1 John 2:18-23 | Our Anointing

This is City Post Church, we're about three things, build

equipped and send all under the lordship of Jesus Christ, a

small Church Plant in Fort Worth Texas, who decided to do things

a little differently. I would almost I had to Crystal,

I love City Post because of the people.

It's where I belong, we truly preach the word.

I love City Post because of the community.

We've been able to build to do ministry.

Like Jesus perlite to push back Darkness.

This is City, Post podcast. You know, like the weather's

great. It's spring break time, it's

Ricky's birthday. You know, celebrate one for me

and the Temptation is like I can just like stay at home be on the

couch today but instead we're like nah that's not enough.

And if there's nothing better than coming together as a body

of Believers to worship our King and For you guys that are

watching online. We have a lot of people out

traveling today. So, Steven shout.

I know you're watching and, and it's Terrebonne and Wally, and

if I missed too bad, but too many, ow.

Hey, but it's going to be good. So it is my birthday and I'm so

excited because we get to talk about the Antichrist.

Well, a man whose line this up, like man.

If you guys are new here, we just kind of walk.

Through books of the Bible and we just see what God's word has

to say to us. And whenever we hear this term

Antichrist, we kind of use it to kind of make fun of somebody.

Like, man, my in-laws like she's the Antichrist, you know.

I'm not this is an example, y'all chill out will get me in

trouble, right? Or like man, like my ex was like

Antichrist, you know. So we throw this term around in

our culture, not really knowing what it means and what we're

going to look at today. And first John, First John is

going to call out the false, teachers the false prophets, the

false people that are inside of the church, spreading these

false doctrines and he's like, not like you guys are actually

like the Antichrist and he's actually going to use it in

Pearl a plural. So last week, we talked about

what it means, not to love the world and it was kind of a heavy

sermon and the next couple of weeks, it's actually going to be

a little bit harder. Some some teachings are To be

tough are going to push against our worldviews.

It's going to push against cultural Christianity, but like

I said, last week, you don't run from hard things, you run toward

them and ask questions, lean into what God is saying because

his word is infallible. So let's go ahead and dive in.

Look at Verse 18, where, in 1st, John Chapter 2, and we're going

John 2 · chapter mention

to look at verses 18 to 23. Go ahead and read that for us.

And this is what the word of the Lord has to say, dear children.

This is the last hour and as you have heard that the Antichrist

is coming. Even now, many antichrists have

come. This is how we know it is the

last hour they went out from us but they did not really belong

to us for if they had belonged to us, they would have remained

with us but there are going but they're Polling showed that none

of them belong to us. But you have an anointing from

the Holy One and all of, you know, the truth.

I do not write to you because you do not know the truth but

because, you know it and because no lie comes from the truth, who

is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus

is the Christ. Such a person, is the

Antichrist. Denying, the father, and the

son, no one. Who denies the son has the

father Or whoever acknowledges the son has the father.

Also, so God, we pray. Lord that you speak to us

through your word, this morning. Father, I pray that we're able

to just limit distractions god with so much going on this week

with spring break and just travel and everything I read

that were able to just focus on your word today.

Lord, I pray for myself, God that you helped me to organize

my thoughts that you have me to remember everything that was

studied and Lord that All these thoughts come from you and not

from myself. And Lord, we praise you.

And we thank you because you are a good God, your name.

We pray these things. Amen.

All right. So let's go ahead and just dive

right into it. These are one of those passages

where you're you're like, man. Is there a story I could say at

the beginning and they're like, no we're just going to dive into

it. All right, so look at Verse 18.

It says Dear children. This is the last hour and as you

have heard that this Antichrist is coming even now many

antichrists. Have come see how to throw that

plural in there. So that way, we understand kind

of what he's talking about. So dear children, we know this

word is Padilla, which is the Greek form of the word children.

We talked about this a few weeks ago, which means he's addressing

those who belong to God. So John is addressing those who

are in Christ the body of Christ the church.

So if you're not a follower of Christ, I'm going to give you a

heads up, this really ain't for you.

