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the title of the sermon this morning is the spoils of spiritual warfare the spoils of spiritual warfare let's look at verse number one in second chronicles chapter 26 it says concerning the divisions of the quarters of the korites was mesha mesha la mia see that's why i didn't want you to have to read that the son of kori and the sons of asaph so this chapter is dealing with the divisions of borders okay so in the in chronicles in this chapter specifically it's dealing with quarters and what is a porter someone have you ever gone to a hotel a really fancy hotel there's a guy that's out front that person's called the porter usually and they sometimes they dress in weird outfits and stuff you know modern day but anyway that's what they do they they grab the bags they help you they do so they're kind of like a doorkeeper and so let's look down at verse 24 and uh i'll read a little bit here and then we'll pray it says and in shepuel the son of gershom the son of moses was ruler of the treasures and his brethren by eliezer rephabiah the son and jeshaiah his son and joram his son and zikrai his son and shelamith his son when shelamith and his brethren were over all the treasures of the dedicated things which david the king and the chief fathers the captains over thousands and hundreds and the captains over the host have dedicated out of the spoils won in battle did they dedicate to maintain the house of the lord let's pray heavenly father we thank you lord so much uh lord for this great church i pray lord to be here for many many years to come and lord i pray you've uh just set a hedge about this church lord and and as best as you can keep the wicked people away from here lord pray that you give pastor version strength and just help him as he continues his ministry and his wife and his family lord and pray for all the people here lord pray that not one would be lost and lord that this church would have faithful members that are stick with it for many many years to come and lord let's pray a special blessing on this weekend for all the people that have come i pray bless them fill them with the holy spirit now as uh your word is preached to them lord we've sung the songs and we've worshiped you lord today and lord i pray you fill me with the holy spirit as a as i preach this message and give me boldness and power in Jesus name we pray amen amen so the reason why i read this is because what what goes on in churches isn't a lot different than what you see happen in the king in the earthly kingdom of david you know there's always someone has to play their part someone has to be there to be the poor someone has to be there to guard the treasures you know count the money and all that kind of stuff and so these uh written chronicles in the old testament describe to us a little bit about how the earthly kingdom of god function and and it really isn't that much i mean there's a lot different like pastor versions isn't the king but he is the pastor so he's the ruler over the house of god here and uh if you've noticed uh just reading some of this that a lot of the people were doing different things for the kingdom of god let's look at verse 28 you're still in the first chronicles chapter 26 it says in all that samuel the seer and saw the son of kish and abram the son of ner and joab the son of zeruiah had dedicated and whosoever had dedicated anything it was under the hand of shelamith and his brethren of the israelites chedaniah and his sons for for the outward business over israel for officers and judges so there's people that do the outward business there's people back in this time that did uh that guarded over the things that were dedicated to the house of god now the house of god back then was the temple of god right and so today the temple of the lord is within each believer so the bible says when we get saved and we get the down payment the earnest of this holy spirit and and you know the holy spirit walks within us god is inside of us and so every just think about this everywhere you take them take god you're taking them you know everywhere you go you're taking god with you that's right so think about that before you go into someplace that you ought not to be going to right or looking at something you ought not to be looking at or just anything like that i mean we've got to understand that the house of god is now with us until once we're all joined together this is the congregation of the lord this is the church amen so uh but look at verse 30 it says in the hebrew nights hashebi and his brethren men of valor a thousand seven hundred were officers among the israel of the of israel on this side of jordan westward in all the business of the lord and in the service of the king so there's business that takes place at god's house isn't there so every one of you here is is here to do the business of preaching the gospel to the lost today right that's the business that's going on and it's actually the most important business that we could be doing for god amen and so you know i'm very pleased to see how many people came out to go so many today and you know just the reason why i i want to bring this chapter up is because there's just so many things that go on in in the kingdom of god there's so many parts that have to be played you know from the person that preaches the sermons from the person that you know plays the piano from the person that leads the songs from the person or people that clean the house and clean up the building here and all the things that go into this there's a lot that goes into it and you know one man can't do all that stuff right it's hard for one man david had to delegate things pastor verses has to delegate things and have you ever heard that saying that ten percent of people do a hundred percent of the work of churches usually it's kind of true and hopefully it's not true in this church and it's not true in my church but a lot of churches that's the way it is and some people they just show up they come to service they get their they get their snack they get their meal they get their uh t-bone ribeye steak or whatever the sermon the pastor persons it's usually a ribeye right we had ribeyes last night so but you know some people just show up to church and that's about all they do and in churches like this i doubt that that's the truth but um so what the title of the sermon is the spoils of spiritual warfare look we're in a war yeah we need to understand that that we're in a war today and we're fighting a spiritual battle we're not fighting a physical battle sometimes you know we want to get into physical battles it seems like but i don't want to get in a physical battle but sometimes i feel like it sometimes you know sometimes it's either easier to slap someone around than it is to slap someone bible right but uh i mean for me anyway but uh you know the local church functions a lot like the physical kingdom back in the old testament but it's just different you know obviously but so we are in a spiritual kingdom here but it is still a physical kingdom to a certain extent okay because we live in the physical world we're not rapturing yet so um but you know every i just want to say this every church member that's here every person that's here is important and god defines you important you're an integral part of this church ministry here and even if you're just someone that visits every once in a while you're the occasional nose you're the occasional hand you know god god wants this church to function it takes all the different bottles this is called the body of christ amen and so you know there's a hand there's a foot there's legs there you know and maybe there's multiple legs i don't know what kind of body this is but you know i always say that you know certain people would be like the nose of the church you smell out you're the one that smells out the false prophet you're like some of those smell right about this guy you know what i mean so but you know again everybody has their duties that they do here at this church again you have one main leader the pastor and sometimes churches have beacons and evangelists and porters or doorkeepers the guys that stand in the front hand out the bulletins and welcome people to the church uh people that are in charge of the treasury the money money counting the ushers people who clean fold bulletins softly play piano go soul winning there's a big uh there's a big work that goes on and making this kingdom run and then whichever told did you notice that part when it says it's his pleasure to give us the kingdom we are the kingdom of god you know and obviously the ultimate kingdom of god is going to be when christ comes back and rules for a thousand years and then we'll reign with him forever but for now we are the kingdom of god here on earth and he's left it to us it's his pleasure to give it to us but hey when he gives it to us we got to do something with with the things