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Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Good evening, everyone. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. You can grab your hymnals and open up the song 174. Song 174, My Jesus, I Love Thee. Song 174. On the first. My Jesus, I love Thee I know Thou art mine For Thee all the fall The sin I resign My gracious Redeemer My Savior My Savior art Thou If ever I love Thee My Jesus is now I love Thee because Thou hast first loved me And purchased my part On Calvary Street I love Thee for bearing The doors on Thy ground If ever I love Thee My Jesus is now I love Thee in My heart I love Thee in death Embrace Thee As long as Thou leadth me there And save me from the dead To my soul on my path If ever I love Thee My Jesus is found on the land in mansions of glory and endless delight. I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright. I'll see with the glittering crown on my crown. In heaven I love, my Jesus is found. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. I'm going to set this up here for right now. And if you open up to the first page, you will see our service times. Sunday morning at 1030, Sunday evening at 5 p.m. Of course, there's a misprint in the bulletin there. It says 4. It's supposed to be 5 p.m. I had to recreate from an old bulletin and I overlooked that. So it is 5 p.m. of course. You're here right now. So you should be well aware of that. Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study. We're going to be in Hebrews chapter 13 this week. The soul winning opportunities are listed there as well as the salvation and baptism for month of November as well as for the year. Well, let's go ahead and count up any salvations to report. Brother Brian, do you mind taking over the sound? Brother Mike has had to drop someone off and come back. So if you could take that over, I'd appreciate that. Any salvations for today to report? If you got someone saved, slip your hand up real high and make sure you get that counted. Okay, 2, 1, 1, 2. One over here. Amen. Anyone I miss? Great. Good job. Seven salvations for the day. Sounds awesome. Good job. Going out there, braving this cold. It feels like winter today. I mean, we were literally just out yesterday. It was like summer. It was like beautiful, warm, sunny. God like stopped the rain and then it was sunny and then it was like raining on the way back home. But like it was perfect while we were out there. And then today it's like a little chilly. But that's all right. We can handle that. So good job out there. Is there any other numbers to report? Any salvations to report that I missed from earlier in the week? I got yours from yesterday that you put in the group. And then, cool. All right. Well, very good. Keep up the good work. Preaching the gospel. Offering tolls by the page. It's not through January. We're not to January yet. This is through November. We didn't really have anything new to update on the prayer request other than we're adding Brother Lindsay to the prayer list. So if you weren't here this morning. And if you don't have one of our prayer lists from last week, let me know. I could get one to you. We'll have them again next week. Or I should have them by Wednesday as well. But my computer that has everything on it is fried and is getting the parts it needs tomorrow. So I should be back up and running with everything like normal. After tomorrow is just really bad timing. And it is what it is. But the good news is the Smiths had a baby actually. Brother Steven updated. I saw on WhatsApp earlier. Ah, there's a name now. Gabriella. Gabriella Grace Smith. Seven pounds, fourteen ounces. Twenty and a half inches-ish. So congratulations Smith family. And praise the Lord for answering prayers and bringing that baby safely into this world. So that was about all the updates. Brother Lindsay got in a car accident. Broke his sternum. So please pray for a quick recovery for him and that everything could go well with getting his vehicle repaired and things like that. So please be in prayer for him. It's very painful. And then we also have these from the retirement home. I could read at least one of his names. So Emma Norman. For a better relationship with her and her daughter. And just overall asking for a better relationship with the job, with everything. And then there's an unnamed prayer for protection over them and their family and their home. And then, excuse me, a thanks for all of your blessings. People there are very appreciative that we come in and that we minister to them. And if you're unaware of what we do, we go and preach a little service. It's like a little service. It's not a full church service. It's kind of a mini church service. We do sing a few songs and get some preaching to them and then get a chance to spend ministering to the people there, talking to them, getting to know them, praying for them, and soul winning too. So anyone who's not saved trying to show them how to be saved from the Bible. So it's a really good ministry there. And unlike some other nursing homes where people can have various states of their mental capacity, this place is just a retirement facility. So everyone there is pretty well capable in their minds, for sure, to be able to understand. So it's a very good opportunity to reach people and try to help them where they are. So it's a great ministry there. Did you preach today there? And then the next time is going to be the... The first Sunday of the month. Okay, so we do have a preacher going out there. Or no, the... Okay. So you said that the administrator was going to be... The second Sunday of next month. Of December? Yes. Okay. So we have one more this month. Yes, sir. Okay. Cool. Very good. And then Columbia, South Carolina, soul winning, as I was mentioning earlier. Great, beautiful weather. Great results. A lot of people talked to us. A lot of people were receptive. Besides the 39 people that put their trust in Jesus Christ as their savior, we did talk to a bunch of other people as well. There was lots of people talking. At least where I was, that was the case. There was a lot of conversations in general. So praise the Lord for that. And 43 people showed up. Great, great success. November challenge, Bible memory. So the challenge for November is memorize any 25 verses. The Bible we've never memorized before. What I'm talking about never memorized before, just for clarity. I mean, you actually put forth an effort to say, hey, I'm going to memorize this passage. Obviously, there's different verses that you might kind of know already from hearing him preach a lot or going over stuff a lot. But if you have never actively just tried to memorize it, that's what I'm talking about. Don't worry about getting too caught up in the rules. We're very forgiving to a point. But obviously, you have to have things memorized. You have to be able to quote 25 verses. It has to be word perfect. You've got to do that very well. So we don't allow for, well, you missed a word. No, you've got to get them all. So just make sure if you're checking someone else's work, and I understand, man, they might have put a lot of time and effort into something, but you have to have it all memorized correctly. So don't be giving in and going, okay, well, that's good enough. Not good enough. Get it right. That's how we do the Bible memory here in order to get the prize. And we're halfway through the month of November. Hopefully you've got at least 10 verses down already. Otherwise, you've