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So the title of my sermon tonight is, In the Beginning of a Great Church, and I'm gonna give seven principles of starting a church or seven principles of church growth from Genesis chapter 1. Think about Genesis chapter 1 is that it's a chapter that we've read so many times. It's probably the most read chapter in the whole world because of how many people have started reading the Bible and didn't finish it, right? So Genesis chapter 1 is something that we've all heard over and over again, but no matter how many times you read it, you'll always pick up new things because the Bible is so deep that even a chapter as simple as Genesis chapter 1 often has just hidden truths that we've never even thought about. But I want to apply this to a new church. Now obviously this church has been around for a couple years, but in the scheme of things it's still a pretty new church, and it's new for being an independent Baptist church because it's gone through the process of being planted and the umbilical cord has been cut, and so now we've got a brand new church here, Shur Foundation Baptist Church. So I want to give you seven things from Genesis chapter 1 about the beginning of a great church. Number one I want to point out from verse number one that it's the Lord that builds the church. He's the creator. The Bible says in verse 1, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Now flip over to Colossians chapter number one in the New Testament. Colossians chapter 1, the Bible says in Matthew 16 18, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So Jesus said I will build my church. In Psalm 127 verse 1 the Bible says, except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. So the house of God must be built by God himself. It's the Lord who builds the church. Look at Colossians chapter 1 verse 15, who is the image of the invisible God. Who are we talking about? Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. For by him were all things created, that brings us back to Genesis 1, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him all things consist and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence for it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell. So the Bible is telling us that Jesus Christ is the creator and he's the head of the church. He's the one that builds the church. Now why is that important? Because if we feel like it's our responsibility to build the church, then we're gonna start using carnal means to do so and start thinking that we have to follow, you know, rational and logical means of just how to get people in here and that's what's going on in most churches today. They're not relying on the Lord to build a spiritual house, they're just doing it themselves. So they're using methods that are gonna work for them, whether it's bringing in a rock band, getting the the backup singers up here in the short skirts swinging and swaying and jamming for Jesus, whatever carnal worldly methods, they'll send out a survey to the area saying, hey, what are you looking for in a church? What do you want the church to offer? We'll give you what you want. And honestly, you know, for you Pastor Thompson, when you realize that God builds the church, it takes some of the pressure off because I remember when I first started pastoring at Faithful Word Baptist Church and not knowing am I able to build the church, am I up to the challenge of building the church, I don't know if I have what it takes, but then it kind of took the pressure off when I realized, you know what, God's gonna build the church. All I need to do is just faithfully obey his commands. Go out and knock the doors, win the souls to Christ, preach the sermons that God wants me to preach, preach what the Bible says and let the chips fall where they may. And my attitude has always been, well, if God doesn't build the church, well then, you know, that's just up to him. That's his problem. You know, he said he's gonna build it. He told me to preach the whole Bible. I'm just gonna preach the whole Bible, knock the doors, and you know, I'll leave the rest up to him. And if it doesn't work, because I remember in the early days I didn't know is this gonna work? But I just said, you know what, if it doesn't work, I'm gonna get to heaven and I'm gonna ask God, hey, why didn't that work? Because I did everything you told me to do. But thank God it did work. It has worked. It will always work. If you preach the Word of God and win souls to Christ, God will build the church. And it's great to have that assurance to know that that success is guaranteed. You know, if you do your part, God's gonna do his part. And so we need to realize that it's God who builds the church. We don't need to take it into our own hands and say, and then look, how many times have people said, oh, you can't build a church preaching like that. You'll never build a church like that. Those methods will never work. You know, I, you know, one of my former pastors said to me, well, you know, I'd like to see the church that you ever build like that. Well, come and see it, buddy. You want me to send you a picture? It said 2741 West Southern Avenue in Tempe, Arizona. And you know why? Because it had to be built by God. Man could never build a church like Faithful Word Baptist Church, because it defies all the trends and all the logic of what people want in a church or what they think is going to work. You know what works is just doing what God told you to do, preaching the Bible, winning souls. Let him deal with the results. You just worry about doing your part. God builds the church. So Genesis one, and you're going to want to just keep your finger in Genesis one, because that's where we're going to be for the whole sermon, even as we turn to other places. So number one, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. He's the creator. He builds the church. But number two, verse two says, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. Number two, as God builds the church, he brings order to the chaos. You see, in this chapter, we are seeing God making things in an orderly fashion. It starts out without form and void, and he has to bring order to the chaos, and that's what we see him doing throughout this chapter. Now the Bible says in 1st Corinthians 14, let all things be done decently and in order. He said in Titus chapter 1, verse 5, for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. In Colossians 2, 5, Paul praises the churches there for their orderliness, their order, okay? God is a God of order. So number one, God builds the church, but number two, God is gonna build an orderly church. He's gonna bring order to the chaos. What do I mean by that? Is that church should not be a free-for-all. Church is not an open mic at a karaoke bar. Church is not anarchy. Church is not a place where just bozos wandering off the street, and we just put them behind the pulpit the first Sunday, and where anything goes wrong. You know, the church has a pastor. The church has the bishop, the overseer. The church has that elder that is to watch for your souls, that is to rule in the house of God. I said rule. The Bible says let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honor, and so we need to have order. We need to have leadership. We need to have a man that's ordained, and you know, this church could have started the wrong way a couple years ago, but instead this church started the right way. Orderly, going through the proper procedure, the proper steps, the right process of the pastor, you know, being trained and being ordained and things being done decently and in order. God is a God of order, and so when we think about a church starting, we want to make sure that, you know, it's orderly, that it's done decently in order, not just chaotic, free-for-all, but it should be orderly. But number three, look down if you would at Genesis chapter 1 verse 3, and God said, let there be light, and there was light, and God saw the light that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. Number three, as