Amen well it's great to be here I apologize for just kind of blowing in here at the last minute
but I've just been dealing with some really urgent business back home and it's been a rough week
and I'm really happy to be here now though and so I'll be able to fellowship more after the service
so again apologize for just kind of blowing in like this but I'm going to be preaching tonight
not being offended. Now, when I say not being offended, the word offended can have a lot of
different definitions. And especially in the Bible, it's used a few different ways. And when I say
not being offended...
The definition that I'm talking about is where the Bible uses the word offended to talk about people
who are maybe caused to stumble in their Christian walk.
They decide to quit on God. They're offended in the sense that they're caused to err,
caused to go off the path, caused to go off into sin.
And so obviously we don't want to offend other people in the sense of being a stumbling block to them.
causing them to sin, causing them to get discouraged, causing them to quit on God.
But then we also want to make sure that we're not offended and that nothing offends us,
meaning that no matter what happens, we're going to keep on serving God.
We're going to keep moving forward. Nothing can move us. We're going to be steadfast,
unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord because we know that our labor
is not in vain in the Lord. That's what I mean by not being offended, right? Nothing's going to divert us.
from our mission of serving God and the scripture that I want to start out in is in Psalm 119. So
you're there in Psalm 73. Just flip over a few pages to Psalm 119. Of course, this is the longest
chapter in the Bible.
But we're just going to look at one section of it tonight beginning in verse number
161 okay 161
This is one of the most famous passages about not being offended in the Bible
But it says in Psalm 119 verse 161
princes have persecuted me without a cause but my heart
Standeth in all of thy word and the entire Psalm 119 longest chapter in the Bible
is just over and over again talking about the Word of God, virtually every single verse
emphasizes the Word of God. And of course, this is relatable for Christians going through persecution
because the Bible says, and all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
And so he says, princes, you know, you can think of that as a government or just whatever,
people with a lot of power to hurt you, princes have persecuted me without a cause.
but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. What a cool verse. And the idea here is that, you know,
in our lives, there's all this bad stuff going on physically in our lives, right? Just whether
it's persecution or just illness, financial problems, relationship problems, health problems,
whatever, you know, the nitty gritty, the nasty here and now of princes persecuting me without
I'm standing in awe of God's word, something that transcends physical life itself, you know, the word of God, the eternal word of God, right?
Everything else is shifting and things are going wrong and there are problems, but then God's word is just always there and it just never changes.
And we can just stop and be still and know that He is God and stand in awe of God's word.
as one to find a great sport.
I mean, it's like winning the lottery
to basically find the Bible and start reading it
and actually getting in the Word of God every day.
It's like, wow, just by finding the truth here,
I won the lottery.
In fact, it's better than winning the lottery
because he said, it's more precious than rubies.
Right, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb right the famous Psalm 19 and it's you know more to be desired
Are they then gold yay than much fine gold talk about the words of God?
And so he says in verse 163 I hate and a poor lying
But that law do I love?
Seven times a day, do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.
And then here's the famous verse 165.
Great peace have they which love thy law, and nothing shall.
Offend them right so the first thing I want to talk about tonight with not being offended is you know
If you really love the word of God if you're standing in awe of the word of God
If you rejoice at God's word like one who finds great spoil or finds treasure wins the lottery as it were
You hated a poor lying, but maybe just love the truth of God's word
You are not going to be offended right the person who is truly in love with God's word
Nothing can offend that person
Meaning, nothing's going to divert that person.
That person's not getting out of church.
They're not going to quit on God.
They love God's Word because even when the whole world
is coming down around them, they can still stand in awe of God's Word.
And God's Word never changes.
It's the rock upon which we're founded.
Then after that, it says in 1.66,
My soul have kept thy testimonies, and I love them exceedingly.
I've kept thy precepts and thy testimonies for all my ways are before thee."
And of course it goes on and on in praise and all of God's work.
Now go if you would to Mark chapter number four.
Mark chapter number four.
And Mark chapter four is a chapter where Jesus is giving just a whole bunch of parables in a row back to back.
And this is one of the most famous parables that he gives.
And we're not going to go into the whole parable for sake of time.
But we're just going to talk about one little aspect of this most famous parable, the parable of the sower.
And it says in Mark chapter four, verse 16, it says,
who when they have heard the word immediately receive it with gladness and have no root in themselves
and so endure but for a time afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake
immediately they are offended immediately they are offended the bible says so this is a certain type of person
who receives the word of God with gladness,
but because they're not rooted and grounded in things,
you know, they're just easily offended,
meaning that as soon as there are problems,
as soon as things get hard,
as soon as there's tribulation, persecution, affliction,
just immediately...
They're out the door. They can't endure hardship. As soon as it gets hard, they're gone, right?
They're not in it for the long haul. They're not going to stick it out.
So the first thing we saw in Psalm 119 is, you know, we've got to really love God's word,
anchor ourselves to God's word in order to not be offended. And then the second thing we see is that,
you know, we've got to put a root down so that we're not offended, right? We've got to be rooted.
in our beliefs, rooted in the Word of God, rooted in our faith,
so that we're not these easily offended people.
And I've seen this many times where there's just the slightest little hint of persecution,
the slightest little wind of problems, and these people are out the door.
And you know, sometimes it's almost good when our churches go through difficult things and problems and everything
to weed those kind of people out during peacetime.
Because in war, you don't want those people!
You know what I'm saying? And so think about it this way, you know, you use like a military illustration
Obviously the Bible used a lot of military illustrations, right?
And if you think about people going into the military, they have to go through some sort of boot camp
And they have to go through a basic training and whatever, especially if they're going into some kind of special forces
That's going to be more difficult. More people are dropping out higher attrition rate
You know, if you're going to the Navy Seals or something, right? A lot of people are going to be ringing that bell
to quit and drop out throughout that process.
And I've never been in the military,
but I'm familiar with it.
And the idea is that you'd rather weed those people out
who can't handle it.
In training then in combat. You don't want to be with that person in combat and they're just failing and that you know
And then and then you're like Uriah, right?
