OSA National Conference - Evening Session

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And I just can't tell you what that meant, brother. I mean, for you to be broken after all the tragedy you've been through, after all the loss in your life, brother, it just blew my mind that you still had tears to shed.

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But then I knew that it wasn't you. It's Christ in you. Amen? And so fast forward to that day when we got home.

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We learned that he passed. And it was an accidental gunshot. It was tragic, unexpected, out of nowhere.

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My dad had a special relationship with my grandfather. He was able to, when he was younger, he had no relationship with his father.

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So he was able to, God was able to restore that relationship about 20 years ago.

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And they were able to start over. And they had that moment where they were able to restore their relationship.

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And they asked each other for forgiveness. And it was just a beautiful time. And ever since then, my grandfather was a changed man.

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He actually served the Lord the last 20 to 25 years and showed that love in nursing homes and acts of love and service all over his community.

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And he was the patriarch of our family. He was an example for my children, for myself, for our family.

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And I'm going to miss him dearly. But some of the good things that have happened out of that, with tragedy comes a lot of mourning and sorrow and tough times.

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And my dad's going through some of that. He needs your prayers. But my brother, this is kind of going to be a lot about him.

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But he had a moment there after all this happened with the Lord, and we'll kind of get to that.

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But he found himself progressively getting worse over the course of the next week.

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Instead of getting better with time, he was getting worse. He felt like he described it as an infection in his soul that was just spreading and wasn't getting better.

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And so he was just to the point of his wit's end. And he just cried out to the

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Lord that Saturday after it happened and said, Lord, I need your Holy Spirit to comfort me.

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I have nothing. I'm either going to fade out, and I'm going to wither away, or you're going to have to send your comforter to save me from this because I've just got nothing left.

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And nothing happened that night, but the next morning, he attended church service. And he felt the

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Lord just impressing upon him just to act in obedience. And there was a song that the song leader had played, and he just felt

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God impressing upon him. And this is totally against his nature, against the way that he operates.

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He wouldn't normally do something like this. But he just felt almost like not an audible voice, but about as close as you can get the

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Holy Spirit speaking to him that you asked for my comfort. All I'm asking is for this act of obedience.

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And so he did. He finally, he wrestled with his pride, and he finally went down and asked him to play the song that they had just played again.

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And immediately, it was like kind of the floodgates open and the altars were filled, and he immediately went to the altar.

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And he said it felt like a bow and constrictor had just released from around his body and he could breathe. And that comfort immediately came, and praise

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God for that. So kind of fast forwarding throughout the week, Levi has just kind of had a revival in his life, and he's telling people about Jesus.

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He's not just going through the motions. He's been rejuvenated by the Spirit. And come

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Friday of the following week, he's going on a routine pickup from our supply company, and he misses his exit.

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And he goes to the next exit and he looks down the road, and there's a man that's trying to walk in front of a

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Mack truck. So he waits for a minute just to see if it was intentional or if it was accidental.

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The truck swerves around the man. He watches him try to do it again to another vehicle. So he immediately rushes over there and starts questioning the man.

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What are you doing? What's going on? And he admits he's trying to take his own life. He felt like he had nothing to live for, no hope.

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He said that if he saw his granddaughter for the first time, he felt like he had nothing else to live for.

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And he saw her that morning, so he was ready to die. He didn't know Christ. My brother was able to share his testimony, what had happened to him that week.

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He was able to minister Christ to this man right there in the ditch next to the road. And about this time, this is kind of where it gets a little crazier.

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About this time, we have a friend that's in the same business that we are, but a different company.

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But he was lost on the wrong road on a completely different end of town.

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And he's coming down the road, and he sees my brother right here in front of him ministering to this man in the ditch.

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And so he stops, and he gets out, and he tells my brother, I have no idea where I am or what

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I'm doing here. All I know is 30 seconds God put on my heart to pray for you, and here you are right in front of me.

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So, you know, Clifton was our friend's name. He had a history of alcoholism. This man was struggling with alcohol, had a can of alcohol with him.

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So he was able to share, give his testimony. And that man professed Christ without even being led.

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He professed Christ right there in the ditch and was born again. Amen.

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So these are the things God can do through tragedy if we're just listening and we're attentive and we're listening to his spirit.

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The next day, as I said this morning, as if that wasn't enough, the next day, my daughter

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Ella and I are coming back from a trip, a daddy -daughter trip, and we look up on the overpass.

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There wasn't an exit, but there was a woman with her feet dangling on the other side of the overpass rail, looking like she was attempting to jump off the rail.

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So I look over to Ella, and I said, family member, and places a little toddler in her arms, and she just embraces that toddler and loves on that toddler.

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So God saved two lives, two consecutive days. And there's no doubt in my mind that this would have, this wouldn't have happened if it wasn't for the passing of my grandfather and just what that did to inspire my brother.

