Approved Preachers - Part 1 — Keith Malcomson

Will you please turn with me here this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter six in the New Testament. Chapter six, sorry, 2 Corinthians chapter six. And I'm gonna read from verse three to verse 15. I'm starting a new short series.

I'm gonna preach three messages on a short, decisive series. And I don't wanna lose any of you. As soon as I tell you what it is, some of you say, that's got nothing to do with me. So I have to prompt you, have to get you into it and draw you in because it's got everything to do with you.

A Call to Preachers and the Church

I wanna preach three messages called a call to preachers. So immediately you may say, but I'm not a preacher. I don't wanna be a preacher. I have no intentions. You might marry a preacher and you don't know that yet.

God can call you to be a preacher and you don't know that. Do you realize that? This is a very real thing. But you know, more importantly than that, if you're gonna be in a church, a preacher will affect your life.

Who you listen to, what example you follow, who you get influenced by is gonna affect you, not for time, but for all eternity. I would encourage all of you that you all need to understand the calling of a preacher, the character of a preacher, the message of a preacher, the methods of a preacher, the life and the inward working of a preacher and how the ministry of preaching works in the church.

If you don't begin to understand a bit of that, you will miss out on an awful lot. You really will miss God. And so I wanna preach three messages. I'm gonna start this morning by a message called Approved Preachers.

And then next week, we've got a guest speaker. Then I'm gonna preach two messages again on preaching. And in one of those services, we are gonna set Brother Soph aside for ordination as an elder in this church.

So these three messages are in around that, that we get an understanding how preachers and preaching affect our lives, affect our children, affect our families, affect our eternity. I hope the weight of this comes upon us, not just to perspective preachers, either online or sitting here, but I hope we all begin to understand that.

Then after preaching these three messages, we're gonna go into three weeks of the Bible School of School of Christ, where we'll have 30 to 40 students coming in from 12 nations. And we're gonna be locked in here, in this room, in this church, throughout most of 20 days, praying, sitting under the Word of God, fellowshiping, seeking after the will of God and the plan of God for our lives.

But I wanna start here this morning, 2 Corinthians. You won't believe how many points I've got this morning. You're gonna be really shocked. 2 Corinthians 6. And listen again, my message this morning, approved preachers are preachers that are approved.

It doesn't make any sense yet, but it will do when I take you to this message. Read in 2 Corinthians 6, verse three, giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed, but in all things, approving ourselves as the ministers of God.

And then notice what he lists here. These are all my points. In much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfound, by the Word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report, as deceivers and yet true, as known and yet well-known, as dying and behold, we live, as chastened and not killed, as sorrowful yet always rejoicing, as poor yet make a many rich, as having nothing and yet possessing all things.

Will you pray with me here this morning? Father, we ask that your Holy Spirit will lead us into the truth of the Word of God, that you'd open up these verses that are so rarely dealt with or preached or taught, so little meditated upon or considered, but we're asking you in your presence under your instruction, we're asking that you'd lead us into the Word of God, that you'd speak to us, so God, especially every preacher that God would raise up in this house, this church, nor God, even those online that would listen to messages as they go out or afterwards in other nations and cities.

We pray, oh God, raise up a generation of preachers, of labors in the field, of servants, oh God, that have been molded by the Holy Spirit and the written scriptures. My God, we're asking of you now for the spirit of life to quicken and alive in every member, nor God, of this body that would listen the Word of God.

Lord God, teach us what a preacher is, teach us what real ministry is. Lord God, show us the very character of a preacher, nor God, show us the high esteem that you put on ministry. Ministry isn't just a gift and ministry isn't just a thing to be sought, but Lord God, it's something to be cultivated of a godly character.

Now, nor God, we are asking that you raise up approved preachers, approved ministers of the most high God, nor God, we're asking of you right now, nor God, show us the proof of what a real preacher is, nor God, we're asking of you, we're tired of false preachers and false prophets, we're tired of those that fall into immorality, we're tired of those preaching heresy, we're tired of those that have no character, no death to self, no denial of their own ambitions, but oh God, we're asking again, raise up and revive real preachers of the word of God who can approve themselves unto this generation in the light of God's word, in Jesus' name.

Let Christ be glorified in his church one last time, amen. Amen. My message, approved preachers. If ever we needed approved preachers, it's right now. Hell is at the gates, hell is being unleashed. Demon powers are being released in our world, the like of which we never imagined.

