Now turn if you would in your Bible to Hebrews chapter 11, Hebrews chapter number 11, toward the end of the New Testament you'll find the Hebrews.
Hebrews chapter number 11, now we just read Genesis chapter 37, the story about Joseph and his brother, and of course his brothers envied him and hated him because his father loved him the most, and gave him this coat of many colors, and he had these dreams that made him so angry.
He had this dream about the sheeps in the field, and his sheep stood upright, but the other eleven sheeps bowed down upon the ground toward his sheep, and then he had this other dream about the sun and the moon and eleven stars, making obeisance to him, bowing down to him.
And his brethren were very angry, of course there were eleven of them, and they understood the meaning of the dream, but really Joseph was not being malicious with it, he really actually had this dream, and he was just repeating it to them.
And they got angry and they said to him disparagingly as he came toward them, they said, behold this dreamer cometh, and they said, come, let us see what will become of his dreams.
Now look if you would at Hebrews chapter 11, this is a very famous chapter in the Bible, and the chapter is all about faith, and it's all about people throughout the Bible, and it lists off these great stories of people who through faith accomplished all these great things, but it's interesting the word that keeps coming up throughout this chapter.
There's a word, you say well faith, well yeah I know that faith is mentioned many times throughout this chapter, but there's another word and another concept that's repeated throughout the chapter, look at verse 1, I'll show you what I mean.
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. See that word seen? All throughout this chapter you'll see references to sight and looking and seeing things.
Look at verse number 2, for by the elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Look at verse number 5, by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see dead. Look at verse number 6, for without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently, and look at the next word, seek him.
What does the word seek mean? To look for something. Look at the first three letters, see, to look for something, to search for something is what the word seek means.
Look at verse number 7, by faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear and prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteous which is by faith.
Look at verse 10, this is about Abraham, for he looked, notice the word again, looking, for he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Look at verse 13, these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth, for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.
Look at verse number 23, by faith Moses when he was born was hid three months of his parents because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
Look at verse number 26, this is talking about Moses as he grew up and he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the place of sin for a season.
Look at verse number 26, as seeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasure of Egypt, for he had respect unto the requiments of the world.
Look at the last five letters of the word, respect, spect, like spectacle, spectator, looking at something, seeing something.
He said in verse number 27, by faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.
You see, faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
Faith is seeing the invisible. Faith is seeing something that other people can't see because you read it in the Bible and you see it as reality even though you haven't laid your physical eyes upon it.
Now the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, 7, we walk by faith, not by sight. Right? Faith is when you believe something that you cannot see.
If you see something, then it's no longer faith. Faith is when you believe what you cannot physically see but that you can see through faith.
Now, what I want to talk about tonight is this and turn to Acts chapter 2. This is where I get the title for my sermon.
And that was by way of introduction. I turned to Hebrews and turned to Genesis but Acts chapter 2 is where I derive the title of the sermon.
Acts chapter 2, verse number 16, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, about halfway through the New Testament you'll find this book of Acts.
And look if you would at verse number 16 of chapter 2, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.
And it shall come to pass in the last days, say, God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, watch this,
and your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams and on my servants and on my handmaids I will pour out in those days of my spirit and they shall prophesy
and I will show wonders in heaven above and signs in the air beneath, blood and fire in favour of smoke, the sun shall be turned into darkness and moon into blood
before that great and notable day of the Lord come and it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Now that doesn't happen yet, the sun and moon being darkened. That's going to happen yet in the future.
But today we're living in the last days according to the Bible. The Bible classifies everything after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
It calls that the last days. You know, you have the former days, which is from the creation of the world all the way to Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection,
which is 4,000 years, and then you have everything after that known in the Bible as the last days, the latter days that we're living in.
They were living in the Book of Acts in the latter days, the latter part of human history here.
Now he's saying here, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall dream dreams.
Joseph in Genesis 37, where we read, was 17 years old, the Bible says, when he had this dream, when he saw this vision of the sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him,
and the sheaves falling down in the field. Joseph was 17 years old, and in Hebrews, Moses' parents, they looked at a child that was a baby,
that was an infant, that was only three months old, and they hid that child from Pharaoh because they saw the potential.
They saw that he was a proper child. They saw what he one day could be. What I'm talking about tonight is having a vision for the future.
Now look at Matthew chapter 6. You're in the Book of Acts. Let's go back four books back where the Bible is in Matthew chapter 6.
Matthew chapter number 6. There's a great statement that Jesus makes here in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 6.
The Bible says in verse number 25, well, read verse 24, it says, no man can serve two masters, for either you will hate for one and love the other,
or else you will hold the one who spies together. You cannot serve God and man. Look at verse 25,
Therefore I say unto you, take no love for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall create, nor yet for your body what ye shall put on.
And then I love this question. Is not the life more than meat and the body than raiment? What is he saying? Isn't there more to life than just clothing, food,
you know, getting up in the morning? What do you do? You take a shower, you get dressed, maybe you shave, brush your teeth, go through this ritual every morning.
Then you sit down at the breakfast table. What do you do? You eat. You've been clothed, now you sit down and you eat food.
And then you get up, you go to work. You take a lunch break. You sit down and have something to eat. Then you work more.
You come home and you sit down and you eat dinner, right? You relax. And then you go to bed at night. And then you wake up and you do it again and again.
