To See Thy Power

Board's done and what you've just seen has to take some time

to probably to sink into your mind totally outside of the box

and the opportunity to there are about 400 and something 1000

people in the country, but we've literally can give the gospel to

every family. This is this is what we're

dealing with fulfilling the Great Commission.

All right so we get into Psalm 63.

What a what a passage of Scripture.

It's, it's I hope that you are blessed by this.

When I was saved at 11, I was given a book to read or

purchased a book to read on the power of the Holy Spirit and the

Lord. I didn't know what he was doing,

but was leading me in a life of directing the spiritual life

that we have, that God created breathed into us a second time

at our new birth, the salvation of our soul.

And that directing that into an emphasis of a personal

relationship with Christ and not a list of things that we do just

because we think we ought to do them and avoiding things that we

think we ought to avoid. It comes down to a relationship

with Christ. And I got serious about the

things of the Lord a couple years later, real serious.

And and within by the time I was 14, the Lord called me to

preach. And I came across this Psalm as

I was reading through Psalms real quick after that point and

memorized it and it kept me where I needed to be all through

high school and seeking after the Lord.

So let's read, if you will, this, and then we'll get into

really our presentation. And if you want to load that

presentation, it's ready. It goes along at the same time

simultaneously. Let's read this Psalm.

O God, thou art my God, early will I seek thee.

My soul thirsteth for thee. My flesh longeth for Thee in a

dry and thirsty land, where no water is to see Thy power and

Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary.

Because Thy loving kindness is better than life.

My lips shall praise Thee. Thus will I bless Thee.

While I live, I will lift up my hands in Thy name.

My soul shall be satisfied as with Morrow and fatness in my

mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips, When I remember

Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches,

because Thou hast been my help. Therefore in the shadow of Thy

wings will I rejoice. My soul fall with heart after

Thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me.

But those that seek my soul to destroy it shall go into the

lower parts of the earth. They shall fall by the sword.

They shall be apportioned for foxes.

But the King David says here, that's him speaking, he's

talking about himself shall rejoice in God.

Everyone that sweareth by his name shall glory, but the mouth

of them that speak lies shall be stopped.

Let's have word of prayer. Father, I pray that you please

bless this time together and use this Lord not only to get across

the needs of Chicago and but we want to glorify your name and

what you've done and thank you and we'll praise you in Jesus

name, Amen, Amen. This says, oh God, I recently

heard a pastor say we need to return the OS to our prayers.

We say a lot of things like God, I need this Lord right now and

you better hurry because I'm in a hurry.

I mean, we come to God and approach him in such a casual

nature. And instead we need to put back

these OS and say, get on our knees and say, oh God, I need

this. Oh God, I have a need.

I have a need. And the need is internal.

It's an internal need. He says thou art my God, so he'd

better be your God, and not just the God of your parents or the

God that is abstract, but he is my God, my friend, the knowledge

that I have a relationship with him.

And he says early will I seek thee?

We ought to seek. Him early in our lives to seek

the Lord. He says to seek the Creator in

the days of our youth, but to seek Him early in our

experiences. If you get saved, it ought to

turn your heart to seek a pursuit of God through the rest

of your life and seek him early in your ministry, early in your

family, to dedicate your children as God gives you

children to bring them and seek God to say these are not my

children but yours, and to seek the Lord in the morning, early

in the day, so that the rest of the day belongs to Him.

He says, early will I seek thee? My soul thirsteth for thee.

So Christianity really should be summarized not not just in the

theology of our doctrine, but it ought to be in the the

experience of a Christian could be summarized in those words.

I thirst for God. When our Christianity becomes

something else like I seek to please man as the verse we

talked about today, seeking to fit in with the church and what

they require, seeking to follow some kind of leader, we have

wavered from the fact that Christianity can be summarized

just in those words. My soul thirsteth for thee.

Do you thirst after God? Can you describe your prayer

life as being thirsty for him? Is your Bible reading seeking

for him in the pages of Scripture?

Is your so many efforts done for duty or is it something you're

doing because you're seeking after God and his will and, and,

and proclaiming him to the others around you that they

might know him as you do? My soul thirsteth for thee now.

This is incredible. My flesh longeth for thee now.

The New Testament begins a, a, a picture of our body, our flesh,

referring to our carnal nature. And this is not that because our

carnal nature is never going to be improved.

