(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

The man here in 2 Kings chapter 4, the chapter starts out with a story about this oil being multiplied where she just has a little bit of oil in the house and it gets multiplied and a great miracle is performed. And then it's interesting because the chapter ends with a similar miracle where they have these 20 barley loaves and it's not enough to feed 100 people, but through Elisha and the power of God, it ends up being multiplied and they end up feeding the 100 people and having extra leftovers at the end of it. So it's kind of similar to the story of the feeding of the 5,000, just a lot less dramatic because only 100 people are being fed, but it's still just as much of a miracle. Now the title of my sermon tonight is The Sky is the Limit. The sky is the limit and what I want to show you tonight is that the limiting factor in our lives, in our churches, in our missions, the limiting factor is us. It's our vision, our faith, how much work we're willing to do, but God's power is limitless. God's ability has no limit and let's start out here in 2 Kings chapter 4 verse 1. The Bible reads, now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord. And the creditors come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid had not anything in the house save a pot of oil. So she looks at what she has and she pretty much considers it nothing. She says, Well, I don't have anything except for just this one little pot of oil. Then he said, Go borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, even empty vessels. Borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full. So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel, saying, Bring me another one. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed. Then she came and told the man of God, and he said, Go sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest. So in this story, the oil was going to keep multiplying until there weren't any more vessels. If she would have borrowed twice as many vessels, there would have been twice as much oil there. It was going to keep coming no matter what. And that's why he told her, Borrow not a few. Because the more you borrow, the more you're going to have in the end. Now when it comes to this parable here, this story, I mean, it's a real story, but it's also a parable of something else. It also is symbolic of something else, I should say. And that is that the oil represents the Holy Spirit. All throughout the Bible, obviously it's a literal story, but the Bible also has a lot of symbolic meanings, and the oil represents the Holy Spirit, and the vessels are people. So as many people as we win to Christ, they're going to be indwelled by the Holy Spirit. And there's never going to be a shortage of the Holy Spirit to indwell believers. And not only that, the Holy Spirit also comes upon men and women in mighty power in order to enable them to preach great sermons or win souls to Christ or do great works. And just as there was no shortage of the oil here, there's enough Holy Spirit to go around. As many young men who would decide to be a preacher and yield themselves to the Lord and pray and read their Bibles and get up and preach, they can be filled with the Holy Spirit and preach in mighty power. Every man, woman, boy, and girl who decides that they're going to go out and be a soul winner and they read their Bible and pray and go out soul winning, they can be filled with the Holy Spirit. And there's no shortage of the Holy Spirit to go around. There's no shortage of the power of God to go around. It's just how many vessels are there? That's all that matters. How many vessels are there? What is our vision? How big is our vision? How big is our faith? You know, when God tells us to do something big and don't borrow a few, if we take that seriously, then God's there to do his part all the time. How much work are we willing to do? How many people are we willing to talk to? If you think about it, in order to borrow these vessels, she had to go talk to a lot of people. She had to go door to door, if you think about it, in order to get the vessels, right? She's going door to door, she's knocking on doors, and you know, some people probably told her no. Other people said yes. Just like when we go out and knock doors, we try to win people to Christ. Some people are going to tell us no. Some people are going to tell us yes. But it's just how many hours did she put in? How ambitious was she? How many vessels did she borrow? God was ready to do a great miracle, and the more work she put in, the more doors she knocked, the more people that she talked to, the more faith she had, the more literally she took the command of borrow not a few, the greater a work would be done for the Lord, the more blessed she would be, and it's the exact same way in our lives. Now turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15. Why was the Apostle Paul used so greatly? I remember it kind of boggled my mind when I was a child reading the New Testament and just wondering how the New Testament just sort of turns into the Apostle Paul show pretty quick. You know, it starts out with the four gospels, and you're learning all about the apostles, Peter, James, John. You get into the book of Acts, and you start out with all those same guys. You know, you're picking up right where you left off at the end of the book of Luke, and you've got Peter, James, John, Andrew, Simon. You've got all these guys. It's like, all right, the Acts of the Apostles, and we start seeing Peter and John doing great works, and James is getting beheaded and everything, but then all of a sudden you get, you know, nine chapters in, and then all of a sudden it starts shifting and just being all about the Apostle Paul. And then you get into Romans, and it's written by Paul, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews. It's just so many books by Paul. So much of the book of Acts is about Paul. Why? Because he was so mightily used by God. He was the one that spread Christianity all over Europe, all over Asia Minor, and, you know, ultimately he planted the seeds that got the Gospel all over the world. So why was he used so greatly? Because I believe that he was the greatest of all the apostles. You know, he ended up doing more and being used more greatly. Well, here's one answer. Look at 1 Corinthians 15 verse 9. For I am the least of the apostles that have not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And His grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God, which was with me. Therefore, whether