 It's good to be able to see you this morning and to worship the Lord with you all So my name is Mark Mudge and I am a missionary in Guatemala City and have the opportunity to be able to give a missions report to you all this morning and so what I'd like to be able to do in this morning is to to be able to speak about the spiritual war and Ephesians 6 for a few minutes and Then to be able to give you a report about how things have gone in the past Four months or so since the last time I was here. I was actually here not that long ago, so Please be patient with me. I've got a mix of Spanglish going on in my mind and so sometimes it's hard for me to communicate in a clear normal way so Please be patient with me this morning and the sermon and in the Sunday school and I'll try and speak in a clear way for you Let's go ahead and open with prayer and then we'll begin with the update. Okay. Let's pray Lord God, we want to thank you for the opportunity to be able to be here in your day What a blessing it is we want to thank you that We're able to worship you in person and we thank you for this grace We remember this is your day that this is a time set aside To rest one day out of seven to worship you to focus on what you desire to hear your word to Grow in your likeness Lord God, we pray that you would help us to grow in our understanding of the gospel and What it means to obey you to live for you? Please help us to exhort one another as we see the day coming Lord, we pray that you would help us to be able to encourage one another to love and good works in this day please help us with our conversations to think about your word and Please help us to love you and your people today We pray for this update that you please would help me to be able to glorify you for the great things you have done Lord, we pray that you would help us to grow in our service of you So Lord, please bless this time So that we would be led to worship you. Thank you. Amen so once more I'm Mark Mudge and I used to be a member here with my wife Ashley for about 10 11 years and We are now missionaries in Guatemala city Guatemala and we have About or we've been there for about five years now four to five years and so What we have is I'm gonna try and work through a slide show in order to So we go with the next slide brother We Have been in in Guatemala city for about four to five years now and We're this is a picture of our small church in Guatemala city from this this past year And so if next slide, please We're in Guatemala, which is just below Mexico and I'm showing you this map not because most of you guys know where Guatemala is but I'm showing you this map because it becomes more helpful later on with some of the report the Guatemala is a country about the size of Tennessee just below Mexico and It has a population of about 16 million people Maybe about four million in the capital So it's about the size of a Philadelphia in the size of how many people are there in the center it's kind of hard to see south center there is the capital in a mountain range and There's some at the country is made up of departments and then which works out kind of be like counties About the size of counties here and so there's some It's kind of hard to see but a Orange-ish reddish want to then you see up to the right near the border of Honduras named secapa is There's a department which one of the brothers or there's new members from the church from there So maybe I'll cut I thought I was gonna have a clicker. They'll be able to move back and forth But I'll try and remember this map and it'll become more applicable later on when we talk about members Okay, if you go to the next slide blues So we've been there now since we moved in 2016 September. This is a picture from back then our very first Sunday Benjoo and I looked younger back then and So we're we're very thankful to be able to Have had the grace to be able to be there these four to five years now so let's begin to Open up the scriptures into Ephesians 6 Ephesians 6 We're gonna read Ephesians 6 verses 10 to 20 And so when we consider that we've been there four to five years now One of the things that's a very important is perseverance in the Christian life Perseverance in the ministry and so the Lord Jesus helps us Guides us on how to persevere in the Christian walk In Ephesians 6 verses 10 to 20 So I want to be able to begin this update with Looking at this text and remembering some basics about it. Let's go ahead and read chapter 6 verses 10 to 20 We'll begin it will briefly cover this text and then we'll get into more detail of report About what's happened the past four months and then questions God willing So Ephesians chapter 6 verses 10 to 20 the word God says finally my brother and be strong in the Lord in the power of his might Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wilds of the devil For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age Against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand Stand therefore Having girded your waist with truth having put on the breastplate of righteousness Having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace above all taking the shield of faith With which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one and take the helmet of salvation The sword and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints for me the utterance may be given to me that I may Open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I'm ambassador in chains That I may speak boldly as I ought to speak In this text we can kind of see three clear divisions in verses 10 to 13. We have an introduction to