Great things he hath done, over perfect convention,
the purchase of blood to every believer, the promise of God,
the vilest avenger who truly believes.
That moment from Jesus, the pardon he sees.
Praise the Lord.
Let the earth hear his voice.
Praise the Lord.
Let the people rejoice.
Oh, come to the Father through Jesus, the Son,
and give him the glory.
Great things he hath done.
Great things he hath taught us.
Great things he hath done.
And great are rejoicing through Jesus, the Son.
The purer and higher and greater shall be.
Our wonder, our transport when Jesus we see.
Praise the Lord.
Let the earth hear his voice.
Praise the Lord.
Let the people rejoice.
Oh, come to the Father through Jesus, the Son,
and give him the glory.
Great things he hath done.
Well, good seeing you.
Brother, if you would open us up for word prayer.
Heavenly Father, please go fast over this area
and come and preach your word over.
Help the church grow and guide you, guide it,
for people to come in here.
Lord, thank you that everything come and flourish, Lord.
And Jesus, may we pray.
Amen.
For our second song we're going to do,
God Leads Us Along, page 96.
Remember, my voice is almost there.
It's like, what do you mean?
You're doing good, brother.
Thanks.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
So let's do it.
In shaving pasture, so rich and so sweet,
God leads his dear children along.
Where the water's cold flow makes the weirder one's feet,
God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
some through the fire, but all through the blood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song.
In the night season and all the day long,
sometimes in the mountain the sun shall shine.
God leads his dear children along.
Sometimes in the valley in darkness of night,
God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
some through the fire, but all through the blood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song.
In the night season and all the day long,
through sorrows we fall, ups and sages opposed,
God leads his dear children along.
Through grace he can conquer defeat,
our foes, God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
some through the fire, but all through the blood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song.
In the night season and all the day long,
away from the fire and away from the clay,
God leads his dear children along.
Away up in glory, eternity's pay,
God leads his dear children along.
Some through the water, some through the flood,
some through the fire, but all through the blood.
Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song.
In the night season and all the day long.
If you need one, raise your hand,
and I'm sure we'll get something to you.
We've got a bunch this evening.
So like I said, welcome to the very first service.
Thank you.
Of course you may have to forget words.
It's great.
And we're doing the first service,
the Church Foundation Baptist Church, Seattle.
We don't have a verse of the week,
but I'll go ahead and read our church's,
the Church Foundation Baptist Church Vancouver's
wonderful verse here.
Therefore, thus sayeth the Lord God, behold,
I lay in Zion for a foundation of stone,
a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a sure foundation.
He that believeth shall not make haste.
Isaiah 28, 16.
So we are again, I guess the only service
for Sunday nights for now.
It's a 6.30 p.m. service.
Let's see here.
As you see here, we have soul winning times.
We did some soul winning today.
It was around 3.30.
We got something a little late.
Do we have any salvation at all?
No?
Conversations, anything?
Yeah.
Next time.
We'll get them next time.
That's great.
At weddings, we're going to have soul winning at 5 p.m.
And then Wednesday night's service is 6.30 p.m.
And then Saturday we also have soul winning
a little bit further south with the Tacoma crew,
11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
So if you want to get in on any of that,
get in touch with brother Neb right there,
the guy in the ruby gap shirt.
Over there he'll get you taken care of.
So yesterday we had an immense turnout
for a soul winning marathon.
We had 29 soul winners out there.
We had 15, 15 salvation.
So that was a great turnout.
We had fellowship.
Very receptive area to Quilla, right?
It's to Quilla.
And just it was a good time.
And the weather was great.
Like the weather peaked yesterday.
That was going to be crummy.
God bless that.
Amen.
That's right.
Let's see here.
No ties and offerings to make mention of.
We've got some upcoming events.
April 29th.
That was yesterday.
Okay.
May 13th.
The lady's tea in Vancouver, Washington.
If you're interested in doing that, contact Hoover.
Just email the church.
Get some information about that.
May 14th.
This is all Vancouver.
This is all Vancouver stuff.
Let me.
Well, it's just.
Yeah.
They're welcome to come.
Oh, yeah.
Sure.
Okay.
So if you're in the area, you're welcome to come down to the Vancouver location.
But Mother's Day, we will have a gift for each.
Oh, we'll have a Mother's Day gift here as well.
Okay.
So if you're a mother, please come here.
We'll get you a Mother's Day gift.
All right.
Cool.
Thank you.
And then a big event.
May 25th to the 28th is the King James Bible Conference.
It's down in Vancouver.
We've got a whole host of awesome pastors talking about the preservation and the awesomeness
of the King James Bible.
We're going to be kind of shutting down operations here to go to the way the Spokane's doing.
It just depends.
It depends.
We'll get something coming.
Probably enough.
Yeah.
We're pretty much.
Yeah.
But if you can, get yourself some time off and come down there.
It's going to be a great time.
They're going to do Q&As, specifically about King James stuff.
And then we'll get you some questions and then you can get your questions answered live
by a great man of faith.
And then later on, we had June 9th through 12th, the Mission's Trip, an official grand
opening of Church Foundation Baptist Church Winnipeg.
Awesome.
And the ordination from Jim E.
As an evangelist.
I didn't know that.
That was cool.
That's awesome.
All right.
And then, oh, let's see here.
It's now we have Pastor Thompson preaching.
And then we're a family integrated church, so sure.
Welcome in the service.
If you do have a screaming child, it can get a little bothersome.
But so we have a mother baby room kind of set up.
It's this first door on the on the right, right before the kitchen and down the hallway
past the bathrooms.
It's a it's we call it an extended hallway.
It's supposed to be locked open at all times unless you need to nurse or discipline a child
just calm baby down and then you can close it.
But when you leave, make sure you lock it back open.
It's for insurance and fire safety and all that.
Make sure that also just general rules about this place is make sure you clean up after
yourself.
You're not responsible for mopping and sweeping and stuff.
Just keep it tidy.
And there's a big trash can in that kitchen.
If you need to throw stuff away, you can do that.
That's not all there.
Let's see.
Anything about does it for.
Oh, yeah.
So your first time visitor to one of our churches in the back, you have a first time visitor
bags.
You got some neat stuff in there with a pen.
I think there's a DVD and some information about our church.
Please feel free to take them before you leave.
Also, if you're not sure if you're safe, you come here and you know, I'm not sure I'm going
to happen for free.
Just ask someone with a with an usher pen or ask pretty much anyone here and they can
get you pointed in the right direction on how to know for sure you're going to happen
someday.
I think that's about all for announcements.
We're going to have another song.
So we're going to turn to page 129, Rock of Ages.
Page 120.
Nope.
Sorry.
129.
Yeah.
Technical difficulties.
No, sorry.
Sorry.
120.
Okay.
Here we go.
Rock of ages, fight for me.
Let me hide myself in thee.
Let the water and the blood from my roots be mine.
Let me hide myself in thee.
Let the water and the blood from my roots be mine.
Let me hide myself in thee.
Let the water and the blood from my roots be mine.
Let me hide myself in thee.
Let the water and the blood from my roots be mine.
Let me hide myself in thee.
Let the water and the blood from my roots be mine.
There's also in 1999, there's actually some kind of a movie about it, but I think it's
called The Battle for Seattle.
It's basically these World Trade Organization protests that happened in 1999.
