(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Alright, thank you so much Pastor Anderson and Faithful Word Baptist Church for allowing me to come and preach to you guys tonight. Probably the biggest crowd that I've ever preached to before, so just bear with me if I get a little nervous. Obviously all the way from Australia, a little bit jet lagged as well. And I realise that probably a lot of you don't know me, don't know much about me, so just very quickly I'll give you a brief introduction. Now when it comes to Judges Chapter 1, we will come back to Judges Chapter 1 later in the sermon. So while I give you a quick introduction about myself, please turn to Psalm 116, Psalm 116, and I'll give you the title for the sermon later on as well. But go to Psalm 116, and just very quickly, just so you know about me, you're probably wondering, look this guy doesn't look Australian, right? I mean we're expecting this white Aussie, and this guy looks like a Latino, you know, like a Chileno. But that's what I am, and I'll get into that later on as well. But look, I was saved, I grew up in a Christian home, you know, thank God for that Christian home, my mum gave me the Gospel when I was four years old, received Christ at that early age, attended a Baptist Church pretty much my entire life. So after I got saved, I went to the pastor and he double checked and made sure that I was saved, and he confirmed it to my mother that I understood the Gospel at four years old. And then you know, grew up, to be honest with you, the Baptist Church was a little bit watered down. I mean I had a great preacher to begin with, he was a King James man, preaching strongly from the Word of God, but we had a change of pastors and it started to get watered down, and so it affected my Christian life as well. But when I was 18 years old, I got my first soul saved, my very first soul saved at 18 years old. So I did, the only thing that I knew what to do was I married her, all right? So the first soul was my wife, Christina, we've been married for 16 years, last week we celebrated our 16 year anniversary, and we've got 10 kids, and number 11 is on its way in early May, early May number 11, and I know what you're thinking, you know, they're just trying to catch up to the Anderson's, no that's not true, we're trying to beat them, that's what's happening, all right? That's a joke, all right? So one thing I've noticed that, you know, Australian humor is a little bit different to American humor, all right? So if you're scratching your head and you're wondering, you know, is he joking? I'm joking, okay? If you're wondering is he joking, I'm joking, okay? So just so you know, I'm really happy with the large family that we have, I've been pastoring for two years, so as Pastor Anderson mentioned, I passed a church on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland in Australia, and that is New Life Baptist Church, so I've been doing that for just over two years, and funnily enough, as a result of the Trinity controversy that you guys went through, it had an effect down in Sydney, and so I also pastor a second church down in Sydney, I fly down every week for the mid-week services, it's about an hour and ten minute flight, every Tuesday I fly down there and conduct the mid-week services, so we have another church down in Sydney, which is Blessed Hope Baptist Church, it's operating as an independent body right now from New Life Baptist Church, but I'm still pastoring both those churches, so that church has been going on for just over a year and a half as well. So I've got a few members here from Blessed Hope Baptist Church down in Sydney, just supporting me as well, they've come here as well. So that's basically my story, you know, just so you guys know a little bit about myself, I came here to talk to you guys about Australia, so obviously Australia's been in the news a lot with the fires, so let me just say obviously there's a narrative behind that, the global warming narrative, and just the push to show the wildlife that has died, and they value wildlife as much as human life, and you can see the narrative that is just being pushed by the media, but here's the thing, Australia's a great country, so it's quite a large country, and a lot of the fires were not affecting the majority of Australians, most Australians were not being affected directly by the fires, but a lot of the smoke was causing the sun to look red, I mean it looked like the end times, you're expecting any moment for the stars to fall from heaven, was that the tribulation sort of situation, but let me tell you a little bit about Australia, because it is a relatively young nation, in 1788, and I'm going to give you a bit of your history here, so you get to know more about my nation, but in 1788 the first fleet sailed from England into Botany Bay, that's the first fleet, and it was made up of 11 ships, and most of the people, the passengers on those ships were convicts, and then you had obviously those that were looking after convicts as well, and so it was a penal colony for the crimes, for the criminals that Britain had and some other nations, they couldn't house them in their jails, so they decided well why don't we ship them off