Music
All right here we go. Welcome to the Rod and Byron Podcast. Fundamental Baptist
breaking down discussions, Dog went daily events. I'm your host, Pastor Bruce Mejia
First Works Baptist Church. Here with the fundamentalists in our church we have
Brother Heik Tov Macy and Brother Marco Sanchez and we have a special guest with
us this evening, Pastor Roger Jimenez of Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento,
California. How are you? I'm good. Thank you for having me on the show. Thank you so
much for being here. Pastor Jimenez is a great friend of our church. We love his
church and and so we're so thankful that you were thankful you made time to come
out here. I know you got a busy schedule. You mentioned that you're doing some
some filming for the Landmarks episode. So this trip is a lot is like four birds
with one stone kind of thing. Oh yeah. And you know you're doing the Landmarks
episode. We're gonna we'll talk a little bit about that and you're doing the
podcast with us tonight. You're preaching for us tomorrow and then you're you you
are visiting your church plants as well and so you got a busy schedule this week.
Yeah. It's exciting to serve the Lord and I'm sure you're getting a lot done. Yeah
getting a lot done and tomorrow I'll be able to spend a day with my family too.
Amen. Spending time with the family yeah so trying to squeeze as much as we can
out of this trip. Yeah. So you brought your whole family with you obviously.
Everybody. Awesome. How many kids do you have? I have six kids. Six kids. How old is
your eldest? 13. 13 you got yourself a teenager. Yeah exactly. I have a 13 year
old, an 11 year old, an 8 year old, a 4 year old, a 2 year old, and is that all of them?
One day I'll learn their names. That's great. That's great. Yeah I went to when I
went to go preach or I preached at Pure Words Baptist Church. Okay. And a
couple maybe was about a month ago I took my son Bruce with me and it made it
so much better. Yeah. I've taken preaching trips before and it just gets kind of
lonely you know and you kind of miss your family. I get homesick very easily but
just having my son there was a big blessing and then even prior to that
when I preached at steadfast the year before I brought my whole family with me
and that was great. I was able to bring them and it's just it's good memories to
make with them and then you have them there with you and you know I'm sure my
wife appreciated that too just bringing her along. Right. And so I'm sure they
appreciate you coming with you on this trip. Yeah. You're in our new building?
Yeah. Looks great. Looks awesome. Thank you. Yeah. I was hoping you'd say
something like that. No I'm just kidding. No no. It's great. It's too bad you guys got bombed. Yeah it really puts you back. Such a burden to have.
You have to settle with this awesome building. So tell me about landmarks. Now I'm planning to do
season three. Right. I was gonna do season two but something came up church got
bombed and everything. Yeah. Weak excuse. Yeah yeah yeah I know. Sorry about that.
But you're doing season two. I'm doing season two. Why don't you go ahead and tell us about
first of all the concept of the series called Landmarks and then more
specifically what your season entails. Right. So Landmarks was started by Pastor
Anderson and he did season one and it's called Landmarks because it has like a
dual meaning. So the episodes take place at these physical landmarks and they're
all supposed to be in the area that the church is at. So like season one was all
in Arizona. Season two is Northern California and then you'll be doing
Southern California. Right. And and then while we're at these locations that are
physical landmarks and we're also talking about a biblical landmark. Amen.
And season one was just kind of more random just interesting topics. With
season two what we're doing is we're having a theme. So the theme is all about
children, raising godly children. So we're doing episodes on like home
schooling. We're doing episodes on family integrated church. Well we did family
integrated church in season one. Okay. So we're not covering that. Okay. We're
talking about like you know corporate discipline and spanking. We're talking
about wives staying home. We're talking about just any all sorts of things. We
have an episode I just did a couple episodes with brother Jared from
Fresno. We're talking about preparing young men for the workforce and a lot of
just cool interesting stuff like that. Amen. Well you know what's interesting is
you know when it comes to independent fundamental Baptists or what we would
consider ourselves to be new IFB we obviously agree on a lot of essentials.
Right. And you know we often say we're not in lockstep with everything because
we're independent but we agree on a lot of the essentials but even a lot of the
secondary things we agree with. Right. You know we think of you know concepts
about the family we agree a lot on that. Right. We agree about you know having
a family integrated church even though that's that's a secondary issue it's
important to us but it's not something that we would split hairs over or
separate from someone because of that but it is important and we both agree on
it and that probably makes the fellowship even that much better between
our churches because we we can share ideas we can relate to one another when
it comes to those things and so I'm looking forward to season two on the
family because it's not just you're covering things about the family but
you're covering child rearing marriage I'm assuming as well. So originally
we're gonna do the family in general but then once I started writing down
ideas about child rearing there was so much to talk about that we kind of just
decided to focus on that. Yeah. Because we've got other churches that are gonna
do other seasons so you know maybe somebody else can cover marriage but we
we've got ten episodes lined up and okay they're just about child rearing. Oh
awesome. And they're about children in general so for example we we have an
episode about abortions you know we we have episodes all sorts of different
types of episodes like that so but they're all our theme is all about
children raising godly children having children that idea and you know you and
I we're fortunate because we get to do it in California. Yeah. And there's so
many awesome places in California. Amen. You know all I can say is by the time
season two is done we're gonna make Arizona look like a desert. That's right.
But you know we've got cool places in Northern California and I know you've
got some awesome places down here so. Yeah amen. I'm probably gonna season
three is gonna be on biblical prophecy. Okay. Bible prophecy. Originally I was
gonna do season or I was gonna do a series on the Jews. Okay. But I just kind
of changed my mind and I had a change of heart and I just felt like. I'd rather do
prophecy than the Jews. Yeah. There's only so much I can you know you could talk about the
Jews. Go to banks and stuff like. What? Go to banks and stuff. Yeah go to banks. Chase, Wells Fargo. There's so many. So many landmarks right? Yeah. Hollywood. Bixby Knolls. Yeah those are the ones that we would go to. Look at them go to their temple. But Bible prophecy even though there's not
necessary landmarks dealing with Bible prophecy in California you know we'll be
able to tie it in somehow and I know there's there's a lot of topics varying
topic various topics that we can cover within Bible prophecy even if I were to
teach on do the series or the season on you know through the book of Revelation
you know that you got the seven churches you have the beginning of sorrows great
tribulation all those things and so I'm looking forward to doing that yeah you
guys doing drone shots and all that yeah okay cool shots and we just went to so
at this is at the Sequoia Park there's the it's called General Grant's the tree
I think it's the largest Sequoia either in in the US or I think the third
largest in the world or whatever but we got some awesome drone shots of the
drone going up the tree oh wow it's a massive tree that's awesome but yeah
yeah it's gonna be great I'd love to go to you Eureka let's do it okay so I'm
gonna hold you to that yeah shake on it yeah let's shake on it here we go you
guys saw it we're doing it yeah I'm gonna send you this clip yeah so I'm
looking forward to that well when you come up to Eureka Eureka's I think
Eureka is like three or four hours north of Sacramento but when you come to Eureka
we'll have to have you preach in Sacramento if you don't mind sounds
great I do not mind at all I'd be honored to go preach I love going to
Verity Baptist Church looking forward to going to the red-hot amen every year of
course if you're watching this put a plug into for the red-hot preaching
conference best conference around and so I I grew up spiritually and
independent fundamental Baptist Church and so I know I see the value in
conferences right but I see so much the more the value in our type of conference
and you know it's good to hear hot preaching it's also good just to be
around like-minded believers you know it's good to I'm sure it's good for
people who go to maybe an old IFP church not to say that that's bad but I'm you
know they come to the red-hot preaching conference they get fellowship they get
their faith strength and they get fired up right you know and so and I enjoy
going because I get to see my friends my pastor friends yeah being a pastor in
California is not the easiest and so when you get to be around your friends a
little bit you get exhorted and you grow and and you just you kind of come back
home with the renewed vision kind of thing yeah when we started the red-hot
preaching conference I didn't really know it was gonna become what it has
become because it's really it's become its own thing you know and people are
everywhere I go people are telling me that they've been to the red-hot or
they're planning on coming you know all those things and it's just it's you know
it's a thing yeah it's the thing to do right it's you got to put it on the
calendar it's the place to go so it's like well now when we plan out as a
family or even as a church like when we start going through the year it's like