Like you're not gonna understand what we're talking about a

little bit and my prayer is that you come to realization that you

need a savior and we will love to introduce you to him but we

got to stick to the text. It says Dear children those who

are found in Christ and then he goes in this is the last hour.

Alright so we got to we got to ask these questions.

What is the last hour that John is referring to?

So, out of second Peter chapter 3, verse 3, he's talking about

2 Peter 3:3

the period of time between The first and the second coming of

Christ. So when Jesus shows up to, when

Jesus returns again, that is the final days.

Those are the latter days. Let's the, the last, the final

hour that he's talking about now, some of us are like, Well,

Ricky, like I've seen left behind Isn't that the final

days, is it? No, that's the tribulation.

And I don't want us to get lost in all that, because that's not

really what this text is about. But I want us to understand that

we are in the final hour. We are in the final days because

Jesus came, and he will come back again.

One day. And that's a promise.

And as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming.

Interesting? Why would John use the example

of an antichrist? Why would he say the Antichrist

is coming? So we have to break that word

down Antichrist. And the Greek is anti-christ us,

the word Kristoff's means Christ, which is the anointed

one, the Messiah, the sent one, and then anti which is again Or

in place of. So the Antichrist is someone,

who is against the actual anointed one, the one who is in

place of Christ, who is Jesus, and this is a real person.

If you read Revelation, 13 and Revelation 17, you'll see

everything that he's addressing here.

So when Jesus came Satan being the ruler of the world, which we

saw last week, was a little bit energized, and his whole goal is

to destroy everything that God has created.

And we see that Genesis chapter 3, so everything with Jesus, the

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Antichrist is everything that opposes Christ.

So this Antichrist one. Who's going to come in

Revelation, he's going to be an intimidating fighter, a superior

intellect and and Incredible Communicator.

He's going to be. He's going to possess Advanced

military and economic expertise. And something that he's going to

do is that he is going to bring everyone together and then he's

going to turn on Israel and he's going to set up shop in the

temple. That Israel rebuilds.

This is all in Revelation, 13 and 17.

But you know what I think is really interesting about this

because John is going to show us the Antichrist is actually going

to come from with inside the body of Christ, not from the

outside. So I know that we're all

freaking out like when we see everything happening in the

World where like, oh my gosh. What's going to happen?

I'm like, we need to look at home.

We need to look at what's happening on the inside.

What is being taught in our churches?

Because John is about, to point something out.

He's like, it's going to come from within man, that's a scary

thought. So what is this?

So John what he's doing is that he knows Jewish eschatology,

people know about the Antichrist because it's written in the book

of the Major Prophets. Like, we, we learned about last

Wednesday. I'm just being through this

because there's some other things we need to get through

for time sake. So what is John saying?

He's like, listen, any denial deviation Distortion of any

scriptural view of Jesus Christ? AKA like his Incarnation, that

he was both fully God fully man, that he was the promised Prophet

priest, king Redeemer. Anything that goes against.

That is the spirit of the Antichrist.

Be careful. What you tell your name, too.

Anything that is anti-biblical. Anything that goes against.

The scripture is not again, is not of God.

It's of the spirit of that who opposes God and John is calling

it out and he was like, listen in your churches.

Be careful what you tie yourself to be careful.

What you believe understand that there's some Theology and that

there's some doctrinal stuff that you can't say, I aligned

with that because that's not from him, that's from the

spirit. Of the Antichrist and John is

saying in verse 18, he's like you've heard of this Antichrist.

Right? Well, guess what?

There's a lot of them now. And those are the anti teachers.

Those are the false teachers that have infiltrated.

The church the gnostics the you know we talked about who John is

writing this to and this is how we know it's in the last hour so

he's about to point things out. Now, before we dive into 19,

something that we're going to have to understand here.

Because a lot of this stuff could actually throw Christians

off, it could throw your devotion off, it could, it could

kind of hinder your spiritual confidence, but a true follower

of Christ does not deviate from the faith.

He does not leave the faith. Whenever I hear people like man,

I let you know what it ain't about that.

