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

Alright, amen. Ephesians chapter 6. Ephesians chapter 6. So like I said during the announcement time, the title of my sermon is Welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church. A little bit of a different sermon being the first service. You know, I just wanted to preach about the vision that I have for the church. A little bit about how I came up with a name, how we came up with a name and stuff. So in chapter 36, the chapter breaks down so you see the first four verses there talk about Paul's giving doctrine about the relationship between children and parents. And then the second section between verses 6 and 9, Paul's giving doctrine about how to act if you're a servant or employee or if you're a boss, supervisor, right? Masters and servants. And so the third section of this chapter obviously talks about the whole armor of God. And then finally the last part there is dealing with the final greeting. But we're going to start there in verse number 10. So Ephesians 6, 10 it says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. So I want you to notice the two things there that Paul says, right? So he gives you this list for the first nine verses, these different things to do, right? I mean, hey, it's a hard thing to have the right relationship with your kids, right? It's a hard thing to be a good employee, especially if you're not things you didn't grow up, you know, receiving, you know, that the correct training on how to act in the workplace, right? And so that's why Paul says, Finally, my brother, so he gives all these different teachings, these different doctors, and he says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, number one, and in the power of his might, right? This is a commandment. This is something for all of us that we all need to take heed to. And then we all need to make sure that we do. And so how do we as a church learn to do these two things be strong in the Lord and in his mind? Well, if you look down at verse 11, he Paul gives us the how it says, Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. You see, you may read these chapters, you might hear a sermon on how to be a good mom, a good dad, a good husband, a good employee, a good boss, or whatever, right? And you might think in your mind, okay, I'm going to start implementing these things in my life. But I guarantee you, as soon as you make that decision, the devil's going to send some crafty, fiery dart after you some kind of mess with your emotions, mess with something to cause you to deviate from what you've committed to in your heart. And that's why Paul saying here, Hey, if you want to be strong in the Lord, and you want to be strong in the power of his might put on the whole armor of God. He doesn't say that if the wiles of the devil come, he says, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Um, I was talking with Pastor Mendez a couple weeks ago about this. He preached about this verse over in Houston. And he brought up, you know, a really good point about this. How many of you remember the cartoon? What is it? The Roadrunner, right? Wile E. Coyote, right? What is he always trying to do? What is somebody who is Wile E. or full of wiles trying to do? They're trying to trick you, right? And that's what that coyote is always trying to do, is always trying to trick the Roadrunner, right? And stump them. And that's what the Bible is saying that the devil does here. Not everything that he does is very obvious. The devil operates very subtly. And that's what this verse is talking about here. The only way to deal with the wiles of the devil, the subtleties, is to put on the whole armor of God. And then in verse 12, we're going to see the reason why we need to be strong in the Lord. So look at verse 12. It says, 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. Notice at the beginning of the verse, he says, because, or he says, for we wrestle, right? So we need to have this strength. We need to be able to know how to act that to make it a part of our daily lives. He says, for we wrestle. So because we wrestle, right? So you may go to work, you may go out in the world this week, whatever it is you do to school, to just to the store and, you know, getting an argument with somebody or somebody is going to come at you, be rude to you. You got to understand it's not that person that the issue, you know, we have the, there's a spiritual battle that's taking place. And you can read more about that. If you, if you're familiar with Daniel chapter 10, I think I brought that up here a few months ago, but there is a spiritual battle that's going on that we can't see. And that's what Paul's saying. Hey, we wrestle against these things, right? And we need to understand that when, when you're at work, you guys are just dealing with your neighbors. You know, you're out in the world, just, just living life and you're having a hard time building relationships with people or you're, you're, you're fighting. It helps in your mind to understand that we wrestling against principalities and powers that we can't see. Right. And, and, and there's, there's, there's several ways that we need to be strong so that we can overcome that. And Paul says, before we wrestle, it's not, if we wrestle all of us face different things, you know, the devil's subtle, you know, he's going to attack your emotions. He's going to attack your, you know, possibly your job, you know, your, your, your family cause your family to come after you. So look down there at verse number 13, he says, wherefore, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand. And that's my prayer for this church that we will have done all to stand. That's the whole point of this. That's the whole point that the pastor man has sent me here, you know, and why he planted this church from the beginning is to create a body of believers that would stand and do all that we can do to stand against the false doctrine and the wicked forces that are running this state, you know, and running this part of the country. So verse 13 again says, wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. So putting on the whole armor of God is more than just taking the shield of faith. We're going to go into that here in a second. So look at verse 14, it says, stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness. So the first thing he says here is that you need to stand there for having your loins girt about with truth. So what does that mean? What does he mean by loins? Well, the loins are basically the part of your body that contains the reproductive organs. I'm going to read for you Daniel chapter five, verses