The Sword of the Spirit Podcast
America's Christian Heritage, pt. 8
This podcast is hosted on Podhome.fm, an intelligent podcasting platform that you can use to host unlimited shows and episodes and have unlimited downloads. Podhome comes with many intelligent features, like Podhome AI, which automatically creates transcripts, chapters, suggests titles, show notes, detects people, and creates clips. You can use Podhome AI unlimited for all your episodes and all your shows. Go check it out and start your free seven-day trial at Podhome.com. Pre-millennium, pre-tribulational, dispensational, independent, and standing on the inspiring, preserved Word of God, the King James Bible, and our final authority. This is the Sword of the Spirit podcast with your host and Bible teacher, Joseph Rosiello. Take your Bible, sit back, and join us as we open and study the Word of God. And now, here's your host. Well, hey there, folks. This is Joe Rosiello, and it is great to be with you once again as we open up and see and study the precious Word of God, your King James Bible. And you know, folks, as always, whenever and wherever you find yourself listening to us, it's always my prayer that you also find yourself in the grace and in the mercy of our Lord and Savior, the Lord, Jesus Christ. Welcome to the Sword of the Spirit podcast. All right, and we are once again coming to you live at the Asylum Studios broadcasting from the pimple on the backside of Texas, the beautiful city of Eagle Pass. And it is a beautiful Thursday evening here in Eagle Pass. And not so hot out there today, it's only 90 degrees, I think. You know what? I shouldn't even say it because I didn't really check the weather before I got on here. Well, according to the computer here, weather bug, whatever it is, it's 96. So still, it's a beautiful night, and there's a beautiful blue sky still, I got a few clouds out there, nothing crazy, but it is a beautiful night. And I cannot believe that this week has flown by as quick as it did. And I don't know about yours, but my week was pretty uneventful, nothing crazy, worked an awful lot this past week. I was on a 10-day straight streak at the regular job. So I was looking forward, I had today off, which was nice, I was able to kind of just hang around here at the studio a little bit and do some stuff, move some things around, change some things around. And hopefully, we'll get things moving as we go along. And it's been a great week. I'm looking forward to this again, we've been studying for the last seven weeks, we've been studying the spiritual side of our American history. And it's been a blessing to do that when you actually look at this and you realize just how much God's hand was on this country from its foundation all the way through. And somebody actually emailed me and asked why I was doing this type of a series. And I think it's important. That's why. That's the main reason why. It's important that as Americans and as Christians, that we understand that America does have a spiritual history that very few countries ever, ever had. And I just lost my train of thought on that, but God's blessings have been on this country. And what we're going to do tonight, actually, is we're going to launch into a study, and we're going to talk about why God's blessing has been on this country for as long as it has. And we're going to be studying, it's going to be a study of God honoring His Word. Where in the Bible, it says, righteousness exultive a nation. And it's a fascinating study when you actually take the time to sit down and work your way through it. But before we get into the message tonight, I'm going to ask you to do just a couple of quick things for me. As usual, head over to our website, sort of the spiritpodcast.com. And when you get over there, head over to our contact section, open up the web form and send us a message. Let us know whatever's on your heart, whatever's on your mind, any questions, comments, cares, or concerns that you might have. And also, don't forget to send over your prayer request. Now, if you don't want to use the web form, that's totally fine. You could always email me directly at info@sortofthespiritpodcast.com. That's info@sortofthespiritpodcast.com. Also, while you're on the website, take a look at that support button that we have on there. It's in that little pancake up on the right corner. Just take a look at that. If this podcast has been a blessing to you in any way, if you've received anything of value from what we're doing here with the podcast, whether it's the live show or the audio, the video, whether it's listening to it later on as the podcast version of it. 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But of course, we can't do that without your financial support. So if you're on the fence about it, you haven't, you know, made a decision one way or the other as to whether or not you can or feel comfortable supporting us in that way. Pray about it. Ask the Lord to lead you on it. Ask Him to direct you on it. You know, it's really very important. And I think that as we move forward here and we try to expand and do more with the resources that we have, you know, we're going to see a lot of fruit from that. We're trying to be as faithful as we possibly can to the Word of God, to the mission that God has kind of laid on my heart to do this. And it would be a blessing. So again, if you haven't made a donation, if you're on the fence about it, pray about it, see how the Lord leads you to do it. And whatever the donation amount you can make, we would greatly appreciate it. Now, if you want to hear your name, shout out all across this beautiful plane on which we live, a donation of $16.11 at the minimum, we'll get that for you. But again, any amount. Or if you're listening on one of the new modern podcast apps, you can very easily send support through that, through boosts and boost grams and through satoshis and Bitcoin. And, you know, we accept all of that, just you'll find all that information on our website. All right. If you would, why don't you take your Bible and head over to the book of Proverbs and chapter 14. Proverbs and chapter 14. And again, like I said, if you're new here, what we've been doing over the last several weeks, we've been studying a series on the spiritual side of American history. And I love coffee. I really do. And not a paid endorsement in any way, but if you haven't tried blackout coffee yet, oh my gosh, you need to, you need to try blackout coffee. This thing is, it's amazing. I like the morning reaper blend. That's my favorite. And that's what I use. And that's what I have right here. And though it's a morning blend, it has a nice kick to it. So check it out, blackout coffee. So if anybody from blackout is listening, you know, you wouldn't mind taking you on. All right. So I guess that if you're new listening to us here, we've been talking about the spiritual side of American history. And we actually really launched this whole study with a study of the American Revolution. And you know, we've gone through that and we studied some things about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the First and Second Amendments and so on. And we spent some considerable detail on the amendments. And then, you know, and moving on now, we covered some other ground as well. But like I said, I think it's important that as Americans and as Christians, that we understand that America has a spiritual history that few countries ever had. And the more we get that, the more we understand that and comprehend that, I think the better prepared we are to defend our conservative ideas and values because they're all built on that book, on the Bible. All right. Now, in Proverbs, chapter 14 and verse 34, Proverbs, chapter 14 and verse 34, righteousness exalted the nation, but sin is a reproach to any people. Well, I think that's pretty clear, right? That's exalted a nation. All right. How about we pray? Father, would you add your blessings? I do pray to our examination of our history as it is confederate with your word. And Lord, maybe join these things together and have a real sense of appreciation for what it is that you have done for us. And we'll thank you for it and we'll praise you for it in the precious name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, amen. All right, now, one of the things that did come up though is during the course of the week is that I was going over my notes and I realized that I forgot to pass something on to you guys from last Thursday and I studied where we were talking about Andrew Jackson. You remember that? Andrew Jackson was actually a great mentor of Sam Houston, all right? And I'm hopefully most of you folks know who Sam Houston is. If you're a Texan, you should know who Sam Houston is. But Andrew Jackson, you know, he had a great affection for Sam Houston and as a result of that, Sam desperately wanted his young son to meet Andrew. But unfortunately, though, when they arrived at Hermitage to see the general, they found out that the day before they had arrived, he had passed away. And so he was pretty grief-stricken by it, about the whole thing. And they went up to the room where Andrew Jackson was stretched out in the casket. And Sam Houston said to his son, he goes, "My son, try to remember that you've looked upon the face of Andrew Jackson." Because in his estimation of Sam Houston, Andrew Jackson made an incredible contribution to America. And last week we talked a little bit about Jackson's conversion and his faith and trust in Jesus Christ and his profession