Experiencing God's Holiness — Francis Chan

Experiencing God's Holiness — Francis Chan

Now, this gentleman over here to my right, your left, is Francis Chan. Now, let me tell you a couple of things about him. He is the founding pastor and the teaching pastor at the Cornerstone Community Church in Simi Valley, California.

He's here with his wife, Lisa. They have five children. Francis was born in San Francisco, but at a very, very young age was in Hong Kong. And then, as a youngster, came back to the United States. He's the author of numerous books, and he's also a very sought-after speaker.

FCCI is very privileged to have with us this morning Pastor Francis Chan.

Experiencing the Holy Spirit's Power

Just during our time this morning, I've just been praying. I'm praying that, just even right now, I'm saying, God, can we please experience something that remotely resembles what I read about in here?

You know, I don't want an ordinary meeting, an ordinary gathering. I don't want an ordinary life. I pray often, God, I don't want to do something that an unbeliever could do. I don't want my life to look like, gosh, anyone could have done that.

You didn't need the Holy Spirit to do that. We didn't really experience him. And I just go, God, I don't want this day to be like that. There should be such a marked difference in me, because the Spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead is actually inside of here.

He's inside of you, and there should be something different. Man. And so, I look at that early church, and I go, they would pray, and everything would start shaking, and they would walk out with this new courage, this new power.

That early church was this unstoppable force. It was unique. Unbelievers would look in and go, what is that? The disciples said, you could have that too. Repent, be baptized, you'll be filled with that same spirit.

You, your kids, those who are far off, those who are sitting in a conference room 2 ,000 years later, it's a promise to them. And I'm praying for you that you live that type of life where at the end, everyone just goes, there's no way he or she could have pulled that off.

It's impossible. It doesn't make sense. Outside of some other power, the Holy Spirit himself changing your life. And so, I'm praying that for you. I'm praying that for your life. This morning, I was praying for you when I was reading.

False Prophets and the Need to Test Teaching

I got up, and our church is reading through the book of Jeremiah. And I was reading in chapter 14 this morning-ish. In 14, it is 14. Gosh, I didn't bring my glasses. Verse 13, where he says, what are these?

Are they really strong? All right. Oh, thank you. Wow. This is perfect. Got stuff all over them, but OK. Where he says, then I said, ah, Lord, behold, the prophets say to them. Oh, no, that's not what I want.

Verse 14, the Lord said to me, the prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I didn't send them. I didn't command them or speak to them. They're prophesying to you a lying vision, worthless divination, and the deceit of their own minds.

He says, you know, these prophets that you're listening to, they're telling you lies. He goes, they're just making stuff up. I go, I didn't send them. They just say things. It reminded me of in 1 Kings 22, when King Jehoshaphat says to the king of Israel, he goes, you know, inquire for me.

Inquire of the Lord. And so they gather 400 prophets and say, should we go to battle? And all 400 prophets, imagine this whole room, if you guys were all the prophets in the land, they gather every one of you together, and they all say the same thing.

These are the prophets. And they all say, yes, go to war. You're going to win. All of them. He says, is there anyone else? And the answer is, well, there's that one guy, Micaiah. There's that one man, but I hate him, it says.

He never prophesies good concerning me. He goes, you know, let's just listen to these 400, but there's that one guy. Let's just not even listen to him. And sure enough, he tells them the truth. But it's a crazy passage if you read it sometime, because in chapter 22, in verse 19, Micaiah says, hear the word of the Lord.

I saw the Lord sitting on his throne and all the host of heaven. Listen, this is so weird. Think about this. All the host of heaven standing beside him on his right hand and on his left. And the Lord said, who will entice Ahab that he may go up and follow Ramoth Gilead?

And one said one thing, and another said another. Then a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord saying, I'll entice him. And the Lord said to him, by what means? And he says, I'll go out and will be a lying spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets.

And he says, you are to entice him, and you shall succeed. Go out and do so. Now therefore, behold, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these, your prophets. The Lord has declared disaster for you.

Is that the most bizarre story? So God's going, I gotta entice this guy, and what am I gonna do? And one spirit says, I know what I'll do, I'll get the prophets to lie. I'll go down there and entice them to lie.

And God goes, good plan, go, go, go do that. And you're gonna succeed. And so here's these 400 prophets. They're going, yeah, yeah, go to war. This'll work, this'll work, this'll work. See, I read these passages in the Bible, and again, I wish I could just, part of me wants to stand here and just say, would you please read this book?