that we're given we got to do something we got we all have to play our part in the kingdom and look hey being a door a doorkeeper in god's house is just as important as anything else you know there's a part to play and pastor versus i don't know if he has people do you have people standing up front with the bulletins or all right so most churches have that and that's that's an important job you know a first-time visitor when they walk through the door if they get a handshake and a smile you know if you're just like you're talking about the newest controversy that's going on in the new ip or whatever and then you're like oh hey here you go you know hey take that job seriously you know they don't need to hear that drama right you know a first-time person should get a smile and a handshake and a bulletin and say thanks for coming um every person here should do their job and do it well and your job is important the first thing the first time someone walks into this room and the church is not clean it's in disarray someone fell asleep on the job and didn't do their job or whatever the first thing that they're going to notice is the church isn't clean you know that is important people want to walk in and see a church that that is decently in order right and so don't don't downplay what you do well i just clean the church hey god finds that important your pastor finds that important when your pastor walks in and maybe he's running a little bit late i don't know if that ever happens but you know he walks in and the church looks like a hurricane katrina hit it then he's probably gonna be upset it's like what happened you know so that is an important job and like the last thing that he wants to worry about before he's about to get up and preach the word of god to you is whether the mother baby room got cleaned and someone threw out the diapers you know what i mean so um everything is important every church member is important the and and you know what talking about battles there's lots of battles that goes on in churches like this isn't there you know we've just seen a controversy over the king james bible just recently and i'm not going to preach about that so but that's a controversy that's a battle that's just another battle that we got to go through and you know people are always like i'm tired of the battles i'm tired of this the drama i'm tired of the spiritual warfare that goes on well you know what you need to get used to that because we're constantly going to be in battles in the kingdom of god that's why we're called to be warriors we're called to be soldiers of christ and so look you might get sick of the drama you know but you know people soldiers in real war like not real war but soldiers in physical war they get battle weary too they get battle hard they get battle weary they get some ptsd and sometimes we suffer from spiritual ptsd don't we it just sometimes even as a pastor sometimes i'm just like man again or something someone else is stabbing us in the back someone else is stabbing uh another the past pastor anderson in the back again or someone else is you know just you know causing drama it's it's not just pastors it's also people that's right no and look there's going to be people that creep in the churches get used to that there's going to be people that pull their mask off and show us what they really are and we got to get used to that that's right it's just part of the program it's part of the war it's part of the battle but don't quit amen you know we need to keep going for the cause of christ we need to keep going uh for this church this church is counting on you to be here and if you drop off because you're just like oh i can't handle this you know you just need to get tough so don't get sick you know obviously you maybe you just need to get off facebook for a little while and because you're having a problem i mean if facebook is your like main problem in the christian life then maybe you just need to take a break but you don't have to tell everybody you're taking a break okay i'm taking a break for a couple weeks and then you don't take a break it's just like you know look nobody needs to know that update too okay but you know what there's other churches that rarely battle in this yeah that's right i've gone to churches where the biggest battle is what gossip the choir members are talking about or you know just who didn't clean up after themselves after the service we're in real battles you know the controversy over the king james bible that's a big battle the controversy over the trinity that's a big battle yeah we got to get used to it there's going to be devils that creep in and try to destroy the church there's going to be people that pretend to be good people and they try to tip you know what do people do when they get revealed well they take a bunch of people down with them don't they that's right and even good people that's why jesus said don't pull the tears with the wheat because when you do that it's going to harm because people don't realize you know us as pastors we i think that god gives us a little bit of extra discernment and i don't know if you feel that way pastors are like sometimes i see things that other people don't see i see things that the other church members don't see these people that just creep in and they're just like you just see them working working the crowd working their people trying to get people and draw them to them yeah you know as pastors we can't just go after people because of what a hunch that we have necessarily but you know we can't watch that's right and find out what's going on yeah so you know churches like us are on the front lines why because we're doing a lot of soul winning i'm not saying we're the greatest movement that ever was or any of this stuff what i am saying is that your church goes so many which this church does my church goes so many you know what the devil has a target on our backs that's right every single person in this room the devil has a target on your back and he wants to take you down that's right he wants to take this church down you know what the church that doesn't go soloing i'm sure there's people saved in those churches i'm sure sure they're there's there's saints in those churches but you know what the devil's already defeated that church they stopped going soloing the devil's already defeated that church they you know change their stance on certain things or whatever but why is he going to go after a church so hard that's already quit why is he going to go after a church so hard that's already given up on the main thing that we do which is winning souls why is he going to care where do you think the devil's going to put his focus on he's going to put his focus on churches like this church like my church like people we're baptist church all these churches he's going to try to take them out that's right and you know how he does that one person at a time that's right one person falling out of church one person sick in the battle i quit i'm done i'm just going to go back to my old Miami church where it wasn't so crazy all the time but you know what you're going to be back where the where the bean counters are you know what i mean in war there's lots of different people there was you know there's people that were a guard of the treasury there's people that just you know count bullets or whatever those people that are not in the thick of the battle but we are in the thick of the battle in churches like this we need to realize that we need to realize that the targets on our back and we so for our families for our own sake for our own family's sake for this church's sake for this pastor's sake we got to not fall off and just quit so we need to keep going and you know what we have a lot of enemies don't we they have a lot of enemies there's people that just make up garbage and throw it against the wall to make sure to see if it sticks i mean think about pastor Shelly all the stuff that he's been having to go through after he took out a former steadfast there's just been one thing after the other you know you got people just literally making up lives you know and so that's the kind of underhanded games that people play and they want to go out with the pastor they want to take the pastor down they want to take everybody in the church down with them so why is there so much spiritual battle in these types of churches because of the type of church this is this is a church that is in the front lines in the thick of the battle this is the grunts this is the porters you know what a porter literally means is someone that carries the bag that's what it means so and i didn't have to go back to the greek for that but anyway so that's someone that picks up a bag and carry we're laborers in this church we're laborers in the kingdom of god we're here to do the work of the lord amen so um and you know what the devil's going to try to attack this church until he tries to destroy it and you know