to that, late in life. Now Sam Houston, as you probably well know, that's a name that isn't unfamiliar to most Americans. And like I said, especially if you're a Texan, it shouldn't be unfamiliar to you. But Sam Houston made a great contribution to America as well. And you know, he led a great victory in Texas' War of Independence from Mexico. Although he was outnumbered 1600 to 740, Houston was able to route Santa Ana's Army at the San Jacinto River on April the 21st of 1836. Now that particular fight took exactly 20 minutes, 20 minutes, that's all it was. And you know, Sam Houston was pretty sharp. And do you know what he did? What he did was he waited until 4 o'clock in the afternoon to engage the Mexicans when it was their traditional time for Siesta. And so while they were resting, you know, the cry of "Remember the Alamo" was going strong. And so the battle really didn't take all that long, like I said, exactly 20 minutes. Santa Ana was essentially an opium smoking dopehead, you know, for the most part. And so he was in a state of, you know, like who knows where, when all that was going on. He was somewhere between Venus and Mars and, you know, during a great deal of that whole thing. Well, as a result of that, Sam Houston was inaugurated president of the Republic of Texas in the fall of 1836. And he said this. He said, and Andrew Jackson agreed with him. He said, "Texas is the key to our future safety." And that still is true today. So in other words, Texas was viewed as a safety zone between the rest of America and Mexico. All right. So Jackson rejoiced with Houston at the formal entrance of Texas into the Union in March of 1845. Now as Sam Houston reached his senior years, he became a lot more reflective, just like his mentor, Andrew Jackson did, and that we talked about last week. And so an old church historian named Elliot described this way, and I quote, "Houston's conversion was doubtless due primarily to the remarkable influence of his devout wife, who was Maggie Lee prior to their marriage in 1840. He did not make a public profession of faith until 1854, when he united with the Baptist Church at Independence, and was baptized by a Dr. RLC Burleson on November the 19th of that year. He then became a regular attendant upon preaching and prayer meeting services. He led in public prayer, and when he had laid dying in his home in Huntsville, he expressed to his family and friends his implicit faith in the Savior. All right. Now, what we're going to launch into tonight is a study of God honoring his word when it says, "righteousness exalteth a nation." You know, when God says something, he obligates himself to honor it. You know, God doesn't forget stuff like we do. You know, he remembers every jot and every tittle, doesn't he? And so a lot of what we're going to see is a result of just that. People believing the word of God and acting upon it. And so some of the great names in the annals of our history have made public professions of faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And you know, regardless of whatever religious denomination preference they may have had, they were very explicit in their faith, in their faith and confidence in the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, upon the recommendation of President James Polk, Congress declared war again on Mexico on May 13, 1846. So you know, we've had a couple of wars with those guys in California at that particular time. The Californians were getting a little upset with the Mexican government. They said that there was a lack of courts and police and schools and postal service, you know, among other grievances that they had. And the Mexican government really just kind of treated them like, you know, the redheaded stepchild, you know, out there in California. So they were essentially on their own. And so animosity continued to grow. Now you have to understand, you know, the problem then, as I believe to a great degree as now was never with the Mexicans. It wasn't with the people. It was with the government. Okay, you see, a lot of Mexican people lived in Texas and were all for the departure of Texas from the Mexico, you know, cloud of influence and the same identical situation existed in California. They could see that it would, you know, be greatly to their advantage to be separate from Mexico because of the government. Now at the risk of sounding very politically incorrect here, and you know, I always do worry about that, at the risk of, and we're going to address this a little bit more later on, but the number one problem with the Mexican government was the Mexican religion. That was the number one problem. The war was primarily with Catholicism, you see, and you'll see more about that as we develop this as we go on, but just stop and think about that for a minute. Now America, as we'll see, was making great strides under predominantly Protestantism, you know, kind of people and thought and religion. You know, people honored, people that honored the Word of God. I mean, can you think, and you know, anytime you talk like this, you know, someone's going to get a hold of this thing, and you know, someone's going to download it, and someone's going to say, boy, man, that preacher hates Catholics, which is probably the dumbest thing in the world. Folks, I came from a Catholic family, you know, I know what it is to be Catholic, all right? See, 99% of all Italians you'll ever meet are Catholics. See, that's just the religious heritage now. So to say that I hate Catholics is to say that I hate my family, you know, I still have an awful lot of family members that are Roman Catholic, you know, and believe me, I've done everything I possibly can to try to help them understand that, you know, Catholicism alone will not save them, that will not regenerate them. It will not get their sins forgiven. You know, it's not, it will not guarantee a trip to heaven. Only Jesus Christ can guarantee that, amen? All right, but the contributions that America has made to the world are so astronomical, you know, they're almost beyond number. And when you compare the contributions of America to any Catholic country you want to name, I mean, you can, you know, just name one, it doesn't matter. It absolutely doesn't matter. You'll see that, that it is so overwhelmingly lopsided because Catholicism majors in ignorance, they attempt to keep the people in the dark spiritually and spiritual ignorance leads to intellectual ignorance. Well, I'm not going to go into this right now because I'm going to say more about it later. All right. So now let's get back to California. So the Californians raised a flag called the Bear Flag Republic, all right. It was, it was a white flag with a bear and a star painted on it. And there was a general by the name of Taylor, and he went down and he captured Monterey, Mexico, and another general named Wilford Scott eventually took Mexico City. And when a formal piece was finally secured, and that was secured in February of 1848, the United States had acquired, in addition to California, the present territory of New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and that roughly totaled out to about 918,000 square miles. So a lot of territory was added to these United States right there. All right. Now it seems, you know, and it seems as though, and then of course, you know, the Oregon territory came in later, not too long after that. And so there was, there was something that was, that was stated way, way, way, way back in, in constitution days by a man named Dr. Witherspoon, and we had mentioned this, this gentleman before, and, and he said, quote, "My vision is a turnpike to the Pacific." So in other words, what he envisioned was North America from the Canadian line all the way down to, to the present line of Mexico being joined together under these United States of America, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, consequently inspiring Catherine Bates to pen from Sea to Shining Sea. Well, now, and that's just because, you know, God said, well, you know what, it would just be a nice thing to do. Now take your Bibles and head over to Genesis in chapter nine, Genesis chapter nine. Now, you know, something you and I are privileged to live in a land of manifest destiny, and we, we talked about manifest destiny as well. And you know, unless something radically changes, folks, it's going to go, it's, it's about to all go down the toilet. But you know, now, now God's got a lot of, now a lot of people confuse prophecy, all right. They think that all prophecy is, is, is like a divine endorsement, which really isn't necessarily the case. God, God prophesies that evil things will take place as well as good things. So in prophetic anticipation, God says this, speaking of the three sons of, of Noah, Shem, Ham and Japheth. And if you look at, and if you look at, you know, these three boys, they're the progenitors of the three races in America, all right, Shem is the Oriental race, Ham is the black race, Japheth is the Caucasian race, you see? So he has something to say about every one of these boys. And so he says in verse 27 in Genesis nine, God shall enlarge Japheth. So historically, Japheth landed up in what we call today Europe, all right. He was the European Caucasian, but God said somewhere down the trail that he was going to enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the, in the tents of Shem. Now the American Indian is a Shemite, you see, he's not Japheth. He's Semitic, which, you know, by the way, is if you ever really get into a conversation