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They'll but drive me to thy breast, With trials hard may press me, And will bring me sweeter rest. O, tis not in grief to harm me, While thy love is left to me? O, twere not in joy to charm me, Were that joy unmixed with thee. Haste thee on from grace to glory, Armed by faith and winged by prayer, Hem's eternal days before thee, God's own hand shall guide thee there. Soon shall close thy earthly mission, Swift shall pass thy pilgrim days, Hope shall change to glad fruition, Faith to sign and prayer to praise. Amen. Amen. Good to see you brother Shawn. Can you give us a prayer? Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you, Lord, that we come to the church. Lord, we pray for you. Thank you, Pastor Thompson. Amen. We so welcome you. Amen. Our second song is song number 230. Heavenly Sunlight. Song number 230, Heavenly Sunlight. Song 230, Heavenly Sunlight. Let's sing it together on the first. Walking in sunlight, all of my journey, Over the mountains, through the deep veil, Jesus has said, I'll never forsake thee, Promise divine that never can fail, Heavenly Sunlight, Heavenly Sunlight, Blooding my soul with glory divine, Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, Singing his praises, Jesus is mine, Shadows around me, shadows above me, Never conceal my Savior and God, He is the light, in him is no darkness, Ever I'm walking close to his Son, Heavenly Sunlight, Heavenly Sunlight, Blooding my soul with glory divine, Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, Singing his praises, Jesus is mine, In the bright sunlight, ever rejoicing, Pressing my way to mansions above, Singing his praises, gladly I'm walking, Walking in sunlight, sunlight of love, Heavenly Sunlight, Heavenly Sunlight, Blooding my soul with glory divine, Hallelujah, I am rejoicing, Singing his praises, Jesus is mine, Amen. Good seeing you. With that, we'll have our announcements. Alright, good morning everybody. Welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church. And we're going to go through the bulletin. If you need a bulletin, just lift up your hand and one of the ushers will bring you a bulletin. Anybody need a bulletin? Hands up if you need one. Alright, on the front cover there, we have the verse of the week. It says, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. That's Colossians 2.8. Very wise words there. And on the inside page there, we have our service times, 10.30 a.m. for our morning service, Sunday morning service. Sunday evening service, 3.30 p.m., we'll be back in Joshua 13 to finish off the chapter there. And Thursday Bible study, we're going to be in 1 Chronicles chapter 23. And we have soul winning today at 1 o'clock. Did we get a volunteer to take the soul winning time? Did anybody volunteer to take that time? Alex was not going to be able to make it. Anybody? Anybody? Oh, Brother Ramon, you're going to do it? Okay, thank you. So, Brother Ramon will be leading the soul winning time if Brother Alex doesn't get here in time. And so, we'll meet in here at 1 o'clock if you're planning on going. The maps are already in the WhatsApp group. And so, we'll have to divide it up by teams. If you need help, Brother Ramon, I can help you divide everybody up and stuff. And then we have the praise report below there. We've had five salvations so far in the month of March. And I think that, Rylan, did you have 23? I don't know. We'll have to figure that out after the service. I think we did have 23 or maybe you just minus that off the total. I'm not sure what happened there. So, anyway, look over at the events coming up this Friday. I'll be preaching in Spokane, Washington for the six year anniversary. There will be soul winning on Saturday. And Remy is going to be preaching the Sunday services there. So, six years going strong in Spokane. And our soul winning marathon at the end of the month. That's the only other event we have so far for this month. And then there's the men's preaching night. So, a soul winning marathon, not sure where we're going yet. But we'll have a men's preaching night. And of course, after the soul winning marathon, we're going to go have some food and fellowship someplace. Or we'll just, I think actually we'll probably have lunch someplace. What we'll do at the halfway point. And then the stuff coming up in April, the Lord's Supper and the mega marathon and Easter. April 25th will be the second year anniversary for the Seattle church. And Pastor Anderson will be preaching there on a Friday night. Up in Seattle, we tried to push it up as far as we could because of the traffic. So, if you're planning on going to that, you might consider traffic. All right. All right. Anybody listening on the line or wanting to go here? You probably want to make sure you're there early. We are going to have like a 2 p.m. soul winning time for there. And we'll have the building opened up early. So, we are going to have it at the building. And so, yeah, you can get there early if you want and just chill. If you want to after the soul winning, we'll probably have some sort of food fellowship afterward or possibly before. Probably, I don't know, probably before actually. I haven't decided yet, but it's coming up a couple months from now. So, we got time. So, also May 15th, the King James Conference that's coming soon. After Spokane, I'm probably going to have some sort of a get together and we'll figure out some things for the conference. And we're probably going to have a work day around here closer to the conference where we can just kind of pressure wash and get the building all tidied up and ready for the conference. And, let's see, Kayla's bridal shower is going to be here at the church building on May 31st at a time yet to be determined. She's registered at Target if you just wanted to pick something up for the bridal shower. And, of course, all the ladies here are welcome to attend if you're a guy and you come. It's just kind of weird. But, anyway, I've never been to a bridal shower because I'm not gay. Anyway, sorry if you were a guy and you were gone the whole time. Sorry you're gay. No, I'm just kidding. I'm joking. All right. So, let's see, Chicago Soul Waning Marathon is June 28th that weekend. So, we do have a Friday night or a Friday afternoon soul wanting time to go to. We'll probably get together and hang out and have some good pizza someplace or sandwiches. They have really good sandwiches in Chicago. There'll be a Soul Waning Marathon. We'll be meeting up at a church, a local church in Chicago. We'll be preaching. So, we'll have a Soul Waning Marathon. We'll have fellowship and do baptisms that day if necessary. Or if anybody wants to be baptized, then I'll be preaching on Sunday morning at a church in Chicago. So, that'll be fun. And then September 6th is the Detroit Soul Waning Marathon. So, I know that there's another Detroit Soul Waning Marathon in April too. So, if you are interested in that, I can't remember what the date is. I think it's maybe the week before Easter. But Brandon Pringle is leading that up. Also, we're family integrated. Make sure you're using mom baby rooms and dad baby rooms as needed. And other rules are down below the offerings that have come in so far at the bottom of the page. And then we get the birthdays. We didn't get a chance to sing Happy Birthday to Titus, or is he? You should announce that music class too. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I will. Okay, music class. There's something else too. So, I had some guys sign up for the music class to learn how to do song leading, how to move your hands and all that kind of stuff. It's basically that's what it's going to be. So, there's going to be a song leading class because we're losing two of our song leaders. So, we'll have brother Bill and then nobody else as a permanent song leader. And he's not always able to be here. So, it's going to be pretty weird when we don't have anybody to do song leading. So, if you've already done it before, then that would be really good, brother Eli. But will you be my new child? Anyway, but Remy is planning on doing a song leading class, and not this coming Sunday, but the Sunday afterwards. So, it would be just after church. And I was going to provide lunch for the guys that want to be in the class, even if you don't want to be, but you're just going to be. So, I have, so far I have signed up. I have Mikey. He just doesn't realize it yet, but yes, Mikey is going to be in it. You already said you wanted to be though, right? Okay, Ramon, Anthony, no. Are you going to be in it? No. He went like this. I was like, that's more emotional than I've ever gotten out of him. So, CJ, yes, you said you would. Okay. Eli? Okay. Twisted his arm right there. Did you see that? Drew? Dr. Drew? Drew? Dr. Drew? Tomo, David, anybody? Do you guys want to try a song lead in class? It's not a guarantee that you have to song lead, but you can just be in the class and learn. I mean, how's that going to hurt you? Oh, and by the way, if you want to, oh yeah, I got Gabe, Jack, Sean, me. Follow me. I will do it too. Okay. And then Joe, do you want to try? Do you just want to go to the class and see what it's like? All right. Hi, Hannah. Hannah wants to do the class too. All right. Hi. She's looking for dinosaurs or my phone in my pocket. Did you see that? All right. So I think that that's it. Was there anybody else that I'm missing that was supposed to do the class? All right. So that's who we got. And if you're going, if you want to try doing song leading, and I mean obviously I don't want to just throw you to the wolves and throw you into the fire and watch you cook and everybody laugh at you. But I want to say about the class though, if someone does get up here and they want to try it, please don't just point out all their flaws or laugh at them while they're doing it because it's very nerve wracking. I took a class at one of my old independent Baptist churches and then when I did my first song, the song leader that had already retired from