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Isaiah chapter 54 Bible reads Sing O barren thou that didst not bear Break forth into singing cry aloud thou that didst not travel the child for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the Married wife saith the Lord enlarge the place of thy tent and let and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations Spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes But I shall break forth on the right hand and on the left and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate Cities to be inhabited fear not but I shall not be ashamed neither be thou confounded for thou shall not be put to shame But I shall forget the shame of thy youth. I shall not remember their approach of thy widowhood anymore For thy maker is thine husband The Lord of hosts is his name and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel the God of the whole earth Shall he be called for the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit and a wife of youth When I was refused saith thy God for a small moment have I forsaken thee but with great mercies Will I gather thee in a little wrath? I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on they saith the Lord thy Redeemer For this is as the waters of Noah unto me For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth So have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee For the mountains shall be depart and the hills be removed My kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires I'll make thy wing windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be the peace of thy children in Righteousness shalt thou be established thou shalt be far from oppression But thou shalt not fear and from terror for it shall not come near thee behold They shall surely gather together but not by me Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake Behold I've created the Smith that bloweth the coals in the fire and the bringeth forth an instrument for his work And I've created the waster to destroy No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me saith the Lord Let's pray to the Lord God Thank you for this opportunity to assemble to hear the preaching of your word I just ask that you be with our pastor now We strengthen him fill him with your Holy Spirit and bless the preaching and adduce to me pray. Amen Amen, okay. We're in Isaiah chapter 54 this morning and look down at your Bibles at verse number one It says sing O barren thou that didst not bear break forth into singing and cry aloud Thou that didst not travail with child for more of the children of the desolate Then the children of the married wife sayeth the Lord Enlarge the place of thy tent and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations spare not lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes and the time of my sermon this morning is Enlarge the place of thy tent enlarge the place of thy tent. I want to spend this morning Just kind of casting vision for our church Casting vision to you as a person as an individual as a family to have vision not just for today And what can be done today, but what God can do in and through your family in and through you in the years to come It should be that as Christians We want to be in this thing for the long haul for the long run and not just have Just a short term of Christian living and you know here for a couple of months here for a couple of years It should be that we have longevity Right in the Christian life that we would seek to serve God all the days of our life No matter what happens to us no matter what? Trials or challenges come our way No matter what takes place that we would stay in this thing for the long haul and in order to do so We have to have a level of faith, right? We have to believe that God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him that he is a rewarder of them who seek Him out that seek to learn the Word of God and serve him and believe that if we're not rewarded tomorrow The reward is coming one day and one of the greatest ways That we can exercise our faith is by spiritually enlarging the place of our tent Okay, and I'm gonna get into that in just a bit But I want to cast vision not just for us as individuals as a church, but you know what as parents Okay, and it should be that you know, we think to ourselves, you know I want to be at first works Baptist Church because obviously God is commanding me to I want to serve the Lord But I also want to become a pillar to create the spiritual and structural integrity of this spiritual building So that my kids have a place to go to when they're older as well You know, we should have a vision that when we're off the scene, you know Peabody and you know Your daughter or whatever are serving God after us in the same manner. They have not changed their winning souls to Christ They're turning others to righteousness. They're still using the King James Bible. They believe in being a fundamental Baptist They're still singing the hymns They're still upholding the standards even when we are long gone and the reason that's important because you know a lot of times churches do Apostasize or they just become very liberal. They end up lowering their standards as a church They end up switching Bible versions changing their doctrines and we don't want that to happen in one generation or two Obviously it is the propensity of churches to change over time But may we do everything we can in our power and what we can do to Prevent that from happening in the coming generations I want my children to continue to attend first works Baptist Church if God doesn't call them to go somewhere else to continue to be here and carry on the work that we have established here since 2017 and so the title of the sermon is enlarged the place that I attend and I want to cast vision to our church To make sure that you don't have a small vision You understand to make sure that you understand that you know what God does have a purpose for our lives as a church He wants us to do something big for him He wants us to reach a lot of people but it's obviously gonna require effort on our part now Let me give you a little bit of a context before we get into the application of the sermon Let me give you some context to Isaiah chapter 54 here in Isaiah 54 This is actually a very unique scripture because it's actually talking about someone who's been long dead About something that has not yet taken place in Respective to where Isaiah is right here. Now who is being addressed here? Well, obviously you can see you can say that it's addressing the nation of Israel, but more specifically it's actually talking about Sarah Abraham's wife. Okay, it's referring to her and of course by this time Sarah's long gone she's been in heaven for many many years and She didn't necessarily see this prophecy fulfilled in her lifetime Okay So these verses here are addressing her and the Lord is saying to her sing Oh baron Thou didst not bear break forth into singing cry aloud that didst not travail with child For more of the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife saith the Lord you say well How do we know for sure that this is talking about? Sarah well hold your place here in Isaiah 54 and go to Galatians chapter number 4 Galatians chapter 4 and Let me just say this it's important that when you don't understand something specific about the Old Testament You need to look into the New Testament to shed light on those Old Testament passages of Scripture There's no such thing as a person being an expert in the Torah and not needing anything else No one knows the first five books of the Bible if they don't know the New Testament Because the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed the Old Testament is the New Testament Concealed the Old Testament are a shadow of things to come and even the prophets and saints of the Old Testament Didn't really have a plenary understanding of what they were preaching about what they were talking about Because all of it had its apex of revealment in the New Testament. So whenever you want to learn something or Understand something to a greater extent of