The first night of the Red Hot Preaching Conference was an exciting time of preaching and fellowship. The place was packed out with 364 people. It’s always good to visit my home town of Sacramento, California, and I appreciate Pastor Jimenez providing me with the opportunity to preach there.
The first speaker was Brother Jared of Verity Baptist Church. He gave an inspiring and eloquent testimony about moving across the country to attend Verity. He told how he was in Sacramento for last year’s conference and then managed to move his family there just three months later. He made a powerful statement about the importance of making sure your family is in a good church: “Your decision making, whether you like it or not, will shape future generations.”
Next, Pastor Manly Perry preached a great sermon on “The Awesomeness of Asa.” Not only did Asa remove the Sodomites out of the land and take other hard stands during his reign, but he managed to raise a godly son in the process. Brother Manly talked about the heartbreaking fact that so many Baptist kids “jump ship” when they turn 18.
One of the many important points he made was that we need to provide our children with Christian fellowship. This can be difficult for some families since there is often a shortage of teenagers in mainstream fundamental Baptist churches. The sermon went along very well with Brother Jared’s admonition to make the right decisions for your family. Brother Manly challenged parents to at least “make the pilgrimage” to the Red Hot Preaching Conference each year, so that their children can have fellowship with like-minded believers.
I preached a sermon entitled “Why they Hate Us,” where I talked about the fact that many IFB pastors actually hate me and other soul-winning preachers, and it’s not right. Someone will get saved after watching one of our documentaries and will find an IFB church in their area, only to get kicked out of the church for listening to my preaching!
I compared the way other independent fundamental Baptists treat people in our movement to the way Joseph’s brothers treated him. They see us coming with our coat of many colors, and they want to rip it off our backs. They hate us because we bring up their evil report. The story of Cain and Abel is yet another example of a wicked reaction to a brother’s godliness.
When we come across someone that is more righteous than we are, we can either have a wicked spirit of envy and hatred, or we can praise God for what they are accomplishing. When I see another church excelling in an area, I don’t get angry about it or discount it because they happen to be pre-trib. I instead ask myself what I can learn from them.
We need to remember that we aren’t against our pre-trib brethren. Our differences are no excuse for hating brothers in Christ. I would love nothing more than for some pre-trib, Zionist church to outdo us on soul-winning. We love our fundamental Baptist brethren, and we love lost souls. We are not in competition with other churches like they seem to be with us.
As soul-winning Baptists, we are all on the same team. We need to follow Joseph’s example and Christ’s commandment to do good to those that hate us. Regardless of how other IFBs treat us, we need to be like Joseph and just try to save people alive.
Click here to watch the first night of the conference on Youtube.
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