five and six. So you just stay where you're at. So Daniel chapter five, verse five and six, listen to this. It says, in the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace. And the king saw the part of the hand that wrote. So this is the, so this is when Belshazzar is running the kingdom of Babylon. He's, you know, he's using the Lord's vessels to drink alcohol. These guys are having a party basically. They're getting drunk. And so Belshazzar is there, you know, he's just, you know, having a good old time. He's drunk and he sees his hand out of nowhere, just writing these things on the wall. And then verse six, it says, then the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and his knees smote one against another. So I wanted to read that to show you that oftentimes in the Bible, the word loins is used to describe strength. And when Belshazzar, when he saw that handwriting on the wall, it says that the joints of his loins were loosed and he had no more strength and he was not able to stand. His knees just started banging together. And he, you know, he just couldn't stand. So if you look down again at verse number 14, Ephesians 6, 14 says, stand therefore having your loins girt about with truth. That means having you, your soul, your new man, that inward man, girt with truth. And how are you going to get that? By the word of God, by listening to preaching, by reading the Bible on your own, through prayer, all the stuff that we always talk about, right? He says, having your loins girt about with truth. And then he says, and having on the breastplate of righteousness. Now, if you were to have an armor plate on your chest, right, a breastplate, you know, the human body, the chest area sticks out farther than the rest of the body, right? Unless you're really out of shape. But what that symbolizes is your works of righteousness, right? So you have on that, he says, have on that breastplate of righteousness. So we need to live our lives so that people can see our good works, right? And I'm not saying you have to have good works to be saved. We're going to talk about that later tonight. But as Christians, if we want to stand against the wiles of the devil, we need to live right. We need to follow the commandments that the Bible is teaching us. So he says, number one, we want to have our loins girt about with truth. We want to have our strength be from God, from his word. That's what it says. That's what it means to have your loins girt about with truth. And then having the breastplate of righteousness. Now look at verse 15, and have your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. I like that phrase, the gospel of peace. You know, when we go out and preach the gospel, when we go soul winning, I mean, it's a peaceful thing to tell somebody, hey, look, you don't have to work your way to heaven. It's a free gift that lasts forever. That's the gospel of peace. That's what he's saying. And he says, have your feet shot. So we need to have our, we need to prepare, you know, we need to be studying the soul winning plan. I mean, a lot of you were probably here when Pastor Mendez came up and did the soul winning seminar, you know, that's him helping you prepare your feet to go out and knock the doors of the community and fill Idaho with doctrine, with the right doctrine. And we're going to talk about that more here in a second. And finally, here's our church verse, verse number 16. He says, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. Again, he doesn't say if the fiery darts of the wicked come. He says above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. We had some friends paint this for us here, you know, and I like these fiery darts here. I mean, you can name each one of them, you know, emotions. Like I said earlier, you know, I'm going to start going to church three times a week, soul winning. You know, guess what? Here comes a dart to your emotions. You know, I'm going to make, get this in out of my life. You know, here comes another fiery dart. What the Bible is saying here is that the only way to block that is through faith. That's why he says above all. You see, it's not going to make any difference. If you don't have faith, you're not going to be able to girt your loins with truth, right? Because what does it take? It takes faith to believe the Bible. The definition of faith is found in Hebrews chapter 11, verse one, which says now faith is a substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, right? So there's no archeological, I mean, there is tons of evidence to support the Bible, right? But most of the people out there, they aren't going to accept that. They have to just trust. They have to believe it. And that's what Paul's saying here. He says above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And then if you read on to verse 17, he talks about the helmet of salvation, right? And the word of God, which is the sword of the spirit. You know, none of those things are going to matter if you don't have faith. That is what holds the whole armor of God together. You know, he says above all. So without faith, you're not going to be able to gird your loins with truth. Like I said, you're not going to be able to have that breastplate of righteousness, right? If you, if you don't have faith, if you're not saved, if you don't have faith, when you go out and knock on these doors, you know that you're, you're not going to be able to have that breastplate of righteousness. Your works will be nothing. You're not going to amount, you just, your works are going to be fruitless. I mean, you know, look at these liberal churches around here, right? What is their big claim to fame? What, what is it that they always say they do to serve God, right? They always send shoes to Africa, malto meal, all that stuff. And they brag about that on TV. And that's their thing that we're serving God. You know, we've got thousands of people here. I've got a jet. I've got a big car. We've got this big, fancy building, but really they don't believe in the Bible the way it was written. They don't use the King James Bible. You know, they want to bust our chops and say, Oh, you guys are a cult. You're King James only. You're limited. You're narrow-minded. You know, we're open-minded. Yeah. You know what? If you leave your mind open for too long, someone's going to fill it. And it's going to probably be with garbage. You know, without faith, you, you, you're, you're, you're nothing is what the Bible says. You're not going to be able to do anything to please God without that shield of faith. And that's what we're learning here. You know, they, they bust our chops and say, you guys are King James