it were I or they, so we preach, and so ye believed. And so what's the apostle Paul saying? It's by the grace of God that he became the guy who wrote half the New Testament, the guy who dominates half the book of Acts. Why is that? It's by the grace of God. It's not because he was just intrinsically a great person. It's not because he was born great. It's not because he had special talents or abilities. But it's simply because of God's grace. And the key, though, and remember, he's saying this under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. It must be true. He says in verse 10, I labored more abundantly than they all. That's the key. Paul simply worked harder than John. He simply worked harder than Peter. He simply worked harder than any of those original apostles. He said, I labored more abundantly than they all. And by the grace of God, I am what I am. Now any of us can be a great man or woman of God by the grace of God if we will labor abundantly. You don't have to be anybody special. You know, Paul wasn't the guy that spent the three and a half years with Jesus. He wasn't born of a certain lineage. He wasn't born into a certain family. He wasn't a certain economic stat. None of that had anything to do with it. It was simply that he was the guy who was willing to do the job and that he labored more abundantly than they all. Any young man, any young lady, any older man, older lady, you know, can decide that they want to do a great work for God. But you know what they're going to have to do? They're going to have to work. They're going to have to labor. And the old IFB movement, as we always call it, they're always talking about they want revival to come. You know, and what they're basically saying is, you know, we just wish God would multiply the oil. We want to have more oil, right? Because they want to have the power of the Holy Spirit. And the oil is what represents that in the story. But my advice to them would be simply, you just need to go borrow some more vessels. And then all the oil is there. I mean, God is ready with just an unlimited supply of oil. And he's waiting for us to come to him and be filled with the Holy Spirit. But he's ready to fill us at any time. And you know, he's ready for us to bring unsaved people to the cross of Christ at any time. And they will be indwelled by that Holy Spirit. And so we need to stop just saying like, oh, you know, someday revival is going to come. We're going to pray for revival. God's going to send a great revival. Hey, God is already sending that revival at all times to the people who want it. To the people who are willing to pay the price. To the people who are willing to get in their Bibles and read it and pray and study and work and go soul-willing. You know, the people who do what God tells them to do will see the results. It's that simple. You know, the lady in the story that we read in Kings, she was told to do something. She did what she was told and the miracle happened. And we have all these promises in the Bible. We have all these commands. It's not that we don't know what to do. We know what we need to do. We need to read the Bible. We need to pray. We need to get involved in the local church. We need to show up and we need to knock some doors. We need to preach the gospel. And if we do, God will do a powerful work. He's ready to do it. He's eager to do it. He wants it more than we want it. He wants people to be saved more than we do. He wants this church to grow more than we do. He's ready. But are you ready? See the sky is the limit. There's no limit to what we could do. There's no limit to what we could achieve. I mean, if we had the faith of a grain of a mustard seed, we could say to this mountain, remove hence and be thou cast into the sea and it would be done. God's power is limitless. We are the ones who are limiting him. Go if you would to 2 Chronicles 16 in the Old Testament. 2 Chronicles 16. There's no limit to how many people could be saved through the soul winning efforts of Faithful Word Baptist Church. There's no limit. It's up to us. How dedicated are we? How much work are we gonna do? How hard are we gonna try? And it's not just all about soul winning. There are other aspects of the Christian life. We need to be reading our Bibles. We need to be praying. We need to be faithful to church. We need to be living a clean life. We need to have our families in order. We need to do all the things that God has told us to do because it's not just about working hard, it's about obeying. Yeah, we wanna work hard, wanna labor abundantly, but one of the biggest reasons why Paul was blessed, it's not just that he labored more abundantly than they all, it's that he did the right kind of work. You see, a lot of the apostles, they got stuck on preaching to the Jews only and God just basically had to just take the focus off them in the book of Acts and just say, we can't just keep talking about this, let's talk about the guy who's going to the Gentiles because that was God's plan. So it's not just about working harder, it's about working in accordance with God's word. So in order to obey God's word, we gotta read the Bible. If we don't read the Bible, we don't even know what he wants us to do. We don't know whether we're doing it right or not. And so we need to keep going back and reading the Bible, making sure we stay on track, that we stay on course, that we stay on the program, that we don't get off into divers and strange doctrines or into foolishness, but that we stay on course, we read our Bibles, we pray for God's power, we give him all the glory, we give him all the credit, we understand that it's by the grace of God like Paul did and God can do anything, anything. It's not like, well, each generation, there's this kind of one great preacher for each Gent, no, wrong, they have 100 great preachers, 10,000 great preachers, 10,000, there's no limit. It's just how many people will yield themselves, how many men would yield themselves and say, here are my Lord, send me. And then be willing to put in the time, not to be lazy, but to read and to study and to learn the Bible, learn how to preach, get the experience, do the job. So if you would look down at your Bible there in 2 Chronicles 16, nine, it's a great verse. The Bible says, for the eyes of the Lord, 2 Chronicles 16, nine, run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou is done foolishly, therefore from henceforth thou should have wars. So here in the Bible, God is just going up and down, just constantly scanning, just constantly scanning and searching for someone that he can use