["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Hello and welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church.
Thanks for coming out to our Sunday morning service.
Please find a seat and take out your green hymnals and turn to page 169.
Page 169, Come Thou Fount.
Sing it out on the first.
Come thou fount of every blessing To my heart to sing thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it Mount of thy redeeming love
Here I raise my Nebaneezer Hither by thy help I'm come
And I know by thy good pleasure Safely I'll arrive at home
Jesus saw me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God
Need to rescue me from danger Interposed his precious blood
O to grace how great a debtor Daily I'm constrained to be
Let thy goodness like a feather By my wandering heart to be
Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it Prone to lead the God I love
Here's my heart, O take and seal it Seal it for thy courts above
The man could sing this morning.
Brother Eli, can you open us with the word of prayer?
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for this day.
Thank you, Father, that we can be here and hear your word preached, Lord,
and to be with our brothers and sisters in Christ, Lord.
I pray you help us to be attentive to your word, Lord,
and attentive to souls that need to hear the simple gospel of believing in Jesus to be saved.
And I pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Page 180.
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful?
Page 180.
No piano?
I guess we're singing acapella this morning.
Nia's piano went out on her.
Page 180.
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful?
On the first.
There will never be a sweeter story, story of the Savior's love divine,
love that broadened from the realms of glory, just to save a sinful soul like mine.
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful, wonderful?
Hello, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful it is to me?
Boundless as the universe around me, reaching to the farthest soul away,
saving, keeping love, it was that found me.
That is why my heart can truly say, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful, wonderful?
Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful it is to me?
Love beyond our human comprehending, love of God and Christ how can it be?
This will be my theme and never ending, great redeeming love of Calvary.
Isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful, wonderful?
Oh, isn't the love of Jesus something wonderful, wonderful it is to me?
This time we'll have our announcements.
Good morning, welcome to Shore Foundation Baptist Church.
Let's take our bulletins and go through them real quickly.
If you don't have a bulletin, would you raise up your hand and Brother Ramon will bring you a bulletin.
Anybody need one? All right.
On our front cover we have our verse of the week.
It says, he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with him.
Psalm chapter 126 verse 6, that's a great scripture there about soul winning.
And our service times are on the inside page there.
It says our service time is Sunday morning, service 10 30 a.m., Sunday evening service 3 30 p.m.
And we'll be in Genesis chapter number 30 tonight in our Sunday night sermon.
And then Thursday evening Bible studies at 6 30 p.m.
And we'll be in 1 Corinthians chapter 14.
Unfortunately we had to cancel service on last Thursday.
As you can tell there's a lot of people that are sick.
And normally this would be a little more full in here.
So anyway, but I'm glad that people are staying home if they're sick because I don't want it spread around.
So we have fully gone into fist bumps.
I think that's the best way to do it without passing the gift that keeps on giving which is all kinds of manner of sickness.
There's been a stomach bug that's been going around and there's been I think last week somebody had the rona or something like that.
But I don't think anybody's gotten the rona besides just that one person.
So he isolated and he's not here.
So but hopefully he's watching online and praying for your recovery.
Brother Matt.
And so anybody that's sick just stay home until you feel better.
OK.
So but you can.
Well that's why we have the online services so you can watch online if you're not able to make it.
Anyway our sowing times are listed below there and sowing is when we go out and reach the community with the gospel.
We actually go knock on people's doors and if they're willing to listen we preach the gospel to them in hopes that they will be saved.
And so that's the main ministry of our church is going and seeking and saving that which is lost like the Lord Jesus Christ would want us to.
So we have various different times to choose from.
And if you've never been someone before and you're interested you just want to know more about it you can always see me after the service and I'll help you.
We'll get you a partner.
If you want to go out today we have a soul winning time at 1 p.m.
And so please let Brother Brandon know if you're planning on going.
Brandon is right there.
So if you want to go soul winning today he's the guy to talk to.
And then of course we have all these different times.
Wednesday is kind of an open slot right now we're still looking for someone to take that Wednesday time slot.
But it's a nice little midweek break though at the same time.
So as you can see we have so many going on almost every single day six days a week right now which is a blessing.
So and then if you're running late we do have a WhatsApp group that we put all the maps and stuff like that.
And so if you're not in the group that's OK.
We can just make sure that you get the map and everything that you need.
And if you're new to our church which we have a couple that just moved from Florida the Bata family so we're glad that you made it here.
And then we have some first time visitors here so we're very thankful for the first time visitors as well.
But anyway if you want to go soul winning again you can just see Brother Brandon he'll make sure you get a partner.
It's not as scary as you might think when you go knock on someone's door people are like oh I don't know what to do.
Well if you're a first time soul winner and you've never been before then we don't expect you to say anything.
You're a silent partner so you're just kind of there observing and training and things like that.
And keeping the dogs away petting the babies holding the dogs whatever holding the dogs petting the babies.
So anyway whatever you've got to do to kind of just make sure you intercept people that are walking at you angrily trying to stop the person from getting saved or whatever.
I mean all kinds of stuff happened we're out soul winning so but it's it's always good nobody's ever been killed yet doing it so at least in this church.
So anyway it's not as scary as you might think. Anyway we have regional soul winning times listed below.
Our newest regional leader is Cody Chandler and they had a salvation yesterday in Yakima with Brother Daniel.
And so that one's being very fruitful. He's at least getting one or two salvations per week.
And so we went out to Yakima this last week. We were there Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday.
And we had twenty three salvations. And so we got there the afternoon on Monday we were soul winning for two hours we had six salvations so it was very fruitful.
And then we had I think seven the day after that and then ten the day after that.
So we did have like a little church service where I preached on Wednesday. That was at an event center in Selah Washington and it was like a huge space we could fit 300 people in there.
But it was kind of cool. I mean it was the price was right. And the guy that rented the place to us was really nice.
We were going to be in this little tiny room. It looked like where the Chamber of Commerce met or something. I don't know.
But he just said hey well what room do you want. He offered us that big room for the same price like OK cool we'll take it.
So it was it was a really great trip. We had some family. We had some families get sick while we're there but we had I think 33 total people various times soul winning in Yakima.
And then of course we had the Seattle soul winning marathon yesterday and we had 22 soul winners show up and it would have been a lot more than that had people not been sick.
Same thing with like the Yakima thing I think we would have had a lot more people but a lot of people have been sick like I said but we still had 22 show up and six salvations.
And it was actually Lakewood so it's about 30 exits south of Seattle. We just call it Seattle or whatever.
Well I mean it all is like one big area up there anyway it's kind of like Portland how it has all the suburbs like like us we go and Hillsborough and all that.
So anyway there was six salvations and we had what I saw in the picture was 11 new soul winners.
So we had a family come go from Portland up there to go to the soul winning marathon. There was a lot of there's some faces on there that I didn't even recognize.
So I saw Ted Williams was there and he went to our last Yakima trip before this one. You know I don't know if he hit any home runs while he was there but it was great to see him there soul winning too.
So anyway our praise report you can look down you can see the salvations for the month of October 41.
And so that includes the so we had a total of 30 salvations this week so praise God for that.
And you can see our salvation is here to date baptisms brother Ian baptizes first convert last Sunday so praise God for that.
And we're planning on having him go to the Netherlands and he there's like 20 people that want to be baptized 10 to 20 people 10 to 20 that's a big variance but 10 to 20 people that want to be baptized in the Netherlands and they have like a soul winning
group there that meets together on a regular basis and so I'm going to send brother Ian is a little just a little bit closer than we are to the Netherlands so like if you look at a map of England you can see the Netherlands is just like right right there it's not
probably not even an hour plane flight. But anyway then there's Geneva Switzerland and they're wanting to do an event there. And so we're in the plans of that I'm trying to get brother Ian to go there too so I want to try to share the traveling
love with my evangelist if I can. So but be praying for those situations definitely like to reach the whole world with the gospel. Amen.
And you can see our attendance last week is a lot higher than it is today. You got a big goose egg for Thursday but it is the time of the season here for people to get sick.
So anyway so let's just make sure that we're doing our best to keep out of each other's personal space and things like that fist bumps. You know there's nothing wrong with that it kind of looks ghetto but it's the corona fist bump is what I named it.
So what it's actually any plague fist bump.
So then wash your knuckles with some hand sanitizer or something.
Anyway our events that are coming up we have today I'm preaching the third part of my series the right kind of preaching so I'll be finishing that up. And then I think I'm going to move on to I started a series at the beginning of the year or somewhere around the beginning
of the year about the kingdom of the cults and so I'm going to be continuing that. I don't know if I'm going to preach it every week because it gets a little heavy when you're doing like 20 sermons in a row about false prophets and false churches and things like that.
