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and preach the Bible. Please help those that are here to be open to what the Bible says here and to listen intently to what the Spirit saith unto the churches of your God. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now turn, if you would, you're in Ezekiel, turn back just a few pages to Isaiah chapter number 6. Isaiah chapter number 6, that's just about two books back toward the beginning of your Bible. And the part that I wanted to read about this very sad chapter in the Bible. It's a very frustrated God listing the abominations and the filth of the nation of Judah. If you understand, historically the book of Ezekiel was written by God, of course, through the prophet Ezekiel, a preacher to the southern kingdom of Judah. And this nation that once had been a great light of the gospel, a great godly nation, had turned into just the most filthy, abominable, violent, wicked hellhole of a place. And you know, it reminds me a lot of the United States of America, I'll be honest with you. The bloodshed, the violence, the murder, the abomination, the filthy immorality. And he's describing this condition, he's very angry and he's going through this list, a very sad chapter. And the saddest part about the chapter is when he gets to the end and in verse 30 he says, And I sought for a man among them. And he's looking for one person. He says, And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. That was a sad word, but I found none. He said, I was just looking for one person that would stand up and stand in the gap and make up the hedge and stand up and do right and stand before me for the land that I had not destroyed. But he said, I couldn't find that man. He said, I found none. Therefore, have I poured out mine indignation upon them. Now look down, if you would, at where you are in Isaiah chapter 6, and we'll see the next scripture before I get into the message. Bible says in verse number 8, Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send me. I'll read it again. Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then said I, Isaiah speaking, Here am I, send me. The title of the sermon tonight is this, If not you, then who? That's the title of the sermon tonight. If not you, then who? Now I think sometimes we get this idea that, well, if I don't do it, somebody else is going to do it. We get this idea that God's somehow up in heaven orchestrating everything in the world, that God just controls everything, and we get this hyper-Calvinist type attitude that says, well, God's going to make sure it all turns out okay. God's going to take care of it. Or, if I don't go, if I don't do what I, somebody else will do it. Somebody else will take my place. Well, no, because God said He looked for somebody to do something. He looked for somebody to stand in the gap. He looked for somebody to make a bed, and He said I couldn't find anybody, and because of that I had to destroy the whole nation because I couldn't find anybody. And so my question to you tonight, and I'm going to give you several points here, my question to you tonight is, if not who, if it's not going to be you, then who is it that's going to go for God? Who is it? If it's not you, then who? Number one, if not you, then who is going to be the sole winner in 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona, or anywhere else for that matter? If you are not going to go out, as the Bible says, and preach the Gospel to every preacher, who do you think it's going to be that's going to get it done? Now, I'm going to tell you something. We were out solely today, we were out knocking on the doors, we had our Bibles, we were preaching the Gospel trying to get people saved. I'm going to tell you one thing, we didn't see anybody else out doing it. I cannot remember one time since I've been here, since I started this church less than two years ago, I can't remember one time running into anybody else that was a Baptist out preaching the Gospel and winning souls for Jesus Christ. You say, wait a minute, Pastor Anderson, there are Baptist churches all over this city. There are hundreds of Baptist churches in Phoenix, Arizona and in the surrounding area here. You mean to tell me that you've never seen one of them? No, my friend, I haven't seen one because they don't want to go to the neighborhood that we were in today. They don't want to get their hands a little dirty. They don't want to go out and love the unlovable. They don't want to go out and to seek and to save that which is lost as Jesus Christ did when he was on this earth. They're too busy having a social club. They're too busy with all their little choir practices. They're too busy with all their little social activities. They're too busy talking about sports. They're not out there doing the one thing that God commissioned the local church to do, which is to go out and preach the Gospel to every creature. Turn if you were to Matthew chapter 9, this is the first book in the New Testament. Write about three quarters of the way through your Bible begins the New Testament and you'll find the book of Matthew chapter number 9. If you remember sitting in Faithful Word Baptist Church are not going to be a soul winner, who is going to be a soul winner is what I want to know. Go ahead and kid yourself. Go ahead and tell yourself that there's all kinds of people out preaching the Gospel, winning people to Christ, all over Phoenix. I'll say this, there are a few churches in this town that do, and I'm just saying I've never run into them, that's all. I'm not saying they're not out there. I can think of three good churches in this area right now that go out and win the souls. One of them is two miles from here. Trinity Fellowship, I know that they go out and win souls. I know that out in Apache Junction by the cowling and they win souls. I know of another church up in Phoenix, I think it's called 35th Avenue Baptist Church, and boy, they're out knocking the doors. They're out winning the souls, but I'm going to tell you something. There's over three million people in Phoenix, Arizona, and just a handful, just a few people who are going out and preaching the Gospel and winning people to Christ, and you wonder why the city's in the condition it's in. You wonder why Tempe is in the condition that it's in. I'll tell you why, because there's two other independent Baptist churches in Tempe and they're both so liberal, so ridiculously liberal, I wouldn't have anything to do with any of them, okay? And there's only, we're number three. We're out doing the soul winning. That's why Tempe is in the situation it's in. But see, out of all these churches in Phoenix, and this is nationwide it's the same thing. Some areas are better than others, and this is kind of an area where there aren't a lot of churches that are out doing it. But out of all these hundreds of churches in the Phoenix area here, there's only very few, as I illustrated, I'm sure there are a few more than that that knock doors. Those are the ones that I know about, okay? Out of all those, there are just a few that are a church that even cares about that, that even does anything more than being a social club. But then among the churches that are doing it, how many of the people are really out, you know? And I'm not just talking about door to door, but you know your friends, your loved ones, I mean how many people are really a soul winner in a given church? Now here, you know, we have a much higher percentage, okay? But I'm gonna tell you something, if you're not gonna do it, who's gonna do it? If you're not gonna knock that particular door, it's probably never gonna be knocked. We're not gonna knock every door in the city, there's no way. And if you don't go out, whatever door you knock this week, whatever person you talk to at work this week, whatever person you talk to out and about this week, if you don't talk to that person, who's gonna talk to them? Probably no one is the answer. You