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Hey man, welcome back. So like I said this morning we're going to continue our series about what we believe at Shield of Faith Baptist Church. And what we are going to talk about tonight is what does the Bible say about church, right? We always throw this word church around. What is it? What does it mean? What kind of church are we? And why do we believe and do the things that we do? And so you're there in Colossians chapter one. This should have been the memory verse for the week, but look at verse 18. It says, and he is the head of the body, obviously talking about Christ. It says, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. But if you notice there, it says that he is the head of the body, the church. And that's what we're talking about today. We're talking about the church. Now who in here has grown up in an old IFB church? Did anybody in here grow up old IFB? Maybe not. I know I did for, well, for a couple of years at least. I got saved in a Baptist church and I became what's known as a bus kid where these churches, they send buses around and come pick up kids and, you know, they bring them to church and whatnot. And that's really a long story, but that's where I was first exposed to what a Baptist church is. I got saved in a Baptist church and went to Sunday school, went to church for a while. And then, you know, it came time after I got saved. I want to say it was on that bus maybe for like a year. And they sent me home with a waiver because that's what they'll do. You can't, they can't just baptize kids. There's a certain age that they require you to have a waiver and sent me home with a waiver. And, you know, cause I wanted to get baptized, you know, saved. And my parents are like, nope, you're, you're done. They're like, my mom, you know, she, she is Mexican. And for most of her life, she thought that if you were born Mexican, that you were like a Catholic, like you're like, it's being a race, like being a Catholic is part of your race. You know, you have, you know, you have, you have Americans, you have Spaniards, you have Mexicans and you have Catholics, you know, that was just her, her mentality, you know, and she's like, there's nothing you can do about it. You're Catholic. You can't get baptized. You were sprinkled as a baby by a pedophile priest. So she didn't really say that, but, but to make a long story short, she got saved right before she passed away. But anyways, what does that mean? What is a Baptist? If you've been to an old IFB church, you've probably heard, maybe you've been exposed to this acronym, right? And I'm going to just going to kind of go over that with you. The, the Baptist acronym, there's a part of it that I don't, I don't agree with and I'll, and I'll show you here, but basically let's start out here. You can stay there. We're, we're going to be all over the place. But you're, you're there in Colossians. If you could find your way to the first Thessalonians, first Thessalonians, go forward, go to all the, the T books there. You should be actually at one more book over first Thessalonians chapter two. But this Baptist acronym is, is real popular amongst the old IFB churches. And basically what they say, okay, the B stands for biblical authority. And we believe that I'm not going to re-preach my sermon from last Sunday night. Last Sunday was basically King James Bible Sunday, which, which was great. So you stay there in first Thessalonians here. I'm going to read for you Acts 5 29, because what does biblical authority mean, right? If somebody comes up to you and says, Hey, what's the difference? What is Baptist? I don't get it. Why are you knocking on my door telling me you're from a Baptist church? What is that? How is that different from the Mormons? How is that different from the Protestants or the Pentecostals? You know, you need to be able to answer these questions. And the B can kind of, this acronym can kind of help you get your footing if you don't, if you're not aware of the scriptures, but basically the B stands for biblical authority. And Acts chapter five, verse 29 says, then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. And that's exactly what we believe. See, we believe that we believe that we should obey God. We should obey his word rather than a clergy, rather than a, a watchtower society or some governing body over the church. See, we're independent, right? It says that right on our invitation. We are an independent fundamental Baptist church. And part of being independent is obeying God rather than men. So you're there in first Thessalonians, look at chapter two, look at verse 13, first Thessalonians chapter two, look at verse 13. It says for this cause also, thank we God without ceasing because when you receive the word of God, which he heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. Now we went, I went sowning with a brother David this Friday. And it's funny that if you were here last Sunday night, I preached about biblical authority. I preached that the Bible is our authority. This is what we're, where we get our doctrine, where we get our teachings from and all that. And I mentioned what the Catholics teach and what they believe that they follow manmade rules that, that, that you have to have interpretation from the priests and the Pope and their clergy or their whatever you want to call it, their religious system in order to understand the word of God. We're not going to this guy's door. And I mean, he just gets nasty right off the bat. You know, he's basically comes out. Well, Baptist, I don't even know what that is. What gives you the right to, to come out to people's houses and tell them what books should be in the Bible? You know, that's what he said. He's like, how do you know? You can trust your index, you know, and Dave has given them all kinds of Bible verses. You know, we, we, this was a situation where we tagged in this guy. I realized it wasn't going to go anywhere. You know, it wasn't very fruitful, but we hadn't had many people over the door. So I was like, look, I'm not going to let this guy just steamroll us. So, you know, we bring up this verse to him, you know, about how we should obey God rather than man. He was like, well, how do you know you can trust that? How do you know you can trust this? And he's like, you know, your Bible doesn't have all the books that my Bible does, you know? And I'm like, well, doesn't your Bible have Acts chapter five? Doesn't your Bible have John chapter three? Doesn't your Bible? And he's like, but who are we? Who are you? Who are we to judge what it says? And basically what he's doing is the exact opposite of what we just read here in first Thessalonians two 13, it says that for this cause also think we got without ceasing because when you receive the word of God, so we can see that the word of God is a thing that we receive, right? That we receive. And he says, because when you receive the word of God, which you heard of us, so you hear it from another person, you received it not as the word of men. So that's what we're trying to explain to this guy, but he hasn't received the word of God as it came from God. He's received the word of men. And that's why it was so hard to communicate to this guy. And then the verse says, you know, it says, but as, as it is in the truth, the word of God, which effectually work is also in you that believes. So what that's saying is if you believe in this book, you believe in the Bible, that these words will effectually work in you and change who you are and change your life. If you let it right, obviously we have free will. So a big part of being a Baptist is realizing the power of the word of God and that we go to the Bible. We're biblicists. That's what we preach to people, right? We just believe as it is written. That is what distinguishes us from other religions, other denominations, other sections of Christianity, so-called. And that's very important for you to understand. And there's tons of verses we can go into. Like I said, I'm trying hard not to re-preach my sermon from last Sunday, but the B in the acronym Baptist typically stands for biblical authority. And that is true. Amen. I believe that we all believe in biblical authority. We