(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

you do not have one of these bulletins slip your hand up real high and one of our shows will make sure that you have one of these if you open up to the front page the first page there we've got the service times at the top Sunday morning at 10 30 a.m. Sunday evening at 5 p.m. Wednesday night at 7 is our Bible study we're in Hebrews chapter number 2 and just another reminder the cards that we give out when we go out soul winning still have the 4 p.m. start time because they were printed a while ago we just made this change in June to 5 p.m. so if you are talking to people anyone might be interested in visiting just point that out to them try to remember be like oh by the way the the 4 p.m. start time is actually 5 p.m. and just and just make that mental note to let them know of course the next ones that we order will be will be corrected but I didn't see the the reason in trashing all the ones that we have just just for that minor change we don't generally get many visitors from the cards in general now some people do but it's not it's not worth the the cost of just dumping all those the main the main purpose let them know about our church and the the Bible way to heaven that's on there so anyhow just wanted to point that out we're in Hebrews chapter 2 this week we just started the book of Hebrews come on out on our Wednesday night Bible site you can make it to that we've got sowing times lots of sowing times we're growing amen I love seeing more times in the bulletin this is great so it's exactly what we want to see and we've added a can South Carolina on Saturday morning 11 a.m. and of course there's still the the noon startup time where brother mark leads that over in the Powder Springs area out in West Georgia so we've got East we've got West we've got everywhere almost but here except on Sundays we got our main time here in Norcross so lots of groups lots of things going on and if none of these times work out for you but you still would like to go out soul winning just let me know and we'll try to work out I mean we got people all over the place so it'll probably work out with someone somewhere to be able to take you out and do a little bit of soul winning so just skin touch with us if that's the case got the salvation and baptism through month of August as well as for the year things are going really well as far as those numbers are concerned we're last year we had the most baptisms that we had and we're actually at the same number now as we were last year this time so and then our our salvation's are a little are higher they're increased from last year too so that's great it's good news praise the Lord and then let's go ahead and count up if there's any salvation's to report for the week anyone got soul winning any salvation's three for Thursday anyone else with anything yes sir for yesterday I mean anybody else very good all right keep up the good work preaching gospel of course we got time this afternoon 1 30 p.m. is where we are gonna be sent out so we're meeting up right here and we'll be sent out 1 30 to go and preach in the local area here we got the offering totals listed down there at the bottom of the page through the month of August prayer request lots of updates also if I if I if I don't really get updates on people here's the way we do prayer requests and you know if you notice that someone that you added or someone that you care about was was removed from the prayer list but you want them to go back on just let just put in another prayer request card it's kind of on a case by case basis how the how people get removed so when people have major health problems they tend to stay on the list longer right you're dealing with something that's kind of ongoing and it's this and it's a big deal that's the case but some people have some issues that may plague them for a while but but they're they're not gonna stay on the focus of the prayer request list we got to keep this at some kind of reasonable level just in general so the bottom line is if there's someone on here that you know we're praying for but then you notice hey this person's no longer on the list one is gonna be because I'm just not getting any updates on it when I feel like I should be getting updates about things maybe a procedure was done recently and then no one's telling me anything about what happened I have no idea then I'm gonna assume everything went well and then if you're like wait no this person's got you know whatever going on just just fill out another prayer request card it's gonna be one way of just keeping things fresh and not getting stale in the list so just keep that in mind please continue to keep everyone of course it's on our list here you obviously there's a lot of people deal with cancer and stuff too that's it those are those are longer term problems we tend to we would love to be able to take people off because they're either healed or or everything has gone kind of into remission or when they kind of get into a more normal type of a life then that would be when we want to remove people from there but again if I just don't hear any updates on anyone I have no idea what's going on people are gonna start being removed from the list and just let me know get a new update and then let us know and we'll we'll pray again so updates updates so Carmela's is home so that's a very good good news there and she's been able to keep some food down and some liquids so it's the most important thing so she doesn't need to get any IVs and she is recovering so but continue to pray for her she's still not well right she's getting better it's very very good news but but continue to pray for her pray for mrs. mustellers parents for both of her parents so there's been a little bit of confusion and not all the information was was correct but here's the here's what's going on with Miss Cindy's father he did have a stroke and he's recovering from that and he's he's he's recovering pretty well that's a fair statement brother Lindsay's he's he's recovering so we're seeing you pray for him and then also we're Cindy's mother and this is very unfortunate as you can see they're what we're praying for and obviously there's a lot of things that go along with that so please just pray a lot for the whole situation for everybody involved very serious matter so please please please keep her family her whole family in your prayers lots of stress lots of things to deal with medical things and emotional and and just all of it so please please be in prayer for them they need your prayers desperately right now pray for Austin's friend James to find a church he's in a similar situation that Austin himself was in not that long ago before deciding to make the the trek the visit to come and be with us on a regular basis and then pray for Alabama soul wing marathon a lot of things working there a lot I'm counting we're gonna have a huge turnout for this event I'm telling you I've got I've gotten responses from a lot of people I don't know some of you know Peyton brother Peyton barber from that lives in Alabama he goes to a church out there he's bringing 10 people just from their church to come and join us and there's other people I talked to that have come and visited our church people who