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place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, mine angel shall go before thee. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord played the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made." Let's all bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Thank you, Lord, for bringing us here together this morning to sing praises to you and hear your word be preached. Lord, we ask you to please bless Pastor Jones as he comes forward to preach the message that he laid on his heart. And Lord, give us all ears to hear and hearts to receive the message. And Lord, we love you. And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. So we're in Exodus chapter number 32. And if you're wondering why we stack the cups that way, it's because we have a vision and a goal to make a church building that looks like that. And instead of an all-seeing eye, we're going to have an all-seeing shield. So it's not a fence you get out. No, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I'm totally just kidding. All right. I don't know why that came to mind. We were joking about that before the sermon. All right. So now it's time to be a little bit more serious, I guess. So we're next to chapter 32. And what we're going to do this morning is the sermon's basically what it is. It's a review over the last year. It's a review. So, you know, as I was thinking about this last year that we've been independent, that we've been an independent Baptist church, I noticed there's a lot of similarities between the way the nation of Israel started and the way this church started and actually the way a lot of our churches start. A lot of the same problems that Moses experienced, we experienced, you know, and we can learn a lot of great things from this. So we're in Exodus chapter 32, the chapter where Moses receives the law or he's done receiving the law. He's coming back down the mountain and finds the people playing games and playing around. Now, if you were to go back to actually, once you do that, go back to Exodus chapter 19. In Exodus chapter 19, God talks to Moses out of the mount and says, you know, he tells Moses, hey, remember that I brought you all up out of Egypt as on eagle's wings. And then he tells them, you know, you guys need to obey my laws. You need to obey my statutes and my commandments. And then in verse five, you would look there, Exodus chapter nine, I'm sorry, Exodus 19 verse five, it says, now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you'll notice that a lot as you read through Exodus, if then actually throughout the whole Bible, if you do this, then this will happen. This is something that people get backwards today. A lot of Christianity, they don't want to talk about the ifs and the thens. They just want us to all believe that they get a free pass, that the Jews today just get this free pass. They're always the apple of God's eye, no matter what they do over there right now. Oh, they reject Christ. No problem. Someday they're all just going to get saved. But that's not what God's saying here at the beginning of their nation, right? He says, if you will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people for the earth is mine. So there is a requirement, right? This isn't talking about individual salvation here. We're not talking about keeping the commandments so that we can all be saved. He's saying, Hey, if you people want to be my peculiar treasure, you want to be holy, you want to be the nation that I've set out for you to be, then you need to obey my voice. And you know what? It's really the same thing for a local church. If we want to be a mighty powerhouse for God, then there's things that we need to do. There's things that we need to believe. And that's what this sermon is about. That's what this whole thing is about here. Look at verse six. He says, and you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests and unholy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. Now you can go back to Exodus 32. And so in the process of time, during this chapter, you'll read that Moses sets bounds because God says, Hey, if anybody comes to this mountain, they're going to get shot through, they're going to be killed. And then Moses goes up and receives law and this takes time, right? And so what you have here in Exodus 32 is you have the children of Israel getting complacent, getting weary. Where's Moses? Is he coming back? Was this all just a game? Look at verse number one. It says, and when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the Mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, up, make us gods, which shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what is become of him. You know, this verse is just like how this church started, how a lot of satellite churches start. For those of you that don't know, I'll just give you a history about how this church started. So there was an email and several inquiries made to pastor Menes from Verity Baptist Church saying, hey, we live in Boise, we'll commit ourselves to go to church if you start one here, right? They started coming in one, two at a time and then a snowball effect happened. And so pastor Menes said, hey, I think we have something here. I think we have something going on here. You know, he's at the, at the same time, he's in the process of starting the church in Manila. He's got Fresno on his mind as well. He's got a lot going on. So he says, you know what? I think what, you know, if you're willing to go up there from time to time and you want to be sent there, I think we can do this. I think there's enough people to support a church there. But the way this church started was very unique, right? It had to start in someone's house. Why? Because of the timing. You know, pastor Menes was like, I want to help these people right now so we don't lose that zeal that they seem to have. And so what he decided to do was to find somebody that would be willing to host the church in their home for the, for the time being. And then he said, what we'll do is we'll find preachers to fly to Boise every single Sunday to preach two sermons and to lead soul winning until we can figure out. And there were people, numerous people said, I'm your man. I will be there every Sunday. You can count on me. My family will be here every Sunday. You can count on me. I'm your guy. I'm your family. And there was an email sent with all these people that said that we would be there and none of them are here today. Not, not one single person is left here today. You know what? Every satellite church that starts is going to have some trouble. Now what happened, and we're going to see this as we go through this is because of the way pastor set this church up, it provided a lot of autonomy. So you, I mean, you really had to be a self motivated Christian and actually take the preaching that was given to you every Sunday from different preachers and apply it to your lives. You know, because there's nobody here watching. There's nobody here like, Hey, you know, Oh, I see this problem. I'm going to preach on this, right? Because you've got people coming from faithful word. People coming from sure. Foundation people come from Verity, you know, all these different churches, you know, but that we're not here. All we weren't here all the time. So we didn't know. And what happened is I believe that some people got complacent. Some people liked that they liked the different, you know, sermons that didn't touch on their sins or, or whatever the case was because it didn't hold them accountable. They figured, well, I'm not going to see this preacher again for a couple of months, so I'm good to go. You know, and no, it really, I like that though. I'm glad it started that way because it really exposed these people very quickly. And you know, this morning I might say some things that seem wild and offensive to you and they might seem cruel, but you know what? They're true and they deserve it. They shouldn't have made it so easy for me. You know, why don't you just apply the preaching and drop the soy milk and shut your mouth and get right and then it wouldn't be that way. How about that? How come nobody ever wants to talk about that? You offended me. My wife got a message from somebody. We watched a sermon and a whole thing was about us and we're quitting. You're pathetic. You're weak. You say, oh, you hate them. I don't hate them, but you're weak. You're a coward. That's what you are. You suck. That's a fact. And you know why I'm so mad about that? Because pastor men have spent a lot of money to start this church. You know what? Faithful