the Old Testament. You need to make sure you have a thorough understanding of the new That's why it's important for Christians when they first get saved to start reading the New Testament Obviously we want to read Genesis to Revelation But we need to have a good understanding of the New Testament because that is where the meat of doctrine is found explaining much of what has taken place in the old now look at Galatians chapter 4 and Verse 22 it says here for it is written that Abraham had two sons The one by a bond made the other by a free woman now Who are who's the bond made and who's the free woman the free woman is referring to Sarah? Previously known as Sarah and the bond woman is Hagar Okay, and if you know the story of Abraham, of course we know that we he's often referred to as the father of faith the promises were given to Abraham and We see that Abraham had a lapse of faith. He ends up going into Egypt with law and He leaves Egypt with Hagar who's an Egyptian It's the handmaid of Sarah, but God is giving a promise to Abraham regarding a promised child We know later on to be Isaac But you know, they're getting old or getting older and comes to a point where it's just like, you know We're getting to an age where we can't really have children and God just keep casting vision He's telling them it's gonna happen. You have to believe it You know, it'll be as the stars of heaven your descendants will be as your seed will be as the stars of heaven Well, then Sarah has a lapse of faith. And what did she do? She causes Abraham to marry Her handmaid Hagar going unto her in order to bear seed of her really weird Okay, it's like I can't have children So go ahead and marry my handmaid and you can have children by her and by you know Vicariously, I will vicariously have children through Hagar, but you know what that wasn't God's will some of God intended for Abraham That's not the way he was gonna fulfill the prophecy But obviously because of their lapse of faith they ended up committing this grievous sin creating Hagar creating Ishmael from Hagar and so this ends up being a picture of symbolic representation in the New Testament of two specific people groups Now if you attend Old fundamental Baptist churches or just mainstream churches in general and if you ask them Who is Ishmael? They'll say it's the Muslims You've ever heard that I've heard that more times than I can count like Muslims are the Ishmael brother Fox News says so and Fox News commentary tells them that Ishmael are the Muslims But the problem is that Muslims didn't exist during this time Okay, and they'll often say that Isaac are the Jews that they are the promised children of Isaac so forth, but here's the thing is that you know what the Bible actually teaches is That Ishmael is the Jews The children according to the flesh Okay, and that I and that Isaac represents Jesus Christ and believers Okay, because they come forth from the promise they come forth from Sarah whom the promises were given to not through Hagar Okay And so here the Apostle Paul has explained to the Galatians that Abraham had two sons referring to Isaac and Ishmael The one came from a bond made the other from a free woman He says in verse 23, but he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh But he of the free woman was by promise pretty self-explanatory there He says in verse 24, which things are in allegory. It's a symbolic representation For these are the what two covenants now when you look at the Bible, you know that there's two covenants You have old covenant new covenant also Stated by Old Testament New Testament a covenant is an agreement It's a contract a testament are the conditions that someone lays after their death Okay, so they're used interchangeably. It says for these are the two covenants the one from Mount Sinai Which generous to bondage which is agar which is the New Testament rendition of Hagar So we see here that one of the covenants Represents the law because he says Mount Sinai which is where the two tables of stone are written Representing that old covenant that law and it says there that it genders to bondage Meaning that that's what the law does to you, right? It leaves you in bondage. You don't have salvation You cannot keep the law it Eventually kills you it slays you so the verse 25 for this agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answerth or reflects To Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children. So what is the Apostle Paul saying? He's saying that agar represents Jerusalem Which now currently is and we're not talking about now in 2024 We're saying now in the first century AD And who are those who are dwelling in Jerusalem in the first century AD Jews So it's pretty clearly stated here that who the old covenant represents are Unsaved Jews according to the flesh that are currently inhabiting Jerusalem Does that make sense to everyone? This should be non controversial at all. Okay, because nothing in the Bible should ever be controversial to any Bible believe in Christian We just look at it and say make sense I like it. All right verse 26 but Jerusalem Which is above is free Which is the mother of us all so here we see a distinction between two Jerusalem's right you have the Jerusalem Which now is referring to the physical Jerusalem of the first century AD inhabited by unsafe Jews But then the Bible also talks about a Jerusalem which is above Also known in the New Testament as the what new Jerusalem and This is obviously referring to heaven It's referring to believers who are in heaven and it says that the Jerusalem which is above is Free in the mother of us all so Jerusalem is represented by who Sarah because he refers to her as the mother of Us all okay verse 27 for it is written. I want you to notice here Rejoice thou that bearest not now keep in mind that when you read the New Testament and it says as it is written It's referring to an old it's it's making reference to an Old Testament scripture And it says here rejoice thou that bearest not break forth in crying thou that travailest not For the desolate hath many more children than she that hath and husband So this is how we know that Isaiah 54 is Prophetically referring to Sarah because Sarah is the Jerusalem which is above who is the mother of us all according to Galatians chapter number four does that make sense to everyone and It says here in verse 28 now we brethren this is a very important now we brother now Who is the we that's being addressed here the Galatians now? Let me ask you this our Galatians Jews No They are what the Bible would consider to be Gentiles But yet the Apostle Paul is calling them brethren not because they are of the same nationality Because ethnically the Apostle Paul is a Jew he's an Israelite He's a Benjamin so obviously when he says now we brethren he's referring to the fact that they're brothers and sisters in Christ Right he says now we brethren as Isaac was are The children of promise he doesn't say the Jews are the children of promise He says now we brethren Galatians because they believed on Christ are the children of Promise now verse 28 is a fulfillment of Isaiah 54 Meaning that we those of us here at first works Baptist Church who have believed on Jesus Christ now we brethren as Isaac was are the children of promise Well, I don't know about that. You know Fox News says that That's the worst kind of commentary you can get Well you know my dispensational Online pastor or whatever says this yeah, but what does the Bible say though? Because there's no way of misinterpreting this particular passage right here, and you can say you feel you think or I'm Misinterpreting this obviously we can misinterpret certain scriptures, but some things are just clear as day And I don't know how you could walk away from verse 28 thinking that it's still referring to the Jews if Galatians are not Jews Does that make sense to everyone the point that I'm making here is that Isaiah 54 is obviously referring to Sarah as Per what we see here in Galatians chapter 4 you understand now What's very unique about Isaiah 54 if you can go back there if you wouldn't what's very unique about Isaiah 54 Is that it is