 Chapter 6 verse 1, children obey your parents and the Lord, for this is right. Honor thy father and thy mother, which is the first commandment with promise. They may be well with thee, and the dumbest live long on the earth. The fathers provoke not their children to wrath. Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Slaves, I know the King James Version, and probably all of your Bibles says servants. Not an accurate translation. Slaves. Be obedient to them that are your masters, according to the flesh. With fear and trembling and singleness of your heart. As unto Christ. Not rely service as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ. Doing the will of God from the heart. With good will. Doing service as to the Lord and not to men. Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord. Whether he be bond or free. Your masters. Do the same things unto them. For bearing threatening, knowing that your master also is in heaven. Neither is there respect of persons with him. Simple summary. The second half of the epistle, after all as a brother Brian rightly laid out for us this morning. Following the pattern of Paul, he always tells us who God is and what God has done for us. Spends the first half of the letter painting the picture of how awesome God is. And how much we owe him. And then, you know, the pivots somewhere in the middle of the epistle, usually in the word therefore, in light of how good God has been, here's what we ought to be doing. And he lays it all out. And so very practically, as practical as that, he's got something to say to everybody. Husbands, wives, children, fathers, slaves, masters. We all have a duty, right? We've all got a duty. We have an obligation. And he lays out that obligation. It's in light of all that God has done for us that we look at our duty, our obligation, and go, okay, this is my thing. And I need to do this. Signing off the letter, he begins in the tenth verse to say, finally, this is the summary of this letter, the end of this letter. Preachers do it in, you know, a live setting to give you hope. And finally in closing, it's the thing that preachers are famous for for bringing you back to consciousness, getting you excited. Oh, it's almost over. And finally in my first closing, but Paul here, what he does is say, this is the end of the letter. This is the last thing I want to say to you. Finally, be strong in the Lord. Be strong. He says, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Now, what I'm going to say to you may be somewhat repetitious if you've had to endure my preaching before. I'm going to say again, God made us male. He knew it. He had something in mind when he made us male. It was the gender distinctions are his doing. It is really sort of what creation, you read the account of creation and everything goes from one level of good to another level of even better. There's a progression to the whole creation account given to us in Genesis chapter one and two. But it's all moving somewhere. And the ultimate act of creation is God creating man in his own image, in his own likeness. But he's not done. You can tell he's not done when he says it is not good. For everything that was done, it's called good. But he's not good that man should be alone. I'll make him a helper suitable for him. God said it is not good that man should be alone. I'll make him a helper. So that is God kind of clueing us in that this is the high point of creation. This is what all of this creative action has been leading up to. And that is the creation of gender. Among humans created in the image of God. God takes the one man that has been created in his image and he takes that man created in his image, puts him into a deep sleep. I point out often, I'll point it out again, what God did not do was worth noting. God said I'll make him a helper. He did not repeat what he had done to make Adam. He formed Adam out of the dust of the ground, breathing in his nostrils the breath of life. A man became a living soul. God did not repeat that to make woman. God did not form her out of the dust of the ground and breathe in her nostrils the breath of life and she became a living soul. He didn't do that. What he did do is he put the man into a deep sleep. And he took from him what he made into a woman. And there is a mystical sense in which God actually took the likeness of God, the image of God and divided that into two. So that for us humanly speaking, we look to a mother and a father for things that actually come from God, the father. Our father in heaven is actually best seen when a man and a woman come together. In the holiness of marriage. And they complete each other. They make up for the lack that each other has. They are what each other lacks. There is something about this wonderful thing when a child, and most of us did not have the benefit of this, but when a child can look at that relationship, can look at that union, can see two people that are actually functioning as one. You see two people that are actually complementing, actually completing one another. There are things that you can only know about the goodness of your heavenly father as you have seen it in the kindness, gentleness of your mother. There are things that you can only know about God the father as you have seen it in the courage and the strength, the clarity, the decisiveness of a father in an ideal situation. It is in that thing, family, this invention of God in marriage that God is actually seen. There is a sense in which the very image of God is restored when two people who know the Lord, two people in whom the Spirit of God lives, come together as a man and wife, and they truly become one in a way that no two men can, in a way that no two women can, they become one in a way that everything else attempts to mock, everything else attempts to imitate in that union. There is a sense in which the image of God is seen, best reflected. So I would maintain that the creation of gender, the distinction between men and women, were really what all of creation was moving toward them, the scriptures. God made us to be men. And in making us men, I