Where Uriah gets sent to the hottest part of the battle and then everybody's just fleeing and just sort of leaving Uriah there
With no backup in a dangerous position and here's the thing as God's people were in a spiritual fight
We're in spiritual warfare and so imagine if you are in some kind of a really
hot firefight, you're Uriah, and then all of a sudden people are just bailing out on you left
and right, you know, and you're just kind of stuck there. That's terrible, right? Hey, I don't know
about you. I don't want to be in a church where everybody's just bailing out on me at every little
thing.
And just can't handle persecution, can't handle protesters,
can't handle affliction, can't handle media or bad press.
You know, like, you know,
you're from Indianapolis here tonight.
And of course, you know,
you've been going through tribulation
in your personal situation.
And also just your church is on the news
and all this stuff, right?
That's like a battle.
This is like war.
I mean, this is, you know, they're in the firefight.
And when you're in that situation, you want people standing with you, encouraging you,
being in their place, showing a little bit of backbone in those situations.
And so, when people leave over all these dumb little things during peacetime, because you
guys are like in wartime, you know, in that analogy.
And people are just being immediately offended about just every stupid thing.
It's almost like good riddance because here's the thing, when you have a big fight.
You don't want there to be some mass exodus out the door because it discourages everybody, right?
And what did it say in the book of Judges when it's talking about Gideon?
Hey, we need all the fearful little queer little sissies to go home
because the problem is that if you don't have the guts to stand,
then what's going to happen is when we're actually like in combat,
we're actually fighting and things are really getting serious,
then if you start bailing then you could ruin the whole battle, you could get us killed.
You know, we'd rather that you quit now than in the battle, you know, because the Bible
talks about these people and these people are not the people that Christ wants us to
be.
Christ is not lifting up these people as an example that's like, it's okay to be these
people.
He's not saying hey, you know, some of you are these kind of stony places kind of Christians. That's you know, that's cool
Well different, you know
Foreign people in the stone. No, no, it's like you're supposed to he's like no the only acceptable option here is the good ground
Bring forth fruit some 30 some 60 some 100, right?
You know Jesus is using these people as a bad example, you know these people that just they get all excited
They're all happy and they're all fired up, but then just immediately as soon as something goes wrong. They're offended
Is that you tonight, I hope not you know you need to decide hey, I'm not gonna be that guy
I'm gonna love the word of God
And I'm gonna get rooted and grounded in the word of God and what I believe and my faith's gonna be strong
And I'm not gonna be easily quickly or as the Bible says immediately
offended. I love that wording, just immediately they're offended because
I've seen it so many times. These people that are just, they're scared of their
own shadow, just the slightest little whiff of persecution that they smell off
in the distance coming in the breeze, they're out.
We don't want churches that are packed with people like that
Here's the thing if you have a couple people like that in the church
And then there's some major fight and then you lose like a few people
It's it's not a big deal
But what you don't want is as soon as the sodomites or whoever, you know start persecuting the church
You don't want just half the church to just leave you that could be super discouraging
So it's good to have a church filled with some steadfast people, you know
That aren't that aren't gonna be offended like that because they have the root. They're they're the good ground
Good-hearted people who love the Lord and are bringing forth fruit. That's we want this idea of being offended
Comes up again in chapter 14 if you want to flip over in chapter 14 because remember we're talking about not being offended
And again when when we hear the word offended the word offend has multiple meanings
One meaning of the word offend could be like to sin or to commit a crime or to, you know, to commit an offense, meaning you did something bad, you offended, okay?
Then there's another meaning of offended, and this is probably the one that we're the most used to, where people just say like, oh, he said something I didn't like, so I got offended.
Meaning like, you know, I took what he said as an attack on me. I got offended. I took that personally, right?
That's not really what we're talking about when we're talking about this biblical definition of being offended
We're more talking about the definition of being
Diverted from the right path to be offended means you're knocked out of the fight
You're you're you're you're going off into sin
You're quitting on God quitting on church or whatever
That's what the Bible is saying when it says great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them
And it's also what it means when it says that, you know,
people who aren't rooted when persecution comes,
they're immediately offended, you know, they can't handle it.
Jesus brings this up.
I'm, you know, I just want you to see a few more examples
of the use of this word.
But in Mark chapter 14, beginning in verse 27,
Jesus saith unto them,
all ye shall be offended because of me this night.
It doesn't mean that they heard something Jesus said
How dare he say that. That's not what it means by offended. It's saying that basically they're gonna they're gonna quit, right?
They're gonna go into sin or they're going to quit on God. That's that's the type of idea here in this case
They're gonna quit following Jesus, you know because of the fact that they don't want to go to prison
They don't want to be killed. They're scared. So they run away. Look what the Bible says in Mark 14 27
Jesus saith unto them all ye shall be offended
Because of me this night for it is written. I will smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered
But after that I am risen, I will go before you in Galilee, but Peter said unto him,
although all shall be offended, yet will not I. And Jesus saith unto him, verily I say unto thee,
that this day, even in this night, before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me
thrice. But he spake the more vehemently, if I should die with thee, I will not deny thee in any
So, in this case, being offended, right, instead of standing with Christ, standing up for Christ,
claiming the name of Christ, boldly standing, he ends up getting scared, quitting, not following Jesus,
falling a far off, denying that he even knows Jesus, denying Christ.
And when he did that, of course, he felt really bad about it, because it was wrong.
And he went out and he wept bitterly as a result of doing that.
So we don't want to be the one who is offended immediately.
We don't want to be easily offended.
Talk is cheap. Everybody says,
oh yeah, I'll be there. I'm going to stand up.
And I've seen some of the biggest talkers be the first ones out
when there's real persecution.
Big tough guys and even guys who were in the military.
Guys who were in the Marine Corps guys that were you know in the military and and tough guys and they talk all tough
And they talk all big and then I've seen them get scared
Just about persecution or oh this could affect my job. This could affect, you know, whatever
I don't you know the protesters and blah blah blah and all these different things
We don't want to be easily offended
Flip over if you went to Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 5 Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 5
Is a great verse about this as well and while you're turning to
Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 5
I'm gonna remind you of the words of Proverbs chapter 24 and this is one of those kind of
Short little punchy verses in the Bible. I like these kind of just really succinct short little punchy
Verses in the Bible Proverbs 24-10 if they'll faint in the day of adversity
Thy strength is small
Right, so it's basically saying if you faint in the day of adversity you weak
You know if things get hard and you can't handle it
Your lame your strength is small if thou faint in the day of adversity
Thy strength is small. Love it Jeremiah chapter 12 verse 5 has the same idea
It says if thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied thee then how can self-content with the horses?