God builds the church, he brings division through his word. One of the biggest things that stands out to you in chapter 1 of Genesis is all the division that's going on. God divided. God divided. He separated this from that. He divided this from that. Go if you would to Leviticus chapter number 10, the dreaded book, the third book of the Bible, Leviticus chapter number 10 verse 8. Go to Leviticus 10. Hey, God's a God of division. So number one, we learn from Genesis 1 that God's gonna build the church. Number two, as he builds the church, it's gonna be done in an orderly fashion because God is a very orderly God. He takes that which is disorganized and chaotic, and he brings it into order. He arranges it in order. God's a very organized God. I mean, throughout the Bible, we see rulers of ten, rulers of a hundred, rulers of a thousand, all these different ordinations and ordinances all throughout the Bible, and that's the way the church should be, you know, an organized soul-winning program, an organized schedule of services, maps on the wall, and this is the plan, and these are the dates, this is the calendar, this is what we're gonna do. You know, a streamlined setup is what God wants to see, amen? All throughout the Bible, we see examples of that. I mean, I, you know, I've been studying 1 Chronicles. It's just amazing how David's kingdom is so orderly, it's so complicated, just all the things that he has in place to make sure everything ran smoothly. But God's a God, number three, of division, and the right kind of church is gonna be one that promotes division. Now, division is like a bad word now. Like, oh, we gotta have unity all the time. Hey, there's a place for unity and a place for division. Division's important. Look at Leviticus chapter 10, verse 8, the Lord spake unto Aaron, saying, do not drink wine. So he spake unto Aaron. I didn't even think about that when I was making the sermon. He said, Aaron, don't drink, no, don't call him Aaron, he's Pastor Thompson, all right? You know, the Lord said unto Aaron, do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee. Okay, all right, Remy, Josh, all right, you know? He says, nor thy sons with thee. When you go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die, it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations, and that you may put difference between a holy and unholy, between unclean and clean, that you may teach the children of Israel all the statutes which the Lord had spoken to them by the hand of Moses. You know, God's saying we need to make a division just like God divided the light from the darkness, just like he divided the waters above the ferment from the waters under the ferment, just like he divided the dry land from the seas, we need to divide between what's right and what's wrong, what's clean and what's unclean, holy and profane. He said don't drink because when you drink, you're gonna lose that distinction. Have you noticed how people that are drunk, they can't tell what's sanitary and what's not sanitary. They'll put their head right in that toilet bowl of that public restroom, they'll do all kinds of other nasty, gross things. Why? Because, you know, I remember I knew someone really well and this person would never eat or drink after anyone, just really germaphobic, but when they would drink, oh, they'll drink after everybody and just all sanitation goes out the window at that point. Well, guess what, the distinction between right and wrong also goes out the window when you drink alcohol, and that's the reason why we should not drink wine, we should not drink strong drink. Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise, and we want to be able to divide what's right from what's wrong. Go to Luke chapter 12. Luke in the New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Luke chapter number 12, and we'll see division is not just an Old Testament virtue, but it's a New Testament virtue as well. Division. God has a division between right and wrong. Hey, by the way, in Genesis 1, he divided between male and female, and that's a distinction that needs to be preached in 2018 because we're trying to blur the lines now in America between male and female, there ought to be a stark contrast between male and female. God is a God division. He divided. Look, if you're gonna have a great church, number one, it's gonna be built by God. Number two, it's gonna be orderly, it's gonna be done decently in an order, and number three, it's gonna be a church characterized by a division where you know what the difference is between right and wrong, and there's a difference, a division between who's in the church from those outside the church. I mean, do you want to be just exactly like the world where we come in here and everybody's just like the world, they fornicate like the world, they drink like the world, they take drugs like the world, they party like the world? No, we want it to be different. We're supposed to be a peculiar people. We're supposed to come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing. That's what the Bible says, and so we need there to be division, and you know what? Church ought to be a place where we can tell the difference between a man and a woman. And in our homes and throughout our lives, we need to have a distinction between the genders all the time. And today, how many times do you walk up to some creature and you cannot tell if it's a man or a woman? And you don't even know. I mean, you know, I was at the airport recently and this thing took my bag and I still don't know if it was a man or a woman because it had a five o'clock shadow, but it had a voice like a woman, but it had like a beard, you know, a five o'clock shadow, and I still don't know. I think it was in transition from what it, but I don't even know which direction it was even going, you know, on that pathway, you know, but it was going through some kind of a metamorphosis or transformation, but I'm telling you, you know, it used to be in America that men wore pants, women wore skirts and dresses, men had short hair, women had long hair, men were rugged and manly, women were feminine and delicate. You know, today that stuff's going out the window, and what's funny is that you'd think that in 2018 that stuff will be more important than ever with all the trannies and weirdos out there. Wouldn't you think more than ever, if you're a woman you better dress like a woman, and more than ever as a man you'd want to dress like a man because we need that more, but it seems like churches are backing off on that now when we actually need it more than we used to. This preaching is more necessary than it was in the 1960s, but yet now churches are backing off on this and well, you know, it's not a big, hey, I want to be even more gender specific in 2018 because the world is trying to push us the other way, and God divided male from female, water from dry land, right from wrong, but not only that, there, you know, there's a division that needs to take place between those who serve the Lord and those who don't, those who love the Lord and those who don't, those who are saved and those who aren't saved, you know, whatever. We need to be able to divide from people that are the wrong kind of people. What does the Bible say in Luke 12 51? Suppose ye that I'm come to give peace on earth, this is Jesus speaking, I tell you nay, but rather division. I mean, let that verse sink in Luke 12 51, that's a memory verse for you. Jesus Christ is saying, look, I didn't come to give peace on earth, I came to bring division, he said. So he's the same God as when he was creating things in Genesis 1, and it says, for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, that was gonna happen anyway, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. I mean, he's being really specific going into detail, really driving in this point, there's gonna be division, there are gonna be people that you have to separate from, you know. Now look, we love unsaved people, and we want the unsaved to get saved, amen? But you know what, when people are in the church and