Good afternoon, everybody, and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church.
Wonderful to see everybody here this afternoon.
If we can go ahead and find our seats, we'll get started with tonight's service.
For our first song tonight, let's all go to song number 43 in our hymnal.
Song number f*cking to Zion.
So much for this awesome church. Thank you so much for the people gathered here.
And thank you so much for just allowing us to hear you.
We love you, Lord. We just ask you to fill this room with your Spirit and help sing out unto you tonight.
In Jesus' name we pray.
For our next song, let's go to our handouts here, our song booklets.
He is mine, so to the back, He is mine.
Sing that out together.
This church, if you need a bulletin, please raise your hand nice and high.
One of the ushers will come around and get that to you.
We have our verse for the week.
Really, we're in our grace week for this chapter.
We're memorizing Jude.
So if you can quote this to a non-family member, we will have a prize for you on Sunday.
So make sure that you're able to get that in before you leave.
Also, Pastor Shelley, he is feeling under the weather.
And so he will not be here this evening.
So if you can remember, keep him in your prayers.
We'll get to our prayer sheet in just a moment.
If I could actually get one of those prayer sheets, I don't have one.
I'm sorry. Never mind. It's on the back.
Good night.
We've got our service times and are so many times there on the inside along with our regional.
So many times we do have that new ladies.
So anytime on Tuesday at 1030 and then that we've got our church stats want to continue to be in prayer for expecting ladies.
We got many ladies there on the list.
So make sure that you are praying for them.
And then we've got some upcoming events.
Pastor Bruce Mejia is going to be here preaching for us this coming Sunday.
So definitely looking forward to that.
Haven't seen him in a little while.
So excited to see him and he's going to be preaching all three services on Sunday including that morning Spanish service.
So make sure that you're able to tell him thank you for taking some time out away from his family to come and preach for us.
October 26th is going to be the fall swap October 31st is our annual chili cookoff.
No beans in the chili right Texans here.
And you know even the non Texan isn't great.
Well I am a Texan now but you know somebody who doesn't originate from Texas definitely embrace that doctrine.
It's a good doctrine.
Then we've got our FWBC missions conference November 5th through the 9th and that's going to be there in Tempe Arizona.
If you're able to make it out, I know that would be a blessing and there'll be many testimonies, many sermons from these past few mission strips that have taken place across the world.
And so we don't want to miss that.
November 23rd is going to be Anchor Baptist Church's anniversary service.
Pastor is going to be preaching for that.
So if you're able to make it down or up to Oklahoma City for that, definitely encourage you to do that.
November 29th is the Turkey Bowl.
That is something that we're going to start doing on a more regular basis.
Some of the guys get out and play some football, be men and show your might.
So definitely looking forward to that as well.
Our ladies Christmas parties December 5th.
Then we'll have our Christmas caroling December 8th.
And then December 21st is the cookie bake-off.
December 24th Christmas Eve is going to be the Christmas candlelight service.
And then New Year's Eve will be a men's preaching night and pizza.
So you don't want to miss out lots of events coming in the next few months.
And definitely looking forward to this time of year.
On the back, we do have our prayer list.
And if you want a pencil in there, Pastor Shelley there at the top, just to keep him
in your prayers.
Again, he is filling under the weather.
We have Tineka Carlson.
We're praying for her mother, Rebecca, and her father David's health.
Also, we have Faith Miller.
We're praying for her friend's mom's cancer.
Elijah Scott, praying for both his parents, Brother Horace and Miss Grace, and then also
him and his wife's health.
We have Eva Garcia.
We're praying for Brother Tony's health.
Also, we're going to continue to pray for Miss Marinette's dad as he's dealing with
kidney disease.
We have a praise report for the Urbanics.
Their grandmother was able to go home and is recovering, and so keep her in your prayers.
Also, Brother Ryan's friend recovering from heart surgery.
Gabriel, we're going to pray for his mother.
She's dealing with some issues with her feet, and just keep her in your prayers.
Miss Ginger, we have a praise report for her and her cousin that she had a successful surgery,
so praise God for that.
We're going to continue to pray for the Madranges, Olga and Miss Cecilia, for their daughter,
and for their friend Martha as well.
And then also, just to make a quick note, Brother Paul Weathers is here with us this
evening.
Hey, praise God for that.
It's great to see him, and just the miracle that God is performing there for him, and
just how quickly he is being able to heal from that, and just continue to pray for him.
Continue to pray that his therapy would continue to go well.
We have the Illys, continue to pray for them.
Brother Matt needs prayer for his work, and then we have an update from Miss Sierra.
Her grandmother is now out of the hospital, and she's recovering.
And so if you could remember to keep her in your prayers.
The Good Ones were praying for their sister-in-law.
Her husband passed away.
It's a sad time for them.
So definitely keep them in your prayers.
We'll continue to pray for Miss Lola and Phoebe Rowe.
Of course, those are some friends of ours from Faithful Word Baptist Church, where their
husband and Father Kevin had passed away recently.
Definitely want to continue to pray for them.
I did get to see that they had recently went on a cruise mission trip, so that was really
cool to see that, that she's out there still going into the highways and hedges and continuing
to be a Faithful soul winner, so definitely encouraged by that.
Continue to pray for her.
And then Brother Michael for his Aunt Mary, where she had passed away recently.
Continue to pray for her.
Brother Philip, he has an update for his father.
He recently was able to come home from the hospital as well.
So many requests here dealing with people's health.
So if you would remember to pray for these people throughout the week, it would be an
encouragement to them.
Right now, we're just going to say a quick word of prayer.
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for just the many blessings that you give us, Lord.
Thank you for all the praise reports.
So many people being able to get out of the hospital and start that path to recovery.
And I'm just so thankful to see so many familiar faces here this evening.
God, thank you for our visitors that were able to come.
God, we pray for all those that are dealing with health issues that you would help them
through their infirmities, that you would help them to heal.
