Tonight is the 12-year anniversary of our church's existence.
We started the church pretty much exactly 12 years ago because we started on Christmas
Day itself, December 25, 2005, and in this passage a great event occurred where God performed
a mighty miracle and they wanted to have a memorial of that for future generations to
look back and marvel at what the Lord had done here in this passage.
And that's what I want to do tonight by just giving a history of our church.
So tonight's sermon is going to be a little different than a normal sermon.
I'm actually just going to tell the story of the 12-year history of our church, but
I'm going to use scripture in each year as I hit the highlights just to talk about the
different lessons learned and the different highs and lows of the last 12 years.
In this story they put 12 stones in a pile as a memorial.
And of course our church is founded upon the rock of God's word.
So how about 12 scriptures for 12 years, 12 experiences, 12 things that we've learned
tonight.
Look if you would at your Bible in Joshua chapter number 4.
The Bible reads beginning in verse number 4, then Joshua called the 12 men whom he had
prepared of the children of Israel out of every tribe of man.
And Joshua said unto them, pass over before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst
of Jordan and take ye up every man of you a stone upon his shoulder according unto the
number of the tribes of the children of Israel.
This may be a sign among you that when your children ask their fathers in time to come
saying what mean ye by these stones, then ye shall answer them that the waters of Jordan
were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord.
When it passed over Jordan, the waters of Jordan were cut off and these stones shall
be for a memorial unto the children of Israel forever.
And the children of Israel did so as Joshua commanded and took up 12 stones out of the
midst of Jordan as the Lord spake unto Joshua according to the number of the tribes of the
children of Israel and carried them over with them unto the place where they lodged and
laid them down there.
And Joshua set up 12 stones in the midst of Jordan in the place where the feet of the
priests which bear the ark of the covenant stood and they are there unto this day.
This was a really cool miracle in the Bible.
It's kind of similar to when God parted the Red Sea but it's a little bit different.
When God parted the Red Sea, of course Moses held up his staff and the Red Sea parted and
the children of Israel went across on dry land.
Well this is 40 years later.
It's a new generation that's going into the promised land and this time they're crossing
the Jordan River.
But this time the priests of the Lord that bear the ark of the covenant, they actually
put their foot into the water while the water was still there.
They actually stepped into the water itself and it came to pass that when they dipped
the sole of their foot into the water, that's when the water dried up.
So they kind of had to take that step of faith and step into the raging river and as their
feet went into the water, the waters were gathered up in a heap on one side.
It was just a miraculous damming of the water that held it back and the children of Israel
crossed on dry land.
After all the children of Israel crossed, the priests of the Lord stood in the middle
of the Jordan River holding the ark of the covenant and all of the Israelites went by
them and they stayed in the river.
After all the children of Israel had crossed over the Jordan River and into the promised
land, then last of all the priests stepped out of the river and as soon as the priests
had stepped out of the river, then the Jordan River began to gush back in.
And this is a mighty raging river that overflows its banks at that time of year, the Bible
says.
So that was a pretty amazing miracle.
It was something that they really wanted their children to remember.
They didn't want it to be forgotten.
So they piled up a giant pile of stones as a memorial so that when their children would
ask them what is this monument, what do these stones mean, they would be able to tell them
this great story.
It's great to look back over the past and think about the great things that God has
done for us.
And I believe that this church in many ways has been a miracle.
It's been an act of God.
It wasn't done by man.
It was created by God.
The Bible says that upon this rock Christ said, I will build my church and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it.
So it's the Lord that built the church, not any person or group of persons that built
the church.
Especially a church like this because this church defies all understanding and logic
of what you would think it would take to build a successful church in the 21st century.
In today's world, the methods that we've used over the last 12 years, it's said that they
don't work.
You just can't do it that way anymore.
In fact, even the sword of the Lord just had an article in it that said, oh, the days
of just working a full-time job and just starting up in a storefront, those days are over.
And I'm thinking like, speak for yourself.
That's what we did.
That's what our friends are still doing.
It's what Jason Robinson just did a few months ago in West Virginia.
And we're seeing churches of our stripe starting up all over the place using those same methods.
But it's not what the mainstream thinks is the way to build a church.
Your mainstream evangelicals, they've got the rock band.
They're appealing to the flesh to get people through the door by creating a fun center
more than a church, more than a house of God.
And a show and a performance.
And the pastor gets up in his jeans with the holes in them.
And he's Mr. Cool.
And he relates via the flesh, not through the hard preaching of God's word.
That's what's popular today.
And even amongst our fellow independent fundamental Baptists, they don't use the methods that
we use.
Not even close.
And so I believe that the reason that our church has succeeded is one.
It's the Holy Spirit of God.
It's the blessing of God.
You can't explain it any other way than that God has decided to bless our church because
God has been pleased with our church and what we've done.
Now we're not perfect.
We have not been perfect and we never will be perfect.
But we love the Lord and we're serving Him and working hard and God is blessed in a great
way.
And so tonight's sermon is a memorial of the last 12 years of God's work and what has been
accomplished through our church and through the power of God and through the wisdom found
in God's word that we've deployed and put into practice here.
That's the secret to the success and it's no secret at all.
Has our church been a success?
Well we started 12 years ago with no one.
We came here.
It was my wife and I and our three children.
We didn't know anybody.
We got here and we had our first service three days later.
And in those three days we were unpacking our small amount of belongings.
We were getting the water and electricity turned on at our house.
We had to buy a mattress.
We had to get things settled in.
And at the same time I was out knocking doors and trying to invite people to that first
service and we got here on Thursday and we had church on Sunday, the first service.
And by the way that's not the way that all the books tell you to do it for starting a
church.
So we skipped all the months and months of get to know you meetings and coffee groups
and so forth.
We just got here and we prayed and we knocked doors and we hit the ground running and we
started the church on Christmas morning.
So I went out soul winning those three days and I was inviting people, winning people
to Christ and I remember I woke up on that first Christmas morning of our church's start
and the first thought on my mind, the moment that I woke up was nobody's coming.
No one's coming.
And so I decided I'm going to go around and make sure that people show up.
So I had a list of all the people that were the best prospects that seemed like they were
the most interested out of the people that got saved.
