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I just pray to you, bless every part of the message and please bless us as we move to this new phase of moving out of the house and getting into a new auditorium, dear God, and in Jesus' name I pray, amen. Now I'm going to preach kind of a different type of sermon tonight, but the title of my sermon is, Why We Started This Church in Our House. Now of course we started this church, for those that maybe haven't been with us, you know we started this church less than a year and a half ago. My wife and I and the kids moved here December 22nd of 2005, and we had our first service right here December 25th, 2005. Now most people these days are not starting churches in their house, okay? You've got to start somewhere, but most people are not starting in a house, most people do it a totally different way, and I'm going to go into that tonight and I'm going to explain to you why I started this church in my house and why I believe God wanted me to start this church in my house. Well the first reason I want to give you, I'm going to give you several reasons from the Bible, but number one, because the biblical example, let me just read for you some verses from the Bible. You don't have to turn there, but Romans 16 5 says, Likewise, greet the church that is in their house, speaking of Aquila and Priscilla. It's actually who it's talking about, Aquila and Priscilla was a married couple in the Bible, and they had a church meeting in their house according to the Bible. That's Romans 16 5. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16 19, the churches of Asia salute you, Aquila and Priscilla salute you much in the Lord with the church that is in their house. Colossians 4 15, salute the brethren which are in Laodicea, and Nymphos and the church which is in his house. So Nymphos had a church meeting in his house, and then Philemon 1 2, and to our beloved Apphia and Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in thy house. Now tell me something, do you think God is making a point here when he repeatedly tells us about people in the Bible who had a church meeting in their house? Now I don't want you to get me wrong on this, we're not going to meet in the house forever. I mean tonight is our last service in this house. Our goal obviously is to get as big as we can. We're going to be moving into a building, we want to grow, we want to be the same as we are right now, more. More people on Sunday morning, more people on Sunday night, more people on Wednesday night. They want this church to be as big as we can, and we're not one of these house church people. There's some people who don't go to church, they just get around the coffee table with a few buddies, and they call that church. That's not our goal. We're out soul winning, we're out knocking the doors, we're trying to build a church for the glory of God, but there's a reason why we started meeting in a house. Number one, I saw the example of many people in the Bible who had a church in their house. I said, you know, I'm going to go and do likewise, that these great people in the past have done. But number two, the reason that we started this church in our house is because the church is not a building, the church is the people. Now I've gone over this with you before, but in Psalm 22, 22, the Bible says, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. Notice that word congregation. A congregation is when things congregate, they gather together, they assemble together. That same verse is quoted in Hebrews 2 12 saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. God makes the same statement twice. Once in the Old Testament, once in the New Testament and the Old Testament uses the word congregation and the New Testament, because it's coming from Greek, he uses the word church. It's the same word. Church means congregation. A church is a group of people grouped together. The Bible says in Acts 7 38, this is he that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake him in the Mount Sinai and with our fathers who received the lively oracles to give unto us. The Bible says that when Moses led the children of Israel across the Red Sea, out of the land of Egypt, when they were in the wilderness, he said, they were a church. They were all assembled together. Moses preached them the word of God. Hey, that was a church. Hebrews 12 23 says to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect. So the Bible is clear. You hear people say all the time, they drive by and they say, Oh, there's a church. Or you'll be talking to them and they say, Oh, you guys are building a church. They're not talking about people though. They're talking about building a building, a building is never in the whole Bible referred to as a church. Never, never will you find one mission because a church is an assembly of people. I had a friend in Bible college uses. It was early. A friend used more of an acquaintance. And I had this buddy in Bible college and he went to a certain state to go start a church. Well, another good friend of mine, this was more of a close friend was living in that same state where this guy was coming to start a church. And so he said, you know what? I think I do. I'm going to do eventually I'm going to start a church myself. But he said, I think I'm going to help him as he starts this church. You know, it'd be great. I said, well, that sounds like a great idea because I knew this guy and I liked him and he seemed like a great guy. I said, Hey, that'd be great idea. You could, you could go to his church and these early days and help them get started. Well, a couple of months went by and I called up my, my close friend and I said, how are things going, man? How's that church going? That's exciting. You know, how's it going? And he said, well, he hadn't started yet. And I was like, okay. You know, I mean, he went to the four years of Bible college, he got the degree and even when he moved to this town, he went there to start a church. I said, Oh, what's, what's the hang? You know, I thought, I thought you guys were going to be telling me how great things are going. What happened? And I said, well, I don't, he's like, Oh, you know, I was wanting the same thing myself. He said, I wanted to help this guy and, and be with him, but