We're in 1 Thessalonians chapter 2.
Last week, of course, we started the new series.
Just a quick recap of what kind of happened, what I talked about last week was the overview
basically is what I preached, the little brief introduction about the book of 1 Thessalonians.
Of course, it was written by the Apostle Paul, but then Timothy and Silas kind of get in
on the action there.
It says it was written to them by all of them, so maybe they all had their own little parts
in it to a certain extent, but of course I'm sure the Apostle Paul, being the main authority
there, was the writer of most of it, but of course we just don't know.
The major themes, of course, in this book are the end times and specifically the second
coming of Christ is mentioned in every single chapter in one way, shape, or form.
In every chapter, it seems like persecution is also ... The Jews seem to be kind of a
little bit mentioned here and there in the Antichrist.
I personally think the Antichrist is probably going to be a Jew, so it kind of runs on the
same lines, but that's just my personal opinion.
I can't necessarily totally prove that, but I think that there's some good scriptures
that might sway us in that direction, but also the term without ceasing, I didn't mention
this in the last sermon, but the term without ceasing has already appeared twice in the
first two chapters, where it says pray without ceasing, so there's like ... I'm not really
sure of any other epistles or chapters or books of the Bible where that phrase is mentioned,
so anyway, I just thought it was an interesting thing to mention.
That's kind of basically where we're at here tonight, and like I said, the first sermon
was an introduction, but tonight I have five points, and I'm going to try to get through
them fairly quickly.
My first point is found in verse number one, and my first point is the care of the apostle
Paul to the churches, the care of the apostle Paul to the churches.
In 1 Thessalonians chapter two, verse one, it says, for yourselves, brethren, know our
entrance in unto you that it was not in vain, and so I don't know why I put ... Oh yeah,
so I'm skipping through a couple of verses here, and we'll come back to those in a few
minutes here, but look at verse number seven, it says, but we were gentle among you, even
as a nurse cherishes her children.
So the apostle Paul is talking about how he treats this church here, and of course he's
the one that planted the church, he's the one that came in, and I read the whole passage
in Acts chapter 17 last week where it explains how the church got started.
It got started just by some people getting saved, and then of course a big tumult where
the Jews get everybody turned against the apostles and the other Christians that are
saved, and they basically assault the house of Jason, and they turn basically the whole
city into an uproar, and they try to stop the Gentiles and anybody else from being saved.
It's just kind of what happens in the book of Acts, and a lot of people say, well the
Romans were the ones that were persecuting the Jews, and really that's not what you see
if you read the New Testament.
The Romans actually helped Paul when he was getting beaten to death by the Jews and saved
and now I'm not saying the Romans were great characters, but at least they were better
than the Jews.
I mean the Jews were trying to murder the apostle Paul just because he was preaching
about Jesus.
So yeah, we're here years later, and we have, so look at verse number seven, it says,
But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherishes her children, so being affectionately
desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but
also our own souls, because you were dear unto us.
So the apostle Paul, he's telling them, I really care for you, we love you, we think
about you, and we care about, it wasn't just the gospel of God only, but also our own souls
because you were dear unto us.
And then it says in verse nine, it says,
I think Paul's alluding to the fact that he's working for money at the same time as he's
laboring and preaching.
So there was a time when the apostle Paul forbade work and said, I'm not going to work,
I'm going to work with my own hands.
He was a tent maker by trade.
And so I believe that the apostle Paul, I'm sure at some point, probably was fully supported.
You know, when you're in jail, I guess, you know, I guess you don't need any support,
but he was in jail towards the end of the book of Acts.
And that's kind of where it leaves off, is that the apostle Paul is in like house arrest
or something where people are still allowed to come to see him.
But he had to go appeal unto Caesar.
And history doesn't really tell us exactly what happened in that situation.
But in the Fox's Book of Martyrs, they say that the apostle Paul was killed.
But the Bible doesn't say that.
So I don't know that I really believe, you know, the, I mean, I definitely don't believe
the Roman Catholic Church history where they say what happened to the apostle Paul.
But the Fox's Book of Martyrs is not actually necessarily a Catholic book.
It's actually people that are being killed by the Catholic Church is a lot of the testimony
in there.
But it goes from the apostles, and then it goes up through a certain point of the Reformation,
the Fox's Book of Martyrs.
And it's not scripture either.
So whether those things that happened to the apostles or not, we don't really know that
for sure.
But you know, we know that Peter was told that he was going to die, and he was going
to be carried off to a place that he didn't want to go.
So he's basically kind of foretelling the death of Peter and that it was not going to
be a good one.
But the apostles are said to have been killed in various different ways that Mark, I believe,
I'm just off the top of my head, I think Mark went to Ethiopia or something?
Or maybe he went to India.
I can't remember, but I'm just going to mess it up, so I don't want to say it.
But you know, it just basically says that they were, I think Mark was dragged to death
or something.
Do you know anything, Bill?
Thomas was India.
Thomas was India, yeah, you're right.
That's what it says in the Fox's Book of Martyrs.
So he went to the Buddhists and the Hindus.
But Mark, I think, went to Ethiopia is what I think, but I'm not 100% sure about that.
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
I'm just saying that we don't really know.
And the Apostle Paul, though, what I was saying about him, that he was working at one point,
and it never really says that he started taking a full-time check at some time or full-time
paid apostle, but I'm guessing as he got into his older years, he probably maybe took
a salary.
I don't know.
The Bible doesn't say that, but it does say here that he was working night and day just
so that they could give the gospel to them and minister to these people.
So it says, your witnesses of God, verse 10, also how holily and justly and unblameably
we behaved ourselves among you that believe.
And so he's just basically saying, hey, you know how we treated you.
You know our ministry to you, and we cared for you.
We labored for you.
We preached the gospel among you.
And then go ahead and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, 2 Corinthians chapter number 11.
And the Apostle Paul, he wrote these letters not just because he felt like it.
He wrote these letters because he actually loved the people that he was writing the letters
to.
And a lot of these places that he's writing to, he did start the church there.
And so it's very evident in the Apostle Paul's writings that he did deeply care about the
people.
And he always talks about how he prayed for them, and how he thinks about them often,
and all those things.
And it's very evident that he also had a lot of churches that he did start, and so he's
traveling around from place to place.
And it's not like it is today when you can just jump on an airplane and fly to a certain
place.
He had to walk probably, or ride, obviously he went by ship, and possibly by horse.
But a lot different traveling back in those days.
I was trying to look, let's see, I just want to make sure I didn't take those completely
out of my notes because I feel like I might have, no, I do still have them, I'm sorry.
So anyway, you're in 2 Corinthians 11 verse 28, the Bible says, besides those things that
are without, and this is the Apostle Paul saying to the Corinthians, he says, that which
cometh upon me daily the care of all the churches.
So even though the Apostle Paul wasn't able to be in all those locations, he still cared
for those churches.
And so what does that mean?
Well he still prayed for those churches, he still wrote them letters, he still sent people
to those churches to preach.