a commandment given to a woman that is no longer existing. She's dead and It's about a promise that has not yet been fulfilled in their time. It's very powerful passage of Scripture here and Of course the promise is this Sarah Lengthen thy cords strengthen your stakes enlarge the place of your tent Rejoice sing because even though you have one son by the name of Isaac one day You will have the seed as the sand of the sea you will have seed as the stars of the sky the stars of heaven Why because she is the mother of us all and it's referring to the fact that she will bring forth Spiritual children those who believe on Jesus Christ. Okay, which by the way is the reason why we are God's chosen people But that's a sermon for another day Now, let me give you some practical application Regarding this particular passage in Isaiah 54 That we can make to us as Christians and us as a church some of the commandments that he gives here The first thing I want to mention here is that he gives the instruction to rejoice in faith Rejoice in faith now look at verse 1 again. It says sing O barren that didst not bear Break forth into singing cry out loud that didst not travail with child. What is he saying? Sing about the children. You're not you haven't had yet Now that's hard for Sarah Especially for the fact that she died without seeing them But yet God commanded her to sing in faith to rejoice in faith of that which would Come to pass that which was going to be fulfilled based upon God's Word. And you know what? That's great faith my friends Because I don't know about you I have the whole Bible in front of me and sometimes I struggle to have faith Even though I have all of God's promises here Sarah on the other hand didn't have the New Testament I mean She's basically an era where the Old Testament specifically the time frame in which she's in is not even written down yet Or completed and yet in spite of that she exercised faith, right? what is faith believing that what God had promised he is able also to perform and It's great faith because of the fact that she never actually saw it come to pass But it didn't mean that it didn't come to pass Because now she's in heaven and you know what every day just new children are popping up in heaven you know because Christians are dying every day believers are dying every day and Throughout thousands of years. It's just like the mother of us all is right there By the way, the mother of us all is not referring to Mary either Okay, in fact Mary is a spiritually a child of Sarah Okay That's what the Bible says right here The point that I'm making here is that you know as Christians it's kind of hard But you know what? God wants us to exercise faith and one way to do that is to sing about or talk about What God can do in the future seeing in faith talk about the works of God in faith Don't have a small vision For your family don't have a small vision for you as a person don't limit yourself into thinking well You know, what can I do? I just see a couple people saved a month or a year or or every couple of months or weeks or whatever may be No, you know think big dream big You know dream big for your church drink drink big for your Bible reading dream big for the salvation Is that you're gonna see anything to yourself? Well, you know, I just learned how to so and what what impact can I make? you know God can use anybody who has a limited amount of gifts a limited amount of Resources a limited amount of talents to do something big for God because when he does use you God gets all the glory Seeing Oh barren that did not bear it's hard to rejoice in Faith when you are barren and this is what's being stated to Sarah back in Genesis 11 it says that Sarah was barren had no child So, how would you feel if God gives you the promises like oh, man You're gonna have a lot of children and you know, you're like pushing a hundred And yet no children Right. It's like, you know, if we're gonna have like a lot of children We might want to get started, you know got a long way to go and the first one's not even there yet Go with me if you would to Romans chapter 4 Romans chapter 4 hold your place there in Isaiah Romans chapter 4 I'm gonna read to you from Genesis 22 in verse 17 says that in blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven and as the sandwiches upon the seashore and thy seed shall possess the gates of His enemies and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed because that was obeyed my voice now Let me just make a quick point here And that is that this is proof in Genesis 22 verse 18 that this can't be referring to the Jews You say well, how do you know because it says and in thy seed all nations of the earth shall be blessed And all nations have not been blessed because of Jews Historically speaking they've been removed They've been removed from a hundred and nine countries because of predatory lending practices and the rejection of Jesus Christ Like I still believe that art the nations are being blessed. Oh really, you know, it was it was a Jew Let me just say this. I know this has nothing to do with the vision, but you know It was a Jew who construed that Blasphemous thing at the to 2024 Olympics opening Where you had transvestites and sodomites? mocking and imitating the Lord's Supper You say who came up with that it was a Jew? An open homosexual Jew came up with that and you you telling me that that's blessing all nations That's making a mockery of Jesus Christ Now if you were to take the biblical interpretation of what it means that all nations of the earth shall be blessed You know all nations have been blessed through Jesus Christ Because they've received salvation and all nations have been blessed because of Christians because anywhere that Christians grow that they always improve a society Morally spiritually they bring the gospel they bring Law and order and joy. They bring God's purpose in God's will All nations of the earth have been blessed because of Christianity because of Jesus Christ It's just because thou hast obeyed my voice look at Romans 4 and verse 17 This is addressing Abraham and Sarah. It says as it is written. I've made thee a father of many nations Before him whom he believed even God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things listen to this Which be not as though they were What is the same God calls those things that have not yet come to pass as though they already happened You know what that's called that's called vision You know talking about how many salvations you're gonna get this year well, I don't really know about that We'll call those things which are not as though they were we're not talking about the power of positive thinking We're not talking about manifesting You know what we're talking about faith, right? Saying no this will happen This will take place people will get saved people will be added to the church People will be turned to righteousness I mean, I'm looking at a building filled with people that were you know that essentially is a fulfillment of an answer to prayer my prayers prayer your prayers There's people in here that have been prayed for by others and you're here There's people who were not saved before and are now saved that are in our building due to the faith of someone else Praying Lord, please save this person Lord, please work in this person's life Lord Please turn this person to righteousness Lord. Please save my wife save my husband save my children and it comes to pass Well like well yeah for them, but not for me, then you're a little faith We gotta call those things which are not as though they were and it's not based upon our whim or just our imagine It's based upon the promises of God I love that phrase that he calls those things which be not as though they were You're like, well, I don't know because you know, my circumstances are pretty bad. My circumstances are pretty hard It just doesn't seem like it's gonna it might work out for others, but not for me Well, look at verse 18 who against hope believed in hope That he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken. So shall thy seed be I mean Abraham was going against the grain considering