You're all set and running? We are? Okay, cool. So I did want to make, yikes, a few comments about the Russia situation. You know, I'm Matt Chuella, so I have an opinion about everything. So first off, I want you to know, Putin is not Hitler, okay? There's a massive blitz rig of an information war going on. that's only being force-fed to Americans from one perspective and everything from the other perspective, that would be Putin's and Russia's, is completely censored. And I mean completely censored. So you can either be stampeded into believing that he is Hitler and the most brutal monster that's ever lived on the planet since Hitler and all that stuff, or you can actually get a clue and actually put a little effort into learning what's really going on. that would be a good thing for you to do. I said this, I said when you see the pylon against Putin by government officials and the media making him out to be the mindless brutal beast with his side of the story completely censored, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out something's wrong. That you should be alerted. because they've gotten good at this. I've lived 61 years, there's always been propaganda, there always will be propaganda, but the propaganda machine they pulled off with COVID was remarkable, and any older person will tell you they've never seen such a steel monolithic narrative pushed on people and the history of the planet, and it's the same thing going on here. And the same people, all the same people who've been trying to enslave the entire world for the last two years are all pushing this narrative. that Putin is evil. So you need to learn a few things, investigate, and look for other sources other than the usual mantra that's being shoved down everybody's throat. I'll be making some of those available to you. In fact, I have three links that I'll be putting on the detail section of this sermon so you can look into a different perspective yourself and get a little bit of an idea as to what really is going on here. And it was interesting, I had a exchange with one good brother, and he was talking about how evil the Soviet Union is. I pointed out, you know, the Soviet Union is done, okay? It's Russia now. And I know as older people, it's easy for us to not be able to move forward, because it is, and understand things from the current perspective. And he brought up a look at Solzhenitsyn, he left. And I said, yeah. And do you remember what he found when he got here to the West, how appalled he was at the West? And then he wrote back to me and he said, yeah, but he didn't go back. And I wrote back to him and I said, no, actually he did. Solzhenitsyn went back to Russia after the Soviet Union was dissolved. In fact, he died there. And in fact, he was honored before his death by Vladimir Putin as the conscience of the nation. So these are the types of things that people just, and this guy was telling me he's Hitler, he's a monster, and on and on, and I'm just like, you're just listening to what they, if you look at Fox News, ABC, it doesn't matter, conservative or liberal, they all are saying the same thing. Are you that, you don't get that? What have we lived through for the last two years? Get a clue. Right there should make you investigate. So anyway, I have these three things. I did a lot of investigation and there's a whole horde of stuff I could give you, but I'll put three things down to keep it slim and easy for you. And one of the videos is an hour and a half long. Just watch the first 15 minutes and you'll learn so much. Okay, so enough said there. Funny thing about all that's going on right now with all this concern, you should be concerned about what's going on over there. If you're not, and there's a whole pile of stuff. I had just bought a bunch of potassium iodide two weeks ago. And then this all comes up this week. And I was like, whoa, that was a good time to buy some potassium iodide. Some of you are like, what's potassium iodide? Potassium iodide is stuff you want to take when there's a nuclear fallout. because there's some things to be greatly concerned about here. When you see banks being shut down, when you see other countries sending in armaments to Ukraine, yeah, there's things to be concerned about here. I've lived 61 years. This one's a little different than all the ones I've seen before. This one's a little different. And the evil is immense, and we know we're up against global tyrants who all hate Putin. I'm taking a break from Malachi this week and doing a sermon about Canada. Let's stand up and open to the book of Proverbs, chapter 29. The book of Proverbs, chapter 29, verse 2. It says, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice. But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. May God bless the reading of his word. Let's bow our heads and pray. Father, I thank you for this time that we do have to talk about Canada. And Lord, we have been praying for our brothers and sisters there and the evil and the draconian acts of government upon the people there. And Lord, I pray you use this sermon for good, for people to understand how tyranny works and how we're to respond to it. And also, Lord, to be encouraged that there are churchmen there who love you, want to be faithful to you, that are faithfully declaring your word and taking a stand