got a lot of work to catch up to get those 25 verses for the month. Hebrews 5, we've got two weeks left to finish memorizing Hebrews 5. If you could quote that word perfect, you get a prize for that. We've got the upcoming birthdays there for the rest of the month of November. And then the field trips, homeschool field trip, Stone Mountain, Monday, November 21st. Are you settled on that time for meetup? Yes, 11 a.m.? 11 a.m. is the meetup time. There are three vehicles that are large capacity passenger vans that have your name on a list. So Logan family, Taylor family, our family, we have large vans. So you don't need a parking pass for that. You just tell them, what do you tell them? You're a Strong Old Baptist Church van, and they'll have a special place for you to park. And that's pretty cool. So it's one of those things. It's like we've got buses, right? So passenger vans, it's like we've got a bus. So you get to park where all the buses park. And it saves the church money because we don't have to pay for a parking pass for that. So it works out perfect. And then everyone else, I think you said we didn't actually purchase the parking passes yet. But we'll have them. Okay. You're waiting on more information to see how that's going to work out. Okay. But as always, everything that we do, all of our activities are free of charge to you. But we do like this one, just ask that you can let us know you're coming. We bought the tickets for these already. So it should be a lot of fun. And then the gingerbread house making activity is going to be an early, late morning, early afternoon. On the 10th, it's a Saturday. And then Christmas caroling is going to be later on in the late afternoon, early evening. So that should be a lot of fun. Potluck on Christmas Day service in between the church services. Right after the potluck, we'll hold our evening service. And then the New Year's Eve fellowship on Saturday, December 31st, is going to be from 2 to 7 p.m. So come on out for that and join us. Play a lot of games, have a good time. And I'm okay if people want to stick around later on that Saturday, as long as someone's willing to lock up and make sure that the place is clean enough for church service on Sunday morning. You stay as late as you want and hang out. But I'm not going to be here that late on Saturday. That's why I put the time in the way that I did. So you want to stay up and do whatever, you know, hang out, fine with me. I think that's about it for the announcements. Nothing new to report on the place next door. I need to send an email out and see where they're at. The last I heard, they're getting permits from the city. So once they get the permits, it's about a week before they're going to get, their crew is going to be able to do the work. It's just a matter of coordinating with the framing, with the demo people and the framing and the work that they're going to do so that we have as little impact to our services as possible so that when they come in and do the work, they can get it done, get it cleaned up and try to have everything presentable when we hold service again on that next Sunday. So I know they're going to spend some time coordinating with the different crews to make sure all the work can be done because they're going to have, we need some electrical rerouting and some other things going on. So any case, as soon as I know more about that, I'll let you all know. And that is it for our announcements. So turn the service back over, Brother Peter will lead us in our next song. Church, if you could open up your hymnals, song number 406. Song 406. Who is on the Lord's side? Song 406. On the first. Who is on the Lord's side? Who will serve the King? Who will be his helpers, others wise to bring? Who will lead the world's side? Who will face the flow? Who is on the Lord's side? Who for him will love? I thy call of mercy, I thy grace be mine. We are on the Lord's side. Stay where we are blind, Not for weight of glory, Not for crown and paw. Intervene of army, Raise the warrior's song, But for love hath claimed him, Lies for whom he died. In whom Jesus' name it must be on his side. I thy love constrain me, I thy grace be mine. We are on the Lord's side, Stay where we are blind. Jesus thou hast bought us, Not with gold or tear, But with thine own life blood For thine eye adare. With thy blessing failing, Each who comes to thee, Thou hast made us willing, Thou hast made us free. I thy great redemption, I thy grace be mine. We are on the Lord's side, Stay where we are blind. This may be the conflict, Strong may be the foe, But the king's own army, One can overthrow. Round his spandrel raging, Miserious adore. For his truth of changing, Makes the triumph sure. Joyfully enlisting, I thy grace be mine. We are on the Lord's side, Stay where we are blind. Amen. Church, great singing. At this time, we would like to extend our evening offering. Church, while the offering plate is being passed around, if you could please open up your Bibles, to chapter two. That was the book of Numbers, chapter two, and as we do customary here at Strong Home Baptist Church, we're going to read the entire chapter as Brother Devon. If you can please do that for us. That was Numbers, chapter two. And those that do pitch next unto him shall be the tribe of Issachar. And Nathaniel, the son of Zoar, shall be captain of the children of Issachar. And his host and those that were numbered thereof were 50 and 4,400. Then the tribe of Zebulun in Eliab, the son of Helen, shall be captain of the children of Zebulun. And his host and those that do pitch next unto him shall be the tribe of Issachar. And Nathaniel, the son of Zoar, shall be captain of the children of Issachar. And Nathaniel, the son of Zebulun. And his host and those that were numbered thereof were 50 and 7,400. All that were numbered in the camp of Judah were in 100,000 and four-score thousand and six thousand and four hundred, throughout their armies. These shall first set forth. On the south side shall be the standard of the camp of Reuben, according to their armies. And the captain of the children of Reuben shall be Eliezer, the son of Shidur. And his host and those that were numbered thereof were 40 and 6,500. Those which pitch by him shall be the tribe of Simeon. And the captain of the children of Simeon shall be Shilomel, the son of Zerushaddai. And his host and those that were numbered of them were 50 and 9,300. Then the tribe of Gad and the captain of the sons of Gad shall be Eliasaph, the son of Reuel. And his host and those that were numbered of them were 40 and 5,650. All that were numbered in the camp of Reuben were in 100,000 and 50 and 1,450, throughout their armies. And they shall set forth in the second rank. Then the tabernacle of the congregation shall set forward with the camp of the Levites. In the midst of the camp, as they encamp, so shall they set forward, every man in his place by their standards. On the west side shall be the standard of the camp of Ephraim, according to their armies. And the captain of the sons of Ephraim shall be Elishama, the son of Amahad and his host. And those that were numbered of them were 40,500. And by him shall be the tribe of Manasseh. And the captain of the children of Manasseh shall be Gamaliel, the son of Pedahazer. And his host and those that were numbered of them were 30 and 2,200. Then the tribe of Benjamin and the captain of the sons of Benjamin shall be Abidin, the son of Gideoni. And his host and those that were numbered of them were 30 