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No. No edge. No edge. No. No edge. No. No edge. Yeah, that's fine. You right? Yeah. Alright. I said no. No touch. No touch. No. Touch. No touch. No. Shut up. No touch. No. Touch. No. All right, get away from this camera boy, you're making me nervous. All right you kids, get away from these cameras, bye-bye, go have a seat. It's time for bed. All right, you guys, get away from these cameras, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye, go have a seat, bye-bye Grace that will pardon and cleanse with thee Grace, grace, God's grace Grace that is greater than all our sin Dark is the stain that we cannot hide One can avail to wash it away The pair is following the crimson tide Wider than snow you may be today Grace, grace, God's grace Grace that will pardon and cleanse with thee Grace, grace, God's grace Grace that is greater than all our sin Marvelous and good in the matchless grace Free the beast of the Lord on all the knee You that are longing to see his face Will know this moment his praise receive Grace, grace, God's grace Grace that will pardon and cleanse with thee Grace, grace, God's grace Grace that is greater than all our sin Alright, good evening. Thanks to everybody for coming tonight. And I appreciate the work that everybody's put in just this few days on this mini Solonie, Michigan trip. So we're in Selah, Washington, where there's some people that are online on the livestream after where we're at. We're in Selah, Washington, which is just, I don't know, 10 minutes north of Yakima, I think. So anyway, I'll get some yeses in the crowd. Anyway, we've just been here soloing. And this is, I think, our third trip here to Yakima. And this is kind of like I said, a mini trip. But we had 23 salvations for the little mini trip. And so we had 10 salvations today. We had seven salvations yesterday. Six salvations on Monday. Just went for a couple hours on Monday. But yeah, so we got this little place here rented. It turned into a big place. We didn't realize it was actually going to be this big. But it works for us. So don't be critical, hyper critical about the stream. We're just running off of the Wi-Fi. And then also we have a little keyboard that brother Daniel from Spokane has been planning. You can't see him on the camera, but you did a great job. So hey, at least they're trying. Is that your first time doing a church service? Okay, well anyway, great job. I appreciate it. I appreciate having some music. It's nice to have music when you're singing. So anyway, this isn't like a traditional church service. But as far as like, we don't have a church here in the area. But we're up here. We'll just do a church service anyway, kind of like we did last time. And so we're just going to have a little bit of preaching going on. We're going to have a little bit of singing. And we had some food tonight. And please take that home, whatever's left over or whoever wants it. It's all yours. But anyway, I just want to thank you again for coming. There's 24 intense time. Unfortunately, one of our biggest family had to leave and go home and just pray that their kids feel better. So we would have had, I think that's 33 total people. We would have had tonight, but people had to go home. So anyhow, it's crazy. They have a trip that's, you know, maybe they might have to stop by to get some bags. Anyway, I appreciate all the labor that they put in and everybody. You guys all have been really great. It's been a lot of work. But 23 salvation, so great job everybody. We'll definitely come back up this spring. You know, it's been nice to just have some of the local people that live here in this area. Come someone with us and be here with us the whole time. We really appreciate it. That's all I got for announcements. We don't have anything else besides that. We have 24 and 10 in here. We can fit 300 in here if we needed to. So we're going to sing another song and then we'll have a bio reading. Then I'll be preaching. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Hey. Let's take it up first. Here comes an advantage, he and I. Caring not, my Lord, was crucified. Knowing not, it was for me. He died on Calvary. Mercy, there was great grace, was free. Pardon, they were wronged upon to me. There my word is so found, liberty at Calvary. By God's word, at last, I sit and I learn. Then I travel down the long side of this earth, till I can be still, and glory turn to Calvary. Mercy, there was great grace, was free. Oh, my Lord, there was great grace, was free. And there my word is so found, liberty at Calvary. Oh, the love that your salvation's planned. Oh, the grace that brought it down to man. Oh, the light equals that God had spanned at Calvary. Mercy, there was great grace, was free. Pardon, they were wronged upon to me. There my word is so found, liberty at Calvary. Now I've been to Jesus every day. Now I've left the town and met my King. Now my rapture still can only seem of Calvary. Mercy, there was great grace, was free. Pardon, there was no good lie to me. There my word and soul found liberty at Calvary. Amen. Good singing. We're going to have the Bible reading right now. Amen. You want to turn to Psalm 127? Mm-hmm. Accept the Lord to build the house. They labor in vain at building. Accept the Lord to keep the city, to watch and wait, but in vain. It is vain for you to rise up early to sit on blades, to eat the bread of sorrows. For so he giveth his beloved sleep. To love children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward. The arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. How many is a man, and how does a quiver full of them? They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Well, heaven, I thank you that we be together and hear your preaching, Lord. I pray that we fulfill God's adoption with the Holy Spirit, Lord, and in the holy, and I thank you, Lord, these souls that were saved today and who are holy. In Jesus' loving name I pray it. Amen. Amen. All right. You're really close. You're here to breathe air. There's a great principle of God's word found in verse number one. And the Bible says in verse number one, Psalm 127 says, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, so much for this gathering of believers, Lord, and I just pray that you would bless each and every single person here that's come tonight. Pray, Lord, that they would be able to take something out of the message that they can touch away a little bit that they would always remember. And Lord, just remember the people who were saved during this little, short event and Lord, all they provided for us. And we just thank you, Lord, so much for all the people who got saved. And we just continue to come back here and do mighty works for you, Lord. And we thank you, and we thank you, and we thank you, and we thank you. All right. So the title of my sermon tonight is how to get a new IFB church started, how to get a new IFB church started. Some of you are already in an IFB church, and I promise, the sermon really isn't going to help me any. Well, it actually might help you, because some of the people in this room are going to be coming after some day or maybe starting their own church someday. And I said a new IFB church, because that's what we are. We're a new IFB church. It just means we're Infant and Fundamental Baptists. But we also don't feel like it's very difficult or necessary. And we've added things that the Bible actually teaches that the old IFB doesn't teach right. So the Bible says, except the Lord build a house, they labor in vain and build it. It's like, well, how do we get the new IFB church started? How do we get an Independent Fundamental Baptist church started? I'll just give a brief testimony of how our church started in Vancouver. Well, we were just like, I'm just a Facebook friend with a bunch of people that were new IFB listeners, Pastor Anderson listeners back then. It was just Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez. And I think Pastor Burson had started. And at that time, there was only a few sermons to listen to a week. Now it's like, you've got to pick which ones. So I think a lot of pastors try to come up with some interesting titles. They go, I can get some. Well, I mean, I'm just not going to make any titles anyway. But Pastor Jones, I think, wins that award. But a brief testimony of our church, you know, we just a bunch of friends that fellowshiped together. And we would go. And we all went to church, you know, for the most part. And we all know Pastor Jones was part of that group and a bunch of other people. And a lot of people lived up north in the Seattle area. And a lot of people lived in Oregon. And we basically just got together with somebody, you know. And so it was kind of a spontaneous thing. And Pastor Anderson had started doing it like this deer horn soloing stuff. And then we did one in Portland that wasn't, you know, it was a smaller group of people. But, you know, we just kept soloing. We just got fellowshiping together. We'd go up north and they'd come down south. And it was just like a group of maybe 20, 25 people. And then that kind of just turned into us, you know, just growing in the faith. And I think Pastor Anderson came and did that trip where we had the Portland Soloing American. And after that, we just continued to go soloing. And at one point, I asked, I remember asking Pastor Jimenez if he would be interested in sponsoring a church, like doing church plans up in Vancouver. And so at first he, you know, he wasn't quite sure