You can all find your seats.
We're going to get started.
Happy Father's Day.
It's all the father.
We're gonna go ahead and get started on song number 134.
Some very familiar songs this morning.
Song 134, "My Anchor Holds."
Three, four, "My Anchor Holds."
Buddy, go ahead and bow your heads for a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you this day for bringing everybody here.
We thank you for all the fathers in the room.
We thank you for you, Father.
Blessings that you shed on our church
and on our congregation, Lord.
We ask, Lord, that you fill Pastor Shelley
with your Holy Spirit, help him to preach
an edifying sermon unto us.
We can walk out better Christians we came in.
Remembering always that you are the Holy Father, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, next up we have song number 96.
God leads us along.
We're 96.
96, God leads us along.
Get out on the first.
Thank you for being here on Sunday morning.
Didn't get a bulletin and you need one,
lift your hand up nice and high.
Happy Father's Day to all of the fathers
who are here today and anybody listening online.
If you are in person, it's better though,
because we're gonna have Father's Day floats
immediately after the service today.
So now we are gonna serve the fathers first,
but we actually have enough for everybody.
So I know all the kids were wondering,
they're like, hey, I know I love dad,
but I still wanna float.
So we got some floats that we'll have
in our fellowship area after the service
to celebrate Father's Day.
Jude is our chapter that we're memorizing
and we're on verse nine for the week.
Child 18 or under that can quote it
can get a special prize on our Wednesday service.
On the inside, we have our service times.
We have a Spanish service at Sunday mornings at 9 a.m.
We have an evening service at 4.30
and then our Wednesday night services are at seven.
We're doing a Bible study through the book of Matthew.
Churchwide soul winning meets here at the building.
So if you'd like to go soul winning with us,
you can this afternoon at 2 p.m.
Also Wednesdays, there's a churchwide time
before the service at 5.15 we meet up.
Then regional soul winning time.
There's different times pretty much every day of the week
throughout the city.
There's a ladies time on Thursdays at 10.30
that my wife helps organize.
And I think there's actually another ladies group
that meets on another side of the city that's organized.
So if you are interested, you can participate,
lots of different opportunities in DFW.
Down below is our church stats for the year so far,
and we've been doing great and we wanna continue.
And on the right, we have a list of our expecting ladies,
several to be in prayer for, upcoming events.
Like I mentioned today,
we're having those Father Days floats.
There is signup sheets for the next few events.
There's a Shreveport Louisiana Marathon.
It's gonna be June 28th.
There's a signup sheet out here.
There's also another event that's gonna happen
July 3rd through the 5th.
And so that is July 4th weekend.
Brother Sam Foley is gonna be leading that.
And there's a signup sheet if you'd like to go.
It's about five and a half hours from here specifically.
And he's gonna be targeting Marshallese people
that live over there.
And they kind of congregate for certain events.
I think there's supposed to be some events at some parks.
So they're gonna be doing that.
Also Lancaster, Texas is gonna be July 19th.
And so if you'd like to participate
in that Sony marathon,
that's actually gonna be just in our neck of the woods.
It's only about 20 minutes from here or so, 20, 25 minutes.
So it's gonna be pretty close,
but it looks like it'll be pretty receptive.
Men's Conference is gonna be August 14th through the 16th.
And then the FBBF Conference is gonna be,
and again, I need to update this in the bulletin, I guess.
It's August 27th through the 31st,
which is actually gonna be that Wednesday.
So we're gonna start off,
we're gonna have a preacher every single night
of the conference.
So we're gonna have one Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday, Saturday, and then of course both services on Sunday.
And so we've got Pastor Corbin Russell's gonna be coming
and preaching for us, Pastor Aaron Thompson,
Pastor Dylan Oz, Pastor Steven Anderson,
Pastor Enrique Reyes, and so we've got a big lineup
of lots of preachers, lots of events,
and so we're really excited about this year's conference.
One other thing I wanted to mention, it's not listed here,
but July 13th is a Sunday, and we're gonna be having
our semi-annual finance meeting July 13th,
and I'm hoping people can attend that,
and we'll just kind of be talking about the future
for our church.
Down below is the note about the teen summer event.
We had one yesterday, last evening,
and it was honestly a lot of fun.
I think the kids really enjoyed it.
They learned what's in the Bible
and what's not in the Bible,
and so that was a lot of fun,
and we're looking forward July 26th.
We're gonna have another teen event, the bowling night,
and I think the kids are gonna really enjoy that.
On the back, we have a list of our prayer list,
so if you can be in prayer for our church family.
That's pretty much all I have about announcements.
We're gonna go ahead and sing our special song of the week,
and it's gonna be "Where the Spirit Blows."
It's in our-- I'm not-- I'm sorry, "Holy, Holy, Holy."
It's in our Psalm binders, "Holy, Holy, Holy."
- All right, that's "Holy, Holy, Holy."
The offering plates are going around.
Would you please turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter number 16?
Matthew chapter number 16.
- Matthew 16, the Bible reads,
"The Pharisees also, with the Sadducees came,
"and tempting, desired him,
"that he would show them a sign from heaven.
"He answered and said unto them,
"'When it is evening, ye say,
"'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.
"'And in the morning, it will be foul weather today,
"'for the sky is red and lowering.
"'O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky,
"'but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
"'A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign,
"'and there shall no sign be given unto it,
"'but the sign of the prophet Jonas,
"'and he left them and departed.
"'And when his disciples were come to the other side,
"'they had forgotten to take bread.
"'Then Jesus said unto them,
"'Take heed, and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees
"'and of the Sadducees.
"'And they reasoned among themselves, saying,
"'It is because we have taken no bread.'
"'Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them,
"'O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves,
"'because ye have brought no bread?
"'Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves
"'of the five thousand and how many baskets ye took up?
"'Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand
"'and how many baskets ye took up?
"'How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not
"'to you concerning bread, that ye should beware
"'of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?'
"Then understood they how that he bade them
"not beware of the leaven of bread,
"but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi,
"he asked his disciples, saying,
"'Whom do men say that I the Son of Man am?'
"And they said, 'Some say that thou art John the Baptist,
"'some Elias, and others Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.'
"He saith unto them, 'But whom say ye that I am?'
"And Simon Peter answered and said,
"'Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.'
"And Jesus answered and said unto him,
"'Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
"'for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
"'but my Father, which is in heaven.
"'And I say unto thee, that thou art Peter,
"'and upon this rock I will build my church,
"'and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
"'And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
"'and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth
"'shall be bound in heaven;
"'and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth
"'shall be loosed in heaven.'
"Then charged he his disciples,
"that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ.
"From that time forth began Jesus
"to show unto his disciples,
"how that he must go unto Jerusalem
"and suffer many things of the elders,
"and chief priests, and scribes,
"and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
"Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying,
"Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee.
"But he turned and said unto Peter,
"Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me,
"for thou savors not the things that be of God,
"but those that be of men.
"Then said Jesus unto his disciples,
"If any man will come after me,
"let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it,
"and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
"For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world
"and lose his own soul?
"Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
"For the son of man shall come in the glory of his father
"with his angels and then he shall reward every man
"according to his works.
"Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here
"which shall not taste of death
"till they see the son of man coming in his kingdom."
Let's pray.
- Father in heaven, I pray Lord God
that you would bless the sermon this morning
and fill Pastor Shelley with your spirit
as he preaches to us.
And I pray Lord that you would give us ears
to hear the message and enable us to apply it to our lives
to the best of our ability.
We love you and in Jesus name I pray, amen.
- Amen.
I wanna look back at verse 18,
a really famous verse in the Bible.
It says, "And I say also unto thee,
"that thou art Peter and upon this rock
"I will build my church and the gates of hell
"shall not prevail against it."
And there's three things that I kind of notice
about this particular verse that I think
is really important to talk about this morning is,
number one, that God the Father wants there
to be a church on the earth.
And it's bringing up the importance of church.
And of course, you know, as we celebrate Father's Day,
the most important father is God the Father.
And God the Father wants us to have a church.
Why would he want us to have a church?
He wants us to have a church
because that's the one institution dedicated
to actually worshiping and serving God the Father.
So of course it makes sense
that that would be the most important institution
that we have is the one that's actually worshiping
and honoring God the Father.
And those of us that are saved are to come together
and gather together into the church
to worship and serve God.
And it doesn't matter if you're man, woman,
boy, girl, infant, suckling, married, not married.
It doesn't matter what nationality you are.
It doesn't matter any of those things.
We're all called to come to the house of God
and to worship God as the children of God.
And of course, that is the most important institution
we have is the church and all are to participate.
Another thing that we can see in this passage though,
and I'm just kind of giving you my points quickly
is that God uses men to run the church.
He says, "Thou art Peter and upon this rock
I will build my church."
And of course, Peter is identified
as one of the first early leaders of the church,
of the New Testament church.
And specifically without men, we don't have a church.
Men are to run the church.
And I'm not just saying only men, it's mankind.
Obviously men are the leaders of the church,
but it takes the whole congregation
for us to come together for a church to exist,
because the church is not a building.
