Wonderful. Amen, that's good. I heard a guy say we need to stop looking for signs and just start listening for the trumpet, right? And he's coming, and whether we believe it or not, he's coming. We better be ready. I want you to turn to 2 Corinthians 2 if you would tonight. I also want you to pray for several people. I talked to Brother Barry. He and I texted back and forth and his wife's not doing well and he wants church to pray and Brother Foy sent me a message. He's not doing well and Beth is sitting by herself and I asked Caden how Brother Johnny was doing. He said he was just laying out of church. No he didn't. Said he had a real bad sinus infection. So, um, I'll say this. I always try to say it about this time of the year. Uh, try to be at church, but if you're contagious, stay home. Right. And if you're not contagious, come to church and, uh, uh, you shouldn't miss church out of the, I don't want to's, uh, but be here if you can. And again, if you're sick, stay home. Don't we, we love you, but we don't want what you got. And, uh, Amen. And of course, Miss Treva, Marty's by himself. She's not feeling well, and I'm sure there's many others, but those came to mind. So lift them up in prayer if you would. And I want to finish off the year preaching tonight on this thought, the opposition to the local church. And not only that, the opposition to the church in general. Of course, we realize that tonight that we as believers are the body of Christ. We are the church. We're made up of local assemblies and we understand that with local assemblies, because we're human beings. We're people, there's going to be problems and probably if you study the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians, it's probably no more evident in any place than that. It seems like Paul rebuked the church and then we'll look at that in just a moment. But I want to pay attention to 2 Corinthians 2 verse 11. The Bible said, unless Satan should get an advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices. Now, let me start off by saying this, that Satan is crafty and subtle, but he's not, he doesn't really change his methods. I mean, if you study the Bible, he's, he's a. pretty consistent in his methods because we really don't learn his ways and there's no need to change if it continues to work right and so we look at the Old Testament we look at the book of Genesis and we see how that Satan deceived Adam and Eve and caused them to sin and caused Eve to doubt the Word of God and we're the same today that's why we have 50,000 versions of the Bible and that's why I mentioned this morning that we're questioning every doctrine that has been passed down through the church, biblical doctrines, like we've got to find something new. Then you have the fact that even in the church at Corinth, if you know anything about it, it was a church that had wealth, it had talent, it had the abilities, it had the potential to be a great church, but with that Uh, we have to be very careful and you come to, uh, say Corinthians chapter two and verse 11, uh, or actually chapter two all through it. Paul says in verse one, I determined this with myself that I would not come again to you in heaviness. and so he's coming because in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 5 I believe it was there was one that he said that they were to put outside the church or to administer church discipline they were to turn him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh but for the salvation of the soul well now he's coming back and he's telling the church he said now you need to receive them back if they have repented and they've made things right then as a body of believers you need to take them back and if you don't do that what you're doing is opening yourself up for Satan to destroy the local church but also us and so it teaches us again the power of forgiveness but as you go through first Corinthians I was looking at this how that Paul really rebuked them over many things in chapter five I mentioned that well in chapter four of chapter three he said I could not speak unto you as spiritual but as carnal even as unto babes in Christ so automatically we know that this was a very carnal church that Paul's rebuking them in chapter three of first Corinthians and I can't really preach spiritual truths to you because you're not ready for them. And then we come to chapter 4 and verse 18 he said now some are puffed up. So there's the element of pride in chapter 5. We see that there was fornication. The Bible said in verse 1 such fornication as is not so much named among the Gentiles that one should have his father's wife. And that's when he told the church in verse number 5 of chapter five he said to deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh but also that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. And then we go over to chapter six and we see that there's a problem with brothers going against brothers in the law and that he's saying listen you ought to be willing to take this inside the church and if you're if one of you is not compensated properly you ought to be willing to take loss. for the glory of God. Now I want to say this, time out, I don't