Man, the title of my sermon this morning is,
this was our greatest year.
This was our greatest year.
Of course, today is the 20 year anniversary of our church,
but just specifically 2025 has been our greatest year.
I'm not just up here blowing smoke at you when I say that,
because honestly, the numbers and the data just don't lie
by every metric, this was our greatest year.
First of all, me personally,
I had more people saved out soul winning this year
than any year in my entire life.
I've been soul winning since I was 17 years old,
and I had 182 salvations personally,
which is the most I've ever had for myself in a single year.
Our church collectively had 10,000 salvations this year.
So on a Christmas Eve, we were up to like 9,956,
and now we've just about hit that 10,000 mark.
We're over the 10,000 mark by now.
And so that is the second most salvations
that our church has ever had.
In order to go higher than that,
you have to go back to 2017
when we had 11,000 some salvations.
Other than that, we've never even broken 8,000.
Now you say, well, Pastor Anderson,
how is this the greatest year
if we had 11,000 saved back in 2017 and 10,000 this year?
Well, let me explain the difference, okay?
Back in 2017, there was pretty much just Faithful Word
as far as like putting on big events,
doing big numbers with missions
and soul winning and things like that.
So pretty much all the events
that are going on in different places,
the big ones are all spearheaded by Faithful Word.
And so whether it's in Africa or Indian reservations
or nationwide soul winning marathons,
whereas this year our guy, Pastor Jonathan Shelley,
trained and ordained and sent out
of Faithful Word Baptist Church,
his church, Steadfast Baptist Church,
had over 7,000 salvations here and in the Caribbean
and on this side of the world.
And Steadfast Philippines also had over 7,000 salvations,
collectively over 14,000 salvations
between the Philippines and here.
Of course, our other guy, Pastor Mejia,
trained and sent out by Faithful Word Baptist Church,
ordained at Faithful Word.
You know, he also got thousands of people saved.
So the difference is that in 2017,
yeah, Faithful Word had 11,000 some salvations.
No other churches were really doing huge numbers back then.
Now we're talking about like in the movement as a whole,
NIFB, we're talking like over 30,000 salvations.
You know, that's a big difference is that
we've got some other big heavy hitters going on
and we got all these other churches doing big numbers,
doing great things for God.
We got of course, Straight Paths Baptist Church,
Anchor Baptist, Sure Foundation.
I mean, there's all these great churches
doing all this great stuff, Spring Crest, et cetera.
So the numbers are just objectively way higher than 2017,
as long as you put that in perspective.
You know, and again, speaking of Pastor Mejia,
he had his all time high Sunday morning attendance,
242 people, Pastor Shelley broke every single record
at his church other than financial giving.
So other than the finances,
everything was a record breaker for him.
Pastor Mejia went from 10,000 to 157,000 followers
on Instagram this year.
So that just totally blew up.
The X and IFB, there's no data reported.
So I don't know, I can't really compare
'cause there's no data reported.
But Faithful Word did missions in 22 foreign countries
this year, which was a brand new record.
45 foreign cities.
The cruise mission strips alone yielded 1,778 salvations.
We had 54 members of our church
actually go to the mission field,
which is an all time record,
actually getting that many of our church members
physically out to a foreign country
doing so in the mission field, including my wife.
It was her first mission strip and she did three of them.
And so she got out there and did missions.
On social media, we took our ex account
from 5,000 to 26,000 followers.
Obviously we did a major upgrade
as far as our building is concerned.
And then here's what you can't really quantify or measure.
How about just the quality of the people
in our church in 2025 and the great spirit of fellowship,
which everyone who actually goes here
realizes is at an all time high.
And so again, this was our greatest year by every metric.
The numbers don't lie.
The data doesn't lie.
And so I'm super thankful that God blessed us
in such a powerful way.
Here's a verse that came to mind.
Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof.
And the patient in spirit is better
than the proud in spirit.
And the most amazing thing about all this
is that we did this in the wake of the worst persecution
and setback that our church has ever experienced,
which happened in the fall of 2024, major church split.
We lost 95 people and dealt with all the slander
and garbage and persecution.
And yet it's like they never even left
'cause our attendance is back
where it was before that happened.
And so God has blessed in an amazing way.
Now I'm gonna get into the sermon.
That was really just by way of introduction
about this being our greatest year,
but I've got many points for you this morning.
