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So the Bible reads 2 Chronicles chapter 13 starting at verse 1. Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Micaiah, the daughter of Uriah of Gibeah, and there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. And Abijah set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men. Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour. And Abijah stood up upon Mount Zemiahim, which is in the Mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel. O it ye not to know that the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom of Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, is risen up, and hath rebelled against his Lord. And thou art gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted and could not withstand them. Now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David, and ye be a great multitude, and are with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods? Have ye not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and hath made you priests after the manner of the nations of other lands? So that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods. But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him. And the priests which minister unto the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business. And they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening, burnt sacrifices and sweet incense. The shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table, and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening, for we keep the charge of the Lord our God, but ye have forsaken him. And behold, God himself is with us for our captain, and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord God of your fathers, for ye shall not prosper. But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them, so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them. And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind, and they cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets. Then the men of Judah gave a shout, and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. And the children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand. And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter, so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men. Thus the children of Israel brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers. And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Bethel with the towns thereof, and Jashina with the towns thereof, and Ephraim with the towns thereof. Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah, and the Lord struck him, and he died. But Abijah waxed mighty, and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons and sixteen daughters. And the rest of the acts of Abijah and his ways and his sayings are written in the story of the prophet, Iddo. Brother Alex, would you please pray for the service? Yeah. I give you, Father, thanks so much for your words. Please forgive, brother, you with speeding, and you will pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Right. The title of my sermon today is Surrounded but Still Victorious. Surrounded but Still Victorious. So a bit of background for you, in 2 Chronicles 13 you have Abijah reigning over Judah, and it's interesting how there isn't the usual judgment in Chronicles of whether he did good or evil. Now, he's actually somewhere in the middle. If you keep a finger in 2 Chronicles, in turn of 1 Kings 15-3, so go backwards to 1 Kings 15-3, and the Bible reads, And he walked in all the sins of his father which he had done before him, and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father. Okay, he walked in all the sins of his father Rehoboam. Now, something that constantly crops up in Scripture. What we need to be aware of as parents is that our children regularly will walk in the same sins that we do, and we have a massive responsibility when we're raising children especially to be setting a good example and to be trying to get rid of that sin that is so often followed by children from their parents. Now, you have great King David, a man after God's own heart. Then you've got Solomon the Wise, who I preached on the other week, and we saw how his life really deteriorated at the end. Then his son Rehoboam. Now he starts badly following the advice of his young immature friends, if some of you have read this story before, which results in the split of the kingdom. So he's now leading Judah and Benjamin, and the Levites join him, and he's actually looking quite strong at the beginning. But he's following his father, and he's taking more and more wives, and what do you know, things go downhill for him in all of Judah too. Right, 1 Kings 14, let's have a look at 1 Kings 14, 22. And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places and images and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. And there were also Sodomites in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel. So like I say, the kingdom of Judah here is basically just massively deteriorated in a short space of time from the glory of King Solomon's reign. Now God ends up humbling Rehoboam through tribulation at the hands of Shishak the king of Egypt, but once he's strengthened again it's a usual story. Go forward now to 2 Chronicles 12, this is just a little introduction here guys, 2 Chronicles 12, and from verse 12. And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether, and also in Judah things went well. So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reign, for Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigns seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there, and his mother's name was Nahima and Ammonites, and he did evil because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord. Okay now, at the same time as this sort of downward spiral with Judah, Israel has got even worse. So the remaining tribes of Israel, we've got Jeroboam the king of Israel, and he basically starts a counterfeit religion. So go back again to 1 Kings 12 now, and in 1 Kings 12, and verse 27, 1 Kings 12, 27. If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord, this is Jeroboam speaking here, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even to Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Whereupon the king took counsel and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. And this thing became a sin, for the people wept to worship before the one even unto Dan. And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel sacrifice he unto the calves that he had made, and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fiftieth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised in his own heart, and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel, and he offered upon the altar and burnt in sex. So it's full on wickedness now, we're talking false religion completely. And no wonder the priests are leaving to go to Rehoboam in Judah. Right, jump forward now, move forward to 2 Chronicles 13. Okay, so basically, that's just to set the scene, you've got apostate Israel, they've