All right, it's always great to preach in my hometown,
and I love Verity Baptist Church.
Of course, Pastor Jimenez and I are great friends.
Great to see a lot of my other pastor friends here.
And as many of you know,
I'm just coming off of the road trip.
And I drove over 6,600 miles in the last four weeks.
So after I finished the sermon tonight,
I might need to be carried out of here
because I'm pretty exhausted.
And so I'm gonna do the best I can tonight.
But I'm preaching tonight on the subject,
don't be a spoiled brat.
Don't be a spoiled brat.
Now, a spoiled brat is someone
who gets everything that they want.
A child whose parents never say no
to anything that they desire.
That child is gonna be a spoiled brat.
A spoiled brat complains when they don't get
exactly what they want because everything
always has to be their way all the time.
I looked it up in the dictionary and to be spoiled said
that it's a child that's been ruined
by being overly indulged.
Just whatever they want, they get it.
No one tells them no.
Look what the Bible says there
in Philippians chapter four, verse 11.
Not that I speak in respect of want,
for I have learned in whatsoever state I am
dare with to be content.
I know both how to be abased and I know how to abound.
Everywhere and in all things,
I'm instructed both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need.
I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.
He said he learned in whatsoever state he was
there with to be content.
This is what God demands of us as Christians,
contentment and being satisfied with what we've been given
not being the spoiled brat that just has to have
everything exactly like we want it all the time.
First Timothy chapter six says this,
you don't have to turn there,
but if you would turn to Numbers chapter 21.
First Timothy 6 says,
but godliness with contentment is great gain.
For we brought nothing into this world
and it is certain we could carry nothing out.
And having food and raiment,
let us be there with content.
But they that will be rich fall into temptation
and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts
which drown men in destruction and perdition
for the love of money is the root of all evil,
which while some coveted after,
they've erred from the faith
and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
We have not to desire all the dainties
and things that this world has to offer.
Let's just be content to live a humble,
modest, decent Christian life,
not trying to be rich,
not trying to keep up with the Joneses,
but to realize, look, we brought nothing into this world,
we can carry nothing out
and not get sucked in to this lust
for everything that we don't have,
just being a spoiled little brat
where everything has to be perfect
and if something isn't perfect,
we have to replace it and buy a new one
and constantly be spending money in order to be happy.
I'm talking about not being a spoiled brat tonight.
The first example that I wanna bring up
is complaining about your food.
Now, let me say this right now,
a lot of the things in this sermon
are gonna be directed toward children and teenagers, okay?
But even adults can be spoiled brats at all ages,
even senior citizens could theoretically be
a spoiled brat, okay?
And so everyone needs to take this to heart,
but especially you children and teenagers,
I know this is the fourth sermon of the day
for many of you,
but I hope that you children and teenagers
will listen to me
so that you don't be a spoiled little brat, okay?
Numbers 21 verse four says this,
It says, they journeyed from Mount Hor
by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom
and the soul of the people was much discouraged
because of the way and the people spake against God
and against Moses.
Wherefore have you brought us up out of Egypt
to die in the wilderness?
For there's no bread, neither is there any water
and our soul loathed this light bread
and the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people
and they bit the people
and much people of Israel died.
Now, I love how in verse five,
they say there's no bread
and then in the next breath is,
well, all we have is light bread.
We only have white bread, you know,
but a minute ago they said they didn't have any bread.
Why?
Because they're just being spoiled little brats
that just don't have the kind of bread that they want.
It's not that they don't have any bread,
it's just they didn't have the exact shade of bread
that they wanted something a little darker,
a little different, a little denser,
a little heavier or whatever.
But we need to understand that our food
is primarily to give us nutrition
and not necessarily to just be a party in our mouth
all the time, okay?
Now, if you would flip over to Psalm 78.
I'm talking about kids refusing to eat their vegetables
or refusing to eat mom's home cooking
so they have to just always be eating out all the time.
They want to eat McDonald's and let's face it,
the food that you're eating at home
is better than what's out there anyway.
I've been on the road for the last four weeks
and some kids are probably thinking
it was like a paradise unto me
because I was just eating out every meal
on this road trip.
But let me tell you something,
I'd much rather be eating at home
because I'm an intelligent adult, okay?
And I know that what mama is cooking at home
is more nutritious, it's healthier, it's better for you.
You know, and I was struggling on the road
just trying to make sure
that my kids got proper nutrition.
I got too much nutrition on that road trip, okay?
But you know, I was trying to make sure
that the kids got proper nutrition
because I know when they're at home,
I don't even have to worry about it
because I know they're getting that balanced diet,
they're getting the fruits,
they're getting the vegetables,
they're getting the milk and the dairy
and everything they need.
But you know, when you're out there
with the fast food and the junk food,
sometimes it's a little harder to get that.
But today we have kids who complain and snivel and whine
about the wonderful home cooked food
that mom is putting in front of them.
Hey, you need to eat what is put on your plate.
Eat what is in front of you.
And be thankful that you're being given good nutrition.
Amen.
By the way, eating things that you don't like
builds character.
You know, I grew up as kind of a picky eater
and you know, I would whine and complain
and want everything to be a certain way.
But that's because foolishness
is bound in the heart of a child, okay?
That's what the Bible says.
Children need to be taught a more excellent way.
They need to be taught something different than that.
And I remember I became a teenager
and I just thought, you know, I don't wanna be that guy.
You know, I'm hanging around with other teenagers
and they're all eating something.
And then, you know, I just had such sensitive taste buds
or whatever that I wanted a certain way.
And it would put me in kind of embarrassing situations.
And so I finally got to the point where
I'm not gonna be that guy.
And I started just forcing myself to try things,
just forcing myself to eat things that I didn't like.
I just decided that if I go to someone's house
and dinner is served, I'm just going to just eat
everything that's put on my plate,
even if I don't like it.
I'm just gonna eat it.
I traveled to Germany when I was 18 years old
and you know, I don't like sauerkraut.
And to this day, I don't like sauerkraut.
Who here does not like sauerkraut?
Yeah, I don't like it either, okay?
And in Germany, it's sauerkraut all the time.
And you know, some excited housewife in Germany is like,
hey, would you like some of this sauerkraut?
I'm just like, sure, you know?
And it was just like, oh man, not again, you know?
And I just kept eating it.
And I still don't like it, okay?
It didn't fix anything.
But you know what it did though,
is just it helped me to become a person
that can just go with it and not be spoiled
and just be thankful that I have food to eat.
Because you know, if you get hungry enough,
the Bible says the full soul loathes on honeycomb,
but to the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet.
And anybody who's ever fasted before knows
that you'll start just craving foods that you hate.
I'm not even kidding.
I mean, I remember just going without food for a few days
and just thinking about the worst foods
that are my least favorite foods,
and just thinking like, I would love to eat that right now.
I mean, if you've never felt that way,
you've never really been super hungry.
Because if you get hungry enough, everything sounds good.
Even the worst thing, you just wanna put it in your mouth
and chew it up and swallow it.
And you don't even care, my friend,
because you're actually hungry.
Look what the Bible says in Psalm 78, verse 22.
It's kind of alluding to what we just read in Numbers
about the whiners who only had the light bread,
and then God sent fiery serpents among them
to punish them.