think that things that are illegal should be swept under the rug in the church. I don't think that if there is, I think we've gotten in trouble with that. That if there is some of the things that have been swept under the rug should have been brought out to the light. But I do see the principle here that if I have ought against my brother, even in the Gospels Jesus said that we're to go to each other and fix that. and if we can't we're to take somebody with us and the fact is here in this local church they obviously were going to to law against one another in chapter 7 he deals with marriage that there's obviously issues with marriage and and all through this in chapter 9 Um, he deals with, uh, uh, taking care of the man of God that, uh, even in verse 14, he said, so have the Lord today that they, which preach the gospel should live of the gospel. And then you come to chapter 10, 11. Uh, we know that, uh, um, or I'm sorry, chapter 11, we see where Paul rebukes him for the way they did the Lord's table, that they came together and they weren't doing it to honor God. They were basically having a big party and. This group over here would have food and this one he said don't come together eat at your houses and then he tells them to examine themselves. And so over and over in chapter first Corinthians the book of first Corinthians Paul's rebuking this church for the carnality in it. And it had the same opportunity as any other church that Paul dealt with in the New Testament. So what was the difference was the fact that, first of all, they did not understand, I think, as we look at chapter two, he said that in verse 11, that we'd not be ignorant of his devices. Well, I'll say this, we'd better understand that there's a real devil There's a real opponent, there's a real adversary, and there always has been. I mean, when you think about the fact that Satan caused a third of the angels to rebel against God and they'd seen the glory of God, you and I are probably no match for him without the power of God in our life. So 1 John chapter 2 says this in verse 15 to 17. He said, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. And if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Now that's pretty plain, right? That we're not to love the world. And then he said, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. So we have to understand that there's some opposition to the church and going into 2025 and we're trying to up the game a little bit. We're trying to do more for the cause of Christ and grow closer to him. We have to expect opposition. I'm telling you, we think, well, you know, we run the buses. We think that every parent would want their kid to go to church, but you know what happens? A lot of them don't want them to go to church. And you knock on doors and you think everybody in the community would want you to spread the gospel but there's a lot of places that don't. We get calls almost every week it seems like of people saying don't come in our neighborhood and hand out your literature. It's amazing one person can talk for their whole neighborhood isn't it? We have to realize there's a real devil and there's real opposition. So if there's opposition, if there always has been, there's going to be today and there will be opposition to the church. And so there's always been opposition to the work of God. When God's trying to do something, my pastor always said, when God's blessing, the devil's messing, right? And that's the truth. He's trying to mess in your family and he's trying to mess in your home and he's trying to mess in your life. He's trying to mess in the church. And so since we're the people of God, we're going to face opposition. And what I want to say that is because you and I need to be steadfast in these last days. There's too many falling by the wayside. You and I, we name the name of Christ and we talk about the power of God and we talk about how good God's been to us. But friend, may I say when the opposition comes, what we need is some people that's going to stand up and continue to serve God. And so we'll face opposition. But here's what I want to share with you for just a few minutes. What does that opposition look like? Right? In other words, if the Bible tells in verse 11, we're not to be ignorant of his devices. It tells me that you and I should, should walk. The Bible said circumspectly. In other words, we ought to, we ought to understand some of the ways of the devil. And so three things I want to share with you. First of all, number one, Satan opposes the church. 