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

Amen, all right, well it's great to be here again. And that year went by really fast. And it's a pleasure to be back at Stronghold, or Stronghold, Strong Tower Baptist Church, man, I always do that, but sorry. Anyway, it's good to be here, like I said, and it's been an amazing year for your guys' church, and I'm glad it's still here. So a lot of people would probably say that there's enemies, of course, of this church that would love to see it fall. And I'm glad to see that it's still here. I never doubted you guys at all to begin with, so when I planted this church, I knew for sure that it was gonna take off, because it is of the Lord that this church was planted. But I wanna say, before I begin preaching, I just wanna say thank you to Pastor Taverner and Miss Lisa and the kids, of course, and their hospitality. It's been said that when I started this church that we didn't know the Taverner family at all, and we just kinda just willy-nilly just let them start this church, and of course that's not true. I mean, we've lived with them for over a month. I mean, when you count all the time together, and I don't think anybody has probably lived with anybody in this church for that amount of time. So when you live with somebody, you really get to know them pretty quickly. So we know them quite well. And so by the time I ordained Pastor Taverner, we definitely knew their family really well. And you can only hide being a villain for so long. So if he was a villain, they really put it on for a long time. So anyhow, I just wanna say also thank you to the Strong Tower family for having us here, and we really appreciate your prayers for our church, and we appreciate how well you treat us. I've never been offered so much coffee and tea in my whole life. And the humidity here is killing me. I just have to admit that right off the bat. So you see me sweating already, and you're like, why is Pastor Thomas sweating? Well, Pastor Thomas is not used to the humidity here. And so normally I'd be professional with a jacket on, but I just can't do that today because yesterday was nice. I was like, you guys were all like, it's cold. I'm like, I love this. So, but yeah, I'm really happy to be here preaching the one year anniversary. And I want to start out by looking down at verse 29. It says here, I will not drive them out from before the inn one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee until thou be increased and inherit the land. The title of the sermon this morning is In One Year. Now, the concept of in one year, of course, is because you guys are here, have been here for one year as an independent Baptist church. And I'm drawing some spiritual parallels from the passage this morning in Exodus. Chapter 23, of course, this is in the Old Testament. And so I'm definitely drawing a spiritual application from this passage, like I said. And basically God is saying he's not going to allow the children of Israel to just take over the whole promised land in one year. Because if they were to do that, then the whole land would become desolate. And it says the beast of the field would multiply against them. So all the wild animals would start to come in to this place because humans, because of the fall, were afraid of, the animals were afraid of humans because of that. And so if all the humans are gone, then the beasts of the field are going to come and multiply. Yesterday we were out sowing and I walked through this gate and there's a fox sitting in a chair. And I didn't realize it when I was walking up to it. Pastor Taver was like, oh, hold on. And so this fox just jumps up out of this chair and I was like, oh, that's not like something you see every day. But he was the fear of man came upon him when he saw us. And like he's jumping over fences and gates and, you know, the kids are having fun chasing them around or whatever. But yeah, I mean, animals are afraid. But what God doesn't want is for, you know, like when this church is planted, he's not just going to allow all the people to get saved. They're going to get saved in South End in one year. It's going to take time to win the people over. And it's going to take time for this church to multiply salvations. And England is not going to get one in one year. South End is not going to get one in one year. So this is something that happens little by little. And in the first year, God's not going to just allow all of this church's works to be done in a one year's time. But it says in verse 30, little by little, I will drive them out from before thee. Now, of course, we're not making war with Philistines and Canaanites in the way that this is talking about. He was talking about destroying them. Now, when you apply this spiritually for us, we're not, you know, we are among the heathen. This church here is among the heathen, right? There's all different types of people, all different types of churches, quote unquote, churches and different religions. Now, we're going to conquer them spiritually, as in we want to get them saved. We want to have an influence for Christ. We're not here to destroy men's lives, but we're here to save them, right? That is the goal of this church. It's not. So when we talk about destroying them, taking the land, we're talking about in a spiritual manner as to, you know, getting men saved, getting people saved and winning them over. So in one year, things are just really getting started. But I just want to preach some things that we already know about this church. And some things that we can expect to come our way as you begin to grow, as you begin to expand, as this church begins to get bigger. And, you know, some things that you might want to think about that are going to come with the growth. And we want to, I want to kind of express that, you know, things are going to come, battles are going to come. And, you know, just like when the children of Israel try to take the promised land, you know, sometimes Joshua had to say, hey, you guys need to quit being slack and you need to go and take that land. If you don't have enough land, then you need to go and go for it and do more. And sometimes the children of Israel would get slack. And so we need to continue to follow God's ways. We need to continue to follow what the Bible says in order to continue to have the power of God on our lives and on this church. And we need to be able to expect that battles are going to come. Right now, you guys are kind of in a valley or you're in a time of peace, but there has been war waged against this church in the past. And look, there's going to be more war waged against it in the future. It's not like England is this spiritual oasis where, you know, it's just everybody's, you know, there's lots of churches just like this church. There is no other churches in England like this church. And so, you know, and you would think that a church like this would just have thousands of people in it because people are just spiritually hungry. But in reality, England is a dark place spiritually. And this is a bastion of hope for many different people, but they just don't realize it yet. And so this church is in its infancy and, you know, this church is making a difference and people will come to see that as this church begins to grow. So point number one this morning is this church, Strong Tower Baptist Church, is prepared, built and established by God. And there's no doubt in my mind about that. Now, look at verse number 20 in the same text there. It says, Behold, I send an angel before thee to prepare thee in the way. Now, when the Bible uses that word in the way, a lot of the times it's talking about the path that you need to go on. The right way. And sometimes it's talking about like Christianity in general or the right faith, right? So it says, I send an angel before thee to keep thee in the way, to keep you on the right path and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. God