Word spent a lot of money to help start this church. So did Pastor Thompson. And when I see these people spit in the face of those men that came here and preached and they're pastors, that pisses me off. And they deserve every last word that I'm going to say about them this morning. And you could take that and eat it. So let's move on here. Look at verse number two. It said, and Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings, which were in the ears of your wives, of your sons and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. Verse three, and all the people break off the golden earrings, which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. Now, not everything in Exodus 32, not everything that went on with the start of the nation of Israel is the same as the starting of this church, but there are a lot of similarities. In fact, there was a preacher that came here from one of the churches that I found out later on was going around with a little petition board saying, hey, I'm going to start a church in Southern California. Would you commit to go? Now, what do you think about that? That is wrong. And that's a bunch of crap. Look, when I started this church, I had numerous people from other churches say, hey, I'm going to move to Boise. I said, don't even think about it. Don't even think, don't do that. Stay where you're at. I would talk these people out of it every single time. And every once in a while, I'll still get a message. Hey, I'm still thinking about it. Man, just, just keep going where you're at. Stay put. You're in a great church. You know, there's better opportunities for you there right now, especially if you want to be a pastor and look, we're going to have those same opportunities. We're moving forward. We're doing great things for God. Right. But, you know, I have respect for these other churches and I don't want to take their people. I want us to make our own converts and get our own people. Right. That's how it should be. I didn't go around. I didn't go around other, look, I'm preaching at other places before I didn't say, Hey, Hey guys, I didn't go up to Vancouver and Hey guys, you know, when you sign my little petition to come down to Boise, the hell's wrong with you. It turned out that guy's a dirt bag and a bozo and got ran out of church too. And it's funny that the people that got ran out of this church, like that guy and signed his petition, you cowards. So that w you know what they did here is they saw, Oh, we've got different preachers coming in. We like this, you know, we're just feeling good. Nobody's talking about the stuff that we're doing. You know, this is great. And then when I show up, they're like, this guy's crazy. This guy's not going to play ball. And so we need to figure out how to get rid of him or how to change him. And then they realized real quick, I wasn't going to change. I'm going to call you out. I'm going to take that stupid calf that you made in your mind. I'm going to make you drink it. And that's what happened. And it got poisoned and he left. Let's keep reading here. Look at verse five. It says, and when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation, right? So he sees this calf and he makes a proclamation. So he makes this thing known throughout the known nation of Israel at this time and said this, don't miss this. Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord, capital L O R D. What does that mean? That means they thought, or they're trying to reason with themselves that they're actually going to use this golden calf that they made, but still worship the Lord God of heaven. And that's kind of like some of the people's attitudes in this church when it first started. You know, we just want to make it our way and still worship God. In fact, when Jessica got this little text message from person, she's like, well, we're still going to serve God and, you know, do things our way. Well, how are you going to do that? What church are you going to go to? Yeah. You're going to go online. You're going to go to the church of Disney. You're going to go to the church of football. Is that your church? Is that your religion? Is that your God? Because that's all I saw the last year that I've been here. Why would you expect me to believe that you're going to change that? You're out of your mind. Look, people that couldn't handle the old IFB, you will never be able to handle it here because I'm not afraid to tell you how it is. That's the way it's got to be. Instant, in season, out of season. You see, that's what these people couldn't hack. That's what they couldn't, they couldn't just, they just couldn't deal with it. And now they're gone. And you know what? Thank God that they're gone. I thank God every day. I feel so good that I have this group right here because we've got 18 people saved this week. We've never done that before. We've had more visitors than we've ever had since these people all left. And thank God for it. Now, yes, I would rather, I would much have rather seen them change and get right. It did hurt us to some extent because we could have had 18 more people zealous and sold out for God working in this community. Now we don't have that. Now their kids, which had a lot of zeal, are probably going to grow up to be the slime ball dirt bags that the parents were. And that's what they are. Slime balls and dirt bags, every single one of them. Every single one of them. Now there's one person that's not here because of other circumstances. I'm not talking about that person. That person's welcome back and I'm pretty sure you know who I'm talking about. But the rest of them are garbage. Garbage human beings. Running their mouths about me, running their mouths about you people. All of us. How is that productive? What that is, is these people right here in this chapter. Make us a golden calf. I miss the days where it was just YouTube. I miss the days where it was just, you know, random preachers coming in here. I miss the days where we didn't have Wednesday's service. Well now you can have all the gravy you want because you gone. I ran you out. And I will continue to do that because those people did more harm to this church than they did help. I mean think about it. It's not a coincidence that we got 18 people saved this week. It's not a coincidence that we've had a record-breaking number of visitors this month and last month. It's because when God purges the church then it can really flourish. It can really start to work. Those people are a weight. They're bondage. Oh I'm so mature I'm not going to talk to anybody. I'm just going to come in here and flirt everybody that sits in my seat. You're weak. You're a coward. You're not a mighty hunter. You're garbage is what you are. You know one of them claims to be this big old hunter. I'm a hunter. You know and skips half the year of church. You're weak. This fool called me out on YouTube. Well why don't you name my name? Nothing. You're a coward. And you better hope I don't ever see you in town because I'll get right in your face. And you're going to tell me to my face what you said on YouTube. That's what's going to happen. Look at verse number six. It says, and they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. And that's what we had here. We had about 18 people that wanted to rise up and play games. Well guess what? The game's over. The game was over last February when we had the first service here. And I started watching people squirm in their seats and get uncomfortable and glare at me and try to shoot holes through my skull with their eyeballs. Well guess what? We won in the end. I ran you out. I got rid of you because you're garbage. You're trash. You're a weight. You're nothing. That's what you are. You say, oh you're a cult because you're mad. No. I'm mad because you're trying to hinder the work of God. That's why I'm upset. And you know what? I said this. It's not just this church that had these issues. Every satellite church is going to have that issue because the people get in their minds, well there's not a pastor here. I'll just do whatever I want. You know, maybe I can work on this guy and try to break him down and try to get him to bend to my will. Maybe I can get him to make myself a molten calf. Right? You know, I mean think about it. When Vancouver started, you know, they started with a lot of good people, but still there were still people that wanted to buck the system. I'm sure if you talk to Pastor Jimenez when he started his church, he found the same thing. Pastor Anderson, he found the same thing. Any pastor that starts a church using the biblical principles that are laid out in scripture are going to