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which is your word in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen, all right, we're in Hebrews chapter number 11 this morning, look down at your Bibles in verse number one, it says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, for by it, the elders obtained a good report. And what I wanna preach on this morning for our anniversary is First Works report card, the First Works report card. And this morning I just wanna talk about our church just for, not a couple of minutes, for however long I want, I guess. And just talk about some of the things that we've experienced over the last four years and you say, well, who are you to give us a report card? Like who are you to determine how our church is doing? Well, it says in verse number two, for by it the elders obtained a good report and we'll see later on in chapter 13 that as a pastor, as the elder, I'm to give an account of our church, I'm to judge our church and give an account and some pastors when they give an account of their church, sometimes they do it with grief, but others do it with joy. And it's our responsibility as pastors to assess the church, to analyze the church, to grow the church and help them grow spiritually, but also to basically give a report of how the church is doing spiritually. And that's what I wanna do this morning. I wanna give a report card to First Works Baptist Church. Now, before I get into that, let me explain what the book of Hebrews chapter 11 is specifically talking about here. This is what we would consider to be the hall of faith. And it's one of the most inspirational chapters in the Bible in my opinion. And the reason for that is because you have this conglomerate of just prophets and men of God and women of God throughout the Bible who did great exploits or suffered persecution or just believed God, they just obeyed the Lord and they were able to basically obtain promises, they were to do great works for the Lord and they operate as an example unto us. And the reason I say it's one of the most inspirational chapters in the Bible is because there are people just like us. Often we look at people in the Bible like a Samson or like a David and we think to ourselves, man, I can never be someone like that or do something like that. But the reality is the Bible tells us specifically when talking about Elijah, for example, it says that he is a man of like passions. So we are men of like passions with them. There's nothing new under the sun. The same God that they had is the same God that we have. The same Holy Spirit that empowered them to do great works is the same Holy Spirit that is indwelling us today. The same word of God that was given unto them is the same word of God that we have today as well. And so there's nothing different other than the fact that we have more of the word of God than they do. But the reality is is that the folks that we see mentioned here in chapter 11 are some great men and great women who stepped out in faith, okay? And they did a lot of great works. They were able to obtain promises and obey the Lord and fight the good fight of faith. But the common element that we see with all of them is what? Is that they did it through faith. And it's not because of their personality. It's not because their great ability to fight. It's not because of their ingenuity. It wasn't because they were popular in their day or they weren't popular in their day. You know, what really made the difference was the faith that they had, okay? Because what is faith? Well, it says in verse number one, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And more specifically, we know throughout the word of God that faith is basically obeying God in spite of whatever hardships, whatever setbacks, whatever threats, whatever persecution, whatever difficulties may come along the road, we obey God in spite of that. That's called faith, okay? Look at verse number 32, if you would. Skip down to verse 32. Of course, we see Abel being mentioned. We see Enoch is mentioned. We see Noah being mentioned and Abraham and just a lot of great men of God. Look at verse 32. Moses, of course, it says in verse 32, what shall I more say for the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and of Barak and of Samson and of Jephthah and of David also and Samuel and of the prophets. Now, when you look at this list and you start thinking about the stories that are tied to these guys, you're thinking to yourself, Jephthah? Isn't this the guy who sacrifices his daughter? David, isn't this the guy who murdered someone, conspired to murder someone and committed adultery? You know, you have Gideon in there. Samson, wasn't that guy like a fornicator? Didn't the guy get his eyes plucked out and, you know, he was made a mockery? But hold on a second. Hebrews 11, which is the hall of faith, is highlighting their faith though. Because it's showing us that these guys were fallible men, that they made mistakes, that they had failures, that they weren't perfect men, but yet God esteemed the fact that they had faith in God still. God esteemed the fact that they acted in spite of their frailties, in spite of their failures. Yeah, Samson committed fornication. He was a complete idiot. He did some stupid things, but at the end of his life, he still exercised faith and knew that God was with him. And in like manner, that's why, or it's for that reason that he finished his life well. Killing a bunch of Philistines, still being filled with the Spirit. That was a good thing, amen? You know, David, for example, yeah, he, the blemish on his record is that he murdered, the blemish on his record was that he committed adultery, but yet the Bible still says that he was a man after God's own heart. The Bible still says that he's the sweet psalmist of Israel. The Bible still talks about him as being a picture of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. He's still a great man of God because of his faith, okay? Barak. I mean, I don't know anybody who would want to be like, I don't want to be like Barak. You know, if you know the story about Barak, of course, Barak followed a woman named Deborah. You know, that's, I don't know, man. You know, it's like, all right, you know? But it was during a bad time in the history of Israel where every man did that, which is right in their own eyes, and then you had a woman leader rise up, not necessarily because she wanted to, but because the people made her the leader. She became a judge of Israel. Deborah became a judge of Israel, and she taught the Word of God because people were coming to her to learn the Word of God, which obviously shows you that there was a deficiency in male leadership during that time. Now, Barak was not a teacher of God's Word. He was a military general, and obviously, you know, he should have just been like, Deborah, you need to just sit down. You know, you got a great heart. You're a godly woman, but I need to step up, and I need to learn the Bible, and I need to teach it because this is not God's order, you understand? But you know what? God still honored Barak in spite of the fact that he wasn't a Bible teacher, he wasn't a priest. He was a military general who ended up, you know, winning a great victory for Israel and helping Israel to come out of the hand of the oppressor of that time, and it was his faith that allowed that to happen, okay? Now, look at verse 33. Now, verse 33 and on is what we're gonna primarily focus on in this sermon, okay? I'm gonna take my points from these particular verses here. It says in verse 33, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Now, these are a lot of great exploits that each of these men did and others throughout the Old Testament, but I wanna apply these to our church, okay? And I wanna give obviously the primary application of this, which is who it pertains to, but then I wanna give the spiritual application as it pertains to our church, okay? Now, let's look at the first one there. Number one, who through faith subdued kingdoms. Now, go with me if you would to chapter 13, if you would. Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13. You see, we often think of faith as being something, well, we need faith to make sure we pay the bills on time or something, you know? We need faith to make sure that we get over some sickness, but faith is used for everything in the Christian life. Everything, every facet of our Christian life requires our faith, okay? Because we don't just live life, you know, we don't try to compartmentalize God, compartmentalize Christianity, compartmentalize the Bible and say, well, I'm a Christian when I come here, but when I'm at work, that's a different story. No, we need to be a Christian in all aspects of life, right? It's supposed to permeate every facet of our life, our marriage, our child rearing, our job, whatever it is that we do, that Christianity is supposed to be present, the Bible is supposed to be present, we're to look at life through the lens of the word of God. You understand? And it requires faith. And here we see that there was someone who had enough faith to subdue kingdoms, the Bible says. Look at Numbers 13, verse 26. It says, and they went and came to Moses and to Aaron and to all the congregation of the children of Israel and to the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh, and brought back word into them and to all the congregation and showed them the fruit of the land. So they're going out to spy the promised land, okay? They're looking at the promised land, they're spying it out. God had already told them, this is your inheritance, this is yours. You can have it. Verse 27, and they told them and said, we came into the land where the thou sentest us and surely it flowed with milk and honey and this is the fruit of it. Nevertheless, the people be strong that dwell in the land and the cities are walled and very great. Moreover, we saw the children of Anak there and the Amalekites dwell in the land of the south and the Hittites and the Jebusites and the Amorites dwell in the mountains and the Canaanites dwell by the sea and by the coast of Jordan. So what do we have here? We have some murmur complainer, a little wuss, coming and saying, oh yeah, there's a lot of grapes, the fruit is great, it's a land flowing with milk and honey but hold on a second, let me tell you about all the bad things first. Let me tell you about all the children of Anak are there, you got the Hittites and if that's not bad enough, you got people dwelling in the mountains and by the sea. So you're gonna be surrounded with a lot of enemies. You're gonna have enemies on each side and they're very great, oh and their walls. Have you seen their walls? See how tall their walls are? How are we gonna be, you know, cause in those days in order to conquer a city, you had to overcome their wall. You know, they would set up these walls that would impede you from conquering them, you understand? You say, well, how are they gonna do it? Well, they had God. God could just tell you, just march around a couple of times and I'll just destroy it for you. A wall means nothing to God. He says, the cities are walled and very great. You see, I would have thought to myself, well, great, so that's gonna be mine. Cool deal. I get these great cities and great walled and all these, you know, but they're trying to use this to instill fear in the people so that they don't, you know, carry on with the plan to conquer the land. Verse 30 says, and Caleb, you know what we need today? We need some and Caleb's. In the midst of everyone freaking out about all, everything that's going on today in the United States of America, oh, you don't know California, you know, they have these great walled cities. You got Gavin Newsom, you got all these people, Democrats and all this, all this liberalism. Yeah, but where's the, and Caleb's though. Caleb's need to come in and say, look, Caleb's still the people. What does that mean? Hey, chill out. Calm down. Stop shaking. Just calm down. Still the people. Calm them down. Before Moses, by the way, Moses is the leader. So before Moses even stepped up to like rebuke the people, Caleb stepped in and said, hey, all right guys, we get it, all right, chill out. And said, let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it. So what is he trying to do? He's trying to instill confidence in the people. He's like, he hears that and he's like, great. Let's do it then. You see, when people hear something like this to discourage others, some people are just like, ah. But then there's another group where it's just like, well, that sounds great, let's do it then. Is that all they got? Just a walled city? Great cities? Anak, that's it? Jebusites? Oh, you got people by the sea and in the mountains? That's it? Because my God is the God of the mountains and the valleys. He's like, we're able to overcome it. But the men, if that's what you want to call them, but the men that went up with him said, we'd be not able to go up against the people for they're stronger than we. Now you know what, he's probably right. But whoever said that they're supposed to go in the power of their own might? You see what the answer should have been or the sentence should have continued and said the people are stronger than we, but our God is stronger than them. And if God be for us, who can be against us? And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel. The land through which we have gone to search it is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof. And all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature. Go to Joshua chapter 14, if you would, Joshua chapter 14. Now, unfortunately, everyone listened to all these cowards and these little sissies instead of listening to Caleb and they ended up not going to possess the land for quite some time. Caleb was ready. And this is when Caleb was a young buck, right? He was a young buck. He's a young guy. And that's probably why they didn't wanna listen to him because they probably despised his youth. But Caleb was right. Caleb had faith. Caleb was just like, I don't care. Name off all the people you want who possess the land. We have the God of the Bible. But no one wanted to listen to Caleb. I guarantee you these other people who are speaking up were the older men. You know, the people who, the older generation who are just afraid, okay? It's something said about young people. Yeah, they're a little reckless sometimes, but it's often those same guys and same young ladies who are just faith-filled. They're willing to take the risk. Look at verse 10 of Joshua. Joshua chapter 14, verse 10 says, and now, of course, this is years later. They have already overcome, they're in the promised land. They have over overcome cities and lands. They possessed a lot of area. Verse 10 says, and now behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said these 40 and five years. Even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness, and now lo, I am this day four score and five years old. So he's 85. As yet I am, excuse me, as yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me, as my strength was then, even so is my strength now for war, both to go out and to come in. So what is he referencing? He's referencing that time that we just saw in Numbers. He said, you remember how I was ready to go to war back in those days? I'm