I'll probably mix it up with some other sermons and things like that. I definitely want to finish that series.
So October 31 which is next Sunday. And we're going to have pizza after the p.m. service. I was just trying to make an alternative so you know you all don't go trick or treating and try to get candy afterwards or something.
And so I'm asking people to bring desserts sides or snacks because we're going to have a men's preaching night and so everybody can be eating in there while the guys are preaching.
No I'm just joking. But so that's considered a special event so you are allowed to eat down here but we'll be we'll have the bathrooms open up there and stuff like that so I mean they're always open but you know what I'm saying.
So, but please let's be mindful that that is a brand new carpet in there so you know don't let your kids smash pizza into the carpet, or you, you know, brother Eli's who I worry about the most, but I'm just joking.
But anyway, we're gonna have a, you know, just a fun time after the morning service, and I don't know what we could think about for topics but you know I'm sure we'll come up with something.
Anyway, and then November six we have the men's safety team training.
And then November 14 we have Pastor Roger Jimenez coming here for the PM service. He'll actually be here all day, but he's preaching the PM service. And so looking forward to seeing Pastor Jimenez and Miss Joanne as they come up, I think, and they're bringing
a couple up with them.
So that'll be cool and then November 21 we have our Thanksgiving potluck and men's preaching night for the evening service so Thanksgiving potluck November 21 will have signups for all that of course the church will provide.
The main course, and then if you want to bring sides and things like that but if everybody brings mashed potatoes. Everybody brings chips, you know it's going to be a kind of a weird Thanksgiving public so bring your specialty dish, the one that, you know,
you don't even your grandma gave it to you, and you refuse to give it to any of your friends you know that recipe. So, bring whatever your best thing and you don't have to give away recipes I understand you want to take that to the grave with you, you know, you know
you're just you're just selfish but anyway, but at least share with us, the tasty food so anyway and then December 11 we have the ladies cookie exchange and white elephant game at 1pm at the Bender home.
Please bring three dozen cookies and container for goodies, and then bring an extra container for the 10% that you have to give to the pastor. After the event, I'm just joking.
I'm kidding. So I'm sure I'll get plenty. But anyway, December 19 so yeah if you want to, if you want to talk to me about that, see Miss Julene, and she's heading that up.
And then December 19 we have our Christmas service and children's choir. And I think we're going to get started we got the songs picked out, and I think we're going to start doing it what what week did you say rather.
November 21 what is that.
That's the day of the potluck. All right.
Sure, that's fine. Yeah, we'll make it a day.
And so that'll be this the first practice will be there and we'll, we'll get a time figured out for that. And then we are having a prime rib dinner for the whole church after the morning service so that's always a highlight of the year.
And we'll definitely need some people to participate in helping cook those.
But if you want so if you want to volunteer to cook, you're going to come up after the service I'll cook one, but I'm going to forget. So, just make sure that, you know, I'm going to basically buy all the meat and put it in the fridge here, like on Friday or something,
and that'll give you a day to have it sitting out or whatever however you chefs do it. And then we'll have a great prime rib dinner. So, December 23 we're going to have a candlelight service that will be on Thursday night, December 31 we're going to pray in the new year
and have a game night and a ping pong and foosball tournament. All right, and we'll probably have food and all that stuff like we always do. So that's a lot of announcements I get that, but you know the time.
I mean we're almost in November right now. So it's a week away basically. So anyway, we need to get all that stuff in and just a pre prelude to the sweetheart bank but we're gonna have Pastor Shelley here, preaching for us at the sweetheart married couple sweetheart
banquet. And so he'll be preaching on Saturday night and then he'll be preaching, at least one of the services on Sunday. So looking forward to having Pastor Shelley up here preaching for us, and we're a family integrated church that means the children infants are welcome during the
church services, and we have available for your family, mother baby room, which is located right there and a dad baby room which is located over there. And so those are for your convenience to train your children. They're not supposed to be a place where you're just talking having all kinds of
conversations about everything else. We're in church and so the rooms are supposed to be used. So you can still listen to the sermons and listen to the preaching at the same time as your child is screaming over the over the top of you. So anyway, no, I'm just kidding. But kind of. But you know, if your children are super loud in the service, just take them out to the mother baby room or dad baby room. And, and just when they calm down, just bring them back in that type of thing. So and the rockers are for pregnant and nursing mothers and
elders, and no mother or no dads are allowed the mother baby rooms and no mothers are allowed the dad baby rooms. No one attended children in the area, any area of the building at any time. And please no food in the assembly area. Silence your cell phones. If you would at this time, please put your phone on airplane mode. Escorts are available to your vehicles by the ushers. And we are trying to get this lighting situation fixed. At night, it's been really dark when we walk out there. So
I meant to say I'll probably bring some flashlights tonight if anybody needs flashlights to get to their cars. But no, we'll try to get those lights fixed as soon as possible. It should have been already done by the people that rent the building out to us. I don't know what the deal is with that, but we'll get it figured out as soon as possible. And then also, online donations are available on our website. There's a text giving number there. And then ties and offerings so far for October or at the bottom of the page.
And we have a couple of birthdays. We missed Zacchaeus' birthday because he was sick. And he's two years old now. And then he's been at the beach for like three weeks. So he's been having a good time. I'm just teasing. Kayla Woods, his birthday is the 21st. And I think we sing happy birthday to her. But Chantel Conlon, she's not here. And then we have a birth announcement. Isaiah Anthony Yefimoff was born on the 20th.
On the 22nd, right? Yeah, the 22nd. And he was weighing in at six pounds and 10 ounces, fighting out of the blue corner. He's a man child. And I tried to get Boris to be the first name, but he just wasn't going for it.
One of these children needs to be named Boris. It's just a Russian tradition. Or Vladimir, right? Anyway, so congratulations to the Yefimoff family. Miss Candice is doing well and recovering. And they have a beautiful baby. I didn't get a picture on there because I was trying to get one last night and this morning, but I didn't get it in time. So we'll have it on the next bulletin. I apologize for that. I can only blame Rylan for that. But is there any other? So he was 19 and a half.
19 three quarters. Oh, I got to get that extra quarter. So anyway, congratulations. Let's sing happy birthday. Did we get a chance to sing happy birthday? And everybody else.
All right. And I guess we'll sing happy anniversary to Sean and Jessica. They are not here. They have the plague. So, um, but, uh, congratulations on their anniversary. And I'm not sure how long they've been married, but, um, we'll find out on Thursday, right? When we sing happy anniversary to them. So anyhow, I think that's all I have for announcements. I know they're kind of long, but if you're a first time visitor, I do want to say this. So we have some gift packages that we have for first time visitors, please.
If you're a first time visitor, grab one of these bags that are on the table, right? As you're walking out the door on the left, they are in a bag similar to this. And it just has some information about our church, a nice pen and a DVD.
So please take this as a token or appreciation of you being a first time guest at our church. And if there's anything else we can do for you, we are happy to try to help in any way we can. We have two baptisms after the service.
And so, um, we're going to need to have some men, some ushers, get the towels ready and all that stuff. And then, you know, put the thingy on there and all that stuff. And then there's a lady that's being baptized also.
And so she's going to need a swim dress. So if there's somebody that can get that fixed up at the end of the service, or maybe just get everything ready somewhere, maybe on the last song, just help them out getting ready.
And we'd appreciate that. Yes. Okay. All right. So, so I think the swim dresses are upstairs in the ladies restroom in the cabinet. Okay. All right. And the water's warm. And so if there's anybody else that needs to be baptized, or you need to be re-baptized, I'll dunk you right now.
You know, so no, I'm just kidding. After the end of the service. So we'll probably have just like one or two extra songs at the end of the service while they're getting ready. If you're getting baptized today, just when the, when I end the service, just don't sing the last song, just go straight in to get ready to be baptized. And then hopefully you can get changed. And then if we have to sing an extra song, that's fine. Um, but then we'll, we'll baptize right at the end of the service. Okay. I think that's all I have for announcements. Let's sing another song and we'll receive the offering.
Let's open our Bibles to Psalm 126, Psalm 126, Psalm 126. Let's sing it out on the first.
When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue was singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us.
Whereof we are glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South. They the sow in tears shall reap in joy. They the sow in tears shall reap in joy.
Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad.
He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.
Then said they among the heathen, the Lord had done great things for them, the Lord had done great things for us. Whereof we are glad.
At this time we'll have our offering. Brother Robert, can you bless your offering for us?
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, just thank you for this chance to gather in your house here today, Lord. Bless the services, Lord. Bless the preaching. Lord, just bless this time of giving and help us to give with a cheerful hallelujah to Jesus. Amen.
Amen.