well we got to make sure it doesn't conflict with the red-hot yeah the red
hot does come up it's like all right we got to make sure that we don't do
anything around that time cuz that's the red-hot preaching companies yes you know
I what I what I like about the red-hot preaching conference cuz you have these
other conferences and a lot of times they have themes and that's awesome you
know you have a prophecy conference and all that but the cool thing about the
red-hot preaching conference is that there's not really a theme it's just
red-hot preaching right you know gonna get your face ripped yeah and and of
course I'm bringing in literally I believe and I think all of us would
agree the greatest preachers alive today you know coming in and preaching it you
know in a week and all that so but it's more than that and and preaching
definitely the thing but like you said the fellowship the soul-winning there's
just so much there yeah man there's more than you can grasp through a live stream
we live stream it of course but yes I would always encourage everybody if you
can come yeah hike those headphones in we're gonna shame them into coming yeah
um yeah the red-hot though like I don't know for some reason it's like super
nostalgic because we would have our old IV Church youth conference during that
time and so like oh yeah that in you know yeah the replacement of like of
something good you know whatever and and I think red-hot has kind of become
that for the new life you know so instead of going to like Knott's Berry
Farm we go soul-winning yeah much better you know that's one thing my dad cuz my
dad you know I grew up old IV mm-hmm and of course we were raised in an old IV
Church and when I started our church my parents I was very thankful they started
coming our church and they just you know accepted it they just got on board
they learned all the different differences and in our doctrine and they
accepted it and they believe it but one thing that he really loved when we
started the red-hot preaching conference is how many people showed up for soul
winning yeah so we would have these soul winning events you know I think last I
don't remember what the number was I think we had like 230 soul winners show
up well and he's like I've never seen you know cuz we I grew up going to
pastors conferences and youth conferences or whatever and he's like
I've seen conferences where there's like a thousand people there and they never
go so yeah yeah and he's like these people go soul winning right and he
really loved that go golfing with pastor oh yeah yeah well I mean I got saved at
a youth conference that's where I got saved so it does hold a special place in
my heart and I definitely see the power in a conference where you know you get
new because I was a new person and you know I was invited to come to the
conference I was not saved I was worldly and you know I came and I heard some hot
preaching and it's you know a Baptist you get a real Baptist in behind the
pulpit and they preach hellfire and brimstone it does something to you and
you know he was preaching the gospel and you know they did the aisle thing you
know they could they called me down the aisle I went down there there's a soul
winner they got me saved and you know it always held a special place my heart and
I always participated and all the conferences thereafter because I saw the
value in it I realized like hey people get saved and even if there are saved if
they're backslidden or a little lukewarm you know the conferences fire them up
again right and help them to basically get back on track and and what their
Bible reading or soul winning or just living for the Lord and so I saw the
value in it but the things that would the thing that would always frustrate me
about the conferences was their caterings to like you know going to the
theme parks and you know doing these other things that was just kind of
burdensome in my opinion you know right and it'll always bother me and so you
know the new I have been in the way the new heavy does conferences is obviously
superior to that because of not because of the preaching necessary although I
believe it's better but you know the emphasis on soul winning right and and
all that and so I think that's really important and it's great to see young
people yeah participating in that right and getting fired up about that I mean
some people come to the Red Hot Preaching Conference just because they
know we're gonna I mean we have so winning the whole week long yeah you
know and it builds to this climax on Saturday because you know the conference
starts on a Thursday but on a Wednesday we have already got like 40 soul
winners and then on on Thursday we it'll be like 50 or 60 and on Friday it'll be
75 and then on Saturday that's the big one we push and we've got 220 people
there yeah some people come to the conference to go so winning yeah because
they live somewhere where there's no soul winning and they don't they want to
like go with someone and know how to do like that's that's amazing that's great
and then not only that but now oh come on now how we've been doing it for five
years well now we have all these couples I've gotten married that met at
the Red Hot Preaching Conference you know and they're having kids and all
that so it's it's become a thing that I never planned you know when I started
the Red Hot Preaching Conference I didn't know if anybody would come and I told our church
family I said I don't know if anybody come we'll invite everyone I don't know
if they'll want to come but this will be worth having if just our church family
yeah comes and of course that's still the goal you know but um but it's been a
blessing to so many people well I know you guys put in a lot of work for the
Red Hot and the reason I know I don't know how much you work I'm sure it's a
lot but the only reason I even know 10% of how much you put in is because we did
a conference and it was in a different state in Ohio's the fundamentalist
conference and we live-streamed it I mean it was like the whole thing and it
was a lot of work right yeah it was a ton of work and I thought to myself like
oh man this is like Pastor Jimenez does this every single year with way more
people than what we have here is just like that's a lot of work yeah people
don't realize how much work the conference is yeah they're a lot of work
and I I tuned into the sermons and I really appreciated you had Pastor Jones
up there for the conference and all that and and I enjoyed you know I enjoyed it
but for us when we start we start planning Red Hot Preaching Conference in
January you know and it and it's not that we're just working on that the
whole year but there's so much that goes into getting it ready and all of that
you know but the singing is great yeah the music's great the spirits great it's
just an amazing time amen yeah speaking of Pastor Joe Jones I was just at his
church a week ago okay at Shield of Faith Baptist Church in Boise Idaho and
I encourage people to go subscribe to his channel because he's he's very
he's very creative when it comes to his titles very eye-catching titles and when
I was fellowshipping with him at the church at his church it was like 11
o'clock at night we're fellowshipping and I told him I was like dude you got
some good titles like he's like well I don't know you know and I'm like no I
look at you because I I think titles are important mm-hmm you know what I mean
like not just for like church but also like online having a very catchy title
is important and he comes up with some really creative stuff yeah and the one
that stands out to me the most is is apologicians you know that was a good
one but he just has these there he's very creative so let me talk to you
about this because I was I was talking to him and I said well when I mentioned
that to him he told me he said well that's typically how I come up with a
sermon hmm I just like come up with some creative name okay yeah that'd be a good
idea for a sermon and I kind of do the same thing sometimes like I'll think of
a concept or a good title and I would think to myself hey that would make a
good sermon if I were to preach from that and and and I told him like you
know I think both ways are to write a sermon are good you know sometimes you
think of a good idea or or should I say you find you you think of a concept in
the Bible that should be preached on at your church something that needs to be
hit on then you give it a title or you come up with a good title and then you
kind of scour the Bible to see what the Bible says about that particular topic
you know and so I think both are good but I know you spend a lot of time in
sermon preparation right you're more wired to like for myself sometimes I I
wait till later on in the week to come up with some but you're very you're
we're just talking about this before the podcast you have the spiritual gift of a
ruler you're an organizer so I'm sure you prepare very early on in the week
for sermon is that correct yes I do okay can you can you walk us through some of
the steps you take into doing that yeah absolutely so I I do believe I that my
spiritual gift is is the ruler administrative type thing I'll tell you
my spiritual gift is not titles no I think you got some good titles yeah God
is not a Republican American young was good that one was good you ticked off a
lot of people I wasn't one of them I was I was like amen to that you've been
surprised on me people you offend when you do Jack Trevor yeah you know talking
about pastor Jones titles my my favorite title that I saw his was you're not
woke you're a joke for me this is how it works for me and all preachers are
different you got it just kind of figure out what works for you right but for me
like the way this will how my week looks like on Monday I work on my Wednesday
night sermon and my goal is to I try to work on it on one sermon twice so my
first goal like on Monday morning my goal is to get to the sermon to the
place where I've got a rough outline and and my goal is to get to the place where
if I can't get back to this I could preach this if I needed to I don't want
to I want to work on it some more but if all hell broke loose if they bombed my