against the tyrants. Lord, I pray that this sermon is used for good to encourage and equip your people and I ask these things, help me to set it forth, I pray. In Jesus' name, amen. You can be seated, and the title of my sermon is Canada, Some Thoughts. And you may recall, doesn't last week seem like 100 years ago? You may recall last week we were doing what? Crying out to God for Canada. They were under the emergency declaration on Monday they were gonna re-up it or not. They had already used force and brutal force in some areas in order to clear the truckers out, were seizing all of their rigs, freezing their bank accounts. Absolute evil. Immense, huge, massive, wicked evil. So we were crying out to God and we prayed for our brothers and sisters there and prayed for the people of Canada. So Canada is under these draconian decrees and it was the truckers and their friends who were fighting for their very lives and gathered at these various locations across their country in order to make a stand against the evil. And they were crushed by the tyrant Trudeau. And I can assure you when Biden heard that an American trucker convoy was being formulated, he was on the phone with Trudeau immediately telling you, you better crush this thing right now. because his hope is crush that, it'll take the steam out of the American convoy, which it has to some extent. Also sent them kind of in a tizzy because it kind of took away some of their purpose for why they were gathering. They're reformulating their purpose and they're going there with the trucks full of goods to give to people in need and to make statements and to show that they stood and stand with those in Canada who have resisted the evil that's going on there. We prayed heartfelt here for those fighting for freedom, because they truly are fighting for freedom. They are fighting for their very lives up in Canada. And that's why we prayed and cried out to God last week during our prayer time. Well, we have some good news. On Monday, things actually got worse. The parliament voted to Uphold another 30-day extension of the Emergency Act so Trudeau could continue to play the tyrant emperor that he's become. And Trudeau made it clear that he was going to hunt down all these people, that he was going to take all their rigs, all their trucks. He was going to seize all their bank accounts. It was going to be kind of what done to them what was done to the people who were in our capital on January 6th. Same type of evil done there. Here's what ended up happening. People heard that they were seizing bank accounts, and they all ran to their banks taking money out. And so just two days later, on Wednesday morning, literally 36 hours later, Trudeau stops the Emergency Act. Because, as I always tell people, the State House is the whorehouse. It doesn't have anything to do with righteousness, goodness, honesty, equity, justice. It has everything to do with money. And if that money's in jeopardy, oh, things dry up immediately. There's a change in course. And he immediately said, well, we don't need to continue this now. So that's the rumor amongst the people. You won't find this blazoned everywhere. I'm talking about talking to people in Canada myself. That's the rumor. Because everybody, I mean, get a brain, right? Like, even here in America, if you keep large sums of money in the bank, I think you're dumb, OK? What are you even thinking? And once they seize your bank account, guess what? It's gone. You don't have access to it. You can't buy food. And I talked to people who were in Canada who had their bank accounts seized. Yeah, that'll wake you up in the morning. And they want to move us all to a digital currency system? Think of the power they'll have then. So anyways, there's been a reprieve there, but understand still, they are under massive draconian actions by their government. I did an interview in Canada on Tuesday, which aired on Thursday, and I've heard from all kinds of Canadians. We've got a lot of correspondence out of that interview. And before we did the show, and maybe I'll post that too in the detail box here, before I did that show, the interviewer was telling me what life is like there. and it is horrific, it is despicable. The evil and the lower authorities have not intervened as they should. They've gotten what we get out of the GOP here, lip service, with no action. So, one of the letters of correspondence I got was from a Canadian woman, an older Canadian woman. Here's what she said to me. Hi, I live in Canada. Ontario. I just subscribed because I'm a member of the Christian Party in Canada and they had a link to your website. I was wondering what to do with masks. My husband and I do not want to wear them, but as you know we have pesky bylaws. These masks are becoming a harassment and hate-driven issue. Recently my husband and I just went grocery shopping and this is what happened. A man complained. He complained to the manager and the manager said they have a right to shop here, they are exempt. So the store guy actually interposed for them. This lady had explained to me they're the only ones ever in a store without a mask on. But this man decided to follow me and my husband around. This is an elderly couple, okay. He told me, where's your mask? He called my husband old. He told my husband he looks better