visited on a camping trip that are gonna be there so it's gonna be great hopefully you can make it out it's Labor Day weekend which that's on the next page there in the upcoming events you can see the details there where we're meeting the address 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. is gonna be the breakfast and pairing up and then just going out so winning starting at 10 and just let me know about that please and just in general now we have the homeschool field trips on here you can see the first one is for Friday September 9th and the next one's October 21st please remember to sign up for all the activities and all the things we have sign up sheets for so whether that be the soul winning event so winning events gonna be very helpful for us for planning on having food and especially breakfast right in the morning we plan having some food for you so please please please let us know and also logistics for just how many maps we need to have ready to go to know what the total count is it's very helpful and then same thing with the homeschool field trips and everything else please sign up for these events if you plan on attending and if you're in need of any you know hotel rooms or anything like that for the soul winning event also mark that let us know the sooner the better really appreciate it and then as long as I'm going over sign up sheets there's also a sign up sheet for those who want to volunteer to help clean up the the building and things like that so it'd be nice to get some new people to to help to volunteer because we kind of have always the same people who are who are helping and it's it's always good if you're able to if you have a heart to do it we would love to have you come and sign up there's plenty of open spots on the calendar to sign up for making sure that this place is kept clean after service mopping the floors vacuuming and doing all that so there's a lot a lot of work to be done and we appreciate everybody that helps very very much and if you're not able to help with donating your time to make sure that that's done then at least please make sure that you're picking up after yourself as much as possible and that you're leaving your footprint very small on the work that needs to be done here now it's gonna be very exciting I don't have this on here but we are scheduled to have the keys and be able to move in to the space next door beginning in September so I emailed to figure out what when exactly I can get the keys when I can start doing you know any type of moving any type I'm ready to shift out most of the stuff in here out there's a big mess there's a lot of clutter that we've just kind of been accumulating so we're gonna get more space it's gonna be great we'll be able to use the restrooms over there that'll be great I've got everything in the planning stages the architect is actively working on he knows exactly what we want to do he's got he's just getting the build plan ready to go so once he has all the itemized list and the drawings to go with the build plan I'm gonna submit that to the fire marshal who's going to then review and then either approve or deny our the the the plan the project plan if he approves it then we'll move to getting permits to do the work through the city of Norcross and then once those permits are approved we could actually start working so there's a little bit involved but it's not too bad it's all kind of gonna be dependent on how long it takes for other people to get stuff back to us I'm this is a big focus for me so right now I'm trying to get the ball out of my court as much as possible and get it back into other people's hands so that I'm not the bottleneck but it's it's looking pretty good I don't expect to have all of this stuff done definitely not in September I would say hopefully we'll be able to have everything done in like October but in the meantime once I get those plans approved and I'll have a better idea for the timeline then we'll start focusing on doing some work here internally we're gonna be turning all the chairs around the pulpits gonna be back there instead of over here and we have to do some repair work some patchwork on that back wall from the chairs and other stuff and some painting to get that ready to go so I'll be asking for more volunteer help for a lot of these smaller item projects we'll probably end up having to hire out some of the most of the bigger work to be done I think just because that's what we're gonna be given permission to do I don't know how all that works what we're allowed to do and what someone else has to do a licensed contracted insured you know company to do some of the work here either way we've got plenty of money saved up in the bank account to be able to handle all this stuff so we'll get work done we'll get it it'll look nice and we'll be ready go I'm looking forward to this but but the time is coming up real quick we could at least start using some of that space sooner we're gonna unload probably some of the tables and some other things to be out of this space and then when we need them we could just go and grab them in the short term we'll leave a couple here of course for regular every day every Sunday eating but then the bigger events will we'll just bring them over here anyways I don't want to ramble on about all that stuff you kind of figure how we're gonna use that and but that's exciting so I'm looking forward to that and then let's see August challenge bringing a visitor first-time visitor church so if you bring a first-time visitor to church with you if you invite someone and you know they show up and they're here as a result of your efforts then you will receive a prize for bringing a visitor to church we've got the I mentioned homeschool field trips Bible memory passage we're on Hebrews chapter 4 we're halfway through this so actually a little bit more than halfway through it because I'm giving you two weeks of review time to get that whole chapter quoted since we're doing the whole chapter all at once and then I still owe first prizes for the last portion of Hebrews 3 as well as the entire chapter of Hebrews 3 and I will hopefully be getting those prizes within the next week and get completely caught up on all of that stuff birthdays birthdays birthdays we have a birthday today Zuri how old are you today eight awesome eight years old that's great well since your birthdays today we appreciate you coming to church and being here with us we're gonna sing a happy birthday to Zuri and then don't forget after a service you could get a free ice cream now there is an ice maker on top of that deep freezer don't think you're stuck with the ones that are in the fridge freezer there's better ones in the deep freezer so it make the effort ask dad to help you out we'll move that ice machine off of that open up the lid and you could get some of the good stuff that's hidden beneath the ice maker for your birthday so we're gonna sing a happy birthday to Zuri this morning happy birthday to you happy birthday to you happy birthday dear Zuri happy birthday to you all right very good thanks for being here and helping and allowing us to celebrate your birthday with you I hope you have a very good day and that is about it for announcements so we're gonna turn to our next song and