Welcome to the Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast.
We are a Bible -believing church located in beautiful
British Columbia, Canada. We are proudly part
of the Christian Fellowship Ministries with 3
,000 churches around the world. We are a church
focused on world evangelism, discipleship, and
church planting. Here we will share recent sermons
from PHSA Church and other sermons from throughout
our fellowship. I'm Pastor David Bickford, and
I will be your host for this podcast. I thank
you for listening today, and we hope these messages
are a blessing to you and bring you closer to
God. Hello, and welcome back to the Potter's
House Salmon Arm Podcast. I'm Pastor David Bickford,
and today I have a message that I put together
called Fight or Die. So what we're going to look
at is we're going to look at a few things. Our
text that we're going to be working from is Exodus
15 .3, real short, one verse text as a jumping
off point. We're going to look at the blood.
We're going to look at warfare or invasion teams
in that sense. And then we're also going to look
at, as we close off, militant Christianity and
what that looks like in today's age and how I
would prefer to define that. Because being a
military veteran, it's something that I find
interesting is that oftentimes today, if you
ask somebody on the street, what do you think
of when you think of the church? What do you
think of when you think of Christianity today?
Do you think of it as primarily masculine or
primarily feminine? And I would argue that most
people, without trying to judge anybody in particular,
because that's not my goal here. But I think
that it would be, in most men's eyes anyway,
that the church is extremely feminine today.
And the problem with that femininity is not that
we begrudge femininity in any way. We love our
wives, our daughters, but it is the masculine
place to protect femininity in society. And so
that's why it becomes difficult if men are not
looking at the church as a place of strength.
in their lives, but it's something that is, it's
fine for women to be involved with, but not for
men. So triumph in Christianity requires sacrifice.
And during World War II, a young soldier named
David Webster of Easy Company of the 101st Airborne
wrote his mother, stop worrying about me. I joined
the parachutists to fight. I intend to fight.
If necessary, I shall die fighting. But don't
worry about this because no war can be won without
young men dying. Those things which are precious
are saved only by sacrifice. Scripture often
refers to the Christian life as a war, a spiritual
battlefield. And to answer the question of the
hymn writer Isaac Watts, we will not be carried
to the skies on flowery beds of ease. And there
is no victory apart from sacrifice. Just as our
salvation was purchased at great cost, overcoming
the enemy and walking in the spirit requires
that we be willing to give up some things in
order to triumph. That little excerpt is from
the book Band of Brothers by Stephen Ambrose.
And I think it really gives us an interesting
view as we look at Christianity, as we look at
the willingness. of our youth to be able to go
to war and fight when called upon. And I think
it's something that we have to remember is that
the church was a much larger portion of our society
during the periods of World War I and periods
of World War II and in our history as well before
that. And I think there's a cardinal understanding
of masculinity in the sense that men are supposed
to be the ones to protect the house from the
wolves at the door. In Exodus 15, 3, it says,
the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name.
Let's pray. Dear Lord God, I pray that this message
will impact people, especially young men who
are sitting there thinking that Christianity
is weak or that Christianity is not something
that is godly. It is not something that is going
to allow them to be men that are willing to fight.
I pray, Lord God, that this will also encourage
young women to look for young men that have a
backbone, that have a spine, that are willing
to stand for godly things and not fall backwards
and not show cowardice in the face of strife.
We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. So
following God's call, this is a quote that I
found. So when Adoniram Judson graduated from
college and seminary, he received a call from
a fashionable church in Boston to become its
assistant pastor. Everyone congratulated him.
His mother, his sister rejoiced that he could
live at home with them and do his life's work.
But Judson shook his head and he said, my work
is not here. He said, God is calling me beyond
the seas. To stay here, even to serve God in
his ministry, I feel would be only partial obedience.
