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All right, so as we celebrate our three year anniversary of the church here I thought it'd be appropriate to kind of reflect a little bit on the past of this church where we started and a little bit about where we're going and the sermon will be geared towards how we're going to continue to move forward as a church and Whether or not you're a part of our church or member of our church doesn't matter. It's all biblical principles They're gonna apply ultimately to serving the Lord with your life So if you don't have to be in this physical church to do that So you'll everyone's gonna be able to learn take away from from the sermon this morning, but I just want to Thought by thanking God for all the work that he's been doing in this church Because you know in the three years that we've been in existence. God has brought together a great group of people people that love the Lord and and I'm very much appreciative of that as as someone who has come here to you know help establish this church and plant this church to have so many people that are willing to Put in the work and put in the effort or dedicated to serving God We all have the same goals the same vision We have the same faith that unites us in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ We have you know similar values of what's important Everyone here I think values the the gospel and the preaching of the gospel and that is the unifying bond I think specifically with our church And and that's what I try to explain to people when we go out and talk to people when we go out and preach the gospel You know, why should you come to our church? There's churches all over the place in Georgia all over the place every I mean every corner and not just churches There's Baptist churches everywhere But the thing that that I think sets us apart The biggest thing is the focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ and getting the gospel out to the lost And I try to explain to people this is the lifeblood of our church This is what we're you know, we're living eating breathing sleeping the gospel At least we ought to be that's that's the the driving factor is we know how important it is We know how important it is for people to get saved and we know that if we don't do something if we don't take the responsibility that God has given us seriously that God has committed unto us the ministry of Reconciliation that we could go out and reconcile people to God through Jesus Christ point people to the Savior Help them understand that look that is primary that is essential. And if we're not doing that then what good is it? Then church just turns into a social club Now there's nothing wrong with social clubs right you could go and have fun and in fellowship and everything else That's great. But that's not the whole purpose of the church You Get some fellowship from church. Absolutely. We should be edifying encouraging and loving but you know what the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10 I was just talking about this yesterday with somebody about the importance of church and And why it's so important to get plugged in the church Which of course Hebrews 10 gives us the exhortation That we're not supposed to forsake the assembling of ourselves together that first of all being in church is very vital And if you don't go to church on a regular basis you end up just forsaking the assembly. That's a sin and The Bible says in Hebrews 10 verse 24 and 25 and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth that remaineth no more sacrifice for sins and on and On but the Bible says we're not supposed to forsake the assembling of ourselves together assembling of ourselves together. This is church It's where we're at right now. You're in the assembly We're not supposed to say forsake this assembly and why because it says in the verse previous let us consider one another So we're thinking about one another We're considering one another and in order to provoke unto love and to good works We are to encourage each other to do good to do right to go out there and to help other people To help bring the loss to Christ this is part of the reason of churches is to go and do the good things Not just solely for fellowship and enjoying one another's company Although that is part of it we get encouraged and edified by being together We're gonna have some edification as a church today even after church service Enjoying meals together breaking bread and and being able to have that company, but you know what if that's all we ever did What good does that do to the lost We have to be mindful of the lost Jesus was thank God Jesus was mindful of the lost and He went about seeking and saving those that were lost That was his mission and if we're gonna be Christians and if we're gonna take the name of Christ and say I'm gonna follow Christ Then we ought to do like he did and be mindful of the lost and go forward bearing precious seed going forward Preaching the gospel going forward being a light to shine in a dark world going forward bringing hope to a lost generation and bringing people to Christ and getting them plugged in and seeing lives transformed through the power of God There's no way I would be standing here today if it wasn't for one the power of God in my life being able to transform my life change me mold me fashion me and what God wants me to be and and the assistance of a man or men People having influence helping guide me along in God's path God uses people as human instruments To help accomplish his will he's given his people jobs to do Yes, the power of transformation comes from God however People are vital in that equation People need to be there to be used that he's given us jobs Church Is extremely important for that and I thank God for working through the people in our church I thank God for the unity we have in the faith of understanding the importance of the gospel because that is really what it's all about and When we You know when you hear the preaching on sin When you hear me slamming down my fist and raising up my voice and getting mad and angry and and call it all man Why does that even matter well It's gonna help make you a better Christian a better soul winner God's gonna use you even more because you're gonna be a vessel on to honor and not under dishonor as the Bible says So you could be used that much more mightily by God The cleaner you are the more righteous you are in your day to day The better your witness is going to be the better your testimony is going to be because people are going to look at you and see Wow, this isn't just some hypocrite Who wants to say all this stuff from the Bible, but they don't live it at all and That destroys your testimony. That's why I hate no look we treat this seriously. We treat the Word of God Seriously, hey, I don't just I don't just give lip service Oh, yeah The Bible is the Word of God and then just go off and live my life as if I've never even read this book I mean, it's the Word of God It's the Word of God Do you really believe that or not you want to hear from God people go? Oh, I just want to know what God has for me Oh, I just want you and they'll say all this stuff about God And I and I want to have this great relationship with God and I go and they never open up the book once You want to know you I know a guy who I get close to God He wants to get close to you He wants you to hear from him But he's already given you his word it's already right here. It's right