to this brand new land, Australia, and so it did start off as a penal colony, now here's the thing, Australia gets a bad rap, they think man Australia is full of convicts, and there are many Australians that are third, fourth generation Australians that do come from convicts, but very early on, not just convicts, but there were many free settlers as well, many free settlers just deciding hey I'm going to start a new life, going to go to Australia, get some land for myself and make a living for myself, so Australia started with a lot of free settlers as well, now when it comes to the convicts, you would think if you're going to be transporting people from one nation to another, you'd think these are the murderers, you'd think these are just the vile criminals, just as bad as you get, but really there was a lot of poverty in the UK at the time, so these were people that were just trying to feed themselves, people that were stealing things, stealing bread, doing these what maybe you'd consider petty crimes, and those things were causing them to be sent to Australia, and so that's basically the history of Australia, that's where we started to establish ourselves, and as the first fleet, the 11 ships, as they were coming into Botany Bay, they actually anchored on the 26th of January, so the 26th of January is what we know as Australia Day, so that is actually Sunday, so this coming Sunday is actually Australia Day, the 26th of January, so that's when they anchored and they settled in an area which they named Sydney Cove, so now you know where we get the term Sydney from, Sydney, the largest international city I suppose of Australia, it's got about 5 million people, so that's where the beginnings of Sydney is, that's our largest city, now on the 3rd of February, so 8 days later, after they anchored in Sydney Cove, look at your Bibles, turn to Psalm 116 verse 12, 8 days later they held a church service, there was a chaplain on the first fleet, they held their first service on the 3rd of February, and this is the passage that was read, as far as I know, this is the first time the Bibles read on this land, it was read from a King James Bible, and the Bible reads in verse 12, what shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord, what a great scripture, what a great scripture to turn to, you know the very first scripture that was read in Australia, now unfortunately I did have a look at the chaplain and what he preached, it was a faith plus works, repenting your sins, gospel message, unfortunately the gospel was corrupted, it was a bit of a dud, the chaplain, but the scripture that was read, the power of God's word, and I just look at that as I was preparing for the sermon today, and I was thinking you know what, this truth, this scripture, this needs to be proclaimed in Australia today, you know, and I'm very thankful that we did at least have the word of God at the very humble beginnings of Australia, but as I said unfortunately we had a bit of a dud of a chaplain that came on the ship as well, so a total of 47,000, sorry a total of 1,300 passengers were on board of the first fleet, 1,300 passengers going through Botany Bay into Sydney Cove, and it's quite interesting because our international airport in Sydney is located in the same area, in the same general area, so now into Sydney we get 47,000 passengers coming into Sydney, either internationally or domestically, coming through sort of the same routes that the first fleet did as well, so you know as I was mentioning it wasn't just a penal colony, but there was also many free settlers trying to make a life of themselves as they were coming into Australia, so that was 1788. Now I also want to give you a little bit of Baptist history, okay, because the first Baptist started to appear in Australia in the 1830s, the 1830s we started to see our first Baptists, again they were free settlers coming from the UK, established themselves and I believe the first Baptist church was planted in 1836 in Sydney, and in the 1850s, that's where Australia had a spike in the population, you know quite a large spike because we had the gold rush, and you know there's gold, there's wealth to be had, so all of a sudden you had a lot of people immigrating to Australia, a lot more free settlers coming in so they could partake of that gold rush trying to make not just a life of themselves, making themselves wealthy, so that was one of the main spikes that brought a larger population into Australia. Now in 1901, 1901 Australia became an independent state from Great Britain in 1901, that's what we call Federation, but it wasn't really its own sovereign nation, even though it was independent, it was its own independent state, Great Britain could still force us to establish the laws they wanted, okay, so it wasn't really till 1986 when they passed the Australia Act, 1986 given us our own independence and we're an independent sovereign nation, you know as Australia, so that was pretty recent, 1986 and Great Britain could no longer force their laws into our land. Now not only do we know a little bit about the Baptist history there, but I want to tell you a little bit about the independent, you know and we're independent fundamental