Can I have a paperclip? That's a silly question, but this isn't an elaborate illustration or anything.
There we go, I already got one. Wow.
We're really high-tech here, but you know what?
Let me just tell you something right now, okay?
I'd rather listen to a preacher who's got a paperclip on his lapel than one of these stupid little headsets.
You know what I'm talking about? I'm not preaching the truth or nothing.
You know what I'm talking about? Those little headsets.
I'm not trying to look like Michael Jackson or something with some kind of a headset.
Like I'm some kind of a rock star. I'm not down with a headset at all.
I'd rather have a ghetto paperclip microphone on my lapel any day of the week.
By the way, I like this pulpit too. This is a great pulpit.
I knew I'd get an amen on that one.
But in Titus chapter 1, the verse that I would like to focus on is verse 5.
Really, it's the thought behind the entire chapter, but in verse 5, the Bible reads,
This cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting,
and ordain elders in every city, as I have appointed thee.
Now, I must point out that in verse 9 is where we find the name of our church,
holding fast the faithful word, as he hath been taught,
that he may be able by sound doctrine both to absorb and be convinced to gain shares.
Now here in Titus chapter 1, we find that Paul is speaking to his young protege,
Titus, his own son after the common faith, a young man that he had won to the Lord,
and now he's grown up, he's older, and this man is in Crete,
and Paul said, I left you in Crete for a reason.
I want you to stay in Crete, I don't want you to leave Crete,
because there's something that's lacking in Crete.
He said, the things that are wanting, something is missing, something is lacking.
He said, this is what's missing. You need to ordain elders in every city.
As I had appointed thee.
Now, the island of Crete, who knows where and what the island of Crete is?
Put up your hand if you're a little bit familiar with it.
It's part of Greece, okay, and it's in the Mediterranean Sea,
and it's a long and skinny shape, it's about 159 miles long,
and it varies in width at different points, maybe 20 to 40 miles wide,
but if you were to take the area of the island of Crete,
it's actually smaller than Maricopa County.
Just if you were to take the square miles, okay,
it's smaller than Maricopa County, but like I said,
it's about 150 miles long, but it's very thin.
20, 30, 40 miles in certain places.
Probably an average of 28, 29 miles wide.
Now, the island of Crete, like I said, is part of Greece,
and Paul was saying here, there are a lot of different cities in Crete.
And he said, there needs to be, in the island of Crete,
a pastor, that's what he's talking about, an elder, a bishop, pastor,
these words are used interchangeably in the Bible.
He said, there needs to be a Bible-preaching church with a pastor
in every city in this area, in Crete.
And he said, it's lacking, it's something that's missing,
and he said, I'm leaving you there, I don't want you to leave
until you accomplish your goal, Titus,
of putting a church in every city in Crete.
You see, God's plan to reach Crete
is the same as God's plan to reach America,
the same as God's plan is to reach the world.
It's always been God's plan in the New Testament, the local church.
And the sad thing is that in many cities today across America,
there is no Bible-preaching, gospel-preaching, soul-winding church in that town.
It just isn't there.
And God says, something's missing, something's lacking.
We need to fix this.
We need to get an elder in every city.
That's how I appointed you.
Excuse me.
Then he goes on to describe the qualifications
for what that pastor should be.
He said, wait a minute, pastor.
I said, we live in America,
there are many churches on every corner,
and there are many Christian churches,
and even many Baptist churches.
Well, let me tell you something.
Not every church that says Christian church
or Baptist church on the outside
is really a scriptural, Bible-bleeding church.
I'm going to prove that to you right now.
You see, first of all,
we see the qualifications for what kind of a pastor
and what kind of church needed to be in each of these cities.
He said in verse 9, holding fast the faithful word.
The first thing that's got to define what a real church is,
what a real man of God is,
what a real pastor is, that's going to be...
He said, look, in every city,
we need a man who's holding fast the faithful word,
preaching behind the pulpit.
And I'm going to tell you something.
The NIV is not the faithful word.
The New American Standard Version is not the faithful word.
The Living Bible is not the faithful word.
The New Revised Standard is not the faithful word.
The New Living Translation is not the faithful word.
The Message and the Amplified Version are not the faithful word.
Hey, the King James Bible is the faithful word of God.
It's the one that...
What does faithful mean?
It's the one you can trust.
It's the one that's at the mouth of God.
Every word of God is pure, the Bible says.
Man did not live by bread alone,
but by every word that perceived by the mouth of God.
Jesus said, heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away.
And I thank God that this Bible in my hand
is the very words of God.
Amen.
Say, well, you get the same idea from the NIV.
Well, possibly in some places you'll get the same idea,
but you won't get the same words.
And God said it's the words of God that have power.
The word of the Lord is powerful.
And not only that, but turn, if you would,
to Revelation chapter 1, verse 20.
Revelation 1, 20, the last book in the Bible.
See, not every church is a scriptural church.
Look at Revelation chapter 1, verse 20.