building for whatever reason I couldn't get back to this I could preach this if
I needed to you what you're basically saying is you do sermon prep on
Wednesday or for Wednesday you do it on Monday on Monday and you get it to the
point where you know God forbid if something came up an emergency came up
it has enough content yeah and preparation in it that you can take it
as is from Monday and preach it on Wednesday I could and I don't want to
because I want to work on it some more but I could if I needed to that's my
goal so I know I'm done on Monday when it's like okay if I had to preach this
I've got an outline I've got whatever I've got it developed a place where if I
had to preach this I could preach it then here's what I used to do when I was
you know younger in the ministry that God has allowed us to be in ministry now
in Sacramento for ten years so I've been around for a little while but what I
used to do is you know you know this you might know this as a preacher I think a
lot of preachers do this you know you never end a sermon prep you're there
there's always more to do so what I used to do is I get up on Monday and work on
my Wednesday night sermon then I on Tuesday I'd work on my Wednesday night
sermon then on Wednesday I'd work on my Wednesday night sermon right up until I
needed to preach it then I'd preach Wednesday and now I've got Thursday
Friday Saturday write two sermons right yeah and that just you know that was
like my life for a long time and I and I hated it so what I do now is on Monday I
write my Wednesday night sermon to the point where I could preach it if I
needed to then on Tuesday I forced myself not to work on the Wednesday
sermon at all and what I do on Tuesday is I start on my Sunday morning sermon
Tuesday on Tuesday oh wow and I get it to the same same thing to the place
where I could preach it if I needed to on Sunday morning and then on Wednesday
I go back and I finish my Wednesday night sermon because you kind of feel
this pressure on Wednesday like I gotta preach this tonight you know and it's
already done to the point where I could if I needed to but now I've had a day
where I haven't thought about it sometimes for me it works well it's kind
of like walking away from a project mm-hmm yeah I know what you mean it's
kind of it's it's kind of just simmering yeah you know and and some of the
thoughts have kind of you know solidified and I can go back and kind of
really refine it I thought of other verses that maybe oh that would go well
with that or whatever so on Wednesday I finish it and then I preach it on
Wednesday so then on Thursday I start my Sunday night sermon it's a little
complicated yeah but on Thursday you give yourself enough time yes on
Thursday I start my Sunday night sermon again to the skeleton to the place where
if I needed to I could do it and then on Friday I finished my Sunday morning
sermon on Saturday I finished my Sunday night sermon and I try not to you know
because this is what we all do when we first start out in ministry you know on
Sunday morning we're finishing up our Sunday morning sermon and on me and on
Sunday night in between the services we're writing that's me again so I do
review my sermons during those times but I like for them to be to be written so I
spend my mornings on sermon prep and and I obviously in the afternoons I work on
other projects yeah do you guys think he's a ruler yeah very methodical very
methodical I'm actually preaching on the ruler on Sunday night and I was just
telling them that when I talked to my wife about the ruler the first person
that comes up is past three minutes okay so it's systematic very methodical like
you said and very organized you know and so that's good though and I'm not saying
that schedule would work for everybody but that works it works for me yeah and
it helps me so and then in the afternoons I can work on stuff that's
that's a little lighter yeah so in the afternoon hey sometimes I am because
because I have a leadership class so we've got lessons to write for that
right we do projects you know landmarks whatever that in the afternoons is what
I'm trying to work on those well I definitely see the value in giving
yourself a buffering zone for your sermons because sometimes when like for
example obviously it's not the same thing but if if I'm editing a project a
video and I'm working on something it's good for me sometimes to just walk away
from it for about a couple days because if I'm constantly working on it then I
can become critical of it and and to the point where it's like I don't like
the way this looks so what I do is just like I walk away from it for a couple
days and then when I come back to it I come with new ideas and it looks good
it's just like well you know what actually this isn't as bad as I thought
it was but it can use more content or more whatever so walking away and giving
yourself a buffering zone is pretty good and not not everybody works that way but
I know for me that that has been a great thing first of all because all preachers
I think work well under pressure as far as you got to preach the sermon yeah you
know and and making myself not preach on the Wednesday night sermon on Tuesday
and getting ahead for the weekend kind of gives puts that pressure yeah but
also for me I've if I can start something and not think about it for a
day there's so many times that I'll wake up the next day and just a verse pops in
my head I'm like oh that would go perfect with that you know so I might
jot it down on my phone but I'm not gonna work on that sermon till whenever
I'm scheduled to work on it or just you're going about you're reading the
Bible or somebody says something that's a good story I would go with the sermon
I'm preaching or whatever so you mentioned something you said under
pressure and you know a lot of times people they don't like being under
pressure for anything and I I feel like in my personal life I thrive under
pressure and I think pastors probably do thrive under pressure a little bit they
have to they have to whether they like to or not they have to but I feel like
him personally for me when I'm put under the gun so to speak is when I
perform my best and I used to have a teacher who used to tell me in Bible
college he used to say you don't work your best under pressure you just work
faster under pressure and I you know that could be that could be the case but
sometimes I feel like I do perform my best when I'm under pressure but
thinking about what you said you know makes me think well maybe I should put
more preparation into what I'm doing and then when I'm under pressure to
finish up the sermon at the very end that's when I put my best it's like the
cherry on top for like a sermon or something you know it's just making
something a little more excellent yeah but I know that whether it comes from
you know sermon preparation or leading or persecution the pressure is always
there and I don't know in my opinion it's it's good for you right you know
what do you think about that well in general sorry you know we all all of us
need to learn to live under pressure yeah because life is not easy right you
know life is difficult and that's one of the things I think as a pastor I try to
teach our people is that life is gonna be difficult either way you know I think
pastor Anderson preached a sermon kind of on that subject I can't remember the
title sermon right now but it's you know you're either gonna eat whatever you
want choose your suffering yeah yeah right you know eat whatever you want and
and and get diabetes or be overweight and that's gonna be difficult or you're
gonna you know not eat everything you want right and I think he's just
offended but you know life is is difficult so we have to live under
pressure but pastors especially you have to live under pressure because we're
constantly under pressure I mean just we're talking about sermon prep this was
something I had to deal with and it was something that I I don't want to say I
hated but it was a problem for me in the ministry and it was this feeling that
you're never done right right I mean you preach on Sunday morning and you've got
Sunday night yeah and as soon as you're done with Sunday night you got Wednesday
you know and as soon as you're done Wednesday night you know we preach three
times a week we're gonna do this for the rest of our lives yeah you're always
under this pressure but I had to realize what I had to learn is that there's
always projects that are not done there's always sermons that are not
finished you know things that I'm still working on and I have to be okay I have
to be able to walk away from that sermon on a Tuesday and do something else or
walk away from that project and take some time off with my family I've got to
learn to live with that pressure on you and just realize it's always gonna be
there so and that's just how the ministry is you know you start doing
weddings you start doing funerals right got this you know these people to deal
with and whatever you're always gonna have that right I think it's just like
it sounds like you're just trying to avoid tunnel vision where you just can't
see everything else right so you kind of give yourself a break and come back with
a fresh perspective right because the outside pressures are they're gonna be
there regardless there is no reason why to impose that pressure upon yourself
absolutely kind of getting tunnel vision into something I get I think one of them
just turned off huh which one was it I get tunnel vision when I'm working on a
project and I see it there's pros and cons to both to tunnel vision the pro
obviously is you're very focused and when I'm focused on a project I don't
like anybody bothering me like I just I become very irritable actually someone
you know like interrupts my my flow but the con is is that I don't know when to
walk away sometimes yeah you know because I just want to finish it or I
lose track of time when I'm working on a project whether even if it's a sermon
you know I just I lose track of time and so I think maybe applying that buffering
zone will help with that yeah because you know it's a deadline before the
deadline so to speak right right and it gives you and again everyone needs to