Baptist, so we do have a little bit of a history there as well and just like it was in the US, it was the 20th century when we started to see the independent Baptist pull away from certain churches or pull away from certain, what do you call it, for you guys it was the Southern Baptist wasn't it and they were making themselves, the reason for that was because a lot of these churches were becoming liberal, were becoming very modern, you know they weren't upholding the word of God as their final authority and as it happens through many generations, people have to pull away and make sure they stick to the fundamentals of the faith. So we had a similar thing, as you guys were going through that in the US, around the same time Australia was going through something very similar and so we started to see the development of independent Baptist churches. Now in Australia, if you go to an independent Baptist church, there's a cultural difference, there's almost like two types of independent Baptist churches, I'm not talking about doctrinally, I'm not talking about the different flavours of independent Baptist, just the culture within those churches. So obviously from America, we started to have American missionaries from independent Baptist churches coming to established churches in Australia. But of course as American missionaries come in, they bring their American culture. And you know one of the big differences between American culture and Australian culture is you guys are a lot more formal, especially how you do church, it's a lot more formal, but then we also had the Baptist churches of Australia and they formed what we called Baptist unions, so we had all these Baptist churches and they would be united, almost like a denomination, very similar to the Southern Baptist and they started to become quite liberal. In that situation, we had some churches make the decision to become independent from that group. So they were coming with more of an Australian culture and again like I said, it's a little bit more relaxed, not so formal and so that's how the independent Baptist started to establish themselves in Australia. You've got the American culture, you've got the Australian culture, churches pulling away from the Baptist union and even some church splits. And I'll just give you a quick story because one of my former pastors, I believe this was in the 1970s, he was attending a Baptist union church and the church was going for a split from the situation, there were some members that wanted to become independent, they wanted to pull away from what they were seeing, this liberalism creeping into the church and he was divided, like he was a young man, he would ride his bike, as I remember the story, he would ride his bike to church and there was a big Sunday where there was this huge split and he didn't know what to do. He knew there were good families that were splitting away, there were some good families they looked up to that remained in the Baptist union church and I remember his story, he said I just prayed to the Lord, he was riding his bike, he just prayed to the Lord and said Lord I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go but please lead me to the right church because there's this split, what do I do Lord? And so as he's praying he saw a family from his church and they were driving to church and he said well I'm just, Lord I'm just going to follow where they go. So he started to follow them on his bike and he found out, well they actually pulled away, they split away from the Baptist union and they were part of forming an independent Baptist church and he went into that and he obviously became a pastor. That's kind of a story that I want to share with you guys so you can sort of see how the independent Baptist churches developed in Australia. So you can basically walk into some of those churches and go well this has an American culture to it, especially if some of the people have gone to Baptist, Bible colleges over here they'll come back with a lot of that American culture as well. Then you go to some other Baptist churches and it just feels different, it feels more Australian as it were. Not that one's better than the other, it's just the situation that it is with the independent Baptist churches there. So I like my pastor's story there, how he prayed to the Lord and the Lord led him to the right decision to join the independent Baptists and that just reminds me of Proverbs 3.6 which says in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths. And I thank God because he's truly a God that answers prayer, he's truly a God that when you acknowledge him, when you walk in his ways, he's going to lead you in the right paths, he's going to lead you to the Lord, he's going to lead you to walk in his ways. And I'm very thankful to the Lord for the blessing he's been to me, for giving me a Christian home, for giving me a great Christian heritage and I personally joined the independent Baptist churches when I was about 21 years old. I was 21 years old with the first soul that I got saved, we got baptized in our first independent Baptist church, we were wedded as well there, so I praise God for that. And you know one of the decisions I had to make, because I was