prepared the place for the children of Israel to go. He said, these are the bounds which I want you to go. But in the New Testament, what are the bounds that we have? There are no boundaries. God wants us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. But he does prepare a place for us to launch out of. The children, you know, in the New Testament, the apostles started from where? From Jerusalem and then to Samaria and then, you know, all Judea to Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. That's where Jesus wants us to go. So Jesus wants us to, you know, you guys started out here and he wants you to launch off and go to different places, which of course you have already begun to do. But God started off Strong Tower Baptist Church and he prepared a place for you already. He already sent out the angel to prepare the place for you. And you might not realize this, but God brought you to this church. He prepared this place for you and he prepared you for this place. You just might not realize that, but he did. And God loves this church. God loves Strong Tower Baptist Church and Jesus Christ died for this church. Jesus Christ died for you. And when you come together as saved believers, that is the church. And so when you come together here, Christ is here with us. The Holy Spirit of God is here with us. He has sent his angel before and prepared this place for you. And it's been said recently, I saw some stuff that was said that by one of the enemies of this church, that Sure Foundation Baptist Church has planted a, quote, total disaster in England. A total disaster. Now, I don't know what the attendance is this morning. And does anybody know, Pastor, do you know what the attendance is? Oh, it's 89. So it's a total disaster because 89 people are here this morning, only 89 people. But, you know, it was also said that there's no good churches in England to go to. Well, I think this is a pretty good church. And, you know, yesterday we had 62 people out soul winning. We had 34 salvations. And I don't know what everybody else's stories were for their salvations. I heard a few people say some of the things that they did. But I personally had a pretty frustrating day soul winning until the last door. And who's had a last door salvation before out soul winning? Aren't those nice? I really was frustrated because I went to, I preached the gospel twice before that and both people didn't get saved. Those are frustrating, right? So at the last door, imagine Pastor Thompson, sheepish at the last door. It's a white lady. And, you know, a lot of times the white older ladies are the last people that get saved here, right? And she's a Catholic. She says, you know, all religions, you know, lead to heaven. And I'm just like, oh, man, you know, I just, you know, I'm at her door, you know, it looks like her, you know, she's having like a dinner party. Some people are cooking in the kitchen. And I'm just like, you know, I'm pushing, but I'm just not pushing. You know, I'm being a little sheepish in my push. I got to admit it. I'm a little weary. I'm ready to be done. It's like, what, 15 minutes till four o'clock. I'm just, I'm tired. My back hurts. My feet hurt. You know, just exactly how everybody else felt about that time yesterday. But I asked her, can I show you what the Bible says it takes to go to heaven? She said, yeah, to my shock and surprise. And she got, she got it so easy and she ended up getting saved. And you know what? It was such a blessing. It was such a breath of fresh air. And I, you know, all those feelings I had before went away. You know what she said to me? She said, I was, I was praying that Jesus would reveal himself to me somehow today. And she was welling up with tears in her eyes. And before one of the other people that I was talking to, she said, I had pulled a Bible off my shelf and began to read it with my daughter and said, I can't understand this. Can you understand this? And she said that she was thinking about the things of God and then she rejected the gospel after I gave it to her. That's frustrating. So the tale of two different people, one person tells me all about how they've been thinking about things. Someone's been talking to about stuff. They've been wondering, hey, is this, is God even real? Is God even true? And then chose her horoscope stuff, literally just basically brought it up at the end of my presentation and said, well, I don't really, you know, she basically said she didn't want to give that stuff up. After telling me that she was wanting someone to come, basically wanted someone to come and talk to her about it, here I am. She rejects it. And then this other woman, she says she basically was hoping Jesus would reveal himself to her and then a soul winner comes to the door, she gets saved. But the reason why I'm telling this, I'm not trying to make myself the hero of the story. What I'm saying is that, look, if the church hadn't been planted here, I would not be in England. I would not have been at that door. That lady never would have gotten saved. And the same thing with the other 33 people that got saved that day. This church is not a disaster. This church is a blessing of God. And every time this church has a soul winning time, which is apparently like six days a week or something now, one, two, three, four, five, yeah, six days a week, plus you guys have like so many marathons or so many things every two months. I mean, that's not a disaster. People are showing up to church here three times a week. People are getting saved. Babies are being born, marriages are happening, families are growing, people are learning the Bible, people are being reached with the gospel, people are being reached with hard Bible preaching, preaching that you're not going to hear at other churches. When you come and hear the word of God, you're just like, uh, you get the, you get the preaching glaze over your eyes sometimes, but I'll tell you what, just go, you know, if you get sick of hearing the preaching at this church, let me just, I'm sorry, Pastor Tavernor, I hope I'm not stepping over, you know, a line here, but just go to a Church of England churches one time and then you'll remember why you come to this church, okay? Or just go to one of the Baptist churches and, you know, any Baptist church, just put your, I don't know if you have phone books here anymore, but just Google Baptist churches and go to one that's close to you and then remember why you come to this church. So it's not a disaster. This is a good church. So let's look at some stats, all right? He was going through the stats, 3,257 salvations, total disaster. 159 baptisms, you know, we've had, it's been record, there's been record attendances of 121, 120, 90 on a Wednesday night. The attendance this morning is 89, the, let me ask this, raise your hand if you were reached or saved through this church by door-to-door soul winning. Just raise your hand if you were reached by this church. Someone knocked on your door from this church and you came to this church because someone knocked on your door. Just raise your hand. Nobody? Okay, one right there, right here too, okay. Now raise your hand if you were reached by some online preaching. Raise your hand. All right, amen. Raise your hand if you, well, I mean look, a church filled with people here because someone was claiming or was looking for a church, you were looking for a church that was different than the other churches that were around. And you're looking, a lot of people are looking for a church that preaches the truth and this church preaches the truth. So this church also has done a lot of successful missions trips. They've gone to South Africa, Malawi, all over England, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland. Pastor Tavener has a video where he baptized like, what was it, 62 people or something? And I mean, that's I think the record, the new IFB record