Well, as of late in our Journey of Prayer series, we've been talking about how prayer itself can have an impact, eternal impact that is, on the destiny of nations. In fact, given our authority we have in Christ over the demonic elements of the world, we can pray and see countries, people, groups, tongues, kindreds, whatever the case might be, opened up to the Gospel. of Christ. And God has promised that much is possible through intercessory prayer. We've been focusing a lot on it for the really for quite some time now. And I hope that your prayer life has picked up. It's improved. It's something that's that you begin to understand more and more how much it is a very big part of the Christian life. In fact, we can't go forward spiritually without having a prayer life, not just a prayer time, but a prayer life, a life that is growing and flourishing in communication with God. And when we intercede for people groups, we are making an impact that can change the course of of lives that we can't even begin to understand here on earth sometimes. And as a church, I hope that you want to make an impact for eternity. As an individual, I hope you're living for something bigger than yourself here today. That you're living for somebody that is much higher, much more wonderful, much more powerful, much more gracious than we ever could be. And that's God. And we want to make a difference for Him. And as God's people, we've been given a great opportunity to see the Lord do great works through us. Yes, us, little old us. Nobody may know our names, so to say, in the general world out there, but you know what? God knows our name and God wants to do something through each person here tonight. It's not just for a select few. God does not have his favorite sons and daughters. His favorite sons and daughters are us who are saved, regardless of who you are. And God wants to use you and he wants to use me to to make a difference. And tonight we're going to continue the thought on this thought line, I guess, and seek to understand, I guess, unique strongholds that grip nations that must be preyed down. And in some regards, we've already sort of discussed this, but we're going to get into a little bit more detail tonight. So you kind of can begin to gauge maybe a little bit of where, you know, let's say you've got a burden for a place, a city, a country, a state, But there's strongholds over those states that need to fall down. And they can only be done by being preyed down. Because that's one of the big weapons we have with God. It says here in 2 Corinthians 10, familiar verses here tonight, in verse 3, it says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. Of course, we do not fight with guns and spears and bullets and rockets and all that kind of stuff. like other religions tend to do, we have a different warfare. For the weapons of our warfare, notice, are not carnal, but mighty through God, through the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. We have been given the weapons necessary, capable of pulling down strongholds over the lives of people. And we've got to be using those to the greatest extent that we can. And tonight, We're going to continue our series within a series called contending for the nations and this will be part four Let's pray father. We thank you for tonight. We thank you for the word of god Do pray that you would illuminate our hearts to these strongholds and help us identify them so that we can know how to Faithfully pray against them and make a difference in setting a people free And preparing the people so that the gospel of christ can transform their lives. We ask this now in jesus name I want to make sure that I do say this on the onset. I've said it occasionally throughout this series and the Spiritual Warfare series. I can't claim any of this as my original study out and so forth. I got a lot of the information from a missionary, a well-respected missionary by the name of Dr. Milton Martin. I've mentioned him before. Tremendous missionary in fact his grandson's gonna be coming here in a few weeks. Hopefully that doesn't put a big bubble on him You know so to say he's gonna actually he's a third-generation missionary gonna be going to Argentina And I just talked to him the other day, and I thought what a heritage to have you know a generations like that but dr. Martin has ministered in over 50 different countries and of course over the course of time, primarily in Mexico, but through other means in other countries as well. And of course, saw action, or seen prayer in action, I should say, and its conquering ability. I remember as the times he came to Fargo, I always remember this verse. Whenever I thought of him, I always remember this verse he had always quoted. It's Ezekiel chapter number 22, verse 30. And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand the gap for me for the land that I should not destroy, but I found. None. I thought that's such a great verse, and I've always associated that verse with him because he'd always talk about it. Now I'm not trying to lift up a man, but the point I'm saying is, I want to give credit where credit is due, okay? I am not the one that's come up with all this, but I thought, As I've gone through this material, I thought, this is so rich. This is some of the richest stuff I've ever come across dealing with prayer and dealing with spiritual warfare. We're on the mission field right here in our region. We don't think about that at all, not to the extent