may be the last chance that that person has in 2007, you may be the last chance that they have. If you don't do it, who's gonna do it? Look down at Matthew chapter 9, if you would, and look at verse number 36. This is Jesus, is what we're talking about here in Matthew 9. The Bible says, but when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Then say at the end of his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. Now here Jesus is moved with compassion when he sees a great crowd of people going about their life like sheep having no shepherd. They've got no direction in life, and that's the way the people in the world are. I mean, you know people in the world, they have no direction in their life, especially running people like in their 20s, like my age. They have no direction, they don't even know where they're going in life. You know, they do college here, and then they move over here for a while, and then they move to another state and do that for a while, and then they've got, you know, these friends over here, and these friends, and what are you going to do? I don't know, I don't know what I'm doing. They don't have any direction in their life, and they don't have any direction morally. I mean, let me ask you something, if you don't believe that the Bible is the word of God, if you don't believe the Bible, then what moral direction do you have at all? None. I'm going to tell you right now, if I didn't believe that the Bible was God's word, I'd go out and do whatever I wanted. Huh? If there's no God, if I'm an animal, like the public school will tell me that I'm an animal, that I'm just some kind of a primate, huh? I'm going to go out and do what I want to do, but I believe that there's a God in heaven that created this world, huh? I believe that I'm made in the image of God. I believe that I'm better than an animal, and I believe that I'm a son of God, and I believe that God has a greater calling for my life. I'm not going to go out and waste my life. I'm not going to mess around, wander around, and waste my time, huh? I'm going to do something great for God. I'm going to obey the commandments that God has set forth in the Bible. But you see, the world has no moral compass. I mean, how could anybody in the world who's not a Christian, who doesn't believe the Bible, get up and say, well, that's wrong, period. So what if you think it's wrong? If the Bible's not true, there is no right and wrong. It's just, everybody does what they think is right, or what you think is right. You know, you're like your own God, because the Bible isn't the one that's given you the rules. But you see, he said, they have no, they fainted, they're scattered broad, a sheep having no shepherd, and you know, they're unsaved. They don't even know, they don't know where we came from. They don't know where they're going. They don't know what the world is about. They don't know what the purpose of their life is. They don't know what to do with their life. And then what happens? They die and they go to hell to pay for their sins, which could have been forgiven if they would have just believed on Jesus Christ. That simple. It would be saved. Now, shouldn't somebody go out and tell them that? I mean, shouldn't somebody open the Bible and show them that and explain that to them? I mean, it breaks my heart that anybody really goes to hell. But you know what breaks my heart even more is that somebody would go to hell and they didn't even hear the right truth. You know, they didn't even hear the truth about it. That breaks my heart. That nobody even, you know, they might have heard a little bit of it, but that they didn't get a clear presentation of just, this is what it is. And at least have the chance to really sit down and make an educated choice about it. But you know, he says, the harvest truly is plenty. Think about this illustration. Can you imagine the work? Now, I've never lived on a farm or anything, but you know, I've tried to plant stuff in the backyard. Never worked out at all. All right, get this, okay. When we lived in Indiana, okay, we planted a bunch of stuff in the backyard. We planted, you know, I planted, you know, none of it worked out. It all died and whatever. Okay. And then we spilled some of the seeds, okay, back in the alley by the garbage can, and that stuff just started growing and flourishing in the alley. And I'm thinking to myself, okay, here's our garden that we're trying to take care of. It's completely dead. And then there's all this stuff just where we spilled some seeds is growing in the alley, but then because it's in the alley, it's got trash all over it and we didn't want to eat it because there's animals and trash and everything like that. But that's how inept, you know, I am with gardening and stuff. I don't know. But to me, I imagine just from my limited experience, it's got to be a lot of work to make things grow out of the ground like that. I mean, I do a lot of driving, you know, every week I drive. This week I've driven over 1,500 miles this week. And I drive, you know, almost that, almost every week. I do a lot of driving. And you know, you drive and you just see these perfectly straight rows of just mile after mile after mile after mile of plants that are growing and that are ready to be harvested perhaps at the right time of year. Can you imagine the work that goes into planting it, tilling the ground, planting it, you know, and then watering it, feeding it, keeping all the bugs away, keeping all the animals away. All the work and care and preparation that goes into it all year just for one time to harvest, you know, when they're going to get the big payoff. All their work is going to pay off when they get to harvest the crops. And can you imagine just there's not enough people to harvest it and it's all just rotting on the vine. I mean, it's all just falling on the ground. All your work is wasted because you can't get anybody to go out there. You know, you're out there trying to do it yourself and you've got a few people and it's just this huge field and you're just watching it all just go to waste. All that work. I mean, all the work of planting it, waste. All the work of taking care of it, making it go waste. You know, what a waste when the harvest truly is plenty, as the Bible says, but the laborer is a few. You say, well, who did all the groundwork? Who plowed the ground? Who planted the seeds? Who made it grow? Hey, think about what Jesus Christ did so that we could see people say, so that we could be saved. He died on the cross. He shed his blood for us. He was beaten and spat upon. His own soul descended into hell and he paid for our sins. And then three days later, he rose again from the dead and he said, go ye therefore into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And there's a great harvest that people that could be saved, but the laborers are few. So let me ask you, if you're not going to go out and be a laborer, then who is? Who's going to do it? Oh, God will make sure that somebody else does it. God doesn't make sure that anybody does anything. God gives us all free will. I mean, we do what we want to do and God commands us to do it. And if we don't do it, that harvest is not going to get harvested and it's not God's fault. It's our fault. We need to be out there. And if, and if you're not going to do it, my question is God said, who's going to go for us? Isaiah said, here am I, send me. If you're not going to go, then who do you expect to go and do it? Who's going to do it? Who's going to do it? Are the Presbyterians going to do it? No, they're not doing it. He said, I can't believe you named these names. Look, I'm going to call a spade a spade behind this pulpit. I don't care who that offends. I'm not here to run for political office. I'm not one of the presidential candidates for 2008. All right. I'm not trying to run for office. I don't care. I'll name the names because I'm just telling you the truth. Do you mind if I tell