Look at Psalm 78, verse 22,
because they believed not in God
and trusted not in his salvation,
though he had commanded the clouds from above
and opened the doors of heaven
and had rained down manna upon them to eat
and had given them of the corn of heaven.
That is the light bread they were complaining about
was the manna from heaven, the corn from heaven.
Man did eat angel's food, it says in verse 25.
But did he appreciate it?
No, he complained about it.
He sent them meat to the fall,
he caused an east wind to blow in the heaven,
and by his power he brought in the south wind.
He rained flesh also upon them as dust
and feathered fowl like as the sand of the sea,
and he let it fall in the midst of their camp,
round about their habitations.
So they did eat and were well filled,
for he gave them their own desire.
They were not estranged from their lusts,
but while their meat was yet in their mouths,
the wrath of God came upon them
and slew the fattest of them
and smote down the chosen men of Israel,
and so on and so forth.
And so we see here that when the people complained,
it displeased the Lord,
he sent fiery serpents among them,
he got so sick of them whining
that he just gave them so much food,
he gave them so much meat
because they complained that they didn't have meat.
You know, they had to eat a vegetarian meal.
It was like, ooh.
So they were all freaked out
about having to eat a vegetarian meal of just the manna,
and so God said, well, I'm gonna give you so much meat
that you're gonna eat and be stuck,
you're gonna be sick of meat.
It's gonna be coming out your nostrils,
it's gonna be coming out your ears.
And Moses is kinda like, whoa, God,
that's not even possible.
Like, what are you talking about?
Are we gonna kill every single fish in the whole sea?
Because do you realize
how many millions of people there are here?
And of course, God tells Moses, you know,
that he has the ability to do this,
and he brings in just flocks of quail,
and the quail are everywhere,
and they're able to just kill the quail
and eat as much as they want,
and then just when they get it in their mouth
and start eating it,
God just starts killing the fattest ones.
He just starts killing them.
Because God hates a whining, complaining, spoiled brat,
that's why.
Man did eat angel's food.
Let me tell you something.
If there was ever a nutritious diet,
it had to be that manna.
I mean, are you gonna tell me
that manna didn't have vitamin A in it?
It was lacking in potassium?
There wasn't enough iron in the manna?
Did it lack calcium?
B vitamins?
No, I guarantee you everything
that a growing boy needs was in that manna.
I guarantee you they didn't have to worry
about problems with their teeth,
problems with their bones,
their hair falling out,
or any kind of nutritional deficiencies,
because all of it was right there in that manna.
They didn't even need the quail.
The quail was bonus.
I guarantee you the manna had the protein they needed.
The manna had the essential fatty acids.
It had the omega-3 and the omega-6.
I guarantee you everything that they needed
was in that manna.
And yet it's just like, yeah, but we're tired of it.
Even though it's just been giving them the perfect diet.
Eating is about nutrition.
And you know what?
Today in the United States of America,
we are surrounded by nutritious food, okay?
You don't see people today
in the United States of America
suffering from scurvy and rickets
and all of these nutritional deficiencies
of people in third world countries
or throughout history
that have not had access to any fruit
or they didn't have any access to fresh vegetables
or they couldn't get enough calcium in their diet.
And so they're just eating a poor substandard diet
and they're having all these bone problems
and all of these nutritional deficiencies.
Folks, we are not experiencing that in America.
Even the poorest people today
can get access to the vitamins that they need.
You know, you go back a hundred years ago or something,
you go back to the 1920s
and then leading into the 1930s and the Great Depression.
Let me tell you something.
There were some people during the Great Depression
that were malnourished.
I mean, there were people,
and it's been documented in the hospitals of the day
where they're having people coming in in the 1930s
and they just are not getting the nutrition
that they need
and they're having all these physical problems.
Hey, we don't have to worry
about not getting enough calcium or B vitamins
or vitamin A, vitamin C.
We get all that stuff.
We're in America, the land of plenty,
and we ought to be thankful to God
that we can all fill our bellies,
we can all get the energy that we need to function.
You know, I was reading a book
about food in the Great Depression.
It was talking about how people back then,
if they worked hard,
they needed to eat at least 4,000 calories a day
or they're gonna be losing weight
and they can't have the energy that they need.
It was talking about how kids
would sometimes have to stay home from school
just to save energy
because they were just not eating.
Or kids that were being turned away from the school
because they didn't have clothes
and they could not go to school naked
and people were just so poor,
their clothes would be falling apart.
They would look at their clothes
and say you can't go to school
because your clothes are so thrashed.
This is in America 100 years ago
and you think about today,
kids aren't complaining because they can't go to school
because they have no clothes.
They're complaining because the jeans are not name brand
because they're a spoiled little brat
that has to have a certain brand name,
a certain style.
It all has to be perfect.
It all has to be dialed in
whereas back in the Great Depression 100 years ago,
their kids, they just wished
that they could just cover their nakedness
to get their little naked butt to school
and learn something
and actually be able to eat enough food
to have enough energy to get through the day
to do their job or to go to school.
But yet today in America, we don't have that problem.
We have the opposite problem.
We're surrounded by an abundance today.
Nobody's like, man,
I'm having trouble getting enough calories.
You know what I mean?
It's just I'm not getting enough calories
in my diet to function.
I can't seem to hit that 4,000 calorie mark.
And by the way, they must've been working pretty hard
if they're burning 4,000 calories.
I got my watch here telling me
and you gotta work pretty hard
to hit those kind of numbers, okay?
But today, people are turning up their nose
at totally good food, nutritious food
that mom is cooking at home
from whole foods and healthy ingredients
and they're complaining about it
and they wish they could eat some junk food
from a fast food place
because they're a spoiled little brat.
Now look, turning up our nose at food
that is harmful or bad for our health,
that actually makes sense.
You know, if somebody's offering you something harmful
or bad for you or something poisonous
or just junk or toxic food,
yeah, I can see you saying like, I don't wanna eat this.
I don't want this to come into my body
and wreak havoc on my system.
Like I get it.
That makes sense.
But let me ask you this.
Do you think the manna from heaven
was gonna come into their bodies
and be too toxic for them
and cause them to get out of shape and be unhealthy?
No, of course not.
But yet they complained about it
and most of the complaining today,
it's not people complaining like, whoa, mom and dad,
don't give me so much ice cream, mom and dad.
I need a more nutritious diet.
Are you gonna put some vegetables on the table or what?
Are you gonna cut up some fresh fruit or what?
That's not what the kids are saying today.
They're going, eh, I don't like vegetables.
Eh, I don't like that.
Eh.
And they wanna have just everything
be just that greasy cheeseburger.
And look, I had a greasy cheeseburger today.
I'm not gonna lie.
But I was at the airport and you know, it is what it is.
But I would have rather been at home, all right,
eating at home.
But the point is, you know, hey,
that stuff is not what kids are complaining about.
They're complaining about stuff that their mom is making.
And mom is working hard in the kitchen
and she's putting all the colors on your plate.
She's got a little pile of green stuff on your plate.
She's got orange stuff on the plate.
She's got yellow stuff on the plate.
Eat it!
It's good for you!
You say, I don't like it.
Eat it anyway!
That's even more reason to eat it.
So you can grow up and be a man.
So you grow up and be a woman of character
and not grow up spending your entire life
as a spoiled brat.
Eat your fruit, eat your vegetables,
eat your meat, eat everything that has been provided.