The Bible says, the mystery of the seven stars
was thou sauced in my right hand
and the seven golden candlesticks.
The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches,
and the seven candlesticks, which thou sauced,
are the seven churches.
Now, these seven churches in Asia,
modern day Turkey, are represented by candlesticks.
And watch what he says here.
The first church, Ephesus, look at verse 1 of chapter 2.
The angel of the church of Ephesus, right?
These things say indeed that holdeth the seven stars
in his right hand, who walketh in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks.
I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience,
and thou thou canst not bear them which are evil.
And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles
and are not, and hast found them liars,
and hast borne, and hast patience,
and for my name's sake, this labor has not fainted.
Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee,
because thou hast left thy first love.
Remember, therefore, from whence thou art fallen,
and repent and do the first love.
Is that what it says? No.
It says, repent and do the first works,
or else thou wilt come unto thee quickly,
and wilt remove thy candlestick out of his place,
except thou were kept.
Now, the problem here wasn't that they weren't doing any works.
He said, I know thy works, thy labor, thy patience.
The problem is they weren't doing the first works.
And many times churches get so caught up in all the other programs
and all the fun and the peripheral activities
that they forget the first works.
They forget the first love.
Hey, they don't have the love for a lost and dying world.
That's going to say, we're going to go out
in the highways and hedges
and preach the gospel to every creature.
We're going to do the first works.
What was the first works for Andrew
when he met Jesus Christ?
He first findeth his own brother, Peter,
and say, we have found him that is written out
in the script of the prophets, Jesus of Nazareth.
The first thing he did was go out
and get somebody to take him.
And by the way, that's the big first commandment.
I mean, that's the big thing.
Oh, the first commandment is to love God.
Yes, it is, but you know what?
The first work is to go out and win souls to Jesus Christ.
As my father sent me, Jesus said, so send I you.
And so a church can be working hard,
a lot of activity, a lot of things going on,
calendar jam packed with events,
but many times they've lost their love.
And so it becomes nothing more than a social club.
And you say, oh man, they're straight on doctrine.
They tried, they would say they're apostles
that are not, and it's found them liars.
And they cannot bear them which are equal.
They hate sin.
I mean, you know, if they don't have love,
then it'll compel them to go out and do the first works
and win people to Christ.
Look what he says about them in verse five.
He says, repent and do the first works,
or else what's he going to do?
I will come unto thee quickly
and will remove thy candlestick out of its place,
except thou repent.
You see, a church ceases to be a scriptural church
when it's not a soul-willing church.
A church ceases to be a scriptural church
when they don't have the right Bible,
they don't have the faithful word.
You see,
you see, Paul said in 1 Timothy 3, 15,
if I tear long, thou mayest know
how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God,
which is the church of the living God,
the pillar and ground of the truth.
And in John 17, 17, he said,
sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
And so if a church is not the pillar and ground
of the Bible, of the truth, of the word of God,
it's not a scriptural church.
What else makes a church not a scriptural church?
If it's not a soul-willing church,
if they don't do the first works,
he says, you better change that,
or else you'll lose your candlestick.
You won't even be a real church, in my eyes.
I heard a great illustration about this.
Colonel Sanders, Kentucky Fried Chicken.
A great lesson.
Trust me, this is a great illustration.
I heard this in the church that I went to in Sacramento.
There was a Kentucky Fried Chicken
in the town where my pastor lived,
and this Kentucky Fried Chicken had a giant,
you know, molten image of the colonel.
You know, this big, giant colonel up at the top
of the sign.
And one day, my pastor drove by,
and he saw a crane removing this head
of the colonel from the sign,
and the colonel's head was swinging from the sign
and then it was lowered in the back of the truck.
And he stopped and asked,
why is the colonel coming down?
Okay?
And he said, Trish, is this true story?
He said, why are they taking down the colonel?
And that's what they said.
Well, this Kentucky Fried Chicken
began to offer things
that were not on the menu of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
I mean, there were rules
to operating a Kentucky Fried Chicken.
You have to follow their guidelines.
Your menu has to be the same menu.
You have to offer the same offerings,
and you can't sell cheeseburgers and tacos
and be a Kentucky Fried Chicken,
although these days I think it's like
Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell, and Pizza
all in one building, okay?
But the point is, they have lost the franchise,
is what somebody told them.
They have lost the franchise,
and the colonel must come down.
Now, let me give you another example.
I was driving in Mesa with my sister.
We took the 60, we went east on 60,
we got off the country club, we're out 87 North,
and we're heading north,
and we saw a yellow sign off in the distance,
and me and my sister said,
Winchell's Donuts!
Wow!
I haven't seen one of these since I was a kid,
and in Sacramento they had Winchell's Donuts.
We were like, wow, can you believe that?
Winchell's Donuts.
And as we got a little closer,
it wasn't Winchell's Donuts.
Now, it had the same yellow-shaped sign
that stood out to us.
We got there, and it said,
Winchell.
V-E-N-C-H-E-L-L.
