Fierce Faith | January 18, 2026

Okay.

You can stay right here, rusty.

'cause I'm sure I've got scriptures

that you will want to read here.

My box.

No, come here.

We're gonna pray for you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

This is your, uh.

Yeah, I asked your wife if

this is real, your last Sunday.

Mm-hmm.

She said, well until you get back.

So apparently it's not your last Sunday.

I pray.

Not I pray, not I do want to come home.

That would be good.

Let me pray for you.

Lord, thank you for the opportunity

that you've given Rusty to go and to

preach and I just pray that, uh, you

would prepare a way for him and, uh,

help, help what, uh, you lay on his

heart to be able to get through to

the people that he is sharing with.

Help this to be a, an amazing time for

them, but I pray that it would just

be an amazing time for him and for

you to just do some fabulous things

in his heart and life as he is there.

Thank you for partnering with

him in this venture, your name.

Amen.

Amen.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Okay.

So it was very nice that nobody had a

lot of things to say this morning, 'cause

that, that, uh, gives me more time.

And I, I have a lot this morning.

And, uh,

although I did tell Chris that, that,

uh, everybody knew how long-winded I

was, so they knew I needed the time.

And I told, uh, Derek as I was back

there, there's an old story about a

conference that people were attending

and, and the speaker would last for

about an hour, and then they had

three, four speakers at the same time.

And each guy would get up

and introduce somebody.

And I said, you know, the word must

have got out that I was preaching

this morning because there's so

many fewer people this morning.

And there's this old saying that

this conference, they were to,

the speaker was coming in to speak

and, and everybody was leaving.

There's a handful of people stayed there.

And so when the guy got up to introduce

him, he said, well, I can see that

our speaker needs no introduction.

So everybody knew we want out.

Well, all

we're, we're in a kind of

crazy place in our world.

Uh, we got a war going on in Ukraine.

We've got genocide in Africa.

We got trouble in Venezuela.

We got protests in America.

We had turmoil in our own government

and around the world, but you

know, that's nothing compared

to what's really going on.

The, uh, in the Lord of the Rings.

Those of you who have, have,

uh, watched that particularly

thrilling, uh, gospel film.

Now I can have a little fun with that

because the Lord of the Rings was a

very popular movie and the gentleman

who wrote that was like doing, uh, oh,

they would call it like science fiction

written by a PhD. Uh, it was so full.

The book was so full of, uh.

Hidden messages, if you will.

It was just written in a, in a

unbelievable way that Hollywood

had no idea what it was.

And so they left almost

all of it in there.

And so everything, it, it, it

points to Christ, it points to the,

the sacrifices, everything that

goes on and in quite an odd way.

But there's this little group of people

here, the Hobbits and the story kinda

centers around them, and the hobbits

get to a point where, uh, there's some

really bizarre things going on because

they've left the Shire and they look

at each other and they say, man, what

kind of a story have we fallen into?

They've just bumped into this thing in.

Well, the reality of where we are

at, uh, what happened to my clicker?

This is gonna, uh, well, hey, well,

well, you can't just hand me this thing.

Which one do I push?

We're gonna be here all day.

Press the forward.

That one.

Yeah.

Okay.

So Yeah, it's like old.

It's all wrinkled like me.

Okay.

Um,

the right arrow?

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Forward is that way to the right.

Okay.

I got it, man.

Technology at its best right here.

Okay.

The reality of it is that

we are living in a war zone.

It doesn't feel like that.

We get up, we go to work.

We watch football game, we attend a

basketball game, we go out to dinner.

We have a nice time.

We enjoy our family.

It doesn't feel anything like

a war zone, but good and evil.

Heaven and hell are in a conflict

that has gone on since the fall.

And the further along we

get down that road, the more

fierce that battle is becoming.

And so Andy, and last year we all

had to pick a word and he said, if

you can pick a word, you can do it.

So let's see if this works.

That's my word for 2026.

Fierce.

Fierce is.

I don't think you even have

to describe what fierce is.

Just think of something that is the

most ferocious thing you can think

of, and that is a picture of fierce.

So, uh, let's look at a couple images

here of the cute little angels.

You know, the little guys with wings

that kind of, some of you have them.

We used to have an angel that we

carried around the church there.

It got lost when it went to

Theresa's house and never returned.

It must have flown off.

It was a cement angel about this

high that took four men to lift.