It's not you know they hurt me. No no you never were.

Because if you were, you do not leave the faith, you might

struggle with it, you might wrestle with it, but you don't

leave, and we're about to see that right here.

Alright, so look at verse 19, So how do we know we're in the last

hour? Look what it says in verse 19.

They went out from us but they did not really belong to us.

For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained in us.

Now in the hip hop world, those are called bars.

I know y'all miss that. Like, did you just hear what

John said here? This is crazy.

Some of y'all will read this and be like, that's no no, break it

down. I we talked about this.

How John writes is this great stuff?

They who are they? They went from us.

These are the Antichrist. These are the false teachers

John. Kind of showing everybody.

What these folks look like because it's happening in the

church and the gnostics are doing it in this time period.

They went from us, that means that it's going to come from

with inside the body of Christ. So people are going to come

inside the church inside the body of Christ, and they're

going to start spewing Doctrine out there.

Going to start twisting things around, they're going to start

kind of putting in their own like Earthly philosophies.

And they're going to put in their own two cents about

everything that they learned in school, but it's not scripture.

So you say no like they came from us but they did not really

belong to us. So even though they were here

They're not a part of us. Kind of like, Cowboy fans in the

playoffs. You know, say like there's

people that like, go Cowboys, like, where have you been all

season? They're not from us.

Y'all just showed up because we're winning now, right?

But if you talk to a real fan, they'll be able to like talk

about their team years past years past years, not just oh

yeah, we're here about a jersey. Like man you don't even know

him. It's right.

So For if they belong to us, they would have remained with

us, but they're going showed that none of them belong to us.

How do we know that? They don't belong to us?

Is because they come in and they leave, not, they don't just

leave, you know what they do. They try to drag everybody with

them. AKA misery loves company.

So these folks are going into these churches, they're

spreading all this stuff that's not real, that's not biblical

but they're trying to take people with them.

That's how you know the spirit of the Antichrist you see they

they weren't with us because they didn't belong to us.

He sees being plural here. He's talking about those who

leave and let me just say I know it sounds bad but honestly this

is purging the church. This is eliminating those who

really weren't of the faith in the first place.

So listen, if you're going to follow Fulani toe out the door

because of the stuff that he spreading Go for it.

You know, so what John is doing when he's fighting against this

whole anti scripture, he's fighting this anti truth and

he's like man they're going to go, they're going to, they're

going to follow that. The wide gate and the wide path.

Let him go. It's going to happen.

This is what we're seeing here. But also what John does here is

that he's pointing out that the real Believers, real faith has a

longevity tied to it. There's a consistency tied to it

that you don't leave the faith. Now, I want to be very careful

here because there's I've heard this text used in other ways.

Like if people leave a church they're like well you must have

not had Faith. You must have not been one of

us. You must have not been a person

of faith. And it's Like no, hold on a

second. Because God might have called

you somewhere else to serve. God might have have been leave.

Maybe you left because there was a false teacher up here.

So be very careful and cautious. He's not talking about the

church physical, he's talking about the church.

The real definition of the church, the body of Christ.

The faith, that's what John is. Addressing here.

They accept the faith. And they do not remain faithful

to it, that you never were in the faith.

And that's a hard teaching, is hard to comprehend because a lot

of us kind of tie this to events in life is that he was hurt, is

that they went through Something else?

No, it doesn't matter. You stay faithful to the one

true God. You don't follow man.

You follow him. So, false teachers deceivers.

This is part of who he's calling this.

These are the ones that went out from us.

So the ultimate test of true Christianity is endurance.

That's how to Mark, 13 verse 13. so, if you departure the

Mark 13:13

departure of people from the truth, is literally there,

unmasking So when people leave the truth, they're just kind of

showing who they really are. They were just kind of putting

up a facade for a time which is kind of sad.

So John is calling it out here and then look at verse 20, but

you have an anointing of the Holy One.

I love this. You have an anointing of the

Holy One and all of, you know, the truth.