have the same problems. Right? It's just the way it is. So don't let that discourage you. Use that to rejoice. I'm thankful that it wasn't worse for one. And I'm thankful that they're gone. And I'm thankful that they didn't do more damage than what they did. Let's look at verse seven. He says, And the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. During the process of this church first starting, there was a guy who said, You can count on me. I'll have it in my house. And then he was crying like a little baby. Well, I don't think we can do this every Sunday. I don't think I can handle this that often. So Brother Mike said, Fine, I'll do it. And he faithfully did it for months and didn't whine about it and didn't cry about it. And it's not the easiest thing to have a church meet in your house. Right? Because you got to have everything clean. I mean, it's, you know, you live there during the week and then all of a sudden there's 40 people in your living room. You're like, Man, what about the neighbors? And there's a lot of logistical things that go on there, right? It's hard. But I just think it's funny. You know, make us a nation. Make us a church. Give us this. Give us that. I'm your man. I'm your guy. You can trust me. And then you're hanging out at the bar after work. And then you're sowing your little seeds of discord about eternal security and about tithing and about worldliness and about sanctification and about holiness to other church members here. And you run in your mouth. That's what happened. They rose up in place. They corrupted themselves. I didn't corrupt them. They want to accuse me of corrupting them. No, you're trying to corrupt your kids. No, you're doing this. You're doing that. You're mean. You're this. You're that. No, you corrupted yourself, pal. That's what it was. You did it to yourself. I didn't do it to you. And that's what these bozos need to remember. They did it, not me. You know, I think I might even be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that there's 18 people that are not allowed back in this church. Right. That's a lot of people. But you know what? We still have the same number that we started with. The difference is everybody here is on the Lord's side now. Right. I don't feel like I have people just glaring me down like I want to kill you and rip your soul out. You know what I mean? It's different now and it shows in the numbers. It shows in the zeal. Right. That's what we went through this year. That's probably the biggest battle that we hit were the people within here that were wolves that corrupted themselves, that thought they're so spiritual, so mature, so awesome, when in reality they're nothing but a joke. How are you going to get on YouTube and call me out for not preaching against keyboard words when you're calling me out on a keyboard? What the hell sense does that make? You soy milk drinking coward. Yeah. You pop belly pig. You want to get on there and say that stuff to me? What a dirt bag. Yeah, that's right. You know what? That is garbage. Looking for some rate. It says they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf and have worshiped it and have sacrificed down to and said, these be thy gods of Israel, which have brought thee up out of land of Egypt. You know, kind of reminds me of some of the people what they would say. Well, don't forget about, you know, the old days when we were just on YouTube. Wasn't that great? Wasn't it comforting? Wasn't that glorious? That was the time. These were the things that got you zealous. Not church every Sunday morning, every Sunday night and on Wednesdays. That's not what did it. It was YouTube. Now look at verse nine. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people and behold, it is a stiff necked people. In the beginning of a church, in the beginning of anything that God does, obviously you have to know that he observes it. And God is telling Moses, hey, I've observed these people. They're stiff necked. And you know what? At the beginning of this church, we had a lot of stiff necked people, people that did not want to get on board that grew, that spread into bitterness, that spread into backbiting, that spread into railing. And that spread into a lot of battles, just like Moses had to deal with. We had to do the same thing. Look at verse 10. Now, therefore, let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them and that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation. So he tells Moses, hey, you know, I'm going to consume them and make a great nation. And Moses petitions for them. He's like, Lord, don't forget, you know, about our enemies. They're going to see that you brought us out of Egypt. Then he just destroyed them all, you know? So he does have compassion on them, but later on he starts to get upset when he actually sees it. Right. And it kind of reminds me of when I, before I got here, I heard little bits and things about things people were saying and believing and, you know, and I was like, ah, you know, it's all good when we get there. You know, everybody's going to be great. And when I got here, I was like, oh, there's, there's some trouble. There's some trouble in the ranks here. Jump down to verse number 19. Exodus 32 19 says, and it came to pass as soon as he came nigh into the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses anger wax hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and break them beneath the mouth. So there goes the original manuscripts, right? I was just kidding. Verse 20 and he took the calf, which they had made and burnt it in the fire and ground it to powder and straw it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it. That's what I had to do. I came here, you know, and I was like, oh wait, wait a minute. This person's not at all trustworthy. This person's a troublemaker. This person's a problem. You know, oftentimes what I've learned in my one year of ministry, you can see a problem, you know, something's wrong, but you don't have the proof. You know what I mean? You don't have, like, I know somebody is saying something, but I don't have two witnesses to back it up. That's hard. You know, that's a really hard thing because people are slick. This church isn't the first place that these people have done this act to, you know, at the church that they go to next, they'll do the same things. You know, they'll start clicks, they'll start whatever it is they want to start, which is trouble. But, you know, it is what it is. Came here and saw some calves and everybody has them. All of us do, right? That's the job of preaching. You see these things, you grind it to powder and you make them drink it. You know, there were some bad apples here, but we all had to drink what they were doing, every single one of us, because I had to take the laziness. I had to take the Disney, take the worldiness, take the selfishness, take all these things and preach about these things. And we all had to drink it. We all had to partake in it. Now, it's edifying because those are things we need to preach about anyways, right? But it is kind of bad because at the same time, there's other things that I wanted to preach about. There's other things that I wanted to cover, but I couldn't because I had to deal with these problems. You know, and I guess it's just how it is. So jump down to verse number 27. And he said unto them, this is Moses talking here, he says, and he said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side and go in and out from the gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbor. And before that, Moses says, hey, who's on the Lord's side? And that in any church that starts should have that question in mind. Who is on the Lord's side? Why would you do that? Because we're a team. This church isn't just a pastor. This church is everybody. It's not me that got 18 people saved this week. It's all of us. It's the people that prayed. It's the people that went out. It's the people that edified the people that exhorted, right? It's a team effort. And we need people that are loyal. We need people that are on the Lord's side to get these things accomplished. It's funny because these people understand team sports very well. Right? Maybe a little too well. They understand that well. But when it comes to the things of God, all of a sudden it's different. All of a sudden, it doesn't need to be that way. A lot of people back in the day, man, I was just in high school and I played this sport. I played that sport. It's funny because you're not a very good team player now. You know, to the great captain, the Lord Jesus Christ, who's observing and watching and has observed you being