1 Peter chapter 5 verse number 8 you know the scripture be sober be vigilant because your adversary notice that your adversary which means your enemy the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour see you can't you can't play with it we can't play with the devil we cannot play with this opposition because we're not strong enough to defeat it outside the power of God you can't you can't defeat it in your flesh and so we have to understand that we going forward have to be as close to God as we've ever been or we will not win the battle and we will not win the struggle. And so how does Satan oppose the church? Well, first of all through desire. Now you say, what do you mean by that? Well, a lot of churches, let's be honest, the local church, there's a desire for a crowd. I mentioned this on Wednesday night. Listen, I think God's people, we ought to be about the Father's business, Brother Shane, and we ought to be telling everybody about the gospel, and I believe when we take care of God's business, He'll take care of the business of the church. There is a definite correlation between sowing and reaping. You can't expect the church to grow numerically if you're not spreading seed. And so every church that says they're Bible-believing, every Christian that says they're a Bible-believer, my friend, may I say in 2025 you ought to be telling people about Jesus. Well, I just don't have that gift. Friend, it's not a gift, it's a mandate. There's nothing in there that you see where God gives the gift of evangelism as far as handing out tracts but he does tell us three times in the gospel and one time in the book of Acts that you and I are to go into all the world and spread the gospel and so therefore you and I have to realize that churches, local bodies, if we're not careful, we're so consumed by the crowd we're not willing to stand on what the Bible says but also our desire for culture we live in a day, the Bible tells us we're to be separated but we're trying to embrace the culture of this world And so what we're seeing is, even in the local church, we're trying to embrace the music, and we're trying to embrace the atmosphere, and we're trying to embrace the fashion, and we're trying to embrace all the things that we should be staying away from. Now, I think you ought to dress nice, and I don't think there's anything in the Bible that says you ought to have to wear a burlap sack to church. But I also believe we ought to have enough sense to realize that this world is trying to take God's people away from God. Amen. Well, that's fashionable, preacher. Well, showing stuff that shouldn't be shown is not fashionable. It's immodest. And that goes for men and women, by the way. So we have a desire for culture. We want people to view the church as cultural people that, you know, we have. And there's nothing wrong. Listen, from the palace to the pulper, people ought to be able to get saved. Now, the problem we have a lot of times is reverse. In other words, we're willing to go into the mobile home parts to share the gospel, but we won't go into the nice neighborhoods with the five and six and seven hundred thousand dollar houses. Well, that's just as wrong because they need the gospel just as much as anybody else. And so you and I have to realize that and the book of James deals with this that we're not to embrace necessarily those that are of the upper class just because they have riches and wealth. We're to embrace the whole culture as far as sharing the gospel and inviting people in. So understand that there is a desire for the culture. And so we're not the ground and pillar of truth anymore. We're looking at the numbers and we're looking at the size. And someone told me the other day, would you hear about so-and-so Baptist church? They're building again. Okay. Well, great. Right. But what I'm saying is size does not dictate success. I'm glad that I'm listening. I rejoice when churches grow, but they ought to grow. Right. Amen. And so there's a desire for culture, but then there's a desire for comfort. Listen, you'll never grow in anything until you get uncomfortable. I don't agree with that preacher. Well, then you're, you're, you're inaccurate, right? If you're going to grow spiritually, you're going to have to get out of your comfort zone. If you're going to grow physically, you're going to have to get out of your comfort zone. If you're going to grow in areas of life, it's not going to be comfortable because there has to be some resistance. If your prayer life is going to get better. You have to expect opposition. If our church is going to grow, everybody's not going to enjoy it out there. As a matter of fact, there's going to be some that say we compromise and there's going to be some that say we're too legalistic. And listen, it doesn't matter. You and I have to realize that when we have a desire just to be comfortable, what happens is We don't do what we're supposed to do. We went out yesterday on the bus route. And I'll be honest with you, I woke up yesterday morning, Brother Jose, and I thought, man, it's raining, and it's nasty, and it wasn't freezing, but it was cold enough. And I thought, well, maybe we ought to just call them today. But man, I sure am glad we went. And even today, let's be honest, there's some people here that's not here today because it was raining. There's some people won't be here Tuesday night because, well, I, you know, I just don't, I don't like staying up late. Getting quieter, right? Some people don't make it to Sunday school because they got to sleep in that one day of the week. And they can get up and go to the flea market on Saturday, but they can't go to church on Sunday. See, there's a desire for us to be comfortable. We don't want to give too much to missions because that might mean we have to give something else up. We don't want to tithe too