he just doesn't seem to be starting it because this is what he was doing. He said, he's just been going around for the last couple of months, trying to find a building, trying to find a place to meet, you know, we're just trying to find the right building. And so he just hasn't started it yet. And I'm thinking to myself, good night. What do you need a building for? You don't have any people, you don't have one it's you and your wife and your two kids or whatever. Hey, what do you need a building for? What do you need some giant auditorium for when there's four people there? Okay. You say, well, no, it's going to, it's just going to grow right away. It's going to be huge. Hey, churches like this don't grow overnight. Okay. No church like this anywhere grows overnight. Hey, Rome wasn't built in a day and you're not going to build an independent fundamental Baptist church overnight. Now, if you want to build some liberal church, you can build that overnight. All you got to do is bring in a Christian rock band and bring in Amy grunt and Sandy fatty, and you can get a big crowd together and everybody's swaying and jiving and jamming for Jesus. Hey, but if you're going to build a church that's built on preaching the Bible, that's built on right and wrong, hot and cold, on and off, hey, if you're bad, that kind of a church, it's going to take work and sweat and tears. It's going to take God and it's not going to happen overnight. Now I was thinking to myself, when I came to Phoenix, Arizona, I wasn't looking for a building. I remember it. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was less than a year and a half ago. And I remember we rolled into town on the 22nd of December. All we had, you know, we had the place to live set up. I took three days off from my job that I was not going to be working. And we rolled into town and you know how it is, you have to unpack, you've got to turn on the water and you have to turn on the electricity, you got to turn on the gas. You got to talk to the post office, you got to go to the DMV, you got to change over the registration. It's like, hey, it's a pain in the neck to move from state to state. But I remember I got here and we just hit the ground running. We're trying to do all that stuff and at the same time, I wasn't going around looking for a building. I wasn't driving around writing the phone numbers of buildings. I wasn't going around looking for a pretty little building. Hey, you know what I was looking for when I got here? I was looking for the first person that I could preach the gospel to and get them saved. And I was looking for people. I was looking for souls. Why? Because I was trying to build a church. I wasn't trying to build some kind of a monument. I wasn't trying to build some kind of a temple made with hands. Hey, I was trying to build the house of God, which is people. So I said, I'm going to find people. I remember that Thursday, I went out soul winning. First day I was in town, knocking doors, winning people to Christ. Friday, I went out soul winning. One of the doors that I knocked on Friday, you know, Annette was at the ladies activity yesterday. One of the first doors that I knocked on Friday was her door. She was not home, but I talked to her husband. I talked to her husband's father and I talked to his brother and I talked to his brother in law and I got a few of them saved and you know what? They were here that first Sunday morning. They were all here on that first Sunday morning service. Jeremy Skaggs was what I'm talking about. He was here on that first Sunday morning service. Later on that day, I was knocking doors. I had one another guy to Christ. He was there on Sunday night service. You know, Hey, we had a service going, we had a church going, we had a group going three days later. Why? Because we don't spend our time looking for buildings. We don't spend our time with our handout looking for money. Hey, we're looking for people that we can get saved. That's what this thing is all about. Hey, that's why I started a church in Phoenix, Arizona. I didn't come here to build some building. I didn't come here to establish some monument. I came here to get as many people saved as I can and to put together a group where we can all get together and we can sing these great songs. We can hear the Bible preached. We can study the Bible and say, let's go out there and bring in the loss and fill this place up with people who also love God, who also want to hear the right kind of preaching. And so that's why we started the church in our house because our emphasis is not on the physical. Our emphasis is on the spiritual, the spiritual work of getting people saved. But number three, it's because we wanted to set an example that anyone could follow. See, number one, it was because we saw the Bible's example. That's what we were following. Number two, it's because church is not a building. The church is the people. It's the group. And number three, because we wanted to set an example that anyone could follow. Look down in your Bible where we were just reading in Titus chapter one and the Bible read in Titus chapter one, verse five. For this cause, this is Paul speaking to Titus, a young preacher. For this cause, left I mean Crete. Now before we go any further, let me explain to you what Crete is, in case you're not familiar with geography of Europe. Crete is a small island in the Mediterranean Sea. Yes, it's a small island, but it has several cities in that island. Okay. Especially back then, they didn't have cars. So a town that's separated by 20 miles, I mean, that's a major difference. That's a totally separate city. That's totally separate. It's not like now where that's just a 20 minute drive, but look what Paul says. He's saying, Titus, there's a reason why I left you in Crete. There's a purpose why I left you there. He says, for this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou should have set in order the things that are wanting, and wanting is lacking, and ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee. If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children, not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be blameless as the steward of God, not self-willed, not soon angry. And on that he gives the different qualifications that