just to show himself mighty, just to do a powerful work, just to blow everybody's minds with his amazing power. I mean, just think about that. His eyes are just scanning all the time. Is he looking for you? The answer is for sure yes. If you have a heart that's perfect toward him, then you know what, yeah, he's looking for you. You're the one. He said, well, it can't be me because I'm a bad speaker. It can't be me because I'm not that smart. It can't be me because I'm too busy. But here's the thing, it's up to you, the sky's the limit, it's just up to you whether you wanna be that person or not. Go to Joshua chapter 23, the book of Joshua chapter 23. You know, a lot of people criticize me, they don't like me, they hate me, they talk bad about me. I mean, every single day, like probably even every second of the day, if you think about it, just because there's so much going on on YouTube and on the internet and with the World Wide Web that literally like probably somebody right now is talking about how much they hate me, how bad I am, don't listen to him, like literally, maybe even 24 hours a day. Because I mean, there's just literally just thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of viewers on our YouTube channel every day. And I mean, a lot of people just hate my guts and even a lot of my own brothers and sisters in Christ, even people that say I love them, but they don't love me. A lot of even independent fundamental Baptist, King James, Bible preachers and things like that. And they'll say, you know, he's an idiot. He's crazy. You know, he's nuts, he's a weirdo. I mean, you've heard some of that probably. Oh yeah, let's stop and think about this, okay? Let's just say for a minute that I am an idiot, okay? I'm an idiot tonight. I'm crazy. I'm a weirdo. I'm stupid, right? I'm just totally off the deep end, totally nuts. Okay, I'll give you that, right? Let's just grant that for a moment. Okay, well then explain. Explain starting an independent fundamental Baptist church in Phoenix, Arizona in the 21st century, starting from scratch and having 350 people in it. And anybody who comes and visits our church, even enemies that visit our church, you look it up online, there's articles of people saying, I hate pastor, I hate his preaching, but I went to his church and his church is filled with great people. Why are they following this guy? But they looked at the church, they said, the church is filled with great people. I mean, I expect to find a bunch of weirdos. Everybody was cool, everybody was nice. People knew the Bible, they loved the Lord, they're talking about the Bible. One of the reasons, I wish my church was more like this. So stop and think about it. If I'm such an idiot, if I'm so crazy, I mean, what could God do with a normal person? What, I mean, look, no one can say that I haven't been used by God. Not only just to start a church, but also to literally reach millions of people online. And everywhere we go, we have these soul-winning marathons where we just go to a city where we've never even been. And 100 people will show up and go soul-winning and people are coming up, yeah, I got saved, watching after the tribulation, I got saved listening to your preaching. And I'm thinking about this, if I'm such an idiot, if I'm so crazy, what could God do with the same person? What could God do with somebody with some brains? What could God do with somebody who actually had a good personality? What could God do with someone who wasn't a total jerk? Think about that. If he can take this fool, this psycho, this weirdo, right, and just use him to reach millions of people and to found churches and to do all this stuff. What could he do with you? Since you're so much smarter than me and more mentally stable than I am and have such a better personality? I mean, think about that though. To me, you know what? If I really am that bad of a Christian and I really do have that bad of an attitude that everybody says I do, right? If I'm really that hateful and mean and crazy, to me, that just gives God even more glory because he could take the most misfit, the most backward, right? I mean, he could take Steven Anderson and turn the whole independent Baptist movement upside down. What could he do with these Bible college graduates, with all their talents and abilities and all their brains and all their people skills and the power of God just dripping from every pore, you know? And I'm kind of joking around but I'm kind of serious too that I'm not anything special and yet I've been used greatly by God. Explain it, because I'm not talented. I'm not the guy that people would look at and say, hey, this guy's the most likely to succeed. Well, just listen to him preach. I mean, of course people are gonna love him. They're gonna flock to him. No, people would say the opposite about my preaching. They'd say, hey, you can't preach like that in the 21st century. You're not gonna build a church like that. You know, nobody's gonna come listen to you. You're turning people away. That kind of preaching turns people away. Isn't that what they say? But you know what though? If that's really true, then that's just even a greater testament to the fact that God's hand must be on our church because no one can deny that we're succeeding, that we're accomplishing the mission, that we're winning people to Christ, that lives are being changed, that churches are being founded, that good things are happening. So if we are bad people, or if we're lame Christians, or if we're stupid or crazy, you know what, then how else do you explain it but the fact that God's power is mightily upon Faithful Word Baptist Church? It's the only way to explain it. I believe that anybody could duplicate what I've done, anybody. You know, it's just, because I'm nothing special, I'm not talented, but yet, you know, God has seen fit to allow me to do a lot of works. You know what I'm saying? And I can't say like Paul that I labored more abundantly than the all because I'm not even that hard of a worker. What could God do with somebody who's actually a real hard worker? You could do amazing things. And so we just need to understand that God wants to do great works. He's just looking for someone that would just want to serve Him and love Him. And you know what, whatever you say about me, the one thing you could never say about me is that I don't love the Lord or that I don't love the Bible. Because, you know, despite any of my other failings or weaknesses or flaws, one thing's for certain that I love the Lord, I love the Bible. And anybody else who loves the Lord and loves the