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It's found in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse number 8 where the Bible reads, For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if ye do these things, ye shall never fall. And the part that we're going to focus on in there is verse number 8 where it says, For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful. And the title of my sermon this morning is, Barren Christians, or Barren Churches. And this word, barren, is found about 24 times in the Bible. Now what does it mean? Now go with me if you would to Genesis chapter 11. Genesis chapter number 11. What does it mean to be barren? Well, simply to be barren is the inability to be fruitful, okay? And we think of the physical aspect as the inability to bear children, the inability to have physical children. Look at Genesis chapter 11 and verse number 29. The Bible reads, And Abram and Nahor took them wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai. And the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah, and the father of Iscah. But Sarai was barren. She had no child. So it defines it right there. What it means to be barren is the inability to have children, okay? So the condition of being barren, if you study the subject of being barren in the Bible, it wasn't a good thing. Simply because having children was equated in the Bible with God's blessing. And let me say this, having children is a blessing. In spite of what the culture teaches, in spite of what anybody else may say, having children is a blessing. But you know what? Nowadays, children are looked as a burden, okay? You have birth control, you have abortion, you have all these things that people try to do to not have children. And guess what? It's wicked. You say, why is that? Because God says that having children is a blessing. Genesis chapter 9 verse 7 says, And you be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein. Go to Psalms chapter 127, please. So from the very beginning, God commanded, commanded his people, commanded just human beings in general, to be fruitful and to multiply and to bring forth abundantly. What does that mean? Bring forth a lot. All right? So that means that God doesn't just want you to have one child, two children. He wants you to have many children. Now obviously, it's different for everyone, but the principle still remains, God wants us to bring forth abundantly, to be fruitful and to multiply exponentially with our children. Look at Psalms 127 verse 5 says, Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. And this is in reference to children. And it says here, happy is the man who hath his quiver full. It doesn't say miserable is the man, it doesn't say depressed is the man or the mom, it doesn't say broken, well, they will be broken if they have a quiver full. But the fact remains, it says happy is the man. You see, our culture is teaching us 2.1, 2.5 children, and you're good to go. And after that, you need to make sure that you don't have children, you get on the pill, you abort, whatever. If you're going to be happy, if you're going to have the things that you want in life, you need to not have children. Well, that's the exact opposite of what God's teaching. He says you need to be fruitful and multiply and bring forth abundantly. Go with me if you would to Genesis chapter number 1. I'm going to read to you from Deuteronomy chapter number 7 and verse 14 where the Bible reads, Thou shall be blessed above all people. There shall not be male or female barren among you or among your cattle. So here we see that the Bible is saying that because you're blessed, you're male or female, they're not going to be barren. Equating the blessing of God with being fruitful and the ability to multiply. Look at Genesis chapter 1 verse 22 says, And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let the fowl multiply in the earth. Skip down to verse 28, And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Go to Genesis chapter number 9. I'm going to read to you from Genesis 35 where the Bible reads, And God said unto him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply, a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins. Genesis 9 one says, And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and you be fruitful and multiply. Verse number seven, Bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein. I mean, over and over and over again, he said, You need to be fruitful. Have children, multiply, replenish the earth. Here's the thing, I'm thankful that for thousands of years people have followed this command. Amen? We wouldn't be here if that wasn't the case. But today, what are they trying to do? They're trying to minimize the population, right? Abortion is at an all time high, children are despised, and people are barren. Now go with me, if you would, to Deuteronomy chapter number seven. This is all introduction here. Deuteronomy chapter number seven and verse number 12, the Bible reads, Wherefore it shall come to pass if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the Lord thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers, and he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee. He will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy lamb, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kin, and the flocks of thy sheep, and the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. So again, he says, if you're gonna have my blessing, what is blessing equated with? It's equated with having the fruit of the womb, having children, okay? Now it goes without saying that God obviously loves for his people to have children, but not just physical children, okay? Though that's the primary context of what we're reading here, he wants us to have spiritual children as well, okay? And anything you see in the New Testament is often a shadow, a fulfillment of a shadow, or a fulfillment of a physical fulfillment of the Old Testament. When God says be fruitful and multiply in the Old Testament, though it still applies today, the spiritual application there is for us to be fruitful and to multiply spiritually. What is that? Winning people to Christ, soul winning, seeing people saved, begetting people through the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what it means to be fruitful. Now go to Galatians chapter number four, I'm gonna read to you from 1 Thessalonians chapter number two, and verse number nine where the Bible reads, For ye remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preach unto you the gospel of God. Now Paul here is saying this, I've labored and travailed. These are terms that are synonymous with giving birth. And if you don't think that's true, then you've never seen a woman give birth. My daughter was just born recently, and it's true. There was labor, there was travail, and other stuff that this verse is not mentioning, okay? Why? Because there's pain involved, you're giving life to another person. And Paul said this, just like I labor and travail, I labor night and day to preach the gospel of God unto you, he's begetting people through the gospel. The Bible says in Galatians 4 19, my little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you. So over and over again in the New Testament, we see this principle that having spiritual children is very much important, right? And it's equated just, it's similar to the way a person would have a physical child as well. 1 Corinthians 4 15, the Bible says, for though ye have 10,000 instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel, the Bible says. Now if this is a command of God, then why are certain people barren? Now let's look at the physical aspect, and we're going to look at physical reasons why people are barren, and we're going to apply them spiritually as