with, with an American Indian, you know, they'll say that they have no regard for the white man's religion, you know, speaking to Christianity. So I'm going to give you a little bit of a bit of, of ammunition for that, all right. Your Christianity is not white man's religion, all right. You got your religion from Shem, you see, Japheth didn't invent Christianity, all right. A Jew is a Shemite. So you know where your religion came from, ethnically speaking, it came from Shem, all right. We borrowed it. And thank God that Romans chapter 11, God said we could borrow it. Thank God he said that you and I can get it on the act, you see. So, so, so Japheth and Ham are both borrowers of Shem's religion. Every major religion in the world came from Shem, all right. Shem is a meditator, all right. He's a thinker, you see. So if you talk about Buddhism, right, that's Shem, Islam, Shem, Hinduism, Shem, Christianity, Shem, Shem's the guy that sits around on top of the mountain and he ponders things. He thinks, he meditates. And so, God understanding that, that, that made his, so, so, and so God understanding that he made his revelations to Shem and then to pass down onto the other two races. Now, folks, I'm glad we got in on it. I'm glad we got in on it. All right. Now, so we said, God's going to expand Japheth. He's going, he's going to, he's going to enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem. Now, just because God said that Japheth is going to dwell in the tents of Shem and that's what we've done, that's what we've done. That's what Japheth has done for the last 400 years. It's not a direction that Shem should be abused or mistreated in any way, all right. And in some cases, he has been at the hands of Japheth. Shem has sometimes been horribly mistreated by Japheth in North America and that's a tragedy. But you know, only a fool would expect a nation of flawed humans to be, to evolve into a utopian society, this side of New Jerusalem, amen, because you know what we are, folks, we're just flawed human beings. The greatest king that ever lived was King David and he had his flaws, did he not? He had his flaws and we have, as Americans, have had ours. And you know, if you want, you know, as long as you want to talk about our flaws, you've got to stop and you've got to think about the issue of slavery for a minute, all right. Now, you know, the Bible doesn't endorse slavery as we generally think of it, historically and traditionally. The Bible does endorse servitude, but you see, in the Bible days, a man could sell himself into servitude and that was to pay his debts and that's what the year of Jubilee was all about. The year of Jubilee would come along and then you'd start from square one again, the guy could either walk out the door and go free or he could, you know, re-up the contract, you see? And that's kind of the way the system worked back then. But back in the days of slavery, Jay 5th imported a lot of slaves to this country and most of them were mistreated, but here's a thought though that no one ponders, all right. No one really gives any thought to it. Those slaves were treated so horribly and some were absolutely no question about it. Most of them were, but if they were treated, they were so horribly mistreated, why did they en masse adopt the white man's religion? There were four million slaves at the time of the emancipation in this country. Only a hundred thousand of them converted to Catholicism. The vast majority of them to this day are called Baptists, isn't that right? You see what they did? They accepted a religion and there was a great preacher by the name of John Jasper, all right, during those days, during the slavery days, John was a slave, but his master allowed him to travel on Sundays to preach to other black churches on plantations. He lived in Virginia in the Richmond area and at the Emancipation, of course, John Jasper was set free and so he established a church instantly in Richmond, Virginia, which grew exponentially and they built a huge building. On Sunday nights, the balcony was filled with white folks because they wanted to hear John Jasper preach and the reason why is because that guy could preach. He was a preaching machine man and so they came. They left them more stayed traditional, formal churches that they attended on Sunday morning and Sunday night they said, "Hey man, let's go hear John Jasper preach and get loose." Now the question is this, God uses tragic circumstances sometimes, bad circumstances to accomplish something right and good. Take your Bible and go to Romans chapter 8, Romans 8. As tragic as some of the consequences of slavery were, in the larger picture, in the larger and the final analysis, what's better? Dying in Africa, under the dark influence of pagan religion, witch doctors, or dying on a plantation having heard and received the gospel of Jesus Christ. I mean, you have to look at it that way too, you see? That's a larger picture, Romans 8.28 and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Alright, so are there many offenders? Well America has a manifest destiny. America has been a great country but it had its flaws, no question about it. It hasn't been perfect. And again, you can't expect perfection out of imperfect human beings. But the Bible assures us where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Initially, and let me rewind a little bit and talk about the Indians, you know, we talked about the slaves, let's go back to the Indians for a minute. Have you ever heard of a guide by the name of David Brainerd? Alright, David Brainerd was an early missionary to the Indians and I'm talking about way back east, alright, and you know, we're talking colonial days way back in Pennsylvania. And that guy, I mean, he sold out lock, stock and barrel to win Indians to Jesus Christ. And he did an incredible job. He did a masterful job. And if you haven't read any biographies about him, man you ought to, you really need to. You'll get more out of reading about David Brainerd than you ever will about, you know, watching football or baseball or hockey, you with me. That guy had a love in his heart for the Native American, for the Indian. But you know, a lot of other missionaries came westward with that same kind of zeal, the same kind of resolution to win these Native Americans as Jesus Christ. And one that you'll never read about in the history books and one you'll never hear about on the history channel is an Indian that everybody's heard of. And he trusted Christ as a result of a Baptist missionary witnessing to him incessantly. And that guy's name was, Do you know, Geronimo, Geronimo, yeah, Geronimo is in heaven today based on his faith and trust and testimony in the Lord Jesus Christ. And like I said, you know, you won't pick that up in any history books. You know, you're not going to see that on TV on the history channel, but you have to understand that America has a spiritual history that is really usually ignored. You know, that Bible says over in Luke chapter 16 that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. That's what God cared about. You know, way back when those pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock and we assessed this early on, you know, in the Mayflower Compact and some of their writings, what they said were, what they said was, was basically this. They said, you know, we came to America for two reasons. Now, you know, people say, well, you know, they came because of religious persecution. And, you know, that's not precisely true. They left England because of religious persecution. But they didn't come to America from England, right? They went from England to Holland and they spent 11 years in Holland. And after spending those 11 years in Holland, they said this, you know, we've got a problem. And the problem is that the Dutch people are so worldly that they're having a negative influence on our children. Well, that sounds about familiar, doesn't it? Like, hello, America, you know? And so, they said, you know, we've got to do something else. So they listed two reasons. That one, plus another one, why they made the decision to come to America. And, you know, you know, and to try to make a go of it here. Number one, they wanted to escape the worldly influence of the Dutch. They didn't feel like they can go back to England, you know, because of the religious persecution that they had originally experienced there. But they said there's a second reason. The second reason was that we understand that there's a native pagan people and we feel a compelling need for evangelism and we want to expose them to the gospel. Well, they didn't teach you that in school, did they? No. No, you're not going to get that in school. But all you got to do is read what they themselves wrote. That's what they said. That's not guessing. That's not, you know, extrapolating that that's what they said themselves. So this concept of evangelism has always been a common denominator and thread that's been woven in the American fabric right from the beginning that has been an existing thing that God has honored, righteousness, exaltive, the nation. All right? So, you know, God is not all that concerned about, you know, 19th century America that the history of books write about. You know, God doesn't care about Astor's millions or Hawthorne's novels or, or Audubon's birds or writes architecture or, or Whitman's paintings or Holmes philosophy or man's, you know, educational fantasies. God, you know, doesn't even really care about double days creation of baseball. God doesn't care about