An Interesting Observation and Word of Appreciation

Hello ladies and gentlemen, my name is Justin Peters. I hope that you and your family are doing well today. And I want to thank you so very much for joining me for this short little podcast. I'm I'm just kind of winging this I'm not gonna have any video clips of anybody or anything like that.

Churches That Stayed Open During COVID Grew

But I want to begin with an observation and then a word of appreciation so Two years ago right February of 2020 is when Kovat really kind of got serious we were hearing about it in January of 2020, but Wasn't until February that things people really started getting worried about it.

And initially we didn't know how How serious this was gonna be right? I mean we didn't know if this was gonna be the next bubonic plague or if it was just gonna be a glorified case of the sniffles and so things began to shut down and churches shut down.

The vast vast majority I think there were just a handful of churches that I've heard of that that never did but almost all churches shut down at least for a few weeks or a couple of months, but so everything that I had on my calendar was Cleared, you know all the all the preaching engagements.

I had either were canceled or had to be rescheduled but in June of 2020 started traveling again. I went to a church in Michigan pastored by a good friend of mine Jim ate a lot and So he had me come out.

We had this on the calendar already and he said no, come on. We're you know, we're done with this. We're opening back up and we want you to come so June of 2020 Started travel again. And so since June of 2020, I've been doing my thing.

I've been traveling preaching and teaching and I've had a very interesting observation now that we're a good year and a half. Or at least I'm a good year and a half into traveling again. Every single church I've been to has grown.

Every single one of them without exception 100 of the churches that have had me in in the last year and a half have grown and I Think I know why For so long so many churches Shut down. They were afraid of the virus.

So they shut down and they went online doing virtual church and Many of those churches are still shut down. And quite honestly for the great Majority the vast mass majority has actually been a good thing that these churches have shut down because they're not real churches anyway.

But the ones that opened up the ones that opened up way back in 2020. If you even when all the other churches were shut down the ones that opened up and stayed open. Were the were the doctrinally oriented churches the sound churches the churches that take Hebrews 10 25.

Seriously, not forsaking the assembling of yourselves those churches that open back up and remained open while all these other wishy-washy churches and Bad churches fosters all I can say when they shut down the the serious churches Stayed open and what happened was that?

Their sheep their sheep out there in all these communities and God has his sheep. He has his people all over the place and When the churches that they had been going to shut down these real sheep that wanted to be fed Sheep want to be fed they began looking around For churches that were still open and what did they find the doctrinally sound churches and so they went to them and They appreciated that these churches were remaining open even when their mayor's or their governor's Said to shut down no matter what the CDC said.

No, we're going to obey God rather than man. We're going to take Hebrews 10 25 seriously. Yeah, we may have shut down for a few weeks initially until we kind of got figured out and and None of us had been through anything like this before and hindsight the next time You know the when kovat 20 or whatever comes back around these churches.

They're not gonna shut down. They're gonna stay open. And so these sheep began looking for churches and the ones that they found that were open are the doctrinally sound churches the ones that care about scripture the pastors that take their Solemn duty before God very very seriously and so these sheep found these churches found these Flocks and they went to them and every single church I've been to in the last year and a half has grown now to be sure some people Left, you know when kovat hit and they haven't come back.

But those folks have more than been made up for By all these other folks all these other sheep that were looking for a good church and they found them in these churches that remained open and so I've been very very encouraged for that by that and I'm not diminishing kovat 19.

I'm not one of these. One of these folks that says oh, it's you know, it's a fake virus, you know, it's not real and well, yeah, it's real. I've had kovat 19. I know it's real. Lost my taste and smell for quite a while back in What was it summer of last year?

I guess about June of last year. I got kovat. So yeah, it's a real virus. But you know, hey, we live in a fallen world viruses are around. But anyway point of the matter being yes, it's it can be serious for a few folks.