don't believe in the authority of man. I don't, I don't, we don't subscribe to that. We don't, we don't teach that. We don't agree with that at all. So go to first Timothy, first Timothy chapter two. So the A in Baptist stands for the autonomy of the local church. And what does that mean? Autonomy, autonomy of the local church. You might hear that a lot, or if you ever have gone to an old IP, you might hear that word thrown around a lot. And what that means is self-governing, independent from any outside governing force. See what you have to understand is that when we say that we're independent, we believe that we really are independent. We don't get money from other churches. I mean, we do get gifts and stuff. In fact, a Sure Foundation Baptist church gave us this microphone that I'm wearing now, which is a very, very nice gift. And you know, we're blessed to have friends, you know, we can fellowship and take care of each other, but when it's all said and done, we believe in the autonomy of the local church, meaning we really are independent. There's no one else paying our bills. There's no one else that's going to come in here and tell us what to say, how to say it, or how to do business. We're going to go solely off this book. That's why Pastor Jimenez ordained me is because he watched me. He, you know, he judged me based off of the qualifications of a pastor and sent me here to do this mission. And that's exactly what we're going to do. And again, Colossians 1 18 says, and he is the head of the body, the church, who was the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things, he might have the preeminence. And that's the goal of an independent Baptist church that we put Christ first, not man. Does that make sense? We don't put man first. We put Jesus Christ first. We put these words first. Ephesians chapter five, verse 23 says for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church and he is the savior of the body. So over and over again, you're going to find this teaching throughout the Bible that Jesus Christ is the head of the body and we are independent, but we get our doctrine solely from the Bible, not from anyone else. So that's important. So B was biblical authority. A is the autonomy of the local church, meaning that just a fancy way of saying we're independent, right? We don't have anybody else pulling our strings. Treasure Valley is not going to come over here and tell us what to do at all ever. No church is going to come in here and be like, Hey, you can't say that. You shouldn't say this. You need to teach this. Look, they're going to go for a wild ride. It's not going to happen. So the P in Baptist stands for priesthood of the believer, priesthood of the believer. This is where that Catholic guy that attacked us the other day really went off the deep end. He does not believe in the priesthood of the believer, the priesthood of the believer. What does that mean? So you're there in first Timothy chapter two, look at verse number five, first Timothy two five. Some of these things you should highlight or write down in your Bible if you don't mind, because it's important to bring these things up because a lot of people have no idea what a Baptist is. When we were out in Caldwell, people were like, what's a Baptist? I've never had a Baptist come to my door. I don't get it. What is this Baptist? Is that Christian? Is that this is, are you a, are you a Buddhist or what's going on here? You know, and we need to be able to answer these questions. So first Timothy two five says, for there is one God in one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. You see, according to that Catholic guy we talked to, he didn't believe this first. He believed that the Pope was the mediator or some priests was a meteor. He believes you have to go to man to get interpretation and doctrine, which you know, is totally contrary to everything you're going to read in the Bible. So we believe at Shield of Faith Baptist Church in the priesthood of the believer, meaning you that is saved, you are a priest, you are a King. Hebrews chapter four verse 16 says, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. But the Bible says in Hebrews chapter four that we have the right, we have the privilege, we have the access to come boldly to the throne of grace. We can boldly go to God in prayer. We don't have to go through some Pope. We don't have to go through some man. I don't have to go to James White and find out what the latest manuscript dog up was. I can go to God myself. And that is true for every person in this room. First Peter chapter two verse nine says, but you are a chosen generation. It says ye talking to believers, to Christians, it says, but ye are a chosen generation, a Royal priesthood, unholy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So according to first Peter, we who are saved, we are a chosen generation and we are a Royal plea, a priesthood. So we, that's what it means. Priesthood of the believer that you are in charge. You can read the Bible, you can listen to preaching and judge whether what I'm saying is right or wrong. You have the right and the authority to do that. That's what it means when we talk about priesthood of the believer. And this is what distinguishes us from other denominations as well, because they say they pay lip service to this, but they really don't believe it. They believe that, uh, that whatever was dug up last or whatever the Greek says or whatever the Hebrew says that that's what's authoritative. And then they just throw everything out the window and say, well, we don't really know. We don't have anything that's a hundred percent concrete. We'll learn in the end. God will tell us when we get to heaven, but that's not true. We can know right now. First John chapter two verse 27 says, but the anointing, which ye have received of him abideth in you and you need not man. I'm sorry. It says, and he need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and is truth and is no lie. And even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him. So the Bible says, if you have the anointing, if you're saved, you have no need that man teach you. Meaning he's not saying you don't need to go to church or you don't need to grow. You don't need to learn. You don't need to be edified. She's just saying you don't have the necessity to go to man for every single teaching in the Bible that you have the Holy ghost that you can learn. Look, anything that I preach to you, you can get on your own at home. You can open up these pages, read it, meditate on it, pray about it and study it and come to the same conclusions. That's what he's saying in first John chapter two verse 27 says, but the anointing, which ye have received of him abideth in you. And he's talking to save people, right? He says, and you need not that any man teach you. And finally, revelation one six says it hath made us Kings and priests unto God and his father to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. I liked that versus and have made us Kings and praise. You realize that you are a King and a priest before God unto God and his father also proving the Trinity. So turn to Psalm chapter 12, go to Psalm chapter 12. So what have we learned so far? We're just talking about what distinguishes us as a church from other denominations, other religions, right? We talked about what is being a Baptist? Verity Baptist church is making a documentary. So I don't want to spend a lot of time on this because I, you know, hopefully we'll be able to get several copies of that and pass those around. I think that would be good to pass out to our community along with what, you know, the other documentaries we have, because people are really puzzled when you tell them you're from a Baptist church for some reason around here, they they're not used to it. You know, there's just not a lot of Baptists are going around soul winning these days. And then we talked about the priesthood of the believer that we have our own right to study the word of God. We can get our interpretation from the Holy Ghost and just from reading it ourselves. We don't need man, we don't need organized popes, priests, or, you know, whatever like Watchtower, you know, Utah, all that junk. We don't