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

The chapter that I want to focus on is there, beginning in verse number 8, where the Bible reads, But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries. And the title of my sermon tonight is, There Are Many Adversaries. Adversaries are enemies, opponents, those who would stand against the work that God has for us to do. And often throughout the Bible, whenever a great door is opened and effectual, there are going to be a lot of adversaries. There's going to be a lot of opposition when great work is done for the Lord. There are going to be enemies. Now if you would flip over to John chapter 3. I like how he says, a great door and effectual. I like that word effectual, because today we need preachers, we need pastors, we need missionaries who are effective to get things done for God. Where their work creates a great effect, where something big is accomplished for God. He said a great door is opened and effectual. Things are getting done. People are being saved. The church is being built and established for the glory of God. The door is wide open. Jesus Christ said in the book of Revelation that he is the one who opens the door and no man can shut it. But he says there are many adversaries. Now ask yourself this question. Why would there be many adversaries to the gospel being preached? The gospel is the good news. It's a glad tidings to the meek. So why would anyone be opposed to that? Why would anyone hate someone like the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Prince of Peace, the Son of God, who brings salvation, who brings grace and forgiveness? Why would anyone hate him? Why would anyone hate the ambassadors of Jesus Christ when they're bringing the good news? Why would there be so many adversaries when a great and effectual work is being done for the Lord? Well that's explained in John chapter 3. Now before I get into John chapter 3, let me just explain to you a little bit about what this sermon is about. We are heading off this week to South Africa and then Botswana and we're there to win souls under the Lord. We're there to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and we've put a lot of work into this over the last many months. We've been shipping over boxes and boxes and boxes of supplies that we're going to be using over there, Bibles, tracts, New Testaments, CDs, DVDs, USB flash drives, I mean thousands and thousands of items mainly shipped into Botswana where we're going to be starting the church there in Haberoni, Botswana and we've been setting up all kinds of opportunities. We've got a building set up, we've got schools set up where we're actually going to be going in in the next couple of weeks and preaching in the public schools in Botswana. We have a great door open. Now in Phoenix, Arizona, we don't have the door open where we just walk up to a public school and they're going to call an assembly of a thousand students and we can just stand up and preach the word of God unto the students in Phoenix, Arizona. But over there that door is open so we want to walk through that door, we want to take advantage of those type of opportunities. There are great doors open in Botswana to preach not only in the schools but also in the prison system and because of the fact that the culture there is nominally Christian, they're open to these type of things and so we're going to be able to go over there, preach the gospel, knock doors, win souls to Christ and God willing we're going to see great things happen for the Lord. Now in the process of going to Botswana and planning this trip and Brother Garrett Kirschway going there and getting married and all the different events that were planned, I thought to myself, while we're in that neck of the woods, we might as well do a soul-winning marathon in South Africa because South Africa is really far away but it's right next to Botswana. If we're going to Botswana anyway, why not? I looked at our church website at the statistics of where different visitors come from all over the world. Obviously the United States is number one by a long shot, Canada, Great Britain, Australia, the Philippines, Germany, South Africa. So South Africa is pretty high on the list out of the hundreds of nations in this world. It was in the top ten, I believe it was around number seven. There were just hundreds and hundreds of people, even thousands of people in South Africa who had listened to my preaching and were tuning in on a weekly basis and downloading the sermons or watching them on YouTube. So I thought to myself, great, we're going to be in this area and we might as well hold a soul-winning marathon. Let's get these people out soul-winning. Let's teach them how to knock doors. Let's help them to be effective for the Lord over there. Because a lot of these people who are listening to my sermons, they don't have a soul-winning church to go to. They can't even hardly find any gospel preaching church over there because there's so much false religion over there and it's a lot of just Protestants and Pentecostals and a lot of weird doctrine. You're not going to find King James, independent fundamental soul-winning. Like here, they're everywhere. I mean, in the United States, we have over 6,000 King James only independent Baptist churches. Over there, they're few and far between. But let me tell you something. We stirred up some serious adversaries when we decided to go to South Africa. I mean, we brought out the forces of hell. It's like we're basically coming up against a spiritual stronghold of just the rulers of the darkness of this world. A place where evil has gripped this nation. And it's a very sinful place. And it's a place that apparently has a lot of people who hate the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the media over there hates the gospel of Jesus Christ. They hate the ambassador of Jesus Christ. They hate Jesus Christ himself. And not only that, even the Christians in the country are so weak and watered down, almost none of them would stand up and be counted for the cause of Christ and stand with the man of God and against the perverts of this world. That's the spiritual condition over there in South Africa. But I believe that in South Africa, there are still 7,000 men who haven't bowed the knee to Baal. You know, just because the media is just saying that, oh, nobody wants you here, Pastor Anderson, and just because all the sodomites and all these