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And so I just thank God for what he does through tragedy, what he does through sorrow. He's a good God. And I'm just, also

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I'm just thankful for OSA. And I love you guys so, so, so much. I'll tell you what,

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Lucas says he's not sure about this title thing. I'm sure. Because if not about me, but about him.

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Because if it weren't for Lucas, Jason and I would never get anything done. I'm thankful for that brother.

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And now I'm supposed to get up here and talk after all that. This is what God does to people that are involved with Operation Save America.

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And I know there's a lot of people here that have been a part of OSA for probably many different seasons over the years and things like that.

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When Operation Save America came to Indiana for the first time in 2017, when

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I first got involved, I didn't know exactly what to expect. I want to tell you all a secret.

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I knew there were going to be charismatics there. I wasn't entirely sure what to do about that.

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And I knew there were going to be Armenians there. And I didn't know for sure what to do about that.

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And it was an interesting thing. It was a weird thing to be a part of OSA that first time in 2017, because what

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I learned and what I've learned from being part of Operation Save America ever since then is that I'll take a charismatic in the trenches than a

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Calvinist any day of the week. So the thing about some of my friends in here are laughing at me.

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One of my closest friends in the world right now is Jason Storms. There he is. And the really weird thing about this, some of y 'all know me and you know this is funny, some of you don't, but Jason's an

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Armenian. I don't like Armenians. I do.

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What? Yeah, right. It's just the way the Lord purposed it.

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And I don't like charismatics.

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Sometimes I'm standing up here at an OSA event and Rusty says, go do that. And I go do what he tells me to do.

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And somebody comes up here and says something weird and I got to stand here and emcee the thing while they're saying something.

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I say it's weird, but this is the way that Operation Save America works. We have the kind of a, what we have with Operation Save America is we have the kind of a movement where Joseph Spurgeon and Ante can worship in the same context together.

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And there's not many places in the world or in the church where stuff like this happens.

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This is weird. This is unusual. It's not normal. And it's the spirit of God at work.

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There are amazing things that God's doing through Operation Save America just because of the faithfulness of brothers and sisters coming together and setting aside some of those secondary issues and saying we're going to work together for the kingdom of God and we're going to save babies.

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I mean, Coleman Boyd hates essential oils. I don't like doctors.

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I don't go to the doctor. I don't hang around doctors. I would rather die.

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So I go to Operation Save America in Wisconsin and guess what I have to do for the whole week?

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Hang out with Coleman Boyd. And listen to him give me a hard time about essential oils all week.

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Because when there's unity and there's commonality around the vision and mission, it makes strange bedfellows, right?

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God brings together, and this is actually what the church looks like. This is actually the way the church is supposed to function and operate.

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And so I'm not here just to talk about all the people here I don't like. I love all y 'all. I love everybody in the room and even the people that I'm giving a hard time.

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I love these brothers and sisters and I love Operation Save America. But here's the thing that you gotta understand.

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We serve an amazing God that does many, many amazing things through Operation Save America.

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And we're grateful for that. But in order to pull together an event like this, where we have people from all over the country coming together, where abortion clinics close down when we come to town or they hire extra security, they're scared to death of us.

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They're scared to death of Operation Save America, right? In order for us to do that though, it requires financial resources, right?

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It requires money. And a lot of times in the church, we're scared to death to talk about money. I don't know why the

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Bible talks about money. Shouldn't be afraid to talk about money. We need financial resources in order to be able to do some of the things that we have planned for Operation Save America.

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And a ministry like this depends wholly on the faithfulness of people like you that are sitting in the pews right now that are part of this ministry here during events like this.

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This is when we take in the majority of our annual budget. When we gather together for Operation Save America during our national event.

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And so I'm up here to talk about, I'm up here to talk about the offering. And here's the thing, I don't really care about how much money you put in the offering plate, that's between you and God.

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But if you love what you're seeing happen with Operation Save America, if you love seeing

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Charismatics and Presbyterians come together at the abortion mill, just cause it's fun to watch how it all works together.

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If you love seeing babies saved, if you love seeing stuff happen, and you're like,

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I don't really know how that really came together other than God just did. If you love the mission and vision of Operation Save America and the things that we're seeing happen with the stories like what

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Lucas is telling and you hang around people that are part of Operation Save America, they have a million of those stories over and over again, because God just follows

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Operation Save America around and just does amazing things through this ministry. If you love that,

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I just wanna ask you today, as we have this offering, I just wanna ask you to be generous with your giving.

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I would ask you to be generous to the ministry of Operation Save America. I know we're going through a leadership change and we got some things that are happening.

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I was planning to come up here and talk about Rusty, but everybody's talking about Rusty. And I know he hates it.

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I know he hates it. God's done amazing things through Operation Save America. And Jason and Lucas and I are praying and pleading and begging

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God daily that that would continue to be the case. Amen.

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So I'm gonna pray here, but I just wanna ask you, His people, my brothers and sisters in Christ, will you help us do that by being generous in your giving right now?

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We surely would appreciate it. Let's pray. Father God, I thank you so much for this ministry.

