and we're marching to Zion, marching to Zion.
Song four, three, let's sing it together on the first.
♪ Come we sweet accord, accord ♪
♪ And upward to the God to sing ♪
♪ Chilling their joys abroad ♪
♪ Upward to the sacred sweet ♪
♪ The heavenly field ♪
♪ The street upward to the city of God ♪
♪ We draw, sing ♪
And good singing, brother Jake,
could you open my word of prayer?
Second song, song number 53, "Bulalan."
Song number 53, "Bulalan."
Song five, three, let's sing it together
on the first.
♪ As the light shines and dims ♪
♪ I stand, as the sea chimes ♪
♪ I'll prepare your cocks with me ♪
♪ Sweet commute, I stand ♪
♪ As the sea chimes ♪
♪ I'll prepare it for me ♪
♪ Sweet perfume, I breathe ♪
♪ Born from mad dreams ♪
♪ Dreams of life ♪
♪ For I stand, as the sea chimes ♪
♪ I'll prepare your cocks with me ♪
♪ Float to me of angels ♪
♪ Wimshin' songs ♪
♪ I stand, as the sea chimes ♪
♪ I'll prepare your cocks with me ♪
Sing it, this time we'll have all.
First of the week is Galatians six verse nine.
Galatians six verse nine.
And let us not be weary in well-doing,
for in due season we shall reap
if we faint.
Galatians six verse nine.
All right, so what any times are?
1 p.m. on Saturdays and 10.30 a.m.
Service times are 10.30 on Sunday
and 3.30 with 6.30 on Wednesdays.
Phrase reports, we've had two for this month
for a total of 92 for the year.
I believe this is our, after service is our last scheduled.
Doesn't stop you.
I know some of you, you get 'em at work,
you get 'em all that, but.
So, all right, after lunch will be our last time
to add to this as an official church being sent out,
but we still got time to raise that number.
All right, 10's down below.
Upcoming events.
This Wednesday will be the first.
That will be the start of our Bible reading challenge
for January, where we just read the entire New Testament.
That's nine chapters a day for the month of January,
and then you're already off to a great start for the year.
So really good thing to do if you did it in any previous years,
but just get started right away, and hey,
watch it build fruit in your life.
January 10th will be the next Cheney Soul winning.
That'll be at 11 AM, and that'll be down in Cheney.
Just let Ryan know, and he'll make arrangements for that.
January 13th will be the next homeschool day.
That's 11 AM, and that's in the church building.
So let Miss Kylie know if you're attending, and she'll make sure that's arranged.
February 14th will be the next church event, which will be the couple's sweetheart banquet
for married couples.
So if you're planning to attend, just let the Thompsons know, and they will make sure
that that's a fun evening for you all.
Kids, if you want to receive a piece of candy, your memory verse right now is Proverbs 12,
verse 22, Proverbs 12, verse 22, "lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but they
that deal truly are his delight."
That's Proverbs 12, verse 22.
Rules are all the same down below.
Well, I guess we'll get one birthday out of the way.
I don't know.
They're trying to hide from us.
I don't care if it's like mid-March and they come back.
They're getting it.
So, but we'll go ahead and sing a happy birthday right now for the person present.
So with that, let's sing.
Happy birthday to you.
We'll see if I hold on to any dark hair by this year.
I'm holding on.
It's not all white yet, but it's getting there.
But with that, let's turn to the Lord in prayer.
Heavenly Father, thank you so much today.
Next song is song number 56, "When We All Get to Heaven."
Song number 56, "When We All Get to Heaven."
5-6, "When We All Get to Heaven."
5-6, let's get together on the first, "Sing the wondrous love of Jesus.
Sing his mercy and his grace and prepare for us a play when we, when we."
The second, "What will be when we all shout, sing, serve him."
"When we all shout, sing, that will be when we."
Sing it, would you bless the offering for us?
If you could take your Bibles and turn to Revelation chapter 2,
that will be our text this morning.
Revelation chapter 2.
Here at Sure Foundation Baptist Church,
we read the entire chapter before the preaching.
Revelation chapter 2, the Bible reads,
"Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write,
'These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand,
who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience,
and how thou canst not bear them which are evil,
and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not,
hast found them liars, and hast borne, and hast patience,
and for my name's sake hast labored, and hast not fainted.
Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works,
or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place,
except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans,
which I also hate. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise
of God. And unto the angel of the church of Smyrna write, "These things saith the first and the last,
which was dead and is alive. I know thy works in tribulation and poverty, but thou art rich,
and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of
Satan. Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you
into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto
death, and I will give thee a crown of life. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. He that overcometh shall not be heard of the second death. And to the angel
of the church of Pergamos write, These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges.
I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seed is. And thou holdest fast my
name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days where an antipas was my faithful martyr,
who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. But I have a few things against thee, because thou
hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before
the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication. So hast thou
also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. Repent, or else I will come
unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He that hath an ear,
let him hear what the Spirit sayeth unto the churches. To him that overcometh will I give to
eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written,
which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it. And unto the angel of the church of Thyatira
write, These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet
are like fine brass. I know thy works in charity, and service, and faith, and thy patience,
and thy works, and the last to be more than the first. Notwithstanding I have a few things
against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess,
to teach, and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto
idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication, and she repented not. Behold,
I will cast her into a bed, and then that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except
they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children with death, and all the churches shall
know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts, and I will give unto every one of you
according to your works. But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not
this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak, I will put upon you none
other burden but that which ye have already hold fast till I come. And he that overcometh and keepeth
my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations, and he shall rule them with a
rod of iron. As the vessel of a potter shall they be broken to shivers, even as I received of my
father. And I will give him the morning star. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. Brother Jake, could you please pray for the preaching? Amen. You guys are
there in Revelation chapter number two. We're going to look at verse number one where the Bible
says, "Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, 'These things saith he that holdeth the
seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks.'"
The thought of my sermon this morning is the state of the union address. Let's pray.
