- Hey everybody, thanks for joining us again
for the Baptist Bias.
We're on day three or day four
of the Red Hot Preaching Conference.
It's Sunday.
We still have Pastor David Burzins
gonna be preaching this evening.
And if you wanna check out that livestream,
you need to go to bandbutnotbound.com,
sign up on the email list,
and so you can get that email.
Also, we have Pastor Steven Anderson
with us this evening on the podcast.
But before we get to our guests,
we're gonna start off with our Benalog.
- I'm hoping the sermon does not go long tonight
because I've got tickets to the Kings game.
I know it's off season and the game isn't for a few months,
but I've heard trade rumors
and I can't wait to watch SportsCenter tonight
to hear what Steven A has to say.
I like church and all,
but those courtside seats aren't gonna pay for themselves.
It takes bank to get those chairs.
So I had to sell off some unused merch,
some clothes, my Sunday suit, some books, my Bible,
but it'll all be worth it
to have the experience of a lifetime.
Look, I didn't grow up playing basketball,
but nothing is more important
than supporting my poor local Jewish organization
like the NBA.
The commissioner is Adam Silver for crying out loud.
He's not Adam Goldberg.
He needs our support.
In fact, we all are going through hard times
especially the banks.
It's so bad for them.
They had to start charging the highest interest rates
in decades.
It's hard to cut costs in today's world.
I mean, eating out every meal has become expensive
and I'm gonna have to cut back on something.
I just don't have time for three services a week anymore
and soul winning and Bible reading.
Gotta prioritize in this recession.
I'm sure we'll make America great again
and I'm doing my part to help us achieve that goal.
I've been rounding up my purchases
to the nearest dollar for the Republican party
so we can hopefully get back to normal
and I'm just gonna keep ignoring all the haters out there
who've got the Baptist bias.
- Thanks so much for tuning in to the Baptist bias
and we've got a couple of guests with us this evening.
Pastor Steven Anderson from Faithward Baptist Church
and Pastor David Berzins from Stronghold Baptist Church
and of course I'm here with my co-host, Ben the Baptist.
Ben, why don't you say hi to everybody for us.
- How's it going everyone?
Appreciate you tuning in to the last day
of the Red Hot Preaching Conference,
the last Baptist bias that we're doing at the conference.
We have two great guests on with us tonight,
as you alluded to, Pastor Berzins, Stronghold Baptist,
Pastor Aderson, Faithward Baptist Church.
So I'm ready to get this thing on the road.
Let's get this show on the road.
- Yeah, and we've already had a lot of great sermons,
some really good challenges and a lot of zeal.
The music has just been amazing at Verity Baptist Church
and you gotta always appreciate the music,
but you gotta be in person to really get
that whole experience and the singing.
And so I'm really excited, though,
to have one last sermon from Pastor David Berzins.
He's here with us this evening,
wants to say hi to everybody for us.
- How you doing?
Glad to be here on the show.
I'm having a wonderful time here at the Red Hot.
Like Pastor Shelley said, it's tons of awesome sermons.
I didn't get to hear all of them.
I came in Friday night, but everything's fantastic.
And for those of you who've been thinking about
coming out to a Red Hot Breaching Conference,
definitely make sure that you put that in your agenda,
you put that in your plan.
It's well worth vacation time.
Put it in, come on out here,
because whatever you see online
is only a small portion of the entire event.
Lots of great fellowship and soul winning
and just hanging out, so it's really an edifying time.
It's a good way to use vacation
to be uplifted spiritually,
especially in the times that we're in right now.
It really is pretty awesome.
- Well, it's great to have you on the show.
Also, we have Pastor Steven Anderson
on the show this evening.
He already preached this morning,
and he's been doing the craziest thing ever.
He's been traveling the entire United States
and experiencing what I don't think anybody's
really probably experienced.
Just every kind of genre of food and culture and traffic,
and yet the church experience, though,
has probably been pretty similar.
Pastor Anderson, why don't you say hi to everybody?
- Yeah, hey everybody, and I'm glad to be on the show.
We're driving 6,700 miles, and it's been crazy,
but it's almost over now, 'cause all we have left
is Fresno and Los Angeles.
But I totally agree with you about the music,
like just the congregational singing is so loud.
I love that.
I remember though, Verity's always been that way,
because I remember when Pastor Jimenez
first started the church in his house,
and I would come preach for him,
and in his living room,
there'd be about 50 to 60 people present.
And especially when you're in a small,
confined space like that, everything's dry wall,
none of the surfaces really absorbed anything.
And so everybody was just belting it out.
Those were probably the most powerful song services
I've ever been in were preaching at Verity Baptist
in like 2010, 2011, 2012, around that era.
And obviously here at the Red Hot Preaching Conference
kind of reminded me of that.
Just everybody belting it out.
I'm just a big fan of just singing loud at church.
I remember even when I was a teenager,
I'd go to Regency Baptist Church,
and the teenagers would be in the front row of the church,
and we would all just sing as loud as we could.
And I just always loved loud singing.
- Well, and it's great to be around other people
singing loud, because you sometimes show up
at an old IV church, and you want to belt it out,
and everybody else is kind of being quiet.
So you kind of feel a little awkward getting out there
and being the first one to really belt it.
But it's infectious when you're around other people,
they're really belting it, giving it their all.
And of course, being encouraged.
Pastor Min is a great song leader,
and trying to encourage people to really sing
with a lot of emotion and soul.
It's crazy to me that you have so much high energy
having been drug across the country as you were.
But you know what?
It's probably the Lord just blessing you
to be able to have this kind of,
what is your secret?
- I've only drunk coffee once on this entire trip.
So in the last three weeks,
I only had to caffeinate one time.
So I mean, this time my nephew and my daughter
have literally done 99% of the driving.
So I was more "passenging" than anything.
So that made a big difference.
But I didn't know that I had high energy.
I thought, I mean, I thought I was kind of dragging, but.
- No, the sermon this morning was real high energy.
I mean, you started out and it was just like really intense.
And then you were preaching so hot,
you had to literally cool down, you had to pour water.
- Yeah, I was water-cooled unit this morning, yeah.
- You became a Methodist and sprinkled a little bit.
- Yeah, it was not a proper baptism.
- Oh, okay, all right.
Well, tell us how you really feel about Andrew Tate.
