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Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Anything else that you might need? And our online donations are there. And text giving number, the tithes and offerings so far for the month of February. And birthdays, we have Miss Kathleen Harrington's birthday is Tuesday. And how old are, where's she at? Raise your hand, where's Kathleen? Hi Kathleen, how old are you going to be now? Thirteen. Ooh, teen. That's a bad word. No, just kidding. So congratulations on becoming a teenager. Well, it's two days from now, but congratulations. So now your parents are going to know what we've had to go through for the last several years. But do you know everything yet? Tuesday you will, trust me. So anyway, we just want to sing Happy Birthday to Miss Kathleen, alright? Music Applause Alright, we have an anniversary. Brother Steven and Miss Kristen, where are you at? Right here. Not feeling well. Not feeling well, okay. Well, we'll still sing it to you guys anyway. It's been how many years? Sixteen. Sixteen years, she's put up with you for that long. Amen. Alright. Alright, let's sing Happy Anniversary. Music Happy anniversary to you. Happy anniversary to you. God bless you and keep you. Happy anniversary to you. Applause Alright, I hope she feels better. It might have been the game last night, I'm just saying. It gets a little spicy here, you know, during the game time. So anyway, and if it's your first time visiting, we like to give each first time guest a gift bag. So if it's your first time today visiting our church, we just grab one of these on your way out. There's a little table over there and it has these gift bags on it. Feel free to grab one. In there is a DVD called Being Baptist. We also have a very nice pen and some other things in there about our church. So please grab one of those as a token of our appreciation for you being a first time guest. And we definitely appreciate you being here. We know you have a lot of other options around town or in your area, so. But not as good of an option as this church, I'm just kidding. But anyway, I really do mean that actually. Sorry, not sorry. Anyway, that's all I got for announcements. But let's sing another song and then we'll receive the offering. We'll be just doing song number eight in your blue hymnals, The Windows of Heaven. Song number eight in your blue hymnals, The Windows of Heaven. Song number eight, The Windows of Heaven. Let's sing it out on that first verse there. The windows of heaven are open, the blessings are falling tonight. There's joy, joy, joy in my heart since Jesus made everything right. I gave him my old tattered garment, he gave me a robe of pure wine. I'm feasting on manna from heaven, and that's why I'm happy tonight. The windows of heaven are open, the blessings are falling tonight. There's joy, joy, joy in my heart since Jesus made everything right. I gave him my old tattered garment, he gave me a robe of pure wine. I'm feasting on manna from heaven, and that's why I'm happy tonight. That's why I'm happy tonight. Amen. Good seeing brother Sean Harrington. Could you bless the offering for us? The Windows of Heaven. The Windows of Heaven. The Windows of Heaven. All right, go ahead and turn your Bibles with me to 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring you one. 2 Timothy 4. 2 Timothy 4, the Bible reads, I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom. Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make foolproof of thy ministry. For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day. And not to me only, but unto all them also that love is appearing. Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me, for the mass hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica, Crescents to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Only Luke is with me. Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry, and Tychaeus have I sent to Ephesus. The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest bring with thee and the books, but especially the parchments. Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord reward him according to his works, of whom be thou where also, for he hath greatly withstood our words. At my first answer no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Anisophorus. Arast us a bow to Corinth, but Trophimus have I left at my lead am sick. Do thy diligence to come before winter. Ebulus greeteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit. Grace be with you. Amen. Brother Robert, will you pray for us? Amen. I want to thank everybody for being here this morning, and I really appreciate Pastor Thompson and his wife for inviting me to come out here. And it was a lot of fun to share in the Valentine's Day celebration, your fiesta, and everything like that. And so I really appreciate that as well. And you know, you've got a great church up here. I really like the building. It's my first time to be in this new building, and I really like it. And it's obvious that you all put a lot of work and effort and energy into the church, and it's definitely a group effort. And so it's very noticeable, and you have a great thing going on here. And so I commend you guys on that. I wish that my family could have been here with me today, but hopefully next time maybe they can come out here. And we definitely think about you guys, and you're definitely near to our heart. And you know, this church is going throughout the whole world, because you've got it in Europe, you've got it in Canada. You're really reaching all kinds of different places, even Spokane. I mean, if you're in Spokane, you're everywhere, right? So obviously this church is doing a lot of work for the Lord, and so I definitely commend you on that. And you're definitely near to the heart of Steadfast. Many people there are constantly thinking about you guys and praying for you guys, and so I just wanted to start with that. But let's look at verse number seven. The Bible reads here, it says, I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. And so the apostle Paul here in verse number seven is making it clear that he's concluding his ministry by saying, I kept the faith. I kept the faith. And notice he's saying he fought a good fight. And the title of my sermon this morning is this, Keep Fighting. You know, I think the message that he's trying to tell Timothy is just keep fighting. And he's saying, I just, I kept the faith. And really when we think about fighting, there's a lot of different contexts, there's a lot of different situations where we could think about fighting. But specifically in the Bible, when it's talking about fighting the good fight of faith, what it's talking about is keeping faith, okay? And what is faith? Faith is believing in the promises of God's word. Faith is trusting in the Lord. Faith is looking at scripture and saying, I'm going to do this when it doesn't really make sense to me in my own eyes. Because we don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. And so if it's something that I can't really see, it's going to take faith for me to endure that difficulty, that struggle, to go somewhere. You know, faith is implied that it's not easy because faith is not something that you just see right off the bat, that it's just obvious, it's just something you want to do, it's just right there for the taking. You know, it's something that may not look right or you may not be able to see it, but rather you look at the Bible and you just believe that what God said is true. It's kind of like a little child, you know, you do these little games where you put them on a table and you ask them to basically fall backwards and dad's going to catch you. Now typically to do this exercise, they don't look at you, they look, they're standing backwards. So they have to fall backwards and they can't see you. All they can do is they trust your voice. Hey, I'm there, I'll catch you. And they basically just have to go back and they just have to fall and let their dad catch them. This is what the Bible is like in the sense that we can't really necessarily see God in the flesh, we don't see him with our eyes, he's up in heaven, but we have the voice of God, we have the Word of God, we have the Bible and he's constantly saying, hey, just trust me, I'll catch you. You know, just take the steps of faith and just believe that I'm there. And so we have to constantly keep fighting and we have to realize that it's literally a commandment in the Bible to fight. Not a suggestion, it's not a good idea, it's not something like, well, some people fight. No, the Bible teaches that we're all supposed to fight, we're in the fight, there's a war that's raging and we're commanded. Look at verse number one of this chapter. I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead as appearing in his kingdom. Now, if God really wants to stress the fact that this is a commandment, this is some, you know, intense wording. He's saying, I'm charging you not just in front of God the Father, but also the Lord Jesus Christ that you keep this. And then what is he saying in verse seven? He's fought a good fight. Meaning that what? We're charged to fight. Now, I can prove this even more. Go to 1 Timothy, go to the left in your Bible just a hair, to the first book of Timothy chapter one and look at verse number 18. Here's more charges that are given unto the man of God. It says in verse number 18, this charge I commit unto thee, Son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. So notice the Bible is saying that the Christian life is war, that you're in warfare. And the reality is whether you like war or not, you're in the war. Okay? You just have to face the reality that you're in a war today, you're in a battle today, and it's important to fight. Because if you don't fight, you're just going to be taken over. You're just going to be destroyed. You're going to lose all the things that are precious to you. You know, it makes me think of a lot of headlines I've seen recently about Russia and Ukraine. Who's heard about Russia and Ukraine? Okay. Yeah, virtually everybody's heard about it. Here are some of the headlines that I've seen just recently. Armed and ready. Armed and ready. Here's another headline I saw. It was real big. Inevitable. Inevitable. Here's another headline I saw. Russia could launch Ukraine