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

Amen. Well, it's been a couple of weeks since we've been in 2 Corinthians. I was down at FWBC all late, excuse me, last Thursday. And it was a good thing I was, as Pastor Mejia ended up getting sick. And so I didn't get a chance to see him, but I was very thankful to be allowed to be preaching there. And I preached a sermon about how our eyes affect our hearts. And there's a lot of things in this sermon actually where Paul's talking about how he's base among them and how, you know, he's weak and contemptible to them in person, but like people are looking at the way he writes and the letters that he writes, that they're powerful. But then they look at his outward appearance and think he's weak and that his voice, his speech is contemptible. So maybe he wasn't the greatest orator. He didn't sound like, you know, some trailblazers announcer or something when he talked or, you know, some great orators, how they have just this ability to speak well. Maybe he just didn't, you know, he didn't sound, you know, like, you know, some person that's narrating a story or something. But, you know, God looks on the heart. God doesn't look at how people, you know, doesn't look at people, how they appear, what they look like and their physical features. He looks on their heart. And that was one of the scriptures that I preached about down there is that, you know, we've got to start looking at things the way God looks at things and stop looking at things with our, you know, obviously we see everything through our physical eyes. Everything we take in pretty much is through our hearing and our eyes. Obviously we feel things with our touch also, but like most of what we, how we navigate in this world is through our sight. But we have to learn to look at the Bible and let the Bible tell us what we should believe. We've got to look at the Bible and look at things for how God looks at them and how God thinks about things and change our thinking about the scripture, you know, change our thinking about how we view this world and look at it through the lens of God's Word. It's very important. So 2 Corinthians chapter number 10 verse number 1 the Bible says, Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence embase among you, but being absent and bold toward you. So Paul kind of shifts gears, remember the last couple chapters were kind of talking about these special offerings and how we should be giving and I wasn't talking about tithes necessarily but just like this special offering and how, you know, he was taking the church of Macedonia and saying how great of an example they were and he like went on about that and so those last two chapters were basically about, you know, giving and things like that. But now he's kind of shifting gears and he's kind of clueing us in in this chapter about how some of the people at the church didn't view the Apostle Paul like we would probably view him. You know, we think of the Apostle Paul and we think that's a great man of God, right? I don't think anybody thinks about the Apostle Paul and says Paul was no good unless it's like these Jewish rabbis or something and, you know, sometimes I'll hear people say well Paul was preaching something different than Jesus and like, you know, there's like these weirdo Christian groups that would say that Paul's stuff is not part of scripture and things like that but they just, you know, they think, you know, even like ruck when I say well Paul preached a different gospel than Jesus did and, you know, Paul, some of Paul's writings are very controversial and we think of Paul as this loving man who loved God, he loved people and wanted to go out and preach the gospel to them and get them saved. He started all these churches but one thing I've noticed as being a minister of God and his, you know, and being a pastor is that even if you get someone saved, that person might turn against you and that's just like an astonishment to me. It's like, you know, I don't even really know the guy that got me saved but I would not sit there and badmouth him because that's the guy that helped get me saved. It's like, you know, why would you act like that? Why would you feel that way towards someone that got you saved? But I've seen that happen lots of times where someone's like, oh, Pastor Anderson got me saved and then they're like, you know, off the rails, you know, talking, you know, and just condemning him and same thing with Pastor Jimenez and, you know, we've had people that were in our church that they got saved as a result of coming to this church and then turned against us. It's just like so weird. Like, and I'm not saying that people can't do wrong and, you know, get people upset even if that person did get him saved but it's like, you know, you'd have to actually do something pretty bad to them I would think, you know, but just preaching God's Word shouldn't be one of those things. You know, preaching the Bible or having a kind of a heavy hand, sometimes as a pastor you have to make decisions that people just don't like. And the Apostle Paul talks about this, how there's people like just in this first verse it says, you know, I beseech you, you know, it's like I'm begging you to see this, I want you to understand this, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ because Christ is meek, Christ is gentle, but, you know, it says who is in presence and base among you. So base, remember we've been talking about this, he keeps using this word and what do we call the things on the bottom of the walls? We call it baseboards, right, because it's at the bottom. So he's basically saying who in presence, you know, who in presence and base among you but being absent and bold toward you. So he knows that people have this kind of view of him that he, they think he's base, he's low. And so isn't it weird that Paul would start this church and he's caring for this church, he's visiting this church, he's writing letters to help them and straighten them out and there's people that are like, look at him with his squeaky voice and he's all, I kind of, I do picture Paul as like a short little pot-bellied guy, kind of, but that probably isn't what he looked like but that's just kind of, like when I picture that, like, why would people say that? Well, why do people say, you know, that hate pastor man is that what do they always attack about him? That he's short, right? You know, he is short but, you know, there's a saying that says dynamite comes in small packages, have you ever heard that? I've heard that a lot because me being tall, people, you know, I'll be playing around with them and they'll be like, dynamite comes in small packages, you know. But what pastor man is, you know, dynamite of the spirit comes in that small package and when he gets up and preaches, you know, it's not, his speech is not contemptible, his speech is good speech but see, what I've noticed is that people that just want to hate on pastors and hate on our churches and stuff like that, that they just will find anything, any flaw to try to say something about someone that's like, you know, let's mock their appearance, let's mock your appearance, let's see how much you like that. But see, you know, as Christians we're not supposed to be like that and so, you know, sometimes they fight by, well all the time, they fight by different rules than we do and they realize that and they know that we're not going to attack in the same way that they attack because we're not supposed to be like that because we're Christians, you know, and that's why people always try to treat us like doormats, you know, even in apartment complexes, people