wicked people are trying to do everything that they can to stop this soul-winning marathon from going forward, that doesn't change the fact that there are thousands of people over there who do listen to my sermons. And there are a lot of people there who do want to go soul-winning. And I bet you that there are even more people who are just sitting in their house, and when somebody knocks on that door and gives them the gospel, they're going to be saved. They're going to receive Jesus Christ as Savior. And I believe that God can lead us to those people. If we go there and we're only there for a few days and we pray and say, God, we're only here for a few days, would you lead us to that one that's ready to hear the gospel? Lord, help us not to cast our pearls before swine and waste our time with people who have no interest, Lord, but guide us and direct us to those precious souls that have never heard the gospel that would be willing to be saved. I will be shocked if we don't see many people saved in South Africa. I'll be shocked. Because I believe that soul-winning works everywhere. I believe it works anywhere. I've seen it work in the most unlikely of places. Now obviously some places are harder than others. And some places you have to go soul-winning for hours and hours and hours and hours just to get one person saved. But he that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. I don't know what kind of a reception we're going to get in South Africa. I don't know if the soul-winning is going to be receptive or unreceptive in South Africa because it seems like no one's doing it. But somebody has to be a pioneer and go in there and say, you know what, why don't we start breaking up this fallow ground here? Why don't we sow some seeds and let's see what happens? If we get there and it's unreceptive and people are not open to the Gospel, then we'll shake off the dust of our feet and we'll go to Botswana and we'll never come back. But I believe that we should give them a chance to accept or reject the Gospel. We should at least go there and try. Because the Bible said to teach all nations the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So we need to go there and we need to give it a shot. Now Botswana, on the other hand, I don't have any doubt that it's going to be a receptive place because we already have, for example, Garrett's fiancee who's been there, she's already doing soul-winning. She's already being effective. People are already being saved. So we know that that place is ripe unto harvest. But I believe we're going to see great things happen for God in South Africa as well. If I didn't believe that, then I wouldn't be putting forth an effort to try to reach these people with the Gospel. But I mean there's been a huge blow up about this. Now what did we announce that we're doing? We're going there to have a soul-winning marathon. This is what the trip has always been about. You can go back months and months ago to when I first announced it. I said I'm going there to teach people how to share the Gospel, to go there and teach them how to go door-to-door soul-winning. We're going to bring a whole bunch of talkers from our church and other churches and get a bunch of silent partners from South Africa and take them out and show them the ropes and knock doors and try to start a soul-winning movement in South Africa. It's all about the Gospel, believing in Jesus Christ for salvation. But yet the forces of hell have come against us. But yet the media has been running stories attacking us literally this entire week every single day. I've been on TV in South Africa every day for the last two weeks almost. And then a couple months ago we were on TV and on the radio. But I mean everybody I've ever known in South Africa is contacting me and saying, Whoa! I saw you on TV. Whoa! I saw you in the newspaper. Heard you on the radio. Whoa! It's everywhere. They keep talking about it. Why in the world are they so angry and the heathen are raging and gnashing on me with their teeth? The answer is right here in John chapter 3. Look down at verse 16, the most famous verse in the whole Bible. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. What could be a more beautiful message than that? What a powerful scripture. Why would anyone be opposed to that? The Bible says in verse 17, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Look our goal is not to go to South Africa and condemn anyone because they're condemned already. They're already condemned. We're there to bring the gospel that some of them might be saved. The Bible says in verse 18, He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but He that believeth not is condemned already because He hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Verse 19, And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. This is why the heathen are raging at us in South Africa today. This is why they're so angry and opposed to us coming and visiting. Even though we said, hey, we're just preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, some of these reporters and some of these sodomites online actually hit the nail on the head and they said, well, we know you're just preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, but inevitably by getting people saved, then you're going to get them reading the Bible, and then they're going to read about how disgusting homosexuals are, and that's the problem. That's what they say. I mean, at least a couple of homos were smart enough to figure that out. When they say, hey, you're preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, obviously there's a whole package that comes with that, because there's a whole Bible that's issued to somebody when they get saved and when they believe on Jesus Christ. You know, I don't know about you, but when I win somebody to the Lord outsold him, I give them a Bible. That's why we have thousands of Bibles in there. We have Bibles on the back shelf all the time, New Testaments, and we win someone to the Lord. We hand them a Bible. We get them started reading in the book of John, but you know what? Eventually they're going to get to Romans, and eventually they're going to come all the way back around to Leviticus, and they're going to get to 2 Peter, and they're going to get to Jude, and they're going to read these scriptures that fly in the face of a wicked and adulterous generation, but among that generation, we're supposed to be shining as