You are listening to the preaching ministry of Faith Baptist Church. I would like to turn to a passage today, but I don't have one particular passage in mind, but a theme in scripture. An important one. Before Adam and Eve chose to sin, life in this world that God made, the Garden of Eden, the world at large, it was a safe place. It was a happy place. It was a good place to be. You could go walking any place you wanted to go. You could camp any place you wanted to lay down. And you wouldn't have to worry about predators or thieves or anything harming you. You probably didn't even have to worry about mosquitoes. There was nothing trying to harvest your blood or eat your flesh. There was no meat-eating animal hunting you down. Even the Tyrannosaurus rex was a nice creature. There was no big bad wolf hunting, tricking Little Red Riding Hood and her grandma. And there's no fox in the hen house. But today is a very different story. When we hear that there are lions and tigers and bears, we say, oh my, because it's a scary thing. Earlier this month, if you follow the news, you know that in Houston, there was a tiger, loose, in the community. They didn't know where it was. It was on the loose. One day, a man was sitting at dinner in his house in Houston, Texas, and he looked outside, and there was a tiger in his yard. How would you feel about that? That would be a very awkward moment, wouldn't it? And then it disappeared, and for a long time, until just recently, the police were scouring the neighborhood trying to find where this tiger was at. Would you let your children play outside if this was the case? I don't think so. In the 1990s, I was at the cabin in Pennsylvania that belonged to my grandma and grandpa before I went there. They had built the thing some years before, and the story was told that My grandpa, who was a plumber, was back in the bathroom, on his back, head under the sink, working on some plumbing. Grandma was doing what she did best, and that was bake pies. She was out in the kitchen, baking some raspberry pies, and it was a small little kitchen, and she turned around, The smell of those pies had crept out into the forest and evidently a large bear, not the one in the picture, but it was like this, a large bear came up to the sliding glass door and stood up on its hind legs and pressed its paws and its nose and its tongue against the door and was pushing on the glass door. Thankfully, the glass was bear rated apparently, but grandma was so scared. The only thing between her and that bear was that glass. She cried out for grandpa to come and the only thing she could get out was a whisper. She couldn't talk. She was so scared. like a bear trying to break into my grandma's kitchen, and worse, Satan has slithered into the world to do his dirty work, to ruin with venom and with bloodthirsty killing what God has done. He did it in the Garden of Eden, and today he's doing the same thing in the church. He's hunting down believers in congregations to take a bite that will take the life out of the body of Christ, and mark my words, he has tried to do that to Faith Baptist Church. He will. He has lost here a lot. He's been doing a lot of losing. And for that, I'm thankful. And it is the blood and the power of Jesus Christ that has put him on his heels, but he's not done. There is a beautiful unity and servant spirit, a desire to grow, a humility that acknowledges failure and grows, confesses. There's an openness, a brotherhood that has developed and continues to grow of just sweet spirits of communicating and talking and honesty. There's just not a lot here at Faith Baptist right now that we should be ashamed of. Satan has been put on his heels. He's fought and he's kicked through various ways in the last seven years, and he's been shut out by God's grace, but he's not done. Wherever there is something good that God is doing, there are predators on the prowl looking for ways to get in and to take a bite out of it. Mark my words, he is not done. Scripture speaks of three carnivorous predators in Scripture using these wild animals and how we know them today to describe threats to the church and to individual believers, threats that we need to be aware of, and threats that even Paul himself warned the church at Ephesus about when he departed from them. These three creatures are the lion, the wolves, and the little foxes. And that's what I wanna warn us all about today. The lion, the wolves, and the little foxes. First of all, we need to beware of the lion. 1 Peter 5, verse 8, Peter says, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. It's interesting that Peter would mention this in this letter as a mature believer, years removed from his time with Jesus in person. Because it was Jesus himself that looked Peter in the face and said, you are going to deny me, Peter, when you face the prospect of suffering and persecution in my trial. And Peter said, oh no, I won't. I'll go with you to the death. And Jesus said, no, you won't. Satan, has desired to have you, that he may sift you like wheat and blow you away. But I have prayed for you that your faith would not be eclipsed. It'll flicker, but it won't go out. And when that full cycle turns around and you're converted, then strengthen the brothers." And that's what Peter's doing in this statement, because he had denied the Lord. Satan had played with him like a lion paws with a rabbit, but Jesus prayed for him and he was delivered from that threat. And now he is warning us, beware of the lion. Life