brother Jesse will come up and he will lead us all right for the next song we're seeing song number 169 169 comes out again by I and while the ox plate is being passed around church doing your Bibles to revelations chapter 2 revelation chapter 2 I struggle back the church we will be reading the entire chapter revelation chapter 2 brother Devon will be reading aloud while you can fall along side again that was revelation chapter 2 unto the angel of the church of Ephesus right these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks I know thy works and thy labor in thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars and that's born and has patience and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent but this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans which I also hate he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God and unto the angel of the church in Smyrna right these things saith the first and the last which was dead and is alive I know thy works in tribulation and poverty but thou are rich and I know the blasphemy of them which say they're Jews and are not but are the synagogue of Satan fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer behold the devil shall cast some of you into prison that you may be tried and you shall have tribulation ten days be thou faithful unto death and I'll give thee a crown of life he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches he that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death and to the angel of the church in Pergamos right these things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges I know thy works and where thou dwellest even where Satan's seat is and thou holdest fast my name and has not denied my faith even in those days where an Antipas was my faithful martyr who was slain among you where Satan dwelleth but I have a few things against thee because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of Israel to eat things sacrificed unto idols and to commit fornication so has thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans which thing I hate repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches to him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it and unto the angel of the church and Thyatira write these things saith the Son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet are like fine brass I know thy works and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy works and the last to be more than the first I was standing I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth herself a prophetess to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto idols and I gave her space to repent of her fornication and she repented not behold I will cast her into a bed and then that commit adultery with her into great tribulation except they repent of their deeds and I will kill her children with death and all the churches shall know that I am he which searcheth the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works but unto you I say and unto the rest in Thyatira as many as have not this doctrine in which have not known the depths of Satan as they speak I will put upon you none other burden but that which you have already hold fast till I come and he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end to him will I give power over the nation's and he shall rule them with a rod of iron as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I received of my father and I'll give him the morning star he that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches let's pray brother Jess do you mind praying for us please all right I just want to make one more update with the with the announcements and the prayer requests I realized now you know I'm trying to be sensitive with some of the information that we give out especially with mrs. Masler's mother but I just want to make sure it's clear that she's physically stable so so just I don't I don't want people to all be like oh man what you know she's physically stable and she's home so that's good news I just I just want to make sure that that's clear in case there's probably a lot of you are gonna be wondering you know what's what's the status so physically okay so just please pray for them but anyways this chapter so we started off here this morning in Revelation chapter number two and in Revelation chapter two and in chapter three we have these letters that are written to seven churches that were existing during the time just after Jesus Christ had had died and risen from the dead and John receives this vision the Apostle John and he's given this task part of his task is sending out these letters unto these various churches and it's kind of like a report card for the churches on how they're doing and one thing that you'll notice through these various letters is that God's warning in multiple cases hey if you don't get this stuff right we're gonna I'm gonna remove your place out of the candlestick basically what that is is God's viewing these churches as legitimate churches their churches that God is going to use that God's presence will be there God will use these people to do his work but there comes a point where God's gonna say I'm done with you just as a church as a group right where they get to it where they apostatize to the point of just no longer even being recognized as a church that God's gonna say yes these are my people right and there's various things that you can do where God's just going to not use you anymore not filled fill his spirit upon the church and and help the church to do the the work that they're set out to do as a group right as a collective now individually of course God deals with us individually as well as in a group as aggregately so God deals with the nations as a whole nation God could deal with church as a whole church and individuals as individuals so thank God for that that you can still always do what's right and be blessed of God personally in your life regardless what anyone else around you is doing we read about the prophets during the times that you know Jeremiah Elijah Elijah these men of God that there may not have been very many support with them and other people that that believed or agreed with them but God took care of them every step of the way so we always have that but what I want to focus on here and in the time I serve is what makes new IFP churches great and some of the things that we're gonna be looking at they're very generic but there are things that any church ought to have and we're starting off with one that if you don't have this the Bible is warning God's warning that hey I'm gonna remove your candlestick out of its place right you're supposed to be a can think about a cancer was a candlestick do it shines a light a candle is there to shine light and the most important light to be shine to be shown is the gospel of Jesus Christ that light of the gospel needs to be spread forth and it's kind of like what's the point of your church if you're not even preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and look the gospel of Jesus Christ I hear some real weird things from time to time from people people have this idea that like oh man yeah I'm hoping they receive the gospel we're preaching the gospel and like they're not