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I thank you for Lucas and the Childress family and the ministry of service that you've given them and the things that I've learned just interacting with that family, learning to become more servant -hearted, learning the amazing things that can happen when nobody cares who gets the credit.

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God, I thank you for the Thomas family. Thank you for Rusty and his whole family and just the amazing things that you've done through that family.

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You know, there are so many names of people that I could raise in this room right now that I would not know if it weren't for Operation Save America.

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They wouldn't be a part of my life. So many amazing things that I've learned about the

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Spirit of God and the working of the Spirit of God for my brothers and sisters that are here.

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So God, we come together around kingdom ministry, come together around striving to rescue pre -born babies, but then you do all of these amazing things in our midst.

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So we just give thanks to you, God, for this ministry and for this offering. I pray that you use it to continue to expand your kingdom.

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In Jesus' name, amen. ♪

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Come thou fount of every blessing ♪ ♪

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Tune my heart to sing thy grace ♪ ♪

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With hymns of mercy never ceasing ♪ ♪

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Calls for songs of loudest praise ♪ ♪

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And teach me some melodious sonnet ♪ ♪

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Sung by flaming tongues above ♪ ♪

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Praise the mountain fixed upon it ♪ ♪

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Mount of thy redeeming love ♪ ♪

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And here I raise my everlasting praise to thee ♪

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Well, brothers and sisters, the word of God tells us that one sows another waters, but it's

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God who gives the increase. Amen? Jesus told us there's basically the four soils of men's hearts.

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Remember, he's the sower who sows the word, right? And there's different kind of ground, different kind of soil, different kind of men's hearts.

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The truth is the truth. It will remain the truth. But there are different soils and there are different ground and people respond differently to it.

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And the Bible tells us that once the gospel of the kingdom goes forth, as soon as that seed is planted, the enemy's waiting to snatch it.

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Amen? Because of the cares of this life and riches and the lust of other things that enter in.

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And brothers and sisters, we are a sowing ministry. That's what we do. We serve, we sow, we seek to sow, we seek to water, we seek to plant, we seek

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God to give the increase. We seek him to spread this vision and mission and message throughout the world.

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And through God's grace and through his many blessings, we've been able to share the vision and mission with many and some, it just falls on hard ground and the enemy snatches it away.

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And some, it springs up for a little while and they're fighting the battle, but then there comes that cup of woe and there comes that baptism of fire and they fall away.

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I've seen so many start so well in this battle and end so tragically. Brothers and sisters, end well, end well for your

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Lord. Now I'm saying all this because I'm gonna introduce a dear brother who's part of a church called the

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Apologia Church in the ministries that they have started.

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End abortion now, red state reform, action for life.

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And what I want you to understand, brothers and sisters, when the seed of God's kingdom went into the soil of that church, it has literally produced a hundredfold.

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They were excellent, excellent soil. And the reason why is they got some things that are in order with the

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Lord. They are first Christians. Secondarily, they are churchmen.

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And third, they are abolitionists. And I can't tell you how important that order is, brothers and sisters, because there's a lot of people who may have good theology, good doctrine, know a lot of history lessons, but if they are out of order, they will do more harm to this movement than good.

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And I am here to let you know that Apologia Church, Pastor Jeff, Pastor Luke, Pastor Zach, and now this dear brother that I'm gonna introduce,

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Brother Dennis. Dennis, how do I pronounce your last name? Any way? Just as long as they don't call you

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Dennis the Menace? No Denise, okay.

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You're not confused about your gender. Glad to hear that,

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Dennis. Praise be to God. Brother Dennis, come up here and give us some heaven, buddy. Good morning.

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Well, good evening. Brother Rusty left off one number, four would be we're all Calvinists.

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So we'll just go ahead and fill that in. I know, yeah, for sure.

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I know a lot of you are here and they were expecting to see Pastor Jeff Durbin. Sorry to disappoint you, but please keep him and his family in your prayers.

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They're getting better, but they still need our prayers. Yesterday when Rusty told me that I would be speaking tonight at 545,

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I went home and I prayed that I had to fill in for Jeff. No, that I would go before Rusty. Because after every rally,

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I feel like I always talk after you and I just don't have the vocal cords to let it ring. Like he said,

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I'm Dennis Sarfate, President of Red State Reform. I'm gonna kind of walk you through what we do on a daily basis going around to state legislators trying to get bills of abolition in and so forth.

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If you see the Action for Life, that's actually our project. It's the same entity, we're the same group.

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It's not two separate groups. End abortion now would be our pastoral side where we have faithful people like you all today who went out and I thank you guys for going out there, putting your time in and trying to save those babies.

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So Jeff and the pastor, Zach Morgan leads that and we go out, share the gospel, save babies on a daily basis.

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What we do is different. What we do is we say, you can go and rescue those babies but they're gonna keep killing them and we have to do something legislatively.

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We have to wake up the government, we have to wake up our local state leaders and we have to go out there and put bills in to end it.