just gone off into full false religion, verses of far from perfect Judah, they're already starting to do some crazy stuff as well. Jump forward to verse 13. So 13, 13, 2 Cor. 13, verse 13. But Jeroboam, so Jeroboam remember is the king of Israel, caused an ambushment to come about behind them, so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them. And like I said, the title is surrounded but still victorious, now I'm no expert on warfare, but I don't think you need to be an expert to know that it's not good when your enemy is behind and in front of you. If anyone's got an idea, this sort of stuff, but just kind of set the picture, you know, when what they call it, and they say it a lot in the Bible is that they set the battle in array, and that's basically in order, so they're in a formation, a formation which is defensive as well as maybe attacking as well. And a lot of the time there's a standoff, we see that with the David and Goliath famous story where they're basically in a standoff, and because of that, Goliath is constantly trying to call them out, isn't he, and say, look, come up here and fight with me, because when they're in array, it's quite hard to have a fight, you can imagine probably formations with shields, spears over the top, it's not easy to break through, and it needs something a lot of the time to change that, and to make that battle, to open that battle up. And again, I think you guys get the idea with that, and with a battle like that, all the time there'll be a long line, won't there, so you're basically surrounded, because there's nothing to attack barring whatever, however thick that line is on the sides, but when you have someone back in front, that is a bad, bad situation to be in. And that's a bad situation, you know, I know that's a bad situation with any sort of fighting, really, and I used to, I think I've said to you before, I used to coach self-defence as well, and we constantly tell people, keep them in front of you, keep them in front of you, because if you have people come behind you, that is a bad situation, especially in war, especially in an army, you don't want people behind you. So Pastor Thompson has just planted a New Independent Fundamental Baptist Church in the middle of a load of apostate, so-called IFB churches in this country, and we are also surrounded, we are surrounded here, just like there with Judah and Israel, we are surrounded, we have them everywhere, and we are the one, the one church here, which I believe, I've looked at churches for years, we are the one here that is trying to do it how God wants it done, we're trying to follow and stand on this word of God. Now we're surrounded here in Southend as well by a mixture of false religions and God-hating children of Belial, for sure, I was out soul-winning last week, and in the space of just going from one road to the other, I passed a mosque, a kingdom hall, that's where the Jehovah's Witness gather, and a load of funny-looking fellas with curly sideburns and these weird Russian furry top hats, yeah, I mean it is, it is, it is bad round here, and I would say it's probably bad everywhere in the UK, but that was in the space of just one road, I don't know if that's, brother John came up with a plan, I don't know if that was on purpose, but it's pretty bad. Now, they've already tried to ambush us with the council safety guy here, we've had a local newspaper slamming that some of you are aware of already, and we haven't even started, this is our first proper service, I've also now received two emails from the council member, yeah, listen to this one, he's responsible for supporting the growing faith and communities network, which brings representatives of local faith and belief groups together to work jointly on projects to improve the well-being of our community, so he brings representatives of local faith and belief groups together to work jointly on projects to improve the well-being of our community, now I feel like replying about a good project I've got for them to improve the well-being of their community, and that's chasing those lying false religions out of town, because these people are scum, they're leading people to hell, it's disgusting, now we're surrounded here, we're surrounded by the rest of the false religious UK, aren't we? Like I said, we're the first proper church in the whole of the UK, we're surrounded by still largely Catholic and Orthodox Europe, and really the whole world with its assorted collection of works-based religions, we are surrounded. Okay, now praise God for travel restrictions, because I've got a feeling that if Pastor Thompson had managed to visit here, he might have just written a place off as cursed and encouraged us all to relocate and go somewhere else, but as it happens, he hasn't, it's a bit late to back down now, so, but then again, maybe it's a wickedness, it's a wickedness of this nation, which is making this country receptive to the gospel, because it is actually pretty receptive in some of these areas, when a normal run-of-the-mill person looks at this world and they see how they call evil good and good evil, they put darkness for light and light for darkness, they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter, and that's pretty much what everyone else is doing in this country, it regularly makes them seek the truth, they know, look, this isn't the truth, what they're pushing on you, what they're promoting in this country is not the truth, is it? And yeah, I don't know, I was speaking, so I was talking to Pastor Thompson the other day about, he was saying, look, like, you might have come back from soul-willing the other day with, whatever, it was a few, we had a quiet one when it was really, we had not so many people out, it was wet, it was cold, it was miserable, people didn't even want to open the door, it was horrible outside, let alone those of us who are out, but he said, like, they will go with it, and by the way, they've got a church of over 100 there, they will go out and come back with sometimes one salvation through the whole, from the whole lot of them, and that's the country where the King James Bible is still sold in what they call the Dollar Tree, don't they, in basic pound stores, and they have the Bible everywhere, and they're in certain areas, it is really unreceptive, and we're going out on a regular, our kind of average numbers going out for me on a Sunday or Saturday afternoon, it's seven, eight sort of salvations, and that's only going to grow the more of us that are getting out, and that's not even targeting the most receptive areas either yet, so yeah, for me, this is a receptive place, yeah, it's not quite like the stories of brother Kenton, if some of you heard those of the Philippines, and I can imagine now in Uganda right now, but it's by no means just a complete write-off, so, but it is a wicked place, it is a wicked place, that's why I believe it's receptive, okay, so, despite that, despite all that, it is a tough battle though, and I believe that, like with Abijah and Judah, we have the ability to turn things around with Christianity in this country, us here, we have