It is not a corporation on paper.
It is not an idea.
It is a literal gathering of God's people.
The word church means to congregate or congregation.
It's a synonym.
In the Bible, it'll talk about the congregation
in the Old Testament.
It's referenced as the church in the New Testament
in the same verse,
because the church is the congregating of the saints.
A church is a collection of the saints
a gathering of the saints.
And so the Bible reference church in many different ways
the gathering, or a congregation, us congregating.
And even some churches call themselves a congregation
specifically because it's the same thing.
And it takes men for there to be that church.
So without us making the church, the church won't exist.
It takes men.
God wants a church number one.
Number two, it takes men to enable for us to have that church.
And the third thing that I kind of noticed
in this particular verse is the fact
that he doesn't want hell to prevail against the church.
We kind of notice here that the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it.
And really what I kind of see in this is the idea of darkness.
When we talk about hell, hell is a real location.
There is a real literal hell.
It's in the center of the earth.
It's where the damned go to be tormented day and night forever
and ever.
And we as the saved believers will never go to hell.
We can never touch hell.
I'll never taste of death.
The Bible says that once you've been saved,
you can't see death.
We won't taste death.
We won't experience death.
I'll never go to hell.
Jesus Christ already died on the cross for all my sins,
descended into hell, and rose again for me.
And so I can never go to hell.
So in what way would this have meaning
when it talks about the gates of hell
not prevailing over the church would really just mean
the forces of darkness that exist in this world,
them overcoming the church and causing the church
to not exist or to not succeed in its mission as the church.
But the Bible is saying that God
is never gonna allow that to happen.
And isn't it interesting that after 2000 years
of Jesus Christ, the church is still here
and we're still thriving and we're still succeeding
and we're still praising God.
And you know what?
The church will still exist until Jesus Christ comes
and raptures us up into the clouds.
And then we will still exist
and we'll have church in heaven.
And then we'll bring church back down on earth
but there will always be church.
But you know what?
It takes us having the right attitude
and the right mindset saying, you know what?
God the Father wants there to be church
and it takes men to build that church.
And you know what?
We should never let darkness win.
We should overcome darkness.
That's the third point.
But it's really the title of my sermon this morning is this.
We need to overcome the darkness.
We must overcome the darkness.
And church is that institution built to overcome that darkness.
The Bible tells us that the church is that one light.
Now once you go to John chapter 4, if you would, go to John chapter number 4.
The one institution on the earth designated for the true worship of God the Father is
the church.
And we understand that in the Old Testament that if you were saved, if you wanted to worship
God, you would have to go to the nation of Israel.
More specifically, often you'd have to go to Jerusalem.
And the true worship of God was coming to Jerusalem, performing certain sacrifices or
being a part of the tabernacle or the temple.
And of course, you know, that's just one particular point in time because obviously the tabernacle
moves.
The Bible talks about the children of Israel going to Mount Sinai and then of course being
given that tabernacle and it going around the wilderness for a long period of time.
And then of course the tabernacle kind of moves, changes locations.
So throughout history there's been different places, different times where you would meet.
Often it was a singular place where people would come and they would have the true worship
of God.
But it changed.
It changed in the New Testament.
The veil was rent in the temple and the temple was destroyed.
And the Bible tells us in John chapter 4, this is a prophecy of the New Testament.
Look at verse 21, "Jesus saith in her woman, 'Believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall
neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father.'"
He's saying, hey, at some point in the future, the true worship is not going to be here anymore.
Right now, of course, it is.
Right now, at that time when Jesus Christ is there, I mean, Jesus Christ himself is
going to go into the temple, Jesus Christ himself is going to preach in that temple,
but it's going to be destroyed.
It says in verse 22, "Ye worship, ye know not what.
We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in
spirit and in truth, and the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth."
So the Bible is telling us that God the Father wants people to worship Him.
In the Old Testament, we would have gone to the temple, we would have performed sacrifices
in accordance with the Passover and other feasts if we wanted to worship God.
But in the New Testament, that has been done away with.
Yet God still seeks such to worship Him.
How must we worship Him?
In spirit and in truth, and it's built in the New Testament church.
It is the New Testament church where we worship Him, and of course salvation is of the Jews.
Those that were the spiritual Jews of the Old Testament were part of the nation of
Israel and congregated there and worshiped and served God there.
Now the spiritual Jews of today, they no longer meet in Israel.
They no longer meet in that part of the country.
They're no longer bombing Iran.
They're simply meeting in a church this morning and they have a King James Bible in their
hand.
And according to Romans chapter number two, it's not Jews that are circumcised physically.
It's Jews that are circumcised in their heart and by the spirit, which means they're a
spiritual Jew.
And look, I am a Jew today, and you know what?
Salvation is of the Jews in the sense that we are the ones that carry the gospel message
that get people saved today.
And this is where the true worship of God is, in spirit and in truth.
The spirit is inside of us because we've been saved.
We have that Holy Spirit inside of us, and the truth is this King James Bible I hold
in my hand, and let me tell you something, we're worshiping God in spirit and in truth
this morning.
Whereas people in a synagogue or people in the Middle East today, they're not worshiping
Jesus Christ in spirit because they're not saved, they don't have the Holy Spirit, they
have another spirit, and they don't have the truth because you know what?
They believe in the Babylonian Talmud, which is lies and garbage and trash.
And so we have the true worship of God the Father, and it's in the church.
Now go over to Matthew chapter 5, Matthew chapter 5.
Why is this important?
Because we need to overcome the darkness, and the whole world lies in darkness, and
the only institution of light today is the New Testament church.
It's the New Testament church with the King James Bible in hand.
That is the light of the world, and in fact we are that light as well.
Because what is a church again?
It's the people.
The only way for a church to be lit up is for us individually to be lights, and we are
lights according to the Bible, and when we come together all one united it's even brighter
light.
In fact, most lights are a combination of many different bulbs or many different lights
all come, you know, combined together into one big light, and so that's the same way
the church is, is that we're all these little lights all gathered together into one big
spotlight on the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Bible tells us in Matthew 5 verse 14, "Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid, neither do men light a candle and put it
under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your
Father which is in heaven."
What is one of the greatest ways to glorify God the Father is by letting your light shine.
And of course that light is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I want to take a journey through the New Testament for a second to help you understand
this point.
We have to realize that the rest of this world, the rest of the institutions of this world
are darkness.
They do not provide the gospel message.
They do not provide salvation.
They do not explain to you how to go to heaven.
The public school today will not tell you how to go to heaven.
The federal government will not tell you how to go to heaven.
Macy's will not tell you how to go to heaven.
The bar will not tell you how to go to heaven.
The Dallas Cowboys will not tell you how to go to heaven.
Boy Scouts will not tell you how to go to heaven.
Salvation Army will not tell you how to go to heaven because they have a false gospel.
Let me tell you something, the New Testament church is the one institution that has the
light of the world and we are that light and if we hide that light, you know what?
The whole world's gonna die and go to hell.
We are that one light, we are that one institution that is to proclaim the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ and that's why we have the church, is to overcome the darkness of false gospels
today.
To overcome the darkness of sin, taking people to hell today by sharing them the free gospel,
free salvation that comes only through Jesus Christ.
And let me explain something to you.
The church is what God cares about because the New Testament is written to churches.
It's not written to other people, it's written to churches.
It's not written to Boy Scouts.
It's not written to department stores.
It's not written to sports teams.
It's not written to just random lone wolf rangers.
It's not written to YouTube ministries.
It's written to New Testament churches.
Now go to Romans chapter 16 for a moment.
Go to Romans chapter number 16 and you'll understand that the New Testament is comprised
of four gospels.
Then you have the Acts of the Apostles.
Then it's just a series of letters written to churches.
This is how we got the New Testament.
And look, the New Testament is focusing in on and geared towards the churches.
Of course, the Acts of the Apostles, we see them forming and setting up churches throughout
all of the world and the gospel being spread throughout all the world through the efforts
and energies of churches.
And of course, we have epistles written to them.
Romans chapter number 16, I want to just show you this common pattern of the Bible bringing
up churches.
Look at verse number one, "I commend unto you Phoebe our sister, which is a servant
of the church, which is at Tenterea."
So we notice that Phoebe is commended.
Why is she commended?
Because she's of the church.
This woman is a great woman because she's of church.
Did you notice that?
Look at verse four.
"Who have for my life laid down their own necks talking about Priscilla and Achilla,
unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles."
Verse five.
"Likewise greet the church that is in their house, salute my well-beloved Epinetus, who
is the first roots of Achaia unto Christ."
So again, Priscilla and Achilla are well known as great helpers of the gospel and proceeding
with the gospel, but notice they have a church that they're associated with.
They have a church that they're in participation with.
It's a church that meets in their house.
They're willing to supply essentially the meeting place.
I don't think this means that they're the leaders of the church necessarily.
That just means that they're supplying the location.
They're supplying the place for them to meet physically at a location in their house.
They're the host.
Look at verse 16, "Salute one another with a holy kiss.