all his Literal physical circumstances that he was facing. The dude was like a hundred years old And yet the Bible says that he staggered not at the promises of God He didn't count his body dead or the the womb of Sarah. He believed God He believed that it would come to pass and you know what? He's reaping the benefits of that faith even today The point that I'm making here is that let's be a people of faith Okay, let's not be a Debbie downer as they used to say back in the day don't be a person who's just like oh I don't know. I don't think this church will ever grow I don't think you know being a fundamental Baptist in 2024 having such high standards preaching so hard Taking these stances. I don't think that's gonna really grow the church. I don't know. I believe I think it will In fact, I know it will in fact, I've seen that it has grown Well, how do you know well because when we first started the church, we only had 35 people And I preached some pretty hard sermons since then and it looks like the church is continuing to grow Well, you know, you're just gonna scare away people with that type of preaching. Well, I hope I scare away the wrong type of people Because the people who actually want the truth will say and here's the thing, you know people will say well You're just you're just that's cultish. You know, you guys are being like a cult Cults keep people in though We have doors and we don't lock them And you're more than welcome to leave at any time you want right The point that I'm making here is that we should have a vision for our church that we will continue to grow It's like well can a new IV Church really grow? To hundreds and hundreds of people. Absolutely Yeah, but with that kind of preaching folks the darker the night the brighter the lights The weirder this world gets the more appealing a church like ours will become to the world Cuz they're just like Olympics forget that You know, oh man all this stuff that's being taught in the schools everything that's going on in politics All these ideologies that are being pushed a church like ours will be a breath of fresh air. I Believe it can happen. I Believe our church can continue to grow and you think about this, you know, Sarah was essentially the underdog of the story She didn't have children. I mean You know Ishmael is born and you know, he's just I mean that's like a flex on Sarah It's like oh you but you're the one with the promise though. That's interesting. Yeah, and Hagar's over here with Ishmael. I Mean, how do you think that's like a slap in the face for Sarah and obviously Sarah later on regretted her decision But it was it was essentially a story of an underdog who came out on top because at the end of the day You know Ishmael became a representation of those who reject of the Lord Jesus Christ and crucified him Whereas Isaac obviously became the picture of Jesus Christ himself go to 1st Corinthians chapter 1 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and What the point that I'm making with that is the fact that you know, if you it's okay to be the underdog and In fact in a story often the underdog is the one who's rooted for the most You know a church like ours and churches like ours aren't necessarily the most popular amongst mainstream Christianity They're just like all those weird fundamental Baptist No one really listens to them and they're weird and they say all kinds of crazy stuff You know, I'm actually okay with being despised even by other Christians I'm okay with our church being despised by other Christians. I'm okay with other Christians Looking down on a church like ours I hope that many churches and Christians just think we're just that we suck I'm actually perfectly okay with that You say why that's weird Well, look at 1st Corinthians 1 26 for you see you're calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh Not many mighty not many noble are called But God have chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise all you guys are just dumb Fundamental Baptist, when did your church start? Where are you guys in the history of books? We're not Especially my church. We just started in 2017. Oh Those guys are just fools they don't know what they're talking about Well, that's good because it says God have chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise Yeah But you guys are such a small church though, you guys can't really make a huge impact, you know, okay Well, God had chosen the weak things of this world to confound the things that are mighty He says and base things of the world and things are which are despised Has God chosen ye the things which are not to bring to not the things that are why that no flesh should glory in his presence So I'm actually perfectly fine with people Just mocking our church saying that who are you guys you guys won't grow you guys are small Bunch of hillbilly fundamental Baptists you guys aren't like mainstream Christians I'm fine with that because then God gets more glory When he uses us God gets more glory when people get saved through our efforts yesterday we went to Mexico you got 15 people saved in Mexico and Boy, did we have a lot of Roadblocks there Yesterday was one of those days. There's just like you feel like Satan was just like Constantly just on our tail trying to hinder our labor, but in spite of that we got 15 people saved God, there's these three guys from Venezuela there who were literally stuck there trying to immigrate to America but their paperwork got messed up and one guy has been there for like 30 days and Then when I got one of them saved, you know, he had a really good just common Venezuelan name Jeremy The other Venezuelan guy was Terry Okay But when the guy got saved he's like now, I know why we got stuck here So to get someone to get to get saved Cuz all three of them ended up getting saved now, I don't know if they're they're still stuck there But hey, at least they're stuck. They're saved You Know people in our church are constantly changing people's lives every single week You realize that how so by getting people safe. You're literally changing The destination of a person eternally every single week now It will never be published in public by mainstream Christians And in fact, if we were to publish it, they would just mock and say yeah But we're all those people now You know, oh yeah, but let's see them in church. Where are they now? Well, I'll tell you where they're at They're probably home right now But at the end of the day, you know, it's not gonna be exalted by the world or by mainstream Christians the work That's being accomplished But let me just say this eternity will tell The impact that our church members make and you know what even within our church I'm sure there's people here to get people saved on a weekly basis Don't none of us even know about they just kind of keep it to themselves They're just constantly getting people to say preaching the gospel and you know what we do we glorify God on their behalf and So I'm fine with not being popular amongst mainstream Christians or you know The the biggest mega church not knowing who we are or people mocking us online Mocking us on social media because that just means that God's gonna get more glory from the work That's gonna be accomplished here seeing Oh Baron thou bearest not break forth and cry the Bible tells us You know, the Apostle Paul was not the most popular one from the Apostles in his time And in fact, the Bible says that he was the least of the Apostles. There was not me to be called an Apostle He says but by the grace of God I am what I am and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain But I labored more abundantly than they all yet not I but the grace of God which was with me I think about like fundamental Baptists in general, you know fundamental Baptists even though we're fundamental Baptists most fundamental Baptists don't like to be associated with these fundamental Baptists We're like the redhead stepchild. We're like the black sheep of the fundamental Baptist movement I'll just be quite honest. Can I can I just be honest with our visitors here? We are we're actually like the the the black sheep of the