They were a big deal.
There was people that died.
There was a lot of violence.
It's funny.
They were against the New World Order back then because that's kind of what it represented.
Now all these same people are for the New World Order.
That's how quickly the battle can change.
Then you have this Capitol Hill autonomous zone called Chazz.
You guys ever heard of that?
It got taken like a police station.
The police gave it to this autonomous city called Chazz.
It was basically in the queer area of town called Capitol Hill.
I think that whole area is just like a sodomite infestation there.
All this crime is happening.
People are getting all these things stolen from them.
Some people were murdered.
What it really boils down to is this area has a really bad spiritual issue.
May Day is coming up.
What happens up here in May Day?
It's a big protest day or whatever for all these.
I don't even know what they are now.
Back then in 1999 it was called something else.
What's it called now?
Do you guys know?
The big protest group that's up there.
Is it still Black Lives Matter?
It changes just too many.
It's like that in Portland too so I understand.
May Day is like a day of rage for people up here to destroy other people's businesses
because they didn't know that business.
To destroy other people's vehicles, they didn't do that.
To destroy things that were bought by taxpayer dollars, they didn't pay for that.
They're sleeping all day in their grandma's basement and then they get up and put their
gear on and go out in the cause of chaos.
I just brought those things up just briefly because there's been a lot of battles around here.
But the battle is for the minds and hearts of the people.
It's a hard battle.
It's a tough battle.
This battle has been raging for years and it's a spiritual battle folks.
What they're doing outwardly just shows what's going on inside them.
Inside them they're just filled with riot and looting and theft and murder.
They want to take money out of your pocket and put it into their pocket.
It's a nightmare.
This area has just been overrun by God's enemies.
I think it's about time that we had a church this year ready to battle against those enemies.
It's not a physical battle, it's a spiritual battle.
It's a battle that's been raging for years.
This city, I can just think of some things that I know that this city really loves.
Rock and roll is one of them.
The grunge movement started through here with Nirvana and Kurt Cobain.
He was so happy in his Buddhist religion that he blew his own brains out or whatever.
Or Courtney killed him.
I'm not sure which one it was.
Courtney Love wasn't a very nice person.
It wouldn't surprise me one bit if she actually did do that.
I think that there's some memorials around here that's pretty close.
I think like the Jimi Hendrix Memorial.
They idolize people.
If you have a statue of somebody, that's a graven image.
People here love this rock and roll music.
They love Bruce Lee more than they love God.
They have a memorial here for Bruce Lee too.
It seems like God is being put on the wayside.
They want to go to these shrines and statues and all this other stuff.
I mean, what good did Kurt Cobain achieve for Nirvana?
No.
He died a miserable doughbag.
That led millions and millions of people into all the same stuff that he was into.
What would you expect to see all these years later?
A bunch of people on heroin and drugs and ruining their lives and homelessness.
I didn't drive into the city necessarily today, but I already know what it looks like.
It looks just like that where we live.
Now even in Vancouver where we're at, which we haven't been touched by as much of this stuff,
but all it takes is a misguided church to start handing out things to people.
There they'll stand with their little signs.
They're standing in the middle of a turn bay on a piece of cement,
basically stopping people from being able to drive.
Walking out in front of traffic, a lot of these people are drugged out and they're possessed.
Because the road to Nirvana is a road to death.
It's a road to hell.
And rock and roll and all kinds of different kinds of music is going to take you on that journey.
Because whatever you put into your ears is going to go into your heart and it's going to come out of your mouth.
And you say, well, you're just a prude, Pastor Thompson.
Listen, I listen to all that music.
I know exactly what it says.
Alice in Chains had a song called I'm the Man in the Box or whatever and I think they were from Seattle too.
But he says in that song, Jesus Christ, deny your savior.
They were a really popular grunge band.
Anybody ever heard of Alice in Chains before?
Guess where they're at?
Dead!
They're dead!
That's where their heroin addict ways got them is that it got them deaf.
So Seattle has a problem with that.
It also has an addiction to sports.
And look, you know, I'm wearing my Seahawks colors, okay?
I mean, I saw the sign up there.
Well, I'm trying to become all things to all men and I might save some, right?
Amen.
I figure, you know, use a little Seahawks colors and maybe some people want to come.
Call it Seahawks Baptist Church.
That's going too far.
I'm joking.
I mean, I like sports, but you know what I don't do?
I don't worship and idolize the people that play them.
Honestly, I don't even care to watch it anymore.
It's just kind of gotten to the point where, you know, it's a bunch of people just being proud.
Yeah, I'm the best.
Got the best.
Yeah.
I hit the home run.
I threw the touchdown, right?
You know, and then they, you know, these guys can't even make a tackle without getting a
yeah!
Woo!
It's like, what are you getting for a tackle?
What about the touchdown they scored on you on the last one?
Yeah.
It's just weird.
But now, I mean, there's just all, sports is a big deal here.
Yeah.
I mean, I was practically assaulted at, you know, watching the Seahawks game.
One time, my wife was pregnant, and these people surrounded me because I was not wearing
Seahawks colors.
Whoa.
And I was just like, guys, what are you doing?
Like, is it really that big of a deal?
You're going to try to beat me up over a stupid game?
Over what colors?
I mean, what are you, Crips or something?
And I, you know, I got out there, but they're spitting all over our car and all this other
stuff, and I was just like, yeah, that was pretty crazy.
But that's how much, do they have that much zeal for God?
No.
No, they don't.
And some of those guys probably would have claimed to be Christians.
Who knows?
Right.
But, you know, when you get into worshiping other things, and look, I'm not saying that
everybody worships sports here, but it is a problem.
You know, there's, it's funny, we have 30 people here, but there's 30,000 people in
a Mariners game.
Yeah.
Screaming, cheering, you know, woo, yeah, just like worshiping men.
Woo, he hit the ball two times out of 10.
He's so great.
Three times out of 10, you're a great player.
And it's like, God would hit 10 out of 10.
100 out of 100.
1000 out of 1000.
You know?
He'll hit the grand slam every time.
He's going to hit the game-winning layup every time.
He's going to actually slam dunk it from half court, or half court.
I mean, God would be the ultimate sports player, but you know what?
The Bible doesn't like emphasize those things for us, does it?
Right.
And now you've got, what is the new team?
It's like the Kraken, or at least the Kraken or something.
It's a hockey team.
And look, I'm not saying I would never go to a game or something that was sinful to
do that.
I'm just saying if that's your life, you're misdirected.
There's a battle going on for the hearts and minds of people.
You know what?
Sports takes people's hearts away from God.
Yup.
Rock and roll and worldly music takes your heart away from God.
That's right.
And so does gambling.
Gambling is a big deal here, I think.
There's like Emerald Casino and all the way up to Elani or whatever it's called.
I'm probably saying it wrong.
It looks like Elani to me, but it's not, you know, they spell it weird or whatever.
I don't know what it's called, but Elame, I think that's it.
Elame.
It's French Indians or something.
Anyway.
Sorry.
You know what else is a big deal?
Sodomy.
You know, they have like, you know, this is one of the biggest areas for sodomites in
the whole country.
Preach it.
And you're going to run into them when you're not knocking doors.
Just a fact.
And I'm not going to the Chaz area or whatever capital at all.
That'll be the last place we go if we ever do go.
Amen.