with a mask. Looks better with a mask on. We did everything to not react, but as we went to the cashier, he looked at us and I guess wanted to engage us. I lost my temper. I told him to be quiet. I literally yelled like a crazy woman. It was too much. It was just too much for me. We had the police come and a woman filmed me. I was furious at this woman taking his side and filming me. My husband had a heart attack five years ago. The police called the ambulance because they were worried about the state of my husband. I want to know how to cope with this. People are just mad, literally mad. It feels like such a violation when someone asks you, where's your mask? It's none of their business. But somehow the mask makes people act like ravishing wolves. Do you have any words for me or an article? What is happening to people? So I sent her a couple of my sermons. So the situation up there is still bad. I want to talk some more about this, and I've taken some things out because I want to read to you something that some churchmen sent to Trudeau and did get some play in the media. But before that I want to point out one other thing, and it's this. I was very bothered how the Conservatives and Republicans kept couching what the truckers were doing in Canada as free speech. Anybody with a brain knows it went beyond free speech, and every time I saw any Conservative anywhere or any GOP politician claiming it was free speech, and then getting pushback on that, because they shut down all the traffic. They stopped transportation across borders. It was beyond free speech. It was sad watching them try to defend their position. But why did they do that? Because again, the conservatives and Republicans give us something less every time than what needs to be said. These truckers and their friends were not there for demonstrating their free speech. They were there for their very lives. They were fighting for freedom. for their very lives, that's why they were there. And I get sickened by the conservatives and their constant mantra and how they play people, especially Christian people, time and time again, with their narratives. So thank you for letting me get that off my chest. So now all the governments of the world and the media want you to focus on Russia while their insidious evil continues. They are rolling out vaccine passports across the nation while you're all focused on Russia. Just understand that. They're busy with their evil. It hasn't stopped. This is part and parcel of their evil. And I said those things to you about Putin at the beginning. We have the three links so you can get a little understanding from the Russian perspective because there's an evil narrative by the very people who've tried to enslave the entire planet for the last two years. They all hate Putin and they're all in lockstep monolithic, steel monolithic column of damning him. Why? get a clue, do some investigation. The three links will help you with the starting point that I'll have in the detail box. Proverbs 29 to our text states, when the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice, but when a wicked man rules, the people groan. And we have a whole horde of wicked men ruling. So the government officials in Canada continue to play the tyrant. They haven't relented. They've just removed the emergency thing because they overstepped their bounds and supposedly there was a legitimate run on the banks. And they were concerned about their little money system. Because it's not time yet to reset it. But what about the churchmen? Has there been a change there, the Churchmen of Canada I speak of? Well, currently their best churchman, Arthur Pawlowski, is in jail, having been arrested again. I don't know if you've taken time to contact our government officials, and I know it's an exercise in futility, but you should still do it. There hasn't been one government official that I know of, I take that back, one government official I do know of who has spoken publicly for Arthur Pulaski to be released. One that I know of. Did you notice how they didn't come to the aid of the truckers? In Canada, our government officials? Anyways, their best churchman, Arthur Pulaski, is in jail again, and sadly, the vast majority of churchmen there in Canada continue to play the whore for the state, singing their fallacious interpretation of Romans 13's song. And they are cowards. And Proverbs 29, verse 25 states, the fear of man brings a snare. Did you hear that? The fear of man brings, you should not fear man, you should fear God. And I can assure you, being a churchman myself, most churchmen are cowards. And those who have the first part in the lake of fire, according to Revelation, are cowards. God doesn't take it lightly, and neither should we. The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe, amen? And they've come up, the churchmen, with all kinds of little dopey, unbiblical, twisting-of-scripture reasons why you should go along with the tyranny of the tyrants. But there was a decree put out by a group of churchmen just last week. Just last week, in the middle of last week, 35 churchmen issued an open letter to Trudeau. And these are true Christian brothers, Bible-believing. We would have fellowship with them. So there was 35 of them. That can seem small, but understand that there are surely others who