song leading that was really good at song leading, he's like, who is that that did it? And you know what that caused me to do? Never do it again. So I don't want people to do that to other people. You can laugh at them at home, but don't do it here and don't do it to them. No, you probably shouldn't do that. I mean it's hard. It is like the timing, the beats and everything and how you do the hand motions, like it's easy to get off, especially if you're really nervous and you're just like, you kind of get into that like, if you're already nervous to be in front of people to do anything and then you're doing song leading that you've never done before, it's nerve wracking and it takes time to get the beats down. But he's going to teach you how to like, you'll notice in your hymn books it'll be like four four next to those notes. That's just the timing of the song and then how the hand motions go for that. And if you just get up here and do this or whatever, like some orchestra person, people out here most of the time, people don't even know what that stuff is, but it is supposed to help you to follow along with the song and the holds that they do for us to hold and all that stuff. I know limited things, but yeah, very limited things. And I usually screw songs up when I try to do them. So anyway, thank you for signing up for that. So it'll be not this coming Sunday, but the Sunday after this right after church, and we'll go into a private area and have lunch right afterwards. And so while you're stuffing your face, Remi will teach the class and then we will carry on with our day. You might actually, you know, he's probably just going to run through some easy songs and we'll just maybe even do a follow up with that. So if you're interested and you just didn't want to raise your hand and you just want to go to the class to see what it's like, maybe you want to give it a try after that, that would be really cool if you would do that. So also tonight, this didn't, huh? Remi, did you have anything you wanted to add to that? So also tonight we have round table pizza after the evening service. So this evening is the DeHaas family's last official service being here. So I ordered 22 pizzas. And I did that so that a lot of people would be here and eat them. So that's a lot of pizza. So if you weren't planning on coming for the Sunday night service, what? What do you want? She didn't like that. All right. So just come and fellowship tonight and come to the evening service if you normally don't. Go home, take a nap, wake back up, come to church, and then afterwards we'll have some fellowship and hang out with the DeHaas family before they head to Texas. And that's all I have for announcements. Well, let's go ahead and sing Happy Birthday to Titus and then Joey. Joey, how old are you? 32. 32, man. So, wow, I feel old now. So I've known Joey since he was a little boy. But so and then Titus, he's three. Where are you, Titus? Titus. Hi, Titus. We're going to sing Happy Birthday. All right, let's sing Happy Birthday. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Yay. All right, that's all I have for announcements. Let's go ahead and sing another song and we will receive the offering. All right, our next song is song number 130. Yesterday, Today, Forever. Let's sing it together on the first. Oh, how sweet the glorious message simple faith may claim. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. Still he loves to save the sinful, heal the sick and lame. Cheer the mourner, still the tempest, glory to his name. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. He who pardoned, daring Peter, never needs thou fear. He that came to faithless Thomas, all thy doubt will clear. He who let the love disciple on his bosom rest, bids thee still with love as tender lean upon his breast. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. He who, mid the raging billows, walked upon the sea, still can hush our wildest, tempest eyes on Galilee. He who wept and prayed in anguish in Gethsemane, drinks with us each cup of trembling in our agony. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. As of old he walked to Emmaus with them to abide. So through all life's way he walketh ever near our son. Soon again shall we behold him, hasten, Lord, the day. But we'll still be the same Jesus as he went away. Yesterday, today, forever, Jesus is the same. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Glory to his name. Glory to his name. All may change, but Jesus never glory to his name. Amen. Good to see you. Brother Mikey, would you bless the offering for us? In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. Open your Bibles to 3 John. Be in 3 John. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one underneath the seat in front of you. Be in 3 John. 3 John, the Bible reads, The elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren and the strangers which have borne witness of thy charity before the church, whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well, because that for his name's sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. We therefore ought to receive such that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth. I wrote unto the church, but Diotrophes, who loveth to have the preeminence among them, receiveth us not. Wherefore, if I come, I will remember his deeds which he doeth, prating against us with malicious words, and not content therewith. Neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and forbideth them that would, and casteth them out of the church. Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God, but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. Demetrius hath a good report of all men, and of the truth itself. Yea, and we also bear record, and ye know that our record is true. I had many things to write, but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee, but I trust I shall shortly see thee, and we shall speak face to face. Peace be to thee, our friends salute thee. Greet the friends by name. Brother Eli, will you pray for us? Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the power, Lord, of your word. I pray, Father, that you help us to be a Demetrius, not a Diatrophy. Help open our eyes and our ears to your word. Help us to listen and understand through your spirit. Amen. Amen. Yea, that's a great prayer. Be a Demetrius instead of a Diatrophy. That's a good point. Yea, we don't want to be a Diatrophy. Well, the title of my sermon this morning is No Greater Joy. Look down at your Bible at 3 John chapter 1 verse 1. It says, The elder, which is, this is John writing the letter, says the elder unto the well-beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. I rejoice greatly when the brethren came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth. So we have here this letter written to Gaius, who is apparently a convert of John the Apostle, named Gaius. Paul mentions Gaius in, actually it's in Romans chapter 16 he mentions Gaius, and what he's saying here is that he loves Gaius in the truth. The truth is what? That Jesus Christ died, he was buried, he rose from the dead in a nutshell. That's the gospel. He loves him in the truth of the Spirit of God. He loves him in the truth of the Word of God. He loves him in the truth that they share together is that they have a common purpose, they have a common goal. They have the truth of God's word, the truth of Christianity. But he loves him, he's in the truth, and he says he greatly rejoiced when he heard that he's walking in truth. See we all have, if you're a soul winner here today, we all have converts that we've led to Christ. And honestly, not all of our converts come to church. Not all of our converts get baptized. Not all of our converts come and get baptized and then start preaching the gospel. This is actually a real rare thing that happens. And a lot of times we'll get criticized for this at churches like ours and say, well we're all these converts that you're getting saved out there. If they really got saved, they'd repent of all their sins, they'd come to church, they'd get baptized, they'd be doing the same thing you did. How come they're not here? Where are they all? Well it's funny that people say that because Jesus had thousands and thousands of converts and yet when he died and went to heaven, when they had that first church service, there was 120 people in the church service. Where's all the thousands and thousands and thousands of people that Jesus got saved? How come there's only 120 in the first church service? That's a pretty small number, isn't it? Well it's because not everybody follows Christ after they get saved. As a matter of fact, a very small percentage of the small percentage of people that are saved actually serve Christ with their lives. And so John's like, hey I greatly rejoice in this fact that when they came and testified of the truth that is in thee, even as thou walkest in the truth. So there's a difference between being saved and believing the truth and then there's a difference between actually walking in that truth. And John's saying, hey I have no greater joy than to hear these things that my children, what is he saying? He's not talking about his physical children at this state. Obviously that could apply too, but he's talking about the children that he has in the faith. The ones that he's helped get saved through the gospel. And so you'll see that other people will talk about this. Jesus called people, or Paul calls people little children. Jesus said, suffer the little children to come unto me. And then when people first get saved, they're called what? Babes in Christ. So it's funny, kids can get people saved, so you can even have little babies, kids. But obviously through the spirit of God, right? Let's not make it weird. But you can have, even if you have no children of your own, maybe you can't even have children, or you just haven't had children yet, maybe you're single and you've not even been married. You can have spiritual children, because Jesus had spiritual