decide what works for them right but for me I know because I'm the same way I
don't know when to be done I don't want to be done so it gives you like and
we're talking about the sermons right now right when went on on Monday or on
Tuesday or on Thursday when I'm writing those initial outlines and my goal is
just can I preach is it is it can I preach this where if I have to I'm done
I could do it yeah and that kind of gives you a marker because you know when
you're there when you're like okay it's not what I want but if I have to I could
preach this yeah and then I have to give myself permission to close that file and
now I've got to plan out this landmarks you know trip or now I have to write
this class for our leadership class or now I have to you know whatever whatever
it is that you're doing knowing that you're gonna come back to it Lord
willing you know if your schedule goes and obviously everybody schedules gets
messed up or whatever but you have to you kind of give yourself permission to
be done yeah and then but but then you build in the pressure because then you
go back to it on Wednesday and now the pressures on yeah you know I have to
finish this I have to preach this right now so you give yourself those so you're
kind of building in times of okay I'm done now let me go focus on because I
mean especially as a pastor I mean there's times when I I'm working on you
know sometimes my schedule gets messed up and I have to do something else in
the morning so I spend the afternoon working on a sermon and I have to get to
the point where it's like okay it's it's five it's five thirty it's five forty
five I know my wife's cooking dinner I can smell it you know I need to get this
sermon to the place where could I preach this if all hell broke loose could I
preach this because I have to hit save and now I need to go spend time with my
family yeah so you have to build in those pressures man and it's more than
just sermon writing I mean that's an example we're giving but in in sometimes
people think you're crazy as a pastor you know because people walk up to you
and they tell you the worst things right I mean they give us the worst problems
and that's because we're the leaders but somebody walks up to me and says you
know this is happening at this guy's life or this lady's life or they're like
you know their marriage is falling apart or whatever and it's like okay you
know and I take the information and it's like did you hear what I said but it's
like I've got about three of those you know and we're dealing with them you
know but you can't just be chicken little yeah the sky's falling and
everything right apart you know at some point you just have to realize that I've
got people that are burdens right now and I don't know how it's gonna turn out
we're helping them we're working through it but I also can't let that take over
yeah people can sometimes confuse that for like callousness or he's just
callous to but it's not that it's it's almost as if you have to be a good
steward of your emotions to write where it's like you have to allocate when to
react when to respond and if you receive bad news you have to kind of just you
know you you receive bad news that someone died or then someone's involved
in some specific sin you know you got to kind of take that information and it's
like well now it's not the time for me to deal with that if I want to give my
hundred percent to that yeah particular thing I can't just be getting my
emotions involved right now well I used to have this idea that if I could just
solve every problem then I would eventually have no problems that was a
lie but that's not true because as soon as you get rid of problem a problem B
becomes problem a problem C becomes probably in your you just have to
realize it and I think everyone has to realize this but especially as pastors
that we're always gonna be dealing with problems yeah you know and as the church
grows you're gonna have more problems right and that doesn't mean we don't
care that doesn't mean we don't give it the time that's needed but you can't
just let that overwhelm you right you know especially as leaders the whole
reason we lead is to solve problems if that's our main job and if we weren't
solving problems and they would get rid of us they wouldn't need us you know
because they only because I used to feel this way I think like why don't you guys
ever bring me good news right you know like why don't you guys ever tell me
something great you know but then I had to realize that if it's getting to my
level if it could be resolved at the deacon level if it could be resolved at
the evangelist level if it could be resolved at the staff level if it could
be resolved at the volunteer level it would have got resolved there and it
would have never came to me if it got to me it got to me because it's the
promise that I as the pastor yeah you know so it's actually job security you
well keep bringing problems folks we want good news too right but it's yeah
but it's it's it's you can't avoid problems right and we I mean we're
joking about it but the reality is is that churches are filled with people
with problems right and whether that's marital problems child-rearing problems
sin problems problems with depression anxiety just a plethora of different
problems that people bring to the table sometimes absolutely relational problems
and sometimes we go through specific problems as well as pastors yeah or even
how about just the fact that you know persecution can be a problem absolutely
and we have to be able to solve that yeah you know and it's unreasonable to
think that you're gonna become a pastor and not deal with any problems you know
it's just everything's gonna be a bed of roses right it's rare that a couple you
know husband and wife with five kids all dressed nice walk in and they're just
three to thrive soul winning tithing you know I mean yeah that'd be nice but it
yeah but that's not gonna be every visitor every guest so a lot of times
people come to church because they have problems right and it's our job to help
them to help them grow out of that to build out of that or or whatever so we
gotta just deal we've got all these spinning plates you know you just gotta
keep them spinning yeah kind of thinking about like Jesus ministry on this earth
trying to think of times where people ran up to Jesus with good news it was
always like a problem you know hey yeah you're right there's no more juice at
the wedding is like this this and that yeah my son is sorely vexed yeah issue
of blood yeah only one came to thank him right when he healed someone but it's
like everyone else always had a problem yeah it's leadership you know and
obviously you know we can also rejoice when we help people grow and grow out of
those things but it's just like you're saying we have to learn to live under
pressure yeah and and and sometimes it can be the the pressure can be unbearable
I'm actually preaching about that on on Thursday night you know there's times
when Paul said you know that he is about above measure right so and we
understand we're human beings we were not you know we're not the Lord Jesus
Christ but but we just have to realize that life has problems we gotta live
with problem yeah and you know what diamonds are not made diamonds need
pressure in order to be made amen absolutely so if it's like you if you
want the product you got you got to have the process and part of the process are
the problems I shall come forth as gold right you know so amen well going back
to one of the things that you mentioned where we're talking about sermons so how
do you come up with sermon ideas well my style of preaching is a little different
than most guys but I don't come up with sermon ideas as much as I come up with
sermon series ideas and that's how I that's how I do it that's I found that
works for me now I'm not saying that's how everybody needs to do it well I like
that I mean I'm preaching a series on Sunday nights and then I got the idea
from from unit another pastor friend of mine who who said you know actually he
got the idea from here as well you know it's a great idea well I mean there's
plenty of topics in the Bible where you can preach an entire series through
right so so absolutely and that's you know and it comes back to this thing
about you know pressure this is what I used to do when I first started very
Baptist Church I stand up on a Sunday night and say I'm gonna preach a sermon
about the home and I'd have point number one the father point number two the
mother or the wife point number three the children and I try to like fit it
everything I knew about all of that and all the verses or whatever and I preach
for an hour and thirty five minutes so here's the thing here's the thing though
when you realize that I'm gonna preach every week for the rest of my life you
know now I'm not against our 35 minute sermons in fact usually when I'm guest
preaching I do preach our 35 minutes or whatever because you're there and you
know you want to give it your best and whatever but when it comes to your
church people I think and this is my thought I'm not saying it's wrong to do
it any other way but I think myself why get up and preach for an hour twenty
minutes when I'm preaching to the same hundred fifty people 175 people 200
people every week you know I've got two sermons here yeah and and you can
actually develop it even better you know so I used to preach a sermon about the
family and I try to fit five points and whatever into an hour and it ended up
being an hour and thirty minutes you know now what I do is I just preach five
weeks on the family yeah it's a whole sermon for the men that's good a whole
sermon for the wives or whatever so that's what I try to do you know I had
an idea like you know I'm really preaching on the Holy Spirit I want to
preach something about the Holy Spirit and I started jotting down ideas well I
ended up doing like a nine-week series on a Sunday night of the whole just
systematically going through the Holy Spirit really and again I'm not saying
that's for everybody but I like I mean I personally like that I mean my father-in-law
he used to do the same I mean as far as from what I can remember he preached a