There is something coming you can't even imagine. Whatever we're gonna do, we have to do now. We need preachers in this hour. I mean, fire-drenched preachers. We need fire, Holy Ghost-baptized preachers.

We need men filled with the word of God. We need men filled, Lord, with the knowledge of the living God. It says here in verse four, and this is our text here this morning, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in affliction, in necessities, in distresses, et cetera.

Paul’s Evidence of Genuine Ministry

This is where I get my message. The apostle Paul says, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God. He was a minister of God. That word minister is the Greek word diakonis, which means a servant, either a deacon or a servant.

So Paul is saying, as a preacher, I am approving myself as a minister of God. You know what I'm doing? I'm about to give you a whole long list here to approve myself or to commend or to show you or to prove that I'm a real servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, a real deacon of the Lord Jesus, a real bond slave, a real genuine preacher.

If ever you needed to know how do you tell the difference between a real preacher and a false preacher, you've got to do it now. You know why? Deception's about to get worse. Deception's about to get so bad that you won't even be able to judge with your eyes or your ears or your experience or all the knowledge of your brain.

You won't be able to do that. Deception is about to go into realms you can't imagine. And so I'm preaching these three messages on a call to preachers. I am calling on preachers. You may not preach for some years.

Some years it could be the worst thought in your mind. And yet one day you're gonna preach. The spirit of God is gonna lay his hand upon you. Someone listening to this video is gonna know the call of God is upon them.

Either they're in mature ministry or stepping out into it or maybe he will call them in the days ahead in a way that they could never imagine. Back in verse one here, Paul speaks about workers together with him.

So he's building up a picture of what a minister is. A minister is a worker with God. He is a servant of God. He's not just a title. He's not just in a position. He's not just got fame. He's not only got riches.

He's not only got your attention in a pulpit. Oh no, he is a servant. He is a bond slave of the most high God. My message has been named after this text, but in all things, that's a big statement, all things, in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God.

If you're a preacher, if you're called to ministry, can you this morning say that sitting here, standing here, that you can approve yourself or prove that you are fit to be called a servant of God? Can you lay out a long list of testimonies, of characteristics, of things that are a part of your life and say, by this, I prove that I'm a real preacher.

What a high estimate we have in the ministry in this church. We really do because this book does. This book has a very high view of ministry. I don't care about titles or positions or certain pulpits or crowds.

I don't care about that, but I've got a very high view of ministry. Let me start taking you into this, and I'm gonna have three points here this morning, but I just want you to understand this word, approved, that Paul uses here.

He says, but in all things approving ourselves. So Paul is doing this to himself. It's not God approving him. It's not others approving him. But Paul says, as a minister at this stage, at this time, I'm approving myself.

But what does approve mean? What is it that Paul is approving? Listen to what it means. The word approving is elsewhere in our New Testament translated, commending. This is what the word means. Union together with.

To draw together lots of different things and make them to stand together unitedly. It means to line up all the facts in support of something, or it means bringing together all the information you need to make a certain argument.

It means to put it all together, heap it all together. And then when you've got it all together, you start making contrasts with it all. In other words, you're making something visible. Bring all these points together, and he gives a long list of them.

And when you have all this information together, then start arguing and present your case like you would in a court of law. It means to put together things in order to teach by combining them or comparing them.

It means to show, to prove, to establish, or to exhibit. Are you beginning to understand what Paul is saying here? He says, In other words, a minister has to gather in all the facts and figures of who he is, what he is, what he does, what he has done, where he's been, where he is now, where he's gonna go.

He puts all these things together, and he begins to prove or to show that he is a real servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. What Paul is saying here is, I'm gonna give you facts, evidence. I'm gonna give you convincing proof to confirm that it's right that I'm called a true minister of God or a preacher or a leader in the house of God.

Notice that he is saying approving self. God isn't doing it. It's in this verse. It's not God approving him. It's not Peter or the apostles approving him. It's not the churches approving him. Paul here in these verses says, I'm gonna prove myself.

A day comes in a preacher's life, and I wouldn't expect this of a new preacher or a new elder or a young man, but a day comes when you're gonna have to stand and prove that you really have been a real preacher.