about that. And I listened to a sermon where he said, in the next 10 years, we'd like to start a church. And I was like, how about like this year? And so, but he wanted to pray about it. He wanted to see if I would have a relationship with the pastor, if I had a good report. Because I think he didn't want just some bozo that was going to church, just some fly-by-night. It's like, hey, you know, let's start a church up here. You know, Pastor Adam Jimenez is a pretty organized guy. And, you know, he's a projective character, I think. And I think he wanted to see, you know, what it was really going to be like. And our church just took off. And he sponsored us and I became a leader in Vancouver. We started a very Baptist church in Vancouver under the leadership of Pastor Jimenez. And we had a great kickoff weekend where we had a bunch of people come. And we had, you know, we had a great two years after Pastor Jimenez's leadership. And then New York gave me as a pastor three years ago. And so we've been going ever since, going strong ever since. And it's like, well, how did that happen? Well, God built that. God built our church. That's how it happened. And except the Lord built the house, they labored in vain that building. But, you know, there are some key components, you know. And obviously God can do things. He can make things out of nothing. You know, he made the whole universe and he spoke into existence. So God is able to do a lot of things that we can't do. But, you know, what helps is having believers all in the same area or maybe in the same region. Because that's kind of what we were. We were just a group of believers in the same region. Like we were just like in Washington, you know, even northern Washington, southern Washington, Oregon, southern Oregon, Idaho. And all those people just kind of converged on that one location. Because the thing about new IP churches, there's just not a lot of them. There's not a lot in America. And then we've had some that were supposedly new IP that kind of turned against us and decided they didn't want to be so new IP. But that's okay. You know, God knows what he's doing. That's what I know. There's a God knows what he's doing. And basically, you know, how did we get the new IP church started that we got? Well, you know, there's some key components to that. Well, one of the things is that you have to have a group of people that want to have a church. You know, and then you've got to have a man of God with a vision to put that church into place. And you also need a man of God that will actually step up and fulfill the role of a leader. You can't just have a free for all. You know, the Bible doesn't teach that. The Bible teaches that there's a man of God that leads a group of people. So we kind of have those components, you know, for soul winning. And that was that was the backbone of what? So yeah. And so, you know, but God is the one that builds the church. I believe that with all my heart. But I also believe that he's he's looking for places where he can make his name. And so why do some areas get new IP churches and some don't? I don't know the answer to that necessarily. But here's what I do know. I trust God and he knows what he's doing. But there's a lot of people out there that would like to have a church like our church. There's a lot of people out there who like to have a church like the Baptist Church. There's a lot of people who like to have a church like Faithful or Baptist Church. There's a lot of people who like to have a church like Silicate Baptist Church. There's a lot of people who like to have a church like First First Baptist Church. There's a lot of people who like to have a church like Stronghold Baptist Church. There's a lot of people who like to have a church like Mountain Baptist Church. There's a lot of people that would just want to have a church like Pure Gorge or like Steadfast. You know, there's a lot of great churches out there. But there's keys to having that come to fruition. Why can't a church in Jacksonville get started? I have no idea. But for some reason, it just can't stay new if I had a name. But, you know, I'm sure that the Lord will get figured out at some point. And, you know, I would say that there are probably, there's a couple good churches in Florida. I mean, if I had no place else to go, I would go to those churches. But I'm talking about new-life churches now. People that are like, you know, down to the set, so to speak. But, you know, the first thing that I, my first point is that, you know, people got to get realistic, number one. You got to get realistic. What do I mean by that? Well, I believe that God builds a church and he knows what he's doing. And that we can maybe help those conditions to improve to where a church could get started. But he knows our hearts and whether we're going to follow through or not. See, there's a lot of people that just, there are flashes in the pan. You ever heard that saying before? There are a flash in the pan. There are Roman candle Christians. They say they want something, but then they don't really want to follow through with it. They're not willing to count the cost of what it would cost to have a church like that in their area. They don't want to be faithful. They don't want to, you know, go and put in the hard work. They just want to, who could peer out of nowhere. And then all of a sudden they got a new anti-church to go to. You know, it's just, it's not just me that started the church. It's not just Pastor Menzies that started the church in Vancouver. It's a whole bunch of people that decided, hey, I want to go to this church and I want to be a part of it. And I want to help. I want to go soloing. I want to do the hard work that needs to be done. And, you know, like I said, God knows what he's doing. And so we still have a church in Vancouver, Washington that's still going soloing every week. We're still preaching the Bible every week. And we are, you know, we have a bunch of soldiers in our church that know their Bible now. We have a lot of people that know their Bible. We have a lot of people that are very zealous soul winners. And so they've stayed on board. Now, not everybody's stayed. You know, some people have gone. But, you know, when those people leave, other people replace those people. God knows what he's doing. He knows those people that need to get out. And he knows those people that need to come in. And he's going to build a church. You know, he's going to also cut people out that don't need to be there anymore. So, and what I mean by get realistic, what do I mean by that? Well, if you're not in a big city, the chances are really slim. You know, the chances are really slim that you're going to have a new IP church in your place. Why? Because the pastors of this movement have a vision to reach the biggest cities in America. So we're going to pick the biggest cities first. That's kind of what we're known for doing. So like Vancouver is the part of the Portland metropolitan area. And we can barely scratch the surface when it comes to, you know, any Portland, the suburbs of Portland. We've knocked most of Vancouver and we're doing a good job doing that. But, you know, we were we need to hit the other places, the places that have never been told about the gospel. But, you know, so like if you're in a small town, it's got three thousand people here. Just pray to God to send a new IP pastor to that three thousand person town. You know, the chances are slim. I mean, it's slim left town, so the chances are not and not real high. OK, now I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm just saying that, you know, like I said, we have a vision to reach the most people that we possibly can and we're going to do that first. Now, I would say that this area here, the Yakima Valley is about two hundred fifty thousand people. So that's not a small area. Spokane is the second biggest city in all of Washington. I think behind Seattle. Right. So the second biggest city is in Spokane. We got one there. We got one in Vancouver, which is close to the, you know, to the biggest city in Oregon. So we strategically located, you know, our churches and obviously we don't have them here, but, you know, Yakima is on my radar, obviously. I mean, we're coming here. It's super receptive. It's probably the most receptive town in the state that we've been to. You know, we've been to Ellensburg. Ellensburg was like some of the roughest soul I've ever been to. I mean, it's like a college town. You know, people just did not want to get saved in Ellensburg. I think we had six for the car that day. And it was rough. How far is Ellensburg from here? About 30 minutes. About 30 minutes from here north. But 30 minutes south of Ellensburg is the most receptive place that we've ever been to. Period. I mean, we've been talking to Brother Sean saying it. It's true. Like, you know, we were wondering, like, because we knock all the the two main Indian reservation town, which is Wapato. What's the other one? Toppenish. Yeah, I always forget Toppenish. So Toppenish is the biggest town in the rez. It's got like 10,000 people, I think. And I think Wapato is about six or seven thousand, I'm pretty sure. I don't know. I might not write on those statistics, but we knocked. In two trips here, we knocked both of those reservations. And so that's that's a lot of that's a lot of firepower we put on that. We've got a lot of people saved in those two trips. This is our third trip here. Now we're hitting Yakima proper and finding out that it's just