That's all I want you to do, is just read this book. Get alone, read this book as much as you can, cover to cover, over and over and over, and listen to these voices. And the reason is, is because people could be lying to you.

We all know people lie, right? I mean, how many times have you just been blown away by the way people have lied to you, just straight to your face, in times that you have lied to others and deceived other people?

And I was praying for you specifically, because I think people lie to you more than the normal person. I even think, just hear me on this one. For some of you, my concern is that maybe even pastors might lie to you specifically.

Here's why I say this. I was a pastor for 18 years. No, not 18, was it 17 years? And you try not to show favoritism, cuz the Bible's so against it. But sometimes it's hard. And sometimes someone walks in and you know who they are.

Favoritism, Wealth, and Pastoral Integrity

Some, maybe in Southern California, an actress would walk in. And it's like, wow, suddenly there's like a calm in the room. You're like, wow, and all this whispering, murmuring. Even one time, my wife and I were gone somewhere and I get a text.

Pamela Anderson's at church today. It's like, my wife's like, why are they telling you that? It's just like this weird, this athlete was here, this athlete was here. There was just like this, no way, what an honor, they're in our church.

I mean, anytime someone, whether they were rich or famous, came in, and there was a tendency. Man, this happened ever since I was a youth pastor. Man, as a youth pastor, you wanted to get that head cheerleader in there.

You wanted to get the quarterback of the football team, cuz that's gonna draw everyone else. And so when they show up, it's like, yeah, man, it's so good to have you here. And there is just a, I am not saying, please don't get me wrong, I am not saying it's happening in your church and it's happening to you.

I'm just saying it could. And there's a tendency that way. And when I go to pastor's conferences, I hear a lot of, so and so goes to my church. This guy in my church owns this business. You know, and there's just this, man, I'm just so happy that you're here that I'm not gonna confront you on anything.

I'm gonna treat you special, and so you're, it's okay. You know, it's just, there's a, come on, you know, we get special treatment in different places, and I get concerned about that. I get concerned in my own life when people treat me so well.

And they just go, you're great, you're this, you're that. And that's why I go, man, read this book. You gotta read it, you gotta cling to it. Because I think people will tell us things that we want to hear sometimes.

Paul tells Timothy in the end days, that's what they're gonna do. They're just gonna tell you what your ears wanna hear, and people are gonna go to those places. Because we like hearing the positive about ourselves.

And I've had to just cling to this book and go, God, what's really true? What's really in this book? I wanna be right before you at the end. On Sunday, I told you about how I try, I'm a pretty simple person, very.

Seeking the Biblical Standard for Spiritual Power

I like the obvious. I don't like to miss the obvious. And so when I read this book and something in my life doesn't make sense, I go, gosh, according to this book, there should be a lot more power in my, I'll just start praying for it.

I go, God, it's gotta be there. I gotta have what I see in here. God, right now, I don't want it to be flesh and blood just trying to communicate the flesh and blood. You're saying something spiritual could happen through your word right now, through my spirit to your spirit because of the Holy Spirit.

Something real could happen where you leave and change. See, when I see something, I go, God, I gotta have that, I must have that. And so in my own life, there have been times when I've just read the word and been so convicted and go, okay, that has to change.

Loving One's Neighbor Through Sacrificial Compassion

I remember my first trip to Africa. My first trip to Africa, I didn't go with the right motives. I went because someone invited me to a special trip to Uganda with just these mega church pastors as early in my ministry.

They told me Franklin Graham was leading it, and they told me that even Bono might be going. I go, no way, I'm there, you know? And so it was all arrogance. It was all just selfishness, like, I'll go to Africa.

Yeah, sure, I care about the poor. And so, I go, and Franklin Graham didn't come because his mom got sick. Bono certainly wasn't there. And I just ended up in Africa with a bunch of no names. And, but when I got there, man, I told you, favoritism, right?

I got there, and my heart just started breaking. I started seeing these little kids digging through the trash, right? Digging through these just dumps, like little kids. And we had two little girls, and all of the scriptures, the scriptures came to life about loving your neighbor as yourself.

And I just couldn't even get my mind around, okay, if I love those kids like myself, or if those were my kids. Man, and I adored my, I mean, I still adore them, but back then, when they're little, they're always cuter.

But I just, looking, and I'm thinking about my two little girls. And I thought, what if that was Rachel and Mercy, right there, digging through the trash? And the Bible says, love your neighbor as yourself.