bringing up hell eternal life Jesus Christ death real worth none of that stuff it's like they just try to help people and just hope that by their good works somehow these people will just get saved and they think that they're spreading the gospel it's like so many churches these days will send youth groups or even adult groups off on these mission work right send them out to the mission field and what I do they build a school they build a house they build buildings right they do all this construction work and all this labor and it's like man we're spreading the gospel far and wide you're not spreading the gospel at all you're doing construction work now that might be a benefit to some people I'm sure it is I would love to have someone come over and build me some stuff too but I'll tell you what that's not going to get anybody saved at all that work does nothing as far as preaching the gospel is concerned revelation chapter 2 look at verse number 1 this is one of the main problems with the church at Ephesus unto the angel the Church of Ephesus right these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them which are evil and thou has tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars and has borne and has patience and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted nevertheless I have somewhat against thee now up to this point he said I know your works I know your labor so they're doing a lot of work I mean they're active they're doing things as a church as a group they're doing work they're laboring which I would say is better than the churches who are just doing nothing right because there's some churches out there that just do literally they do nothing they show up Sunday morning week after week and do nothing but see we're looking at churches that God still considers to be churches those churches have already passed on they're just waiting to close the doors when a church just becomes a place of just social activity that just ends up doing nothing these people are at least doing some work so I know your patience and and they're still trying to keep good standards you're trying those people who they say their apostles they're not they're doing a good job trying to weed out the false prophets and saying you can't bear them which are evil now the church at Ephesus here would be a great church to go to especially in today's climate it seems hard to find churches who cannot bear them which are evil because a lot of churches they are just saying hey all you which are evil come on in but notice the good part of the report card here is saying you can't bear them which are evil you can't stand them right now it doesn't mean you don't go out and try to preach the gospel to people of course actually in fact that's one of the problems that they're having that is the main problem that they're having he says notice I have someone against thee because I was left I first loved remember therefore from whence thou art fallen and repent and do the first works the first works the primary works the most important works the works that you have to do as a church from the beginning if you're gonna grow at all the first works is going out and reaching people to gospel Jesus Christ those are the first works remember therefore for once I fall and repent to do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy candlestick out of his place except thou repent churches that are not actively preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and I mean preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ not doing all these other activities and calling it the gospel and saying we're trying to share the gospel with this person as I help feed him and clothe them and do those things look that's not the gospel that's not the gospel you can help people all day long Muslims can help people the same way that you do by feeding them and clothing them and doing all these various things they're not preaching the gospel to them because the gospel is the gospel it's the good news it's it's the death-barrel resurrection Jesus Christ it's the fact that Christ paid for your sins when he died on the cross and if you put your trust in him as your Savior then he saves you and gives you eternal life that's the gospel that your sins can be remitted that they could be paid for through Christ that's the gospel it has nothing to do with your good works in the sense of you're just going out and helping people and doing on others we look everyone believes that everyone isn't preaching gospel and one thing that the new IP churches are doing this is the emphasis this is the focus as I was just commenting during the announcements time hey praise the Lord we added another time for people to go soul-winning another time great that's what it's about that's ultimately at the end of the day kind of the main objective and main goal this church we do a lot of other things for various reasons but ultimately they will all help us in the endeavor to reach to lead people to Christ you know getting sin out of our life trying to live righteously holy be sanctified all these things are great and we need to do them anyways God commanded them but they also will help assist you when you clean up your vessel to be meet for the Masters used to go forward and reach more people to Christ and be more fruitful because at the end of the day it's souls that matter souls this flesh it's gonna pass away the the goods the money everything passes away but your soul continues and the soul continues either in heaven or in hell but we could make that decision and we could help impact other people's souls so that they don't have to be spending an eternity in hell everything else is gonna go away but the soul matters the soul is what it's all about so the emphasis on soul winning is what makes new IP churches great new IP churches aren't the only ones that do soul winning I get that but we're just talking about the things that make new IP churches great in my mind it doesn't mean it's exclusive it just means this is one of the things that makes them great how about this salvation is not complicated like so many make it out to be Matthew 7 13 the Bible says this enter you in at the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that lead it to destruction and many there be which go in there at because straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto salvation and few there be that find it now this passage straight that word straight means narrow the straight gate the reason why it's narrow it's not difficult see the modern versions and we'll get into that in a minute in just a few minutes here on the Bible versions but the modern versions will tell you that this is difficult you ever hear people say you got to walk the straight and narrow what they mean by that is man you better do what's right every day you need to be paying attention to the work that you're doing and that you are doing what's right every single day that's the straight narrow look the straight way for salvation it means Christ Jesus Christ is the only way like he said I am the way the truth in the life no man cometh unto the Father but by me that is the definition of the straight way the straight way of salvation it's simple it's not complicated but there are plenty of churches