All the attributes that has to be there, all the evidence has to be there. You don't ask this of the youth. You don't even ask it of someone with initial experience. We're talking about approving yourself as a preacher or a minister, not by your gift, not by soul's one, not by your skill, not by your knowledge, but there's certain other ways to experience this or to know this.

I expect more of a mature preacher or a mature elder than one just starting out in this or being set into the task of eldership. I expect an awful lot more because with time and trials and testings and experience, a lot comes out of that, a lot grows out of this.

What I was when I first preached is not what I am now. I was in character, I was in message, I was in desire, but I wanna tell you there's been a lot of experience or let me say it another way. I was the very same man when I first stepped out ministry, the very same with the same motives, the same desires, the same purity, the same convictions, but not with the same experience.

Experience takes time or the evidence that I'm a real preacher. I once turned up to a church, the pastor was going away in Wales and he had his old elders. I was a young guy, I'd never met them before.

He begged me to preach. I went there with a, thus saith the Lord from the Lord. I'm in a word from God. I had a message burning. I was prepared, prayed up ready. And as I walked into the church, the elders stand there, looked at me.

They looked at each other and they frowned. They said, who are you? I said, I'm the preacher. Your pastor brought me in to preach. They looked at each other and said, no son, you don't need to bother.

We've got a message. I can preach instead of you. I said, no, no, it's okay. I've got a message. They'd done everything to talk me out of it. And then as soon as I began to preach, they went, he's a preacher.

He's a preacher. God is speaking through him. You know, they didn't think it by looking at me. You see this word approving or commended is used in certain ways. In 2 Corinthians 3 and 1, it says again, same book by Paul, we do not begin again to commend ourselves.

What's he saying? We are not proud or boasting. There's a way you don't commend yourself or boast about yourself or talk about yourself or list out your attributes. And there's times for that. Paul says, we do not begin again to commend ourselves.

You know who we are. We don't need to start boasting or trying to prove. You know, some preachers are trying to do that. I've met some of them and they're trying to prove they're a man of God to you. If you're a man of God, I would see it.

Or they're trying to prove I've got a message for this generation. If you had, I would hear it. But I want to assure you, when you're trying to convince me for 45 minutes, I've got a word from God. I've got a word from God.

I get very concerned about that man. You're trying to sell your ministry to me. Why not just preach the word? And if the power of God is there, you'll convince me. That's all I need. He says, or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation, same word, to you, or letters of recommendation.

So commendation or approving means to give evidence, references, who are you? What are you? It'd be like giving a letter of commendation. I should read it and go, okay, I know who you are. It's come from another church.

I have met you before. Now I know who you are because of what they are saying about you, I understand. But Paul says, look, at this stage, I don't need to begin to commend and persuade you. Or in 2 Corinthians 5 and 12, he says, for we commend not ourselves again unto you and give you occasion to glory on our behalf.

We're not going to boast in ourselves. There are many times we must not commend ourselves. And yet there's a right time to commend yourself. There comes a time when a preacher must commend himself, talk about himself, testify about things that no one would know otherwise.

Protecting the Ministry from Reproach

Do you know when it is? Well, it's given in the text in verse three. I've given you verse four, our text, but verse three before it, listen to what it says. Giving no offense in anything that the ministry be not blamed, in nothing.

Do you know what these preachers, they're to give offense in nothing, in nothing, so that the ministry is not blamed. Do you know when a preacher fails, you know what gets blamed? The ministry, preaching, the pulpit.

You see, that's a tragedy of a man called a preacher. If you fail morally, biblically, doctrinally, oh yes, you will get a finger pointed at you, but that's nothing. You bring reproach on the ministry.

I was in church at 15 years old and the preacher fell for a woman that my parents warned him about many years before. He started stealing from the local shopping center. He started doing many other things.

And you know, at 15 years old, what I'd done, I cried onto God and I said, oh God, never use me if I'm gonna bring dishonor on your name. Never, never do it. I never, I would rather not be used of God than to dishonor this pulpit.

You know why? Because when a preacher fails, two things can happen. He gives offense to people, he trips them up, he hurts them. Young believers, backsliders, those are sinners who want God. And so when a preacher fails, it causes many to trip up, many, many to fall away from the faith.

But also this, that the ministry be not blamed. So you know what? Why is Paul dealing with this? He's given you an entire list because he says, you know what? We don't wanna offend anyone. We want preachers, approved preachers, qualified preachers, preachers of quality, you know, who are not gonna trip people up, who go back to that world.