need any of that stuff. Now the, the T so, so, so far we've talked about B, right? Biblical authority, A the autonomy of the local church, and then P the priesthood of the believer. And then this is the one that I typically, I kind of disagree with it. If you've been to old IFB church, they'll say, okay, the T stands for two ordinances and they'll talk about baptism and the Lord's supper. Well, the problem is an ordinance is an order. Okay. And anybody who's been in the military is probably going to have some issue with that saying, we only believe in two ordinances. I mean, do we really just believe in just baptism and the Lord's supper? I mean, I believe in all the ordinances. So I would change the T to the orders, which I would get from Matthew 28, 20. I've read this verse several times, so I'm just gonna read it for you. It says, teaching them to observe all things. This is what Jesus told the disciples, right? This was his last, this was his last teaching. He said, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo, I am with you all way, even unto the end of the world. Amen. So I believe in teaching all the commandments. I believe in observing all of them, not just two, not just baptism and the Lord's supper. And I'm not downplaying them. I'm just simply saying that, you know, an ordinance is an order. That's what it means. It's an authoritative decree, right? And we believe in following the entire Bible. So, but if anybody ever asks you, you know, that's what the acronym, that's what most churches are going to tell you that the T stands for two ordinances. I would change that to the orders or if that helps, if that makes sense. If you're the type of person that can learn from acronyms and then the I, what does the I stand for? It stands for inspiration and preservation of scripture. Uh, you're there in Psalm chapter 12, look at verse number six. It says the words of the Lord are pure words as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou shall keep them a Lord. Thou shall preserve them from this generation forever. And again, that goes back to biblical authority. We believe that God spoke all his words and preserved him. He has the power to do that. Not just in English, but in other languages. We believe that. And so that's what the I would stand for. And these are all, you know, I don't have too much of a problem with the acronym, but these are things that distinguish us from other churches. And so it's important for you to, to at least know, at least have a basic idea of where you can go in the Bible to teach these things. All right. S what does S stand for? They'll say S stands for separated from the world or separated from church and state. And that kind of goes back to the autonomy thing, right? We don't believe that the state should tell us exactly what we can and can't do. That's not biblical. We have to obey God rather than men. So James chapter four, verse four says, ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And we believe that, right? That's what the S would stand for. So that's something we, we take this verse to heart. I don't want to be a friend of the world. I don't want our church to be a friend of the world. There should be a separation. There should be a distance and that's part of being fundamental. That's part of the foundations. That's part of the basics of Christianity. That's what's taught in scripture. We believe that, right? So what separates us from other churches? James four, four, ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God. Look, if there's one person I don't want to be an enemy with, it is God. I do not want to be on the wrong side of God and you don't either. And then finally the last T stands for, they'll say two offices. Some say three pastors, deacons, and evangelists. We believe that. I believe, you know, that a church should have pastors and once it gets big enough, it should have deacons and evangelists and we should start churches and all that. But to sum all this up, we are a fundamental church. Now the word fundamental has become like a, like a cuss word today amongst people. You know, they'll say, Oh, you know, they, they want to equate being a fundamentalist with being a terrorist. And that's just simply not true. The word fundamental means one who holds to the original faith and practice of a movement. So look, we're fundamental. John the Baptist was fundamental. Paul was fundamental. Peter was fundamental. All the disciples, all the apostles were fundamental, right? That's what we want to be. We want to model what we do for God after what they did. So we are fundamental. Don't be ashamed of that word. We are a fundamental Baptist church and proud of it. And I'm going to preach that till the day I die. We won't drop the fundamental word like these trendy idiots are doing. We're not going to do that. We're going to stick to the fundamentals and stick to the foundations and keep preaching them and teaching them in this community and abroad. So look here, here's a simple fact. We're fundamental. No doubt about it. Listen to me. If you're not fundamental, then you are on fundamental. There's no way around it. There's no bone. You cannot escape that if you're not fundamental, you're unfundamental. And this is important to realize because so many Christian churches say want to attack this. I can remember when I was, you know, when we were in the liberal churches, I'd run into other people that got saved in Baptist churches. And one of the things they would often bring up is they would say, Hey, I'm a recovering Baptist. Meaning I used to only wear skirts. Now I've got the freedom to wear jeans. You know, I used to only read the King James version. Now I can read the NIV. I feel so free. Basically what you're talking about is you're backsliding. You are not fundamental, you know, and it's, it's so true. If you're not fundamental, you're unfundamental. So what's the equivalent of the word unfundamental it's un essential. This is important to understand. It is unessential meaning not essential, dispensable, unimportant, archaic, void of essence, insubstantial, unnecessary, and uncalled for. Now, if you think about it, that's exactly what you're going to find with modern Christianity. I preached last, last Sunday night about how most Christian churches today that do not believe in fundamentalism, they don't hold to the King James Bible. They believe in just a wide broad array of Bible versions. You know, they, they like to knock fundamentalism. They like to knock the foundations. They don't believe that it's important. They believe that the King James Bible is dispensable. They believe it's unimportant. They believe it's archaic. How often do you hear them say that it's archaic, you know, it's void of essence. It's not substantial. It's unnecessary to stick to the King James. It's unnecessary. It's uncalled for that's their attitude because they're unfundamental. They are un of unessential. That's basically what they've done. They've taken themselves away from the ability to serve God because they are not fundamental. You can't serve God unless you're fundamental. You believe the foundations of the face. I mean, I dare you. I mean, do you really think that we're going to stand before Jesus Christ someday? He's going to be like, Oh, you believed I yo pastor Jones, you believed I preserved my word and you went out and knocked on people's doors and told them about me and how to get saved. What a bad person you are. You really think that you should have been more like this hippie loving coexist tolerant guy over here that just loved everything, had no standards, had no regard for my law. Do you really think that that's what he's going to say? Look, those of you that know the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that's not true. You know he's with the fundamental church. You know that he's with us because we put him first. We preach him first. You know what? The synonyms of fundamental arm, it's essential, indispensable, necessary, needful, required. It is a requirement to have the word of God and to preach it to grow. It's a requirement to have the word of God and preach it to get people say people do not get saved without the Bible. I heard this idiot, his name's Dr. Brown. You