(laughing)
- Yeah, we need another sermon.
- Well, you know, now that you bring that up, you know.
Here's my issue is that you literally have Christians
defending him and Christian young people looking up to him,
which is mind blowing to me since he's a literal pimp.
Like, what kind of a world do we live in
where Christian young people are defending and idolizing
a literal human trafficking pimp?
Like, it's disgusting.
And I feel like a lot of the people
just don't realize how bad he is, you know.
- Well, and of course he kind of brags
about making a lot of money and being successful,
but he's really just an organized crime.
Like, why is that so impressive
that he made a lot of money through criminal activity?
- Exactly, he knows not that he's wretched and miserable
and poor and blind and naked.
- And he's just a fag if you watch some of his videos.
- I agree with that, I believe that, yeah.
- But, you know, of course this conference
is kind of at heart of what we wanted to talk about
a little bit this evening is just the idea
of not getting distracted with the Andrew Tates
and the weird things that are going on in the world
and kind of staying focused on the spiritual,
which of course is the most important battle,
it's the most important fight that we can get into.
You know, when it comes to trying to stay focused
on the spiritual.
What are some tips or some suggestions you have
for us, Pastor Berzins, as far as like,
how do you stay focused on the spiritual
or keep up a high energy level in the spiritual realm?
- It's funny that you ask that
'cause I'm actually,
a lot of my sermon is gonna be geared towards that
of keeping the focus and keeping the right mindset
on spiritual things.
And you know, for me, you have to live your faith.
I mean, you really do have to,
it has to have a priority or an importance in your life.
It also has to have the, you know,
once you have the proper understanding,
I think of what truly is important,
then your actions change.
And we talked about this a little bit before the show,
you know, I used to have the mindset of,
oh, with all the problems that we have, all the distractions,
you know, you wanna do something to help you,
you wanna change things.
I've always had the mentality as far back,
I mean, probably just the way I was raised,
like, you know, not to complain about things,
if you're not willing to do something about it.
You know, I mean, you can't just sit back and like,
oh man, all this stuff sucks, you know,
but what are you gonna do about it?
I mean, like step up and do something.
And I used to think that the solution,
at least part of the solution is gonna be,
well, I need to get involved in politics.
I'm gonna get really involved here.
We're gonna change the laws.
We're gonna get things, you know, make America great again.
You know, before that became a saying
that was still like the same mindset, right?
Of being able to change things politically
and stuff like that.
But it didn't take too long to realize
how fixed everything really is with the powers that be
in our two-party political system
and how entrenched people are in that system
that won't give up power.
And, you know, back when I was going to Faithful Word
and we got involved in that Ron Paul campaign,
it really opened up my eyes
to how things are actually working.
And from then I realized that it was way more important
to reach the hearts and souls and minds of people
through the power of God, because it's, you know,
the word of God is what's quick and powerful
and sharper than any two-edged sword.
And it is going to be able to help people
get in the right frame of mind.
The politics will follow.
If you get to the heart and mind of people
through the word of God and get them right
on biblical things, and you know what's right and wrong,
and you have a good sense of justice and judgment,
then, you know, the politics should work itself out
from that.
So to me, the most power wasn't, it's not found
in political power, it's found in spiritual power
through the word of God.
- Well, I think that to kind of talk about
like the political issue, I think a lot of people,
especially in the last few years,
have kind of felt disenfranchised in a sense
that maybe their vote doesn't really count,
or there's a lot of shenanigans, or it's a uniparty,
or there's just a lot of just questions as far as like,
how do I actually make a change?
'Cause I think there's plenty of people
that wanna make a change, or wanna affect things,
but maybe they're just not sure how to get plugged in,
and maybe they even just go the other route
where they're just like, I can't do anything,
so I might as well just have as much fun as possible,
or maybe go an Andrew Tate route
of just like, much pleasure as possible.
I know, Ben, you kind of were a little political
for maybe a period of time,
and you kind of had some podcasts and stuff like this.
Does a conference like this kind of help
keep you focused on the right priorities?
Do you feel like you were ever disenfranchised?
What is your kind of experience in this?
- Yeah, I mean, obviously I used to be
really big into politics.
I used to do a radio show about it
and things of that nature.
It was my singular focus,
and then when I got saved
and decided to get involved in the spiritual battle,
that's when I realized that the only way
to truly make a difference
is through the spiritual warfare,
and specifically going out knocking doors,
getting people saved,
getting them sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise,
and realizing if you look at it from an end times perspective,
the more people who get saved
and get the Holy Spirit sealed with the Holy Ghost,
the less people will eventually worship the Antichrist
when that time comes.
And so that's really the best way to get involved
and to really make a significant difference.
And I also realized that the Bible teaches us
that that is the battle we should be involved in.
Of course, it tells us in a famous verse in Psalm 118
that it's better to trust in the Lord
and to put confidence in princes.
And so I realized that within the political realm,
there is no hope.
It's rigged anyway.
And both sides of the spectrum are bought and paid for
and beholden to the ruling class,
irregardless of what we do.
And so I kind of got blackpilled, if you will,
on that battle and decided, you know what?
It makes a heck of a lot more sense
to take the Christian life more seriously.
Well, from a political perspective,
I think a lot of people now kind of see the Republican
Party and the Democrat Party as being kind of a uniparty.
But there's definitely this movement of MAGA,
like Trump's this outsider, and Trump's going to somehow
restore some kind of normalcy in America.
And I think a lot of evangelicals
are kind of rallying behind Trump as their ticket
to fighting back and maybe making a change.
You know, obviously, you were really involved with Ron Paul
and some political things in the past.
But how do people stay focused on the right thing?
Is Trump our savior?
Do we need to get involved in the MAGA fight?
Or, you know, what is kind of your viewpoint here?
- I think all of it is just kind of a theater or drama
to distract us from what we should really be focused on
as Christians, you know?
We're here in this world to win souls to Christ,
to love the Lord our God with all our heart,
mind, soul, strength.
And as far as how to serve God without distractions,
it sounds kind of basic maybe to say this,
but I feel like what we need is just to read
our Bible every day.
Because reading your Bible puts your mind back
on spiritual things.
Because there are so many other things vying
for your attention, and there's all the stuff
on social media or in your personal life.
