Addicted

Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. Hallelujah. God, you're an awesome God. Give us a spirit of evangelism today. Baptize us with the spirit of evangelism. Oh God, make us soulwinning aholics today in the name of Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. God bless you. You may be seated. I'd like to give honor to everyone here on the platform. What a very nerve-wracking experience that I am facing right now. But I am coming to you with a passionate burden. something that I feel feel very praise God something I feel very passionate about like to give honor to my beautiful wife I'm glad she's sitting on the second row that's going to help me through this process here and really would like to give honor to brother Mangan I thank you for because of the times don't you appreciate the way that they lead this conference let's give them a great big hand clap I was a sophomore, Lake View High School in Battle Creek, Michigan, when I made the decision that I was going to play professional baseball. I grew up 20 minutes from Derek Jeter, who had just signed with the New York Yankees as a senior in high school. Derek and I played in summer leagues on opposite teams and I remember watching him play when we would play summer baseball looking across the field thinking, you know, everybody's talking about Derek Jeter and I am every bit as good as he is. And so as I watched him play and I saw the attention he was getting, my coach walked up to me and he said, "If you'll listen to me, I guarantee you'll be ever bit as noticed and recognized as he is your senior year." I'll never forget I had to make the decision of a lifetime. Would I say no to the good to say yes to the best? I was going to determine whether or not I was really going to dedicate my life to baseball or not. it wasn't a matter of talent. It was a matter of passion. It was a matter of would I be willing to pay the price. so here is the workout that I placed myself upon. In fact, we got a hold and find out exactly the same workout that Derek Jeter was on. Here's what I had to do. I was the starting quarterback of my high school football team. I had to give that up. I was the starting point guard of the high school basketball team. I had to give that up because I had to narrow my focus. I read every book that I could get my hands on on baseball. I went to every baseball camp possible. I watched baseball every night I could. I took notes. I spent 6 hours a day doing baseball drills. I slept with my baseball glove. I was the first one to practice. I was the first one to every game. I was the last one to leave. I played with other great ball players. Uh, every day after practice, I would beg my coach or my friends or my peers to stay and hit me over a 100 ground balls a day. Why? Because I was addicted. Uh, I got to confess to you this this afternoon. Uh, I've never been addicted to drugs. I've never been addicted alcohol. I've never been addicted to all these other things. Uh, but I was addicted to sports. Uh, I was addicted to playing baseball. I played year round. Uh, I didn't care what people thought. I didn't care if they thought I was extreme. because I had my mind made up that I was going to play professional baseball. Brother Brown, would you please stand to your feet right now? A lot of you don't know who this great man of God is. His son had been raised in Pentecost all of his life. his son was just a good drummer and his son won me to God at the age of 16 years old. I was baptized in Jesus' name. and filled with the Holy Ghost. God got a hold of my heart. One day I left baseball. I'll never forget this. The longest day I lived. My parents, my grandparents, everybody that knew me, my high school principal, my coach, they were all pushing for me because they knew my dedication. I got the Holy Ghost in a little church up in Marshall, Michigan. God filled me with the Holy Ghost. I I I began to grow in passion and I'll never forget one day I walked out of a baseball practice and something was very empty in my heart and I took my baseball glove and I threw it in the corner of my room and I got on my face before God and I said, "God," I

said, "I I don't know what's going on here. I don't know what you're doing in my life. I'd only been in church just a few months." I said, "But I want to give to you what I gave to baseball." I'll never forget, I went to practice the next day and I looked at my coach and I said, "I know you're not going to understand this." I said, "But I want to be a preacher and I want to turn my world upside down." Uh, he looked at me and he said, "You don't understand. Uh, you can still play baseball and be a good witness and be a good Christian." I said, "You're probably right. Uh, but I don't want to just be a good witness or a good Christian. Uh, I want to be addicted. Uh, I want to be radical. I am ready to give to God. Uh, what I gave to baseball. And let me tell you, my friend, uh, it was not an easy decision to make. My parents didn't understand it. In fact, they called a meeting in my high school. my principal, my guidance counselor, my baseball