and 5,400. All that were numbered of the camp of Ephraim were 100,000 and 8,000 and 100 throughout their armies. And they shall go forward in the third rank. The standard of the camp of Dan shall be on the north side by their armies. And the captain of the children of Dan shall be Ahazur, the son of Amishadeh and his host. And those that were numbered of them were 44 and 2,700. And those that encamped by him shall be the tribe of Asher. And the captain of the children of Asher shall be Pagael, the son of Akram and his host. And those that were numbered of them were 40 and 1,500. Then the tribe of Naphtali and the captain of the children of Naphtali shall be Ahira, the son of Enan and his host. And those that were numbered of them were 50 and 3,400. All they that were numbered in the camp of Dan were 100,000 and 50 and 7,600. They shall go hindmost with their standards. These are those which were numbered of the children of Israel by the house of their fathers. All those that were numbered of the camps throughout their hosts were 600,000 and 3,550. But the Levites were not numbered among the children of Israel as the Lord commanded Moses. And the children of Israel did according to all that the Lord commanded Moses. So they pitched by their standards and so they set forward everyone after their families according to the house of their fathers. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this church and for an opportunity to hear good preaching tonight. And I pray that you would bless the sermon now and fill Pastor Burzins with your spirit. Help us all to have open ears to hear the message and apply it to our lives and to minimize distractions for us as we try to learn. And in Jesus' name I pray, Amen. Sorry to do that to you brother Devin. People get caught reading. You hear the book of Numbers and you're like, oh man, what do I got to read? You get to read a bunch of names and try to pronounce all the names. You did a good job. It wasn't 1 Chronicles, that's right. You still get a lot of different names and counting going on there. So why in the world did we read this passage tonight, Pastor Burzins? Well, because we're going to preach the whole council of God. So Numbers chapter 2 is in the Bible and actually just real briefly, one of the things we see here is the children of Israel getting ready for war and it's just describing how they're set up and it describes saying there in verse number 1, it says the Lord spake unto Moses and Aaron saying, and we're starting off with that because we want to understand, hey, God is telling them and instructing them to do this. He's instructing them how to set up and what to do. The Bible says in verse 2, every man of the children of Israel shall pitch by his own standard. And some people may not know what that word, what does that even mean? Because when we think of standards, you think of like dress standards or some standards that you have to hold yourself to when you work or something like that, but when the Bible is talking about pitching by his own standard, it says with the end sign of their father's house, the standard is like a flag. The standard is a banner that's going to be lifted up in the area where each of the tribes are going to be, where their location is, right? So they've got their camp of all the children of Israel and they're going to have the tabernacle in the midst with all the people surrounding and when they get ready for battle, they get ready for war, they're going to be different people set up with these end signs lifted up so that one, everyone knows where to go, right? So there's no confusion, people can identify and say, oh yeah, this is my place right over here because that's the symbol, that's the emblem, that's where I belong is with this group. Now, you'll also notice that they are coordinated and they're separated and grouped based on their family, their father's house. So it says by his own standard with the end sign of their father's house. This isn't as common anymore. This is something that has been through history for a very, very long time where households would have some type of signet, a symbol that would represent who they are. It represents their family. It's an icon, it's iconic of whatever they want to put forward that their house is about or that's representative of them in some type of symbolism, right? And that is, you know, sort of who they are, it's something that a whole group of people can get behind and join themselves to a cause. And that's, you know, in a more broad sense outside of an end sign for a household, that's how people use flags, right? That's how we use banners. That's why countries have flags. It's supposed to bring the people of the country together behind one idea, behind one symbol that's representative of who you are. You know, in the United States of America we've got the American flag that's got the 50 stars, right? And each star represents one of the states of the union. And you've got the bars, right? You've got the red and white stripes and kids. Elizabeth, what does that mean? The stripes? Come on, how many are there? 13, there you go. Alright, someone knows a little something. You studied this. I saw in your work, you're like, what are you talking about, Dad? We'll talk about this later. The 13 stripes, right, to symbolize the colonies prior to the United States becoming a nation. And there's different flags and different symbols that are representative of things. I don't normally do this, but I have my own flag that I purchased a while back that I like because I like what it represents. So people often times will do this. They like to raise flags that they feel is representative of what they believe, right? Now look, this has nothing to do with Christianity, per se, right? But it's a mindset. I think everyone, I mean, this is a pretty easy symbol to understand what this means, which is one of the reasons why I like it a lot. I'll read a little blurb for you about this, but I'm trying to give you an image, right? When the Bible's saying that the children of Israel were going by their standard, they're going by their ensign, they're going to be looking for the flag of their father's house that's set up in their camp and know where they belong. And whether it's a flag like this or some other symbol, some other icon, it's kind of going to be what their family stands for, what represents them, and people choose that. I chose this to have in my house because I like it. I said, hey, don't tread on me. Don't mess with me, right? I'm going to keep to myself. I don't want to bother anybody. I don't want to, you know, just, I'm going to do my thing over here, but don't come near me because I might bite. Right? I mean, that's the snake. And I'll read the little blurb about this. This is just off Wikipedia, you know, it's not like it's necessarily super authoritative, but it does a good job of doing a real trick, because there's no point in going deeper than this. It's called the Gadsden flag. So it's based off of the person who created the flag in early historical American, it says here, the Gadsden flag is a historical American flag with a yellow field depicting a timber rattlesnake coiled and ready to strike. Beneath the rattlesnake are the words, don't tread on me. So that's what I just showed you right there. The flag is named after a politician, Christopher Gadsden, who lived from 1724 to 1805. So he's revolutionary era, right? That's when he lived. It says who designed it in 1775, so if you know your history, 1776 