I could not be happy in that. Although it cost
him a great struggle, he left his mother and
his sister to follow the heavenly call. Judson's
churches in Burma have had 50 ,000 converts and
influence. And the influence of his consecrated
life is felt around the world. These ideas of
being willing to sacrifice, being willing to
go into far -flung lands is something that really
should light a fire in the hearts of young men
because men are not meant to sit around idle.
Men are meant to build. Men are meant to subdue
the enemy. And when I'm talking about the enemy,
of course, I mean the spiritual enemy or even
nature. We are called to subdue and take dominion
over nature. So this is the main idea is that
as men, as Christians, and as women as well,
we are meant to fight or to die for the sake
of Christ. We read the word of God as one continuous
story from Genesis to Revelation. And as we read
the Bible, we quickly realize that there's a
battle that exists between good and evil. The
rebellion that started in heaven when Satan came
to earth corrupted God's perfect creation. and
brought the battle to our own home. This battle
created an enmity between the descendants of
Adam and Eve and the devil. And that is why so
much of the Old and the New Testament is about
blood. Life is found in the blood, and only through
the sacrifice can we be redeemed back to the
Father in heaven. It was Christ's blood that
made that possible. Both the New and Old Testament
refer to this need of sacrifice we see in the
Old Testament. We see all of the sacrifices that
are referenced, that blood is not only limited
only to sacrifice but to war. And the Bible brings
us to the ultimate sacrifice in Jesus Christ
and the reference to His cleansing blood. It's
very realistic when you read the Word of God.
And then we can apply this reality to our life
today. Today, we're going to look at the blood.
We're going to also look at warfare. We're going
to look at how that applies to Christianity.
So let's first look at the blood. A rider on
a white horse in Revelation 19, 11 through 16,
we see this. It says, then I saw heaven open
and behold, a white horse. The one sitting on
it is called faithful and true. And in righteousness,
he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a
flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems,
and he has a name written that no one knows but
himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood,
and the name by which he is called is the Word
of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine
linen, white and pure, were following him on
white horses. From his mouth came a sharp sword.
with which to strike down the nations, and he
will rule them with rod and iron. He will tread
the wine presses of the fury and the wrath of
God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh, he
has a name written, King of Kings, Lord of Lords.
So behold, the rider on the white horse, Jesus
is king. He is righteousness. Our righteous God
is able to make war. He has eyes like, like a
flame of fire. Our God, our Lord is mighty. He
is terrifying to the unjust and to the unholy.
This is why so many refuse to turn to him and
accept his mercy. In their sin, they can only
imagine the terrifying judgment that is to come.
His clothes are dipped in blood and an army follows
behind him. His army is ready with a sword to
trample the unrighteousness of this world. These
are horrifying images of the one that we call
the Lamb of God. These pictures, you know, get
glossed over. They get neglected in this world
we live in today, oftentimes, because we see
a lot of the Western world's churches becoming,
you know, we like to, we hear this all the time
that, you know, God is love. point of the Bible
is love. Love this, love that, and I am definitely
one who believes in God's love and grace. But
the purpose of the Bible is repentance and restoration
of relationship back to God, and that can only
be done through Jesus Christ. Jesus doesn't tell
them that they can continue to sin. He says,
go and sin no more. And then we see this picture
of the end times of people choosing to live in
rebellion, and they get to see Jesus returning
as a warrior. And that's why we look next at
the Lord's day of vengeance. So when we look
at the Old Testament, we get this parallel picture
to what I just read in Isaiah 63, one through
six, where it says, who is this who comes from
Adam in crimson garments from Basra? He who is
splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness
of his strength. It is I speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save. Why is your apparel red and your
garments like who has tread the winepress? I
have trodden the winepress alone, and from the
peoples no one was with me. I trod them in my
anger, and I trampled them in my wrath. Their
lifeblood splattered on my garments and stained
all of my apparel, for the day of vengeance was
in my heart, and my year of redemption has come.