You can see in a lot of the epistles he says, I'm sending Phoebe to you, I'm sending Timothy
to you, I'm sending Titus to you, I'm sending Apollos to you, and just because he couldn't
be in every location every single week doesn't mean he didn't care for them, of course he
cared for them.
And he said, besides those things that are without, because there's a lot of things that
leaders have to deal with besides just the care for the churches, they have to deal with
also the things that are without.
All the people that are trying to come at us all the time, and just all kinds of bozos
attacking all the time, and then of course just your own personal life.
Your own personal struggles, everybody has personal struggles in some way, shape or form.
And so the Apostle Paul, he had those things too, and he's just talking about just in general
the things that are without, besides all that stuff, which we know that he dealt with a
lot of stuff.
People are always trying to kill him, they're always trying to plot to get him for some
way, shape or form.
Every time he walked into one of these places, he doesn't know whether he's going to get
beat up or stoned or hurt.
And so that's not something that we generally have to deal with in America.
We might get the police called on us and they come and tell us to leave an apartment complex,
or someone might open up the door and just start cussing us out right when they open
the door.
It might be some tranny that you have to look at when they open the door and they start
yelling at you or whatever.
But we don't generally have people throw hands on us or take us to the police station
and the police beat us up or send us in jail for the night and then beat us and whip us
and things.
We don't have to deal with that kind of stuff.
But the Apostle Paul did, but it says, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all
the churches.
Paul cared for the churches that he started.
And people will criticize the way that I've started churches before.
And you know what?
I just don't really care.
Whether they do or not, people can criticize me all they want.
And just because I'm not there at every single location at every single week, it doesn't
mean I don't care about the churches and pray for the churches.
I do.
And I keep in contact with the leadership and they know that I care.
I send people to preach there in those locations and things like that.
I do care.
But, you know, there's just a lot of work to do.
And you know, this is the main church that we started here and this is kind of the flagship
of all the churches that are under our banner, basically.
And of course, you know, the one in the Acoma is not necessarily a satellite church.
It was already an established church before we kind of took that one over.
So you know, I was appointed as the pastor of that church.
And so it is just kind of an independent church.
It has a different name.
It's not called Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
It's called Bible Believers Baptist Church, which I hear tell is a Ruckmanite name.
People are always saying, did Pastor Thompson, is he at a Ruckmanite church now or something?
It's just like, why would you think that?
That's just, no.
I mean, is Bible Believers Baptist, is that like a bad name or something?
I don't think it's a bad name.
I think it's really, we are Bible believers and we're Baptists.
So I mean, I don't think there's anything wrong with it.
Now, just because the Ruckmanites have solely that name, it doesn't mean that it's a bad
name.
So, but is Gene Kim's church named Bible Believers Baptist Church?
Okay, it's just a common Ruckmanite theme.
Okay.
So yeah, it's not a Ruckmanite church.
But anyway, so, but what I'm just saying is that, you know, Paul had a lot of churches
that he cared for.
He had way more satellite churches than I will ever have.
And he traveled to them whenever he could.
He wrote letters to them whenever he could.
And he cared for them.
It's obvious if you just read, next time you read through the New Testament, just think
about how much the Apostle Paul loved all those churches and the things that he wrote.
He writes big things in the beginnings and he writes big things at the end.
And he says, you know, receive this person at the church.
I'm sending you this person.
He cared.
And so, number one, we see the care of the Apostle Paul to the churches and specifically
to the church at Thessalonica.
He really loved that church and cared for it.
And when you start something, when you are the one that kind of starts the thing, then,
you know, you have a special love for that church because he's the one that had to go
and contend for it to even start in the first place.
And number two, tonight, we see the contention of the gospel.
The contention of the gospel.
Now, I really think the main reason why our churches are persecuted is because of the
contention of the gospel.
The devil doesn't want people to be saved.
Now, all the other stuff, that gets us in hot water with other people, but the devil
cares whether we are soul-winning or not.
That's what he cares about.
And if he can shut a pastor's mouth, if he can shut a church down and downscale their
soul-winning, he probably loved when the bus ministry started because, yeah, it worked
really good for a while, but now how's it doing?
How's it doing across this country?
Probably not doing too well, especially after COVID and then all the scandals and things
like that.
You know, it's probably not.
The bus ministry is dying.
It was dying when I was going to an old IFB church, and it's even deader now.
I think the church that I started doing bus ministry on, there was two full buses that
were packed with kids every single week.
The junior church was huge.
The Sunday school classes were big, and it was just like a regular, maybe a 200-person
church somewhere around there.
So it was a good-sized church.
It wasn't super, like a mega-church or anything.
But it slowly died, and I remember when I was running the, I actually ran the VBS for
like several, I don't know how many years, maybe three or four years, something like
that.
But every year, that VBS program got bigger and bigger, and it started to piss off the
people that actually worked in the VBS because it became too much.
It became two busloads of people coming in.
It was only just for like a week, but people, I remember the last one that I did, it was
just like all the kitchen workers were frazzled, their hairs just all, ah, you know, everybody's
freaking out because the classes are too big or whatever, kind of like the Evergreen School
District or whatever.
But here's the thing, people do get saved at those things, but what the devil really
hates is actual, just bona fide soul winning.
And I'm not saying that people didn't get saved on the bus system, but look, it's failing.
And you know why it's failing?
Because that's not what God said to do.
Now is it wrong?
I don't think it's wrong, but I just don't think in the long term it's effective.
So now the contention of the gospel, look at verse two in our text here, it says, But
even after that we had suffered before.
We were shamefully entreated, as you know, at Philippi.
We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God with much contention.
And remember, when Paul started the church at Philippi, I've mentioned this before just
recently, how there was contention that started immediately.
He goes and gets Lydia saved, and then her family gets saved and baptized.
He gets thrown in the Philippian jail for casting the devil out of somebody and ruining
the gains of these obviously wicked men.
And then they get beaten, thrown in jail, the jailer gets saved, this is just like an
average soul winning day for them.
And they get freed by an angel in the middle of the night, and they get thrown back in
jail after they get the whole family of the Philippian jailers saved.
They all get baptized, they go back to jail, and then they say, you guys can leave now
after they beat him and mistreated him.
He's like, no, they can come fetch us out themselves.
So that's just a cool day in the life of the apostle Paul.
But what happened, well, a church started there.
Because of the things that Paul did and his companions, a church got started there, but
it's the same thing, the same situation here.
But he's mentioning Philippi, and the reason why he is is because it's about an hour and
34 minute drive from Philippi to Thessalonica.
It's a 35 hour walk.
So they probably walked from one place to another or rode horses, so that might have
made it.
But it says, when I looked it up in Google Maps before I came to church, it said one
day journey on foot.
So last time I checked, 35 hours isn't a one day journey.
So I don't know, they got some different time tables going on over in Europe or something,
but that's not how I keep time.
But it's 24 hours in a day as far as I know, right?
