Amen. All right, we're in Acts chapter number 16 there, and the title of my sermon this morning
is Church Planting 101. So, I'm going to be preaching about church planting today,
and I kind of know a little bit about that. I've done quite a few church plants now,
and I kind of take a little bit of flack over that sometimes, but that's all right.
This chapter here is a really great outline of how getting churches started happens,
and the battles that go along with it, and obviously I'm not going to focus on the whole
chapter, but that's why we read the chapter so you can see in context what's happening.
And, you know, I've kind of seen the accusations against me about collecting
churches or collecting church plants, but I'm not really trying to catch them all.
I know that we have started a lot of churches, but I believe that that's a biblical thing,
and I don't think anybody accused the Apostle Paul in the Bible of collecting churches,
but you see that he starts, you know, he'll just roll up in a place,
get a bunch of people saved, and then start a church even based upon just a few people
getting saved, and then later on you see in the New Testament where he's writing
letters to a church that's there. So planting churches is biblical,
and the Bible says as a pastor I'm supposed to do the work of an evangelist, and what's
an evangelist do? They go out, get people saved, they start churches, they baptize people,
and then they teach them the Bible. And so that's the Great Commission. It's not just
having church, it's going out and preaching the gospel, and it's also replicating something
that you have already accomplished. Now look at verse number four. The Bible says,
and as they went through the cities they delivered them to the decrees for to keep
that were ordained of the apostles and elders which were at Jerusalem,
and so were the churches, notice that word church is, it's plural, right?
So were the churches established in the faith and increased in number daily. That is the
goal, and the church wasn't just at Jerusalem. Obviously Paul went and preached and started
churches all over the place. Now the heart that I have for church planting is because
we are actually the first church plant that started out of Verity Baptist Church,
and Pastor Jimenez heard our Macedonian call. This part of the chapter coming up here
is called the Macedonian call. It's a very famous story in the Bible where
where Paul has this vision, and let's look at verse six. It says,
now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia and were forbidden of the
Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. So for whatever reason God did not want them to preach
the gospel there at that time, and he forbid them from doing so. But if you notice that word,
the region of Galatia, well there's a book called Galatians, and it says to the churches
in Galatia. So there's multiple churches later on that get started, but at this time Paul just
was kind of forbidden to do that. Maybe God just had a different plan for him to go someplace
else first, and it seems like that's true because let's read on it says in verse seven,
after they were come to Mysia they assayed to go into Bithynia, but the spirit suffered them
not. So he's not allowing them to go these certain places for whatever reason. It says,
and they passed by Mysia came down to Troas and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying come over into Macedonia and help us.
And this verse is a great verse here because there's people all over the world that would
love to have a great church in their area. And you know I don't get visions in the night.
I don't think God deals with us with these types of visions necessarily like Paul is clearly
getting here. He was a prophet. Paul was also an apostle. Paul got a lot of revelation,
and he did a lot, and you know God just blessed him with a lot of different things
and spiritual gifts for the work that he did and the work that he knew he was going to do.
But it says come over into Macedonia and help us. And so when people want help,
I want to help them just like Pastor Jimenez helped us. This church would not be here today
if Pastor Jimenez had not have heard the Macedonian call and started this church and
established it here. And he's you know started many churches after that and sent out many
people after that and we've started churches also. And so it is really hard for me to say no
to people, but there are prerequisites that I would have before I would start a church
plant somewhere. Now I haven't always done everything. I don't know. I mean when I was
new at all that there was maybe some things that I might not repeat, but I don't regret
starting any church that we've ever started. And if a church fails, then
it fails. Once I start the church and establish the church in a new location,
it's up to the people that are there to make it thrive. And so if people aren't there
making it thrive or if there's a bad leader that pops up, then it's going to fail. And so
none of these churches that are mentioned in the New Testament are around
anymore. And do you know why? Because at some point they failed. So it is possible for church
plants to fail and in fact many have over the years. There's no more church in
Ephesus. In the book of Revelation, Ephesus said if you don't repent and do the first works,
which is going out and preaching the gospel, then I'll remove my candlestick. And so God
sets up and establishes churches and then he also removes candlesticks. And that candlestick
is talking about the Spirit of God being removed from that place because they no longer
are an actual church. They might say church on the outside, but it's dead as a doornail.
And the people there are just kind of going through motions or going to a country club
basically at that point. So God will remove and set up churches. And sometimes he says, no,
I'm suffering you not. So people do come to me and say, hey, let's start a church here.
And I'm just like, I look at the situation and I decide whether or not to do that. And again,
so not every, but not everyone is the same situation either. There's a lot of different
situations that can take place. Look what it says in verse 10. And after he had seen the
vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord
had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Now, the Macedonian call was
this vision that God gave them. The Spirit said, no, no, don't go here. Don't go there.
Come go to Macedonia. Help us. And that's what we want to do is we want to help
other people to have great churches. And so that's what church planting is all about.
And it's something that's biblical and it's not something we need permission from God to do.
But there are reasonable ways to look at things. If there was just one person in the Yukon or
something, they said, hey, come up here and start a church. It's probably not going to happen.
But if there's a group of people that are already of the same mind, the same beliefs,
and they want to start a church, then just depending on the situation, there has to be a
leader too. But I'm getting ahead of myself. So the first point here, I'm going to have
you turn to Acts chapter four. And the first point of the sermon is what does it take to
get a church plant started? What does it actually take? And so one of the things that it actually
takes is a group of dedicated, saved people. See, I was ahead of myself. A group of dedicated,
saved people. And like I said, you see Paul where sometimes it was just like three people
getting saved or the Philippian jailer in his house and a few people or Lydia getting saved
and some other people, just a couple of people in that area. But then it turned into something
more, didn't it? Look at Acts 4 31, it says, and when they had prayed, the place was shaken
where they were assembled together. What were they doing? Assembling together. And they were
all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. So a lot of
people say, well, this is when the New Testament church started. But there's always been
a congregation of the Lord, pretty much for almost most of history, when the New Testament
or the Old Testament turned to the New Testament. Of course, the difference is that there's the
indwelling of the Holy Spirit for the believers. And the Spirit of God will never leave us nor
forsake us. We cannot lose the Holy Spirit. We cannot lose our salvation. And obviously,
they couldn't in the Old Testament either, but the Holy Spirit could move off of them. So as
evidenced in Saul. But it says they spake the word of God with boldness. And what is the
thing here? How is this church in Jerusalem getting established? Well, there was a bunch of
people gathered together for one purpose. And Jesus Christ told them to wait for the power
of the Spirit to fall on them. They already had the Holy Spirit indwelling them, but the
power of the Spirit fell upon them in a mighty way. Look at verse 32. It says,
And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul. Neither said any of
them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
And that's a big prerequisite for me starting a church plant somewhere is that you have a
multitude of people that are of one mind, one heart, one soul, and having all things in common.
