Amen. All right, well I want to of course say thank you to Pastor Pazarski and Miss Heidi for the invitation to come out here today and for the hospitality and the great dinner we had last night and fellowship. And of course the Pazarski family is near and dear to our hearts. Of course, we love them and we're proud of the work that's being done here. And I want to of course thank the Verity Baptist Church family for you coming out supporting Hold Fast this weekend and of course I want to say congratulations to Hold Fast Baptist Church. Those of you that came from First Works as well, thank you for being here. And congratulations, one year of ministry and you know I know that in ministry it often seems like the days are long but the years are short. And often when you're in ministry it seems like you're just kind of going through the thing. You'll wake up one day and it's been 10 years, 12 years and you'll look back on these days as exciting times. So congratulations for one year of ministry and I'll praise the Lord for that. This morning I want to preach to you being the one year anniversary of this church. I want to preach on the subject of the ingredients of a great church. The ingredients of a great church and I heard a pastor say years ago that a church should be like a family expecting guests and that's what we want, right? That's what we work towards and that's what we are always trying to be ready for as a church family especially on Sunday mornings and really every service we want to be expecting guests. And a church, thank you sir, appreciate it. And a church is, that's exactly what a church should be, should be a family expecting guests. We're there in 1 Kings chapter 10 and of course we have the story of the Queen of Sheba and she is visiting King Solomon and I want to use the story this morning to preach this sermon because of the fact that the Queen of Sheba was visiting or she was a guest of King Solomon's realm and kingdom. Notice there in 1 Kings chapter 10 and verse 1 the Bible says, and when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, notice these words, she came, she was a guest, she came, the Bible says, to prove him with hard questions. Notice there again in verse 2 and she came to Jerusalem with a very great train with camels that bear spices and very much gold and precious stones and notice again the emphasis when she came to Solomon she communed with him in all that was in her heart. So this morning I'd like to take this story of the Queen of Sheba and use it as an example or as an allegory or a parable or just a representation of a church expecting guests. And I'd like to give you three ingredients this morning in regards to a great church. What is it, what are the ingredients that come together in order to create a great church and by the way let me just say this, you already have these ingredients at hold fast Baptist church, I want to encourage you to identify that, to know that and to continue. If you're taking notes this morning and of course I encourage you to take notes I notice on the back of the bulletin there's a place for you to write down some things. What are the ingredients of a great church? Number one you could write this down, the first ingredient of a great church I want to say it this way is practical preaching, practical preaching and when people come to church you know if you think about why we start a church, obviously we started a Verdi Baptist Church ordained Pastor Brzezarski, we sent him down here as a satellite leader for a couple of years, one year ago we ordained him to be the pastor of this church, it became an independent church, why do we do that? Of course to fulfill the great commission to be able to win souls in this area and disciple people help them get baptized but when you really think about it one of the main purposes of the church obviously we want to get people saved, want to get people baptized but what we will do most of is then take those converts and disciple them, obviously we emphasize soul winning, we do a lot of soul winning going out in the community knocking doors and we give time for soul winning, we do baptizing and we baptize new converts but what a church will spend most of its time on, what a pastor and a pastor's wife will spend most of their time on is the discipleship aspect, is helping people grow because the truth of the matter is this, when people come to church they generally come to church with problems and doubts, usually people don't show up to church and they're just like everything's great in my life, everything's wonderful, I'm just looking for a place to give 10% of my income to, you know, like you generally speaking that's not the attitude, every once in a while you'll get that right, every once in a while you'll get somebody shows up and it's like, you know, are you, are you come to spy out the land, you seem a little too perfect, you know, usually people show up to church with problems, that's why they come to church and what is our goal, what is our plan is to help them and I want you to notice here the Queen of the South, the Queen of Sheba in verse 1 the Bible says and when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, notice the Bible says she came to prove, notice that word prove there, the word prove means to establish the truth of something, the idea is that she came to acquire proof, she came to acquire evidence, she had heard some things about King Solomon and his kingdom and she came to prove, notice what the Bible says with hard questions, see, people will often show up to church and they'll show up with problems, notice the term there with hard questions, they not only will show up with problems but they'll show up with doubts, they'll show up with doubts, notice there the Bible says to prove him and oftentimes people will come to church as a last resort, they'll come to church, you know, their marriage is falling apart or their relationship with their children is falling apart or they're addicted to drugs or they're addicted to alcohol and they've tried everything else and then as a last resort they'll say, well let me go down to church and see if they can help me there and they'll show up with hard questions and they'll show up with doubts, they just want to see, well they're not really expecting, you know, I'm not really expecting that Solomon's kingdom is gonna be all that I've heard it's going to be but I'm gonna go down there and prove him and I'm going to bring these hard questions, the truth is this, that people will come to church with problems and doubts, Pastor Brzezarski preached an amazing sermon at the Red Hot Preaching Conference this year and he preached on the subject and I love the sermon because I feel like this is a theme that I like to talk about with church and he preached a sermon about built not bought and the fact that if you're gonna have a church, if you're gonna grow a church, if you're gonna be in ministry, you just have to realize that it's not gonna be handed to you, you're gonna have to build it and that's true because of the fact that, you know, when you look at a church and you look at people that have good marriages, they're raising godly children, their health is going well, their finances are in order, they're serving in church, they're tithing, they're soul-winning, they're serving, when you look at those people you have to realize it's rare that those people show up and walk through the door just having it all put together and I'm just here to serve. Now that happens from time to time and praise God for it but generally speaking people show up and they're just a mess, you know, and if you look at them a year later, you look at them two years later, you look at them three years later and things are going well in their life is because somebody took the time and energy to help them and disciple them and encourage them and pray for them and to help them grow because the truth of the matter is this, that ministry truly is built, not bought. It's a work we have to do, it's something we have to do. Now why don't you notice that when the Queen of Sheba shows up to Solomon, she shows up with problems, she shows up with doubt, she came to prove him and she came with hard questions but notice how she leaves, verse 3, and Solomon told her all her questions. The Bible says she came with hard questions but he answered all her questions and notice what the Bible says, there was not anything hidden from the King which he told her not. She came and she came with hard questions but no, she left with answers and our job as a church is to give people everything that they need. I love how the Bible says there was not anything he told her not, there was not anything that he hid from her, she asked questions and the Bible tells us they were hard questions, what those questions were, we don't know for sure, we do know of one very good question that was answered to her that I'll talk about at the end of the sermon but we know that whatever the questions were, they were hard questions, they were difficult questions, she came to seek some answers and she left with the answers that she needed. You're there in 1 Kings chapter 10, keep your place there if you would, put a ribbon or bookmark or something, that's going to be our text for this morning, but go with me if you would to the book of Acts in the New Testament, Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20, in the New Testament you have the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Acts chapter 20. The Bible says that Solomon told her all her questions, there was not anything hidden from the King which he told her not. It's interesting to me because what the Bible is emphasizing here is that the way that it's worded you would not really think that it should be worded this way because the Bible says she came with questions, right? So you think the Bible would just tell us and Solomon answered all her questions. The Bible says she came to prove him and you would think the Bible would just tell us and Solomon just answered everything she wanted, but the way that it's worded it seems to indicate that there were some things that Solomon told her, some things that Solomon felt she needed to hear that she wasn't necessarily asking questions about. Because the way it's worded it says Solomon told her all her questions, we would see that as a normal phrase in the story, but here's what's interesting when it says there was not anything hidden. What does that mean? It means that there was a potential for Solomon to maybe there were some things that he could have not told her. And then the Bible emphasizes it again and