the spiritual war in Verses 14 to 17 we have a practical explanation of how to put on the armor of God and Then in verses 18 to 20 we conclude with the spiritual war with the importance of prayer and the preaching of the gospel and So Paul begins this section with finally my brother and He's beginning to bring the the epistle to a close He's explained three chapters focused in on the doctrine of salvation and union with Christ the doctrines of the grace of God revealed in the election of the saints and his prayers for us to know Christ and Him giving us new life in Christ How the church is reconciled with Christ and with one another He's explained about the wonderful mystery of being able of preaching the gospel to all the nations and How the gospel and union with Christ is evidence by a clear and distinct sanctification union in the body of Christ Serving one another in the local church and a definitive growth That's seen in the family seen at work seen in marriage seen in raising children and so then we get this last part and defeat in the book of Ephesians and In verses 10 to 13 we have an introduction into the spiritual war Introduction to the spiritual war so spiritual war when we say we use it war. It's a conflict There's a great conflict and there's a great goal. There's a great enemy when we have a conflict it means that We have a conflict against Satan and a spiritual forces there at work and We have but we have a great goal War always has a good goal is to have a good goal. It's the a just war and So the goal in this war is the glory of Jesus Christ the glory of Jesus Christ Through the preaching of the gospel the salvation of souls and the perseverance of the saints So this is a very clear and distinct goals that we want to glorify Christ and enjoy him forever But we have great opposition So we must be very clear that our goal is to preach the gospel to the lost and to Preach the word of God to the saints so that we would persevere in the faith And so then we have an instruction here and how to do that in verses 10 to 13 an introduction to that so he begins this last theme in verse 10 finally my brother and be strong in the Lord and And in the the power of his might so he focuses on us being strong our responsibility and Yet we're strong by dependence on the Lord And so we see that when we're weak then we're strong When we're emitting our need for the Lord and His power and his the work to be done by his Strength by his grace. That's when we're actually strong. And so then we have a practical Exertation verse 11 put on the whole armor of God That's how we're gonna be able to be strong and then we have the purpose and In verse 11 that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil the devil wants to work with all kinds of lies lies in the world lies in systems of religion lies in philosophies of thought Ways that are common to can be Some common ways to communicate that you see in the TV and social media That you hear at work you're here in school That's evident in verse 12 that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood But against Principalities powers against the rulers of the darkness of this age against the spiritual hosts of wickedness the heavenly places We have four terms describing demonic powers here Not in such detail that we can organize and have a clear structure But in a general way to know that they're organized And they're prepared in the spiritual war In order to pump out their lies and the world is gonna drink in all the lies these demonic lies and this is really what's behind Philosophies that are common in our country and in churches that are false churches sadly And so we see we this is how we won't how we wrestle. It's a spiritual warfare. It's a truth war And so in verse 13 we have the the call again to take up the whole armor of God That you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand So here we see that focus at once again on with standing standing firm You get the image of someone on the the wall of a castle Having to defend against the the hordes that are attacking and trying to overcome the castle And so how do we do that then? If we have this introduction in verses 10 to 13 the big picture the big view Then we have a verses 14 to 17 to describe how to do that How do we continue to war in the spiritual war? How do we battle? We'll stand there for in verse 14 Having girded your ways with truth and so that we be going to go through the particulars of the armor of God so when we consider the armor of God There is a cultural background, but there's also an Old Testament background There's a cultural background, but there's also Old Testament background and you got to understand both a lot of preachers in this text we'll focus on the cultural background and How a Roman soldier was dressed and have it maybe a picture of a Roman soldier But it's important to remember that there's an Old Testament background to this then the book of Isaiah It describes a Messiah as being having these same pieces of armor and That it's really his armor That when we look at it and we look on the inside of the shield It's got Jesus Christ's name on it and that that helps us to understand to be able how to apply these things That the armor of God is not simply meditating on the gospel and it's not simply Living practical obedience in a practical steps. It's actually both It's actually meditating on the truths of the gospel and Applying those truths in your life And you remember how that's the way the New Testament communicates about how to grow in the Christian life Like in the book of Titus where it describes Repeats