And it seems like for me, it's just going back
to the Bible and reading it every day
that gets me thinking about the things of God again,
instead of just being carried about
with the things of this world.
- Well, it kind of seems like you are what you eat.
And so if you're just constantly consuming politics,
you're just gonna be really political.
And if you're constantly consuming the Bible,
that's gonna help maintain that spiritual attitude,
spiritual fervor.
And I would say also conferences like this
can sometimes really motivate you to get back on track too,
reading the Bible daily and kind of doing
the right activities.
And so I think that a lot of people
made major life decisions going to a conference.
We're here at the Red Hot Preaching Conference.
We've met, we've talked to a lot of people.
Pastor Brzezarnski, he got to come to the first Red Hot
Preaching Conference where Pastor Anderson is ripping
face on the sodomites.
And he ended up moving here and then getting plugged in.
And then eventually became a pastor.
And now he's back preaching at the Red Hot Preaching
Conference.
And so of course, Pastor Brzezarnski
is one who's reading the Bible daily, too.
And that's really what changes people's lives,
is reading the Bible.
But I think that what you eat daily
is really going to affect you spiritually as well,
not just carnally.
Because obviously, if I eat Twinkies and Hoes,
it's going to affect me, too.
And I think that because our world's getting weirder
and there's just so much evil, it's
really easy to just kind of get this apathetic attitude
and maybe just go for only pleasure.
And I think this is not just a temptation for the unsaved.
I think it's a temptation for Christians
to kind of get sucked into some of the pleasures and stuff.
So obviously, if people are reading the Bible,
that's a great thing that they should be doing.
Is there any other tips you have, Pastor Berzins,
kind of like in the context of if someone's being
kind of lured away with all the pleasure--
they got the Sacramento Kings tickets,
and they're really focused on just some of the fun
that there is out there.
What's some kind of tips to keep a healthy balance
so as you're not letting that pull you away
from the things of God?
Yeah, I think-- well, let me answer this kind of two parts,
because I'll answer that question directly in just
a second.
But you brought up a really interesting--
you just made a real interesting statement
when you talked about Trump being the savior, right?
And unfortunately, I think too many Christians really
are viewing him as kind of the last hope for America,
and we have to have this outsider to fix things.
And I just recommend, if you're a Christian,
to reread the Bible and see how many times did God's people
choose their own leader that was going to save them
from any of the troubles that they had as a nation,
versus when they actually turned to the Lord,
when God would raise up a deliverer
and God would raise up someone that
would help save their nation from being
depressed from all the problems that they were having.
We have to get our hearts right with God.
I mean, that's the true savior, right?
We can't look to man for that.
But obviously, so if you have your head stuck
in all of this politics and things that looks like, man,
it doesn't matter anyways, what can I do?
That is one of the reasons why I think a lot of people just
kind of disconnect and just say, well, nuts to it all.
Forget about it.
I'm just going to have fun, then why not, right?
As a Christian, if you're reading your Bible,
like I said, you're going to get your mind in that frame of mind
of thinking, hey, these things are important.
But really, it's such an empty life
to live just for the next World Series, NBA Finals.
I was saved, and I was a Christian.
I followed all the sports and did the fantasy football
and wasted my Sundays with that.
But it's like, how long are you going to do that?
It really is just empty.
I mean, it's like the height of just living for the moment.
And the only way that I was able to overcome any of that
was by actually getting plugged into a good local church
and start going regularly.
Because honestly, I know reading the Bible is important,
but I wasn't doing that at all by myself.
It was really important to get plugged into a local church
that even then I started to read the Bible
and get more spiritually minded and receive
a lot of really good teaching on the Word of God
and be around other people that can provoke you
unto love and to good works through that local church
to actually then feel like you're making a difference
and an impact because a lot of the pleasure stuff,
when you give up thinking, hey, there's no point to this,
well, there is a point if you actually choose
like Brother Ben was saying,
going out soul winning,
reaching people with the gospel of Christ,
you actually see the difference
that you're making someone's life
and that has a huge impact on you spiritually
and motivationally in how you're gonna be more focused now.
Like you're actually seeing results.
You're seeing something real.
It's not just this other person off here
who's gonna save us.
This is, I mean, you're literally impacting individuals
and where they're gonna spend eternity
and that has a profound impact
on how you choose to live your life in general.
Well, there's a thought that I have been kind of dwelling on
and the Bible kind of alludes to this
in the book of Revelation about people being hot or cold
and I was thinking about people kind of just growing cold.
And you have a person in the Bible called Demus
who ends up forsaking the apostle Paul
and it says he was loving this present world
and there's certainly nothing wrong with having some fun.
God likes us to enjoy things
and of course the devil doesn't really care
why you stop serving God.
So if he can offer you a shiny object out there
like sports or whatever these activities are,
then he's gonna put that in front of you.
And I like sports and I think it's fun
to get out there and get exercise
but I think it's possible that you can start
to get this attitude where you're growing cold
and you're not necessarily hot for the things of God.
We're at the Red Hot Preaching Conference
and we want people to be zealous and hot.
How do you, you know, combat someone,
if someone's getting cold, oh watch out, sorry.
You know what?
If you're getting too cold, just let the sun come
and just smash you or whatever.
So, on the idea, though, of growing cold,
you know, I think that it seems like,
this is my personal philosophy,
but it's like, if you don't do something for a long time,
you kind of grow cold to it.
And there's sometimes even friendships.
Maybe you had friends in high school
that you just haven't seen in a while
and you kind of lose interest in that person or that thing.
Do you see this as kind of a struggle
that Christians could have, Pastor Anderson,
where people can grow cold to the things of God?
And how do they kind of stay hot?
- Well, I think that we have to make church
and soul winning and missions exciting.
'Cause it should be, it is exciting.
And so if you're at a boring church
and there's nothing going on
and you're not really doing anything big,
you could see how people would get maybe bored with it.
And then they go to the sports or politics
or whatever they feel like is more exciting,
there's more action, more happening.
And so at our church,
we try to have a lot of action happening.
I try to make the sermons entertaining, interesting,
so that people can stay excited about the things of God.
The stuff that I preach about, I'm excited about it.
And when I'm preaching,
my biggest goal is to transfer that excitement
to the listeners.
I want them to get as excited about the topic as I am.