children, because he got a lot of people saved, right? But John is saying, I have no greater joy than this. So my first point in the sermon is that there's no greater joy than to hear that our converts, or the converts of this church or other churches walk in truth. There's a great joy that comes when you find out that one of the people that you got saved actually came to church, or one of the people you got saved got baptized, or one of the converts you got saved is out preaching the gospel, and they get their first convert saved. And again, this is a rare thing, and you'd think that it would happen more often, but if you see the pattern in the Bible, you don't really see it that often. And then even to have them keep walking in the faith for years and years and finish unto the end, I mean, Paul at one point says, all have forsaken me. All have forsaken me. And basically there came a point when Paul was completely alone. You know, and he, how many converts did he have? Thousands and thousands of converts Paul had, but then at one point he felt completely abandoned and alone. So, you know, you're like, well that's kind of sad. Well, it's just the human condition. The human condition is that not everybody walks in truth. The human condition is not everybody keeps walking in the truth. So to hear that someone is, it should fill us with great joy to hear these things. So look at 1 Timothy chapter one, verse one. 1 Timothy chapter one, verse one. I'll have you go there. First off this morning. And Paul writes about Timothy a lot in his epistles. He wrote about half the New Testament. And he mentions Timothy a lot. I'm going to send you Timothy to straighten you guys out. It seems like he's sent Timothy a lot of different places. You know, and he's trying to get people to understand what he's already preached to them. He's sending them back into different places. But look what it says in 1 Timothy chapter one, verse one. It says, Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, which is our hope. So Paul starts out his letters a lot like this. He always says he's an apostle. And he's of Christ, the commandment of our Savior. And he just makes it clear he is a real apostle. Because a lot of times in the Corinthian church they were trying to say he wasn't a real apostle. And people would doubt who he was. And he even had his own converts turn against him. Which is, you know, to me that just is strange. How you could turn against your own father in the faith like that. But, you know, it happens. So it says, unto Timothy, my own son in the faith. So you see how Paul is saying, hey, this is my convert. This is Timothy. He's my convert. Unto Timothy, my own son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course this is what you would call a pastoral epistle. He's teaching Timothy and he's teaching every pastor in history after this. How to be a pastor. What is required of pastors. How to run your ministry and qualifications in chapter number 3. He also writes a letter to Titus. Similarly to the same qualifications in 1 Timothy chapter 3 as he does in Titus chapter 1. So, again, he is his son in the faith because Paul led Timothy to Christ. Paul led him to the faith and so that's why he calls him my own son in the faith. So Paul also discipled Timothy. It's very obvious that he discipled Timothy in the faith and led him to the Lord according to several verses in the Bible. Which I don't have time in the scope of the sermon to go through all those verses but he led him to the faith and he led him in discipling him. So, you know, and it's good for us if we get that convert into church or even if you haven't gotten him into church, try to disciple your converts. We get people saved, try to get them into church. Try to get them in the baptism. Try to get them following the faith. You know, it doesn't always work and sometimes it kind of gets frustrating to try to disciple those people. I led a woman to the Lord on the phone a few weeks ago and she, first she, that's what she called me for, is to get baptized. And instead of, you know, saying, yeah, just come on and get baptized like the Catholic Church would do, I wanted to make sure she was saved. She was not saved. But she ended up getting saved on the phone, she was weeping on the phone call afterwards, but she didn't come to get baptized. You know, I don't know if her boyfriend's uncle talked to her and said, hey, don't go to that church or what, but that kind of stuff happens. But I don't care. I'd rather her be saved than to come get baptized. But did I try to disciple her? I tried to disciple her. I said, if you have any questions, feel free to call any of that stuff. And maybe she, you know, listens to this sermon later and says, oh, maybe I should get baptized. I hope she does, you know. But if she goes to some other church, then cool. You know, I hope it's a church that's preaching the truth. Because those things are kind of rare these days. But we should always try at the door to at least tell them about baptism, invite them to come to church. You know, that is follow-up. I mean, you know, we go soloing so much that follow-up is kind of difficult. But we can do it. If you put effort into it, you can do follow-up. And nobody's stopping you from following up with anybody. You can, of course, follow-up. And try your best to get that person in church. Try your best to get that person baptized. Try your best to get that person out soloing. Now, obviously, don't just, you know, consist just every time they come to church, go soloing, go soloing, go soloing. Because, you know, so many freaks people out a little bit. You know, the thought of coming up here to preach freaks people out. The thought of talking. I'm like, public speaking is one of the biggest fears that people have. And it is a legit phobia and fear that people have. It's like it's one that paralyzes people. It paralyzes them with fear. It's more fearful than spiders and snakes and stuff like that sometimes. But it is a legit fear. And so the thought of someone knocking on a stranger's door and then telling them the gospel when they don't really know how to present the gospel is probably a really legit fear that we don't think about because we've already done it so many times it's like nothing to us. But even a seasoned Christian can kind of get that fear comes back upon them. Especially if you haven't talked to somebody in a long time or if you haven't gone for a long time. You've been a silent partner again for a long time or something and you haven't actually preached the gospel to somebody. It can be, even a seasoned veteran can get that fear come upon them and that fear does not come from God. That fear comes from our flesh. That fear is probably some kind of fear that is an outward oppression upon you that probably that next door is the one that someone's going to get saved there. So we should put a little bit of pressure on ourselves to try to get our converts discipled. But if they don't, don't be just too pushy and just continue to harass them with texts and calls and stuff like that because if you have to drag your converts to church then you're always going to have to drag your converts to church. But just know this, that at least they got saved. But people say, well, you just get people saved and throw your baby in the dumpster or whatever which is a horrific thing to say but obviously these are spiritual babies. Not real babies, not real live babies. But what are they saying by saying that? That we just get them saved and then they don't have a good church to go to. Nobody discipled them, nobody got them baptized or followed up with them. And again, these people are criticizing and they don't even have a soul wanting program. They don't even go themselves and they're just sitting there, well, why don't you come and show us how to do it right then? But they never have solutions like that. They just want to criticize our soul wanting program. But when we do have someone that gets saved and they get baptized, they get out and they go soul wanting, that's a great joy for us because that's kind of the plan, right? That is the goal is to get out there and disciple them and get them to come to church. Why? So we can glory in our own flesh? No. And so they can be what we are. They can be the total pack. I'm not saying we're these great people. I'm saying God wants them to be that. God wants them to get baptized. God wants them to replicate what they are now, which is a good fruit tree, okay? And I'll explain that here in just a second, but it's a good thing to get your converts in church, to get them to read their Bibles, to explain to them how to pray, to explain to them that they got the Holy Spirit now that they're saved, to explain to them about soul wanting. And when your converts complete this process, it's kind of like hitting a home run in baseball. They've covered first, second, third base and they've gone to home. They've scored. It's kind of like that. Or you threw the touchdown pass to win the game. It's actually a pretty joyous thing to behold. Proverbs 11, 30, of course we all know this verse very well, but if you want to turn there in your Bibles, you can. Jesus, when he was talking about bringing forth fruit in its season, some 30, some 60, some 100 fold, what he's talking about is in a year you've got four seasons, right? And you're not always planting, you're not always watering, you're not always bringing forth, but in seasons each fruit tree has times, like in the wintertime, obviously it's not bringing forth fruit. There's times in every season where you're doing those certain things, but there is a time when the fruit ripens and you pick that fruit. And that's why he said some 30, some 60, some 100 fold, because you're going to have years in your life where you're being very fruitful and getting a lot of people saved and then some years when maybe you're not so much. Maybe sometimes you're not getting a lot, but sometimes you are. And that really depends on how much effort you're putting into what