still ready to go to war. You remember how strong I was back then? I'm still that strong. I like this guy's confidence. Confidence is just through the roof. Now therefore, give me this mountain. He didn't say give me this cottage. He didn't say give me this cabin. Just give me this little corner. And he's like, no, I want that whole mountain. I'd just rather have it all. Whereof the Lord spake in that day, for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced. If so be the Lord be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said. He goes, remember how you guys said it was like great and walled and there's all kinds of people there? Okay, then just let me take it then. If you're so scared to take it, then I'll take it. And you know what? If the Lord's with me, then I guess we'll see if I'll be able to overcome it. I mean, that is bold. And the guy's 85 years old. And Joshua blessed him and gave unto Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, Hebron, for an inheritance. What do we see here? We see a man of great faith subduing a kingdom. And not just him, obviously David and many others subdued kingdoms in their day. They had enough faith that in spite of the setbacks, in spite of the threats, in spite of them being more of them than they are of us, he still did it. Why? Because he had faith that it's not necessarily in his strength or in his strategy that he was gonna be able to subdue this kingdom. It was through God's favor, okay? Now go with me if you would to, go to 2 Corinthians chapter number 10. Now obviously in the New Testament, we're not trying to like subdue like literal land, okay? The United States is obviously, but we're not politicians here. We're not Republicans, you know? Not all of us are. You know, we're Christians, amen? We're Baptists, we're believers. We believe in the word of God. We're sons of God, we're children of God. And let me just say this is that we as a church, we have subdued kingdoms. Spiritual kingdoms, amen? Because that's what God wants us to do. In the New Testament, there's not a physical war taking place, there's a spiritual battle taking place. It's spiritual warfare. Jesus said, upon this rock, I will build my church and the what? Gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So he's talking about warfare. He's talking about us going into behind enemy lines, going through the gates of hell and pulling people out of the fire. Of some have compassion, making a difference, others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, the Bible says. And you know what? First works Baptist church, we're only four years old, but we've subdued a lot. We've subdued a lot. Look at 2 Corinthians 10, three, it says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. This is something we got to constantly remind ourselves. Because we're constantly being attacked, we're constantly being threatened, we're constantly being challenged to a physical fight sometimes. And when you remember that we do not war after this flesh, it's a spiritual battle. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but I want you to notice here, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. So what is the contrast there? He said they're not carnal, they're mighty. What's the opposite of mighty? Weak. So when we battle carnally, we're battling in a weak state. Our weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Now, more often than not, we use this verse on a personal level, don't we? You know, if we're struggling with imaginations, or fears, or doubts, lust, covetous, greed, all these things, you know, we seek to cast down those imaginations. We want to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. But you know what? This also applies to just winning souls to Christ. You say, how is that? Because when we go on and preach the gospel, there's people out there who believe false doctrine. They believe a false way of salvation. They believe a false thing about God, false way about Jesus Christ, and you know what? We need to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We go there, and we liberate those who are captive to false doctrine. Liberate those who are captive to Satan, hell, and his lies. You know, because he's the God of this world who had blinded the minds of them which believed not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ was the image of God should shine into them. So we have this treasure in earth and vessels, and we come to them, and we shed that light of the gospel, and we relieve them of that. We liberate them from that captivity. We subdue that area, okay? Now let me just say this is that, you know, there's a city out there called El Mani, okay? And we were there for about, well, it would have been four years. We're almost there for four years. Hey, in my opinion, we subdued El Mani. Because we plowed that field for like three years. Every single week. Soul winning there, getting people saved there. You say, well, how do you know you subdued people there? Because we still got people there. And I'm not even talking about people who still come to our church. There's people who live there who come to our church. I'm talking about there's people there who got saved through the efforts of First Works Baptist Church, and they are listeners of First Works Baptist Church. They just don't want to attend our church. I mean, you know, they just, I don't know. They're just afraid, or they don't, you know. But they're fans of First Works Baptist Church. They're fans of the preaching. I mean, Brother Ulysses lives in El Mani, and oh man, I just revealed his location. He's done. He lives there, and he was telling me, I don't know, where is he? Is he here? Is he skipping church? He's skipping church? Oh, he's back there, all right. He was telling me, is it the gas station? The gas station, right? He goes to this gas station, and like, I don't know. It was a while back, and it was after the bombing, after all that. But he went to this gas station, and the lady like recognized him. And she was like, do you go to that church? You know, automatically you think to yourself, like, ah, dang, here we go. And then he's like, yeah, you know, First Works and everything, and she's like, man, I love that, I love that preaching. And then like every once in a while, he'll go back to get gas there, and then she'll tell him, she's like, oh man, that Rod of Iron podcast, that was so funny, I love that episode. And then she's like, when is this gonna come out? They're just keeping up. They're still listening. After the bombing took place, a police officer went to Ulysses, and started listening to my preaching because of the whole thing. He's like, I started listening to your pastor. And through your pastor, I found Pastor Anderson. He's like, I like what those, I like what they say. He goes, the whole thing about women? He's right. It sounds like they've been subdued. Yeah, but you're not there anymore when my sign's still there. Our garrison's still there. Our church members still mob up and down in the street every once in a while. Without fear. We've already got a bunch of people saved. And look, when that whole protest happened, they're like, we're gonna get you out of here. I'm like, you're like too late. The damage has already been done. The damage has been done. The kingdom has been subdued. We've already won a bunch of people to Christ. People here like us. People here listen to the preaching. And so, you know, you say, what are you doing here? I'm trying to subdue this area. We've been subduing it. And we don't just try to subdue the area that we're located, we go into other areas. South Central, we've been subduing South Central. What do you mean by subdue? Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Going out there, preaching the gospel, changing the minds of the masses through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Getting them saved. Portions of Los Angeles, Compton, South Central, Watts. I mean, we've been putting in work. Going about subduing kingdoms. Rosemead, Alhambra, Belize. You say, why do you have all these sowing emissions programs? Because we're subduing kingdoms, that's why. Yeah, but you guys are such a small church. Well, it takes faith. Takes faith. There is more people in the land than there were of the children of Israel who were ready to go to war. And they're still able to do it. They're still able to conquer them. Why, because they have God with them, that's why. Okay? And so, first works report card, number one is that we've been subduing kingdoms. And it's only been four years. After the bombing, Ray came up to me, he patted me on the back. He was like, man, it's only been three years. You got a long way to go now. I was like, if this is happening in three years, what do you think the next couple years, you know? But thank God for everything that's happened. Only in four years, this is what has taken place. And I'm talking about salvations, amen? We've seen a lot of people saved. We got a lot of people, you know, we've been able to preach the gospel to a lot of people. Even if we don't get people saved, we're able to plant seeds where someone else in the future could come and get them saved. You know, obviously we want people to get saved, but it's just as equally important to plant that seed. Never consider yourself a failure if you go out so many you don't get anybody saved or something. If you're able to preach the gospel to someone, if you're able to get the message out there, that's success. Because we can't force people to get saved, amen? You know, our obedience is going out there preaching the gospel, persuading them to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, our church has been very successful in that area, and it's not the effort of one man, it's the conglomerate effort of everyone in our church, you know, teaming together to get people saved, understand? And that's why we're called First Works, Baptist Church. Go to James chapter five, if you would, James chapter number five, subdued kingdoms. It takes faith to say, I've never been to Belize, let's just go and try it. If we fail, we fail. And we succeeded greatly. And we're gonna continue succeeding in Belize, we're gonna go back to Belize, we're gonna get more people saved, and once the entire nation of Belize, the country of Belize has been plowed, has been worked on, we're moving on to another country to subdue as well. We're gonna be moving on to another country, country after country, until the second coming of Christ. Subduing kingdom after kingdom after kingdom, the work will never stop. But the second thing that we see in Hebrew chapter 11 is that they not only through faith subdued kingdoms, but they wrought righteousness. What does it mean to wrought righteousness? It means worked righteousness. You see, it's important to get people saved, amen? It's the most important work. But you know what's also important in the eyes of God is for us to be a righteous people, to work righteousness, to be righteous, to put on the breastplate of righteousness, to live a holy life. You see, we are a soul winning church, but we're a Baptist church, and often that's associated with being fundamental, conservative, holy, hymn singing, tie wearing people. This isn't a liberal church. Yeah, liberal churches, they have outreach where they give people chicken noodle soup or whatever, and they invite them to church, and I don't know, maybe some of them get saved if they have the gospel, if they have the right gospel, you understand? But let's say they do get saved, they bring them into the church, they're probably not teaching them how to live a holy life. You understand? Why, because often a good way to determine if a church is living righteously or if it's going in a righteous way, other than the doctrine, obviously, is the music. The music is often a reflection of how loose or conservative that church is. Guaranteed. And you know what, we want our church to be a righteous church. We want it to be a holy church. Oh, but you guys aren't perfect. Well, yeah, no one's perfect. No church is perfect, and if you find a perfect church, once you go there, it's already made imperfect. That's the way it is. Because there's no such thing as a perfect church. But there are churches that strive for righteousness, that seek after righteousness and righteous things, and our desire should be that we want to work righteousness. We want to be righteous ourselves, we want to work righteousness ourselves, but we also want to instill righteousness in others as well. Look at James chapter five, verse 19 says, "'Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth "'and one convert him, let him know that he "'which converted the sinner from the error of his way "'shall save a soul from death and shall hide "'a multitude of sins.'" This isn't referring to salvation, by the way. This is referring to one saved person to another. Because saved people can get involved in really bad sin. They can get backslidden, they can regress, they can get involved in things that would cause them to die. You say, why does it say save a soul from death? Soul is often synonymously used with body as well, okay? And the person who's able to convert this individual from the error of their ways shall save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins, the Bible says. What is that talking about? Turning people to righteousness. That's what our church should be doing, amen? That's what our church is doing. We not only want to turn people to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, but after they get saved, we want to turn them to righteousness. See, it doesn't stop there. It's not like, well, you're saved now, you know, live however you want, and you know, just if you want to come to church, come to church. No, we want them to come to church. We want them to clean up their lives. We want them to hate sin, and we want them to love righteousness. We want them to develop an appetite for righteous things, for just things, why? Because that's what the Lord wants. We want to convert them from their evil ways, right? And turn them to righteousness. We want to teach the husbands how to love their wives as Christ also loved the church and gave them so forth. We want to teach the wives to reverence their husbands, respect their husbands, be under their husband's authority and submit to them. Why? Because that's righteousness. We want to teach the children to obey their parents in the Lord in all things. Why? Because that's a righteous thing to do. We want to teach the young men to not be feminine. Why? Because it's unrighteous for a young man or any man to be effeminate. We want to teach the men to be men, the women to be women. We want to teach men to work hard at their jobs. We want to teach people to be a blessing to their church, to be a functioning member of society. We want to teach young men and young women to know the Bible, to know the word of God, to hate fornication, to hate adultery, to hate murder and abortion, to hate faggotry. Oh, you're teaching people to hate. Darn skippy. Yeah, I want them to hate the things that God hates. Absolutely. I don't like that. He's just not a righteous person. Well, I think I'm righteous. Well, let's measure you according to God's word. Let's have you look in the mirror of the perfect law of liberty and see if that's so. Our goal as a