lights in the world, and when you shine the light of the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ, you know what? They hate that light, because they're like cockroaches that want to flee from the light back into the disgusting, dark hole that they crawled out of. These bunch of animals don't like the light being shined on their disgusting, filthy lifestyle, and so that's why they hate preachers of the gospel. Even when they're not even preaching about Sodomites, even just being a Bible-believing Christian and preaching the gospel is an affront to these people. They hate all Christians, because they hate Jesus Christ, and they hate the Bible, and they hate God. The Bible says this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light. They accuse us of being hateful and having hate speech, but I submit to you that they are every bit as hateful as I am. They hate me, they hate this book, and they hate the light, and God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. The Bible says everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they're wrought in God. What the Bible is saying here is that wicked people are often unlikely to get saved, because they just don't even want to approach unto the Word of God, or approach unto God, and have the light shine on their wickedness. It's ironic, because in order to be saved, people don't have to clean up their life to be saved. Just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bittest me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. We don't have to clean up our lives to be saved, but you don't understand. These people are so wicked, they don't even want anybody to tell them that they're even living in sin, let alone tell them to clean it up. They just don't even want to be told that what they're doing is wrong. They want to believe that what they're doing is fine, whether they're sodomites or whatever other filth they're into. That's the big issue today, folks, sodomy. You know what's so funny is that we announce a soul-winning marathon to go preach the gospel, and then the news reports, all they want to talk about is homos. Every news report, and then somebody comments, says, why is Pastor Anderson so fixated on that issue? I didn't, I'm never bringing it up, I'm bringing up soul-winning. You know, it's funny, I saw another pastor that was actually, there was one pastor in the entire country, okay, an entire nation, a non-denominational type pastor that was defending me on TV, and they asked him, oh, well you're so hard on the homosexual, why don't you come down so hard on adultery, or why don't you come down so hard on these others, and here's what he said, I did, but the cameras never show up when you preach those sermons. So here's the thing, I preach 156 sermons a year, two or three of them have to do with these hot button issues, and then that's where all the cameras show up, and then they say, well why are you so obsessed with that issue? It's so full, they're the ones that are obsessed with it. We're preaching the whole Bible, we're preaching all manner of topics, they just want to keep bringing it back to that, keep bringing it back to that. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest, that they're wrought in God. A lot of times, people who are sincere in their heart, you can get them saved, because of the fact that they want to know the truth. He that doeth truth, and that's why a lot of people from the truth movement will get saved. And then they'll even say, well the truther movement led me to hearing about the gospel of Jesus Christ, it was a stepping stone for them. Why? Because he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they're wrought in God. Let's go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, and this is the main chapter that I want to focus on, 2 Corinthians chapter 4. This is one of my favorite chapters, I really like this chapter. And 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7 is a special verse to me. Right before I started the church, the few years leading up to that, this was my theme verse for a few years out, soul winning. I would actually quote this scripture every time I went soul winning, I would quote 2 Corinthians 4, 7, and I would pray this to the Lord, and I would tell him, God, it's not us. You know, the power is not of us. It says in verse 7, we have this treasure, talking about the gospel, the knowledge of Jesus Christ, the word of God, salvation, but we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. And I used to quote that, me and my soul winning partner for years, we would quote this verse, we would pray this verse to the Lord, and say, God, the power is not of us, it's of you, Lord. Fill us with your power as we go out soul winning. And this was kind of a theme verse to help us to stay humble and realize that it was the power of God, not anything of ourselves that would allow us to be an effective soul winner and preach with power. But let's start with verse number 1, the Bible says, Therefore, seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not, but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. Now let me just stop right there and mention that there are many today who are doing the opposite of what this verse says, in the sense that they hide things, they hide things, and they do things dishonestly, and they're crafty, and they handle the word of God deceitfully instead of making it manifest. Now I don't want to hide anything, I mean, Jesus said, What you hear in the ear, preach it from the housetops. And the Bible does not teach us only to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's a starting point. I mean, if we're dealing with an unsaved person, obviously that's what we want to talk about. There's nothing else to talk about with an unsaved person the first time you talk to them, but that could be more important than just giving them the gospel, because that's where it begins. But the Great Commission is to teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you alway, even in the end of the world. It's our job to teach the whole Bible to the nations of this world, we're to preach all of it, and not deceitfully, craftily concealing certain parts of the Bible and trying to hide some of the teachings of Christ under a bushel that we might make our message more palatable unto this world. No, no, no. We're to just preach the whole counsel of God and let the chips fall where they may. And