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. . . . . . . . Faith is the victory, sing it out with me on the first. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory, sing it out with me on the first. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Oh, glorious victory Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. Page 410, sing it out with me on the last. To him that overcomes the foe why raiment shall be given before the angels he shall know his name confessed in heaven then onward from the hills of light our hearts will love a flame will vanquish all the hosts of night in Jesus' conquering name Faith is the victory Faith is the victory Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. Amen. Great singing this morning. Brother Eli, can you open us with a word of prayer? Thank you for this church. Thank you for my mother's position here. I get to worship with the Lord and I pray that you help us open our eyes and our hearts to your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Man, page 66. Page 66 at Calvary. At Calvary, page 66, sing it out with me on the first. By God's word at last my sin I learned then I trembled at the lull I'd spurned till my guilty soul imploring turned to Calvary mercy mercy mercy mercy mercy mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary Oh, the love that drew salvation's plan Oh, the grace that brought it down to man Oh, the mighty gulf that God did spin at Calvary mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary page 66, sing it out with me on the last. Now I've given to Jesus everything now I gladly own him as my king now my raptured soul can only sing at Calvary mercy there was great and grace was free pardon there was multiplied to me there my burdened soul found liberty at Calvary Good morning. Welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through them. If you need a bulletin would you raise up your hand. Brother Ramona bring you a bulletin. Alright. On our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says, for brethren you have been called unto liberty. Only use liberty as an occasion to the flesh but by love serve one another. Galatians chapter 5 verse 13 great verse. There our service times are Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. and Sunday evening at 3 30 p.m. However today is going to be a little bit different. I'll explain that in just a few minutes. Thursday evening our Bible studies at 6 30 p.m. Our soul winning times are listed below. We won't have soul winning today because of our change schedule. It's not something that we do very often but we are doing that today. All the other soul winning times are listed below in our regional times. Our regional leaders are listed below also. And we've had four salvation so far for the month of July already. So praise God for that. We had 24 last month and you can see all the rest of the numbers. There are attendance totals, baptisms, things like that. Our kids Spanish class is going to be this Tuesday at 6 p.m. and please let Miss Alejandra know if you're planning on attending. And we are going to have a change schedule for today only. And so we're having back to back services and our second service is going to be at 12 30 p.m. So I'll try to preach until 12 27 and give you a three minute break for the bathroom. No I'm just kidding. I'll try to preach fast so we can get at least I don't know a five minute break or something. No I'm kidding. I'll try to preach fast. But anyway I can't make any promises. I've got to go as the spirit leads me. So July or as my notes would lead me I only have five pages today and they're very short so anyway July 15th is oh I better mention everything we're doing today. Okay the second service is a men's preaching night. So if you've never been to our church before sometimes we let the men get up and preach 10 minute sermons. Who's all planning on preaching this morning or this afternoon? One two three four five. Okay that's perfect. We'll have 10 minute sermons and so we'll have the guys get up and preach. The rules for men's preaching night is you must wear a tie and use the King James Bible because that's what we use here at this church and it's the word of God in English Amen. And if you have some squirrelly doctrine that nobody else believes except for you I wouldn't preach that without running that by me before you plan on preaching it because I will get up and I will rebuke a person's sermon if they are preaching some kind of weird heresy. Okay. So anyway and that's very embarrassing especially on a live stream so anyway. So after the service we're having a Christian Liberty Party over at the Sawyer residence and if you need the address get with brother Justin or Miss Stephanie or yeah that's kind of basically what you need to do and they're over on a over off a hundred and sixty seconds so it's clear across town but that's going to start at 3 p.m. so don't just rush right over there and bombard them let them get a little chance to go and open their house back up and clean everything up. The kids messed up this morning and yeah so three o'clock let's get there at three o'clock if you're a little bit early I'm sure they're not going to care but if you get there at like 2 o'clock they'll probably be like anyway no just kidding. So I think they got everything ready we're going to have like a ping pong seating tournament for the Red Hot Preaching Conference which is coming up in a couple weeks so basically if you get in the top four of the adults bracket then you will be automatically in the tournament at Verity so if you're not going to the Red Hot Preaching Conference you can still be in the tournament but you just won't qualify for the seating so if you're if you win the whole thing and you're not going I'm not paying an all expense paid trip to Verity Baptist. That ship has sailed so anyway we're also going to have food and fellowship and lots of fun. There's swimming of course we're not going to have the boys and girls swimming at the same time so whatever schedule they have in place that's what we're going to do no whining is allowed. We're Baptists Baptists we're not supposed to whine. All right. So and then we have a it says fireworks. Now there's a ban in the whole county for fireworks. All right. Yeah. Is there a kiddie pool. Yeah. OK. There is a kiddie pool. All right. So and you're responsible for whatever your kiddie does in that pool. So there will be a bleach bleaching station next to it. All right. So it looks like we got some good food got Angus burgers we got hot dogs. That's what the kids and women are eating. Then we're the men are eating the primary. No I'm just kidding. We got some some other good ribs and stuff like that primary right. Is it that's primary. So we're going to trigger eyes a couple prime ribs and hopefully people brought some sides. I saw some down the fridge so appreciate everybody that brought food. So so we're just going to have fun. And the felt the fireworks it's their band. We can probably do some low level ones for kids. But as far as like shooting things off in the air probably not a good idea. Pastor of church allows fireworks six people die in fire. Yeah I don't want that being written about me. So dumb person that lives off 160 lights. Justin Sawyer the modern day warrior. All right. So anyway but it's your house you can do whatever you want. I'm just going to be going home at that time. Anyway so that really stinks because I don't I can't remember a time that I've ever not been able to light fireworks off any time I've ever lived in Vancouver for the whole history of it. So and I'm getting older. So as far as I know I don't think it's ever happened like for it to be this hot this early. I heard it was 118 when I went to Tucson. Is that true. 118 in Vancouver. Good night. It was only 102. I just got there and I was like so but and then we went to the mountains it was like 80 degrees. So it was just perfect. So sorry sorry about your look down here. Anyway we had a great time on our trip to Tucson. Appreciate brother Bill preaching for us while we were gone. So anyway let's see what else. Is there anything else I need to know for tonight. Yeah. OK. Oh that didn't make it in whose fault is that. Ryland Bender. Is it here. The Lambert's OK. Is it bring your own jars. All right. Yeah. So you're going to get a canning class. Yeah. See Miss Jessica I'm sorry that didn't get in the bulletin. I did see the posting on the virtual bulletin but apparently Ryland didn't. No I'm just kidding. Anyway I got a yelled at about something because it's just been a while. So anyway anyway. So yeah the canning event is next Saturday at 10 o'clock. Right. Yeah. Tiles would be a good idea. Chairs would be a good idea. Hope everybody brought chairs so I can bring extra chairs from my house but you can't keep them. All right. And if it's my chair don't sit in it. That's just that's my rule. All right. So my specific chair big grizzly Adams you know you get it. You got to let me have my own chair. All right. So all right. Anything else about today. Anybody. OK. Any questions. All right. Good. All right. July 15th through the 18th is the Red Hot Preaching Conference at Verity Baptist Church. There is that ping pong tournament and you know go on their YouTube page to find out the schedules for everything. No I don't know when the preachers are preaching. I don't know the lineup days or anything like that. I'm sure he'll do that when everybody gets into town so that you don't just show up for Pastor Anderson or something. I don't think anybody in our church would do that but people ask that question for some weird reason. But anyway. All right. Let's see. We got July 30th is our grand reopening at our new building at 6501 East Mill Plain and we're doing some heavy duty work over there. When I say we I mean everybody else. I went there and tore out some carpet yesterday. But we got a lot of work left to do so if anybody wants to volunteer any of their time we really appreciate it. We got to get the rest of the carpet out. Tomorrow I'm going to start loading loads of carpet to the dump. See brother Robert if you have extra