Look, but those who there was no help, I was
appalled, but there was no one to uphold. So
my own arm brought me salvation and my wrath
upheld me. I trampled down the peoples in my
anger. I made them drunk in my wrath and I poured
out their lifeblood on the earth. So when we
see this, who is coming? Marching in great strength
in crimson garments, speaking in righteousness
mighty to save. Our Lord Jesus is prophesied
here in Isaiah, but we get this parallel picture.
Of a God who's coming for the final judgment.
For a God who's given every opportunity for salvation,
but still has to deal with the unrepentant. So
when we hear this call to a God of love, we neglect
that sometimes, at some point, there has to be
judgment in order to uphold righteousness. This
is the problem that we see a lot in society today
as we think or we're told oftentimes that love
will continue to go on without judgment. But
our Lord and Savior tells us that there is a
time where there will only be judgment left.
That is why we cannot delay the Great Commission
in our lives. That is why we have to be able
to tell people about Jesus Christ. That is why
people... preach on the streets and hold signs
and try to compel others to listen so that they
can see what Jesus can do in their life because
time is short. Time is short. This brings me
to my next point, which is warfare and the invasion
team. The Lord's army, the army is God's army,
and it is an army built on faith. and trust in
God. We are not a bunch of bloodthirsty zealots.
Quite to the contrary, we are called to be an
army of servants. The battles of the Israelites
were battles of faith and obedience. In Judges
3, 1 through 4, now these are the nations that
the Lord left to test Israel by them. That is
all in Israel who had not experienced all the
wars in Canaan. It was only an order. that the
generations of people of Israel might know war
to teach war to those who had not known it before.
These are the nations, the five lords of the
Philistines, of the Canaanites, the Sidonians,
the Hivites who lived on Mount Lebanon, from
Mount Baal Hermon as far as Lebo Hamath. They
were for the testing of Israel to know whether
Israel would obey the commandments of the Lord,
which he commanded their fathers by the hand
of Moses. God was testing the children of Israel.
To see if they would remain faithful to the covenant.
Would they live by faith like their father Abraham?
In Genesis 12, 1 through 3, it says, Now the
Lord said to Abraham, Go from your country, your
kindred, to your father's house, to the land
I will show you, and I will make of you a great
nation. And I will bless you and make your name
great, so that you will be a blessing. I will
bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors
you I will curse. And in you all the families
of the earth shall be blessed. So this doesn't
mean that we are going to be without conflict
in our life. We are going to come into challenges.
We are going to come into times of warfare. We
see this. I mentioned World War I, World War
II. There are periods where evil is on the march,
and we do have to stand against it physically.
If you know the tale of Bonhoeffer, he put himself
at great risk to hold to the values of the church
when the church was being subverted by the Nazis
in Germany. It also means, though, that we're
not meant to seek out bloodshed. And this is
where a lot of people get confused or get stuck.
And this is something we have to guard our hearts
with. This is something that's been on my heart
recently is that we are not meant to seek bloodshed.
We are not meant to seek out reasons to hate
other groups. There's a big move in society right
now. I mean, the theology has been around for
ages, replacement theology, all these kind of
things where people say, oh, you shouldn't pray
for the blessing of Israel. And I contend that
that's false. Because the Bible tells us to pray
or to... It's to love all of our enemies. So
even if you view a certain group as an enemy,
then you are commanded to treat them as you would
yourself, love your neighbor as yourself. So
any ideology, any thought process that leads
you to harbor or foster hate is not something
that comes from the God that I serve. We have
to make our face like flint, the Bible tells
us, in times of trial, but we are not to be the
ones to seek bloodshed. We fight so that others
will be set free and others will be saved. When
we fight, it is meant to be in a fight to save
lives, not one to gain land or gain prestige
or gain power. But it is meant so that others
can be saved. So as Christians in our life, our
cardinal, our calling, is the great commission
that Jesus gave, which is we put ourselves at
risk so that others can come to Christ. We witness
on the streets. We hold signs. We do guerrilla
teams, impact teams. Missionaries go out to countries
that don't like Christianity. We do that. Because
that is how we're going to bring people to salvation
so they can be free in Christ. In Genesis 14,
4 through 16, it says, when Abraham heard that
his kinsmen had been taken captive, he led forth
his trained men born in his house, 318 of them,
and went in pursuit as far as Dan. He divided
his forces against them by night, he and his
servants, and they defeated them and pursued
them to Hoboth, north of Damascus. Then he brought
back all the possessions and also brought back
his kinsmen Lot with his possessions and the
women and the people. So the battle is not ours.
