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number seven. Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter number seven, the Bible reads, Judge not that ye be not judged, for what judgment ye judge shall be judged, and what measure ye need shall be measured to you again. Why beholdest thou the mote? Because in thy brother's eyes it considers not the being as in thine own eyes. How about thou save thy brother? Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Now here they pray, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly, and cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them unto their feet, and turn again, and rend you. Ask, and it shall be given to you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receive it, and he that seeketh, find it, and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. For what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask? Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men could do to you, do ye even so to them, for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the straight gate, the wise the gate, for broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereafter. Because straight is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are they on ravening wolves. Ye shall know them by their fruits. You may gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles. Even so, every good tree may bringeth forth a good tree, but a corrupt tree may bringeth forth evil. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth evil. Every tree may bring forth evil, but a corrupt tree may bring forth evil. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth evil. Every tree may bring forth evil, but every tree may bring forth evil. And what he will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord of God and Prophecy, in thy name, in thy name of Christ, now and ever, and in thy name of thy many wonderful works. Then, while I profess unto them, I never knew you, and depart from you, he that worketh thee with evil. Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I'll liken them unto a wise man, who built his house upon a rock. The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, where it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be liken unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. The rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and breaketh the fall of it. It came to pass when Jesus had ended these sayings, where people were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one of like authorities, and not as described. Praise be to God, thank you for your word, thank you again for this church, and for our pastors, that's not to be viewed enough, strengthen him, that's the truth of the Holy Spirit, we come upon vitally as a creature to report to us, and in whose name we pray, Amen. Amen. Amen. Alright, we are in Matthew chapter number 7, this morning, looked down at your Bibles at verse number 24, it says, Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock. And everyone that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand, and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. The time I'm gonna show you this morning is the blessing of being persecuted. The blessings of being persecuted. Now I want you to notice here that in Matthew chapter 7, God basically highlights two types of people. One individual is that individual that built his house, his spiritual life, everything that he does for Christ, upon a rock, right? Which is Jesus Christ. And what he's telling us here is that, you know, there's gonna come a time when floods will come. There's gonna come a time when a storm rages, floods come, and they're gonna beat upon that house, they're gonna smash it, they're gonna do whatever it takes to just destroy that household, they're gonna throw a bomb in there, and try to blow it up, they're gonna tackle all over it, they're gonna do whatever it takes to just completely destroy the house, but you know what the Bible says? It fell not. It fell not. Now was there structural damage? Probably. You know, did they do some structural damage to the spiritual house? Yeah, maybe. You know, did they cause a little inconvenience for a time? Yeah, probably, but you know what? It fell not. It didn't fall to the ground. Why? Was it because the person who's in the building is just a great individual because they're just spear-filled? No, it's because it's built upon the rock. That's right. You see, anytime you build anything upon the rock, it doesn't matter how flimsy it may be, it doesn't matter how imperfect it may be, it doesn't matter, it will never fall because of the fact that its foundation is Jesus Christ. You know what? First works Baptist church is built upon the rock. It's right. It's built upon the word of God. And so that's why we have all these people here today. Man. You think blowing up a building is going to just stop us? You think just because you just blow up the building and you just try to scare us and try to intimidate us and you mess up the structural, you know, integrity of the building and just kind of completely fall apart and we're just going to disband, we're never going to become Christian again, I'm never going to preach this again. Wrong. We don't fall. Man. Not because we're great people, but because we're built upon the rock, folks. That's why. You know, obviously, I'm preaching this because of the fact that our church was blown up this weekend and, you know, people try to... The Sodomites are trying to