mean the last time I came
I was preaching back there by the second
pillar
looking this way and now you guys
expanded even more and it looks
like you're going to keep expanding
so when I first came I was like wow
this is great but this time around
I'm like whoa the best was yet to come
because now he's expanded
even more it means more people are coming to church
people are getting saved a great work is accomplished
I hope you see it
and sometimes it takes someone from the outside to
come in to remind you of the
great work that's being accomplished so that you don't take it for
granted
so you're like well you know yeah you know I guess
you know four thousand
yeah
Pastor Bursey's pretty good you know
I guess you know
sometimes
it takes someone on the outside to come in to remind you
of how good you have it
you know sometimes you need to
put yourself in some old IFB church
not physically but just you know
in your mind
to see how good you have it
you guys got a good
here you guys got some good wine that's being distributed
here and I'm talking about juice
obviously you know you guys got some good wine
that's being put forth here
and you know God's blessing is obviously
being poured out here but
this is nothing
the best is still yet to come
works are being accomplished here but
more works are going to be done
in the latter end go to Revelation chapter 3
the last shall be
more than the first
more souls are going to be
saved more people are going to be disciples more people are
going to be baptized
look at Revelation 3
and verse 14 it says unto the angel
of the church of the lay of the sea is right these
things say the Amen the faithful
and true witness the beginning of the
creation of God I know thy works
that thou art neither cold nor hot
I would that thou art cold or hot
so then because thou art lukewarm
and neither cold nor hot I will
spew thee out of my mouth
because thou sayest I am rich and increased with goods
and have need of nothing
and knowest not that thou are wretched
and miserable and poor
and blind and naked
what is this it's a church
that didn't recognize that the best was still yet to come
they're resting on their
souls they became lukewarm
and they're just like well you know what's the point
of growing even more I like
the little small feeling of having a
small church where everyone's just cozy
with each other we all know each other
we don't want to get too crazy with the
sowing numbers we don't want to get too crazy
with the baptisms Pastor Burgess
you don't need to tear down another wall let's keep it
as is that's a small vision that's a
lay of the sea in vision right there
be a church
that rejects this
type of church
of lay of the sea in
you're near the cold or hot
the bible says regarding the lay of the sea in
hey let's be hot for the lord
these people were lukewarm
they were just kind of serving the lord but
just kind of haphazardly
just kind of getting by
and so
greater works are going to come in the future
soul winning is only going to get better
I think to myself you know when I won
my first soul to the lord
it's exciting
so great it's just like wow
I literally was used to change
someone's eternal destiny
and
you know I haven't seen that person
since but I know I will see him again
and I thought to myself this is so
wonderful this is great this is such a wonderful
feeling but then you know
what I started realizing later on down the future
as I won more souls to the lord
one of the greatest joys
is not just soul winning it's actually
getting the person saved and discipling them
to become a soul winner
now that's good stuff right there
one of the greatest joys of a
christian is not just getting people
saved it's bringing that person
along putting
a king james bible in their hand
getting them into church
raising them in the nurture and the admonition
of the lord teaching them
how to preach the gospel and then they
get their first person saved
and it's just like that's an
awesome feeling right there I have no
greater joy than my children walking
in light in the truth
and so yeah you know winning your first
soul to the lord is great winning people to christ is great
I want to challenge you to disciple someone
to win someone to the lord
because then you begin to quadruple the efforts here
and then here let's just
let me put it this way
because you're like well you know
but there's so many rewards in getting souls saved
and to that I say amen but there's actually
more rewards if you disciple
someone to get saved
you say why is that because then they start doing the work too
and you actually get credited for that
so why not win a bunch of
souls to the lord and then
the souls that you're winning for the lord
you pick a couple of them out to disciple them
and teach them and bring them along the way
in the christian life teach them how to sew in
and then you get a pay cut from
that
you get a little piece of the pie
you get a percentage off of the reward
because you train
them to do so
and then you know what the bigger picture is
in that is just more people get saved
because you want so much that we can do
as individuals so many
souls that we can win ourselves
if we want more souls to be saved
we have to train more people to get
people saved and then we can become
more effective we all have a cap
but the more you actually
train people to get
people saved the more that cap is
raised the more people are going to get saved more works are going to be accomplished
and more rewards are going to be distributed
to every christian
the best is still yet to come
coming to church
maybe you're new here
it's a great church to be a part of
but let me say this the best is yet to come
say like what?