And then on Friday you get your paycheck so you can buy food and buy clothing and buy a place to live. Is that all that life is about?
But to many people that is all that their life is about. It's a sad thing. I would hate to just be living my life day by day with no direction, no vision, no goal, no dream,
but just going through life day after day, just existing, just looking for the next, oh I can't wait until the weekend.
You know, some people they work Monday through Friday just because they can't wait to go out and do something fun on the weekend.
Or, oh man, I just am looking forward to my lunch break so I can eat some food or buy a new dress or buy a new pair of pants or whatever.
Hey, there is more to life than what this world has to offer in the way of food and clothing.
Hey, there's a spiritual life to be lived and there are dreams and visions that we ought to have for the future of our life.
Hey, I am going somewhere in life and I want to ask you tonight, where are you going in life?
Where are you going? I think a lot of people never even ask themselves, where am I going?
I look at people's life, especially young people in their 20s is what I am talking about tonight.
Now, I think it all could be teenagers, but wait, teenagers today are going nowhere.
The school system is taking them nowhere, okay? They don't know what they are going to do with their life.
They say, what are you going to do? What do you want to be? Where are you going in life? They don't even know where to go, what to do.
But especially people in their 20s, they seem to wander aimlessly through their 20s and waste their life.
And then maybe when they get to be 30, maybe they've got a child or two, then they might stop and think about, wait a minute,
well, what am I doing? Where am I going in life? Or maybe they might think about, hey, I am 30 years old, I am 35 years old.
You know, where am I going? What am I doing? But I am going to tell you something.
When you are 17 years old, you have to stop and say, hey, where am I going in life?
And you ought to have a dream. You ought to have a vision for your life.
I am not talking about the world's kind of dreams of riches, fame, right?
Oh, you know, you are going to be the great athlete or the movie star.
I am talking about a vision of being someone great for God, of doing something that is going to matter,
not just in this life but for all eternity.
But you look at some young people and it's like they are not thinking about where they are going in life.
You know, you think about a young lady who is dating some loser. You know what I mean?
Dating an unbeliever. You know what I am talking about?
Dating a loser. I am not joking right now. I am serious.
Dating some unbeliever. A Christian girl dating an unbeliever, they say, what are you doing?
What is your goal in life? Is this who you are going to marry? Is this who you are going to live your life with?
Is this who you are going to grow old with? Somebody who doesn't even believe on the Lord Jesus Christ?
Somebody who won't even set foot in church even while they are dating you?
And that's where you are going in this life? Hey, think about the future is what I am saying tonight.
Be somebody with your life. And I am going to tell you something. Think big tonight.
Have a big vision. Joseph had a great vision for his life.
People in the Bible, they thought big. Look at Moses. What did he accomplish with his life?
His parents had a vision for him. They only had him in their home for a couple of years, if you think about it.
Because if you remember, when he was three months old, they put him in the river in that basket in the Nile River.
They took baby Moses and they put him in the basket in the river and they sent that basket down the river.
And Miriam followed. She was watching to see what would happen to that baby.
Pharaoh's daughter came down to the water to wash herself. She heard the baby crying.
She had compassion on it and she decided she was going to adopt that child and raise that child.
But what happened? Miriam came out of the bushes and said, hey, wait a minute.
Would you like one of the Hebrew women to nurse this child for you? And she said, that's a great idea.
And guess which Hebrew woman she went and got? The child's mother.
And so then, Moses' own mother nursed him. And so she had this baby boy for the first couple of years of his life, first two years.
And let me tell you something. They had a vision for him. They invested in him.
And you say, oh, how are you going to train a one-year-old? I can train a two-year-old.
Of course you can train a one-year-old and teach a two-year-old the things of God.
That's why my young children are in church right now. That's why my two-year-old daughter is sitting in this church.
That's why my children, my sons here in the front row, age seven, six, four, however old they are, are sitting in here.
If you have kids like me, you won't know the exact ages. They're having birthdays all the time. It changes all the time.
My life goes so fast. It's like a freight train. I don't know how old they are.
What are they? Seven? Stay at your age.
Seven, six, four. I was right. I'm having a hard time.
Seven, six, four, two, zero. I got it. All right. I'm going to go seven, six, four, two, zero.
So I've got it figured out. But what I'm saying is this.
They had a vision for that young child that one day he would be someone great.
And so I bet you they sang him the hymns. I know that they read him the Bible.
You say, how do you know they read him the Bible? Because it says,
By faith Moses, when he was come to the years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
choosing rather to suffer flicks with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasure of sin.
And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Hey, somehow he learned the Bible.
Somehow when he grew up and was 40 years old, he came back full circle to the song that was sung over his cradle
and to the word of God that was preached to him and read to him as a two-year-old boy.
And he came full circle and he became somebody great for God that liberated an entire nation of people,
that preached the word of God to a nation and to a world.
The whole world heard about the parting of the Red Sea at that time.
I mean, the contemporaries of Moses, the entire world heard, said about it all.
The children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt and they knew, hey, God is with them.
The power of God is with them. God's laws are with them. His laws are perfect.
And the Bible said in Deuteronomy that people all over the world would hear about the righteousness of this nation,
about how they had laws that were more righteous than any other nation.
And he said people will come from all over the world when they hear about how God is with you.