What would I want someone to do for my little girls? If that was me in Africa, and some rich American comes over. And not that I was making much money back then, but we're rich. And what would I want him to do for me?

And all these thoughts, I mean, that we didn't really talk about in church back in the day. I think there's been a move, I think there's been a change in the last ten years. But back then, there just wasn't a whole lot.

I was the guy, if you saw Starving, if I saw Starving people on television, remember they used to do those commercials? And I just flipped the channel, because I didn't want to see that. But everything changed.

I just was crying as I saw where these kids lived, and everything else. And I came home, and I was a wreck. I just looked at my wife, and I'm looking at her house, and I'm going, gosh, this doesn't make sense, why is my life so much more important than theirs?

I mean, is my soul really that much more important than theirs? And I was wrestling with this stuff, and I'm going, gosh, I can't handle this anymore. I know we don't talk about this in church, but it seems like it's on almost every page of the Bible.

And I just looked at my wife and said, honey, I'm really struggling with even the house we're living in right now. I mean, it wasn't anything major, it was like 2 ,000 square feet, normal house. But I go, from what I saw, I said, but I don't want to do anything until you go.

I want you to see it. And my wife just saying, I love this house, but I trust you, I don't have to go. If you think that God wants us to sell and look at something else, then let's do it. And it's like, really?

That afternoon, started driving around trailer parks, and looking at trailer parks, and going, what? Because our little sacrifice could build a school for them, it could build a medical clinic for them.

Reordering Church Budgets Around the Poor

I went to the church, I started telling them. I go, this is crazy. The way they're living, let's start giving, let's start serving. We looked at this building project we had. We had a $20 million building project that we were going to enter into.

And I'm going, man, why do we need a $20 million building project? Man, we're in Southern California, why don't we just sit outside? Seriously. And I looked at the church. I go, how awesome would that be if everyone's driving down the road and they see 4 ,000 people sitting in the grass?

Because they're going, look, we can go back to our houses. There are people that are starving to death, people with no clean water. Isn't that a better picture of Jesus? And so, wouldn't it be awesome if it was raining?

And they see people in the rain going, man, big deal. I get back in my car and I drive off and dry off and get back into my comfortable house. Isn't that a better picture of Christ to the community? We lost a bunch of people.

But there was a crowd in the church going, yeah, I wanna sit in the rain. I'm tired of this comfortable life. Yeah, let's do this thing. Let's build this outdoor amphitheater. Forget the building we were gonna build.

Let's build something for Children's Hunger Fund on that property instead, and we'll sit on the grass. Right on. Let's do that. I look at the elders. I go, you know what? Love your neighbor as yourself.

Why don't we change our whole budget? If we love our neighbor as ourself, let's spend on our neighbor what we spend on ourselves. What do you guys think? How about if we give away half of everything that comes in from now on?

And all the elders are like, let's do it. Killer elder board. They're going, you know what? That's right. But if we say we're gonna do this, let's just do it. I'm like, all right, let's go. And so we made commitments like, okay, we're gonna give Children's Hunger Fund a million dollars this year.

We're gonna give you X amount. I mean, it's hard to spend millions of dollars just like that. And go, man, where's the best place to do it? And I remember giving, saying, okay, we'll give you every three months, we'll write you a check for 250 ,000.

And I just remember the week, the second week, cuz it was the summer months. And I'm going, no, there's nothing in the bank. We opened our mouths. And I didn't even tell the church. I knew it, though.

It was that September payment, September 1st payment. I'm going, man, it's been a terrible summer. I don't know how we're gonna come up with $250 ,000. I'm looking in the bank. Only me and the finance department know about this.

Honestly, no one in the church knows about it. They just think everything's going fine. And I was like, God, you've always come through for me. Come on, God, what did we do wrong? What did we do wrong?

We're supposed to write a check next week. Monday morning comes around, my two leaders of the finance department come in. They go, Francis, you're never gonna believe this. No announcement, no one knew anything was due.

They just handed me a piece of paper. They go, look at the offering on Sunday, $251 ,000. I mean, you gotta understand, that was so weird. If you look back at the cornerstone finances, it's like 80, 90, 100, 80, 90, 80, 80, 80, 250, 1, 80, 2, I'm serious.

Man, I just, I told, I go, I looked at the paper. I go, do you guys mind leaving just for a second? Cuz I just wanted them out of the room. And I just started bawling in my office. I just started crying and I didn't want anyone to see me.

