We'll have all of them turned in and ready to go. I showed this to Sunday School. June is Pride Month, right? What the world calls Pride Month. And this is your monthly reading calendar for June. Romans 1, every, every, this is your, read Romans 1 every day in the month of June. And it'll help you on Pride Month, okay? And so, and go look that up and you'll see what I'm talking about. But I, I, I'm pretty certain everybody in here knows, knows what that is there. So anyway, I, I've, I've had an idea. Friends of the family said, this is the problem when a pastor is a sign painter and a sign guy. I've had an idea for a billboard for a long time, but I think it would get our church burned down. And all it was going to say is, God didn't put a rainbow over Sodom and Gomorrah. That's all it was going to say. And so you can think about that too. But let me tell you this in a real serious note, they need Jesus, they absolutely do. I do not believe that anybody can get to the place of a reprobate mind and not be able to come to the saving knowledge of Christ because of what they do. But I don't know when that is and it doesn't mean that every homosexual has come to that place, I don't know. They can be saved, right? Hey listen, homosexuals and non-homosexuals can come to the place of a callous heart against God and come to a place that Romans 1 talks about. I don't know where that is, and I know this, that the gospel works, and they just need Jesus. Absolutely, we just need to keep giving them the gospel. And at the same time, being grounded in what the truth of the Word of God is, and we don't want to compromise from that either. I had a friend up in Springfield, a lady came to the altar at our church in Springfield, A guy, it was a lady had come to the altar and a lady went down to go deal with her as a visitor, first time visitor and went to deal with her and got up and motioned for Brother Mikotish and he came over. It was a man in drag, you know. And he said, boy this was tough because I wanted to have coffee with him. I wanted to share the gospel. I wanted to get him, see him get saved. But if I went to coffee with him, he looks like a woman. Now I'm having coffee with some other woman. He goes, this is a weird day, man. It's a weird day. And it is. But he had a heart for that man to get saved and to figure out a way to continue to get them the gospel. So amen. We ought to be about that. Absolutely. Well, you know, I'm looking at our condition of the world. I'm looking at our church. I'm looking at where our church is at and where we have been, where we are, where we hope to be someday. And moving forward and gaining ground is easy when there's no opposition, right? It's easy to keep the yard nice when the moles aren't in there. How many have had moles in the yard? Oh, I tell you what, I almost got a cat. Because they'll take them, they'll dig up a mole sometimes and actually, anyway. So, it's annoying. I mean you can have, you can do all this work and look really good and then something can come along and absolutely destroy it. But it's when the battles come, I'm thinking about church life, it's easy to move forward when there's no opposition. It's easy to move forward when things are clicking and going well. It's easy to think, man we got this, this is wonderful, when the problems haven't come. But can I remind you this morning that Satan does not rest. And though you might think you have a reprieve, be reminded please that It was the Holy Spirit that saw it necessary to include in the scripture that when Satan left Jesus in the wilderness, he saw it necessary to include that he said that he left him for a season. He returns. Satan always returns, right? And though we might think we're clicking along at a good place, or maybe we think we're not clicking along at a good place in your life, but we know this, if you are, he is going to come back. But it's when the battles come to stop progress, it's when the battles come where character is revealed. It's when the battles come that we decide, we see the character of us individually, where we see our character as a church, whether we are going to continue to move forward or we're going to succumb to the opposition. And we know this. I mean, some of you have been here for years and years. Our church has known good days and it has known bad days. It has known good times when things have been growing, when things have been going forward, when people have been getting saved and people have been getting joined. joining and just expanding, but we've also known what it is to have days, days and days of stagnation and opposition and things like that. We know what that's like. We're very aware of that. But it is in the days of opposition and stagnation that will reveal the character and the resolve of this church right here. Might I remind you, and I told the men yesterday, we're talking about this, there are churches that were far larger than this church, far more expansive in their outreach in this church, churches that I know of, that some of you would know of, that had thousands upon thousands, literally upon thousands of members and the gospel going out in their entire area, that do not exist today that actually were a church for a far shorter period of time than we have been. And the point is this, don't ever think that we can't get there. Don't ever come to the conclusion, well, hey, we're going to, this church here, this light in Nixa, well, I mean, we're at 70 years old this year. Boy, it's just moving on. Don't ever get that idea because opposition can come and things can change and it is in that opposition that we are going to be, that we are watching and seeing what our resolve is, whether we're going to continue to go forward or whether we're going to retreat. And in our text this morning, and there's a lot of