time that you would like to help trying to get the building in order. We're getting a new sign in. We're getting new carpet. We're painting everything. We got a mother baby room pretty close to ready. Well not pretty close to ready but we got walls framed in. We got multiple bathrooms. It's going to be a blessing. You guys will see. Definitely the week that we move we're definitely going to need some help moving all this stuff to that building. After our last service on the 24th or 25th from Monday to Friday we're going to be trying to transfer all this stuff over there and getting all of our sound and everything good to go and just finishing up all the cleanup and stuff like that. So we'd appreciate anybody's help that's willing to help and we'll get that organized and ready. But yeah we're having a three year anniversary grand reopening at that new building. Pastor Bruce Mahina will be preaching for us on Friday night at 7 p.m. And our Sony marathon will be on Saturday. You can see the schedule there on the paper and then on Sunday I'll be preaching the morning service. And then Pastor Joe Jones will be preaching for us on Sunday evening at 3.30 p.m. So it'll be great to have Pastor Mahina and Pastor Jones visiting us to preach. And like I said on the end here please see Robert El Quarter for opportunities and working on the new building. We're a family integrated church. That means the children and infants are welcome during the church services. And if they do become super disruptive please take them promptly to the mother baby room or dad baby room. Those are located downstairs for your convenience. They have comfortable seating and monitors and sound. And pretty soon we won't have to go downstairs. It'll all be on the same level. So you can just look through the window and we can see your baby's crying. Anyway it'll be fun. All right. It'll be great. So you're going to love it. Anyway so please reserve the back rows for families with young children and the dads are not allowed in the mother baby rooms and vice versa. Please make sure you're latching the baby gates. We've seen a couple of times that this gate is getting left open. I don't know if that's kids that have learned how to do that. But kids you're responsible also older kids to first of all don't teach little kids how to operate the gates. But don't leave the gates open because we have you know we have a lot of things going on here and the last thing I want to do is see an infant fall down one of those sets of stairs. Especially that staircase back there but that one would be bad too. So please make sure you're doing that. There's been people have come to me just recently and tell me that people are doing it and they're not saying who it is. And I don't care. I just want it to stop. So please latch the gates. It's very serious. All right. And no food is allowed in the assembly area. Please silence your cell phones at this time or put them on airplane mode. And escorts to vehicles are available by the ushers. Please if you're a single lady here or your husband's not with you please get one of the ushers to walk into your car. And online donations are available on our website and text giving number. And what do we got here. We got we sang happy birthday to Miss Candace last week. And let's see. Ezra didn't get a happy birthday sang to him. What happened? Where's Ezra? Where's Nehemiah? I'm just kidding. All right. We'll sing happy birthday to Ezra. We sing. Did we sing happy birthday to Lily? We didn't? She's not here. Dang it. All right. Well we'll sing happy birthday and she can just watch the live stream again or something. All right. Let's sing happy birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday God bless you. Happy birthday to you. All right. I'm not singing my own happy anniversary song. I want to go sit by my wife or stand by her. Our anniversary is this Wednesday. It'll be 20 years. Right? Yeah. I'm just kidding. It's 20 years. Brother CJ, how long are you going to be married on? Tuesday? Eight years. Amen. Praise the Lord. All right. Well somebody come up here and sing to us. Who's going to do it? Brother Sean get up here. I'll do it for you. All right. Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. God bless you and keep you. Happy anniversary to you. If you're here and you're new here, we'd like to give you a gift. I don't think there are any more left right now. I'll put this back over there. It's a little gift bag. I'll make some more too. It's a gift bag. It's got just some information on it or inside of it. Just some basic stuff. Also a video that we put in here. A movie called Being Baptist. This is a documentary about the history of Baptists and what we believe. As Baptists we believe the Bible. That's basically what we believe. It just explains our positions and it's really entertaining. We tried to do it all like the History Channel kind of thing so people would be interested in it. It's just an excellent documentary. You can grab one of those on your way out if you're new. We're going to do one more song and then take the offering. Let's open our Bibles to Psalm 67. Psalm 67. Psalm 67. Sing it out with me on the first. They may be known upon earth Thy saving health among all nations Let the people praise Thee, O God Let all the people praise Thee O let the nations be glad And sing for joy For Thou shalt judge the people Righteously and govern The nations upon earth The nations upon earth see love Let the people praise Thee, O God Let all the people praise Thee O let the nations be glad And sing for joy Then shall the earth yield her increase And God, even our own, God shall bless us God shall bless us And all the ends of the earth Shall fear Him Let the people praise Thee, O God Let all the people praise Thee O let the nations be glad And sing for joy You've given us this liberty, Lord, in Christ. I pray that you would bless us. I pray that you would bless us, Lord, bless us, Lord. You've built past the top of the strip, Lord. You've given us something to bring the bowl to us. I pray that you would bless us all. Let's both forgive them and give them decent pain. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hi. Alright, go ahead and open your Bibles. 2 Chronicles Chapter 7. 2 Chronicles 7. if you don't have a Bible raise your hand if the ushers will bring you one. 2 Chronicles 7, the Bible reads, Now when Solomon had made an end of praying, the fire came down from heaven, and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the Lord filled the house. And the priest could not enter into the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord's house. And when all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord upon the house, they bowed themselves with their faces to the ground upon the pavement, and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying, For He is good, for His mercy endureth forever. Then the king and all the people offered sacrifices before the Lord. And King Solomon offered a sacrifice of twenty and two thousand oxen and a hundred and twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the people dedicated the house of God. And the priests waited on their offices, the Levites also with instruments of music of the Lord, which David the king had made to praise the Lord, because his mercy endureth forever, when David praised by their ministry, and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood. Moreover, Solomon hallowed the middle of the court that was before the house of the Lord, for there he offered burnt offerings and the fat of the peace offerings, because the brazen altar which Solomon had made was not able to receive the burnt offerings and the meat offerings and the fat. Also at the same time, Solomon kept the feast seven days, and all Israel with him, a very great congregation from the entering inn of Hamath under the river of Egypt. And in the eighth day they made a Solomon's assembly, for they kept the dedication of the altar seven days, and the feast seven days. And on the three and twentieth day of the seventh month, he sent the people away into their tents, glad and merry in heart for the goodness that the Lord had shown unto David and Solomon, and to Israel his people. Thus Solomon finished the house of the Lord, and the king's house, and all that came into Solomon's heart to make in the house of the Lord, and in his own house he prosperingly affected. And the Lord appeared to Solomon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy prayer, and have chosen this place to myself for an house of sacrifice. If I shut up heaven, that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now mine eyes shall be opened, and mine ears a tent unto the prayer that is made in this place. For now have I chosen, and sanctified this house, that my name may be there forever, and mine eyes and mine heart shall be there perpetually. And as for thee, if thou wilt walk before me as David thy father walked, and do according to all that I commanded thee, and shall observe my statutes and my judgments, then will I establish the throne of thy kingdom, as I have covenanted with David thy father, saying, there shall not fail thee a man to be ruler in Israel. But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them, then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land, which I have given them, and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and byword among all nations. And this house, which is high, shall be an astonishment to everyone that passeth by it, so that it shall say, Why had the Lord done thus unto this land, and unto this house? And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them, therefore had they brought all this evil upon them. Brother Bill, will you pray for us? Amen. All right. Well, this sermon is titled, If My People, and this is a very famous passage to be preached out of. I'm just going to preach out of one verse this morning, and it's in verse number 14. Let's read it together. It says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this congregation here. And Lord, I pray that you'd fill me with your spirit and boldness and power. Lord, I pray that the people here would be attentive to what the Spirit says unto the church this morning. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. So at this time in Israel, this is pretty much like the zenith of the kingdom of God in Israel. And you see, they're right with God at this point. They're very right with God. They have an abundance of everything. God's blessing them. But God warns that if they should follow false gods and turn away from the Lord their God, then God will curse them. And so we live in a nation where, you know, I believe that the curse of God is being poured out upon these lands. And so I usually traditionally will preach against the woes of America and the problems that we're having in this country. Do you think, I mean, if you seriously ask yourself right now, is America getting better? What would you say? What would your answer be? Absolutely not. It's not getting better. It's getting worse. And the problem, we would say, well, it's with all these people committing abortion and committing murder and all the antifa and the wicked communist agenda and all the porn industry and the Hollywood movies and the wicked music and, you know, all that stuff is wicked. OK? And I'll preach against that any day of the week. But really the problem lies within the Christians. Because in this verse it's saying if my people, is it saying if the homos, if, no, it's not saying any of that stuff. It's not saying if the unsaved will turn from their wicked ways. It's saying if my people, which are called by my name, and what name is that? What name are we called by? We're called by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're called Christians. They were called Christians first in Antioch. So normally I would be preaching against the wickedness of this nation, but I want to preach against the wickedness of the Christians in this nation today. So it's the 245th anniversary of our nation and people will say, well, it used to be a Christian nation. You know, I don't know if that's actually true or not. I can't say that that's 100% for sure. I know that people came to this place, the New World, to seek asylum from religious persecution. That was one of the main reasons. But there was also some other bad people that came over here and had their own agenda too. So I'm not going to be preaching about that this morning. Like I said, I want to preach about what God's people need to do to make this nation better. So point number one, it's up to God's people to save this nation. Point number one, it's up to God's people to save this nation. Let's look at our verse and we're just going to keep coming back to this verse for the whole sermon. But it says, if my people, which are called by my name. So it's up to us. God's saying, hey, if all this stuff befalls the land and the land turns to wickedness and they turn to false gods, whose responsibility is it? It's the people of God because, look, the nation of Israel, you can see throughout the scriptures how often the nation of Israel turned away from the Lord and served false gods. And what did God do? He came and smoked them and he destroyed them and wiped Jerusalem as he would wipe a plate. He destroyed the temple twice. He destroyed it with the Babylonians. He used a wicked nation to come and destroy that temple that Solomon built here. And so right here we see it's a zenith of the nation of Israel, but not too long after that, then you have it being destroyed by a wicked nation because Israel had turned away from the Lord. And so in America there is a lot of saved people here. I don't think there's any other nation that's doing more for God right now than America. Obviously I believe that. Do I know that for 100% surety? No I don't. Because I don't read in other languages and know what's going on in all other parts of the world. But I will tell you that Christians also do look to the Christians in America because, well, it's the richest nation in the world. And it's fundamentally always done mission work and evangelism. But we're in a time right now that this is not happening. Most churches will not even go door to door to evangelize their neighbor. They talk about us loving our neighbor and how we're hateful at this church, but in reality we're loving our neighbor way more than they are because they're not even talking to their neighbor. We're going to all the places in Vancouver, Washington and knocking each door. That's our systematic way of reaching this whole city. We're going to Portland over there and trying to reach that city also. We're going to different lands. We're in Canada, we're in the UK, we're in Hawaii, and we have a vision to evangelize the whole world. But we're going to try and start in our corner of the world, obviously, but there's a lot of churches that don't do that. You know what I don't want to happen? I don't want this church to become like all the other churches. I want to inspire you to stick with it. Stay with God. Don't turn away from God. Don't leave. Obviously, you can leave this church and go and serve God at another church. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying, hey, stick with God. Don't quit on God. Lots of things are going to happen bad in our lives. Jacob said, few and evil have the days of my sojourning been. You know what? Most of the days, especially as you get older, they start to turn more evil. You've got an evil hip. You have an evil knee injury. You have just people dying in your family. The older you get, the more people are going to die in your family. The world is evil because of sin and people are dying and lots of people are dying and going to hell. And America used to be a greater nation than it is right now. Now it's a really divided nation. You don't see us hanging an American flag in here or an Israeli flag in here or a Christian ecumenical flag in here because why? Because I'm not going to sit there and support a nation that leads the world in smut and wickedness. I'm not going to do that. Unless trannies go into the military and allows homos to fight in our military and allows homos to do whatever they want in this country and have carte blanche to do whatever they want, I'm not going to support a nation that flies a homo flag at Washington, D.C. Not going to support that. I'm not going to support a nation that's giving everybody a welfare mentality. I'm not going to support a nation where they're promoting these freaks that give AIDS to people. I'm not going to support that. I'm not going to fly a flag where these military people are going over it. And look, I know that the devil deceives people. I know that the devil deceives people that are in the military and they think that they're doing the right thing. I get that. There's a lot of people that the devil deceives. The Bible says the devil deceives the whole world. So you know who it's up to to help turn the tide? It's up to us. It's up to the Christians. We have a very small number of people in here, but a small number of people can do great things for God. So let's look at some scripture. Turn to Matthew chapter 5 verse 14. So who are the mighty people in 2 Chronicles 7 and 14? God's people aren't God haters. God's people aren't Christ rejecters. You know people say well the Jews are God's chosen people still. Well if you're a spiritual Jew then I would say yes that's true. But God is not. His people are not people that hate him. His people are not people that spit on the ground three times every time the name of Jesus is mentioned. Would you say that's God's people? No. It's not God's people. So look at Matthew 5 verse 14 it says you're the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel but on a candlestick and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. See we're supposed to be the light of the world. The true light of the world is Jesus but we're supposed to reflect the Lord Jesus Christ in our daily lives and in the world. And so we can't we're not supposed to hide the fact that we're Christians. We're not supposed to be scared and go underground and all this stuff we're supposed to preach it from the housetops. Well we've heard in the ear preach on the housetops that's what the Bible says right. And it says we're supposed to give light to all that are in the house. And it says let your light so shine before men that they may what? See your good works. See good works do mean something. Jesus is saying let your light shine. And if we're the light of the world we're supposed to let it shine. This little light of mine I'm going to let it shine you know that song from Sunday school it's a great song. But it's and it says and they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven because you know what if they can see you Christ in you you know I'm not teaching lifestyle evangelism here but what I'm saying is God you know we should match what we're telling people. Say hey why would why would someone want to become a Christian? You know if they see that you're the worst person that works at the job. They see that you're the laziest person on the crew. They see that you are the worst cusser on the crew. They see that you're you know you're not you're not matching what you are saying that you believe. And so Christ is saying here hey we need to let our light shine before men so that they can see our good works. And then the main good work that we're supposed to be doing is we're supposed to be reaching the lost with the gospel. We are the light of the world. Look this country is not going to get turned back to God without the Christians helping. Isn't that what the Bible says if my people which are called by my name. It's not up to anybody else. It's not up to Donald Trump. It's not up to Joe Biden thank God. But it's not Donald Trump's just as bad. Look Christianity has become this Fox News Baptist this Fox News Christianity where we're telling the talking points of Sean Hannity who's a Roman Catholic. We're talking. We're saying the talking Christians are preaching in their pulpits the talking points of Glenn Beck who's a Mormon. Look these people are not going to change America. You know it's the church house that's going to change America. It's