So even if there is someone inside of the body of Christ,

that is showing of False Doctrine and he's doing all this

Antichrist opposing Jesus, talking about like his deity in

the wrong light. You don't follow along because

you are a follower of Christ and you have the anointing in.

You aka the Holy Spirit lives in us, he resides in US.

You see that word? Anointing means oil.

It means like an ointment. It's like a covering and on some

Churches you guys are not experienced.

People pray with oil on their hands and it's not like it's

magical Crisco. No, it's a symbol.

It's symbolic of an anointing how they want you to be covered

in the holy spirit, so you have an anointing of the Holy One.

How do we know what truth is? Because we have the Holy Spirit.

So if you are a follower of Christ, that means that you have

said, yes to Jesus. You have put him in your life,

you have surrendered your life to him.

He has forgiven you And then he has put the Holy One inside of

you. He has given you his Spirit.

Now that you have his Spirit, you're able to understand his

word, things are going to start being more clear to, you see

those who do not have the Holy Spirit.

Look at the Bible, and they see it as some storybook.

They don't understand it. And I'm like, of course, you

don't understand it, you don't have the Holy Ghost in you.

You don't have the Holy Spirit in you, you are lost.

So this is not going to make sense.

But you know what? Also this tells us and I want to

be a little sensitive cuz I know some of us have come from some

pretty interesting backgrounds in our churches.

But the gnostics were going around and they were telling

everybody. They were enlightened like they

had some secret, like God gave them like this, like secret

little side Spirit, that's better than everybody else.

So like they were saying like, hey, you know, we have the

special secret, we have this Transcendent spirit so God is

going to show me something that none of you guys could ever

understand in his word and what John is calling us like no you

have that same Holy Spirit you know, God's word.

So don't allow somebody to say you have to listen to me because

if you read this by yourself you're not going to understand

anything. If you're a follower of Christ,

you rely on the Holy Spirit and he will speak to you through his

word. So be very careful that you

don't buy into that stuff. And I love John's rebuttal here

in verse 21. Look at verse 21 and he goes, I

do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but

because you do know it and because no light comes from the

truth. So, John's, like, listen, I'm

not writing to you guys because I'm, I'm like pointing you out.

I'm not exposing you. I'm not calling you all out.

No, this is actually an encouragement.

You know, I find it's interesting.

It's like it's a rebuttal to the false teachers, but it's also a

reassurance to the Believers, right?

So he's like, no, like you guys have the Holy One, you have the

Holy Spirit in you and I'm telling you this because you

know, the truth, you know exactly what the truth is.

You are a follower of Jesus Christ.

You have his word you know the truth because you have the

spirit and then look how he throws it out.

But because you do know it and because no lie comes from the

truth. It's funny.

How Jon wraps that up, you know it and also no light comes from

the truth. You know, I read stuff in the

Bible sometimes and I'm like, why would he be so repetitive?

No lie comes from the truth. Don't you know that?

So what he's doing here? Is that what he says?

Like, there's truth cannot be true and false at the same exact

time. You know, I know sometimes we

throw those things around. I mean, it's, it's either true

or false. I mean, it's like baseball

Champions, Texas Rangers. Andrews like that hurt.

So it's like you're say like they are baseball Champions but

the Rangers ain't it. So I'm telling you the truth but

at the same time, if there's a false in that it's like saying

man, you find an ugly. That's so confusing.

How are you? Fine.

And ugly. At the same time, there's a true

and a false to that. That's how Monica picked up my

gravity. That's right.

So you find an ugly right? Like you see, like so it's like

there's the ways true this because there's no lie in the

truth. Like so what John is doing is

that he's eliminating any way, people can say that it's

subjective. And what he's saying is that

truth is not subjective. Truth is absolute.

So you cannot shake truth, it doesn't matter how you feel, it

doesn't matter what you think it, doesn't matter what culture

you're in, it doesn't matter what the government says it

doesn't matter. Listen, truth is absolute.

You adjust to it doesn't adjust to you, and John is pointing

this thing out and he's and he's putting a stamp on it that

there's no light that comes out of Truth.