for people baptized at one time. I had to like fast forward it and watch it because it was so long. And then of course the trips, you know, this month going to the Netherlands. He's got Bible study groups that he started that are hopefully going to turn into church plants someday. And you know, this church is reaching other places and like I said, all the physical blessings and like I said, the marriages and all the stuff that are happening. This church is a blessing and hopefully it's a blessing to your family. I mean, you're here today hopefully because it's a blessing to you. Let's turn to Psalm chapter 127 verse one, Psalm chapter 127 verse one. Those numbers don't indicate disaster. When they went to Malawi, they preached to 2000 kids at one time. He didn't even count any of the salvations. So on top of all the three, you know, over 3000 people, they didn't even count those ones. So it's because it's just like hard to count when you're preaching to that many people. But I mean, those are great works. Those are great works. And this is just the beginning of a great church. This is just the beginning. This is just the first year. Look at Psalm 127 verse one, the Bible says, except the Lord build the church, they labor in vain that build it. See, I'd like to take the credit for building this church, but I didn't build this church. Pastor Taverner did not build this church. You all didn't build this church. God built this church. See, we can try in our flesh to build something to build a great church like this, but that's it's not really true. We are just co-laborers with God and we help God. We are co-laborers. We work with God, but he is the master builder. He is the one that actually builds the house. And so if it's of God, it's going to get built up. If this was a disaster, there wouldn't be anybody here. There wouldn't be people getting saved. There wouldn't be preaching going on. A disaster means it's just a train wreck. It's just gone. This is not a disaster. This is a success story. A disaster is when things just go completely wrong and sideways. Thank you. But I don't build churches. I really don't plant churches. That's not my job. It's God's job to build churches and anything I try to do in my own power, anything we try to do in our own power is going to ultimately fail because God is the one that actually builds churches. And people always want to know why I start churches and they want to try to throw shade on the fact that I start churches and they want to try to say, well, somehow he's making money off of doing these churches and whatever. You can think whatever you want. Why don't you just call up my church leaders and ask them how much money did I get from planting churches because it's just not true. It's just a way to attack my church. It's just a way to attack my ministry. It's just a way to attack the way that I start churches because really I couldn't have just come here and spent two and a half years mentoring personally Pastor Tavener, eyeballs on the congregation or whatever people like to say. Do you think that Paul just spent three and a half years with every single church plant that he started? And again, I'm not comparing myself to Paul, but do you think that's what he did or did Paul get stoned and left for dead and walk away or he spent a little bit of time with one place and spent a little, I mean, I'm sure he did train leaders, but not everybody was a pastor starting out. Why did Paul write letters to people because he's like, this is what you guys are screwing up on. This is what you need to fix. This is what you're doing right. He would write letters to them because they didn't have a pastor because why would he be authoritatively writing letters if they had a pastor because the pastor is the leader of the church. So he wrote letters to them in authority because he was the apostle that started that church. But once they had a pastor, then he didn't need to write letters to them anymore. He would ordain, he sent Titus to ordain elders in every city. So what does that, do you think he just walked up to the cities and in Crete and he was just like, you look like a pretty good pastor. Let's ordain him. Oh, he had to train people and people get trained and, and, and we have technology available to us that we, that they didn't have back then. You know, back then it was letters and those letters had to be sent and sometimes it was by ship or horse or whatever it was or by bird or a carrier pigeon. I don't know exactly how they did it all, but we have, we have technology where I can just be on the, on a screen talking to him at the exact, you know, different time tables of the day or whatever, but we're talking together at the same time. Well, I can't train somebody when I'm looking at somebody or talking to somebody on the phone. Of course you can. So these accusations about church planting, I'm doing church planting wrong or whatever says who, who, who, who are you to judge? Like if they're, if the church planting is getting done, then it's getting done. And if good people are taking the churches and the churches are being successful, then, and what, what's your measure of success? You know, if, if people are being ordained in the ministry, I mean, pastor Taverner's the first pastor that I ordained and here later we're in a success. I ordained brother Jim Weeb to pastor Weeb and he's already got, you know, churches that he's lining up to become satellite churches there too. This is how Christianity spread in the early church. They started churches and they ordained pastors and then those guys did the same thing. It's exponential growth. That's how it works. So the way I look at it is that God already told us what to do. He already told us. Jesus told us before he left, before he went up to heaven, the last thing he told us to do is the great commission. Turn to Matthew chapter 28, Matthew chapter 28. But to say that, you know, there was no such thing as church leaders and locations. That's crazy. Of course there were. There was satellite type leaders or church plant type leaders. There was evangelists. I mean, Phillip was an evangelist. Phillip was an evangelist and he had daughters in a location with him that were preaching the gospel, virgin daughters. Paul went to visit him. He was an evangelist, but he, you know, obviously he was, he probably either his wife died or something happened, but he was not qualified to be a pastor, so he was still an evangelist. All those years later. Why? Well, why was he called an evangelist? Probably because he was leading a church and wasn't qualified to be the pastor for whatever reason. But anyway, look at Matthew chapter 28 verse 17. It says that when he saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. So who has all the power? Jesus has all the power, doesn't he? It says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I am with you all way, even unto the end of the world. So he told us to go and teach all nations and baptize them in the name of the followers on the Holy Ghost and to teach them the Bible, right? And he says he's going to be with us just until next week, just until next year. No, all the way, even unto the end of the world. So he gave us a commission to go out and get people saved and teach people the Bible, rinse and repeat, right? To continue to do these things. He already gave us the power and the authority to do these things. So people are like, well, what makes you think that, you know, it's okay to just go and start all these churches? What do you mean? He told us to do it. He told us to go ahead and just, there's no, I want me to pray about that. Why? You know, sometimes like people, people will be praying and God will be like, get up. Like, what, why are you praying? Like Josh, Joshua was on his, on his face, praying on the ground. He's like, get up. What are you doing? I already told you what to do. Like, there's just some things we don't