And that's exactly what happened. Why? Because a man whose parents had a vision.
Do you have a vision for your children? Or are your children just a burden to you?
Oh, man, I wish we didn't have all these kids. Then we could go backpacking across Arizona.
We could do all this stuff. We could go out to eat every Friday night by ourselves.
Hey, I want to go out to eat with my children. I want to spend time with my children
because I have a vision that these young men, look how dirty their shirts are.
They've been playing in the yard all day, rolling in the dirt. Look at those dirty white shirts.
Look at that dirty tie. Look at these dirty shoes.
But these boys are going to grow up and win souls and preach the Bible.
And they're going to be great men of God. And you may not be able to see it, but I can see it right now.
Because I have a vision that can see the invisible.
Because I can see that which the human eye cannot see by faith, as it says in Hebrews chapter 11.
That's what faith is all about.
Reading the Bible that says train up a child in the way he should go.
And when he's old, he'll knock the car for him. Hey, I can see that right now.
I have a vision. When I win somebody to Christ, I see that person.
I'll look at that person that may be worldly as they are. They might be as ungodly as the world.
But then when they believe on Jesus Christ, I look at that person.
I see that person preaching behind a pulpit someday. I do.
You see, long before Brother Dave ever preached his first sermon, I saw him preaching his first sermon.
Long before he was winning people to Christ, I saw him winning people to Christ before he ever won people to Christ.
Why? Because I had a vision of Brother Dave winning souls to Christ and preaching behind a pulpit.
That's why. Because I can see that.
And I've had a vision for person after person after person that's been in this church or people elsewhere that I've won to the Lord or that I've known.
Hey, you ought to have a vision for what the future can hold for people that you win to Christ and for the children that you raise.
But why don't you also have a vision for yourself? For your own life?
If you could only grasp and imagine what one person can do for God.
I mean, it's unbelievable.
Stop and think about it.
What one person can accomplish for God.
You say, oh, that's the Bible. That's Moses, David. No.
I'm talking about people in this room.
And I'm not even just talking the men. I'm talking the male and female right now.
I'm talking the young men and the handmaids, as it said in Acts chapter 2.
Have a vision for what your life can be.
One person. Let me illustrate for you.
Who went out soul-winning today and had somebody say, stand up if you went soul-winning today and you had somebody say it today, out soul-winning.
Go ahead and be seated.
Now, the people that just stood up right now, pretty much all the people who stood up right now,
there are others who didn't stand up who have won any souls in the past and usually on a weekly basis,
but you saw the big crowd that stood up right now.
These people win souls week after week.
Now, stop and think about this.
What if you just win one person's award per week?
Even just one, and that's a reasonable goal.
If you're going to put in a few hours, that is.
If you're part of the 45-minute club, you might not, it's not going to happen.
But I mean, if you're willing to go out and roll up your sleeves and put in the hours and work,
and let's say you just win one person's award per week, that's 52 people saved a year.
And then in 10 years, that's 520 people that you've had saved.
And in 20 years, that's 1,040 people.
Am I doing the math right?
1,040 people that you're going to see saved in 20 years time.
What if you spend your life soul-winning and go for 50 years, for example?
That's a lot of people saved.
What, 2,600 people?
2,600 people saved.
I mean, that's huge.
You don't think it's going to be a big deal?
Have you ever seen 2,600 people together at one time?
Can you imagine walking through the gates of heaven and 2,600 people are there to greet you?
That's a pretty big crowd.
Saying, hey, thank you for preaching us the gospel.
Thank you for bringing us the Bible and the word of God and showing us how to be saved at the door.
Hey, that's going to be a great and exciting day.
I can't wait to get to heaven.
It's going to be exciting.
That's going to be the reward right there.
It's going to be to see the people that have been saved.
But then wait and stop and think about it.
If you really want, and let's just make it even less.
Let's just bring it down to 1,000.
I was going by one person a week for 50 years.
Let's just tone that down to 1,000 people.
If you want 1,000 people to the Lord,
I'll guarantee you that many of those people are going to become a soul winner like you.
And then they're going to go out and win a whole bunch of other people to the Lord.
Amen.
Think about that now.
And then if you could train your children to be soul winners.
And then if you could also take people with you,
you probably didn't do all that soul winning by yourself.
You probably had somebody with you that you were training and teaching.
I mean, think about the impact that you can have.
Think about the impact that Faithful Word Baptist Church has had just in the last three years.
I mean, just the short existence of our church, a little over three years.
But think about what we've accomplished.
It's huge. It's unbelievable what we've accomplished.
You ought to have a big vision for your life.
You know, I was talking to Brother Gordon who's visiting from Scotland.
And he's living in a country right now
where there are virtually no churches that are preaching the Gospel,
that are using the King James Bible.
And he was telling me that King James was born 20 minutes from his house.
Okay?
King James was born in Scotland.
20 minutes from his house.
And yet he said, nobody uses the King James Bible.
They've got the Darby translation, but most of them have got the NIV.
That's the big one over there.
They're all using the stupid NIV from the United States of America
when King James was born 20 minutes from his house
and nobody's using the King James Bible.
Good night.
But I'm going to tell you something.
I have to ask myself this question.
And Gordon, who's out soloing with us every day while he's here,
and he's already been a soloist, he's learned more, he's learned the ropes and everything out here.