I didn't bring my readers this morning, so if I read a wrong word, don't label me a heretic, please. No, I'm good, I'm good.
Matthew chapter 11.
In Matthew chapter 11, the Bible reads, and it came to pass when Jesus had made an end of commanding his 12 disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.
Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples and said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?
Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and show John again those things which ye do here and see. The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
And as they departed, Jesus began to say unto the multitudes concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind?
But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, they that wear soft clothing are in king's houses.
But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if ye will receive it, this is Elias which was for to come.
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. But whereunto shall I liken this generation?
It is like unto children sitting in the markets, and calling unto their fellows, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced.
We have mourned unto you, and ye have not lamented. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, He hath a devil.
The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, Behold, a man gluttonous, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.
But wisdom is justified of her children.
Then began he to upbraid the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not.
Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Beseidah! For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon,
they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shall be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works, which have been done in thee, had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.
But I say unto you, That it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.
At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.
All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but the Father,
neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for your word and the power of it.
Father, I pray that you would be with the pastor, fill him with the Holy Spirit so that he can preach boldly.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
We're in Matthew chapter 11 for the third time in a row.
This is a great chapter, though, and I've gone, this is the third sermon of the series, The Right Kind of Preaching.
And so I'm going to finish up the series today, and great, great chapter, lots of different interesting topics in here.
But, you know, basically the right kind of preaching is preaching, you know, that it's going to get the message across.
It's not vague. It's not, you know, it's not light. It's actually using scripture to preach.
You know, right kind of preaching is actually preaching.
You know, a lot of times you're not going to get preaching at a church.
You're going to get somebody talking and giving poems.
You're going to get a 15-minute little cute message, and then you're going to go home, and that's going to be it.
And you're going to go out feeling all warm and fuzzy about yourself.
But, you know, the Bible, I talked about this last week, that two-thirds of the Bible is actually negative.
And so, and people say, well, Jesus wouldn't have judged the way you're judging.
But you see at the end of the chapter, Jesus is judging people, isn't he?
He's saying it's going to be more tolerable for Sodom than it is for these cities.
Because they saw the King of Glory, the Son of God, was there doing miracles.
They were trying to do miracles before them.
And they just had so much unbelief that he couldn't even do many of the miracles that he wanted to do there because of their unbelief.
And they literally had God manifest in the flesh right before their eyes.
And that's why he said it's more tolerable, it'll be more tolerable for Sodom because they didn't have a great prophet that went and reached them like reached these towns.
So the right kind of preaching is going to say things that are specific, you know.
But number one this morning, the right kind of preaching, you can be expected to be met with violence.
If you're doing the right kind of preaching, just be expected that you might meet violence because of it.
Because in the whole Bible people would preach, these men of God, these prophets of God that I talked about in this chapter got up and preached and they were killed for it.
There was men of God all throughout the Bible. Just think about Abel.
Abel was the first prophet and he was the second son born of Adam and Eve.
And what happened to Abel? He was murdered by his own brother.
Why? Because Abel's deeds were righteous and Cain's were evil. They were wicked.
And so the first son born on the earth was a wicked false prophet named Cain.
And he was wicked. He was an evil person.
I mean it's pretty evil to get up and murder your own flesh and blood brother because you're just an evil person and you want to do things your own way.
He brought forth the fruit of his own hands to try to give to God as a sacrifice and God didn't accept the sacrifice and it really upset him.
See a lot of people just want spirituality their own way.
But see the Bible has specific things that God lays out for us that he wants us to know and he wants us to put into practice in our life.
And the only way you're going to get exhortation and edification is going to be to go to church and listen to somebody get up and rip face and preach the hard things that you need to hear.
You shouldn't always walk out feeling great about yourself. Sometimes you should feel bad.
And you're like this isn't what Joel Osteen says exactly because Joel Osteen is a false prophet.
Because Joyce Meyers is a false prophet. She wrote a book called God's Not Mad At You.
Well are you sure about that though? Because he could be.
He could be mad at you as a Christian. You could be saved, forgiven, going to heaven and God could still be mad at you.
Doesn't mean you're going to hell but it means he could be mad at you.
And you know parents spank their children when they get out of line right?
God spanks his children when they get out of line also.
And so it's not that he's you know he hates you or doesn't want to help you.
He wants to help you and that's why he's going to correct you.
And you see throughout the whole Bible I mean Israel of the Old Testament was the physical nation of Israel.
But you know we are the spiritual Israel in the New Testament.
And so but you see how God dealt with the children of Israel in the Old Testament he punished them didn't he?
And when they wouldn't keep his commandments they'd punish them.
I mean just read the Old Testament and it's all about God punishing the children of Israel because they wouldn't keep his commandments because they wouldn't keep the covenant.
And finally he just took Samaria out completely and replaced them with other people from Assyria.
Then he you know Judah was the only tribe that was left and then God wiped them like you'd wipe a dish and turn it upside down.
He completely annihilated Israel. He completely annihilated Judah.
Why? Because they wouldn't listen to the preaching of the prophets and the people that God sent unto them.
They would stone them. They would hurt them. They would cast them into prison and do all manner of evil against them.
And so today you know you can be met with violence for preaching God's Word.
Or you can have people attack you and persecute you because of the messages that you preach.
Now Jesus he said speaking to the Pharisees and the Sadducees he said you know you're the children of them that killed the prophets.
They're sitting up there saying you know if it was if it was in our time we would have never done what they did.
But Jesus said no you're the ones you're the children of them that killed the prophets. You're just like them.
And what did they do? They killed the ultimate prophet. The prophet that was sinless.
The prophet Jesus Christ who is also the son of God and God manifests in the flesh.
Now let's look at our text in verse number 12. So point number one is the right kind of preaching can be expected to be met with violence.
And look at verse number 12 it says and from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.
Now it's a popular teaching that you know that Christians should go into the military in America and serve their government and all this stuff.
But Jesus was nonviolent. Jesus you know he didn't want he doesn't want Christians to to be violent.
And I would say that it's not right for us to sign up for military wars.
You know obviously if a country attacks us and we're defending ourselves all bets are off then.
I mean America's got more guns than anybody I think. Per household I think that we have more guns than anybody else.
Maybe Canada is close but I don't even think I don't even think Canada would use their guns even if they had a chance to.
But anyway that's another sermon for a different time.
But Jesus said here from the days of John the Baptist until now that the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence.
And so what happened to John the Baptist? He got his head cut off didn't he? And what was he doing preaching the truth?
He was a special prophet. Jesus said he was more than a prophet. He was the one crying the voice crying in the wilderness.
And he was preparing the way of the Lord. He was a great man of God. He was filled with the spirit from his mother's womb.
He was a godly man. And Jesus said among those that are born among women there's not risen a greater than John the Baptist.
So did John the Baptist have a right spirit? Absolutely he had a right spirit. He was doing exactly what God said to do.
And guess what happened? He still got his head cut off anyway. And placed into a charger. You know what a charger is?
Like a silver platter. You know have you ever seen those fancy restaurants where they have the and they go wow and then they show you what's in there?
Well his head was in one of those. You know? And so yeah that's gross to think about.
But that's the way it is right now. The Bible says the violent take it by force. As Christians we're not supposed to be violent.
We don't go and hold knives to people's throats and say convert or die. That's the Muslims. We don't do that.
There's other religions that would do that. But you know the Catholic Church would do that.
The Catholic Church just wiped out whole populations if they didn't convert.
So you know that's not what Christianity is all about. We're supposed to go with the message of the gospel and convert people that way.
And if people don't want to hear it then just like Corazon and Bethsaida and all these other places.
You know you wipe the dust off your feet and walk away and let God judge that place. Because God's going to.
Now let's look at Matthew chapter 14 verse 1.
So the violent will take it by force. The kingdom of God is suffering violence even now today.
And it's getting ramped up right now in America. You know we're being told that we're killing people by not getting a vaccine.
What about the babies that you're killing every single week in an abortion holocaust in this country?
That's okay. That's okay for them because it's just an amoeba blob or whatever they say. No it's not. It's a child.
And so it's wicked as hell today that people are saying oh it's okay to murder children in the room. My body my choice.
But when it comes to the vaccinations it's not your choice anymore. No it's their body and their choice for what you do with your body.
And it's wicked today.
But look at Matthew chapter 14 verse 1 it says.
At that time Herod the Tetriarch heard of the fame of Jesus and said unto his servants this is John the Baptist.
He has risen from the dead. Therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him.
For Herod laid hold on John and bound him and put him in prison for Herodias sake his brother Philip's wife.
For John said unto him it is not lawful for thee to have her.
And when he would have put him to death he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet.
So what did John do that was so bad?