invasion, quote, essentially at any time. Meaning that these people that are at the border, Ukrainian soldiers, Russian soldiers, whoever, they are sitting there expecting that war could break out at any moment of time. Now, how foolish would it be if you had the entire Russian army lined up at your border and you're just sitting there sipping coffee. We don't need to put any troops on the border. We don't need to prepare. We don't need any guns. Ooh, guns are yucky, you know. What kind of, you know, message would be sending to the Russians? You'd be saying, like, please invade us. Please attack us. Please, you know, we're not even going to fight. We'll just hand you the keys to the country. But if you put a bunch of tanks at the border, if you get all your airplanes flying around, if you start telling them, hey, we've got, you know, weapons of mass destruction or we've got missiles or whatever, what are you trying to do? You're trying to discourage them from fighting you. You're trying to discourage them from attacking you. And ultimately, you're preparing yourself that if they do, you can defend yourself. You can actually stop the threat. You're not going to just allow them to take over. And this is similar in the Christian life that you're going to have tanks lined up at your border. You're going to have the enemy fighter jets flying around and circling and ready to attack you. And you have to put on the defensive. You have to be ready to fight and engage in battle. Otherwise, you're just going to let them take over your country. Otherwise, you're going to let them take over your house. You know, when it says country, it's like, what does that mean? We're talking about your laws. We're talking about your banks. We're talking about your grocery store. We're talking about your clothing. I mean, you go to different countries, they dress weird. OK, they may implement a uniform, you know, they may implement some kind of a strict policy on how you dress. You know, women don't want to wear dresses and skirts, but some countries they force you to. I mean, if Islam took over America, ladies, you'd be wearing a burka. You'd be wearing a hijab. I mean, think about that. I mean, every single aspect of your life is controlled by the government and by who's in charge. So if we just let some other country, what if we just let Islam come and take over America? What if we just let Hinduism or we let communism or we let China or we let North Korea? I mean, if we just let that take over our country, our lives would change dramatically. And why do you not believe the same would exist in a church where if you just let a church get taken over by all kinds of enemies, by combatants, that they wouldn't come in and force their ideology, force their lifestyle, force whatever they want upon you, you actually have to fight for your freedom. You actually have to fight for that which is right. You have to fight to have the Word of God being the ultimate rules of your life. OK, now let's go, if you would, to 2 Timothy, chapter number two, 2 Timothy chapter two. We're here in the Timothy's for a little bit, kind of dancing around. I have four points this morning on why people stop fighting. You know, because here's a question like, OK, we're supposed to fight, I want to keep fighting, but why is it that people stop fighting? You know, what do I need to be aware of? What enemies are out there that are going to stop me from end up fighting? Well, here's one of the biggest enemies, probably number one is just false doctrine. False doctrine is something you're just going to have to constantly fight over and over. You just have to keep fighting it, you have to keep battling with it. It's basically like the Jews and the Muslims fighting in the Middle East. I mean, it's a perpetual fight, isn't it? It's just something that's just always going to happen, and the Bible warns about this often. Look at 2 Timothy, chapter two, verse 15, the Bible says, Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth, but shun profane and vain babblings, for they will increase unto more ungodliness, and their word will eat as doth a canker, of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus, who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already, and overthrow the faith of some. So notice, by false doctrine being crept in by Hymenaeus, by Philetus, by these other men, it caused some people in the church to lose their faith. Their faith just got completely overthrown. It makes me think again, just like Russians invading Ukraine, it could cause their entire country to just be overthrown, and it just doesn't even exist anymore. What used to be Ukraine is just gone, and we like to think of the world as always existing how it is. But you have to realize that the countries and the nations that exist today, at one point in time, never even existed. America used to not even exist. We were just part of the UK. We were just part of England. We were the nation of England. America was birthed out of rebellion, essentially. It was birthed out of rejection of the King of England. And you have, even in America itself, it was only the 13 original colonies. Now we're 50 states, right? That had to come from somewhere. And we have all kinds of different territories and different land places, and we have all different nations, even through the Bible, you know, and they don't exist anymore. Where are the Chaldeans? Where are the Babylonians? Where are the Medo-Persians? Where are the Hittites and the Jebusites and all these? They're just completely destroyed, eradicated. If it wasn't for the Bible, you wouldn't even know it existed. And the same can happen in a church, it can happen in a Christian's life, where they basically get overthrown to the point that they just don't, it's like they're gone. They don't even exist. They're not even the same person anymore. They've completely been eradicated. They're no longer Ukraine. They're just Russia. You know, they're no longer Baptist. They're just, eh. You know, they're just, they're real life church over here, okay? They're destiny ministries over here. You know, I mean, it's like, I used to be Sir Foundation Baptist. Now I'm destiny, you know. It's like, who wants to be destiny, right? I'm destiny's child. That's a different, that's a different thing, okay? You don't want to go down that road and notice, look, it's not like, you know, you get, oh, why do you have to just constantly preach against false doctrine and bring up heresies and bring up heretics? Because it literally affects real people. Like, real people end up hearkening to this stuff, and some of the people that get led astray are not just bad. They're just, they're just sheep, okay? They're just a little bit gullible. They're a little bit simple. They just believe a lot of different things. The Bible says the simple believeth every word. So, that person's a dangerous person to hear heresy. If you believe literally everything, that's a dangerous person to hear a lot of heresy. You know, this reminds me of, it's children. Children believe everything. I mean, no matter what I tell my children, they, in the back of their mind, they kind of think it a little bit. And, you know, sometimes we tease our children a little bit. Sometimes, you know, I don't know if it's right or not, okay? I'm just confessing to you sometimes. We'll be like, all right, we're leaving, see you, Clayton, you know. And we've never left our child a single time, okay? Even on purpose or accident, all right? But we just kind of tease them, and they act. Our children act like we're definitely going to leave them. You know, they're thinking like, oh no, don't leave me, please, you know. They run to the car, they're crying or whatever. I mean, you tell them that, you know, watermelons are blue on the inside, they'll believe you. You tell them that the moon's made of cheese, they'll believe you. Okay, you tell them the Earth is flat, and they'll say you're stupid, all right? I mean, but, you know, at the end of the day, they'll believe almost anything, okay? They'll believe almost anything. Why? Because they're simple. And wouldn't it be so dangerous if we just gathered all of our children up and we put them in a room where the parents are and they just hear false doctrine for about two decades? What do you think's going to happen to those people's mind, those little kids' minds that grow up that way? It's going to pervert them, it could possibly destroy them, and look, it can overthrow the faith of some. Of course, people can always be the exception, people can always overcome adversity. Some people are in a bad situation and they still got through it. But we know there's other good people that if they'd been put in the right situation, been around the right teaching, they could have actually done some great thing for the Lord, but because they were surrounded by false doctrine, by heresy, they ended up getting their faith overthrown. Now, it's coming from these two men, Hymenaeus and Philetus. The Bible's not afraid to name names. In fact, go back to 1 Timothy 1. We read about these guys already in 1 Timothy 1. Look what it says in verse 18. Now, the wording here is a little bit interesting, but think about what it's saying because, you know, you could interpret this a few different ways, okay? This is kind of what I believe this is saying is when he says, of whom, who are we talking about? We're talking about the people that have put away their faith, okay? Now, Hymenaeus and Alexander, I kind of usually think that this is the people that were overthrowing their faith, but I don't believe that's what it's actually saying. What it's saying is that there was two bad people in the church. These people are wicked, infiltrator, reprobate type people, but because of their false doctrine, they ended up creating disciples, okay? And those disciples, their faith got overthrown, and it's saying those people are of Hymenaeus and Alexander. They're basically the disciples of Hymenaeus and Alexander. So, we notice that two really bad people, they didn't have faith to overthrow. They were in there to overthrow the faith. But notice that they actually succeeded in their mission. They overthrew the faith of some by being allowed to exist in the church. And so, that's why it's so important to call certain people out every once in a while, to identify the certain wolves, to