And when people would go away, they

would come home and they'd find that

a angel would come to their house and

we passed it from person to person.

So we have some pictures here of angels.

They're cuddly.

Little things there.

There is, uh,

you know, there's a reason why in

scripture when men would, women, whoever

would see an angel, the first words

outta the angel's mouth were what?

Afraid.

Yeah.

Don't be afraid.

Okay, so that tells you that maybe there

was something fearful about angels.

These aren't men.

These are angels.

These are angels.

There's an angel and

there's an angel.

Now, I like history.

If you, you don't, well,

you may get lost in this.

But if you go back to World Wari, might

as well put that up there as well.

I've never done this, by the way,

and I will confess, Andy said, do

you want to put scripture up there?

And I am just an old diehard at the thing.

No, if you wanna read the

scripture, bring your Bible.

Okay.

So I'm not putting it up there.

Okay.

But at the start of World War ii, okay.

The first country that really went

to war with Germany was Poland.

And you have the picture of if, if you

will, the church in America right here

in that opening scene of World War ii.

Okay.

The Polish Army got their cavalry and

their horses, and they pulled what

cannons they had, and they went out

in the trenches with their bayonets

and got ready to face the Germans

who came with tanks and planes and

modern artillery and machine guns.

And they just plowed through the Polish

Army like they didn't even exist.

It was just a complete wipe out.

Now,

if

they thought that was preparing,

they weren't ready for that.

And so you come along if God's angels.

Have an image like that.

He's not preparing for an army with,

of the enemy of little horse-drawn

people trying to fight with some

image he's prepared for war.

One of the things, a few years ago,

there was all kinds of books about

angels and, oh my goodness, all,

all sorts of things that were, uh,

oh, how the angels are

involved in our lives and, and

kind of mystical.

I don't want us to get there.

I would like us to go over to

Second Kings chapter six, verses

12 to 18, so that's Second Kings.

That won't come up there either.

Chapter six, verses 12 to 18.

Now Elisha is being a real

pain in the neck to the king here.

And so the king is going to

his men and he is saying, now

somebody is turning against us,

and his head of his army says,

none of us, my Lord the king,

said one of his officers.

But Elisha, the prophet who is in

Israel, tells the king of Israel the very

words that you speak in your bedroom.

So the king says, go find out where he

is so I can send men and capture him.

The report came back.

He is in Dothan.

Then he sent horses and Char Chariots

strong for, and a strong force there.

And they went by night

and surrounded the city.

And when the servant of the man of

God got up and went out early the

next morning and army with horses and

chariots had surrounded the city and he

says, oh no, my Lord, what shall we do?

Well, Elisha says, don't be afraid.

Those who are with us are more

than those who are with them.

You know, there's nice words.

You probably heard those

said before in church.

And Elisha prayed and said, open the

eyes, Lord, so that my servant may see.

Then the Lord opened the

servant's eyes and he looked.

He saw the hills full

of horses and chariots

of fire all around Elisha.

Okay, those were not men.

Those,

those were the angels of God.

Turn over two Kings, chapter 19 familiar.

Sweet little verse of sweet little angels.

Two Kings Chapter 19

in verse 34 through 36.

For out of Jerusalem will come a remnant

and out of Mount Zion, a ban of survivors.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

will accomplish this.

Therefore, this is what the Lord

says concerning the king of Assyria.

He will not enter this city.

He had surrounded the city,

but he will not enter this

city or shoot an arrow here.

He will not come before it with shield

or build a siege ramp against it.

And by the way that he

came, he will return.

He will not enter this city, declares

the Lord, I will defend this city

and save it for my sake and for

the sake of David, my servant.

That night, the angel of the Lord

pay attention to that.

He didn't say the angels of the Lord.

He said, the angel of the Lord singular.

One put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian

camp, and when the people got up the next

morning, there were all the dead bodies.

So Sinek, king Assyria broke,

camp, withdrew and returned

to NVE and stayed there.

Deli was killed by his

own sons over in Isaiah.

I like this new Bible,

but boy, pages are thin.

I got a mark everyone.

Isaiah chapter 37 verses 37 or 33 to 37.

Isaiah 37:37

See if this sounds familiar.

Therefore, this is what the Lord

says concerning the king of Asteria.

He will not enter this city

or shoot an arrow here.