will forget that some Christians are bold as lions and they're not just going to put up with you, you know, some person treating them like garbage or following you around an apartment complex and ripping all the invitations off of people's doors. You know, I would just say this, if someone's doing that to you, tell them, get away from me or I'm going to call the police right now. You know, but when it's happening to you it feels weird and it feels like hey, you know, maybe I am doing something wrong, you know, but you're not doing anything wrong, they're doing something wrong and they're just hating you for no reason and really they're hating you because in reality they hate Christ. They hate the message of the Gospel and they don't want anybody to hear it so that's why these freaks come out and it's usually at apartment complexes for whatever reason but I think that's because the devil knows these apartment complexes if he gets some, you know, wicked ruler over them and then a bunch of crazy reprobates that that'll be enough to keep people from coming and knocking on the doors, you know, because Satan's going to guard the places where the people might get saved the easiest so you know, over in the high places with the high, you know, the stuff overlooking the river, you know, those people are just going to reject us outright but someone at an apartment who's just making, who's just an average person is going to, you know, hear the Gospel. People will hear and they will get saved like the man that got saved tonight. Anyway, I've got to keep moving here but Paul is saying, you know, I'm bold towards you even as I'm absent from you but, you know, later on in this, in this, in these scriptures he's going to talk about how he will be the same way that he is in the letters in presence with them but he doesn't want to be that way so like, you know, we're a pastor-led church, you know, that's kind of the model that we follow and sometimes in a pastor-led church, you know, the pastor becomes the bad guy when people want to do things that the pastor says no to and sometimes, you know, sometimes you just don't see all the angles and like as a pastor, when you've been a pastor for a while and you're leading people for a while, you're going to see how some things that people want to do, it might not even be like something that they mean in a bad way but they want to do something that's just like, you know, you're not looking at this from all angles, how this is going to affect everybody else and so I have to learn to make decisions, you know, that are best for the whole church and not just for what a few people want and people don't like, you know, people come from a lot of churches where, you know, everybody's probably been to some Lanesville church where the pastor gets steamrolled by the little ladies at the business meeting, you know, I've seen that happen multiple times where they do a business meeting and the ladies of the church are just telling the pastor, this is what we're going to work on, this is where we're going to get fixed, this is where we want to go and it's like he's at the, you know, he's being dominated by three little ladies and it's like that's not how church is supposed to go. Moses didn't have, you know, Moses was trying to help people and he was the meekest man upon the face of the earth and when people came to him he was trying to help them but I don't remember the scripture where three little ladies were trying to vote on what kind of toilet paper they were going to have in the congregation. That just didn't happen. When Moses said something, it was from God and God and, you know, Moses repeated what God wanted him to do and that's the way it was and so Paul is a strong leader, he's a loving leader but he's also a leader that's maligned just like every other leader that you're going to see that's strong in this world today or in the Bible. They're always going to have conflict, they're always going to have people that are trying to test them, there's always going to be someone that wants to try to destroy what's going on or someone that comes in and tries to dominate, you know, the church in some way, shape or form and our job as a pastor, a pastor literally means someone that's like guiding, you know, some kind of a flock, you know, you're guiding the flock and you're keeping the wolves at bay and so it's a job that, and also we're supposed to be feeding the flock, so we feed the flock the Word of God. We guide them in the way that they should go and then we try to keep these wolves at bay and wolves disguise themselves like sheep and so they're very hard to spot sometimes, you know, there's that old Bugs Bunny cartoon or whatever where Wile E. Coyote was always trying to get these sheep and then there was the big sheep dog, you remember, I don't know if you've ever seen those, some of you people don't even know what Looney Tunes are but anyway, it's not like being crazy, it's just like a stupid cartoon but anyway, so but the sheep dog would like lift up his flap of his and he'd look and like Wile E. Coyote was always trying to like find some way to sneak in so he could eat them and he would always catch them and grab them by the neck and you know, knock them out or whatever but that's kind of what a shepherd has to be like so he was a sheep dog so the sheep dog was trying to keep that wolf away from the flock and the Apostle Paul, you know, remember that in First Corinthians and Second Corinthians, he's trying to steer the ship right, he's trying to fix the problems that are in this church which are many and he is going to have, he's having problems with some of these people and they're basically talking, they're gossiping about him behind his back and he's hearing the things that are being said, that's why he said, you know, who in presence and base among you, he's not saying that for no reason, he's saying that because he's heard what people are saying about him behind his back so Paul is saying that there are people that are there accusing him, you know, and his entourage basically of walking in the flesh, look at verse number two, it says, but I beseech you that I may not be bold when I'm present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. So he's saying that, you know, I really don't want to be this way but when I'm present, I'm going to be with confidence and think to be bold against some, the some that are talking about him and, you know, even, they're even challenging his apostleship we'll see in later chapters but, you know, it says I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. So they're talking about them and saying Paul's walking according to the flesh. You know, the apostle Paul, they're accusing him of walking, you know, and everybody walks in the flesh sometimes but they're just flat out accusing him and when he says we, he's talking about the people that walked with him, that helped him, they were helping minister with him. So, like I said, it just makes me think about these false accusations that preachers constantly get and they're so bold to say things over their keyboard, they're so bold to email with fake email accounts and tell you how they're going to hurt you and how they're going to kill you and beat you to death with a baseball bat and all kinds of stuff, I get all kinds of crazy emails. And it's like, if I turn them into the police, guess what they're going to do? Nothing. But, you know, they never show up, they never do what they say they're going to do, they just talk, that's all they are, is big cowards. You know, they talk real big over the internet with their fake little YouTube accounts and, you know, they talk like