identify the false prophets, to identify someone that's creeping into a church, to expose them, because there's going to be disciples that they draw away after themselves that end up getting drugged through the mud, drug out, and basically go in the same trash can that the Hymenaeus is of, okay? Go, if you would, to Jude, chapter number 1. Go to the end, right before Revelation, go to Jude. So, you can't preach against false doctrine enough, and you can't warn people enough of the potential of wolves, and we want to keep our children protected from evil people. You know, it's just sad how much just child molesters and just predators and just evil people exist, and they just molest so many kids. Just, you know, the number of victims of these people is just staggering when they finally get caught. I was looking up, there was a church in our area called Watermark Community Church, and the pastor had to step down because of pride or whatever. You know, I don't know what that means. But he ended up, I saw another article that was talking about him. He was the board member of this camp called Camp Canicuck. I don't know, has anybody heard of Camp Canicuck? It's kind of big where we're at. It's like this big summer camp that a lot of people go to. It's really big. Well, one of the guys that was on staff there was literally sodomizing boys. Like, he had victims, over 60 different victims, and the board members knew, and they would have him fill out, like, paperwork saying, like, it's not okay to be around boys in private. Like, he'd basically have these allegations, and they would find out that there was something weird that went on, and then they would just, you know, like, oh, but he's a really good guy. You know, or he's working on that or whatever. And just victim after victim after victim. Well, a lot of the parents tried to, like, sue or something, or at least, like, you know, bring it out into legal. Well, Camp Canicuck basically is suing all the parents and forcing them to sign, like, nondisclosure agreements or whatever to try and cover up all this wickedness and all this filth. I mean, it's like the exact opposite of what the Bible literally says. What kind of ministry is making victims sign a nondisclosure agreement about Hymenaeus and Philetus so they can keep hurting more children, more little kids, more people? No, whenever you find a Hymenaeus or Philetus, you should be the one telling everybody about it. Not trying to cover up or try to conceal what happened. You can't talk about the evil, wicked person that infiltrated. I mean, what kind of Satan-filled devils are there at this Camp Canicuck or whatever that they're literally aware that someone's potentially molesting children or hurting children, and they're doing nothing about it. Yet their documentation shows they know something's amiss, but they don't fire them. In fact, they allowed him to literally take some of their campers, like, privately to his own area and just hang out with them for a couple days, away from the whole group. And there's quotes of him saying, like, I really like to minister the children in the hot tub or whatever. It's like, what in the world? I mean, what kind of sick freaks are there out in this world? Don't just trust your kids to some random camper, to some kind of random campground, to some random person. Oh, he's such a nice guy. You don't know that. Look, there are really evil people in this world, and the Bible warns about them. In Jude chapter 1, look what it says in verse number 3. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. So he's saying, look, we have to earnestly contend. You know what word comes to mind? Fight. He said it was needful that I write unto you that you're fighting, and you say, what are we fighting? Well, look at verse 4. For there are certain men, crept and unawares, who were before of old, ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. This makes me think of these perverts. You know why? Because when they get caught, you know what they tell all these ministers? Oh, I'm so sorry. Why don't you give me some grace? Isn't the Lord Jesus Christ so gracious? And they basically turn the grace of our Lord into lasciviousness, don't they? They basically just say, oh, you have to forgive me. No, I don't, reprobate. Go to hell. You know, there's certain sins that are just so unnatural and so perverted and so gross that you just, you get away from it. You have nothing to do with it. You don't let grace basically just pervert your mind to where you don't realize that God created a place called hell. Have you ever heard of it? Hell! You know what's not gracious? Hell! And God's going to send the majority of people to hell. Why in the world would I give grace to someone that God's going to damn to hell? I mean, you're basically just saying, I'm not going to fight anything. I mean, if you can't fight a child molester, who are you going to fight in this world? I mean, if you're going to give grace to a child molester, you think you're more gracious than God, basically. You're saying you're more loving than God when he's going to send Mother Teresa to hell. I mean, the woman that's given off, you know, her life and she's sacrificed and she's helped people, she's going to burn in hell. Okay, this sweet little Catholic lady, she's going to burn in hell. Let alone the pervert that's hurting children, that's teaching false doctrine, that's creeping into churches today. And you know what? When you identify these people, you need to harken to your pastor, harken to the men of God, and say, I'm going to have nothing to do with Hymenaeus and Philetus. I'm going to just keep fighting them. Instead of giving you grace, you know what I'm going to give you? I'm going to fight you more. I'm going to contend you more. I'm going to withstand you more. I'm not giving you grace. Look, I'll give grace to my brethren. I'll give grace to my children. I'll give grace to a lot of different people. I'll give grace to the lost. I'll try to preach them the gospel. But you know what? I'm not going to give grace to these pervertors that are coming into church, these creepers, these heretics, this false doctrine. You should have a zero tolerance for these type of false doctrines, these type of perverts, these type of creepers that would come into church and basically ruin the church. Now, how do you identify some of these people? Go to verse number 8. Go to verse number 8. What you have to realize is that even the world has this problem. You don't think that Russia and Ukraine trying to go to war with each other right now, they don't have people that are going across the border as a spy? You don't think they have people in the country that are basically their informants that are feeding them information, trying to basically figure out what's going on? And look, the devil works the same way. The devil sends his little spies, he sends his little minions into churches to try and figure out what they can do to hurt the church. And of course, what does a spy do? A spy focuses on all the weaknesses, doesn't it? I mean, the spy is typically not going to, a good spy at least, a good spy is not going to focus on all the negative. They're going to focus on all the weaknesses and try to expose the weaknesses to his counterpart so they can attack there. They can basically try to draw something out. So, of course, the spy is not going to be like, oh, everything's great here, it's wonderful, don't attack them. I mean, that was the bad spies that came out of the land of Canaan. They were saying like, oh, we can't win, we're grasshoppers and there's psi, whatever. You know, Joshua and Caleb are just thinking like, what are you talking about? Like, we're going to eat them. They're our bread. You know, like, this is going to be easy. Did you not just see that we passed through the Red Sea? Did you not see like all the miracles God did for us? And so, you know, the purpose of the spy is to identify the weaknesses so they can go in and attack and they can basically cause some kind of disturbance there. And you have to realize in a church it's going to be the same way. No church is perfect. No person is perfect. So what is the infiltrator going to do? He's going to try and highlight the imperfections of everybody. They're going to try and highlight the imperfections of a church or try to basically make something bigger than it really is, try to come out and attack. And really what they hate is all authority. Now, I'm not making that up. This is what the Bible says. Look at verse 8. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion. What's dominion? Dominion is authority. Dominion is power. They don't want anyone to be in charge. They don't like any leader. They despise every form of government. They despise the president. They despise the House of Representatives. They despise the Senate. They despise governors. They despise local law enforcement. They despise FBI, CIA. It doesn't matter what it is. They despise the school teacher. They despise the principal. They despise every single person in every position of authority. They're all bad. They shouldn't even exist. Now, in 2022 America, obviously we have a lot of corruption in our positions of power today. And I think what some people do is they basically throw out the baby with the bathwater. They think because we have a bad president, presidents are bad. Or they think because we have, you know, wicked corrupt politicians that we shouldn't have any kind of government. Or because there's a bad cop out here every once in a while that just all cops are bad. Or that just every, I mean, anybody hear that? All cops are bad. They might say it a little bit different, right? I mean, I wonder if I've ever heard that phrase from anybody. Well, again, these are wicked people. And the only person that they want to be in charge is themselves. Let me tell you a character attribute of someone that's wicked. They don't like any leader. Because there's a reason why you don't like Biden. Okay, we all get it, okay? No one likes Biden. His own mom probably doesn't like him, okay? If she were still alive, okay? I mean, I doubt his wife even voted for him, okay? But it was changed in his favor. We all get that, right? I don't even know if Biden voted for himself. I mean, here's the thing. Nobody likes the guy, okay? Nobody wants to get on that guy's program. But here's