(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, I looked out of the chapter to verse number 22. The Bible reads in verse number 22 of 1 Chronicles 5, For there fell down many slain, because the war was of God, and they dwelt in their stead until the captivity. Now this is a verse that kind of jumped out at me. And the Bible says that this war was of God. This was the war that God was supporting them. God was behind them. He was helping them out. And the Bible says as a result of that, many people were slain. Many people were killed. Now there's a lot of wars that we're involved in as a church. Now this is an actual war that takes place, but there's three main things I want to focus on here today of three wars that we take place in as a church. One of them is called door-to-door soul winning. Now that is a war that is of God. God is for door-to-door soul winning everywhere across the world. And it's sad that churches around the world are doing hardly any soul winning, but God is for that war. Each and every single week, every house, God wants us to knock those doors and get people saved. That is a war that's of God. Another war that's of God is hard preaching. A church that doesn't hold back, that preaches hard, that preaches the whole word of God. That is a war that's of God. And independent Baptist churches around the country, around the world, they're dropping the ball. They aren't going soul winning, and they aren't preaching hard. And the other thing that is really of God is starting churches around the world. In every city around the nation, around the entire world, starting churches that are going to preach hard, train people up to go soul winning, go out and win people to the Lord. Now before we get into 1 Chronicles 5, I want to give you a little bit of a background. And you don't have to turn there, but in Numbers chapter 13, Moses is sending out 12 people to spy out the land of Canaan. And it makes it clear that these are rulers. These are people that are in high authority, people that are trusted as men of God. And he sends them in the area, and two of them are Joshua and Caleb. Now Joshua and Caleb, they're very bold, but the other 10 come back and they give a bad report of the land. And so those 10 people come back and they say, well, it's a really good land, but the people are just really big. They're really tall. We're grasshoppers in their sight. Now that's a little bit of a ridiculous statement, because you think about how small a grasshopper is. Are these people like 10,000 feet tall? I mean, it's kind of ridiculous to say we're like grasshoppers in their sight. And Caleb tries to stop, and he tries to steal the people the Bible says, and says, hey, we need to go up at once and go take that land. But the other 10 people, they back down, they make everybody afraid, and then they don't end up going into the land. And then God is very angry with them. And it says Moses and Aaron, they go down on the ground before God. And Caleb and Joshua, they try to get them to go into that land, and God is extremely angry. God wants to destroy them. God wants to kill them. Now see, that was a war that was of God. Now then in Numbers chapter 14, after this, all of a sudden the people decide, well, we're going to go up now. But see, it was too late at that point to go up. See, the war was of God in Numbers chapter 13. It was not of God in Numbers chapter 14. So they go up to the area, and then the people that go up, they're killed. And God does not allow them to go into the Promised Land, and they have to wander in the wilderness because of that. So the war was of God in Numbers chapter 13, but after they rejected God, it was not of God in Numbers chapter 14. You see, there's a lot of wars that God wants to start. There's people in this church that want to be pastors. And God wants to use you in a big way. But you could possibly commit sins where God would say, you know what, I'm not going to use you in that way. And if you go up to battle, it's not going to succeed because of the fact you've sinned against me. And that's what we see in Numbers 13 and 14. Well, in Numbers chapter 32, they're in the land of Jazer and Gilead. And before they go across the Jordan, all of a sudden, the sons of Reuben and the Gadites and the Manassehites, they come to Moses and they say, well, this is a great land for cattle, and we have a lot of cattle. We'll just take this land. Instead of going forward and fighting on the battles, we'll let everybody else fight the battles. We'll just take this land. And Moses is extremely angry, and he references that story in Numbers chapter 13, which we're going to look at later on. Now Moses is extremely angry, and the people eventually agree, and they say, okay, we'll go into that land, we'll help them win that land, but we want to come back here and take this land. Now they actually agree to do that. They end up going and fighting that battle and coming back and taking the land there. And the land mentioned is Gilead. Now if you notice in 1 Chronicles 5, when we were reading, we see the sons of Reuben, we see the Gadites, and we see the half-tribe Manasseh. This is the same group of people in Numbers 32 that decided not to cross the Jordan, and we see Gilead mentioned many times. Now this is a lot later on, but this is kind of how we get to this point, just as a little bit of a background. And so this verse here in 1 Chronicles 5, 22, if you want to look down there again, For there fell down many slain because the war was of God, and they dwelled in their stead until the captivity. If you were to look at this verse and just isolate it and not look at the context of what's being said, you might walk away and say the only reason, the sole reason why many people were slain is because the war was of God. That's not what the Bible teaches here. That's the responsibility on God's part. But we're going to see four different things that are the responsibility of man's part in order for many people to be slain, in order for a big victory to happen. You see, when we go soul winning, that is a war that is of God, but it doesn't guarantee that we're going to get a lot of people saved. Man has a responsibility if we're going to get a lot of people saved. That is the way God operates in war. You know, when we're starting churches across the world, hey, that's a war that's of God, but it doesn't mean it's automatically going to happen. God wants it to happen all across the world, but we have to do our part. We've got to make sure that we just don't say, well, the war's of God, so it's automatically going to happen. We have to do our part. I'm not directly preaching against Calvinism this morning, but this is the sort of verse that a Calvinist would take and completely twist. Just to give you a little bit of a background, in case you're not that familiar with Calvinism, Calvinism is named after John Calvin, and it is a damnable doctrine. It's a doctrine that teaches before you're saved, you're pretty much a reprobate, capable of any sin, that you're a child of the devil, that you're capable of being just like all the other reprobates out there. And unless God chooses to regenerate you apart from your free will, then you're going to be damned to hell for all eternity. They take away the responsibility on man's part and say it all comes down to God. There is no free will. And they don't believe that Jesus died for everybody. This is a quote from Charles Spurgeon who, in a lot of independent Baptist churches, this guy is revered, he's loved, they worship the ground he walks on, but Charles Spurgeon was a Calvinist and he is burning in hell right now because he did not believe on Jesus Christ. Here's a quote from a defense of Calvinism, which is a book that he wrote. It's funny people see this and they say, well, Charles Spurgeon wasn't really a Calvinist. He wrote a book called A Defense of Calvinism. I mean, I think that's pretty good evidence to incriminate him. I mean, they think he's pretty guilty here. Here's what Charles Spurgeon said. Once again, if it was Christ's intention to save all men, how deplorably has he been disappointed? That's kind of interesting because I remember the Bible saying God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I remember the Bible saying for the grace of God to bring salvation hath appeared to all men. I remember the Bible saying he's a savior of all men, especially those that believe. See, Jesus Christ died for everybody. He died for the sins of the entire world. To suggest that Jesus only died for some people, that is complete heresy. Now, Charles Spurgeon, you know, like I said, you know, he was a hardcore Calvinist. I want to give you just a little bit of a background here because some people ask the question, well, how do you know that Charles Spurgeon is in hell? Because that's a pretty bold statement to make. Well, he was definitely a believer in Calvinism, but some people are confused about what Calvinism really teaches. I'm going to give you two reasons why we know that someone