as receptive as the reservation town that we've been hitting. And maybe more. I don't know. I mean, we knocked what happened today and got one safe. You know, we barely would knock like two or three block faces today. I mean, it's very receptive. So it's also beautiful here, but it's definitely on the radar for a church. But I don't want people to not be realistic because it's you know, it's hard to get a church going. And, you know, it's a lot of things into it. But God has to be the one to build it. But I don't want you to think that you're going to get a church sent to you and pulled up holler USA. That just basically means a very small town out in the middle of nowhere. It's not going to happen. And so you're going to have to travel to a good church. That's in your region where you're going to have to move to a good church in a different area. You know, but some people can't do that, and I understand that. But you know what's going to happen if you don't go to church? Then you're just going to you're going to drift off. You're going to go out at some point. You're going to fall away because you've got to have a church. You've got to have a fellowship and you have to have a reason for being right. You know, you're like, well, what am I doing here? I don't know. I'm just kind of drifting. Well, you can't be a drifter. You have to get all in. You can't be halfway in, halfway out. And I know when people say, well, I'm kind of halfway out. So maybe I just need to get all the way out. No, you need to get all the way in. That's what you need to do. Now, I'll just name really quickly, I named some of the churches already, but I'll just name. And if I forgot somebody, I'm sorry, I didn't have like a list. I was wrong. I was just going off the top of my head here. But in Arizona, of course, we've got Phoenix, Arizona is a great church. They're paid for Baptist Church. They've got paid for Baptist Tucson, two big cities in Arizona, the biggest cities there. And then so you got Pastor Anderson, Deacon Corcor Russell is running Tucson. And he got in California, you got three churches to choose from. You got Verde Baptist Church in Sacramento. You got First Works Baptist Church in Los Angeles. And you've got Old Fast Baptist Church and Pastor Bezarnsky, the newest pastor. In Washington, you've got Vancouver, Washington. You've got Spokane. And then, you know, I'm the pastor. George Truley is the pastor of those churches. And then in Idaho, you have Shield of Faith Baptist Church by Pastor Jones. In Georgia, you've got Strongwill Baptist Church, Pastor Burgess. In West Virginia, you've got Mountain Baptist Church, Pastor Jason Robinson. Texas, Pure Work Baptist Church, Steadfast Baptist Church, Houston, Texas, and Hearst, Texas. And then Pastor Jonathan Shelley. Oklahoma, you've got Steadfast Baptist Church, Pastor Shelley. Cincinnati, Ohio, Good News Baptist Church, Pastor Ted Webb, friend of mine. And then you have Canada. So those are just the ones in the U.S. that I know about that are actually UIV churches. And then in Canada, you have our Sure Foundation Baptist North Church, which is in Surrey, D.C. And you've got Evangelist Lynn Fisher leading that group. In England, we have Sure Foundation Baptist Church of England, and that's U.K. And that's Evangelist Ian Kappner. They're doing great over there. And then Australia, you've got Blessed Those and Hope Baptist Church, New Life Baptist Church, pastor by Kevin, Pastor Kevin Sepulveda. And then in the Philippines, as I'm doing in other countries, too. So in the Philippines, there's two churches that Pastor Mendez has started. And the evangelist, Matthew Stuckey, leads Manila and Pampanga. And so then that's basically the new life features that I know of. And so, you know, we've got a lot of room to grow. There's a lot of hedges to fill in. There's a lot of gaps to fill in those areas. And I'd like to see churches all around the world keep popping up. And obviously, we've had some setbacks. You know, we had a setback in Hawaii. We've had setbacks in other places where we thought there was somebody there and there wasn't. And it's just, you know, if everything went by the way that we wanted it to go, things would be different. But, you know, God, again, God knows what he's doing. He knows why these things happen. Obviously, you've got to understand that men are sinful. And so you've got to understand that God won't just allow some guy to still continue to stay in a place when he's wicked. Or if he's just not cut out for it. Sometimes people just aren't cut out for it. They don't realize that until they get to becoming a pastor and then they just realize, hey, I'm way over my head. But, you know, because being a pastor is hard work. So the cities that are on my radar right now, Yakima is on my radar. Tri-Cities is on my radar. Seattle is on my radar. Seattle is the biggest area in all of Washington, obviously. And so I think it'd be a real shame to not have a church up there. But in Europe, I'm looking at the Netherlands. I'm looking at Geneva, Switzerland. You're like, where are those places at? Well, they're in Europe, OK? And I'll talk a little bit about that a little bit later. But what am I looking for? I'm looking for groups of believers that are faithful to church, soul winning, Bible reading, prayer and fellowship. That's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for the right recipe. I'm looking for people who are actually going to stick it out. I'm looking for people who are actually going to continue to go, whether a church comes to their place or not. They're not just doing it just so they can get a church. They're doing it because they love the Lord. They want to follow his word. And, you know, obviously they want a church to start up. But you know what's real hard for me? I do have a church planting hard as a pastor. You know, if I could plant more churches, I would. But it just becomes too much. Right. And so I can't get too crazy with it. I realize that, you know, there is a limit upon, you know, what I'm able to do by myself as far as life. And it's not by myself. But you know what I'm saying? As the pastor of the church, it's just too much stuff to keep track of. It's just too many too many people to train. I'd love to just keep starting churches. But there has to be the right people in those places to do that. But here's here's another thing. Ask the pastor to help. You know, I asked the pastor to help. That's part of the formula, guys. That's part of the formula. Hey, you want a church to start up in your area? Why don't you ask a pastor for help? Here's the problem. There's not a lot of men that are willing to step up and do it. So I'm getting ahead of myself. So, you know, number one, we need to get realistic. You know, if you want to be chart the church to start an area, you think that, you know, Selah, Washington is where it's going to be. You know, it could be that there was, you know, call the Yakima Baptist Church or, you know, Church Foundation Baptist Yakima or whatever. You know, if you just think it's some small town that's going to be the host of the next New York church, you're just you're misguided. If you can't, if you can't bring yourself to travel to another church's post, if you can't bring yourself to move to another church, then you're just going to be stuck. So, you know, obviously the Lord would love to have churches in all cities in this country, all cities in this world, but, you know, there has to be enough people to get the job done. So number two, we need to get faithful, stay faithful and be patient. Number two, if you want to do a church in your area, you need to get faithful, stay faithful and be patient. So let's look at Proverbs chapter 20 verse number six, Proverbs chapter 20 and verse number six. The Bible says in Proverbs 20 verse number six, it says, most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, which we see that out of Solomon every single day, right? But a faithful man who can find, a faithful man who can find. And, you know, point number two is that we need to get faithful. We need to stay faithful. We need to be patient. You know, the problem is the Bible's asking this question, saying, but a faithful man who can find, because that's unfortunately the truth of this world is that there's not a lot of faithful men out there. Now turn to 1 Corinthians chapter four verse number one, 1 Corinthians chapter four verse number one. You know, and it's important, you know, God is looking for, he's not looking for perfect. He's not looking for the best speaker. He's not looking for the best looking. He's not looking for the biggest muscles. He's not looking for the greatest wife, the greatest husband. He's looking for someone that's imperfect but able to be faithful, right? There's a lack of faithful people in this world and that's why it's so hard to get churches like this church started. And because a faithful man who can find. Here in 1 Corinthians chapter four verse number one, it says, let a man so account of us as the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. It's required of a steward. So if I'm considered a minister of Christ, which I am, then I need to be faithful as a minister of Christ, as the steward of the mysteries of God. I got to be faithful, you know, and what does that entail? Faithful in Bible reading, faithful in my prayer time, faithful showing up to church. You know, I'm supposed to be an example of the believers. You know, if I'm missing church every week, you know, how faithful is that one? If