a stiff neck person. What about his leadership? What about his statutes? What about his commandments? How come you're not on his side? Right? And that's all I'm trying to do. When I came here, who's on God's side? Who is going to follow the Lord? Why? For the vision. We have a vision. We need to change things in this country. Right? That's why we need a church like this in every state, more than one. We need to fill this place with our doctrine, which comes from the Bible. The only way we're going to do that is if we have team players. It's the only way we're going to get it done. I mean, think about it. These bozos out here that go to these new evangelical churches, they're not loyal at all. I mean, you'll find a few. Don't get me wrong. You'll find a few that are loyal to their church, but really they just seek after the next coming trend. I'm going to go to the pursuit today. Oh, next month, you know, this style of stonewashed jeans is in season. I'm going to go to Stonehenge. You know, I've talked about this before. That's how those people are. You say, how do you know that? Because I've talked to some of their pastors. I've gone into some of their homes doing appliance repair and they say that one of the things that they struggle with is keeping loyal members. And then I kind of wonder, well, I didn't ask, but it's like, how do you get this much money for these big elaborate buildings? It's because they're really a denomination. That's why that's, I mean, think about it. Tree City Church, right? They've got their logo and it's, you know, down there on Eagle road, big old, huge monster brick building. I mean, in my opinion, it's a mega church. It's like, you know, you look at that, well, how do they get that? If you look in the fine print church of the Nazarene, right? There's a Valley Shepherd over off of, what is that? Meridian road or is that Eagle? One of them roads, it don't matter. They're weak anyways. Right? That's a big building. That's Valley Shepherd. I go to Valley Shepherd. Is that non-denominational? Yup. Church of the Nazarene. What was that Foursquare church? There's a Meridian, right? Some Foursquare church, we talked to this lady, you know, we tried to invite her to church. She's like, Oh, I like non-denominational. We're non-denominational. You're a Baptist, you're a denomination. Like we're independent. We're not part of a denomination. You know, brother David looks up their information, their church, whatever it was called, was a member of the Foursquare association. And that's how they can afford the big building even though they have five people that show up and those five people aren't saved. So it's like, get real man. I'd rather have five people that are saved and motivated than 5,000 people that are like shimmy eye, just bleeding hearts and just not for the cause. I mean, what sports team is going to win where you have a bunch of disloyal people, people that are worried more about their paychecks, worried about themselves. You know, people that have the, the teams that have the most drama typically will have the most losses. And if not, you need to ask yourself, is this rigged? Something else going on here? Right? All right. So real quick look at verse 28 and the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses and their fellow, the people that day, about 3000 men and what happened from this day forward, right? Some other issues arose. Some other people had to go, but by and large, by the time you get to Joshua, they conquered and they obey the Lord and they're doing very good, right? That's the state that we need to keep. That's the position we need to keep moving forward with loyal people, right? We had 18 that couldn't hack it. 18 people that had to ring the bell, which I'm going to order by the way. No, I'm just kidding. Look at verse 29 for Moses had said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, every man upon his son and upon his brother that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. Look, God's not playing games. He wants to bless us. And I think he greatly has this last week, these last couple months especially. Isn't it a blessing to see all these people saved? You know, yesterday was such a blessing to all of us, every, whether you were able to make it or not. You know, it was like the old days, you know, pastor Thompson and I and Katie went into a house. It was like our days back in Vancouver before we were both pastors and we just tore this house up with the gospel and all kinds of people saved in there. You know what I mean? There's a pit bull in there too. I mean, that's a miracle. He didn't bite us. He was real friendly at that time. You know, just, just hanging out as, Hey guys, you know, just sitting right next to me the whole time I got the Bible open, just like laying on me. And then he'd go to pastor Thompson. It was a lot of blessings yesterday. It was great. Nine people saved yesterday. That's a record for this church. Why didn't that happen before? It's because of the leaven because the people that weren't on board, God knew, Hey, we're not going to go conquer Canaan. We're not going to go conquer these lands with a bunch of people that have their hearts turned away. It's not going to work. It's not going to happen that way. So God purges the church. So if you're wondering how come there's still some empty seats because before those empty, those seats were empty, all there were sitting there were just seat warmers and seat warmers with mouths like to talk and run their mouths. And again, the kids, I love them to death. I pray for them. I want them to get right. Hopefully something I said, we'll stick with them for the rest of their lives and they'll come back one day. Like, Hey, do you remember me? Yeah, I do remember you. Come on in, you know, come back. But the hearts that I saw from those families, especially the dads, I already know I've been doing this. You know, I know I've only been doing this year, but I've been in leadership for a long time. I've seen people like that in my whole life. By and large, they never get it right. And so you can pretty much just count them out. So you don't have to turn there, but I want to read this verse for you. Titus 2 14, which says this, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. So did you know that aside from salvation, that it's God's desire to set apart for himself a people that are peculiar, meaning different, not weird, but different, right? Holy, separated from the world, zealous of good works. He wants that. Now, let me ask you this. Some people read that and just gloss over it and be like, well, you know, that's for later. That's for the millennium or that's for eternity. No, that's for right now. People that are resting, you know, our brothers and sisters that are asleep that have gone and passed on. They're not doing works right now. They're resting. So that proves that this is obviously talking about the here and now. God wants these zealous people to work hard right now, right now. It's not just for down the road. Oh, that's only for the millennium. We're gonna have to do a lot of work and keeping these people in line now for the first thousand years. You're real. He wants himself a peculiar people that are zealous of good works, right? So, just real quickly, we're done with that part of the sermon. We're just gonna do a quick review of what we did this year. So, we have some soul winning marathons, right? I think it was last March we went to Caldwell, wasn't it? We went to Caldwell. I forgot how many people we had there. We had a couple people saved. In fact, it was pretty interesting. One of the ladies that we got saved later on wrote us a good review on Facebook, you know, after we got attacked from the Boise bench and she thanked us. I'm so glad that they came to my door. I don't know what's wrong with these snowflakes. I would be going to hell if they didn't come to my house. That was very encouraging to all of us that heard that. That was awesome. So, that was a victory. You say, well, we didn't get nine people saved that day, but that's okay because the couple that we did, I mean, they came back later and said, hey, thank you. They're still grateful for it. Now, we went back and did a mini marathon in Caldwell and learned next time we're just going to skip Caldwell for a while and go to somewhere else. But, you know what, we have to also realize that we're here to be a witness as well. You know, that's a very important thing. Soul warning, soul winning, just getting the word out there, just being a presence is a victory in and of itself. We went to Mountain Home and we had seven people saved. Yeah, that