here. It's in the pages of this book God I love this church And I want to see this church continue to do great things I want to see God continue to move in this church, and I'll tell you what we're just at the beginning But just a summary and this is one of the reasons why I like Keeping track of you're sitting through announcements, especially if you're a visitor you're saying You know some people get turned off by oh Why are you putting the numbers and you know in the bulletin and counting up? And you know who you know how many people get saved and stuff you don't get the credit for that you can go or God gets a good look We know that Jesus is the Savior and we're honoring and exalting that You know what it's also Encouraging to hear that there's other people in the church going out and preaching the gospel to people and when we count up numbers It's not just to be seen of men saying oh, I'm so holy I got these people saved it's because collectively as a church. We like to know about this We like to pray for those people we want to know that that there's still work being done It's encouraging to hear other people. Maybe some people haven't been going out into work you say wow These people are finding time to go out and preach the gospel Maybe I can do that too. It's encouraging it ought to be encouraging It's not a self-exalting thing if you think it's a self-exalting thing come out with us when we go and preach the gospel If you think it's just if you think it's just to be seen and people just want to act spiritual come out with us If you think we're just going through and just trying to get people to pray with us so we could say oh We've got an extra number come out with us Because I despise that type of soul-winning where people say oh, we're getting all these people saved And you're not really going through the gospel with people you're not explaining it to it. We're not making it simple You're not helping them understand What you need to understand to be saved You need to understand the permanency the eternality of eternal life that the the free Free free grace that's given to us by Jesus Christ because he made the payment for us on the cross look We try to explain that to the best of our ability and we take as much time as it's necessary with people Because it is important because not just about numbers, but you know what every single one of those numbers That we that we put in the bulletin Represents a soul a person they all have names They're all individuals lives that are changed now Because somebody humbled themselves to serve the Lord and go forward and preach the gospel and That's what we need more of so I'm not ashamed to put numbers in the bulletin. It's motivating And that's the purpose of it. I Mean there's a reason why the apostle Paul says I become all things to all men I might by all means save some so we say oh, how many people did you get saved? That's biblical terminology It's not taking away from what Jesus does and his power of course we're pointing people to Jesus He's the Savior, but we're using the same type of language that the Apostle Paul used and it's not just that one passage It's multiple places in Scripture How is it that you get someone saved well because we're pointing people to the Savior and God has given us that job to do it's we have to do that So we're partakers Bible says that ye are God's husbandry We are his workers. We are we are to go forth and labor for the Lord He gives the increase But we need to plant we need to so we need to do everything that we can to help that process out It's not that God needs help. It's the way he designed it It's not that he needs You know something from us and inherently because he's incapable of it no of course he's capable of it But when God designs thing a certain way says well, that's the way it's going to be and that's the way it is and the way God designed it is that a human being needs to go forward and preach the Word of God as Romans 10 says very clearly That hey salvation just by believing well, then why do you need a person because how shall they hear without a preacher? How are you gonna believe unless you hear you even know what to believe unless you hear the gospel And how are you gonna hear unless there's a preacher? You're not going to It's all vital now look I that's a whole nother sermon in and of itself I'm gonna go and going off on a rabbit trail, but you know what this is what the church is all about This is what Strong Old Baptist Church This is what we're founded on and this is what we're going to continue doing and this is you know as far as is As long as I'm here as long as I'm gonna be the under Shepherd running things here, that's what we're gonna do And if I ever stop doing that and someone needs to smack me in the face And say pastor birds and to wake up Get right with God remember the first works And I'm giving you permission right now If I stop our soul winning program and stop doing the first works Come up to me and and smack me upside my head Because I might need that And if I don't listen from that then you know what You need a spirit-filled preacher to come and take my place and get back to the first works Keep track of the numbers. It's it's encouraging Since this church started I tallied up Obviously we don't know every single person's heart You know we go based off of what they say So this number is a estimate It's our best guess is our best estimate based off of what someone's saying if someone's confessing with their Mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and they're calling on the name of the Lord We can't see their heart, but why would we just think that they're lying So we count those people and you know what there's a lot of people we don't count That very well may gets have gotten saved We try to be conservative because we don't want to get into this showboating type of an attitude or anything like that We were very critical, but as the church started I counted up. I went through the numbers 2421 people I Reported as receiving Christ and praise God that's in three years And we're just getting started for a three-year-old church To reach that many people hey be encouraged by that But we don't want to just coast and just say well, that's great now. You know we did our job No, we need to keep pushing forward we need to keep doing more We need to keep driving and in trying to increase and add more disciples and get more people plugged into doing the good works But I mean hey it's a time to celebrate as a three-year anniversary, this is great praise God For using us to reach so many individuals Because that's a lot of individuals there's a lot of people there Not just not just the salvation's even our attendances have been slowly steadily increasing you say patreon are still small church I know And that's great, but for a three-year-old church But for a three-year-old church, I think we're doing really good I Think we're doing really good God has been bringing people and adding people and you know I love about is that the people God is bringing to our church Are people who are really serious about church? And and There's another thing. I just love about is that you know people Obviously we want as many people That are interested in the Lord and want to grow and have a desire to come and everyone's gonna be at different level of spirituality of course and You never look down on people for where they're at But what we want to see is people who want to grow no matter where they're at So if they're a