I never read my Bible, how faithful is that? You know, God expects me to be faithful to be, you know, a minister of Christ and the steward of the mysteries of God. But you know what? It's important to have a church that's going to get going. It's important to have a new IP church that the people that come to that church are faithful also. And I'm not just talking about faithful in church, I'm talking about faithful in all the things I just mentioned. Because you can't just be some go-to that comes, you never read the Bible all week. You come once a week to one service and you expect that you're just going to be on fire for God. It's not going to happen. Draw an eye to God and he'll draw an eye to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. That's what the Bible says. Now, look at Hebrews 10 verse 24. You know, you do need to be faithful. You know, if you want to have a new IP church start in your area, well, why don't you start being faithful in the church that you already go to? You're like, well, it's really hard to go to that church, pastor. You know, and look, if the pastor isn't saved, I wouldn't expect you to go to that church. See, if you live in a country where there's no saved pastors, how can you go to church at a place where there's no saved pastors? But what I would say to you is this, that, you know, if you can start up your own little group, and I'm not saying church, okay? Don't get me wrong here. Don't say, Pastor Thompson said you just start up your own little church. That's not what I said. I said you can start up your own little group, though. If there's no, if there's no saved pastor, if there's no place to go to church where there's someone that's actually saved crazy behind the pulpit, then you're in a world of hurt. And hey, the best thing you can do is gather up with the believers that are in your area and fellowship and maybe preach to each other or whatever, and pray that God sends you a man or pray that God's, you know, is able to start a church in that area somehow, right? You know, we limit God by our faith. You know, if you have little faith and you're not faithful, then it's going to be hard for God to bless your life. So be faithful in a place where God has put you. In chapter 10, verse 24, it says, and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works. So God wants us to consider each other. And how do we do that? Well, we provoke each other unto love and good works. And then it says in the next verse, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together. You know, what's really important is to assemble yourself together with other believers. And it's super important. God says not to forsake that. You know, it says not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together. That means you need to go to church. And if there's no church, which, you know, in America, that's just, it's hard to imagine there's no churches where this pastor is saved. I'm sure that there's a pastor that's saved in this town, possibly. I don't know. I don't know all the churches. But if you haven't exhausted all your advocates, then maybe you need to look around and find a church that you can go to and you can't get on board with. That doesn't mean you need to bring in all your, you know, hey pastor, I'm only able to go to this church if you don't preach against, you know, if you're not pre-traded, you're not anti-Jew or whatever. You can't look at it like that. If you're not willing to move, you're not willing to travel, you need to find the best place where you can go to church. And God's going to look down on your affliction, hopefully, and maybe get a good church in your area. So it says not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some of this, which shows that there's a manner of some. Their manner is to not go to church, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. We need to go to church more, not less. The day approaching wasn't talking about us, it was talking about the day that Christ returns. So tomorrow, we're going to be closer for Christ's return, isn't it? So we need to go to church as much as we can and not forsake the assembly because it's super important that we get together with us believers. Because you can get where you feel like you're the only one. Well, I'm the only one, Lord. You're like Elijah. All everybody else is to fail, everybody else is bound to need to fail, except for you. And I alone, in here, I'm the only prophet. And it's like you can start to feel that way because you feel like you're the only one that believes like you in your church or whatever. But you know, there's 7,000 that haven't been bound to need to fail or kissed among them, right? So there's a lot of people in this world that want something similar to what you want. But you've got to be willing, you know, if you're not willing to move, you're not willing to travel, then hunker down and go to the best church you can. Do the best work you can in the place that you live. And the other thing you need to do is, you know, so get faithful in church and stay faithful in church. And be patient because just because you started going to church for six months doesn't mean the new I.D. is just going to come and find a church in your town. It might not even happen. I'm not promising you anything. I'm not promising you anything. But I do think that, you know, if the right elements are there, God will make something happen in your area. Now, soul means another thing that we need to be faithful in. You know, like, while you're preaching the sermon, you always pray for God. Well, you know, these things are important. It's important to have a balance in your life. One of those balances is going to church. You know, in the other church, the other balance is you need to get out and go soloing. Do it on a regular basis. Once a week is how much you should be going. If you're not going once a week, you know, that would be like the bare minimum. That's the zero Christian. And what do I mean by that? Well, you're doing basically the benchmark of what God expects. You're not going above and beyond. You're just doing, you know, what he expects. OK, so so many, you know, what does that mean? Well, it's going to first of all, it's going to help your church. And you're like, well, maybe, you know, they just don't like me so they don't like me calling it soloing. Well, whatever they call it, if it's witnessing or evangelism or whatever they want to call it, those words are still right words. Yeah. It's just when you hear soloing, you're like, that's that's that's church. So now another way you can help it or be faithful is do a regional soloing time. Maybe you can only visit a church like ours every so often. But you know what? We just said, Brother Cody here is one of our regional soloing leaders. And he just because I've been watching him be faithful every week going out soloing and, you know, getting one or two people saved. But, you know, people live in this area. Hey, help Cody out and help Cody and Alicia. Help them get this soloing time, you know, going where people are just being saved week after week and maybe that time will build. Maybe the people will build. Now, maybe God will do a great work in Yakima and send a preacher here to start a church. And I think a church would do very well in this area. So Matthew or excuse me, Mark, 16, 15 says, I'll have you turn to Matthew 44. But in soloing, Matthew 16, 15 says, and he said to them, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every preacher. So we're supposed to go to the whole world and preach the gospel to every preacher. And hey, you know, maybe you don't have a great church to go to. Maybe they just are not that big on someone. But, you know, that doesn't mean you can't go. And if you can't and if you just go to a place that you just go to every once in a while, then you can start up something regional that can catch fire and, you know, God will bless. God will bless what? Your faithfulness. God will bless the fact that, hey, this person's going out every week. They love me. They love people. They love souls. Maybe I could do something for them. Maybe I can bless the work that they're doing and grow and have more people come to it. And even if you never do get a church that starts out there, at least you're being faithful and you're going out and soloing and you're going to a local church that at least has a safe pastor there. And maybe you have to travel a little ways to go to a church that's decent. Maybe you have to travel an hour or two hours or three hours. There's people that come to our church that travel for three hours. I mean, three, four hours, two hours, one hour. And, you know, it's not necessarily something that's super sustainable, but at some point, you know, people are going to make a decision whether they're going to move or they're going to move someplace else or they're going to fall away. You know, you don't want to be the person who falls away. And the other thing is you've got to keep up on the Bible. You're like, well, you always preach about this. Yeah, I do. But it's important, isn't it? And we have a King James Bible. You don't have to get people in history having had a Bible like this. How many people died so that you could get this in your hand and then you don't even really breathe? People cry when they get a real Bible in some countries. People are very thankful. And I'm sure people were very thankful when the King James 611 person came out. And, you know, we can mass print this. We can, you know, we