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

And then we'll put this bottle up. Well, it definitely is great to be back here in our church, Shurf Foundation Baptist North. And it has been too long. And I'm definitely excited when her brother went. Well, actually, yeah, somebody sent me like that we were free to come back. And only Americans can come here, but you guys can't come down there. So it's just how it is with that American exceptionalism. So anyway, I'm just kidding. But anyway, thank you, Brother Wen and Miss Kleene, for all your hospitality and the whole church. I really appreciate. You guys always treat us really great. And you treated our guests, our other guests, the Buzardski family great. And then Brother Jim, of course, I know you guys are going to treat him well, too. So really appreciate all the hospitality. And I like what's going on here at our church. There's a lot of new faces. And our church is basically pretty much changed completely out to the original people. There's still some OGs here. But there's a lot of new faces, too, and a lot of new people. So that's just kind of how it is in the church life. We had Pastor Jimenez down last weekend at our church. And he said, I'll raise the hands of who was here from the beginning. And it was a really small number compared to times past. Which makes me sad at one point, but also it makes me have some hope that things are going to continue on and still be better than ever. And when people leave, people come. People come, people go. So that's just kind of the nature of the business. But I've been preaching a lot about not quitting the Christian life. Seems to be like a theme that I keep just coming up with. Because it's just so important to live the Christian life and to continue to live the Christian life. I preached a sermon last week called, But None of These Things Move Me, and how the Apostle Paul finished his course, how he kept the faith. And it's a great inspiration for me. Because there's many times when I've wanted to quit. I'm sure that everybody in here has probably had some kind of experience where they're just are going at a, they're having a hard time. And then you feel like everybody's forsaken you. But God will never leave thee nor forsake thee. But we have to just keep going no matter what. And the title of my sermon this morning or this afternoon is The Seven Hopes of Canada. The Seven Hopes of Canada. Look down your Bible at verse number one in Romans chapter 5. It says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into the grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this great church up here in British Columbia. And we're so thankful, Lord, but I would definitely like to see many more churches start in this nation and in different provinces and different cities across this country. And Lord, it's not enough to just have one church, although we're thankful for this one. But I pray that many more churches would sprout up that are like unto this church, that have the same goals and missions. And Lord, the same spirit, the same love for people. And I just pray, Lord, that you would give Canada some hope. It's a country that's dark to the gospel in a lot of different areas, like many other places around the world, including our own country in the United States. I pray, Lord, that you would just open up Canada and that you would, even in a dark place, that you would put your light there. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So the seven hopes of Canada. You're like, well, this is going to be a long sermon. Yeah, it might be. But it's not like you're not used to it, right? You might not be used to it with weather wind. But if you ever listen to my sermons, they're usually pretty long. And I don't really have a timetable. It's not like we have someplace to go afterward. You got someplace to go? Anyway, we've got some fellowship to do after this. But we've done a lot of fellowship. But let's pay attention to the word of God this afternoon. And so, yeah, I have seven points. So the seven hopes of Canada. What is hope? Could you define hope? Do you think that you actually, does anybody definition of hope like memorized or is that something that you know exactly what that means? Sometimes it's hard though. Like you kind of know what it means, but you couldn't really put it into words. Well, I'll help you put it into words. Hope is confidence in a future event, the highest degree of well-founded expectation of good, as a hope founded on God's gracious promises in a scriptural sense. So obviously hope, there could be hope, different types of hope. The hope that the Bible's talking about, this type of hope, is hope in the expectation of good things that God is going to give us. And he's already given us salvation. The Bible teaches that once you believe on Christ, you are saved. It's not like you're being saved. But we are waiting for the redemption of our bodies, and so that's something that we hope for. As you get older, you're gonna feel a lot, you're gonna desire that hope even more because you start getting more aches and pains. We were talking about basketball, and I was telling some of the guys how I basically had to retire because I used to like to play just, you know, basketball and the pickup games, but I really blew my knee out pretty bad one time, and I thought I was ready to go. I realized the older you get, the harder it is to rehab stuff, and I didn't even go to the doctor. I just kinda thought, oh, three weeks, it's been fine. You know, and then I went and played for like three hours, and I couldn't walk for another three weeks. So I was like, yeah, I'm done. But you know, I'm gonna be happy the day that I get a glorified body that can't be hurt, that can't get sick, can't get dandruff, can't smell. You know, there's a lot of things about our bodies right now that just like aren't great, but you know, we're gonna have a body that, you know, when you stub your toe, it's not gonna hurt. You know, it's not gonna destroy one of your pinky toe for the rest of your life, or you can't grow a nail right or something like that. You know, there's a lot of things that happen to us that there's like accumulative damage that happens in our lives. As we get older, you get into an accident, or you know, you fall down, you scrape your knee, or just whatever it is, you just get these accumulations, and as you get older, those accumulations turn into arthritis and scarring and just all kinds of stuff. So I'm waiting for that body to come, or I'll have six-pack abs again or something like that. I'm just kidding. But point number one this morning is the hope of Canada is Jesus Christ, and that's like, if you get anything out of this sermon, that is the most important thing. Canada needs the real Jesus, not the fake Jesus, not the Jesus from another gospel, but the real Jesus, not the Anglican Jesus, not the Catholic Jesus, you know, not the Jehovah's Witness Jesus, not the Mormon Jesus. They need the Jesus of the Bible, the King James Bible, and Mormons will say, well, yeah, we believe the King James Bible. They don't believe that for a second. They believe it as they interpret it through their prophets or whatever. You can show them Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, and they go, yeah, but you have to obey as much, you know, you kind of have to make it up. Like you have to, after all you can do, you know, you're saved by grace. That's not what the verse says. So there's a lot of fake Jesuses out there, but we need to make sure that Canada has the hope in the real Jesus, and they're like, well, that's a big task. This is a small church. Yeah, but small churches can do big things. God always did big things in the Bible by very few people, and sometimes I think that God just likes that challenge. He likes his saints that believe in him to take something and go, hey, I can do this through faith. You know, Gideon, he took on a whole multitude of armies with 300 men. He started with like 20 something thousand people and then ended up with 300 guys, and they all followed him into battle and drove out the Midianites and destroyed them, and so God has just continuously done those types of great acts through very small amounts of people. And in Romans chapter five, there's a lot of verses in here talking about hope, but you know, we need to have a hope in Jesus, and if Canada is gonna be reached, it's gotta be reached by the real Lord Jesus Christ. Turn to Psalm chapter 31 verse 19, in Psalm chapter 31 verse 19. In Psalm chapter 31 verse 19, the Bible says, oh, how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men. So God has things, great things in store for him. That is what hope is. We hope in things that we haven't seen yet. Has anybody in here seen Jesus? Please don't raise your hand if you have, because I don't wanna embarrass you in front of everybody, but Jesus is in heaven. He's at the right hand of God the Father. None of us have seen Jesus, but yet Jesus said blessed are those that have not seen and yet believe. See, we're blessed because there's a lot of people that even saw Jesus and didn't believe in him, but we've never even seen Jesus, and yet we believe in him. We have a hope, an expected hope that's going to happen, and one day that we're gonna see Jesus face to face, and that's something that we hope for, but he has things laid up for us for them to trust in him, and for those that fear him, and it says, oh, how great, oh, how great is thy goodness. Look at verse 20. It says, thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of men. Thou shalt keep them secretly in the pavilion from the strife of tongues. Blessed be the Lord, for he hath showed me his marvelous kindness in a strong city. For I said in my haste that I am cut off from before thine eyes. Nevertheless, thou hurtest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee. See, he's hurt, you know, we've had, we've experienced his marvelous kindness in this strong city. You know, there's a lot of people here that are not saved. There's a whole bunch of bozos singing a bunch of stupid songs like right across the alley from us that are not saved. They're out there preaching to repent of your sins, Jesus, or repent of your sins gospel. Come and have our soup and you may be saved