going to one of those Baptist Union churches as a young man and I remember just as a child, I had friends that were Catholic, so I knew they were unsaved, I knew that they didn't have the right gospel but I didn't know how to give them the gospel and I'll never forget one of the pastor's sons from the church, he was going to preach about the Catholic church and my parents, we would not normally go on a Sunday night church service, they were pretty much a Sunday morning service only kind of family and he was going to preach Sunday night about the Catholic church and I was excited, I said, you know, mom and dad, can we go, I want to learn about the Catholic church, I want to win my friends to the Lord, so you know, we got there, I had pen and paper, I was like okay, I'm going to learn or I'm going to be able to win these guys over and the guy gets behind the pulpit and says well, you know the Catholics, they're our brothers, we're becoming a little bit more like them, they're becoming a little bit more like us and look, I'm like a 12 year old kid here, this is wrong, this is wrong, I mean, we walk past the Catholic church, we have their statues, we have their idolatry so that's not the God I know, they're not brothers in Christ and I was discouraged and I said to myself that day, I'm never going to be a Baptist because I was young, I said no, this is crazy, thank God later on, I found out about the independent Baptist, okay, I realized okay, cool, there's a group of believers that you know, a lot more up my alley you know, they stand with the word of God, they believe the word of God and I'm very thankful for the first IFB church that I attended, the first church I was only there for two years but I was grounded in God's word, I really had a great preacher, I mean he preached against repenting of sins believe it or not, he called that another gospel and I didn't know there was a controversy, I thought yeah, of course that is, salvation by grace through faith and not of works, praise God, that's the gospel, so that's just a little bit about Baptist history there and you know, when it comes to Australia and you know, I'd say that it is less receptive than the USA, less receptive and one example of this is you know, I've gone soul winning in America a couple of times now and if I don't have my numbers wrong here, there's been, I've had five opportunities, five opportunities to give the gospel from start to finish, like the entire gospel message and five out of five times they call upon the name of the Lord, praise God, one for one, I don't know if that's the average, I don't really know but that's pretty cool because in Australia, I have to give the gospel you know, from you know, from start to end, three or four times before someone calls upon the name of the Lord, okay so that gives you sort of a rough idea, now you know, you probably have as many chances to give them the gospel but you won't see as many people decide to call upon the name of the Lord in Australia so it is a little bit less receptive than the USA and we've had some Americans come through and visit our churches, they've gone soul winning with us and I believe they can testify as well that it's been a little bit tougher than what they you know, are used to in the United States and part of it, you say why is that, you know, why is that the situation, part of it I believe is Australia's wealth, Australia's a very wealthy country you know and I was just looking up some stats for the sermon and when you look at the wealth per adult, Australia comes second in the world, wealth per adult, Switzerland came first and the United States came third, okay but when you look at it, there's a few ways to measure wealth and another way to measure wealth was the median, the median wealth per adult and when you measure it like that, Australia comes first, okay so whatever way you measure it, Australia per adult you know, it's a wealthy nation, we don't go without, I know there's a poverty line but no one's in poverty in Australia, okay so everyone's quite wealthy and Australia also has the highest minimum wage in the world, the highest minimum wage in the world so it's actually very easy to make a life for yourselves, so if any of you guys want to join our church you know, you probably better make a life for yourself, is that sheep stealing, sorry Pastor Anderson, I don't know but you know, you can be you know, the garbage man, collecting garbage and you'll be respected you know, everyone in Australia you know, we've got this saying that in Australia we've got this tall poppy syndrome they call, like Australians don't like it when people elevate themselves above their station, you know people like to keep people you know, humble and low so you know, even the garbage man, he'll be respected for his job, he'll be able to you know, make enough to provide for his family and it's very rare that Australians like you know, if it's a single income family, it's very rare that you'd have to take like a second job to provide for your family, okay like I'm a single income and a large family, I've never had to take a second job to provide for my family so it's quite a wealthy nation and of course you know, I can only think of Luke 