And if in the land of peace, wherein thou trustest, they weareth thee, then how will thou do in the swelling of Jordan?
He's saying, look, if you can't even hang during peacetime.
How are you going to hang when the battle really starts?
And I think about how we live in the United States of America.
Freedom, First Amendment, just total prosperity, freedom, easy street,
compared to the rest of the world, the rest of human history.
I mean, we've got it pretty good. Let's face it.
And then we can't stay in church.
We can't keep soul winning. We can't endure a little bit of criticism. We can't endure a little bit of mockery
Oh, people said about me online or something, you know, here's the thing that's weak because there's this thing coming called the Great Tribulation
And I got a news for the pre-trib church down the street is that that's a made-up fake doctrine
That's not real and guess what we're gonna be here for the Great Tribulation
If that happens in our generation
Then we better be ready to stand and if you can't even handle it in just
2025 peacetime
Prosperous America when everything's going great
How are you gonna handle it in the Tribulation?
When it's going to be tribulation the Bible says unlike the world has ever seen
It'll be a time of tribulation that has never been before it'll never be after it is going to be bad
Right, and it's it's funny how people they have that post-trib doctrine
But they don't have that post-trib lifestyle because you know they like like they believe if you ask them
Do you believe it if you ask them do you believe in the pre-trib rapist?
They say oh, no, I don't believe the pre-trib officer, but then they they do like a pre-trib exit from the church
Like because it's like tribulation didn't even come yet
Like people are just threatening the church threatening them like real serious persecution because here's the thing
What does the Bible say you've not yet resisted under bloodstriping against sin?
Like oh, man, you understand the persecution. Okay, how much blood have you spilled?
Because the apostle Paul's over here getting beaten with rods. He's getting scourged. I mean, there's actually blood coming out of his body
How much blood have you shed for Jesus? I haven't shed any I haven't shed a single drop neither of you
You've now you're resistant unto blood striving against sin
And so it's, it's sort of a pre-trib, you kind of pre-trib raptured yourself because like before any real affliction or tribulation came to the church, you're basically just like.
beam me up and you kind of beamed yourself up by just like the catching away you caught yourself away from the new IFP you caught yourself away from church right and then you know your friend you didn't back him up when he's going through tribulation you ruptured yourself.
Congratulations! You just raptured yourself.
You just proved the pre-trib rapture true in your own personal life
because you raptured yourself out of the new IP
into some lame watered-down church that will never be persecuted.
But you're post-trib, right?
Going on and on and on about how post-trib you are,
but then as soon as trip comes, you're out!
You're pre-trib is what you are.
Folks, we got to be ready for serious persecution, and so that means we got to be able to handle
the small and medium persecution so that when large comes, we're ready to go.
And if you can't run with the footmen, how are you going to run against the horses?
You know, horses are a lot harder to beat in a race than humans.
And you know what humans can beat horses in a running race?
Fact. It just has to be a long enough race.
Because in a short in a short distance the horse will always win, but you know in a hundred mile ultra marathons
There there's a man versus horse race that actually has existed for many years
And in fact the the modern sport of ultra running in America was actually founded by a guy named Gordon Ainsley
I think it was 1973
You know because ultra marathoning had had you know had been a thing in the past of course
No new thing under the Sun, but it hadn't been around for a while in America
Well, this guy, he was going to do this 100-mile horse race in California, and his horse went lame.
And so he asked his buddy, he said, do you think that I could just do the 100 miles myself?
Could I just run 100 miles without the horse?
You know, it's kind of just a goofy, stupid, weird idea.
And his buddy said to him, he said, well, not only do I not think you could do it.
He said, I don't think anybody could do it.
So then he kind of took it as a challenge and so he lined up and it was all horses
It was a horseback riding race hundred miles through like severe mountain wilderness
You know tens of thousands of feet of climbing like very difficult terrain and he showed up
And he had his vital signs checked by veterinarians
At the aid stations literally he drank out of streams. He didn't even have a water bottle
He drank out of streams. He ate whatever he could grab and stuff in his pockets
He had his vitals literally checked by veterinarians to make sure he wasn't you know dying or dehydrated anything
And he finished within the 24-hour cutoff. He finished in like 23 hours and 42 minutes
And then the next year there was one other guy with him because he decided to do it again next year
Then there were two guys and then the next year there were ten guys and it became
the sport that we know of ultra running. Now there are thousands and thousands and thousands of
people all over America who run 100 mile races every single year. But what's interesting is
that it all started out running against horses. Okay. And then there is another race that's called
man versus horse, where it's actually designed to be humans and horses competing against one
Why? Because of the fact that over those really long distances, a well-trained human can defeat a well-trained horse.
And so here's the thing though. I think we would all agree that anybody who can outrun a horse in a 100 mile
mountainous foot race is
extremely, extremely
fit and well-trained and in better shape than any of us have ever been in our lives probably, right?
I mean, it's pretty it's pretty amazing, right?
And you know, you know what the Bible is basically saying is that God is going to have us do some difficult things in our lives, you know
We think we think about the hundred mile mountain ultramarathon and we think that's crazy. I'll never do that. That's too hard
You know, that's it's madness
crazy
But you know what God is basically saying in your life. I'm gonna make you do stuff. That's hard like that
Like like competing with horses in a foot race hard
That's the kind of hard stuff and he's saying, you know, if you can't handle it when you're just at the you know
The Thanksgiving turkey chop 5k
Because stop and think about it like do you think that somebody just goes straight to the hundred mile
No, you know before that they're probably running the 5k the 10k the half marathon the marathon
And you know the Bible saying don't sign up for the hundred mileer if you can't run a 5k
And, you know, we got a bunch of Christians today.
They'll talk so big about, oh, man, pastor, I'm your friend.
I'm not a fake friend.
I'll always be there.
I love this church.
I'm in it to win it.
I mean, I kid you not, I've had people show up at Faithful Word Baptist Church, show up
on a Sunday morning and say, I'm so excited to be here.
I've been looking for this church my entire life.