But look at the apostle Paul, he said, we were bold in our God to speak unto you the
gospel of God.
And you know what?
Preaching the gospel does take some boldness.
So if you haven't gone sowing before or you're still being trained to go sowing, one of the
things that the apostle Paul said in the book of Romans, he said, pray for me that I would
have boldness.
And because the apostle Paul really did need it, because that's just that one story that
I just told about Philippi, but why would you need boldness?
Because when he was going around doing it, he was getting his butt kicked for doing it.
And there was contention, it says much contention.
Look at verse number three, the Bible says, and for our exhortation was not of deceit
nor of uncleanness nor of enguile, but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust
with the gospel, even so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God which trieth our hearts.
So one thing I just want to point out in this verse is that we're allowed of God to be put
in trust with the gospel.
He allows us to do it.
And then most Christians act like it's something that they don't want to do.
It's something that's a chore to them.
And yeah, it can be a chore, but we're allowed to do that.
God lets us partner with him, and yet most Christians don't want to go sowing.
It's a shame.
It really is.
And Jesus said that the laborers were few.
The fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few.
If you had more laborers, you can get more done.
That's just a fact.
So the more people that we have sowing at this church, the more effective we're going
to be.
And you're like, well, it's just not really receptive here in Vancouver.
Well, who says you only have to be in Vancouver?
Didn't I just say before the sermon that we have a sowing marathon going on up in Seattle
on the 10th, and then another one in October on, what, the 20th and 21st in the most receptive
place that I've seen in Washington.
So maybe you're not having much, it's out of season for you right now or whatever, but
the weather's been nice lately.
Have you been going to the sowing times?
Because there's plenty of sowing times to go to.
But sometimes when you have too many sowing times, then people just kind of slip through
the cracks.
And they just, well, I'm not going to go to that one, maybe I'll go to this one.
I'm not going to go to that one, I'm going to go to this one.
Then by the time the week is over, you haven't gone to any of them.
So right now is the time to go sowing because it's nice outside and it was like, what, 90
degrees today or something, which that's kind of rough.
But we're kind of like Goldilocks sowingers here sometimes, oh, but the rain, oh, the
rain, oh, but it's cold, oh, it's snowing, oh, it's too hot.
Well, Goldilocks, when are you going to get back out there and go sowing?
It's got to be 70 in a slight breeze for you to go out.
No steps, no steppy, no walkie up the stairs-y, it's got to be the flatlands, oh, but the
houses are unreceptive, I've got to walk too far.
Well, then go to the apartments, oh, it's too many steps.
Look, we can have excuses for anything, but look, God said that He's allowed us to be
put in the trust of the Gospel, and it says, even so we speak not as pleasing men, but
God which trieth our hearts.
Who are you out there trying to please?
You should be out there trying to please God, because He's allowed us the opportunity to
be able to work with Him and partner with Him.
It's not like God isn't with us when we go out sowning.
He is out with us.
He helps us through all these battles that we go through.
I'm sure that every person in here has a story of something interesting that happened to
them out sowning.
Yeah, there's the days when it's like nobody answered the door.
I get that.
Those are boring days, but those are the days you can get to know your sowning partner a
little bit better.
And maybe you can sharpen each other with the things that you can teach each other on
the way to the next door that's not going to answer.
You know what I mean?
Like, look on the positive side of things instead of looking at how negative things
are.
You know, nobody got saved today.
Well, you know what, but people went.
So praise God for that.
Praise God people are still becoming first time sowners like I got to see yesterday.
Praise God that there's still places where we can go sowning.
We're not stopped from doing it like the Apostle Paul was.
It says,
For neither, verse 5, at any time use we flattering words as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness
God has witnessed, nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we
might have been burdensome as the apostles of Christ.
And what he's saying by that, I think he's alluding back to being paid for what he's
doing.
And he's also talking about, he doesn't need glory from men, he doesn't need glory for
anybody else, but he, you know, them being apostles could have been paid.
And he addresses this in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, that they could be paid, but they're forbearing.
But it's not wrong to pay people that are working full time in the ministry.
So look at Philippians chapter 1 verse 15, Philippians 1, 15.
Philippians 1, 15, see, because some people do preach about Jesus for the wrong reasons.
The Apostle Paul tells us this in the book of Philippians, it says,
Some indeed preach Christ, even of envy and strife, and some also of good will.
The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely supposing to add affliction to
my bond.
So he's alluding to people that are preaching Christ to make people upset with the Apostle
Paul for some reason or another.
And it says,
But other of love, knowing that I am set for the defense of the gospel, what then, notwithstanding
every way, whether in pretense, or people pretending to love Jesus and preach in his
Or in truth, Christ is preached, and I do therein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice.
So there is a contention with the gospel and some people actually preach Christ to be antagonistic,
to get other people upset with other people.
And I mean, I don't know modern day what that might be, but maybe clipping people's sermons
and trying to put up, you know, there's other people in other countries that aren't free
like we are.
And if you clip somebody's, like, just say you clip somebody's preaching in Germany right
now, from faithful word Germany or whatever, and then you put that and targeted the German
government and said, here's what these people are preaching, this is where they're at, and
like, wouldn't that be for contention?
Like you're, it's a good clip, it's great preaching, but then for the wrong reasons.
I guess that would just be an instance that might come to mind, but turn to Jude 1-3.
Jude 1-3.
But the apostle Paul was saying that, you know, whether it's in truth or whether it's
in pretense, it's Christ is being preached, so that's a good thing.
But Jude 1-3, see a lot of people say, well, we're not supposed to fight with other people,
we're not supposed to, because, but what does contend mean?
It means to fight, doesn't it?
So sometimes we do have to fight, and when it comes to the gospel, we have to fight for
the right gospel.
You can't just let some Mormon roll over the top of you with their Joseph Smith garbage.
You have to tell them to shut up, you know, preach the faithful word to them, that those
that would be a gainsayer would be ashamed.
Look at Jude 1-3, it says, Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the
common salvation that was needful for me, to write unto you, and to exhort you that
you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
So he's saying, Jude is saying, that you should earnestly contend.
That means, you know, it's a serious thing, you really care about the faith that was once
delivered unto the saints, and what's that faith?
Salvation by faith alone.
And when we preach that stuff, when we go to an apartment complex, and their demon managers
come out, and their demon maintenance workers come out, trying to stop us from preaching
the gospel, why are they doing that?
Because preaching the gospel is going to cause contention.
But you're not bad for it coming.
The apostle Paul wasn't bad, because people were contending with him about it.
They're like, this guy's coming to turn the world upside down, he's coming here too.
This is what people do, folks.
This is what, you know, just when you go out and preach the gospel, expect to be contended
with.
And then, but we're also supposed to earnestly contend for the faith.
So when I walk up to a Jehovah's Witness that's been a Jehovah's Witness for 20 years, I'm
going to try to give them the gospel, but then it's just like, you kind of already know.
They're already preaching a false gospel for 20 years.