He will not come before it with shield

or build a siege ramp against it.

And by the way that he

came, he will return.

He will not enter this

city, declares the Lord.

I will defend this city and

save it for my sake and for

the sake of David, my servant.

Then the angel of the Lord went out and

put to death 185,000 in the Assyrian camp.

Now, people love to talk about how the

Old Testament is just a series of stories,

and obviously according to the,

the man who drew up the picture

there, the angel of the Lord,

Michael.

Is the one with a little dot on the

center of him, a very fierce angel.

Now, the story of sin him all of the, uh,

kings of that day, they had a big ego.

You know, if you think President Trump

has a big ego, they had big egos.

If you recorded anything that was

ill or degrading about them, uh, that

was the last thing you ever wrote.

And your article died with you

except for, for in the oldest library

that was there in the Middle East.

There is a triangular book, if you will,

stands about five foot tall, and in it.

In the library back there in

Assyria is the story of a king by

the name of Ekra who took his army

and besieged the city of Jerusalem

where all 185,000 of

his soldiers were killed

by an angel of the Lord.

And it remains to this day.

Isn't that cool?

We're gonna remember this.

This was a fierce battle that took place.

Well, let's go over to Daniel and

that chapter 10, Daniel 10, 10 to 21.

And this is Daniel.

He's been praying for 21 days.

Says the hand touched me and sent

me trembling on my hands and knees.

He said, Daniel, you are highly esteemed.

Consider carefully the words that I'm

about to speak to you and stand up for.

I have now been sent to you.

And when he said this to

me, I stood up, trembling.

Then he continued.

Do not be afraid, Daniel, since the

first day that you set your mind to gain

understanding and to humble yourself

before your God, your words were heard,

and I have come in response to them.

But the Prince of the Persian

kingdom resisted me 21 days.

The Prince of Persia,

demonic spirit resisted.

The angel of the Lord having

been sent with a message.

Then Michael, one of the chief prince's

angels came to help me because I was

detained there with the King of Persia.

Now I have come to explain to you

what will happen to your people

in the future for the vision

concerns, a time yet to come.

And while he was saying this to

me, I bowed with my face toward

the ground and was speechless.

And then one who looked like a

man touched my lips and opened

my mouth and began to speak.

And I said to the one standing

before me, I am overcome with anguish

because of the vision, my Lord.

And I feel weak.

How can I, your servant, talk with you?

My Lord, my strength is gone.

I can hardly breathe.

Again, the one who looked like

a man touched me and gave me

strength, did not be afraid.

You who are highly

esteemed, he said, peace.

Be strong now.

Be strong.

When he spoke to me, I was

strengthened and said, speak my Lord,

since you have given me strength.

So he said, do you know why I have

come to you Soon I will return to fight

against the Prince of Persia, and when

I go, the Prince of Greece will come.

But first I will tell you what

is written in the book of truth.

No one supports me against them

except Michael, your prince.

And in the first year of Darius

the Mead, I took my stand

to support and protect him.

Okay.

The message isn't about angels.

The message is about warfare and where we

have this, this war going down, the devil

is coming against God in anything that

he has to do in his biggest weapon is you

people,

because that kind of hatred had to be met

with a fierce love.

It had to be met

with paying a price for us, and so

God cared enough that he sent his son.

To die on the cross.

It wasn't, it wasn't wimpy.

What Jesus was called to do took

everything until it took his life.

God so loved the world that he

went to whatever degree he had to

go to in that war for our souls.

Okay?

We, we look at this like, let's, you

know, coming into church and, and we

wanna pray and, and you know, we want

to be good and we want to do better

and we want to try to do the things

that, that Jesus wants us to do.

And, and there is the

picture of, of Christianity.

Now those angels, the picture

of Christ, that's the picture of

Christianity costing everything.

A war to destroy everything

that is good and holy.

People think, oh, the devil wants you.

The devil doesn't give a rip about you.

Nothing does he care about you.

You have one quality that he wants.

God loved you enough to send his son.

That's how much he loves you.

I, the last time I preached, I shared

about the thing that when God had the

choice to either send Jesus to do this or

save me, he said, I want Marty take him.

That's how much value you

have to God the Father.

That's how much he loves you.

Satan knows that every word of

God's word is true, not part of it,

not most of it, not pieces of it.

It's all true.