How do I join?
Where do I join?
Hey, you know, I now pronounce you joined.
Okay, good, because this is my church,
and I'm so excited,
and we're gonna be here for the rest of our lives,
and like, I never saw that person again.
I'm not joking.
I had a person just enthusiastically say,
this is the church I've been looking for my entire life.
We're so excited to be here.
And literally, they were not even back that night
and I never saw them again.
And to this day, I have no idea what that guy's deal was.
But you know what?
I've had other people.
That was kind of an extreme example.
But I've had a lot of other people just be just talking,
a big talk about how I'm here forever.
I'm in it to win it.
You know reserve me a burial plot out back of the church because you know, there shall I you know
There shall I be buried in the words of Ruth, you know
But you know talks cheap and then it's you know, and I've heard so many people talk so many big talks
About what they're gonna do and everything, but it's like what are you doing right now though?
Because you know if you're running with the footmen, and it where you run around the block, and you're like, oh
Just give me a second
It's like, oh, yeah, let's go do a hundred miler ain't happening is it nope
And so you got to be in it for the long haul.
You got to love God's word.
You got to be rooted in what you believe.
Nothing can offend you.
You're not one of these easily offended,
rootless people tossed to and fro
with every wind of doctrine.
Let's go to Matthew chapter 18.
Matthew chapter 18.
Now, we're not going to turn there for sake of time,
but another use of the word offended in the Bible.
is the famous passage that talks about looking on a woman to lust after her and it says,
you know, hey, if your right eye offend you, pluck it out.
So again, this is just to support the fact that the definition for offend that I'm giving you is a biblical definition, right?
When the Bible says, if your right eye offend you, pluck it out, what's it saying?
If your right eye is causing you to sin.
Lucky I if your right hand is offending you if your right hand is causing you to sin cut it off
Of course, it's not literal. He's using hyperbole. He doesn't want us to actually mutilate ourselves
But the idea here is that you know, we don't want to have things in our life that are leading us into sin
Because what does it mean to be offended?
It means to be led into sin,
to be led away from the things of God,
to be diverted from serving God,
diverted from the church,
and we're out of church, and we're not following Jesus,
and we're backslidden, and we're living in sin.
You know, those are all the bad outcomes
that would go under being offended, right?
Don't be offended, right?
Great peace have they which love God's law,
and nothing shall offend them.
So that's the key to not being offended, loving God's word, being rooted and grounded in the things of God.
And how can we do a little self-check on whether you're one of these easily offended, stony places kind of a guy,
is, well, you know, how are you doing running against the footmen?
Because that'll tell us how you're gonna do running against the horses.
You know because if you faint in the day of adversity your strength is small
And if you can't handle running with the foot man, how are you gonna run with the horses?
Right if you're not faithful in that which is least how are you gonna be faithful with the true riches the big money, right?
Look what it says in Matthew chapter 18, because we're going to shift gears now because so far I've talked about not being offended, right?
I don't want you to be offended. You decide, man, I'm not going to be one of these easily offended people.
And I don't have to announce it or tell Pastor Anderson or tell Pastor Thompson or Pastor Russell. I'm just going to be that person.
You know, because talk is cheap and then it's actually just getting in the word of God, loving the word of God,
deciding what I believe and saying, though he slayed me, yet will I trust him?
Nothing can move me. Nothing can stop me. Nothing can offend me.
And it doesn't mean we have to announce that. That happens in our heart.
We just make that decision. We know it.
I know I'll always be in church. I know I'll always be serving God.
I know I'm never going to quit on God.
That's what we need.
But now I want to shift gears and talk about offending other people
Because not only do we not want to be offended. We also don't want to offend others
And what I mean by that is we don't want to cause others to stumble in their walk with God
We don't want to cause others to become backslidden. We don't want to discourage other people hurt other people's walk with God
We don't want to lead other people into sin because that would be us offending them, right?
That's what we mean when we say we don't want to offend people it doesn't mean hey
I better not preach the truth of God's word because some people might be offended if God's word offends people. That's their fault
It's their fault. Oh
I'm not going to church because I've been burned too many times
Well, your strength is small, right?
Oh, you know, you know, I've just been burned too many times and you know, I was thinking about this, you know
On the flight over here today. I was thinking about how, you know, churches let us down
Pastors let us down
Friends let us down, but I was thinking to myself, you know, if that's the worst thing that ever happened to you
You're doing pretty good
Like here's the thing it's pretty devastating when your pastor lets you down
When a pastor either, you know compromises doctrinally or goes absolutely insane doctrinally
Or just or if a pastor, you know gets involved in some sinful lifestyle, whether it's a gambling addiction or
Embezzlement or adultery or you know all these horrible things. It's pretty devastating
You know and here's the thing. I've experienced a little bit of that in my life because what we know when I was a kid
I went to a church and there were all kinds of problems and we had this church that was
a soul winning church and I was just 9, 10, 11, 12 years old around those ages.
And we had this church and it was a big, thriving, happy church, the soul winning going on, King
James, the whole thing.
And then there were problems and scandals and the church fell apart and came crashing
down.
we stopped going to fundamental Baptist churches for a while because we got offended by this
church and you know we ended up wandering in the wilderness for a while of going to like
NIV type you know rock and roll kind of fun center type churches a little bit even though
you know the world would have still considered them like pretty conservative by the world centers
but for us it felt like super liberal you know
And we did that for a while because we got a little bit offended, you know, because of the scandals and, you know, people letting you down, the church leadership letting you down, the church falling apart and compromising and things like that.
But you know what at the end of the day, obviously we were able to get back on the horse and keep serving God and
Even after we wanted in that wilderness, we came back and we got in the hellfire and damnation
King James so many churches and you know what we did way more for God after coming back than before we left
So it's a good thing. We didn't just stay God
Because I could have just spent the rest of my life just whining about fundamentalism.
Oh, the Baptist.
I'm a recovering Baptist.
I'm a recovering fundamentalist.
I'm deconstructing or reconstructing or queer constructing or whatever.
You know, whatever these people are doing.
You know, I'm glad I got back on the horse because I did way more for God after.
And so did my parents and so did everybody else involved.