that will complicate this and they'll try to tell you no no no you got to do I mean you can't just do whatever you want you got to live right you got to return from all your sins you got to do this you got to do and they muddy up the self salvation they muddy up the gospel and in many cases just preach a false gospel you might be churches don't do that new IP churches are very very very very abundantly clear on what it takes to be saved praise the Lord right it is simple it is not complicated at all and one of the things you'll find new IP churches there's no complication there they make it easily understood it's one of those things that hey we I mean it goes hand in hand with those first works right it goes hand in hand with preaching the gospel you got it has to be clean you have to understand the gospel really well and you're going forth and we're preaching it and it's not difficult well another thing that makes new IP churches great turn if you would to turn you into Titus one a lot of these are famous passages but Psalm 12 Psalm 12 verses 6 & 7 the Bible reads the words of Lord our pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth purified seven times thou shalt keep them o Lord thou shalt preserve them from this generation forever the pure words of the Bible God's words that he has preserved for us today and has throughout every generation this is another thing that new happy churches stand strong on is the preservation of God's Word unadulterated not with errors not copyist errors not there's some things missing not when you well when you translate stuff you can't quite get the meaning and you have to go back to the Greek but we don't really have all the text of the Greek so we kind of don't know and there's some things missing and we can't really fool I mean you could trust the Bible you could trust the Bible but you know I mean yeah this might be wrong and that might be wrong no no God has preserved his word faithfully the Lord has preserved his word that's why I was as thou shalt keep them o Lord thou shalt preserve them the preservation of God's Word and his ability to make that word available in all languages not every church believes that and it's amazing actually how many churches you'll find that will claim that you could trust the Bible no there's no reason to doubt the Bible and at the same time on the other side of their mouth say there's errors in the Bible what do you mean well how can I trust things that you're telling me is full of errors and in what world does that make sense to you oh you can trust this book yeah but there's well then how do you know where the errors are because if you knew the errors errors are why wouldn't you correct them if you know their errors fix them but you just know enough to say well I know that there's errors no it's funny how these people just want to say that there is no inerrancy in scriptures but they were just in in the originals right the ones that don't exist anymore the original writing ridiculous of course there is inerrancy in the originals the original autographs is what you'll find churches will say we believe in their inerrancy of Scripture in the in the original autographs watch out for that and by the way you know I'm just gonna I'm preaching on what I like what I think makes new IP Church is great but you may not end up being in a church like ours for for your whole life or whatever look and think about these things if you ever find yourself searching for a new church okay because these this is this is why I'm in a new IP Church is why a church is a new IP Church these reasons I'm gonna list because this is important it's fundamental stuff the gospel is fundamental soul winning it's fundamental God's Word fundamental and when I say fundamental I mean rudimentary I mean basic like this is part of the foundation that everything is built on every other work of the church I mean if you're not having the right gospel if you're not having people preaching that gospel if you're not having God's Word to draw from I mean what do you have I had you turn to Titus 1 another thing I love about new IP churches what I think makes new IP churches great is the focus and emphasis on good doctrine solid doctrine solid teaching how many times I mean I've heard this over and over again and I've experienced this well many times in my life people saying I'm not being fed I'm not being fed I'm going to church and I'm not being fed and what are they talking about they're not talking about the potlucks right you go to a Baptist Church you're probably gonna find a lot of potlucks ours included right we're gonna get food you're gonna get whatever but that's not the feeding we're talking about it's a spiritual meat it's that manna that food from God the food from heaven that you get through God's Word that's gonna be served up and man alive was that the I'd never been to a church that ever read an entire chapter of the Bible imagine that an entire chapter like and that's at the beginning let alone over the course of 30 minutes 40 or whatever the amount of time that the preacher will be up preaching hey I love that from day one I remember the first time I stepped foot a faithful word Baptist Church and the entire chapter was read out loud I was like we're we're reading the whole thing like looking around is this really we're not just going to one verse and then okay well look up and now listen no the whole thing now in order to support the good I was talking about good doctrine it needs to be supported with the Word of God so you need to be able to demonstrate that and show that and prove that look at verse number nine Titus one about us holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers you know what helps the new IFB even get to the point where it is today because a lot of people say you know that's that said that's their answer is crazy that guy's I mean that crazy guy in Arizona he's out there and say you know all kinds of things and he's saying this and he's saying that you know why it's not crazy though and you know what convinces people sound doctrine when you could say look I'm just saying what the Bible says and I could prove it and it's right here and you don't have to have a PhD you don't have to have a theology degree you don't have to do a bunch of mental gymnastics and try to figure out well wait a minute hold on a second this is really confusing it's plain it's simple it's clear it's what the Bible says we go through a lot of scripture and teach and say thus saith the Lord amen that is what is going to be able to exhort and convince the gainsayers and this is something that churches ought to be doing just as the Apostle Paul is instructing Titus hey hold fast that faithful word as you've been taught hold fast to that and that you can by sound doctrine because the doctrine comes from the word convinced no one's gonna be convinced well some people do some people get convinced for the wrong reason right some people get convinced of the speaking and tongue things because there's a big circus and a show going on people go wow this is crazy and it is crazy but that's not those things don't last those things don't last you see through that stuff after a while a lot of people get deceived early on it's kind of exciting weird but you