That person's not going to get saved.
But you know, they can't say you didn't try.
And I just did that recently.
And he's like, well, you know, I give you kudos for trying, or something like that.
I was just like, okay.
But I told him what I believed, and you know, he believed a false gospel.
Jehovah's Witnesses don't even know whether they're going to go to heaven or not.
As a matter of fact, they don't want to go to heaven.
They want to go to Paradise Earth.
And you know, they think it's already preordained that there's 144,000 people, and they're not
good enough to be one of those people.
But it's really funny, because it never says they're Jehovah's Witnesses, it says they're
of the tribes of Israel.
So I don't know where they get that from, but nowhere does it say Jehovah's Witnesses
is in there.
So anyway, when we're talking about the gospel, there's going to be a contention for it.
Number three tonight, the comfort of the scriptures.
The comfort of the scriptures.
Let's look at verse number 11 back in our text, it says, as you know how we exhorted
and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children.
So the Apostle Paul is an authority over this church because he's an apostle, and because
he started the church, and so it says they exhorted.
Well, that is the job of leadership, is to exhort or to encourage people to do the right
thing.
And so he exhorted and comforted, because you know what, it's also the job of a leader
to comfort the people when they're going through a hard time.
And Jesus comforted people.
He put forth that example.
And we're supposed to comfort people, but with the scriptures.
I don't go and try to comfort people with my own opinion.
When I preach a funeral, I'm not preaching my opinion about things, I'm preaching what
the Word of God says about those people that have passed on and how we can see them again.
And that there is comfort in the scriptures knowing that those that are dead in Christ
will rise again and we will see them again someday.
So it says, and charged every one of you.
What would you consider that to be?
Well, when someone's charged to do something, they're saying, these are your marching orders.
These are the things that you're supposed to do.
And so the Apostle Paul exhorted, comforted, and charged every one of you as a father doth
his children.
And so the Apostle Paul begat them in Christ, right?
He's the one that preached the gospel unto these people, or the people that were with
them and got them saved, and as a father would do with children, he's going to encourage
his children to do what's right, he's going to comfort the children when they're having
a hard time, when they're scared, afraid of the dark, or they got spanked and then they
need a little comfort after that, or somebody beat them up, or whatever.
You know, kids need to be comforted.
And kids need to be encouraged to do the right thing, but they also need to be charged to
do things.
Things like that dads would do would be, hey, clean your room, I'm charging you to clean
your room, get it done, this is how much time you have to do it, or it's the end of you
for the day.
You're going to get a spanking.
But it's all three of those things.
When you parent, it's not just encouragement.
When you parent, it's not just comforting.
And when you parent, it's not just charging.
It's not just disciplining.
It's everything put together.
And the Apostle Paul is saying as a spiritual leader and as the person that begat you through
Christ, I charged you as a father does to children.
And you know dads, we're supposed to be benevolent dictators in our homes.
Now a benevolent dictator isn't a military dictator that just says do this or die or
whatever.
But a benevolent dictator is someone that he's the boss, but he also provides and gives
benefits because he is the dad and people get to eat because dad brought home the paycheck
and dad bought the house and dad did all this.
But obviously moms, you have the role to play in raising your children also and God designed
the family to work in a specific way.
But it's specifically talking about a father to his children here.
So that's kind of what I wanted to focus on just for a second.
But we are to be benevolent dictators, not, you know, like Hitler was not necessarily
a benevolent dictator, was he?
Or Stalin.
He just killed everybody that he didn't like, right?
So that's not what we're supposed to be like.
But dictators we should be.
We're the boss.
We're the boss of the home.
That's what the Bible says.
The head of the man is Christ.
Christ is the head of the wife and that is how it goes.
So Paul is saying that he gave them commands on their behavior.
So look what it says in verse 12.
Says that you would walk worthy of God.
Walk worthy of God who hath called you onto his kingdom and glory.
So Paul, you know, obviously we believe in free grace at this church.
We believe that salvation is absolutely free apart from any works.
Salvation is eternal life.
It's the gift of God.
But we also believe that you should obey what God says.
And this is where people jump off the cliff with what we believe.
We believe those things, but yet it's funny, they're like, well you just think that people
can do whatever they want?
Well we're at their door on a hot day, you know, some of us, on a hot day and giving
them the gospel.
So you just think you can do whatever you want?
Well I'm out knocking your door and trying to preach you the gospel.
No, I don't think, I think I could do whatever I want, but I want to obey God.
That's what I want to do and that's what we should do.
We should walk worthy of God who hath called us unto his kingdom and glory.
And we got a high calling folks.
We do.
We're not just sitting here tonight for no reason.
I hope you came here to get something from the word of God.
Because God said we should assemble together and God said we should pray together and God
said that we should go out and win souls together also.
And you know, so we do have a high calling and we should walk worthy of that calling.
Look at verse 13, it says, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because
when ye receive the word of God which ye heard of us, ye receive it not as the word of men,
but as it is in truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe.
That's a big hefty sentence there, but it says that he thanks God without ceasing.
See how much he cares for them?
He loves the people here.
He thanks God without ceasing because of the fact that God has called them too, to
his kingdom.
And it says, and received the word of God which ye heard of us and received it not as
the word of men.
See, people say, well the Bible is just a book written by men, but what is the apostle
Paul saying here?
He's saying you didn't receive it like that because that's not what it is.
He received it as it is in truth, the word of God which effectually worketh also in you
that believe.
So the book of Thessalonians that you're reading tonight, it's not just a letter to some people.
It is the word of God.
And you know, 1 and 2 Corinthians, it kind of alludes to other epistles that he had written
to them that are not in this book right here, because not every letter that he wrote was
scripture.
And that's where people get confused, they're like, well what about all the stuff that's
missing like the other book of Corinthians or the book of Thomas and the book of Enoch?
People always love to bring up the book of Enoch where it talks about 450 foot tall giants
because they just love the fantastical things of God's word or whatever, but you know what?
I hate to tell you this, but the book of Enoch is not God's word because if it was, it would
be in this book right now.
Now some of the words of Enoch are in this book, but there is no book of Enoch that is
a real scriptural book.
So there's a bunch of garbage in that book.
It was not written at the same time as the New Testament was written and all that stuff.
So there's just a lot of forgeries that people have tried to throw in.
There's actually a gospel of Judas floating out there somewhere.
I mean, yeah, Judas went to hell, but he wanted to tell us about what the gospel was before
he went there.
I mean, how bizarre.
That's just garbage, folks.
What's in here is what belongs in here is because God put it in there, because God is
the one that says what's scripture and what's not, and you know, this is here before our
eyes.
You know why we're reading it?
Because it's in the Bible.
You know why it's in the Bible?
Because God said it was supposed to be in there, and the apostle Paul wrote it and said
what you received from us was the word of God.
And so when they received it, it says that it effectually worketh also in you that believe.
So what does that mean?
Well, effectually, like, it affects things.