it says there was not anything hidden from the King and it emphasizes again which he told her not. Again, it seems to indicate that there's this potential that Solomon could have just answered her questions, but he felt like there was more information that he needed to give her. And you might ask, you know, well what is that about or what are you trying to get at? You know what I've learned over the last 12 years of ministry is that oftentimes people are asking the wrong questions. They'll come to you with a question if they even come to you with a question. They'll come to you with a question and they'll say, well, you know, what am I supposed to do about this? Or what should I do about that? Or what should I do about this situation? And we as pastors, we realize, hey, you know, you're asking me this question and I can answer that question for you, but the truth of the matter is there's another underlying problem that you're ignoring right now. There's actually another underlying problem that is also attributing this problem that you're having. And we, like Solomon, have to decide that we're not going to hide anything, that we're going to tell you everything you need to know. We're going to tell you everything you need to hear. You said, well, that's not the question. I didn't, you know, I didn't come, people will come and say, well, I want to ask about my marriage. And it's like, well, let me help you with your marriage. But before we get to your marriage, let's talk about your drug addiction. Oh, no, no, I mean, I'm not asking about the drug addiction. Yeah, but the drug addiction is affecting your marriage. And oftentimes people, they want to ask you this one question. They want to focus on this one thing. They come to church and they're like, I just need this one issue. And then, you know, they come to Pastor Brzezarski and he's like, well, let me help you with this issue.  You also need to talk with me and so thinking lazy. You also need to start, you know, showing up to church. You also need to start soul winning. You also need to say, and it's like, why did I ask all that? Well, you know what? There was not anything here from the king which you told her not. She came with certain questions as I said, I'm going to answer your questions and I'm going to answer the questions that you haven't asked. The questions that you should have asked. The questions that you need. See, you said, what makes, what made the kingdom of Solomon a great kingdom? What makes a church a great church? It is practical preaching that answers the questions of life, the questions you're asking and the questions you refuse to ask. The questions you're asking and the questions you should have asked. Are you there in Acts chapter 20? Look at verse 26. The apostle Paul says something similar to what we read about King Solomon. Acts chapter 20 and verse 26. Therefore, I take to you, I take you to record this day and what that means is Paul saying, you can record this as a matter of fact. You can prove me here if you'd like. Wherefore, I take you to record this day. He says that I am pure from the blood of all men. You say, how could Paul say that he's pure from the blood of all men? Notice what he says in verse 27. He says, for I have not shunned. You see, I was shunned. The word shun means to keep away, to withhold, to avoid. Paul says, I have not shunned. I have not kept away. I have not withheld. I have not avoided. I have not hid. There's nothing that I have not told you. He says, I have not shunned to declare unto you. Notice what he says. All the counsel of God. He said, I've given it all to you. I've answered every question. I've answered every question you've asked. I've answered every question you haven't asked. I've answered every question you should have asked. He said, I have not shunned to declare unto you the counsel of God. So what's an ingredient of a great church? It's a church that gives you practical preaching. It's a church that answers all the questions. It's the church that offends you by answering the questions you didn't ask. It's a church that offends you by answering the questions you should have asked. It's a church that does not hide. The Bible says about Solomon, there was not anything hid from the king which he told her not. He told her everything she needed to hear. He gave her, he, Solomon could say to the Queen of Sheba, I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. He said, I've given it all to you. You know, it's interesting because as I was preparing for this sermon, I was talking to Pastor Bazzarski about this last night at dinner. I've read this verse thousands of times. I've preached this verse, I'm sure, hundreds of times. Acts 20 27, for I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. And usually when we go to that verse, what we take away from that passage, and I do believe this is the proper application, is that we as Bible believing preachers should not shun, should not avoid any part of the Bible. We should preach the entire counsel, all the counsel of God. We should preach the word, be instant in season, out of season, reproof, rebuke, exhort, with all on suffering. We shouldn't cut anything out. We should preach all the word, all of it. And that's usually the application that we take away from that verse, for I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. And that is the proper application. But one thing that set out to me is this word counsel. Because whenever in the past, when I've seen that phrase, all the counsel of God, I've just assumed it to mean everything the Bible says. And that's true, that is what it means. But the word counsel is the same word that we use to in ministry, we often do counseling. And the word counsel means to give advice. It means to give instruction. It means to give direction. It means to answer the question. And here Paul says, look, I've not shunned to declare to you, he could have said all of scripture. He said, I, he said I'm not shunned to declare to you, he could have said the entire Bible. He said I'm not shunned to declare to you, he could have said all doctrine. And all of that applies there. But Paul specifically said I have not shunned to declare to you all the advice, all the direction, all the instruction, all of the answers to the questions that you need for life. I'm not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God. He says I've given it all to you. I've given you all the counsel. I've given you every counsel. Go to Second Timothy. I just quoted that verse for you, but let's look at it together. Second Timothy chapter 4. If you can find the T-books, they're all clustered together. First Second, Thessalonians, First Second Timothy Titus, Second Timothy chapter 2, excuse me, Second Timothy chapter 4. My wife and I have been in ministry for the last 12 years. And as a pastor and as a pastor's wife, and I'm sure Pastor Ms. Bazzarski have already experienced some of this, being one year into ministry. You know, we were talking last night, he was telling me how, as a satellite leader for two years, there were questions that people never asked him that they ask him now as a pastor. And that's true, because as a pastor, and oftentimes as a pastor's wife, we're expected to have answers to people's questions. You know, my wife and I do counseling. We do a lot of counseling at our church and we're available to do counseling. And this isn't something that I talk a lot about, but both my wife and I have actually received formal training in counseling. We've received certification in counseling, because years ago we started to realize people are coming to us with some hard questions. And we just kind of wanted to have some direction and some to be able to do counseling and make sure that we weren't, you know, just telling people the wrong thing or advising them things that were wrong or whatever. And even now, my wife and I are in the midst of a counseling course that we're taking right now to receive even higher certification. And I'm not saying that that's something necessarily every pastor needs to do. It's just something that we're interested in. We do a lot of it. We do a lot of counseling. So I'm saying that to say this, we believe in counseling. And over the last 12 years of ministry, praise God, the Lord has allowed us to be able to help a lot of people through counseling. And in our church, there's been people that have been addicted to drugs, addicted to alcohol, addicted to other things, that we've helped them, you know, get off of that and live the life that God has called them to live. And by God's grace, we've had a lot of success. You know, we've also had a lot of failure, obviously, because counseling, you can't force, you know, like the old saying goes, you can take a horse to water, but you can't make a drink, you know, and people have to make the decision themselves to want to take the help. But by God's grace, God has allowed us to be able to help people through counseling. I'm saying all that to say this, we believe in counseling. I think it's good to counsel people. I think it's right for me as a pastor to counsel men and counsel couples and for my wife to counsel ladies and we believe in all of that. When it comes to counseling, there are kind of two types of counseling. There's what I would call the pleasant counseling, which the pleasant counseling is usually a one-time counseling session. I mean, it's usually just a one-time event where somebody comes in my office, I mean, just recently somebody asked if they could meet with both my wife and I just because it was a husband and wife and there was a situation that they want to get a female perspective and I agreed with it 100%. And you know, sometimes people come to us and it's just this one-time counseling session and it's like here's the situation, here's what's going on, what do you think we should do? And of course we leverage the principles of the word of God, but it's not just the principles of the word of God, it's the experience. When I was a teenager, my wife and I, we met at Subway as teenagers and we had a Persian manager who would often say this phrase, he said experience is expensive. And that is true, especially for counseling because, you know, counseling is not just telling people what the Bible says this. There's a lot of experience that once you've talked to a lot of people, you begin to leverage that experience. They will, here's what, you know, we've seen in the past, here's a good way to go about this or whatever. So sometimes you have these one-time counseling sessions, right, where somebody comes, they've got a problem, they've got a