like we would on a foreign field, but we really should be approaching things that way because there are strongholds that exist even within our own country today, even within our region. and in these cities. You know, as God's people, we are not called to be pew potatoes, are we? We're not called to sit, you know, just, again, come to church, check it off the list, and go about our merry business. You know, we are in a battle. We are in a war. We are to be active, diligent, and concerned participants in world evangelism. Romans 12, 11, the Bible says, "...not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." You know, there is a spot for each one of us. Some it will be a full-time spot. Some it will be more of a volunteer, part-time business. Whatever the case might be, what part are you involved in world evangelism? I hope that you have at least some part in some regards. Well, part of the participation, of course, is in the prayer closet, where we're alone with God, or together with others seeking God's face, fighting against the demonic realm that keeps people in spiritual darkness and bondage. There is a book written by the name of Destined for the Throne. The author was Paul Bilhammer, and he wrote this, he said, "'Prayer is not begging God to do something which He is unwilling to do. It is not overcoming reluctance in God. It is enforcing Christ's victory over Satan. It is implementing upon earth Heaven's decision concerning the affairs of men. Calvary legally destroyed hell's decisions concerning the affairs of men. God placed the enforcement of Calvary's victory in the hands of the church. He has given her power of attorney. She is his deputy. But this delicate authority is wholly inoperative apart from the prayers of a believing church. Therefore, prayer is where the action is. Any church without a well-organized and systematic prayer program is simply operating a religious treadmill." Powerful statement. A lot of truth put in that statement, though. And that's why we have some of the prayer things that we do. That's why we are trying to put more emphasis on it. And as we go forward, and as we get more opportunity and the logistics of our church improve through a building site and so forth, there's going to be a lot more. Because we want to break people free from that bondage. You know why people are lost? Why people reject Christ? Why people reject Bible preaching? It's because there's a satanic bondage over them. They don't want to hear that. They probably think you're crazy by saying that. But by studying the Bible, as we have over the course of time here, we've come to learn that. And we're asking God to work on the behalf of others to set them free, so that they can be saved. You know, the Bible says in Isaiah 45, 11, Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and His Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. You know, God is asking us to pray, practically begging us to pray, practically has recruited us to pray. Throughout the fields of the world, there are multiple barriers that limit evangelistic outreach, though. Again, we think of it just being on the foreign field, but it's well and alive here in the United States of America. In fact, this may be one of the hardest mission fields to work in, because of the spiritual blindness, denseness, and the materialistic spirit that permeates our society. And we, more than ever, need people who pray. And Satan has raised up specific strongholds, of course, designed to hinder the work of world evangelism, which must be prayed down. They have to be prayed down. You go to an area that's just wide open and a lot of people are responding, it's because somebody, somewhere, at some point, prayed it down. And removing these barriers must be part of our systematic prayer program. Tonight we're going to be examining, I guess you could say, four general areas of strongholds that exist in the world. You can probably get more specific in some regards, but we'll mention some here tonight. And I think some of it you'll understand already just based on some of the things we talked about, but some of it may be a little bit more in-depth than before. But these are areas that need to be prayed down. Number one, government strongholds. Government strongholds. Political characteristics of nations, regions, cities, counties, etc. should be strongly considered when interceding. Because there's laws that are passed and decreed by governments that do hinder the spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I found this on the internet. It was pretty good. The article's title is, The Worst Countries for Religious Freedom. It opens up by saying this, At its core, freedom of religion or belief requires freedom of expression. Both fundamental rights are protected in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet nearly half of all countries penalize blasphemy, apostasy, or defamation of religion. In 13 countries, atheists can be put to death for their lack of belief, actually. The U.S. State Department names and shames eight countries of particular concern that severely violate religious freedom rights within their borders. These countries not only suppress religious expression, they systematically torture and detain people who cross political and social red lines around faith. The worst of the worst are these, I'll just read a few of them, China. is one of them. The ruling Chinese Communist Party is officially an atheist organization. China's constitution