And I drove around to all those people's houses that morning and I knocked on their door around
you know 9 30 a.m. because church was starting at 10 30 and I asked him I said you know are
you still coming, you're coming right?
And they kind of looked at each other like are we coming?
And they came.
Amen.
And our first service we had a total of nine people in the service because my family was
five and then we had four visitors all four of them were adult men and they all showed
up and we had that first service with nine people.
None of them would have come.
It was obvious unless I had gone around and rallied them all that morning.
So that thought was correct when I woke up.
So then that night we had two more people show up again two men showed up and that was
our first Sunday night service.
But one thing that we'd forgotten to do was buy lights.
We didn't realize that we didn't have a light in the room where we were planning to have
church.
You know these are things that you know you just don't think of.
So the morning service went great.
Amen.
You know the sun coming through the windows.
But at night we had no lights.
So we ended up having to move the service into another room of the house that had a
light.
So that was interesting.
But we had that first service just in our living room and my pulpit was the kitchen
counter.
And in fact for the next year and a half the first year and a half of our church we met
in the living room and my pulpit was the kitchen counter.
So I was going soul winning every single day seven days a week.
And I started working my full time job Monday morning.
So I had three days off Thursday Friday Saturday.
We had the first services on Sunday and then on Monday I had to go back to work.
So I'd work eight hours and then I'd get home eat some dinner and go out soul winning every
day and I kept doing that.
And you know you know how it is out soul winning you win people the Lord.
They say they're going to come and then they just don't show up right.
Even though they are so sure that they're coming.
And we've all experienced that frustration.
So you know the second week we'd grown from nine to eight.
But one of those eight was Amanda.
Right.
And she's still here to this day.
So Amanda came on the second Sunday and then the third Sunday we had nine.
And I remember the morning of the fourth Sunday I was discouraged.
I was down because I you know I know it doesn't sound like a long time.
But when you're starting a church and you're going soul winning every day and you go into
it with a really high hope and a really high expectation.
You know you just you're frustrated and you feel like you've been at it for so long and
you're just not really getting anywhere.
And so I remember on the Sunday morning the fourth Sunday I woke up and all the other
three Sundays I had high hopes.
Because a ton of people had said we're coming we'll be there.
But that last week of soul winning there had been the worst week of soul winning.
Every day I went soul winning but nobody seemed interested in the church at all.
So I thought to myself you know the first three weeks I thought people were coming and
they didn't except just a handful that you know most of whom I went around and rallied.
But I thought to myself how much less on this day when I had the worst week of soul I don't
think anybody's hardly coming.
So I was very discouraged I was very down.
We pretty much had one elderly couple.
They were 90.
Remember them Amanda?
It was a 90 year old couple and Amanda were pretty much my church members at this time.
And then one other elderly gentleman that had literally one foot in the grave.
He even said I don't even know if I'm going to be alive on Sunday but if I'm alive I'll
be there.
But he was saved.
So you know I was I was getting discouraged I mean I was very thankful for Amanda because
she was faithful right away coming to the services.
But that fourth Sunday I was discouraged and I went and I got alone and I bowed down and
prayed and I decided to pray and I just flipped open my Bible at random.
Now I'm not saying that this is a good way to determine the will of God but if you would
go to Isaiah 2-2 this is what I flipped to at random and I'm not saying that you should
get the will of God this way but I was just so frustrated that that's what I did.
And I remember I prayed to the Lord and before I flipped open my Bible I said to God I said
Lord I'm not following the advice that I was given on how to start a church because I don't
believe that that advice is right.
The get to know you meetings and 30,000 flyers and inviting everybody I want to start the
church by soul winning by winning people to Christ not just inviting them to church.
And I knew that I wanted to start right away I didn't want to wait three months.
What am I supposed to tell people come to church in three months?
Where are they going to go in the meantime?
I don't want to point them to another church I want them to come to this church you know.
And I prayed and I told the Lord that fourth Sunday morning I said Lord I don't know why
this isn't working.
And admittedly I went into it with an unrealistic expectation I thought that I was just going
to start this church and I thought we were going to be running a hundred after one year
I'm just being honest that's what I thought because I thought man I'm praying so hard
I've been reading I'm doing this by the book I'm going to preach it's going to be great
we're going to be running a hundred by the end of year one and you know that was a really
unrealistic expectation but I didn't realize that at the time you know I mean I was thinking
big I was thinking a little too big maybe but on that Sunday morning I told God I said
God it doesn't seem like what I'm doing is working but I said God I will not change what
I'm doing I'm not because I got it from the Bible the sermons that I'm preaching I'm preaching
hard but I'm preaching the way the Bible says and I'm winning souls the way that you told
me to you promised that you would build the church and I said God I promise that no matter
how bad this year goes 2006 I'm going to keep doing it the same way because it's right because
the Bible said so and if it's and if it's not then you're going to have to explain to
me when I get to heaven why it didn't work when that's what you told me to do in the
Bible that's what I you know I was just a little frustrated that's what I told God that
morning and then I flipped open the Bible for for wisdom okay and this is the verse
that I saw and this verse encouraged me even though it has nothing to do with starting
a church or anything like that but this verse encouraged me Isaiah 2 2 and it should come
to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in
the tops of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hills and all nations shall flow
unto it and you know what I thought about that verse I said you know what maybe this
is God telling me that one day the house of God this church that people from all nations
will flow unto this church that this church is going to be a church that's well known
that people would know about it and come here from all nations and lo and behold that's
where we're at I mean people literally do visit our church we have visitors right now
from foreign countries in our church even right now as I'm speaking and we have we have
almost every week people coming from other nations and I realized the verse a little
out of context but you know God used this verse to encourage me at that time so that
fourth Sunday all the sudden just cars just started pulling up cars just started pulling
up and I couldn't believe it and I was like wow God answered my prayer he was just testing
me for those first four weeks of soul winning but now it's really going to take off now
it's going to open up and I just remember just car after car pulled up and we had twenty
two people it's like where did these people come from God heard my prayer God's building
church we are going to run a hundred this year you know that's what I'm thinking you
know and so we had twenty two people we had our first baptism that night we had nineteen
in the service and it was like wow this is starting to take off of course the next week