It effectually worketh.
It works in your life.
It helps you in your daily life.
It affects the way that you live, the way that you believe, because it says it effectually
worketh also in you that believe.
So, you know, getting saved isn't the only thing.
There's also the word of God that you have to study and get preached and, you know, study
on your own, and it's going to work and affect things in your life for the better, right?
So what are the scriptures comforting?
Well, they comfort us in salvation.
It tells us how easy it is to get saved, how we are to get saved.
We're supposed to call upon the name of the Lord and believe on Him with all of our heart,
Jesus Christ, and we'll be saved.
They comfort us in the fact that there's a resurrection someday, that we're not just
living here for no reason, that there's an afterlife where we live forever, literally,
live forever.
And for us, that's hard to fathom because we see people die, we see people get older,
we've never seen anybody get resurrected.
Well, how do you know it's going to happen?
I have a hope that it's going to happen because the Bible says it's going to happen, and I
believe what the Bible says.
There is going to be a resurrection.
There's got to be something better than the life that we're living in, and yes, this life
can be good, it can be great, but it also can be misery and torment.
But these people out there that'll say, we're living in hell right now.
We ran into this person out sowing in Canada, and it's just like, we're in hell right now.
This is heaven and it's hell, and I was like, well, no it's not because you're not on fire
literally all day long.
Hell is fire and torment.
Things can be hell, maybe it's a taste of what hell would be like, but in reality, unless
you're just burning for a minute, you're not really going to taste what hell is really
like.
There are people that get caught on fire and they get burned really bad, and they've had
a taste of hell, but in reality, this world is not hell.
Hell is way worse, but the people that say that, they just probably heard it on a dumb
movie or they read it in a stupid book or something like that, but they do say it.
People will say other stuff like, well, this same person said, well, where was God when
my daughter got stabbed 42 times and killed right down the street from here?
She was like, it was her best friend.
Obviously I'm trying to be empathetic here, trying to have a little bit of empathy for
this lady, but why was your daughter hanging around some psychopath that was her best friend?
Because she was blaming God, it's like, well, why were you letting your daughter hang out
with a psycho?
Obviously you might not always know a psycho is a psycho, I get that, but then the person
was, anyway, I don't want to say what they did, but it was pretty bad, but that person's
angry with God and they have no comfort in the scriptures because they're not saved and
they think a false belief about what this world's really like and what God's really
like because God didn't have anything to do with that.
They're like, well, why didn't God stop that?
Because this world is filled with sin, we're not robots.
It's either you want to be Calvinist or you don't.
You hate the notion of Calvinism because, and I hate it too, that God just controls
everything, which he doesn't, but you want one and you want the other at the same time.
You want God to stop every bad act, but then you want to be able to make your free choices.
You know what I mean?
People, they don't understand, they're confused and they need the comfort of the scriptures
and the promises of God, but they've got to get saved first.
Comfort of the scriptures is having saved loved ones that died and you know that you're
going to see them again someday.
The comfort of the scriptures is the promises that God has promised us in our life and we
can read those promises and we know that if we do the commandments that God says for us
to do, that those things are going to happen in our lives.
We read the word of God and we're going to be like a tree that flourishes next to a river.
You think about that, you've seen some pretty good trees, they're growing next to water,
they're strong, their roots go deep.
And so, comfort of the scriptures is also that our enemies will be defeated and destroyed
by God someday.
They're not going to just keep being allowed to just get over on us all the time.
And I'm not talking about our personal enemies here, I'm talking about the enemies of God.
The ones that hate the Lord, the ones that hate Christianity, that are beyond the ability
to be saved.
God is going to put them into the dumpster someday and the devil is going to go in there
with them.
And it's the great trash can of hell.
So number four tonight, I want to talk about the truth of the concision.
The truth about the concision, well, what is the concision, Pastor Thompson?
It is the Jews.
And so it gets brought up again in this chapter, so I'm going to preach about it for a little
bit here.
But in 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 14, the Bible says,
For ye brethren became followers of the churches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.
For ye also have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they have of the Jews.
So what is it talking about?
Well, it's talking about their own countrymen doing things to them, but also as they have
of the Jews.
So here it is talking about the Jews in a derogatory statement here, but there's also
good statements about the Jews earlier on in the scriptures.
Is the Bible anti-Semitic?
Is it negative against the Jews in this passage?
Maybe it is that all the curses that God said were going to come upon them in the Old Testament
if they didn't follow him and keep the covenant have happened.
And now they become the children of the devil instead of the children of God, and when you're
talking about the Jews, it's talking about the ones that believe not, the ones that don't
believe in Jesus.
Because when Jesus came as a whole, the nation rejected him, and so God also rejected them
as a nation.
And it says in verse 15, who both killed the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and have
persecuted us, and they pleased not God, and are contrary to all men.
That's not a very positive statement about the Jews, is it?
But you know, me just reading this just makes their blood boil.
It just upsets them so much, and they say, he's anti-Semitic, he's a Nazi, he's this,
he's that.
But this is what the Bible says about the Jews, my friends, in the New Testament.
It says they killed the Lord Jesus.
You know that marching to Zion where it was that Leo guy, and he's like, this is what
they say about us, that we, Paul, this is what Paul is preaching, or whatever, right?
And they hate the apostle Paul.
Even today, they hate the apostle Paul.
I mean, that guy just, you can see the hatred on his face when he mentions Paul.
Because Paul was one of them.
He was one of the boys.
He was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he was of the stock of Benjamin, he was circumcised
on the eighth day, he was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, he's, you know, the Jew
of Jews, the super Jew.
And then he just says, all that stuff's dung, I'm saved now.
And so, he just, you know, he's like, I'm done with all this stuff, but they still hate
him.
And Paul didn't hate them, though.
You know, the same guy that wrote this sentence right here is the same guy that says, I wish
myself to be a curse for their sake, for my kinsmen, the children, you know, the children
of Israel.
He wanted, he would lose his salvation if he could, he said, if he could save his brethren.
Because that's how much he loved them, and he still kept going to them.
His manner was to go into a city and go straight to the synagogue and try to get all the Jews
saved first.
All the ones that were worthy of salvation, all the ones that would just forsake, you
know, the rabbinical Judaism that they've been being taught for about 400 years, and
forsake that stuff and get on the right program, get back on God's program.
But it says they killed, they're like, oh, the Jews didn't kill Jesus.
What's the Bible say right there?
Who both, look at the last three words in verse 14.
It says, of the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus.
Who killed the Lord Jesus?
The Jews did.
Now, I will say this, every single one of us in here killed Jesus in the way that we,
he had to die for all of our sins.
And so we put him on the cross, when you think about it, also, but we didn't actually drive
the nails in, you know, but the Jews didn't either.
But they got somebody else to do their dirty work, and this is the system that they use
to this day, is that they use their influence in this world to harm Christianity.
They hate God.
They hate the Lord, because look, the Bible says if you don't have the Son, you don't
have the Father.