provides for freedom of religious belief, but the government actively restricts any religious expression that could potentially undermine its authority. Only five religious groups—Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims, Catholics, and Protestants—can register with the government and legally hold services. Adherents of unregistered faiths and folk religions often worship illegally and in secret. There's a certain group of Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and Gong, I guess. I'm not sure what that is. Practitioners have faced particularly severe repression in recent years, including forced conversion, torture, and imprisonment. Iran, of course, is another one. Iran's constitution offers some religious freedom rights for recognized sects of Islam, along with Christians, Jews, and Zoroastrians. I'm not sure what that is exactly. Baha'is, who the government considers apostate and labels a political sector, are excluded from these limited protections, are systematically discriminated against through different provisions in law which limit the access to employment, education, and housing. Evangelical Christians and other faith groups face persecution for violating bans on proselytizing. Religious minorities have been charged in recent years in prison and harsh conditions for committing enmity against God and spreading anti-Islamic propaganda. Government-controlled media regularly attack Baha'is, Jews, and other minority faiths and amplify social hostilities against them. North Korea, of course, we've talked a lot about this country in the past. North Korea's constitution guarantees religious freedom, but this right is far from held. The state is officially atheist. Author John Sweeney says this country is seized by a political religion and that it considers established religious traditions a threat to state unity and control. North Korea allows for government-sponsored Christian and Buddhist religious organizations to operate and build houses of worship, but political analysts suspect this concession is for the sake of external propaganda. A Christian group says it dropped 50,000 Bibles over North Korea over the past year, if caught with one, citizens face imprisonment, torture, or even death. Given the government's extreme control over the flow of reliable information, it is difficult to determine the true extent of religious persecution in North Korea. But I can tell you this right now, it's horrible. Uzbekistan. Prostalizing is prohibited in Uzbekistan, and religious groups must undergo a burdensome registration process with the government to enjoy what limited religious freedom is permitted in the country. More than 2,000 religious groups have registered with the government, the vast majority of which are Muslim, but also include Jewish, Catholic, and other are Christian communities registered, and under-registered groups are sometimes subject to raids, during which holy books have been destroyed. Individuals and groups deemed extremists, often for national security concerns rather than specific aspects of their faith, are imprisoned under harsh conditions and tortured sometimes even to death." That's the real world, folks. And I remember the Uzbekistanis were some of the hardest people we reached out to in the South Korean games there, or the Asian games there. in South Korea. And you have examples there of people being oppressed, if you will, because of governmental decisions that have taken place. They're just a glimpse, if you will, of the erected strongholds that exist in parts of the world. And as you look at these nations and others, you'll discover that there's three different types of political ideologies that need to be targeted for intercession. Of course, number one is communist countries. communist countries themselves. Communism itself has never died, it just has pretty much rebranded itself. It's very much alive in countries like Cuba, China, Laos, Vietnam. Russia is going back to its old ways under the Putin regime. North Korea itself is considered communist, but it's a different form of communism. It's even worse than what Stalin ever had while he reigned in the Soviet Union and so forth. It still influences and reigns in many of the countries of the world. Even places that were under the Iron Curtain years ago still have the remnancies of the communistic regimes that took place. Communism, of course, has a kissing cousin of socialism, which is It's vastly growing in Western countries, particularly even here in the United States of America. Number two, another political ideology are the Muslim nations. In Islam, there is no separation between religion and state. They work hand-in-hand together. They have a state religion, so to say. Over 40 nations of the world have a Muslim majority itself. That was one of the blessings of being in South Korea. Again, we got to reach out to those people freely, unlike where they live currently. I thought it was such a great opportunity. I'm glad we didn't I'm glad we went after that. I think I told you about my opportunity in the Athletes Village there, and I stood on a street corner as nation after nation from all these 1040-windowed countries of Asia came by me and got a chance to talk to them and give tracts. In most of those countries, you could have never been able to do that. And that's just a miracle of God. It's such an opportunity. And I mean, it was a very unusual opportunity. But if you went to their countries today and you stood on