So it was missing the W,
you didn't change to a V,
and it was missing an apostrophe and an S.
Why?
Because they didn't have the franchise.
They lost the franchise,
probably because of sanitation,
if you know what I mean.
Because we went to a,
oh man, this is another story,
I don't want to get into too many stories tonight,
and we went,
don't go to that church's chicken on country club.
You want to talk about roaches,
I don't have time to go into it.
Take my word for it,
I'll tell you after the start.
The point is,
that they had lost the franchise over at Winchell's,
and now they're called Vinchell's.
I guess they couldn't afford a new sign.
There was a pizza place in Sacramento
that took over Orico's Pizza.
They couldn't afford a new sign,
they switched to C & R and became Ciro's Pizza.
And they actually became a big, successful chain.
And they kept that name,
it was because they couldn't afford a new sign.
But what I'm trying to say with all that,
is that, look,
if a church is not offering the right menu
that God has ordained of what a local church is,
they start deviating from God's formula.
Hey, they deviate from that original formula
of the Colonel's chicken.
How far does it go back?
What is it, the 30's or something?
I don't know.
But that original formula,
the secret recipe of the Colonel.
This is God's recipe for a Bible-believing church.
And you deviate from that,
the Colonel will come down.
And the candlestick,
representing the Colonel,
the candlestick will be removed, he says.
I'm going to take away your franchise
as a local new testament to the Bible-believing church.
What causes you to lose the franchise?
Number one, the wrong Bible.
Number two, what causes you to lose the franchise?
You quit so many,
you better repent and change that,
or I'm going to take away your candlestick out of this place.
The Colonel will come down.
Not only that, what else makes you lose the franchise?
Of course, not preaching salvation
by grace through faith.
Preaching another gospel
is going to cause you to lose the franchise.
What else?
This one may surprise you,
but not being independent.
Not being independent
causes you to lose the franchise church.
You say, prove it.
Well, the Bible says,
Christ is the head of the church.
Any church that does not have Christ as its head
is not a scriptural church.
Did you hear that?
Any church that says,
well, we've got to take orders from this other church
and this other city
and they run our church
and they get 10% of our money,
like the Southern Baptist Church's 10% of the money
goes to the Southern Baptist Convention.
Hey, they're run by the Southern Baptist Convention
and they are a franchise.
Listen to me now.
They are a franchise of the Southern Baptist Convention.
This church is independently owned and operated.
It's not a franchise.
This isn't Burger King.
This isn't McDonald's.
There's only one faithful word Baptist church
in the whole world, by the way.
There's not even another church that has that name.
Hey, this is not a franchise.
We're not operating as a satellite
of some other church somewhere,
in some other city somewhere.
Hey, we are independent.
And guess who our head is?
It's not in Texas somewhere,
the Southern Baptist Convention.
Hey, our head is Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.
And as soon as a church becomes part of a denomination,
they've lost the franchise.
And that's why a church must be independent.
It must be showing.
It must be King James Bible only.
And it must believe that salvation by grace
through faith alone.
And by the way,
those four things are my minimum criteria
for any preacher that I'll have any fellowship with.
Those four things, right?
Now, I don't expect everybody to be just like me.
I don't know of anybody who's just like me.
But the point is that there are some minimum things.
You know, look,
you're going to find some differences
from one KFC to another.
But there's certain things you can count on, right?
Some kind of a consistency there.
There's going to be differences in quality.
There's going to be differences of menu offerings.
But I want to tell you something.
I want to tell you something.
There are certain major things,
and those four that I listed are very major,
that could cause a church to lose their franchise.
Those aren't the only four things,
but those are four things
that could cause a church to lose their franchise.
Why did I explain that to you?
Because I want you to know that we're not just saying,
well, they already have a Baptist church in that town.
When I knocked on one of the first doors
that I knocked in Tempe when I started this church,
I knocked on the door,
and a man came to the door and laughed at me and said,
there's a Baptist church right there.
Why are you starting another Baptist church
200 feet away?
I told him, I said,
all Baptist churches are not created equal.
It was a Southern Baptist church.
It's not the same, I told him,
but he just laughed at me and said,
go on.
He was a Roman Catholic.
He's going to a church that's part of a franchise,
part of a big chain.
It's all connected.
And guess who's the head of the Catholic church?
It's not Jesus.
It's the Pope.
The Pope in Rome is the head of the Catholic church,
and that's no different
than the president of the Southern Baptist Convention?
That's no different than the prophet of Mormonism?
It's no different than that lesbian woman
that runs the Episcopalian churches of America out in California?
It's no different than that.
It's the same thing,
and they're not independent.
And so we see the importance of the church.
God's plan for reaching Crete was the church.
God's plan for reaching America is churches, plural,
in every city in America.
That's God's plan.
Now in Matthew 16, 18,
don't turn there.
And I say also indeed that thou art Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Put this in your computer.
Remember this one, okay?
Men build schools, they build colleges,
they build denominations,
but you know what God builds?
