Two Sundays ago, I mentioned a concept: Following all the words that proceed out of the mouth of God is a complete system. A faith is a complete system. If you search for the keyword all the words in the electronic version of the Bible, you will find that whenever it mentions God instructing Moses, Joshua, or even Jesus facing the temptations of the devil, the authors’ choice of words is not some words, but all the words. If you carefully observe all the words of God, God will bless you. This means that we must grasp a complete system because the gospel is a complete system. For example, when we want to take a plane, no one would take an incomplete plane because an incomplete plane either cannot fly into the sky, or if it does, it cannot fly back down. Last Sunday, I mentioned integrating faith into life and genuinely living out the glory of Jesus Christ. A person who is not genuine easily attracts a religious spirit.

In the past two weeks, I have mainly talked about the core values of our church. Today, I will share another concept of our church's core values with you, which is the church is God's army.

Implementing Our Belief System According to the Original Primary and Secondary Order of God's Revelation

In the process of building the church in the past few years, I have seen God guiding us step by step, revealing to us what this complete gospel system is. The pictures in the Bible are coming alive piece by piece. If we piece these scattered parts together into a complete picture, we will see the appearance of a glorious church. Here is a very important concept: Treat the most important as the most important and the secondary as the secondary. If you reverse the order, treating the important as secondary and the secondary as important, even if it is within the biblical system, it will lead to serious confusion. Therefore, our belief system should be implemented according to the original primary and secondary order of God's revelation. There are many concepts in our faith, some of which are more important and some of which are more secondary. You cannot treat the important as secondary and the secondary as important.

How did the Lord Jesus criticize the Pharisees?

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone. Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:23-24)

Can everyone understand? Regarding big things as unimportant and small things as important—this is what the Pharisees did. Therefore, Jesus criticized them as hypocrites. They offered this tithe, which was indeed required by the Bible, but they forgot the more important things.

There is a primary and secondary order to everything. It is not that we want to give up the secondary things; we must strive for everything. We just need to get the order right, because if we get it wrong, we will not see the glory of God. When we look back at the history of Israel and the history of Christianity, what do we see? The Israelites grasped the secondary things but rejected the primary things, so they lost the glory of God.

God Is Restoring His Glory Among Us

Today, God is restoring His glory among us. He has given such revelation to let us see what is most important, what is secondary, and what is tertiary, and then let us piece these together one by one. That is the twelve core values of our church. I believe that God is still constantly revealing, and we are constantly reflecting and summarizing, and then constantly improving. In addition to these twelve core values, as time goes by, I think God will reveal more. Then we need to implement the core values we receive from God one by one.

Human life is the same. If a person is not living well, it must be because he has messed up the order: he has regarded the important as unimportant and the unimportant as important. A sister did not like to study and was very playful. When I met her, I said to her, Why are you so lazy? You need to change! Later, she came to me, crying, and said, Why do you always say I'm lazy? Always saying I'm lazy! I'm already very discouraged! But if you think about it, overcoming the habit of laziness is the most important thing. The evaluations of people around you are not very important. However, this sister cared very much about others saying she was lazy. She regarded what others said as very important, but ignored the fact that she herself was lazy. But thank the Lord, after communication, she has changed a lot now. I believe she will grasp those important things in the future.

If a person always reverses the order, over time, he will not be human, and the country will not be a country, which is very dangerous. There is another sister who I sometimes mention to, Hey, why are you always so neurotic? Later, she developed negative emotions towards me. In fact, overcoming being neurotic is very important, but she did not think it was important. She regarded my saying that she was neurotic as very important, and that was the end of it, the order was reversed. Thank the Lord, the reason why I dare to tell the stories of these brothers and sisters here is because they have all been transformed and have begun to have the idea of grabbing the most important things. Because if we grasp the important, our lives will be edified.

In fact, there are many such people. For example, there is a sister who often does things that ruin herself. I told her, Don't ruin yourself anymore! Of course, sometimes I use harsher words, such as stupid. Later, she didn't like me and avoided me when she saw me. Whether she avoids me or not is not the most important issue. Whether she can overcome her bad habit of ruining herself is the most important thing. If you don't care about ruining yourself, but you care about what others say, then the order is wrong and things are very chaotic. But in fact, a person's intelligence lies in being able to distinguish primary and secondary; a person's intelligence lies in being able to grasp the primary first, and then grab the secondary and less important, and finally gain everything.