God's answer to carnality and the carnal flesh is to kill it.

He said crucified the flesh and so we're not on a flesh self

improvement course, we're on a flesh killing course.

OK, that we're supposed to die to self and to put on the new

man Amen. But this is referring to our

physical body in the Old Testament that our physical body

think about this can long after God and think about this.

This means that throughout the day, not only should I want God

in my soul, but they were going through our day saying, you know

what, I really wish I were back on my knees with the Lord Jesus.

I wish that my and even my body desires to be in that place of

fellowship with the Lord. What a difference this

Christianity would be and how it would impact this world in such

a greater way if our Christianity was from the source

of our prayer closets emanating into the rest of our lives

rather than just coming from maybe the preacher preaching.

Thus you should do to please and be a good, good little

Christian. It ought to come and flow from a

heart that is totally on fire, or we need revival in a dry and

thirsty land where no water is. We live in that kind of country

and I'm going to tell you, I've lived in another country and

believes and it needs the gospel.

Back in the 60s and 50s and beyond the, the, the Moody Bible

types had planted the gospel. And so there's gospel chapels

all around Belize and, and they've even gone into the

villages and not just the cities, but friend, it didn't

last. Their ecclesiology not being

right, they, they found the replacements for the pastors as

they died off. When I moved there, some of the

old pastors were still there and they were retiring or dying and

they went off to other churches of charismatic style to find the

replacements and and friend. Now the gospel is watered down

with no eternal security in that country and it is time to really

to seriously re evangelize the country for the Lord.

But so is America. America has fallen from its

Bible roots and it has gone its own way.

And Christians, we need to re evangelize our entire country.

Notice verse #2 and it's the title at the top of your hand

out it says to see thy power and Thy glory.

So as I have seen thee in the sanctuary, David had been down

to the sanctuary, to the Tabernacle.

It was his Son who built the temple, remember?

And so he had a Tabernacle to go to.

And there he had first hand witness the presence of God, His

glory manifest. He had heard as was gifted to

him the ability to to be inspired to write the scriptures

that we have very an example, this very one we're reading.

And so in a very unique way, he saw the power and the glory of

God. If you write down in your notes,

fill out the first word, it's the past.

We have seen the reality of God, not just talking about him, but

it's a it's something you know to be true.

And I'm afraid of what's happened in Christianity is a

strong disconnect between what we are saying and what the

children are watching in the home and experiencing in their

lives. Like promises that we put on

plaques and hang on a wall like my God shall supply all your

need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus.

But yet Christians, when they really come to a crisis

financially, often they are not running to God in prayer.

They are running to their credit card to solve their problems.

And there's a disconnect between kids who are raised in a

Christian home who never know what it is to see the power of

God demonstrated. And that disconnect has lost a

generation, at least of our Christianity, and has set them

to say, oh, there's those blowhard pastors who preach loud

messages, but they're empty of the power of God.

And the fact is that there is the power.

I've seen it. I've watched God do some great

things, and I'm here to tell you that it's very real.

In spite of the problem of Christians living in that

disconnected way, God is still God.

In the House of God you can see the great power of God.

Debbie and I started in our ministry there at Fair Haven

Baptist Church and I was hired on staff in 1994, stayed on

staff until 2012. And the Lord did some among the

many things that we did there. And you wear a lot of hats as an

assistant pastor. I was Debbie's dad's assistant

pastor for 18 years. And but my favorite ministry was

there in the bus ministry. And I put this on there so you

can see that Once Upon a time I had hair and enough hair and I

was skinny. But your pastor and and and

brother Brian and their dad is here would remember the days

when God did some wonderful things.

And I'm going to tell you that going out and bringing people to

church on these buses wasn't just here.

Here's a piece of gum if you come to church, but it came from

praying. Oh God do something.

And after a while we started to see people rescued off the bus

ministry and families coming in and getting saved and, and then

a lot of times I'd have to do their wedding.

I've done a lot of weddings and I was in charge of the senior

ministry. So I did a lot of Wendy's and a

lot of funerals over those years and, and, but saw God work on

people's hearts. And you know your pastor with me

a lot of times he started out young with me and going out

there and, and, and knocking on doors and seeing prostitutes

come to Jesus and clean their lives up, watching drug addicts

get clean, watching and, and in the middle of it, seeing a lot

of disappointment at the same time, but knowing what it is in

the ministry to stay at it and watch God.