Churches.
I mean, men build buildings, associations, fellowships,
schools, seminaries, colleges, institutes,
but God builds something called churches.
And he said, upon this rock I'll build my school?
No, I won't build a daycare.
He said, I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
He, verse 10, 25 says,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,
as the manner of some is,
but exhorting one another, and so much the more.
As you see the day approaching,
you see there's a type of person,
as the manner of some is, he says,
there's a type of person who forsakes church.
Did you hear me?
And church is the assembling of yourself together.
It's not you sitting in front of the TV
watching a preacher and saying,
well, we had church at home today.
No, you didn't.
You didn't assemble with the believers in God's house,
with a, did he say in Titus 1, 5,
I will have ordained a Bible study group in every city?
No, he said there's got to be an elder in every city.
There needs to be a bishop in every city.
There needs to be a pastor in every city.
And you know what?
You're not a pastor because you preach to your family
in your living room.
That doesn't make you a pastor.
Who laid their hands on you
and sent you out to go start a Bible-believing church?
You can't just stay home and say,
well, I'm going to preach to my family
and that's a local church.
No, it isn't.
And I'm going to tell you something.
A church has a pastor,
and a church is an assembly of people,
not just you and your family,
not just you and your wife,
not you and your two friends.
It's an assembly of God's people.
You know what church is,
and it's not this other substitute
where you sit down and listen to a preaching CD
or sit down and watch it on TV
or listen to a stream over the internet.
Somebody might even listen to my voice right now
and think they're in church,
but unless I'm seeing the light to your eyes right now,
you're not sitting in faithful word about this church.
That's a fact.
Now the point is that church
is something that some people forsake.
They forsake the assembling of themselves together,
and they don't come to church.
Now, what did he say?
When it gets closer to the end of the world,
he says, so much the more as we see the day approaching,
we need to be in church.
Now is not the time to cut back
from the Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night
that we grew up with
to some kind of a one-hour worship service
on Sunday morning.
No.
We need more church, if anything,
and so that's why we have church Sunday morning,
Sunday night, and Wednesday night,
and we're not going to cut back on that.
Hey, we need as much church as we can get.
We need as much assembling together as we can get.
Hey, these are the last days we're living in,
and you need church.
The Bible says in Proverbs 13, 20,
he that walketh with wise men shall be wise,
but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.
It doesn't say he who listens to wise men shall be wise.
It says he who walketh with wise men shall be wise,
and the Bible says he who doeth his souls is wise.
Come out soul-winning with me, you'll be a soul-winner.
Listen to me talk about soul-winning, you won't be a soul-winner.
Walk with me down the street.
Walk with me up and down the streets of Tempe, Arizona,
and I will make you a fisher of man as Jesus did.
The people that walked with Jesus were the Twelve Apostles,
not the people who just listened to him on the hillside
or listened to him from a boat.
Hey, the disciples and the apostles were those who walked with Jesus Christ,
and then they walked with others,
and Titus walked with Paul,
and that's how Titus became a soul-winning preacher in Crete.
So we see that it's important to assemble together with God's people.
It's important to assemble at a legitimate church that has the franchise,
whose head is Jesus Christ,
that's independent Baptist,
that's King James only,
that's salvation by grace through faith,
and it's not one of these house churches.
Now look, our church met in the house for a year and a half,
but it wasn't a house church.
It was a church church.
We just used the house for a building,
which is, oh well, we just get together with another family,
and that's not a church.
Did you know that everything brings forth after its own kind
all the way from Genesis chapter one all throughout the Bible?
And guess what begets the church?
The church begets the church.
The church sends someone out to go start a church.
Now I don't believe in this thing where they send them out
and then control them for a year.
You know, my pastor said to me,
I said, I was going to have you do this, this, and that your first year.
I'm thinking to myself, you know what?
You sent me here to start the church, and guess what?
Now I'm the pastor, and I got to start listening to Jesus.
I can't listen to you anymore.
You know, and it's nothing against him personally at all.
It's just, I can't listen to him anymore.
He told me to do this, but I can't listen to him.
He's not the boss.
As soon as he's the boss, I lose the franchise.
I don't want corporate calling me
and saying the colonel's going to have to come down
because you have another head other than Jesus Christ.
This church is not a two-headed monster.
This church has one head, Jesus.
And I can't take orders from anybody else.
I can't take orders from you.
I have to take orders from Jesus, because he's the boss.
And by the way, this is Jesus.
Let me introduce you to him.
It's the King James Bible.
I know that some people don't like that,
but they don't belong in this church.
We believe that in the beginning it was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,
and the Word was made press into us.
And we beheld his glory.
The Word of God's glory is at the only begotten of the Father.
Jesus Christ are these God-breathed words in the flesh.
And so look if you would at 1 Samuel 9.
1 Samuel 9.
You say, well, what's the topic of the sermon tonight?
The topic of the sermon is this.
We need elders in every city, according to God.
We need churches in every city.