have to pray about. Should I go sowing in? I'm just waiting for God's will in my life. Yes, go sowing in. He already told you to go. What are you talking about? Should I baptize this convert? I don't know. Yes. He already told you to. Should I teach the Bible as a pastor? Yes. Should I teach the whole council of God? Yes. He already said. He already gave us the power to do these things. Look at Matthew chapter 16 verse 18. Matthew 16, 18. It says, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And look, gates don't attack people. We attack gates. Gates don't move. They don't have feet. They don't have horses that they ride on. Gates are places in a stationary spot. The gates of hell. So when we are going as a church to whatever place we're going to to go sowing, we're attacking the gates of hell. The devil doesn't like that. And so the devil's going to try to attack this church at any turn he can. He's going to send people to infiltrate. He's going to send people to hate. He's going to attack through the government agencies. He's going to attack in many different ways and he's going to try to overturn this church. He's going to try to overthrow the people. He's going to try to send darts at the pastor. He's going to try to destroy marriages. He's going to try to destroy the children. He's going to try to do anything he can to destroy this church and make it a destruction and destroy everything about it. But the gates of hell should not prevail against it. The gates of hell should not prevail against it. And this church cannot compromise if it wants to remain successful. They cannot become sinking San-Baptist Church if it wants to stay a legitimate church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Acts chapter 16, Acts chapter 16, verse number 4, Acts 16, 4. Here you have Paul checking on churches that he already had established here. It says, And as they went through the cities, they delivered them the decrees for to keep and were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem. And so were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. So I take that to mean that these churches not only increased in number daily with people, but that the churches themselves increased in number, that other churches were planted like them. So, you know, it's not just the goal to have one church. It's the goal to have other churches also. So church planting is an important thing that needs to happen because, you know, there's churches that are dying off all the time. There's Baptist churches that are going under all the time in the States. And, you know, COVID didn't really help that very much because people started being scared to go to church and all this other stuff, right. But, you know, fundamentalism is dying and I really do blame the fact that people just stop preaching the way they used to preach back in the old days. But you know, it is a sign of the times too. You know, evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. The Bible says in the last days, you know, things are going to get worse and people are just going to want teachers, they're going to keep to themselves teachers having itching ears. And that's going to be, you know, it's going to, there's going to be a great falling away. And we really are kind of in a great downturn in Christianity. But just because they're going weak, just because they're going soft, that doesn't mean that we have to. And after one year, you know, I'm visiting this church and I've determined that this church is a success. It's established in the faith. And you know, how do you, how do you just, how do you even explain this church? How it began, you know, and how it was rent free in South End for so long. And then like, you guys moved to Wickford. How long were you there? Like a year? About a year. And then all of a sudden, South End just calls you back somehow. It's like, you know, he's looking for a place in London, you know, because London has the world, that's where all the people are, right? But maybe God just didn't want you there for whatever reason, because this church is successful here in South End. You know, for whatever reason, he wanted you back here. And that's kind of what happened. You know, now you got a five year lease and, you know, the church is doing well here. But how do you explain that? Like, how do you explain the success of this church? People are not raring to just start churches in England. It's just not a thing, you know, but really it needs to happen. But people, people are like, they don't think of, hey, I'm going to go start a church. I remember a long time ago, there was a missionary to Scotland. He's no longer a missionary to Scotland. You know why? Because that's where missionaries go to die off and then come back to the United States. He was sent out of our church, but he went to Hyles Anderson, so it's not like he didn't have the right preaching style. He had a great preaching style, but, you know, going up to Scotland, you know, I don't know. Maybe he just didn't have, maybe it's just Scotland just is giving over at this point. I don't know. I mean, you heard my sermon about some of you, so. But I'm sure that in the right situation, a church could be successful up there someday. I don't know. You can't smack your kid's bottoms there, so I don't know. There's a lot of things going up, going against you there. But anyway, how do you explain this church? It's just, you know, it's of God and you know, this church, you know, this church might not be a good church for perverts, for bozos, for weirdos, for infiltrators, for false prophets, for Jezebels, but for normal people that are saved and want to serve God, it's a great church. Number two, this church will remain a great church as long as it obeys Christ and refuses to compromise. So it's already a great church, but it won't stay a great church unless it continues to obey Christ. Look at our text in Exodus chapter 23 verse 22. It says, But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice and do all that I speak, then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies and an adversary unto thine adversaries. For mine angel shall go before thee and bring thee into the Amorites and the Hittites and the Perizzites and the Canaanites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, and I will cut them off. Thou shalt not bow down to their gods, nor serve them, nor do after their works, but thou shalt utterly overthrow them and quite break down their images, and he shall serve the Lord your God, and he shall bless thy bread and thy water, and will take sickness away from the midst of thee, and there shall nothing cast their young nor be barren in thy land the number of thy days I will fulfill. So God's basically saying, hey, if you'll just obey my voice, then I'm going to bless you in the place where I send you. And applying this to the church and church work, well, I mean, if you obey the voice of God in church, in this church, God's going to bless your life too. And when you're doing the work of the Lord, when Pastor Taverner is preaching the Word of God, he's not saying, well, I guess I should probably just skip this passage because this is too controversial. I don't want to lose people. That's the beginning of compromise. That's the beginning of the downfall of this church. That's the beginning of the downfall of any church. When a pastor looks at a passage where Leviticus 20, 13 is or something, and he says, I'm not going to preach that because I don't want to lose people, that's the beginning of a church dying right there. When they're afraid to preach what the Bible says, when they're afraid to preach the truth, that's where compromise creeps in. And then the church goes, you know, God is not going to just put up with that. He's not going to put up with compromise. He's not going to put up with us singing Kumbaya and holding hands with the other churches in this area that preach, repent