You know, people have left churches and said, I'll never be back in a church again. You know why? Because of some Christian. Your words, your actions, your attitude. Someone comes in the church, some sinner, and some Christian comes in, some mature Christian said, that's my seat.

Fine, have your seat. I'll go back to the world. They wouldn't speak to me like that in a pub. Oh, come, take the best seat. But you walk into a church, and I know none of you have done that. I hope not.

But I'm telling you the seriousness of this, that we're really dealing with. You know, we've got a real problem in church ministry today. I've heard about it all my life. It's called spiritual burnout.

Where a pastor or someone in ministry gets so burnt out, so exhausted, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, that they leave the ministry. They've got to leave the ministry. In one of those case studies from 2013, an institute reported in America that 1 ,700 pastors leave the ministry each month, citing depression, burnout, overwork, loneliness, isolation, and various other things.

Let me take you to my message this morning. I hope I've got your ears and your attention. We're dealing with something vital for the sake of your kids, for the sake of the city, for the sake of your own soul.

We've got to understand this. In dealing with approved preachers, I want to deal with three things that I find in what Paul lists here. First of all, I didn't want to jump to the first in the list, because that's my second point, and it's too negative to give you first.

So I want to give you a nicer one first, and ease you in, and then we'll come back to the best third of all. Is that okay? So my first point here is the contrasts of a minister's life. Number one, the contrasts of a minister's life.

The Contrasts of a Minister’s Life

Look what it says in verse four. But in all things, underline that, but in all things, he lists an awful lot of things here. And he says, in all of these things that I'm listing, approving ourselves as the ministers of God.

Then he goes through a long list, patience, afflictions, necessities, distresses. And he says, in all of these things. This is the first thing I really want you to notice. They're not all good things he lists.

I'm gonna prove to you that I'm a God-called preacher. I'm gonna prove to you that I'm a genuine minister, servant of Christ. All the things that I'm gonna list to prove that as evidence or facts are not gonna be nice things.

In fact, far from it. They're not all about success. I'm not gonna stand here and say, do you know how successful I've been? Have you ever heard me claim how many souls I've won to the Lord? How many churches I've raised up?

How many people went into ministry because of me? Have you once heard me mention those things? Not at all. Maybe I've overemphasized the biblical way, which is to talk about your trials and your troubles and your burdens, and I've minimized the other.

Maybe I need to balance it again. Notice here, Paul begins in verse four by stating, but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God. Then immediately he goes into seven verses packed with facts and contrasts as evidence or proof to show that he is a genuine preacher and minister of God.

I want you to notice this. In this list, he gives 28 clear statements. The last nine are doubles and they are contrasts. So he gives 37. You say you've got 37 points. Yep, but I've disguised them as three to keep you on board, okay?

But 28 statements he makes. We're gonna deal with nine, then 10, then another nine in three of these points, because I've got something to explain here to you. Half of these things that he mentions would never be quoted by a modern preacher as proof or evidence that he is called to preach the word of God.

Many years ago, I believe 20 plus 25 years ago, I wrote an article called The Missing Mark of Apostolic Ministry. I wrote it because everyone's talking about apostolic ministry, churches, traveling, miracles.

I wrote it on the missing mark. Paul said, a mark that I'm an apostle is death to self. So I wrote an article, The Missing Mark of Apostolic Ministry. Notice in this list that Paul gives us, and I'm gonna deal with these nine marks or contrasts that come at the end of the list.

At the end of the 28, I'm taking the very last nine from verse eight to verse 10. These are nine statements about the contrasts of a minister's life. A real preacher. That if you ever meet a real preacher and give him a bit of space and patience, give Brother Souf a bit of, don't sit down with him around the table and start trying to drag this out of him or sit with the list and say, okay, let's go through this, brother.

So see how well you're doing. Give the man a bit of space. Do that with me afterwards. I'll be glad to sit with you and we go through. I'm just trying to shelter you, Brother Souf. You can thank me afterwards.

But here you have nine contrasts to show the contrasts of a minister's life. Find a real preacher and you have these contrasts there. They're very strange. What are contrasts? Contrasts are things utterly unlike each other, dissimilar.