coach, my grandfather and my father. And they gave me a speech of what you're throwing away. You don't understand the talent that you have and the millions you could make and the impact you could make for God. You'll know so many people and they tried for an hour. But you know what? I didn't have a lot of support. but I had something in my soul. I had another addiction. It was called addiction to evangelism. And let me tell you, my friend, I I was I was nice up till this point when my my principal and my coach finally said, "The thing that we're concerned about, since you've joined this little Pentecostal church, is you're kind of getting into a cult. They're kind of brainwashing you." Up to that point, I was polite. but then I looked up and I stood up and I said, "Let me tell you something. I have not been brainwashed. I have been bloodwashed. Uh, and I wouldn't trade this for this whole world. Uh, take your baseball, take your degree, uh, take everything you have. Uh, but give me Jesus. And can I say I have never regretted that decision for the rest of my life. I did. I got to be honest. I became radical. I was addicted. If I could get up 5:00 every day during the summer to go play baseball all day, if I could sleep with my baseball glove, if I could be the first one to practice, the last one to leave. Surely if I could give that same consecration to God, then God could do something in my life. Uh, and let me tell you that he did. In two years, uh, by the help of God, oh yeah, people picked on me. Oh yeah, they thought I was crazy. But in two years, uh, by the help of God, uh, I brought over 100 people from my high school to my local church. Uh, we baptized 35 of them. Uh, in the name of my God, I feel it now. I'm ready to be myself. You know what we need? we need people in this United Pentecostal church to get an addiction. We've been too casual about it for too long. we've been too laidback for too long. It's time to turn it up and crank it up and dedicate oursel to the cause. Hallelujah. It's not something I can do once on a Saturday. It's not something I can do every once in a while because I am addicted. What we need today is people to get baptized with a burden and with a passion for souls. I'm going to warn you. Soulwinning is addicting. I'm going to flat warn you. It'll change your life. It'll change your whole attitude. It'll put a fire in your soul. Greg, stand up real quick. Let me tell you about Greg. That's my brother-in-law. He married my wife's sister. That guy can play saxophone like nobody else. He was raised in Pentecost all of his life. He came down to Florida, never ever taught a Bible study before. Raised in church. I can't imagine that. I can't imagine being raised in church having never taught a Bible. I couldn't imagine. I tell you what else I can't imagine. I can't imagine going a year without winning a soul. I can't imagine going a month

without bringing a visitor to church. when you get addicted, my friend, it's not something that's just a good idea. It becomes a lifestyle. It becomes something you live. It becomes something that you breathe, something that your heart beats for. Greg got addicted, started teaching Bible studies last week. He taught 16 Bible studies. That's what happens when you dig get addicted. next week he told me on the way up here that he's got 20 Bible studies lined up. That's what happens when you get addicted. I tell you what, you want to turn the world upside down. We can do it. But we're not going to do it being casual. We're not going to be do it being half-hearted. We're not going to be doing it being average. We've got to get addicted. We've got to get passionate about reaching our world. Travis. Travis, stand up. Run down here real fast. Quick. I said run. He was 12 years old. Come here. Raised in the Catholic church. It's my little cousin here. We got an uncle that's been a Catholic priest for 53 years. All of our family. Our grandmother disowned us when we became Pentecost. Brother Brown, thanks for letting me live with you. I got kicked out of my house. My My family gave me an alternative Pentecost or Catholic. If you're going to go to the Pentecost church, you got to find somewhere else to go. And that's when I had to get on my face and say, "God, take this whole world, but give me Jesus." Why? Because I'm addicted. Come on, somebody. Because I'm addicted. Three years ago, he used to travel. He still does travel with me doing soul-winning seminars. 16 years old. I took him with me and I used to preach this thing, still do every once in a while, that you need to stir up passion within you. We We ought to get uncomfortable if we go a year without winning someone to God. We ought to get uncomfortable if we go a week without teaching a Bible study. That ought to make us sick in our stomach. that ought to stir us up, make us at e unease. And I told them, I used to tell those young people, you ought to give up video games till you win a soul. You ought to give up Coca-Cola till you win a soul. He was in that session. He said, he said, I'm going to give up Cokes and pizza until I win a soul. He went 46 days till he finally got a Bible study of 12 young people. He taught him a Bible study, baptized them in the name of Jesus. 