So what I can tell you is that God wants people to be saved and

he wants people's lives to change.

And I've seen it and I've experienced it.

And as he got older, and his brother.

Was with us. There in in that city and my

children started to replace them as my partners.

And so my children were raised going into homes and, and seeing

things like the way that sin destroys people's lives.

And it was a constant appearance to them and what happens and

speaking to them of the effects of sin.

Hey, I saw the power of God do some things.

And then God moved us to Belize, as pastor pointed out, and we

started the church there and pastor talked this morning about

starting this church and, and having a special event and all

of those things and nobody came. And we got there on Wednesday

and started the church on Sunday night.

I mean they speak English. So, you know, I didn't have to

go to language school. I already kind of know that

language a little bit and. So I remember that night, I, I

went out front and I was pacing out front of the property

saying, Lord, I, I don't think I would come to hear me preach,

but I, I really appreciate it if you send somebody and five

people came. And so with our five and then we

had 10 and three of them received the Lord as their

Savior. And then the next Sunday morning

when we had our first Sunday morning service, we actually had

a mom and a dad and three kids come.

And you know, I know that feeling, you know, like, man,

this is great. It's a real family.

Amen. And you know, I preach

salvation. And that 13 year old came

forward to be saved and I took him over with my Bible into the

other room, sat down and started to show him how to get saved.

And his dad, very shy man, came in and said, I think I belong in

here too. And the both of them got.

Saved that day. And you know what?

They became faithful immediately.

Sunday morning, Sunday night, midweek service and you know,

God began to if you don't come, you can't have God work on your

heart, you're missing out. And but because they were

faithful. Six years later, he became the

pastor of this church and only God can do that.

A grand opening we had. We had 78 Belgians come.

Twelve of them came forward. I think more came forward, but

12 got saved that day. And most the unique thing is

most of these people are either still in that church.

I know where they are or they've passed away.

And you know, this is an amazing what God did.

Again, I've seen God, I don't have anything in me that can

start a church. Somebody has said, well pastor,

you've started 2 very successful churches so you know what you're

doing. Listen, the only thing I know

how to do is say God, I don't know what I'm doing.

I need your help and I need God to empower.

But I've seen it. I've seen it and my children

have seen it. And because they've seen it,

they know that God is real. He's real to meet your needs.

Every promise in the Bible he will fulfill if we meet his

conditions. And there we began to do things

like you do, baptize. We baptize there in the ocean,

right out there. And for four years we baptized

in the same place. So they put up a sign, said no

swimming crocodiles, you know, and we never saw a crocodile

there until after they put the sign there.

And one time I was baptizing in a dolphin swim right by.

At least we think it was a dolphin.

Anyway, then this is the first vacation Bible school was after

three months of the church, we reached 100, the church service

after that. And then we taught them how to

go. So winning door to door

visitation. Very important thing.

We bought buses. They're the short buses.

They're they're very good. I use these in Pocatello too.

I love those, those buses they because in the city you can drop

by and drop off if you're all over full and then go back and

get more, you know, you're not that far.

And, and I bought that big bus at the beginning And then the

guys I was training to drive kept bumping into other people's

cars. And so I, I got tired of paying

for the repairs and got those smaller buses and they did fine.

So and nursing home service and our Bible institute there,

they're very good students. Worked hard and you know, I, I,

I taught at the Bible college there at fair.

Haven and taught the same courses that I taught there.

I taught them music is always. Part of a church.

You have outstanding music. I do not know a church that I've

been to and I've been into a lot of churches and.

I'm talking in my, my ministry now, I've been in ministry for

this is my 32nd year of ministry and I've been in probably 300

churches across the country. And, and to be honest, I've

never seen a Church of this size with music like you all have.

You have been blessed and it's important part, you know, of our

ministry. Music is part of that.

And, and then the Blanco family, God worked on their hearts.

I, I, I told the, I told some of the men, I said, the Lord's

calling me back to start a church in the United States.

And Pastor Blanco said, the Lord's been working on my heart.

How do you know when you're called to preach?

Now only God can work on people like this.

He's not the personality. I mean, he's his, he has a

college degree, but it's in agriculture.