or whatever. You know, it's just trash. What they're teaching is garbage, their music sucks, and you know, we need to show people the real Jesus, the one that can bless us. And you know what, he's gonna bless us in a strong city. This is a big city. Like this whole area is a huge area and we got what, 30 people here today. We have a big job, but you know, we have a big God also. And so we can do great things through the Lord Jesus Christ, but the hope of Canada, one of the hopes of Canada is Jesus Christ. Look what it says in verse 23 here in Psalm chapter 31. It says, oh, love the Lord, all ye his saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer. Be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. So you hope in the Lord and he's gonna reward you plentifully. See, you know, Paul, you know, or I believe it was Paul, you know, said that he went to the third heaven, right? So Paul went to the third heaven. That's who I believe it was. He's speaking like tongue in cheek because he just got done saying, I don't want to brag. But you know, if he says, I don't want to brag and then he starts bragging, it'd be kind of weird. But I believe that Paul went to the third heaven and he saw these things that he couldn't even utter. He couldn't speak to people and so wonderful and great. And it's unlawful for him to say things. That's like these people that say, I've been to heaven or whatever and 13 minutes in heaven or whatever it is, they're lying. If the apostle Paul can't say it, then how's some little brat that's 13 year old is gonna be able to tell us what it is? You know what I mean? It's just ridiculous. That's a stupid, don't ever fall for that garbage and that trash. But there's also people say, well, I had a guy that I was out soul winning the other day and he said, I've been to heaven and I've been to hell. I'm like, oh, okay, I wanna hear about this. He's like, it's here. No, it's not. There's a hell below and a heaven above that we are looking forward to. And it says, the Lord preserveth the faithful. He plentiethly rewarded the proud doer. And if we hope in the Lord, he's got a lot of great things in store for us. Turn to Jeremiah 17, verse seven. Jeremiah 17, verse number seven. The Bible says in Jeremiah 17, seven, blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. So you're blessed if you trust the Lord and you hope for the things that are yet to come from him. Look at verse eight. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters. Now, the Bible explains this a couple different times in the scriptures about trees being planted by waters. And those trees are usually really strong, their roots grow deep. So if you have Jesus Christ as your water source, you're gonna be a strong planted tree, like a tree planted by the waters. And it says, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh. So when the hard times come, it's not gonna affect you like it would affect other people. But her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought. Like that's another way of just saying like, you're not gonna be worried in the times of the financial crisis and things like that. There's a lot of people that were Christians in 2007 when all that crisis stuff happened with all the economy and stuff. And guess what, they're still here. But a lot of people were scared. I know a guy that, he was a contractor and he just cut his prices down and he stayed busy the whole time that all that stuff went down. And there was people going out of business and filing for bankruptcy and things like that. But this guy made it through and he was just like, you know what, I'm just gonna cut the price a little bit and see what God can do for me. And he made it through that. And a lot of people were predicting that there's gonna be this big letdown in the economy. And there probably will be. I mean, if you give away trillions of dollars and just say, people, you don't have to pay for your rent for a while. And all those people that were renting those houses lost their mortgages because of it. There probably is gonna be some kind of a hit to the economy. But you know what, if your trust is in the Lord, what can you expect that he's gonna get you through even in the year of drought, even when the sun is hot? So if you're a great tree that's planted by the waters, if your hope is in the Lord, then he's gonna take care of you. And you're not gonna have to worry about those things. So it says, be not careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. So of course, you can apply that to soul winning. You know, when times are hard, when times are good. Soul winning should just be something that you just continue to do. And why? Because you want to put that hope into other people, right? If you have the hope of Jesus, don't you want other people to have that hope also? And you know, you guys are Canadians, lock it down. This is your area, this is your territory. And you know, we gotta spread the territory across this country and to different places. My hope is that someday that there'll be churches all across the nation of Canada that people wouldn't have to drive from 23 hours away or 14 hours away or whatever to get to a great church that they'd be able to just go to a church, at least in their province, you know, in the next several years. That'd be great to have churches all over the provinces so that people could just say, hey, you know, I don't have to move clear across the country to go to a good church. I could just be in a good church in one of the big cities in Canada. Look at Lamentations chapter, actually turn to Romans chapter eight, verse 24, and I'm gonna read Lamentations 3.26. Lamentations 3.26 says, it is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. See, something that, you know, something that's, when we're hoping, we have to understand that it's something that we're waiting for. When you hope in something, it's not something that you already see, it's already tangible for you to grab, it's something that you're quietly supposed to wait for, that salvation of the Lord. Look at Romans 8.24, it says, for we are saved by hope, but hope that is not seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. See, it's something that we have to patiently wait for this hope, and it's really tied, you know, obviously hope is tied to our faith. We have a hope, you know, can you say, can you just say, you know what, I'm saved, and then people automatically believe you? How do, you know, there's times when people do doubt, too. You know, what if this stuff isn't really true? Which I hope that that's never something that creeps into your mind, but you know, I'm sure everybody in this room has probably had a point where they thought, well, what if this isn't true? Well, I would rather believe that it is true, even so, because, you know, these people say, well, what if it's not true, and then I just live my life good for my whole life, thinking that, you know, things were gonna be great for me because of all the great things I've done in this world, you know, after being saved. But that's a weird way to think. It's like they'd rather just say, well, I'll just be bad. I'll just do wickedly, and then hope that Jesus isn't real. I mean, that's a stupid way to live your life. Because really, shouldn't you, you know, even people that believe a false gospel, they try to be good people. You know, a lot of people that say they're Christians are not really good people, but they try to be good people. And it's funny, sometimes the cult people are more devoted than the people that are actually independent Baptists, and that's what's really sad. You know, they go to church because they think that they're gonna lose their salvation if they don't go to church. And they go out knocking doors, even though they're going like this, as Jehovah's Witnesses, like they're walking like Joe Biden or something, you know, to the next door, because they're just putting in time because that time earns them their place in heaven. But isn't it sad that there's a lot of independent Baptists that, you know, they dip out, or they just get cold, and they stop coming to church, and they stop just like being part of the Christian life, and you got cult members that are more devoted than independent Baptists. That's sad. That's a shame to us, and we shouldn't feel that way. But it says, you know, for we are saved by hope. You hope that the Scriptures are true. You hope that Jesus is real. But I mean, it's not that I just hope it, I do know it. I believe the Word of God is true. I believe the promises, every single promise in this book is mine. You know, every single chapter, every single line, right? But we do have to have faith in these things because we have not seen them. We have the Word of God. That is an evidence of our faith, but it's still something we have to take by faith. We still have to believe that the Bible is passed down to us by faith. Did you see that the people copy it down and make sure it was perfect? No, but we know that it is because we can look back at old scrolls and stuff from thousands of years ago and check it and make sure that everything's right. But you don't speak Greek, do you? Do you read Greek? Do you read Hebrew? How do you know that they translated it right? Well, I mean, I take some of the things that I believe by faith. You know, obviously there's some Greek scholars that knew a lot more than I did and they were able to translate that into English so that we can, so it's preserved for us. But you know, God promised that He would preserve the Scriptures for us, didn't He? He said that His words were pure words. And so they can't be just taken away willy-nilly and God is the ones responsible for keeping them intact. So somewhere in the world there has to be an English Bible that we can trust in. And guess what we have? It's called the King James, right? Turn to Hebrews chapter 11, verse one. Hebrews chapter 11, verse one. So the last verse I had you turn to was Romans 8 and it says, and while you're getting there I'm just gonna read it real quick, the last verse. It says, but if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Look at Hebrews 11 one, it says, now faith is the substance of things hoped for. See that word hope for? It's the substance of things hoped for. See it's something that we believe is true but we have not seen it. The evidence of things not seen. So we have not seen Jesus. There's a lot of things that we haven't seen heaven. We haven't seen what it's gonna be like in heaven. We don't know what it looks like, we don't know what it's gonna be like. But I guarantee you one thing, it's gonna be a lot better than this place. And we have great promises of God. This is the chapter of faith here. It says it's the evidence of things not seen for by the elders obtained a good report. Talking about the apostles and prophets and all the great leaders of the Bible. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. Isn't that interesting? All the things that we see outside in the world were made by somebody but obviously the earth itself and the stars and the moon and the sun and all that stuff, we don't even see the things that made it. But yet, and this is where atheists jump off a cliff and they're like, well how can you prove that God made it? Well how can you prove that some little dot exploded and made everything that you see today? That's just intellectual suicide. I mean it really is, it's just stupidity. They're like, some lady on Twitter last night, I was kind of looking at Twitter because Elon Musk took it back over and fired all the clowns that were working there, right? And I was just kind of seeing how people, because now the right wing people can get on there and troll again. So it's kind of funny to see, but this atheist lady, she was like, you guys are saying that the atheist is a religion, how stupid are you? It's like, no how stupid are you? You believe in something that you haven't seen. They're like, she was like, you believe in a book and argue and fight and get into wars about a book. That's like, so do you. You actually are the one that are fighting with us about the book that we believe in. You know, if you don't believe that God's true, then why don't you just live your life and eat, drink, and be married. But what do they do? They spend every waking moment of their miserable stinking life trying to disprove Christianity and tell us how stupid we are. But here's what's stupid, is that you believe that things were made don't have a maker. They just accidentally happened. We accidentally spin around the sun at a certain mile per hour. And yes, we spin around it and we are a globe, okay. And it turns around and the seasons always happen the way that they're supposed to. And we are alive on this world. If we were knocked out of some kind of orbit, you know, they're always saying in the news, a meteor almost hit Earth. It was the size of, you know, whatever. It's like, there's never going to be a meteor that hits the world and makes it spin out of control to where every person on the Earth dies. It's just not going to happen. The Bible doesn't say that that's going to happen. I mean, obviously stars are going to fall and things like that. I get that. And meteors will fall, but it's not going to destroy the whole Earth. I mean, they act like it's going to be this explosion like Hiroshima or something. It's going to be a mushroom cloud and then everybody on Earth is going to die or something. That's not going to happen. The Earth is going to last forever, just like everything else that God's made, right? So I don't know how I got off on that, but well, because, you know, we believe in something we haven't seen and people would say we're stupid. But God, I think, you know, the creation to me proves that there's a maker. So, and the Bible explains who that maker is in the first three verses of the Bible. In the beginning, God created the heavenly Earth. That's the first verse, right? God created the heaven of the Earth, the Holy Spirit. He is involved in that process. And God said, let there be light, verse number three. So you got the Trinity in the first three verses. You got how this world came to be in the first three verses. What do they have? A dot swirled around for a really, really, really, really long time. And then it had all this pressure on this infinitesimal dot, which means that a really tiny dot that you could barely see and it exploded in everything you see in the world. Why are there planets that are spinning backwards then? Because if something spins, you know, there's science involved in that and everything that spins off of it's going to spin in a certain direction. I'm not trying to like preach Ken Hovind or something right now, but I'm just saying that just makes sense, right? But they don't even believe science. And I think that there's more than two genders. Like in our America, we believe in science. Love is love. No, that's not science. That's perversion. That's wickedness. So, you know, we actually do believe in science. There actually is only two genders. Oh, you just mis-gendered me. No, I didn't. You're a freak. So anyway, number one, the hope of Canada, the first hope is Jesus Christ. Amen. And number two, the hope of Canada is more churches like this church, more churches like this church. Look at 1 Timothy 3, verse 15. 1 Timothy 3, verse 15. Very famous verse in the Bible. It says, but if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. This is a very important verse in scripture. Number one, it says, you know, how we know how to behave ourselves in the house of God, if there's no house of God to go to, how are you even gonna behave yourself? You know, the house of God is so important because what? It's teaching us where believers belong. Where do we belong in the house of God? Is it this building? No, it's not this building. It's this group of believers gathered together in Jesus' name. That is the house of God. It says it's the church of the living God. See, God is not dead. Of course, you know, Nietzsche is the one that said God is dead. No, he's not. You're dead and you're in hell, you freak. Nietzsche's roasting in hell. But you know what? God is still alive. He's the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses, and all the prophets. He's still alive. And he said that the house of God is the pillar and ground of the truth. So the hope of Canada, what's the hope of Canada? Well, that other churches would be started like this church where people can come to a place like this. And you know, it's just so great that we can just sit around and talk about whatever we want to talk about when it comes to the Bible. Last night, we were just talking about things that if you talked about that at an old IFB church, you'd get thrown out. You Steven Anderson follower, get out of here. You believe in salvation by faith alone? What's wrong with you? You believe in a post-trib rapture? Get out of here, you heretic. Burn them, you know, dunk them under water and see if they float. Yeah, I mean, that's how they treat people that believe like us. But you know what's nice about this church is that we believe the truth and we get to sit around and talk about it whenever we want to. And you know what? There's a lot of people that live in this country that love to sit down in a church like this, wanna be able to talk about the truths of the Bible without worrying about whether they're gonna get run out and driven out of town over it. So this place is important. And everything that gets done through this church gets done through the local New Testament church. Everything that gets done at our church goes through the local New Testament church. We support missionaries through the local New Testament church. We send out soul winners through the local New Testament church. Doesn't it say how should they preach except they be sent? You know, we are sent out to preach the gospel, why? Because the local church is what sends out the soul winners. Now obviously there's people in different situations, there's places where there isn't good churches, but you know what? For Canada, that needs to change. I preached a sermon a couple years ago about reaching the Pacific Islands. The Pacific Islands kind of basically just kind of closed off to me right now. And then I just see other churches or fellowships of people, believers and stuff like that popping up in Canada and it really gives me hope that Canada can be reached. But we need to have New Testament churches like this church pop up all over Canada. Look at Romans chapter 12, verse 12. Romans chapter 12, verse 12. You know, the hope of Canada begins at the local church in this, you know, right here in Vancouver, BC. And you're like, well what about other, there's some other good churches, Pastor Jobs, I'm sure there is. But there are very few and far in between. And most of the people that you knock on their doors, they're not interested, are they? It is a spiritually dark place where there's a lot of different religions that are around that don't, they're really hard to reach. Like the Sikhs, they're hard to reach, aren't they? And the Muslims, aren't they hard to reach? Yes they are, they're just like Mormons basically. Who's gotten like a bonafide Muslim saved in here? Anybody? Who's gotten a bonafide Sikh saved in here? Wow, and you guys have, oh, okay, once. Oh, kids, kids, yeah. So that's easy enough, but like when it's adults, they're harder. How about Hindus? Anybody gotten a dyed in the wool Hindu saved? No? And you guys have been around here for four years preaching the gospel, probably longer than that now? That's how tough it is sometimes. And so you're going in and like dodging the raindrops basically and just pulling people out of the fire. And the fact that you guys get people saved here is, that's a miracle. It's a, salvation's a miracle, folks. Because people are blinded by the devil and he's captured people at his will and just the fact that you show up at someone's door and that person gets saved and that you're able to help them stop deceiving themselves, like Pastor Pizarnsky was saying, that people deceive themselves. They put on all these costumes and these masks. And a lot of these people I just mentioned are always wearing these costumes too, aren't they? It's like cosplay religion. The Sikhs that you go to, what are they wearing? Do they look like us? I'm not saying, this is just like what normal business people wear. This isn't like some weird outfit. Like when we're out in public, people will go, oh, oh, thank you, or