3 years later, this young 19-year-old kid has already won 75 people to Jesus Christ bad. Oh, I'm telling you, when you get addicted, it gets in your blood. Come on. When you get addicted, I said when you get addicted, it gets in your blood. Come on. You know what we need? We need to forget who we are. And we need to get back out of this because of the times with a fresh faith and a fresh passion and a fresh love for souls. You know that one out of five deaths in US can be attributed to tobacco products. Every 8 seconds someone in the world dies of tobacco. Cigarette smoke contains 69 chemical compounds that are known to cause cancer. One out of three smokers will eventually die from a tobacco related disease. 440,000 smokers die each year from smoking. 70% of smokers want to quit. Hear that? 70% of smokers want to quit. And only 5% succeed each year. Every year 95% of the people who try to quit smoking are not successful. In the US, smoking causes about 445 new cases of lung cancer every day. Tobacco kills more Americans than AIDS, drugs, homicides, fires, and auto accidents combined. So why is it that only 5% of

smokers succeed in quitting? Knowing of the horrible effects on your health. knowing what it does to your lungs and to your family. Knowing that it causes your car, your clothes, and your home to stink. why is that? Because they are addicted. Can I tell you ladies and gentlemen, that soul winning is hard work. it takes patience. the moment you decide to go from being a pure warmer to a soul winner, you're going to fight every devil in hell. Oh yeah. Soulwinning has some soulwinning has some repercussions. but can I tell you that we absolutely positively cannot quit. we have got to get addicted to soulwinning to the place that says I don't care how many devils I fight. I don't care how many disappointments I have. I am addicted. I cannot stop. I cannot quit. I have got to go on. I've got to go forward. I'm not talking about a social drinker. someone that drinks a glass of wine every once in a while at a party or the casual smoker who once in a while will have a smoke with some friends. We're talking about people that are addicted alcoholics. You know what I believe the message of the spirit to this conference is? Everybody from the balcony all the way down to this platform needs to become a soul winner aholic. We need to, it needs to get inside of us. where it's something that we do every day. it's something that burns in our souls. come on. Do we have any soul winner in the building today? that know Yeah. Come on. The devil's going to come against you, but that doesn't matter. I am addicted. Come on. We're going to fight all kinds of mountains and trials, but that doesn't matter. I am addicted. Come on. It's time to be radical. It's time to be aggressive. it's time to get out of the box. it's time to quit playing it so safe and so cautious. it's time to turn our cities upside down. It's time. Come on, preachers. We can do it. before we're a preacher, we are a soul winner. We have got to get addicted to personal evangelism. Usually we get our addictions from our parents. 80% of children whose parents are addicted to smoking and drinking will pass those addictions down to their children. You know what we need tonight? We need to start passing down some addictions. Come on, daddy. Come on, pastor. It's time to get addicted yourself. And when you c oh when you catch a fire, when you catch a passion, it's going to bleed on down into the children that you lead. come on, youth pastor, why don't you get an addiction? Come on, assistant pastor. Get an addiction. it's time to pass it down. it's time to go back. kick the pews over, jump in the baptistry, break windows, go nutsh. Come on, start that bus ministry again. Uh, start that home Bible study ministry again. Start evangelism again. Let's get addicted. We don't need normal churches. We don't need normal outreach. Uh, we don't need average efforts. Uh, we have got to be addicted. I have too much respect and I am far too young to try to preach to our elders or even to the pastors here. But can I just say one thing from my heart? We as leaders and pastors have better get addicted to soul-winning or they'll never get it. I know pastors that pride themselves on showing up for work days. I got to be there. My men got to see me work. I got to be holding a shovel and digging ditches and painting walls. I've been there as an evangelist. Pastors pride