They say they believe in the Father, but they really don't.
They say that they follow Moses, and they really don't.
They say, we trusted Moses.
No, you don't, because if you trusted in Moses, you know, he wrote of me, so why don't you
believe in me?
I mean, just multiple times in the Bible, it's just challenging these Pharisees.
They're saying that they believe in God, but they really don't, and that's how Jews are
today.
They're secular Jews.
I don't understand how that works, really.
They say they're Jews.
They don't go to synagogue.
You know, some of these guys just have, they probably just do some fake Passover every
year at their house, if they even do that, but they call themselves Jews.
That's how they can be liberal.
That's how they can, you know, stand for abortion and say that they love homos.
I mean, how can you say that if, you know, and I mentioned this last week, but Moses
wrote Leviticus 20, 13.
Do you follow Moses?
No.
The new IFB, bad.
They talk about homos and say that they're bad.
It's like, what are you talking about?
I thought you were a Jew, but they're not a Jew on the inside.
They're not circumcised in the heart like the Bible says you're supposed to be in the
New Testament.
The old way was the circumcision of the flesh, but we are supposed to be circumcised in the
heart.
This is the New Testament.
And so they killed the Lord Jesus.
That's what the Bible says.
And their own prophets.
And Jesus was ripping on them for that.
He's like, witch, you know, you killed the prophets and now you're washing their graves.
You know, he's like whitening their tombstones or whatever.
They're the ones that killed the prophets.
Their fathers were the ones that killed the prophets in the first place.
It says, and have persecuted us.
So they killed Jesus, they killed their own prophets, and now they're persecuting the
Apostle Paul and the movement of Christianity.
And it says that they please not God.
Please tell me if they please not God, how are they God's chosen people?
Explain that to me.
It's like, but they're still God's chosen people.
We go to pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
That Jerusalem over there is not a spiritual Jerusalem.
That Jerusalem over there is full of dead man's bones.
That place over there, you know, it's funny, they want to, the ADL, and I'll start talking
about them again, the ADL, the Anti-Defamation League, they get all mad about people saying
stuff about the border walls and how all the immigrants are coming in at record levels
and stuff, but they won't let people into their own borders, and why not?
Why do they build these high walls and keep the Palestinians out of there because they
just want to keep their place pure?
You know, and they do it because they're not real necessarily children of Abraham.
You can't use your DNA to go over to Jerusalem and say, look, here's my lineage, one percent
Jew right here.
You can't do that.
You have to renounce Christianity if you want to immigrate to Israel.
Fact, you have to.
And so anybody that's a missionary over there, I don't understand how they get around filling
out that form and why God never blesses those missionaries that go over there.
You know, God won Jews saved this year, mazel tov or whatever, you know, I don't know.
They get all excited, but, you know, I mean, that's obviously someone's got to go there,
but, you know, go there on a sightseeing tour and get some people saved or something.
But if you think you're going to thrive in a place that hates Jesus, it's not going to
happen, folks.
It's not going to happen.
You're not going to build a great church there because they are the synagogue of Satan, according
to the Bible.
So they're just like their father, their real father.
Their real spiritual father is the devil.
Jesus said that to them, plain as day, he said, ye are of your father, the devil.
So he called them out in front of everybody and said, your father is not my father because
if you love my father, then you'd love me.
And they hated him.
So they're not of God.
So how are they like their father?
How are they like their father?
Well, Satan orchestrated the Lord Jesus Christ's death through the Jews, right?
I mean, didn't the devil try to tempt Jesus and get him to fall?
And when he couldn't do that, then he just, you know, the Jews were, you know, they were
already after him pretty much.
But if they're his, if he's their father, then they're his children and they're going
to do the bidding that their father tells them to do.
And so they killed the Lord Jesus and Satan moved them to kill their own prophets.
You know, in the Old Testament, they literally stopped worshiping God and started worshiping
who?
Huh?
Baal.
And who is Baal?
He's Satan.
They literally worshiped the devil.
And then God would have to come and clean house with some savior.
They literally worshiped the devil, Baal, they killed their own prophets.
And Satan also moves the Jews to hate and persecute Christians today.
And you know, the Jews also can't please God, because if they hate his son, then, you know,
they don't love him.
And if they don't have the son, they don't have the father.
It's just as plain and simple.
And you know what the Bible says?
It says, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha.
Let them be accursed.
Let them be damned.
You know, and so, obviously, I think that there are people that would be quote unquote
Jews that still can be saved.
I think a remnant can be saved, just like a remnant in any nation can be saved.
But they are blinded.
That's a fact.
They're blinded.
And so very few of them get saved, but some do.
I think Pastor Anderson's actually got some saved and baptized them in his church.
And they were Jews, right?
So you know, they are contrary to all men.
Number five, they're contrary to all men.
Just like their daddy.
The Jews are contrary to all men.
So go ahead and turn.
We're going to go back to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, but let's go to Revelation chapter 2, verse
12 also.
Actually, that's not my fifth point.
That is the fifth thing I was going to say about the Jews.
I'm sorry.
But they are contrary to all men, just like their daddy.
So therefore, it says in Revelation 12, 12.
Maybe that was my fifth point.
No, it isn't.
Okay, sorry.
But Jews are contrary to all men, just like their daddy.
So Revelation 12, 12 says, Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabitors of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto
you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
So here's the thing, is that the Jews are contrary to all men, and so is the devil.
So is the devil.
Why have the Jews been kicked out of every nation?
Because they're contrary to all men.
They put these big usury, you know, they do this predatory lending in every nation that
they've ever come across.
England kicked them out for clipping coins.
You know, they were clipping coins, and then they just got kicked out, and they hung, like,
I don't know, a lot of them.
And they kicked them out.
And then Spain was like, yeah, we'll take them, we'll take them.
And then they did the same thing in Spain, and Spain was like, okay, you're going away
too.
Holland, you can have them.
And Holland's like, yeah, we'll take them to Amsterdam, yeah, yeah.
And then New York was called what before it was New York?
Anybody know?
New Amsterdam.
That's where they went, and that's where they have stayed.
You know, I mean, there's a lot of places in this country where there's a lot of Jews,
but there's none like New York.
Jew York, right?
But anyway, the point I was trying to make with Revelation 12 is that Satan, when Satan
falls it says, woe unto the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea.
So it's not just, you know, God's people that he wants to kill.
He wants to kill everybody.
He hates everybody.
He's contrary to all men, and his children are just like him.
The Jews are just like them.
And so now they're really covert, and they're dug in, and they're able to do all these weird
things and people don't realize, but, you know, people are starting to wake up to it.
You know, Kanye West, he kind of went off the deep end with the whole thing, but he
is right about them.
They are wicked.
And, you know, he was like, they're not going to be able to cancel my Adidas contract, and
they're like, yes they will, it's canceled.
They can get you canceled on anything.
So, but, you know, Satan doesn't love his minions either.
He's contrary to all men, you know, unlike God who will have all men to be saved.