let me give you this, or whatever. They just think you're a normal person. When ladies are wearing dresses, most people think that's normal, or they think you're Russian. One of the two. But that's what they get accused of in Vancouver all the time. Are you a Ruski, a Ruski? But I don't know, I forgot what I was talking about. What was I on a roll about? I'm just kidding. But I'm talking about the wizard outfits, right? The wizard outfits that these people are wearing. We were down at the totem pole idolatry station yesterday at that, what's the park called? Stanley Park, yeah. They got all these giant totem poles, and it's like people are getting pictures with the totem poles, like, oh, look at my demon. Me and my demons are taking a picture together. But then there's these guys, they're like Buddhist monks or something, and they're wearing these orange dresses or something. And then one of them had his wife with him or something. I don't know if they have wives, but it was some lady that was with him, and she was just wearing regular clothes or whatever, but she was wearing pants. So these people from these other religions, what are they doing? They're walking around trying to be noticed because of the way that they dress. They're wearing a disguise, aren't they? They're wearing their wizard outfits, like the Catholic priests and all these people. And it's always like they're wearing dresses, isn't it? These Sikhs, what are they wearing? They're wearing dresses and they grow their hair until eternity or something, right? And their hair probably stinks. Let's just be honest, okay? The Muslims do the same thing. They walk around wearing their dresses, and people are like, I wouldn't say that they were wearing a dress. Why not? That's what it is. You know, or these friar tuck type Catholics, if you've ever seen them, they have like the rope belt. It's just like a dress, a gunny sack dress with like a rope tied around it. And they walk around with like a big flavor flave cross on the front of them, you know what I'm talking about? And it's like, I'm not trying to be noticed, you know? It's just, everybody's gonna notice that. It's just weird. So we're out there trying to reach people that their leaders are wearing disguises. They're wearing their wizard robes and their secret handshake outfits or whatever. It's just strange, folks. But that's what you're up against in Canada. You're up against a whole bunch of false prophets that dress up for their religion. So we just wear normal clothes. And I don't think there's anything wrong with wearing a shirt and tie. They obviously won't be in heaven, but I'm hoping anyway. But why do we wear it? So that we look respectable and sharp, but it's not like some outfit that people think is strange. If you just saw us, us guys are all wearing shirts and ties here. If you just saw us walking down the street and people just like, they must be having a business meeting or something. Well, it's just normal outfits, okay? But Brother Wynn's never gonna get up here in a gunny sack with a rope tied around his waist or Queenie would probably throw him off the balcony or something. I mean, that's just not gonna happen because this is not a religion that's fake and phony. It's the real deal. And we have a lot of battles to fight. The hope of Canada is more churches. The hope of Canada is Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ died for the church. And so he wants churches to sprout up everywhere. You're in Romans 12, 12. Look at what it says, rejoicing in hope. How can you rejoice in hope if you don't even have a church to go to? It's hard to get together with yourself and just have your own church. People are like, well, my church is the outdoors, the great outdoors. Here's my church. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, got my fish. Like that's not church, you idiot. That's you worshiping fish that you probably don't even eat. Anyway, the hope of Canada begins at this church and other churches like it. Everything done needs to be done right and needs to be done through a local New Testament church. And how can people have hope with no church, no one to help them, no one to send soul owners out to the areas and no one to teach and preach the truth of God's word. Because you know what you're getting at a lot of churches in this area that are actually calling themselves a New Testament church? You're getting a lot of fluff. You're getting John MacArthur's sermons regurgitated. I mean, Brother Wayne was telling me about John MacArthur, this guy that had his church. Was he a Baptist? Kind of something. He called himself a Baptist. Shekinda, he was a Shekinda Baptist. But he was taking John MacArthur's sermons and just preaching them like they were his own and claiming credit for them. It's like first of all, John MacArthur sucks. You know, and he believes a false gospel. People always get mad when you jump on John MacArthur but he doesn't even believe that the blood of Christ is special. He doesn't believe, he believes that you can take the mark of the beast and still be saved. I mean, what else does he believe that's total heresy? You know, lordship, salvation, that we have to make Jesus the Lord of our life or we're not really saved? That's also garbage. Number three, the hope of Canada is the Great Commission, the Great Commission. So I did have this point as soul winning but the Great Commission kind of encompasses everything that the church is out there to do. Look at 1 Peter 3 verse 15. And obviously, soul winning is a big part of that Great Commission and it's the most important part of the Great Commission. Yeah, we wanna see people baptized but you know, more importantly than seeing them baptized, I wanna see people saved. If we had 900 people saved in a year and only three of them got baptized, you know what, I'm still praising God for all 900 people that got saved. It's not like, well, they never came to church so maybe they didn't get saved. You don't know that. That's not necessarily true. What about the kids you get saved? Do they just have their own cars? Are they just gonna put some phone books on, you don't even know what phone books are probably, but put some kind of books there so they can drive themselves to church, they're still their parents' car or whatever? I don't think so. And most parents, they already have their own set religion or they have no religion at all. So if they're asking to go to church unless you're like the bus captain waving candy at them or something, they're never gonna come to church, right? Those parents are never gonna bring to church. There's a lot of people that get saved out soloing that we'll never see again on this earth but someday we will see them in heaven. And they're gonna be thankful for the fact that there was a church like this out beating the highways and hedges and compelling people to come into his house. Now obviously his house now is the house of God, the pillar and ground of the truth, but one day our home's gonna be in the great city, the New Jerusalem. So they'll have a better city and when we see them someday, we're gonna be thankful that we went out because that was another person saved but they're gonna be more thankful because they got saved from the fires of hell. Look at 1 Peter 3.15, it says, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. That means set him apart, right? Make God special in your heart and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. So people will ask you sometimes, I'm not saying do lifestyle evangelism and they'll be like, make them ask you first. Don't give them the gospel, do all these good works in front of them and then have them ask you, what is so special about you? That's, some people are gonna ask us why we believe what we believe and then we are supposed to be ready to answer people on what it is we believe. That's not just about salvation but the hope that we have, there's lots of different hopes that we have, hope of eternal life, hope that Jesus is gonna come back one day and give us a new body, hope, there's a lot of different things that we hope for but we're supposed to be ready to give that answer and we go out soul and we're supposed to be ready to preach the gospel. Turn to Acts 2.41. So the hope of Canada is also, number three, the Great Commission, the Great Commission and that's something that Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 28 but in Acts 2.41, you see it happening in action. Let's see, look at verse 41, it says, and they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and in prayers and fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and all that believed were together and had all things in common and sold their possessions and goods and part of them to all men as every man had need and they continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. So that was a long passage but basically what's happening is people are getting saved. They that gladly received his word, what happened next? They were baptized. What's the Great Commission? Go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel. And then we're supposed to baptize people in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost and then it says and then they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and what is the apostles doctrine? The same doctrine that Jesus taught. It's not some different dispensation folks. This isn't Ruckman school of thought here. The apostles doctrine is what Jesus taught them and then they were supposed to teach it to other people and then comes the fellowship and the breaking of bread. That's the Baptist way, right? And in prayers. So everything that they had was in common. All the believe were together and I'm gonna have you turn also to Ecclesiastes real quick, chapter four, verse nine. And Brother Pazarski was, Pastor Pazarski was talking about how important it is to have other people that we don't have to be alone in this Christian life and that's why God wants us together so that we aren't going through it by ourselves because the Christian life can be hard and sometimes we need people to help us out. Sometimes we're having a hard time and we need people to pray for us and that's why we have the prayer services on Wednesday and that's why we pray for each other