church is we want to work righteousness, okay? And we want to teach people, look, this is what God loves. This is what God hates. We need to view things God's way and do things the way He would want us to do it. And that's what we want to do. We want to raise our children to be righteous people, right? Don't we want to raise our children to love the Lord, to love their parents, to love their church, to love lost souls, to one day love their spouse, but also to hate the workers of iniquity, to hate wickedness and evil and that which is unrighteous, of course we want them to. That's teaching them the ways of righteousness. Go to Daniel chapter number six, if you would. Daniel chapter number six. I look at our church and I feel like we've worked on this. And I'm never gonna say that we've actually achieved this 100% because I don't think we ever will. I think we should strive for these things. I think we should strive to continue to subdue kingdoms. I think we should strive to work righteousness. I think we need to be conscientious that when people are new to our church, that we want to, if they're not saved, of course we want to get them saved, but after salvation that we teach them the ways of the Lord, we teach them righteousness and how to be just and to learn biblical concepts and to clean up their lives and to live a life that's pleasing unto God. You know what I enjoy seeing? I enjoy seeing young men who are just sold out, serving the Lord in their teenage years, zealous for the things of God, sober minded, serious about the things of God. That brings a lot of joy to my heart. Because you don't see that today. When you look out in the world, you don't see that at all. You see a lot of effeminate, soy boy type of young men, they're boys who are just not growing up. We want to raise a generation who loves righteousness. Hey, who knows what the word righteous means? Righteous, what is that? See, most people are like, isn't that like a surfer term, righteous? Righteousness is awesome work. They wrought righteousness. It takes faith. Doesn't it take faith to say, I'm going to raise my children in this godless world, but they're going to love righteousness by faith. We're going to be a burning and shining light in this world, no matter how wicked it is, and we're going to do it by faith. We are going to go against the grain of the philosophies of this world, no matter how wicked or evil it gets, we're going to do it through faith. Because some people just throw in the towel. They're like, all right, roll out the purple lights, get out the hose to come out here and start dancing. We've got to go to the church somehow, get out the drums, get out the rock music. Pastor's like 50 years old, and he wants to wear torn up jeans, a tight polo, no hair, and it's just like, we're just going to work, we're just going to do this, we're just going to do, no. Folks, and here's the thing, let me just say this, is that we're going to work righteousness whether our church grows or doesn't. Amen. So even if the church dwindles down to like 10 people, or if it's just me and my family, and a couple of you guys who like me, we're still going to work righteousness. Why, because it's the right thing to do, no matter what stage you're at in your church. Not only that, but through faith, they not only obtain, they're not only subdued kingdoms, they wrought righteousness, but they obtained promises, and listen to this, they stopped the mouths of lions. That's an awesome phrase there. Of course, this is referring to who? Daniel, right? Look at Daniel chapter six, in verse 15, it says, then these men assembled unto the king and said unto the king, now, know, O king, that the law of the Medes and the Persians is that no decree nor statute, which the king establishment may be changed. The king commanded and they brought Daniel and cast them into the den of lions. Now the king spake and said unto Daniel, thy God, whom thou service continually, he will deliver thee. And a stone was brought, laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords, that the purpose might not be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace and passed the night fasting, neither were instruments of music brought before him and his sleep went from him. Then the king arose very early in the morning and went in haste into the den of lions. And when he came to the den, he cried with a lamentable voice unto Daniel, and the king spake and said to Daniel, O Daniel, servant of the living God is thy God, whom thou service continually able to deliver thee from the lions. Then said Daniel unto the kings, O king, live forever. My God has sent his angel and has shut the lion's mouths that they have not hurt me, for as much as before him innocency was found in me, and also before thee, O king, have I done no hurt. This is an amazing story, you know? And you say, why does it require faith? He had no choice in the matter. Well, it just requires faith and just know, well, I guess if I die, I die, right? But here's the thing. According to the Bible, he had enough faith that God, he knew that God was gonna shut the mouths of the lions. Because God has dominion over the animals. He can change anything. He can protect them and that's exactly what happened. Look at what it says in verse 23. Then was the king exceedingly glad for him and commanded that they should take Daniel up out of the den. So Daniel was taken up out of the den and no manner of hurt was found upon him because he believed in his God. And the king commanded and they brought those men, which had accused Daniel, and they cast them into the den of lions, them, their children and their wives and the lions had the mastery of them and break all their bones in pieces or ever they came at the bottom of the den. So what happened? What goes around comes around, you know? And what we see here is that God vindicated Daniel. He saved Daniel and the punishment that these wicked men wanted for Daniel, they themselves suffered. So you know what I see here? What it requires faith? It requires faith to understand that there's always gonna be justice. Now the justice might not be immediate for us or as immediate as we would want, but mark it down, it will happen. And you know what? We might not hear about it, but it will happen. It'll always happen. And that requires what? Faith. You know, cause some faithless guy who's maybe, you know, he has good intentions, might've tried to fight the guys off and grab one of them and throw them into the lions or something like that. Daniel just went willing, he was like, all right, if this is gonna happen, this is gonna happen. He didn't die, he wasn't consumed of the lions and his enemies who sought his death ended up suffering that same consequence. That requires faith, my friends. That's why it's good in an effort to take vengeance for ourselves, amen? If someone ever wrongs you or they do you wrong or they mistreat you, they defraud you, some enemy of God does something evil against you, don't take vengeance. Jesus said, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay. It required faith, okay? Go to Matthew chapter 10, Matthew chapter number 10. Our church has had a lot of enemies. A lot of people do bad stuff to us, you know? And you know, for me, that is in my flesh. I want vengeance sometimes. Can I just be real honest with you? I wanna just take vengeance sometimes. I'd like to take matters into my own hands. I know some people, you know? But that's not the right thing to do. It's never right. Oh, I can't believe you said that. That's so like, unspiritual and so carnal. Well, you know, I am made of flesh, okay? You know, I'm just being honest and you probably feel the same