they know us but then they're too afraid to say who they are. And you know why they're afraid to say who they are? Because they know that they're going to get smashed. They know that they're going to get rebuked hard and they know that, you know, we probably know things about them that would be embarrassing to them if they revealed who they really were. But these are the kind of people that are saying stuff about Paul. You know, it's wicked to sit there and talk smack about this man who's their leader, who started their church, he's an apostle of Christ, one born out of due season. You know, it's like really, Paul started your church. He's responsible for a lot of these people's salvations. He hazarded his life and does everything he can to help them. He circles around and goes on all these different trips. Why? Confirming the churches, making sure they're doing well, caring for them. But you know, a minister will do something or a pastor will do something that they don't like and then all of a sudden they turn against him and start talking behind their back. It's wrong. It's wrong to do that kind of stuff, but that's what we see today and it's like, you know, some of these, you know, clowns that would pipe up, you know, and say that he's walking in the flesh, you know, I guarantee you that they wouldn't say that to his face. And that's the thing that I've noticed, people will not say that kind of stuff to my face. I always hear it second hand or from some anonymous email or some anonymous comment or whatever and they're just too afraid because they're scared, you know, and they're cowards. So you know, he, what did he do? He preached Romans 1 and then what? They're going to just turn against him? Paul wrote Romans 1, you know. So I'm sure he preached that in a sermon at some point, you know, so he's preaching that these people are reprobates and, you know, it made people mad because they had a queer cousin. You know they had queer cousins back in the time of 1 Corinthians? In the time of the Roman Empire? I'm sure they had a lot of queer cousins. They probably had queer brothers and sisters just like today. Nothing's new under the sun, you know, and so Paul, when he's preaching these sermons, he's making people mad just like when we preach sermons about it, it's making people mad. It's called hate speech now, you know, what we're doing, what we say is hate, the Bible is actually hate speech. If you preach Leviticus 20 verse 13, you're going to be accused of being a hate preacher and it's like so, but really that's God's word. That's God saying that. So they're saying God's a hate preacher and, you know, they'll admit that, you know, people today, things have changed. People are different now and people are a lot more bold to say things publicly. I mean most of the time they always want to say, take their tax exempt status away from them. It's like, well listen, we already paid taxes on the money that we, you know, get from our paychecks and then we give 10% after we've already, it's not like 10% comes out of the paycheck. All the other taxes that Babylon wants to put upon us, we've already paid and then we paid 10% and that's how the church operates but you want to tax that too? It's like, why would we be taxed on something that we've already been taxed on? That doesn't make sense. And you know, people do that with waitresses. The waitresses, you know, get taxed on their tips in a lot of places and they make like minimum wage but then they're taxed on their tips. Because someone paid taxes on the money that they gave to that person as a tip. So it's just like, you know, the government just is getting every little piece of the pie and just, you know, even on inheritance tax, like you paid money and you paid off your house and you want to give it to your children and then what happens? There's an inheritance tax upon it. It's like, why would there be an inheritance tax on something that's already been paid for? You don't have to pay the taxes yearly but yet, you know, the government's just greedy and people, you know, they don't understand those types of things. How would they like to be taxed? You know, we're already paying more money than they would be. We're paying that plus, you know, a lot of people are homeschooling their children and paying public school taxes at the same time. So we have to buy curriculum and all the other stuff and all the things that are involved with homeschooling people but we've already paid, we're paying for people to talk to kindergartners about being transgenders and dancing with them and having these freak shows come to their schools, you know, and they have this Florida anti-gay bill or whatever, they say don't say gay bill. Why would you need to tell a kindergartner about being a transvestite? Why? Why would you need to do that? What is the purpose for that? And people are like bashing that, Disney is bashing that and they're caught like saying all this weird stuff and it's like they look like, you know, they're the people that are probably preying on these people. How dare you? How dare you teach a child about anything about that subject? You know, even just the subject of things that a man and a wife do. Why do they need to know these things when they're little children? So they can defile their minds. They want to show them things that defile their minds and that's why it's so important that we know what we're putting our eyeballs on and look at the things that we should be looking at. Look at verse 3, it says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. So Paul's, you know, obviously stating the fact that as Christians, we walk in flesh in this life and we have to live and go to work and be around people in the flesh. You know, it is vexing sometimes. It's vexing for me to just go into Walmart. I know I always bash on Walmart, I'm sorry. But you know, I worked for Walmart for 10 years and I watched that company change. I watched that company change from, you know, they actually used to teach servant leadership at Walmart. They actually did install Christian principles at certain points but I remember the AFA, which is the American Family Association, they reported that Walmart was giving money to the gay, lesbian, whatever, some other foundation or something. And like, I wrote a letter to Lee Scott, who was the vice president of Walmart. I emailed him from my work desk because the policy at Walmart was an open door policy where you didn't have to go to someone you didn't feel comfortable going to. You could go straight to the top if you wanted to and I took that seriously. But you know, it's funny, Walmart stopped doing that but now do you think that they've stopped doing that? I mean, I haven't worked for them for a long time but judging upon, you know, and I do, I will judge the appearance of some people, okay, because if they have green hair and like some bone going through their nose and big giant gauges and then like a gauge right here where you can still see their teeth, I'm going to judge if that person's got some issues. Sorry, but they do and you know, they look like they want to be the Incredible Hulk with their green hair or whatever or their purple hair or blue hair and I'm not saying everybody that colors their hair is a sodomite but it is kind of a thing amongst the sodomites. You know, so just think about that before you dye your hair some really bright blue color, you know. So anyway, we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. We're not picking up swords, we're not picking up guns, we're not picking up knives. As Christians, we are in a war. So that's what Paul's saying, right? So what's he saying? We are in