and have prayer requests and things like that because if we're by ourselves, then we're gonna probably fail or quit but Ecclesiastes four, nine says two are better than one because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow but woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help him out. See, when we fall, we're gonna fall sometimes. We're gonna falter in our Christian life but you know, when we're together, we have a church to go to and we're, you know, we're fulfilling the great commission together or like changing this world for the better, then when we do fall and we're gonna have our problems, then someone is there to pick us up when we fall. Someone is there to help us when we are having a hard time. Verse 10 says, for if they fall, excuse me, verse 11, again, if two lie together, then they have heat but how can one be warm alone? See, you know, if you're a fired up soul-wanting Baptist, then, you know, you're gonna be hot but you know how it's gonna make you more hot is when you have other people with you to help you, other people that are on fire with you and so when we have two, we're gonna have heat but if you're by yourself, you're gonna, you know, it's like if you have a fire and you pull coal out of that fire, what's gonna happen to that coal? It's gonna burn out, isn't it? It's gonna be cold and you know, when the coals are all put together, then you get a lot of heat so you can cook that meat that you're trying to cook or whatever it is that you're doing or just keep your place warm or whatever but look what it says in verse 12. It says, and if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. So the more the merrier, the more people that we have together with one purpose, continuing daily with one accord, coming to the church services and I think it's very interesting how it says a threefold cord because you know, we're three to thrive. I've always wondered why Baptist so I picked three days, right? But you know, a threefold cord is not quickly broken. You go to all three services and it's gonna be hard to break your spirit and get you down. You're gonna have people there to lift you up and to make you feel on fire again and if you come into the church with the attitude that like I wanna be on fire for God, I'm not just gonna go through the motions. I'm coming here to sing the Psalms, to sing the songs, to listen to the preaching, to soak in the Bible reading that's done before the service and you know what? I wanna be an active inside the church service and I wanna be praying and thinking about these things and going home and searching the scriptures whether these things are so. That's the Christian life and you know what? We need those services three times a week so if you're like forsaking the assembling for whatever reason and you're just not coming to church on a regular basis, hey, get back into church and it's gonna help your life. It's gonna make you better. It's gonna sharpen you. You hear three sermons a week versus two. Isn't that gonna be better? Well, two is better than one, isn't it? And then a three-fold cord is not quickly broken so if you put that into a spiritual application, you know, you're going to church three times a week, that's three times a week that you're hearing God's word, that you're with God's people, that you're fellowshipping. You know, breaking the bread is good too, right? And you guys do a lot of that here. Like we had a pre-bake fest. I mean, you guys are doing great. So but we have that, the fellowship is important. You know, people downplay that but fellowshipping is important. Singing the songs together is important. God died for the local church. The Lord Jesus Christ died for that church and he wants us to fulfill the Great Commission. He doesn't want us to do it alone. He wants us to do it together in one purpose. Isn't that what it's saying in Acts chapter two? That it's talking about, and the Lord at, you know, they were praising God and having favor with all people and the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. And so the Lord's gonna, you know what? The Lord's gonna add to this church is, you know, as long as this church stays with the old path and the old ways, you know, we call ourselves the new IFB but really we're just sticking to the old paths. You know, the old IFB is actually, you know, changing a lot of the things that they believe. You don't even know what you're gonna get when you walk into these so-called new independent, I mean, these old independent Baptist churches. They don't even consider themselves old IFB. They just think that we're just like off our rockers or something. But, you know, we just took the good stuff of the old IFB and saved that, got rid of the altar calls, you know, we don't need anybody's fanny sticking up in the air at the end of the service so everybody can just cry and have fake tears up here and all that stuff. That got so tiring, that got so old. I need one more stanza, you know, just as I am without one place. It's just like, please just kill me now. How about, Lord, just take my life, you know, if you feel like Elijah at the end is like 20 stanzas or something. It's like, good night. There's no altar in the New Testament. Like, what are you talking about? And then like, then he calls on brother so-and-so that has an eight minute opening prayer or whatever. It's just like, ugh. He's like going in Genesis chapter one, the Bible says, you know, and Moses, you know, came down from the mountain. You know, he's just like, you know, those people that pray those long prayers and services, you know what I'm talking about. You know, keep it short and sweet. But anyway, you know, we need to understand that the hope of candidate number three is the great commission. You know, we all have to fulfill it together. And God designed the local church to send us out and someone has to be sent out. Someone has to preach. Someone has to stay on fire. And you know what, if we're all together, you know, a threefold cord is not quickly broken, but you know what? A 30 fold cord is not quickly broken either. And so the more we do together and we're all on the same page, the better off this church is gonna be. The hope of candidate also number four is hard preaching. Hard preaching. And a lot of people are in this room today because of hard preaching. You're like, what do you mean by hard preaching? Is it you screamo-ing through a sermon for an hour and 30 minutes straight or whatever? No, I don't scream every sermon. I know we've been accused of that, but we don't scream every sermon. You know, I get mad and start yelling about things and it usually has to do with the real evil things of this world. But you know, sometimes it could just be sin in general. You know, things that I see that are going wrong in the church sometimes, you know, we need to emphasize something that's called sin. And obviously our churches are, we preach hard against sin, why? So that you can be better. Because if we just get up and go, oh, you know, you guys are so great. Would you just, everybody smile. Hey, would everybody stand up right now and just shake each other's hands and give each other a hug? And then go and hug every single person in the room. And then everybody's gonna feel like, you know, unicorns and rainbows as we walk out. Let me give you a couple poems and you know, one scripture, you know, thou shall, you know, don't hate. Don't hate because hate is bad, right? Those are the kinds of sermons that are being preached folks. It's not, I mean, it's funny, but it's true, isn't it? Let's look at Isaiah chapter 58 verse one. I know one thing that hard, I've always loved hard preaching. And when the Baptist stopped preaching hard, you know, I remember typing in Baptist preaching. And I was like, that's one of the taglines that Pastor Anderson used to have in his sermons, you know, when he was allowed to be on YouTube. But I just typed in Baptist preaching. And then I see this white background with a white door and a piano in the back. And it is Pastor Anderson. I didn't know who he was at the time. I listened to some of the sermon, about 10 minutes of it. I was like, this is pretty good, you know? But like, I always wondered, like, nobody would share sermons of like, Baptist ripping face on sin or anything like that. Because, I mean, I've been to some men's retreats and some youth camps where the pastors are preaching the paint off the walls. And little kids can handle some hard preaching, but adults just, you know, they just can't handle getting ripped on for sin. But I mean, I've seen some kids get their little faces ripped off and they probably haven't even committed half the sins of the shop they're talking about. They're just like, I never want to do it, you know? But even in men's retreats, I mean, at a men's retreat, the guys that go and preach there will preach harder because they're like, well, there's no women there, so we can just let you have it. But that's how preaching should be all the time. All the time, you know, every, and I'm not saying every sermon has to be just a face-ripping sermon on sin, but you know, we do need to preach some negative things sometimes. We have to preach things that aren't very popular sometimes. And a lot of times, they'll get you banned in countries. They'll get you banned off of social media platforms. They'll get you banned out of cities. They'll get you banned out of buildings. And they'll get you put on hate lists and hate group lists and all kinds of things. But you know what? God has said that we're supposed to preach hard sermons. So, you know, Jesus even said, you know, I mean, he said some things that were hard and people walked away as they quit following him, right? Because he said you have to drink my blood and eat my flesh, which was a spiritual application, but it was too hard for them to handle. You know, they're like, well, we have to be cannibals or something? And the Roman Catholic Church was like, yep, that's what we're going to do. Anyway, I'm just kidding. Isaiah 58, one, because they think that the body and blood or the wafer and stuff's turned into the body and blood of Christ. So they try to commit cannibalism every week. But anyway, Isaiah chapter 58, verse one says, cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show