well, okay? Because they go, in a sense, they go hand in hand as to why people are barren. Now look, if you're in here today and you're like, are you preaching against me because I don't have children? No, okay? And here's the thing, I'm going to preach from Genesis to Revelation until the Christ comes back, and it doesn't mean I'm picking on you. And look, you can take one of these principles and say, man, this may be the reason why, okay? I'm not picking on any specific person, I want to preach the word of God, I'm preaching the whole counsel of God, and we ought to apply it as thus, amen? Now look, why, but, you know, there are reasons, unbiblical reasons why people are barren. We're going to look at the physical reason, and then we're going to compare it to the spiritual. Now go to Genesis chapter 25. Reasons why Christians are barren physically and spiritually. First of all, just a real basic reason is this matter of just lack of intercession, or prayer, okay? One reason people don't have children is because they're not praying for them. You say, oh, that's, no, brother Bruce, it's because, no, no, often it's because of that, okay? Now look at Genesis 25 verse 19. And these are the generations of Isaac, Abraham's son, Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac was 40 years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian of Pandanarim, the sister of Laban, the Syrian. And Isaac entreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren, and the Lord was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. So here we see that Rebekah was a barren woman, she could not have children. And what did Isaac do? He took the responsibility upon himself to pray for his wife to entreat the Lord. And what happened? The Lord opened up the womb of his wife. And look, let me say this. I remember when I first got married, and look, not everyone has children right away, okay? And sometimes you think, well, you just get married, and some people, it happens that way, but sometimes it doesn't. You know, for whatever reason. When I got married, I thought, I mean, day one, she's getting pregnant. I'm not trying to be random here, it's just fact, that's what I thought. But it took us months. And after a while, I was just like, what in the world is going on? I want to have children. I'm trying to have like 12. Because one day I want to start a church, and if no one comes to church, I at least know I have my 12. I will never have a low attendance. And it bothered me. You know, am I not right with God? Do I have sin in my life? What is it that's not causing me to have children? And then I read this verse, and I thought to myself, I've never prayed for my wife. Shame on me that the Lord would open up her womb. And I felt horrible about it, and it's just like, it was just like a brick wall where it's just like, duh, it's right there. And I began to pray, and I began to ask the Lord, please open up the womb of my wife. And shortly thereafter, I mean like, shortly thereafter, you know, she was pregnant with my son. But often it's just this matter of prayer. And if you're in here, you're like, yeah, we're struggling with having children, well, you know what? Number one, at least cross this off. Are you praying? Are you asking the Lord to open up the womb? And this is at the exclusion, so this will work if you're not doing some other stupid thing to keep you from getting pregnant. You know, if you're like praying for the Lord to open up the womb, but your wife is slipping, you know, what do you call it, abortion pills, what we call them, that's not going to work. Okay? If you're, you know, you're praying, but you know, you're filling your body with all these toxins and things that will hinder you from that. You know, these monster drinks, okay? You say, well, does that do that? Yes, it does. It hinders it greatly. We won't get into all the health reasons as to why, but the fact remains, this is already just showing you have your ducks in order. Okay? You're not involved in anything else that would hinder you from getting pregnant. You know, sometimes you just got to pray. Okay? There's a story of my father-in-law, a couple came to him and they said, you know, Pastor, we want to have children, we can't have children. And these people had like their ducks in order. And you know, they weren't doing anything, they weren't in sin, they were just normal people. They weren't going to have children. And he anointed them with oil, he prayed over them, and they just kept popping out one child after another. You know, and he tells the story of someone else that did the same thing. And the parents came back and said, can you reverse this because we can't, we keep having children. Of course he was joking. But sometimes it's just a matter of prayer. You know, we emphasize work, which work is very much important. But you know what? Not at the expense of prayer. Because prayer is when you're exercising faith in the Lord, you're asking Him, you're entreating the Lord for your wife. Now go with you to Matthew chapter number nine. Matthew chapter number nine. So that's the first reason why people are barren is because they're not praying. Okay. And look, pray without ceasing. He had not because he asked not. You need to keep asking the Lord over and over again. And if he hasn't said no, it just probably means not now. But you need to keep asking. You know, every man ought to pray not to faint, the Bible says, right? You need to keep praying consistently. Whether it looks dark at the end of the tunnel, keep praying and entreat the Lord for your wife. The Bible says in Matthew chapter nine, verse 38, look at the spiritual application. Then said he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. What's the answer to that? Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. You know what we need to pray? We need to pray for laborers to have spiritual children. Okay. We need to pray that God's people will be equipped, be bold, be filled with the Spirit to go out, priest the gospel and see people saved. It's not just going to happen on a whim. You know, people who want to build churches or ministries or just want to see people saved. It's not going to happen just talking about it. We need to go out and do it. But you know what? Sometimes we just need to pray for labors. Okay. We need to pray for people to come in who are willing to learn or those who are already equipped to come to church so they can go out and preach the gospel so we can see many people saved and not be a barren church. Okay. Not be a barren Christian. We need to make sure that we're constantly praying. And look, don't ever get to the point where you feel you're so eloquent in your gospel presentation that you don't pray. Well, you know, I got all my points down. I got all my verses and praise the Lord for that. But you know what? You need to pray for God to fill you with his power, with his boldness. Okay. With his spirit to go out and do the work of God. You can't just depend on your own flesh. You know, we're not car salesmen here, right? We're Christians. We're ambassadors for Christ. We're ministers of the word of reconciliation, the Bible says, okay? And we need to make sure that we're depending on God and constantly praying, Lord, you know, in spite of my talents or the talents that I do or don't have, please, I just want you to use me. I want you to use me so I can preach the gospel, see people saved, open my mouth boldly that I make known the mysteries of the gospel. Please use me today. You say, yeah, but I, you know, I got talent, brother Bruce, you know, I've been doing this for years. I got it down packed. I got all my illustrations down. I even got the verses outside of the Romans wrote in case someone asked me a question. I can answer the Catholics, the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, la