Let's Talk Local Podcast | Let’s Talk Midterms with Pastor Keith Craft

00:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Pastor Keith Craft.

00:15

Pastor Keith Craft

Yes.

00:15

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I am so grateful that you're here. You are one of the few bold leaders. But there are some, right? There are others. But you are one of the bold leaders in this North Texas community who have really stepped out not as just a pastor, but right, you're a business leader, you coach people, you pour into not just the people within your congregation, but within the community.

00:45

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah. You started your church in 2000?

00:48

Pastor Keith Craft

2000, yeah. Thousand. Twenty six years ago, it's hard to believe.

00:50

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah. It it is. That's that's a long time. And the church Elevate, is located in Frisco. Right?

00:56

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah. Elevate Life Frisco.

00:57

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah. Elevate Life Frisco. Can you first just tell our viewers and listeners how the community has changed in in however many ways that it has or has not since you started it?

01:09

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah. Long story short, we were living in Dallas. I'm from Dallas. My father was a Dallas policeman, so I grew up in the Oh, Dallas you, didn't In fact, it's an interesting side note story, but my dad was actually the first man up in the Texas Book Depository, found Lee Harvey Oswald's rifle. He did the original crime scene investigation for the JFK assassination.

01:31

Pastor Keith Craft

So we grew up with him being on the news every anniversary, if you want to call it that, the assassination of President Kennedy.

01:39

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Kennedy, yeah.

01:41

Pastor Keith Craft

So anyway, but I grew up in Dallas and I've always loved Dallas. I've always loved Texas. I've always taken pride in the most positive sense in being both from Dallas and from Texas. I think Texas is the greatest state in the world. I think it could be its own country.

01:59

Pastor Keith Craft

It qualifies to be its own country with its GDP and everything else. How I got to Frisco was I was actually a corporate coach for a company there that was the largest company in Frisco at that time. Frisco in 'ninety eight when I was working with this company, I had about 28,000 people. And so it was really kind of a cow town. There was a mall that was being built out there and everybody was wondering, what are they doing building this giant mall, Stonebrau Mall in the And middle of a there were no roads going to it.

02:35

Pastor Keith Craft

I mean, it was, the tollway wasn't there yet. And so anyway, there was a company that I was working with, the Rodman Company, and was doing some coaching with them. And long story short, one of their 36 VPs, one of the wives had been diagnosed with brain cancer. And so they saw me as a chief spiritual officer of their organization, which that's something really that I've taken on now all these years later with companies that I help. I personally coach people, we do masterminds, but then also for several companies, I can't do it for a lot of companies, but I'm their CSO, their Chief Spiritual Officer.

03:19

Pastor Keith Craft

And what that means is just aligning their business with the kingdom of God. And for entrepreneurs who are kingdom minded and want to live their life personally and professionally with a biblical worldview, then I help them do that. Everything from the establishment of core values, to hiring competencies, to just culture. So with that said, this was one of the first companies I'd ever been a chief spiritual officer for. And so I'll never forget the founder of the company, Rod Villehauer reached out to me and he said, Hey, there's one of our VPs that his wife has been diagnosed with brain cancer and she would like you to do her funeral.

04:06

Pastor Keith Craft

And I said, Oh, well, listen, I'm not really a funeral guy. I said, I will consider that. And he said, Would you meet with her? And I said, Yes. And so she had seen me speak at a church called Covenant Church, which interestingly enough, Covenant Church in Carrollton, as we're doing this podcast, they're having this week their fifty year anniversary.

04:29

Pastor Keith Craft

So again, would have been now twenty eight years ago that we started this journey with even thinking about being a pastor. And so what happened was I met with her and I said, Well, listen, we're gonna pray that God will heal you. I said, That's the first thing. But if that doesn't happen, I would be honored to do your funeral. I said, I want to be honest, I've never done a funeral.

04:57

Pastor Keith Craft

Was not a pastor. I was a minister. I'd been ministering for many, many years and been traveling. I'd had a team called Strike Force that spoke in public schools. We had the number one assembly program for public schools in America in the '80s and the '90s.

05:13

Pastor Keith Craft

And so after speaking to 6,000,000 young people in all 50 states, we transitioned out of that. But I still, what's funny is I'm 66 and we still bring the team back once a year, every anniversary of our church. And I bring the team back and we'll have a policeman who'll handcuff me and I still break police handcuffs and we still break bricks and we do all these feats of strings. It's a fun thing. But anyway, we did that all over the country in different places in the world, featured on ABC World News Tonight with Peter Jennings back in the day, 1988.

05:45

Pastor Keith Craft

But anyway, so I'd been involved in ministry, but I'd never been a pastor. Pastors are the ones that do funerals.

05:52

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Don't if

05:53

Pastor Keith Craft

everybody knows that or not. They're not evangelists, not guys that do ministry, but pastors. So anyway, I agreed to do her funeral and without making it too long, she said, I don't want you, you don't know me. She said, I've just heard you preach and I wanna expose Frisco, Texas to you in my death. And so I just want them to hear you preach.

06:25

Pastor Keith Craft

She said, Everybody that knows me, they'll do the eulogies and all that, but then you step up, you preach the gospel and you give an invitation at my funeral. And I said, I'd be honored to do that. And so First Baptist Church, a little church in Frisco, Texas at that time, they had actually just lost their pastor. And so here I was doing the funeral for this matriarch in the city. And so it was packed and I gave...

06:52

Pastor Keith Craft

And my message, by the way, that day was what good people do when bad things happen. Because the truth is no matter how good of a person you are, godly of a person you are, bad things are going to happen.

07:05

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Absolutely.

07:06

Pastor Keith Craft

And so that was my message. And then I gave an invitation and it looked like about half of the place stood up to give their life to Christ. I mean, was a lot. Wow. There's probably 700 people there and at least half of them stood up.

07:21

Pastor Keith Craft

Oh my gosh. Go ahead, chills. I walked out into the lawn that day and a man walked up to me and he's just got tears streaming at his face. And he said, My name is Gary Barnes. I'm the assistant fire chief of Frisco.

07:39

Pastor Keith Craft

And, you know, it's the craziest thing. He's just balling. He said, I've I've been diagnosed with the same type of brain cancer that Mary had. And And man, I was so moved today by what happened and I was just wondering if you would do my funeral. So here I am, I'm like, I'm not a pastor and I'm getting funeral gigs at a funeral.

08:02

Pastor Keith Craft

It's like my last, I mean, I don't know. It's the most difficult time in people's lives. It is. I'm not necessarily trained for this. So he said, It was the most marvelous funeral I've ever been to.

08:17

Pastor Keith Craft

I said, Well, thank you so much. And I said, so we talked for a few minutes. I said, well, I'm gonna believe, I'm gonna pray for you and we'll believe that you'll be healed. So this was July of ninety nine, nineteen ninety nine. In September, last weekend of September, would have been this last week, twenty six years ago now, twenty seven years ago now, he chartered a bus and brought the mayor of Frisco, the chief of police, the fire chief, the school superintendent, everybody that was anybody in Frisco came to Covenant Church to hear me preach.

08:56

Pastor Keith Craft

I was preaching on the last week in September 1999. So I didn't even know that, but the pastor had heard that there was a bus that was chartered from Frisco. Now, back then there was a big distance between Frisco and Carrollton. Now it's kind of all together. It's one big highway and everything connects, but it was a long way.

09:17

Pastor Keith Craft

I mean, it was 17 miles and you're in the boondocks. Yes. You're in a cow town called Frisco, 28,000 people. And so the pastor got up that Sunday and he said, I understand there's a contingency of people here today from Frisco. And he didn't know why.