know, I'm a doctor. He had this, uh, I forgot who sent this to me. So, uh, something attacking the King James Bible basically, you know, big surprise there. And in the opening statements of his program about the King James Bible, he says, you know, I like the King James Bible. I respect it. You know, he said, I got saved by opening up and reading it five times, cover to cover. Well, the problem with that is the Bible says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And so hence your testimony, he's not saved. I don't believe that guy saved. I don't, I don't, you know, we can talk about that later, but you know, there's a reason why people like that attack our Bible, attack the King James only position is because they're attacking fundamentalism. They're attacking the foundations, right? What basically what you're, you know, you just, you know what I've learned just driving around Boise these last couple of weeks here, there's so many different churches out there. You've got the journey, you've got the discovery church, life church, tree city church. I mean, I, my time would fail me to mention them all. And yet today I got some lady say she, she goes to a, what church was that called? A capital Christian, right? Your capital Christian church. Right. And isn't that what she said? You know, and she just was super thankful. She's like, Oh, thank God. You know, thank you. She just kept shaking her hands. You know, she was so glad to learn that she doesn't have to work any longer and that she can know she's on her way to heaven, you know, but she's been sitting in a church for years and never told her that they never brought that up to her because they aren't fundamental. They don't have the foundations. They're not a real church. They believe that these things are archaic, unnecessary, indispensable, not required. You know, whatever the case may be, if you're not fundamental, you're not going to have the foundations. If you don't have the foundations, you don't have the truth. And that's a fact. So let's move on here. Are you still in first Timothy? If you're not turned, just turn to Acts chapter seven, go to Acts chapter seven. So let's start talking about what is church. And we're just going to go through some Bible verses here. And we're going to see what the Bible says about church. What is church? What is the purpose of church and what is it for? What is the point of going to church? What, you know, one of the big attacks that you'll, you'll hear about church today is these, these liberals they'll bring up. They'll say, well, wherever two or three are gathered together, there is, you know, there's Jesus in the midst. So, you know, when me and my buddies, we get together, you know, there he is in the midst and that's church. And the problem with that is that's not church. There's no denying it. I mean, when my family and I, when we eat dinner tonight, you know, there's Jesus in the midst. You know, when we, when we do our Bible study, when we talk about the Bible, when we pray, when we do activities or when us friends get together and we go out and do, you know, activities, sure. Jesus is in the midst. No doubt about that. We don't, we don't disagree with that at all, but that's not church. And we're going to learn that. So you just hang out there in Acts seven. I'm gonna read for you some, a couple other verses. So what is church? Listen to this. First Timothy three 15, first Timothy three 15 says this says, but if I Terry long that thou mayest know how they ought, how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God. So first Timothy chapter three, verse 15 says, but I Terry long that thou mayest know how thou ought to behave thyself in the house of God. So right away we can, we see this phrase house of God, and there's a certain way that we should behave ourselves. Then it says, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. So right off the bat, we can see what is church. It's the house of God, the living God. It's the pillar and ground of the truth. It's why it's important to have a preacher that believes in the Bible that will preach you the whole council of God, because this is the pillar and ground of the truth. And you will see when we abide by these things, God's going to grow it. God's going to bless it and multiply it. Now, Acts chapter two, verse 46 says this him, they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart. Verse 47 says, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily, such as should be saved. So in Acts chapter two, it says that God adds to the church. So if you ask the question, what is church? What is the point of church? Well, what do we learn? We learned it's the house of God. It's the house of the living God. It's the pillar and ground of the truth, but also it is a place where God adds save people. You're here tonight because God has laid it on your heart. You could have gone anywhere else. You could have gone and done anything else tonight, but you're here because you want to learn that is from God. That is a gift of God that you have that desire that you want to learn. That's what it says that the Lord adds to the church. God builds the church. So don't get discouraged when we go out there and we run into people, we get them saved. Maybe we follow up with them and they just won't come to church or they come to church sporadically. Don't get discouraged because the Bible says that God adds to the church. It's his, he takes care of it. So you're there in Acts chapter seven, look at verse 38, act seven, verse 38 says, this is he that was in the church, in the wilderness with the angel, which speak to him in the Mount Sinai and with our fathers who received the lively oracles to give unto us. I just want you to notice the first sentence there. Look at that. It says, this is he that was in the church, in the wilderness with the angel. That's talking about the old Testament where Moses, if you read, read Exodus, the whole book of Exodus, read numbers, read Leviticus, read Deuteronomy, and you'll come up with this word all the time. And that word is congregation. Church means congregation. That's what the word church means. It's an assembly. It's a congregation. So what is church? It's the house of God, the living God. It's the pillar and ground of the truth. It's a place where God adds saved people. And it is a congregation. That is what church is now to debunk these house church people. And you know, these, these big building churches out here, these, these big liberals, you know, like tree city church, life church, you know, they're not in church tonight. You know, they only, you typically will have Sunday morning, uh, you know, or maybe a Sunday school, you know, and their midweek service is what's called a small group. Okay. They pretty much share the same ideology as these house church people. And look, we're meeting in a house. We're going to meet in a house for a while, right? But that doesn't mean that we want to stay in the house, right? We trust God that he's going to grow this and get us a building and then we're going to multiply. They don't agree with that. They don't like that. They don't want that. What these house church people do is they say, as we get more people involved, more people to join us, we're going to make it smaller, meaning we're going to split off. So we'll start to house churches, to Starbucks churches, three Starbucks churches. And that's exactly what you're going to find on a lot of these liberal churches, especially these Presbyterian type churches. They'll say, well, the larger our church gifts, the smaller we make it, meaning we add small groups and that they'll brag about that. A lot of these churches say, we have small groups meeting on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you know, and even on Sundays, you know, that's their claim to fame. You know, the bigger the church gets, the more small groups they have, but that's not what you're going to see. Why did God put such strict qualifications on a pastor or on a deacon? If church was just this flippant thing that you just kind of do, that you just kind of gather with your buddies and you just hang out at the coffee shop, why would he put those strict qualifications on a man of God? And the