we're back down to like ten or whatever and really that entire year we only averaged ten
even though it seemed like it was going to take off on that fourth week but that fourth
week God really encouraged me and that was a blessing okay so what were some of the significant
events of that year well I'd say one of the significant things of that year and I gotta
hurry because I want to crank through all twelve years so I'm not gonna be able to spend
that much time on each year but go to Galatians chapter one one of the biggest things that
I had to decide in that first year of 2006 was whether I was going to preach everything
I believed from the Bible or whether I was gonna hold anything back you know I knew that
some of the things that the Bible says that I'd be preaching were gonna offend people
or turn people away and that they were gonna quit the church and you know the church is
already tiny it was already a slow start slow to get off the ground we only averaged ten
on Sunday mornings and just had a handful of people on the evening services and I had
to decide whether or not I was gonna compromise and one of the big decisions that I had to
make one of the difficult decisions that I had to make was in May of 2006 I knew that
I needed to preach against the pre-tribulation rapture I knew that it was false I knew that
pretty much almost all independent Baptists believed in it they'd all been sucked in by
it I knew it was a fraud perpetrated by Schofield and Darby and the rest of these dispensational
false teachers and I knew Hollywood had been pushing it with Left Behind and everything
else and I didn't want to preach it because of the fact that I knew that I could lose
people at this time the church was temporarily running around 20 so it was just starting
to get going and I thought you know am I gonna preach this sermon and then already just lose
people when I'm just barely even getting started but I remember the thought that came to mind
was well if I don't preach this what else am I not gonna preach what else am I gonna
hold back on what else am I gonna decide well it's what the Bible says but I don't
want to run people off and I decide you know I gotta start out right even if the church
is tiny even if I could lose people and even if I'm shooting myself in the foot I decided
right's right wrong's wrong and I've gotta preach the whole council of God and here's
a theme verse for 2006 Galatians 1 10 for do I now persuade men or God or do I seek
to please men for if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ I decide you
know I shouldn't even be a pastor if I'm gonna seek to please men I must please God so on
May 21 2006 I preached my first sermon against the preacher of rapture the sermon was called
the book of revelation and I went through and just kind of gave an overview of the book
of revelation and I preached against the preacher of rapture and you know you might not think
it's a big deal but that sermon had serious consequences for me because my sending pastor
that had sent me to Phoenix to start the church immediately disowned me after that sermon
he immediately wanted nothing to do with me and from that day to this he has not been
my friend just because I preached that sermon against the preacher of rapture as soon as
he heard about it he was done being my friend he broke off fellowship with me from that
day until this you know that's how touchy of an issue this is with certain people because
they know they're wrong but you know so they can't stand up to debate they can't stand
up to a conversation because of the fact that they're wrong so they have to use just intimidation
of hey you're either pre-trib or we cut you off even though end times prophecy should
not be a test of fellowship we shouldn't break fellowship over someone just because they
see prophecy differently but the pre-tribbers usually will break fellowship over that issue
unfortunately so that was a major decision I had to make another milestone of 2006 was
when brother Dave Burzins joined the church now why was this a milestone because up to
that point I did about 99% of my soul winning by myself by myself now my wife had Amanda
to go soul winning with but I was going soul winning by myself and let me tell you something
it's hard to go soul winning by yourself it's discouraging to go soul winning by yourself
it's a lot better with a soul winning partner right you can get the fellowship the encouragement
motivate each other but I was so winning by myself with a few exceptions of visitors coming
through or there were some men in the church at that time that went so winning once or
twice but nobody consistent until brother Dave Burzins came in August of 2006 major
blessing he showed up he'd been saved for nine years but he'd been totally away from
the Lord he hadn't grown at all he'd never even been baptized never been in church he
was saved but he'd never been discipled or taught or anything like that so he got in
our church he got baptized within a few weeks he was out soul winning and just consistent
soul winning every week so that way my wife had Amanda and I had brother Dave Burzins
and of course now he's pastoring amen in Prescott Valley Arizona in Word of Truth Baptist but
this is when he just first joined our church in August of 2006 that was a major blessing
as I said that year we averaged ten all right year two let's move on to year two what happened
in 2007 well we continued along at the beginning of the year we grew a little bit we gained
some people so we ended up averaging about twenty people in that second year as opposed
to ten the first year one of the milestones was a year and a half in in May of that year
we got into our first building and our building was actually in this parking lot it was just
actually out that door and to the left a few doors down we got into a little seven hundred
square foot space so it wasn't even bigger than meeting in the house but we were just
sick of meeting in the house all right we had church in our house for a year and a half
and it was very difficult you know sharing that space we couldn't even have a sofa or
anything we had our whole living room just emptied out for the church and so after a
year and a half of that we got burned out so we moved into our first church building
and I remember when we got into the building I believe it was May 30th 2007 we sent out
a letter to every visitor card that we had of everybody who'd ever visited our church
saying hey we're in a building now because some people don't really like to go to a church
that's meeting in a house there's nothing wrong with meeting in a house in fact five
times in the bible there's mention of churches meeting in a house so you know you got to
start somewhere right so we started in the living room but by the way we didn't have
one of these house churches it was it was just church in a house so we had the chairs
set up and we we treated it like a real church service it wasn't a coffee clutch but anyway
we sent out that letter and when we had our first service in the building a whole bunch
of people came that had not come in a long time because now we're in a building but you
know what's amazing is that none of them stayed isn't it interesting the people who didn't
like us we were in the house they still didn't like us in a building you know they don't
want us with a fox or in a box or you know it says it turns out the preaching was what
they didn't like all right so you know we got into a building in May of 2007 and then
another important milestone in 2007 was we got on YouTube now why was that a big deal
well who who heard about our church through YouTube put up your head if you found out
about our church because of YouTube all right that's why YouTube was a big deal all right
so lots of people have heard of us through YouTube go to Ephesians chapter 3 did I have
you turn there here's a theme verse for 2007 Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20 the Bible reads
now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think
according to the power that work within us unto him be glory in the church by Jesus Christ
throughout all ages world without end amen you know God truly did exceedingly above all
that I could ask or think by allowing us starting in 2007 to literally start to reach