the pastor should have, holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. Now Paul said, my goal, my purpose, and this is the word of God, the Bible, that you're reading, God's goal, God's purpose, and he says, I want every city in Crete to have a Bible-preaching, soul-winning church. I want there to be a pastor, he said, in every city, pastoring a church that's reaching that city for Christ, that's preaching the gospel to that city. He said, that's something that's wanting, that's something that's lacking. He's saying, Titus, I know that right now while I'm writing this to you, I know that there are cities in Crete that do not have a good church, that do not have a Bible-preaching church that's a soul-winning church, that preaches hard on sin, that preaches right to believe right. He said, I know that it's not there. What are you doing, son? Listen, son, I left you there so that you'd make sure that every single city in that area had a church and a pastor thundering forth the word of God. He said, that's why I sent you there. Now you see, in order to have that happen, I believe that that's God's will. I mean, we could apply it to Arizona. For this cause, left I be in Arizona, that might, you know, appoint elders in every city as I commanded it. Hey, there ought to be a good church in every part of the valley. There ought to be a good church in Flagstaff and Tucson and Yuma and Prescott and all these different places. Hey, God wants every single city in America to have a Bible-preaching, spirit-filled, soul-winning church. Now if we're going to help other young men and people that we know and people that we train here, if we're going to help a young man, but maybe even my son someday, if we're going to help a young man go start a church in some town and teach him how to do that, we're going to have to make an example that anybody can follow. You see, not everybody's talented, you know, so it can't be something where you have to be talented. Not everybody's got a lot of money, not everybody's well-healed, so it can't be something that only the well-healed, talented, Mr. Moneybags can do. It has to be an example that anybody can do. You see, when I started this church, I started this church with $100. That's how much it cost me out of my own money, $100 bucks, okay? By the way, you owe me that $100 bucks. I'm just kidding. Hey, I started this church, it cost me $100 bucks to start this church, literally. I was thinking about this verse, 1 Samuel 9, 6, along the same lines we were talking and he said unto him, Behold now, there is in this city a man of God, is what was told in Saul. There is in this city a man of God, and he's an honorable man. All that he saith cometh surely to pass. Now let us go thither, peradventure, he can show us our way that we should go. But wouldn't God that could be said in every city in America, hey, there's in this city. I don't know about your city, hey, there's in this city a man of God. Wouldn't it be great? But, sad to say, there are a lot of cities that don't have a good church in them. He's not an honorable man. All that he saith cometh not surely to pass, and he's not going to show us the right way that we need to go. And so that's a sad thing. But I remember when I was in Bible college, and remember we're talking about an example that anybody could follow. You know, a pattern where we could tell somebody, hey, look, this is something that you can do. It's something that God could use you to do. Let me tell you how to do it. I remember I was in Bible college and they had a class called How to Start a New Testament Church. Now, I never took that class. You can probably tell by my methods. I never took that class. Okay, for some reason, it just, things kept, and I wanted to take it, obviously, you know, that's what I was going to be doing, but for some reason it just never worked out for me to take that class. Well, one day I was sitting in chapel and my friend was sitting next to me and he was taking that class. And I said, hey, let me see your notes from that class. And he panned me over the notebook and I looked at his notes and I looked at the notes and I was like, they're trying to make it sound impossible or something. I mean, I read it. They're like, this is what you have to do six months before, this is what you have to do five months before, four months before, three months before. You must have all these different accoutrements. You got to have a building. You got to have chairs. You got to have song books. You got to have visitor cards. You got to have offering plates. You got to have your pulpit. You have to have a glossy, colorful brochure. They said the literature, the brochure is going to cost you about $1,200. You're going to need $1,200 to buy your first set of tracks, they said, you know, because it's got to be shiny, glossy. It's got to have your picture and it's got to have a bunch of pictures of strangers on it. You know, these invitations have like, just this generic family that's like put on there that doesn't even go to the church, you know. You got to have this and they're showing us. And I'm looking through the notes and I'm reading this and I said, this sounds hard. This sounds like nobody could do this. If you know what it sounds like, I'm going to need, you're going to need somebody else to like do all this for you. It sounds like you're going to have to raise all kinds of money. You're going to have to go on some kind of a telephone or something and have people donating money to you. And I think that part of the reason why people try to make it so difficult is because they try to scare these kids, these young guys, and they try to scare even older guys into thinking that they can't do it without big, bad Bible colleges help. Mr. Bible College Fundamental Pope is going to have to, you know, make sure that all this works out for him because this is way too big of a task for them, especially financially. But I took that same guy later on after I started the church, and I called him up on the phone, and I explained to him how I started this church and how it cost me a hundred dollars to start this church. I said, listen to me. And some people just haven't thought these things through. And that's why I'm teaching this, and that's why I'm explaining this. But I told