you the truth and just call a spade a spade? I'm going to tell you something. These Baptist churches in this town, the Southern Baptists and all these liberal Baptists, they're not getting it done and they never will get it done. If it's going to be done, it's going to be done by us and it's going to be done by a few other good churches in this area. It's going to be done predominantly by faithful word Baptist church is what I believe. That's why I started this church. Okay. If I thought that those other churches were all so wonderful, I'd be a member of them. Okay. I start faithful word Baptist church is a different kind of church. And because we have a great mission and a great calling to go out and to see people safe and to bring in the great harvest that God has prepared for us. Number one, but then not only God, but other people have gone before us, have preached the gospel, have watered the sheet, have given us the heritage that we have today as independent Baptist and taught us what we know. Somebody taught me what I know. Somebody went out and did the groundwork and they're expecting me to finish the great work that they started. We entered into other men's labors, the Bible says, and we've got to be there. We've got to go. And if we don't go, then who is going to go is what I want to know. Man, I'm a good poet. But anyway, turn a few words to Matthew chapter 28. You're in chapter number nine, Matthew 28. Bible says in Matthew 28 in verse number 18, the Bible says, and Jesus came and spake unto them saying, this is after he's risen from the dead and he's come back to see his disciples. He's showing them the holes in his hands where he was crucified to prove that he was really who he said he was. And Jesus came and spake unto them saying, all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son of the Holy ghost, teaching them to observe what all things whatsoever I've commanded you. And lo, I'm with you all way, even at the end of the world. Amen. Mark 16, 50, you don't have to turn there. And he said unto them, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Acts 1, 8, but ye shall receive power. After that the Holy ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and under the other most part of the earth. Act 5, 42, and daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Who could that be said about in 2007 in Phoenix, Arizona? Who could that be said about anywhere in America right now that you could point at a church and say daily, I mean daily people are getting saved from that church. I mean daily they're going out and getting people saved. Daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. But wouldn't it be wonderful if they swore back his church to get the point where people are getting saved every day as a result of the efforts of the people in this church. That's what God wants. But God doesn't always get what he wants because sometimes he just stands there and says, I'm seeking for a man. I sought for a man. I'm looking for who's going to go for me. And sometimes there's no answer. Sometimes nobody's there to do it. So if you're not going to be that man, if you're not going to be that woman, if you're not going to be the person that lives for God and that takes a stand in 2007, who is? Who is? Acts 20-20, the Bible says, now I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house. Okay, daily in the temple and in every house they cease not to go either forward to the highways and hedges, the Bible says, compelled them to come in that my house may be filled. But not only that, turn back if you would to, well I can turn to Ephesians chapter five, number two. So first of all, number one, if not you, if you're not going to be the one that's out preaching the gospel and telling people about Jesus and giving them the truth so that they can be saved, then who is it going to be? If it's not going to be Faithful World Baptist Church, then what church is it going to be? Who is it going to be? If it's not us, if it's not you, who's it going to be? Do you think Pastor Anderson is your surrogate soul winner or something? Do you think Pastor Anderson is going to do it all for you or something? You're wrong, because I can only do so much, I'm only one person. You've got to labor with, we've all got to be participating. See, you say, well that's good for you the pastor. Oh really? I worked 60 hours this week at my secular job installing fire alarm. Hey, I'm just like you. I work a job just like you do. I have a family just like you do. I have chores around the house just like you do. But there's certain things that you have to make a priority in your life and one of those things is being a soul winner. One of those things is reading the Bible. And I'm not talking about some little devotional. I'm talking about sitting down and doing some serious Bible reading. Not some little five verses here or one chapter a day. I'm talking about sitting down and doing some major Bible reading. Your little devotional is not going to give you what you need to know what you need to know about the Bible. And it's not going to give you what you need to be what you need to be in 2007. It's just not going to do it for you. Your little Our Daily Bread. Okay. You need more than a piece of bread. You need like a whole buffet here. Okay. Some of you need like an all you can eat session here of sitting down and getting some serious Bible reading. It's a shame to me that people don't even know the Bible anymore. Baptists don't even know the Bible. Baptists who've been in church for years and years and have never even read the Bible cover to cover one time. You don't even know what it says. It's nonsense. I mean if you're a new believer, work on it. Or maybe you're not a new believer. Maybe you've been saved a long time. You've never read it cover to cover. Hey, start today. Start today and read it cover to cover. Get the whole picture. Get the big picture. Not just some little snippet that you heard in church somewhere. Not just what the pastor felt like telling you. Get the whole thing so that you can know whether what you're hearing in church is right or wrong because you read it yourself and you know what the Bible says. I rely on Pastor Anderson to spoon feed you the Bible. We can all make time for reading the Bible, for memorizing the Bible, for learning the Bible. We can all take that time. On the busiest week of my life, I still just stop everything. You know, I just let everything spin out of control. Stop everything. Time to go soul winning. Every week. Every single week. And it's not some little ten minute session either. We go out and do some serious soul winning and get people saved. And do what needs to be done. Every week. Some weeks are, that's easy to do. Some weeks it's not easy to do. That's why you just have to decide that come hail or high water, it doesn't matter. You will be there. You know, you're going to do it. That's the consistency because otherwise every little thing is going to stop you unless you're steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. But, if not you, then who's going to be the soul winner? Who's going to win the souls? Who's going to preach the gospel to this area? Who's going to preach the gospel to all these other areas, all around America and to get almost part of the earth as Jesus said? But, number two, if not you, who's going to take the stand against sin in 2007? I mean, who's going to take the stand about what's going on in America and the changes that are happening? Look at Ephesians chapter five and I'll show you why. I'll show you why people aren't taking the stand. I'll show you why independent fundamental Baptists don't take the stand. I'll show you why churches like us, most people are not taking the stands that need to be made. I'll tell you why. It's in Ephesians five verse eleven. The Bible says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. That's why. Because in order to reprove them, you can't have any fellowship with them. You see that? If you're participating in the unfruitful works of darkness, how are you going to get up and reprove them if you're participating? And that's why I'll say this. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Any preacher who won't get up and preach on sin in his pulpit, it's because he's living in sin. That's right. Yes. If he doesn't preach on sin, it's because he's living in sin. It's pretty hard to get up and preach hard about sin when you're doing it, or when you're doing something that's very close to it. You know why you don't stand up for what's right? You know why you don't take the stands that need to be made? It's probably, in any given area, it's probably something that you're kind of guilty of, so you're not standing up. You're part of it. You're mixed in with it. I've said this before. If you want to know what my biggest sins are, and if you want to know what I struggle with, probably just look at what I don't preach about, or what I preach about the least. You're like, I can't think of anything. No, but I'm serious. I mean, something that I struggle with, something that I feel bad about, you think that's what I'm getting up and thundering about? No. I mean, you're going to be kind of weak. I mean, look, if you're going home and watching the movies that are PG and PG-13, or whatever, you're not going to get up and scream about how bad the R-rated movie is. You're watching something that's just as bad. Okay, so you're all going to be watered down all the way across the board. That's what's wrong with these pastors. You know what's wrong with the pastors in America? They need to take their television and throw it out the window. I can't understand how anybody would call themselves a man of God and sit down in front of that. I mean, they're calling themselves a man of God, a prophet of God, a preacher of God, and they sit down and watch the TV every night. And you say, oh, there's a rating system. You know what I saw the other day, and I haven't watched TV in five years or something. I haven't even watched TV. I haven't owned a TV in over seven years. But look, here's the thing. Somebody sent me over a YouTube clip in my email, and it was about these, and I didn't even watch it. I'm not going to watch this filth. But it was about these gay couples doing IVF, because I have a sermon about IVF, and that's why they sent this to me. Gay couples doing IVF, creating children in a test tube. Because obviously, let's face it, they can't procreate. Let's face it, they're not going to have any kids together. Let me give you a biology lesson. They're not reproducers. They're recruiters, and they want to recruit your children, so keep them safe. And so they sent me this YouTube clip, and you know what? I didn't even see the YouTube clip. I didn't want to watch the filth. I don't even like to look at them. You know, I woke up yesterday morning. I woke up in Los Angeles, California, where I was spending the night. I woke up in my hotel, and within 27 minutes of waking up, I saw the first faggot of the day. Oh, does that word offend you? I'm sorry. No, I'm not sorry. But I got up. I rolled out of bed. I got dressed. I got ready. I walked out the door. I got in the car. I drove to my first stop. There he was, the first flaming faggot of the day. And you say, why do you preach about it so much? Maybe because I look at it every day of my life. I don't know if you're living in some kind of a bubble or something, but it seems like everywhere I look, these flamers are everywhere. Everywhere I turn. But I'm going to tell you something. I don't know how I got off on that thing about being in a hotel and everything, but on this YouTube clip, okay, the first five seconds of it, you know what popped up in the corner? And I didn't want to watch, this is how I got off. I didn't want to watch the clips because I'm like, I see enough of these bunch of queers. I don't want to sit and listen to them interviewed and talk. Right up in the corner, you know what popped up in the corner? TVG. That's what popped up in the corner. I guess there's a rating on TV now. Back when I watched TV, there was no rating. You know, the movies have rating like GP, GPT. Well, it popped up on the screen in the corner. Like I guess they have like a TV rating system now or something. Does anybody know about that? Is anybody afraid to tell me? Put up your hand. Have you seen the ratings? A little bit? Okay. Well, it popped up. TVG. Okay. So it's G rated to watch a couple of guys talk about creating a baby in a test tube and adopting it and it's their kid and blah, blah, blah. That's G rated. I dread to think what's PG rated. Oh, but it's G rated because there's no cussing in it. Hey, I started cussing when I saw the video, huh? Oh, there's no cussing. I'm just kidding. I wasn't cussing. But anyway, hey, there's no cussing in it. Who cares? You think TV is okay but has no cussing in it? What's wrong with TV is the worldly, ungodly philosophy, huh? What's wrong with TV is that it makes you think that gays are normal, that pedophiles are normal, that freakos are normal. That's what's wrong with TV. It teaches you that everybody dresses like a hoochie mama and a hooker because that's the way everybody on TV dresses. It teaches you that everybody goes to bed on the first date because that's what happens on TV. Oh, but I have a little machine that bleeps out all the cussing. So what? Now, look, I'm against cussing but that's the least problem on TV, is the cussing. And if that's G-rated, if that's G-rated to watch a couple of queers creating babies in a test tube, I'm sorry, my friend, but I don't see how you can even watch TV anymore. I don't see how you'd ever watch TV, you know? I mean, it's a bunch of garbage. And see, what happens is when you're fellowshipping with the Unfrewed Board, and by the way, it's a shame even to speak of those things which are done in the secret. Read the next verse, Ephesians 5-12. Hey, when you're watching Will and Grace and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and all this garbage, it's going to be hard for you, Pastor, to get up in the pulpit and thunder forth and scream about it like you ought to be screaming about it, like the Bible screams and yells about it when you read it. And so it's hard to do that when you're participating in it. So who, my friend, if it's not going to be you, who is going to cleanse themselves from all the filth of this generation that we live in, the generation that's pure in their own eyes and yet is not watching their filthiness, if it's not going to be you that decides to turn that stupid thing off, if it's not going to be you that decides to clean up your music library and clean up your video library by cleaning it out completely, and if it's not going to be you that decides to clean up your wardrobe, if it's not going to be you that decides to live clean and righteous and godly and holy and different in this ungodly world around you, if you're not going to do it, then tell me something. Who's going to do it? Who's going to take the stand that needs to be made? Why is it that it seems like people in this country can just push the ungodliness of wickedness as far as they want and nobody says a word? The TV can push it as far as they want. The billboards can push it as far as they want. The abortion clinic can push it as far as they want. All these crooked, phony politicians can push it as far as they want. Everybody just pushes and pushes and pushes and nobody pushes back. Hey, if I'm not going to push back, if Pastor Stephen L. Anderson isn't going to push back, who's going to push back? If you are going to push back at the sin and ungodliness in this world, then who's going to push back? Nobody. That's the answer. Nobody. Who's going to take the stand that needs to be made? Who's going to go out and preach the gospel? Who's going to have compassion on people that you don't even know, people that maybe aren't the type of