good works good works good works good works to the out the book of Titus, but it's all connected back to the gospel and Our union with Christ our dependence on him that we actually grow by understanding the gospel better and growing and Christ likeness and so we we see that those two those two things are not two different decisions, but really they're both applied Meditating on the truths of the gospel how Christ wore this armor in fulfillment with the prophecies of Isaiah and That it leads us to wear the armor it guide it teaches us that we need to wear Christ's armor and so as we meditate on the gospel and We grow in the understanding of how Christ everything he said was truth and He was a truth incarnate and as we meditate on that and his integrity and his truthfulness it leads us as Christians to Speak the truth and to have integrity To live in a way that's truthful and we have the belt of truth So if you want to learn more about that there's a little book by Brian Borgman and Robin Ventura called a spiritual warfare and It's an exposition of these these verses very clear very good explanation of The historical background, but also the Old Testament background to this text that helps us understand that it is The way to apply it is it's truly meditating on the gospel and applying it in a practical way both of those things and so we have this instruction of how to do that with all the different pieces of armor meditating on the righteousness of Christ and then living in a righteous way that is that it completely fits with that a True understanding of the righteousness of Christ imputed to us leads us to live righteously in verse 15 We remember how Christ Won our peace for us and How that leads us to have the gospel of peace ready on our lips in verse 16 Where we take the shield of faith and We're able to trust the Lord with all during all the lies of the evil one and verse 17 the helmet of salvation that Christ has won and And then that assures us and gives us an assurance of our salvation and we use the sword of the spirit and then lastly we see in the verses 18 to 20 the importance of prayer and Preaching the gospel in the spiritual war So why do we begin here? Well, it's good to begin with the scripture be focused on the Lord But it's also a key description of of how we're to persevere for how to persevere here in Orlando and how we want to persevere in Guatemala Continuing to grow in our understanding of the gospel and applying it and look at how loving our good shepherd is To be able to guide us on how to persevere not just to begin in the Christian life But to be able to persevere to the end in a very very clear practical way for a great goal to glorify Christ and enjoy him forever by preaching the gospel to the lost and Teaching the word of God for the perseverance of the saints So that's what we're trying to do in Guatemala. It's the same thing. And so let's Begin to close this part where we have a opening with the scripture and begin to get a report about the things that have happened the past four months So I'm going to explain it using some pictures some of what we've been teaching some ministry opportunities some of Testimonies of how the Lord has saved people and then we hope to end with some prayer requests and Some questions So now we'll some of the things that we're teaching we're going through we finished the book of Ephesians since last time I was here And took us about two years to go through the book of Ephesians and now we're beginning the book of Habakkuk We've gone about seven weeks into Habakkuk and We're gonna study Habakkuk today Overview I'm gonna try and preach seven sermons to you guys in one hour. We'll see how it works In the book of Ephesians it's been a great blessing to us to in our in Iglesia and torchant torchant to be able to study about how The gospel is key for our spiritual growth in understanding So we had a year of chapters one to three Studying the riches that we have in Christ and then we had a year studying chapters four to six on how to grow In obedience to Jesus Christ and glorifying him So we couldn't really see the centrality of Jesus Christ in the gospel In Habakkuk, it's the same. We're learning how to trust the Lord and how to have wrestle how to Have the struggle of faith how to wrestle with learning to trust God And have a respectful questioning of certain times in certain trials But not an accusing of God And how we need to be able to grow in the faith And so we've been studying those things Next slide, please Some ministry opportunities we've had We've had some opportunities to I've had an opportunity to be on the radio in Bolivia. That's on the on the right side That was definitely a different experience to be on the radio And but in that opportunity was opportunity to speak about missions and the goal of those times Was to be able to glorify Christ So I'll all begin to talk about missions, but I also want to be able to preach the gospel And a brief clear way, but then also be able to describe how is a what's a biblical way to think about missions particularly a great emphasis is focus on the local church And how missions should be focused in on the local church being missionary sent from local churches That great There's a great problem in many with many missionaries that they don't really understand what it means to be called to the ministry They a lot of people just think about Well, if I have the desire to be a missionary Then I should go and be a missionary and they don't think about being sent from local church And the blessing it is to be able to be affirmed In your calling By the means that God