not the White House. It's not the House of Representatives. It's not the House of the Senate. It's going to be the church house and the church. The churches in this in this country are falling down on the job and we need to take that torch and carry it to the next generation. And you know are we going to save Babylon USA. What's the Bible say is going to happen. It's going to end up bad for them. It's going to end up bad for Babylon USA. But you know what we can still do our best to save as many people off this sinking ship as we can. And so we're not supposed to give up and to say well it's going to get destroyed anyway so we might as well just stop going soul winning and look nobody else is going to do it. It's got to be us. And so we need people to see the example that we set and we need to set the standard for Christianity in this country. You know when people think about who's doing the most for God I want them to think hey in this city it's Sure Foundation Baptist Church and I want that to be a standard as long as I'm here as long. And I think that this church as long as we don't let it go to hell in a handbasket like all the other churches seem to be doing then we're going to continue to shine our light in the future. You know but all it takes is one bad apple to get in here and ruin everything. So we got to be diligent. We got to be vigilant. Turn to Second Corinthians Chapter 5 verse 18 Second Corinthians Chapter 5 verse number 18. And like if you were to ask who's doing the most work for Christendom in this nation. Would you say it's the Pentecostals. Are they knocking on people's doors and getting people saved. They don't even believe in eternal security. Do you think it's the United Methodists who don't even believe the Bible anymore. They think it's just fairy tales that teach a moral story. Are they turning this world upside down for Christ. No they're not. Is the Roman Catholic Church doing that. No they're not. Are the Jews doing that. No they're not. You know who's known for knocking on doors and winning people to Christ. It's the Baptists that are doing that. Now you'd say well I know people that from the Mormon Church to do that too or from the Jehovah's Witnesses Church. Yeah but they're false prophets. So and I'm not afraid to say that from the pulpit. They're false prophets and yes I will call it out. I will call out any false prophets because that's what the Bible tells us to do. We can't just sit there and go well I don't want to mention their names but they knock on doors too. No the Mormons are wicked and so are the Jehovah's Witnesses. They teach a false gospel. So second Corinthians chapter 5 verse 18 says and all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. How do we get reconciled to God. Through Jesus Christ and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation. See he gets us saved through another Christian and then we go and spread it to other people. We've been given the ministry of reconciliation. Who are we supposed to be reconciling people to God. People to Christ. It says to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. So we're supposed to. What's the word of reconciliation. The gospel. We're supposed to be preaching the gospel to people right. And it says now then we are ambassadors for Christ. Does it say we're ambassadors for the USA. We're ambassadors for Fox News or Newsmax. We're ambassadors for Donald Trump. We're ambassadors for Christ and that's what Christians have thought have forgotten and they're falling down on the job. They've dropped the ball you know they got to the goal line and couldn't push it through the touchdown. They're just they're lazy and they're they're they're just they're just trashing the name of Christ because basically most churches have turned into a country club. You know we like to do activities here we do fun things things like that. But what is the main thing that we do. We're trying to win a world of Christ. You know it's not that we shouldn't. We don't believe in having fun. We believe in having fun. You know we just went and did like a men's shooting and we had fun. You know shooting at things right. Because that's what men like to do. The ladies are going to have a canning class. You know. Boring. No I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. Ladies like to do stuff like that. All right. I'm sorry I'm a man. To me that doesn't sound like yeah I can't wait for the canning class. No. That's not me. Let's go shoot the cans after the canning. All right. So anyway I'm just kidding. But what's the Bible say. We're ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. What is it what should our prayer be that we reconcile people to God. And that's what Christ left us here to do. Look God is not going to just appear out of the sky and save people. We have to do it. It's our people. If my people which are called by my name. We have to do it. It's going to be us. If anybody does it it's going to be us that that turns the tide in this country and even if we don't turn the tide this country we're going to turn it for somebody. We're going to turn the tide for individuals in this nation. Because you know what I don't back up the flag and I don't back up the military and all that stuff. But what did Christ call us to do. I forgot the verse where it says that we're supposed to just be pro military pro Trump pro this pro that. Hey we're supposed to be pro Christ in his mission. So our warfare is a different warfare it's a spiritual war warfare that we're supposed to be involved in it's not a military might. And look you're like well if you hate America then you should just go someplace else. Well you know I was born here and I'm an American and no I'm not going to go someplace else. I'm going to operate within the system that God allowed me to be born into. Just like Daniel. Do you think Daniel wanted to go to Babylon. No he didn't want to go to Babylon. But you know he was able to do great things for God in Babylon despite the fact that he was there. And you know what God has blessed Christians ability to operate within this nation. We're still allowed to freely preach the gospel except for on YouTube and Facebook and all the social media. But other than that we can preach whatever we want. I can still get up here and preach whatever I want and nobody stopping me yet. But you know unfortunately most Christians aren't are afraid to stand up. Most pastors are afraid to stand up and preach against the evils of this nation. They're afraid to get up and preach stuff like this because they're afraid they're going to lose their tithing members. They're afraid that they're going to lose people from their church. Well you know what if they if they lose those people those people were losers right. You know and maybe they're saved but they're just saved losers. You know they're not doing anything for God. The Bible says you know we are the salt of the earth and if the salt has lost have lost its savor wherewith shall it be salted is good for nothing but to be cast into the dung hill. What is a dung hill. It's a pile of you know what. Right. So that's what the Bible says. You know that's what Jesus said. So people are not doing anything for God. They're good for nothing. That's what that's what Jesus said. And I'm not saying you know that's Jesus's word right. So point number two is that is that people need to humble themselves. Christians need to humble themselves. Why would God say this because a lot of people that are Christians get lifted up with pride you know and pride. I preach about pride not too long ago. Let's look at some verses together in our main verses if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves. So what's the first thing that God wants us to do. He wants us to humble ourselves because Americans have a serious pride issue don't they. I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free. Right. So that's a lot of people are going to sing that song a lot of people are going to play that song on the radio. But does God OK with pride. You're like well that's a different kind of pride Pastor Thompson. Where does the Bible say to be proud of the nation that you're you're in. I mean show me the verse. Can you please show me that verse where it says that. Actually the Bible says that that the nations of the earth are a drop in the bucket. You know they're counted as less than nothing. So if it's you know that's how much God wants us to to shun this world system because look Jesus is the rock that comes out and smashes the image on the feet and destroys the whole world system at the end of days right. So he's going to come back and he's going to make things the way they're supposed to be. You know what. And he's not going to be flying American flag people. So it's not going to be the American flag the sodomite flag and then Jesus's flag. I don't even know if there is going to be a flag. But I'll tell you what it's definitely not going to be the American one because America is going to be smoked by God. This this nation if if everything broke loose and started and started going to the progression that it's going to in the end times. This nation would be Babylon USA. We control the whole world. We have military bases in one hundred fifty two countries. Why do you think that is. Why do you think we're still in Japan and in South Korea and Vietnam and all these other places. I mean I don't know if it's Vietnam but I know we're in a lot of different nations. We're not in North Korea or not in China or whatever but we're in a lot of nations. Why. Because we're controlling what's going on. We're the tip of the spear for the new world order. And I know you maybe you've never heard this before. Maybe you're like what are you talking about. Well I got sermons that you can look up and watch. I can point you in the right direction. I'm not preaching about that though necessarily. But you know Americans have serious pride issues but Christians can have serious pride issues too. And we're Americans aren't we. Everybody in this room pretty much is American. We got some people from other nations in here. But you are in America or you're