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["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] ["Pomp and Circumstance"] All right, go ahead and open your Bibles to Judges, Chapter 15. Judges 15. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand. Someone will bring you one. Judges, Chapter 15. Judges 15, the Bible reads, But it came to pass within a while after, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a kid. And he said, I will go in to my wife, into the chamber, but her father would not suffer him to go in. And her father said, I verily thought that thou had utterly hated her, therefore I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead of her. And Samson said concerning them, Now shall I be more blameless than the Philistines, though I do them a displeasure. And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the mist between two tails. And when he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and also the standing corn with the vineyards and olives. Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Temnite, because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion, and the Philistines came up and burnt her and her father with fire. And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet will I be avenged of you, and after that I will cease. And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, and he went down and dwelt in the top of the rock Edom. Then the Philistines went up and pitched in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi. And the men of Judah said, Why are ye come up against us? And they answered, To bind Samson are we come up, to do to him as he had done to us. Then three thousand men of Judah went to the top of the rock Edom and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them. And they said unto him, We are come down to bind thee, that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me that you will not fall upon me yourselves. And they spake unto him, saying, No, but we will bind thee fast and to deliver thee into their hand, but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords and brought him up from the rock. And when he came unto Lehi, the Philistines shouted against him, and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. And the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands. And he found a new jawbone of an ass, and put forth his hand, and took it and slew a thousand men therewith. And Samson said, With a jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with a jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men. And it came to pass, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand, and called that place Ramath-Lehi. And he was sore of thirst, and called on the Lord, and said, Thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant, and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised. But God clave and hollowed a place that was in the jaw, and there came water there out. And when he had drunk, his Spirit came again, and he revived. Wherefore, he called the name thereof Enhak-kore, which is in Lehi unto this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. Brother Tony, will you pray for us? Amen. Amen. Okay, well the title of the sermon tonight is The Lord's Firebrands. The Lord's Firebrands. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this wonderful day. And Lord, I just appreciate all the hardcore soul winners that we have here, Lord. And we thank you for the three people that got saved today. I pray you bless their lives. And Lord, help them to just get in a great church and grow, get baptized, learn the Bible. And Lord, I pray that you would help me with this sermon. It's a different one, but I pray your Spirit would be upon me, and that you would fill me up with your Spirit, and that you would help me to preach mighty and boldly to your people. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. All right, so this is a different kind of a sermon. So I'm taking Judges chapter 15, verses 4 through 6. I'm kind of going to spiritualize them. There's nothing wrong with getting spiritual message out of these verses, is there? Because all Scripture is given to us for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So all Scripture we can get something out of. But the concept here is the Lord's Firebrands. And the reason why I bring that up is in verse 4. It says, And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took firebrands, and turned tail to tail, and put a firebrand in the midst between two tails. So what is a firebrand? Well, a firebrand is a burning piece of something to start a fire with. It's usually a burning piece of wood or kindling or something to start a fire with. And it's also, in the dictionary, it's a person who is passionate about a particular cause, typically inciting change and taking radical action. Now you could say that Christians, when they get on fire for God, are firebrands for God. And so when Samson takes these three, he catches three hundred foxes. Why does it say that specific number? Well, Gideon had a great victory with three hundred men. And so, I mean, if you're spiritualizing this, Samson is a type of Christ. And you're thinking, yeah, but there's a lot of things he did that weren't really Christ-like. But I'm going to read you some comparisons and some things about how Samson does picture Christ many times in his short three chapters that he's in in the book of Judges. But, yeah, a firebrand is a person who is passionate about a particular cause. So if you're passionate about the cause of Christ, then you're going to try to incite change, right? And you're going to try to take radical action to make that change happen. And God has people that he lets loose, so to speak, as firebrands in the fields, in the harvest. And he wants people that get saved to be on fire for him and to go out and go and make a difference in these heathen countries and these heathen places that we have to go to. Was it easy soul winning today, or was it harder? Probably harder if you're in good neighborhoods, but, you know, there's always going to be a righteous remnant in any area that we go soul winning, and usually we at least come back with one salvation. I mean, it's obviously we're not in Hawaii where we get fifty-two people saved in two hours, or in the Philippines where Brother Stuckey's getting hundreds of people saved every week. It's a little bit different, okay? But we're still getting people saved, and we're making a difference here in Vancouver, Washington, and there's a lot of people in this room that are fired up for God. But, you know, someone had to light that fire under you, too. Because a lot of Christians get saved and they don't do anything for God. And people say, well, those people aren't saved. They're not showing forth good works. So I can't inspect their tree of fruit, so I don't see any fruit. I don't think that person was saved. That's not true necessarily. That is not true. Because there's a lot of people that do good works that aren't even saved. So what, we're supposed to judge their fruit and judge them saved? I mean, that's ridiculous. We're known by what we produce. When we produce other Christians, when we produce good fruit, that might be proof of your salvation. That might be some evidence to inspect the fruit of a person that preaches the gospel. If you get people saved and you go back three years later and all the people you've supposedly got saved are not saved, then something's wrong. You're either not preaching the gospel right or you're a false prophet, right? But I don't want you to criticize yourself too much right now because I'm going to bring that stuff home here in just a little bit. But when you get it on fire for God, you're going to go try to tear it up. And basically, to me, what I'm spiritualizing here tonight is that Samson represents Christ. The 300 foxes, which are few in number, in comparison to, it could have been 10,000 foxes, right? But just catching 300 foxes in itself is a very good thing. And it's hard to catch souls, isn't it? It's hard. And few there be that be saved. And God does a lot with a little bit. And throughout the whole Bible, you know, God, you know, Gideon had 10,000 people, and he just said, hey, wheel it down to the guys that, you know, lick the water weird or whatever. You know, they lapped it like a dog. Out of those 10,000, 300. And then God said, okay, we'll win the victory over countless hordes of Midianites with 300. So God does a lot with a little bit. And what did he do? He put those foxes on fire with firebrands. And so I guess if you think, if you would say that the 300 foxes could represent 300 people that got saved, those people who were saved are on fire. And they're in unison. Because what did he do? He tied their tails together and put the firebrand between their tails. And it's funny because, you know, the Holy Spirit baptizes us with fire and gives us the power to go out and get people saved in the first place. And he fills us with his Holy Spirit. Then that's what, when we're filled with the Spirit, we're going to do spiritual things. Now are we always filled with the Spirit? No, we're not always filled with the Spirit. Otherwise he wouldn't say be filled with the Spirit. Because if you're always filled with the Holy Spirit, then he wouldn't have no reason to write that. If that makes any sense. So that's why I ask to be filled with the Spirit of God when I preach. And, you know, we should go out in the Spirit when we go out to go sowing. So these foxes get these firebrands. He lights them on fire. And what do they do? They run out into the field and burn up everything, right? And Jesus said, Look on the fields that are white and ready unto harvest. And so, you know, if you're on