And Lord, that you be with doctors and the choices, the decisions that they're making.
God, I pray that you would continue to just bless this church.
Lord, help us to have a strong spirit to go out and to preach the gospel.
And just really encouraged by all the soul winning that we've been able to accomplish
this year.
And I pray that you would keep us motivated to finish the year strong.
And we pray all these things in your son's name.
Amen.
All right.
With that, we'll go to our next song as brother Dustin comes and leads us.
We'll do the psalm of the week, psalm 15, psalm 15, find it in your King James Bible
or in the binders once again with the laminated sheets, psalm chapter 15, psalm 15.
Let's all sing that out together tonight.
psalm 15, psalm 15, psalm 15, psalm 15.
Second Kings chapter number five, the Bible reads, "Now Naaman, captain of the hosts
of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable because by him the
Lord hath given deliverance unto Syria, he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was
a leper.
And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land
of Israel little maid, and she waited on Naaman's wife.
And while she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is
in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy.
And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the
land of Israel.
And the king of Syria said, Go to, go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel.
And he departed, and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold,
and ten changes of raiment.
And he brought the letter to the king of Israel, saying, Now, when this letter is come unto
thee, behold, I have therewith sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover
him of his leprosy.
And it came to pass, when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes
and said, Am I God, to kill and to make alive, that this man doth send unto me to recover
a man of his leprosy?
Wherefore consider I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me.
And it was so when Elisha the man of God had heard that the king of Israel had rent his
clothes, that he sent to the king, saying, Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes?
Let him come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.
So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house
of Elisha.
And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go, and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy
flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.
But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought he will surely come out
to me, and stand, and call in the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over
the place, and recover the leper.
Are not Baena and Pharepar rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?
May I not wash in them, and be clean?
So he turned, and went away in a rage.
And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had
bid thee to do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?
How much rather than, when he saith to thee, wash and be clean?
Then sent he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of
the man of God.
And his flesh came again, like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.
And he returned to the man of God, and he and all his company, and came, and stood before
him, and he said, "Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel.
Now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant."
But he said, "As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive nothing."
And he urged him to take it, but he refused.
And Naaman said, "Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant two mules
burdened of earth?
For thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods,
but unto the Lord."
"In this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of
Rehman to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bowed down myself in the house
of Rehman, the Lord pardoned thy servant in this thing.
And he said unto him, Go in peace.
So he departed from him a little way.
But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, Behold my master hath spared
Naaman the Syrian, and not receiving at his hands that which he brought.
But as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take somewhat of him.
So Gehazi followed after Naaman, and when Naaman saw him running after him, he lighted
down from the chariot to meet him, and said, Is all well?
And he said, All is well.
My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, even now there become to me, from Mount Ephraim,
two young men of the sons of the prophets.
Give them, I pray, the talent of silver and two changes of garments.
And Naaman said, Be content, take two talents.
And he urged them, and bound two talents of silver and two bags, and with two changes
of garments, and laid them upon two of his servants, and they bare them before him.
And when he came to the tower, he took them from their hand and bestowed them in the house,
and he let the men go, and they departed.
But he went in and stood before his master, and Elisha said unto him, Whence comest thou,
Gehazi?
And he said, Thy servant went no wither.
And he said unto him, Went not mine heart with thee, when the man turned again, from
his chariot, to meet thee?
Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and to olive yards, and vineyards,
and sheep, and oxen, and men servants, and maid servants?
The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed forever.
And he went out from the presence, a leper as white as snow.
Let us pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you for this chapter of the Bible.
Thank you for this church, Lord.
I pray that you'd be with Pastor Shelley, Lord, that he could recover from him feeling
under the weather.
I pray that you'd be with Brother Fur as he preached unto us, Lord, to pray that you'd
fill him with your spirit and that we would learn from the Bible and become better Christians.
And I pray this all in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen.
Let's look back at verse number one.
The Bible says, "Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man
with his master and honorable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria.
He was also a mighty man in valor."
When you're listening to the description of Naaman the Syrian, this guy sounds like a
really good guy.
I mean, this is somebody who's a mighty man.
You know, somebody who was very brave, very courageous.
The Bible says he was a great man.
It's not necessarily talking about the quality of Naaman, but rather his position within
the Syrian army.
He's somebody who's very high ranking.
He has a lot of clout, if you will.
He has a lot of, you know, a lot of people know who this guy is.
The Bible says that he was honorable.
So this is somebody who had, you know, good character.
He's somebody who, you know, on the surface we would all look at and say, "Hey, man,
this guy is a really good guy."
You know, from the world's standards, they might look at Naaman the Syrian and say, "Hey,
man, maybe this guy deserves to get into heaven."
Right?
He's done a lot of things.
And notice what the Bible says, that God even used Naaman the Syrian to deliver Syria.
So Naaman even saved many people's lives.
You know, maybe it was some military conquest.
It was some type of act that he had done that had been able to save many lives from
being destroyed by some enemy armies.
But notice what the Bible says there at the very last of this verse, it says, "But he
was a leper, but he was a leper."
And that's the title of my sermon this evening, "But he was a leper."
At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what accomplishments a person has, it doesn't matter
what type of feats they're able to acquire in this life, it doesn't matter how many physical
lives they're able to save from death, we're all sinners.
And that's what the Bible is teaching us here with this character name in the Syrian.
And I really got to thinking about this story because this week, I don't know if many of
you caught this, but of course, President Trump, he was involved in this peace treaty
between Palestine and Israel.
And on Air Force One, I assume he's on his way home, one of the reporters, they ask him,
they ask him, "Hey, are you going to heaven?"
And they're implying because of what he's done.
And if you think about even Trump, obviously he's not a person of high moral character.
This guy is a serial adulterer, he's been divorced or married several times, he's got
many different issues, but just from a world's perspective, you might be able to look at
Donald Trump and say, "Wow, this guy's accomplished a lot."