can get one at the Dollar Tree for a dollar. I mean, they're super all over the place. But how many people have collected and don't agree? Matthew chapter four, verse four says, But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. So God said that man shall not live by bread alone. It's not food is not enough to sustain you. Food is not enough to help you. You need every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. And guess what? You've got an every word Bible right here. You have every word of God right here in your hands. If you have a King James Bible in your hand, in your lap. And you know what? God said you shouldn't live by bread alone. Every word. So read this book and be faithful to it. You know, don't just forget it, believe it and let us cover over the top of it. Be faithful to your Bible reading. You know, God's going to look down. He's going to see you being faithful. He's going to say that person's faithful in their Bible reading. Maybe I could do something great for that person. Maybe I could do something great through that person. Turn to Romans chapter 15, verse four. Romans chapter 15, verse number four. Romans chapter 15, verse number four. The Bible says, for whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Hey, you want to have hope in your heart? You want to have hope in your life? Maybe you're not in a great place with a great new IP church. But hey, you know what? You got the comfort of the scriptures. You got the every word Bible in your hand. And the Bible says that, you know, these things that were written for you, they're written for your learning. And that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. You know, this book will comfort you. You know, you think about a blanket, a blanket you snuggle up with or a pillow. But you know what? The King James Bible will do? It'll give you comfort. It'll give you hope. But you know what? You got to pick it up and read it. Hebrews chapter four, verse number 12. The Bible says, for the word of God is quick. That means it's alive and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow. It is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. Hey, you got a book here that can read your heart. You got a book here that can discern your thoughts. But you know what? If your mind is never in it, if your eyeballs are never on it, then you're going to have a hard time letting it discern your thoughts so that you can do the things that God wants you to do in your heart and in your mind. Oh, I want to have a new IP church in my town. Why don't you start reading the Bible then? And God will see that you have a faithful mind, a faithful heart to do the things that he wants you to do. Look at 1 Timothy chapter four, verse 13, 1 Timothy chapter four, verse 13. 1 Timothy 4, 13 says, till I come, give attendance to reading and exhortation and doctrine. Hey, tell, Paul's saying, hey, until I come, Timothy, why don't you do this? Why don't you give attendance to reading? Why don't you exhort some people? Why don't you learn some doctrine? And you know what? That's a good thing for people that are waiting for some new IP church to come to their area or a great Baptist church to come to their area. Maybe God's looking to see how faithful you're going to be. Maybe God wants you to give a little reading, give attendance to reading and exhortation, encouragement, and to learn some doctrine. A lot of people just get all their doctrine from videos. But you know what? That stuff doesn't stick necessarily. When you study your Bible and you read your Bible, that's what's going to give you the most learning. You didn't say watch the Bible, watch it on a video screen. Obviously we should listen to the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. But what is the main thing that Jesus tells people? Have you not read? Did you not read in the scriptures? Why isn't it a book? Because you know what books are the thing that are going to give you the most learning and the most knowledge. And the Bible is a book for a reason. It's not a DVD. It's not a CD. Look, I'm not saying it doesn't look bad. I'm just saying that the best way to get your Bible knowledge, the best way to learn the Bible is to actually put your eyeballs on it and read it. Psalm 119 verse 18. Psalm 119 verse 18. The Bible says, Open down my eyes that I may be pulled wondrous things out of my law. You know what? When you're reading your Bible, when you're being faithful, you're Bible-ready, and you ask God to open your eyes so you can learn something and be pulled something wondrous out of His law, you know what? God's going to do that for you. Try being faithful. Try being patient and waiting for that church to come for you. Just do the things that God wants you to do, and maybe God's going to do the things that you desire the most in your heart. Like getting a great church to go to. So what about prayer life? I'm going to address that in my last point, so I'll move on past the prayer life thing, but fellowship is another important thing. Turn to Acts chapter 2, 42. Acts chapter 2, verse 42. The Bible says, And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, in fellowship, in breaking of bread and in prayer. You know what? It is important to fellowship. Assembling together as believers is fellowship, but it's church. But afterward is when the fellowship usually happens, or beforehand is when the fellowship usually happens. You know what people like to talk about at New Anthony Church? They like to talk about the Bible. Most of the conversations that have taken place this week have been about the Bible. And that's the way it should be. Obviously there's other things we can talk about, but when you're in church, when you're fellowshiping with other believers, it's great to have your thoughts, to talk about your thoughts about a certain passage. And to just talk and iron sharp and iron together. That's the point of fellowship is that we exhort each other and encourage each other to stay in faith. And we encourage each other. I mean, there's all manner of topics that we can do, but you know, fellowshiping with people that believe the same thing that we do is very important. It's a key part of being faithful. Now, fellowship means friendly association, especially with people who share one's interest. I'll repeat that again. Fellowship means kindly association, especially with people who share one's interest. So when we fellowship, we're supposed to be fellowshiping with people that share our same interest. What is our same interest here? The Lord, the Bible, prayer, soul winning. Those are the things that we associate. Why do we associate together? Because we love God. And we love each other. We're supposed to love each other. And that's one of the commandments that Jesus said that we should love God. All right. Number three tonight. Give man a God. You know, I talked a little bit about this already, but you know, one of the things that he's just starting to do, I mean, church is going to have a hand of God to run the thing. So what is God's heart on the problem of the lack of men willing to rise up and lead God's people? What's God's heart? You know, what do you think that God thinks about? How do you think he feels? What do you think he wants? You know, a church is not going to start without a man to lead it. It's just not going to. And so there's got to be a man with a willing heart in that area. That's one of the keys. Someone has to surrender to God and say, you know what, I'm willing to do it. I'm not saying that, you know, God's going to come and call you like he calls Samuel in the middle of the night or something. OK, you know, and hear my word. Yeah, it's not going to necessarily happen like that if I just happen in the fact that you're just you see the need for an area. You know, I saw a need for Vancouver and I didn't want to forsake that area. I could have moved to a different church. I could have went someplace else. But you know what? I love the area there and I don't want to see that area with a hell of a handbasket. And I wanted to help and do whatever I could. And so at one point I was just like, let's do it. You know, and when you're willing to say, I want to do that, I want to surrender and be a pastor or be a man of God, then, you know, God will answer that call. You know, I was willing, but I mean, I got to be honest, I was a little bit worried about it. Anybody would be. It's a big responsibility. It's a big responsibility. It's a lot of work. That's a lot of hate. People hate you. People wanting you to get destroyed. People wanting to destroy your life. People attacking your children. People attacking your spouse. People attacking your church members. And people attacking you. And it gets old. It really does. And they know that. People that attack, that's what they like to do. They just like to keep. You know, whatever thing you answered, they come to the next thing. To the next thing. To the next thing. They just won't stop. So it's good to understand and just let that roll off the dust bag, right? Like water off the dust bag. But look at Ezekiel chapter 22, verse 30. God's heart is that he wants men in every single area, in every single gap, in every single hedge, so that God won't have to destroy this place. So that God won't have to destroy this land. He wants people to be saved. You know what? There's people that have been standing in the gap in this area, in Union Gap, and in Yakima, and all these surrounding areas. We went to White Swan. You know, people are