But, you know, people have been deceived by this doctrine of that, you know, you're born
that way and all this other garbage.
Well, we just, you know, the Bible says that sodomites should be put to death according
to God's law.
Yeah.
Right.
That's what it says.
And I'm not going to, you know, you can get a hair ripped over that all you want and upset
you all you want.
Well, I have people in my family that are queers too, but you know what they are?
They're predators.
Yep.
They're preying on people.
Right.
And so we have to, that's a, that's part of the battle that we're going to face up here
is that there's a heavy amount of sodomites up here, but just because, you know, this,
it's not completely taken over, obviously, but it is a problem.
Communism is a problem up here.
Liberalism is a problem up here.
And, you know, it's the, the problem is that they love, these people love politics more
than they love God.
They love sports more than they love God.
They love rock and roll and music and gambling more than they love God.
So this city is basically wholly given over to idolatry.
Yeah.
And you know what, it's our job as Christians to wake people up.
And that's why I wanted to make this church happen because I've been watching people up
here for so long and it's just sad that, you know, when, when brother Ned kind of gave
me the realization that he's been knocking doors up here for five years and to get to
a great church, you're going to have to like, Canada was shut down for a while.
Our church is a long ways away for some people, some people it's a four hour drive that are
in this room.
It's just like, it's just not feasible.
Why should it have to be that way?
You know, people might think I'm crazy for starting this church, but you know what?
I think it's crazy to not start churches.
And like, I'm not putting anybody down, you know, people can do whatever they want.
But what I see in the book of Acts is the apostles just starting churches everywhere.
Yeah.
Sometimes Paul was there for three days.
He's like, let's start a church.
You know, and look, obviously I don't want to be stupid about it, but I think that there's
a lot of people here, obviously there's some people in here that care about having a church
in this area and they're willing to back it up.
They're willing to show up here.
And like I said, you know, before that, it's important that you, you know, if you want
this church here, you've got to want it.
So you've got to be here.
You've got to be here to fight the battle.
If you're never here to fight, then the enemy's already going to win.
Right.
They're going to win.
The part that you were going to cut back that day, the part that you were going to win against
that day, that's not going to happen.
And so every time we're not here, every time we're not here to show up or solely or for
the church services, that's the enemy winning the battle against us.
And we don't want the enemy to win battles against us.
We want to take the battle to them.
Yeah.
So let's turn to second Corinthians chapter 10, verse three, second Corinthians chapter
10, verse three.
Oh, there is a clock back there.
Cool.
Ignore.
Second Corinthians chapter 10, verse three.
Look, the fact is it's a spiritual battle in a Christian life and a lot of times physical
things can happen out of those spiritual battles because even though our fight is going to
be a spiritual battle, what do people always try to do?
They always try to violent, always try to take the kingdom of God by force.
And they always have and they always will.
So don't be surprised if someone wants to fight you.
Don't be surprised if someone screams and yells at you.
Don't be surprised if someone assaults you.
It's good.
You know, it's going to get worse here before it gets better.
And when it gets better is when Jesus comes back.
So we got to hold it down and we got to keep, you know, treading on these scorpions, stomping
on these serpents and clearing the land.
Now, if you think about Joshua, he took the children of Israel to the promised land.
He represents Christ.
Hey, everybody's subject to the power of God over them.
Now, look what it says here in second chapter, chapter 10, verse three, it says,
for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.
I'm not talking about a physical battle.
It says for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds.
So they're not carnal.
They're not bows and arrows, knives and swords, AR-15s and Glocks and whatever.
Our weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
What kind of strongholds?
Like the strongholds that have people captured in sin.
That's the picture here.
And obviously it's using physical things to teach us the spiritual truth.
But what it says, verse five, casting down imaginations and every high thing in the Bible,
in the Old Testament, the high places where the kings wouldn't even touch those places sometimes.
There's a lot of high places in people's lives and in people's hearts.
And you know, we have to overcome our high places too as Christians and get things right
in our lives and get things right in our heart.
But it says, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
This is our goal.
This is what we're trying to do now.
Are we going to achieve every part of it before Christ comes?
We're probably not.
But you know, this is the goal.
This is to be the best Christians we can be.
And you know what?
It's a battle.
It's not just a battle to go.
It's a battle in our own lives to not walk in sin, to not walk in the old man, to walk
in the new man.
And that's a very important goal that we should try to implement in our lives to get the sin
out of our lives as much as we possibly can.
So the weapons of tanks and missiles and nuclear warheads and all those things, those things
are carnal weapons that do a lot of damage, but God's weapons are even more powerful than
those.
So we have this power at our disposal, but unfortunately a lot of people are very selfish
and they just don't want to work for the Lord.
They want to just kind of kick back and do what they want to do.
Maybe we should start trying to do what God wants us to do.
Maybe we should really take it seriously and say, you know what?
I'm tired of playing games.
I want to be right with God.
And you know what that entails?
Serving Him.
You're right with God when you're serving Him.
And you're right with God when you are trying to get sin out of you.
The Holy Spirit of God, we're different than unsaved people.
Yes, we still sin as Christians, but we're different from unsaved people in that we have
the Holy Spirit of God to help us overcome these things.
So notice it says how it's our warfare.
It's our warfare.
We are in the battle.
We are in a battle.
And again, it's not just a physical battle.
It's a battle to get this world saved.
What's our mission?
Well, we have lots of missions.
We have lots of battles, but we also have a headquarters.
We need to meet up at headquarters from time to time, right?
Well, let's turn to 2 Timothy 2, verse 1.
2 Timothy 2, verse 1.
I don't want to get too far ahead of myself.
I'll come back to that.
But 2 Timothy 2, verse 1 says, I'm going to bring up some things that are just specifically
Paul and other people are talking about, mainly Paul, and he compares our life as Christians
to a battle.
And it says in 2 Timothy 2, verse 1, it says,
Thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And it says, And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same
commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.
So as a pastor, my job is to commit things to faithful men, and those faithful men teach
others also.
That's how good doctrine spreads.
But you know what it says in verse 1?
Be strong.
As men, quit being the spiritual man that wears skinny jeans.
That doesn't make you spiritual.
Don't be a spiritual skinny jeans wearer.
Put on the rain doors of God.
Put on the biggies of God.
We ought to be strong.
And ladies, you can be strong also.
It's not just talking about just men only.
Obviously, it says my son.
But women are strong too in many different ways.
We need everybody on the team.
But obviously, we're supposed to commit to faithful men.
And ladies are supposed to, the old elder ladies are supposed to teach the younger.
So that's what the Bible says.
But when it's talking about war here, it says in verse 3,
Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
So are we soldiers or not?
Yes.
Paul says, be a good soldier.
Endure hardness.
And what's hard?
Well, so many is hard, isn't it?
You know, those apartments look pretty daunting to me.
They're the triple-decker, quadruple-decker that I hate.
But sometimes that's the battle, isn't it?
Right.
And it's like, I didn't pick this all in spot.
What am I going to do?
Just leave me alone?
I don't think so.
You'll understand when you get older.
You know, sometimes this spiritual life is hard.
But he says, endure hardness.
Sometimes it's tough.
Sometimes churches go through things.
Sometimes you fight amongst each other or whatever,
which ought not to be happening, but it does happen.
But does that mean you stop serving God?
No.