Rewind to the beginning of this last term where he first started in office, I mean,
this guy was just going the task, just writing all sorts of things into law, writing all
these presidential, you know, which to me, they're pretty much meaningless because they're
not actually laws, but it makes you feel like the guy's getting a lot done, right?
And he seems to be fighting on the side of Christians and, you know, for sure you could
look at some of the things that he's done as a positive thing.
I don't necessarily have a lot of negative things, necessarily, to say about some of
the things that Trump has been able to accomplish in his first 90 days in office, first 100
days in office, and whatever that measuring stick that politicians like to look at.
But at the end of the day, President Trump was asked whether or not he was going to
heaven, and what did he say?
I'm probably not going to heaven.
I don't know that I've done enough.
And it really made me start to think about this character in the Bible, name of the Syrian.
And the reality is that nobody can do enough to get to heaven.
Nobody is good enough to get to heaven on their own.
It doesn't matter how many lives you're able to save.
It doesn't matter how many Palestinians, Ukrainians, Russians, you know, I guess, Israelites
or, you know, Jews in Israel.
You know, it doesn't matter how many of their lives that are saved.
That can never get anybody to heaven.
It doesn't matter the accomplishments that we have here on earth.
We're still lepers from a spiritual sense.
And that's really what I want to preach to you this evening is this, this story of name
in the Syrian and how this is a perfect picture of salvation and how a person gets saved.
There's so many great truths in this story that we can learn from the life of name in
the Syrian.
And I want to pull out some of these truths.
And the reality is, is that, but he was a leopard, right?
Every single person needs to be saved.
Every single person needs a savior in Jesus Christ.
And you know, Trump, I believe, can get saved if he believes on Jesus Christ.
You know, in his mind though, what does he think it's going to get him to heaven?
If I do enough, you know, if I write enough policies into, into law or, or, you know,
establish enough things are going to save people's lives or they're going to make a
huge impact, you know, making life, people's lives better.
That's what he said.
I don't know if I'm going to heaven or making people's lives better.
Well, newsflash, that's not going to get you to heaven, right?
You have to be cleansed of your leprosy, just like Naaman, the Syrian.
And so we're going to do a Bible study here this evening.
Look at verse number two, verse number two, the Bible says, and the Syrians had gone out
by companies and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel, a little maid.
And she waited on Naaman's wife.
And she said unto her mistress, would God, my Lord, were with the prophet that is in
Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy.
And one went in and told his Lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the
land of Israel.
See this maid from Israel, she had been captive, led captive of the Syrians.
And then she shares Elisha's sermon online, right?
She lets everyone know, hey, there is somebody that can heal you of your leprosy.
There is somebody who knows the answer to the question that you're looking for.
And notice what the Bible says in verse number five, "And the king of Syria said, 'Go to,
go, and I will send a letter unto the king of Israel.'
And he departed, and he took with him 10 pounds of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold, and 10 changes
of raiment."
So notice that the king of Syria, he sends on Naaman's behalf this letter to the king
of Israel, so that way, you know, he could have basically an open door, an opportunity
to hear of this prophet.
Notice what the Bible says in verse number 6, and he says, "And he brought the letter
to the king of Israel, saying, 'Now when this letter is come unto thee, behold, I have therewith
sent Naaman my servant to thee, that thou mayest recover him of his leprosy.
And it came to pass when the king of Israel had read the letter, that he rent his clothes
and said, "Am I, God, to kill and to make alive that this man does send unto me to recover
a man of his leprosy?
Wherefore consider, I pray you, and see how he seeketh a quarrel against me."
And it's an interesting response from the king of Israel.
And it's really, it's kind of the typical response of somebody who's unsaved.
If you kind of study the history here, where we're at, you have the nation of Israel that's
been split into two kingdoms.
You have the northern kingdom Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah, and the northern
kingdom is being run by some pretty wicked family.
The family of Ahab and Jezebel, and this is his son that they're talking about here.
Ahab has already died.
This is Ahab's son, and Ahab's like, "Hey, am I God?
How can I heal this guy?"
And it just made me think about when you go out so many and you ask somebody how to be
saved, or you ask them questions to confirm whether or not they believe right, many times
they'll say, "Well, how could I know?
Only God knows."
Right?
You know, this is an indication that this king of Israel, he's not saved.
He doesn't understand the right answer to give.
He's not a prophet.
He's not a preacher of God's Word.
And the Bible goes on in verse number eight, and it says, "And it was so when Elisha,
the man of God, had heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, that he sent
to the king, saying, 'Wherefore hast thou rent thy clothes?
Let them come now to me, and he shall know that there is a prophet in Israel.'"
Now, I want to kind of slow down and just think about this a little bit.
The first step that Naaman did was to go.
He was to seek, right?
And the Bible says in Jeremiah 29, 13, "And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall
search for me with all your heart."
You know, the Bible teaches that if a person wants to be saved, if they want to know the
truth, if they will just seek God with all their heart, God is going to open that door
for them.
You know, I can tell you countless testimonies of preaching to somebody at the door.
And after they get saved, they say, "You know, I was actually just praying about being saved,
about how to go to heaven.
I was praying that God would send a soul-winder to me.
I was praying that God would show me the way to be saved, and then we end up showing up
at their doorstep."
I mean, that's not a coincidence, folks.
You know, God is constantly leading us, which is why it's so important that we as soul-winners
are going out and seeking the lost.
God is then going to guide us and direct us to those that He's already been working on
that.
The Holy Spirit has been working on the heart.
There's somebody who wants to be saved.
They're desiring that.
They want to be cleansed of their leprosy.
And so they are seeking out that truth.
And this is exactly what we see with Naaman the Syrian.
He's going and seeking the prophet.
He's going and seeking to be healed of his leprosy.
The king of Israel, he doesn't have an answer for him.