18 24 and when Jesus saw that he was very sorrowful he said, how hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God and so look you know, Australia's blessed with wealth but then that hardens the heart of the people you know, toward the gospel and that's the situation that is in Australia, it is a very wealthy country and when I talk about the wealth of Australia, it's not, Australians typically they don't, it's not about quantity, it's not necessarily about getting the larger house and you know, the bigger cars, we wouldn't have cars as big as you guys but it's not about quantity so much, it's more about quality of life, okay so you know, for example, correct me if I'm wrong but you guys get about 10 days of paid holiday, if you're a full time worker, you get 10 days of paid holiday or in Australia, we get 20 days, double, double what you guys get, right, Australians are looking for a quality of life, they're looking to retire early you know, they're looking to scale back work and not necessarily work full time but work part time so when it comes to wealth, it's not about you know, how much they can get but it's more about you know, trying to enjoy life, you know, they love their holidays, they love to you know, it's a much more relaxed sort of culture or society than what I find in the United States and so because you know, people are more relaxed in life, you know, they're not trying to you know, they're not hungry, you know, that has an effect on the gospel, that has an effect because why? Because they've made a life for themselves, you know, for them, they don't think they need the Lord, that they don't think they need salvation and one of the common sayings and I realize you got a few Aussie slangs there but one common thing that he said when you give them the gospel, they'll say, she'll be right mate, she'll be right and that just means it'll be okay, like you know, you know, are you 100% sure that you'll be going to heaven, she'll be right, you know, in other words, when I meet the Lord was sorted out at that point, you know, and so they're not really concerned, they're not really concerned about their future, they're concerned for the here and now, they're enjoying life, they're not suffering, there's no persecution, you know, it's a very free country, we even have freedom of religion in Australia, so you know, you can go door to door, so you're not going to be stopped for, you know, preaching the word of God or having church services or anything like, I mean, your pastor got banned but you know, I mean, that's not just Australia, right, I mean, that's pretty much everywhere else, so but you know, that's just the situation, you know, and we need more labourers, we need more labourers and you know, unfortunately, I know of good independent Baptist churches that were once soul winning, you know, week in, week out and they're no longer doing that anymore because obviously, it was much more effective in the 70s and the 80s and they're just finding that it doesn't have, you know, it's not effective today, you know, for them, it's not adding numbers to their church necessarily and that's how they measure success, I'm pretty sure that's how many Americans would measure success, how many people come to the church building and they're not thinking about, well, are we doing the work of God, you know, are we going out there preaching the gospel, are we doing the great commission and yeah, so that's definitely one of the challenges that Australia has going soul winning. Now when it comes to, let me talk about the exports, Australian exports, I hope this is, you know, good information for you guys but you know, Australia does have a lot of exports and the three main exports that Australia has is iron ore, number one, number two is gold and number three is wheat, okay, iron ore, gold and wheat but there is one export that I'm very embarrassed about and you guys probably are very familiar about it but it's hell song, okay, I mean, hill song, hill song, hill song, I mean, no actually, it is hell song, it is hell song, okay, I mean, that is one of the worst exports that we have in Australia, all right and that was birthed in Sydney, I think that church started in Bochum Hills so in Sydney we have this district called the Hills District and that's where they get the name hell song so it's an Assemblies of God AOG offshoot that was started by some New Zealanders in Australia and it's taken off so you know, hell song is very, it's known for their music, very sappy, you know, it almost sounds like they're singing to a girlfriend when they're singing to the Lord, I mean, it's just, you know, there's no doctrine, there's nothing that you can, you know, ground, you know, your beliefs in and learn doctrine, there's nothing like that and I'm embarrassed because, you know, I often think about the US and the things you guys export, you know, Hollywood and all the nonsense, I'm just embarrassed that, you know, Australians are exporting this kind of nonsense as well but it's massive, I looked it up, they've got 80 churches in 21 countries, 80 churches in 21 countries and it's really their music that brings attention, it's not the Word of God, it's not the preaching of the