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Chapter 20. And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia. And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece, and there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia. And there accompanied him into Asia, Sopater of Berea, and of the Thessalonians Aristarchus and Secundus, and Gaius of Derbe and Timotheus, and of Asia Tychicus and Trophimus. These, going before, tarried for us at Troas. And we sailed away from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread, and came unto them to Troas in five days, where we abode seven days. And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep. And as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him, said, Trouble not yourselves, for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted. And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul, for so had he appointed, minding himself, to go afoot. And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mytilene. And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios. And the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogillium. And the next day we came to Miletus. For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia. For he hasted, if it were possible for him to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying in weight of the Jews, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know that ye all, among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of God, shall see my face no more. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood. For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them. Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears. And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified. I have coveted no man's silver, or gold, or apparel. Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me. I have showed you all things, how that so laboring he ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive. And when he had thus spoken, he kneeled down, and prayed with them all. And they all wept sore, and fell on Paul's neck, and kissed him, sorrowing most of all for the words which he spake, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him unto the ship. When you arrive in South Africa, if these people who, well, if these sixty thousand people who signed the petition protest against you, and what you're doing here, what are you going to do? Well, first of all, it's not true that sixty thousand South Africans signed a petition. That's just an online petition that was on pervert websites all over the world. So, I don't believe that those people were all South Africans. I think probably the minority of those people were South Africans. Sadly, probably most of the people that signed it were from the United States, because the United States seems to be taking the lead role in promoting homosexuality all over the world. It makes me kind of embarrassed to be an American, but that's really the truth. Hotels and restaurants are saying that they're not going to allow you in. Have you sorted out your accommodation yet? Oh yeah, of course. You know, we have hotel rooms. We can go to whatever restaurant we want. It's just that when we, when we listed meeting locations for the actual event itself, those were the locations that were canceled. So, you know, obviously we walk into a hotel, we get there, just look into a room. It's not like anybody's going to know who I am, but, you know, as far as like having a banquet room where we can have a big preaching service, three different hotels have already canceled our banquet room. So we've booked a fourth location, but we're not publicly disclosing that location because I know that as soon as I disclose it, it's probably going to be canceled within 24 hours because that seems to be the pattern over there. Do you understand why people are reacting this way towards you? Of course I understand that they're wicked, godless, you know, people in this world who hate the Lord Jesus Christ and hate the Bible. So of course they're going to hate an ambassador of Jesus Christ because they hate Jesus Christ himself. Pope Francis has said that Christians should apologize to gays. What do you think of that? Well, I think Pope Francis should apologize to Christians for being such a compromising, you know, false prophet. I mean, to sit there and say that we should to apologize to gays. First of all, I don't use the word gay because gay means happy and they're not happy, they're perverted. So if Pope Francis were a real man of God, he would actually preach what the Bible said, you know, in Leviticus chapter 20 and Romans chapter one and second Peter chapter two. But, you know, Pope Francis is not a man of God. He's a false prophet, you know, and Catholicism is a false religion. So you're saying Pope Francis's interpretation of the Bible is wrong? I don't even remember Pope Francis even attempting to interpret the Bible. He just says whatever he believes. I mean, he speaks out of his own wicked heart. So I, you know, I don't remember Pope Francis ever interpreting Romans one or any other scripture that was, that was salient to this issue. He doesn't preach the Bible. He's part of a pagan hocus pocus, superstitious Catholic religion that really isn't based on the Bible. I know people who are Christian and who don't hate the Bible, but they don't have a problem with gay people. Well then they aren't a Christian because they obviously don't believe in the God of the Bible. There are many people who claim to be a Christian and they believe in this figment of their imagination, this God that's sort of like Santa Claus that allows every manner of sin and filth and perversion. But there is no real Christian who accepts homosexuality. But wouldn't you say God accepts everyone? Isn't that? Absolutely not. God created a place called hell where people burn for all eternity. And he said that anyone who does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the Bible says that they all might be damned to believe not the truth, but had pleasure and unrighteousness. The Bible says he that believeth not is condemned already because he had not believed in the name of the only begotten son of God. So no, in order to be saved, people have to put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise they're going to go to hell when they die. So God doesn't just accept everyone. No, you have to come to him and put your faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. But if people reject the truth of God's word and they don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're absolutely not going to be accepted. Can't the Bible be interpreted in different ways? That's just something that people bring up when they want to try to shy away from what