luz del mundo. You bring whoever you can. I got it down. But you know what? If you don't have prayer, you don't have God's power, you ain't got nothing. No matter what you have, no matter how ready you are, now look, prepare. It's important to prepare. But you know what? The first aspect of preparation is prayer. You need to pray and then treat the Lord that he would use you. It doesn't matter if you have five talents, one talent, zero talents, by the way, everyone has talents. And praise the Lord for the talents that he gives us, but we ought to use them with, in conjunction with prayer, asking the Lord to help us. Now go with me if you went to Exodus chapter number one. So reason number one, why people are barren, they're just not praying, okay? Reason number two, abortion. And I've already mentioned it, but we're going to talk about it some more. Abortion. Exodus chapter number one, verse 15. By the way, abortion didn't just start like a couple hundred years ago. It's been around for a long time. Now obviously it comes in different forms, but the end result is still the same, the killing of babies, okay? Before they did it with the sword, now they just do it with the pill, okay? Or they go to some clinic where they remove the fetus out of the womb. It's still murder. Now look what the Bible says in Exodus 1 15, it says, And the king of Egypt spake to the Hebrew midwives, of which the name of the one was Shiphrah, and the name of the other Puah. And he said, When ye do the office of a midwife to the Hebrew women, and see them upon the stools, if it be a son, then ye shall kill him. But if it be a daughter, then she shall live. But the midwives feared God, and did not as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the men, children alive. So he received the Egyptians, which interestingly enough, is a picture of what? It's a picture of the world. Well, this is how the world does it. You know, they killed the men, children alive. And if you read a couple verses before, Israel was just flourishing. They were growing exceedingly strong. Why? Because they were just having children. And what was happening to Egypt? They were dwindling in numbers because of this matter of abortion. They were killing off their children. And look, I will go on to say this to the day I die, abortion is murder. Murder. Not just going to the clinic and getting the fetus removed. I'm talking about the pill is murder. We don't have time to get into all the details of it. Watch the documentary on the birth control pill by Pastor Anderson. That explains it thoroughly right there. But that's murder. You're killing your child. We believe that life begins at conception. The Lord told Jeremiah, before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee and ordained thee to be a providence of the nations. These people exist to have souls, okay? We live in a culture that just hates children. And here's the thing. We expect that from Egypt, right? But when Christians get involved in that, that's wicked. When the pastors get up and their wives get up and they're teaching their congregants that they can take the abortion pill, that's wicked. That's evil. Thou shall not kill. The Bible says. Yeah, you have pastors getting up. Well, you know, if that's their choice, they're wicked. If that's their choice. You know, when the wives of these pastors are getting up, going to the congregants and tell them, yeah, I take the pill, you should take it too, you'll save a lot more money. That is wicked as hell. Because you're killing children. Shame on you for doing that. You know, we expect that from Egypt, but not from Christians. And that the blood of the hands, excuse me, the blood of those children are on the parents' hands. Now look, if that's something that you did in the past, you've repented of it, you got it right, that's done away with, okay? And if that's a mistake you made in the past, you got it right, that's different. It's under the blood, amen? Praise the Lord for that. But if you're today knowing what the Bible says regarding abortion, and you're still partaking in that garbage, you're wicked as hell. Because you're killing children. I mean, just picture my baby. My baby was born premature, six weeks or something. She's a small little thing. This small little baby, delicate, dainty little baby who cannot even, she can't take care of herself. And some idiot, fool, who just loves money, is covetous, because they want to have a nice life, decides to take the life of that baby for their comfort? That's wicked. And it's wicked for a pastor to get up, even if he doesn't get up from the pulpit, it's wicked for him to even think that abortion is okay, that the pill is fine. All that is garbage, and shame on the pastor who would ever teach, well, you know, you don't know their situation. I don't care about their situation. You know, if you don't want to have children, don't get married. If you don't want to, see, here's the thing, we live in a society today that wants the pleasure but they don't want the responsibility that comes with the pleasure. You know, there's responsibilities that come with that. And you want to excuse the pleasures of those who want to have pleasure but they don't want to have children? That's wicked. Abortion is still wrong. I don't care what form it is. It's wrong. And we will never, ever justify that here. But here, let me say this. So obviously in the Bible, God condemns abortion. He condemns the pill, condemns abortion, condemns all of that. How do we apply that spiritually? Well, spiritually, you know, people commit abortion all the time. Now, people used to tell me, and I used to believe this as well, and I was wrong for this. I used to hear this a lot, that if you don't disciple someone who you lead to the Lord, you're committing spiritual abortion. How many of you have ever heard something like that? Like, if you don't follow up, if you don't disciple them, you know, you're committing abortion. But that doesn't make any biblical sense at all. Because they passed from death into life. So that would be like, I wouldn't doubt that the Pentecostals believe that. Because the Pentecostals believe you could lose your salvation. So it's like, they die spiritually and, you know, they go to hell. Yeah, but the people we lead to the Lord, because we're giving them the right gospel, they will never lose your salvation. The Charismatics obviously will believe that. The Mormons can believe that all they want. We don't believe that. As soon as we lead them to the Lord, they get saved. They're saved forever. You know, for by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Jesus said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He said, I give them to them eternal life, and they shall never perish. When does never end? Never! Amen. So, we don't commit spiritual abortion when we don't disciple someone. Now, am I against discipleship? Absolutely not. It's vital. Okay? The training of people, teaching them to learn the word of God, getting preaching from the pulpit, you know, teaching them how to sow and how to live a clean life. All these things are very much important. But if we don't do it, it's not spiritual abortion. Okay? You say, so what is spiritual abortion, Brother Bruce? Now go with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 11. I'm going to show you what spiritual abortion looks like. See, spiritual abortion is when you kill the opportunity for someone to get saved. Because obviously someone's dying, right? Like the child dies. Well, what's one way that, what does spiritual abortion look like? Look at Luke 11 verse 52. It says here, Woe unto you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. Ye enter not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered. So what is spiritual