And I want to go, I want to talk a little bit about the holy

spirit because out of this text in verse 20, he talks about the

Holy One is in US. So as a follower of Christ, I

have the Holy Spirit and in this text, I just want to break it

down in two ways. So what does it mean that you

have the Holy One? When it comes to false doctrines

and World philosophies and things that are trying to end

like come into the church? So number one, when we he talks

about having the Holy Spirit having the anointing on your

life and we're going to see this next week.

We'll dig a little bit more into it next week but the Holy Spirit

guards serves as a guard from error.

So whenever you hear something that's not right.

The holy spirit is like a guardian that tells your heart.

That's not the truth. Kind of serves like a bouncer.

He has a little bouncers. Y'all centers, right?

All right. So so so for me to explain it to

you guys. Like so if there's an owner of

an establishment and this owner has a mission and a vision and a

way that he wants his establishment to operate.

So as you're going to be all ages, is it going to be 18 and

up? Or is it going to only be 21 and

up? It depends what they're serving

their the owner decides. He also the type of folks that

are going to come to establishment.

So he set some boundaries, he said some some rules, some

regulations you cannot wear sneakers.

You you cannot wear long t-shirts.

If you go to West 7th, you know what I'm talking about.

Because you're trying to keep out a specific population or

specific person, it's all up to the owner, he gets to decide how

he wants to run his business. Now the owner so busy, he's not

able to stand at the door and see who he wants to come in and

out. So, what he does is that he

brings in a bouncer, the bouncer is trained.

To stand at the door and to check proper identification to

look at the rules and the regulations that the owner puts

in his establishment. So he stands at the door, he's

like, let me see your ID, not you're too young.

You can't come in your under dress code, you're gonna have to

go change your shoes so you can't come in here.

So what he's doing is that he's filtering out what the owner

wants and you see the Holy Spirit serves that same way the

Holy Spirit stands at the door of your heart.

And when Ron Um Doctrine comes in and when World philosophy

start creeping in the Holy Spirit serves as that Guardians

like wait wait wait a second, that's not biblical.

That's not right and he alerts you because he knows what the

owner wants. The owner is God, he wants his

word in your heart for have your word in your hidden in your

heart. So that way I may not sin

against you Psalms 119 11. So the Holy Spirit serves as a

guardian, he serves as a bouncer to your heart in your mind.

So when you start hearing stuff, there's going to be something in

your life. Just like, I don't remember

reading it that way. That's not that doesn't make

sense to me. Is it even in the scripture like

where you find out how to get? Like, there's something that

should like jostle. You a little bit when you hear

stuff, that ain't right. And that is the work of the holy

spirit. So the Holy Spirit doesn't just

serve as a guardian. He also serves as a sorry, the

Holy Spirit also gives us like this built in light of tector.

This like, so that way, we were able to preserve truth.

I like to call. I like to call it the BS meter.

So, whenever you hear something, that's not right.

Your BS. Meter goes off.

The S stands for biblical. You know, that's right,

biblically sound, right? So whenever something is not

biblically sound. Your meter goes off, it gets

louder and louder. So when you hear something like,

hey you need a like you could lose your salvation, did it

right? Like this, like your BS meter

starts going off because it's not biblically sound.

When you hear stuff like, hey, you want to get back to, you

have to pay a little bit of money for that.

Mmm, that's not what God's word says, your meter starts going

off. It starts going to starts going

a few more, you know, there's a man.

You know, when you die you might end up in purgatory.

Tory, did it? It it it it I mean like whenever

the system or it's not biblically sound that lie

detector that BS meter goes a little bit higher.

So whenever something is not biblically sound, there should

be like an alarm that goes off in your heart and in your mind

to alert you that this is not of God.

You know, some might even say well you know, if you want to be

forgiven, you got to go talk to somebody that's more qualified

than you got to go sit in front of a priest and he's going to

tell you what you need to do in order to get your life, right?

Did it. It I mean like it's just it's

just sound in your head. Your BS meter.

Goes off your biblically sound meter.

Get your mind out of the gutter. All right?

So So these things the holy spirit gives you this.