intimidate right now by tagging all over the building and blowing it up and trying to get us out of El Mani. By the way, most of these people come from outside of El Mani. Most of these people are just a bunch of terrorists who just want to cause fear in the hearts of God's people to not meet together. Well, no one's fearing here. You know, if the city would have said, hey, you can still meet here, you just got to clean up a little bit and maybe do something, we would meet there. But it's red tape so we can't meet there. I don't see anyone staying home from this and saying, oh, man, I'm just not going to look for God anymore, I'm not going to read my Bible anymore, I'm not going to do this anymore because I'm scared. No, in fact, we have people who literally flew out, who have literally flown out, they've driven from different states to support, to show their support for what's going on and they know what's happening. Their house is built upon a rock. You cannot move us. We shall not be moved. Amen. You know, some guy commented and said, oh, you said, you know, get ready for war, bring it on, they blow up the buildings. It's exactly what you asked for. Folks, I'm not blown up. Yeah. I mean, I'm blown up on the media right now. That's right. I'm blown up like I thought I would. Yep. I'm blown up. It's all over the media, the stories all over the media. These people are being exposed for the wicked people that they are. Amen. You know, and they can say whatever they want, they're not going to be able to stop the message of God. That's right. And I can stop the preaching of God's word. And look, even if they come and take my life, someone else is going to take my place. Amen. Amen. See, you guys ever heard of the immortals? The person immortals? Well, this is the real immortals right here. Yeah. Right? Because once you get rid of me, someone else is going to take my place. If you get rid of that person, someone else is going to take his place. That's right. Because there's always a person who's going to stand on the gap. There's always an individual who's being used by God to preach God's message and at the end of the day, you're not fighting against me, you're fighting against God. That's right. God always wins. Amen. And God always wins. But I want to be an encouragement to you. The encouragement is this. Hey, let's see the blessings in persecution. Amen. Right. Now, you said, what in the world? I mean, like, they're doing this to your church and how can you even, like, say that? And what do you mean? I'm not saying I thought nothing was going to happen and all these things. Folks, this is the best thing that can ever happen to you. Amen. Amen. This is literally the best thing that can ever happen to you. You say, why is that? I'm going to share with you why. And first of all, let me just say this. Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Amen. Amen. I want to hear an old IFE preacher preach on that now. Yeah. You know what I mean? You know, they shall suffer persecution. We see it in the Bible. We see it in the Old Testament. We see it in the New Testament. Nothing changes. The dispensation of grace, we're not in the dispensation of grace where it's just like, you know, we don't have to preach like that. We just got to win souls and that's it. Folks, we got to preach the entire counsel of God. That's right. Amen. And sometimes when we preach all these doctrines in the counsel of God, it's going to offend someone. It's going to incite the demons out of hell, all these devils that Satan is sending towards us to try to stop us, but it's not going to happen. There are blessings in persecution. Let me say this, number one, go with me if you would to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter number 1. Hey, don't be surprised that when you start building for God that the floods are going to come. That's right. Don't be surprised when you build something for God on the right foundation. Don't be surprised when the wind glows and the floods come and the enemies of God just beat upon that house and threaten and do whatever it takes to stop you. Don't be surprised at that. Because when you're building something for God, you're going to get the attention of the enemies of God. Amen. If you build something for God, you're going to get Satan's attention to try to stop you. That's right. Be not surprised. What should be a surprise to us is when we see people falling. Like, oh man, I guess he didn't build his house upon a rock. Oh man, I guess they didn't build their house upon a rock. Because the reality is, you know, a just man falls seven times but rises up again. Amen. Hey, if thou faith in the day of adversity, thy strength is small. And I want to encourage everyone in here, endure this. Man, man. Endure. Put up with it. Endure it. Stand. Don't move. Keep praying. Hey, let's keep winning souls to Christ. Amen. I'm going to keep preaching. You know, the news being asked me, like, hey, are you going to keep preaching? And I'm like, yeah, why not? It's too late now. It's too late. You know? Why would I stop? Why in the world would I stop preaching God's word just because a building got blown up? And obviously these people think we're attached to a building. That's not my favorite building. I didn't call this. It's not my favorite building. It's a building. Sometimes it's a burden. You know what I mean? You know, variety is the spice of life, folks. Amen. We meet here on a Sunday, on a Thursday, and then, you know, seven kisses out or whatever. So anyways, I'm