The churches of Christ salute you."
Notice again, who are we talking to the Romans?
Who's talking to them?
Not just Paul, all the churches.
All the churches of Christ are saluting the other churches.
The churches that are at Rome, the saints that are at Rome, those that exist here.
And I'll show you later in the epistles that there's a church at Babylon, which Peter references,
and I think alludes probably to the churches at Rome.
Now it says in verse 23, "Gaius, my own host, and of the whole church, saluteth you."
"Arrested the chamberlain of the city, saluteth you in court as a brother."
So again, chapter 16's a list of all these names, but did you notice how all these names
are tied to churches?
And now it's all about churches.
Now you're just on the right side of the page, 1 Corinthians 1, look at verse 2, "Under
the church of God, which is at Corinth."
Notice who the epistle is written to.
It's written to a church, and it's the church of God, and it exists in Corinth.
Look at chapter 4 verse 17, "For this cause have I sent unto you Timotheus, who is my
beloved son and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways
which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere and every church."
Where did the apostle Paul go to teach?
He didn't go to the department store.
He didn't go to some random organization.
He didn't go to just some random dude's house.
He went to the church.
That's where he was teaching.
That's where you're meeting.
Hey, if you wanted to hear Paul preach, if you wanted to hang out with Paul, you know
where he needed to go?
To church.
That's where Paul is at.
Paul is in the church because God wants there to be a church in this world.
He wants to be a church on this planet.
Look at chapter 16 verse 19.
This institution is so important.
I get so mad when I talk to people and they're jaded and they say, "Oh, I don't like church."
Well, what epistle of the Bible do you like?
What do you mean you don't like church?
Or, "I gave up on church," or, "I don't think we need church," or, "We're having church
right now."
Lies.
No, church is the gathering of the saints.
You and your family is not a church, it's a family, okay?
And you and a buddy is friends, okay?
That's not a church.
Us meeting together, this is the church.
This is the institution that God has assembled and has called out.
Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 16, look at verse 19.
The churches of Asia salute you, Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with
the church that is in their house.
Again notice that it's churches praising churches and churches talking about churches and churches
helping churches.
Go if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 1.
Now again, I believe in the local autonomy of a church, I believe that we should be independent
in the sense that every church is self-governing, but we should not be so independent that we
don't care about other churches, that we don't write to other churches, that we don't know
what's going on with other churches, that we don't fellowship with other churches.
The New Testament is filled with churches, fellowshiping with other churches, praising
other churches, helping other churches, giving money to other churches, giving minister to
other churches, praying for other churches, knowing the drama of other churches.
I mean, it's all about churches, knowing churches.
It sounds like they have their own little fellowship.
And in fact, even the churches that are kind of screwed up and bad, they still fellowship
with them in a sense, because, you know, a true church should, you know, like another
true church, regardless of how screwed up they are.
Obviously, sometimes you have to separate because it gets too bad.
But at the end of the day, we should generally have an attitude of wanting to be friendly
towards other churches and having friends and having a fellowship and not isolating
ourselves and not trying to get away from everybody else.
You know, in the multitude of counselors there is safety, says in 2 Corinthians chapter
1 verse 1, Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God and Timothy our brother
under the church of God, which is at Corinth with all the saints, which are in all Achaia.
So again, we notice that the 2 Corinthians epistle is also written to what?
The church which is at Corinth.
Look at chapter 8 verse number 1, chapter 8 verse number 1.
Now we're not looking at every mention of church in the New Testament, we're looking
at a lot of them because I want to remind you of the importance of the word church in
your Bible.
God said that, "Hey, I'm going to build my church."
He wasn't joking.
It's real.
Church is real.
It's the most important institution.
The Bible is writing epistles to churches and so when we read these, we have to have
the mindset of church because it's about church.
It's talking about church.
It's talking about issues with churches.
These are what real New Testament churches are like.
In Corinthians chapter number 8, look at verse 1, "More of a brethren, we do you to wit
of the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia."
And again, notice that a couple times it mentions church is of a particular region because of
course, geographically speaking, it can be a large place and it needs lots of churches.
So there's nothing wrong with having multiple churches in a relatively smaller area.
Go to Galatians chapter number 1, go to Galatians chapter number 1.
What is a church?
It's a congregation of believers and there's multiple churches.
Sometimes the Bible does use the word church to just loosely reference everybody that's
saved, but you know we can't meet with everybody today, it's just not practical.
So in today we have churches, there's many churches throughout the entire world and one
day we'll all be gathered together in heaven, so you could argue that there's a church service
up in heaven where we're all gathered together, but then again when we come back down on the
earth I believe we're going to be scattered again throughout the world and we'll have
probably local congregations and assemblies again.
So there's nothing wrong with having churches and we have churches today.
Galatians chapter number one, look at verse two, "And all the brethren which are with
me under the churches of Galatia," so again Galatia has multiple churches, again this
is epistles written to the Galatians, not just a church but all the churches of Galatia
because they're all kind of screwed up in this one area.
Look at verse 13, "If you have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews religion,
how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God and wasted it."
Again notice here the word church is in reference to just saved people, so you could use the
word church to just reference the saved because the apostle Paul is saying, "Hey I was just
persecuting the church of God," but it wasn't like a specific only this church, it was just
any saved people.
You could argue that it was primarily the church of Jerusalem, but even then he got
letters to persecute people afar off from Jerusalem, as far as Assyria.
He got letters to go into Damascus and to go and to persecute people in all kinds of
different regions and areas.
It wasn't targeting one church, he was targeting just the church of God, meaning all the saints,
all the believers, but we understand that God wants us to still have local assemblies
and those local assemblies is what we're primarily talking about.
Don't let this passage totally undermine all the other passages bring up churches.
Go to Ephesians chapter number five, because this is what some people say, "Oh, I'm the
church."
Not really.
You walking around, you're not like just a self-governing church walking around by yourself.
The church is still the gathering of God's people.
And when he said church here, he wasn't even just saying one individual, he's saying all
of us collectively, we're just not assembled.
But again, being assembled is what the special institution is that God has as the church.
In 1 Corinthians the Bible tells us in chapter number 11 that it's the gathering of us together.
That's basically what the church is, is us gathering together as that local assembly.
Ephesians chapter 5, look at verse 24, "Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let
their wives be to their own husbands in everything."
Again, the church, we are to be subject unto Christ.
He is the chief shepherd of the flock, and so that's why we say the King James Bible
or the Word of God of the Bible is our final authority.
And if you don't have this as a final authority, well, then you don't have Jesus Christ as
the head of the church.
I would even argue when you don't have a particular version of the Bible that you say this is
the words of God, you often have a guru in charge of the church.
Because the guru gets to decide, well, it's the NIV over here, and it's the ESV over here,
and it's the message over here, and then pretty soon it's just the guru's really in charge
as opposed to just saying, "Hey, here's our document."
Imagine if you had 50 versions of the Constitution that the Supreme Court got to pick and choose
which one they wanted to interpret from, well, then you wouldn't say the Constitution is
the supreme law of the land, you'd say that the governing body or the Supreme Court is
the guru or the supreme leader, and they get to pick and choose which Constitution they're
going to use.
But when you say, "Hey, this is our Constitution, this is our written document, this is what
goes, this is Christ, and Christ is the head of the church," then we know who's really
in charge.
And this institution is important because we are to subject ourselves, we are to submit
ourselves unto this and unto the Word of God.
We don't get to decide to do whatever we want.
We have to do whatever this says.
And that's why church is important.
Go to Philippians chapter four, Philippians chapter four, I mean, we're going through
every epistle.
Don't we notice that the Bible keeps bringing up church, the importance of church, what
church looks like, how church is governed by the Lord Jesus Christ.
And you know what, he's building his church through the word of God.
Philippians four, verse one, therefore my dear, I'm sorry, my brethren, dearly beloved
and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.
It says, I beseech thee, Eudeus, and beseech Sinctati, and they that be of the same mind
in the Lord.
Now I want to skip down, he says, my dearly beloved, skip down to verse 15, "Now ye Philippians
know also that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church
communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only."
So I want you to notice that in verse 1, it was a beloved, it's a group, he's addressing
a group, and then specifically in verse 15, he's saying, hey, there was no church communicating
with me, but ye only.
The word ye is plural, you know, in a lot of modern versions, they just use the word
you, but you could refer to singular or plural, you don't really know, whereas the King James
is a little bit more precise in that it uses ye and thee, thee being singular, ye being
plural, and of course that ye is the beloved, and he's saying, hey, there's a church that
didn't do this, but you did, meaning what, they're a church.
So that's the whole context of Philippians chapter 4 again is he's talking to the church,
he's talking to the churches in Philippi, and again, they are a church, he's saying,
hey, there's not churches helping me, but you are, because you're what, a church.
And again, it just makes sense practically speaking.
Go to Colossians chapter 4, go to Colossians chapter 4, it's a lot harder to accomplish
things by yourself, you know, two are better than one, as the Bible says.