who's a five-point Calvinist that believes in all these doctrines, believes in Tulip, that Calvinism teaches why we know they're in hell. One thing is this, they don't believe in eternal security. Calvinists do not really believe in eternal security. They believe the exact same thing as Methodists, Lutherans, Catholics, or any of the other denominations. They do not really believe in eternal security. You know, I was knocking George with my wife on Thursday night, and we ran into someone who went to a church nearby, and he told me, he's like, well, he's like, we disagree with you on eternal security because we believe that we have free will to make choices. And I said, wait a minute, I'm not a Calvinist. I said, we believe we have free will as well. And he was confused on what we talk. Because a lot of people say, if you believe in eternal security, you're a Calvinist. But I'm a zero-point Calvinist. I don't believe in any of the points because they do not believe in eternal security. See, Calvinism teaches the perseverance of the saints, the perseverance. The implication is that if you're really saved, you're going to live a good life and do good deeds all the way until you die. Now, we don't believe that because there's plenty of people in the Bible that were saved that just chose to walk in the flesh. There's a spirit and there's a flesh, and we've got to make that choice every day. Are we going to walk in the spirit or are we going to walk in the flesh? And so they don't really believe in eternal security. You see, what we believe is the preservation of the saints, which means we are preserved. We don't keep ourselves saved. God's the one that keeps us saved. We're preserved in Jesus Christ. We don't necessarily persevere under the end by doing good actions. A lot of people, they get saved and they choose to do nothing for God their entire lives. But the other thing is this. I was soul winning about a month ago, and I was a silent partner at a door. And the person told my soul winning partner after he was explaining Calvinism, he said, Well, he's like, to tell you the truth, he's like, I'm really confident I'm going to heaven. But it is possible one day God will tell me, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. See, he said in that statement, I don't know if I'm going to heaven. He's pretty sure he's going to heaven. He's pretty sure he's one of the elect, but he's not certain he's going to heaven. But you know, if you read First John 5, 10 through 13, the Bible says that if you believe the record God gave his son, then you know you're on your way to heaven. It says, These things have I written unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. And if you're in this room today and you don't know if you're going to heaven, it's because you're not saved. That's the bottom line, because if you believe the record God gave his son, you will know you're on your way to heaven. Now, I just want to quickly read Charles Spurgeon's commentary on First Chronicles 5, 22. And this is all introduction. I know it's a long introduction. But you'll notice with Charles Spurgeon and with all people that do Bible commentary, they just go on and on and on endlessly. And they have no point to what they're saying. And I'm choosing to spare you guys this morning, because Charles Spurgeon's commentary on First Chronicles 5, 22 is like this long, and he says nothing. So I'm just going to go to the very last sentence. But it says, Warrior, fighting under the banner of the Lord Jesus, observe this verse with holy joy. For as it was in the days of old, so is it now. If the war be of God, the victory is sure. Now, that statement's a false statement. Just because the war is of God does not guarantee a victory is going to happen. It's pretty telling why Charles Spurgeon was so liked by everybody. See, Charles Spurgeon pastored the largest church in London. It was the same church that the famous Bible commentary person, John Gill, pastored 100 years earlier than that. Now, independent Baptists, they love Charles Spurgeon. And here's the exact reason why. Because he talks and rambles and rambles, and he doesn't say anything. He doesn't say anything that could possibly offend anyone. And see, that's the thing with hard preaching. The problem is not the fact what pastors are generally saying. It's what they're not saying that's the problem. You see, this church, Verity Baptist Church, you get up here, you preach the Word of God, you pound the pulpit, you preach against sin. It's going to offend people. You know, most of what Joel Osteen says is probably true because he doesn't say anything. Most of what Charles Spurgeon is saying here is true because he's not actually saying anything. And that is why Charles Spurgeon was so liked by the world. See, the Bible says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgression in the house of Jacob their sins. You see, hard preaching is not simply yelling. That's just called yelling. There's plenty of people that yell. Jim Jones, the famous cult leader, you know, from just a couple decades ago, he is probably the best public speaker I've ever heard. You hear clips of him and he's yelling and you almost feel like getting on board with whatever he's saying. I mean, he's very charismatic. That doesn't mean he's preaching hard, though. I mean, there's plenty of people that yell. That doesn't mean that you're preaching hard. And see, that was the problem with Charles Spurgeon and that's the problem with Baptist churches today. It's not what they're saying. It's what they're not saying. And that is why a church like this or a church like Verity Baptist, it's why a lot of people get offended because people get offended by God's Word. Throughout the Bible, you'll never see a time where everybody just loves God's Word and doesn't get offended. Throughout the entire Bible, people get offended by God's Word. So we're going to jump into it now. We have four points here. Now, look at verse number 19 in your Bible. Verse number 19 of 1 Chronicles 5. Now, according to Charles Spurgeon, the victory is sure if God's in the battle. But I want you to notice who goes to war with the Hagarites in verse number 19. It says, And they made war with the Hagarites with Jeter and Nefesh and Nodab. Now, you notice he says, they made war. It doesn't say, and he made war. It doesn't say, and the Lord made war. It doesn't say, and God made war. It says, they made war. See, it's the people that actually went out to battle. You see, Saul winning something that's of God, but God is not going to come down from heaven and preach the gospel to the people around here. God's not going to come down from heaven, and angels not going to come down and preach the gospel. We have to actually make war. We have to make the decision to go door to door and preach the gospel. We've got to make the decision to preach hard against sin and for men that want to be pastors, to know your Bibles, to have read your Bibles so you can be worthy of being sent out to start a church. We have to make the choice to make war where it is not going to happen. Yes, God wants Saul winning to happen here, but if this church didn't exist, there would be a lot of people that would be unsaved in this community, because this church has reached a lot of people with the gospel. I'm sure that God's wanted to send somebody to Botswana for a very long time. I mean, it's a really receptive area to the gospel. It's an area where they're going to get the multitude saved. Brother Garrett, I've said it before. This is my opinion. I think he's the number one most worthy person of being sent out as a missionary. That's my opinion. I think he's completely zealous with the Bible. He knows the Bible as well as anybody that I know. He's extremely zealous for Saul winning. He's got the Spirit of God upon him. But I guarantee you that God wanted a Brother Garrett 20 years ago and 30 years ago and 40 years ago. And it's an area that has been unreached because nobody went out to war. See, we've got to make the decision to go out and make war. Otherwise, it's not going to happen. But I want you to notice something in verse number 20. In our movement, so to speak, at this church, at Verity Baptist, we preach really hard about how we've got to make war and get people saved. And how we've got to put... And we do get people saved. The Bible says to the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak. I made all things to all men that I might by all means save some. We get people saved. There's nothing wrong with that terminology. But I want you to notice in verse number 20. We're not doing this by ourselves though. It says in verse number 20, And they were helped against them, and the Hagarites were delivered into their hand and all that were with them. You notice it says the people were helped against the enemy. They didn't go out to war by themselves. If they went out to war by themselves, if God wasn't in the battle, it would not have been successful. It would have been just like Numbers chapter 14 where they went to battle, God was not in it, and it failed. Now praise the Lord that when we go soul winning, that is a battle that God is always in. And God is going to help you out in that battle. And I love how it says the Hagarites were delivered into their hand. I mean, isn't it great when you go soul winning and you can just tell that God just set up the conversation? That person's ready. They say, man, I was just praying for guidance from God like five minutes ago. And it's obvious the Hagarite was delivered into your hand. It wasn't you that got them saved by yourself. God helped you out. He set up the appointment. You know, if God didn't set up the appointments, we could go door to door for hours and get nobody saved. But God is involved in this battle. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. See, this is a spiritual battle, and God is on our side when we go soul winning. Now turn to Mark chapter 16. Turn to Mark chapter 16. This is mentioned throughout the Bible that whenever you see soul winning and ever you see us going out to battle, you'll notice God is always helping them out. And we need to remember this when we get soul winning. Go soul winning. You know, sometimes when I'm having a lot of success getting people saved, in my flesh I start thinking, man, everything I touch just turns to gold. I can get people saved here and here and there. And it's like right after that, I go hours and hours, door to door, nobody's saved. I go weeks, nobody's saved. It's like God's reminding me to stay humble. And we do need to stay humble because we can do nothing without God. It says in Mark chapter 16, verse number 15, And He said unto them, Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. So there's the commandment from God to go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. We need to go out there and get people saved. But look at the last verse of that chapter, verse number 20. And they went forth and preached everywhere the Lord working with them and confirming the word with signs following. Amen. You see, they didn't just go out there by themselves. If they went out there by themselves, it wouldn't have been successful. But the Lord was actually working with them. He was actually delivering the Hagarites right into their hand to get people saved. You know, this church gets a lot of people saved. This church is very zealous to win people to the Lord. But you have to remember, God is helping you out. God is helping you out door to door every single time you go out soul winning. God is involved in that battle. You're not doing it by yourself. If you were doing it by yourself, you would not be successful. And that is why we always need to remain humble, because once we start having pride, once we start thinking that we can do this on our own, you know, God's blessing is going to be away from your life then. You have to understand that God is helping you out. If you have an ability to speak and be dynamic, to preach, remember, God gave you that ability. If you have an ability to be charismatic at the door where people want to listen to you, remember, God gave you that ability. It's not something you're doing on your own. If it was on your own, you would not be successful, but God is actually helping us out. Turn to Matthew chapter 28. Matthew chapter 28. I want you to remember this. You know, God will work with us, but He won't work without us. And what I mean by that is, if we're not going soul winning, God's not going to come down and get these people saved. He will always work with us. He's always going to be there with us, but He's not going to work without us. Once we go to battle, God's there. But if we don't go to battle, He's not going to get these people saved. He's given to us the ministry of reconciliation. People are not going to get saved unless we actually go out to war. And then He's going to help us out. Matthew chapter 28, look at verse number 19. It says, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen. We see the same thing again in a very famous passage of soul winning, how God is with you. He's going to be with us every single time that we go soul winning. God is involved in the battle there. Now, this is a big point here. We've got to make war. The war is not going to happen without us. We have to actually go out to battle. The Bible also says in Acts 1.8, But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses on me, both in Jerusalem and in Al-Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth. See, it's God's will that this movement does not get constricted to the United States alone. It is God's will that this movement doesn't just stay here in Arizona and California and Texas, but it goes throughout the nation and through the uttermost part of the earth. It is God's will that there's churches started throughout the entire world. The problem though is we don't have people that are willing to go to battle and we don't have people ready to go to battle. It's not God who's messing up. It's we're messing up. We're just not devoted enough. We just don't care enough about the lost people. We care too much about our own lives and what's important to us, and that is why this battle is not happening. I mean, why do you think that the media and everybody is so much against this church and Verity Baptist Church? It's because there's not many churches doing the same thing. I mean, if there's churches all across Arizona and California preaching hard, getting people saved and not holding back, preaching against the sodomites and preaching hard doctrine, the devil couldn't do anything. He can't just fight everything at once, but since there's only a few churches that are really like-minded like this, he can put all of his forces to attack these churches, and it's very tough to battle against that because there's not enough people actually going out to war. We need to take it upon ourselves. If you're a man here that says, You know what? I want to be a preacher. Mean it. Don't just say, Well, I want to be a preacher. It's a cool thing to say. Well, yeah, I want to be a preacher one day. Hey, read your Bible zealously every day. Make sure you memorize this book. You have a prayer life. You're living a holy separated life, so God can actually use you and send you out to start a church somewhere. We need more people in the ministry. I mean, it says in Titus 1 5, For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I appointed thee. Now, my question is this. Do we really have men of God in every city across the nation? I mean, many people in this room moved here to be a part of this church. Many people of Verity Baptist moved to be a part of that church. That's proof that there wasn't a man of God in those cities preaching the gospel and preaching hard and being zealous for the things of God. I don't know about you, but I mean, I'm from West Virginia. That's a lot different than California. I chose to make that move because I didn't think the church that I was at was on fire enough for God. And I'll be honest with you. If there was a church that preached hard, that was zealous for soul winning and stood up strong in the King James Bible and salvation, I would have stayed there. I wouldn't have left over something like to preach a rapture. That would not have bugged me that much. I wouldn't have left over doctrines like this or that. If the pastor was willing to preach hard, I would have loved that church. I would have stuck by that church. And there was a time, the church that I was at, I would have said it was a great church because they were doing all of those things. And then it just started to dip. The pastor stopped going to war. And as a result, just like in Numbers 13 and 14, he stopped going to war and then the people stopped going to war. And then you have like a few people just trying to revitalize the soul winning. That is what's happening across the nation. Go back to 1 Chronicles 5. It's kind of funny to me sometimes when I talk to people and they say that they want to move because their pastor preaches, you know, pre-trib. I've got to be honest, I've been to a lot of independent Baptist churches. I've visited a lot. And I think I've heard one sermon on the pre-trib rapture in my entire life. Pastors that believe in the pre-trib doctrine, they don't teach it because they don't have any verses to support what they believe. I mean, it's pretty obvious the Bible says immediately after the tribulation. It's pretty obvious in the Bible. So pastors that believe that, they never preach it. I mean, honestly, I wouldn't have left if a church taught the pre-trib doctrine. But the problem is these churches that are wrong in these doctrines tend to just not preach hard. They don't really go soul winning. It's not just one problem. It's a million problems that just compile on. So back in 1 Chronicles 5, the first thing we saw is that we must make war. That's the first responsibility on the part of man. But I want you to notice something else in verse number 18. The Bible