sorry. You know, we need to make sure that we recognize the blessings of persecution. Okay? Number one, what are the blessings? What are the blessings? It puts the integrity of the building to the test. Look at that, right? It puts it to the test. So what do blessings do? It really shows you what you're made of. It really exposes what you're really made of. It really shows if you're really watching the God. If you're reading the Bible. It shows the integrity. You know what? If the integrity falls apart or there's some structural damage, spiritually speaking, okay, then get back in your Bible. Start memorizing the scripture. Start getting sin out of your life. Start getting right with God. Take things more serious. Hey, now's not the time to kind of be in and out of church. Amen. Now's not the time to be in and out of serving God. Right now, more than ever, you need to be committed. Amen. But it puts it to the test. Look at 1 Peter 1, verse 6 says, Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though, now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold and parishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found into praise and honor and glory of the appearing of Jesus Christ. We, like Joe, want to say, I came forth as gold. Amen. We want to come forth as gold through this entire ordeal. Look, folks, what this does is it really shows you what you are made of. You know, it really shows you what you lack and what you need. And I guarantee you there's a bunch of people in here that says, you know what, my prayer life increased after this whole thing. Amen. I've been praying a lot more. Amen. I've been memorizing more scripture. I've been reading more Bible. I've got sin out of my life. Because I don't want to be an aching. I don't want to partake of the accursed thing. That's right. It caused my camp to lose a battle because of my sin. It caused you to examine yourself. I know I examined myself. That's right. Because I want to make sure that I'm a vessel and to honor the need for the Masters, to use and compare them to every good work. Amen. So allow this to cause you to examine yourself. You know, this is not a church where you can just come in and just kind of, eh, we'll be whatever about the Christian life, especially not now. You know, anybody who visits our church from here on out, it's just like, you got guts, buddy. We're going to see what you're really made out of. But you know what I see today on Sunday morning? I see a bunch of people with a strong foundation and strong structure. Amen. I see people with a lot of integrity. I don't see people who are being intimidated by these people. I don't see anybody who's fearing because of this. I don't think anybody lost sleep last time. I didn't. You know, sometimes I sleep too deep. Hey, he gives us his beloved sleep, eh, man? Amen. I see people who are laughing, smiling, drinking coffee, fellowshipping. I mean, we're happy. Amen. So it shows that, you know, you guys who are building your structure, your spiritual structure, so to speak, you're building it upon the rock, but it's also strong. And this is what we need to remain. We need to remain strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Don't take a break from church. I just want to wait until the dust settles a little bit. Well, it already settled, like, at 2 o'clock in the morning. It already came to that. The literal dust of the bomb already settled. Well, I just want to be here during all the controversy and stuff. Well, then you know what? Then go home. Yep. That's right. Hey, if you're afraid, then go home. Amen. If you're scared, go home. That's right. You know, I recommend for you to take Ice Cube's advice that if you're scared, go to church. Amen. And get some bones. Allow yourself to be exhorted by your brethren. That's the only good advice Ice Cube ever gave. That's right. If you're scared, go to church and read your Bible and allow yourself to be enfolded by your brethren. And look, folks, just to let you know, there's thousands upon thousands upon thousands of people in this country that are 100% behind us. That's right. Thousands of people have reached out to me, thousands of people. People are not even Christians. They're 100% behind us. There's 7,000 prophets who have not bowed the knee to fail. That's right. So fear not. Amen. Right. Go to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. We want to come forth as whole. Our faith is being enshrined right now. Amen. It's going through the fire. Yeah. Because God is pruning us. He's preparing us. And let me just remind you, you think this is bad? You think this is bad? Don't we believe in the Holy Spirit? Amen. Don't we believe that if it so comes in our lifetime that we're going to go through the tributary? That's what it is. That's what it is. People actually die here. That's right. Amen. Amen. I mean, right now we got people 100% behind us and people who are not even Christians. In those days, no one's going to be like this. Yeah. And in fact, they aren't even behind us. They're going to be chasing us. That's what they're doing. Right. The tribulation was all ours. So take this as an opportunity to test your faith, to get strong, get serious about the things of God, and recognize I'm building some strength and some endurance right now. Amen. The rapture so comes in my lifetime, I want to be a little ready. That's right. Matthew 13, verse 18 says, hear ye therefore the parable of the sword. What a man heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not. Then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth the way that which was sown in his heart. This is he which receiveth seed by the wayside. But he that receiveth seed in stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it. Yet hath he not brood in himself, but dureth. In other words, he endures for a while, for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. So this is the individual who gets saved, gets in the church, starts reading the Bible, maybe, you know, starts praying. But here's the thing. He's not rooted. That's right. He's not getting his roots down deep into the dirt. He's not like a palm tree that's going down deep. He's just kind of a superficial type of a Christian. He's not really taking things serious. And you know what? He's able to fool a lot of people in the short term. But in the long term, when persecution arises, because of what? The word. Because of what's being preached. Because of the fact that people don't like what you say. When persecution arises because of the word, by and by, in other words, immediately, he is offended. He falls by the wayside. He gets in the church. He stops serving God. Don't be this Christian. Amen. We're not offended. Amen. We got our roots down deep. Amen. We want to make sure that we're deeply rooted in Christ, that we are strengthening the inner man, that we're not going to be turned, we're not going to be moved. We recognize, hey, we want to be able to endure. Amen. And look, by the way, it says he endured for a little while. Yep. Think about that. We're in the beginning stages of this. Right. We're in the little while. You want to be able to go beyond that. Yeah. Yep. Okay. And look, folks, you say, I don't know if I can handle that. There is no temptation taking over such as this common demand. That's right. Amen. God is faithful who will not tempt you above that you're able, but will also will with that temptation make a way to escape the inner man. Amen. Amen. Not so much we can handle. That's right. He knows how much we can handle. Amen. He knows when to open the door of the furnace to get out. That's right. He knows. And so sometimes, you know, people give the enemies of God a little too much credit. Yeah. Amen. And not God enough credit. Yep. God is the one who opens the door. He's the one who opens the door which no man can shut. He can close doors which no man can open. He has the keys of David. He's the one who is sovereign in this situation. His providential care is running throughout this whole situation. We don't need to worry about it. That's good. Amen. But this person has no root in himself. And look folks, I guarantee you, you thought the old IFB didn't reach against the sodomites before. Whatever hope you have, do it one day do so. Just blew up with that building. That's right. It's gone. Yep. Right now they're just like, I'm really not going to bring this. But you know what? There's still 7,000 that will. That's right. Amen. There's 7,000 that will. Amen. You know what? God does more with 300 than with 10,000. Yeah. That's right. That's good. Because then at that point he gets all the glory. Yeah. Right. Amen. But we have an intention to build a tower. We need to count the costs and see if we have sufficient to finish it. And I believe we do. And the tower that's being referred to in the book of Luke chapter 14 is this tower of the Christian life. Right. We want to be able to finish. That's right. Right. Finish strong. You know, I want you to go to Exodus chapter 1. Exodus chapter 1. What are the blessings of being persecuted? What it puts the integrity of the building to the test. Not our church building. That's not the church. Amen. We're the church. Amen. That's right. And like I told the media, hey, they can burn down a church building but they'll never be able to burn down my convictions. That's right. They'll never be able to burn down my beliefs. Amen. Because it's spiritual. Right. Right. It puts the integrity of the building to the test. Not only that, but let me say this. It embeds what you believe in. That's right. It just embeds everything that we believe, everything that we preach, everything that we talk about. Now, it's going even deeper. Yeah, that's right. Because here's the thing. They want, you know, the blowing up of the building, they want that to say, to make us think, well, man, I'm not going to preach this anymore. Well, now it's impossible for you to do that. Yeah. You actually just have the opposite effect on us. That's right. It's not going to cost you to be like, well, I'm not going to say what you want because we cannot but speak the things that you have seen and heard. That's right. Yeah. And you reinforce what we already believe. That's right. That's right. All the filth and the perversion and the garbage and the violence that you're doing, you're proving that we're right. That's right. So you know what that does? I'm going to believe this even more. Amen. Amen. It means more. I'm going to preach it more. It's not going to take what I believe. You've actually caused me to get those convictions and dig them out deeper and deeper and deeper. Amen. Amen. And you know what happens when that takes place? I'm digging them down deeper into your hearts as well. That's right. That's right. I mean, we're getting them. They want to get me media exposure and try to expose us and stuff, but they're actually helping us. Amen. Yeah. They're like, get them on Fox News and MSNBC and all these things. And then it's just like, cool. I've been trying to get on there