ways to retreat, right? We'll look at this later, but there's a lot of ways that churches retreat. It's not that they just close up shop and shut their doors. Sometimes they just retreat in the stands that they take because it's not culturally relevant anymore. Sometimes they retreat by just changing their ideas of what they used to believe and what they thought was Bible truth. to make it easier to attract a crowd. I mean, there's all sorts of ways to retreat, but in our text this morning, I think we're going to find some encouragement and a pattern to follow if we're just going to continue to move forward. It's right here, and I'm excited to look at it. If you remember in Acts 4, back in Acts 3, Peter and John had just gone to the temple. Peter had told that lame man, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, give I thee in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. He had just healed that man. He had ran around the temple. He had leaping and praising God, the Bible says. He's excited about that he has been delivered from his from his health problem and all of his attention and everything that he was speaking out of his mouth was giving attention and glory to God, right? He didn't do like when Paul and Barnabas, when he shook the snake off and they was like, oh, Venus and Neptune, you know, they started worshiping him. And they'd say, no, get up. I mean, we're just men like you are. No, this guy who was healed, he directed the attention not to Peter, not to John, but he directed all of the attention to God. And well, you know what happens, right? The crowd gathered together. We looked at this a few weeks ago. The crowd gathered together. Peter took the opportunity to preach the gospel to the crowd, and we know that 5,000 got saved. But the problem with this is that the ruling class, the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the Sanhedrin, all the spiritual grand pubas that were running the show here in Israel, did not like the competition. We know that. And so they came, and they took Peter and John, and they brought them, and they threw them into prison overnight. And then they brought them out the next day, and they began to question them. Well, if you'll notice here, they have been questioned And in verse 12, Peter gave a response and an answer to them. We looked at this just a few weeks ago. we must be saved. Now notice the observation of verse 13. Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. Oh, that the world would be confounded by the power of God that rests upon your life and my life individually, that the only thing that they could say about us is that, boy, they should have been around that church a while. They've sure been spending a lot of time around that church. They may not say it like these people do, but I hope they would say in one way or the other, boy, I don't understand them, but they sure sound like they've been around Jesus. Boy, that'd be one of the greatest things that the world could say of you. Amen? Amen. Come on, it is. It's a great thing. And this miracle here, they made this great observation. Hey, the rulers couldn't deny the miracle. They couldn't say, oh, that didn't happen. I mean, the guy saw him walking two weeks ago. You know, you liar, he was just faking it. No, they couldn't deny it. They've watched this guy for 40 years. They've been pretty familiar with this guy. And the miracle was verified. They knew who he was. And now he's standing with Peter and John. He's not with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. He's standing over here with Peter and John now. He's acknowledging that, hey, these guys are of God. And they couldn't deny it. And so, if they did to Peter and John what they did to Jesus, there would have been an uproar. They couldn't stand it. So what do you do? Well, you don't deny the miracle. You don't do this. What you do instead is you just tell them to shut up, right? Look at verse 16. It's saying, what shall we do to these men? This is the religious crowd. What shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem. We cannot deny it. They can't deny it. You know what a great thing is? When a person gets saved and they're so radically changed by God that the family and everybody around them say, yeah, we know what they were, we've been around them their whole life, but we can't deny something's happened. Something has changed. Amen. Look at verse 17. But that it spread no further among the people. Why? Should they be glad about this? Well, no. This encroaches upon their power. It encroaches on their authority. It encroaches the hold that they have on the people. "...that it spread no further among the people, let us straightly threaten them, that they speak henceforth no man in his name. And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus." And now, we know what happened, what Peter did. He said, no. Sorry, no. It's not happening. Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye." You figure it out whether I need to respond to God or you. You figure out who I need to obey. He says, "...for we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." No, you're not telling us to stop the stories we've made up. We're not bringing out Joe Smith and saying, okay, just knock off the stories, would you? And the golden the plates and the hat that you looked in and that Italian angel Moroni. Just knock off the stories, Joe, okay? Peter says, you know, we can't deny what we have seen and what we have heard. What have they heard? Well, they were with Jesus for three and a half years. They saw the miracles. They saw the resurrection. They sat with him for 40 days after the resurrection and saw him and listened to him. He said, I can't deny this. That would be insane to deny this. And so they said, we can't do it. We're not going to do it. And