says, the sons of Reuben and the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh of valiant men. Now, valiant implies that you have courage, that you're bold. And that's what we need in churches. That's what we need as men. We need to be bold to preach the gospel and believe that soul winning works, that we can start a church that's going to preach hard, and people are going to come to that church and God is going to bless. You know, if you ever go soul winning in Mesa, that's a pretty tough area. Don't ever tell people, we're not going to get anybody saved today. I mean, God can do great things in Mesa. He can do great things in anywhere across the entire world. Soul winning works in Mesa. It works anywhere. Don't ever tell someone, wow, I don't think we're going to get anybody saved today. Hey, if you don't want to go to battle, then don't go to battle. But you know, if you're going to go to battle, be valiant. Have courage. Be bold. Turn to Numbers chapter 13. The Bible says in Numbers chapter 13, it says in verse number 1, So we see in verses number 2 and 3 that these people are rulers. They're heads of the children of Israel. These are people that you would have trusted to have boldness, to be valiant. This is just like at churches. Pastors should be bold. I mean, they should be men of God that know their Bibles really well, that read their Bibles zealously every day, that go soul winning. And unfortunately, there's a lot of pastors that are going to do the exact same thing as we see in this story. Jump down to verse number 28. This is after they go into the land and then they come back and then they're afraid. It says in verse number 28, it says, they talk about how great the land is. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land. And the cities are walled and very great. And moreover, we saw the children of Anak there. The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south, and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. And Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched onto the children of Israel, saying, The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature. And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants. And we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight. Now here's the bottom line. If these people didn't want to go up to battle, they could have kept their mouths shut. Instead of trying to make everybody else afraid. That really bugs me when people are afraid to do something great for God, and they try to make everybody else afraid. And honestly, this reminds me of our church being in the news a couple of months ago. Because here's the thing. The vast majority of people stuck with our church, and there were some people that missed a service or two that came back, and hey, we're happy to have them back. Praise the Lord. They made a mistake. That's fine. They're back. They're great members of our church. But there were people that when they left, instead of just leaving quietly, instead of just not showing up for church, they tried to make everybody else afraid. Now what kind of person is going to try to make everybody else afraid when you're getting ready for a battle? I mean, can you believe that if, let's say, for example, that you're getting ready to fight in a battle. I mean, this isn't an actual war, but let's say you're fighting in a boxing match or something, and your friend's like, man, you're going to get beat up. You're not going to win this battle. I mean, you have no chance. I mean, look how tall that guy is. There's no way you can beat him. I mean, how would that make you feel if you're getting ready to battle and your best friend or your mom or your dad did that? You say, Brother Stuckey, did someone do that to you? Nobody's done that to me. But how would you feel if you're getting ready to battle and somebody said that to you? Well, that's basically what they're doing in Numbers chapter 13. And then it says in Numbers chapter 14, go down to verse number 5. This is the part I talked about earlier. It says, Then Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephthah, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes, and they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through to search it is an exceeding good land. If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it us, a land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bred for us. Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. But all the congregation bade them with stones, and the glory of the Lord appeared in the tabernacle of the congregation before all the children of Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses, How long will this people provoke me, and how long will it be ere they believe me? For all the signs which I have showed among them, I will smite them with a pestilence and disinherit them, and will make of thee a greater nation and mightier than they. I've got to be honest. There's many times in the life of Moses where I would have been like, I'll take God up on that offer. Just get rid of these people. I mean, they're trying to kill him. I would have been like, you know, God, forget about them. But Moses was a great man of God, and he steps in for these people. But you notice how they're afraid to go to battle, and then all of a sudden nobody wants to go to battle as a result of it. Fear is something that spreads. Look at Numbers chapter 32. Numbers chapter 32. This is the other story that I referenced earlier. Now, thinking back to this story, you can understand why Moses got so angry in Numbers chapter 32 when they're doing the exact same thing that brought the curse of God upon them. In Numbers chapter 32 of verse 6, the Bible says, And Moses said unto the children of Gad and to the children of Reuben, Shall your brethren go to war, and shall ye sit here? And wherefore discourage ye the heart of the children of Israel from going over into the land which the Lord hath given them? See, if the children of Reuben and the Gadites and the half tribe of Manasseh, if they chose not to go to war, what would eventually happen is a lot of people wouldn't go to war. Now, I'll be honest with you. It's sad that people don't go soloing across the nation, but it's real sad at a church like this or Verity Baptist if someone doesn't go when there's so many people that love the Lord, so many soul-winning times, so many people take you out, show you how to preach the gospel, and you must understand that if you choose not to go soul-winning, you are discouraging the other members of this church. It is a big encouragement when other people are going out to battle. I mean, I'll be honest. I was excited to get to preach here, but if I showed up here and there's like 10 people, that would discourage me. I probably wouldn't be as bold. I'd probably be like, Why did I even come out here? You know, it's a discouragement if you don't go to battle, and it's sad at a church like this if there's anybody that doesn't go soul-winning because so often your pastor gets up here and he preaches. You need to go out there and preach the gospel. Everybody at this church should be involved in soul-winning, and if you're not involved in soul-winning, you are not right with God because the Bible says, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. If you're following God, you will be fishing for men and women. You're going to be a soul-winner trying to get people saved. Now turn to Deuteronomy chapter 20. You know, I love what Elisha's response was in 2 Kings 6 to a similar situation where it said, And when the servant of the man of God was risen early and gone forth, behold, and hosts compass the city, both with horses and chariots. So there's just a great group of people surrounding him, and there's just two people, him and his servant. And then it says, That's the sort of attitude that we need to have if somebody's going to try to discourage you. Just say, There's no reason to fear. God is with us. God is fighting this battle for us and with us, and that's the truth. When we go out soul-winning, if you're a pastor and you're preaching hard, you're going to start churches. I mean, there's a big battle. There's a war that's going on in Africa right now at the southern part of Africa, in South Africa, in Botswana. I mean, Brother Garrett just picked a fight with the devil pretty much. And I'll tell you what. God is going to help him out in that battle. And like I said, Brother Garrett's a man of God. I think he's going to do a great job. But the forces of darkness are going to be fighting against him in Botswana to try to prevent what's going on there. I'll be honest. I think it's a blessing in disguise that the soul-winning marathon didn't happen in South Africa. I believe that if God wanted that to happen, I believe it would have happened. I think they're going to just get more people saved here in Botswana. I mean, it is pretty cool to do a soul-winning marathon in Johannesburg. That would have been pretty awesome. But I think God just had a bigger plan