abortion? False doctrine. When the pastor gets up and preaches a repent of your sins gospel, that's called abortion. When the pastor gets up and talks about salvation any other way other than by grace through faith, that's abortion. Why? Because you're killing people spiritually. They're depending upon their own works, and they are going to die and go to hell. That is spiritual abortion right there, okay? When you're teaching a false doctrine, let me say this, you know, just like in real life how people, there's pastors and Christians who disagree, and they would say, you know, I don't believe in the pill, you know, I don't think it's right, you know, but if people in the church want to do that, that's on them, you know, that's applicable spiritually as well. Because there's pastors who say, you know, I don't believe in repenting your sins. I don't believe in this false doctrine. But there's people in the church who have that, you know, they're just a little off. That's okay. No, it's not okay. If it's not right for you, it's not right for your congregants. That's spiritual abortion, false doctrine that teaches people how to go to hell. Now go with me for 2 Timothy 2, I'm going to show you another form of spiritual abortion. Why are people barren today? Well, one, it's because people aren't praying enough. Why are people barren today? Because they're committing abortion. What does it mean by, what do I mean by abortion? False doctrine. But not only that, harmful agents being placed into the body. Talk to Dr. Rita, she'll tell you all about it. You know, vaccinations that actually hinder you from having children. Or doing drugs all your life. You know, if you did drugs all your life, and then you got right, you got saved, or whatever it may be, and you got that sin out of your life, praise the Lord for that. But you know what, there's consequences that come with that. I knew a guy, I had a friend who, you know, he lived a life of sin. He did a lot of drugs, bad drugs. I mean, all drugs are bad. But there's some that are just like, they destroy you, okay? In a short term, you know? Well, he got right with the Lord and he wanted to start having children. And they could never have children. And by the way, he practiced reason number one. He prayed over and over and over and over again. They could not have children. And the reason why was because the drugs that he took just messed him up. You know? And I'm sure Dr. Rita could attest to that. Drugs will mess you up. To the point where it will make you sterile, okay? And harmful agents being placed in the body can hinder you from now. There's things that we, like, we can't do anything, you know, the chemtrails, we can't really do anything about that, you know? You can't get a fan and just blow the air and just, I mean, you can, I guess, whatever. But I'm talking about specific things that you can do. You know, living a life of sin, you know, will cause you not to bear spiritual children. It doesn't matter how good you know the Romans wrote, if you have sin in your life, you're not a clean vessel unto the Lord, you're not going to be filled with God's holy power to preach the gospel. Bottom line, look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 19 says, Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his, and let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. Verse 21, If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. See, God's not expecting perfect people, but he's expecting people who are pressing towards the mark, people who are trying to grow in their knowledge of God, who are living a clean life, okay? And look, you say, well, you know, no one's perfect, you know, I'm just going to drink some whiskey here and now and then and smoke some pot and all these things. Yeah, go ahead, but you're going to destroy your life later on, okay? And later on in life, when you mature to being a grown man or a grown woman, and you want to settle down, you want to have children, you want to get married and get serious about the things of God, you'll hear a sermon about children and say, man, I want children. Guess what? It's not going to happen. Why? Because you decided to destroy your life with drugs and harmful agents that will hinder you from having children, right, physically, but not just that, spiritually as well. You know, and thank God that if we do have sin in our lives, you know, if we confess and forsake it, we shall obtain mercy, amen? And God can cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The Bible says in 1 John 1-9, we understand that we just got to confess it, get it right, forsake it, and God can use us again to see people saved, okay? And don't have this mentality that you can be involved in all kinds of sin and still preach the gospel and do well. No, God will not use you. God doesn't drink out of dirty cups, okay? You need to be a clean, not a perfect, you don't have to be a clean, a perfect cup. You got some cracks in the cup, little chips here and there, not perfect, old maybe, right? Maybe not the best looking, but He'll drink out of a clean cup. It's the dirty cups, the ones who are living a double life, right, that He won't use, okay? So why is it that people, why are people, why are Christians barren physically and spiritually? Well, it's because of this matter of false doctrine. Pastors are teaching a false gospel, sending people straight to hell, making people two-fold a child of hell more than themselves, okay? But not only that, they put harmful agents within their body. They're allowing sin into their body, therefore they can't be used of God. Now go to Revelation chapter number two. Revelation chapter number two. Not only that, so we see the abortion aspect of the false doctrine, we see the harmful agents in the body, but here's the most obvious reason why people are barren spiritually, okay? Lack of soul winning. Bottom line. I mean, you can't get it simpler than that. You just don't go soul winning. Or here's the thing, pastors want to grow their church or they want to do something great for God, but they're not soul winning. Look at Revelation chapter two verse one says, unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write, these things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not, and hast found them liars, and hast borne and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast labored and hast not fainted, nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place, and except thou repent. So we see this church, they had all their ducks in order, spiritually speaking. I mean, they were trying the apostles, you know, the luz del mundo, they knew that they were wicked, you know, they spoke against the Mormons, they had all their ducks in order, I mean, they were doing good. They were doing the bus ministry, they had all their Sunday school classes, they had all the right things, and they looked right, but guess what? They weren't so many. They had left their first love. What's the first love? Telling people about Christ. I mean, you think of the time when you got saved, okay? For most people, the first time they get saved, you know who they want to tell about the Lord? Their family and their friends. They may not be complete or perfect in how they present the Gospel, right? But they want to, why? Because they love the fact that Jesus saved them, and they want Jesus to save their family and friends. But you know what? Christians have gotten to a point, and the reason they are barren in their Christian life 10 years, 15, 20 years later, is because they stopped soul winning themselves. They're getting themselves involved in a bunch of work that's not soul winning, okay? And what do they do? And this is one of the, I'm getting ahead of myself, they're expecting their congregation to go soul winning, and not them. They'll