Production And Maintenance 3-17-96 PM

3-17-96 PM 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Luke chapter 9. And would you also pick up Philippians chapter 4? Take it up just a little bit, guys. Luke chapter 9 and Philippians chapter 4. Now, just so you know, going into it, I know the time. I know we had a few extra announcements tonight, and I do believe the message will be in such a good order that you will not be out of here late. You'll be able to go to the meetings and everything and be in good order. I've been working on that. Luke chapter 9. Luke chapter 9 and Philippians chapter 4. In Luke chapter 9, I want you to see some scriptures, and they'll all kind of fit together here in just a moment. I want to bear my heart with some areas tonight. Luke chapter 9. Let's get everybody in we can. I hope everybody's in back there and everything. Thanks for being in preaching tonight. Luke chapter 9. Look at verse 1. Then he called his, how many? Twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all devils and to cure diseases. And he sent them, there were twelve of them, to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. And he said unto them, Take ye, or take what? Say it again, take what? Take nothing for your journey, neither staves nor script, that's money, neither bread, neither money, neither have two coats apiece. And whatsoever house ye entered into, there abide and thence depart. And whosoever will not receive you when you go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet, for a testimony against them, and they what? Departed. What did they take with them? Nothing but what he told them to. And they went through the towns, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere. Look if you would at Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. Would you look with me? Starting with verse number one. After these things, the Lord appointed other, how many? Seventy. First of all, he sent out twelve, and he told those twelve to take what? To take what? Don't take anything but these few few items. And now he sends seventy out, and he sent them two and two, so they'd be accountable to each other, two and two, before his face in every city, and price whether he himself would come. Now he says to them, the harvest truly is great, but the labors are few. Pray ye that the Lord of the harvest would that he would send forth labors into this harvest. Go your ways. Then he tells something and he brings them into reality. He says, I just want you guys to know something. Behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. He defined what was going to happen, amen. He said, Go your way. Verse 14, verse 4. Carry neither purse, nor script, nor shoes. Salute no man by the way. Whatsoever house ye enter, first say peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it. If not, it shall return to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such thing as they give. For the laborers worthy of his hire, go not from house to house. Now the idea when he goes, he asks these seventy to go out. Verse 4, don't carry any purse, script, shoes, salute no matter. Just go out and do my work. What were they carrying with them? Not much. If you would, look at Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. He sends out twelve. Then he sends out seventy. And he tells them, listen, I'm going to supply for you along the way. Look at chapter, or Luke chapter 22. Luke chapter 22. And notice the verse of scripture here. Look at verse number 35. Verse 35. And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse and script and shoes, he asked them a question. He says, Lacked ye anything? And they said what?

unknown 3:58

Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

They said what? Nothing. One more time. They said what?

unknown 4:02

Nothing.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

And he's still faithful. Somebody says, Oh no, I'm lacking so much. Then change what you want. God is supplying our needs. God is taking care of us as individuals. God is taking care of us as families. And God is taking care of us as ministries. And God is taking care of us as a church. And we ought to be thankful. He sent out those 12 and he said, Listen, you don't have to take a whole lot with you. He said, I'll supply along the way. He sent out those 70 and he said, Listen, you don't have to take a whole lot with you? I'll supply you along the way. He calls them together and said, When I sent you out, what did you lack? And they said, Not a thing. You supplied everything we needed. Because God knows what we need before we even ask for it. Look at Philippians chapter 4. Philippians chapter 4. Sometimes we can get all molly grubbed down thinking God isn't supplied. Brother, we got more than we deserve. Let me just say it again. We got much more than we deserve. If we got what we deserve, we'd be laid in a gutter somewhere tonight. And it wouldn't be going to heaven. It would be straight going to if we're running away from the Lord Jesus Christ and not in the outer darkness, because if we got what we deserved, we helped put him on the cross. I'm not trying to put anybody out down, but define reality, brethren. We're worthy and you say, well, I just don't see myself that way. If you can just see yourself just for a moment, we're worthy of nothing. Not worthy of anything. And when it's all over, we're just his unprofitable servants, and we've done that which is commanded to do. Amen, amen, amen. Then he says this in Philippians chapter 4. He didn't leave us without some promise. Verse 19. Verse 19. But my God shall supply all your, say it. Need. Don't put an S on it.