reason is because church is an assembly. Church is serious. Church is the house of God, the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. It's a congregation. It's a place where God adds saved people. That's why it's for edification. It's for learning. My job is to teach the Bible. Your job is to read the Bible on your own to make sure that what I'm saying is true. And our job is to edify one another so that we can grow and get people saved. That's the goal, fulfilling the great commission. That's the point of church. And let's look at another reason. You're there in Acts seven, go to Acts chapter 12 and go to Acts chapter 12. Church was instrumental in freeing Peter out of prison. And this is important here. Acts chapter 12, look at verse five. It says, Peter therefore was kept in prison. Now notice this next part, right? He says, Peter therefore was kept in prison, but, but prayer was made without ceasing of where two or three were gathered together to have coffee. Oh no, it doesn't say that. It says without ceasing of the church unto God for him. So what do we see churches? Church is the house of God, the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. It is a place where God adds saved people. It is a place, it is a congregation of believers and it is a house of prayer. It's a place where we come together and we pray for one another. We pray for things and God makes things happen. That's what's going on here. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. That's why Peter broke free because of the power of church. Look, God wants us as a church to pray. It's important. If you have things that you want prayed for, don't be shy. Fill out that communication card, drop that thing in the plate and we'll pray for you. If you don't want a public mark private and then I'll pray for you. You know, my family and I will, we'll make sure we pray for you, you know, every day until that thing gets solved, man. You know, I believe that God wants to take care of us just like he did Peter. So what do we see? The importance of prayer, the importance, there's something powerful about believers getting together in church and the way God has ordered it to pray for our needs and our burdens. Here or there in Acts chapter 12, go over to Acts chapter 13. Go to Acts chapter 13. Look at verse one, Acts 13 one. Now there was in the church that was at Antioch, certain prophets and teachers, right? He says prophets and teachers. And then there's a semi-colon as Barnabas and Simeon that was called Niger and Lucius of Cyrene and Manaen, which had been brought up with Herod the Tetriarch and Saul, meaning Paul, Paul the apostle, right? But I want you to notice there what it says makes up a church. So what kind of people are you going to find in a church? It says in verse one, it says, now there were in the church that was an Antioch certain prophet. So in the church, you're going to find prophets or preachers, teachers, right? You're going to find missionaries, evangelists. You're going to find people that are just getting their lives straight. You know, it's a structure. There's leadership. And then there's people that are learning, people that are following. And notice that this is a church that was at Antioch, which also debunks again further for the thousandth time, the universal church doctrine. So look at verse two, Acts 13, two. So church is a place where the Holy Ghost operates. And you're going to see that here in this verse. Acts chapter 13, look at verse two. As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work where into I have called them. So I want you to notice there that the church is a place where the Holy Ghost works, right? God has his qualification set down. He has his mission set down. And in the local church is where people get called, where people get these desires, where people have a list of things that they can do to meet these qualifications and get sent out. And it's the Holy Ghost. The reason why I am standing here before you today, I wholeheartedly believe is because of this verse, because the Holy Ghost called me in another church to live up to these qualifications. And then pastor Mena said, okay, I'm going to, I'm going to watch you. I'm going to test you. I'm going to train you. And then I'm going to send you out to go do the work. And I believe that was not just pastor Mena's, but that was the Holy Ghost. I believe I am here because God ordained me. God wants me to be here to preach the word. And that's exactly what you see here. The church doing look where two or three are gathered together in his name as some coffee shop. You don't see those people turning the world upside down. You don't see those people sending out pastors. You don't see those people sending out evangelists like brother Stuckey to the Philippines. He didn't come from some coffee shop fellowship, some small group somewhere. He came from a fire-breathing leather-lung Baptist church. That's fundamental. That's how it happens. That's church, not just two or three bozos thinking that they're no, you know, know-it-alls that they know everything and they don't need church. They don't need somebody to help them and coach them along. See, that's the problem today. That's what's contributing to this great falling away that you see today is pride and arrogance and a lack of fundamentalism. Go back to Acts chapter 11. See there in Acts chapter 13, go back to Acts chapter 11. The local church is where pastors, evangelists, missionaries get sent out, not just where two random guys get together or three random guys get together and have coffee and read the Bible. Look, there's nothing wrong with getting together, reading the Bible, studying things out, singing songs. That's great. That's awesome. You know, praise God. But church is set in order for a reason and it is very important. So look at Acts chapter 11, look at verse 26. And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch and it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. And so there's a lot of stuff that we could learn from this chapter here. First of all, you'll see that Christians were first called that name or what it really means is little Christ, right? It was probably, I believe it was probably an insult unto these people first at Antioch in Syria. Why? Because they were turning the world upside down. They were influencing people. They were making a difference. And so they got this nickname and you know, we're going to get the same nickname. People call us fundies, right? Oh, it's the fundies are at it again. They're knocking doors and you know, getting people upset and telling people that they should obey the laws and God abolish the laws. We don't have to follow anything. You know, they call us a Baptist. I'm sure, you know, was a derogatory term at one time. And it seems to be coming that way again because people have no idea what we believe, but he says, and when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch and it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church. So the disciples understood the need and the power and the, just the organization and the blessing that comes from assembling themselves with the church. And notice it says and taught much people because church is a place where you should come to, where you can get taught, where you can learn something new, where you can be assured in something, or you can just hear the word of God preach, which should teach you, right? Nobody knows everything. Just because you hear these things over and over again, doesn't mean that you really know them. There used to be a popular saying at my last job when I worked for the government was if you can't write it down, you don't know it. So meaning if you can't write down why you're a Baptist on a sheet of paper right now, without looking at the Bible, you really don't know it as well as you should. You know, and that, and that's the, that's the point I want everybody to get to know why we believe these things because it's important. People ask about it, right? How are we going to turn this place upside down if we don't know what we're talking about and we don't know what we're doing. So actually after 13 verse three says, and when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. And