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So should Christians engage in politics? I guess that's probably the big question. Amen.

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The Bible is the most political book ever written. Christ is King is probably the most political statement ever said.

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When we invited the 600 churches from Arizona to come and join earlier today, we heard a multitude of replies.

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One of them was from a pastor, claiming pastor of a church here in Phoenix that said, well,

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I don't agree with the way you guys do things. And so I said, all right, in the email, I'm reading it. He said, would the people, would the

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Jews go in front of Herod's kingdom and try to save the babies that were getting killed when Jesus was born?

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And I thought about that for a second. I said, well, I hope so. I hope they would have stood out there and did. And I'm sure some of them did.

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But this is what we're doing now. This is the platform that we've been given. And there's no more fighting where we're just being silent.

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Now it's fighting with words and action. We were just in, Zach, my partner and I were just in Pennsylvania meeting with a state rep there.

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Now we didn't get this state rep to call us to come out there and meet with him. It was actually a local guy,

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Sal Piccolo, who went and did his duty as a Christian, as an American citizen to find out who his state rep was.

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Now he went to his state rep, that state rep wanted nothing to do with him. So he went to the next county over. We fly out there, takes us for a tour of the whole entire

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Capitol. In that Capitol, there is so much scripture on those walls. It's undeniable that our founders knew what the truth was and what this country was founded on.

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There's no denying it. In the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, behind the bench of the Supreme Court has the 10 commandments.

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And as they sit in their seats, thou shall not murder is right there behind their heads and they ignore it daily.

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Everyone in this country ignores it daily that is in political arena. So what do we do?

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We must go out and engage them. Christians must go out and engage it, okay?

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Not only should we engage it, but we should own it. We should own TV, we should own movies, we should own music people.

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God does not need millions and millions of people. Look at Gideon's army, 300 faithful people.

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Now I believe that we have more than that in our movement. We just need to wake up the church. There's plenty of churches that need to be involved.

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And I think we all see that everywhere around the US. So right now Action for Life is working in 25 states.

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We have legislation in nine of them. We've had four rallies, Oklahoma, they had a rally there.

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We had one in South Carolina, Texas, one in here in Arizona. And by the grace of God, that rep in Pennsylvania said he would put a bill in and it looks like we're gonna have a rally in Pennsylvania and Harrisburg in September.

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So praise God for that. By a show of hands here and don't feel obligated to raise it

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I won't chastise you, but who knows their state rep where they're from? Wow, that's pretty impressive.

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Usually it's one person. That's the most important thing. You guys have to go out, do some research, find out who your state rep is, call them up.

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They wanna see who their constituents are. They wanna see who's voting for them. If you get four or five from your church in your local city to call, that's a big deal.

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Five calls to a state rep, if you'll hear my partner talk about it tomorrow during his time, that's a lot.

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You get 10, 15, 20, you get 50, it's a big deal. And they're gonna listen. They're gonna wanna meet with you.

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We found it very easy. I am not a politician. I played baseball for 21 years.

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I am so new to this, but what I did is I got great, a great teacher in Zach Lautenschlager and I was able to learn, what does it take?

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It just takes boldness. It takes being ready to get rejected by everything. They're not gonna be happy to talk to you, especially if you're in a blue district, man, just gotta be sanctified because you wanna leave that office and you wanna do things and say things and you just gotta hold them in and just tell

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God, please just work me through this. But if you live in a red district, they're gonna meet with you and they might not like what you have to say, but it needs to be said.

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We can't sit idle anymore and just say, you know what? The next president's gonna do it. The next politician's gonna do it.

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The Supreme Court's gonna do it. You're living in a non -reality. You're living in a dream. That ain't gonna happen.

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It's gonna take faithful Christians like you see here in this room. So how do we reach out?

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Well, I would go to, like I said, Sal. All he did is start calling around to state reps in his state who would talk to him.

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Talk to one, he called us. He said, I need you guys to come in. I need you to meet with him, see what he says.

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We did. We pressed him a little bit. He was a little wishy -washy at first. Maybe in a year, maybe in two years we'll put one in.

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But Lautenschlager, Zach, he pressed him a little more and by the end of it, he's like, yeah, let's do it.

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And that's all it took. It just took us saying, no, we're gonna be firm. We're gonna push them. They're gonna come at you.

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Oh, we have the heartbeat bill. We have the Down syndrome bill. And then you just gotta walk them through all of that nonsense.

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You gotta walk them through all of those slippery slopes that they try to act like they're doing a good thing, but it ends up being not a good thing.

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So just engage them. So I'm gonna talk to you a little bit about what we're also doing with End Abortion Now.

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So End Abortion Now and the Founders Promise School is teaming together where we're gonna actually go in, teach churches how to engage in their politics locally, and this is a local issue.

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This is not a federal issue. Roe v. Wade is not law. All of you I know know it, so I'm not just saying something that's new.