a war. We are in a war. We're in a war for the hearts and minds of people all over this earth and we're at war with a few different people. We're at war with the world and their culture. We're at war with the devil and his minions and we're at war with ourself. Constantly our worst enemy is our own selves. All the bad decisions you've ever made in your life, you made it. You made it. You made that decision. You didn't have to but you did. You know and as Christians we know the differences between how God wants us to behave and how He doesn't want us to behave but you know and we still make the wrong decisions. So we're in a war but you know there's a fourth person that we can be at war with because of the way we act, because of the way we behave ourselves and you know who that person is? God Himself. God Himself can be at war with you according to what the Bible says. You know and we don't, but we don't want to take this war, we're not going to obviously hurt ourself. You know it's not that type of war. It's not that, I'm not going to tell you, hey you guys the protesters are coming, pick up arms and let's go to war. I remember when they tried, this organization tried to get us to get into something where it's like a ecumenical thing where we all learn how to fight with batons and sticks or whatever. Who was there? Brother Eli was there, weren't you? You didn't go to that? Who went to that? Anybody in here? Just me? Oh, Robert, yeah. Robert was just like, oh my God, no I'll just show you. It was like 20 degrees outside and these guys, I mean we weren't even allowed to drink water and they're like walking by and just like trying to rip these batons out of our hands and stuff. I was just like, I'm done. This is stupid. And I kind of wonder if that was some kind of FBI sting operation or something because it was militarized. They were being dead serious and like if you didn't hold on to like the stick that they gave you to hold on to, like they just mocked you and like threw it on the ground and pick up your stick. You know, they're just like, give me some push-ups and, but like because they'd heard that we went through what we went through, you know, when the sodomites came and protested our church, they heard about that and it went all throughout Vancouver and so that's why that organization, you know, had us there. But I told them at the end of it, I just said, I don't think that this is, this is going to work, you know, and we never went back again. So because, you know, you know why? Because we're not in a war of the flesh, we're in a war of the spirit. And the first thing you do is if everybody lines out in front of that door and holds batons in their hands and starts hitting people with them, you're going to go to jail. That's what's going to happen. You're not going to be protected, you know, we can't just, you know, and if a mob was trying to get us or whatever, I just hope that the police would protect us, you know. As Christians, we're not fighting that kind of a war and, you know, if we were fighting that kind of a war, I'd probably be calling some people out for a loser leaves town match, you know, and someone's getting a haircut at the end of this. I'm going to body slam you, I'm going to hit you, I mean, I'm just saying, like these people think that they know who I am, if they knew the old man, Aaron Thompson, they would be afraid to stand in front of me and say some of the things that they say. Trust me, they'd be afraid. But that's not this, I'm not in that kind of war. My wife's probably just like, he's always talking about punching somebody. But my old man wants to do that. That's how I used to do conflict resolution. We're in a conflict, you're going to hit them out. But like we can't do that, we have to hit them in the mouth spiritually, with preaching. And we got to go out and preach the gospel and that's going to make the difference in this war. You know, we got to get people to get on our side, right, through preaching the gospel. We got to get more, we got to, our recruitment for the war is to get people saved and to get them plugged into a good church and to get them reading their Bible and praying and going forth and getting people saved themselves. That's how we're going to win the war. And you know, obviously there's going to be a time when God allows us to be destroyed. He's going to allow Satan to come and behead Christians. You know, what all the pre-tribbers are afraid of is that they actually have to go through the tribulation. That's what they're scared of. And you know what, I don't blame them. Because it doesn't sound like fun. But you know what, if we live to see that day and we're some of those people that that happens to, we're going to get a better resurrection. I don't know what that means exactly, because a resurrection at all sounds good to me. But to have a better resurrection, I think when God says better resurrection, He really means it, right? He really means it. And so let's turn to Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10. But as Christians we don't war. It's not a fight with our fists. It's not a fight with guns. But we do a spiritual warfare. And you know, make no mistake, it is war. And ladies, I know that war does not sound like something that you want to do, but you know what? In this army, the ladies fight too. In this army, the ladies fight too. I know in America that they let ladies fight now, but in a physical battle, in times past, women did not fight in battles. Maybe some heathen nations would allow it, but that's not generally an acceptable practice in war. But in this army, people want to talk about God being misogynistic, well He allows women to fight in His army, doesn't He? So we're all one in Christ Jesus. Women are just as important as men to God. I believe that with all my heart. So look at Ephesians 6 10, it says, finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. See our strength to fight this battle does not come from ourselves. It doesn't come from our humanistic achievements. It comes from the power of the might of God and we're supposed to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might. How do we do that? Well, it says to put on the whole armor of God. So you know, knights and things like that in the past have fought with armor on for thousands of years. That's how they battled. If you don't have armor, you know, you're going to die more quickly than if you didn't have it. God's saying we need to have armor on too, but it's a different kind of armor. It says put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. See, the battle is with the devil. But it says for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. That's these rulers and you know, principalities would be like kings and things like that. It says against powers, whoever's in charge and the rulers of the darkness of this world. So see, we're fighting against the devil, we're fighting against the world, the people of this world, and it says against spiritual wickedness in high places. These are the enemy. The enemy is the devil, his minions, and the things of this world. But it's not a physical battle. This armor is not a battle, this armor is not an armor that you can put on physically. It's a spiritual armor. It says wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. See a lot of people, they'll preach about the armor of God, but this part gets skipped right here. Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. There's a lot of people walking around without a crucial piece of their armor, which is the feet being shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, because there's a lot of churches that don't do any sowing at all. It says above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. So notice that that helmet of salvation, the helmet is what protects your head, right? That helmet. And so the shield of faith, you know, it's going to quench those fiery darts of the wicked, and the sword of the spirit. See we've got to have, that's the only offensive weapon in this whole thing of armor, is the sword of the spirit, which is, the Bible says, the word of God. This is our weapon. This is our spiritual sword. This is what we need. We can't understand why people don't take a Bible out sowing with them. Like you're supposed to, you know, shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel, and you take a church invitation with you, and that's all you have? Because you're ashamed to carry a Bible with you or something? Or you just don't use the Bible when you present the gospel? There's a lot of churches that say they go out and preach the gospel, but what they're really doing is putting leaflets on people's doors, and we do the same thing. But you know what? We knock that door, and we ask them, we confront them with the truth. The truth is you're lost, and you're headed for hell, and you know what? The Bible has the answer for you to be saved. Would you like to hear it? Would you like to hear the gospel? Would you like to be saved? Yes. Go through the Bible. Use the Bible. Don't use, you know, anything else, but you know, obviously you explain things to them, but that's our weaponry. That's our armor. It's not a physical battle. We're going, if you want to get recruits, you better use the sword and start chopping some people up with it, spiritually, okay? I'm not, you know, and I love it when people just take things out of context. They'll just say like some statement that I say, and then they don't put the context into it. Like they'll say, they'll put up like something saying, he says Omaha should die. He's promoting violence. No, I'm not promoting violence. I'm not saying anybody should go do that. I'm saying the government should do that, and they're failing to do their job. If we had a righteous government, that's what they would do. That's what they've done for thousands of years. It's only at the end of the world that all of a sudden it's okay to just be gay. You know what? They're not really gay, because gay means happy, right? Look at verse number four back in our text, 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse number four. The Bible says, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. So he said, hey, we're in a war, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. That means fleshly. But mighty through who? God. So if we're trusting in our own power to win this war, you're going to fail. You're going to fail every time, because you know who you need? You need the power of God upon your life. You need the power of God in your life to be able to be successful in this war. You don't want to become a casualty of this war, because you don't have the right armor. You're not fighting the right fight. Look, our fight is not through politics. But you know, most of the Christendom is now just sucked into politics so much that it just oozes out of their pulpits. All they're talking about is the Ukrainian war and how, you know, it's Gog and Magog. It's not Gog and Magog, you idiots. Read your Bible. And I'll just say this, Ukraine is wicked as hell. Their country is wicked. I'm not saying I hope they get this Just Desserts and all this other stuff, but let me tell you something. There are a bunch of fruitcakes over there. Their president's a faggot. He is. I'm not saying, I'm not recommending you watch the video, but there is a video of him, you know, in high heels and dressed in drag dancing around like a fruitcake. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck. He's also the voice of Paddington Bear. Many people did not know that. Paddington Bear, Ukraine, I guess. So anyway, another fun fact of the night. But listen, if all the liberals are for us attacking Ukraine, then we should just know that it's a wicked agenda. And look, I'm not saying Vladimir Putin is a good guy, but see, that's what they'll say, well, you like Vladimir Putin then, right? I'm not saying that. He's wicked too. War is evil. War is fought because people want power. Who knows what the real endgame is, but I'll tell you what, it's not all that they're showing us. And you know what, they have technology that can make, it can seem like things are happening that really aren't happening. You know, like a slap at the Oscars or something. Anyway, I don't even want to discuss that, it's just too, that was just the most sissy slap I've ever seen. I've seen women slap harder than that, lots of times. But anyway, I digress. But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. What is a stronghold? It's like a fortress that you can beef up and, you know, an army attacking you, like you got all the provision you need, you need the strong high walls and it's really hard to get in there. Like a stronghold keep, something that someone tries to attack and it's just really hard to bring it down. But you know what the Bible says? Mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. See, with the might of God, the strongholds in our lives, the strongholds in the world, we can fight against those things and we can pull those things down. Because that's the ultimate goal, is to pull down the strongholds in this world and in this life. But you know what, it feels like we're fighting a battle practically alone. The voices of reason are going away very quickly and very swiftly. And even if someone says they're against this sodomite agenda, they're not all the way over on our side, are they? Because once you start talking Leviticus 2013, they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I wasn't talking about that. They could still be saved. It's like, no they can't. You're insane. It's not just that, it's false prophets. Like my wife was looking at all these live feeds and she was just rattling off all these numbers and amounts of people that are watching a live feed. And it was like 2,600 people watching one religious service live feed. And then she was just saying all these big numbers that are watching at the same time and she was like, and Pastor Mendez is out preaching all these people right now and he's got 25 people watching on the live feed. See because they throttle down and hide our stuff, you have to be looking for our stuff to find it. So seek and you shall find though, right? So the enemy has strongholds and there are strongholds in your life, your very life itself that you have a hard time pulling down yourself. We all have strongholds in our lives that the devil has over us or there are flesh. Flesh just doesn't want to give up, it's like, I'll do anything but not that, not the pants, not the pants, you know, or whatever it is that, you know, I'll give it all up but not my classic car or I'll give it all up but, you know, I just have to have the newest coolest clothes. There's just always something that each of us have in our lives that we need to try to pull down. And we need to work on that. But let's look at some mentions of warfare, there's no way I'm going to be able to finish this sermon tonight but I do want to look at some mentions of warfare in the Bible. Let's look at the first mention. It's not even close to over folks so don't start looking at the clock right now, alright? Once I start talking about how long this sermon is going to be, it's going to be long. So anyway, I'm just joking. But am I? 1 Samuel chapter 28 verse 1, this is the first mention of the Bible of the word warfare. It's not the first war in the Bible but it's the first mention of the word warfare. And so, you know, that number one thing I said of the war that we're fighting, the war of the world, we're fighting against the world, right? 