was a very receptive place. You know, it was windy, it was cold. I think we started with like maybe 15 people and then ended with what, eight, seven or eight people, but we still got seven people saved. You know, and then we went back down there and did some evening soul winning. We didn't get anybody saved, but it was still a productive time. A lot of people were friendly. They were open. There's a lot of military down there. You know, we need to keep going back there. That's what we learned. We need to keep going back down there. Obviously, the weather's not always, you know, conducive to traveling and stuff. I get that, understand that, but we do need to go back there. Then we had the mega soul winning marathon and the day after we had, you know, our Easter service where we had to kick somebody out, but that, that, it was a lot of rotten apples there that day. I don't want this next marathon to be like that. It was a lot of drama, a lot of trouble, a lot of people's nerves and just blood boiling everywhere. It was, it was just bad, but we still got people saved. We still did it. We still hung in there, completed the marathon and you know, did a great work for God. You know, so we did three marathons last year. I think we can double that this year. I really think that, you know, I've got some extra challenges in my life right now. You guys know what I'm talking about, but I'm going to find a way to make it work. I'm going to find a way where if I have to leave for a little while, you guys can continue on. I can come back something to that nature, but we have to double it. We have to keep, at least do that, but I think we could do more. I really do. I think we could do more, you know, and I think with this group right here, we can do a lot more this year. All right, let's see what else do we do? Oh yeah, we moved from the house to the building. I'll never forget when I announced that I saw the look on this guy's face. Like this can't be happening. Like I thought we were doing a good job at ruining you. That's the impression I got. I could be wrong, but I doubt it. I forget because he just looked up. He's sleeping half the surface. He's like, oh, well what? Then it comes up to me later. I'm so surprised we're getting a building. I didn't know we could do that. Are you sure? Don't worry about it, Rick. I'm sure. I'm really sure. Don't worry about it, boy. It's going to be just fine. You're not helping at all anyway. Not one single bit. Not even a little bit. Not even a little bit. And then the greatest thing, well the second greatest thing, was that we got rid of the leaven. That God purged it. He exposed people that needed to be exposed. And like I said, I would have rather seen them get right. I wish it wasn't that many people. Because we could do so much more. So it is a loss. I mean it is. Let's face it. It's a bad deal. Because now there's risk that we lose the kids in the future. They're not going to serve God. You say, well they're still going to church. Okay. Where? The Pursuit? Life Church? Some wannabe new evangelical Baptist Church that says they're King James and fundamental? Their candlestick's getting removed. You can see that. They hate our guts. I mean, how could you sit here for a year and then go back to that? That's what I don't understand. Unless you were sitting here to cause trouble from the beginning. I mean, then maybe. And then last is the growth from everybody in this church. They remain. Everybody has grown tremendously. Everybody. And that's a blessing. That's something great to see. That makes my heart rejoice. That makes happy. That should make us all happy. That's a great thing. But let's keep that and let's move forward. And so for the rest of the sermon, I've just got, why don't you guys turn to 1 Corinthians. I've just got some tips, just got some things to think about that we can work on, that we can increase so that we can ensure more success. Because remember, it's God that's going to give us the blessings. It's God that's going to give us that success. And he's going to do it because he has the if, and we're going to do the then. We're going to do that if, if you follow my voice, if you follow my teachings, if you follow my statutes. Okay, Lord, we will do that. Let's be those people. Let's be the people that said, you know what? We will follow you. Then the blessings happen. And we've seen it. It was just out this week. You know what? And you know what? There are going to be some weeks where we get zero and we're still doing things right for God. So just remember that. It's not always going to be 18. It hasn't been that way from the beginning, you know, and there are going to be some bad, and there are going to be some neighborhoods we go to where people are slamming the doors, just like that one right up there on coal behind Calvary Baptist Church. But we got to get it done, right? And it's because we're willing to do those neighborhoods that God will reward us later on with the blessings, right? I was thinking about one of these guys that was just screaming for a church here. One day I was, you know, after solely waiting for the evening service to start at Verity. Look at my phone, a notification, so-and-so made a post. I'm like, all right, look, this guy's got a, you know, a post, he's got a picture of his wife shoveling snow. And like, isn't it great that I'm a Baptist? And I'm paraphrasing what he said, but isn't it great that I'm a Baptist and my wife is shoveling snow in a skirt? It's not what being a Baptist is, making your wife shovel snow? You wanted the church here really bad? You made that post on Sunday and you didn't go to church that day? Yeah. Yeah. And I'm the one with a problem. You're not going to find my wife shoveling snow. We're doing manual labor because I'm going to do it or Kayden's going to do it, right? That's talk about missing the boat. Look at me, look at what I'm doing. I've got my wife in subjection. No, you've got your wife in bondage. You need to be a man. That's not being a man. And say, that's harsh. It is harsh, but I didn't do it. He did it. Don't make it so easy, right? So with that being said, let's talk about this here. 1 Corinthians 13, we're going to start reading in verse four. And the first thing I've got written down here is that we need to increase in charity and patience. As a church, I think we need to increase in charity and patience. Patience because of what I just said. There will be some weeks, there will be some months where we don't get as many people saved, where we don't have as many visitors, right? Where it might just get a little seemingly mundane. We need to push through those times. And actually the best thing that we found to do during that is to maybe increase the day of soul winning. It seems like when we do some off soul winning day, the numbers go up. It's just a great time. And you say, what's charity? Well, charity is love in action. Everybody wants to talk about love these days. Oh, love thy neighbor, love this, but they don't do anything. Oh, be warm and filled, right? Stay dry, stay warm, and shut the door. It's like, that's not charity. It's really not even love. A lot of people talk about love. They want to talk about it, but that's the problem. They just talk. Charity is love and action. I heard a pastor, King James, you know, all this saying, you know, the word charity really has no business being in the King James Bible is a mistranslation by the translators. This should just be agape, agape love. Now I think the King James translators are much smarter than you because you yourself only speak one language, pal, and you want to sit there and correct the Bible. Now, no thanks, pal. No thanks. And you know what all, what else charity is? It's love and action. It's giving, and I'm not talking about money, right? I'm talking about action, but it's doing it without expecting anything in return, right? When you can get to that point, man, you've made it. You're in the right, you're going the right direction and all of us need to give our time and everything we can to the cause of the Lord without expecting anything in return because the person that just, that gives just to get something back eventually will wash out because what's on their mind? Self. We need to die to self daily, the Bible says, right? So we need to increase in charity and patience. Let's look at verse four. So this is what Paul's telling the Corinthians. He says, charity suffereth long. Well, there's your patience and is kind. You see, if you don't have the right kind of charity, you have this faux charity, this faux love that says, I'm just going to get because I know I'm going to