Dear Lord God, thank you so much. It's a wonderful day. Thank you so much for everything you do for
us, God. Thank you so much for this church, God, and for everybody that showed up today, God,
and thank you so much for all the visitors we had over this year, God, and for all the people that
have joined the church, God, and for the people that participate in ministries of this church,
God, and that put an effort to this church and that work in their week and in their lives
to make you happy and to do a good work for you in Spokane. I just pray you'd bless our church for
that, God, and I just pray right now you'd fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to preach
words that'd be edifying to everybody and help me to deliver well the message you put on my heart.
Jesus name I pray, amen. Third amongst them, like I said again, is the State of the Union address.
We'll continue on there in Revelation chapter number two. Verse number two, it says, "I know
thy works and my labor and my patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil."
And this has nothing to do with my sermon, it's not even my notes, but when I was like recapping
this I just realized like this verse jumped out to me so much like nowadays in Christianity people
are just so much about like being so soft and so mushy and gushy and lovey and all these kind of
things which it is good to be loving. But how do they reconcile a verse like this with their just
love everybody without you know discretion kind of teaching what do you say right there this is
Jesus Christ praising this church it says how thou canst not bear them which are evil like where is
this in modern churches nowadays again this has nothing to do with my sermon but I was thinking
about this when I was writing this and I was just like it's so true like that like so many churches
just like they want to love everybody including the false prophets including the people that are
reprobated including the people that do nothing but hate and attack God but right here Jesus Christ
says hey one really great thing you guys are doing is that you can't bear them which are evil
so may that always be said of our church as well people get mad at us for the things that we preach
but we're just going to preach what the Bible teaches at this church and that's the way it's
always going to be and that's the way that I hope it stays until Jesus Christ come until I pass away
or something like that okay but anyway that didn't do with my sermon but I just was thinking that
when I was writing this keep going it says then now has tried them which say they are apostles
that are not and has found them liars and has born and has patience and for my name's sake has
labored and has not fainted nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou has left thy
first love so like I said the title of my sermon is they say the union address and we're here
revelation chapter two the reason I picked this chapter to preach out of today is because this
goes very well with the theme of my sermon this is something that I've seen my dad do you know
over the years at our church in Vancouver he does like a little recap of how the year's been
and the different things that we've achieved and the different things that he wants us
to work on and the different goals going into the next year and I like that he does that I think
it's wise and I also see that example from Jesus Christ right here obviously he's not recapping
their year per se it's not exactly a one-for-one but he is doing what kind of like would be like
the essence of this he's like saying hey you guys are doing this good you guys are doing this bad
this we need to fix and then he moves on to the next church so I think this is a good practice
there's also one that we see obviously in our in our world today as well the president of the
united states is where I get the title from the state of the union address is supposed to get up
and explain you know how the united states is doing in the state of the union address and explain
the different policies he's going to introduce to make things better in the years to come
now if they always follow that I don't know because I've never even actually watched one
of these before but I do know that they're a thing like I hear them in name so it's probably a wise
idea for a leader to get up and recap things and kind of give the game plan going forward and that's
what I intend to do for this sermon because like I said we see just Christ himself do this he tells
them how they're doing you know what he likes that they're doing what he doesn't like and what they
need to change so that's what I'm going to try to do in this sermon this morning and I'd like to go
over some of the things that I brought up in the one of the first sermons that I preached here when
we were you know named as the leader here of the sermon you know of vision for Spokane so I'm going
to touch on some of the things I brought up in that sermon and compare and contrast and just kind
of give you the general game plan moving forward because this isn't the only verse that I'd use to
support this kind of idea for this kind of sermon go if you would to Proverbs 29 verse number 18
Proverbs 29 verse number 18 in that vision for Spokane sermon I laid out to you guys that it's
important for people to know the overarching goal that we're all gathering together for
and the overarching goal for this church will always be winning people to Jesus Christ that
is the glue the fabric that holds us together at this church that is the main thing that's the
great commission or at least a huge part of the great commission and so I was laying out an idea
in that sermon how we would do this and I want to do a little bit more of that in this sermon as
well Proverbs 29 verse number 18 it says this this is a verse that I brought up in that sermon
it said where there is no vision the people perish but he that keepeth the law happy is he
now when I brought this verse up in my vision for Spokane sermon I I think I explained to you guys
that the primary interpretation of this in my opinion isn't talking about just like you know
a vision for like building or something like that though I hear people use it in that context I
don't think that's the primary context I think it's talking about like a prophetic vision like he's
like a prophecy from God I think that makes sense in the context however the reason I'm using it in
this again and why I used it the last time as well is because when you think about these things
either whether it's a prophetic vision or whether it's a vision for you know a movement or for a
goal for a church they kind of accomplish the same thing now obviously they're they're they're way
different because that's not to say like revelation from God is the same thing it's just a vision
right just like you know a picture of what you want to do in these things but what I mean by
that is that what is the purpose of a revelation from God it's to tell the people what they need
to do right it's to tell them this is what God wants you to do the same thing would be said for
you know a man's vision obviously not on the same level or authority of God right we all understand
that hopefully but that you're trying to tell people hey this is what we want to accomplish and
so this is what we need to do to accomplish it so really I think it's valid to take this as a
secondary application I don't think it's stretching it at all because the reality of life is this is
that without a goal without a vision without some kind of plan things just become unclear and they
become super sloppy and so the purpose of this sermon is to give you guys more of a plan leading
into this next year and to you know basically lay the groundwork for what I would hope to
accomplish in 2026 and some of the goals and ideas that I have and some of the things that
I'd like to kind of shore up at this church but like when it comes to you know building things
as well I kind of had brought this up in that vision to Spokane sermon as well but it's a good
point I think that when you go to a build something that's super important you don't just wing it like
when it comes to something like you know not even just building something but doing something that's
great if you go for warfare you don't just like get these army guys just like ah just figure out
a way to get the enemy right it's like no you're like getting strict orders like this is what we
need to do play an a b c d and then there might be some like you know a little bit of improv in