is when the Revolutionary War kicked off. So in 1775 he created this flag, it says who designed it in 1775 during the American Revolution, it was used by the Continental Marines as an early motto flag. So this was the standard, this was the flag that was created for the early Marine Corps, the Continental Marines, the Continental Army, way back to the Continental Marines, right? It's not the Army, it's a separate branch. Continental Marines, forgive me, all the vets that I'm slipping and saying the wrong thing, you know what I mean though. Continental Marines as an early motto flag along with the Moultrie flag. It's design proclaims an assertive warning of vigilance and willingness to act in defense against coercion, right? It's I'm vigilant, I'm watching you, I don't want to cause any trouble, but at the same time just stay away from me, back off. And that's what snakes do. Snakes will defend their territory, they just want to stay there, leave me alone, they rattle, they warn you, they'll let you know, hey don't come close to me. That's that warning sign with the rattle, but if you do, if you overstep your bounds and get into their territory, they're going to strike. Very simple design, very simple design. Says this is led to be associated with the ideas of individualism and liberty and it's often used in the United States as a symbol for right libertarianism and then it goes into this other classical liberalism, small government, distrust and defiance against authorities, amen, amen, amen. That's what I say. Anyways, that's my little prop. We got one more a little bit later. But I just wanted you to understand, so when you're reading about the standard, you're reading about the end sign, they would have these all around representative and why am I even going into detail about this? Well, we may not have these symbols for ourselves. You may not have a symbol to lift up on a flag. But you ought to stand for something. And when we're talking about your household especially, because this is how they gathered themselves, this is how the troops were rallied in the nation of Israel, they joined up with their tribe, with their family and they all got behind their flag and they would all be able to join together and come together under that common cause. Ultimately, all of them were united in service to the Lord. It was supposed to be the ideal of what they were fighting for at the end of the day, but each one underneath the big umbrella of fighting for the Lord had their own households and their own families that they had their own identity within that larger group. We've got an identity here at Stronghold Baptist Church as a church and then even below that, your own individual families, what are your values, what's important to you. You ought to think about those things. What is the end sign for your house? Again, it doesn't have to be some specific picture or image, but what do you stand for? What are you going to teach your children? What is it that you want to continue through your family with your family name? Are the values, what are the things that you hold dear that you want to rally your whole family around and behind? That's what I love in Joshua 24. Turn if you would to Psalm 60. Joshua 24, 14, very famous passage, that we're on the other side of the flood of the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. Joshua made the decision, he's like, you know what I'm doing, you know what my family's doing? We're serving the Lord. He set that standard up, he set that banner up and said, our house is dedicated to the service of the Lord. That's what we're doing. You do what you want to do, you can set up your own banner, you can do what you want to do in your house, but we're serving the Lord. That's what we do in my family, that's what we do in my household. God has a banner for you, for us. Psalm 60, verse number 1, the Bible says, O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased, O turn thyself to us again. Thou hast made the earth to tremble, thou hast broken it, heal the breaches thereof, for it shaketh. Thou hast showed thy people hard things, thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. So these are all things of the people who are coming back to God with a repentant heart, right? They've been punished, they've experienced the chastisement of the Lord, and they're trying to come back to God and treat him. And then in verse 4 it says, thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee. Now we all ought to fear God, right? But those that are going to serve God and fear him, it says, you've given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth, Selah. So he's saying, God has given you a banner. Hey, those that fear God, those that want to serve him, those that care about his commandments and care about what he said, he's given you a banner. He hasn't given you a banner to just hide it in your house, to stuff it away, to let nobody know that God's given you a banner, that God's given you a cause, that God's given you something to fight for. Don't just tuck it away and hide it like my flag that I liked so much has been sitting in my garage on my workbench just shoved away to tell my wife where to find it, she didn't even know. Now is it because I'm ashamed of it? No, but because this, I got this when I was way more politically motivated and cared a lot about the libertarian, right-wakes-up, whatever, I don't care about that stuff so much anymore. It doesn't mean I don't think the same way, but you know what my standard is now? It's not exactly the same as this. It's not. I like some of the sentiments of that, but I don't want to scare people off to approaching my house or something. I want to be able to talk to people and give them the gospel. Don't try it on me. Yeah, we're evil-doers and wicked-doers. Yeah, stay away. Back off, right? People want to cause harm, but everyone else, there's a different motivation, there's a different mindset that I have for my house, and I want to use that banner that God has for us, for those that fear him, that it may be displayed because of the truth. We need to lift a banner of truth because there's lots of other banners that are flying out there in this world that represent all kinds of different things. Some relatively benign, but some extremely wicked. And in a day where people are trying to put forth their banners and their ideas and their philosophies and what they want to do, hey, we need to be standing for the truth and putting forth the banner of righteousness, the banner of the Lord, the banner of the word of God. We need to decide what do we stand for. We need to choose the side and understand, hey, there is a battle going on. These standards are raised in a time of war so that everyone knows what the side is, right? In physical conflict here, just like in these days in the Bible when people go to fight, you think of navy ships, what do they do? They raise the flag. Whose team are you on? Who are you fighting for? American ships are going to be sailing that American flag as they go off to war. This is who we are. No one's hiding. Sometimes people do, those are the false flags. They raise up the false flag of someone else to try to pit the blame or get some other political motivation. That's a sermon for another day. I'm not going to get into false flags. We're talking about standing up for your flag, for who you are, being upfront, being honest. Look, we're not, as God's people, trying to pretend we're somebody else. And hopefully you're not, right? Too