fire, you're going to want to go out in those fields and you're going to want to light up the world for Jesus. A light set on a hill, you know, cannot be hidden. So when we're on fire, people are going to see that we're on fire and they're going to respond to that fire. And they're going to look at us and say, Hey, that person's on fire for God. So as Christians, we should be on fire for God. And when I'm talking about the Lord's firebrands, I'm talking about people that have an effect to set other people on fire also. Because there's preachers that I've listened to, there's preachers I still listen to that really light a fire up in me. And I want to be a fiery Christian. I want to be a Christian that is passionate and particular for my cause and I want to incite change. What kind of change? I thought change is bad. No, change is good if there's something bad that needs to be changed. So if there's something going on in Christian churches that's not right, I would say that the New IFB movement has done a lot to change the status quo when it comes to Baptist churches. That's why we're called the New IFB. But we're really not new. We're just going back to the old past that they departed from long ago. And I was preaching about that this morning about how they're basically queerbaits and fag hags now and letting all these queers into their churches and saying people could get saved to the final moment. Billy Graham was saved, Charles Spurgeon saved. They'll go to these revivals from the past and try to claim that they're these great people and they're Pentecostals when they're not even saved and they're just like, these revivals, we want the revivals like the Welsh revivals. That was all a bunch of garbage. Check into it. What did they believe? They didn't believe what we believe. So they're looking for a revival that's never going to come. It's like the Jews looking for the Messiah, but he's really going to be the Antichrist. The Baptists want to look back in the past and all these preachers that are a bunch of garbage preaching. I've heard people say, Hudson Taylor was the greatest missionary of our time and he went one China to Christ. He was a Presbyterian, bruh. Come on. Why are you talking about Hudson Taylor? And David Livingston. I've heard Baptist preachers claim David Livingston. He was also not a Baptist. He was more like a famous person that just wanted to go explore places. I think he went out as a missionary, but I want to change. I want things to be the way they're supposed to be and it's taken a firebrand for me to get on fire. We should be zealously affected to good works. So how is Samson like Jesus? You're like, how is he like Jesus? Well, let's go through it. Both were born miraculously. Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and Samson's mother was unable to conceive before she became pregnant with Samson. So they both kind of had miraculous births. The angel of the Lord announced both births. Then an angel of the Lord came to Samson's parents and then they made him some cakes and asked about what his name was and he was like, you don't need to know my name or whatever. But both of them had miraculous announcements from angels and both came to deliver their people. What was the purpose of Samson? To judge the nation of Israel, but he was also a savior, a savior that would come and help them against what the Philistines were oppressing them. And so Jesus came to deliver his people. Samson came to deliver his people. The Holy Spirit mightily abode upon them. So Jesus was filled with the Spirit without measure and Samson was tied with King Saul as having the Holy Spirit come upon him the most in the Bible. But obviously there's some shortcomings in Samson's life too. I mean, he was not very good at picking girlfriends or wives. But he did a lot of great things for God too though. But he ended up, well, let's continue to go through this. So both have a Gentile wife. Think about that. We're called the bride of Christ. Jesus says that we're supposed to treat our wives like Christ treated the church. So a Gentile wife. God, I mean, we're not married to Jesus as in like an intimate marriage. I'm not talking about that, but it's compared to marriage. And so Samson also had a Gentile wife. He had a Philistine wife and both spoke in riddles. Samson had riddles that he was trying to get people to understand, but they couldn't understand it. And Jesus Christ also spoke in parables. They were both betrayed by a loved one. Jesus was betrayed by Judas and then Delilah got the secret of his strength and betrayed him and they both betrayed him for silver. So Delilah betrayed him for 1,100 pieces, or was it 1,200 pieces of silver and Christ was betrayed for 30 pieces of silver. And so both deaths defeated their enemies. So when Christ died, he ultimately, I don't think that the devil really knew what he was doing when he killed Christ, what it was going to do, but he actually defeated himself by killing Christ. So when Christ died, he defeated death, he defeated hell, he defeated the devil. And so they both have these same kind of characteristics. Pretty interesting, right? So they both defeated their enemies. When Christ died, what did he do? He said, let me die with the Philistines. And so his death, pushing those pillars, collapsed and killed thousands of people, the enemies of God. Now obviously a lot of the things Samson did were the opposite of what I was talking about this morning. He was doing carnal things to help. But when you put it in spiritual perspective, then we have a likeness of Jesus Christ. So God always has done mighty works through little amounts of people. I mean, think about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. Joseph turned the heart of a whole nation basically and had them in the palm of his hand, but he was a slave. He was sold by his brothers, but he did great works for God as a prisoner. And then got the Pharaoh to, he basically became as powerful as you could be without being the Pharaoh and influenced that whole nation. So you think about Moses, you know? One guy, right? And then his brother was helping him out and his sister. But mainly Moses was the man of God. And he went and freed millions of people from slavery and led the children of Israel into the wilderness and taught them his law and did great miracles and mighty works. God did that through one man. And here's the thing, here's the key. You have to be willing to let God lead you. If you want to be on fire for God, if you want to be a firebrand for God, then you should be willing to let God lead you. Because that's really the thing. If you think about Gideon, you know, he was the smallest and most insignificant person in the whole tribe of his whole family. He was just like a farmhand basically. And God used that small guy that did small things, but he was faithful. And he used Gideon who was just the least in his house. He was insignificant. And God made him a mighty man that destroyed the whole country with his 300 mighty men. And what was the key to that? He was willing to do what God asked him. Was he afraid? Yeah, he was afraid. Was he doubtful? Yeah, he was doubtful. See, we can have doubts and we can be afraid of things, but you know what? If we're willing to do what God says, then God's going to use you. And he can make you into a firebrand of the Lord also. So Paul turned the world upside down. And obviously he had help doing that. But when you read about Paul and his companions, Paul was the main guy. He was the main one that was used to basically convert the whole Gentile world at that time. And all these Gentiles in this room, tell Paul thank you. Because he helped convert your forefathers. And then that was an unbroken line to the rest of us. So I think most of you are Gentiles in this room. I know my wife is Ashkenaz, but anybody else? Anything else? Yeah, I didn't think so. So my wife is one of the special chosen ones and she's a special chosen one. And she's special to me, so she's three. So anyway, what did Jesus do? Well, basically just changed the world, defeated death and hell. He's the real reason why we're all saved. And what he did for us, living the perfect life, obeying every commandment of his father. See, he was obedient unto the death of the cross. And everything that God told him to do, that's what he did. He died, he went to hell for three days and three nights, rose again from the grave. And we have him to thank for our salvation. One man with 12 disciples changed the whole world. So, I mean, God can do a lot with a little bit. And so today, even in our modern day, we have men that are set on fire of God. We have men, we have women, we have just people that he just puts a special blessing on. That person affects other people. See, if you're on fire for God, you're going to catch other things on fire. If you're a firebrand, guess what a firebrand does? It catches things on fire, right? And so if you're one of those saved foxes that's running through the world, getting all these people saved, and what was he doing? Cutting down, you know, burning up the wheat and the chaff. And what was the purpose of Samson doing that in the first place? He destroyed their whole livelihood. That's their food. I mean, bread was like a big source of food back then. And it said even the stocks he cut down. And so those were basically the things that were drying. It's like you take 12 of these stocks and bind them in a bundle and let them dry. All those were burned up too. So they basically just destroyed their whole bread situation. And so they were very upset about it. And rightly so, as far as they're concerned. But what were they? They were the enemies of God. And so when we go out and we're on fire for God, the enemies are going to be destroyed. And what