get. That's not suffering long. That doesn't breed patience. That breeds the here and the now. That's what that does. It says and is kind charity envyeth not charity vonteth not itself. That means boast or to praise excessively. So charity is not this man. Hey, guess what guys? The ham sandwiches went out today. My name's Mike Servin and I fed ham sandwiches to everybody in California and that's our number one avenue. No, that's not it. That's called vaunting. That's bragging. That's boasting. That's wrong. That's not charity. It says charity vonteth not itself. When you do something, you do an alms for somebody, you know, it's best just to not even bring it up. Just keep it to yourself because charity vonteth not, it doesn't boast. It's not puffed up. It's not puffed up. A lot of people think, you know, I'm full of charity because I just go to church every Sunday and I sit down and I, you know, okay, that's great, but what are you doing? Are you applying things to your life or are you edifying the brethren? Church is more than just listening to me, right? Because half the time you guys are thinking like, man, what's he going to say next? He's going to slip up and say some word, you know, I'm getting nervous. I know I'm making some of you nervous sometimes. I know that. I know Jessica's back there like face beat red, like careful, you know, it's okay. So I just have, I've always been this way. I've always been quiet, but when I've got something to say, I say it, you know, within, within reason. I've gotten a lot better over the years. I'm not saying it because obviously a fool just says, you know, everything that's in his heart, but you know, even when, even when I was in the military, you know, and they'd be like, Hey, look at these guys, a briefing about DUIs, man, I freak out, you know, just flip out. But they remember that, right? They remember that stuff. You kick a couple of trash cans and turn some tables over, man, that sinks in. And I used to do that stuff when I worked at the shipyard and I would give guys these briefings, man, I would go crazy on people. You know, they would be like, they call me the preacher sometimes, you know, always preaching this and that, you know, cause that's what works. I'm just going to get up here and talk like, Oh, Oh, guess what guys, charity, charity suffers. Or it'd be like, guys, God just loves you, man. And just start balling. Oh man. Is that what you want? Go to tree city church. You know what? That guy's got like this little music stand and an iPad. Yeah. Watch Keaton's video that the GI Joe video did. That's the tree city guy. Yeah. Just got this little iPad here. He's just like, God loves you. Amen. Church pew seat. You know, and that's it. I'm like, well, what is this? John three 16 guys. Now, man, that doesn't get it done. All right. You guys know that that doesn't get it done. I have no idea. What am I talking about right now? That's what I need to work on here. Remembering what the heck I'm talking about. All right. Let's just look at verse five charity. All right. Death not behave itself unseemly seeketh not our own. See there's your selfless service sewn into that verse is not easily provoked and thicketh no evil. Remember a lot of times when you're reading that word evil in the Bible, it means hurt. So somebody says, Hey, I've got charity. Well, guess what? When they go home Sunday night, they're not seeking to hurt other people in this church by their actions, by sowing seeds of discord amongst the brethren. You know, these guys are slick. Yay. Half God said, right? They don't just always come right out and be like, Hey, I want you to know we have to work for our salvation. Those people don't last like two hours in this building. Okay. And the 18 I'm talking about, aren't the bozos that have come in here as a result of soul winning thinking that they're going to just get along with everybody. Cause they believe in works that, but that bumps the numbers up above 20. All right. Verse six rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth. So we increase in charity, meaning we don't rejoice in the things that our flesh wants to do. Right. You know, I've seen people that have come to this church, they rejoice in escaping church, they rejoice in Hollywood, they rejoice in Disney. Those things are wicked. You're dealing with somebody that's not using charity. You can trust me, pastor. I'm your man. I'm your guy. I'll get it done while you're in, you know, in California. No, you don't have charity because you're rejoicing in iniquity and you're rejecting the truth and that's why you got offended. Right. Verse seven, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. It's not talking about believing in every doctrine that you hear from every single person believing all the things that are written. Right. But I've heard it. I've heard it. I had a guy one time tell me that you have to believe every preacher on TV that even names Christ. Wow. He's like, because the Holy Spirit says he can't say that Jesus is Christ, but by the Holy Ghost. So Kenneth Copeland is a saved, born again, Bible believing Christian, Benny Hinn, Billy Graham, everybody wants to him. All of these people. And I'm like, did you even read the whole chapter? Did you read the whole book? Why is Paul writing Corinthians? Why did you tell him to kick the fornicator out? Why not just believe that? That guy didn't think it was as bad. Why don't you believe that? So obviously it's not what it's talking about. Believe all the things that are written, beareth all things, bear one another's burdens, lift each other up in prayer, in conversation, indeed. How about that? That's what gets it done. Turn to Ephesians chapter four. And it says, endureth all things. There's a lot of things that we'll have to endure as a church in this coming year. New people coming in, new people needing to be trained for soul winning. Discipleship, personal lives. How do you think that work is going to get done if you don't have charity? And I'm not saying anybody in here doesn't because we do, but let's increase. Let's increase the charity. Let's increase the patience. That way we can expand, right? It's God that builds the church and he's going to use the right people to build that church. Ephesians chapter four, I look at verse number one. I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that you walk worthy of the vocation, wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love. You know what's missing? Pride. And guess who has pride? All of us, to some extent. We all do. It's something that needs to be preached about from time to time to knock us down, right? Because we're still one of the old man, right? Every single one of us. And from time to time, we just need that knocked out of us. Verse two, with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. So this is the goal here, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, to keep the peace. Blessed are the peacekeepers. You know, read Matthew chapter five. You know, there's a blessing for being a peacekeeper, especially amongst God's people. There'll be times where you have disagreements with other people about things that don't really matter when you get down to it. I like Ford, I like Chevy, I like that, you know, let's argue. No, man, that's not, no. Okay. We need to put up with each other for things like that. Now, when it comes to doctrine, yes, that's a time to take your firm stance and to fight, you know, but not over just these doubtful disputations and these things that are in the world. You know, I've seen people, I've seen people arguing, screaming in churches over cars, different lift kits. I've seen it. People that go soul winning, man, arguing about Chinese food, whether Cantonese versus Szechuan. Yeah. I mean, I've seen this dumbest things get people worked up. It'll happen here too, but we got to endeavor to keep the peace, you know, because if not, you don't want something little and stupid like that to ruin us, right? That would be, that would be terrible. Look at verse four, there is one body and one spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all. Obviously with that understanding, there aren't multiple truths. Somebody comes in here, well, I think that the new King James is just as good. Not going to rip your face off, but I'm going to tell you the truth. Hey brother, no, that's not right. You know, we need to bring him into the one faith, into the one baptism because by and large, most people that believe that aren't saved. You have to be taught that from somebody else. All right, let's move on here. Go to Ephesians chapter six. So number one, I think to be