So what does he do?
He sends him to the man of God.
Why?
Because an unsaved person cannot get somebody saved.
It has to be the prophet of God, the preacher of God's word that can get somebody saved.
The Bible says, "Hearing his righteousness revealed faith to faith."
Right?
Salvation comes from somebody who is already a believer and then opens his mouth, opens
the word of God, and teaches somebody else how to be saved.
It's impossible for somebody who is unsaved to get somebody saved.
It's a stupid doctrine for somebody to think that.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
Hold your place there, 2 Kings.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 5.
Let's just look at a couple verses on this, because this is a doctrine that is under attack,
and honestly folks, this is going to be something that's always under attack.
From losers, from people who are down on soul winning, from people who can't stand the fact
that all their church members in their church got saved by somebody that they don't like.
And so they get triggered, and so what do they do?
They go and preach stupid doctrines.
They go and preach things that are unbiblical that make no sense whatsoever.
Second Corinthians chapter number 5, look at verse number 18.
The Bible says, "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus
Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them,
and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ.
As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God.
Now what the Bible here is talking about is this idea of reconciliation.
What is reconciliation?
What does it mean to reconcile something?
It's basically the act of putting an end to hostility.
Before we were saved, we were at enmity with God.
That's what the Bible says.
Right?
And so when we believe on Jesus Christ, what happens?
We're now reconciled to God.
We have that mediator, the man, Christ Jesus, that is able to save us from our sins, not
imputing our trespasses unto us, the Bible says.
And now we have been given that ministry of reconciliation.
Another way of putting it is it's been settled.
In my field of work in accounting, every single month, just mark it down, we have to do bank
reconciliations.
You know what that means?
You go through and you mark off all the activity in the bank account, all the transactions
on the statement, and make sure it lines up with what's in your books, right?
And then you close out those books and they're reconciled.
Why?
Because it's settled.
It's done.
It's finished.
You know, there's been made an end to hostility, there's been made an end of being an enemy.
We're no longer enemies of God, but now we are reconciled unto Him.
We're His children, the Bible teaches.
And so the Bible is very clear that, hey, that ministry of reconciliation has been committed
unto us.
You know, let me exegete that for you.
That means y'all, right?
If you're saved, if you believe us, it's a plural pronoun, right?
It's delineating us from who?
Them, right?
I mean, it is setting apart those who are saved from the unsaved, and it's our job
to go out and to preach the gospel unto the unsaved.
It's the ministry that we have been given.
I mean, how silly, and think about this, an ambassador, what is an ambassador?
You know, an ambassador is somebody who goes to another country on behalf of the country
where they're sent.
That's the whole point.
How can you be unsaved and be an ambassador at the same time?
How could I be an ambassador to China?
I'm not Chinese.
I'm not from China.
I was born in America.
I can be an ambassador to no other country but America, right?
In the same way, the only person who can be an ambassador to God is somebody who is saved.
Somebody who has been reconciled is so retarded.
So it doesn't even make any sense to even state that somebody who's unsaved could get
somebody saved.
You say, "Well, who would preach something like this?"
How about Joe Jones?
He preached a whole sermon about how unsaved people can get people saved.
What a complete ... It's a disservice to people who are mentally handicapped to call him a
retard.
I mean, it's not even fair to them.
This is what Joe Jones says in his sermon.
The more you look into this, the more you should realize that somebody gets converted
because of God.
It is God that does the saving, not us, so to say again, "Only a saved person can get
someone saved," is to imply that there is something special about that human on their
own.
Now, I've heard this silly argument so many times, and most of the time it's coming from
somebody who's unsaved, who doesn't understand the Bible.
I'm sorry, but when you listen to Joe Jones preaching, there's a lot of red flags that
start going off.
You're just like, "What in the world is this guy even saying?"
Half the time it's not even a coherent sentence, but the fact that he's getting up there and
saying that we can't save anybody is in complete contrast to what the Bible says.
Paul said, "To the weak became I weak, that I might gain the weak.
I became all things unto all men, that I might by all means save some."
The Bible is constantly talking about saving people.
We just are memorizing the book of Jude.
What does it say?
We're pulling them from the fire, right?
Hating even the garments spotted by the flesh.
The Bible is just littered with the fact that we are co-laborers with God.
Now it would be stupid to sit there and say, "Oh, well, we are the people that get somebody
saved and God has no part in that."
It's like, no, the Bible says obviously God died for our sins, but how can anybody hear
that message unless we open our mouth?
And we're going to get to that a little bit more in the story of Naaman and how that is
pictured here in the story of Naaman.
But the Bible is very clear that it is the saved person that has the Word of God.
You know, Paul, he said, "Once sowed the seed, another watered, and God gave the increase."
Right?
If there are co-laborers with God, you know, without us going out and preaching the gospel,
then people aren't going to get saved.
If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
I mean, this is a clear attack on soul winning.
You know, it's not a coincidence that you start seeing a lot of Baptists who are lazy
or doing nothing for God start having a negative attitude towards soul winning, you know, talking
down on soul winning.
Last time I checked, we got over 1400 people saved in the Bahamas.
We had a huge impact on those and you know what?
Those 1400 people had they died a second later before we met them, they would have went straight
to hell.
So tell me that doesn't have enough impact on their life.
The Bible is clear that only saved people can get people saved and you know, he wants
to say, oh, well, we're not special.
There's nothing special about us again, complete opposite of what the Bible says.
Go to Romans chapter number 10, go to Romans chapter number 10.
Pastor brought this up in his morning sermon on Sunday.
Notice what the Bible says in verse number verse number 14.
The Bible says how then shall they call on him and whom they have not believed and how
shall they believe in him and whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without
a preacher and how shall they preach except they be sent as it is written.
How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings
of good things.
God says that our feet are beautiful.
That sounds special to me.
That sounds like, you know, we're not just some, oh, you know, we're meaningless to God
that we have no part in reconciling people to God.