brand new baby believer that just got saved today Great we want to see you grow We want to help you grow want to encourage you and and help motivate you to Learn more and grow more, and you know what that growth takes time People don't just change on a dime overnight and just all of a sudden you had all these problems and now everything's gone now In salvation yeah, you're saved eternally in that sense. It's a one-time event You're saved forever, but you still have Baggage from the past you still have a sinful flesh you still have sinful desires that you need to now work at overcoming and it takes Time and anything that's done right anything. That's umbilical is going to take time For our church to really become a powerhouse of people serving the Lord. It's gonna take time if we just sprout it up Overnight and just wow now. We're running thousands, and we just got started. We're probably not doing something right Probably now obviously there's exceptions to the rule But typically in what we see even naturally you know weeds sprout up overnight But they're not very valuable are they they're a hindrance But the big oak trees or the plant even just the good plants that are producing plants they take time You start with that seed I mean you want an apple tree you want an orange tree you want something? That's gonna produce some good fruit, and you start with a seed It's gonna take time from that new life that comes out of the seed just like a new Christian who's born again It's gonna need time to be nurtured developed growing and Then start becoming fruitful and more fruitful and more fruitful Into a mature tree and we want a mature Church It's gonna take some time But thank God we have been growing We have been growing and even with last year's pandemic with with absolutely had an impact on attendances and I would say for good reasons for many people like there You know there's a lot of people who have high risk to disease and we're very Uncertain about about the details and everything of course. I mean we shut down last year For I forget exactly how long a few weeks a month something like that with the in-person services because we didn't know All the detail we didn't know how how serious and how deadly and all these other things But even through that because that affects our attendance records, but when I'm going back and looking at this. I'm going You know we still had a lot more than our first year that we started Even with just a month of like basically no attendance Bringing the averages down and we continue to see growth year after year after year There and I'm not gonna bore you with the numbers. I actually have them printed out here, but It doesn't matter the the actual exact number Because God's gonna build the church anyways and God can use very few to do a great work But we like to see the growth we want to see God adding more people to our church We want to see that continue we want to see the reaching of the lost not just with the gospel but then helping to Disciple Into becoming a soul winner themselves into serving the Lord to the utmost of their ability Everybody has talents everyone has abilities that God has given you We need to Fashion ourselves and mold ourselves by by getting right with God so he could use us to the best of the abilities He's given us already No I'm not gonna ask everything specifically But how many people in this church is slip up your hand if you've either learned so winning at this church Or you've drastically improved your soul winning here Amen Amen At least half the hands up in this room That's encouraging to me You know that means that means that means there's people growing there's people improving people do it more Okay, that was just so winning. How about this? And again, we don't need to know every specific But if you fall into any one of these categories how many people have made changes in their lives by either reading your Bible more Sowing more getting sin out of your life making positive Life altering decision since you've been attending this church as a result of attending this church Amen Amen You know what praise God Praise God for this church to praise God for all the people who have made those decisions and its impacts to to become better Christians You know what? We're not stopping there though we want to continue to reach people and do more and Continue to learn and continue to grow. Let's rejoice in the Lord and the victories. He's wrought We Also need to take heed lest we fall While we rejoice we take heed we stay humble And you say it's easy to stay humble when we're small, but this is an attitude that we need to maintain Even as if God decides to pour out blessings and we have a huge growth Stay humble Stay humble. Stay the course Keep the same spirit Because when you start getting haughty pride cometh before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall We need to always return to the Lord Who is our stronghold in the day of trouble? We started off in nam chapter 1 and the reason why again is because our church verse is in number 7 And we don't ever want our church to be the object That Gets above the Lord We are a stronghold here and a stronghold is a defense The stronghold is a place that you could go to and and have a defense set up Right and and you can be well protected, but you know what ultimately the Lord is our stronghold And that's why verse 7 says the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in him We want to represent the place where believers can gather together to trust in the Lord Because the Lord is our stronghold we want to have that that physical presence here on earth as a stronghold for people who are zealous for people who believe the Word of God and want to live that life and want to do and serve the Lord hey come To strong old Baptist Church and be part of this stronghold this outpost in this area of the world To serve the Lord, but you know what we never can let that that name or this building or that you know be Getting all the glory. You know what God is the stronghold He's our defender. He's our protector Turn if you would please Ephesians chapter number six We're getting into some of the teaching now and just being strong the Lord we need to be able to Stay the course we need to be able to make sure That as much as God has blessed us as much victories have been won already And we can continue to stay in the fight continue to move forward because the Christian life has its ups and downs and The longer you're in the life the more you're going to see the ups and the downs And the downs are going to make you want to quit We need to stay the course We need to stay be strong in the Lord and get our strength from the Lord and what we're gonna see in Ephesians chapter 6 is the armor of God and One thing I want to point out About the armor of God about how we need to be equipped about how we need to have our strength from the Lord is The whole point of all the armor of God and we're gonna see this mentioned Verse after verse time after time is to be able to stand to be able to stand to be able to stand To be able to stand it's not even to push forward and get on all these attacks and offenses. Just be able to stand Be able to stand be able to stand on the Word of God be able to stand for the truth be able to not be Knocked down and continue progressing slowly forward moving on onward Christian soldiers Steady pace moving forward I Love Zeal I love seeing people get excited, but you always have to just in the back of your mind