I'm not going to start a church with a Pentecostal, a Catholic, and a Mormon.
I want people that are all together in one purpose. A Baptist church is going to start.
You're like, well, what are you talking about? Is that a denomination? No, it's not a
denomination. Baptist just kind of tells you what we believe. We believe in salvation by faith
alone, and that after you get saved, that's when you get baptized. But what does the Catholic
church teach? Get baptized as a baby. See, how can we walk together with people that we don't
agree with? And you're like, well, that's, you know, we should all just sing kumbaya and hold
hands together around a circle and whatever. That's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible
does teach separation, and if someone's not preaching a right gospel, I mean, the Catholic
church believes that part of your salvation is getting baptized. But that's not what the
Bible says. But the modern versions of the Bible, the reason why we're King James only,
the modern versions of the Bible take out Acts 837, where it says you must believe with all
your heart before you get baptized. So we call it believer's baptism. So the reason why we're
Baptists is because we believe the Bible. And so we don't have a pope that tells us what to
do. We don't have some kind of organizational head someplace, although we get accused of that.
But that's not true. This church operates independently. We believe in the autonomy of
the local church, which is churches beget other churches, and they're self-governing
according to what? According to this book. Not according to my opinions, not according to what
some deacon board says, but according to this book. And that's how the church is run to the
best of my and your ability. So, but it says in verse 33,
and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And
great grace was upon them all. So with great power gave the apostles witness of the
resurrection of the Lord. And so what does God wants to do? Well, he wants us to witness for
the Lord, doesn't he? And tell other people about Jesus, and you know, God's going to give
that place grace. But you see that first like New Testament local church was in Jerusalem.
And what happened first? Well, they all assembled together like God told them to do.
So, and in the New Testament, obviously we're supposed to assemble together. That's what we're
doing today. The believers are assembling together for what? One purpose, right? And we're going
to go out soul winning today. We're going to go out and try to reach the lost like the
Bible says. But a lot of people think, well, that's weird. You're like a Jehovah's witness
or a Mormon because you go door to door. You know, that's what they do. Well, they copied
that from the Bible. That's about all they really copied. I mean, the Mormons don't really,
you know, they say that you have to when you're, you know, they have a King James Bible,
but it's as it's interpreted by correctly by the Mormon doctrine. So when we say
Ephesians chapter two, verse eight, for by grace are you saved through faith,
and that not of yourself is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
When we preach that to the Mormons, you know what they say? Well, you know, that's after all
you can do. After all you can do. I mean, if you have an organization and you have a doctrine
called lying for the Lord as one of your doctrines, I mean, we're supposed to lie for
the Lord. I mean, I've never seen that in Scripture before, but that's what they do to
get people to, you know, they'll say, hey, yeah, I want to hear the Gospel, and they'll
listen to everything we say, and they're just waiting until you're done and wasting your time
so that they can spring their hellish doctrine upon you. And so, you know, we do have one
purpose and one goal in mind, and that's, you know, the first things first, you have to
have an assembly of believers. So when I consider starting a church plant, I want to know,
is there a good-sized group of believers that are waiting there? And the other thing is that
there needs to be a leader willing to and able to do the work. So it just can't be free for
all and a house church and all this stuff. It has to be, you know, there has to be a leader.
You know, if there's not a leader, then it's not going to work out. So, but obviously leaders
can be developed. Leaders don't have to be necessarily fully qualified before they preach,
as far as like, you know, if they want to be a pastor, they don't necessarily have to have
all the qualifications in line before they can preach. I've heard just not too long ago about
one of our churches where, not here, but where somebody had said, it's not biblical for you to
put men in a pulpit to preach that are not the pastor. And it's just like,
well, Paul wasn't a pastor, was he? No, Paul was an apostle. Paul was a missionary or an
evangelist, but Paul was not a pastor. And people go, Oh yeah, he was. Well, you have to
have a wife to be a pastor. You have to have children. And Paul did not have a wife and
he did not have children. So he was more like an evangelist. So now look at Acts chapter 17.
Let's flip over to Acts chapter 17. You have to have leaders, you know,
not only do you have to have a group of people willing to meet together and do the work
of the Lord, but you also have to have a leader that's willing and able to do the work
and to send people forth. Now, Acts 17 verse six says, and when they found them not,
they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying,
these that have turned the world upside down are come hither also. So, and that's kind of what
I want people to think when we come to a new town or we started church in a new place,
and not that we've turned the world upside down, but we're turning the world right side up
because the world is already upside down in a lot of things. And there's gonna be a lot
of people skipping church today just to watch the Super Bowl. So you can watch a bunch of
satanic freaks ride around and dance during the halftime show and show you all kinds of
Illuminati symbols and all kinds of weird, you know, things that have nothing to do with singing
a song. And, you know, they've been going, those Super Bowl shows have been bad for a long time
where they're, you know, doing these, you know, wardrobe malfunctions.
Yeah, it was a malfunction. I'm sure they didn't mean to do that.
Or just literally just dancing the most wicked ways, showing all this symbolism.
And, you know, what's more important, going to church or watching a satanic halftime show?
Or, oh, I just want to watch the commercials. What, about Budweiser?
So you can lust after alcohol or any other, you know, most of it's probably gambling commercials.
You know, it used to be in the state of Oregon, they said they would never put an NFL team
in Oregon because they did sports betting. So you could go and play sports action in Oregon
because we didn't have a NFL team there, and the NFL said they'll never put one in Portland
because of that. And now the players themselves are promoting gambling online. You know,
the Mafia used to run those rackets, and then the state started running those rackets,
and now the NFL is running those rackets, and they have an NFL team in Las Vegas.
Like, talk about the fix is in. You can just go to Las Vegas and bet on an NFL team,
that would have never happened when I was a young man. But see how things change,
you know, and greed just takes over. So, and look, I'm not, you know, you can do whatever you
want, but, you know, I would just advise you to skip the halftime show, okay? We want to turn
the world right side up. And that's what, but they said, well, he's turning the world upside
down. Yeah, your world, your world with idols and wickedness, yeah, they wanted to turn
the world right side up, not upside down. Look at Acts chapter number 8, verse 5, Acts 8,
5. So Paul the Apostle was the one that they're talking about in his group in Acts 17,
and Paul literally reached the known world at that time. You know, not only by himself,
obviously, he had help doing that, but Paul wrote half the New Testament. Paul was one born out of
due time. He's the one that took the message to the Gentiles, and there's a lot more Gentiles than
there are Jews, aren't there? Even back then, it was a small nation. Now Acts 8, 5 says,
then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them. So they were
supposed to go to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and then what? The uttermost parts of the
earth. But here they're going to Samaria. Philip is like, hey, let's go get these Samaritans saved.