like, well, what's the big deal about that? It's one of the most dangerous places that there is in this state. And it's just a small little town. Built with gang violence. But you know what? God protects us. I was more worried about the dogs than I was the people. I mean, that Chihuahua leader was ruthless. But anyway, he was. He was the pack master. Even the pit bulls were falling down. He was like a little Napoleon. Anyway, so Ezekiel chapter 22, verse 30, look what God says. Says, And I sought for a man among them that they should, excuse me, that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy. But here's the sad part about it. He says, but I found none. You know, and that doesn't always happen. God finds somebody in a generation. But in this generation, apparently he looked for somebody to stand somewhere in the gap. And what's a gap? It's an area where if you're thinking about soldiers, you don't want to have a bunch of gaps where people can break through your lines and stuff like that. They said he couldn't even find someone to stand in the gaps over there. To make up the hedge. A hedge is like a big bush, right? That keeps things out or, you know, it's like some kind of even it could be a wall of some sort that keeps things from getting to you. But he says he couldn't even find people to make up the hedge. So number three tonight is that we need to get a man of God in the place that we want to have a church there. A new IFP church you want to have? A new IFP church? Well, how about we need to have a man come first? And so, you know, it's just a shame that there's not enough men out there that are willing to step up and stand in the gap. Look at verse 31, it says, Therefore have I poured out my indignation upon them, and I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath. Their own way have I recognized upon their heads, saith the Lord God. So at some point God had to destroy that land because there was nobody there. There wasn't a man there among them that could stand in the gap or make up the hedge. That's sad. And that's what we see in this country today. Why are there more churches like this? Well, there's not a man to stand in the gap. There's not men that are willing to set aside and have their own lives for the gospel and for the Lord Jesus Christ, because they're too worried about their profession or their finances, or they're worried about how other people are going to feel about them, or they're just saying, maybe I can't do it. You know what? God can do all things. We can do all things through Christ to strengthen us. So God can help you. God can make you good enough to do it. Nobody's perfect. You know, people have this weird thing where they think the pastor is supposed to be absolutely perfect. They make mistakes. You know, they make mistakes. It's almost like they expect sinless perfection in the pastor, which is just really weird. You know, they're not sinless, but they expect you to be sinless. Well, I don't know. I don't mean to burst the bubble, but I'm not sinless. I'm not perfect. You know, God doesn't expect you to be either. He does expect you to be able to keep, you know, the qualifications and to have the qualifications for the bishop. I'm not going to go through this tonight because I don't have time, but look at Titus 1.5. This is God's heart. I just want to show you God's heart for the man of God. Because you're not going to get a Catholic, you're not going to get a church without a man of God. Just not. It won't work long term. It won't work. So it can't just be, you know, a whole bunch of other people that, you know, eventually there has to be a leader there. There has to be a man standing there. Look at what it says. For this cause, left I am to be in Crete, that thou should set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. So Paul left Titus in Crete that he should set in order the things that are wanting, the things that are lacking. There's something that's lacking in these churches. Now churches can be churches without a man of God, but eventually, you know, it says that if they don't have a man of God, that they're wanting. That means they're lacking. They're lacking something to make it in order. God wants things decently and in order. He wants things set in order. God is a God of order. He's not a God of chaos. He's a God of rules and times and places. And, you know, he just wants things in a certain way and he wants men of God that are, you know, going to make up the hedge and stand in the gap and the plate and fulfill the things that are wanting so that they can be. So God, he wants to ordain elders in every city. That's what he wants. I mean, Crete is not exactly the biggest island on the planet. It's not. But he still wanted pastures, elders in every city. So what does that tell you about the rest of the world? It tells you that, you know, he still wants elders in every city. So does he want one here in Seaver, Washington? Yeah. Does he want one in Yakima, Washington? Yes, he does. Does he want one on the sunny side of Washington? Yes, he does. He wants one in every city. But unfortunately, we just don't have the manpower to fulfill these roles. Now, Jeremiah chapter three, verse 15, let's turn to Jeremiah chapter three, verse 15. Jeremiah chapter three, verse 15. The Bible says, and I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. Let me let me repeat that again. And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. What does God want? He wants to give you a pastor. He wants to give you someone that will feed you the word of God. He wants to give you someone that has knowledge and understanding. And so it's not like God doesn't want. He does want. He wants to give those things. But you know what? He's not a communist. You know, I know that, you know, there's people out there that believe that God just controls people and makes them make decisions. But you know what? Every man has a decision to make in their life. Even the guards had a decision they had to make in their life. He said, everything else you can eat from, but don't eat that. And just like a little child, he said, don't touch that when they do. They walk right over and touch the thing they're not supposed to touch. But that's how people are. That's how we all are. You know, we try to stay away from things and try to be good, but it's just really hard sometimes because we're sinful. But you know what? There's a lot of men out there that are just saying, you know what? I can't, it's not me. It's not for me. It's not my job. I can't do this. And that's just not true. You're just lying to yourself. It can be you. Obviously, if you make a qualification for the bishop, then, you know, why not try to do that? And even if you never are a pastor, at least you are qualified as to whether God ever needed to put you in the army. Let me tell you something. God does want to put you in the army. He's not going to just put anyone. It's not going to be like the lowest people to land on Jeroboam. He just got the worst of the worst dregs of people and just put them in. And that's kind of what happens today. You get a lot of people that are unqualified to be pastors leading churches. They don't even have children. They're not even married. It's like there's qualifications to be a bishop and they're not being met today. And it's like Jeroboam boundaries church. You know, we'll just let the most unqualified people get up here and preach the Bible. And you wonder why Christianity is in the sad state of affairs. They even hold out churches that are really big about, you know, they're good about a lot of things, but they get people and they get them fresh out of Bible college, sometimes not even married, and they're pastoring a church. They're pastoring. They can even lead a family. They have even proof they can lead a family, and yet they're pastoring a church. It's almost like just some kids, you know, some young Catholic priest just giving a whole parish to himself or whatever. These guys are just like, you know, or these Mormons that call themselves elders when they're like 17 years old. Unqualified. I mean, obviously they're heritage, but I'm just saying that it's almost like even Baptists have just lowered themselves like the people of Samaria and just got the worst people they can get or the most unqualified person and say, hey, you're a priest. Here you go. Come on. Come on, sonny. You know, and they're not qualified. Look at Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16. See, God can call people, you know, he can use people that are in the place to call for God. Look at Acts 16, 6, it says, Now, when they have gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word of Egypt, after they were come to Mysia, they had stayed to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas, and a vision appeared to Paul at night. There stood a man of Macedonia praying and saying, come over to Macedonia and help us. And I'm not saying you're going to have some dream where you're supposed to be called to Macedonia or something. You know, obviously, this just happened in the Book of Acts. Also Paul, he was obviously a prophet as well. But, you know, we can still ask God's people, say, hey, we got a group of soul owners over here. We got people that are free to thrive over here. We're meeting up with fellowship over here. We hold the Bible in high regard. We're on our knees. We're praying. We want somebody to come. Hey, pastor, would you please send somebody over here so we can have a new IFP church? Could we have a good