has given including the local church And so I had the opportunity to speak out missions And be able to make some of those emphasis In a biblical perspective Of what of how to do the work of the ministry and also be once you get there on the in the mission field Being focusing the work in on the local church many missionaries in latin america They they go and they move there and they have a sort of perichurch ministry That is not submitted to a local church. There's many missionaries. They don't even go to church And they're often in another country Maybe teaching the The true gospel, maybe they're having bible studies But it's very common. It's very common That they're not actually submitting to a local church in the country that they live So the goal was to glorify christ but preach the gospel But also talk about a biblical view of missions and that opportunity on the left side is a little flyer about a In a pastor's bible study from some pastors from honduras. So honduras is a neighboring country And I know a pastor there Uh, and some of the other pastors know Manuel Sharon So that was with a the church called estandarte De Verdan, which is banner of truth banner of truth reform Baptist church So we the pastor there has a a bible study with other pastors who are wanting to reform And learn about there tend to be pentecostals a group of pentecostal pastors who are wanting to Learn about biblical doctrine. So in that opportunity What we taught what I taught about was discipleship He asked the he asked me to be able to teach about that So a big problem with discipleship Is understanding what it means to be a disciple So I know that you guys are studying this once again in small group, right? What is a biblical disciple? That a christian is a disciple a disciple is a christian And that you have great problems when you lose that that truth You people go to hell when when you don't understand that a disciple is a christian and a christian is a disciple And so I wanted to make that point clear because in latin america. That's not that's not clear That's a great confusion about that like there is here In there's a lot of legalistic churches that have various levels to the christian life And so they think a lot a lot of pentecostal churches teach in latin america. They they teach about You reach another level Of when you get baptized or when you become more dedicated and they and some churches have a lot of levels. It gets complex. It's not simply carnal christians and dedicated christians. It's it's more like a A ladder system with some of these pentecostal churches So because the pastors are coming out of pentecostalism That was a big goal to make it clear that a christian is a disciple and the disciples are christian But then to also apply That biblical perspective of conversion to ministry in the church That that leads us to have a biblical understanding of what it means to disciple in the church And that we should be a church full of disciples who make disciples So that leads to a healthy philosophy of ministry as well Something that the pastors needed as well. So those were opportunities to be able to To teach next slide, please brother other opportunities. There's two brothers here One named denis and one named jair that i'm trying to disciple And so it's encouraging to have some godly brothers or zealous that want to work in the ministry They want to teach they want to preach they want to evangelize and serve the lord So two of those brothers are relatively new. They've both been in the church less than Than two years or two years or less So here's a what we're doing on wednesday mornings As we're going through the 1689 so One brother denis in the middle He was saved in canada And And grew in the faith in a church called grace life That has a pastor names james Coats james coats who was recently released from jail So it's a small world the church is not that big it's about the size of cornerstone Yeah, so he attended that church or was a member of that church for about four years three four years So he's has a good foundation of understanding of the bible conversion And jair is a good brother who's I've mentioned him before about a great encouragement He is to the church how lisa's he he helped change the culture of ontorcha in particularly giving us a great amount of Encouragement to love one another sacrifice evangelize And so they're both very zealous brothers And so we're saying the 1689 because the goal is to help give them a basic understanding of systematic theology through the 1689 So understanding doctrine in a systematic way So that's something that's very needed in latin america is a clear systematic theology next slide please brother so in this We're praying in the dark here, but Here's our weekly bible study. We don't really pray in the dark. That's a joke But what we're with a picture of is that we're studying the the book of revelation And we're we have a midweek service where we we pray and we're studying revelation verse by verse What what's been encouraging for the people is that they've mentioned how learning And studying verse by book in the book of revelation is it's more clear and more clear each week And that what they really see is that it is the revelation of jesus christ It is a book that really reveals christ not conceals christ and so truly understood that it really guides us In the spiritual war to see the lives of the devil And the spiritual truths that apply to the church So that's been a great blessing. We're right now in chapter seven So I will recommend pastor rick sermons. They preached a few years ago For you all to listen to