And of course when a church comes together, it's going to be easier for us to pool resources
together and for those resources then to be used to the furtherance of the gospel, like
the Philippians pulling money together to help evangelists, to help people go out.
You know, we have an evangelist in the Philippines right now, Evangelist Urbanic, and he's getting
thousands of people saved.
He's almost doing as much as we are as an entire church, almost single-handedly.
Now, it's not single-handedly because there are other people helping him, but at least
he's single-handedly getting that work started and then gathering other people and now he's
kind of forming a church over there.
But if we individually were just all doing our own thing, we wouldn't be able to have
the money or the finances to just send somebody over there and pay his whole way.
But by us all pulling together all of our resources and taking those resources and then
giving them all to Evangelist Rabbinic, then we can employ him and he can go out there
and do this great work.
And so some people don't realize that, hey, when we come together and work together, we
can accomplish great works like that, whereas if we're just all lone rangers, well, that's
not going to be accomplished.
That kind of work isn't going to happen.
That's why church is just so important and what we're doing is so important.
Also, we're not getting all of our money and pooling it all together and then handing
out $25 a month to 150 missionaries.
I just find that it's just kind of ineffective.
It's not as efficient.
And you know, Evangelist Rabbinic, he never went on this two-year hibernation that they
call deputation where he went around with this little PowerPoint presentation to go
to all these churches and say, "Hey, will you give me $25 a month?"
And he has to go do that to like hundreds of different churches for several years before
he can accomplish anything.
And then go out to this country that doesn't speak English and learn the language for seven
years and accomplish nothing, all the while constantly coming back here and then begging
more churches for money and then eventually quitting because it's just lame and boring
and he didn't really have the gumption.
And then it's like, why do we spend nine years of money accomplishing almost nothing?
And this is the missions of many independent Baptists today.
Hey, you know what?
I just don't like that program very much.
Now am I saying every missionary is bad?
Am I saying everyone's never accomplished anything?
No.
But I see a lot of inefficiencies.
I see a lot of kind of a joke newsletters.
If you read our newsletter, it's not a joke.
It's real.
I'm like, hey, Rafael, I talked to him and he might get saved next week.
And I just want to, oh, my wife, she cleaned the house again this week.
And we swept and, you know, Johnny's birthday is coming up in a month and a half.
We're counting down the timer, 45 days from his birthday.
He's turning three.
He's learning how to tie his shoes now.
Pray for us that, you know, we got a window busted by a storm the other day.
Pray for us that we get the funds to replace this window.
I'm not exaggerating. This is exactly what newsletters are like.
And you know what? You read our newsletters, like, hundreds saved, went to this school and got them saved, we preached this sermon, we got this person baptized, this person's a soul winner.
Other newsletter, windows sweeping, my wife cried the other day. I mean, this is like, what, what is this?
And of course, there's just not a lot of accountability there. Okay.
And so, you know what? Yeah, I like our missions program. I think it's superior.
I think it's a better product. I think it's yielding better results. And we're not wasting all this hibernation time called deputation.
And of course, being in the DFW area, I kid you not, it's probably at least once a week I get a newsletter or email or someone begging me to come present at our church.
So if we wanted to, we could give twenty five dollars a month to probably hundreds, hundreds of missionaries if we really wanted to.
But then it's like, how do you even monitor that? How do you even track that? We don't even know what's going on.
And in the end of the day, they're not really responsible to a church, they're responsible to all these random churches.
And it's just kind of weird. It's just kind of awkward. I like our method. I like our style.
And you know what? Our church is going to take full responsibility for the work that's going on with the Vangus Urbanic.
And we're not just all these random individuals. You know, a lot of other missionaries, they get a lot of money just from private individuals and go out.
But again, there's not a lot of accountability. There's not a lot of instruction there.
And I don't see them accomplishing a lot of the same great works.
We need to have a church that's unified in doctrine.
And here's the thing, Evangelist Urbanic has to agree with us on doctrine or we'll pull them off the field.
Whereas some of these evangelists, they'll teach who knows what.
And yet people have to fund them and do their thing.
You know, we want to have a local body that is committed to the Bible.
This is our head. This is our responsibility.
We're all subject to this and we're going to fund him.
But at the end of the day, you know, we need churches to do that.
And I hope that churches will follow our model and we'll start pulling all the
missionaries off the field and keeping only the real ones out there
on the missions field doing the real work. Now Colossians chapter 4, look at
verse number 15. That was a little rant I went on.
Let's go back to the importance of church. Colossians chapter 4, look at
verse 15. "Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea
and Nymphus and the church which is in his house."
Notice a lot of these people are having churches in their house. Of course,
probably when you start out, that's how a lot of churches are.
Steadfast Baptist Church was started in a house. Of course,
I guarantee you that church at Jerusalem, once they're running 3,000,
are probably not meeting at the house anymore. So obviously some people are like,
"We need to go back to the Axe movement where they're meeting in a house."
Well, why would we do that? What if I say, "Okay, we need to go back to the way
Steadfast started and start meeting in a house." Well, who's got a house for all of us?
If you do, I mean, that's impressive. That's great.
But you know what? Most of us probably don't have a living room for 200 people to sit in.
And even if we did, you don't want us over anyways, okay?
I remember Pastor Anderson was saying, because he's one of my friends, he started a church in
his house, and he said people would just come and they would pee all over the walls, and they would
come super early, they would stay so late, and he's trying to figure out like, "How do I just
tell you to leave?" And you know what? House church is a little bit rough, okay? And you know,
if you think your wife doesn't like everybody that much, just imagine them peeing on your walls and
then thinking your wife how she's going to like them, you know what I mean? So it's a little bit
different when we come here, and we gather here, and you spill stuff here. We're not as offended
as when you did it on our new rug, you know what I mean? And in the day, hey, I'm not against a
church meeting in a house. There's nothing wrong with a church meeting in a house, but practically
speaking, as the church grows, it's probably going to go grow beyond the capabilities of a house to
meet in. And so they're going to need a bigger spot. Obviously, there was a furnishing for the
Last Supper for 120 people. That's impressive. But even then, that's probably stretching it.
Probably couldn't meet much more than that. And you know, maybe some houses could accommodate 120.
I met in Manly Perry's living room with 120 people, and boy, it was crammed. It was packed.
We see, you know, and sometimes in the Old Testament, or sorry, in the Gospels, the meeting at houses and stuff, they're packed out the doors and out the windows and whatever.
You know, it's nice to have a place that we can meet. We have air conditioning. It's Texas.
And of course, we get to gather. And of course, we're busting at the seams.
You know, God willing, He'll provide us a new place at some point. But it's nice to have this.
It's better than my living room, and it's better than your living room, and it's better than outside. You know what I mean?
So, you know, some people then, they get confused, though, and they think that the church is the building.
Again, the church, it doesn't matter where we met. We could meet out in the field. As long as we're gathered together, it's church.
We could meet in your living room, and it would still be church. But at the end of the day, you know, you meeting in your living room is not church.
That's your family just hanging out, right? You meeting at the dinner table is not church.
Church is a special called out assembly where we're meeting together, and we're having church according to what the Bible is saying.
Now, go if you went to 1 Thessalonians chapter number one, go to 1 Thessalonians chapter number one.
Taking a long journey here, but this is important doctrine that the Bible is establishing is the church.
It's hard to say that there's really much more important things to talk about.
I mean, the entire New Testament is written to churches here, and we have to understand that we are a church,
and church is the institution that God wants us to have so that we can worship God the Father the best.
You can worship God the Father as a family, you can worship God the Father as an individual,
but let me tell you something, worship as a congregation is the best.
You can sing a hymn by yourself, you can sing a hymn as a family, but us congregationally singing the hymn is the best.
Hey, you can go soul-winning as an individual, you can go soul-winning as a family, but going soul-winning as an army is the best.
Hey, you can do a missions trip on your own, you can do a missions trip as a family,
but a missions trip with our fleet of soul-winning commanders, we're going to go out and tear up the Bahamas, I'm going to just tell you what.
We're going to see a lot of people say, and let me tell you something, we're not trying to worship God as minimally as we can,
we're trying to worship God the best that we can.
Hey, you might play the piano, okay, but you know what, we have a whole orchestra going on up here.
We have a song leader going on up here.
We have microphones and a sound system, and we're trying to actually praise God
to the fullest here, to the best of our abilities,
because we don't serve a God that gets the bare minimum.
We serve an awesome God.
We serve a God that's worthy of all praise and all honor and all glory,
and we should do it with all of our might.
And so that's why we're meeting here in church today,
is to worship God with all of our might, with all of our strength,
with our mind, with our hearts, with our money, with our efforts,
with our body, with everything that God has given us.
Because we have to, otherwise we would let the darkness win.
We can't let the darkness win in this world.
The church has to win.
The church has to be the institution that we care about in this world.
The church has to be an institution that we put as priority in this world,
not the other institutions of this world.
1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 1,
Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus under the church of the Thessalonians.
Look at 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, same deal.
2 Thessalonians chapter 1, Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus under the church of the Thessalonians.
Go over to 1 Timothy chapter 1, I'm sorry go to chapter 3, go to chapter 3.