is the ultimate enemy? It's the people that are unsaved. They're enemies of God and we're trying to reconcile them with God so that they will be freed from the snares of the devil and able to be set on fire for God also. So that's kind of the way Christianity works. Maybe I'm taking a little bit of liberty with my interpretation of this, but it makes sense to me. As long as it makes sense to me, that's all that matters, right? No, I'm just kidding. But the job of a firebrand is to set things on fire. And if you want to be one of the Lord's firebrands, then you've got to positively affect other people. Now, burning things up doesn't sound like a positive thing, but think about how the kingdom of God works. That's how it works. You get one person saved and you get a bunch of people saved and those people get other people saved and those people get other people saved. And the way it's supposed to work is a big multiplication and exponential growth of people being saved. But not everybody wants to be saved. That's the problem. And the other problem is there's a lot of people out there not doing a thing, not doing anything for the kingdom of God, not helping the kingdom of God, not even going soul winning ever. How are you a pastor and you never go soul winning? How is that possible? I mean, there's people in other churches that... I was just talking to Brother Larson about this earlier, that he was trying to go to this church in Tri-Cities and they do a 45-minute orchestra song. Do they still have an orchestra? Yeah, they have like a big orchestra. They even have like a big drum that annoys me. But anyway, I've been to that church before. But you know what they were reduced to? 45 minutes of singing and a 15-minute sermon. A Baptist church, an independent fundamental Baptist church with like seven pastors on staff. Seven, I'm not even kidding you. They all have like office space and every pastor has their own office next to the building. And they're all pastors of different things. The pastors of the bus, the pastors of the youth, the pastors of this and that, the jail ministry, and all the other things that they have going on. Brother Eli went to that church too, right? Yeah, Riverview. I used to think that was a fired-up church though. But you know what the problem is with that church? Brother Robert was telling me that there's people that go out and they hand out invitation. And some of them, what they call soul winning is the bus ministry. And that's what most Baptist churches will say. We got soul winning. It's the bus ministry. Go knock on doors and try to get kids signed up for the bus ministry. So you can get that kid saved. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with getting people saved. I'm not knocking that. But like when you're going knocking, why don't you try to get the person saved at the door? He said people try to do that, but they just don't really know what they're doing. That's a disgrace to those pastors that run that church. Because if there's seven pastors, don't you think one of those guys might know how to go soul winning and show somebody else how to get somebody saved? It's ridiculous. That is the state of affairs in Baptist Christianity right now. And they want to sit there and knock people in our movement and knock pastors that I'm friends with and say that they're bad, they're wrong. How dare you preach against that? How dare you preach against this? Why, because you're too scared? Because you've got a church full of blue hairs that won't do anything, and you're afraid to preach on things because you'll stop getting the tithe check? It's weak. They've got all kinds of events and things that they do. We do too. We do all kinds of events and things like that. Not at the expense of our soul winning ministry. That's always going to be number one. Look at verse 5. It says when he set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing corn of the Philistines and burn up both the shocks and also the standing corn with the vineyards and olives. See, when you're set on fire of God, you're going to go out and you're going to burn other things. You're going to affect other things zealously with the burning that you have in you. We're supposed to be on fire for God. Obviously we're not always on fire for God. But let's try. Let's try to be on fire. And when you hear a sermon that stirs some passion, you use that passion and stay fired up. You know sometimes when a fire goes out but there's still good parts of the wood left? Have you ever been camping and it just kind of goes out? Hey, light your fire back up. There's times in your life when you don't feel super spiritual. I get that. But you should be able to fire yourself back up. Put a little gas on the fire. Listen to some spicy preaching or something. And that'll help you. That'll help you stay fired up. Because the Christian life isn't easy. As I was explaining earlier this morning, we're going to get persecuted. Does that sound like fun? No, it doesn't sound like fun. But the Bible says that when we're persecuted, we're supposed to leap for joy. We're supposed to rejoice and be glad. That's something that we're supposed to... It's hard to think that way. But we've got to start thinking how God thinks and stop thinking about how we think or your casual family member that goes to church that doesn't really care too much about the things of God. And they think you're weird. They're a Christian, but they think you're weird because you actually want to do what the Bible says. You actually want to go to church like the Bible says. You actually want to go with souls like the Bible says. So look at verse 6. It says, Then the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite. So eventually when you start doing things for God, people start to take notice. The enemies of God start to take notice that you're doing big things for God. And they're like, Who's doing this? Oh, it's that pastor on YouTube on Sure Foundation Baptist Church. He's the one that's preaching against Ravi Zacharias. I guess you're perfect, Pastor Thompson. Did I ever say I was perfect in that sermon? I don't think I did. But there's a difference between being not perfect and being a false prophet. You got seven million dollars you're sitting on and you got it through preaching? You're a false prophet. I don't even think I mentioned that in the sermon. There's another one. There's another addendum to it. But with little, Samson was able to destroy his enemy. He destroyed their whole food source. Samson's great works defeated God's enemies. And we even see later on in the passage that the Spirit of the Lord mightily comes upon him. You would think, Well, that wasn't really nice of Samson to burn up all their food like that. What was going to happen? They were God's enemies. They hated God. They weren't good people. They burned his father-in-law and his wife's house with them in it. I mean, they were bad people. Now, Samson's view on doing to others was the opposite of what Jesus taught. He was like, As they have done unto me, I'm going to do unto them. But Jesus taught the opposite of that, didn't he? It's funny how Jesus taught the exact opposite of that because that's not how he wants us to be. But that's how we want to be sometimes. So it's a good parallel for us to consider that what Samson did was not right. But what was Samson's ultimate job from God? To destroy the Philistines. But see, his flesh kept getting in the way. And that's what happens with us when we try to be super spiritual, sometimes our flesh gets in the way. But if you want to be a firebrand for the Lord, we have to be willing to obey God and His commandments. So when the world asks, when we get up to preach things that go against the plan, what are they going to say? Who hath done this? Pastor Mejia, First Works Baptist Church. Who's preaching against these sodomites? I mean, they're trying to promote it. I've heard of church members of ours that they went to the dentist's office and who greeted them at the door? Some faggot trying to take them back to work on their kids' teeth. Are you going to let that person go work on your kids' teeth? I wouldn't. I mean, they put them under with anesthesia sometimes and all kinds of... I mean, I wouldn't put anything past them. They're filled with all unrighteousness. You know, Anthony got kicked out of Taco Bell for the rest of his life, I think, because he didn't want some fruitcake touching his food. You know? And sometimes I'm just like, Oh, Anthony. Well, what's wrong with that? I mean, how do you know what he was touching before he touched your food? I mean, gross. They're dogs. Dogs, you know, do things that I wouldn't do. I'm just saying. So, I don't want to be too graphic here. So, look, the Philistines said, Who hath done this? And that's what people are going to say about you. Who's doing this? What you do is going to affect other people, but it's also going to get the wrath of the enemy upon you. And God's firebrands, there's some people that are directly responsible for me being on fire for the Lord and me wanting to do great works, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. It's right. Remember, a firebrand is a person who is passionate about a particular cause, typically inciting change and radical action. Now, I'm not talking about radical action like bombing a church. I'm not talking about radical action like doing something unlawful. Sometimes the saddest quo has to be shaken up. And far too long, Baptist churches have been sinking down into the mire. I say Baptist churches because usually Baptist churches are the only ones that are King James only, soul winning, old-fashioned hymns. So it's hard to say that a community church that uses the NIV is fired up. Maybe there's people saved in