many Christians already do that. Too many Christians put on the front. Too many Christians show up to church and they're one person and then they go home and then they go out in the world and then they do everything else and they're a different person. Who are you? What do you stand for? Are you willing to wave that banner for the Lord all day long here in church and then hide it away for the rest of the week? Think about that. The war that's going on right now, it doesn't stop, it's not only engaging on Sundays. Sundays is like you're retreating to the stronghold, right? You're getting ready for the real battle that's out there. This isn't the fight. This is the training grounds, this is the recuperation, this is the preparation to go out for the real fight. And look, before anyone is going to take this out of context, it's a spiritual fight. Yes, I've got a Gadsden flag. And you know I've got the other one, come and take it, okay? The Molan Labe. But I'm not talking about taking out guns and armaments and going and shooting or doing anything like that with physical weapons of warfare. Because that's not what the Bible's teaching us to do. In Ephesians chapter 6 the Bible says in verse 10, finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and the power of his might, put on the whole armor of God they may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil for we wrestle not against flesh and blood. It's not the physical fight. It's not a flesh and blood warfare. But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. Guess what, the armor isn't also physical armor too. Because he goes on to describe what the armor is. Right, the weapon, the sword isn't a physical sword. It's the word of God. I mean it's physical in the sense that, yeah, it's the word of God but it's not a blade. We're not cutting flesh. We're not putting on like a literal metal helmet. We're not putting on a Kevlar jacket or whatever, you know. Hey, you want to wear a bulletproof vest, be my guest. But that's not the armor of God that the Bible's talking about. Okay. It's not against flesh and blood, it's against principalities, against powers. But we are in that spiritual battle. And this battle is raging, this battle is going on. The battle for the principalities and the powers, the battle of what is righteous and what we should be standing for and putting a difference between wickedness and righteousness and how we ought to be living and what should be tolerated and what should not be tolerated and the type of world that we're going to live in and raise our children in. That's at stake. Turn over to Matthew chapter 10. I'll read for you from 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 1, again along the military mindset. The Bible says, thou therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus and the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who should be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. He's likening Timothy to a good soldier. No man that warreth and tangleth himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. He's a soldier in a spiritual battle, spiritual warfare going on. You need to identify who you are. What are you fighting for? Who do you fight for? Make sure that's clear. There should be no doubt about that. Matthew 10 verse 22 the Bible says and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake but he that endureth to the end shall be saved but when they persecute you in this city flee ye into another for verily I say unto you you shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the son of man become the disciples not above his master nor the servant above his lord it is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as his lord. They have called the master of the house Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his household. Fear them not therefore for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known. What I tell you in darkness look at this that speak ye in light and what ye hear in the ear that preach ye upon the housetops. God doesn't want you hiding anything about what he's teaching you about about his word about what's right. Hey if you learn it you could you might you might learn it in secret it might be real quiet no one else might be around it might just be you before you go to bed reading your Bible all of a sudden God's showing you something you learn some truth just because you learn that quietly secretly he's saying don't keep that a secret you need to spread that forth on the housetops. Shout make sure people hear it make sure they know that great light of the word of God that lamp to light our feet hey people need that. Raise that standard up high lift that banner for the Lord up so that everybody can see it and everybody knows where you stand and you've got a cause here's the thing when you start to raise those banners high you know what you're going to do you're going to encourage others to follow because when people can see very clearly there's no doubt there's it's not muddied up you're not going I don't really know what they stand for when people stand up and no one really knows what you stand for you're not going to get very many people to follow you and go along with you and join your cause I think this is one of the reasons why new IP churches have been growing and growing and growing so much because we're not hiding what we believe at all we're trying our best to get the word out there to preach the word of God to preach the whole counsel of God and make sure everybody knows it any opportunity you get to put that out there to put the doctrines out there to put the good word out there we're going to try and do it we're going to lift that banner up high and we don't have some really confusing emblems and people are looking at it going like I have no idea what that means it's real simple just like the flag that I threw up that's real simple you can see what that you can see the snake you can see what it says hey I get it the gospel of Jesus Christ it's simple the word of God the Holy Bible hey it's simple it is man makes it really complicated churches false prophets lots of people make it really complicated but it's not that complicated when you just accept it for what it says say oh yeah that is what it says well that's what we believe great so this you know what our standard is we're going to hold it up high we're going to lift it up hey who wants to follow this not bits and pieces not cherry picking who wants to follow this amen this is what we stand for this is what we believe but what about here yes what about over here yes yes yes all of it this is what we believe go ahead ask me about another place yes even Leviticus yes even Deuteronomy yes especially Deuteronomy all of it Matthew Mark Luke Revelation Genesis Nahum I'll get the comment Nahum's not a book of the Bible we've already had that before yes it is Nahum it kind of has something to do with our church Turn if you would please to Jeremiah chapter 50 I didn't read that last verse in Matthew 10 he says and fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear in which is able to destroy both soul and body and hell we stand in the word of God regardless of what other people might think because what happens when you raise that flag up high when you raise up that banner not everyone's gonna agree with that some people are gonna go wait you what you believe what you're not gonna like that which is the whole reason why there's a lot of people not raising up that banner