Therefore, when we serve people, we must also learn to be intelligent and learn to teach people, bringing them into a state of being able to grasp important things. For example, when I serve a person, I always let him have a higher vision, let him see what is more important, and let him not be entangled in trivial matters. In fact, I like to serve intelligent people. Serving intelligent people is really a grace, because serving intelligent people is very enjoyable. When you are serving him, that feeling is especially good. He understands as soon as he hears it. He won't say, Pastor Liu, look at how you talk, you don't sound like a clergy! I don't speak very nicely, but I think intelligent people know that it is to edify people. If you are good to an intelligent person, he knows you are being good to him; but a foolish person will think you are harming him.

So, be careful when serving people. Jesus taught us not to give pearls to pigs, because if you give pearls to pigs, after the pigs trample the pearls, they will turn around and bite you. (See Matthew 7:6) So we must be careful. For those who have many problems, don't pity them just because they are unlucky, and then forget that what is inside them is the reason why they become foolish. When we serve people, we must remove what is inside them to solve their fundamental problems. So serving a person is really hard work, because you have to remove what they think is very important but is actually not important—in this process, it is really to transform their lives.

The Most Important Concept in Building a Church Is The Church Is God's Army

Now back to our topic, what is the most important concept in building a church? It is the church is God's army. This concept is the most important of all concepts in building a church, but it is rarely mentioned. Most people have not heard such a sermon. In all my years of believing in the Lord, I have never heard a pastor talk about the church is God's army. In fact, it is one of the most important concepts. It is because of the lack of such a concept that many people do not see the promise when they pray. Because of the lack of this concept, the church does not have the ability to fight; without the ability to fight, it cannot be victorious; without being victorious, it cannot obtain the promise. This leads to a lot of problems in the church, so there is no way to continue, and the brothers and sisters have no way to be victorious. This is because they never think that the church is God's army. When I read the Old Testament, I was thinking about one thing. Although the Israelites were God's chosen people, they were often bullied by the surrounding countries. For example, in the Book of Judges, there is such a passage.

When Israel had planted, the Midianites would come up, along with the Amalekites and the people of the East. They would encamp against them and devour the produce of the ground as far as Gaza, leaving no sustenance for Israel and no sheep or ox or donkey. For they would come up with their livestock and their tents like locusts. Neither they nor their camels could be counted, and they came into the land to destroy it. So Israel was brought very low because of the Midianites, and the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. (Judges 6:2-6)

What does this illustrate? If a country does not have an army and cannot resist foreign enemies, it will be extremely poor. Today I want to tell you that many of us have been transformed from losers to tycoons because we are a church built according to God's army, so the blessing of the brothers and sisters is closely related to the building of God's army. The Israelites, in order to live in a comfortable life, did not want to build an army for the country, nor did they want to defend the country, but only wanted to live their own little lives, and as a result, they were bullied, plundered, and impoverished. When you suffer poverty, you will realize that you have gone the wrong way. Many people only understand this after experiencing many years of painful life.

Therefore, when we build a church, no matter what, we must build it into an army of Jehovah God, so that we can directly enter the abundance promised by God without taking the wrong path. You should not have such an idea: I don't provoke anyone, and I don't want to fight, so if I don't hit you, don't hit me. This idea is wrong. Don't think that the devil will let you go if you think this way. The devil will not let you go! These Midianites will not let the Israelites go just because the Israelites do not hit them. There is no such thing! The Midianites are like locusts. The land planted by the Israelites is for the Midianites to plant, and the wealth collected is for the Midianites to collect. So this idea is useless! Can wealth block the enemy? It can't! Just like modern China, which was invaded by foreign countries, was defeated, and gold and silver were robbed by foreign countries, and as a result, it had to compensate people with gold and silver. What kind of logic is this? Isn't the country and people after the defeat poor? Yes! Being defeated is a very poor thing! So in spiritual warfare, we must also begin to know that we must build the church into an army of Jehovah God, get rid of the state of poverty, and obtain blessings.