So Satan is just like the opposite of what God's like.
He wants people to worship him, but instead of wanting the whole world to be saved, he
wants the whole world to be damned.
God loves the world and wants them to be saved.
So let's go back to 1 Thessalonians 2, verse 16, it says, forbidding us to speak to the
Gentiles that they might be saved to fill up their sins alway, for the wrath has come
upon them to the uttermost.
So again, he's still talking about the Jews here, he's saying that they try to stop them
from even just preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, and they don't like the Gentiles
either.
They call them goyim, they call them cattle.
They have no use for them, they don't want them to be saved.
When Jesus is preaching in Luke chapter 4, they try to throw him off a cliff for bringing
up two Gentile names of people that were saved.
Naaman the leper, and the woman of Zarephath.
So she, you know, he brings him up, and then they just march him and try to throw him off
a cliff.
Why?
Because they are racist, they, you know, they hate the Gentiles.
And anybody that's not a Jew, it's all right for them to trick you.
And what is it, on the Day of Atonement or something every year, or was it, does anybody
know?
Where they can, they can, they like, swear off all the things that they promised or something,
I don't know.
Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
What is it, Brother Bill?
Yeah, I can't think of the word.
Yeah, they can nullify all the contracts because those people are non-believers or whatever.
So basically they can lie and get out of things because, you know, I think it's because
of the Day of Atonement.
I think it's connected to the Day of Atonement.
Anyway, I can't remember.
It doesn't matter.
It's just one more nail in their coffin, really.
But you know, it says the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost.
Well, you know, we are saved to the uttermost.
So what does that mean, when the wrath has come upon them to the uttermost?
Like, what is the uttermost?
Does that be the ends?
I mean, it's kind of what it's saying, isn't it?
So Matthew chapter 23 verse 15 says, Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more
a child of hell than yourselves.
You know, Jesus ripped on the Pharisees for these things, and you know, they'll go sea
and land to make one proselyte, and a proselyte is someone that's, you know, you've converted.
So we make proselytes, too, people that we convert to Christianity, but they make them
more the child, twofold more the child of hell than they are themselves.
So what's he saying?
They're children of hell.
So, now, you know, the ADL, and I think I posted the ADL, last week I talked about the
ADL, and I put the article against the new IFB, did anybody get a chance to read that?
Yeah?
So basically, they mention that we do soul winning, and they put little quotation marks
by that, but see, they don't want us to reach the Gentiles either.
They want to shut us down, and on social media, I was talking about this last week, but I
wanted to talk a little bit more about it tonight, it says, social media has enabled
the, this is an article from the ADL, it says, has enabled the new IFB movement to reach
hundreds of thousands, if not millions, thanks to a tech savvy strategy that includes daily
viewership, daily viewership, video and audio content posted to numerous channels and platforms,
new IFB pastors boast of their ability to outsmart technology companies, efforts to
deplatform their hate speech by constantly re-uploading content to new channels.
So like, yeah, that's what we have done, because they're trying to stop us from getting the
gospel out.
See, they fill up their sin always, they want us to stop reaching people, you know, when
someone bans your speech like that, in a country like America where we're supposed to have
free speech, you should really pay attention.
When you aren't even allowed to question the Holocaust, or you'll go to jail in Europe,
you should question why they have that law.
You know why they have that law, and like, here it comes, you know, Pastor Thompson's,
you know, Holocaust denier, no, I'm just saying that the numbers don't add up, they don't
add up.
Like, there's no way you could cremate that many bodies in the time that they said you
could.
You just, it's impossible.
So why are you not allowed to question the Holocaust?
Because there's obviously something that they're covering up, right?
And they did truly try to give the Jews to other nations.
Nobody wanted them.
They put a bunch of them in a boat and took them to America, this is a fact of history,
and Roosevelt said no and sent them back.
So and I'm not saying that, you know, they were treated well or anything like that, I'm
not saying nobody died, but the fact is that when you have to hide the truth from people
or you have to censor what the truth is, and it's against the law to say or question
something, then that is when people should be like, oh, well, you know, there's a reason
why they don't want us to question this, because there's probably some truth to the matter.
But it's the same thing with censorship online.
The World Wide Web is the biggest way to reach people in the world, it really is.
And what they're saying here is that we have the ability to reach millions of people and
have.
When I was at Pastor Buzarnsky's church, I preached a sermon about a lady that lived
in some northern place about like a thousand miles from Montreal up in the Arctic.
And somehow her cousin downloaded a video of Pastor Anderson, got saved, got her saved
through it, she shows up to Toronto in the marathon, she lives in Montreal, she drove
like four hours to get there, and she's an Inuit.
That's like, you know, what we would call like an Eskimo or something, I think that's
offensive to them though, but for lack of a better word, Inuit are like natives that
live way up in the north, right?
So this village that you can only fly into, somehow they got a video of a gospel presentation
by Pastor Anderson and she gets saved.
And you know why?
Because the gospel has gone out over the internet and social media and so now this lady is saved
because of some gospel presentation that got shared by somebody else.
But these scumbags want to stop us from doing that.
Here's what it also says, the new IFB's expansive digital footprint is coupled with a strong
emphasis on its on-the-ground, soul-winning efforts to attract people to the movement.
As well as the establishment of new churches around the world, the majority of churches
which are currently affiliated with the new IFB movement were founded in the last five
years.
So they ban us on social media.
They throttle down and shadow ban our presence on the internet, and if you don't believe
me it's just like yeah, we're able to exist right now on YouTube, maybe not after tonight,
but we're able to exist on YouTube to a certain extent and on other social media platforms,
but before they started messing with the algorithm and shadow banning us on all of our channels
and deleting other people's channels as they built them up, we were reaching millions of
people and people were joining the movement on a massive scale and they stopped that.
You know who stopped it?
This scumbag organization called the Anti-Defamation League, a bunch of people that say they don't
like defamation but they defame us at every single thing that they say in their article.
Now this part has been true to the point so far, I mean they're giving us credit where
credit's due, but let me just tell you what shadow ban means.
Shadow ban means to block from a social media site or online forum without their knowledge,
typically by making their posts and comments no longer visible to others.
Twitter does this too, I just got one because I said that why does cement love trannies so
much, and then they shadow banned me for it.
They told me they were doing it, at least they told me this time, but have you ever
noticed like anything I post on there on Twitter, they put like a little thing over the front
of it that says this has harmful content in it?
They do it to Pastor Shelley, he's not even allowed to be on Facebook at all.
Not allowed to exist.
So you know, I mean it is true, it is happening.
So you're like Pastor Thompson, why do you care so much about this online stuff and social
media?
Well it's because it's a major component of how people have gotten saved in the past,
and you know this is how the truth has gone out to the ends of the world, so why am I
upset about it?
Well I'm pretty upset about it because they're stopping us from being able to reach people
on a scale that we should be able to reach people.
