 Just miracle money, a new house, and children. Yeah! Go ahead, preach. The Bible says that we can ask a miss. And when we ask a miss, we make a mess. There is no shortage of adults taking advantage of children, exploiting children. Be it some adult in an inappropriate relationship with a child, possibly even sex trafficking, causing them to indulge in their own twisted, sinful social experiments, maybe even living their life through them, through maybe beauty pageants. But the one place you would think that you would never see, or you at least should never see children being exploited, is in the church. Build her with the Holy Ghost, you gotta praise Him! But grown men and women... He brought you here today, hallelujah! ...healed down before Ezekiel stoddered as a prophet. Hallelujah! When did you know that you wanted to be a preacher? When I was seven. I had a dream. God was telling me that He wanted me to do His will. Just a few months ago, his mom and stepdad had Ezekiel officially ordained as a minister, which has made him increasingly famous and controversial. It is true that in Ezekiel's case, his parents are making money off of his preaching, as well as the Gospel Music Act that he and his siblings have put together. People seem so starved for some sort of sign or something miraculous, or some sort of entertainment that now we're even turning to children for that entertainment in the church. We have, as Paul says, these itching ears who want to find someone to tickle them, and so now we're resorting even to children to do so. Oh! Remember the Lord doing for us, making tongues, washing up God. You need the Holy Ghost to feel nothing in tongues. You need some money, but you give Him. How troubling is it even to have these kids to even spout off incorrect teachings? God's door in your path, Psalm 24 says, Lift up your head, O ye gates, and be lifted up, ye everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in. Who is this king of glory? The Lord God Almighty in battle. He is the king of glory. In this chapter, the same word for mouth is the same word for door. So the writer is saying, if you open your mouth. Now clearly you can't blame Him. He's still young. He's still a child. The problem is though, because He is really, let's be honest, He's mimicking someone. He's being told what to say because children, they understand and they can learn a lot. They can navigate through computers. They can navigate through all these different technology, all the technology that we have. They can understand things. They can at least repeat things, even if they don't have a clear understanding. When you listen to His, the way He speaks, how His style is, clearly that's not something that's natural. We've all been children before. We know that this young boy who does not have a deep voice yet is trying to force the tone of His voice. Why? Because He's been taught that. Now, let's be clear. Though we cannot blame Him, who we can blame, obviously are His parents. The Bible says in Matthew 18.5, Whoever receives one such child and my name receives me. And here's the warning. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in me to sin or the word is to stumble, the Greek word is kind of lexy, which is to stumble. It would be better for that person to have a great meal stone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of sea. God is not taking it lightly when you cause a child to stumble. Obviously, when a parent is trying to develop their child and their mistakes are made, then obviously God is not speaking about that. But this is someone who is intentionally causing someone to their actions or misactions to cause a child to stumble. By the way, the passage that He refers to, that's not what the word is. The word is patak, which is the word for door. It is derived from a cousin, which is P, which is for mouth. It's not the same word. Now, again, I don't blame Him because He's still a boy. But it's the adults who are around them, who are the ones who are responsible. And it's not as though they're not being responsible. It's still that these children seem to be part of a plan. To our founder, the Reverend Al Sharpton, to Dr. W. Franklin Richardson, to Mother Gwynne Carr and my parents. It's a pleasure to be here again. The last time I was here, the Rev told me to keep my bags packed because we was going on tour. And I'm still waiting for that. When you surround yourself with people who are not necessarily godly people who have ill repute, whose reputation is not upstanding, especially in the body, these people who live their lives to get as much gain as possible. And now they hook up with these children. Now, this child is interested, as he says, going on tour. Why is that? Because that's what's been programmed into his head. There are people there who are supposed to be shepherding their children, but in actuality, they're more greedy dogs. The Bible says in Isaiah 56 that, and the dogs are greedy, they are not satisfied, and they are shepherds who have no understanding. They have all turned to their own way, each one in his unjust gain to the last one. They are trying to make money, and in this case, not off of the flock, but off their own children. We have example after example after example of child preachers who've been pushed on by their parents or grandparents to take the stage. And this is though that one, they're living their lives vicariously through them, but also as a means of gain. Few modern-day child preachers have garnered the attention Terry Durham has. He's been in newspapers across the country. It even appeared live on The Today Show. When did you realize you had a gift to be able to preach? Now it's four years old. When you were four years old. Terry, who's now 11, was ordained at six. He says he's a prophet in the tradition of Jesus. Terry's grandmother Sharon Monroe is also a preacher at her own non-denominational church. Does he have the power to hear? Yes, he does. I've been on the road with him going on three years. I've seen people come in in wheelchairs and walk. I've seen people come in in a cane and put the cane down. I have seen so many miracles. We were unable to confirm any medical miracles, but that does not dampen his grandmother's enthusiasm. It also comes as no surprise that when you see these children being exploited, you're going to notice one other common thread that their doctrine is also off. Why? Because people who are leading them, their doctrine is off, but more to the point, they don't care about their doctrine. Again, these children are a tool, one, to gain fame, but also to gain money. Over the last few years, Terry has preached in 37 states and five countries. Minnesota Terry Durham! The belly of the fish. His father, Todd Durham Sr., sees Terry as a gold mine. I see Terry Durham as a major icon for the Christian industry. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Todd Sr., who works as a night security guard, is the marketer promoter of the Terry Durham Ministry. Jesus is, you know, is the product. I've looked up Joel Osteen. Joel is at 76 million a year. One day I'm hoping Terry will be at about 86 million. So, you know, ministries are profiting these days. Everyone's buying into this. Well, the marketing has already begun. Sermons are for sale along with t-shirts, DVDs, even pin-up photos. It's bad enough when a stranger wants to exploit a child. But how horrible is it when the adult that's exploiting them is the child's own parent? At that age, many times these children don't really know what they want. They have an idea of what they want to do, what they want to be. But then again, I wanted to be a fireman, a police officer, a football player, an astronaut, and everything else. A cowboy. I wanted to be Luke Skywalker. I wanted to be all these different things. Why? Because I was a little boy. My mind was still developing. I was still learning. And then when he's asked, this young fellow is asked, what does he want to be in front of his parents, in front of his grandmother? He says one thing. A preacher? Yes. I'm going to be a preacher to the day that I die. That was in front of Grandma. But then when asked by himself, he says something different. His heart comes out. But moments earlier, along with my producer, this is what he said. What do you want to be when you grow up? A pediatrician. Really? You want to be a doctor? Yes. And this is where your heart breaks, because these children just want to grow up and be healthy children. They don't know what that means. Someone tells them. And so what do they end up doing? Because they love the people that are pushing them, or in some case, they might be intimidated. But let's just assume that they love them. But because they love them, they are going to naturally mimic them. They'll say the things that they say. They'll believe the things they believe and feel the things they believe. Why? Because they're looking to please the person that's over them. Case in point, here we've got a person who is known for saying how God speaks to him all the time, even how the devil has spoken to him. And so what do we see as a result? Because his children are watching. They say the same thing. He came with me, you know, crying and stuff, and I just prayed for him. And I know that kids definitely be under attack. I remember the devil used to talk to me. He told me he heard the voice of God. And then he came and he told me he heard God talk to him again today. So first God told me. So God told me. So God told me. So God told me. First Lord, my brother's a sister. So I got a word. I got a prophetic word for you guys today that I want to share with you. That the Lord gave me. The Lord usually speaks to me in visuals. And it gives me, you know, a way to just show you something. So I'm sitting here and praying and he gives me a word. So I want to share with you guys one of the things that the Lord showed me. The Lord showed me this wave. Guys, I want to share this dream with you that I had. God showed me that God put this in my heart this morning. So God told me, even though all these people hate me, I still love you. And I'll send a respecter and I still love God. These are people who their own self-sustainability, their own wealth, their own growth, their own brand name. These are the things that are more important to them. As a matter of fact, these are people who see the Bible and the ministry in many cases, not in every case, but in many cases as a source for gain. Paul says this in 1 Timothy 6.5. He says, And constant friction between men of depraved mind and depraved of truth. Who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. However, we understand that godliness actually is a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment. Our life in Christ is the gain. If we get any sort of reward from that, any sort of accolations, any sort of rewards, well, then that's secondary. But the main point is salvation. That's our gain, not financial, not something monetary. What we really want, as John tells us in 1 John, he says, I have no greater joy than this to hear of my children walking in the truth. He's not necessarily speaking of children. He's speaking of children of faith, but the same still applies and holds true for our own children. How much more so even for our own children? We want to see our children walking in the faith, and so we ought to live guided before them, not exploiting them. We see them, baby! We see them, baby! We see them, we see money! My prayer is that these children will grow up and will see that they are doing better, that they are living for the Lord, not because they have been forced to, because they have been shown that the Lord is that following the way of Christ, they placed their faith in Christ, not because they were compelled to do so, but they were shown by examples by their parents and other adults around them that the only way for true happiness, the only way for true gain is by placing their faith in Christ.