those churches, but they're not exactly fired up, are they? What they're fired up for? Their latte that's sold in the back corner of the church. That's what they're fired up for. Hey, we can just go two doors down to Brood. Their coffee's better than Starbucks anyway. You don't need a Starbucks in here. Little faggoty company anyway. Not that I don't go to Starbucks sometimes. I do. I also go to Safeway, and they serve alcohol. They sell alcohol, so I guess I'm a compromiser. Man, I'm feeling conviction right now. Lord, help me. Turn to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13, verse 31. This is how the kingdom of God works. Listen to this. It says in verse 31, Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, and a grain of mustard seed is the smallest seed. Jesus said it was the smallest seed, so I believe him. And it says, Like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all seeds. See, Jesus said it. But when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof. So all it takes is just a little spark from a firebrand to make a big fire. I think I've told the story where I lit a field on fire that was next to my house before. It was just like Samsung, except I didn't catch 300 foxes. I used matches. But it was a dry field. It was like standing grass, probably about that tall. And some kid across the street dared me to do it. I'm like five years old or six years old or something. I'm like, okay. I got spanked really bad that night, but put to bed without dinner. But I caught the field on fire. It could have killed people. Stupid. And obviously, that was a teenager I shouldn't have been hanging around, I guess. I don't know where my parents were while this was going on, but they probably figured they should be able to trust the people in the neighborhood, but that's a mistake, right? But a little spark is all it took to catch that whole field on fire. So that's the concept that I'm trying to teach you here, is that we just need a little spark. We need a little faith. And we need a little obedience. And then we can do great things for God. So in this picture, it's a little seed. But when it's grown, it becomes the greatest of herbs and becomes a tree. So it's an herb, but it's the size of a tree. It's the greatest of herbs. The smallest of seeds. So the air come and lodge and the branches thereof. So the kingdom of God is like that seed. All it takes is just one seed, one fire to affect everything. So... And I'm going to talk about some fire brands that I know. And I just want to say this before I start saying all this stuff. This is not a Manly Perry, Why We're Andersonites sermon. But I do greatly respect Pastor Anderson. And he still teaches me new things every week. Yeah, I'm a pastor. I don't know everything, though. But I learn things from all my pastor friends. Iron sharpened with iron, the Bible says. But there was a time when I wasn't even a pastor. And Pastor Anderson zealously affected me in a way that I'll never go back from. And I'm sure that he's affected every single person in this room to a certain extent. And also other men of God have done this. But Pastor Anderson, I believe, is like one of the Lord's fire brands. He's affected zealous change so much that people hate his guts because they've changed their weak status quo as Baptists. He just questioned the things that they weren't teaching right. And you know what? People that love truth love to find the truth. And when they find the truth, they want to stick with that truth and continue to hear that truth. It's not just enough to... When someone just brings these things to your face, you've got to stick with it. See, a lot of people take sermons from Pastor Anderson and then somebody talks crap about him or someone says this or that about him or maybe he's not good or something. But he's zealously affected my whole life, my wife's life, my kids' life. And we have this church today, thanks to Pastor Anderson, thanks to Pastor Jimenez, people, men of God, that zealously affected my life. Fire brands for the Lord. Pastor Anderson, I remember he tells a story about how he was at a weak Baptist church. It was a Baptist church, but they were NIV. He was wanting to do things for God because he was saved, but nobody could ever tell him how to do things because they weren't doing things themselves, so they didn't really have anything for him to do because they weren't doing anything either. And then he tells a story about how this kid rode up on his bike or something. I think I'm getting it right. And gave him an invitation to a Baptist church that was King James only, that was soul wanting, that was doing things right for the Lord. And then he goes and shows up at that church, gets his whole family going to that church, and just turns his whole life around. Pastor Nichols was a fire brand of the Lord that helped Pastor Anderson catch fire, but then Pastor Anderson took that fire and spread it to a whole bunch of other people. But how did he do that? Well, just hard preaching, soul winning. And that kid zealously affected him. The weird part of the story, though, is that nobody in the church, when he said, hey, this kid, and described the kid and whatever, they said, we don't know anybody that goes to our church like that. So I think he thinks maybe it was possibly an angel that just gave him that card. You never know. We entertain angels unaware, the Bible says. Sometimes we think, well, because angels can appear human, right? So I think that's what he thinks, but you know what? That kid doing that changed Pastor Anderson's life because it got him to a church that could help him get on fire for God. And so even though Pastor Nichols doesn't get along with him anymore and things like that, he can't deny the fact that Pastor Anderson zealously affected a lot of people. Now, even if he doesn't agree with the doctrines that he teaches, who cares? The things that Pastor Nichols was wrong about, Pastor Anderson's right about. Because I searched for a long time. When I first started listening to Pastor Anderson just on a casual level, it was like 2012 or something, and I was in a chat room with requenites. Yeah, it was a King James Defenders Facebook group, and so I'm a King James Defender, so I thought that'd be cool to be in a King James Defenders group, but there were requenites. And the reason why I knew is because they were really mean. You know what I mean? And people think we're mean. No, they're really mean. But I remember one time, and I was always getting in fights with these guys, but I remember one time they were like, he refused to debate me and this and this and that, and I'd already listened to Pastor Anderson before. I just typed in Baptist preaching one time, and I listened to his sermon. I don't even know if I listened to the whole thing, but I was like, oh, this is interesting, you know? And you know why I did that? Because my church was not preaching hard. My church was not preaching the truth, but why is all this other junk on the internet and on television, we can't find a Baptist preacher preaching a good sermon? And so I just typed in Baptist preaching, and that's one of the main tags that he used for his YouTube at the time, and he still probably used it. But that wasn't the sermon that got ahold of me, but when I was fighting with these requenites, they were talking about after the tribulation and how stupid it was that he believed in the post-trib pre-wrath, but I believed in the post-trib rapture that whole time, and I always had to keep it a secret at church because I was the weird guy that believed the post-trib rapture. And you know how I got to that determination? Because I read the Bible before I went to that church. So the first time he ever preached that at that church, I went to him with questions because it didn't make sense. You know why it doesn't make sense? Because there's not a single stinking verse that teaches that stupid doctrine in the whole Bible. And here I am, a brand new Christian that knows more than the pastor on that topic. I'm not saying, you know, and I was really nice. I treated him as a father, and I was very kind about it, but I just said, but he died once and for all. You know, because he was saying that in the tribulation that there would be people that, you know, those people are saved by works and faith. And I was like, how is that possible? Because that's what requenites believe. But he wasn't a requenite. People believe that, and it kind of seemed like he believed that. And I think he changed from that later on. But I said Jesus died once and for all. He just died one time. He doesn't have to keep dying. And he died once for all of our sins, and it's the eternal gospel. I mean, me being a new, stoogeing Christian, knew enough to know that we don't have to do any works to be saved, that Jesus was enough. So, anyway, I'll get back to that in a minute, but Pastor Anderson has zealously affected our family in a big way. My wife, the first time, like, it took me a while. I was just kind of trying to slip into Pastor Anderson's sermons. I mean, who's been there before? And you're like, I don't know if she's going to like this one, but let's give her a try. But she, one time after church, I fell asleep and took a nap, and I left after the tribulation on. At times, I tried to get her to listen to Pastor Anderson, and she would be like, this guy's arrogant. He's so rude, you know, because of the way he preaches. Because, you know, when you don't hear that kind of preaching, you're like shocked from it. But I just left after the tribulation on because I was so happy that I finally found a Baptist preacher that actually believed the truth on the rapture. I was like, amen. I'm not the crazy one. There's other crazies out there that believe the same