my people their transgression and the house of Jacob their sins. So notice the first part, it says, cry aloud. It's not talking about weeping. I'm not up here, you know, trying to make myself cry. So you can go, just go, oh, Pastor, so he just feels it so much. He's so in the spirit. It's like, no, you know, God probably just doesn't think that that's very edifying. You know, it makes me sick when preachers get up and cry. And obviously, you know, every once in a while I'll get choked up or something, but like one tear like goes down and like sucks back up and I'm like, obviously some things can move us, right? When we're preaching stuff and we're really feeling it, but like, it shouldn't be every sermon that you're crying. Like weeping, right? Crying actually means to yell or shout. And it says, so that's how it's supposed to be. And we get accused of like yelling all of our sermons and stuff, but it's like, well, sometimes you gotta get up and yell. Sometimes you gotta get up and scream. And, you know, obviously things can be hard preaching if you whisper it. Things can be hard preaching if you're just monotone saying it. Yeah, those things can be hard is what the message is saying is what the verses are saying. But sometimes you gotta have a little dynamic pep in your step when you're preaching and, you know, maybe pound them open a little bit and wake people up, you know, because the sermon's an hour and a half and they're already ready to start to fall asleep. But look, you know, we gotta lift up. It says, lift up thy voice like a trumpet. Trumpet's loud, isn't it? If you ever hear a trumpet, you know, they use them to go into war and all these different things. The children of Israel are supposed to blow those trumpets and things like that, because they're so loud that you're gonna hear them. So God said that sometimes we have to preach like that. We have to cry aloud. That means yell, spare not. What does spare not mean? It means don't leave things out. Don't spare people like, you know, spare the rod, spoil the child is what people will say. But God's actually says if you spare the rod, you hate your son. That's hard preaching. Like when people aren't spanking their kids and you're like, hey, you know, how many times do I have to say this? This is what the Bible says. And then people's kids are being brats because they don't, their parents don't listen. Like, oh, it means everyone but my kid. No, your kid needs to be spanked too. And if you spare the rod with your child, that they're gonna be a brat. You have to be consistent. You have to stay on top of them. You have to break their will to rebel against you. And I'm not saying beat them with bruises and all this other stuff, okay? You know what a spanking is, okay? And if you just let kids win, then they're gonna rule over you and dominate you your whole life. They're gonna grow up and be brats and get thrown in prison someday. Yeah, I mean, you don't, listen, parents, when you have young children, you have to chase in them beat times, right? And that means early. That means you have to get it done early and then you can enjoy them when they're older. But anyway, that's not part of the sermon, but that's a hard saying sometimes to some people. Because it's not, is it popular to spank your children in Canada today? Is it against the law? Do they say it's against the law? It is with an item. So the thing that God actually said to do is illegal. Okay, so they're saying you're spanking with your hand? So is that okay? Yeah, that's the way it is in Washington State too. But you know what, we ought to obey God rather than men. Isn't that what the Bible says? So we gotta preach everything that's hard and sometimes there's some things that get preached that people aren't ready to hear. When we riff face against the sodomites, then that's not popular either. That's why they're running rampant and getting you in trouble because you didn't send them an email with their proper pronouns or something. I mean, it's ridiculous. I'm not gonna call someone that's a man dressed up like a woman, I'm not gonna call them a woman. Rachel Levine won the Man of the Year award. On the Babylon beat. But anyway, look, that's still a man. His name is Richard. I misgendered her for a reason because that's not, they're a freak show. We gotta get up and preach the whole counsel of God. They're like, when you preach on that stuff too much, well, why is that so much in our face? Every generation has its fight and battle and sometimes the battle is something that we really don't wanna preach about. I don't wanna look at them, I don't want them serving me food, I don't want anything to do with them, but yet I still have to suffer them in society. So when I get up behind the pulpit and I've heard all this junk all week about all this other stuff and how to see them and have them give me a coffee or something, like, I'm gonna get angry. I'm gonna get up and preach against the sin of sodomy. But it says, we're also supposed to show my people their transgression. So we're supposed to preach against the sins that God's people would commit, which is a various degree of sin. We all sin and we need some correction sometimes and hard preaching is the hope of this country, the hope of this nation. And you know who the house of Jacob is today? The house of Israel is the church. Despite what the old IFB teaches, it's a replacement theology, okay? We believe in that because Jesus said, therefore all shall take the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of heaven shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And guess what? That's a spiritual nation. That's what we are. Ezekiel chapter six, verse 11. Ezekiel chapter six, verse 11. Bible says in Ezekiel chapter six, verse 11, it says, thus saith the Lord God, smite with the hand and stamp with thy foot and say, alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence. See, why does God say that we're supposed to preach dynamically? Why does he say we're supposed to preach and spare not the message? Well, because if we don't take heed to these things, then God will destroy our lives, right? He says for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, hey, that's why we preach against the sins of the house of Jacob, so that you'll get your life right and corrected. And so we preach what's in the Bible at this church so that it'll correct you. And you know, if you don't wanna be corrected by the Bible, guess what's coming next? A spanking from God. And it's not gonna be with a literal paddle or with his hand. It's gonna be something in your life that you are gonna get punished with and you're not gonna like it. And you're gonna know that he is the Lord, right? You're gonna know that the Lord did it. So we're supposed to, what does it say? Stamp with the foot and smite with the hand. So people, why do you have to pound the pulpit? Why, why do you have to do that? Well, the Bible says smite with the hand, doesn't it? And if it says stamp of the foot, you know, sometimes you gotta kick the pulpit. Sometimes you gotta just get mad and preach hard and that's what gets people's attention. That's what gets people fired up. And it's also the words that you're preaching. It's not just like, sin's bad. Even though it is, right? You gotta get right. I mean, if you're not really saying what the Bible's saying, obviously it does say to get right. But I mean, if you're just not preaching specific things, see hard preaching is also specific, like the sin of sodomy. That's a specific sin. Like being effeminate. There's a lot of effeminate little sissy boys out there today and they might not be queers, but they sure look like one. And if they sound like a queer and they look like a queer, then they're probably a queer, right? So, I mean, that's just the way it is. If they wear the hair, they have the hair of a queer and they dress like a queer and all these other things, you know, you gotta call that stuff that specific. Why are you wearing skinny jeans, son? Why are you wearing like pink tennis shoes, boy? That's just weird. It's girly. Cut your hair for crying out loud. You look like a girl. I mean, grow your hair, lady. Quit trying to look like a dude. I mean, what is it when you turn like 60 or something that all women in Canada chop their hair off, you know? And so you see two gray heads and they both have the same hairstyle. They're both wearing the same jumpsuit. They got the Puma track suits on or whatever. You know what I'm talking about? Okay, it's not just me, so. But like God wants us to have a difference between us. He wants men to look like men and women to look like women. And being effeminate is not just being a tranny. Being effeminate is a sin that guys can't correct. And so why would we preach a specific thing to not be effeminate? Well, because, you know, there's a problem with people being effeminate in this country, isn't there? There's a problem with men, you know, crossing and blurring the lines. There's a problem with women crossing and blurring the lines with what men are supposed to look. These are just examples. I mean, I'm not gonna preach all this stuff, but turn to 2 Timothy chapter four, verse two. The Bible says that as a preacher, as a pastor, as a leader, as an evangelist, as a teacher, that we're supposed to preach what? What are we supposed to preach? My opinion, my thoughts, my philosophies, the things I learned in college, the things I learned in middle school, and obviously you can use things as an example during your preaching. But what's it say in 2 Timothy chapter four, verse two? It says, preach the word. That's the Bible, God's word. Be instant, in season, out of season. That means when it's popular, when it's not popular. Reprove, rebuke, exhort. And so this is the formula that we are supposed to follow as preachers. This is what God said. This is what the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write to Timothy and says, reprove, rebuke, exhort. Two of those things are negative. Reproving is telling people they're wrong. Rebuking is telling people they're wrong in a strong way. Yelling and screaming sometimes. And then exhorting is to encourage you to do what's right. So all three of those things are necessary in Christian doctrine in the preaching