much and give above a tithe because that may mean we can't go on seven vacations instead of just five. Right? So my point is, if we're not careful, Satan will oppose the church through desire. And then also through deception. Listen, he is the father of lies. And let's be honest, how many times have you been deceived and I've been deceived? Well, because he'll put thoughts in your mind. If I see Brother Shane and Brother Matt talking and I start walking towards them, they go... Automatically, I'm like, well, they're talking about me. And they might be. But I don't know that. My deception is that serving God doesn't pay, right? The deception is that if I wasn't serving God, things would be easier. If I wasn't going to church, things would be easier. If I wasn't reading my Bible, things would be easier. If I wasn't knocking on doors, if I wasn't running a bus route, things would be better and easier in my life. If I wasn't singing in the youth choir or coming to choir practice at four o'clock, I'm just burned out. Listen, that's deception. Because one day, my friend, may I say this, that this time is clicking by like that, and if you're not careful, you'll spend your whole life in comfort being deceived, thinking, I want to do something for God next year, next year, next year, and then you have no more years. And Satan will put in your mind, he'll discourage you and give you the idea that what you're doing doesn't matter. Hey, listen, I'll raise my hand. There's times I'll look out, Brother Shane, I'll look out and go, you know what? Where's everybody at? Maybe I'm done. Why am I going to spend time studying away from my family? Why am I going to spend time doing that when they're not even going to show up, Brother Jimmy? But see, here's the thing, and I don't mean this to sound super spiritual and I'm not being ugly about this, but I'm not doing this for you. I pray it helps you, but God's the one that put me. I'm doing this for Him. So when I get discouraged, I have to look at Him and think about what He did on the cross for me and say, until you move me, I'm standing right here doing what I'm supposed to do. See, Satan will put in your mind what you're doing doesn't matter. You may not ever be appreciated. We just sang that song, little is much when God is in it. Well, guess what? Doesn't matter how big the labor is. It just matters that you're faithful in the labor. So the deception of discouragement, but then the deception of doctrine. Friend, we got to know what this book says. Then there's a deception of compromise. If we just, if we just pull back on some things, right. And that's what they were doing. I mean, first Corinthians chapter five, well, there's no, there's no, there's no one I hope that thinks it's all right. for a son to have a relationship with his father's wife. I hope that, and I know society doesn't think there's anything wrong with that because they can't determine what a boy and a girl is. But I'm praying at least in the church we still have enough Bible in us and have enough morality in us to realize that there's nowhere that that is okay. But there's some that will look the other way just because, well, if we do that, then you know what's going to happen. People are going to get upset and leave the church. Then there's through dependence. Here's what I want to ask you. And I want you to get honest with yourself. Who are you really depending on? But if it's all stripped away, who are you really depending on? Well, I depend on my husband, my wife, I depend on my job. Well, what if all that's gone? See, you're not promised any of that. See, well, I can depend on myself. I can't depend on anybody but myself. Friend, you can't even depend on yourself. If you're not honest enough to realize you've let yourself down numerous times, you're naive. There's times I sit in my study, I'm going, you've done it again. You've done it again. Hey, it's a lot easier to cast blame on everybody else and look and find everybody else's sin. But when I look in the mirror, if I'm ever going to get anywhere with God, I have to look in the mirror and say, you've let God down and you let yourself down. See, we depend on ourselves way too much. And as you study your Bible, you see that every time that pride and that arrogance comes up, that man falls, right? That we fall, that we fall, that we fall. And may I say, we'd better start learning to depend only on God and stop looking at everybody else. And I don't say this negatively, but people are gonna let you down. And again, I don't mean that in a way that we ought to isolate ourselves. We ought to realize that Brother Shane and Brother Noah and Brother Matt and Brother Kenneth and myself, we're flesh, we're people. But when people let you down, here's what I want to ask you. How many people have you let down? Well, I've never let anybody down. That's a lie. See, we're all in this boat together. And Satan is on the outside trying to pull apart what God's doing. And he'll use any means necessary. And he'll deceive. And he deceived Adam and Eve. And he deceived David, a man after God's own heart. And he deceived Solomon, the wisest man. And he deceived the disciples. And he's deceiving us