that ability, we have an ability to rise again like a phoenix from the flames, because this country is close to flames, isn't it? Now, you see, like, after Abijah, his son Asa did that which was good or right in the eyes of the Lord his God, and then there was Asa's son Jehoshaphat, who walked in the Lord's commandments, he's a description to the Bible of them, so there was actually a good spell for 66 years, and that doesn't mean that's as long as it will be, and I don't know at what point we are, a lot of people are worrying, thinking, oh, end times, and we don't really know, do we? We need to be cracking on, and we need to be fighting the fire up until, well, up until really the day of the rapture. Now, I know there's a time when maybe we're going to have to be fleeing, but until that time comes, we want to be cracking on and doing the best we can, at least until we're deep into the great tribulation. So, now, you wouldn't have expected it, and it all came off this point when things were looking pretty dire for Judah, like I've just read, it wasn't that they were this righteous nation, this is here, and us ourselves, you know, it's not that we're just these amazing people, and we're just a small remnant, aren't we, in the UK, of Bible-believing, saved Christians, who want to live for God, and yeah, we all have imperfections, for sure, and yeah, okay, maybe we're not, I hope no one's going up in the high places and making altars, and, um, but, but this nation as a whole, you could see it, you could see really maybe at least this part, this, our group, and those around us as being like, like that Abijah and Judah there. Now, it's been a bad time for them, but, and they're outnumbered here, aren't they, they're outnumbered, two to one, and it's a lot worse for us, but they're surrounded, no one would be giving them a chance, and I don't think, I think a lot of people aren't giving us a chance here, I don't, I've read a couple of comments online, people thinking we're just going to get shut down straight away, we stand on the word of God, we preach the word of God, we carry on soul winning through this, um, then we're going to get shut down. Maybe some people here are thinking, don't know if you're going to last, don't know if this is going to work, don't know if you're going to, you know, you're going to end up still being able to preach for me if the fines are going to come in, or maybe, maybe someone's going to get, maybe a few of us are going to get arrested, maybe the protests will start soon, who knows? Well, maybe, maybe people thought that about, about Abijah and Judah, well, how are we going to get a similar victory to them? What could we learn from this story? So let's have a little look at this story. So number one, my first heading for what we can learn from this story is that they got victory, firstly, by remembering God's promise, by remembering God's promise. So if you look at verse five, verse five, it says, all ye not to know, so this is Abijah and he's, he's saying this over to Israel here, he's calling out for them, all ye not to know the Lord God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt. So Abijah here is saying that God has made a promise to David to give Israel to him and his sons. He's relying on God's promise here. He's confident because he has a promise to God here. Well, God's promised us too, isn't he? We've continued that line of David through the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we're waiting for an eternal kingdom, aren't we? And if you turn to 1 John 2, 1 John chapter 2, that's towards the back of your Bible, 1 John chapter 2, verse 25, the Bible reads, and this is a promise that he had promised us, even eternal life. Now what a great promise we've got. We've got the promise of eternal life. Turn to Titus 1, 2, so from the back, going back towards the front, but just only a few pages, just after the books of Timothy and before Hebrews. So Titus 1, 2, this is a promise in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. So we're promised eternal life. God cannot lie. And we're promised that. And 1 Thessalonians 5, you don't have to turn there, calls it the hope of salvation, calls the hope of salvation a helmet. So that is a helmet for us. That's something that basically will keep our minds, when you think about that, when you remind yourself of that, the hope of salvation being a helmet, it keeps us from despairing because there could be some tough times, can't there, in the world. It keeps our mind healthy. It helps us to process all the other stuff. And it's something I say to people a lot when they're having trouble with other Christians is just remember, remember you're saved. Like, keep that in mind. And everything else pales into, it pales in insignificance, doesn't it? Because the truth is, when all this is done, we're going to be up there and not down there. Amen for that. And that could be something that keeps you sane, that keeps you going, keeps you strong. And we need to stand on that promise. And we need to remind that, keep that in mind all the time. And there, he's keeping your mind the promise of God there. Number 2, how to be victorious. So number 1 was by remembering God's promise. Number 2, by reproving evil. By reproving evil. Turn to Ephesians 5, so Ephesians chapter 5. So in the New Testament there, you've got 1 and 2 Corinthians, then you've got Galatians and Ephesians. Ephesians 5 and verse 11, the Bible says, and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret, but all things that are approved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. So we're to have no fellowship with darkness, no fellowship. We should be reproving it. We should be reproving it. Now, let's see how Abijah does that. If you turn back to 2 Chronicles, and we're going to be constantly in 2 Chronicles, so try and keep something in there, a finger or a finger, and then we're going to be reproving it. So 2 Chronicles 13 and verse 6, again this is Abijah talking, he says, Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, is risen up and has rebelled against his Lord. So he's calling out here, and we should be reproving people when they need it, whoever they are. Now I'm not saying we want to just be walking around calling out every sin that we see, but here from the pulpit we should be reproving people. In our own life we should be, especially amongst Christians, we should be pointing out sin, we should be trying to help each other through it. But we should be, it doesn't matter if it's the leader of the country or whatever else, we should be reproving sin. We see John the Baptist do that, and we shouldn't shy away from that. And as this grows, there's going to be more and more people preaching from behind this pulpit. There's going to be people eventually going out and hopefully starting other churches as well. And we need to be bold enough to reprove sin. And that's something that Abijah is doing here. If you look at verse seven, he says, And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted and could not withstand them. So Abijah is reproving the sons of Belial, sons of the