For example, those who have cancer and are attacked by the spirit of cancer and the spirit of death have not actively provoked the spirit of cancer or offended it. But the spirit of death and the spirit of cancer have not let these people go, have they? In contrast, we who often offend the spirit of cancer and the spirit of death, when these spirits see us, they will be afraid and start to flee. So brothers and sisters, the most important concept in building God's glorious church is to build the army of Jehovah God.

God's Will Is for Us to Become His Mighty Army

Throughout the history of the Israelites, we will find that most of the Israelite dynasties were bullied, but there was one dynasty, namely the dynasty of David, which was the most prosperous era, and the surrounding countries paid tribute to David. David had not yet attacked them, and they began to take the initiative to pay tribute. Therefore, David collected extremely rich wealth and prepared a large amount of capital for the subsequent construction of Jehovah's temple. How does the Bible evaluate David? The Bible says that David was a warrior and a brave man. So I very much desire that every one of our brothers and sisters will be like David, becoming a warrior and a brave man.

At the same time, David was a warrior after God's own heart, so the surrounding countries submitted to him. Therefore, in a church, if we can uphold the concept of building the army of Jehovah God and constantly build a church after God's own heart, then I believe that our brothers and sisters will also become more and more prosperous. The church is the body of Jesus Christ, the church is the house of God, and the church is God's institution on earth—these concepts are not problematic, but these concepts are not as important as the church is God's army.

Today I tell everyone that God's will is for us to be prosperous, God's will is for us to become His mighty army, fight and be victorious, and then be able to obtain the promise. Why can many of us see God working as soon as we pray? Because these people are the victorious army in the spiritual world.

The Armies of the Lord Went Out of the Land of Egypt

And at the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:41)

Let us pray together:

Lord, You call us out of the world to build us into Your army. Lord, we cry out to You to continue to reveal Yourself among us, to reveal Yourself to us! Lord, constantly reveal the truth You have revealed in the Bible to us, so that we can build according to Your will, build the body of Jesus Christ. Lord, we want to see Your glory and see Your will in our lives! Lord, let us become useful instruments in Your hands, constantly expanding Your kingdom, so that we can work with You when we are on earth, expanding Your kingdom and manifesting Your glory. Lord, let more people be released from the hands of the devil. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen!

Think about it, why did Moses call the Israelites who came out of Egypt the army of Jehovah? If you stand in that place and look around, you will find that the people who came out did not look like an army at all. They were a group of ragged slaves, a group of ordinary people, driving cattle and sheep, with a carrying pole and two baskets, like refugees, looking very miserable. They didn't have time, they couldn't even cook their meals, so they left the land of Egypt in a hurry. These people, with their families, were all untrained ordinary people. They were slaves all their lives, born in the land of Egypt as slaves. What about them looked like an army? Nothing.

So why did Moses say, The army of Jehovah came out of Egypt? Moses could have used any language to describe all of this, such as a group of ordinary people came out, or a group of refugees came out, or a group of beggars came out. Because this group of people was really a group of slaves, farmers, and laborers, a motley crowd. They were ragged and looked very pitiful. Think about it, they were all slaves, none of them were free men. It was like the American Civil War, when the blacks were released, in a chaotic state. These people were uneducated and very poor. Although they took the gold and silver treasures of the Egyptians when they left, it still did not change their tattered state. But when Moses wrote the Book of Exodus, he said: At the end of 430 years, on that very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. (Exodus 12:41)

When we read the entire Bible, we will know that God's will is to establish His kingdom on earth. But why is it called an army when the Israelites came out? Because the army is inseparable from the country! Which country does not have an army? A country without an army will soon be destroyed by others and cannot last long. If God wants to establish a Godly kingdom on earth and redeem people from the hands of the devil, there must be an army of Jehovah God, fighting spiritual battles. The story of the Exodus is a story of war. Egypt is like this world, and the Israelites are like God's chosen people. Being released from Egypt, a place where they were controlled and enslaved, shows the mighty arm of God, allowing them to fight against the Egyptians.

God's Intention Is to Establish His Kingdom on Earth

The Bible uses the record of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt to foreshadow one thing to us: God's intention is to establish His kingdom on earth, and the most fundamental need for establishing His kingdom is to establish His army. With an army, there is a kingdom. This sentence also confirms a concept: the church is God's army.