Now, let's see how are we going to accomplish this?
How is God going to accomplish this?
How is he going to build these churches
and see these churches started for the glory of God?
Let me tell you something.
I don't believe that one soul-willing church...
I'm not saying we're the only soul-willing church by any means at all.
There are other churches around here that win souls
and preach the gospel, that have the franchise.
I'm going to tell you something.
I don't think one or two or three or four is even enough in Maricopa County.
I mean, we're sitting here and you say, well, Crete was pretty big.
You know, Crete wasn't any bigger than Maricopa County, number one.
And number two, I guarantee you that Maricopa County has a whole lot more people in it than Crete did
at the time of the apostles.
I promise you that.
Maricopa County has almost four million residents.
And one, two, three, four...
I mean, this place could use 50 churches.
I mean that.
And let alone the rest of the state of Arizona.
Let alone California, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, to the othermost part of Europe.
Hey, there are people who contact me all the time
looking for a good church in their area.
And I'm not saying they're looking for the perfect church.
They're just looking for a church that's got the franchise.
Just those four basic things.
Soul-willing, kingdom, and they can't find it.
This is very sad things.
Isn't it depressing that there are cities in America right now
where a person wants to come to this kind of church
and they can't find it?
That's sad.
I mean, they're just waiting.
They're ready to go.
They can't find one.
Well, look at 1 Samuel 9-6.
And then we're going to turn to 1 Samuel 15-26.
Look at 1 Samuel 9-6.
It says in 7th again,
Behold now there is in this city a man of God,
and he is an honorable man.
By all that he saith cometh surely to pass.
Now let us go to their fair adventure.
He can show us our way
and we should go.
You see, I wouldn't have thought that it would be said about every city.
Wouldn't have thought it would be said that in Flagstaff there's a man of God.
In Tucson there is a man of God.
In Yuma there is a man of God.
In Prescott there is a man of God.
In Gold and Miami and Claypool there is a man of God.
In Phoenix there's a man of God.
In Tempe there's a man of God.
In Mesa there's a man of God.
In Gilbert there's a man of God.
In Scottsdale there's a man of God.
All over the whole valley, Surprise and Sun City.
Hey, put to God it would be said that of every city in America,
there is in this city a man of God.
But it's not so in this city.
Well look at 1 Samuel 15.
Look at 1 Samuel 15.
I believe that this is what God is doing today.
I believe if we look at 1 Samuel 15, 26 through 28,
I think we'll see a sign of what God is doing today.
And I strongly believe this from the bottom of my heart.
But look at 1 Samuel 15, 26.
The Bible reads,
And Samuel said unto Saul,
Saul was the king of Israel,
he was a great leader at one time,
but now he's back-spread and dying of sin and disobedience with God.
And Samuel said unto Saul,
I will not return with thee,
for thou hast rejected the word of the Lord,
and the Lord had rejected thee from being king over Israel.
And as Samuel turned about to go away,
he laid hold upon the skirt of his mantle and it rang.
And Samuel said unto him,
The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day,
and hath given it to a neighbor of thy,
that is better than thou.
Now, if anybody knows the story,
we know who that neighbor of his that was better than Saul,
we know who that's talking about, David, right?
He said to Saul,
and keep in mind,
this is long before David took over the kingdom.
I mean, we're back in chapter 15 here.
You know, if you know the Bible,
that David's not going to take over the kingdom until the end of the book,
until we get to 2 Samuel, is when he's going to take over.
The whole rest of the 1 Samuel, Saul was still the king.
But at this point,
God purposes in his heart and says,
I'm rejecting Saul,
and I'm going to take the kingdom away from him
and give it to a neighbor because it's better than him.
Right away in the next chapter,
Samuel goes and anoints David with oil
to be the next king of Israel.
How old was he when that happened?
Do we know exactly? No, we don't.
But the Bible says he was a young man,
a youth.
These are some words that describe him.
Young man,
youth,
stripling,
okay?
Now, some people have said that he was 12 or 13.
I don't think so because it says that he was
described in 1 Samuel 16
before he slew Goliath as a man of war.
So I do think he was a man.
I don't think he was a child.
If I had a guess, I'd say he's 17.
That would be my guess, you know?
Just based on other stories,
based on similar wording being used by Joseph,
and the Bible tells us that Joseph was 17,
and uses some of the same terms about being a youth and a young man.
And so I believe he was probably about 17.
You'd look at him and say, well, there's a man,
but he was very young at the same time.
He's called a lad and a youth and a young man.
And so this is what I find interesting about this story,
that when Saul dropped the ball,
when Saul lost the franchise,
when Saul was not the leader that he was supposed to be,
and God took away his anointing from him,
took away the spirit of God's resting upon him.
He took it away, the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul,
and came upon David.
But it's interesting because David was this young man,
he wasn't yet raised yet.
And I believe that right now, today,
are you listening to me?
I believe that God is grooming young men
that are one day going to pastor in the church tomorrow.
I believe that, just like he did with David.