lot of different series yeah like on Sunday it would be like Sunday morning
was like a topical sermon and then Sunday night would be like a series on
something and the same thing on on Wednesdays or on Thursdays sometimes you
would go through a book but most of the time it was like a topical not a topical
sermon but it was like a series that he was going through like a glorious church
and what a glorious church was and just kind of go through different concepts in
the Bible in that regard actually I'm probably gonna preach on that during the
summer during the summer remember he used to just do like about the whole
family as well yeah yeah you do serious oh yeah in the summer yeah family nights
it would be like a series on the family every week with you know you got week
one would be the marriage or you know husband and wife children in the second
week and all that and so I definitely see the value in that yeah and you're
right because you you if you break it up like that then you can develop it more
right and sometimes you know because I'm guilty of preaching like a topical
sermon and it's like I know what the Bible says about this entire topic and
I have to fit all this in one sermon right and sometimes when I'm going
through my points I think to myself man there's so much more that I want to say
about this one point but I gotta move on right well I'll give you an example you
get you brought this up I preach the sermon somebody pissed me off about
politics and I preach the sermon called God's not American right and I preach
the sermon a lot of people hated it but a lot of people loved it you know and
and whatever and but I felt like there was so much more I could have talked
about that I didn't have time to so you know like two months later whatever I
end up doing this series about politics yeah you know and it was pretty much
everything I left out of the there was more wait there's more so folks when you
go back and listen to that sermon you think you you think you know how Matty
was right what you don't know is that the five six sermons he came up with
after that was just the the rest of his him being pissed you know it's it was a
Sunday morning series it was right before the election everybody's thinking
about politics anyway so you know each five sermons about politics or whatever
so that's how I do it yeah like I said I realize not everybody maybe can do it
that way or wants to do it that way but for me that works yeah and and and this
is not like a hard rule for me but generally what I like to do is on Sunday
mornings I do like a topical series mm-hmm and then on Sunday nights it's a
topical series also but it more like a learning doctrinal or something that I
do silly things and then on on Wednesday nights it's a Bible study but verse by
verse like I recently just did a series on Sunday nights called when animals
attack and that's yeah you know and I went through all the story not all the
stories I went through some of the story cuz there's a lot of stories actually
yeah but a lot of the stories of when God just chose to attack people with
animals yeah you took me back to my childhood with that title because I
don't know if you remember there used to be a show called when animals attack
right I never watched the show but I heard of it yeah I watch I watched every
single one and it's like when animals attack I was like some pit bull mauling
some right you know person or whatever and it's just or crocodile biting some
guys on the funny thing is that that that series started as a joke a bunch of
a guys after church we were taught we're joking around we're talking like yeah
you could do a series on when animals attack and then we started naming like
you know yeah like you preach on this whatever and I thought yeah maybe I'll
do a sermon on it but then I started thinking I'm like the whole series yeah
and then I started it with a sermon that wasn't about animals attacking just
about like what God thinks about animals and how we should see animals that end
up developing into this series you know from a joke yeah so what's interesting
you say that because um I get ideas from different people but I mean I get them
for my church members all the time like I preached a sermon at Pastor Joe
Jones's church and it was called supernatural of the supernatural just
talking about how you know the Bible is a supernatural book it's a book but it's
not just a book it's a supernatural book and just different ways that God made
took something natural and made it super you know the way he's spoken to everyone
and basically my last point was we're natural beings but because we're saved
we become supernatural yeah but we'll only really become supernatural when
we're out there preaching the gospel preaching the Word of God but actually
got the idea from him during one of our podcasts he just kind of threw something
out there and then we just kind of started developing it and I was like you
know I think I'm gonna preach on that that's a good idea but a lot of people
you know they come sometimes topics of a sermon just comes through casual
conversations or something like that you know right sometimes I get an idea from
a sermon through a book mm-hmm or a concept in a book right you know maybe
it's just like a point or a sentence they said in a book and like that would
make a good sermon right you know but I guess as a pastor you always have to be
investigating different avenues of information and that's that's the other
thing with that you know for guys that want to go into ministry for when you're
a pastor you're always writing a sermon so there's always you know you hear
stories somebody tells you something or whatever you're like oh I could use that
or I can use that in a sermon and so you're always kind of in that creative creative
mode but absolutely reading books you get ideas sometimes from other guys
preaching they might just say something and it's not even what they're preaching
about it's just something they said it's like man that that's a sermon right
there yeah so you always want to I have notes on my phone where I'm always
writing down thoughts and ideas and references or whatever and it's got to
always be working at that yeah having a hermeneutical heart that's the book
that they made us hermeneutics from the heart from the heart yeah no no no not
hermeneutics from the heart oh yeah homiletics is like the preaching yeah
hermeneutics is like the study of the Bible yeah right did you graduate from
Bible College man no I remember I took a class in Bible College it was
hermeneutics yeah and I was really excited about it because it's just like
you know it's good it's gonna show you how to study the Bible but then it was
just like everything but studying the Bible yeah it was like how to read
Charles Spurgeon Treasury scripture of knowledge or something like that but I'm
definitely a strong proponent in hermeneutics I mean obviously we don't
call it that we just call it preaching but you know there's the element of
collecting the information there's an element obviously of studying a topic
but then there's also an element of delivering you're right so I'm a strong
believer that you should be an exciting preacher now if there's someone out
there who's preaching God's Word and they're not as exciting but they're very
doctrinally sound I enjoy that sermon too right you know but but my personally
for me I think it's important that you deliver the sermon with power with
authority and even with some humor I mean what do you think about that
absolutely and those are the things we all have to work out right yeah this is
our trade yeah you know for so many people don't like you using that
terminology but this is what we do for a living right so we want to be the best
we can at it so there's the aspect of preparation studying preparing the
outlines all of that that's that's a work in and of itself and then there's
and then there's the aspect of delivery right and you know I don't know what I'm
sure you do this but I'm I'm constantly trying to work on my own delivery you
know and trying to get better at preaching the Bible amen and I try to
tell young guys you know get out of your comfort zones if you're not yelling try
to yell you know you're not walking around maybe try to walk around don't
you know try to use your hands whatever we all want to be better at you know we
got into this because we love preaching and chicken and so so you have to those
are all things we have to work on yeah you have to get better at obviously it
gets better with with the more experience yeah but yeah we all have to
be working the reality is we talked about this before just you you do have
to be entertaining to a certain extent and I'm not saying like you're up there
just as a full-blown comedian but you know you have to keep the attention of
the people right and so you know the prophets of the Old Testament where I'm
sure we're very entertaining I mean we see examples of that oh yeah where Isaiah
and Ezekiel they're doing some outlandish things right to to get across
a specific biblical truth yeah and I'm sure the people in those days paid
attention because they were very exciting yeah and so you know I think
that's important and the trick is you have to get excited right you know
because sometimes we you know you're preaching a topical sermon and you're
just excited about that sermon but that's not always the case sometimes
you're you know I'm preaching through the book of Job right now yeah and on
Wednesday nights and part of part of the sermon preparation is just I have to
tell myself okay God gave us this chapter for a reason something God wants
us to see in it or learn from it or you know learn from the mistakes they're
making or whatever and then you have to get excited right now Jack house and his
teaching on preaching talks about about the fact that you you have to figure out
what is it that our people need to hear from this and you have to be you know
they know if you're not excited about what you're trying you don't believe
what you're talking about right so all of that and and of course we want to be
funny and entertaining and all that but even just being convinced that it was
worth you you want to work all day you came home you took a shower you had a