trying to become an American. So but listen pride is not a Christian value. Did you know that. Pride is not a Christian value. If you say well what are the Christian values. Pride is not one of those things. God never talks good about pride in the whole Bible. He doesn't talk good about it. So why would we say I'm proud to be an American. Why do homos say they're proud to be queers. Why. Because they're you know the devil is the children of pride. And so the devil was cast out. Why because of his pride because of his sin because of his unrighteousness. You know all the people that follow him are filled with pride too. So we don't want to have that value as a Christian to be a prideful person. So to say you're proud to be an American. You're proud to be a homo which obviously there's no homos in here that I know of. But if they are they can go and just leave right now. But I'm proud of my honor student. How many people have seen those signs on the mile. You know I like the one that says my honor student or my student can beat up your honor student or something like that. But anyway proud to be an American is not something we should be saying. Or I'm proud of my soldiers or I'm proud of the police or whatever. You know I'm proud to be a Republican. Those are not things that should be coming out of Christians mouths. Proverbs 29 verse 23 turn to Proverbs 29 verse 23. Proverbs 29, 23 says a man's pride shall bring him low. But honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. See, pride is going to bring you low. Honor shall uphold the humble in spirit. See, you want to be honored by God, well be humble in your spirit. See, it's the opposite. God wants us to not be proud. So the pride think that they lift themselves up high and think that they're better than everybody else. But in reality, it's going to bring them low. God's sick of people that are filled with pride. Turn to James chapter four, verse number six. James four, six. While you're turning there, I'm going to read Proverbs 27 verse two. Proverbs 27 verse two says, let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not thine own lips. See, we live in a place where people are so filled with pride that they just praise themselves and how great they are. I mean, you just look at all these athletes. They're just so proud of everything that they do. And they pray, I'm the greatest corner in the game. I'm the greatest basketball player of all time. I'm so great at this, I'm so great at that, I'm the smartest person. People are just so filled with pride. But God says, let another man praise thee. Let somebody else say how great that person is or how great you are at something. Don't say it yourself, it's weird. We just accept that in this nation because that's just how far down the pike we've gone. James four, six says, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud. What's he going to do with the proud? He resists them. He resists them, but giveth grace unto the humble. You want to have grace in your life? You want God to bless you and give you grace for the things? Because look, we're all sinners, we're all going to screw up, right? He resisteth the proud. He's going to give grace to somebody that's humble and comes to him and says, I'm sorry, I messed up. You know what, kids, if you go to your parents and you say, I'm sorry, Dad, I'm sorry, Mom, I messed up, you know what? They're going to give you more grace, but when you're just resistant and you're just like, I'll just do whatever I want, I can't wait to move out or whatever, God's not going to give you grace, he's going to resist you. And your road's going to be a hard road. Turn to 1 Peter 5 verse 6, 1 Peter 5 verse number 6. The Bible says in 1 Peter 5 verse 6, it says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. See, you want to be exalted? Let God do that because you're humble, because you're lowly, because you're meek. What were the qualities of Jesus? He was humble. He was lowly. He was meek. And so God greatly exalted Jesus Christ because he lowered himself, right? And he stooped down with a towel and girded about his waist and stooped down and washed his own disciples' dirty, filthy, nasty, grunion feet with cracks and bunions and whatever, hair. That's how lowly Jesus went, though. And they're like, I can't believe he's doing this. The Lord himself washing his own disciples' feet, that's humble. That's humble to get on your knees in front of people that you're leading and wash their nasty old feet, right? And so Peter didn't want Jesus to wash his feet, but he said, hey, if you don't let me wash your feet, you have no part with me. He's like, wash everything, man. Wash my head, wash my hands, wash my, you know, he's like, do it all, right? So we need to be humble as Christians and humble ourselves before the Lord and humble ourselves before other people. Look, we don't always have to be right about everything. We don't always have to just right every wrong that happens to us. We can have grace. We can have mercy on other people because, look, people have bad days sometimes, don't they? And so just because someone's having a bad day, we should be able to get over that. If the world can do that, like I've talked to you about where I work sometimes, people just are yelling and screaming at each other or whatever. And then the next day, everything's fine. Or even the next hour, everything's fine. If the world can forgive that easy, why can't we? Why can't we humble ourselves? Why can't we do that? Well, we should. Point number three, if my people pray. If my people pray. Turn to 1 Thessalonians 5 18, I'm just gonna read part of the verse, that is our main text. 2 Chronicles 7 14 says, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray. So God wants us to what? Humble ourselves. He also wants us to pray. 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 18 says, in every thing, give thanks. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. So what is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you? That you would give thanks in everything? Part of the problem with Christians is that we're not thankful for the things that we get. When we get prayer requests, when we get prayer requests answered and things like that, and then people forget to thank God, that angers him. Why is this one of the things that Christians should do to heal their nation? Because people forget to pray. People forget to thank God for the things that they, and praying is just asking, right? I pray you, that means to ask for something. And the fact that people, we're so rich in this nation that a lot of people don't even feel like they need to ask for anything from God. That's not good. We need to have a heart that's thankful to God for the things that we get. And hey, if we're so blessed that we don't have to ask for anything, we should still thank God for the things that he gives you that you don't even have to ask for, right? James 5 verse 16, James 5 verse 16, I'm gonna read 1 Thessalonians 5, 17. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17 says, pray without ceasing. Now it's not talking about pray 24, 7, 3, 6, 5. You just block everything out and that's all you do is just pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, pray, that's not what it's talking about. It's saying pray without ceasing, that means don't stop your prayer life. Just because you get the one thing you got and then you're like, well, I'll pray next year when I need something else. We're not supposed to cease to pray, we're supposed to pick up our cross daily and follow after Christ, right? So wouldn't that mean that you're supposed to pray to God every single day? That we should acknowledge him, in all that ways acknowledge him, right? We're supposed to acknowledge the things that God does for us. We're supposed to acknowledge him, period. And so when we get to this point where we don't even think about God until we're halfway through the day, it's not good. It should be the first thing you think about. We're supposed to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul, with all of our strength. And so, if we're doing that, that doesn't mean you wait seven days before you ask God for something again, or before you acknowledge the fact that he is God. God wants us to love him. And so it's a commandment, it's not a suggestion, right? So what did I have you turn to? James 5 verse 16 says, confess your faults one to another and pray one for another. See, a lot of times we have prayer requests and people say, I'll pray for you, but they don't really pray. That's, if you say you're gonna pray for someone, you should pray for them. If you said, prayed on Facebook, you better have prayed. If you, and we have a lot of people that have a lot of needs, and that's good. God wants to hear our prayers. He keeps them in a little vial. How big is your vial? Is it like down to here? All the times he prayed to them was five times. Do you wanna have the mega vial in heaven? I mean, God wants to hear your prayers, and he reminds himself with these vials of our prayers. And he likes to think about the things that we've prayed to him about. God is pretty amazing, he can do a lot of things. He can answer everybody's prayers in the world at the same time. He can make everything, all the weather happen. He can do everything. He can still tend to everything in heaven. All at the same time, he's amazing. He's not like humans. We're made in the image and likeness of God, but we are not God. So we need to pray one for another and remember our brothers and sisters in Christ. It says that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. How often are you fervently praying for something? Are you just going through the motions? Or do you actually care enough to just seek God's face and just say, God, will you please heal this person? God, will you please help this woman to become pregnant or with child? God, will you please help this person that's sick, that needs your help? I mean, how fervent are you praying? Because you know what? When people's prayers don't get answered, it makes me wonder if they're ever fervently praying for something. You