know what's gonna end up happening people might get in that involved in that stuff for a while you're gonna start seeing the holes and the flaws and the you start to really kind of see how things go and you start to realize if you're interested in the truth which we'll get to that next that focus on the truth anyone who has a heart or an interest in the truth will see through the sham of the Pentecostal movement and these other movements that want to wow you with things but are lacking all the substance and the doctrine underneath because not supported by anything real anything concrete you need to convince people at the end of the day convince people in their mind and I think the new IB is doing a great job of convincing because of the amount of scripture being used as the support to the good doctrine and even if you don't agree with every doctrine you at least need to be able to you know any church ought to be able to say here's what we believe in here's why and have it very clearly laid out from scripture from the scripture and look there are going to be times for everybody to have some moments of disagreement that's fine but you want to find yourself in a church that by and large hey they've got good doctrine and the reason why they good doctrine is because they're using Bible supported it's kind of hard to resist that just like you know Steven when he was martyred there they had nothing else they could do but stop their ears from hearing the truth and just rush on them and kill them but they couldn't speak against it couldn't speak against the things he was saying because he was speaking truth truth another important factor turn if you would to first Timothy chapter 2 you're in Titus 1 look over to 1st Timothy chapter 2 Bible says in verse number 5 for there's one God and one mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time where unto I am ordained a preacher and an apostle I speak the truth in Christ and lie not a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity he said I speak the truth that's what matters this emphasis is focusing on the things that are true whether they're popular or not popular that is what is important the the whole counsel of God being preached not withholding anything and saying you know what I'm gonna preach the truth turn if you would to Hebrews chapter 10 Hebrews chapter 10 and as I just mentioned you know whether whether things are popular or not we have to hold to the truth one of the things that the new IFB has is an uncompromising nature when it comes to the truth when it comes to the Word of God in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation and people who hate the Word of God and people want to make you back down and apologize and retract and back off your statements and say so and the pressure comes on hey what's great about the new IP churches is they say no no look at verse number 23 the Bible says let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering let's hold that tight hey I'm holding fast the profession of my faith no wavering I'm not budging I'm not moving around a little bit and going oh you didn't like that well here no hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful that promise and let's consider one another to provoke unto love and the good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as a matter of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching and you know what that's another great thing about new IP churches is the fellowship when you take a stand like this you're not going to be left all alone and praise God for that that's also important when you make the stand saying I'm gonna hold fast my faith I'm not gonna waiver and then you've got other people provoking unto love and the good works in the assembly that's important look all of these things that we're looking at are things that every church should have and these are things that I think the new IP does a great job with in their churches and I visited a lot of new IP churches there's not a whole many out there but of the ones that exist there's only a couple that I haven't been to so what you're gonna find is that same spirit some differences as you would expect different churches some different people but the same kinship it's the same Brotherhood same Spirit of God and same values and all these values that I'm preaching that the Bible teaches that churches ought to have you could find all these values at these other churches as well uncompromising 1st Corinthians 15 58 Bible says therefore my beloved brother and be steadfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord being unmovable steadfast just just staying the course turn if you would to Ephesians chapter six Ephesians chapter number six and you know the new IP churches are thriving they're thriving in a time and in a culture when the majority of Christian churches are diminishing they're losing people they're losing ground they're losing young people they're losing traction in general with the public but new IP churches are thriving why well at the very basic level if you're gonna build something to last it's got to have a good foundation right I mean churches are gonna end up crumbling and you know when you start compromising and backing down what you're doing is you're getting off of that rock the Bible says Isaiah 28 16 therefore thus saith the Lord God behold I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone a tried stone a precious cornerstone a sure foundation he that believeth shall not make haste having that sure foundation set up and established and building on that building on Christ building on the Word of God hey that's gonna help you to be established and that's gonna help you to thrive and and not just come and go and a lot of people either the observers look at new IP churches and going oh yeah they're here they're gonna be gone in no time remember that's actually what they said about Jesus Christ to remember back in the days when through this you know he claimed to be somebody and he gathered a bunch of people and then you know that all just kind of went away when when the guy stood up stood up for Jesus a little bit to like kind of give him a little bit of space like hey let's give these guys a little bit of space like this is gonna come to nothing right if it's not of God it's gonna come to nothing but that was a key thing if it's not of God see of course Jesus Christ is of God and you know what when we follow the Bible and stand on the Word of God this won't come to nothing either that's why our churches are not coming to nothing because when you go forth bearing precious seed you shall doubtless come back with rejoicing your barrier your your sheaves with you you're gonna it is doubtless that you will have results you're in Ephesians chapter 6 right now the momentum is great the momentum is awesome our church is great we've seen a lot of growth since we started four years ago and solid solid growth and you know growth physically we're gonna be expanding but more importantly spiritually the people that have been coming to church you know a church is great when you could come back year after year after year and you see one you can see a lot of the same people obviously people end up coming and go in general but but when you start