unknown 6:06

Amen.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

Let me say that again. But my God shall supply all your need. According to his. Now put an S on this one. Riches. In glory by Christ Jesus. Let me say something to you. He sent out 12, and when he sent out those 12, he didn't have to go back to the warehouse and wonder if he had enough for them. He had it all taken care of. When he sent out 70, he didn't, that didn't bother him. Say, how am I going to take care of the 70 out there? Listen, he can send out seven million at once and take care of every need that they have. His resources are limitless. Would you agree with that? He's got ways. Hey, if he can take some, a couple of men down, if he can take a guy down with the savior one day, and the savior says, Listen, you need something? We got to pay our taxes. Go fishing. And that fish you catch, just look inside his mouth, take out that money and go pay these taxes. If he can do that, he can still do it for us. Amen. My God, he says, shall supply all your need according to his riches. Now, I want to make a statement to you. He meets our needs and need by sight. And by that I mean this. By sight and by faith. By sight, he meets our needs what we can figure out that we need. But he also meets our needs by faith what we don't know we need. What we can't figure out what we need. What we can't see that we need. He meets our need by sight, what we can figure it out. And he also meets our need by faith, what we can't figure out. Now, statement. Some Christians operate by sight. They just want to keep it all figured out. And I'm not condemning anybody. But sooner or later, it's nice to cross over into the realm where he meets your need by faith. Because faith is the substance of things what? The evidence of things. It's doing something that you can't see quite how it's all going to work out, and you don't have it figured out, but he still said he'd meet our need. Now, without faith, it's impossible to please God, and we're created for his good pleasure. So the way we give him pleasure is to operate in the realm of faith, which pleases him. Is that right? Come on, talk to me. So he authors our faith, he finishes our faith, and by authoring that faith, he, if you would, causes us to step out into some areas that we don't know how it's all going to work out. But we step out anyways, and that pleases him. Faith without works is what? It's dead. So when he gives us that faith, which is there to cause us to do something, actions upon that faith, those actions give him pleasure, which is what we're created for. And then he says, All right, I'm going to measure out some more faith and see what you do with that. Romans 12 says he measures faith out. Is that right? So we act upon that faith, he gives us a little bit more. We act upon that faith, he gives us a little bit more. We act upon that faith, he gives us a little bit more. And all those steps of faith give him pleasure, which is what we're created for and what pleases him. Is that right? Let me ask you tonight. Are you in the realm of faith? Got it stressed out there. May I say, as a church tonight, we're out in faith. When we moved here, we moved out into faith. We don't have it all figured out. I mean, I don't want to follow somebody that doesn't have it all figured out. If I had it all figured out, I'd be God. Or we would be operating by sight. When we moved over here, we moved over here by what? By faith. We don't have it all figured out. We don't have all the finances figured out. We don't have it all figured out, but we believe God wanted us to do it. I believe our sept over here gave God pleasure. Without a doubt. Two scriptures I want you to see. Look at Ephesians 3 and Psalms 81. Ephesians 3 and Psalms 81. Thank you for turning there. Ephesians 3 and Psalms 81. In Ephesians 3, let me show you scripture you know and correlate it with the scripture in Psalms that you know also, but never never have thought about the two together. Ephesians 3. And look if you would, brethren, at verse 20. Now, verse 20, unto him that is what? Say it. He's able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask, or, don't miss that next word. Huh? Think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church. By Jesus, by Christ Jesus, throughout all the ages, without world without end. Amen. Brethren, he is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask, or, what's the next word? Think. Statement. I never thought we'd be in a place like this. I never thought we'd be in a Seventh-day Adventist church. I never thought we'd be in an auditorium like this. It's above what I think. But we had no choice. Oh, you say, well, yeah, we have a choice. Stay over there by sight or move on by faith. That was a choice. And to me, I'm to the place where I don't even see the seventh-day sign when I drive in. It's just the building we meet at. Now I've got ribbed a little bit by other pastors. That's no big deal to me because to me it's just a building. It's just a place we're passing through. We're just here temporarily. We're just here temporarily in this whole world. But I never thought we'd be in a place where, man, we we got a balcony. And we even got a pipe organ. We don't use it, but there it is. Everybody look at it. Hey, it it was kind of cool. We had it for the wedding. That was nice. I mean, we got an organ. Sounds great. What do I mean? Chandeliers, carpet, a pulpit that moves on wheels. Parking lot. We are uptown, aren't we? I mean, no more buses or nurseries and buses. Gymnasium? With a kitchen. I never I never would have thought we'd be in something like this. But I also know this. God's not done with us. He's not done with it. Look at Psalms 81. Psalms 81. I want you to see a verse. And I want you to remember it. You know it, but I want you to know where it's at. I want you to circle it, highlight it, and underline it, and point to it, and put the date to it, or anything you want. Psalms 81, look at verse 10. I am the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, type of the world. And then he says this open thy mouth what? What? Wide. And I will what? Will fill it. Open thy mouth wide and I will fill it. Statement. According to the proportion of our faith determines how wide we open our mouth. Is that right? Now some are a little more conservative and they