successful in the next year, right? To really push forward with the group that we have left, the group now, is to increase in charity and patience. Now, number two is going to be to increase your strength in the Lord. You say, yeah, I'm tired of hearing about this. You shouldn't be. It's important. These things are written for our admonition. These, these things are written so that we would do that. This is important. This is what I see going on here now. I see everybody here increasing in strength and I want to see it more. I want to see it increase and abound further. Verse 10, you know, these verses, well, let's go over them. Ephesians 6, 10, finally, my brethren be strong in the Lord. And then the power of his might. You see, Paul never got tired of saying that to these churches. He said similar things to the Colossians, similar things to the Corinthians, to the Philippians, to the Galatians. Why? It needs to be talked about. It needs to be preached about because if you don't, people will get complacent, right? So he says, finally, my brother and be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might, how would you do that? You got to be strong in the word. It always goes back to the word verse 11, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Remember Wile E. Coyote? No, Pastor Mendez was talking about that before I got sent up here about, you know, thinking about Wile E. Coyote and then the wiles of the devil. You know, their tactics are similar. They're cutting. They're slick, right? This is what we need to be careful about. And you guys have seen it. If there's one thing you guys have seen is the wiles of the devil, right? I mean, that board back there that brother Justin made us. I mean, that's, that's legitimate, right? We should have like 20 darts on there by now. I mean, I mean, we're just going to keep the one or two because if we put a dart for every person that we kicked out, you wouldn't even be able to see the board at this point. And we're just a year in. So, so the word wiles or Wiley means devious or cunning, employed in manipulating or persuading someone to do what one wants, right? That's what we need to be careful of. And the Bible says very clearly in verse 11 that we need to stand against these things. So when someone brings these issues up, Hey, do you really think this, do you really think the King James is the one, you know, it's, it's just your job to, to stand against that while the stand against that attack and tell a person, yes, it's important. In this movement, we will someday fight the King James battle. I can already start to see it. You can already start to see it. I'm not talking about here, but there are a lot of people that are soft on this issue and it comes out in their speech sometimes. And it's, this is a battle that's always been fought. The old IFP had to fight this, you know, people in the 1800s and the 1700s, even they had to fight this. There's God's word will always be under attack. Right? That's another reason why we know it always, there will always be people to come in and try to usurp the authority of God. Look at verse 12, 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. Right? So next, we're going to see the reason he says, wherefore. So for what reason, wherefore? So because of that, because it's not just you and I that are fighting each other, it's not flesh and blood. There is a spiritual battle going on that we can't physically see with our eyes. Oftentimes we see the aftermath, we see the result. You don't think there was a spiritual battle when this church was being planted? Oh, there darn sure was. There definitely was. I think if God, you know, could just show us, you know, get like a screen and show us like the spiritual world while this church was starting, you'd probably see all kinds of demons running around the people, whispering in ears. And even during the week, people going home is, hey, you know, next Sunday, say this to this person and just put that in your ear and puts, he just does that. Just puts that in a heart, puts that in our heart. You know what? And that's how birds of a feather wind up flocking together. Oftentimes they listen to the same spirit, that same ruler of the darkness of this world. Verse 13, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, having done all to stand. This is the goal. This is the reason. This is why we have to do this. You have to be willing as a Bible believing Christian to commit yourself, to put on the whole armor of God, because the attacks might not come. No, it says because the attacks will come. It's a guarantee. It's a 100% guarantee between now and next February, we'll have another battle. It's coming and you all know that, right? And we need to have our armor on if we're going to stand and doing all to stand. Verse 14, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness. A hallmark of a church in decline is when they neglect the truth. And you talk, just talk to people out in town. The truth is not on their minds. Oh, they'll say Bible. Oh, we believe the Bible. But then you go read their statement of faith and it's like in the original manuscripts. You tell them, hey, what you've done with that statement is made man the authority. Oh, no, we haven't. We believe the Bible. It says right there, we believe the Bible. We believe the Bible. Just keep repeating that with this glazed look on their face. When in reality, you know, because you're about the truth, you've got your loins girt about the truth. No, you don't believe the truth. Look, who was it? Was it brother Jeff? He's trying to give this guy the gospel a couple weeks ago on Thursday. And the guy goes to Life Church and he's telling Jeff, you have to follow the commandments. Isn't that what he said? You had to follow the commandments. And Jeff's like, where's that in the Bible? He's like, it's not. That's what we're taught. Is that a man that's going to a church that has their loins girt about with the truth? No, because we hear that from almost every single one of their members. Every one of them. Verse 15, and your feet shod with preparation of the gospel of peace. Pastor Thompson touched on that Friday, so we're not going to go into it. Verse 16. And he says, above all, above all, this is our verse, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. It says above all that. Meaning if you don't have that shield, you're nothing. If you don't have that shield of faith, you're not going to win any battles. Especially the battle of salvation. But look, you're saved. You've got the shield. And you need that shield, not just for salvation. It goes beyond that. Try going to battle with just your helmet on. Or just your sword. You're taking a risk. And you're probably going to die. But when you have that shield, look, you need faith in everyday life. You need faith to come to church. You need faith to go soul-ending. You need faith to tell your neighbor the gospel. You need faith for everything as a Bible-believing Christian. And that's why he says, above all, taking the shield of faith. Without that, we lose. It's a done deal. It's no more. Verse 17. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. You say, remember, what are we really talking about right now? We're talking about the whole armor of God. Right? And so Paul's saying, hey, don't miss any of it. But especially the shield. Right? That's the most basic thing that we all have that are saved, is that shield. Once you've got that shield, then you put the helmet of salvation on. Then you can go tell somebody the gospel. But only if you have the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That's how battles are won. Verse 18. Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. And watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. You say, how are we going to increase our strength in the Lord? By putting on the whole armor of God. By caring about one another. By increasing in charity and impatience. That's how we're going to do it. By taking care of each other. By praying for each other. By helping each other out. This is a team. It really is. And this team, by the way, goes into eternity. You're not getting away from each other. So you gotta learn to get along now. Verse 19. And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. So real quickly, go to 1 Peter chapter 1. 1 Peter chapter 1. So praying for this church to grow. Praying for people to get stronger in the Lord. Those are things that we should all be praying about. Not just me. Not just the people that volunteer, but everybody. Even you kids. You need to pray this stuff too. You need to start now while you're young and develop the right habits so that when you're old, you won't depart from them. 1 Peter chapter 1. Look at verse 13. Peter teaches a similar doctrine here. Same thing. Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind. Be sober and have hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. You see, man, you bring this up a lot, but it's in every book of the Bible. Right? Increase in strength. Become mighty for God. Verse 14. As obedient children, as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the form of lust in your ignorance. Right? That's not okay. You see, a lot of times, you know, before people can say they do stuff in ignorance, right? Like 1 John 5 says that, you know, if you don't believe the record, you're calling God a liar. Right? So there's a lot of things that we may do or that you did before you got saved that you were ignorant about, especially regarding God's word. But now that you know the truth, you don't want to go back to that. Right? You don't want to go back to those things because now it's not ignorant. Now it's straight disobedience. You say, well, I didn't know Disney was bad. I used to watch. There was a time where I didn't really know either. Right? But now it's not ignorant. If I were to go watch Hollywood movies and stuff, it's like, it's not ignorance. That's I know the truth. Now that's straight disobedience. And that's what God's looking at. And God's looking down here. Like there's no way you got on the shield of faith Baptist church for a year or even for two or three weeks and not known some truth, you know? And so when people decide to go and do these things anyway, God removes them from the church. There's a reason why, like, you know, these last few months I've been harping on certain things. You know, God puts that on my heart because there's somebody in here that God's like, you need to get right or get out. Not going to let you slow down my work. So look at verse 15, but as he, which calls you as I'm sorry, but as he, which hath called you is Holy. So be Holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written, be ye Holy for I am Holy. Well, that's a huge slap in the face that people say, well, the book, the Bible is just a book that's just, just, you know, filled with roles in, you know, religion. You know who I hear that from the most? These so-called Christians. Well, you guys are fundamentalists. You're fundies. What's up with that awful music, that terrible music? Why is everybody wearing suits and ties and dressing nice? Because we're called to be Holy. Because it is written. Because it is written. That is so important. People just today, they just don't get it. Why do you do these things? Because they're written. That's why we do them. It's pretty simple. It's pretty simple understanding. It's written. That's why it's written to be Holy. All right, real quick, 17. And if you call on the father who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man's work, past the time of your sojourning here in fear, you know, we ought to not ever lose that fear of God that we have. Because that's what breeds learning. That's what gives you wisdom. Verse 18, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Again, just another way to slap these works, salvation people. Right? We're not redeemed with by corruptible things. You're not redeemed by your flesh, which is corruptible, which is corrupted. Sorry, verse 19, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. Verse 20, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead and gave him glory that your faith and hope might be in God. Right? Exhortation, right? That's what we're talking about here. Verse 22, seeing you have purified your souls and obeying truth, obeying the truth through the spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren and see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently. This is not just an option. This is a commandment to love the brethren. When you say, you know what? I just want to skip out on church for a little while. That just shows you don't love the brethren. Prove me wrong. You won't be able to. And there's a lot of things that go along with that. Somebody comes to you with a problem. Oh, be warm and filled. How about let's pray right now. You know, yesterday when we were in a house, Pastor Thompson and Kayden, you know, one of the things that the lady wanted to show us was her disabled two-year-old has a lot of health problems, you know, and Pastor Thompson was like, well, can we just pray for the baby right now? She's like, yeah, sure. Sure. That'd be great. Nobody obviously had ever recommended that or maybe done that for them. And that opened the way for us to give everybody else in the house the gospel. You see, it goes a long way. When people see the love that you have for each other, they know you're a disciple of Christ and they're either going to want to be part of it or reject it. But either way, it becomes a witness unto them and it separates people. That's what it does. That's God's word. It divides. Verse 23, being born again, not a corruptible seed, but of the incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. Verse 24 for all flushes as grass and all the glory of man, as the flower of grass, the grass withers and the flower therefore, or thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord endure forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preaching to you. So again, you know, not just increasing, you know, you want to increase in strength. You got to increase your knowledge. You got to increase the word of God in your life. Memorization, familiarization, all of that stuff. It all plays, you know, it all plays a part in your development and your growth. You know, it really does. And then the last verse I have for you is Proverbs 29, 18, which is the last statement that I want to leave on with you this morning is that we need to remain calm and just carry out the mission, right? We have a vision and I think everybody in here shares that vision. And what is it? To proclaim, to make a proclamation, to make the right proclamation, right? Not the proclamation that Aaron made with the golden calf. Hey, we're going to worship the Lord tomorrow with a feast that we've developed in our own minds. We think God will be pleased with it. We think he'll accept it because he loves everybody and all things. No, we're going to do things the right way. Proverbs 29, 18 says this, where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law, happy as he. You know how we get these visions, how we get these ideas from the law, from the word of God. That's how we do it. And that's how we're going to carry on this mission. We're going to, you know, I would just say, keep doing what you're doing now, but remember to increase in these things. Charity, patience, your strength in the Lord, the armor, prayer, love for the brethren. These things that are simple, easy to say, but you know what? They really can be hard to do sometimes, especially when you have differences with somebody else. But the selfless service person will say, you know what? I'm going to put away our differences on the cars and the different whatevers. I like these kinds of rocks. Well, I like these kinds of rocks. Let's fight. That's Kenley. I'm preaching against Kenley right now and Kylen. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. But you get the point, right? Don't forget about the vision to fill this valley with God's doctrine. Documentaries, tracts, Bible verses. I think it's great. You know, you guys leave Bible verses with people, you know, somebody, I don't have time right now. Well, let me just give you a verse. That's great. You know, it helps out. Get that word out there. You know, I mean, think about it. We started with two soul winning times. Then we went to three. Now we're up to four, right? Let's keep that. Let's maintain that and move forward. And you know what? I think this next year is going to be great. We've got the, we've got a lot of the 11 out, all the 11 out as far as I'm concerned, except for maybe Kenley and Kylen and sometimes Kayden, but you know, it's going to be a good year. It is. Let's have a year of success as God's local New Testament Bible believing church. You know, instead of kicking 18 people out this year, let's try to bring 18 people in to stay. All right, let's pray. Thank you Lord for this church. I thank you for your word. Just pray, Lord, that you would continue to edify us through your teachings, through your word, and that you would just help us to stay strong, Lord, and to apply these things to our lives. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.