themselves in that. They pride them so I got to get to the prayer room because I'm the pastor. But then when they call outreaches, that's it. It's the only thing I'm going to say. So, I might as well get it in. Plain and simple. Come on. Quit hiding in your office. Quit sleeping in while the outreach team is out on the streets. You're going to have to forgive me for a minute. I'm addicted. I tell you what we need to do. We need to go back. My We need to go back home and we need to get addicted. I'll tell you what'll happen. It'll fire up your church. it'll fire up your youth group. don't be hiding in your office while the outreach team is knocking doors. Get up and go just like you go when they're working and when they're praying. I'm sorry. I am addicted. It's hard for me to stay calm when I start preaching about evangelism. We need to get addicted in this hour like never before. Come on, somebody. Come on, preachers. You can loosen in your church. You don't need Anthony Mangan or Kenneth Haney or Randy Keys. You can do it, but you've got to get addicted first. I'm addicted. I'm addicted. I'm addicted. I'm a pastor, but I'm addicted. I'm addicted to evangelism. All right. All the hell better look out. When you're addicted, you don't care about the cost. Some of you form for former party animals, you were a party nut. You spent all kinds of money on your addictions. And we get in church and we want to be chintzy with our missions giving. We want to be chintzy and spending on evangelism. God didn't call you to set up a nest egg. God called you to take what you have and pour it in to this world for the sake of evangelism. I got to warn you, there's nothing more exciting, nothing more thrilling, nothing that'll change your life anymore than aggressive evangelism. I got to hurry. You may be seated. All right. Hallelujah. Luke 5:2 saw two ships standing by the lake and the fishermen were gone out and were washing their nets. Verse four, now when they had left speaking, he said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a drought." Can I tell you that it is impossible to seow seed and not have a harvest? As long, come on, somebody. As long as you are willing to obey biblical principles. I've wore out your tape on the blessing. You got to give me a new one. One thing that brother Keith said that I've adapted in my spirit is that God is no respector of people. But he is a respector of principles. For example, Deuteronomy 28:38, you shall carry out much seed out into the field, but gather little. How frustrating the context of this scripture, God is listing all the curses that come with disobedience. And of the many curses listed, one of them is carrying out much seed but bringing in little. We can get jealous of Peter if we'd like to, but the bottom line is that he obeyed the voice of the Holy Ghost when it didn't make a lick of sense. Come on. He obeyed the spirit

when he was tired. He obeyed the spirit when he was fatigued. and when he was discouraged, the last thing he wanted to do was get his boat and that net back into the water. You know, I believe the Holy Ghost is telling this church, I am so weary of hearing the I've been there. I've done that. I've tried that. well, guess what, my friend? I have heard from some of these revivalists that you just got to keep doing it. Uh, and you got to keep sewing. Uh, and you got to keep doing right. Uh, and you can't get fatigued. Uh, and you can't get discouraged. Uh, and you can't get frustrated. Uh, because I believe uh, that whatsoever a man seweth a fact shall he reap. Verse five, watch this. When he left speaking, he said, "Master, we have toiled all night and have taken nothing. Nevertheless, at thy word, which doesn't make a lick of sense, I will let down your net." Verse six, "And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fish that their net break." I believe I have a word for somebody. God is not going to give us the breakthrough that we dream of. until we do the things that seem crazy, until we do the things that is out of our comfort zone that takes risk. come on. We put our reputation on the line. come on. You know what we need? we need more preachers who are not afraid to step out of the boat and step out by faith. we got to quit doing it so safe and so cautious. Uh, we've got to get radical. We've got to get aggressive. Uh, we have got to be willing to do what doesn't make a lick of sense. I hope you're catching it. Verse seven, they becked under their partners which were in the other ship, and they filled both the ships so that they began to sink. I'm so thankful for our elders that are casting vision. It's ripped my heart out. And one thing they have said that I believe so strongly that until we ever repent of our territorialism, we're not going to have the catching God wants to give us. Cuz can I tell you the catching God's going to give you your church can't handle by yourself. you're going to need your brothers. you're going to need your partners. we're going to need one another. Come on. we are not in competition with one another. It's not about whose church is bigger, whose church is better. First, you know the rest of the story. Verse 8, verse 9. Peter was astonished. The direct word is this. When you are willing to do what doesn't make any sense, it's purely a step of faith. You don't feel it. You don't see how it's going to happen. Come on. God took Peter from discouragement to astonishment. When I first went to St. Petersburg, Florida. We're so blessed to be able to take a church Pastor Elrod and his lovely wife Nancy Lrod served. Their daughters are here today. Kim Balster, Robin Thompson. It's a blessed church. When