persecution
you're like what?
persecution is fine
don't let the weenie
pastors out there scare you
into thinking that persecution
is just horrible
and all this stuff might happen to you
you know get some stones
realize that persecution
is a great thing because
you get rewarded for it
not only that the bible says to leap for joy
and it makes the christian life exciting
because it
confirms that what we're doing is right
and I'm not just
talking about persecution in your church
just persecution from your family
you know those people who get persecuted just for
going to this church or for
believing certain doctrines right
they don't agree with you they don't like your language
or something they don't like the fact
that you don't like the alphabet people or something
you know
and you get some persecution for that
I mean that's great
don't resist persecution
welcome it
welcome the pizzas
welcome the
criticisms and the threats
and when people say all manner of evil
against your pastor welcome that
okay
coming to church is great getting preaching
in is great but then the best is
yet to come through persecutions
the best is yet to come just through trials and tribulations
and one of the saddest things
for me to see personally as a pastor
you know I passed from my church for a couple
years now and one of the things that
breaks my heart is to see
christians going gun hole
for god and they're just going forward
and then they go through like a trial tribulation
and they just get out of church
it just bumps them out of church
they stop sowing them they stop coming to church
and it's like he did run well
who did hinder you he should not obey the truth
you know because it's our desire
as pastors to see christians
stick it out even when it's
hard
when the going gets tough
that's not your cue
to just get out of church
when the going gets tough that's not your cue
to put it in neutral
when the going gets tough that's not your cue
to throw in the towel and stop attending church
when the going gets tough that's your cue
to just stick it out
toughen up read god's word
pray come to church
do what you're supposed to do
because you know that the best is still yet to come
no trial lasts
forever my friends
coming to church
hey the preaching
you know it's only going to get
better with time
preaching is good now
the wine he's distributing right now is good
but I'm going to say this in the years to come it's only going to get
better why because he's growing
he's constantly reading
the bible he's constantly learning new things
and so the preaching will only get better
let me say this you know when it comes to justice
the best is still
yet to come
so how in the world is justice
going to get better well you know we can see
immediate justice sometimes god
can answer our prayers our imprecatory
prayers immediately
I mean I've seen that in my personal life
I remember a couple years ago
we had a
fundamentalist conference
and we had this fundamentalist
conference and pastor Burson was a part of it
we had a couple pastors come
but we had this one guy
who just made himself an
enemy of our churches
and he kept like
shutting down our venues like he was calling
the hotels and shutting down
our venues and you
know it wasn't like it was a conference against
sodomites either it was literally
just preaching on the fundamentals of the faith
right like we're just want to talk about the bible
christian stuff
and you know just bible
stuff you know and
but this guy was not happy
and so he kept
shutting down our venues and
he would send infiltrators to come to
the hotel where we're at to see
what we were doing and we had to like chase him out
and everything and so
we ended up having the conference like in two different states
Ohio and Kentucky
and
this guy just really made it hard
for us to just focus on the
soul winning on the preaching
and I'll be honest with you it was just really annoying
and I thought to myself like
how wicked do you have to be to
want to stop a group of people from just winning
souls to Christ
like you have to be extremely
wicked for that
and I was really angry
I was really upset and I was really bothered
and I remember having this church member
you know he came to me after
like the conference was finished we're still over there
and we had one more soul winning meeting
and he came to me he was my church member
and he came up to me and he said hey this is the address
of the guy just I don't know if you want to go soul winning
in his area or something you know
just putting it out there
you know what I mean I'm like how'd you find it
he's like
we can just show up in that
area go preach the gospel there you know
just accidentally knock on his door
you know if you want
and in my flesh I'm like let's do it
you know but I said no leave him
alone you know just the Lord's
going to recompense him right
so he had his laugh
and he was constantly mocking
online for shutting us down
and just gloating and boasting
about the whole thing and
he's like we got him shut down
three times and they're
scrambling to find us in that
and I remember just being in my hotel room
like thinking where's the justice
like we're just trying to serve God here
win souls to Christ and
you know like
Lord this person's so wicked
but you know the
immediate justice for me was the fact that we still got the work
done souls
were still saved
it hindered no preaching