Let me ask you something.
Who is going to bring the Gospel to Scotland if Gordon doesn't?
It makes you wonder.
Maybe there's somebody else out there that's got a vision for that country.
I don't know. I hope so.
Maybe there's somebody out there that has a desire and a vision
to say, I'm going to bring the Gospel to Scotland.
How many five million people in Scotland?
Hey, I'm going to get the Gospel.
They're not all going to get saved.
Narrow is the way which leads them to life, and few are going to be the finest.
Hey, I'm going to make sure that every single person breathing in Scotland
has a chance to hear the Gospel from the King James Bible.
Hey, who is going to have that vision if he doesn't have it?
Somebody's going to have that vision.
Maybe somebody else. I don't know.
But why don't you have that vision?
And why don't you say, hey, I want to be the one who's going to start the fire in Scotland.
It's going to spread, and then other people will learn how to win souls,
and churches will be started that are preaching the Bible.
Hey, who's going to do it?
I'm going to tell you something.
You've got to think big.
You say, aren't there missionaries in Scotland?
Oh yeah, there's Baptist missionaries all over the whole world.
Don't you know that?
Don't you know they're in Germany and Hungary and Romania
and in Scotland and England, all these missionaries.
And you know what they have a vision for?
How many stupid little pieces of paper they can hand out.
That's their big vision.
Don't look at me like you don't know what I'm talking about.
You know the stupid little, they've got their little piece of paper that they're going to hand.
We handed out a million, five hundred thousand pieces of paper.
So what?
How many people did you win to Christ?
How many people did you preach the Gospel to?
I wish some missionary would hear this sermon
and decide he's not going to be littering the streets with a bunch of pieces of paper anymore,
and that he would actually get a fire in his bosom and say,
I'm going to preach the Gospel to every preacher.
I wish these missionaries would get back to some Bible methods of daily in the temple,
and in every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
And if you don't like that kind of preaching,
you show me one little piece of paper in the whole Bible that somebody handed out.
Show it to me.
You say, I don't think, I don't like that, I don't agree with that, I don't know why you don't like tracts.
Show me in the Bible.
Hand out a flight.
I'll show you preach the Gospel.
I'll show you preach the Word.
I'll show you teach all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I've commanded you.
And Lord, I'm with you always, even unto the end of the world.
I'll show you open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.
I'll show you open thy mouth for the dumb and the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.
Hey, I'll show you as you go preach what Jesus told the disciples in Matthew 10,
what he sent them out two by two.
He didn't say as you go distribute.
He said as you go preach, saying the kingdom of God is at hand.
I'm going to tell you something.
We need to get back to some Bible methods.
We don't need more missionaries.
We need missionaries who are preachers and not litter bugs.
That's what we need.
I'm serious.
We don't need more.
Oh, more money, money, money, money.
Misses, misses, misses.
The missionary movement is such a joke, it's sad.
And I'm not going to say, oh, you don't believe in missions.
No, I don't believe in missionaries that don't work, that don't preach.
That's why I don't believe it.
Now look, there are some good missionaries out there, granted.
Thank God, but it's so few, it's sad.
Where are they in Scotland?
Where's the soul winning church?
Name for me the soul winning missionary in church in Scotland.
He can't find it.
He lives there.
He can't find it.
I can't find it.
There are so few missionaries in this world who are a door to door soul winner.
And this is what they'll say, it doesn't work in my country.
It doesn't work in Europe.
The Bible doesn't work.
The Holy Spirit doesn't work.
Jesus doesn't work.
Preaching doesn't work.
Oh yeah, Pastor Anderson, you don't understand.
People told me, you know, in Germany and in these different countries, they said,
you've got to get to know the people.
You've got to win their confidence.
You've got to be friends with them.
It'll take years before they'll start to be interested in the gospel.
It's a lie.
And these missionaries have given in to their own laziness and they believe the lie because of laziness.
Because that's what they want to believe because they don't want to do the work.
Let me tell you something.
Brother Steffi is a hard working guy.
Because you say, oh, he goes soul winning because he's paid to go soul winning.
That's true.
He works for our church.
He's our employee.
And he's paid to go soul winning on a daily basis.
But I'm going to tell you something.
You try going soul winning all day every day for any amount of money.
That's hard work.
Yeah, that's right.
I'm serious.
I mean, even if we paid you his salary, if we paid you double his salary, hey, that's hard work.
And it's not just the physical just walking around.
Walking around in the sun all day, that's work in and of itself.
But I'm going to tell you something.
It drains you spiritually, mentally.
I mean, it's a battle out there.
It's a wrestling against, not against flesh and blood, but it's a struggle against the flesh.
I'm going to tell you something.
Soul winning is hard work.
Even just going out for three, four hours on a Sunday afternoon is hard work.
And I take my hat off to everybody in this church who participates in it because it's hard work.
Those soul winning marathons where we go out eight hours on a Saturday in a small town soul winning,
you know that's hard work.
If you did that every day and then week after week after week, month after month after month,
you'd realize that he's a hard-working God.
And I'm not saying that to lift him up.
I'm saying that to tell you why missionaries are failing because they're not a Matthew Stuckey.
That's the problem.
They should be getting paid to be, we pay him to go solely.
And I thought, I mean, call me crazy, but I thought when I was putting money in the plate for missions,
I thought that's what I was doing, paying somebody to go solely.