they're a false teacher, when not only are they unsaved, but they've actually just completely embraced a false gospel, or a false way of salvation, and then they're teaching that to other people, you know, we got to get rid of people like that, like false prophets who are trying to bring in works-based salvation, or trying to deny the Trinity, or deny the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, or you know, just coming in, bringing in other damnable heresies, you know what, those people need to be thrown out, okay? We need to put those people away from us, we need to mark and avoid them that cause divisions contrary to the doctrine that we've learned, okay? So the right kind of division is when we get those bozos out, amen? And so don't be this one that has this attitude of, well, we just got to include everyone. Just include everyone. You know, I don't want Faithful Word Baptist Church to include everyone. No homos allowed, amen? And not only that, but we don't want to include all false doctrine. We don't want to include, you know, the Bible has standards, the Bible has a mandate of what is permissible in the church and what is not. Now look, of course the church is filled with sinners. I'm a sinner, you're a sinner. The church is gonna be filled with people that are at all stages of growth, and we don't want to be a holier-than-thou, or prideful, or arrogant, but you know what? We got to draw the line somewhere where God draws the line and says, hey, if somebody's coming to church and they're a drunkard, that's not gonna work. Somebody's living in open fornication, that's not gonna work. You know, and if somebody's teaching heresy, they need to be cast out. We need to divide ourselves from those people, because the whole point of even being in church is being that called-out assembly, being that group that's outside the camp, that's different from the world out there, not to just see how many warm bodies we can just cram into a room. That's not what a church is about. It's about fellowshipping with people that are at least like-minded on the essentials, right? And not just a free-for-all, orderly, and a God of division is what we see from Genesis 1 all the way to Luke chapter 12 verse 51. Go back to the beginning of your Bible there, number four. We see that God calls things by the right name, because remember, we're learning principles about a new church and church growth from Genesis chapter 1. We saw, number one, that the Lord builds the church. He's the ultimate creator. Number two, we saw that as he builds the church, he does it in an orderly fashion, and he brings order to our lives, and he brings order to the administration of the church. Number three, God brings division through his word. He separates the wheat from the chaff. He separates the men from the boys. He differentiates between right and wrong, good and evil, clean and unclean. But fourthly, God calls things by their right name. He uses the correct terminology. Look at Genesis chapter 1 verse 5. God called the light day, and the darkness he called night, and the evening and the morning were the first day. Of course, in the rest of the chapter, we see that he calls the dry land earth, and he calls the gathering together of the water seas. You know, God is constantly in the Bible naming things, and it's so important that we call things by their proper name, that we use the right terminology, right? Like, don't call this Verity Baptist Church. No, I'm just kidding. It's Sure Foundation Baptist Church. You know, you gotta use the right name, right? Now, I'm just joking about that, but I'm sure it's gonna take a while to get used to. I've been telling people for the past few days I was going to preach at Verity Vancouver, you know, so I've been guilty of that, too. But the point is that God gives names to things that are the appropriate name. I mean, if God calls it by its name, let's use that name. What am I talking about? Well, today a lot of people, they want to soften up the language when it comes to sin so that it doesn't sound as bad. That's what the modern versions are doing, too. They soften up the Bible, don't they? You know, it's adultery. It's not called having an affair. That's such a stupid word. It's called adultery. You know, but today people are offended by words like bastard, fornication, whore, whoredom, whoremonger, harlot. You know, that's what God calls the promiscuous young people of our day. He calls them whores and whoremongers. He calls them harlots, and these are Bible words. But people want to tone that down and say, oh, he's a player. I mean, talk about a euphemism, right? Oh, he's just a player. Well, she's just a little loose. She's a whore is what she is. That's what the Bible says, okay? And you say, oh, you know, you're slut shaming. What in the world? When did it stop being shameful to be a whore? It's wicked. It ought to be shameful. You ought to be ashamed of yourself if you're involved in that. Get right with God. Amen. You know, oh, terminate the pregnancy. It's called murder. It's not a pregnancy termination, right? We need to call things by their proper name. You know, you say, well, he's an alcoholic. Oh, you mean he's a drunk, right? I mean that, you know, we need to use Bible terms. We need to call sin, sin. We need to call night, night and day, day, and not try to make night seem a little lighter and day seem a little darker and try to soften things up. And you know, long before I ever knew anything about the King James issue, the first thing I noticed about the modern versions was how soft they were. Cause I grew up as a young child with the King James. But when, when I got to be a teenager, we started going to churches that preached out of the new versions, the NIB, the new American standards, stuff like that. And I didn't know anything about, you know, the different manuscripts. And I didn't even know that there were different manuscripts. I just thought it was just a different translation from the same source. That's what I thought. You know, you probably thought the same thing for awhile, right? Just different translations. You didn't really know that they were coming from a different source document. And so the thing I didn't like, just as a teenager who knew nothing about this, the thing I didn't like about the new versions was I felt like they were softening up the Bible because I always had a King James. I never got rid of the King James and I'd be sitting in church and my King James says, hell, and they're saying, Hades, they're saying Sheol, they're saying Gehenna. Okay. And then, you know, we get to damnation that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure on righteousness. And then it'll, you know, it'll soften that too. Well, they'll, they'll be condemned, you know, instead of using the stronger language, you know, it takes out words like hell, damnation, fire and brimstone, devils, piss, bastard, you know, as bad language. Well, according to who? Tipper Gore? Because it's in the Bible. Nobody gets that anymore. You know, but anyway, when I was a kid, there was this campaign by Tipper Gore to like put warning labels on things about bad language. But anyway, you know, who decides what's a bad word? The Bible says the words of the Lord are pure words. The Bible says every word of God is pure. So if you're offended by words that are in the Bible, maybe you're just, maybe your language is a little too clean. When you're cleaner than God, you're more righteous than God now? You know, you think God's offensive? What in the world? You know, there are plenty of wicked things that can come out of your mouth that you shouldn't be saying, but guess what? None of them are in the Bible. Everything in the Bible can flow freely out of our mouths. Amen. And so, you know, we need to use the words God uses. God uses some pretty coarse and strong language in the Bible. I mean, there are some passages in the Bible that use some very rough, strong language. And if you're too smooth for that, maybe you're just a little too smooth. And we need to call things by their right name. We