millions of people through the internet literally millions even in 2007 because back then YouTube
was in its early days and my sister Ronnie said hey you need to get on YouTube and I
was like what's YouTube and back then you can only put a 10-minute video on YouTube
and so I got in there and I put up some videos and a couple of the videos that I put up got
over a million views within a few months one of them was called why Billy Graham's going
to hell and the other one was called Joel Osteen exposed so I put up some hard preaching
where I was preaching from the Bible against Billy Graham and against Joel Osteen and those
videos got a million views each now I didn't have a camcorder when I put those up it was
just a slideshow of pictures of Billy Graham and it was just me preaching just yelling
and it was just from my sermon and I just threw them into Windows Movie Maker and just
spat them out and uploaded it to YouTube and got over a million views those were the days
on YouTube when YouTube was sort of a wild west frontier and you could just you could
get away with anything you know and just put up sermons nobody else was really putting
preaching on so it just right away got a ton of viewers now the reason that I say it's
above all that I could ever ask to think is that when I started the church my vision was
to see a powerful soul winning church established in Arizona I thought of it as we're going
to reach Phoenix I never thought of it as we're going to reach America or reach the
world or change the world or start some new movement or start a whole thing it was just
limited to we are going to do something in Phoenix so I was disappointed by the slow
growth of the church you know running 20 after a couple years but I was pleasantly surprised
with the way God opened doors for us to reach literally millions of people on YouTube and
we started consistently having like 20,000 mp3s downloaded per month from our church
website even back in 2007 and 2008 we were having 20,000 a month download so it was just
amazing because I never even dreamed of that I remember the first time somebody emailed
me and told me they were listening to my sermons from another state I was blown away because
I thought to myself oh you know we're handing out invites and they have the church website
maybe somebody will listen to a sermon and that'll make them want to come but this old
man this 80 year old man contacted me from Washington state and said I'm listening to
your sermon every week I was like whoa who is this guy and I was like this is great somebody
in Washington is listening to my sermons it's not just the people I'm preaching to this
other guy that's listening you know so I had no idea I had no vision of you know reaching
millions of people through the internet but God did that and so that was a blessing in
2007 okay now let's move into 2008 this is the third year of our church's existence and
this year we start averaging about 30 so we grew from 10 to 20 to 30 we were only growing
about 10 per year you know soul winning every week just trying my best working my job trying
to make things happen well go if you would to second Thessalonians chapter 2 second Thessalonians
chapter 2 I think that the thing that characterizes 2008 more than anything else was that the
that was when I got into the so-called truth movement kind of the freedom movement or the
truth movement and a lot of you probably spent some time in the truth movement how many people
kind of heard about our church through the truth movement that was kind of how you found
our church and if you don't know what we mean by the truth movement basically in 2008 Ron
Paul was a big thing he was a politician that was kind of different than all the other politicians
so Ron Paul came on the scene and that's actually how I got into the truth movement was just through
the Ron Paul campaign I heard it because before that had zero interest in politics or anything
like that but I heard about Ron Paul and I started listening to Ron Paul speeches and everything like
that and then I learned about other things in the truth movement 9-11 truth and and just different
things along those lines and so in 2008 that's when I sort of got into that movement and and
went through my political phase so my political phase pretty much lasted from like 2008 to 2012
and it's been over for a long time just so you know but so I don't care about politics but anyway
look at 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 here's a good scripture for this year verse 10 and with all
deceivableness of unrighteousness and them that perish because they receive not the love of the
truth that they might be saved and for this God God shall send them strong delusion that they
should believe a lie that they all might be damned to believe not the truth but add pleasure in
unrighteousness and what I want to point out in the scripture at the end of verse 10 it says they
receive not the love of the truth they didn't want the truth see the Bible says there are people who
want the truth who love the truth and then there are other people who don't love the truth they
don't want to hear the truth and so here's the thing if you're truly in a truth movement it
should eventually lead you to Jesus Christ because Jesus said I am the way the truth and the life no
man cometh unto the Father but by me also those of us who are saved Christians we love the truth in
all areas of life we are by nature lovers of truth and then those in the truth movement if they
really do love the truth in their heart are great candidates for getting saved because they're
already halfway to getting saved if they love the truth because then when we show them the truth of
the Lord Jesus they're likely to get saved so I started running in those circles in 2008 and
meeting a lot of people in the Ron Paul campaign and in the truth movement and libertarian minded
type people and I started reading up on American history and and loving Liberty and learning about
those things and so I was able to win a lot of people to Christ during that time that were in
the truth movement and then a lot of people that were in the truth movement would you know start
coming to our church and then also you know we were opening Christians eyes to the truth of the
the wicked things going on in our government and so forth with the New World Order etc another
theme verse for that year could be the verse 2 Corinthians 3 17 you don't have to turn there
but it says now the Lord is that spirit and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is Liberty so that
was kind of a key thing in 2008 was getting into the truth movement the freedom movement we also
upgraded our building from a 700 square foot to a 1500 square foot building in 2008 okay 2009 this
was the worst year by far 2009 was a rough year okay it was rough that's when Chris Segura got
here that's what he knows he remembers when he got here was when it was all going crazy he got
here at the weirdest time possible but in 2009 the fourth year of our church's existence we ran about
you know 40 high 30s about 40 during that time in our fourth year of existence and this was when our
church first began to be in the media and this is when our church first began to endure persecution
for our beliefs and and and it got really bad in 2009 up until this time I was really succeeding
in the fire alarm business because I was working full-time I wasn't getting paid from the church
at all up to this time I was just working in the fire alarm business and God had really blessed my
business look when I started the church a whole bunch of things went wrong and I messed up my
personal finances to the point that when I started the church I had eleven thousand dollars of credit
card debt and I didn't even know if my job was gonna work out when that was the condition I was
in financially when I started the church okay because those were the days of shady lending
practices and so you know once I'd already committed everything to get into my house then
all of a sudden it's like no we need another four thousand dollars you know they start moving things
around you remember those days before the big crash so you know but God had blessed me and and
