 Recently, I began to be more and more aware of and even more concerned. My concern has been growing for some time over certain things that I see that are happening in the nation. Now, of course, I'm not somebody who's got much of a voice that pertains to these things and I certainly don't come every Sunday to share with you my concerns about a variety of things. But I am concerned about this, you know, as I've been watching the news and all and I'm going to assume that most, if not all of us, are people who do watch the news. I would say that much of the news that you watch, if you're not watching cable news, you're more likely getting either CBS, ABC, NBC news and the version of that which is very often really not really, I don't think it's really balanced at all. So I get my sources of news in different ways and so one of the things I've been noting is that in the face of the situation with ISIS and with the March, you know, that at one time they had been referred to as a JV team, while this team is no JV team, it's a very vicious, organized and growing organization that is stretching its hands out in a variety of ways throughout the world now, you know, in Australia and in France and into England and various places. We need to be aware of that and because of that, I've been waiting to see what our nation would do in response to it and especially wondering how our president would be addressing the concerns that all of us are having and so recently some of you are aware of, all of us should be aware of this, that 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians were beheaded by ISIS terrorists. For some reason, our president can't bring himself to refer to them as terrorists and is making an apology for Islam throughout the world basically as he makes his statements and you know, I've had a little bit of a problem with that. He became the historian in chief at the recent prayer breakfast where he wanted to remind Christians of the crusades that happened 1100 years ago, went for 400 years and did not account for the amount of deaths that one terrorist bombing of the tower in New York did but it's interesting how we were being chided as Christians that we're no better than anybody else and therefore should stay off of our high horses but at the same time you've got 21 Christian men who were marched to a sea shore and brutally beheaded and nothing's being said about this and so I feel it's time that somebody says something, more people need to speak and they need to understand that what's going on right now is interesting. How many of you have heard, not interesting in the interesting sort of way, interesting in the sense that I'm watching the responses but how many of you have heard the statement where they have said, ISIS has said we're going to go to Rome? How many of you have heard that? I want to know who I'm speaking to right now, okay, ISIS is saying we're going to go to Rome and so what is the result of and let me give you a bit of insight into that, what that means because I know what it means but our press apparently doesn't in Italy itself apparently didn't or at least was acting in a way that one would wonder if they understood. You see when they said we're going to Rome there's actually a history to that kind of comment. What you need to do is read your Bible and you begin to look and see certain things. You need to know that when the Muslim says we're going to Rome it's not that we're going against Western civilization per se but there's something deeper than that. You see the church was birthed by the power of the Holy Spirit in the city of Jerusalem and so you had actually five major centers of Christianity in the ancient world. You had Jerusalem then you had Antioch in the Bible in the book of Acts it states that Christians were first referred to as Christians in Antioch. Then you have Alexandria, Alexandria was a learning center in Egypt where a lot of Christians had gone, had tremendous influence and some of the greatest thinkers in the Christian history came out of Alexandria. Then you have Constantinople which was the center of Eastern Christianity and then you have Rome and what they're saying is we have already destroyed Christianity in Jerusalem. We've destroyed it in Antioch. We have destroyed it in Constantinople. We have destroyed it in Alexandria and we will destroy it in Rome. That's what they're saying. They're saying that we are coming against Christianity. They call Christians and they call Jews pigs, sons of apes. And so our president needs some advisors to let them know and perhaps they're telling them and he's not listening. I don't know. So when you start speaking about these who killed these Egyptians and will not even refer to the Egyptians as Christians, there's something wrong there. When you have people who are, when you have them say things about Islam and it's always with such a respectful way and I'm not saying we should disrespect Islam. I am saying that it's interesting how Christianity is ignored and other religious faith is in front of everything and as I've been watching this and thinking about this, you need to know that they were marched to the seashore. They were forced to put their heads on the ground. They were beheaded there so that their blood would go into the water. It was a statement that was being made and people don't understand that because when they have you bow your head like that and the way that they were, I was reading one expert on how that really works out in Islam. They're saying that you are bowing your head to a false God and we who are worshiping the true will remove your head from you. That's what they were doing. It wasn't just capital punishment. It was a statement about their faith. Now, I wonder how many of you know, I didn't know this until recently, that Coptic Christians have tattoos on their wrist. How many of you knew that? They have tattoos on their wrist of a cross. They have tattoos, as a child they get tattooed. American Christians, oh no, you know, they've got tattoos. They have a tattoo on their wrist and that crosses to remind them, never compromise your faith. When these men were being beheaded, some of them were crying in their language, Ya Rabbi Ya Su is what they said. Jesus, he said, Lord Jesus, that's what that means. Lord Jesus, some were reciting the Our Father as their heads were removed from them as their faces were pressed on the ground. He said, you worship a false God, we'll remove your head. That's what was taking place. We're going to Rome is a threat against Christianity. We're going to destroy you who are followers of the cross. And so, that's what's going on. I'm concerned and I wrote the president. Whether he reads it or not, I don't know. But this is what I wrote him and I wrote with respect and I'd encourage you to write him and let him know if you have concern too. But this is what I wrote. I send it today. I pastor a large Protestant church and in speaking for my congregation as well as myself, I would respectfully encourage you, Mr. President, to react quickly and as forcefully as prudence allows to deal with the massacre of the Egyptian Christians. I would encourage you to not shy away from addressing these martyrs as Christians and would say that in your apparent diplomatic avoidance of doing so, you are giving the impression that their deaths do not matter. Please restrain yourself from acting as a lawyer. Take the mantle of Commander-in-Chief as an army veteran who served with the U.S. Army 82nd Airborne. My heart is touched by the needs of those who cannot help themselves. There is a time to use whatever force is necessary and to be honest, that time is now. I encourage you to be decisive, to move the greatest military force on earth to action. I will support your efforts. We'll keep praying for you. Remember, Helen Caller once said, the only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision. I pray that you will have the vision necessary to lead this great nation. Thank you. And I wrote that for this church. It's time we have to stand up against evil. We are salt and we are light. We speak for the voiceless and we defend the helpless. That's what we're called to do. No, I'm not running for political office and no, I don't see a political solution to this but I do believe that when evil is present, good has to stand up to oppose it. And I pray that we do as a nation. I hope that I speak for you when I wrote to him but that's exactly what I think and I think we need to do something. Now, I tell you this, if it was his daughter who recently we saw a young woman who died, she was held in ISIS captivity and she died. I guarantee you that if it was the president's daughter, one of his daughters, he would have moved to action for her. Well, that was our daughter in a sense and there was no action taken. We need to stand up against evil or it will overflow. We have to stand and there's, I'm a man of peace, God knows it but if somebody touched my wife to her, I will give up my life for that woman and I would give up my life for this nation. We need to stand up against evil and I say that with all of my heart and all of my heart. Our father, our father, we lift up this to you. You have the world in your hand. You are directing. You are behind the activities we know but we ask that you Lord would move to stop evil. I pray for wisdom for our president. I pray that advisors would give to him wisdom that really is from you Lord. We lift him to you. I would not wanna wear the responsibility that he wears every day. I just pray for the man and I ask Lord that you might move somehow to save your children. Lord, we don't expect a political kingdom. We know that it's kingdom of righteousness, joy and peace and spirit. But I ask that you would cause us Lord to know what it means to oppose evil. We lift up our military. We lift up our law enforcement personnel, first responders and I thank you Lord for their service and the way that they faithfully carry out their tasks. May your hand be upon them. Keep them safe Lord and do your work. And we would ask this as a congregation in the name of Jesus. Amen.