need to call a spade a spade. But not only when we name sin should we use biblical terminology, which is basically strong language for sin in many cases, but not only that, when it comes to spiritual matters and theology, you know, we should use biblical terms to make sure that we're properly understood. Like, when we talk about salvation, we should talk about believing in Christ, not making a commitment to Christ. Right? Now, just that little change in terminology, that could really mislead people, you know. Or when they say, hey, in order to be saved, you got to have a relationship with Christ. That could be misleading. That could confuse people. That could make people think that it's a works-based salvation. Whereas if we stick with terms like salvation by faith, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, receiving eternal life, everlasting life, you know, those are words that really convey the message of the gospel. They really convey eternal security when you talk about everlasting life. Eternal life. Right? So it's good to use biblical terminology in regard to salvation, in regard to our doctrine. Now, I do believe that there's a time to use words that are not in the Bible. I don't limit myself to only Bible words. I use words that are not in the Bible. Let me give you what I've always taught on language. Here are the two types of language that I want to use. Number one, I want to use the Bible's language, biblical terminology. But number two, I also want to use words that are easy to be understood. These are the two types of words that are in my vocabulary as a preacher. Now you say, well, you should only just say exactly what the Bible says. Well then, what do you even need preaching for? Why don't we just get up and just read the Bible for an hour and go home? The whole purpose of preaching is to do what? It's to explain the Bible. You don't just get up and say exactly what the Bible says. Hey, that's it folks. That's all folks. You know, God said it better than I could. Is that preaching? The whole point of preaching is to expound the Bible. Okay? And to apply it to the day that we're living in. Right? The Bible has been around for thousands of years, but it's just as relevant. But we need to apply it to the day we're living in. So a preacher who just gets up and says exactly what the Bible says is failing as a preacher because I got Alexander Skirby to do that. To just tell me exactly what the Bible said. The point is that he tells us what the Bible says and then he explains it and expounds it and puts it in 2018 America in that context. That's what preaching is, right? They gave the sense thereof, the Bible said in Nehemiah when they preached the Bible. They explained it. They expounded it. They gave the sense. They gave the meaning. They gave the explanation. Now 1st Corinthians 14 says this, So likewise ye, in verse 9, except ye utter by the tongue words easy to be understood, how shall it be known what is spoken? For you shall speak into the air. So the two kinds of words that I like to use are Bible words and words that are easy to understand to help explain the Bible. So complicated words that people don't understand, you know, why would I use them? You know, just to sound smart, right? To edify myself, to lift myself up. You know, I think that the word rapture is a great word. Now it's not a Bible word but it's easy to be understood and it explains a clear principle. The word rapture comes from Latin because of the fact that the Bible was translated into Latin and there are many, many copies of the Bible in Latin. So a lot of people knew Bible verses from Latin. So the term of being caught up together, that term is where we get our word rapture, caught up. See, you could call it the catching up but that just doesn't roll off the tongue, does it? So rapture is just a Latin way of saying the catching up. You know, you want to call it the catch up. You know, it doesn't sound right. It doesn't mean, you know, people aren't gonna know what you're talking about. There's nothing wrong with using words that aren't in the Bible as long as they're easily understood and help us explain the Bible, right? And as long as they match up with what the Bible is teaching. So a word like rapture matches the Bible because the Bible said we're gonna be caught up together with him in the clouds and rapture's literal meaning is to be caught up. Even some people use it in a non-spiritual context of just being enraptured. It means they're just kind of caught up in emotion or caught up in the feeling. Who knows what I'm talking about, right? With that term of rapture. Okay, another word that's not in the Bible that we like to use is Trinity. But again, it's just easy to understand and it basically just means the three that are one, you know, and it's just tri, unity, three and one. So that's just a word where if we use it, people know what we're talking about. When we say the Trinity, it means there's three persons, one God. And so that's like a shorthand for that concept. Now people say, well call it the Godhead or, you know, that's the Bible. That's not even what Godhead even means, first of all, number one, because Godhead simply means divinity or deity. It means Godhood, if you actually look it up in a dictionary and study the word. Godhead means Godhood. Now you could obviously refer to God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as the Godhood because obviously that's the only three persons that are God. So they, all of divinity is right there. That's a complete Godhead right there. But, you know, to sit there and say, oh get rid of the word Trinity because it's not in the Bible is a dumb argument. Let me give an example of why it's important sometimes that we do use words sometimes that are not just in the Bible. My dad brought a friend to church one time and the pastor got up and just ripped face on the sodomites for an hour. You know, this is like 20 years ago. And, you know, the pastor, sodomites this, sodomites that, he preached a whole sermon and then they get out in the car and my dad asked his buddy, you know, what'd you think about the sermon? And his buddy said, I just have one question, what's a sodomite? You know, so the whole, he missed the whole sermon. The entire sermon just went right over his head because he had no clue what a sodomite is. So that's why sometimes you have to use words that people understand, use words that they know the meaning of in 2018 America in order to explain, not to contradict the Bible, but to explain what the Bible say. Now, have a relationship with Christ, that doesn't expound or explain believe. That's just changing to the wrong name. Okay. But, you know, explaining how, what it means to believe using words like trust, you know, that's a Bible word. That makes sense. That has the same meaning. And so it's good to explain things, but don't use the wrong term. Don't try to soften sin. Don't use fancy theological confusing words. You know, I don't even like to use the term that God is sovereign. You know why? Because the Bible never says the word sovereign in it one time. If you have a King James, now if you have an NIV, it says like over 400 times. But if you have a King James version, you'll never find the word sovereign. And that word sovereign is such a loaded word. Because to them, when they say that, and the them I'm talking about is the people who love to use that word, which are the who? Calvinists, right? They love that sovereign grace of God. And they love talking about how God is sovereign. And in fact, I can't even count how many times I've started to discuss with a Calvinist, and the first thing he said, Well, you do believe God's sovereign. And I just say, No, I don't. They just, this does not compute, you know. I just say, No, I don't know what that means. You know, that's not what the Bible says. Their start, their whole starting point is like, well, God's sovereign. That's like their starting point. But that's such a loaded word. What does that even mean? You know, that's not a word that's easy to be understood. That's not taking