by the time I got to 2009 I paid off all that debt and I was making good money in fire alarm
business not taking a salary from the church or anything like that and so that all came to an end
in 2009 because the persecution came down on us hardcore so here's a great theme verse for 2009
yea and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution I remember I talked to a
pastor friend of mine in 2008 and he was telling me about all the persecutions he'd endured and I
told him I said I haven't endured any persecution you know we've been at this for three years and
we're winning a lot of people Christ and we have you know tens of thousands of people listening
online but there's been zero persecution he said well I didn't have it either for the first ten
years he said wait you've been doing it for ten years he said you'll just rack up enemies every
year you'll make enemies and the enemies there's just more and more enemies and he was telling me
yeah they're blowing up his mailbox and they're vandalizing his church I whoa man I've had
anything like that happen but little did I know it was coming very soon so you know when 2009
rolled around you know just to make a long story short because I've only got a little bit of time
the biggest thing was over the sodomites okay there was a huge thing this is the first time
it was in the media but I preached a hard sermon against the sodomites and it went viral big time
and the left-wing media not the mainstream media but more like the left-wing me so all the left
wing blogs were attacking me Alan Combs was a left-wing host I think he's dead now I think he's
in hell now he's an unbelieving Christ rejecting Jew God hating liberal and he's burning in hell
right now unfortunately for him but I you know he was one of the ones who attacked our church
hard a whole bunch of left-wing people so you know for several weeks we were going viral amongst the
left we were getting all kinds of attacks we were getting all kinds of threats and things okay but
we were still kind of just laughing about it because it wasn't a big deal yet okay well then
MSNBC picked it up and they've got to make everything political right so MSNBC puts out a
piece about yeah this guy's preaching against homos and you know they go off on it but then
literally just in the last sentence they said oh and by the way you know he also hates Obama
here's a sermon he did on Obama okay then that just went insane it was literally our church was
on CNN every day for two weeks I'm not joking there was this guy named Rick Sanchez who knows
who I'm talking about yeah this guy Rick Sanchez was on CNN and just every day he just kept talking
about it kept talking about our church attacking our church lying about our church and I mean there
were all kinds of media coming here it was like a circus I mean you'd want just walking into church
there were just like 15 camera crews Reuters CNN just everybody's there in 2009 just freaking out
and it was it was it was rough okay and this is why it was rough because the fact that the sodomites
started calling my customers that I worked for in the fire alarm business and they caused me to lose
basically two-thirds of my business so it pretty much destroyed my business financially I had to
lay off all my employees to where it was just down to just me I did downsize big-time but then not
only that CNN kept reporting yeah the Secret Service has already investigated him they've
already talked to him they've interviewed him we verified from our sources that the Secret
Service has talked to him Secret Service did not talk to me but they're like we verified but
because they kept saying it became a self-fulfilling prophecy weeks later eventually then the Secret
Service did come to my house then there was a warrant for my arrest this guy calls me on the
phone and says hey go on this website there's a warrant for your arrest right now don't get
pulled over or you're gonna go to jail I'm like whoa what in the world and the Secret Service is
calling me the FBI is leaving a business card on my door I mean it was intense okay then the
mail every day we got like this much mail sent to us death threats white powder spilling out
of envelopes human waste used contraceptives pornography I mean just filth just stacks of
garbage being sent to us daily I took a couple men in the church aside and I said you know what
I said I have enough problems right now you guys are going through the mail and finding the stuff
that's actually worth keeping you know because some people are sending a donation or a card or
there's bills that we have to pay and stuff so I'm like you guys got to go through the mail I have
enough problems in my life so they said God bless them they sorted through all that garbage that was
being sent in I mean it was rough it was intense and then they're just coming back every week so do
you still stand by what you said yep you gonna take anything back nope and they just kept coming
back and I just said no I'm not gonna change what I believe I'm not gonna back down on anything that
I said and by the way I still haven't backed down on anything I've said and all those sermons are
still online and I still believe the same stuff you know they expected me to be like one of these
athletes that said you know where they say what they really think and then they have to apologize
for the rest of their life like what Tim Hardaway you know they're they're saying oh how do you feel
about having this homosexual team ever he's like I hate gay people I don't want him on my team I
don't want to be in the locker room with them he spent the rest of his life apologizing and falling
over himself well you know what not this preacher you know I'm gonna stick with what the Bible says
on the sodomites to the bitter end but anyway there was it was a major persecution a very
difficult time for our church and but it was a time when our church continued to grow and thrive
we didn't lose by the way no one quit the church over it except for one family because they were in
a custody battle for kids because they were a divorce and remarried situation and they were
told you know you won't get custody of your kids if you go to that church or something so then they
quit the church but everybody else stood with us thank God and they weathered the persecution they
went through it with us and then the media were such liars and I never knew how much the media
lied until that event we had one day where we had 50 people in church on a Sunday morning because
back then like I said we were only running like 40 so 50 was a big day for us we had during in
the midst of this whole controversy with the sodomites and Obama there were 50 people in
church the CNN reporter came and asked me how many did you have in church this morning and I said 50
people and she said okay good that's exactly what I counted because I was doing a head count as
people came in they reported on the news the next day there are 20 people in the church why because
they wanted to make it sound like oh it's just some tiny church nobody believes this stuff nobody
it's just him and his family practically and then we had protesters there were about 35 to 40
protesters max they reported as hundreds one of them said 1,100 I'm not kidding what I found an
article that literally said 1,100 there were 35 people now you know fast forward to 2016 and
pastor Jimenez did have 600 protesters outside of church we've never had more than 130 and they
don't even dare come anymore we haven't had protesters in years because there's so many
more of us than them they they don't even dare come so that was 2009 I got to hurry up but 2009
was our first time being in the media and going through a lot of persecution so that was a rough
time for me personally just thinking about feeding my family with my business going under
and just struggling to make ends meet and and just to keep the church together and just to keep it
going but we weathered the storm amen 2010 you know what was the big thing about 2010 well in
2010 brother Roger Jimenez started his church in Sacramento California now we did not send him out
technically to start the church but he was someone that I had trained and mentored for years he'd
preached at our church twice a year for every year of our church's existence he's been a really good