Some people build a church according to the concept of home, some people build a church according to the concept of enterprise, and some people build a church according to the concept of educational institution. However, the most important concept in building a church is to build the army of Jehovah God. That requires us to carve out a piece of heaven and earth in the devil's kingdom. Establishing God's kingdom and releasing people from the control of the devil is the most important function of the church. The people of Israel represent God's chosen people, God's people, Egypt represents the world, represents the devil's kingdom, and the exodus is to release those who are controlled by the devil and enter God's kingdom. Our God is a warrior who fights for us to be released and to be free. So Moses said after crossing the Red Sea: The Lord is a warrior. This is Moses' song.

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name. (Exodus 15:1-3)

In other words, our God is a God who fights for us, so He also hopes that we can be like Him and become mighty warriors, to work with Him, to fight, to release His power, and then to see His glory.

The Army Is the Most Important Part of a Country

The army is the most important part of a country. If you understand the definition of a country, you will find that there is a political term called state apparatus. According to the Marxist-Leninist explanation, the state is a tool for one class to rule another class. The meaning is that the ruling class must establish a set of systems, laws, and enforcement agencies, and then rely on these things to rule the ruled class. And the army, police, courts, and prisons, these organs of dictatorship, are the components of the state apparatus. Whether this set of class struggle theory is correct, I do not know. But thank the Lord, I think this definition is not very suitable for us, but it shows us a concept, and this concept is: the army is the most important part of a country. I have a vision that the most important function of the army is not necessarily to rule, but the most important function of the army is to resist foreign enemies and expand the territory. We have learned since childhood that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Whoever controls the military power controls the political power. That is to say, the army must be firmly in one's own hands, so that one can control the political power. In other words, the key part of political power lies in the army. Any country must have an army, without an army, it is impossible to establish a country. In the kingdom of God, the army of Jehovah God is also a very, very important part of the kingdom of God.

In fact, it is not too difficult for us to understand such things. This year is the day when the founding prime minister of Singapore was buried. He founded the Republic of Singapore in 1965. The most important contribution was the establishment of the most powerful army in Singapore. Although Singapore is a small country, its army is very advanced. Israel is not a big country, but its army is also very advanced. With an advanced army, the country can be defended.

I think that once this concept is established, you will understand why the church must be the army of Jehovah God, and you will understand why Moses said the army of Jehovah God came out of Egypt after the ragged Israelites were released from Egypt. That is to say, God's will is to let God's kingdom come on this earth, and there must be the army of Jehovah God, so that there can be the kingdom of Jehovah God.

The Bible says the same:

I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.(Revelation 19:11-16)

Those who follow Him are the armies of heaven. The armies of heaven are us, who will ascend to heaven in the future, follow Him, and become members of His army. In other words, in Revelation, it is reaffirmed that we are the army of God. So I began to understand that on earth, the army is an important part of a nation; in heaven, the army is also an important part of the kingdom of God. Other concepts of the church, such as the body of Jesus Christ and the family of God, are not wrong, but the concept of the army of God is the most important. Otherwise, it would not be written so clearly in Exodus.

Fear is not the way out, but war is the key.

When the Israelites left Egypt, those who were unwilling to be God's army died in the wilderness. The forty years in the wilderness were to train an army of God. When the Israelites left Egypt, Moses clearly said, The army of the Lord has come out. But a group of people did not want to be God's army, and they were timid as mice when they fought. Although the LORD saved them and they saw the power of God, they still took a path of unbelief. They were unwilling to be the army of the LORD God and thought about returning to Egypt to be slaves all day long. As a result, these people all died in the wilderness.

Brothers and sisters, fear is not the way. Even without the devil, without enemies, and without Egyptians, those who are unwilling to be the army of God will also die in the wilderness. Going to war is the key to victory. Those who do not fight and are afraid of fighting all die in the wilderness, and they do not receive the promise. So today the church is the same: those who do not fight and are afraid of fighting lose God's promise. Some Christians pray all day long, Lord, I beg you, I beg you, but God is not very willing to answer them, because they are not warriors. But all those who fight will receive the inheritance and the promise.