him, I said, well, I spent a hundred bucks, you know, bought some chairs, bought some song books. And I went down and just Xeroxed off a bunch of invitations, you know. They weren't glossy. No, they weren't laminated. You know what they were? They were just paper, yellow canary, yellow paper with black ink on it. Okay. And that's what I had in my hand. I had my El cheapo Bible that cost me like five bucks in my hand, and I went out knocking doors and beating the doors, and guess what? An amazing thing happened three days after I moved into town. On that Sunday morning, all these visitors came to church. Obviously none of them are tithing. You know, these are brand new converts, brand new believers. You know, there's probably like ten bucks on the plate. Amazing. Because I work a full-time job, okay, I reach into my pocket, you know, and I gave my ten percent. Because now I'm the pastor of the church, this is faithful or bad to the church, and so guess what? I put my money. So I took out my own tithe. And I figured out that, you know, my own tithe was like several hundred dollars a month. Okay. So I had to figure it out. Oh, wow. Even if nobody comes, even if nobody's putting any money in, but I don't care. I don't need any money because my tithe pays the whole thing. This is all I need. And what did I do? I bought more chairs with that first money that I put in the plate the first Sunday. I bought more chairs. I bought more sound books. I bought more invitations. I paid Uncle Sam, you know, for the incorporation, articles of incorporation, all this taxation on churches, you know. I paid Uncle Sam with some of the money. And the next Sunday, boom, sure enough, the greatest giver in the church, you know, the big titer, me, okay, you know, put it in and then spent it the next day. It was amazing how that works. And I told this to this guy, this young preacher. And he said, you know what, that's the most amazing thing I've ever heard in my life. He said, I've never even thought of that. I've never even heard of that. He said, that's cool, you know. He's like, wow, there's the money that you need to do it. I said, exactly. I said, how much money does it cost for you to preach the gospel? How much money does it cost to knock a door? How much money did we spend on soul winning this afternoon, knocking doors? We didn't spend any money. I found a penny on the ground, okay. I was finding money in that neighborhood. People are real loose with their money. But hey, I'm not spending a dime out to do that. Nothing in the Bible about starting a church costs any money. You say, well, what about the building? How are you going to do a building? Hey, look, this is the building. You have to live in a house, period. The living room, clear it out. Fill it with a bunch of chairs. We've packed people into this place before. We've had 30 people in here before. Many times we've had this place packed out. Many times. And you know what? This has given us the room to get started and get rolling with no money out of pocket, to start with nothing. You say, why is it so important to start with nothing? Well, let's get into that. But look at 1 Thessalonians. You're in Titus right now. Just go back in the Bible, just a couple of pages back to the book of 1 Thessalonians. And look at chapter number 2, verse 8. Boy, thank God I never took that class. It probably would have warped my mind in ways that I don't even know. And who knows what they would have messed me up on in that class. I'm glad I didn't go there. And it probably would have just intimidated me and scared me and made me think that it was impossible. But I remember when I came here, I had no clue how to do anything. I didn't know what I needed to file to the state of Arizona. I didn't know how to open a bank account for the church. I didn't know anything. I was just flying by the seat of my pants. But you know what? It worked out just fine. Here we are. And look down in your Bible, 1 Thessalonians, chapter 2, verse 8. The Bible says, So being affectionately desirous of you, being affectionately desirous of a building, being affectionately desirous of money, I'm sorry, being affectionately desirous of you, it says, we were willing to have imparted unto you not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because you were dear unto us. For you remember, brethren, our labor and travail, for laboring night and day, because we would not be chargeable unto any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of God. Now flip over to 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3, just maybe one or two pages forward. We're in 1 Thessalonians 2, we're going to 2 Thessalonians 3. You see there, he said, I worked night and day. Now Paul made tents. He was a tent maker. That was his job on the side. He said, I worked out of my job night and day so I wouldn't be chargeable to you. I paid my own way. I paid my own bills. I bought my own house. I paid my own food. I paid my own meals. He said, I worked night and day by the sweat of my brow to provide my needs and to start this church in Thessalonica. Look at 2 Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 7. For yourselves know how you ought to follow us. Remember, we're talking about an example that other men could use to start a church. For yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we behave not ourselves disorderly among you, neither did we eat any man's bread for naught, but wrought with labor and travail night and day that we might not be chargeable to any of you, not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an example. An example is what he's saying. For you to follow us. For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. Tell that to the government. Tell that to the welfare programs for able-bodied men who are unwilling to work. The Bible says if a man will not work, neither should he eat. You say, well, this guy is big on the street corner, you know, buy him a lunch. No. He needs to work. He needs to get his sleeves rolled up and go to work like I go to work and pay his own bills and pay his own weight because if he doesn't work, he shouldn't eat. And then the Bible says in verse number 11, For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies. Now then that are such, we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work