that stuff. You know what God cares about? He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. That's what God cares about, amen? That's God. That's what God cares about. Well, that, that thread of, you know, theological philosophy, if you want to call it that, you know, has always been in America. Now for a long time, you know, anything beyond a hundred miles inland from the Atlantic coast was, was, was virtual wilderness. I mean, you know, nothing but forest. And as one writer said, phantoms moving through the forest, interesting, right? Another historian, Virgil Bob, wrote this, "Up until about 1840, the Baptist movement in America was highly evangelistic, strong home and foreign mission development, preferring denominational work, but willing to cooperate inter-denominationally if needed, concerned for education and desiring to keep the West from Catholicism." All right. So that was a major motive. All right. Let's keep the West from Catholicism. Now, such was, quote, now such was the Baptist's growth by 1844 that Torbitt's report Total Membership of 720,046 in 9,385 churches with 6,364 ministers. That computes out to an increase of 360 percent from 1814 to 1844 during which time the population growth in the United States was at 140 percent. So this, this phenomenal expansion, missions-wise, the first non-Catholic church, West of the Mississippi, permanent church was the Bethel Baptist church of Gerardo County, Missouri. All right. That was the first one. And that was organized on July the 19th in 1806. And that goes clear back to the Lewis and Clark days, right? That's a long time ago. And the Baptists were concerned with spiritual education. The first Sunday school in America was founded by Samuel Slater, who was a Baptist layman on September the 15th, 1799 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. By 1850, there were five Baptist institutions of higher learning in the East. Now, I'm going to read some names to you that you're probably familiar with, but I bet you didn't know that they were initially Baptist colleges, all right? Boston University, Waterville College, now called Colby, Madison University, now Colgate, Columbian University, Lewisburg University, now Bucknell. Those were all Baptist colleges, started just like, you know, Harvard and Yale started with the primary purpose of training young men for the ministry of Jesus Christ. It's fascinating. Later on, it was Baylor, Furman, Crow's Theological Seminary, the University of Chicago, you know, followed all of these, you know, they were all Baptist institutions. So the great emphasis on foreign missions was also in the mix. The Baptist Missionary Society in Massachusetts was formed in 1802. In the year 1812, the Salem Bible Translation and Foreign Mission Society was organized, followed by the Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions in 1814. In 1824, the Baptist General Track Society was started in Washington, D.C. So the Baptists were at the forefront of pushing into the West, into the wilderness, and at the same time, they were doing what they felt like they could do and should do in foreign missions. But, you know, the Baptists weren't the only ones. They were kind of like, you know, spearheading a lot of it, but there were others that came along. You know, we talked a little bit last week about the Methodists, all right? And there was a great evangelist of yesteryear by the name of Charles Finney. Charles Finney, he was a Presbyterian. And probably the biggest reason that he was a Presbyterian was he was converted in October 1821 through the influence of the Adams County Presbyterian Church in Adams, New York. Now, Finney, you know, he was already a very well recognized and an accomplished attorney at the point of his conversion. And even though the Presbyterians primarily clung to the doctrine of Calvinism, which we discussed one night a couple of weeks ago, Finney rejected that. He said, no. He said, no, I'm not a Calvinist. I'm not into this, you know, predetermined salvation stuff. I believe that everyone has an opportunity to accept or reject. In fact, he stressed the sinner's personal accountability and publicly invited his listeners to use what he called the anxious seat, the anxious seat. You know, I've never heard that term outside of Finney's ministry, the anxious seat. But when I stopped and thought about it, you know, in preaching the gospel and telling people that without Jesus Christ, they're lost and they're going to hell. You know, I have watched a lot of people get really anxious, you know, really nervous, nervous, man. I'm telling it nervous. So someone wrote this quote, his preaching exploits, his preaching exploits read like the book of Acts, having married Lydia Andrews on October of, in October of 1824, their honey moon had to be delayed six months. Now, would you like that, ladies? Was a revival broke out where the groom happened to be preaching? So he basically said, yeah, I can't leave. On another occasion, a factory owner got so burdened that he shut down his plant so that the visiting evangelists could meet and proclaim the gospel to his needy employees. Now, Finney's primary area of evangelism was what we call today the Erie Canal. All right. And, you know, he traveled up and down the Erie Canal from Buffalo, New York, down to Rome and Utica, Syracuse, Albany, Auburn, you know, and that whole stretch there up through New York State. And I'm pretty familiar with it actually because, you know, like you guys know, I'm from New York. I lived in New York most of my life and I would often, I mean, I lived in Manhattan, I lived in Staten Island, born in Brooklyn, and I worked in Manhattan, but I used to travel up state in New York quite a bit and, you know, I love going upstate and beautiful. A lot of difference, by the way, between upstate New York and downstate, you know, upstate, you know, downstate's the city, it's Manhattan, that's what everybody knows about it. But you know, equal upstate, you got Apple orchards, dairy farms, ranches, you know, it's a completely different world altogether, completely different world. But when Charles Finney though conducted meetings and, you know, a meeting in those days wasn't like we have meetings today, you know, a meeting in church today is well, you know, hey, well, come on, let's go to church tonight. And you know, some churches that are really revved up and hot to trot, you know, they might have an extended three or four night meeting, you know. But Charles Finney's meetings ran for six months at a time, six months. You know, people had to make other arrangements, you know, they had to figure out when to cook their meals and had, you know, and take care of their laundry and all the other things that they needed to take care of on a daily basis. He held meetings, he held two meetings, particularly in a city upstate, I forget the name of the city though, but each one of them was for the duration of six months, six months each, two meetings, and between those two meetings, over a hundred thousand people professed Jesus Christ their savior, a hundred thousand. Now, it's estimated that by that that Finney put a hundred thousand members into the Northern Presbyterian churches and influence another 500,000 decisions to trust Jesus Christ. Lawson, another historian, states that 85% of Finney's converts remained true to their professions of faith. Now, they estimate that, you know, Billy Graham's success rate, you know, I use Billy Graham because he's the most, you know, well-known of today's day, but they estimate that Billy Graham's success rate, and I'm not blaming Billy Graham for this, you know, I'm blaming the times as much as anything else. But they estimate that his success rate was about 11%, that's a big difference, that's a phenomenal difference, wouldn't you say? 85% and 11%. So now you might be sitting there and you're probably thinking to yourself, why are you bringing all this up, to show you that America is steeped in a Bible-based evangelistic history, and that thread runs through from one end to the other. You know, sometimes, you know, seeds are planted that don't pop up out of the ground for years and years and years. You know, out in Death Valley, right, they say that in one of those rare years when they get some rain in the spring, and it might be, you know, 10 to 20 years between rains. And then all of a sudden, that valley floor is just covered with flowers, all right? Now, spiritual seeds are similar. Spiritual seeds are similar. Do you guys remember the name Alexis de Tocqueville? All right, now, if you don't, he was a Frenchman that came to America, and de Tocqueville made some very acute observations about America. And here's what he said, among other things, he said, "Upon my arrival in the United States, the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention." He also made some astute observations that legitimate Christianity liberates the intellect, stating this, "In the United States, the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people." And as he traveled around through this nation of Bible literate citizens, de Tocqueville was simply witnessing the marvelous, absolutely marvelous fulfillment of John 832, which says, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Folks, you know what that Bible does? It frees up intellectualism. It doesn't stifle it. It opens it up, and I'm going to give you some examples of that pretty soon. Tragically, though, many other religions, including what the Protestants considered their primary competition or