the thing. We don't like Biden because he's wicked as hell. But if you say, you know what, I don't like any leader. There's nobody in my life that I look up to. There's no pastor. There's no man. There's no person of any kind of authority. I just despise every single leader, every single person. Basically, you're just a bad person. Because really, the reprobates, they just despise all kinds of dominion, all kinds of authority. They're really just an insurrectionist at heart. They just want to overthrow everything. Now, where do you think that's coming from? What person do you think just wants to overthrow all power and dominion? It's called the devil. Exactly. He despises the Lord and the Lord Jesus Christ. He despises God. And he just wants to overthrow. He doesn't really have any plan except for he just wants to be at the top. You know, the devil's not like, you know what, I like God the Father, but I really wish Jesus was in charge. You know, I wish he was at the top or whatever. Or, you know, I really wish it was Moses or I really wish it was other person. No, he just wants to be at the top. He doesn't like God the Father. He doesn't like the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't like the Holy Ghost. He doesn't like Moses. You know, there's no person that the devil likes. Did you realize that? Like the devil's second in command, he hates that guy. He wouldn't say like, you know what, my second command, he'd be a pretty good leader. Let's put him in charge. No, no, no, no. The devil is just at the top and everyone is below him. He doesn't even have hierarchy. He just was like, you all are just my slaves, you know. Be my slaves. And this is the same attitude, the same attribute of these wicked people. They wouldn't want anybody else to be in charge. They have to be in charge. They have to be the leader. They're self-willed. I wonder if the Bible says, oh yeah, it tells us that they're self-willed. Let's keep reading. It says in this passage, and speak evil of dignities. Skip down, if you would, to verse number 11. Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and reigned greedily after the heir of Balaam for reward, and perished in the Ganeseng accord. These are spots in your feast of charity when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear, clouds they are without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame, wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness and darkness forever. I mean, this sounds like some pretty good people here. It says in verse 15, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly and among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against them. These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts, and their mouths speaking great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage. It says in verse 19, these be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit. So, I mean, it's just saying, look, they just are so self-indulgent, so self-willed, just everything's about them. And notice how they fight, though. What is it constantly bringing up? They're hard speeches, foaming out their own shame, murmuring, complaining, despising dominion. So how is it that the enemy attacks? He attacks with his words. He attacks with what he says. He just constantly is bringing up just complaint and murmuring, and he despises everything, and they have their cute little speeches, but really their speeches, they're just foaming out their own shame. It just shows what kind of a wicked, evil person that they really are, and we're going to have to constantly fight them and use their words against them. Go to Genesis chapter 14. Go to Genesis chapter number 14 now, if you would. So we see in the Bible an admonition to fight a good fight, you know, and we're supposed to war a good warfare, and the Apostle Paul makes it clear that we're supposed to fight to the bitter end. You know, he fought a good fight. You know, he kept the faith, and we're supposed to constantly keep the faith, believing that, you know, there's real people that hang in the balance here. You know, there's real souls in the balance when we are fighting and contending for the faith, and you know, obviously salvation by faith is the most important doctrine, but there's a lot of doctrines in the Bible, and we don't want people to get destroyed by alcohol, get destroyed by fornication, and get destroyed by adultery, and get destroyed by having, you know, a rotten marriage, having people just destroy their lives by just being, having the love of money, or having just evil desires, or just getting caught away with the cares of this world. I mean, there's so many things that could potentially destroy you that every doctrine should be preached, that we should be warned about all the evils that are out there, and any level of false doctrine could potentially overthrow you at any moment. Now, when we hear about someone basically being captured, or someone being led astray by evil, what should be our response? Our response should not be like, well, that sucks for him. No, our response should be to call to arms, to go after that lost sheep, to try and fight against them, and of course, we don't wage a physical battle today. We wage a spiritual war, so we're going to call them out. We're going to contend against them. We're going to preach against them. Look what it says in Genesis chapter number 14, verse 14. And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, 318, and pursued them unto Dan. And he invited himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people. So notice that he hears about his brother being led astray, going into, you know, evils of the enemy, and he's like, let's fight. Hey, you want to mess with my brother? Then guess what? I'm going to come after you. And we see a camaraderie, we see a brotherhood, we see a willingness to jump into a battle, jump into a fight that you weren't even in. Did Abram have to get in this battle? No, they didn't even come near Abram. Abram's, you know, safe in the Promised Land. Abram's doing his own thing. But then he just hears about his brother being attacked by evil people, and he says, okay, you want to attack my brother? Then I'll come fight you. And I'll come rescue him, and I'll come do good unto him. And notice they didn't just fight him, they smote them. And look, when you fight, it's going to hurt, when they come and they punch you, okay, when they smite you. And I like this phrase that we just read here, because not only do they smote them, but it says in the next breath, and pursued them unto Hobah. So they like win, they smite them, and then they're like, guess what? We're just going to hunt you down on top of that. Like, you're not even going to hide. You're not even going to get away. We're going to chase you down, and we're going to drag you out, and we're going to make you ashamed for ever messing with Lot. You're not going to mess with Lot, you're not going to mess with him. And look, Lot is a crappy Christian. Lot's not even worth fighting for, except for the fact that he's saved by grace. And so that tells me, no matter who is taken captive by this, no matter who it affects, they are worth fighting for. You know what, Jesus fought for us, and you know what, we should fight for our brethren, and if you can fight for Lot, you can fight for anyone. I mean, Lot is like the most worthless Christian, backslidden, his family is a train wreck, but you know what, that one soul is worth it. And you know and I know that there are going to be people that are having a hard life, and they're on the battle lines, and people are attacking them. Their whole family could be a train wreck, their marriage could be a train wreck, their kids could be a train wreck, their job could be a train wreck, they work in San Francisco. I mean, they could just have everything going bad for them, but you could make a difference in their life. You could rescue them out of that. You could say, well, Lot's still worth it. Let's still save Lot, no matter how screwed up this guy is, no matter what problems he's got, because he's a child of God, he's a lost sheep, and we should earnestly contend with those enemies. We shouldn't just let Lot go to the wolves. I mean, do you not have any love in your heart? I mean, just to have no fight in you? And look, a lot of people could have died over rescuing one person. You know, a lot of casualties could have happened, a lot of afflictions could have happened. I mean, I'm sure a lot of people got beat up, they got bruises, battle wounds, whatever, but they went after that one person. And you know what, any time there's a fight, it's ugly. No war, you know, only in the Lord's war is there nobody on the winning side that's unscathed, okay? Only when the Lord comes from heaven with all of us and he just, with the sword of his mouth, just destroys everybody and we're just like, woo! I mean, they're going to score some points against you, basically, is what I'm saying. You know, isn't today the Super Bowl or something like that? I don't know, I don't really care enough. But I guarantee both sides are going to probably score points. I guarantee that both teams, they're going to walk away tomorrow and feel sore, they're going to have some battle wounds, as it were. Someone could even get a career-ending injury. Someone could literally, their entire career is on the line. But you know what, they say it's worth it because I want to win. And when it comes to the Christian life, we should say, you know what, even if I get a little beat up, even if I have to get a little bit of damage, as long as I can rescue, lie is worth it. Because why else are we here? To just sit here and just watch the Super Bowl and do nothing all day? Or is it actually engaged in battle? You know, I remember as a kid, my whole family just loved the Super Bowl and I was always saying, hey, let's go out and throw the ball. And it's like, no, let's watch other people throw the ball. And I really just, I didn't get it as a kid. I didn't like watching sports. I was just like, but we could go out and we could throw the ball to each other. That sounds way more fun than watching ten hours of commercials with a little bit of throwing the football to each other. I don't want to do that. And so really, when it comes down to this life, we're not supposed to be a spectator. We're supposed to