Baptist church to go to? And God will do those things, but you know what? We've got to put the first things first. If you're just sitting there eating chips off your chest and watching videos all the time, he's never going to send somebody there. He's looking for people. You know, the Book of Acts was a book of action. Lights, camera, action. It just started and they just went boom. And God did mighty and great work. Some of verse 10 it says, And after he had seen the vision immediately, we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Now obviously, you know, it's not just about preaching the gospel, but hey, that's how great soloing movements start is people actually go soloing. Imagine that. God sends a man and says, you know what? I'm going to send that man up there to go soloing. But these people are already like, hey, come help us. Come help us. And that's kind of what I believe the people that want to have a great IFP church start in their area. Hey, get the 20 people together. Start going soloing. Find a man of God. Find someone that can be qualified to be a man of God. Or ask for a man of God to be sent. There's multiple different ways to do these things. And look, again, I'm not guaranteeing that this is going to happen. But I mean, why not try? It worked for us. You know, you've got to have a little bit of faith. Second Timothy chapter 2 verse 20. The Bible says, In a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor. A man therefore, if a man therefore purges himself from these, he shall be a vessel of the honor, sanctified, that means set apart, and meet for the Master's use and prepared unto every good work. You know what? Being a God, being a Master, being a leader of a church is work. It's not something that's easy. But you've got to be meeting for the Master's use. You've got to, you know, perk yourself from all these things. And be a vessel of the honor, sanctified, and meet for the Master's use, prepared unto every good work. And the Bible says that, you know, becoming a bishop is a good work, isn't it? Look at First Timothy chapter 4 verse 1. First Timothy chapter 3 verse 1. It says, This is a true saint. If a man desired the office of a bishop, he desired what? A good work. Right? So if you want to be meeting the Master's use, prepared unto every good work, you know, being a bishop, desiring to be a bishop is a good work. But now doing it to just satisfy some power-hungry thing that you have in your soul, that's not a good reason to be a bishop. You know, you've got to do things for the right reasons. You can't just do things because you're self-willed. To be self-willed, there's a lot of people that want to be pastor just so they can have the title of being called pastor. Which is really weird. You know, because obviously you just want to follow me if that's what you want. So, but just know this, that it's a good work. God must have prepared a man for a good work. But it's work. People just think that, you know, becoming a pastor is easy. Well, you know, come walk a week in my moccasins and just tell me how easy it is. Right? It's not as easy as people think it is. I had this bozo the other day say to me that I work on, you know, you. I work 70 hours while I'm sweating my brow. It's like he's a truck driver. It's like, you know, the only time he's sweating is when he's trying to get himself into the cab of a truck. But anyway. And I'm not saying truck driving is an easy job. Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that, you know, once you get the air going, you're not sweating. You're not going by the sweat of your brow. You may need to crank the heat up too high. It's a hard job. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying it's not. But I'm driven trucks. And I'll say that being a pastor is ten times harder than driving a truck. Okay? And I don't like driving a truck. But I do it. I've done it. I've got a CDL. I've got a classic CDL. I've got a tanker in North Smith. I've got all that stuff. It's current, baby. I could do it right now. Go get a truck and drive. And you know what? I don't want to. Because you know what? I'm doing good work here. Why would I stop doing what I'm doing now? And just to drive a truck. But don't sit there and brag about how hard you've worked. When you didn't find a good truck, bro. It's only local. It's not like you're OGR. Anyway, number four. Before I go to number four, though, I just want to say, you know, maybe God's calling you to be a man of God. And he wants you to be a pastor. Maybe he just wants you to help a pastor. He wants you to help him and be faithful. But you've got to be faithful, folks. You've got to be faithful and you've got to be patient. And you know, you not only get faithful, but you've got to stay faithful. And you know, then you've got to do what God wants you to do. But can you be that man? Can you be the man of God that is needed for that area? You know, you've got to be willing and successful. You've got to just say, hey, God, here am I, send me. And he'll use you. But make sure if that's what you want to do, you've got to count the tops. Because if you think it's just going to be like super easy to you, you're wrong about that. It's not super easy. The more you do it, the longer you do it, the harder it kind of gets. So anyway, number four. Let's move on. The last point. Get on God's radar. You want to have a new IP church in your area? Get on God's radar. Well, what do you mean by that, Pastor Knox? Let's look at Luke chapter 18, verse number one. Luke chapter 18, verse number one. The Bible says, let me give you a second term there. Luke chapter 18, verse number one. You need to get on God's radar. Now, listen to this story. Luke 18 one says, if you stay in the parables, then to this end, the man ought always to pray and not to faint. Saying there was a city in the city of Judges, which feared not God, neither regard to man. There was a widow in that city and she came unto him, saying, eventually of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming, she will bury me. And the Lord said, hear what the unjust judge said, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear along with them. I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? And the reason why I'm showing you that is because look at verse number one again, it says, and he stayed careful unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. So he gives this example of a judge that's just, he's not a saved man. He's an ungodly person. But this old lady's just like, you know, avenge me and my adversaries. He's just continuously coming to him. He's saying like in the same way, you know, think about God, if you're just continuously going to him and just saying, hey, I'd like a church for my city, God. God, would you help us out? We need a man to come here, God. And, you know, don't faint. Don't be weary. Keep asking and begging God for that sin. And I'll tell you what, you know, what's it say to you? You know, he's going to hear what they're going to say, what you're going to say to him. He's saying don't, don't faint. Men always ought to pray. And if you want to get on God's radar, you might want to start bothering him with your prayer life. If you want a man of God to come to your area, if you want a church, a new identity church in your area, they want you to start asking God for it. And don't be weary and don't faint in your mind and say, oh, he's never going to answer the prayer. That's a lack of belief right there. If you've got enough, he'll listen to your request. He's going to listen. Let me tell you this. It's not that it's not God's will for you to have a great church in your area. Don't you think it's God's will for him to have a man of God in every town, in every city, and to preach the word of God and to just rip on sin, preach hard, send out soul winners, have church services, multiple church services a week? Yeah, of course that's what God wants. Of course that's what he wants. Turn back to chapter seven. Over and over and over again in the Bible, God tells us that we should pray for him. But yet, this is probably the biggest lack that people have in their Christian life. A lot of people probably go solely in this room. A lot of people go to church. A lot of people read the Bible. But praying seems to be something that gets missed. And that's one of our biggest weapons. It's one of our biggest things. We can actually go to the God of the universe, the God that paid heaven and earth, and ask him our petitions in Jesus' name. Going back to chapter seven, verse seven, it says, Ask, ask, and it shall be given to you, giving you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, what does it say? Receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. For what man is there of you who, if his son asked bread, will he give him the stone? Most people in this room that have kids, if your kid asks you for some piece of bread, they're not going to give you a lot. They're going to give your kid what they need. Okay, okay, daddy, daddy, get me some bread. Whatever. I don't know what your kids ask for. You know, candy or whatever. Whatever it is, most people, most kids are asking for bread, okay? But you're not going to get in the opposite. Something's going to hurt their teeth. It says, or if he asks a fish, will he give him a serpent? You're not going to go, here's your fish. It's a foul saying, you know. You're not going to do that. So look at what he says, if either 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 what? Ask