fundamental Baptist family Okay, I can't just like call up any fundamental Baptist pastor and just be friends with them and you know They just they don't really want to be associated with us. They just think we're just too crazy We're just too wild or something and I'm not that wild Right You guys are causing me to second-guess myself here But most fundamental Baptists kind of look at us and just say all those guys are crazy, you know, they're just They're just new IFP. They're just kind of they're out there, but then they start seeing the work I'm like, well, it's great that they're getting people say they're just a little off You know on some of their eschatology and their doctrine or whatever and you know It's sad that a lot of fundamental Baptists wouldn't want to associate with us because we would want to associate with them What I'm saying is that we're kind of like the least of all the fundamental Baptist churches But you know what? That's not going to deter us from continuing to do the work of God to making an impact here in Orange County and abroad and You know what at the end of the day? You know God is gonna get more glory from our church because of it And look we don't necessarily if you've never been to an old IFP church or a larger old IFP church You don't necessarily know what I'm talking about You know we and no offense to our church by the way what I'm about to say because I preached this before We're like a motley crew It's true we're just like motley, you know, but you know, who else was a motley crew is David's mighty men prior to becoming mighty and God is looking for those that are based and despised those who are called foolish Those who are lightly esteemed those who are the out scouring of this world to use Because that way he can get more glory from us, amen The point that I'm making here is the fact that we need to rejoice in faith and recognize man God's gonna do some great works at First Works Baptist Church in the coming years. Are you sure I'm positive? I'm convinced of it already. And in fact, this is something that I was saying back in 2017 when we first started the church with 35 people I thought to myself God's gonna do something great Through First Works Baptist Church and here we are Seven years later and you know what? God has done something great, but you know what? I'm not satisfied with it because I know he can do greater I know he can do more greater works than these shall you do because I go into the my father That's what Jesus said. Well, I don't know about that. You know, we're not like other churches I think we can do great things for God and if you are of little faith, okay, then you know what? God can't use you Remember Jesus was not able to do certain miracles in certain cities because they didn't have faith He couldn't do no mighty works there because of their lack of faith And I don't want to be the church member that because of my lack of faith God is incapable and limited of what he can do in and through my life Go back to Isaiah 54 if you would Now with that being said rejoice in faith But also make more space So why are we tearing down the wall in faith? Well, I kind of like how cozy it is I don't It's time to expand It's time to grow It's time to tear down the middle wall partition between us Time to tear down the wall of Jericho so we can continue to expand Well, I kind of like the us for no more kind of model. I don't I Want to be us 400 Why not Okay, okay pastor, but what if like we make more space and we don't grow that's true You're right. But let me say this. What if we do though? What Have you spent all that money to tear down the wall and to get all the chairs and you make all these Renovations to grow the church and it doesn't grow that would suck but What if we do grow though And you know what? I want to live my life attempting things of what could be And I don't think about oh man. What if it just goes if it goes wrong, then we just have more space We just have a hole in the wall If we tear down a wall, it just never grows, you know Just just be emptiness on that side At least we know what people are doing on the other side of the wall during church service I'll just switch it over be like well the reason we tore that out so I can see what you guys are doing Back there when you're walking out of the in the middle of my preaching Well, what kind of food you eating over there? Okay Yes, you guys having lunch over there. You guys having spiritual food and real food at the same time Oh, you're on your oh, you're on Instagram over there. What kind of rules you watch in there? Right But that's not gonna happen, you know why because we are gonna grow and I rather step out in faith and take a risk Because I know the possibilities are endless and I know that we can grow Okay, and and here's the thing is that you know, we are running out of space here We are and I remember when I was met with this challenge a couple years ago I was kind of just nervous and wondering like what are we gonna do? Not in this building in the old building and I'm like, you know we went looking for new buildings and my wife and I are trying to find like new buildings to grow into and they just weren't meeting our financial needs like we Couldn't like meet that need and so it's just like man what we're gonna do because the church is growing But this is so small and I'm just like Lord, please help us and he's like boom Got the building blown up Well that that's that's a way to do it And then we had to move then we moved here now I'm not saying that a bombs gonna go off here too. I can't promise that it won't but You know We have to come up with something. So this is the next best thing here. Okay, and I don't schedule bombings. All right you know It just is a result The point that I make is make more space it says in Isaiah 54 verse 2 enlarge the place of thy tent Sarah Let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations What is he saying, you know, obviously Sarah and Israelites in times past were somewhat of like there are nomads So they would dwell within tabernacles and tents right, they didn't have Buildings per se they dwelt in tabernacles and tents and so he's saying hey, you're gonna have a lot of children So the natural thing that you should do is make your tent bigger Enlarge the place of thy tent, but we only have one son enlarge the place of your tent Because if God has promised the fulfillment of it, it's as good as done So in faith grow the tent Make room for more spiritual children, but let me just say this more important though than actually tearing down the wall Listen to me. This is far more important than tearing down the wall and and growing our church You better make sure that you're enlarging your own tent Because each and every one of us are a tabernacle, right? And let me say this you better be growing with the church. I Don't mean physically either. Okay I'm saying spiritually. Let me say this keep up Keep up spiritually Read your Bibles pray go soul winning love more hate more Grow in your virtues. You better be growing with the church It's like well, you know, I just I just kind of like to just kind of cruise along Well, you know what? You're gonna get left behind spiritually speaking then And I'm not for leaving any man behind But you know if a man is not putting in the effort Then you know what then you could remain a spiritual babe for the rest of your life But It should be that we all desire to mature in the Lord to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, I hope that you as a man and as a father as a husband grow. I Hope you become a better Christian Because you have everything here needed to become a better Christian. You have the right Bible you have preaching you have the people You have the Holy Spirit. We need to increase our tent and become better Christians enlarge the heart The Bible says is to go to 2nd Corinthians chapter 6 we're going back and forth from the New Testament to Old Testament Enlarge ourselves spiritually The only thing holding you back from growing is not me It's not the church. It's not finances. It's not your circumstances. It's you You're the only one holding you