And I think that by physically going out
and knocking doors and going soul winning,
you're kind of on the front lines spiritually,
and that's exciting.
Seeing someone get saved is exciting.
More exciting than just maybe hearing about a missionary
that you're maybe giving money to,
and he's going out, so on.
How much more exciting to get on the plane yourself
and you go to that country and do some actual evangelism,
doing evangelism right here at home,
and going to Indian reservations,
going to whatever, the small town soul winning marathon
or big city soul winning marathons.
I think just, we need to do stuff.
In our churches, we need to have exciting events
and things that we're working on,
and for me personally, I always need to have
some kind of a project or some kind of a crusade that I'm on,
and that's what keeps me engaged so I don't get bored.
Obviously, yeah, there's a week in, week out of church,
Bible reading, soul winning,
but then you need to spice it up a little bit sometimes,
and that can keep people from getting stale or cold.
- Well, and I think you gotta just do it too,
because Ben, you've listened to a lot
of the Red Hot Preaching Conference and you've heard it,
but let's say for the first few years you hadn't gone,
and if you missed the Red Hot Preaching Conference,
you probably, 'cause you didn't go
and you'd never been there,
you probably were like, "Yeah, I missed out."
But now that you've actually come
to the Red Hot Preaching Conference,
let's say you were to miss the next one,
it'd be like a bigger disappointment,
because you kinda actually already experienced it,
you kinda know what you're missing.
Or like a person that you maybe don't know very well,
you could just kinda have some small talk,
but then you leave the conversation, it's not a big deal.
But you're not that interested or engaged in them.
But the more you get to know someone,
the more you wanna talk to them,
the more you like have kinda this relationship.
So do you see like coming to a conference like this
as kind of a way to just kind of bring more zeal,
more heat into your spiritual walk?
- Yeah, absolutely, because I think if you go to one,
you feel more motivated to go to another one.
And I experienced this also with regard to the mission trip
that you hosted over at the Bahamas.
It was the first mission trip I'd ever gone to.
And when I came back home, I said,
I wanna go to every single one of these now.
Like I feel, I felt a lot more motivated
to try and go to future ones.
And yeah, I think that when you do something
and then you stop doing it, it hurts you that much more
because you had been doing it in the past.
But I wanted to also introduce this to the conversation
because we were talking about politics a little bit earlier
and kind of distractions and things that take people away
from the things of God.
And Pastor Anderson, you described good works
accompanying good doctrine, the importance of both.
Obviously all of us believe in sound doctrine
and the importance of sound doctrine.
And one thing I wanted to get your guys' perspective on
is when you see Christians growing cold
to the spiritual aspect
and rather getting involved in the carnal warfare,
do you notice that they start to care less about doctrine?
And what I mean by that is their zeal for good doctrine
atrophies a little bit
because they're so much more involved in politics.
Let me give you an example.
So let's say somebody gets really involved
in the political world
and their zeal for that supersedes the spiritual battle.
Do you start to see them maybe listen to pastors
who are heretics because they agree with them
on a certain political issue like coronavirus?
- Yeah, absolutely.
- Oh, pastor so-and-so who believes in work salvation,
he's against the max.
I'll go ahead-
- Like John MacArthur.
- John MacArthur.
- Yeah, exactly.
- John MacArthur, he believes like me on COVID,
so I'll go ahead and listen to him
and compromise on all the heresy
because he agrees with me on the politics.
Do you see a danger there
of allowing the importance of sound doctrine to fade away
and be superseded by political issues?
What do you think about that?
- 100%, absolutely.
Yeah, I mean, (laughs)
the root of the problem though comes from your,
you know, what are you putting first?
And when you start consuming all of that,
like you were talking about,
Pastor Shelley was talking about
all of that type of content,
you get focused on the wrong talking points, right?
So as a Christian, you should be focused
on biblical talking points, not political talking points.
Cause you know, the politics are gonna be like,
should you bake a cake, right?
Not that you've preached on this before.
It's like, we shouldn't be talking about baking cakes.
We should be talking about, you know, putting-
- Baking homos is what we should be talking about.
(laughs)
- See you YouTube.
(laughs)
- Well, you know, like for you Pastor Burzins,
you got saved, but then you didn't really maybe
start going soul winning or really serving God seriously
for a long period of time.
- Yeah.
- And it's, would you say that
it's because you just weren't in church?
Like, what was the kind of-
- Yeah, absolutely.
So from the time I got saved to the time I actually started,
got plugged into a good church, there's always, you know,
obviously I was saved, I had the Holy Spirit.
So there were times when I was being convicted to like,
look, you know, you need to be reading your Bible.
You need to get in church.
And there's times where I would kind of seek out
the things of God more than others.
And during that time, I would try different churches,
but I was getting kind of jaded with some of the churches
I went to because the hypocrisy stunk.
It's like, if they said anything,
you'd have these pastors that would like,
might make a stand on something,
but then there's doing like the exact same thing,
or you kind of see a glimpse into their family life
and stuff, and it's just like,
it's like they don't care at all about what they're saying.
And usually when I was going to churches,
I would find like, I was learning from being in the church
just because I was reading more of the Bible
than what they would preach on.
So like they would preach on one verse
and I'd just keep reading the context
and I'd be learning something there
and not really getting anything from the service.
But I mean, the fatal mistake I made
was just stop going to church then, right?
Like I tried a few churches and then I just gave up
as opposed to, well, this is important,
let's go find a good church.
'Cause I definitely could have found a good church
to go to in my area.
I mean, especially as a babe in Christ.
I mean, there's so much I needed to learn and grow by
and allowing some lame church
to dictate whether or not I'm gonna keep going.
You know, that had a big impact.
And literally, the way I got plugged in,
it wasn't even from me.
It was my own, my mom wanted me to go to a church
and she knew what I believed
because by that point I was an independent fundamental
Baptist by belief because I was solid on King James.
I had grown to come to some certain doctrinal viewpoints
over the years, but without being really plugged
into a good church, she found the yellow pages
phone books had that gives you the age a little bit
of when I started going to a good church
and it was for Faithful Word Baptist Church.
We had like, you know, a tired of liberal preaching
was the big ad in the yellow pages.
And then as soon as I went, you know, I loved it.
And when you hear someone boldly preaching the word of God
as a saved person, it's like, man, this is,
this is what I've been wanting to hear.