today. yet Paul's telling us here we ought to be aware of the devices of the devil yet he's still doing the same thing and we're going I can't believe it's happening it's almost like we read the Bible and we think that it's happening it should happen to someone else but when it happens to me I don't know what's going on I'm surprised by it right So Satan opposes the church and number two society opposes the church John chapter 16 verse 33 says these things have I spoken unto you that in me you might have peace Let me read that again in me you might have peace He said in the world ye shall have tribulation Is that in your Bible? Then why do we not understand it? Why are we expecting different? In the world ye shall have, that's not a might, it says ye shall. That means you're gonna have it, right? But here's what he said, be of good cheer. Well man, I'll say this, those two things don't go along. He said in me you might have, see there's the key to it. You're gonna have tribulation, but you can be of good cheer. Why, because he said I've overcome the world. So in order to do that, you gotta have peace in him. So if society opposed the church, how does it do it? Well, or why does it do it? Well, because the church condemns their ways. We shouldn't go to people and condemn them on a personal level. What we ought to do is give them the Bible, right? The world, listen, well, they'll think that you're a homophobe. No, you just say, well, the Bible says this, right? So we condemn sin. And I don't mean we, the Bible condemns sin. And if we preach the Bible, then you know what happens? We're preaching thus saith the Lord. When you give people scripture, you're not saying this is what I think, you're saying this is what God said. And it doesn't matter what you and I think, it matters what God says. And so what we're doing is we're going out giving people our opinion. May I say this? Our opinions really don't amount to a whole lot. Everybody has their opinion. Well, I'm entitled to my opinion. Where do you find that at? Well, the constitution gives me the right to free speech. Sure does. But though all things are lawful, all things are not expedient. Though you can do it doesn't mean you should do it. Right? And so over and over I see more where the Bible tells us to bridle our tongue than just speak whatever we want to speak. See? So what we ought to do is tell people in love. And that's what Paul's saying here as you study this word. He's saying I'm telling you this. I'm giving you the word of God. I'm condemning this sin not because I hate you but because I love you. But if you'll read this, notice in chapter 2, verse number 1, notice how he approaches this. He said, I determined this with myself that I would not come again to you in heaviness. Well, see, here's our problem. Brother Brad, we want to say, well, I'm just going to be brutally honest with you. I'm going to tell you the truth. Well, you're missing it. The Bible said, speak the truth in love. And Paul is right here. He was grieved that he'd have to come. And as a matter of fact, he said he did it in verse 2. For if I make you sorry, who is he then that maketh me glad? But the same which has made me sorry by me. So Paul is approaching them in tears. He's not in pride and arrogance. He's approaching this church in tears saying it breaks my heart that I have to come to you this way. And I don't want to have to come again. In this second letter he's writing to them and it seems like we in our pride and arrogance will approach someone in their sin and say, you're going to hell because of this. May I say that without the grace of God, friend, you and I would be there. So we ought to be concerned with what God thinks but understand the compassion and grace of God that goes along with it. But then also because the church communes with another world. See, it bothers the world that our affections are on things above. They don't understand it. They don't understand that our King is Jesus. Right? They don't understand this world is not our home. And I saw in some of your eyes this morning when I said I have more allegiance to that flag than I do this one. You're like, what are you saying? I'm saying again that I'm for America. as long as America is for God. Right? I'm Pilgrim, man. My country is somewhere else. It's up there somewhere. Right? And so you and I have to realize that because the church communes with another world, this world doesn't like us. It's trying to bring us down. Why? Because here's the thing. Every time that you and I stand on the principles of the Word of God, It's easier for people to look at you and tear you down to bring up bring you down to their level. That's what they want to do. Why? Because it makes them feel better. And they'll find every little nitpicky. Oh, well, I'll tell you what, brother Dennis, you say you're a Christian, you do did this. I'll tell you what, brother, you say you're a Christian go to church, but here's what you said. You ought to embrace it. And I don't mean that in a negative way. You ought to say, look, you're right, man. I'm a sinner saved by the grace of God. I'm not perfect. See, the problem is we've got this aura about us like we walk on water. And