dilemma, and they're like what do we do? And it's like well, here's what the Bible says, here's some of the experience we've had, here's what we think, here's the advice, you should do X, Y, and Z. And it's like thank you pastor, thank you Ms. Joanne, you know, we're going to do that. And they go on their merry way and praise God for that. And look, I believe those situations are needed from time to time because as a pastor, you can't just preach sermons where you just get into every specific, you know, well, here's how it works when you're a husband and a wife, and you've got four children, and here's how it works when you're a husband and wife, and you've got two children that are both your husband and wife, and then you can't go into every detail of every situation. So sometimes people have to come to you just privately and say, what do you think about this? And we help them. That's the one-time counsel. But then sometimes you have the long-term counsel. And the long-term counseling, that's usually when somebody is just under the bondage of sin, where they're just, and look, and I believe in it. We've done it. We help people, sometimes people just need somebody to hold their hand and walk them and walk with them and walk alongside them for weeks or months or years or however long it takes to help them get victory in those areas. But here's the point that I want to make. I said all that to say that. I'm not down on counseling. I believe in counseling, and I hope people in our church would come to us for counseling if they need it or to pass the results if they need it. But let me just say this. With all that said, please understand something. The preaching you get from the pulpit of whole fast Baptist church on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night is all the counseling you need. And if you say, well, I'm in that situation where I'm under bondage and I need somebody to hold my hand and I need somebody to be with me and help me get through that. I'm not down on you. We want to help you. We want to be there for you. But let me just make something clear. The reason you find yourself in that situation is because you've not been listening. You've not been applying the preaching from the Word of God. Because here's the truth. There is nothing we're going to say to you in the office that's different than what we say behind the pulpit. And when Paul says, look, I'm not shunned to declare to you all the counsel of God, you need to understand that a Sunday morning church service, a Sunday night church service, a Wednesday night church service, you say, what is this? Is this a church service? No, it's group therapy.  For group therapy. You're not denying me therapy, are you? I need to go see my counselor on Wednesday night, on Sunday night. So who's your counselor? The Lord Jesus Christ, the mighty God, the counselor, the Prince of Peace, through the Word of God, and through the man of God. The man of God says, I'm not shunned to declare unto you the whole counsel of God. And let me just let you in on a little secret. You say, I'm too embarrassed to go to pastor and ask for help. I'm too embarrassed to go ask Miss Joanne or Miss Heidi for help. I'm too embarrassed, or I'm too proud, or I'm too whatever. Let me just help you understand something. If you were to choose today to say, I'm going to go to church Sunday morning. I'm going to go to church Sunday night. I'm going to go to church Wednesday night. And I'm just going to do everything that the man of God preaches from the Word of God and tells me to do. I'm just going to do all of it, whether I agree with it or not, whether I think it's stupid or not, whether I think it's going to work or not. I'm just going to do all of it, and I'm just going to do it for one year. I promise you that as a two-year anniversary of this church, you would look back and have a completely different, blessed, successful life.  It provides all the counsel of God. And especially Pastor Pizarre Scam, I went on his website just before we came here just to kind of look at the sermons he's preached. And obviously he preaches the Word of God and prays God for it. But I mean, practical preaching is coming from this pulpit. I mean four things to do with inflation, you know, through inflation I'm thinking like, I need to listen to that sermon. You know, I want to know what he said about that. You know, I'm just, look, you said what are the ingredients of a great church? The ingredients of a great church is a church that is preaching the whole counsel of God that is teaching you everything you need to know about the Word of God. But it doesn't benefit you if you don't apply it. If you don't do it. You know what the problem is with Christians though? We give lip service to the Word of God and we don't really believe it. We'll say, oh no, the Bible is the Word of God. The Bible has all the answers. And then you open up the Bible and say, well, the Bible says to do this. Oh, that doesn't apply to me. It all applies to everybody. Are you there in Second Timothy 4? Look at verse 2. Preach the Word. Be instant in season, out of season, whether it's popular or not, that's what that means. Reprove, that means to correct. Rebuke, that means to reprimand. Exhort, that means to encourage. And by the way, those are three things that should be done in the sermons. Sometimes you should be corrected. Sometimes you should be reprimanded. Sometimes you should be encouraged. And by the way, in counseling, one-on-one, sometimes I'm reprimanding, sometimes I'm correcting, and sometimes I'm encouraging. With all the long suffering in doctrine, look at Second Timothy 3.16. Second Timothy 3.16, notice what the Bible says. Second Timothy 3.16, all Scripture, all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Now usually when we go to Second Timothy 3.16, that's what we focus in on. The inspiration of God's Word. God spoke these words. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. God spoke these words. They are God's words. That's usually what we focus on. Praise God for it. But notice what Paul is teaching us. He says all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Yes, that's true. And he says, since that's true, it is noticed. He says, and is profitable. It's profitable. Oh, that doesn't apply to me. No, it applies to you. It is profitable. For what? For doctrine. What's doctrine? What to believe? For reproof. Doctrine is this, the right thing, reproof, the wrong thing, for correction, how to fix the wrong thing, for instruction, how to do the right thing. I mean, that's church. You say, well, if I come back to the whole fast Baptist Church tonight, if I come back to the whole fast Baptist Church once tonight, if I come back next week, and I hope if you're a guest here from the community that you will come back next week and listen to Pastor Brzezarski, the pastor of this church preach, say, what can I expect? Here's what you can expect to be told what's the right thing to do, to be told what's the wrong thing to do, to be told how to correct the wrong thing, to make it the right thing, or to be told how to continue to do the right thing. Doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction is what you will receive. You say why? Because all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Because it's good. It's all good. Go to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter chapter 1, you're there in 2 Timothy. You go past Titus by theemons Hebrews, James, 1 Peter, 2 Peter. 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter 1, verse 3. Look, people show up with problems. The Queen of Sheba showed up with problems in doubt. People will show up here. People show up to Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento with problems and doubts. And our goal is that they would leave with answers and hope. They show up doubting. Can God really help me? And our job is to make sure they leave with the answers they need. You say the answers to the questions they've asked, the answers to the questions they've asked, the answers to the questions they've not asked, the answers to the questions they should have asked, that they leave with answers and, Lord willing, that they leave with hope, that God can help them, that the Word of God can help them, that God is no respecter of persons, that if biblical preaching and biblical counsel has helped others, it can help them too. Second Peter 1 in verse 3, notice what the Bible says, according as His divine power, notice what the Bible says, I want you to notice this, have given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness through the knowledge of Him that it called us to the glory and virtue. I want you to just key in on this phrase, the Bible says that God has given to us all things, all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Everything you need for life is contained in the Word of God. Everything you need for godliness is contained in the Word of God. And I can't speak for the church down the street, I can't speak for the non-denom church down the street, but I can tell you at Whole Fast Baptist Church, they are not shunning to declare the whole counsel of God. They are giving you the answers to the questions. Sometimes people leave upset. You say, why? Because they're getting answers to questions they didn't want answered. But Pastor Pizarza is going to stand up like King Solomon and say, I'm not going to hide anything from you. You're going to stand up like the Apostle Paul and say, I have not shun to declare the whole counsel of God. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Are you going to get upset because I told you what you need to hear? You came to ask a question, but you're asking the wrong question. You're being manipulative. You're trying to change the subject. The question should be asking is this question. Let me answer the question you need. Let me declare the counsel of God. You say, what are the ingredients of a great church? The ingredients of a great church are practical preaching. Preaching you could do something with. Preaching you could take home and do something. You don't walk out these doors and think yourself, I wonder what he meant by that. Wonder what he wanted us to do. Wonder what he meant by that. No, no, the reason you're mad when you're leaving says, you know exactly what he wanted you to do. You know exactly what he meant. You know exactly what you're supposed to do with it. But you know what? That's between you and God.  