thing as I do. But once my wife listened to that, she was like, wasn't that that Pastor Anderson guy? And I was like, yeah. She was like, that was really good. And so that's all it took. She listened after the tribulation, and she was like, maybe my husband isn't crazy after all. And so Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez were in that film, and she started going on a sermon download. She was like just listening to sermon after sermon. She would call me crying. I can't believe he said that. And she was like literally crying. Call me at work. I'm like, what's wrong, honey? She was like, I can't believe he said that. I'm never listening to him again. And then she said, I'm going to listen to him one more time. After the sermon, I'll listen, you know. But after that, it's it. And then she would do the same thing. Eventually, the Lord just worked on her heart through Pastor Anderson's preaching. My wife wouldn't be the woman that she is today without Pastor Anderson's preaching. I wouldn't be the man that I am today without Pastor Anderson's preaching. What am I saying? Am I trying to glorify him above Christ? No. I'm just saying I was at a point of apathy at that point in my life, and I was wondering, what is wrong with my church? Why won't they even say hi to someone that comes into their building as a first-time visitor? What's wrong with you people? Why won't you go soul winning? You know, and I didn't understand why our church was so weird and weak, because before when we went to that church, it was better, you know. And then when we came back, all the pastors, daughters, and wife were all wearing pants. When at first they used to preach the standards, but now he just let it all go. As soon as Paul Chappell came into the church, then that's what changed the whole culture there. Because they used to have like John R. Rice and all that kind of stuff, and then it became Paul Chappell's books. And Paul Chappell's weak, by the way. But he's a total compromiser. So anyway, here's some other people that have zealously affected me and they're, I believe, firebrands for the Lord. Pastor Roger Jimenez. A mighty man of God of small stature, but mighty in works, mighty in deeds, mighty in preaching. He's a powerful preacher. And he zealously affected me. I started to visit him, and then we became friends, and then guess what? We started this church here. Pastor Jimenez had a small grain of mustard seed and he was like, okay, let's try it. And here we are still, five years later, right? So Pastor Jimenez is a friend of mine, a great friend of mine. He's a great church planter. He's planted this church. He planted Pastor Jones' church. He planted the one in Fresno, the one in Manila and Papanga in the Philippines. And so, am I missing somebody? Is there somebody else? I don't know. Anyway, but he's just doing all kinds of great things for God. He's a firebrand for the Lord. He's not a compromiser. Pastor David Burzen saved for nine years and did nothing with that salvation. Here's proof in the pudding right here of a man that a man cannot have works, and yeah, they're saved. Just because you didn't see him doing works doesn't mean he wasn't saved, and nine years later, guess who he met? The other firebrand I mentioned, Pastor Anderson. Pastor Anderson trained Pastor Burzen and sent him out, and Pastor Burzen is doing great things for God today in Atlanta, Georgia, and he's on fire. He's another firebrand. See, firebrands affect other firebrands. And then those people set the rest of the people on fire. That's how the kingdom of God works, okay? Pastor Shelley set on fire to preach the truth in Texas. He hates lying. He hates false doctrine, and people hate him because he hates those things. He definitely doesn't like the homos. He doesn't hate them as much as Anthony does, but he does have a strong hatred for them. I keep mentioning Anthony. Anthony had keychains carved that said, God hates fags when he was in a foreign country. KJV only on the other side. It looked like a little book, but it's a little piece of wood, and he had these people, you know, he paid someone and brought them back as presents when he came back. That's how much he hates fags. When you get to that level, come talk to me. Pastor Jason Robinson doing great works in West Virginia, zealously affected by Pastor Anderson and Pastor Jimenez and mighty men of God. Pastor Enrique Reyes holding down the fort in Houston, Texas. He's a man on fire for the Lord. Evangelist Matthew Stuckey doing mighty works in Manila and Poponga. I mean, he's killing it over there. It's like, if I like to fly that far, I'd go there more often, but it's a rough ride for a six-foot-eight person, just so you know. But I do want to go back and just visit Brother Stuckey. He's doing a great work over there. I mean, he's running two churches there, and they're just getting multiple people saved. And you know what? Brother Stuckey went out the right way. He didn't get a crack or jack box ordination. He moved to Verity Baptist Church and was trained under Pastor Jimenez, and I think it was for like two or three years, and then went out to Manila to start that church, and they were locked down for a while, but now everything's starting to roll again, and Brother Stuckey is a good friend of mine, and he's doing mighty works. He's a firebrand for the Lord. Deacon Oliver Gonzalez just ordained just recently, but you know, he's been serving the Lord for many years under Pastor Jimenez, too, but just got ordained recently, and he's serving the church and Pastor Jimenez in Sacramento. He's doing a great job. He's a firebrand for the Lord. Evangelist Winfield Fisher, you know, he came down here right after I got ordained and wanted to start a workup there, and I gave him a shot, you know, because here's the thing. Someone was willing to give us a shot, so when people want me to give them a shot, I'm really inclined to do those things, but it's got to be the right people. You've got to put them in the right place. Everything's got to line up, but you know, he's doing a great work, and they're locked down there right now, but you know, he's in a place where it's just not really that receptive, but every week, they go multiple times, so I mean, you know, he's faithful, preaches the gospel, faithful to preaching, training other men up there to do the things that he's doing. Evangelist Ryan Gallagher's over in Hawaii. They had almost as many salvation with 18 people in Hawaii that we did here for the whole year with a church of 80 to 100, so because it's very receptive over there, he's been going through a lot, and he's still hanging in there, so hopefully everything opens up there, but you know, Ryan Gallagher loves the Lord. He's a firebrand for God and doing great works. Brother Chad Argon, evangelist that works for us in Spokane, doing great works for God, leading that church. Deacon Corbin Russell, you all got to meet him when he came. Firebrand for the Lord. I know I'm just going through all these people. I just want to tell you that there's more people out there like us than people realize, and if you start to sit down and think about them, I didn't even mention everybody. I'm sorry if you didn't get an honorable mention. I apologize, but what about Pastor Bruce Mejia, a firebrand for the Lord? You know, so he's such a firebrand that someone firebombed his building. They had to have church in the backyard of one of their church members, but I'm sure it was a blessing not to have a bunch of fags around him all the time. So it's probably a peaceful service, actually, because there was supposed to be some drag queen competition in front of the church there. Obviously, they're going to have to do a lot of work to get a new building and all that stuff or to fix the building that got bombed, but God's going to help him. God's going to help that church, and as long as he stands for the truth, which I'm sure he will, then God's going to continue to bless him in his ministry, and things seem devastating right now, but he's going to see the silver lining soon, and he hasn't lost his confidence in God. I'm sure of that. So the reason why I was preaching this message, though, is because I had a conversation with a member at Steadfast, and he asked me for my testimony, and so I gave him the abridged version, the very short version of my testimony, and it's not really my testimony. It's God's testimony of what he did in me. I didn't do anything. The only thing I did is add faith, eventually, finally. Some people are hard cases. Some people it takes a long time and a lot of effort, and I feel like God put a lot of effort into my salvation where it finally culminated to the point where I got saved. I'm sure there's some people that didn't really live that bad of a life before, but I did, and I'm not going to get up here and tell you every bad thing I've ever done because I just don't think that's profitable, but just know this. I was bad. It took God a long time to get a hold of me. It took great circumstances to get a hold of my heart. That just tells me that God doesn't just give up on people easily. When God gives someone up, God gives someone over to a reprobate mind, he's probably exhausted everything that he could put into them, and they still turn away from him and don't want him. So God knew. Even though I wish I would have got saved when I was younger and not had to do all these things, but everything in my life culminated to where I'm at now. So turn to Jeremiah chapter 23 verse 29. So this guy at Steadfast, he said, I just like to hear people's testimonies. I think he was doing a salvation check on me or something, but I'm just kidding. He said, I just like to hear other people's testimonies. I like to hear them too, but sometimes it's hard to get the