And then the ADL did this investigation on Pastor Mejia and Pastor Jimenez, and I just
found the page tonight but it said, update 818, I think it was 2022, but it says, following
the ADL's investigation, YouTube terminated both the First Works Baptist Church and Verity
Baptist Church channels.
In recent months, pastors affiliated with this virulently anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ
plus, HIV, JKLMNP, new independent fundamental Baptist, new IFB movement have taken advantage
of YouTube shorts, significantly expanding the reach of their hateful content using this
relatively new social media tool.
Some new IFB pastors have increased the average viewership on their channels by tens and even
hundreds of thousands of views per video.
So Pastor Mejia found the loophole and Pastor Jimenez were just uploading all this content,
it was great, but the ADL got them zapped.
They got their channels deleted and it's not because Pastor Jimenez was putting anything
on, he was very careful on what he put on there.
But YouTube shorts introduced by the platform in 2021 are limited in the length of 60 seconds
that are designed to be created and viewed on smartphones.
More closely resembling TikTok videos than traditional YouTube videos, a recent review
of new IFB affiliated YouTube channels in 2022 found that many churches are supplementing
their traditional weekly sermon videos with shorts uploaded and some of the movement's
most prominent pastors finding significant success using YouTube shorts to expand the
reach or promote explicitly bigoted views, including anti-LGBTQ plus content.
Pastor Bruce Mejia of First Works Baptist Church in California was one of the first
new IFB pastors to begin using the YouTube shorts in April 2021.
In addition to driving increased viewership, shorts posted to the First Works Baptist Church
channel also received far greater engagement than traditional videos as measured by the
number of likes they received.
The First Works Baptist Church channel contains 97 shorts out of the 1988 total videos posted
since 2017.
The channel averages over 140,000 views per short versus approximately 1,400 views per
video on traditional content.
So you see how it exploded, right?
And it says the average number of the likes per short is approximately 8,500, which is
100 times the average number of likes per non-short at 85.
Each of the channel's top 50 videos based on number of likes is a short.
So basically, what they did is they zapped those and stopped the ability for us to go
viral using shorts also.
And this is the ADL.
This is the Anti-Defamation League.
It's a Jewish organization.
And what are they trying to do?
They're trying to stop the Gospel from going out to the ends of the world.
They're trying to stop Bible preaching from going to the ends of the earth.
And so the wrath of God is upon this place to the uttermost.
They're not just doing a test, but they are a main target.
Church is like this.
And it's like, well, why is there only 100 views on this sermon?
Because you can't find it.
You can literally type in Steadfast Baptist Church or Pastor Shelley.
You can't even find him on YouTube.
But you have to literally type it in to find it.
So that's why Jesus took away the kingdom of God away from them.
He said, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth
the fruits thereof, Matthew chapter 21.
So it's been taken away.
It's no longer theirs.
The kingdom is ours, and they're upset about that.
They're envious about that.
They're like the prodigal son's brother that was upset because he didn't get a new coat
and have the fatted calf slain or whatever for him.
And so a lot of the stories in the New Testament, a lot of the stories that Jesus tells are
about the Jews' envy of the Gentiles.
So last thing I know we've got to get done here, but my last point, my real number five,
is Christ's coming is the crown of our ministry.
Christ's coming is the crown of our ministry.
Let's look at 1 Thessalonians chapter 2 verse 17.
I'll make this quick.
It says, but we brethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, but not
in heart, endeavored the more abundantly to see your face with great desire.
Wherefore we would have come to you, even I, Paul, once again, but Satan hindered us.
So do you think it's an accident that he's just talking about how bad the Jews are and
how the wrath of God is on them to the uttermost, and then all of a sudden he just is like,
we would have came to you, but Satan hindered us.
Do you think he was like tongue-in-cheek in that?
Do you think he's just, you know, it's hyperbole?
It wasn't really Satan, we just got hindered somehow.
No, I believe he's literally saying that Satan hindered us, because Satan and the Jews are
on the same team.
And the Jews were the ones that Satan sent after Paul to stop him, to stop the things
he was doing in these places.
And so, is what I've been saying an anti-Semitic rant?
It's the Bible, folks.
It's what the Bible says.
I mean, I read to you the verses of the Bible.
They killed Jesus!
They killed the prophets!
They stopped the Gentiles from hearing the gospel!
They hate God, and they're trying to stop this church from going forward, and other
churches like it!
And yet people are just like, oh, I can't believe you're so mean about the Jews.
They're wicked, folks!
Just learn it, love it, love the doctrine, love what the Bible says.
You know, and these Jew baggers, these dispensational dipsticks that are out there teaching that,
you know, there's some parallel covenant running along with ours.
It's not true, folks.
The Old Testament's dead and gone, the head's been chopped off of it, we're in the New Testament,
the Old Testament's done.
It's gone.
They have no covenant.
The only covenant they can get in on is the one that's on Team Jesus, and you know what?
This church is Team Jesus, and you know what?
The devil is trying to hinder us with things like this, but this is fact.
This is not just something I made up.
All that was from a website that's designed to stop churches.
This church!
Pastor Mejia, Pastor Jimenez, read the article.
I put it in there last week.
It's kind of an important thing for you to read because it shows us what we're up against.
They're messing with the algorithm, they're stopping us from getting the word of God out,
and they want it to just be us knocking doors.
You know what?
That's effective, too.
But what am I going to do about it?
What's the solution?
Well, we just have to find something else to reach people with.
That's what people have kind of tried to do, but look at verse 19, it says,
For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing, are not ye, even ye, in the presence
of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?
So there you go.
Last verse.
He talks about the crown of rejoicing.
You know it's going to be a great thing when we see the people that we've led to Christ
in the presence of the Lord Jesus with us on his coming.
The day we see our converts and the people that we led to Christ, when we see them with
us and Christ together, it will truly just sink in how important it is and how important
it was for us to preach the gospel while we were here on this earth.
It says in the last verse, For ye are our glory and joy.
And you know what?
That's the way we should look at it.
When we get people saved, do your best to try to bring them into church.
Get them baptized.
Teach them the word of God.
We need more soul winners.
We need more soldiers, and we need people to get serious about the word of God and not
to just go through the motions.
We need to find Christianity important.
Whatever state you're in, if you're in a backslidden state, then get out of it and
start getting out and going soul winning again because that's where we're going to be the
most effective.
And you know all the other stuff, there's not a lot we can do about it, but we just
got to try to find new ways to reach people.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the book of the Thessalonians, Lord, in chapter number
two.
And Lord, I pray that we just have a right, a viewpoint of what the Bible says and Lord,
we would believe it and believe what it is, the word of God, and that we would hold it
dear to our hearts.
Lord, we would just get, if we're backslidden and soul winning, Lord, I pray that we would
just get back into it.
Anybody in this room that's just out of soul winning, maybe they just don't care anymore
or they have just gotten tired of it, Lord, we all get tired, I just pray that you'd give
us an energy and a fire and the Spirit of God would just be upon this church to just
do as much as we possibly can.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.