that but it's like you're not just going out they're not just going to fly you to a foreign
country and be like good luck over here hopefully you take them over I would hope right can I get a
witness um but then also something like a skyscraper as well which is you know a huge building it's not
like you're just going to be like uh just kind of figure out how to put these things together it's
like this is a huge project and it's something that if you fail to do it could cause a huge
disaster and be a huge waste of money very dangerous as well so you're going to have
a blueprints behind a skyscraper or with like a bridge you're not just going to go into that
with no preparation you need something to you need some kind of plan to go on to build a bridge
and for many many other things in life because the reality is is that some things in this life are
just too important to go into just winging it without any kind of plan and so with that being
said because we're at sure foundation baptist church because we're part of the kingdom of god
and our ministry is to build the kingdom of god what could be more important than that on this
earth and after this earth as well there's nothing more important than building the kingdom of god
than getting people saved and pulling people out of the fire so i think it's very expedient very important for us
to have a plan as well and so that's where all this idea all these ideas come from in this sermon
but go if you would to luke 15 verse number 10 luke 15 verse number 10 because the points of the
sermon are going to be this it's going to be what we did good this year is point number one
what we could do better next year and some goals for 2026 so with that being said point number one
you guys are going to luke 15 verse number 10 was what we did good this year well the first
thing i want to say about that is we didn't even get a full year up here which is kind of interesting
i feel like i've been here for a long time maybe that's just because we come up and visit you guys
over the years but like i feel like we've been here for a long time and it's in a good way okay
not just like we've been here forever right but but it hasn't even been a full year yet because
we didn't even move up here until april so i mean like just thinking about that it's like it's super
awesome that this is a place that we can feel at home and that we feel comfortable and then i'm
not just super homesick it's like this is our home now so it's a great privilege and it's awesome
because me and kylie always said this was like we would go anywhere that god wants us to go to
serve him truly we would go anywhere but there's some places you'd like please don't send me this
place okay like everybody has a ninova right like please god but um but we always said we wanted to
be at least in the pacific northwest and so that's what we got because this is technically the
pacific northwest right like yeah okay just making sure there was i was looking up some maps and
there was some conflicting data last night when i was looking it up so but yeah so we always wanted
to be in the pacific northwest and i love the weather up here you guys are always turn on that
heat and i'm like what's up with that because i love the cold so this is just a match made in
heaven for me truly not for my wife not quite but for me it is for sure but um it's been a really
good year even though it hasn't been a full year and i'm really you know happy with how things have
gone this year and i'm very excited for what's to come next year as well and hopefully you guys are
all happy that we're here as well but the second thing uh that i wanted to bring up for the good
things you know that we've done is that uh and when i say we i mean the whole church hopefully
everybody understands it okay is that is that we had a record high attendance for people
which was 40 people without any kind of big event which i think is super impressive that's super
awesome and so i just think that's a sign of what's to come if we just and that's one that would be
a big point in my sermon if we just keep our nose to the work if we keep you know pushing forward
if we keep trying to serve god he will build this church he will do great works through this church
but we all just have to commit to not be weary and well-doing and just keep pushing forward
no matter what the devil throws at us that's what we have to do as christians we also had two babies
that were born this year and one more that's on the way and i was telling kylie even if we didn't
get people you know to join the church i was like i got i got the master plan if all the families
just had triplets we could just like almost double the size of the church so you just got to be
praying for that okay we'll build this church one way or another we also had um you know uh i would
say one two three people basically joined the church this year which is pretty awesome consistently
you know come in and um you know some kind of inconsistency here see here and there but i mean
what can you expect from people that are babes right and what can you expect from you know people
that are just beginning to learn but praise god that's a good problem to have like it shows that
as a church we're not just like you know completely like stalled out because that's what happens in a
lot of these churches they'll have like you know these people that are all the same people and
they just grow until they're 60 and they have no new life so everybody you know should be a solid
christian at that point but it's a good problem to have when you have people that are fresh that
you know don't know everything from the bible that you know have some things to learn and have
some places to grow because that's a sign that you're reaching your community and you're bringing
people in and praise god that we do have that problem. The third thing i wanted to bring up
that you know has been really awesome this year is that we've had today and i haven't obviously
we can't calculate what's going to have an after the service but 92 people saved so far this year
so we didn't quite get to the hundred goal we could still get there you know you never know
what's going to happen but even if not i've kind of figured i kind of figured a hundred is a good
goal for next year anyways though that's a kind of a nice round number and it's something that i
think is very doable and i'll explain why that is a little bit later on as well but there's more
to it than just i hope so okay but you guys are there in luke 15 verse number 10 it says
likewise i say unto you that there is joy in the presence of the angels of god over one sinner
that repentant even if even if we only got one person saved this year it all would have been
worth it because that's one person that doesn't have to burn in hell for all of eternity but
praise god we got much more than one we got 92 people and you know some of those people are
coming to the church even now which is awesome too but as well because i mean i think it's just
the area that we live in nowadays but it's just like america is kind of cold to just kind of
church in general and to the gospel in general it's not as bad as some other places but i just
want to encourage you because sometimes i think people do this they'll like look at how the bible
works and they'll be like wow they added 3 000 people so we must be doing something wrong it's
like yeah but you know they also did have the holy spirit literally coming upon them and like
these are like prophecies that are happening not to discount it at all obviously but just to say
like we don't want to like look at our you know results and compare to other people and then base
how good we're doing off of that we want to base how good we're doing off of what the word of god
says and we are doing what the word of god says we're going into all the world and we're preaching
the gospel and if we continue doing that like i said this church will grow and we'll get people
saved and we'll get people baptized and we'll get people discipled as well but uh i said earlier
too as well the the main focus this church is always going to be soul winning but the fourth
thing that we had was we had nine people finish the old testament challenge which is incredible
to me because i really when i made that challenge i kind of you know just i didn't just throw it
together like there was some thought that went into it but it was like i didn't really expect
that many people to participate in the challenge but that's a huge chunk of the church like like
we i think we get blind to this nowadays because you know we fellowship with people that really do