friend of mine since he was just a teenager and I was only 20 years old so when brother Roger Jimenez
started a church if you would go to Ecclesiastes chapter 4 when brother Roger Jimenez started the
church the reason this was such a blessing was that I was feeling a little lonely because when
I preached against the pre-trib rapture my pastor disowned me no church wanted to touch us with a
10-foot pole we had no fellowship with other churches over that issue and over other things
that I preached that people didn't like then when I got persecuted hard in 2009 no church was back
no independent Baptist were backing me up they were all falling all over themselves to apologize
to the homos that I defended and proclaim their love for Obama so you know in 2010 having another
pastor come on board and be you know a guy who was not just doctrinally right but who had the
guts to stand with me and be counted and to be another person who had the same vision that I had
the same doctrine that I had the same zeal and fire that and we both knew there's something wrong
with the independent fundamental Baptist movement it's going soft it's getting watered down it's
dying and he wanted to be like me and and that we could both be kind of a new style of independent
fundamental Baptist that really wasn't new but kind of getting back to the old paths of the old
fashion the hard preaching the fundamentalism so that was a major blessing to have him come on
board starting his church in Sacramento especially because Sacramento is my hometown so that was cool
to have him start a church in my hometown look at verse 9 of Ecclesiastes 4 the Bible says two are
better than one because they have a good reward for their labor for if they fall the one will
lift up his fellow but woe to him that is alone when he falleth for he hath not another to help
him up again if two lie together then they have heat but how can one be warm alone and if one
prevail against him two shall withstand him and a threefold cord is not quickly broken so this is
a blessing to have a fellow pastor to be my friend during that time 2011 go to 2nd Timothy
chapter 3 I was the biggest thing in 2010 I kind of call 2010 and 11 the quiet years 2009 was kind
of the big explosion and then 2010 and 11 were just kind of the quiet years in fact as I was
working on this sermon I racked my brain to say anything about 2011 I couldn't think of anything
to say about 2011 in fact I even called past remains and said you know you started your church
at the end of 2010 do you remember anything about 2011 no it was just kind of one of those
years where you just kind of kept on going so here's the the theme verse for that year is going
to be 2nd Timothy chapter number 3 verse 14 that says but continue continue thou and the things
which thou has learned and has been assured of knowing of whom thou has learned them I mean
that's what we did in 2011 we just continued we just kept on doing the same thing just week in
week out preaching three sermons a week doing a lot of soul winning the church continued to grow
in that sixth year you know we were running about 60 at that time because we just kept growing by
10 a year all right year number seven was a major turning point for our church because this is when
we came out with our film after the tribulation Paul Wittenberger had been listening to the
preaching from our church online since like 2010 and I met him back in 2010 when he first visited
our church he visited our church again in 2011 and he approached me and said hey I want to make
a movie about the pre tribulation rapture being a fraud and I said great yeah let's do it let's
not be on the defensive about it let's go on the offense let's take it to him and so throughout
2012 Paul Wittenberg and I became friends and we made that film after the tribulation that came
out in December of that year now after the tribulation was not an instant success though
you know the first few months we were really struggling hard to get people to watch it online
and we were sharing it everywhere but it was only had about by spring of the next year it only had
about you know 30 to 40 thousand views maybe 60,000 views or something like that it hadn't
really gone crazy yet but then in the spring of 2013 Alex Jones picked it up and Alex Jones a
radio host with a huge audience he started promoting it and he started selling on his
website months after it came out and then the thing just went crazy now to this day if you
include both English and Spanish versions it's been viewed online over 15 million times and so
that was a huge thing where a lot more people found out about our church so of course the theme
verse for that year would be immediately after the tribulation of those days right now these
24 29 okay 2013 what happened in 2013 well 2013 was a significant year our eighth year of existence
where we're running like 80 and that was when we filmed the revelation series the 22 part
revelation series which I know a lot of people still when I meet them and say how'd you hear
about our church they say it was the revelation is there anybody like that here tonight that was
the first thing you saw revelation so yeah several people I hear that all the time we came out with
that revelation series but a big thing that happened in 2013 it was the first time that our
church planted another church so this was our first time that we were able to reproduce
ourselves and send out another church plan pastor Dave Burzins and it was kind of cool that he was
the first person we sent out since he was a guy who was baptized right here at faithful word and
he'd been trained for seven years at faith for Baptist Church so seven years of being faithful
and being trained and meeting his wife having kids everything like that and he started word
of truth Baptist in Prescott Valley in 2013 so that was a cool thing so the theme verse for
that year could be the things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou
to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also it's the first time we were able to start a
church okay 2014 what happened in 2014 well we came out with New World Order Bible versions so
that was our next big film with Paul Wittenberger and at this point the church really started
taking off in growth I mean that's when the church started growing exponentially because up until the
eighth year you know we went from 60 each year 60 70 80 but then it just started exploding in growth
where we were just doubling and and and tripling to the point where now we've been at it for 12
years and we run over 300 on Sunday mornings right even though we're only 12 years in so that
was a huge year of growth for us 2014 things really took off and the church growed grew and
thrived and so forth also we planted another great church that you're steadfast Baptist Church in
Fort Worth Texas pastor Donnie Romero and you know what his church now is running 125 on Sunday
mornings it's a great soul winning church great preaching coming from brother Romero and so we're
proud of the work that he's done and we were able to plant that church in 2014 so that was pretty
exciting to do that okay how about 2000 oh wait I forgot how can I forget 2014 was the infamous
so-called AIDS free Christmas okay this is where I'm preaching a sermon I'm preaching a sermon
against the sodomites which is what the media loves to home in on and this is the last time we
had a major a major media persecution of our church was 2014 it's never happened since and
I'll explain why but in 2014 you know I preached the sermon and I made a joke in the sermon I just
jokingly said you know I keep saying all these signs around Phoenix that say let's have an AIDS
free world by the year 2020 or let's have an AIDS free world by 2025 I said hey we could have an
AIDS free world by Christmas you get rid of all the sodomites and follow Leviticus 2013 and
basically the media just went nuts with that so this was the biggest media persecution of our
church since 2009 it wasn't as big quite as 2009 but it was close 2009 was worse okay but the
difference was we had more physical protesters show up in 2014 in 2009 is like 35 or 40 we had
135 come in 2014 and and and be out there with their signs and and chanting and and all that