adversary, Catholicism, didn't do that, and so the Bible-believing Americans were challenged to expand the horizon by such scriptures as Proverbs 10, 14. Wise men lay up knowledge, and Proverbs 24, verse 5, "A man of knowledge increases strength." Pope Gregory, the sixteenth, was admonishing the faithful on August the 15th of 1832. Here's what he said, "If the Holy Church so requires let us sacrifice our own opinions, our knowledge, our intelligence, the splendid dreams of our imagination, and the most sublime attainments of the human understanding." So, in other words, suppress it all if the Church tells you to, suppress it all. Wait a minute, though. That Bible tells me, knowing God, trusting God, believing God will give you insight and information into things and revelation that you have never experienced. And I believe that, and I believe that with all of my heart, and all you have to do is study the prosperity of America, righteousness, exalt of the nation again. The Lord was obligated, by His own word, to reward these soul-winning evangelistic efforts that were taking place all across this country. America has been privileged to see four revivals, four. And we've talked about a couple of them. We've got a couple to go yet, and some time in the future, and these revivals have incited a phenomenal interest in the things of the Word of God. Now, the question is, will we ever have another one? I don't know. I don't know. But think back with me, during the colonial era, manufacturing was pretty much not an issue in America. We actually manufactured very little in the colonial days. You know what happened? In England, who was dominating us in the colonial times prior to the revolution, said this. They said, you know, America is purely for the purpose of providing raw material. That's it. And the raw material is going to be shipped back to England on English ships, and all the manufacturing took place in England. And then when it got there, they manufactured it, and they sent it back to us and sold it to us. All right? So after the war, England said, okay, well, you're going to pay the price now. We're just going to cut you off. You're on your own. We're not going to sell you anything. And so Americans had to become rather ingenious, and the term was initiated at that particular point in our history, and you've all heard it a jack of all trades. You know, Americans have historically been pretty ingenious coming up with stuff, amen? And you know, and when I say Americans, by the way, just the clarity, when I say Americans, I'm talking about Americans of all kinds of ethnic backgrounds. I'm talking about black and yellow and white and blue and purple and red and green, and you know, you see, God is no respecter of persons. What God blesses is those that honor His word. That's what God blesses. Now there are some amazing things. So America went through a time after the revolution where they were hurting, where they were hurting. They had very little goods. England refused to send manufacturers good, manufactured goods back. And so America had to figure out, okay, well, how do you make this stuff? You know? And how do you do this? To do without can produce great things. To do without can produce great things. You know, I'm amazed. And I don't watch them much, but I'm amazed when I see these young couples on TV looking for a house, you know, they're in their late 20s, early 30s, and they want that million dollar house, but it has to have granite and it has to have this and it's got to have that, you know? And I'm looking at that and I'm thinking, man, you've got to be kidding me. You know, where in the world, where in the world do this entitlement mentality come from? You know, it just really blows your mind. You know, they want what's taken mom and dad 40 or 50 years to accumulate and they want it right here, right now. That's a strange thing. To do without produces great things. No question about it. Well, a young nation of rugged individualists began to harness the doctrine of soul liberty. And that's what we, as Bible believers, that's what we believe, as Bible believers. You know, we're talking of soul, how do I phrase this? We're talking about soul liberty in relation to their goods and services. You know, the old world soon took notice of a new emerging dynamo known as Yankee ingenuity. And all of a sudden, Yankee ingenuity began to really get ahead of steam. And once again, we're reminded that righteousness exalted the nation. You know, Ben Franklin, remember him? You know, he was all the way back there, you know, colonial days, you know, that he gave us the vocabulary of electrical terms. Ben Franklin. He gave us this vocabulary, battery condenser, conductor, charge, discharge, armature, electric shock, electrician, positive and negative electricity and concepts of plus and minus charge. You know, all of that came from Ben, Ben Franklin. I mean, wow, you think about that, right? Wilson writes this, quote, "The true story of Franklin's work on lighting is further proof of his superiority to all other 18th century electricians. For almost half a century before, men had been suggesting the identity of lightning and the electric spark. However, no one had ever worked out a means of proving it. Franklin not only suggested an actual experiment, but he was able to explain lightning in rational terms and not as an awesome supernatural manifestation." So he could actually explain it. Even at the age of 83, this longtime scientific contributor was working at, you know, at the age of 83, he said, you know, I'm getting tired of changing my glasses. I got to have one pair that I can see out there and another pair that I can see up here, up close. So what did he do? He invented bifocals and that went to trifocals and, you know, I don't know if there's anything beyond that. But, I mean, how many of you, how many of you listening have bifocals? I have them. I have the progressive kind. You know, they have no lines, but, you know, well, you know what, let me tell you about some other things. Oh, and by the way, Ben Franklin created that bifocal in 1784, all right, just, just so you have it written down, 1784 was the bifocal. Three years later, John Fitch gave us a steamboat while Robert Fulton's Claremont improved the same in 1807, Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793, and the world's first factory to convert raw cotton into cloth by powered machinery within the walls of a single building was begun in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1814 by the Boston manufacturing company. John Henry, excuse me, Joseph Henry, was credited in 1831 for his discovery of electrical induction and the principle of induced current. An accomplished American artist by the name of Samuel F. B. Morse perfected the Morse code in 1838, and in 1844, he strung a test line of 40 miles between Washington and Baltimore for the nation's first telegraph service with the initial message, the first words to come across a telegraph wire were what hath God wrought. First words, in a conversation with Professor Morse, the inventor of the telegraph, the reverend George W. Hervey asked this question, "Professor Morse, when you were making your experiments in your room at the university, did you ever come to a stand not knowing what to do next?" "Oh yes, more than once," he said, "and at said times, what did you do next?" "I may answer you in confidence, sir," said the professor, "but it is a matter which the public knows nothing. I prayed for more light." And the light generally came? Yes, and I may tell you that when the flattering honors came to me from America and Europe on account of the invention which bears my name, I never felt I deserved them. I had made a valuable application of electricity, not because I was superior to other men, but solely because God, who meant it for mankind, must reveal it to someone, and was pleased to reveal it to me. So you know, in view of those facts, it's not surprising that the inventor's first message was what hath God wrought. You see, God and the very idea and the very concept of God was so intertwined into the thinking of these people that God was obligated to honor His Word, righteousness, exaltive, a nation. His original steam locomotive was built by John Stevens in 1825, while Peter Cooper produced a more practical engine in 1830 known as the Tom Thumb. For the first time since the Garden of Eden, men can now travel faster than 18 to 22 miles a day. The age of running to and fro, that's Daniel chapter 12 verse, Daniel 12-4, the age of running to and fro was inaugurated in America a mere 50 years after the Constitution was signed. Now, God didn't say that running to and fro would all be bad. He just said it would be that way. And boy, is it. I mean, when was the last time you read a major airport? It's insane. John Deere invented the steel plow in 1833 in Silas McCormick, the reaper in 1847. Charles Goodyear gave us vulcanized rubber in 1839. An American physician, Dr. Crawford Long, introduced anesthesia to the medical community in 1846, while Elias Howell invented the world's first sewing machine in the same year. The marvelous forward motion continued through the second half of the century as well. Hammond and Davis refrigerated boxcar in 1867. Glidden barbed wire in 1874. The first typewriter in 1873 by Scholes Glidden and Sewell. In 1872, the air brake by Westinghouse, Bell's telephone in 1876, the amazing contribution of Thomas Edison, who was actually sent home by his teacher at age six with a note that said, "This child is