I'm just, God, this is so awesome. This is the way I wanna live. Where just these crazy things happen that don't make any sense. It's because we're on the right track, and to have a church like that. And to know in the next week I can announce them.

I go, none of you knew this, but we needed 250 grand last week. And I didn't tell you, we got 251 ,000, and we're able to write our check. My wife and I had a great dinner. You know, it's just, it was just one of those like, thank you, Lord.

See, I live for those moments. I don't know about you, but I live for those moments. Where I just go, God, this is so cool, God. This is how I wanna live, where it just doesn't make sense. It makes sense according to this book, but nothing else.

Mobilizing the Church for Ministry

I want these changes, I want these changes in the church. The church grew, and I'm gonna share this here, because I think you guys could understand this. I was looking at the church, and I'm going, okay, a lot of things are great.

Things are still happening, praise God, I love these people. But some things in my head, the numbers weren't adding up. Because the business side of me was saying, wait a second. When I had 20 people in my church, and we grew to 200, I go, that's awesome.

You know, I've got 20 people. You give me a sales force of 20 people, and they each made 10 sales that year. And we're up to 200, awesome. Okay, and then the church still made sense when we had 200 people.

I was given, that's a big responsibility, Lord. You gave me 200 sales people, and then we grew to 2 ,000. I'm going, that's pretty darn good, right? Then I grew 2 ,000 sales people, and that sales force, which got a lot more expensive.

Now we've got 4 ,000. And I was like, okay, that's not as good, but you know, okay, one sale per person. But then when we had 4 ,000 people, and it costs a fortune to keep 4 ,000 people going, and the next year we had maybe 4 ,100.

Now I'm saying, I've got a sales force of 4 ,000, and we're producing 100 sales. And right then, everyone's pursuing me, going, wow, that's success. Look at that room, it's filled every week. And will you speak here?

Will you speak here? Will you write a book? Will you do this? And in my head, the math, I'm going, wait a second, this isn't making sense. It was good when it was small, and it was multiplying, and everyone was doing something, and sharing their faith with someone.

But now that we're packed out, this whole scene just isn't totally making sense to me. The numbers aren't matching up, because now I've got a giant army. And I'm looking at the results. Sure, they're still giving, and it can look good on paper.

But in my heart, I'm going, man, I'm accountable for a workforce of 4 ,000, and I can't figure out how to mobilize them all. 4 ,000 people filled with the Holy Spirit of God, and how can I release these people, and go do what the church is supposed to do, and what we're all created to do?

And so what ends up happening is a lot of people sit around, and looking back, I go, gosh, I couldn't get my mind around it. That drove me crazy, because I knew there was wasted resource in the church.

Anabaptist Church Planting and Shared Gifts

And I would look back at the early church planting movements. The Reformation, the first real church planting group really were the Anabaptists. Cuz the Reformation, the Reformers, they weren't trying to plant new churches.

They were just reforming the old one. But then came the Anabaptists, and what was amazing about them, when they went to plant a church, you know who they took? They would send people out in threes. And it was not senior pastor, youth pastor, or worship pastor, okay?

That's what I would do. I'm thinking, okay, I would need a guy that can sing, lead a few songs. I need someone to just take care of the kids, get them out of my face so I can preach, right? And then I'm good, I'm good, and get me a bill.

That's not how they, you know they sent people out in threes. Here's who they sent. They would send out a teaching pastor, someone who knew how to teach the word of God, and handle the word of God, and hold the doctrinal purity.

The second guy they would send, they would send him out to find the poorest of the poor, the biggest needs in that area, so the church could minister to them. And the third person they would send is a businessman to fund the whole thing, and take care of the pastor.

Doesn't that sound fun to you? Seriously, think about it. What if I told you, hey, we're gonna go to such and such a city. I'm just gonna charge it. I got a buddy. He's gonna go to all the poorest of the poor.

You gotta start up a business, though. You gotta make some, I can't even think about that. For starters right now, okay, God is gonna use your gift in this. I mean, there was just this, I was reading about it.

And I go, man, we don't think that way. And then I talk to businessmen, they go, man, I would jump in with you. Let's go, let's just try something. And let's just create something out there. And let's believe God to use us for this church.

And I'm just thinking in the church, how many people sit around and don't do a lot, and I go, man, that's gotta change. And that's kind of the mode that I've been in. And actually, I've decided for my seminar breakout, that's what I wanna talk about.