quick dinner you loaded up the kids you drove out here on a Thursday night and
you know LA traffic or whatever and it was worth it because what what we're
talking about from the Bible is something you need it's important
exactly so I mean let me fix this real quick I think this needs to be right
there sorry about that that's all right yeah absolutely I agree with that I
think that's that's an important element of preaching is getting like you said
getting excited about it right and being convinced that that that's this is the
most important truth right now right you know today it's the most important truth
for you to get and I think when a pastor gets excited about a sermon
people are naturally affected by that in the church and you know they just they
they receive that and so there's um there's a preacher who there's a story
I told this story in one of my sermons a while back but it was a story about a
pastor and an actor and this is like in England many many years ago and the the
pastor he was complaining because no one would come listen to him preach hmm
and he's like man I'm preaching God's Word I'm doing the best that I can I'm
preaching doctrine and no one's coming to hear me preach but yet this guy he's
just acting on a stage and everyone's coming to hear him why you know and so
he actually went to that actor or you know the guy who was on stage and he
said why is it that I'm preaching these eternal truths and no one's coming to
listen to me and yet you're preaching fiction I mean you're basically acting
something everyone comes to listen to you and he said because of the fact that
he said you're preaching truth as though it is fiction and I'm preaching fiction
as though it is truth yeah and basically saying is like you're missing the
element of passion right basically right and so you know I definitely think
that's important and I think independent fundamental Baptists are known for
having passion when they preach too that's what got my attention when I when
I first came to church there was an exciting preacher my father-in-law was
an exciting preacher you know I would I distinctly remember sitting in you know
on the front row listening to him preach I'm like man this guy's crazy yeah he's
he's he's mad or he's excited and it resonated with me right I think people
don't realize that when you watch a pastor like pastor Mahir like pastor
Anderson and they're just doing their thing and they're awesome the the mistake
young men make is they think oh that's that's natural and to an extent there is
the aptitude to teach and there is the natural but there's also the preparation
right and I mean even little things like I try to think through if I'm gonna tell
a story in the sermon I don't just write tell the story and then I get up there
and tell the story I actually think through how am I gonna tell because
there's an art to telling a story yeah you know there's an art to telling a
Bible story right you know and preaching through a Bible story you
could just you know read the verse you know I call it commentary preaching
where it's like you read the verse and make a few comments read the next verse
make a few comments and there's a time and a place for that and sometimes you
you don't have a choice you know yeah I preached a book of Ezekiel and it was
like that's all you're getting folks
but but especially when you're preaching through a narrative yeah you know in my
opinion my style I like to get into that story tell that story yeah and
develop the what God is telling us but the emotions of things going on there is
there's definitely an art to delivery yeah that helps amen that's the lesson
we can get from the actor right yeah absolutely that's good stuff the verse
that I think of is um having then gifts differing according to the grace that is
given to us whether prophecy let us prophesy according to the proportion of
faith and I found just because I'm I would say I'm fairly like um I've been
saved about four years but when I watch my favorite pastors preach is because I
can tell what they're preaching they have so much faith in what they're
preaching because they truly believe the things that they believe and I think
that's how they also find these little nuggets of gold that nobody else has
seen yeah because they read it and I might read over that and skip it and
never think about it twice but they found a like such a nugget in there but
it's according to their faith that how much they they took from that yeah it's
like they give themselves to that yeah they just believe what it says but then
they they realize hey there's more to this there's a reason why that this is
here or this sentence is here right and that kind of helps them to trail blaze
and find why is it here and then they come up with these not new truths all
truth just nuggets of different layers yes different layers layers right man
so I find you know people who have more faith I'd like to hear them preach it
just shows yeah yeah man so um speaking of pastoring and and preaching but more
specific of pastoring you know I want to talk to you about pastoring in
California because you know California catches a bad rap I don't know why it's
like the best place in the world they say it's the land of fruits and nuts
that's why I don't know if they still say that but they used to say that back
in the day we're taking it back yeah we are taking it back and the thing is like
in my opinion I love California man I don't ever plan on leaving California
and I'm planning to just do ministry here to the second coming of Christ and
but it does you know California does catch a bad rap from other people right
you know they think it's just like the worst place ever to ever be in and you
know oh it's such a liberal state and all these things but I don't see it that
way you know and I grew up here you know I learned how to serve the Lord here and
I think California first and foremost it's where God has us but California is
very receptive towards the gospel you know there's a lot of receptive people
and in my opinion I'm you've traveled many places in the United States
California is actually pretty normal in comparison to what people think it
really is I mean what do you think about that absolutely I mean I think people
don't realize that when they think of California think of San Francisco and
they think of Hollywood Hollywood right and that's just not the case yeah and of
course California has a liberal government all that stuff you know
everywhere I go people are constantly telling me you know California is
terrible and I would move to Verity if it wasn't in California I put that so
many times and I just bite my tongue and you know it's it's this thing where
it has this reputation yeah you know and I get I get it but to me this is this is
the front lines yeah this is where the battles at right now and you know
sometimes people and of course not just California we know that you're
Washington and Arizona yeah and and the battles in different places but I mean
we get we we get a persecution to hear that you just aren't gonna get somewhere
else yeah yeah we had a protest back in 2016 where the news was reporting there
was 1,500 sodomites out of our our church building you know and and and
what's interesting to me is sometimes you know because the Red Hot Preaching
Conference things like that guys walk up to me and they're like you know I want
to do what you're doing I want to do a pastor Harris is doing I want to do a
pastor he is doing you know and I want to fight the sodomites and I want to you
know and I'm like great praise the Lord you know we need more preachers and like
yeah but I want our church in Alabama it's like well here's the thing your
church is probably not gonna get bombed in Alabama and you're probably not gonna
fight this big battle you know yeah whatever Mississippi and I'm not saying
those places don't need churches but this is where the battles are it's like
the hottest part of the battle it's the hottest part about and here's here's my
thoughts if I'm gonna go to war you know if I was if I was living during World
War two and they were gonna draft me into war you know if I'm going to war I
want to be on the beaches of Normandy on yeah yeah man I want to come home and
say well either I don't come home or I want to come home and say hey I fought
indeed a yeah here's the thing I could be a logistics officer in England right
during World War two right yeah while they're while they're bombing that's a
great way to put it but I'd rather be in the front line yeah and California is
the front line so you know if there's any guys out there that want to fight
amen for the Lord hey we could use your help in California absolutely and you
know it's frustrating too because I get upset with with the Conservatives you
know as you can tell by my sermon but you know even politically speaking yeah
because I feel like they've just retreated you know and to me it's this
it's this cowardice yeah who decided that and I'm not even talking about
spiritually more I'm just talking about politically speaking who decided let's
give the Democrats the most awesome places you know yeah in the United
States let's let them have California let them have Miami let them have Hawaii
and all the Conservatives can get North Dakota and Oklahoma yeah all the all the
you know cuz cuz all these guys are constantly telling us I'm sure you hear
it you know we're leaving California to go to Idaho and I'm not against Idaho go
to shield of faith Boise pretty man but you know this idea like let's all
retreat to where the snow is it's like well who decided to give the Liberals
the most yeah why don't you give them that yeah we keep the cool places like
San Diego yeah nice places and make them move to the middle of nowhere so I think
it's worth fighting yeah I'm in my goal is to start and I'm I know you have the
same passion you know to start as many churches in California as possible I
mean I can I don't know I'm 35 years old we've I've been passionate for 10 years
the Lord is allowed to start five churches in those 10 years by the grace
of God not all of them have been California because you know different
places have opened up and opportunities they've all been on the west coast on