That's your problem. He's doing his job when he can stay like the Apostle Paul I have not shun to declare the counsel of God. Go back to first Kings chapter 10. First Kings chapter 10. Why don't you notice that the Queen of Sheba, she shows up to this church service. She shows up to King Solomon Baptist Church. And she gets there and the first thing she is encountered with is powerful practical preaching. The answers to the questions. Nothing was hid. The questions she asked. The questions she didn't ask. The questions she should have asked. But why don't you notice there's a second ingredient to a great church. Not only is practical preaching an ingredient to a great church but also a professional program. Notice what the Bible says here in verse four. First Kings 10 in verse four. And when the Queen of Sheba had seen all of Solomon's wisdom that's the practical preaching. But notice the professional program and the house that he had built and the meat at his table. That's the grilling that's gonna happen tonight after the service.  The Bible says there was no more spirit in her. You know the Bible tells us here that she shows up and not only does she get practical preaching but she witnesses a professional program. She says, wow, this is amazing. You guys take this serious. I mean, she's looking around. She sees the meat at his table, the sitting of the servants, the attendants of his ministers, their apparel, his cup bearers, his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord. And there was no spirit left in her. She was impressed. She saw a professional program. She saw people that took the work that they were doing seriously. If you were to go with me to the book of Acts, Acts chapter six of the New Testament, the ingredients of a great church, what are they? Number one, practical preaching. By and large, that's gonna come from your pastor. Your job in the practical preaching aspect is to be ready to receive the word of God. To hear him with an open heart and apply it to your life. But here's an area where the church members can get involved in a professional program. You know, you should take a step in the service of God. In the service of God's house. Acts chapter six, if you would, keep your finger there in Acts six. We're gonna leave it and we're gonna come back to it. Acts chapter six, notice what the Bible says, and in those days when the number of disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews because their widows were neglected. Then the twelve called the multitude of his disciples unto them and said, it is not reason that we should leave the word of God and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look out among you seven men of honest report, for the holy ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. You know, if you say, I love, whole five Baptist churches, a great church, will help make it great and continue to be great by you stepping up to serve. A church is not a one man show. It's not a one man and his wife show. It requires other people to actually step up and say, hey, how can I help? How can I serve? What can I do? You ought to learn to ask this question just in life, young people and my kids especially. You ought to learn to live your life asking this question, how can I help? How can I help? Don't watch somebody working and just sit there and say, well, it's amazing, look at them. I mean, look at all they're doing. You watch somebody working, you say, what's the appropriate response? Walk up to them, how can I help? What can I do? How can I get involved? This is the work of God. This is the spiritual work. This is the work done with the Holy Spirit of God. And I don't mean to be rude when I say this, I don't mean to be irreverent when I say this, so please understand my heart. This is the ministry of spiritual work, the work of God. But let me let you in on our old secret. The Holy Spirit's not gonna show up here on a Monday and vacuum. The Holy Spirit's not gonna take the trash out. The Holy Spirit's not gonna fold the bulletins. The Holy Spirit's not gonna show up and knock the doors that you're supposed to show. He'll go with you. You know the Holy Spirit will help you vacuum. The Holy Spirit will go with you, knock those doors, preach the gospel, but you gotta show up. You gotta step it up. You gotta take the step to serve. Keep your place there in Acts.  Let me say this about the professional program.   You say, what does it mean to be faithful? It means you can be relied on. It means you can be trusted with responsibility. It means you don't have to worry about it. You know, I'm thankful to God and I know that Pastor Bazzarski has this here, but I'm thankful, I'm very about the church, that I've got a handful of men that run ministries that I just don't have to worry about. They keep me in the loop and they let me know, but I know they take the work of God seriously. I know they're not doing it for me, they're doing it for the Lord, and they work at it and they make sure it's professional, it's top notch, and it gets done. And you know, I don't have to worry about it because I know they're doing it for God. And they take it seriously. They do a good job with it. The Bible says in Proverbs 25, 19, confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth and a foot out of joy.  Well, confidence in an unfaithful man can get pretty irritating.  They cannot be trusted. They cannot be entrusted with something. Go to Ecclesiastes if you would. Ecclesiastes chapter nine. If you open up your Bible just right in the center, you're more than likely found in the book of Psalms. Right after Psalms, you have Proverbs, then the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes chapter nine. Y'all take the word of God seriously. Y'all to be serious. Jesus was serious. I love this little phrase that the young Lord Jesus Christ, he says, I must be about my father's business. He said, I'm doing the business of my father. I'm serious in the work of God. I take the work of God serious. Years ago, I joined the United States Air Force. I was enlisted in the Air Force for four years. Let me give this big, huge disclaimer. I do not encourage anybody to join the military ever. I don't think you young people don't join the military. You can join the army of the Lord Jesus Christ You can do much better things than serve, Aunt Sam is what it is now. I don't recommend anybody join the military. So I'm not saying this as an endorsement. I'm just saying it as a statement of fact. I joined the military. And there was a lot of things wrong in the military. But one thing that I do, there's one thing that I often look back at and think to myself, I'm thankful for this. Obviously, you can always be thankful for something. In the Air Force, we had the Air Force core values. And the Air Force core values were three statements that we would often say or hear or be told. They'd be written on walls. In the Air Force core values were integrity first, service before self, and excellence in all we do. And I remember when I was getting ready to go into boot camp, my wife and I were young and we were married, but we were obviously very young. And I remember my wife and I were sitting in an office talking to the Air Force recruiter that was signing me up to go to the military. And he was kind of talking to me about boot camp and how boot camp was gonna be and talking to my wife. And I remember he said to my wife, he asked my wife this question, how long does it take your husband to wash the car? And she was like, I don't know, 20 minutes, 25 minutes, something. And he said to her, when he comes back from boot camp, it's gonna take him like four hours to wash the car. And the point that he was making is one thing they're gonna just drill into you at boot camp is attention to detail. It's this idea of excellence in all we do. Now I was already kind of a type A personality going into the military. I already kind of had the attention to detail thing, but I will tell you one thing, if I don't recommend anybody go to the military, but if there's one thing that I think would be good for men especially to learn, it's just to have someone scream and yell in your face and mock you for just not having attention to detail. And to this day, and it's a blessing, it's a curse. Have you ever been to Verity Baptist Church? We run a well-oiled machine.  And I don't do this obviously when I go to other people's churches or whatever. But to this day, I walk in to the lobby of Verity Baptist Church and my eye just goes to everything that's wrong. That picture's crooked, that broom needs to get put away. Why are you not wearing your usher's coat? Just everything that's wrong. And I have to kind of restrain myself and go hide in my office like I don't have to see this. It's gonna give me an anxiety attack. But there's something that was drilled into me in boot camp. Because in boot camp, they would show you a picture for like two minutes and they're like, we want your drawer to look like this. It wasn't just like fold your shirt. It was like this complicated thing. And then they put it away and you'd work at it for like 45 minutes. And then show it to your TI and they wouldn't, they'd find something wrong with it. They wouldn't tell you it was wrong with it.  And you just did that and did that and then would you know what it caused you to do? It caused you, when they showed you that picture, you paid attention to every detail. You looked at it and you're like, I'm gonna get exactly that way. And you know what, here's what I'm telling you. If they will do it for the military industrial complex, if they'll do it at Disneyland, I've never been to Disneyland but I'm told it's the cleanest place on earth. It's the most organized place on earth. It's the most, you know, excellence in all we do place on. If they'll do it for the almighty dog, can't we do it for God? Can't we take the work of God seriously? Can't we show up early or at least on time? Can't we do and take seriously the things that we're doing for God? Can't we do it seriously? Ecclesiastes 9-10, the Bible says, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might. Look, if you're gonna do it, do it well. And if you're gonna do it well, if you're gonna do it well for the Lord. You know, I tell our ushers, your job is to provide the hospitality and the care for our church family. Let it not be said that there's any restaurant in this city. Let it not be said that there's any theater in this city that provides better service for their people than we provide for our people at Verity Baptist Church. Well, wherever I'm to the workforce, you're not paying us.   