only. Well, you know what? They're scholarship only. If you think about it, right. If some archeologic archeological guy tomorrow digs up some scripture that says, you know, something totally different than what we have today, they would change it on a dime. They wouldn't even hesitate. Right. You can talk to these liberals all the time. And we did it yesterday. I mean, these people at Northwest Nazarene university have no idea if they're going to heaven there, you know, you ask them, you know, are you a hundred percent sure you're on your way to heaven? Like, Oh, I hope so. I'm not really sure. You know, I don't know. You know, are the ones that did say that they were sure if you ask him, if they could lose their salvation, like, I don't know. That's a great theological debate. You see what they're being taught is that to be open-minded to different points of view, because we don't quite have the truth. You see what I'm saying? They don't have their loins girt about with truth. They don't have a book. They don't have a final authority that they can rest on. And so therefore they don't have the whole armor of God. They don't do the right works for God. You think God looks down on all that multilevel and is like, Oh wow, you guys are doing such a great job for me. No, he doesn't because people are dying and going to hell every single day because there's no one out there preaching the truth. There's no one telling them the right thing, the right doctrine. And so again, in verse 17, let's just read it real quick. It says, and take the helmet of salvation in the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. The Bible is the key component, but you can't understand the Bible. You're not going to be able to use this sword unless you have the shield of faith, right? If you can't block, if you don't have defense, you'll get destroyed. Any fighter knows that any sports member, you know, anybody who plays sports understands that you have to have defense, right? You have to have that shield. You have to have that protection. And that's what Paul's saying here. And so I guess we're going to shift gears here. I want you guys to turn to Proverbs chapter 29. I'm just going to talk a minute about how I came up with the name shield of faith, Baptist church. So pastor men is a while back, gave me a list of things to do in order to start a church here. And one of the first things I had to do was to come up with a name. So I'm like, okay, I've got all these different things on this list. I've got to do, but in order to do them, I've got to have a name. Well, the next Monday I was reading my Bible. I just happened to be in Ephesians six. I've been brainstorming names for years, you know, for, for a long time, you know, if I were to ever get ordained to start a church, what would it be? And most of the names I come up with Jessica and the kids like, nah, nobody wants that, you know, street fighter Baptist church, you know, none of that stuff. I'm like, okay, yeah, I guess that's pretty childish, but so I happened to be in Ephesians six and this verse just jumped out at me, you know, where he says above all taking the shield of faith. And I thought of you guys, you know, how you guys, I mean, from the first day that, that, uh, the pastor minutes came here, you know, you guys just keep coming back and keep coming back. That displays faithfulness. And I thought, wow, you know, these people have already the shield of faith. You know, you guys have the, had the faith to, to, to call and to email and to get this thing started. And I just thought, wow, that's the perfect verse, you know, that made sense. And so that's how I came up with the name. I was like, okay, done deal. And then shortly afterwards, pastor Thompson texted me like, what's the name of your church going to be? And I told him, I forgot to even tell pastor matters about it. Cause then we got busy. He was traveling, I was doing stuff. And so it was kind of just, just kind of a nightmare from there, but nonetheless, that's how I came up with a name. And, uh, you were there in Proverbs chapter 29, looked down at verse number 18, Proverbs 29, verse 18. It says, where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law happy is he. So one more time, Proverbs 29, 18 says where there is no vision, the people perish, but he that keepeth the law happy as he. I don't know about you guys, but I've been in churches before where it's just, it's like, why are we here? You know, you just go there, you hear the same kind of message over and over again. They never talk about doctrine. They never talk about their vision. They don't have a vision. And then, you know, you just kind of wonder, you just feel like something's off, you know, just like what is, what is wrong with these people? You know, there's no direction. There's no goal. There's no winning more souls this week than we did last week. There's no memorizing more chapters of the Bible this year than we did last year. There's nothing like that there. It's just basically floating, you know, just lukewarm. And what we learn here from this proverb is where there is no vision, the people perish. So it's no wonder that a lot of these churches are dying out here. It's because there is no vision for the people. So I wanted to spend a little bit of time and go over four visions that I have for this church. And, you know, you know, we could go into greater detail and there's a lot more, but I figured this here is going to be all the time allows us to have. So the first one is that I have a vision, a big vision to reach the lost. So welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church, where we have a big vision to reach the lost. Now you're there in Proverbs 29, go back to Proverbs chapter 11, verse 30, Proverbs 11, and it keeps something in Proverbs because we're going to come back to it a couple of times. So we're going to go from Proverbs to Isaiah and then right into the New Testament. I'm going to have you guys bounce around a little bit, but go to Proverbs chapter 11, verse 30, real popular verse. Sure. Everybody knows it. So what we're going to talk about now is the vision, right? Every church should have a vision is what the Bible says, you know, and not just me, it shouldn't just be my vision. You should all have a vision for yourselves. You should have a vision for your own spiritual walk. You should have a vision for your own families. You should have a vision for whatever it is that you do in life. The Bible says where there is no vision, the people pair. So Proverbs 11, look at verse 30. It says the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. And he that went and souls is wise. And