to remember some of those things Can we go to the next slide please please brother This morning the brother that was in Jair who was on the far right of the three of the picture with the three of us He is teaching the sunday school in which is holiness Holiness by jc jc rile. We're going through that that book About a biblical view of sanctification So today he's teaching the lesson about lot About how how lot was a righteous man second peter says But he was not an example for us Sadly in his compromise and so there's a lot of clear instruction in that chapter in that book About how to make decisions in life Where you don't make them based on what's going to get you more money What's going to be better for the moment? And we don't want to be like lot And make decisions that are based on this life. We want to be pilgrims who are passing through So we learn about how to be holy so The brothers are very encouraged by this study on what is true holiness There's a lot of misunderstanding about holiness in latin america With all the legalism in pentecostal churches holiness is often thought of as a very outward thing How you dress how you talk what you do on sunday But not true biblical holiness That's evident in the heart and sanctification in the thought life So this study has been a blessing the people in the church have mentioned That it's been a blessing to help with their assurance of salvation They have a true biblical assurance. There's a chapter in that book on assurance I'm not teaching that class lee and the other brother jair are teaching that class Next slide please brother So this is actually an example of essentials class. I am teaching essentials class And what we have here is a couple Who is lives four hours north of the capital And they are participating in everything they can online Thursday night midweek and and sunday morning They are participating in the essentials class mostly by means of zoom But they have traveled to visit us and so They were living together for about seven years if I remember correctly And so through the essentials class They said that we've learned the true gospel and then we want to follow christ. We don't want to follow him in a Sort of a light Even gel cool or light gospel kind of way. So so here they're getting legally married Uh and it's part of their desire to follow the lord They've expressed the desire to try and attend as much as possible from four hours away So it's um, eric is the the the guy on the left and alejandra on the right And so I encourage them. Um, they both want said they want to follow the lord So I encourage them to follow the lord together and be be married And so that's our representative of the essentials class Next slide, please brother So here we have a picture of an evangelism group This was a trip to one of the counties or departments off to the northeast secapa There it's kind of like arizona It's very dry and hot But in the capital it's it's great weather Some of the best weather in the world Hawaii is the only place that I like the weather better than than guatemal city But in secapa, it's pretty hot and there's no ac because there's uh, very little ac So kassandra had a hard time there actually But uh, we went there To be able to have an evangelism time and that's where the brother who was saved in canada That's where him he's living with his wife and they travel every other sunday So it's about three hours away to church And so we had a church Uh trip to go out there and evangelize So we're continuing to preach in the open air We're continuing there's a little note on the left zone 15 And that's where the church is located. So we're continuing to evangelize around the church So we've had many opportunities to evangelism a couple stories the brother on the far right corner jair I mentioned him with the thumbs up He's preached the gospel to some people at work. And so he's invited a guy named lewis and wilfredo And so there are people who are in A sinful lifestyle of drugs and things like that. So we spent a night together preaching the gospel to them Trying to explain to them that That these their lifestyle shows that they're not christians And so one of the young guys his name wilfredo. He was convinced he was a christian because he Grew up in the church and his parents and his parents were pastors and then he became a youth pastor And then he left the church and lived in and been living in sin for the past six years And so he was just completely convinced that he was Had just lost his salvation He was still a kind of a christian If he died he'd knew he'd go to hell But he would still think he was a christian So it's part of the pentecostal teaching that is very common there about you can lose your salvation So because Most people are pentecostals or catholics Both of those groups teach you can lose your salvation So it's very rare to meet people who don't think that you can uh that salvation is secure in christ Or maybe i'll say that in a different way most people think you can lose your salvation So so that's an example of some current evangelism that's been going on next slide, please brother This is our new location. We're headed to God willing we're gonna move to a school Excuse me The week he get back I'm actually not there to help with the move. This is our last sunday today is our last sunday So I asked lee before we we We planned this trip. Is it okay if you do all the work for the move? He's a good he had a good attitude about it So the the picture on the left is the outside just through those double doors on the picture on the right And so where there's a we're going to be able