by the way, your name's not Peter. No, I don't think you ought to condone your sin. I don't think you ought to magnify your sin. But when you sin, right? If we confess our sins, we know that the Bible said that he'll forgive us. Well, you know what? If I sin against you instead of being... Well, if I've offended you, I'm sorry. That's right. Well, you told me I offended you. That's right. Amen. So if you told me I offended you, then I ought to just say, listen, I apologize for offending you instead of putting the blame back on you with some backhanded apology like, well, it's really your fault, right? So we come to the place where They don't understand it because see when you start living like Jesus wants you to live and you start doing what the Bible tells you to do it blows their mind. Because they'll say Miss Beth said something Miss Emily and she ought to retaliate against her and Jesus is saying well just forgive her. And when you forgive her, they're going, wait a minute, this, this blows up our whole economy because we want to, we want retribution and eye for an eye and tooth for tooth, right? We, we want old Testament, uh, unless it's me. And so they're looking at things going, wait a minute now, maybe there's something wrong with the way I'm thinking. I'm not going to be here forever. But Jerry, I mean, whether by the grave or by the rapture, my citizenship is up there. So, so how I live down here determines up there. So what do you mean by that? Well, the Bible tells us there's rewards and there's rewards taken away. So if you're living for this world, which that's what this world, see if they can disprove Jesus and they can disprove the Bible and they can disprove anything the word of God has to say, then all of a sudden we become our own gods. You can do what's right in your own eyes. There's no consequence for it, right? You live, well, there's nothing after you die. There's no afterlife. Well, that sounds, if there's not, then I'll just do whatever I want to because this life, when I draw my last breath, that's all there is. But if you believe there's something more after death, Right? Then you have to come to terms with the fact that what you do here determines what happens over there. Right? So, so if our citizenship is there and if we're communing with another world and, and if we're more concerned with what God says and what society says, it bothers them because they have no control over us. They have no, they have no, no grasp on us. Right? And so what they're going to try to do is oppose the church, oppose you, the church. They don't understand it. So, so there's opposition from Satan. There's opposition from a society or this world. Uh, and, and because the church communes with another world, but also because the church commands separation. No, we don't even like that word in the church. And here's the reason. You ready for this? Because I think we've done it wrong for a long time. See, we've manipulated so much to try to get people to live right that we've put this bondage on people to say, listen, you've got to do this, this, and this or God's mad at you. Instead of you ought to do it because you love God. Well, you're not going to get more the love of God. Listen, He's infinite and He loves you. He loves you the same today as He did yesterday. But you can divide the fellowship with God. So it's not whether or not God loves you more. It is showing our affection. We talked about this the other night. Our affection is supposed to be on things above. Well, if my affection is on things above, I'm not as concerned about what I'm doing here as what is going to happen over there. Right? So we're different. We're supposed to be different. We're supposed to be forgiven. Here's the problem, Brother Noah. We're forgiven, but we don't live like it. I don't, I don't mean we ought to live like the devil. Listen, it bothers me that Christians are so miserable. I don't get it, man. I don't understand why everybody's so miserable all the time with their lip poked out mad. Christians are mean and I'll be the opposite. Man, we ought to have some joy about this. You ought to try smiling once. Your face won't crack if you smile. I mean, if you can live and you know, and again, I said it Wednesday night, if your idea of eternal security is God's given me a license to sin, you've missed the whole thing. But I ought to have some joy in knowing that when I do mess up, and I will, that I can go to him and say, Father, I've messed up. Will you forgive me? And he's going to do it. And I can have that fellowship restored. I don't understand why in the world. And I'll tell you why. Here's the reason. Because we're too consumed with this world and not consumed with that one. Well, preacher, you don't understand all that I'm going through. No, I do, because you post it every time you're on Facebook. Great job, great job. Yes, it's good. I'm serious, really? I mean, Satan will isolate you to make you think like you're the only person in this world that goes through anything. You want, you want to, hey, anytime you want to sit in my office to have a pity party, man, I'll unload mine on you. Right. And when we're done, you're probably going to