The Queen of Sheba was impressed, not only because she showed up and there was practical preaching, she was impressed because she showed up and there was a professional program. Things were going, running well and obviously nothing's gonna be perfect. Obviously there's going to be mistakes.  We understand, we're human beings. But if we're gonna do something, we should try to do it well. We should try to pay attention to what we're doing. I tell my kids, my kids are, from time to time my sons will work with.  You know, the Bible says it's good for a man to labor and to work hard, especially in their youth. But I will often say to them, while I'm driving them to work, I'll tell them, look, at work, your goal, and they'll, you know, they've heard me say this many, many times, work, your goal is to go as fast as possible and as slow as needed. As fast as possible and as slow as needed. I say, you know what your boss doesn't want? He doesn't want you to just be like, I got it all done and it's all sloppy and messable. Like, yep, you got it all done, but we gotta redo it all. Your boss isn't gonna be happy with that. And you know, your boss is also not gonna be happy with it's completely perfect, but we missed all the deadlines. We's not happy with that either. You know what your boss wants? He wants you to move as quickly as possible but as slow as needed. He wants you to get the job done, but he wants you to do it right. He wants you to pay attention to detail. He, and look, and if your boss on earth wants that, that's what your boss in heaven wants. A professional program. Excellence in all we do. Step up, look, I'm trying to encourage you to step up and serve God, but I'm also trying to encourage you, if you're gonna step up and serve God, take it seriously. Do it seriously. Do it for the Lord. Whatsoever thy hand finds to do, do it with thy might. Go back to first Kings chapter 10. First Kings chapter 10. A church should be a family expecting guests. King Solomon was running his kingdom and a guest showed up, the queen of Sheba. And she was highly impressed. She said, why was she impressed? Because of the practical preaching. She got the answers to the questions, all the questions, even the questions she didn't ask. Because of the professional program. She looked around, she said, these people take their job seriously. She looked at the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendance of his ministers and their apparel and their cup-bearers, and as I said, and she said, wow, this is amazing. But I want you to notice thirdly this morning, what are the ingredients of a great church, not only practical preaching, not only a professional program. But I want you to notice another ingredient to a great ministry, a great organization is this. Pleasant people. Look at verse six again. First Kings 10 verse six. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy accent of thy wisdom, how be it I believe not the word until I came in my eyes and seen it. And behold, the half was not told me, thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard. Look at verse eight. Notice what she says. She said, what were you impressed with? My questions got answered. They were hard questions. I came to prove you. They got answered. What were you impressed with? The professional program. These people are doing a work for the king and they're doing it well. She said, you know what else impressed me? Verse eight, happy are thy men. Happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom. You know, she was impressed with the fact that there was pleasant people. These people in first Kings chapter 10 were happy in the service of their king. Who was their king? King Solomon. Physically, literally, King Solomon was their king and they were happy in the service of their king. Happy are thy men. Happy are these thy servants which stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom. But you know, if they were happy in the service of their king, then you and I need to be happy in the service of our king. You say, who's our king? The Lord Jesus Christ. I like that song we sing. I am happy in the service of the king. I am happy, oh so happy. I have peace, enjoy, then nothing else can bring in the service of the king. In the service of the king every talent I will bring. I have peace, enjoy, and blessing in the service of the king. I'm happy in the service of the king. I'm happy, oh so happy. Through the sunshine and the shadow I can sing in the service of the king. You know, serving the Lord is a joyful thing. Serving God should be a happy thing. We should be happy in the service of the Lord. I'm not sure if you kept your place in Proverbs, but go back to Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs 13.  The devil tries to tell you. The Bible says there is a way which seems right unto a man. But the end thereof are the ways of death. In Proverbs chapter 13 and verse 15 I want you to notice this. The Bible says, good understanding, give it favor. Notice this phrase. But the way of the transgressor is hard.  There's pleasure and sin for a season. There's pleasure and sin for a little while.  The way of the transgressor is hard. You don't believe me? Ask the homeless guy. You don't believe me?  You don't look. The way of the transgressor is hard. It's difficult, but you know the life of a Christian is a happy life. It ought to be a happy thing. It ought to be something. We're joyful and go to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. A prayer that I often have, I was just talking to my wife about this. My wife and I were talking about it. A prayer that I often have for my children, or I should say about my children. And I pray this on a regular basis. I'll ask the Lord, Lord, would you help me to see if there's anything that I'm doing, we're doing right now in the lives of our children that one day we're going to look back on and regret that we did those things. That is a prayer that I often pray. Prayer that my wife and I often pray. If there's anything we're doing right now, Lord, we're trying, we're trying to raise it for God, we're trying to raise it for the Lord. If there's anything we're doing right now, would you please help me to see that? Anything I'm going to regret, because here's the truth, honestly, I know that 20 years from now, 30 years from now, my wife and I are going to look back and be like, yeah, we regret this. We regret that. We wish we would have done that. I know that's going to happen. I'm just trying to minimize that as much as possible. And a prayer that we often pray to is, Lord, if there's anything we're doing that we shouldn't be doing, would you please open your eyes to anything we're going to regret? Would you please open our eyes to that so we can identify it now and fix it? And to be very honest with you, oftentimes I pray that prayer and I think to myself, I can't think of anything. I, you know, I'm not saying we're perfect. You know, I'm just like, Lord, I can't think of anything, but if there's anything, would you please open our eyes to it, open my eyes to it? You know, but recently I was praying that prayer and I felt like the Lord brought something to me. Obviously, he didn't speak to me audibly, all right? I'm not schizophrenic. But I feel like the Holy Spirit, and it wasn't just the Holy Spirit, there was other things in my life that kind of, but you know, and I knew this about myself. I tend, you may not know this about me, but I tend to be a negative type of person, you know? I tend to be, you know, I walk in a room and I see everything that's wrong.  Not when you don't, when you're like, like to be alone and stuff, not a pessimist, goodnight, thank you, no. Extrovert, introvert. I tell my wife, oh, I'm an introvert. She's like, I don't think you're an introvert. I think you just don't like people. And I'm like, I thought that's what it meant to be an introvert. But you know, and it is, I tend to be negative, but you know, one thing that I felt like the Lord just kind of, because look, the ministry can be difficult. The ministry can be hard from time to time. But one thing that I don't want to look back on with my kids and regret is that I made the ministry seem anything but joyful. That I made the ministry seem like it was a negative thing. Like it was a hard thing. It is hard. It's a lot of work. And I'm not gonna lie to you, there's a lot of heartbreak that goes with the ministry and dealing with people. But you know, the truth of the matter is this, that we ought to be happy in the Lord. There's no better life than serving God. There's nothing else that I would rather do than serve the Lord. And these people, they were happy, and I hope that my kids will look back on their father and say, you know, my dad wasn't perfect and he was a sinner and he did things he shouldn't have done like anybody else. But he was happy in the service of the Lord. He loved God. He was happy with serving God. He, my mom and dad were happily married. They were, our home was a happy home. We often tell our kids sometimes they get in these moods. I'm not gonna talk about any one of them. I'm saying from time to time, all of them will be like this. And if you've got multiple children, you can testify to this, you know, where like, you know how it is when you're in your work, I'm working in my office and I'll have one kid come up and say, so and so, hit me. And then two minutes later, so and so and they're referring to the same kid, spat on me.  And it's like, good night.  And my wife, you know, she'll often say, you're being disagreeable. Don't be disagreeable. Be agreeable, try to get along. Look, there are times to stand up and fight. We understand that. Earnestly contend for the faith. There are times we gotta stand up and fight for what's right and fight for the word of God. But we ought, we ought to contend but we ought not be contentious. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 11-16, but if any man seemed to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. I often think of Ishmael when I think about people being disagreeable versus being agreeable. I think about what the Bible says about Ishmael. The Bible says that every man's hand was against him and his hand was against every man. And look, our lives ought not be that way. There is a time when we need to stand up and fight. There's a time we gotta stand up for what's right. There's a time where we've gotta stand up and say no, we're not gonna do that. No, we're not gonna compromise. No, look, I get that and I'm not talking about that. But I'm just saying in life, we have to try to be pleasant people, happy people. We have to show our families and show the rest of the church family, hey, serving the Lord is a joyful thing. The way of the transgressor is hard. You think this is hard? Go be a drug addict. You think this is hard?  