the Bible and making it simpler. That's taking the Bible and making more complicated, more difficult. What they mean by sovereign is they mean God controls everything. Well, God's sovereign. So he basically, well, no, that's not what the Bible teaches. What the Bible teaches is that God's all-powerful. God is, if we actually go with what the Bible calls it, God is God Almighty. Almighty, all power, omnipotent, right? God's Almighty. So that means God has the power to do whatever. But sovereign to them means he's controlling everything. Now, let me give you an example. You could use the word sovereign correctly by saying, well, the king is a sovereign of his empire. Does that mean he's controlling everyone in the empire? No, it just means he makes the rules. It just means he has the power to punish people that disobey. But that word sovereign has become such a loaded word and it's become such a Calvinistic word that I think we should completely just delete it from our vocabulary. Because it's not helping anybody understand anything. It's just confusing people and teaching a garbage doctrine called Calvinism that we don't believe in. Amen? You know, so it's better just to use the Bible's word, hey, he's almighty, he's all-powerful, he's omnipotent, and explain it in that way. Or break it down into simpler language. But don't come at me with words like sovereign. Because that just says Calvinist. And you know, God calls things by their right name. That's point four. Have you noticed how just the words that people use, you can tell a lot about that person? And that's why we should make sure we call things by the right name. You know, for example, in the book of Judges, when you had a dispute between the, you know, the Ephraimites and the Gileadites, and they were trying to figure out who's the good guy and who's the bad guy. And so if they couldn't pronounce the word shibboleth, you remember that story? Then they said, well you're one of the enemies and you got killed. You know, so hopefully you just don't have a speech impediment. Okay. But you know, the one tribe of Israel, they only made a sound, right? Because there's a Hebrew letter shin, and sometimes it makes a like a hard S sound, and sometimes makes a sound. So this one tribe, they didn't do that. They just always pronounce it like an S. They didn't have a sh sound. Like I don't think Spanish has a sh sound, does it? Because there's a restaurant called Señor Suchy. They don't, it's like they don't have the sushi. So I don't think that, you know, so basically they couldn't say shibboleth. So the way that you talk identifies you, right? You hear somebody talk and you can kind of tell where they're from. You know, oh you're from New Jersey, or you know, you're from California, or you're from wherever. Well have you noticed that when you're out soul winning, the terminology people use can just tip you off exactly where they're coming from. Okay. Now let me just quiz you guys, okay? See who's been soul winning and talking to the false religions? Name that, we're gonna play a little game, name that false religion, okay? All right, so if I'm out soul winning and somebody starts talking to me about Heavenly Father, not the Heavenly Father or our Heavenly Father, because we often talk about like our Father which is in heaven, our Heavenly Father, the Heavenly Father, but I'm talking about ditch the the, ditch the are, they just say well Heavenly Father this and Heavenly Father that. Who am I? Mormons, right? So that's just like a dead giveaway, okay? I was just out soul winning a couple days ago and we're talking to this guy and we talked to him for like 10 minutes and we walked away and I said to my soul winning partner, I don't know if you realize, but that person was Mormon. And he's like, how did you know that? You know, what what made you think that he was Mormon? Now he didn't say Heavenly Father, but the first thing out of his mouth when he asked if he could show him the gospel was, oh I, he just said, oh yeah, I'm always interested in learning about other religions. Which is something the Mormons will always say, like the Mormon missionaries will come to the church with the name tags, they were here what, a few weeks ago he said? And it's just, oh you know, I'd love to learn about other religions. So it's just like, even just that little thing, it's just like, boom, it's a Mormon. You know, even like, you get really sensitive to these things because you just pick up on little clues. I'm trying to remember what the, there was another big clue, oh yeah, this is what it was. And this isn't even a bad word, this is a Bible word. But my soul winning partner begins to explain the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ and this person said, oh yeah, the atonement. Now the atonement, that's not a bad word, but just that's what the Mormons call it all the time. They're just like, the atonement, the atonement, the atonement, the atonement. So it's just like, it's a term that they like to use, so just boom, it just identifies them, right? So I told the guy because of those two things, I knew it was a Mormon. And it was a Mormon, of course. You know, the Jehovah's Witnesses, you know, they come up and tell you we're Bible students. So when somebody comes up to you and says, I'm a Bible student, no there's nothing wrong with being a Bible student, amen. But isn't that just a term that they use? Like, we're Bible students, okay? And they come up and they say that to you and you just, you know right away, just like, you know, if they're going to the Kingdom Hall, you know, they're Jehovah's Witness, right? So there are different terms that kind of give away different religions. If somebody's praying and they say, Father God this, Father God that, Father God, Father God, who am I? Who knows what I'm talking about? Pentecostals, right? Where they say, it's just kind of, they just have their own little kind of lingo and terminology. What if a preacher gets up and beats the pulpit and says, they're reprobates! You know, he's one of us! You know, he's one of our friends, you know? No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. But the point is, you know, the way we talk, it identifies who our influences are, who we run with, what we believe, what our doctrine is, and so I think it's pretty important that we use the right terminology for things, the right terms. And we, you know, we don't want to sound like a false religion, right? We don't want to say, hey, Mass is at 10 30 a.m. and, you know, we're gonna worship, you know, Allah. Talk about the Allah of the Bible now, because Allah is just Arabic for God, you know. But do we want to use that term? No way. And you say, hey, you know our Savior's Yeshua? Now look, obviously, yeah, okay, in modern Hebrew and Israel, that's what they call Jesus, but you'll never catch me saying Yeshua. Why? Because I don't want to be associated with this Hebrew roots, Judaizing cult, okay? So we need to make sure that we talk like a Bible-believing Christian, you know, and talk in such a way and use language that tells people what we are, what we believe. That's why I don't go around saying, man, I'm a Jesus follower. You know, why? Because that's what the liberal churches do. That's what Pastor Skinny Jeans and Purple Lights and Barstool says, I'm a Jesus follower. You know, why don't we just use the normal term Christian? It's called being a Christian. Is there anything wrong with that word, Christian? We've got to replace it with, man, I'm a Jesus follower, man. Call things by the right name, and by the way, I like to call it church. I like the name Shur Foundation Baptist Church. That's a great name, you know, not like Worship Center, Life Center. You know what I'm talking about? Just call it a church. Call things by their proper name. Terminology matters. Names matter. Words matter. Let's use Bible words, and let's use words that are easy to understand. You know what I like about the word Baptist? It's easy to understand. You know, people can tell right away when you say you're Baptist, they know certain things about