I mean, I believe that God looks down
and sees young men that are maybe in their teens,
maybe in their 20s, maybe in their 30s,
and he's looking down at these young men,
and I believe that he knows that pastors across America
are apostatizing and forsaking the truth.
He knows that there are cities all over
that don't have a good church and don't have a man of God.
I believe he looked down at me when I was a teenage boy,
and I believe he began to groom me
for the work that he called me to do.
I believe that.
I believe right now God is anointing young men
that will be the pastors and preachers of tomorrow,
that will start the churches of tomorrow.
I believe that.
He did it for David, and he's doing it today.
Look at Acts chapter 2, if you put Acts chapter 2
in the New Testament.
Look at Acts.
Let me read this verse for you while I turn it there.
Ezekiel 22, 30.
And I sought for a man among them,
this is God speaking,
that should make up the hedge
and stand in the gap before me
for the land that I should not destroy,
but I found none.
You see, God's looking for a man,
and oftentimes he's not finding him.
He's looking for somebody to rise up and build.
He's looking for somebody to be the next leader,
the next pastor or preacher
that can go to one of these towns,
start a church,
and I'm going to tell you something.
I'm not leaving.
Let me tell you.
I'm not leaving here.
I'm going to be like Titus.
Titus is going to stay and creep
and ordain Elvis in every city he's got to win.
I want to stay here in Maricopa County
in Tempe, Arizona.
I want to stay here
and see other churches established in Arizona
and all over America and everywhere.
I don't want to go anywhere.
I don't want to bounce around.
And I'm not going anywhere, by the way.
I'm going to die here.
And you know what?
And I said before, I'll say it again.
You get this tape.
And if I say, oh, God called me somewhere else,
come to me and tell me I'm a liar
and cram the CD down my throat
and say, this is when you say
that you were saved and I am saved.
Unless air conditioning becomes illegal
because of the environment.
You know?
That's not something I can think of.
It's like an environmental thing, you know?
No, I'm just kidding.
Just kidding.
Anyway, look at verse 17.
It says, it shall come to pass in the last days.
And we're definitely there.
Sayeth God,
I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men shall see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
You see, we need young men
with a vision.
Are you listening to me?
Young men anointed with the Spirit of God.
Young men with a vision that say,
I can do all things through Christ
with strength and the being,
and God can use me to preach the Gospel
to a city and to raise up soul-runners
and Christians in that city
and build a church with the glory of God.
That's what we need.
We need young men with a vision.
And you know, we need old men
that will dream dreams once again
and not just fade off
and say, well, you know, my glory days are over
and it's too late for me to do anything.
I'm not going to start a church.
I'm far too old.
Well, then why don't you just join
the most radical, soul-winning, on-fire,
zealous Baptist church you can
and why don't you help some young guy
preach the Gospel
and see it grow for the glory of God.
Say, well, I'm never going to be a preacher.
I'm never going to start a church.
Well, then you know what?
Just get a part of the most fundamental,
straight down the line,
soul-winning, King James Bible-only Baptist church you can
and get behind it and win souls
and dream some dreams
for what God could use you to do in 2008,
no matter what your age is,
no matter how old you are.
By the way, we live in this weird society
where everybody gets old before their time.
You know what I'm talking about?
People think they're old when they're like 50 or 60.
You're not old when you're 50 or 60.
Men in the Bible were in their pride at that age.
Men in the Bible were 60, 70, 80, 90 years old.
And Caleb said, when he was 85 years old,
he said, as my strength was then,
so is my strength now,
to go out and to come in.
Tell my grandma that she's too old to go soul-winning.
She's 87 years old.
She just won somebody in the Lord, I think, like a month ago.
She was out door-to-door last week knocking doors,
soul-winning.
She's 87.
You know what?
Because she realizes that if God has left her here on this earth,
God has something for her to do until the last breath.
And wouldn't God, every elderly person in America,
would realize that they need to go out
and preach the gospel and do something for God
and help teach and reach this younger generation?
We get all old, but you don't think they're old
when they turn 30.
Good night.
It's ridiculous.
I'm just a kid up here.
Come on.
I'm 27.
I'm like a little kid up here listening to a child.
I'm serious.
I believe that.
Hey, I believe that I'm going to be in my prime
if God allows us to last that long here
and the tribulation doesn't come.
You know, end of the world, apocalypse.
Hey, I'm going to tell you something.
I believe I'm going to be in my prime
when I'm 50 and 60 years old.
I believe that.
Don't get old before your time.
By the way, let me just go off on a tangent for no reason.
I'm sick and tired of a society that tells everybody that.
It's kind of like what I was talking about this morning,
the midlife crisis.
It tells you that you have to be young
for the rest of your life.
You know, the Bible says the hoary head,
let's say my gray hair,
is a crown of glory if it be found
in the way of righteousness.
Why quit dyeing your hair if it's gray?
True.
The beauty of old men is the gray head,
the Bible says.
Tell Just For Men to drop dead.