you're doing, because you probably have trees maybe in your yard or whatever that you take good care of, or plants in your yard that you take good care of, and sometimes you don't take good care of them. And so when they flourish, when you take the best care of them probably in most cases. Now if you overwater a cactus, what's going to happen to it? It's not going to take well to it, it's going to die, because they're used to just not having a lot of water. They're specifically plants that are called succulents and they survive off of little amounts of water. If you're just pouring tons of water, they're not used to that and it just kills them, right? But then there's some that people underwater and then they wither and die, right? So we have to be aware of these things and if we go out and burn ourselves out and sowing, then sometimes we just don't want to do it anymore or we want to take a big break from it. But sometimes we can also get to the point where we allow ourselves as soul winners to wither out and not want to go at all. And we don't want that to be the case, so we kind of want to be a balanced soul winner and know when to pull back a little bit and know when to push forward and go hard. So Proverbs 11, 30 says the fruit of the righteous. Who are the righteous? The righteous are the saved people, right? The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. So what is a righteous person supposed to bring forth? A tree of life. So a tree of life is another saved person, okay? We're supposed to bring forth another saved person and it says he that win his souls is wise and he that win his souls is wise. So why are we wise? Well, we're wise because we're bringing forth another tree that's also replicating fruit and so if we continue to do that throughout our lives and even if they don't bring forth fruit, that's still fruit to our count, though. You still brought forth another tree and so what are you doing there? Why is that wise? Well, because you're adding rewards to yourself in heaven. Now, obviously, I don't really care about, I don't count and say, oh, there's another reward for me and then I just keep track in some kind of a book or something where I'm just like, oh, rewards. And obviously, there's nothing wrong with being motivated by rewards. There's a lot of reward-based systems in our society. Reward cards. All businesses seem to do reward cards. The coffee systems, the gas cards, the car washes. Everything pretty much has rewards. Buy here and you'll get rewards. Why do they do that? So that you'll buy more stuff and then you'll be happy that you got a free coffee after buying like 20 of them or something. You know, you bought $28 coffees, gave yourself diabetes and then, you know, yay, I got a free one, woo! Add to my diabetes or whatever. It's like, I mean, but like God, you know, he allows us to get rewards while we're here on this earth and he also allows us to stack up rewards in heaven where moth and rust doth not corrupt, neither thieves break through and steal. We got, it's stronger than Fort Knox up there. God maintains our lot up there, the Bible says. He's the one that keeps all those rewards locked in safe. You don't lose them after one year like some mileage plans on your airlines. They'll be like, you know, I was part of some mileage plan and it says, oh, you lost your rewards. It's like, what? And the only way you lose rewards here on earth is by, you know, losing, by not doing things that are eternally, you know, if you're not doing things that count for eternity, like, you know, someone can't lose their salvation. So once you get that person saved, that's an eternal reward that cannot be taken away. It can't be taken away. Now, if you're just like playing, you know, flag football and you're like, I'm playing flag football for Jesus. Well, you can say you're doing it for Jesus all you want and then like at the end of the game, you can just high five everybody and say, I did that for Jesus. But does that count for eternity? Well, I did it for you, Jesus. I did it in your name. Did you see how many touchdowns I scored last week? Nobody ripped both my flags off at the same time. I did it for Jesus. That work is gonna burn up at the end. It's not gonna, what do you mean? You said I can't lose rewards. That's not a real work, though. Just because you say you're doing it for Jesus, that doesn't mean that it actually is for Jesus. It just is not for Jesus. Now, if you get somebody saved afterwards playing flag football and you're like, I did that for Jesus, well, that does count. Okay, but things, you know, things that are wood, hay, and stubble will be burnt up, but the things that are everlasting, like the jewels, silver, and gold that you bring forth, those will go through the fire, and those will be something you get forever. And so it says that he that win his souls is wise. When we produce more trees, and those trees produce more fruit, then your exponential rewards in heaven are gonna be a lot. So everybody gets salvation for free, and it's eternal life. That's the baseline reward that everybody gets, but not everybody's gonna get the rewards that the apostle Paul gets. And so when you disciple someone and they complete that process, it is a joyous thing. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter four, verse 14. 1 Corinthians chapter four, verse 14. Now, sometimes people don't even appreciate the person that actually gets them saved, and I find this very strange. I don't remember the name of the person that got me saved. I remember that he owned a company called Covenant Drywall. When I try to look him up or try to use the phone number that was on the internet, I can't find it. So I don't know what his name is. I know he was in Portland. That's all I know. I don't even remember his name. And I feel bad about that, but that was like 25 years ago, and I never went. He invited me to his church, but I never went. But I did go to church. He just doesn't know that I went to church. I did get baptized, he just doesn't know I got baptized. He doesn't know I'm a pastor today. He might not even be alive, I don't know. But he does still get rewards for the things that, you know, anything I've done in the name of the Lord, those things are probably added to his rewards card up in heaven. He might even be up there going, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching, ching. I don't know. He might be. I don't know. Anyway, I Corinthians 4.14 says, I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. He's talking to his converts in Corinth. He started that church. It says, for though we have 10,000 instructors in Christ, these are teachers, right? Yet have ye not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel. What is he saying? I'm the one that got you saved. I am your, Luke, I am your spiritual father. You know, he is their father in the sense that he got them saved. He's not like literally their father. He's not, you know, because Jesus said, call no man on the earth your father. But what he's saying, he's not like being a Catholic priest here. He is saying that he begot them through the gospel. And he says, therefore I beseech you, be followers of me. For this cause have I sent unto you, Timotheus, who is my beloved son. So here he is mentioning Timothy one more time, and he's saying he's my beloved son, and faithful in the Lord, who shall bring you into remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, as I teach everywhere in every church. So he had obviously discipled him, because what's he doing? He's sending him so that he can teach him exactly what he told Timothy. Exactly what he taught to Timothy. And what does Paul teach? Exactly what Christ taught to him. Exactly what Christ taught to all the apostles. That's why he's saying be followers of me. And people will say, we're not supposed to be followers of men. Well how come Paul says be followers of me then? God put men in charge. That's just the way it is. He didn't put women in charge to be pastors, or spiritual leaders. He put men in charge. He said follow me. Now obviously there are women that do great works and things like that, but men are not supposed to follow women. Men and women are supposed to follow the man that God puts in charge. And obviously the apostle Paul is in charge of this church, because he's not writing to pastors here. This isn't a letter to Timothy. This is a letter to the church that's in Corinth, the church that he started. And so there's not a church there yet that's an autonomous local New Testament church, like Antioch. Antioch was sent him out to start other churches. And so therefore when Paul writes to churches, he's writing under the authority of the fact that he's an apostle, but also hands were laid on him at Antioch. Every time he got done with the missionary journey, where'd he go back to? He went back to Antioch. Why'd he do that? Because he was under their authority. How weird is that? Like he's an apostle. Why did he have to be under their authority? Because that's how the local church works. And you're like well I don't agree with you on that. Well why did he have to go tell them every time then? Why'd he have to report what he was doing at Antioch? Why didn't he go to Jerusalem where all the other big wigs were? I mean he did go to talk to him, but the only reason why he went up there is to give the poor saints money as a collection. And to see kind of what's going on with these weirdos that are coming and telling us we have to keep the law of Moses and be circumcised. Why is this happening? But it says here that he's sending Timothy to keep them straight, but what do I want to prove here? Well I want to prove here that you can have all kinds of teachers, all kinds of instructors to teach you all kinds of things, but you don't have many fathers. The person that got you saved, you should have some respect for that person. And not just when they do something you don't like, you're like oh this guy's a reprobate or this guy. Hey if you're calling the person that