You know, so it's just that's life, you know, and I'm thinking to myself of all the worst things that have happened to me in my life
If I could say well the worst thing that ever happened to me was my pastor letting me down or the church
Treating me bad or you know, some kind of a sour
Leaving of a church or something like that. It's like if that's the worst thing that happened to you man
You're doing great because there's way worse things coming in your life
And if that's like that's running with the footmen right there. You think that's contending with the horses. It's not
Okay, worse things are coming
It's just true. I mean life is gonna chew you up and spit you out, you know
And I hope that encourages you this evening, but Matthew chapter 18 verse 1 the Bible reads at the same time
Came the disciples unto Jesus saying who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven and Jesus called a little child unto him and said
Him in the midst of them and said barely I say unto you except you be converted and become as little children
You should not enter into the kingdom of heaven. I love what he says here because you know
Basically the question is like hey, who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
He's like well, you know before we talk about who's the greatest in the kingdom of heaven
We can also talk about just what it even takes to even get into heaven. I
Wonder if there are people in this world worried about being the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They're not even going
You think there's anybody like that out there?
I'll bet you there are people there thinking,
oh man, I gotta do more and earn more rewards
and they're not even going because if you're not converted
and if you don't become like little children,
you should not enter the kingdom.
You're not even going unless you have that childlike faith
totally relying on Jesus to get you to heaven.
And you know what?
The gospel is not complicated, salvation is not complicated
and it's not really complicated
who's going to heaven and who's not.
You know Trump recently said I really hope I'm going to heaven
But you know, he said he said it's not looking good for me
But he said I feel like if I can make peace between Ukraine and Russia
I will get into heaven who heard that that clip from him where he said those things you didn't do that
He said, you know, I think this will get me into heaven
But here's the thing, you know getting to heaven simpler than having to solve the Ukraine-Russia conflict
You know, can you imagine somebody coming to you and say what must I do to be saved? You you've got to
reconcile Putin and Zelensky
And then you'll go to heaven
You know, you'd probably go away sorrowing
Hey, just solve the Israel-Palestine conflict and you're going
Make both sides happy. All right. Good luck with that, you know, and while you're out of put this camel through the eye of a needle
But but here's the thing about that is that going to heaven is really simple
Because let me just tell you I'm just gonna demystify who's going to heaven and who's not
Okay, people that are totally relying on Jesus for their salvation are going to heaven
Jesus and we're talking about Jesus the Son of God
who died and was buried and rose again for our sins.
You know, if that's what you're relying on,
if that's what you're trusting to get you to heaven,
you're going to heaven, okay?
If you're trusting anything else, you're not going.
So if you're trusting in your own works,
if you're trusting the fact that you go to church,
live a good life, turn from your sins,
turn over a new leaf, do good deeds, right?
The Bible says 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.
And what did Paul say about the Israelites?
He said, Brother, in my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved.
For I bear the record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge,
for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness
have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God.
For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
to everyone that believeth.
So what's he saying?
He's saying, look, they're not saved.
I want them to get saved.
Why are they not saved?
They're trusting in works.
They're trusting in the law,
and they're trying to establish their own righteousness
by doing deeds, by doing works, by doing good deeds.
And really they need to just submit themselves
on the righteousness of God.
And what does he say a couple of verses later?
Hey, if you confess with your mouth to Lord Jesus,
and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead,
you shall be saved.
Is that hard? Does that sound complicated?
Right? Romans said that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised from the dead,
thou shalt be saved.
Easy to get to heaven.
Very simple who's going, but you know what? You've got to be converted and you've got to become like little child.
Just little child, just dada, mama, trusting them, you know, just trusting.
Fully trusting them
Kids can't do any babies can't do anything on their own. They can't can't feed themselves
They can't clean themselves up after using the bathroom. They need every need met by their parents
And you know, that's why it's a great analogy for salvation is just total reliance on God for salvation
Jesus Christ death, burial and resurrection
So he said
If you're not converted and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Verse 4,
Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child,
the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
So first of all,
you've got to become as little children to even enter the kingdom of heaven
in the sense that you have to be humble.
In order to get saved because basically getting saved is all about admitting I'm not good enough. I'm a sinner
I deserve hell. It's just it's it's a free gift. I need Jesus Jesus. Please save me. God be merciful to me a sinner
That's what it takes to get to heaven. Okay, that takes humility
But here's the thing in order to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Yeah, you got to stay humble
and you got to continue to live a life of faith, continue to live a life of trust.
Now here's the thing, even if you just get saved and then you're not a very good Christian,
you're still going to go to heaven, you just don't get the rewards. You lose out on rewards.
But you know, if you want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven, you got to humble yourself.
And that's why he held up, he said, oh yeah, you want to be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
He holds up a little child. He said, be like this child.
Because this child is not puffed up full of ego,
wanting itself, just a kid, you know, humble.
That's the idea.
And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name,
receive with me.
Right? So the Bible is saying, you know, how we treat other people,
in a sense, is how we're treating Christ.
You know, Jesus said, whatever you've done,
under the least of one of these, my brethren,
you've done it unto me. And I know that this is a little bit off-topic from the sermon,
but I'm just working through the passage here, okay? Because we're building up to the part where
it's going to tie into the sermon, so why don't you just relax, okay? So it says,
whosoever shall receive one such little child of my name receiveeth me, and whoso shall offend one
it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck
and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.
So the Bible is saying that God does not take it lightly when we offend people
in the sense of when we are a catalyst for causing people to be more backslidden,
to be less right with God, when we're stopping people from being saved,
we're hindering people from being saved.
called out the Pharisees, he said,
you don't even enter the kingdom of God yourself.
You shut the door to the kingdom of heaven.
But he said, you didn't enter in
and then you shut the door and those you're trying to enter in.
The Pharisees not only didn't get saved,
they were actually a hindrance to other people getting saved.
And he says, man, if you offend one of these little ones,
if you cause a child to go into sin,
I mean, imagine like reading this verse
and then going and selling drugs to a kid.
I mean, if you actually cared what the Bible said, you'd think you'd be scared to death
to show porno to a kid, give drugs to a kid, give alcohol to a kid.
You know what?
There are people in this world who think it's funny.