of God's word. What's it say? Preach the word. What should we be preaching about? Well, reproving people, telling people they're wrong, rebuking the sin that's in this world and in this life, and exhorting people to say, hey, this is wrong, but why don't you do this? This is right. Why don't you change this about yourself? Why don't you come to church more? Why don't you go solo anymore? Why don't you quit being apathetic and care about people? Why don't you sing the songs to the Lord loud? You know, I love that the church here sings out and they sing and it's a lot easier to do in the key that it's sung in. I always feel like, man, I sound so great up here, but it's just the key. So if I'm singing Amazing Grace, it's over, no matter what key it's in. But anyway, I like the song, but I just don't like singing it but anyway, we should be singing and what? Being filled with the spirit. When we preach the word, you know, when we sing the songs to the Lord, you know, those things are, God likes to have people worship him. You know, bless the Lord. The term bless the Lord is in the Bible. When's the last time you actually blessed the Lord? Most of the time we ask him to bless us, don't we? When's the last time you said bless you, Lord? Or just prayed that, you know, bless you, Lord, because it seems weird for us to be blessings, you know, God, because he's so much higher than us, but why does the Bible say that? Because we're supposed to bless him. We're supposed to praise him. So when we sing songs, it's not just an exercise we do to waste time and kill time, it's something that we do so that we can be filled with the spirit because God likes it when we come into his gates with thanksgiving and we come into his house singing the songs, singing songs, verse four, commanded to do those things, right? So anyway, it says, for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust shall they heap to themselves teachings, or excuse me, teachers having itching ears. And you know what, we're in that, we're in a time where there's a lot of teachers that you can heap to yourself and you know what, they don't have the right message. They don't have the right gospel, they don't have the right message, they don't have pretty much anything right, but people want to hear what they want to hear. And see, God says to the, or the apostle Paul tells Timothy, no, tell them what I want them to hear. Preach to them what I want them to be preached. And that is two things negative and one thing positive. So if you walk out feeling bad about yourself sometimes, well maybe you need to feel bad about yourself sometimes. Maybe you need to feel bad for the sins that you commit. And you know what that's going to do? It's going to help you get better as a Christian. You know, it's going to, the negative things that get preached, you know, there's a lot of negative things that we do. We live our lives in a really negative way sometimes. We complain too much, we whine about things a lot, and we really have it pretty easy in comparison to a lot of places. You know, this nation has it easy. You know, America has it easy. I mean, there's some places that have it hard. And we complain about stuff, but really we should be thankful for all the things that we have. You know, and you're like, well, Pastor Thompson, why do you have to preach that way? Because God said so, that's why. And so that's the way I'm going to continue to preach. I'm not going to just soften the message because you're tired of hearing me scream or yell. Excuse me. But, you know, hard preaching is what this nation needs. This is what is going to make Canada hope for better things and things to be better in their lives. Christians to have their lives better. If preachers are preaching everything that everybody wants to hear, then they're no better than T.D. Jakes. They're no better than Joel Osteen. They're no better than, what's another one? Kenneth Copeland, who else, what's the other guy? Who? Creflo Dollar. Creflo Dollar. That's his favorite preacher. But anyway, I'm just kidding. You know, he's asking for jets from the congregation, all right, so. But anyway, you know, hard preaching is what's going to change this country. It's what changed a lot of people in this room. Who's listened to hard preaching and been better by it in this room? Raise your hand. Pretty much everybody. There's some people that don't care, but no, I'm just kidding. But hey, that's what changed a lot. That's why we're doing what we do. That's why I'm a pastor today. Because I was like, in a Baptist church, I'm like, what is wrong here? I can't put my finger on what's wrong. Me and my wife would talk about it sometimes after church and go, what, what is wrong? Like there's something missing. There's something that's not right. And you know, when we started listening to preaching from Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez and other pastors, it changed how we thought about things. And it corrected us on things that we were wrong with. And so that's, if you're receiving and saying, yeah, I'm going to change on that because the Bible says so, then that's a good thing that some hard preaching was done that corrected you, right? So number five, the hope of Canada is men that will step up and say, this gap is mine. The hope of Canada is men that will step up and say, this gap is mine because there's a lot of gaps in this country, isn't there? Look at Ezekiel chapter 22, verse 30. Ezekiel chapter 22, verse 30. The Bible says in Ezekiel 22, verse 30, it says, and I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land that I should not destroy it, but I found none. It's a very sad verse in the Bible, isn't it? So God in Ezekiel's time is saying, I was looking for someone that would do it. I was looking for someone that would make up the hedge. I was looking for someone that would stand in the gap. What is that talking about, standing in a gap? It's like you got a bunch of military people standing there and there's one person missing or there's 10 people missing and there's gaps for people to come through and break through the defenses. And so basically God's just saying, I'm just looking for one person, a man among them, and he found none. And so he's talking about standing in the gap before me for the land. What's the sermon about? It's about the hope for Canada, isn't it? It's the seven hopes of Canada. Well, the hope of Canada is that there'd be men in this country that would stand up and say, you know what, this gap is mine. This is, I don't know what else is going on in this country, but I'm gonna stay right here. This is the gap that I'm gonna take and I'm gonna stand up and make a hedge and I'm gonna take the high calling of God and try to be a man that stands in the gap. But obviously you can stand in the gap here. You know, everybody in this church can stand in the gap. You know, this church needs more people too, but Canada needs more men that would step up and preach the Bible and become pastors or evangelists or deacons or whatnot. Now turn to First Corinthians chapter nine. First Corinthians chapter nine. I'm gonna kind of rip this verse out of the context a little bit, but it's talking about how it's okay to pay people that are full-time, you know, pastors or teachers or whatever. Actually look at verse nine. It says, for it is written the law of Moses, thou shalt not muzzle the ox out of the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn, doth God take care for oxen? It's talking about, you know, oxen is obviously referencing the work that a pastor would do. And it says, or sayeth ye altogether for our sakes, no doubt this is written that he that ploweth should plow in hope, and he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of this hope. Now I don't wanna apply this, I mean, obviously, I believe it's right to pay a pastor or a full-time worker or whatever, but what about the hope that a pastor has in what he's doing? A pastor should be able to plow in hope and say, you know what, I'm doing what God said, and God is going to, he's gonna give me the hope of building a church around me, or inspiring others to go out and start other churches. You know, it says in hope should be partaker of this hope. So I want, as a pastor, I didn't do this for myself so that I could just be rich or just get all these accolades. I did it because I knew that there was a need. There was someone needed to stand in the gap in Vancouver, Washington, and I said, I will do it. I'm not trying to be a hero of the story or whatever, but it is true that I felt like, you know, if somebody has to start a great church there, then that area is gonna go to hell in a handbasket, and it would've. So, and then Brother Wynn was like, hey, you know, what about, here am I? And you know, Shure Foundation Baptist Church is known for starting other churches, and people try to get me to start churches all the time, but I only have so much time, and I need men. That's what I need. I need a man that will say, yes, I will do it, because there could be a group of soul winners somewhere out in Podunk Hall or even in some big city and say, hey, Pastor Thompson, we're ready to start a church, but if there's no man to lead them, then I can't do it. How am I gonna do it if there's nobody to lead? So that's why it's so important that men rise up and say, you know what, I'll do it. Here am I, Lord, send me. You know, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth thee, like Samuel said. So we have a great need, not only in the United States, but in Canada, for men that would rise up and stand in the gap, and that that pastor or that leader or that evangelist or that deacon can plow in hope, because you know what, we know that God's gonna build the church, because God does require a man to carry out this stuff, but he also, you know, we should know that God, by faith, is going to build that church there. As long as we're doing things the way that God wants them to be done, he will build the church. Remember in Acts chapter two, we just read over that, he added to the church. It wasn't that, you know, Peter added to the church, God added, the Lord added to the church, such as should be saved. And so if we just go out and do it, we have a man that can lead. You know, my prerequisite for