know when you're fervently praying for something? Most people is when you're about to die, when you think you're going to die. When it's something involving somebody you actually care about. But why don't you think about other people besides just yourself? There's an acronym that I like to use. It's called JOY. Jesus, others, you. We should acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ and pray to him. And we should pray for other people. And you is the last in the joy. Pray for yourself. We shouldn't neglect ourselves either. But maybe put someone else in front of you for once and think about somebody else's plight and empathize with somebody else. Because it's just natural for us to care more about ourselves and our own family members. But can you empathize for other people? Can you love your neighbor as yourself? Because that's what that essentially means, doesn't it? That if you're loving your neighbor as yourself, it's not just about soul winning. It's about everything that you do with your neighbor. So, Psalm chapter 25, verse 18. Psalm chapter 25, verse 18. And one of the problems is that we don't acknowledge our sin to God. We don't acknowledge it. Look at verse 18, it says, look upon mine infliction and my pain and forgive all my sins, that David said, who's a psalmist here. And he said, forgive all my sins. When's the last time you actually asked God to forgive the sins that you're committing? Now, and look, I'm not saying that all your sins, if you're saved, all your sins are forgiven. But the sins that you commit on Earth while you're saved, it's just like your parents. You're always gonna be part of that family. Your dad's not gonna kick you out for not cleaning your room or whatever, right? But we still should acknowledge the fact that we do wrong. We still should go to God. We live in the present, don't we? We haven't even committed some of these sins yet. But we should live in the present. And what God requires of us is to make things right with him when we do something wrong. It doesn't mean you're not saved. It just means that you're not right with God. So it's just like if your parents asked you to clean your room, and you come out and lie and say you did it, and you threw everything underneath the bed or threw everything in the closet, which I know nobody in this room's ever done that. But if you do that, and then your parents bust it, and you're just like, you just don't appreciate the hard work that I'm doing, Mom and Dad. I threw every, it's clean, look at it. What do your parents want you to do? They want you to acknowledge the fact that you lied about it and fix the problem. Clean it right, do it right. And so if we would do that with God, then our relationship with God would be a lot better. So when is the last time you asked God to forgive you of your sins? When is the last time you confessed your faults to one another? When's the last time you confessed your sins to God and say, God, I'm sorry. I've been living like a heathen. I've been watching things I shouldn't watch. I've been listening to things I shouldn't listen to. I've been fighting with my spouse. I've been neglecting my kids. I've been spending more time on Facebook than in the Bible. When's the last time you actually confessed your sins to God? Turn to 1 John chapter 1, verse 9, 1 John chapter 1, verse 9. Right now I'm just talking about praying. But see, all these things are involved in prayer. Thanking God, praying without ceasing, praying for one another. But also confessing your sins to God, asking him in prayer to forgive you. Look at what it says in 1 John 1-9, it says, if, see that if? Okay, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So look, if we go to God, he's faithful. He's always gonna, you know, we're not faithful, but God is. You might forget to confess your sins to God. You might forget to pray to him every day. You might forget to read your Bible and seek his face or whatever. But you know, God's always gonna be faithful. He's always gonna be there when you need him. He said, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee. He's never gonna do that. You know, we might feel like he has because the way we feel about ourselves. Because look, if you screw up, you feel bad. Most people do. Once you get to that point, like when David was told, thou art the man. You know, he just was like, fell apart. He knew he was undone, right? So we need to get to that point in our lives too. And we can't just let months and months go by before we just say, God, I'm sorry. If you don't feel close to God, maybe you're not seeking his face. And that brings me to point number four, where it says, if my people seek my face. So we're supposed to go to the Lord in prayer and pray for, you know, ask him to, or be thankful towards him, and to pray for other people, to pray for us, to pray without ceasing, to pray for ourselves, to confess our sins to him. But it also says, if we'll seek his face. And so you're like, well, that kind of sounds like the same thing in prayer. Well, yeah, I mean, they're connected for sure. Look at it, turn to 1 Chronicles 16, 11, I'm just gonna read the verse again. Says, my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face. Now, what does this term seek my face mean? Well, you're seeking the presence of God. See, because going through the motions and praying, you know, I mean, we're supposed to pray. But like, do you actually seek his presence? Do you seek his face? Do you wanna have this connection that's real with God? Well, seek his face, seek his presence. You know, can we see the face of God? No, we pray to an invisible God that we can't see. Jesus went up back to heaven, and he's there on the right hand of God. And he's waiting to come back. What's he waiting for? Well, he's waiting for the appointed time, right? There's always an appointment. You know, you gotta wait till the appointed time. And God knows when that is, but we don't. So we just need to do what he says in the meantime, right? So 1 Chronicles 16, verse 11 says, seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face continually. Seek his face continually. So, you know, are you groping and looking for God? Are you actually, when you pray, are you looking for the presence of God? Do you wanna commune with the Holy One of Israel? Well, you know, the Bible says, you know, seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his face continually. We need to seek to be in the presence of God whenever we can be. And you know what? If he's always there for us, then guess what? When we seek his face, he's gonna be there for us. He's gonna be, he's gonna present himself to us. And I'm not saying that you're gonna have these, like, visions and, you know, you're gonna actually, you know, I went to heaven for three days and don't, don't. That's not what I'm talking about. Look at Proverbs chapter 8 verse 17. And I talked about how we should acknowledge God. The first thing that we should do when we wake up in the morning is acknowledge the Lord, right? We should acknowledge him. Proverbs 8 verse 17 says, I love them that love me. And those that seek me early, what does it say? Shall find me. You seek God early, the first thing you do when you wake up is you seek the Lord, you seek his face, you seek his presence, you acknowledge him. Then, you know what it says? That you're gonna be able to find him. When you seek him, you will find him. And so go ahead and turn to Isaiah chapter 55 verse 6. Isaiah 55, 6, I'm gonna read Lamentations 3 verse 25. Lamentations 3 verse 25 says, the Lord is good unto them that wait for him. To the soul that seeketh him. Is your soul seeking after God? You know, because we can be a people that goes through the motions. And we know, God doesn't want us to just go through the motions. There is some feeling in Christianity. Now obviously, everything in God's word is what we should trust and everything. But if you're just a black and white, no nonsense, all the time, you don't feel anything, that's not what God wants. He wants us to feel for him, right? He wants us to seek him. He wants us to seek his presence. And so when you commune with the Lord in prayer, are you actually talking to him as if he's real? You know, Daniel Fusco has this thing that he has these stickers on his church. People that go to his church, they have these stickers that say, God is real. Yeah, we know that. But do you feel, I mean, when you're praying to the Lord, when you're seeking his face, do you feel for him as if he's real? Because sometimes, like I said, people can go through the motions. And they can just be like, Lord, bless his food in Jesus' name, amen, or whatever. That's your prayer for the day. Well, congratulations. But that is part of it. Shouldn't we thank God for the things that he gives us? Absolutely. But what I'm saying is that we need to actually feel for God. We need to actually seek his face. We wanna seek his presence. During Isaiah 55, verse 6, look what it says. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. And so we need to seek the Lord while he may be found. And did you wait till 11 o'clock at night and then be like, God, help me go to sleep tonight. I mean, if that's the most we're doing, we're not really seeking God's face. We're not really seeking his presence. When we go to God in prayer, he wants us to seek after him, like a friend, like a father, right? When you're hungry, kids, you probably go to your mom, right? But I'm sure you've asked your dad for food before, too. Dad, I'm hungry. Wait for a little while longer. No, when we seek him, if you seek your dad first, early, he's gonna give you some food. If he says, well, your mom will do it, then at least he's allowing you to have food, right? But we should seek the Lord, we should seek his presence. Number five, if my people will turn from their wicked ways. And see, we can be saved and still be wicked, right? Because why would God say for saved people to turn from their wicked ways? See, it's my people that are called by my name. See, that's where these false prophets, they love to just twist scripture and say, well, if you're still sinning, then you're not really saved. If you're living a life of sin, if you're still smoking, if you're still drinking, if you're still watching television, if you're still doing all this stuff, you're not saved, you're not really saved. That's not true. Because lots of people that are Christians still sin, like 100% of them. 100%. Chances are you've already sinned today with something that you thought about, something that you looked at, something that you said to somebody, and it's still early, right? Everybody sins, everybody commits sin. And to say that if you're still sinning, then you're not really saved, that's hogwash, that's not the truth. You can be wicked and be a Christian. So what about King Saul? God gave him a different heart. But yet he tried to hunt David down and kill him. And basically he went to a witch. And then the Bible specifically says that Saul was killed, that was the final straw with God, is that Saul was killed because he went to the witch. If you're so backslidden that you're going to the witch to try to get the word of the Lord, you are severely backslidden. And it's divination, it's wickedness, and it's the death penalty. And God finally just said, you know what, I've had enough, Saul, you're coming home. And so what did Samuel tell him? He said, tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. That means his sons were saved, and that means he was saved. And if Samuel, cuz we know Samuel was saved. So it'd be weird to say, well, and Saul killed himself. Saul literally fell upon his own sword and killed himself. And you know what, the Bible says that he still was saved. He still went to heaven. Don't listen to what false prophets tell you, listen to what the Bible says to you. So when it says that we need to turn from our wicked ways, that means Christians need to repent of their sins, okay? Now, am I saying you need to repent of your sins to be saved? No, I'm saying you need to repent of your sins and turn from your wicked ways because you're a sinner and you are saved. When you're saved, you're still gonna commit sin. And so God expects you to be sanctified. He expects you to be set apart. He expects you to be holy. What am I preaching here? Am I preaching just do whatever you want? You're saved, so go ahead and do whatever you want. People give us, preachers like me, that type of rap. They're like, you're just saying you got your fire insurance cards, you can just go and do whatever you want. Is that what I'm saying? No, I'm saying live a holy life, live a separated life. But you know what? The truth is, is that we are still going to be sinful. These bodies of flesh want to sin, and they're contrary one to another. The spirit of God that is in you is wrestling against the flesh, and it's gonna be something that you wrestle with for the rest of your life in this body. Okay, so the body, the flesh is not reformable. The only thing that allows you to be reformed is the spirit of God. And so that spirit, you know, is like the down payment. It's the earnest of the spirit that you get, and you're sealed unto the day of redemption. The Bible says you're sealed unto the day of redemption. You cannot lose your salvation. So look at James 4, verse 8, James 4, verse 8. I'm just gonna read for you our text verse. It says of my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Who's the there? My people, right? James 4 says draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, you double minded. So what is the Bible saying? If you're far away from God, you know what, just draw an eye to him. Draw an eye to him. Say, God, I wanna get close to you again. And you know what he'll do? He'll draw an eye to you. But you know what? He's not gonna do it if you're just not willing to cleanse your hands from the sins you've done. I'm not saying you're not saved, okay? Don't get me wrong. I'm just saying that if we just have our fire insurance card and we're living however we want, then God is gonna be constantly punishing you on this earth. And God will punish you on this earth and to the point where he will take you home. He will take you home early. But you know what, you're never gonna spend a day in hell. Because saved people don't go to hell. God's people don't go to hell for any reason, no matter what. And so just because you've sinned doesn't mean you're gonna go to hell. It just means that God's gonna punish you for the sins that you're responsible for here on this earth. And so, but your soul will be saved. How long do people go to hell for? All eternity, right? Is there any way to get out of hell? No, there's not. So wouldn't it make sense that if you're saved, that you go to heaven for all eternity? Yeah, because that's what the Bible says, right? That the Bible teaches once saved, always saved. The Bible teaches that once you believe on Christ, you're saved for all eternity. You shall not come into condemnation. You shall not come into condemnation. Was condemnation being condemned, being thrown in the lake of fire, being thrown into the second death? We will never experience that. If you're saved, if you trusted Christ as your savior today, then you will never spend one second in hell no matter what you do. Even if you live like the devil for the rest of your life, you're still not gonna spend one second in hell, because he promised to save you. And what did he say he had to do? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That's what the Bible teaches. So John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever, that whosoever means anyone, right? Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. How long does everlasting life last for? It lasts forever. I mean, how long does eternal life last for? All eternity. But yet you'll have people saying, well, if you just walk away, you can just put it back on the shelf. Where's that verse in the Bible that talks about putting your salvation back on the shelf? It doesn't exist, but a lot of people will say that to me. A lot of people say, well, if I just quit believing, you're not gonna quit believing. If you're saved, you're never gonna quit believing. So, but now if you haven't trusted in Christ, and you trusted in your works and Christ, then you're not saved. If you don't think that you are eternally secure, you're not saved. Because if you doubt God's word, the fact that he promised to give you everlasting life and hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began, God promised that he would give you everlasting life. And the only thing you have to do to get that is ask for it. Ask to be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. So, back to Isaiah 55, I should have told you to keep your finger there. Sorry about that. But I wanted to look at the next verse that we looked at. So, in Isaiah 55, 6, it says, seek ye the Lord while ye may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. But in verse 7, it says, let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous mend his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. See, God is a God of love. He's a God of wrath. He's a God of judgment. You know, but people in modern day America just think God is only love. Hate is a bad word now. Apparently, they're Yoda Baptist or Yoda, whatever, Christian church. And they take their theology from Gandhi and from Star Wars. And they've taken this Eastern mysticism and put it into Christianity. But in reality, God does have a wrathful side to him. He will throw, do you think God loves people that he throws into hell? Or do you think he hates them? God hates them because he wouldn't throw. Would you throw your kid into an oven? No. So anybody that's one of God's children, he's never going to throw into an oven. You're not going to throw your kid into an oven. God's not going to throw his kid into an oven either. Does that make sense? So, you know, but if he hates them, if someone was some psychopathic murderer, Ted Bundy, would you throw Ted Bundy in an oven? Yeah. Like, here you go, open up the doors. But God's the same way. You know, why do we feel that way? Why do we hate pedophiles? Because God hates pedophiles. Why do Christians hate homosexuals? Like, oh, you hate homosexuals? Yeah, because God hates them too. So, you know, but people are like, oh, they could be saved. They could be saved if they just repent. Now, you've gone past the point of no return once. And now let me be clear about this. If someone commits a homosexual act, but they're not a homosexual, then they could still be saved, okay? But it's the person that lusts in their heart after the same gender. That's what the Bible teaches in the book of Romans, that they've been given over to a reprobate mind. And so once they've been given over to a reprobate mind, there's no fixing them. Your mind, if God gives up on you, then you have no hope. And the Bible says God gave them up to uncleanness. God gave them over to a reprobate mind. So, look, there's no fixing that. If it's broken, you can't make something crooked straight, okay? No matter how much you try. I just was reading about all the times that God gave chances to Pharaoh. All the things, the mighty wonders that he showed Pharaoh. Did Pharaoh get saved? No. God, Pharaoh was a reprobate. The Bible says that he hardened his heart. When you harden your heart towards God to the point where there's just no chance you're gonna believe in him, then you're done. God then rejects you. And I know that's not a popular teaching in 2021 America, Christian churches, but it's the truth. It's a fact, Jack. It is the truth. That's what the Bible teaches. If you change the Bible, can you be saved? If you blast him the Holy Ghost, can you be saved? No. So then why would you think that if God gave up on someone, that that person could be saved? Doesn't make any sense, all right? So anyway, let's look at Luke chapter 15, Luke chapter 15. I don't have time to read all this, but Luke chapter 15. Look at verse 11. So people wanna say that the prodigal son was this guy that lost his salvation and came back to God. Well, what does it say right here at the very beginning in verse 11? It says, and he said a certain man had two sons, okay? They're