To show porno to a kid to give alcohol to a kid to give drugs to a kid
They think it's funny to get some straight-laced kid
Teenager young adolescent or ever and just expose them to simple. Oh, I got you shelter. Let me show you
This or why don't you take a puff of this? Why don't you smoke this drink this? I mean look wouldn't you say this verse applies?
to somebody who's getting a kid started on alcohol,
getting a kid started on drugs,
getting a kid started on porno or whatever else,
getting them into fornication or adultery, it's wicked.
And the Bible says if you offend one of these little ones,
and you know, obviously the worst example of this
would be of course the molesters of our world.
He says, man, it'd be better for you that a millstone were hanged about your neck and that you were just drowned in the depths of the sea.
It'd be better if you were dead because just by being on this earth and just offending more people,
you're basically just racking up more of God's wrath upon yourself by doing those things.
And then look at verse 7,
Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come.
But woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.
And then, of course, he says, you know, if I right-hand offend thee, if I handle thy foot offend thee, cut them off as a similar kind of tie-in with what we talked about earlier about that.
But here's what I want to really focus in on verse 7.
You know, what went to the world because of offenses?
Man, isn't the world just so messed up because of just stupid crap that people do that hurts other people's walk with God?
You know what I mean like like and you know, obviously we're we're really upset and we're really grieving about you know
The the death of our friend Kevin Rowe. I wasn't gonna bring it up, but he already brought it up
So, you know, I might as well bring it up too at this point
But like obviously, you know, it's something that hit me particularly hard because he was a very close friend of mine personally
I talked to him at like every service, even though we have a big church like he and I were pretty close and I was just absolutely devastated by this.
And I know that a lot of other people were really devastated by this.
I mean, you know, somebody, somebody like Kevin, you know, he touched a lot of people.
And so, you know.
A lot of people are grieving, a lot of people are hurting, you know, it's like everybody's
saying that Kevin was like their best friend.
It's like, how could he have this many best friends?
But it's just, it's just that, no, no, no, it's not that he necessarily had the many
best friends.
It's just he was that many people's best friend.
It's just like so many people loved him and he was a blessing to so many people.
And, you know, he was such a great guy and you know what his, his, his death at the hands of a drunk driver just absolutely, you know, sent me and many other people just absolutely reeling, just absolutely devastated.
And, you know, I mean, just hours and hours on Sunday, I was just absolutely just sobbing uncontrollably and, you know, and I'm not the only person who felt that way.
And imagine how much worse his wife feels, you know, and, and, and, you know, obviously, you know, people that were even closer to him than I was.
And there are other people that were closer to him than me that I'm sure that are even hurting more than I was.
that, you know, you could see how even something like this could be so discouraging that it could offend people.
Right? You could see somebody just saying, you know what, that's it.
I'm trying to control my emotions here, but, you know, that's it.
Because, you know, if that's what's going to happen to Kevin, you know, and he's such a great guy and he's serving God and everything.
Could you see somebody maybe looking at that and saying, you know, I'm just going to quit on God.
Am I right?
Somebody could feel that way
You know and just say that's it man seeing this happen to Kevin. That's it. I'm done
You think that it would be beyond the realm of possibility that somebody could feel that way or think that way or do that
And you know whose fault that is is the is the drunk driver
Who killed him?
You know and and and that that's what I'm saying is you know
We got to think about our actions and the things that we do because what wouldn't you hate for your action?
To be the reason somebody gets out of church
You do something stupid you do something sinful and you know what it's not just drunk driving folks
Okay, you committing fornication
You committing adultery you divorcing your spouse
You dishonoring your parents, you smoking weed or getting drunk or doing whatever, you know, any number of these things, you could cause someone else to quit the church, you could cause some child or some teenager or some person who's maybe looking up to you or looking up to the people that you've hurt and whatever, you know, you could cause people to be offended and whoa, whoa unto you.
First of all, first of all, woe unto this world because of offenses.
You want to know why this world is a sucky place because of offenses.
That's why.
Because you know what?
If everybody will read in the Bible, if everybody went to church, if everybody loved God, if
everybody cared what God said and lived according to God's word, this will be a way better place.
I mean, who's messing up this world?
All the scammers and thieves and murderers and pornographers and the warmongers and all these evil adulterers
and all of the owners of the casinos and the pimps and the people running the child trafficking.
They're the ones that have made this world so unpleasant.
So it's like woe unto the world because of offenses, man. Like you want to know the why the world's messed up because of offenses?
people
Offending against God's law people breaking God's law people not following the Bible
Woe unto the world because of offenses, but then it says this it must needs be the defenses come
Now why why why do we have to live in a world full of offenses?
You know because here's the thing God could you know just remove all the evil from this world if you wanted to right?
You know, it's like he could just kill all the bad people or just you know do something to stop them
Like obviously God's all-powerful
So God could just he could have just created a world where evil wasn't possible or where evil didn't exist
Right, but God in his providence God in his wisdom
Has chosen for us as his children to live in this world growing as wheat among the tares
Surrounded by sin
Surrounded by drugs debauchery drunkenness human trafficking murdered maliciousness evil, right?
He's chosen for us to go through that it's it's part of the test
As we go through our lives, we have to choose to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then choose to live for God.
And we have to fight those temptations and we have to keep going and keep battling and fighting.
You know, one day God's going to put Satan into hell for a thousand years, but he's going to let him out again.
You know, because it just, it must need to be that offenses must come because you know what God wants us to exercise our free will to do right.
And so we have to be in an environment where evil is possible.
And so here we are. We're on this earth. We're in an environment where there's evil woe into the world sucks for the world because of offenses
Right drunk drivers don't make our lives better
pornographers don't make our lives better
Casino owners don't make our lives. They don't bring value to our lives. They don't prove our lives
Right people making movies and TV shows
Glorifying fagotry they don't make our lives better. They don't make the world a better place
Well into the world because of offenses, you know, well into America when a guy, and here's
the thing, you know, I wasn't even a Charlie Kirk fan because I'm not really that into
politics.
And he just seemed like kind of just a vanilla kind of Republican kind of guy.
He's just kind of like a basic Republican conservative guy.
I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that he said that we would agree with, you know, some of
the stuff that we wouldn't necessarily agree with.