09:37

Pastor Keith Craft

And I didn't really know why. And about two fifty people stood. Now this was a church back then of about 5,000. They went on to beat 10,000 plus people, but there were about 5,000 people. Two fifty people stood up or so.

09:49

Pastor Keith Craft

I thought, wow. So anyway, and then I recognized there was Gary. So after the service, they sent me a message and said, Would you consider having lunch with us? And so they brought a bus of 50, but then there were hundreds, 200 other people that had come. So I joined with that 50 and we went to lunch and was Gary Burns' last thing he did on the earth was to charter a bus and bring people to church to hear me preach because he wanted to introduce Frisco, continued to introduce Frisco to me.

10:26

Pastor Keith Craft

Same thing was in his heart. That was in Mary Anne's heart. That was Mary's name, Mary Anne's

10:30

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

heart. Divine.

10:31

Pastor Keith Craft

She was a patriarch. He was the assistant fire chief and was so moved by that funeral. He said, I want you to do the same thing at my funeral that you did at Mary Ann's and just preach the gospel and give an invitation. So here I was, now, first weekend of October in nineteen ninety nine, and I'm standing in the same church.

10:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

They

10:54

Pastor Keith Craft

didn't have a pastor doing the funeral for now the former assistant fire chief in Frisco. It was not only packed out, but they had a gymnasium with about a thousand people. It was because he was a... I don't know if you've ever been to a fireman's funeral Yes, somewhere Frisco, it was a big deal. They carried his casket on the fire trucks,

11:15

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

on Oh, the top of the fire I've never

11:17

Pastor Keith Craft

seen They crossed the fire ladders. Of course, was a very small city. Everybody knew everybody back then.

11:21

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes.

11:22

Pastor Keith Craft

And I'm answering your question with a very long answer about how's Frisco

11:26

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

No, interesting, yes.

11:28

Pastor Keith Craft

And so here was this small little town and again, that day when I gave the invitation, there were people in the main auditorium, people in the gym, it was being broadcast into the gym from the main auditorium of the church, giving their lives to Christ. And so on October 31, I sit down with Mike Hayes, who is the pastor at Covenant Church, I said, Mike, it's the weirdest thing. But I said, I think God's connected my heart to Frisco, Texas. And the story behind the story, or as Paul Harvey used to say, and now the rest of the story, was when I was 37, my family was planted in Covenant Church and Mike said, Do you think you'll ever pastor? And I said, I'll answer that question when I'm 40.

12:17

Pastor Keith Craft

I said, I don't think so though. I said, I don't think I'm that foot that can fit in that shoe. Because my world was really large. I mean, was ours. I traveled all over speaking, I had a team, I was involved in business, I was a corporate speaker and had a lot going on.

12:38

Pastor Keith Craft

And just the last thought in my mind was, I said, But I'll answer that question when I'm 40. He said, Well, I just wondered because, he goes, I think you've got it. I said, Well, I appreciate that. Honestly, in my mind, I thought I would be lowering the gift that God had put in me just to be a pastor. Because I thought if that's the only thing I was going to do, I knew that isn't what God had called me

13:00

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

to do.

13:01

Pastor Keith Craft

But that got me thinking, it got me praying. I said, Okay, God, if you want to do that... So I was 37 when he asked me that question. So here I am at 39 and it's 10/31/1999. I've had these two funerals back to back.

13:15

Pastor Keith Craft

And I told Mike, I said, I think through these deaths, God's connecting me to this city. And I said, I want to know what you think. I said, I wasn't on these staff, I said, but I'm in your church. I said, would you ever be open to blessing me to go out there and start a church? And he was like, almost like flabbergasted because he knew all I had going on.

13:42

Pastor Keith Craft

I mean, just on a very personal note, but I don't mind sharing it because I want your audience to know that like, this was not some kind of ambition that I had to start this church.

13:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep.

13:53

Pastor Keith Craft

And therefore, it'll explain the why of our church now.

13:56

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah.

13:57

Pastor Keith Craft

Okay? But like that that that month, just in October, in that one month, I had done personally over $600,000 I was doing great.

14:08

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Sure.

14:08

Pastor Keith Craft

My life was great. And my kids and my wife, and we just had a great life, a great family. Doing it all for God. I couldn't imagine me doing one thing because I'd never done just one thing. Couldn't imagine myself just pastoring a church, with all due respect.

14:29

Pastor Keith Craft

And so he said, Well, how do you see that going? And I said, Well, I would just gather a few people. I said, This one person, Rod Villehauer, I'm a corporate coach for his company. I would invite a few people and we'll see what happens. Again, long story short, on 11/03/1999, he blessed us to do it.

14:51

Pastor Keith Craft

He said, Well, what are you thinking? Like meeting a home for like a year and maybe just see if there's any interest? I said, Nope, I'm thinking about starting January. He goes, January? This guy had been pastoring at that time for twenty five years.

15:04

Pastor Keith Craft

He goes, Two months from now? I go, Well, not even really two months, really one month

15:08

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

from now.

15:09

Pastor Keith Craft

He goes, Well, I'm not sure about that. But he said, Just see what happens. So anyway, I gathered about 23 people. We met at a little church in Frisco called Buenos Nuevas, which in English is Good News Church. And we met on a Thursday night and I taught on the five star church.

15:33

Pastor Keith Craft

And the five star church was based on Ritz Carlton and the way that they do business.

15:39

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Oh my gosh.

15:40

Pastor Keith Craft

And I thought, I wanted you guys to come together because I have this, I believe God's connecting me with Frisco, but I said, It's not going be like your mama's church or my mama's church or anything. Said, it's going to be like a five star church with the excellence of a Ritz Carlton. And everybody's like looking at me. So I kind of laid it out and I said, So, there anybody interested, after I taught him this, is there anybody interested in being a part of this? And to the person, everybody.

16:13

Pastor Keith Craft

So, the former mayor of Frisco was there that day. He's since passed away. Rod Villehauer was there. My best friend, Scott Uncle Back and his wife were there, who I discipled when I was a youth pastor in Sherman, Texas in 1984. And they were there.

16:34

Pastor Keith Craft

And he's a builder. He's one now, fast forward twenty six years later, that's built our 168,000 square foot cathedral in Frisco. So God had already put the players in place. He was a Oh

16:46

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

yeah.

16:48

Pastor Keith Craft

So anyway, there were other people that were there and many of them were still with us today. And so I said, well, I'd like to start January 1. I said, no, or January. I said, what's the first week in January, 2000? They said, January 2.

17:05

Pastor Keith Craft

I said, well, so here I am, man of faith and power. I said, y'all know this Y2K thing. Do you remember Y2K?

17:12

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Of course.

17:12

Pastor Keith Craft

Y2K is, they didn't know if the electricity was gonna work, if the electrical grid, They didn't know if computers were gonna We all just click waited. Everybody... Not everybody maybe, but I had a little bit of extra water. We had a little extra food. I'm not a fear monger, but I'm just saying to my heart, nobody knew.

17:28

Pastor Keith Craft

You remember. It was crazy. So man of faith and power said, Well, let's do it the first Sunday because we may not have electricity and nobody knows what's going to be happening in the world. We may have some chaos going on, but what's the second week? That would be January 9, right?

17:42

Pastor Keith Craft

They said, Yeah. Well, that was my fortieth birthday. So I had told Mike when I was 37, I'll answer that question when I'm 40. And I literally answered the question. So we started in a little school called Noel Smith Elementary in Frisco because there was nowhere to meet in Frisco.