and eat their own bread. But ye brethren, be not weary in well-doing. If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and have no company with him, that he may be ashamed. You count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother. So here's an example of the Apostle Paul working by the sweat of his brow by day, preaching the Gospel by night, preaching the Gospel on Saturday, preaching the Gospel on Sunday. Hey, he was working and struggling and siding. Why? Because he didn't walk around like this. He wasn't a busybody. He wasn't disorderly. He wasn't working not at all. He didn't walk around with his hand out to everybody, expecting everybody else to pay his way. No, sir. He said, I'm going to pay my own way. I'm not going to be chargeable to anybody. God is going to use me. Why? So that I can be an example for others to follow, Paul said. He said, I could have taken money from other people. I could have done it that way. He said, I have the power to do that. But he said, I have a desire to be an example for you to follow us. See, it's an example that anyone could follow because not everybody has a bunch of money. Not everybody has a bunch of people who want to give them money. You know how many people want to give me money? Probably not a lot. You know how many other churches want to give me money? There's probably not that many. You know how many other preachers want to write a fact check to me? Probably not that many. You know how many other preachers want to be associated with me? Probably not that many. But you have to understand, oh man, I just thought of something else. We're backing up in the service a little bit. Okay, remember those notes? I was looking at the notes. I couldn't believe this. I'd been at this Bible college for a couple of years. I was getting towards nearing the end. And I remember I was shocked when I looked over at that notebook. You know what it said? It said to start the church with just Sunday morning only. I was like, I thought I'm in an independent Baptist college. I thought this was fundamental. I thought this was supposed to be just on fire for God. You know, it was Hiles Anderson College. And I'm looking at it thinking like, what? Did I accidentally get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning and drive to the wrong college? This is what they're teaching? Start with Sunday morning only. I'm thinking to myself, you know what? If I were moving to a town, I mean, I've been in church all my life. I got saved when I was six years old. I grew up, you know, some people grew up just going on Sunday morning. I grew up three times a week. This is what we did. You know, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. That's what we did. If I moved to a town and they had some church that just had Sunday morning only, I wouldn't even consider the church. I mean, it was just off my list. Sunday morning only, I'm wondering to myself, why? Why only Sunday morning? Well, they'd say, well, you know, these new believers, man, they're only going to want to come once a week and you're going to have to cajole them and prod them and convince them to come more often. And he said, after a while, you know, you're going to make an institute Wednesday night. And then after months and months and months, institute Sunday night. You know what you're teaching people when you do that? You're teaching them that Sunday night and Wednesday night are not important. They're optional. So what kind of a dumb thing is this? You start a church with Sunday morning only, then you add Wednesday night, then you add Sunday night, and then a couple years later you're going to get up and say, you need to be in church at all three services. Hey, you weren't even in church at all three services, buddy. You didn't even provide all three services. Isn't that ridiculous? I don't understand. Where do these people get this stuff? They get it from that class. Some guy didn't go to that class. They didn't get it from the Bible. And by the way, my family is important enough to me to where what I'm preaching, if just they heard it. I mean, that's enough. I mean, when I started this church, we've only had two services in the history of this whole church since we started where it was just me and my family. And I'm talking about, you know, we always had Sunday from day one, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. First Wednesday night, it was just me and my family. And our second or third, I think it was our third Sunday night, it was just me and my family. Every other time, we've had people in the service. And usually, you know, it was a pretty good group. About a year ago around this time, we were like lean for a long time, and it was just a couple people, you know, just in the services, you know, with our family. And then, you know, it goes up and we had real big services in January when we started in 2006. And then by like March, April, May, it was like going down, you know. And then it went up, and then it went down, and went up, and went down. Hey, you know those two services where I just preached to my family? Did you know we did everything exactly the same? We sang through all the songs. We read the Scripture the same. And I got up and preached. You think I just got up and sat down with my wife and kids? Let me show you something I love about it. No, man, I was up there preaching. I was yelling. I was preaching like I was preaching to thousands. It wasn't recorded. Nobody else was there. Hey, I preached like I was preaching to thousands. Why? Because my family is that important to me. My family right now is the most important people in this service is my kids in the far row here. My wife right there beside me, that's who's important to me. That's who I'm preaching to. That's who I want to hear this. And so when you're saying, well, we're only going to have Sunday morning only, that's all people really want to come to anyway. Well, you're saying your family is not important because you're not catering to them with the Sunday night and Wednesday night service that they need to hear the preaching and learn the Bible. And by the way, all kinds of people in this church that we've won to the Lord and they start coming right away to all three services. Do you believers don't