maintain, brothers, as I've said many times before, He made us for a war. And every one of us, since we were born, when we were little boys, we were born into a cosmic conflict between good and evil, a universal war, and we knew it innately, and we wanted to affect it. We wanted to be in that fight, good versus evil. We dreamed about it. We dreamed of greatness in that great conflict. So I find myself coming to this section of this epistle, finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord. Biblically speaking, something else I'll repeat to you right now, manhood is in fact associated with strength. Strength of character. Yes, even physical strength. That 40% of the average man's body is muscle tissue, whereas it's about 25% of the average woman. God made us to be the stronger. God made them to be the weaker. Weaker doesn't mean inferior, but weaker. First Peter chapter 3 just means more easily broken, delicate. There's a beauty to that weakness. There's a beautiful sort of weakness, a delicateness that the scriptures reveal associated with womanhood that is not supposed to be a characteristic of a man. I was a boy once, just like your fellows were once boys. And we dreamed of being men. The question I would ask you at this moment, are you the man you dreamed that you would be? Are we, are we at least on our way, as a man that I look to as I thought about growing up? I want to be a man, I want to accomplish great things. I want people to see me as great. I want it to be respected. I think there's some of that that is the total expression of the very image of God in us. Oh yeah, the image of God is messed up by sin, and men will go way beyond just wanting to be respected to wanting to be worshipped. That's the reality. Every time there's something in every single one of us that makes us strive. There's something in the heart of my little boy, my now seven-year-old son, that every time he accomplishes anything on the wrestling mat, he looks to see did I see it. The first person he wants to address is me. I'm very grateful for that. What a privilege. Now, some of you guys don't know my story, but I didn't grow up with a dad. My dad had left us when I was very young. There was two teachers that played significant roles in my life. Two male teachers. There was a boy. One played the role of a messenger from Satan. He was a homosexual, and he really did mess up my mind. He did, in fact, try to drag me into a relationship. All the time I thought he was just feeling like a dad. The day I was being groomed for a romance, the repulsion that came over my soul at the realization of what this was really all about on a camping trip, really almost completely derailed my life, sent me down a path, a really messed up path, a path where I was just weirder and more violent and more bitter. My only ambition as a boy after that season was just to get big enough and strong enough that nobody could ever mess with me. Nobody could mess with me, nobody could take advantage of me, and I could take vengeance on a world. But there was another man that came, another teacher, a male teacher, and I didn't have a relationship with this guy. I just saw him in the classroom. I didn't go on camping trips with him, because I'd kind of been burned, right? I wasn't asked either, you know, I'm not... But this man was a Christian. This man was a Christian. This man was sent by God into my life. He taught me science in middle school. His job was to lay out the fear of evolution. I've often testified about this man. Lawrence Easton. My little son, Ben, bears the middle name, Lawrence, for that very reason, for the role that this man played. The role that was so very significant, because it was more than just what he knew that he was passing on to me. It was who he was. It was the kind of man that he was. The way he lived. Mr. Easton, he was tall and strong. He was handsome. He had a beautiful wife. He had a really cool magnum PI mustache. And he knew things. He knew established scientific laws. He laid out for me all the laws of science that this is the 1970s, the laws of science that destroy the theory of evolution. He told me every reason why Darwin was wrong. And it was the very Bible that he owned that he had on the corner of his desk that he was not allowed to read to us. That I connected who he was and all that he knew with that book. It was the day that I asked the question, Mr. Easton, where did we come from then? My 13-year-old heart had to know and I remember him turning to face the class and him saying, I've testified to this before to you, man. He took a deep breath inside, searching for the words, shaking his head. He said, it's against the law for me to tell you. Which was the perfect answer to give to this rebel? Because once he said that one, oh, really? Oh, it's against the law so they don't want me to know. Well, I've had enough of them already. They don't want me to know. I must know. It's that book, isn't it? He said a lot by what he did not say. I aspired one day that would be he taught science and health. I remember him just telling us in class, remember one day he said, all right, listen, it was a health class. He had a muscle, growing muscle, muscle tissue and he just mentioned, he wasn't boasting, he mentioned curls. He's a national guardsman and on the side of his teaching gig and he tries to stay healthy and I remember him saying in the class, I curl 100 pounds this many times but if you curl it a whole lot more times a lighter weight, it's a lot better. I remember just being a 13 year old one, you can curl 100 pounds. I remember the thought. I was thinking, I want to be like you, I want to be like you. Lord used him in my life. His witness, who he was and everything else, I started reading the Bible that year because of his witness. Recent weeks, if I go, I went along with my old friend. Lauren sees that he is in hospice care. He's dying now and he's dying like a man and I've always said I want a glorious death myself. Always I've said, you know what, I want a Muslim bullet right through my head. I want my head cut off. I want to be right in mid-sentence. I've