the Bible clearly says. There are certain things in the Bible that are cryptic, parables and different things that are symbolic. And sure, those things can be interpreted in different ways, but there are many things in the Bible that are crystal clear and there's only one way to interpret them. I mean, when God says that if a man lies with a man that he shall be put to death, I mean, that's pretty clear. It's pretty obvious. And there are many scriptures like that all throughout the Bible. And that's why no serious theologian of the Bible has ever come up with this crazy notion that the Bible somehow is okay with homosexuality. It's only radical sodomite activists that would even come up with such a bizarre notion. What if one of your kids came to you and said that they were gay? Well, first of all, that's never going to happen because you make it seem like it's just a random occurrence, you know, that, oh, whoops, I'm gay. Like people are just born that way, which is a total lie. The reason that people are homosexuals is because the Bible says they've been given over to a reprobate mind and that they're haters of God in Romans chapter one. Well, I'm not raising my children to be God hating individuals. So they're not going to grow up and be a homosexual, but, but to me, you might as well ask me, well, what if your child grew up to be a pedophile? What if your child became a child rapist or a serial killer? Well, you know, obviously anyone whose child grew up to be such a monstrous person would be horrified, disgusted by them. But I don't believe that that will ever happen because the Bible says that if you train up a child that the way he should go when he's old, he'll not depart from it. So you think that gay people are the same as serial killers and pedophiles? Well, they're not necessarily the same as serial killers, but they are absolutely the same as pedophiles. I believe that all homosexuals are pedophiles. If you actually study the history of homosexuality, even back in the ancient Greece and the ancient Roman empire, pedophilia has always been part and parcel of the homosexual agenda and all over the world, the homosexual agenda's goal is to keep lowering the age of consent. I mean, in places like the Netherlands, they have it down to like 12 years old and they're constantly trying to push for that in the United States and everywhere else to lower it to 16, 14, 12. I have identified student innocent members and more associates of his church as undesirable persons. Undesirable persons are barred from traveling to South Africa because they clean by them. Furthermore, I have withdrawn their visa exemption status enjoyed by all Americans. This is on the basis that I certainly promote hate speech as well as advocate social violence. Accordingly, Stephen Anderson will be advised that he is a prohibited person in South Africa. So the topic topic of my sermon today is solven in South Africa. Solven in South Africa. So you turn to 1 Corinthians 9 verse 16 and 1 Corinthians 12. What I'm going to read to you so long is Romans 1.15. You don't have to turn there. This is the apostle Paul speaking. So as much as is in me, in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at the road also. So what Paul is saying here is saying, are you ready to preach the gospel? Are you ready to preach the gospel? So you got saying, somebody one day gave the gospel to you and God expects you to give the gospel to other people, but are you ready? Do you know how to do that? So God expects us to preach the gospel. So you turn to 1 Corinthians 9, 16 to 19. For though I preach the gospel, I have nothing to glory on. For necessity is laid upon me, yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward. But if against my will a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me, what is my reward then? Verily that when I preach the gospel, I will make the gospel of Christ without charge. And I abuse not my power in the gospel, for though I be free from all men, yea, if I may myself serve it, talk of all that I might gain the more. So it's very clear in verse 16 that God says, it's not that you are something special if you preach the gospel. God has given us the gospel of reconciliation, the keys of heaven. If you give the gospel to somebody, he can be saved. But if you don't go out as a Christian and preach the gospel, woe is unto you as a Christian if you don't do this. And he's very serious about this. But he says also, he wants you to go and do it willingly, not against your will. So if you go and do something and God says there's an reward for you, go and do this. So I'm going to read also to you Philippians 3 verse 6 to 8. God said in zeal, persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law blameless, but what things were gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea, I doubt this, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I might win Christ. So this is the apostle Paul speaking about when he actually persecuted the church. He actually murdered many Christians, maybe not specific to his hands, but many people were killed of the church because of the apostle Paul. This is of course before he was actually saved. Then he got saved and he was well off because he was a fantasy son. He had a lot of things in the world but he lost all of those things and now he's working for God. If you actually study all the books that the apostle Paul beat down, then he had actually done great work for God and he won many people to the Lord. All the things that he lost in the world, he counted it as done. That's how he saw it, because he knew easily war in heaven is going to be great. So I asked you if you could page 112. What I want to point out here is, what we hear many times, Christians speaking about is, I don't give the gospel to people because that's not my gift. You probably don't. They don't do this because it's not my gift. God has given me different gifts. And I doubt him now, but that's a lie. God says, go here, peace and glory. If you like the airtime in Nigeria, Africa, and Botswana, so does the English runs out when you're not English speaking. So you just need to bear with me and I'm going to try my best to preach what God has laid on my heart. If we have a look at Matthew 28, and I would like to concentrate on verse 19 and 20, and if we have a look at Matthew 28, we will see that this is the last command of our Lord Jesus Christ. And the last command of our Lord Jesus Christ should be our first priority. And it is our duty as children of God to go out and reach souls, win souls for the Lord. There is no church. If you're Christian and you don't go out, you're not Christian, because God instruct us, this is his last command. Go read. And then the Bible says, Matthew 28, 19 says, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And though I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. So, so, so, so I take it when Jesus gave us the instruction to go out into the world, Jesus knew that we are going to come across a bunch of faggots. He knew it. He knew it. He knew that we are going to encounter different types of persecution. But Jesus said, I will be with you. That is a guarantee that is given unto us that he will be with us. Even though we are persecuted, even though we are going through persecution, he will be with us always. He says in the Bible that he will never forsake us and he will never ever will he leave us. So I am glad even though I go through persecution, I have the blessed assurance, the last command of our Lord Jesus Christ. My first priority, I will go, I will preach, and no matter what happens to me, he will be with me. And that is the guarantee that I have. If we have a look, over 200 million Christians are being persecuted around the world on a daily basis. That is just in one year. 4,500 Christians lost their lives. Now we as Christians sometimes have a problem to go and knock a door because we are scared. Let me tell you something about scared. I stay in the area where you have to duck and dive for bullets. Sometimes we go out, we do so many and then we hear gun shots, we just have to duck and dive and then we have to continue because the Lord says, go out and preach the gospel. They need to hear. I can say this testimony, one evening we did some soul winning. I found a teenager and I spoke to him about the Lord and I gave him the gospel. In his pants he had a gun. His mission was to go out and have a hit on another gangster. And that evening I left that young man to the Lord and that young man came to church this Sunday and he said to me, pastor, my friend that was sent to the other side of the same township where the church is in, he was called killing a person. So I thank God it is so important for us as Christians to go out no matter what people say. The Bible doesn't say that we're not going to encounter hardship, we will because this is what we signed up. This is the war that we are fighting and we should be ready. How do we prepare ourselves for this war? We prepare ourselves for this war by reading the Bible, doing the will of God, whether they like us or not. We are not in a popularity contest so we will preach against them, we will preach against sodomites, we will preach against anyone that comes up against the word of the Lord. So my encouragement for you, imagine four and a half thousand Christians being killed in one year. 1,800 or 1,900 churches have been torn down. 3,200 Christians around the world will tell you to preach in the word of God. So the word of God, friends, if we are true to the word of God, it's not going to be easy. If your life as a Christian is easy, you're not serving the Lord correctly. I'm sorry to say that because you have a responsibility to go give them the good news and give them the bad news. The bad news is if they don't receive the Lord through faith, they are going to hell and they don't want to hear this. So my encouragement is that as believers we should go out and we should not be afraid. These numbers are very shocking and you will say to yourself, how can this be? Some governments just don't care around the world. They don't care about Jesus Christ. They don't care about soul winning and we have a responsibility. I can tell you from personal experience that going out is not easy all the time. Our people, when the majority of our people walk to church and they get robbed, some get raped, some get murdered on their way to church, but the problem here is people, not the problem, but people want to be in church. The Bible says in James 1 verse 2, it says, brethren, count all joy when you fall, when he falls into diverse temptations. In other words, I say to myself, how can God ask me to count the joy when somebody is trying to kill me? How can God ask me to count it as joy when a bunch of fags want me in prison? How can I count the joy? One thing that I've got, and it's just blessed to show it, that Jesus is with me all the way. So it is a joy unspeakable. I know of one thing that he will never leave me. He will never forsake me because I've been called to go out and preach the word of God. If we have a look at the leadership of Faithful World Baptist Church, they are in the forefront of being persecuted. I mean, only in Tempe, Arizona, will you find a pastor that's been banned from almost 40 countries. And then he counts the joy because he says, if they ban me, they give you media coverage and more people listen to me. And that is the gospel truth. I was in Botswana with Pastor Anderson, and I showed the media attention. And actually, I became a type of celebrity because of Pastor Stephen, because people want to hear the truth, but the government and wicked people want to keep the truth from us. So we just need to stand up and stand firm and say, I am going to preach the word of God. I don't care what you say. If you want to rock me off too bad, there's a lot of sodomites in jail. I need to preach to them as well. And that is what I told them. They said to me, what happens? What about your children? My children will survive. I need to preach the word. Friend, if we have a look at Pastor Stephen Anderson, he faces continuously, he's being persecuted, he's being praised. I'm talking about him alone. But in South Africa, we have a flower. And it's called the protea. And we've also got lettuce in South Africa. Do you know, in order for any flower, the most beautiful flower? He will not let you down. He knows South Africa, especially Cape Town, like the back of his hand, he'll take you up and down. All the great street food, he knows all of that, correct? Amen, I'm glad to hear. Now Psalms 44, let's take a look at what it says in Psalms 44. And the title of my message is this, South Africa, deported but not aborted, amen? Deported but not aborted. Quickly, what do I mean by aborted? Yes, we were deported technically. We had a couple people that actually touched down. I'll talk about that in a minute. But they were obviously there. But they were kicked out. They were kicked out of that country. But God's will for that country was never aborted. What I mean by aborted, it was never counseled. You know, it was never given up on, it was never terminated. And what was God's will? The same will he has for Australia, the same will he's had for every single country to go and preach the gospel to every single creature, every single creature. So that was never aborted. That was never counseled. Yes, our people were deported. But God's main mission, the great commission was never aborted ever the entire time all this was happening, amen? But it sometimes