participate. We're supposed to be fighting and we're supposed to keep fighting. We're supposed to keep engaging in battle and keep destroying false doctrine today. The Bible says in Exodus 15, the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. The Lord is a man of war. Think about that. And we're in the Bible. I mean, basically, just let your Bible fall open and I guarantee there's a fight on that page. There's a battle somewhere, but there's so many Christians that they don't want to fight anyone. That's why they just have adhered to this judge not, only grace mentality because they literally just don't want to fight anyone for any reason. I mean, you can have Billy Graham get on national television and say, you don't even have to know the name of Jesus to be saved. And Christians will literally still say, oh, I love Billy Graham. Billy Graham's the greatest. I mean, what does someone have to say? What does someone have to do for you to actually engage in battle today? Like, how serious does it have to be for, I mean, how about the fact that we just literally have dozens and dozens, if not hundreds, of Bibles in America that have corrupted the Word of God? I mean, does anybody care? I mean, does that not offend you a little bit that someone has literally tampered with and perverted the Word of God? I mean, imagine if someone just drew a picture of your mother and put, like, horror on it and put, like, all kinds of weird perversion makeup on her face and distorted it and said she was retarded and drew, like, things on her face and they just plastered it all up and down the street. I mean, wouldn't you say, like, that makes me a little angry? Wouldn't you say, like, I'm going to take that picture and I'm going to rip it down, I'm going to burn it? But then, you know, a Baptist pastor, like, gets a bunch of false, wicked Bible versions and burns them whenever he freaks out. What's the difference? I mean, they're literally cheapening up the Lord Jesus Christ. They're perverting the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, in the NIV and Deuteronomy 22, it literally says that a rapist can just pay money and the woman has to marry him. That's what it says. It says Elhanan, the son of Jehorakim, slew Goliath. Just making contradictions. It says that King Saul reigned when he was one years old. I mean, what kind of stupidity, what kind of nonsense is out there today? Why can't, why doesn't someone care? Why doesn't someone want to stand against the evils of this world today? You know, we're supposed to be fighting. And if you can't fight on that, what are you going to fight for? And I've already shown you, you're supposed to fight for a lot, so that means everything, literally. Go to Ephesians, chapter number 6, go to Ephesians, chapter number 6. Point one is this. We need to fight false doctrine. We need to fight false Bibles. We need to champion every single doctrine that could possibly be expounded upon. We don't take anything for granted. We prove everything from the Scriptures. We believe, I mean, this is a sure foundation. What do you think that that means? Obviously, the bank's probably fortified. Okay, we get that. But a sure foundation means you're constantly laying down that foundational doctrine. You're laying down salvation by faith. You're laying down the King James Bible. You're laying down the Trinity. You're laying down baptism by immersion. Think about it. I mean, Christians, they are so stupid, they think sprinkling is immersion. I mean, the word baptism is literally meaning immersion, and they sprinkle. I mean, almost every denomination outside of evangelicals and Baptists are sprinklers. I mean, the Methodists, you've got all kinds of, you know, Catholics and all the Catholic light, Episcopalian and whatever. I mean, they're doing all kinds of weird sprinkling and dunking and dipping and just whatever, but they don't actually do a full immersion. Baptism. I mean, that's a doctrine that needs to be preached. That's a doctrine that a lot of people are screwed up on. You say, well, I already got baptized. Well, you know what? Maybe someone in the room didn't get baptized, and they need to get baptized. Maybe someone's not sure about the King James Bible. They need to be shored up on that Bible doctrine. You know, we don't want to sit here and say, oh, I want something new. I want a new dominion to despise. You know, I want a new person to hate. And I've noticed that these creepers, these infiltrators, whenever they preach a sermon, every sermon's an attack sermon. It's just only attacking some kind of dominion. It's only calling somebody out. They don't actually want to lay down the King James Bible. They don't want to preach a baptism sermon. They don't want to preach, you know, the simple basic sermons. I've even told my guys, I always tell my guys, look, just preach basic sermons. Just preach baptism. Just preach, you know, salvation by faith. Just preach the King James Bible. Just preach these simple, you know, great, timeless truths. Lay a good foundation. But they have to be cute, and so they come up with all these despising dominion sermons. You know, somebody that they can attack or some weird thing that they can basically hate on, and it's not even really right. It's not even exactly legitimate. They have to hate on someone, and it just eats out. They just foam out their own shame. So we have to be careful that we don't get this idea that, you know, fighting is wrong, but we also don't want to fight the wrong people. We want to have a balanced approach, and we have to realize who that we're actually fighting. Ephesians chapter 6 gives us that balance, okay? Ephesians chapter 6, look at verse 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Now, again, this is obviously talking about positions of authority, but we're talking about a spiritual position of authority. We're not talking about just despising people because they are the king, despising people because they're the governor, despising people because they're, you know, someone in a grand position. In fact, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood. You know, our fight is not with Joe Biden physically. Our fight is not with the government physically. Our fight is not with the police officers physically. No, we were a spiritual battle. We were where we fight against false doctrine, against false words, and whenever you're in this fight, notice that the Bible is telling you to stand. Why is it telling you to stand? Because there's a tendency to want to sit down. And the first enemy is false doctrine, but the second enemy is fatigue. Because since we're in a fight that's just constant in nature, it's real easy to get tired. It's real easy to get fatigued. It's real easy to want to quit. It's real easy to get weary of all the fighting, and so you're just kind of just like, I don't want to do this. I don't want to stand up anymore. And sometimes it's not even that you don't want to. It's like you feel like you physically can't. Now, for me, when I feel like I can't physically stand anymore is when I go shopping, all right, with my wife. When we go to the mall and we're going shopping, it's like my whole body starts hurting. It's like this weird, like my knees start locking, and I start feeling like I'm just like, I don't know, I need something to lean on or something. It's just because it's so boring, and I just hate everything about it, okay, except for the fact that I'm with my wife and enjoying, okay. I'm just saying like the actual shopping, right, it's just all this vanity and just nonsense, and the prices are just extremely high now, and there's just faggots everywhere, and I'm just like, man. And it just kind of gets to this point where I just want to sit down, too. And the kids want to sit down, and the kids are like, will you hold? Everybody wants me to hold them, you know. It's just like, come on. Like, you know, they're all fighting, my turn, my turn. You hold them for like five minutes. You set them down, and it's like, I haven't gotten a turn. It's like, I just held you, you know. I want you to hold me, you know. But in the Christian life, you're going to have the same experience where you're going to get to the point where you're like, another baptism sermon, another infiltrator. I'm holding a King James Bible, Pastor Thompson. What do you want me to do? You know, tape it to my forehead or something? He's like, yes. Frontlets between thine eyes, okay. Maybe memorize the thing or whatever. Maybe if it wasn't so much dust on it, he'd have to preach about it, you know. He wouldn't have to preach on it so much. Go to Exodus chapter 17. Go to Exodus chapter 17. But there's a tendency to feel that fatigue, and the fatigue is real. It's not like, oh, I'm just so strong. I don't get fatigued. I mean, this would be like the stupidity of saying, oh, I run all the time, so I never get tired running. Everyone gets tired running. I mean, even the marathon. They only go like two hours. At two hours, they're dead. At two hours, they're done. I mean, and most of us probably couldn't even last ten seconds at a full sprint. I remember, I didn't realize how taxing running can actually be. And we used to play flag football with some of my friends. And we would just, just for fun, we'd just go around and play. And, you know, I could run around for about an hour or whatever. I was in decent shape. But I had this stupid idea. I was going to run a lap as fast as humanly possible. So I was like, okay, I'm just going to run a quarter mile, you know, to see how fast I can go or whatever. And so I just start dead sprinting. And, you know, about the first length of that race, you know, the first, you know, going around the bend, it's not that bad. Then you start getting the half, and you're like, this is getting kind of tired. Then you get to the three-quarter point, and you're like, my whole body wants to die. But I was like, I already decided, and I told everybody, and they're like, you know, they're counting my time or whatever. I can't quit, okay? So I go all the way through, and I kind of finish. And it was like, I don't know. I can't remember. It was about 50 seconds or something like that. But I just like, as soon as I was done, I fell over, and I didn't even get to play like the whole day. Like just the one little just burst of just like trying to just sprint just