what this is a stronghold baptist church amen you know the lord is with this church and but we need every single person to maintain what they're supposed to be doing in this church if your job is to clean the church clean the church with all your mind if your job is to lead the songs well get up and leave the songs with all your mind if your job is to play the piano every single service then you get up and play the piano with everything you've got if you're you know it's everybody's job to go soloing and hey are you so are you uh do you have all the soloing verses memorized you know what i found in my church when we first started is that we start with a lot of people that weren't talkers but then we train people to become talkers and you know what happened our church grew and i i believe that that's the the formula for church growth one of the formulas for church growth is that hey we need more salt we need more silent partners so once all the silent partners become talkers and more silent partners are going to come and join the church now the devil wants to destroy that though let's turn to first peter chapter five verse number eight first peter five verse number eight and this is a very popular verse and we've probably read it a lot of times look what it says in verse eight it says be sober be vigilant because your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour is he seeking that old dead church member that old mossback deacon that goes to you know maranatha baptist church or whatever probably not he's already defeated him he's already stopped him that guy he's already stopped the pastor by stopping the deacon telling the deacon what to do right so but look at what it says in verse nine so the devil is after us okay who says verse nine says who resist steadfast in the faith is he going after the people that are losers or the people that just have fallen off the people that aren't doing anything for god as you go who's he going after who resists steadfast in the faith the people that are steadfast that's who he's going after knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world so look the devil is not after the people he's already defeated he's already devoured those people why does he need to you know or he's kept them at bay by you know leading them into a church that doesn't go soloing isn't it hard who's been in a baptist church before you went to this church or another whatever church you go to or someone you had to like just plead with the pastor to go soloing have you ever been to a church like that because i have and at one church i went to we would go soloing on saturday's and he would he would pray with us and give us a verse of encouragement before we left but he never went soloing never i just thought what a hypocrite you know he's going to sit there on a saturday morning waits for us to get there but he never will go soloing with us that's right his soloing was visitation visiting the people that you know come to the church whatever look he's after the steadfast of the faith he's after the people that are battle ready battle hardened and he wants to take you down he wants to take you down one at a time and you know you ever noticed that every time jesus went someplace that some demon would manifest himself in front of you ever notice that you know why because jesus was in the forefront of the battle too what i mean he was the lord and he was leading these disciples to preach and teach and doing miracles and all these things but every time he went someplace guess what a demon would like read the book of mark every place he went sometimes it was several why do you think that is because jesus was doing the work that he was supposed to be doing and it was important work and it was people getting saved and those devils would manifest themselves in them so why do you think that that happens in churches like these churches why do you think it happens in a spirit-filled soul-wanting church like stronghold baptist church well because you know and i'm not saying demons have manifested themselves in here but what i think about demon manifests themselves in our modern times i mean sometimes it's literally i mean if you go into a downtown area i'm sure in atlanta it's the same as it is in port oregon or seattle washington you got people spinning around and you know talking to themselves and they're you guys got that in atlanta too okay i just want to make sure it's a downtown area for some reason but in churches like ours you'll have devils that are within the congregation what didn't jesus call jews a devil he said haven't i chosen 12 of you and one of you's a devil right every once a while a devil's going to pop up and cause problems and try to start drama and drag people with them that's a demon manifested themselves in front of you that's right that's someone that the devil controls so you know jesus christ everywhere he went that happened you know so why do people get so they're like oh the new ifb has all this drama in it the new ifb churches they're just you know there's just always something going on now because we're in the thick of the battle amen amen that's why second christians chapter 11 verse 23 so if that happened to jesus if demons manifested themselves and tried to mess around with what was going on with him wouldn't you expect that to happen in churches that are doing the right thing would you expect that to happen in godly churches or godly pastor preaching the word of god and sending people out to get massive amounts of people saved i think so look what happened with paul it says are they ministers of christ verse 23 i speak as a fool i am more in labors more abundant in stripes above measured in prison more frequent in deaths off of the jews five times received by 40 stripes say one thrice was i beaten with rods once i was stoned thrice i suffered shipwreck a night and a day i have been in the deep and journeys often in perils of waters in perils of robbers in pairs of my own countrymen in pairs of the heathen or by the heat excuse me in perils in the city in perils in the wilderness in perils in the sea in perils among false brethren and weariness and painfulness and watchings often and hunger and thirst and fastings often and cold and nakedness it sounds like paul went through a lot of problems didn't he that's right why do you think paul went through so many problems because he was just dramatic because just drama you know he was just he was just a drama king is that what you think why was it because he did more abundant than everybody else amen so guess what the devil was always after paul the devil was always trying to stop his work he's having to be lowered down in a basket on the on the outside of the city why why do they hate paul so much because he was doing everything he was supposed to be doing amen he was doing right that's right he was in the thick of the battle he was starting churches everywhere he was filled with the spirit he was writing scripture so why did paul have so many problems because that's what happens when you're fired up that's what happens when you're in the thick of the battle that's what happens when you're a special forces baptist amen right right good so was paul bad because he was always wrapped up in drama was paul wrong for always getting in arguments with people i mean seriously but that's what people will say about churches like us well they're just you know they're just hate they're so hateful that's why it's not because we're hateful because we love him yes right i got a letter i got a some text messages some facebook messenger messages about so i preached a sermon against ravens after he died that's my that's my thing so some paul's prophet dies i'm gonna preach a sermon about him amen and try to get as many people to realize how about how he was a false prophet right you should stop watching his videos stop listening to him but this person was upset that they messaged my actually they messaged my church in canada the church might we have there and they said this is part of this same church with the same name in vancouver washington and they didn't they thought that they were contacting the leadership up there but i control the facebook pages so i said yeah yeah we are and they're like well do you realize that they're part of the splc hate hate group uh that they're that they're they're they're a hate group or whatever i was like yeah yeah but i don't think we're a hate group i think we're a love group amen that's right you know what because we love lost people and we go out to try to seek and save that which was lost like the lord jesus christ told us to do amen and then you know she just got mad i said shut up moron you know basically just pulled her off i told her off a little bit but that's because she turned on me you know people want to ask us questions i'm sure pastor persons gets emails or someone seeming to be nice at first and they just really want to say that you're cold