The battle is of Lord's. We're not supposed to
go seek out warfare, but we are supposed to be
ready to fight when called upon. God wants us
to know that he is ultimately in control. How
do we know that? Well, we can glean this idea
from stories that we have in the Bible. If we
look at the tale of Gideon, his forces get dwindled
from 32 ,000 down to 300 because God wanted to
make a point in Judges 7 -7. And the Lord said
to Gideon, with 300 men who lapped, I will save
you and give the Midianites into your hand. and
let all the others go, every man to his home.
So Gideon asked God for proof, but in the end,
God got the last laugh. When Gideon had tens
of thousands of soldiers, God dwindling it down
to 300, so that when the victory came, it wouldn't
be Gideon's, but God's. Gideon was faithful,
but God was victorious. And this is the harder
part of faith. We often want to have an army
behind us. We want to have numerical superiority,
financial superiority. We're the best weapons
and firepower. But the reality is that we can
have none of that in the physical realm, but
have much more of that in the spiritual realm.
And we can see a picture of this in Joshua's
life. And the Lord's army in Joshua 6, 15 through
16, it says, on the seventh day, they rose early
at the dawn of day, marched around the city in
the same manner seven times. It was only on that
day that they marched around the city seven times.
And on the seventh time, when the priest had
blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people,
shout for the Lord has given you the city. This
is a great tale, right? The walls of Jericho.
It picks up in verse 20. It says, so the people
shouted and the trumpets were blown. And as soon
as the people heard the sound of the trumpet,
the people shouted a great shout and the wall
fell down flat so that the people went up into
the city, every man straight before him, and
they captured the city. Who knocked down the
wall? Who knocked down the wall of Jericho? Certainly
it wasn't the sound of the trumpets or the shout
of the people, but it was the activated faith
of the people of God, a faith that was in accordance
to the will of God, an unseen power, but a power
that binds us together as brothers and sisters
in Christ today. The Spanish word for guerrilla
translates literally meaning little war. So this
isn't the animal, this is guerrilla warfare,
little war. Guerrilla warfare is sometimes called
partisan warfare or regular warfare. In general,
the word guerrilla warfare is used to designate
any military activity carried on by a comparatively
small independent force or unit and irregularly
conducted with or without military organization
in connection with a regular war. So, you know,
why do I bring this up? Well, because we're the
Lord's army. But really, we are a decentralized
network. small and independent group of believers
can act out in the will of God. You know, in
our fellowship, we're not a nominational group
of churches, but we have 4 ,000 churches globally.
And some of us are tiny like we are here with
a very small number of people and others are
larger, church planting, missionary sending churches.
But the reality is, is that regardless, we have
these little pinpricks of light all over the
globe that are going out. for that great commission
preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we're
not alone. I'm not foolish enough to say we're
the only thing going on. God has churches and
believers everywhere. And we all can be these
little pieces of light waging war by faith against
the powers and principalities that are at war
with God today. And so I like to think that with
our... church network, our fellowship churches,
we're like a mesh network. And if you're familiar
with the idea of a mesh network and technology,
the idea is simple is that you can have like
these individual points, but over time they mesh
together. Relationships can be founded, strengthening
each other. And then when you put that onto a
map with our churches today, with all the connections
and the interweaving relationships, it's like
this powerful, powerful web. of faith. It makes
us stronger than the sum of our parts. We're
not alone in this fight. We stand together in
faith. In Ecclesiastes 4, 9 through 12, two are
better than one because they have a good reward
for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift
up his fellows, but woe to him who is alone when
he falls and has not another to lift him up.