didn't know about this open letter, who weren't able to sign on. It did get some real notoriety in the press, and it went from 23 to 35, so I don't know how many more there are, but we know there's probably more than 35 in Canada. And they issued this open letter to Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister of Canada, who's been busy playing the tyrant for nearly two years now. The letter was penned by Joe Boot, who's a pastor, he's a churchman in Canada. His church has been fined for not following the health mandates. He wrote an excellent book entitled The Mission of God. How many of you ever read Joe Boot's work, The Mission of God? Nobody. Okay, so let me encourage you to read it. It's worth reading. It is worth reading. It's a thick book. He also heads up the Ezra Institute. Maybe I'll put a link to his group or to this letter in the details box also. The letter is good news. It's a bright spot. So I decided to devote more time to this rather than discuss some other things I wanted to address regarding Canada. I thought it'd be good for you to hear this letter. So I want to read it to you. rather than talk about a couple other things that I had to knock out of here. Here's what they said to the Prime Minister and federal government. We are writing to you as representative pastors of Christian congregations from across the nation and as law-abiding citizens who respect the God-defined role of civil government and uphold the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the highest law of our land, which recognizes the supremacy of God over all human legislation. Excellent beginning. Excellent beginning. They make clear who they are, they show their respect for the proper role of civil government, and they also note their highest organic laws there in their nation, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They go on and say, for the past two years, we have sought to respectfully and peaceably make known to all levels of government our profound concern about the indefinite suspension of civil liberties, coercive mandates, and perpetual state interference in the life, freedom, and worship of the church, freedoms guaranteed by both our inherited common law tradition and charter. We have also prayed for our governing authorities, met with them, written letters and petitions, peacefully gathered for protest with other concerned citizens, and in some cases, filed lawsuits. We have used every lawful means at our disposal to be heard and taken seriously, yet at every turn we have been largely ignored, brushed aside, insulted, and even told we in no way represent Canadians. And if you've seen some of the speeches that Justin Trudeau has given, your blood would boil. Yeah, you're not a Canadian. In recent weeks, the usually popular truckers convoy, containing many Christians, including pastors, has captured the imagination not only of this nation, but other nations around the world, laying bare that what we have expressed and argued for months is indeed representative of the concerns of millions of ordinary Canadians who value peace, personal responsibility, and liberty. The Ottawa protest has presented your government with a wonderful opportunity to meet with and speak to ordinary Canadians lawfully and peaceably, requiring the restoration of their constitutional rights. However, in response to their singing, praying, dancing, candy floss, bouncy castles, speeches about the Constitution, and outpourings of patriotic love for the country, your government has not only refused to meet with these citizens to hear their concerns, you have insulted, denigrated, and lied about them, further dividing a hurting and broken nation. As ambassadors of Christ, whilst we respect your office as a public servant and honor the limited role honor the limited role of civil authority as a ministry of public justice. We do not hesitate to fulfill our responsibility as servants of the living God by unapologetically reminding you that Jesus Christ is Lord and King and the ruler of the kings of the earth. He sets up kings and pulls down the mighty from their thrones and none can stay his hand. in the words of the same scriptures engraved on the Peace Tower in Ottawa and written into our very national coat of arms. This is the verse, Psalm 2, verses 10 through 12. And they quote it, now therefore be wise, O kings, be instructed, you judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the son, S-O-N, talking about Christ, lest he be angry and you perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust in him. Amen. The pastors go on and they say, Mr. Trudeau, with great respect, you are neither the king nor the ruler of Canada. Both you and your colleagues are public, and then they have it italicized, servants, sent for a short time to Parliament at our behest as citizens to govern under God in terms of the Canadian Charter. Govern under God. Delegate authority. The authority they possess is delegated to them by God. Therefore, they have a duty to govern according to his rule. Sent to Parliament for a short time at our behest as citizens to govern under God in terms of the Canadian Charter and to seek a harmony of public legal interest, you do not grant, and that's italicized, people rights and responsibilities that are theirs as God's image bearers and of