Number one, first point,
and we're there in second Corinthians chapter four,
is that in the midst of adversity,
we can do our greatest works for God.
And I hope that you'll apply this to yourself
personally this morning,
'cause I'm talking about the church,
I'm talking about me as the pastor,
I'm talking about as a ministry here.
But you know, in your own personal life,
in the midst of your own adversity,
in the midst of your own trials and tribulations,
you can do your greatest works for God.
And that was really one of the things
that I wanted to set out to prove this year
was that we could do our greatest works for God
in the worst situation
that we've ever found ourselves in history.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 5,
"For we preach not ourselves,
"but Christ Jesus the Lord,
"and ourselves your servants for Jesus Christ."
See, it's not really about us at the end of the day.
It's about the mission.
It's about Jesus Christ.
It's about the gospel.
So no matter how messed up things are for you
in the midst of adversity,
you can still do great things for God
'cause we're not preaching ourselves.
We're preaching Christ Jesus the Lord.
For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ.
But we have this treasure in earth and vessels
that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us, right?
It's not about us.
It's about him.
We're troubled on every side, yet not distressed.
We're perplexed, but not in despair,
persecuted, but not forsaken,
cast down, but not destroyed,
always bearing about in the body,
the dying of the Lord Jesus,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our body, for we which live are always delivered
unto death for Jesus' sake,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest
in our mortal flesh, so then death worketh in us,
but life in you.
Look at what the apostle Paul's saying.
He's basically saying what John the Baptist said.
You know, I must decrease, he must increase.
And he's saying, look, yeah,
we're going through all this stuff.
Yeah, we're persecuted.
Yeah, we're perplexed.
Yeah, we're upset.
Yeah, we're in despair.
Yeah, we're struggling.
But you know what?
People are being saved.
Our loss is other people's gain.
And it's not about us, it's about Jesus.
It's about the gospel.
Now we don't always know why things happen
the way that they do, but we just have to believe
that everything happens for a reason.
All things work together for good to them that love God.
And we just have to realize
that God's ultimately looking out for us.
And even if it doesn't always feel that way,
we have to believe that by faith
because that's what the Bible says,
that God's always looking out for us.
So he said, number one, in the midst of adversity,
we can do our greatest works for God.
Number two, God will ultimately deliver us from evil.
God will ultimately deliver us from evil.
The Bible says in Psalms,
"Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.
He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken.
Evil shall slay the wicked,
and they that hate the righteous shall be desolate."
See, when it comes to the servants of God,
those who are doing right, those who are serving the Lord,
yeah, they're gonna go through a lot of afflictions,
but God's gonna ultimately deliver them from those things.
And I love that verse,
"He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken."
If you think about the skeleton,
you know, you think about the bones,
you think about sort of the core
of what's keeping us standing here
and holding us together, right?
Kind of holding everything up
so I don't just collapse to the ground as a blob
is my skeleton that's holding me up.
And you know, I think what the Bible is saying here
is that, you know, when we're attacked,
when we're persecuted,
when we go through these afflictions
and trials and tribulations,
you know, it's just a flesh wound is what it is.
And it's like, the skeleton is still there.
The structure is still there.
The framework is still there.
We can keep going.
We can keep standing
because our bones aren't broken, figuratively speaking.
And so, yeah, many of the afflictions of the righteous,
but out of them all the Lord delivers them.
No weapon, it says in Isaiah 54,
that is formed against thee shall prosper.
And every tongue that shall rise against the in judgment,
thou shall condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord
and their righteousness is of me, said the Lord.
Go through it to 2 Corinthians chapter one.
You're there in 2 Corinthians one,
then we're gonna go to chapter 12 of the same book.
But in 2 Corinthians chapter one, verse eight, it says,
for we would not, brethren, have you ignorant
of our trouble which came to us in Asia,
that we were pressed out of measure,
above strength in so much that we despaired even of life.
I mean, we were just done.
We just wanted to die, it was so bad, he says.
But we had the sentence of death in ourselves
that we should not trust in ourselves,
but in God, which raiseth the dead,
who delivered us from so great a death
and does deliver in whom we trust
that he will yet deliver.
It's like, look, he delivered us in the past,
he's delivering us right now,
and he's gonna deliver us in the future.
That's what the apostle Paul says, right?
I mean, that's a three point,
that could be its own sermon right there.