go do their two visits, right? I mean, I've had congregants tell me, yeah, my pastor, what he does is he just, he sends me out with the map, expects me to go soul winning, and I say, can I go with you? And he says, I gotta go do these visits, and then I got a meeting, and then I gotta go to Starbucks, and then I gotta, you know, he's gotta do a whole bunch of other stuff, you know? No, you need to make time for soul winning, or else you will die spiritually. Now look, some people bring forth fruit more than others. I mean, tonight, when we take soul winning numbers, you'll hear people, six, you know, I'm like, man, six, good night. You know, or five, three, everyone bears different amounts of fruits, obviously, okay? But here's the point, you need to bear fruit. Amen. Okay? But what do we have to do? We have pastors that are fruitless, they're barren, their womb is not bearing fruit, why? Because they're just not soul winning. And you know why? Because they don't think it works. Yep. But who cares what you think? Just do it. Amen. Because it's supposed to be done. Amen. You know? And the reason many of the old churches and the old IFB are dying, is because of this matter right here, they're not soul winning. You know? They started observing the liberal churches and how they have 5,000, 10,000, yeah, 10,000 dead corpses. Yep. Right. That's what it is. You know, you go, I remember I used to travel down the 710 freeway, and 710 for a while had this thing where it's just dead animals, you know, they get hit, there's like a pit bull, and you would see a pit bull lying there on the ground, I was like, man, that thing got wiped out, you know, that thing was cool. And then like, the day later, it was like really big. And then the next day it would be like swelling up, it was huge. And the reason why is because all the maggots and stuff and the gases were coming out, that was a very big corpse, but you know what, it was dead. So a lot of these liberal churches that have these big, huge attendances, yeah, that looks good in finding Daniel on the outside, but it's dead on the inside. Yep. Right. They're full of dead men's bones. Okay. Why? Because they're not preaching the right kind of gospel. And so the pastors look at this, and they look at those churches and say, man, soul wanting doesn't work. You know, go out there and knock on doors. So they pray for revival, right? But here's the thing, you don't even have to pray for revival, just go soul wanting. You know, just keep doing what you're supposed to be doing. And here's the thing, the reason they're not seeing people saved is because even if they go soul wanting, they're not seeing people saved because they're not given the right kind of gospel. You know, they stop sharpening the sword of how to go soul wanting. You know, it doesn't matter how long you've been a Christian, you can always grow as a soul winner. Don't ever think you have it down packed. I don't think I have it down packed. You don't have it down packed. Nobody does. We all have to sharpen our sword and just get better at it and not lose our first love, not be barren. We need to be fruitful, okay? But that happens as we consistently go out. We make, keep the main thing, the main thing, and the main thing is soul winning, okay? Now go to 1 Samuel, chapter number 1, 1 Samuel, chapter number 1. Reason number 1, why Christians are barren physically and spiritually, lack of prayer. Reason number 2, abortion, okay? False doctrine, harmful agents that enter into the body, a lack of soul winning. Reason number 3, the Lord closes the womb. Sometimes the Lord closes the womb. Look at 1 Samuel, chapter 1, verse 5, excuse me, verse 3. And this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord were there. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Penaniah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters portions. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb. And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb. So there is a element in regards to being barren that sometimes God just closes the womb for different reasons. Maybe to teach you how to pray, okay? Maybe it's just not the right timing. We don't know exactly. Obviously his ways are higher than our ways, you know, his thoughts than our thoughts. And we can't, you know, make sense of everything that takes place in the mind of God and why he does certain things. But we do know this, he does close the womb sometimes, okay? And maybe it's just patience we need, more prayer. You know, a big portion of it is just patience too. You know, sometimes people, you know, I've heard of stories where people want to have children and they're just like, ugh. And what happens is you become tense. And that actually makes it even worse. And I've heard of people who want to have children so bad, they couldn't have children, they actually went in and adopted children. So once they adopted those children, as soon as they did that, their bodies relaxed and what happened? She got pregnant. You know? And often what it is, is just this, you're fretting against the Lord and that fretting causes you to not have children. You know? You're just constantly thinking about it. Your body's tense enough because you want, no, just, you know, just wait upon the Lord. You know, pray and wait upon the Lord. Depend on him. Enjoy life. Enjoy your life. And it'll come. Okay? Now go back to Revelation chapter number two. We just read this. But it's worth saying again, amen? So spiritually speaking, how does that work? Well, you know what? Sometimes God closes the womb of a church. And it has to do with this reason prior to the one we just gave, because they're not sowing him. So you know what God does to a church that doesn't sow him? He removes their candlestick. Look what the Bible says in Revelation 2.5, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the first works, or else. That's a big phrase right there. Or else. I will come unto thee quickly and remove thy candlestick out of its place, except thou repent. You know what I'm saying? If you don't get this thing down right about sowing, I'm just going to go ahead and remove you from being a church. I'm going to close the womb. You're not going to bear anything. You're going to die. You know what? And there's churches upon churches all over this country that are dying. Their wombs are closed. Why? Because they chose not to go sowing. What happens? God says, I'm closing you up. You're not even going to be a church anymore. Oh, but the offerings are so great. You know, a church's success is not based upon the offerings. Yeah, but we got like building programs and $15,000 and this and that and all kinds of people on bus ministry. Most of those kids who come on the bus aren't even saved because you don't care about their salvation. You just want to get the number on the wall. Okay. I mean, I knocked on doors a couple of weeks ago or a couple months ago, met some kids from Montecito Baptist Church, which is a Spanish church, Pastor Ezekiel Salazar. And they said themselves, I led them to the Lord. They got saved. And I said, how long have you guys been going to church? They're like, for a long time. I said, you guys aren't saved. They said, no, we didn't, you know, we didn't know. But you know what? They're coming to pick them up on the bus the very next day or excuse me that afternoon because we're going so many on a Sunday. They're coming to pick them up. They weren't going to check on their salvation. They just want to make sure they come up, sit down on the bus, mark them as a number, give them a candy, shut your mouth when the preaching starts, taking you back home and it's over with. And look, obviously the exception proves the rule. Obviously there's people in the bus ministry who are sincere. They want to see people saved and