Word of God and listen, I've never, I've met a lot of Hillsong members out door knocking, you know, but I've never come across one that was saved, you know, why? Because it's a loss of salvation, you know, it's a faith and works gospel but, you know, the good news is a lot of them are receptive because, you know, they hear, you know, they have some knowledge of Christ and they don't have the confidence and they're looking for the, they want to know, they want to know how to be saved and so many of them actually do get saved as we go door to door soul winning so, but yeah, sorry guys, you probably have Hillsong's here, I didn't look it up but I'm pretty sure you would have that but here's the thing about Hillsong, the founder of Hillsong, Brian Houston, his father, his father, what was his name, I've forgotten his name, let me just see if I can find that out, Frank Houston, his father, he was a leader in the AOG church, okay, and he was accused of sexually abusing nine boys, nine young boys in Australia and New Zealand, so this is a New Zealand family, you know, he's sexually abusing little children, he's a pedophile, okay, he's a homosexual, he's a sodomite and that's what his father, you know, Brian Houston's father was doing and he said well that has nothing to do with Brian Houston, you know, the founder of Hillsong but here's the thing and currently Brian Houston in Australia has been investigated for covering it up because it's his father and he was like the president of the Assemblies of God I believe in Australia, he was the president, he was covering that up for his father and so currently he's on the investigation for the wicked things his father has done and so look, it's Hillsong, you know, I mean the founders are pedophiles or at least covering up pedophilia and you know, I mean that's just a corrupt tree, you think you're going to find any good fruit from the corrupt tree coming from that church, absolutely not and unfortunately, you know, these are the churches that are taking off and unfortunately, there are independent Baptists in Australia following the formula, they're going to the Hillsong conferences, right, they're taking the music from those churches and bringing them, you know, into their churches and you guys have your, what is it, Josh Tice, Josh Tice, he's having an effect on independent Baptist churches in Australia as well and so I'm saddened because, you know, when I decided look, independent Baptist, those are the churches, that's the preaching I want to hear, they seem to be proclaiming the truth, these guys seem to be the closest to the truth that I know, you know, as a young man, especially as a, you know, 19, 20 years old when I started to get into my first churches, I'm sad to see the state, the state of independent Baptist churches in Australia, there are still some good churches out there, there are still some great pastors out there but it's getting worse, it's getting worse and I'm sure you guys can relate to that as well, it's getting worse and so, you know, I'm hopeful that our church on the Sunshine Coast, the church in Sydney will continue, you know, standing forth on the word of God, you know, just sticking true to the foundations that have been laid from our Christian forefathers as well so please keep us in prayer and so when it comes to Australia, let me give you a bit of a geographic lesson about Australia but Australia, 35% of Australia is desert, okay, 35% of Australia is desert, now Australia is not only desert but it's very arid or semi-arid, okay and that also falls under the umbrella of, you know, being classified as a desert so 70%, 70% actually of Australia is desert, you know, pretty much 70% of Australia is not really inhabited like, you know, unlike you guys, we don't build large cities in the middle of the desert, alright, I mean, I don't know why, I don't know who thought of that, you know, let's build a city in the desert but well done, you guys have done it but that's not something Australians do, okay, Australians, we live on the coast and, you know, your artist here has done a pretty decent job, if you go, I don't know if you can see that map over there, you can look at it later on but if you look at where it's the most green, it's on the coastal areas, that's where most Australians live, okay, in the coastal areas so there's obviously, it's a very dry land Australia, okay, there's a lack of water but when it comes to the coastal areas, there's plenty of water there, that's where the majority of Australians live so our population is about 25 million at the moment, 25 million and 20% of the population live in Sydney, like I said, that's our largest city, there's about 5 million people living in Sydney, now you guys have larger cities, you know, so I mean, when you think of 25 million, I mean, that seems like a lot to me but for you guys, you know, I think someone was telling me California has about that number, just the entire state of California has about, I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong, about somewhere 20 plus million people so, it wasn't more than that, 50 million, well there you go, 50 million just in one state alone so we don't have a very large population in comparison