so, like I said, my first point here, the first vision that I want to talk about is welcome to shield the faith Baptist church, where we have a big vision to reach the lost. Now turn over to Isaiah 55, Isaiah chapter 55. So what do we just read? The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. So if you're saved, you have God's righteousness inside of you. And the fruit that you can produce, if you prepare yourself, if you put on the whole armor of God, like I talked about, is going to be a tree of right. So you're going to be able to get other people saved. And it says he who went and souls is wise, because what you're doing is you're investing in your future, not just your future here on earth, but you're investing in your future in eternity. So turn to Isaiah chapter 55. So you're going to go past Ecclesiastes there, Isaiah chapter 55. Let me turn there myself. All right, Isaiah 55, look down to verse number six, says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. So I want you to notice the sense of urgency that we see in this verse, right? We learned, first of all, that he who went and souls is wise. It is a wise thing for us to all go out and preach the gospel. You will never, ever regret it. Okay. And then what do we see here? Isaiah 55, six, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. See, we have no idea how near he is to the people in this community or in Caldwell or in Nampa or in Meridian. That's why we need to go weekly. That's why it's so important that we go out and reach people because we don't know when he's going to depart from people. You know, some people's hearts are pretty hardened here. You know, we learned that on, what was it? Friday. I went soul winning with Kinley and it was kind of hilarious. She was like, you know, I'm going to knock the next door. People don't yell at little girls. I was like, well, sometimes they do. And sure enough, she knocks on the door and this lady's like, hold on. You know, a few seconds go by, she doesn't come. So she knocks again. And she's like, I said, I'll be there in a minute. And I was like, oh, here we go. Right. She opens up the door and she's like, I don't come to your house preaching stuff to you. Don't come to mine. And Kinley is just laughing, you know, like it's no big deal. And why is that? It's because she's had her feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, right? She understands he who wins souls is wise. So just because that person rejected it, just because that person yelled at her, it's not going to distract her. She doesn't care. She understands that the mission still must go on. But that, that lady there was an example of somebody who possibly could have had the Lord depart from him. I don't know for sure. It's impossible to tell, but you know what? It seemed like that's the case with her, you know, but maybe if we would have got her or somebody would have got her maybe 10 years ago, who knows, maybe she would have got saved, you know, but she didn't want anything to do with it at all. So you're there in Isaiah 55, go over to Mark chapter nine, Mark chapter nine. So what we learned in Isaiah 55, six is a sense of urgency, a sense of urgency, right? It says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. And that's why we need to go out there and get people because we don't know when God's going to depart from people. Now, Mark chapter nine, look down to verse 43, Mark chapter nine, verse 43 says, if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands go into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched. Let that sink in and know where to find these verses because when you're out soul winning and people have questions about hell, or maybe, maybe they've been taught that it doesn't exist or that it's not literal fire or whatever the case may be, you can come to these verses here and show them because it gets pretty repetitive. Look at verse 44, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. This is serious business. This is why we need to go out into the community. This is why I have a big vision to reach Idaho with the gospel of peace. It's because of this place. I don't want to see people go here. Look at verse 45 and if thy foot offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter halt into life than having two feet to be cast into hell into the fire that never shall be quenched. So what do we see? Fire that won't be quenched. Worms that dieth not. Look at verse 46, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Again, I mean, how many times does he have to say it? Look at verse 47 and if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire. Again, look at verse 48, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. Now, I should have told you to keep your place in Isaiah, but go to the very last book of, I'm sorry, the very last chapter of Isaiah. Go to Isaiah chapter 66. So what have we seen so far? He that winneth souls is wise. Isaiah 55. We don't know when the Lord is going to depart from people, right? So we need to be out there all the time. And then what do we just read? We need to have that knowledge of hell, because when you can look at a person, you can look at another human being and see where their destination is. That should motivate you to want to go get them saved. Now look at verse, I'm sorry, Isaiah chapter 66. Look at the very last verse. Let's see now. Look at verse 22. We'll start at verse 22. Isaiah 66, 22. This is talking about the end times here, the new heaven and the new earth. So look at verse 22. For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass that from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses of the men that have transgressed against me for their warm shall not die. Isn't that what we just read in Mark? Now look at the next part. Neither shall their fire be quenched. And now look at this next part. And they shall be in a boring unto all flesh. Look, there's no way we can stop every single person from going to hell. This is the reality here. This is prophecy. This is future tense. This is what we are going to see. The Bible saying that there's coming a day where we will go to the shores of the lake of fire, that we will look upon the people that transgressed against God that did not want to get saved. And they will be in a boring, they will be a stench, a rotten, stinking, unsavory, just nightmare to look at. That's what it's saying here. And you know what? I don't want to look at my neighbor. I don't want to look at people and say, I could have got that guy saved, right? I could have, if I would have just given them the gospel, if I would have just been a little bit more selfless, I could