And, and, and so, you know, he, he said, pastor, how do you

know? I said, well, I'll tell you how

you know, the, what it feels like is you find out, you know,

you have to preach or you can't still be right with God, which

requires a prayer life. You know, you have to pray in a

way that you're really getting a hold of God.

And then you know, God wants you to do something and you know,

you can't get away from it because he's pursuing you.

And I've been there and he came back after fasting and prayer

and said, I believe God's called me to preach.

And I said, well, that doesn't mean you should pastor our

church. Maybe you should start another

one. I said, because it's going to be

hard. And he has gone through some

hard things. So he went and fasted and prayed

again. And he came back and he said,

you know, Pastor, I'm afraid of failure.

He's just being honest. I mean, aren't we all afraid of

failure? But he said this, He said I'm

afraid of God more now that is an honest, transparent man.

They're very unusual people. I've never had them once ask me

for anything. I have to ask them what do they

need? I'll call them and I'll say in

conversation, how are you doing? Do you have everything you need?

And they'll say, Pastor, you taught us that if we need

something, we go to God in. Prayer.

I have to go there to find out what they're missing.

Last. Last February, I was sitting

there in their kitchen and they're serving us a meal.

And I look up and they on a little table, they got a

refrigerator like what you have in your hotel room, about that

little tiny size. And they're running a whole

ministry. Off of it.

And I said, where's your refrigerator?

They said, pass through it, don't finish now.

That means it can't be fixed anymore.

They had to throw it away and we bought them another

refrigerator. But the point I'm making is

that. That they're very unusual people

that would never, ever ask for anything.

And I praise God for them. And God made him unanimously.

They voted him and is their next pastor and now?

He has been the pastor there longer than I was their pastor

because we've passed that. Point and then the Lord.

Called us out West to the mountains.

And in a city, a little town, maybe 100,000 in the total

outreach area, and it has these small mountains on both sides of

it with a valley. The bottom of the valley is at

4500 feet above sea level. And you know the, it is, it is

the home of the university there, right there on the right.

You can see the football, the stadium there.

And it is Idaho State University.

All, all three of my kids graduated with a degree from

there of some kind. And in 2018 we started the

Mountain Valley Baptist Church and we did it in a city that's

75% Mormon. They even build a temple there.

And but I'm going to tell you something.

God will save Mormons. You know, it's a, it's a simple

process, but it is a process. But God has to be involved.

You have to have a prayer life to see a Mormon saved.

God has to work on their hearts and God has done just that.

We started with the grand opening in 2018 and we had 1100

square feet. I don't know what.

That would look like, but it was 50 people crammed in that little

room and my son is teaching. That's Ezekiel teaching the

Sunday school class. And it was so close to the

morning service where they were that the Sunday school class had

to be whispered. They had to whisper, kind of

like your vacation Bible school was that one day.

And then as quickly as I can tell you this story, I was out

knocking on doors when the church was about 2 1/2 years

old. And I was in an apartment

complex, a rundown apartment, not, not well taken care of.

And so the doors weren't really marked really well.

And I accidentally knocked on the maintenance room, the boiler

room, and the landlord was in there.

And he opened the door and I said, oh, I'm sorry because I

thought he was Mormon and going to kick me out of there.

And so I said, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you.

He said, no, I'm a Christian. I want to know what you're

doing. And he said, I used to go to the

Presbyterian Church before they quit preaching the gospel.

And I, I know they're about to dissolve or do something like

that. And he said my son-in-law who

was with him, he said he's a real estate agent and you know,

he, you too should get together and see if you can get that

building for your church. Well, I got excited about that.

I mean, the church planners, we, we look around at every

building. I was telling pastor, you know,

we, you get into this mindset in an area, you sit down in a

coffee shop and you say, I wonder if this would make a good

church building. That's just the mindset of a

church planner. My dad planted a church.

I know he was a policeman and then a preacher and he planted a

church when I was 8. And he turned a gas station into

our church building. And so, you know, I know that

that gets into our head. So I left there really excited

after exchanging information with Chris and went down to the

building and I walked around this building and, you know, my

head was like this, wow, wow. Like this got to be 18,000

square feet and it's got to be worth millions.

We had just. Started a building fund and we

had gotten it up to the whopping sum of $4500 and the next year

I'd already picked the theme was so built with the walls.

We're going to preach through Nehemiah and I thought, well

we'll save up a couple, maybe 25,000 and buy a piece of land

and start paying on. It and start you know maybe 15

years from now we'll build a building and.

