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

So, just in case anyone missed the announcement or is unaware, our church is celebrating its two-year anniversary today. Two years old, our church is, this particular church plant at Shaw Foundation Baptist Church. It was the 14th of February, a nice easy one to remember for the ladies at least. 2021 it was when we became SFBC UK, Shaw Foundation Baptist Church UK. Hands up anyone if you're at that first service. There's a few, we've got a few in the church here at that first service. In that time we've achieved over, well, we've achieved just, sorry, nearly 1900 salvation. So we had a few kind of that we count as when we first started meeting and getting ready for church. But we've achieved nearly 1900 celebrations. 118 baptisms like I mentioned earlier, over 230 full sermons have been preached here. Probably about 140, 10-minute sermons have been preached behind the pulpit either here or our building. Over 900 hymns sung and over 1400 prayers together. And if you're sitting there going, how did he work that out? Don't ask, all right. Okay. But it's approximately that. 900 hymns sung, 1400 prayers together and the rest of what I just said. What's happened since our anniversary last year though? Okay. That's in the whole two years. What's happened in the last year? Well, we, we, in our old building, we got an attendance record firstly of 79 upstairs. Okay. That was a lot of people in the upstairs room, wasn't it? We, we converted the downstairs, which was a bit of blood, sweat and tears to do that. And, and we then added Wednesday night services. So for the first sort of, you know, best part of a year and a half, at least sort of 15, 16 months at church, we didn't have Wednesday night services. We're always planning to move. That kind of wasn't happening. So we added Wednesdays and we then hit a record of 85 in the morning service, 82 in the evening service back in June. We, we had a wedding as well and then moved here in, in July. So we moved into this building in July and again, there's probably even more blood, sweat and tears trying to get this ready in time in July. We baptised 63 people in Poland, had, had our pastor here along with many other visitors from the US. It's been a bit going on, hasn't there? We got a church minibus. We had the first of a lot of babies born, had a kids carol concert. Now we start the year with another soul winning marathon at the end of January, the first of many to come. And we're, we're hunting down those 2,000 salvations, aren't we? And we're not far off that. Now we've got an exciting year ahead as I preached. I don't worry if you're thinking, is he going to preach that new year's sermon again? It would have been easier. Okay. But I'm not. And, and you know, we, we, we, we do though have an exciting year ahead. Like we talked about, we've got big things to come, but has it, has it been then a piece of cake? All gone really smoothly to get to that point? Of course it hasn't, has it? Look at verse nine there. This church plant has been a great and effectual door opening. And what did Paul say about that in verse nine? Look at verse nine, it says, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me and there are many adversaries. The title of my sermon today is two years and many more adversaries to come. Two years and many more adversaries to come. Let's go to the Lord in the word of prayer before we continue. Father, thank you for this church. Thank you for the last two years. Thank you for the many blessings you've given us. Thank you for just all the people that are here, all the people that are just a part of your church, Lord, for everything that everyone does here. All the, all the little things that go unnoticed as well, Lord, just thank you for everyone. Thank you for this. Thank you for this church. Thank you for, for this, you know, for us being able to meet up today, Lord, and celebrate that. Please fill with your spirit now. Help me to preach accurately, boldly, clearly today, Lord. Help me to just, you know, preach the message that you laid on my heart and help me to get it across effectively, Lord. In Jesus' name, for all of this. Amen. Okay. So two years and many more adversaries to come. And obviously there's a little play on words there. It's funny. I was talking to our pastor the other day and he said, when he hears us say adversary, he just keeps thinking we're saying anniversary because they like to say adversary, don't they? You know, these Americans, they really need teaching English again, don't they? But we like to say adversaries, don't we here? Because we invented it, right? I'm only kidding. However, however, yes, it has been two years and yes, there are many more adversaries to come. So Paul said that there's a great and effectual door. Okay. And what's he talking about? What's he talking about? What's the context here? Well, according to verse eight, he's currently at Ephesus, which when referenced with Acts 19 seem to last about two years. So you don't have to turn to Acts 19, 20. We're going to turn there later on, but don't worry for now. And Acts 19, 20 says of that time, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. Okay. During that time, Ephesus so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. He, he goes on to sort of Macedonia and Greece from there. He's doing amazing things. And the word of God is spreading like wildfire. Okay. During this period and onwards, verse nine, he said for a great door and effectual is opened unto me. And there are many adversaries. And, and I can imagine our pastor saying something similar like that when he planted this church. Okay. I can imagine him saying for a great door and effectual is opened unto me. Now you, you say, well, churches get planted all the time, brother. And what makes this one so special? Well, if you could show me another church in the UK, like this church, someone show me one. Yeah. Look, I'm not saying we're the only church which, which, you know, has, is preaching the right gospel. I'm sure there are some around, there are some around. Am I saying that we're the only church which has one or two soul winners in it? No, I'm not saying that. I'm saying we're the only church which is going out on mass multiple times that we can preach in the gospel. We're the only church I know of that, that is preaching so many of the clear messages of the Bible. And, and when I say the only church doing that, I'm not talking about turning up at a church and being one of the few in the church while we go out regularly, et cetera. I'm talking about a church where it's getting preached and it's being led as well from the pulpit, from our pastor in the States, going out and preach the gospel because that's how a church does it. Yeah. If I wasn't doing it, a few people here were doing it and we weren't preaching it week in, week out, it would soon drop off. Okay. With time it would drop off. You won't have a whole church. We literally have almost a whole church going out and preaching the gospel regularly here. Okay. This is different to any other church. Oh, well, you think you're so great. No, I don't think I'm so great. I think this church is so great though. I think compared with other churches, this is a proper church. Okay. We're doing what the, what the whole point of a church is going out and getting people saved. Okay. Show me another church in fact, in the whole of Europe that's like this church. Anyone know of any churches in Europe like this church? I don't know. Look, I know, I know of some churches in Europe where yeah, they're going and doing a little bit of soul winning here and there. They're preaching a little bit, you know, some things they might kind of preach on, but they'll avoid some of the more awkward stuff. But I don't know a church which is anything like this with this amount of people going out soul winning week in, week out, many multiple times a week. Okay. It ain't out there. Now you, you, you know, you might be thinking, well, how was this great and effectual door opened then? Yeah. Who opened it? Well, I'll tell you who, God. Okay. God opened the door for this church. He opened this great and effectual. It was basically going to be an effective, if you like, it was going to do what it was meant to, to do door here. And you're thinking, well, what are you talking about? Don't you just plant the church? What's it? Well, I tell you, for starters, God just gifted us a building. Okay. We just, I don't know. I don't know. Some people look, a lot of people here weren't here at the beginning. They mightn't even know what was going on. Brother John Cornell down in South End, his boss just said, oh, by the way, we've got this building here that's empty. That's we're hoping for planning permission and you're welcome to use it if you like. So we met up with some marathons and next thing you know, things kind of followed on, followed on. Suddenly we're meeting weekly there and suddenly it's a church. And look, I'll explain to you a bit later on how hard it is to get a building for a church. Okay. And we were just gifted one. We just had somewhere to meet up. And when you got sort of at the beginning, I think first services, maybe 40 or 50, but when you regularly got 30 plus people meeting, you need a building. Okay. I don't