got you saved a reprobate then you are too. You're not saved because unsaved people can't get people saved. So how are you gonna call that person a reprobate? Well that person's just extremely wicked. Well I'm sure that someone that's extremely wicked can get you saved, but it's just bizarre for you to have some kind of ill will towards the person that got you saved. It's just bizarre. I don't even know the guy that got me saved, but I'm not gonna run his name through the mud even if I found out he was kind of a dodgy character later on. Look Christians can be pretty bad and still be saved, but to sit there and malign the person that got you saved is pretty bizarre. I wanna ask in here, and you don't have to answer, you can just kind of just go like this if you don't wanna say it out loud, but I wanna ask if it's just a video that you watched to get you saved, or if it was Pastor Anderson or Pastor Mendez's video, you could just say that, but you could just say how you got saved or whatever. Brother David, how'd you get saved? You don't have to tell the whole story, just... Oh, Pastor Shelley's video, okay. Brother Temo? Yeah, just a gospel presentation on a video. Miss Ali? Someone showed you. Sheila? Pastor Anderson's video. Julian, you've been saved a long time. Aunt Janet? Church members, your church? Yeah, all right, so Joe got saved here. Brando? Brother Devin. Brother Devin, all right. Drew? Once saved, always saved. The sermon, once saved, always saved, okay. O'Shawn? My pastor when I was 16. Pastor when you were 16? Miss Jessica? My husband. Your husband. Kids? Do you remember? I'm Mom and Dad. Oh, Mom and Dad. Okay, that's good. Mama? Mama Dada? All right. Miss Dixie? My son-in-law's a faithful word. Son-in-law's a faithful word. All right. Jesse? Video at the end of the documentary. Okay. Do you know which one? I think it was March in the Zion. Okay. March in the Zion. End of the March in the Zion. Brother Eli? The pulpit. The pulpit. About two years before I realized it. Amen. Zoe? Did you want to say? Are you shaking your head no? Okay. Daddy. Huh? Daddy. Oh, Daddy. Okay. Sorry. Robert? Okay. Any kids back there want to say anything? Dad. Dad? Eli? Dad. Kayla? Dad. Dad? You want to say something, boy? No? CJ? Which one? After the tribulation. At the end of the tribulation. Mikey? So, from pay forward. Yeah. Bobby? Once saved, always saved. Ramon? All right. Victor. Yeah. Me? Yeah. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Victor. Me? Yep. Probably C's throughout, like, from Anthony and Joe and Jacob and Brother Brandon really sealed the deal for us. All right. So, there's your fruit right there. Amen. Victor. You want to? Victor? Video. Oh, video. Okay. Same. See you playing team. And then very often. All right. You? What? All right. Sherry? Oh, my God. Oh, my. Me! There's my fruit right there. I told my wife that, and Remy, I told my wife that, because I got saved about four months before she did, and I just kept trying to work on her, because I wasn't going to marry her unless she got saved, because I already read that much, at least I knew you can't be unequally yoked. So, I don't know. I don't even remember, like, reading that in the Bible, but I just knew that was true somehow. But, I probably did read it, or somehow knew that afterwards, but I said to her, well, if the kids died in a car crash, and you got in a car crash, and you and all the kids died, I said, you go to hell, and they would all go to heaven. And she threw me out of her house. But then, later on, she went down and got on her hands and knees and called the name of the Lord and got saved. So, I didn't realize that, but then she told me the next day. And so, then I asked her to marry me after that, so, it's like, well, we're no longer unequally yoked, so, but wouldn't it be weird if you just, like, hated the person that got you saved? Like, I mean, it's a really big deal that you're going to heaven now, and it's, you know, to say, you know, yeah, you've had thousands, you know, you probably don't have ten thousands of instructors, and if you do, you're probably listening to too many different people. But Paul's just, I think he's just making a point here, he's just saying, hey, there's a lot of people that are teaching you and preaching a lot of different things to you, but you only have one or a few, you know, you said you have not many fathers, it'd be weird to have many fathers too, wouldn't it? But he's just kind of making this point, like, I'm the one that got you saved, you know, you should listen to what I'm telling you, you should pay attention to what I'm teaching you and follow me, and listen to what Timothy has to say to you, because we're teaching you the truth. He's an apostle. He's getting his teaching from God himself, and obviously lots of great Bible lessons that he is probably reading the Bible all the time. So now, you might be like, well, Pastor Thompson, I don't have any spiritual kids yet. Well, if you want some, you can get some, we'll teach you how to do it. And it's not really as scary as you might think. So my first point was, there's no greater joy than to hear my converts or the converts of our church walk in truth, and if you don't have any converts yet, we'll go get you some, and then teach them to walk in truth also. And you know, don't let people make you feel like, oh, well, my converts never show up at church, or my converts never get baptized. It's a rare thing. One of our guys that's usually here is Brother Nick. Is he your convert? Did he get baptized? Has he gotten soul winning? Yeah. He hasn't won his first guide to the Lord yet, but he's working on it. So that's great. And we had a man to come here. Who's the one? Was it you and Sean that got her saved? She came here. She got baptized. She went soul winning. She's won people to the Lord. Then she left us. And she married a man from one of our other churches. But she's doing great. And I'm happy for her. So this brings me to my next point, which is there's no greater joy than to hear that former church members that have left walk in truth. She's still going strong at one of our other, well, I mean, she's still part of our church, but it's just a different location in Spokane. And our church has been a holding pad for many people that have moved on to go to other great churches. We've had people that are moving from Washington to Faithful Word or Pastor Shelley's church or Sacramento or some other church, some other great church. And our church has been a revolving door for those that have been here and moved on to other churches. I mean, there's nothing wrong with going to another church that's a great church. I just wouldn't recommend moving from here to a place that there isn't a good church. That's where it's probably a really bad move. Not probably, it always is a bad move. If you have these fantasies of, well, I'm just going to go and straighten out this pastor at another church, you're wrong. Well, any Baptist church is just as good as another, that's not true either, and you all know that. But I have no problem, and I don't get upset, and I don't get my feelings hurt if somebody just uses this as a lily pad. They're like a frog jumping from a lily pad to the next big lily pad or the next great place that they want to go. I have no problem with that. That's happened many times throughout our church history, and I love to hear that they're still in church, still doing great things for God, and still at that church, or maybe they've gone on to even another church after that. But what hurts me is to hear that they're not still going to a great church. Nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to hear that their converts aren't going to church. And that's the flip side to everything is that you want to hear great things about people that left our church or whatever, and obviously that's not always the case, but when people come here, they're usually somebody else's converts, and they're just kind of biding their time here before they move on to a different church, and I still have joy over that person. I still care about those people because they were part of our church for a time, and we shouldn't have any ill will towards that. In the Bible, Paul writes a lot of letters of commendation to people. Have you ever noticed that? He always is telling, hey, this person and that person, hey, receive them into your church. This is a good person. Back then, they didn't have email. They didn't have a sophisticated way of contacting people over the internet. They didn't have telephones back then. They had to write letters, and then that's how people knew to warn about other people, and that's how they knew to tell other people, hey, this person's okay, receive them into the church, and I believe that this is still something that is useful today because, hey, if you throw somebody out of church and they're a bad person, you mark them, then it used to be common practice in Baptist churches that people could join by letter of commendation, baptism, or by just coming up, by baptism. Baptism, you know, people join our church when they get baptized. They do automatically are a member of our church at that point, but that's usually a new convert does that, but a lot of, I mean, I don't want to get into the weeds with all the politics of Baptist churches because sometimes it gets kind of weird where they're keeping these rolls, and it's just not rolls that you bake in the oven, but rolls where they have these lists of all these people in good standing, and you have, like, you check them off if they haven't been there in six weeks, and you visit them if they, you know, just all this stuff, and look, I'm not trying to judge other churches or anything. People just do their own things, but joining by letter, I thought when I first heard of that, I thought it was kind of weird, and I'm not saying that everybody has to do that, or I don't do that. I've never had someone bring me a letter and say, here's a letter of commendation from my pastor, but I wouldn't reject