back from growing and maturing Spiritually fact Look at 2nd Corinthians 6 verse 11. Oh Ye Corinthians our mouth is open unto you. Our heart is enlarged Ye are not straightened in us, but you're straightened in your own Bowels what a straight means is you're restricted. He says you're not restricted by us You're restricted by yourself Our hearts are enlarged Our hearts have the capacity to pray more love more win more serve God more You're not straightened by us though. You're restrained by yourself You're straightened by your own bowels and folks We can do everything we can as a church to remove the barriers from you growing remove You know make growing in the Lord more easier Simplistic we can give you scriptures to memorize we can incentivize you with gift cards for memorizing scriptures We can preach sermons about reading the Bible make so many times so you can go at any time of the week Which we do We can put everything on the bottom shelf for you, but at the end of the day You're straightened in your own bowels the only person who's keeping you back is you and He I'm here to remind you to get yourself out of the way and just start growing Start growing Don't get left behind Enlarge the place of your tent and you know what it's gonna cause some stretching It's gonna cause more weight to be put on the on the bar It's gonna cause maybe a little bit more prayer makes you maybe taking soul eating a little more serious Taking your Bible reading a little more serious. Not just casually reading the Bible when you're inspired to You know a lot of Christians do that don't read the Bible when they're inspired to I Feel like reading the Bible today and you read like five chapters and the Bible just never sees you again for another three months It's time to grow and actually read the Bible even when you don't feel like reading the Bible and Can I just be honest with you? There are times I know this is gonna be shocking to you when I read the Bible even when I don't feel like reading the Bible And you know what? There are times I'm gonna shock you that I don't feel like reading the Bible. Oh Oh There's literally mornings where I wake up and I'm just like I don't want to read my Bible today. I'm not in the mood You're like what? Yeah There's times. I'm just like I honestly don't feel like reading it You say so, what do you do? Do you hop on Instagram? No, I open up my Bible Just read it Cuz I'm not straightening in my own bowels I'm not gonna keep myself myself is not gonna keep myself from doing what I'm supposed to do You know, it's like that meme where that black guy is just like we're reading the Bible today You know, it's like the flesh is like I don't feel like reading the Bible and the guys like we're reading the Bible today You know what I do. I'm just like I'm reading the Bible and I finished my Bible reading You know what happens is I ended up getting in the spirit and growing and you know what? Enlarge your tent by actually making yourself do what you're supposed to do There comes a point in the Christian life where you do things not out of inspiration but out of obligation Inspiration comes and goes But when you're disciplined and you feel the obligation you do it because you're supposed to do and that's called maturity my friends You're in church because you're supposed to be in church you read your Bible because you're supposed to read your Bible you go So any because you're supposed to go so winning You have Christian conduct because you're supposed to have Christian conduct and I would hope That as we continue to physically grow as a church, you know, you're not left behind. I Want no man to be left behind I hope that in five years We can look back at you as a brand new Christian and you can say I've read the Bible multiple times already. I've won Scores of people to the Lord. I'm a completely different Christian than when I first came I've actually advanced spiritually I've grown with the church Because yeah, we're gonna tear this wall down But let's let's talk about some walls that maybe need to be torn down spiritually though, right laziness lack of discipline lack of character inconsistencies Those walls are way more important than this wall And I would hope that you as a Christian would enlarge your tabernacle and your tent in faith That we would grow The only thing holding our church back is our church it says in Psalm 78 verse 41 yay, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel the Bible says but that you know, it's important that we as Christians enlarge ourselves our tent Grow, but also enlarge our heart in the sense that you know, it should be that as Christians. We have more love for the lost We Become more empathetic for lost people. We start thinking about lost people more. We start thinking about other Christians more It's very easy for us as Christians when we first get saved to just think about me myself and I All right. It's just all about me. It's all about what I can get from the preaching It's all about what I can get from other people How people have been a blessing to me, but there comes a point where that the tables need to be turned. Amen And you need to start thinking about others So, how do I do that ask God to enlarge your heart Have a heart that's capable of ignoring your problems and focusing maybe on the challenges of others On the needs of others praying for others thinking about others blessing others Enlarging the place of our tent expanding our tent the Bible says in Psalm 119 verse 32 I will run you. So how do I do it? How do I enlarge my heart? It says in what's on 119 verse 32. I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my Heart by simply asking the Lord to just grow your heart for the ministry grow your heart for the things of God grow your heart for righteousness and Let me just say this. I'm not saying that when that happens your problems go away because you'll have more problems I'm just being hospice. I'm not trying to like, you know, I'm not gonna lie to you You know the bigger your heart gets there's more problems come Hey, the this walls coming down is gonna be great, but it's just gonna be filled with more sinners You know what comes with sinners problems lots of problems Hey when we tear down the wall a great and effectual doors open unto us But there are many adversaries on the other side. That's what the Bible tells us Well, then we shouldn't tear it down why not let's do it Let's do it let's grow yeah, you know what the more you grow the more problems you're gonna get The more souls you win the more problems we're gonna get The more times we go to Mexico the more problems we're gonna get The more missions we do the more problems we're gonna get that's just the way of life But you know what? I don't want to be some weakling sissy of a Christian This is well because I don't want problems therefore, I'm just gonna avoid ever growing Then you know what? What's the point of even living then? What's the point of even being on this earth, you know challenges are good for us You know and it makes life exciting is what it does And it gives us a greater potential to grow to reach more people for Christ to do something significant in this world He goes on to say in Isaiah 54 spare not So he says enlarge the place of a tent spare not what does that mean give it all you got Leave nothing in the tank RPE 10 Go to failure right What does that mean exceed seek to exceed your potential? and I hope that you take This point to mean that you know being in this church shouldn't be something you just do on the weekends. Amen Amen It's a place where you learn how to be a Christian throughout the week. It's part of your life. It's part of who you are It's it is a base where with you can learn how to serve God for the rest of your life Spare not give it all you got leave nothing in a tank go to failure. Go to Isaiah 54 again He says in verse number two enlarge the place of thy tent. Let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation spare Not I want you to notice is lengthen thy cords Point number three the larger the tent the longer the cords are needed to hold it down The longer the tent the more ground to