very high even though it is something they might be able to get behind they don't want to be the ones lifting it up hey there's a lot of people who aren't willing to lift it up you know what that's why we're gonna lift that banner up real high and we're gonna try to encourage those that maybe they weren't ready to lift that banner up real high hey come on and join us here's our banner here it is we're moving forward with this and maybe you feel a little more comfortable coming around where there's more people and you can be around other people who think the same way and believe the same way yeah we'll help you so you're not afraid anymore to say what you believe join our ranks Jeremiah chapter 50 I've got to get there myself there's a lot in Jeremiah 50 that I want to cover so I don't even have it in my notes this is the last place I plan on turning to very relevant to everything I want to express this evening look at verse number 1 the Bible says the word that the Lord spake against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet now keep in mind as we're reading this we're reading about Babylon that existed back then but there are many similarities and I would say even prophecies of a future Babylon to come okay and whether or not the United States is the Babylon of revelation remains to be seen fully I believe it is okay either way the country we live in right now has many many many similarities of the Babylon of the Bible okay so whether or not it technically 100% is doesn't matter because we're falling into this category anyways when you look at the way that Babylon is the way that it acts the promotion of the wickedness and the evil look this is where we are so we're going to apply what we're reading here to modern day appropriately again in Babylon you're going to see physical fighting I've already read the verse that says we're in a spiritual war we're not physical Babylon it's spiritual Babylon okay first two declare you among the nations and publish and set up a say now before I even continue I just want to say this too when I say this stuff maybe I shouldn't even do it so much it's for people watching videos online I know I don't have to say this to you who are sitting here because you already know that it's the nut jobs online that want to try to to spin everything that you say oh I'm afraid for my safety because I think they're going to come after me and all those others you know like no I mean that's what they would do in the steadfast but steadfast by the church is like our church we're not making these plans and plotting to go and like I'm just waiting for someone to put into action from their church to come out and kill look no one's going to do that that's not what we teach and believe and we say this till we're blue in the face but you know what doesn't matter because people want to tear you down because they don't like what you're saying at all and hey for the homos for good reason the sodomites there is a good reason you shouldn't you know you're not going to like what the bible says because it's not a very good judgment for you let's keep reading verse number two declare you among the nations and publish and set up a standard set up a standard that's what we're talking about that banner lifting up that standard publish and conceal not don't hide it lift that standard up hide don't hide what you're all about say Babylon has taken Bela's confounded Merodach is broken in pieces her idols are confounded her images are broken in pieces amen the lord's gone through and destroyed all the wicked places and cities and idols and false gods and here we are with the standard of the lord great great story right number three for out of the north there cometh up a nation against her which shall make her land desolate and none shall dwell there and they shall remove they shall depart both man and beast you know there's coming a day when Jesus Christ is going to come back again too with his army come riding on a white horse and he's going to rule with a rod of iron and he's going to stamp out the wickedness and destroy Babylon it's coming verse four in those days and in that time saith the lord the children of Israel shall come they and the children of Judah together going and weeping they shall go and seek the lord their god they shall ask to wait his eye on with their faces the other words saying come and let us join ourselves to the lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten my people have been lost sheep their shepherds have caused them to go astray they have turned them away on the mountains they have gone from mountain to hill they have forgotten their resting place and again this is the way I see the spiritual awakeness of the United States of America where you've got a bunch of false prophets and a bunch of people that are causing the sheep to lose their way because there's not enough people leading the way and lifting up that banner verse seven all that found them have devoured them and their adversaries said we offend not because they have sinned against the lord the habitation of justice even the lord the hope of their fathers so this is the wicked doers who are oppressing the people of the lord saying hey we're not doing anything wrong because they're the ones that sin against god right they're the ones that if this is their adversaries right the adversaries of the children of god said we offend not because they have sinned against the lord you're giving you know when when the Christian lives the wicked life in disobedience to god you're giving you're giving more of a reason for the wicked doer to be justified in their actions but hey you're just reaping what you're selling and I happen to be that arm of the lord that's coming against you right just so the lord uses the wicked nations to judge his people what are you saying because they have sinned against the lord the habitation of justice even the lord the hope of their fathers remove out of the midst of babylon and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans and be as the he-goats before the flock and just as we read in psalms this is the same way because the children of israel here god's people have sinned against the lord that's why they got into problems but then ultimately god comes and rescues and saves and passes judgment on wicked babylon same thing at the end times you know there's going to be the great falling away and there's going to be tons of apostasy people getting out of church even god's people there's going to be a small remnant there's going to be people who are definitely zealous and doing the works of the lord but by and large there's going to be a lot of people who are just completely out of service from god but ultimately god will come back and save his people and bring judgment verse number nine for lo i will raise and cause to come up against babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country and they shall set themselves in array against her from thence she shall be taken their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man none shall return in vain this is talking about the destruction of babylon now and caldea shall be a spoil all that spoilers shall be satisfied saith the lord because you are glad because you rejoice so you destroyers of mine heritage because you are grown fat as the heifer at grass and bellow as bulls your mother shall be sore confounded she that bear you shall be ashamed behold the hindmost of the nation shall be a wilderness a dry land and a desert because of the