way. You're just self-righteous and a holier than thou, okay? Reality, yeah, but you're a pastor, yeah. Does that like upgrade me to like a different body or something like that? No, I still have the same flesh. And in my flesh, yeah, I would wanna take vengeance for the wrongs that people have done to me and my family, the wrongs that people have done to me and my church. Of course, who wouldn't? He says, so that's evil though. No, because I don't do it. I don't do it. He said, what do you do instead? I exercise faith and I pray in prequatory prayers. That's what I do. Lord, kill them. And these prayers get vicious. It's not like, oh Lord, you know, just take them away or something and just erase them or something, you know, just. No, it's like break their teeth. Make them get AIDS and die. Or if they already have AIDS, may it just progress even faster and just take them today. Destroy them. Open up the earth and like, I mean, hey, if it's not specific, it's not dynamic, folks. That's what I learned in Bible college. If it's not specific, it's not dynamic. You know, Lord, send fire or do something like cool, you know, just like send lions among them or something. Yeah, but it hasn't happened. I have faith. I got faith that God will judge them. Amen. Not only that, but we also see that through faith, they quench the violence of fire and escape the edge of the sword. By the way, has someone ever done you wrong? You know, have people wronged you? Have you felt something to just, an enemy has wronged you in some way? You know, is that you? Well, have some faith. Amen. The God of all the earth will do right. That's right. That's what God told Abraham. Will not the God of all the earth do right? Of course he will. He will right every wrong. You say, well, I feel like the wrongs that have been done to me can never be fixed. Of course they can. God can rectify anything in a Christian's life as long as they're continuing to serve him, love him, read the word of God, live for him. God can rectify a lot of things. And if you're the person who says, yeah, but not me, okay then, then he won't. I got you. Yeah, you're right, then he probably won't do it for you then because it requires faith. To say, even though this has just been completely destroyed and decimated, can never be fixed, ah, God could do it. God can still fix it. That's madness. No, it's faith. We also see that they quench the violence of fire. Who are the people that quench the violence of fire? Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego. Of course we're talking about the three Hebrew children who were thrown into the fiery furnace. Now here's the thing, okay, that's pretty cool. To quench the violence of fire is pretty cool. But you know where it requires for you to be in order to see that? In the fire. See, most people are like, deliver me from the fire, Lord, I don't wanna go through that, deliver me from this, I just, just move that away from me. Whereas Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego, they're just like, all right, we'll just do it. And the only reason they were able to quench the violence of fire is because they were right in it. That's the only place you'll be able to see that. The only place you'll be able to see God's hand and his miracles is right in the midst, in the thick of it, of the trial, of the persecution, of the difficulty, that's where you're gonna see it. But now that we see that it takes faith to escape the edge of the sword. Now this is pretty interesting here. Who, someone, would you say in the Bible escaped the edge of the sword? David. Right? I mean, how many times did he escape Saul? Over and over. But let me ask you this, was David a coward? No. David was a valiant man. But when Saul was after David, what did he do? He ran. He ran. And you think, well, you shouldn't run. You know, you shouldn't run, you should have stayed behind and fight. Well, there's some times when you just don't fight, you have to run. And that requires faith. It requires humility and faith to say, I'm gonna fight another day, I have to run. That's what David did, over and over and over. And in fact, Hebrews 11 says that through faith, he escaped the edge of the sword. Why? Because he wanted David to live another day. He wanted David to do something else in the future. He wanted David to be king. He had a plan for David, and guess what? Who made the escape? God did. The Bible says, there is no temptation taken but such as is common to man, but God is faithful who will with that temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear. Look at Matthew chapter 10, verse 21 says, and the brother shall deliver up the brother to death and the father of the child and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death. And ye 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 in this city, flee ye into another, for verily I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel to the Son of Man be come. So what is the instruction? When you get persecuted in one city and it's getting to a point where they're bringing the edge of the sword, sometimes by faith, you just gotta run. It's not a cowardice thing to do. It's actually an act of faith, right? Because you're saying, well, I gotta live to fight another day. And I don't know many churches who have had to do that other than ours. We literally, the entire church had to flee to another city. Think about that. He's telling like individuals. We had to relocate our entire church because of the threat. It takes faith. And let me say this. Let me just get personal with you, my church members. I know we got visitors today, but let me get personal with my church members. You know, I've heard a lot of people tell me like you encouraged us, you inspired us, your leadership, but let me just say this. You reciprocate that to me as well. Because you know, when we're going through that whole trial this year, I'm like, well, we'll see how many people we lose because this is pretty deep. This is pretty thick. But over and over again, you know what I saw? The faith of our people who stood against the wows of Satan and were not moved. You know what that did? That inspired me. So in times when I was discouraged and I was fearful and I was weak, of course I looked to the Lord, but you know, I also looked to my church members. And I thought to myself, I got my church members back in me. They're not standing down. They're not breaking rank. And they stood there the entire time. Through it all. And we didn't lose one church member. The only members we lost are the idiots that we kicked out last week. Sorry if you guys missed the show last week. That's why you shouldn't have missed church. You missed church. Ah, I missed it. Some idiots got kicked out last week for railing against me in church. They got their rear ends kicked out of our church. They could've, and you know, after a while, they're just like, well, we could just leave peaceably. Well, that train has, what did I say last time? Sailed. That train has sailed, my friend. You're taking the walk of shame. Those are the only people we lost are people that we needed to lose. People that either got kicked out, were told to leave. No one of importance or substance left. They're still here. And you know what? You guys have a lot of faith. Cause we have faith in God, but we also have to kind of place faith in each other. You have to have like a level of faith in me. For me to tell you like, hey, we're not gonna be in the same county anymore. Or even like, after we got by, we're like, hey, we're gonna meet in someone's backyard. Everyone's like, all right. And then the next week, we're gonna meet in that same backyard. All right. And then next