You know, you guys take notes of that,
you guys that are learning how to preach,
that's a sermon.
He delivered us, he does deliver,
he's going to deliver, okay?
And you know, whenever you're looking
at financial investments,
they'll say past performance does not necessarily predict
future results, right?
That's one of those little disclaimers that they give.
But you know what?
With God, it actually does, you know?
And tribulation, work of patience,
patience, experience.
And experience gives us hope,
knowing that we've been delivered,
we're being delivered, we're going to be delivered.
Second Corinthians chapter 12 verse seven says this,
if you flip over there.
(coughing)
And lest I should be exalted above measure
through the abundance of the revelations
there was given to me a thorn in the flesh,
the messenger of Satan to buffet me,
lest I should be exalted above measure.
For this thing I besought the Lord thrice
that it might depart from me.
And he said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
Most gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities,
in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses for Christ's sake.
For when I'm weak, then am I strong.
Now look, we can do our greatest works for God
in the midst of adversity.
'Cause it's not our own personal strength
that's gonna get it done anyway.
And you know what?
It didn't stop the Apostle Paul
from doing his greatest works
when he had the biggest thorn in his side.
And so we can do great works for God, number one.
And number two, we know that God
is ultimately going to deliver us from evil.
He's delivered in the past.
He'll deliver in the future.
But number three, we should not wait
until things are perfect to start serving God.
Go through what does Psalm 126,
middle of your Bible is the book of Psalms.
While you're turning there,
I'm gonna read you a great verse
from John chapter four, verse 35.
Say not ye, there are yet four months
and then cometh harvest.
Behold, I say unto you,
lift up your eyes and look on the fields
for their white all ready to harvest.
Do not wait until things are perfect to start serving God.
Don't wait till you have all your ducks in a row.
No, while your life is a mess,
while your life is confusion,
while your life is falling apart,
go do something great for God
because this is the only time that we have.
This is the only day that we're guaranteed.
This is the only life that we have.
And guess what?
Most people's life is always gonna be filled with problems.
And you know what I find in my life
is that as soon as one problem is solved,
another one pops up.
And so I'm almost sometimes not wanting problems to go away
'cause I'm like, I don't know,
I'm kind of comfortable with this problem
and I don't want it to get replaced by something worse.
When I have no problems, I'm real nervous.
Like what's it gonna be?
'Cause something's about to pop up inevitably.
That's just life.
And so people are waiting
till they have all their ducks in a row.
They're waiting to turn the corner
and they don't realize there is no corner.
We're in a round situation here.
And so that's life.
Don't wait till things are perfect.
Look at Psalm 126 verse five.
"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
"He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing pressed seed
"shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
"bringing his sheaves with him."
Now, a lot of times the way we'll interpret this,
and I'm not saying that this isn't legitimate
because I believe it is.
We'll often say like, oh, you sow in tears,
you're going forth and weeping bearing pressed seed
because you're weeping over lost souls.
You have compassion on the lost.
And so you're weeping over lost.
And I think we've all heard it preached that way.
And again, that's legitimate.
But you know, I think an even better interpretation here
is you're sowing in tears 'cause your life is so messed up.
You're going forth and weeping bearing pressed seed
because of all the crap you're dealing with in your life
that's got you upset, that's got you down,
that pain and the suffering and the hardships
that you go through and you go out anyway
and you reap in joy.
I like that better.
Number four, there are gonna be ups and downs in life, right?
So we shouldn't wait till things are perfect
to start serving God.
And number four, life is going to have ups and downs.
You're not always gonna be on an upswing.
Things are not always gonna be awesome.
You're not just always gonna be just winning
and everything you touch turning to gold.
That is just not the way life works.
There are gonna be times like that,
but life just has its ups and downs.
That's just the way it is.
Now, this year, the slogan was,
this is gonna be the greatest year ever, right?
And we've been saying it all year.
This is gonna be our greatest year, greatest year ever.
And of course, God blessed and He allowed us to achieve that.
But why was this the goal?
Why did I preach a sermon at the beginning of this year
called, "This Will Be Our Greatest Year"?
Well, the reason why is because I wanted to focus
on something positive,
and I did not want to become consumed
by anger and bitterness,
which I was kind of in danger of being consumed
by anger and bitterness.
And so I decided, you know what, instead,
I'm just gonna focus on something positive.