have got that guy saved. You know, we should all be able to, you know, have that goal to minimize that. That's why I have a big vision to reach loss. I didn't come here to play games, came here to knock doors and get people safe. I hope you have the same vision too, because this is serious. Now go to Daniel chapter 12. So you're there in Isaiah, just flipped past all the big prophets there. Jeremiah, go past Ezekiel, go right into Daniel, chapter 12, Daniel chapter 12. So Daniel chapter 12 verse, look at verse number one, Daniel 12, verse one says, and at that time shall Michael stand up the great prince, which standeth for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time. And at that time, thy people shall be delivered. Everyone that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Now look at verse three and they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament. And they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. Look, if seeing somebody go to hell for all eternity, isn't enough motivation for you, then maybe this verse should be enough motivation. You know, there is a great reward to those of you that go out there and reach the lost. They want to go out there and get people saved, you know, and that's eternal. Think about that. I mean, we don't, we, we don't, nobody has a real mental picture of what that's going to look like about shining, you know, as the brightness of the stars, but I want it. I want that for everyone in here. And that is my goal. That is why I preach these sermons the way that I do. And as often as I do. And as often as we will, you know, I want to preach the whole council of God because it takes that whole armor of God, that whole council of God in order to make us good soldiers for the Lord. And finally, you don't have to turn there. I'm just gonna read for you. Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20, which says, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the Holy ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever. I've commanded you and lo, I am with you all the way, even until the end of the world. In Matthew 28, 18, Jesus says, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. That includes the preservation of his words, right? See, that's what most of Christianity is missing today. They do not believe that God's word is preserved today. Thus you have a bunch of people running around town saying they're Christians, but they're really weak. They're weak. And most of them, to be honest with you, I don't even think are saved. So point number one is welcome to shield of faith Baptist church, where we have a big vision to reach the loss. Now point number two, welcome to shield of faith Baptist church, where we have a vision to put down liberal Christianity. Nothing bothers me more than some lily liver pastor that goes around teaching you that you have to turn from your sins to be saved. And why is that? Because the verses that I just read, that's why. That should bother every single person in this room. Those pastors, those deacons, those leaders are sending people to hell every single week teaching that garbage. And it's our job to fight that. And look, I understand that there's a falling away that's coming, right? There's less people in church today than there was 50 years ago. And it seems to be getting worse, but you know what? I'm going to die fighting it. I'm going to die being fundamental and just going out and preaching the truth. I want to put a big hurting on these people, on these liberal Christians who want to go around there and preach a false gospel. Let them be a curse, the Bible says, and that's what we're going to do. I have a big vision to put down liberal Christianity. And you might be thinking, okay, how are we going to do that? Well, you turn to Acts chapter five, turn to Acts chapter five. We're going to do it by filling Idaho, by filling this entire state with our doctrine, which is God's doctrine, the Bible. In Proverbs four, verse one. So you turn to Acts chapter five in Proverbs chapter four, verse one, it says, hear ye children, the instruction of a father and attend to no understanding. So if you're wise, if you want to be wise, you are going to listen to Bible preaching and you're going to read the Bible on your own. You're going to try to have that understanding that knowledge is power, that wisdom is power. He says, for I give unto you good doctrine forsake ye, not my law. Doctrine produces understanding. We need to all have a zeal and a desire to increase in doctrine. You're there in Acts chapter five, look at verse 27. So here you go again. You got the religious leaders of the day upset at the apostles. You know, they're locking them up. They bring them before the council. Verse 27, Acts five 27. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council. And the high priest asked them saying, did not we straightly command you that ye should not teach in this name and behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. You see the Jewish leadership here, they didn't like the apostles teaching in Jesus name because it was corrupting the influence that they had over the people. So I have a vision to put down liberal Christianity, right? To put down the Mormons and they're not Christians, but I want to put down their influence. I want to rival that in the way we're going to do it is by filling the state with our doctrine. And that goes through soul winning, passing out documentaries, inviting people to church, just wherever you are, just teaching people the truth. You know, don't be afraid to correct people because I mean, think about it. If nobody corrects anybody, how are we going to get better? Right? If you don't go out there and actually tell somebody, Hey, the truth is you're not saved. You're going to die and go to hell. If you don't change, if you don't repent from what you believe now to believing the truth, if we don't go out and tell them, how are they ever going to know? They're not going to know. And that's, what's wrong with this country. And that's, what's wrong, especially with this state. So he says, did we not straightly, you know, he says, did we not straightly command you? They should not teach in this name. You know, you're going to see the same thing in the state. There's going to come a point in time where the powers that be here are going to get mad at us. Again, you know, they're going to get all testy and get all angry, you know, because as we go soul winning, as we produce more, you know, YouTube videos, we just fill the state with our doctrine with the truth. You know, their influence is going to be less and less, and they're not going to like that. And you know what? You're going to need that shield. You're going to need that shield of faith and quench of the fiery darts of the wicked, because guess what? The devil's not just going to let us come in here and steamroll this place without a fight. That's why I named this church Shield of Faith Baptist Church. I want to pastor a group of zealous, sold out Bible believing Christians. And so you say, how are we going to put a hurting on liberal Christianity? And like I just said, it's by spreading the truth, just like the disciples did, you know, these Pharisees and Sadducees are like, you guys have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, you know, and all they're doing is just going out and preaching the truth. And that's what we're going to do. Now look at verse 29. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. And let that be, let that sink down in your heart. We all, every single person in here ought to obey God rather than man, rather than men. So point number two is I have a vision to put down the influence of liberal Christianity, of false prophets, right? And we're going to do that by filling Boise, not just Boise, but all of Ada County, anywhere I can get to the Indian reservations, everywhere in this state with the right doctrine, the right gospel, the gospel of peace. That's the, that's the goal. Now, number three, welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church, where we have a vision to keep this church pure, according to the Bible. Now, if you kept your place there in Proverbs, go to Proverbs chapter 22, Proverbs 22. You might be thinking, what do you mean by keep this church pure? What does that mean? Well, in Proverbs chapter 22, if you look down at verse number 10, it says Proverbs 22 verse 10 says, cast out the scorner and contention shall go out. Yea, strife and reproach shall cease. You see, there's going to come a time, and this happens in all churches, it happens in the workplace, it happens everywhere, where people that are scorners, people that are, that they like to mock the things of God or display open dislike and disrespect towards other people, you're going to see those types of people come into this church. And I've seen it numerous times. What they'll do is they'll attach to somebody, you know, it might be a single guy that comes in here and I'm not picking on you single guys, but I've seen this where they, they come into church and they grab all the other single guys and they start having their own Bible studies, their own meetings. And they start preaching, you know, different doctrines than what the pastor's teaching them, what the Bible says, you know, yea hath God said, and next thing you know, you have a church split. And next thing you know, you have to kick somebody out of church and they take five or six people with them, right? Cause that's what they do. They don't just come in here and sit down in their, you know, in their sheep's clothing and just kind of look around and ha ha, I got snuck in here. I'm a wolf. You can't catch me. What they do is they yoke up with your family and then, or your family or other members of the church. And what they'll do is they'll start casting doubt, planting seeds of doubt everywhere. And next thing you know, you've got a mess on your hands. And the Bible says here, cast out the scorner and contention shall go out. And I'm not saying there's anybody in here like this now. I don't know. I haven't been here full time, but I promise you it will happen. And someday you're going to see us throw somebody out of here. And some of you are going to be like, wow, that's pretty harsh. That's pretty mean, but just keep in mind, you don't always know everything that the pastor knows. You know, pastor man is when he throws people out of church, you know, there's a whole series of events that have led up to that. He doesn't want to tell everybody, right? We don't want to be busybodies and gossiping about everyone and just putting everyone's dirty laundry out there. You know, sometimes you just have to trust the leadership and the decisions that they make. But I promise you, when these people come in here, these scorners, and we cast them out, you're going to see the contention go away. This verse is true. Cast out the scorner and contention shall go out. Now you guys turn to Revelation chapter two. I'm going to read for you. Romans 16, 17 says, now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine, which ye have learned and avoid them. So when people want to come in here and teaching doctrines that are false, that are wrong and causing offenses contrary to what we've learned or what we teach here, you know what, they've got to go and it's going to hurt some people, you know, some of you are going to be like, man, that's pretty harsh. That's, you know, that's not right, but you've got to understand that God's attitude towards those that teach false doctrine. They want to rip up the congregation. They want to preach heresy. He wants them to go to, and we're going to see that here. You know, I went to a Baptist church, Liberty Baptist Church in Tacoma, Washington, the pastor there. I mean, he's a great soul winner. He was a great preacher. You know, he graduated under Dr. Jack Hiles' ministry. This guy was a good preacher. You know, he hardly ever brought up prophecy, you know, his pre-trip stuff and the Zion stuff. And so we've, you know, we got a lot of good teaching out of that church, but there was, you know, some pretty big problems there. You know, the only people that would go soul winning would be my family, Chris and Sarah's family. Chris and Sarah, they made this poster for us. Brother Justin Sawyer, I don't know if you watched the ordination service last week at Verde Sacramento, but I received a plaque, which I'm going to bring tonight, so you guys can see that. But Brother Justin, it was all our families that would go soul winning and Pastor Mike Richter, you know, and he would always be scratching his head, like, why can't I get my own church members to go soul winning? What's the problem? He's like, I have to make them sign these statements saying that they're going to go soul winning just so they can be ushers, you know, or bus, you know, Sunday school teachers and stuff like that. He would have basically have to make them come to his altar, you know, and swear away their life. And, you know, I'll tell you the reason why. The reason why he couldn't get it is because God was taking his candlestick away from him. God was taking his ability to influence people away because he allowed scorners to remain in his church. He allowed heretics to be in his church. His song leader was a false