Bible and wants to preach and wants to go soul winning, you know what, God is gonna use you in a great way. God's gonna fill you with the Holy Spirit. And it's not by might or by power, it's by God's Spirit, saith the Lord. Look at Joshua chapter 23 verse eight. The Bible says, but cleave unto the Lord your God as ye have done unto this day. For the Lord hath driven out from before you great nations and strong, but as for you, no man hath been able to stand before you this day. One man of you shall chase a thousand for the Lord your God, he it is that fighteth for you as he had promised you. Take good heed therefore unto yourselves that you love the Lord your God. You know, I love how he says that one of you shall chase a thousand. It doesn't matter the size of our church. It doesn't matter how many of us there are. And you know, we might look out at just the millions and millions of people and just think, well, there's just so few of us. And there's so many of them. Or we might look at just so many Baptist churches that are dead and just say, we can't make a difference. You know, there's just so many more of them than there are of us. Or we might just get overwhelmed sometimes by the task, but we need to understand that one of us, one of us can chase a thousand of them if God's on our side. One of us equals a thousand of them. And that means a thousand of us equals a million of them if the Lord is with us. So what we need to take good heed therefore on two and verse 11. We don't need to take good heed that you got enough people on your camp. Take good heed that plenty of people agree with you. Take good heed of the size of your army. Take good heed of those attendances on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday. You better take heed to, no, no, take heed to that offering plate. No, what he says, take heed that you love the Lord your God. Because if you love the Lord, if you love God, if you love the Bible, you know what? God will fill you with the Holy Spirit and God will use you to do a great work. That's what you need to worry about. We need more people to take heed to their walk with God and with their relationship with the word of God and to love God with all their heart and soul and mind and strength and just be ready to do what God wants them to do, to do what God tells them to do. And you know what? God can remove every obstacle. God can defeat every enemy. God can give us the talents, the abilities. He'll open doors for us that we've never even thought possible. It's not based on our own wisdom and our own knowledge. It's based on what God's gonna do through us because we love him. You know, we gotta put aside our own pride and our own understanding and our own goals or our own ideas and we've gotta go to him and say, what do you want us to do, God? We gotta get in the Bible, figure out what he wants us to do, pray for his leading and then we go out there and we do it and boy, he'll just keep pouring out that oil and it's just, it's mind blowing what God can do. And there's no limit to what he can do. The stuff that our church is doing over the past few years, I never would have dreamed or imagined in a thousand years that we would be doing the stuff we've been doing the last few years. Just the sheer magnitude, I never would have thought of it. I never would have dreamed of it but God just keeps pouring out that oil. As long as we just keep knocking the doors, borrowing the vessels, he keeps pouring out of his spirit. It's amazing. Go if you would to Psalm 78, while you turn to Psalm 78, the Bible says in Jeremiah 33 verse three, call unto me and I will answer thee and show thee great and mighty things which thou knowest not. First Samuel 14, six, and Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armor, come and let us go over under the garrison of these uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us for there is no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by few. There's no restraint to the Lord to save by many or by, it doesn't matter whether you borrow 100 vessels or 10 vessels, they're all gonna get filled. And it's not like it's a little harder for him to do 100 because it's all the same to him because he's God, he's omnipotent, he has all power. If you look at that story in 2 Kings chapter four, you don't have to turn there, but where Elisha multiplied that food, he took 20 loaves and fed 100 people. That's not really any different than the miracle that Jesus did. Jesus just did it for a bigger crowd. But I mean, it's just as miraculous because multiplying food is multiplying food. And if you study the four gospels, you'll see that Jesus did that miracle twice. And when he fed the 5,000, he had five loaves and two fishes. When he fed 4,000, he had seven loaves instead of five loaves so he actually did more with less. He used seven loaves to feed 4,000 people. He used five loaves to feed 5,000 people. Why? Because the number of loaves was irrelevant and the number of people was irrelevant, he's ready to feed everybody who's there. And it doesn't matter what is presented to him, whatever amount of food, he's gonna multiply that food and he's gonna feed everybody. It could have been, he said, well, I fed 5,000. Wow, that's me. Well, what if he would have fed 50,000? Or what if he would have fed 500? I mean, what if we just went around and let's say history had been different and it would have been the feeding of the 500? Would that have been any less of a miracle? Would it really matter whether he fed 2,000 or 1,000 or 5,000? I mean, I can see him feeding 1,000, but 5,000? That's amazing. Either way, the food just kept coming. So God is not limited to save by many or by few. God has no limit except the limit that we put on him. Our laziness is what puts a limit on him. When we don't show up, that limits him. When we don't have the faith, that limits him. When we didn't read our Bible, he's limited. When we're not praying, he's limited because we have not, because we ask not. We ask and receive not because we ask amiss that we may consume it upon our lusts. We're the ones who mess it up, but God has unlimited ability. Look at Psalm 78, verse 40. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert? Yea, they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. They limited, the Bible says, the Holy One of Israel. Now go if you were to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter number 13. And we'll see another instance in the Bible where they limited the Lord. They limited him. The Bible says in Matthew 13, verse 54, and when he was coming to his own country, he taught them in their synagogue in so much that they were astonished and said, whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty works? Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary and his brethren James and Joses and Simon and Judas and his sisters, are they not all with us? Whence then had this man all these things? They were offended in him. But Jesus said unto them, a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. Watch this, and he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Why didn't he do any mighty works there? Why didn't he do a lot of them? Was it because he didn't have the ability? No, it was because of their unbelief, he was limited in what he could do because they said, well, this is the carpenter's son and we don't really believe that it's possible that this ordinary guy who we've grown up with or known, he's from our town, we just can't believe that this guy would actually have these abilities that he'd be able to preach like this, that he'd be able to do these miracles. I think, come on, this is Jesus, we know his sister, we know his brothers, we know his dad, we know his mom because they thought it was his dad. They said, is not this the carpenter's son? The answer is no, it's not the carpenter's son, but they believed it was. And so they limited that, but you know what? They're always gonna be the naysayers too. A prophet is not without honor, save in his own country and in his own house. And so every preacher is gonna have those people in his church that don't have any respect for him. They disdain him, they look down upon him. Every preacher is gonna be like that, right? People are gonna look at him and say, you're just Steve to us, you're just Bruce, you're just Roger. I've had people say to me things like, I changed your diaper in the nursery. I remember when you were this little squeaky voice, whatever, but here's the thing. God can use that man, whoever it is. God can use that Steve or that Bruce or Roger who's preaching next week. He can use that person and turn him into Pastor Anderson. Not by his might or power, but through the Holy Spirit. He can take a Bruce and turn him into the mighty brother Mejia. He can take a man like Roger Jimenez and make him larger than life, amen? And he can preach with power and boldness. Why? Because of the fact that God's not limited. And you know what? If he takes the person who has the least talent, if he takes the least likely, if he takes the most backward individual, if he takes the most foolish thing that he can find, that's where he'll get the most glory. He'll use the foolish things of this world to confound the wise. He'll take the weak things of this world and destroy the mighty. He'll take one man and cause him to chase a thousand of the enemy. Why? Because then he gets the most glory. Right. Look, I can understand where God's coming from because I've noticed, you know, people that I've known who were socially awkward people and I've seen them become a great soul winner and man, it just, it brings such joy to my heart. And it gets me excited. You know, it's just so great when you see people that are just shy and quiet and timid and it's like the spirit of the Lord comes upon them and they're just a great soul winner and it's just, you're blown away because you say, wow, God is using this person because it's the most unlikely person. And I'll tell you what, I love that. And think about how much more God loves that. When he sees the most unlikely people just prove everybody wrong. And do a mighty work. You know, you look at a lot of great men of God over the years and men and women that God has used in your life to influence you. And you know, they were often some of the people that they weren't great by the world's standards at all. Because God's not looking for the mighty or the noble or the strong or the great. He's just looking for someone who loves him. Someone whose heart is perfect toward him. Someone who wants to be used by, someone who's not into ego and pride but they're just into doing what they're told and bringing glory to the Lord. You know, not into just puffing themselves up like a Joel Osteen or a Rick Warren, these other TV type preachers that are just into being popular. They're into preaching what people wanna hear for their ego boost of everybody liking them. He's just looking for people that are ready to just say, you know what, I'll take the criticism, I'll endure affliction, I'll endure persecution, I'll do what I'm told. You know, while other people are out playing and fooling around, I'm gonna be burning the midnight oil with my Bible. I'm gonna be reading for hours and hours. You know, others are watching TV, I'm reading, right? Other people are out partying and having a good time, they're drinking, they're smoking pot, I'm reading. Reading, reading, reading, hundreds of hours of reading, reading, reading, reading, reading the Bible. Just getting filled, just that oil is just coming into my vessel. I mean, look, just picture it this way, you're reading your Bible, it's like the oil is just coming into your vessels, it's like. You know, the clock's just like. And the oil's just like. And then you get up and preach. And there's power there. You get up and preach and you know what you're talking about. You get up and preach and you can quote scripture and the God can bring things to your mind. You know, you go, so many people are getting saved. But you've just gotta love the Lord, you just gotta love reading the Bible, you just gotta love church. You know, you're sitting in church, listening to sermon after sermon, and the oil's just filling up. You're on your knees praying and God's just pouring in the oil, right? And you're ready to just light that lamp up and just burn. Why? Because of the power of God. Not because of us. God can use any of us and he can use us without a limit. You know, some people, they've said things like, well, I don't think that Faithful Word, Baptist Church is ever gonna get beyond X the size. Now, I don't know how big our church is gonna get. I don't know how big this church in L.A. is gonna get. But you know, all I know is that there's no limit to how big it could get. You know, it's not like, well, there's this, you know, there's only so big you're gonna get if you're fundamental. No, I think that there's no limit to how many people can be saved, to how many churches we can start, how many missions trips we can do. And I mean, you know, the goals that we keep setting for ourselves, we keep having to set new goals because God is just opening so many doors and so