It sounds like God cares about the feet of his soul winners.
Sounds like they're special.
They're precious unto God.
Go to first John chapter number three.
Another aspect of what it means to be saved is we become the children of God.
Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of heaven.
Verse number one, the Bible says, first John three, one, behold, what manner of love the
father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God.
Therefore the world knew us not because it knew him not beloved.
Now are we the sons of God?
So I guess to Joe Jones, his children are very precious and special to him.
Now, how weird is that to say, you know, he has children.
I mean, how many of your children would you say, oh, well, they're not special.
They're meaningless.
I mean, that would that you would sound like a psycho.
I mean, I love every one of my children.
Every one of my children are precious in my sight, right?
I love every one of them.
And in the same way, God loves everyone that believes on him, right?
We become his children.
And so we are special unto him.
And it's completely opposite.
It's contrary to what the Bible says when it comes to how a person gets saved.
You know, and again, it's just, it's coming from this, this hatred in his heart for one
man, Pastor Stephen Anderson, how he just hates Pastor Anderson so much.
And he has to explain away how every single person in his church is saved by him.
And now I don't really even know.
He may not have people in his church anyways, but, and maybe the people have saved or have
stayed and listened to that garbage, you know, who knows where they're at?
You know, I don't know how you could sit there and listen to that and, and actually
be saved.
Obviously it's possible to be deceived, but you say, well, why would you get so mad?
Why would, why would you want to preach against somebody about that?
I don't know, because the Bible says that we should stop their mouths.
The Bible says holding fast the faithful word, which we have been taught that we may be able
by sound doctrine, both to exhort and convince the gainsayers, for there be many unruly and
vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of this circumcision, whose mouths must be
stopped.
You know, it makes me mad when somebody gets up and just deceives and lies to people about
what the Bible teaches.
How can you call yourself a man of God and handle the word of God so deceitfully?
Makes me angry.
So the Bible is clear that the only way a person gets saved is by a saved person, somebody
who's already believed on Jesus Christ.
And then what are they doing?
They're opening their mouth.
They're that earthen vessel that that treasure is hidden.
How can you have an earthen vessel with the treasure?
And if you're not saved, the only treasure is the Holy Ghost, stupid.
Go back to first, second Kings, second Kings chapter number five, second Kings chapter
number five.
So notice that an unsaved person can't get name and cleansed.
Somebody who doesn't know the truth can't get name and cleansed.
He has to go to the prophet.
There at the end of verse number eight, Elisha tells the king that he should come unto him
so that way they know that there's a prophet in Israel.
The Bible says in verse number nine, "So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot
and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
And Elisha sent a messenger unto him saying, 'Go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy
flesh shall come again to thee and thou shalt be clean.'"
Now, again, I want to pause for just a second because in the Bible, if you study the life
of Elijah and the life of Elisha, you can see this really clear picture of John the
Baptist and Jesus Christ.
You know, John the Baptist is even called Elijah as the one preparing the way for the
Lord.
And in the same way, you have Elijah, the actual Elijah in the book of 1 Kings, who
is preparing the way for Elisha, who would then ask for a double portion of his spirit.
And there's a lot of spiritual pictures that we can draw from that that kind of show us
this picture of John the Baptist coming before Jesus Christ.
Now, I want to kind of back up and just show you some passages in the Bible that highlight
the fact that Jesus Christ came to save sinners, that Jesus Christ came to heal the sick and
those that are leprous.
Go to Matthew chapter number 11.
Go back to Matthew chapter number 11.
And there's many chapters in the Bible, especially in the book of Isaiah, that highlight these
prophecies of Jesus that he fulfilled, where he's healing people.
He's doing many miracles, and there's some things that I want to draw out from this.
Notice in Matthew 11, verse number four, Matthew 11, four, the Bible says, "Jesus answered
and sent unto them, 'Go and show John again those things which ye do here, and see.
The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk.
The lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have
the gospel preached to them.'"
And in the Bible, especially, you see this a lot in the New Testament, the Gospels,
where physical healing has a correlation to spiritual healing.
Go to, flip over to the book of Acts, Acts 3.
Just a couple books to the, to the right, Acts chapter number 3.
Look at verse number 16.
Notice how really great passages in the Bible have this address, 316.
You know, you'll notice this as you study the Bible.
You know, many books, if you just go to 316, there's a lot of great verses.
And this is one of them.
Notice what the Bible says in verse number 16, "And his name, through faith in his name,
hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know; yea, the faith which is by him hath
given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all."
So notice that it's the faith in Jesus Christ, in his name, that actually caused him to be
healed.
Now, in this story, if you kind of read, it's Peter actually did the healing in the name
of Jesus Christ to this lame man, and he's explaining himself in this passage.
But he's talking about the fact that the reason why he has this perfect soundness, the reason
why he's healed, this miracle, the reason why that took place is because that man put
his faith in Jesus Christ.
And there's this strong correlation in the Bible with being healed of some physical infirmity
and being spiritually saved, having all of your sins washed away, being cleansed of that
sin.
Now go back to 2 Kings chapter number five.
So Elisha pictures Jesus Christ and what does Elisha say?
Does Elisha go to Naaman personally and preach in the gospel or does he send somebody?
Notice what the Bible says in verse number 10, "And Elisha sent a messenger unto him."
And I think that's really unique because what that's really teaching us is that Jesus Christ,
he wants us to do the work.
He's sending us as that messenger into the world to preach the gospel to the lost.
You know, Elisha could, I mean, he came to his front step.
Elisha could have walked out and, you know, opened his mouth, but what did he do?
He sent the messenger, which is a picture of Jesus Christ's great commission to us,
you know, that we are the ones to go out into the highways and hedges.
We're the ones to plan the missions trips.
We're the ones to plan those soul-winning marathons on Saturdays, to go out and to be
the messenger to heal people of their leprosy, right?