cover Its reach can go further and further and I believe what this can picture for us as a church is The larger our tent gets the more people will reach the further we can reach people with the gospel of Jesus Christ The further we can go to other nations You know Belize has been great. I Mean we've had such a great time going to Belize seeing all the people saved holding church a church service They're getting tons of people baptized so many different stories that we have from Belize, but you know what? I want to go further than that though Let's go to Antarctica. No, I'm just kidding. I'm saying well where people are though, you know and Why not? You know the look sometimes there are churches where they get really big but the cords just don't go anywhere though They're not doing more sowing You would think that the larger church gets the more laborers are in that church And see our motive as a church to grow it is to create more laborers for the harvest we don't want you to just sit there soak and sour and Just be a church member that comes to church listens to preaching maybe has you know a little bit of fellowship and leaves No, we want to train you for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ We want to teach you how to be a preacher of the gospel We want to show you how you can get your family saved how you can get your friends saved hey how to get just complete stranger saved and Then you said what then then what then we stretch our cords far Look, there's people in our church who got saved in our church and like a couple months in there in Belize I'm sure months before they came to our church. They never would expect it to have gone to Belize Getting people saved in Belize There's people who went to Mexico got people saved in Mexico for the first time their first salvations in Mexico yesterday That's huge The larger our church gets the further the cord shall stretch forth into the surrounding nations to reach more people for Christ Be like well, yeah, but that's for you pastor. That's for the evangelist Hernandez Maybe some of the single guys or something. No, you know what you need to go to the mission field, too Since when is the Great Commission only for full-time Christian service? It's for everyone It's for fathers and mothers and grandmothers Grandfathers, it's for everyone. All of us need to go to the mission field at one time or another and The vision should be well, you know, I get it I'm winning souls here but you know what my responsibilities also go into the uttermost parts of the world and get someone saved out there and We live in such a great Era right now where just a ton of people speak English Different parts of the world that you don't have to learn a new language in order to get someone saved in a different part of the world They're learning English there and you can get people saved there have a vision to have you and your family go on a mission field in The coming future why not? Well, I just it's just harder when you have kids. Yeah, it's hard for sure but the vision should be Let's do the mission field. Let's go further. Let's lengthen our cords Let's not only go across the country, but let's go into other countries. Let's go to South America. Let's go to Brazil Let's go to Europe. Let's go to different parts of the world to preach the gospel. Why not? Well, I just don't think we can do that because you got small vision but the bigger the tent gets the longer the court should be to reach people for Christ and Jerusalem Judea Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world the Bible says in first Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 5 for our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and In the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know What manner of men we were among you for your sakes? And you became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word and much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost So that ye were in samples to all that believe in Macedonia and Nicaiah For from you sounded out the word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Nicaiah But also in every place your faith to God word is spread abroad So that we need not to speak anything the Bible tells us. Here's my last point good. I go back to Isaiah 54 In verse 2 let me say this don't don't this is not the point, but don't have a bystander apathy mentality Where you think well isn't there other Baptist churches here that can just do the work? Not in my opinion there might be Baptist churches, but I'm not going to depend on them to reach Orange County I'm not going to depend on them to reach the neighborhoods here I'm not going to depend on them to go to Los Angeles and Compton and South Central I'm not going to depend on them go to go to Riverside The Inland Empire I see it as our responsibility And you know what there's churches out there that are bigger than ours they probably have more labors But I can't depend on them to get the work done Because I don't know what they're doing First of all I don't know if they're sending people out to I don't know what kind of gospel. They're sending them out with So in my opinion we have it's the the responsibility falls on us Yeah, but you know they can do so much more yeah, they could do so much more if they ran a thousand absolutely But you know what I'm not going to depend on that though I'm not placing my eggs in one basket and just depend on the fundamental Baptist churches of this area or any church that Evangelizes to actually get the job done It's our job It's our responsibility We need to do it and to speak again on the fundamental Baptist movement Let me just say this and it's an unfortunate thing, but many of them don't go sowing anymore Let me just let me just be real honest and frank with you many of them Do not preach the gospel anymore and those of them who actually do have some sort of evangelistic You know Programs many of those programs just involve listen just visitation So it's like visitation under the guise of being sowing And often they'll just go out and visit members of the church or visit people who have who have visited their church or whatever And they'll say that's the evangelism They'll say that's the sowing but actually going door-to-door Opening their mouths boldly to make known the mysteries of the gospel and sometimes a lot of these churches They just put a door hanger or a flyer on the door and they call that sowing Let me just make something very clear. That is not soul-winning putting a flyer on the door or Knocking on the door just giving them a flyer but not preaching the gospel is not soul-winning and I'm not against that because we invite people to church all the time as an icebreaker to preach the gospel to them a Lot of churches do not do that anymore though and they're scaling that back and why is that because the bigger a church gets The more comfortable they can get If the church is growing without them soul-winning then why what's the need for so many? Well, that's why we don't go so many to grow the church We preach the gospel to get people saved Whether they come to church or not now, we would love for them to come to church But you know if they don't that's a separate issue Our job is to preach the gospel to every creature and make known the mysteries of the gospel You know all the hundreds of people that we've seen saved in Mexico. I'm not expecting them to come over here to our church and You know because they're illegal, you know, how are you gonna do that? Yeah, I Would love for them to be a part of a church, but you know what we go over there to talk about Salvation to get them safe to give them assurance of eternal security because that's the purpose of soul-winning It's not a method to grow a church, which is how a lot of churches see it. You see what I'm saying? The last point that I want to make here is that we need to strengthen our stakes He says in verse 2 enlarge the place of thy tent let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitation spare not lengthen thy cords and Strengthen thy stakes the larger the temp the longer the cords the stronger the stakes the deeper. They