That's what I thought.
And you say, oh, they're busy packing.
And they have these tiny churches, which I'm not criticizing them for having a small church,
but if their church is small, I don't see how it would be that much work to pastor the small churches that they have.
Why don't they spend their time out reaching more people?
I mean, how much time can it really take to maintain their little flock?
And again, I'm not ripping on a missionary that has a small church.
All I'm saying is that I'm sure he can find the time to do as much solely as Brother Stuckey does, right?
For faithful, we're a Baptist church.
And I'm telling you, this world would be a different place.
This world would be turned upside down if every missionary did the work that he's doing.
I mean, we should take his schedule that I made for him.
When I hired him, I made him a schedule.
We need to take that schedule and send it to every missionary in the world.
If they follow that schedule, hey, this world will hear the Gospel.
If they follow his schedule of solely on a weekly basis, Monday through Friday.
But see, the problem is that they're going to these places and they believe a lie of distributing literature.
They believe a lie of it can't be done.
And you say, why did you learn Norwegian and go to Norway and go soul-winding?
I'll tell you why.
Because one day, seven and a half years ago, I had a vision.
And I'm not talking about some spiritual revelation.
I'm just saying out of my own heart, my own imagination, my own mind, I had a vision of one day winning souls in Norway.
And so I cracked the books when I was 19, 20 years old.
Yeah, I was just turned 20.
20 years old, I cracked open the books and I learned how to speak Norwegian when I was 20 years old.
And then seven years later, my vision was accomplished.
My dream was fulfilled when I spent four days in Norway knocking doors all day long, preaching the Gospel.
You say, what happened?
You know what, I got the door slammed.
People didn't want to hear it because it doesn't work in Norway.
And that happened for hours.
On the worst day of soul-winding that we went on, me and the pastor's son went soul-winding for six and a half hours straight without even having a conversation.
But let me tell you something, in the course of four days of that soul-winding, we had 10 people saved.
Don't tell me it can't be done.
In four days, I had six people saved and the pastor of the church had four people saved out during our soul-winding.
And I'm going to tell you something, it can be done.
You say, oh, it's a hard place.
It doesn't get any harder than Norway.
Don't tell me it does.
In Norway, where over 90% of the people belong to the state Protestant church, you knock on that door.
You say, if you know for sure if you died today, would you go to heaven?
They say, oh yeah, we know.
We've been baptized, we're part of the church.
And everybody, it's the richest country in Europe.
Most people don't know that, but Norway is the richest country in Europe.
They have oil off the coast of Norway.
We're very wealthy. We couldn't find anybody poor.
We couldn't find a slum in that country.
Those people are rich, they're religious, and they don't want to hear the gospel.
And yet, in probably one of the hardest countries in the world to go soul-winding,
how did we have 10 people saved in four days?
It's called we worked all day. That's what it's called.
It's called hard work.
It's called we kept going and going.
You know what we had the most people saved? On the fourth day.
After we paid our dues. After we worked hard.
After we prayed and sweated and toiled and worked.
That's when we saw the harvest reap.
I'm going to tell you something, missionaries need to have a vision to reach this world with the gospel.
If we can do it in Phoenix, Arizona, if I went and did it, and the missionary who's there,
he's doing it in Norway, he's winning people to Christ.
I went there and did it with my own eyes. I saw it, and I won people to Christ myself.
Don't tell me it can't be done. I've done it.
Don't tell me you can't win Germans to Christ. I won my wife to Christ.
She was born and raised in Germany, brainwashed with all the Catholicism and false religion.
And yet I wanted the Lord. Why? Because the Bible is powerful anywhere.
God's Word is quick and powerful on any part of this globe.
And the reason that this world is perishing is because nobody has the vision to see people get saved.
They say it can't be done. They believe the lie.
They're like Joseph's eleven brethren who said,
Oh, this dreamer, what's going to become of his dreams?
Yeah, right. Come on, you're crazy.
You think you're going to knock every door in the whole Phoenix Valley? That's not even possible.
It is possible, and we will do it. Don't look at it like that. We're already doing it.
I'll be shocked if it's not done in the next ten years.
The door is of four million people, and I believe that it can be done,
and I believe that God's going to use us to do it.
But not just here. What about the uttermost part of the earth?
And we're talking about these places of Norway and Scotland
where there is so little of Gospel preaching going on, and the Bible being preached in Europe.
And we can name other countries. These are the southern countries that I'm familiar with.
But what about the United States?
Do you know how many large cities there are in the United States
that do not have a soul-winning church?
A King James Bible-preaching, zealous, fire-breathing church?
They don't have any.
Many of the churches in this world, I hate to break it to you,
but just because they're called independent fundamental Baptists,
that doesn't make them a soul-winning church.
It's a sad thing. Just because they're King James only, that doesn't make them a soul-winning church.
So many churches have watered down their preaching of the Gospel.
They've watered down what they believe.
They've turned it into a thing where it's a quasi turn from your sins,
give your life to God kind of a thing,
turning over a new leaf, or following in his footsteps.
Hey, it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.
Where did we lose that simple message of the Gospel?
We believe only whosoever believeth in him shall not perish for that everlasting life,
and we've allowed ourselves to be sucked in to all this false teaching,
and I'm going to tell you something.