they lead their children to the Lord. Okay. There's a brother-in-law who does that. His name is brother, his name is Dan and Dan goes out there and he sincerely wants to see his bus kids saved. He has a sincere heart and he does see them saved. But you know what? That's not everyone. The majority of the people just want to bring them in and take them out. It's just the number. But you know what God's going to do? He's going to remove your candlestick. You know, you got churches flipping out because of these laws of these buses. They're going to be coming and we got to get new buses and just shut it down. Just go do sowing then. You know, you'll get more fruit anyways like that. Okay. Now, I'm not against the bus. I mean, I wish we could get a bus, you know, bus people in or whatever, you know, go pick people up for church, you know, but that's all we would use it for. It wouldn't be a bus ministry, okay, where it's just like they meet over there in that room, you know, and get the water down fun preaching and you wonder why they grow up. They want to go to the liberal fun centers, right? Where they're singing, you know, Father Abraham, how many sons, you know, or making melody in my heart, making melody in my heart, joy, joy, joy, thumbs in, you know, all this stupid nonsense. They're not learning any doctrine. You know, and look, I've met kids who were raised in that and you know what happens is that they become some of the worst Christians I've ever met, lukewarm, watered down Christians. Why? Because that's what they're conditioned to do, to think. And look, I'm not saying, look, there's some kids in the bus ministry, they make it out and they get saved, they move on with their lives, they make a personal commitment after salvation obviously to live for the Lord, to get things right, to learn the right doctrines. There's people like that, but you know what? The exception proves the rule, okay, because it's not always like that, all right? Whereas the sowing, you have the ironclad guarantee from God that you will be fruitful if you go out sowing. So there's these churches out there, they're getting involved in all these other things and they're not sowing. And what happens? God says, I'm going to close this womb. If you're not going to use this womb to bear children, to go sowing, to see people saved, I'm closing it. And they die. And you know what? It's good that they're dying. It's a good thing for them to die. Oh, you know, you're not being loving. Yeah, I'm being hateful right now. It's good for them to die. You know why? Because they're infecting the second generation who's coming up, and this second generation is going to be inoculated with this lukewarm Christianity that's not a Bible Christianity. Rather have the second generation rise up and see this kind of church where there's Bible preaching, sowing being done, and they get right with the Lord, rather than just remain dead. And then the generations have them just keep being, just dying. And what happens? The womb closes, no children are ever, spiritual children are ever begotten through the gospel, and they just die. You know, we have children in our church, teenagers who love sowing, amen to that. You know, whereas in other churches, teenagers are just like the worldiest, carnal, just annoying, arrogant, prideful, someone throw out another word, whatever, maybe they're just, and they're not doing anything. What is that? Thrower. Thrower. People you'll ever meet. Why is that? Now, obviously, they have a personal responsibility to be not that way. But the reason they are is because the generation previous to them has conditioned them to be that way. Okay? So, go to Matthew chapter 21. And look, this happens all the time, where God closes the womb of a church. All the time. You say, yeah, but they haven't closed their doors. Look, bodies remain in the mortuary all the time. I mean, they're, I mean, they're there, right? That doesn't mean they're alive. You know? I mean, you could dress a dead body up pretty well too. Nice suit, nice casket. You know? I mean, they're just dead. They look nice. But that's as far as it goes. And God will close that womb. And guess what? You know what God will do? He will remove the blessing from that church and just give it to someone else. Because God's serious about this thing. He wants, look, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Okay? And just as Pastor Anderson preached on Thursday, he's just looking for a church to work through. You know, we're no one, we're nothing special, we're no one, we're nothing talented, but you know what? I believe that there's a group of people here who are sincere about winning people to Christ. They're not perfect people, they're not the most refined people, but you know what? They want to do something for Christ through so many. Look at Matthew 21 verse 43, Therefore say I unto you, the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. He even did it to his own people. The God's chosen people. He even took it from them. You don't think he'll take it from Christians, churches, today? Of course he will. He'll remove it and he says, I'm going to give it to someone else who's bringing forth the fruits thereof. Okay? Go to Matthew chapter 21, I'm going to read to you from John 15 verse 4 where the Bible reads, Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except that abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches, he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me he can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. No, this is not talking about you'll lose your salvation. What it simply means is that you become worthless, okay? And newsflash, Christians can become worthless. The Bible uses this phrase, good for nothing. But to be cast out into the draft and to be trotted under the foot of men, okay? Look what the Bible says in Matthew 21 verse 18, now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered and when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it and found nothing thereon but leaves only and said unto it, let no fruit grow on thee, henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away. You know what churches are doing today? They're just withering away. Yeah, but they got such good specials there. I mean, they got this one person who sings and just like, like an angel, you know? And then, you know, she just moves and just, she closes her eyes at the right point. This one guy, he slides so good, you know? He sounds like a worldly singer, but he's doing it for the Lord. You know? No, they're withering away, okay? And you say, yeah, but it's a palace of, you got to see the building. You know, I wouldn't doubt that they have a beautiful building, but you know what? Here's the building. God's people, okay? And we need to make sure that we're beautifying the spiritual body, okay? Now go with me, if you would, to Genesis chapter 16. I spent a lot of time on that, but that needs to be said, you know? God closes the womb of a church sometimes. And I hope to God, and as long as I'm here, it ain't going to happen, okay? But I hope to God that this church, Faithful Word Baptist Church, and obviously the name's going to change when we go independent. I remember Pastor Anderson told me, you need to figure out a new name for the church when it goes independent. I'm like, I can't keep Faithful Word. I mean, that's like the name. But Lord willing, we will never be barren. You're being prideful. You're being prideful. No, no, no. Because God said, He's commanded us to be fruitful and to multiply. So anything that God commands us to do, He's given us the aptitude to do it, the ability to do it. It can be done. If it's not done, it's because we're not doing it. That's just the way it works, okay? But Lord willing, this church will never be barren. The