By the time of Joshua, the army of God had taken shape, and those who should have died had died in the wilderness. Then, under Joshua's leadership, the Israelites were shaped into a powerful army of God. Those Canaanites and Perizzites and all the tribes in the land of Canaan would shrink when they heard the name of the Israelites. Joshua 5 records that Joshua was standing on the plains of the Jordan when he saw a man with a drawn sword in his hand standing opposite him. Joshua went to him and asked, Are you for us or for our enemies? The man answered, Neither, I have come as commander of the army of the Lord. Joshua bowed down at the feet of this man. The man said, Take off your sandals from your feet. So he took them off and did so. (See Joshua 5:13-15) I think God did one thing in the wilderness for forty years, that is, to train the Israelites to be the army of the LORD God. Then those who were unwilling to be the army of the LORD died.

Today we can receive a very clear revelation: are you willing to be the army of the LORD God? You must be willing. Because those who are the army of the LORD God will never be defeated. So God said to Joshua, No one will be able to stand up against you all the days of your life. (See Joshua 1:5) What a grace that is! If no demon or enemy can stand before us all the days of our lives, and demons shrink when they hear our names, it is not because of anything else, but because we are the army of the LORD God, and the LORD God is the commander of our army! Amen!

We are to be the army of the Lord, and the Lord is the commander of the army.

Jesus once said, Your kingdom come. (See Matthew 6:9) We also often pray, Your kingdom come. When we say this, do you understand what you are saying? That is to say, Lord, I am your army, may your kingdom come. God, you are my commander. If the kingdom of God is to come, how can it be a kingdom without an army? How can a kingdom without an army be victorious? We must build God's army, expand God's kingdom, and fight spiritual battles. That is the meaning of what we say. If you talk about Thy kingdom come all day long, it means that you want to honor the LORD God as your commander and you want to become a part of His army.

So what I am saying today, if you can receive it, should be in accordance with the Bible. If you read the Bible carefully, although the Bible does not write it so clearly, when you read it carefully, when you put this puzzle together, you will see that the army of the LORD God, the church, is the army of God. This is one of the most important concepts. Because for the establishment of a country, the army is the most important component. We are to establish the kingdom of God in the kingdom of the devil. Can you imagine that? To establish the kingdom of God is to carve out a piece of land in the world of the devil through hard fighting. That is the responsibility of the church. We must release people from the hands of the devil, so the church must be the army of God.

Jesus said this: *“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34)*“To bring a sword on the earth” is to carve out a kingdom of God on the earth through hard fighting. This is very well said. A few sentences after saying this, Jesus continued: “and anyone who does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39) What does this mean? Today, we must be elite soldiers of Jesus Christ, which means we must lay down our lives and fight this spiritual battle. If we lay down our lives, we will surely find this life.

The history of Israel and the history of the church both confirm one thing: do not think that if you do not provoke the devil, the devil will let you go. Therefore, today you must begin to be raised up and become a powerful army of God, and then lay down your lives and fight in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will surely find life. So in the book of Judges, God later raised up Gideon, and Gideon's three hundred elite soldiers repelled all the enemies, and the Israelites lived in peace for forty years. So the peaceful life we ​​live is not obtained for nothing, it is obtained through our victory in battle. Amen! So in this passage of Jesus, there is a taste of battle. Later, He said in Matthew, Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’” (Matthew 10:6-7) The kingdom of heaven is near, and the army of God has been established. Then what did He say? Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” (Matthew 10:8)

The kingdom of God has been given to us. We know that the kingdom of God is near, and the kingdom of God is there. So you must become the army of God, go and preach that the kingdom of God is near, and then heal the sick, raise the dead, and drive out demons. This is expanding the kingdom of God. Amen! So every time he encountered something, Jesus would preach like this. Once, John the Baptist was sitting in prison, thinking about whether Jesus was the one who was to come, so he sent someone to ask. Jesus answered, Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.” (Matthew 11:4-5)

It turns out that to establish the kingdom of God is to fight, to drive out demons, and then these people are released from the dominion of the devil and become free people. So expanding the kingdom of God and preaching the gospel is fighting. If we go to preach the gospel without a strong army to support us, we cannot expand the kingdom of God. God's plan is to build a strong army (that is, His church), and then let His kingdom come, and then His kingdom can be expanded, and then those who are taken captive can be saved. Why do some people oppose me, but I still often talk about healing and deliverance? Because healing and deliverance are signs of victory in battle. So we must establish this concept: the kingdom of God comes, it is carved out through spiritual warfare, and God Himself is our commander, leading us to victory.