The people who are the most zealous and on fire souls are the ones that believe it's by faith alone.
And the ones who try to mix in all this other works and Calvinism and predestination, blah, blah, blah,
they're the ones who aren't doing the work.
I'm preaching tonight to young men and young women in this room,
and you know, even the old men, the Bible says, should dream dreams and have a vision.
But I'm saying, if you're young, if you're a teenager, if you're in your 20s,
hey, why not, instead of chasing the world's dream of chasing after money and popularity and fame and friends,
vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vanities, all is vanity.
What profit hath the man of all his labor which he taketh under the sun?
One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh, but the earth abides forever.
The sun also arith, the sun goeth down, and hath to his place where he rose.
Day after day, eat, sleep, work, play, fun, hey, that's not what my life is about.
I've got a vision that I'm going to bring the Gospel to the residents of Arizona.
Every small town is going to hear the Gospel in the next 10 years.
We will knock every door of 40 small towns in Arizona.
We will knock every door in Phoenix and the whole surrounding valley, 45 minute radius.
We will send the Gospel to countries around this world.
We are going to train the young men in this church not to go out and make a bunch of money,
not to go out and be famous and popular, but to go out and be hated, to be hated, to be poor,
but to preach God's Word, win souls, and build churches across America and across the world.
It's not about being rich.
Hey, naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither.
The Lord gives, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord.
Why set your eyes upon that which is not?
Why would you live your life for money?
Labor not to be rich, cease from thine own wisdom.
Don't take your money with you.
It's of no value. It's not worth anything.
Money is just something that we use to live.
It's just something that we use to feed ourselves and to live.
Hey, if I have money, I want to use it somehow to preach the Gospel to somebody.
That's what we do with our money.
He said, where does all this money go to go to the offering plate?
A lot of it goes to pay somebody to go preach the Gospel all day Monday through Friday.
Man, that feels good. I like that.
I like to throw my money in the plate and know that it's going to preach to somebody.
Thank God.
Say, well, I'll just give more money in the plate.
We did it.
We don't need your money. We got plenty of money.
You know what we need? We need you to get a vision for your own personal life.
It's not even my life.
I'm already going places in my life. I already have this.
I'm just telling you, hey, why don't you decide for your life some kind of a goal,
some kind of a vision, some kind of a dream?
Don't you have any goals? I mean, think about it.
You ought to stop, and I don't care what age you are, I don't care what gender you are,
whoever you are, you ought to stop right now and say, wait a minute,
and look, apply the sermon to yourself personally.
Don't think about everybody else. Think about yourself right now.
Stop right now and examine yourself and ask yourself this question.
What am I doing with my life?
Because you don't understand the power of your life.
You could see thousands of people saved in your life. It's true.
You could train hundreds of people to be a soul winner.
Man, woman, boy, girl. I mean, I think of people like my older sister, for example.
My older sister has taught many, many ladies how to win souls.
In her church and in other churches that she's been in in the past,
she has taken so many ladies out of so many and taught them how to win souls.
You know, she's going to be rewarded in heaven for all the people that she taught.
You know, different ladies, and some of them just were going out on the soul any time,
and this is the way most churches are.
Some of the people are going out and winning souls,
and then a lot of the people are just kind of going out and inviting people to church.
She's taken so many ladies like that and taught them, hey, you can do this.
Give them the confidence, because some people think they don't have the ability.
She took them and said, I'll show you how to do it.
She said, come with me. I've heard her say to the ladies, she said, come with me, and we'll see somebody saved.
And people say, hey, I want to go with Bonnie, because I want to see somebody get saved.
I've never even seen somebody get saved. They want to go with her.
Hey, you ladies can be, and we can think of my wife, Amanda, other ladies in this church
who trained other ladies how to win souls in this church.
Think about the rewards of heaven.
Think about what you can accomplish, but it's not done in one year or two years or three years.
It's not a lifetime.
You've got to stay in this church or a church like this for a lifetime of soul winning.
I mean, I started winning souls when I was 17 years old.
I started knocking doors.
So I've been soul winning now for a decade, every week for a decade,
several times a week many times for a decade,
and I can look back over that decade and good night.
How many people have been saved?
If you stay in for the long haul, you will reap with joy one day.
He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheep with him.
I wish that the organization bearing precious seed would do some souling.
They misunderstood that old verse.
They're going out weeping with a bunch of literature.
They took it literally.
Good night.
You know that parable of the sower?
They thought it was literally about throwing things around on the ground.
You know what I'm saying?
Here, let me heal this for you.
I'll be right back.
You know, this is what they think.
My pockets are empty.
I went soul-winning all after me, so I ran out of them.
This is what they think.
You know the parable of the sower, right?
He said, he that soweth the good seeds is the son of man.
It was a parable.
You know what a parable is?
Like if Jesus says, I am the door.
Jesus is not really a piece of wood with hinges and a doorknob.
It's a parable.
It's an illustration.
Well, the parable of the sower talks about the sower, you know, sowing the seed.
And he's pulling the seeds out of the little bag and throwing the seed, right?
Stowing the seed.
Some of them fell on the good ground.
Some of them fell on the wayside.
Well, see, they didn't understand this bearing precious seed, you know, these tracts, these
fellowship tracts.
They didn't understand that that was a parable.
So they thought, oh, okay.