people that you like? Who's going to have compassion on them and love them enough to go give them the gospel? What do we have to gain by knocking on the door and giving them the gospel? You say, you're trying to build up your church. So many doesn't build up the church. That doesn't build the crowd. Going out and winning people to Christ does not build the crowd. It builds the crowd up there in heaven. That's where it builds the crowd. People get saved. Because you know, let's face it, a lot of the people that get saved just because they got saved doesn't mean that they necessarily want to come to this kind of a church. They'd rather go to Social Club Baptist Church. They'd rather go to watered-down Baptist Church. And so, let's face it, the people who get saved don't all come here. Or they come here for a little while and then they go somewhere more liberal. They go somewhere that's a rock concert. They go somewhere that'll tickle their ears and tell them what they want to hear and give them a little feel-good vitamin pill every Sunday morning to help them get through the week. I'm not trying to get through the week. I'm trying to get through the rest of my life. I'm trying to get through eternity. And so you have to understand that if we don't take the stands that need to be made, if we don't go out and love people and have compassion and win the souls, we have no motive, no earthly motive to go out and win the souls. In the Priestly Gospel, there's no motive at all. If we wanted to build the crowd, we could go hand out a bunch of flyers saying that Amy Grun or Sandy Fatty was going to come in here and sing. We'd have all kinds of people. If we wanted to build the crowd, we'd go out and hand out a bunch of flyers. And that's what independent Baptists are switching to. They're switching away from soul-winning to just handing out invitations, handing out flyers, like the Avon League, like Avon calling, like a vacuum cleaner salesman, like the Kirby, the eight-pound Oreck, like they're going around selling candy for a fundraiser. You know, hi, Avon calling. Hi, we're going to invite you to church. Hi, here's a brochure. Hi, send us some money. No, we're going out and preaching the Gospel. We're getting people saved. And if we're not going to do it, then who's going to do it? Why do we do it? Because we love souls. Because we have compassion like Jesus had compassion. When he said, pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth laborers into his harvest. You've got to have the love and compassion. And if you're not out, if you're not winning the soul, if you're not preaching the Gospel, if you're not opening your mouth boldly to make go of the mystery of the Gospel, you have a love problem. You have a compassion problem when you don't care about somebody. You're saved and that's fine. But do you care about somebody else to get somebody else saved too? Do you have enough compassion and love in your heart to get somebody else saved? Number two, are you going to take the stand in 2000? Are you going to be one of the only people that stands up and says enough is enough? Stop. No. Wrong. Bad. I mean, good night. Most people, if they heard me preach right now, they would think that I'm a madman. That shows that you think I'm a madman. You're here tonight. Hey, most of you think I'm a madman. That's how far we've drifted. I'm preaching the Bible. I'm preaching the most normal things in the world. And yet they would think I'm a madman because they're drifted so far. They wouldn't know the Bible is a moral compass to save their life. And it's getting bad. And so who's going to take the stand? You say, well, not meet somebody else. No, the problem is there is no one else. It's going to have to be you that wins the soul. It's going to have to be you that takes the stand against sin. But number three, and this may not apply to everybody, okay, and there are other people out there listening and everything like that. And my kids are here listening and men that are here listening. But you know what? Let me ask you to turn to Amos chapter seven right toward the end of the Old Testament there. If you're in Matthew, just go back a few pages and you get into these little short books right at the end of the Old Testament. And Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Amos chapter seven, and we'll begin reading verse number 12. First of all, who's going to be the sole winner? Who is it? If it's not you, then who? Nobody is the answer. All these questions have an answer. Nobody. Okay? Who's going to take the stand and fight the sin in 2007? You? Will it be you? Then who will it be? The answer? Nobody. That's the answer to all these questions. There's three points. There are three questions. They all have the same answer. Nobody. Okay? Number three, who's going to carry the torch as a preacher of the Bible in 2007 and beyond? You say, well, not me, not my calling. Well, then what's the answer? Who's going to do it? Nobody's going to do it. Nobody will do it. That's the answer. But look down, if you would, at Amos 7, 12, the Bible says, also Amaziah said unto Amos, O thou seer, and seer is a word for a prophet or a preacher, O thou seer, go, flee thee away into the land of Judah, and there eat bread and prophesy there. And prophesy not again any more at Bethel. For it is the king's chapel, and it is the king's court. Then answered Amos, and said to Amaziah, I was no prophet. He said, I was no preacher. I was no prophet. Neither was I a prophet's son. But I was an herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit, and the Lord took me as I followed the plot, and the Lord said unto me, go, prophesy unto my people Israel. He said, I didn't want to be a preacher. I'm no preacher. He said, I'm gathering a bunch of sycamore fruit. I was keeping the flock. I was a shepherd. But he said, God took me and told me, you need to preach to the house of Israel, because if you don't, Amos, nobody will. That's what he's saying. Nobody will do it. That's why this king Amaziah is telling him, get out of here. Leave. You bother me. Because if Amos left, nobody would be doing it. And that's what that king wanted, everything to just be his way. And so he said, well, if I can get rid of Amos, then nobody's going to do it. And Amos said, look, I'm not here because I want to be here. I'm here because I need to be here. Look at 1 Samuel 9, 6. This is the last place we'll turn tonight. Turn backward in your Bible towards the beginning. 1 Samuel 9, 6. Great verse in the Bible in 1 Samuel 9, 6. I'll give you just a moment to turn there. 1 Samuel 9, 6, and then I'll expound on this a little more and then we'll be done. But 1 Samuel 9, 6, the Bible reads, and he said unto him, behold now, there is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man, and all that he saith cometh surely to pass. Now let us go thither. Peradventure, he can show us our way that we should go. Now the phrase that I want to focus in on there is, there is in this city a man of God. Don't you wish that that could be said about every city in America? I mean, every city across America, every city across Arizona, and the sad thing is that cannot be said about every city in America. Not even close. I mean, would the God that we could say, there is in Flagstaff, Arizona a man of God. Or there is in Tucson, Arizona a man of God. There is in Sierra Vista, Arizona a man of God. There is in Casa Grande, Arizona a man of God. There is in Wilcox, Arizona a man of God. There is in Prescott, Arizona a man of God. Oh, in Surprise, Arizona there is in that city a man of God. Oh, there is in Avondale a man of God. There is in Williams, Arizona a man of God. There is in Payson, Arizona. Or what about this? What if we could say, there is in Los Angeles, California a man of God. There is in San Diego, California a man of God. Did you know that in the city of San Francisco, with over one million people living in the city limits, and who's ever been to San