always said, I want to die from stupid. Now there's a high degree of probability on that. So I make it a matter of prayer. I don't want to die from stupid. I want to die for the cause. I want a worthy death. A death whereby you can glorify God. I've always said that. It's different. I've watched my old teacher, I once aspired to be like, I've seen him embrace the weakness of his dying. I've watched him as he's changed, as his hair is gone, his strength is gone. I go down every Wednesday. I drive down an hour and a half to where he lives on the coast. Every Wednesday is sort of a new landmark. And he goes, well, I can no longer climb the stairs and sleep in the bed with a wife of mine here. Down here now on the first floor, I get this hospital bed. Every week it's something. Last week, he's a man. But embracing it with such humility, such humility with such a gratitude that I'm going to heaven. I talk to him about heaven. I talk to him about what little our minds can grasp about where he's going and about the prime, the prime that he's never known. The prime is ahead of him, not behind him. I talk to him about the glory that will be his and the reward waiting. We've had some great talks and such humiliation. A week ago, he looked at me and said, I have a question. We talked a lot about his funeral. We planned that out. We overplanned his funeral. But he said I have a question. I understand you say no, the awkward. He said you think you're strong enough that you could lift me up and put me on the commode. So I got this bedpan. It won't work. My legs won't work. I can't do it. I said I had no one strong enough. I've been lifting weights my whole life just for this moment, just for this honor right here. So I bare hugged my old teacher and get it done. And ultimately, he got to endure the humiliation of his wife cleaning him up while I hold him. His face is buried here on my shoulder. He's weak, can't do anything. He's apologized. I said, do you understand the witness that you gave to me? Do you understand what you did for how God used you in my life? This is the greatest honor I've ever known. And I read honestly, I still welcome a Muslim poet, but watching the humility and the faith of a one strong man watching strength leave and embracing it has altered my whole perspective on that. You know, he's dying like a man, most commendable. Remember when it was when we were little boys and we dreamed one day we're going to be big and strong and we're going to do things, right? Remember? Please consider now all you've grown up little boy that this is that day that we dreamed about. Now is the day for any real greatness that is ever going to come out of these lives of ours to the glory of God to manifest. Now's the time. Now's the time for us to put away all that boy stuff, childish things. Even if we've carried those childish things all the way into this season wherein it's time to put them away. Because the hour is late. We have been invited into a fight that we cannot possibly win on our own. We've been invited into a fight as he says, you've got to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. And he tells us in the next verse why the subsequent verses here will point out to us. We've got to put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil where verse 12 says, but we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places. We're in a fight that I've said to you before so outside of our weight class it's outside of our life form class even. That we have been invited into a fight against higher forms of life. I will remind you once again that according to the 8th Psalm God made men a little lower than the angels. He made men a little lower than the angels and then having made us a little lower than the angels has invited us into a fight with angels. He made us a little lower than the angels and then calls us into a fight with beings in a higher forms of life they've been around a long time they've studied our kind they see us we can't see them they got all kinds of advantages we're absolutely as he said I send you out of sheep among wolves now how do you like that I'm sending you out of sheep among wolves when your lover would have said I'm sending you out of wolves among sheep but he didn't we're not going out with a black leather jacket we're going out with a little fuzzy sweaters on among wolves be strong in the Lord in the power of his might but we wrestle not against flesh and blood this is not a flesh and blood fight it's against principalities and powers and rulers that's really kind of intimidating me if you really stop and grasp this if you really stop for a minute and think about what we're against and what they would if they had their way what they would do with us how this whole thing wouldn't end wouldn't end with just a little public humiliating knockout it would end with our souls in the hell and everyone we love likewise in the abyss think about all that is at stake think about this one reality and maybe you can relate to this better you who have done any of you who have done any prison time I'm sure in the room full of us sinners some of us who have been incarcerated yes you've done the time there you know what a punk is a prison punk that in our absolute sick society which by the way you guys know prison was never God's idea God said beat him and get him back to work the law was plain that crime ought to be dealt with justly, swiftly, justly, evenly eye for eye, tooth for tooth though wrongly applied to personal offenses was God's idea in the law with regard to crime and punishment simple restitution is God's idea public beating I like the proverbs Proverbs 18 about the fool's mouth and bites of beating his lips call for strokes strokes were once the way right it's oh the genius of it but instead what we've done in our modern society in being humane we've done something so sick and cruel to human beings we lock them up together with a worst of you know humanity so they can do awful things to each other and so in prison they in fact do you know it's crime school people are in bitter it's not the deterrent that anybody