And he preached Christ unto them. That's what we're supposed to do. We go to different cities
and preach Christ. And the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip
spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did. For unclean spirits, crying with a loud
voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many taken with palsies and were
lame and healed. And there was great joy in the city. You know, when you start a church plant,
there's great joy in the city when a man of God has a vision to go in and say, hey, we're going
to get this city saved. And you know, there's great joy in that city because of it. Because
there's people getting saved where there wasn't before. So, you know, we started this church in
Indianapolis, and I was sick when I got sick when I came home, unfortunately. I was going to
preach this last weekend. But it was a great start for a church. And people are starving for
a church there. They're hungry for the gospel to the point where brother Justin and brother
Matt flew to our church on a big weekend where we were actually going to Yakima and then
driving back for some of us drove. Most of our church was there and stayed there, including
all of our song leaders. But, you know, we had church service the next day. They flew in
on a Friday night, got in late, woke up early to drive three and a half hours to Yakima,
went soloing with us all day, and then drove back the same day. You know, and we stayed,
most of us, we stayed the night there and didn't drive up that day. But, you know, then Justin,
when he came back here, I said, hey, can you song lead for me? Because we don't have our song
leaders here. And he stepped up and did it. But, you know, they came to make a pitch. And
they thought it was so important to get a church started that they flew all the way from, you know,
halfway, more than halfway across the country to make their pitch to me of why there should
be a church started in Indianapolis. And they made a good case. So I flew out there
to find out if the things were so that they were telling me. And I met the people there. And
I talked with the people there. It wasn't just like I just decided to start a church on a whim.
And I had some church members go out there with me and they saw, you know, the multitudes
that got saved while we were there. And so, you know, then there were some men there
that had a plan and had a pitch to get a church started there. They already had the group.
And then, you know, Brother Justin's the leader there. So now look at 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse
18, 1 Timothy chapter 118. There's got to be leaders. You know, we've got to have an
assembly of people that are gathered together in one mind, one purpose, you know, to reach
people at the Gospel and to hear the Word of God preached and to start churches and baptize people.
But we also have to have, you know, that willing leader that will be the boots on the ground.
Look at 1 Timothy 1 18. It says, This charge I commit unto thee,
Son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou by
them mightest war a good warfare. So you see the verbiage there. People think, I'll just throw the
King James into a museum because it says thee and thou and stuff like that. Well, thee, thine,
and thou are singular. Is that hard to understand? So if it says thee, he's talking to one person.
Now the modern translations will put you there. But you is a plural term talking about multiple
people. So wouldn't that change the meaning of the text there if you put you in place of thee?
Because then you're speaking plural. Now that's how we speak in our dumbed down version of
English. But that's the proper English right there, thee. But the point I'm trying to make
here is that Paul charged him that he might fight a good warfare, you know, that he mightest
war a good warfare. So by warfare, I thought this was Christianity. Yeah, we're in a war.
We're in a war for the hearts, the minds and the souls of everybody on planet Earth. And
we're trying to do as much as we can with the grace of God that we have, with the people
that we have, with the finances that we have. And we're trying to reach the world like the
Bible says to do. I mean, the axe is the axe of the apostles, the things that they did.
And so why wouldn't we want to pattern ourselves as much as we can, like the book of acts, and go
door to door and preach the gospel and go to different cities and established churches? We
should be doing that. And we are doing that. So look at 2 Timothy chapter four, verse number
one, 2 Timothy chapter four, verse number one. We also need preachers willing to send forth
men to make it happen. So it's not just that there has to be people that are willing. There's
a lot of people that are willing. But sometimes there's just not a pastor or a preacher that's
willing to actually send somebody or say, yeah, start that church. And it's like, you know,
some people are just waiting for the magical unicorn formulation that will allow them to start
a church plant. But we've already been given that call. He's already told us to go. He's
already sent us. So it's really, you know, obviously you don't want to just start a church
with nobody. That doesn't make sense. But when you see that the basic things are there
and they're willing and ready to do it, you've got a man that's willing to do it.
Well, we've got to have preachers out there that will actually pull the trigger and get it
done. And not everybody, you know, people are scared to start new things or whatever. I get that.
But, you know, it's not that scary. And, you know, if God is for us, who can be against us?
Look at verse 2. Did I already read 2 Timothy
4? Huh? No, I didn't. Oh, 2 Timothy 4, 1. I'm sorry. I charge thee therefore before God
and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his
kingdom. So here's the charge again for the Apostle Paul. He's charging someone, Timothy,
who's a pastor, to do these things. Look at what it says. Preach the Word.
Be instant in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and
doctrine. What do you mean reprove and rebuke? That's telling people they're wrong.
Sometimes you've got to tell people they're wrong. You know, the church isn't supposed to be
just all kumbaya like everybody thinks. We're all holding hands with flowers in our hair.
This isn't a hippie commune gathering. This is a church. And so we're supposed to preach
the Word as, you know, there needs to be people who are not afraid to preach the Word and not
afraid to send people that are willing to preach the Word. And people, you know, they
get so upset about the way we preach at some of our churches and in our church here,
but that's what the Bible says to do. In season, out of season. What does that mean?