And so therefore, I literally prayed to God,
and I told this to several people,
a bunch of my friends and family,
I literally prayed to God
that God would not vindicate me in any way this year
or punish my enemies in any way this year,
because I wanted to have my greatest year ever
in the midst of my worst situation ever.
Worst situation ever,
translating into greatest year ever.
That was what I decided because I wanted to be positive.
And I know this isn't a Bible verse,
but this is kind of a motto
that I adopted at the beginning of the year.
To live well is the best revenge.
Because you know what?
The Bible tells us vengeance belongs to the Lord.
I will repay, saith the Lord.
We're not supposed to avenge ourselves.
And so I said, you know what?
Living well is the best revenge.
I'm just gonna just have the greatest year ever,
do the greatest works for God.
So how did it go?
Well, for the church, as I illustrated
at the beginning of the sermon, it's obvious.
Yes, this was our greatest year ever by every metric.
Me personally, with respect to my soul winning,
yes, it was my personal greatest year ever of soul winning.
However, you know, I was also kind of hoping
not to just have the best year from a work
or ministry or output perspective,
and maybe it's a little selfish of me,
but I also wanted to have my greatest year ever
as far as just like having joy.
You know, I was just determined to have joy
in the midst of my tribulation,
and this verse comes to mind,
2 Corinthians 7, verse four,
I don't know if you're still in 2 Corinthians,
2 Corinthians 7, four says,
"Great is my boldness of speech toward you.
Great is my glorying of you.
I am filled with comfort.
I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation."
And so, you know, I thought about that and I was like,
you know what?
I want to have my greatest year ever,
even just from a joy perspective.
Now, here's what's interesting about that.
So, and you know, I'm going to be a little personal here,
but basically the first half of this year,
almost to the day, I was just filled with joy.
Like I was just, I just felt like I was just winning
and everything was great.
I was super happy.
I was enjoying and just having the best year ever
for the first half.
But then, but then literally like almost right
at the dead center of the year,
it was like everything just shifted for me.
And it just seemed like one bad thing happened to me
after another, just one obstacle,
one problem after another.
And just to name a few things is, you know,
on the 4th of July, I came down with Bell's palsy,
which, you know, and looking back,
it wasn't really a big deal.
But at the time, you don't know how it's gonna go.
You know, everything I'm Googling says,
this takes six months to heal.
Your best case scenario is two weeks,
but that it's probably gonna take months to heal.
And I, you know, and if you don't know what that is,
half of my face was paralyzed.
So I can't talk right, I can't do anything.
I can't really go in public without being embarrassed
about the way that I looked.
I can't smile, you know.
So it was, and I thought this could go on
for several months,
'cause that's what everything's saying online.
This takes months to heal, you know.
If you're lucky, you'll have some improvement
after a couple of weeks.
Thankfully, after like two and a half weeks,
I was like totally back to normal, praise God for that.
But man, those were really dark two weeks,
'cause I didn't know how it was gonna go.
I was very upset.
I had zero improvement for like the first week and a half.
And so I was just kind of upset about that.
And then I just, I got sick a whole bunch of times
right after that, I got sick.
Then it's like one of my best friends died, of course.
You all know, brother Kevin Rowe was tragically killed
by a drunk driver.
And then just, we just rolled into the stress
of trying to find a new building.
And again, yeah, the building worked out awesome
and we have a way better building
and we love the way it turned out.
But there were weeks when we thought
we were gonna be literally out on the street
trying to figure out where we were gonna be meeting.
It was very stressful, very difficult, we got through it.
And more than anything, honestly,
the second half of this year for me was just characterized
by just kind of an overwhelming sense of sadness,
just about the way that things have gone.
The only real bright spot was I went on vacation
with my wife in August, and I can honestly say
it was the best vacation I've ever had in my life.
And so that was a bright spot.
But you know what, I was still able
during the second half of this year
to get up and preach my hardest.
Every single service, I preached hard.
Every single service, I preached from the heart,
and I gave it everything I had.
And the important thing is the church continued to thrive.
So it's funny, like the first half of the year,
everything's going good, the church thrived.
Second half of the year, everything going bad,
church continued to thrive, the work never flagged.
And so if you would flip to Philippians chapter four,
Philippians chapter four, and in case anybody cares,
I'm feeling much better now, so I'm over it.