too stupid to learn." You know, there's a little phrase in your Bible that you come across periodically and I love it. I absolutely love it. It just says, "But God, but God." Well, old Thomas, you know about him, I'm sure, right, the phonograph in 1877, the incandescent lamp in 1879, the motion picture in 1889, just to name a few. But interesting, here's what you may not know. I mean, you probably knew everything else I told you, but Edison, whose family attended a Baptist Church in Llewellyn, New Jersey, was able to see the bigger picture. Here's what Edison said. He said, "No one can study chemistry and see the wonderful way in which certain elements combine with the nicety of the most delicate machine ever invented and not come to the inevitable conclusion that there is a big engineer who's running this universe." That was his conclusion. That was his conclusion. The Yankee version of the horseless carriage in 1895 closed out to 19th century while the incredible flying machine of Kitty Hawk in 1903 inaugurated the 20th. All right, now folks, name another nation, a name another nation, any that made these kinds of contributions. There's not one, and you know, we've only named a few. I mean, really, just a handful. It's just a handful. But you know what the genesis of all of that is? It's that Bible and a belief in that Bible and the people that were willing to be proactive in regard to the admonitions and the commandments of that Bible. You know, probably one of the greatest contributions America ever made is America was the first country in the world where you could generally, no matter where you went, depend upon clean water, drinkable water. And I would call that pretty essential, wouldn't you? Dr. Tan says this, quote, "At present, impure water, not scarcity of water, is the world's major hazard, each year, 10 million deaths result from waterborne intestinal diseases and over one third of humanity are debilitated as a result of impure water. A pure water supply could slash the incidences of cholera, diarrhea, dysentery and typhoid up to 75 percent. About $21 billion were pledged by the family of nations between 1977 and 1980 to provide safe water. But the World Bank estimates that it would take about twice that sum to eliminate most of the earth's water problems. America came up with safe water. America was the pioneer in good water and the civilized nations of the world that have now utilized those techniques have simply adopted plans that came from this country. What have God wrought?" Folks, that Bible will broaden all kinds of things, not just spiritual senses, but intellectual senses in science and in every other way. Folks, God is not anti-science, he is not anti-science, God is pro-science. He just says, "Be careful about science falsely so called." Hezekiah was a scientist, Solomon was a scientist, some of the great personalities in the Bible were scientists and God showed them things. He showed them things. I believe that there's a cure for every disease out there and God knows what it is. God knows what it is and in the millennium he's going to show us. He's going to say, "Okay, now you take leaves from that tree over there and the root from that plant over there and you put that what hath God wrought?" Well, righteousness exalteth the nation. Now you can see a direct correlation, can you not? As righteousness diminishes in this nation, so does its influence on the world stage. So does its ability to tackle its own problem. This exalteth the nation and that comes from a people that believe God's Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the preaching, the teaching of your word tonight. God, we thank you so much for the message. Lord, we thank you for the history, the wonderful history of this country. God, we thank you that your hand has been upon this country from its inception. And God, I pray that we will not lose sight as a country of your righteousness, of your word. God, you promise that righteousness exalteth the nation. God I pray for our country. God I pray that you have mercy on us for straying as far as we have and I pray, Lord, that you would raise up folks to lead this country back into the path of righteousness. And we'll thank you for it. Let's just name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, we do pray. Amen. All right. Well, that's going to take us to our break for tonight. And I just want to say thank you so much to everybody that's watching right now on Rumble. Appreciate you being here tonight. Also the folks that are listening live on the audio stream. Thank you so much for spending your Thursday night with us. All right, folks, this is the Sword of a Spirit podcast. We are a live show every Thursday night at 7 p.m. Central Time and also on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. Central Time. You can find us on SwordofaSpiritpodcast.com on any one of your modern podcast apps or you can check us out on the video stream on Rumble. All right, folks, again, this is the Sword of a Spirit podcast and we'll be back right after this. You stay with us. El Shaddai, El Shaddai, El Yona, Adonai, H2H, your sister. We're still the same by the power of the name El Shaddai, El Shaddai, Irkongkon, Adonai. I will praise and lift you high, El Shaddai through your love and through the realm. You save the soul of Abraham, through the power of your hand. You turn the sea into dry land to the outcast on her knees. You were the God who really sees, and by your might you set your children free. El Shaddai, El Shaddai, El Yona, Adonai, H2H, your still the same by the power of the name El Shaddai, El Shaddai, Irkongkon, Adonai. I will praise and lift you high, El Shaddai. I will praise and lift you high, El Shaddai. El Shaddai, El Shaddai, El Yona, Adonai, H2H, your still the same by the power of the name El Shaddai, Irkongkon, Adonai. I will praise and lift you high, El Shaddai. Through the years you made it clear that the time of Christ was near, though the people couldn't see what Messiah ought to be. Your most awesome work was done, through the frailty of your son. I will praise and lift you high, El Shaddai. Hi, this is Barry of Pothom.fm and the Improving Barry podcast. You're listening to the Sword of the Spirit podcast on Sword of the Spirit podcast.com and Pothom.fm. See he, the Lord, while he may be found, called upon him while he's near, let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn at me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. He that believeth on the sun hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the sun shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that hearth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life, and Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, that ye also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Jesus stood and cried, saying, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water; for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life. But as many as received him, to them gave he power, to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. And the spirit and the bride say, "Come, and let him that heareth say, 'Come,' and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely." Amen, amen, and amen. Hey, folks, welcome back to the Sword of the Spirit podcast. Let me just take care of something here really, really quick. And we're going to get on to our prayer list right now. So if you have any prayer requests whatsoever, just head over to our website, sortofthespiritpodcast.com. That's sortofthespiritpodcast.com. Open up that web form, send them on over to us, or you can always email me directly at info@sortofthespiritpodcast.com. All right, so as usual, on our prayer list, we always start off our prayer list with praying for those folks that are in need of salvation. Now, these are three names that have been given to us to pray for them. And so that's what we're going to be doing. And so we've been praying for Micah, for Candy, and for Eddie, for their salvation. So we're going to continue to pray for them. They need to get saved. We're also praying on our sick list for Yesenia, undergoing chemo treatment right now, also for Maricela, after a triple bypass surgery for recovery, Rosa with heart trouble, Lorena, who's battling cancer, Emmanuel, who is dealing with bone cancer. And we're also praying for Angie Ferrer, she -- we've been praying for her for a little bit now. She is currently on life support, and her family will be, from what I understand, possibly on Friday, tomorrow, will be discontinuing life support. So we want to pray for Angie that in these final moments that -- or perhaps before she went into -- under the life support measures that she called out upon the name of the Lord to be saved. And we're also going to pray for her family as well. We're also going to be praying for Brother Henry, for direction, and in his walk with the Lord, and his ministry, and his family, and leadership in his family, and his career choices. We're also praying for Angela for direction and clarity in her walk with the Lord. We're praying for our -- our friend, our producer, Claude, for his particular needs, starting a new job and his particular family needs, so we're going to lift him up in prayer. Also praying for Eddie. Now, this is the same Eddie that we're praying for salvation, but we're praying for his problem with addiction. We're also praying for Ed for his overall health and well-being. And we're praying for Isabel, who is a single mom, and she has some particular unstated needs. And we also have