to what you guys have, our next largest city is Melbourne, so that has about 4 and a half million people, then Brisbane which is about 2 million people, now our church on the Sunshine Coast is about an hour and a half drive from Brisbane so where we're based, we have about 300,000 people roughly where our church is based, so those are the major cities, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and then Perth and Adelaide round off the five largest cities in Australia, now when it comes to the name Australia, does anyone know where the name Australia comes from, can I just see a show of hands, if anyone knows where the name Australia comes from, alright, well before Australia was discovered, alright, you know, the discoverers or those people, what do we call them, explorers, explorers going on their ships, you know, there was a, they believed there was a land in the southern hemisphere, they hadn't discovered Australia, they just believed there was a land, a large land mass in the southern hemisphere to sort of balance out the northern hemisphere, that was the idea and they called that, you know, hypothetical land Terra Australis, Terra Australis, now if you know Spanish, Terra is like Tierra, you know, so that's land, okay, and Australis that's Latin for south, you know, so Australia gets this, so Terra Australis means south land, south land, and that is one of the names, one of the nicknames that is given to Australia, you know, the great south land and in the early 1800s, after Australia was discovered, they've given that name basically to Australia, you know, Terra Australis which became, was evolved into Australia, so that's where it comes from, Australia means south land, okay, it doesn't mean down under, it means south land, now please go to Judges chapter 1, so where we had the reading from Judges chapter 1, Judges chapter 1, so I was thinking how do I preach about Australia, where do I turn in the Bible, I mean where do I go, right, so I was sort of, you know, scratching my head a little bit going through this, I looked at Judges chapter 1 and I thought there was a great parallel here, Judges chapter 1 verse 12, Judges chapter 1 verse 12, it says here, and Caleb said, hear that smiteth and taketh it, to him will I give Aksar my daughter to wife, and Othoniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother, took it and he gave him Aksar his daughter to wife, so let's keep going, verse number 14, and it came to pass, when she came to him, that she moved him to ask of her father a field, and she lighted off from off her ass, and Caleb said unto her, what wilt thou, verse 15, and she said unto him, give me a blessing, for thou hast given me a south land, so there it is, right, we can take a spiritual lesson, you know this daughter of Caleb was given a south land, and that's what Australia means, the south land, but let's keep reading, she says look, thou hast given me a south land, give me also springs of water, and Caleb gave her the upper springs and the nether springs, so we have this daughter, she goes to her father, and she says look, you've given me this land, great, but it's a south land, it's a dry land, it's lacking moisture, can you give me some land with springs of water, and that's what Australia is brethren, it is a south land, it is a dry land, and I'm not talking about the nation now, I'm talking about the spiritual condition of Australia, it is dry spiritually, and we're lacking water, and I'm very thankful for the two churches, you know we've got one north, I guess you could say that, we've got one nether, so nether just means lower, you know we've got an upper spring, we've got a lower spring, but what Australia needs is for these churches, these independent baptists at least, or some other churches that have the right gospel, to get back out soil winning, to get back out there, you know preaching the springs of living water, you know giving the water of life to Australians, you know we need it, and you guys are very familiar with the fires in Australia, and you know the reason why those fires took off is because we were going through droughts, you know it's a very dry land, a very very dry land, and of course when it's dry, fires start just like that, and you know when we look at the situation, you know the very blasé attitude that Australians have towards spiritual things, you know she'll be right mate, but when we've seen the fires burn, what are we seeing, we're seeing people run for their lives, right, we're seeing people you know desiring water, you know springs of water to put out those fires, you know, and I'm very thankful because we've had some decent rain lately and most of those fires are now under control, but we see the lesson there right, I mean a lot of Australians like I said that they're spiritually cold, but when the fires are there, they're looking to save their lives right, when the fires are there, they're looking to put it out, they're seeking water, and that's the truth with a spiritual condition, you know they're dry, they're dry, and without the Lord Jesus Christ, they're going to go to hell, and that's where a fire will never be quenched right, the smoke of the torment will ascend forever and