wrath of the lord it shall not be inhabited but it shall be holy desolate everyone that goeth by babylon shall be astonished and hiss at all her plagues and i'm not going to get into it but when you look at babylon in revelation the same thing happens it's the total destruction not inhabited and and it's it's the same picture that that happens there as well verse fourteen put yourselves in array against babylon round about all ye that bend the bow shoot at her spare no arrows for she hath sinned against the lord this is god's instruction to his people about wicked vile babylon saying hey bend the bow shoot her don't spare any arrows her time has come the war is against babylon shout against her round about she hath given her hand her foundations are fallen her walls are thrown down for it is the vengeance of the lord take vengeance upon her as she hath done do unto her cut off the sower from babylon and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest for fear of the oppressing sword for they shall turn everyone to his people and they shall flee everyone to his own land Israel is a scattered sheep the lions have driven him away first the king of Assyria devoured him and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of babylon had broken his bones therefore thus saith the lord of hosts the god of Israel behold I will punish the king of babylon and his land as I have punished the king of Assyria and I will bring Israel again to his habitation he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan and his soul shall be satisfied upon Mount Ephraim and Gilead in those days and in that time saith the lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve this is great news for the people of God they receive the pardon from the lord verse 21 go up against the land of Meritham even against it and against the inhabitants of Peacod waste and utterly destroy after them saith the lord and do according to all that I have commanded thee a sound of battles in the land and of great destruction how is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and broken how has babylon become a desolation among the nations I have laid a snare for thee and thou art also taken oh babylon and thou was not aware thou art found and also caught because thou has striven against the lord the lord hath opened his armory and hath brought forth the weapons of his indignation for this is the work of the lord god of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans come against her from the utmost border open her storehouses cast her up as heaps and destroy her utterly let nothing of her be left slay all her bullocks let them go down to the slaughter woe unto them for their day has come the time of their visitation I'm sorry I know this is a lot of scripture but I want to get through this because there's this is important there's so much doom and gloom and destruction but it's against babylon it's against the wicked people who have already oppressed the people of god verse 28 the voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of babylon to declare in Zion the vengeance of the lord our god the vengeance of his temple call together the archers against babylon all you that bend the bow camp against it round about let none there of escape recompense her according to her work according to all that she hath done do unto her for she hath been proud against the lord against the holy one of israel therefore shall her young men fall on the streets and all her men of war shall be cut off in that day saith the lord behold I am against thee oh thou most proud saith the lord god of hosts for thy day is come the time that I will visit thee and the most proud shall stumble and fall and none shall raise him up and I will kindle a fire in his cities and it shall devour all round about him the fire of the lord against babylon devouring all round about them what was a big thing about the people of babylon about the wicked people of babylon their pride and notice it says the most proud if you could just take a second and think who would be considered the most proud people in our society today in our babylon today it's probably the same people that are waving a banner that looks like this this is the flag this is what they stand for this is what they get behind now I could never understand why they choose this I like the rainbow I hate that people who hate god have stolen such nice colors such beauty right my kids love rainbows and I think that's great I like rainbows but you know what this has come to represent something wicked and vile and anti-christ and it's a banner that the evil doers have done and it's starting to be shown more and more when I went on my trip to West Virginia just recently a month ago maybe six my sense of time is gone not that long ago right weeks ago I'm driving through the backwoods of West Virginia I mean if you want to talk about America you want to talk about hillbilly redneck I mean America we're talking confederate flag waving America south it's like the south of the south in West Virginia there are plenty of towns like that along the way and now look and I might as well just bring this up too okay I'm talking about the confederate flag it's not being raised for racism it's being raised for the same reason you'd raise this flag that's why people cling to these symbols okay does that mean there's no racists in the world no of course not I'm sure there's some hillbilly racists somewhere that you know hates black people whatever okay but the people that I know who've ever liked that flag I like that flag I think everyone here should be able to testify that I don't have a racist bone in my body okay I've never treated anybody different because that doesn't matter what I like about that flag is the hey we're going to secede from the union because we're not going to be told what to do and we're not going to be you know let these other states tell us what to do and think whatever look again I don't want to get all into that but that's another flag that's another meaning it's another thing that people can get behind my point is this is an area you go to West Virginia and you got people who are rebels at heart right now look being rebellious against God not a good thing but being rebellious against a wicked tyrannical government nothing wrong with that okay that's in the blood so to my shock I'm driving through this town and I'm seeing like this on businesses in local downtown areas I'm going okay now I'm getting concerned that like we are totally turning into Sodom and Gomorrah that we are we have gone way too far down that path and Pastor Robinson informed me they'll be like you know what there's a couple towns here that they they're small areas but it's kind of where the hippies grew up and or went to and sort of took over this area like oh I know what you're talking about it's like going to Sedona in Arizona there's little there's some mountain towns out there too we got a bunch of weird people that kind of all go to the same place but still you're still in the state and people are flying these flags and they're staying up they're staying up I was just following up on this news story I saw I think it's been a couple years now there was some guy who and this is not some shining example of a Christian by the way but I don't remember the guy's name in Iowa took one of these flags from off of a so-called church not any church that has a candlestick in God's eyes but takes the flag and burned it right so he stole it went down the street or