Because something hard happened in your life,
your health is failing,
somebody passed away in your family or whatever.
And those things are hard.
And I'm not saying they're not, but he says, endure hardness.
Don't quit.
Amen.
Be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Don't just walk away when things get hard
or when you don't think God's being fair with you.
You know what's fair?
Hell.
That's what's fair.
It's the reality.
That's what's the fairness.
But he's not fair.
He actually gives us grace.
That's why it says that we endure hardness
and be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
God gives us a lot of grace.
And I think that sometimes we don't even realize
just how much grace God is giving us.
Because he can really be a lot more harsh with us
because we screw up all the time.
We'll just admit it right now.
But it says, verse four,
no man that warth entanglement himself
with the affairs of this life,
that he may please him who have chosen him
to be a soldier.
And soldiers, they have to let go of all their attachments,
don't they?
When they go to war, people will say,
your heart might belong to Jesus,
but your he belongs to me.
You become a property of a government base.
When you're a soldier, you're doing what they say.
You better give me 50 push-ups.
You better do this.
I mean, I've seen some of those movies
where the drill sergeants are yelling at people.
They probably don't know that drill sergeants
put stiletto heels on
and dress like a woman or something,
or maybe they are a woman, I don't know.
But obviously, we're the laughing stock of the world
with our military right now.
But we just have more powerful weapons than anybody.
But anyway, but what's it saying?
It's saying don't entangle yourself with this world.
Don't get entangled back in the things
that you used to be entangled in.
Hey, once you conquer some of this stuff,
get out of it and get away from it.
Get away from people that bring you down.
Get away from the things that get you down.
Whatever you have to do,
don't make provision for the flesh, the Bible says.
Sometimes we're just so bad about just like,
oh, I think I can handle it this time.
Oh, I think I can handle it this time.
Then you just don't.
And it's just like a vicious cycle of sin
that happens in our lives.
And obviously, we're gonna struggle with some things
for the rest of our lives,
but we should be working hard at being good soldiers.
And we're not gonna entangle ourselves
with the things of this world.
Why?
Because that we may please him
who have chosen him to be a soldier.
Whether you like it or not,
if you're staying in here tonight,
you got enlisted in the military.
And who's been in the military before?
Raise your hands.
One, two, three.
Okay, so we have people
that have been in the military before.
And am I right kind of about some of the symptoms?
Yeah, I mean, what are the first thing to do?
Shake your head.
No, I mean, everybody is like the same.
You're the same scum.
I mean, I don't know.
You know, most of the time,
it's probably like Marines or SEALs
or something like that.
But I'm sure that boot camp is hard for everybody.
And they do that to break you down
and to make you, you know, a submissive soldier.
But, you know, we're supposed to try to please our commander.
Who's our commander?
The Lord Jesus Christ.
He's our captain.
And don't you want to please him today?
And if you do want to please him today,
it says be a good soldier.
Okay?
Soldier on.
Don't go AWOL.
Don't run away.
You know, when you go AWOL,
what happens if you go AWOL?
You get court-martialed, don't you?
And then they do whatever they're going to do to you,
depending on whatever, however long you were gone
or what your responsibilities were.
Court-martial means you're in trouble.
And so guess what?
When you're AWOL from God's army
and he's called you to be a soldier,
what do you think God's going to do to you?
He's going to punish you.
That's what he's going to do.
When you go AWOL, God's going to court-martial you.
And he's going to court-mart.
He's going to keep doing it and doing it and doing it
until you come back to him.
So why live through the pain?
You know, you might have pain serving God,
but it's worse falling into the hands of the living God.
So the Bible says it's a fearful thing
to fall in the hands of the living God.
God still does punish his children on this earth,
and his punishments can be severe.
And just think about this.
If you're AWOL from fighting in God's battles
and from being a soldier,
what is that going to do to the people you care about?
If you're a husband and you just back off
of all the things of God, you're like,
well, I don't think God's really going to punish me for that.
Or, you know, I've been out of church for a long time.
He's never done anything.
Well, how do you know that?
How do you know he hasn't punished you?
Maybe just the things that he was punishing you with,
you didn't get.
And then those things are going to get more severe.
And then think about a person that just goes AWOL from God
for a long period of time, and then your children.
So by proxy, your children are AWOL from God.
Your wife is AWOL from God.
And then you're going to wake up 20 years later
and your kids are delinquents.
And you're going to be like, what happened?
I just don't understand what happened.
I'm a Christian.
It's because you went AWOL.
That's why.
Because you stopped serving him.
Because you stopped soldiering.
Obviously, he's not asking you to do physical push-ups.
He's not asking you to do physical pull-ups.
He's asking you to do spiritual ones, which is a big difference.
So look at, and it says in verse 5,
and if a man also strived for masteries,
yet he is not crowned, except he strived lawfully.
And here's the thing, we can't fight dirty.
We're Christians.
The enemy, they're going to fight dirty.
They're going to say all men are wicked, evil things
about you behind your back.
They're going to stir up trouble in your life.
The people that you have, the enemies you have in your life,
they're going to stir up trouble with you,
and they're going to give you trouble.
And we have to strive lawfully.
So when we're in this battle, we have to do it right.
As Christians, it's not our job to take up arms
and go and try to overthrow the government.
It's not a physical battle, folks.
That's not what it's saying.
But yet you get all these crazy Christians
that are out in communes stocking up
for some war of Armageddon
where they're going to shoot everybody with AR-15s or whatever.
I mean, that's what baby Christ was doing.
They were delivering hand grenades from UPS to their door.
Obviously, the UPS person turned to me.
That's why all that stuff happens.
Like, I just delivered all these things.
It's like, what's crazy is that you can actually
get that stuff delivered to your house.
But that triggered an alarm that what are these guys doing?
That's not what we're supposed to do.
And he was a cult member freak anyway.
So obviously, that's not what we're here to do.
So who are we fighting?
We're fighting the devil, his minions, his agents.
And he has his own children, too.
We're God's children by faith.
The devil has his children that believe in him, too.
And it's usually because he's saying,
I'm giving you all this stuff.
If you just bow down and worship me,
I'll give you everything you want.
And that's what the children of the devil do.
It's a real thing, folks.
It's like, you know, they'll say,
they sold their soul to the devil.
They tell us that they do it.
These musicians and artists and movie stars,
they see it right in front of our faces.
Oh, no, they're just joking.
Does it sound like Katy Perry was joking
when she said she sold her soul to the devil?
No.
She wasn't joking at all.
And Bob Dylan, this reporter's like, well, what did you do?
And he's like, I sold my soul or whatever.
Bob Dylan said he sold his soul to the devil.
All these artists, they're always doing this thing, right?
What does that mean?
Someone's going to screenshot Patrick Thompson.
What does this mean?
It's 666.
Why are they doing that?
Why are all these Hollywood stars
and all these magazine covers and stuff,
why are they doing it?
Oh, they're just being funny.
No, they're not just being funny.
They believe in something.
And it's not what we believe in.
And they're going to teach you what you believe
if you listen to it.
They're going to tell you what you should believe
if you watch their shows.
Dad's always the idiot.
Mom should be in charge.
The kids should be able to do whatever they want.
They'll never spank them.
This world is opposite of what God wants.
It's just getting worse and worse and worse,
throwing all this filth in front of our faces,
hoping that we'll just get used to it.
Well, you know what?