say, preacher, I'm sorry. Right. But I'm not going to let what happens here determine my joy and my peace because if my joy and peace is in this world and that's what the world's trying to get you to do. Why? Because when it can do that you're controlled and manipulated by this world system to say listen your circumstance determines your joy and that's not how we're supposed to live. You study your Bible. Those early churches were not. Man it wasn't like America. They wanted to kill them all. And so the church commands separation. And I don't mean we have to be militant and again, hateful about it, but it is okay to say, no, I'm not going to go there. Cause you know, I mean, I'm not condemning you. You do what you want to, but I, I just feel like the Lord doesn't want me to go there. It's okay not to let your kids do some stuff, some worldly things. They're not going to turn into axe murderers because you don't let them live like the world and dress like the world. It's okay for your kids to be separate at school, right? Well, I see if you say preach, you homeschool your kids. Okay. I want to tell you about this young man. He visits our church sometimes, name's Todd. I played baseball with him in college. And I had the opportunity, he was from Lexington, had the opportunity to room with him in college, and I said, I don't room with him. He's too straight-laced for me. And I want to say this about this young man. If you know anything about college athletics, they don't love Jesus, most of them. Foul mouth, partying, that's just the way it was. Not one time, brother Justin, did I ever see him do any of that. He, all through those college years, you know, and a team of lost people retained his testimony. And that impacted me. And people didn't like him because they'd get around him and he wouldn't tell dirty stories and cuss and drink and they'd get under conviction. And you know what happened? They would mock him and ridicule him. And you know what he did? He smiled and just went on. You say, well, that's good for him. Well, I thought the Bible said God's not a respective person. So if God could empower him to do it, he can empower our kids to do it. So you don't buy into this whole, you know, well, I don't want my kids to be some kind of outcast. Well, they don't have to be, but they also don't have to participate in what the world participates. And by the way, you don't need it. You go to work, there's as much wickedness there as it is in school. See, the Bible commands us to be separate. Why? Because we're supposed to be ambassadors for the Lord Jesus Christ. And so the world hates that. But then number three, this is going to be the hard one. You ready for this? Self opposes the church. Brother Marty, our biggest problem is not outside the walls of this place. My biggest problem is not you. My biggest problem is the guy I look at in the mirror. Our problem at Currytown, it's not, let me say this, it's not COVID. All COVID just destroyed the church. No, it didn't. You know what it did? It revealed where people were. There's some, I can't go back to church. I'm afraid I'm going to get sick, but you'll go to food line. Amen. You'll go to work. And my biggest issue with me not reading the Bible doesn't have anything to do with you. Has to do with me. My biggest problem with me. My lack of prayer life is not you, it's me. My issue when I walk outside the walls of this church is not you, it's me. Right? So if you ever get this flesh under control, right? If you ever get the tongue under control and get the eyes under control and get what God's given us, the members, right? You'll be a good ways of having this thing taken care of. You know what Satan did in the garden? He attacked her flesh. He got her to doubt the word of God. He said, listen, didn't God tell you you could eat all these? She said, everything but that one right there. He told me you couldn't eat it or touch it. He said, well, here's the reason why. Because when you do, your eyes are going to be open. You're going to be like God. So he's just trying to oppress you. He appealed to her flesh, right? She could eat anything else in that place. There's no way, friend, there's no way as good as God is that all the rest of the fruit in that place was worse than that one tree. God's too good for that. I mean, probably everything in there was good. I probably had banana pudding trees and apple pie. I mean, I had it all. But what, what Satan was trying to say, yeah, but that's the one, that's the one you want. He appealed to her flesh. And so what'd she do? She blamed the devil. It's that serpent. And then when God came to Adam, what'd he say? So you're the one that gave me the woman, right? Nobody took responsibility. That's why people won't get saved. They won't take responsibility. That's why they won't get reconciled to God after they're saved. Well, it's not my fault, right? So understand that why do we oppose the church? Well, first of all, because the flesh is weak. We want to do right, but we're flesh. We want to live for God, but I was listening to something today, and I mentioned it earlier. that the biggest problem that we have, one of them is instant gratification. We want it