week, we're gonna meet in five different locations. We're gonna split the church in five different groups and we're just gonna meet everywhere. All right. And then we're gonna move counties. All right. I mean, I'm thankful for that. That you're willing, cause it takes faith for you to escape the edge of the sword too. And obviously that's a lot of pressure on me. Cause I'm like, man, I better make sure that I'm making the right decision here. Cause everyone is following me right now. So no stupid decisions right now. So I'm like Solomon Lord, you know, give me a wise and understanding heart to know what I ought to do, to judge your people, to make the right decisions during this time. It requires faith on my part, but it also requires faith on yours to escape the edge of the sword when needed. To flee into another city. And let me just make this a disclaimer, okay? It's only been four years. There's a possibility, I'm just saying, we might need to flee one more time. Or three more times. Throughout our church's ministry. We might start a trend. If we get persecuted again, it's just like, all right, let's pick another county. Riverside. I can't deal with all that moving. I mean, this is what you signed up for when you came to our church. So, but here's the thing, I'm not saying it's gonna happen next week. But I don't know. I'm just saying that this is very much a real thing in our lives. You see, we think of fleeing into a city, a different city, we think of other nations who have Christians, and they're getting persecuted and they have to flee. This is actually real in our lives, folks. Folks, I had to flee into another city. Literally. I had to move into another city because of the persecution was hitting my home. We have to escape the edge of the sword. And that requires faith. So what I'm saying is this, the reason I'm preaching this, or the reason this point is here, is because I just wanna prepare you in case that happens again. We might need to flee into another city. If that ever happens again. But if it ever does happen, I'm just gonna remind you, hey, that's what Jesus said we're supposed to do. Amen. It takes faith. It takes faith. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Out of faith, the Bible also says that, through faith, excuse me, out of weakness, they were made strong. You ever been weak? You ever had just a rough week? Yeah. You having a rough time in your marriage? You having a rough time with your kids? You having a rough time with life? You ever feel a little weak? A little tired? A little fed up? That's when you're weak. You ever just like, you know what, I'm just kinda done. I'm done. I'm done. Like I don't, honestly, I don't wanna go to church anymore right now. I just kinda wanna lock myself in my room and just sleep for like five days. I just wanna like ignore everyone. I'm just kinda done. The bills are stacking up. I'm not doing well in my marriage. You know, my kids are not doing well. My health is not doing well. My mind is not doing well. I'm just kinda done. Great, you're in a perfect position. Because out of weakness, that's when you're actually made strong. That's what the Bible says. No one likes to be in that position. I don't. Because that's a position of vulnerability. We like to be in control. We like to have our ducks in order. We like to know what's gonna happen. We like to make sure that Monday's planned out, Tuesday's planned out. We know what's gonna happen. You know, there's money in the bank. Everything's going great. But here's the thing. That's not necessarily when God shows himself strong on our behalf. Where God shows himself strong on our behalf is when we're weak. Because it's at that point then we actually say, all right, God, I need your help. It's when we're on our knees, we're weak, we're incapable, we can't go forward anymore. We can't even cry anymore. Hey folks, let me ask you something personal. Have you ever cried so much that you just can no longer cry? Have you ever shed so many tears in the night that you can no longer produce tears? That's a difficult situation. That's when you're weak. Have you ever so sorrowful and mournful that you're not even hungry? You're like, no. People can get to that point where food is no longer important. They can no longer tear. They can no longer cry. They're just in anguish and sorrow of heart. You know what the Bible calls that? Weakness. You're weak. But that's okay. Because that's when God steps in and makes up that which is lacking. Look at 2 Corinthians 12, seven. And lest I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelation, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. For this thing I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me. And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Do you want God's power in your life? It's gonna require for you just to be completely depleted of anything that you can do. Vulnerable, weak, incapable. And then that's when God steps in. And his strength is made perfect in our weakness. Now here's the problem is that people go through this and they're just like, well, I'm just gonna get out of church then. I'm just gonna stop reading my Bible. I'm just gonna stop praying. I'm just gonna stop serving the Lord. But what God actually wants you to do is just keep doing those things, even though you're weak, even though you're in anguish of soul, even though he wants you, yeah, cry coming to church. Be mournful, be sad, hurt. And then God shows up and strengthens you. You see, today in 2021, churches are just pumping out these weak Christians who got everything in order and they don't know what it's like to struggle. They don't know what it's like to have anguish of soul. They don't know what it's like to have a loss. They don't know what it's like to have that pain and sorrow because they're always telling them, you're great, God loves you, everything's great and God's not mad at you. Just keep saying everything's great. But when you're actually right with God, that's when trials actually do come. When you're actually serving the Lord, that's when you're a threat to Satan. But it takes faith to say, well, though he slay me, yeah, well, I trust him. It's like even if God makes himself an enemy of myself to the point where he feels like he just needs to destroy me and I guess I'll be destroyed. I guess I'll just die. If my death is required to glorify God, if my death and my anguish and my suffering is needed in order for the work of God to continue to go forward, so be it, my life's not that important anyways. It's not even about me, it's about Jesus. So if I die, if my suffering is on display for the entire world to mock, but it glorifies God and it furthers the work of God somehow, so be it. If that's what I'm born for, so be it. How do I do that? Through faith. Here's the last thing, go to Judges chapter eight. I'm talking about our first works report card. How do we do these things? Through faith. How are we made strong in our weakness? Through faith. And then he says in Hebrews 11, they waxed the valiant in fight and turned to flight the armies of the aliens. It takes faith to be valiant in a fight. So why does it take faith? Because sometimes when we fight, we're actually afraid inside. Actually a little fearful. It's actually a little scary. But then we just wax valiant anyways. When we're being protested and you have all these enemies of God outside, you think to yourself, my family's here, my wife's here, my children are here, my mom is there, it's kind of scary. They're saying, bring Bruce out! Bring Bruce out! They want to kill you. So what do you do? You just go out there and you just wax valiant. Just go out there and mock the hell out