to rent At with a 40 cut in Rental costs Yeah, so the lord has provided For us and that's big answer to prayer Also there there's also a balance between Finding a place. It's also relatively secure So you can get places that are Have a good price, but then it's in a rough area of town and so then people Are worried to think about their car being stolen while they're in church And then it gets to be a complicated thing So it's really nice to be able to find a place Where they can park their car within the property And not have to worry about it being stolen And And be able to worship the lord without thinking about those things And so this is actually a school that ashley's family Runs So we're thinking the look we're very thankful for the opportunity to move We've had many mini mini ministry opportunities Studying through the the books of aphesians abacus opportunities in radio To serve other pastors opportunities in discipleship teaching the book of revelation studying the The book of holiness by jc ryle. We've had many evangelism opportunities We're moving this next sunday god willing Next slide, please And so some challenges. I know recently I was thinking about the way I give updates here and that you know, I only talk about good things is one thing I noted and never talk about some of the difficult things So difficulties what's been going on difficulties? One is a difficulty here that you that many of you know and many of you've been loving that are that my father-in-law is very sick And so with liver disease and so I want to be I'm very thankful to you all for Going and preaching the gospel To my father-in-law and so purpose of this trip why we're here just after form visiting you all four months ago Is really to spend time with him Because of his health condition So thank you for your prayers for him. He participated in a bible study last thursday night so I was teaching through zoom I had a bible study In guatemala and it was about sinners in the hands of angry god and so It was an appropriate study for For him and I was very thankful because normally he's not He doesn't participate in bible studies or like to come to church or So I was very thankful for him and it was all in spanish. So it was I think clear for him He's speaking english well, but it's even clear maybe in in his first language So those are some of the the difficulties in the church some of the difficulties Are working through covet issues trying to help people think through the importance of taking wise Calculated risks and saying yeah, you can't guarantee your health You can't guarantee your safety in driving to church either Can't guarantee your safety in many other things And so we don't take unwise risks We take calculated risks, but we still have to take risks in order to follow lord So trying to encourage people to have a bit a wise understanding of how we follow the lord and obey the lord and trust him and that we have to have a a Trust that leads us to having A valour or a brave to be brave in order to be able to do that in these times So it's the same thing in guatemala with by trying to encourage the people the same thing with we have the same issues with people afraid about those things and and some government overreach and their Their laws and we have a lot of the same difficulties there with covet and so We've also dealt with some members that seem to be moving on moving And it may be in churches as blend or it may be leaving The church with their members, but I'm not sure yet, but that's a process that's going on right now So that's some of the difficulties that are going on in the local church and in that particular Issue that's being worked through in the church with a potential church discipline is is really focused on not attending For a long time and not really participating It's not just not attending. It was not being part of the church body Really can't be a part of the church if you're not part of the church right So it's a it's a contradiction to say i'm a member but not attend and not communicate and not love and not serve as a member And obey the the basic parts of being a member So those are some of the difficulties that we've been going through And next slide, please brother So now we have the opportunity to be able to talk about some testimonies So I have some testimonies here And i'm not sure i'm able to get through a one or two to be able to Tell you a story We have a couple here Dennis and Janet Dennis and Janet are only been married about a year And the lord saved Dennis About four years ago in canada And the lord recently saved janet Just a few years ago as well, and they've been married. They're married just before covid began So i'm going to try and tell you Dennis's testimony Describing in a loose translation in his from his own his own words, okay So you can kind of look at him and listen to his own word as I describe him in a third person though So Dennis um Grew up in a christian background, but in actuality. He hated god He didn't hate god with clearly expressed in his words but more in his actions ever since he could remember his grandmother would take him to church And he always believed in the cross but never really understood the cross of jesus christ He was taught to repeat the sinner's prayer when he was convicted, but he never really truly understood true repentance Whenever he felt convicted about a sin, he would invite jesus to his heart again And whenever he felt that god wasn't with him, he would try and repeat the sinner's prayer But his life was full of conflicts and his family with his friends because of his pride His life was Folk