in this world is more like hiking through an African game preserve on the Savannah than it is strolling through the Bronx Zoo. Satan slithered into the Garden of Eden as a snake, but he stalks us like a lion today. That's why we need to be sober, which means clear-headed, and vigilant, which means paying attention. We need to pay attention. We can't sleepwalk through this world. Satan does two things, Peter says. He roars and he devours. A lion doesn't roar when they're hunting. They hunt with stealth and quietness. Why do they roar? A lion roars because it is defending its territory. Especially when the sun rises and when the sun sets, a lion will walk around his territory and he will roar. And that roar can be heard up to five miles, eight kilometers away. It's one of the most terrifying sounds in the animal world. That lion is not hunting for food when it roars. It's saying, If you're on my territory and I catch you, you're in trouble. Get out. We live in the devil's world today. Paul calls him in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, this is his world. He is the God of this world. Every day that we get up and take a step out of our house, out of our bedroom, we are stepping onto a lion's territory where we don't belong. And he's not happy about that. Your presence as a Christian unnerves him. Your involvement in this world threatens him. When you speak the gospel, it scares him. And when a church is doing well, it frightens him. That's why he roars. And when he roars, he does so to paralyze and to strike fear in the hearts of Christ's children. because that fear will prevent you from obeying Christ, from going out to represent Christ, from taking forward steps to follow Christ, because that roar is the prospect of suffering, of persecution, and of pain, even of death. If you study 1 Peter, which we don't have time to do today, you'll see that it was Peter's fear of being persecuted by the Romans and the Jews that caused him to deny the Lord. And today, for us, when we take steps to follow Jesus as a church and as individuals, if we sense I may suffer, I may lose, I may get hurt, I may get burnt, I might even die, for doing that. That's the lion's roar. He roars through the prospect of suffering and the temptation to sin. And the roar is the loudest when suffering actually comes and when the temptation is strong. The threat is one thing, but when it happens, that's another. And I have seen here at Faith Baptist Church, I have seen people run when difficulties come, and I've seen people stay. And it's those who have stayed to face the adversity down that have scared the lion away. He's gonna come up with another strategy. He's not done, but he's licking his wounds trying to figure it out. Don't back down when the lion roars, when the temptation is its strongest and the suffering is its scariest. Stand firm. When a lion senses that another lion, predator, or person is on his territory, he's threatened. He stalks that trespasser down, hoping that the roar stunned him or scared him away. Paul says he walks around seeking. That's combined, that's stalking. He stalks us. He stalks the church. That's what he's doing. He's bloodthirsty, bent on our destruction. He wants to remove you as a threat because you scare him. If you follow Jesus, he loses. And he doesn't like that. And he does not take losing well. If you allow the prospect of suffering and the power of temptation to overcome you, He will devour you, the Bible says. And that is not a good thing. He wants to ruin your effectiveness. He wants to damage your testimony as an individual and as a church. Because if he can ruin your effectiveness and damage your testimony, he is doing that to the Lord Jesus Christ and the name of God and the power of the gospel. And we can't let that happen to our Lord. So don't back down, don't give in, don't run. Stay, stand, and resist. Stand firm when he roars. Calmly stand your ground. Refuse to run. Don't panic. Resist means to stand in your place and to push back calmly and strongly. Don't let your feelings overwhelm you. And don't forget what you've been taught. It's in the moment that a lion roars that our mind goes blank. You know that? It's like standing up to give a speech in eighth grade. You practice, you memorize, you step up before the class and poof, your mind goes blank and you freeze. Satan does that when he roars. We get scared, we get a phone call, something happened, someone said something, something happened that was unexpected, a person did this or that, or this person failed, and we get stunned, shocked, oh! And our mind goes blank, and it's in those moments that we must grab onto what we've been taught, because our feelings feel differently. We hold on, stand firm. What difficulty or hardship or trial are you afraid of in your future? What's around the bend for you right now? And you're nervous about that. You're scared about that as a person who's following Jesus or as a church. Don't let the lion scare you. Stand firm, step forward and push back. Are you committed to doing that in your personal walk with Christ? and as a brotherhood. You know me, I like to talk about the brotherhood. We've worked on that here at faith. The brotherhood is strong and it's growing. You know where the word brotherhood appears in the Bible? First Peter chapter five, the very next verse. That's when Peter says, resist the devil. Why? Because the same things that you're going through are suffered by the brotherhood throughout the world. There are churches