I was gonna do a thing on the presence of God. If you're really heartbroken about that, I'll send you an old talk about it. I just think there's an opportunity here, and I didn't wanna miss it. So for those of you who were gonna come, I switched it.

Leaving Comfort for a New Mission

So I went to San Francisco. I left the church. I thought, you know what, I'm gonna go to China. Maybe I just don't fit in here in America. Let's go to China. I hear about the church, the underground church over there.

And I went over there and went to this, our whole family. We sold everything in Southern California, and we said, it's time to move on. For 17 years of this church, we had good elders in place. This city has heard everything I've got to say.

It was just clear to my wife and I that it was time for a new adventure. And she says, well, if you know we don't belong here, why don't we just sell our house and then just go? Just wherever God has us land, we know it's not here, so why keep anything here?

I was like, wow, you're the one that's pregnant with our fifth kid. If you say so, let's go. I mean, that's crazy. I have a crazy wife. They're just going, yeah, let's do this. Lord, if we know it's the Lord, this is nothing compared to what they did in scripture.

And people go, well, that's crazy. I go, man, are you kidding me? Have you read this book? You see, I want to one day fit in. I mean, I want to fit in in this book. I go, this is not crazy. You don't read about, oh, Peter and John are flogged, and this guy's rising from the dead, and, oh, man, look at Paul.

He was just shipwrecked, and this and this. Oh, no, you know what's crazy? Look, right here, there's this guy named Francis, a Chinese guy who went to China. No way. Now, there's some faith right there.

There's some faith. OK, let's put him in Hebrews 11. You know, we just get so unbiblical in our thinking that the tiniest sacrifice, we lift up like, wow, that's crazy. You know, even after I wrote my first book, I'm not a writer.

I didn't know how to write. Suddenly, this thing, they said, that's going to sell a lot. And suddenly, we hear these rumors like, it looks like you may make a couple million dollars off this. I'm like, what?

Million? And just thinking in my head and talking to my wife and going, well, what am I going to do with a million dollars? I mean, we're going to buy stuff we don't need and stuff we're going to regret.

Let's sign it over right now. Let's sign all the royalties over into a gift fund, and then we can just give it away, but we can't touch it because when we get there, I don't want to look back and go, wow, we just blew all that money on stuff that didn't matter.

I want to know that it counted for something. And that just became our habit. It's like, let's just sign over the royalties because I don't want to touch it. You know, I love what Randy Alcorn says. It's like, you're like the UPS or the FedEx guy.

You don't just get to take every package, you know, and open it up and go, oh, I want this one. You know, your job when God gives you a package is going, okay, who does this go to? This isn't all my stuff just because it came to me.

I'm just a UPS guy. I don't go, woo-hoo, kids, look what we got, a whole truckload. It's just, no. You're given that to distribute. And so we just started doing, and it was crazy what the church would say.

Wait, didn't you save some for your family? I mean, what if there's an emergency? What if there's an emergency, and I'd say, so are you telling me that what's happening in Thailand is not an emergency?

What's happening in Ethiopia is not an emergency? What's happening in Indonesia is not an emergency? What's happening in Haiti is not an emergency? Oh, it's only an emergency if it affects me and my little children.

You got that from the Bible? Man, there's people dying right now. It's just like a joy. Man, do you know how good it is? Have you ever put shoes on an orphan that never had shoes? I remember my wife, when she finally did go to Africa the next year, she just, I was teaching a pastor's conference because that's my gift.

And so my wife took us some kids shopping because that's her gift. And when she came back, she was just, she was in tears. She was just talking about these kids and their feet just protruding out of these shoes that they've had for years.

And she goes, when I went down, just put the shoe on this kid, and just the tears of joy, like I had never seen her so beautiful, just so excited. I mean, this isn't like, oh, go do this because you're this rich American and you're wasting.

No, it's like, man, this is life. Do you know how excited our church was when we started giving everything away? You should have seen the energy in that room. I go, man, we just dug like 10 more wells.

Yeah, the place was just nuts. And people go, man, I sure hope this amphitheater thing works out, because I want to sit in the rain. It was a joy to think we could sacrifice for the sake of our brothers.

Our county ended up shutting it down and said we couldn't do what we wanted to do. County of Ventura, I'm not bitter. But, because I thought this is gonna be awesome. This is gonna be amazing, you know?