I don't regret anything that I've said. I don't regret anything that I've preached, and they can sit there and play clips of my preaching all over the TV, listen to how bad this guy, you know what, I'll stand by everything that I've said and I'll say it again. And it's nothing else but what the Bible clearly teaches, it's all backed up by scripture, but when the news media plays it, they cut out the scriptures every time. What they do is they'll just say, well, what do you believe? What do you, and I say, well, I don't have an opinion on this. Here's what the Bible says, here's what God says, here's what this verse says, but then they always want to pin it on me. Oh, so that's what you believe? I mean, you should see, I mean, just Google it, you should see the news articles online about me. Baptist pastor says that women should be silent in the church. It's like, I said that, really? The Bible said that. Baptist pastor suggests X, Y, and Z. It's like, no, I am just the messenger, I'm just an ambassador, and they want to pin it on me because they want to act like I'm disgusting and deplorable and I'm such a bad person. Why don't they just say, you know what, God's disgusting, because that's really what they're saying, because I didn't make any of this up, none of it. You point to one thing that I said that wasn't backed up by scripture, you can't, it's all backed up in the Bible, and they don't want to come out and say, we want to ban Jesus from South Africa. That's really what they want. When they sit there and say, hey, we want to ban Steven Anderson from entering South Africa, and again, they're deciding once again, they've already decided multiple times that they don't have the legal grounds to ban me, but now they're trying to ban me again, and they're going to announce it by Tuesday, if I'm banned or not, again. They're having another meeting about it. But you know what, they ought to be deciding, if they'd be honest, is, should we ban the word of God? Should we ban Jesus Christ? Because that's who they're really banning. Because you know what, I don't represent myself, I'm an ambassador of Jesus. It's all straight from the Bible. And you know what, don't come at me with this warped, perverted doctrine that says that the God of the Old Testament is a different God than the New Testament. The Bible says Jesus Christ, the creator, you remember that from last Sunday morning? We proved that from so many scriptures, that Jesus is the creator. That means he goes back to what chapter? Genesis 1 is where we meet Jesus in the Bible, Genesis 1. When the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost say, let us make man in our image and after our likeness. That's where Jesus comes on the scene. And the Bible says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. He's the same. The Jesus of Leviticus is the Jesus of the four gospels. And that's why he said that his first favorite commandment in the law was from Deuteronomy. And his second favorite commandment in the law was from Leviticus. That's what Jesus said. He said, love thy neighbor as thyself, which is a quote from Leviticus chapter 19. Oh, throw out Leviticus and go with Jesus. Well, you can't because Jesus taught Leviticus. Jesus said, think not that I've come to destroy the law or the prophets, I came not to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one shot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all be fulfilled. That's what Jesus said. He didn't come to destroy the law and the prophets. He didn't come to nullify and negate that which Moses had delivered, which was from the finger of God. He didn't come to negate that. He came to preach the gospel and fulfill the law of God, not to abolish it or do away with it. They want to ban Jesus. They want to ban Jesus from entering South Africa. You say, oh, you think you're Jesus. No, I think that I have Christ inside of me, Christ in my heart. And I think that I'm preaching the words of Jesus Christ, the words of this book. And it's these words that are the most offensive thing under them. And if not, then point out to me the statement that I made that is not taught by this book. The Bible says these things about, you know, they shall surely be put to death. I didn't say that. I didn't come up with that. That's my idea. I'm flattered that people think I wrote parts of the Bible, but, you know, I mean, I'd love to take credit for it, for the beautiful words of God, but I can't. But look at second Corinthians chapter four. He says, look, we have this ministry. We're not going to faint. We're not going to quit. You're not going to stop us. He said, we've renounced in verse two, the hidden things of dishonesty. We're not like these phony preachers that hide things. No, we preach everything. Verse three, but if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost in whom the God of this world had blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. Let me tell you something. The God of this world has blinded the minds of those who believe not, but he does that through human instruments that he uses. The devil does not personally go to each person's brain and blind their mind individually, but the devil and his minions use their servants and their ministers to spread his message in phony churches, on TV programs, on the radio. His messengers are there to blind the minds of those that believe not. Look what verse five says, for we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus. We're not preaching ourselves. We didn't come up with any of this on our own. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earth and vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. We're troubled on every side, yet not distressed. We're perplexed, but not in despair. You know, I've been pretty perplexed over the last couple of months, just trying to plan this soul-winning event and just having these sodomites and children of Belial just putting up roadblocks in front of us. Every time we book a venue where we're going to preach, the venue's canceled. We say, hey, we're going to meet at this restaurant, and then that restaurant says, you will not be allowed to enter the doors of our restaurant, Pastor Anderson. You're wicked, Pastor Anderson. You are not welcome at Wimpy Burgers. That's what it's called. Wimpy Burgers has banned us. You're not welcome at Running Water Spur. You're not welcome at the premier hotel O.R. Tambo Airport. You're not welcome at the Holiday Inn. You're not welcome at the Protea Hotel. You're not welcome here. Go sleep in the barn like Jesus because you're not welcome in the inn. Hey, it's kind of perplexing. You know, you're trying to figure out how to do an event like this with all this opposition and all the forces of hell standing against us. But you know what? We're perplexed, but we're not in despair. We're persecuted, but we're not forsaken. Cast down, but not destroyed, except we're not even to that point yet. We're not even cast down yet. But if we are cast down, we won't be destroyed. He says, always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. More than death worketh in us, but life in you, we having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believe and therefore I have spoken. We also believe and therefore speak, knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God, for which cause we feign nice. And look, we're doing it for your sake. We're not doing this for our health. You know what? If I never win another soul again, if I never knock another door again, if I never preach the Word of God again, if I never preach the Gospel again, if I were to just do what all these people would love me to do and just sit down and shut up and just go back to doing fire alarms and go back to doing electrical work, you know what? I'd still go to heaven. I'd still earn rewards in heaven. I'd still rule and reign with Christ for all eternity. I'm doing it for you. I'm doing it for you, oh South African soul on your way to hell. I'm doing it for you. He says, for which cause we faint not, but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day, for our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. There's an unseen battle going on right now. It's a spiritual battle. I literally believe that South Africa is some kind of a demonic stronghold. If you just read the history of that place, there's been so much wickedness in that place throughout history. It's like the devil has a hold on that place. Don't try to make it about this race or that race or this nation or that nation. There have been a lot of atrocities on all sides in that place. You go back in the history 100 years ago and it was the white people, the British, putting other white people, the Boers or the Afrikaners, putting them in concentration camps and they're starving and dying in what's called the Boer War that took place about 100 years ago over there. There are white people abusing black people and then there are black criminals abusing white people. I mean, look, that place is a den of iniquity. There I said it. South Africa is a den of iniquity, period. And that place is known even in the United Nations. It was stated that it's the rape capital of the world, South Africa, the rape capital of the world. They even said that on the floor of the United Nations. Look at the statistics of the rape and the murder and the kidnapping and the carjacking and all this wickedness and then they're worried about me coming over and preaching too hard against sin. They're worried that I might come over there and preach too hard against perverts when they're the rape capital of the world. Why don't you take a look in the mirror, South Africa, before condemning me? I'm coming to bring a message of cleanliness and holiness and righteousness. But you don't want that because you love darkness because your deeds are evil. Well, you know what? I'm not there for them. I'm there for those who are the righteous remnant in South Africa. I know that they're out there. I know that there are godly people there. And I believe that God is going to move and do something in that nation. But who are the adversaries? The Bible says that a great door is open and there are many adversaries. Let me give you three classifications of the adversaries to the gospel that we run into in this world. Number one, the politicians. The government can be a great adversary to the gospel. We could go all throughout history and look at times and places where the government was an enemy to the gospel. We could go back into the dark ages of Catholic-controlled Europe and show where the Catholic governments of Europe were an enemy to the gospel. We could demonstrate that. We could go to the days when the British had colonized India and when a man like William Carey, who was a Baptist missionary to India, was told, you can't be a missionary here. You can't preach the gospel to the locals. The British government told him no because they said, you're going to affect our profits with the East India Tea Company. You're going to affect our profits if you make the locals upset by preaching the word of God. You're going to offend the Hindus so the British government banned Baptist missionaries from preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Hindus of India. And William Carey had to flee into a Danish-controlled section where the king of Denmark allowed him to do his work. I mean, all throughout history, governments have stepped in and said, don't preach the gospel. Don't preach the word of God. Don't come in here and preach the truth. Don't do soul winning. And it's no different today. There are governments in this world that do not allow the gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached. Thank God in the United States we have the freedom to freely preach the word of God. We have the freedom of speech. We have the freedom of assembly. We have the freedom to go door to door and preach the gospel and exercise our religion. But over there, these wicked politicians want to ban a missionary, want to ban an ambassador of the Lord Jesus Christ from entering their country to bring the gospel. And the guy whose name keeps coming up that seems to be the main guy who supposedly has the power to do this, his name is Malusi Gigaba. So this Malusi Gigaba, the minister of home affairs in South Africa, has called me a deplorable person and has said that he stands with the LGBTIABCDEFG community. You know, they keep adding more letters as they dream up new perversions. He stands with the LGBTI community and he said that my Christian views are backwards. And recently he said, well, obviously he can't be regarded as a pastor. But that's because this wicked politician, and look, people try to defend him like, oh, he's just doing his job. No, he's wicked. He's wicked in the sight of God. When you're standing with sodomites and when you're standing against the man of God, you're