1 Samuel chapter 28 verse 1, it says, And it came to pass in those days that the Philistines gathered their armies together for warfare, to fight with Israel. And Achish said unto David, Know thou assuredly that thou shalt go out with me to battle thou and thy men. So the first mention of warfare in the Bible is a physical battle, it's a physical war and the Philistines are gathering their armies together for warfare, to fight against Israel. But if you want to put a spiritual application on this, there's always going to be some Philistines out there that want to start a fight with us. There's always going to be some worldly thing that they'll see something that's preached or they'll hear something that's preached in this church and there's a revolving door here in case you didn't notice. We do have a lot of guests that show up here but they walk right out that door and they never come back, a lot of them. Some of them stay and I'm thankful for that. Some of them are dragged out by their family members or whatever but there's always going to be the Philistines trying to come at us in some sort of a battle. It's hard to not have spiritual warfare PTSD sometimes. Right now we're kind of in a calm a little bit and I always start to get a little bit nervous and my hands start shaking like I just got out of some war or something. It's like what's coming around the corner? But you know what? There's always going to be something coming around the corner. Just deal with it. That's just the way it is. And even if you weren't going to church, you're still going to have some kind of problem coming around the corner anyway. It's just going to be worse. If you quit on God, rest assured, the rest of your life is going to be miserable. You know what? God can be your enemy. Let's look at Romans chapter number 8 verse number 7, Romans chapter 8 verse number 7. Actually go to James chapter 4, I'm just going to read Romans 8 verse 7. Romans 8 says, Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So our carnal mind, the mind, the fleshly mind that we still have, you know, it's not subject to the law of God, it's against God. And it says, So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. So when we walk in the flesh instead of walking in the Spirit, God is against you. The God that saved you, the God that loves you, the God that cares for you, He's against you when you're walking in the flesh. So that's why I say if you walk away from the Christian life, I'm not saying just walk away from this church, if you walk away from Christianity and you turn your back upon God and you take your hand off the plow and you turn back and look to Egypt, you know what's going to come your way? A war with God. Do you think you can win a war against God? You're crazy if you think that. James chapter 4 verse 4, James chapter 4 verse 4 says, Ye adulterers and adulteresses know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is, what's it say there, an enemy of God. If you want to become God's enemy, well, you know, be friends with the world. Be like Lot. You know, God still had mercy upon Lot even though, you know, he was hanging out in Sodom. He was comfortable in Sodom. But he also was smart enough to realize when those angels came to town, what's going to happen to them. And so it says that, you know, if you're a friend of the world, you're the enemy of God. You're God's enemy. Nobody wants that. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40 verse 2, Isaiah chapter 40 verse 2. The Bible says in Isaiah 40 verse 2, it says, Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received the Lord's hand double for all her sins. So, you know, God basically, you know, said, okay, enough's enough. I've destroyed them to the fullest. I've doubled their sin. You know, they received the Lord's hand double for all their sins, and he's like, it's enough. You know, their iniquity is punished. But the point is, is that God committed, you know, he waged warfare upon the children of Israel, didn't he? That's what it says. So God can war against us and become our enemies if we're not careful. So obviously we all walk in the flesh at some points in our life and probably some points every single day. But if you're just going to walk away from Christianity and say, I want to go back and live my life and be friends with the world, then God's going to become your enemy and it's war. It's war. And it might not happen right away. Sometimes it takes time for God's judgments. Maybe he's giving you some room, some long suffering, some mercy, because he has a lot of it. But eventually the chickens are going to come home to roost, you've got to pay the piper, so to speak, and God's going to destroy your life one part at a time. First Timothy chapter 1 verse 18, I'll have you turn to 2 Timothy chapter 2. First Timothy chapter 1 verse 18, the Bible says, This charge I commit unto thee, son of Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. So what's Paul saying? Hey, I want you, Timothy, to war a good warfare. So as a pastor, you know, this is a pastoral passage here, Paul's saying to the pastor Timothy, he's saying, hey, you know, according to the prophecies, the preachings that went on before thee, that thou by them mightest war a good warfare. Hey, remember the preaching you heard, Timothy, remember that preaching because you know what I want you to do? I want you to fight a good warfare. I want you to go and, you know, wreak havoc on this world, wreak havoc against the devil's kingdom, wreak havoc against the parishioners, the people of that church that are destroying themselves because they don't know how to walk right. Preach the word, preach the word, be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. So as a pastor, there's a war going on constantly. And it's my job to war a good warfare and to help you all war that warfare too. You're in 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse number 3, it says, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. So hardness, what's hardness? Well, you know, if you think about how hard war would be, I always think about World War I and how much hell that would be. They have to build all these trenches and, you know, they don't have anything to eat. They have minefields that they have to run through and they're in mud, they're hungry, they're cold, they're tired. That's enduring hardness. There's a lot of people that have had to endure hardness in real physical wars, but what's the Bible saying, it's saying, hey, thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier because you know what we are? We're soldiers. If you're in a war, you're a soldier, men, women, boys and girls in this church, you are a soldier. Look what it says in verse 4. No man that warth entanglement himself with the affairs of this life, like the world, that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. Everybody in this room that's saved tonight, God's chosen you to be a soldier. Jesus Christ has chosen you to be a soldier and you know what he expects? You to fight. He expects you to fight, he expects you to be in the war and, you know, obviously we have lives to live and all that stuff, but you know what? You know what's going to really matter in the end? How good of a fight you fought. How good of a war you waged. How good of a soldier you were in this world. And you know, we all go through our times when we're