don't maybe want to open their mouth very wide. And I'm going to give you the two stories or two sides tonight, where others want to keep their mouth wide open all the time. I'm not trying to be funny, but it is kind of. What are you saying? Some people want to operate in just a little bit of faith, where other people want to operate in big faith all the time. And there's a balance. I learned in business a while back that there's uh two facets to business. There's sales and service. Would you agree? Sales and service. Uh production and maintenance. Now, by the way, that's biblical. Great commission. Go, tell. What's that? That's sales. That's production. Stay with me. Then baptize and teach. What's that? Service or maintenance. And a church needs to be balanced. Needs to do both. Needs to go and tell, produce, persuade. You say I don't like the word sell. Okay. Persuade, but also needs to maintain those they produce. Baptize and teach them. Is that right? What we've tried to do with this church, and what my mindset on this church is we want to continue to get the gospel out, but with those that walk in, we want to give them something that maintains not only their own personal growth, but their family's growth. The two have to be balanced. Now, in this church tonight, there are some of you all that you are more the type of maintenance and service. I mean, uh, that that that that part of it really is what you look at, and boy, that that part of it's very important to you. And there's other people that the main emphasis in your life and what you think is is really something that you're good at and like to do is that production, that that sales, that that going out. May I say this? Both is important. Both is vital. Hey, I hang around pastors from both sides. Purposeful. I go to meetings where most of the preaching is maintenance, walking with God, prayer, getting to know God's book better. And I also go to the meetings where the main emphasis is push out, soul-winning, win them, go do something for God. Let's do something bigger, let's do something better. And I need both of those. We have preaching and preachers in that do both. For example, Brother Sturgeon. Brother Sturgeon is a tremendous witness. He's a good personal evangelist. But his primary preaching is on maintenance. And he deepens the Christian walk. Primarily with his preaching. Are you listening to me? We have other preachers in like Glendy Hamilton. Somebody ought to say something. You know what that was? Soul winning. Push out. Let's go win somebody to Christ. You know what that? Production. Now I'm not saying Brother Sturgeon doesn't produce, and I'm not saying Glendy Hamilton doesn't maintain, but I'm saying there's an emphasis. And by the way, we're going to continue to have both types in. Why? Because a good church, a balanced church, is one that has the sales and the production, but also has the maintain, maintenance. I know churches that, man, they're over there getting the gospel out and they're winning all kinds of people to Christ, and on Sunday night after 15 years, they got a hundred people. What's wrong? They missed the maintenance part of it. Are you listening to me? What do you mean? They missed the maintaining of the family and training them up and the different programs and the different things on Wednesday night and the preaching, the teaching, and all that. You know, on Sunday night I'm not going to preach much of a salvation message. All salvation will be in there, but it's a maintenance night. Wednesday night's a maintenance night. What's the Bible Institute all about? A lot of it is maintenance. Amen? That's why we want you to come. We want you to get deeper with your walk with God. But every once in a while we're going to have a meeting and the preacher will come in. Like Brother Trieber when he comes in. Brother Trieber works with our staff, and a lot of it is you can do more. Boy, you can do more. Let's do some more. Last year we had Trevor and Chapel in. Boy, you know what those guys are doing? They're pushing out. They're going on. Are they maintaining? Sure, but they're pushing, they're pushing, they're pushing. I need to be around that. But I can't be around that all the time. Come on, are you listening? Now, some of you are a little bit leaning more towards the production side. And some are leaning a little bit more towards the maintenance side. But may I say this to you? Listen to me. There shouldn't be a battle between those two. Let me say it again. There shouldn't be a battle between those two. If you're more leaning towards the production side, go up and look through God's eyes and look down at the maintenance side and see the importance of that. If you're more leaning towards the maintenance side, go up and look through God's eyes and look down and see the importance of production. Because both are important and both are vital. And God sets those in the church to do both and He fits it all together. Now, some of you may do both. But God frames it all together. And we need both. Are you listening to me? Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. I'll give you an illustration, an example. We had to leave over there and go somewhere. Right? You say, well, I don't know if we would have had to leave. Maybe someone leaning more towards the maintenance would have said, you know, I don't know if this is a good move. I don't know. I'm not sure. We'll just wait and see. Or somebody else was production. Let's go right now! Somebody says, I don't know if it's a good idea. We spend $6,000 a month renting this place. And the maintenance side may be, you know what? I think we should be paying off our debt. The property over there. Or the production side is saying, let's push on, let's push on. You know what I've learned? You can do both. We're paying the rent over here, but in the meantime, we're paying off debt over there. And both are important. Are you listening to me? Hey, listen, I I just know something. I know that husbands and wives talk. Let me say that again. It's profound. I know that husbands and wives talk. Let me say that one more time so you get it. I know that men and men talk and women and women talk. And you find maybe some people that kind of your way, maybe you're the maintenance side, and you go, boy, I don't know if this is good. Be careful. Don't form up teams.