devil, his workers. And that means calling out the wicked, that means calling out the sodomites, calling out the perverts. That's something that has to be done. Now, we've talked about this a bit about how we can do that here based on laws. And there's nothing wrong with quoting the Bible and standing here and calling out wickedness for what it is. And we need to be doing that. And that's what Abijah is doing here is calling it out. And it has to be done. It has to be pointed out. We can't just be scared into not saying what the Bible clearly says about these people, about these perverts in the world, about these sodomites, that they're reprobate, that they're done, that they're enemies of God. And they make it clear they're enemies of God. Obviously, that's been highlighted recently, hasn't it, with Passamahir's church and what happened there. And guys, this is going to happen. And we need to call it out and keep calling it out even when the heat starts coming here. Because without that, without that, without doing that, I don't think we're going to be successful if we're not standing or standing on this word of God. Okay, verse 8. Verse 8. And now you think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David, and ye be a great multitude. And there are with you golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods. So Abijah here is reproving false religion. He's not worried about offending their beliefs. He's not there going, oh, well, you know, I don't want them to get a little bit offended. You know, it's up to you. You know, different paths to God or everyone has their own right to worship what they want. Yeah, you have a right to do it, but we're going to tell you what it is. And that, that obviously, obviously, all these false religions in this country, and they are all wicked. And the thing is, is, yeah, you can have pity, some pity on someone. And of course we do. We go out and we try and preach them the Gospel. Of course we do that. But I tell you what, you still choose to follow that rubbish and that nonsense. So when you look at these religions and what's behind them, they're disgusting. They're disgusting when you look at their so-called prophets and what they got up to. And I'm talking about people like Mohammed, like Joseph Smith, like Charles Taze Russell, like all these guys, all these people behind them. They're wicked, wicked people. And we need to be standing on that because we're not saying, oh, it's up to you. We're just a different religion. No, we're standing on the word of God. We're preaching the word of God. And we're not going to sit here and just, oh, well, you just do it your way. We'll do it all when we see who's right. No, because we know what's right. We have no doubt in our mind. That's why we preach the Gospel. And we know who these people are. We know how wicked their cults are. So we have to stand up and we have to preach about that and not be offended about, you know, not be worried about offending people and their beliefs. And we see Abijah doing that here. Verse nine, look what he calls out here. And have you not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and have made you priests of the manna of the nations of other lands, so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods. OK, now he's calling out, he's calling out unqualified leaders, unqualified leaders. That's calling out these paying for a theology degree or the equivalent to be a religious leader type. So we see that in Bible believe in Christianity, don't we? And basically, if you've got the money to pay because they're not failing you on those courses, like those places, they want you to, they want your money. At the end of the day, it's a business. So they've just put, if you've got enough money, you've got enough money to go through, you want to borrow the money, you can be funded, you've got your rich dad or whatever else that's going to pay for you through Bible college, you're qualified. Doesn't matter what the Bible says, you're qualified according to this. And they'll pay for years, like I said, they'll pay for years at university, for example, to be a doctor of theology, a doctor of theology, because they paid to be taught by men, a manly, not a load of worldly nonsense. And this is what these people are doing here in verse nine, because they're coming here, it says here that whosoever cometh to consecrate self with a young bullock and seven rams, that's a lot of money, a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods. You're basically paying, paying to be a priest. And that is not how the God says, how God says it should be done. And we should be calling out these people. We should be calling out wicked people. And I tell you what, you know, and we all, we've all had preached on this or most people have, but regardless, let's just remind you as well that the New Testament clearly calls out, calls out Hymenaeus, Philetus, Alexander the Coppersmith, Phygelus, Hermogenes. They're all called out as the wicked people they are. And we should be doing the same. There's nothing wrong with being like I did last week and called out that wicked false prophet down in Brighton. There's nothing wrong with us doing, we should be doing that. We should be warning Christians. Now, yeah, I don't have to name every Roman Catholic perverted priest because no one here I don't think is silly enough to think that they're going to be preaching the truth. But we should be naming and shaming people in this country that are claiming to be Bible believing Christians and that might deceive, deceive other Christians and other believers. Okay, and it's perfectly biblical to name and shame wicked people. Okay, so how to be victorious? By remembering God's promises, by reproving evil, by respecting God's way. Number three, by respecting God's way. So look at verse 10 now, verse 10 and 11. But as for us, the Lord is our God and we have not forsaken him and the priests which minister unto the Lord are the sons of Aaron and the Levites wait upon their business. And they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening, burn sacrifices and sweet incense. The showbread also set their in order upon the pure table and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof to burn every evening. For we keep the charge of the Lord our God, but ye have forsaken him. Okay, no, we don't have to follow the ordinances anymore but there's a way that God wants us to do things. There is a way he wants us to do things. Like the priests here being the sons of Aaron, he wants elders now leaders in the New Testament to be ordained for churches to be planted by other ordained men of God. That's how it works. Not pop-up churches where someone just calls himself a pastor. Okay, that is not a church. And I'm going to preach this here but I know there's, I know some of you guys here are friends of this guy, Nyoth, and you know, maybe there were some good intentions but it was the wrong thing what he did. And this guy has just basically made himself a pastor. He wasn't even qualified by biblical qualification. He didn't even have any children, let alone the rest of them. I