of them. You look them straight in the eye and you say, screw you, no I'm just kidding. You look them straight in the eye and you just say like, you guys are gay. You guys are disgusting. And I take nothing back. I remember that day when we went out and we're going at it back and forth with those reprobates and here's the thing folks, it's okay to be afraid. It's okay to be afraid. Just act in spite of your fear. And you know what happens when you act in spite of your fear? You instill more fear in them than whatever fear is in you. Because I remember telling one of those wicked sodomites, I said, if you get me out of this city, you're never going to stop me. And if you do, if you get me out of this city, I'm going to preach harder against you, I said. I'm going to come harder at you. You're never going to stop me. And her eyes got like, what have we done? I was like, you guys will never be able to stop me. I will never stop preaching the word of God. And luckily I wasn't the only one. I mean, I had a, there's a bunch of guys there. I'm not going to say who they were. You know, going out with the sodomites too. Waxing valiant in fights. Even though there might've been a little fear. What can happen? But then he says he turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Now, what does that mean? This isn't referring to like ice. You know, it's not referring to like immigration or something, you know. It's not referring to predator either, okay. It's referring to the fact that when they were going to war with someone, okay, they turned to fight the armies of the aliens. In other words, they chased them out, okay. Now again, this isn't a physical application to us because this is not our job today. Look at Judges eight verse one. Let me give you an example of this. It says, and the men of Ephraim said unto him, why hast thou served us thus, that thou callest not, when thou wentest to fight with the Midianites? And they did hide with him sharply. And he said unto them, what have I now in comparison of you is not the gleaning of the grapes of Ephraim better than the vintages of Abiezer? God hath delivered into your hands the princes of Midium, Orib, and Zeb. And what was I able to do in comparison of you? Then their anger was abated toward him when he had said that, verse four, when Gideon came to Jordan and passed over, he and the 300 men that were with him, look what it says here, faint yet pursuing. So why does it require faith to turn to fight the armies of the aliens? Because they're faint, they're tired, yet they're still doing it. So what is the application there? The application is this. If you're tired, if you're weary, keep pursuing. Keep going forward. If you're tired of this lap that you just run, okay, slow down, but keep going forward. Keep pursuing. Keep seeking to apprehend that which you're apprehended of. Keep pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God through Christ Jesus. Keep running your course. Keep fighting the good fight of faith. Even though you're tired, even though you're weary, even though you're discouraged, even though you're depressed. Folks, these are all emotions of life. This is gonna happen to all of us. The point is keep pursuing. You say, what if I finished my life just a complete failure in my marriage? What if I just finished my life a complete failure in my work? Did you pursue though? Did you try your hardest? Did you not throw in the towel? Yes, then you're not a failure. Because even though you were faint, you pursued. You tried your best. You did everything you could. And this is the goal of our church, is that no matter how difficult things get, we're faint, we're still gonna pursue. Now, none of us are faint today, I don't think. I mean, I literally, like, I'm talking about literally. You know, you might be going through a trial now. I think our church is doing, we're going through a season of peace right now, okay? As a whole, okay? And we oughta enjoy the season of peace, but also prepare for war again, you understand? I said that was the last verse, I didn't lie. I just forgot I had another verse on the other page. Go to Hebrews 13 and that's it, okay? Sorry, it's anniversary. What am I saying this morning? What I'm saying is this, is that in order for us to do what we're doing, or to continue to do what we're doing, to continue to win souls to Christ, to continue to raise up a godly generation, to continue to fight the enemies of the Lord, to continue to do great exploits and have success in our marriage and success with our children, with one another, we just gotta have faith. You gotta do it through faith. You just gotta believe it. And too many times we're just like, but what if? Forget the what if. But if you can't forget the what if, then be like Meshech, Shadrach, and Abednego, who said, but if not, we still won't bow down. If my marriage doesn't get fixed, don't matter, I'm still not gonna quit God. I'm still not gonna quit on God. If my kids don't turn out, I'm trying my best, but if they don't turn out, I'm still not gonna bow down. If I just don't succeed in this area that I'm pursuing after, it doesn't matter, I'm still not gonna quit. I'm just gonna keep at it no matter what happens. Look at Hebrews 13, verse seven. Obey them to have the rule over you. This is referring to me, believe it or not. I'm not telling you, I'm just reading it here. But I am telling you. Obey them to have the rule over you and submit yourselves. Look what it says here. For they watch for your souls as they that must what? Give account that they may do it with joy, not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you. Now, it's debatable when this actually takes place, you know, at the judgment seat of Christ, but I think we can do it now. And here's the thing is that I'm to give an account of you guys. I'm to give an account of First Works Baptist Church. I'm to give a report card to the Lord of First Works Baptist Church. And you and I can say with 100% assurance and 100% heart that I'm doing it with joy. It is not a grief to pastor this church at all. No matter how many meetings, no matter how many counseling sessions, no matter how many problems come through our church, no matter how many difficulties, no matter how many fights sometimes there are and arguments, how many times people like Del Taco or, you know, they eat weird foods and stuff like, you know, no matter how much people hate Keto in our church, no matter what, it's a, let me just be honest with you. It is a joy to pastor this church. I love my church. I love First Works Baptist Church and here's the report that I give at First Works Baptist Church. It's the best church in the world. Best church in the world. And I give this account with joy and not with grief. But I want to say that four years later. I want to say that 10 years later. I want to say that 20 years later. I want to say that 30 years later. I want to say that 50 years later. I want to say that at the second coming of Christ, it's always been a joy to pastor this church. Amen. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We're thankful, Lord, for this church. And Lord, this church began with, it started with a lot of adversity. It was birth and adversity. And we've experienced adversity ever since. And I pray, God, and we're so thankful that we were able to partake in the fellowship of your suffering. I pray, God, that you continue to be with us, Lord. May your hand be upon us. And Lord, preserve us until you return. And Lord, help us to continue to win souls to Christ, to turn people to righteousness. And I pray that, Lord, you continue to bless us as the years go on. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.