seeing the same people but also you see growth spiritual growth spiritual maturity in the people who come to church I have witnessed this firsthand 100% it's it it has taken place in my own family we all ought to be growing and don't ever think that you've arrived and you can't grow anymore look my family has grown a lot since being part of this church for the last four years I've witnessed other people for the past four years three years two years one year even six months having growth spiritually in their life starting to mature spiritually understand more do more get a little bit more sin out of their life and start living the right look all of these things it all takes time but when you see that happening across the spectrum of like a whole church that's great that's what it's supposed to do that that's that's huge that's what you need to see and in order to keep this momentum we need to maintain the same focus right the focus I've already mentioned the sole name focus the focus on the Word of God these things and what we're gonna see in Ephesians chapter 6 is having that whole armor of God we need to be well equipped because it's a spiritual battle that churches engage in our churches engage in a spiritual battle individually we fight the fight and then collectively we also fight the fight as a church we're made up of individuals but we need to make sure that we have on the whole armor of God look at verse number 11 the Bible says but put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil 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 wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God they may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand we need this church to stand now over time all churches crumble which is a fact but why why do they crumble because they go weak because they go soft because they go liberal because they get off of the fundamentals that's why but you want the right formula you want to make sure it's gonna last I want to make sure it's gonna last for my children and hopefully for their children we only have as much control as we have you know we could we control the things that we do this church is gonna last as Lord willing as law until Jesus Christ comes back and not just exist but thrive and not just thrive but thrive righteously having that candlestick in its place but let's look at the real briefly at the at the armor of God wherefore taking the whole armor of God they may be able to stand in the evil day having done all the standards 14 stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth where I cover the truth right truth it's important we got stand on the truth it's all about the truth why would we have any interest in the lies not interested in tickling people's ears with lies when it's just a lie there's nothing behind it truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness right we need to be righteous in our life righteous in our cause righteous in the way that we do things I mean even something as simple as you know I was talking about the well I don't know exactly how much work we do here we're gonna do things righteously even in the eyes of the world whenever it's not in contradiction to the Word of God it's important we need we need to not give anybody especially the enemy any reason to attack us any reason to say oh look these people they're breaking the law here and they're not doing this right because that's that's why you know we learned that lesson early on when someone tried to get us in trouble with a certificate of occupancy thing right someone crawled and reported us about that for those of you who weren't here before when all that happened this is why I know so much about the process now cuz I didn't know before I thought I could just have a church in America and it'll be just fine right no there's actually other things that you need to check off some boxes if we need to have the not an exit sign on something that's not an exit even though it's a door we have to have you know all these things you know what we're gonna do it though we're gonna do it and righteousness because we don't need any other reason for anyone else if someone's gonna if we're gonna be brought down it's not gonna be from external attacks it's gonna be from within and we're focusing on the within these other things we'll check off those boxes and get them done but we want to make sure that everything that breastplate is a good defense the breastplate of righteousness verse 15 your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace talked about this as well hey extremely important preaching the gospel with your feet not with a hammer and a nail right that's what they did with Jesus we're going forth with our feet bearing the precious seed and preaching the Word of God right the feet need to be be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and above all taking the shield of faith above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked having that shield faith and what I mean trusting God's word trusting in the Lord we need that faith to get us through all the attacks that is our biggest area of defense that primary shield hey all the fiery darts the devil trust God don't get scared don't back out don't have fear going oh man I don't know what man's gonna do unto me I don't know what's going on in my life right now have faith that you could stand that shield of faith is critical and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God that's our weapon the Word of God the sword of the Spirit all of these things tie in together and notice how similar they are to what we've already covered in many other places in Scripture on being important important attributes that churches ought to have and what I love about new IP churches I think the new IP church now look like I said before we're not perfect but focusing on the right things are gonna make you successful in the eyes of the Lord because they're focusing on God's things focusing on God's Word having that good doctrine having that faith and that faithfulness turn to Joshua chapter 14 shorter sermon this morning another thing an important thing that makes new IP churches great is zeal zeal talk about the emphasis on the soul-winning well there's a zeal for the soul-winning it's not just it's not so the Jehovah's Witnesses have an emphasis on door-to- door right they have an emphasis on that but have you ever seen them go door-to-door you ever communicated have you ever seen a whole you know brigade of Jehovah's Witnesses get out of their cars and then walk to a door they milk the 59 minutes and 59 seconds that they go out and do their evangelistic work because they have to do it I mean how many times do you run into a zealous Jehovah's Witness it's rare not saying they don't exist it's rare people there are putting in their time when it comes to those efforts and many churches they have the same type of a thing you know what I love about new IP churches the zeal the zeal and the desire to actually do the things of God because you love God not because you're worried about going to hell if you're not a good Jehovah's Witness you actually love God you love his commandments you love people and you want to do what's right that is awesome and I see here in in the story with