He said hey it's not right for you to steal your brother's wife and be married to her.
He said it's wrong.
You know that's what he said. That's all he said.
It's not lawful for thee to have her.
And so he was going to put him to death but he feared the multitude.
And it says in verse number 5 it says he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet.
But when Herod's birthday was kept the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod.
So his step-daughter or whatever she was is dancing before the step-dad which is kind of weird right?
But it pleased him to the point where he just basically offered her whatever she wanted.
Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatsoever she would ask.
And she being before instructed of her mother said give me here John Baptist's head in a charger.
Well that's kind of an odd thing to ask for.
She could ask for anything else but she wanted to kill a good man of God the prophet for what?
For preaching against her mommy.
For preaching against an unlawful union, a wedding that should have never have happened.
And what does John do?
He's just preaching the truth.
He's just preaching what's right and he was murdered for it.
Look at what it says in verse 9.
And the king was sorry nevertheless for the oath's sake and for them which sat with him at meat he commanded it to be given her.
And he sent and beheaded John into prison.
So there's no doubt he murdered John the Baptist.
Did he not?
He murdered the greatest man born among women on this planet besides the Lord Jesus Christ.
Murdered him for what?
For preaching the truth.
The right kind of preaching can get you killed.
See but Joel Osteen's never going to get killed because you know what he doesn't preach an ounce of truth.
John MacArthur is never going to get killed because he doesn't preach the truth either.
He's actually a heretic.
He teaches that the blood of Christ isn't even special and doesn't even save you.
It's like what? I mean how many times do you have to see the word the blood in the Bible to see that it is something that's special?
The precious blood of Christ? Have you ever heard that saying before?
I mean come on.
Look what it says in verse 11 it says in his head was brought in a charger and given to the damsel and she brought it to her mother.
I mean what kind of wicked people would ask for the head of a good man?
What kind of people would get mad, so mad at the preaching that they have the man murdered?
And this is King Herod the great's son and it says and his disciples came and took the body and buried it and went and told Jesus.
You know and it did upset Jesus. He didn't really necessarily show it too much.
But you know they went out to a desert place to rest a while after this because you know I'm sure it shook some of the people.
It shook some of the disciples.
The fact that John the Baptist you know a guy that baptized some of them.
And got a lot of people saved that he would be murdered just for preaching what was right what was true.
So verse let's look at Hebrews chapter 11 verse number 36.
And the Bible says you know people just think that there's this fluffy Christianity where nobody ever gets hurt.
Nobody ever gets mad. Nobody ever gets judged. Nobody ever gets killed.
You know there's no kind of condemnation of any kind in these people's minds.
There's a group of Christians out there that think that nothing bad should ever happen.
If something bad is happening to the preacher it's that preacher's fault.
What a weird concept that is.
It's the preacher's fault for preaching the Bible. How dare he do that?
What are you talking about? That's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to preach the word.
Preach the word. That's what the Bible says right?
Look at Hebrews chapter 11 verse 36.
It says and others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings.
Yay moreover of bonds and imprisonment.
So people throughout time have had cruel mockings where they're just teasing you know.
And people get teased today. I'm sure you as a Christian have got teased at some point.
At some point someone calls them. They find out you're a Christian.
They like to just bring up something that they heard on CNN.
Or they heard it on the History Channel or some other stupid show that's mocking the Bible.
And then they bring that question up to you.
Answer this one oh foolish one.
And that's why you should know your Bible so you can just cut those people to the quick.
And you know what? People are still going to make fun of you regardless.
They spit in Jesus face. They mocked him. They slapped him. They punched him.
And asked him who hit you? Who prophesied? Who is it that hit me?
But they also say scourgings. People have been whipped and beaten.
The apostle Paul comes to mind. And Jesus Christ of course was scourged.
He says yay moreover of bonds and imprisonment.
Jeremiah the prophet was thrown into prison.
You know lots of the prophets were thrown in prison because of the things that they preached.
It says they were stoned. That means they were killed.
Stephen was stoned to death for what? What did he do? Preached the word of God.
Preached a sermon that the Jews didn't like.
And they gnashed on him with their teeth.
And they stoned, they drug him out of the city and stoned him to death.
It says they were sawn asunder. They were tempted.
They were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins being destitute, afflicted, tormented.
You know this isn't the type of Christianity that you're going to learn at most churches today.
But this is what the Bible teaches. This is the truth.
It says of whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth.
Meaning they're having to hide out because people are trying to kill them. Right?
Now this makes me think of Revelation chapter 6.
Now go ahead and turn to Revelation chapter 6.
See there's going to come a day of reckoning.
Where the men of God and the people of God aren't going to have to run around and hide anymore.
They're not going to have to go out and hide out in some cave or in some mountains.
Or just not tell people that they're Christians so they won't get killed or things like that.
And obviously we should have the courage to name the name of Christ.
You know the Bible says let the redeemed of the Lord say so.
If you're saved and someone says hey are you saved? You should say yes I am.
And this is why I'm saved and this is who saved me.
But you know it's easy to say that when nobody's trying to kill you.
It's easy to say that when someone doesn't have a gun pointed at your head.
Millions of Christians have been killed. At least hundreds of thousands of Christians have been killed.
I mean just think about the time when the Soviets took over.
And I'm not sure how many people were actually saved in Russia at that time.
But if you even said you were a Christian.
It was an atheistic nation. They would just put a bullet in your head.
Or they'd send you off to the gulags and work you to death and torture you there.
But there's coming a time when there's going to be a reckoning.
And God is going to recompense everything upon their own heads.
And as we were the ones that have to be put in hiding and all this other stuff being destitute, afflicted and tormented.
They're going to get theirs. They're going to get what's coming to them.
Look at Revelation chapter 6 verse 14.
It says, and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together.
That'll freak people out. The cover's torn off.
You know? People are going to freak out. People are going to see this.
The heavens rolled back like a scroll.
And it says, and every mountain and island were moved out of their place.
A gigantic earthquake is going to take place.
That'll freak people out, won't it?
And look what it says in verse 15.
And the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the chief captains and the mighty men and every bond man and every free man.
What did they do?
Hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.
So there's going to come a time when we're not running anymore.
There's going to come a time when they're running, when they're hiding.
And you know who they're afraid of? They're afraid of the face of the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.
Verse 16, and said to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sith on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.
There's going to come a time when they're going to the mountains, when they're hiding in the dens and the caves of the earth because they're afraid of God.
You know, they haven't feared him all this time, but you know what? They're going to fear him one day when he rips the canopy off.
And then they're going to see the face of the wrath of the Lamb of God and they're going to be afraid.
And you know what? We're going to be comforted.
We're going to be, the people that have died before us that are saved are going to rise from the dead and get brand new bodies that can never die.
And we're going to be, those that are alive and remain will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
So we should comfort ourselves in those things knowing that even if we did die a death that was brutal for preaching the truth,
if we, if this type of preaching, if the preaching that's preached out of this pulpit and pulpits across America that are actually preaching the truth,
if we get destroyed, if they take away our building, if they take away our livelihoods, if they take away every drop of money in our bank account, so be it.
Because you know what? We have riches in heaven beyond anything that Bill Gates has.
We have riches that we have to look forward to, the rewards of God that he's going to give us for being faithful.
You know what? But people are going to look at that and if we, say we do lose everything.
Say we are meeting underneath a tree somewhere at some point in time.
Say we're just going from house to house meeting and having small meetings or something like that.
That might come down, it might come down to that.
But then there will be people that look down their nose and they're going to say, you see they shouldn't have been preaching that stuff.
You see they were preaching, you know they should have never preached against the sodomites.
No, that's the right kind of preaching folks.
The right kind of preaching is the preaching that could wind you up getting killed.
And it can be all different manners of things but whatever it is, it's straight out of the Bible.
That's the kind of preaching that could get you killed.
This book right here is banned in multiple countries.
You know why it's banned? Because they don't want the truth to come out.
They want to censor the truth and not have this book.
North Korea, you're killed for having a Bible. Period.
China, you can't even preach. Anything that says that would even remotely say that China could be overthrown, you're not allowed to preach that.
They have state run churches where you can't preach the book of Daniel.
You can't preach the book of Revelation because the book of Revelation says that God's going to come and destroy all the kingdoms of this world and he's going to take the kingdom for himself.
He's the stone rolled down and smote the image on the feet and destroys all those world systems.
Someday Jesus Christ is going to be the king and you know what, we're going to be ruined, we're going to be reigning, but right now it isn't that way.
There's all these spiritual wickedness in high places, all these reprobates and wicked people that the devil has sown in among the wheat.
And you don't even realize it sometimes. What kind of contrary are we living in when you're told you're going to have to quit your job or take this stupid injection?