here in Botswana to get other people saved. In Deuteronomy chapter 20, it says in verse number 1, When thou goest out to battle against thine enemies, and seest horses and chariots and a people more than thou, be not afraid of them. For the Lord thy God is with thee, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And it shall be when ye are come nigh into the battle, that the priests shall approach and speak unto the people, and shall say unto them, Here, O Israel, ye approach the state unto battle against your enemies. Let not your hearts faint. Fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them. For the Lord your God is he that goeth with you to fight for you against your enemies to save you. We see in verse number 4, once again, God is with you fighting your enemies. Now, I want you to notice down at verse number 8. The Bible actually gives provisions here of people that don't have to actually go out to battle. And it's interesting what he says in verse number 8. And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return unto his house, lest his brother's heart faint as well as his heart. You know, the Bible says that if you're afraid to go out to battle, don't even come. You see, if you're going to go out and show up for soul winning, don't go to soul winning and say, Well, you know, I don't think we're going to get many people saved. I mean, it's too hot today. People don't want to open their doors. You know, it's the Super Bowl. It's the World Cup or whatever. No one's going to listen. Hey, if you don't believe in soul winning, then don't show up for soul winning. But if you're going to show up for soul winning, believe in it. You know, I hope nobody came up to Brother Garen and said, Man, maybe it's not God's will for you to go to Botswana after all. We shouldn't be making statements like that. We should have boldness and believe that God can do great things around the world, and God is working with us and helping us. Now go to 1 Chronicles 11. In 1 Chronicles 11, it's kind of interesting. In 1 Chronicles 11, it talks about the mighty men of David, and it's interesting what it says in verse number 26. 1 Chronicles 11. I'll wait for you to turn there because this is a really important point that we're going to talk about later on. It says in 1 Chronicles 11, verse 26, it says, Also the valiant men of the armies were as they hailed a brother of Joab, Elhanan the son of Dodo of Bethlehem. It's interesting. It talks about a few people before verse number 26, but the first time it mentions valiant men, it says, Asahel the brother of Joab. We're going to look at Asahel's story here in a little bit, but the first name it mentions is Asahel the brother of Joab. Now go back to 1 Chronicles 5 and keep that in mind here that the first name mentioned as being valiant is Asahel. Go back to 1 Chronicles 5. So the first point we saw of the responsibility of man is we have to actually go out to war. We have to go out to battle. The second thing is we need to be valiant when we go to battle. But look down at verse number 18. The Bible says in 1 Chronicles 5, verse 18, The sons of Reuben and the Gadites and half the tribe of Manasseh of valiant men, men able to bear buckler and sword and to shoot with bow and skillful in war. It's interesting in verse number 18, after talking about valiant, it talks about actually having an ability to actually fight. The Bible says that we need skillful people, people that can shoot with bow, bear buckler and sword. You see, nobody from a young age just automatically knows how to shoot a bow. It's something that's going to take practice. See, I'm not talking about natural talent here. I'm talking about a skill that you actually develop. The Bible says in Daniel 9.22, And he informed me and talked with me and said, Oh, Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding. You see, God has the ability to give somebody skill and understanding. You shouldn't say, well, you know what, I don't think I have much natural ability. You should never do something like this. I'll be honest with you. When I first got saved, I never thought I could ever preach the gospel to anyone. I'm not really an outgoing person, to be honest. Now, when you go sowing, it kind of makes you outgoing. It kind of changes your personality, but I'm not naturally outgoing. And I'll be honest with you. I would have been terrified to ever preach a sermon. I was not a good public speaker, and I was afraid of public speaking. I never thought this is something that I would want to do or could do. But the Bible says that God has the ability to give you skill and understanding. Now, go to 2 Samuel chapter 2. I mean, can you imagine if you were in a fight, let's say going back to the boxing analogy, and you didn't know how to box, and you've never done it before? I don't care how big you are. I don't care how tall you are. I don't care how fast you are. If you've never boxed and you fight a boxer, you're going to get knocked out. And see, that's the bottom line. We actually need to have skill when we're going out to war. And the bottom line is this church and Verity Baptist Church, we go out to war a lot. I mean, the church plant in Washington, you guys have the North Phoenix Church plant, the new church in Botswana. I mean, great things are happening in our movement. There's a lot of wars that are going on. And we choose to fight in those wars, and the devil's bringing a lot of battles to us as well. And he wants us to back down. I'm sure the devil would have loved our pastor, Pastor Jimenez, to just back down and say, you know what, I'm really sorry what I said about the Sodomites. I didn't really mean it. I kind of went overboard. I'm sure the devil wanted him to pull a Jeff Owens. But our pastor did not do that. He stayed strong with what the Bible actually says. Now the Bible says in 2 Samuel 2, we're going to look at Asahel. The Bible says in verse 17, 2 Samuel 2, verse 17, the Bible says, And there was a very sore battle that day, and Abner was beaten, and the men of Israel before the servants of David. And there were three sons of Zoriah there, Joab and Abishah and Asahel. And Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe. In 18 when it's saying he's light of foot, he was a very fast person. Asahel was very quick. It says in verse 19, And Asahel pursued after Abner, and in going he turned not to the right hand nor to the left from following Abner. Then Abner looked behind him and said, Art thou Asahel? And he answered, I am. And Abner said to him, Turn thee aside to thy right hand or to thy left, and lay behold on one of the young men, and take thee his armor. But Asahel would not turn aside from following of him. And Abner said again to Asahel, Turn thee aside from following me. Wherefore should I smite thee to the ground? How then should I hold up my face to Joab thy brother? Howbeit he refused to turn aside. Wherefore Abner with the hinder end of the spear smote him under the fifth rib, that the spear came out behind him, and he fell down there and died in the same place. And it came to pass that as many as came to the place where Asahel fell down and died stood still. So we see here that Asahel was a very quick man, and he's running after Abner, and he's catching up to Abner. Now Abner was a very good fighter. I mean, he was the chief man of Saul. And he's trying to catch up to Abner, but the bottom line is he's not prepared for this battle. He's faster than Abner, but he doesn't have armor to protect himself. He's very zealous. He's very bold. He's definitely very valiant because the Bible says that he was valiant. He's very valiant going after Abner, and Abner warns him a couple times. He says, turn back. Grab armor. I mean, he seems to feel pretty guilty about killing Asahel, but he turns around and he kills Asahel because Asahel's not ready for the battle. So what we see with Asahel is he was a man who was very valiant, but he didn't have enough skill to get the job done. See, it's one thing to kill a normal person, but we're talking about Abner. Abner was clearly a very powerful fighter. If you're going to take on an Abner, you need a lot of skill to beat that Abner. See, it's the same thing with the Christian life. I'm applying this back to soul winning and a few other examples, but I'll just give you a little bit of a testimony of how I kind of came to this movement, so to speak. I started listening to sermons from this church probably about nine years ago. I remember I had heard one sermon, and then I decided I was going to listen to John chapter 3 because I said, well, John chapter 3 is a chapter I think I know pretty well. At the time, I was already post-Trib. I already believed that repentance of sins was work salvation. I was already going soul winning even though I didn't really have churches that were doing it every week consistently. But I was like, I want to listen to John chapter 3 to see if this guy is even saved, because I didn't know much about him. I just heard one sermon about why Billy Graham is on