care about the bible that really you know are serious about reading the bible and about doctrine
but there are so many christians out there that never read their bible through cover to cover
not even one time and so if any of the people that read the old testament challenge also
participated in the new testament challenge which i don't know what the numbers were on that because
we weren't here quite yet but if that was if any of them did that then they finished their bible
through cover to cover which is an amazing awesome achievement super great and that's something we i
probably when i was thinking about the old testament challenge we probably won't do it every year i'll
probably kind of do it every other year because i think it's uh quite a big chunk of time to be
doing but the new testament challenge for sure i want to do that every single year that's a great
way to start the new year by reading the bible and it's awesome to see that you know we don't
just have people that are coming to the church and then not listening to the preaching about
reading their bible we have people that will commit to these challenge and commit to these
things it's very awesome it's great to see a church and the members of a church participate
in these challenges because it shows that you know people care about the preaching they care
about the word of god the the fifth thing that we have that i was going to mark off as being
pretty awesome was that we had two men's preaching nights this year and then so basically my plan
for the men's preaching nights is that we would do it every fifth sunday so i think there's four
of those per year so at a minimum we would have four men's preaching nights which i think is very
awesome that doesn't we could maybe do some more of these depending on how the reception is to them
and how um not just reception but what do i say then maybe just the interest for people that are
participating in general but i really like those because the thing about preaching is that you
only get better at preaching by preaching it's one of the things you just have to like the i mean not
that i'm the best preacher ever by any means now but like you should have heard me when i first
started preaching okay not ideal not great but the reality is is that you only get better at that
you stop fumbling as much you stop you know getting so nervous by going up and doing more
preaching just one of those things in life you just sometimes to learn something you just got to
struggle with it you got to be okay with the awkwardness or the embarrassment but really
especially with preaching people have a lot of grace people don't realize this but people have
a lot of grace when you come up for a preach like nobody you are your own worst critic when you come
up to preach so like i i only say this to just say i'm very proud of the men that came up and
preach for the men's preach at night and for the men's that just preach any night obviously as well
and uh i'm looking forward to the sermons you guys will make for the upcoming year as well
and lord willing i mean depending on how it goes as well if you guys are interested i'd like to
you know eventually get more people in the rotation for preaching i think that'd be very awesome
not because brother jason and brother paul don't do a great job because i i think they do a very
great job but just because i think the more diversity of preachers the better it is if
everybody and i've kind of explained that before why i think that is just because everyone has
their own takes everyone has their own ways they look at verses but um i would be interested in
that but the way to do that would be to continue participating in the men's preaching nights
if you're interested in that the the sixth thing that i have here i think it's the sixth thing
looks like it is uh the children's choir that we have which is probably really awesome really good
singing from them we had our second annual olympics and brother jason was the champion of the bible
trivia where brother daniel won the entire thing so i thought that was very interesting those
questions you guys did pretty good on those questions i'll be honestly like um you guys
were like ah it was pretty hard but like i mean if i would have just been doing like you have to
guess all seven churches you get no points it'd be kind of too harsh i think but for the the the
amount of uh the the difficulty of the question i thought you guys did very well on them uh what
else we got here we had two church cleaning days this year which was very successful i mean if you
didn't see the before and after pictures they were super successful we definitely needed it
we probably need like one or two more of these but i'm very content with the work that we've done
i appreciate people going above and beyond this happened so much i couldn't praise you guys enough
for this but the giving the rides to church people the bringing in the food the helping coming and
cleaning on these days and you're not just like leaving everything for you know us to do really
appreciate that and we really appreciate the work that people put in every single week even if it
doesn't get said enough but um with that being said for the good things you know i think overall
2025 was a really great year and i'm excited on what's to come for 2026 as well go if you would
to proverbs 9 verse number eight proverbs 9 verse number eight proverbs 9 verse number eight the
bible says reprove not a scorner lest he hate thee rebuke a wise man and he will love thee give
instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser teach a just man and he will increase
in learning and if you go to also to proverbs 15 verse number 31 i'll just read for you guys
proverbs 15 10 while you're doing that it says correction is grievous unto him that forsake it
the way and he that hateth reprove shall die a scorner loveth not one that reprove with him
neither will he go unto the wise and where you guys are at in verse 31 it says the ear that
heareth reprove of life abideth among the wise he that refuseth instruction despite his own soul
but he that heareth reprove geteth understanding the fear of the lord is the instruction of wisdom
and before honor is humility so the reason i had you guys read all these verses and there's even
more verse about this kind of topic in the bible is to just show you that when it comes to being
able to receive correction and when it comes to taking reproofs or rebukes in the bible the bible
says there's really just kind of two kinds of people there's wise people that will acknowledge
rebukes that they'll take reproofs that they'll take correction and they'll you know they'll love
it and they'll use it to become better and then there's people that are foolish that when they
get corrected on something when they get reproved on something they just get angry about it or they
just lash out on the person giving them the correction and why i'm bringing this up is
because you should just realize as a christian because we're all sinners because we all fall
short of the glory of god we all have room to improve in every area of our life truly nobody
has arrived and i've talked about that before so i'm not going to really go too much off on that
but this idea of receiving correction is super important because the only way you can become
better as a christian at some point in your life is by getting reproved or by getting corrected
or being told you're wrong about something this is natural in life and nobody because the bible
always says like says that they love it and there you do learn to love that kind of thing but kind
of like deep down nobody likes being told that they're wrong i hate being told i'm wrong right
it just it doesn't feel great when i've gotten lit up at work before by my boss or even my dad
when i was going up you know you get told you're wrong it doesn't feel great but a mature christian
has to look past that and analyze the criticism and deal with it accordingly and and and use it
to benefit them because that's what correction is supposed to be for it's supposed to be for your
own benefit and so i bring that all up to say is that i'm just going to bring up a couple of
you know things that we could do better on as a church as a whole and there's two silver lines
of this number one is that no matter what i'm about to say up here you guys are definitely not
as bad as some of the churches we just read in revelation like it's like i mean we don't have a
woman coming up and preaching we don't have a girl seducing people to commit fornication i mean like