wrecked my entire body, and it just like hurt everywhere, and I couldn't even stand. And I'm thinking like I could have run for like an hour just normal. But like just a dead sprint, if you just exert 100% energy in running, you will tire out so quick it's not even funny. Even in fact, many football players who are in really good shape, they start sprinting towards the goal line, but about halfway through, some of them start slowing down because it just starts, you know, a linebacker or a lineman or something like that. Obviously, the running backs might be able to keep going, but a lot of these people, they can't even, you know, keep going. And in the Christian life, I don't care how strong you are. I don't care if you're LaDanian, Tomlinson. I don't care who you are. Look, you are going to feel the pain of running, running the Christian life. There's going to be a moment in life where you're just, I'm done. I don't feel like I can keep going. How am I going to do this? And it takes that faith to take the next step. It takes that faith to just keep going. And it's also important, though, that when you run, you don't be like Pastor Shelley and try to run the entire marathon in 50 seconds. You say, I'm just going to have a normal pace so I can do it for an hour because you can run too fast in the Christian life. You can try and go too hard to the point where you just can't even make it anymore, and then you end up doing less by trying to put in too much energy all at once. Now, here in the Bible, we have Moses. And look, if we're going to think of one of the greatest men to ever live, it's Moses. One of the champions of the faith, it's Moses. But even Moses got tired. Exodus, chapter number 17, look at verse number 8. The Bible says, Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel and Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand at the top of the hill with the rod of God in my hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek. And Moses, Aaron, and her went up to the top of the hill. So notice, commanded to fight. It wasn't an option. It's like, you go fight. You go fight, Amalek. And again, we name the names. It says in verse number 10, So Joshua did as Moses said unto him, It says in verse 11, It came to pass when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses' hands were heavy, and they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat there, and Aaron and her stayed up his hands, the one on the one side and the other on the other side, and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. So notice, even Moses, the greatest man of the time, you know, the Bible says the meekest man upon the earth, he got tired. And you say, okay, well he got really tired. What ended up keeping him from tiring out? It was that sure foundation. It was that rock that they put under him. And what is that rock? That rock is Jesus. But not only did he have the rock of the Lord Jesus Christ, not only did he have that sure foundation, he had other men come alongside of him and literally hold up his hands. And you know what? This makes me think of the New Testament church. It makes me think of sure foundation Baptist church. If you're going to stay in the Christian life, if you're going to overcome fatigue, you need that rock underneath you. You need the word of God. You need a rock like sure foundation Baptist church that you're plugged into Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday, or was it Thursday night? Thursday night, you just show up Wednesday night and pray anyways, okay? Just pray over the building or something, all right? I mean, you just need to get plugged in and then you need other men to hold your hands up. You know, it's humbling to say, I can't hold my hands up. Joshua, come over here, hold my hand up. Hey, you get over here and you hold my hand. I can't do it. But you know what? Instead of just letting people die, sometimes we have to humble ourselves and say, hey, I need you. Because what would have been better? Would have been better for Moses to say like, no, I got it. And then just people are just dying on the battlefield or to say, hey, I can't, I can't do this. I need you. I need you. And look, sometimes in the Christian life, you need other brothers in Christ to hold your hands up, to hold your arm up, to encourage you, to strengthen you. And you know what? It's humbling to say, I need church. The prideful person says, I don't need church. I can hold it up. You know, I can just hold up my hands as long as I want. Look, even if I gave you the five pound dumbbell, you start holding up your hands, good luck 30 minutes from now. Good luck an hour from now. I don't care how little the weight is, okay? And every dad that's ever held a kid knows what I'm talking about, okay? Those forearms start burning, that bicep starts burning. I mean, it's a workout holding that little baby, okay? And some of your babies, it's a real workout, okay? I'm just saying, all right? We're not gonna name any names, okay? It says in verse number 14, And the Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial and a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua. For I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it Jehovah-Nissi. For he said, Because the Lord has sworn that the Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation. You know, I wanna explain something to you. Every single false doctrine, the previous generation already destroyed that. And the generation before that already preached it and proved it how it was false. And the generation before that proved it. And here's the thing, it's not going anywhere though. We have to do the same thing over and over and over. It's not like we're reinventing the wheel here. We have the same King James Bible, and they have the same spirit of the devil. But guess what? God has ordained it that every generation is gonna have that same fight. Every single foundation has to get relayed. Every single church has to go through all the same battles and the same fights, and the same Hymenaeus, the same Philetus, same Hermogenes, the same Alexander the Coppersmith, which did me much evil. Look, the names may change, but the spirit's the same. And you know what? You're gonna have Moseses in your life too, you're gonna have Joshuas in your life too, and you don't need to hearken unto those Moseses, hearken unto those Joshuas and go and fight with them and find that Amalek and punch him in the face, spiritually speaking, okay? Caveat, we don't fight anybody physically here, okay? Unless they break into your house, okay? Then all bets are off, right? Go to Exodus 13, just flip back. You know, and look, great men of God quit. John Mark quit. He got right though. And so also think this, just because someone quit doesn't mean they can't get back in the fight. That's why it's called keep fighting. Because sometimes people get a little discouraged and they need someone to go grab them and pick them up and say, get back in that fight. You get in that lineup. You go and take Amalek the task. You know, and sometimes it takes someone to pick them up, sometimes it takes someone to encourage them to say, keep going, keep fighting. You know, maybe you need to roll a boulder underneath them, get a rock underneath them, okay? But at the end of the day, we have to keep fighting. We have to keep encouraging other people to keep fighting with us. But what happens sometimes is people also quit, not just because of, you know, the fatigue, but they'll quit because they're just, they have fear. They're just afraid. Look at Exodus 13, verse 17. And it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, let's peradventure the people who repent when they see war and they return to Egypt. You know, this verse makes me think of as first time visitors. Because sometimes, look, I have sometimes first time visitors come and Sunday morning, I'm calling someone out. And they're like, I've never returned to that church again. Because they saw the war. I mean, they showed up and it was like the first sermon was the war and they just like, they left. But you know what? That's just how it is. I can't just stop the war machine because we have a new guy coming in. Hey, time out, guys. This guy doesn't know how to use a gun. Let's hook him up real quick. No, no, no, they're going to still shoot bullets at you while you got your new trainees coming in. So they have to just learn how to just jump in the battle. They have to learn how to just jump in the fight. And look, sorry that you didn't grow up an independent fundamental Baptist, but we're on the front lines fighting every single day here and sometimes we have to do some gruesome things and you just get in or get out. But you know what? Fear will cause people to quit. And because we realize fear will cause people to quit, especially new people, young people, people that aren't as spiritually deep, we need to come alongside those people and say, it's okay, stay with me. Hey, this isn't as normal, you know. Or be like, that was cool, wasn't it? And then instead of them being like, that was like weird. It's like, they just start kind of, they're simple. So they believe every word, right? That was awesome. And they're like, yeah, that was awesome, you know. And you start, you know, helping them realize this is good. This is normal. This is what we should be expecting, coming alongside people, encouraging them, not allowing fear to overtake their life, not allowing fear to rule their life, not allowing the fear of a new church, of hearing a new sermon or something they haven't been exposed to yet, intimidating them from drawing close to the Lord. Because the Lord's an intimidating person. Look, when the Lord showed up, everyone was terrified. They didn't want to hear it. They're just like, you go talk to the Lord, you know. I mean, they were just, you know, shaking in their boots. The Lord is a terrible one. You know, the Lord is one that we're terrified of because he strikes terror in the hearts. He's so holy, he's so righteous. He's a man of war. He's not someone to mess with. Why would I think that God's ministers are these weak, mamby-pamby, you know, skinny-jean-wearing, latte-drinking, you know, you know, these little frappuccinos or whatever, where it's just like pink sugar with a little bit of sprinkle of coffee in it. You know, I don't drink coffee, but I at