And stop and think about the fact
that some people just wish they had food to eat.
Some people are literally fishing in a garbage can
for food.
It's probably happening literally right now
in this parking lot.
Cause I've seen it happen in this parking lot one time.
But you know, I mean, other parts of the world,
it's really happening.
There's some other countries in this world.
You know, you probably talked to Pastor Bogart here
and he could tell us about some people where he's at
that are pretty hungry.
Am I right?
And they would love to have the sandwich
that you're turning your nose up at.
They probably, you know, when you cast aside the crust,
I have a suspicion there'd be people
where Pastor Bogart lives in Cape town
that would probably, they'd say,
are you gonna finish that crust?
Cause I'll eat the crust, I'll eat the crumbs
that fall from your spoiled little
first world whining brat table.
I would love to just eat the crumbs
that fall from your table.
And I just don't, this isn't really my favorite thing.
What if I told you that life is not just gonna
continually dish up the things that you like?
And so you might as well, just as a kid,
figure out that you're gonna have to endure
some things that you don't like.
You're gonna have to do things you don't like.
You're gonna have to eat things that you don't like.
And everything isn't always gonna be a certain way.
We can't always have the taste we want
or a party in our mouth, okay?
That's point number one.
Here's point number two, because point number one
was about complaining about your food.
And so I hope you kids and teenagers
will just decide tonight and say, you know what?
I'm not gonna complain about the food my mom cooks.
I'm gonna shovel up a big helping.
And even if I don't like it,
if it's the spinach or the Brussels sprouts
or whatever that I don't like,
I'm just gonna just take a big bite and just,
oh yeah, this is good, yeah, I love it, yeah!
And just grind it out, right?
I mean, look, people go to the gym
and there's a lot of grunting and groaning and screaming.
Am I right?
Unless you're a stinking Planet Fitness or something.
Hey, it's the Red Hot Preaching Conference, okay?
Planet Fitness is a joke.
That's not a man's workout!
All right, but here's the thing, you know,
think about it.
If you lift weights, you see people just, ah!
Right?
Okay, but then why don't you sit at the table
and get your food and just be like, ah, yeah, yeah!
Give me seconds on the Brussels sprouts, mom, yeah!
Why not?
You're gonna go through all this pain at the gym.
Why don't you go through some pain at the dinner table
since mom worked hard to give you a nutritious meal?
Why don't you endure a little pain
of just eating something
that's not your favorite kind of cheese?
You like cheese?
Oh, I just don't know if I like this kind of cheese.
Don't be one of these people
that doesn't like cheese, all right?
All right, man, you know,
I'm probably stepping on some toes,
but you can't just come to the Red Hot Preaching Conference
and think that your sin isn't gonna get covered
the whole week, all right?
You know, you think you're safe
because you didn't have an abortion
or, you know, you didn't commit adultery,
you know, you didn't hang around
with a bunch of sodomites or something.
We'll get to you.
I'll get to you in my sermon.
I got your number.
Okay, but number two,
so number one, complaining about your food.
Number two, complaining about your church.
You spoiled little sniveling brat.
And by the way, this is similar
to complaining about your food
because one of your church's main purposes
is to supply you with spiritual nutrition,
just like mom is giving you nutrition at home.
Now, if you would, go to Ephesians chapter four.
Ephesians chapter four, Ephesians chapter four in your Bible.
And while you're turning to Ephesians four,
I'm gonna read you from Jeremiah.
It says, I will give you pastors according to my heart.
Notice God didn't say,
I'm gonna give you pastors according to your heart.
God said, I'm gonna give you pastors
according to my heart.
I'm gonna give you a pastor that I want you to have,
not maybe the one that you desire.
See, in the end times, the Bible says,
we will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears.
They'll turn away their ears from the truth
and be turned into fables
because what you want
is not always the same as what you need.
And so it's the pastors according to God's heart,
which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
So the pastor according to God's heart,
his function is to feed you
with knowledge and understanding.
Now notice it did not say
that I will give you pastors
that will entertain you 100% of the time
with awesome sermons.
I'm gonna give you pastors
that will always have you entertained 100% of the time
with awesome sermons.
Is that what the Bible said?
No, he said, they're gonna feed you
with wisdom and knowledge.
Now look, many times mom makes an awesome meal.
You know that favorite meal where we get home
and it's like, wow.
We're having tacos or wow.
In our house, it's the schnitzel and cauliflower.
That's just wow.
You know what I mean?
It's a great meal.
Or another one that's really popular in our house is ribs.
You know, my wife will make ribs
of corn and potatoes and stuff like that.
You know, you didn't really connect
with the schnitzel and cauliflower,
but the ribs got you going a little bit.
I noticed that.
You know, but there are these certain meals
or my wife will make this Chicago style deep dish pizza.
That's just a super deep.
It's like lasagna or something.
It's so deep.
Okay.
And you're gonna get those blockbuster meals.
But guess what?
Not every sermon is gonna be a blockbuster.
Just like not every meal is gonna be a blockbuster.
You're not gonna have tacos every night.
It's only on Tuesday.
You're not gonna have tacos every night.
You're not gonna have the pizza every night.
You're not gonna have the schnitzel every night.
It's not always gonna be that blockbuster meal.
Well, quit expecting every sermon
to be a blockbuster sermon and realize
that if the pastor is giving you nutrition,
then he's doing his job.
It's not always guaranteed to be super entertaining,
super fun.
Not every pastor is gonna be super eloquent,
but he can still do a good job
of serving it up three times a week
and getting you spiritual nutrition.
Did I return to Ephesians four?
Look at verse 11.
And he gave some apostles and some prophets
and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers
for the perfecting of the saints,
for the work of the ministry,
for the edifying of the body of Christ,
till we all come in the unity of the faith
and of the what?
The knowledge.
Remember, the pastors are gonna feed us
with knowledge and understanding.
The knowledge of the Son of God,
unto a perfect man,
under the measure of the stature
of the fullness of Christ.
That we henceforth be no more children,
tossed to and fro and carried about
with every wind of doctrine
by the slight of man and cunning craftiness
whereby they lie in wait to deceive.
But speaking the truth in love,
may grow up into him in all things
which is the head even Christ,
from which the whole body,
fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supplyeth.
Look at the language here.
What does this make you think of,
like every joint supplying and growing
and all these things?
The idea here is nourishment, right?
The body is being nourished with nutrition,
that's taking care of the joints and everything
so that you can grow
and you can get what you need to grow.
Because look, our bodies,
even if you're not a child,
there's growth taking place in our bodies
every minute of every day.
Because our bodies are constantly breaking down
old tissue and creating new tissue
and our bones are constantly being remodeled
and our muscles are,
especially those of us who abstain from Planet Fitness,
our muscles are being built and we're growing.
But the point is,
like there's constant growth going on
in our bodies,
the joints need to be supplied with nutrition
to even function.
And by the way,
if you study anything about like anatomy
and physiology and things,
you know, this is the verse
that'll just pop into your mind constantly.
The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God.
Because our bodies are so complicated
and they need all this nutrition to function right,
they have to get these vitamins and minerals
because everything plays a role.
It's not as simple as just putting gas into your car.
You know, it's like all these different chemicals
and things need to come into our bodies
in order to make it function properly,
all these different vitamins and minerals and so forth.