can't feel that way. Sometimes when you're serving the Lord, especially if you're in a country that doesn't have any church and they do exist, and you may be the only one that you know that's saved, you may feel like God doesn't really care about my country, doesn't really care about my area, but that's not biblical whatsoever. You know where that's coming from? From the deceitful heart that we have, because the heart is deceitful above all men and desperately wicked. Same thing, you could be a pastor in a rough area. Could be Australia. You may be thinking, man, is God forsaking this place? Well, you know what? As far as the Bible's concerned, doesn't say preach the gospel until you feel like I don't want it there anymore. It says preach the gospel until the end of the world. Does it not say that? So you keep going, Australia, England, you name it, you keep knocking doors, you keep going. But like Pastor Bogart said, I'm picking it up where he left off. No matter what happens, no matter what you feel, just remember, God is still with you. No matter how you feel, no matter what you think, hey, don't even wait to get to the point where you wonder where is God in all this? I'm certain the Lord thinks I'm going great. I'm getting persecuted. Hey, my word just gave me a hard time. What is the deal with this? Is God even awake? Is he even paying attention? Well, let's see what's going on in this story. Psalm 44, the psalmist says to the chief musician for sons of Korah, Michelle, we have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what worked out this in their days in the times of old, how thou didst drive out the heathen with thy head and planted them, how thou didst afflict the people and cast them out, for they got not the land, for they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arms save them, but by thy right hand and thy arm in the light of thy countenance because thou has the favor unto them. So he's saying, hey, we've heard about you. Our fathers had taught about you, Lord. Hey, we know that you cast out the heathen. We knew you took him out. We know that you gave us the land, not by our own sword, not from our own arms that we save ourselves. It was you. It was your right hand. It was your arm. You're the reason why we got what we got because you favored us. And that's why it's so important to do the right thing so you can have favor in your life so God can bless you and use you and protect you and help you to do what you need to do here on earth because it says in Proverbs 22 you don't have to go there. A good name is rather to be chosen in great riches and love in favor rather than silver and gold. Yes, having money gives you power, but more important than that is just doing the right thing. That'll get you favor with God, and that's way more powerful than all the money in the world that you can get that can help you do whatever you think is going to allow you to do God's work. No, being in favor with God, having favor with him, that's the ultimate power. That's the ultimate thing. And this is what he's saying. You chose us. We were able to succeed. We were able to defeat the enemy because you favored us. Well, I wonder how they got the favor by following the Lord by serving him. And it says right there in 44 for thou art my king. Oh God. So it's clear who is worshiping our king. God almighty says command deliverance for Jacob through thee. We will push down our enemies through thy name. We will tread them down under that rise up against us for I will not trust in my bow. Neither shall my sword save me, but thou has saved us from my enemies and has put them to shame that hated us. And this is the truth that we need to realize. Yes, we will have enemies serving the Lord, but at the end of the day, and you'll find out from watching that movie Deported, God will put your enemies, which also God's enemies, to shame. Never forget that the victory is ultimately yours, even though there may be some situations where you're wondering, where is the Lord? What is going on? Why am I being persecuted? Everybody's forsaken me. I'm in South Africa all alone, but he never gave up. He never gave up anything because he knew he's really not alone. Yes, he has a family. Now he has people that support him, but even if we didn't, he can realize very quickly. Nobody's with me. I got the Lord. He is with me. That's the reason he was able to do what he did in court. That's why that's why he's able to push through even though no one, no one's supporting you anymore because you're going to get him in hot water. That's why they forsook him, but he knows we're backing him up down here. But even if we did it, verses like these remind us who's really in charge and God is all we need ultimately. So in verse number eight, it says in God we boast all the day long. This is a man who's bragging about God. God is so great. Praise thy name forever, Selah. But thou, now it gets a little bit different. Now the tone seems to change in Psalms 44. But thou has cast off and put us to shame and goest not forth with our armies. Thou makest us to turn back from the enemies. Now it seems like things have turned around. Now instead of winning, now they're losing. He's saying like, oh, now we're losing. What's going on? And they which hate us spoil for themselves. Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for me, like animals just going to get slaughtered in the meat factory and scatter us among the heathen. Thou settles thy people for naught and does not increase thy wealth by their price. Thou makest us to reproach to our neighbors a scorn and derision to them that are round about us. Thou makest us a byword among the heathen, a shaking of the head among the people. And when it started all back in 2017 with South Africa, it was all just with a so many marathon. That's all it was. We're going to set up a so many marathon. It was announced, but the government didn't like it. It wasn't we're going down there to preach against anybody or any particular people. It was just to go down there and get people saved, find people that are in South Africa, train them up like the Bible says in the way to go, train them up to obey him, train them up to be soul winners. And it all went down to the point where pastor Anderson, as you'll find out from the movie The Portent. And if you already know, then great. He was eventually banned from South Africa, but a couple of our church members were able to make it in the country, but they weren't allowed to go into the country per se. They kept them in the airport, one for about 12 hours, the other for about 15 hours, and then send a ride back. Why? Because they didn't want us there. For what reason? We were there just to save souls. So these people were controlled by Satan and they didn't want people to