don't know whether he qualified on some of the other bits. He didn't qualify and he made himself a church. And the sad thing is when people look for him for a new IFB style church, people know the truth. They're listening to preaching. They hear the word of God. They hear Jesus talking through these men. Where do they end up going? He probably still gets visits from people that don't know any better. And fortunately, I nearly went to that church. Fortunately, I smelt a rat. Brother John here went along, smelt a rat. And you know, again, maybe he had good intentions to begin with but that guy should be standing down. He was not and is not qualified to be a pastor. You can't just make yourself a pastor. You can't just make a church. No matter what the situation is, God will make it work if you're patient and look at what we're seeing now. We're seeing God doing it properly. Okay, sorry, God showing us how to do it properly. Okay, there are biblical qualifications to being a pastor and I've mentioned a couple of these. It wasn't just, oh well, you've got to have kids. In another sermon just talking about, I think the one about being a good church, I mentioned a little bit and I want to go into these a little bit more because like I said, my goal and I know Pastor Thompson's goal as well is not this isn't going to be the only thing. This church is the start and we want to grow. We want to spread. We want to plant churches. Okay, that is the plan. That will be the plan for, you know, that will never change and that is God's plan. Amen. Okay, so because of that, because of that, there are biblical qualifications not about paying a load of money to a Bible college, not sitting there getting told a load of worldly wisdom or a load of facts about the Bible. That's not what the Bible says should happen. That's not how someone gets qualified. So let's have a quick look at some of these and we had a look at, we'll go back to Timothy in a minute, but let's have a look at Titus chapter 1. Okay, Titus chapter 1 and verse 5. So Titus again, we're back after the book of Timothy, just before the book of Hebrews. Titus chapter 1 verse 5. For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. So straight away we're seeing someone being appointed to ordain elders. Okay, so it's coming from the church ordaining elders and that's leaders in the Bible here. Okay, look at verse 6. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife having faithful children not accused of right or unruly. Now this is something for many people, if they want to eventually be a pastor, this is something that your goal to get towards. So I'm not saying you haven't got this now, that's it, you're unqualified, but this is something we should be looking at. So blameless is without fault of crime. It's not somebody who's perfect and doesn't sin, but they're not going to be in clear blatant open sin. Okay, they're blameless without fault, especially not think crime, things that people can hold against you. People go, well, look at that pastor there, he does X, Y and Z or he's just been arrested for whatever it is. Okay, without fault or crime. Okay, and by the way, people can turn over new leaps. That's not right if you haven't got in trouble for something when you're young, but that should be going on while you are or close to when you're looking to become a pastor. Okay, obviously there, the husband of one wife, no divorcees. Okay, so if you've been divorced, sadly, that's not for you now. Being a pastor is not for you. We see that in all these churches, false churches, oh, well, it's okay, they've got divorce, they're still, no, they're unqualified. The husband of one wife, having faithful children, right, that's not perfect children. So again, we talk about churches, for example, what happened not that long ago. There are people still to this day criticising pastors because of a mistake one or two children made was dealt with and have moved on. Okay, it doesn't say here having perfect children, but faithful children. That's children in the faith, isn't it? Children that aren't just going off into the world and rejecting Christ. Okay, not accused of riot. Okay, right, either revelling or uproar. All right, let's wrap up. Where was I? Apparently a video posted on Facebook, sorry, on YouTube, they said, with people not following regulations, but like I said, when I'm preaching, it's fine. Faithful children. Not accused of riot. Okay, that's either revelling or uproar. Okay, so sort of if they're out partying or they're out, and we should think of rioting as just having like a major riot in the streets, but it's not just that, it's basically even in a small amount just rebellious in a way. They shouldn't be rebellious. Yeah, kids will have moments of that. Again, you're not disqualified because your child has rebelled briefly and then got punished and back to normal. Okay, unruly. Okay, unruly children. So, ungovernable. They can't do as they're told. You've got children that literally cannot be corrected. Then you're getting to the point where, right, are you qualified? Like I said, if a child makes a mistake and you punish them, that foolishness has banned the heart of a child, but a lot of correction are driving far from it. That's part and parcel of parenting. So, we could be one hand where we see these so-called pastors either without kids or they've got kids who are literally unbelievers, running wild, and they just don't even care. But then you've got the other hand, the other side, where people are going, your child made a mistake, that's it, they're unqualified, that's not it either. But our kids should be in order and they shouldn't be just openly sinning in front of everyone without punishment, without correction, without being able to do as they're told. Okay, verse seven. Have a look at verse seven then. Sorry, I've just lost my place there with all of that. Okay, verse seven. For a bishop must be blameless as a steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy loser. Okay, so a steward is someone who's managing the affairs of the church on behalf of God. Okay, self-willed is stubborn, okay, not yielding, won't yield to others, not soon angry, so there can't be a hothead, somebody's just constantly just flying off the handle, can't be a drinker, clearly, can't be a drinker. And a striker is someone who gets in quarrels or fights, when I say can't be drinking, they shouldn't even be, they shouldn't even be looking on alcohol, says the Bible. The Bible's clear in Proverbs and when you understand difference, that I was preaching this briefly before, about the difference between alcoholic and non-alcoholic, why? Proverbs 23 says don't even look on it, don't even look on it when it's fermented. Okay, we shouldn't even be looking at it, so especially as a leader, shouldn't be anywhere near that. Okay, a striker is someone who gets in quarrels or fights or not, okay, so you should just be out there constantly getting, and it's not just fist fights either, just getting aroused at people, can't see any arguments, not giving a filthy lucre, so you can't be focused on money getting