must be buried So the bigger a tent gets the longer the tent spike has to be and the deeper it has to go Why well because of the fact that you know a larger church gets think about this the bigger a church gets The more possibility for false doctrine to enter in right and If you have false doctrine coming in then, you know that tent can be blown away By every wind of doctrine and slide of men by the cutting craft in this whereby they in line wait to deceive So as we continue to grow numerically Don't neglect to grow spiritually in your Christian conduct, but also you better learn some doctrine and Know what you're talking about know what you believe and I'll do my part To teach you doctrine from the pulpit, but don't depend on me. You need to make sure that you're learning doctrine as well We need to have a doctrinally sound church Because folks and I know this by experience The larger Church gets the bigger the possibility of people coming in preaching another gospel Believing false doctrine spreading false doctrine and because doctrine is not emphasized It just permeates the church and it just becomes normal To have a just a cesspool of false doctrine in the church. We don't want that we need we want to uphold the doctrinal integrity of the church and Make sure that everyone is doctor to sound obviously we can't police people and you know Just pull people in my office. Tell me everything you believe about the Bible Tell Me what you believe about salvation in 50 seconds or less What is the doctrine of justification sanctification glorification? What is imputation? Now those are good doctors to learn though, right? You know, give me the breakdown of the chronology of end times Bible prophecy explain to me Daniel 70th week And where we can find in the book of Daniel You know Tell me I want you. I want an expository lesson on Revelation chapter 6 Who are the 144 that you know, obviously we're not gonna quiz you but you know what? We should be knowledgeable about the basics of the Christian life So that as our church grows, I can't just talk to everyone You I don't have to worry about people trying to come to you teaching false doctrine and you believing it and I love that right now about our church. It's very Stress free for me that I don't have to worry if a new person comes to our church and maybe pull someone aside to teach Them false doctrine or something I literally do not worry about then being carried away with that wind of doctrine because I know our people are very doctrinally sound and Quite honest a lot of people in our church. Just hope that happens to them Like I wish you would teach me follow. I wish you would try to teach me Zionism I wish you would try to teach me the pre-tribulation like they they hope that happens to them You know, they try to be all you know, look vulnerable in the church or something. Oh What will I ever do, you know, but they just want they just want to mode someone with doctrine Because and I think it's great that you know doctrine like that man, but you know what let's let's continue to grow And make sure that we remain doctrinally sound as well Okay Because again, there's a temptation that a more church grows the more you produce members of the church who are not doctrinally sound That's just it People become less doctrinally sound the more a church grows and the more likely it is that people are gonna infiltrate They will try to teach false doctrine They will try to lead people astray the Bible's prophesied of that many times We need to make sure that we're growing doctrinally with the church as well Okay, and not be spiritual children gullible Believing every word we need to make sure that we study to show ourselves approved unto God it workmen The need is not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth that our stakes are down deep. I Mean the Bible says that he would grant you according to the riches of his grace to be strengthened with might in the Inner spirit that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints What is the length breadth depth and height and to know the love of Christ that passeth all knowledge? What is he saying? You need to be grounded in the Bible? okay, and so What's the sermon this morning? Well, look at verse 3 For thou shalt break forth on an isaiah 54 thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left and Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles and make the desolate cities to be Inhabited the sermon is this we grow so we can reach more so we can train more so we can reach more So we can save more so we can reach more and we just need to keep this pattern going to the second coming of Christ Well, we don't want to be careless about this either And we never want to be a church that just grows overnight either our church is growing at a good rate Well, we don't want to just grow overnight to an exponential number that we can't handle spiritually I Think the reason our church is growing right now because I know a lot of people in our church Especially within the last year like man. I feel like our churches started growing like within the last couple of months But the reality is it's just been growing since 2017. You just said you just haven't noticed But here's the thing you wonder like well, what's what the rapid growth within the last couple of months Well, it could be that God just thinks we're ready for it it's probably what it is and I said this years ago One of the reasons maybe we're not growing at the rate that you would want us to grow at is because maybe you're not Ready for the growth. Maybe I'm not ready for the growth Maybe you're just not spiritually mature to handle it Because too fast of growth can be detrimental for a church Because God is God is is interested in substance He wants to make sure that everything is is where it needs to be in here and the individuals and then we can get to the next level and Then you know one day this one this wall comes down and we grow this and it ends up We end up running 200 because we're gonna have about 220 chairs in here We start running a crazy amount of numbers and we got to move You know what? It's not gonna happen until what we also grow with the church So don't be so concerned with the numerical growth of the church While neglecting the spiritual growth of you your family of the people in our church as well. That's far more important Than the numerical growth of the church. The sermon this morning is let's enlarge the place of our tent. Let's grow Let's reach more people. Hey, keep inviting people to church Keep inviting your friends. Don't be embarrassed to be a man Keep inviting your family your friends You know, I won't say the f-word very often Not that f-word the other one You know someone got it. They're like, oh You know invite people to church get people saved introduce people to our church, you know That's one of the reasons our church has grown is because you've brought people to our church And praise God for that, but I'm looking forward to the years to come. Let's get this wall down. Let's grow Let's reach more people for Christ. Amen. Let's pray father. We thank you so much for your word Lord May you enlarge the place of our tent and I pray that you continue to help us to grow in substance Spiritually within our own lives Lord and as I preached Months ago or weeks ago. We better make sure we have a walk with God. I need to make sure that I'm maintaining and growing in my walk with the Lord and In my studies and my understanding of the scriptures and in principles and the leadership But in like manner Lord our church members need to grow as well and I pray that Lord They would be inspired and motivated to seek your face through prayer To learn the content of the Word of God and that you would bless us as a church Thank you so much for the growth that we've seen so far Lord I pray that we've seen so much the more and of course all with the intent and purpose to not only lead people to Righteousness but also train people to become laborers in the harvest to reach people for Christ And I pray you help us to do so enable us Lord. We love you. We thank you pray this things in Jesus name Amen You