I took the church, Brother Alrod had just passed away of a heart attack. Church was obviously hurting and confused. I don't know how to handle this. So, I began to pray and I began to teach a series to our church and every week God would give me something new about the church that God blesses. I told God on my face, I'll do whatever I need to do, Lord, to have revival. I don't have time to play games. You just teach me how to do this. You teach me what to do. And God spoke to me two very specific things. And I'm going to preach the rest of this message and close with this. Number one, God began to deal with me about servant serving and giving to the poor. Right there. See that? If you reach for the people that nobody wants, I'll send you the people that everybody wants. I think I lost my water. If you reach for the people nobody wants, God will send you the people everybody wants. We didn't have a lot of money people in our church. In fact, we didn't have

any. And number two, so I taught that to our church that, you know, our church is going to start reaching the poor and the homeless and the hurting. That's what motivated me when I was a young preacher. I still am young, but back then coming to these meetings and you bringing all those people up here right there, God spoke that to me one day in prayer. The greatest church in your city is the one who serves your city. I want to talk to you for a few minutes real quick like about why I'm so passionate about this. The blessing of giving to the poor. There's principles here. God is no respector of people, but he is a respector of principle. Right here, Psalms 41:1, "Blessed is the man that considers the poor. The Lord will deliver him in the time of trouble." Verse two, the Lord will preserve him and keep him alive. I've never met a dead soul-winning church ever. I've never met a dead church that knew how to reach to the hurting. and knew how to reach to the lonely and to the poor. you talk about firing people up. you talk about a lively church you know what the problem is? Why some churches are dead? is cuz they've quit reaching out. they're playing it safe. they're maintaining. God doesn't want us to be in a maintain mode. God wants us to be in an aggressive mode. God wants us to go. God wants us to be radical. God wants us to be nuts. God wants us to be addicted. Proverbs 19:E1 17. Yes. Everybody read it out loud with me. Lends to the Lord. And that will he pay him again. Who's going to pay back? God. He that lends to the poor gives to the Lord, and that which he has given, he'll pay him again. Psalms 112:9, he hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn shall be exalted with honor. One more. I have many more, but I'm only going to share one more. Proverbs 28:27. Everybody read it out loud with me. He that gives to the poor shall not lack. Come on, say it with me. He that gives to the poor shall not lack. You need a drummer, start giving to the poor. Come on. You need an outreach director, start giving to the poor. You need a new choir, start giving to the poor. You need a new bus, start giving to the poor. He that gives to the poor shall not lack. So we went to the mayor of our city. I couldn't get a meeting with him. We started this thing called adopted black. Some of you might have heard of it. That man right there, Brother Payne's here. Where are you? Brother Payne, stand up. That's the man that oversees our whole adopted block. One of the greatest servants you'll ever meet in your whole life. Right here. Short guy up front. There he is. Went to the mayor of our city right when I became pastor. Only been there a couple months. Tried to get a meeting with him. I wanted to have lunch with him, but he never would. Always had to meet with the secretary. So I told her, I said, "I want you to give us the roughest neighborhood in St. Petersburg." Go ahead, Garrett. Start start just showing him a few pictures. 43 right there. 43 radical people. By the way, at our at the time, our church was predominantly white. And if you have a predominantly white church, no wonder it's kind of dead. I've never seen a growing predominantly white church. Predominantly white churches are stiff. they ain't got no good choir. They don't have no good soul. Come on, somebody. We need We need to mix up our churches with some color a little bit. Hallelujah. Come on. So the mayor's secretary, she was blown away. We said, "We're going to go in. We're going to clean up graffiti and we're going to mow grass and we're going to reach out to the children. We're going to serve them. We're going to have picnics." So our first Saturday, we went down, 43 of us, and we gave away 300 gift bags. This was the worst neighborhood in St. Petersburg. On average, one person is killed there a month. There are over 90 calls that come in a week to the police station. It is a very high crime, highest drug neighborhood in the entire Tampa Bay area. And we went in there by the help of God. And we went in there and we started serving. We started giving. First Saturday, we had