least appreciate the guys that drink black coffee, okay? I mean, they got some hair on their legs, right? They didn't shave it all off. Sorry if I offended you, but, you know, hey, it's life. Go to Judges, chapter number seven. It's to make me more aerodynamic. Look, we're here to fight. And you know what? Whenever I see a guy and he's got his legs shaved, I'm less intimidated. You know, when you play basketball and you're guarding somebody, the guy's, like, laying on you, you know, and he's kind of, like, annoying and whatever. Whenever you have to guard a guy from, like, the Middle East, he's so hairy, it makes you so uncomfortable. It's frustrating. It's intimidating. You know, you got John the Baptist breathing down your neck. I mean, you're thinking, like, this guy is just so, you know, it's intimidating, right? You got Smooth Sam over here. Nobody cares about him. You know, it's like, whatever. Smooth Sam doesn't even want to get anything. You don't want his delicate skin to be touched or whatever. You know? John the Baptist has got a fur coat on. He doesn't even know he's touching you. He's, like, breathing down your neck. And I'm telling you something. You know, he strikes fear into you. You know, when you don't have any hair on your legs, you're afraid of everything. When you got a fur coat on, I mean, you just can take the world on, okay? The Canadian tuxedo or whatever. I don't know. Judges, chapter number 7. We don't know if you're wearing a coat or, you know, your shirt's off. I don't know. Judges, chapter 7, look at verse 3. Now, therefore, go to proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from Mount Gilead, and they return to the people twenty and two thousand and they remain ten thousand. Now, this is the Battle of Gideon going, and he has about thirty-two thousand troops, which would, that's a lot. That's a ton of people gathered together. I mean, this is bigger than Joel Osteen's church, okay? I mean, these are some warriors. And he says, hey, if you're afraid, leave. You're filled with fear, get out of here. Twenty-two thousand leave. That was crazy. Like, he was kind of thinking, like, he was kind of buffing, you know, get out if you're afraid! And then just, like, everybody's like, oh, oops. Look, this is sixty-eight point seven five percent of the people, just gone. You know, and that's going to happen in life. You know, you're going to have ebbs and flows, and, you know, we shouldn't be strengthened by numbers, we should be strengthened by the power of God's Word. What if thirty, you know, thousand people are coming to this church and then twenty-two thousand left? Say, good. Good riddance. What if sixty-eight percent of your church left? Fine by me. Because I don't want anybody that's afraid. I don't even want, I don't want to be around a bunch of cowards. You know, I don't want someone to come, you know, behind me that's going to stab me in the back, that's going to kill me, and my partner's just like, ehh, you know, and ducks out of the way. No, I want him to be the hairy guy that's going to kill me. I want him to be the hairy guy that's going to come and fight him, and he's got my back, and he's not afraid, and when some enemy's going to attack me, he's going to be there to get my back. You know, I don't want everybody to side with the enemy, to be so fearful and afraid and say, let's return back to Egypt. Let's go get the cucumbers and the melons or whatever. No, no, no, no. I'm saying, like, let's march in the Promised Land, let's eat these people. These people are our lunch. I'm getting hungry, okay, obviously. Tell everyone to numbers chapter one, go to numbers chapter one, go back. You know, and after the 10,000, they get whittled down to 300. I mean, we're talking about like 99%, you know, or 90% of their force is just basically decimated. You started with 32,000, now you have 300. That's like just nothing in comparison. And look, numbers are always relative, because I guarantee if we had 300 people here this morning, you would think that was great, right? I mean, you'd be like, that's awesome. But if you went from 32,000 to 300, you're thinking like, ugh. Because numbers go like this. You know, we're just supposed to be steadfast. We're just supposed to be on move. We don't care, you know. If it's just me and my family, we'll serve the Lord. You know, if I showed up on Thursday night and it's me and Pastor Thompson, I'm going to sing with all my might. I'm going to turn every place in my Bible. I'm going to say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. I don't care if there's 32,000 with us or 300. You know what, as for us, I'm not going to be afraid. I'm not going to fear, because I know that there's still someone else in the room, God. I still know the Lord Jesus Christ is with me. And you know what, if it's me and God, we'll defeat everyone. I don't need 32,000 men, especially a bunch of cowards, especially a bunch of wimps, especially a bunch of people that are shaving, you know, men that are shaving their armpits or something. You know, I don't know if that's out there. I hope it's not, right? That's weird. Look, the real men of the Bible, ladies, were hairy. Welcome to Elijah. Welcome to John the Baptist. And you know what they said who Jesus looked like? Both those guys. Hairy. You know, that's how the world is. And you know what? The hairy guy knows how to get things done. Numbers, chapter number one. Give me a second to turn there. I was just getting all excited, all right? Numbers, chapter number one. Look at verse number 19. The Bible says, As the Lord commanded Moses, so he numbered them in the wilderness of Sinai, and the children of Reuben, Israel's eldest son, by their generations, after their families, by the house of their fathers, according to the number of the names, by their poles, every male from twenty years old and upward, all that were able to go forth to war. Now, you find this phrase so many times in the Bible, but this is what I want you to think about. The only men that count are the ones that are able to go to war. So who cares about all the ones that aren't going to war? And you know what? In the Christian life, who cares about all the men that aren't going to war? You know, there's churches today, this morning, that are filled with literally thousands of people. Like, they literally have 10,000, 15,000, 20,000. I mean, I don't know what COVID has done to every church's population, but especially before COVID, when people were just showing up, I mean, church is filled with thousands of people. But you know what? If we counted that church by the number of men that are able to go to war, it'd be like three. It'd be like five. And you know, you look at a church like this and you say, like, where are the thousands? Well, you know what? I see like 50 men that are able to go to war, which is giant in comparison to the destiny, you know, to the real life or to wherever these other churches are. In fact, some of them have zero men to fight. Zero men to fight, zero people that are warring, zero. I mean, how many people are going to leave Joel Osteen's church this Sunday morning and go and preach the gospel? Zero? Yet how many people are going to go with Brandon today and they're going to go out and engage in battle today? And look, I don't care if I fill up my church with thousands of people and no one wants to go soul winning, that's vanity. That is pointless. That means nothing. I would feel like I failed as a leader. I would rather have five people that want to go soul winning than 5,000 and no one's going with me. And you know what? We should stop worrying about all the carnal things like the numbers and all this other stuff and just start worrying about the spiritual things and just keep fighting and not being afraid and not letting fear take over your church. Oh no, what's happening to the church? How many people are there? Look, Gideon had 300. And he's like, let's go. Let's rock it, you know? We're going to destroy these fools. Why? Because God's on their side. Because the Lord is with them. You know, the Bible says there's a time of war. We're supposed to engage. You know, the Bible says that the Lord teaches my fingers to war. God will teach you how to fight. Go to 1 Timothy 3. Go to 1 Timothy 3. I'll remind you of a story. Here's the last point I want to make. Why do people quit fighting? Number one, false doctrine. Number two, fatigue. Number three, fear. But number four is filth. Filth. People will quit church because of filth. And what I mean by that is just this world. This world's just filthy. You know, it even describes the money of this world as just filthy lucre. It talks about the filthiness of people, their fornication, their lifestyle. I mean, this world is not a clean place. And, you know, it just keeps getting filthier. It seems like the cities, it seems like the governors and the mayors and everything, instead of actually using tax dollars to actually clean up the areas, they're making them filthier. They're putting more needles on the street. I mean, didn't Biden recently have some kind of a supposed campaign to give out, like, crack pipes or something? Like, literal just drugs, just filling the street with crack? I mean, who did that? Did the crack pipe manufacturer call up Biden and say, I need a favor? He's like, I'm going to put Hunter on the board of directors. The manufacturer for crack pipes, right? I mean, that's the only gig he's got anymore. I mean, it's just insanity. It seems like they're not cleaning up the streets. They're not reinvesting money in the roads and reinvesting money in our society, in our area, trying to make it nicer. What do we have? More liquor stores, more casinos, more just literally everything that could just, you know, be evil, filthy, wicked. And so, why would I want to participate in that? But you know what? The Bible says, Demeth hath forsaken me, having loved this present world. He loved the filthiness. He loved the mire. You know, it makes me think of the sow that goes back into the mire, just loving the world, not wanting to get cleaned up, and it'll cause a lot of people to quit fighting is because they just dragged themselves in the mud. What's a story like this? How about David? David, at the time when kings go to battle, he just stays home and just gets involved in all kinds of filth, like looking at women that aren't his