and you're hateful and all this other stuff right i've been getting a lot of hate mail from the ravi zacharias people the sermon i preach against billy graham has 330 000 views wow and so but i don't have people email me about that very rarely but ravi i mean they've missed ravioli they're just so i've been getting emails every day from the ravi lovers they're like sir i'm praying for you but you're gonna die and go to hell but look we gotta preach against the false prophets who else is doing it nobody else is doing it that's right and so when people persecute us because we preach the word of god if you listen to that sermon everything i said was straight out of the bible that's right man everything i said was straight out of the bible and look you can apply that to any false problem it didn't necessarily have to be ravioli zacharias it could have been anybody but why do they hate us or why do they call us drama kings or they call us that we're dramatic and that we're always causing problems that is you know what paul paul was called the same thing you know he was a mover of a sedition of the sedition amongst the jews is what the the yeah the chief priests and rulers set it up so why would we expect any less we're going to get the same thing if we're preaching you know paul's the one that wrote rose chapter one did you guys know that he's the one that said they're worthy of death yeah he's the one that said that they're given over to a reprobate mind you know so when we preach those sermons you know what paul preaches the same stuff he's the one that wrote it come on you know but we're we're hateful so i would say this expect peril expect persecution expect false brethren to rise up expect all prophets to rise up amongst the congregation expect people to stab people in the back just expect it if you expect it then you're just like embracing the truth of what's going to really happen if you're going to a church like this it's gonna happen and people are gonna you know don't get confused by these people that's their goal is to drag you out of church their goal is to get you to stop doing the things in your local church that you're doing right now don't fall off don't uh let someone drag you out with a bunch of what they call drama i call it bible preaching that's what i call it man so if i get up and rip on the sods which i did two two nights ago my sermon was already taken down the next morning so you can only view that on what was that bit shoot or whatever i think we're gonna put on but i got i just got up and preached what the bible said yeah that's it i mean is it really that that's that's why it's controversial because it's the word of god amen why do people hate jesus because he was the word of god yeah that's right why do people persecute jesus because he spoke the truth and so when i look at a church that has never done anything for god and they got some giant building with great beautiful marble pulpits and they have all the pillars in the front and all that stuff and they don't have so any program it doesn't surprise me that they don't get persecuted yeah it doesn't surprise me at all so now when we work for the kingdom and are steadfast in the faith we can expect these things to happen but if we stick and stay and make it pay in the christian life god is going to reward us with the spoils of the spiritual battles in this life and in the life to come make no mistake god has called us to be soldiers and enlist us in the army to fight in this war this war is not going to end in your christian life just get used to that just accept it today would you just if you don't have to bow your heads and close your eyes or anything like that but just what would you right now just where you're sitting accept the fact that we're going to be in battles and wars again and that christ has called us to be soldiers would you just say if you just accept that it's going to make the rest of your christian life a lot easier you're like i just can't believe this is happening again believe it it's happening again it's going to happen all the time just get used to it oh here's another battle okay let's fight be on the right side of course yeah be on the right side turn to peter chapter six verse 12 peter chapter six verse 12 is that talk right that's where it is okay 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 what's the bible say to do hey fight we're not wrestling against flesh and blood let's fight this spiritual battle who's our enemy principalities powers the spiritual wickedness in high places the rulers of the darkness of this world that's what we're fighting against just realize the battle is not hey if you go and and want to be a protester somewhere or the alt-right or whatever that's just silliness why why go and protest about the constitution all that stuff look that's all going to get taken away do you understand that that's right it's all going to get taken away what are they doing right now trying to stop churches from having services because they found their little covet 19 way to do it right now they're just using they're abusing that even though they're saying i actually saw this on a news report that said it was actually i forgot it was posted somewhere on facebook or something but it said like you know how the news has those like screen captures or whatever or they're telling you some information the health department says that it's healthy for you to get out and protest even though they're not maintaining six foot with masks and all that stuff i mean if you look at the protest department oregon they had like thousands of people marching right next to each other a lot of them didn't have mats on but that's healthy but you know what don't go to church because you can only have 10 people and you might get sick and it's just like come on our rights are going to get taken away from us do you know in the tribulation if you said if you're trying to hold up the constitution and go hey but my constitution says that i have freedom of religion is that going to stop them from chopping your head off do you think that's going to stop them it's not going to stop them look this is the book that we need to rest our faith upon yeah it's not a paper made by man and i'm not saying don't use the constitution paul used his roman citizenship to get him out of the beating one time but did that stop him from taking all the beatings that he got after that i mean we just read through how he got shipwrecked he got beat with rods he got you know beat he got stone stone they thought they stoned him to death you know that didn't stop it all the time so look using your constitutional rights why don't you just use the rights that god gave me it says it's better to obey god rather than man amen turn to second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 we need to realize what our weapons are look this is our sword and that this right here is our sword the holy bible the king james bible is our sword okay and so that's what we need to rely on okay second Corinthians chapter 10 verse 4 says for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through god to the pulling down of strongholds we're talking about satanic strongholds this is a godly stronghold but we need to make sure that our we realize what our weapons of our warfare are we're supposed to put on the full armor of god right that's what we need to did you know the part of the full armor of god is having your feet shot with the preparation of the gospel you know that that's part of your armor it's so funny how many people preach you know you gotta have the armor of god on but they don't go soloing right right you got your feet chopped off dude yeah you're done that's it you're over with you know my foot's hurt maybe that's why i maybe that's why my foot's hurt i don't know i need i need to make sure that you know i understand that i need to go soloing so if i do this only but anyway i don't know it's just you know people it's it amazes me how many pastors don't go soloing but they preach about the armor of god you forgot something you forgot your shoes so turn to second corinthian chapter two excuse me second timothy chapter two verse one second timothy chapter two verse one so if the weapons of our warfare are not carnal what are we doing well we're going to second timothy chapter two verse one it says now therefore my son be strong in the grace that is in christ jesus that the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also you know it says faithful men faithful it's important that you're faithful it says thou therefore endure hardness endure hardness as a good soldier of jesus christ you know sometimes the battle is going to get hard and that's why you say look timothy you're going to have to endure hardness you know your pastor had to endure some hardness too didn't he got fired from his job the news is telling everybody he's the hate monger you hate monger i can't believe how much you hate people that