know about you, but my front room ain't big enough. I don't think many, anyone else's front room is big enough for that. So look, we've got gifted a building. That was a great and effectual door to start off because look, starting with two or three people is a completely different kettle of fish. So we hit the ground running. We started with a, we got gifted a building and had a bit of a financial headstart after that for a few other reasons. And we also had, and by the way, if you think about what for, look, there was a lot of equipment even at the beginning that we needed in the church. There was stuff we needed. There was for the live stream, for many other bits and pizzas, microphones, et cetera, speaker system, stuff for the music, et cetera, that again, we were able then to get. We then had, we had this miraculous attic, which just kept just kind of bringing forth stuff that we happened to need that I don't know what was going on with that job, but somehow Joel had this attic at home that he just kept going, oh no, I've got one of those in the attic. Oh, you need a lead. Oh, I've got one of those in it. Oh, you need the, it was amazing. Yeah. So we had the, we had the magic attic as well. And then, and then for myself as well, the COVID thing was just an absolute blessing. So I just, just suddenly I'm getting, and it wasn't a great deal, I'm getting basically paid by the government because my business was shut down. I was a sports coach and it just worked out great. It was like, right, great. I can just put maximum effort into this. I was able to do that. And, and look again, look, doing this would have been so hard. And everyone knows that you try and write your, especially the first sermons. I mean, it's like a week long, if not more job, you know, it's just, it's so difficult. And, and look, I just had an ability, you know, through, through the COVID situation, we had some gifted musicians as well. And, and yeah, a lot of churches just search around going, oh, if only we can find someone. And you got our pastor, he said they had a one finger pianist that when their church first started, you know, and we, we, we were gifted with that. We had, we had some, look, and look, so many people, those people here at the beginning, we had some zealous Christians. We had people travelling down from other sides of the country to come to our church. And that was so warming. And that was such a, that was such a lift of our spirits to just see, you know, and there's people here and I'm just going to start naming people who were, and some still are, people that were moving into the location. There was all this stuff going on and it was amazing. Okay. And all those people, so many people made this possible. We had, we had a good number of people. Now it's kind of ironic as well, what the kind of situation was with a lot of those people that were at the beginning of this church. However, that, that was kind of the magic number as well, because a lot of the time, the pastors, they talk about kind of seeing that magic number, sort of 30 people, maybe 20 plus at least. And they're looking and there's all these people meeting up and that's, that's an ability to start a church comfortably then as well. So this is a great and effectual door into the UK and further really as well. Okay. So it's not just that now suddenly we've got a church preaching the gospel that in the future we're going to, we want more churches around the UK, around Europe as well. But do you know what this means though? It means, well, does it mean that there's an adversary or two? Does that mean, oh, because of that great and effectual door into the UK that there's a few adversaries? No, there are many, many adversaries. Okay. And I did not understand this. I couldn't, I didn't get my head around this at the beginning that when something like this happens, there are many adversaries. Okay. Many adversaries. What's an adversary? And it's not an adversary, okay. It's an adversary. It's an opponent. It's an enemy. Now, now you might sit there going, oh, wait a second brother. And this is a bit of a negative sermon for our anniversary, isn't it? Is this going to be one of those where you're just kind of going on about all these wicked people also and what, what happened to the kind of inspirational, inspirational sort of celebratory sermon? Well, well, it's not actually a negative sermon because do you know what many adversaries means? Do you know what that means? It means that it's a great and effectual door. For me, it means that it's a great and effectual door that's been opened. It means that we're doing something right. Yeah. If we weren't, if there weren't adversaries, if there weren't all these different angles that this church was trying to be prevented and hampered and attacked, it would mean that we're probably not doing something right here. Yeah. Look, you can go to Dead's Adornell Baptist Church and you ain't going to see no adversaries there. Because sadly, a lot of the time they seem to be the adversary. OK, but you go to a church where things are being done for the Lord and you're going to see many adversaries, OK, in various ways. And that's a positive thing. For me, this is a positive sermon. OK, this is a sermon going, Amen, great work, everyone, because we have many adversaries. That means that it sure is a great and effectual door that's been opened. It means that SFBC UK is upsetting the apple cart. OK, that's what we're doing. We're upsetting the apple cart. We're making a difference. And you know what? There are many more years to come. And that means there are many more adversaries to come. And even with the adversaries, even with the amount of adversaries that we've come across, we're still here two years later. And you know what? Most people didn't expect that. You know that. Most people when this church started did not expect us to be here until he's laid. Now, again, if you're just kind of sitting here going, I've been to loads of churches, what are you talking about? Well, many thought that we would be shut down. Many thought that we would just be shut down as soon as we started. They thought probably I'd be arrested, probably. Some were hoping I'd be arrested. In fact, some were encouraging me to try and get arrested. Others thought that the sods would put us out of business. They just thought they're going to have the sods outside within a week or two. You know, they're not going to last. Many were just like, who is this guy? Who is this guy? Ian Taverner? Why is Ian Taverner and his wife not spent the last few years schmoozing and liking all the pastors and their wives on Facebook? Who the hell are they? You know, not even though it's a social media. You know, is that even possible? Do these people exist out there? Well, yeah, they do. People were saying that. They were like, why have they not been networking for years? They'll never last. They'll never last. They're not like Facebook buddies with people that they don't know, you know, and all that liking and everything. Who are these people? No, we're still here. And you know what? We're still here and we're getting stronger, too. Do you know that? Yeah, I know I'm getting stronger. I know my wife's getting stronger. I know everyone here is getting stronger. You know what? Sit there, gang. You think you're something special, brother Ian? Yeah, you think you're some sort of big shot, do you? No, I certainly don't. Do you know what? Do you know what I think? I think God's something special because I could never have done it. I can't believe, I still can't believe we're here two years later because I was like, wow, I'll give it a shot, but I don't know. But you know what? God does amazing things, yeah, and God's helped us all along the way with this. It's been amazing. It's been all his doing. None of this could have happened without him. Verse 9 said, for a great and effectual, for a great door, sorry, and effectual is opened unto me and there are many adversaries. And he, you know, he's given us all the people here that have made this possible as well. You know, he's given us the people, he's built his church. Many people here have been a key part of everything that we've achieved so far. And you know that some have helped in ways that they're probably not even aware of. People have helped in ways they're not aware of. All the adversaries have surrounded us. He's put people in position too. And that's been a real strength and support at times that people aren't really aware of. That's why we're still here. The title is Two Years and Many More Adversaries to Come. So let's have a quick reminder about some of the adversaries or enemies, if you want to call it that, that we've dealt with so far. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 10, while I remind you of a few things. 