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It's not law, so it's a local issue. So that's what we're gonna teach you. How do Christians engage it? End Abortion Now is gonna handle the pastoral side where you're going to the abortion mills, what you're doing at the mills, how are you to act.

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The gospel is proclaimed. And our job the next day, the second day of the school is for Zach to stand up and go through the system and how you work in the system.

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Christians can do it. You don't have to be a sleazeball politician to be a politician. You can be a Christian. It's actually possible.

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There are Christian people that are running for office. So Apologia Church has our first guy running this year,

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Don Mays. Don is a veteran of the

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U .S. military. He's been a member at Apologia Church. He's Pastor Zach Morgan's brother -in -law, and he prayed about it, and he said, this is the thing to do.

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So we're gonna run him. He's actually in my district, so I get to vote for him. So I know who I'm voting for.

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I'm not gonna be confused on that. And that's all it took. It took him to be brave. He has a job. He has an obligation to provide for his family, and he's gonna do that, but he's also gonna put an obligation in to put bills in to protect the preborn.

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There's plenty of other fights to have. I mean, we've had mass mandates. We've had all this overreach by the government, but there ain't a better fight than the fight to end abortion.

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So that's what we're gonna do. That's what we're teaching. That's the End Abortion Now, Founders Promise School.

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We are still going around. Any of you guys ever talk to your state reps, you wanna reach out to us, you can go on takeactionforlife .org.

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You can reach out to me. I have business cards. We can go through that, but I wanna read this. I saw this out there, and I just wanted to grab it.

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I hope none of you overlook this card, and I'm just gonna read what it says. When the higher -ranking civil authority makes unjust or immoral law, policy, or court opinion, the lower or lesser -ranking civil authorities have the

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God -given right and duty to interpose and refuse to obey the superior authority, and if necessary, openly resist the higher civil authority.

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That's talking to us. That's talking to us. When they overreach, we can do it. How do we know we can do it as a state?

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When we tell a state that you can end it right now in your state, you can be the first state to end it because you have 30 -plus states smoking pot when federally it's illegal, and statewide, they go ahead and make it legal to smoke pot wherever you want, and the federal government can't do anything.

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If we can do it for marijuana, we can do it for saving babies, all right? Now, I know you guys are all excited for Brother Rusty and his pasta.

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Last time to preach? Well, I'm glad I'm here, so thank you for your time.

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God bless you all. Thank you for being here, for going out to the mills. I know a lot of you do it on a daily basis, and what a blessing it is for everyone else to see your faithfulness, so God bless you all, and thank you so much.

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So what you heard was the short -term strategy and the long -term strategy, amen? Praise be to God, and remember, this is coming out of just one church, one church, and it's not a megachurch.

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I don't know, they're sort of becoming a megachurch, and you wonder why they're growing? Because they refused to shut down during the pandemic.

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Don't you love it? Hallelujah. All right, so yes, this is a landmark time.

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This will be my last official message serving as national director of Operation Save America, so please be patient with me.

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There's a lot bouncing in my minuscule brain and a lot of things brewing in my heart.

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Wow. But let's start with a scripture foundation.

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Everybody say amen. Amen. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 71.

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Can anybody tell me what the theme of this event is? Further up and further in.

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Who came up with that theme? Oh, okay, all right, must be good. I wanna lay a foundation here, brothers and sisters, and I wanna build on it and kinda share my heart with you.

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Because obviously, this ministry is going through a transition, and I want us, the

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Lord, to prepare us for it. So in Psalm 71, this is

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King David, and he is praying to the

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Lord. And he says in verse 17, oh God, you have taught me from my youth.

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Everybody say youth. Youth. And to this day,

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I declare your wondrous works. Now also, when

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I am old and gray -headed, oh God, do not forsake me until, everybody say until.

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I declare your strength to this generation, and watch this, your power to everyone who is to come.

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Brothers and sisters, King David was keenly aware of his heritage.

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He, from a youth, understood the history of God's dealings with his nation.

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He was very much aware of the godly roots that nourished him as a citizen of Israel.

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Keenly aware of it. From his youth, he was taught these things. From his youth, he learned these things.

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From his youth, he embraced those things. It was precious to him.

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And there's something amazing about King David, because he just wasn't satisfied with the personal knowledge of what he had learned from those who had gone before him.

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What he had learned from the words of God. From his father, his grandfather.

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See, he wasn't just content to self -absorb it and say, wow, isn't this awesome.

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Something else was motivating King David. And he had this intense desire, and indeed, it is from the

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Lord. And what was that desire? His desire was to take all the things that he had learned from his youth, all the precious nuggets of truth that he had learned from God's word, and his desire was to establish it in his generation.

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So he's learning from the past, and he's gonna give his life to God to make sure this is established in my generation.

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And God, you do not forsake me. Please, God, do not forsake me until I see this come to pass.

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He doesn't stop there. I mean, that should be enough. He doesn't stop there.