But there's just, we think of different ways. That's the way God's wired some of us. Let's just figure this out. This is all for the joy and with the church. Anyways, I don't even know how much time I have, and I totally deviated.

9 .56, what time am I supposed to be done? Okay, let me just, okay. So I went to San Francisco. I went to China, ah, okay, let me go back. Okay, when we were in China, I went to, oh, that's where I left off.

The Persecuted Church and Consumer Christianity

I talked about the underground church. We were gonna go to the underground church, and there was a secret meeting, and so I just took my oldest daughter. I didn't take everyone else, just my oldest daughter, because it was a little dangerous, and she was the most expendable.

And so we go, and we're talking to these guys, right? I wish you could, I wish I could just show you a video of it. I wish, but these young people, the passion on their faces, just giving testimony. Right when we walked in, and the way they prayed, and they're crying, and they're screaming out to God, they were going, God, we want to, send us somewhere dangerous.

Send us to the worst places, God, we want to, you know, and they let me do like a Q &A with them, and I go, well, I want to ask you guys questions. You know, I said, you tell me, tell me about the persecution.

They would tell stories. I mean, it wasn't what I expected, that joy you were talking about, that joy of just, man, what God does in your life. They were telling me stories about when the police came, and they're hiding, and all of them had stories to share, and I'm just at the edge of my seat.

You know, there's one girl that's going, oh, I was just crammed in between these two boards forever. I was trying not to even breathe very loud. I'm just so softly, because a guard was walking right by me, and another one's going, yeah, this money started shooting, just shooting in the air as we were running away, but we were always taught, just keep running, you know?

Don't stop, don't stop, and they're telling me about all of this stuff, but it was with, they're all laughing. They're just, it's with this joy of, man, this is normal, and then they asked me, they go, why are you so fascinated by this?

And I told them, I go, that's not how we do it in America. I go, we have buildings called churches, okay, and people go to these buildings on Sunday morning, and depending on who's speaking, that's which building they go to.

You know, if there's a better speaker here, people will gravitate towards there. People leave, you know, if the band is better there, and they like the music style, or if the kids' program comes up, you know, with the puppets here, it's just, it's just different, and if two people get in an argument, one will just go to a church down the street, and this and that, and the response was crazy.

In fact, my daughter afterward looked at me and goes, Dad, can you believe that? They were laughing, like hysterically. I mean, not just ha, ha, ha, ha. I mean, it was like they were grabbing, and honestly, I wasn't trying to be funny, because that's why my daughter's like, Dad, you weren't even being funny.

I go, I know, I was just making some statements about the church, but to them, it was so comical, because they thought, how in the world did you get that? Seriously, and I walked away going, you guys are right.

It's a bit comical how consumer-driven we've gotten. It's to the point where they were dumbfounded, and you know, sometimes we hear stories like, oh, wow, that's so weird over there in China, you know, and then to go to India and do a conference for the persecuted church, and go, wow, it's just so weird, that little group of people over there.

Then you realize, okay, China's at, what, 1 .4 billion, India's at 1 .2 billion, America's at, what, 280 million, and so the majority of the church is looking at the way we do things and going, are you kidding me?

And I just felt this calling of, no, let's change this. I really believe that. I thought I was gonna stay there, and God was saying, no, you didn't finish your work in America. You go back there. I want my church to be beautiful.

I wanna see a group of people that aren't lukewarm, just jumping from here to there, and throwing a couple bucks in the plate, and trying not to swear too much. I wanna see this, you know, where they're in this word and going, I can have that power right now.

I want it, God. I want the supernatural through me. I wanna give the shirt off my back. I wanna serve you and experience you truly. And when I came back, I went to San Francisco. Just, I don't know why.

It just, and then my brother had a one-bedroom apartment, and our family had nowhere to live, and so literally, that's what took us there, and then once we got there and saw just the darkness, and then went to some impoverished areas over there, and the projects, we said, you know, let's just go.

Let's go. Let's just see what we can do. I've worked with the rich for so long, and I wanna work with the poor for a little bit, because it's a different message. With the rich, it's always, man, humble yourself.

You're not that great. I quit thinking you're so wonderful. You know, God's much bigger than you, but with the poor, a lot of times, it's like, no, you're not a loser. That's not what everyone says about you.

In fact, God would choose you. You could be the leader, and all these, and some great things happen, but I assumed revival. I thought, man, okay, if it's hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven, and God chooses the poor and the lowly, then I'm gonna go to the poor and lowly, and we're gonna see revival.