Be able to understand that you can never maintain You know pedal to the metal full steam ahead all the time of being super sold-out zealous Oh, man, I'm gonna spend this whole I'm gonna take a month off of work And I'm gonna go out every single day and preach the gospel Hey, that's great and God bless you, but you know what there's gonna be a point where you can't keep up an insane pace and You may think man. I've done all this work for God But if you end up quitting and fizzling out because you've just ran yourself completely in the ground You're gonna end up having done way less than someone who has been consistent faithful Day after day week after week month after month year after year putting in your time Just just staying committed and staying strong and keeping your strength and Lord. That's a lifetime That's a marathon It's not just a sprint Keep the end game in mind. We need to yes push ourselves. Yes. I love the challenges Yeah, I want to be able to always try to do some more and get get the most to squeeze the most out as we can to serve God with But don't Jump in expecting all this change and then being able to maintain You know some crazy level, and I hope I'm being I'm kind of not being extremely specific on that But you know what I mean you see people who get really excited and man I'm listening all the preaching every day and all the stuff and everything is is just 24-7 gaga God, which is you know what great, and I'm not I don't want to put a wet blanket on that believe me I don't because I think it's great I think it's wonderful when people get like that But when you do get like that if you come you know if that's where you're at right now just make sure that you're gonna be able to stay in it and When things are forced to slow down a little bit because you're running so fast Don't get out Don't just quit Don't burn out And one of the ways is when we think about the armor of God look at verse number 10 in Ephesians chapter 6 If I was finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might Almighty God we can rest in his might rest in his power and Be strong through the Lord and how are we gonna do that verse 11 put on the whole armor of God That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil because here's the fact When you want to live a righteous life when you just want to live a clean life. I want to do What's right you decide? You know what I want to do? What's right by God I? Want to live the way God would have me to live you know what happens right away? Virtually right away You're gonna run into opposition You're gonna run into temptation. You're gonna run into people who are gonna try to get you not to do that Especially the more history you have not living for God The faster it's gonna be where people are going hey just come on out to the bar with me Hey, just come on do this hey come on to whatever your vice was whatever It was that that was that you've been struggling with and you decide today. You know what no I'm gonna do what's right guess what's coming? Opposition guess what's coming temptation guess what's coming the devil knocking at your door? Because he doesn't want you to live for God So one Be aware of that having that knowledge alone is important because it can help you to prepare Say I know this is gonna come So I need to find my strength in the Lord in the power of his might Pray unto God get on your knees be almost a god help me through this Because I have a lot of temptations. I have a flesh that wants me to draw away from you And God says okay, son. Okay daughter. Here's what you need to do you need to put on the armor, so you're protected Here's what you need to be able to do to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil First 12 explains we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities Against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places. These are these are our battle is It's all around us It's a spiritual battle Spiritual wickedness and it comes from very high places to people who have authority And For this reason the Bible says in verse 13 wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand In the evil day, so we saw in verse 11 that you may be able to stand against wiles of devil We see in verse 13 They may be able to withstand in that evil day and then it mentions again and having done all to stand God just says I want you to be able to stand so you put on this armor so you could stand so you could just Stay there so you don't fall down So you don't stumble you don't trip now if you do stumble and trip get back up again But you know what? God wants you to stand. So let's look at the armor verse 14 again stand there for And here's where he starts listing off the armor having your loins Girt about with truth You got to put on that girdle that belt of the truth. The truth is important You want to you Being able to stand against the opposition against the wiles of the devil you need the truth on your side Because when you're easily deceived when you don't know what's true here comes the devil and trying to tell you oh, well, this is true. Oh Well, that's true, okay, well then I'll go that way You need the truth Thank God. He's given us the truth Jesus is the truth Jesus is the word. We've got the Word of God We've got the Holy Spirit you're born again that can lead you into all truth Get in the word so you can have that truth on your side To help give you the knowledge that you need to be prepared against the attacks of the devil Having your loins girt about with truth having on the breastplate of righteousness Righteousness doing right The more You can improve that breastplate of righteousness the better off you're going to be able to stand right when you're failing at just You know at getting victories over sin At getting victories over sin You're gonna continue it's gonna be harder and harder to stand That makes sense it's gonna be harder and harder to stand when you're when you're when you're not able to start living righteously The more righteousness you add that the the better you're gonna be able to stand Because there's less attacks to come at you. You're you're you're opened up You've got plenty of places to stumble and fall the less righteousness you have The more sinful you are the easier it is to find holes and to be able to bring you down and To get you out of the fight when you're just involved in all kinds of sin So living righteously and having that righteousness is going to help you against the wiles of the devil verse 15 and your feet shod with the Prespiration of the gospel of peace now, why is why is the gospel of peace? You know talking about your feet because we're supposed to go forth and preach the gospel every creature So part of our armor is doing good by serving others. Now you say how is that even a defense How how does that even make any sense Why would why would that preaching gospel of peace other people have anything to do with my defense? Well, it helps eliminate some idle time Bible says, you know walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh When you're doing right when you're walking in the spirit, you're not going out and sinning When you're going forward with the gospel of peace That leaves a lot of other time that you could be out doing bad you're not doing that anymore But then above all verse 16 says taking the shield of faith Wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. So if I was saying here, you know What the wicked are going to be throwing darts at you