of your sins, that preach, you know, that sprinkle babies, you know, oh no, it's okay, we're all just, you know, we're all just saved. No, no, they're not saved. If they think that they can lose their salvation, they're not saved. So we're not going to join together with other churches. That's why it says, you know, don't serve their gods. Don't bow down with their gods. You know, you serve the Lord your God and he's going to bless your bread and your water and take sickness away from among you and not let your young be cast out before they're supposed to be and not be barren. You know, God's going to bless this church and allow it to continue to thrive as long as, you know, this church is obeying his voice. I'm not saying there's never going to be trouble. That's not what this is talking about. This is talking about the blessings of God because we're obeying and following the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Matthew chapter 7, Matthew chapter 7. So it's sort of been established. This church is of God. It's established of God. It's built by God. But it won't continue to stay that way if you don't continue to, you know, if you compromise or don't, this church stops being built upon the precepts of the Bible and on the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Matthew 7, 24 says, Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them. So you hear what the Bible says and you do them. I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock. Who's the rock represent here? The Lord Jesus Christ. So when you build your life, when you build this church upon the things that Christ says and then you actually do those things, you're considered a wise man. This is considered a wise church and Jesus is the rock, right? It says and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell not for it was founded upon a rock. So when the government comes against you or false prophets come against you or the sodomites come against this church and you know, it's, you know, there's, you're going to have to weather the storm, but as long as you're founded upon the rock, you're doing things for the right reasons. You're actually being persecuted for the word of God's sake, not just because you're starting trouble for no reason. Then all these things are going to happen and it's not going to fall because it's built upon the rock. Right? Look at verse 26 and it says, and everyone that heareth these sayings of mine and doeth them not shall be likened unto a foolish man which built his house upon the sand and the rain descended and the floods came and the winds blew and beat upon that house and it fell and great was the fall of it. This would represent any person's family, home life, whatever, but you know, for the, for this sermon, a church, if the church is not founded on what the Bible says and what Jesus Christ has put forth and they're not proclaiming the truth, then they're like a church that's been built upon sand and when the, when the hard times come, then they're going to get wiped out and says great was the fall of it. And so churches are falling like crazy because they've stopped, they've stopped teaching what the word of God says, they stopped hearing what Jesus has said and they're skipping things in the preaching, they're lying to their congregation, they're teaching falsehoods and of course those churches are going to fall because they were built on sinking sand. They're built on things that the Bible does not say and then they'll say, they'll look down their nose at churches like ours and say that we're wrong. You know what? Those churches are going to go down in flames. They're going to be destroyed because they're not hearing the sayings and not doing them. They're foolish. They're going to be destroyed. But as long as this church continues to go by what the word of God says and it's continued to be built upon the rock, then this church is going to flourish and be blessed and continue. Number three, God will destroy our enemies and take out the trash for us if we let him fight for us. See God will fight for us. We're doing all this stuff right and sometimes we're going to have these battles and it's going to seem impossible for us to win. See God likes the underdog story and people, we like the underdog story too. Everybody likes Rocky because he fights, if you've ever seen Rocky, I don't know, I'm not telling you to watch Rocky, but everybody likes the ends of Rocky because he's getting punched in the face and battered and all of a sudden he just finds his inner strength to beat these guys that are unbeatable, like Mr. T. Mr. T would really kill, so that's just in real life, but in the movies, okay, he takes all these punches to the face and manages to win. But everybody likes the comeback story, everybody likes the story where all the odds are stacked against you and then you somehow persevere and win. And God likes those stories too because there's a lot of them in the Bible, okay. Now let's look back at our text in verse 27, just keeping that in mind, says, I will send my fear before thee, and it's Exodus 23 verse 27, I will send my fear before thee and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee and I will send hornets before thee which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite and the Hittite from before thee. So God will do those things, God will chase these enemies away from us. You know, there's so much that God does that we don't even see or understand because they probably don't, you know, the children of Israel probably didn't see these hornets go before them and drive these people out, but he's just telling them, this is what I'm going to do. God probably chases enemies away from your door before you guys even walk up to it. You know, there's a lot of what Pastor Taverner calls pissheads, is that okay to say from the pulpit? I'm sorry, I don't know. But people that are just, you know, drunk, so they're wasted or, you know, I'm, there's so many things that we're protected from in this life that you probably just don't even realize that God's protecting you. That's all I'm trying to say. Hopefully that wasn't like, you know, too crass or whatever, I'm sorry. But you guys laugh, so I mean, sorry. But there's so much that we don't, we just don't understand what God, that God's protecting us and he's doing things on our benefit that we don't see. And there's been times in my life as a Christian and times as a pastor when I'm just like, I feel like, you know, things are going really bad and I'm like, how's this going to get fixed? Like, I feel like, you know, I just don't understand how this is going to work out, how this is, you know, how I'm going to get out of this situation. The deck is stacked against me and you know, like there's, what's going to happen here? And then God just works it all out and it's like, you know, we always try to work things out in our own, in our own thoughts and our own minds and try it with our own strength to try to, you know, I need to figure out how to solve this problem or whatever. And it's like, sometimes we just forget that God is our, is our strength and God is the one that can actually figure these things out for us. And it's just like, and he will, but sometimes we just got to allow him to do it, you know, instead of just trying to make it happen all on our own. And it's like, sometimes he'll just do something. I'm like, huh, I never really thought of that. And it's just like, oh, okay. And it's like, God just fixes the problem and you're like, I just never thought of that possibility before, but he does and he'll, and he'll fix it. And you know why? His ways are not our ways and we just, we just don't think on the level that God does. And, and sometimes you just think this is an impossible situation, but he somehow works it out for us. So there was an impossible situation for Hezekiah in the Bible where the Assyrian empire is going to just