their street corner and started to pass out tracks, they'd hook you and book you and throw you in jail, most likely, if they didn't do something worse in some cases. Then there's number three, strongly nationalistic nations. And this would include nations that have gained their independence over the last 20 to 40 years, and emerging third world countries. They'll pass laws restricting any foreigner from spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you know what, that kind of stuff is happening here in this country, right under our noses all the time. You probably wonder, maybe you wonder a little bit, maybe you don't, I don't know. But I do talk a lot about going out and voting. You know what? The reason why some of the mess we're in is because we've got people in pews across this country that don't even vote. You know, I've talked to people up at the state capitol here. And I've had politicians say, you just almost want to pull their hair out. Why don't Christian people vote their values? Why do they sit home? Don't they understand that the decisions made at these levels affect their ability to worship? It's happening all the time now, because people don't care. It was back a few months ago, probably being about four or five months ago now, down in the city of Houston, where those pastors were subpoenaed. by the mayor of Houston. Their sermons were subpoenaed for content reasons. And it's like, how could that ever happen here in America? Well, it is. It will happen even more so. But that mayor was voted in because only 16% of the people of the city of Houston voted. Sixteen percent. You've got people across the world that would die to be able to have a choice in who they can choose as their leaders. You know, this city itself. You know that somewhere down the line, somebody came up with zoning codes. that restrict churches from being able to start in this community. Unless you have a bunch of money, it is about difficult to get a piece of property unless it was a former church. For a new construction of a church in this city, it requires a minimum of two acres. And the building can only take up about 12% of that property. That's about a 10,000 square foot facility if you figure out the math. But that's what happens when people don't care about laws, when they have the opportunity to shape them and to influence them. You know, one of the great opportunities I see coming up, and we're in the pursuit of this right now, seeing if we can get these things together, is the country of Mongolia. And Brother Charles Keane, when he was here back in October, has a tremendous burden for it. They've translated the New Testament into the Mongolian language. It was the first, I guess, Bible, so to say, a partial Bible, done by fundamental Baptists, I guess, from what I understand. And I've got a videotape, and I've sent some of you folks out there the video. It's about 30 minutes long about the situation in Mongolia. The president of that country, Brother Keene has met that gentleman, had lunch with him, has had conversations with him, as basically encouraging the spread of Christianity within his country. This president, by the way, helped fend off the communists that wanted to take the country. He's a Harvard graduate, went to Harvard. According to his testimony, when he was at Harvard, he read the New Testament. What a great tool to establish, in his words, democracy within my country by having a moral basis on the Bible. You don't get that every day. But you know what's happened? Somebody's prayed that open. I'm hoping that we can be on the ground floor of this and have a project over there and be able to get that Bible out to as many people as we can. Because not every country is like that. But somebody prayed. Somebody prayed down a stronghold. so that the gospel could get in there. These strongholds are real, but they're not invincible. God has given us the ability to pull them down. We're the Christians that will pull them down through prayer. We need many, many, many more involved in this. Secondly, cultural strongholds. Cultural strongholds. Now, every nation possesses behavioral characteristics We refer to that as the culture of a people. In many cultures, there are attitudes that restrict the spreading of the Gospel and the response to the Gospel of Christ. You know, you could go to the nation of Israel today, and you cannot talk to a person under the age of 18 about their faith at all, without written permission from their parents. In fact, the Orthodox Jews, and I've been over there a couple times, are very antagonistic. The first time I ever went there was 2002. There was a missionary that was over there and he came in during the evening one time and began to talk about the situation over there and the evangelism and so forth. And I don't know if this group that came to help him or came to help somebody else But over there you can put stuff indoors or in mailboxes and so forth, literature and so forth. Well, evidently one kid, he was a teenager, I don't remember how old he was, got stabbed in the back, literally, not figuratively, literally, for what he was doing and the Jewish guy ran off. There was another story I came across where a missionary, I don't know if it was a missionary or who it was, but received a package on his doorstep, only to have his child go out there and have it blow up on him. The child still bears the scars today from that. I know of a gentleman down in the southeast part of the country here, Georgia