unknown 22:27

That's right. Come on.

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Understand the other side. And if you're on the production side, push a bunch of it, and you say, well, I don't understand the people that just don't want to do anything. Wait a minute. They're doing something. It's just not what you're doing. Hello? Come on. It's not scolding. This is giving reality, amen? Both are important, and God put it together. Every once in a while I have to look at my family as the head of the home and say, how are we doing? How are we doing the production? Boy, we're out doing this, we're out doing this, we're out doing this. And then I need to look and say, you know what? I think I need to balance the maintenance side a little bit. I need to emphasize devotions more and get them in that book more. Get them more sound. They're going so what I need to go. And every once in a while, then, if we get in the maintenance sign, they're not out doing that as much, then I need to go back over there. Why? Because it's a balance. And you need both. Open thy mouth wide, and I will what? Say it. Fill it. Part of it was moving here, and part of it was paying the debt off over there. Look at Psalms 107. Stay with me. Psalms 107 and also 2 Kings 13. I'm watching the time. Psalms 107 and 2 Kings chapter 13. Is this going to tell us where we're going as a church? Well, it gives you a little bit of, if you would, the philosophy behind what we're doing. I think it's good for you to know that. Psalms 107, I want to tell you something about myself. You probably already know, but I think I need to verbalize it tonight. Psalms 107. Psalms 107, probably some of my favorite scriptures for many reasons, but, and I have a lot of favorite scriptures, but these just, I don't know, kind of, every once in a while when I get through reading through the book of Psalms and everything, I come across these. I always like to read these and meditate on them. Psalms 107, look at verse 23, brother. Verse 23. They that go down to the sea in ships that do business in what? Great waters. It didn't stay, they stay tied up to the harbor. It didn't say they they cruise around the bay. It says they do business in what? Great waters. That means they head for the ocean. Amen? Or they launch out past the harbor. They get back out, and some of those seas have great waters. These see the works of the Lord. And his wonders in the what? Out in the deep. Now, brethren, the statement there is this: if you get in your ship, you go out in great waters, and you launch on out, you open your mouth wide, then you're going to see some of the works of the Lord and his wonders in the what? Deep. Please look up here. For us as a church, coming over here was launching out. It was heading into deep waters. Well, along with that comes this. Verse 25. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven. They go down again to the depths. Their soul is melted because of what? When you launch out, trouble seems to get bigger. Amen? But brother, I want to say something to you. If my boat's going to sink, I think I'd rather sink in great waters than tied up to the dock. You mark it down. When there's a big storm come for the big ships, the big ships, you know what they do? They head out to sea. They don't sit at the dock because they're going to ride that storm, that hurricane out where they can do best, out on the ocean. A few years ago, most of you know, I got on a boat. We weren't going to cruise around the bay. We took off that way and went past Point Loma 7,000 miles. And we saw some things that God did. And that's the type of guy I am. But I don't want to be out in those deep waters and be out of God's will. Man, I've seen some big waves in a small boat. I've ridden out some storms where there was no way you could put a sail up. You would have been a fool to put a sail up. I'm talking even about we had a storm sail that was probably uh uh this high and it was in a triangle, and there was a few nights out there that if we would have put that storm sail up, that that that that wind coming into that storm sail, that bit would have drove our bow right into the ocean because it was too strong and the waves were too great. So we just had to take everything down, go in, lock everything up, and let her buck, Roy. That's for you, Scott. And I mean, what'd you do? Sit down in there and pray. And you looked out the little porthole and all you saw was green. What you mean you mean the the sky was green out there? No, the water was green. I mean, there's been there was times we were covered. It's good to know you're in God's will when you hit those storms. But I'd rather do that than just sit and wait on the Lord and not do anything. Yet I don't want to be out, please look up here, I don't want to be out in those waters just because I want to be there, because it's challenging. And I'm curious about what it would be like to sail across the ocean. You understand what I'm saying? Hey, when you when you're when you're working with a ministry and a church and and your family and everything, you don't want to launch that family out or launch that ministry out or launch that church out just to say, well, let's just go out there because everybody else is. Or because they'll think well of us, or they'll think I'm spiritual. Man, I don't want to be out there if God doesn't want us to be, but I don't want to be tied up to the dock forever. So there's a balance between production and maintenance. Every once in a while, we had to pull into port and maintain the boat before we sailed on. And every once in a while, you as a family, you've been producing, producing, and producing. Every once in a while you've got to pull back and maintain the boat. Are you listening to me? As a church, every once in a while we launch out. We got to, every once in a while, we launch out, but every once in a while then we gotta take a step back and say, all right, let's get things in order here in some other ways so we can launch out even more later, but let's get the maintenance done. Does that make sense? Are you listening? Look at verse, if you would, 26. They mount up to the heaven, go down again to the depths, their souls melted because of what? Say it, treble. They wheel to and fro in what? Say it. Stagger like a drunken man, or after a witch end. And I'm going to tell you something. There's been times since we've been in this step before where we lost up a little bit farther into the deep, where I, as a man, has got to the point where I was staggering and going to and fro with what to do and how to do it, why. I've never been out this far before. As a leader. Don't get it in your mind that I'm turning back. I'm not. But you've got to know you're in God's will out there when you've launched out and you've opened your mouth wide and it's not yet full, and that you're out there on new faith that you've never had before, and you just pray it and God help, and you're staggering, you're at wit's end. Maybe you're there tonight. They reel to and fro. You say, What do you mean? You do no, you go home and it's time to go to bed, and you go to bed and you fall asleep for 15 minutes and wake up, and your mind won't let you go. The best thing to do is just roll out and pray. That's what God wants, anyways. Because He's the one who commanded the storms. Look at it. Oh no, I just want that Christianity where everything just goes along real well. Then keep tied up to the dock, but I'm going to tell you something. Sooner or later you're going to be saying, Why are we doing what we're doing? We're going to tie up to the dock once in a while as a church, and we're going to maintain the boat. But look up here, every once in a while, we're launching out again. But we want to do it in God's will. Well, we don't get up here and broadcast it. But men and women get on their knees and pray. I got a couple ladies that call me and say, What are your prayer requests for today, preacher? I listen. They pray. I appreciate that. They reel to and fro and stragger like a drunkard man are at their wit's end. Verse 28, look at it. Then they what? Come on. They cry unto the Lord. I'll tell you what, when you're at your wit's end and your soul is melted because of the trouble, you cry a different way. And I think God likes it. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble. And look what he does. And he brings them out of their distresses. What's the principle? Open your mouth wide, and I will what? I feel it. What we've got to make sure we do is open our mouth wide in his will, though. Please look up here. I don't want to walk around like this all my Christianity. Amen? Say, why do you do that? So you don't forget the scripture. You know what? Every once in a while I think God says, open it up, Fisher. He says, open it wide. How do you do it? By faith. Who gives you the faith? He authors it. Open it up. Take a step. Okay, Lord. Want to know you're in it. Verse 29. He maketh the storm a what? A calm. So that the waves thereof are what? Still. Then are they glad? Because they be quiet. So he bringeth them unto their desired what? Haven. You know what a haven is? That's portaco. Now see, I got memories when I think about that. I still remember, after being in a great storm outside of Tahiti, being out there for 33 days or so, I still remember seeing that. Now, there's just no way to describe this. After you've been out there that long and you run out of water and you had to catch rainwater and go through all this thing, and you've been in storms, and you're tired, and you've been on this little boat that you could walk 32 feet in one direction, and that was it. And after you've been that way, I'll tell you what, there's nothing like seeing that outside boy marker. Yeah, and it was in the middle of the night, about one o'clock in the morning. And we saw that outside boy marker. We hadn't seen anything like that in a long, long time. You say 30 days, what's the big deal of that? Uh 30 strenuous days. Especially when you don't know what you're doing all the time, amen? And seeing that outside boy marker and all the rules of the road and everything say, okay, wait it out that night and then go into port in the morning. Not us, buddy. We say, where's the next one? We found the next one, where's the next one? We found the next one. And we finally saw the harbor entrance, and it was hard to see. It was a foggy night. But right in front of us, I'll never forget, right in front of us, a big old cruise ship. All lit up. Pulls right in. And I looked at him and he looked at me and I said, Let's just follow it in. It's time to get in there. You say, what would you? We wouldn't have gone in that night. It's too dangerous. A lot of reefs and nasty things. That cruise ship went on right in, and I said, Hey, we're going in. And we come in there and the waves got smaller and smaller and smaller, and finally we pulled up and we were motoring through the harbor entrance. It was like being on concrete for the first time in 37 days. Pulled up and moored, got off. I'll just never forget stepping off that little boat for the first time. And going. Hey, this is great. You don't know what it's like unless you've ever been there. Or you say, what is it? You're sea legs. You've been going up and down like this so long and all over the place, and you're walking on concrete. This feels strange. But there needed to be a time of maintenance before we went on. And we did go on. And that's like a church, like a family, and like an individual. Hey, you only push ahead so much, and every once in a while you see to say, all right, time to be still. Time to get some maintenance here. Time to let what I've pushed out in faith get solid so I can push out more faith. Are you listening to me? The question sometimes is when do you push out and when do you hold back? When do you open your mouth and when do you have it be filled? And what is the Lord doing? Make a statement. Some of you are here before we moved to this place, and we've been here now. We came in July. So we're here July, August, September, October, November, December, January, February, March. We've been here eight months, nine months. Nine months, is that right? Nine months. You know what, brother? Please look up here. It's already getting small. You say, oh no, it's big. No, I'm uh it's it's it's getting a little small to me. How about you? Uh-oh. What are you thinking about doing? Oh, that's the maintenance side. We're not thinking about doing anything. Just praying, looking, seeing what the Lord wants. Don't worry about it. Listen, uh, we stayed in that place a long time. Past what some of the ones who wanted to produce wanted to. Let me say it again. We stayed in that place over there a long time. Past what some of the ones who want to produce wanted to. But I wanted to wait on the Lord. Amen. I'm not going to sink a church out of impatience. Because when you sink a church, you sink family. And you sink children. And they got a bad taste in it. Because when your search starts to sink, it gets tense and it brings instability. Are you listening to me? So we stay there for a while. By the way, don't say, well, what are you? Are we going to launch on? No, I'm just saying this to you. If God tarries a couple more years, this won't be big enough. You say, what's next? I have no idea. I don't. No idea. But we're maintaining right now. We're in the maintenance phase. I thought we're so in it. Yeah, we are. But as far as the church, we're just staying here for a while. Just gonna stay right here. How long do you think? I don't know. But I want you to know something. Part of me says, okay, this is where we're supposed to be. Keep going, keep pushing, keep doing what we're supposed to be doing. And God will add to the church. And it'll fill up in the whole bit, Lord willing. But please look up here. Another part of me says, start planning. In your mind. And start praying for what God wants to do next. Why? Because there'll be a point in time, a little time from now, if we sit here, we die. You say, how long? Maybe a year. I don't know. We're not going to be Seventh-day Baptists forever, brother. You say, what's next? I have no idea. We might be high school Baptists for a while. I don't know. Maybe there's a high school out there. Maybe there's this out there. We may be warehouse Baptists for a while. I don't know. Well, I'm going to tell you this though. You're going to, you're going to, by the time this is all over, you're going to say, man, did we have a wild ride?