Francisco? Put up your hand. Now San Francisco's tiny, okay? Very tiny, because it's on just the tip of a little peninsula. I go there all the time. It's very tiny. It's just right on the, and it's just jam packed, condensed, okay? Over one million people in that tiny city, over a million people within the city limits. Do you know that there's not one independent Baptist church in that city? Not even one. There's a million people there. And I'm not even saying, there's not even like a liberal independent. There's not even like a bad one. I mean, there's just not, there just isn't one there. There's just not. Zero. None. I wonder if that's why it's the successful, sick-hole, filthy place that it is, because there's no man of God at all. No, nobody's preaching the gospel. Nobody's knocking those doors. I wonder if that's why it's in there. Is that what you want this city to look like? Well, maybe you've never been there, to know how bad it is. Maybe you haven't been there like I was there about a week ago, and I was standing across the street, and this bomb just took a bottle of beer and just threw it on the ground, and just shattered it and sprayed it everywhere, and then just looked at me as if to say, like, what are you going to do about it? I mean, have you been there? You know, it's these real belligerent homeless people that come up to you and harass you, and you can see all the needles laying around. I just heard on the news how little kids are playing in the park in San Francisco, and they keep stepping on these used hypodermic needles, and it's a real problem that they're having with just hypodermic needles laying all over San Francisco. And they said, here's the answer. Here's what we need to do. This is what the city councilman said. Here's what we need to do. We need to just have a clinic where we administer the drugs for them, where they can come and shoot up on heroin, and it'll be a government clinic that provides them with all the clean needles, and they can go there and shoot up on heroin and everything like that, because otherwise they're just going to do it in a public restroom or something, and they're going to do it in the park or something. Hey, why does somebody preach the Bible, huh? Why doesn't somebody take a sample? What's right, huh? Maybe if we didn't promote all the filth and ungodliness that there is, huh? Maybe if everybody isn't in this country and weren't drunk and drinking, and maybe if everybody wasn't taking all this dope, maybe if the doctor wasn't giving everybody a bunch of mind-altering drugs for giving kids Ritalin, you know, the kid needs a spanking, the kid needs somebody to love it and spend time with it, instead of sticking it in front of a TV, feeding it a doughnut, and then shipping it off to daycare, and you wonder why it can't act right. Well, maybe that would be the answer, instead of just, let's just hand out the drugs. Let's just have the taxpayers buy hypodermic needles. That way they don't have to step on hypodermic needles in the park. You know what San Francisco smells like? I'm not trying to be gravity. It smells like urine. It smells like a restroom. Who knows if that's true? It smells like you're inside a men's restroom. That's what it smells like. You say, why do you say men's? Because I've never been in a woman's restroom. I don't know what it smells like. Hey, it smells like, God, silly question. Hey, it smells like being inside of a men's restroom. That's what it smells like. You know what's painted all over the walls? Gay porn graffiti all over. It's a filthy hellhole. Why? Because there's no man of God there. But you know what? I'll bet you, I promise you, I guarantee you that there was some man somewhere that God, before he was even born, said, I want you to go to San Francisco, California, start a church, preach the gospel, preach the word of God, knock the doors, do what needs to be done, preach what you need to preach, and turn that city to God. I'll guarantee you, I promise you, I guarantee you that there were probably hundreds of men that God would have loved to have raised up to preach to that city. You know, God said that there was a day that if a man would have gone to Sodom and Gomorrah and preached the things that Jesus preached, and did the things that he did, that they would have turned to God. You know, you could have gone there before they went too far. I mean, it got to the point where it went too far, and they got into the sodomy and the homosexuality, ended up raining fire and brimstone down, destroying it in Genesis 19. But you know what? Do you think it was always like that? Do you think San Francisco was always like that? Do you think San Francisco was built by a bunch of freaks and perverts? No way. San Francisco was probably built, not probably, certainly. San Francisco was built by hardworking men who were married and had children, and they worked 70, 80, 90 hours a week, and they built that place. They ruled their cities and built a great city, only to watch it be destroyed and turned it into the filth hole that it is right now. I'm sure Sodom and Gomorrah, and I'm sure Sodom started out being built, because see, these freaks don't build anything. They don't build anything. They only ruin things, okay? And so I'm sure it was built by somebody. I'm sure at one point it would have been great, and God said somebody could have gone and preached in San Francisco and could have straightened it out. They could have gone there and won some souls, and it wouldn't be at least in as bad a condition as it's in right now. But you know what happened? Somebody said, well, somebody else is going to do it. I don't want to do it. I want to do career. I want to make the money. I want to do what I want to do. Let somebody else do it. And the resounding answer is, if not you, then who? Nobody will do it. Nobody did it. I believe that God sought for a man in San Francisco. I believe he sought for a man in these various places, but he found none. And one day it's going to be destroyed, I promise you that, because he sought for a man and he found none. And if God doesn't destroy, he's going to have to apologize to Solomon and Amorah for destroying them. You know, I was thinking about a friend of mine, and I'll close with this. I was talking to a friend of mine, and this was a friend of mine that I talked to a lot, and he was always planning on going out and starting a church, okay? And he was always planning on doing that, and I was talking to him, and you know, he's married, he's got several kids and everything, and I was talking to him, and I've talked to him many times, and he's asked me all kinds of questions, and I was giving him all kinds of advice about how to start a church, and what would be some good methods, and I've given him a lot of, I was excited about it, you know. And by the way, you know, I've had people ask me, I mean people have written to me, and see, this area is not a real fundamental Baptist type area of Phoenix. You know, we're going to change that, though, I promise you that. We're going to change that, at least in our little neck of the woods here, and we're going to build up a great base of people that are out-souling, and we're not going to get everybody saved, because, you know, not everybody's going to get saved, period, but we're going to build up a base of people that love God in this city, and we're going to build up a great independent fundamental Baptist church. God's going to build a great church, I believe that. But I was talking to him, and people have written to me, this is what I was saying about that, people have written to me or called me on the phone, and they're in some distant area in the United States. And like I said, this area is not real, but there are other people in other areas that really wish that they had a good, solid, you know, fired up, independent Baptist church to go to that wins the souls, that preaches it straight down the line, it's not afraid to say everything, it's