what you believe, that you believe the whole Bible, that you're dunking people underwater when you baptize them after they get saved. Every Baptist Church believes that, right? There's gonna be no sprinkling, no pouring. You know, at least you know you believe in the Trinity. You know, at least you know that you believe salvation's by faith and that you can't lose your salvation because no matter how liberal a Baptist Church is in the state of Washington, every single Baptist Church in the state of Washington is at least gonna say, hey, you can't lose your salvation. I'd be shocked if you find one that didn't believe it correctly on that. You know, who knows these days. So names are important. Number five, I got to hurry up here. The next point I want to make, go to verse 11, is that God is gonna cause the church to bring forth good fruit. Look at Genesis 1 11, and God said, let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth. And it was so, and the earth brought forth grass, an herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose seed was in itself after his kind, and God saw that it was good. So the Bible is showing us here that everything brings forth fruit after its own kind, and that it's God who, through his word, caused the earth to bring forth grass and for the tree to bring forth fruit after its kind. So if we're gonna win souls to Christ, if we're gonna bring forth fruit after our own kind, if we're gonna have Christians begetting more Christians and save people begetting more saved people, it's gonna be done through the power of God. It's God who causes us to bring forth much fruit. The Bible says in Proverbs 11 30, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. The Bible says in John 15 8, herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. Colossians chapter 1 verse 10, that you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. So we need to bring forth fruit to be a great church, and it's if we abide in Christ, if we're following Christ, we're gonna bring forth fruit. Look, the Bible says that if you follow me, I'll make you fishers of men. That means if you're not a fisher of men, you're not following Christ, okay? He'll make you a fisher of men. If you abide in the vine, you'll bring forth fruit, the Bible says, but without him you can do nothing. So a great church, number one, is built by God himself. He's the creator. Number two, a great church is an orderly, organized church, not a free-for-all, freestyle type church. Number three, God's Word brings division. He separates right from wrong, good from evil, and sometimes you have to separate people from your fellowship to make sure it doesn't become corrupt. Number four, God calls things by their right name. You know, he calls an ugly sin an ugly name, and he doesn't try to soften that up. Number five, God causes the church to bring forth good fruit. This is all straight from Genesis chapter 1 here in the first chapter. Bringing forth good fruit, winning people to Christ, getting people saved. Number six, God conforms us to his own image in the church. So part of the purpose of going to church is to become more like Christ, to get conformed unto his image. Look at Romans chapter 8, flip over to Romans chapter 8. I'll read for you from Genesis chapter 1 verse 26, and God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. Look at Romans 8 28, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose, for whom he did foreknow. He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. Now how can anybody get Calvinism from this verse is beyond me, because this verse is really clearly saying that God foreknew who is going to be saved. The Bible says that we are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, elsewhere in the New Testament. We are elect according to the foreknowledge of God. God from the beginning knows exactly who's gonna be saved and who's gonna be damned. I mean if you think about it, in Revelation chapter 7, John the apostle sees a great multitude which no man can number of all nations. We were in that multitude. I mean literally, I've never seen the apostle John, but he's already seen me. Now I don't know if he picked me out of the crowd, you know, since there's a crowd that no man can, he probably saw your pastor though, you know what I mean? Like he's like, oh man, there's giants in the land. So, but isn't that interesting that one day we're gonna be in that crowd and John saw that great multitude that no man can number of all nations. It already happened. It all, like, we live our lives as a tale that is told. I mean it's already happened. God knows the end from the beginning. It's all already happened in a sense, but that doesn't mean that God decided for us. That's what, where Calvinism just goes off the rails, okay? Of course God knows who is going to be saved and whom he did foreknow, then he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. This is not hard to understand, predestination, okay? This is what it is. He looks down and he says, okay, I know that Aaron Thompson is gonna get saved. We have foreknowledge of that, right? And then he predestined Aaron Thompson to be conformed to the image of Christ. So he looks for it, he says, okay, here's a guy who's gonna get saved. I foreknow this. I have foreknowledge that he's gonna get saved. Well, your destiny is to be conformed to the image of Christ. Now, did he say, whom he did foreknow, he predestined to go to hell and other people he predestined to go to heaven. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying he predestined who's going and who's not, who's saved and who's not. He already knew who's saved and he predestinates them to do what? To be conformed to the image of his Son. And it says that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And by the way, Jesus Christ, the firstborn among many brethren, that means he was the Son of God before anybody else was the Son of God. Just in case you don't know what the word firstborn among many brethren means, it means he is the original Son of God. Not like these oneness, modalist heretics who teach that you have all these sons of God in the Old Testament and that Jesus didn't become the Son of God until Luke 1. That's a false doctrine. Jesus Christ has always been the Son of God, amen? But the Bible says in verse 30, moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. But what they're leaving out is the fact that he foreknew and that's who he predestinated. He already knew who was gonna believe and who wasn't gonna believe in Christ. And he said that he was not willing that any should perish. He put the offer out there and said, whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. And he knows who's gonna take that and who isn't. You know, my brother explained it this way. He said, you know, it's sort of like if you're watching a VHS tape, you know, because he explained this to me a long time ago. He said, if you're watching a VHS from a football game and you already know the outcome and you're watching it with somebody who's never seen the game and you said, hey watch, he's about to make this touchdown. That's foreknowledge. But does that mean that you are controlling the outcome? There's a big difference between knowing what's gonna happen and controlling the outcome. We have free will. The Bible used the word free will 17 times in the Old Testament because it is a thing, amen. But what I want to teach from this scripture is not to just debunk the wrong interpretation, I want to give you the right interpretation, is that our destiny is to be conformed to the image of Jesus. He works all things together for good to them that love God and to them who are the called according to his purpose. Why? For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. So God has a plan for me, God has a plan for you, and what is the plan? That we become like Jesus. That we be conformed to the image of his son. Not conformed to this world, but transformed and conformed to the image of Christ. So the purpose of coming to church is what? To become more like Christ. To become more like Jesus Christ. As we get to know Christ through reading our Bible and through hearing biblical preaching, we become more like Christ, right? We follow in his steps. He left us an example that we should follow in his steps, the Bible says. So that is part of what church is about. God created man in his own image, but man has fallen, right? Man's in a fallen state, man is sinful, and he wants to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ. Bring us back to his original intent of what he created when he created Adam in the Garden of Eden, and placed him in the Garden of Eden. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 15, you don't have to turn there, verse 49, and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. You know, we are in the image of Adam, but someday we shall bear the image of Jesus Christ. And this isn't some goofy thing where we look identical to Jesus or something. Like, we're just all these clones of Jesus, like, I mean, people have some dumb doctrine. These Ruckmanites, that's what Peter Ruckman and his followers teach. They teach that we're gonna be like clones of Jesus, that that even if you're a woman, you turn into a dude in heaven. I mean, is that weird or what? Like, you're gonna be a 33 year old male, that's what they taught. Like, John saw a great multitude that no man could have a number, and everybody looks like Jesus. That's crazy. You know, when the Bible says we're gonna be conformed to the image of Christ, it doesn't mean we're gonna be his identical twin, okay? What it means is that we're gonna be like unto him, we're gonna be glorified with him, and what it really means is, metaphorically, we're gonna be righteous like he's righteous. You know, we're gonna live our lives the way he lived his life, is what that means. You know, we're following his example, his pattern, and so forth. So church is a place that should make us more like Christ, where we can learn to be like Christ, learn about Christ. And lastly, this, go back to Genesis 1 verse 28, and God blessed them and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Number seven is that God blesses the church and he gives it the victory. Not only does God create the church, not only does God build the church, not only does God bring order to the church and provide leadership to the church, because what did he say? It says he gave some pastors, he gave teachers, it says in Ephesians 4. God gives you leadership to bring order to the church. Not only does he create it, not only does he bring order to it, but he divides it. So church splits, sometimes churches need to be split to take out the trash, amen? And so it's good to have a little splinter or a split from time to time to take out the trash. So he builds the church, he brings order to the church through leadership and through organization. Number three, he divides the church, he takes out the trash, he separates those that don't belong. Number four, he calls things by their right name, he uses terminology that is easy to understand and is biblical in nature. Number five, he causes the church to bring forth good fruit, to multiply, to reproduce, to win people to Christ, to create new believers. Number six, he conforms the church to his own image. And number seven, he blesses the church and gives it the victory. All that we see in Genesis 1, right? Because in Genesis 1, he creates the earth, he starts dividing things, he brings order, he brings separation, and he caused it to start bringing forth fruit. He creates man in his own image, you know, it's all right there, the parallel in Genesis chapter 1. Look, it's not enough that we just get people saved. Soul winning is great. Soul winning is important, and when we emphasize soul winning, you know, your pastor emphasizes soul winning, I emphasize soul winning, those of us that are here, we love soul winning, you know, your pastor was just telling me how like 97% of the church is active in soul winning. That's a great testimony to be able to say that about the church, that's super rare and unheard of in most places. Usually it's 20% of people doing 80% of the work, but in our style churches, you know, we have a really high rate of people out soul winning. You know, soul winning is great, but soul winning is not the only thing. You know, once we get saved, that's not the end. We're supposed to be conformed to the image of Christ, so we need to become more Christ-like all the time, and that's why after we get saved, we need to hear other sermons that have nothing to do with soul winning or salvation, amen? Sometimes you need a sermon, just a hard sermon against pride, a hard sermon against drunkenness, a hard sermon against fornication, a hard sermon against adultery, stealing, a hard sermon against false religion, whatever. We need to constantly be getting closer to the standard of being like Christ, growing in our lives and being like him. And number seven, God blesses the church and gives it the victory. Look, when you are serving God, when you're in the Lord's army, when you're in God's house, when you're on the right team, when you're following the man of God and the word of God and you're a team member and you're part of the church of God and you love the Lord and you read the Bible, you know what? You are going to win. Period. Period. There's no failing. You cannot fail. I mean, we are more than conquerors. Even if we're killed all the day long, we're more than conquerors, the Bible says. You know, we win. Period. We're always with, you know, forget that drunken derelict. What's his name? The winning hashtag? Charlie Sheen, right? Here's a guy whose body is filled with AIDS. His body's filled with disease. He literally is AIDS filled, dirty, whore monger, Hollywood, wicked, drunkard, drug addict, God hating devil. And he came up with his slogan, winning. You know, if that's winning, I want to lose. Amen. But you know, we're the ones who are winning all the time. I mean, I feel the last 13 years of being the pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church is just like winning, winning, winning, winning. Seriously. It's just one victory after another. It's just victory, victory, victory, victory. You say, well, what about, you know, when you got thrown out of that country? Winning. Winning. Who cares? You know, the message got out. People got saved. Winning. Well, you know, what about when you hired that guy and he turned out to be a damnable heretic? Winning. You know why? Because that whole debacle allowed us to really tighten up our doctrines on the Trinity and preach them to hundreds of thousands of people. And I've had a bunch of people contact our church who said, I got saved. I was a oneness Pentecostal and I got saved because I found your sermon oneness Pentecostalism exposed. I never would have preached that sermon. God used that sermon. I had a guy walk up to me when I was in San Antonio at Pastor Manley Perry's church and he walked up to me and said, I got saved from that sermon. You know, so I'm glad that that happened. We had a lady come into our church of a oneness Pentecostal background and she ended up coming to the church. I gave her the gospel. She got saved. Didn't see her again for several, several months, right? And her background was oneness Pentecostal. So, you know, I'm going over the Trinity with her. I'm going over all that. But then, you know, I'm going over other things about just salvation by faith, not losing her. Because the oneness Pentecostals have a lot of doctrinal problems. They believe in salvation through baptism, speaking in tongues, lose your salvation. I mean, they got all kinds of problems, right? But anyway, this lady, I didn't see her again for months and months and months. And then, and then all of a sudden she showed up again and she just happened to show up on the day that Garrett curse way was getting fired and I was just ripping face on the tree and I had a totally different sermon prepared that morning and I found out like a half hour before the service that that he's oneness so I mean I screamed at him and threw him out and got rid of him but then I'm like I'm changing my sermon you know so I threw that sermon away well actually I preached that sermon that night so it didn't get thrown away you don't want to waste a good sermon you know so I put that sermon aside and preached it that night but anyway I got up and preached that sermon Trinity 101 and it was it worked out so perfect because this lady was there and it was perfect and guess what after the service she came up to me and said I want to get baptized in the name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost hey I don't care how many times you don't come just as long as it's not oneness amen as long as I Jesus like now I'm just the point is the point is though you know God worked that out you think that's a coincidence that this woman hadn't been there in months and then she just happens to show up and also I changed my sermon it's exactly what she needed she got baptized you know God works through those kind of situations he used us and then we had that weird we had this weird crazy guy who thought he was Michael the Archangel okay show up that same morning for church and I I've been contacted by the two witnesses many times like I mean I I've heard from about 30 to 40 people claim to be one of the two witnesses rebels and you know what they can't all be telling the truth because it's only supposed to be two so you know at least 90 some percent of them are lying you know of course we know they're all like but I've had people contacting me as a second coming of Jesus has contacted me many times I've been contacted by the Antichrist many times I've been contacted by the two witnesses I bet you know I'm contacted by Old Testament prophets all the time okay because there's a there's a drug induced psychosis that's called delusions of religious grandeur so people that take drugs and stuff they fry their brain and sometimes they'll they'll be convinced literally that they're a Bible character or that they're an important player in the end times okay so anyway that same day this Michael the Archangel shows up okay and he just gets up during the sermon he just starts walking toward me you know those of you that saw the video and he shows me some prayer that he wants to recite you know some chant some vain repetition Catholic God that's not praying by the way you know what praying is praying is when you bow your head and talk to God it's not some chant that you read okay so he's like hey I just want to read this prayer I'm just like get out of here you know drag this bozo out of here but here's the thing you say oh wow how embarrassing hey that's why that video went viral that sermon got like two or three times as many viewers as it would have gotten because that guy came up and I yelled at him and whatever you know then it got like 40,000 views or something you know what that's because God wanted people to hear that that teaching on the Trinity so the point is we're always winning like even when it gets ugly we're cracking heads the police are showing up people are getting thrown out we're getting thrown out of countries we're banned this and that happens you know what we're always winning we're all white because God works all things together for good to them that love God to them who are called according to his purpose didn't he say he works all things together for good that means the the drugged out bozo God used him the the the Judas Iscariot staff member God used him what God used the real Judas too and all things work together for good to them to love God and so we just go from victory to victory every soul winning marathon is a victory every missions trip is a victory every Sunday morning Sunday night Wednesday night is so many victories you know in the words of Charlie Sheen I can't even process it you know what I mean except that I really care yeah I'm actually winning though he's gonna burn in hell that's not winning that's losing but I remember Charlie Sheen's like I can't even process it you know that's how I feel I can't even process all the mission strips I can't even process all the soul winning marathons I can't even process all the victories you know I don't even know how they're even gonna figure it out up in heaven all the rewards you know I mean God himself is gonna have to do that math there's so many churches being started so many soul winning marathons going on there's so much great work going on hey it's just amazing and you know just to be a part of it just to be a part of it is a blessing it's exciting isn't it so I'll close on this 1st Corinthians 15 you can turn over to their 1st Corinthians 15 God blesses the church and gives it the victory you know he starts out in point one by building the church but you know what he also finishes the job he also gives the victory and he gives victory after victory after victory after victory I mean hasn't it been a great couple years up here in Vancouver how many victories right every soul saved is a victory every life changed is a victory every drunkard who sobers up is a victory every drug addict who gets off the drugs is a victory every fornicator who gets married is a victory just victory after victory God blesses us he gives us the victory we are winning non-stop 1st Corinthians 15 57 but thanks be to God verse 57 which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ therefore my beloved brethren be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain the Lord I mean you're never gonna pastor a church or or be a member of a church show up for soul winning read your Bible pray you know sing the hymns play the piano play the violin play the flute you know anything that you're doing for the Lord when you're working for the Lord you know what it's not in vain this church service tonight is not in vain this service will bear fruit this service will help someone edify someone and you know what Sunday morning is gonna be the same way Sunday night's gonna be the same way you know it's just victory after victory because God is the one who's doing the work it's God that worketh in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure just like he just speaks the word and grass started growing out of the earth in Genesis 1 and the fruit trees just start producing fruit with seeds and everything just started multiplying and reproducing you know what God's power is gonna do the same thing with this church this church is gonna grow it's gonna multiply people are gonna be reached and it's gonna be through the work of God it's exciting and so in the beginning of a great church it's always cool to be at the beginning of something isn't it you know you can say hey I was at the first service of sure Foundation Baptist Church even if you weren't here two years ago you know what I mean because you can still technically say hey I was at the first service oh the first sermon that pastor Aaron Thompson preached I was there who was really here at the very beginning of Verity Vancouver all right who's gonna be at the new beginning all right see there you go yeah that's all that's all that matters right all right let's buy rides and have a word of prayer father we thank you so much for this great church Lord and and for your creative work here Lord the Lord we know it's not an accident when we think about how this church was founded and it kind of just seems like so many coincidences of you know pastor Jimenez having a burden on his heart and and brother Thompson coming along at the right time you know this wasn't planned by man Lord we know that you're the one who orchestrated this church's Genesis and this church's origin Lord and we pray that you would just continue the work that you've begun here Lord this church is a special church and we've seen you at work over the last few years and we just pray that you would just finish the work make this church fruitful divide this church from the from the the wickedness that would try to keep in there creep in and Lord we just pray that you would just give the final victory and cause this church to thrive and succeed and bring forth fruit in Jesus name we pray amen