You know, so I walked around this building, looked at it, was

intimidated, had a good laugh, and I drove away and forgot

about it. A lot of faith in me, right?

There's not. I am not.

I am not a man. Of great faith.

But I have a God of great faith and you can trust in him.

About a month later, Chris called me and said it's on a

pocket listing and we want you to come and see it.

I said, man, I'd love to see it. It's a beautiful building.

So Debbie and I went over there, we went on this tour.

I was wrong. It's not 18,000.

It was 22,000 square feet and and I know it's worth millions.

We have to, we have to insure. It for four point. 3,000,000

today and so I know it's expensive and I got through this

whole thing and got down to the third row.

I was sitting in the third row of the church auditorium and

seat about 300 people and Debbie was in the back with a real

estate agent and his wife. And I was just looking around

and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said you better pursue this.

This is what I want. Now the Holy Spirit doesn't tell

me everything to do like he didn't tell me what tie to.

Wear, but there's times when your pastor is going to hear

from God. And he's going to have a

something to do that you're going to say that doesn't make

sense, but God told him to do it.

Our church was really on Sunday morning we'd have about 50

people maybe in church. But Sunday night we'd have

really 3035 people. And you know, I brought on

Saturday, I told the church on the midweek service.

And then Saturday we brought all 35 people.

Over to the. Building and we're walking

around the building and I could hear the men.

I was walking behind the men, you know, I'm wondering what are

they thinking? And I could hear them because

they're saying, why do we need a building this big?

How are we going to ever afford this?

There's no way we're going to be able to do this.

And. You know, I kind of agreed.

With them in in, in truth, but God had spoken to my heart.

We got all the way done with the tour and we got down to the

auditorium and I really, my motive was I wanted to see what

35 voices sounded like in that 300 seat auditorium.

And so we borrowed their piano and we found even in their

liberal Psalm books they still had it as well with my soul.

And we sang all four verses and at the end of those 4 verses all

the ladies were crying and all the men were pretending not to

and God had touched their hearts.

The next night. I asked.

For a vote. They the asking price was only a

little bit over half a million, but when you only have $4500,

that might as well be billions. And I told the church, I said

I'm going to, I'm going to, I got a little plan if we could

put together this much from within the church.

And they did. They sacrificed, put together

$35,000, only 35 people. And I said, I'll sell my house

and move into the apartment that's in there.

We'll give the house to the church and try to get 50,000

from there. And I'll write, I'll write a

note to my supporting churches, but I need the church to vote.

And they voted unanimously to follow.

And that night, so think about that, what God can do if people

will just get a hold of the vision that as, as as we said

tonight, if you get a hold of the vision that your pastor has

and get behind it. I called the real estate agent

the next morning and he accepted.

They accepted the bid. I offered $150,000 down.

I asked them to hold the mortgage for 10 years.

I'd never heard of anybody doing that before, but they accepted

that the price was half $1,000,000.

And I asked them to come down. They came down like $5000.

Yay. And And so I, you know, I, I, I

decided. Well, I better.

Write my supporting churches. So I had an e-mail.

With just like. Four or five pictures I said,

here's a building, an opportunity, been well cared for

and I can get it, but I need some help.

Maybe you'd pray and the Lord had laid on your heart to give

us an extra love offering. And I wrote 5 emails that came

out and told my wife, I just can't keep this up.

I said I can't. This is these men all have their

own buildings. They're all projects and my

wife's always trying to encourage my melancholy spirit.

And it's just then one of the pastors and he was from brother

Bishop over here in Alexandria. He wrote me an e-mail back and

said, brother, we have $10,000 to give your church.

And I shouted really loud and went back in my little office,

which was in my closet, and I wrote 50 more emails and for 12

weeks, because it's 12 weeks later that we had the the

deadline for buying, putting the paying for that $150,000.

And for 12 weeks, I can only explain it as if God just opened

the windows of heaven almost every day.

I was texting all our people. You know, I'd start texting

somebody called, they got $1000 for the building and I'd get all

these texts back. And I was texting And then

before I got done texting everybody, somebody else had

call. They didn't tell me afterwards.

I could all the way at the end they said, you know what group

texting is? I had no idea.

So I I could have gotten saved a lot of time, but with with one

church after another church. Even think about this, even the

Blancos found $1000 which is a huge sacrifice.