And so the pastor's job
is to feed us with knowledge and understanding
so we can grow, so we can be healthy,
so that we can have every joint of the body of Christ
working well.
Okay, he is supposed to feed us
so that we can have the knowledge of Christ.
No church is gonna be perfect.
And so quit complaining and whining about your church
because it isn't as good as some other church
that you covet.
You know, you're coveting some other church
when you're not being content with the church
that God has provided for you in your area
or what's available to you.
And you know what, we gotta thank God every day.
And I know some people here go to a church
that's in the new IFB.
Other churches here might go to an old IFB church
or a church that's not exactly straight down the line
with what we believe.
But you know, we oughta thank God every day
that we just have a church that believes
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,
that salvation is by faith alone,
that believes in the eternal security of the believer,
that preaches out of a King James Bible,
is not a member of the Bible of the Month Club,
and that either provides soul-winning opportunities,
which is ideal, or that at least encourages evangelism.
Some people say, well, my church says
we don't go soul-winning, but we used to.
Well, you know what, that's better than the church
who's against soul-winning.
I mean, at least if they say, well, we used to,
then it's like, you know, okay, we can work with that.
Let's build on that.
Let's fire that thing up once again,
rather than the church that's negative toward soul-winning.
At least the church that encourages us to evangelize,
ideally the church should have a soul-winning time,
or 20.
But you know, we hear a lot of great preaching
in this movement, and it's easy to get spoiled
by all the good preaching in this movement
that maybe you can listen to online,
or even that you just hear at a conference like this
where you get to hear a lot of different preachers
come preach, and you could get spoiled,
and you could get to the point
where you're actually bored by sermons
that are actually good sermons,
they're biblical sermons, but you're just bored
because you're just so spoiled,
you've just set the standard so high
because you had that really great meal one time,
everything has to be to that standard,
and it's not realistic.
And you know, there have been times
when I found myself, maybe over the last several years
at times, sitting and listening to a sermon
and thinking like, oh, this sermon's not that great,
or it's okay, it's kinda boring.
But then I'd stop and think, wait a minute,
if I would've heard this sermon when I was 15 years old,
this would've been like the best sermon I'd ever heard.
If I would've heard this sermon when I was 15,
I would've loved it!
But it's just that I've become so spoiled
from just listening to so many other preachers since then
and getting into a great independent Baptist church
when I was 17 years old
and hearing all that great preaching,
and just, you know, it's easy to take it for granted,
and then you're bored with a meal that's a good meal,
you're getting good knowledge and understanding,
the pastor's up there preaching the Bible,
and he's giving you good teaching,
and he's giving you good stuff,
but you're just kinda like, nah,
it's not as good as Pastor So-and-So.
Shame on you.
It's like, oh, I wanna go out to eat,
oh, I wanna listen, you know, no!
Listen to what your pastor is serving up.
It's nutritious.
Yeah, but it's just not as dynamic.
Oh, I'm so sorry.
Basically what you're saying is,
well, I know all the nutrition's there,
but where's the taste?
Grow up.
You know, if the pastor is rightly expounding
the word of God to you,
you oughta be thankful for the spiritual nutrition
and not expect him to always be swinging
from the chandeliers
or preaching some exotic new doctrine.
You know, don't come home
for the red hot preaching conference
and be like, oh, man, it's such a drag
to go to my church after this, you know.
You can't just, first of all,
my church is not even gonna feel like
the red hot preaching conference
because it's not the red hot preaching conference
every Sunday, even at my church, you know?
None of us is just always gonna be swinging
from the chandeliers and just breathing fire
up here with a literal torch or something
like Pastor Mejia or something.
You know, that's not the way things are all the time.
Don't just expect every single sermon
to be a blockbuster or every meal at home
to be that exact meal that you want.
No, just thank God for a steady stream
of nutrition coming in Sunday morning,
Sunday night, Wednesday night,
or in the home, breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
But not only that, what about people complaining
that their church is small?
Complaining about the small church.
And let me tell you something,
we're blessed at Faithful Word to have a big church
because we've been around for 16 years.
Yeah, we have like 400 members at our church,
we run over 300 on Sunday mornings,
and this is a big church.
Folks, I think a lot of people have a weird idea
about what it means to have a small church
because of the fact that they think
that Joel Osteen's church or Rick Warren's church,
that somehow is normal or something.
Those are extreme outliers.
The median church size in America
is like 85 people of any denomination.
The median size of an independent Baptist church
is less than 75 people.
Okay, so if your church is running 75,
that's like the average size church, by the way.
If your church is running 150,
that's like double the average size
when we look at median church size.
And you don't wanna look at the mean average
because it's affected by these outliers
like Joel Osteen, 25,000, that's not church.
That's not the real thing, friend.
And so you have to think about the median church size,
which means that half the churches are smaller
and half the churches are bigger,
and that puts you around the neighborhood of 75 people.
Okay, but look, when Faithful Word Baptist started out,
we ran the first year, we averaged 10 the first year.
The second year, we averaged 20.
The third year, we averaged 30.
The fourth year, we averaged 40.
Okay, so we spent the first like seven years
of our existence being smaller than average.
And I'm so glad that everybody didn't just stay away
and just say, oh, it's too small.
You know, I'm glad that Pastor Dave Berzins,
when he showed up in August of 2006,
when we're running like nine or 10 people in a service,
including my family, I'm glad Pastor Berzins didn't just
say, well, this church is too small,
I'm just gonna walk away.
No, he stayed with me, he worked with me,
he went soloing with me, and he got trained,
and eventually he got to watch the church grow
and enjoy the growth.
Why don't you believe in the growth of your church?
You're not in some dead first church of the deep freeze,
so why don't you just have the faith to believe
that the church is gonna grow?
But it's not gonna grow if everybody has your attitude.
It's like, oh, I wanna go to a big church.
You know, don't complain that your church is small.
You know, if it's a righteous church,
if it's preaching the word of God,
if they're doing soul-winning,
you know, growth is gonna happen.
Be patient.
Stay with it.
Say, well, there just aren't enough families
in the church, you know,
I just wish there were more families.
I have an idea.
Why don't you go reach some families
and bring them into your church?
How about that?
You know, it's pretty easy to be like,
oh, you know, it's just not enough families.
Well, you know, what if I told you
that it's really hard for the pastor of the church
or anyone else to necessarily just bring in
a bunch of people, just bring in a bunch,
you know, we're all working our butts off
constantly trying to reach people and grow,
and it's hard.
And a lot of independent Baptist churches
out there are shrinking.
You know, the new IFP churches are growing,
but it's because we're trying.
It's because we're working.
It's because it's hard.
You know, it's not easy.
You have to constantly be working to make that happen.
But how about why don't you actually pitch in
and help the church grow?
Like if you don't like the fact
that there aren't enough families,
then what do you think about you reaching some families
for Christ and discipling some families
and dragging some families into church?
How about that?
I mean, how am I supposed to drag them in?
The same way that you're supposed to drag them in.
The same way anybody's gonna drag them in, you know?
Just try to get people saved.
And you know, here's the thing,
you know different people than the pastor knows.
And look, growing up, I mean,
there were times that, you know,
my parents would have some friends that were unchurched
and they would end up bringing those friends to church
and getting that family in church or whatever.
You know, it could be done.
It's work.