17:59

Pastor Keith Craft

There were no buildings and we had to do it on a Sunday night. So we started, over 700 people came the first night and many of those were from Covenant. And so Mike Hayes was there, who's the pastor of covenant. It was funny because he got up and he said, Now listen, this is great, but don't ever be run out here and be a part of this church. You're a part of my...

18:21

Pastor Keith Craft

Anyway, was very funny introduction. Yes, sir. Thank you. But anyway, so the next Sunday we started with about, including children, about 153 people. Wow.

18:31

Pastor Keith Craft

And so we were off. And so here's what my schedule was. So I still, on Sunday mornings, I was booked out all over America preaching to some of the largest churches in America, non denominational churches, biggest Baptist churches, all kinds of denominational churches. I was running other businesses, other organizations, but I thought I could make Sunday night work. So it worked perfect because I could preach somewhere in America and get back on Sunday night for our So that started our church.

19:05

Pastor Keith Craft

Now, what distinguishes our church is the same thing that distinguishes Frisco. Nobody had any idea what was gonna happen in Frisco. No. Nobody knew by 2008 that Frisco would be the fastest growing city in America. In America.

19:21

Pastor Keith Craft

Nobody knew by 2010, it would not only be one of the fastest growing cities in America, would be the most prosperous city in America to live in, but God knew. And so before the surge, He planted us right dab smack in the middle off of Maine and Teal in this emerging town.

19:41

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes.

19:42

Pastor Keith Craft

And we met on Sunday nights for two years and then we moved to Wilma Fisher Elementary and we went to a Sunday morning service by our second year. In 2004, we built our first auditorium and we bought... When we were two years old, we bought 28 acres. Two And when years later we built our first auditorium, was 4,700,000. And immediately I just told everybody, I said, Look, we're going to establish God's kingdom in Frisco like nobody's business.

20:22

Pastor Keith Craft

We're going do what God wants us to do. And I established it as a leadership culture. And I got a lot of questioning, even with my friends in the body of Christ and other ministers and pastors, what do you mean a leadership culture? I said, yeah, I think there needs, just like there were tribes in Israel, I said, the sons of Issachar distinguished himself because they knew the times and the seasons and they knew what to do. And I said, So I feel like in the body of Christ, there needs to be a church that emphasizes leadership and that we actually raise up leaders, that we have an incubator of greatness.

21:02

Pastor Keith Craft

And so we established a love based leadership culture where people of all ages, all ethnicities, all walks of life could come in and learn to be developed, to be Christ followers. And the idea is to deploy them into leadership in all walks of life with a biblical worldview. So before I'm a pastor, I'm a leader. Before I'm a husband, I'm a leader. Before I'm a parent, I'm a leader.

21:27

Pastor Keith Craft

Before I'm a grandparent, I'm a leader. And I've seen myself that way most of my life because I've been serving God my whole life. So I came to the Lord when I was nine years old. I was baptized in the Holy Spirit when I was nine years old. I felt a call to ministry when I was nine years old.

21:45

Pastor Keith Craft

My whole life there was a focus, but it wasn't necessarily to be a pastor.

21:49

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

A pastor, yeah.

21:51

Pastor Keith Craft

So what has happened in Frisco, now to get to your specific question, is the demographics have really changed as everybody knows. Guess what the world does? The world comes to a place where God is moving without them knowing it's God. The world comes to a place, there's like a magnet that pulls people. That's right.

22:14

Pastor Keith Craft

And that's the way I see it. I don't see it as an Indian invasion or a Muslim invasion or whatever. No, I understand in the big picture what's happening and I feel like God has placed us, like I said, right in the middle of it, rather than us going into all the world to preach the gospel, He's bringing all the world to where we I really do see that.

22:34

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

22:35

Pastor Keith Craft

And so the strong stands that I've taken didn't start when the Indian people came and still come with the HB1 visas the Muslims. It started with just the gospel of this is the gospel. Jesus Christ is the way. He is the truth. He is the life.

22:57

Pastor Keith Craft

There is no comparison to Jesus and Mohammed. Mohammed came six hundred years after Jesus. I mean, it's like, there's no comparison to the Word of God and the Quran. The Word of God is the Word of God. The Quran is a convolution of other writings and a man's, in my opinion, insanity and is based on a pedophile named Muhammad.

23:20

Pastor Keith Craft

And so we... We've taken very strong stands, not against Muslim people Mhmm. But against Islam, a demonic ideology, not Islam the religion, because Islam is not a religion. It's a demonic ideology. So yeah, we've got a reputation for being bold, and there's been a question.

23:44

Pastor Keith Craft

I'll pause for a minute if you want to ask anything, but I know I'm talking a lot.

23:47

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

No, keep going because you're setting me up to... I didn't know if you were going to dive into this, but you are, so this is great.

23:56

Pastor Keith Craft

So, a of question, especially since 2000, I'm sorry, 2020, where the world just went crazy. Okay. With everything COVID to BLM, to cancel culture, to all that we all know that has happened. I'm talking about, we were not a church that was willing to shut down. I was not a church that was willing to wear a mask.

24:18

Pastor Keith Craft

We were not a church. In fact, it was so funny. I had somebody on my staff during that time, and then I'll come back to the topic at hand. But I had somebody on my staff who was over our operations in our church and I happened to be out and the edict had come down six feet of separation, everybody wear a mask. And they had me on a screen.

24:40

Pastor Keith Craft

So I'm doing my staff meeting, I'm somewhere else in the world and I'm looking out and I could see them and they could see me. I said, Do you have people separated six feet? And are people wearing mask? And operation guy goes, Yeah, it's just... I said, Everybody take your mask off and put those chairs together.

24:59

Pastor Keith Craft

We don't do that. We're not gonna do that. I said, This is an agenda. I'm not saying COVID's not real, but this is what's happening in our country right now is an agenda. So once we started taking that stand with that, it's every...

25:16

Pastor Keith Craft

My point is COVID, BLM and the insanity of not that black lives don't matter, but the insanity of ideology behind it. We started taking-

25:29

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And the funding behind it.

25:30

Pastor Keith Craft

And the funding behind it, yes.

25:32

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Which people were never aware of.

25:34

Pastor Keith Craft

We're never like just so deceived and we're still dealing with the wokeness and all that's happened since then. Well, church, message has always been the same. It's just as culture has shifted, we seem to be bold. I mean, no, our message has just always been the same and that is Jesus is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. There is none other.

25:57

Pastor Keith Craft

That every knee shall bow, every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And yet with love, with love, but not with what I would call toxic empathy. And that's what we've got a lot in our world today. There's a lot of toxic empathy because people don't understand what really love is all about. You've got to speak the truth and love.

26:19

Pastor Keith Craft

And the thing that Jesus said is, You will know the truth and the truth will set you free. But here's the implication, the truth about 99.9% of the time is gonna hurt you before it helps you. And if you can really buy into that, and that's where the boldness comes from is I know the truth. Like when I'm speaking to people, my heart is never to just cause conflict or to just... Now I do wanna always punch the devil in the face, but with the gospel.

26:59

Pastor Keith Craft

But it's never to just challenge even people's belief system, but to speak the truth to them in love and to love them enough to tell them the truth. And that's what boldness is to me. It's loving people enough to tell them the truth. So, that's what we've been doing. And so again, back to what I was saying, there are a lot of my friends in ministry, pastors, twenty six years you can imagine I've spoken.