many things are happening. But there's so much more work to be done and the labors are few. And this sermon, I hope, will stir in the hearts of every single person here. Every lady that's here to say, you know what, obviously I'm not gonna be a pastor or preacher or anything like that, but you know what, I can get out of soul winning. I can win somebody to Christ. And there's no limit to what God can do through that. You know, maybe I'll win that next great preacher to the Lord. Imagine that. Imagine you going out and knocking on the door winning someone to Christ. And then that guy 10 years from now is some powerful preacher somewhere, just turning some city or state or even nation upside down. Well, think about Pastor Donnie Romero was reached through door-to-door soul winning. You know, somebody knocked his door, won him to Christ. Why, go find that next Brother Romero. You know, go find that next preacher, that next person. You know, you could raise your children and bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They can be that next great preacher. They could be that pastor's wife or they can be that missionary's wife. You can raise up children. And you know what, even if they're never preachers, you know what, even just a godly soul winner can win so many people in their life, even just, so many people to the Lord in their life, even just by consistently, even just one hour a week. If you just consistently get out one hour a week and you just win a couple people to the Lord every month or so, and let's say in a year's time you win 30 people to the Lord. You know, if you can win 30 people to the Lord every year, even if people don't think you're a superstar, it's not about being a superstar. It's about God being pleased with you. And if you go out and win 30 people to the Lord every year, I promise you, God is pleased with you. You know why? Because God said that the good ground brings forth good fruit, the good seed that fell on the good ground, and they bring forth some 30 and some 60 and some 100. You know, maybe you're not bringing forth 100, but if you're bringing forth 30, he says, hey, you're a good tree. You're a good soul winner. You win 30 people to the Lord every year, you're doing great. You get an A. You're doing excellent. Why? Because in 10 years, you've won 300 people to the Lord. Because in 20 years, you've won 600 people to the Lord if you're just consistent, and who knows what those people can do, what God can do with them. You know, we need to just decide that we're gonna love the Lord, we're gonna be what he wants us to be, and we're not gonna put limits on our future, we're not gonna put limits on our church, we're not gonna put limits on our pastor, or we're not gonna look at our pastor and say, hey, I don't think that he's as good as so and so. You know what? I've heard some great preachers who preached amazing sermons, who just had amazing talent and ability that have done nothing for the Lord. And then I've seen other guys get up and struggle to preach, and they do great works for God. Amazing works. I mean, I remember one time I listened to the most boring preacher I've ever heard in my life, and I found out his church is running 1,000. Independent, fundamental, King James, soul-winning church. I'm like, this guy's got some other, something else going for him, because he was a boring preacher. But I've heard other great dynamic preachers, right? But it doesn't necessarily mean God's gonna use them. Why? It has to do with our heart whether God's gonna use us. You know, we gotta have our heart right, we gotta love the Lord, and we gotta do the work that he told us to do. It's not about talent, it's not about ability. God's not a respecter of persons. So God doesn't just sort of Calvinistically pick certain people, like, you know, I'm just gonna pick this guy and just pour out all my blessings on him just so I get the glory. No, no, he's just looking for anybody who wants to step up to the plate and be that person. I don't believe he just randomly picks one. I wanna pick the most unlikely person and just blow everybody's mind. No, no, he's looking for the one who says, Lord, here am I, send me. And then he'll use them greatly. And he'll pour out his spirit upon them and he'll blow everybody's mind in the process. Now, part of the reason that I'm preaching this sermon tonight is because tonight we're gonna be ordaining Brother Bruce Mejia. Amen. And Brother, let me just give you a little bit of the insight into what we're doing here with this church plant and what's going on with Brother Bruce Mejia. And the reason that I preach this particular sermon is because I want Brother Bruce to know that the sky is the limit. I want him to have a big vision for this church. I want him to set out to be and to do maximum for Jesus Christ. Amen. And to understand that it's God that's gonna give him the ability, it's God that's gonna empower him to do a great work, and really that there's an amazing work that could be done here. I mean, there's no shortage of vessels to borrow right here in the second largest city in America. I mean, here we are in this mega city, this metropolis, far greater than any biblical city in its heyday, far greater than ever Nineveh or Babylon ever even thought of being. They would be like a small town compared to Los Angeles, California. Okay, so God has a powerful work that he wants to do here. There's no question about that. And there's already a great group that's been assembled here of people who love the Lord and they love soul winning and they're team players and they wanna get on board and they wanna do something and they wanna get behind what's happening here and be a part of it. And so I wanna preach this sermon tonight on having a big vision, realizing that the sky's the limit in your own life. Don't sell yourself short and say, well, I had a rough past, so I'm just trying to be an average Christian. No, no, no, press toward the mark for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Paul had a bad past. He was a blasphemer, he was a persecutor, and he was injurious, but he said, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. So I want you personally in your heart to decide, you know what, I wanna do something big for God. I don't just wanna be Joe church member, I wanna be the best church member I can be. I wanna be the biggest asset to this church I can possibly be. I wanna be a soul winner. I wanna be a mover and a shaker. I wanna be somebody who does something big for God. I want God to use me greatly as a mother, as a father, as a soul winner, as