prophet that taught that you had to repent of your sins. So I'd show up for Thursday's soul winning. This guy would stand up in front of us and tell us that we're not getting people saved because we're not teaching them that they have to repent of their sins. That's what he would say. And then the pastor would get up Sunday and preach a whole sermon, you know, debunking repenting your sins. And they would just be always fighting about this, but he would never fire the guy because he was afraid of him because that was not a pastor run church. That was what's called a deacon or a trustee run church, which is not found anywhere in the Bible. Not to mention there was another guy in the church that liked to go around to other people's wives and say, Hey, why don't you meet me over here in this Facebook room where no one else could see. And he would constantly do that. Always talking about other people's wives and the pastor knew about it. And he would not do anything about it. That guy was a scorner. He would also go around saying, Hey, do you really think the King James Bible is the only true preserved word of God to, Hey, do you really think that we need to be fundamental? Do you really think this? Do you really think that? And the pastor knew about it, but he wouldn't do anything about it. And so thus you're going to see that God doesn't like that. So I had you turn to revelation chapter two, let's look at the attitude that Jesus Christ has towards harboring false prophets, heretics and scorners. Revelation chapter two, look at verse 12. It says, and to the angel of the church in Pergamos, right? These things, these things saith he, which has a sharp sword with two edges. I know thy works and where thou dwellest, even where Satan seed is. And now hold as 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. So these guys have some good things going on about them, right? You know, they're, they're not all bad. Now look at verse 14 says, but I have a few things against thee because thou has there them, let me read that again, 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 right here, you can see the Lord Jesus Christ's attitude towards a church that would allow people like this to remain in their congregations. God's against it. God is my boss. This book is my boss. This is what I live by. And as a pastor, I will not tolerate people like this in the congregation. I will get rid of you so fast your head will spin. Look at verse 15. He said, so hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. And if you're wondering what that is, it has something to do with what we just read in verse 14. It's people that come in and cast stumbling blocks in front of people. Again, it's, it's the old garden of Eden trick. It's the yea hath God said, Hey, did pastor really say this? Hey, did he really say that? Did he really mean this? Did he really mean that? Did he really mean salvation's by grace through faith? You get what I'm saying? Those type of people have to go. They have to go. They can now remain here and you're going to get, you're going to see it. I mean, I'm sure the disciples were hard, you know, at the first, you know, they were like, man, Judas, really? I mean, nobody suspected him at first, you know, but then once they all found out, did they, did they cry a river? No, they didn't. They just said, okay, you know what? He's a false prophet. He sold out our Lord Jesus Christ. Let him be an ethanol. Let him be a curse. And that's the attitude that we, we ought to have here. That's what Jesus saying. He says, I have a few things against thee because thou hast them there, right? We don't want to do that here because these types of people ruin churches. And it's my job as a pastor to watch over the flock, not to Lord over you, right? I'm not going to come to your house and say, Hey, I preached about this on Sunday and I see you're doing this. Look, I just preached the word and you do whatever you want. That's between you and God, right? I'm not going to judge you like that outside of here, but I will stand up here and say things you don't like because I have to, it's my job. It's what I was trained to do. It's why I was sent here. Now look at verse 16. He says, repent or else I will come unto thee quickly and we'll fight against them with the sword of my mouth. You know, so if I don't do it, he's going to do it. And when Jesus gets involved and does that, guess what? There's collateral damage. I might go down too. We all might go down. We might get destroyed. I don't want to see that happen. Look, I gave up a lot to be here. I'm not trying to toot my own horn, but you know what? I gave up a lot. I gave up a six figure income job to move my family into a trailer for two years so that I can learn and be the sole provider for my family and learn how to do these things, to come here and teach the truth. I am not going to take very kindly to somebody that wants to come in here and ruin this ministry. I promise you, you're going to pay. And I'm not saying there's somebody here like that now, but they will come in here and you're going to see that you'll be dealt with very, very harshly. I promise you that. Turn to Titus chapter one, Titus chapter one. So point number three is we saw we have to keep this church pure. We have to follow the Bible. And sometimes it gets painful. Sometimes it gets painful because I, you know, you just, it's hard not to become friends with people that are like this because these false prophets are good at putting on an act, right? I've been friends with people before they got thrown out of church. It's like, oh, you know, I just, I take the pastor's side every time. I, you know, I trust you. The guy got thrown out, you know, now he's my enemy until, you know, unless he could repent. So point number four, welcome to Shield of Faith Baptist Church, where the pastor has a vision to edify and serve the people. I didn't move here so that you could just bless me with a jet and all this other garbage, you know, and, and money. I came here for you. I want to help people get stronger in the Lord and go out and reach the community. I am here to serve you. And I want to do that any way that I can. Hosea chapter four, verse six says, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because I was rejected knowledge. I will also reject thee that thou shall be no priest to me. Seeing now has forgotten the law of thy God. I will also forget thy children. So while you're turning there to, to Titus chapter one, I just wanted to read these couple of verses to you in a Hosea four, six, God said, you know, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. I want this to be a church where