so we can see the result of church, church sent churches, we get churches, churches, they have leadership, they had, they, they believe, you know, these fundamental doctrines and these teachings that we're going over today and they send people out, they multiply, they do the work, not just people that are randomly getting together and not caring for the things of God. And so verse said, I'm sorry, verse one in Acts chapter 13 said that there were prophets and teachers, right? So let's take a look at the results of that church. What are the results of church? So go back to Acts 13 and look at verse number four. What are the results that we see coming from a church in a place called Antioch? Look at verse four says, so they being sent forth by the Holy ghost, departed unto Seleucia and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had also John their minister. Now I've knocked on quite a few doors of people that are part of this, you know, where this is what I call house church movement, where they don't believe in ever getting a building. They don't believe in ever having more than like 10 or 15 people. You know what? They don't go to places and preach. They don't go to the jails and preach. They don't go to the schools and preach. They don't go to the neighborhoods and preach. They don't do any of that stuff. They just sit around and watch YouTube videos all day and practice saying the name Yeshua and all these other things because they don't really understand what that means. That was a conversation I had recently with somebody. But anyways, look at verse six. And when they had gone through the aisle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew whose name was Bar Jesus, which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God. So again, look at what these guys are doing. These guys got sent from church and look, they're already, what are they doing? They're preaching the word of God and they're going to battle a false prophet here. Look at verse eight. But Alimus the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation withstood them seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with a Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him. See, it's people that are sent out from a fundamental church that go to a fire-breathing church like ours that are going to contend with the false prophets. And that's what you see in Acts and that's literally what you see today. Look at verse 10 and said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, will thou not cease to prefer it the right ways of the Lord. And now behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee and thou shall be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a midst and a darkness. And he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. So you can lose your place there. Go to Ephesians chapter five. I just wanted to show you what, this is just one example of many that we could go to of what a real church did. Like brother Tamo said last Sunday morning, you know, you, if you wanted to be part of a church back then, man, I'd want to go to Antioch. I'd want to see all the things that these guys did. I mean, these guys were on fire. These guys were reading, studying, living and preaching and doing the right things. These people were the ones making a difference, not these people in the small groups out here. And I know I keep bringing it up because it's important. You know, that's something you're going to run into a lot today with your family, with your coworkers out soul winning. You know, we gotta, we need to understand the importance of church. We need to understand why we're different, what makes us different, what we believe and why we believe it. So while you're turning to Acts chapter five, I just want to talk about the importance of church according to Jesus Christ. So, cause a lot of people will say, well, you know, I don't have to go to church to be saved and they're right. Amen. You know, but then they'll turn around and say, but if you don't turn from your sins, you're not saved. And it's like, well, wait a minute. Who was I with the other day that said that to me? It was, I think it was brother David a couple of weeks ago. We knocked on this lady's door again. So you go soul winning all the time. You get all these stories, you know, and she's like, I believe you get saved by keeping the commandments, keeping the laws, you know, or, or just generally the good outweighing the bad. You know, we've all heard it. We've all heard that. Right. And I'm like, okay, well do you go to church? I don't have time to go to church. You know, I don't have a car right now. Okay. You know, we'll give you a ride, you know? And she's like, yeah, I know. I just, you know, I just, I just don't believe you have to go to church. We sound like we don't believe that either. But it's funny how they'll say, I don't believe you have to go to church to be saved, but at the same time that well, but if you kill somebody or if you kill yourself or if you say cuss words or if you drink beer, all of a sudden you're going to hell. That doesn't make any sense. But I said, look, you know, the Bible says that Christ purchased a church with his own blood and you don't go to church. So by your own admission saying that you have to get to heaven based off works, you're going to hell. And then it did click with her. She was like, Oh, well I didn't mean church wasn't important. I believe, Oh yeah, I believe we should go to church and I plan on going to church and I'm going to come to church. When does it, you know, it's like, get out of here. You don't believe anything I just said. But anyways, well let me read this first for you. Acts 20, 28 says, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock over the witch, the Holy ghost hath made you overseers. Do you see that the language here, the church has overseers, people that watch out, that feed the flock. And then it says to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood. According to Acts chapter 20 verse 28, the Bible says that Christ bought the church with his own blood. So what do you think the importance of churches? I would say it's pretty important if he bought it with his own blood. So you're there in Ephesians five, look at verse 25 because what, what Paul does here is he's explaining the same thing I'm telling you right now to the Ephesians and he's comparing the love of a, of a husband and wife to the love that Christ has for the church. So look at verse 25 it says, husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. So when you read Acts, we see that it was bought with his blood. And here in Ephesians, he's saying that Christ gave himself for the church. Look at verse 29 for no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord, the church, and you better believe the Lord's going to look out for this church. The Lord wants this church to grow and flourish and do great things. And I'm going to do my best to aid and help in that any way that I can look at verse 30. It says for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. So go to, now keep your place there in Ephesians, keep your place in Ephesians, but look at verse 30. He says, for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. And I just want to spend a few minutes here just talking a little bit about the difference between the body of Christ and the local church, right? Because we talk about how we don't believe in the universal church like the Catholics do, right? They believe so Catholics and Protestants, these non-denoms, they believe in what's called the universal church. And you'll hear them talk about that, right? They'll say, well, God's going to rapture the church. You know, the church could be out of here any moment, the church, the church. And they believe that every single believer everywhere is in the same church while we're on earth. And that's not accurate at all. There is a local church. If you've been coming here on Wednesdays, we read Galatians, the opening letter that Paul writes to the Galatians says unto the churches of Galatia, plural. And actually that guy that we fought with on Friday, the man worshiper, you know, he wanted to argue with me about that verse. He said, Paul never said