time to actually hear someone's full testimony. I'm not going to sit here and say all the great things I did because of being saved. So I'm very hesitant to even talk about this. I just want to let you know I'm not trying to prop myself up or say how great I am because God's the one that makes me do anything that's great. Not makes me, but he inspires me. Jeremiah 23 verse 29 says, Is not my word like a fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? God's word can have a dramatic effect on our life, and actually it's the only thing that can even get you saved. We're so sinful that it takes the word of God to break through the hardness of our hearts and it's a miracle of God that we even get saved. It takes a soul winner to get someone saved. It takes the word of God to get someone saved. It takes the Spirit of God. It takes the Lord Jesus Christ to regenerate us. I'm just going to give a quick testimony. Maybe it won't be that quick, but I'll try to make it abridged as possible. It's the testimony of God saving me. My background, again, I'm just not going to get into all the details, but I wasn't a very good guy. At one point during this time, I convinced my wife that God wasn't real. Even though I think in the back of my mind I still believe it was possible that God was, but I was just so sinful at this time and so wicked that I sat there and convinced my wife that God wasn't real. She believed He was. She wasn't saved, but she still believed God was real, and I just used all these stupid atheistic points, and me and my friend just ganged up on her and convinced her that God wasn't true. So that's how bad I was. But one year, 2000, so 21 years ago today, I was being a total jerk to Shari, and we weren't married at the time, but I said, I'm going to go just do my own thing today. That's how much of a selfish person I was. I didn't want to deal with her. I didn't want to deal with kids. I just wanted to go do my own thing and just live my own life or whatever. So I went to this Chinese food restaurant by Clackamas Town Center called Quang Chau. I was sitting there, and they had a television playing the news, and I just was like, because I was kind of a truther at that time anyway. I was already kind of, there was no 9-11 truther movement because 9-11 hadn't happened yet. I was already kind of one of those people that was skeptical about things, and I was definitely skeptical about the media. I just made a comment to this guy that was sitting in the restaurant with me, and I said, this news stuff is so fake. He was like, yeah. Then I started talking about the New World Order because I believed that the New World Order was real. I just didn't believe, and I believed it probably came from the Bible, but I just was not saved. So this guy just starts talking to me about stuff, and we're just having this great conversation, and then he starts talking to me about the Lord. I said, hey, I don't want to hear this. I shut him down. So he stopped. That's what a good soul winner should do. He stopped, and I said, hey, I appreciate the offer and everything. I said, my dad was in a cult, and it was a weird charismatic church, and I just want nothing to do with it because he tried to jam this stuff down my throat, and I'm not interested. He said, well, hey, if you ever are, here's my card. Hands me his card. The company's name is Covenant Drywall. Obviously, he's a Christian. Not obviously, but it was a Christian name of his company. I said, well, thanks. It was great talking to you. Bye. So how many times do you knock on a door and someone says I'm not interested, but do you still offer them an invitation anyway? He should just say, well, hey, if you ever are, here's the information for the church, and if you have any questions, you can call the pastor or whatever. You know why I do that every time? Even if they're not interested, if they're willing to take the card from me, it's because that was the beginning of my salvation being the road of my salvation. He didn't even tell me any verses. He didn't say anything, but the fact that I shut him down by saying I wasn't interested, and he stopped, that was, I liked that. So after that, I was working for my uncle, and he said this lady gave him all these left-behind books. So we're talking at his house, and we're like, we don't know anything about the Bible. And we're like, well, I could call this guy. He gave me his card. I can ask him. So I went in my van, and I looked, and I couldn't find it anywhere. I mean, I tore the whole thing up looking for this card, so I could call him and just ask him about this rapture and all this stuff. So I couldn't find it. So we just kind of both were like, okay, well, whatever. Let's drink some more beer or whatever. But I remember that conversation happening and me losing the guy's card. In between that time, I went to three funerals. From January to June, I went to three funerals. One was my grandma. She died of cancer. I went to her funeral. And then I went to my uncle Dan's funeral, who was my great-uncle. And so each time, there's services being performed. And so the final one was my best friend who was killed fighting my brother in the street on Halsey, or 82nd and Halsey. So they were all out drinking one night. Some words were exchanged between friends. And my brother ended up fighting my best friend. And as he's on top of my brother in the street like this, a car comes by, hits him, flips him up in the air, and kills him dead. He dies in my cousin's arm, my cousin Lindsay's arms. And so that was the third funeral I went to. Terrible. My sister, my nephew, he was together with my sister at the time. And they had a child named Ethan, who's my nephew. And so that was really hard for me. But a lot of things had happened in between those six months along with the funerals. Me and Sherry had broken up. We were just boyfriend and girlfriend, but we had kids together. And we had broken up, and she moved to Vancouver, and I moved in with my friends in North Portland. I'd gotten into astrology and stuff like that, so I was reading those Zohar books. Astrology is so stupid. But anyway, that's a different sermon for a different time. It's like, if you're in this house, whatever, I don't get it. But I wanted to know what the truth was about things. And so in between that time, me and Sherry were still friends even though we still would fight about stuff and things like that. She had brought me these Chick comics. You know what Chick Publications is? So I didn't get saved or anything. I read the book. It was a comic book, so it's all inked out and stuff, and it's called Sabotage. So I read that and became King James only. So I didn't get saved, but I became King James only because that comic convinced me because it basically just lays out how all the other versions are perversions and things like that and how the King James is right. I had recently gotten a job with a roofing company that was owned by Jehovah's Witnesses. They were all Jehovah's Witnesses, and they were trying to get me into their cult. So I become King James only as I'm working for a company of all Jehovah's Witnesses. They're trying to convince me of this. I'm into astrology. I'm basically what you would call confused. I'd read this book called Behold a Pale Horse by this false prophet, but some of the things in there were like the George Bush family was wicked. That's why I voted for Al Gore. Don't hold that against me. That's all under the blood. I can't believe that. Anyway, I'd like to take that vote back, but he lost anyway. I'm going through all this stuff just trying to give you a little where I'm at spiritually. My wife did a great thing for me. She didn't even realize. She goes, Hey, my aunt and uncle wanted to give you these. I was like, yeah, whatever. Out of all of them, I didn't read any of the other ones. I just read that one. That one made me King James only. I know Chick Publications is not something I promote, but that got me King James only. I'm King James only, still not saved, work for a company of Jehovah's Witnesses. I'm into astrology. I'm just hanging out with these losers that I live with as roommates, and then my best friend gets killed fighting my brother. I'm just like... Turn to Ecclesiastes 7, verse 1. Ecclesiastes 7, verse 1. The Bible says, The Bible says a good name is better than a precious ointment and the day of death than the day of one's birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for that is the end of all men, and the living will lay it to his heart. So I believe that God used the deaths in my family to move me towards Him, because when you consider your end, once you go to a funeral, that person's dead, and most people will wonder, well, what happened to them? Where did they go? Is what this person is saying in the funeral, the person performing the funeral, are they right? Well, the other two were quasi-Christian services. They were probably false prophets or whatever. They didn't preach the truth. But the other one was an American Indian Navajo, not Navajo, but it was an Indian service mixed with Christianity, like the peyote religion. And so basically they're saying Jesus. They're saying all this stuff, and then they start talking about Grandpa Moon, and he's fishing. Now he's not in a better place. He's fishing with Grandpa Moon, and Grandma Sun is looking at him. I don't know. I forget everything they were saying, but it was weird. I remember they were pounding the drums. It was very emotional. My nephew was crying. I'll never forget that. But afterwards I talked to that Indian that performed the funeral, and I was just like, so what happens? Is that stuff really true? He's like, oh, yeah, it's true. I was like, it just doesn't sound true. And then he basically, at that funeral there