not walking on eggshells because, you know, Mr. Big Bucks in the back row, they don't want to offend him, and he's going to move on and take his tithe check with them, and you know, they're just looking for a good church to be a part of. And they've called me, they've written me, from places like in Washington, a man in Washington. There's not even a church in this whole city that even uses the King James Bible, not even saying that that's all they use, I mean, they don't use it. There's one Baptist church like 20 minutes away, and it's using the NIV, no soul running, no preaching, I mean, just... And he said, he said, I'm trying to win people to Christ, he said, I can't move because I'm in this area, I'm on a fixed income, and he said, I can't move away, he says, I'm sitting down and we're listening, I'm getting your CDs, and we're sitting down listening to the CDs, and I'm trying to get people saved, get some people together, and he said, maybe if I can get some people together, maybe if we sit down and listen to these sermons, and I can get them reading the Bible, and I can talk to them, and get them excited about a church, he said, maybe if I can get some people saved myself, and get some people together, maybe God will send somebody to come up here and start a church, an independent Baptist church. Maybe God will send somebody. Another man who was in Northern California on the coastline of North California, right on the border of California, Washington, that's actually a very rural area, because it's very far from... Sacramento is the biggest city that's north in California, then north of that a couple hours ago, and there's a city called Redding, and Redding is just a pretty small town, you know, it's a pretty good sized place, but then above that, I mean, there's hardly anything, just very small towns, and he's way up on the coast, right between Washington and California there, and he just said, can you please, can you recommend me any good church in this area, I mean, is there anything up here? I said, I told him, I said, you know what? I said, good luck. I said, you can't even hardly find a good church anymore in a big city. Let alone, you're out there, I mean, I said, there's nothing out there, I mean, I don't know what to tell you. Isn't that sad? Yeah, I mean, somebody could go there and start a church, and there's a couple people that are just waiting for them. Somebody called me from Ohio, and said, send somebody, you know, they said, come out here, and I said, I'm not going anywhere, I'm going to die in Phoenix, and they said, no, come out, send somebody that's like you, or send somebody that you know, send your friend, or send somebody you know, and send them out here to start a church like your church in Ohio. Somebody said, Lansing, Michigan, there's nothing. Would you send somebody to start a church in Lansing, Michigan, anybody, we've got people together that will come to that church. A few different places in New Mexico, a couple different places in New Mexico, I've gotten calls from people asking me to send somebody here, or see if I knew somebody, or ask around my pastor friends if there's anybody looking for a place to start a church, because there's people here that don't have a good church to go, and they want somebody to come out, and go, and I feel like that man in Washington saying, if I can get some people saved, and get some people together, God's going to send somebody, but the question is, if God sends somebody, are they going to go? You see, God can't just send somebody. They've got to say, Lord, here am I, send me. If they don't say to God, send me, then they're not going to be sent. That's the sad truth of the matter. You know, all these different, I mean those are places, those are specific examples, I mean there's a lot of other people, same thing, but I was talking to my friend, right, and he said, well, he said, you're not going to want to hear this, you're not going to like this, but he said, you know, I don't even know, because I was saying, when are you going to start a church, you know, I mean you're going to do it then, you're going to do it then, you're going to do it now, you know, just keep talking about it, when are you going to do it? And he said, you know what, he said, I hate to tell you this, but I'm not even sure that I ever want to start a church anymore, I'm just not sure if I want to do it anymore. And I said to him, I said, well that's fine, I said, you know, that's great, I said, that's fine, but I said, let me ask you something, who cares what you want? I don't care what you want, God doesn't care what you want. I said, so who cares if you want to? I said, let me ask you this, and I won't call his name, I said, let me ask you this, I said, do you think that there's a need for churches to be started? Do you think that there are people in certain areas that are just dying for a good church in their area? Do you think that there's a need to stand up and be a leader in 2007 and preach, and do you think that there's a need out there for you? And he said, he said, well yeah, that's a big need. And I said, then who cares what you want? Why don't you just do it anyway? And he said, well, you're right, you know, but you think he's going to do it? I don't, probably not. He's probably not going to do it, that's the sad thing about it. And you know what, here's the sad thing, I've figured out something, I've figured out why I'm unique, you know, because I always consider myself a very mediocre person in a lot of ways. I'm not a talented person, I'm not a talented speaker, I know how to get up and scream, I'm not a talented speaker, I'm not good looking, I'm not talented or a genius, I'm not anything special, I feel like I'm a pretty average person as far as my gifts from God, I'll put it that way. But you know, I figured out what makes me unique, okay, there is something that makes me unique, there is something that makes me extraordinary, and I'll tell you what it is, it's the fact that I actually do something with my life, that's all. I mean, anybody could do what I'm doing, anybody could do what I did this afternoon, I mean, you know that's true, you know that I don't have some spectacular talent, I don't have some spectacular gift from God, so I'll tell you what it is, the difference between me and the others out there is that I'm actually doing something, and here's the sad thing, the sad thing is that I know all kinds of people that believe just like I believe, that feel just like I feel, that know what I know, that can preach better than me, okay, I mean, good night, you should have heard me when I started preaching, it was horrible, okay, my wife will tell you about it, okay, I mean, I preached like 800 times before I even started this church, just because I wanted to practice, I wanted to learn how to preach, and I'd go to these nursing homes and preach every week in nursing homes, and I'd preach in Sunday school classes, and preach to bus kids, and preach to young kids, and preach to me, I preached and preached and preached probably like, you know, five, six, seven, eight hundred times before I even started this church, I preached those sermons, and I've been out soul winning for years and years and years, you know, when I started out preaching, I did a terrible job, you know, it's something that I had to really work at to be able to preach, and it's something that I struggled with, public speaking and preaching and everything like that, hey, it didn't come real easily to me, okay, but I did the steps necessary to become what I needed to become, because there needs to be a faithful word Baptist church, okay, there has to be a faithful word Baptist church, so I did what it took, okay, and I know these guys, I'm thinking of tons of guys in my mind right now, who, I mean, I've heard them preach, and they've only preached five, six, seven times, and they're preaching way better than I was doing, you know, in my early days, I'll