was filled with self-love His idol was himself He would spend hours and hours and from the television addicted to video games He truly loved those things more than god He was prideful about how he could lie and deceive others And he would Congratulate himself on his skill in being able to do that He would constantly think that he was better than others He was full of bitterness with members of his family And had conflicts with them many conflicts with them He would constantly look at many evil things And delight in them and delight in sin He was completely lost without salvation Destined for the wrath of god and he decided To not think about god whenever he felt conviction in about these things or frustration or And he ignored the word of god He was in great need, but he didn't look for god and didn't know the glorious gospel of jesus christ All he knew was a mediocre gospel That left him feeling empty and miserable In the year 2012 God and his grace allowed him to move to canada In alberta canada A couple years after that in 2014 He began to hear online. He heard a video from john piper entitled you will suffer After hearing that video he began to think about his soul Began to attend pentecostal church And began to read the bible He could see some things and in the pentecostal church were not right But in the end he didn't think it was that important So as time went on later he heard a video from paul washer on the true gospel And he really did not like it He reacted sinfully He rejected what he heard he rejected the doctrines of grace and he felt very discouraged after being confronted And he didn't know exactly what to do and how to respond He felt lost from hearing this sermon And his life was a disaster My in the time of november of 2016 He once again heard another sermon from paul washer or the 10 indictments against the modern church And each word pierced him to the heart For the first time he understood The the biblical gospel what christ had done the cross of calvary How christ took his sins Upon him and suffered the wrath of god in his place And so like second corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 says That for he made him who knew no sin To be sin for us That we might become the righteousness of god in him Since that time god has been working in denises life transforming him To be more and more like jesus christ And in denises testimony he quotes The the same chapter verse 17 therefore if anyone is in christ he is a new creature Creation all old things have passed away behold all things have become new Dennis no longer feels the same joy and pleasure and sin that he once loved He began his life began to change Including the way he that he spoke to his parents And treated them which was much more respect And the way that he would treat others in general began to change He stopped laughing at sin He stopped swearing And he lost his desire to watch so much tv He instead prefers to read the bible and listen to biblical sermons And he stopped being so focused on himself and one began to be focused on the lord jesus christ And he wants to leave his pride behind Now he desires to be close to god the father god the son and god the holy spirit And give his life and service to lord Whenever he has the opportunity he desires to preach the gospel His co-workers his family his friends So thanks to the grace of god He's not the person that he was before amen Praise the lord for his work and the life of denise So i want to tell you another story of his wife janet so janet grew up in in guatemala in the countryside of guatemala and She grew up in a catholic home that was very dysfunctional And she grew up with a lot of hate in her heart Wrath and a thirst for vengeance against those who had hurt her And so all of this created many problems in her home Her father frequently abused her mother And and the the siblings and the family and when she would see this this really affected her She grew up hating and at the same time loving her father She grew up in a nominal catholic home But she really doubted a lot of the things that they did the worship through the use of images and she Didn't really consider herself a genuine catholic But through all this anger and bitterness of growing up this way in the home She would often have the desire to take her own life out of the frustration and desperation Of living in a home like that She knew that god existed But she really didn't look for god One night she had the opportunity to go to an evangelistic campaign or evangelistic rally And the people in the pentacolster church preached a revelation 320 About god christ knocking at the door of your heart And so looking for hope She walked the isle And repeated the the sinner's prayer and asked jesus into her heart And she thought this would be the solution to her problems If she repeated this prayer About the problems continues the years went by and as she went to the to the pentacolster church now She began to try and find the solution in more rigorous good works So she would often fast pray and participate in all night prayer vigils To and hoping that through these all night prayer vigils god would give her what she wanted They never really preached about sin in this church And the church is that she was in a um in a oneness pentacosal church. So if you know td jakes and uh it They deny that the trinity and they also teach a workspace salvation And so they Baptized her teaching that she couldn't be saved until she was baptized And that she couldn't go to heaven without receiving the back what they called the baptism of the holy spirit And so this all led to her