27:27

Pastor Keith Craft

Every... I mean, from Joel Osteen to... I've spoken at Joel's church twice. I've spoken to some of the largest churches still in America in the last twenty six years. A lot of great relationships, but not a lot of my friends and not a lot of pastors took a stand.

27:44

Pastor Keith Craft

The way I'll explain it is this, in the book of Exodus, this is a very interesting thing. Everybody kind of knows the story that at least is familiar with the Bible. Some people that may not be familiar with the Bible may not know the story. So, God calls Moses, he reluctantly leads the people out of Egypt. As they're going out of Egypt, God tells Moses, Ask the Egyptians for their gold.

28:15

Pastor Keith Craft

Which by the way, just want to remind everybody, the wealth of the wicked is stored up for the righteous. They gave them their gold. They loaded them up with gold. They were happy they were leaving because of the plagues and all that was going on. Well, we know the story, if nothing else, you've hopefully maybe seen the 10 commandments, which are all from Heston.

28:36

Pastor Keith Craft

He holds the rod of God, which represented God's authority and the Red Sea parts and they go over with dry land, over dry land and it's been proven over and over that even to this day, they find wagon wheels- Scientifically. It's been proven. Well, then here come the Egyptians. It's like they had this awakening. We gave them all our gold.

29:00

Pastor Keith Craft

We just let all our free labor go. I mean, these were our slaves and there's 2,000,000 of them, let's go get them.

29:05

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And

29:06

Pastor Keith Craft

so the children of Israel get on the other side of the Red Sea, the walls of water are still up and they immediately start complaining. This is the first time murmuring, by the way, is mentioned in scripture. And as they're coming across, God, the right time, crashes the waves down, they're all And then Miriam, who was Moses' sister, but was considered the queen of Israel, the horse and the rider had been thrown into the sea. She begins to lead them in worship. All that to say, they're on this journey that was supposed to take eleven days, ends up taking forty four years.

29:54

Pastor Keith Craft

Why? Because of what was in man's heart. Man's heart. Yeah. In their journey, God's trying to get them out of a slave mentality.

30:06

Pastor Keith Craft

One of the most difficult things God has to deal with us, and the prophet Isaiah spoke about it in Isaiah 55, God says, For your thoughts are not my thoughts, says the Lord, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are your and your ways than my ways. And he says, As the rain comes down and does not go back up, but waters the earth, I make it bring forth and produce, so is my word that will not return void. So God's consummate problem with us is our thinking. God's consummate problem is He wants us to think like Him, be like Him, do like Him, so that we can rule like Him.

30:45

Pastor Keith Craft

He's called us you know, there's the greatest commission, which is to go into all the world, preach the gospel, make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. A lot of people know about that. There's the greatest commandment, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength. But what most people don't realize before there was the greatest commission and the greatest commandment, there was the greatest assignment. And the greatest assignment is found in Genesis one twenty six-twenty eight that says, And let us, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, make man in our own image according to our likeness.

31:17

Pastor Keith Craft

Let's supernaturally endow them to do what we do. That's what according means there. Let's don't just make them in our own image, let's supernaturally endow them to be like us. And so he blessed them, both male and female. There's the gender.

31:32

Pastor Keith Craft

You either believe the Bible or you don't. He didn't bless them, they, them, who, whatever. He blessed them, male and female. Again, that's why God's always having to work with man. Man comes up, how many genders are there?

31:45

Pastor Keith Craft

Well, Talarico says there's six of them. Others say there's over two fifty six. It's like, well, I'm a cat, I'm a dog. I'm like, well, name for a grandfather's Papa Gorilla, so I guess I'm a gorilla. But anyway, it's like whatever you identify with, which is the problem, you're made in the image of God, to image God, to identify with God, to get your identity from God.

32:09

Pastor Keith Craft

And then the greatest assignment is in verse 28 of Genesis one. And God blessed them to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and take dominion. So here they are, they come out of Egypt, they're slaves, they've been in bondage for four hundred years, they don't know how to do anything except be a slave, And God gives them the 10 commandments. He calls Moses up on the top of Mount Moriah. Again, you know the story.

32:34

Pastor Keith Craft

He goes up there. Well, what happens when he's up there hearing from God to give them boundaries, which is His grace, by the way. Was a prefigure of His grace. Listen, this is how you live and this is how you'll succeed. If you abide by these 10 commandments, you'll succeed, which there's still now, thank God for the state of Texas in every public school in the state of Texas, now the 10 commandments are posted.

33:00

Pastor Keith Craft

But it's like, it works. If you do these commandments, they work, not the Quran, not any other religion, not Hinduism or anything else that wants to come into our culture, which is what we're having to deal with now as the church, because people are more cultured than they are theologically and biblically educated.

33:24

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep. Equipped.

33:25

Pastor Keith Craft

And so... Yeah.

33:26

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

There's a video that I saw. I think it was Kayla. Yeah. And it was after she was talking about, you know, weigh the truth and the life. We think someone else will handle that.

33:39

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

We see it on social media, what's happening in Nigeria. Someone else will handle that. We see what's happening around the world. Well, I hope someone else handles that. We see what's happening in Frisco.

33:49

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Oh, well, I hope God handles it. You have a part to play. That's why God sent you here. It's not just Moses. It's not just Esther.

34:00

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It's not just David. It's you. And it's not just you, right?

34:06

Pastor Keith Craft

This is

34:06

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

your wonderful daughter. I had the pleasure of meeting her and your gorgeous wife, Pastor Sheila. And so this is essentially extrapolating from what you were saying. The heart of humanity.

34:23

Pastor Keith Craft

Yes.

34:24

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That unfortunately does not seem to understand that we are all called and responsible to be leaders. Yes. Which you are forming in your church.

34:33

Pastor Keith Craft

Yes.

34:34

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

You are training your children, your in laws, your community

34:40

Pastor Keith Craft

Yes.

34:40

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

About this specifically. Yes. And whenever right here, Kila, whenever Kila Craft Ambrose is talking about what's happening in Frisco. Do you all break that down so that the average Christian in Texas or North Texas or those of us who watch some of your YouTubes and donate online, whatever it is, Are you breaking down? This is what Christianity teaches.

35:08

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah.

35:08

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

This is what perhaps some of the more diverse religious influence that is now spreading around us teaches. Do you do this comparative analysis?

35:18

Pastor Keith Craft

100%. 1%. And again, the reason I'm giving biblical context is because when Moses was getting the 10 commandments, what were the children of Israel doing? They were taking the gold that God had given them and making it a false idol, which shows why money becomes a god to people.

35:38

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It's true.

35:39

Pastor Keith Craft

And so they weren't thinking money's the god, but it was a precursor to money being an idol in people's lives. So Moses comes down and God is so incensed by it, is He says, I want you to kill them. And so basically there was 3,000 of the 2,000,000 that were making this happen and many of them were the leaders. And so Moses said, Who will stand with me? And only the tribe of Levi stood up and they grabbed his sword and they killed their own people.

36:12

Pastor Keith Craft

They killed 3,000 people that day. And what was that a picture of? That was the birth of the Levitical priesthood. So, why there are pastors that do talk about this and don't talk about this, why there are pastors who are bold and aren't bold, is because there are some pastors that don't understand the origin of why we're even pastors, why we're in ministry. We're not priests first, we're warriors first.

36:40

Pastor Keith Craft

So we're warrior priests. There's so many pastors that don't understand that. Why? Because they're just called to the ministry. They're just called to preach the gospel.