The most important quality of being an elite soldier is to put on the armor and go to war.

What is the most important quality of being an elite soldier in God's army? In Paul's letters, we often see the word warrior.

“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:10-17)

We often talk about the full armor of God, the helmet of salvation, etc. What are we going to do? What are we doing standing there wearing these? To put on a show? To pose? No, it's to be the army of God. What is the army of God supposed to do? To expand the kingdom of God. When we expand the kingdom of God and defeat all the devil's enemies, the days of rest will surely come to you and me. If it is not a warring church, a church built according to God's army, what can it resist? It should not be able to resist anything. So we must know what the most important quality of a Christian is.

The most important quality of a Christian is the ability to fight. Put on this full armor to fight, not to wear this armor to pose. We must begin to learn to rise up and fight, to break down all the devil's strongholds, and then break down the devil that hinders people from knowing God, and take back people's hearts and make them obey Christ. So when Paul was about to leave the world, he said, For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. I have fought the good fight. (2 Timothy 4:6-7) So if you and I must imitate Paul today, it is to be warriors, to be mighty warriors. Even in the days of David, the warriors of David were numbered. All the warriors are numbered. I long for the day when we return to God, all are mighty warriors, all are victorious and mighty armies on earth! Amen!

What can an army that cannot win do? It can only be bullied by the devil. This explains a key question: why can we only see the appearance of being bullied by the devil in many Christians, but we cannot see the glory of God? Because what is built in him is something indescribable, not the appearance of God's army. So to win, we must build God's army. The most important qualities for building God's army: obedience, commitment, and faithfulness, all appear in our twelve core values.

I would like to remind everyone of two very important things: First, we must fight; without fighting, there will be no victory. Second, if you do not fight with a team in the church, you will not be able to win. So one is to fight, and the other is to fight in a team. In the faith of Jesus Christ, there are many people in a state of individual cultivation. I pray, I read the Bible, and I fight, but I do not see victory because he is not under the covering of the church. So brothers and sisters, many things you hear and forward online may seem to be edifying, but I do not encourage you to listen, watch, or forward things randomly online. It is most important to read the Bible carefully and connect and integrate what is revealed in the Bible. So we constantly encourage everyone to read the Bible in the church, not because of anything else, but because what we receive is to begin to restore the truth revealed by God in the Bible about building the church. Those materials online seem to be very moving and build faith, but if they do not promote the concept of building God's army but adhere to the concept of individual cultivation, then you cannot win and you cannot receive any grace. So I encourage everyone to be united in our midst to build God's army. Because the church is the army of God.

We are a church that trains elite soldiers.

We are a church that trains elite soldiers. The traditional concept of a church is just to sit in. People come and do not know that they have come, and those who do not come do not know that they have not come. Many churches are like this. People go to listen to a sermon every week. No one cares about you when you are okay, and probably no one cares about you when you have something to do. Can such an army fight? No. So to build God's army, we must train God's elite soldiers; to train God's elite soldiers, we must have a complete training system.

Therefore, our church has a set of assessment criteria. Every believer must go through six stages of development. The first stage is called visitor, just sit in. After assessment, if he is willing to stay and is willing to enter the training plan with us, we will begin to do simple shepherding for him. Why am I saying this? Because I want everyone to understand that the church must train people to become elite soldiers. You cannot be unblessed, you cannot be unblessed, because you are a victorious person. The church's responsibility is to let you enter training and train you to become an elite soldier. The second stage is simple shepherding. We lead him to be filled with the Holy Spirit, lead him to pray, lead him to begin to have a faithful attitude, lead him to begin to have a degree of commitment, and then have an identity with the church and have a very important identity with the core values of the church.