the west side but you know I just think I've been at this for 10 years we
started five churches and this is kind of exponential too if I could pastor for
30 years 40 years you know if our church a very Baptist Church could start 25 35
churches in my lifetime in California yeah while you're starting churches while
those churches are starting I mean we started sure foundation Baptist Church
in Vancouver Washington and that church has started yeah like five other
churches yeah imagine if there was 20 new IP churches in up and down the state
of California I mean it would have to make a difference oh yeah I would have
to well you know my father-in-law had a vision to start 65 churches in
California Wow and he he had a big burden for California like he wanted to
start churches all across the five and just different cities Modesto and and
you know he wanted to do in Fresno Bakersfield and he just had a big
burden for California and you know a lot of people during that time where we're
going to different states but he saw purpose and value in planning churches
in California obviously he wasn't able to do it he ended up getting sick but he
transferred them that desire to me because I desire the same thing like for
me obviously I know that Southern California needs the gospel but I know
there's many other even small little cities that can use a Bible believing
Church and and here's the thing instead of retreating to the woods why don't you
just stick around yeah and and fight the battle be a part of a church and you
just never know maybe we can turn the tide around politically I mean I don't
really care about politics but you know it can become conservative and people
would argue is like well it's never gonna become conservative but but here's
the thing the only reason anything's conservative is because it started with
what the foundation of a biblical foundation right you think of like the
Bible Belt yeah you know that why are they called the red states in those
areas it's because originally that's where a lot of churches were founded
right you know and so you know let's start a Bible suspender in California
well you know thing you'll in my opinion you'll never turn California
conservative right but if you try to turn a place conservative you can turn
it conservative and and that doesn't equate to Christianity or spirituality
right but if we could turn people to Christ right if they could grow in the
Lord because there's thing you can walk up to Californians and try to convince
them about conservatism and they may or may not you know based on their
brainwashing but when you get them saved yeah and the Holy Spirit of God
moves in and of course it works and we're talking about the fact that you
know just cuz they get saved doesn't mean their lives gonna change but if you
can get them plugged into a church if you can help them grow and learn and
understand I mean this is what we do we change people's minds you know with the
Word of God yeah you know you could turn California into a Christian right what I
mean by that is where there's many words there's a lot of Christians yeah right
and then that'll actually turn it conservative well exactly you know that's
what I mean like for example you know that that's what you had in the Bible
Belt right where they were founded by independent fundamental Baptists or
just Baptist period right with Schuylkill Stearns where he started about five
thousand churches and it was a spiritual hub at that point right but then
obviously you know politics started creeping in and it became more of a
conservative movement right political conservative movement rather than a
spiritual movement but you know obviously they're they benefited from it
to a certain extent and I think the same can happen here and for me it's like who
cares if it becomes a red state or not California the most important thing is
like it becomes a light right right you know and and to win people to the
biblical view to win them to Christ into the biblical view holds more substance
and is more effective than winning them to a red view right to a Republican view
absolutely and so you know I'm completely again when people say stuff
about California I take it offensively man me too I get mad I'm like hey that's
where I'm sir give the pastor so much you know and of course we're not mad at
these people no no but I we're not mad at them to their face sometimes I it's
funny because I travel you know everyone the Lord has allowed me to go a lot of
places and everywhere I go people tough fashion California hmm fine whatever
commie fornia have they been to California yeah right no and the funny
thing is that mo many of these people I've never even been to Cal right yeah
you know that was actually one of the reasons we started the Red Hot Pigeon
car is just to give people a reason to come to California I mean you know can
see that it's not you know it's not all Hollywood right but oftentimes you know
what I hear in Boise in Dallas and whatever is all these Californians are
ruining our state you know all these people and I'm thinking myself like okay
well there must be no good Californians because all the conservative
Californians are leaving yeah but then they go to these conservative places and
all those people are saying you guys are ruining our state so it's like yeah
it's like almost it doesn't make any sense right maybe just stay here and
fight the battle with us there's so many people in California I mean there's
people to reach yeah there's work to be done absolutely I mean I'm looking
forward to Lord willing will I will be here until the second coming of Christ
and we'll start many churches and you know in my opinion I mean people I'm
sure when they heard about our church getting bombed our churchmen getting
bombed it probably discourage them even more regarding California they're
probably like well I'm really not going then but you know what that's okay
though because the reality is is that we're gonna raise up a new generation
that grows up here get saved they get their minds reformed by the Bible and
they'll be fortified even so much the more I mean our children growing up in
our church get seen the persecution seen the Word of God being preached and
thundered forth you know that's the generation we like you said we shouldn't
be cowards and run away we want to teach the next generation that we need to
stand right and not let people just push you into a corner or something you know
and I heard you say this and I know this was the truth for us at Verity and I
know other friends that have had a persecution but persecution is like the
best thing that can happen to your church yeah yeah you know and in the
Bible you see that as people as the people of God are being persecuted they
thrive right and that you know so people say they see the things that happen to
us and they might scare them it's like we're glad we're going through it yeah
it's actually helped us it's been a benefit to right I want to be careful
how I say this not not to sound carnal but there is also a level of I don't
even know what to call it but there's a level you pass you know and and first
works you guys have always been an amazing church but you pass that you
know I don't want to call it famous it should probably be more like infamous
but you pass this level where you you know pastor Anderson's had it you know
you guys have had it we've had it at Verity and other churches have had it
you get a certain level of persecution and it's more than just mean comments on
YouTube you know it's in in you know when when your church is on the LA
Times and CNN and you know all of that it does put you at a place of you know
I don't know what the right we call it something with the Lord yeah exactly
right yeah because the concept of the fellowship of his suffering uh-huh you
know just partaking of that fellas knocking at the door yeah when I think I
think of like the Bible talks about Solomon or Joshua the Bible says that
the Lord magnified you know and not to make it about us but there is this
church has been magnified you as a preacher have been magnified in a sense
and to those that hate us you know you become a byword but to people that agree
with what you're doing you're saying like wow look at what pastor me is doing
and I you can only get that on D day you're not gonna get that being the
logistics officer in England and that's why when people say to me like I want to
be a new IP preacher but I don't want to go to California it's like okay I mean
and I'm not saying there's something wrong obviously these churches need to
be started and whatever especially people are from those areas I'm not I'm
not bashing that yeah but I'm just saying that this is where the battles
yeah man and you know well you know I mean I'm thankful that you went through
it before I did and I'm thankful that pastor Anderson went through it before I
did because I'm thankful that you're going through it and I'm not going
through yeah I mean what old IP pastor good would I be able to call right
during a time like this and and and share ideas like what should I do
because I called you and I said look I got these ideas this is going on with
our church regarding the protests and the bombing like you know what do you
think about this and and we're we're contemporaries in a sense of like you've
been through that persecution you know the feeling that comes with it yeah you
know the the hardness of the persecution the fire so it's like you can relate
right and and I think that's important I I'm just thankful that you suffered
I'm thankful that you went through a hard time we get into the ministry right
to publish the Word of God yeah to promote the Word of God to get as many
people to hear the Word of God then things like this happen and you know we
want to milk that yeah you know for lack of better words and then as much as
possible we want to use as much of you know I mean even even after the fact I
mean we had our protests in 2016 I think it was 2019 that a journalist from the
LA Times came to the Red Hot Preaching Conference you know I remember that you
know and then did this whole LA Times you know article about our church and
the Red Hot Preaching Conference and all those things it's like praise the Lord