ever, and they know the truth, they know what they're seeking is the water right, and here's the thing, we've got it brethren, we've got that cup of everlasting life, we've got those springs of living water, you know please go to John chapter 4, John chapter 4, and let's have a look at Christ and the Samaritan woman at the well, and you know if I have other Australian pastors listening today, or you know other saved people, you need to get out there, you need to go out and win the loss, you need to go and offer that cup of salvation, but John chapter 4 verse 10, John chapter 4 verse 10, it says, Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. We have the living water, you know Australians have the living water, you know saved born again Australians have the living water, they need to get out there to that dry thirsty land, that very dry thirsty land for the word of God, and let's keep going, verse number The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep, from whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water, shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Listen, when the land is dry, the fires will burn, okay, and Australians right now, they're dry spiritually, and hell has enlarged itself, you know, you know, taken in, you know, you know, my people, if you want to call it that, you know, Australians are going to hell every day, as well as Americans as well as people across this world. And brethren, we saw the story with Caleb's daughter, right? He gave her more than she asked for. He gave her, you know, a springing water, you know, from the north, he gave a springing water from the south, you know, and when it comes to Australia, we need to hit that place from all corners, you know, it's not just my church is not going to do it alone, you know, we need the other independent Baptist churches out there, we need other good pastors to get back out there, preaching the Word of God, you know, to join us, you know, well, I'm not sure what's happened, I'm not sure why they're pulling back the soul winning, you know, they're changing tactics, you know, they're going down the Hillsong road, they're going down the Josh Tice road, you know, it's just it's an embarrassment, you know, and so please, you know, brethren, keep us in prayer. There's a lot more of you than there is of us down there. Keep us in prayer, you know, and if you're able, you know, we've been blessed over the year to have some of your church members come and visit us. It's been great or some other Americans have come to visit us. They've gone out soul winning, they've seen how tough it is. But we need you know, we need you guys to keep us in prayer, please be praying for our church, please be praying for our efforts to get out there and and win the lost. And, you know, Jude 23 says and others save we fear, pulling them out of out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the by the flesh, pulling them out of the fire. You know, during the fire season, we have bushfires every year, but we see people being pulled out of the fire, you know, being saved before their houses burned down or things like that. Well, man, if that's the truth, if that's what's going on, and Australians are in favor of that, they want to see lives saved. Well, then Christians, we need to make sure we see lives saved. We need to make sure we get out there and preach the gospel. And we go put out those fires with the Word of God with the everlasting waters and those churches of old that used to go soul winning, they need to re dig those wells, they need to go and find that water once again, before they lose their candlestick. Now you need to get back to those those first works. So I hope that's given you guys a decent picture of Australia. Please be praying for us. We do need your prayers. We do cover your prayers. But I'll just finish one more time with a passage that was read when the first Australians came into into Botany Bay, which was Psalm 116 verse 12. I'll just read it once again. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me? Can we do anything brethren to be saved? Can we add our words? Can we do anything? No, you know, we need to just trust in what Jesus Christ has done for us. His finished work, you know, his death, burial and resurrection, verse 13. I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. And that's what we need Australians to do. And if you're an Australian, you know, and you've got that cup, you need to go and offer that cup to your fellow man. And we need to make sure that we make that dry land, you know, flourishing again, you know, having a fear of God. And that's been one of the benefits of the fires. You know, and that's what Australians are missing right now, the fear of God, you know, the fires, you know, what have brought back some of that fear. And so, you know, you know, I thank God for that. I thank God that, you know, when these things happen, you know, we see these disasters play out, we start seeing people starting to fear for their life once again, to consider God, you know, to pray to a God they don't even know, you know, praying for rain. So we need to take those opportunities, you know, and preach the gospel. All right, let's pray.