and believers facing the very things that you face. They've been doing this from the very first century and you are not alone, you are not unique. Satan has his hands full all over the world. Let's give him a fight that he'll remember and let him lose. But we've got to have each other's back. Satan is most effective when we forget we're a part of the brotherhood, the sisterhood. He's most effective when he gets us alone, isolated. And let me say to anyone listening on a really nice, high-quality live stream right now, I hope you're enjoying the high-definition video, but it's not three-dimensional and you can't hug anybody. I hope you're enjoying the nice, high-quality sound, but it's not the same. If you are content to just listen to the live stream on Sundays and not come in person, and you have no real legitimate reason to stay home, that you could stand before Jesus and defend then you are at risk because you are growing in your isolation and that is not a good thing for your spiritual walk with God. You are a target for Satan right now. And unless you have a reason to stay home that you can defend before Jesus, Jesus may not be behind you staying home. If he is, you're in good shape. Don't worry about what I just said. But if you can't defend it, You better get with the brothers and the sisters of your church soon and fast because you need those hugs and you need those three-dimensional people more than you know. We need to stand against Satan, not isolate ourselves in independence. Second of all, we need to beware of wolves. This is what Paul actually talked about in Acts chapter 20. There's the lion, Satan himself, then there's the pack of wolves. If you're familiar with the Lion King story, you know who Scar is, right? He's the bad lion who's trying to get his territory back. He's threatened. It's been taken from him. But who is he accompanied by? This bumbling pack of hyenas. They're the ones that he has do all the dirty work. And that is exactly what Paul is talking about when he talks about the wolves. of wolves. Satan is accompanied in his mission to devour the church by infiltrating the church with wolves dressed in sheep's clothing. Christ himself warned against these wolves to his disciples, including Peter, when he said in Matthew 7, 15, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. In Acts chapter 20, Paul said himself, when he said goodbye to the pastors in the church at Ephesus, whom he had served for several years, he said, I know this. This was not a question to him. This was a prediction. I know this, that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and not spare the flock. Who are these wolves? They're bad influencers who appear to be genuine, unauthentic Christians. They look like sheep. They act like sheep. They may even be enthusiastic. They may say the right things. One commentator says they give all the appearances of promoting authentic Christianity in word and in work. They may verbally affirm, Jesus is my master, perhaps even with great joy and enthusiasm, and make us all look like peons. Some people may even speak with eloquence, exhibit magnetic personality qualities, have a really great background and high character, and perform impressive miracles. You say, oh, I don't, I wouldn't be tempted by that. If someone walked into Faith Baptist Church and healed every sick person, what would you do about that? Would you automatically believe whatever comes out of their mouth? Paul said, don't. They're wolves. Jesus encourages us to look past these details these superficial external persuasive factors to the qualities that really matter. Learn to evaluate people who come into the congregation of Faith Baptist Church on the qualities that matter. Don't be snowed by the outward external things. Genuine love for Christ will be more interested in these things. Jesus says in Matthew 7, 16, you will know them by their fruits. The call to righteousness, to follow Jesus, includes personal virtue, private devotion, and unselfish social behavior. These things are seemingly supernatural powers, are incidental to them. These wolves may be impressive, but they will lack these qualities. They'll be, under the surface, more interested in accumulating wealth, building a reputation, feeding their own desires. That's a wolf. A wolf comes in to kill and eat the sheep, not to feed and push them forward. Remember that. They come in, and when the lambs are sleeping, They rip them apart. And when Paul says they are not going to spare the flock, what he means is they don't just go after the difficult people. They don't go after just the men. They go after men and women, new and old Christian, mature, immature, all cultures, all ages, boys and girls, They don't care who they damage. All they care is that they get what they want from this church. That is a wolf. Why do we need to evaluate these things? Because when wolves get into a church, they're hard to get out and they cause a lot of damage. People lose their faith in the church. Young people lose a vision for Christ. People's morale drops and a passion for Jesus shrinks and a desire to reach out disappears. A desire to give is held back. People become more guarded and less open because of wolves. Don't let them get in because when they get in, they hurt everybody and the damage is long lasting. Paul calls them savage. Christ calls them ravenous and they're being polite. Christ warns his disciples about these things, the wolves, when? Before he prepared to leave. Paul did the