his sons. And who represents, the father in this story represents God the Father. So if they're his son, then they're not someone that's lost because you can't be lost if you're one of God's sons, right? Now, was he sinful? Yes, he was. And look what happens. It says in verse 12, and the younger of them said to his father, father give me the portion of the goods that follow to me. And he divided unto them his living. So look at verse 13, it says, and not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country. And there wasted his substance with riotous living. So this is talking about a person that's saved. And yeah, they're backslidden, or maybe they never slide forward. Maybe they just never have done good works for God. Maybe they were in church and they were doing things for God. But they go back to their old ways. And the Bible says that a dog will return to its vomit and a hog to its wallowing in the mire. So look, Christians can go back to their old sins. And as a matter of fact, the ones that you used to commit a lot are the easiest ones to go back to. So that's why you should stay away from that stuff. If you had a problem with alcohol in the past, stay away from it. If you had a problem smoking pot in the past, stay away from it. If you had a problem with meth in the past, stay away from it. Because, I mean, have you seen the faces of meth? I mean, they look normal and then it shows, they're just like a twisted version of what they once were. So we don't wanna go back to that stuff. So look what it says in verse 14, it says, and when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in the land. And he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. So you know what, God, when you're out of God's will, and you just wanna go and live however you want, God's gonna punish you. He's gonna make a way for you to turn back to him. He's gonna chasten you in hopes that you'll come back. And when he came to himself, he said, how many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough to spare? And I perish with hunger. I will rise and go to my father, and I'll say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee. And I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off. Remember the verse that said, if you draw an eye to God, he'll draw an eye unto you. Look what it says. And he rose and came to his father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. You know what, if you're away from God right now, maybe you're in church, but your heart is far from God right now, you know you can always come back. You can always come back to him, and you know what, he's gonna meet you, he's gonna see you from afar off, and he's gonna run to you, and he's gonna grab a hold of you, and he's gonna have compassion on you, and he's gonna fall on your neck and kiss you too. Why? Because God is full of mercy and long suffering to us. And it says, and the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son. And you know what, none of us are worthy to be called God's son. It's by grace that we're saved through faith, right? It says, but the father said to his servants, bring forth the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet, and bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it, and let us eat, and be merry. For this my son was dead, and is alive again. He was lost and is found, and they began to be merry. So God will always accept you back, but you know what, you have to say, you know what, I'm gonna get myself right with God. You have to come to yourself again, like the man in this story did. So, and then now go back up to verse number ten, because you know what? In the context of this story, a lot of times when I got saved, actually the person read me this verse right here after I got saved. And it's still true, as the day is long, cuz God, there's a lot of joy in heaven when you repent. Look what it says, verse ten. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. Just one person, one person makes a difference to God. You know what? We're living in a nation right now where sin is running rampant. And it's getting worse every single day. We're being, Christianity is being started to become censored. The messages that we preach are being stricken off the internet because it offends people. And because people want, people love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And we live in a, it's wicked, but you know what? I'm gonna wrap it up right now, I know I need to be done. But the Bible says in Second Chronicles 714, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. So those are prerequisites for what? For getting right with God. And then what? Then will I hear from heaven. He's not gonna do it if you don't do it in the order that he says to do it. If you don't do what God says to do, he's not gonna do these things, right? Says, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. And like I said, it might be too far gone for us here, but you know what? We can, hey, we could have some kind of jubilee in the middle of all this. And God's people can return to him. That's what he wants. Why is the West Coast under some kind of crazy drought right now? Because people need to get right with God. Because the Christian pastors in this nation need to turn back to God, and they need to preach hard on sin. That's why. You know what? And when we go back to him humbly and pray and seek his face and turn from our wicked ways, then God's gonna hear. Then he's gonna forgive our sin, and then he's gonna heal our land. But he's not gonna do it if we don't. You know what? If we're the only people saying it in the whole West Coast, which I know that's not true, we have other friends that will thunder forth the same things. But if it's just a small minority, then people are gonna be like, they're crazy, they're a cult, they're preaching things that aren't true. And look, people are gonna do that, but you know what? The people that are in the darkest places are gonna shine the brightest when they're doing what God wants them to do. You know what? And if it's shining a light into the wickedness, and they attack us for that, that doesn't make us the bad people. You know what it does? It makes the rest of Christianity look really weak. Cuz why aren't they being persecuted? Why aren't they being called all manner of evil things? Why aren't their jobs being attacked? Why aren't they being called and having a bunch of people stand out in front of their church and call all kinds of weird names and showing dirty pictures to their children as they walk in? Why? Because you know what? They're not living godly in Christ Jesus. They're running a country club, and then they're not even preaching the word of God. You're lucky if you get one verse at the beginning, then just you're gonna get a bunch of stories from somebody, and they're gonna tell a bunch of poems. And there's nothing wrong with telling stories and having poems, but you know what? Have some Bible and you're preaching. Because you know what? This is the thing that's gonna change America back to the way it should be. But you know what? Everybody's fallen down on the job. And look, I'm not trying to be prideful. I just want to serve God and do what he wants. And I want our church family to do the same thing. And I want Sure Foundation Baptist Church to be a shining beacon in this nation for many years to come. And you know what? If the tribulation happens, and we're all chased up into the mountains or whatever, then so be it. But we still need to preach that stuff from the mountaintops. You know what? We can't be afraid of what's coming upon us, because it's gonna happen whether we like it or not. But who do you want to be? The one hiding in the rocks in the mountains? Or do you want to be the one that's thundering forth God's word and winning a nation to Christ one person at a time? Because you know what? That's one person. God has, there's joy in heaven in the presence of the angels for one sinner that repents. And so hey, if we just get one sinner saved a year, we're doing a good job. Or are we? No, we need to get more. But if people won't hear it, they won't hear it. But you know what? We gotta do our best to thunder forth the commandments of God. It's not just one thing that we have to do. It's not just soul winning. We gotta thunder forth what the Bible says about things and not be afraid and ashamed when persecution comes. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much that we're in a nation where we can operate and do things for you, Lord. I pray that you would help us to use the freedoms and liberties that we still do have to serve you in the best capacity that we can, Lord. And Lord, there's a lot of people that are falling down on the job. A lot of pastors are not leading their churches correctly. And they're scared, Lord, to preach the word of God. I pray that you would just help the pastors in this nation and help the Christians in this nation to turn back to you and quit worshiping idols and being afraid of what the devil's gonna do to them and be more afraid of what you're gonna do, Lord. I pray you'd bless the rest of our time and the preachers that are gonna preach after this and our fellowship today and all the food that we're gonna enjoy. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Let's turn our green hymnals to page 143 or sing the last song. Blessed Assurance, page 143. Blessed Assurance, page 143. Sing it out with me on the first. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of God. Born of his spirit, washed in his blood. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending ring from above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. On the last. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I am my Savior, am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking above. Filled with his goodness, lost in his love. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. Man, thanks for coming out this morning. Stick around for our men's preaching night, but 20 minute break. Brother Sean, can you hit us with a word of prayer? Take a 20 minute break, then come back for a men's preaching night.