We need to get gray-headed
and only be proud to say,
I'm old and I'm glad I'm getting old.
And by the way, we've got to respect elderly people.
You know the book of Leviticus,
it says that you're supposed to rise up
before the hoary head.
I mean, when somebody elderly walks in,
you're supposed to stand up
and respect for those who are older.
But we live in this society.
And by the way, can I explain something to you ladies?
You don't have to be as skinny as a supermodel
as you get older.
Did you know that as you get older,
as a man or a woman,
you're supposed to put on a little bit of weight?
I'm not saying that you're supposed to be huge or something,
but I'm telling you something.
You're supposed to put on a little...
It's normal.
And we live in this anorexic eating disorder society
of bulimia and eating disorders like you wouldn't believe
because society tells you to be beautiful.
You have to be skinny like a skeleton or something.
And even young ladies,
you don't have to starve yourself at night.
Don't let Hollywood tell you what is attractive
and what is not.
And as you get older, it's normal as a man, as a woman,
to put on a little bit of weight.
Think of it as insulation for the wiring of your body.
I'm serious.
And again, I'm not condoning obesity or gluttony.
That's not what I'm talking about.
But I'm saying it's normal to have a little bit of weight on you.
You know, I went to...
I was in...
Man, I'm getting off on so many things.
I was in...
I just got to think of it as it comes to me,
as the spirit leads.
I was in Riverside, California.
I picked up a family magazine.
It said, like, family.
And then, you know, I guess it told you all the nice things to do
in Riverside with the family.
The zoos, the parks, the fun.
I am not kidding.
There were literally 15 in this little magazine.
I mean, it was...
You know, it was at the normal side of the magazine, I guess you could say.
It had 15 ads for plastic surgery
in a family magazine.
I'm like, what?
You know, you got a liposuction
and, you know, it looked like this.
What do they call this?
What's it called?
Facelift.
Facelift, thank you.
Facelift, liposuction, tummy tuck.
I don't know what the rest of it all is.
Laser hair removal and all this crazy stuff.
Look, we live in an anorexic, weird, warped society.
And, you know, quit trying to...
If you're an old man...
And this is where it ties in with the sermon.
Yes, it does tie in with the sermon, okay?
If you're an old man, hey, dream some dreams.
Have a vision if you're an old man.
And if you're a young man, hey, have a vision.
Have God's Spirit upon you.
Whether you're young or old,
you ought to be anointed with God's Spirit to the day of your death
and be a soul man.
That's what the Bible says in Acts 2 17.
And so we need young men that'll get a vision,
that'll realize that God wants to anoint them and use them
to preach the Word of God
and to start churches in the cities across America.
Don't tell me that it's God's will
for there to be just a handful of independent,
fundamental, Baptist, soul winning churches
in big, giant cities like this
and that it's God's will
that in cities all across America there's none.
That's not God's will.
God said it's lacking.
Something's missing.
Look at Numbers 11.
Numbers 11 27.
And everybody thinks somebody else is going to do it,
but they're not.
Nobody else is doing it.
People need to go out and preach and start churches.
We need young men.
And you know what?
We need young ladies that'll say,
you know what?
I'm either going to marry a guy who wants to be a preacher
and go start a church,
or I'm going to marry a guy who's going to be a backbone
of some great church somewhere.
Not everybody's going to be a preacher.
Not everybody's apt to teach.
Not everybody has the abilities that God gives to a preacher.
But I'm going to tell you something.
Ladies, men, boys, girls, my kids.
Hey, listen, boys.
Listen, Solomon.
Listen, Isaac.
Listen, John.
I'm saying to my kids,
hey, you better grow up and stand by
and hope and preach the gospel.
And if you don't stand by
and hope and preach the gospel,
you better find the most hardest preaching
straight down the line,
soul-winning, spirit-filled, preaching church
that you can find,
and you better go there every Sunday morning,
Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
Amen.
And if you're not part of the solution,
you're part of the problem.
And that goes for you, too, Miriam.
You need to grow up and marry a guy.
Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers, girls.
Don't be unequally yoked together
with some Southern Baptist liberal.
Why don't you marry an independent fundamental Baptist?
And you know what?
I'm sick of this philosophy, too.
I remember I knew a guy,
and he was a black man.
And he felt like he needed to marry a black girl.
I don't think there's anything wrong
with interracial marriage at all.
In fact, I strongly believe
that there isn't anything wrong with it
and that TC's kind of invited it.
I'm not going to go into that.
I have sermons where I go into that.
But the point is, he felt like, you know,
he needed to marry a black girl or whatever.
Maybe he just liked black girls.
I don't know.
He was black.
And so he was trying to be equally yoked.
I don't know.
I believe all men are created equal.
So, you know, whether they're white, black,
or polka dot or whatever,
I don't believe that they're...
I believe God has made all nations of the earth
the one blood, right?
Amen.
You know?
Hey, diversify the gene pool a little bit,
for crying out loud.
Don't marry your second cousin or something.