shooting arrows at you trying to pierce you trying to get you To stop to stop standing to stop standing for the Lord They're gonna try to get you to stop That's why you need the shield of faith Faith is important Because faith is the evidence of things not seen so our whole motivation and and what we're revolving our lives around is Ultimately things that are that are not seen because it's the Word of God. We're trusting that the Lord is There even though we physically don't see God We're putting our trust in God to be our defender so When you're surrounded by the enemy and you can see so many examples in Scripture of this Where Elisha is? surrounded Right by all these enemies Why did they not get the victory over him because he had faith in God he had faith knowing that hey You know what God's my defender. God will see me through this But when you have those lapses in faith when you're not trusting completely in the Lord You know what that's when the victory is going to have an open door to be able to come in and Then you don't get the victory See God's looking for people that are faithful to defend He's not requiring necessarily anything from you other than just hey put your trust in him. He'll show himself strong You Are putting yourself out there in a sense Because you might be out there unprotected physically on your own But the shield of faith it's invisible but it's there and very real I Mean we're trusting that's why salvation is by faith right by grace through faith We're trusting that Jesus died on the cross and Rose again from the dead. No one here saw that no one here witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ But we're trusting in that We've staked our souls on that I'm all-in on Jesus Christ death burial resurrection for me to go to heaven 100% all-in on that So if I'm all-in on that which is something I haven't seen something I haven't personally witnessed How much more is God gonna be able to defend you and protect you and you'll be able to have that shield when you trust In him to win your victories for you to be able to protect you just to be able to defend you Of course he can of course he can but it takes your faith to be able to not get knocked down Because even when things around you seem to be going all sideways and weird and bad and my man There's all these problems happening Maintain that faith because that will protect you God will protect you You Verse 17 and take the helmet of salvation That's important. I mean that protects your head, right? That's that that's a vital area that you'd never want to have exposed that helmet of salvation Without that, I mean you'd be destroyed Obviously we need salvation Extremely important. I'm not gonna spend too much time going into that and Then the sword of the Spirit where the Bible says here which is the Word of God This is the only thing of all the armor here that could even be used as an offensive and as a defensive item right The sword of the Spirit and and what is that? It's the Word of God We need the Word of God. We need faith. We need the helmet of salvation We need the gospel of peace. We need truth. We need righteousness to stand and This is every Christian needs these pieces to be able to continue moving forward To be able to stay in the fight to be able to stand to not get knocked down to not be Backslidden and and get back into the world focus on these things Maintain this so you can continue to stand I Was in verse 18 then praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints and for me That utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel For which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak I'm closing out with this verse because this just highlights it Accentuates what we just read the Apostle Paul is teaching on the armor of God and then informs us. Oh Yeah, by the way, please continue to pray for me. I need your prayers Because I need to continue to speak boldly why because I'm in jail right now. I'm in bonds For preaching the gospel and if you're in a position like that, he said, you know, I'm trying to do what's right I'm trying to preach the gospel. I'm trying to do what's good. And here I am in jail and For people if you don't have the armor of God that could cause you say, you know what? This isn't worth it You know what? I don't like being in jail. I want this to stop. I Don't like being treated this way and if I don't say anything anymore, then maybe I could just go back to a normal life That's what gets people out of the fight You know what I don't like the drama, you know what I don't like people You know coming after me. I don't like people not liking me I don't like being hated by so many people because I'm standing on the Word of God, you know It's easier just not to say anything. I'll just focus on making money. I'll just focus on being comfortable I was focused on doing this and then I could just be happy and Pretend like, you know, well, whatever. I mean people don't want to hear this anyways, and I could tell what is myself whatever lies I want to tell myself You've lost all your armor and don't think child of God That God isn't gonna chase in you and discipline you Don't be deceived into thinking That once you start down that path of serving the Lord That things are just gonna be roses for you if you quit if you stop Because that's why people want to quit because they just think we know I'm tired of all the fighting about you know, what? You are not gonna find the joy and the peace That you long for that you think you don't have because of all the problems Because the fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith That comes from being in the spirit and when you're not walking in the spirit and standing on the Word of God You're not gonna get the fruit of the Spirit The joy the peace these things you can have that while you're being persecuted through your faith and Continue it's not always easy But it's vital and just a minute, I mean what if the Apostle Paul just threw in a towel and called it quits What a shame that would be I Mean talk about someone who has done so much for the cause of Christ humanly speaking Just in this world someone who's who's dedicated his life To preach in the gospel and getting people safe Then how many people would have been affected if one of these times Paul's cast in prison? He says, you know what forget it There's a lot of people that would be Not then having received the same gift that he received We need to stay in it. It's vital turn if you would please a Psalm 62 We need to stay strong we need to be able to stand we need to stay strong in the Lord Psalm 62 You One of the things that's important you don't have to Be a trailblazer and light the whole world on fire through all of your actions. How about you just focus on being able to stand You don't need to find all the fights to fight You start standing on God standing on the Bible the fights will come to you. Don't worry about it If you're if you're just humbly trying to serve the Lord the fights will come They will come You just prepare yourself prepare your defenses get your armor built up to continue to stand Stand for what's right stand for the truth and in our modern culture You know people who do believe the right thing people who are against this filthy Wickedness and vile affections that are going on that are being promoted in the world today They don't know they're not wearing their armor Because nowadays too many people are more concerned about their financial well-being if they actually