I don't want to get used to it.
And I hope you don't either.
And if you go to this church,
you're not going to have to see that kind of garbage.
Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10.
The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 10,
this is what we need to fight them.
What do we need?
Well, the Bible tells us what we need to fight.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord
and the power of his might.
So who are we supposed to be strong in?
The Lord.
The power of whose might?
His might.
Yeah.
It says, put on the whole armor of God.
So is it the armor of your armor,
or is it the armor of God?
Armor of God.
It's the armor of God that you may be able to stand
against the wiles of the devil.
The devil is like Wile E. Coyote.
He's always trying to get us some way, shape, or form,
if you even know who that is.
So sorry if you don't,
but I think of Wile E. Coyote when I think of wiles.
Anyway, so wiles of the devil,
that means that they're setting traps.
They're constantly trying to come at us.
And if you want to be able to stand,
you better put on the whole armor of God.
And it's funny how people will teach about this,
and they'll teach about the whole armor of God,
but somehow they skip the soloing part.
Yeah.
That's just, oh, and the feet shot from the preparation of God.
Anyway, they don't want to talk about that.
There's a lot of people with some naked feet
in these churches where they don't care about souls going to heaven.
And if they give lip service to it,
well, we have like three saved at the altar this year.
Wow.
Well, you're just really tearing it up to the kingdom of God.
It's sad, folks. It's sad.
The state of Baptist churches right now is a sad, sad state.
Yeah, it is.
They're still carrying whether their buses are running or not.
Who cares?
You know, you can't control those little brats anyways.
They're going to just do what they want.
And look, let me just say this.
Look, I want kids to get saved,
and I think that kids do get saved on bus ministries.
But let me tell you something.
If that's your focus on soloing, that's all you're doing,
then you're not right with God
because that's not what the Bible says to do.
Right.
That's not what it says.
It says to go and preach the gospel to every creature,
not to just try to coax kids to get on buses.
Look, and this is the time where those things are over.
Yeah.
Do you think any parent in their right mind
is going to let you take their kid on a bus every week
to a church they've never been to?
They're probably not.
The bus thing has died off.
You're like, well, I know this church works.
Okay, cool.
Maybe you know this church where there's a bunch of bad parents
that let their kids get on a bus.
It's a little strange.
Congratulations.
But once you get them there, what authority do you have?
And look, I've worked the buses for many years.
I was a Sunday school superintendent at a church,
and I care about kids.
I care about getting them saved.
But ultimately, when they turn teenagers
and they start taking the bus over
and they're bringing shanks and shits on the bus,
you know, things get different.
When they're brawling with other kids,
it's like I was talking to some guy,
and I can't remember who it was, but he was, oh, yeah,
I remember who it was.
But anyway, I'm not going to say who it was.
But he was talking about how this pastor's kid
was helping him run the bus.
You know, he was like, you know, they usually have, like,
a kid that attends with the bus captain in most cases.
And this girl, this teenage girl,
just said the most sexually explicit things
that he could possibly ever say,
and, like, they would maybe even make this person blush
that, like, you know, saved an older age.
But he said he looked at that kid, that pastor's kid,
and saw a horror on his face of things
he probably didn't halfway understand.
But the things he did understand, he was horrified.
And is that really what God wants us to do,
to put our children with little, you know, monsters
that you can't control?
I mean, that's not what God implemented.
It's dangerous.
And then, you know, if you have to keep the people away
from your kids that you invite to church all the time,
that's a problem.
Because, you know, guess what?
They're going to teach your kids,
and your kids are going to look at them and think,
they're so cool, they're so great.
And in reality, they're just influencing your kids to do evil.
So anyway, I don't know why I'm going off on that,
but it's just the state of Baptist churches.
They want the bus system to work so bad.
What are we doing wrong?
Get out there and knock some doors.
Amen.
That's right.
Get out there and care about everybody,
not just bringing kids to church and giving them candy.
And then just teach them to be liberals later.
Oh, if I go to church, I'll get candy,
and I can swallow the goldfish.
And, you know, I can watch the bus captain swallow the goldfish,
and we can eat a mile-long sundae.
It's so cool, woo!
And then when they get to church like this,
where you're just sitting and listening to the preacher,
they're like, this is so boring.
Where's my screen?
You know, it's just like, man, that's not what God designed.
He wants us all in church together
to be listening to the Bible.
Your kids can learn in this room just like anybody else can.
Kids at our church pay attention.
And they know the Bible surprisingly well,
sometimes more than some of the adults that come,
which just makes it happen, but it's true.
Anyway, I got off on a little rabbit trail there.
So look what the Bible says, though.
So we're supposed to put on the whole armor of God
so we can stand against the laws of the devil,
or we wrestle.
Wrestling is what?
Grappling.
Fighting.
Not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness
of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
That's a mouthful right there.
Flesh, it's not against flesh and blood.
It's against principalities, these people that rule the world,
these powers that rule over us in society,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world.
Look, there's a system that we don't see,
there's agents that we don't know about,
and they could seem okay, but they probably work for them.
The Bible's telling us that these things exist.
I'm not an Alice Jones conspiracy theorist, okay?
Alice Jones way more than a long time ago.
But I do believe that conspiracies exist
because the Bible says that they do.
The word conspiracy is in the Bible,
just in case you didn't know that,
but I don't think everything's a conspiracy.
But I'll tell you what.
Look at our president.
I'm serious.
The guy is not all there.
Do you think he really runs this country?
You're sadly mistaken.
He can't even get a line right.
Then he starts talking about, where's my mom?
Ice cream.
All these kids get shot up at a school,
and he's walking around with an ice cream going,
oh, this kind of ice cream.
It's like, dude, what's wrong with you?
He might be saying things here and there,
but he can't even stretch a great sentence together at all.
He's cognitively incapable.
Do you think if Trump talked like that,
and look, I'm not boasting up Trump.
Trump still talks pretty well for all of his.
Do you think if Trump showed those cognitive failures
that he wouldn't get thrown out of the presidency?
Of course he would.
I've been alive for 48 years,
and I've never seen a president that can't speak like that.
Not one time.
We're seeing things, and look,
the draconian takeover of our country is happening, folks.
It's happening.
It has happened.
You know, if they can throw someone in prison for 10 years
for posting a meme on the Internet
saying to vote for Hillary Clinton,
then we've got problems.
That's right.
We've got major problems,
and that means that they can just say,
if you're going to prison, we'll make up rules.
You're going to go, oh, what did you do?
You were soul winning?
10 years.
I mean, could it happen?
Of course it could happen.
Yeah.
That's right.
They could make it illegal to go soul winning.
We have a pastor friend, Paul Wawrinka,
and they're trying to talk and say
that you can't have a church in his country
without having a council over this run by the government.
What?
It's like, folks, it's happening all over the world,
but here we're just not used to it because we're Americans,
and right now we're free.
Yes, we are.
We're free to have this church service,
but to have a church like this,
it's going to cost something possibly in your life,
and are you willing to pay that cost?
Because some people aren't.
If you're not, then the Bible talks about,
if you're too afraid to go to battle,
then maybe you should just go home.
I don't want people to go home,
but I'm just saying that that's what the Bible says.
Because what are you going to do?
You're going to dishearten everybody else.
So it says in verse 13,
Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God,
that you may be able to withstand in the evil day,
and having done all to stand.