completely annihilate Judah. They've already taken out the Northern kingdoms of Judah. They've already taken them captive. They've already replaced them and taken them out of the land. And Sennacherib has already sent his guy to just mock them and tell them, hey, all the other gods of all these other places, they didn't help them. Your God's not going to help you. I've sent you so that you can drink your own piss and eat your own dung. And he's just really mocking God and telling them that they have no hope. They're just, they're going to get destroyed. They're going to get wiped out and Hezekiah just says, don't answer them. Don't don't, don't listen to them. I'm going to, I'm going to put you onto the story here. Second Kings chapter 19 and Hezekiah receives the letter from the hand of the messengers. And you know, what you have to understand is the Assyrian empire is the ultimate power in the world at this time. Egypt was the ultimate power. Then the Assyrian empire was the ultimate power. And then of course you had the Babylonian empire after that. But at this time in history, the Assyrian empire, they are like what you like the Roman empire was or you know what I mean? They are the top dogs in the world at this time. And Hezekiah, you know, they just, they don't have the power. They don't have the manpower. If you, when you're looking at the numbers, they don't have a, they don't have a chance. They are the underdogs. They are rocky if you want to say it that way, right? So it says in verse 14 says, and Hezekiah received the letter at the hand of the messengers of Reddit and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. You know, sometimes when you're in an impossible situation, all you can do is just do that. You can just take it to the Lord, right? And it says, and Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwells between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone and all the kingdoms of the earth, thou has made heaven and earth Lord bow down mine ear and here open Lord thine eyes and see and hear the words of Sennacherib, which, which hath sent him to reproach the living God of a truth Lord, the Kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations in their lands and have cast their gods into the fire. And they were no gods for there were no gods, excuse me, but the work of men's hands, wooden stone, therefore they have destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord, our God, I beseech thee, save us, save thou us out of his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only. Then Isaiah, the son of Amos sent to Hezekiah saying, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, that which thou has prayed to me against Sennacherib, King of Assyria, I have heard, this is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him, the Virgin, the daughter of Zion hath despised thee and laughed thee to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head at thee, whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high, even against the Holy One of Israel. By thy messengers thou hast reproached the Lord and hast said with the multitude of my chariots, I am come up to the height of the mountains, to the sides of Lebanon, I will cut down the tall cedar trees thereof and the choice fir trees thereof and I will enter into the lodgings of his border and into the forest of his Carmel. I have digged and drunk strange waters and with the sole of my feet have I dried up all the rivers of besieged places. Hast thou not heard long ago how I have done it and of ancient times that I have formed it? Now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldest be to lay waste-fenced cities and to ruin his heaps. Therefore, their inhabitants were of small power, they were dismayed and confounded, they were as the grass of the field and as the green herb, as the grass on the housetops and as corn blasted before it be grown up. But I know thy abode and thy going out and thy coming in and thy rage against me." So God is just like saying, look I know you hate me, I know all the things that you said about me, he's talking to the king of Assyria here and it says, because thy rage against me and thy tumult has come into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose and my bridle in thy lips and I will turn thee back by the way which thou camest and this shall be a sign unto thee, ye shall eat this year such things as grow of themselves and in the second year that which springeth of the same, in the third year sow ye and reap and plant vineyards and eat fruits thereof. And the remnant that has escaped out of the house of Judah shall yet again take root downward and bear fruit upward for out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant and they shall escape out of Mount Zion and the zeal of the Lord the host shall do this. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into the city nor shoot an arrow there nor come before it with shield nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same way shall he return and shall not come into the city saith the Lord for I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake and for my servant David's sake. And it came to pass that night that the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 104 score and 5,000, that's 187,000 people. And when they arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses. So this group of 187,000 people came against the nation of Judah here and God killed them all without them having to do one single thing. And the reason why I told that story is because this, because there's going to be a time when it seems like there's no way for this church to defend itself. There's no way for this church to get to, to fight against the forces that are coming against it. But let me tell you something. God is the one that makes things that seem impossible possible. He's the one that comes through in the clutch. He's the one that's going to hit the three pointer to win the game when it seems impossible. He's going to be the one that gets the knockout in the last second. He's going to be the one that hits the grand slam to win the baseball game or what you guys don't, you don't even know what baseball is, right? The cricket game or whatever, whatever, this is the football game. He's going to kick the game winning goal, right? So all I'm saying is this, that you haven't really fought a battle on this type of a skill and hopefully you never have to. But if you do just know this, that look, the time to stand, there's always going to be a time to stand and, and to not back down. And I hope that if there's a battle that comes to this church, because I mean, you're not in America, you don't have all the freedoms that we do. And there may come a time when there's a great battle and you're afraid, but God is on your side. God is with this church, so don't ever compromise. Don't ever back down. Have your pastors back and, you know, don't be afraid because God is the one that's going to get you through the hard times. And when they arose, they were all dead corpses and I'm, you know, I'm not saying exactly it's going to be just like this, but when you go to God, he's going to protect you from the storms of life and, and you know, Sennacherib ends up going and getting, gets killed by his own sons, which is pretty messed up. But now turn to Exodus chapter 14, Exodus chapter 14, you know, sometimes we just, sometimes the devil sends these crazy situations at churches and he wants to see who's going to quit and who's going to stick with it. And I just want to encourage you that no matter what happens, that you stick with this church, you know, and I'm talking about outside forces and even rebellions from within because there's already been those types of things that have happened and you know, this church has already had its battles, but you know, there's, the government will try to eventually come at this church. I'm