get saved. But you know what? At the end of the day, this is what ended up happening. All this stuff that went down at first is confusing. You're wondering like, what is this about? When I first heard that they were going to South Africa, I was excited. I was like, wow, they're going to South Africa. That's amazing. And it talked about getting banned. We're thinking, no way are they going to ban them. It's God's will for us to preach the gospel to every creature. But then again, we ended up having to deal with the fact that yes, eventually they got banned. And at that point, you can see how people could have been confused. Like what in the world did we do something wrong? And that's what people were saying. See, Pastor Anderson, if you didn't preach the way you preach, none of this would have happened. You guys have been allowed into the country. The marathon would have happened and hundreds of souls would have got saved. That's what people were saying. Hey, maybe we did screw this up. I don't know what we did wrong exactly, but hey, look, we ended up getting banned. No marathon, no souls getting saved. It looked bad. At least it seemed to look bad. Following so far, same thing here. People were shaking their heads, like it says right there in verse 14 and the shaking of the head among the people. Verse 15, my confusion. So now he's confused. He's like, okay, we know about you. We've been told by our fathers how great you are for God. We've read it. We've seen it. We know we got the victory. We didn't beat the enemies through our weapons, through our might. It was all through you. It was all by having favor with you. But now we're losing to the enemy. Now we're losing to the bad guys. And I'm confused that my confusion is continually before me and the shame of my face has covered me. Verse 16, for the voice of hand that reproaches and blasphemeth by reason of the enemy and avenger, all this has come upon us. Yet have we not forgotten thee? Neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant. Our heart is now turned back. Neither have its steps declined from thy way. Though thou has so broken us in the place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death, and we have forgotten the name of our God, or stretched out our hands to a strange God, shall not God search this out? For he knoweth the secrets of the heart. What he's saying is, look, Lord, what are we doing that's wrong? You know if we're actually worshiping another God, you know if we're not obeying your commandments, why are we losing to the enemy? Because sometimes God allows you to lose to the enemy so you can win the overall war. Amen. And so what happened is, yes, Pastor Anderson was in media, he was being demonized, but guess what? Truly for the person who's living right with God, truly for the person who's obeying the Lord, there really is no such thing as bad press, bottom line. They're trying to make him look bad, but in the eyes of people that knew better, he looked good. Amen. And not just that, it wasn't just you, it was other people. Other people that heard about Pastor Anderson through the media, started looking them up and they weren't full. And when I think of individuals, I think of this guy named Nico, who I met back in 2017. The first time I went to South Africa, Pastor Bogart had a so many marathon for the poor, it was to feed the poor, and sure enough, he couldn't make it, but his 60 plus year old father did make it. And I saw him when he showed up, get out of his car, his father had a hard time walking, he got out of the vehicle, and he just wanted to show his support for so many. He had also listened to Pastor Anderson, but Nico had come across Pastor Anderson. Nico ended up getting saved, saw him in the media, looked at Pastor Anderson, saw the salvation presentation, got saved, and later on he passed it on to his father, and sure enough, they started to listen to Pastor Anderson doing their best to witness. So sure enough, Nico's dad, he came to the so many marathon. I got to meet him, he was very excited that somebody's sticking up for the word of God. He was actually surprised that Pastor Anderson wasn't there. He thought he could somehow sneak his way in. He thought he was that good. You know, but here's the thing, if it weren't for all this, if it weren't for the fact that we got banned, if we would have just been quiet about it and not announced it, if Pastor Anderson had never been banned, this man would have never ever got saved. And when did he pass away? A few months ago? A few months ago, Nico's dad, you know, just from health reasons, passed away last year. But had not this happened, had we not been banned, had this not been in the media, sure enough, his soul would be in hell today. But the fact that Nico came across Pastor Anderson through the media, ended up seeing the gospel presentation, ended up getting saved himself, passing it on to his father, passing it on to other people, and I did meet Nico. He was very, very excited to see that we were there trying to get people safe. He couldn't join us because he had to work, he just got a job, he couldn't get the time off. But his father says, hey, I want to support this cause, this is very important. He figured it out and that's how it all started. So even though we may see in scripture where he's confused, the Psalmist is confused, like, what's going on? What's the situation? And go ahead and go to verse 21. He even says some things that if we're not careful, we can even say ourselves, even though we should know better, because we have the entire Bible, Old and New Testament. So verse 21 says this, So not God searched this out, for he knoweth the secrets of the heart. Yea, for thy sake, you know, I'll be killed all the day long. We are counting this sheep for the slaughter, says, Awake! Why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. He literally is telling God to awake, to wake up like God ever sleeps. We know he doesn't because Psalms 121 says this, Before he that keepeth Israel shall not there slumber no sleep. But verse 24, I finished that up with that. It says, Wherefore hideest thou thy face, and forget is our affliction and our oppression. Go to Judges 6, please. Go to Judges 6. So what I'm showing is simply this, is that here's a man who knows God is powerful. Here's a man whose parents, his fathers, have taught him the Word of God, taught him how great God is, taught him about the victories, taught him about what had happened in the Bible. But yet, when bad things happen, he gets a little confused. He's wondering what exactly is going on. And he ends up getting confused to the point where he's literally saying, God, wake up. Can't you see? Look at our affliction. Look at what's happening to us. And this is what can happen to any of us, at