That's all we can do.
That's all we can do is just put on the armor of God that says,
Stand therefore, having your loins geared about with truth,
and having the blessed rest played of righteousness,
your feet shot with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Remember, these are mental pictures,
but it's a spiritual thing.
So we should have the truth.
We should have righteousness, the righteousness of Christ.
We should have our feet shot with the preparation of the gospel.
What does that mean?
You're going with your feet to go tell people about Jesus.
It's not calling them up to an old dashing altar,
one more stand to roll over those doors, one person.
It's like, dude, you're starting to suck.
You're not going to die.
What is ten stances of any song going to do?
It's so ridiculous.
They think that they're just going to bring the person up to the altar
with their music and stuff.
Super weird, man.
I've always thought altar calls for weird.
Amen.
It's just a strange phenomenon.
It was started by Kenny Hostel,
so I don't know why Baptist picked it up in the first place.
The Bible says we're supposed to have our feet shot
with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Be prepared.
Be prepared to give the gospel.
Go out and give it.
Above all, taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able
to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked
and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of spirit,
which is the word of God.
Look, if you're out sowing, don't go without this thing.
This is your sowing.
If you're out sowing, don't go without this thing.
This is your sword.
This is how we do battle.
This is our offensive weapon.
And the shield is our faith.
Hey, that God's going to quench all these fiery darts
that are thrown against us.
And you know what?
Even if things go badly for us,
we still have a better resurrection to look forward to.
And I know that sometimes people, they get hurt, they get killed,
but nobody in our church has been killed giving the gospel yet.
Amen.
We've had a few things happen, but nothing big.
The worst thing that people are usually going to do
is just cuss you out and follow you around
and try to pull all your invites out the door or whatever.
That's the main thing that people are going to do.
Can you deal with that?
Can you endure that hardness?
You know, sometimes it gets ugly.
For the most part, that's what it is.
But those things are going to change.
So if you can't do it when it's easy,
how are you going to do it when it's hard?
How are you going to do it when it's against the law?
How are you going to do it when they tell you,
when it's against the law, you can't do that?
Kind of like they did with the mask thing.
Like, you can't shop in this store.
What are you doing?
They're telling some idiot that works at Walmart
that's telling you whether you can go into a store or not.
Well, this is private property.
You can't do that.
That's what they do with soul wing, isn't it?
So when they pass the legislation against door-to-door soul wing,
then what are you going to do?
Now are you going to be all gung ho to do that?
Well, you know, I would have done it,
but, you know, it's against the law.
Why don't you do it now when you can do it?
Why don't you get charged up
and get plugged into this church here if you live in this area
and get involved in the soul wing program and go forward?
And you know what?
We have to put on the armor of our light of God for many different things.
But look, we have to have the armor on for protection.
That's what our battle is to be fought with, the armor of God.
This is our offensive weapon, the Bible.
And, you know, God's going to battle.
He's going to, you know, we've done all at that point, haven't we?
Having done all the standing,
sometimes that's all you can do is just stand and do what's right.
And even if it's going to cost you something,
you still make that stand and do what the Bible says.
So it says in verse 18,
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit
and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.
Don't forget about the power of prayer, folks.
The power of prayer works.
You know, people were probably praying for a church like this to start in this area.
Who was praying for it?
I mean, if you were praying for it, your prayers would answer.
But don't forget that God answered your prayer
and do what you said, whatever you said you were going to do.
There's nothing wrong with you saying, God, if you do this, I'm going to do that.
There's nothing wrong with that.
Putting God to the test.
Now, obviously, we're not supposed to tempt God.
Well, if you don't do this, then I'm not going to do that.
No, it's putting him to the test saying,
Hey, God, you know, if you help me out of this situation,
I'll serve you for the rest of my life.
And that happened to me when I was a kid.
When I was 14, I was running from the police.
And I was like 16.
And, like, they were chasing me and all my friends.
And I hid in this, like, really tall grass.
And the cops were just, like, being crazy.
Like, we were doing something wrong, but it wasn't so bad.
We weren't, like, you know, fighting or, you know, anything crazy.
But they just did this, like, sting operation on us or something.
And they're chasing us through this wooded area.
And I hear, like, my friends getting hit with stuff
and falling and screaming and all this stuff.
I'm just like, what in the world?
So I just fell down in the grass and pretended like I was dead, right?
And, like, I'm laying on the ground,
and I was probably pretty close to as tall as I am now.
And this cop is just like, you know, all these cops are,
I can see flashlights all over the place.
And this cop is like, my foot is, like, right here,
and the flashlight is, like, right there.
And I remember praying, God, if you get me out of this, I'll serve you.
And, you know, I said that, and then, like, did it serve him right after that?
And I always knew in the back of my mind that I had said that
because I'm still, I'm remembering it right now, right?
And then, you know, just because I didn't serve him right away,
he still put me to the test.
But I am serving God.
And so he will, when we ask for the desires of our heart, he'll do those things.
And I don't even believe I was saved.
But I obviously believed that God was real, didn't I?
That was when I was in a jam.
And I forgot to tell you the best part.
He's right about to find me. I prayed this prayer.
He's right about to find me, and he trips over a rock
and falls flat on his face right next to me.
And then he's, like, you know, just freaking out because he fell down,
and he's, like, grabbing his gun and plugging.
And then he, like, put his flashlight over and just kept walking.
Explain that.
How do you explain that?
God was just looking out for me.
Maybe that cop was going to kill me. I don't know.
He hit one of my friends in the back of the head with one of the other cops.
He hit one of my friends in the back of the head with a shotgun.
Just for running. We're kids.
You know, kids run from police sometimes.
It's not like we committed some kind of murder or something.
It's, like, good night, guys.
Did I have a boring night out in the field today or what?
But anyway, my point of seeing that is this.
When we put God to the test, he's going to answer that test for us.
He did what I asked, didn't he?
And I wasn't even saved.
God doesn't hear your prayers unless you're saved.
I understand that, but I did call out to God.
I remember when I called out to God and said,
God, if you're real, this is exactly what I said years later,
but I said, God, I don't know if you're real or not,
but if you are, I said, I'm really confused right now,
and I wish that you would just show me the truth.
That's right. Sweet.
And guess what happened?
I got saved, like, not too long after that.
Amen. Amen.
God showed me the truth.
And so what did I pray for?
The truth.
And what did he give me?
The truth.
Amen.
Here I am today.
And there was a time when, you know,
me and my wife were just boyfriend and girlfriend,
and we were broken up.
And we broke up, and she's like,
I wouldn't take you back if you were a preacher.
I was like, checkmate.
Because I got saved, and then I got her saved.
So anyway, sorry.
Let's go to Matthew chapter 16, verse 18.
Matthew chapter 16, verse 18.
The Bible says,
And I say also unto thee that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against an end.
The gates don't move.
The gates aren't coming at us necessarily.
We're coming at the gates.
That's the point.
Yeah.
When we're going, you know,
I'm going to build my church,
the gates will not prevail against it.
We're supposed to attack the gates.
We're up here to attack the gates.
Amen.
Spiritually attack these gates here.
And it says,
And I will give unto thee the kings of the kingdom of heaven,
and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be down in heaven,
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loose in heaven.
He's given us the keys to the kingdom,
and he has the keys to the kingdom,
and he's letting us test drive the car.