free people. Since you do not grant them, you have no authority to remove them. Your government does not grant people the right of their bodily integrity, the right to work or earn a living, the right to decide for their children, or to be with their families or dying loved ones, the right to gather to worship and obey God, the right to travel in their own land or enter and leave. Civil government exists to protect these pre-political and fundamental freedoms, not bestow and remove them as if it can function in the place of God. As such, we as Christian pastors condemn in the strongest possible terms your unprecedented invoking of the Emergency Powers Act with the intent of bringing unaccountable state power to bear on peaceful citizens, men, women, and children who have been stripped of their fundamental freedoms for two years and who have in many cases lost everything as a result of your government's mandates. There is no national emergency, and to invoke one, to crush peaceful political dissent is a totalitarian act of repression, displaying weakness, not strength. These tyrannical actions are exposing this government and people to the judgment of God, and we are deeply concerned that you do not appreciate the significance of God's wrath upon a rebellious and lawless nation." So they acknowledge that it is the judgment of God. but to call him to repentance. This is what we do. And I've taught you this. We call ourselves to repentance. We call the people to repentance. We call the magistrates to repentance. We also confront the tyrants, the magistrates acting tyrannically. And that's what these churchmen are doing. They're confronting them, acknowledging the just judgment of God of a lawless and rebellious nation. and yet calling the magistrate to account. Extremely important. We implore you to step back from the brink, restore the constitutional freedoms of the people, respect the God-given rights of our citizenry, and above all, to humble yourself and take a knee before Christ the King, lest you perish in the way. We urge you to repent of the sins of pride, rebellion against God, and bearing false witness. You have not displayed a brotherly care and love for these honest, hardworking people. Here the churchmen are interposing for the people. Understand that. This is exciting. This is good to see. Here they are representing the people to the tyrant and pleading on their behalf. Interposition can be verbal or physical or both. You have not displayed a brotherly care and love for these honest, hardworking people who have tried to peacefully bring their very serious concerns to your attention. Our hope and prayer for you and your government is that you will lift the emergency measures, end these lawless mandates, and enact justice for a people who elected you to that purpose. For he shall have dominion from sea to sea, talking about the Lord, Psalm 72, verse eight. And then they sign it pro reggae, which in Latin means for the king, talking about Christ being the king, the Lord being the king. And then they signed their names. So I found this encouraging. It was a goodness to my heart. And you know what I think of the average churchman in America and Canada. And I wanted to bring these brothers before you in what they wrote. The Lord always has a faithful witness in the earth, always. And it's encouraging to see this letter. It did get play, mostly in America, unfortunately very little in Canada as it was suppressed. So I thought I would bring it to light because I bet none of you knew about this letter before now. A letter like this is the bare minimum the churchmen must do when evil raises its ugly head, and it is good to see them that they have done it. They must also act, and many of the men on this list have, who sent this letter. When we see God's law and word being impugned, we are his ambassadors, we must speak. We cannot sit in indifference. We cannot just add it up or chuck it up to our prophecy charts and be indifferent towards it. We must speak. That's extremely important. It should bother you as his ambassador when you see his law or word being impugned by men, and especially by the governments of men, where you know you cannot stand silent, And these churchmen are faithful to Christ and have spoken. And I assure you, the tyrants will not forget them, depending on where things go from here. This is the history of God's people on the earth to confront the idols, evils, and tyrants of their day via their obedience to the Lord. Now, one last thing I want to talk to you about to finish this sermon is about suffering. You know as well as I do, you don't have the amount of innocent blood that's been poured out on this land and just get to walk away from it. Suffering is here and suffering is going to grow for Americans, for Christian people also. Suffering is part of the Christian life. I know American Christianity would like you to believe that's not true, as you confess getting the tinted windshield on your Lexus, but it is true. Suffering is part of the Christian life. So here's how the process works, and we saw it up in Canada, right? When you take a stand, the tyrant responds. He's forced out of his lair. He has to show his fangs. That's a good thing. Why? Because if good men don't take a stand against tyrants, then the tyrant has the ability to