that, but it's just not really done so much anymore because we have email, we have text messaging, we have phones, and it's kind of an old-fashioned thing, but there's nothing wrong with it. Turn to Romans 16, Romans 16. It's not unbiblical, though, and how would they know if someone got kicked out of a church in Corinth and then went to the church in Rome, and there was some evil reprobate that's hopped from church to church to church, and they're like, oh, I'm from this church, and me and the apostle Paul are great friends, and I helped them do this and that, and then really they're just bad. It's actually Alexander the coppersmith, and he's going around to all these churches. So why do they have to mark people? Because if they were doing something wicked, then they would know, hey, this guy's known to be a troublemaker, and he's thrown out of this church, and so they would have to mark those people, and then the ones that are good, Paul would say, hey, this person's a good person. You know, receive them into the fold here. So look at first, Romans 16, verse 1, it says, I commend unto you, Phoebe, our sister, which is a servant of the church, which is at Centria, that you receive her in the Lord as become a saint, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you, for she hath been a succurer of many and of myself also. So she's kind of a person that helps people in time of need and things like that. So she is a comforter, someone that helps people. So she's even helped the apostle Paul. So what's he saying? Receive her in the Lord. Like, when she comes to your church, hey, she's okay. Let her come. And it says, greet Priscilla and Aquila, my helpers in Christ Jesus, who have for my life laid down their necks, unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles. So Priscilla and Aquila, if they happen to stop by, they're great people. They're ones that don't worry about bringing them in. Because I'm sure that there was a level of, you know, worrisome people that would come and try to creep in, because Paul writes about this all the time. Beware of false prophets. Beware of these wolves. So like when he's saying, hey, these people are good, don't worry about letting them in your church. These are good people. I mean, this whole chapter almost is just a list of names of people you should salute, people that are okay, people that are good to let into the church. And it seems like in Rome, this list is the biggest list that's in all of the churches. But if you go to the end of every epistle written to any church, he's got at least a small list of people. He's saying, these people are cool. Salute these people. Hey, by the way, these people are with me right now, and they said to say hi. They said, these people salute you. Even at the end, there's like, in the middle of these lists right here, this is a big list, in the middle of this list, there's like, hey, mark them which cause divisions among you. And it kind of gives like a few verses where it's saying that, and then it goes right back to a list. So what I'm saying to you is that there's a lot of movement around in the churches back then. And there's going to be a lot of movement in churches now. And so we shouldn't be like, oh man, that person, you know, they just didn't like our church. It's not necessarily that. Not every church is everybody's cup of tea. Not every pastor is everybody's cup of tea, or maybe they just fit in better at a different church. Maybe they just have a different vision. Maybe they don't like the weather. You know, they could not like the weather in some place, and they just want to go someplace else where there's just as good of a church, but they don't like it being, you know, rainy half the year, or whatever. Or they don't like it being, you know, hot as the pits of hell for half the year. Or they don't like it being humid half the year. Whatever it is, you know, sometimes weather is dependent on things, or kind of what business areas are in the type of area that you live in. There's just a lot of variables that go into it, and, you know, people just have their own thing that they like to do. But there's absolutely nothing wrong with people moving as long as they're going to another great church. So what is a letter of commendation? I'm sure you've heard of this just out in the real world, you know, not that church isn't the real world, but I'm just saying, like the secular world at work, you might have gotten a commendation for something good that you've done at work, like, you know, gotten some kind of award for being maybe the associate of the year, or whatever type of thing that you got. And a letter of commendation, when it is regarded to churches, is a letter that praises a church for its good work, and faithfulness to a church about, or its faithfulness to a church about an individual, family, or multiple people. So in the Bible, Jesus wrote letters to the seven churches, right? And what's he do to those churches? He sends them, hey, these are what your church is doing really good, and then here's what they're doing that's not great. Here's what they're doing that's really bad. So he kind of gives them, you know, it's kind of like bosses do at work. Here's all the good things you're doing, and they kind of like do their yearly report, you know what I'm talking about, an evaluation. Here's your evaluation. You're great at this. You're okay at this, and you suck at this. This is what you need to fix. And sometimes I wonder if evaluations came from the Bible, and they just kind of copied what Jesus did with the seven churches, because you're never going to get like the greatest review ever. There's always going to be something that you have to work on, you know? Most people always have something that you need to work on. They won't give you that highest raise that you feel like you deserve, you know? It's like, I did everything! I was perfect! And it's like, yeah, but there's just one thing that you need to work on, you know? But that's what letters of commendation are, and when it comes to, you know, the apostle Paul, at the end of his epistles, he's always giving commendations to people, and then salutations, and then a doxology usually at the end of each chapter. So you know, obviously we know who's marked from certain churches because of the publicity of it. Maybe Facebook is kind of like a good indicator sometimes of who is kicked out of churches and who's not, you know? It's kind of like the letters of commendation that you can publicly see, right? Or their YouTube handles if they use their real names, or you know, maybe something was really public. It was like someone that was maybe a minister in one of those churches or something. You know that person went full-blown modalist or they're teaching, you don't have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved and things like that. So those people need to be marked in a different way. Letters of condemnation instead of commendation. They're diotrophies instead of Demetrius, right? But when I hear that people that went to our church were still going to church and doing great, I get great joy over that and I'm happy that they're doing well. Or maybe they're doing even better in a different church than they did at our church. I'm still happy to hear that. I'm glad to hear those things. So sometimes people just need some change in their life and they'll do better. And that's just the way it is. So I'm just fine with people moving and being a bigger blessing at a different church. But I'm also wanting to be a blessing to people that would use this church as a launching pad to go to a different church. So my first point was, there's no greater joy than to hear my converts or the converts of this church walk in truth. And number two, there's no greater joy than to hear that my former church members that have left walk in truth. And number three, there's no greater joy than to hear that my own children walk in truth. And I think it's, let's go back to our text verse in 3 John chapter 1, verse number four. Now obviously the context of this passage is that John is talking about people that he got saved himself. But a secondary application, of course, would be talking about your own children. So everybody that has children in this room, nobody has this dream that some of your children are going to not get saved. Nobody has this dream that some of your children are going to turn out bad. It's like, yeah, I really want this one to turn out bad. Everybody has the dream that your children are going to turn out good. They're going to be what you are. And if you're saved today, you should want your children to what? Be saved and to be successful in their life and to be a successful Christian. And everybody wants that. Every Christian wants their children and, you know, if your children are grown, their children and their children's children to get saved and to serve the Lord. That's what I want. That's what I wanted for my family. So me and my wife, we grew up in severely dysfunctional homes. Severely dysfunctional homes. And my wife's family, you know, she doesn't, her mom and dad are both passed away. But we, you know, obviously, I'm not trying to throw my family under the bus necessarily, but we did, our families put the fun in dysfunctional. I mean, we were talking about it the other day and she's like, man, our families are just so different. Like, I mean, I just sometimes I think our kids just don't realize, you know, what we came from as first-generational Christians and how different their lives actually were. I was talking about this the other night about David. Like, David was a first, kind of symbolizes that first-generation Christian. Obviously, I believe that his dad was probably saved, but David had to fight battles that Solomon never had to fight. Solomon was, you know, young and tender and David was chafed in his mind and, you know, he's battling and fighting giants and he's really just having to get everything the hard way. You know, he's running for his life from Saul, you