With underlying conditions. I'm not diminishing that. I know some people have died of kovat 19 I have I have some friends who have who have died or people I know who have died of it. So I'm not saying it's not a real virus but what I am saying is that we have a command from Scripture and.

And I really appreciate all of the churches that stayed open even when the government Said to shut down. I really appreciate these churches and God has honored their obedience. Obedience to God is in and of itself its own reward whether or not we see or experience tangible Benefits from our obedience just being obedient to God is in and of itself its own reward but God in his Providence and in his kindness has indeed blessed these churches that stayed open.

And they have grown they have grown not only numerically but they've grown in the depth in their depth in their maturity in the Just the richness of the people that have come. They're serious and and they're serious about God's Word.

And so that's been a great encouragement to me. It really has and so. Okay, just briefly. I guess I am gonna go back on my word and show you a clip of one individual. It's an audio clip and this is Russell Moore.

Russell Moore was recently commenting on a particular church in Michigan that a friend of his is aware of that grew from like 150 or something to over a thousand and His friend asked him. Why do you think that is and Russell Moore had a very interesting Answer as to why he thinks that church grew so much listen to this from Russell Moore.

This was February 17th 2022 so as of this recording just a few days ago, I.

Russell Moore’s Critique of COVID Church Growth

Was talking to a friend and not long ago who was talking about where he lives in rural, Michigan. And he said there's a church. He said it ran about 150 200 people and now it has suddenly Exploded over the last year and it's running over a thousand.

And he said why do you suppose that is. And I said Let me guess and it's not evangelism. It's that the pastor announced that kovats a hoax and we're going to Fight against masks and vaccine mandates and so forth and this assembled a crowd and he said that's exactly what happened is.

And I see that happening all over the country where pastors are saying Crazy has become a church growth strategy. Not so much at reaching unbelievers, but pulling Believers out of churches because it gives this this picture of conviction.

What an insult that is to these churches that have stayed open. I have no idea what church he's talking about. I'm assuming this is a true story and I'm sure there are some churches like that if you've heard of Greg Locke.

That kind of a guy who I have absolutely nothing good to say about on any level. But to say that all of the churches that stayed open did so just to put on an air of conviction I'm sorry. I've been to these churches these churches stayed open these good churches.

They have stayed open. Absolutely out of conviction out of biblical conviction. Fidelity to the Word of God and in obedience to the Good Shepherd. That's why they stayed open. So many little rant here over now on to more encouraging things.

Appreciation for Faithful Shepherds and the Local Church

That's the observation now for the word of appreciation I want to Express my appreciation for all of the faithful shepherds out there. John MacArthur, of course, he was the one with the largest platform that that That led the way in this and you know Very public his own Fox News all this kind of stuff his battles with the his and grace community churches battles with them local authorities state authorities governor Newsome and all that, you know that even worked its way through the court system and by God's providence and grace they prevailed in that.

So he had the largest platform of the churches that stayed open in defiance of the government. Have to obey God rather than me in Acts chapter 5. But there are thousands and thousands of other pastors out there who do not have that kind of a platform and but they stayed open and they're.

They take their responsibility before the Lord very very seriously, and I want to express my appreciation to you Brother you to you local pastor elders. In every church needs to have a plurality of elders, but I want to express my appreciation to you men who who don't have the platform who don't have the name recognition who don't.

Who aren't being asked to speak at the big conferences? You know some of you who are familiar with my teaching maybe you've heard me in person. You've probably heard me say this it can it can get discouraging at some level.

It can be very discouraging. Honestly when you look at the broad visible spectrum of Christianity Nowadays evangelicalism, whatever that word means anymore. There is so much compromise. There is so much dilution of the gospel.

There's so much. There's so much that is being called church and being called Christianity that bear absolutely no resemblance to True church and biblical Christianity, there's so much. There's so many moral failings out there.

There's a lot of that. There's a there's a lot of error. There's a lot of heresy. There's a lot of bad teaching. There's a lot of this stuff going on a lot of it and and I deal with a lot of that. So it can be easy to get discouraged but There are good churches out there, and there's a lot of them.