Even from probably the most tame benign sermon
was the first sermon I went to at Faithful Word
was one on managing your money,
which I didn't have a problem with at all at the time.
Like everything that was taught was not new to me.
But when you have someone that's clearly teaching
out of the Bible and it's not just talking, you know,
quoting one verse and then just giving you a story
and then closing in prayer, it's like, I just love that.
I love the fact that the Bible was being taught
and that was exciting to me is being around it.
And we just, you know, it would to God,
we could have more just good churches out there
of people who care about preaching
and teaching the word of God.
'Cause that itself, I mean, getting plugged in
is so essential, no matter how that happens,
getting plugged into a good church, you know,
if it's your mom, if it's a friend,
you know, whatever, you know, kind of bumping you in
to get plugged in. - Well, then you make
a lot of changes, right? - Oh, the tragic changes.
- 'Cause there's a lot of online listeners.
I think there's a lot of people that consume
a lot of the preaching online,
but they're not really going to church.
They're not really getting plugged in,
and so it doesn't seem like they're actually in the fight.
They're not necessarily making the big difference
that they could, whereas when you finally get
into the church or you start being around
other like-minded brethren,
that's when you're really doing some spiritual damage
to the enemy.
- One point on that too, you know,
I said I was an independent fun-mo Baptist,
and the reason I even came to that
is because I was consuming information
before getting plugged into a good church,
so I was able to get some good truth
and kind of get solid some doctrine,
but my life was not matching my belief,
like Pastor Ezekiel was preaching about this morning, right?
But the only thing that helped me
to really get that under control
is getting plugged into that church.
That was so critical.
And that's why I don't care
how much you're listening online,
you really need to get plugged into the local church.
God made that institution for a reason.
- And Pastor Ezekiel, you've been preaching for a long time.
You've seen hundreds and hundreds of people come and go.
How important is church attendance
to people staying focused on the things of God?
- It's literally everything.
I mean, it's so critical.
And that was the thing I'm so thankful for
that growing up, we always went to church.
Like my family took me to church,
Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night.
And that is what kept us spiritually focused.
Even though we weren't always necessarily
at the top of our spiritual game,
like at least we were just always in church.
And that goes a long way.
And you know, I was there when, you know,
Pastor Burzins started coming.
I can't even believe that he and I
have been friends for 17 years.
- That's crazy.
You're like a teenager.
- Literally.
Yeah, this is literally.
- Your relationship.
- 'Cause he showed up in August of 2006.
And so, I mean, it's literally coming up on 17 years.
And there's gotta be other Dave Burzins out there
that are saved.
I mean, he'd been saved for like nine years,
but he wasn't doing anything.
Seven years?
- I think so.
- Yeah, but he hadn't done anything.
He wasn't really doing anything for God.
- Yeah.
- And then I was there.
He started coming to our church
and I mean, he started changing fast.
I mean, he was making changes in his life,
going soul winning.
He was just growing and growing and thriving.
And it's just being in church made all the difference.
- Well, when you met him,
didn't you say he was single?
- Oh yeah, absolutely.
- So you've seen like an entire evolution
of his entire life.
- Oh yeah.
- As a result of getting plugged into church.
And I think some people want to downplay church,
but what's really getting people distracted
from the things of God is doing anything other than church.
Like missing church for the Sacramento Kings game
or taking extra work or doing any other activity
and getting out of, you know, Sunday morning,
Sunday evening, Wednesday night,
getting plugged in around like-minded brethren
and being encouraged and challenged to read your Bible.
And obviously not every church is created equal either.
You know, getting plugged into faith or Baptist church
where things are exciting,
coming to Verity Baptist Church,
where you're having conferences like this,
you're having soul winning trips.
- I mean, even though my testimony is totally different
than Pastor Berzins though,
my life was dramatically transformed
by going to Regency Baptist Church as a 17 year old boy.
I mean, even though I already grew up, you know,
reading my Bible, I was witnessing to my friends
a little bit, it was a little bit different situation there
'cause I grew up in a very Christian home
and everything like that.
But I'm telling you, when I started going
to Regency Baptist Church as a 17 year old boy,
that was a major change in my life
because I started going soul winning for the first time
and the preaching was unlike any preaching I had ever heard.
I mean, the pastor was just ripping face.
I mean, hard sermons and I remember for a while
we would go to the liberal church
and we would go to Regency both on the same Sunday
because we kind of had our friends at the liberal church
and they had their early service.
So we kind of did a compromise where we're like,
let's go to the early service at our church
and then let's hit the 11 o'clock service
at the independent fundamental Baptist church.
And I remember the sermon at the liberal church
was 20 minutes, felt like an hour, okay?
- Oh man.
- Pastor Nichols sermon was like an hour and 15 minutes,
felt like 20 minutes.
I can literally remember sitting on a Sunday morning
and him preaching for over an hour and just being like,
whoa, it's over, what?
Keep going, I wanna hear more.
Like I remember just wanting more
at the end of every sermon.
I still remember my first Sunday night service
at Regency Baptist Church.
There had metal folding chairs in the auditorium
that had stenciled on the back of every chair,
nuestra casa.
I don't know why they'd gotten the chairs donated,
I don't know.
We're in metal folding chairs, it's the height of summer,
no air conditioning, all the doors are open,
fans are blowing, it's super hot,
and the pastor is up there just preaching so hard,
and I was just like, wow,
where has this been all my life?
This is awesome, and I was a 17-year-old,
and 17-year-olds aren't necessarily
the most spiritual phase of life,
but yet that grabbed me as a 17-year-old,
and I got real interested in the things of God,
because I finally found an exciting,
it happened in church, where the preaching was fire,
and where there was an opportunity
to go out soul-winning a couple times a week.
I mean, it was like, I was just like,
where's this been all my life?
And you know what's funny is,
I just assumed, like, people just don't know about this.
Like, if I tell all my Christian friends about this,
they're all gonna come over to our side.
Like, you know, they just don't know.
And then I was so shocked
when they were really apathetic about the things of God,
because I just thought,
well, they must just not know that something like this
is even out there.
'Cause this church is so cool,
everybody would be going to this church, you know?
- Yeah, but man, getting in church is everything.
I mean, even as someone who was already saved,
already serving God a little bit,
getting in a fire church
would just transform my life radically.