sure they've come at our church, you know, we've had sodomites come and surround our church and you know, we just didn't back down. We don't back down and then they go away. You know, they rage and get upset and then they go away. Exodus 14, 10 says, and when Pharaoh, here's another situation that seemed impossible. And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians marched after them and they were sore afraid and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord. See, that's the point. They cried out unto the Lord. That's the right thing to do. But then they, you know, did some stupid stuff after this. And it says, and they said unto Moses, because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us to carry forth out of Egypt? Is not this the word which we did tell thee in Egypt saying, let us alone that we may serve the Egyptians for it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than we should die in the wilderness? And see, sometimes God's people can be like, well, I'd rather just go back and be in the world than have to be destroyed by God's enemies. And that's the wrong attitude to have because it's not better to go back to Egypt. It's just, it's a failed plan. God will never let us go back to Egypt. No matter how much you want to go back to the world, no matter how much you want to stop being in the Christian life and in the Christian battle, he's never letting you go back to Egypt. What always happens when the people want to go back to Egypt, even Jeremiah, they're like, thou speak as falsely Jeremiah. And then what happened? God destroyed them. They went back to Egypt anyway and God destroyed them. So anyway, it says, and Moses said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still, just stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will show to you today. For the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall see them again no more forever. The Lord shall fight for you and you ye shall hold your peace. I really love this verse right here because he's just like, just stand still and shut your mouth. Just shut up. I mean, he doesn't say shut up. That's in the Greek there, but no, I'm just kidding. But he says, you shall hold your peace. Just be quiet and let God fight this battle for you. They're in an impossible situation. Their back is against the Red Sea. The Egyptian army is bearing down on them and they're afraid and that's a natural, fearful situation. But I mean, you have God on your side. So that's the difference between us and everybody else in this world is that we do have God on our side. And if you actually believe in God, then you shouldn't really fear. But yeah, you've never seen him before. You've never seen the Red Sea open up. But how many other victories in your life have you seen? And maybe it's not on that grand of a scale, but your salvation is a miracle in itself. You know what you were like before. You know what your life was like before. And people can say, oh yeah, there's a book written by men. Oh, a book written by men can change your whole life? A book written by men can just change your whole destiny? I don't think so. This is not a regular book. This is the word of God, folks. And he said, the Lord shall fight for you. And this is what we have to understand as a church. Whenever the battle gets sore, and look, we're not here right now, but I want you to remember this for later on, that the Lord shall fight for you and you shall hold your peace. There's coming a day and God is always going to have our back and instead of being afraid and saying, let's go back to Egypt, you know, this is too much, let's abandon the church. We didn't know it was going to get like this. Hey, remember this day that God will fight for you. So we should never give up. Giving up, quitting is not the answer. Look at Exodus 23, actually, let's go to Ephesians chapter six. So remember that Moses just said to stand. He said, stand and be quiet, right? Stand and hold your peace. Now our weapons as Christians, we don't go and conquer people with real swords and real armies as far as like we're fighting a physical battle. We're fighting a spiritual battle, right? So what has he given us to fight the spiritual battle with as Christians? Well, he has given us the armor of God, okay, and it's a spiritual armor. You can't see this armor. It's not like the cool knights in shining armor and all that. It's a spiritual armor that you put on, okay? And Ephesians 6, 10, it says, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand, see it says to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. This is our battle, people. It's not real armies necessarily as far, I mean, real armies who come against us. I'm just saying that our real fight is not a flesh and blood battle. It's against these wicked people in high places who are controlled by Satan, who are controlled by devils. They are spiritual wickedness in high places. They are rulers of the darkness of this world. And these people in these government positions and these positions of high power have been put there by the devil himself and his angels, his wicked angels. It says, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. So there's another part where it says withstand. And having done all to stand. What did Moses say? Stand, right? What is Paul saying for us to do? Put the armor on, stand. And therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Keep going soul winning. The soul winning is part of the armor. Putting on your shoes so that you can go preach the gospel. That's part of it. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. So we have the armor. If you have salvation, you have faith, you have the sword of the spirit, the word of God. It says, praying always with all prayer and supplication of the spirit and watching thereto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And for me, the utterance may be given unto me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds that therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. So the threats are going to come. The threats are going to come and threats are meant to strike fear in your heart. What was the response from Hezekiah? He spread the letters out before the Lord, didn't he? He prayed to the Lord. Our response should always be to have our spiritual armor on. When we stop soul winning, when we stop walking by faith, when we stop using that shield of faith and when we take that armor off, we're susceptible to being wounded in battle. People that go to church and there's no soul winning there, their feet are naked. You can get your feet chopped off real easy, right? So that's why it's so important for churches to be soul winning churches. I mean, He left us here with a purpose. He came to seek and save that which was lost and so that's what He wants. That's the main thing. And there's just all these armorless churches. People preach all kinds of sermons about the armor of God. We got to put on the armor of God, but you never hear them mentioning soul winning, do they? They never mentioned that part. They just kind of gloss over the feet, don't they? But in the Beatitudes, Jesus gives us a blueprint to fight, but it's not the kind of fighting that men like to fight, is it? It's not the kind of fighting that we like to do. We like to fight with our mouths, we like to fight physically, we like to fight with our flesh. And the things that Jesus told us to do when we are in battle, when people are mistreating us is not how we like to fight. And as much as we like to, people like to preach these things, especially these churches that are like love, love, love and they're so imbalanced with all their love that it's almost sickening. And then, you know, sometimes in the New IFB we can kind of be too unbalanced the other way. You know, there's got to be a balance, right? It can't be hate, hate, hate. You know, it can't be too much love or too much