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He wants to live such a life of faith that is pleasing to the

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Lord that his life, God working from heaven through him, this heritage, this history, this holiness, this godliness, this righteousness, working in and through him to reach his generation, and then live it in such a way that it impacts future generations that he will never see on this side of heaven.

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What did King David know that a lot of us do not understand?

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Brothers, sisters, please hear me on this. King David had an understanding of the continuum.

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He understood the providence of God, past, present, and future.

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Now, let me ask you a question. Did God, in his life, answer

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King David's prayer? How many believe God answered his prayer?

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Well, we got actually proof from the Bible. Turn to Acts chapter 13.

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Listen to the words of the Lord. In verse 36 of Acts chapter 13, for David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell asleep, was buried with his fathers, and saw corruption.

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Did God answer his prayer? Did God use his life to reach his generation?

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Did God use his life to impact future generations? How many years, how many hundreds of years since David prayed that prayer in Psalm 71?

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How many hundreds of years it took to write the book of Acts? Who were they talking about?

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They're talking about King David. How many of you read the Psalms? How many of you pray the Psalms?

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How many sing the Psalms? Is David still impacting us for the kingdom of God?

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Yes, he is. God answered that prayer. And that tells you something about King David.

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He had a heart for the future.

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He had a heart for future generations. He wasn't like King Hezekiah.

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You remember old King Hezekiah? Interesting fellow.

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He had his times with the Lord, for sure. There were times that God highly recommended him.

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And there were times where, wow, wow. So King Hezekiah does a foolish thing.

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He sins. God raises up Isaiah the prophet, goes to Hezekiah.

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Listen, he goes to Hezekiah and said, because you did this, I am gonna judge

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Israel, and Babylon is gonna come into this nation, and he's gonna take away captive your children.

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Now, I want you to listen very carefully to his response. He says, good is the word of the

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Lord. At least in my time, I'll have peace and prosperity.

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Hezekiah, yeah, you're a king, aren't you?

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You're a king. But you know what else you are, Hezekiah?

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You're a dad. You're a father.

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Your kids are gonna be bound and led into captivity.

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You're gonna lose your children. I mean, who cares?

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At least I'm good in my day. How many know King David had a different viewpoint than that? And what viewpoint do you and I have?

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So critically important. So here

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I am. I'm at this transition of life and ministry, and I'm stepping down from a ministry that I've given over half my life to,

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And I gotta tell you, brothers and sisters, these things are sort of reigning paramount in my life.

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A new season is definitely dawning, a chapter of life is ending, the old guard is fading, a new guard is emerging, and who is sufficient for all these things?

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I remember for years, and those of you who have been, by the way, how many of you have served with OSA for five years, stand up.

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You've served with OSA at least five years. No, just five years, if you did more than five years, sit down.

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You've served OSA for 10 years, 10 years. Well, at least 10 years, okay.

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You've served OSA for 15 years. How old are you,

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Joe? All right, you've served OSA for 20 years.

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You've served OSA for 25 years, wow, wow.

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You served OSA for 30 years, oh my

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God, God bless you guys.

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Well then, if you've served OSA for any amount of time, you have heard this from Flip Benham.

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One of his major charges was, guys, parents, you gotta fall on the barbed wire of life so your kids can run over your dead carcasses to fulfill their vision and mission, amen?

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Do y 'all remember that? He said, you know, they gotta run over your dead carcasses so they can go further up and further in to the kingdom.

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And that's what this is all about, brothers and sisters, so critically important. So that's in keeping with this theme, right?

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Does anybody know where I got the phrase further up and further in? Who said

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C .S. Lewis? Sophia, wisdom, wisdom speaketh, we better pay attention.

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Yeah, that's the last book of the Chronicles of Narnia, the last battle in the second to the last chapter.

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Here's this quote, this is where we got, further up and further in. Now, I gotta tell you, I'm not promoting particularly that book, because it's controversial, there's some theological problems, but that's for another time.

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But we do wanna borrow further up and further in. So, this is

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C .S. Lewis, I have come home at last.

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This is my real country. I belong here.

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This is the land I've been looking for for all my life, though I never knew it till now.

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Come further up, come further in.

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Now, brothers and sisters, for our purposes, this carries the future.

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Specifically, this is a charge, this is a call, this is a challenge for OSA, for Jason Storms, for Pastor Darren Stead and Lucas Childress to go further up and further in to advance

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God's kingdom in the earth. Can I get an amen? Amen. It's an admonishment to take this heritage, to take this history of blood, sweat, and tears and be careful how you build upon that heritage.

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And our desire, our goal should be that when they take the reins of this leadership, they are far more effectual, that they have greater impact than those that have gone before them.

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And that needs to be our prayer focus, brothers and sisters. This is not about personalities, this is not about titles, it's not about former directors, it's not about me, it's not about OSA, it is about a king and his kingdom.

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Carries a great kingdom principle further up and further in. It means we take what's been given to us and we make it better, amen?

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It's a transforming work that's done by the word and the spirit of the living

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God. You know, before Roe versus Wade, most parents actually desired for their children to have a better life than they did.