We have the power of God upon our lives.
All we have to do is just tap into it.
Yeah.
So what do I have to do to get into this battle?
Maybe you're not in the battle,
and you want to get into the battle.
What do I have to do?
Well, you've got to show up for duty.
You've got to show up for headquarters.
Where's the headquarters?
Right here.
Amen.
Show up.
Show up to church,
and then you're going to get your marching orders.
You're going to get, you know, the instruction.
Don't you get trained in the military?
Isn't there some sort of verbal training that goes on
besides yelling and screaming at you?
Yes.
Right.
I mean, after the yelling and screaming is over six weeks later,
then they probably put you in some classroom situations,
but they also train you physically to do certain things, I'm sure.
And so, you know, this church is a place to train you.
Amen.
We're training the soldiers to go out to battle.
We're teaching them to teach other men also.
We're teaching ladies to teach other ladies also.
So you want to be in the battle?
Well, you've got to get in the headquarters.
You've got to, you know, if you're AWOL already, then come back.
Amen.
You know, because the thing is, you know,
you might have been punished for the things that you did
while you were on AWOL, but you know what?
God is a loving God.
Yeah.
He brings back, you know, when the prodigal son came back,
you know, that picture is that, hey,
when we come back from being backslidden,
God's waiting there ready to receive you.
Good.
He loves you.
You're his son.
You're his daughter.
And he truly loves you.
Amen.
And, you know, this might become personal,
but he loves you more than your mom does.
He loves you more than your dad does.
Yes.
He loves you more than your children do.
Amen.
Think about that for a second.
He loves us.
And obviously it's unconditional in the fact that when we believe
and get saved, that's unconditional.
We just have to believe.
That's it.
We know it works to make him happy.
But, you know, we got to be about it.
We got to want it.
You know, if you want this world to change,
if you want this area to change, if you want your life to change,
you got to tap in to God's system.
And God's system is talked about as a military system.
I mean, I've showed you quite a few verses here to talk about it.
You got to have the armor on.
You know, we got to be sent.
He sent the 70.
He sent them as lambs among the wolves.
How do you how do you explain how a lamb can overcome a wolf?
Well, Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God that take away the sin of the world.
Yeah.
And he overcame the whole world for our sake.
You know, he destroyed the serpent.
You know, it's not going to say that we could step on serpents and scorpions.
So we have the power.
God had Jesus Christ gave us the power of fire.
You know, and don't forget about having zeal.
No, don't just show up.
I mean, show up out of duty.
Notice your duty as a soldier to show up.
But, you know, a lot of soldiers and some soldiers are more zealous than others.
Yeah.
Well, you know, the person that's slacking, they're like, come on, bro.
Get up to these girls.
I don't know.
I'm sure that it's because you're trying to be one unit that is great at fighting.
And like we have a bunch of division in our church.
That's going to be a problem.
So, you know, in the way the military trains people is that, hey, we're one unit.
You know, lots of different people, lots of different ideas, lots of different talents.
But we're one unit.
Yeah.
And we're going in to win the battle.
So turn to Philippians chapter one, verse twenty seven.
Philippians chapter one, verse twenty seven.
Don't forget to be zealous, though, as a Christian, because God love, you know, I think somebody asked Pastor Anish at one time.
He's like, so are you what do you say?
Are you something or a religious zealot?
He said, I'm a religious zealot.
And, you know, I was like, I never thought about that because when people say, are you a zealot?
That's not a positive thing to say to you.
Right.
But a zealot is someone that's just fired up to get the job done.
Right.
And when he said, I'm a religious zealot, it's like, oh, amen.
I'm sorry.
All right.
Sorry.
All right.
I thought it was something I could do or something.
But anyway, so you're in Philippians chapter one, verse twenty seven.
Look what it says.
Only let your conversation be as it becomeeth the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent,
I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind striding together for the faith of the gospel.
This is what he requires of us.
And so when you're an army of one, obviously, we're not talking about a one world government, but we're talking about a united church that stands.
What are we doing?
What's our what's our duty?
That, you know, when when people hear of our affairs, they hear that we stand fast, that we're we're strong, we're not going to back down.
We're of one spirit, of one mind.
We're not all over the place.
We're striding together.
That means fighting together for the faith of the gospel.
That's our job.
That's our duty.
That's our mission.
It says, if nothing terrified of your adversaries, which is to them an evident token of tradition, but to you of salvation and that of God, for unto you is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake.
You know, sometimes soldiers suffer.
Sometimes soldiers get wounded.
Sometimes soldiers get taken out in battle.
But, you know, we need to whether that happens or not, you know, Christ suffered.
People spit on Christ.
They might spit on you.
Yeah.
People call him names.
People might call you names.
People hurt them physically.
They might hurt you physically.
But you know what?
You know, that's what we're called to do sometimes.
And that shouldn't make you afraid because in reality, God is going to God protects us way more than we ever get hurt.
Yes, right.
Usually the hurt is something we do to ourselves.
Yeah.
When he's hurting us, that's something we've done that we deserve.
We need to get right.
Yeah.
I got mean with the Chinese kid.
And like there's a boot on his throat.
Right.
And then like it pans out and then it shows that the kid is the one with the boot.
He's got his boot.
It's looking like he's choking himself or whatever.
We'll still get Matthew chapter 28.
So the mission is we're striving together as one fighting force for the gospel.
And so I guess if you want to give that, you know, a lot of times the military, they'll give the name of an operation like Operation, you know,
it's the only thing here.
I don't know about that one.
Well, operation, operation, you know, whatever.
There's like all these different military, all these military, you know, mission names.
So what about calling ours Operation Great Commission?
Amen.
Operation Great Commission, because that's what we're here to do to fulfill the great mission.
Look at Matthew 28 verse 18.
It says, and Jesus came and stated to them, saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
So who's who's got the power?
Jesus got the power.
And then he says, what?
Go ye therefore.
And people are like, well, let's talk about the disciples.
You know, the apostles were no longer supposed to go.
Also, what the missions, the missions just ended.
Oh, it says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father,
the Son of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you,
and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.
Amen.
So he says for us to go forth and teach other people also whatsoever I have commanded you.
So what did he command them?
Go ye therefore.
That's the command.
That's what he said, right?
Go ye therefore.
So they're like, oh, it's just the apostles.
He says, teaching them to observe all things.
You know, who are you teaching?
The people that you convert, the people that get saved, the people that get baptized.
That's the mission of this church.
Get people saved, get people baptized, and teach them the Bible.
That's what we're here to do.
And obviously, teach you how to be better Christians.
Teach you how to be a complete package.
You know, the perfect package, right?
And you know, that's not necessarily perfect as in you're walking on water tomorrow,
but it's perfect as in you're well-rounded, you're just, you know, it's like,
I always like to say in mixed martial arts, because in mixed martial arts they say,
he's a well-rounded fighter.
What does that mean?
That means he's good in all aspects of the fighting game.
He's a good grappler.
He's good at jujitsu.
He's good at wrestling.
He's good at striking.
He's good at muay thai and kickboxing and all these other things.
Sumo wrestling or whatever it is.
He's well-rounded.
Most people are experts in one specific area that get into fighting,
and then they broaden their horizons and get better at those different things.
So as a Christian, we might have something that we're really good at,
we're really talented at, we're really gifted at,
but we also need to add all the other things in with it.