It means that you actually have to evangelize
and that you have to actually preach the gospel
and invite people to church.
And you say, oh, well, I'm a teenager
and there aren't enough teenagers in the church.
Why don't you go reach some teenagers for Christ?
In fact, I'll bet you that you teenagers
would probably be better at winning a teenager to Christ
and bringing them to church than I would
as a 40-year-old man.
I'll bet you if I, as a 40-year-old man,
give the gospel to some teenagers and invite them
to church, you know, I bet you,
you'd be even more effective
since you're a teenager too.
Amen.
You know, what about that?
And then you can get more teens.
Why don't we get evangelizing
and why don't we be the change
that we wanna see in the world
and why don't we help bring more people into the church
and pray for the church?
You know, I wonder if these sniveling brats,
I wonder how much they're doing to make the church grow.
I wonder if they're getting on their knees every night
and saying, God, please help the church to grow.
Or if they just complain that the church is too small.
Think about that.
I wonder if the people who complain
that the church is small,
I wonder if they're praying every day for it to grow.
I wonder if they're praying, God, send more families,
send more teenagers, help us to reach more people,
help the church to grow and thrive.
I wonder if they're jumping in, getting involved,
volunteering, knocking doors,
helping out in any way possible,
inviting their neighbors and inviting their friends.
And I wonder if they're doing anything
to try to make it happen or if they just,
eh, you know, I just don't think the church
is fulfilling my social life like it should.
Well, the Bible says a man that hath friends
must show himself friendly.
And there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.
And let me just say this,
and if you would turn to 1 Peter 5,
let me just go ahead and say this.
Virtually no teenager is satisfied with their social life.
I didn't say Christian teenager.
I didn't say Baptist teenager.
I didn't say teenager in church.
Let me just say it again.
Virtually no teenager is satisfied with their social life.
And let me tell you something,
public school does not just automatically mean
that you have a plethora of meaningful friendships.
You know, those of us that went to public school,
we know that does not equal
meaningful relationships and friends.
Okay, look, you can go to a school
with thousands of people in it and have no friends.
And you know what, we can go to a school right now
and I guarantee you we'd find all kinds of people
sitting alone, sitting around, no friends,
or people in a group of friends laughing and talking.
But you know what, inside they're just like,
these people, who are these bozos
that I'm hanging around with?
Why do I eat lunch with these bozos?
You know what I mean?
Look, I remember being at different schools
and there were different little cool groups
and it's like, you wanted to be,
I was at a particular Christian school
and in this particular Christian school,
you wanted to be in the cool group,
that's what it's called,
and you didn't want to be in the nerd herd, okay?
And this is what they called it.
I'm not making this up, like that's what everyone,
it was just known as the cool group sits over here,
the nerd herd's over here,
and then you have these other just kind of people
that just kind of did their own thing.
But I remember the first day at that school,
I knew somebody in the cool group
so I kind of had a way into the cool group.
And so that ambassador kind of brought me in
to the cool group and I got to eat in the cool group.
But let me tell you something,
the cool group is filled with idiots.
And in many ways, those people are ruining their lives
and they're the wrong kind of people.
And even at the time, I remember not necessarily
really enjoying being in that cool group that much
because it just wasn't that cool.
And let me tell you something,
I went to public school with 2,000 students in it
and it is possible, it's quite possible
to be at a public school with thousands of kids around
and still be lonely
and not have any meaningful relationships
because maybe you don't have any friends
or you have friends
but they don't really mean anything to you.
They're just like, oh, I'm supposed to have
these friends, oh, this is the group that's cool.
So yeah, let me just get my way into that cool group
and hang around with a bunch of people.
I don't care about them.
They don't care about me.
We're all just kind of going through the motions here.
That's not a meaningful relationship.
I asked this question at Faithful Word,
I asked people, I said,
how many of you are still friends with anyone?
How many of you that are adults
are still friends with anyone
from elementary school, junior high or high school,
you're actually close friends with that person
or hang around with that person somewhat regularly at all?
When I asked it at Faithful Word, it was like one hand.
Out of 300 and some people,
there was literally one or two hands.
I'll ask it tonight, maybe there'll be more.
Who has a meaningful close relationship
with someone from elementary school or junior high?
Okay, look around, kids, look around
because you know what you're gonna notice?
90% of the hands are down.
Okay, who doesn't?
Who doesn't have any meaningful relationships
with people from school?
Yeah, it's the vast majority.
You know, I don't hang around with anyone
from elementary, junior high, high school.
You know, I was just thinking about this the other day.
I went to Bible college for a couple of years
and I had all kinds of friends at Bible college
and you know, I have like one friend left
that I'm still friends with from Bible college, like one.
That was as an adult.
No one from high school, no one from junior high,
no one from elementary school.
You know, it's just, folks,
those relationships are not just automatically meaningful
but you have Christian kids who are just,
they just look at the public school kids
and they just think like, oh, it's gonna be so great.
I could just be over there.
I would just have so many friends and it'd be so great.
You've never watched an 80s movie and it shows.
Okay, because let me tell you something.
Those schools are filled with bozos.
People are picking on you.
There's all these cliques.
It's a bunch, people are rude, they're jerks
and you know what?
Today, there's a whole nother layer of this
where now it's all these transvestites and weirdos
and freaks and lesbians and whatever they are down there.
Oh, it'd be so great if I could just go there
and have all these friends.
The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence
when you get there, you're gonna realize
it's not just this paradise of meaningful relationships,
it's a cesspool is what it is, okay?
Virtually no teenager is satisfied
with their social life.
It'd be very rare for teenagers to say like,
I have a fulfilling social life.
I have all the friends I want,
just people to date, it's wonderful.
It's just all the choices, it's all there.
That's not the norm in the world or in the church.
That's just not the way life works.
Now the Bible says, look down at your Bible,
1 Peter 5.7, casting all your care upon him
for he careth for you.
Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary,
the devil is a roaring lion,
walketh about seeking whom he may devour,
whom resist steadfast in the faith.
So the devil, he's out to get you, he's after you,
you gotta be sober, you gotta be vigilant,
he wants to eat you up and devour you
and you've got to resist him steadfast in the faith.
And how are you gonna resist him?
Here's a tool to help you resist
the temptations of the devil.
Here's the tool, knowing, I'm gonna give you the tool,
knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brother and that are in the world.
Don't let the devil tempt you,
oh, you're just going through this
cause you're in church.
You're just going through this
cause you're a Christian.
Come over to the dark side and we have cookies
and it's gonna be so wonderful
and it's gonna be so loving
and public school is just gonna be
such a paradise unto you.
And if you could just hang around
with all of the weirdos and lesbians and freaks,
you know, they're gonna be so loving
and accepting of you.
Folks, the way that you withstand the temptations
of the devil to get you out of church,
to get you out the bar scene.
Oh, you know, church isn't giving me the social life.
Where's the bar?
The nightclub.
That's where I'll find meaning and acceptance.
The casino.
That's where I'll find the loving,
meaningful friendships.
Public school, it's all gonna be there.
Folks, my friend, I'm telling you,
the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brother and that are in the world.
Don't let the devil get you to think,
oh, it's so hard being a Christian.
You know, if you could just free yourself
of the church and your parents and the rules,
you know, life would be so much easier.
No, my friend, the way of transgressors is hard.