I, where we all have a zeal for knowledge because by knowledge comes wisdom, right? And that's what God's going to respect. You know, God's going to bless this church. I promise you that, especially the more knowledge and the more zeal that we can all get. And he says that his people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Just open up the phone book and pick a church out there and go to it. And you'll see what I'm talking about. These churches are being destroyed today because there is no knowledge. There's no, you know, there's no knowledge. And that's what that's what keeps us. Psalms 119 verse 130 says the entrance of thy word, the entrance of thy words giveth light. It gives understanding unto the simple. So you might be sitting here saying, well, I don't know that much Bible. I haven't been saved all that long. I'm still a babe in Christ. Well, guess what? The Bible says the entrance of thy words giveth light. So when these words come into your mind, into your inner man, through preaching, through meditation, through your own study, that gives you light, that's what the Bible says. That's why the Bible also says that thy word is a lamp unto my feet, because the entrance of God's words into your heart gives you light. It gives you discernment. That's what's going to help you make the right decisions in life. So you're there in Titus chapter one, look at verse five says, for this cause left by thee and Crete that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city. As I had appointed thee, if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly for a Bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre. Now look at verse eight, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just Holy temperance, my goal to keep these qualifications for the rest of my life. This is what I've spent the past, not just two years, but for you, you know, a lot of years learning how to do these things. You know, I want to be hospitable. I want to have people over, you know, you have to give, give us time. You know, we just moved here. You know, we just, we were trying to get our house settled and all that, but it's my goal to be, you know, as hospitable as I can to be there for you. Look at verse nine, holding fast the faithful word, as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. So it's my job to hold this book as high as I possibly can. It's my job to hold these words and to teach them to you. Why? So that you can learn sound doctrine so that you can convince the gainsayers, the people that would say otherwise, you know, people that have different or opposing views, right? You ought to be able to be, to communicate with them in a way that would teach them the right truth. That's what that verse is saying there. We need to be able to convince the gainsayers. We're going to do that by learning the word of God together. Look at verse 10, for there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the circumcision. That's a whole nother sermon there whose mouths must be stopped. So these people that we just read about in verse 10, these unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, right? Especially they have the circumcision. The Bible says in verse 11, whose mouths must be stopped. And again, that goes with my other point about filling Idaho with our doctrine, because why? Look at the rest of the verse, who subvert whole houses. So they go in and they turn whole households, whole families upside down mentally. That's what they do. The word subvert means to overthrow. That's what these false prophets do. They overthrow faith. They overthrow doctrine. They overthrow families. They overthrow individuals. And the Bible says that their mouths must be stopped, right? They teach things which they ought not for filthy lucre's sake. So I just wanted to leave you guys with that thought. I'm here for you. My family and I, we want to serve you in any way we can. Don't be afraid to call. Don't be afraid to text. Don't be afraid to email. You know, I am here for you. That's what I'm here for. You have questions. If you have concerns, just bring them to me. Look, I'm not going to shoo you off, right? Sometimes I can be a little hardcore, okay? I spent eight years in the military. Sometimes I still look down and I see the sergeant stripes. You know, it's just a part of who I am. I can be a little overzealous. I can be a little hardcore. Sometimes you might have to be like, whoa, man, you know, we can't do a soul-winning marathon every week. You know, we're getting burnt out. You know, it's okay. I'm going to do the best I can to, you know, to pace things. But you know what? I also want to redeem the time, you know? And I also want to say, you know, don't get overwhelmed. We're having a lot of changes here, right? Three services a week. I do pray that they can come to all three services. I realize a lot of you travel and it's not possible. I've been in your shoes. I completely understand that. You know, but at the same time, we've got a lot of, you know, we have two soul-winning times now, right? If you can't make both of them, don't beat yourself up about it, right? Just make it a goal to go to one, you know? And if you can't make either one of those, come see me later and I'll go soul-winning with you anytime during the week that I can, you know? I do have to work. So, you know, I won't always be able to respond to messages right away, but that's okay. I'll get back to you, you know? I'm there for you in whatever capacity you need me. Whatever you guys need, I'm there for you. And so I just wanted to leave you with those four visions. We're just about out of time. And you know how we're going to take this city by storm, this state by storm is by taking the shield of faith, whereby we'll be able to quench all these fiery darts from the wicked one, you know? Because they are going to come. They're coming. We all need to take heed to the things that we learned today so that we can quench the fiery darts of the wicked. And I'm excited for the future of this church. I really am. And we're going to do great things. We're going to have some battles. We're going to have some heartache as well, but you know, it's all for the better. So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for this opportunity to preach. I just pray that these things would edify congregation, Lord, and that you would just build us up a mighty unit, Lord, a mighty church that we might do and serve you well, Lord, that we might fill Boise, fill Ada County, fill the state with your doctrine, Lord, and decrease the influence that the false prophets have over this area, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.