rich, yeah, you've got to provide for your family, but if your motivation is getting rich, being someone with loads of money, then that's not the job for you, because if you're overly focused on money, you're going to have access to money and other people's money at times, you can't be in this job, if that's the problem of yours. And regardless, you ain't going to get rich if you do things properly as a man of God, it ain't something for a rich man, that's not what happens, you shouldn't be focused on money, if you're going to be leading churches, you're going to be, going to eventually be a pastor. Okay, verse eight, but a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate, hospitality, so is it just about having people around for parties, it's receiving people without reward, so if you don't have an ulterior motive, you just want to, you want to receive people and help them, and welcome them into your home, welcome them into your church, your lives, not someone that is irritated by good Christians. Okay, sober, cool and calm as a rule, that's not just talking about alcohol, so you should be a calm person, be able to deal with things calmly, and just is influenced by regard to God's laws. Okay, holy, so holy, like a good description in the dictionary for this, is when his heart is conformed in some degree to the image of God, and his life is regulated by the divine precepts, so again, it's not that you're perfect, I mean, you know, God did say be holy for I am holy, he's holy, we try to be as close as we can, okay, that's how we should be, again, especially in leadership, that's how, but again, all of this is great, great guidance, just for leadership in general, and for men leading in homes, men leading in the workplace, men leading in small groups, things where we start, you know, just leadership, somebody leaders, etc, all of these are good standards to have, temperate, so calm and even-tempered, not flying off the handle every minute, like I said earlier, or some sort of emotional wreck, who's just constantly, you know, breaking down in tears, or letting their emotions get, take them over. Okay, verse 9, holding fast the faithful word as he has been told, that he may be able by sound doctrine, both to exhort and to convince against sayers, so he should be standing on the word of God, exhort is to encourage, and convince against sayers, they should be able to, they should have at least enough knowledge of the Bible to be able to convince people, to be able to show them, Bible, to answer common arguments, yeah, it doesn't mean that they have to have memorized the whole Bible word in word out, they should have a good knowledge of the Bible. Okay, turn to 1 Timothy 3 now, so just go backwards a few pages, in 1 Timothy 3. Okay, now we've covered a lot of these, and again, I'll skip over a few of these, but a few extra ones here, so for example, in verse 2, it says a bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife vigilant, okay, and that's watchful and an attention to danger, so if you're one of these, oh, everyone's just lovely, oh, I just can't see any wrong in anyone, like that, again, you can't be like that, if you're going to be leading a group, you have to be vigilant and watchful to danger, okay, not just, oh, I just love everyone, I just see the good in everyone, you know, it doesn't matter what they're like, no, you have to be vigilant, apt, apt is suited to teach, so here it says of good, of good behavior, given a hospitality, apt to teach, you should be suited to teach, able to teach, some people just aren't, some people will literally just, you know, they can't put themselves in the seat or the head of someone that they're teaching to, and again, that sadly would mean that you're not suited that well, but it is something that can be learned as well, okay, verse 3, patient, it says here, not giving a wife, no striker, not greedy or filthy, Luke, we talked about all those, but patient, not a brawler, not covetous, okay, patient, we need to be able to, to not just, I want everything straight away, you've got to be patient, we see that in the Christian life in general, you have, we're taught patience, aren't we, by God, in many situations, not a brawler, okay, and that's someone who's going about getting hit, yeah, maybe Gary's laughing at the back here as well, but we, yeah, we shouldn't, if, and again, if, if there's things like this that you think, oh, I'm still, I've got a little bit of that in me, then it's something you should be trying to correct it when you get to the point of wanting to be a pastor, so should be out there brawling, and by the way, Gary, if you're laughing, I haven't been a flyer for many years, have I, many years, thank you, not, not covetous, okay, you shouldn't be covetous, so that's excessively eager to obtain and possess, okay, so if you're constantly just thinking about what you can get off other people, things that aren't yours, then, then that's something, not only do you need to sort out quickly, because that's something that, that is, is a kicking out offence of a church, you're clearly a really covetous person, you shouldn't be in a church, but let alone, let alone being, being up there leading people, so not covetous, last, last couple here, okay, verse four, he says here, verse four, one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity, right, look at the two words here, ruleth well his own house, okay, so there could be a danger that there are men that think I rule my house, because basically everyone is scared of them and in subjection through fear, for example, that ain't ruling well your own house, because that won't, that, that, that's not going to last in the long term, and remember we should be loving our wives, but if your wives aren't in submission as, as a godly lady should be, you're not ruling well your own house, because it is house, not just your children, but like I said, it's ruling well, ruling well should be, there should be a nice healthy relationship there, shouldn't there, not just like I scream and shout and everyone does what I say, it's like I rule well my own house, but they're all muttering and murmuring and upset and angry and everything else, well that's not ruling well, okay, and in verse four, having his children in subjection with all gravity, so that's seriousness, children should be mocking them or laughing or sniggering, but doing what they're told, but then it's all some sort of big joke, verse six, it says not a novice, okay, by the way, there are lifelong Christian novices, there are people that I've known from old chokes I've been at who have been Christians for 20 years are still novices, they only read the Bible through once, let alone started putting it in practice, and it's one thing to have a knowledge of the Bible, it's another thing to put it into practice in your life and not be a novice, verse seven, moreover he must have a good report of them which are without, so of them which are without, lest you fall into approach and snare the devil, they should at least be able to see your good behavior, that's non-Christian, should be able to look at you and not just