know, for many years and then having to, you know, subdue the whole land around him because Saul was such a screw-up. And Solomon just kind of got to enjoy, you know, peace and tranquility and when the kingdom was turned over to him, you know, he inherited peace, inherited something that he didn't, they didn't have to fight for. So sometimes I think it's hard for Christian kids to understand kind of where their parents came from in the battles that they had to fight and things like that. And I'm not saying my kids don't understand that, but sometimes I think it is hard for Christian children to understand that part of their parents' life if they were first-generation Christians. Now, I got saved when I was 25 years old and it took time for me to mature as a responsible man. It took me time also to mature as a Christian man. And getting saved at 25 years old is a lot different than getting saved at six years old like Remy who got saved at six years old. You know, he hasn't sinned since he was six years old, you know, as far as the inner man, you know. So, but he didn't have a lot of, you know, he didn't have a lot of hangups and, you know, he didn't have a past to deal with. I mean, his past was, you know, saying his room wasn't cleaned or it was cleaned and when he didn't clean it or whatever or, you know, disobeying as a child, you know, or getting into things he wasn't supposed to get into or whatever. So, but one of our goals and my goal specifically was to break the chain of dysfunction in our own family. And I kind of hated the fact that, you know, we had dysfunction and things that we had to work out in our own family when it comes to those things. And, you know, obviously we weren't perfect because of that. There was hard things that we had to go through and things that we had to learn as parents on our own. And to raise, so, and so we wanted to break that chain of dysfunction in our family and to raise our children in the ways of the Lord. And that's not always easy when you don't know what the ways of the Lord are and you're learning them as you go also. So we definitely weren't perfect. We failed in some areas, I would say. But overall, I feel like we did a pretty good job at raising our children. And for two people that didn't have both parents in the home, I thought we did pretty good considering that because we didn't know what it was like to have two parents in our home. She had her mom and her grandma and I had my mom and a stepdad that wasn't all that great and then just her. I mean I lived with my grandparents for a couple years and they instilled some things into me that I still remember to this day. But we were not raised as Christians. I mean my wife did go to church on Sunday school buses but she just went to whatever church was picking them up that week. She went to the Nazarene church and I think she went to the Catholic church and all kinds of churches that weren't necessarily teaching the truth. So then we met as heathens and did heathen things and we kind of started our family off on the wrong foot in a way. But then we got saved and we took them to church and we bought our daughter's dresses and we dressed our kids up in the little tuxedos and the little shirts and ties and all that kind of stuff and we actually did drop our kids off at the nursery. It was kind of weird like, you know, they'd be like, no, give us your kids. We're like, no, no. But we didn't, you know, we didn't, it was kind of weird, you know, and then the first time like they did like the canned music in front of like, what is this, karaoke night? You know, we just didn't know, you know, we'd never been to a Baptist church before. But we were involved in our kids' life. We prayed with them, we taught them the Bible, we were involved in their schooling and involved in their sports, we were involved in their youth activities. I mean, any church that we've ever been in, we worked in and, you know, that's just the way we were. We were always involved and I never thought about this, but, you know, a lot of parents probably or kids probably don't want their parents to be in their youth activities or go away, you know, especially when they're older, like, why do you have to be here? You know, teenagers are like, you know, when they get in that awkward stage or whatever. But when we started this church with Pastor Jimenez, our children helped us in the ministry and sometimes in our circles that's kind of frowned upon, like nepotism or whatever. It's just like, but we, they wanted help and that's what they were used to seeing. That's what they saw us doing at other churches, so, you know, they wanted to help us. And Remy and Joshua, they did the song leading class with Pastor Jimenez and learned how to song lead professionally. Nia learned how to play the piano and Jasmine played the violin. The girls helped clean the church and the boys preached and all the kids went soul winning. Our kids have been, we're going soul winning before we even started the church, but, you know, when the church launched off, our kids learned how to go soul winning even better. I mean, they're all soul winners and they've all gotten people saved. They're all saved. All of our children, you know, have grown up in this environment and in this culture and all of our children are saved and so I'm very thankful for that. Very thankful. And Nia was led to the Lord at Riverview Baptist Church on a Wednesday night. The pastor's wife led her to the Lord and she got baptized there and, you know, Remy was led to the Lord by me, baptized at Landmark Baptist Church, Missionary Baptist Church in Hermiston, Oregon. Joshua was led to the Lord by his mom at church camp, baptized at Amazing Grace Baptist Church and I was led to the Lord by a stranger in Milwaukee, Oregon. I don't remember his name, but it was in July of 2000, baptized in 2001 at Amazing Grace Baptist Church. My wife was led to the Lord by me in November of 2000, baptized at Amazing Grace Baptist Church 2001. So what's my point in telling you all this? Well, the point is that I'm blessed and I'm thankful for the time that I've got to spend with my children. They've been around me all my life and now I'm to the point where I'm having to say, you know, goodbye to them for, you know, the time that they've been in my life and me and my wife have, you know, been very emotional about all this and I'm trying to get to the part where I knew I was going to get upset about this, but I did want to just, you know, say that I don't deserve what I've been given in this life. I really don't. I was really, I just don't, I don't even understand why God saved me, honestly, but the wrong, all the wrong that I did my youth, I just, I just don't feel like I deserve the blessings that I have. I have a wonderful, beautiful wife, godly wife, my wife, Ms. Sherry, and the saved children that still serve and love God. And now I have grandchildren. I have a whole group of grandchildren and I would love to have them saved, too. So don't ever get out of church, kids, and don't ever stop serving the Lord because it's very important that you stay in church and that you get our grandkids saved if you quit church. I'm going to come hunting for you and I'll make you, I will force you to go back to church. So but I've had the privilege and honor of being married to my wife for almost 24 years and I've raised children that love and serve God and definitely want to see my grandchildren saved. And so I just said all that to say this, that I take my spiritual heritage very seriously and that you should, too, kids. And I have no greater joy than to see that my children walk in truth. And now that they're leaving to go on their own adventures in life and, you know, do things with their own families, Remy is going up to Spokane to minister up there with his wife Kylie and three of my grandchildren. And like I said, it's been bittersweet. More bitter for us than sweet, to be honest with you. I do understand and I, me and my wife are fighting over the name Mara. She's like, no, I'm Mara. I'm like, no, I am because it's not a girl's name. It just means bitter. But, you know, we just we've been, you know, I was just thinking about like 26 years, you know, we've had our kids around us, you know, if you think about Remy being 26 years old and all of our grandchildren have gone to church with us, except for, you know, obviously Dylan and Jasmine and Oklahoma City and they've been in Texas and but all of our other grandchildren have been here and our children have been here, you know, they've been around us our whole life. So it's going to be, you know, weird. It's going to be. It's going to be different being completely alone, like as far as like not having our kids here and really difficult for us to adjust to. So no doubt about that. But at least I know that they're going to be walking in truth. Dylan and Jasmine are walking in truth. They're serving the Lord. And, you know, we got four beautiful grandchildren down there. Bethany, who, by the way, it's her birthday this weekend. So happy birthday. And then Lea and Anna and Heidi, Remy and Kylie, like I said, are moving on. Joshua and Olivia live still fairly close, but it's not like we're in some kind of worst case scenario, though. It's not like we're never going to see him again or anything like that. But I'm just kind of thinking about these things over the weekend and thinking about how blessed we are to have children and grandchildren that love God. And if all my grandchildren get saved and our children keep serving the Lord, I'll be happy and blessed for the rest of my life. So I, of course, love to have them all back here in Vancouver and just stay here. But, you know, the work of God's going to suffer if they stay here. So I understand why they need to go, but it just it's a hard pill to swallow, honestly. But one thing I was thinking about, though, is that because of the fact that we got saved, because God saved me and he saved my wife and then we got our kids saved, that we do get to spend all eternity with our