Dear friends, there's a lot of them. They're all over the United States. I've been to some of them. They're all over the world. By God's grace. I've had the opportunity to preach the gospel in 27 different countries now some of those countries multiple times and you know what there's good churches all over the world, too.

There's faithful shepherds out there There they don't have the name recognition as I said, they're not in the news. What's in the news is all the bad stuff, but there's a lot to be thankful for. There's good churches good faithful shepherds good men, and and I've been very encouraged by that.

It's been one of the great blessings that God has given me as an evangelist to see this for myself. And that's why I'm not I'm not a Debbie Downer when it comes to evangelicalism well Maybe I am what it comes to.

Whatever that word means it but for the church I'm not a Debbie Downer for the church God's Church. Christ Church is safe. It is safe. The gates of Hades will not prevail against it. God's Word will not return to him void.

His Word will do what he has decreed it to do and Nothing will prevail against the Church of Christ. Not the denomination, but you know what I mean Christ Church, nothing will prevail against it and Our times hard.

Yeah, are they gonna get worse? Yeah I'm not post-millennial. Sorry things are going to get worse, but God's Church is safe. It will do what he has decreed it to do and there are good churches out there.

So all that to say Brothers all of you pastors all of you elders out there Who were laboring away in the in the word and shepherding your flocks. Guarding them feeding your flocks protecting them from the wolves doing church discipline when that's necessary to do and you have a Biblical understanding of what church is.

Thank you, I want you to know how much I appreciate what you're doing and As an evangelist my highest priority is to please Christ. That's what I want to do above anything else and any man who is in ministry for the right reasons Understands this understands that we have an audience of one.

There's one person that we are to please and that is Christ. So that is my highest priority in my ministry. But a second to that a second motivating factor I suppose is that I want my ministry to be a help to all of our faithful pastors all of our faithful shepherds.

I want to come alongside. What a pastor is already Preaching and teaching his congregation and I want to help them. I want to just come alongside and and You know hold up his arms. Metaphorically speaking to draw an analogy from Moses.

That's that's what I want to do. I want to help all of our faithful shepherds out there and one of these days The the guys that are gonna be at the front of the line. It's not gonna be the guys with the big platforms by God has given me something I guess of a somewhat sizable public platform but you know what I don't I Don't expect to be at the front of the line.

I The guys at the front of the line are gonna be all you faithful brothers out there Who are shepherding your flocks and you do it in anonymity. Unknown to anyone except your local flocks and and of course the Good Shepherd himself.

You guys are gonna be at the front of the line and I want you to know how much I appreciate you. And if you're watching this Brother or sister in Christ and you have one of these good faithful churches and you are led by good faithful men.

Be thankful for them express your appreciation to your pastor. It's not easy being a pastor. There are certainly challenges in what I do as an evangelist to be sure I face challenges but I don't face the kind of challenges that a pastor faces, so being a pastor a good faithful pastor is In my estimation if you're doing it, right.

It's the hardest job to use that word in the world. It's hard people don't realize how much time goes in just to preparing a sermon. If all a pastor had to do was to prepare one truly expositional Sermon where he digs into the text and and that's a full-time job in and of itself.

That's all he had to do. That's all he had to do but a pastor has to do a lot more than that. So people don't realize how much work goes into being a pastor good pastor I mean any knucklehead can go to sermons .com or whatever and download a sermon get up and read it, but Faithful shepherds don't do that.

They don't plagiarize, but that's another thing. So anyway If you go to one of these churches, you have faithful men leading you be thankful for them express your appreciation to them. Pray for them pray for their wives pray for their families.

I'll hold them up in prayer. It would mean a lot to them a little encouragement goes a long way so Observation and a word of appreciation brothers. Thank you. All right. Till our next time together may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ the love of God and the fellowship of his Holy Spirit.

Be with you all.