And over the course of 12 weeks there were amazing things.

I can summarize it by saying even people that I know didn't

like me gave money. To the church.

And at the end of that we had not just 150,000, we had

$374,000 in cash and we put 250,000 on the building and

moved into the building. I'll show you some pictures.

We had the 3rd anniversary of the church as a building

dedication. Had 194 people in church that

day. And then then in October of that

year we went full time. We told our supporting churches

you were supporting us. And I'd I'd sent that letter

out. We went independent.

And in December I was opening up the church building 1 Sunday

morning walking around the church and I forgot to open the

mail from Friday and I found a letter and it opened it up and

it was an anonymous check for a quarter $1,000,000 more to pay

off all of the mortgage. We were able to fix the roof and

and The thing is totally debt free.

Let me show you some pictures of it what you're seeing.

On the right is our library. The left is our Chapel room.

That's where I teach the Bible institute and our main kitchen.

There are 4 kitchens in the building.

And on the left is the lunch room.

We have vacation Bible school. This is the auditorium on the

day we had 190. 4. And by the way, they had last

Sunday a special day and had 203 new record in the church last

Sunday had about 12 people walk the aisle to be saved and five

of them seemed ready and got saved.

And it's amazing what God has done the the pipe organ in that

building is worth much more than we paid for the building 12150

pipes. And it's a kind of organ that

when you play it, it rattles the floor when you're playing it.

It's amazing that the nicest building in that, probably that

whole, that region, maybe the whole state belongs to a Bible

preaching separated Baptist Church.

I've seen God do some things. I rejoice in that.

Notice our second point in verse #3 because thy loving kindness

is better than life. You know what's better than

life? Watching God in your life, I

mean, you can say, well, what was your life made of?

Well, I worked this job and I I have a good retirement, I have a

nice house, I go on nice vacations, and all of that would

gladly be traded for seeing the presence of God in your life.

Point #2 is the word pleasure. Pleasure, it's better than life,

houses and cars. And when you see him, there's

nothing else that will ever match up to the glory of God.

Working #3 and verse 4 is the word praise the result of this,

thus the result of what I've seen and God's greatness that

I've watched. Is that it is?

Better than life. And my lips shall praise thee.

Thus will I bless Thee. While I live, I will lift up my

hands in thy name. It's something that can't be

held in. It's the praise that ought to be

due to Him for everything that he's done.

But when you see God do miracles in your own life and in your own

family, you get to see the presence of God.

It's like when the Lord put it on my heart to give the house to

the church. And I don't recommend that.

The Holy Spirit told me so I'll obey him.

And I brought my kids together and I said, I just want you to

know that God's laid this on my heart.

And you know, any hope of an inheritance just disappeared,

you know, And my oldest son said.

Dad, that's all right, because every time you do something like

this, we get to see God. And I'd rather have that for my

children, the faith born in their heart, not because there's

a promise placed on a wall plaque, but they have lived and

experienced that God wants to do something in your life.

And I've seen it. #4 is the word plenty.

Look what verse? Five says my soul shall be

satisfied. And the world doesn't understand

this. You see, the joy that they find

in their earthly things is nothing compared to the joy when

God does something in your life and you're in the will of God

and you're working for Him and God is showing up.

In other words, the joy that they things are calling joy

don't compare to the real joy that is the sustaining through

all of the battles and all of the trials.

The joy of the Lord is our strength and when you see that

He will satisfy you. It is a satisfaction that

reaches down into the deepest part of your soul.

It is the satisfaction that will raise you up in this world to

have a vision of heaven in this life like nobody else that walks

in this earth will ever know. Notice the pondering in verse #6

When I remember thee upon my bed, what do you think about in

your idle moments? And meditate on thee in the

night watches. I'll tell you what you talk

about the regeneration of that church in Idaho.

That witnessed the power of God demonstrated all of the rest of

their lives they will be talking about.

Let me tell you how we got this building.

I mean everybody comes into that building said wow, what a

beautiful place. Look at the stained glass and

the people that were there. They always say, let me tell you

what God did. And that's what people in this

world need. It is an amazing thing.

The last point is the protection of God.

Look at verse #7 Because thou has been my help.

Therefore, in the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice the

protection that comes. Under the shadow of his wings.

And I've had to run there in temptation and in trials and in

danger and, and the things that have happened to us as a family

and the things that we've gone through and whether it be the.