not as good as soldiers as we could be. There's no such thing as a perfect soldier, but you know, the only way you quit being a soldier is if you quit or if you get killed in the battlefield, right? And so you don't want to quit, don't go AWOL as a Christian and don't quit, which is the same thing as going AWOL. And don't let yourself be killed. Don't let the enemy kill you. Don't let them win the war against you. Because you know what? You have something that they don't have. They might have the devil. They might have his minions and his demons or whatever. They might have the minds of the world against us. They might have all these numbers over the top of us and compared to us, but we have the God of all heaven and earth who created everything and we have his power. So we have somebody that can beat all of them with his hands tied behind his back blindfolded and you know, he couldn't blind God, but he can still see through the blindfold. But anyway, I'm just saying that the power of God is way more powerful than the power of the enemy. We look at them and we see them and they try to make us afraid. They try to say things to make us be afraid. They try to do things to us to make us afraid. They try to send us stuff that makes us afraid, but you know what? We have God and there eventually, their end is hell. You know what? Ours is paradise, excuse me. But it says in verse 5, and if a man also strived for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strived lawfully. So this is what I was talking about earlier. We're striving for the mastery. We have to strive lawfully. We have to strive within the rules of God's confines. We can't go outside of those rules of engagement. The rules of engagement in war, you know, now it's basically if they start shooting at you, then you can shoot at them if you have permission from the CEO or whatever. Like the new rules of engagement are really weak. There's a lot of military men that have been killed in the United States because of the stupid rules of engagement. If someone's shooting at you, I mean that's crazy that you have to wait until they start shooting at you to shoot back. That's a dumb way to win a war. That's why we always never seem to win. But we do win. We do win. Some kind of regime change or some kind of, you know, installation of a new government or whatever. There's people in Ukraine, they're like puppets of the United States. They're puppets of the United States. Like the governor of, the former president of Georgia, the country, not the state, he defected from that country and renounced his citizenship and now is the governor of Odessa, which is a prime location in the Black Sea, and he's the governor. And you know what, he's friends with all these people from Washington, D.C. What we're seeing on television, if you're watching the stuff about the war or news clips or whatever, it's not reality, folks. We've got a different war we need to focus on. The focus of the war is not what's going on in Ukraine. Not the wars and rumors of wars and all this spiritual wickedness and all this stuff. You know, obviously we need to be informed to a certain extent, but at some point it's just vexing. At some point it's disheartening, but you know what's not disheartening? Knowing that God is on our side, that He has our back, and even if we do fall in the war, we get to be resurrected with the saints, and we have a better resurrection. Let's look back in our text at chapter number 10, 2 Corinthians chapter number 10, let's look at verse number 5. It says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. You see that? It's talking about the weapons of our warfare, we're not supposed to fight a physical battle, but the battle that happens in our imaginations, the battle that happens with anything that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, what's the knowledge of God? How do we know the knowledge of God? Well the Bible, you know the Bible has the knowledge of God, that's how we have any knowledge of God, is through His Word, and it says, bringing into captivity every thought. Try doing that. To the obedience of Christ, you know, it wouldn't be in the Bible if it wasn't possible. So what are you thinking about? Are you thinking about good stuff, positive stuff, things of God's Word, or are you thinking about, you know, what Senator so and so is doing, or whatever, I mean, who cares about Will Smith slapping Chris Rock, who looks like he has more plastic surgery every single week or something, he's like trying to beat Michael Jackson or something. Who cares? That's just like some kind of, you know, thing to get your mind off of, of the things of God. Who cares? He's a sodomite. His kids are sodomites. Like if you envy him in any way, shape, or form, like you envy their life where they have an open relationship, where his wife sleeps around with anybody, and he's, no wonder why he got up and slapped him. He's just trying to get some self-respect back or something, I don't know. But slapping Chris Rock is like, you know, I don't know, Chris Rock's so skinny he could hula hoop through a Cheerio. But anyway, look at verse number six, it says, in having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. It's an interesting verse. Having a readiness to revenge all disobedience. Talk about you. When your obedience is fulfilled, get ready to take revenge on your disobedience. Rein that stuff in. You know, because we need to cast down those imaginations. We need to exalt, everything that's exalting itself against the knowledge of God, we need to bring into captivity every thought. Because sometimes when I read the Bible, there's things in the Old Testament, especially, and in the book of Revelation that are like, man, that's pretty harsh. It's pretty harsh. But you know what, I just know at that point when I'm thinking that I have a feeling that's against something that God says is right, that I'm automatically wrong. If you have that attitude all the time when you're reading the Bible or when something's preached and you're just like, oh, that's a hard saying, I don't want to hear that. But you know what, it's God's word. It's God's word and we need to cast down those imaginations, those things that we think that God's not right about and we need to bring that into captivity in every thought to the obedience of Christ. Verse 6, excuse me, yeah, let's look at verse 6 again, it says, in having and readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Because obviously as you grow as a Christian, you're going to start being obedient in things. You're going to start obeying Christ more. If you're reading the Bible, if you're going to church, if you've got a good prayer life and you're soul winning and you're attending church on a regular basis, you're going to have a better, you're going to hopefully get some sin out of your life. That disobedience will rear its ugly head up again and it says you need to revenge that. You need to take revenge upon that disobedience and rein that back in again. So the truth is that there's a war going on for our very hearts and our very minds every single day with everything we look at, everything we listen to, every person we talk to, there's just a constant bombardment of radiation, so to speak, against us, trying to put some kind of a cancer inside of our body, if you think of it on those terms. That's something that we have to learn to deflect, something we have to learn. What are you thinking about? Are you thinking about good things? We're supposed to be thinking about good things and not all the bad. Don't have such a negative outlook on everything because we can get negative and start just thinking everything's all bad and nothing's good, but you know what? We have it pretty good. We have it good, but you know, Satan does want to sift you like wheat and he accuses you to God night and day and you know, if you're doing the things that Satan's accusing you of, God is just and he has to discipline us as his children. So don't let him be your accuser, you know, at least as little as possible. Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 28, because ultimately, you know, the things that we see in the Old Testament are pictures of what we have in our lives also, because God said I'm going to put before you blessings and cursing. Have you ever noticed the list of cursing is way longer than the blessings? And I've often wondered why that was, but the disobedience is more than the obedience it seems like in the Old Testament too, but the more you disobey, the worse and more harsh the punishment becomes, because God's going to start off, you know, disciplining you, trying to bring you back and bring you back to the fold and bring you back to a right thought process, but the more you turn your back on him, the more you put things in front of him, the worse it's going to get. And this, if you're in Deuteronomy chapter 28, it's a long chapter and I don't have time to read it all, but I just wanted to read a few verses for you. It says in Deuteronomy chapter 28 verse 63, it says, and it shall come to pass that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, positive, right? So the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to naught. So you've got two things here. God rejoicing to do good things for you, but then, you know, rejoicing is like woo, jumping for joy, right? You know, rejoicing is like you're just happy, everything's exciting, but then the Lord will also rejoice over you to destroy you. That's what we don't want and to bring you to naught. That means bring you to nothing and you shall be plucked from off the land whether thou goest to possess it and the Lord shall scatter thee among all people from one end of the earth and even unto the other and there shall, thou shalt serve other gods which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone. And among these nations shall thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind. Does that sound like fun? It doesn't sound like fun, does it? We don't want to be in this position where God's just like, he's at the end of his rope with you and that he's literally just giving you a trembling heart where you're afraid of everything, a failing of your eyes, a sorrow of your mind and it says thy life shall hang in doubt before thee and thou shalt fear day and night and shall have none assurance of thy life. See because people won't choose the fear of the Lord, they'll choose to fear everything else like Zedekiah, he was afraid that people were going to make fun of him for accepting Jeremiah's message and everything that Jeremiah said was going to happen if he didn't do what was right. He said I beseech you, you know he's telling the king, he's like begging the king to just listen to what the Bible says so that the people could be spared there and he was more worried about what his friends thought than doing what was right and the last thing he saw is all of his children killed, all of his wives killed and then the last thing he saw was all of his kids being killed before they poked his eyes out. How would you like that to be the end of you? Or the last thing you see is some kind of terrible judgment against you because you wouldn't listen to the word of the Lord. But that's how God is, he's loving, he's long suffering, he rejoices to do great things for us, he wants to bless us, he wants to help us, he wants to be on our side but we're our own worst enemies as Christians sometimes. You know there's a lot of people who love to be in a church like this and be learning the word of God and they're not getting it. There's guys like the guy that got saved today, he's just like I'm sitting in this church and I don't even know how to be saved. Who knows how long he's been going there, he was an older guy. How long he'd been going to that church and that fruitcake that gets up and preaches for that church every single week with his long dreadlocks and his talking with his hands all the time. I think he's probably a fag. I think he is. I mean I can't prove that but he loves the sodomites, he talks about he's from San Francisco, I mean there it is right? No wonder why they don't get saved in that church because nobody listens, they don't even hear the gospel being preached. What in the world? That guy calls himself a minister? You know I just read the scriptures last Sunday in 1 Corinthians chapter 11 how it's a shame for a man to have long hair getting up and preaching the word of God. That abomination stands up every single week in front of that church, the biggest church in Vancouver and just spreads his lies and his false gospel and his filth. There's no wonder why that guy wasn't saved before. You know because the truth is not in that church, he's a false prophet and if you're not getting the word of God, you're not getting the right salvation in your church, you need to leave and find some place where you can get the truth. But you know these people are deceived, they don't understand that they're not getting the truth. They're sheep for the slaughter is what they are and really they're not even God's sheep, they're just people that these false prophets just gather together and fleece them for everything they have. And I don't care if people get mad at me for saying that or not, I get attacked about that Daniel Fusco thing a lot. But I will stand my ground on that fight every single time. He's a false prophet, he's an abomination standing up in front of God, he dishonors his head and really in reality Christ is in his head because if he was his head then he would not be preaching what he does and he wouldn't be standing there with his greasy nasty dreadlocks in front of all the people. With his San Francisco tree doctrine, how the homos can be saved. I've seen the videos folks and you know what if you're on their side you're not on God's side I can tell you that right now. Anyway I'm going to close in a word of prayer but we've got to understand we're in a war folks and if you didn't realize it until tonight, realize it. Realize what you realize right? Realize where we're at, we're in a battle and it's war, it's warfare but we don't want God to become our enemy. We already got the world to fight, we already got the devil to fight, we already got our own flesh to fight but then you're fighting all that and then God's going to fight against you too? It's a losing battle folks, we need to do what's right. Keep following the Lord and loving the Bible, keeping his commandments, loving his commandments, loving his word no matter what it says, no matter what it says it's right, your imagination is wrong. Alright, let's pray. Heavenly Father we thank you Lord so much for this great chapter in the Bible Lord there's so many great verses that are just memory verses for people all around the world. Lord I pray you'd help us to soak all this in and help us to understand that we are in a war. Help us Lord to be good soldiers for you Lord and endure the hardness that comes with being a soldier and we thank you Lord for the boldness of the apostle Paul. We thank you Lord for using him in such a great way that we're probably saved because of his efforts and Lord we're obviously saved because of yours on the cross and we appreciate that. We thank you so much for salvation for this great church in Jesus' name we pray, amen.