I'm excited, I feel great, I'm in a great place,
I'm filled with joy, I'm ready for next year,
I'm pumped about it.
But this is the verse that popped into my mind,
Philippians chapter four, verse 11,
not that I speak in respect of want,
but I've learned in whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content.
I know both how to be abased,
and I know how to abound.
Everywhere and in all things,
I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ with strength in me.
And I think that what God was trying to teach me this year,
because it was so poetic,
like how could it be a coincidence
that it was almost to the day,
the first half of the year is just everything's winning.
And then the second half of the year is just all problems.
And I'll tell you why it's because God's trying to show us
that, hey, sometimes things are gonna be really good.
Sometimes things are gonna be really hard, but guess what?
You can serve God maximum and thrive
and do great things in both situations.
You gotta learn both how to be abased and how to abound.
You gotta learn how to be full and how to be hungry.
And that is life because if you can only serve God
when everything you touch is turned into gold,
well, you are not gonna make it, my friend.
You're gonna wash up because let's face it,
life is about 50/50 if you're living for God.
Now, if you're not living for God,
you might just have 100% bad, 100% negative,
100% lameness.
But let me tell you something, if you love the Lord,
if you're serving God, then you know what?
It's gonna be about 50/50.
And the Bible even says this in Ecclesiastes,
you know, don't get too excited on the good,
I'm paraphrasing, but don't get too excited
on the good days, don't get too down on the bad days,
'cause you know what?
The Lord has set the one against the other.
You know, if it's a good day today,
it'll be a bad day tomorrow.
If it's a bad day today, it'll be a good day tomorrow.
You know, we have got to learn as Paul did
in whatsoever state we're in to be content.
You know, for you Spanish speakers to be contento,
you know, in all these situations,
and to have joy in tribulation and joy in affliction.
The work of God never slowed down.
The sermons never slowed down.
The preaching, I don't think there's a big difference
in the preaching from the first half of the year
to the second half of the year.
The preaching was the preaching.
The soul winning was the soul winning.
The mission strips were the mission strips.
You know what?
God can do a great work.
And you know what?
Expecting our lives to be perfect all the time,
and expecting to be happy 100% of the time is unrealistic.
You know, we should just be thankful
that God gives us so many good times,
and so much joy, and that life can be so beautiful at times.
Acts chapter 20 verse 24, you don't have to turn there.
If you would turn to 2 Timothy chapter two,
Acts 20, 24 says, "But none of these things move me,
neither count on my life dear unto myself,
so that I might finish my course with joy,
and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus,
to testify the gospel of the grace of God."
We can't let these things move us.
These obstacles, these hardships, these setbacks,
we've got to be steadfast, we've got to keep going.
Zechariah chapter four, verse six,
"Then he answered and spake unto me, saying,
this is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying,
not by might nor by power,
but by my spirit sayeth the Lord of hosts."
Second Timothy chapter two, verse one,
the Bible reads, "Thou therefore, my son,
be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.
And 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.
Thou therefore, endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ."
So we said, number one, in the midst of adversity,
we can do our greatest works for God.
Paul did some of his greatest works for God.
In tribulation, in affliction, literal prison,
shipwreck, not having food, right?
Being out on the street, et cetera.
Number two, God will ultimately deliver us from evil.
Number three, we should not wait
till things are perfect to start serving God.
You're just never gonna end up getting serious
about your walk with God
if you're waiting for things to be perfect.
Number four, there are gonna be up and down times,
which is why we should endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ
and not expect it to always be good.
But number five, what we need to realize is
we are motivating other people by our works.
And sometimes other people need to see us
go through hard things and power through
and come out the other side and it inspires them as well.
The Bible says in verse two,
the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses,
the same commit thou to faithful men
who shall be able to teach others also.
And what we see is we see that not only faithful word
got excited about having their greatest year.
'Cause I was ringing that bell at the beginning of the year,
this is gonna be the greatest year,
this is gonna be the best year ever.
And right away I noticed,
just specifically Pastor Shelley,
it was like he got on that program.
You could tell he started just pulling out all the stops,
draining all the bank accounts, going crazy and just,
I mean, he just gave it everything this year, I could tell.
And I could just see there were just so many events,
so many things, so much of a push.
And of course, you know, the incredible results
that I talked about at the beginning of the sermon.