forever. This is hard, you know? And then they just do the work for us. Amen. And they're like, are you willing to get in? I'm like, they're interviewing me. And then they always put the best parts of the sermon. I'm like, can I hire you guys to make clips for me? It's great. It doesn't affect us at all. Or should I say, it doesn't affect us in a negative way at all. Amen. All things work together for good for them to love God. Amen. But allow this, one of the blessings of persecution is that it just digs it down even deeper into our hearts. That's right. Because now when you read the Bible, the things that you would kind of bypass and just read over, now you stop and say, whoa, I know exactly how that feels. I know exactly what that means. It's 100% true. That's good for you. Pause a little more. Amen. You reflect a little more. Amen. Look what the Bible says in Exodus chapter 1 verse 11. Therefore, then they sent over the taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Python and Ramses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied in truth. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel. So they're thinking, just, you know, just split them and destroy their building and property and threaten them. But here's the thing. It's like Christianity, Christians can be like, oh, yeah, there's no hope. The more they afflict hope, doesn't he get stronger? Yeah. Does he get more mad? Yeah. He's just like, the more they shoot him or mistreat him, the more angrier he gets and the stronger he actually becomes. Yeah. They got that from here. Yep. Because the more you afflict Christians, the more we grow. Yeah. Right. Personally, our network grows. Yeah. You actually get us more converts. That's right. Yep. And it actually has an opposite effect on what they originally want. Because we want people to see that and be like, oh, man, I'm so done with Christianity. Whereas there's actually people out there like, wow, that's actually pretty cool. Yep. That's right. It's actually savage. That's right. I didn't know, you know, churches were like this manly. Yep. There's women and stuff. There's people who literally visit our churches like, I just can't, that's not even new. Yeah. I think that's great. Amen. And you know what? There's people all across the country that are being won over. Folks, I don't want to say it on camera because I don't want to get people in trouble. There's people in high places that are listening to us. Yeah. That's right. But it's just like, we agree with you 100%. Amen. They actually started listening to me because of this whole situation. Amen. Amen. Good. So don't see affliction as a bad thing. Amen. It's never a bad thing. And again, sometimes we don't give God enough credit to understand how powerful he really is. Yep. That's good. He uses the affliction to expand the message. Amen. And at the end of the day, folks, let's just be honest. It's not even about me. It's not about my friends. It's not about our churches. It's not about the Lord. Right. If God wants to sacrifice our building so that we can get the message out there even further, so be it. Amen. God wants to sacrifice me and my family and my persons and my safety, but it's going to further the gospel, so be it. Amen. Is that the end of that? It's not about me. It's good. It's like a message. Yep. It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might learn that it's not true. Amen. And I guarantee you as you read the word of God now more and more, you're going to read it, and it's going to be more applicable to you than ever. Amen. We're about to finish the book of Acts. We're leaving the book of Acts. Amen. Folks, we're at the protest, and the police are literally escorting me because the mob is trying to get me. They're escorting me to my people. I'm like, I'm like Paul with Laudius. These unbelievers are helping us, and they're just like, they're for us. That's right. And I'm reading this. I'm like, whoa, this is crazy. By the way, it's exciting, too. Amen. Amen. Just be honest. Everyone thinks we're like, we're just kind of like, this is kind of cool. We want a little boring life. That's right. We want buildings to blow up. We want all that stuff because there's only one way to live. Yeah, exactly. Amen. One way to live, folks. Might as well go out in a blaze of glory. That's right. There's only one way to live. Yep. But it embeds what you believe even deeper. And that's a great prize, folks. You know, sometimes Christians struggle. They struggle to read their Bibles, and they struggle to take a stand. They struggle to just have faith, but this causes them to increase their faith in the Bible. Amen. It helps. Okay. If you would, to Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1. The Bible tells us in Ephesians 6, verse 14, it says, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. So it says that we've got to gird our loins with truth. It's like a belt, right? Well, here's the thing. Think about this. In Hebrews chapter 12, it says we need to lay aside the weight and the sin which does the things we just said. Right? The weight and the sin which does so easily. Well, what happens when you physically lose weight? You can tighten it up, tighten the belt up a little bit. Yeah. That's right. You start losing the gut a little bit, and then, you know, before it was just like one little hole, and now you can go to the second hole, and then you can go to the third hole because you're laying aside the weight. Well, you know what? In the Christian life, it's the same