You think this is hard? Look, this is a good life. God came to give us the abundant Christian life. And I'm not gonna tell you that it's not difficult. I'm not gonna tell you that it's not hard at times. Obviously coming here for the one year anniversary makes me think back on our church when we first started. We started Verity Baptist Church 12 years ago. I think this here in a few weeks in September, we're gonna be celebrating our 12 year anniversary. And my wife and I, we started our church in our living room of our house. We celebrate our first year anniversary in our living room of our house. And I remember after we celebrate our one year anniversary, I was kind of reminiscing about this. I was thinking about coming here and preaching the one year anniversary. I remember after we celebrate our one year anniversary, our anniversary in September, we celebrate the one year anniversary and then we ended the year and we were gonna start the first year, that first year after a one year anniversary, we had our church that had sent us out. They had given us these banners because the church had these themes for the year. And they had these banners and their theme for the year previously was this theme taken from the Book of Luke where it said we never saw it on this fashion. And they had given us those banners and I put those banners up and I was gonna stand up on the first Sunday of the year and I was gonna preach this sermon called we never saw it on this fashion. And I thought it was fitting because the story, if you're familiar with the story of the Lord Jesus Christ, we never saw it on this fashion. He was preaching in a house and our church was meeting in a house. So I just thought it was fitting. He was preaching in the house and there was so many people there. The Bible says that everything was full and they tried to bring this lame man in to be healed but they couldn't get him to Jesus because there were so many people in the house that they had to cut a hole in the roof and they brought him down in the midst and when he came down he healed the man right there in this crowded house in front of everybody and the people said, we never saw it on this fashion. I was gonna preach this sermon about how, hey, it can be done in a house again. We could have this house filled and packed and people can be healed and God's word can be preached and people will say, we never saw it on this fashion. I was excited. We had the things up. I was gonna preach. There was gonna be this encouraging raw, raw sermon getting everybody excited to go out and here comes the first Sunday of the year and no one shows up. Not one person. First time it ever happened. Nobody showed up, me, my wife and my children and I was already ready for this because I told myself if nobody ever shows up, if there's ever a service where nobody shows up, I'm just gonna start the service. We're gonna sing the songs. We're gonna go through the whole, we're gonna start on time. We're gonna go through the whole thing just like it's supposed to be because my family's important and if they're in church, I'm gonna preach to them. But I'm preaching this sermon about the house and I'm gonna be packed. And it's like my wife and my kids. So we start the service, right? And we're in the house. We meet in our living room. We have a downstairs bedroom in our house and we made the downstairs bedroom, the mother baby room.  That was our first monitor. We had the baby monitor on the piano and whatever. So we go through the whole service. We sing the song. We go through the announcements. We sing the song. We take the offering. We sing the song.   And I hear, I can hear my wife because the baby's crying and she's like gathering the stuff and gathering the kids and she's getting up and going to the mother baby room.  There's nobody here. Like I'm just gonna reach to like an empty room while you're in the mother room. Like you're not distracting me, nobody's here. You know, so I'm just like, what in the world does she do it? And I just, I say, amen. I open my eyes and right in front of me is Miss Jovita. Miss Jovita is this Filipino lady. She came to our very first service. She was there from day one. She eventually moved to the Philippines but Miss Jovita had came in while I was praying. I didn't realize it. And then our baby started crying so my wife didn't want to distract Miss Jovita so she gets me and goes to the mother baby room. I mean, she had to nurse the baby and whatever, do all those things. So then I was like, okay, I see why you left. You know, you don't want to distract Miss Jovita. So I, you know, so I preach the sermon.  And I'm preaching about these, you know, I just, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I didn't have another sermon. I'm just like, this house is gonna be full. This house is gonna be packed. You're gonna have to bring people in through the wall, you know, through the roof. And I just preach my whole sermon. You know, in my heart, I'm just like, what in the world? And I remember just, just, you know, I prayed at the end and I did back then what I do to this day. I went to the back door and I waited while Miss Jovita grabbed her stuff. She came to the door. I remember she looked at me and she said, great sermon pastor. She shook my hand and left. And it was just kind of like, oh. I'm just here to tell you the ministry can be hard. I get that. But you know what? We ought to be happy in the service of the king. You know, praise God for Miss Jovita. Praise God for my family being there. Praise God for the work. Look, let's not be discouraged in the service of the Lord. In fact, something that the queen of Sheba saw, she said, happy are thy men. Happy are these thy servants. She said, I've never seen, you know that the world doesn't see happy people? They go to work and they don't see happy people. They go to their family gatherings and they don't see happy people. They see people that have got to get drunk to have a good time. They're so miserable. They ought to show up to church and see happy people. People that are agreeable and that are pleasant and that are happy. And that doesn't mean that our lives are what they want, what we want. And that doesn't mean that there's not difficulty. And that doesn't mean that things don't go wrong at times. That doesn't mean that you don't accidentally put the wrong date in the bulletin. That doesn't mean any of that. But it means that we're happy in the service of the king. That we're happy where Jesus has us. Acts chapter 20, you notice what the Bible says. Verse 24, here's what Paul said. He said, but none of these things move me. Neither count I, my life, dear unto myself so that I might finish my course. Now there's a famous passage in 2 Timothy where Paul talks about finishing his course. I fought the good fight. I've ran the race. He said, I've finished my course. But I like what he says here because he says that I might finish my course. Notice these words, with joy. Paul said, I don't just want to be in the ministry. I want to be in the ministry and happy about it. Look, I don't want to get to the end of my marriage and I've been married for, you know, my wife and I got married when we were 18 years old. It's very possible that we could be married for 40 years or 50 years. I don't want to get to the end of this thing and be like, well, we made it 50 years. And the whole thing was miserable, but we never got to divorce. Praise God. No, I want to get to the end of that thing and say, I'm happy. I'm happy in the service of the Lord. I'm happy with what God has allowed us to do. I'm happy and I'm thankful for the wife he gave me and the children he gave me and the church he's given us and the work he's given us. And yes, have there been trials? Yes, have there been down times? Yes, have there been fights? Yes, have there been persecutions? Yes, there's been all of that. But we're happy in the service of our King. Go to Matthew chapter 12, we'll finish up. Matthew chapter 12. We have this queen of Sheba. She shows up. I want you to notice a few things about the queen of Sheba. We'll just look at this real quickly. I'm out of time. I gotta do this quick, quickly. I want you to notice that the queen of Sheba, she showed up with some hard questions. I don't know what they were. I honestly don't know what they were. Maybe they were scientific questions. Maybe they were questions about nature. Maybe she was struggling in her marriage. I don't know what it was. She shows up with some hard questions and the Bible says that Solomon, it seems to indicate that he didn't hide anything, meaning he not only answered questions, he answered questions she didn't ask. He answered questions she shouldn't have asked. She should have asked. You said, what do you think was one of those questions? Well, in Matthew chapter 12 and verse 42, the Bible tells us this about the queen of Sheba. Matthew 12.42, I recently preached about this to our church family on Wednesday night. Matthew 12.42, the queen of the south, that's the queen of Sheba, this is Jesus speaking, she'll rise up in the judgment. The judgment is referring to the judgment day, the great white throne. You said she's gonna be at the great white throne. She's gonna be, all of us are gonna be there. She's not being judged at the great white throne. She's not being condemned. She's doing the condemning. The queen of Sheba shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and notice and shall condemn it for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. You know, one thing that we know when the queen of Sheba showed up, when she left, she left saved. You said, what's a question that he hid nothing from her? What's a question that she didn't ask that he answered? At some point in her stay, Solomon said, hey, I'm happy to answer all your questions, but you know, there's one question you should be asking me and it's about, do you know for sure if you died today or you're on your way to heaven? Amen, amen. Because she shows up, the Bible tells us with these hard questions, she left. But you know what, she left saved because Jesus tells us that she's gonna rise up at the judgment and she's gonna condemn those and she's gonna say, look, I came from the uttermost part of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and you're not listening to Jesus and Jesus is greater than Solomon. So I want you to notice she left saved, but not only that, go back to 1 Kings chapter 10, look at verse one. Not only did she leave saved, but I want you to notice her attitude coming into the thing. 