Of the fact that they are at enmity with God.
They need to be cleansed of their sin.
They need that gospel message to be preached unto Him.
I think that's just a really cool picture here in this passage where Naaman is, or I'm
sorry, where Elisha isn't preaching to Naaman specifically, but he sends his messenger out
instead.
And notice this message is not something that's difficult, it's something that's simple.
And again, that's picturing salvation.
Salvation is simple.
It's a simple message.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
That's what the Bible says.
And what was the message that the messenger of Elisha went out and said?
He says, "Go and wash."
How much effort, how much work does it really take to go and dip in the water?
We're going to read that, it's seven times in the River Jordan.
It's a simple message, folks.
It's to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, our good works can't save us, there's nothing
that you can do, doesn't matter what accomplishments you're able to get done in this life, that's
not what saves you, it's just the simple message of go and wash in the Jordan.
Notice what the Bible says, "Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come
again to thee, and thou shalt be clean."
It's just like Acts 16 verse 30, he asks, "What must I do to be saved?"
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a simple message of salvation.
Notice what the Bible says though in verse number 11, it says, "But Naaman was wroth
and went away and said, 'Behold, I thought he will surely come out to me and stand and
call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place and recover
the leper.'"
You know, and again, this is such a good picture of soul winning and salvation, because many
times you'll explain to somebody how easy salvation is, and people will get mad at you.
They'll get angry at you.
You know, why?
Because they want some supernatural event to take place.
They want the man of God to smack his hand, shabalala, he wants to do, you know, they
want some experience, you know, the Pentecostals are really big on this.
You know, the Pentecostals believe, and in fact, I know because, you know, our family,
we have some relatives that, you know, they would say, "Well, if you don't have the gifts
of the Spirit, then you're not saved. You don't speak in gibberish, then you're not
saved." That's what they believe. That's the evidence of their salvation. And they're
no different than the thought process here that Naaman has about salvation, thinking
that some supernatural event has to take place in order to be saved. You know, we don't
believe in this Catholic hocus pocus of, you know, shaking the frou frou dust and, you
know, saying your Hail Marys and, you know, swinging those rosary beads all over the place
and eating some crackers is going to save us. But listen, that's what a lot of people
believe today. They believe in a lot of hocus pocus gibberish. And that's not what saves
you. It's not some supernatural event because it takes place on the inside. I mean, in reality
is supernatural. It is a miracle. It's just not something that happens on the outside,
right? It's something that happens on the inside. It's that inward man that's made
new, right? It's that inward man that's given life. We still have that flesh to deal with.
And so Naaman, he kind of has a similar attitude that many people will have when it comes to
getting saved. They think some supernatural thing needs to take place. Not only that,
notice the next verse, the Bible says in verse 12, "Are not Abana and Farpar rivers
of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel? May I not wash in them and be clean?
So he turned and went away in rage." You know, and this is a great picture of many
people who hear the gospel and they're mad because they believe that their own self-righteousness
is going to get them saved. You know, is not our rivers in Syria good enough to dip in?
Is not the rivers of Abana and Farpar good enough to get me saved? Can I just dip in
them? They're far better than the River Jordan. You know, that's from his perspective, right?
That's what he's looking at. You know, maybe the River Jordan was, was like the Red River.
Who knows? Maybe it wasn't a river that you wanted to necessarily get down and dip in.
But at the end of the day, what this is picturing is that salvation comes through the obedience
of God's word, which is believing on his son, right? It's not what man's can think. It's
not man's ways that are going to save us. It's not man's self-righteousness and thinking
well, if I just do it my way, that'll get me cleansed of my sin, but rather you have
to do it God's way. You know, in many people, that's contrary to their own thinking. You
know, in the Bible, the Bible has a lot of what we would call oxymorons, things that
seem opposite, right? If you want to be lifted up, you have to abase yourself, right? There's
many examples of this in the Bible, and it may seem, you know, to the unsaved, like that
can't be true, but the reality is once they hear the Word of God, once they hear that
it's a gift, once they hear that Jesus Christ paid for all of their sins, this person that
has a humble heart, what are they going to do? They're going to believe on Jesus Christ.
Because they're realizing that salvation's not by a far-par and a banna, but rather it's
only through Jordan. And this also kind of demonstrates that salvation's only through
Jesus Christ, right? There's not multiple ways to be saved. It's only through Jordan.
It's only through dipping in that water that he was going to be cleansed of his leprosy.
The Bible goes on, you know, naming, he's mad. He's in a rage. And the Bible says in
verse 13, "And his servants came near and spake unto him and said, My father, if the
prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it?" Now, just
as a side note, in my Bible, I have that word "father" here circled. And then out to the
side, I have a note saying "ruler," Isaiah 9-6. It's just a free plug here, but it just
helps you to understand this word "father," right? A lot of people get confused on Jesus
Christ being the everlasting father, and these oneness heretics twisting what the Bible says.
But here's just a clear verse that's teaching us that "father" just means "ruler." These
are His servants talking to Naaman, and they come to Naaman and they say, "Hey, if they
had just bids you to do anything, you would have done it! You want to be cleansed!" Right?
It also kind of reminds me is that some people are hard cases. You may not always be able
to get somebody saved like we're able to get people saved in the Bahamas, right? I mean,
you go to the Bahamas and you're just picking up the fruit off the ground. It's so easy.
You can get somebody saved in 10 minutes or less sometimes. But, you know, not everybody
is like that. And sometimes, especially even here in America, people might need a second
admonition. You know, they might need to hear that gospel presentation multiple times before
they get saved. So, you know, I always think of like family members or friends, people
that I know are unsaved, but I've tried to work on them. I've tried to preach the gospel
on them. I think even my own dad, you know, I've tried to preach the gospel, my own dad
many times and he's not saved. And you know what? I still, the next opportunity I get
to see him and spend time with him, I'm going to try to preach him the gospel again. Just
hoping that one of those times he'll just realize that I just need to be humble and
receive salvation as a little child, receive salvation as a gift. And it's a great lesson
for us to learn is that you know what? Some people aren't going to get saved on the first
admonition. Sometimes they're going to need multiple people to come and to preach unto
them. So he says in verse 13, "And the servants came near and spake unto him and said, My
father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, what is that not have done it?