same thing. That's why I'm doing it. Don't let wolves get in. Keep them out. Pastor Chris and Pastor Swanson, keep them out. By God's grace, keep the sweet spirit of Faith Baptist Church, which is the spirit of God, the spirit of Jesus Christ, this brotherhood that has developed. Keep that strong for the next decades. And if a wolf comes in, sniff it out. And it's not just the pastor's jobs, it's all your jobs. Don't let them in. All pastors and spiritual leaders know this feeling, right? It's what parents feel when they drop their kids off at college as a freshman. You know your son's going to do great. He's going to get good grades. He's going to do well. And Christmas break is going to come. He's going to come back with glowing stories of life at school. But inside, you're a little nervous about the influences they're going to face and how they're going to survive. Did you miss anything as a parent? You're a little nervous about that. I see you warn, watch out for bad friends, right? Don't let the wolves in. How are bad influences infiltrating this church or trying right now? What are the weaknesses in the walls? Where's the unlocked gates that wolves are trying to get in from? And how can you protect yourself from these things? Wolves get into churches to injure and to destroy. In these ways, they promote a prosperity gospel, a gospel with no suffering, no pain, all glitz, glamour, and glory. And if you're suffering, and if you don't have a lot of money, and if you're sick and you can't get healed, then you're not walking with God. That is a lie. Sometimes the godliest people are the poorest, most suffering, pain-wracked people in the world because they have the glow of the Lord. God blesses with money and all these things, but sometimes he blesses without those things. Both are real possibilities. False teachers, wolves come in and only promote the one side. Be very careful about that. Charismatic teaching, teaching that focuses on the miraculous and the supernatural displays of power and miracles and these sort of things. But if you watch closely, and I don't deny that God can do such things, there's very little depth. There's very thin biblical teaching. Random verses are pulled out. There's no strong feeding of the word of God. Shepherds don't impress sheep, they feed them. A false teacher doesn't do that. Legalism, we've talked enough about that, but when legalism walks in, it looks good, but it is dangerous. Don't be fooled. Minimizing or tolerating moral sins. We need to be a forgiving church, a church that forgives and restores without judging, but we do not tolerate immorality. Sexual sins are sexual sins, and they're an abomination to the Lord, and we do not tolerate them. We acknowledge them. We forgive when they are apologized for, and we forgive 70 times 7, but we do not tolerate or look at those things as though they're okay. Wolves tolerate sins. They compare your church to another better one nearby. You need to be like this church or that church or the church that I came from. You need to be like that church or the church that exists in their mind or in another culture or in another country that they came from. They try to press that on the church. That is not healthy. Faith Baptist Church is the church that God has made us to be. We need to keep becoming a better version of that for God's glory, not become like another church. I told Brookdale Baptist Church just this week, we were having a meeting with some of the people for one discussion that we were having there online, and I made the point, I said, I'm coming from a very good church, but I have no illusions of making your church this church. You are your own church, and it's my job as a pastor to make sure I help you become the best Brookdale Baptist Church that you can be. That is the way we need to view any church, not comparing ourselves among ourselves. Wolves do that, and it destroys morale and a spiritual walk with God. They do this in their influence by downplaying the importance of church participation and service. You don't have to come to church, you don't have to do much, you don't have to get involved, just that is not right. And finally, by undermining the pastors God has given you. When people come into a church and they undermine and criticize and gossip about and fight against in various ways, quiet and loud, the pastors that God has given to you, do not listen to them. That is the speech of a wolf. No matter how many good qualities they have, that is damaging to the church. Keep that out. I would also add if they come in and undermine other members as well. If they come in and criticize other members and cut down other members and compare those members, that is a wolf. A true child of God builds up, encourages, supports. We can also recognize that these influences get into the church through people. who come in and get accepted. We accept them and then we don't see what's going on from the inside like the frog in the kettle. The other way that they get in is through other means like top selling books, popular radio programs, television preachers, and Google and YouTube searches. Those things have value sometimes. Sometimes they don't. Make sure that what you're listening to and reading and feeding on during the week from other sources passes the scripture test. that it is what the Bible says. Talk to your pastors about those things. Let them know. I've appreciated some of the brothers in the church saying, I'm listening to this. Is this a good podcast? Yeah, it's