neither should you or neither should I. You know how people can deny Jesus? You know how they can refuse to speak of Him? Because I really wonder if they ever met Him. I wonder if they ever saw Him. I wonder if there was a change that ever came about in their life. I wonder if their sin was ever forgiven. We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard. So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing, now they might punish them, because of the people. For all men glorify God for that which was done. So how would that look? Nobody's glorifying Peter and John. Nobody's glorifying the apostles. They're glorifying God, so what are you gonna do? Bring them out and beat them? No, the people would be like, what are you doing? and so they let him go. For the man was about forty years old on whom the miracle of healing was showed." And so here they go. They've been let go. They're going home. And where do they first go in verse 23? They go to the church. They went to their own company. Look at verse 23, it says, And being let go, they went to their own company. Who was their own company? Well, the body, the church, right? Well, how many were there at this time? I don't know how many assembled were at this time, but probably around 8,000 or so. 3,000 got saved at Pentecost. 5,000 were saved here at this meeting. I don't know if they had all showed up here by then or how that all went, but I know this, they went to the church. Yeah. Sometimes it happens. Have you ever had this at the end of soul winning? What do you do sometimes? And sometimes it's been years past, everybody would meet back at the church and they'd talk about how it went. They came back to their company and said, hey, this is what happened. Yeah, yeah, you know, house number 307, yeah, slammed the door. That was a bad one. But house 318 was awesome, right? And they told them what to do. Why would you tell it to the church? Because, I mean, we're all on the same page, hopefully. It's kind of encouraging and exciting. It was what we're supposed to be doing. And they came into their own company. and reported all that the chief priests and the elders had said unto them. And so here they told about the healing, they told about being thrown in jail for the night, they told them about the interrogation, they told them how they were let go, how they didn't back down, right? We cannot but speak. They said, hey, we held our ground. They were going to threaten us. And they said, well, whatever. Do whatever you've got to do. Truth is truth. Amen. So what happened? What did the church do? Look at verse 24. And when they heard that, who's they? What's the company? The company in verse 23. When they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, Thou art God, amen, which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is. Who are they identifying as God? Well, the God of Genesis, the God creator, Jehovah God who made everything. This is not Allah. This is not any other God. This is not the Greek God. This is the one true living God who they are acknowledging as God. And look at this was an audible prayer. Now did they all, did all however many thousand were here gathered together at this church service, were they all praying out loud? I kind of probably don't think so, but I know this, maybe they were, maybe they weren't. I know somebody was praying audibly, watch this, and they were in such unity, they were in such unity as a body that it could say that the body they were praying, they were praying, unity. They were on the same page. Do you know this is vitally important in the prayer life of a church? that the church is on the same page of what we're praying about. Matthew 18, he's speaking of authority and power and unity in the church. In Matthew 18, in verse 19, he says this, again, I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything, they shall ask if they, it shall be done for them of my Father, which is in heaven, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. He's speaking about prayer and the unity of prayer. He is, oh, time out, time out, this doesn't count, okay? He is not talking about, well, I'm going to get two and three people together out in the woods and this is a church. No, that's not what he's talking about whatsoever. He's talking about coming together in the agreement and the power of unity and prayer. And Jesus says, if two or three of you agree on earth, if two of you agree on earth, touching anything that they ask, my Father will do it for you. Do you believe that? That's pretty huge. You know, I've had times in my young Christian life, my prayer life, where I've opened the Bible and I've said, it said something like this and I've said, God, this is either true or you're a liar or I'm missing something. It's either true or it's not. And I brought petitions before God based on the Bible and I'm telling you, I've watched God one after the other, right? Answer in His time and they come through. It's either true or it's not. He said, if you'll agree, if you'll agree, we're talking about unity here. for where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them. You know what is going on here at Antioch? After the opposition, after Satan would have loved for the church to dissemble, after Satan would have loved it for the church to go away there at Jerusalem, you know what happened? They came together in unity, they were on the same page, and they began in one voice, in one heart, to address God and to spend a little bit of time in a prayer meeting. They ended the event in a prayer meeting. That's what they're doing. Look at verse 24. Let me back up real quickly. So they're on the same page. But they're on the same page because there's a reality that they see, there's an understanding that they have. Over in 1 Chronicles, the Bible talks about the