was hundreds of people there because he was a really liked guy, and we had a really big circle of friends. But I remember the Indian cursing about anybody that drank alcohol or did drugs for the next seven days. So that was just one of those things that stuck with me. So I'm into all this stuff. I'm at an Indian funeral mixed with Christianity because that's what the peyote religion is. It's just quasi-Christian, right? So then basically a month later I'm trying to read the Bible. I actually got a family King James Bible from a homo that my friend's dad was a homo. So I didn't really like homos, but I tolerated this guy or whatever. But I didn't think like I do now, obviously. I used to think homos could be saved. But anyway, he was letting me borrow his family King James Bible. It had a picture of Jesus, white Jesus on the front with long hair and blue eyes. I remember that. And I was traveling around without my car, just still shooken deeply over my friend's death and still wondering. I remember one time I was in my room at my house and I just prayed and I was just like, God, if you're real, would you show me what's true, what the true religion is? I mean, obviously I was mixed up with a lot of stuff. I never was going to be a Jehovah's Witness, just so you know. I took my King James knowledge and took it to one of their Bible meetings and they didn't like it very much. But I wasn't saved, obviously. So anyway, I was driving around, I'm reading the book of Revelation, I'm reading the book of Matthew, trying to figure out Bible prophecy, not saved. And I go to, so remember at the very beginning on my birthday, 21 years ago today, I went to this Chinese food place as a selfish person, got into that conversation, lost that guy's card. And then one day about a month later, I was at those homo's house, it was a good night, I can't believe that's part of my testimony, but I was. And no, I didn't experiment, okay. But anyway, I said, hey, I'm going to go get some food, you guys want something? No, we're fine. So I drive to this Chinese food place in downtown Milwaukee, which is a different Chinese food place. When I walk in, guess who's in there? Same guy from the other Chinese food restaurant, basically six months later exactly. And what did I say, I said, I can't believe, I've been looking for you everywhere. I was like, there's a restaurant full of people just like as many people as in here, and they all just turn around and go, you know, like the music record stops. And they're all just turning around looking at me, I'm like, I've been looking for you everywhere, I got all these questions, and I'm confused about this and that. And then he kind of just walks up to me and says, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and that he died for your sins. And, you know, I said, yeah, I do believe that. And so he said, well, let's go outside. So we go outside, he goes, do you got a Bible? I was like, yeah, I got a King James Bible. Amen. And so I open up the trunk of my car, grabbed my giant King James Bible with Jesus' picture on it and handed it to him. And he starts going through the Romans road with me, shows me the scriptures and what it takes to be saved, and he said, well, if you believe all that, would you like to pray and trust Christ as your Savior? I said, yeah. But I was kind of like, I had that hesitation moment because there's all these people around and, you know, I just felt weird for a second thinking, you know, all these people are around here, but it was just a second. I just was like, yeah, I want to get saved. You know what I mean? And so I got on my knees and he led me through the sinner's prayer and I got saved. And, you know, it's the testimony of Christ, though, in me. He's the one that worked all that stuff out. And obviously I wish my friend was still alive. I wish he was saved. I wish that my grandmother was saved. There's just a lot of things that had to happen for that to come to pass, but I remember also thinking at that time that I need to get my wife saved. I mean, she wasn't my wife, but I was like, I need to get back together with Sherry and I need to get married, make things right with her and raise my kids, you know, and change everything. So I did want to change. But I remember at that time, and this was before Sherry got saved, that she brought me over the Kent Hovind VHS series on VHS. Do you guys know what that is? So here I am, watching Kent Hovind, smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer, getting sanctified. Because I didn't know any better. You know what I mean? Like, I just knew nothing. I was like the most unchurched person you've ever seen in your life. The first time I ever walked into church, I had like shorts and a tank top. I think it was a trailblazer's tank top. It was like the gun show back then. But I mean, I walked in in tennis shoes and shorts and a tank top on and smelling like cigarettes. But anyway, here's what Kent Hovind did, and I know that Kent Hovind's off the rails and all this other stuff, but I'm not trying to give him, you know, I don't recommend his teaching anymore because he's just gone so far away from everything, but what he did do is he established also, like I was already King James only, and then he said, you need to get into a church, a Baptist church. So I became an independent fundamental Baptist by watching his DVDs and then just like being mind blown about all the things we've been lied to about with evolution. I was like, Pangaea, what? I mean, I thought Pangaea was dumb when I first learned about it in third grade, but like then he said, it's not big lily pads floating around in the water, folks. They're attached to something. I was like, wow, mind blown. But anyway, so, but like I didn't go to church for like about six or seven months after I got saved. I remember Sherry telling me one time that she would never even take me back even if I was a preacher. You were wrong about that. She was wrong about that. I'm a persistent fellow. So remember I talked her out of believing that God was real, and here I am, my friend died a month earlier, and here I am trying to preach the God that I had already destroyed to her like several months ago. So I'm here trying to just get her to get on the same page with me, and I remember just I worked on her for four months. She was a hard case. But it's not like I was some seasoned veteran soul winner that went through Pastor Jimenez's soul winning videos. Like I'm just trying to give her what I got and don't remember all the verses and stuff like that, so I'm just shooting from the hip on a lot of stuff. But I was learning things from Kent Hovind, so I was just learning basic Baptist fundamentals. And so one night I was kind of just like, man, is she ever going to get saved? And so I was over there, and I was going through, I know I was going through Bible verses with her in Romans and things like that. Finally I just told her, I said, you know what, Sherry? I said, if you and the kids drove away from here tonight and you all died in a fiery car crash, all the kids would go to heaven and you'd go to hell. She's like, get out of my house right now. I was like, well, that didn't really work out. It seemed like a great illustration at first, right? But, you know, she kicked me out of the house, basically. She had kicked me out of the house quite a few times when I was trying to give her the gospel. But after I told her that, she went downstairs and called upon the name of the Lord before she went to bed that night. And so she told me about it, and I was super excited about it, because I didn't know a lot, but I did know that if I was going to marry her, she needed to be saved. So even though I messed up in the past with her and things like that, you know, we were together for five years before we were even saved. So, you know, I wanted my family back. I wanted to have a wife. I wanted to have a normal family. And, you know, so she got saved. She told me about it. And so we decided to go to church. I was like, well, I'm not going to anything but a King James-only Baptist church. And, you know, the people that gave my wife the stuff to give to me went to a King James-only Baptist church. So we went to this church, and there was a guest preacher preaching that night. He was preaching on prophecy. And I was there in my shorts and my T-shirts smelling like cigarettes, sat down, and every time he says something, I'm putting my hand up. And I was just asking him question upon question about things, and he was very patient with me, and I'm literally interrupting his sermon. That's how unchurched I was. Like, I didn't know you weren't supposed to ask questions during the services. I thought it was a Bible study, okay? I mean, you tell me what I need, what I want to hear. Or not what I want to hear, but what I want to know. So, anyway, so, you know, and as a new saved person, you shouldn't expect people to know all of the doctrines of the Bible. So if people are screwy on things, you know, give them a break. I just got saved, because I was like, basically after the service, I was like, do you believe in demons, you know? Do you believe that demons can possess people? Do you believe you can cast demons? You know, because I was just like on this demon kick at the time or whatever. But, uh, so he probably just looked at me like, this dude's weird. Here he is, smelling like cigarettes, in his shorts and blazer, tank top, talking about demons. So we just kept going, though, and the more I went there, the more I learned the Bible, the more I grew, and my wife got baptized, then I got baptized, and then we got married. So, and then we had Josh, you know, the golden child, the only one with a Christian name. Except for Remy's middle name's David. He should go by