36:48

Pastor Keith Craft

They're just called to just show people God's love. And they would never wanna speak against Islam because they're trying to reach a Muslim. They would never wanna speak against Hinduism, which has 10,000 gods. Jesus can be one of them, but they would never speak against it because they wanna reach those people in the name of love rather than understanding, no, you've gotta speak the truth in love because the enemy wants to destroy them and he wants to destroy you. And and oftentimes he wants to just to use them to destroy you.

37:23

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes. And this is something that Monty and I were speaking about in my home, our home. Together, I've written two articles specifically about where we stand today with Islam, Islamism, Islamists, what have you, because there is nuance there, and we do as Christians have a calling to love our Muslim brothers and sisters.

37:47

Pastor Keith Craft

Love everybody. Yeah. But

37:48

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah. I'm waiting to send this third article because any way I slice it, and and and there are millions of peaceful Muslims. There are. Yep. But let's fast forward to when numbers are are greater than where they are now.

38:11

Pastor Keith Craft

Yep.

38:12

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Let's say, you know, they continue to spread because there are religious rights available to them, which I wanna speak about, with you in a moment. Mhmm. But it is an impending threat at some point to where even the the peaceful Muslims will will have to be required to by these Islamists Yeah. To rally against

38:39

Pastor Keith Craft

Christians. They will do

38:40

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

it. They will have to.

38:41

Pastor Keith Craft

They will

38:41

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

do it. They And will do so I know we're not there today. I know there's a lot that has to come into play, but the religion, that religion is spreading rapidly.

38:53

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah.

38:54

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I pulled up a map and I'll share it with Shannon. There are mosques literally all around your church. Yeah. Right? Fairly large ones.

39:04

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Sam Westrop has specifically spoken, with greater courage than I have, recently heard him. So he's the director of Islamist Watch, the Middle East Forum. Very intelligent gentleman. And I'll bring up a video from him in just a moment. But he recently has called out the illegal activity happening within many of these systems.

39:30

Pastor Keith Craft

Right.

39:30

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Under the guise of something that is religious. As a pastor, what are you asking of your congregation to do specifically when it comes to voicing truth. Again, kind of pivoting back to that story that I mentioned about Mani and I, I was with a panel on a panel with a friend who is a Christian convert, but a former Muslim. And he speaks with conviction. And he began pointing out at a woman who he believes today was an undercover MEK agent, whom had previously tortured his father.

40:15

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

His father was a high ranking military man and a wonderful man, but was tortured under this particular, I guess, military unit within Islamist control. And I know I'm probably butchering this, but either way, he was essentially verbally lashing at her from the panel. So Laura Logan, who was, you know, at Biden's Cairo speech and was unfortunately raped, you know, a long time ago, publicly, on national television, she's a very famous journalist. She was leading the panel that we were sitting on, but I, she and I both believe that this woman needed to have a turn to speak because could she have been practicing taquia and showing up as someone who was very docile and, somewhat of a victim? Sure.

41:16

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I mean, everything that this gentleman, that he was saying, could it have been accurate? Yes. But I believe that it was done with wrath and anger and rage. And that is where I too struggle. So speaking about people, your peers, right?

41:36

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

They struggle because they want to show forth, they wanna show up in love. But this article that I'm sitting on, it is essentially saying they they are an impending threat.

41:49

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah. Yeah.

41:50

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And I am not ignorant enough to be oblivious to that fact. Right. However, I too am struggling about how to show up today because I'm not a woman that backs down.

42:03

Pastor Keith Craft

Right.

42:03

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I have strong convictions, beliefs, but I treat people with respect. I am not going to be screaming unhinged in an unhinged fashion despite however much I believe that what was saying could have been correct, I wouldn't have attacked in that matter. But you do this in love. So can you help me, people who are like me, your pastor colleagues from different denominations, the Episcopalians, the Catholics, the whomever, how are they supposed to show up as leaders? Because that is what you are calling people to do.

42:45

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's what you are setting an example to do. How are we supposed to show up in love, but then also be able to say, I am fine saying that this is an impending threat.

42:56

Pastor Keith Craft

Right.

42:57

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Should we call for the cease, the prohibition of any mosques expansion?

43:04

Pastor Keith Craft

100%.

43:05

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Okay, so talk to me about this.

43:07

Pastor Keith Craft

100%.

43:07

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Okay.

43:08

Pastor Keith Craft

No, absolutely. Because to me, there is you... What you have... Okay. So let's just be...

43:18

Pastor Keith Craft

Just... Let's play like we have common sense for it. Yeah. You look at somebody's past and what is that a predictor of? Their future, unless there's some kind of change.

43:29

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

43:30

Pastor Keith Craft

Well, if you look at the past of Islam, if you look at the nations where Islam rules Yep. Now, the countries of the world, again, it escapes me with 56, 60 countries in the If you look at Sharia law, if you look what Sharia law is based on from the Quran, if I just sit here and dissected every verse out of the Quran that is against us, I have no problem being very bold about it, but I think when I say no problem, I'm going to be bold about it and I'm going to be bold against it because it's anti God, it's anti Christ and it's anti people. It's about control and it's demonically So with that said, I think where the fine line is, if I can say this, and the Bible addresses it, is to speak the truth in love. And we've already said that, but that's in Ephesians the fourth chapter. It's like speaking the truth in love means you're forthright in what you say.

44:43

Pastor Keith Craft

Everybody has a personality, and I won't take a lot of time on this, but we're not body, soul, and spirit, we're spirit, soul, and body. So, we're not human beings having a spiritual experience, we're spiritual beings having a human experience. So, if I am led by the Spirit of God and I'm not walking according to the lusts of the flesh, which is what Galatians says, Don't walk according to the flesh, but walk according to the spirit. Be led by the spirit of God. Then I have to lead my emotions by the spirit of God.

45:12

Pastor Keith Craft

And then the actions that I take with my body have to be the manifestation of what's happening with me spiritually and emotionally in my will, in my soul, in my emotional being, only I can regulate that. That's what's so difficult for people I think, is when you get very passionate about something, how do you not come unhinged? And I don't know how to answer that except you can only do that by being led by the spirit.

45:44

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's

45:44

Pastor Keith Craft

right. And by asking the Holy Spirit, the Bible says in Proverbs 2five 28, that a man that doesn't rule his own spirit is like a city with its walls torn down. So, one of the main things about being a great leader, not just a good leader, but a great leader, is you... I call it the art of self leadership, is to regulate yourself emotionally. In other words, like how we're trained in the Bible to do that, I cite again in the same context of the passage of scripture in Ephesians four, it says, Speak the truth in love.

46:19

Pastor Keith Craft

It also says, In your anger, do not sin. Don't let the sun go down on your anger and give a foothold to the devil. If the devil could get a foothold, he can get a stronghold. So here's what happens. The reason that's in the same context of speak the truth and love is in your anger, don't sin.

46:41

Pastor Keith Craft

It's not a sin to get angry.

46:42

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right. That's right.

46:44

Pastor Keith Craft

But where do you practice that? If you're married, let me tell you where to practice it. If you're married, because I've been married for forty three years, but I've been with Sheila.

46:54

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Saw that. Congratulations. For

46:56

Pastor Keith Craft

fifty one years. We've So been together since we were 16 and Beautiful. Here's what I said to her when I was 16, 1976, it was on 01/20/1976, when I was asking her to be my girlfriend. I said, Look, I have this philosophy about how I think relationships are supposed to work. She goes, Really?

47:17

Pastor Keith Craft

I go, She was 15, I was 16. I said, Yeah. So I took out a piece of paper and I drew a triangle. And I said, This is you on the left, this is me on the right. This is God at the top.