our unspoken prayer requests. We have our anonymous prayer requests for peace and life and soul. And so we're going to pray for those. And let's see. All right. So I think that covers everything on the list for tonight. Let me just go through this one more time. All right. Yep. That's it. That'll cover it for tonight. So let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we want to thank you so much, God, that you are the God of grace, and you are the God of mercy. You are the God of love. Lord, but you're also a God of wrath and judgment. And God, we pray for those that are on our salvation prayer list. God, we pray that they would be saved and be spared, your wrath and judgment. God, I just pray that these folks, these three folks that we're mentioning tonight come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit. God, I pray that your hand would be upon them and that you would draw them into yourself and Lord that they would be saved. We also pray for Angie as well, Lord, pray for her, pray for any members in her family that before they disconnect life support, God, I pray that she had called upon the Lord Jesus Christ for a salvation, wasn't putting her trust in faith in the church. Lord, I just pray for her. I pray for them. I pray for all of those on our prayer list, for Micah, for Candy, for Eddie, for Angie, and her family. God, we also pray for those that are on our sick list. Lord, I just lift each one of them up to you tonight as well. Lord, I pray that your healing hand would be upon each one. I pray, Lord, that you would give the doctors and the physicians and nurses, the wisdom and discernment in their treatment of those on the list. And Father, I just pray that you would bring healing. Lord, not only healing in physical healing, but spiritual healing and mental healing as well. God, I just pray, Father, God, I'm so thankful that you are the great physician and Lord that we can come before the throne of grace and ladies' petitions before you. God, we also pray for those on our general prayer list, Lord, we pray for Henry for direction and for in his walk and Lord for the ability to be a strong leader in his home and Lord for his ministry. Lord, we pray for him. We lift him up to you tonight. God, we also pray for Angela for direction and for clarity in her walk and her decisions in what she's going to be doing coming up. Father, we also pray for Larissa for her job opportunities. God, we pray for Claude, our producer. God, I just lift him up to you tonight as well, starting a new job. And Lord, I just pray that you would give him wisdom and discernment as he leads his family as well. God, we also pray for Eddie for his addiction. God, we pray that you would give him victory over that and save him. Father, we also pray for Ed for his overall health and well-being. Lord, we lift up Isabel to you tonight as well. Lord, I pray that you would just meet her particular needs. You know exactly what they are. And then God, we pray for our unspoken prayer requests. Lord, you know what those needs are as well. I pray that you would answer those according to your will. We also pray for our anonymous prayer requests for peace and life and soul. And God, I just lift all of these folks up to you tonight. God, I just pray that your will would be done in each one, your perfect will. And God, I pray that they would be receptive to your leaving. God, we also pray for the podcast tonight. We thank you so much for this opportunity to do this. And Lord, we thank you for all of those that are watching and listening. And those that will be watching and listening later as well. God, we just pray that the lesson tonight was a blessing to them. God, I thank you for allowing me the opportunity to bring it forward. And Father, I just pray that if there's anyone listening tonight that does not know the Lord of Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, that they would call upon his name tonight and be saved. And Father, we'll thank you for it in Jesus' precious name. Amen. All right, folks, once again, if you have any prayer requests whatsoever, just send them on over to us. Head over to our website, sortofthespiritpodcast.com, use the contact form, send it over to us. Or you could also just send it over to us through our email address at info@sortofthespiritpodcast.com. All right, how about we do some announcements now? All righty, so we have our Thursday night Bible study every Thursday night at 7 PM Central Time, 8 PM Eastern. And for the last several weeks, we've been talking about the spiritual side of our American history, and that's been a blessing of a study for me to do, at least, and I hope it's been a blessing for you. I think next week, Lord willing, should be the last installment of this series and then we'll be moving on to something else. And we'll see where the Lord leads in that afterwards. And then, excuse me, then you have our sermon Sunday broadcast every Sunday afternoon at 3 PM Central Time at 4 PM Eastern Time. And where can you find all that? Well, you can find us on our website at sortofthespiritpodcast.com for the audio. You can also find us on Rumble, exclusively on Rumble for the video. Also, you can check out the new modern podcast apps if you want to listen live on many of those. They do live stream. So that's always great to do. I love the modern podcast apps and I appreciate them very much. And we've been seeing an increase in our numbers on those modern podcast apps. I love analytics. I really do. It gives you a good idea where you're going. So check us out. So again, Thursday night, 7 PM Sunday afternoon, 3 PM right here on sortofthespiritpodcast.com. All right, folks, now if you are in the Eagle Pass area and you're looking for a good King James Bible believing and Bible teaching church, why don't you consider paying us a visit over at first Baptist Church of Eagle Pass. We meet at 664 North Monroe. Our Sunday school hour starts at 10 AM, our worship service at 11. Our Sunday evening service is at 6 and our Wednesday night Bible study is at 7 PM. For more information, just head over to the church's Facebook page and just type in First Baptist Church of Eagle Pass. Shouldn't be a problem finding it because it's the only one in Eagle Pass by that name. So it's pretty self-evident and when you get there, you're going to find a lot of really helpful information as well as information about the podcast. And as always, we're thankful to the folks at First Baptist for allowing us to use the church's Facebook page to post information about the show. And again, we don't have a Facebook page, don't really want a Facebook page. I don't think I need a Facebook page. So we're staying away from the Facebook page right now, but we do appreciate First Baptist for allowing us to use it. And again, this show is not a ministry of First Baptist Church. We are just a member of the church and they let us use the Facebook page. And we have a podcast, so that's about it. All right, so folks, if you are interested in prepping, I'd like to tell you about the Contra Radio Network. The Contra Radio Network is a single podcast that houses nearly a dozen talented podcasts and vidcasts, hosts and artists from around the country who release content daily. The Contra Radio Network releases 15 to 20 shows a week depending on current events and there are no issues that are off limits. If you want to break down of current events, they got it. You want to know more about preparedness and self-sufficiency, got it. You want to hear, you want a guy driving around, ranting like a lunatic, strangely, got that too. You want to hear more about politics, sports, camping, firearms, Bible studies, the Contra Radio Network has it all covered. And you can find them on their website at ContraRadioNetwork.com. That's ContraRadioNetwork.com. You can also find them on all of your favorite podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcast, Amazon Music and more. So you should definitely check them out. They are fantastic information. Since I became part of the operation there, as far as downloading the shows and streaming them for us and distributing them for us, it has been a blessing for me because I've been learning so much about self-preparedness and self-sufficiency and they have some great shows on there. You should definitely check out the network. All right, let's talk about the War Tribe Armory. War Tribe Armory is located right here in beautiful Eagle Pass, Texas at 303-70-US-57. Now if you live here in town, they're right across the street from the pilot. So you shouldn't be able to miss them as you drive by. Now if you are interested in anything related to your firearm like Cerakote, engraven, cleaning, stippling, restoration, refinishing, repairs, or if you're looking for a custom build, gun sale, magazine, holster or trade-in, War Tribe Armory is the place to go. They do fantastic work. A couple of our listeners have used the War Tribe Armory for some restoration and refinishing of their firearms and they are incredibly pleased with it and it is actually, they do fantastic, fantastic work. So if you're in the area, definitely check them out. Again, 303-70-US-57. Check them out on their Instagram at wartribe.armory, Facebook at wartribe armory, and you can also email them at wartribe armory1133@gmail.com. And the great thing about them also is veteran owned and operated, so definitely should check them out. Alright, Armory 1. Now Armory 1 is a business that's run by my friend Carl, and Carl provides Texas license to carry certification and