1 Corinthians 10. The church started, I don't know if the people that are here will remember, the church started in the middle of a Covid lockdown. So while everyone else was shutting up shop and going, we're going to be doing online church for the next year or whatever else, we were like, time to start a church. So we went out and we started a church. We were in the middle of a Covid lockdown. And with that, we had, you know, we had people on our case out soul winning. We had the police out called out on a soul winning. We had all these sorts of issues that started arising from that. We had council officials on our case. But before our first church service, so while we were doing warm up church, just before the first one, we then had the local news on our case. So we had the local news trying to run articles on our soul winning. They came to me for comment before they put the article out. I was quite amazed that most of my comments were actually printed as well. I thought, OK, this has worked out all right. And we managed to answer some of that. And, you know, but we had a bit of excitement before it got started. And that was just kind of really a warm up. We had, like I said, we then had Covid police on our first service. So we, you know, started preaching and you can imagine, look, preaching, obviously, first time live on YouTube and everything else. And suddenly we had to cut the sermon for a second because the Covid police were down at the front door and we had a buzzer system and I was like, oh no. So I quickly went down stairs and started trying to chat to them and explain to them how we've got all these procedures, you know, which I wasn't lying, you know, we'd kind of written out whatever they wanted you to have. So I can't remember what they call it now, but some sort of action plan and things like that. I said, yeah, got that. Got this. Got that. And eventually they went, OK. And I said, see you later then. And that was it. Wow. So I went back up. Where was I? Yeah, sodomites. No, I'm joking. It wasn't. I didn't start off like, a lot of people wanted me to start off like that, but that would have been a bit silly, wouldn't it? But so, yeah, we had we had the Covid police on us. We had we had council officials straight after that, I think during and after. So the council officials were on my case and wanted me to send them this and send them that. And so I eventually pointed out to them that it felt a bit and this was obviously, you know, a Muslim council official, you know, and I pointed out that actually this seemed like persecution against Christians. And funnily enough, they left us alone after that. So we had the council officials. We had from the very beginning, right before our first service, online railers, I had one contact me trying to discredit our pastor and the NIFB as a whole. I had other people sending me different stuff. I had stuff which was being sent on YouTube channel, but I don't know whether YouTube would delete it or they were. It was all coming through to my email, all sorts of filthy stuff. So we're getting all this sort of stuff going on. And then we had we had we also had it just always remember this is a fly tipping, a little fly tipping in our in our church car park. So we had a guy that had access to our to our church car park because it was a shared building that we were being let use, who was just dumping rubbish in our car park. So you turn up on a Sunday morning. Wow. How's everyone going to park here? And if anyone remembers South End, parking in South End is not that easy. So we were just turning up and it was just like full of all this junk. And we had this sort of stuff going on. And we did have some minor sabotage in the building as well. So we had people trying to mess about with the plumbing in our church who were actually part of our church, who were like unscrewing things and trying to create leaks and things like that. So we had all this sort of just weird stuff. We we did have weirdos. We had quite you know, being South End and being a bit more tense. And we had literal weirdos just walking in sometimes. And obviously the ushers had to be hot on that. And we had like some bizarre behaviour. If anyone can remember some of the characters that we had in our church and come in and out. And then we had one of the biggest things was kicking out a guy called Vijay Kumar, who was probably one of the most clown like infiltrators you could ever come across. OK, this guy thought he was so intelligent, but he was so obvious as such an idiot that when he got kicked out, he just kind of was like the classic. He just like ticked every box. You know, it's like brilliant. No one's even wondering, was he a wolf or was he right? This guy was a clown. OK, so we kicked him out. And but that was for me, that was like a weird thing, having this guy, just slightly this keyboard warrior just slandering me all over YouTube, sending stuff to me, to my phone and everything else. So that was that was a bit of a kind of heads up for what was to come. But that was all pretty much first year, had a bit of soul winning persecution to that. Like I said, we have police, we have people trying to start fights with certain people here and people trying to do drive bys on us just without the guns and things like that. So thankfully, it was it was a bit like that, wasn't it? And that was the first year. That was a warm up. OK, and it felt rough. You're in 1 Corinthians 10, aren't you? Verse 13 says, There has no temptation take you, but such as is common to man. Verse 13, But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye may be able to bear it. So we were able to bear it, weren't we? OK, we got through that. Those people that were here during that, some of that felt rough at the time, didn't it? Felt like, man, this is like this is some pressure coming from different angles. And will we last? What's going to happen next? But but look, God only suffered us to be tempted, not above that, that we were able to deal with. And then he gave us a way out of that and we were able to bear it. And then it was time for the second year. OK, it's time for the second year. Now, in the second year, we hit seventy nine. OK, we hit seventy nine. And that again, that's a lot in the upstairs room. I still I still can't remember how we even got a minute. It was like kind of people multiplication. Yeah, we did do it. We did do like a steward's inquiry on the on the county. There really was seventy nine in there. So we had seventy nine upstairs and then we had the chance to take over the bottom half of the building. OK, and that was a lot of work. And, you know, some some people here, I mean, I remember some of the days and nights we were doing in there trying to get it ready for for for I kind of set a bit of a tight deadline with that just because I like doing stuff like that. And I'm a time optimist. And suddenly it was sort of a few days before and there was a lot to do. But we somehow got it done and it was supposed to be long term. So we put all this like time and effort and everything into that. And what happened is in that time, so we hit like eighty five in that downstairs room. And again, that's a lot of people. That's a lot of people for a new church and a new all sorts of church. So we're not playing rock music. We're not you know, we haven't got the flashing lights. It's not feel good sermons. You know, you're not coming out of it. It feels so good. You're coming out of it. Oh, man, really? Is he preaching at me again? You know, and it's not it's not necessarily like this isn't what you call a popular type of church because it's it's the truth, isn't it? It's a real talk. We got eighty five in there. But then what happened is the previous tenant was accusing us of theft. This guy that was fly tipping and stuff then claimed that we'd nicked a load of his stuff and was causing all this trouble and problems for us. And then the owner of the building that we never had a contract with because we still weren't paying anything and didn't want anything, just was happy for us to be there suddenly just turned around and said, actually, I'm selling it. You need to get out. You got a few weeks to get out. Now, what had happened in that time? In case anyone's unaware, I had literally spent the whole time since we had that building. It was only meant to be a couple of months looking for a church building. And some people, a couple of people here know sort of how far and wide that search went and how difficult that is. And look, I think, look, and maybe just people don't understand. And I haven't explained this before in this country. OK, you can't just move into a building. OK, you can't just go that building. I'm going to make a church because you get evicted. OK, because the council says you can't run a church out of there. So you have to find a building which either has the use class, which is called a D1, and it's changed now to F1 use class for a church, or you have to find a building which is happy for you to try and get the use class change to F1 now it is to be a church. Now, here's the problem with that is that all these buildings which D1 encapsulated, I think, health care centres and gyms and all these things were all D1. So you found a D1 building, great. Well, then they changed the use classes. And this is a big adversary to us, by the way. So what they did is very recently they changed the use classes. So everything that was D1, most of what was D1 apart from religious use has now, and if everyone's just looking, just look like you know what I'm talking about here, OK, that I haven't lost you already, that all of these buildings now have gone to E class, great. Yeah, all those buildings apart from churches. Now, churches have their own category with a few other types of things, F1, and there's now hardly