You know what, I've already had COVID. I have more immunity than the people that took the shot.
Where's there science on that? Science would tell you that it's better to actually have had the actual disease and to recover from it and you have immunity from that.
There's people from the early 1900s that are still alive that went through the Spanish flu and you know what, they still have immunity today.
And you know why? Because they actually had it and survived it.
They dig up bodies in places around the world where it was, I just saw this, I just happened to see this video where they dug up someone that they thought died from the Spanish flu and they were in like this tundra area.
And they got the DNA from them and they tested their blood and they still had the immunity even when they were dead.
So that's actual science.
A God-given immunity that God made us were wonderfully made, were made in the image of God.
He gave us a dynamic system where you blink your eyes, you don't realize it, your own personal windshield wipers.
When we sleep, we regenerate. He made our bodies wonderful, didn't he?
But, you know, these people know more than God.
These people, you know, but what is it? It is persecution.
Because, you know, there's a bunch of people standing up and saying, I'm not going to take the vaccine, I'm not going to do that.
And then they've all caved.
And then the 5% of the people where I work that actually didn't do it, now they can just do whatever they want.
Because nobody else would stand with those people that said, I'm not going to take it.
And now you've got 5% of the people that work there and they're like, well, you can't come on the property unless you have a gas mask on now.
What?
I have immunity, I have more immunity than you do and you're telling me I've got to wear a gas mask?
There's people that are getting COVID, there's people that are getting COVID that got the shot.
And what do they call them, breakthrough cases or something like that?
What is it called?
Okay, I thought somebody would know.
I think it's called breakthrough cases, where it's breaking through the immunization.
You know why? Because they don't work.
That's why.
I'm probably going to get a strike for that.
But anyway.
But Jesus is going to come and they're the ones that are going to be hiding.
You know, the devil has his army and they're in full strength right now.
And they own the judges, they own the lawyers, they own all the principalities and powers.
The devil has a very organized system and he's put his people into place.
And you know why it seems so hard for Christians to win sometimes?
Because we don't have a chance.
Because they're going to rule against you.
Because even though you're on the side of right and you can prove your case, they're going to go, nope.
Even though you're right and you know you're right and you can prove you're right,
then they're still going to dismiss your case or rule in favor of the wrong people.
But you know what? Even so, God is still on the throne. Amen?
So look what it says in verse 17. It says,
For the great day of His wrath has come, and who shall be able to stand?
Nobody's going to be able to stand before the Lord.
They're all going to cry and hide.
All these tough guys, all these people that wanted to mock Christians, all these people who wanted to hurt Christians.
They're going to be hiding like little babies and crying and sucking their thumbs while the Lord Jesus Christ comes and wipes them out.
Look at Romans chapter 8 verse 33.
You know, and even though sometimes, you know, and sometimes we lose battles, don't we?
Sometimes we're going to lose.
You know, it seems like we're losing, but we're just losing battles.
We're not losing the war. At the end of the Bible, it says who wins the war?
It's God. And you know what? It's God's people.
But see, God's people got to stay faithful.
God's people got to stay faithful.
I'm not saying stay faithful to be saved.
I'm just saying we need to stay faithful and stand with those that would get up and preach the gnarly truths of the Bible.
The hairy sermons, like I talked about last week.
Look at Romans chapter 8 verse 33.
But regardless of whether they persecute us and hurt us and kill us for the things we preach,
look at what the Bible says in Romans 8, 33.
This should comfort you a little bit.
It says, 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 is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
You know what? We have a great Savior that died for us.
And you know what? He makes intercession for us.
And he says, you know what? Who can lay anything to God's elect, any charge to us?
It's God is the one that justifieth.
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.
So whether we're killed or not, you know what? Christ, we're not separated from Christ.
You know, our soul might be separated from our body.
You know, the minute John's head came off, he was with God in heaven.
And I'm sure he was comforted with that.
So you just feel a little pain there for a second and then you're right there with God, amen?
Nothing can separate us from the love of God.
But you know what? You can expect if you're preaching the right things.
And look, anybody in this room can preach.
You know, you're preaching at the doors. If you're preaching the right gospel, you could get killed for that too.
I mean, what was Paul doing? He was a missionary.
Paul was going and preaching the gospel and getting people saved, but what happened to him?
He was stoned, you know, left for dead.
He was beaten with rods.
He was, you know, whipped.
You know, thirty-nine or forty lashes saved one, what, five times?
He was beaten with rods three times.
He was shipwrecked.
You know, he had to be, you know, hung down in a basket to escape.
He was always just on the run.
Was Paul doing something wrong?
Did Paul, you deserve that, Paul.
You shouldn't have been preaching. You should have been knocking on people's doors, Paul.
But yet people say the same thing to us when we knock on their doors.
Why are you here?
Get out of here. This is private property.
You know what? The last thing I knew is that God, you know, owns the whole world.
So, why don't you take it up with him? He's the one that told us to go from door to door and daily in every house
and to cease not to preach and teach Jesus Christ. Amen?
Number two this morning.
The right kind of preaching will get you falsely accused.
Let's look back in our text at Matthew chapter 11 and verse number 18.
Matthew chapter 11 and verse number 18.
It says, For John came neither eating nor drinking.
Nor drinking and they say, they say, He hath a devil.
So what are they doing?
Falsely accusing John of being a devil.
And look at verse 19.
And the Son of man, it's talking about Jesus, came eating and drinking and they say,
Behold, a gluttonous, a man gluttonous and a winebibber.
So they're accusing of being a glutton and an alcoholic.
He's a wine, that's what a winebibber is. Someone that just drinks wine all day long.
A friend, a publican and sinners, but wisdom is justified of her children.
So they're accusing John of being a devil.
They're accusing Jesus of being a man that's gluttonous and a winebibber.
And you know what? I'm sure these accusations followed them through their whole ministries.
There's always going to be those people out there that are going to just falsely accuse you
and then they're just going to keep repeating that accusation over and over and over again
hoping it'll catch on and someone will listen to it.
They're like troll, you know what trolls are?
Well trolling is a type of fishing where you put something out
and then you kind of put a frog on it or whatever and some bass will jump out.
But trolling is like you're in a little boat, right?
And you're just kind of going really slowly and you're trying to get a fish to bite at whatever the trolling device is.
But you know online you have trolls that like to go out and do the same thing.
They put little bits of information out there, they make accusations
and then hoping that somebody will see it after they repeat the same thing over and over and over again.
Have you ever noticed that on YouTube comments that people are just
that they have people that just say the same thing every time?
Like they'll say different things but then they'll still slip in every single time the same thing.
Why do they do that? Well that's what people that hate God have always done.
They follow Jesus around from town to town you know lying about him and telling people that he was a wine bibber and gluttonous.
And they told people that John had a devil.
But what's the reality of the situation? They were just preaching the truth.
They were just preaching that was right but they still got falsely accused.
Jesus never sinned in his whole life.
Jesus cleaned his room every time his parents told him to.
I mean just think about that for a second.
The Bible says that Jesus did always those things which were pleasing to the Father.
He never sinned in his whole life.
He was tempted in all points yet without sin but you got these people that actually were sinful people
that actually were wicked people that are accusing him of these lies.
Now turn to Matthew chapter 26 verse 57.
Matthew chapter 26 verse 57.
People were always falsely accusing Jesus of things.
But specifically look at this in Matthew chapter 26 after they arrested him.
It says that they that laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas the high priest.
Where the scribes and elders were assembled.
But Peter following him afar off unto the high priest's palace and went in and sat with the servants to see the end.
Now the chief priests and the elders and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death.
See and these are the types of things that are going to happen.
Jesus said that we're going to be taken before kings.
We're going to be taken before the synagogues and we're going to be falsely accused.
But you know the Spirit is going to help us in that time to say that which is right.
But look what it says.
Now the chief priests and the elders and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death but found none.
Yea though many false witnesses came yet found they none.
At the last came two false witnesses.
And said this fellow said I am able to destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days.
Which is a lot. He was talking about the temple of his body.
That his body was going to die and three days later he was going to rise it up.
But what are they saying?
They're saying he said that he could destroy the temple.
The actual temple that was at that time and build it back up again in three days.
So what are they doing? They're lying about Jesus.
It says they're false witnesses.
Thou shalt not bear false witnesses.
One of the Ten Commandments.
This is the ultimate false witness.
The false witness would have someone put to death.
And that's what they did.
They put Jesus to death for the message that he preached.
Was it the miracles that he did?
I don't think it was the miracles he did.
They wanted to put him to death.
Well I think a little bit had to do with some of the miracles.
People saw what he did and they thought this is great.
He raised Lazarus from the dead.