yeah thanks for all the free publicity yeah you know you know what it would
cause me to put a yeah you know about our church be like we're talking about
like I mean I don't even know $20,000 yeah and they gave it to us for free
yeah you know let the Word of God do that yeah amen amen to that that's good
that's good yeah well you know just for I wanted to make get that segment in
there pastoring in California because I think it catches a bad rabbit it
shouldn't you know and you know what it catches a bad rabbit with the people who
are just afraid in my opinion right you know and people who are more politically
driven rather than biblically driven yeah because what if you look at it from
a biblical perspective you know who cares if it's a red or a blue state
right you know where we want to be is Goshen and Goshen is wherever you're
serving the Lord you know wherever you know your soul winning you're you're
preaching God's Word you're at your local New Testament Church we shouldn't
be Christians who are politically driven right you know I don't I mean obviously
it sucks to have Biden in an office to a certain extent but do we really care
right you know and the interesting thing is this that you guys I get tons
of people saved down here we get people saved in Sacramento and when we're
knocking doors you know what we're not asking we're not asking did you you know
and yet we're seeing tons of people say yeah I'm in you know and this idea and
again I'm not against obviously other people have to live in other states I
get that you know we're the fortunate ones I get to live here yeah but you
know but this idea that people have like I'm gonna leave California because
everybody's a Democrat and I want to go live where everybody's a conservative
it's like are you a Christian because even being around a bunch of worldly
conservatives I don't fit in yeah you know I I want to be with with God's
people this is where God brought us and of course there's place there's God's
people you know churches and other places we understand that but there's
just this idea I'm just opposed this idea like I want to live in a town where
everybody agrees with me it's like well then you must be pretty worldly yeah
because I mean have you seen the conservatives of today right it's like
they're most of them go to like apostate churches they have they have weird
beliefs you know I I wouldn't I would more readily fit in with the person I
just want to the Lord who I can help mold their mind using the Bible I see it
our way then then some Christian conservative who is just more about
politics than about the Bible right probably uses a different version of the
Bible probably believes you have to work your way to heaven right I mean it's
like we don't fit in with that crowd yeah now obviously they're they're
receptive towards the message right and and and it's they're far more receptive
sometimes than liberals are yeah but you're right he's like you don't how can
I fit in with that right I don't right you know and so I really appreciate that
sermon that God is not an American I think it's it's true you know you did
piss off a lot of people and I was like oh man he's about to take off a lot of
people this is gonna be a good one I watch drag Jack Trevor I watched like
15 minutes of his preaching a week just to like fire me up mad yeah you don't
let the Sun go down upon your wrath that's good yeah well you know
throughout this whole coronavirus thing you know I feel like the Lord has seen
us through as churches and you know we weren't necessarily affected by it right
you know we still kept doing and when we didn't we didn't you know brag about
anything or anything but you know God he held us through and even even through
the actual sickness right because this lets you know we both believe that the
coronavirus is real yeah I mean we both got it you probably got it we got a red
hot fever we came back with the red-hot fevers when we came back with you know I
felt bad that people got sick at the red-hot breaking arms I was talking
about Pastor Anderson about it and he kind of you know helped me with that a
little bit cuz he's like well you know when people go to a conference in the
midst of a pandemic they should kind of expect that by the way Pastor Anderson I believe is an
ex-order okay that's what I believe oh yeah absolutely yeah because man he's
such an ex-order like let me just throw this out there okay I love you Pastor
Anderson is that tell me if I'm wrong okay but one of the one of the
characteristics of an ex-order is they get very excited about a particular
thing project and then they get everyone else excited about it and then what do
they do they walk away from that project leaving us with it right which
is why I'm doing season one yeah but you know what I guarantee you doesn't care
but he's just like he's moved on to something else you know yeah he's
probably working on another show he's like he's somewhere skydiving right now
like a camera Pastor Anderson is notorious for that yeah but I mean he
gets me he gets us excited about it absolutely like when he sells you the
vision uh-huh he sells it to you like he can sell salt to a snail ice to a
Eskimo you know it's just like just get you excited about that particular topic
and then you you buy into it and then he's just like I'm bored of this and he
just walks away from it when I when I when my phone's ringing and I see Steven
Anderson you know on my on my call thing I what are we doing now let's do it
what's the plan yeah yeah he's an exhort but I mean it's he aside from the fact
that they they come there they're able to cast vision they're able to provide a
lot they see light at the end of the tunnel when it comes to any tribulation
you know and I'm sure you've talked to Pastor Anderson you're going to a
difficult time and he's just like gives you a lot of hope yeah he's like you're
gonna come out like gold everything's gonna be okay and you come out like
thinking like actually yeah yeah I guess he's right about that you know so that's
his strength mm-hmm and obviously he's a hard preacher people might mistake him
for being a prophet but I think he's just learned to be that way but in my
personal opinion I think he's an ex-order yeah oh yeah he sees the cause
and effect and everything but yeah I'm thankful for his influence obviously
he's influenced your life his influence mine and he's a Californian yeah yeah so
exactly amen to that well so are you going to San Diego anytime throughout
this trip probably not this trip okay cuz I know you're fan of San Diego yeah
yes I think I mean I don't know I haven't been to every city in the world
but I think San Diego is probably the most beautiful city in the world yeah I
mean it's just a beautiful city yeah and the San Diego Zoo is awesome yeah I
would go I would go to the San Diego Zoo over any theme park over any you know
whatever we're taking our homeschool field trip yeah that's awesome to the
San Diego Zoo I'll cut this part out yeah but no the
San Diego Zoo is awesome I'm constantly telling people to go to San Diego but just
even just driving through San Diego I think it's just a beautiful city yeah I
love San Diego this trip we're probably not gonna make it but you know I'm at
some point yeah I mean I like to go down there it's cool place that's great well
past three minutes I think we'll we'll end it right there if there's anything
else you couldn't you want to mention you can but um you know just want to
encourage everyone of obviously I'm pretty sure you've subscribed to his
channel but if you have not subscribed to Verity Baptist Church make sure you
do so and and he's got a lot of good content on that channel is constantly
working on new content constantly putting new stuff out he's he's a
well-oiled machine when it comes to biblical contents always putting things
out and so make sure you subscribe to that and he's gonna be preaching for us
tomorrow night man so looking forward to having him I don't know maybe we
shouldn't have him preach because the last time we had a guest preacher we got
our church blown up pastor Burzins every night on Thursday and then they bombed
our church the following what are you preaching on by the way
that's a person's preached on fags and speedos go home yeah that same night or
the next night it was on so he preached that Thursday and then on Saturday
morning at one o'clock in the mornings when they bomb their church so maybe
maybe we won't have you yeah what are you preaching on I'm preaching on
troubled on every side so I want to talk about you know this the Apostle Paul
makes these statements in my opinion of clarity and reality because you know we
you hear a lot about shaming you know fat shaming and whatever but we get like
persecution shaming you know yeah we go through these persecutions and then you
get these Christians that look at us like we're doing something wrong gas
lighting you know and like well you must be doing something wrong because this
doesn't happen to anybody nobody else's churches getting bombed but you know
it's like well have you read the Bible yeah because I think they crucified our
Savior yeah and and have you read bookbacks you know but Paul he makes
these statements of reality yes we are troubled on every side but we're not in
distress yes it's true we are persecuted but we're not forsaken right sometimes
we're cast down but we're not destroyed yeah you know so there is truth that we
go through these things we're not gonna hide that right you know but it doesn't
finish us yeah you know and it's anyway that's my preaching that's good looking
forward to that yeah that's gonna be awesome amen well folks I think we're
gonna call it a night thank you so much for tuning in make sure that you you
could either obviously you can watch the full episode on the YouTube channel make
sure you subscribe hit the like button put a comment in the section below you
can also listen to the podcast on Spotify if you have a subscription to
that or if you tune in to that it's on our website and so thank you pastor
you minutes for coming on the show yeah and that's pretty much it call it a
night folks have a good night dun dun dun dun dun dun dun and I don't know
you