He becomes a guardian. It also becomes like a lie

detector this m in your mind that starts like alerting you.

And then we look at and some of you are like, Well Ricky,

where'd you get that from So, he serves as a guardian, we see

that acts 10:38. And then he serves like as that

Acts 10:38

we're able to kind of detect hearsay, an apostate, all that,

all that stuff. And we see that in John 14:26.

John 14:26

We says the holy spirit will teach you and remind you things.

So when Jesus is baptized the Holy Spirit, descends on him,

and then he's able to go out into the wilderness.

And be tempted for 40 days and 40 nights.

And how does he know what to do? The spirit.

How does he defend it with the word of God?

So, a Satanist telling me you're hungry, just make that rock.

A piece of bread. Did it right?

Like it just goes off. And he's like, well man shall

not live on bread alone. See how he's using scripture to

combat everything that the Antichrist opposer comes and

throws at you. The last couple of verses, so

John spews all this out. He's like, listen, man, like you

have the Holy One, you have the Holy Spirit.

That's how you know, what's true.

So there is no lie into truth. It's all absolutes, not

subjective. So then he wraps it up.

Well then who's the liar here? Who's the liar, then?

Because we're going back and forth.

So there's got to be a result to this who's the liar.

This is who the Liars. If, whoever denies Jesus is the

Christ. Such a person, is the

Antichrist. Denying the father and the son

AKA you get Jesus right wrong, you're the liar.

Any belief system that gets Jesus wrong is of the

Antichrist. It's of the one who opposes

Christ. If you don't say that, Jesus is

the only way to heaven if you don't say that.

He was 100%, man. He was 100% God.

If you don't say that, he was born of a virgin.

If anything against Christ is of the spirit of the Antichrist.

And that is who the liar is. And in verse 23, no one who

denies the son has the father. And whoever acknowledges, the

son has the father, also, he see the Son and the father.

Go are connected hand in hand. If you get Jesus, right, then

you're able to have a right relationship with the father,

but if you don't get Jesus, right, you don't have a right

relationship with the father. All you have are religious

philosophies. And I would even say

emotionalism, you feel great. We have got to understand.

That's all about Jesus to all about getting him, right?

So really kind of how I want to just kind of wrap this up, you

know, I was I was reading this and and I'm seeing like, okay.

So these false teachers these false prophets, these Falls

people are coming from with inside and you and I we have one

of two options in our lives. We could hold on, let's wait

afterward. Okay I got you.

We have one of two options. Options in our lives.

We could either live our lives in a way that we're just kind of

like in our bubble just terrified of the world.

We can stay in our bunker, watch 700 Club, any Chick-fil-A all

day but that's not reality. We're not called to do that,

we're called to be the light of the world, we're called to be in

that Darkness. We're called to go out into the

world to Proclaim Christ. so, I started thinking, you know,

nothing takes God by surprise, our God is all Sovereign,

all-knowing all-powerful. But I started like well then why

if he sees this why did, why does this continue to go?

Like why are there people that creep into the church and start

trying to destroy it and break it up and divide it and take

people with them? Like why does that keep

happening? So kind of what I want to do is

I want to look at it from a perspective on how God uses the

false teachers. For his body.

How does God use that those? That oppose him To actually

glorify him because that's only something God can do.

So, three quick things and then we'll be done.

So number one, I believe that based on detects, he uses it to

purge the body of Christ. He uses it to purge the body of

Christ. What we see in the text in verse

19 is that this person, this this person does this

Antichrist. Those who oppose Jesus is going

to come in and as they leave, they're going to take people

with them. And instead of us being like, Oh

no, like our church is like shrinking or oh, no.

I miss my friend or oh, no. We should be like Lord.

Thank God that they're gone. Listen, there's times where God

is ready to move forward, but you can't move forward because

their specific folks who are still there.

And he needs to purge it out. We need the real ones.

We need those who are in the faith and what God does is that

he uses these situations for those who come into the Assembly

of Believers to show that they are not of the fellowship man.

As you leave, take the rest of them with, you will be better

off. And I know that sounds kind of

cold But God is so mighty and Powerful.