a friend, as a church member, and just that all of us would get that vision for ourselves individually, and that also we would all have that vision for brother Bruce, right? And not to just say, well, he's the carpenter's son, or we, you know, well, he's just, you know, he's not so-and-so or what. No, no, no, to understand that this man can be used greatly by God. He can be used in a powerful way. He can do greater works than Pastor Anderson or than pastor he manages than anybody else, because why? Because the sky's the limit, that's why. And then not only you'd have a vision for yourself that the sky's the limit, not only would you have a vision for brother Mejia that the sky's the limit, but that you would also have a vision for this church as a whole, that the sky's the limit on how this church could become just a soul winning powerhouse of the West Coast. Soul winning powerhouse of America. And just that great preachers would come out of here and that giant maps would be on the wall just shaded in of all the soul winning and all the people being saved and really turn this place upside down. It doesn't matter whether there are so many millions of people, because one of us can chase a thousand if God's with us. So the history of this church is that we started this church as a church plant, okay? We wanted to plant a church out here in this area. That's something that I've wanted to do for a long time, because I just, my heart is for California, because I'm from California. I'm from Sacramento. My parents are from the San Fernando Valley. And so I've wanted for a long time a church to be planted in the Los Angeles area. And really we need many churches in the Los Angeles area because it's so geographically spread out. But I first met brother Bruce Mejia a little over four years ago. And I actually met him the first time by hearing him preach. I went and visited a church where he was preaching that night and my wife and I were there. She had to go to the hospital in Hollywood. And so we wanted to go to church while we were out here. We visited the church. We heard brother Mejia preach. We were blessed by the preaching, met him a little bit. He didn't really know me back then and I didn't know him. And he hadn't really listened to much of my preaching. I think he heard very little. He barely even knew who I was, but I listened to him preach and it was a blessing. And he and I slowly became friends over the next few years and we talked and so forth. And we came to a point where we decided that we're gonna start this church in LA and that he's gonna be the guy that's gonna run things out here, that he's gonna do it. And from where I'm standing in Phoenix, it seems like he's doing a great job. And so far so good. It's been a blessing and you guys are really tearing it up out here. And I love the way things are going. And the thing about it is that because brother Bruce Mejia is not a part of our church in Phoenix and we haven't known him super well, the Bible says not to lay hands suddenly on any man. So we wanted to get to know him a little bit more. And also because of the fact that he's a little bit younger as far as he's only been married for a few years. His second child was just born recently. And so he's still maturing just a little bit more to where he can meet those qualifications set in the Bible. Because we think it's pretty important that a pastor of a church meet the qualifications of having family. You know, he's married, he's had kids, and also that he's been married for several years so that we can make sure that his marriage is stable and that he rules his home and that everything is good in that sense. And so the plan for this, we started what, just about six months ago, right? So we started this church about six months ago. And the goal for this church is that it become independent in about a year and a half from now, okay? That's when basically Brother Bruce Mejia, God willing, will have met the qualifications of how long he's been married and everything that Faithful Word Baptist Church says. Because we have certain standards of just, you know, how long people are saved, how long they've been married, and so forth. And so the goal is that this become an independent Baptist Church, totally separate from Faithful Word Baptist Church, that it become its own church a year and a half from now. That's the plan, okay? And then at that time, you know, it's not gonna be called Faithful Word Baptist Church anymore because we don't believe in having like a denomination where we just have a whole bunch of churches and they're all connected or they all kind of like have an archbishop or a pope. You know, we want these churches to be independent. You know, so the goal and the plan is for eventually Brother Bruce Mejia to pastor this church. God willing, a year and a half from now. That we would then cut that umbilical cord, change the name of the church to whatever, you know, the name ends up being for this church. And then at that point, you know, we'll just be friends at that point. And then, you know, we can plant the next one and just keep multiplying and starting more churches and doing more work for the Lord. So, you know, as far as I know, and from what I've seen, from the sermons I've listened to, Brother Mejia has been found faithful. He's doing a great job. And just so you know, if there's ever some kind of a problem you need to come and tell me about it and let me know that. And if there's any reason why he shouldn't be ordained, you know, you gotta come and tell me that, okay? But I believe he's doing a great job. Everything I've heard has been positive. Everybody that I've spoken to feels the same way. And so what we're gonna do is that tonight he's going to be ordained as evangelist, okay? Because he's here, he's spreading the gospel, he's working to get the church planted. So we're gonna ordain him as evangelist and he's going to be baptizing converts from now on. And that's gonna be the step tonight. And then God willing, a year and a half from now, he's gonna be ordained as pastor and we'll separate this thing out as an independent Baptist church. It's really exciting. And you know, I'm really excited about this church plan. I'm excited about Brother Mejia and that God just kind of miraculously crossed our paths, you know, through a really bad situation in my life where my wife and I were going through something that we didn't wanna go through with the hospital and things like that. But God used that to unite Brother Mejia and myself so that I could know him and hear him preach and have a vision for