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Gloria.

SPEAKER_00 39:06

I don't know what the Lord's going to do. I'm going to tell you that a year ago, at this time, a year ago March, I didn't plan on being a Seventh-day Baptist. I was comfortable being a no-parking, no restroom, nursery bus Baptist. But God didn't see it that way. Oh, for a while I thought we might be an urgent care Baptist. Now, some of you don't know what that was all about. We were looking at some property just past Pet Boys on El Cajon that was called urgent care. We were looking at that property. You say, well, why did we do that? Too far out in the deep. You mean too far out in the deep? What? Too far out in the deep financially. Way too far. About 7,000, 8,000 a month that we could see too far. And probably a lot more that we couldn't see. And there was no auditorium. You know what I would have had to do? I would have had to come up here and say it's time to sell the farm. And most of us don't have farms to sell.

unknown 40:15

Amen!

SPEAKER_00 40:18

But we decided. What was that? Sell the one? Cows, pigs. But we didn't do it. Why? Because it got to the place where we're after looking at it for a while, I just prayed and I said, no, it's not time to launch that far. It's not the one. And I don't think I lost anybody's confidence, but I just say, hey, listen, that's the difference between opening your mouth wide and opening your eyes and your mouth, and your eyes are bigger than your mouth and your stomach. Do you know what I'm talking about? And some people do that. I'm gonna go do this! And they never do it. Their eyes are bigger than their stomach. Now I'm gonna go do this! They never do that either. Because God wasn't in it. They're just jumping on one bandwagon to the other. So we didn't become urgent care Baptists, and I'm glad we didn't. You say, oh man, about a year from now then I'm gonna bail out because the pressure's on. No, it's not gonna be pressure. Not if God's in it. God's gonna take us along. But I want you to know something, and I want to bear this out tonight. I really think God's been letting me go through a little training here in the last six months or so. See some things. And I don't want you to get all nervous and about what's the pastor gonna do, because I'm not into pressure finances. That's not what the message is all about. But but I was thinking of, oh, a few months ago, uh Brother Trieber called me and he said, uh, I'd like you to come up and preach. We're getting ready for a big offering. We want to buy some property called the SAE building, and it's a big endeavor, and we need to get $750,000 raised, and we weren't working on it. I want you to come and preach on a Sunday night. I couldn't preach on a Sunday night because I was already committed into something. And I said, but but I can come on a Wednesday night. He said, okay, I want you to come the Wednesday night before the uh the big offering. I said, great. So I preached up there on a Wednesday night before the big offering. And you know what? They had already worked and prayed and did all the things, and my my part was just very, very small in a message. And uh, but I got to see the North Valley Baptist Church up there raise something like $750,000 and get into that property. A couple weeks ago, uh Stan Slayball, uh Valley Baptist Church in Arizona called me. And he said, uh, Brother Fisher, uh, we're gonna have a banquet. We never had one before financially. Uh I've been here nine, ten years, I forget what it is. He said, We're gonna have a banquet. And I want you to come over and I want you to preach the banquet. It's the first one we've ever had. And I said, Well, what's the plan? And he told me a little bit about it and everything. And I said, Well, what do you think the people can give? And he said, Well, man, if we can get $20,000 in the next 60 days, that'll be great. And went over and preached, and just a little part, because he'd already worked on a lot. Stay with me now. And our worked and prayed and everything, and that night, and up to this point, it's been a week later. Uh, they they've got $32,000. Now, please look up here. $32,000 of Valley Baptist Church is just as big as $750,000 a North Valley Baptist. It's just as big. It's just as big as launch out into the deep. Both ways. Oh, I mean, Stan Slave always shouting and joyous about that whole thing. He said, Man, they're behind us, we're gonna do it. They got a big building over there that's not yet built out. It was on the property when they bought it. And they don't have the permits or anything. It's a big building already there, and and now it looks like they're gonna start and build that out, and they need it. And they're just excited about that. And then uh, oh, just in February or so, uh, Paul Chapel called me and he said, Listen, uh, I want you to come up. We're doing a big fundraiser for our church, and they're building something like a 2,500 seat auditorium on their property. Up there in Lancaster, and he said, I want you to come. And he said, Three weeks before we have this, I'm going to get all the men together. And we're going to have a big uh barbecue. And I want you to come, and I want you to give us the sell the farm message to all these men. We're going to sell it. And we got, we have to. And you haven't heard that message yet, and I'm not planning on preaching it unless God really wants. I tell you what, I had the opportunity to speak to the men. And when it's just men, ladies, no offense. But I mean, you can go in there and rip their face off. Give us some scriptures and talk to them. And uh I just had a little, little piece of that. Just a little piece. Just a small little thing. And last Friday night they raised uh 1.3 million. 600,000 cash.