that. He said to the church of Galatia. So I pulled out, you know, opened up to the scripture and I showed him where it says churches. And he's like, well, who are you to make up your mind? Who are you to say that really means churches? Because it's plural. It says ES on the end of it. It says churches, but he didn't want to believe it because he's so brainwashed by the Catholic church. He's so that guy, look, I'll tell you that guy was a reprobate and I'm still mad about that. And this is why you don't argue with people at the door. You just walk away. Okay. That's why I preached that, but he got me. All right, so you're there in Ephesians. Stay there. I'm gonna read for you. Uh, Matthew 16, 18. Listen to this. It says, and I say also unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. So what Catholics will do, what these non-denominants will do is say, see, Jesus is saying, I will build my church. And so everybody is in church all the time. Whether you physically go to a church at 11 o'clock or 10 30 or not, that's what they're going to say. Well, you're always in the church. If you're saved, you're in church. And that just simply is not true. So if you're still in Ephesians, go back to chapter one and go back to chapter one. What Jesus was actually saying, he was saying that he himself was the rock. He wasn't talking about Peter. I'm going to build my church on you, Peter, and you're going to become the first Pope. That's not what he was saying. That's not anywhere in the Bible. That's manmade doctrine. That's Pope made doctrine that satanic made doctrine. Jesus saying, I will build my church. Meaning I'm that's what he's still doing today. He is building a church for himself and someday we will all the entire body of Christ. We will no longer be here and we will be all in front of his throne, worshiping him. And at that time, yeah, we'll all be at the same church at the same time. But for right now there is a local church. It has order. And we just read tons of verses about what local church is. But anyways, look at verse 22 Ephesians one 22, he says, and has put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, talking about Christ verse 23, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all and all. So there is a doctrine. There is a thing, there is a teaching that you'll come across a lot in the Bible called the body of Christ. Look, people at your foundation Baptist church right now, they're part of the body of Christ. People that Verity Baptist church in Sacramento, they're the body of Christ. Any, you know, anybody who saved, you know, there, whether they're a church right now or not, they are part of the body of Christ, but they are not in the local church right now, right? Somebody who saved that just doesn't ever go to church, who just never sets foot in church. They're still saved, right? They're still a part of the body of Christ, but they are not a church member. They do not go to the local church. They are not following any of these teachings. Go to Ephesians chapter three, Ephesians chapter three, verse one says for this cause, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me to you word, how that by revelation, he made known unto me the mystery as I wrote it for in few words, whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. Verse six, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. So whether we are Jew, Gentile, male or female, we are all part of that same body, the same body of Christ, but that does not dismiss the teaching of the local church at all. And then you don't have to turn it because we've read this verse like five times today says for a Colossians chapter one, verse 18 says, and he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things you might have the preeminence, but the beginning of that verse says, and he is the head of the body. So you will see that verse, the body, the church, right? But you need to understand the distinction. You need to be able to make that distinction when the Bible's talking about the body of Christ versus the local church. They're two separate teachings in the Bible. Go to Revelation chapter 21. Revelation chapter 21. We're almost done. I don't know if it's quite five minutes, but we're almost done. Last book, last book in the Bible, Revelation chapter 21. I'm just trying to give you some verses, give you, give you, give you some headway, give you some something to work with so that you can make the distinction between the body of Christ and the local church, right? We believe in both. We believe in the local church. I believe it's important to come to the local church, to get fed, to, you know, to do, do the works of God. Look at Revelation 21, 24. It says, and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it. And the Kings of the earth do bring their glory and honor into it. Verse 25 and the gates of, and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. Verse 27 there shall in no wise enter it, enter into it anything that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. Why did I read these verses for you? Because we're talking about the body of Christ. It will come to a head someday where we no longer all come to this church or that church where we're all together like this. Here it says in verse 24 and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in light of it. And the Kings of the earth do bring the glory and honor into it. And so there is coming a day where we will all be in this verse where we will all be before, before the throne of God, where we will all be assembled together. But that day has not come yet, obviously. And so God has worked for the local church. He has a mission for the local church. He has orders for the local church. And we believe at this church in following that. And again, Ephesians 1 22 and 23 says, and hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him that fell off all in all. And so that's what that means there. So go to Ephesians chapter four. Hopefully I told you to keep your place there, but I've been there a million times, so you should be able to find it, find it quickly. A lot of people just have problems with authority these days. They have a problem with leaders and look, one of my jobs is to feed people is to preach the Bible, whether it's in season or out of season, whether it's popular or not popular. But one of my jobs is not to Lord over God's heritage. It is not my job to go to your house and say, Hey, did you redeem the time today? Did you, you know, did you read the Bible? Did you read five chapters in the Bible today? That's not my job. My job is to preach the word. And it's your job is between you and God, whether you agree, whether you listen to it or not, or whether you apply it or not. Look at Ephesians four 11 says, and he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. So God has given the local church and authority, a leadership structure for a reason. What is that reason? It's for verse 12 for the perfecting of the saints. It is for his body. The local church is for the body of Christ. You've got to understand that because if you don't, you could get tripped up when talking about these things with somebody at the door. It's to teach the truth. It's to edify believers. Look at verse 13 says, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God and to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. So he's saying, Hey, until the end, until we're all in front of God's throne, until the last day, until eternity, God has set the local church up to edify the body of Christ and to teach truth and to fight God's battles and to do a great work for him. That's what he's saying here. He's saying, that's how it is. That's what he's ordained until that's why he says till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of God into a perfect man. So until we're completely perfect, until we're united with our bodies, until we're with Christ forever, God has instituted the local church to take care of his ordinances. Now look at verse 14 that he, I'm sorry, that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive. You see, it's important to get fed at the house of God. It's important to apply these things in your lives because the Bible says there are people out there that