garbage that they do that was the the infamous AIDS free Christmas okay so then move on to 2015
what happened in 2015 2015 is when things really started to grow and the coolest thing about 2015
was we started having the soul winning marathons in other cities across America okay because we'd
always had these things called small town soul winning marathons that we did all the way from
the early days of our church but the first soul winning marathon was in 2006 I just I don't even
know where I came up with that term but I just I just came up with it and it stuck and that's what
we've been calling them but in 2015 we came out with our film marching design and I had this idea
where I said you know what let's translate this film into Arabic and get it fully dubbed in Arabic
then let's take it to the most Arabic speaking place in America the most Muslim place in America
Dearborn Michigan and let's have a big soul winning event there and we'll call it marching
to Dearborn so I had this idea and everybody was telling me don't do it you're gonna get beheaded
you know they're under surreal law there it's not safe Christians have been stoned to death
in Dearborn I'm like what it's in Michigan what are you talking about so I didn't buy into their
hype okay we went out there and of course we had a great time everything went well we had 60 people
show up we got about 30 some people saved that the Muslims did not behead us they even gave us
cookies and lemonade and and were nice to us you know we got cussed out by a few Muslims but then
after they cussed us out they're like hey have a great day guys can we give you some water for the
road you know so there was no beheading you can't believe everything you hear on Fox News folks you
know Dearborn Michigan's not under Sharia law it's just Detroit okay which might even be scarier
than the Muslim world in some ways Detroit's a rough place but anyway we had that event well
after we had that event in Dearborn Michigan it was such a big success we just decided hey let's
just do these all over America so we followed it up with Portland Oregon Washington DC Boston
Massachusetts you know and we've done like 20 of them since cities all over America they've been
huge so that was pretty cool that that happened in 2015 another big thing in 2015 is that our
congressman for the city of Tempe Democrat congressman is named Shapira and by the way I've
knocked his door out on soul-winning personally he's Jewish and he doesn't like our church but
anyway before he knew who I was I knocked on his door out soul-winning and I asked him do you know
for sure if you died today you go to heaven and he said yes I do and I said how do you know he said
because I'm one of the chosen people I'm a Jew he said we're all going to Abraham's bosom he said
he said all of us Jews are going to Abraham's bosom and I said hey can I show you what the
Bible says how you can get to have any no no I don't have time for that you know well anyway
that guy went on a campaign against our church in 2015 and he did press conferences right outside
these doors and then he held a big event in Tempe where he got together with the local media and
other leaders of the community and weirdos and the homo the rabbi in Tempe is literally a homo
the of that temple Emmanuel okay so you got together with that guy and a bunch of other
pillars of the Tempe community and they had a press conference where they decided we're never
gonna cover pastor Anderson in the media again they literally said and Ramon went and filmed it
remember you were there Ramon and and the only thing I remember about it was that this woman got
up to talk and then it had a man's voice because it turned out you know what I mean it was like
this woman gets up and it's just like hello everyone oh what am I watching but Ramon went
behind enemy lines and filmed it but at this press conference here's what they said they said by
covering this guy in the media even though you're attacking him you're making him more popular
you're making his church grow people are just finding out about him and they're like they
literally made a pact we're never gonna cover pastor Anderson again and so literally from that
day to this the local media has never covered us even when the local media was going crazy on pastor
Jimenez on the Orlando thing not a word from the local media that was when the media officially
stopped covering us the local media but after that the only interviews I do now are just Spanish
because una bizión and Telemundo they didn't get the memo so literally literally every time every
time one of my sermons goes viral or every time some breaks in the media I get a call from
Telemundo I get a call from una bizión and they come and interview me in Spanish and my Spanish
isn't that good but I'm able to do by the grace of God these live interviews in Spanish I don't know
how I do it and sometimes a little ugly but I get the point across but I've been doing interviews so
now all my interviews are in Spanish now so none of the English speaking will touch me they won't
talk to me then of course in 2016 our our church just doubled everything doubled the salvation's
grew by another you know ton of people tons of soul winning of course there was the big Orlando
blow up where pastor Jimenez was in the hot seat that was nice to see somebody else in the hot seat
for a change you know and I got to sit back and watch him bear the brunt of the assault but you
know what we got to as a church step in and support him and help him we actually shipped
75 of our church members where we told everybody our church if you guys will go out there we'll buy
your hotel well you know we incentivized people to go there and during brother Jimenez is trying
time we sent like 75 or 80 of our church members who was there with brother Jimenez that day yeah
we said a bunch of our members to back him up because no fundamental Baptist in America backed
him up no independent Baptist they all side with the sodomites every time bunch of queer loving
idiots that's another sermon but anyway so yeah and I like that oh you've stumbled into the wrong
church tonight we actually believe the Bible we haven't been we haven't been watching Queer Eye
for the Straight Guy like you have we haven't been watching Modern Family and all the other
queer loving garbage we're not brainwashed by all the music and TV and movies we believe exactly
like every fundamental Baptist believed in the 1980s in the 1990s and for 6,000 years before
that we haven't been brainwashed so welcome to reality here this is the real world right here
this is where the Bible is our guide that's another sermon so we backed up brother Jimenez
that was a blessing and you know what I just it made you know I already loved brother Jimenez
and he was one of my best friends and and he and I have been good friends now for literally what
16 years well one of the most lasting friendships of my life has been my friendship with brother
with Pastor Roger Jimenez for the last 16 years but you know what I loved him so much more after
that Orlando thing I mean I loved him so much more and my respect for him went through the roof and
you know what I told him that I told him I said you know what you are a legend now you know you
are I mean he he I mean in many ways you know his persecution was worse than ours and he stood his
ground and I had great respect for that so praise the Lord for brother Roger Jimenez and then that
brings us what to year and I'm hurrying because we're totally out of time but year 12 it brings
us to right now 2017 I mean I would say the biggest thing to characterize this year is that
we've really ramped up our soul winning to the American Indians you know we've actually knocked
more than half the doors now on the Indian reservations in Arizona and I believe that by
the end of our next calendar year we'll have knocked every door on every American Indian
reservation which is over a quarter million people let alone all the church we do here in Phoenix so
I would say that was kind of my favorite thing about 2017 we had a lot of great foreign missions
this year going into other countries the big thing and then if we were to look into the future 2018