you're sending you know 70 people out so many today you're so hateful that's right you know he hates the right things but see today you know being some transvestite is is supposed to be you're a child of god you're godly but that's what that lady said that's the other thing she said she said homosexuals were born that way and they were made perfect and she was saying saying that she was a christian that's what made me have by the way i forgot about that so anyway but pastor versus had to endure some hardness you know what every single person in this room is going to have to endure hardness maybe it's not the news channels come after maybe you're just going to have some battles within your own families maybe you're just going to have some trouble at home maybe your kids maybe your wife maybe your husband whatever it is you might have some different battles that you have to fight but you know what you have to endure that hardness you want to be a good soldier you know soldiers have to stay at all light in the rain they have to sit in foxholes and eat dirty and not take showers every day i've never been a soldier but i just i just know that's what happens you know it's not like you have a shower and running water sometimes you have to you know go to the bathroom in places you probably don't feel comfortable going to i mean we we just get locked bathrooms and they flush and all that stuff and we forget it sometimes it's a little harder out there for some people soldiers don't get those kinds of things so the things that the comforts that we do have we should appreciate them you know when we go through hardness don't quit when we go through hardness don't give up it says no man that warth entangled himself with the affairs of this life that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier look god's chosen us to be soldiers we're fighting in a war we're in constant battles and we need to be able to endure that hardness as we go through our christian life you know if you if you don't that's not for you you know i don't know what to do i don't know what the hell you live but i'll just tell you this that your life isn't going to turn out easier just because you stop and you know because you stop and fall out of church or stop and quit doing your job at church it's not going to be easier because you know to who much is given much is required right right so if you've been given a lot you know some people go to some you know rock and roll church maybe they're saved they don't their family got them into it they don't realize that everything they're being taught is pretty much alive and they're not getting the type of preaching that you're getting at this church or whatever church you go to they're not getting that type of preaching they're not getting that kind of instruction they're not they're not watching the same youtube videos that you're watching and so you're getting more information more of the word of god than most people are on this planet right now that's just a fact and so god's gonna hold you to a higher standard when he's given you the information he expects you to do something with it when he's given you a task or some kind of stewardship over something he intends for you to keep doing that job right so and if you said hey i want to be a pastor and then you just you know get married and have a kid you're like man this is harder than i thought it was going to be it's hard to be a pastor it's harder than you think but you know what you can endure that hardness if you got some character you can become a pastor you got to rule your house well and make all make sure that you keep all the qualifications and stay qualified and get qualified but you can do it believe me if i can do it you can do it so you know what we need more than ever now we need more pastors we need more we want we need more people to rise up and say hey you know what even if i'm not going to be a pastor i want to get qualified to be one so uh let's see here in first uh second timothy chapter two look at first timothy chapter six verse 12 people say well it shouldn't be so hard to be a christian all the time it shouldn't be hard but it is hard it's a battle it's a fight it's a war it says fight the good fight are we supposed to fight or not right supposed to fight fight the good fight of faith laid hold on eternal life where to now we're also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses hey paul told timothy fight you know it's not my job as a pastor to just you know get full time get a cadillac escalade that says god's man on the back i might get a cadillac escalate because it fits me but it's not going to say god's man on the back i'm probably saying king james only or something the real king james let's see where am i where am i okay yeah we're supposed to the book of june says we're to earnestly contend for the faith you know what content means he's the fighter we gotta fight for the truth and so when we proclaim hey these people are teaching a false gospel this is the truth there's nothing wrong with that that is a fight that's right you know you should expect someone to fight you back on it the devil's army right so we need to always be ready for the battle always be ready for the battle look at luke chapter 12 i'm finally getting back to luke chapter 12 look verse 31 i gotta get there myself here luke chapter 12 verse 31 obviously i'm not going to go through the whole uh chapter that was a long chapter but uh we're going to cover some of this luke chapter 12 verse 31 i nixed some of it out of my notes so i'm gonna have to turn okay okay it says but rather seek ye the kingdom of god and all these things shall be added unto you fear not little flock for it is your uh actually let's look at verse 30 i'm sorry for all these things do the nations of the world seek after your father know it that you have needed these things say you know some people say well you know what i'm just not i'm not getting where i wanted my life goals and things like that look we need to realize that we need to lay up treasures in heaven look at verse 31 but rather seek ye the kingdom of god and these things shall be added unto you fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom sell that you have and give alms provide yourselves bags which wax not old a treasure a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no thief approaches neither off corrupted so look the rewards in heaven that we get are eternal so if it says look it just says it's talking about giving alms and that says that that is not corruptible right and you know and alms isn't like you blowing the trumpet and saying i gave twenty thousand dollars to the church i just want everybody to know i gave twenty thousand dollars to the church or i gave you know brother so and so five thousand dollars because they were down on their luck hey i just want to let you know that look you've already lost your reward if you're like that and that shouldn't be your purpose telling you know you shouldn't tell people when you give alms but it does say provide yourself bags which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not where no feet there's no thieves in heaven thieves shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven okay where no thief approaches neither moth does corrupt there there's no moths up there to eat holes in your bags you know when we go to heaven our rewards are going to be they're waiting for us so um it says for where your treasure is there will your heart be also what is what is important to you in this life is it getting to escalate is it getting in the house is it getting all these things that look there's nothing wrong with having things but if your goal is more about money than it is about the kingdom of heaven people already lost your way amen blue verse 35 let your loins be girded and your lights burning what is that saying hey be ready to work you're ready to work have your lights burning but have you ever heard that uh you're burning the candle at both ends you ever heard that saying that's what we should be like look if you want to be a pastor someday guess what you're going to have to burn the candle at both ends i think pastor versions is still working a full-time job i'm still working a full-time job and it's hard work to work a full-time job and to be a pastor at the same time so but you know some of you guys work hard too you have probably two jobs or whatever but what's the point well the point is is that we should be ready to do god's work that's what's important laying up treasures in heaven is way more important than laying up treasures on earth you know that stuff's all gonna burn up anyway the paint job's gonna fade tired you're gonna get old no he's under the escalator sorry uh i got to split up my mind verse 36 any yourselves lying on the men that wait for the lord when he will return from the wedding that when he cometh and knocketh they may open unto him immediately blessed are