Joshua with actually with Caleb in Joshua 14 look at verse number 10 the Bible says and now behold the Lord have kept me alive as he said these forty and five years forty and five years in the wilderness Caleb was one of those original scouts he went out and scouted out the land scouted out the Canaanites and he came back with a good report saying hey man this land is great and God's giving it to us let's do it man let's go he was amped up then 45 years ago he says 45 years even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness and now lo I am this day four score and five years old down 85 years old as yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me as my strength was then even so as my strength now for war both to go out and to come in he stayed strong over those he was 40 years old when he was sent out he's like I'm 85 years old now and I'm ready to go I'm still in the battle I'm still in the fight now therefore give me this mountain where of the Lord spake in that day for thou hurtest in that day how the Anakims were there and that the cities were great and fenced if so be the Lord will be with me then I shall be able to drive them out as the Lord said he's got a zeal he's got a drive he wants to serve Lord he's not looking at well I mean as long as I make it in the head as long as I make it in the promised land that's okay with me look no I want that mountain right there I want that one I want the hardest one and that was you know Hebron that was one where the Anakims were that's where the Giants were that's actually the place that all the rest of the people other than Joshua said oh no we can't go there it was because of Hebron and he's like that's the one I want that's the best place that had the best land of the best fruit and that was the hardest one to conquer he's I'm 85 years old I want that one why because he had faith in God hey if God is gonna be with me then I have nothing to fear I have no reason to back out he had a zeal he was ready to go he maintained that zeal for 45 years no enemy is too large it's one of the things I love about the new IV hey no enemy is too large right now when the big enemies is that you know the sodomite community the cancel culture that one I mean that literally will throw pipe bombs into churches no enemies too big new IP isn't backing down from those Giants from those wicked perverts we're staying on the truth we can stand the Word of God and I don't care how long the battle rages and I don't care how long so-called Christians spend their time in the wilderness if it's 45 years and there's almost nobody still that wants to stand on the truth hey we're gonna stand on the truth and Lord willing we'll have the strength of Caleb 40 years from now strong old Baptist Church will still be ready to go we're in this fight we're in the spiritual battle we're still geared up with that armor of God we're still ready to go and we have a zeal and is that we're not worn out we're not weary and well-doing we are gonna keep moving forward and keep marching ahead until Jesus comes recap what makes new IP churches great the focus on the first works what makes new IP Church is great salvation is not complicated it's the straight way through Christ what makes new IP great the KJV the pure words of the Bible holding fast to the doctrine the faithful word it's a focus on the truth and the verity it's the uncompromising and the holding fast of our profession of faith it's the steadfastness it's the sure foundation of Jesus Christ it's that shield of faith and sword of the Spirit in the armor of God it's the zeal that says I want that mountain and Lord willing we'll have strongholds all over the country and yay the world of candlesticks that are not going to lose their light and that are going to shine from generation to generation like I said until Christ comes back and it's nice to know that there's still some group of people there's still some believers that are not bowing the knee and you could find those strongholds scattered across the world that's what makes the new IFB so great this is why we are a new IFB Church it's a focus on the things of God if you can't make it to one of our style or types of churches if it's because you don't agree with the doctrine and you find someone else better hey God bless you and go where you need to go but if other things take you out of a church like this this is what we value these are the things that are important to us try to find a church that's gonna line up with these values and notice I didn't say anything about the pre-trib rapture I didn't say anything about the Zionist okay now doctrine I did mention doctrine is important but like I said if you're going to the Word of God and and being presented with scripture and things that look you could have disagreements on understandings of certain things but make sure you're finding yourself in a church it's gonna back up what they believe with scripture and not just say well just believe me this other great man of God you know I learned from him so he can't be wrong so you just know not good enough sorry insufficient God bless this church God bless other churches like it I thank God for the resurgence in the revival that we're seeing and let's all make the commitment to ourselves within ourselves to hold fast to maintain that course right to stay with it and not get out and maintain that zeal grow with us spotlights have a word of prayer dear Heavenly Father Lord we thank you so much for raising up men and people dear Lord that are going to that love you and that want to serve you dear Lord I pray that you will please just help us keep us safe from evil dear Lord help us to reach as many people as possible in the time that we have that you've given us here Lord please strengthen us help us to get the sin out of our life help us to be purged and ready and meet for your use to as we offer up ourselves a living sacrifice dear Lord we want to serve you God we love you and in Jesus name we pray amen all right we're gonna sing one last song before dismissed brother Jesse elitist all right for the final song we're gonna sing song number 198 198 joy and speakable. 198. I have found His grace, He is all-convening, He's the One in every need. I sit and look at Jesus' feet, I am free, yes, free in need. He is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. He is joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that has ever yet been told. I have found the pleasure I must bring, it is joy in peace within. What a wondrous blessing I am seeing from the awful gulf of sin. He is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. He is joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that has ever yet been told. I have found that hope so bright and clear living in the realm of grace. Oh, the Savior's presence is so near, I can see His smiling face. He is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. He is joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that has ever yet been told. I have found the joy no tongue can tell, how His grace of glory rolled. He is like a cradle flowing, well freed up within my soul. He is joy unspeakable and full of glory, full of glory, full of glory. He is joy unspeakable and full of glory, all that has ever yet been told.