Bro is just talking
Right, I mean, that's what this country is supposed to be about first amendment
You know, especially on a university campus is supposed to be a place where free thought and free expression
and people should be able to freely express their ideas and at least just talk things out and
Debate and figure things out and have a conversation and whatever and bro is just talking and
Just gets blown away
Not because anything he did
But because of stuff that he said and and and really it's just ideas and philosophies and they and he was actually like super nice about the stuff
He's like he's way nicer than I would be about the subject. Sorry. Like you get me talking about some of the subjects he talked about
Trust me it's a lot prettier when he talked about sodomites and trannies and stuff then then your basic like faithful word sermon
I mean, what went to America because of offenses?
And you know what, I think that that shooter,
whoever it was and whatever the motive was,
I think that that shooter probably offended a lot of people
by shooting and killing Charlie Kirk
because you know what's gonna happen?
I think a lot of people are gonna get discouraged
and say, oh, I can't serve God, now I'm too scared.
And then they get offended because they're like, oh, I'm too scared. You know what? I was going to preach
You know, I'm trying to tie together the sermons a little bit
You know, I was gonna be that guy that pastor wrestle described
And I was gonna be that guy who could step up to the plate and maybe preach maybe pastor
Maybe be an evangelist. Maybe just fill the pulpit whatever
I was gonna be that guy that pastor wrestle was calling on me to be but
You know what? I'm too scared now because Charlie Kirk got blown away and he was just a chill guy,
and I was going to raise a lot more hell than him. So I think I'm just going to quit.
And then as a result, people aren't saved. The gospel doesn't go forth like it could have,
because people get offended. Woe unto the world because of offenses. Woe unto America because
of offenses. For unfortunately, it must needs be that offenses come. You know, I mean, it's just
You know, I'm learning this over and over again
That God's will for our lives is to go through a lot of trials and tribulations as Christians
And it's just not gonna be easy
God doesn't want us to be soft. So he doesn't make it easy on us. And so it's super hard
But woe to that man by whom the offense cometh.
And here's what he's saying.
Look, yeah, of course it's necessary
that there be evil in the world for us to be tested.
It's necessary for the temptations to be out there.
It's necessary for evil to exist in this world.
But woe unto that man by whom the offense cometh.
Don't be that guy though that offends other people
that causes them to stumble,
that gets people, be the person
who gets people into church.
Be the person who is promoting the trip and I was told I could preach as long as I want so I'm not I'm so I'm done
I'm sorry so I
saw I'm 73 I
Was told I could preach as long as I want and I'm taking some of the extra time the pastor Russell left on the table
You get okay, thank you for yielding the balance of your time chairman
But you know so I'm all I'm all I'm just joking. I'm almost done
But Psalm 73 is a, you know, great Psalm and it's basically talking about a guy named ASAP and he gets to a point where he's just like what the heck, man, I'm serving God and things are going bad in my life and I'm here serving God.
And I'm looking at people that are not serving God. It seems like they're doing pretty good. What the heck is going on?
You know the topic here not being offended not offending others right because how do we stop ourselves being offended?
We just have to be just totally just locked into the word of God. We love God's law and nothing can offend us
We're rooted in what we believe
We're like a rock. We're steadfast because we found it on the rock. We're attached to the rock. So we're like a rock
We're not these easily offended, fainting the day of adversity, can't run with the footman kind of Christians.
But then also, we want to make sure we're not offending other people where we're, you know, we want to be somebody who's getting people in it.
We want to be gathering with Jesus, not scattering.
Not scattered. You know, there are pastors who basically they bring people to Christ and they bring people to church
And so what happens you have a pastor he comes in and he takes over and he starts preaching and then people are added to the church
Like like Barnabas. He's a good man and
Fully goes and much people was added to the Lord
Then you got the pastors who scatter the flock
They scatter the flock they they're just offending people fending offending offend these people scatter the flock and ruin it
I mean, I can't think of any examples, but
But here it's song song 73
You know, here's what here's what ASAP's thinking when he's when he's in this wrong frame of mind that we've all been there like
Man, what the heck? Why am I not prospering? I'm serving God. What's going on?
And so ASAP's like behold. These are the ungodly who prosper in the world
They increase in riches. I'm on verse 12 of Psalm 73
Verily, I've cleansed my hands in vain.
I'm sorry, I can't see. I need to use my glasses.
Verily, I've cleansed my heart in vain and washed my hands in innocence.
For all the day long, have I been plagued and chastened every morning.
Like, man, what in the world? I'm serving God. Everything goes bad for me.
The ungodly are prospering in the world.
Man, this isn't right. This isn't fair.
But then look what it says in verse 15,
if I say I will speak thus,
behold, I should offend against the generation
of thy children.
And when I thought to know this,
it was too painful for me.
He's like, oh man, I don't wanna do that.
Last thing I wanna do is offend one of these little ones.
Everybody understand what I'm saying?
So realize that what it means to not offend the little ones.
Don't glorify the life of sin.
Don't say that serving God doesn't pay off
Don't glorify a wicked life. Don't say it's no use. It's not worth it. I tried it. It didn't work. I'm quitting
I'm done with church. I'm done with sorting. I already tried it. God didn't come through for me
Don't talk like that say that crap boy because you're gonna offend against the generation of the children
You know, what's gonna you know, what's gonna offend?
God's people, you know, what's going to offend the children is when you glorify a life of sin and when you downplay the blessings of serving God.
And so this is another way that, you know, maybe you wouldn't necessarily think of it as a way to offend children because it's pretty easy to see how offending a child, like telling them, hey, smoke this, drink this, look at this.
You know, those are really obvious ways that you're causing children to sin, causing people to get out of church.
Okay, or just by your own actions you quitting on God is gonna cause other people to quit on God, right?
Like oh, I'm going fishing. Well, I'm going to
Remember when Peter quit on God a bunch of people quit with them
But you know, yeah, we're all gonna feel that way sometimes in Psalm 73, but you know what? We're stronger than that
We're better than that. We have greater faith than that
And so we're going to be in it for the long haul. We're gonna stay with it. And you know what?
I guarantee you, look, I'm glad for all the people that showed up tonight,
I'm glad that we have so many people here from the local area,
but you know what, I'll bet you there are a whole bunch of people that should be here tonight that aren't here.