over 220 people at our picnic. We fed them. We gave away bicycles. We gave away sleeping bags. we gave away microwaves. We gave away vacuums. Look at that right there. Come on. You know, we need we need we need more church services out in the streets. we need more church services. Come on. It's time to get radical. My God. Aren't you bored with a I am bored to death with average church. I am bored to death with stiff old traditional Pentec We got to blitz. We got to blit blitz. We got to blitz. We got to go. We've got to get radical and aggressive. Tell you what, to fire a church up. See that right there? That's Miss Brown. She came. We started having some prayer meetings down there. We started preaching a little bit and worshiping. She came up said, "Preacher, pray for me." We started praying for her right there in the streets. God filled her with the Holy Ghost. she began to speak in other tongues. Take a good look at that. We had an old beat up rusty the most humiliating church van. I guarantee you there's no one in this building that's got one any worse. Didn't have air conditioning. After one of our picnics, we had 220 people. All these kids kept coming at me saying, "I want to go to church." Right there. Just keep it right there for a minute, Gary. Said, "I want to go to church." All we had was that little van. But he that gives to the poor shall not lack. Hey, if you ain't going to use your bus, send it down to St. Petersburg. I can use it. You got to get you. You got too much dust on them buses. Those things ain't been on the streets in so long, they got mold growing all over them. Hey, Bible said he that hath not is going to be taken from it. Hey, if you if you're not going to do if you're not going to reach the world with the resources you have, you better watch out because we're living too close to the rapture. God's going to take from you and give it to people that are doing it. we got to quit being so blasted traditional. Let's get those buses in action and let's start reaching our world and reaching for the children and for those that nobody wants. one neighborhood. We've baptized over 75 79 people from one neighborhood. Then we started a homeless ministry. Reach for the people nobody wants. God will send you the people everybody wants. Started going down to the homeless and all we did was give away Cokes and Twinkies and hamburgers and tacos from Taco Bell. And one day a bunch of them said, "Hey, we'd like to come to your church." Which, by the way, is one of the best things that could ever happen to your churches is just start filling it with sinners. It'll mess your people up. That's what needs to happen. Come on. Aren't I'm tired of preaching the Pentecostals. That gets old after a while. It's time to start filling our church up with sinners. Come on. It starts time to start filling our churches with sinners. Just go through them real quick. Right there. Stop. Stop. Right there. See that man? I'm got my arm around. Brother Robinson, that man been church 21 years, never done anything. In fact, when I first came, he didn't even like me. Can you imagine that? He'd sit there while I'd preach, he'd just look down the whole time. I tried to motivate him. I mean, I even rebuked him one time. We were baptizing 17 people one service and he just walked out and I ran out in the parking lot and I grabbed him. I said, "What in the name of God do you think you're doing? We're having surgery right now. We're birthing babies. It's time you quit being a deadbeat and critical and I just risk it all." You can ask Brother Thompson, you know about Brother Robinson. Where are you? You know about him, don't you? But he's a good man. Hardworking man. One service I preached about living in miracle territory. And I said, "Someday we're going to bust in the homeless. We don't even we already in one week filled

up 55 children on our one bus. We've been begging God to bless us with buses." Brother Robinson came up to me and said, "Pastor, I think I can do this one. If you get them here, me and my wife can cook some soul food. That's our homeless staff. They make a meal every Saturday night. Keep clicking, Garrett. There's our bus driver right there. Brother Mark Morfield. Keep going. Right there. We feed them a little. We don't We don't have a big church, do we? Brother Haney, you been there a couple times. But when you come back, I guarantee you won't be in that building anymore. We feed those homeless people. Praise God. Just go fast, G. Don't stop till I tell you stuff. We give away sleeping bags every Saturday night. And guess what else we started? I want to show you something kind of cool. We started a choir last Saturday night. You You want to know why I flip? You really want to know? You want to know why I go half out of my mind up here? You know what? Since I've started Keep it back up there on the choir. Since I've started preaching, I felt like ramming my head in this pulpit. I'm going nuts up here. I'm bleeding with passion. Do you know why? I tell you why. you when you got a 85 sinners on your platform singing about Jesus. take of the next one real quick. Do you know that since we've started doing this we've baptized 35 of them in the name of nervous breakdown? Nervous? What are you talking about? A nervous breakdown? my God, do you have any idea what it'll do for your church? If you'll get a bunch of sinners and a bunch of radical people in there, I'm almost done. I'm almost done right. Look, now watch this. I got to share something with you. He that gives to the poor shall not lack. You remember when I came and preach here last January? Yeah. On Thanksgiving, we gave away 75 turkeys. It was awesome, man. We bust I cancelceled our midweek service. We jumped on the bus. We went down to Harbordale, that inner city neighborhood. 