Oh, the sower sows the word.
Okay, so we got the Bible verses on the drink.
We got to throw them, you know, just like he did, right?
So we're going to go up and down the street, you know.
You know, oh, man, I wonder where this one's going to fall, you know.
And they said, oh, you know, let's put this one on the door.
Yeah, you know, hey, let's put this one on the back of a toilet.
Hey, there we go.
Hey, let's put this one on the table at the grocery store.
Man, think about the hundreds of people that are being saved.
Man, we're really serving God.
One day we're going to reap a great harvest.
You say, why are you being so stupid?
Why are the people that I'm illustrating being so stupid?
Do you understand that sowing the word of God is not something you do with your hand.
It's something you do with your mouth.
It's your mouth.
No, it's the words that you're preaching.
He's not saying to physically sow the Bible.
Okay, here's what I'll do.
I'll go in the backyard and dig a hole and bury my Bible.
And then a soul-winding tree is going to grow.
And it's going to have tracks all over it.
It's going to be a big tree.
And instead of leaves, it's going to be green tracks all over it.
And instead of fruit, it's going to be human beings hanging in the trees that I wonder the Lord is having.
Hey, let's go bury the Bible.
Let's go throw a bunch of seeds around.
Nice.
This could clean all this up.
That's why we hired somebody.
I told you he's got a hard job.
He's got a lot of work cut out for him.
I'm telling you what.
He's got a mean boss.
But anyway, look.
Does everybody understand what I'm saying?
The parable of the sower is talking about preaching.
When Jesus was sowing the seed, sowing the word,
words are things that came out of his mouth,
like at the woman at the well when he gave somebody the gospel.
Like when he was with the cadeamus and he preached unto him the word of God.
Like when we were out sowing this afternoon,
we were sowing the seeds of the word of God with our tongue, with our mouth.
See, the Holy Ghost dwells within us.
And the Holy Ghost is upon us.
And we preach God's word in the Spirit.
The words that I say unto you, Jesus said,
they are spirit and they are life.
Get a vision for your life.
You know, you can't win the whole...
You're not going to win the whole world to Christ.
You're not even going to preach the gospel to the whole world.
But if you only knew what one person could accomplish with their life,
you could pick a city like I picked Phoenix, Arizona.
You could pick a country like Scotland or Norway
or whatever the country may be that you decide upon or some city
and say, you know what, the whole world may be perishing
for want of hearing the gospel,
but you know what, everybody in Phoenix will hear the gospel.
Because that, I mean, I live here.
And so hell may enlarge herself
because of all the lack of preaching that's going on in all the world.
But I'm going to tell you something.
Not in my backyard.
The people of Tempe, Arizona, the people of Phoenix, Arizona
will at least have a chance to hear a clear presentation of the gospel
from a spirit-filled soul winner.
If I have anything to do about it,
if this church has anything to do about it,
hey, I've chosen this city.
What about you, young man?
What city will you choose and say,
this city will be my city and I will be...
And when I say my city, I mean you'll take responsibility for that city
and say, this is my area that I will hold, be held responsible and say,
I'm going to make sure, I'm going to take it upon myself
to train others and to lead others
and with them to form a soul-winning army
of which I'm right there with them, right in the trenches with them.
Hey, getting the gospel to every person in that city.
What kind of a joke of a church is it that doesn't have that for a goal?
I mean, these churches are a joke.
They start a church and they just say,
oh, let's make as big of a church as we can.
Hey, why don't they say, hey, we're starting a church
in such and such a city and such and such a place
and our goal is to knock every door with the gospel.
Twice. Three times.
Just in case people aren't home.
People aren't home a lot.
Do it three times, do it four times.
Any church that doesn't have that goal,
what are they doing?
Well, we're just trying to hold out faithful to the ends.
We're starting to hang on till Jesus comes.
I don't want to be hanging on.
Hang now. Hold on.
Hey, I want to go out there
and I want to be said of our church like we say to the apostles,
hey, they turn the world upside down.
Amen.
That's what the Jews said about the apostles.
They said these men have turned the world upside down with their doctrine.
He said they have filled all Judea with their doctrine.
Amen.
And they did not go over in a helicopter
and sprinkle a bunch of tracts.
They went daily in the temple and every house
they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
And you're not going to have a real hard time
proving that wrong from the Bible
and showing me your little fliers
and your little propaganda literature in the Bible.
Amen.
I'll show you a spirit filled soul burner in the Bible.
I'll show you the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.
Amen.
I'll show you the word of God in a mouth
and a sharp two-edged sword in their hand.
That's what I'll show you in the Bible.
Right.
And so why don't you decide, hey, maybe somebody in this room
and if one person in this room gets the sermon tonight,
this sermon is worth preaching.
Amen.
If no one else is listening to me but Gordon
or no one else is listening to me,
then you, whoever you may be,
if you're listening to this and you get the sermon tonight
and if you'll let this sink down into your heart
and say, I have a dream, I have a vision
to do something great for God with my life,
if everybody else is not listening and falls asleep
and doesn't care, hey, if one person's listening,
if one of my sons is listening, hey,
this sermon could change a city or a state or a nation for God.
Amen.
That's why this church exists.
This church exists not just to be another,
oh, I just felt like being a pastor.
I just always thought it would be cool to be a pastor,
so I decided to be a pastor.