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Most parents sacrificed their tomorrows for the todays of their children.

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But since Roe versus Wade, since this pagan nightmare has assaulted this nation, now parents will assault and destroy their own children so they will have a better tomorrow.

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God forgive us for what we have done. Now if you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians chapter two.

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We're gonna look at further up and further in from a leadership perspective.

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Everybody say leadership perspective. Ephesians chapter two, we'll look at verse 19.

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Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

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Having been built on the foundation, everybody say foundation, of the apostles and prophets of the

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Lord. Jesus Christ himself, the chief cornerstone, the

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Lord himself, the apostles, the prophets, the ones that have gone before us.

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Are they high over the people, lording it over them? Where are they?

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They are bearing the weight of responsibility. They are foundational.

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You know, I tell my kids all the time, and they'll tell you this. One of the reasons why

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I know Christianity is true, because there is no way in God's green earth, any mind of man can conceive a

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God like this. It is not possible. There is no way.

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I'm just telling you, we've tried men concocting gods. And it's very interesting.

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They look and act a lot like us. You notice that? If you wanna know what men conceiving gods, look at Greek mythology.

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They're petty, they're lustful, they're angry, they're plotting, they're scheming, except they got superpowers.

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Who in the world can come up with a God who would leave his glory, his power, his position in heaven and come into this world, not at the palace, in a manger, a stinking manger, not in Rome, not even in Jerusalem.

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In Bethlehem, who knows anything about Bethlehem? A God who would get on his knees and wash the feet of men he knows that are gonna betray him, deny him, and abandon him, a

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God who would submit himself to creatures who gave them the power, the very breath, the very strength to drive those nails in his hands and put that crown upon his head and crucify him.

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What kind of God is this? No man can make this up.

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I'm just telling you, it's not possible. And what did he say?

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Here I am, the creator God, and I have come to serve rather than to be served.

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And who is the greatest in the kingdom of God, my friends? Yeah, those who serve.

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Well, let's kind of contrast this different kind of leadership, further up, further in kind of stuff.

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So we got the Lord, we got the apostles. They're the foundation. They are bearing the weight of responsibility, serving others, amen?

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That's the model of the kingdom. And then we got the other side of kind of leadership. How many remember King Saul?

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Remember his brand of leadership? I mean, there was a lot of King Saul's in the body of Christ.

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They are, boy, they'll hunt down those young anointed, young individuals, ones that got zeal, ones that got passion, ones who will fight the battle, ones that will serve well.

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But boy, when the congregation starts to sing their praises rather than the senior pastor, look out, the spear is coming.

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The spear is coming. I was a young minister.

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I know how that feels. I know how this works, believe me. They loved my passion. They loved the anointing on my life.

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They loved that I would fight the battle and serve well. They loved it. But as soon as people became aware of the gifting in my life, that invitation was swiftly taken away, shunned, abandoned, kicked to the curb, thrown under the bus.

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How many know that's not right in the eyes of God? It's not, brothers and sisters.

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It's not. I've shared probably through my entire time with OSA and they're starting to pick it up, starting to repeat it, but it bears repeating.

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It's an amazing thing how far we could advance the kingdom of God if nobody's concerned about who takes the credit.

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The credit goes to one. And that's the one we are serving, amen?

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Brothers and sisters, listen to me. Suffice it to understand that God knows.

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He knows. Do you know there are ministries that track OSA? And they will take our work and they'll post it on their ministry, take credit for our work and raise funds over it.

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Do you know that happens? It does, brothers and sisters. And you know what?

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They got their reward. They got their reward. But I'm telling you, that word is not translating into the heavens,

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I can guarantee you that. Because God knows and that should suffice us, brothers and sisters, because when we understand that God knows our labor and our work and our service, he has promised to reward us according to our works.

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We can trust him in this. And that frees us up. Listen, that frees us up to love one another, to forgive one another, to care for one another, amen?

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And to bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ, amen?

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So critically important, brothers and sisters. Another aspect of good leadership, and we're talking about further up and further in here, is a good leader will take responsibility when things go wrong.

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Truly, the buck stops here. How many know most leaders, when things go wrong, he blames others for the failure?

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Don't do that. Don't do that.

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Man up! Take responsibility. Forget about your pride, humble yourself, and take responsibility.

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You wanna know why that's so important? Because God's authority works through men who take responsibility.

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And that means we gotta be humble enough to admit when we're wrong. Listen, I train my kids.

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They know, we had the family altar. I opened this book every single day, went in one ear, out the other ear.

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You know what I mean? Only half the time. Only half the time. Do you know what reached my children more than anything?

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Listen, listen. Was it my great teaching? Was it my great expounding of the scriptures?

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What reached the heart of my kids? You know, they would do boneheaded things. They would do stupid things, disobedient things.

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But I had a lot of pent -up anger and frustration in my heart fighting this battle. And I don't know,

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I just felt like, well, you're my family. Right? And they would do something stupid, and all that anger, all that frustration, and I pummeled my own children.