Whether it's popular or not. You know, we're wearing a parka in the summertime. We
got to do it in season, out of season. And it says to reprove, rebuke, and exhort. And exhort
is to encourage and to build up, right? So yeah, there's some negatives in there, but you know,
see how there's two negatives and a positive? There's two. Reprove means to tell somebody
that they're doing something wrong in a more gentle way, I guess. But rebuke is where you're
doing it in an angry or, you know, just a really, you know, I guess you could say that you're
yelling at somebody or you're being a little more harsh. It's a more harsh rebuke, I'll just say
that. And exhortation, obviously. Have you ever heard that term where it says, I need to tear
you down so I can build you back up? I think the coaches in football and other sports took
that from here because there needs to be a tearing down, like Jeremiah the prophet had to tear down
and pluck up and then build. So it's the whole thing. It can't just always be feel-good sermons
and there needs to be men of God that have a little bit of hair on their legs
and they're a little bit rough around the edges to preach what needs to be preached. Not
a soft soap, smooth sermon. Preach unto a smooth thing. That's, you know, that's what
people want, but that's not what God wants for the people. Look at verse three, it says,
for the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lust
shall they heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. And it means they want to listen
to teachers who are going to tell them what they want to hear. God's people, you know,
sometimes we're the worst at stuff like this. We're just like, I'm tired of hearing all
these negative messages and stuff like that. It's just like, then you want to have Joel Osteen
as your preacher then, I guess. So he can give you a Ted Talk or you can listen to some
other preacher that, you know, if they're on the TV or the radio, they're probably there because
the devil allows that to happen. You know, they're not going to let me on TV or, what is it,
Trinity Broadcast Network. They're not going to let me on there. They got the Shukla Honda
and all these other, you know, people whipping people with coats and speaking in tongues and
all this other stuff. But that's not the truth, folks. They're not going to let the truth
go out to the masses. They'll try to stop it. Even YouTube was a great engine for us to
reach the masses and we're throttled down and censored on that also. So we just need to find
the next big way to reach people. But you got to have a man of God that's willing to send people,
willing to charge someone with a great charge like Timothy was charged with. And it says,
but watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof
of thy ministry. It's part of the qualifications to do the work of an evangelist. And obviously
that's getting people saved. I get that. But it's also starting other churches.
So look at Titus chapter one, verse five. Titus chapter one, verse five.
Titus chapter one, verse five. Here's another preacher that Paul set up. It says,
for 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 had appointed thee. What is the desire of the apostle Paul here?
It's to ordain elders in every city. And let me tell you something, Crete is not a huge island.
It's not super populated. But he said, I want a preacher, I want a pastor in every city.
So if he wants a pastor in every city in Crete, do you think he wants a pastor in every city
in Washington? Do you think he wants a pastor in every city in every state of the union?
Of course he does. But there has to be men that are willing and able to do the work,
and there has to be a pastor with a little bit of sand that will actually send people forth
and start other churches. So those are some definite big needs there.
Now, number two this morning, a church plant needs to set up the infrastructure.
So what I do immediately when I start a church is I set up the infrastructure of how things
are going to work, how the order of service is going to be. And once you've got those components,
you've got the group of people, you've got the man of God, then I train that man and tell him
how I want things to be done. And then I give them the reasons why I want things done that way,
because it's not always just intuitive. And what is infrastructure? Well, it's the basic
physical and organizational structures and facilities, like buildings, roads,
power supplies. That's what we think of as infrastructures in a city.
But it's needed for the operation of a society or enterprise. So as a church, we want to also
set up the infrastructure of the church so that things are firmly established
and in decently and in order. Now, a lot of stuff can be very basic,
and some things are more conveniences more than actual needs. So when I set up
something like with Indianapolis, we painted the walls, we built a mother-baby room,
and there was a lot of finances invested in that building. We secured a building,
got all the chairs, nice chairs like these. But we don't have to start with all the finest
things in life, but we were just able to do that with that specific spot. But there's
sometimes when we've just used chairs that were donated to us or pulpits that were donated
to us or whatever, and so the needs can vary based upon the finances or what you get
basically in your infrastructure. When we started this church, we bought a piano without Pastor
Jimenez's permission, and it was cheap, but he was upset. And I understand now why he was
upset. We couldn't get a hold of him, and we thought the deal was going to fall through
or whatever, but that piano was cursed from the day that we got it. It really was. But I think
that's the only time I think that Pastor Jimenez was actually a little bit upset with me. Oh,
that's the only time that I ever noticed that he was. But if Pastor Jimenez is upset with
you, you're going to know, I think. So dynamite comes in small packages, doesn't it?
But we got that piano, and this is how he explained it to me. He said,
well, we didn't have a piano player. We didn't have a piano when I started the church in my house.
We just sang a capella. He said, those are things you don't have to have. They're nice,
they're convenient, but you don't have to have them. So that's the point there.
So things will depend on the budget of how we set up the work. And then there's long distance
church plants and short distance church plants. And in the age of technology,
I can face-to-face talk to somebody as if they're there with me right then. You know,
those video chats that you can do? What was it called on Apple? FaceTime, yeah. FaceTime,
Skype apparently disappeared, but there's, what's the other one? Zoom. Yeah, Teams, Zoom, all
these different things. But we have some advantages that the Apostle Paul never had.
He's going places on foot. He's going places in ships that can sink. And you know, they weren't
necessarily, you know, the ships that we see today, they're like made out of wood and have
sails on them and things like that. So, and when he traveled, it took a lot longer to go
places, but I can jump on an airplane and be in Indianapolis in five or six hours,
you know, and that's with a layover. So, and then the training can take place on the phone.
They didn't have phones back then. Paul had to write letters. So there's letters in here
that Paul wrote to these churches, and they didn't have email, but now we have email.
So we have a lot of advantages. You know, they didn't have King James Bibles bound in a nice
leather giant font for you necessarily back then. They're scrolls that they had to unroll
and read. You know, most of the places were in the synagogues where they're actually getting
their scriptures to read. So we just have a lot of advantages and a lot of, we can give out
a King James Bible to every single convert that we reach at a door, and we do that, and we give,
we offer all these different things, but that's part of the infrastructure is just having all
these different systems set in place, and you might not, you might think, well,
it seems pretty easy, but it's actually a little bit more complicated sometimes. So,
and in England and in Canada, things operate differently. You know, I was only able to go
to England once a year and preach there, but, you know, I was in close contact with Brother
Ian the whole time. In Canada, it's kind of the same. We had two years, we couldn't even go to
Canada. Like, we had to go to the border crossing park and have a duel where we all
get together, and they come from the Canadian side, and we come from our side and have
church services like that because they're just so freaky. They got way worse than we did.
I mean, they're pretty freaky. I couldn't even give them a hat from our church or a
t-shirt from our church because, you know, the border patrol agents, well, they call them
Mounties or whatever, were taking their things from them and saying, oh, you can't do that.
It's like, okay. They might have the germs on them or something. I don't know.
But I'll start a church, so like Indianapolis, for example, is a church where I'm not going
to be able to go there all the time. I'm only going to be able to go there once or twice a year,
probably. But I explain these things to them as I start the church. Like, you know,
this is going to be like a long-distance relationship, but I'm still going to work
closely with you. But, you know, it's just not going to be as hands-on.