hate. It's got to be a balance, right? And so we do have to be careful with that, it shouldn't just always be negative. And I'm not saying that we are, but some people can get a little that way sometimes. So we've just got to be careful with that. But Jesus said, turn the other cheek. Jesus said, if someone wants you to, compels you to walk a mile, walk with them too. Jesus said, if someone takes your coat, give them your cloak also. Jesus said, if someone, you know, to love your enemies. Jesus said to, you know, if someone hates you to do good unto them. Jesus said that to pray for those people that despitefully use you. Those things are hard to do. I mean, if someone slaps me in the face, I want to turn their cheek too. I don't want to turn my cheek, I want to turn their cheek, right? If someone hates me, I want to hate them back. I want to, I want to, I want to reprove them. But you know, we do need to learn how to fight how God wants us to fight. And that is the, that's the key for us to be different. I mean, Christians are supposed to be different. And when we fight our spiritual warfare, our armor is different. Our battlements are different. You know, we're not fighting a spirit, we're fighting a spiritual battle, not a carnal war. So, you know, I know that that's not so rah, rah, rah, but the New Testament is completely different than the Old Testament. So when you're applying things from Exodus chapter 23, they're like, he's like literally telling them, kill these people, wipe them out, take their place. I'm going to bless you and all this. But all those things can apply in the New Testament. And we do these things in a spiritual matter. So when we apply what Christ tells us to do in the New Testament, you're like, well Pastor, what does this have to do with our anniversary? Well, I'm trying to prepare you for further years down the line here. We've already established that God loves this church. He's established this church. He's built this church. And that if you continue to just do what God told you to and build this church upon the rock, he's going to establish it as long as, you know, as long as God, you know, until he comes back. I mean, that's no problem. But the battles that haven't come yet, those are things that you have to prepare for and have to learn to batten down the hatches when the storms of life are coming. Because look, you're either in a storm, you're coming out of storm or you're going into one. And you know, that's just the way life is. That's the way life is in your personal life, in your family life, you know, at work. But in church, it's a reality also. And you know, you can be, you know, there's peace in the valley. I love the peace in the valley, but then there's always going to be that storm around the corner that we have to prepare for. And they just come out of nowhere. They're just like, where'd that come from? Like, ah, you know, but it's like you guys live on the coast, you know, you know, they just come out of nowhere. So you know, why am I preaching this preparation, preparation, preparation, right? You got to be prepared. So and God's the one that's going to fight for you and you just have to be prepared to fight the battle the way God wants you to fight it. Let's close off with the, I got two more places to go and we're done. Let's see Acts chapter 18, Acts chapter 18. And obviously, you know, there's times when we as preachers need to get up and thunder forth and preach against, you know, false prophets. And I'm not saying that we never have to fight. We do. You know, Paul names off people who were wicked people that have to be marked and things like that. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying we never have to fight with our mouth and fight from the pulpit or mark people, things like that. We do. But I'm talking about in general, you know, general enemies, things like that. But Acts chapter 18 verse 9 says, then speak the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision. Be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace. So I think it's interesting how in the New Testament, you know, there's a time, you know, it's like be not afraid, but speak and hold not thy peace. So now he's saying, don't be quiet, you know. And he says, for I am with thee and no man shall settle need to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city. So he's comforting Paul. But he's also saying, don't be quiet in this case. Speak up, say what you need to say now. And then, of course, the last verse I want to turn to is Romans chapter 12. So Romans chapter 12 kind of just helps us to kind of keep everything in perspective, how we should, you know, really, we want to live peaceably in this life as Christians. We shouldn't be just going around trying to pick fights just for the sake of picking them. Okay. Verse 17 chapter 12 says, recompense to no man evil for evil, provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you live peaceably with all men, dearly beloved avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath for his written vengeance is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord, therefore if thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirsts give him drink, and in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. And that's some sound advice from the Apostle Paul. And we always got to remember that we don't have to avenge ourself because God, if we just allow him to, he will take vengeance for us. And when we avenge ourselves, you know, we're just kind of cheating ourselves out of what would be better in the long run. If we really want the full vengeance, you know, you're like, well, we shouldn't want that. Well, yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. He says, avenge not yourself, let God get the vengeance for you. If you really want them to get their just desserts, then just let God do it for you and let God destroy your enemies, and he will. He will repay, saith the Lord, you know. So just like any other promise in the Bible, you know, if we just let God take care of, you know, take the trash out for us, then he's going to do it better than we could ever think of. Just like we can't figure out our own problems as good as God can figure them out for us, we are like, well, what can we do to get back at them? Why don't you just let God get back at them and it's like, oh, I never thought he would do that, you know, it would be way better than what you could ever think of. And then you won't get yourself in trouble either. But you know, hard times will come and you've got to be prepared for that. But knowing how to navigate them through God's help is really key and really important. And you know, but in reality, if God before this church, who can be against it? My prayer is that God will continue to bless this church for many years to come. This church is a success and me just saying it doesn't make it so. But just knowing what this church has already done. And I know that this church has a great leader who loves this church. Miss Lisa loves this church and they work tirelessly to make this church great. And I hope that you have their back and that you help them to make this church continue to be successful as the years come forward. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for this great church, Strong Tower Baptist Church. I pray that you continue to bless it and make it a powerhouse of soul winning and hard preaching for many years to come. I pray, Lord, that you would, Lord, continue to establish this church as a mighty fortress and a strong tower on a sure foundation in this community. Lord, I pray that it would always be a soul winning, hard preaching church. And I pray, Lord, that you just bless everything that's done for the rest of this day, that you bless the soul winning and, Lord, the meal that's to follow and, Lord, the fellowship will be sweet. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.