stand on the word Because they don't have the faith that God will take care of them So they think that oh, I better not say anything because I'll get cancelled. I Better not say anything. I might lose my job. I better not say anything about this wickedness. That's abounding I better not say anything because then people could get mad at me. I Better not say anything else the alphabet animals are gonna come after me and they're gonna target me And they're gonna cause might make my life miserable And the more people Don't stand they stand down You're opening up the door for all the vile wickedness. That's coming into our country and destroying it Because you're unwilling to stand Because you haven't been keeping up. I'm Listening to God you haven't been in the word. You didn't go it up the truth on your loins It's sitting in your closet You got the truth, you know what it says you're not wearing it You're not doing anything with it. You've hung it out to dry And you've stood down Your armor needs to be on you at all times We need to stand Resistance yeah, it's uncomfortable. Yep, it is Welcome to the Christian life. Yeah, the Christian Christ life. Hey, do you think Jesus Christ life was comfortable? Did Jesus live this life on earth to be comfortable to sit in their condition house? watch-tv Eat nice food that Jesus do that No, then why do you think that your life should just be comfortable all the time? He had no home he walked out he stayed up all night praying he walked out he healed people He was helping people He suffered he was lied about People hated him they mocked him. They ridiculed him. They beat him up They spit in his face and they nailed him to a cross you want to call yourself a Christian How about you stand I just stand for what he stood for unto death You're gonna call him your Savior why don't you try walking his footsteps to call yourself a Christian It Doesn't even take very many to make that stand But people need to make the stand Well, I don't want to deal with that Coward Shame shameful Christian You Would to God we had people at the heart of the disciples That said we ought to obey God rather than man I'm not gonna fear what man could do unto me. I'm gonna feel what God could do unto me You Christians today are too scared of no soliciting signs the Apostle Paul was thrown into jail We're supposed to obey the laws the apostle Paul was thrown into jail for preaching the gospel And you're worried about a no soliciting sign Hey God commanded you to preach the gospel to every creature Which is why when we go out and knock on doors and talk to people and preach the gospel because now you're not supposed to Be here. I have permission to be here. I Have permission it's okay God's given me permission to go out and knock on your door. I Do and what greater authority do you have? Confrontation oh so any you better believe it is because that's the way that Jesus did it That's the way he sent his disciples out to do it I'm not gonna pretend to know more than he knows Psalm 62 verse number one. I said truly my soul waiteth upon God from him cometh my salvation He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense. I Shall not be greatly moved when God is our defense when God is our rock when God is our trust when God is our salvation You don't worry about being moved. He says in verse number two. I shall not be greatly moved, but let's keep reading How long will you imagine mischief against a man? You shall be slain all of you as a bowing wall shall ye be and as a tottering fence This is talking about people imagine mischief against him, right? People are devising evil against him and he's saying you know what you're gonna be slain all of you You're gonna be destroyed as a tottering fence verse four they only consult to cast him down from his excellency They delight in lies they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly these are wicked people They're gonna be coming against you if you're living for God Verse five my soul wait thou only upon God for my expectation is from him. This is the attitude we need to have hey I'm gonna wait on you. God. I'm gonna trust in you these people are all they're saying one thing out of their mouth And in their heart they want to destroy Look at verse six he only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense I shall not be moved started from going in verse two. I shall not be greatly moved I shall not be moved in verse six not gonna be moved God's our defense. God is our stronghold Don't be moved. Don't let this world move you Don't let this world silence you and make you back down on stands that God has in the scripture don't back down Rest in God hey God's the one that said it if you're gonna stand for look you're not making the stand for yourself When you stand on God's Word, it's not like well It's me against all these people because you know I have this opinion or whatever look you're standing on what God said If you stand on what God said why wouldn't he defend his words through you? Of course he will You can trust and not be moved because if you're just standing on God's Word You're just the messenger you're just messenger, so we are we're messengers I Didn't come up with all these things I Didn't come up with with God's Morality moral teachings on what's right? What's wrong? I didn't make this stuff up Didn't come out of my own heart I found it in here you found it in here So if you stand on that you can't go wrong You see what's happening this world today and go wait a minute no wait a minute no And then you could stand cuz Here's what it says right here, this is what God had to say about it You're wicked, this is what God said about it stand on that That's a solid foundation to stand on it's his word Turn to Matthew 4 so last place I'll have you look we're almost done We'll close on this on this story because we're gonna see how this plays out in real life See we've saw these verses on having the armor of God we saw Psalm 62 about having the armor of God God being your defense and the whole point is to be able to stand we need to be able to withstand The attacks are gonna come we need to stay strong We need to be able to stand the Bible says in James chapter 4 resist the devil, and he will flee from you So if you're able to stand if you're able to resist if you're able to just keep the armor of God stay protected You know what the attacks are gonna come, but then they're gonna go the attacks are not permanent forever Just continual all the time It's only for a season It's a short period of time they come and they go so when they come don't get so upset and quit Thinking oh, this is never gonna end. This is terrible Stay with it because it will go away it will pass It's gonna come again, but then it's gonna pass You get relief you get breaks God is not gonna allow you to go through anything that you are incapable of handling anyway, so just stay faithful and stay true He'll get you through If you give up thinking that's going to end your problems. It's only going to create more anyways It's better to just stick with it Stay faithful. It'll strengthen your testimony It's gonna strengthen your faith because you're gonna see once you stay through it, and it passes You're actually gonna be edify going wow whoo. I made it through that so then the next time it comes around You're gonna be even stronger Because you're gonna be able to go wow I've been through this already once before I've been through this before I've been through this before And it