Now, the other thing is we have to secure a meeting location, a house or a building,
to make ready for the church environment. So let's look at a couple scriptures here. Let's look at
Philemon chapter one, verse two. There's only one chapter. Philemon, Philemon,
however you want to say it. I'm starting to get Brother Eli's pronunciations here. Philemon.
But verse two, it says, And to our beloved Apphia and Archippus our fellow soldier,
and to the church in thy house. So is a house church biblical? Yes, it is. But it's not
a free-for-all, where you just start and everybody's the pastor, everybody, you know,
has the message, everybody has the song of the day or whatever. It's organized still.
So churches should be organized. People are like, I don't believe in organized religion. Well,
Jesus, when he fed the 5,000, he had them sit down in rows of 50. Is that organized?
Yeah, it's organized. He didn't say, yeah, just let everybody line up and come up here.
And, you know, women and children first. It wasn't like that. He just says,
everybody sit down and sit, because there's 5,000 people. I mean, you're talking about like half
a basketball stadium or something, or a quarter of a basketball stadium. That's a lot of people.
He organized them, didn't he? And he says, let everything be done decently in order. So
even in a house church, yeah, it can start in a house, but you also still have to have
the infrastructure in place. And, yeah, it might not be the same. It might be a little tougher.
You know, people say, hey, I'm going to go to this new church, and then they pull up
and it's a house. And most people are so snobby and snotty that they won't walk into a place
that's a house church, because, like, oh, you know, it's like it's about the building. It's
carnal to them. And so it is harder to start in a house, so I would rather not do that
if I don't have to, but we've done it before. We've gotten kicked out of a building
and had to have church services for three or four months in a house until we could secure
another building. And so we do have to have a building to meet in or a place to meet in,
but the building isn't the church. The house isn't the church. It's when
it says the church that is in thy house. So it's their house,
but when everybody comes together in that house, then it's the church. Does that make sense?
So, and we don't want to have a place where we, you know, we could rent a building.
We're in a bank building right now. I mean, it's an old bank building. There's a vault where we
can lock you in there if you're bad and, you know, if you're naughty. But, I mean,
it's an old bank building. It's a great building. I love it. But you could do a storefront
and people are like, oh, you just have a little church and a strip mall or whatever.
It's like, so what? You know, what's that? Why is that such a big deal to you? We're
just meeting in a place that has a roof over our head and, you know, maybe some
modern things that are convenient for us, like air conditioning and heat and stuff like that.
But where would we not want to start a church building? Well, how about a dark nightclub?
No, we don't want to do that. We're not trying to be like the world. And so there's churches,
I think that there was a church that started in Phoenix one time and it was like in a
nightclub. Like it was a converted nightclub and so it still had that feel to it. And, you know,
they got the bar stool up there and they're drinking scotch or whatever. I mean, that's not
what Jesus Christ sent us in the world to do. You know, we don't have a plexiglass pulpit.
We don't have smoke coming out of the, you know, the vents and purple lights and stuff like
that because this isn't supposed to look like a rock concert. You know, Jesus is the rock.
You know, I put my feet on the rock and, you know, my name on the roll, but that's,
you know, when I got saved, my name was on the roll after that. But
we're not supposed to have rock and roll concerts at church. I mean, that just like,
it's an oxymoron. Christian rock? It's a crock. You know, we don't want that kind of a feel
in our church. I don't like Christian rap. It's crap. You know, so you're like, well,
that's just really pharisaical of you to say that. Well, you know, Jesus said we're supposed
to come out from among them and be separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing.
So why would we try to make our church like the world? We wouldn't. So we want our church to
look like a church. We want it to feel like a church. We want it to be separate from the
world so when people come in here, they're not seeing what they see out there all the time.
They're seeing the way things, you know, and obviously, God didn't say hang that picture up
there and put these, you know. We have some leeway, and of course, of how we do things,
but when people walk in here, they should walk in and it looks like a church. It feels like a
church. The preaching is like a real church. The music is like a real church. The organization
is like a real church, and there's nothing in the world wrong with that, but you know,
with the infrastructure, we do have to kind of find a place to meet. We got to get chairs,
a piano, maybe, a pulpit, you know, to preach in front of, you know, video audio equipment,
if you want to put things on the internet, hymnals, bibles, invites, bulletins,
all these things have to be designed and thought out, even just a computer printer. I mean,
we got to print the bulletins, right? A safe to keep the money in, soul-winning maps,
and a big map to fill out showing the progress that we've made in reaching that city. So there's
a lot of things that are infrastructure things that get put out, and it's not necessarily
intuitive for those people, so those are things we have to do. We have to set up the
infrastructure and the order of the services. And so, most of the infrastructure of forms,
training, money counting, accounting procedures come from what I already learned from another
great man, Pastor Roger Jimenez. And so, I'm just gonna, you know, if it's not broke,
don't fix it. You don't have to reinvent the wheel. You know, I got ordained as the pastor,
and do I need to make everything all new and just separate completely from everything that
he taught me? Of course not. I'm gonna steal his ideas and plant them as my own. No, I'm just
kidding. But I do use his stuff, his material, and the way, I mean, that's who trained me,
so of course I'm gonna use things that he's already set in place because there's no reason
to change it. And if there's something that I want to change, then I'll change it. But
again, there's no reason to reinvent the wheel. So, but when I start a new church,
I want to put our brand on it, okay? Now, you've heard of probably brands, right? There's different
brands of things. But I mean that in a way where it's like our church. So, when I set up a new
church, I'm gonna put our infrastructure in place. And I allow some leeway. If you want
to do an extra song during the service, or you want to change something differently,
I just want the service to be organized. And so, it's kind of like a big company setting up
other franchises. And this is where people are gonna go, oh, it's like a business. And it's
just like, well, you know, Taco Bell, they have franchises, don't they? They had the original
Taco Bell, which I'm not sure where that's at, greatest Mexican food on the planet,
but I'm just kidding. It's voted number one every year, you guys. So, but that's because
the people have spoken. That's why democracy doesn't work. But ultimately, those Taco Bells,
they set them up, they put the same infrastructure in place, and then they,
you know, are functioning as another Taco Bell. If you go and get, you know, a bean burrito at
another location or another place in the world, it should be the same thing. You know, but
sometimes it chins you on the beans or whatever. But, you know, it should, a bean burrito at the
original Taco Bell should be the same bean burrito that's all over every place else.