1 Kings 10, one, and when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of his Lord, she came to prove, she wanted proof, she didn't believe, she came to prove him with hard questions, but notice verse five, when she left, and the meat of his table and the sitting of his servants and the attendants of his ministers and their apparel and his cup bears and his assent by which he went up into the house of the Lord, there was, notice, no more spirit in her. You know, she came kind of feisty. I'm gonna prove this guy, see if he's really what he says he is. See what this is all about. She came kind of feisty with this bad attitude, but you know, when she left, the Bible says she left with no more spirit in her. She came ready to fight, but you know, she left surrendered. So how did the queen of Sheba leave the presence of Solomon? She left saved, she left surrendered, and she left satisfied. Notice verse six. And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard in my own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. How be it, I believe not the words. She says, look, I had a bad attitude about this thing. I believe not the words until I came and my eyes have seen it, and behold, the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded the fame which I heard. You say, pastor, why do we need to have practical preaching? Why do we need to have a professional program? Why do we need to be pleasant people? Sometimes people who come to church are so negative about everything. And I don't think they're really negative about church. They're just negative about life. Just everything's wrong. Everything's bad. Can you believe they didn't do this or they didn't do that or can you believe this mistake or they set the wrong thing? Or you know, everything's just this negativity. You say, why should we be pleasant? Here's why. So that when people show up, they'll leave, saved, surrendered, and satisfied. They'll say, wow, there's something there. Those people, they got some. I've never seen people. So I've never seen married couples that actually love each other. I've never seen that. That's amazing. They'll look at us and say, I got the answers to the questions. I was impressed with their efficiency and how seriously they took the work of God and they were happy. And people will say, I want that. I want that. I want my children to be like those children. I want my marriage to be like those marriages. I want my legacy to be like those legacies. Those are the ingredients of a great church. That's about it.


My name is Kurt Peter. I've been doing London for about 20-something years. The theme of my London is Taiwan, St. Lucia Strong. My London is made up of aluminum wire, cardboard, glue, and crepe paper. The London depicts the things Taiwan has delivered to St. Lucia.


Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for waiting. Welcome to the American Foundation for Equal Rights Conference call. All lines have been placed on Listen Only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions and comments following the presentation. Without further ado, it is my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Mr. Chad Griffin, Board President. Mr. Griffin, the floor is yours. Thank you very much, and thanks to all of you for calling. We have a very full call, so we're going to be brief and then move to your questions. I first want to congratulate the tremendous legal team today for putting together for this case, and particularly Theodore Butrus, Ted Butrus, who is on the call and is going to be speaking shortly, argued the case yesterday before Chief Judge Ware, and our two legal teams of Gibson Dunning Crusher and Boy Schiller and Flexner did a tremendous job yet again bringing about a deserved victory. As I said yesterday, it was my belief that the defendant interveners bigoted in homophobic motion will prove to be a real low point in the struggle for civil rights and full equality for gay and lesbian people. But today truly turned out to be a turning point, and this incredibly, sorry, this strongly worded opinion by Chief Judge Ware will be precedent-setting and truly advances equal rights and equal treatment for all Americans, including gay and lesbians. And with that, I will turn the phone over to the gentleman that I just congratulated on this victory, and that's Theodore Butrus. Go ahead, Ted. Thank you very much, Chad. Hello, everyone. This is a powerful ruling that makes clear that gay and lesbian judges are entitled to the same presumptions of fairness and impartiality as all other federal judges, and that rejects the false and unreasonable assumptions and stereotypes that proposition 8's proponents asserted in what I think really was a deeply offensive motion to begin with. I was very pleased to see that Chief Judge Ware talked about how the fact that, this is on page 8, the fact that when there's a question of equal protection and fairness in society, that's an interest that all citizens have the same stake in. It's not just this case. The Perry case is not just about equal rights for gay men and lesbians. It's for equality in society, which benefits everyone in society. I thought that was particularly a strong thing for the judge to say, and it's true. The court also focused on the fact that the proponents were really asking to put what the court called inordinate burdens on minority judges with these disclosure requirements and the intrusiveness that I talked about yesterday. And then on pages 18 and 19, the court talks about how important it is to the integrity of the judiciary to reject the arguments that the proponents made here. And finally, on the next page, on page 19, the last paragraph, Chief Judge Ware talked about how the proponents' motion really was based on presumptions that, in his words, all people in same-sex relationships think alike. And the notion that Chief Judge Walker and other gay judge couldn't put their personal status to the side and be fair is wrong. So I think this opinion is going to be in line with those decisions in the areas of gender, race, ethnicity, religious background that people will cite for many, many years in saying that gay judges, lesbian judges, are entitled to the same fairness and impartiality presumptions as all other judges. And that's a great development for society. Thank you, Ted. And with that, we'll open up Operator Two to questions. Certainly, the floor is now open for questions. If you do have a question, please press the number seven or the letter Q on your telephone keypad. Questions will be taken in the order they were received. If at any point your question has been answered, you may press seven or Q again to disable your request. If you are using a speakerphone, we ask that while posing your question, you pick up your handset to provide favorable sound quality. Please hold while we wait for the first question. It comes from Karen O'Kam. Karen, please state your question. Hi. Thanks, Ted. Hi, Chad. Do you think this ruling will have any impact on the California Supreme Court's opinion on standing? Karen, I think that, again, just sort of from the circumstances surrounding this case, I don't think that the proponents filing of this motion helped their situation. From a legal standpoint, this dealt with a completely different issue than their standing question. I just thought for them to come in and file this motion, that when they're standing and their status to participate in the case is highly questionable at this point to begin with, it certainly doesn't help the notion that they should be participating in the case. From a legal standpoint, it doesn't directly relate to those issues. But certainly, I don't think it helped. It helped put them in a very good light as the litigants who should be supporting California's interest, and supposed interest in this case when the Attorney General and the governor have said that they will stand by the decision that Chief Judge Walker made. It comes from Laura Earned. Laura, please state your question. Hi, I was wondering if this can be appealed to the Ninth Circuit. Laura, proponents may try to file a notice of appeal, but I think they will run into some of the same standing problems that they are confronting on the merits. Because at this point, once they go up on appeal, they're out of a court where there is an actual government participant in the case. In the district court, there still are because there's an injunction. So any appeal of this order is going to run smack into the same standing issues that the proponents of propositionary confront in the merit litigation. Okay, thank you. Sure. The next question comes from Bob Igelko. Bob, please state your question. I'm struggling to figure out exactly what standard he set and what he said about whether a judge who would marry or who had said publicly that he intended to marry would have a disqualifying conflict or would give an appearance of bias. It was a little opaque for me. Maybe I just missed something, but it seemed like he was saying that there was merely speculation here and that there was no duty to disclose under these circumstances. But I couldn't really tell what standards he was laying down and since he said that this is a precedent. Can you maybe decipher some of this? Yeah, I mean, I think Bob, he didn't go in and rule on some of the hypotheticals that he was asking me about and that came up yesterday, which is appropriate because federal courts aren't supposed to make advisory opinions on things that aren't present in the case. However, I think he laid down several standards. One, the judge's status here, the judge's sexual orientation is not a factor that can reasonably be viewed as calling into question the judge's impartiality. That is an exceedingly important principle and it follows the precedent that has been laid down in other areas including gender, race, ethnicity, and religious background. Second, the court rejected the amorphous disclosure requirements that proponents were suggesting that would require a judge in a marriage case, for example, or in other types of cases to take the bench and start disclosing and explaining their personal background, their views, their intentions. And as Judge Walker pointed out, I would judge where, Chief Judge Ware pointed out, that would really create problems in terms of the integrity of the judiciary, the trust that we have in judges to do justice by applying the law. And he really talks about that on page 18. So I think that those general principles rejecting this notion that status does bear on impartiality, number one. Number two, rejecting the notion