1 Timothy chapter 3, look at verse 5.
The Bible says this, "For of a man know not how to rule his own house,
how shall he take care of the church of God?"
Now, most of the epistles we've already written were written to just groups of people to churches.
Timothy's obviously written to Timothy, that's why it's called Timothy.
Timothy is known as a bishop of the church.
And then he's telling him the qualifications of a pastor, of a bishop.
And notice what the bishop is supposed to do.
He's supposed to do something specific.
He's supposed to take care of the church of God.
So we notice someone's in charge of the church.
It's a man. It's Timothy.
He is to take charge and care of the church.
But notice, it doesn't say, "Take care of your family."
It doesn't say, "Take care of your house."
It doesn't say, "Take care of your business."
It doesn't say, "Take care of your sports team."
It says, "Take care of the church."
And you know what?
It says you have to first get your house in order
and get your family in order
before you can then take care of the church.
But let me tell you something.
Someone is supposed to take care of the church.
Someone is supposed to care for the church.
And this epistle is written to a man
to take care of church
because church is the important institution.
What does it say in verse 15?
"But if I tarry long,
that thou mayst know how thou oughtest to behave thyself
in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth."
This is the house of God.
It's not the building, it's us congregating together
and God living inside of us.
This is the house of God.
We are the house of God.
God is dwelling among us
and we ought to behave ourselves in the house of God.
And there is a man that is supposed to take care
of the house of God, of the church of God.
His name is Timothy and he is a bishop.
He is a pastor, he is an elder.
Look at 2 Timothy chapter four,
2 Timothy chapter number four.
The Bible says in verse three,
"For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine,
but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves
teachers having itching ears."
Now, it doesn't say explicitly church here,
but we understand there's groups of people
and they're heaping what?
A teacher to themselves.
This sounds like a church, doesn't it?
But it's saying, hey, in the end times and the latter times,
there's going to be a lot of bad churches.
And let me tell you something.
In 2025 America, there's a lot of bad teachers
where congregations have heaped to themselves false teachers.
Bad teachers.
People like Robert Morris has been heaped to themselves for Gateway.
People like Craig Rochelle, heaped under themselves for Life Church.
T.D. Jakes and Kenneth Copeland.
And I mean, let me tell you something, the Dallas-Fort Worth area is filled
with churches where they've heaped under themselves teachers having itching ears,
where they don't want to hear the Bible.
You know what they want to hear? A story.
And let me tell you something, go to the Non-Denom Church today
and you know what you'll hear? A story.
They'll start off their sermon. It'll be a story.
It'll be a joke and then a story
and they'll sprinkle a random verse from a random translation
and then it'll be another story and then you'll go home.
And it might even be in the summer, so they might even actually just have a movie.
I'm not even joking.
I am not joking because the church that I grew up in
started this thing and spread it to everybody else.
Because they're in charge, the church I grew up in is called Trinity Fellowship Church.
They have a thing called TFAC, Trinity Fellowship Association of Churches.
It's where you pay money to Trinity
and they basically tell you how to run your church.
And so basically they like almost are the pattern
that almost every non-denom church is copying from.
And they're in fellowship with Life Church and all these other ones.
And they taught them all this stuff.
And so this little special movies thing and their little dream team
and their little life groups and all this stuff.
It doesn't matter what non-denom church you go to.
It's all the same package and the same deal.
It's just a cult. It's a cult of Trinity.
And let me tell you something, you go to the churches in the summer and it's a movie.
Iron Man, it's going to be Despicable Me, it's going to be whatever.
The little minions running around, they'll have popcorn, they'll throw popcorn around.
You can take your picture with the movie star poster and whatever.
You know what? That is itching ears if I've ever heard it in my life.
It's embarrassing.
And you know, many people that at least want to be conservative or want to be traditional,
they mock at that and they look at that and they say,
"Well, I guess I'm going to join the Catholic Church. I'm going to join the Orthodox Church.
I'm going to join one of these mainline Protestant denominations because of,
look at the mockery and foolishness that these churches are doing."
And it's embarrassing. And you know what?
We're letting darkness win when the options are,
go watch a Hollywood movie or go watch some faggot in a dress
tell you to drink Jesus' blood and tell you work salvation.
One will just be open about work salvation.
The other one will just say, "Accept Jesus in your heart."
You ask them what that means and they say, "I don't know."
You know, we need to have a real church somewhere
where someone's just thundering forth the Word of God.
We don't have any fancy movie theater tickets here.
We don't have some fancy screen.
We don't have some gimmick here.
We just have an old-fashioned King James Bible
and we're just preaching the Word of God.
And that's what we need today is we need churches like that
and we need a man of God like that.
They're going to actually be in a real church doing this.
But you know what? It takes people to have a pastor.
And if you say, "You know what? I don't like that kind of preaching.
I want to go hear the other stuff."
Well, you're the problem.
You know, we need people that actually want a real preacher in this world.
And you know what? It's important for you to go to a church where there's a real preacher.
And yeah, maybe your feelings get hurt every once in a while.
But you know what? You need a real preacher again.
Because if you never get your feelings hurt, what does it sound like?
It sounds like this. It sounds,
"They shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned into fables."
You have itching ears.
Your itching ears is, "I want to hear something comfortable.
I want to hear something nice.
Preach something smooth unto me today.
Tell me how wonderful I am today."
The problem is you're not wonderful.
I mean, if you're wonderful, I have no problem telling you you're wonderful.
But here's the problem, you're just not.
For all of sin, it comes from the glory of God.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one.
There's not a just man upon the earth that sinneth not.
A doeth good and sinneth not.
I mean, all our righteousness, there's filthy rags.
The Bible says we sin every day.
The Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin.
The Bible says, "Hey, if you look upon a woman to lust after,
you've committed adultery within her heart."
The Bible says, "Hey, if you're angry with your brother,
you've committed adultery, you've committed murder in your heart."
Hey, the Bible says, "Him that knoweth the good
and doeth not to him that has sinned."
And get ready to hear the word of God being preached.
And show up at a real church today.
Not one that has itching ears.
Itching ear Baptist.
Called the Southern Baptist, alright?
And you want to know where non-denominational churches come from?
Southern Baptist.
You want to know what the difference between a Southern Baptist
and a non-denominational church today is?
One took the Baptist off the sign, the other hasn't yet.
That's it.
I mean, you go to the Southern Baptist Church
and it's just "Grace Baptist" or whatever,
pretty soon it'll just be "Grace."
Pretty soon it'll be "Experience."
Pretty soon it'll just be whatever.
They just-- "Oasis."
There was a church-- I literally watched the transition.
It was this huge sign, "Oasis Baptist Church."
And then pretty soon the sign just said "Oasis."
And then pretty soon you went on the doctor's statement,
they're like, "We're not Baptist anymore."
Whatever.
And then pretty soon it's just like a woman preacher.
You know, once you go down that track, it gets bad fast.
The woman probably took the Baptist off the sign.
Because you know what, you show up at a Baptist church and a woman gets up,
you're like, "Ah! What in the world? What is this?"
But it's like Oasis. It's like, I don't even know what that is.
What is an Oasis?
Isn't most Oasis like an illusion?
It's a mirage.
You're out in the desert and you see this "Oasis" and then it's fake.
That's what that church is.
You're in this desert of life and you saw, "Oh, it's Oasis!"
It was fake.
It was a mirage. It wasn't real.
We have a lot of fake churches today.
Look at Titus, chapter 1, verse 5, "For this cause left I thee in Crete,
that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting,
and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee."
Hey, we need elders, we need bishops, we need pastors in every city.
You know what that means? We need churches in every city!
And you know what? The church is the important institution that we need in this world.
Of course, you know, I want to be realistic though.
Even though this says every city,
I don't think there was ever a time where there's probably a church in every city.
I mean, you got to understand that the Apostle Paul is primarily going to Asia and Europe.
He's not going to like every single Asian continent
and every single South African continent and every single place.
You know, there's always been dark places in this world
and there probably always will be dark places in this world.
But you know what? We should constantly be the light putting new churches everywhere too
and trying to get new churches.
And you know what? If you're in a dark area where there is no church,
maybe you should just go to one where there is.
Which is way easier than the Old Testament.
In the Old Testament, you had to go to Jerusalem.
Now, you have many options.
You don't have to go to Jerusalem.
But you know what?
Find a good church and go to a good church.
I mean, I think Jesus Christ came down from heaven to here.
That was a pretty big move.
That cost him a little bit of money, didn't it?
Oh yeah, all the riches of the world to come down here to die for you.
The least you can do is just go to a good church somewhere.
Well, that's 25 minutes from my house.
You're lame.
You don't deserve to worship the God of heaven
if you think that's an excuse to not go to a good church.
Go to Philemon chapter 1, Philemon chapter 1.
I mean, he had to carry his cross up Mount Calvary
and you're complaining about riding in an air conditioning car?
What in the world?
I mean, it's just sad how much of a spoiled, entitled brat Americans are.