And so I feel like this whole concept
of the greatest year ever,
sort of rubbed off on other people,
even though it was kind of a personal thing for me,
actually coming from a negative place for me,
you know, coming from anger and bitterness and resentment,
and me being upset and saying, you know,
I've got to overcome the evil with good
and have the greatest year ever.
But then other people
who didn't even really go through those things,
you know, the Pastor Mejia's of this world and pastors,
you know, they got on board too.
They ramped up too.
They pulled out all the stops too.
And there's so many great things
that have happened this year.
And, you know, all the things that we mentioned.
But, you know, also you look at our guy down in Tucson,
right, also trained and ordained and sent out.
Pastor Corbin Russell.
And, you know, he's literally planting other churches
and starting other works in Boise, Idaho
and St. Louis, Missouri.
I mean, people really worked hard this year,
pushed themselves, obviously people in our church
were super motivated this year.
Y'all pushed yourselves and went out to the mission field
and ramped up on Omi TV and locally door to door here
and going places.
I mean, it just, everybody caught this vision,
not just our church, other pastors, other churches,
other works.
And so, you know, we got to commit the things
that we've learned to other faithful men
who will be able to teach others also,
ultimately, none of us is really gonna do it all ourselves.
We got to pass it on to other people
and get other people going as well.
All of us are gonna be gone someday, right?
And those of you that are older
are probably starting to think about that.
Young people maybe feel like,
"Oh, that's way off in the future."
But you know, we're all gonna be gone someday.
And so we got to pass on the teachings,
pass on the vision to the next generation.
And when we do the works, when we go through the fire,
when we go through the affliction, you know,
we end up motivating other people too.
Not just motivating ourselves, but motivating other people.
If you would flip over to Philippians chapter one,
and I'm gonna start reading it while you turn there.
But in Philippians chapter one, it says in verse 12,
"But I would you should understand, brethren,
that the things which happened unto me
have fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel,
so that my bonds in Christ are manifest in all the palace
and in all other places.
And many of the brethren in the Lord,
waxing confident by my bonds,
are much more bold to speak the word without fear.
Notice, Paul being put in prison
actually made people preach more.
It gave them more boldness.
It gave them more courage.
You think it could have like a chilling effect
where people would be like,
"Oh, well, if Paul went to prison,
maybe we should all slow down.
Maybe we should all back off.
We don't want to end up in the huskow ourselves."
But yet it had the opposite effect
where many of the brethren in the Lord, verse 14,
waxed confident because of his bonds.
Because why?
I don't think it's just because,
oh, a preacher went to prison, great.
I want to go to prison too.
Nobody wants to go to prison.
Why are they waxing confident because of Paul's bonds?
Wouldn't that make them wax cowardly?
Wouldn't that make them scared?
Wouldn't that make them not want to preach hard
because they see what happens to the guy who does preach hard?
No, because they saw Paul in that situation
continuing to push,
continuing to preach.
I mean, look, when Paul's in prison,
he's singing praises in Philippi,
the Philippian jailer, right?
He's in Philippi, he's singing praises to God in the jail.
The other prisoners heard him.
I mean, this is the kind of thing that gets around.
Hey, we're still talking about it 2,000 years later.
Paul and Silas getting a beating, physically beaten,
physically incarcerated, persecuted attack,
but he just doesn't stop.
He's singing praises to God.
He's got joy.
He's winning souls.
He's baptizing people in the middle of the night.
And you know what?
That is what inspired, it's not that they're just,
oh, they just wax confident by his bonds
'cause they saw him go to prison.
We want to go to prison too.
No, no, no.
They saw that and they got inspired.
Like, wow, this guy is still going.
This guy is joyful in his tribulation.
This guy is not gonna let,
and you know, when you see other people
power through obstacles,
you think to yourself, you know what?
I can power through some obstacles too.
You know, other people can make it, so can I.
If they can do it, so can I.
And of course, you know, we're all the same.
We're all human.
We all have the same like passions as the Bible says,
as Elijah and everybody else.
You know, it's just that we're just people.
And so we can inspire other people if we don't quit.
And again, you know, I'm talking about our church
'cause it's a 20 year anniversary
and it's a big day for us.
And we're talking about the greatest year.
But you know what?
Apply all this to yourself personally.
Yeah, let's think about it as church.
But how about you personally, okay?
In the midst of your personal adversity
that maybe other people may not even know about,
you can do your greatest works for God.