You know, the hurricane that filled our house with four feet

of water running through the bottom floor and our roof kind

of every. It was like it was breathing.

It kept getting sucked up and we're looking out the window and

there goes our neighbors roof down.

We don't know where it went. We never found it.

And amazing what God's will can do, put you in those places

where you say I have nowhere to go but the shadow of his wings.

And I've been there and I can tell you that he'll.

Protect you there, parents, Let your children go and serve the

Lord. They are safest under the shadow

of his wings, even if that means in some foreign land serving and

preaching the gospel someplace to people that you don't know.

And you say, I'd like to have my children right next to us and by

us, and so would we. And but yet God can protect them

and guide them and make their life fruitful.

And at the end of it, you will glorify God and say, Oh glory to

God, my children are serving the Lord.

But in giving of their hearts, let God protect your family, the

shadow of his wings, the protection that he wants.

The greatest part is the people people like this is on a special

picnic day. I took a shot just.

Threw it up there, but look at the left hand side up there with

the McLaughlin family and she was saved, married a Catholic

and for 60 plus years she prayed that God would save him.

She went to different churches and when we showed up, she saw

that our church was the church she should be in.

And she became one of its earlier members in the first few

months of the church. And we began praying for her

husband. He started attending church and

listening to the sermons. And he's a, he's a, he's a very,

he's not, he's, he's a studier. And he liked that the Bible was

open, He said, all of his life as a Catholic.

They never read the Bible. And it was really special as he

got closer and closer to understanding salvation, what

really brought it to a head was I had Pastor Blanco come from

Belize and preach and he talked about how he got saved, you

know, from from an altar boy to a preacher of the gospel is the

type of sermon he preached. And and it was Terry's testimony

of being an altar boy. And he came to me and he said,

Pastor, can I come and see you tomorrow?

He came in my. Office.

And he bowed his head and prayed and asked Jesus to save him.

After 60 years, after 60 years, you should have seen her cry

through the next time we were all together at the Lord's Table

and she just cried partaking with her saved.

Husband, you see, these are the stories and by the way, this is

this is certainly fruit to the account of this church for

supporting this ministry for so long.

Look at what God's called us to do after my son.

We had trained him, you know, he graduated there from our Bible

institute. There he is getting his degree

and there we are ordaining him on my son's in the middle of

that picture. And Debbie's dad is on his right

and my dad is on his left. And I'm past my dad and all

these preachers, a heritage of preachers.

And we thank God for that. And my son ordained, you know,

my father-in-law started a church and my dad started a

church and I've started 2 churches.

And my son, he, he said, well, I got to find a place to start a

church. That's the family business, I

guess. And but after the Lord was

leading on my heart, I went to him.

And even though he's young, I said, would you pray about being

the next pastor? And he prayed and fasted.

Doesn't that sound familiar? And he came back and he said,

I'm really surprised, but I believe God wants me to be here

long term. And Debbie's parents are there

helping him. In February, they voted

unanimously and then to take him as their pastor.

And he is doing a great job. He used to work for Charlie

Kirk. And this assassination is really

allowed him to have an inroads in people's lives and people are

getting saved. We had a good time last week,

but he's been dealing with people, especially the days

right afterwards. Every day.

He said he had over 100 phone calls.

God's been working and doing the work on him, on our other two

children that are all there serving the Lord.

It reminds me of this. I mean, you know, my son is the

pastor, His younger brother is the song leader, an adult Sunday

school teacher, and his brother-in-law, my son-in-law,

is in the sound booth and he's running security and he keeps

the financial books on the computer for them.

And, you know, the Lord's worked and the church has grown.

There are people in that church that I did not know.

And it's only been since May. God has a plan.

If we just follow God's plan here, we have this great city.

I love this city, the concrete jungle, right?

It is known as the city of DL Moody.

Moody Bible Institute is there. They preach the gospel.

You know, they're hardly, you could find the gospel there, but

it's not proclaimed like it used to be.

And it's sad. It's no longer the city of BL

Moody. It was known for the city where

Billy Sunday not only played baseball, but he got saved and

we used to go and preach. At the Pacific.

Guard mission right where he got saved and but now it's known for

its crimes and violence, it's homicides, it's gang riots and

looting and everything else. But there are.