are very tricky. They're very cunning. They are lying in wait to deceive you and to take advantage of you and to turn you away from doing God's will. Go to, go to first Peter, turn to first Peter, first Peter chapter five, first Peter chapter five, first Peter chapter five verse one says, the elders which are among you, I exhort who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. First Peter five two says, feed the flock of God, which is among you taking the oversight thereof. Right? So Peter saying, Hey, you elders, you need to feed my, you need to feed God's people. You need to preach the truth. You need to take the oversight. You need to take responsibility. That's what he means here. He says, not by constraint but willingly, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind. So that is my job. That is, and really that's all of our jobs. Now look at verse three. It says neither as being Lords over God's heritage, but being in samples to the flock. Now it doesn't mean that the pastor should be the only one living a righteous life. It should be everyone. Because if you read the qualifications of a, of a pastor, of a Bishop, of a deacon in first Timothy three and Titus, you're going to see that you should be an example of the believers. And pastor Menes preached that when he sent me out, when he ordained me, he said that I should be, that a pastor should be, a Bishop should be an example of the believers, meaning that all of us should be these qualifications. We should all have high goals. We should all strive to do the best that we can. We should all be, you know, preaching the word of God. That doesn't mean that we all get up here and everybody preaches a sermon, right? There's only one pastor right now. There's only one leader. And that's the big problem today. People don't like that. You know, they got this, everybody gets a trophy type mentality. Well, I should be able to get up there. I could speak better than you. You know what, then why aren't you up here then? Why didn't pastor Menes ordain you? Huh? Did you give up a six figure income job to move your family into a trailer so that you could be the sole provider of your family? I don't think so. Right? God sent me here. I'm at the qualifications, right? There are some people that can meet him and it's not easy. He's not saying, Hey, this is a free for all that everybody can just, it's just whatever, anything goes right. Just like a Royal rumble, you know, anything goes, everything can be preached. You could just have a free for all. There is order. We believe in order. We believe in leadership because God has instituted it in the local church. That's why Peter tells the elders to feed the flock and take the oversight thereof, but not being Lords. Like I said, I'm not going to Lord over people. I'm not going to go to your house and say, Hey, why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you doing that? You know, I just preached about that last week. That's not right. That's not what God's will is. God's will is that you just preach the truth and let what happens happen. You know, God, the Holy Spirit works inside the local church. He will motivate you. He will cause you to, if you keep coming, you know, he's going to change you. He's going to make you do what you want to do. He's going to, he's going to cause you to do righteous things and he's going to cause us to have great success. So we're almost done. So what do we believe about church at Shield of Faith Baptist church? And I'll leave you with, with this first here, Hebrews 10 25 says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another. And so much the more, as you see the day approaching, we believe at this church and assembling ourselves together in the order that God has instituted in the Bible. First Corinthians chapter 14 verse 40 says, let all things be done decently and in order. It's kind of hard to have order when everybody just shows up to a free for all. Like the synagogues were, you know, you read about these synagogues were like, Hey, do you got something to say? You got something to say? You got something to say? You know, that was great back then because then they gave the apostles chance to preach the gospel, but that's not the way God has instituted his local church. We believe in doing things decently and in order the way God said, we believe in staying fundamental, independent, and hardcore. And we believe as the day approaches, we need more church, not less church. Like most Christian churches are doing today with their small groups. You see, they're doing the exact opposite of what the Bible says. As the day's approaching there, you're seeing less church, less fundamentalism. You're seeing more and more Baptist churches drop their name. More and more Baptist churches dropping what they believe. I ran into this lady, this older lady out soul winning. And she, uh, she, she believed what we did once saved, always saved. You know, I believe she was saved and she said, I've been going to this church forever, you know, and it's a Baptist church too. And it's great. And I was like, okay, you know, amen. Well, I called them up the other day, you know, because I drove by it and it's called the summit. And I was like, I thought she said it was a Baptist church. So I gave him a call and, you know, I was like, you know, I'm, I'm curious, what kind of church are you? Are you not denominational? And she's like, Oh, well we, we, you know, we're Christians. I'm like, I know that's not what I asked her. I was like, what, what's the nomination are you? And she said, well, we, we come from the Baptist, but are you going to come by and visit? We're having brownies and cookies and Sunday. And I said, Whoa. I said, did you just say you're Baptist or did you just sneeze? You know? And she's like, well, we're Baptist, but, but we're American Baptist. We're, we're, we're, we're not, we're not, uh, I was like fundamental, independent. And she's like, well, we're not, we're not crazy. We're not like, like, like really extreme. Like, like we have small groups. Like we don't, we don't get after people for not coming to church. We don't get after people for what they wear. And look, I don't do that either. I just preach the Bible. But anyways, she was just really, really like, like just trying to make me understand that they are not fundamental. Right. And she's like, yeah, we, we, we have small groups. We don't have a bunch of service times. We have a lot of activities for the kids. Are you going to come? Are you going to get cookies? Are you going to get hot chocolate? I'm like, Whoa, man, just answer my question, lady. Are you, what, what are you? Turns out there, they used to be, uh, American Baptist or whatever, but I had imagined back in the day, cause I talked to her and she said that she heard that they used to be independent, uh, like, like fundamentalists type back in the day. And so this lady that we had talked to soul winning, obviously probably got saved a long time ago in that church and just sat through the general boiling, right? The, the, the progression, the, the digression of that church. And now it just resembles a non-denominational church. And she told me, she's like, we don't care if people use the NIV, the SV, we, we don't judge anyone. I'm like, well, I sure do. You know, I was like, well, you know, you told me everything I want to know. I appreciate it, but I mean, you should have, I, I couldn't see her cause I was on the phone, but I mean, I could almost hear this, the drops of sweat coming off of her forehead, you know, because she was just so against being fundamental. And look, I said it before, if you're not fundamental, you're unfunamental. Look, if you're going to be a Christian, you might as well just go down swinging. Like I said this morning and just go all out, just believe the Bible. That's what we believe here. And let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Lord, thank you for this opportunity to preach. I thank you for all these people. Please give us strength and endurance to make it Lord. And I just pray you bless our efforts and our church. And we thank you for those that got saved today. Lord, please bring us back ready to learn on Wednesday and Jesus name. I pray. Amen.