In the third stage, there is deeper shepherding - requiring him to pay the price of prayer and to see if he can withstand general negative information. Sometimes I deliberately wronged you to see what you are like. Our leaders will not always say nice things. A church that says nice things is not a church that trains elite soldiers. Singapore has a special force, a commando, which must undergo particularly strict training. These people are not easy to die on the battlefield. Those who die are those who do not train well in peacetime. So if you do not train well in peacetime and have negative emotions for a small matter, and then you start to grab those unimportant things and ignore the important things, how can you become an elite soldier? So we test him in this deep shepherding stage. Everyone should get used to our shepherding methods. This is training. When you go to work, when you face unpleasant words from others, you will think that you have already experienced this in the church, and these are all small things, and you will not care too much. So whether you can obey, whether you are willing to accept criticism, whether you are willing to donate, and whether you can commit to the church are very important assessment criteria. Some people are very fragile. Once they are tempted, they will leave the church. They are dominated by the devil. Who can you blame? You cannot blame anyone. Few people who desert on the battlefield can survive; on the contrary, those who are strong and courageous and resourceful in the process of fighting will definitely survive. Conversely, those who survive on the battlefield must be resourceful and brave. I once heard a point of view that in a crisis, if a person's emotional intelligence and mental intelligence are very stable, then this kind of person generally does not die. For example, if there is an earthquake, you are very calm in your heart, know how to go, and from which exit to escape, this kind of person is not easy to die. Only those who panic are easy to run to the basement and then cannot get out. So we must train, practice, and become strong and courageous people in peacetime. If a person is eliminated after a training session, then eliminated is eliminated, then this person is not suitable to be an elite soldier. If you take him with you, it will only expose the target and have no use.

Then in the fourth stage, we will begin to be baptized. Because baptism requires this person to obey, commit, and accept criticism, and be willing to grow. Then, after the pastor's recommendation, the responsible leader will begin to interview and assess. So if you have not read the Bible, then what are you doing being baptized? It is better to take a bath. In the fifth stage, you will begin to enter discipleship training. Disciples need to be able to manage negative emotions, be able to overcome them themselves, be able to face criticism with a positive attitude, and be willing to actively participate in service. Then, after the leader's recommendation, you can move forward and become an elite soldier disciple. Elite soldier disciples are going to fight, they are commandos, special forces. That is to make the devil start to tremble when he hears your name.

So why do we want to establish this assessment system? Because we want to build God's army. The Bible does not say how Joshua trained the Israelites, but the Bible records that in the days of Joshua, after crossing the Jordan River, the Israelites began to circle the walls of Jericho, and God required them not to say a word. So they did not whisper to each other. God said they could not speak, so the Israelites did not say a word for the first six days. These people were trained. I think we still have a lot of room for growth regarding the training behind this. We must train according to the appearance of these elite soldiers, and we can go to war when we say we are going to war. Just like that group of Israelites at that time, on the seventh day, everyone shouted in unison, and the city wall fell. It was very powerful! So the Israelites led by Joshua had become an elite army, a very combative team, and at that time there was absolutely no gossip or other nonsense.

Summary

Let's summarize and go back to Genesis. How did God say to Abram at the beginning of Genesis 12? God said, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great. (Genesis 12:2) What is a great nation? It is a nation with a strong army. Without an army, it cannot become a nation; with an army, the most important pillar of this nation is established, and the nation can stand. Next, God said that He would make Abram's name great. What kind of person can gain fame? Victory in battle can achieve fame.

Some time ago, when I was praying for someone, I heard the demon say, Too bad, it's too bad to meet them. Let's just go. I said, Then you should leave quickly. I think God will not only make our name great in the kingdom of God, but God will also make our name great in the kingdom of the devil. How did this name come about? It was won in battle.

So brothers and sisters, that name will not naturally become great. Genesis records that Abraham led 318 servants to pursue and destroy the four kings who had destroyed the five kings. Abraham even had the courage to pursue them and defeat the four kings! When the people in that place heard the name of Abraham, they all said that he was a great prince, and whoever opposed him would be unlucky. So Abraham was safe and sound there. To destroy those four kings, he would not be afraid. So I think, how does God make us a great nation, and how does God make our name great? It is to build the army of the LORD God. The church is the army of God. We must strictly demand and strictly build it according to the standards of the army of God, and then we will see God make us go in to take possession of the land, Amen!