How much rather than when he sayeth to thee, wash and be clean." So you know, what was
it that Naaman needed to do in this situation? He needed to humble himself. He needed to
realize that, you know, the only way to be saved was through humility. And I want to
bring up just a pretty awesome parable in the book of Luke. Go to Luke chapter number
18. Luke chapter number 18. I think this is a really great verse if you're maybe struggling
with somebody, whether you're preaching the gospel like a coworker or a friend. It may
not necessarily be a good verse to go to if you're at the door, just if you're trying,
you know, to be efficient with your time. But if you have maybe a little bit more time
with somebody, you could use these verses. I think they're really great verses to teach
somebody about salvation and that it's salvation, in order to be saved, it requires humility.
Notice what the Bible says in Luke 18, verse number 9. The Bible says, "And he spake this
parable unto certain which trusted in themselves, that they were righteous and despised others."
So somebody who's struggling with this idea of trusting in their own good works, their
own righteousness to go to heaven, this is a great parable to show them, this is what
Jesus spoke unto them, says in verse 10, "Two men went up into the temple to pray,
the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself,
"God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican." Real humble guy, right? I mean, this guy is somebody who's
looking at everyone else and saying, "I'm better than you. I'm better than you. I'm
better than you." And you know, that attitude, that pridefulness is what ends up causing
this person in this parable, you know, they would be going to hell unless they change
their mind. And you know, you see this today too. Lots of people have this attitude. They
think that you go to the self-righteous Baptist church down the street that thinks that they
repented of all their sins. You know, they forgot the sin of gluttony, but you know,
they don't smoke and they don't drink and they don't chew and they don't go with girls
that do, right? So they think that they're better than other people. And yet what does
the Bible teach that if you think repenting of your sins can get you to heaven, if you're
trusting in yourself, you're not going to be justified with God. Notice what the Bible
says in verse 12, "I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess." And
just as a tip, as a soul winner, whenever I'm using like Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 to explain
to somebody what it means to trust in themselves, that's how I word that lesson, I guess, if
you will, and say, "What if I said I read my Bible every day? I go to church. I pay
tithes. I do X, Y, and Z. That's why I'm going to heaven." It really kind of drives
home the fact that you're trusting in yourself to get to heaven, if that's the case. And
the Bible's doing this, right? The Bible's bringing this up. I, I, I, I, notice there
in verse 13, "And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes
unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, a sinner.'" That's
what you call humility. You know what? When you read the Bible, especially the Gospels,
the publican seem like, you know, not the, the, the best guys to be around. They, nobody
likes the publicans. It's basically like the tax collector, if you will, right? Nobody
likes the, you know, to go to the CPA to get their taxes done, right? It's not a, it's
just, you know, not a very commendable occupation, if you will, right? But notice this person
who from, you know, a worldly perspective, you look at this person as, as you know, from
just the outward, you would say, man, this guy's really humble. This guy doesn't think
that highly of himself. He realizes that he's a sinner. It says verse 14, I tell you, this
man went down to his own house justified rather than the other for everyone that exalted themselves
shall be abased and he that humble of themselves shall be exalted. That word justified is like
saying justified never sinned, right? Being justified before God is in God's eyes as if
you've never sinned before. All of your sins have been paid for in full. Why? Why was he
justified? Because he was humble and he put his faith in Jesus Christ. Why was the other
guy not justified? Because all of his faith was in himself, right? And so you see this
great picture, you go back to 2 Kings, you see this picture with Naaman. You know, Naaman
at first, you know, he's kind of trusting in himself here, thinking like, "Well, couldn't
I just do this myself? I could go wash in a banna in Far Par." But what did he have
to do to be cleansed of his leprosy? He had to humble himself. He had to realize that
he is not good enough. There's nothing that he could do of his own volition to cleanse
himself. He had to just obey God's word and go dip in the river Jordan seven times. And
the Bible says there in verse 14, "Then went he down and dipped himself seven times in
Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God. And his flesh came again like unto
the flesh of a little child, and he was clean. And he returned to the man of God, he and
all his company, and came and stood before him. And he said, 'Behold now, I know that
there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel. Now therefore I pray thee, take a blessing
of thy servant.' But he said, 'As the Lord liveth before whom I stand, I will receive
none.'" Why? Because you can't pay for salvation. You know, he had all these, you know, the
silver and gold that he had brought with him. Of course, Elisha, he would have none of it.
He didn't receive any of that. It goes on and it says, verse number 17, "And Naaman
said, 'Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant,'" this is Naaman
speaking, "'two mules burden of earth, for thy servant will henceforth offer neither
burnt offering nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord."
You know, and I was thinking about this, and what basically Naaman is asking for, he's
asking for dirt, burden of earth, he's asking for stone, dirt, to take back with him, why?
To offer sacrifice unto God.
And you know what this kind of really demonstrates to me in my mind, is just a great picture
of how God was going to come unto the Gentiles and turn them from dumb idols unto the living
God.
Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter number one, 1 Thessalonians chapter number one, and really
this is what it means to repent.
You know, if you held your place there in first, second king, sorry I told you to go,
but he says there in verse number 15, "Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the
earth but in Israel."
What is he acknowledging?
That all the gods that I used to bow down and worship, they're nothing.
They're a stock and a stone.
They're nothing.
There's only one God.
And to me, it's a great picture of how the Gentiles, the gospel is going to be preached
unto the Gentiles.