that a judge has to disclose and disavow things and go down that road, both of those principles are very important. And in addition, Chief Judge Ware made very clear there's a presumption of impartiality. It's not the presumption that the proponents were asking for, which was a presumption of bias. And in no case has a court ever held that a federal judge is presumed to be biased unless they declare they're not biased. That to me was a special rule that the proponents developed that would apply in cases involving gay and lesbian judges, which obviously is completely inappropriate. Again, if you do have a question, please press 7 or Q on your telephone keypad. Again, that's 7 or Q. As we're waiting for the next question, I think as this year has turned out to be historic in terms of LGBT equality, and since the filing of our case, we now have four national polls that show support for marriage equality over 50 percent. So now a majority of Americans support marriage equality. This week, in addition to the historic ruling that came from Chief Judge Ware today, there was a decision that really went unnoticed yesterday in Federal Bankruptcy Court that I will let Ted speak to just briefly and specifically because I think it is an important decision that called out DOMA's unconstitutional and which 20 judges of the Federal Bankruptcy Court signed. In addition, I know many of you are writing and following the news in New York. The breaking news now is that Cuomo has introduced the Marriage Equality Bill, and it appears as though there's only one vote left to go to push that over. So we're obviously optimistic as many of our supporters and donors and AFRA members are involved in that effort in New York. So this has been a big week for full equality. Ted, I don't know if you have anything to say as it relates to that decision that came out late yesterday. To amplify what Chad said, it really is another important step in the Federal Courts in terms of momentum, in terms of precedent. The Court, for those of you who don't know about it, the Bankruptcy Judges in the Central District of California found that the Constitution precluded application of DOMA to a gay couple and restricting their ability to file a joint petition for bankruptcy. The Court relied on Chief Judge Walker's decision, on the GIL decision on DOMA that came down several months ago. And in addition to the judge presiding over the case, all 20, I think it's all 20 judges in the Bankruptcy Court here, signed the ruling, which I find, again, very powerful, very compelling. So this is a very good day for equality for all citizens, and in particular gay men and lesbians in America. Any further questions, Operator? It appears we have no further questions at this time. Excellent. Thanks to all of you. There were 30-plus folks who had joined this call. And those of you who need any follow-up questions, you know how to reach us here in the AFRA office. And we can put you in touch with any of the – with Ted directly or anyone else you're looking to speak to. Thanks for everyone's time on this day, and look forward to speaking with you soon as we near the final end of Proposition 8 in the months to come. Thanks, everyone. Well, pardon the interruption. This is the Operator. A question just came in. Would you like to take it? Okay, sure. Bill here. The next question comes from Morara Dolan. Morara, please take your question. Yeah, I apologize for coming in late on this. I'm just wondering, can protect marriage appeal this decision? What is sort of the legal details here in terms of how they would appeal this? Yeah, Morara, I think they could – this is Ted. How are you doing? Hi, Alex. They could try to appeal. They have a couple of problems. One, once they're up on appeal, they run into the same standing issues that they have with respect to the merits. Someone asked a question about this earlier, and I answered it, and I didn't make this other point. There's also just procedural difficulties, because this was a ruling on this motion in this procedural posture where the case is up on appeal. So I think they've got some significant problems here if they seek to appeal. And maybe they'll wise up and understand this is a bad road to travel down. Could they just reserve the right to bring it up later when all the other procedural issues are resolved, such as standing? I think they'd have to do it under the appellate rules within 30 days of the order the way you normally would because of the posture of this rule. I think they'll have to make their decision now. Although, as we saw with this motion, they're capable of lying in wait until it's an opportune time to take action. But I think they'd have to follow the usual rules. And obviously that – yeah, go ahead, Maura. The other quick question is just beyond this case, is this an important precedent in terms of openly gay judges deciding gay cases? Is apparently the first ruling on this subject, is that correct, on a gay judge deciding a gay rights case? That's correct, Maura. This is, I think, a very important precedent. It is in line with the decisions that came before in other areas, including race, ethnicity, gender. It is a very powerful statement that makes clear that gay men and lesbians are entitled to the same presumptions of fairness and impartiality as all other federal judges. Chief Judge Ware really made a point, too, of talking about how this – the principles that he relies on are principles that are crucial to the independence and integrity of the federal judiciary. The notion that judges can't be attacked, cannot be attacked based on their status, based on their membership in a minority group, has now been reaffirmed in the context of gay and lesbian judges. That is very important. I think people will be citing this decision for many years to come on these issues. And Maura, with respect to what the opponents do, obviously that's a good question to be posed to them. I think after seeing this motion that was filed, I speak for everyone in saying that nothing that they would do would surprise us at this point. As you know, this was the second judge in this case that they have attempted to get to recuse himself. So we look forward to how they would respond to all of you on that question. Okay, great. All right. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thanks, Maura. Operator, any other questions? We have another question from Nick Garcia. Nick, please state your question. This is a question, I think, maybe more for Chad than Ted. But Chad, you know, we're getting to the height of Pride season throughout the nation. Can you kind of put this ruling and the course of AFR into context with Pride?   And it has had historical significance. And I think increasingly so, it can become a true celebration of full and complete equality under the law. We're not there yet. This past year, and as I said earlier, since the filing of this case, we now have a majority of Americans supporting marriage equality. We have numerous states across the country who have full federal equality. Hopefully by the end of this week, New York will have marriage equality. We are very close. Prop 8 is hanging by a very thin thread that has unraveled to its core. And perhaps within months, we will see Prop 8 erased from the book. Our nation's capital now has gay marriage. The administration and the president has indicated their unwillingness to defend DOMA as constitutional. The decision that came yesterday, the end of don't ask, don't tell, I think we have had a historic year. And it is my hope that a year from now, and that next Pride, Pride 2012, could be a year that we just might be able to celebrate full federal equality under the law. And that would be a tremendous celebration and perhaps a Pride month, unlike we've ever seen before. You know, just a quick follow-up. I was reading a couple of posts around the Internet that said, we actually might not get a full decision on Prop 8 all the way to the Supreme Court until 2013. Are you guys thinking differently now? We have always been optimistic. I mean, if you look at this case, it hasn't even been a year since we won the case. The case and the trial, the federal judge expedited the trial. We had a decision that will be a year in August. We won, as everyone on this call knows, in a sweeping historic decision that Prop 8 is unconstitutional. Our court system, as we all know, allows for the losing party when they have standing to appeal. The defendants, the official defendants in this case, the Governor and Attorney General, agreed with the decision and decided not to appeal. The Ninth Circuit expedited the appeal. We have already been to the Ninth Circuit and had oral arguments. They have referred a very technical question with regards to standing to the California Supreme Court. That court has indicated that in September they will hear those arguments and due to the fact that it is a very simple and direct and uncomplicated legal matter, it's our belief and hope that they will act quite quickly and give their answer to the Ninth Circuit and that we would move very quickly. So it's our hope and belief that we are months away from seeing Prop 8 and Judge Walker's decision realized and that all Californians will have the ability to marry. Thank you. Any other question, Operator? We have a question from Ian Lovett. Ian, please say your question. Hi. I just want to know if we can clarify that this is definitely the first ruling directly on gay judges ruling on gay cases. This is Ted Boucher. As far as we know, as far as the judge had the same assessment and the other side as well, the first time this issue has been decided in the federal court system for sure. Okay, great. I think that's important because in literally every historic civil rights battle we've had in this country, this issue has come up where those who are seeking to stop the quality try to disqualify a judge from the group whose rights are at stake in the case and the courts keep saying, absolutely not, we trust our judges to be fair and impartial and that's what Chief Judge Wehr found here. Okay, great. Thank you. You bet. Any other questions, Operator? No questions at this time. Okay, thanks everyone for your time on this important matter and how to reach us if you have any follow-up questions. Thanks again and congratulations to Ted Boucher and the tremendous legal team that AFER has put together on this effort. Congratulations and thanks everyone for your time. Thanks everyone. Bye. Thank you. This does conclude today's teleconference. We thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your line at this time. Thank you.