McDonald's is really good about doing that with their franchise stuff. Everything tastes
the same. Everything's made the same. You don't have to wonder whether it's gonna be
like the McDonald's from down the street. So, my point is, is that when we set up a church,
it should feel like a Sure Foundation Baptist Church. It should have that infrastructure,
and then at some point, it becomes independent. And whatever that man that gets ordained
decides to do with that location, that's up to them. We cut the umbilical cord. That's an
independent autonomous church, and they can decide whether to keep all the infrastructure
or some of the infrastructure or just recreate their own. It doesn't matter. But while it's
called Sure Foundation Baptist Church, a church started by us, it's gonna feel like Sure
Foundation Baptist Church. And so, it's kind of like, you know, these other franchises,
like we have a subway by our house that won't take coupons, you know. And it's like, well,
you're a subway, right? But they decided that they don't want to accept coupons. It's because
it's an independent, you know, it's still got the brand and the logo and all that,
but it's an independent owner or whatever. So, they decide not to take the coupons. Well,
that's what people can do after, you know, after they become their own church or whatever.
So, if that makes sense. But, you know, people just like get all upset about saying, you know,
well, churches shouldn't be run like a business. Well, how about this verse?
And he said unto them, how is it that you sought me? Wist you not that I must be about
my father's business? So, is it business? Yeah. And what is the business? The kingdom of God.
It's the kingdom of heaven. That's the business. That's his father's business. He's like,
I gotta be about my father's business. And so, to say, well, the church should be run like
a business and people get upset about that. Why? You know, Jesus said it was his father's business.
Turn to Acts chapter 6. Acts chapter number 6. And, you know, the reason why
there needs to be people that, or the church does kind of need to be run like a business in
a lot of ways. Obviously, not some worldly hellhole type business, but still it's business.
It's work. And when you have a business, it takes work, doesn't it? Look at Acts 6
2, it says, then the 12 called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said,
it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Talking about the pastors.
So, they're doing too much physical outside work that they need to be freed up from. So,
it says, wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the
holy ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this, what's it say there? Business.
But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
Romans 12 11 says, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. So,
we're not supposed to be slothful in the Lord's business, but we're supposed to be fervent in
spirit, serving the Lord. So, we're, you know, to say that there's no business for the
church having business, that's just not true. It's not true at all. And we need people also to step
up and serve in these places. When we start a church, we'll need a song leader. We'll need
a piano player if there's a piano. We'll need ushers. We'll need video audio people that do
those things. We'll need people that help clean the church. That's all part of the business
of the Lord's house that we need to get done. And I won't have you turn there, but Nehemiah
4 6 says, so we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together unto the half thereof,
for the people had a mind to work. And in the infrastructure, you can set up all the
infrastructure, but if you don't have any people to work the infrastructure, then it goes
bad. So, like you see cities falling apart with potholes all over them, it's because they
don't have enough people to do the work. You know, you set up an infrastructure in a city,
and those things need to be maintained. And those things need to have people to do the
maintenance. And so when we set up a church, we need to have people that are willing to have a
mind to do the work, like in the days of Nehemiah. Now, number three this morning,
we need to plan the services and have a big day or a big launch event. It's important to set
a date to launch after you have everything in place. So you have, you know, the assembly,
you have the man, and then you have the infrastructure set up. Well, then the next
thing that you have to do is you have to plan to open. So you got to open up, you have to have
an opening day. And go ahead and turn to Acts chapter 2, and it's important for that to be a
big day. And what's, you know, what's my motivation for saying that? Well, because
in Jerusalem, didn't they have a big day? I mean, they had a real big day. And so there's
nothing wrong with having a big day for a church launch or even just for an anniversary or
something that you're trying to just, you know, reach a lot of people with. Acts 2 41 says,
Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day were added unto
them about three thousand souls. That's a big day. That's a bigger day than we've ever had.
I mean, when we did the mega marathon, we would have like 18, 2000, sometimes I think
3000 for the whole thing. And that was a big day across the world. But this took place
in one spot where 3000 people are getting saved. So is it biblical to have a big day to start out?
Yeah, absolutely. This is the day of Pentecost, the big day when the power of the Holy Spirit
was being poured out upon them, they speak with other tongues. And so the people,
there's miracles done, so they can understand what was being said in their own language.
So this, you know, this big day does need to occur. I think it's important to start
with a big day. Look at verse 42, it says, and they continue, you know, why? Because
when you have that big day, then it says in verse 42,
And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread
and in prayers. So that big day, what did that lead to? Well, continued servitude,
continued worship, continued fellowship, you know, breaking bread together,
praying together. And so they also continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine. So
a big day is important because you want people to continue on from that big day,
and that's what happened. It says,
And fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.
And all that believed were together and had all things in common. Isn't that the point?
And sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men, as every man had need.
And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple and breaking bread from house to house,
did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of our praising God and having
favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
So this is the formula. This is what we see in the book of Acts, a big day to launch it,
you know, the apostles having the power of the Holy Spirit to lay hands on people when they
received the Holy Ghost, to raise the dead in some instances, to heal lame people that
had infirmities in their flesh. And these things launched and kicked off this big
New Testament church movement. Because if you remember, in Acts chapter 1, they only had 120
people in the first church service after Jesus went back. And it lists some of the people,
but 120 people out of the thousands that were saved, that's still a good start. But then they
had the big day and the next thing you know it goes from 120 to 3,000 in one day. That's great,
right? So we have to plan a big day and have maybe a special speaker come or things like that.
Like Peter, he got up and preached. That's like what the main focus of that big day was.
He preached and then they preached the gospel to all these people and they ended up getting
saved. So now God's power, we saw saved men and women in this day here, it's manifest.
The soul wanting being done, people are getting saved. This is the big day. This is what happens
on a big day. God's power is being shown and the soul wanting people are getting saved.
Spirit-filled preaching of God is happening and people are meeting, fellowshipping,
praying together, people are eating together, people are in unity. And that's what you want
to how to start out a great new church is to have this big day. Number four,
to enjoy the blessing and joy of the church plant. So it is a joy and a blessing to start
new churches. And not just for us, but for them. It's a joy and a blessing for them. Remember
when Philip, he preached the gospel in Samaria and there was great joy in that city?
Well, when a new church starts, we're here, we have our own little spot and everything,
we're happy about that. There's people all across the world, there's people all across this
country that would love to have a great church just like this one here. And so we need to be
able to see the blessing and joy of a church plant. And you know what, I try not to let
opposition distract me or discourage me from that. The naysayers, oh he's starting another church.
Or just whatever distraction. And you saw in the book of Acts, Paul's doing great things,
what happens? They beat him, they throw him in prison. I mean, but victories are happening
through the whole thing and at the end it's like the government's against them.
And this is kind of what happens when you start a new church, you're going to expect
some rough things to happen because the Satan wants to oppose us.