area, that came from an Orthodox family, found a King James Bible in his dad's library, started reading it, and got saved. And he's doing everything he can to reach out to his fellow Jewish brother. But he told me several times, in the midst of our conversation, the persecution he personally has received from them. as a result, talking from hacking on his website to, you know, he warns anybody who gets involved with his ministry to be careful, because of some of the things that have happened against him. Now sometimes, these are just examples, and I'm certainly not anti-Jew or anti-Israel or anti-anybody, but that's just the reality of some of the things that some people see. when they're trying to spread the gospel in some of these areas of the world. Sometimes the ideals of Ethnocentrism play a role and that's basically what that means is that a people group believes their way of life is superior to all others. And surprisingly or not, you can go into tribal groups who will hold on to that mentality. They've done something for so long, they believe that their way is right regardless of anything else. There's the fear of outsiders known as xenophobia. that can run rampant in a culture, that we will not hear what an outsider has to say. There's things like racism, of course, and where people groups based on various things concerning race can create an issue of receiving or rejecting the gospel. Of course, all people carry certain attitudes due to their upbringing, family, etc. I mean, we all do. We all have that to a certain degree. But those attitudes must be prayed against so that people's minds would not be clouded from the truth of the Gospel itself. The Bible says in Proverbs 23, 7, For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he. So is he. You know, for some people, gurus, or some people, because of their background, their whole identity is based upon the type of religion they grew up in. I could talk about Thailand. And to be Thai is to be Buddhist. To be Buddhist is to be Thai, practically. You take somebody out of Buddhism, you're taking away their national identity. Yeah, that could be said about some denominations even, among some of the descendants from people of Western Europe and Scandinavia. You know, my family's always been this. And regardless how much truth you show them, they will not turn. It's a cultural mindset. You know, we have cultural Christianity today in America. You know, where people just go to church because that's just what they did growing up. Now it's getting less as our country continues to get more secular. But that's a cultural attitude. Culture can certainly be a stronghold. Thirdly, religious strongholds. Many of us are familiar with Joshua 24.15, after Joshua finished his campaign there in the Promised Land. It says, "...if it seemed evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." What you see in this verse is the spiritual characteristics of the land of Canaan, these false gods, and of course, The spiritual characteristics showed up through the gods in which they worshipped. Today, the spiritual characteristics of a nation will determine, oftentimes, the ability to evangelize it, because in many countries it can be virtually impossible for open evangelism because of religious restrictions. Of course, number one, we've talked a little bit already about the Muslim nations and, of course, the linkage that they have in government. I think one of the clearest examples of that is in the country of Iran. It's very difficult or flat-out illegal to convert somebody to Christianity. itself. In fact, I didn't mention one here, but Saudi Arabia is on this list. It mentions this in Saudi Arabia, Declaration of Human Rights. In Saudi Arabia, it is illegal to publicly practice any faith other than the state's official religion, Sunni Islam. Members of other faiths can worship privately, but non-Muslim houses of worship may not be built. The Committee of the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, otherwise known as Saudi's Morality or Religious Police, enforced Sharia law on the streets. Apostasy and blasphemy against Sunni Islam can be punishable by death, as several high-profile Twitter cases have reminded global media in recent years. So you have a stronghold in that area. Of course, today there's over one billion adherents to some form of Islam. Number two is Hinduism. Hinduism itself is the majority religion in three countries of the world, and a significant minority in eleven others. However, it's made very notable inroads into English-speaking countries. particularly here in the West. And they've done it through things like transcendental meditation. Yoga. Yoga is huge these days. I have a relative that's involved in yoga and has made comments in the lines. They teach you about getting that inner peace. That's not God's peace, folks. That's a different type of peace. New Age philosophy thinking, and of course through various different types of Eastern sects. In fact, many Fortune 500 companies have adopted these philosophies into their corporate practices. Several of them. You can find that. Number three, Buddhism. Buddhism itself is a state religion of five nations of Asia, a majority in four, and a significant minority in 11. Over half the followers also follow Taoism, Confucianism, and Shintoism itself. And that is a very difficult religion to come out of. I've been to Thailand, where 95% of the country is Buddhist. There has not been a significant work