children in heaven. And that is the greatest blessing of all. So even though they might be leaving, you know, we get to spend all eternity with them. Turn to Proverbs chapter 13, verse 22. So we get to spend all eternity with our children and with our children's children, as long as they get saved. And there's no guarantee that children will get saved. So the best chance that they have of getting saved is that they stay in church, they're taught at home, they're given the gospel, and that's taken very seriously. Proverbs 13, 22 says, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. So obviously, you know, people a lot of times just think of leaving like money to their children. But what's more important is the spiritual heritage that you leave not only to your children, but to your children's children, which would be your grandchildren. Right. And so the fact that we got our kids saved, that leaves them in a better position to get their children saved. Turn to Proverbs 17, verse number six, Proverbs 17, verse number six. It took me becoming a granddad, a grandfather, papa, to kind of really have this verse mean a lot to me, but it does mean a lot to me now. Proverbs 17, verse six, the Bible says, children's children are the crown of old men. And I wouldn't say that I'm necessarily old. But when I was young, I would have considered myself old. But it says children's children are the crown of old men and the glory of children are their fathers. So children's children are the crown of old men. So, I mean, that's a crown that I love to wear, is that my I love my grandchildren and I love that they love me. So turn to 1 Samuel chapter 12, verse 22, 1 Samuel 12, verse 22. Now, this is basically Samuel has stopped being the leader of the children of Israel at this point. And he's kind of chastising the children of Israel, but Samuel still loves the children of Israel and he still loves Saul, even though Saul has kind of gone bad. I'm not saying that they're bad for leaving or anything like that. I'm just saying that I like what Samuel says here. 1 Samuel 12, 22, it says, for the Lord will not forsake his people for the great name for his great namesake, but have pleased the Lord to make you his people. Moreover, as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach you the good and right way. So obviously, you know, anybody that's ever left our church, any converts we get and then, of course, our own children, we should not cease to pray for them and love them. It says only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider how great things he has done for you. Don't forget to fear the Lord. Don't forget to serve him with truth with all your heart. These things are very important. And Samuel's just reminding them, hey, you might have a king now, but consider these things. Consider the great things that God has done for you. And sometimes it's easy to, you know, especially when you're in a down part in your life, to kind of get down and like, you know, sometimes even people get mad at God for the things that go wrong in their life. But that's not that's a foolish way to think. It's foolish to think that way. We should always consider the great things he's done. What about your salvation? That's a great thing he's done. And all the pain in this world is going to go away someday and we're going to be walking streets of gold and walking through gates of pearl and all the things that have been hard for us in this life are going to go away. So, you know, I would just say, you know, don't forsake God's house. Stay in your Bibles, pray to the Lord and keep sowing. Turn to Acts 20, it's the last place we'll turn to and I'll wrap up here. Acts chapter 20. So when it comes to those people that our church or, you know, our own personal converts, you know, don't if they don't continue to come to our church or if they never come to our church or they use our church as a warming pad or they come here and then eventually move on or even our own little literal children. You know, the only thing we can really do is, you know, once they leave our church, anybody or once your children leave your family and move on or go to a different church or or, you know, whatever, the only thing we can do is just commend them. Commend them. You know, I can't I can't control what my family does once they get, you know, when my children get married and they have families of their own, I can't control what they do. I'm no longer over their households. But all I know is that I raised them in a godly home. I raised them in the ways of the Lord. I did the best that I could. And so at this point, and Paul, he's meeting with the Ephesian elders here and he knows that he's never going to see him again. Of course, I know I'm going to see my kids again. OK, but I'm just you know, this is just overall, you know, including people just, you know, our own converts and everything. But it says and now, brethren, I commend you to God. That's all we can really do is commend them to God, it says, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among them which are sanctified. So and commend means to praise formally or officially or to present as suitable for approval or acceptance to recommend. So the apostle Paul recommended and commended people to different churches. But here he's saying, I commend you to God. You know, he can't really commend people to churches anymore. He knows that, you know, he's going to go and he's going to be captured and he's going to be in prison. And and he's his ministry basically on earth where he's traveling around all these places is going to come to an end. But he's just saying, I commend you to God. And, you know, when people leave our church or when people move on, that's all we can really do, right, is just commend them to God and the word of his grace, you know, which is able to build you up. That's God's word is what's going to build us up and make us better and give us an inheritance among them that are sanctified, you know, and God is going to help us. He's going to take care of us. So that's a positive recommendation, isn't it? It's a commendation. So that they're no longer under my authority as a pastor. And, you know, I just would say this to my my children that are moving on and leaving our church that, you know, I commend you to the Lord and I just pray that God blesses you in your endeavors. I thank you for all the things that you did at our church. I mean, the boys have been song leaning for years and preaching for me when I'm not here. And, you know, Mia has been playing the piano for us for years and I've been soul winners. And I just really appreciate everything you've done. And there's definitely going to be a big giant hole left in our church when you leave. And I'm not trying to make you feel bad, but I am. No, I'm just kidding. We love you guys. And we're very thankful for all the time that we've had with you here at our church. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you this morning. For the blessings of our children that we could watch them grow, watch them get saved, watch them lead their families, and we thank you for all the blessings of the people that we've gotten saved through this church and its ministry. I pray that you would just be with the people that we've gotten saved at this church and Lord, that you'd be with them their lives. I pray that the converts that we get saved, that Lord, we just pay a little bit extra time with them to just work with them a little bit so they might be interested in coming to church, maybe just taking extra time to tell them about being baptized and discipling them, Lord. And Lord, I pray for our two families, our two children's families that are moving on to do ministry in different places, and I pray that you would bless them as they go and take care of them. And I pray that you just bless our grandchildren, that they'd get saved, and that you would, I commend them to you, Lord, and ask you to take care of them. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, our last song, number 136. Master, the Tempest is Raging. Song number 136, let's sing it together on the first. Master, the tempest is raging, the billows are tossing high. The sky is o'ershadowed with blackness, no shelter or help is nigh. Carest thou not that we perish, how canst thou lie asleep, when each moment so madly is threatening a grave in the angry deep? The winds and the waves shall obey my will, peace be still. Weather the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, for demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and sky. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace be still, peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace, peace be still. Master, with anguish of spirit, I bow in my grief today. The depths of my sad heart are troubled, awaken and save, I pray. Torrents of sin and of anguish sweep o'er my sinking soul. And I perish, I perish, dear master, oh, hasten and take control. The winds and the waves shall obey my will, peace be still. Weather the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, for demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace be still, peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace, peace be still. Master, the terror is over, the elements sweetly rest. Earth's sun in the calm wake is mirrored, and heaven's within my breast. Linger, oh blessed Redeemer, leave me alone no more, and with joy I shall make the blessed harbor and rest on the blissful shore. The winds and the waves shall obey my will, peace be still. Weather the wrath of the storm-tossed sea, for demons or men or whatever it be, no water can swallow the ship where lies the master of ocean and earth and skies. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace be still, peace be still. They all shall sweetly obey my will, peace, peace be still. Amen. Good singing. Brother Eli, could you close with a word of prayer? We're grateful for what we have, for all we have, Lord. Father, I pray, I pray for those that are in the deep. Amen.