You know, if I was the devil, I wouldn't be picking on churches that aren't doing anything,
I'd be picking on churches that are doing something.
And so when the devil sees you doing something, he's going to try to oppose you.
This is a theme in the Bible. When you're doing great things,
then you're going to have to fight great battles. And you're like, well, what great
things are you doing? Are you going to start this little church and dah, dah, dah.
People, thousands of people have gotten saved because this church exists
and are getting saved every day, every week, in all the places we've started churches.
So let's look at Nehemiah chapter six, verse two. Nehemiah six, verse two.
And so when you see this story of Nehemiah, he has these haters that come
and they hate, you know, they hate the Jews, they hate Nehemiah, they hate
the fact that he's building the walls and doing a great work, and so they come against him.
Look what it says in verse two. Then Sambalat and Gisham sent unto me, saying,
Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono.
And he was like, Oh no, I'm not going there. But they fought to do me mischief.
So Nehemiah knew, hey, this is a distraction. This is something
that they're trying to bait me into doing so they can kill me and stop the work.
And that's what Satan wants to do. He wants to kill the leader.
He wants to stop the leader, and he wants to stop the work from being done.
Because if there's no leader, you know, the people will scatter,
just like when Jesus was taken to the garden and they all ran away.
So it says in verse three, And I sent messengers unto them, saying,
I am doing a great work so that I cannot come down.
Why should the work cease whilst I leave it and come down to you?
I don't have time for your drama. I don't have time for your garbage.
I'm doing a great work, and I don't want that to distract me from what I'm doing.
And if we can, you know, if it's possible, the devil will try to distract
and and try to destroy the work that's being done.
Look at verse four. Yet they sent unto me four times after this sword.
So they just really are baiting him and trying to get him and trick him
so they can kill him, it says. And I answer them after the same manner.
I don't have time for your garbage. I don't have time for your drama.
I'm doing a great work. I'm not going to stop it.
I'm not coming down.
And the enemies of God will try to stop the work in any way that they can.
But you know what? The word of God is going to go forth,
and they're not going to be able to stop us.
We have a great commission from the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it's important for us to fulfill it by, you know, obviously everything.
But what I'm focusing on today is starting new churches, church planting 101.
I'm going to read Romans 15.
Go ahead and look at 1 Peter 1-8. Romans 15-13 says,
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost.
So God wants us to be filled with joy.
He wants us to have that peace in our belief, and he wants us to abound.
What does that mean? Get bigger, right?
Get more blessed through the power of the Holy Ghost.
You know what? The power of the Holy Ghost is what generates this engine.
That's how we establish the churches.
It can't be just done for frivolous reasons or for things in our own
machinations, our own personal gain or notoriety.
We're doing it because we want to just do what God says.
I'm going to read one more verse.
Philippians 4 says,
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice.
1 Peter chapter 1 verse 8 says,
Whom having not seen, you love,
in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing,
ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.
We haven't seen the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you have,
you might need to check into a hospital, but he's not going to appear before us.
You know, these atheists, they want to say,
Oh well, show me Jesus, show me God, and I'll believe.
And look, he wants us to believe by faith.
So, he's not going to do that.
He's in heaven.
He's on the right hand of the Father, but we are still supposed to,
you know, we haven't seen him, but we love him.
And, you know, we haven't seen, yet we believe.
And we're supposed to have joy unspeakable.
Rejoice in joy unspeakable.
Full of glory.
Why?
Because, you know, we know what the end game is.
And when we're serving God to our fullest, and serving God to our potential,
and starting new churches, and maybe you can't be part of that,
in one way, shape, or form.
You can't fly out for those things, and do those things.
But you know what?
You can still get behind the people that are.
And when we start a new church, you should be happy about that.
Not like, Oh, now we start another church again.
You know, that's a bad attitude to have.
And like I said, at the beginning, people might think I'm crazy, or stupid,
or just plain irresponsible for starting these churches.
But I would just say, well, what does the Bible say?
The Bible says to do it, right?
The Bible says to go.
So, and you might not be there, but you don't see their faces light up,
and their spirit revived once they realize
that they now have a great church in their area to go to.
Just like we got.
Just like we had.
And those people are so happy.
And, you know, that gives me joy.
And the testimonies of the gratitude of people
that were at the end of their ropes.
They can't find a great church to go to.
There's not a great church in their area.
And I had these people come up to me when I was in Indianapolis
and say literally these things.
We were just hanging on.
We were barely hanging on.
And thank you so much for starting this church.
You know, they've been outed.
You know, this happens all the time.
They'll go to the best church in their area,
and then they get outed,
and the pastor turns on everyone and kicks them out.
And why?
Because of envy.
You know, if they're fired up about soul wanting to go to soul wanting,
and the pastor hasn't been soul wanting
the whole time he's been the pastor there,
it's gonna make envious things happen.
And if the pastor isn't already doing soul wanting,
then it's just gonna be something that they always see,
oh, they're more zealous than I am.
They're doing better works or whatever.
And, you know, really they kick people out for no reason.
They kick their best tithers out.
They're most responsible and best members.
And then, you know, they just want it to go back to normal
like the way it was.
The status quo.
And that's why churches are dying all over America.
But we need to start a new church in a new area
so that, you know, it can start out zealous like it was supposed to.
You know, and obviously some churches can be revived.
I get that.
But in a whole, that's not really what you see happening.
So, and a man after the service came to me and he said,
it just hit me that we actually have a new IFB church in our city.
It's just surreal.
I gotta pinch myself.
And, you know, when you take all that in,
you forget what it was like to have your first service at this church if you were here.
But think of how joyous you felt on that day.
I mean, we've been around for a while now.
And hopefully it hasn't gotten old to you.
You know, if it is, then maybe you need a revival in yourself there.
But, you know, another guy that,
one of the guys that came here to visit, brother Matt,
said he's been praying for a church like ours since 2016.
What year is it now?
2024.
Praying for that long, daily, for a church to get started there.
And maybe that's why the church got started there.
You know, in the parable of the unjust judge,
the unjust judge finally, after the lady just like,
keeps coming to him all these times and he's just finally,
he's like, you know, I know an unjust judge,
but I'm just going to give her what she wants so she'll leave me alone.
But God kind of, you know, likens that to,
if you keep bothering God with something,
he's going to answer, he's going to answer that request.
And there was a lot of people there that were,
again, at the end of their rope,
having, you know, a difficult time finding a great church.
And you don't, you might not remember what it's like
if you went to an old-eyed-be church or something like that.