wicked. He has made it very clear whose side he's on and he's not on the side of the truth. He's not on the side of being normal. He's not on the side of the gospel. He has said, I stand with the LGBTI. You know what? Then you can be damned with them. Obviously he can't be regarded as a pastor. You know why he says that? Because he's used to the phony pastors of South Africa. And that brings me to my second point. The first enemy of the gospel, politicians and government officials, and the second enemy of the gospel are the false preachers and false religion, the enemies of the gospel. One of these phony preachers piped up this week, his name is Ndungane, or I'm not sure how to pronounce it. Dung in the middle of his name, D-U-N-G, I don't know how to pronounce it. I think it's Ndungane, Ndungane. But Minister Dung has stated that I need to be banned from South Africa because he is a pro-homo activist even though he claims to be a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Another pastor that they look up to over there is a guy by the name of Bishop Tutu. I mean, look, you can't make this stuff up, folks. And look, this pro-homo pastor of the Anglican Church, Bishop Tutu, and this guy's one of the most famous and popular preachers of, who's heard of him? Bishop Tutu. Yeah, Desmond Tutu, hands all over the building. And I've seen his books where he's looking at me in bookstores and everything. I mean, this guy, Bishop Tutu, he literally said, he said, if God doesn't accept homosexuals, then I want to go to hell. That's what he said. Look it up. He said that if homos aren't allowed in heaven, then I want to go to the other place. Well, you know what? You got a ticket to hell, buddy. That's where you're going. Let me see that water bottle for a minute. Can I see that bottle? This is the color of the outfit that Bishop Tutu wears every time. He wears a dress that's this color. I mean, I just went to Google Images and just typed in South Africa Anglican bishops. And there were like 20 guys in a photo. And they're all wearing a dress that color, a dress that color. Bishop Tutu was in a dress, Undungani, was in a dress this color. And these bunch of effeminate, liberal, lying, falsies, oh, by the way, Bishop Tutu's daughter is an open sodomite who was thrown out of the Anglican church for marrying another woman. And he loves her and supports her and he doesn't approve of her being thrown out of the Anglican church as he parades around in a pink dress. Now go to Mark, chapter 12, verse 38. And then you wonder why Minister Gigaba says, well, obviously, Stephen Anderson can't be regarded as a pastor because he's not in a pink dress, because he's actually a hair-legged man who preaches what the Bible says. He can't be regarded as a pastor because every pastor I see here around me is wearing a pink dress and he's got a big giant cross hanging around his neck and he just goes around posing for cameras and traveling all over the world like some kind of a celebrity, just pleasing man with the words that man wants to hear so that he can have his best-selling books all over Walmart and everywhere else. Mark chapter 12, verse 38, Jesus Christ said unto them in his doctrine, beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing. God specifically warned us against preachers that wear long clothing and you say, ah, you're just splitting hair. No, Jesus said that. You keep confusing me with Jesus here. No, Jesus said to beware of the scribes which love to go in long clothing. And by the way, I'm sick and tired of seeing pictures of Jesus in long clothing when he preached against it. Is anybody home? Look down at the Bible. They love the long clothing. You know why they love the long clothing? Because they love the salutations in the marketplace. That's why they don't dress like a normal person. Because they want everybody to see their big pink dress and their big giant Flavor Flav cross around their neck and everybody to salute them in the marketplace and call them Father and Reverend and Rabbi and all these different things. They love the chief seats in the synagogues and the uppermost rooms at the feast. They love to pal around with Bush or Obama or the Dalai Lama. They love to pal around with all the celebrities and all the rulers of the darkness of this world. Why? Because they want to please man and they don't want to please God. They're not men of God. They're servants of the devil. They're sons of Belial and the Bible says that it's no wonder because the devil himself is transformed into an angel of light. No marvel that his ministers are transformed into the ministers of light. Oh, well everybody has such great respect for Desmond Tutu. And you know, you say don't make fun of his name. I'll guarantee you that guy puts on a tutu when the cameras are off. He's effeminate as hell and that's why his daughter's a filthy lesbian. No girl has a right relationship with her dad and grows up to be a filthy lesbian. Desmond Tutu is going to split hell wide open and he can hang around with sodomites in hell for all eternity. He'll never see heaven. And he said, well I don't want to go to heaven. Well good because you weren't invited anyway. Desmond Tutu, Ungani, these men are wicked. They're children of the devil. These false prophets, these false teachers, these people don't even know what a real man of God looks like. Well take a good look, Minister Gigabah. This is what a real man of God looks like. And you know what? You say, well you look mad. Well wait until you see Jesus when he returns to this earth, he's going to look madder than I do. I mean look, John was saved. John was on the right side and when he saw him, he fell at his feet as dead. And you know, the Lord had to lay a hand on him and say, fear not. I'm the first and the last. I'm he that liveth and was dead, and behold I'm alive forevermore, amen, and I have the keys of hell and of death. That's what Jesus Christ said. The Bible says in Proverbs 29 verse 27, an unjust man is an abomination to the just, and he that is upright in the way is an abomination to the wicked. That's life. That's the world we live in. That scripture was written thousands of years ago where the Bible said that people that are righteous are an abomination to the wicked, and people that are wicked are an abomination to the righteous. That's how it's always going to be. But their mantra is, let's all get along, and the way they think they're going to accomplish