implement the next plank of their tyranny unhindered. But if good men do take a stand like they did here, the tyrant has to come out of his lair and show his fangs. Trudeau had to show his fangs. And understand, there were policemen standing with the truckers. They had to recruit policemen from across the country to come in and brutalize those truckers. Because many of them, they replaced the police chief of Ottawa with the new police chief. Understand these things. When men take a stand, it gives people opportunity to rally to other good men. So many people say this, right? They say, well, we should just go along because you'll make it worse for us if you take a stand. I've listened to this all my life from the conservatives and even Christian people. You know, well, we shouldn't do anything because they'll use it as a pretense against us. Okay, okay. So understand, they're going to do that anyway. So you can either fight and let them use their pretense, or you cannot fight, but either way, you're ending up at the gulag. You're ending up like the Apaches on the train to the reservation, whether you fought or you didn't fight. They all ended up on the same train to the reservation. You don't not fight because they'll use it as a pretense. You don't do something foolish that they can use as a pretense, but it doesn't mean you don't fight. So get that notion out of your head. The trucker's convoy, oh, it's infiltrated by leftists. Don't do it, don't be involved in it. That's what people are saying about the American one now. It's like, here's what I learned. If every time I didn't do something because people warned me that not completely good people are involved in something, I would have never done anything. And you know what happens when you do nothing? Nothing. Nothing happens except you strengthen evil's men's hands. You have to stand against the evil. Very important to do. So this is how the process works. I hope you understand that. Remember Moses? Remember that guy? When he went to Pharaoh and said, let my people go? Did Pharaoh say, oh yeah, sure. What time do you want to leave? No, he was ticked off and he said, you have the audacity to come here and tell me to let my, now you can all make bricks without straw. That's what he told them. Now you can all make bricks without straw. When you rightly confront evil, a fight will ensue. Now is the time to keep fighting. Not to now turn cowardly and run for some hole in the mountainside. And don't be discouraged by most people. They all comply. Don't let that discourage you, believe me. Matuella is a guy who gets discouraged telling you not to be discouraged, okay? So I'm saying this to myself as much to you. Don't be discouraged by the compliance of the many and don't be discouraged when you do take a stand and then the evil men respond and then the people who all comply say, no, you made it harder for us. That's what they did with Moses, right? Now we gotta make bricks without straw. You know, they were all, just read the narrative. You know, you gotta make bricks without straw. Get a clue. Evil must be, you cannot appease tyrants, you must defeat them. And the only thing that gives you strength of heart to stand, against that evil is your love for Christ. And that's why it says in Psalm 97 verse 10, you who love the Lord, hate evil. When you hate evil and you love the Lord, that's what gives you the grit to stand against wickedness, to stand against tyrants, to do right by the Lord and be a benefit to those around you. Rather than just go along to get along like most people. So let me say a little bit about suffering, because suffering is part of our life. First thing you need to know is that suffering is a normal part of the Christian life. And just a brief look at the scriptures reveals that is so. For example, Romans 8, verse 18, you can mark these down if you like. Romans 8, 18 says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Suffering is a normal part. 1 Corinthians 4, 12 says, being persecuted, we suffer. 2 Corinthians 1.5 says, the sufferings of Christ abound in us. Verse 7 says that we are partakers of that suffering. Galatians 3.4, Paul asks, have you suffered so many things in vain? Why did he ask us this? Because they had suffered. Why did he ask this? Because they had suffered. Suffering is a normal part. Philippians 1.29, says that we are to suffer for his sake. Philippians 3.10 says, Paul says that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings. In chapter four, verse 12 of Philippians, he talks about the fact that I have learned both to abound and to suffer need. And I could go on and on here, I got so many verses. 2 Timothy 2.9, Paul says that he, quote unquote, suffers trouble. 