builds your confidence as you as you see God at work in your life because you don't fail on him because you just stay faithful to God I'm relying on you. I'm gonna you know help me through this and You see it through to the end You get more confidence because you see whoa hey God's Word came true And it's not that it's necessarily a shock or surprising because you have the faith But it's really reassuring to see it be confirmed over and over again And I'll tell you what the longer I live my life and the more experience I get and the more stands I take and the more I see God working The more I love God and the deeper and deeper and deeper respect. I have and the more committed I get Because you just continue to see the truth play out over and over and over again, and it's self confirming like yep Hey, God's right again. Hey the Bible is true again. Yep there. We go. We see this happening There you go Bible's true. It's right funny thing about the truth. It's always true It's great when you could see it So we see the the example of how this plays out about resisting the devil with Jesus Christ himself Matthew chapter 4 we see Jesus in the wilderness. He goes he goes out He's away from everybody. He's out on his own All right, there's no one there supporting him. He's he's gone out in the wilderness And he's fasting so Physically he's going to be in a weakened state physically He's not he's not having regular food raised. He's withholding from himself His body is a little bit is going to be desirous of Eating it's gonna be desirous of fulfilling the lusts that are building up because he's withholding from himself This is the condition that you sin, and this is the moment that Satan uses to try to come in and tempt Jesus Right he's a coming test of not when he's at his strongest He's gonna try to come in at your weakest Satan's gonna come in and try to get you right after you get saved Before you've really started building and growing and getting cemented in your faith and getting plugged in he's gonna try to get you out right away Yeah, I don't want I don't want this person getting just grounded and found in the truth Things are going well for you in your life other Circumstances come up and happen and start causing all kinds of turmoil and confusion you're having problems at work or problems at home That's gonna be the time that he's gonna step in why cuz he's gonna see that you're weaker And try to get you at that moment all the more time to be able to resist Jesus was targeted while he was fasting for 40 days in the desert Look at verse number one about says then was Jesus led up of the Spirit in the wilderness to be tempted to the devil And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungry. So he was hungry Go 40 days 40 nights without eating you'll be hungry And when the tempter came to him, he said if thou be the Son of God command that these stones we made bread So what's the first thing he's tempted him with food? He knows he's hungry. He knows he wants to eat. So say well, hey, hey if you're the Son of God, why don't you just I Mean you could make those breads Make those stones spread if you want to your son of God, right? I mean you've got the power to do that Why don't you just do that? Go ahead prove that your son of God Hey, if you're really a son of God, why don't you just do that? Go ahead eat some bread Testing him he's tempting him Trying to get him to fail trying to get him to break his fast before he's done But he answered and said is written man shall not live by bread alone But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God How does he respond? How does Jesus respond to the temptation? with a verse from the Bible with God's Word with the truth And you know, what's interesting Every attack from Satan is answered with the Word of God and Not just because Jesus is the word but I mean he's saying it is written it is written it is written This is scripture You need to be prepared for the trials for the temptations for the attacks With the Word of God Because when you're being tempted, oh man, you do this you do you that was coming at you with something You can say no That may feel good for a moment That may satisfy some desire I have but no no, it's written. No, I'm not gonna do that. It's written. No. No God said no First five the devil then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and said it amount of pinnacle the temple and said On him if thou be the Son of God cast thyself down for his written He shall give his angels charge concerning thee and in their hands. They shall bear thee up Less than any time thou dashed thy foot against the stone. So now what's the devil doing here? He's trying to use the Bible against him He's trying to get him to sin by using the Bible by taking scriptures out of context by by trying to bring him this and say Oh, well doesn't Bible say this, huh? Go ahead and do it We need to be mindful of that as well Because you know the devil isn't going to come to you with horns and a pitchfork in red and a tail That's Looney Tunes You're watching too many cartoons that's not that's not what the devil looks like the Bible says that the devil is Is an angel of light and That his Devils the other fallen angels are Perceived as angels of light they're gonna look good they're gonna actually be highly desirable to look at and beautiful and They're gonna come at you with that facade with that fake appearance. Why because then when they they're out to destroy That's what the Satan's trying to do. You're trying to destroy Jesus. You're trying to get him to fail But man, he's gonna come at him looking real good. Oh man, but the Bible says this That's why it's incumbent on you to know That's why you need to be in the Bible every day. So you didn't say no no, no, no No, I read I read about that already You can't deceive me The Bible says that the you know, the the slight of men and there's cunning craftiness whereby You know these false prophets and wicked people lie and wait to deceive There's another reason why it's important to go to church You could be being taught doctrine in addition to all the reading you're doing There's people out there that want to deceive you with Scripture False prophets they abound Verse 7 Jesus said unto him it is written again thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God So he answers them again with the Word of God. Hey, no, no, no, no It's written now shalt not tempt the Lord thy God verse 8 again The devil taketh him up into exceeding high mountain and showed him show them all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them And saith unto him all these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me So now he's offering wealth and riches all this worldly goods and treasures Well that you know what that's a common temptation of Christians to Hey Don't worship God worship me You'll get money. You'll get fame. You'll get whatever Deal with the devil This is not the world that we're focused on we're not focused on earthly riches, you know what everything here is gonna burn up It's a fool's game to think that oh, well, I'll just Do this and then everything will be great in my life. Look it's all gonna be gone We need to be eternally minded There's a new Jerusalem. There's gonna be a new heaven a new earth And there's rewards that are gonna be given that have eternal value from God Do you want the devil's riches or do you want God's riches? Devil's riches don't last they'll be taken away. It's gonna last you a moment And