a good one. That's a really good one. Is this a good, that's a really good one. That's a shepherd's job. Not to say the only person you listen to is me, but to make sure that the people you listen to are biblical. So we gotta watch out for wolves that get in through technology. Regularly participate in your church. Gorge yourself on the preaching and teaching of your church. Gorge yourself on scripture personally every day. And involve yourself in ministry. There's one more predator I need to mention. Beware of the lion, beware of the wolves, but beware of the little foxes. I've been at Faith Baptist Church for seven years now, and I think one of the books I haven't preached from is the Song of Solomon. It's a good one. If I preached an expositional series to the Song of Solomon, those who know their Bible well, faces would get read. Others of you would say, where is that in the Bible? I never heard about this book. It's a good book, especially for courting or married couples. It's a very, very good book. Song of Solomon chapter 2 and verse 15 says, Catch us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes. In this verse, the speaker is probably a young woman. It's poetry, it's hard to tell exactly, but it's probably a young woman who is being pursued by a royal king prince type figure who is a young man. And he wants to get married. And he knows he wants to marry. It's this beautiful woman that he has found. And he is courting her and she's letting him. And they're beginning to develop a romantic interest in each other. And the woman recognizes that if they're not careful, this thing could stop before it gets traction. And she says, catch the little foxes before they spoil the vines, because our vines have tender little grapes on them and they're not developed yet. The idea is she was afraid that their relationship would end before it got started. In ancient times, wild animals like foxes were well known for destroying whole vineyards. When I was a child, chipmunks used to burrow through the yard in our property in Indiana, and they would destroy the shrubs my dad had planted to keep the erosion of the soil from happening. They would destroy the root systems, and the erosion would happen anyway. And the plants would die because these cute little chipmunks would destroy the root systems in our yard. And anyone who's tried to grow a vegetable garden knows what rabbits and squirrels do. They destroy your hard-worked efforts, and you get very little fruit and vegetables at the end of the season to show off at church. Why? Because the cute little rabbits and squirrels messed it all up. That's the kind of reputation foxes have with vineyards. What they do is they get in, and they like eating grapes. And so they'll break into the vineyard, these little foxes will, and they'll even break down a hole in the wall. They'll find a place where there's a weakness in the stones and they'll remove the stones and burrow under or knock them down and break through the wall. to get in and to eat the little grapes before they develop. And other foxes will get in and they'll take over, they'll eat all the grapes up. And then the farmer comes in and he doesn't have much to produce grape juice with and grapes to sell. The harvest gets ruined before it actually develops. The other problem with foxes is they're nocturnal so they sleep during the day and do their dirty work at night and during the day to sleep they burrow down under the ground close to the vines roots and do what chipmunks do. They destroy the root systems under the ground in the vineyard and prevent the grapes from actually developing well. So it is in our lives and in our church the threat of The lion of Satan's roar is very great. And the threat, the insidious threat of wolves coming in and destroying the flock is very real. But perhaps the greatest threat to Faith Baptist Church right now is the little foxes. that come in and through little petty annoyances and little irritations with one another and frustrations we have with each other, get in and causes irritations that eventually develops into larger things that eventually causes damage in the church. And the most obvious application here, and I can't preach my last sermon without talking about it, is in our marriages. Mara, thank you for your phone ringing at that very moment. Let me talk to you about your marriage right now. I saw your husband push that button on his phone and trigger your phone. So I'm going to talk to the Burns right now. I'm kidding. Dick, you pulled a good one right there. And I can't get through my last sermon without Mara's phone going off either. That just wouldn't be real. A church is as strong as its homes. A church family is as spiritually strong as its individual families that make up its members. And it's not right now so much the false teaching and the prospect of suffering, which is real, that I would be concerned about as an outgoing pastor in the future. It's what's happening at home. It's the little frustrations of married life and romantic life, passing comments, botched tasks, forgotten promises, irritating habits I haven't helped you to solve yet that we're going to probably go to the end of our days with, hectic schedules, financial frictions, complications that come with raising children, and all the other challenges that only married couples will eventually do understand. It's those things that cause friction in a church. When a home is not healthy, it doesn't have to be perfect, but you're not handling