any of them around. And what's even worse is that those ones that are around, people have caught on to this, and there was a lot of these Pentecostal groups out there which were buying up the few that were around or taking on long term leases and then renting them out. Right, you get a Tuesday, you get a Wednesday, a Sunday and one special a month, whatever that is. Yeah, you get this, you get an all nighter once a month or something. And they had all these sort of, but you're sharing it with three other Pentecostal churches. So you're looking around like, how on earth, we can't share our church with a load of wicked false prophets. So I did kind of get in this long protracted contract, you know, sort of debating with this lot that just kept not answering. And this went on for the best part of that year of a building down in Grays, the plug got pulled on that, and suddenly we're told, right, you need a new church building. Okay, so with that, okay, just a quick point on this. Next time anyone sits here, and I'm sure it goes on, it's not like you get a little inkling of things and he's trying to complain about either the fact that it's an industrial building that it's maybe not warm enough for your little cute toes, yeah, but maybe it's too hot in the summer for you, you know, and it's like, it's just so hot in here. I can't cope, you know, or next time you're complaining about the distance it is, or the parking maybe, or maybe it's just not close enough to the train station or to the bus stop or whatever it is, yeah. Believe me, it's borderline impossible to get a church building in this country. And you know what, this didn't have F1 use. Okay, I'm still sorting that out right now. Okay, and that ain't simple either. Okay, so just trying to get somewhere where you can run a church is borderline impossible, and God gave us one in three weeks. He gave us one in three weeks. In fact, I had it signed up and done in two weeks. And that ain't possible either, because everyone says you get an industrial building, or any building, you get a commercial rent, and you know what, you're looking at months for the contract and go, you're looking at months to go to the solicitor and get all that drawn up. The owner of this, the landlord, had it all in house. And they were like, oh, we can get you the key in a couple of weeks. I was like, wow. So praise God, okay. And God just kept giving us what needed to keep that effectual door open, you know. He just put something in that doorway and said, this is staying open for you, okay. And we got this church and then after getting it and thinking, there's quite a lot to do here in a couple of weeks, and then suddenly out of nowhere, the guy had said, we've got to get out, said, okay, I'll give you a couple more weeks. There's no rush. And suddenly out of nowhere, oh, wow, that's amazing. Now we've got a couple more weeks and we got it just about ready to be a church by about one o'clock in the morning on the Saturday night before we came in here. And it worked out, you know. And that was amazing, okay. Now, whilst all of this was going on, okay, and I'm not going to spend too much on this point, because I like to preach about this stuff now and again, because I think it's so useful for everyone. But whilst all this was going on, we had some real internal issues, okay. So, look, that stuff, that was easy stuff, okay. That was kind of like, pray God's going to help this out, you know. But whilst all this going on, we had some real internal issues, okay. We had some people in this church that were just here to destroy our church. We're here to cause problems. And this will be going on for a long time. Now, I said earlier that Pastor Thompson could have said at the beginning, for a great door and effectual is opened unto me, yeah. For sure, sure thing. He just saw that door opening. He could see how it could all work out. We talked for a long time about how this would work, et cetera. But it wasn't long before he knew that there were many adversaries already on the inside, okay. And I've talked about this before, and I think some people kind of wonder, is he really saying, you know, look, it's a funny thing when you're preaching and when you're running a church, it's not because you, you know, you're just so, I'm just so bright and I can just see it. No, it's just because God just reveals stuff to you. It's all God, okay. God just reveals little things that just little things start to come up and crop up and you notice it and you just see what's going on. And these guys were doing some crazy stuff really early on, okay, really early on. And we saw that same with my wife as well for every reason we're seeing this stuff going on. And for me, though, I was saying to our pastor long before he came here, I was just going, look, can there really be that many devils in our church? Because I think in my mind, I was saying this to someone yesterday, I think in my mind, I kind of had the kind of one in 12 ratio for some, some reason in my head, I was like, well, there's kind of one Judas out of, you know, these, but the thing is, is that Judas was selected along with the 11 others, okay. It's very different to church life because really maybe I should have looked at maybe when, when was it 10 or 12 when it was 12 spies sent out. And I think only two of them gave an honest report. And again, I'm not trying to say that we've got as bad ratios as that, but it's by no means a one in 12. And I was confused. I thought he's just going to think I'm just imagining this. So I was saying, is this, can it really be, and all their wives as well, like, can it really be that? And he was like, yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. He said, we dealt with the same, everyone else dealt with the same, like, yeah, you get a lot, a lot of, a lot of tears coming amongst the way. Okay. And I was, I couldn't believe it at first. So I'm kind of relaying this behaviour, seeing all this red flag stuff. And he's saying to me, wow. Then he came over here. Okay. He came over and after he met all those people, he said to me, you've got some big problems. Yup. You have some big problems here. Okay. He said, you've got it all to come because that that's that they're all just ticking time, but he saw it straight away. Okay. And again, he's witnessed it all, you know, and I was like, wow. Okay. So now in the, in, in the meantime, look, just in case you think you're right. So you must have just been on him. No, look, we, we still give people the benefit of the doubt here. Okay. Red flags are just sat there, red flags. Okay. Red flags aren't a hundred percenters. So we, we see them, we note them and we try and just treat them normally try and treat them as you should try and try and give them the benefit of the doubt and hope and pray that they're going to respond to that. Okay. And, and like I said, there was so textbook wolf behaviour, so many stuff that the, again, I've only kind of from the pulpit, I've only gone with stuff with two witnesses and some maybe sounds petty to some people, some people like that, but you've got to understand when that's just all the stuff with two witnesses and you got to like a file like this on everyone. And then all the stuff that I myself, my wife has witnesses like, like this, you start to get an idea of what you're dealing with because normal people don't have that. I don't have files on everyone in this job. I'm not like just like taking that one. Yeah. That one there. It's not like, because people are just regular normal people come to church and not just constantly trying to undermine, trying to cause trouble, trying to pull people away, trying to slander you, trying to do this, trying to pick normal people don't do that stuff. Okay. They just come to church and get involved with church. So we had this going on and the problem was that this continued for the best part of a year. So bear in mind, our pastor said that in September of 2021 we didn't kick them all out until I think it was the end of July, 2022. Okay. So that's a long time to be dealing with just, just people whose teeth are just kind of getting bared more and more. The lips are just going higher and higher and higher. You know, the drool is hanging off and more and more, and you're just watching this and you're just thinking, this is amazing. You know, but the whole time I'm saying, have I got enough yet? He's like, you're going to have to wait. And he like, look, if I'd done it in the flesh and if I hadn't had the guidance of Pastor Tom, still trying to think, well, maybe they're just completely carnal. Maybe they're just completely weird. Maybe they just got real weird ego and envy issues. And maybe eventually they're going to get right. And maybe they're just completely puffed up and full of it, but maybe event, all the many things, but that didn't happen. Now, eventually it came to a head and turn to Proverbs 26 will I, will I explain this? Because again, I think most people were here. Some might not be aware of what really happened, but basically it was remarkable because we got to this point where, and you know, I'm not going to go on about this for too long, but just quickly, we had a real tragedy in our family and they use that to try and destroy my wife. And they'd been subtly and sometimes not subtly just trying