womb will never close, okay, until the Lord returns, of course. Now reason number one, what do we say? It's because of prayer. People are, Christians are barren because of prayer. Reason number two, because of abortion, okay? Reason number three, I forgot the reason number three, oh, the Lord closes the womb. Reason number four, why people are barren, they give the responsibility to someone else. He said, well, hold on a second, physically they do that? It's in the Bible. Genesis 16, verse one. Look what the Bible says. Now Sarah, Abraham's wife, bare him no children. And she had a handmaid, an Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarah said unto Abram, Behold now, the Lord hath restrained me from bearing. I pray thee, going unto my maid, it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abraham hearkened to the voice of Sarai. And Sarah Abraham's wife took Hagar, her maid, the Egyptian, after Abraham had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, and gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife. And he went in unto Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was despised in her eyes. And Sarah said unto Abram, My wrong be upon thee. I have given my maid unto thy bosom. And when she saw that she had conceived, I was despised in her eyes. The Lord judged between me and thee. And Abraham said unto Sarah, Behold, thy maid is in thine hand, due to her as it pleaseth thee. And when Sarah dealt hardly with her, she fled from her faith. So obviously this is a wicked sin that they committed, okay? And they shouldn't have done it. It was a lack of faith. It was a relapse of faith, is what we would call it, on the part of Abraham and his wife, okay? But basically Sarah couldn't embarrass her. She said, We'll just get Hagar to do it. Maybe I can have children by them. Well, what's the spiritual obligation to that? Christians do that all the time. You know? Or pastors do that. I don't know how to sew one, but maybe you could do it for me. You know? Maybe I can have children by you. And what they do, it goes to the previous point, they expect others to do what they're supposed to be doing. Now, by the way, it's expected of you to do it as well. It's expected of all of us to do it, okay? But what God does not want is for us to have this mentality, well, the church down the street will do it. I know they're like a soul-winning church, you know? But we're all part of the same team, amen? Well, yeah, we are part of the same team, but if we're preaching the right Gospel, we have the right doctrine. But here's the thing. God expects for us to be preaching the Gospel. I can't expect for you to bear fruit for me. And you can't expect me to bear fruit for you. You need to bear fruit. But we have a Christianity today that says, you go, I stay, I do my visits, I do whatever I gotta do, and make sure you're the one reaching people for Christ. No, that's not the way it's supposed to be done. And look, obviously, the person who leads the way is supposed to be, I mean, I think that's obvious. It's supposed to be soul-winning. Okay? It goes without saying, all right? But you know what? I've even heard stories of people who said, you know, the pastor will come up, and the guy will say, you know, let's go, Sony, you and I, and the guy will just be like, yeah, why don't you go with someone else? And they're like, well, no one else wants to go. And they're like, well, here, you just go by yourself then. You know? And the guy's not even preaching the Gospel. The pastor's not preaching the Gospel. You know? They're just lazy, collecting checks, you know? Go to 1 Corinthians, chapter number 9, 1 Corinthians, chapter number 9. This is the mentality that every Christian ought to have right here. 1 Corinthians 9, 16 says this, for though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for necessity is laid upon me. Yea, woe is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. For if I do this thing willingly, I have a reward, but if against my will, a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me. Well, a dispensation simply means a responsibility, right? It was given. So is this, I mean, dispensation of the Gospel, I mean, like, we don't believe in dispensationalism here. I mean, that's clear right there, what that means. But what is he saying? Look, the responsibility has been given to me to preach the Gospel. Not just to me, to everyone, right? And so we can't expect others to do the work for us. That's why I'm excited about the Sony Mega-Marathon. Everyone's getting involved. I mean, look, if you haven't gone Sony, you need to make sure you're there for the Sony Mega-Marathon. Amen. Don't miss it. Amen. Unless you're, like, dying, or you're in labor, and you're having a child, which I don't think anyone is going to be having a child anytime soon, or at least by the Sony Mega-Marathon, you know, you need to be there. Okay? Don't miss out on this. And don't have this mentality, well, you know, my church faithful ward of El Monte is going to go, and they're going to win people to Christ. You know, so I don't think I need, what, what, what thing am I, what am I going to do? No. Everyone needs to get involved. Amen. And we can't have this Sarai mentality to get Hagar to bear children. And look, the old IFB, that's basically what they did with, with us, right? And guess what? Hagar just despises Sarai, you know what I mean? Because she's, like, not bearing children. It's like, why aren't you bearing children? You know, we're over here doing the work. We would love for Sarai to just get on board. You know? Hopefully, you know, some secret, you know, new IFB lovers, closet listeners, will be there for the Sony Mega-Marathon. I'm hoping that someone just creeps in and says, hey, brother Bruce, what's up? You know? I'm going to take a picture, like, hey, what's up? Like, you're on, you're on Instagram Live right now. But you know what? We can't place that responsibility on everyone else. You know? And look, I rejoice, even if there's a church that doesn't agree with us, there's a church down the street from us. Not down that way, another Baptist church down that way, okay? They can't, they hate our guts. They hate yours truly. They preach on me, they talk all kinds of trash, but look, if they're preaching the right gospel, Lord willing, if they're preaching the right gospel, I'm for them. Amen? Even if they hate our guts, I'm for them. Praise the Lord for that. You know why? Because we need more churches that are preaching the gospel. But you know what they're doing? They're taking our tracks off the door, and they hate the fact that we're out here so many. Why? You know, you think you're going to knock every single door? You think you're going to see every single person saved in this place? No. Neither are we. That's why we've got to knock the doors over and over and over again. I will not be upset at all if one across the street opened up, if there are gospel preaching the right doctrine of the Baptist church, even if they hate my guts, even if every single sermon they preach against me, or preach against our church, and how we're hateful, we don't allow faggots into the church, all these things, that's fine. As long as you're soul winning, you're getting the work done, amen, hallelujah. Or in Spanish, hallelujah. Amen. Look, why? Because what's important is that people are getting saved, okay? But here's the thing, a lot of Christians, they just give the responsibility to someone else. The pastor gives the responsibility to someone else. Go to Galatians chapter number 2. You know, this happened in the New Testament as well. Even amongst the apostles. Look at the Bible, it says in Galatians 2, 9, the Bible reads here in Galatians chapter 2 verse number 9, and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship, that