thing. When you're being persecuted, you lay aside the weight and sin which does so easily to set you, and then you can gird that truth a little tighter. Amen. Tighten it up a little more around your spiritual waste, so to speak. Your core beliefs become stronger because you're able to tighten it up a little more. Sometimes people, they get a little loose. You know, their heart is as fat as grease. Right. You know, they're spiritually fat, so to speak, so they can't gird their wasteful truth. Number three. What are the blessings of being persecuted? It emboldens others to take a stand. Amen. Right. We inspire other people. That's right. Yep. It becomes an inspiration to others. People hear about what's going on, and they think to themselves, man, this is amazing. That's right. And let me just share with you a personal testimony of mine. How many of you remember the BBC documentary from Pastor Anderson? Yep. Yep. This is actually before Pastor Anderson and I had gotten together about starting a church. I saw that documentary, and it lit a fire under me. Amen. That's good. And I remember watching that, and I remember the very last thing that he said in that documentary was, you know, I want to do something to take away my life. Amen. Amen. And I remember hearing that, and I had tears because I was thinking, I want to do something to take away my life, too. Amen. God, I want to be used, too. Amen. Yeah. Amen. And I remember watching that, and you know what it did? It didn't hold it. Amen. And I said, if this man can do it, he'll be around. Amen. If he can take a stand, he's still alive. Yeah. Look where we're at today. Amen. You know what? There's going to be someone else watching this. Yeah. And they're going to see that, and they're going to say, I want to do something for God, too. That's right. Yeah. Amen. I want to serve the Lord. I want to win souls of Christ. Amen. It's going to light a fire under someone. Amen. Yep. That's right. It always does. And by the way, it's biblical. Look at Philippians chapter 1, verse 12. But I want you to know, you should understand, brethren, that the things which happened to me have fallen out rather, until the furtherance of the gospel. He's saying, look, all this is for the furtherance of the gospel, so people can get saved. Amen. So then, by my bonds, you know, he's in prison. By my bonds in Christ, they're manifest in all the palace and in all the places. And many of the brethren in the Lord, waxing confident by my bonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Amen. Amen. Amazing. Yeah. He said, people are looking at me in prison, and they're just like, man, I want to be like Yup, man. I'm going to be more bold to preach the word of God. I'm not going to be afraid of the enemies of God. I'm going to be more bold. I'm going to take a stand. I'm going to preach the word of God, because if He can do it, so can I. That's right. And that's one of the blessings of being persecuted, folks, is that the limelight is on you. And you know what? The people who are looking at your reaction, how you're taking a stand, they see that, and they say, I want to do the same exact thing. Amen. I want to be a pastor. I want to be a preacher. I want to stand for truth. I want to be a soul winner. I want to be associated with God's people. I want to suffer the afflictions with the people of God, and to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. Amen. It always happens. Yeah. Always. He said, I thought you said there's going to be people who are not, I'm talking about like, the people who are not going to be doing this are those, are those who are already pastors. Yeah. The ones who are just like, you know, they're just, they're already done. The Spirit of the Lord, you know, has left them. And they wish not. These are the people who are not taking a stand. They're just, they're just kind of, they're just, they're just, they're just, they're already done. The Spirit of the Lord, you know, has left them. And they wish not. These are the people who are not taking a stand. They're just, they're just kind of crew and control crew. I'm talking about the younger generation. That's right. Amen. They're going to see this entire ordeal. They're going to see everything that's going on. They're going to look at your reaction, your response, your stand, and they're going to say, we're going to do this. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Where is that? Right. Amen. Amen. Amen. Yes. if it doesn't work according to his plan. Think about that. What if something happens to you? Well, here's the thing. If it's not in accordance with God's plan, it's not going to happen. That's right. What do you say? Look at chapter 4, verse 12. Beloved, think not strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you. Fiery, bonding trial. As though some strange thing happened to you. I promise you, we woke up, and I did not think it was strange that that happened. My wife and I were actually laughing while we were laying down. We were laughing like, this is fun. One of the reasons we were laughing was because of my employees. When all this is happening, I told them. I said, look, don't send me any more comments of what people are saying and messages. I don't want to see that stuff. I said, I'm going to take my family out for a couple days. Don't bother me. I said, unless someone blows up the church, just literally blows up the church and burns it down, I don't want to know about it. Got it. Get a call in the morning. Pastor, you said not to