to destroy my wife for pretty much the whole time that they were here and my kids at times and myself and now and again other people in the church as well. And then it got to this point where they thought they were like, they smelt blood. They thought we've got him now. Yeah. We're going to just, you know, destroy him on this particular subject. And it was a, you know, it was a heartbreaking time and try and really upset my wife. So I thought, well, look, I'm just going to try and nip this in the box. They already know they were whispering about it and gossiping and stuff. So, and then they, they, I went in an office with these guys, added a conversation with them, came away afterwards and they came away from it and tried to just lie and pretend that stuff had happened that hadn't in that conversation. Now again, it sounded petty, but here's the thing. We kicked out one of them after we gave him a chance as well. It wasn't like, right, we got him. He's lied once. We gave him, he sent three letters. It was only by the third letter that we said, you're out for railing. Okay. Well, he kept just repeating this lie because he didn't think that I could prove otherwise. They thought four, four wolves and one guy in a room. And what happened is, is if you think about it, what were they trying to say is that I was kicking someone out based on a lie. So the whole point was, is it wasn't just say, we're saying that I shouted at his pregnant wife cause he had a burst in the tears. The whole point was, is that I was then railing against this guy, claiming that he was railing when he wasn't and kicking him out when he had done nothing wrong. And that would be a big deal, wouldn't it? I mean, that would be well out of order of me, wouldn't it? To just, just make this up, just go, no, you complete lie, but just deny everything that actually happened. So the whole thing was, it was, that was the whole point. Okay. That was the point. And then where would, what, what would my position be after that? So brother E, our great leader, he just, he just makes things up about people, denies that what they've said is true and then kicks them out for it. And that would be pretty messed up, wouldn't it? Okay. And they thought they had me on that. And here's the thing as well. Look, it wasn't like, well, I thought maybe raises like, look, you're standing up in a church. Okay. Hand up, like literally, like the hand went up like this, standing up and bearing false witness against the leader of that church. And like, that's, look, that's not the sort of thing that normal people do. And like I said, on top of the huge, forget the whole list. That was enough. Had they literally, and I had nothing else on these guys, they'd just walked in and done that. That's still, that's, that's, that's church infiltrator, tear down the church behaviour. What are you, what are you doing? You know, well, that didn't happen. Whatever, even if you've gone away and kind of made up your own version and people do that. Yeah. People have different kind of opinions of things, but me, like you, you have to be a hundred percent sure to be standing up, raising up and, and basically going, he's a liar. He's kicked someone out and lied all about it. Yeah. And, and, but again, who, who, who gave that to us on it? God, God put it in my head to record the conversation and I couldn't believe it. And I couldn't believe it when Alex and Holly, who had been displaying this sort of stuff, but very subtly for a long time, I was like, even Alex is getting up. I mean, this could, he couldn't make this stuff up. He wasn't even in the room. How stupid can you be? But again, because God had just like, you know, whatever it was, use their pride in their own, you know, cause devils, a lot of the time birds were feather flocked together. So they just like, these devils are just like fawning over each other, just in their hatred for me, just like united in that. So he was just like, yeah, I'll start. I must've hurt something, you know? And anyway, so have a look at Proverbs 24 because just, just last point in that story before we look at it. Okay. This was make or break time for a church. This was a massive event. Our pastor said, you know, something like that event has not happened in a church in this nation probably for hundreds of years. It was massive. Like you've got people standing up trying to slander and false accuse and then just get complete lips and layeth up to seek within him. And these guys like we kind of then found out were just full of lies. Everything they were saying to people, they're just full of lies about so many things. When he speaketh fair, believe him not, for there are seven abominations in his heart whose hatred is covered by deceit. His wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation. Wasn't that the case, right? Before the whole congregation. Just, and it wasn't just, I mean, there we go. You haven't played the whole recording. I was like, okay. It was even better because everyone then got a glimpse into just, like I said, the, the gaslighting, the kind of the manipulation, the, the way they were trying to team up in their words to try and catch me out, try and get me to false the accused. Just, and all over, like a tragedy. It was, it was, it was so, it was so crazy, wasn't it? And their, their wickedness were showed before the whole congregation. I mean, it couldn't have been better because without that, there were people, sadly, who would have been like, well, I don't know who to believe. I mean, how did you not know who to believe? Like, sadly, even after it, people were like, I don't know who to believe. Like somehow, I mean, like, but how would that have even been possible? It's so crazy, wasn't it? But this is what people do, right? Okay. So they wanted to use that to destroy my wife, destroy me. Like I said, they did smell blood and verse 27 says, who so diggeth the pit shall fall therein and he that rolleth the stone, it will return upon him. And that sure did happen, didn't it? Okay. Because they thought they could accuse me of lying to kick someone out, which then the stone rolled back over upon them because then they were showed to just be these lying railers, which is what they were, right? Just amazing. Okay. Absolutely amazing. And just like when you see the Bible play out in church life, it is amazing. Okay. And I've been seeing this happen in many different ways in church life. And it is, it is amazing. Verse 28 says, a lying tongue hateth those that are afflicted by it and a flattering mouth worketh ruin. And they were compulsive liars. Okay. And look, there was a flattery, the grandiose charm, the, the, like I've said it before, you know, some of them of course were less obvious than others. And of course they targeted baby Christians. Okay. They targeted baby Christians. They, what they would do is they try and see if, if either you were easily manipulate in, you know, is that word manipulatable? I don't know whether you could be manipulated by them or whether they thought that they could maybe get you part. And if not, they would just discard you quickly. And it was one of the, I'd say either made people feel very uncomfortable and they'd be with, it felt like they were either being bullied by them or they were just getting pulled in. And they thought that you were either one of their gang. Yeah. That you were at least friendly to their cause, or at least that they could, they could basically, you know, condition you and get you on their side and everything else. And, and that's what, that's what they do. Okay. So wolves either want other wolves, they pack animals, or they're looking for the weak to try and attack. Yeah. To try and get, to try and deceive and everything else. Now, the thing is though, and I've said this, I'm not going to go on about this here, but you didn't exactly have to have the gift of spiritual discernment when it came to at least Ben Dorn and Elena. Okay. Okay. This wasn't like, Oh man, they were just such clever wolves. Okay. These guys were absolute clowns. Yeah. Like long before I was ever saved, normal people, myself, were just repulsed by those sorts of people because they're so prideful. They're so full of it. They're so gloaty. They're so just, it just, it's, it's horrendous. Is it like, people like that are just so off being and let alone look, and this is the thing I was, and obviously we've learned a lot from this again. I don't want to just be constantly having a go about this, but, it wasn't just myself. Okay. And my wife, like mature Christians here, like in general, like were, should have been just, and they were many just distanced themselves just straight away. Just like, well, you know, these guys are complete idiots. Now, if you weren't, you need to kind of check yourself now and be like, why, like, what's up? Why did I think, what was it about them that made my flesh want to go for the sleepovers? Want to get involved with them? Want to get in business with them? Wanted to like, you know, hang out with them? Wanted to be like best buddies? Want it like, like, that's weird. Okay. Now I'm not saying you must be wicked as well, but I'm saying like, that's something you need to like check with yourself. Like, what is it that drew me to people like that? Cause it's something you need to sort