Again, if two lie together, they keep warm. But
how can one keep warm alone? And though a man
might prevail against one who is alone, two will
withstand him, and a threefold cord is not quickly
broken. So then how do we live a life of militancy
and in faith? What does that look like in our
day and age? What will that look like in our
own town here at Salmon Armour, in your town,
wherever you're listening from? This brings me
to my final point, which is militant Christianity.
And to help answer that question, I turned to
an old book that I read when I was a young Marine.
It was on the Marine Corps reading list. I think
I actually read it when I was a poolie. A poolie
is somebody who's already signed up for the military,
waiting to go to basic training. So not even
a recruit, not a private, not a private first
class. No, a poolie is like you're just in the
pool. of candidates dreaming one day to be a
Marine. And I'm pretty sure that's when I read
this book. The book is The Soldier's Load in
Mobility of a Nation by SLA Marshall. And it
says, enduring hardship, in July 1918, I marched
with my regiment to the front on a balmy starlit
night and was astonished to see the strong men
around me virtually collapse under the weight
of their packs. When we got to the fire zone
after an 11 -mile approach on a good road, they
had been conditioned to go 20 miles under the
same weight in the broiling sun. Then some days
later, after our bath of fire and burials were
done, we shouldered the same packs and marched
rearward 32 miles in one day, got to our billets
with no sweat, feeling light as a feather. I
should have seen the lesson then, but to my juvenile
mind, the experience signified only. that it
is a lot easier to move away from the battle
than to go into one, which any fool knows. Many
years went by. Then in the Pacific War in early
1944, Major General Archibald V. Arnold gave
me a tactical problem to solve. He wished to
know why it was that in the atoll operations,
if troops were checked three times by fire, even
though they took no losses and had moved no more
than a mile, their energy was spent. and they
could not assault. Worn out men cannot fight
or think. It is folly to press them beyond the
endurance when just a little rest will work a
miracle on recovery. So this idea is the dead
hand. General J .F .C. Fuller once said that
an adherence to dogma has destroyed more armies
and lost more battles and lives than anything
else in war. The idea of the dead man's hand
is that overloading warriors, we could take on
too much and neglect the important details of
a mission. When we allow the weight of external
burdens and worries or distractions, we can make
ourselves of no use to God's plans. So we must
refrain from the unnecessary while focusing diligently
on our faith. We have to be able to shed off
this weight, allow ourselves to drop our packs
of worries and excesses. Give that burden to
the Lord so we will be rested and ready for the
battle. There's an idea of the fire load or your
ammunition or your armaments. Too often we concern
ourselves with whether we know enough. Do we
have the right weapons, the right tools for the
fight? But our God provides us everything we
need. We have the word, we have prayer, and we
have our savior. And I'll add one other thing.
If you're part of the body of Christ, you should
have fellowship with your brethren who can upgird,
who can help edify you. and builds you up in
the faith. And we can lean on those hard times.
So we can look at another military example. We
can look at the airborne example in this. In
the European theater, the basic individual ammunition
load for a paratrooper was 80 rounds for his
carbine. Or an M1, it's the same thing. He had
two hand grenades, and when the parachute...
Paratrooper jumped into Normandy on June 6, 1944.
He also carried these things, one rifle carrier
part, one English mine, six packs of K rations,
one impregnated jumpsuit, one complete uniform,
one steel helmet and liner, one knitted cap,
one change of underwear, two changes of socks,
one entrenching tool, one gas mask, one first
aid pack, one spoon, two gas protective covers,
one field bag with suspenders, one pack of sulfa
tablets, one escape kit, and a set of toilet
articles. So despite all the weight, most of
the sailing characteristics in the operation
by these forces was, without doubt, their high
mobility of all ranks. That was because most
of them used common sense. They jumped heavy,
but they moved light. Once on the ground, most
of them ditched every piece of equipment that
was unnecessary. They did this without an order,
and often before they engaged any of the enemies
or joined up with any of their comrades. It was
a reflex to a course of training. which had stressed
the main thing was to keep going. Blessed to
preserve the history is not enough. We have to
look at moving forward in Christ. But we also
have to remember that not to throw off what is
necessary with our relationship with Jesus Christ.