him and for this church and the rest is history. And so I hope that you'll continue to be a part of it. And it's great to see the same faces, you know, month after month when I come here to preach. And I pray that you'll get behind him, share his vision, stay faithful to church. And you know what? Starting a church, it's a big job. It's a lot of work. Pastoring a church is a lot of work. And so support him, help him, and try to have a big vision to get this thing as far down the road as we can. It's just gonna be exciting to see it become its own independent Baptist church and just take on a life of its own, amen? So I'm gonna have Brother Bruce Mejia come up here tonight. And we believe that it's God's will that he lead in this congregation for now as the evangelist. And so we're just gonna have a word of prayer for him and just pray for God's blessing upon him as he preaches that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit and that God would also just give him wisdom and knowledge to direct things out here over the next year and a half and God willing even beyond that. And so we just wanna also pray for the mighty power of God to come upon him because he's not gonna be able to do it in his own strength. He's gonna get burned out. I would have got burned out a long time ago if God hadn't renewed my strength. And so pray for him continually, but we're gonna say a special prayer for him right now. So I want you all to be praying with me in your hearts right now as we pray for Brother Mejia tonight and choose him or ordain him as the evangelist for this area to get this church planted and rooted and started right. So let's bow our heads and pray together. Dear Lord, we thank you so much for Brother Bruce Mejia, Lord, and for the work that he's done, Lord. We just pray that you would just continue to use him in a mighty way. Please, Lord, just fill him with your Holy Spirit and just guide him and direct him, Lord, and lead him not into temptation, Lord. There are so many enemies out there and there are so many pitfalls that he could fall into. And Lord, we just pray that you would just help him to stay clear of all those things and to flee all those things, Lord. Help him to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior. Help him to study, to show himself approved, Lord. And I just pray that you would just send with him as you did with King Saul, where you sent a group of men whose hearts you had touched, Lord. I just pray that you would just guide and direct people to this church, Lord, that could become the backbone of this church, Lord, that would support him and that would get behind him and fight the battle with him, Lord. And Lord, I just pray that you would just fill his preaching with power, Lord, that it would just resound in the hearts of every person who walks through these doors to hear him preach, Lord. And also that even when it goes out on the internet, that it would be heard in distant lands and distant continents, that your word would just cut like a knife into people's hearts as it comes out of the mouth of Brother Bruce Mejia, Lord. I just pray that you would just use him in a great way, keep him humble, help him to always remember where the power comes from, that it comes from you, Lord, and help him to do his best and work hard and serve the best of his ability, Lord. And Lord, we just pray that you would just help all of us to help him do the work that you've called him to do, and in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. All right, God bless you, Brother Mejia. Yeah. And you know, the truth is that we'd love to start so many more churches in so many more places. The thing that holds us back, it's not God's ability. The thing that holds us back is that we need more men that will fill the pulpit in these various cities, and to do what Brother Mejia is doing and to do what other people are doing, then we could found more churches. This is what we need. But you know what? He's gonna be under attack. I'm constantly under attack. All of us are under attack. You know what? We need to pray a hedge around him that he will make it all the way to the finish line a year and a half from now, and then that's just lap one. You know what I mean? And then the real race begins. That was the warmup, right? Then the real race begins. Because I'm telling you, when you go out and win hundreds of people to Christ, you got a target on you, you know what I mean? Spiritually. I mean, you think the devil's just gonna sit back and let us have a mega marathon? I mean, we've had so many problems. Ever since we announced that mega marathon, it's just so many problems and so much opposition and just so many headaches. But you know what? It's just, it comes with the territory. And you know what? The devil would love for this church to crash and burn and the devil would love for me to crash and burn, for him to crash and burn. So you need to pray for me all the time and pray for him all the time and pray for this church because this church has the potential to be the greatest church in the history of the New Testament. This church right here in LA. Why not? Who's stopping it? Only thing that limits you is you. And so this church has the potential not to be another faithful word, to be double faithful word, you know, to be the greatest church in the history of the New Testament right here in one of the greatest cities in the world. Los Angeles, California. But you know what? It also has the potential to be nothing. To be a flop, to be a failure, to be a train wreck, to be a joke, to go off the rails into strange doctrines, to go off into just whatever, just lethargy and laziness and apathy. Or it can be a red hot, soul-winning church. If you write the book, you decide. He decides. The Lord's already decided. He wants this place to be a powerhouse. But it's up to us. Are we gonna limit God? Or are we gonna be maximum for the Lord Jesus Christ? Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for this church. And Lord, even just what's already been accomplished, Lord, is a blessing. And we thank you for the works that you've done, Lord. The Lord, we pray that you would do even more, that you would just really open up the windows of heaven, Lord, and pour out a blessing on this church, Lord. I just pray that every single person here would let your word sink down to their ears and that their heart would burn within them and that they would decide that they want to love you more and serve you more, Lord, and realize and truly realize and truly believe that the sky is the limit tonight, Lord. Jesus, amen.