assumed it would be instead you come out worse right thinking of this little dude who used to come five foot seven guy little white kid always bouncing around his long hair he wanted to be a drummer rock and roll drummer had dreams always had these drumsticks these back pocket he was hanging around me and the guys in my band and going hey guys you think you know I can make it you know if we practice really hard remember this kid he's like 17 years old we always say well what do you mean how do you define making it you know we try to talk to him about his life and about the Lord he was just one of those kids you know they started doing burglaries he did a big string of burglaries and ultimately he got caught in fact he was committed to burglaries my little kid's sister you know she got juvenile time he goes off to the big house you know I saw him two years later when he got out you've seen this he looked like an old man the guy had been used been used as an object of you know he'd been a sex slave in prison he'd been an object of of men's abuse not an awful thing and you know he didn't the bouncer was gone in his walk he and he snapped to this kid his name was Dale in fact Dale's the father of my niece he just snapped one day he just snapped he's out prostituting himself after prison because he completely destroyed he sees he's nothing he sees no value in his existence he's just down in you know homosexuals always got a place they got a park right in the middle of Bangor man he's down there just prostituting himself and ultimately one day he just told his brother whoever picks me up today I'm killing him I'm not killing him and he did he executed some you know middle-aged bank manager from the little Canadian border town came to our town for his perversion you know Dale executed he's gone away for life that's what he's doing now you've seen what happens to people in those places what happens when someone becomes that kind of slave do you understand that what's at stake in the fight that we're in I want to paint a picture for you I'd like you to feel something about this in fact I'd like you to get mad because there are devils that would like to punk you out they would like very much to make you their slave and they would get gratification from your sin you think that you're doing your will you think that you're doing your own will and that you're the man and all the time you're another but their toy everything that they would do to you they want to do to your children they want to do that to your wife they want to do that to everyone you love they would have them all enslaved and drag them right down to the abuser so there's a lot at stake in this thing we've been invited into a fight which there is a lot at stake and we are absolutely incapable of winning this on our own so the scriptures couldn't be any more invading with be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might and put on all your armor and get your weapon get it get your armor get your weapon I'm not going to focus on the armor of God the weaponry just that one thing that we must be strong in the Lord you got to take up this one this one weapon the word of God we're going to take under you the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand stand therefore I mean your Lord is good about with truth and having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace and above all taking the shield of faith whether you should be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and take the helmet of salvation and the word of God praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints what are we to do in this world? we get suited up as our brother Sandy called this to you suit up get in your uniform get on your armor get on and then take your weapon and then do what well you use it you do what with it three things primarily number one you lit it number one you apply it number two you preach it you preach it you speak the very word of God number three you pray it we're called to it right here do this you suit up in the spirit watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me Paul says verse 19 pray for me suit up arm yourself and pray pray for me that utterance may be given under me that I may open my mouth boldly and make known the mystery of the gospel some of the modern translations have him saying pray for me that I would speak boldly this gospel as I should it's an intimidating thing to be standing against the entire world as he was do you realize that you now as a Christian like Paul stand against the entire world you guys all understand what's going on right now in your time right you understand that worldwide I'm going to say something you can take and weigh out worldwide the American Christian or the professing American Christian has exercised profound influence and it has not been good in recent years the apathy of the American Christian is responsible for the current leadership of this country coming to power and that current leadership has changed America's role in the world it is the very American Christian apathy that causes them to not engage not take a stand not think biblically and not vote biblically that is causing Christians in Nigeria to be slaughtered 65 million according to George Barnas 65 million identify themselves self-identify themselves as evangelical Christian that is to say that about some kind of life-changing experience with the gospel they attend church at least once a week they actually own and read a bible they give a portion of their income and according to Barnas 65 million in this country think about this for a second 52 million only 52 million votes elects the entire federal government of all of what? 350 plus million people in this country only 52 million vote actually elects that entire federal government 52 million votes now there are 65 million who identify themselves as Christians only half of which are even registered vote and of the half that are registered only half actually go vote and when they go vote there is not any significant indication with exit polling it's like they know the bible so we are where we