We have to trust in God and the light load that
is our Lord's rather than trusting in man. So
just like the militaries put their trust in new
technologies, tanks, planes, drones, too often
Christians turn from a resolute faith in Jesus
Christ and they put their faith or their trust
in men and machines. We see this happening in
society over and over and over again. The flavor
of the week comes out, a new politician, a new
government official, somebody who's going to
save us from the newly perceived enemy. And so
rather than turning to the word of God, turning
to Christ, remembering our purpose in Christ,
we say this person can take the burden. And we
give up, in some regards, our responsibility
as men and as women and as children of God. Rather
than putting our faith in God, we give that away
to another created being. We also see this with
the world telling us, put your trust in experts,
doctors, scientists, like I said, even politicians.
And it's terrifying because in doing so, you're
basically giving up your faith in the one who
could save your soul. We're told to ignore the
word of God because certainly that isn't trustworthy.
Trust the science, right? Yeah, what can we trust
about the science? You know, science isn't concrete.
And what I mean by that is that science is simply
just a way of testing a hypothesis. You're supposed
to be able to come up with an idea. You're supposed
to be able to experiment out that idea. And at
the end, you should be able to either prove or
disprove the hypothesis. But so much of what
they call science today is unprovable. It's untestable.
And you have to just take it on faith. But not
like faith like we have in our God, but faith
into a man. Faith into a created being. So this
shows that our society and the church at large
has some weaknesses. But the benefit that we
have in the church is that we should be able
to allow Christ to use us in that weakness. Many
who are viewed as strong are that way because
they're overburdened. And if you're overburdened,
you're going to end up failing because you're
carrying weight that's not meant for you to carry.
But in your weakness, you can submit to Christ
and he can lift you up and he can help you. That's
why we need to stand for Christ. In Joshua 5,
13 through 15, we see this picture of Joshua
coming to the feet of Christ. It's a picture
of Jesus before his incarnation. When Joshua
was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked
and behold, there was a man standing before him
with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua
went to him and said to him, are you for us or
for our adversaries? And he said, no, but I am
the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I
have come. And Joshua fell on his face and worshiped
him. What does my Lord say to his servant? And
the commander of the Lord's army said, Joshua,
take off your sandals from your feet for the
place where you are standing is holy. And Joshua
did so. How do we know this is a picture of the
pre -incarnate Christ? Well, it's because he
was allowed to worship at his feet. When you
do that to an angel, they would correct you because
they're nothing but servants. But this situation,
he was allowed to kneel and worship. Fear equals
fatigue. In Matthew 10, 31, Fear not, therefore
you are of more value than many sparrows. Revelation
1, 17, When I saw him, I fell at his feet as
though dead, but he laid his right hand on me,
saying, Fear not. I am the first and the last.
We need to stand for Christ. We need to understand
that our life is full of different seasons. It's
not always going to be easy. It's not always
going to be a battle, though, either. Battle
shock is a term. It results from excessive load
on a soldier. It's a far greater danger during
summer operations than in normal winter operations
when the cold is not intense enough to slow the
muscles or cheer the bone. But a man can become
dehydrated during summer fighting when you're
dry. A man becomes dehydrated. His courage flows
out through his pores. He'll have a loss of muscular
strength. He loses the will to fight. He loses
the ability to take constructive action. And
the worst part is that he's not likely to understand
that his sudden loss of willpower and courage
is because his physical strength has been sapped.