we should go into the heathen, and they into the circumcision, only they would that we should remember the poor, the same which I also was for'd to do. So Peter, James, and John, what are they doing? They're like, yeah, you're pretty good at reaching the Gentiles. You should reach them. We're going to stick to the Jews. You know what I mean? You seem to have the gift of evangelism to the Gentiles, you know, we'll give you the right hands of fellowship, we'll bless you. No, they're supposed to be reaching the Gentiles too. It's like these churches who, like they look at churches like us, or Christians, and they say, you're pretty good at reaching the ghetto folks, you know? Once you reach them, I'll reach the rich folks, you know, I'll reach the CEOs of this world, and all the business owners of this world, you know, we'll start a ministry specifically for business people. I'll reach them, you reach the poor people. No, God wants everyone to be saved. I want the rich person to be saved, and I want the poorest of the poor to be saved. I want the most refined to be saved, and I want the most ghetto to be saved, okay? I'm not against anybody being saved. I want all of them to be saved, and we can't be like Peter, James, and John and say, yeah, you go ahead and take the Gentiles, we'll take care of the Jews, no, no, no, no, no. You go ahead and take care of the white people, we'll take care of the Mexicans, or whatever, you know? No, we're going to take care of everyone. The Gospel's going to everyone, okay? We're not going to be respecter of people. Go to 2 Peter chapter number 1, 2 Peter chapter number 1, and we'll finish off right here. So people are barren today. You know, they're complaining that they're barren, but most of the reasons right here is, or excuse me, most of the reasons why they are barren is because they're violating one of these principles right here. Not just physically, I'm talking about spiritually as well. So we say number 1 is because they're not interceding, they're not praying, okay? They need to pray for labors. Number 2 is because of spiritual abortion. Number 3 is because God has closed the womb. Number 4 is because they're expecting someone else to bear children for them. But not only that, reason number 5, last one, is a basic one, but it's true. They have not yet matured, or they're just not diligent, okay? Because obviously the body physically needs to mature in order to have children, but also there's just a matter of just being diligent, okay? You just need to keep trying to have children, alright? Now look at 2 Peter chapter 1 verse number 5, look what the Bible says here. And beside this, giving all diligence. So he gives a list of things that you need to do, but the first thing he says is you need to be diligent. What does diligent mean? Consistent. You say, man, I haven't seen people saved and so on. You need to be consistent then. You can't expect to just go out your first time, second time, third time and see like 20 people saved. You need to be consistent, okay? And just keep doing it, you're going to have dry seasons or dry Sundays or Saturdays where you go out and you don't see anybody saved. You're just like, man, what's going on here? Like no one's getting saved. Well, just be diligent and people will get saved. It's promised from God, okay? And it's the same thing physically. You just got to be diligent. Keep praying, be diligent, keep doing what you're doing and you will bear children, okay? But look what it goes on to say, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge and to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience and to patience godliness and to godliness brotherly kindness and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Christians who are bearing fruit are those who are growing, they're maturing in the Lord, okay? And the more you read your Bible, the more you listen to preaching and you apply God's word, you're going to want to go soloing, okay? You know, the Christians who have been in church for like 50 years, 40 years, 20 years and they're not doing squat for the Lord, you know, often when you tell them, when you try to correct them on something or admonish them in an area, they'll say this, you know how long I've been a Christian for? I've been in church for 20 years. So what does it have to do with the price of tea in China? You know, they don't say, you know, I've read the Bible from cover to cover, you know, I'm reading this right now, I haven't attained yet, you know, and I'm thankful you told me that because I'm always looking to grow. No, the most prideful, arrogant fools are the ones who say, you know how long I've been a Christian for, you know, I've been in church for 30 years, you're going to teach me? Just like, well, I guess not because you're not willing to learn, okay? And look, we shouldn't have this, young people should not have a mentality where they just can rebuke anybody, right? You know, and treat the elderly as their fathers obviously, right? And the women as well as mothers. We need to be kind, meek, be gentle, but you know what, on the flip side of that, there's some fools out there who aren't willing to be entreated, who aren't willing to learn. We ought to be willing to learn and say, you know, I don't know everything, so I'm going to go ahead and learn. And the person who has that type of spirit is obviously the one who's growing in the knowledge of the word of God because reading the Bible humbles you and you're humbled because you don't know as much as you should, you see the grace of God, it leads you to repentance, you see the things and you say, man, I'm just growing, I'm learning, and you have a lowly and humble heart to learn, okay? The one who's, oh, oh, oh, is the one who's not even reading his Bible. So yeah, but he said he read it, no, no, no, he's not reading it. He may have read it in years past, but he ain't reading it no more, okay? We need to make sure that we are continually maturing in the Lord, okay? Growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And how does that come? By prayer, reading the Bible, just having a heart that's willing, having what's called a teachable spirit, okay, what is that? If your man is my teacher, I can learn something, you know, I wanna keep growing in the Lord. So look, what's the sermon today? Sermon is this, don't be barren. Now physically, there's many reasons as to why, but the main aspects that I'm focusing on is the spiritual aspects of why Christians are barren, it's because of these reasons right here. There should be no reason why an individual, a church, churches should be barren, God has given us the command to be fruitful and to multiply, and we ought to do it, amen? Let's bow our heads and have our word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, and we're thankful for the principal's founder and help us, each and every one of us, to be fruitful, and I would hope that all the Christians in this room would aspire to bear fruit abundantly, to be fruitful and to multiply. Not to have this appearance of being fruitful, but actually bearing fruit, whether it's on a day-to-day basis from Monday through Sunday, praying that God would use them to see people saved, that God would enable them, that you would enable them and equip them with the right tools and the verses and the boldness necessary to go out and do a great and mighty work. Help us as a church, Lord, to never be barren, that you would never close the womb here at Faith Forward Baptist Church, but that we would continually bear children over and over and over again and create a great army for you. Help us all to be fruitful, to multiply and to bring forth abundantly, and that it all may be for your honor and for your glory. We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen.