(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.) Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Alright, good morning everyone. Welcome to Stronghold Baptist Church. If you can grab your hypnotos and open up the song number 377. Music Song 377, Rescue the Perishing. Music Song 377 Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Amen, great singing. Brother Jerry, thank you for coming and can you open this up in the Word of God. Yes sir. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this church and for all the laborers and all the soul waiting that comes out of here. Lord, we pray that you'll be with the preaching, the fellowship, the singing and pray that you'll just watch over Pastor Thompson as he leaves both in separate ways Lord. Bless this church and bless this church. We love you all and all that you do for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, let's turn to our next song. Song 392. Music Song 392, A Soul Winner for Jesus. Song 392. Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music A soul winner for Jesus. A soul winner for Jesus. Oh let me be His name. A soul winner for Jesus. A soul winner for Jesus. He's got so much for me. Amen. Alright. Appreciate everyone being here this morning. Some great singing, getting all fired up hopefully for the afternoon and for the preaching. It's great to have Pastor Thompson here with us this morning. He's basically doing a turnaround trip so a lot of traveling. But he's going to be heading back to the airport shortly after service this morning. But we really appreciate you coming out here and preaching for us today. We're planning on a full day soul winning marathon. Since we got you out here we're going to hear some good preaching and then we're going to go out after service. So just so everyone's aware of what we're doing today, the order of events, kind of what's going on. Obviously we've got a lot of food out front. Breakfast food. We're also going to be doing that tomorrow morning as well. So if you want to come a little bit earlier tomorrow morning there will be bagels and all the stuff that you don't even know all the stuff that's out there. All the stuff you see out there will be available tomorrow morning as well. This afternoon, as soon as the service is over, we're getting Chick-fil-A for everybody. So that'll be our lunch around noon. That's going to be delivered here so stick around for that. And I'll be passing out all the, you know, everyone that's going soul winning. I assume everyone here is going soul winning. If not, that's fine. I'll be handing out all the maps and where we're going for that. It's not very far from here. It's about 15 minutes and it's right off the freeway so it's real easy to get to. And then we're going to go soul winning all afternoon. You can go as long as you'd like, but if you stick around until evening then we're going to come back here and we'll have pizza for dinner. So the laborer is worthy of his reward. We're going to feed you. We're not going to muzzle the ox. We've got a lot of people here. It's really exciting to go out and soul winning. We're going to go spend multiple hours there knocking on doors. Come back here. We'll feed you some dinner. Tomorrow we've got, again, I mentioned breakfast. We've got regular church service and we're getting Sonny's BBQ catered after the morning service. So you can stick around for that. We're also going to be doing some soul winning, but I'm going to keep the soul winning close to the neighborhood here so that you can kind of get as much fellowship packed in there. And then go on and do some soul winning in between services. We'll be doing that real close to the building. And then, of course, evening service is going to be normal now. We have the bounce house got delivered early. So there's a bounce house here right now. It's set up. It's ready to go. Kids after service, you go out there and have some fun. And also parents will leave the church building open during the soul winning. So if you don't want to bring your little ones out or whatever, you know, it's up to you. You want to bring about soul winning. If you want to hang back here or some portion of your family wants to stay back here, we'll leave the building open for you. It's nice and cool. You got the bounce house and you make yourself at home here. So that's going to be the plan for today and tomorrow. That's available. We'll turn the hose on. It's got a water slide part to it. So be aware of that. If you're going to send your kids out there to go. Yeah, go ahead and play. They may get wet because there's the slide part. There's a thing for the water. So we're going to try that out today. And that should be a lot of fun. And that's about it for our announcement. I don't think there's anything else. I'm just going to ask for some help right after the service. We have some guys to help. I've got a few tables out there already. Let's get the chair. The chair is kind of cleared out. We'll get tables set up so everyone will be able to eat. And then I will give the marching orders for the for the soul winning. We've got three different apartment complexes that I want to hit. And I'm just going to split up everybody into those three apartment complexes. So we're not running on top of each other. And we could just try to you know, we're going to be out for hours. So you could try to knock out those old buildings, but there's also lots of overflow areas in that area as well. And I'll go over that after service. So again, appreciate Pastor Thompson being with us this morning. Make sure you get a chance to talk to a woman after service. Not going to be I have a whole lot of time, enough time to eat some spicy chicken. Right. I got that order in for you. So I only got more. I don't know what everyone else is going to eat. But I appreciate everyone being here this morning. Don't forget when we go out soul winning, invite people to church. Tell them about tomorrow. Tell them it's a special day. It's our two year anniversary. You know, we're going to have Sunday's barbecue catered after service. They're welcome to come and join us. You know, if you can get some follow up information from them and you know, give them a call. Hey, you know, you still want to come to church, whatever. I'd love to see a great attendance tomorrow. And as we did last year, I want to try to get a photo of everybody after the church service tomorrow morning for our anniversary service. So. All right. That's a pronounce. Peter, please lead us in our next song. All right, everyone, you know, song number two hundred and sixty three. So two hundred and sixty three. Verily, verily. So two sixty three. First, oh, say, let me die for me from condemnation. He had made me free. He that believed in us on safety. Never last. Verily, verily. I say unto you, verily, verily message ever knew. He that believed in us on his truth. Never last. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Verily, verily. I say unto you, verily, verily message ever knew. He that believed in us on his truth. Never last. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Verily, verily. I say unto you, verily, verily message ever knew. He that believed in us on his truth. Never last. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Verily, verily. I say unto you, verily, verily message ever knew. He that believed in us on his truth. Had everlasting life. Amen. I'm going to make the announcement real quick. So we're going to pass the plate around. But this is going to be a love offering for Pastor Thompson. So don't, you know, this isn't for our church. We're just going to take a collection here for him coming out and taking his time and traveling. Brother Peter, can you please help with this? And pass that around for me. So we appreciate Pastor Thompson being with us this morning. And as the plates going around, we're turning to the Mark 12 or Luke. Luke 12, Luke, chapter number 12 in your Bibles. Luke, chapter number 12. And as we always do here, we're going to read the entire chapter out loud. You can follow along silently. I'm going to ask Brother Devin if he could please come up and read the chapter for us this morning. Luke, chapter number 12. Luke, chapter 12. In the meantime, when they were gathered together, an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples, first of all, beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, neither hid that shall not be known. Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light. And that which ye have spoken in the ear, in the closets, shall be proclaimed upon the housetops. And I say unto you, my friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear. Fear him which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell. Yea, I say unto you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for too far? These think not one of them is forgotten before God. But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows. Also I say unto you, whosoever shall confess me before man, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God. But he that denied me before man shall be denied before the angels of God. And whosoever shall speak a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But unto him that blasphemeth against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven. And when they bring unto the synagogues and unto magistrates and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer or what ye shall say. For the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say. And one of the companies said unto him, Master, speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or divider over you? And he said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater, and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much good laid up for many years. Take thine ease, eat, drink, and be married. But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God. And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life what ye shall eat, neither for the body what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his dasher one cubit? And if ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow, they toil not, they spin not. And yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothed the grass, which is today in the field and tomorrow is cast into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that ye have, and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Let your loins be girded about, and your light spurring. And be yourselves light unto men that wait for their Lord, when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those serpents whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. Rarely I say unto you that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meet, and will come forth and serve him. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants. And this know, that if the good men of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also, for the Son of man cometh at an hour, when ye think not. Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all? And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his Lord shall make ruler over his house, so to give them their portion of meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when he cometh shall find so doing. Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath. But, and if that servant say in his heart, My Lord, a layeth is coming, and shall begin to beat the men servants and maidens, and to eat, and drink, and to be drunken, the Lord of that servant will come in a day when ye looketh not for him, and in an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required. And to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. I am come to send a fire on the earth, and what will I if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I stricken till it be accomplished? Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division. 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, and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And he said also to the people, when ye see a cloud rise out of the west straightway, ye say, there cometh a shower, and so it is. And when ye see the south wind blow, ye say, there will be heat, and it cometh to pass. Ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky and of the earth, but how is it that ye do not discern this time? Yea, and why even of yourselves judge ye not what is right? When thou goest with thine adversary to the magistrate, as thou art in the way, give diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him. Lest he hail thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee, thou shalt not depart thence, till thou hast paid the very last mind. Let's pray. Dear Lord, thank you for this opportunity for us all to come together. Thank you for Pastor Thompson for coming to preach to us. Lord, I pray that you would give us open hearts and clear minds and minimize distractions. Help us all to learn something today. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Amen. All right. Well, thanks for coming. Okay, this isn't your work. I'm going to have to slide this out. I feel like I've been dealing with nothing but problems since I got here. It's not your fault. It's my fault. So when I got here on the plane last night when I got in, as I got on the plane, my foot started to hurt. I was telling a couple of people this earlier. What ended up happening is I ended up having to pull a thorn out of the bottom of my foot. So my foot is all swelled up right now. I think I probably have a lot of blood pain. So if I faint during the middle of the service, just call 911. I'll be all right though. Anyway, but then my computer went all crazy on me this morning. So it's just been kind of one of those things. But anyway, it's really great to be here. I'm so appreciative of Pastor Virgin. You guys got a great pastor here. And I'm very excited to preach for you guys on the second anniversary. And it's very exciting that on that anniversary you guys are all going to go out soloing. And I know many of you are here for the whole weekend and many people travel from very far. I really appreciate you being here this morning. I know your preacher does too. And I came with my son. My son Josh is here with me. And the message he wanted to relay is that he's here, he's single, he's ready to mingle. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But he did say to me right before the service started, he said, Dad, you know you only have an hour of preach, right? Because he heard that Chick-fil-A was coming. So he was like, Pastor Virgin told me last night, he said, if you go past noon, that's when the Chick-fil-A is here. I said, well, then I'll just say every head is bowed, every eye closed. And then I'll sneak over to grab the Chick-fil-A while you guys are, you know, getting by with God. So, anyway, so again, thank you very much, Pastor Virgin and Mrs. Virgin for allowing me to come and preach. And it is a quick turnaround. And, you know, I'm just, again, I'm happy to be here. Congratulations on two years. I really appreciate you having me here. So, I know we're in Luke chapter 12. That was a long chapter, a long reading. Thank you for doing that. You wouldn't have wanted me to have to read the chapter that we're going to go to right now. So let's go to 1 Chronicles chapter 26. And I just wanted to, we're going to go back to Luke chapter 12, but I wanted to kind of set the stage a little bit for this sermon. So the title of the sermon this morning is The Spoils of Spiritual Warfare. The Spoils of Spiritual Warfare. Let's look at verse number one in 2 Chronicles chapter 26. It says, concerning the divisions of the porters of the Korites was Meshelemiah. See, that's why I didn't want you to have to read that. The son of Korah and the sons of Asaph. So this chapter is dealing with the divisions of porters. Okay, so in Chronicles, in this chapter specifically, it's dealing with porters. And what is a porter? Someone, have you ever gone to a hotel, a really fancy hotel? There's a guy that's out front. That person's called a porter, usually. And sometimes they dress in weird outfits and stuff, you know, modern day. But anyway, that's what they do. They grab the bags. They help you in. So they're kind of like a doorkeeper. And so let's look down at verse 24. And I'll read a little bit here and then we'll pray. It says, in Shepuel, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses was ruler of the treasures. And his brethren by Eleazar, Rehoboiah, the son, and Jeshuaiah, his son, and Joram, his son, and Zikrai, his son, and Shelemith, his son, which Shelemith and his brethren were over all the treasures of the dedicated things which David the king and the chief fathers, the captains over thousands and hundreds, and the captains over the host had dedicated. Out of the spoils won in battle did they dedicate to maintain the house of the Lord. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much, Lord, for this great church. I pray, Lord, to be here for many, many years to come. And Lord, I pray that you've just set a hedge about this church, Lord, and as best as you can, keep the wicked people away from here. Lord, I pray that you give Pastor Virgin strength and just help him as he continues his ministry and his wife and his family, Lord. And I pray for all the people here. Lord, I pray that not one would be lost and, Lord, that this church would have faithful members that stick with it for many, many years to come. And Lord, I just pray a special blessing on this weekend for all the people that have come. I pray that you bless them. Fill them with the Holy Spirit. Now, as your word is preached to them, Lord, we've sung the songs and we've worshipped you, Lord, today. And Lord, I pray you fill me with the Holy Spirit as I preach this message and give me boldness and power. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. So the reason why I read this is because what goes on in churches isn't a lot different than what you see happen in the earthly kingdom of David. You know, there's always someone that has to play their part. Someone has to be there to be the poor. Someone has to be there to guard the treasures, you know, cap the money and all that kind of stuff. And so these written chronicles in the Old Testament describe to us a little bit about how the earthly kingdom of God functioned. And it really isn't that much. I mean, there's a lot different, like Pastor Burgess isn't the king, but he is the pastor, so he's the ruler over the house of God here. And if you've noticed, just reading some of this, that a lot of the people were doing different things for the kingdom of God. Let's look at verse 28. You're still in 1 Chronicles 26. It says, And all that Samuel the seer, and Saul the son of Kish, and Abra the son of Nur, and Joab the son of Zeruiah, had dedicated, and whosoever had dedicated anything, it was under the hand of Shelemeth and his brethren, of the Isarites, Cheniniah, and his sons, for the outward business over Israel for officers and judges. So there's people that do the outward business. There's people back in this time that guarded over the things that were dedicated to the house of God. Now, the house of God back then was the temple of God, right? And so today, the temple of the Lord is within each believer. So the Bible says when we get saved, and we get the down payment, the earnest of this Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit walks within us, God is inside of us. And so just think about this, everywhere you take God, everywhere you go, you're taking God with you. That's right. So think about that before you go into someplace that you ought not to be going to, right? Or looking at something you ought not to be looking at, or just anything like that. But you got to understand that the house of God is now with us until once we're all joined together, this is the congregation of the Lord, this is the church. So but look at verse 30, it says that in the Hebrew nights, Hashebi and his brethren, men of valor, 1,700 were officers among the Israel, of Israel on this side of Jordan westward, in all the business of the Lord and in the service of the king. So there's business that takes place at God's house, isn't there? So every one of you here is here to do the business of preaching the gospel to the lost today, right? That's the business that's going on. And it's actually the most important business that we could be doing for God. Amen. And so, you know, I'm very pleased to see how many people came out to go soul winning today. And, you know, just the reason why I want to bring this chapter up is because there's just so many things that go on in the kingdom of God, there's so many parts that have to be played. You know, from the person that preaches the sermons from the person that plays the piano from the person that leads the songs from the person, or people that clean the house and clean up the building here, and all the things that go into this, there's a lot that goes into it. And you know, one man can't do all that stuff. It's hard for one man, David had to delegate things. Pastor versus has to delegate things. And have you ever heard that saying that 10% of people do 100% of the work in churches usually? It's kind of true. And hopefully it's not true in this church, and it's not true in my church, but a lot of churches, that's the way it is. And some people, they just show up, they come to service, they get their snack, they get their meal, they get their T-bone, ribeye steak or whatever, the sermon, the pastor versus, it's usually a ribeye, right? We had ribeyes last night. But, you know, some people just show up to church and that's about all they do. And in churches like this, I doubt that that's the truth. So what the title of the sermon is, the spoils of spiritual warfare. Look, we're in a war. We need to understand that. That we're in a war today, and we're fighting a spiritual battle. We're not fighting a physical battle. And sometimes, you know, we want to get into physical battles, it seems like. But I don't want to get into a physical battle, but sometimes I feel like it. Sometimes it's easier to slap someone around than it is to slap someone around with a Bible, right? I mean, for me, anyway. But, you know, the local church functions a lot like the physical kingdom back in the Old Testament, but it's just different, you know, obviously. So we are in a spiritual kingdom here, but it is still a physical kingdom to a certain extent, okay? Because we live in the physical world. We're not raptured yet. But, you know, I just want to say this. Every church member that's here, every person that's here is important. And God defines you important. You're an integral part of this church ministry here. And even if you're just someone that visits every once in a while, you're the occasional nose, you're the occasional hand. You know, God wants this church to function. It takes all the different bodies. This is called the body of Christ. And so, you know, there's a hand, there's a foot, there's legs there, you know, and maybe there's multiple legs. I don't know what kind of body this is. But, you know, I always say that, you know, certain people would be like the nose of the church. You smell, you're the one that smells out the false prophet. You're like, something will smell right about this guy. You know what I mean? So, but, you know, again, everybody has their duties that they do here at this church. Again, you have one main leader, the pastor, and sometimes churches have beacons and evangelists and porters or doorkeepers, the guys that stand in the front and hand out the bulletins and welcome people to the church. People that are in charge of the treasury, the money counting, the ushers, people who clean, fold bulletins, song lead, play piano, go soul winning. There's a big work that goes on in making this kingdom run. And Luke Tevertold, did you notice that part where it says it's his pleasure to give us the kingdom? We are the kingdom of God, you know, and obviously the ultimate kingdom of God is going to be when Christ comes back and rules for a thousand years and then we'll reign with him forever. But for now, we are the kingdom of God here on earth and he's left it to us. It's his pleasure to give it to us. But hey, when he gives it to us, we got to do something with the things that we're given. We got to do something. We all have to play our part in the kingdom. And look, hey, being a doorkeeper in God's house is just as important as anything else. You know, there's a part to play. And pastor versus, I don't know if he has people. Do you have people standing out front with the bulletins or? All right. So most churches have that. And that's an important job. You know, a first time visitor when they walk through the door, if they get a handshake and a smile, you know, if you're just like you're talking about the newest controversy that's going on in the new IP or whatever, and then you're like, oh, hey, here you go. Hey, take that job seriously. They don't need to hear that drama. You know, a first time person should get a smile and a handshake and a bulletin and say thanks for coming. Every person here should do their job and do it well. Your job is important. The first time someone walks into this room and the church is not clean, it's in disarray, someone fell asleep on the job and didn't do their job or whatever. The first thing that they're going to notice is the church isn't clean. You know, that is important. People want to walk in and see a church that is decently and in order. And so don't downplay what you do. Well, I just cleaned the church. Hey, God finds that important. Your pastor finds that important. When your pastor walks in and maybe he's running a little bit late, I don't know if that ever happens, but you know, he walks in and the church looks like a Hurricane Katrina hit it, then he's probably going to be upset. It's like, what happened? So that is an important job. And like the last thing that he wants to worry about before he's about to get up and preach the word of God to you is whether the mother-baby room got cleaned and someone threw out the diapers. You know what I mean? So everything is important. Every church member is important. And you know what, talking about battles, there's lots of battles that goes on in churches like this, isn't there? You know, we've just seen a controversy over the King James Bible just recently, and I'm not going to preach about that, but that's a controversy. That's a battle. That's just another battle that we've got to go through. You know, people are always like, I'm tired of the battles. I'm tired of the drama. I'm tired of the spiritual warfare that goes on. Well, you know what? We're going to get used to that because we're constantly going to be in battles in the kingdom of God. That's why we're called to be warriors. We're called to be soldiers of Christ. And so, look, you might get sick of the drama. You know, soldiers in real war, like not real war, but soldiers in physical war, they get battle weary too. They get battle-hardened. They get battle weary. They get some PTSD. And sometimes we suffer from spiritual PTSD, don't we? Even as a pastor, sometimes they're just like, man, again or something. Someone else is stabbing us in the back. Someone else is stabbing another pastor, Pastor Anderson, in the back again. Or someone else is, you know, just, you know, causing drama. It's not just pastors. It's also people. Look, there's going to be people that creep in the churches. Just sit down. There's going to be people that pull their mask off and show us what they really are, and we've got to get used to that. It's just part of the program. It's part of the war. It's part of the battle. But don't quit. You know, we need to keep going for the cause of Christ. We need to keep going for this church. This church is tempting on you to be here. And if you drop off because you're just like, oh, I can't handle this, you know, you just need to get tough. So don't get, you know, obviously, maybe you just need to get off of Facebook for a little while. If you're having a problem. I mean, if Facebook is your, like, main problem in the Christian life, then maybe you just need to take a break. But you don't have to tell everybody you're taking a break. I'm taking a break for a couple of weeks, and then you don't take a break. It's just like, you know, look, nobody needs to know that update, too. But you know what? There's other churches that rarely battle in this life. I've gone to churches where the biggest battle is what gossip the choir members are talking about. Or, you know, just who didn't clean up after themselves after the service. We're in real battles. The controversy over the King James Bible, that's a big battle. The controversy over the Trinity, that's a big battle, isn't it? We've got to get used to it. There's going to be devils that creep in and try to destroy the church. There's going to be people that pretend to be good people, and they try to, you know, what do people do when they get revealed? Well, they take a bunch of people down with them, don't they? That's right. And even good people. That's why Jesus said, don't pull the tares with the wheat, because when you do that, it's going to harm, because people don't realize. You know, us as pastors, I think that God gives us a little bit of extra discernment. And I don't know if you feel that way, Pastor Burgess, is like, sometimes I see things that other people don't see. I see things that the other church members don't see. These people that just creep in and they're just like, you just see them working, working the crowd, working their people, trying to get people to draw them to them. But, you know, as pastors, we can't just go after people because of a hunch that we have, necessarily. But, you know, we can watch and find out what's going on. So, you know, churches like us are on the front lines. Why? Because we're doing a lot of soul winning. I'm not saying we're the greatest movement that ever was or any of this stuff. What I am saying is that your church goes soul winning, which this church does. My church goes soul winning. You know what? The devil has a target on our backs. That's right. Every single person in this room, the devil has a target on your back and he wants to take you down. That's right. He wants to take this church down. You know what the church that doesn't go soul winning? I'm sure there's people saved in those churches. I'm sure that there's saints in those churches, but you know what? The devil's already defeated that church. They stopped going soul winning. The devil's already defeated that church. They, you know, changed their stance on certain things or whatever. That's right. But why is he going to go after a church so hard that's already quit? Why is he going to go after a church so hard that's already given up on the main thing that we do, which is winning souls? Amen. Why is he going to care? Where do you think the devil's going to put his focus on? He's going to put his focus on churches like this church, like my church, like the Baptist church, all these churches. He's going to try to take them out. That's right. And you know how he does that? One person at a time. That's right. One person falling out of church, one person sick in a battle. I quit. I'm done. I'm just going to go back to my old Miami church where it wasn't so crazy all the time. But you know what? You're going to be back where the bean counters are. You know what I mean? In war, there's lots of different people. There's people that were a guard of the treasury. There's people that just count bullets or whatever. Those people that are not in the thick of the battle, but we are in the thick of the battle in churches like this. We need to realize that. We need to realize that the target's on our back. So for our families, for our own sake, for our own family's sake, for this church's sake, for this pastor's sake, we've got to not fall off and just quit. That's right. So we need to keep going. And you know what? We have a lot of enemies, don't we? We have a lot of enemies. There's people that just make up garbage and throw it against the wall to make sure to see if it sticks. I mean, think about Pastor Shelley, all the stuff that he's been having to go through after he took a step past. There's just been one thing after the other. You know, you've got people just literally making up lies. And so that's the kind of underhanded games that people play. And they want to go out to the pastor. They want to take the pastor down. They want to take everybody in the church down with them. So why is there so much spiritual battle in these types of churches? Because of the type of church this is. This is a church that is in the front lines, in the thick of the battle. This is the grunts. This is the porters. You know what a porter literally means? It's someone that carries the bag. That's what it means. So, and I didn't have to go back to the Greek for that. But anyway, so it's someone that picks up a bag and carries it. We're laborers in this church. We're laborers in the kingdom of God. We're here to do the work of the Lord. Amen. So, and you know what? The devil's going to try to attack this church until he tries to destroy it. And you know what? This is a stronghold Baptist church. Amen. You know, the Lord is with this church, but we need every single person to maintain what they're supposed to be doing in this church. If your job is to clean the church, clean the church with all your might. If your job is to lead the songs, well get up and lead the songs with all your might. If your job is to play the piano at every single service, then get up and play the piano with everything you've got. If you're, you know, it's everybody's job to go soloing. Hey, are you, do you have all the soloing verses memorized? You know what I found in my church when we first started is that we start with a lot of people that weren't talkers, but then we train people to become talkers and you know what happened? Our church grew. And I believe that that's the formula for church growth. One of the formulas for church growth is that, hey, we need more, we need more silent partners. So once all the silent partners become talkers and more silent partners are going to come and join the church. Now, the devil wants to destroy that though. Let's turn to first Peter chapter five, verse number eight, first Peter five, verse number eight. And this is a very popular verse and we probably read it a lot of times. Look what it says in verse eight. It says, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil as a boring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Is he seeking that old dead church member, that old Mossback deacon that goes to, you know, Maranatha Baptist church or whatever? Probably not. He's already defeated him. He's already stopped him. That guy, he's already stopped the pastor by stopping the deacon, telling the deacon what to do. Right. So, but look at what it says in verse nine. So the devil is after us. Okay. It says who resist steadfast in the faith. Is he going after the people that are losers or the people that just have fallen off? The people that aren't doing anything for God, or is he going, who's he going after? Who resist steadfast in the faith? The people that are steadfast, that's who he's going after. Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. So look, the devil is not after the people he's already defeated. He's already devoured those people. Why does he need to, you know, or he's kept them at bay by, you know, lead them into a church that doesn't go soul winning. Isn't it hard? Who's been in a Baptist church before you went to this church or another, whatever church you go to, or soul winning, you had to like just plead with the pastor to go soul winning. Have you ever been to a church like that? Cause I have. And at one church I went to, we would go soul winning on Saturdays and he would, he would pray with us and give us a verse of encouragement before we left. But he never went soul winning. Never. I just thought, what a hypocrite. You know, he's going to sit there on a Saturday morning, waits for us to get there, but he never will go soul winning with us. His soul winning was visitation. Visiting the people that come to the church or whatever. Look, he's after the steadfast in the faith. He's after the people that are battle ready, battle hardened, and he wants to take you down. He wants to take you down one at a time. And you know, you ever noticed that every time Jesus went someplace that some demon would manifest himself in front of it. You ever notice that? You know why? Because Jesus was in the forefront of the battle too. I mean, he was the Lord and he was leading these disciples to preach and teach and doing miracles and all these things. But every time he went someplace, guess what a demon would pop, like read the book of Mark. Every place he went, sometimes it was several. Why do you think that is? Because Jesus was doing the work that he was supposed to be doing and it was important work and it was people getting saved and those devils would manifest themselves in them. So why do you think that that happens in churches like these churches? Why do you think it happens in a spirit-filled, soul winning church like the Stronghold Baptist Church? Well, because, you know, and I'm not saying demons have manifested themselves in here, but when I think of a demon manifesting themselves in our modern times, I mean, sometimes it's literally, I mean, if you go into a downtown area, I'm sure in Atlanta it's the same as it is in Portland, Oregon or Seattle, Washington. You got people spinning around and, you know, talking to themselves and they're, you guys got that in Atlanta too? Okay. I just want to make sure it's a downtown area for some reason. But in churches like ours, you'll have devils that are within a congregation. Didn't Jesus call Jews a devil? That's right. I said, haven't I chosen twelve of you and one of you is a devil? Every once in a while a devil is going to pop up and cause problems and try to start drama and drag people with them. That's a demon manifesting themselves in front of you. That's someone that the devil controls. So, you know, Jesus Christ everywhere he went that happened. You know, so why do people get so, they're like, oh, the new IFB has all this drama in it. The new IFB churches, they're just, you know, there's just always something going on. Yeah, because we're in the thick of the battle. Amen. That's why. 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 23. So if that happened to Jesus, if demons manifested themselves and tried to mess around with what was going on with him, wouldn't you expect that to happen in churches that are doing the right thing? Wouldn't you expect that to happen in godly churches where godly pastors are preaching the word of God and sending people out to get massive amounts of people saved? I think so. Look at what happened with Paul. It says, are they ministers of Christ? Verse 23, I speak as a fool. I am more and labor is more abundant and stripes above measured and prison more frequent and deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received by 40 stripes say one. Thrice was I beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Thrice I suffered shipwrecked. A night and a day I have been in the deep. And journeys often in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the heathen or by the heathen, excuse me, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness and watchings often and hunger and thirst and fastings often and cold and nakedness. Sounds like Paul went through a lot of problems, didn't he? Why do you think Paul went through so many problems? Because he was just dramatic? Because just drama? He was just a drama king? Is that what you think? Why was it? Because he did more abundant than everybody else. So guess what? The devil was always after Paul. The devil was always trying to stop his work. He's having to be lowered down in a basket on the outside of the city. Why? Why did he hate Paul so much? Because he was doing everything he was supposed to be doing. He was doing right. He was in the thick of the battle. He was starting churches everywhere. He was filled with the Spirit. He was writing Scripture. So why did Paul have so many problems? Because that's what happens when you're fired up. That's what happens when you're in the thick of the battle. That's what happens when you're a special forces Baptist. Amen. Right? So, was Paul bad because he was always right? He was in the thick of the battle. because he was always wrapped up in drama. Was Paul wrong for always getting in arguments with people? I mean, seriously. But that's what people will say about churches like us. Well, they're just, they're so hateful, that's why. It's not because we're hateful. It's because we love him. I got a letter, I got some text messages, some Facebook Messenger messages, about some, I preached a sermon against Rabbi Zacharias after he died. That's my thing. So, some false prophet dies, I'm gonna preach a sermon about him, and try to get as many people to realize how he was a false prophet. He should stop watching his videos, stop listening to him. But this person was upset that they messaged my, actually they messaged my church in Canada, the church might we have there, and they said, is this part of the same church with the same name in Vancouver, Washington? And they didn't, they thought that they were contacting the leadership up there, but I control all the Facebook pages. So, I said, yeah, yeah, we are. And they're like, well, do you realize that they're a part of the SPLC hate group, that they're a hate group or whatever? I was like, yeah, yeah, but I don't think we're a hate group, I think we're a love group. You know what, because we love lost people, and we go out to try to seek and save that which was lost, like the Lord Jesus Christ told us to do. And then, you know, she just got mad. I said, shut up moron, and basically just told her off. I told her off a little bit, but it's because she turned on me. You know, people wanna ask us questions. I'm sure Pastor First is getting emails or someone's seeming to be nice at first, and they just really wanna say that you're cold, and you're hateful and all this other stuff, right? I've been getting a lot of hate mail from the Ravi Zacharias people. The sermon I preached against Billy Graham has 330,000 views. And so, but I don't have people email me about that. Very rarely, but Ravi, I mean, they're just ravioli, they're just pissed off at me. So, I've been getting emails every day from the Ravi lovers. They're like, sir, I'm praying for you, but you're gonna die and go to hell, and you know, it's just like. But look, we gotta preach against the false prophets. Who else is doing it? Nobody else is doing it. And so, when people persecute us because we preach the word of God, if you listen to that sermon, everything I said was straight out of the Bible. That's right, amen. Everything I said was straight out of the Bible, and look, you could apply that to any false prophet. It didn't necessarily have to be Ravi, only Zacharias. It could have been anybody. But why do they hate us? Or why do they call us drama kings, or they call us that we're dramatic, and that we're always causing problems like this? You know what? Paul was called the same thing. He was a mover of the sedition amongst the Jews, which is what the chief priests and rulers said about him. So, why would we expect any less? We're gonna get the same thing if we're preaching. You know, Paul's the one that wrote Romans chapter one. Did you guys know that? He's the one that said they're worthy of death. He's the one that said that they're given over to a reprobate mind. So, when we preach those sermons, you know what, Paul preached the same stuff. He's the one that wrote it. Come on. But we're hateful. So, I would say this, expect peril. Expect persecution. Expect false brethren to rise up. Expect false prophets to rise up amongst the congregation. Expect people to stab people in the back. Just expect it. If you expect it, then you're just like embracing the truth of what's gonna really happen if you're going to a church like this. It's gonna happen. And people are gonna, you know, don't get confused by these people. That's their goal, is to drag you out of church. Their goal is to get you to stop doing the things in your local church that you're doing right now. Don't fall off. Don't let someone drag you out with a bunch of what they call drama. I call it Bible preaching. That's what I call it. So, if I get up and rip on the sods, which I did two nights ago, my sermon was already taken down the next morning. So, you can only view that on, what's that, bitch shoot or whatever? I think we're gonna put it on bitch shoot. I just got up and preached what the Bible said. That's it. I mean, is it really that? That's why it's controversial, because it's the word of God. Why do people hate Jesus? Because he was the word of God. Why do people persecute Jesus? Because he spoke the truth. And so, when I look at a church that has never done anything for God, and they got some giant building with great, beautiful marble pulpits, and they have all the pillars in the front and all that stuff, and they don't have a sewing program, it doesn't surprise me that they don't get persecuted. It doesn't surprise me at all. So, now, when we work for the kingdom and are steadfast in the faith, we can expect these things to happen. But if we stick and stay and make it pay in the Christian life, God is going to reward us with the spoils of the spiritual battles in this life and in the life to come. Make no mistake, God has called us to be soldiers and enlists us in the army to fight in this war. This war is not going to end in your Christian life. Just get used to that. Just accept it. Today, would you just, you don't have to bow your heads and close your eyes or anything like that, but just, would you right now, just where you're sitting, accept the fact that we're gonna be in battles and wars, and that Christ has called us to be soldiers? Would you just, if you just accept that, that's gonna make the rest of your Christian life a lot easier. You're like, I just can't believe this is happening again. Believe it. It's happening again. It's gonna happen all the time. Just get used to it. Oh, here's another battle. Okay, let's fight. Be on the right side, of course. Yeah, be on the right side. Turn to Ephesians chapter six, verse 12. Ephesians chapter six, verse 12. Ephesians chapter six, verse 12. Is that Bach, right, Pastor Persians? Okay. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. What's the Bible say to do? Hey, fight. We're not wrestling against flesh and blood. Let's fight this spiritual battle. Who's our enemy? Our principalities, powers, the spiritual wickedness in high places, the rulers of the darkness of this world. That's what we're fighting against. Just realize that the battle is not, hey, if you go and wanna be a protester somewhere or the alt-right or whatever, that's just silliness. Why? Why go and protest about the Constitution and all that stuff? Look, that's all gonna get taken away. Do you understand that? It's all gonna get taken away. What are they doing right now? They're not trying to stop churches from having services because they found their little COVID-19 way to do it. Now they're abusing that, even though they're saying, I actually saw this on a news report that said, it was actually, I forgot, it was posted somewhere on Facebook or something, but it said, the news, like you know how the news has those screen captures or whatever, where they're telling you some information? The health department says that it's healthy for you to get out and protest, even though they're not maintaining six foot with masks and all that stuff. I mean, if you look at the protest department in Oregon, they had like thousands of people marching right next to each other, but a lot of them didn't have masks on, but that's healthy. But you know what? Don't go to church because you can only have 10 people and you might get sick, and it's just like, come on. Our rights are gonna get taken away from us. Do you know in the tribulation, if you're trying to hold up the constitution and go, hey, but my constitution says that I have freedom of religion. Is that gonna stop them from chopping your head off? You think that's gonna stop them? It's not gonna stop them. Look, this is the book that we need to rest our feet upon. It's not a paper made by man. And I'm not saying don't use the constitution. Paul used his Roman citizenship to get him out of the beating one time. But did that stop him from taking all the beatings that he got after that? I mean, we just read it through, how he got shipwrecked, he got beat with rods, he got, you know, he got stoned, they thought they stoned him to death. You know, that didn't stop it all the time. So look, using your constitutional rights, why don't you just use the rights that God gave you and says it's better to obey God rather than man? Amen. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse four. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse four. We need to realize what our weapons are. Look, this is our sword. This right here is our sword. The Holy Bible, the King James Bible is our sword, okay? And so that's what we need to rely on. 2 Corinthians chapter 10 verse four says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. We're talking about satanic strongholds. This is a godly stronghold. But we need to make sure that our, we realize what our weapons of our warfare are. We're supposed to put on the full armor of God, right? That's what we need to, did you know the part of the full armor of God is having your feet shot with the preparation of the gospel? Did you know that that's part of your armor? It's so funny how many people preach, you know, you gotta have the armor of God on, but they don't go soloing. Right. You got your feet chopped off, dude. Yeah. You're done. That's it, you're over with. You know, my foot's hurt, maybe that's why. Maybe that's why my foot's hurt, I don't know. I need to make sure that, you know, I understand that I need to go soloing. So if I do go soloing, but anyway, I don't know. It's just, you know, people, it amazes me how many pastors don't go soloing but they preach about the armor of God. You forgot something, you forgot your shoes. So, turn to 2 Corinthians chapter two, excuse me, 2 Timothy chapter two, verse one. 2 Timothy chapter two, verse one. So if the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, what are we doing? Well, we're going to 2 Timothy chapter two, verse one. It says, Thou, therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, that the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. You know what's it say, faithful men? Faithful? It's important that you're faithful. It says, thou, therefore, endure hardness. Endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. You know, sometimes the battle's gonna get hard. And that's why he's saying, look, Timothy, you're gonna have to endure hardness. You know, your pastor had to endure some hardness too, didn't he? He got fired from his job. The news is telling everybody he's the hate monger. You hate monger, pastor versus. I can't believe how much you hate people that you're sending, you know, 70 people out selling today. You're so hateful. That's right. You know, he hates the right things. But see today, you know, being some transvestite is supposed to be, you're a child of God. You're godly. And that's what that lady said. That's the other thing she said. She said, homosexuals were born that way and they were made perfect. And she was saying that she was a Christian. That's what made me mad, by the way. I forgot about that. So anyway, but pastor versus had to endure some hardness. You know what? Every single person in this room is gonna have to endure hardness. Maybe it's not the news channels come after you. Maybe you're just gonna have some battles within your own families. Maybe you're just gonna have some trouble at home. Maybe your kids, maybe your wife, maybe your husband, whatever it is, you might have some different battles that you have to fight. But you know what? You have to endure that hardness. You wanna be a good soldier. You know, soldiers have to stay out all night in the rain. They have to sit in foxholes and be dirty and not take showers every day. I've never been a soldier, but I just don't. That's what happens. You know, it's not like you have a shower or running water. Sometimes you have to, you know, go to the bathroom in places you probably don't feel comfortable going to. I mean, we just get locked bathrooms and they flush and all that stuff, and we forget it. Sometimes it's a little harder out there for some people. Soldiers don't get those types of things. So the things, the comforts that we do have, we should appreciate them. You know, when we go through hardness, don't quit. When we go through hardness, don't give up. It says, no man that warth entangled himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who have chosen him to be a soldier. Look, God's chosen us to be soldiers. We're fighting in a war. We're in constant battles, and we need to be able to endure that hardness as we go through our Christian life. You know, if you don't, if that's not for you, you know, I don't know what to do. I don't know what the hell do you live, but I'll just tell you this, that your life isn't going to turn out easier just because you stop and, you know, because you stop and fall out of church, or you stop and quit doing your job at church. It's not going to be easier, because you know, to whom much is given, much is required, right? So if you've been given a lot, you know, some people go to some, you know, rock and roll church, maybe they're saved, their family got them into it, they don't realize that everything they're being taught is pretty much alive, and they're not getting the type of preaching that you're getting at this church, or whatever church you go to. They're not getting that type of preaching. They're not getting that kind of instruction. They're not watching the same YouTube videos that you're watching. And so you're getting more information, more of the word of God, than most people are on this planet right now. That's just a fact. And so, God's going to hold you to a higher standard. When he's given you the information, he expects you to do something with it. When he's given you a task, or some kind of stewardship over something, he intends for you to keep doing that job, right? So, and if you've said, hey, I want to be a pastor, and then you just get married and have a kid, you're like, man, this is harder than I thought it was going to be. It's hard to be a pastor. It's harder than you think. But you know what, you can endure that hardness. If you've got some character, you can become a pastor. You've got to rule your house well, and make sure that you keep all the qualifications, and stay qualified, and get qualified. But you can do it. Believe me, if I can do it, you can do it. So, you know what we need? More than ever now, we need more pastors. We need more people to rise up and say, hey, you know what, even if I'm not going to be a pastor, I want to get qualified to be one. So, let's see, you're in 2 Timothy chapter two. Look at 1 Timothy chapter six, verse 12. And people say, well, it shouldn't be so hard to be a Christian all the time. It shouldn't be hard, but it is hard. It's a battle, it's a fight, it's a war. It says, fight the good fight. Are we supposed to fight or not? We're supposed to fight. Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life where to. Now we're also called, and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. Hey, Paul told Timothy, fight. It's not my job as a pastor to just get full time, get a Cadillac Escalade that says God's man on the back. I might get a Cadillac Escalade because it fits me, so don't judge me, but if it's not going to say God's man on the back, I'd probably say King James only or something. The real King James only, no, I'm just kidding. Let's see, where am I at, okay. Yeah, we're supposed to, in the book of Genesis, we're to earnestly contend for the faith. You know what contend means? It means to fight for it. We ought to fight for the truth. And so, when we proclaim, hey, these people are teaching a false gospel, this is the truth, there's nothing wrong with that. That is a fight, you know, and you should expect someone to fight you back on it, the devil's arm, right? So, we need to always be ready for the battle. Always be ready for the battle. Look at Luke chapter 12, I'm finally getting back to Luke chapter 12, Luke verse 31. I gotta get there myself here. Luke chapter 12, verse 31, obviously I'm not gonna go through the whole chapter, that was a long chapter, but we're gonna cover some of this. Luke chapter 12, verse 31. I nixed some of it out of my notes, so I'm gonna have to actually turn it, okay. Okay, it says, but rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your, let's look at verse 30, I'm sorry. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after, your father knoweth that you have need of these things, say, you know, some people will say, well, you know what, I'm just not, I'm not getting where I wanted, my life goals, and things like that. Look, we need to realize that we need to lay up treasures in heaven, and that's not correct. Look at verse 31, but rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell that you have, and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupted. So look, the rewards in heaven that we get are eternal. So, if it says, look, it just says, it's talking about giving alms, and then says that that is not corruptible, right? And alms isn't like you blowing the trumpet, and saying, I gave $20,000 to the church, I just want everybody to know, I gave $20,000 to the church, or I gave, you know, brother so-and-so $5,000, because they were down on their luck, hey, I just wanna let you know that. Look, you've already lost your reward if you're like that, and that shouldn't be your purpose in telling, you know, you shouldn't tell people when you give alms. But it does say, provide yourself bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no, there's no thieves in heaven. Thieves shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven, okay? Where no thief approacheth, neither moth doth corrupt. There's no moths up there to eat holes in your bags. You know, when we go to heaven, our rewards are gonna be there waiting for us. So, it says, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. What is important to you in this life? Is it getting the Escalade, is it getting the house, is it getting all these things? Look, there's nothing wrong with having things. But if your goal is more about money than it is about the kingdom of heaven, you've already lost your way. Amen. Blue verse 35, let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning. What is that saying? Hey, be ready to work. You're ready to work, have your lights burning. Have you ever heard that, you're burning the candle at both ends? You ever heard that saying? That's what we should be like. Look, if you wanna be a pastor someday, guess what, you're gonna have to burn the candle at both ends. I think Pastor Virgins is still working a full-time job. I'm still working a full-time job. And it's hard work to work a full-time job and to be a pastor at the same time. But some of you guys work hard too. You have probably two jobs or whatever. But what's the point? Well, the point is, is that we should be ready to do God's work. That's what's important. Laying up treasures in heaven is way more important than laying up treasures on earth. You know what, that stuff's all gonna burn up anyway. The paint job's gonna fade. The pirates are gonna get old. No, I'm using the escalator, sorry. I got an escalator on the line. But, verse 36. And eat yourselves like unto men that wait for the Lord when he will return from the wedding, that when he cometh to knocketh, they may open unto him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the Lord when he cometh shall find watching. Barely I say unto you, he shall gird himself. Let's talk about Jesus, right? Listen to this. And he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them. You know in heaven that Christ, you know how he bent down, he gird himself with a towel, and he bent down and washed the disciples' feet? It sounds to me like he's gonna come and serve us a meal in heaven. That's what it says, right? He shall gird himself and make him sit down to meet and will come forth and serve them. And that's servant leadership right there. People think that being the pastor is like, hey, I'm the man now or whatever. It's like, no, you're the servant now. Yeah, we're the servants. We're supposed to serve the people that we minister to. It says to know this, that if the good man of the house had known that what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not suffered his house to be broken through, being therefore ready also for the son of man cometh at an hour when he think not. Some people drop out and they're like, yeah, you know, I don't know if it's gonna be the time of the century, so I'm just gonna do what I want. I'm gonna just drop off and not worry about it. But you know what, the Bible says we're supposed to be watching. I'm not saying because the tribulation's gonna happen or the rapture's gonna happen any moment, but we still are supposed to be watching. We're still supposed to be serving the Lord and watching for his return. And you know what, number two, soldiers are faithful. When we're a soldier, we're supposed to be faithful. Look at verse number 42 in Luke chapter 12. And the Lord said, who then is that faithful and wise steward whom the Lord shall make ruler over his household to give them their portion of meat in due season? Who then is that faithful and wise steward? Hey, it's required that a steward be found faithful. We're supposed to be faithful. If you're a steward of cleaning the church, if you're a steward of whatever, you know, I've already gone over this. Whatever your stewardship is, whatever God has put over you or put you as a ruler of, you know, if you do a good job of the little things that you do, God's gonna give you more things. That's what the Bible says. So we should be faithful stewards in the things that we do. Blessed is that servant whom the Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. Let me read that again. Blessed is that servant whom his Lord, when he cometh, shall find so doing. God wants us to be faithful in the things that he gives us. And you know what? The Bible says that that servant's gonna be blessed. But you know what? If you would have known what time the thief was gonna come and break through, you would have suffered your house to be destroyed. Look, if you drop out, what are the risks? You know, if you're just like, you know what, me and my family, we're done. I'm sick of it. I'm sick of all the fight. I'm sick of all the drama. I'm just gonna go to some lily liver, pink tea lemonade, pink shirt-wearing pastor's church and just kind of ride it out. What could happen? What's the possibility that it could be happening? Well, they got children's church. They got, you know, you say, well, that's not so bad, isn't it? Yeah, right. Or were they taking your child, making you take your child out of the service and get watched by a stranger, right? Or were they, all the church believes false doctrine? You got this person over here who believed in repenting of your sins. This guy is lordship, salvation. This person is a Jew. This person, you know, they all believe, I'm not saying you guys believe. I'm picking up the bad guys. But think about that. Think about how your house could be broken up. That's right. Because you go back to the, why did you leave that kind of church in the first place? Because you're already having issues with it. They already don't know so many. Look, you want your children to rise up and be soul winners in the next generation or not. I guarantee if you go back to the old style church that you were going to where you had to beg the pastor for invitations that didn't say repent of your sins on them, and then you're gonna just go back to that because you're tired of fighting, you gotta stay in the battle. Amen. We gotta stay in the battle. Because you know what, your house will be broken up. That's right. Your next generation's gonna be weak. They're gonna be like, you know what, my parents were hypocrites. They said they believed all this stuff and they just took us out of the church we were going to. Your family's at stake. Your marriage is at stake. That's right. Think about these things. So where am I at here? I'll burst out, I'll leave off, and somebody help me. Oh, yeah, bless as he is the servant when the Lord cometh and shall find us. I do not have a truth. I say it to you, he will make him ruler of all that he hath. And if that's truth, say in his heart, my Lord the late is coming and shall begin to beat men, servants, and maidens to drink, eat, and drink, and be drunken. Now, of course, this is a parable, so I'm not saying that that's what you're gonna do, but when people go back to their old lives, sometimes they do do that. And I don't know about beating men, servants, and maid servants, I don't know, I've never had that opportunity before, but eating and drinking, being drunken, I think it's just basically God's way of saying, hey, going back to the things you used to do. Because Christians can fall back into the old sins that they were a part of, it's called the backslid. So I just think that this is saying that they've stopped working for the Lord and go back to the world. Look at verse 46, and the Lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not to him, and at the hour when he is not aware and will cut us under and will appoint him in his portion with the unbelievers. And that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. So look, be ready to serve. In your church, in your family, in your job, that's what you should be doing, because you don't want to be that servant that gets beaten when the Lord comes back, right? It says, and the servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, oh, excuse me, look at verse 48, it says, but he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes, for unto whomsoever much is given of him shall much be required, and to whom men have committed much of him they will ask the Lord. So look, the people that didn't know as much as you, they're not gonna get beaten with a few stripes as we would. But if you already know, then you fall off, then you take your family out of a good church, then you stop doing the work for the Lord, you're gonna get beaten, that's what it says, right? And, you know, when you've, it says, to whom men have committed much of him they'll ask the Lord. You know who I usually ask people to do more stuff for me? The people that are already faithful doing the things that I've already asked them to do? Like, hey, how would you feel about doing this? You know what the hardest thing about a pastor, one of the hardest things about being a pastor is when you ask someone to do something, they're like, oh yeah, or they'll come to you and say, hey, pastor, what can I do to help? And then you say, well, hey, could you do this? And then like they do it for a little while and they just stop doing it. They don't even give you a reason why they stop doing it, they just stop doing it or they stop doing it well. And it's just like, it's hard to ask that person to do something else when they've already failed at the very small task that they've already been given. So, hey, listen, if you go to your pastor and you ask, hey, pastor, can I do something to help you out, can I do something to help or in the church, can I lead a soul anytime, can I do this or that? And you do that and he gives you that responsibility and then you flop and flounder with it, don't expect him to give you anything else. If you're the guy that says, hey, pastor, person, will you train me to be a pastor? And he's like, yeah, sure, and then he starts to put a little more responsibilities on you. Hey, would you mind doing this, would you mind doing that? Or you're a sowing captain, you're always late, you're never there on time, your maps are not good or whatever, you're not doing the job that you're supposed to be doing. He's not gonna ask you to do more. I guarantee you he's not. And I'm not gonna do that either. I want people to, when they want to do something, I want them to serve well. And sometimes you're just like, you're stuck with someone that's doing a crappy job because it is a volunteer job, it's not like you're getting paid for it, okay? But who are you working for ultimately? Are you working for pastor persons, are you working for a stronghold Baptist church? You might be, but guess who you're ultimately working for? You're ultimately working for the Lord. Amen, that's right. And when we work for the Lord, we should do it with all of our life, with all of our soul, with all of our strength, just like we should love him with all of our mind, all of our soul, all of our strength, right? So the war's gonna cost you something. This battle that we're in, you're not gonna come out unscathed, you might get some PTSD, okay? Luke 12, 49 says, am I come to send fire on the earth? And what will I if I be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with, now am I straight until it be accomplished. Suppose that I've come to give peace on earth? I tell you nay, but rather division. So I thought Jesus was the Prince of Peace. I thought he was here to make peace on earth. Peace on earth, good will to our men. Yeah, he wants to give people peace with God. He wants to give peace, the peace that passeth all understanding, he wants us to be saved. But you know what, when you're saved, you're gonna be immediately at odds with people that are. Guess who those people are? Your family, your own friends, anybody that wants to, it's funny how someone could just be a drug addict and a loser and the family loves them, right? Oh, you were sober for three days, oh, you did a great job, you're doing great. But then if you're like, you're the one that's the loser, and you're the one that was a drunkard, and you're the one that was doing drugs, and you're the one that was a whore-monger, or whatever, adult, adulterer, whatever, and then you say, you know what, I got saved, and then I'm gonna fall in the bottle for now, and they're like, you loser. It's not weird, but someone could be the biggest loser in your family and everybody loves them, but because you're saved and you're following the Bible, now you're the biggest loser, right? It's weird. But that's what happens. It says, from henceforth, verse 52, there shall be five, and one house divided, three against two, two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father, and the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother, and the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, that's not too tough, and then the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. What is that talking about? There's gonna be division caused in your family. There's gonna be division caused in your life, but what is more important to you? Say, if you're in here and you have a family, what is more important to you? Being a compromiser with your extended family or your immediate family that you're trying to raise in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You're trying to leave your wife right. What is more important? Because you know what, sometimes you just gotta cut your losses. You try to get those family members saved. You try your best, and then a lot of people just only try to get their family saved, and that's all they care about, and I understand because if your mother raised you, and you love her, or your dad, or whatever, but ultimately, people have their own choices to make, and you can't just base your Christianity upon the family members that you've had problems with because you got saved. Does that make sense? I hope it does. Think about what you have. God has given everyone in this room so much, and we take it for granted sometimes. Don't take your family for granted. How many people, how many Christians have you seen raise their family in church, and then they just blow it, and their kids go to the devil? That's where I've seen it happen in church, lots of church stuff, too. So deciding to follow Jesus can cost you everything, your family, your friends, your job, and everything. It can cost you everything. Hey, maybe you're the best bartender in Atlanta, but guess what? When you get saved, you shouldn't be a bartender anymore. It might cost you your job. It might cost you some division. Say you're in the greatest family ever. You think at the time, but then when you get saved, all those people hate God, and you've got your immediate family. What's more important? And they're always gonna try to come to you on Sunday and say, hey, so-and-so's birthday party's today. We're gonna have a swimming party. It's like, no, I'm going to church. You gotta make a line in the sand and say, look, you can plan everything you want, but I'm not gonna be there. I ultimately have to tell my family that. Look, quit planning things on Sunday, because I go to church. If you want me to be there, then quit planning on Saturday after soul week, right? So, number four was the last point. Spoils of war are great. Spoils of war are great, but we're gonna turn to a different chapter, Mark chapter 10. See, there's something, there's a reward at the end of all this fighting and all this battling. We have great rewards. We have Mark chapter 10, verse 28. It says that Peter said unto them, unto him, lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. Jesus answered and says, verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or fathers, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospels, but he shall receive in hundredfold, now and this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, and persecutions. Oh, with persecutions. That's a part of it, like, he lists all these great things that we're gonna get back, and he's like, with persecutions. And in the world to come, eternal life. But many that are first shall be last, and the last first. So, you know, we might have a divided family. We might have to cut loose some people, and if you forsake all to follow Christ, there's a reward for that. It says, even in this life, we'll receive a hundredfold of this time. You're like, well, Pastor Thompson, when I got saved, I didn't get a bunch of new houses. I didn't get a whole bunch of more brothers and sisters. I didn't get more, you know, I didn't get all this other stuff that you're talking about. I just got the persecutions. No, that's where you're wrong. Because everybody in this room is your brother or sister. Amen. This church is the house of God when everybody's gathered together. You know, you might not get all these houses in this life. You might not get, but, you know, there's mothers in this church that you would look up to and call a mother, right, an elder woman in this church that's a godly lady. Mothers and children. Hey, maybe you can't have children anymore. There's children in this church that are children of God. They might be somebody else's children, but there's still children that are saved. Some of these children are saved in here. And we do get those things. We just, sometimes we look at things the wrong way. Sometimes we gotta look at things how, in a spiritual manner. And in the world, it says that the world to come eternal life. Hey, even if you don't have one single reward, you know, the thief in the cross, he didn't really have a lot of rewards to stack up in heaven, did he? But you know the thing that everybody gets to save is eternal life. Amen. So that's a great gift on its own. That's a great reward just for believing. You don't have to do anything for that, right? Just have to believe. So, in John chapter 14, verse one, it says, you can go ahead and turn over there if you want. John 14, verse one, this is a really, this is a great promise of God right here. It says, let not your heart be troubled. While you're turning there. Let not your heart be troubled. You know, there's a lot of trouble going on in the world today. It's not just fighting and stuff in churches and all that. There's a lot of turmoil going on in the world. 2020 did not begin, and it's still not, where I thought it was gonna be. You know, everybody's like, 2020, vision, we're gonna do more soul-willing and get more people saved than we ever have. And it's like, the devil's like, no, 2020's not gonna be like that. Maybe God said 2020's not gonna be the way you thought it was gonna be. God is judging this nation, and there's a lot of weird stuff going on, right? There's a lot of weird stuff going on. And we've had the whole COVID thing, everybody's being weird with the mask. I don't say that. Nobody has a mask on this room. That's pretty cool. I had to wear a mask all the time. I suffered for Jesus on the way here. I had to wear one of those dumb masks all the way on the airplane. It was not cool. It's hot. You know, when you breathe in the air. Matter of fact, I gotta find that mask. I don't know where I put it. Anyway, but it says, let not your heart be troubled. We can trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and he says, hey, let not your heart be troubled. Even though all this stuff is going crazy in the world, even though my life, it might be turned upside down right now, but it says if you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you into myself, that where I am, there you may be also. We have a promise that Jesus, when he went to heaven, he said he's going to prepare a place for us. You know, right now, you might live in a two bedroom apartment with six kids, but you know, in heaven, you're gonna have a mansion. I believe it's literally talking about a dwelling place. A mansion. I think that we're gonna have all kinds of things that we don't realize. You know, we are gonna have rewards. You know, the Bible says, I'm gonna have you turn to 1 Corinthians three, and I gotta hurry. I'm gonna read you from Psalm chapter 126, verse five. It says, they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seeds, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. When we go out, and we go to soul winning, and you go out and sow in tears, and you beg and plead for someone to get saved, you say, please, get saved. Amen. And you know, we're gonna doubtless come again. We're gonna be rejoicing, bringing the sheaves with us. That means we're gonna get people saved. We're gonna have those rewards. And you know what? When you get someone saved, they're saved for everlasting life, right? That's right. Does everlasting and eternal mean the same thing? Yeah. Okay, so, the pastor was like, whoosh. It means the same thing! Amen. And those people were saved forever. That's right. And you know what? That means that if you got that person saved, you have an eternal reward in heaven. That's right. That's a reward that can't be taken away. First Corinthians chapter three, that's where I have to turn to verse eight, says, Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one, and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labors. Labors, for we are laborers together with God, you're God's husbandry, you're God's building, according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I have laid the foundation, this is the apostle Paul talking, and another buildeth thereon. So after Paul built his foundation, he was on the Lord Jesus Christ, it says, another buildeth thereon. So when Paul passed away or died, whenever he died, someone else carried the torch on, right? It says, and let every man take heed on how he buildeth there upon. Or other foundation could no man lay that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. So as long as you're building your foundation on Christ, those rewards, I believe, are eternal. Now if any man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, see wood, hay, stubble would be things that really aren't really eternal, okay? And those things are gonna be burned up. It says, every man's work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort. It is if any man's work abide, which he hath built thereon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved, yet so is by fire. Some people just get in by the skin of their teeth, right? But look what it says. It says that when you talk about suffering loss, I believe that's talked about if you fall out, if you get backslidden for three years, if you're not building on the right foundation, those things will burn up. If your ministry is putting rain comfort tracks in the inside of 12-pack beers in the cooler aisle, I think that that's probably a stubble. That's probably hay. That's probably something that's not everlasting. I don't believe that tracks can keep you saved anyway. So if your ministry's just a track ministry, hey, look, if tracks got people saved, why don't we just do Operation Dumbo Drop and just put tracks all over the world? You know, people do that. People actually do that. When we had a pastor that said, you know, they were in the Philippines and they threw 500 tracks out the window and people were picking them up and looking at them and stuff like that because they thought it was probably something cool, but then they looked at it and they were like, we got 200 saved. When they came back from that trip, they said they got 200 saved because they threw 500 invites out the door. Is that building on the foundation? I don't think it is. I think you need a spirit-filled man of God to get somebody's saved. That's what I believe. So if you're just thinking that you can just dump invites and that's you building the kingdom of heaven, you're wrong. That's right. Now, even when we go door knocking, how many, pastor, how many invites gets a person in church? Church. Yeah. If it would just slip these invitations in the doors, you might get a visitor. But is it guaranteed that person's gonna get saved? I mean, so that's all you did. Is it a good work? Yeah, but it's not like you think that you're getting all these people saved. That's what a lot of churches do. They think that just passing out tracts, a lot of them have a long salvation message on. We're not gonna win the world to Christ doing that. That's right. It says, we'll receive a reward for the things that we've done that are not wood, hay, and stubble. Daniel chapter 12, this is the last verse that we turn to, and I'm almost done. Daniel chapter 12, verse two. What was the title of the sermon? The Spoils of War. What is the spoil we're gonna get? We're gonna get rewards in heaven for the spiritual battles that we fought here on this earth. But if you're not in a battle, you're not gonna get the rewards. If you're not doing the word of the Lord, you're not gonna get the rewards. We have the one benchmark, ultimate reward, which is eternal life, and that's a great gift. Amen. But Daniel chapter 12 says, verse two. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt, and they that will be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they shall turn many to righteousness as the stars for what? Ever and ever. Is that an eternal? Yeah. Does that mean everlasting? Okay, that's all I got today. Okay. You know what? If you get someone saved, that reward lasts forever and ever, amen. We're gonna say amen. They that be wise. Who are the people that are wise that saved people that are turning many to righteousness? Doesn't say who passed out invitations and got people saved. No, obviously, I'm not saying anything bad about passing out invitations. I'm just saying that, look, when you turn someone to righteousness, when you get somebody saved, Christ saves them. He abuses righteousness upon them, and guess what? We get to shine forever and ever. We get to partake in the glory. We're his husband. We're the ones that he sent here to do the labor war, ambassadors for Christ for him, and we're gonna have, in heaven, we're gonna have an everlasting family. Anybody you gotta save, part of the family of God, right? Amen. Everlasting life, everlasting rewards, and everlasting fellowship with God. Those are good things, aren't they? Amen. You know, Christ wants us to continue in his love. And you know what? Have your pastors back. Have your pastors back. You know, he does a lot of battles that you probably don't even know about, but you know what you should do? You should encourage your pastor. You know his pastor version's perfect. I doubt that if I asked him right now, he would say he's perfect. He's a good pastor. He's a great guy, but is he perfect? No. So, and when you're around people for a long time, you start to notice the moles. You start to notice, you know, things that maybe, well, I wouldn't do it that way. But you don't need to say that, do you? Because you're not even doing it, that's right. So, I would say this. Have your pastors back. Pray for your pastor. Endure hardness. Expect battles. Finish your course of life. And do everything you can in this church to make it better. And if you have a job to do, be faithful in it. Be a good steward. It's about longevity. The Christian life is measured in decades, as I've heard many wise men say. I'm gonna, I know I told you this in the last verse, so I'm gonna have you turn to it, but I'm gonna read one last verse to you. Psalm chapter 84, verse 10 says, For a day in my courts is better than a thousand. I'd rather be a doorkeeper or a porter in the house of my God, in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. Look, and quitting is dwelling in the tents of wickedness. We need to be good servants of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know what, he calls us friends. He says, I know we're Paul-y servants, but I call you friends, right? So we're friends of God, just like Abraham was a friend of God. So let's do everything we can to support this church, to support this pastor, and work as hard as we can for the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this great church, Stronghold Baptist Church. We thank you so much for all the people that showed up here to go soul-winding today. Lord, I pray, Lord, just take them to the places that are the most ready to hear the gospel, and so they can plant, sow, and reap, Lord. I pray that you would just bless the rest of this weekend and pass the verses of preaching. And Lord, I pray that many people would pitch in and help, whatever needs to be done around here. Lord, there's just so much that goes into running the church, and I just pray that the people here would have a heart to serve, and to do great things for God here. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Amen. Right. You can open up your handles. Song number 410. Song 410, Faith is the Victory. Song 410. On the first. Overcomes the world. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. His banner over us is the, our sword, the word of God. We tread the road, escapes the lung, we shout the triumph trod. We pay day by day, a world with friends swept under every field. To pay by wish we conquered them. They still are shining still. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. On every hand, the foe we find, run up in dread of rain. Let hips of knees be led behind, but onward to the fray. Salvation's helmet on each head, with truth the word of God. The herd shall tremble in our tread, and echo in our shout. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. To think that overcomes the foe, my reign shall begin. Before the angels he shall his name confess again. Then onward from the hills of life, our hearts will love a flame. Oh, they wish all the host of night. In Jesus' concrete name. Faith is the victory. Faith is the victory. Oh, glorious victory that overcomes the world. Amen, all right, before we're dismissed, I just wanna thank Pastor Thompson once again for being here this morning. Really appreciate him being here. Food should be showing up. It's supposed to be delivered any minute. We told him noon, so as soon as they get here, we'll be able to eat, and if I could just get some people to help. I've got a few tables in the back when we get up. If you all might just kinda maybe clearing out some of the chairs out of the way, stack up the song books, put them off to the side. We'll get the tables out here. We'll get everything set up, so that way we'll be able to eat, and we'll just leave it all set up when we're done, because we're gonna come back here in the evening. Anyone who wants to go out and go sowing, we'll go out till dinnertime. We'll come back here. We'll go out to some pizza, and then we'll be dismissed then for the evening. Of course, if you don't wanna go sowing the entire time, it's up to you. Stay as long as you'd like. We'd love to have you in a church building. We'll remain open. I imagine there's gonna be at least somebody that's gonna be sticking around back here, so you can come back and forth. I'm also gonna be bringing a cooler full of water to out-sowing, so it's probably gonna be kinda hot today, so wanna make sure everybody's well-hydrated. Help yourself to the drinks. There's coolers underneath the tables out there, and we're gonna have chips available, and the chip place should be here any minute. So thanks, all, for being here this morning, and we're dismissed. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.