whatsoever
people still came they heard the
preaching we got souls saved I mean we had a
blast for the conference
but I was still mad
so I went home
and I went to my church and I just vented
to my church and I said we're going to have a prayer
meeting against this guy
we're going to have some imprecatory prayers
ok I said we're going to pray
hard against this
person ok
because I'm still mad about this whole thing
this guy is such a wicked person
and you know that was like my
way of just kind of getting it off my chest
you know like just praying imprecatory prayers
well two months later the guy
dies like a horrible death
and I'm not
talking about just like you know
I don't know like
it's not like he doesn't just fall over and die
he's brutally murdered
under very
questionable circumstances
I
have nothing to do with it by the way ok
so don't look at me people look at me like
I
was not there let me just say that let me just say
to the internet I had nothing to do
with it my hands are clear
that was close
I was not
present but this guy was literally
brutally murdered under
very questionable circumstances he was bludgeoned
now obviously I don't wish that upon any
human being
I wasn't specific like that but you know
God I believe judged that man
he judged that individual because
that wasn't the first time that he attacked churches
and attacked pastors he would constantly
make videos about
pastors about the churches
lying about them railing about
them giving all these false accusations
about them I mean he made
our lives a living will
he said did you like
execute vengeance no I just
we just prayed imprecatory prayers
so Lord
justice Lord please
please Lord this man
he was trying to stop us from winning souls to Christ
let that
recompense come upon his own head
and you know what it did
literally come upon his own head
now
that's like immediate justice but let me say this
the best is still yet to come
because there's plenty of wicked people out there
who have not received the justice that
they deserve for their wicked acts
for their ungodliness
for their abominable things that they do
for all the
the persecution
and hatred that they spew you know
they haven't received the due justice
as of yet but you know what the best is still
yet to come though
and the God of all the earth the judge
of all the earth will do
right
it's not like he's just going to let him get away with it
and nothing's ever going to happen to him folks
the best one is for last
it's called the line of God's wrath
that will be poured upon
an ungodly world
that hates the Lord Jesus Christ
and hates his servants you know what
we don't need to do anything about it
we don't need to pick up arms
and go find them
and do whatever
all we have to do is place that in God's hands
and recognize Lord you've given me some
good wine right now I'm thankful
for the immediate justice that we've seen
but I know that you're saving the best wine
for last I mean
read Revelation chapter 19 amen
amen
the wine press of his wrath the Bible
calls it and so you know
the best is still yet to come when it comes to
sowing coming to this church
the justice that God's going to execute
one day
he will do so Psalm 58
verse 10 says the righteous shall rejoice
when he seeth the vengeance
he shall wash his feet in the
blood of the wicked go with me to
1 Corinthians chapter 2
hey in your marriage the best is yet to come
amen
that's not to say that marriages don't have ups and downs
difficulties
trials and tribulations
fights
you know arguments or discussing
things loudly however you want to call it
but the
best is yet to come I didn't say I don't mean like the
best fights are yet to come I mean like
the quality of the marriage improves
okay but let me say this
you know it only improves if you're trying to improve it
though it doesn't happen by
osmosis
okay don't think to yourself well if we
just keep doing what we're doing
it's just we're going to get a different outcome
insanity is doing the same thing the same
way and expecting different results
so if you want the best to come you need to work
your marriage amen
and so you know you said
what is the best thing that's to come in marriage well how about
babies amen babies are a
joy to have children are a joy to have
seeing them grow and get saved
seeing them grow and serve the Lord
I mean that's a major blessing
I mean my son just got saved
about a year and a half ago or so
he got baptized this year
and just seeing him grow in the Lord and just
adhere to preaching and ask
questions and be sincere
and want to serve the Lord I mean that's a
that's a joy to me I mean it was a joy to me to have
my son when we first when he was
first born I was really excited about that
but I'm even more excited now that he got saved
that he's serving God I mean those
that's it's a
it's a huge blessing to me let me close with
this verse because at the end of the day this is what we're talking
about here that your
best days are ahead of you
and you might be going
through a trial or difficult time and you
may not be able to see clearly
in this dark moment that you're in
but take it from me take
it from the word of God that
the best days are ahead of you
and today we're celebrating five years
of great works that God has accomplished
but it's supposed to be a reminder
of what God can do in five years
you understand what I'm saying?