that was a church was serious issue it's like good night so as as no matter what i'm going to say
you're not that bad so there's a silver lining right there right but also i just say you know
about this that um some of these things will be a little nitpicky but again the only way to get
better and to become you know the best that you can be is eventually you don't have giant glaring
problems you have little things or there's just little things that we have to correct and you
shouldn't just look at them and be like oh well it's little so no big deal we should always try
to become better even if it is something that's small okay but i'm bringing that up because you
gotta do a lot of great things and i don't want to tear you down or anything like that but just
like any other church we're gonna have some issues we're gonna have some things that we have to
correct we're gonna have some things that we could do better so that's why i show you all those
verses about reproof because someone that's wise will take what i'm about to say right now and try
to fix these things or at the very least they won't get mad about them and someone that's
foolish will get mad and they'll and they'll throw a tantrum about it but the first thing i wanted
to bring up about for correction is go to proverbs 18 verse number nine this isn't even really as
much as a correction as it is just like something i'd like to see moving forward uh one of these
things we were about it before but one of these things i guess bully things has technically been
brought up before and they're not like a big deal by any means but they are things that i think we
could prove on proverbs 18 verse number nine it says he also that is slothful in his work is
brother to him that is a great waster so the the reason i'm bringing this verse up is because
we have a new track system and let me just say this before i even start into this well
anything i'm going to say on this lift that is applicable to me is truly applicable to me i'm
not above you guys on this regard this is for everybody we are the whole church right so i'm
not just saying y'all need to do this this is we all need to do all these things is the point of
this all but we have a new track system that brother paul announced a couple weeks ago and
and as to my knowledge everybody's been following so far but i just wanted to emphasize this again
that the rules for that should be this that when you're going out so wanting in reality you
probably only need two stacks one for you one for your partner so if you're going to grab both for
you and your partner you can do that or just grab one and your partner can grab one if you find
yourself needing more that like the 25 isn't enough we can definitely adjust that but i think
that most of the time you're not going to need more than 50 tracks it's probably not going to be
a thing but the reason we're doing this is to prevent waste because we just read that verse
that's like you know he that's slothful and work his brother to him that's a great waste waster
being a waster being someone that just you know is very you know what do you even say like like
just they just waste things and they just don't care about the cost of things anything like that
is not a good quality for a Christian and uh for the the the tracks as far as that goes the reason
why we're doing the 25 is because if you're like me we've i'm sure we all have like the same life
experience i'm sure like when you see these memes online we're like did we all just live the same
life it's it's kind of true sometimes but i'm sure you guys have all i've done this before too
i'll admit my faults in both here and in vancouver you take like a giant mega stack of tracks you put
them in the car you only use half of them and then you come back to like the trunk and they're all
dog-eared they're all wet they're all slimy they got the baby throw up on them or whatever right
so the the idea behind that is that we're not wasting things and so the rule for these things
are like the procedure that we would go through is that you take the stack out you use what you need
to come back put them in the box we're going to re-band those and by the way if anybody because
i'm going to bring this up a little bit later about volunteers if anybody wants to help on that
i would appreciate that if you just see the tracks in that in that basket back there and you
re-band them in stacks of 25 but if not we'll take care of it but that is something that would be
nice if someone was interested in that but the exceptions for this would be this is that brother
paul and brother ryan they obviously lead soul winning times so you guys can take more than the
average joe but everybody else you probably should just have one stack so we're going to do a car
search after the service today okay find out who's breaking the rules now and really if you are a
person that's handing tracks out in your daily life take them like the point about this is not
that we just want to you know be stingy with them it's that we just don't want to waste them we
don't want to trash them we don't want to you know destroy them for no reason that's the whole point
so if you need like an extra reserve for your car that's totally fine you know it might be helpful
sometimes but just don't take the mega stacks anymore that's kind of the whole point of this
the second thing i want to bring up about soul winning though because it's kind of in the same
vein as this is about baptism and i talked about this in a sermon very recently so i'm not going
to stress this too much but i just say this as well just as a reminder going into the new year
is that every single time that you get someone saved you should bring up the subject of baptism
that's what the bible teaches that's the example we see in the bible so at this church that's what
i'd like to do moving forward and again i'm guilty of that as well not since i preach that
sermon but you know in the past everybody does these kind of things right that's why we're
bringing it up right now but moving forward i would like to baptism be brought up every single
time you get a person saved that's what the bible teaches that is part of filling the great
commission and it is something that i want to stress going into this next year um what else
have we got about this but the oh yeah go to first corinthians 14 verse number 40 first
corinthians 14 verse number 40 in the this isn't exactly even correction but in the future i'm going
to do a sermon or some kind of seminar i think on soul winning and what soul winning looks like and
how we should be going out so willing like the different you know the the different verses to
be going to if you need help in that area or you know just like a general flow of the the topics
that you should be going to because the thing about the gospel and i think i've talked about this
before but there is a natural order to the gospel that you should go in over it should not just be
completely random like so i've seen this that people do this to their own you know the disadvantage
that they'll go out there and they'll be like first of all we're going to talk about eternal
security then we're going to talk about jesus christ living a sinless life then we're going to
talk about that we're all a sinner then we're going to talk about what you deserve this is
convoluted though there's a very natural order okay you should be talking about the fact that
we're all sinners because we've sinned we deserve to go to hell but jesus christ came lived a perfect
life died for us rose again right and then he paid for all our sins and then you talk about
eternal security that's not always what you have to do but that's what makes sense but i only bring
that up because i have literally seen a guy i think i've preached before where he changed his
gospel presentation every single time he preached and it's just it gets confusing for the person
that's staying there it's like if i'm agreeing with you about what you're teaching them and i'm
confused and there's definitely a big issue yeah um first corinthians 14 verse number 40 so i want
to do a sermon about that and it'll be different than the other one that i'd preached recently
that was more just like uh some different tips about soul wanting and some things we don't want
to get into first corinthians 14 40 it says let all things be done decently and in order i brought
this up before i know and it's just a good verse to look over that this is not just a suggestion
right here this is not just like ah corinthians just maybe do this if you feel like it he's like