And the same afflictions that you're going through,
the same pain and suffering and loneliness
and struggle to find friends,
struggle to find a girlfriend,
struggle to find a boyfriend,
struggle to find a spouse,
they're dealing with it out there, my friend.
They are dealing with it out there in the world.
What did the Bible say?
That life in the world has the same challenges
as life in church or life among Christians.
Knowing that the same afflictions
are accomplished in your brother and that are where?
What's it say at the end of verse nine?
In the world.
So being out in the world doesn't solve anything.
It doesn't solve anything.
The same stuff you're going through,
you're gonna be going through out there,
it has its own problems.
Look, I went to public school and I didn't just think,
oh, it's so great, I get to be with my friends all day.
No, that's not what it's like.
You go to school and you just grind it out.
And sometimes you just try to survive.
You know what I mean?
Sometimes it can get rough, sometimes it can get ugly.
You're like, oh, I'm homeschooled,
it's hard being homeschooled.
You know, I did a little bit of everything growing up.
I did a lot of Christian school.
I did a little bit of homeschool.
I did several years of public school.
And you know what?
It all has its pros and cons from the kid's perspective.
It all has its challenges.
And I remember when I was in school,
I longed to be homeschooled.
Stay home.
Price is right every day, not just when I'm sick.
You know, that you're sick in the 1980s starter pack
was like, Saltines, 7-Up, cranberry juice,
and the price is right.
What else do you need?
Maybe a hot water bottle or something?
Right, it's all there.
But let me tell you something.
You know, I longed for Rocky and Bullwinkle's show
only on weekdays during school.
What's up with that?
But when I was sick, man,
it was a party watching Rocky and Bullwinkle's show.
Price is right.
Okay, but look, I remember longing to be homeschooled,
thinking it'd be so cool.
But then when you're homeschooled,
you know, you're thinking like,
man, I wish I could be at school with all my friends.
Then as soon as you get back to school,
you're like, homeschooling was awesome.
What in the world?
What did I want?
And literally every single school year,
you'd go through this process where like all summer,
you wanted school to start again
for some sick, inexplicable reason.
Then you get like two days into the school year
and you're like, what was I thinking?
Am I stupid or something?
Why did I desire this?
It's torture.
Give me some time off.
And then you're off and you're just like,
oh man, I wanna get to school and see my friends.
And then you get there and you're like,
I don't even like these friends.
What is this?
What are we doing here?
It's called human nature.
It's called covetousness.
It's called the grass is always greener
on the other side of the fence.
It's called being a spoiled brat.
Instead of just being thankful for what you've got
and just grinding out each day and making the best of it,
this is the day that the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Here's a great verse for you.
There have no temptation taken you,
but such as is common to man.
Notice he didn't say there's no temptation taken you,
but such as is common to Christians.
There are no temptation taken you,
but such as is common to people
who go to a new IFP church.
No, there's no temptation taken you,
but such as is common to man.
Oh, I'm so lonely as a teenager.
So are they.
So is every teenager.
I wonder why so many teenagers are dressing in all black
and acting all nihilistic and all depressed.
Folks, because guess what?
People out in the world are having problems too.
They're lonely too.
They can't find meaningful friendships either.
They're having trouble finding a boyfriend or a girlfriend.
They don't even know if they are a boy or a girl, okay,
out there in the world a lot of times,
but they're going through some stuff.
And you Christian kids,
what you're going through is not as bad
as what they're going through.
There has no temptation taken you,
but such as is common to man.
Everyone is going through it, my friend.
It's not just you in church.
Everybody's going through it.
It's life.
Meaningful friendships can be rare, period.
That's just the way life works.
You know, think about David had a good friend, Jonathan.
He said, oh, Jonathan, thou was slain in thine high places.
I'm distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan.
Very pleasant has thou been unto me.
Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.
You know, Jonathan was such a dear friend to David.
He was like a once in a lifetime friend.
He said, man, that's what I want.
I just want to have that once in a lifetime friend.
He died.
How much did David really even get
to hang out with Jonathan?
I mean, they got to hang out a little bit
and then it's like, oh, he's on the run.
Oh, he's hiding.
Oh, dad's trying to kill you.
Get out of here.
How much did they really get to just hang out?
Because that's what teenagers want to do.
Teenagers greatest desire is to hang out
with their friends.
David found that once in a lifetime friend
barely got to hang out with them.
And then the guy died.
You say, oh man, I finally found a good friend.
And then they got, you know, their family got thrown
out of the church.
Their parents turned out to be weirdos, sycophants.
You know, they got thrown out or whatever
because their parents were heretics.
They, you know, whatever.
How do you think David and Jonathan felt?
It's like, they finally find a cool friend.
Jonathan finds a cool friend.
He's the king's son.
He probably had access to a lot of friends.
But yet he finally finds a friend that he actually likes,
David, and dad wants to kill
and literally murder his friend.
You know, don't you hate it when you find
that friend you like and your dad seeks to murder them?
You know, it's just, folks,
you're not always just gonna have the perfect relationships
in your life that you wish you had.
It's just part of life, you know?
Just, you know what you gotta be thankful for?
Your family.
You know what you gotta be thankful for?
The people who do go to your church.
And you know, maybe you should try
to build some meaningful relationships
with the people who go to your church,
even if they're not super cool or whatever.
You know, why don't you just be happy with what you got?
You know, I guarantee you that there are kids today
that have 20 people in the youth group
and they're just like, yeah, but these are 20,
none of these 20 people, you know.
But then meanwhile, another kid's got four people
in the youth group or two people in the youth group
and he's making do with what he's got.
Say, hey, it's easy to pick friends in this church
because there's two kids my age or whatever.
But you know what, have faith
that the church is gonna grow.
And why don't you love those two people
and be a blessing to them, be a friend to them,
reach out to them.
And you know what, you might actually find
that you might actually start to like them
and maybe have some kind
of a meaningful relationship with them.
And even if you don't, you say, well, okay,
I did what Pastor Anderson said, you know,
I'm being friends with the people at my church
and trying to make do with what I got,
but it's just not that meaningful.
Well, just take it to the bank,
99% of the friendships down at the public school
are about that same level of depth.
Which is why no matter what they write in your yearbook,
you're not keeping in touch.
It's true.
I don't care what they wrote on your cast.
I don't care what they wrote in your yearbook.
I mean, see, this is old school.
Now it'd be like what they wrote on your wall
or whatever they left you in social media
or whatever they texted you.
When I was a kid, texting was when you wrote
on someone's cast when they broke a bone.
That was text.
Texting was like writing notes
on these little elaborately folded piece of papers
that you pass in class.
That was texting.
And you say, well, but I need to find a spouse
and the church is small, I need to find a spouse.
Here's the thing about that.
And again, usually when people are complaining
the church is small, it's because it has
like 100 people in it, or 200 people, small.
300 people, well, it's kind of small.
But even if it's, let's say it's 20, 30 people
in the church, 25 people, and you say,
I don't know, where am I gonna find a spouse?
It's funny, Pastor Dave Berzins,
he was single when he started coming to Faithful Word.
It's funny how Pastor Dave Berzins
kept coming to Faithful Word,
even though there was no one for him to date there,
even though he was a young single guy,
there was no one for him to date,
he just kept coming to Faithful Word.