tell you right now, I mean, these guys are talented, man, they know the Bible, they can put together a sermon, I mean, they've got it down, I mean, they could be used so greatly by God, I mean, God could use them, God could establish such a great church, but, you know, the problem is that many of these guys, even though they're more talented than me, even though they may know more than me, God can't use them, because they don't do anything, they just talk about doing it, and they're not going to do anything without, that's why they're not going to be used by God, that's the difference, the difference is one word, faith, the faith to go out and do what God told you to do, the Bible says that Abraham, in Hebrews chapter 11, it says, by faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out and do a place that he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out, not knowing whether he would, didn't know where he was going, didn't know what he was doing, he just went out by faith and just said, God told me, I'm just going to do it, he didn't know what it was going to end up, he didn't know where it was going to end, and there's, the sad thing is, that there are all kinds of guys like that, who have the talent, but they don't have the faith, they have the talent, but they don't do something, they don't just do what needs to be done, oh, I just am not good at this, hey, become what you need to become, learn what you need to learn, to do what you need to do, learn how to preach, learn how to be a soul, learn how to give somebody the gospel, anybody can give somebody the gospel, man, woman, boy, girl, you can learn how to give somebody the gospel, and then there's those guys, right, then there's the guys who really do go into the ministry, and they don't have the faith to go do it on their own, they don't have the faith to be sent out of a local church and just be laid hands on by the local church and sent out to start a church, God's way, so what do they have to do, they have to lean on everybody else, financially, they have to lean on everybody else, and they can't do their own thing, they can't think for themselves, they can't preach for themselves, and so you got a bunch of liberals in the ministry, you got a bunch of pansies and wimps behind the pulpit, huh, you got a bunch of little sissies being controlled by other people behind the pulpit, and then the real fireball guys, the real guys that are zealous and talented and excited and fundamental and old school and straight down the line, they don't have the faith to do it, they won't just do what they need to do, and God's calling them and saying who can I send to San Francisco, who can I send to Los Angeles, who can I send to San Diego, who can I send to Washington, Northern California, who can I send to Tucson, who can I send, and he's waiting and waiting for somebody to say, here am I, send me, all kinds of people in this city, I promise you there are people in Tempe Arizona who are at ASU, the university here, at Arizona State University, and I'll bet you that there are people who have a relative back home somewhere, because people come to ASU from all over America, back home somewhere, some grandma, some safe grandma's on her knees praying that somebody would give them the gospel while they're at college, some mother, father, aunt or uncle or grandparent or whoever, friend, loved one, is back in Chicago somewhere, or back in Florida somewhere, or back in New Mexico somewhere, back in California somewhere, in Idaho or wherever, and they're on their knees praying, oh God, would you please help so and so to get saved, would you please send somebody in Tempe to talk to them, I know he's at college in ASU, I'm not going to talk to him, he's all the way out there, who's going to talk to him, and they're saying, oh God, would you send somebody, and God's saying, who am I going to send, as he said in Isaiah chapter 6, whom shall we send, who will go for us, to these kids that are in the school there, and are you going to stand up on Thursday night or on Saturday morning or on Saturday night or Sunday afternoon, one of our soul winning times, and say, here am I Lord, send me, here am I God, I'm going out soul winning, I'm in Tempe, Arizona, I'm going to knock doors, seemingly at random, but you know, if you go out to knock those doors seemingly at random, you know, God can use you and lead you to that person, well you can be the answer to that person in a distant city's prayer that somebody would give the gospel to their loved one, you have loved ones that aren't there, wouldn't you love somebody to go knock on their door, have you ever prayed that somebody would go knock on their door and give them the gospel? God's trying to send people, he's trying to send us, right here, he's asking for somebody to stand up and stand in the gap and make up the hedge for America, you want to decide right now, to say, here am I Lord, send me, what do you want me to do God, you need me to clean up my life and get rid of the unfruitful works of darkness, get rid of the sins so that I can be used by God, so that I can take the stand against what's wrong, can you, what do you need me to do God, do you need me to go soul hunting, do you need me to learn the Bible, do you want me to learn how to preach, do you want me to study the Bible, memorize the Bible, what do you want me to do God, where do you want me to go, who do I need to talk to, here am I Lord, here I am, you don't have to look any further for a man or a woman, here I am, send me, because God can't just send somebody to that door in Tempe unless you say, here am I, send me, and God's not going to send anybody to start a church in these cities that we listed here, unless somebody stands up and says, here am I, send me, I'll get the training I need, I'll learn the Bible I need to learn, I'll learn how to preach how I need to learn, I'll do what it's going to take, whatever it's going to take to do it, I mean who's going to do it, you see the thing is, in order for a church, these people are asking for somebody to come to their town, they say we want something like Faithful Word Baptist Church in our town, well something that's like Faithful Word Baptist Church is going to have to come out of Faithful Word Baptist Church, ok this church is pretty unique, and you know, people that are going to be, go start a church that's going to be like Faithful Word Baptist Church are probably going to eventually come out of Faithful Word Baptist Church, whether it be my kids or men that are sitting here, people that are not here with us today but that attend this church, it's going to have to come out of Faithful Word Baptist Church in order to be like Faithful Word Baptist Church. And I'm going to tell you something, somebody's got to stand up and say, send me, somebody's got to stand in the gap, somebody's got to say, here I am Lord, send me, and again, if it's not you, then who, nobody, let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer, Father thank you so much for using somebody like me, boy you said it, you said it in the Bible, you don't use many wise, you don't use the talented, you don't use many great, but you've chosen the foolish things of this world that confound the wise, because God you can take somebody who doesn't have the talent, who is not as gifted, and you can use them to do more than the person who does have the talent, but they don't have the faith to do it. God, please just stir in the hearts of everyone here, raise up some soul winner tonight, some lady that would decide she's going to win souls and get people saved and be used of God greatly, some man who's going to say I'll be a soul winner, I'll win the souls, or perhaps I'll even preach the gospel and stand behind a pulpit someday, start a church and knock the doors in one of these areas, dear God, whatever the case may be, whatever the need is, dear God, I pray that you'd speak to the hearts of everyone who's listening.