wife, lusting after a woman that's not his wife, and not even just lusting. He's acting on it, then inviting her over, then committing adultery. And you know, instead of David going out and actually battling and actually fighting, he ends up just spending all this time having to cover all his tracks. He's having to now deal with, not only commit adultery, now he's got a bastard kid that he has to deal with and try to figure out. Then he has to try and kill Uriah. Then he has to try and, you know, Uriah won't fall for the bait, so then he has to come up with another way. You know, he tries to get Uriah to go and sleep with his wife, so then they won't realize that it's David's kid. But when that plan fails, then he's like, now I've got to kill him, and he's got to try and make it look good, so he's got to plot and scheme, and then he gets other people involved, he gets Joab involved. I mean, instead of just going and fighting Amalek, what is he doing? He's fighting Uriah. And even David can fight Uriah. Isn't that crazy? I mean, the man after God, the guy that has this, is after God's heart, you know? I mean, David's a great man, but he makes mistakes. And he gets sucked into the filth of this world. David can get sucked into this filth. The man after God's heart, right? If he can get led astray, we all can. No one is above getting trapped into this filth of this world. That's why the Bible warns, look at 1 Timothy 3, verse 3. It says, not given a wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre. Look at chapter 3, verse 8. It says, likewise must the deacons be brave, not double-tongued, not given much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre. Go to chapter number 6. So, a warning to the man of God, a warning to the leadership, a warning to those that are serious about ministry is, look, you should stay away from filthy lucre. Okay, stay away from the filth of this world. And the Bible warns in 1 Timothy chapter number 6, it says in verse number 9, But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. How about this phrase, fight the good fight of faith. Keep fighting. Fight against the love of money. Fight against covetousness. Fight against the desires of this world. Look, what is this world's life goal? Money. Get rich or die trying. I played this game with my kids. It's called life. Who knows what I'm talking about? Life, you spin the wheel or whatever. What's the goal of the game? To get as much money as possible. And you know what I loved about the game is my kids didn't care and they won. Because, you know, when they, they're like, do you want to go to college and get a good job or just get a job? And they're like, I just want to get a job. And then like, you know, they get to pick between the jobs, the cards or whatever. And it was like police officer or like artist, you know. And it's like artist pays like $70,000 and police officer is like $50,000. And they're like, I want to be the police officer. And they're like, yeah, but you don't get as much money. He's like, I want to be the police officer. You know, they don't care about the money. They didn't care about that aspect of the game. They just want to just play the game and then they end up winning anyways. And that's really how it is. When you stop worrying about all the things in this world and stop chasing the dollar and chasing the filth of this world, God ends up blessing you with it anyways. God just gives you what you need anyways. But I'm telling you, it's going to be a fight. It's a daily struggle. It's a daily fight because every person in your life is encouraging you to enjoin yourself in this filth. And you know what? You can't wash off the filth of adultery. There's no shower that wipes that off. There's no shower that wipes off the STD. There's no shower that wipes off the shame and the reproach of the drunkenness and the divorce and all the evils that are in this world today. You have to stay away from that. You have to keep fighting it so you don't succumb to that pressure. You know, once Russia invades, there's no just like turning that back. That's why you have to keep it at bay. You know, once you give yourself over to certain sins, there's going to be lifelong consequences. You know, once you get saved, it's not like all the consequences of your sin just disappear. You know, if you get the seal tattoo, you know, on your face, and then you get saved, you still have the seal tattoo. You still look stupid, okay? Okay? No matter what it is, you know, if you got divorced and then you get saved, you are still divorced. Hey, if you have a bastard kid and you get saved, you still have a bastard kid. It's not like you just get to escape from all the evils of this world. We need people to constantly preach against these evils and this filth of this world so that people won't have that testimony. People won't have that kind of a lifestyle. They won't have to reap the consequences of what they've sown. And we have to understand that in this fight, you know, it's going to be long. It's your whole life. You're in it whether you like it or not. Troops are at the gate. Troops are at the border. And we need men to stand up and say, you know what? I am going to fight. I'm not going to sit down, and I'm not just going to fight for myself. I'm going to fight for my brethren. I'm going to fight for these others. And I know it gets tough, you know? I know it gets frustrating. How can anybody believe the stupidity of all the false doctrine out there? But people do, and you've got to preach against it. You've got to help those that are fatigued by lifting up their arms. You've got to encourage those that are fearful. Go, if you would, to Deuteronomy 31. It's the last place I'll have you turn. But I want to just remind you of a few verses, and we'll finish. Joshua, the Lord says this, Be strong and of a good courage. Be thou strong and very courageous. In 2 Timothy, the Bible says, Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. In Ephesians 6, it says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power as might. In 1 Corinthians 16, the Bible says, Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit ye like men. Be strong. Look at Deuteronomy 31, verse 6. Be strong and of a good courage. Fear not, nor be afraid of them. For the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee. He will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. If the Bible's saying, just be strong, be strong, be strong, stand, quit like men, you know, be courageous, be very courageous, just over and over and over, it tells me that there's a real battle. There's a real fight that we're engaged in. And there's a tendency to just quit. There's a tendency to just give up, just get distracted, just be afraid, just all the stuff that could possibly get you to quit. Look, the devil just wants you to quit. He doesn't care why. If he gets you to quit from false doctrine, mission accomplished. If he gets you to quit because you just get tired, mission accomplished. If he gets you to quit just because you're a little afraid, mission accomplished. If he gets you to quit because you get distracted with the filth of this world, mission accomplished. And the devil, he doesn't care. He just wants you to quit. But what do you have to do? You have to be strong. You have to keep fighting. You have to be courageous. You know what I like about this verse? Is it says that God is with us. You know, it makes me think of Psalm 23. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel no evil, for thou art with me. You know, it may be that I get a whipping from the Lord. That's his rod. But you know what? He's still going to be with me. And even when I'm in those dark... You know, I just don't want to go through my life and say, I'm not where the Lord wants me to be. I want to be where the Lord wants me to be. And if I get some whippings, even if I get some chastising in my life, I know that the Lord's with me and I know that he's going to protect me and guide me no matter where I go. That's why I just want to keep fighting. If the Lord's never going to give up on me, I don't want to ever give up on the Lord. I just want to keep fighting. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for this church. Thank you for this morning. Thank you for always being there with us and strengthening us and encouraging us. And we know that you're a faithful creator, that you're not going to let us just be destroyed for no reason, but rather you're just going to always be there with us, always ready to fight for us, always willing to give us the victory if we would just get ourselves engaged in the battle today. You just want us to take that first step of faith just to show that we have trust in you, to show that we're not relying upon ourselves but we're relying upon your word. And I pray that this church, as it goes through battles, as it goes through the war, that they would just continue to fight. They would just keep fighting. They would be reminded of the words of God. They would be strong. They would be very courageous. And they wouldn't allow the fatigue, the fear, the filth, any of the false doctrine to stop them from serving the Lord, but rather they would cling to the sure foundation of the King James Bible. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's sing it out on the first. The trusting heart to Jesus clings Nor any ill for above But at the cross of Calvary sings Praise God for lifted loads Singing I go along life's road Praising the Lord, praising the Lord Singing I go along life's road For Jesus has lifted my load The passing days bring many cares Fear not, I hear Him say And when my fears are turned to prayers The burdens slip away Singing I go along life's road Praising the Lord, praising the Lord Singing I go along life's road For Jesus has lifted my load He tells me of my Father's love And ever slumbering eye My everlasting King above Will all my needs supply Singing I go along life's road Praising the Lord, praising the Lord Singing I go along life's road For Jesus has lifted my load When to the throne of grace I flee I find the promise true The mighty arms upholding me Will bear my burdens too Singing I go along life's road Praising the Lord, praising the Lord Singing I go along life's road For Jesus has lifted my load Amen. Good seeing you, Brother Bill. Could you close it with a prayer?