let all things be done decently or this is a commandment from god is what paul is writing
right here that the church because that's what he's who he's writing to is a church that was
very dysfunctional a church that had a lot of you know craziness going on he says this is from god
almighty let all things be done decently in order this is a commandment not just a suggestion
so we should take it as such at this church as well because that's going to be kind of the second
you know main thing moving into this i just think that we need to make sure that we're focusing on
following the the guidelines that are in place the rules that are in place for the benefit of
everybody in the church because this kind of the idea when i bring up to you is that if you're
a commander and you tell someone this is what you guys need to do to capture the enemy and then
nobody listens to you what really good does it do if you tell them what to do you know what i'm
saying or if you said hey i like want to build this skyscraper this way i'm going to give you
the blueprints i'm going to give you exactly what we need to do to build this thing and all the
workers just you're like man i'm going to do whatever i want doesn't really work right what
if a soul winning leader gives a map to someone and they go throw it away and they go i don't do
maps i just see doors and i knock them then nothing is profitable that's going to be done right i
bring this all up to just say this is that truly when i said earlier that we're a church and this
is all team effort that's a hundred percent true everyone has to be on board and everyone has to
commit to following the procedures and following the rules and following the plan if we want
everything to be successful and this isn't a stretch because god says let everything be done
decently in order what is the opposite of that is just doing things by the fly just doing things
willy-nilly doing things that are against the rules right um so i just wanted to bring up a
couple of different uh points that we had kind of talked about before uh when i had first come
here but i just kind of want to reiterate some of these things of getting back to the rules on these
things and the first one is that for some of the rules that i gave before is that it's expected
that if you're in ministry you should show up 30 minutes before the church service now i do want
to say this just right off the bat okay there are exceptions to this okay if you're going to pick
someone up or if you know you're you're working a job and they're making you work overtime you
just can't get here these things are understandable okay so here what i'm saying right now i'm saying
this that if you can be here early 30 minutes early that's what you should do that's what i
would expect of you this is what my dad expects from the people that are in ministry at vancouver
and i don't think that that's a very hard thing especially on sunday when nobody's working okay
so again there are exceptions to this so don't take this as like some kind of offensive thing
or anything like that it's not my point my point is just that i want us to just do the best that
we can that's because the thing about it is is that like when we have people just kind of showing
up like at the last minute then you have people scrambling and not knowing what jobs need to be
done and you just have things not being done decently in order and with guests that would come
in and visit us they you know we're going to come into a ghost town until like you know 1029 that's
probably not a good idea right so again this these rules even that i give for these things are not
this there arbitrarily they're not just there to just be annoying they're there with a purpose in
mind and so if you're in a ministry so if you come up and do any work you know outside of the
exceptions you should try to be here 30 minutes early that's that's what i would expect of you
that's what our pastor expects for the people that are in ministry at vancouver as well again
there's exceptions but just you know give your own caveats on that if you need to the second
thing i want to bring up about the rules that i brought up before is that if you come up behind
this pulpit you should have a shirt and a tie on there might be random crazy exceptions because i
think i told you guys that before when there was a winter storm that my dad was in he went up there
with just his work clothes on his hair was all jacked up he had hair at the time most of his hair
this happens sometimes right but i'm just saying like most of the time 99 percent of time when you
come up behind this pulpit if it's not some kind of emergency you're not just a quick fill-in
you should have a shirt you should have a tie on and if you're part of that ministry that's how
you should come to church that's what we would expect out of you also for the songs and this
just basically only applies to me because brother jason's in mexico right now but we should be
sending them three days in advance to give the musicians a notice and that is to me as much as
it is to brother jason because i forget what day i'm supposed to be doing this and i failed too
and i actually fail more than jason on this so i'm kind of a hypocrite for that but moving forward
that's what this is all about right we're going to try to iron these things out and make them
more proper so that we're doing things decently in order number uh four that i want to talk about
with this is that i would really like this to happen this isn't a correction but this is
something i like to happen i would like there to be a special for every single offering it's just
awkward when we don't have one and so what i mean when my point of bringing this up is why
i'm saying this is this is that there's three people that play an instrument in this church
okay so and this go this is going to apply to other things why i'm bringing this up there's
three people that play an instrument so if you're one of these three if you're the only one of these
three that's here just take it like this is what i'm going to do for the service okay that's what
i want you to do okay because i don't want it to be like my pastor told me this in vancouver one
time uh not my dad but a different pastor that i had he's like a church how you know it's really
functioning well is that the service can completely function without the pastor there or without the
leader there he's like that's how everybody knows what the procedure is what the plan is in the
first place and i really like that mindset so i'm bringing that to say that if you're one of these
musicians if all three of you guys are here talk to each other figure out who's going to do the
offering you know that that's fine but that should be talked about before the service not just like
scrambled last second to figure out because again it's not decent it's not in order so the
procedure going forward that i would like is that on the third song for the offering
whoever's going to go up and play the offering on the last verse of it should go around wait right
there so that when whoever's called to pray for the offering is ready to pray they're instantly
jumping on the piano so that we're ready to go right away or the violin or whatever whoever's
playing whatever instrument okay just because i think that this is this would be really good
just for the flow of things in a service because i want that's what i want to bring up is the next
man up for every job like again there's i could do this with a different lot of jobs i just know
this like brother paul is usually the one who does the announcements when brother paul is not here to
do the announcements who does the announcements me just jump in it's like i don't have to be like
what are we doing oh it's like no it's just like you go up and do it right i expect that for
anybody that shares any kind of position so if we have two bible readers if one of them is not here
just know you're reading the bible today i mean and that's not by force that's just by saying like
i just want people to just jump up into what they're supposed to do to be aware of what's
going around like the what's happening around them in the congregation and just act accordingly so
that we are acting like a well-oiled machine not just super scattered again these are these are
somewhat nitpicky and the these the fact that these are the only problems i'm having to bring up
problems okay that i'm having to break up is a good sign i think as well i'm not like you guys we
have people out there preaching heresy out soul hunting or anything like that you know