7:30 at night, there was a huge drug bus going on. We were giving away turkeys. Just curious. You have that news clip available? You don't have to play it. If not, don't worry about it. But listen to this. I told our church, I said, "Last year we gave away 75 to I'm talking about quit playing it so safe." I said, "This year, we're going to give a thousand turkeys." I couldn't afford a thousand. I couldn't even barely afford a 100 turkeys. Just go through the turkey slides real quick while I tell this. Time out. We have four news stations there. The mayor, I'm going to tell you about the mayor in a second, but he got him. He was there that day. We had over a thousand p. I broke a thousand this year. I broke a thousand. I did. Hallelujah. We had over a thousand people come over a thousand line cars packed lined up everywhere. The mayor got up in the four TV stations and I quote, he said, "This is the most aggressive church I have ever seen in my life." and he told our city, "You owe it to yourself to come visit the house of prayer." You know what I believe? I'm not the wrong man on the wrong side of the tracks. I'm not hiding my head because I'm apostolic. I believe God is about to parade this apostolic church and give us favor in our cities. Go through them quick. Go through them quick. Don't worry about the news clip. Just go through them real quick. Real fast. I got to get to this real quick. It was unbelievable. Talk about firing up real quick. I want to show you something. Stop. Now, here's what I'm going to close with. If you reach for the people nobody wants, that's right. God will send you the people everybody wants. Come on now. We don't Hey, all this crazy sewing and stuff, I've been having heart pains, man. We live by faith so much. I didn't even when the secretary came by, I went the other way. I didn't want to read nothing. I didn't want to hear about nothing. Says living by faith. One pastor said, "Man, I'll worry about you. You're going to go broke." Well, my Lord, if I'm going to go broke, I'd like to go broke reaching out for the lost cuz he that gives the poor shall not lack. See that man right there? That's one of the promises God gave me right before we were doing our big turkey giveaway. He showed up. You know, we we've had more visitors come to our church from the phone book anything else. You need to have the best ad in town.

So listen to this. He came and that night he and his wife sat in our service. That night he sent me an email and he said, "Pastor, I'm a very wealthy man." He said, "I'm looking for a church that I can bless." And I'm thinking, I read this stuff all the time, but I'm not a fool either. I'm going to take the man out to dinner. Make a long story short, he is a very wealthy man. He's contractor. He owns over 200 pieces of property. He's a millionaire. He reached the people nobody wants. God will send you to the people everybody wants. Four weeks ago, we baptized him in Jesus' name. He and his wife both. You know what I really feel, Bishop? Here's what I feel. I feel it's time for every pastor to go back to their city and do something so radical that doesn't make a lick of sense that you can't afford. And I'm telling you, God's going to meet you. Brother Mitchell, listen to this. When I said we're going to give away a thousand church, we could not afford it. I promise you. Some of you God might be talking about giving $100,000 of missions. You may not be able to afford it. Do it anyways. So we by faith, my God, I just God help us. We got three days for the turkeys. We had to go to Walmart and give him like a $5,000 check. I kept asking secretary, "More money coming in. More money coming in." This guy every week be dropping huge offerings in the offering plate. Three days beforehand, he calls me up and he said, "We just bought a new house." And he said, "Pastor," he said, "God showed me a vision of this beautiful office I'm supposed to build you in your garage." And I needed an office bag cuz we don't have no room in our church. He came built this beautiful office. Didn't wouldn't even let me pay for the light switches. The covers. He called me up 3 days for the turkey giving. He said, "Pastor," he said, "How much are we short?" I said, "Man, we're all right, Elder." I said, "Sunday's coming. We're going to take up an offering. God's going to meet it. Just keep praying. He said, "No, how much are we short?" I said, "Well, brother, we're short $2,800 if you really want to know." He said, "No problem. That's what I wanted to know." He said, "Meet me up here real quick." And he wrote me a check. Come on, somebody. If you reach for the people, nobody wants. Why can't God give us the richest people in our city? That's not my motive. I've been feeding the homeless. I've been giving away sleeping bags. I've been giving away turkeys. I've been busting in people. But I know that God's going to empty out all those rich people and these charismatic churches and Baptist churches and put them on your pews. One more real quick. One more real quick. Do you see how undignified I am? I love it. Would you believe that I just won by the grace of God two doctors? Look at them. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. You reach for the people. And I can't even tell you how much money they have cuz all you evangelists going to want to come preach for me. We just baptized Dr. Hood and Doctor Hood two weeks ago and they're on fire. You reach for the people nobody wants, God will send you the people that everybody wants. Last one right there is Mayor Rick Baker. You know, I called him so many times, couldn't get a meeting with him cuz he didn't know who I was. One day he calls my cell phone. He said, "Pastor Maddox, this is Mayor Rick Baker. How about swallowed my food?" He said, "What you are doing in this community is unbelievable." He said, "Do you mind if I just come worship with you on Sunday?" I said, "Well, listen. I'm going to a prayer meeting. I'll pray about it. I'll get back with you in a few little dreamed of this young 29-year-old radical." Listen, I see Brother Wolf out here. Where's Brother Wolf? That's my elder there. He worked with me. He let me work for him when I was a little peeon. Sister Wolf, bless my soul. I was so crazy. They helped me so much. I give honor to them. Then brother Arnold put it back into me. They got me all smooth till I went and worked for Brother Arnold. Where's Brother Arnold at?

He survived me one year. I broke him. But we had revival. The mayor, he came to our church. We had an attendance. We broke an attendance record. It was beautiful. We had 267 people packed in our little building. The mayor came. I'm going to make a long story a little bit shorter real quick. He was weeping, prayed in the altars. He goes to a big Baptist church. Couple weeks later, there was a huge Baptist meeting. Baptist. There was a huge meeting. Over 50 pastors represented a there's a there's a lunchon. That's right. I go to them lunchons. I go to them lunchons. 50 trinitarian pastors. Everybody said, "Well, who are youth pastor for?" So the mayor gets up. He's big tall guy. He gets up and he said right when he opened his statement, the guy who's leading it is Dr. Bernard. Some of you may have heard of him. He's good friends with John Bevere and Ted Haggard and writes books and he's leading this huge Somebody cares Tampa Bay emphasis thing. And the mayor gets up and he says, "You pastors ought to be ashamed of yourself." That's his opening statement. He said, "Matt Maddox, stand up." He said, "You see that young preacher there?" He said, "I was in his church two weeks ago, and I would encourage every one of you to go visit one of his Sunday morning services. They'll God's about to parade his church. God's about to parade his church. I'm not ashamed. I'm apostolic. I'm not ashamed. I'm United Pentecostal. I believe God is going to raise up the United Pentecostal church like never before. Come on, let's all stand to our feet. Closing. Put that back there on the mayor if you could, please. He's already been our church two times. He goes to a huge Baptist church in St. Petersburg. I believe I'm going to win him. I really believe I'm going to win me. had me over for lunch, breakfast, asked me to come in and talk to the city. In that meeting, he says, "I want Pastor Maddox to share his story. 50 pastors there. Some big shots, Bill." There's at least four churches represented, over 2,000, which I believe I'm going to catch every one of them. said, "Listen," he said, "I want Pastor Max cheer." Well, the guy in charge, Dr. Bernard, which we're friends now, but then he ignored his request. So, we went through the whole lunch and da da da. And just before they were dismissing the prayer, the mayor stood up. Look how tall he is. He goes, he said, "I got one more thing to say." He walks back up there and he says, "Everybody have a seat. Matt Maddox, come up here. He said, "Take your time, son. Just tell these pastors what y'all are doing." Brother Wolf, I tried to be dignified. I did. I was so smooth for the first 5 minutes, but when it hit me when it hit me, I went berserk. I was jumping the chairs. I was telling them, "We just got had 16 get the Holy Ghost. We got drug dealers getting baptized. after that, the the St. Petersburg Theological Seminary president walked up and said, "I want you to come and preach to us and light us up for evangelism." Guess what? Come on, everybody. Lift your hands. How many of you want to be addicted? Come on. How many of you want to be addicted? Lift up your hands right now. The Holy Spirit of evangelism is about to come upon this conference.