mind coming to all three? You know, a lot of backslidden, moss-backed Christians are the ones who don't want to come to all three. You know, I was there on Sunday morning. That's why we have a Wednesday night only crowd. We have people that only come Wednesday night because they're not coming out of tradition. I mean, they just come to church because they want to learn the Bible. They want to hear preaching. And that's what they do. And so that's why, good night. But the Bible says, be followers of me even as I also am of Christ. See, you want to be the kind of example that people get followed. When I started this church, I wanted to set a pattern where I could tell other people, hey, this is something that you can do. I can do all things through Christ who is stronger than me. This is something that you can achieve. If God's put in your heart a burning desire to preach and see people safe, if God's put in your heart a burning desire to see a church built in one of these cities in Crete, one of these cities in Arizona, one of these cities in America that doesn't have a good church, hey, you can do it. Let me tell you how to do it. I'll give you the hundred bucks. Come to me. I'll give you a hundred bucks. I'll tell you how to do it. Hey, it's not as hard as they want to make it look over on Bible College land. It's something that you can do. Number four, and this is my last reason. Reason number four why we started the church in the house is because we wanted to be independent from day one. Independent. Say that with me in your mind, independent Baptist. You say, what does it mean to be independent? Well, here's the dictionary definition. The Bible doesn't use the word independent, but this is the dictionary definition of the word independent. I've got seven definitions, you know, lists off different meanings of a word. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. This is the first seven. Number one, not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion. This is what independent means. Straight out of the dictionary. These are the first seven, you know, that put the most common, important definitions towards the top. Not influenced or controlled by others in matters of opinion, conduct, et cetera. Thinking or acting for one's self, an independent thinker. Number two, not subject to another's authority or jurisdiction, autonomous, free. Number three, not influenced by the thought or action of others. Number four, not dependent. Not dependent, okay? That means you're not depending, it says, or contingent upon something else for existence. That means you're not depending on anything to exist. If some money source somewhere dries up, you will still exist because you are independent. You're not depending on anyone to give you outside money, you would say. Number, so not depending or contingent upon something else for existence, operation, et cetera. Number five, not relying on another or others for aid or support. Ouch, did you hear that? Not relying on another or others' aid for support. And the dictionary's preaching harder than I am. Number six, rejecting others' aid or support. Refusing to be under obligation to others. That's kind of like Paul said. He said, I wouldn't eat any man's bread for naught. I paid my own way. And then number seven, possessing a competency as in being financially independent. Those are the first seven. Then the dictionary that I looked at, the first dictionary I came to, I just grabbed the dictionary, opened it up. Those are the first seven definitions I came to. He wanted to be independent. Now, most Bible colleges and churches are teaching that when you go somewhere to start a church, you should go on what's called deputation. This is where you go around to all the churches in America and have your hand out. And usually they'll have you preach, because they're too lazy to preach anyway. They're looking for somebody to say, oh, great, you know how to preach? Would you come up here? I can just relax. I can use this sermon next time. I'll save a little bit of time. They'll let them preach and show a little slide show. I'm going to Phoenix, Arizona. And then they'll play the sappy song. People need the Lord. You know, it's got the pictures of these kids, like, crying. People need it. And it's this emotional thing to get you to reach into your wallet and pull out the money and put the money into place. That's what it's all about. And so it's this gut-wrenching video of the inner city of Phoenix. We're going to be reaching. And so they say to do that, and you know how long they say to do that? I mean, it takes years. I mean, we're talking a year, a year and a half, two years. The fastest I've ever heard of anybody doing it, because they were only going to get, like, partially supported and they were going to work part-time, was six months, because they were going to partially be paying their own way. But the people who get fully supported to do this stuff, I mean, they spend years in, like, a motor home or driving around, just driving from church to church to church. Now, here's several problems with that. If you preach right, 90% of those churches aren't going to let you in the door, okay? Number two, if you preach right, the 10% that let you in the door are not going to get you any money by the time they hear you preach right. They're going to say, Get out of here. You've ruined my church. You know, half the people are leaving. I have to put out this fire. I'm going to have to go around and apologize to everybody for everything that you just said. You know, get away from me. Hey, it's not going to work for people like us. It's just not going to work for people like us, okay? And so deputation for a year and a half, two years. Hey, look, how long have we been here? We started with nothing. No money, no people. When I moved to this town, I didn't know a single soul in this town. I didn't know one person. Didn't know one single person. Just got to this foreign town. Didn't even know my way around town. I don't even know if I've ever even been to Phoenix, okay? I might have drove through one time or something. I came here, didn't know anything to do. I just started knocking my own neighborhood. I knew where my house was, so I started knocking my own street. It's called the street behind