All he did was just say Lazarus come forth and Lazarus came forth.
So it probably was a little bit about that but what he preached is what really angered them.
The authority with which he preached angered them greatly.
They were like who gave thee the authority to teach these things?
They were always angry about that.
But you know he's God.
He has all the authority to preach those things.
And he was right about everything he said.
But here's some other false witnessing that happens.
Turn to John chapter seven verse nineteen.
John chapter seven verse number nineteen.
The Bible says in John seven nineteen.
Did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you keepeth the law?
Why go ye about to kill me?
And the people answered and said thou hast a devil who goeth about to kill thee.
But yet in the book of John if you read chapter after chapter
Jesus had to go around to the outsides of the towns because they were trying to kill him and capture him at every point.
They were always trying to get him away from the people so that they could capture him and kill him.
And that's what they were trying to do.
And Jesus just called them out for it and they were like thou hast a devil.
They're saying that Jesus Christ had a devil.
So they're saying that the spirit that was in him was the devil.
Which is blasphemy of the Holy Ghost.
A sin that you can never be forgiven for.
Now I don't believe a Christian can commit blasphemy of the Holy Ghost because we can't lose our salvation.
So I don't think a Christian could ever blaspheme the Holy Ghost.
People will say that when we say well is there anything you could ever do to lose your salvation?
They're like yeah if you blaspheme the Holy Ghost it's like but you can't do that.
And so you can't do anything that would unsave you because you're already saved right?
People that are unsaved and die they go to hell for all eternity.
Same thing with people that are saved they go to heaven for all eternity.
There's only two options and both of them have eternity involved.
Look at John chapter 8 verse 51.
John chapter 8 verse 51.
There's a couple pages over or another page over in your Bible.
It says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.
Then said the Jews unto him, now we know thou hast a devil.
Abraham is dead in the prophets and now sayest, if a man keep my saying, he shall never taste death.
So what are they doing?
Here's two chapters in a row and I can show you a lot more things but I'm not going to.
I'm going to show you a couple more but basically this is what was happening through his whole ministry.
People are falsely accusing him. Why?
Because they want to hurt the person that's bringing the message.
They can't gainsay the message. They can't say the message isn't right.
So what are they going to do? They're going to just try to destroy the person's character.
Try to destroy who they are and lie and falsely accuse them about things that they actually didn't do.
So like saying that you're a glutton and a wine bibber or that you have a devil.
And so look at Mark chapter 3 verse 22. Mark chapter 3 verse 22.
Mark chapter 3 verse 22 says, And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said,
He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
So Jesus Christ is casting devils out basically everywhere he goes in the book of Mark.
It has the most exorcisms in the whole Bible and so what do they say?
Well he has the prince of the devils in him.
They're saying he has Satan inside him.
And what does he really have inside him? He has the Holy Spirit of God inside him.
So they're basically attributing the miracles of God to the devil.
And that is what blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is.
And so they're basically just repeating this thing over and over again like a mantra aren't they?
The accusations just keep following him wherever he goes.
Whatever he's doing they're just on him.
Just accusing him falsely of all this stuff and that's what's going to happen when you preach the right message.
When you preach the truth. When you preach the right things.
Then people are going to accuse you of all manner of things that are not true.
It just happens. It happens with every preacher that's preaching the truth.
It happened with John. It happened with Jeremiah.
It happened with all the preachers and pastors in the Bible.
Now look at Matthew chapter 12 verse 24.
So they accuse him of being Beelzebub. Beelzebub is the devil.
That's who the you know Baal in the Old Testament is the devil.
Now look at Matthew chapter 12 verse 24.
Matthew chapter 12 verse 24 it says,
But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of devils.
So the prince of devils is who? Satan. Right?
Satan is the commanding general of the army of the wicked devils. Right?
He is the prince of the devils. He is Beelzebub. He is Satan. He is Lucifer.
So what I would just say is this.
People are going to false accuse me. They do it all the time.
All the time.
You know and you just have to learn to just get over it and get used to it.
It's just going to happen.
Every single sermon I preach.
I mean we're in Yakima and the trolls just attack our YouTube like relentlessly.
I didn't see what was happening but I know Robert was whack-a-moling in there.
And just banning people.
But what are they doing? They want to stop the work of God from happening.
We went there and did a great work and they're trying to just
anybody they can latch onto and drag out.
That's what they want to do.
So watch out for mantras.
Mantras are just things that are repeated over and over again. Right?
And so this is what they do with their accusations.
Every time they get on, they comment.
It's always some kind of false accusation.
This pastor is this. This pastor is doing that.
And then I had this person that was a troll just recently was saying
that I was going against what the King James Bible said
because I preached a sermon about being an independent Baptist
and in that sermon I said that the angels that it's talking about
were probably the pastors of those churches.
The seven churches, seven angels.
But angel means messenger.
And so I did say that the underlying Greek word for angel just means messenger.
It's translated as messenger in other parts of the Bible so that's what it means.
Now there are different, so this person is just like
just trying to battle with me about this subject.
I'm just like, look, there's angels in the Old Testament that were men.
You know, there's angels in the Old Testament that were actual angels.
And guess what? Some of them were God.
Sometimes when it said the angel of the Lord it was a pre-incarnate form of Christ.
But this person was just saying, it always means angel.
Look at Hebrews chapter 1. I was just like, no, no it doesn't.
And so I had to finally pull out the angel of the Lord.
I said, do you think that there's any pre-incarnate appearances of Christ in the Old Testament?
And they're like, I see where you're going with this.
Yeah, you lose, buddy, because you suck and you don't know what you're talking about.
I had to pull out the big guns.
But I noticed they quit commenting after that because they got smoked.
You better have your ducks in a row first before you come at me with something stupid like that.
But anyway, that is a side note.
But my point is that watch out for mantras, watch out for people just subtly.
It's an effective brainwashing technique.
Think about this, you know, just repeating four more years, four more years.
Why do people do that?
Because it's a mantra they want to stick in your head.
How about one, two, three, four, I love Marine Corps.
Why do they drill that stuff into people's heads?
Because they just want them to think of only of what they're repeating to them over and over again.
And that's what brainwashing does.
And that's a technique, it's repeating mantras.
Just repeating, how about USA, USA.
When I was ten years old I went and saw Rocky IV in the movie theater.
Where the Russian, you know, this is at the height of the Cold War.
I told Anthony this story like a week ago or something.
But it was Christmas night.
You know, back then like movie premieres were a big deal or whatever.
And especially if it's Rocky against the Russian, you know, impossible to beat Russian.
But I remember there was, it was packed.
And, you know, Rocky's fighting the Russian, right, and he's getting beat up or whatever.
He's already killed Apollo Creed.
And, you know, when Rocky finally knocks the Russian down, everybody in the movie theater is going, USA, USA.
I might have joined in, I mean, I don't.
1985.
Anyway, yeah, that dates me, doesn't it?
So, but what I'm saying to you is that people will brainwash you with mantras.
And they'll try to just stick things in your head.
You got to watch out for stuff like that because that's what they did to Jesus.
He's a wine-babber.
You know, he's a glutton.
He has a devil. He has the prince of devils.
I mean, I just showed you a few examples, but I could have showed you more.
They're just wickedly, falsely accusing good men of God and Jesus.
He wasn't the prince of devils. He was the prince of peace.
He was the king of kings and lord of lords.
And he was filled without measure with the Holy Spirit, not the spirit of Beelzebub.
So repeating lies over and over again, hoping someone will see and be turned because of it.
Hoping someone will hear what that person's saying and be turned from it.
That's what they want.
That's what you see how people still do it today.
They just have different avenues of doing it.
Social media is a big thing in our day and age, and we have a big social media ministry here.
And so people are going to use social media to repeat their mantras.
And it's very effective. They don't have to show up at our preaching services to do it.
Now they can just do it online.
You know, if they show up and do it here, they're going to get thrown out.
So, but you got to be careful about that stuff.
And repeating lies over and over again.
This is, you know, the other part of it.
They just repeat lies over and over again.
So these are not just mantras, these are lying mantras.
Lies that they're repeating.
You know, Hitler said if you tell a lie long enough and often enough, people will believe it.
Eventually people will start believing that lie, or people will start using the same words that someone else is using when that's not really what the word was.
You know, I see it happen all the time. You got to watch out for that.
Now look at Matthew chapter 10 verse 24.
Matthew chapter 10 verse 24.
Here's how Jesus addresses these accusations.
It says,
The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord.
So we should be, we're supposed to be like Christ. We're supposed to be followers of Christ.
It says,
If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?
So anybody that names the name of Christ, anybody that's saved and is in the household of God,
if they accuse Jesus of being Beelzebub, it says how much more shall they call them of his household?