are persecution for all the brothers and sisters has erupted around the world on a level that at no time in human history has it been like it is right now according to those guys with voices voice of the martyrs and other organizations Amnesty International other organizations that actually track these things they have determined that there is more actual persecution for Christians happening now than there has ever been in the entire 20 centuries since our Lord Jesus came the church was born and it was born under the Roman emperor the tyranny of Rome and you know of the 6 million oh so Christians that were slaughtered those first 3 centuries what's happening right now he is eclipsing all of that worldwide and the irony of it that it is the American Christian who just doesn't care he is comfortable believes he's on his way to heaven so let the world go to hell don't engage don't vote don't think biblically our pastors generally speaking are not teaching the bible you're blessed man you've been led by the Lord into good pastor you have pastors like your David Rosales who will open up this book and let the sermon pick him he will open it up and take you from one end of this book all the way to the other end of this book model given to us by pastor Chuck Smith by J. Bernard McGee by others who've come long before but outside of our movement guys there is a horrible level of biblical illiteracy ignorance ignorance that I thought I never would see in my lifetime Barna he polled in fact this is one of the most extensive polls that have been done in our lifetime very revealing poll that reveals exactly where Christians stand on the very fundamentals this is Christians who were polled they would ask these questions just six basic do you believe in absolute truth do you believe the bible is accurate three is Satan a real being four heaven cannot be earned is that correct five Jesus lived a sinless life right number six God still rules in the world today nine percent nine percent of all the Christians polled by Barna agreed for those very fundamental truth so we live in the time of great apostasy and great apathy the apathy is the real thing that I'm trying to do something about I really do believe we can affect that I think we should we must try I believe in the words of John Quincy Adams you know duty is ours results God whether we actually turn anything around or not doesn't matter it doesn't matter is that we stand and that we take a stand and that we speak for God and we speak God's word polls request that we would suit up that we would arm ourselves and that we would then pray that we would that we would apply the word of God that we would preach the word of God and that we would pray the word of God you take the sword of the spirit and do it praying all kinds of prayers praying in the spirit I would ask you to pray for me as you pray for your pastor you guys are doing that right let me ask you this question if I told you if I told you if I spoke out enough against Islam radical Islam ethnic Islam is dangerous in that it dopes men's souls into hell but it's non-violent but you know true Islam radical Islam is a horrible thing that must be spoken against your pastors done that very boldly and if I told you that he was on a list on a hit list would you engage in prayer on his behalf set up like a 24-hour prayer cover you know get a clock and just say who can pray for 15 minutes and just sign up on the clock and pray and just intercede on behalf of your pastor wouldn't you do that if I told you that was the case I bet you would you jump up and go well we're going to cover him in prayer his legs are in danger do you understand he's already been targeted by something worse than any Islamic hit man those punks are nothing compared to what's after him it's a scary thing it's intimidating in fact if your pastor, if any of us failed to look at the awesome strength and the awesome might of God you can find ourselves quite overwhelmed because there is a lot of stake and there's also a lot against us I boarded a plane about a year ago I did a red eye from Ontario to Philadelphia I declare brothers a devil got on a plane with me whatever I just laughed, whatever the meeting was that I preached at it was fruitful and initially I was excited was all fired up, grateful had that attitude that I'm just so glad that God could find something to do with me that he could that he could ever do anything good accomplished anything through this life is a miracle it's a testimony to his grace and I'm thinking these thoughts but at some point or another I declare some principality set beside me bringing a plane and just started whispering in my ear just leaning over whispering in my ear boy what do you think you're doing who do you think you are don't you know that the greater the sphere of your influence the greater the destruction is going to be when you go down you're going down it's the level of moral purity required but this is beyond you you can't do it telling me I really started getting freaked out because I know me you know you I know me the potential of stupidity the potential of failure is enormous and it freaks me out that God has trusted me with anything honestly I find myself just getting so full of anxiety I'm trying initially to pray I can't even pray out of it it was so bad honestly I'm not that that fickle panic attack I'm going to I need a pill I try to act like a man all the time I am freaked out like some little kid by the time I landed in Philadelphia daylight it was so bad I was so overwhelmed with anxiety so intimidated honestly it was like I tuned into Goliath his trash jar get over here boy I want to feed you to the birds get over here am I a dog that you've insulted me as a giant with that stick get over here and now I've listened to it I've really provoked a giant with a stick what have I done what am I doing out here really did that awful feeling and it was so bad I didn't know what else to do I just had to call the brother and call Joe I loved him a voicemail call me it's needed to call me needed to talk to me no joke my brother he called me he listened