whatever burned it that's it end of story right destroyed some property whatever sentenced to 16 years in prison 16 years he got what was it it was like 30 days for like actually stealing it he was under a year for destruction of property and then 15 years for the hate crime insane he burned a flag now it's okay for everyone else to go burn the American flag and there's no charges against that right and you know what I say yeah it should be legal to burn a flag right someone doesn't like what that flag represents you ought to be able to burn it we need more of this going on I wish this was happening a lot more across the country of the banner being destroyed and not tolerated and the people want to wave this flag going uh-uh don't worry I'll clean that up later it's worth it I don't care if I have to get a vacuum out and scrub this and even if there's a little tinge and I've ruined the carpet a little bit it's not a big deal because that needs to burn what that stands for needs to go down we need to raise our standard up high and not let the wicked loudmouths become the voice of our country god forbid because that is going to lead us to destruction there are lots of people out there that I care about a whole bunch of lost people out there that do not need to be defiled with their filth you know what we need and I think there's a lot of normal people still left that if they see someone raising the standard up high and going you know what we're not for this at all that more people will get on board because right now they're scared of what the woke mafia is going to do if someone says something against you know what I'm not scared that's why we read earlier hey Jesus said fear not them which kill the body which they're not doing right now by the way anyways they bark real loud like the dogs they are they bark loudly but they're not doing anything fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell and even if they were killing people I'm still not afraid I'm still not going to back down someone needs to be a standard bearer someone needs to stand for the cause the righteous cause there has to be an opposition to well I already burned it oh man that's going to be fun to this that's all that's left it's melted to the floor it's stuck that was not a good idea I should have a trash can up here it's worth it though I don't care honey I'll be a little late coming home we need to stand up against it not tolerate it that's why I specifically didn't buy one of those flags because I didn't want the plastic like dripping into the floor I thought paper would be safe but who do you identify as what are you going to identify with what flag do you get behind I know there's a Baptist flag out there I didn't really want to get too much into that what is it the blood Baptist the blood who knows the Bible that's right there's three B's right and they've got the it looks like a bow tie there's a tie that binds and they're trying to bring unity and look I'm all for the idea of getting believers together behind a banner right and I'm not trying to say anything bad about the Baptist flag I don't know a whole lot about it right but I do like the idea of getting people unified as long as it's not like ecumenical but going hey we this is this is my banner this is what I stand for and this is what we stand for this is what our church is all about all of it the whole thing you know it's not just a New Testament the whole thing all of it cover to cover this is our standard this is our banner and you know what people ought to know if you have this banner for yourself for your household they ought to know they ought to know because you're carrying it high you're letting it be seen you're not you're not hiding it in a drawer in your house so that if people come over they can't even see that you own a Bible and you know what it might get you comments you know what that is an opportunity I had some co-workers come and I have Bibles in my car all over the place right I'm sure I'm not alone in this because you never know when you know you go soul winning or whatever it's easier too I don't have to remember I don't have to remember to bring a Bible with me because there's multiple Bibles in the car I can give them away right unless I'm actually completely run out I have to restock I almost always have Bibles in the car and you know what that does I had co-workers oh no watch out you know makes a joke because what's is this for your passengers is this because you don't drive very safe you know they kind of make a joke like okay that's funny but it's like no you know then it's an opportunity I actually pass our church I read that Bible you know I believe in that opportunity so some people might try to mock you or kid you or make fun of you don't be afraid of that there's nothing embarrassing or that should cause you to be ashamed of anything in this book your lord and savior gave you this you know the same one that saved your rear end from going to hell forever yeah he gave this to you it's treated as such value high regard don't be ashamed of it be proud of it be willing to stand up and fight for it raise your standard high let's bow our heads of prayer to heavenly father lord we love you we thank you so much for your word I thank you for this great church lord and for bringing all the people here that love you I pray that you please help us to serve you better I pray that you please help us to not be afraid not be ashamed your lord when any opposition arises but that we can boldly stand for what we believe in we stand for your word dear lord I pray that you please help us to raise our families and to set the standard in our household appropriately dear lord that we could just continue to serve you and make you happy with us and that we would be able to reach as many people as possible and to be able to put up resistance against the wicked doers of our world dear lord we love you to Jesus name we pray amen alright we're going to sing one more song before we're dismissed song number is it 405? 405 banner of the lord the banner of the cross song number 405 song 405 the banner of the cross song number 405 song 405 singing out on that first verse there's a royal banner given for display to the soldiers of the king as an ensign and fair we lift it up today while as ransomed ones we sing marching on marching on for Christ found everything but loss and to crown him king for Christ crown him king fall and sing in the banner of the cross though the foe may rage and gander as the flood let the standard be displayed and beneath his fold as soldiers of the lord for the truth he got displayed marching on marching on for Christ found everything but loss and to crown him king fall and sing beneath the banner of the cross over land and sea wherever man may go make the glorious tidings known on the crimson banner now the story tell while the lord shall claim his throne marching on marching on for Christ found everything but loss and to crown him king fall and sing beneath the banner of the cross singing out real loud on that last verse when the glory dawns his primary name it is tasting day by day then before our king the foe shall disappear and the cross the world shall stay marching on marching on for Christ found everything but loss and to crown him king fall and sing beneath the banner of the cross amen we're dismissed thank you all so much for being here tonight music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music music 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