And many of them are going to turn from, you know, these false gods that they were trusting
in, these Greek gods, Roman gods.
First Thessalonians chapter number one, look at verse number four.
The Bible says, "Knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God."
Now, the Jew-loving Zionist out there just doesn't understand this book of the Bible
because this is written to a bunch of Greeks, but Paul is telling them how they know their
election of God.
What does elect mean?
It means to be chosen, you know, and those that believe on Jesus Christ, they are the
election of God.
They are the chosen of God.
It says in verse number five, "But our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in
power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, as ye know what manner of men we were among
you for your sake, and ye became followers of us and of the Lord, having received the
word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost, so that ye were in samples to all that
believe in Macedonia and Achaia, for from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only
in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God word is spread abroad.
Notice the direction of their faith.
It's going from some false idol, some false God, some fake religion to God.
Their faith is to God word, and that's what's spread abroad.
That's what everybody's hearing about is the great conversion of the Thessalonians.
It says, "So that we need not to speak anything, for they themselves show of us what manner
of entering in we had unto you.
And how ye," notice this, "turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God."
That's what salvation is.
That's what repentance is, is to turn from trusting in something other than Jesus Christ
and to put all of your trust in Jesus, right?
And so this is a great picture of how Naaman, what did he do?
He turned from the Syrian God of Riman, and he turned into Jesus Christ.
He turned into God, the God of Israel.
And he's making this decision that, "Hey, I want to offer sacrifices unto him.
I'm not going to offer sacrifices unto idols any longer."
But notice this, and this is kind of the last point that I want to make here, is that even
Naaman understood that he's still going to sin in the future.
He's still going to mess up.
He's still going to do things that he knows is contrary to what God would want him to
do.
So notice the attitude of Naaman in verse number 17.
The Bible says, "And Naaman said, 'Shall there not then, I pray thee, be given to thy servant
to...'"
I'm sorry, verse 18.
We already read that.
Verse 18.
"And this thing the Lord pardoned thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house
of Rimon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house
of Rimon, when I bow down myself in the house of Rimon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this
thing."
I mean, I think that's pretty interesting because Naaman even recognizes, you know,
I've been cleansed of leprosy, I've been cleansed of my sin, you know, I'm saved, but I know
I'm still going to mess up in the future and he's already asking for forgiveness for those
future sins, the ones he hasn't even committed yet, right?
And then notice what Elisha says to him, does he say, "Well, you've got to ask for forgiveness
if you still want to go to heaven or else the leprosy is coming back."
Now notice what Elisha's response is, it says, "And he said unto him, 'Go in peace.'
So he departed from a little way."
You know, there's no peace like knowing that once you're saved, you're always saved.
You know, the Bible says in Titus 1-2, "In hope of eternal life, which God that cannot
lie, promise for the world again."
There is no hope if you think that you can lose your salvation.
There's no peace.
You know, this is why so many people, you know, they are, you know, tore up every single
night when they go to bed.
Why?
Because they know deep down inside that they're not that good of a person.
They know that they screw up every single day.
They have no peace.
But you know, when you believe on Jesus Christ and receive eternal life, you get a peace
that passes understanding, right?
I sleep like a baby every single night.
There could be chaos, war, famine, all sorts of things going on around me.
But you know what?
I'm going to sleep like a baby because even if I lose my life, I'm going to heaven, folks.
There's no peace like that.
It's great peace.
And I just think that's a great example and picture in the Bible here of Naaman and how
Elisha is teaching him once you're saved, you're always saved, buddy.
Once you've been cleansed of that leprosy, you don't have to worry about that any longer.
You've been healed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
And I think of this verse in 1 John 5.13 and we'll end there.
But the Bible says, "These things have been written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God, that ye may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe
on the name of the Son of God."
And this is the confidence that we have in him.
If you ask anything in his name, if you ask anything according to his will, he giveth
it to you, right?
There's confidence in knowing that you have salvation because salvation is from Jesus
Christ and what he did, his finished work, right?
It's what Jesus Christ did that gives us that great peace.
That's why I can sleep like a baby at night, you know, and knowing, you know, if God forbid
something were to happen to any one of my family members, right?
Those that are in my house that have called on the name of Jesus, "Hey, I'm still going
to have peace in knowing that, hey, that person's in heaven, it's going to be a sad time.
It'll be a time of mourning.
You know, it won't be a time of, you know, necessarily rejoicing just because you're
going to miss out on some memories, but it will be a time of rejoicing in the sense that
you have that peace of knowing that they're in heaven.
You know, hopefully my family, when my kids get older, you know, if they see dad on his
dying deathbed and that time comes, hey, they're going to have great peace in knowing that
my dad had a testimony of believing on Jesus, and there's great hope in knowing that we're
going to see each other again one day.
You know, there's, there's peace that, you know, the mind can hardly even comprehend.
And I love that verse in first in Titus one, two, where it says in hope of eternal life
and all my hope, I can confidently say I'm going to heaven because it has nothing to
do with me, has nothing to do with any of my accomplishments, has nothing to do with
anything that I've done.
Why? Because I was, as a leper, I was a leper just like everyone else.
And everyone that, you know, walks on this earth, that comes to a point in their life
where they realize that they're a sinner, they need to be saved.
They need that gift of salvation.
And we have just a great picture of, you know, so many aspects of salvation, soul winning,
and what Jesus Christ has done for us, even in the Old Testament, folks.
Salvation didn't happen in a different way in the Old Testament.
It was always by faith.
It's always been by faith.
It's that salvation of old.
And so with that, let's end in a word of prayer.
Father, Lord, thank you for all that you do for us.
Thank you for your son and dying for us and granting to us salvation through his blood.
God, thank you for just your word and just the richness of it, how deep it is, how many
great truths we can pull out of it.
If we just slow down and pay attention and listen to what you have for us, Lord, again,
just thank you for all that you do and pray these things in your son's name, amen.