him. You've got to ask him for stuff. If you just never ask for anything, you're not going to ever get anything. If you want a new IFP church in your area, and you live in an area where you think God would want to put a church there, then why don't you ask him? You have not, because you ask not. Are you asking this? Are you asking for things that you really don't need? Well, you know what you really do need? You need a powerhouse church in your area. It was rich and hard and went in souls. Excuse me. James chapter 5 verse 16. The Bible says in James 5, 16. I'm almost done here by the way. Confess your faults one to another, pray one for another, that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Now it's not saying, you know, the five second prayer of someone who just really doesn't care that much is availeth much. It says the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. There's a difference between a prayer that you're just like going through the motions on. There's a difference between a prayer that there's an immediate need that you're, it's like when it's your family, when it's your child that's sick, when it's your child that's hurt, or your wife that's sick, or your wife that's hurt, or your grandma that's sick, or your grandma that's hurt, your grandma that's not sick, your grandma that's not sick. You know, we're a little more fervent with those prayers, aren't we? But what about the fervent prayer for a great church to be put into your area? What about that? Do you pray hard for that? Because isn't that something that would be good to pray fervently about? Look at verse 17 says, Elias, talking to Elijah, was a man subject to life passions as we are. He's a man just like all of us, right? Or, you know, of course there's ladies here, but he's a man, he's just a man, right? But he was a man subject to life passions as we are. He prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained out on the earth by the space of three years and six months. Elijah prayed for a drought to happen that would be three years and six months. That's a long time to not have a ranger area. I mean, there'd be some forest fires, there'd be not a lot to drink or eat, people would be dying. But he was alive and he was just like us. And he prayed with that map that says he prayed again, and the heaven made rain and the earth brought forth her fruit. You know what I think that is lacking when people don't have a church like a great UIC church in their area? They just don't pray. They don't ask for it. They don't really care enough. It just shows, you know, their lack of faith that God isn't going to do what he said. You know, Elijah was a man just like any of us, and he prayed because it wouldn't rain for three and a half years, but it didn't. And when he said, hey, you know what, let it rain again, it came forward. It was our first year, it brought forth her fruit. How about we pray for a church in our area? You want to know how to be a church so bad? Why don't you pray for one to come to your area? Why don't you pray for a man of God to come to your area? Why don't you go to church and be faithful in the things that you know you're supposed to be faithful in? Why don't you go so many? You just think, God, you know, you're going to be laid there like some, you know how to be slob, and God's just going to make great things happen in your area? It's not going to happen, folks. Have a little bit of passion. Passion chapter 28, verse 18, the last verse I'll have to turn to. How do I know God wants all this stuff? How do I know God wants a great church to be in this town? How do I know God wants people to keep getting saved in this city? Because Jesus said that He wanted them. Matthew chapter 28, verse 18 says, And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given in heaven and earth. Does all mean all? All power? Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command of you. And lo, I am with you always, even up to the end of the world. Amen. Jesus Christ wants us to go. He wants us to teach all nations. He wants us to baptize the people in the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit. He wants us to teach the Bible to people. But unfortunately, there's a lack of great churches in this country. There's a lack of great churches in this country. There's a lack of great churches in the world. But you know what? What are we doing to make it better? Obviously, we need to hold the fort down where we're at. We're in a great church. Amen. I'm glad for you. I'm glad we have a great church to go to, basically for Washington. But there's a lot of people out there that don't have a great church to go to. There's a lot of cities. There's a lot of gaps out there that are missing. There's a lot of places where God is destroying that man. Because there's a lack of a great church. A great, soul-winning, fire-breathing, independent, fundamental, Baptist church that cares about souls going to hell. That cares about what Bible version is being preached. That cares about people in the community and actually wants them to be saved. There's a lack of that. You know what? All power is given unto Jesus. He wants to give that power to us. He wants us to have those keys and unlock those doors. But sadly, a lot of people just are too apathetic to go here. Sadly, there's not enough men that want to step up and stay in that gap. You know what? That needs to change. If you want a new IFB church in your area, why don't you start focusing on some of the things that I talked about in this sermon. And maybe God's caricature will allow that to happen in your area. But you know what? If you just sit back and think that you don't have to do anything to kind of help along or make it happen, then you're in for a sad state of affairs. Because it's not going to come to your account of 500, instead of soul-winning, fire-breathing, Baptist church. But you know what? If you want to hunker down, you want to pray to the Lord, hey, are you a man of life passion, just like Elijah? Why don't you start praying? Why don't you get on board God's program, and maybe He will give you the desires of your heart also. So how do you get a new IFB church started? Number one, you need to get realistic. Number two, you need to get faithful, stay faithful in vacation. Number three, you've got to get a man of God. Number four, you've got to get on God's radar. You've got to ask Him. You have not because you asked Him. And pray that God will just give a hold of the hearts of the men of this generation. That's my hope. You know, because who's going to fill the shoes of men right now? We need the next generation to step up. We need the me generation to say thank you. All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you Lord so much for this great song and trip we've been on. I pray that, Lord, you help each and every one of us to just stand in the gap, stay on our spot. Lord, hold the board. I just pray that you help us pray for the great churches to start, Lord. Lord, you know my heart when it comes to the solely and church plan. Lord, I just pray that you help our church to do great and worse as we've already done. And Lord, we have a lot of great churches that have started already. I pray, Lord, that you work in the hearts of the other men in this world and the people that might be in this movement, Lord, that you just help them and put something to fire in their heart when they just say, you know what, Lord, I'm here on this thing. And Lord, I just pray that you just help our church to be a powerhouse solely for many years to come. And, Lord, I just pray that you bless each and every person that came out tonight. And, Lord, I just thank you again for all the souls that were saved. And Jesus came to pray. Amen. All right. The last one is number 39, Our Beautiful Heaven Must Be. Song number 39, hear the song, folks. Our Beautiful Heaven Must Be. Song number 39, Our Beautiful Heaven Must Be. Song 39, let's sing it out. We read of a place that's called heaven. It's made for the pure and the free. These truths that God's Word hath He given. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Bear hay with the breast for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. In heaven, no truth, nor pride, No vision, nor elsewhere to be. God's light for the world is shining. How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Bear hay with the breast for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. Here waters of life there are flowing, And all who will drink may be free. Where jewels of splendor are flowing, How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Bear hay with the breast for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. The angels so sweetly are singing, Up there by the beautiful sea, Sweet little hearts of careful hearts are ringing, How beautiful heaven must be. How beautiful heaven must be. Sweet home of the happy and free. Bear hay with the breast for the weary. How beautiful heaven must be. Amen. Good to see you. Kind of got a little lost there. I'm kind of... Brother Daniel, you want to praise your name as a prayer group? Father in heaven, I thank you that we can all come together here and hear your word, Lord. We can preach. I thank you that Pastor Johnson was able to come, to God's word, and everybody that came. And I thank you that we were able to go out and preach the word of God. Hear your word. Be safe, Lord. I just thank you so much for all your blessings, Lord, and your word. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Yay!