those servants who the lord when he cometh shall find watching barely i say to you he shall gird himself let's talk about jesus right listen to this and he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them you know in heaven that christ you know how how he bent down he gird himself in the towel and bent down and washed the disciples feet it sounds to me like he's going to come and serve us a meal in heaven that's what it says right he shall gird himself and make him sit down make him sit down to meet and we'll come forth and serve them and that's servant leadership right there you know people think that being the pastor is like hey i'm the man now or whatever it's like no you're the servant now yeah we're the servants we're supposed to serve the people that we minister to it says to know this that if the good men of the house had known that what hour the thief would come he would have watched and not suffered his house to be broke broken through be therefore ready also for the son of man cometh at an hour when you think not some people drop out and they're like yeah you know i don't know if it's going to be any time of the century so i'm just going to do what i want i'm going to just drop off and you know not worry about it but you know what the bible says we're supposed to be watching i'm not saying because the tribulation is going to happen or the rapture is going to happen any moment but we still are supposed to be watching we're still supposed to be serving the lord and watching for his return and you know what number two soldiers are faithful when we're a soldier we're supposed to be faithful look at verse number 42 in the chapter 12 it says and the lord said who then is that faithful and wise steward whom the lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season who then is that faithful and wise steward hey it's required that a steward be found faithful amen we're supposed to be faithful if you're a steward of cleaning the church if you're a steward of whatever you know i've already gone over this whatever your stewardship is whatever god has put over you or put you know put you as as a ruler of you know if you do a good job of the little things that you do god's giving you more things that's what the bible says so we should be faithful stewards and the things that we do blessed is that servant whom the lord when he cometh shall find so doing let me read that again blessed is that servant whom is lord when he cometh shall find so doing god wants us to be faithful in the things that he gives us and you know what the bible says that that servants can be blessed but you know what if you if you would have known what time the thief was going to come and break through you would have suffered your house to be destroyed look if you drop out what what are the what are the risks you know if you're just like you know what me and my family we're done i'm sick of it i'm sick of all the fight i'm sick of all the drama i'm just gonna go to some lily liver you know pink tea lemonade pink shirt wearing pastor's church and just kind of ride it out what could happen what's the possibility could be happening well they got children's church they got you know which you know you said well that's not so bad isn't it yeah right or where they take your child they can take your child out of the service and get watched by a stranger right or were they all the church believes false doctrine you got this person over here is believing repent of your sins this guy's lordship salvation this person is a jew this person you know they all believe i'm not saying you guys i'm picking up the bad guys well think about that think about how your house can be broken up that's right because you go back to the why did you leave that kind of church in the first place because you're already having issues with it they already don't know so many look do you want your children to rise up and be soul winners in the next generation or not i guarantee if you go back to the old style church that you were going to where you had to beg the pastor for uh invitations that didn't say repent of your sins on them and then you're gonna just go back to that because you're tired of finding you gotta stay in the battle amen we gotta stay in the battle because you know what your house will be broken up that's right your next generation is gonna be weak they're gonna be like you know what my parents were hypocrites they said they believed all this stuff and they just took us out of the church where we're going to your family's at stake your your uh marriages have stayed that's think about these things so where am i at here first i'll leave off and somebody help me oh yeah bless is he the servant that when the lord cometh and shall find so doing of a truth i say it to you he will make him ruler of all that he hath and if that's true say it is hard my lord the lathe is coming and shall begin to beat men servants and babies to drink eat and drink and be drunken now of course it's a parable so think i'm not saying that that's what you're going to do but when people go back to their old life sometimes they do do that right and i don't know about beating med servants and maid servants i don't know i've never had that opportunity before but eating and drinking being drunken i think it's just basically god's way of saying hey going back to the things you used to do because christians can fall back into the old sins that they were a part of it's called the backslid i just say i just think that this is saying you know they've stopped working for the lord and go back to the world look at verse 46 and the lord that of that servant will come in a day when he when he looketh not to him and at the hour when he is not aware will cut asunder and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers and that servant which knew his lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes so look be ready to serve in your church in your family in your job that's what you should be doing because you don't want to be that servant that gets beaten when the lord comes back right it says and the servant which knew his lord's will and prepared not himself oh excuse me look at verse 48 says but he that knew knew not and and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes for unto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required and to whom they have committed much of him they will ask for the more so look the people that didn't know as much as you they're not going to get beat with it but if you already know then you fall off then you take your family out of a good church then you stop doing the work for the lord you're going to get the people that's right and you know when you've it says to whom men have committed much of him they'll ask for you know who i usually ask people to do more stuff for me the people are already faithful doing the things that i've already asked them to like hey how would you feel about doing this you know what the hardest thing about a pastor being one of the hardest things about being a pastor is when you ask someone to do something they're like oh yeah or they'll come to you and say hey pastor what can i do to help and then you say well hey could you do this and then like they do it for a little while and they just stop doing it they don't even give you a reason why they stopped doing it they just stop doing it or they stopped doing it well and it's just like it's hard to ask that person to do something else when they've already failed at the very small task that they've already been given right so hey listen if you you go to your pastor and you ask hey what pastor can i do something to help you out can i do something to help or the church can i lead a soul anytime can i do this or that and you do that and he gives you that responsibility and then you you flop and flounder with it don't expect him to give you anything else if you're the guy that says hey pastor version will you train me to be a pastor and he's like yeah sure and then he starts to put little more responsibilities on you you know hey would you mind doing this would you mind doing that or you're a sowing captain you're always late you're never there on time your maps are not good or whatever you you're not you're not doing the job that you're supposed to be doing he's not going to ask you to do more i guarantee you he's not and i'm not going to do that either no i want people to when they want to do something i want them to serve well you know and it's sometimes you're just like you're stuck with someone that's doing a crappy job because you know it is a volunteer job it's not like you're getting paid for it okay but who are you working for ultimately are you working for pastor versions are you working for stronghold baptist church you might be but guess who you're ultimately working for you're ultimately working for the lord amen that's right and when we work for the lord we should do it with all of our life with all of our