They're going to call you worse.
They're going to say worse things about you.
And it's not just about the pastor or the preacher.
It's about anybody in this church that believes the truth.
They're going to accuse you of false things.
You know, I'm sure you have family members that have called you cult members.
Right?
Who's been called a cult member?
I've been called a cult leader.
Some of my wife's family called me the next Jim Jones.
It's like, you guys want some Kool-Aid after the service?
I mean, that's ridiculous.
Why? Because we preach the Bible? Because we believe the Bible?
I'm sorry.
You call yourself a Christian, but you don't believe the Bible?
Why are you even in it for?
If you don't believe this book, then what are you even a Christian for?
This is the book that tells us how to be a Christian.
This is the book that tells us how to be saved.
This is the book that tells us how to preach.
Right?
They false witness against Jeremiah, and I don't have time to get into the whole story.
But, you know, Jeremiah's preaching and saying, hey, all these people are, you know,
don't worry the fact that Babylon's leaving.
They're going to come back.
And they're going to come, and they're going to smoke this place.
And he actually says, at one point, I'm not going to have you turn there, but it's Jeremiah chapter 37 verse 13.
He basically says, let me get to the part here.
Oh, yeah.
Verse 10 it says, For though you had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you,
and there remained but one wounded men among them,
yet they should rise up, every man in his tent, and burn the city with fire.
That's how sure God is that they were going to be overthrown.
One wounded man would rise up and catch the city on fire.
It's like the stones would call out.
You know, you could try to press God's word in any way, shape, or form, but you know what?
God's going to make it happen some way, somehow.
But when Jeremiah preached that sermon, you know, one of these guys grabbed Jeremiah
and accused him of falling away to the Chaldeans.
You're a traitor to our country.
You're a traitor to the nation of Israel.
You're a spy for the Chaldeans.
And then Jeremiah said, It is false, I fall not away to the Chaldeans.
But he hearkened not to him.
So Arijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes.
Wherever the princes were wroth with Jeremiah and smote him and put him in prison,
in the prison house of Jonathan the scribe, for they had made that the prison.
When Jeremiah was entered into the dungeon and into the cabins, Jeremiah remained there many days.
So Jeremiah did a lot of prison time.
That wasn't the only time he was ever cast into prison.
He was cast into prison multiple times.
But why? What did he do?
Preach the truth.
What did they do?
Accuse him of being a traitor?
A false accusation?
And even though Jeremiah said, Hey, it's false.
Did they listen to him?
No.
They just keep on with the accusations.
Luke chapter 9 verse 51.
The Bible says in Luke chapter 9 verse 51, it says,
When the time was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
and sent messengers before his face, and they went and entered into the village of the Samaritans to make ready for him.
And they did not receive him because his face was though it would go to Jerusalem.
And when his disciples, James and John, saw this, they said,
Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven and consume them even as Elias did?
But he turned and rebuked them, and said, You know not what manner of spirit you are.
For the Son of Man has not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them, and they went to another village.
Now the reason I'm reading this is because we've been accused of having a bad spirit at this church.
You know, and Jesus is rebuking, he gets angry with his disciples, and why?
Because these people here end up getting saved under the ministry of Philip later on.
So these are not reprobates, these are not wicked sodomites or false teachers,
these are just regular people and at this time they just didn't want to get saved.
Not everybody gets saved the first time you preach the gospel to them.
But so we would have people say that if we believe that a false prophet should be cast into hell,
or if we believe that sodomites are not allowed in our church,
or if we condemn people that are reprobates that hate God, well you know God condemned them.
And so whatever God proclaims in this book, we can also proclaim.
Because it's the truth.
So if God said he, you know, Josiah broke down the houses of the sodomites that were next to the temple of the Lord,
then what Josiah did was right.
That hasn't changed.
When the Bible says if mankind shall lie with a woman, or if a man lie with a woman as he lied with a man,
both of them have committed abomination, they shall surely be put to death.
That's what the Bible says. I'm never going to apologize for preaching that.
Now what do you think? That the Old Testament, you know, that part changed?
Do you still believe in the death penalty for people that murder?
If someone commits a first degree murder, they plot it.
They plot to kill their wife and they kill them.
I mean that's been happening a lot lately hasn't it?
And if someone does that, do you think that person should be put to death?
Do you think if someone's a serial rapist, that person should be put to death?
Well then why wouldn't the same death penalty be installed in our government at this time?
Well guess what it was.
Guess what it always has been.
You know, sodomy was illegal until 2004.
That wasn't that long ago folks. I know there's people in here that were alive in 2004 right?
But you know, just because the law changes in this country doesn't mean God's law changed with it.
Do you understand that?
And so when we preach that kind of stuff, don't say we don't have love.
Of course we have love.
I just, you know, in the announcements I said we have six days a week that we go soul winning.
Is that loving? I think it is.
And you know, we know what manner of spirit we have.
The spirit we have is the spirit that we want people to be saved.
But if someone can't be saved, then we proclaim that also.
But this is the kind of verse that they'll accuse us with and say, see they don't have a right spirit.
Jesus rebuked that kind of, no look, there's some people that have gone too far.
If you blaspheme the Holy Ghost, you can't be saved.
So if you are a false prophet, you can't be saved.
They're the worst kind of people. The false prophets are the worst.
They're the worst because they're dragging multitudes to hell with them like John MacArthur.
Like Billy Graham.
You know, and people love them.
You know why? Because they always loved the false prophets in the Old Testament too.
Just like today, people still love the false prophets today.
They love to have their little ears tickled and, oh I feel so good now.
I got Joel Osteen's message. He told me to live my best life now.
Yay! Yay!
But the problem is, Joel Osteen is a false prophet.
And you need to feel bad about yourself sometimes.
I want you to go out feeling good about yourself sometimes.
You know, and rightly so.
But you know, most of the time you should feel bad about yourself.
Because we always have something we need to fix.
Right? We always need something we have to fix.
And obviously if you're doing the right things in certain areas, like, amen.
Thank you Lord for showing me how to fix my life.
Because what fixes your life better than hard preaching and getting your face ripped off?
Nothing, there's no substitute for it.
When I first started hearing the hard preaching, it changed my life.
And you know what? Some people just can't handle it.
They can't handle it.
And they can't handle the battles that we go through.
They can't handle people falsely accusing us.
They can't handle, well pastor so and so said this about you.
They said the same things about Jesus.
They said the same things about the prophets in the Old Testament.
It's not going to change.
It's going to be the same.
But people just can't get it through their head.
No, but I think this time they're really right.
Really? Well you better have some evidence for that.
So I agree with the Lord 100% that what the disciples did in this situation was wrong.
But it would be pretty weird, you know, and it would be pretty weird to call fire down on people just because they didn't get saved.
I don't have that kind of spirit though.
I don't feel like people that don't receive us at the door should just go right to the fire.
I don't feel that way.
I try to leave them with as much sweetness and kindness as I possibly can that maybe the next person that comes to their door will actually get that person saved.
I don't believe in having a bad spirit going to the door.
I don't believe in having some kind of mean heartless spirit when you come to the door where you actually don't care about people.
I care about people at the door.
I want them to be saved.
Now if it's some false prophet or something, you know, I might have something to say to that person.
But even then, I just don't want to rile up the whole place.
You know, just let God deal with that person.
When we're out sowing him, we should have a right spirit.
We should have a good spirit.
But you know, this is the same God, but in the different situation, you know, he allowed Sodom to be barbecued.
As a matter of fact, he came to Abraham, the Lord, the angel of the Lord, which was God, which was Jesus, came to Abraham with two angels.
So you have three angels. One of them is the angel of the Lord, which is God.
The other two are actual angels.
And they barbecued Sodom and Gomorrah.
Well you're like, well Jesus didn't have a right spirit.
He barbecued.
What do you mean?
He rebuked these guys because look, those people could be saved.
Now Sodom and Gomorrah, they were done.
They were given over.
So you know, the same God, you know, he judges not to fire bomb these guys and then he fire bombs these ones.
Why?
It's a difference in people.
Those people were not able to be saved anymore.
God wouldn't just destroy them with hell fire.
I mean he literally cast hell fire down on Sodom and Gomorrah.
The place is uninhabitable to this very day.
It's still there.
It's in the Middle East.
You can still see, you know, the places where all the sulfur is there.
But you know, they'll just say, oh that's just the, you know, that's just an old wives tale.
No, it actually happened.
Last point here and I'll make this really quick.
But I just want to say one more thing about this.
The same clowns accuse us of having a bad spirit for wanting reprobates to get their just due.
The same clowns accuse us of having a bad spirit like Jesus accused them because, you know, we want reprobates to get their just due.
God wants them to get their just due.