Millions of people there who need the gospel and we know what

is not the answer, right? The answer is not woke.

This. I mean, we have Lori Lightfoot

on one side and they she was so bad they threw her out and

decided to put another guy in and they got a guy, Brandon

Johnson. Who's who's worse?

More woke. Than she was, if that's

possible. He's trying to outlaw Christian

education and homeschooling in the city of Chicago.

Why? Why not work on a lot of other?

Problems that he has. It's not the answer, but what is

the answer? The Bible is the answer.

We have the gospel. It is amazing to me and I and I

really believe in this, that families that can leave the city

and say I want to raise my kids in a better environment.

I say Amen. But at the same time, we ought

to have we that are pastors. And have the answer in our

hands. We ought to be running into

those places where the fire is the hottest and where the the

the gospel light is the darkest. And, and, and it ought to be our

goal to plant churches and reach the people.

With the gospel answer and this is what we desire to do it by

the grace of God. We're going to go to Portage

Park, which is halfway between O'Hare Airport and the Loop, the

downtown area, and this is our just our target area.

The whole, the whole outline there.

I've had people ask that whole outline.

Is the city of Chicago. It's just that a.

Lot of big. Cities are all divided up into

neighborhoods. Not cities, not not communities,

not suburbs. The suburbs are beyond this, but

inside. There are 77 neighborhoods in

the city of Chicago. And this is just, we highlighted

an area that is sort of a target spot or target area for us to

go. And here's an aerial view from

that area looking back at the Loop at the downtown buildings.

And you'll notice the bottom there that those are called

bungalows. It's this Chicago phenomena of,

of of 10s of I don't know how many, there's probably several,

100,000 of these in the city. They call it a bungalow belt.

It goes around this area of Chicago, even around the South

Side. And they're, they're kind of

skinny longer. Houses with a little gangway in

between, usually paved like a sidewalk.

You know the. About four feet you can open

your window and wash your dishes and talk to your neighbor

washing her dishes at the same time.

And but it's a lot of doors to get to individual home, single

family dwellings where there are literally millions, 3 millions

of people that need the Lord Jesus Christ.

Pastor Courtney Lewis, you know him well.

He does a good job in the city of Chicago.

He is down on the South side of the city from the where the

downtown is. He is in Hyde Park.

They'll be approximately 2 million people between His

church and where we're going to start the church.

And our timing is that we've already moved it up, planning to

start the church on June 14th at this point.

And the support is already coming in, in, in in a great and

fast way. You look at this last point as

we close in your conclusion in verse #8 my soul followeth heart

after thee. Thy right hand upholdeth me.

After everything the Lord's done for us, there's something that

happens in the heart of a Christian that has seen this is

they say Lord, there isn't anything else worth it.

I want to see more. I want to see God do better

things, greater things. I want to see more of the

release of those that are trapped in sin after receiving

Christ finding victory. And the life.

Totally given over to God. I want to be that kind of

person. I want God to do better things.

I want, I want it to be known that I'm giving everything I

have all the rest of my life to the Lord Jesus Christ.

And is that your calling? Isn't it all of Our Calling?

That your soul, not just something you do, but your heart

that pursues God in a way that you could say my soul followeth

hard? Or are you following your

business? Or are you following any

substitute? From giving all.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I pray that you

please bless the invitation here.

The Lord the things we've seen might affect, and the words

we've heard might affect our hearts, but there's no.

Sin. There's no earthly.

Thing there's nothing that ought to be between our soul and the

Savior, the Lord you might. In this time.

Give us that surrender. That we need.

To do everything we can, to pray, to pray, to seek you, to

do everything we can in our own local church.

To give so the word can be given.

Out. To other places and around the

world the Lord begin that. Work of revival in.

Each one of our hearts with your heads bowed and your eyes

closed. Let's have a time of invitation.

Would you? Has the Lord worked on your

heart? Would you stand with me at your?

Seats there wouldn't you like to be?

Numbered among those whose soul? Say my intention is that I would

follow hard after the oh. God come and talk to him about.

That the invitation. Is open, the altar is open.

Please come and say, Lord, count me in.

I want to be among those, whatever that.

Means wherever that. Takes me at whatever cost to my

comfort. And to my life.

I want to be numbered among those whose heart followeth

hard. I want to see God demonstrated.

In my life. Don't be in a hurry.

Spend time with the Lord.