I think one of the biggest things that next year is gonna be known for is that mega marathon right
that's gonna be a big thing next year so anyway it's been exciting let me just wrap up by saying
this let me just give you some statistics about our church you know besides the fact that I kind
of alluded to the the attendance is let me just give you the salvation numbers from our church
this is door-to-door soul winning this is only people that we talk to one-on-one and this is
people that you know we reasonably are confident that they got it that they understood it and they
prayed with us to receive Christ to save this is not counting the 43 million viewers that we've had
on YouTube this is not counting all the schools where we've gone in and preached to thousands this
is just the people that we've dealt with one-on-one in 2005 our church had 33 people saved in 2006 we
had 200 people saved through soul winning I wanted to hit that number when we got to the end of the
year I took a couple days off from work because we were in the 190s and I was like I want to hit
salvation I took some days off and we barely pushed it that number in 2007 we had 226 people
saved in 2008 we had 941 people saved and so that was a huge jump from 2007 to 2008 now what was the
big jump I'll tell you why because at first I was the main talker and I would just kind of rotate
silent partners but in 2008 other people started doing a lot of the talking besides just me and
Pastor Burzins and so here's the thing when the pastor is the one doing the talking people are
shy about talking because they think like oh well he you know he knows because he's the pastor but
when you start seeing everyday ordinary people going out and soul winning and doing the talking
you know what people start thinking you know they can do that I can do that so that's why our soul
winning really kind of blossomed in 2009 2008 so in 2008 we had 941 saved 2009 1258 saved 2010 we
took a step backward 1143 saved 2011 1264 saved 2012 1043 saved 2013 1199 so really for five
years in a row we were just right around 1200 just kind of steady at 1200 salvations per year
for five years then in 2014 it took off 1556 saved so in 2014 we had 1556 salvations 2015 we
had 2546 salvations 2016 we doubled that to 5141 salvations this year so far we've had 11,247
so think about the fact that literally just three years ago our church had about 1500 saved now we
have like 12,000 saved three years so this church is look you say man I wish I would have been there
in the early days hey you're here at the heyday I believe that next year is going to be the most
exciting year of our church's existence but if you if you do the math and add it all together
our church has had a total of 28,000 people saved in its existence through one-on-one personal
evangelism and by the way we're not these one two three repeat after me types they're just going
around praying with people I mean we're thorough and if you catch anybody not being thorough come
tell me about it you know we do a thorough job we take it seriously we do it right and it's a
blessing what God's done and so tonight sermon is just a memorial to 12 years of faith for you
say I want to hear a Christmas sermon that was this morning where were you I did a Christmas
sermon this morning tonight was about celebrating 12 years of faith for Baptist Church and you know
what I think that 12 years of our church is worth celebrating and look when I was working by myself
I wasn't getting 12,000 people saved it's not a one-man show around here it's a team and so
thank God for everybody that's a part of this team and that pitches in and that makes our
church what it is but you know what only the Lord could have taken a guy like me that everybody
looked at and said you will fail my pastor my pastor that sent me out you know what he told me
in the first year 2006 he said your preaching is very weak he said your skill or ability to
preach is lacking you do not have the ability to preach that's what he told me in 2006 okay
the the president of the Bible College I went to said you will never start a church you will fail
that's what he told me bluntly to my face okay look six months before I started the church even
my wife was wondering if I had the ability you know and my wife and don't get me wrong my wife's
always been there she's always supported me through thick and thin she's been a rock through
some very very rough waters that we've sailed through she's been through a lot but she even
just said she just you know six months before I started the church she said I don't know if you
just have the ability to preach you know and she was right I'm not faulting her she was just telling
the truth I wasn't good at it okay you know just this guy's gonna fail everybody said you're gonna
fail then when our church started succeeding in the early days everybody said you know what it's
a crash and burn I'm I've seen guys like him before these real high-energy guys you know and
they're all they're gonna they said he's gonna crash and burn that's what they said but here we
are 12 years later still going strong still thriving you know what it's a miracle it's an
act of God that any look that in a in a time when everybody wants to go with the liberal and the
contemporary and everybody's going soft and virtually all the rest of the independent
fundamental Baptist movements going the other way we're going upstream but God is doing something
I'm telling you God is doing something in our church in our nation and in the whole world and
it's exciting and you're a part of it if you're here say I don't want to be a part of well take
the exit but you know what there are plenty of people who do want to be a part of it there's
plenty of people who love the soul winning and they don't just love the soul winning and hold
their nose at the hard preaching they like the hard preaching too they like all of it and so
thank you to everyone who stuck with thank you especially to Amanda because probably the person
that I would give thanks to in this auditorium outside of my immediate family of my wife and my
children in the early days the only people encouraging me were my wife my older sister
and we were encouraged by Amanda because Amanda many there were many services where it was just
my family and Amanda thank God we only had two services where it was just my family but we
treated it the same we had church there are people too where two or three are gathered together yeah
so we you know there were only two that I had to preach to just my family because Amanda was there
from the beginning so thank you to Amanda for being faithful and and staying true all these
years and she's she's literally probably only missed like less than 20 services or something in
the last 12 years you know it was usually when brother Jimenez preached I don't know why that
was that's another story she had this thing where she was boycotting brother Jimenez bro not because
she didn't like him we were just I it's a joke she loves brother Jimenez okay it was just that it kept
being that she would always be sick when he preached and we're like wait a minute you know
are you really sick so thank you to everybody and you know for those of you who've just come
on board in the last few years you know what thank you for staying with us and and going
through the battles of the and this year had its battles the modalists but you know what I'm looking
forward to a great year next year let's buy rides never word of prayer father we thank you so much
for your word Lord and for the promises and that we have a guidebook to navigate through these
waters Lord we don't we don't know what the future holds I never would have predicted any of the
things that have happened over the last 12 years it's all been a wild ride Lord but thank you that
you've ordered our steps and guided us through it and we pray that you would do great things in
2018 without you we can do nothing Lord and if you remove your hand of blessing from our church we
will fail we will crash and burn Lord so please Lord I pray that you would see fit to keep blessing
us help everyone to have a Merry Christmas tomorrow and enjoy family and friends yes good
food yes but also to meditate upon the birth of Jesus Christ and it's in his name we pray Amen