his way to hell, and I was saying amen during the entire sermon. But I listened to John chapter 3, and I learned a lot from that sermon. It was pretty humbling because I thought I knew that chapter pretty well. I was like, wow, this pastor seems to know his Bible pretty well, and he definitely sounds like he's saved. I saw that he was King James only. I found out he was post-Trib and everything like that, and I started listening to sermons. But I'll tell you what, the first thing I really started listening to was the sermons on soul winning. I also watched that soul winning demonstration over and over and over again. I was in college, and I had roommates. Whenever they were gone, I was in the mirror practicing giving the gospel to myself. I had been soul winning for a few years, but the most important thing to me was getting people saved. I kind of assumed that most people would have a similar sort of testimony to when they started listening to sermons online. I kind of figured most people, soul winning was the number one most important thing, and that people really knew what they were doing out of soul winning. But I've come to learn over the years that a lot of people, that's not really true. A lot of people, I would have thought they would have studied soul winning and really cared about that, but honestly, a lot of people, it's like that's the last thing that's important to them. They're more concerned about answering some random verse in Ezekiel chapter 17 or whatever chapter. Now I'm not saying that's not important, but that's not the most important thing. There's a bunch of people, and they think they have skill just because they listen to sermons online. And they think they know what they're doing, but then you go soul winning with some of these people, and you're just like, what in the world are you doing? And it's like, I thought they said they had been soul winning. And I'll tell you what, I memorized every single verse that I didn't know. I practiced over and over again. And unfortunately, it's come to my attention over the years that a lot of people have not been diligent to put in the time. They have not developed skill to preach the gospel. See, I don't care who you are. It doesn't matter how outgoing you are. Soul winning is different than that. You have to actually know those verses and practice and have the Spirit of God upon you if you want to get a lot of people saved. Now I've done soul winning with many people from this church, from other churches, from people in our movement, people that visit church. Sometimes they're very good at preaching the gospel. You know, this church plant that we're doing in Washington, I got to go soul winning during the Red Hot Preaching Conference with one of the main guys there, brother Ryan Gallagher. And he did a great job. And I was really excited after that about the work we're going to do in Washington because I said, this is a great group of guys we've got going there. I think that God's going to use this in a big way. It's going to be successful. There's a great group of guys up there. But I'll tell you what. There's a lot of people that I've gone soul winning with where I'm just like, man, do I interrupt this person? Do I rebuke them after? What am I supposed to do? I mean, they don't explain eternal security. The person at the end, they're just trying to force a prayer with someone that clearly does not believe. They haven't changed their mind. They still think they have to turn from their sins. They clearly are not getting it. And then they choose to pray with them anyway. And it's really, really frustrating. Now here's the thing. At this church, you have a pastor that knows how to preach the gospel. And he does everything he can to train you. He just preached, I think, like a month ago about the do's and don'ts of soul winning. He preaches on it more than anything. That's why this church exists, to get people saved. And he wants to train you. But I'll tell you what. When you go to a lot of these marathons across the nation, you're going to go soul winning with a lot of people that do not know what they're doing. Just because they listen to sermons online does not mean that they know what they're doing out soul winning. I've gone soul winning with many of those people during marathons and people that visit. And like I said, I used to assume that people would know what they're doing because they had listened to sermons online. But that's just not the truth. You're going to go with a lot of people when you go to these marathons that don't know what they're doing at all, that really should just be a silent partner. They misquote the verses. They don't have them memorized. They don't have any real plan. They're trying to pray with people just to get a number because they don't really have compassion for the people they're talking to. They just want to be able to come back and say, Well, I got four saved. I got seven saved. I got nine saved. It makes soul winning pretty much a joke because they're not actually diligent and caring about the person that they're talking to. And I'll tell you what. I love the fact that our pastor has a soul winning seminar that this church recommends. And this church has soul winning demonstrations that are really in depth. But I'll tell you what. A lot of people are online trying to teach doctrine on YouTube and on Facebook about soul winning and salvation. And they're part of our movement, but they do not know what they're talking about. And I would recommend you at this church, don't listen to them. I mean, you've got a pastor that knows what he's doing. And I'm not preaching to the people on the Internet. I could care less. My job is to preach to you guys. Don't listen to all that stuff with people that do not know what they're doing. I mean, if somebody's been soul winning for less than a year, why are they teaching anybody about soul winning? I mean, you've been soul winning less than a year and you're saying, Well, you know, this is how you do it. And they clearly don't know what they're doing. I mean, I'm not saying everything that's online is bad. But honestly, a lot of what I see on Facebook and YouTube, I mean, you could ask my wife after the service. It makes me so angry because it's not a game when we're talking about soul winning. These are people's lives. These people spend forever in hell. And if you're going to teach, make sure you know what you're talking about. And here's the thing. I guarantee you that Pastor Anderson, when he comes across something new in the Bible, he doesn't just say, Well, I'm going to preach this this Sunday morning. You know what he does? He actually studies the Bible and makes sure that he knows what he's talking about. And he doesn't just get up there and say, Well, I have a thought. I'll just teach everybody on Facebook and YouTube. And you have 100 people listening to you about something that you're completely wrong about. He makes sure that what he says is actually true. And we need to do the same thing as well, especially with soul winning. If you're going to tell people how to go soul winning, make sure you know what you're doing. And here's the problem with Azahael. Azahael thought he had a lot of skill. He was a valiant man. He thought he knew what he was doing. He thought he was going to kill Abner. I'm sure he didn't think that Abner was going to kill him. I mean, he's running after him. He obviously thought that he could get the job done. He was zealous. He was valiant. But he didn't have enough skill. He did not know what he was doing. And he died because of that. And it's the same thing with the Christian life. You know, sometimes it's very easy to think that we have a lot of skill, that we know what we're doing, just because we know some doctrines that we've heard in sermons online. But I'm telling you, if you've only read the Bible through once or twice cover to cover, you've barely scratched the surface of this book. There's so much to learn in this book. And if you've only been soul winning for a year, you do not know the ins and outs of soul winning. You need to make sure that you take time to be trained. But it's not just with soul winning. It's also just with, like, preaching sermons and teaching in general. I mean, there's a lot of people here that want to be a pastor one day. Now, I don't know the exact requirement. I think it might be ten times cover to cover reading through the Bible at this church. I know at our church, you know, that's that number. But I know other churches have a different number. But, you know, the reason why these pastors say ten times cover to cover is because they understand there's a big war that's going to take place. There's a big battle, and we need to make sure we know our Bibles inside and out. I mean, I'm pretty sure your congregation is going to get bored of the Sodomite reprobates part 50 week after week. This is a 52 week series this year on the Sodomite reprobates. I mean, honestly, yes, the first two sermons are going to be exciting. It's going to