2 Timothy 3.12 says, quote, yes, and all desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Peter says in 1 Peter 2.21, we are called to suffering. And my point is simply this, suffering is part of the Christian life. That's just a few verses. There's many, many more. You must be prepared to suffer. You must be willing to suffer. It's extremely important for you to understand the times we're going into. All those little charlatans who promoted the prosperity gospel, yeah, their days have come to an end. How many of you have ever read Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan? Nobody. How many of you have ever read Pilgrim's Progress? Half the people. Pilgrim's Progress is the most published book in the entire world after the Bible. You haven't read it? If you haven't read it, read Imprisonment of Mr. Bunyan before you read Pilgrim's Progress and learn a little bit about suffering. John Bunyan was the author of Pilgrim's Progress, the second most published book in the world. Read it. He wrote it with his own hand, Imprisonment of Mr. Bunyan. It's found in his works, the works of John Bunyan. Read that. Those of you who have read Pilgrim's Progress, make sure you read Imprisonment of Mr. John Bunyan. You need to learn about suffering. One of the things we do with our kids, you know, we homeschool. When they're about 13, 14 years old, they're done with all the usual stuff. They begin to learn a trade and or, yeah, and I should say, they also read books, books that have had a huge impact on me and Clara presuppositionally, which have formed our worldview. And some of the books we give them to read are books speaking of the suffering that Christian people have gone through, down through the ages. From way back at the earliest of church times, all the way up to the last 50 years. Why? Because we want them to understand suffering is part of the Christian life. Because this form of Christianity in America is awful. and just wants to teach everybody that God is this little genie in the bottle waiting to do exactly whatever you want him to do for you. So understand this. You must resolve yourself to be willing to suffer. And understand suffering is not just getting beheaded. A lot of people think suffering involves martyrdom. Martyrdom can come in different ways, not just you quietly submitting, putting your head down and getting it chopped off. Suffering can also come because you took a stand against evil in a physical way. We're Christian people, we are not violent people. But we understand that there's at times where physical force must be employed to stop evil. And good Christian men have always believed that. Passivism is a heresy, condemned by Christianity for 2,000 years. You can suffer for Christ, and there's times for that, by being beheaded. You can suffer for Christ also at times for taking a physical stance against evil. and there's a time for that. Both are legitimate. My favorite example of it is the Scottish Covenanters. Michael Cameron and those who stood true, Richard Cameron and those who stood true to Christ there in Scotland. How many of you are familiar with the Scottish Covenanters? Raise your hand. Like five, six people out of 200. That's not that great, right? You have to be readers. You need to learn and see that others have suffered before us. Others are suffering greatly right now. We have been skating through it all so far. And who knows how much longer that'll last. You must be willing to take a stand. Yeah, nope, won't put the mask on. Nope, won't put that in my arm. You give in to those things. You make it normal for the next generation after you. Your cowardice affects those who come after you. Evil raises its head. You take a stand against it now. You don't put it off to the next ones, when then it'll be harder to take a stand. You're not to keep your head down and hope they don't notice you. Got your little periscope up, right? Crazy. You speak. You see evil, you speak. Why do we always commend those who spoke? Like Alexander Solzhenitsyn. Why? Why do we do that? Because we know it's right. Because they know they hazarded their lives. They did what was needed and necessary. They didn't just look out for themselves. They knew they had to speak. Richard Wurmbrand, on down through the ages. And so you must speak. You must not just hide and hope they don't notice you. You must resolve to be faithful and true to Christ. You must stand resolute to him and his ways. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Pray for Canada. Pray for our brothers and sisters there. Pray for those over on the other side of the world that are involved in a major conflict now. And as Steve prayed, pray that justice and righteousness prevails. That much we do know, that as a Christian people, we want righteousness and justice to prevail there. Let's stand up and we'll close in a word of prayer. Father, we thank you and we praise you for your goodness to us. We thank you, Father, that you love us. We thank you that we know you. Our lives had no meaning before we knew you, oh Lord. We thank you that we understand now that we live to glorify you and to enjoy you forever. And Lord, I just ask and pray that you give us wisdom in the days ahead and that we do stand resolute to you. that we will not fear man, that we will not allow the fear of man to snare us, but that our trust and love would be to you, that you would give us the strength, the grace to endure the suffering that may come our way, that we will demonstrate an example, exemplify to men our devotion to you, our love for you, that there are things more important than possessions or life. Lord, we give thanks and we give praise to you. And just ask that you'd be glorified to every person sitting here in this congregation, everyone watching. May they resolve in their hearts to do right by you in the days ahead. And may you be glorified. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.