47:26

Pastor Keith Craft

Then I drew an arrow from her name to God and an arrow from my name to God. And I said, I believe if you'll be your best for God and I'll be my best for God, then we'll... And then I drew an arrow between our names with two arrows on the end of it. I said, Whatever we decide to do, I believe God's hand will be on it. I said, But that isn't going happen because we're good little Christians.

47:47

Pastor Keith Craft

So, she's just looking at me. I said, The way it's going to happen is you're going to get mad at me. And I said, I haven't even asked you to be my girlfriend yet, but I'm just telling you, this is the way I see relationships work. You're going to get mad at me. I'm going get mad at you.

48:03

Pastor Keith Craft

And the Bible gives you twenty four hours to resolve it. If you don't, the devil gets a foothold, and when the devil gets a foothold, then you're not able to control your anger when you need to control your anger.

48:16

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Where do you get twenty four hours from? It's interesting.

48:18

Pastor Keith Craft

Because don't let the sun go down in your anger and give the enemy a foothold. So in other words, the reason people aren't able, this is my opinion now based on the word of God though, the reason people have a hard time regulating their emotions is because they've not become masters of their own anger. And the way you get mastery with your anger is you pre decide, I'm not gonna let this go beyond twenty four hours. I'm not gonna stay mad beyond twenty four hours. And if we're together, if we're in a relationship of any kind, it's like, then I'm not gonna let the sun go down to my anger and give the enemy a foothold.

48:59

Pastor Keith Craft

And so guess what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna be willing to eat if I need to eat crow. I'm be willing to say, I'm sorry if I need to say, I'm sorry. I'm going be willing to forgive if I need to forgive. Not because a person deserves it, but because I'm living with a biblical worldview that says, Don't let the sun go down on your anger and give the enemy a foothold.

49:19

Pastor Keith Craft

So in the leadership culture, in the incubator of greatness at Elevate Life Church, these are tenets from the Word of God, principles from the Word of God that we teach to help people to navigate, first of all, in their marriage anger. Well, if you're not navigating that very well, or you're not navigating your anger, however you get angry is what you do when you get angry, you yell, you scream. I grew up in a family with all due respect. They yelled, they screamed.

49:46

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Oh, same.

49:47

Pastor Keith Craft

And it was like, I decided when I was sitting there with Sheila at 16, I decided I wasn't I'm gonna not be that gonna be somebody that raises my voice. I'm not gonna be somebody that screams and yells. Have I never not done that? No, I have raised my voice at times, but I'm quick to repent. And so I mean that.

50:09

Pastor Keith Craft

I'm not trying to be super spiritual here, I'm just telling you, I want to live the Bible. So, I think when you're really living according to the Bible and you are speaking the truth in love, what gives you the power to speak the truth in love is you pre decided, I'm going to be a person that doesn't let the sun get on my anger. That's the way you practice. So that's kind of a long answer, but that's what I say to people. In other words, how do I, because I'm very angry.

50:38

Pastor Keith Craft

I'm very angry what's happening in Frisco. I'm angry that now in Frisco, Texas, that the mosque is blasting out their prayers.

50:48

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I know it.

50:49

Pastor Keith Craft

I mean, I'm angry about that. I don't like it. We take stand a against it. And again, you have to understand, we have been criticized in the community for having, let's just say, we'll have a fall festival coming up. We don't celebrate Halloween, but we have rides and things like that.

51:10

Pastor Keith Craft

And we have the kids come and do candy and the whole Well, it's loud. There's sound ordinances in the city of Frisco that you can only be loud at certain times.

51:25

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's indecible at a certain time.

51:26

Pastor Keith Craft

So anyway, I'm like... By the way, the football stadiums or high school football doesn't comply with that.

51:34

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Exactly, exactly.

51:35

Pastor Keith Craft

So there's these rules for everybody when it comes to football. And here's what I've discovered, especially when it comes to Muslims in America. There's a lot of rope that's given them. Yep. It's not given anybody.

51:48

Pastor Keith Craft

Anyone else. Because, oh, well, we're America. And that is why they take advantage of America. And that's why they're taking advantage of our democracy, which again, we are not a democracy, we're a republic that's governed by a democracy. When democracy doesn't work, this is what the founding fathers were afraid of, is that two thirds of the majority of the wrong people who do not have biblical values will be in power and that's where it goes wrong.

52:16

Pastor Keith Craft

So anyway, on and on, I could go with that. No, no,

52:19

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

no, it's

52:19

Pastor Keith Craft

true. I am angry about that. It's not like, Oh, well, God's going to just take care of that. No, it's like what Keela was saying. It's like, we're gonna stand up, we're gonna proclaim the truth, and we're going to not tolerate their intolerance.

52:39

Pastor Keith Craft

And

52:40

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

in looking at this slide here, like there's a lot of Muslim representation in government, a ton. So four congressional seats, right? We have state house reps, 46 highest at city council members, 11 Muslim mayors, 18 Muslim judges, all the things. What does the the political landscape look like in Frisco or in any of these northern areas? Are the...

53:05

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Is there any representation on the city council? They're

53:11

Pastor Keith Craft

trying to do everything that they can.

53:12

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's

53:12

Pastor Keith Craft

right. And so, again, I am vehemently, I'm going to be at the Governor's Mansion for a faith summit on... Oh, I think it's the twelfth. But I am vehemently against anybody being sworn in on the Quran. Mhmm.

53:34

Pastor Keith Craft

It's a it's a book full of lies. It's a book It's like white people that talk bad about white people. It's like, I'm ashamed that I'm a white person. Well, you know what? God made me like this and I embrace it.

53:50

Pastor Keith Craft

And so I'm not really white, like this inside of this cup's white, I'm not really white. I'm more peach, whatever. I'm not even about that. I could care less about that. But it's so silly when I hear people like Hillary Clinton just the other day say, you know, we know that we will

54:07

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Oh, the white men comment?

54:08

Pastor Keith Craft

We were on track, but we know the problem is the white men with their religion.

54:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

With their religion. And I White was men. Like

54:15

Pastor Keith Craft

was saying, it's white Christians. Yes. You're a white woman. Know it. Put a noose around your neck.

54:24

Pastor Keith Craft

That's what you're... The idiocy of that. Anyway, it's stuff like that that I say, it enrages me. But I go, okay. Now, how can I address the insanity, because that's what it is, of ideologies, Islam, of ideologies where people come here and they're not coming here because they wanna assimilate?

54:48

Pastor Keith Craft

They're not coming here. And I'm talking about Indians too. Any any other part of the world, it's like, hey, if you can come here legally and you want to buy into who we are, otherwise stay there. Like stay where you're... Why would you come here and want to bring where you're from to To conquer.

55:06

Pastor Keith Craft

It seems pretty

55:07

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

To conquer.

55:08

Pastor Keith Craft

Back to common sense.

55:09

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

To conquer. And I have this, this is the video that I wanted to show you from Sam Westrop, which was, like I said, he's not usually this bold, but he's with now, he's still at the Middle East Forum, he, this was on the Texas Public Policy Foundation. And I just wanted, I feel just inclined to share this.

55:29

Pastor Keith Craft

And so

55:30

Sam Westrop Video

An Islamist seminary in Carrollton, Texas has trained hundreds of radical imams now preaching across America. Its founders have defended female sex slavery, advocated stoning adulterers to death, and described American society as filth. The Texas state government has given them over $72,000. I'm Sam Westrop, director of Islamist Watch at the Middle East Forum. Previously, we covered the Muslim brotherhood whose explicit goal is capturing political institutions.