men of Issachar, and the Bible says that the men of Issachar had an understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. I'm telling you, at times in the day and age that we're living in here today, I'm struggling at times with an understanding of what to do. Sometimes I think, Lord, we need some men of Issachar to come along to give us an understanding. have an understanding of the times so that they know what we ought to do. Well, we know what we ought to do to preach the gospel, amen? But there's some peripheral things that, I tell you what, we kind of go, Lord, what about this? This is new. What are we doing? How do we do this, right? If you'll listen closely to the prayer at this church at Antioch, we can see that the church had an understanding of the times that they were living in, right? Look at verse 24. And when they had heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, thou art God which has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is, who by the mouth of thy servant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage? And the people imagined a vain thing, the kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His anointed, against His Christ. They're quoting Psalm 2, saying, let us break their bands of sutter, let us cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, the Lord shall have him in derision. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion, God said there. They're quoting this passage here in Psalm 2. Why? Why did they quote Psalm 2? Well, they had an understanding of the times. They had an understanding of, watch, here's the word again, don't miss this, opposition. They had an understanding that the kings of the earth don't want the church to exist. That the rulers of Israel, that were ruling at the time, did not want the church to exist. And listen, it hasn't changed today. Nixo would be just fine if this church went away. Nixo would be as happy as a lark. right? If this light went out, if the other lights around our area went out, they wouldn't miss a beat, they'd probably have a parade, right? They would love it. Finally, finally, there's not going to be stuff left on our door. Finally, there's not going to be people knocking on Saturday morning. I think Brother Earl heard a few weeks back, came up to a guy on a mower. The guy was on the mower and the other neighbor was talking to him. Obviously, it's loud, so he probably didn't realize how loud he was talking. And he said, watch out, they're in the neighborhood. Don't let them in. Don't open your door, something like that. Something to that effect. Oh, you know what I've realized a long time ago? Is that I think you get to one door and they're probably on texting the neighbors pretty quick. They're coming, they're coming. Yes we are. I think the world would be fine without it. They would love it if we were gone. I think so. This church at Antioch, I mean this church at Jerusalem, they understood this. That's why they quoted Psalm 2. The rulers of this world, the kings of this world would love to be done and gone away with us. 53 days earlier, maybe 54 now at this point, they just tried to get rid of Jesus. That didn't work. He came back. Amen. Are we awake today? Come on. You saved? You good? You going to heaven? You happy? Try not to put you to sleep, all right? Paul wrote Timothy over 2 Timothy. Yea, all those that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. He's warned us. See, this church in Jerusalem, they had an understanding of the times. They had an understanding of the enemy. They had an understanding of the danger. They understood the reality of their situation, which was opposition. Opposition. But notice what they prayed for. Notice what they prayed for. They didn't pray for deliverance. They didn't pray for vengeance. They weren't praying for the sick. Look at verse 29. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings. Oh, he's getting ready to ask them to just, like David, knock their teeth out. Crack their jaw and bust out their teeth. Nope, not what they're asking. Look what it said. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word. Not deliverance, not vengeance. We're not praying for the sick here. What are they asking? The church in unity, in unison, is asking God to give the apostles boldness so they can keep preaching the gospel. Why? Because that's what works. That's where the power of God is. Amen? There's going to be opposition. There's going to be persecution. They said, hey, we know this, the church is saying. We just want proof that this is of Jesus and we just want proof that we have the boldness to preach, right? We just want to preach. Tell you what, that's a prayer God will answer. Amen. Verse 30, "...by stretching out thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done, and by the name of thy holy child Jesus." And when they had prayed, notice this, even though they were praying for the apostles, this manifestation of the presence and the power of God was experienced by everybody that was there. Everybody got to see it. Everybody did. When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they all spake the word of God with boldness." The place shook. Do you believe it really shook physically? I kind of do. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Wow. They were indwelt already, but boy, they were infilled. What's the infilling for? For service. Why were they filled with the Holy Ghost? Because they just asked for power and the ability to get out to preach and to minister to the world that is against them. Listen, they wanted to combat the opposition with the Gospel. And God made it known unto them, oh yeah, Yep, I'm all for this. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they were all able to do exactly what they asked for, to preach with boldness. You know, I don't think we see much of this anymore. See, physical shakings, well, we can throw that out, fine. But just the manifestation of the power of God on a place. Because I don't believe there's unity. I don't think there's unity in the average church of really wanting to see the gospel go out. Sorry. No, we just get too preoccupied. It sounds great. Oh, I want to see this place filled. What are you doing? Oh, I want to see this. What are you doing? You're the church. Amen? You remember? You're a part of the body, right? You're a finger, you're a toe, you're a nose, you're an ear, right? You're a brain, whatever. You're it. What are you doing? I wonder sometimes. You say, well, I just wish it could be like it used to be. Well, maybe it was like it used to be because all of the church was on fire and had a desire for the gospel to go out. Not, well, this will be over and I can get to lunch. I'm telling you, man, we're just in a bad spot. Sometimes I feel like Moses. I'm like, what is wrong with you? Then I look in the mirror, I'm like, what is wrong with me? Come on. Listen, we're like Laodicea, man. We're rich. We have increased with goods. We have need of nothing. Who cares? We're going to heaven. That is wicked. That is a wicked heart. Well, it's just getting so hard. You think it wasn't hard here? Right? Where the ruling class was against you? Absolutely. It absolutely was. Don't ever underestimate the power of a united praying church. Listen, if this doesn't motivate you or excite you or convict you, get your heart right with God today because there's something wrong in you. Well, that went over well. Look at verse 32. The multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul, neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common." Why? Well, they got kicked out of the temple. They lost their living, they lost everything. They lost everything to serve Christ. And I'm talking, we don't understand this. They lost everything. This is what a New Testament church looks like. It's a praying church. It's a preaching church. It's a persecuted church. It's a unified church. Man, it's a church that has the power of God on it. So how did they get here? Well, when the enemy hit them, they knew it was coming. When the opposition was coming, they knew it was coming. And instead of shutting their mouths in fear, They explained, well, we can't stop preaching. Why? Well, we have another commander that we answer to. We answer to the lover of our soul. Well, that's, I'd rather, could you imagine if you had a choice to answer to just some dictator or the lover of your soul? We get to answer to the lover of our soul. We get to answer to the one that died for us, that rescued us, that sought us out and hunted us down and brought us in. Amen. Yeah. We can't change. What was the power of their success? What was the reason that God manifests himself in such a way? How did this happen in this church that they had such unity in the body? Well, they came all, listen, they all had a unity in one thing. Let me say this, no retreat. they weren't going to retreat. They're going to move forward. The power of the Holy Spirit would not have been available if they had retreated. They would have not seen the manifestation of God if they had retreated. The boldness to preach would not have been given to them and been available to them if they had retreated. The power of unity would not have been present if they had retreated. I think one of the things in the average church, in the average independent Baptist church today that we fight is a unity on moving forward, of gaining ground, of seeing the gospel get out. Listen, you know your own heart. When something gets mentioned, it's like, well, I mean, you're not going to say it verbally, right? But we've all been there. It's like, whatever, whatever, you know, that's good for you. I've got stuff going on, right? Too busy for church, too busy to assemble with the body. I've got this, I've got that, I've got this. I'll catch it on live stream later. Some days I hate live stream. I'm so thankful for the benefit it is to some people. I'm so thankful for that, but sometimes I wonder. Would you listen closely? Armies don't win when they retreat. and neither do churches. Neither do churches. That's what's going on here in Acts chapter 4. They are refusing to back down. They're refusing to give up ground. And the evident approval of God was manifest, watch this, after, after they determined to go forward, not before. They didn't go, oh wow, that helped me out, I got a sign from God, let's move forward. They said, whatever, sign or no sign, whatever, we have a relationship with the living God and He's given us a command and we want all the world to know this and we're just going to go out and we just want boldness to preach God, give us boldness God, give us boldness God. Yeah, we got boldness, amen. See, when churches cease to move forward, they lose their power. They lose their power. I'm sad to say all over America, Independent Baptist churches have retreated from the battle. They absolutely have. You say, well, how do churches retreat? How do they retreat or when do they retreat? Well, they retreat when you retreat and I retreat. And you retreat, and you, and you, and you, and you. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Over here. Sorry. It's a little heavy on this side. And I'll point my, wag my finger over here, too. Yeah. How do churches retreat? Well, when the members retreat. Because you're the church, right? Yeah. We don't show up someday and the building's back closer to the road. It's like, uh-oh, we're retreating. We better push the building back. Right? No. It's you. It's me. Let me give you a fact here. Five to 10,000 churches close every year. They say something like 3,000 start, number three, 4,000, somewhere around there. Here's the fact in the United States of America, and I'm not gonna divide this down. They don't give you the breakdown of what churches, because can I be honest? Some of these I'd say good, because they weren't churches. But we do know solid Bible-believing churches. are closing every year. Lights are going out all over. Ministries are stopping. I have a friend in another state out in the West who stopped their bus program. Why? Well, insurance is too high. Who, pray tell, is your God? I can't fathom that. that understanding. I understand when you just don't have the ability or the facilities or whatever at the time, but to have the attitude that something is too expensive or too much of a liability, come on. Right? Go join the Peace Corps or something. Right? I mean, come on. Retreat. Churches are retreating. I was checking out at Bass Pro. My work boots were gone. And I'm like Mike, I hate buying shoes, right? And went up there to buy a pair of boots. And the girl checking out, young girl, she was said something about, said she lived there in town and was from another town to the east of us, but came here to go to Baptist Bible College. I was like, oh, really? I said, I was there about 30 some years ago. And really? Was that back when they had to wear suits? I said, yes, we had to wear a suit and a tie every day. And I said, you had to go soul winning every Saturday. And your pastor had to sign off that you went soul winning with the church and you had to have all of that. She's like, really? I'm like, yes. And I didn't even get into all of the other things they had to do. Right. And I'm telling you, things are changing. And I remember when they started saying, well, you don't have to necessarily go door knocking. If you make contacts at work, we'll count that as well. Boy, you wouldn't believe the contacts kids made at work. I mean, they love that. Like, oh, yeah, I made 34 contacts. What'd you do? I said, hey, I go to Bible college. I go to church. There's contact. I mean, I'm telling you, I heard them. You'd hear them talk about it. What happened? Then that goes away. Right? What do we have? Retreat. Retreat. And then we, watch, then we wring our hands at how bad our cities are. Well, maybe if you hadn't retreated with the gospel, it wouldn't have been so bad. Right? You know what we need today? It's, yeah, it's time to go. What we need today is for every member of the church to decide today Everyone in here, you're going to have to decide today. Are you going to retreat? Are you going to retreat? What we need is everybody, every member of Crimson Avenue Baptist Church. We need every member to decide and put a stake in the ground today. Find a place and an altar today and put a stake in the ground. I'm not going to retreat. I'm not retreating. By the grace of God and the help of God, we're just going to keep doing what we've been told to do. This is what we need. This is what we need. We need people to come out and just to put it down and etch it in stone and say, just tell the Lord with your help, I'm not going to go to the world like Demas. I'm not going to change my stand on the Bible. I'm not going to shut my mouth from preaching. I'm not going to stop crying out to God in prayer. I don't think we cry out to God enough in prayer. We have our little mechanical list and they're wonderful, don't get me wrong, but sometimes there's something about just a heart that is just crying out to God for things. We just need people to say, God, I'm not going to stop studying the Word and be equipped with the Word and to know You better and to abide in You deeper. No, we just need everybody, everybody in the church to be in unity by saying today and from this day on by the grace of God, I'm going to put a stake in the ground and I'm not retreating. I don't care what anybody else does. We are just going to go forward. Who would do it? Who would do that? That's what we need. Father, we don't win battles when we retreat. Battles are only won when we move forward. And so Father, we come to you this morning acknowledging the day that we live in, acknowledging that the world would be fine without us, acknowledging that they would probably celebrate in some way or the other if we went away. But Lord, you have put upon us the onus of the gospel. And you have equipped us and empowered us. And Lord, we just need to, we know the attacks are real and they get to us and it's exhausting at times. And it's easy to just drift away. It's easy to miss a service here and not come here and find something more important here or not talk to this person. I mean, we can just go down. It's easier to do all of these things, but Lord, I don't know about you, anybody else in this room, but I don't want to retreat. Lord, we need your power. We need your presence. So God, I pray today that the church would come into unity and just tell you today, with your help, we're not going to retreat. We're just going to move forward. We're not going to slip from what we believe. We're not going to back away from the way you want us to live. We're not going to walk away from the Bible and the Word of God. We're just not going to do this. We're just going to stay here. God, would you help us do that? In Jesus' name. Amen. You can stand, please. The invitation is open. People are praying. However the Lord has spoken to you, maybe we'd have some people that would just get along with the Lord and just say, tell you what, Father, would you help me? But I'm not going to move. I don't want to move. I don't want to move. I just want to be right. I don't want to retreat. I don't want to retreat. I just want to move forward. Some of the opposition that we have isn't all from the world, you know. Some of the opposition is internal. Some of the opposition is from family. Some of the hardest opposition.