It's hard for me to believe that that would catch him off guard.

Everything is for the glory of God, everything is for him.

So number one, God uses it to purge it.

Number two, God uses this to show you that where you don't

belong, where you don't belong. So if we know that there are

people, if we know that there are Faith leaders who are not

teaching truth who are, who are aligning themselves with the

world and you're sitting underneath one, it's time to go,

leave doesn't matter. If they have a massive

playground for the kids ministry, it doesn't matter.

If their worship team is like going to a concert every Sunday,

if their Doctrine is wrong, get out.

I tell people all the time and keep me in check man, we'll talk

afterward if there's something, I say that's wrong.

That's how important this is. You need to get out and God uses

this to show you, where you should not be where you don't

belong. I know some of us man, we get so

caught up it with with relationships in our friends and

emotionalism we get so tied to the pastor and and all these

things and sometimes God has to use something like that.

To get you out to get, you moving to put you in a place

that aligns with his word and in the last thing and we'll close

with this. I think God uses some of these

false teachers to push us into our purpose.

He uses this to push us into our purpose.

You know, we are human beings. A lot of us are people of

routine. We could do the same thing over

and over and over and over again, and be cool with it, but

there's some times that we need to be shaken, we need to be

stirred up. Did you know, if you go to

countries that are most persecuted in the world, the

church is thriving. There you go.

To the church in China to church and I ran the church and Cuba.

All these places where the church is being persecuted.

The gospel is exploding there. Why?

Because that's all they have. And I think sometimes for some

of us we're so worried about like what people are going to

like man sometimes I hope that happens.

And that is shakes us up. What is your purpose?

And my purpose to know him and make him known?

That's the purpose of Our Lives is to know Christ and to make

sure that make sure that other people know Christ as well.

Faith can be a scary thing. Moving could be a scary thing,

not knowing could be a scary thing.

So, I believe sometimes God uses opposition.

I believe sometimes God uses pain and, and he uses some

unlikely methods, to push us forward into our purpose of

knowing him better and making him known not just in our city,

but amongst the nation's You know, I was doing a lot of like

reflection over this, you know, today was my birthday.

So it's like you start thinking about like man last year and

then the last five years it was like man I got kids, how that

happened? I mean I know I happened but you

know I'm saying right? Like now she's crazy.

So but I was I was thinking like, how did we get to City

Post? And the way we got to city post

and I'm just talking to myself now was that I started seeing

opposition to what God's word said.

And questions were rising up in my mind and I'm like, man, I

know it can't be the church, cannot be this way.

That's why I felt the call for God to say, hey like you're

going to plant a church that's going to be about his word and

about bringing people to the gospel.

We're going to be we're going to be light that pushes back.

Darkness we're going to be in some funky Partnerships but for

the sake of the Gospel, But it took that push to get me out

there cuz I'm like, I'm freaking out about this, like plan to

church of you out of your mind. But God uses these methods and

these ways. So I want to encourage you.

You guys have the Holy Spirit. You have the Holy One in you.

You have the Holy One. He serves as the guardian of

Truth in our lives but he also serves as like this little like

lighted. Just think of the BS alarm.

The biblically sound alarm that goes off when you hear things

that are not biblically sound. We have that.

So we know the truth so in Door persevere because that's the

sign of a True Believer. Let me pray for us, then we're

going to have some time of response and worship and we have

some pretty cool announcements at the end.

So let's pray together. Father, we love you and we thank

you so much for all that you're doing.

So Lord, I pray that you be with us.

Father, I pray that you help us to persevere Lord, even when

things get hard, I pray that you help us to pause.

And instead of asking why we asked, why not, but what are you

doing in our lives? Father.

So regardless of whether we understand or now we know that

you are faithful and we know that you are true.

So we've got so God I pray that you help us to live in the

spirit. I pray that you help us to

understand. Father, that your truth is so

important that we cling Our Lives to this week anchor.

Our hearts on this because without it, we'd be lost.

So Jesus, we give this time to you and your name.

We pray these things. Amen.