SPEAKER_01 44:49

Really?

SPEAKER_00 44:50

I just had a they they worked and worked and worked. I just had a little little chunk of that. But I got to see it. And say, what's coming up? You mean you're gonna ask us to go as well? No, no, no. Not planned on it. I do need to tell you though, and I don't even know if my wife knows this. Um before I die, if God tarries, we're uh I shouldn't say we. I'm trying to get some equity and some property so when it comes and it's our turn, I can lay out some big cash. Big for me. I'm not talking about three, four, five, ten thousand dollars. I mean I want to when it's time. But it's gotta be right. And if it never comes, I can go to the Lord and say I was getting ready. I had a plan. To be the leader, the terse of the in the book of Nehemiah. I'm not stalking it away. But I'm trying to lay something up so if it ever comes, I gotta have a big part. You say you didn't talk about that with your wife? She'll go along with me. She doesn't have a choice. Oh, she's got a choice, but she doesn't. God's always honored us. They say, man, give me out. Man, I can't wait to get out of here, man. Let me know when it's coming so I can bail out. You're missing the whole picture. I'm not saying it's even coming. I'm saying I'm watching it, though, and I'm I'm saying to you. Nothing like launching out into the deep water and seeing God do something. But we're not going to do it just to do it, to publish it in a paper. So the brethren will think that I'm something. You know what my plans are right now? Honestly? Take care of the debt and maintain and stabilize. And while we're doing that, look for a little bit bigger auditorium, but no big push. Maybe we'll lease again for a while. Next step out of here may not be buying. You know what? If we would have bought urgent care, we wouldn't have had a big enough auditorium, obviously. Now we got in here and this thing is kind of filling up, and we can stay in here and do more. Got some plans maybe for some other things and see what the Lord does with that. We may uh, you know what I've been praying for? Maybe if God, if there's a 900-seat auditorium out there somewhere. You say, what's this one? They say six. We could squeeze 657. Maybe more. I've been praying saying, Lord, if there's a 900, 1,000-seat auditorium out there somewhere that we could lease and not jump in to buy so we could get rid of our debt. Maybe you do that for us. You say, what do you mean? Oh, I'd like to get rid of the debt. We get rid of this over here on that, on that uh uh Spanish auditorium, then the greenhouse. We owe 150,000 on the greenhouse. That's where we have uh eight offices there. Maybe ten. I don't know. I never count them. Eight or ten offices on the greenhouse. We owe 150,000. Probably start plugging away on that. Just get out of debt. You say, well, I don't know. I want to push out. Now wait a minute, you've got to maintain too. And while we're maintaining, we'll push out. But we're not not gonna push too far. I'll tell you something right now. Um I know some pastors who've had two and three and four bond programs. That straps a person. That straps a church. But I want to say the other side too now. Look at 2 Kings 13. Last scripture, and we're finished. Just trying to bear my heart a little bit with you tonight. 2 Kings 13. Are we doing okay? Hey, listen, as part of the church, I want you to know a little bit about what's going on and how we're doing. Production, yes. You know we're pushing towards Easter. Pray for that drama presentation. And I know there's different preachers that have different ideas about drama and all that, but there's gonna be preaching that day. You don't have to worry about that. Music, drama, and preaching. So I wouldn't have drama. Well, then when you're a pastor, don't. We're gonna see how it works. It's nice to be independent. Feeling pretty good about that. Look at 2 Kings, brethren, 13. You know it, but now correlate it with this. And look if you would, and you know the story, but I want you to see. Verse 14, stay with me. Last scripture. Verse 14. Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joas, the king of Israel, came down unto him and wept over his face and said, Oh my father, my father, chariot of Israel, and the horseman thereof. Elijah said unto him, You know, but I want you to see it again, take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows, and he said to the king of Israel, put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it. So is prophet's hand upon king's hand. And Elijah puts his hand upon the king's hand, and he said, Open the window eastward. Now you've got to see this, it's one hand upon the other, and he opens it, and Elisha said, Shoot, and he shot. And he said, The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria, for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphech, till thou hast consumed them. And he said, Take the arrows. Now he's talking to the king, and the prophet says, Take the arrows, and he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. Now, right at this point, it's up to the king how much he wants to open his mouth. It's up to the king how wide he wants to open it. Is that right? It's up to the king how much he wants to do. It's his free will. Is that right? Yes or no? Just as like it's our free will, how much we want to open and let God fill it by faith. And he spoke thrice and stayed. What do you mean? He he three times and he stopped. And the man of God was wroth with him and said, Now should have spitten five or six times. You should have kept going. You should have opened that mouth a little wider. Should have trusted God by faith just a little bit more. Should have been a little more diligent. Should have had some better plans than just three times. Should have finished the job. Should have taken all the hairs and just kept going until they were done. Then thou hast smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it, whereas now thou shalt smite Syria. But how many times? Three times. Please look up here. They got the place where the twelve spies went out and went up to Cadesh Barnia. The twelve spies came back, ten of them have an evil report. Two of them, Joshua and Caleb, said we could go in. But the whole