out. Yeah. Cause many people were, many people were completely conned and I was surprised that I thought like, once they're exposed, you know, a lot of people are going to be like, okay, okay. I know they're going to got a gang and they got a group and they, but I thought a lot, and a lot of people, it seemed were shocked or, you know, just didn't have an idea. So that's something you need to think about, but all that pride, arrogance, boasting, covetousness. I mean, Alex was just playing creepy. I mean, he was just like a creep all day long. Okay. And how dare you say, look, because again, I've got two witnesses to creepy behavior. Okay. Like I've talked about before. So that should have just been a giveaway, but turn the first speed to five, because what didn't destroy us. Okay. And those here, it didn't destroy you. Okay. Should have made you stronger. If you're still here, then you resisted. Okay. If you're still here, you resisted. First Peter five and verse eight, first Peter five eight says this, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary, the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resists steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. And if you're here, then you resisted the lure of more sleepovers. Yeah. You resisted that the lure of man hugs. Yeah. If you're still here, you resisted the lure of leaving the church. So at least you could get your man hugs in. You resisted the lure of the sinful buddies where just make you feel a bit happier and a bit more content about your sin because there's, he's just open and just flagrant and they're just promoting it to all and sundry. And it says in verse 10, but the God of all grace who has called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. You got through it. And do you know what God wants us? He wants to establish, strengthen and settle you. Okay. And if you're here, I hoping that you're in the process of being established, strengthened and settled after that. And you're starting to understand the reason, like I said, I will always bring it up. Yeah. If anyone who doesn't, he's got a problem with me bringing up like the, one of the most monumental events in, in most churches histories. Yeah. And bring it up regularly to try and edify and courage and help people to understand and spot it in the future and, and et cetera, and, and be able to see these signs that, well, that to me is a, is a bit, it was a red flag. It's a red flag. That's weird. Okay. Look, we got through it and everyone should be strengthened from that. And we're going to keep being strengthened by being reminded about that sort of stuff. Yeah. Verse 11. Is that because of me? No. To him, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. It was all thanks to the Lord. God won us at victory and in a way as well, that there could be no doubt. Like I said, the way that was won, there could be no doubt. So the people that left with them, it's like kind of, you've just exposed yourselves. Yeah. You've gone off, you've left with them. You've just shown what you are. Yeah. Because there was no, you couldn't be in any doubt, regardless of the likely slander, regardless of the fact that of course, they'll be slandering in the background and trying to find something they can make out that I was to blame for whatever. Forget all the long list. Just that behaviour on that day alone is not normal. They were all confederate. And what happened? They all got smashed. They got smashed completely by the Lord. Okay. He just like to, to do that, to stand up and just smash. Now the title is two years and many more adversaries to come. God strengthened us. He said to us, is it pipe and slippers time? Pipe and slippers time now? No. It's time to be sober, be vigilant because your adversary or adversary, like we like to call it the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. Who here thinks that the head adversary is done with us? Anyone think that? No. Yes, he may flee for a time. Yeah. But the adversaries will continue. Okay. He's going to be coming back and trying his luck time and time again. In fact, straight after that lot, we then kicked another, another person out of the church. Another one who had tried to get their hooks into people. And they, they, they also, as well as that person, it seemed to some degree, got to other people on the outside as well, like I said. So look, these wolves, once they're out, they're still trying to somehow pick and grab people from the outside. And regardless of them, there will be more adversaries. We're two years in and we've already had a lot of adversaries, right? And they're just ones off the top of my head last night, writing this, these notes. We're going to have them inside. We're going to have them outside. We're going to have them online. We're going to have them offline. We're going to have them in various different forms. Maybe official. Maybe we're going to come up with some official, official adversaries soon. Maybe green head sodomites outside the church. I don't know if they can be bothered to do the walk from the train station. I don't know. I think the sodomites are quite lazy. Or maybe angry old religious folk. Maybe, maybe that'll be it next. Maybe they'll be coming down from the local churches. You know, I don't know. We're going to have them though. And I don't know which way they'll come, but I do know they're going to come. I do know that verse nine, back in first Corinthians 16 says for a great door and effectual is opened unto us. It's opened unto us. Everyone here is involved with that. And there were many adversaries. Is it saying there were many adversaries? You're done with them now. Ooh, good victory, brother. Time to relax. No, there are, are present tense, many adversaries. Turn to Acts 19, where we see the fallout to what was actually happening over in Ephesus. So it wasn't just Paul that had the adversaries. Okay. And by the way, it's not just our pastor that has the death threats. Okay. In terms of, it's not only him that then has the adversaries. Our pastor gets, I don't know if people are aware of this, but our pastor right now is getting a lot of death threats and stuff. And you need to pray for him, pray for his family. Cause you know, there's going to be times when you're strong with that. There's going to be other times. That's going to be hard, isn't it? Yeah. It's not just me getting slandered, getting mocked and scorned here in this church, getting whispered about and everything else. We're all in this battle. Okay. Everyone here is in this battle. Acts 19 and verse 18, we're going to look from it shows us the great works going on. It says here in Acts 19 and verse 18, and many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also, which use curious arts, brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silk. That's some expensive books. Yeah. So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. After these things were ended, Paul purposed in the spirit when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaea to go to Jerusalem saying, after I've been there, I must also see Rome. So he sent into Macedonia, two of them that ministered unto him, to Mothius and Erastus, but he himself stayed in Asia for a season. And the time, and the same time there arose no small stir about that way. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no small gain unto the craftsmen, whom he called together with the workmen of like occupation, said, Sirs, you know that by this craft we have our wealth. Moreover, you see and hear that not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this pool hath persuaded and turned away much people saying that they be no gods which are made with hands, so that not only this our craft is in danger to be set at naught, but also that the temple of the great goddess Diana should be despised and a magnificent should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship with. For me, I always think of the Catholic queen of heaven when I see these sorts of verses. But however, these guys are angry that they're losing money and their false goddess is being exposed. And I'm sure that as we grow as a church and as our word gets out there more and more, it's God's word that we're preaching here, that people are going to get angry. They're going to get angry and angrier. It says here, And when they had heard these sayings, they were full of wrath, and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians! And the whole city was filled with confusion. And having caught Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel, they rushed with one accord into the theatre. So they're complaining about Paul, but they grab his companions in travel, don't they? And by the way, this is some proper silent partnering work here. They're like, We'll get grabbed for you, man. You just carry on preaching the gospel. But look, seriously, though, they were his companions. They were there with him. They were getting involved with stuff with him. And they're as much of a target, it seems. They grabbed him, or at least they're a very good sort of consolation prize, aren't they? So they grab these two guys, Gaius and Aristarchus. And look, if they can't get to our pastor, if they can't get to me, they'll try and get to you. Okay, they're going to try and get to you