- Yeah, that's why you gotta get into
Faithward Baptist Church, Stronghold Baptist Church,
Verity Baptist Church.
I mean, you need to get into one of these churches on fire.
It's gonna change your life.
But how about this, too?
We have people that aren't going to church,
are going to lame churches, and then they get plugged in.
And let's say they make a lot of changes,
they're going soul-winning, and they're right.
They're right with God, they're serving God,
they're on fire, but then they decide
to stop going to church.
Do you see that?
Oh, they just stay red hot, they just keep serving God.
- No way. - They're still soul-winning.
- Absolutely not.
I mean, if you get out of church, you're gonna backslide.
You're not gonna be soul-winning.
Some people are like, "Oh, I can go soul-winning
on my own."
Yeah, except that you're not going to though.
You have to be in church.
And by the way, another thing that I loved
about getting into a red hot, soul-winning,
independent fundamental Baptist church at age 17,
was that I was actually proud to bring my friends there.
Like, I would have felt a little embarrassed
to bring them to the liberal church,
just 'cause it's kind of a feminine,
just kind of sissy church.
But bringing them to Regency,
I felt like I could really like bring them like,
"Yeah, we're going to church," you know?
Like, I felt like it was a cool church.
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- You know, that they would have.
Which is ironic, because the church was not cool at all,
like, from a worldly perspective.
- Right.
- The other church, like, trying to be cool,
and totally failing, and they're like,
like, teenagers are embarrassed of them,
like, trying to be cool, 'cause it's so lame.
And then the church that just doesn't care
at all about being cool.
Ironically, like, that was cool.
And I literally, I would say from the time I was 17
and started going there to the time that I got married
right after my 19th birthday.
So like that two year period,
I must've brought at least like 30 visitors to church.
Like, 'cause I was, mainly girls, you know,
'cause I was, you know, I was trying to meet girls
and date girls.
I was constantly, but I'd bring dudes,
I'd bring friends.
I was just constantly trying to get my friends to go.
- Yeah.
- Because I just really wanted them to experience
real church, you know, like real preaching.
And a lot of them did really like it.
You know, I'd bring a lot of girls and guys
and I got a lot of positive reactions.
Some people were like, oh man,
that was a little wild or whatever, you know.
But I, you know, I was never embarrassed or ashamed.
It always makes me sad when people act like,
oh, I don't know if I want to bring my friends
to, you know, Faith Wars, a little radical.
It's just like, what are you talking about?
Like, why are you ashamed of it?
Like, it's cool.
Like, you know, don't be ashamed of Christ's word.
Don't be ashamed of me, his prisoner, you know?
- Yeah.
- Like, be excited about bringing.
And I feel like if you go to Stronghold
or Steadfast or one of these churches,
like, how could you not want to bring visitors?
- Right.
When if you're trying to get a girlfriend,
bring a girl to church, right?
- Amen.
- So that's a good tip.
- And by the way, my wife,
when the first time she came to church,
she absolutely loved it
because she had never been to any church
that wasn't Catholic.
- Yeah.
- And so it was not the Catholic church.
And I remember her just having a big smile on her face.
Her first Sunday morning, listening to the preaching,
she absolutely loved it.
She was just eating it up.
Like, wow, I've never seen anything like this.
And that was like a prerequisite for dating,
was like, you had to like my church.
- Right.
- 'Cause like if they, I always say,
you know, like Pastor Nichols, I know like you.
(laughing)
You have to like the hard preaching.
- But she didn't, of course, have any kind of similarities
of Pastor Nichols before coming to church.
She wasn't this fundamental Baptist already.
- She was a left-wing European.
She was obviously influenced by feminism and everything.
I mean, she was definitely a liberal.
Like Obama wasn't around back then,
but she would have been like an Obama supporter, you know.
- See, young single guys, you need to just take them
into Pastor Anderson's church and let them scream at them
and to be like, what did you think?
- A lot of young people love our preaching.
- Exactly, we need more people to just bring more visitors
to church and expose them to it.
- Exactly.
What about you, Ben?
You went to kind of like an older ADB church,
the pastor, is his name Brian?
- Brian Sams.
- Yeah, Brian Sams.
And then you got plugged in at Steadfast.
- Yeah.
- Did you see any kind of difference going to this
church with Brian Sams or Steadfast?
For you personally, your life, your marriage,
what kind of transpired?
- Yeah, obviously I thought it was very different
in the sense that those who were at Steadfast
were taking it a heck of a lot more seriously.
And it was almost like, it felt like the big boy church.
Like here we go, you know, we're in the big leagues now
and these people are actually,
my old IFB church didn't really have a legitimate
soul winning time and there wasn't a lot of effort
put into the soul winning program there.
So to see the zeal for soul winning,
the zeal for sound doctrine,
the zeal for biblical preaching,
it completely changed my life.
And I want to emphasize that, completely changed it.
And it would not have happened if I didn't attend church.
If I wasn't going consistently,
if I wasn't listening to the Bible,
being preached from behind the pulpit,
I wouldn't be here right now.
So the importance of attending church regularly,
it cannot be overstated in my opinion
because I've seen the change happen,
not only to myself, but also my friends.
You know, you talk about Brother Joe,
who filled in for you today.
Brother Marcel, another one of my friends.
I've seen growth in them as well
as a result of consistent church attendance.
It's everything.
And Pastor Anderson, your wife I think is a great testimony
of someone who you got saved.
She had a liberal background like you described.
You get her saved and look at her now.
So you see the huge difference that it can make
in someone's life that you couldn't have made
that kind of impact on her
from a purely carnal perspective.
If I would have just argued politics with her,
it wouldn't have worked because when we first did meet
and spend some time together,
we argued about a bunch of stuff
'cause she was just a typical unsaved,
like liberal type or whatever.
But just getting saved, it was like her opinions
about things just changed like just overnight.
It was just like everything changed
'cause now all of a sudden the Bible is the authority.
So now let's look at what does the Bible say?
It wasn't just her opinions,
what she'd been taught and everything.
She ate up all that preaching and she's reading the Bible
and so it was not like a slow change.
It was really like a pretty quick change.
And we don't wanna make the mistake of assuming
that every time someone gets saved
that the change is gonna be rapid.