those little foxes, then the marriage gets weak, and then the church gets weak, And that's what we have to be careful of. Don't let the root system, the ecosystem of our families be destroyed. A lot of good has happened in the last seven years. And there's a lot of tender fruit that's growing. The nursery is getting ready to start busting at the seams again. That's exciting. Let's not ruin the harvest. Let's not let the foxes get in. Oh, there will be foxes, but remove them when they come. Don't let them burrow down. They're going to happen. That's life. That's not failure, but failing to address them is. The extended application here is how our married and family life affects the church, which is why Paul in Ephesians and Colossians finishes both of those letters to churches by giving family advice, how to behave at home, because he knew that was the key to a healthy church. Give diligent attention to your marriages. Pastors Acosta and Swanson, give a lot of care to the marriage. We have wonderful couples in this church, wonderful couples. And I want to see you guys flourish. And couples of this church, help the newer couples, the younger couples. Let us not Go back to the days of coming to church and pretending we're wonderful, amazing Christians, high character people, and we have problems at home and no one wants to talk about it. No one knows about it. No one wants to even bring it up. Don't go back to that. Keep the doors open and honest. Every married couple in this church should be able to talk to any other married couple about the realities of everyday life and how you're working them through without judging and shunning and pushing away and grow and flourish. This should be a place where marriages can be real and can really grow. Strong, growing marriages. Parent and child relationships are the key to the future of Faith Baptist Church. And then I also will add as another layer of application, don't let the foxes get into the church either. We're all going to have little idiosyncrasies and habits. We all still have our cultures embedded in us and they're all great. We all have cultural differences and we have to make sure that we don't let those things develop into frictions and frustrations and annoyances that get us off target. Learn to tolerate petty little differences with each other. Some of us are all about being on time. Some of us are all about being late if it meant having a good conversation with somebody, right? Some of us are all about looking in the eyes or they're not looking in the eye. I could go down the list. We've learned so many things together as a church. Enjoy the differences. Don't let them develop into spiritual irritations and frustrations. Treat those things in the church like you should treat them in your marriage. Love overlooks a whole lot of things and focuses on what really matters, the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're offended by someone, including your spouse right now, let them know. And if you find that you're offending them, immediately apologize. It doesn't have to be complicated. And if they immediately apologize, then you ask for forgiveness. Matthew 5, 23 says, If you bring your gift to the altar, you worship God as a church, and there remember that your brother or sister is something against you, stop what you're doing, I'm paraphrasing, go and make that right with your brother and sister, and then come back and worship. If you're coming to worship harboring grudges and frustrations and offenses, get that right, and let's not be a church that makes that difficult. And if you're on the other side of it, forgive. in your home and in your church. It's not complicated. You let it go, you don't bring it up again, and you keep on going. How many times? As many times as you have to. I'm telling you, rabbits don't stop nibbling at the carrots. Chipmunks don't stop burrowing under the ground and foxes, you can't keep them away from the hen house. So you have to learn how to address them repeatedly all the time. That's the key. And in the church, let's make sure that we learn how to do this. If we allow bitterness to develop in our hearts and that root system gets in, we come become even more dangerous than a wolf. We hurt and damage the body of Christ through our bitterness, and other people in the church get affected. A little negative comment, an edgy criticism that's passed from one member to another, unknown to anyone who should know, who is a part of the solution or the problem, develops in a church, and people can get hurt by that. Be very careful. Got a problem? Talk to the person, get it right, forgive, move on. That's the key. And when churches forget this, the foxes take over and the grapes, they get destroyed. Don't let that happen. The wolf, it's not the lion dwells with the lamb, right? We know this now. It's the wolf. There's coming a day when the wolf will dwell with the lamb. The predator threat will be gone. God is gonna make a new world. Isaiah 11, six through nine says, the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fattened calf together. The cow and the bear will graze. Their young ones will lie down together. The lion shall eat straw like an ox. They, the predators, shall not hurt nor destroy, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord. But until then, there are predators. And we are the prey. And we have to pray that we will not let the lion or the wolves or the little foxes mess up. what God is doing at Faith Baptist Church. Let's pray.