Having a constant worry about her soul and having no security of salvation In 2016 she met her husband And she began to understand through him Many of the things that she had doubts about in the pentacolster church And she learned about how to dance and dancing in the spirit speaking in tongues And slaying people in the spirit was is all and not biblical He helped her understand that you should not supposed to Yell when you pray and if you've been in those circles, so maybe you understand some of those things And he began to introduce her to preaching from paul washer And so through the sermons she began to see the difference between the true gospel and the false gospel And understand the false teachings of the the oneness pentacosalism She began to learn the doctrines of grace sound doctrine And she learned that her salvation was not based on what she could do but what christ did on the cross And god in his sovereign mercy helped her to understand who christ was Who she was in her sin That christ was sent by god the father to take all the wrath that she deserves And suffered in her place Washing her of all her sin And god her sovereign creator gave her the faith and the ability to Trust in christ as her savior and lord Even though she didn't she knows she deserves god's wrath as a miserable sinner She rejoices in god the salvation that christ has offered She began to confront the church where she was at when she would begin to learn more of the the gospel And to be generally converted But they responded by Not allowing her to attend They have a phrase about taking away privileges That's a common You don't have privileges in the churches of common pentacosal way To uh, it's like a half discipline. It's kind of a weird thing But maybe some of you kind of understand that better than me experientially even and so they no longer considered her to be a christian and But she knows that the lord has saved her And allowed her to know more of him and to serve him to worship him And to give her life in his service She doesn't have the same hatred and bitterness and thirst for vengeance that she once had And now she's learning to pray to god and depend upon him In those times of of difficulty and learning to grow in the struggle to trust the lord And so she's certain of god's work in her life And she's forgetting her past life each more and more daily and learning to grow in forgiveness and so We we're just going to be able to give two testimonies today in the update that Hopefully you guys are are receiving emails and updates. There's another testimony. That's if you could switch the slide brother There's an another family And there's a testimony of a brother named Juan On the left that's very clear very encouraging and I hope you're getting those email updates If you're not, please talk to my wife Just give her a piece of paper with your email and she can add your email to and also we hope to be able to have those updates on the app In time But there's a very encouraging clear testimony I have I would like to be able to someday tell you His wife's testimony as well, but for a different time so Those are some of the things the lord has been doing in the past four months We tell those testimonies because they were uh These are new members of the church and since that we've last visited you they've Been baptized And our members of iglesia and torcha So what's coming up in this next month? We're gonna Have a missionary team coming from cornerstone To be able to preach in a mini conference and ryan's going to lead that trip And we're excited about that We're going to hopefully finish the book of abacus Within a few weeks, maybe hopefully seven weeks or so And then we're going to begin the book of genesis. We should be a nice long study We're also going to study pilgrim's progress this year So I hope that that would be edifying for the the church If you would like to continue to pray for us and continue to know what's going on Please connect with my wife be able to lay in the back with her hand up Give her your email so that you can receive those updates So ways to pray for us Please praise god for his saving work praise god for adding to his church Please pray for god to raise up future leaders in the church And future pastors to serve with me Please pray that god will raise up future church plants People are traveling from Four hours to three hours various families So We really need church plants in these various places So part of the trip the next few weeks is to visit one of those cities A few hours out and evangelize there and we pray that that would be Perhaps the beginning of a church plan And so please pray that that god will give us the grace to persevere in the spiritual war Like we talked about in Ephesians 6 Okay, so I talked a little too long guys. Sorry if you have questions I'm gonna be available all day. So you can ask me questions In person. Okay. Let's go ahead and pray Lord god, we want to thank you and praise you for the great things you're doing Thank you for being at work and your true churches all over the world Thank you that we can be have lives focused on you And glorifying you and not lives focused on selfishness And our own desires. Thank you for saving us from our own idolatry Thank you for leading us to worship you and Giving us to count our hearts of stone giving us hearts of flesh and Eyes to see and understand the gospel and trust in you repent of our sins Thank you lord for doing that in our in iglesia and torcha. Thank you for doing that here Thank you for giving us this day to worship you So, please be glorified in your worship service. Amen