God's ultimately gonna deliver you from evil.
You should not wait until things are perfect
to start serving God.
You are gonna have up and down times.
And you know what?
You are motivating other people.
You say, I don't know, I'm really?
'Cause I don't think I'm motivated.
Look, people are looking at you.
Even the lowliest church member,
I guarantee you somebody's looking at you.
Somebody's seeing you.
Somebody's watching you.
Somebody sees what you're doing and gets motivated.
Because you know what?
We motivate each other.
And iron sharpens iron.
And you know what?
The more people show up, the more motivating it is.
The more people show up to church.
The more people show up to soul winning.
The more people keep a good attitude.
The more people are excited.
The more people are doing works for God.
It snowballs.
And you know what, every single person who participates
is a part of it, you know?
And God even talks about it in the church.
Sometimes the members that get the least attention
are sometimes some of the most important key players
behind the scenes.
And so we all have a role to play.
We all are motivating other people when we do the works
and push through the hard times.
And so in conclusion, to sum up the year in two words,
I just want to sum up the entire year in two words, two words
for you, OK?
We won.
It's that simple.
We won.
And I got a Bible verse for this as well.
1 Corinthians 15.57 says, "But thanks be to God,
which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
God gave us the victory.
"Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord,
for as much as you know that your labor is not
in vain in the Lord."
And you know, I guarantee you that the enemies
that are out there, you know what they think?
'Cause I get up and say, "We won."
'Cause we did win by every objective metric.
Pastor Shelley brought up this battle in Texas.
What was it called?
Oh, now I just had a brain blip.
Any Civil War buffs out there?
The Battle of Something Ranch?
Palmetto Ranch?
Who knows what I'm talking about?
No one knows what I'm talking about.
Well, after, and forgive me if I screw this up,
'cause I'm doing this on the fly
and I'm having a senior moment here,
but after General Lee had already surrendered
to General Grant, like the Civil War's over,
it gives them the sword, it's all over,
there were some people in Texas who hadn't got the memo
that the battle was over.
And so there was this final battle of the Civil War
that took place called the Battle of Palmetto Ranch
and somebody died and everything.
And it was just like a totally meaningless battle
because the war was already over.
It's sort of like these Japanese that didn't get the memo
that World War II was over and they're still like refusing
to surrender years later on some island or something
'cause they never realized that Japan was defeated
and they just hadn't gotten the word.
You know, that's how our enemies,
some of our enemies are like that.
You know, they think, and they're probably saying,
you won?
Well, it ain't over yet.
You know, the Palmetto Ranch crowd.
I hope I have that word right.
Did somebody Google it?
All right.
So the Palmetto Ranch, you know,
we can just call the XNIFB Palmetto Ranch.
You know, some of these haters that think it's not over.
Oh, it ain't over yet.
Well, here's why it actually is over.
Let me tell you why it actually is over.
Because no one can ever take away from us
what we already accomplished this year.
And we accomplished more in this year
than a lot of y'all are gonna do in your entire lives.
And no one can take away what we've already done.
Those souls are going to heaven
and no man can pluck them out of Christ's hand.
So yeah, it is over and we won, you know.
And they think that their little movie
is just gonna just sink our battleship.
Sorry folks, it's too little, too late.
You are as always Paul Wittenberger,
a day late and a dollar short.
And let me tell you something, my friend.
We won, it's over and I don't care what happens tomorrow.
I don't care what happens.
I don't have to hang my hope
on some pipe dream of the future.
You know what?
I can walk out into that lobby
and I can fall over dead right now
and say this was the greatest year ever.
And nobody can ever take that away from us,
what we achieved and all the souls that have been saved
and all the works that have been done.
I say, praise God.
And you know what I say next year, let's do it again.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
We thank you so much for giving us the victory.
Thank you so much for helping us in difficult times this year, Lord, helping us figure out
our building situation.
And Lord, you blessed us beyond anything we ever even hoped for with that regard.
And we're super thankful, Lord, for our building.
We're super thankful for leading us to the lost souls that were receptive, Lord, and
just blessing us logistically and Lord God, I only did a tiny fraction of the work personally
this year.
Thank you to the other 99% of this church who got the 99% of the salvations, Lord, and
all the hard work that was put in by everybody, Lord.
And thank you so much for blessing us in such a powerful way and Lord, please bless us again
next year.
And in Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.