be pointing out all these blatant issues and sins, they should look at you and be able to say look, that person, that guy, and this is talking about men as leaders here, that man is at least, well you could say he behaves well at least, okay, and they might not like what we teach, they might not like what we do, but they shouldn't be able to just point out sin in your life, okay, again this is for men and we see a biger here, he's talking about the priest doing things the right way, it says here like the priest doing things the right way in verse 11, sorry I said like the priest doing the right things verse 11, if you go back to verse 11, it's the second codicles, so verse 11, and they burn and they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening, bird sacrifices, sweet insects, the showbread also set they an order upon the pure table and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof to burn it, sorry of gold with the lamps thereof to burn it every evening for we keep the charge of the Lord our God, but ye are for safety. So the priests here are doing what God wants them to do, in the New Testament there are things that God wants us to do as a church, he wants us to sing proper hymns of the faith, he wants us to sing proper hymns, turn to Colossians 3 16, so back in the New Testament just after Ephesians Colossians 3 16 after Philippians and you've got Colossians and it says here in the Colossians 3 16 let the word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord okay so admonishing is reproving warning counseling directing this is why we sing old hymns of the faith here and we always will because the words and doctrine are really important we're teaching through the hymns okay not love love love or having some big party with worldly music yeah it sounds so good it's full of flesh but we're told here that we should be we should be teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and the book of psalms was it was a song book in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord okay and on that note when we sing we're you know he wants us to sing to him it's not just about the prose when you hear you should be lifting up your voice it's not about what what people think when they hear you yeah sure if you literally squawk like a parrot you don't maybe have to be the loudest but but still sing to the Lord yeah and it's funny because sometimes you'll hear the squawkers and then the people that actually probably have quite nice voices they're like singing under their breath it's like what on earth just sing to the Lord yeah sing to the Lord you're singing to him you're not singing to everyone in the room okay um psalm 9 to 5 1 says oh come let us sing unto the Lord let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation so it's not about us it's not our own fleshly desire it's a joyful noise to him and i'll tell you what when you're singing some you know whatever church it is with some worldly junk yeah some rock christian rock or whatever it is that's not a joyful noise to God it's not it's all about what you're singing what are the words what is the doctrine in there and we're singing to God okay also praying to God as a group here we should pray for each other especially shouldn't we and we should be praying to be heard of men how many churches you've been in when they first show make these long prayers don't they and it really really greats me the last false church around it was terrible for it i had a prayer night where it would go around the church and and in the end i just i didn't join in because it was so fleshy you had people basically doing a five minute prayer repeating the same thing the last person did for five minutes repeating the thing that they did for five minutes because they're giving you a prayer list everyone's just praying the same thing and then just finding a new way to sound as spiritual as they can add in a few extra little bits a bit of scripture here and there you know i really look like the other part and it was wicked it was wicked and and it wasn't that wasn't praying to God that was praying to men okay and we should be praying praying to God for each other turn to James five James five so just off the book of hebrews james chapter five and verse 13 is any among you afflicted let him pray is any mary let him sing psalms is any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing with all in the name of the lord and a prayer of faith shall save the sick and the lord shall raise him up and if he have committed sins that shall be forgiven him confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that he may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much okay so look it says it availeth much we should be praying for each other we should be asking people to pray for us we should be saying that i've got a problem with this i got let's say you have to list every sin to everyone in the church and then we all take it in turns to tell everyone but if there's something you're having real trouble with you're you're having a problem with something talk to people ask them to pray for you and there's nothing wrong with that and we should be praying for each other and god wants us praying for each other praying for for the church as well and i if there's one thing that you take away from this today please everyone go away and pray for this church pray for situations like that that we just had pray for for all the many challenges and issues we're going to have please pray for the church um now we're also told to go to preach the gospel aren't we to go go preach the gospel not wait for them to come here and we do it god's way out in the highways and hedges don't we preaching the gospel to every creature not just being a shining light to our own inner circle and praying for them to one day ask us about god or something like again one i've had experience of that in bad churches no god's ways that we go out and preach the gospel and that's why we're all soul winners here and that's why if you're new and we're not saying right if you come here you've got to go so we're not saying that we'd like to encourage you to try and learn to do it that's why being a silent partner come and learn you could just come and be quiet and you'd be surprised when you're out you're thinking oh my goodness what knock your people's doors yeah there are some idiots down again but you know what it's pretty it's it's it's once you actually do it you realize actually this ain't bad at all especially as a silent partner just just learning and listening um and obviously praying okay so this is god's way they're all god's way and that's what we need to do if we're going to be victorious here we need to do it god's way so we need to remember god's promise we need to reprove evil number two number three respecting god's way and number four by raising your voice we see an example here of raising your voice so go back to uh second chronicles here back to second chronicles chapter 13 and verse 12 and behold god himself with with us for our captain and his priest with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you oh