the the next thing that i was going to bring up about the song leading as well for the music
ministry and this again applies mostly just to me because blue jason's not here is that i would like
the song leader to run through all of the songs with the person who's playing the instrument before
the service this just makes the song service so much better because there's so many times what
will happen is that the instrument player will forget you know maybe not forget but they mess
up because they're nervous because they haven't practiced before or one person's thinking of this
key and then that person's thinking of another key or just you know the pace is thrown off
this is all fixed if we just practice before the service and that's the rule at the church it's
what you're supposed to be doing so that's what i would expect you to be doing as well
and this is the last thing i have concerning you know music is that when it comes to music
nothing should be done off of the cuff okay so what i mean by that is that anytime we're going
to have someone playing an instrument it should be talked about it should be planned before the
service i don't like the the running up real quick and just doing something like when it's just like
no plan behind it it seems sloppy it becomes sloppy it's just not a good idea i don't think
if you're going to do you know songs for a psalm or for happy birthday or for you know any other
thing that you come up make sure it's planned before the service that's that's what i'd like
if not just keep it acapella or keep whatever you were doing again these are just very nitpicky but
things that i think that would do us well in the long run and for adopting the big the big church
mentality that we want to have in the long run um where are you guys at go to psalms 119 11 psalms
119 verse number 11 so the first if i was summarizing those things up into two things
i'd say this we should get back to following the rules to the best of our ability because
i've been a little uh i've been a little lax on the rules and it's because what can you really do
like if someone doesn't want to follow what am i going to do like hey you can't do that anymore
and then what then i have to do it that doesn't make it much better right but it shouldn't be
like that because if you're serving god in a ministry it should be because you want to
make him happy right isn't that the whole point of it so if that's the point of of a ministry is
making god happy then you should be doing it to the best of your own ability and and following
the rules of the church as well and the second thing is that we need to commit to doing things
decently in order this is again for everybody i have lots of stuff that i can work on coming
into this new year so don't just take this as like you all need to do this this is uh there's
lots of things for everybody to work on lastly the one i'll talk about though in this sermon
is the goals that we're going to have for 2026 goal number one is this is that i want to try to
get 100 salvations this next year i think it's more than doable even just going out so many i
think it's doable but i have a little bit of more to add to this because i read a book one time
not one time i've read multiple books about this actually i don't know why i'm saying like that
i read one book one time no i i've read multiple books about the subject of setting goals and about
achieving things and one thing that i know it's true about goals is that you want them to be very
specific you don't just want to be broad like i want to learn a language it's like doesn't really
help you want to be like how are you going to learn a language right you kind of plan it out
that's how you do a goal but but you also want to be you want to be specific and you want to lay out
how you're going to perform that goal so with that being said for the sony i have a couple things
that i think would be good for that obviously giving you a specific number 100 people i think
is is a part of that and i also want to do a couple things regarding soul winning number one
i want to spread out our monthly marathons not every month right but just every once in a while
to the small towns i talked about that in my vision for spoke answering just because i know
dynamite always comes to my mind we got to reach dynamite with the gospel okay we got to blow them
up with the gospel so so i want to reach out to the different you know areas and see different
areas that are receptive and just kind of because you know that's even what kind of jesus says he's
like you know jerusalem and then judaea and then to the uttermost part of the world right that's
how we're supposed to operate your local city you're going to spread out to the small towns
and then you go to you know everywhere that you possibly can so i want to do that but i also want
to do more collaborations with more churches because that are close to us because i say the
quotes right there because uh nothing's really close to spokane unfortunately sometimes like
i told guys i was like we moved up here and nothing is closer everything's farther i was
like what is up with that the only thing that stayed the same was yakima it's still three
hours away we didn't even get closer it's just still three hours like come on um but i want to
do more collaborations with churches and and part of that would be um i already told this in the
men's group i think but brother david acres that's uh in boise right now he wants to do kind of a
meet in the middle soul winning marathon at the nez pierce uh reservation i think would be super
awesome super fun and that idea just sparked me to realize i'm going to give more details for that
in the few weeks because he wants to do it after the snow obviously but that that uh plan that he
had sparked an idea and i'm like we should just be reaching out to all the different churches that
we're kind of close to right now because i know that canada is the same way it's six hours away
i know that seattle is only four hours away and the yacama is three hours away so we could
definitely plan some soul winning marathons with them some soul winning events with them
i think it'd be good for everybody i think it'd be fun just to go in fellowship with brethren
and i also think it would just be good for ourselves to get to different areas of washington
and see you know the different areas that are more receptive or even less receptive sometimes
right but i think it'd just be good overall to be doing these things and we see in the bible
that people are always working together to try to get these things done so that's something that i
plan to do in this upcoming year i want to have a focus on collaborating with other churches and
having you know uh other guest preachers come and preach we had because i thought about this
me and kyle were talking about it we only had the one really guest preacher i mean we had our our
pastor right who's obviously our pastor he's not really a guest we had brother david acres and
that's it that we had last year so i want to try to get some more people to come in and fill the
poll but i just think that that'd be fun it'd be good for everybody's spirits as well um our
second goal so our first goal was that i want to try to get a hundred people saved and we're going
to try to do that by broadening you know our outreach and by going to different areas and
by working with different churches the second goal is that i want to get at least one person
baptized next year and the way that we're going to do that is like i said earlier bring it up
every single time that you get someone saved and here's the thing i want the problem because right
now i don't think that we have anybody that could technically baptize here i want that problem though
i want someone to come up to me be like i want to get baptized and be like man i don't have
someone to baptize or so i'm i gotta call my dad and figure something out that's again a good
problem to have that's what i want i don't want it to just be like well we don't have anybody
baptized it's just that's all good i want this to be you know an issue that comes up so that again
we could fix that issue right get someone ordained to baptize and things like that
goal number three though and i think that's very doable to get one person to get baptized i think
it's very doable is that i want to start a bible memory challenge for the adults this upcoming year
this was an idea by brother ryan so you can give him all the credit for that but i think you know
with the kids learning all their little verses for the candy it kind of you know makes me think like
