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Los Angeles Goes to War with God, the Church, and the Constitution

David Knight
David Knight - 2,015 Views
1,685
2,015 Views
Published on 19 Jan 2021 / In Spiritual

John MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, has been meeting since July in spite of local government edicts that seek to exert civil authority over religious exercise β€” in violation of rights recognized in the First Amendment. He summarized the relentless attacks, multiplying fines β€” and God's protection and blessing.

TRANSCRIPT:

This is the closest thing to the experience of the church in war. We've been under a massive assault. And it took all the prerogatives out of our hands in some ways. Now all of a sudden, all kinds of people were telling us what to do, what we could do and couldn't do.

This has been a season of trials without any equal in my rather long life. Everything has been taken out of our control. So many attacks. I told somebody that you might think we feel like a cork in the surf, bobbing up and down with each new wave. forbidden to meet, forbidden to sing, forbidden to fellowship, forbidden to have social events forbidden to be with each other forbidden to have funerals weddings.

Los Angeles County told us we could not meet to make sure that we got the message. They sued us they filed an indictment against us essentially. And they have fined us every Sunday since August for violation. By the way, that money went into an escrow account. Because they can't get to it. Because it's held up in court. And I'll say more about that in a minute. But just so you know, we've been fighting every Sunday since August.

October, came around and the city tried another approach. They declared to us that after 45 years of leasing the land across the wash for parking, that we had 30 days to vacate that. This was another attempt to shut us down coming from another angle. There was no reason given in the letter. But we had 30 days to comply.

Well, no court would honor that either. So they tried the health route. And no court would validate that. They tried the cancellation of a parking lot contract. Court wouldn't honor that.

We went through eight or nine court hearings, as you know, one was canceled from this week and another one canceled in the future. The judge is saying don't come back to me again with this. They couldn't succeed in any of these. They tried every way to close Grace Church. And I think it's true that there is no more scrutinized church in the United States than Grace Community Church.

I have been on some of these TV programs. And you've seen me there. While you see me on TV with those people. I've never been with any of those people. I'm sitting in the back of a van because of COVID looking into black hole talking to somebody in New York and hoping I can make sense out of what I'm saying. It has brought about some amazing incidents. Technician, one of those evenings said to me my life isn't what it ought to be after we did the video. Would you pray for me? Would you pray with me? ABC tried to discredit us. CNN tried to discredit us. The LA Times has tried numerous times to discredit us. Ungodly bloggers tried to discredit us. They've said terrible things about us. Lies, misrepresentations, inaccuracies. And they've all really if they were honest, had to retract everything.

Because it's just amazing how the Lord has protected us, isn't it? Hey, we're here. Sorry, world. You're there and I'm still here. I just wondered what once in a while what Satan is saying, once this MacArthur guy got what I have is divine grace and protection just do you have right? When I think about ministry, I have to say I don't, I can't say that in my my years here I've ever seen anything like the flourishing of the hand of God in ministry through all of this.

Let me just, let me just run down some things because I think it's important for us, isn't it to remember what God has done? Raise an Ebenezer, right, put up a banner and say, β€œThe Lord has helped us”.

Early August, got into the lawsuit. Since then, we've had inspectors religiously visit us 15 times. Supreme Court has issued two decisions favorable to churches. Los Angeles County was forced to change the guidelines for churches to meet.

And oh, by the way, there's a little caveat to that. We have 3,000 people gonna show up here in a few weeks for Shepherd's Conference. We weren't sure about hotels, because they're not able to be open unless it's essential. Thank you, Supreme Court. Hotel Association says, Hey, Supreme Court says you're essential. All those hotels are available.

There has been immense amount of legal work done by Jenna Ellis and 10 other attorneys. Total cost to that to the church. Zero.

And oh, by the way, you guys are getting a bad habit. We haven't had an offering in 10 months. We haven't had an offering in 10 months. We haven't passed the plate in 10 months. And you have given more in the last 10 months than any 10 month period in the history of this church. Now we're gonna retrain you. Just stunning.

In the middle of a lawsuit, the Lord has grown our church. If you came to Grace Church during the last 10 months, put your hand up. So this was a very, very small, tiny local church until COVID. You see how many hands raised? There are in out in the tent, out in the patio, 1000 people and 1000 new members, baptisms? Did you hear the testimonies and baptisms, Sunday nights?

There's a new evangelical term. I love it. It's β€œgrace refugees”. It's the people who had no other church to go to. So they came here as church refugees. And aren't we happy about that, aren’t we blessed? The Lord adds to his church. We’ll take you whoever you are, even if you're a Presbyterian refugee ;-)

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fadil75414
fadil75414 3 years ago

I earn more than $ 25,000 a month on full-time work. Last month, my paycheck was $ 26,385, I only worked 3 hours on a laptop. I'll do it ....... http://bit.do/fMsp4

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no0negun
no0negun 3 years ago

Alex Jones now says it’s okay to criticize Trump. It starts at 1:32 of the video found at the link below. https://ugetube.com/watch/bide....n-to-step-down-trump

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