leverages over 30 years of military and law enforcement experience in instructing students in the safe use of firearms. Armory 1 also offers numerous courses on self-defense with a handgun, active shooter preparedness, home defense, and much, much more. You can visit armory1.com to get more information about upcoming classes and he updates to the Texas Code for Firearms and great, great class. If you haven't done a class like this, I mean, they're so much fun and Carl makes it great. He brings his real life experience to the class. He uses real life, real world examples of the law and of circumstances, situations, and scenarios, and it's a great deal of fun. We have a blast. And so just check out armory1.com for more information on classes, and also you can listen in here because I'll give you information on classes as they come available as well. Alright, don't forget to sign up for the programming announcements, subscription on our website. Just use the web form, send me over an email, let me know your email address, and we'll add you to the list. Now, it's important to be on the list because anytime there's going to be a change in our programming schedule or if we're going to be canceling a show or changing a time if we're going to have a guest or anything like that, we're going to send out this notification through the programming announcements email list. It's the best way for us to reach you, to be quite honest. There's a lot of time that goes between, you know, Sunday and Thursday and Sunday and, you know, anything can happen, any changes can happen. Now, we don't sell your information, we don't share your information, we don't give away your information, all of it stays right here with us, we're not going to spam you and send you stuff that you don't want, and also, you know, we're not going to bore you with a lot of things. So we're only going to send you the information that pertains to programming, okay? So if you're not on the mailing list, get on the mailing list. If you're listening and you're part of our text group, make sure you send over an email, get off that text group, get into the email list because we're going to be discontinuing the text blast very, very soon, and we don't want to lose anybody, all right? We don't want to leave anybody behind. So, get yourself on the mailing list and stay in the know. All right, socials, Twitter at the SOTS podcast, TikTok, Getter, Instagram, and Truth Social. Hope to see you guys there as well. Check us out, give us a follow, we will follow you back, all right? And now we come up to one of my favorite things to do. We have a birthday to announce. So one of our listeners, their son, his birthday was yesterday, a day before yesterday. No, yesterday, yes, yesterday. And so we want to say a very happy birthday to Mariano, Mariano on behalf of myself and the Sword of the Spirit podcast and the Sword of the Spirit podcast, Family. God bless you, happy birthday, and many, many more to come. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] All right, so happy birthday, Mariano. God bless you on behalf of myself and the Sword of the Spirit podcast and the Sword of the Spirit podcast, Family. All right, folks, shout outs. Let's see, we have no shout outs from $16.11 and up. So, no names throughout there tonight, but thank you so much to everyone else who has made donations and contributions below the 16/11 mark. Thank you so very much. It's because of you that we're able to continue doing what we are doing here. So again, if you want your name, shout out, it takes a donation of $16.11 to get that done for you and we look forward to being able to do that very, very soon for several folks. Also, we have a few folks that are streaming to us, streaming sats to us right now on one of the modern podcast apps. Thank you so very much for that. We greatly, greatly appreciate it. And hey, look, you can do it too. Just head over to modernpodcastapps.com or podcastindex.org, download one of the new modern podcasting apps, set yourself up a crypto wallet. It's really easy to do. I did it. I'm an old guy. I was able to figure that whole thing out so you can too. And once you do that, you'll get all the benefits of the modern podcasting apps, like you'll get your transcripts, you'll get your chapters, you'll get your chapter art, you'll get the ability to send boost grams, boosts, and all that great stuff. And they're fantastic platforms. My personal favorite right now is podcast guru and I would highly recommend that you check them out. But there are so many out there like true fans.fm and fountain.fm, podverse, so many, so many out there, it should definitely check them out. All right. And again, you can find them on modernpodcastapps.com or podcastindex.org. All right. Also, if you are interested in recording a little bumper or a promo for us, you can easily do that. Just record yourself saying something like what you've heard on our on our breaks. You know, you're listening to the sort of the spirit podcast on sortofthespiritpodcast.com. And then just record that, send it on over to us as an MP3, a way of however you want to do it. It's fine. We'll always make the adjustments that we need to make to it. And then we'll get it into the rotation. It's always a blessing to do that. So far, everybody that you've heard of, people that have listened to the show and it's great to be a part of that. And that's, you can donate your time and talent, part of the three T's in that way and we would really, really appreciate that. Now, also, if you're into graphic design or if you write music, you sing, play an instrument, you can always record something or do some work for us in that way. That's always a blessing. So we appreciate that as well. And we look forward to getting you guys into the rotation. All right. And then, you know, before we leave, I just want to say thank you again to the Lord Jesus Christ for the gift of salvation that He has provided to us. And I am incredibly thankful that I'm saved and it's something that it's just, it was the absolute best decision I ever made in my life and the most necessary decision, because don't forget, salvation has eternal consequences. You know, if you die without Jesus Christ, you will end up in hell, plain and simple, no beating around the bush with that. And I am incredibly thankful to the Lord that He rescued me from that eternity. And I'll be spending eternity with the Lord in glory. And I am so looking forward to it. It's going to be a blessing and I cannot wait. I also want to say thank you to the Lord for giving me the opportunity here to do the podcast and to serve and to meet such great folks and to have such an exceptional audience. It's a blessing to be able to be here with you guys every single week. And I mean, I look forward to this more than anything else, to be honest with you. And I mean, are we perfect? No. Do we make mistakes as we're doing this? No, absolutely. Wouldn't it be a human being if we didn't make mistakes, you know? And you know, I am a one man show over here. So you know, it gets a little dicey at times, but I appreciate you guys just sticking out, sticking out, sticking through it with us and hanging out and I hope it's been a blessing to you and I hope that the studies that we've been doing, especially here on our American history have been something that you've never heard and have been a blessing for you. And maybe you learned something, we appreciate any opportunity that we have to bring this type of information out to you guys. So you know, you could always email us and let us know what you think, give us your opinions and any comments or questions that you have through our website or you can always email it to us directly. Also I want to say thank you to everyone that's been praying for us here at the show and praying for, you know, for the podcast, for the ministry, for me, for my family, for Claude, for all those that are on our prayer list. Thank you so much for your prayers. God bless you for them. Please continue to pray for us as we move forward here. Also want to say thank you to all of you who have been financially supporting us. God bless you for that and thank you so much for it. It's because of your financial support that we're able to do the things we're doing and expand the way we've been expanding and meeting all those obligations that we committed ourselves to when we first started doing this podcast. Also want to say thank you to all of our listeners, every single one of you, everybody who's on rumble right now and who's listening on the audio stream. Thank you so much for being here with us again tonight. And God bless you for it. And please continue to like, subscribe and share it with your friends, your family and your followers, that way you'll help us spread the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, folks, well, I think that will just about do it for us tonight. Again, thank you for taking the time to be with us tonight. Head on over to our website, sort of the spirit podcast.com. Click on that contact section and send us over any questions or comments that you might have and also your prayer requests. Also look for that support the show tab and if you can help us out with a donation in any amount, we would really, really appreciate that. All right, folks, make Bible study great again. Go podcasting, keep us steady stride and win the lost, no matter the cost. God bless you. Good night. Goodbye. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] I'm hungry. Let's get a taco. I'm hungry. Let's get a taco. You