what do you sacrifice to give those? Jesus answered verse 10 then said Jesus unto him get thee hence Satan for is written again now shall worship the Lord thy God And him only shalt thou serve Get away from me What your stinking riches the Bible says look I'm only gonna worship the Lord. I'm gonna worship you Then let me what says verse 11 then the devil leaveth him and behold angels came and ministered unto him Three times Devil's coming. He's tempting. He's tempting. He's tempting. You know what? It wasn't a hundred and three times It wasn't this all the time temptation. Just just beating him down To not be able to withstand. No, he resisted he resisted he resisted devil left Because the devil sees okay, he keeps resisting. I'm not gonna waste my time in here I'm gonna go and try to find someone else who's not as strong Be strong in the Lord Resist the devil. He'll flee from you get the armor on It may seem difficult while you're going through it have the faith to know. Hey, this will pass this will end stay with it Those temptations will stop for a while. Now. You know what? The devil will come back He'll try again Be ready for it. But the next time he comes back you'll be a little bit stronger because once you've resisted It Builds up some courage right it gives you experience helps, you know, it's not so bad. I Made it through that and any bad traumatic event you end up going through While you still remember that was bad when you make it through it, you know, you know what that really wasn't all that bad It wasn't as bad as I thought it was at the time you come out the other end Even in horrible situations you have a different hindsight view than when you're right in the middle of it Which helps you going forward at this point in my life. Just one quick example. I brought this up before You know the thoughts of losing a job When you have a family to support is a real threat. It's a concern It could cause anxiety it could cause you to be nervous right? What am I going to do? I need to provide for my family But if you're if you're losing your job not because you're some you know Horrible employee and you're not doing your job and you're lazy You're not working look not but but if you're standing on the word of God and you're worried about oh, man These saw mines are gonna come and they're gonna make me lose my job Look you stay faithful to God and he'll and he'll be faithful to you Why was it see keepers the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you God will provide for you. God will make a way And I would say test him on that if you if you are attacked and you need to make a stand Stand with God and he will see you through I I've had that decision and I am glad and Thankful that I didn't fail During that time of temptation even when I did get lose my job for my beliefs You know what God did God blessed me for that It's entirely capable of happening again I'd almost be surprised if it didn't happen again in the world that we live in today You know what now I'm even more emboldened Not only you know I made my decisions because I was having faith in the Word of God saying I know I know what the Bible says this That's why I made a decision I made Having the faith not having gone through it before the first time and saying no this is right. I'm staying with it It Was uncomfortable it was stressful then you got to try to find work. What am I going to do? We don't have that much money with it Well, just keep doing get to work find something God leads God provides. Thank you God You go through that process Guess what next time? Go ahead fire me. I don't care whatever I Mean obviously there's still gonna be some you know stress and in whatever I'm gonna deal with it But now I've already God's already proven himself. He's already shown himself Not that he has to because I already believe it, but you go through it. It's just like okay fine bring it on I Don't know where I would find work again, but I'm not gonna worry about it. Well. It's gonna be harder I mean the more times you lose your job the harder screen get to find one Yeah, maybe but you know what if God's looking out for me. I got nothing to worry about Remember that Remember that more important stand this life is short And at the end of the day we are so stinking rich Overall In this country with the blessings that that abound I mean, I don't know how long we could probably go who knows how long without having some some income if you continue serving Lord Okay, maybe I wouldn't have the nice house So what? Maybe I wouldn't have an extra vehicle So what if God sees fit to put me in that spot, then you know what praise God What did job do when he lost all of his worth earthly goods and his children? Blessed be the name Lord hey the Lord given Lord taken away blessed be the name of the Lord and then what did God do? God blessed him in the end didn't he he doubled everything. He got a double portion Why because he stayed faithful Hard times came and Through no fault of job. They came the devil attacked him You stand for God the devil might attack you too No, the devil will attack you too That might and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution Prepare for it Prepare for it be ready for it. Don't fall stay strong in the Lord. Hey come to church We'll help you through that. We'll help encourage you because other people have already been through it You start to face persecution from family members. Oh, you're part of a cult. Oh, you're going out and talking people. That's crazy You're going out and talking people that's crazy and they want to bring you down and make you stop Come to church we've been through it. I've been through it before I Could offer you some comfort I'll help you out plenty of other people here have to it's amazing to me There's many people I hear stories about from years ago and they bring up the same thing You're like wow, I didn't even know that was going on You know because they didn't make mention of it, but people silently go through their own Trials at home, you know what we're here to encourage you keep you motivated We can maintain the path we're on I Am confident that God is going to continue to build and grow and work because you know what God's looking for people to use God's looking for it You don't have to be the most talented person in the world you just have to be willing God will turn you into who he wants you to be And how he wants to use you just be willing show up As far as that word of prayer dear heavenly father, they'll be thank you so much For all that you do for us Lord. Thank you for this church. Thank you for the people here. God. Thank you just Thank you, Lord we ask you to Help all of us individually Lord help us with our struggles Help us to stay strong help us to Daily make improvements and to try to get closer To you to the way you'd have us to be Lord open up our minds help us to understand good doctrine Help us to receive knowledge or to help us to to work and make the changes in our life to be able to be more Christ-minded and mindful of the lost and and Desirous to do your will and to do your work God We're here because we love you God bless this church help us to have a Stronger church have more unity dear Lord to really be like a well-oiled machine like a fully functional body That is the body of Christ right here where you're at the head directing our steps dear Lord You're directing our paths. We're looking to you God. Thank you. Thank you for all you've done for us in Jesus name We pray amen