Seemingly they contradict each other or opposite, yet they're in the life of that one preacher. Both of those things are there, but they seem to contradict. It looks like you should throw one of them out.

But Paul says, no, by these two things, I prove I'm a real genuine preacher. They don't seem to match. And there's an obvious difference between the two things. That's why Paul nine times puts two things together.

It's to compare them, to show the contrast of a preacher's life. If you're a real preacher, you'll never die of boredom. I wanna tell you. And so with this, you compare two things in order to understand the differences and understand what God is saying.

So I believe in diversity in ministry. I am not a bored person. I wasn't a bored child. I could never sit at home and just be bored. It's never once happened to me in 51 years. I doubt it ever will if I live to 90.

You see, in a real preacher's life, if he's really doing the will of God, there's diversity. There is this richness of things in his life going on around his life that seem contradiction. So there's no boredom.

You know, I'm tired of today's preachers, the pep talks, the little talks. Every time you listen to them, it seems like the same message. I get really bored of that. Have you seen our weather recently?

We just had three weeks of phenomenal sunshine, the like of which we've rarely seen. Some people were canceling their flights to Spain to stay in Ireland. Can you imagine it? Nowhere better to stay if the sun should shine.

So we had three weeks of sun. And you know what? I'm not a gardener. I'm trying to protect and save Candice's garden. I'm watching, in just one season, I'm watching all of our plants in the house die.

All of the plants in the garden. I go, they said, just water it steady easy. You can't go wrong. Well, I watered the things. I've done everything. I've been out with the hose during the hot weather. Everything is dying.

Suddenly, it was an answer to my prayers. Suddenly, the rain breaks in. And now for a week, we've had nothing but torrential rain. We've got thunder, lightning, like I have never seen in Southern Ireland.

All of my life, I've never seen lightning like this. It's all for me. It's my prayers. I want to tell you. But you know what you have in nature? This contrast. Since if it was all sun, we're going to be in serious trouble.

If it was all rain, we're going to be in serious trouble. But this beautiful, radical contrast, extremes coming together. You don't get more extreme than the sun we've had. And now the rain and the thunder we've had.

It is utterly contrasted. But you know what? It does something beautiful. It brings a richness. So these contrasts make a preacher rich in his walk with God. Listen to the preachers of this hour. Boring pep talks.

They play the harp on one string. That's all they do in their preaching. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Honestly, it drive you crazy. It does me. I go, please stop. You don't know how to play the thing.

Either add another several strings or please set the thing down. But you know what? There's something terribly wrong. You're always preaching on self-help. You're always like a coach. Why not go back to the word of God?

Why don't you open up the word of God? How can you read the word of God and your messages not have a richness? God help me. I'm gonna have trouble doing this this morning. Do you know, I told yous before about going to Lanzarote.

Paul and family have just gone there for a much needed break. I and Candice went there many years ago. We had about five days. Someone gave us their apartment. We went there. As normal, we look for a church.

I've told you the story. We had to have a church. We want to have a church. I walked into that church, sat down. The pastor got up to preach. I hardly can call him a pastor. And he began to talk about his cat.

And he talked about his cat. And he talked about his cat. And I sat there and I went, I just know this man is talking about his cat because he's about to preach. And this cat story is very important to it.

He never got to the word of God. I heard nothing but the cat. I said, God help me. Get me out of this place. Well, that has to be 12 years ago or maybe more. Well, I'm talking to Paul, trying to find Paul a church there in Lanzarote for this morning.

And he starts looking. He says, I think I found your cat, man. There's a pastor here. His books are on Amazon. And I went on to look at this. I can't even remember the title. It's hilarious, the title.

Maybe it's best I don't have it online. And he said, look, he sent me a picture of the blurb someone had written under this pastor's book. It says, this book was something else. He said, this man talks about nothing but his animals back in England.

I said, that's him, that's him. He sent me a picture. I went, that is him. That's the very same pastor. Do you know what? I am telling you real things. Where are the preachers of the word of God? A man who does not preach the word is not in the word, not walking with God.

He is bland. He needs to get out of the ministry. I don't mind dull preachers, but if they preach the word of God, I am caught. I am hanging on them. It's not about style. It's about the word of God and the substance.

Honor, Dishonor, and Opposing Reports

Look what Paul gives about the contrasts of a minister's life. And this is proof that he's a real preacher. Verse eight, these nine couplets, by honor and dishonor. Do you know what he's talking about here?