done in Thailand amongst the Thai people for centuries. And there's been a lot of effort that has gone on in that country. But it is a stronghold, to say the least. Number four, animistic, spiritist, and tribal and traditional religions of the world are represented by more than 5,000 languages that exist on the globe. Of course, the majority of those don't even have a verse of Scripture in their own language. The Bible does tell us in Romans 10.17, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And they need to be able to hear. But how can they hear? Without a preacher, without somebody pulling down the stronghold, and praying for somebody to open up the door. That was one of the reasons I brought Brother Keen in last year. in his ministry, First Bible International. Because we want to be a part of doing something to get the Gospel to some of these unreached people groups that don't even have their first Bible. I mean, could you imagine not being able to have a Bible? That's what's so sad sometimes about people in America here. They can go to Walmart, buy a Bible for five bucks. Some places, they don't even have a verse of Scripture in their own language. And we take it so for granted. It has taken so much for granted. How would you like not to be able to hear how you can know for sure that before you die, you're going to heaven, and get God's promises on it? We think, yeah, we're used to it. Most people don't even have it. And the ones that do, in many cases, don't even have training material and Bible study material to help them understand it better. By the way, that's why we support Brother Godet's ministry. Very instrumental in that part of the world. I thank God for what he's been doing over the years. Some of those tracts that we handed out during the Asian Games didn't exist in 2002. But thanks to the translation efforts and the work of Brother Godet's teams that he's had over the years, some of those languages are now in fruition. He works a lot with Chick Publications at times. Let me tell you something. How will they hear if we don't pray on the strongholds? I really hope this church, as time goes on, can have very much of an invested interest in that part of the world. I hope that we can send missionaries over there. I'm praying for that. I'm praying that God would call some folks out. We'd have the ability to train them here. You say, well, we don't have those abilities right now. But if we start praying now, maybe in about 10 years, you never know what might come up. Fargo Baptist Church never sent out their first church planter until after, I think they had been in existence for at least 15 years, something like that. Maybe it was a little shorter, 13 or 14, but somewhere in that vicinity. See, we've got to get that mentality in us now, and start praying for it now. And now they're sending missionaries out, more church planners out, and so forth. I know of a few other people that are planning to go out. It starts and then it buds out eventually. That's the way this thing works. But it starts with us getting the mentality, hey, we've got to start praying over these things, and not just take church so haphazardly. I'm here, I'm going to do my little part, and that's all it's going to be. No, we need a bigger vision than that. We need to pray down those strongholds. You know what, you never know, you might be praying down a stronghold that God might send you to. Now I'm not going to pray. Well, just think if you were the person that was in that stronghold. Sometimes that would be the best thing that some of us could do, is just think a little bit about, what if that was me? What if that was me in that tribal community? What if it was me in Communist China, or in North Korea, or in Saudi Arabia, or Iran, or Syria? What if it was me in Libya? I'm sure you saw what happened in the news here recently, or what they reported over there. We cry if we don't have everything in place in a particular church. Those people are getting beheaded. We've got some mixed up priorities here that I think God wants to straighten out in our hearts. Realize that God's given us freedoms and opportunities here that we are to use. One of the greatest opportunities we have is prayer. Prayer will make the difference in some of those countries. The strongholds must be cut down and prayed against so the people can go free. There are a lot of people who need it. Well, fourthly, there's also material and secular strongholds. Some nations appear to be free and have experienced prosperity, which really, in many cases, has turned into a curse. After World War II, Japan was in a dire situation. It was in shambles, especially after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But today, it's a very wealthy nation. one of the wealthiest in the world. But it wasn't long ago that the country lay in shambles. After World War II, from what I understood, Douglas MacArthur, after the surrender of Japan or something like that, sometime in that time frame, called out to the churches of America and said, send your missionaries, they're open and ready. But evidently there was very little response. Today that country is one of the hardest countries to evangelize in the world. They're very successful, very wealthy, but very difficult to evangelize. And it costs an obscene amount to go over there. I've heard of missionaries going to Japan. If they're going to work in Tokyo, they need to raise somewhere in the vicinity of $10,000 just to live and try to minister. And even within these countries, there's a big danger for churches. of getting lukewarm. Go over to Revelation 3. Revelation 3 reveals a church that was lukewarm. There was a materialistic stronghold that existed in that church, or in the area in which they lived, or something along those lines. But it's a church in Laodicea. Revelation 3, verse 14, And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things sayeth the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot. So then, because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked, I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." Very easily within these countries that have material and secular strongholds, churches have the tendency, there's a big danger of them getting lukewarm. In other words, getting apathetic to spiritual things, apathetic, cold. It's kind of the same old, same old, all the time, just getting into an easy rut, so to say. These people will also begin to move towards humanism, which puts the emphasis on human development and rejects spiritual values. It's a lot like America today, and many Western nations as well, that reflect this. Where at one point there was a warmth But now it's cooled off. Church planning in this day has become a very difficult thing. We have Brother Epley and his wife in, and they go to churches a lot in the upper Midwest here. That would include Illinois, and Nebraska, Iowa, and other places, Indiana, and so forth. And he said, we've been in various churches. Guys are trying to do their very best. But he said, you know, some places, there's just nothing that can seem to get going. And he said, some of them have been there for years. And he said, you know what, your church is one of the above the average, certainly. And I thank God for that, it's glory to God. But I know one thing, this is not, what we've gained here so far has not been an easy task. You know, I guess that based on The addresses we've collected over the course of time, over the last five years, we easily could have seen at least, my guess, 1,800 to 2,000 people have walked through those doors one time. Like, wow. And just thinking if everyone stayed, we'd be mega church, man. That just blows my mind. But the thing is, there's lots of churches out there that exist that will appeal to the flesh. In other words, people can live any way that they want. There's an acceptance of worldliness. There's a place that they can hide and live like they want. It's convenient. You know, my wife was, you know, she does her running, she's got a running coach thing. She was out here some time back with that group and for kind of a, I don't know what it was, an outing or whatever the case might have been, was talking to some of the different people that attended that running group and their churches and comments were coming up like, Well, we're sure glad we got a Saturday night service. It's really convenient. Everything's based on convenience today, isn't it? It's sad that it's gotten to that point. And that churches accommodate convenience and lasciviousness. You know, Peter warned about that kind of mentality in 2 Peter. 2, verses 18 and 19 and further. When they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure, notice, through the lust of the flesh, through much wantonness. Those that were clean escape from them who live in error. While they promise them liberty, in other words, you can live any way you want, they themselves are the servants of corruption. For of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought, notice, into bondage. Interesting terminology used. Say, well, Pastor, why are there some good, independent Baptist churches that have just grown so fast and so big? Well, this isn't all exclusive, but a big majority of them have been there for a while. Some of them have been there for 20, 30, 40 years. Some even longer. They started even in a different day that has erupted now. And they've prayed down some strongholds. It's just been there for some longer time. We live in a different day. There's new challenges. So does that mean we should just quit and pull up shop? No. It means we ought to just pray harder, work harder, and do our best for Jesus Christ and let the chips fall where they may. But understand what we're dealing with. secular and materialistic strongholds. Because we live in a world, in a country, where pleasures surround people that blind them to their spiritual reality. In fact, evangelism in materialistic countries can be more difficult than poverty-stricken or even restricted countries because of that mentality. I think of somebody that came here a while back, a few years ago, worked with and worked with and worked with and worked with, but had this continual infatuation with the fun of the world. It still does to this day. Unfortunately, in materialistic societies, there are many more options to try to find fulfillment than God. And that creates a big problem. It creates a big issue. It creates a stronghold. as people are distracted by the bells and the whistles of the world. But that doesn't mean it's impossible. It just means it needs to be prayed down. And as we contend for the nations, hopefully we can look at these nations and we can see our areas and say, you know, what do I need to pray against? A lot of times it's pretty obvious. What is the stronghold of? And hopefully this can make us a little bit better, educate us a little bit more on what we can do to pray them down so that the people can go free.