now, right? Well, they were talking about Christmas, that how, you know, the spending for Christmas, the economy's good because the spending for Christmas of 2024 was more than 2023. Well, they didn't say people paid cash, they said they spent. So if they swipe that thing, well next year, guess what they're going to do? They're going to pay that in 29.99%, right? But why? Because we want instant gratification, right? We want it now. And so we can't live the life feeding the flesh. and serve God so we'll say well that that's where this whole radical grace mindset comes from is like I'm gonna feed the flesh do what I want to do but I believe in eternal security so God's gonna forgive me and everything's gonna be good that's not the way this thing works friend there's gonna be fruit if you're saved right it's not it's not feed my flesh and do what I want to do and you know I'm saving going to heaven there's a problem there right so so our flesh is constantly fighting us Now I don't want you to raise your hand, but here's what I want you to think about. If you were honest today, don't raise your hand. Listen to me, don't raise your hand. If you were honest today, how many don't raise your hand? If you were honest, when you got up this morning, your flesh was saying, don't go. Right? Just don't go. Don't go to church. Don't make it Sunday school, be alright. Sunday school is nothing but a bunch of guys teaching, right? So you know what we've done? We've made the worship power the important. Be here at 1030, that's the worship power. Nothing wrong with teaching, right? But there's something in us and we gotta, I'll be honest with you, every Sunday the devil's fighting me. I get up early almost every day of the week. Man, most of the time I jump out of bed, I'm ready to roll. Sunday, I can drink about seven pots of coffee and my eyes are still... Right? Flesh. Flesh. I don't have a problem with your flesh. I've got a problem with my flesh. Flesh is weak. Right? And so it's... The Spirit's trying to serve God inside where, man, I want to serve God. And there's that constant battle going on. Right? Flesh is weak. But also the flesh is at war. The flesh is at war. There's a battle. Right? Between the flesh and the Spirit. The Spirit's saying, I want to do what God wants me to do. And the flesh is saying, no, you don't. Because it's no fun. There's no instant gratification. You don't get anything out of it. What you're doing is you're living now for something that is way off in eternity and just live for yourself now because it's more fun. But then when you're old and just about ready to kick the bucket, then start serving God. The problem is it's too late. When you get there, you're too, too decrepit, right? I mean, Brother Matt was singing that song. He was talking about, if you notice that one verse about the old people, right? Older people that can't do all the things you used to said you could be a prayer warrior. But you know what, if you don't start out in your early years as a prayer warrior, when you get old, you're probably not going to be a prayer warrior. See, the battle's real. We're playing games, playing games. The biggest problem the church has is fleshly members. I was telling, so the water heater went out in the missions house. Brother Wall called me before prayer. He said, listen, the water heater went out. So I told guys, I said, after prayer, we need to go check that thing out. So we go check it out. And they said, oh, preacher, the water cutoff's under the trailer. And I'm like, all right. So it's raining, cold, and I'm trying to be the good leader. So I crawl under there. I crawl under there, Brother Dennis. I don't know if it was Brother Matt or Brother Noah, Brother Shane. But they said, huh, look at that big snake skin over there. And when I said big, it was not, it was at least a 29 foot Burmese python or something. And then I'm like, I hope whatever that is is hibernating somewhere else. And so then I'm getting a little uneasy. I'm getting the queasies in there and I get to looking and there's another one hanging down off the rafter or the floor joist and I thought. I said, brother, no, go up there and get a wrench. I said, Brother Mac, go and climb under there and finish that thing up. Right? Amen. I don't want no snake, praise God. I should have called Brother Jose. He's not scared of anything. I had to make myself, after I'd seen that, not come flying out from under there. And honestly, I think we need to burn the mission house down. I think that'd be God's will from now on, just burn it to the ground, start over. With snake traps everywhere. I'm not real sure where I was going with that, but that's a good story. See, the biggest problem the church has is not the government, and it's not the world. According to 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, the biggest problem we got in this building is us. And so there's opposition, but I still believe the Bible, don't you? The Bible said, greater is he that's in me than he that's in the world. And so in 2025 going forward, I know there's going to be opposition, right? But if I believe that book, we can be victorious. But it's up to us. It's up to us. Let's stand together.