get boring after a while. You know, you're going to have to actually know this book and be able to teach people what the Bible actually says. And I'll tell you what. I hope one day if I'm able to start a church that I'm going to have a lot of people that already love the Lord as part of that church. But that is a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because you have people there with you. But, you know, those people are going to actually expect you to be able to teach them something. And they've already listened to a lot of preaching online. You're going to have to actually know your Bible to teach them something new. Now, this sermon is not some new crazy doctrine. But as far as I know, I've never heard a sermon preached on this topic. I tried to make sure I found a sermon for Sunday morning. I said, I don't think anyone's preached on 1 Chronicles 5. I'm going to do my best. And see, this is what we need if we're going to be a pastor and teaching people. We need to know our Bibles. We need to have skill and understanding and have read and memorized this book so we can actually teach people so they're not going to get bored. It's going to get boring if you don't learn anything. Many people in this room went to independent Baptist churches and you got sick of them because you never learned anything. And you learn more from listening to sermons online than you did at that church itself. Now, that is sad that that pastor couldn't teach you something about the Bible. That is pretty sad. I've been at churches like that where I expect to learn nothing for every single service. I honestly thought at some of those churches, you know, maybe I should just read my Bible during the sermon. Maybe if he doesn't catch me, I can kind of hide it here so I'm not offending him and I'm actually reading my Bible and just saying amen every once in a while to pretend like I'm paying attention. I mean, it's sad that that's the way churches are. But I'll tell you what, I don't want to be a pastor one day where I'm teaching people nothing. I don't want to be a pastor one day where they ask me questions about the Bible and I'm like, um, I don't know. Let me listen to Pastor Anderson or Pastor Mendez's sermon and then I'll get the answer back to you tomorrow. I can actually know my Bible so that I can actually teach the people in my church. And I'll tell you what, if you don't read the Bible over and over and over again, you're not going to be able to do that. You're not going to be able to teach people something new. I get the feeling some people think that, you know, our pastors are like Ray of Boom or something where he wants to make the yoke on you so hard, like, oh, my goodness, ten times cover to cover. I can never get through that much of the Bible when in reality they're actually trying to help you. They actually understand there is a big battle. And honestly, we should have the sort of attitude that David had. David was asked to bring 100 foreskins of the Philistines. He brought 200. You know, that's my goal, to go above and beyond any standard that my pastor would set. And I'll be honest with you, when you start a church, a lot of the battles are going to come towards your wife. They're not going to come towards the guys. They're going to come towards the weaker vessel because the devil knows that he can attack them. I would suggest, ladies here, if your husband wants to be a pastor, that you decide to read the Bible ten times cover to cover so you're ready for that battle. I mean, people are often very disrespectful to the pastor and the pastor's wife. And don't ever be like that at this church. But I'll tell you what, I would suggest for the ladies to say, well, I'll read the Bible ten times cover to cover. I want to be able to teach the other ladies if they have questions. I want to know my Bible. And I want to have the Spirit of God upon me so my husband can do great things for God. But I would suggest for the men, I mean, ten times cover to cover is not that many times. That is my opinion that ten times is not that many times. If you read the Bible for an hour a day, that gets you through the Bible four times in a year, pretty much, four times. Maybe it takes you a little bit longer. Maybe it's three times cover to cover. Then that's only three years, and that's nine times reading through the Bible. Three times a year for three years, that's nine times. And you only need one more time. And if you want to be a pastor, I'm assuming you've probably read the Bible before. I would hope. And so the thing is, ten times, it really isn't that many times. I mean, there have been a couple months in my life where I read through the Bible, the entire Bible, in one month. Now I'll be honest, when you read at that pace, you miss a lot. And I'm not necessarily saying that you should try to read at that pace, but I'm saying ten times is not that many times. And I'll be honest with you, there was a time in my life where I think Azzahill would probably be a pretty good fit of me myself. There was a time when I thought I knew a lot more about the Bible than I actually did. Honestly, I feel like I know a lot less about the Bible than I did, you know, eight, nine years ago. It's like the more you read it, the more you learn. And there was a time I honestly thought that I was ready to start a church and I could have done something great for God years ago. And honestly, I wasn't ready. And it's a good thing I didn't go out to battle because the church probably would have failed because I wasn't ready. Because I hadn't read my Bible as much as people probably thought I had. And I wasn't as—I was zealous with going soul-winning. I was valiant. I was going off to war. But I wasn't taking the personal time to memorize the Bible and read the Bible and pray like I should have. And honestly, there's probably a lot of people in this room that are the same way. And the bottom line is you are not going to stay on fire for God if that's you. If you don't personally get in your Bible for a lot every day and have personal time with God, you're going to fail. And you're not going to be a successful pastor. You need to make sure that you know your Bible and the Spirit of God is upon you so God can use you in a great way. And if you do not read your Bible zealously, if you're not really trying to learn the things of God, you will not make it as a pastor. That's the truth. And we need to make sure for all of us that—see, it's very easy to become like Asahel. It's very easy, especially when you see all these other churches that are dropping the ball. It's very easy to say, well, I'm post-Trib and they don't know that and I know the Bible teaches that. I must know a lot about the Bible. Just because a lot of people don't know the Bible doesn't mean that you do know the Bible well. We need to make sure we're digging in this book and actually reading it zealously every single day and that we have the Spirit of God upon us. Because if we're going to be pastors, if we're going to start churches, if God's going to put us in the ministry, we need to make sure that we know what we're doing. Go back to 1 Chronicles 5. You know, in Acts 7, when Stephen is preaching, he goes on and on and on. He doesn't really say anything offensive until the very end, and then they pick up stones to stone him. That's kind of like my third point. My first two points are like, hey, amen, we knock the doors, we get people saved, we're valiant. And then on the third point, it's like, silence. Everyone's like, ooh, that hurts. That's cold, hard preaching. It's not just simply screaming. It's actually pointing out the things that we need to change. And honestly, that's what got me to change is I heard preaching like that that really just kind of kicked me around over and over and over again. Eventually I said, man, I need to just choose to be diligent to know my Bible and just really read and study. That's the sort of preaching we need. Hard preaching is what changes people's lives. I'm amazed here that people tried to say, people that left our church that said, well, you know, I don't think that you should talk about the Sodomites like that. I think you're going overboard. I think you should soften it down. You don't need to be like that. It changes people's lives. I mean, you look at Rahab the harlot. She didn't get saved. She didn't come to God by just this fluffy love, love, love message. She had heard about the judgment that God had performed. You look at Jonah in Jonah chapter 1. It's the same way once they had heard about the judgment. That is what actually changes people's lives. It's hard preaching is what makes a difference. Now go back to 1 Chronicles 5. And let me just point out one verse, one thing from that verse where it says, The sons of Reuben, and the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh, of valiant men, men able to bear buckler, and sword, and shoe with bow, and skillful in war, were four in 40,703 score. That is 44,760 people. Now, I look at this church this morning, and