me. Hey, the street over here. Hey, the street over here. I started to discover new streets and knock the doors. Can you imagine? If I would have done what most of them would be doing, I'd still be driving around. The people that are in this room, the people that were here this morning, the people that are going to be here on Wednesday night would not be reached. They would not be in church. You know, because most people who come to our church were not going to any church until they came here, okay? Or they weren't at all going to the right kind of church, Amanda. Just kidding. Most of the people would not even go to church anywhere. You know, some people have come from another church. But think about the souls that we've won. Think about the 200 people that we had saved last year. Think about the tens of people that we baptized, again and again, baptizing conference, having visitors come to church, getting people stirred up. How many people, how many men have I taken out soul-willing for the first time in their life in the last year and a half? How many ladies has my wife and others taken out soul-willing for their very first time to watch and what it's like to knock a door and see somebody saved and to see God's power? Hey, none of that would be happening. I'd still be driving around trying to schmooze up to these pastors to try to get into their wallet. Help us. Good night. That's not me at all. And you know, I don't think that that's really good for anybody. I mean, I can't imagine what it would be like going around trying to please everybody for a year and a half to get into their wallet. Now I don't want to please anybody. I want to please God. I want God to be pleased when I pray. I don't care what anybody thinks about it except what God thinks. And so we wanted to be independent. We didn't want to have the purse strings being controlled by 25 different churches or something that are supporting us, and then they see the invitations that we hand out. They would not like this. No, but they would not like this. I mean, they'd hear the Sermon on Taste. They'd hear it over the Internet. They'd say, we don't like this. This isn't what we want to have a part of. Why? Because they're liberal. Why? Because they're compromises by and large. And so we wanted to be independent. Now another thing, besides the deputation issue, and I'm getting close to being done, but besides the deputation issue, this is the other thing I was taught. Not only should they go on deputation, but that's where they get supported by someone else so that they can just be full-time right away. Okay, you say, but Pastor Anderson, you're not full-time. You know, you work 50, 60 hours at your job a week. You know what? We still seem to be getting the job done around here. You know what I mean? Obviously, it'd be great to be full-time. You know, you devote 100% of the time to it, but it sure seems like we're getting the job done around here anyway. And we're independent. Praise God. What's that worth, being independent? But not only that. Well, you know, it's denominationalism. It's what we preach against. But this is the biggest example of the denominationalism. And this is exactly what we preach against, yet this is the accepted practice. And they say that when you start a church, for the first six months to a year, it should not be independent. It's what we were taught in college. It should not be autonomous, but it should be controlled by your sending church for the first six months or a year. They count the money. They control the money. They tell you what to do. And then they say, because you're not a church yet. They say, it's just a mission church. It's a chapel. It's an outreach. It's a ministry. And so it's an arm. So like, okay, I was sent out of church in Sacramento, California. This would be like an arm of that church in Sacramento, California, all the way in Phoenix. That's not local church doctrine, okay? That's how every church that I know of that's been started in the last few years, that's how they did it. You know, they had somebody else in the driver's seat for the first six months or a year. Well, the problem with that is, first of all, it's denominationalism. It's one church in one city controlling another church. You know, it's not a church. It's just a ministry. It's an outreach. It's a Bible study. Hey, look, if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it's probably a duck, okay? You must have missed point number two of the sermon, that a church is an assembly of people. So when you've got a bunch of people assembled, you've got a pastor getting up and preaching to them, well, you know, if I didn't know better, if I hadn't learned so much in college, I'd almost think that was a church. Isn't that amazing? But no, no, it's not. And you know what? The Pharisee, independent fundamental Baptists of this world, the Pharisees who want to find the loophole in God's rules, you know, because God says he wants independent Baptist churches. He doesn't use the word independent, but he talks about the local church here, not the Lord-ing over another church over here. Hey, because he wants to be independent, the Pharisees of this world try to find a loophole and say, well, it's not a church. Oh, well, I'm actually a member of this church. I'm a member of this church in Tennessee, and I live in Arizona. What kind of a stupid doctrine is that? It doesn't even make sense. This is what we're dealing with. And so that doctrine is false. But see, here's the problem with that. I'm thinking to myself right now of what it would have been like if this church would have been controlled for the first six months or a year by the church that I was sent out of. It would be the same as it is right now. No. By the time this church was six months or a year old, it already had a personality of its own. It already had a certain feel. It already had a certain flavor. By the time we spent six months being controlled by somebody else, telling us what we can and can't put in the literature, telling us what we can and can't preach in the pulpit, hey, we've already become another Burger King franchise. We've already become just another Burger King. Just another McDonald's franchise. We wouldn't really be truly independent. I'm not preaching against McDonald's. That was a