for a minute let me remind you of all that is for you let me remind you of who is with you who is in you that conversation was stirring me man he reignited a fire I find myself just growing not that sort of you know carnal puffed up kind of but just the reminder of God in his might the power of his might that he's made available to you and I us little weaklings us pitiful little humans a sheep he has empowered us to actually allow that power to flow through us when he's given us this powerful weapon it occurred to me why is this giant talking since trash oh because he's scared he doesn't like the little human bugging him I got so fired up brother I got so stirred so encouraged I would have if you would pray for your pastor get your pastors on a regular regular get do it guys get a clock you know have somebody just put a clock together we do this thing at home called the prayer watch just asking everybody can you do 15 minutes I'm not even going to say can you not carry one hour with me can you just do 15 minutes can you not carry one quarter of an hour with me will you just sign up maybe you got 15 minutes of drive time you could commit to interceding at that time for your pastor for your spiritual spirit in fact doing that at drive time here might keep you from sin you know commit to some intercession there's just some other time that you can set aside and you can look at that clock and you see vacancies holes in the clock and get to where you're like there's enough of us we can cover our pastor in prayer it's like keeping a watch man just being a century a spiritual century consider that will you guys initiate and just do it I would ask if you would pray while you're praying pray for me like Paul said pray for me to have boldness pray for me that I would speak the word of God boldly God's opened a great door I've got 16 states just over the next 8 weeks from Alaska to Colorado we have the privilege of going and speaking cross-denominationally to pastors and inviting them to do what we've been doing in Calvary for all these years and let's get back to Bible exposition more Bible your people are biblically illiterate now listen that's um that's not an easy thing to have somebody tell you when you've been preaching your heart out and preaching sermons for you know decades when you stand up there with these white whiskers and go alright you need to change you need to get the whole Bible to these people you need to make systematic study of the Bible you gotta get your people reading the Bible the whole Bible and you gotta get them to stand up and speak we gotta stand up to who much is given much is expected we the heirs of the freedom that was bought and paid for by the lives of soldiers the heirs of the freedom that God has provided us here are people to whom much has been given I say that much is expected much is required we have the opportunity to influence the entire world from this land we've neglected it the apathy of the Christian abandoning the spiritual fights and can I just say one more thing not even voting if you're a Christian and you don't vote you're in sin it's like Peter denying the Lord it's like Peter saying I don't know him you don't vote you're like it's like saying no I don't have a stand on moralistic I know million and a half babies for your being slaughtered in abortion but you know can't do anything about it you don't vote you're in sin your vote is not some little you know right or privilege it's a prophetic witness that you're bailing on when you don't do it you know vote with a Bible in one hand and a ballot in the other and be bold the fight that we're in brothers is way bigger than us you gotta pray we gotta plead with God we can't just cop the attitude that so many evangelicals sort of cop that you know what it's all gonna go it's all gonna burn it's all gonna hell it's all sort of fatalistically they're like you know what one world government antichrist one world money system it's all moving in that direction that's what it's supposed to do there's a lot of mystery on this stuff guys one thing I do know is that we have a duty our duty does not change we have a duty to stand against what is wrong and what is absolute tyranny and tyranny is what we're seeing in our own day the executive branch of our government has presumed rights that are not its own violations of our constitution you know why it's happening because we've all let it happen Christians who vote or don't vote Russell Kirk philosopher he said politicians are just actors performing a script that is written by the audience politicians are just actors performing a script that was written by the audience people that are in power right now you say well they don't represent me no they represent the people that voted for them they represent the people that vote I want to encourage you brothers to be in the spiritual fight don't be ignorant be in this fight pray suit up pray the word of God speak the word of God live the word of God but ultimately duty is ours results God let me just ask you one question in clothing I want to start about your life you're the kind of man that will come and be here all day long and listen to men speak the word of God to you you have heard God's word bespoke we ain't much we stammer use our limited understanding and use our limited use of language to try to convey something to you that would change your life you know forever but it is up to you to receive and respond I want to ask you before we leave today are there men in this room that have yet to respond perhaps earlier today invitations were given and you had a strong suspicion that you probably ought to do something but you didn't because you're practical don't be an idiot honestly brother you've ignored kinder invitations today you said through kinder invitations more gracious more patient honestly I'm just saying as your brother if God is speaking to you if God is talking to you about changes you need to make some level of surrender that you need to actually do do it don't be an idiot don't rip yourself off don't let your pride cheat you out of the plan that God has for your life