so even though you're celebrating
all the great things that have been done
it's supposed to be an indicator
of what can be done
in five years
and in light of that
invest in this church
invest
in this church with number one your
presence
when you come to this church you're investing
in this church
one of the best ways to
encourage your pastor
is by being in church
you know what's an encouragement
to your pastor is when he comes on a Sunday morning
and the house of God is packed
that's a major encouragement and you know what
it doesn't really require for you to do a whole lot
get your butt out of bed get dressed
fix your hair a little bit
you know just brush your teeth
get a Bible
come to church let him
scream at you for about an hour or so
go in the soul of Christ
I mean it doesn't require much
invest in this church
with your presence invest in this
church with your service
and invest in this
church by raising your family here too
because
you raising your family at this church is saying
this is the kind of church I want my
kids to grow up in
this is the kind of church where I want
my kids to hear the preaching of God's
word in to grow in
I want my kids to have
this man as their pastor I mean that's a great
honor
look at 1 Corinthians 2 verse 9
in
light of the best yet to come
it says but as it is written
I have not seen
nor ear heard
neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God had prepared for them
that love him
the Bible says
the best is yet to come
but obviously the stipulation there is what
you got to love him
love the Lord your God with all your
heart soul mind
and strength it says in verse 10
but God hath revealed them unto us
by his spirit for the spirit
search with all things yea the deep
things of God I hope
today you're thankful for the wine that's been put out
so far I hope you're
thankful for all the wine that's been distributed
over the last couple of years
but hold on a second I mean the best
wine he's saving it for last
and it's only going to get better from here
so I hope that encourages you to be faithful to
this church to come to this church
especially if you live nearby
and when I say nearby
I don't mean like 15 minutes away
I mean like 45 minutes
to an hour away
that's still close amen
I mean we have people at our church that will drive
an hour two hours some even
three to come to church and
I don't think it's because of my preaching I think it's because
they realize it's a great church to go to
you know what this is an
awesome church to attend
if I was in the pasture and I lived here
in the south in Georgia
this is where I would be
it's the best church there is and I'm not
saying well it's the best church in my area no
this is like the best church
in Georgia
above all other fundamental
Baptist churches I'm not saying you know
they're wicked or whatever because I don't know them all
I don't want to paint them with the broad brush but I'm saying
this is the best church though
okay and so
enjoy the wine
but there's still more to come amen let's pray
Father we thank you so much for your word
we're so thankful for the promises
of God and we're so thankful that the quality
of the Christian life only gets better with time
and I pray that you'd help us as your people
to recognize that Lord
and may it motivate us
to be faithful to be consistent
to keep winning souls to Christ
and to get rooted and grounded
in this church Lord
and I pray that you bless us Lord
as we fellowship and
bless this church Lord bless Pastor
Berzins and his family protect them
keep them safe use them in a mighty way fill them with your
spirit and we love you we thank you
pray these things in Jesus name amen
Amen
Alright church you can open up your hymnals
Soul number 327
Amen
Thank you Pastor Regan for that
the best is yet to come
Song 327
Let's sing about moving higher ground
Song 327
Alright church let's sing this out
I'm pressing on the upward
way
I'm gaining every day
Still praying as
I'm onward bound
Lord grant my feet on higher ground
Lord lift me up
and let me stand
My faith on heaven
is stable and
A higher place
than I have found
Lord grant my feet on higher ground
My heart has no
desire to stay
Where God survives
and fears to stay
Lord show me well
where these are found
Lord grant my feet on higher ground
Lord lift me up
and let me stand
My faith on heaven
is stable and
A higher place
than I have found
Lord grant my feet on higher ground
I want to live
above the world
Lord save me
Lord make us all
the joyful sound
The song of saints on higher ground
Lord lift me up
and let me stand
My faith on heaven
is stable and
A higher place
than I have found
Lord grant my feet on higher ground
On the last
I want to sail the
utmost flight
And catch the gleam
of the waves they'll have my ground
Lord lift me up
to higher ground
Lord lift me up
and let me stand
My faith on heaven
is stable and
A higher place
than I have found
Lord grant my feet on higher ground
Amen
Alright great singing
there's a couple last things before we're dismissed
First of all if you're here today
and you have not been
baptized
I'm not talking about sprinkling
you haven't been dunked under the water
brought back up after you've been saved
and you want to get baptized
today, slip your hand up real quick
we got you set up real easy
if you want to get baptized today
is there anyone here?