Isn't it amazing how he got married shortly thereafter?
How'd he do it?
I don't know.
It's impossible.
No, my friend, because here's the magical thing
about getting married.
You only get married to one person.
It's funny how sometimes young people,
they want there to be, young ladies want there
to be 30 guys at the church
so they can have this dating pool.
You know, young men want there to be 30 young ladies
at the church so they can have the dating pool
and all the choices.
But, you know, last time I checked,
you're only marrying one person.
You only need one wife.
And sometimes I've asked people,
how many wives are you looking for?
When they complain, you know,
how many husbands are you looking for?
And they're just like, well,
I just want to have a lot of choices.
But here's the thing about that, I get that,
but here's the thing about that,
is that God can give you the desires of your heart
and meet that need for you.
And since you only need one,
you don't need to be in a massive church necessarily
in order for that need to be met.
Because the Bible says a prudent wife is from the Lord.
The Bible says, who so findeth the wife,
findeth the good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord.
Now I'm 100% for you visiting other churches to meet.
Girl, I, look, when people have come to me
at Faithful Word Baptist Church and said,
Pastor Anderson, there's no one for me to date,
what do I do?
I said, why don't you just go to all the other
independent Baptist churches around here
and go looking and see what's out there.
You have my blessing.
I never tried to say like,
well, you can only come to my church.
I'm like, well, go to other churches then.
There's 40 independent Baptist,
King James only churches in Phoenix.
Go try them all and go find that special someone.
You have my blessing.
And they're like, well, we love you.
We love Faithful Word.
I said, fine, come here on Sunday morning,
go there on Sunday night,
go there on Wednesday night, whatever.
You know, don't get me wrong.
There's nothing wrong with that.
You wanna know what's wrong?
You whining and sniveling and complaining
about the church being too small.
If the church is too small, help it grow.
If the church is too small, wait for it to grow.
Have faith in it, pray, do your part, live for God.
If you're living for God, loving the church,
seeking first the kingdom of God,
he can bring that husband into your life.
He can bring that wife into your life.
God can give you the desires of your heart.
And hey, I'm all for you
going and visiting other churches,
seeing what's out there, meeting people out there.
But what I'm against is having this attitude of,
oh, the church, oh, it's such a drag going to this church.
Oh, the new IFB, ah, yeah.
And by the way, don't complain about the people
in the new IFB and say, oh, you know, these people.
I like the people in the new IFB.
I like the people of Faithful Word.
I like the people of Verity.
And you know, I can speak for the whole new IFB
because I just went to all of them.
In the last four weeks, I've been to all of these churches
of the pastors that are represented.
I didn't make it to South Africa, okay?
But I'm saying in America though, you know,
I went around and I've been to FWBCLA
and I like the people in FWBCLA.
I've been to Hold Fast Baptist in Fresno.
I like the people there.
I like the people at Sure Foundation.
I like the people in Spokane, okay?
I like the people at Shield of Faith in Boise, Idaho.
I like the people in Oklahoma.
I like the people at all the different
five steadfast churches I went to.
Oklahoma, Dallas, Pure Words, Houston.
I like it.
Now, I didn't like some of the people
in the parking lot at Pastor Shelley's church.
But you know, if you look, hey, if you go to steadfast
and you're just like, oh, the church people,
oh, the new IFB, oh, there's not enough social life.
Well, you know, there's another kind of social life
a hundred feet from his church.
If you get bored with fellowshipping
with the people inside the church,
you can go out and fellowship with the androgynous,
shirtless blob with black X's over her nipples
or its nipples or their nipples.
I don't know what its pronoun is.
And you know, if you, because if you go down
to the public school system, it's probably gonna be,
you're probably gonna see some of those people.
That style.
Hey, I went to Stronghold Baptist Church in Georgia.
I liked it.
I like the people.
I like the fellowship, okay?
I like the people in Fairmont, West Virginia
at Mountain Baptist Church.
I liked it!
I liked the people.
You know, isn't it amazing how I showed up
at these places?
Now, some of the places I got to spend more time
than others.
Some of them I was kind of blowing through
on a midweek service or something.
But you know, some of them I actually spent a few days.
Like when we were in Spokane, you know,
we spent all day Saturday with church people.
I mean, we were at the church people for like,
I don't know, like nine hours or something on Saturday.
And then all day Sunday, and it was like,
you get to know them.
And isn't it amazing how you just get to know people
and it's like, you're just friends.
And you know, I had a lot more meaningful,
instant connections with people on this trip.
Just meeting people and just instantly,
just boom, we're connected.
You know, that's not how high school was.
Why?
Because the ultimate thing to have in common is Christ.
The ultimate thing to have in common
is being a Bible-believing Christian.
That's the ultimate camaraderie.
That's the ultimate fellowship.
That's the ultimate brotherhood.
And so don't give me this about,
well, the people at church.
Hey, the people out there in this world
are not cooler than the people at church.
The people in church,
now I'm sure there's some churches filled with bozos,
but I'm saying in the new IFB, the people are cool.
The people are cool at these churches.
And look, I understand you're a teenager.
Maybe there's no teenagers at your church,
or there's only one or two teenagers,
but then you know what?
Then get your butt out there
and win some teenagers to Christ.
I bet if you're gonna complain about no teenagers,
I better see you out witnessing to teenagers every week.
That's right.
I wanna see you out there witnessing to teenagers
and trying to bring them in and build the youth group.
You build it.
Or how about this?
Just be patient.
Just wait.
You know, it's not like your little house
on the Prairie or something.
I wonder how much fellowship and friendship
and teenage parties the little house on the Prairie kids had.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
You know the book series, right?
Who has read those books?
Are you?
Yeah, not as many people as I would have liked,
but okay, we can work with that.
You know, we've read those books in our house
and my wife reads them out loud to the kids
and everything.
I mean, they're like out in the middle of nowhere.
And it's like, just when Pa gets a good gig going,
he just takes them somewhere else.
And he's always taking them to these God forsaken places.
Right?
To go have some long, long winter somewhere.
And it's like, you know,
they didn't necessarily have this ultimate social life,
but yet eventually you see them doing what?
Getting married.
Isn't it amazing?
If the kids in little house on the Prairie get married,
I don't know, did the blind girl ever get married?
I mean, she's blind and she had other things going on.
She went to school and everything, the blind school.
Somebody help me out.
Did she get married?
I want a really authoritative answer.
Did she get married?
Sorry, I'm spitting on you.
Who say yes?
Did Laura get married?
Yeah, because she has a different,
Laura Ingalls Wilder.
She married one of the dudes from the story.
So even the blind girl gets married.
She's living in the middle of nowhere.
There's no one around.
They don't even have church.
The pastor like comes to their house, like every month,
once a month.
Their big party is when dad gets out the fiddle
or something.
And they have like two old people come over.
But isn't it amazing how they still got married?
They still figured it out.
I think you're gonna be okay in your new IFB church
that's getting off the ground.
That's up and coming, that's growing,
but it's just not quite huge yet.
You're only looking for one person.
I have a feeling God can send that person
through the doors of your church.
Or maybe you can meet that person outside of church.
And maybe you can win them to Christ,
or maybe they go to a like-minded church.
Maybe they go to another Baptist church in the area.
Like I said, I'm not against visiting other churches
and making friends that way.
I used to do that when I was a teenager.