55:58

Sam Westrop Video

The Deobandis have a different target, your community, and your children's education. Deobandis teach that western law, culture, and democracy are forms of corruption Muslims must resist. The most famous example of the Deobandis is the Taliban. The Kalam Institute in Carrollton is one of the Deobandis flagship American seminaries. Founder, Hussein Khamani, teaches that men may satisfy sexual desires with female slaves and that fathers should beat children who don't pray.

56:25

Sam Westrop Video

Cofounder, Abdul Nasir Jangda, has seemingly justified the killing of apostates and adulterers. And Imam told his Texas congregation, husbands may beat their wives so long as they don't kill them. Hideo Bandy's missionary arm, Tablighi Jamat, called the Antechamber of Fundamentalism by French intelligence, runs its US headquarters out of Garland, Texas. These are not just cultural differences. This is an ideology incompatible with Western law of the constitution and the basic dignity every American is guaranteed.

56:55

Sam Westrop Video

Texas has no place for an ideology that sanctions the beating and sexual enslavement of women. The Day of Bandis are just one of seven Islamist networks operating in Texas right now.

57:06

Pastor Keith Craft

It's it's it's absolutely ridiculous.

57:09

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And this is where we are?

57:10

Pastor Keith Craft

No. It's

57:11

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

absolutely We're here in Texas.

57:13

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah. And and and what we've what we What do you do in your congregation?

57:18

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah. How do you equip them with this information? How do you encourage them to show up as citizens Yeah. And to lead? Yeah.

57:27

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Not just their homes, but within their communities. What are you saying? Yeah.

57:31

Pastor Keith Craft

Well, I think the main thing more than even attacking what's happening because we know what's happening, we talk about it, but is for them to understand... It's it's like if you have a child that you're raising and they're in your family and they've got your family values and they're around kids who are either don't have a dad at home or dad's there, he's not the leader of the home. They're not a biblical valued family. Sure. There's alcohol, there's drugs.

58:03

Pastor Keith Craft

How you combat that? Do you tell your children we're different than that? Because again, that's maddening as well. What makes me mad about that is I see every problem in America, every problem in the world as a man problem. Like all that he's talking about from sex slaves to beating children, it's all men.

58:26

Pastor Keith Craft

It's all men that are... So what we're doing is we're raising up what the Bible calls mighty men. I mean, we meet every Saturday morning at 07:00 and it's training. You have to sign up to be a part of it. Over 500 mighty men have become a part of that.

58:43

Pastor Keith Craft

It's not just men in our church, you have to sign to be on a path. And so we're teaching them what the path is. We're teaching them what the Word of God says. And therefore, it's like with your children. You hope they say no to alcohol.

58:58

Pastor Keith Craft

You hope they say no to drugs. You hope that they say no to sex before marriage. In other words, you hope that they do it the biblical way, but it's not by bashing everybody else that doesn't do it, but first it's by encouraging them, this is who we are. Therefore it's like I said, so I think that's the difficulty even between Christianity, if you will. I would call it not Christianity because I would call it the kingdom of God, between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness, which that's where we are.

59:34

Pastor Keith Craft

So, in my messages, for instance, I don't get up and talk about he's a damn devil. Don't get up and talk. I mean, we expose the devil. We expose the works of darkness of the devil, but we talk about the goodness of God. We talk about the power of God.

59:53

Pastor Keith Craft

We talk about the authority of God. We talk about what it means to live for God. We talk about what it means to lead yourself well. We talk about what it means to be led by the spirit of God. And so the obvious thing is we stand against anything that does not align with the word of God.

60:09

Pastor Keith Craft

The difference between us and Muslims is they'll kill you eventually if you don't stand with them. And God says, well, eventually what'll happen is you'll either go to heaven or you'll go to hell

60:22

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

60:22

Pastor Keith Craft

You know, based on what you believe. So we're doing as much as we can to educate people in terms of voting with our, community impact, which Keela oversees Yes, yes, yes. I need

60:31

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

to speak with her more

60:32

Pastor Keith Craft

We're about that doing our best with men in particular. I feel a calling. I think anytime you have a call of God in your life, there are mandates within that call. For me, my mandate is leadership in men, and those two are synonymous things. They need to happen because the devil from the very beginning, and I'll just say this, but when Eve was standing at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, on the third page of the Bible, by the way, so we're three pages in, it's Genesis three, and the devil comes in the form of a serpent and he says, Is it really true?

61:07

Pastor Keith Craft

And the temptation starts. She saw that it was good for food. She desired to make her wise. She took it and she ate it. How do we know where Adam was?

61:16

Pastor Keith Craft

Because then she turned and she gave it to Adam. He allowed it to happen right in front of him, under his watch, where as the serpent was talking to his gift, you know, when God created woman, he took the best part of man out of a man and created woman. That's why when you honor a woman, you honor God. So we teach men that, to learn honor. But he should have stepped in front of her and said, Listen, you're not talking to her, you're talking to me.

61:44

Pastor Keith Craft

So this stops right here and right now. That's what's not happening in homes. That's what's not happening in Christian homes. That's not what's happening in a lot of churches. Men have not taken their place.

61:54

Pastor Keith Craft

My fight, than with the Muslims, than with the Indians or with anybody else that is contrary to the kingdom of God, is to get men to be men of God. That is my fight. So that's where I... What we're doing at our church is we're doing everything we can to raise up godly men who will be kings in God's kingdom. Why?

62:16

Pastor Keith Craft

Because if Jesus is the King of kings, who are the kings? Where are the kings? And here we have a world saying no kings. It tells you where the world is.

62:27

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes, really does.

62:28

Pastor Keith Craft

So anyway, I could go on and on, but that's what we are doing specifically is yes, bring in awareness. Like for instance, as we now have entered into October, one of the things that I'll be doing with our men in particular on Saturday mornings is we'll very straightforward talking about the other side, the dark side and what they're pushing. Yep. And why everybody in here, everybody in this room is going to vote. I mean, it's one of those things where we put a demand on you being a man and part of being a man is that you exercise not just your freedom, but your right to vote.

63:10

Pastor Keith Craft

Your right to vote. We've got to do that because that's where they're... It's by the what is it? By the bullet or by the ballot, by the sword or by, that's the Muslims. They're using our system against us to gain power now so they can change the laws.

63:27

Pastor Keith Craft

That's the reality. That's what we know.

63:28

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

63:29

Pastor Keith Craft

And so that's what we've got to stand against at least right now. But I'll just say this and I'll go on public record saying it. If it comes to a fight, I'm up for that too. And I've got a whole group of men that are up to it too. I'm just telling you.

63:42

Pastor Keith Craft

In our area, there's not going to be that kind of nonsense. I mean, can't stop them from meeting in their mosque. But what I guess I've got two things I'm really concerned about is who's paying for the mosque that The are being

64:00

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

funding is coming from overseas. A lot of it is international. They do qualify for government assistance and unfortunate federal assistance as well.

64:10

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah. And so... And, again, it's because of how they're seen as being That's right. Seeking asylum or whatever reason they say that they're coming here. That's what that's what that's what we've got to do.

64:21

Pastor Keith Craft

We've got to stop that and then stop swearing people in to a, we are a Christian nation on the Quran that is anti Christian. I'm gonna talk to the governor about that, but we've got to stop that and it's got to be stopped at the highest levels.

64:37

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It does.

64:37

Pastor Keith Craft

Because it's not a religion, It's an ideology. And, again, just look at history. Why am I saying that? Because just look at history and you can see anybody's past performance and say, well, what's... Well, you say, well, well, we're we're just wanna be peaceful Muslims.