Men are soft today and especially American men.
We become so soft today.
Isn't it back in the day our grandfather walked to school 20 miles uphill both ways
and you can't even drive to church?
Isn't it that grandpa when he mouthed off to dad, he got taken to the woodshed?
He didn't get taken to CPS or something like that.
He got taken to the woodshed.
And boy, grandpa's a cool dude.
Grandpa's a man.
Grandpa is real.
You know, it's sad.
The new generations are just so soft and so entitled and so pathetic today.
You know, we don't worship a pathetic God.
We worship an awesome God that came down from heaven to earth and died on the cross
and went into hell and rose again for us.
I think the least we could do is just go to a good church.
Right?
Isn't that a reasonable service considering what he's done for us?
Philemon chapter 1 verse 2, "And to our beloved Apphia and our Kippus, our fellow soldier,
and to the church in thy house."
Hey, I like these people because, you know, having church in your house is a big sacrifice.
These people are willing to put in a big sacrifice of having church in their house.
Oh, I don't want people to find out where I live.
They're having church in their house.
I mean, some people are afraid to allow people to know they even come to this church.
These people are like, "Hey, church is in my house."
That person's not afraid, are they?
They're steadfast.
Go to Hebrews chapter 12, go to Hebrews chapter number 12.
Some people are embarrassed of church today.
They're embarrassed to go to a church like ours.
I mean, it's funny to me, people are like, "Hey, don't take our picture.
Don't let anybody know we go there," or whatever.
And I'm just thinking like, "Why?"
Isn't that a little embarrassing?
I mean, imagine if you said that to your girlfriend or your wife.
"Hey, honey, don't tag me in any pictures."
What would she think?
Like what?
Why are you so embarrassed?
You know, hey, don't update your profile and say, "Hey, we're married or something,"
or "Tag me," or "We're dating," or whatever.
You know what?
That sounds like you're embarrassed.
How can you be embarrassed of going to a good church?
And if it's not a good church, then go to one, right?
I'm not...
If in your mind it's embarrassing, then don't come.
We don't want you.
We don't have room for you, okay?
We don't have room for the people that are embarrassed of this church.
We only have room for people that like it.
Hebrews chapter 12 verse 23, "To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which
are written in heaven, and to the God, the judge of all."
Have you noticed a pattern here?
I mean, whether it's Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians,
Thessalonians, to Timothy, to Titus, to Hebrews, I mean, it's just church, church, church,
church, church, church, church, Philemon church, Hebrews church.
Let's go to James, chapter number five.
James, chapter number five.
It seems like the Bible is written to the church.
And yet so many people are down on church today.
Hey, if we're going to overcome the darkness, we have to have church.
Church is the institution.
Hebrews, chapter 12 tells us about church.
James, chapter five, look at verse 14, I got to speed up.
Is any sick among you?
Let him call for the elders of the church.
There we go.
First Peter, chapter five, look at verse 13.
First Peter, chapter five, verse 13.
The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluted you, and so does Marcus,
my son.
Notice that a lot of these epistles are coming not just from a single person, they're coming
from a whole group of people, the church, is how the church feels about things.
Second, Peter, chapter two, look at verse one.
But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers
among you.
Again, talking about the congregation and talking about how there's going to be infiltrators
in what?
The church.
First John, chapter two.
Now, here's the thing.
First John, chapter two is probably the most broadly written epistle.
But even then, he addresses everyone.
So I believe that's an obvious connection to the church.
Verse 12 of chapter two.
"I write unto you little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his namesake.
I write unto you fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.
I write unto you young men, because you have overcome the wicked one.
I write unto you little children, because you have known the father.
I have written unto you fathers, because you have known him that is from the beginning.
I have written unto you young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth
in you.
And ye have overcome the wicked one."
Notice, he's writing to the little children, he's writing to the young men, he's writing
to the men, he's writing to everyone, because he's writing to the church.
I want to go to a few more places.
Go to 2 John chapter 1, verse 1, we'll notice, "The elder unto the elect lady."
So this is the pastor writing to a woman and her children in the church.
Chapter 3, 3 John, it's not chapter, but the third epistle, 3 John verse 6, "Which have
borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom did thou bring forward on their journey
after a godly sort, thou shalt do well."
Verse 9, "I wrote unto the church, but Deotrophes, who loveth to have the preeminence among
them, receiveth it not.
Wherefore if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth, parading against us with malicious
words and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth
them that would, and casteth them out of the church."
Notice we have people hijacking the church, attacking the church, false teachers in the
church, people itching up to themselves, bad people in the church, and boy, that's reminiscent
of what we see in America today, we see in the world today, infiltrators, deotrophies,
false teachers, people that are being just heaped up to themselves, teachers to itch
the ears of these people, and that's why church is so important.
We have to overcome this darkness.
Someone has to have a good church.
Someone has to prevent this stuff from happening.
Revelation chapter one verse four, we'll notice that the last epistle of the Bible is not
written to one church, it's written to the seven churches which are in Asia.
Verse four, John to the seven churches which are in Asia, and of course they're all in
varying degrees of difference.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter four now, go back if you would.
That point was a long point, but here's the thing, it's what matters.
Jesus Christ said, "I'll build my church," and then what do we see him do?
He built his church.
He built his church in Rome, he built his church in Corinth, he built his church in
Galatia, he built his church in Ephesus, he built his church in Philippi, in Colossi,
he built it in Thessalonica, and then, yay, to the seven churches in Asia, yay, the whole
world.
And we have a church right now in the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Cedar Hill, Texas, Steadfast
Baptist Church, and it is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is the church of the
firstborn, and you know what, it is overcoming the darkness.
We are here to overcome the darkness of false religion and false gospels and get people
saved, and if we don't, people will go to hell.
2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 3, "But if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost,
and whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest
the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants
for Jesus' sake.
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but we have
this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us.
So notice, in order to overcome the darkness we need the light of the glorious gospel to
shine.
The light shines and it overcomes the darkness, but if we hide our light, if we don't allow
our light to shine, well then people are going to remain in darkness.
In order to overcome the darkness, we must go out there and preach the gospel, and that's
why in Revelation, Jesus Christ warns the churches that stop the first love, that stop
going out and preaching the gospel, that he'll take away their candlestick.
The whole point of the candlestick is to put lights on and to light up a room or light
up an area, and we are, as a church, kind of like that candlestick with lots of lights
plugged in there, but if we turn out our own lights, well then he's going to use that
candlestick for something else.
He's going to give that candlestick to someone else to put lights in, and so you know what,
if we want to have a successful church, we have to continue to be that light, and of
course notice that this treasure is in earthen vessels.
We need men to take on that mission.
Jesus is not going to come down yet and just make church happen.
Church has to happen because we have to be willing to make church happen.
The reason why this church exists right now is because of men, and I'm saying mankind,
but obviously men lead and men are the leaders, but you know, if it wasn't for the sacrifice
of many men, this church wouldn't exist, the sacrifice of people driving ours.
I mean, the Millstads were some of the first members of this church, and they were driving
from Waco.
So you know what?
If you drive further than Waco, I might give you an excuse to not come to this church.
They're driving from Waco into a house.
They're not coming to a nice building.
They're not coming to tons of people.
They're coming to the beginning formation of a church.
That's a big sacrifice.
That's a huge sacrifice that they made, and other people have sacrificed.
We have a plaque out here to people that have been here for 10 years.
Brother Alberto's been here for 10 years.
Miss Lucy's been here for 10 years.
We have a lot of people that have been here for 9, 8, 7 that are very close to that.
People that have sacrificially given to this church.
People have given tens of thousands of dollars, yea even more than that, so that this church
could exist.
People staying up late, working on stuff.
We had several men recently help try to patch our roof area.
We have people do all kinds of different things to help this church grow and to help this
church sacrifice.
You know, we need men to say, "Hey, you know what?
Church is important."
People to put on events, people to show up, people to be friendly, people to be kind.
I've seen so many people, and I'm not going to tell you and I'm not going to tell anybody
else, I've seen so many people just do really nice things for other people.
Give them money, help them out, go do things for them.
You know what?
That was helping build this church.
I've seen so many people drive all kinds of distances to do things for this church.
I've seen people kind of make meals for people, visit people when they're sick, pray for people,
help people.
You know what?
We need men to take church seriously and do something.
And you know what?
The treasure of the gospel is hidden in earthen vessels.
That's us.
Why?
So that the excellency of the power could be in God.
Because think about it.
We as mankind, we're just dust.
Sometimes we get impressed with ourselves.
You know, we go watch the sporting event and we feel like we're impressed with ourselves
or something like that.
But you know, in my mind, it'd be like the WNBA thinking that they're awesome or something.
Because when I watch it, I'm like, I'm not impressed.
But even worse than that would be how we really are in comparison to the universe, folks.
We really are nothing, but then special things are accomplished because the excellencies
of God.
Mankind rolled up to the Red Sea like a little baby that can't take care of itself and God
had to part the Red Sea.