That's what a lot of people make that mistake
because for some people it's a slow burn.
But the reason it was quick with her
is 'cause right away she was three services a week,
right away she was reading huge swathes of the Bible.
'Cause I remember she was just a stay at home wife
from day one, and so I'd literally come home
and she's like, "Oh, I read Second Kings today,"
or something, some huge book.
And she'd just read it that day
'cause she was trying to catch up.
- Yeah, and I'm out of hunger for the truth.
- My testimony's a perfect example
of not having that immediate change.
- Right. - That is a great example.
- You were right though, it was nine years,
it wasn't seven. - Yeah, I thought so.
- With my own family.
(laughing)
- And it seems like the two lost years.
(laughing)
- So worldly he blacked it out. (laughing)
- And it seems like the soul winning has had a huge impact
on staying not distracted, not getting distracted,
but being focused on things of God,
because the church you mentioned
didn't have a soul winning program,
and now their pastor is no longer King James only.
- He's not, he's transitioning away,
uses the word transition.
How about we leave that word to the faggots?
But anyway, transitioning to, sorry.
(laughter)
- By YouTube again.
- I already said something way worse earlier.
- My point is, it's hard,
I gotta get used to this filtering.
- Bringing you on the show is enough.
- Anyway, so yeah, transitioning from the King James,
no longer King James only,
no longer believes in even the received text,
and now believes in critical text, Bibles.
You see that happening, and I think it's a result of
somebody who does not take evangelism
very seriously whatsoever.
And it's unfortunate to see my church,
the first church I went to after getting saved,
turning into that, it's sad.
But, hey, I gotta give credit to Dr. Phil Stringer,
who we had in our documentary,
and also preached at Steadfast,
for actually calling that out and waging war against that.
- Yeah, and I mean, again, the Bible talks about
someone who's not doing the works of God,
forgetting the Bible.
I mean, pastor Berzins, have you seen this?
People just kind of stop soul winning,
and then just like maybe getting derailed,
or not really serving God,
as a result of soul winning accidents.
- Unfortunately all the time, right?
I mean, it's something that you see in a lot,
I've been pastoring for almost 10 years now.
So seeing it from the pastor's perspective,
you see people come and go,
and I'm sure you've seen it too, right?
And you start to see the signs,
it usually doesn't happen overnight, right?
Especially with people who have been plugged in,
they've been zealous, they've been on fire,
but there's always something that's gonna,
you know, detract, take away.
Sometimes it's something legitimate, right?
It could be a medical problem, a work problem,
that kind of derails their schedule.
But then, you know, if they don't get back on track,
it's like, okay, I stopped going soul hunting for a while,
you know, and then what's next is,
well, now they're not making it to all the church services
that they used to make it to.
And then before you know it,
they're just kind of haven't heard from in a long time,
and they may pop back in every once in a while.
But it's that consistency, you start losing that,
whatever the situation may be that kind of gets them off.
They stop doing the soul winning is kind of a big deal.
Like there's people that will come to church
and not go soul winning,
but still come to church regularly.
But it's kind of like, once you get involved in the work,
but then back away from that work,
that's kind of bad news because it's like,
you're just going the wrong direction
and usually you continue to go the wrong direction.
Now, the good thing is, I've seen people come back to it.
It's not like it's a death sentence or something like,
oh, if you stop, you know,
people can always still get replugged
and it just makes it harder, right?
It's a lot harder.
You start getting distracted with other stuff.
- So someone that's struggling, you know,
they feel like they maybe were more zealous in the past
or they want to get plugged back in.
You know, what is your advice to get this,
like, what do they need to do?
- It's a heart problem, really.
I mean, it's, to me, it's a decision you have to make.
You know, like, for myself, personally,
I mean, I'm not just skipping soul winning
and skipping any of this stuff,
but it's not because I'm just super spiritual person.
It's just, I've made a decision in my life that, like,
like, you know, once I was starting to get right with God,
the first decision I made was,
I'm not missing church for any reason,
and you just, you make that your priority,
and you will get challenged on it.
I had family members, like, going to visit people and stuff
and saying, well, do you really have to go to church?
And the answer is, yes, yes, I do.
It's silly stuff, like, well, it's Christmas,
it's Christmas, do you really have to go to church?
Like, can't you spend Christmas with your family?
It's like, we're celebrating the birth of Christ,
like, where do you want me to be?
I think, yeah, church is kind of important on this day
to go celebrate this, and then I'll come back from church
and we could spend time together, you know?
But things like that, you know, making that decision
and just staying with it, right?
So, you have to cement that
as being foundational for yourself.
And once you do that, like, I can't see any reason
that's gonna cause me to stop serving God,
just for that reason that like, I mean,
it's just part of who I am now,
but it's because of the decision made to do that.
Like, I was already convinced and I saw from scripture,
going to church, yes, it's important,
yes, we need to do this, yes, this is a command of God,
this is exactly what we need to be doing with our life.
Once you're convinced of that and you make that decision,
I mean, it's kind of like, how do you turn back?
I mean, I kind of see it happen with some people,
but I don't know if they ever really got it set in their heart,
maybe not for the right reasons.
I don't, I mean, do you have any perspective on that,
Pastor Anderson?
- I mean, I feel like not going to church
is just unthinkable.
- Yeah.
- And I think that's one of the advantages of growing up
in a Christian home is that I grew up that way from birth,
that just not going to church is literally just unthinkable.
Like I can't even imagine that.
But even as somebody who got plugged in later in life,
17 years later, not going to church is unthinkable
for you too, 'cause you built that habit.
But I think a lot of the people that we win to the Lord
or people that get saved later in life,
they feel like not going to church is like an option.
Like, am I gonna go to church?
Which is just, it's just not even a question
for a lot of us.
And you gotta get to that point where it's just like,
well, of course we're going to church.
You know, like, like this whole attitude of like,
am I going to church?
Like, you have to just get rid of that.
- Just squash it.
- Yeah.
- And of course we're just under 10 minutes away
from the evening service, Pastor David Berzins.
You wanna check it out.
If you're not already on the email list,
bannedbutnotbound.com.
Go there now, put your email in, get the link.
The only way to watch it is to get the links
from that website.
And kinda as we wrap up, I wanna give you a second
to maybe ask you a question, but Josiah seemed like
he was on a good track with the Lord and serving the Lord,
but then he had this shiny object of Egypt and this battle.