Do you understand that?
You know, people say, well we're supposed to be like God.
We're supposed to have and want the same things God wants.
Well when God says not to have anything to do with certain people, he killed a prophet for just going back to Samaria.
He let a lion kill him.
You know, we're just not, you know, we've got to draw the battle lines.
We've got to understand and discern the scriptures.
Now number three, the last point, I know I'm over here but I'm just going to make this quick.
The right kind of preaching is specific preaching.
You should be specific on what you're saying.
It shouldn't be just vague.
Alright, Matthew chapter 11, let's go back to our text real quickly.
Matthew 11 and 20, I'll just start reading it says,
Then began he to upbraid the cities, wherein most of the mighty works were done, because they repented not.
Woe unto thee, Corazon! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida!
For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and for Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.
And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto the heaven, shall be brought down to hell.
For if the mighty works which had been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day.
But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee.
And that's saying a lot.
Because Sodom got wiped off the face of the planet.
And you know, all those people are in hell right now.
And have been ever since it happened.
But notice what's happening here.
Specific preaching, it names details, it names names, it names places, it names sins, it names judgment.
And also specific preaching tells you how to be saved.
There's a lot of preaching out there that won't even tell people the right salvation.
Salvation is by faith alone through Christ alone.
It's not of works.
You must believe you're a sinner.
You must believe in a literal hell.
And you know what, you must believe that once you're saved by believing in Jesus that you have everlasting life.
That's specific preaching.
There's a lot of churches out there that won't even tell you what they believe about salvation.
Because they want everybody who believes different things to just be in the same place and give them their money.
But I'm not going to just compromise what the gospel says.
I'm not going to just allow people to just think that something's true that's not.
And if someone doesn't believe the right salvation, we're going to go to them and we're going to say, hey, this is what the Bible actually says.
You know, and so that is specific preaching.
And that's what's going to get you in trouble sometimes.
But we need to be right and we need to be specific.
Jesus, he said he upbraided these places.
He meant he named the names of the cities.
You know, there's whole preaching where it's preaching against a specific place all throughout the Bible.
And there's people that are preached against specifically by name.
Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil.
The Lord rewarded him according to his works.
You're like, I can't believe you're naming all these names this morning.
The Bible names names.
Paul names names.
He said Alexander the coppersmith is forever going to be in the scriptures.
And we don't know much about him, but we do know this.
That he did Paul much evil.
And Paul called him out in a letter that's etched in the Bible forever.
And it wasn't because he was good, it's because he was evil.
And it says, of whom be thou where also, for he hath greatly withstood our words.
John called out Diotrephes.
In 3 John, verse 9, it says, I wrote to the church,
but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not.
Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds, which he doeth,
prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith.
Neither doth he himself receiveth the brethren, and forbideth them that would,
and casteth them out of the church.
He mentions Diotrephes. He calls out his name. Why?
Because it needed to be called out.
Sometimes specific names, specific places need to be called out.
Hymenaeus, Alexander, Philetus, all these guys are called out by the apostle Paul.
And you know what? Sometimes there's this teaching that says women should never be called out.
Women should never be attacked from the pulpit.
But you know what? Jesus attacked Jezebel, didn't he?
He said this woman Jezebel called herself a prophetess and teach to seduce my servants to commit fornication.
Guess what? He named her name.
He said what she was doing wrong.
She was seducing the servants of God to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed unto idols.
So this whole thing of, I believe in chivalry, and I don't believe that men should hurt women or anything like that.
But Jesus specifically called this woman out.
And you know what? The Jezebel in the Old Testament was eaten by dogs.
It was prophesied that she would be eaten by dogs.
And she was thrown out by the eunuchs.
Jesus said I will kill her children with death.
So sometimes women get a pass.
But you know, if they're wicked and they're evil, they should get called out. Period.
And so Bible preaching is specific.
And it also could get you killed.
You know what? And when you preach the Bible, people are going to falsely accuse you.
Paul said, and how I kept back nothing was profitable unto you, but I have showed you and taught you publicly and from house to house.
And then he said in verse 27 in Acts 20,
For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
See, Bible preaching is going to preach the whole counsel of God and not hold anything back.
And that's the way it should be.
The right kind of preaching can expect to be met with violence.
The right kind of preaching will get you falsely accused, number two.
And number three, the right kind of preaching is specific.
Alright, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord so much for this great church.
And Lord, I pray that we'd always have our ears tuned to the right preaching.
And Lord, that we just wouldn't look at all the tactics by the enemy.
And Lord, this way that they try to brainwash and seduce your people.
And I pray, Lord, that you would just help us to be strong in the faith.
And Lord, to rightly divide the Bible.
Lord, I pray that we'd read our Bibles so we'd understand these truths.
And Lord, anything I've said, I just pray if people are just not getting it,
or they just want to see it for themselves, I pray they'd go back to the Scriptures
and read the Scriptures that I went through, Lord, and see that the Bible matches what I was preaching.
Lord, let's pray for our soul in today and for the second service.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Now let's turn to page 174, sing our last song.
My Jesus, I love thee, page 174.
My Jesus, I love thee, page 174. Sing that with me on the first.
My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine.
For thee, all the follies of sin, I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus, tis now.
I love thee because thou hast first loved me.
And purchase my pardon on Calvary's tree.
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus, tis now.
I'll love thee in life, I will love thee in death.
And praise thee as long as thou lendest me breath.
And say when the death do lies, cold on my brow.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus, tis now.
On the last.
In mansions of glory and endless delight,
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright.
I'll sing with the glittery crown on my brow.
If ever I love thee, my Jesus, tis now.
Man, while we're waiting for baptisms, let's do some favorites.
So, another song, yep, let's do some favorites.
Bobby?
Page 216?
Surely Goodness and Mercy?
Page 216, Surely Goodness and Mercy?
On the first.
A pilgrim was I and a wandering,
In the cold night of sin I did roam, When Jesus the kind shepherd found me,
And now I am on my way home.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days, all the days of my life.
I should have loved that a little better.
Alright.
For the bill?
Page 228.
Page 228 on the last.
I love to tell the story, page 228.
On the last.
I love to tell the story for those who know it best.
Seem hungering and thirsting to hear it like the rest.
And when in scenes of glory I sing the new, new song.
Twill be the old, old story that I have loved so long.
I love to tell the story.
Twill be my theme and glory to tell the old, old story of Jesus and his love.
Brother Eli.
244.
Amazing Grace, page 244.
Good to go?
Alrighty.
The right kind of preaching puts you to sleep, too.
Let me get the towels and stuff.
Left over here real quick.
Alright, go ahead and come on up.
Is it warm?
Alright, just go ahead and put your feet down at the bottom here.
Supposedly this goes under 200 meters of water, so.
Alright, go ahead and face that way there, brother.
So this is Mariano.
Mariano.
This is Brother Ramon's brother, his younger brother, right?
Alright, so Mariano, have you trusted Christ as your savior?
Yes, I have.
Upon your public profession of faith, I baptize you my brother.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Buried in the likeness of our Savior's death.
Praise the walk, the newness of life.
Good man.
Congratulations.
Alright.
Still works.
Oh, you're alright.
You got towels.
Oh, go ahead and grab that.
I don't want you to slip.
Alright.
Sorry about that.
That's alright.
That's the situation.
Let me grab this real quick.
Let me grab this.
There you go.
Oh, it's warm.
I was expecting really cold.
It's better than cold, trust me.
Alright, so I'm going to have you plug your own nose and I'll give you the sign when to do it, okay?
So you just plug your own nose and I'm going to put my hand over your mouth, okay?
Alright, so go ahead and look here.
We'll take a picture.
Alright.
So this is Ursula.
She contacted me online and wanted to be baptized and so I said, come on down, alright?
So anyway, she found like, you found her?
On Telegram, I found your religious exemption.
So she found us through the COVID exemption.
So, amen to that, right?
Alright, so this is Ursula.
Ursula, have you trusted Christ as your Savior and nothing else?
Yes.
Based upon your public profession of faith, I baptize you my sister.
In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, bearing the likeness of our Savior's death,
raised to walk in newness of life.
Congratulations.
Let me help you.
You can just grab my hand if you want.
I almost fell in the water.
We had some polar bear plunges before, but be very careful when you come out there.
Alright, let's have a word of prayer.
Alright, Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for the two baptisms.
Lord, I pray that these two folks would follow you, Lord, not just in baptism,
but also in following you, Lord, for the remainder of their life, Lord,
that they'd walk in newness of life.
Pray that you just bless their lives and help them to be in prayer and be Bible readers
and church attenders for their whole life, Lord, and just soul owners as well.
Thank you for this great congregation, Lord.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.