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And then I catch myself, oh my gosh, now what you did was not right.

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You did sin, but that didn't give me permission to sin. And I sinned against God, and I sinned against you.

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And I literally get on my knees in front of my kids and say, would you please forgive your father? And I'm telling you, that won them over more than any of my teachings or anything else.

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Guys, listen. It's important. It's important. Now when things go right, guess what a good leader's gonna do?

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He's gonna give praise to those who have served well and commend them. Not himself.

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Not himself. I'm gonna tell you guys, listen, I know a lot of people are pouring out, you know, rusty this, rusty that.

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My kids know it, my wife definitely knows it. I hate it. I hate it.

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I don't like the praise of men. I really don't. I cringe. And the reason why

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I cringe, because both God and I know who I am. I don't care what you see with the public images,

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God and I know who this guy is. All right? And so that's enough for me.

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And that's why I don't get upset when the pro -aborts attack me and accuse me of all kinds of craziness.

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Because if they eat that, listen, that's not the half of it.

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You know, you're accusing me of stuff I never did, but I'm way worse than that.

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So who am I to complain? Bring it on. Jeez. A good leader, listen, instead of throwing the spear at those younger in fits of jealousy, listen, the good shepherd will take the sword and slay the envy from within.

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He will slay the beast from within so he can continue to slay the beast from without.

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A true shepherd, listen to me, a true shepherd will take the hit.

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The true shepherd will take the hurt. A true shepherd will lay down his life.

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He will lay down his reputation. And he does it for a few things because he has a love and care for the sheep and the lambs of God.

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That's why the apostle Paul says, why don't you just take the hurt? Well, why should

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I take the hurt? Because there's something greater than you, bud.

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There's something greater than you. There's something transcendent above and beyond you. And it's about your king and your kingdom.

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Just take the hurt. Why? Because we want the work of God to continue unhindered and unmolested.

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True shepherds lay down their lives. I mean, no, that's the example of our

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Lord. Another great quality of a leader, listen, willing to go further up and further in is place the right people with the right gifting and positions of service.

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And here's something we have to come to grips with. Just because we may think of ourselves as leaders or whatever, and we may be experts in one area or another area,

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I mean, no, we are not experts in every area. We don't know all things. You do understand there are other people besides you that may know more about things than you do.

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You know what a wise leader will do? Put them in positions of service.

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They have expertise you don't have. Oh my gosh, but what if I put them in a position of service and they end up getting...

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What happens to me? What happens to my reputation? What happens to my notoriety? Come on, man.

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Why do I feel like Joe Biden? Brothers and sisters, listen, we gotta have the same mentality of Moses in that regard.

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Do you remember when he was prophesying and the 70 elders were prophesying? And then they found out, hey, there's some other guys, man, they're not in the camp and they're prophesying.

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Listen to what Moses said. Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all of the

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Lord's people were prophets and the Lord would put his spirit upon them. Do you think

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Moses was caring about his reputation, about his position, his leadership? He said, oh my goodness,

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I would just pray out when they say me and put it upon me and give it to all the people.

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Sounds like he was promoting the priesthood of unbelief. But brothers and sisters, do you understand what

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I'm saying to you? This is a good spirit to have. And you know, the

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Bible says of Moses that he was the meekest man in all the earth and he should know it because he actually penned those words.

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Go Mo. This is next is very critical.

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And please hear me on this. The praises of men and the persecution of men are both imposters.

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They are frauds and you need to treat it as such.

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It is there we have to align ourselves with the apostle Paul and come into agreement with him.

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Listen to his words. I know how to be abased and I know how to abound everywhere and in all things.

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I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and suffer need.

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And this is where the famous passage of scripture comes in. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

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So circumstances, situations. Listen, there were people preaching the gospel wanting to add affliction to the apostle

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Paul. And he said, none of these things move me.

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All right, buddy, when we know you're moving, you're the apostle Paul, you're doing all this great missionary work.

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So what moves you, buddy? What moves you? What possesses you? What compels you?

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What moves me is vision. What moves me is mission. What moves me is my faith.

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And that is the anchor to our souls. And brothers and sisters, we need to understand this and we need to do the same.

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Amen. God's leaders should never use and abuse people to build their own empires, reputations and ministries.

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Like a good parent, you want those whom you serve to do better than you.

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There comes a point in time as we age, brothers and sisters, we just gotta let go.

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We need to understand at a certain point we must allow for change.

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I have seen way too many older men trying to hold onto things past the time.

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And they end up doing a lot more harm than good. Amen. So there does come a time, brothers and sisters, that our duty, and I truly believe it is my duty now, to simply hold the ladder so others can climb higher.

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Amen. To go further up and further in. This is my desire and this is my last act.

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As the National Director of Operation Save America. Younger generation, it's time for you to stand up, step in.

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It's time for you to go further up and further in. God bless you saints.