somehow. They ultimately, they just want people out the church, they want to destroy people's lives. Yeah, if you can take down the people leading, if you can slander them, if you can discredit them, then you kind of have a knock on effect anyway. But if they can't, they'll go for other people. Whether it's people in other more important positions in the church, or, you know, they're happy to take individual people out of the church. So what do we do? And when I say they, I'm not just talking about the people that we've had here already. I'm just talking about people in general. Like, that's what wolves do. That's what the adversaries do. So what do we do? What do we do about this? How do we protect ourselves? Maybe it's a bit daunting to know that a real church means real enemies. Maybe for many you're just like, I can't just go back down to the community church. You know, maybe I could just, I don't know, just go down to some sort of, you know, easy church that you just turn up on a Sunday and nothing happens. You know, maybe I should just get my daily tick box of daily dispensationalism down at the once a week, you know, old IFB, dead as a door nail church. And at least I don't have to deal with this stuff. Well, go back to 1 Corinthians 16, where Paul, who's living at the time, imparts some great advice for this. He said this, he said in verse 9, for a great door and effectual is open unto me, and there are many adversaries. Now if Timotheus comes, see that he may be with you without fear, for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do. Let no man therefore despise him, but conduct him forth in peace, that he may come unto me, for I look for him with the brethren. So he said, look after your visitors when they come. Look, we might be having some more visitors here. Let's look after them. And also, with that, it's not time for a witch hunt, is it? Okay, so, and you don't want to go off a sermon like this and be like, oh, we've got to find, find the adversaries. You know, we'll strap them down and we'll like, you know, prod them with things until they tell us, you know, what they really believe and what their goal is. That's not what it's time for, because we want new people to feel welcome here as well, don't we? Yeah, look, God's going to expose people eventually. And obviously, you know, when you see things and hear things, yeah, you know, if they're important things, you need to be telling me. But otherwise, look, you know, we want to welcome people. He said, you know, and obviously, Timotheus is a man of God here. Verse 12 says, as touching our brother Apollos, I greatly desired him to come unto you with the brethren, but his will was not at all to come at this time, but it will come when he shall have convenient time. So, and we need to be patient for people to come and visit as well. We need to be patient for the church to be built. It will be built. We need to be patient with that. And then he said this, he then said in verse 13, watch ye stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. Now, Paul's on the back of this many adversaries, he's dealing with this, he's been out in Ephesus doing all these great things, and his advice to the Corinthian church is to watch ye stand fast, stable, strong in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. That's what he told the Corinthian church to do. The title is two years and many more adversaries to come. And there's no sugarcoating, there's many adversaries. There is no like, there's no way out of that. It's a well, you know, well, maybe brother Ian, you just need to be a little bit more liberal with your preaching. You need to just compromise a little bit more. No, look, you know what, then we stop, then that great and effectual door starts to slam shut in our face. You want a great and effectual door, yeah, then we need to do things properly here, we do things how the word of God says, we preach the word of God, we go out and we solve it, we preach about solving it, we get out, we do the right things, and that means there will be many adversaries, many adversaries. You don't then slink off back to internet Christianity, yeah, slink off back into the shadows of internet Christianity where you can pat yourself on the back as you listen to a good preacher now and again from somewhere over in the US. Move away so you can like, just like I said, just tick that box on a Sunday and go, wow, the only thing I've got is the kind of dispensational, you know, Jew worshiping, sod loving, you know, church, well, that's all I've got. But that's not, that's not an answer, is it? That's not an answer. No, you say it's because there's a great and effectual door opened unto us. You say it's because of that, then you watch, you stand fast in the faith, we quit ourselves like men, we're strong, yeah? How about we be strong in this church, yeah? Strong for this sort of thing, strong for dealing with it, strong after, how about we're strong during the preaching as well? I mean, talk to me, is this, is this a new independent fundamental Baptist church or is it a library? Is it a library or is it an NIFB? In an NIFB church, talk to me, amen. Are we going to get an amen in here, yeah? Men, amen, yeah? Let's try and get some amens going and try, if you hear something that you agree with in the preaching, men, amen. Yeah, this isn't a library. And I know we're British here, I know we're slightly different, yeah? And I know maybe some were put off by the, amen, brother. Yeah, that was a bit off-putting, wasn't it? It made you think, I don't want to be one of them, yeah? And some of the other versions of that, yeah? However, yeah, let's, you know, we can have a chat here as well, yeah? If you, if you agree with what I'm saying, give me an amen, men, yeah? That's why it says men, yeah? Amen. Okay, we don't, we don't agree with all the women talking here, but look, amen, amen to preaching, get involved, yeah? Get involved, like, you know, get strong, get strong in this church, get behind it, fill the Holy Spirit. And then, and then we're strong, aren't we? Yeah? Strong as a church, we're loud as a church, and we get the battle cry going, yeah? Get the battle cry going. Don't make it like it like, I bet there's someone in here going, don't be that one who's shushing, yeah? My wife's an eternal shusher. I actually love shushing the kids and shushing people, okay? Don't be a shusher in church, though. My wife's not a shusher in church, yeah? Don't be a shusher in church. And there is such a thing as strength in numbers, yeah? There is a thing as strength, look, God does amazing things with small numbers, yeah? However, there is a strength in those small numbers, yeah? And we want to be strong when we're in the sermon, strong in the preaching, because there'll be people, look, you don't understand, yeah, there'll be people that will come into this church, that will be in this church, that will literally be the opposite when I'm preaching. And they don't want the message, they don't like the message, they might pretend they do, and really they're scorned the message. But you know what defeats that is men of God going, amen, yeah, when they hear the word of God preached. And that crushes that, because when you preach and you start, and obviously I had that before, where you had like sometimes half the church, half the church just growling, looking at you like this or like this, while you're preaching or just like this. And do you know what you need at those times? You need so many, God's just going, amen, yeah? Just go, amen, amen, I agree with that. And that crushes that, because then it's like, why aren't I amen-ing? Why am I scowling? Why am I scawning? Why have I got a face like I've literally just been slapped around it, yeah? I either need to do some, amen, brother, or I'm going to be exposed here. But when the whole place is silent, yeah, then they don't get exposed. And then you start to feel it when you preach, because you're seeing it, you're seeing these wicked people just snarling at you, growling. It's like, like this at you. You know, there's strength in numbers, yeah? We're all like, you do more than just sitting here and listening, okay? Look, the whole, this church, we need to be strong, we need to be strong because this will happen again. It will happen again, okay? Many, there are many adversaries, okay? Many adversaries. Okay, and with that as well, by being strong, he said, watch, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong. And do you know what a real strength of character is? He's getting your sorry back sides to church. That shows strength of character. Do you know how easy it is to get up in the morning and make an excuse? That is easy. You could be the weakest lily-livered little liberal seller out there, yeah? You could be just the most just sorry excuse for a man and you could get up in the morning and you could stay in bed. You could wake up and tuck yourself under your covers and go, I'm not going to church, yeah? Does that take strength? No, no, it's easy. You could get up and go, I'll just do the live stream today because of whatever reason. Does that take strength? Do you know what takes strength of character is? Getting up and going, no, God commands me to be in church. He tells us not to forsake the assembly of ourselves together as