There's times where he is dishonored. And that actually means without dignity, without praise, put on a low place, ashamed or a disgrace. There are times by honor and dishonor, you're dishonored, you're ashamed.

People think you're ashamed and a disgrace. Prove that you're a minister. Keep going forward. There's other times everyone thinks you're honorable. They praise you, talk about you. You've got a good reputation.

Do you know what Paul's saying? Whether you're dishonored or you're honored. You know what happens to preachers? Nobody likes me, I'm giving up. You never should have been in the ministry at all. Do you know if everyone turns against you, preach the word.

If everyone's for you, preach the word. If everyone's getting saved, preach the word. If no one's getting saved, preach the word. You know what that is? That's a testimony you're a real preacher. Are you only a fair weather preacher?

Oh, you preach when everything's going good. There's revival, a move of God, things are stirring. What about when everything is against you? Notice as well, he says, by evil report and good report. So there's times where bad reports are going round about you.

I've had them in Ireland. I had people end to end in this country saying, do you know he's going from church to church speaking about you? One of the prominent preachers. I said, nothing I can do about that.

I'm gonna preach the word. I'm gonna serve God. Bad reports, rumors, false stories, accusations, but they never come to you. So on the one side, you're being treated like that, evil spoken of, but also good report.

That means good reputation, your fame, stories going about. Do you know that Malcolmson? You get both. We're gonna find out what sort of preacher you're like. Can you only preach in one of these? Are you strange?

Can you only preach amidst bad report or can you only preach in good report? You're not fit to be a preacher if you only preach when there's good report. He goes further and he said as deceivers and yet true.

So there's times where a real preacher, there's gonna be those think he's a deceiver, an imposter, that he's misleading people. Can you weather the storm? Whenever there's theirs going, do you know LCC is a false church?

Do you know they're deceiving people? Do you know they're after people's money? They can start bringing that in. What are you gonna do? Get hurt, get offended, get angry, get better? Are you gonna keep preaching the word of God as deceivers and yet true?

I know that when I'm being accused of being a deceiver, I am true, I am genuine, I am real. I'm leading people correct. I take time over the word of God. Number four, he says as unknown and yet well-known.

Do you see the contrast of a preacher's life? You need to go through hot and cold, rain and sunshine, rejection and praise. That's what tests you, the contrast. You know if God's really working on your life, he's gonna change things along the way.

There's no fear of God in them because there's no changes. No changes in your life, everything the same for 30 years, there's something seriously wrong. You don't fear God. There's a lack of the fear of God.

If there's not these changes that come about to upset the apple cart. He says as unknown and yet well-known. Do you know some preachers being unknown is the worst thing that could ever happen to them.

Devastating, I'm getting out of the ministry. I wanna be discovered. I'm looking for people to discover me, my message, what I've got to contribute to this generation. Why don't people realize what God has given me?

You know that's a very dangerous thing. Paul said, as unknown, I'll prove myself a minister. I'm happy to be unknown. Are you happy to be unknown? As a Christian, are you happy to be unknown? Are you as faithful when you're unknown as you are known?

You know, look at a preacher. You suddenly bring him into the limelight. How does he change? Does it change his message, his manner? Does he suddenly get happy? Because he's out of the darkness of exclusion and non-entity?

Dying Yet Living, Sorrowful Yet Rejoicing

Do you see what Paul's dealing with here is the absolute importance as dying and behold, we live. Paul went through dying all the time, beatings, dangers, travels. He was always dying. The reputation about him is he's a dying preacher.

He won't be around long. He's always suffering. What does Paul say? I'm alive, I'm alive. They might be spreading rumors about me. It was one of Candace's relatives. He died at sea. You maybe heard the story.

It was her relative. He came in as a little boy to the funeral as they're burying him. You know what? Some people speak too early. I've had a few people say, Malcolmson's finished. I once had someone very close to me.

I sat down, confided in them, started talking to them about my mental condition. He says, you're gonna have a mental breakdown. Went, oh, thanks a lot. I went away, started telling everyone. He then started an attack against me because he went, praise the Lord, Malcolmson's finished.

So he started writing emails to me. Now he's gulping and trying to swallow it. Just recently with me, sat down with me and he tried to backstep and sort of change that it wasn't quite like that. Oh yes, it was.