And I figured, you know, we'd just build another,
just another independent, this isn't just another independent Baptist church.
You know, it's kind of like Burger King.
There's a Burger King over here and a Burger King over here
and they're too far apart, so we're going to put a Burger King right in the middle.
That way everybody can drive the Burger King
within a ten-minute radius of their house.
This isn't another franchise.
This isn't just another Burger King involvement.
No, we're serving something a little different here
than they are at many of these other independent Baptist churches.
We're serving up a vision.
We're serving up a dream.
We're serving up preaching.
And I'm going to tell you something.
How shall they preach except they be sent?
And we're preaching to send you out.
See, some of you guys that I'm preaching to right now,
I don't want to be looking at you ten years from now.
I don't want you here.
I want you gone.
I don't want you here for the rest of your life.
I want you to get married, have kids, build a family,
bear children, raise that family for God,
and I want you to get out of this church
and go out and start a church in some city that has no church,
some area where people are dying and going to hell
and nobody will knock that door.
Hey, some of you, I want you out of my sight
in the next five years, the next ten years
so that you can go out and do something great for God
and realize your vision in some other area
and that I have a vision here for Phoenix
but you're going to take your vision somewhere else
whether it be another country, whether it be another city, another state.
Hey, that's what my vision is.
That's why I can already see it now.
I hope you can see yourself where I can see you as your pastor.
As your pastor, I can look at you
and I can see where you're going to be in the future.
I have a vision, but I wish that you'd have that same vision for yourself
and be able to see in the future some city
that's going to be turned upside down with the gospel at your hands.
And it's going to be done through the power of God.
It's not done in the flesh.
See, this can be done in the flesh.
This is... Hey, listen, Fellowship Track League.
Listen, Barry Precious Seed.
Listen, missionary.
Bodily exercise, profit little.
It's a bodily exercise, right?
It's just a physical job.
Anybody can hand out pieces of paper.
You can be an atheist and hand out pieces.
Somebody told me, I think it was Brother Saunders, maybe.
He told me about how one time he met an atheist not so many.
Or was it you that told me this?
Was it you?
Okay, I thought it was Brother Saunders.
It was Brother Cross.
He told me, he said,
Hey, I know you're an atheist.
I know you don't believe the Bible.
I know you don't believe this.
But can you help me hand these out?
I'm just trying to hand these out.
And you have an atheist handing out tracks with you.
Just because it's not that cool.
Look, anybody can hand this out.
An atheist can hand this out.
A machine can hand it out.
That's what we need to build a bunch of robots.
Let's build a robot.
The technology's out there.
You know...
And then it'll have a pre-recorded message.
You can push a button.
And it'll tell people what the church offers the children.
You can push a button and it'll tell them what music program the church has.
But you know what?
A machine's not going to get anybody saved.
See, you know who gets people saved?
God.
Not man.
It's not...
Hey, bodily exercise probably.
It's God.
It's God's Spirit.
It's God's Word.
God's Spirit speaking through His Word through the mouth of mankind.
It's got to be done by God.
Jesus said, but that may even do nothing.
God didn't choose to use a machine to get people saved or a piece of paper.
He chose to use man.
He's committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
Have a vision.
You say, I'm a lady.
Have a vision, ladies.
Have a vision.
Don't date some loser.
Don't date some unbeliever.
Why don't you have a vision for your life where you're raising godly children?
Where you're married to a soul winner?
Where you're married to a man of God?
Who do you think's going to treat you right anyway?
Some unbelieving derelict?
You say, oh, he's a nice guy.
Is he going to be nice 10 years from now when he starts drinking?
When he starts acting like a fool because he's not saved?
Because he doesn't have the Holy Spirit?
Because he's in the flesh?
Is he going to treat you good 10 years from now, 15 years from now when you're committing adultery?
Huh?
Ladies, why don't you have a vision?
Say, I want to marry a man who loves God, who loves soul winning, who loves the Bible.
Because I want to do something great with my life.
And I want to raise children that are going to be great and live for God.
And I want to be a soul winner for the rest of my life.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for the vision that you've given us in the Bible to God,
for the faith that we possess as Christians,
that we can look and see things that other people may not be able to see.
The world can't understand it.
This sermon is foolishness to the world.
The world can't even comprehend what I'm preaching right now,
but those of us that are saved in this room,
we've heard the Bible preached.
And right now, we know that God is feeding us through the word of God to dream, to see visions,
to have God's Spirit poured out upon us, to preach the gospel, to see people saved.
Oh God, help every single person in this room to have a vision,
to walk out of this room and say, I have a vision.
And many visions that I've had,
it took years to see the realization that God,
maybe some vision today would be formed in the mind of a young man
or a young girl in the sermon today,
or an old man or an old woman that would have a vision.
Maybe it would take seven years or 15 years before that dream will be realized.
But Father, help that dream to start tonight.
Help that seed of a vision or a dream to be planted tonight,
that one day in the future, that dream will be breathed
by that child who grows up and serves God,
or by that city that has every door knocked,
with the gospel Jesus Christ preached to every preacher.
We love you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
All right, let's go ahead and sing the song, Bringing in the Sheaves.
Song number, let me find the song number here.
379, Bringing in the Sheaves.
379, let's sing it out on that first verse.
So we get the morning...