that is, basically everybody who believes the Bible can shut up, and all the Desmond tutus can decide what everybody's going to believe, and as long as we all go along with Bishop Tutu, everybody's going to be happy. That's their program for peace and tolerance, to tolerate one viewpoint, the pervert viewpoint, and then watch their rape statistics go up, up, up, and watch the murder statistics go up, up, up, and they say, oh, we already have so many problems. There's so much hate here. There's so much wickedness here. We don't need Pastor Anderson coming and making it worse. It couldn't get any worse. Might as well try something different like Jesus, like the Bible, like living a clean life. How about this? How about waiting until you get married to copulate? That's a good place to start Africa. That's a good place to start America. Maybe that'll help you out with HIV over there. But we could go on and on about that, and I will some other time. But anyway, go to Acts chapter 18, Acts chapter number 18. Acts chapter number 18. So again, what's going on? Well, here's what's going on. South Africa is a country that is devoid of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a place where false religion reigns. It's a place where the Anglicans and the Pentecostals and other false teachers and charlatans are teaching a false gospel, and where the country is lying in wickedness morally and spiritually. This is a place where the leadership says, we don't want a man of God to come here, even to just teach the plan of salvation. We don't even want him to come to do that. The politicians say, we don't want him here. The ministers say, we don't want him to come here, but we're going. And the gospel of Jesus Christ is going, and they can't stop us. And you say, well, what if they ban you? Well, you know what? Are they going to ban the internet? They say, oh, we're going to ban Pastor Harrison from entering South Africa. I already have entered South Africa, and the media has been helping me enter the minds of virtually every citizen by putting me on TV every day. I'm already there. Oh, we don't want to let this hate into South Africa. That's funny because you guys keep playing clips on the news of me saying hateful things. They're bringing it in. They can't stop the truth because you know what? It's God's will that the gospel be preached in every nation, and it's God's will that all nations be taught to observe all things that Christ commanded us. And so it's going to happen if we do the work, and we are doing the work, and we are stepping up to the plate, and we are saying, here are my lords, send me, and the work of God's going to go forward. But if they ban Steven Anderson, well, there's 16 other Steven Anderson's that are showing up. Are they going to ban all 17? I don't even think they know the names of the people that are coming with us. They can't ban, what are they going to ban, every Christian? Are they going to ban the internet or block faithfulwordbaptist.org from any South African computer users? Are they going to be like Red China or North Korea to make sure none of this dangerous hate speech comes into their wonderful country? The rape capital of the world. But thank God in Botswana there's a great door open and effectual. And I'm looking forward to seeing what God's going to do. Because when you see this kind of opposition that we've been facing, and when you see all the forces of hell lining up, that tells me that God is about to do something big in both South Africa and Botswana, and I want to be a part of it. I want to be right there in the middle of it. And I thank God for those who have stepped forth from our church and from other like-minded churches in the United States and in Canada that are going with us into South Africa and with us into Botswana, and they're going to be a part of this great work for God. I don't have any doubt about it that it's going to be great. You know why? God always gives us the victory. Whether by life or by death, whether they hear or whether they forbear, they'll know that a prophet has been among them, and in the end, God's word will go forth and the righteous remnant will see that news report and they'll say, about time somebody was telling it like it is, and they'll go to their computer and they'll go and they'll type it in. Faithfulwordbaptist.org, enter. And all of that horrible preaching of God's word is going to come flooding into their computer and there's nothing Gigabah can do to stop all those gigabytes of sermons from flooding into their machine. Pastor Gig- or Minister Gigabah can't stop one gigabyte of my preaching. It's all going to come flooding into those machines. You can't stop us. We have Jesus Christ with us, and if God be for us, who can be against us? Certainly not you, Minister Gigabah. Certainly not you, Bishop Tutu. Certainly not you, Dungani. Because God is with us. And you know, I'll be honest with you, I've gotten a little bit discouraged at times over the last few months. It's frustrating to work hard and to keep having people thwart your efforts and keep beating your head against the wall trying to make plans. We had false brethren within where we're trying to just coordinate with the Christians in South Africa, people that we know or people that we thought we knew, and then even they many times turned out to be infiltrators, turning in all of our details. We said, hey, here are the details of our trip. They turn it over to the Sodomites. Even they call themselves Christians and turn it over to the perverts. And say, try to have your soul winning event now, Pastor Anderson, now that I've turned over all your plans to the Sodomites and we've gotten all your locations canceled. I'll be honest, I've been a little bit discouraged at times over the last couple months. I'm a human being. It's frustrating. And I've planned these things all over America, and we've never had this type of opposition. But you know what? I'm not frustrated now, because I believe that God will give us the victory. I'm not frustrated at all, because I know that God is at work and the darkest hour is just before dawn, and when you see all the enemy host lining up against us and trying to stop us, you know what that tells you? It tells you that we're doing something real. It's like where the demons said in the Book of Acts, well, Jesus I know and Paul I know, who are you? Why did they know Paul? Because he's doing something. And you know