call you unless someone blows up the church. So someone blows up the church. So that's why I'm calling. I feel like I should have said, don't call me unless someone's going to give us like a million dollars. You hear that the church got blown up, or someone's lighting it on fire. Jokes on you. I already knew something like this was going to happen. You're not catching me by surprise. I don't think it's strange. Well, why not? Because we're living for God. So obviously, things like this are going to happen. This is what happened. Right. We don't think it's strange. You don't want to say, but rejoice. As much as you're partakers, Christ's suffering. That when his glory shall be revealed, he may be glad also with exceeding joy. Amen. Amen. You see, folks, at the second coming of Christ, there's going to be people who are ashamed. Yeah. Because they're going to see his coming. They're going to be like, dang, it's too late to do anything else. Right. There's no more time. Right. At that point, every old I had be preaching is going to preach again with God. For two seconds. For two seconds. But the people who have been serving God, the people who have been partakers of Christ's suffering, we're going to welcome his coming with exceeding joy. Amen. That's good. It's like, this is what we've been waiting for. Right. I mean, doesn't this make you think about eternity so much more? Yeah. I know I've been thinking about heaven a lot. Amen. Now, obviously, there's times throughout the week when I feel like, man, eternity is so far away. I know it's real. I know God says it's true. But it just seems so far away. Amen. Sometimes it seems that way. Amen. But here's the thing. Once we're in eternity, once we're already there, this is going to seem very far away. That's right. This is actually going to seem further away than what eternity seems to us now. Right. We're going to be 1,000 years into the millennial reign. We're all laughing about this. Right. You know, kind of disappointed today. We've been blown the entire day or so. He says, if you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rested upon you. On their part, he's even spoken of, but on your part, he is glorified. What is he saying? Hey, let this be a confirmation, and you have God's power. Amen. God's power rests upon you. Go to Revelation chapter 3. Revelation chapter 3. The blessings of persecution is this, hey, it reminds us of our inevitable reward. Amen. Think about that. The reward is now inevitable. Amen. We will get the reward now. That's good. At one point, I mean, we have it. Yep. Every time someone has reviled religious people, I'm not the only one being persecuted here. My church is being persecuted. Right. People calling their jobs, harassing them, you know, saying that they're doing the whole manner of evil against them. I got a church member, someone said that they're going to go burn down his house. Everyone's being persecuted here. And look, you know what it does? It's like, ching. More rewards. Amen. That's right. It's solidifying and cementing the reality that we will be rewarded. Amen. It's inevitable now. That's why it says rejoice, for great is your reward. Amen. So if there's times when I get down in the dumps, I read this, and I'm like, whoa. That means they're like, all right, bring the reward right here. He just earned himself another reward. And right now, it's like a train of rewards, because this is like, no, stop. We're just bringing in the rewards and then just cementing that for us. It's inevitable for us. By the way, this is not going to be the thing. Well, I got my reward, so I'm not going to preach hard anymore. No. Amen. Amen. Our faith is in Greece. Revelation 3, verse 7 says, until the angel of the church of Philadelphia writes, these things say it, he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that open it, and no man shut it, and shut it, and no man open it. I know that word. Behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. But thou hast a little strength, and hast kept my word, and hast denied my name. Amen. Powerful. Amen. He says, behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, say they are Jews, and they are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee. Because I was kept the word of my patience, I will also keep thee from the hour of the patient, who shall come upon all the world to try them that draw near. Amen. By the way, this is referencing, because you wonder, why is the door being mentioned and all these things? What is that a reference to? It's a reference to Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego going through a fiery furnace. Amen. Yep. They had little strength in denying his name. They threw him into that fiery furnace. And let me just say this. If I get thrown into a fiery furnace, I'm like, OK, so God's plan is for me to be martyred. Amen. I'm going to die. They get thrown in there. Jesus Christ shows up. Not a hair of their head is singed. Amen. Folks, when they came out of that furnace, don't you think that their faith was increased just a little bit? Amen. If I was here, I wouldn't be like, there's not even a fire in the furnace. Did Jesus just see what happened? I'm sure they're thankful that they took that stand. Amen. Because taking that stand caused them to go through the fire, literally, caused them to see Jesus Christ, the Son of Man, walking through them, walking through that fire with them, and come out, and their faith is just that much more increased. And the kingdom was changed because of that. Amazing. So folks, stick it out and do it because it's going to increase your faith. Amen. I promise. It's a promise from God. It will increase your faith. A great thing will come out of this. It always does. That's right. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his goodness. It's going to happen. And look, try to imagine the greatest thing that could come out of this. I guarantee you, it's far exceeding greater than that. Because he's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Yeah, amen. That's good. You guys might have a good imagination, but not as good as God's. Yeah. Right. You guys might have good plans, but I guarantee you, God's plans are far more exceeding than that. Yep. I know the thoughts that I think of you, thoughts of peace, and that I'm able to give you and expect to have. It increases our faith. What if Philippians chapter, or actually, you're in Revelation, I'm going to read to you from Philippians. Here's my last point. And really, this is the most important. I've already hit on this a little bit, but this is probably the most important thing out of all of it. We're going to talk about the blessing of the Persecution. What's one of the best blessings, the greatest blessing of the Persecution? When we're persecuted, that's actually when we can experience deep fellowship with Jesus. Amen. Amen. Obviously, when we read the Bible, we're communion with God. When we're in communion with God, when we keep sin in our lives, we're communion with God. When we pray. But it's only when you actually go through Persecution do you experience actually a deep communion with God. Amen. That's good. And in fact, when we read from Philippians 3, verse 10, it says, that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of the Supper. Right. Being made conformable unto His death, if by any means I might attain Him to the resurrection of the dead. Paul said, I want to know the fellowship of the Supper. Amen. Isn't your heart knit with people who have gone through the same thing that you've gone through? Yeah. Yeah. It's like a special tie there. Amen. It's a special relationship you have with people when they've experienced the same exact heartache and pain that you felt. Well, Jesus says the same thing. When people are reproached, reviled, and hated, afflicted, and persecuted for what it's to be saved, that person holds a special place in the heart of Jesus. That's right. That's good. Fellowship of the Supper. Amen. If you've heard it, you can read it in Greek. Verse 20, I've often used this in the wrong way. In many practices, I've used this in the wrong way. I've often used this verse to basically show that it's almost like a soul-wanting verse, like a salvation verse. Look what it says in verse 20. Behold, Jesus speaking. I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and sub with him, and he with me. What is he talking about? Well, he just spent chapters 2 and 3 going through the seven churches which are in Asia and explaining all the sufferings, and the afflictions, and the persecutions that they were experiencing. Some failed at it. Some didn't. Some came out passing the flying color. I mean, they did some exceeding great works. And the last church lay at the CN, he's telling them, hey, I counseled you to buy up gold trying to buy it. You guys are lukewarm. You guys should go through some persecution. You guys should go through some affliction to kind of get you back on the course. And then at the end of the chapter, he says, look, behold, I stand at your door and knock. So he gives you all these examples of these seven churches, and then he goes to First World Baptist Church. He goes to Faith War Baptist Church. He goes to Verity Baptist Church. He goes to any church that's preaching the Bible, right way of salvation, and he says, hey, I'm knocking at your door too. And he's not knocking to see if, like, you know, you're going to preach his word. No, he's standing at the door to see if you're willing to suffer for his name. Yeah, amen. That's good. What does he say? I will suffer for you and you with me. What is that fellowship? Right. So here's the thing. Jesus is going through all these churches and knocking on the door and saying, is anyone willing to suffer for my name's sake? Is anybody willing to suffer to approach for me? And here's the sad thing. You know, a lot of churches, they don't know what they're doing. They have fear. They don't know what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. And Jesus is still outside. He said, what happened this week? We opened the door. Amen. Amen. Amen. We will suffer for you, Lord. Amen. We have fellowship with you. We will suffer for your name's sake. We will suffer to reproach and there will be violence for you as we want to fellowship with you. Amen. The sufferings of Christ. Amen. And that is the greatest blessing that any one of us would ever receive. Amen. Did you know now First Words Baptist Church holds a special place in the heart of people? Amen. Amen. We're for taking a reception. Right. Hey, look at the silver. There's only a silver lining. Everything's silver in the middle of this whole situation. Amen. Everything's great. Everything's great. Are there inconveniences? Of course. This is the way life is. Amen. There would be inconveniences if we weren't serving God. Yeah. Right. Yep. And the inconvenience of God is against us. Amen. Amen. Amen. There's always going to be problems. Hey, you only have one life to live. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.