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. 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 of 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 vast 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

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 aren't 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 serious 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 is 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 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 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

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 led the way in this and you know very public is on Fox News and all this kind of stuff his battles with the his and grace community churches battles with the 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, but 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'm 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