children of israel fight ye not against the lord god of your fathers for ye shall not prosper okay so isiah 58 1 turn to isiah 58 1 so isiah is pretty much it's fairly central in your bibles um after psalms proverbs please yes these got isiah fifth chapter 58 verse 1 says cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression and the house of jacob their sins right crying here is shouting it's crying out it's not sobbing about it okay crying out shaft the the bible calls calls crying weeping what we call crying now is weeping here it's talking about shouting out we need to be shouting about sin okay we need to be not worrying about offending we've got to preach against it we said that earlier okay you need to be preaching hard about sin spare not lift up thy voice like a trumpet okay we should be sparing it okay um in verse 13 and 14 we see this but jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them so they were before judo and the ambushment was behind them and when judo looked back behold the battle was before and behind and they cried unto the lord and the priest sounded with the trumpets okay they're shouting to god the priests are letting the trumpets go and the people are shouting for help okay so the priests are uh it's representing they're just calling out they're shouting out through those trumpets the people then are shouting as well when the leaders are shouting out and calling things out the people are shouting to god for help and we need a lot of crying out to god in this battle we're going to need a lot of praying a lot of calling out to god in verse 15 let's see what happens then the men of juda gave a shout and as the men of juda shouted it came to pass that god smote jeroboam and all israel before abijah and juda so it's the shout it's everyone raising their voices it's just all boldly lifting up our voices not just the lord but for the lord now i don't know about you guys but when i shout when when i have like maybe when i'm in what would be scary situation stuff when i shout and get revved up it makes me confident i don't know maybe other people experience that as well it does but it can make you confident when you're shouting out you you get you know get fired up by something and get your confidence up and when you choose to do this for god he does make you bold he'll lift you up on high proverbs 28 1 says a wicked flee when no man pursued but the righteous are bold as a lion we want to be bold here we want to be bold a shout to lift up our voice lift up our voice to preach the gospel lift up our voices to preach from this pulpit on sin preach on on things that he's preaching on preach on things that everyone is preaching in the church um and and here we see we see that it's raising your voice they're raising their voice and it's that that's the turning point in the battle they're surrounded and they raise their voice okay at number five so number one was remembering god's promises number two by reproving evil number three by respecting god's way number four by raising your voice and number five by relying on the lord so look at verse 14 again and when judah looked back behold the battle was performed behind and they cried unto the lord and the priest sounded with the trumpets then the men of judah gave a shout and as the men of judah shouted it came to pass that god smote Jeroboam and all israel before abijah and judah okay so god smote Jeroboam and all israel before them look at verse 16 and the children of israel fled before judo and god delivered them into their hand okay so god's delivered them into the hand of verse 17 and abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter so they fell down slain of israel 500 000 chosen men that is a lot it's half a million thus the children of israel were brought under at that time and the children judah prevailed because they relied upon the lord god of their fathers and that's why it all comes down to ultimately doesn't it they relied on the lord and this is what we need so we need to stop relying on ourselves i won't understand you rely on god and if we remember his promise and we do it his way he will work things out psalm 37 says commit thy way unto the lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass now look at the results so look at verse 19 now and abijah pursued after Jeroboam and took cities from him bethel with the towns there of and and jashayna with the towns there of and ephraim with the towns there of neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of abijah and the lord struck him and he died so look at the result when they did all this god's way they remember god's promises they they reproved evil they respected god's way they raised their voices they relied on the lord look at the result they're now taking cities and they went on from there like i said they went on there's a really good spell for israel i think that was a turning point that was the crossroads i think we're we're at a crossroads here we're at a point here it's not just all done oh it's all said we got the church down no like this is a point now what do we do do we go on and do it for god or do we just do we just fail because we could easily fail couldn't we here and and like i said everyone the odds are stacked against us being an actual proper bible preaching church in this wicked country and and it what sadly is is a wicked town as well though i don't think there's many that aren't in this country but but the bible says that if we do it his way then god we can rely on god can't we rely on god now if we just start making it all right well what we'll do is we'll you know not not we'll just keep it quiet we won't we won't shout out we'll do it off off camber or we'll do uh we'll maybe maybe instead of how god says we should do the pastors what we'll do is or how we should have leadership we'll just do it a different way maybe we'll just set up our own group whatever else then we can't rely on god because we're saying look we'll do it oh god can you still help us no but if we do it all god's way we run the church how he wants it to be done we we preach how he wants us to preach we we we pray for each other we do all these things we sing sing proper hymns of the faith we do things decently and in order then i think i think i i know that god god will win this victory for us okay and next thing you know and we'll be taking ground everywhere we'll be taking that ground and we'll be ordaining elders in every city now with that let's pray so father thank you for your word thank you for that great example in the bible of of what what what just a you know a few men and and theirs half half the numbers can do in a bad situation surrounded on all sides and just and just by relying on you by doing things your way that you can bring victory and we pray that you'll help us to be victorious as a new church now a new church in this country a proper church we pray that you'll just guide us now help us to stick to your way stick to your principles we pray that you'll help us go out today and preach your gospel boldly get people saved and and rely on you to build our church in jesus name we pray amen