soul all of our strength just like we should love him with all our mind all our soul all our strength right so the war is going to cost you something this battle we're in you're not going to come out unscathed you might get some ptsd okay luke 40 uh 12 49 says am i come to send fire on the earth and what will i if i'd be already kindled but i have a baptism to be baptized with now am i straight until it be accomplished suppose he that i've come to get peace on earth i tell you day but rather division so you know i thought jesus was the prince of peace i thought he was here to make peace on earth peace on earth good will for men yeah he's he wants to give people peace with god he wants to give peace the peace that passes all understanding he wants us to be saved but you know what when you're saved you're going to be immediately at odds with people that are guess who those people are your family your own friends you know anybody that wants to it's funny how someone could just be a drug addict and a loser and the family loves them right yeah oh you were sober for three days oh you did a great job you know you're doing great but then if you're like you're the one that's the loser and you're the one that was a drunkard and you're the one that was doing drugs you're the one that was a you know uh or longer or whatever adult adulterer whatever you know and then you say you know what i i got saved and then i'm going to follow the bible phenomenon they're like you loser you know because it's not weird but like someone can be the biggest loser in your family and everybody loves them because you're saved and you're following the bible now you're the biggest loser right right it's weird but that's what that's what happens it says for from henceforth verse 52 there should be five and one house divided three against two two against three the father shall be divided against the son and the son against the father the mother against the daughter and the daughter against the mother and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law that's not too tough and then the and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law what does that talk about it's caught there's going to be division caused in your family there's going to be division caused in your life but you know what is more important to you say if you're in here and you have a family what is more important to you being a compromiser with your extended family or your immediate family that you're trying to raise and nurture and admonition of the lord and you're trying to leave your wife right and you know what is more important because you know what sometimes you just got to cut your losses you try to get those family members saved you try your best and then you'll a lot of people just just only try to get their family saved that's all they care about and i understand because you know if your mother raised you and you love her and dad or whatever but ultimately people have their own choices to make and you can't just base your christianity upon the family members that you've had problems with because you got saved that makes sense i hope it does think about what you have god has given everyone in this room so much and we take it for granted sometimes don't take your family for granted how many people how many christians have you seen raise their family and or raise their family in church and then they just blow it and their kids go to the devil that's where i've seen it happen in church lots of church stuff too so deciding to follow jesus can cost you everything your family your friends your job and everything it can cost you everything hey maybe you're the best bartender in atlanta but guess what when you get saved you shouldn't be a bartender anymore it might cost you your job it might cost you some division say your family you know you're you are in the greatest family ever you think at the time but then when you get saved all those people hate god and you've got your fan your immediate family what's more important that's right you know and they're always going to try to come to you on sunday and say hey if so and so's birthday parties today we're going to have a swimming party it's like no i'm going to church you got to make it lying in the sand and say look you can plan everything you want but i'm not going to be there that's right i've ultimately had to tell my family that look quit planning things on sunday because i go to church if you want me to be there then quit playing on saturday after soul right so uh number four is the last point spoils of war are great the spoils of war are great but we're going to turn to a different chapter in mark chapter 10 see there's something there's a reward at the end of all this fighting and all this battling we have great rewards we have marked chapter 10 verse 28 says then peter said unto them unto him well we have left all and have followed thee and jesus answered says barely i say unto you there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or fathers or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake in the gospels but he shall receive in hundredfold now in this time houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands and persecutions oh with persecutions so that's part of it like he lists all these great things we're going to get back it's like with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life but many that are first shall be last and the last first so you know we might have a divided family we might have to cut loose some people and if you forsake all to follow christ there is a reward for that it says even in this life we'll receive a hundredfold of this time you're like well pastor thompson when i got saved i didn't get a bunch of new houses i didn't get a whole bunch of more brothers and sisters i didn't get more chill you know i didn't get all this other stuff that you're talking about i just got the persecutions no that's where you're wrong because everybody in this room is your brother or sister amen and this church is the house of god when everybody's gathered together you know you might not get all these houses in this life you might not get but you know there's mothers in this church that you would look up to and call a mother right an elder woman in this church that's a godly lady mothers and children hey maybe you can't have children anymore but there's children in this church that are children of god they might be somebody else's children but there's still children that are saved some of these children are safe in here and we do get those things we just sometimes we look at things the wrong way sometimes we don't look at things how in a spiritual manner and in the world it says the world to come eternal life hey even if you don't have one single reward you know the thief in the cross he didn't have really have a lot of rewards to stack up in heaven did he but you know the thing that everybody gets the same is eternal life amen so that's a great that's a great gift on its own that's a great reward just for believing you don't have to do anything for that right so in john chapter 14 verse 1 it says you can go ahead turn over there if you want john 14 verse 1 this is a really this is a great promise of god right here it says let not your heart be troubled while you're turning there let not your heart be troubled you know there's a lot of trouble going on in the world today it's not just fighting and stuff and churches and all that there's a lot of turmoil going on in the world 2020 did not begin and it's still not where i thought it was going to be you know everybody's like 2020 vision we're going to be more soul winning and get more people saved than we ever have and it's like the devil's like no 2020 is not going to be like that maybe god said 2020 is not going to be the way he talked God is judging this nation and there's a lot of weird stuff going on you know there's a lot of weird stuff going on and we've had the whole covid thing everybody's you know being weird with the mask there's i don't say no he has a mask on mister that's that's pretty cool amen i had to wear a mask all i suffered for jesus on the way here i had to wear one of those dumb masks all the way on the airplane it was not cool it's hot you know anyway but it says let not your heart be troubled you know what we can trust in the lord jesus christ and he says hey let not your heart be troubled even though all this stuff is going crazy in the world even though my life it might be turned upside down right now but it says you believe in god believe also in me in my father's house are many mansions if it were not so i would have told you i go to prepare a place for you and if i go to prepare a place for you i will come again and receive you into myself and where i am there you may be also you know we have a promise that jesus when he went to heaven he said he's going to prepare a place for us you know right now you might live in a two-bedroom apartment