positive. Hey, she works at McDonald's, so whenever I bring it up, she shakes it. No. But you know, we would have already lost the uniqueness. We would have already lost the flavor. And most of these big churches that send out the young guy, they're liberal. They're going to try to tone that young bug down. They're going to be pulling all the reins. Whoa there, buddy. Whoa, slow it down, buddy. You can't do that. That's not the way we do things. That's not independence. That's not freedom. That's not liberty. That's not autonomy. That's not local, autonomous, independent Baptist church. And so the conclusion of the whole matter is this. I believe that we need a whole new generation. I believe we need a whole new generation of independent Baptist churches in this country that are truly independent, that are not controlled by the purse strings of anybody, where the pastor is not controlled by the purse strings. You say, Pastor Anderson, will you ever work for this church full time? You know, eventually I probably will. You know, take a paycheck from this church and devote myself wholly to that. But you know what? It's not going to be prematurely. It's going to be at a point when there's so many people here and so much money coming in where I feel like I can get up behind the pulpit and just scream and yell and say whatever I want and not have to worry about it because the money's there. And that's why we didn't get a building until now. Now the money's there. Now it's no problem. And you know, I believe that as we get into this new building, Wednesday night when we move into the building, I believe we're going to be entering a new phase of growth. I want to push myself harder. I want to push myself harder, push myself harder to get more people in, to get more people safe. Hey, we're going to have room to expand. We're going to be ready to grow. Not walking in here after two years of deputation and searching for a building. No, we're only less than a year and a half into this thing. Hey, we've got the building and we've got a church. We've got an assembly of great people. I'll match the people in this church with the people in any church in America for quality of church members. And so we've already got it. And so this is what the Bible says, Jesus said, this is what I want to say to those that would want to control me and control other young men starting churches trying to be independent. And don't get me wrong, because I believe that the local church is starting another church. I believe everything brings forth after its own kind. You know, the church starts the church. This was started by a church. I was sent here with instructions to start a church in Phoenix, Arizona from my home church in Sacramento, California. Hey, I was sent out from a church. I'm not just going out the Lone Ranger just deciding to just go start a church somewhere. But I'm going to tell you something. It's time for a young generation of independent fundamental Baptists to start churches in this country. And you know what? I say to all the phony independent Baptists out there, all the liberals that want to control me and control these young men, all the denominationalists that are out there, all the fundamental popes out there, to the fundamental popes of this world, this is how I feel about you. Jesus said unto them, follow me and let the dead bury their dead. That's what Jesus said. You follow me, just let the dead bury their dead. He said, Jesus said unto them in Luke 9, 60, let the dead bury their dead, but go down and preach the kingdom of God. Hey, that's my mandate. I don't want to be attached to something that's dying. I don't want to be attached to something that's becoming liberal, the independent fundamental Baptist movement. I don't want to be attached to death. I'm going to go on my own. I'm going to pay my own way. I have paid my own way. And now we as a church are moving forward ourselves, picking up ourselves by our own bootstraps, so to speak, moving on to the next phase of growth, completely, 100 percent bonafide, legitimately independent Baptist church. Let the dead bury their dead, but go down and preach the kingdom of God. Whatever they're doing does not affect me. Because why? Because we're independent. Because why? Why did you start a church in a house, Pastor Anderson? I started a church in a house because that's the way they used to start them back in the old days. You say, what, back 100 years ago? No, back 2,000 years ago, that's how they were starting them, in people's houses. And then they moved up to a building when they needed a building. God said, I'll supply all your need. He didn't say, I'll supply a building for you and your wife and nine visitors, some giant building. He said, I'll supply what you need. We're getting to the point where we're going to need a lot more space. We get to the point where we're packing it out. That's why God provided us the need. Just when we get to the size where we could need something, that's what He's going to provide the need. Why did you start the church in a house? Why? Because a church is not a building, it's people. We emphasize people, not a building. Number three, why did you start a church in a house, Pastor Anderson? Because we wanted to set an example for others to follow, so that there could be a man of God, a church in every city in America. And then number four, why did we start the church in a house, Pastor Anderson? Because we want it to be independent. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, thank you so much for this church, dear God, and it's been an exciting year and a half. Boy, so many people have been saved, so many people have been baptized. But we've got to know the people in this church so dearly. They're dear to us, we love them, dear God, and unlike any people that I've ever known. Father, I just pray that you would please be with us now and bless us as we move into the new building on Wednesday. Give us a record number in our service on Wednesday night. Bring all of our regular, faithful people there and visitors and help it to be a big, exciting time. Help us push into the next phase of growth, dear God. We're independent from man, yes, but we are dependent upon you. And so, God, I pray that you would please just bless us as we move to the next phase.