any level. If you're a pastor, bad things start happening to you, and bad things are happening to you for the right reasons. That's a good thing, amen? You know, but you can actually wonder like, what's going on? What am I doing that's wrong? And this is why we got to stick to the scriptures and read the scriptures. And maybe some of you guys that don't have a church and I ran into one so far said, Look, I don't really have a good church, but I'm still knocking doors. I'm still pretty encouraged. Yeah, listen to the preaching so far. So good. Well, great. But if you get to that point where you're wondering like, where is God? Things are going bad. I'm getting attacked. I'm losing my job. Things are going negatively. You got to remember that at the end, you will win. At the end, like Pastor Bogart said at the end of his message, God is there, amen? Even though we may not feel like He is. You know, so if you're right there in the book of Judges, you know, Gideon was somebody who was a great man of God, but he felt that way as well. He started to wonder, where is God in all this? You know, but the reason why I call this sermon South Africa, deported, but not aborted or deported, not aborted is because when we ended up getting deported out of there, some people kind of gave up on South Africa. Like, oh, well, I guess God doesn't realize one is there, you know, which had ended up being a complete and total opposite. Why? Because now Pastor Bogart, if it weren't for this whole incident, I don't think you'll be winning souls every week, my friend, just being honest. Would you agree with that or am I lying? Because you had a different system, did you not? You had, what was it called? Open air services. And what was the other one that you had? We crusades. So his was crusades, open their services, but in reality, do you think you're really getting anybody saved? No, it wasn't until you saw Pastor Anderson, the door to door, and now you've learned it, and now you're continuing that, correct? Amen. Same thing, down in Johannesburg, we have Morning Star Baptist Church, they're doing the exact same thing. Now we have that door open, they're going week to week, knocking doors, getting people saved. And even though you guys did not, you know, finish up the soul winning marathon back in 2017, let's just say it did go on. Let's just say you guys did get there and got the job done. I would say you probably would have got about 100 people saved, you know, pretty realistically. But since 2017, plus the last time we were there in October, not just that, the soul winning you're doing on a weekly basis, plus what Morning Star is doing, I would assume that they've probably gotten a couple hundred people saved, or even 300 people saved, amen? So we got to remember that even though, yes, we got banned from South Africa, even though, yes, the marathon didn't go through, even though, yes, the enemy seems to be triumphing, seems to be beating us, at the end you kind of wonder, where's God in all this? Does he even care about South Africa? Of course he does. The Great Commission is still there. Every creature means every creature, South Africa, Australia, every single one. So let's never lose the focus that we're still here. So whatever happens, so what? What does it have to do with us, you know, not continuing the mission? You know, but when it comes to judges, if you're right there in Judges chapter number six, you know, it says, and the angel of the Lord appeared unto him and said unto him, the Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valor and Gideon said unto him, O my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befalling us? And where be all the miracles which our father told us of us saying, did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt, but now the Lord had forsaken us, delivered us into the hands of the Midianites and to look like unto him and said, go and this thy might and thou shall save Israel from the hand of the Midianites. Have not I sent thee? And he said unto him, O my Lord, where with shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is poor in Manasseh and I am the least of my father's house. And this is kind of something that reminds me of Pastor Bogart because he can easily say, look, I'm poor, you know, I'm not a popular guy. I'm not a rich guy. It's like Lord, but if you want to use me, I'll get people safe. I'll start knocking doors. I'll train people how to get out there and knock doors and from house to house, you know, and even though, yes, South Africa is a place that people will say is this dangerous place. When you're doing God's will, I'm going to balance with you. It's not dangerous. When I was there with Pastor Bogart, he told me, hey, just listen to me. Do what I tell you to do. I'll keep you safe. I'm like, hey, no problem. You know, this place better than me. I didn't really see anything. Maybe I saw something, but in reality I feel safe. I felt completely safe. You know, so I believe if you were to go down there and you're doing the will of the Lord, I don't think you have to worry about things going bad or going bad for you, no matter what you hear about that country, no matter whether that country's crime is going up or not. Hey, if safety's of the Lord, you go there, you go there, pray with Brother Bogart, you support Brother Bogart, he'll take you places. You'll be safe. You're not going to have to worry about you being in really harm's way because you're doing the will of the Lord. You know, but I'm reminding you guys of this because I see it also in Romans, Paul is talking to Romans and he's talking about Psalm 44. So if you have your Bible, just go to Romans chapter number 8. Go to Romans chapter number 8. And I'm going to start off in verse number 35. If you can get there, great. You know, but just go ahead and go to Romans 36 or 836. But I'm going to read from Romans 835 that says, who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation or distress, persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? It says right there, from whom the Lord loveth, he, I'm sorry, I'm going into Proverbs 3 12. Except for whom the Lord loveth, he corrected even as a father to son in whom he delighted. Proverbs 15 9 says this, the way of the wickedness of our nation to the Lord, but the Lord loveth him that follows out the righteousness. And in Habakkuk 12 6 it says this, for whom the Lord loveth, he chastises. So in regards to God's love, his protection, bottom line, nothing can separate you from the love of God. He's there. He's there 24 7. If you feel like God has forsook you, God is not with you, that's not the truth. The bottom line is this, how many did you get? We went since it was quite the same 15. That's great, that's great. I'm taking a video. So how did it go today? I'm not sure in terms of numbers. And your testimony, how did it go? It went well. And how many did you get? I got one and Grace got one. That's wonderful. And this is Grace. Hello. And how did it go? It went well. It went well. How many did you guys get? And two. And brother Calvin? Yeah, it went well. We got five as well. That's wonderful. Very receptive. We need to add up the numbers. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Jesus. Oh, Oh, Jesus. I want to be a soul where for Jesus every day he's done so much for me. I want to aid the law center to leave is there in wait and me from bondage free. Oh, let me be each day. Oh, he's done so much for me. I want to be a soul winner and bring the laws to Christ that say his grace may know. I want to live for Christ ever and do his blessed will because he loves me. Oh, let me be you. Oh, The Bible says in Romans chapter three, verse 10 there, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. So none of us is righteous. I'm not righteous. You're not righteous. And the Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Every single one of us has sinned before. And because of that sin, we come short of the glory of God. Well, the Bible says there's a punishment for our sin. It says for the wages of sin is death, but not only are we going to die physically one day, the Bible talks about a second death. It says, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Now, what would we normally call that lake of fire? What would we refer to that as? Right. And the Bible actually has a list of people that are going to hell. It says, but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers and sorcerers and whoremongers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Now, this doesn't really look like a room full of murderers to me. I don't see a lot of murderers in here. Probably not a lot of sorcerers. Anybody in here into black magic and witchcraft? Probably not. So you may not be a sorcerer or a murderer or anything like that, but you know what the Bible does say and all liars. And I know I've lied before. Who here has lied before? Yeah, every single person. The Bible says, yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. Unfortunately, we've all committed that sin. We've all lied before, but the Bible said all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. So according to the Bible, that's where we all deserve to go to the second death, to the lake of fire, because we've all sinned. We've all lied. And let's be honest, we've done other sins too. There are times when we've disobeyed our parents, which is a sin. There are times when we may have stolen something. Or even the Bible says just the thought of foolishness is sin. Even just thinking a stupid thought is a sin. And we have thousands of thoughts every day. I'm sure many of them are foolish. I'm sure many of them are stupid. So we've all sinned, but the good news is that God loves us. And if God loves us, of course, he does not want us to go to hell. But was he just kidding when he said that the lake of fire is where we're going if we've lied? No. That's no joke. But that's why Jesus Christ came to this earth to save us. The Bible says, but God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And Jesus Christ was God in the form of a human being, right? Because there's the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And so God himself came down to this earth in the form of a human being. He was born as a little baby, born of a virgin. And he was just a little baby. And he grew up. And he lived a perfect life. He never sinned one time. He was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. Now Jesus performed a lot of miracles, didn't he? Does anybody remember some of the miracles that Jesus performed? Anybody remember one? Your hand popped up. Who's got one? Yes, there was a deaf man that he healed. What else did he do? Healed a blind man. He turned water into wine. Great. Anybody else got one? He raised Lazarus from the dead. Did she take yours? Anybody else got one? What about when he fed 5,000 people with five loaves and two fishes? You remember that? He did a lot of miracles. What about when Peter, remember his disciple Peter, actually whipped out a sword in the Garden of Gethsemane? And Peter swung a sword and chopped off one of the servants of the high priest's ear. And Jesus picked up the guy's ear and put it back on and healed it, right? You remember that story? So Jesus performed a lot of miracles, but he also preached the Word of God. He also preached the truth. And a lot of people are offended by the truth. They get angry when they hear about the truth. When they hear the Bible preached, it offends people. It angers people sometimes. And so Jesus had a lot of enemies. So eventually Jesus got arrested. And they arrested Jesus at night. And they took him down at night. And they actually put him on trial. And then they beat him. They spit on him. They hit him in the head with a stick. And they also whipped him. And after that, they nailed him onto the cross. And the Bible says that when Jesus was nailed to that cross, that he himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree. That means that every sin that you've ever done and every sin that I've ever done, it was as if Jesus had done it. He was basically being punished for our sins. And then after Jesus died on the cross, they buried his body in a tomb of a rich man named Joseph of Arimathea. They put him in that tomb and put a big giant stone over the door of where his body was laid. And his soul went down into hell for three days and three nights. And then three days later, what happened? He rose again from the dead, right? And when Jesus rose again from the dead, he showed the disciples the holes in his hands and the hole in his side just to prove that it was really him. Now Jesus died for everybody in this whole world. But everybody's not automatically going to go to heaven. Because the Bible's teaching that there's one thing that we must do to be saved. And it asked that question one time. It said, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And that's it. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. So it does not say that you have to join my church to be saved. It doesn't say join your church to be saved. It doesn't say to join any church to be saved. Church is important. Church is good. But when it comes to being saved, the one thing that we must do to be saved is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. Now there are lots of things that we should do, right? What are some things that we should do? I mean, we should read our Bibles. We should pray. We should go to church. We should keep the commandments. We should do a lot. We should be a good student in school. We should obey our parents, obey the teacher. Those are all good things that we should do. But when it comes to what we must do, what we must do to be saved, it's one thing. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. See, John 3 16 says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever, whoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. So notice it doesn't say whoever's good enough. It doesn't say whoever stops sinning. It says whoever believeth in Him should not perish but have eternal life. The Bible says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So salvation is the gift of God. Let me ask you this. If I were to give you a gift today, would you have to give me money for that if I'm giving you a gift? You're going like this, but now you're going like this. All right. Yeah. If somebody gives you a gift, it's free, right? So if I said, Hey, what's your name? Hakeem. If I said, Hey, I'm gonna give you this Bible as a gift Hakeem, but you got to give me $5,000. Is that a gift? What if I said like, Okay, Hakeem, I got this Bible for you. It's a free gift, but my car's outside. I need you to clean it out and wash it and then I'll give it to you. Is that a gift? Okay. What if I said, Hey, Hakeem, I'm gonna give you this Bible as a gift, but you're gonna be my servant for the rest of your life. So you have to obey everything, whatever I tell you. Is that a gift? No way. Okay. What if I said here, Hakeem, I'm gonna give you this Bible as a gift. It's yours for free. And then I came back two weeks later and I come into the class and I say, Hey, Hakeem, I need that back. Is that a gift? No, because the thing about a gift is that a gift is free. And once you receive it, it's yours forever. You get to keep it, right? So let me ask you this. If God gives us the gift of eternal life, is he going to come back and take it away from us? Is he going to, is he going to break his promise and take it away? The Bible says this is the promise that he has promised us even eternal life. So if God promised us eternal life, is he going to break that promise and take it away from us? So once he gives you that gift, it's yours. Now that's why the gospel is called good news. Cause that's good news. The good news is it's easy to go to heaven. Do you think a loving God would want to make it hard to go to heaven or easy to go to heaven? If he loves us, right? It's easy. He wants us to be safe. He did the hard part when he died for us. That was the hard part. Being crucified, being buried, rising again. All we have to do is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that easy to be saved. Okay. And then once we receive that free gift of eternal life, there's nothing we could ever do to lose that because Jesus promised us, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus said, I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Once we're saved, we have eternal life. We're God's children. He'll never leave us or forsake us. Now, if we go out and break the commandments after we're saved, we're still saved, but he will punish us on this earth. You know, you will reap what you sow. What goes around comes around. And just as your parents will discipline you when you disobey, they'll punish you, but they're not going to throw you out of the family. Are they? I mean, if you break a rule at your house, tell me a rule that's at your house. What's one of the rules at your house? There's no running in the hallway. Okay. And what's your name? Kelly. Kelly Ann. So let's say Kelly Ann goes home today and just starts running through the hallway, just running through the hallway, just running up and down the house. Right. Do you think your parents are going to say, you know, Kelly Ann, you can't be our daughter anymore. You must leave. You must leave home. We cannot have a daughter like you in our house. We're sending you away. Do you think that would happen? Okay. But do you think that they're just going to smile and say, it's okay, just keep on running Kelly Ann. Do you think they're just going to be like a pit crew, like giving her water and Gatorade and telling her to keep running? No, they're going to make her stop. Right. And they're going to discipline her and say, hey, you break the rules, you're going to be punished, but they're not going to throw her out of the family. Well, here is the same thing with God. If we break God's rules, he'll punish us on this earth, but he's not going to kick us out of the family. Okay. Now, if she commits, if she breaks it, that's probably a small rule. There's probably other bigger rules where she get a bigger punishment. Okay. So let's say she breaks a huge rule. She's going to get a huge punishment. If she breaks a little rule, she's going to get a little punishment, but no matter what she does, she's still going to be their daughter. They're still going to love her. Right. They're still going to give her food and a place to sleep. It's the same way with God. Once we believe on Jesus Christ, we're his children. He'll never leave us. He'll never forsake us. If we break the rules, he'll discipline us, but he's not going to throw us out of the family. Does everybody understand what I'm saying today? Who believes what I'm saying today? You believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose again and that, and that you're saved by believing in Christ. Who believes that? Okay. Well, listen, I want to pray with you real quick before I go. Okay. I'm just about done. I just want to pray with you and help you tell God that that's what you believe right now and just confess that to God right now. So let's bow our heads and pray. You could just repeat this after me and just say this to God. Dear Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I know I deserve hell, but thank you for dying on the cross for me and rising again from the dead. Please save me right now and give me the gift of eternal life. I'm only trusting you, Jesus, your death, your burial, and your resurrection. Amen. Now who just prayed that prayer right now and you meant it? Put up your hand if you meant that. Yeah. So here's the thing. Here's what the Bible said. It said that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God is raising from the dead, thou shalt be saved. He didn't say you might be saved. He said, you shall be saved. Isn't that great news? So you already know the last chapter in your life. You already know that you're going to heaven when you die. But the question is, how are you going to live your life in between, right? Do you want to just keep getting disciplined? Like if Kellyanne just ran through the hall every day, do you want to keep getting disciplined or do you want God to bless you and please God? And you want to love God and show him your love by obeying his command.