congregation was turned around by the evil and discouraging report of the ten leaders. Are you listening to me? And they said, We're not going up to Cadesh Barnia, we're not going up there. And God said, All right, these ten times you're murmuring and complaining, I'm done with you. Finished. Finished, done, complete. They didn't open their mouth wide enough. Stay with me. Next day they got up. Oh, but we changed our mind. We're gonna go up. Let's go up and let's go up. We're gonna take it! And Moses said, Don't do it. The ark's staying here. God's already spoken. No, we're gonna go up, we're gonna go up, and they're women, they went up, but they went up without God. And they lost. God gave them the chance. God gave them the opportunity. But the Bible says they limited the Holy One of Israel. Now look up here. There's a balance between production and maintenance. There's a balance between launching out and not getting out there too deep versus sticking at the dock and not doing anything. And one of the things I don't want to do as a leader is ever not lead this church to where we open our mouth wide enough to where he fills it. I never want to be the type of leader that just might three times and the prophet gets rough and says, why didn't you keep on going? I never want to be the type of leader that says, we can't go up to Cadus Martin. I want to be Joshua, I want to be Caleb, but I don't want to be foolish. I'm not going to do everything that all the time that everybody agrees with. And I know that. But I want you to know my heart. I want to open my mouth wide. I'm not going to walk around like this. Can't be done. We'll just maintain what we got. Just want to take these twelve pure to God. Not me. We're in a city of a million four. We're in a county of over two million, and God put us here. We're going to reach out in every way we possibly can. And if we try and it fails, then we'll just draw back and do something else. But look up here. We're going to try. But not to the place where we falter along the way because we didn't have the maintenance and the strength. Tonight I just want to let you know this. God's pleased when we walk by faith. I want to walk out in faith, but I don't want to walk out past faith into foolishness. You say, I know all this. Or how you do it. With your walk of faith. If you stopped tithing, you just drew back. Let me say it again. If you stopped tithing, you just drew back. You know what you did? And God's not pleased with that. You say, how do you know? What he says is that. I don't have to feel it. I don't have to think about it. I don't have to, I don't have to say, well, show me a vision so I know if God's not pleased with that. I've read it in the book. God's not pleased with me when I don't keep my vows. God's not pleased with me when I don't stay consistent with some of the things I know I'm supposed to be doing. And I don't want to get before him and he say, I had so much more for you. You didn't open me your mouth wide. Oh, you opened your mouth, but not wide. And I only filled up what you opened. Oh God, let me go back again. Too late. I gave you a chance. You had your life. Too late. One hundred men wants to die. You're dying. I'm still breathing, but we still got time. To do something for God in our lifetime, in our generation. But we want to do it walking with God. Not to please men. So if you're in the production side, hey, please look up here. Keep producing. If you used to go soul winning and you're not anymore, time to get back out there again. A little too much maintenance going on. A little too much eating and not enough giving out. Hello? Say amen. Well, but if you're in the production side, just giving it out and giving it out and giving it out and souling and soul without it and giving it out and giving it out and giving it out, and you're not doing your devotions and not having your prayer, you better get back over the maintenance side. Sooner or later, you'll go belly up. Keep a balance. And we as a church will try to do the same thing. I'll tie up to the dock. But please look up here. Here's the way I am. When you're tied up to the dock, you know what you're doing? You're looking out the mouth of that harbor and saying, I'm coming. Getting ready. Setting my course. I'm not going to stay here forever. Out there where the sailor ought to be. But once in a while, if you've been out there for a while, you gotta go and say, Oh man, praise the Lord, here comes the port. We're three days away. I'll never forget. Never, ever, ever. We didn't see Tahiti, but we smelled it. Woke up at 4 o'clock one morning, out there, when the sun goes down, you go to bed. When the sun comes up, you get up. Sun come up at four, up at four. And I said, man, what's that smell? Smell like fresh cut hay. If you don't from the farm, you don't know what that's like. If you got hay fever, you know what that's like. It smelled like fresh cut hay. You know how you go to the ocean and you smell that stalled air? After you've been out in the ocean for 30 days, you've got the salt air smell and you can smell land. And the wind was blowing our way. We were three days away, we were 300 miles away. And you could smell land. And we put the radio direction finder on, and we still couldn't hit the beacon. It was too far away. But you could smell it. Man, there was nothing like smelling land after you'd been out there that long. Finally, I remember two and a half days later, it dawned, and out there about 60 miles, a big old lump. Way out in the distant, just a gray lump. It almost looked like a cloud, a gray lump. And it was Tahiti. I tell you what, after you've been out there for a while, it's nice to hit port. But after you've been in port too long, you gotta look out the mouth of that harbor and say, it's about time to launch out again. And it's about. And you keep on going. And at the end, I think we'll say it's been good sailing with the Lord Jesus Christ. We've done something with our lives. We've won a few people to Christ, and we've maintained a few. We've seen some marriages put back together, and we've seen some Christians do something for the Lord. And we've seen our children be trained up to do something for God. And that's all we can ask for. Just to be pleasing in his sight.