And so it's all right to marry other races,
and the word race is not even used in the Bible, actually.
So that's a man-made definition.
But anyway, he felt like he needed to marry a black girl
and he was just having trouble, you know,
finding black girls in his church.
Okay?
And the pastor of this independent,
fundamental, flowing Baptist church called him this.
He said, he went to a mass,
and he went, what should I do?
I'm trying to find a wife.
I don't know any Christian girls.
What do I do?
And he told him, he said,
that he should go join this big black church in the city
to go there and find a wife.
The problem is the big black church was liberal,
it was charismatic.
I mean, it had Baptist on the name,
but that's about where the Baptist stopped,
was at the top.
And you know what?
The interesting thing is that he...
Do you believe that was the right advice?
Go to some...
Yeah, go to some liberal church,
because it's big.
Now, this is why that logic is so silly.
You're only marrying one woman.
So how many do you need?
You know what I mean?
Oh, man, the church has got it.
Thousands of black girls in it.
Well, how many are you looking for?
Okay?
You see what I'm saying?
And guess what?
I don't think God blesses that kind of decision making,
and that's why, guess what?
He went there, he came, he went,
he went for a long time and didn't find anybody.
Because God's not going to bless them.
Are you listening to me?
Hey, seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,
and all these things shall be added unto you.
Hey, I'd go to the church that's right,
and let God bring me in the path of some choices,
of people to marry.
That's what I believe.
And so, what did that do this time?
Numbers 11, 27.
Look at Numbers chapter 11, verse...
Oh, yeah, people weren't going to be preachers.
Not everybody's going to be a preacher.
But you know what?
If you're not part of one of these churches
that's helping to send out other churches,
then you're part of the problem.
So if you're not going to be a preacher,
at least join the right kind of church,
and roll up your sleeves, and work,
and make it happen.
But look at Numbers 11, 27.
And there ran a young man that told Moses,
and said, Eldad and Medad can prophesy in the camp.
And Joshua, the son of Nun,
N-U-N, did have parents, but
the servant of Moses, one of his young men,
answered and said,
My Lord Moses forbid them.
And Moses said to them,
Envious thou for my sake,
would God that all the Lord's people were prophets,
and that the Lord would put his spirit upon them.
He said,
How do you know that you're called to be a preacher?
Were you on your face praying all night,
and the whole room lit up,
and all of a sudden God told you
that you were going to preach?
Did somebody hear people say,
Well, I got saved when I was six,
and I was called to preach when I was 16.
When was I called to preach?
Never.
Somebody asked me,
They said,
Well, you're not going to leave, are you?
I mean, you started this church in faith,
but we're a Baptist church,
and I'm afraid that you're going to leave,
or go somewhere else,
So many people,
they say God called me somewhere else,
and really it's just these pastors bouncing around
because they think there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,
or some stupid thing like that.
And they think,
Look, hey, soul winning in Arizona
is just as good as soul winning in any state in America,
and I think I'm just going to stay here
for the rest of my life.
But I told them this,
I said,
Well, God didn't tell me to go here,
so how can he tell me to go somewhere else?
I said,
In fact, this is everything God's ever told me.
The words of God.
I don't believe in continual revelation.
I'm not a charismatic.
I don't have some Baptist word of knowledge
that tells me where to go and what to do.
I have the Bible to tell me where to go and what to do.
And so God says,
Look, I would love for anybody
to be a spirit-filled prophet and preacher of God.
He said in Numbers 11 29.
He said in Isaiah 6,
Whom shall I send and who will go for us?
And Isaiah said,
Here am I, send me.
And that's what I said, by the way.
Okay, God, you want elders in every city?
Okay, God, you want your spirit upon any young man
who will go out and preach and prophesy
and do what you want?
Hey, here am I, God.
Send me.
And he did.
I volunteered.
I don't know what it means to be called of God.
I know Paul was called to be an apostle,
and guess what?
He's the last apostle.
There's no way.
1 Corinthians 15 says that clearly.
But you know what?
I said,
Here am I.
Send me.
And God sent me.
And he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.
He enabled me.
And the Bible says,
He that desireth the office of the bishop desireth a good work.
It's something that people, something about this desire to do.
And God will take volunteers.
Oh, you want to do it?
Okay, well, you better be blameless.
You better be the husband of one wife.
You better have faithful children,
not accused of a right-arm ruling.
You better not be given the wine,
no stripe,
or not given a filthy lucre,
love of hospitality,
a lover of good men.
So we're just holy temporary.
Holding fast the faithful word.
He said,
You want to do it?
This is the qualifications.
You desire a good work?
Hey, if I find you faithful,
I'll put you into the ministry.
That's the Bible's teaching on this.
And we need more young men to put aside their plans
of going out and making their fortunes
and going out and doing this
that they want to do
and everything they want to do
and say,
I'm not going to do what I want to do.
I'm going to go out and start a church
because that's what needs done.
May not be what I feel like doing.
May not be what I want to do.