So if someone has a shiny object out there,
it's got the Andrew Tate or the Donald Trump
or the shiny thing out there,
and they're kind of being tempted to get involved
in this other thing, what's an idea or suggestion
to how to kind of push that out of your mind
or not let the Egypts or the Trumps
or these things cause you to get off the wrong track?
- Well, you think about Moses, and it said,
he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches
than the treasures in Egypt,
for he had respect under the recompense of the reward.
So you have to just realize that we have something better.
Whenever the world is offering, we have something better.
- Yeah, like it sounds good to just make America better
and maybe fix the politics,
but you know what's better is to fix the culture
with Christianity.
Like you said, arguing with your wife on politics
wasn't as effective as just getting her saved.
- Yeah, no, it would have never worked.
She would have never come over to my side
because she's got her opinions, she's got her views,
and obviously liberals have a lot of reasoning
for what they believe.
They've had decades and decades to develop
a full system of thought and a worldview,
and they've got an answer for everything,
just like conservatives have an answer for everything,
and people have developed these systems of thought,
but when you've got the Bible,
it forces people to have certain views,
because as soon as something contradicts the Bible,
if the Bible really is supreme, it just trumps everything.
And so politics is so frustrating
because sometimes there is no right answer,
and plus I just don't like being a loser,
and I just feel like, man,
you're almost like on a losing battle
trying to get people to see the truth about politics,
because broad is the way that leads to destruction.
Whereas serving Christ, I feel like I'm winning
because I'm winning souls to Christ,
and I'm making differences in people's lives,
and I just feel like when you're a Christian,
you're on the winning side.
- Well, and politics is a lot of compromise.
Like, you kind of have to constantly try
to reach across the aisle and find like,
well, I don't really agree with that,
but it's better than what's going on
and constantly yoking up with people
you don't really even like or agree with,
just to try to accomplish your political goal,
whereas when you're just in a zealous,
soul-winning, fired-up church,
you can just stand on the truth,
not feel like you have to compromise on anything,
and you're just always just doing what's right,
as opposed to just the lesser of two evils.
- Yeah, and make the people come to the truth
instead of trying to change, like to reach them.
With politics, you're always saying, like you just said,
the compromise to get to somewhere,
well, we wanna get here,
but we'll kind of keep going this way.
- Yeah, baby steps to the truth.
- Make the parties shift to the truth.
- Yeah, exactly.
- Instead of shifting to their center.
I mean, the center right now
was the left, the extreme left of 20 years ago.
And if you just keep following that pattern,
you're just going to keep getting more and more wicked, right?
Someone has to just make the stand of saying...
- Yeah, it's hard to get excited about being a Republican
when you remember that the stuff
the Republican party's fighting for
is what the Democrats were fighting for 20, 30 years ago.
Especially that timeline in the film last night
that we watched, where it's like over here,
Bill Clinton is passing this legislation
of don't ask, don't tell.
But then 20 years later,
the Republicans are begging for don't ask, don't tell
because the liberals just want out and proud sodomy
in the military.
- Right.
- It's like, please give us don't ask, don't tell.
It's kind of hard to get excited
about literally fighting for positions
that you were against 20 years ago.
And it's just like, but it's like, well, yeah, but you know,
it's like, well, no, you know,
the thing that I like about church
is something you can get behind fully.
And that's what I was saying
about like how I felt good about bringing visitors
as a 17, 18 year old to my church
because I could like really get behind.
It was like, I'm Steven Anderson and I approve this message.
- And we're standing on the truth.
- Whereas, yeah.
And it's like, if you're going to a church
where you don't agree with like half of what's being preached,
it's kind of hard to get excited
about bringing people as visitors
and you're not fully behind what's going on.
And obviously, you know, nothing's ever gonna be perfect.
And you're never gonna agree with everything.
- Right.
- You know what I mean?
Like you wanna be able to bring people
to a church that you're zealous about.
- But it's a lot easier to agree
with a fundamental Baptist overall
than one of these political candidates.
- Oh yeah.
- Who stand for virtually nothing.
- Obviously, like even the most watered down
independent fundamental Baptist
is gonna be way more in line with us
than like the Republican party
when it comes to like issues of morality
and righteousness and Christianity.
Am I right?
- I don't know if anybody knows
as much Bible as Donald Trump
because he said he knows more about the Bible than anyone,
but you know, of course--
- To Corinthians.
- Of course, I think that every independent Baptist
would be easier to yoke up with.
- Absolutely.
- This has been a great episode
and we're gonna have a couple more Baptist Bias episodes
with some special guests coming up in August.
So you wanna make sure to still check us out
and pay attention Tuesday nights, 8 p.m.
We're gonna continue and have kind of a mid-summer session.
Thanks so much to our guests for just coming on briefly
as a pregame show to the Red Hot Preaching Conference.
Pastor Anderson, how's the best way for us to contact you
or reach you or do we just show up?
- I mean, the easiest way to find my stuff
is just to go to the preaching.com.
Is that what you're talking about?
- Yeah.
- That takes you to our church website.
Thepreaching.com takes you to the sermon page
of our website.
And then from there, you can find the location
and the phone number and the address and all that.
But, you know, the main thing is the preaching.com
and it's easy to remember, so.
- Pastor Berzins, you gotta check out his church as well.
How do we find you?
- Strongholdbaptist.church is the website.
And again, it has all the contact information on it as well.
- That's great.
And of course, better than just visiting these guys online
is visiting them in person.
If you're anywhere in the Arizona area,
you gotta go to Phoenix, gotta go to Tempe,
you gotta go to Faith Ford Baptist Church.
If you're anywhere in the Atlanta area,
you gotta go, it's Norfolk, is that?
- Norcross.
- Norcross, I'm sorry, Norcross, Georgia.
You gotta go to Stronghold Baptist Church.
Check these guys out.
And of course, if you're in California,
you gotta go to Verde Baptist Church.
You gotta check out Pastor Menes.
If you ever get an opportunity,
you gotta go to the Red Hot Preaching Conference.
This is gonna do us for this year.
Ben, sign us off.
- God bless you all.
We thank you for listening.
Thank you, Pastor Berzins, Pastor Anderson,
coming on and we will talk to you guys again after a while.