And because it's all true, he says, okay,

the thing that will hurt God more than

anything on Earth is if I take them.

That is your value to the enemy.

It's not about how good you are, how

bad, good grief, the Bible is full of

people who are worthless just like us.

You know, you look back and,

and you, you have Moses.

You have David, you have Paul, three of

the greatest people in all of history,

and what do they have in common?

They're all guilty of murder.

You read and study the books in the

New Testament written by a murderer.

You study the pentitude, you

have to go and find answers.

In Genesis written by a murderer,

David, the House of David, a murderer.

It's not about us.

It's not about how good we are.

The devil doesn't care.

He, you're gonna, you're just

so much burnt up ash to him.

And so all he wants is to hurt God.

So that is what he sets out

to do, where pawns to Satan.

We're apprised to God.

So what's our part in this epic battle?

To see to it that we go to church.

Long time ago I shared about a man that

was being offered a job over in Ohio.

Didn't go to our church, but the man was

offering the job, said God's changed my

life and I only want people working for

me that are invested in working for God.

So he said, I want you

to do the interview.

And I said, I don't know

anything about your work.

He said, I don't care.

That's not what I'm looking for.

So I went, interviewed one

of his guys that was supposed

to be a perfect candidate.

And so when I went.

And asked him, I said, this is the first

question that the owner wanted to know.

What are you doing for God?

So I asked him, what

are you doing for God?

He said, well, I, I'm,

I'm going to church.

I

said, okay, but what

are you doing for God?

Well,

I set up the chairs for the Bible study.

I said, well, don't,

those are good things.

Don't get me wrong, but

what are you doing for God?

He said, I don't even

understand the question.

Now, this is a man in his mid forties

who's gone to church his whole life.

You see what we are doing for God?

And the main thing is, well, you know,

maybe I'm raising my kids for the Lord.

That's good.

I am attending church, so that's good.

I'm studying the Bible.

That's good.

But you see there's a war going on.

It's taking people's lives,

their families, everything

about it there to destroy.

And what am I doing in

the scope of that battle?

Well, if I'm not studying God's

word, if I'm not spending time

with him, I'm gonna be unarmed.

So those things are good, but I

need to be prepared to go to war.

So I ain't gonna take my sword

and I'm gonna go out there and

I'm gonna chop the enemy down.

It's a great picture, you know,

put fierce underneath of that.

That's like our friend who would draw

the pictures of the arc with little tiny

arc with the smiley little animals and

the thing sticking all over the place.

Okay.

There was an article written that

my friends out in Idaho sent me and

he said, why is it, this is after

Charlie Kirk was uh, assassinated,

and he said, why is it that the first

religious martyr in America

was somebody who was political

and not out of the church?

And the article simply said, because

the church wasn't a danger to the enemy.

That's sad.

Now I discovered something about

myself a while back, and I'm a fighter.

I am not.

I've never physically fought anybody.

I played basketball years ago, and

in grade school, I think junior

high guy came down the floor and he

was six foot nine in grade school.

That's ridiculous.

And he wasn't very coordinated, but

he was tall enough that he could

just hold the ball up here and

nobody could even touch the ball.

And so we tried to get fouls

on him as easily as we could.

And so I'm taking the ball down to

the court and I stopped right in

front of him and he just ran over me.

And being not very coordinated, you know.

He knocked me down.

Then he stepped on me with one

foot and then the other foot

and stumbled off, and I got up.

I was so angry.

I had to fall underneath my arm over

here, and I had a fist in the other

arm hand, and I turned around and I

looked him right in the belly button

and I thought, this is a bad idea.

That's as close as I ever came to

getting into a physical altercation

with anybody, but I'm a fighter.

I've realized that this

is where I've gotta be.

Now.

I don't, can you kill the lights

so that that shows a little better?

Yeah, that helps.

Because see, most people

would think, well, there's

an angel that isn't an angel.

That's one of us.

That's who we're to be.

We are taking on that

or we're not.

Do you know

the number of churches that

close every year in our country?

Do you know that there is not a church

group from mega to right down here

of nobody that isn't drastically

going downhill in our country?

Not one area of those

churches are going up.

Do you know if you've been around here

and listen to me long enough, you will

know that the average Christian in a

lifetime will lead six tenths of one

person to the Lord in their entire life.

That means, Chris,

that you on your own, if you're

an average Christian, can't

even get Benjamin to heaven.