someone to start a church would be, you know, or a place that I would plant a new church would be that there's a man that I can trust that I know is gonna get it done, I know he's gonna be faithful, you know, when the hard times hit, he's gonna stay there, he's gonna stand in the gap, he's gonna keep his post, he's gonna have the Bible on one hand and a trowel on another and a sword in his mouth or whatever. He's gonna be ready to take on all challenges, right? Because that's what's hard, is a lot of people think that, you know, they think that just, you know, being a pastor is just preaching, or it's just this or that, there's a lot of different things that go into it, there's a lot of different things that Brother Wynn and Miss Queenie do around here, and obviously there's a lot of people that help them. But someone has to say, this is right, this is wrong, someone has to say no to people, someone has to say yes to people, someone has to be there to make the decisions. You know, and after four years, Brother Wynn and Miss Queenie are still here, they're still, you know, I mean, they've gone, there's been a lot of turmoil here, but you know, they've never quit, they've never stopped, and you know, I'm sure, I know there's been times of frustration, but you know what they've never said, I'm quitting. You know, I love that about them, I love the fact that I can count on the fact that I don't have to, you know, have a two-hour phone call with him every single day because of all the things that he can't handle. That's the last thing I wanna do, is put some man in charge that has to be, you know, obviously at the beginning, a lot of contact, it's not that I don't wanna have contact, it's just, you know, there's other churches, there's other things that I have going on, if he had to call me on speed dial every five minutes, then it would just be, it'd be exhausting. I'm glad, you know, he probably thinks, well, he doesn't care about me anymore. He never called, he never, he's like Kermit, you know, in that meme, he's like looking out the window, it's like raining, you know what I'm talking about? He's like, Pastor Jones never calls me, but that's a good thing sometimes, because that means I have confidence in the fact that he's leading, he's doing what's right, and you know, there's still a whole church full of people here, and even though we've lost a lot of people, there's still a whole room full of people right here, it's expanded, it's getting bigger, it's slowly but surely, you guys are in a dark spiritual place. It's not like you're in LA or you're, you know, even LA's dark spiritually too, but I'm just saying you're not like in some places super receptive, but yet here you are, you know, making a difference. And you know, you might think it's not receptive and sometimes it feels that way, but you know what's not receptive? Zero salvations for the month, zero salvations for the year, that's not receptive. Obviously if this church was running their one salvation per year, we'd probably have to move locations or something and just move someplace else, you know, if they don't want to hear you, then move on to the next place. But you know what, people are still getting saved here, you guys are still reaching out to other places, there's a vision to go to different places and preach the gospel, you guys are always preaching at some new place I've never heard of up here. Abbotsford and, I mean, Maple Creek or Maple Ridge or whatever it is, sorry. Maple Creek, it's Maple Ridge, right? Okay. I'll just make up some names, you guys will know that. But anyway. But you know what, we need men that we can trust. Men, I mean, I don't want to just place something that is so valuable, the church, the local New Testament church into somebody that's going to fumble and mess it up and then it's going to be a big disaster for everybody. So, I'm glad that I can count on Brother Wynn and Miss Queenie to get the job done and I'm very thankful for all the men and all the ladies that step up and do all the things around here to help. And you're all standing in the gap. You're all making up the hedge. But you know, God places a man over the congregation, that's what the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation, right? So we need that as the hope of Canada. And we also need to have the hope of the resurrection. I'm just going to, I know I got to get down here, but let's just look at one verse. How about Titus 2.13? Titus 2.13. The hope of Canada should be the hope of the resurrection. Obviously, you know, I kind of covered the Great Commission, but you know, we have a hope one day that Jesus is going to come back and it is called in Titus 2.3, it says, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And we can put that hope in the hearts of people in Canada. People are going to get saved because you know what? You're not going to get saved without believing in the resurrection. And the resurrection is a big deal in scripture. It's a culminating moment in time that we're all still hoping for. We haven't seen Jesus. We haven't seen him come in the clouds, but you know what? The hope is that one day he will. It's not a hope that we like, oh, I hope it happens. You know, because when people say, well, I hope I'm going to heaven, but sometimes they mean something different, don't they? But when we say, you know, Jesus Christ, the blessed hope, it's the hope that we, it's something that we know by faith is going to happen. And the Bible says in first, or Titus 1.2 says, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. You know, we teach people that from door to door and people are going to get saved. People are going to get saved and there's pleasures forevermore that we get to encounter after that. And the main, the big thing is that we get to live forever. What is infinity? Well, we're going to be, we're going to be saved for infinity. I mean, I guess that's eternal life. That's everlasting life. A life that never ends. We didn't exist before like God did, but we're going to exist forever from whenever we were born to infinity and beyond, right? Sorry, couldn't help myself. Anyway, last point. Number seven, the hope of Canada is the word of God. Turn to Psalm chapter 119, verse 81. We have two places we're going to go and that's it. I'm done. All right, Psalm chapter 119, verse 81. And of course, this Psalm is famous as the biggest chapter in the Bible and it's all about the word of God. So it's pretty cool that the greatest chapter in the Bible, the biggest chapter in the Bible is about the word of God and the hope of Canada, without the word of God, we're not going to accomplish any of this stuff. We need the word of God, the true word of God to go out and we need to not be ashamed of the fact that we're King James only. And look, if you speak another language, whatever language that is, we have the Chinese Bible, we have whatever other language, Bulgarian, Hungarian, Russian, Czech, I don't know whatever all the other language. I would speak one language, I'm English only. So I know I'm American. But anyway, Psalm 119, 81 says, my soul fainteth for thy salvation, but I hope in thy word. And that's what we have is the promise of the scriptures that give us hope in the first place. Turn to Romans chapter 15, verse four. Romans 15, verse four is the last scripture I'm going to have you turn to and we'll be done. It says, for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. And so this book right here, the King James Bible is what gives us hope. It gives us the comfort that we know that we are going to make it through no matter what happens to us in this earth, no matter where we end up in this life. If you're saved, the word of God promises you that God, Jesus Christ is going to come back. He promises you that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. He promises that he's going to come back and make us like he is. And what is he like? Well, he's got a body that can never die. He's the only one with a resurrected body and one day we'll be like him. We'll know him because we're going to be like him. We're going to see him as he is. And we're going to be forever with the Lord and none of these trolls and freaks and weirdos. We're going to ever have to encounter that ever again because God's going to destroy them, throw them in the fire forever. And we get to live and have pleasure forever more. And guess what? We got the promise of the word of God on that. That we have everlasting life and eternal life. And what is the hope of Canada? Well, there's several different ones that I mentioned. But number one was the hope of Canada is Jesus Christ. Number two, the hope of Canada is that more churches will start up in this nation. Number three, the hope of Canada is the Great Commission. That the Great Commission will go out to all the world and to all of Canada. Number four, the hope of Canada is hard preaching. Need hard preaching in this country. And people aren't going to be able to handle it, but you know what, we still got to do it anyway. Number five, the hope of Canada is men will step up and say this gap is mine. Number six, the hope of Canada is the hope of the resurrection. Number seven, the hope of Canada is the word of God. And that we can trust in its promises. And everything in our Christian walk of life is based upon this book. And if it's not in here, then it doesn't matter really, does it? Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this great church up in Canada. I pray, Lord, that there be many replicated that are like unto it. And Lord, that there be some men out there that would say, you know what, this gap is mine, Lord. And I'm going to keep it, and I'm going to hold to it. I'm going to do it. And I'm going to stand fast. I'm going to be steadfast in the faith. And I'm never going to quit. And Lord, we need people that will come to church, Lord, and fulfill their role in the Great Commission. This country needs to be able to turn it around, Lord. The United States needs to turn it around. There's many other places that need it. Lord, I pray, especially for Canada today, Lord, that you would just put places of light, churches of light into the areas around this country so that people could be saved. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.