You know, we show up stumbling and fumbling and with stammering lips and another tongue,
and yet somehow we can overcome 20 years of Catholicism because the excellency is not
of us, it's of God, it's of the Word of God, it's of the power of God.
But we need a man to go out there and to open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the Gospel.
He ought to speak boldly as he ought to speak is what the Bible says.
We need some man to go do it.
And you know what?
There's nothing special about us here today, but you know what's special is the Church
of God and is the King James Bible.
And you know what?
When we just submit ourselves to the Word of God, special things happen.
And let me tell you something, this church is special because church is special because
our God is special because the King James Bible is special and the Gospel is special.
And when we show up, special things happen that the excellency may be of God.
And God is building His church through broken people, but you know what?
He needs man to do it.
Man is dust, man is frail, but it's so that we don't think highly of ourselves.
I think that's why when you start aging, you start feeling it quick.
You know, I used to think like maybe when I'm like 60, 70, I'll start feeling it.
No, it's like 25, like 30.
By the time you get 35, I'm like, I told my wife this, I was like, I already feel like
I'm 70.
Like, what does 70 feel like?
I'm just like, man, what in the world?
We just deteriorate so quickly.
I was looking this up, like by the time you get aged like 40 or so, we all experience
this condition where your eyes basically can't read very well anymore, and you pretty much
all have to get reading glasses.
It's like, what in the world?
I was like, how do you avoid this?
It's like, sorry, buddy.
I mean, it's like some like high percentage, like 90 some percent of the population will
have to have reading glasses after the age of 40.
I mean, it's just, it's just we deteriorate.
We age.
I mean, I know Aaron Rodgers is signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Talk about a loser.
Talk about needing to retire.
Don't play for the Steelers, man.
He's the oldest player in the NFL.
Didn't you already fail with the Jets?
I mean, like, why are you still in the league?
But I mean, even at 40, you know, you're a lot different than 25.
And I don't think he can compete, probably.
I don't know.
But at the end of the day, I mean, at some point he can't.
At some point he'll have to hang it up.
At some point he'll deteriorate.
Because man, can't just keep going because we're frail.
Why?
So that the excellency of everything can be of God.
It's not of us.
In fact, many of the great men of God in the Bible did really awesome stuff when they were
old, when they were like 80, 85, 100.
Why?
To prove that it's not about man's strength, it's about God.
The Apostle Paul was contemptible in the flesh, yet the greatest Christian ever lived.
Why?
So that the excellency can be of God.
And again, this church will be great not because of man's strength, but because of God's power
and God's might and God's wisdom.
Go if you want to Ezekiel 22, but you know what?
Some man has to stand up and do it.
You know, there's this phrase out there that I've always heard, one of my bosses loved
to say this, and I think it's biblical, but you can make your own opinion.
But here's this quote I've heard, the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for
good men to do nothing.
And I was really thinking about that like, does the Bible teach that?
But you know, here's a verse that I think does kind of allude to the same concept.
Look at Ezekiel 22 verse 30, and I sought for a man among them that should make up the
hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found
none.
I was just trying to find a good man, I was just trying to find somebody to stand in the
gap, I was just trying to find someone to do something and I couldn't find one, so therefore
I destroyed it.
And you know what?
There's so many places that don't have a good church today because there's not one man that
would just stand up and stand in the gap and stand in the hedge and do something for God.
And it's not because we need some special man, we just need our man.
Did you read anything special about this guy?
I sought for a man.
It didn't say like an awesome guy, a tall guy, a strong guy, a rich guy, a fun guy,
a cool guy, it just said a man.
Is there at least a man somewhere?
Couldn't find one.
How sad it is that we don't have good churches today because of this.
We don't have a man.
And you know what?
Sometimes that man's, it's not even just a pastor.
It's just a man that just says, "Hey, I'm going to, I'm going to dedicate myself to
a church and I'm going to help a church grow.
I'm going to show up, I'm going to drive two hours to church and I'm just going to plug
in and I'm going to do whatever I need to do."
And you know what?
God builds around that person and builds around that man, because you know what?
We need men to take the mission on, that church is important, and we just can't let darkness
win.
We have to overcome the darkness.
We have to say, "There's going to be a church and I'm going to be that man that's going
to help that church.
I'm going to make sure that church happens, no matter what.
I don't have to be the pastor.
I just, I'm a Christian.
I'm saved.
I've got the Holy Spirit."
And you know what?
We need somebody to fight for God the Father in heaven and to fight for church.
So if we went to, for a second time, I'm not going to be able to go all the verses I want
to do, but if we go to Romans 8, we'll get there eventually.
Here's the last point I want to make is not only do we need church and not only do we
need men to do that church, but here's the third point.
We just can't let darkness win.
Can't let darkness overtake us.
And darkness is trying to come at us from every angle.
This point could be expanded to anything and everything you want because frankly speaking,
we have darkness attacking us from all angles right now.
We have bad churches.
We have false prophets.
We have false gospels.
We have false religion.
We have all kinds of censorship.
We have attackers.
We have haters.
We have all this kind of stuff just constantly coming at us, let alone just our own struggle.
And for most of us, our biggest enemy is yourself.
Your second biggest enemy is your family.
And it's like, we often want to worry about all the other enemies, but it's like, you
don't even realize you're your worst enemy in many cases.
And then your family is your second worst enemy.
And of course, you know, the Bible warns in Proverbs 31, "Give not thy strength unto
women, nor thy ways of that would destroy the kings."
How many men today are giving all their strength unto whores and to whoredom today, they're
giving all their strength unto alcohol today, and they're allowing that to destroy them,
and they're allowing the darkness to win.
They're not actually caring about the church because let me tell you something.
Men that are obsessed with whores and men that are obsessed with alcohol are not going
to accomplish great things for God.
They're not obsessed with church.
They don't like church and they would never want to come to a church like ours because
they'd probably get thrown out.
And you know what?
We need men to say no to whores and no to alcohol and give that stuff up and actually
dedicate themselves to the God in heaven that gave them life, God the Father.
And say, "Hey, I'm not going to let the bottle overtake me.
I'm not going to let women overtake me."
You know, we always, "I'm not a feminist."
Yeah, but you can even just let a whore overtake you, let alone some loud mouth Karen.
Maybe you're letting some young whore take you down.
I mean, the Bible says, "For she hath cast down many wounded, yea, many strong men have
been slain by her," a strange woman.
Bible tells us that we're supposed to open our mouths to judge.
The Bible says that we're supposed to judge righteously, that we're supposed to plead
the cause of the poor and needy, and you know what?
We need a good church in the sea of bad churches today.
We need men that are going to say, "I'm not going to allow myself to be overcome by darkness,
but I am going to overcome them."
And we can't let the gates of hell prevail against our church.
We can't let alcohol destroy this church.
We can't let whoredom destroy this church.
We can't let bad, modern versions come in and destroy this church.
We need the King James Bible.
We need the preserved Bible.
We must champion salvation by faith alone.
We can't let false gospels come in here.
You know, the Bible says, "Help, Lord, for the godly man seeth, for the faithful fail
from among the children of men."
How many men are failing today?
How many men are giving up today?
How many men are just not going to do what's necessary?
The Bible says, "Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness, but a faithful man who
can find."
We need to find some.
We need somebody that says, "You know what?
Church is more important than all this other stuff.
I'm going to just make church a priority, and I'm going to be that man, and you know
what?
I'm not going to let darkness win.
I'm not going to let darkness win."
You know, and I'm not saying you have to be perfect.
No one's perfect.
None of us are perfect.
But you know what?
The just man falls seven times and rises up again.
Hey, when you fall, get back up.
Hey, when you do something wrong, just quit it and get back in here, because God uses
earthen vessels.
He uses broken vessels.
He uses sinners saved by grace to accomplish His work.
But you know what?
He doesn't use quitters.
He can't use quitters.
You have to rise up again.
You have to get up and say, "Here am I, Lord.
Send me."
And you know what?
He'll put that hot coal on your tongue, and He'll cleanse you again, and He'll purify
you again, and He'll make you white as snow again, and He'll put you back in the game.
He'll put you back in the fight.
Just don't give up.
Don't quit.
Don't be like so many men today that just quit and give up and just allow their wife
to drag them to some non-denominational church.
Men that quit and give up and they just drink alcohol and watch NASCAR on Sunday morning
rather than going to church.
Men that quit and give up and stop reading the King James Bible and they get a message
on Father's Day with their name on it.
They get a pink tie for Father's Day and let their wife tell them what they're going to
do on Father's Day.
They are going to let Jack Daniels tell them what they're going to do on Father's Day.
Captain Morgan, they're going to let some woman tell them what to do.
They're going to go to the bar and some whore is going to drag them around by the nose.
You know what?
As long as we have Christ in our hearts and in our heads and in our hands, nothing can
defeat us.
Let's read some Romans 8 here for a second.
The Bible says in verse 28, "And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among any brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, then he also called; and whom he called, then he also
justified; and whom he justified, then he also glorified.
What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him
also freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifieth.
Who is he that condemneth?