man i really have kind of been slacking in my bible memory too and i think it's a really
good thing to get into because you guys are there even in psalms one 19 11 it says thy word have i
hid in my heart that i might not sin against thee every time you read a bible verse you know even
if you don't remember the exact phrasing of it that paraphrase almost never leaves your brain
and the message of it and and the meaning of it sticks with you in your heart right and the psalmist
right here he says he hides his word in his heart he remembers his word so that he might not sin
against him there's so many times in the bible where you're like man is this right or is this
wrong but it's like we'd remember if we put it more to mind to memorize the bible and and and
there's different doctrines that we would be less confused about because we would have you know the
word of god already hidden in our heart yeah so i think this would be good i'm i'm planning that
out with brother ryan i wanted to do either second peter did it chapter two is that what i said or
maybe first john chapter number five i was kind of different like figuring out which one i wanted
to do but i think that'd be fun maybe as a substitute for the old testament challenges
here to do like a a chapter memorization maybe we could do multiple depending on how many people
are interested in participating in that goal number four though is that i would like everyone
to participate in the new testament challenge this upcoming year it's just a great way to
start off the year on fire for god it's a great way to start off the year with everybody making
god the center of this new year that's why we do the new testament challenge right we start off
on a good foot and that's something that i would uh enjoy if everybody participated in the new
testament challenge and goal number five and this is the last one that i have because i don't want
to do too many goals for you guys is this is i would really like for there to be a consistent
piano player up here now that's not a goal that i can give you on how to measure this out because
that's not really in my realm but i would really like if someone would really just take it to heart
and make it their own because obviously we have a couple people that can play piano in here
and that's really good but i think it would do wonders for the church's music ministry
and for the guests that would come in if we had someone that would really just grab onto this and
be like i'm gonna be the piano player for the church i'm gonna make this my own ministry and
make no mistake about it it is a ministry it's a work for god we see how important it is to play
instruments from god because the book of psalms is a songbook it's the longest book in the entire
bible right so music is exceedingly important to god so i would love it if someone would just you
know even if you're not the best thing ever we don't need the best thing ever for a people for
piano you know what we need is we just need someone that would be willing to be faithful
and dedicated to it and would lay it on their heart to do it i think it would do wonders for
this church and i think that god would appreciate as well in his church so just kind of in summary
for this sermon though i know that uh it's kind of a different sermon that i would usually kind
of preach but i just want to say that i really have appreciated working with you guys in 2025
i'm more excited than ever for 2026 i really think that we can tear up uh spokane washington
and i think that we can do a lot of good works for god if everybody commits to doing things
decently in order and again like i was saying earlier here's the thing about god is that god
will reward you when you're faithful to him it's not a matter of if he will it's a matter of just
when he's going to do it and i truly believe in the bottom of my heart that if we you know put
ourselves our focus on god and we make him you know the chiefest thing in our life and we work
on serving him with all our heart soul mind strength he will build the church i mean it's
even god's job to build the church is it not he says he'll do it we don't have to worry about
you know dragging people in here god will build the church god will out of the church if we just
do our part and what's our part it's to do things decently in order and it's to go into all the
world and preach the gospel that's what he wants from us and to preach the truth from his word
and so the goals just in summary again was that i would like to i'd like to see in 2026
oh this is what i have to say as well i'm gonna pause that before i say that is i'm gonna recap
these goals next year so don't just think you're gonna hit this one time we're gonna go off on
these goals next year and see how we did on this so it's not just like oh these goals and they're
never gonna get brought up again so we can compare and contrast at this exact date next year okay
december 28 2026 if it's the 28th as well but that last sunday okay mark my words the goals were
these though i'd like to get 100 people say it as a church i think that's more than doable i think
that'll be great and i think that it'll be you know it's awesome to like have something to work
towards it almost i don't want to say it makes me glad that we didn't get 100 people say but it
does give you a nice round number to be like this is what we can do next year let's get it done we
can measurably say hey last year we got 92 but 2026 we got 100 at least 100 right who knows what we
could do if we put our mind to it number two is i want to get one person baptized i think that'd be
really awesome for this church it'd be good for the spirits everybody in this church as well
i'd like to do the bible memory challenge i'm going to put details out for that a little bit
later on of what we exactly want to do on that and what chapter it's going to be i'd like number
four for everybody to participate in the new testament challenge because you know the thing
you know about these challenges what's nice about them is even if you don't finish them you still
got a huge amount of bible reading done in a little amount of time so i think that everybody
and the new testament challenge is not that hard compared to i think the old testament challenge
was definitely harder than that that's a long time to commit to something okay but the new testament
challenge i'd like to see everybody do that and number five is that i would really like there to
be a consistent piano player even just a consistent just every single service we have a designated
instrument player i think that'd be very nice i think it'd be very helpful for the church and i
hope that god lays that on someone's heart as much as he laid it on my heart for uh to preach that
because i think that that's a very achievable goal in one year as well so again i'm i'm excited to
work with you guys this upcoming year and i'm excited to see what god has in plan for this
church and i just hope everybody will you know commit to this and they'll commit to this church
because as i told you guys before i'll say again we're all in for this church this is where we're
going to be until i die until i get thrown out until i get demoted until something happens okay
so let's make the most of it and let's do the most for god in 2026 let's pray dear brother god
thank you so much this wonderful day thank you so much for everything you do for us god thank you
so much for this church god and these faithful people thank you so much that uh we have so
little to complain about god and so many things to to glory in god and thank you so much that
we have people that love you and want to serve you and want to do better god and that that want to
to be the best that they can be i just pray that you'd help me as well to uh to to become better
in this next year and i just pray that the preaching that we that would happen around
this pulpit this next year would be the best that's ever been and i pray that the bible reading
that we've done will be the most that it can be and i just pray that we would win souls for you
in this area and all around the state and all around this world and i just pray that we could
make you proud and have you say well done my faithful servants when we get up to heaven
and meet you jesus name i pray amen song number 155 doxology 155 doxology 155 on the first praise
god from whom all things flow praise him all creatures here below praise him above ye heavenly
oh son and praise god from sings flow sure scene brother paul would you close the door player