David. No, I'm just kidding. All the other ones had heathen names, but Josh, we wanted to have a right name for him, but, sorry kids. But again, in 2012, so, I mean, things happened. I was saved for about 12 years. I found Pastor Anderson's preaching, and that sparked a fire in me. So I was already, you know, I was already involved in my church. I was an active church member, and I ran a Sunday school for that church. I, you know, I preached. I did junior church. I did all that stuff. I did the bus ministry. In every church I was in, I was active. But there was a time I got backslidden for a few years, but, you know, when I came back here, I started going back to the same church again. That's the church that had changed. You know, changed so much in like 10 years. So anyway, I'm there thinking something's wrong. I'm the only, you know, post-Trib rapture believer in the church that I knew. I mean, there was one, they were afraid they were gonna get in trouble. So, you know, and at Riverview, I was gonna join Riverview Baptist Church just to bring it back to Riverview, but they were making me sign that I believed in the pre-Trib rapture, and I was like, uh-uh. And he wouldn't let me join the church because I wouldn't say that I believed in the pre-Trib rapture. So anyway, stupid, right? So I find Pastor Anderson. I find Pastor Menes. You know, we all get on fire watching the sermons, you know, and we get, you know, into this firebrand. You know, Pastor Anderson's influence and Pastor Menes' influence on our lives with the preaching that they preach to us set our family on fire for God. And nothing's ever been the same since. So people can affect other people in ways that they don't even realize. So I start to visit Verity and Faithful Word, and you know, the rest is history. We started this church in 2016. I was ordained as the pastor in 2018. So, but what that guy asked me at steadfast was like, after I told him my testimony, he said, if the man that led me to the Lord, he asked if I was still friends with the guy that led me to the Lord, and I said, no, I haven't seen him since. And he said, do you ever wonder what he thinks happened to you? I was like, no, I never really thought about that, you know, but you know, we think about it when we get people saved, don't we? We think, I wonder if that guy really got saved. But 21 years later, after meeting that man who took the time to reach out to me on a cold winter's day, zealously affected my life and got me, you know, eventually got me saved. So when you think that what you're doing isn't affecting other people, when you get people saved and they never come to church or they don't get baptized or whatever, you don't know where that person is. You don't know what that person's doing now. You don't know what that person's gonna be doing 20 years down the road, or 12 years down the road, or 10 years down the road, or nine years down the road, or however long it takes for that person to start to figure things out and, you know, maybe get ahold of some firebrand preaching that changes your life. And so, you know, I'm very thankful for that person pulling me out of the fire. And just being patient with me. You know, I don't believe, I believe in divine appointments. I believe that God sends the Ethiopian eunuch across the path of the Philip as a prepared place for a prepared person. So when you think that what you're doing is not affecting anything, it is. It's not just pastors that are firebrands for the Lord. It's everybody can be zealously affected just like I was, just like anybody else has been in this room. And we can do great things for God. But we need to be firebrands. And we need to realize that what we do is affecting other people. And even if you don't see that effect, it's there. So I don't know if that guy's even alive anymore. But I'll tell you what, he's probably gonna get a lot of rewards in heaven. And look, again, I'm not saying I'm some great person or something. Because I'm not. So I'm just somebody that God affected and I accepted the call of being a pastor. Because look, there's not a lot of people doing it. I knew the need, I just filled the spot, that's it. Anybody can do that. As long as you're qualified to become a pastor. And so what's the point of me preaching this sermon? Well, I want you to know that the things that you do are not in vain. And we can all be firebrands and stay on fire and hey, if someone's fire starts to go out, you can go over and heat them up. That's why we need to be in church. There's people that have fallen off. There's people that have stopped coming to church. There's people that have quit. It's too hard. Or they're just lazy and don't want to do it anymore. Come back. Get into a good church. And be a firebrand. But he said, what do you think that guy would think if he knew that 20 years later, you're a pastor leading a congregation who's on fire for the Lord, who's doing great works, and those people are all soul winning and getting other people saved. What do you think he would think? I think he'd think of it as pretty cool. I know that's what I would think. But you never know what that person that you get saved is going to become later on. They could be the next Stephen Anderson. They could be the next Jack Hyles. They could be the next Pastor Jimenez. They could be the next Pastor Berzins. They could be just a regular person getting lots of people saved. Regular church member, zealous for good works, getting much people saved. And so the people that are influenced by the firebrands of God that got them saved are influenced. Someone got them fired up. And so you see how this story of Samson, when you look at it spiritually, it doesn't take a lot of people to do great things. Because look, how big is the new IFB? It's not very big in comparison to other... We're not a denomination. We're a group of friends that believe the same, that choose to hang out with each other. We're independent Baptists. But we believe on the essentials and things like that. So turn to Zechariah chapter 3 verse 2. I'm almost done. This last verse we'll turn to. So what happened to the 300 foxes when they went into the field? What do you think happened to them? They died. Sometimes that's what happens when someone's on fire for God. Sometimes the enemies will find them. What did they try to do to Samson the whole time? Here's another part. Here's another place that's the same thing. God's enemies were always trying to kill Jesus. God's enemies were always trying to kill Samson. They were always trying to find a way. What is his weakness? What can we do to take him out? And they were trying to do the same thing to Christ the whole time. But that's what they're going to do to us as firebrands also. If there's not a lot of people doing the things that we do, then Satan's going to be able to really put us under a microscope and try to mess with our lives. He's going to try to mess with our lives through our families, through our old friends, through even our spouses, our children, our work, everything that we do in life. And so that's why it's so important to be sanctified. Zechariah chapter 3 verse 2 says, And the Lord said unto Satan, The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire? And who's he talking about? Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel. And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him, and unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with the change of raiment. See, God can take someone, pluck them out of the fire, cast them out to cause a lot of good. Now, obviously, fires aren't good always. But when we're talking about spiritually catching everything else on fire, he can take that one person and zealously affect a lot of other people. And that's one of the Lord's firebrands. And so let me ask you this. Are you a brand plucked from the fire? Are you still on fire for the Lord? You know, great works that you do are not in vain. Don't ever forget that. I mean, if you get one thing out of this sermon, get this. That somewhere down the line, you could be getting the person saved that's going to do massive amounts of works and do a lot for the kingdom of God. And the testimony of my salvation just proves that. Because he never knew what I did. He never known what I've done. But it's not what I've done. It's what Christ has done through me. Again, I'm not trying to make myself special or anything like that. But just when he asked me those questions, I thought, man, I never really thought of it that way before. That, you know, here I am, a pastor. Never thought I was going to be a pastor. And 42 years old, become a pastor. It's like, older than Moses. But anyway, we need to catch fire and stay on fire. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, for this wonderful day. And Lord, I pray that you bless each and every single soul that came to church tonight. I pray you'd help us to be zealously affected and on fire for you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, our last song will be song number 150. In the green, my faith is found a resting place. Song number 150 in the green, my faith has found a resting place. Song 150, sing it on the first. My faith has found a resting place, not in device nor creed. I trust the ever-living one. His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves. This ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to him. He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name. Salvation through his blood. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. My great physician heals the sick, the lost he came to save. For me his precious blood he shed, for me his life he gave. I need no other argument. I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that he died for me. Thank you for watching.