with six kids but you know in heaven you're gonna have a mansion i believe it's literally talking about a dwelling place a mansion i think that we're going to have all kinds of things that we don't realize um you know we are going to have rewards you know the bible says and uh i'm going to return to first corinthians three i gotta hurry uh i'm going to read you from psalm chapter 126 verse 5 says they that sow in tears shall reap in joy he that goes forth weeping bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him and we go out and we go to soul winning and you go out and sow in tears and you beg and plead for someone to get saved and you say please get saved amen and you know we're gonna doubtless come again we're going to be rejoicing bringing the sheaves with us that means we're going to get people saved we're going to have those rewards you know what when you get someone saved they're saved for everlasting life right that's right because everlasting and eternal mean the same yeah okay so it means the same thing amen and those people are saved forever that's right and you know what that means that if you've got that person saved you have an eternal reward in heaven that's right that's a reward that can't be taken away first corinthian chapter three uh it says now he that plants and he that waters are one and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labors labors we are for we are laborers together with god you're god's husbandry you're god's building according to the grace of god which is given unto me as a wise master builder i have laid the foundation this is the apostle paul talking and another buildeth and another buildeth thereon so after paul built his foundation he was on the lord jesus christ it says another buildeth there on so when paul passed away or died whenever he died someone else carried the torch on right it says and let every man take heat on how he built it there upon for other foundation could no man lay that is laid which is jesus christ so as long as you're building your foundation on christ those rewards i believe are eternal amen now if any man build upon this foundation gold silver precious stones wood haste double see wood haste double would be things that really aren't really eternal okay and those things are going to be turned up it says every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is if any man work if any man's work abide which he hath built thereon he shall receive a reward if any man show uh work shall be burned he shall suffer loss but he himself shall be saved yet so is by fire some people just get in by the skin of their teeth right right but look what it says it says that um that you'll when you talk about suffering loss i believe that's talked about if you fall out if you get backslidden for three years if uh you just you're not building on the right foundation those things will burn up if your if your ministry is a putting rape comfort tracks in the inside of 12-pack beers in the cooler aisle i i think that's probably a stubble that's probably hey that's probably something that's not everlasting right you know and i don't believe that tracks can keep you safe anyway but um so if your ministry's just a track ministry hey look if tracks got people saved why don't we just do operation dumbo drop and just just put tracks all over the world you know people do that yeah people actually do that we had a pastor that said you know they were in the philippines and they threw 500 tracks out the window and people were picking them up and looking at them and stuff like that because i thought it was probably something cool but then they called they looked at it and they're like we got 200 saved when they came back from that trip they said they got 200 saved because they threw 500 invites out the door is that building on the foundation i don't think it is i think you need a spirit-filled man of god to get somebody's savings right amen that's what i believe so if you're just thinking that you can just dump invites and that's you building the kingdom of heaven you're wrong that's right now even when we go door knocking how many pastor how many invites gets a gets a person at church yeah if it would just when slip these invitations in the doors you're you're gonna you might get a visitor but does it guarantee that person's gonna get saved i mean so that's all you did you know it isn't a good work yeah but it's not like do you think that you're getting all these people saved that's what these a lot of churches do they think that just passing out tracks a lot of them have a long salvation message on we're not going to win the world to christ doing that that's right it says we'll receive a reward for the things that we've done that are not wood hay and stuff daniel chapter 12 this is the last verse i'll have you turn to i'm almost done daniel chapter 12 verse 2 what was the title of the sermon the spoils of war what is the spoiler we're going to get we're going to get rewards in heaven for the spiritual battles that we fought here on this earth but if you're not in the battle you're not going to get the rewards if you're not doing the word of the lord you're not going to get the rewards now we have the one benchmark ultimate reward which is eternal life that's a great gift but daniel chapter 12 says verse 2 and many of them that sleep in the dust of the year shall wake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt and they that will be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament they shall turn many to righteousness as the stars for what forever and ever is that any term yeah that'd be everlasting okay okay you know what if you get someone say that reward lasts forever and ever amen we're gonna say they'd be wise who are the people that are wise of saved people that are turning many to righteousness doesn't say who passed out invitations and got people saved now obviously i'm not saying anything bad about passing invitations i'm just saying that look when you turn someone to righteousness when you get somebody saved christ saves them he imputes his righteousness upon them and guess what we get to shine forever and ever we get to partake in the glory or his husband we're the ones that he sent here to do the labor war uh ambassadors for christ for him and we're gonna have in heaven we're gonna have an everlasting family anybody you gotta save part of the family of god right man everlasting life everlasting rewards and everlasting fellowship with god those are good things aren't they amen you know christ wants us to continue in his love and you know what have your pastors back have your pastors back you know he he does a lot of battles that you probably don't even know about but you know what you should do you should encourage your pastor you know his pastor version's perfect i i doubt that if i asked him right now he would say he's perfect he's a good pastor he's a great guy but is he perfect no so and when you're around people for a long time you start to notice the moles you start to notice you know things that maybe well i wouldn't do it that way but you don't need to say that to you because you're not even doing it that's right so i would say this have your pastors back pray for your pastor endure hardness expect battles finish to finish your course of life and do everything you can in this church to make it better and if you have a job to do be faithful in it be a good steward it's about longevity the christian life is measured in decades as i've heard many wise men say i'm gonna i know i told you this last verse i'm gonna have you turn to but i'm gonna read one last verse to you psalm chapter 84 84 verse 10 says for a day and i courts is better than a thousand i'd rather be a doorkeeper or a porter in the house of my god um in the house of my god them to dwell than to dwell at the tents of wickedness than to dwell the tents of wickedness look and quitting is dwelling in the tents of wickedness right we need to be good servants of our lord jesus christ you know what he calls us friends he says i know we're calling you servants but i call you friends right so we're friends of god just like abraham with a friend of god so let's do everything we can to support this church to support this pastor and work as hard as we can for the lord jesus christ let's pray heavenly father thank you lord so much for this great church stronghold baptist church we thank you so much for all the people that showed up here today lord i pray lord just take them to the places that are the most ready to hear the gospel and so they could plant sow and reap lord pray that you would just bless the rest of this weekend and pass the verses preaching and lord pray that many people will pitch in and help whatever needs to be done around here lord there's just so much that goes into running the church and i just pray that the people here would have a heart to serve and to do great things for god here in jesus name we pray amen