Where, you know, say you have a big family,
and every week you have to hear,
well, Jesus could come at any moment.
Or, the Jews are still God's chosen people,
and they got Israeli flags hanging in the background and stuff like that.
And, you know, not just that, but you got to repent of your sins.
It's just like, well, what do you mean by that?
Well, I mean, you have to, you know, admit you're a sinner.
That's not what that means.
So you can say what you think it means,
but why are you saying that term when that's not what it really means?
When someone, you tell someone they have to repent of their sins to be saved,
they think that they have to stop sinning.
Turn from your sins?
That's impossible.
Nobody can turn from their sins,
and that's not a prerequisite for being saved.
So what I'm saying is that these people,
there's people all over this country that want to have a church just like this,
and, you know, sometimes they make a case and plead their case,
and they've gone before the Lord, and they've gotten what they wanted.
And sometimes, you know, I've preached sermons like this before,
like about how to get a new IP chart started in your area and stuff,
and I feel like sometimes people just don't listen.
They're like, oh yeah, we'll have a big solely in our, you know, thing in our area,
and then only five or six people are going solely out of the 60 people that showed up.
It's like, I'm not going to start a church in that situation.
I'm just not.
I'm going to wait until there's a bigger group size so that we can get it started.
But, you know, people are like, oh, I just want this church,
some people just want the church in their small town.
They're like, oh, I wish you could start this church in my small town.
It's like, we have a bigger vision.
We want to start churches in the biggest places, you know, in the Northwest.
I'm not going to go to Yelm, Washington, and start a church plant
because, you know, we have a church right here that's fairly close enough to drive through.
I want to get to the people we can do the most maximum damage in getting people saved, right?
So to have everything come together the way it did in Indianapolis,
you know, we had, you know, it set joy in my heart to see all the people so happy to be there.
We took a big picture outside and, you know, Josh had to use a special camera to take
a picture of the whole thing because on Facebook it just like, it's chopped, right?
You just see like a smashed up group of people.
But when you look at the wider ranges, there's people, you know, going into the other area.
So, I mean, we had 85, we had 90 chairs and 85 people in the first service.
Do you think that they weren't hungry to have a church in that area?
It was a great success.
You're like, well, 85 people, that's, you know, TD Jakes has thousands of people.
I don't care.
TD Jakes is a queer and he's a false prophet.
So I don't want to, I don't want to model my church after TD Jakes.
So I want to model our church after the way the Lord wants it done.
And hey, if in this day and age that only is an 85 person collection, then that's good to me.
If you have 90 chairs and 85 of them are filled, that's a pretty good day, right?
And 43 salvations in that day.
43.
That's 43 people that are now going to heaven that wouldn't have been going to heaven
had we not have started that church.
So is that worth it?
11 the next day.
I mean, the church is just starting off really well.
And so I'm very happy that we started the church there.
I hope that you're behind it when we do these types of things.
And so these 90 people or 85 people were pretty excited.
The next day we had 72 in the service and 56 in the evening service.
But, you know, I mean, obviously we had the big day first.
And, you know, sometimes that big day, you know, how was it done in the book of Acts?
Everybody shows up.
They're preaching the word of God.
People are getting saved.
And you got to feed them.
Jesus's big day for the 5000.
What do you do?
He fed everybody lunch, didn't he?
So, you know, these are the types of things that you do to get these things started.
So but we had people show up from Ohio, Canada, Michigan, Indiana, Vancouver, Washington.
And these things wouldn't be possible without this church here doing what you do.
You know, and backing me up when I'm starting a new church,
trusting me, supporting the work that's getting done.
And again, even if you can't attend, you're still with me as I do these things by God's grace.
And I have a good support system here of men
and ladies here that want to pitch in and help do the work.
So I'll just say this.
The people of Indianapolis salute you this morning, even though they might not have said it.
They do salute you.
And I know that they're thankful because I heard multiple testimonies
of people that were so grateful and thankful and just soaking it in
that they have a great church based upon the word of God,
that they can do great works and they don't have to hide what they believe.
They don't have to hear all the garbage preaching
and all the lies that are being told from the pulpit these days.
Because try explaining that to your kids.
Well, son, daughter, children, what pastor said wasn't true.
And if you have to do that, every time you go to church, it gets old.
And then if you have even older kids and they're hearing,
you know, the cookie Kool-Aid sermons and stuff like that,
then they're not getting greatly, they're getting affected by that.
You know, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with cookies or Kool-Aid, okay?
But they're not getting the right, they're not getting the whole counsel of God.
They're not getting the teaching.
They're not in the services.
Look at all the children we have in the services today.
You know where they would be at another Baptist church?
Stuck down somewhere eating cookies and Kool-Aid and watching a VeggieTales movie.
Or, you know, just being taught trash, being taught things that aren't true.
You know, I'm not saying that every Sunday school program is bad and,
you know, it's all for naught and the bus ministry is not great.
I mean, but it's not what God prescribed.
So that's what we try to do.
And the last verse is Psalm 118, verse 24, and we'll be done here.
Psalm 118, verse 24.
The Bible says,
This is the day which the Lord hath made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
So I'm glad that I live in this day and I'm going to rejoice every day
for the fact that I'm going to a great church and that we are starting great churches.
And I'm not going to ever apologize for that.
I'm not going to ever stop doing it.
So if you don't like it, then, you know, go someplace that doesn't start churches or whatever.
But I think everybody does like it.
I think everybody likes to hear, you know, and that fruit abounds to your credit, too.
It does.
Your prayers, your financial sacrifices that you give,
that is your part of it, whether you're there or not.
You're still part of it.
And you're hopefully encouraged by the fact that we have churches
starting all over the place and, you know, just pray for their success.
And, you know, these leaders need to have people pray for them.
So don't forget the leaders of these churches and the people and that, you know,
there wouldn't be a bunch of bozos that have to be thrown out.
But usually that kind of happens sometimes.
But anyway, let's go ahead and have a word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for this great church
and for the churches that we've started.
Pray, Lord, that you just, Lord, have us have a right attitude toward these things.
And, Lord, that we would be behind these churches and pray for these churches, Lord.
And that, Lord, you'd raise up great leaders to lead these churches
and that you would help us to ordain men in every city
and that we would be able to do and fulfill the Great Commission.
As long as we're on this earth, Lord, pray that this church would be
a powerhouse of soul winning and hard preaching for many, many years to come.
We thank you for all the people here that sacrificially give
and sacrificially pray for those things.
And for the people that attend this church, we're so thankful for them, Lord.
And I pray that you just bless our soul winning as we go out today
and the services that fall. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.