men and some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. We should be meeting more and more and more and more. There to encourage others. That's another thing, strength in numbers, yeah? When people are here, there's a strength in. If you're saved and you love the Lord and you want this church to succeed, get your backside into church. Make sure you're in church because the devil's children will come anywhere. They'll find a way, yeah? We need God's people here. We need God's people here. We need them being loud. We need them Amening. We need them getting involved, yeah? What we don't need is a load of people sitting at home watching it on the live stream. Look, great, we've got a live stream, but look, and it's three services. Three services, that's all it is. It's hardly daily in the temple, is it? It's three services, yeah? You can make that happen if you want it to happen, if you want to support, if you want to be part of, you want to be a part of that team and strong and make the church strong and make it so that these people don't have a chance of destroying us. Whether it's inside, same with the outside. You think the authorities, if there were five of us meeting here, they'd cut us off like that. And the more we have in here, the harder it is for them. And the harder it is for the news or whoever else for when that comes, because it's like, wait a second, this isn't just a few weirdos. This isn't just like whatever they could try and build us as. No, there are just people from all different walks of life going, thus saith the Lord, standing on the word of God. But we need the numbers for that, don't we? We need the numbers and we need people here. We need you to be a part of it. It's your responsibility to encourage others by being here, because this is where the battle is. This is where the battle is. The battle's not on YouTube. And now and again, you know, it's fun knocking a few trolls. Yeah, I get it, okay? But the battle is not on Facebook and it's easy to be in the kind of like a Facebook bubble. You know, most people aren't really looking at your status. They don't really care, okay? That's not where the battle is. The battle is in the house of God and the battle is when we go out from the house of God and we preach the gospel, okay? That's the battle. And then the battle is then in your lives because you're part of that, but it's not to shy away from it. It's to appreciate, yes, a great door and effectual is opened unto us, but that does mean there will be many adversaries. Before I finish, I just want to remind you of our new year goals for this year. Number one is a thousand salvations, okay? That means we need to be out soul winning. We want a thousand salvations as a church. Look, I understand, you know, putting a number on it, it's just for us to have a goal, okay? And I'm not, look, I don't want a thousand people that you've managed to say one, two, three, repeat after me. And I'm sure no one does that at this church, okay? But that's a thousand people saved is what we're looking for and you need to be thorough to be as confident as possible that someone's saved. Our goal at this church is 30 baptisms. Okay, well, we've already got seven, yeah, but we haven't had any for a few weeks now. So we want to encourage people that we get saved, encourage friends and family. Maybe there are people here that need baptising, get baptised. God wants, God commands you to get baptised, to get baptised. Commands you to be in a church, commands you to be baptised. Our goal is more first time visitors. I haven't put a number on that, but we want to get more people down here and I appreciate this now. God's given us this building and it's not on a high street and it's not, we're not, you know, on one hand at least we don't have as many weird eyes just walking in here either, okay? But it's not as easy for people to get to. We need to encourage people, we need to help people where possible, we need to find a way of getting more first time visitors to this church. We need to, another goal, number four, is to beat our attendance record, okay? Our attendance record is 85, I want to beat that, okay? I want to beat that, I want to beat that long before the summer, I want to beat that, okay? I want to get people in this church, I want to encourage people into this church, I want our church to grow and that means everyone here has to be nice and welcoming as well, has to not be the reason that new Christians would then be put off. And look, that doesn't mean that you compromise, that doesn't mean that you're not honest about your beliefs, but it means that we should be welcoming, kind, nice to people, but not weird either. Not when someone comes in and the first time they've ever been in church start trying to encourage them out soul winning, okay? Look, if they've just come to church, yeah, let them just come to church. If they want to soul win, they're going to hear me preach about soul winning, okay? They're going to, if they want to go soul winning, they're going to ask to come to soul winning. They don't need individuals in the church asking them if they'd like to come soul winning, okay? That's weird and in fact, that's the sort of stuff we got from our old people here, bee-lining first-time visitors and asking them, are they coming out soul winning? What on earth, would you want to go to a church like that when you were first saved? I know, I wouldn't. I didn't get saved and go, right, lead me to the doors, yeah? Didn't happen, okay? Like most people, that didn't happen to, so we don't do that to newcomers, okay? Soul winning trip to Northern Ireland is number five, okay? Now, I appreciate, it happens to be at the same time when about 20 babies are being born as well. However, okay, with that as well, look, we need prayers for that. We need people to, there might be another one in the future with that. We need people, when we do go to that, we need people to just, you know, be a good advertisement for our church there. Just normal, we're normal regular people, yeah? We're going to go out there and we want to meet these guys, we want to get to know them and we want to see if we can do some stuff with Northern Ireland as well. And number six on our goals is the retirement homes and schools preaching. Don't worry, I haven't forgotten about that, okay? I've started looking into some of the local retirement homes around here. I'd like to get that going as well. That means I need people that will be willing to go and do a short sermon there, maybe it'll be a weekday service, maybe it'll be a Sunday evening after here or see what they have and what they can do and what we can get in and do, okay? But I need guys that are willing to and to be reliable with that as well. There's one thing to go, oh yeah, I'm up for this and then next time you kind of, oh yeah, I'm cancelling or I can't turn up or anything else. There are six goals for the year and do you know what that tells me? There's going to be many more adversaries, okay? There's going to be many more adversaries. Ultimately, the golden island is to have a church plant there if possible, if the right ingredients are there. The goal is to, you know, be preaching the gospel in many nursing homes. The goal is to get into schools. The goal is to at least get somehow to get some access to some young kids that just want to hear the gospel, yeah? And the goal is to build this church more and more, to get more people saved, more baptisms, more people in church. And to do that, to do that, that means when we do that, when we start doing that, there will be many more adversaries. But that's a good thing, isn't it? That's a good thing. We're getting the adversaries, we're doing something right. And we'll have a little lull now and again and it's going to come, yeah? And be ready when it comes, yeah? It is going to come. On that, let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this church. Thank you for two years of this church. Thank you for everyone here, Lord. Thank you for everyone that's been such a big part of this church. Thank you for, you know, just everything you've done for us, Lord. Help us to, you know, to not shy away from the battle that we have as being part of your church, as being, you know, members of a proper church, Lord. A church which is out preaching the gospel, a church which just preaches the whole council of God. Help us to just want to encourage others to be a part of that. Help us to have a heart for getting people saving a heart for just supporting the church, supporting the preaching, supporting the soul winning, supporting the other events, supporting everything that we do here, Lord. Help everyone here to just get behind the church. Look, it's never going to be a perfect church. There is no such thing as a perfect church. We're all going to do things that people wouldn't necessarily want to do, you know, or would do things differently. But however, just help to get in people's hearts that just want to support the church, not to want to be a hindrance. And if they are and if they can't do that, please encourage those people to seek another church, Lord. Help everyone here to just be behind what we're doing here, Lord. Help us to go out this afternoon, get many people saved and then return this evening for the evening service, Lord.