That's how pathetic it is.

That's why the church in America

is sinking and sinking and sinking

because we're not fighting.

See if I can make this.

Those are my car keys.

What's going on here?

We're not fighting like that other guy.

We're fighting like this.

What we're doing for God isn't

this, it's that other thing.

You know, we're, we're trying

our best just to be good because

the temptation of this world are,

they're overwhelming.

When I'm hungry, I get to eat.

When I feel bad, I get to take a pill.

When, when things are tough, I can go

talk to somebody and have them help me.

So it's not so bad.

I've got ma, this is just good as heaven.

I don't have to prepare for it.

I don't have to prepare

other people for it.

It's all good.

I don't have to worry about where

my next meal is coming from.

I don't have to worry about

how on earth I'm gonna get

medicine to keep my kids alive.

I can just sit back and take it easy.

I am not preparing for war,

uh, over in, uh,

you know, I've put my phone back here,

so I have no idea what time it is,

but I guess when I'm done, I'll quit.

Uh,

it is over in Ephesians

chapter six, 10 to 12.

It talks about putting on

the whole armor of God.

We have to put on the whole armor

of God so that we're prepared

so that we're able to fight.

Two Corinthians chapter 10,

verses three to five, which is

some of my favorite stuff here.

It says, for though we live in the world,

we do not wage war as the world does.

It's not about weapons, it's

not about guns, it's, it is

not about physical training.

We don't wage war like that.

The weapons that we fight with

are not the weapons of this world.

On the contrary, they have divine

power to demolish strongholds.

We demolish arguments and every

pretense that sets itself up

against the knowledge of God.

And we take cap, we take captive every

thought to make it obedient to Christ.

You know,

there's a picture and we

say, well, how do we do that?

Well over a.

In Matthew.

Again, some of my favorite stuff

that I have done for years,

I'm never gonna get there.

The pages are too thin and I

don't have that one marked.

But over in Matthew chapter 16,

Matthew 16:18

verse 18, Jesus is asking the

disciples, who do you say that I am?

Well, some say that you're this and that.

And Peter says,

you are the Christ, the

Son of the living God.

And Jesus says, no man has

revealed this to you and on this

rock, not Peter, on this rock.

I will build my church.

Who's the church?

That's us Christians.

On the rock of Christian people.

I will build my church.

So that they are the rock.

Jesus is a rock.

We're his people, and I'm

gonna build that church.

And he said, the very gates of hell cannot

prevail against it in a military sense.

When you get to the gates, that's

where the pinnacle of all the power is.

So I like to say it just like this.

I will build my church in the

very pinnacle of all the power of

hell shall not prevail against it.

That's a pretty powerful group of people.

That's somebody who

could take on that guy.

And over in Matthew chapter, chapter

18, verse 18, he goes on and he

says, you know, in fact, I'm gonna

give you the keys to the kingdom.

Whatsoever you bind on earth will be

bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose

on earth will be loosed in heaven.

That is where Jesus is saying, I'm gonna

stand here and I will make good what you

do, if you're gonna attack the enemy, if

you're gonna go after friends, relatives

that you love, you don't want to see in

hell, I will stand here and if you cut

them loose from the enemy so that they can

hear the truth, I will make good on that

Powerful statements.

Ah man.

Then over in one John, chapter four.

Chapter five, excuse me, verses 14 and 15.

It says,

this is the confidence that

we have in him, that if we ask

anything that is according to

his will, that he will hear us.

And we know that if he hears us, we

have the thing that we have asked for.

Now, if you are gonna go to war against

the devil for people that Jesus loves

and you are gonna fight for their souls,

there isn't anything that is

any more God's will than that.

So you have to take a stand.

You have to go after that.

And you have to make a difference because

the battle that we are in is fierce.

It's not wimpy,

and it's gonna get more

intense in the days ahead.

Lord Jesus, thank you that you loved

us fiercely and that you still do.

And you need us

to pursue you with a fierce

love and stand against the enemy

with a fierce sense of your presence.

And as years ago, Keith Green asked

the question, are you known in hell?

He said, we need to be known in hell and

feared that isn't the picture of us just

barely getting by, just barely hanging on.

Lord, we want to be warriors for you.

And 2026 seems like a

good time to do that.

So

Lord, help us to be as fierce

as the angels who follow

you in Jesus' name, amen.