And then it may be within his power to check
it. We, as Christians, we can see this picture
in a life as a Christian without prayer, without
reading the word of God, without fellowshipping
with other brothers and sisters in Christ. You
can become dry. You're allowing the heat of the
world to just suck your energy out and wear you
down. We must allow ourselves grace because there
are times in seasons in our lives where we will
feel worn out. When things will be harder than
other times. We have to be able to work through
these times with patience and grace. But we also
need to remember that the load of the war. is
is on jesus and our victory comes in the form
of our christ our lord and savior jesus christ
in philippians 2 14 through 17 do all things
without grumbling or disputing that you may be
blameless and innocent children of god without
blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted
generation among whom you shine as light in the
world holding fast to the word of life so that
in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did
not run in vain or labor in vain. Even if I am
to be poured out as a drink offering upon the
sacrificial offerings of your faith, I am glad
and rejoice with you all. So as we bring this
message to a close, I brought a lot of different
imagery here between fighting, standing for Christ,
dying. I just want to remind you. That we stand
on the rock of Christ. He is the one that will
stand and help us and upgird us for the battles
that we will face. But he is already the victor
for the war. And I want to also emphasize that
it's not wrong for you to act masculine and be
a man. To stand as Jesus stands. As our example.
To stand. With love in your heart for your fellow
man, but also the strength to take the abuse
of the world, to cover those that you're responsible
for, to be that headship of your family, to stand
as a man would with your face like a flint in
faith to our Lord. In Hebrews 12, one through
two. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight and sin, which clings so closely,
and let us run with endurance the race that is
set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder
and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising
shame, and seated at the right hand and the throne
of God. So if I could have every head bowed,
every eye closed, wherever you are, as long as
it's safe. I just want to take a quick invitation.
If you're a young man and you know that you're
not right with God, now's the time. Now's the
time to stand. Now's the time to recognize that
you need Jesus Christ. He is a warrior. He is
a leader worthy, worthy of you to give him your
life. So if you want to be a man, be a man for
God. So if you know your heart's not right, you
want to signify that uplifted hand, I want to
lead you in a prayer. So if you did, God could
see your hand, whether I can or not, because
it's all online or on a podcast or on YouTube
or whatever. But I also want to open it up, too,
to, of course, the women. You, too, are called
to stand in service. And there's a desperate
need for godly women in this world. Right now
in society, it sells us that most men or a lot
of young men are turning back to faith. But it's
unfortunate because this lack of masculinity
in our society for the last number of years,
that a lot of women have fallen away. So if you
want to get right with your creator as well,
I want you to signify that with an uplifted hand.
Because we need young men and women to come to
Christ and to serve him fully. We need you to
stand and be willing to fight and even die for
your faith. We need men and women of God to stand
up in this generation. If he rose your hand,
I want to just quickly lead you in a prayer.
Dear Lord God, repeat after me. Dear Lord God,
I know that I'm a sinner, but I know that you
sent your son Jesus to die for me. I pray that
you'd help me as I repent and turn from my sin
and accept you in Jesus' name. Amen. If you pray
that simple prayer, then your name is written
in the Lamb's Book of Life. And now you can continue
on to read your Bible, pray, find a church to
lock into so that you can fellowship with other
believers. And you can stand. with that heavy
burden of sin lifted off of you in Jesus' name.
I want to thank you for listening to me today.
I pray that this message has impacted you. I
pray it was a challenge, especially again to
the young men, that you would stand up and be
counted as a number for Christ. And I want to
challenge you young women that you should look
for men that are willing to stand for something.
that are willing to stand for Christ, that are
willing to stand against this wicked society,
but doing so from a place of love in Jesus' name,
godly love. If we could do that, we could change
this generation, we could change the society
around us in a magical, not magical, but in a
magnificent way. So thank you again for listening.
I can't wait for you to come back to the next
one. I'll just close in a quick prayer. Dear
Lord God, I pray this message does impact the
youth, does impact the older people too, the
older saints, that we would all stand upon the
rock of Christ and to be counted upon or counted
as one of his and his army. We give you all the
praise and glory. I pray this message would impact
everybody as we go. In Jesus' name, amen. for
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