what? We're about to do something. And you know, there's only so much you can do in a couple days' time. But man alive, Brother Garrett Kirschway over the next, God willing, 20 years he should be over there. Wouldn't it be great? That guy is a soul winning machine. And you know what? There are a lot of missionaries out there that are kind of a dud. That kind of go there and they're not effective and they're slow and they just keep sending home the prayer letters of like, hey, you know, we're still talking to Felix and Maria, hoping they're eventually going to get saved. Keep praying for them. Months and months and months go by. You know what? I promise you, I promise you that Brother Garrett Kirschway is going to be getting people saved every single week. And you say, well, how do you know that? Because if people aren't being saved, either the gospel's not being preached or the gospel's lost its power. That's why. Brother Garrett Kirschway is excited. He's got a vision. He's dedicated. We've had him here in our church for eight years. He is a soul winner. He is consistent. He's a hard worker. And he's a hard preacher. And he takes a hard line and he is going to be over there if God allows him, and he's going to do great things for God. I'm excited. I'm very encouraged. I can't wait until this Wednesday night when he is sent out of our church and when he gets there and just hits, and we're just going to hit the ground running. We're not going to go sit in some language school and, and, you know, plant a tulip garden. We're going to hit the ground running. Why? We're going to redeem the time because the days are evil. And man, I'm excited about it. I'm excited to see what God's going to do. And we, you know, we're going to keep, we're going to keep the church here updated of everything. This isn't going to be a prayer letter every two months talking about, you know, how the potty training of the toddlers are going and, and, you know, how painting the house is going and, and about the carburetor in the car having problems. You know what? This is going to be up. We're going to be getting updates from him on a weekly basis, even more than a weekly basis. You know, through the power of the internet, we're going to be getting video updates. We're going to be getting sermons from him. See that map over there. That's a map of the, the city in Botswana where brother curse way is going to be operating. And we have an identical map that's going to be set up in Botswana. He's going to be shading in the streets of all the doors he knocks, just like we do here. Right? We can do it here. We can do it over there. So see all that orange highlight. And then what we'll do is we'll have him send us pictures of his map as his gets filled in and we'll fill that in and you'll be able to see that get filled in from here and be able to watch the progress, you know, as we knock doors in Habaroni Botswana. And we're going to be able to hear about the souls that are being saved and hear about the schools where, where we can preach to hundreds and hundreds of students and where we can just preach whatever the Bible says and whatever the Holy Spirit leads us to say and not be censored in any way and told, Hey, you can't talk about that because thank God Botswana has the freedom of speech, unlike South Africa, but God willing, we can start a great soul winning movement in South Africa as well. Only God knows what will happen, but look what the Bible says in Acts chapter 18 verse nine. God said, I have much people in this city. And at the same time, he's warning Paul that there are enemies and that he's going to protect him from those that are setting on him to hurt him in the next few verses. It talks about one being drawn before the judgment seat and being persecuted. And they're, you know, being beaten for the cause of Christ and so forth. And verse 18, it says, and Paul, after this tarried there yet a good while, you know, in the face of persecution, in the face of opposition, he continued to serve God in a great way. So we've been, you know, I, well, I should say I've been, I've been threatened a lot by these South Africans saying, Hey, we're going to beat the bleep out of you and we're going to kill you and we're going to rape you and we're going to kidnap. I mean, I'm getting so many threats and so many threats, but you know what? I believe that God is going to protect me. I believe that God can protect me and you know what? But even if God doesn't protect me, I will lay down my life for the gospel of Jesus Christ. I don't believe that that's going to come to that, but you know what? We're all going to die someday. What a glorious death to die for the Lord Jesus Christ. As John R. Rice said, you can't scare me with heaven. You know, and, and look, if my work here is done, I'm ready to go home. But you know what? I know that my work is not done. And I know that I'm, I know, I believe strongly that I will come back perfectly safe. I believe that I'll continue on for decades more. And the reason why I believe that is because I believe that God has a great work for me to do. And I believe that God's going to allow me to finish that work. But I don't know what his will is, but that's what I believe. And so please pray for us as we go into the belly of the beast and pray for us, especially as we go into Botswana, that God would answer our prayers and show us things beyond anything that we could ask or think. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. We thank you for the gospel. And we thank you for the ministry that you've given us and the mission that you've given us to go and preach your word and teach all nations, Lord. And, and, and Lord, if I believe that everybody in South Africa were like these people on the media and the people in the government, Lord, I wouldn't even set foot in that place, Lord. I know that there are good people in South Africa. I know that there are righteous people in South Africa, and I pray that you would lead us to those people that do truth, that we might lead them to the light, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And Lord, please just guide us and direct us as we continue on into Botswana. May all things be done for your honor and glory and help many lives to be changed. And that when we come back to the United States, Lord, many people will be left behind as ministers and preachers and ambassadors for you. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.