So maybe your gift is preaching, you know, and get up and preach,
but don't leave all the other things out.
Get good at everything else.
Get good at soloing.
Get good at good works.
Get good at church attendance.
You know what?
Being a pastor, if people want to be a pastor, you know,
a big part of the battle of being a pastor is you've got to be there.
You've got to show up.
Guess what?
You can say, well, you know, I'm totally not feeling it today.
It's hour drive, you know, it's going to be traffic,
it's going to be this and that.
I don't have that option.
I've got to go to church.
I mean, obviously I miss if I'm sick or something like that or something
going on, but, you know, it shouldn't be the norm.
Hey, so-and-so wasn't at church.
Oh, again, that shouldn't be your reputation.
Your reputation is I'm here when the doors are open, and look,
you've only got two services to go to right now,
so it should be pretty easy.
Yeah.
And if it's hard, leave early.
Leave earlier.
Well, I just can't seem to get there on time.
Leave earlier.
All right.
That's the cure.
Amen.
So, and look at, let's look at a couple more scriptures and we'll be done.
Let's look at 2 Timothy chapter 2.
Go back there.
So what's our job?
Operation Great Commission.
It's the battle of our life.
You know, all these wars in World War II, you can hear about all these,
the battle of the bulge, you know, the battle of this, the battle of this.
What's the D-Day?
You know, it's all these battles that decided the winning of the war.
The main battle we're trying to do is fulfill the Great Commission.
But there's a lot of battles that get us there, right?
But the fact is, is we're fighting a spiritual battle
and we need to pull down these strongholds that are in this area.
We need to pull down the stronghold of torture.
I forgot to mention drug use is a big thing here.
I mean, I kind of talked about it.
Yeah.
Fentanyl is just killing people by the droves.
And, you know, pot or weed is like a big thing.
Like, you can't even knock on an apartment complex
and just, you know, want some Doritos after the end of the war.
So, that's how it is, right?
They're like, I don't know if I'm going to pass this drug test.
I wasn't really exposed to a lot of smoke here.
But, I mean, it's a problem, folks.
It's a problem.
I mean, and when half the people are stoned that you go to the door to,
it's like it's really hard to preach the gospel to people that are drunk.
Right.
People are stoned off of something.
The battle is huge.
And, you know, we got a battle against fornication, against murder,
against adultery, against witchcraft, against sodomy,
against false religion, abortion, murder, idolatry,
and the false political ideology that is just, it's literally brain cancer here.
Yeah.
I mean, liberalism is a disease, and a disease is stupidity.
Amen.
It's just stupid to believe that way.
You know, we're going to take all the money out of your pocket
and put it in somebody else's pocket.
It's like, well, hold on now.
Did you pay for that?
Do you work?
No, you just lay on a corner and beg for money.
Yep.
Yeah.
And play on Christians, you know, their guilt.
You know, they give you the guilt trip, right?
That's what they do.
Like, I mean, I just don't even, I can't look at them anymore.
I just don't want, I refuse to look.
It's a scam, folks.
It is a scam.
It's a trap.
Stay out of it.
Anyway, sorry.
Second Timothy chapter 2, verse 25.
Here's the problem.
Satan has a lot of captives.
He's taking people captive, and he can do it as much as he wants,
when he wants, to who he wants, as long as they're not saved, right?
But even then, some say people are captive to, in some ways,
some form.
But what it says is, meet this instructing those that oppose themselves.
Instructing those that oppose themselves.
People don't even realize that they're opposing their own selves.
They just don't understand it, and we have to wake them up.
Like that gospel flashlight, you shine it in their eyes and go,
hey, you know, you're opposing yourself.
You're going the wrong way.
It says if God, their adventurer, will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth, that's the key.
All we can do is go preach the gospel and try to wake them up
and try to help these people and instruct them that they're opposing themselves.
And it says that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will.
At whose will?
At the devil's will.
They're captives, folks.
And, you know, sometimes we get mad about what certain people do,
but you know what?
They're captives.
Some of these people are captives, and they just don't,
they need to be freed.
And that's our job is to, you know, we're going to go into the MIAs
that Satan has taken, and we're trying to get them out of that camp
that they've been put in.
The devil's camp, right?
So turn to one more verse, and we'll be done.
Revelation chapter 12, verse number 7.
Revelation 12, verse number 7, the Bible says,
And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon,
and the dragon fought against his angels and prevailed not.
Neither was there place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world.
What are we up against?
What's the battle?
A world completely deceived by Satan.
A world that is taken captive by Satan at his will.
And it says, and he was cast out into the earth,
and his angels were cast out with him.
You know, and we are going to get the victory.
Guess what?
If you read the book of Revelation, we win.
We win a major victory, and it's the victory of eternal life.
It's the victory of not having to deal with these scumbags ever again,
these reprobates that hate us and hate our church.
We will never have to deal with them again.
You're not going to be in heaven.
The Bible says, without our dogs and sorcerers.
You know, all these wicked people, let the wicked still be wicked,
but you know what?
Let's wake up who we can wake up.
Let's get out of captivity, those that we can get out of captivity.
And you know what it starts with?
It starts with a church family that you can depend on.
It starts with the church.
It starts with the Bible.
And if you get plugged into this church and you get on the mission,
then you're going to be on operation, you know, great commission.
And that's what we need to be on.
We're soldiers.
I mean, I proved them on Sunday is a Sunday right here.
We're soldiers of Christ, and you know what?
We need to soldier up.
Amen.
And guess what?
Women and children, we could be soldiers too.
Amen.
So soldiers in God's army doesn't require you to be fighting with real weapons, okay?
Except for, you know, this is a good weapon.
This is our greatest weapon.
Don't ever forget it.
All right.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for a great new church start here in Seattle, Washington.
Lord, I pray that you help us to proclaim the word of God in this area.
And we fulfill the great commission, Lord, that we would be an army of one that is fighting
against the wiles of the devil.
And Lord, help us to put on the armor.
Help us to keep things in perspective.
Lord, sometimes things get hard in our life.
I pray that we would just, when they get hard, that we would turn and be hardened against
you, Lord.
May they bless this church for many years to come.
This would be a start of many great things up in this area.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
All right.
Final hymn.
Let's turn to 127.
Your hymnals, please.
We're going to sing, "'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus."
Song 127.
We'll do a second turn there.
All right.
Here we go.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him.
How I prove Him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus.
Oh, for praise to trust Him more.
Oh, how sweet to trust in Jesus.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him.
How I prove Him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus.
Oh, for praise to trust Him more.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him more.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus.
Oh, for praise to trust Him more.
Yes, it's sweet to trust in Jesus.
Just from sin itself to cease.
Just from Jesus simply taking life and rest and joy and peace.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him.
How I prove Him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus.
Oh, for praise to trust Him more.
I'm so glad I learned to trust Him.
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend.
And I know that Thou art with me.
Will be with me to the end.
Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him.
How I prove Him o'er and o'er.
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus.
Oh, for praise to trust Him more.
All right, thank you for coming out to our first service here.
Hope to see you again next time.
And again, if you want to get in on a soul wedding, please get to the book of Neb.
And again, if this is your first time coming to our church,
please make sure you pick up one of those first time visitor bags.
And we'd love to see you again.
And Brother Robert, you want to close?