Alright
if you don't want to publicly
Amen
Amen, alright
we'll have the
baptism set up in the back
it'll take us about 15 minutes to get the
water filled up
so stick around we got plenty of food and stuff anyways
so we'll get the baptism
set up also
as I mentioned earlier I wanted to take
a group photo so please
I encourage you to join us for that
you don't have to obviously but we'd love to have you do that
so immediately after being dismissed
if everyone can just kind of file out
before we start hanging out we'll get the photo
out of the way and then
when you come back in
you can come back in the main entrance where my wife
is saying where all the food is set up
so we're going to line up kind of outside the building
you'll come in, get your plate
get all the food that you want
and then come back in around this way
and we can fill up these chairs first
we've got all the drinks
in this room here there's lemonade
and tea and coolers
full of other sodas and all kinds of beverages
so help yourself for that
we've got the good wine
here today, the Coca Cola
from Heineco
your cane sugar
so that's all available
and we're going to be
we have to cycle through our ice cream
by the way we
normally have an ice cream celebration if we break
our attendance record, we didn't break our record
we had a lot of people here this morning
and it's time to cycle through the ice cream
so there's ice creams in the freezer
you can help yourself with one of those
as well
last point
and I know, sorry it's a little bit gross
unless you're right before lunch
but I feel like it needs to be said
parents
of children that are going to be out in the
play area, the water is kind of cold
please let them use the restroom first
before going out
and using the
the water slides
and try to remember to ask them
hey, do you want to go back in
maybe every hour or two
to help keep down
on what we
termed yesterday as the toilet bowl
laughter
obviously
things happen, we get in control
some of the little kids
we do our best to keep behind that
and appreciate that
so I'm going to pray, I'm going to ask for a blessing
for the food now
and then we'll take the photo, come back in
and those of you members of our church
please, after the photo
don't get chairs in this room
because we need all the
chairs out here so get these set up
please, don't ask me
if you want to help us out
bring some of these chairs into this room, stack up a
songbook, you know the drill, if you've done it before
if you're visiting our church, don't worry about it
we've got you taken care of, you don't need to
move chairs around, leave that to
the members that have been here for a long time
we'll take care of that
also, we're going to set up some more chairs
in the auditorium
more tables and chairs in the auditorium
we're going to need to be able to seat everybody
as much as possible
so we're going to bow our heads, we have a word of prayer
for the food, dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much
for this great group of people that joined us this morning
thank you for all the abundance
and blessings that you've bestowed upon our church
upon all of us here
thank you for the spiritual meat that we just received
through your servant, Pastor Mejia
and I pray that you would please bless the food
that we're about to eat this afternoon
bless it to our bodies, keep us nourished
keep us nourished and strengthened, dear Lord
and help us continue to serve you
please keep everyone the same from evil
and Lord, we thank you so much
in Jesus Christ's name we pray
Amen
Alright, we're dismissed, and if possible
please just pray to join us
out this way for the reward
Amen