It is Christ that died, yea, rather than is risen again.
Who is even at the right hand of God, who also make the intercession for us?
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep
for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other
creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord.
This guy sounds like a man.
This guy sounds like a man that cares about church.
This guy sounds like a guy that's not going to let darkness overcome, but he's going
to overcome darkness through the love of Jesus Christ.
Hey, he may not be perfect, but you know what?
The love of Christ can overcome it all.
How can they condemn us when Christ didn't condemn us?
Go over to 2 Corinthians 6 and we'll finish there.
We need to make sure that we realize God is on our side and he can help us overcome our
sins.
He can help us overcome whoredom.
He can help us overcome being backslidden.
He can help us overcome all the railers.
He can help us overcome all the haters.
He can help us overcome all the thieves that take money from our church.
He can help us from all the Judas's.
We can overcome all the false brethren.
We can overcome all the faggots that are in our country.
Let me tell you something.
Faggots are not stronger than God's people.
Faggots shouldn't be stronger than hairy legged men.
They have a little lisp.
They're not manly.
They're not somebody that should win.
How in the world are churches today letting faggots win?
And you know what, someone needs to stand up to them.
Someone needs to say, hey, I'm not going to lay down.
I'm not going to just let my landlord terminate the lease.
We're going to fight.
And let me tell you something.
We are going to fight, and this church is going to fight.
And I don't care if people like what I said or didn't say
in the past.
Nuts to you.
Because you know what, I'm going to say it,
and I'm going to keep saying it, and I'm going to fight.
Because at the end of the day, if you can't say fag or faggot
or put him to death or Leviticus 20 13,
pretty soon the next thing you won't be able to say
is just being a fag to sin or something.
Someone's got to fight.
And you say, oh, well, what if you lose that battle?
Well, you know what, that's America's fault, not my fault.
That's their problem, not my problem.
It's not my problem if I believe the Bible.
I don't have a problem.
Believing the Bible's right.
People that condemn me for preaching the Bible
or believing the Bible, they're the ones that are wrong,
and they have to stand and account for it.
You know what, how many churches today
are afraid to say what the Bible says
because of the consequences?
You know who's at fault then?
They are.
We need somebody to say, hey, church matters.
Hey, you know what, by us standing up to the fight,
we enable other people to actually do what they're doing.
They may not realize it.
We need some real churches with some real men of God
that'll say, hey, let's put the faggot to death.
Can't believe you said that.
Well, I don't really care.
You know, all the Jews and their censorship
can go back to hell because you know what?
I'm not, you still didn't censor me.
Yeah, I can't be on YouTube.
Ooh, okay.
Well, because of the algorithm,
it's like meaningless to be on YouTube anyways.
It's all ads anyways.
It's all just promos for some filth or debauchery
that they want to permit anyways.
YouTube is not what built this church.
God is what built this church.
And God will continue building this church.
And I did not sign up to be a YouTube pastor.
I signed up to be a pastor of a real,
local New Testament church.
And I will use the words that the Bible says,
and I will expand on them,
and I will say what the Bible says.
And you know what?
Someone needs to put these facts back in the closet.
And frankly speaking, six feet under.
And that's the government.
I'm not gonna do it unless they hire me.
And I'll do it for free.
Not only that, we need to stand against Catholicism
and say Catholics aren't saved.
They're gonna go to hell.
We can't let the Catholic church win in this country.
This country was not built on Catholicism.
It was built on separating from Catholicism.
And God forbid we would allow our country
to go back to just being Catholic again.
When our forefathers died to not be Catholic.
When our forefathers, William Tyndale,
died at the stake for believing in faith alone.
When our forefathers, William Tyndale,
died to give us this book we have in our hand.
When the Catholic church said,
take the Bible out of their hands.
You know what, someone needs to stand up for the church.
Someone needs to stand up for God's people.
I don't want to sit here and partner with the Lutherans
or the United Methodists, a bunch of faggots,
with the Church of Christ,
with their baptismal regeneration,
or the special underwearing Mormons.
They can go back to their temple of Satan.
The depressed Jehovah's Witnesses that walk up and down
with a false gospel of depression.
all the atheists, and the apathetic, and the Calvinists, and Islam, and Hinduism, and Judaism.
And look, we're not Judeo-Christian, we're just Christian.
And you know what?
We're not going to let work salvation prevail in this church.
We're not going to let baptismal regeneration, lordship salvation, repent of your sins.
You know, we're also not going to let bitterness win in this church either.
We're going to forgive one another, and we're going to let things go, and we're going to
move on, aren't we?
We're not going to let depression ruin this church.
We're not going to let divorce ruin this church.
We're not going to let finances ruin this church.
We're not going to let fear ruin this church.
We're not going to let threats ruin this church.
We're not going to let Israel nuking Iran or vice versa or any of that crap.
I don't care.
Hey, if Satan kills Satan, I'm just thinking like, OK.
And people are freaking out about that.
It's like, look, when your enemy is destroying itself, don't get in the way and let's not
give them money or resources or our troops.
And you know what?
That sounds anti-Semitic, but I don't really care what it is because I don't want to see
actual Americans go and die in a war they don't need to.
And if you actually loved your brethren, you wouldn't allow them to.
You wouldn't say it's cool or I stand with Israel no matter what.
That's a bad policy.
I stand with the Israel of God no matter what.
You know what?
Through Christ, we will prevail.
We cannot let the gates of hell prevail.
We must be the salt.
We must be the light.
And you know what?
We're going to find grace to help in time of need.
Second Corinthians chapter number six, this last place we're going to turn, this is a
long sermon.
Well, it's Father's Day.
I can do whatever I want.
I don't think the dads will complain.
Second Corinthians chapter six says, "We then as workers together with them beseech you
also that you receive not the grace of God in vain."
Hey, just because you're saved doesn't mean you should do nothing.
Don't be one of these Christians that just barely gets to heaven.
We will.
I mean, you could do literally nothing, get to heaven, but don't be like that.
Don't do it.
Don't just do nothing.
And he says in verse three, "Giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed,
but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God in much patience and afflictions
and necessities and distresses and stripes and imprisonments and tumults and labors and
watchings and fastings by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy
Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness
on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report
as deceivers and yet true, as unknown and yet well-known, as dying and behold, we live
as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making
many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.
O Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
You're not straightened in us, but you are straightened in your own bowels.
Now for a recompense in the same I speak as unto my children, be ye also enlarged.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness, and what concord hath
Christ with Belial, or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel, and what agreement
hath the temple of God with idols.
For ye are the temple of the living God.
As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and
they shall be my people; wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith
the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father
unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
You know what he's saying?
We need to separate ourselves and come together as the Church, the Church of Jesus Christ,
the Church that was purchased with His blood, the Church that's going to overcome the darkness
today, and we see all the darkness here, the imprisonments and the tumults and the laborings
and the watchings and the fastings and the evil reports, but you know what?
We're more than conquerors through all these things.
You have God before us, who can be against us?
Let us overcome the darkness.
No one else will.
This is the one institution.
We will not let the devil take our strength without a fight.
We won't let the devil get our emotions and get the better of us.
We won't let our failures get the better of us.
We won't let our pride to isolate us.
We won't allow bitterness to erode our love.
We won't let unforgiveness wedge its ugly head between our fellowship.
We won't let the devil take our wives without a fight.
We won't let the devil take our children without a fight.
And we will never let the devil take this church without a fight.
The gates of hell shall not prevail, but we're going to continue to work with God as He builds
this church.
Let's close in prayer.
Thank you Heavenly Father so much for giving us this institution, for allowing us to overcome
so much evil.
Thank you for giving us the gospel of your Son, the freeness of salvation that we can
be saved.
I pray that we would not use that in vain, but we would come alongside you and work together
to build this church, and that you would allow us to overcome the darkness in our lives and
our family's lives in this world.
We wouldn't get knocked down by all the enemies and the attacks and all the weird stuff that's
happening.
We understand the devil is not going to just lay down, he's going to attack us, but we're
ready, we're willing.
We are accounted for the slaughter every day.
I pray that you would help give us strength, that you'd give us faith, that you'd give
us boldness, that you'd give us courage, that no matter what we face in the future, we would
not let the church go by the wayside.
I pray that you would give men a heart and a mind and a desire to see the church flourish
and that you would bless the work of our hands in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
For our last song, we're going to go to a fan favorite, song number 145, "It Is Well
With My Soul."
On the last verse, we're going to change keys, so just be aware of that.
Song 145, "It Is Well With My Soul."
Soul singing out nice and loud on the first.
Singing just as we have Thursday floats.
I'm going to ask you children first, serve your fathers first.
You want to get all the fathers served first.
Then after that, you can come back and you can also get one.
There should be Coke, Dr. Pepper, and root beer.
They should be kind of in different sections, so you can just go up there, get one of the
cups that are ready, and you can serve your dad.
So thanks for coming to Steadfast.
God bless you guys.
Have a great Father's Day.
You kiddos, one of you, go serve your father, right?
Have a good...