I had my main church, but I would go to other youth
groups and just simply to meet girls, okay?
That's what I was doing.
You can ask my mom, she'll tell you.
Did it every day, every week.
Hey, but you know what you didn't find me doing?
You didn't find me just whining.
Ah, you know, Regency Baptist
doesn't have enough social life.
You know, I went out there and I found it myself.
I stayed faithful.
You know, it's just, it's life.
And you know, I went through some times
when I was a teenager when I didn't have any friends.
But virtually everyone in this room
who's actually an adult would tell you,
yeah, there was a period in my life
when I had like no friends, when I was alone,
when I was lonely, when I didn't have
any meaningful relationships.
Why don't you get a meaningful relationship with Jesus?
How about that?
Oh, I'm 16 and my social life is suffering.
How about this?
Why don't you have a little talk with Jesus?
Why don't you make friends with Jesus Christ?
Why don't you get to know Jesus?
And I guarantee you, he will give you
the desires of your heart.
Quit complaining.
Quit being a spoiled brat.
Hey, at least you're not gonna go to hell when you die.
At least your parents aren't telling you
that maybe you're a girl and maybe you're a boy
and they don't even know what you are.
And they're trying to just confuse you.
At least you're not growing up in some Hindu family.
Oh, my mom's feeding us vegetarian meals
because we're poor.
If you were a Hindu, you'd be eating vegetarian
all the time.
Hey, we only eat meat once a week because we're so poor.
First of all, I bet nobody in this room
is having that issue.
But you know what?
Let's say your parents are poor
and they're constantly having to feed you quesadillas
and peanut butter and jelly and bean and rice burritos
and you're having to go meatless for more meals
than just the Catholics on Friday or whatever,
but you're having more meatless meals.
Hey, at least you're not a Hindu.
At least you're not a Buddhist.
At least you're not a Muslim
because they're all going to hell when they die.
I think you can just figure it out
and eat some of that light bread
and just deal with the situation that God has given you
and not be such a spoiled little brat.
Don't complain about your food.
Don't complain about your church.
Don't complain that the church is too small.
Folks, you ought to thank God
for that small, independent,
fundamental Baptist church that you go to.
And look, when I was growing up,
we went to some small churches.
We went to churches that met in people's houses at times.
We went to churches that were tiny
and we had some kind of sketchy friends sometimes
because the church was so small
and you just kind of did with what you had.
But you know what?
At least we learned about Christ.
At least we were getting the gospel.
At least we got Bible preaching.
At least I'm here serving the Lord at 40 years old
because my parents kept me in church.
They kept me getting Bible teaching.
Folks, nothing's ever going to be perfect.
Shut up and eat your food.
Shut up and go to church.
Shut up and be friends with the people that are there.
Make the best of it.
Do what you can and quit complaining.
Don't be spoiled.
You know what?
I'll leave you with this last verse.
Thou therefore endure hardness
as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
Sometimes there are going to be some hard
to swallow meals.
There are going to be some hard things
that you have to put up with.
Maybe your church is not perfect.
Maybe it's small or maybe it's just,
you know, it's old IFB and it's like,
oh, you know, they keep praising Israel to me.
So what?
Who can just pretend they're talking about Christians?
Just whenever they say pre-trib,
just pretend they said pre-wrath and just enjoy it.
And whenever they say Jesus could come back at any moment,
just pretend that they meant like, you know,
sometime this decade or something.
Don't get so worried about it.
If they say we got to support Israel,
just be like, yeah, we got to support the Israel of God.
Bible-believing Christians, born-again Christians,
the true Israel, the circumcision, amen.
If they say God loves the Jews, be like,
you know, yeah, God does love the Jews
because he wants me to get saved before they go to hell.
Just quit being so spoiled because what, again,
and I'm bringing it back full circle,
what does it mean to be spoiled?
Everything has to be perfect.
Isn't that what it means?
I gotta have it my way.
The church has to be everything I believe exactly.
They have to be everything right down the line.
And they have to fulfill my social life.
And I better be surrounded by meaningful friendships.
And I better just have a pool of 20 young ladies
to choose from, or for the ladies,
20 young men to choose from.
Folks, you only need one.
God can provide, be patient,
seek ye first the kingdom of God.
All these things will be added unto you.
Don't expect meals to be perfect.
Don't expect church to be perfect.
Eat what is put on your plate,
both literally and figuratively.
If the sermon is expounding God's word,
be thankful for it.
Shut up and eat it.
Well, it's just not, you know, I mean, it's just not,
it's just not the same as, you know,
the Red Hall Preaching Conference.
Nothing is.
There's nothing like this else going on
in the whole world right now.
And here we are, right in the middle of it,
sweating and just enjoying it.
Some people right now are probably whining
about how hot it is.
This isn't hot.
We live in Phoenix on like the literal surface
of the sun.
How do you deal with it?
How do you deal with the heat of Phoenix?
You know what, because we just do hard things every day
because we're not a bunch of sniveling,
whining, crybabies.
So we just go out, we open the front door
and that heat hits us and we're just like,
ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
Yeah.
How do you deal with it?
We're men.
How do we deal with it because we're not a small,
how do you deal with brown snow?
How do you deal with dirty snow
that's been on the ground for two months?
Right?
How do you deal with that humidity?
Appreciate that.
You know, we live in a dry county, amen?
And I'm not talking about the absence of alcohol.
Yeah.
Why, because no matter where you are,
it's never gonna be perfect.
Is Phoenix perfect?
No, because it's like an oven in the summer.
But we don't have to shovel snow,
we don't have to deal with very much humidity,
only a little bit.
You know, we don't have, I mean, but you know,
every single place has problems.
Sacramento has problems, LA has problems,
Fresno has problems.
You know, California has problems, but so does Arizona.
You know, the biggest thing I learned on this road trip
is that this whole country is just like California
and there's no difference as far as the morality.
I think I saw less weirdos and rainbow flags
in California than I saw in Oregon, Washington, Idaho.
Hey, I was in Oklahoma and the greeter at Walmart
was a transvestite in Oklahoma.
That's the Bible Belt, the heartland.
But it's like, oh, must be,
must be so nice to live in this other state.
You wanna know the best state to live in,
the state that you live in.
Amen.
Unless you live in Texas.
No, I'm just kidding.
I'm just kidding.
But everyone else,
the best state in the world is the state that you live in.
My best state is Arizona.
Okay, your best state is California.
Amen.
Do you just all hate California?
No.
Guess what?
The same crap that's going on in California
is going on all over this country.
So deal with it.
You're gonna deal with it no matter.
I was in the South, South Carolina,
rainbow flags hanging in the windows in South Carolina.
It's everywhere, folks.
So don't just go, oh, gotta get out of California.
Oh, gotta get out of it.
You know what?
Let me tell you something.
It's all, it's all got its problems.
Don't be a spoiled brat.
Life's never gonna be perfect.
Just deal with it.
Those pirates didn't have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord.
Help us to all endure hardness
as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, Lord.
And Lord, I pray that every single person in this room
would have meaningful friendships in their life, Lord.
I pray that every single in this room
would be able to find a godly spouse.
And Lord, I pray that every single person
would get proper nutrition in their diet.
But Lord, help us to just be thankful
for all the wonderful things we do have
and not constantly whine about what we don't have.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.