there's a lot of people here. Now, this is not the biggest independent Baptist church in the nation. There are churches that are bigger than this one. I don't know how many people there are, but at First Baptist Church in Hammond, Indiana, they probably have like 1,000 people or something like that. There are probably a lot of people. Now, I want you to notice how God numbers people in 1 Chronicles 5.18. Because I've heard of a lot of Baptist pastors saying, Well, we have more people than you. You only have a few hundred people. You only have 150 people or whatever like that. That means you're not really a great church or whatever. But notice in 1 Chronicles 5.18, when he actually numbers them, he's numbering people that are valiant, that have skill, and actually go off to battle. I wonder if we number the people at First Baptist Church this morning, not based on how many people are there, but people that actually have skill and are valiant and have actually read their Bible a few times cover to cover and actually go soul winning. I wonder how many people that they would have. Because I'm pretty sure at this church there would be more people than that church. And honestly, it would be embarrassing to be a pastor of a church where 98% of people had no skill, that didn't read their Bibles, that didn't go soul winning. I would much rather be a pastor of a church that had 10 people that loved the Lord than just this mega church where no one reads their Bible and no one really cares about the things of God. I just think that's kind of interesting in verse 18. But look down at verse 20. So the first thing we saw is that we have to actually go to war, we have to be valiant, and we have to have skill. But notice in verse 20, it says, And they were helped against them, and the Hagrites were delivered into their hand, and all that were with them. For they cried to God in the battle, and He was intrigued of them because they put their trust in Him. So the Bible says these people cried to God in the battle. It's not talking about an actual tear, it's talking about crying aloud. They cried to God for His help in this battle. They're basically praying on to God. They're asking God to come in and help them out in this battle. And it says that He was intrigued of them. Turn to Genesis 25. This is a point that a lot of people as Christians struggle with. Prayer is something that a lot of people just don't partake that much time in. And it makes sense why people don't, because here's the thing. Everybody knows if you're here at church this morning. Everybody knows if you go out soul-winding. You can see who actually shows up. But see, I don't know, looking around this room, who reads their Bible, who memorizes their Bible, who prays. The only person that knows that is you and God. And see, that's why the things that are visible, they're very easy to do, because people know what you're doing. You understand there's someone looking at me. I've got to do so. And even if I don't feel like going, I'm still going to go. But here's the thing. Having a personal walk with God, that's something you have to do, knowing that no one else is actually seeing that. You've got to decide, I'm going to read my Bible. I'm going to pray. I'm going to memorize the Bible. And it says in verse number 20 in 1 Chronicles, but you're in Genesis 25. It says they cried to God in the battle. But then it says He was intrigued of them. That's an interesting word there when it says entreat. Now in Genesis 25, it says in verse number 21, And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. What I'm trying to show you is this word where it says entreat. That's not a word that necessarily we use that much today, but it's a really powerful word. See, when they cried to God in the battle, it wasn't a small prayer. It was a big prayer. They were really asking for God's help, and He was entreated of them. In Genesis 25 verse 21, it says Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife. I mean, if you're married and you have trouble having kids, that is a big burden that you have on your marriage. And it's something you're going to cry to God and ask for His guidance and help to have a child. And so Isaac is entreating the Lord for his wife because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him. So when they're praying to God, it's not just that they have a prayer list. I mean, I don't know if you guys do. I personally have a prayer list that I use. And sometimes you can just be like, well, you know, this is my Monday prayers. I just got to get through this and get done. That's not actually entreating the Lord. That's not actually crying out to God for help. You know, we need to make sure that we pray that we actually mean it, that we actually believe in prayer. Turn to Ruth chapter 1. And I'll tell you what. This church is involved in a lot of wars right now. It's involved in a lot of battles. Brother Garrett is involved in a big battle now, a big undertaking. You know, he's got the Spirit of the Lord upon him, but starting something new, that's going to take some work. And the devil is going to attack. Honestly, you guys should all be praying for Brother Garrett every single week. I pray for Brother Garrett every single week. You know, you ought to be praying for the ministries this church is involved in. Prayer is something that works. And there's a lot of people that just don't seem to believe in it, but I'll read you while you're in Ruth chapter 1. I'll read you in James chapter 4, verses 1 and 2. It says, So many times in life, the things that we don't have are simply for one reason, because we don't cry out to God. We don't actually pray. We don't actually ask. I mean, he goes through in James 4, and he's saying, You're fighting. You're warring. That's like us in our lives. That's like this church. Yet you have not because you ask not. All we had to do was ask. All we had to do was pray. This word in Ruth chapter 1, look at verse number 16, where it talks about entreating. It says in verse number 16, I love this attitude that Ruth has. She's like, Don't make me leave. She's begging her. She's like, I want to stay with you. Orpah left Naomi, but Ruth says, I'm going to stay with you. I'm going to be there. Don't make me leave. And she says, Those are some pretty powerful words. And then in verse 18, Naomi responds, When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her. She saw someone who actually cared and said, I want to be there. Your God is my God. I will die in that land. I want to be with you. That is how we need to be when we pray. We need to have that sort of attitude that we believe in prayer and that we're going to pray unto God and He's going to guide us and He's going to help us. We have to actually believe in it. So we looked at four points here this morning. The first thing is the war is of God, but we've got to actually make war. We've got to be valiant. We've got to have skill. We've got to actually pray and cry out to God for help. Now, a couple of things I want to leave you with is this. One is this. The entire Bible is an interesting book. 1 Chronicles 5 is an interesting chapter. Now, at least to me, reading this, I thought this was really interesting when I read this. This is a sermon. Now, it's very easy when you read 1 Chronicles, the first nine chapters, or read a book that's a boring book of the Bible to just kind of read through and not pay attention. Some of my favorite sermons I've ever heard were from the book of Leviticus. And I'm not talking about Leviticus 20, 13. I'm talking about Leviticus 19. I'm talking about places that people would have said were boring. Those, to me, were really interesting sermons because I actually learned something. The entire Bible was interesting. And the other thing is this. You know, this war that's going on, all the battles, the spiritual warfare, the devil cannot stop our movement. But we can stop the movement. See, if we're not on fire for God, if we don't do our part, then it's going to stop. You know, God is for these churches getting started all across the world, all across this nation, all across this state. But, you know, God is there with us. But if we don't actually go out to battle, if we don't have the Spirit of the Lord upon us, if we don't have skill, if we don't do our part, then the movement will be stopped because of us. And that is why the devil is able to attack all these churches right now because there's honestly not that many churches that are actually going out to war and that are zealous and that have skill and that are actually doing what they're supposed to be doing. Let's make sure we take it upon ourselves personally to do everything we can to be someone who's really on fire for God. Let's go in a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here this morning. I just ask you to bless this entire time. I just pray this sermon will be a blessing to people and I just pray you'll bring us back to our place this evening. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.