You know, and I'm not saying that they have to be at this exact service or something like that.
That's not the point.
The point is, I'll bet you there have been a lot of people in this area and you know,
I'm not super knowledgeable about everything in this area, but I know that, you know, many,
many moons ago, you know, Verity Baptist Church, Pastor Roger Jimenez founded this church. Am I right?
And he founded the church up here and, you know, he founded it and he had a vision for it and a whole bunch of people came and a whole bunch of great works for God happened and one sinner destroys much good.
You have one freaking lunatic idiot preaching damnable heresy.
preaching some of the stupidest doctrine I've ever heard things things that I've
never heard in my life I've never I've been in church a long time I thought I'd
been exposed to like every heresy at this point in my life but there's always
like I've never I've just never heard anyone say God's not gonna punish
Christians on this earth if they sin like God's not gonna chase and then
chastise us on this earth if we sin he's not gonna punish us as Christians if
Because it's just like everybody just knows
Whom the Lord love it he chasing it and scourges every son whom he received it and and all these things and you know
pastor Thompson just
Absolutely just nuked
That doctrine with that just with his breakdown on Hebrews 10, you know, you remember that
That was awesome
You know
But it's just like you know what that's it. I'm done is that I mean that's so what?
You know if some some bozo
Takes a work that was founded one way
And it was supposed to be something great, had a big crowd of people coming,
50 people, zealous, ready to serve God, knocking doors, winning souls, ready to go
and do something great in this area. And then just runs it into the absolute ground,
runs off like every single person virtually, runs that ministry absolutely into the ground.
You know what I would expect? I would expect that every single one of those people who love God.
That was in that what it used to be called what Verity Boise? Is that what it's called?
Verity Baptist Boise I would expect correct me if I'm wrong about any of this history, but I'm pretty sure I nailed it so far
Okay, but I would expect for every single person who was there to still be serving God
Still soul-winning
Still a fundamentalist Baptist and even if they're not going to that particular church
I would I would expect them to be in the best church they can find in this area the best
You know old IFV or whatever you want to call it the best local church
I would expect for everybody to be even if the church lets you down even if the leaders let you down
Even if people let you down, I would expect for every single person who was there and said,
hey, I want to be a part of this church. We're going to do great things for God.
This is exciting. Thank you so much, Pastor Jimenez, for planning this church in our area,
whatever. I would expect for all those people to still be following Jesus Christ because the
Bible didn't change.
Jesus didn't change nothing changed except just a little speed bump and and and you know what as
Violent as Joe Jones talks about being all the time. I don't think he's shed any of y'all's blood. I
Don't think that bro has shed a drop of blood
You know he sounds super violent whenever he talks for like I don't think he's actually gotten violent
So you've not yet resisted on the bloodstriving against it. So you know what? It's easy to whine about it and say oh been there done that tried it
I'm done. I'm out. You know, I'm just gonna coast and look
Bet you there's by a lot of people who got offended totally got out of church
There's probably other people who maybe are just going to the most comfortable church that they can and are just kind of just coasting
And they're just they're just kind of just doing the minimum checking it off, man. You know what?
Just realize that your strength is small if that's you because you should be
pushing and doing
More works for God, you know what?
The worst events of my life happened to me in the year 2024 and in 2025. I'm having my greatest year ever by every metric
Right so it's like you know what you can you can whine and you can be sad
And you can give up and fail or you can say you know what screw it
I don't care what other people are gonna do. God's still on his throne. I'm not gonna be offended
I'm gonna have my best year ever for the Lord and serve God like I've never served him before. Why not be?
Why not be more excited about serving God in September of 2025 than you've ever been in your entire life? Why not?
Oh, because this guy is Joe Jones. That's not an excuse. The world is filled with Joe Joneses.
First of all, just open a phone book and I'll bet you you're gonna find a guy named Joe Jones in every city in America.
Probably a whole page of Joe Jones
But you know there's also just people like that and you know what it's I was thinking about the drunk driver
Who killed our good friend and I thought to myself? I'm not even mad at him because there's a million other people just like him
Don't even want to know who it is. I don't want to know his name. I don't want to get mad at him because you know what?
I'm just mad at every drunk driver. I'm just I'm just mad at everybody who who does that kind of stuff
It's just it's just stupid and it worthless
But you know the world is filled with bozos and offenders and trash people
But you know what it's not gonna get any better my friend. It's gonna get worse
So, you know, there's two kinds of people. There are people who just shake off the trash people and move forward and the people who just
Lick their wounds for the rest of their life. I don't know about you. I'm moving forward
And you know what? I hope that if there's anybody who maybe should be here tonight
Or, you know, maybe they're with us in spirit or maybe watching this recording that lives
in this area.
You know, my challenge to you that are not here tonight is, you know, wherever you are,
you better be serving God and you better be kicking some serious butt and not just be
coasting and when you understand what we've been through up here.
You know what?
I'm sorry.
I don't think that y'all have been through something up here worse than what I've been
through in my life.
I just don't.
Now, maybe personally you have, but this church thing, I'm sorry, we've all been through stuff like that.
If you're in church for decades, you're going to go through that kind of stuff, and worse.
And if that's all it takes to stop you, well then, I'm sorry, you just kind of suck, alright?
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Lord God, we thank you so much for your people, Lord.
Lord, I pray that everyone who's who's here tonight in this Boise area and even those who are watching at home
That are in this Boise area Lord. I pray that they would all be encouraged and inspired by the sermon Lord
I pray that they would understand that I'm not trying to chastise them
But that I love them and and Lord God I pray that you would just help them to realize
That being offended
is not right for us as Christians.
We need to stay in the battle
and Lord, help us to realize that when we
quit on God
and when we say these things
that we're offending other people too.
Lord, help us not to talk like
that ASAF kind of talk.
Lord, help us to
do the right thing
and to stay with it.
And Lord God, I just pray that you would just do a great work in people's lives up here and Lord, bless our soul winning tomorrow.
Help us to get many people saved even tomorrow, but Lord, even after myself and Pastor Thompson and Pastor Russell go home,
I pray that the fire would continue, whether it's in old IFB churches or wherever it is,
just that the fire would not stop and that your people would do great works in this area and that many would be saved.
In Jesus' name we pray amen.