64:52

Pastor Keith Craft

Well, let me just tell you, how how has that worked in history? Yep. It's never worked. It's dominance, and it's still happening, as Keela mentioned, in Nigeria and different places. The eradication of Christians.

65:04

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And I... I'm sure you've seen these posts recently. There's one from c three that says the last fifty years, global religion motivated terror attacks committed by the top five religions in the world. One, Christianity approximately 30. Two, Islam approximately 67,000, three, Hinduism approximately 10, four, Buddhism approximately five, five, Judaism approximately 80.

65:27

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

So the disparity... And again, I need to fact check this, but

65:34

Pastor Keith Craft

No. I I I'll tell you. It's it's it's it's probably under... It's probably it's probably not even accurate.

65:40

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I know. I I would think that

65:41

Pastor Keith Craft

that's It's way

65:42

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

more than that. I would agree

65:43

Pastor Keith Craft

with I I would think that because, again, all you have to... Just look at current history, But I'm just saying it... It's it's what's happened throughout history that is... It's what's happening in England. It's like people who, in their minds, think, oh, listen.

65:57

Pastor Keith Craft

They're just a peaceful people. Let them have their mosque and let them worship. The mosque are not for worship. Carrollton Carrollton, Texas is just what the man was pointing... What...

66:08

Pastor Keith Craft

What's his name, by the way?

66:09

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Sam Westrop.

66:10

Pastor Keith Craft

Sam. Yeah. Sam. What Sam was pointing out is absolutely a 100% true. That guy is crazy.

66:15

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yes.

66:15

Pastor Keith Craft

He's been in Frisco causing problems

66:17

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

I I know during the elections. And I didn't know if you were aware of that. Absolutely. Pushing Talarico.

66:22

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah. Are you aware of this? Well, of course. No. Here's the thing.

66:25

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And I'm like

66:26

Pastor Keith Craft

You're Point Listen. People. My my my my enemy who is against my enemy is my friend against my enemy. And again, that's the democrats, that's the Muslims, that's the agenda, that's the ideologies. So it's not that we're for each other.

66:46

Pastor Keith Craft

No, we're gonna use each other because we hate Trump, we hate the Republicans, we hate America, we hate what America's been, we want it torn down, we don't agree with it. I mean, like I said, with Hillary, saying that recently on on CNN, it's just so crazy.

67:04

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Know the white men. I just... I laughed, unfortunately. I just thought, my gosh.

67:08

Pastor Keith Craft

The agenda. The agenda. But what we have, and I wanna encourage you in this and any one of your listeners, is we have God on our side. I'm just telling you. That's at the end of the day, at the beginning of the day, the middle of the day, the end the day, we have God on our side and all God needs is two.

67:24

Pastor Keith Craft

One puts a thousand to flight, two put 10,000 to flight. If any two of you agree it's touching anything on earth, my Father in heaven will So do what has to happen though, the Muslims and the Democrats are a lot better at coming into agreement on their ideology and on their ungodly policies than the Republicans and Christians and believers are in agreeing with each other. It's like, there's, it's so crazy. It's like, how could you have more people that agree on everything that we disagree with, and yet we can't agree enough to fight against it? So somehow we've got to pool money, we've got to get behind the church and make...

68:10

Pastor Keith Craft

Just yesterday I was watching Ken Griffin. I don't know if you heard, but he donated 3,000,000,000 to... Oh my goodness, the university just skipped my mind. But anyway, he just donated 3,000,000,000 yesterday. Is it Carnegie Mellon?

68:31

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah.

68:32

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah. It was.

68:32

Pastor Keith Craft

So $3,000,000,000 My thought was, we have a hard time with Christians putting God first, giving God the first dollar of every 10. That's part of the problem. You're right. It's like, in other words, we're putting money in the wrong places, and that's why the messages are the messages in culture that are being just going forward. We're on television here in Dallas every Sunday morning and I've often thought in my mind, is it really...

69:05

Pastor Keith Craft

Because I don't use it to fundraise. I don't use it, hey, we're going to offer you this book if you'll give towards this program. And it's a lot of money for us to be on ABC, for us to be on Fox on Sunday morning, right before the football game. Not one person's ever come along and said, Hey, you know what? We'll fund that because we think the message is so important, especially on those secular networks.

69:25

Pastor Keith Craft

Guess what? They haven't shut me down. Like ABC would think they would shut me down. They haven't shut me down. Fox hadn't shut me down.

69:31

Pastor Keith Craft

In other words, we're doing everything we can to infiltrate, if you the secular, godless, antichrist spirit in the world with the gospel, but yet believers have to rally and they have to give and they to support. It's one of those things where

69:49

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

They have to have courage.

69:50

Pastor Keith Craft

They do have to have courage.

69:51

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

They have to have courage.

69:52

Pastor Keith Craft

And they have to get behind... Here's the difference in the Muslims. They get behind their causes. Of course. Christians don't.

69:57

Pastor Keith Craft

No. They get behind their passions, but not necessarily causes that make a difference in the world. But that's what's so important about the church that we've got to be strong. We've got to be strong financially. We've got to be strong politically.

70:11

Pastor Keith Craft

We've got to be strong in terms of people and we've got to come together and do that. And so again, you know, that's my heart's cry.

70:22

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Thank you. Is that we would

70:24

Pastor Keith Craft

do that.

70:24

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And thank you for your words. I know that we've kind of, you know, exhausted a whole bunch of different fronts here but I just have one last little question. Do you believe that Muslims, Muslims in general, should enjoy precisely the same constitutional protection to build any mosque at this point and practice a religion that Christians have to build a church or not?

70:56

Pastor Keith Craft

Absolutely not.

70:58

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Okay.

70:58

Pastor Keith Craft

And the reason is because they're propagandaing, I'm not using the right word, but they're proselytizing their ideology. Okay. So here in Frisco, again, 28 acres.

71:13

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah.

71:14

Pastor Keith Craft

We've built a $38,000,000 building. It's all in this congregation. I've not had $1 from the government. I haven't qualified for this assistance or that assistance. Yes.

71:27

Pastor Keith Craft

We've got to put a stop to what our federal... They're using every one of our laws and however they can pivot.

71:36

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Well, they're smart.

71:37

Pastor Keith Craft

To say, Oh, we can do that because we fall under... They're not a religion. That's the first thing we have to establish. They're not a religion. They're an ideology.

71:45

Pastor Keith Craft

They should not qualify as a five zero one c three. I feel very strongly about that. The reason for that is if I served a god, little g, in other words, not that one true

71:58

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Sure, sure,

71:59

Pastor Keith Craft

I served a god that said, You need to kill those people if they don't believe in what you believe. By the way, can we go over to the 56 or 60 countries that are controlled by Islam start charges? No. No. Why are we allowing that here in America?

72:17

Pastor Keith Craft

It's just insanity. Let's just, you know, it's like Charlie Kirk said. He said the the Muslims are using the Democratic Party to slit the throats of America. That's what they're doing because they're anti God. So so here's the thing.

72:33

Pastor Keith Craft

There are for Muslims more than they would ever be for Christians because they're not Christians. They're not believers.

72:39

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Some are. Yeah. Some Democrats are. Yeah. Yeah.

72:43

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

They are believers. Like, I know for sure my family in El Paso, they are they are Christians.

72:47

Pastor Keith Craft

Okay.

72:48

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

They are believers.

72:49

Pastor Keith Craft

I just don't know how you

72:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

But again, are not living in a North Texas Frisco. It's

73:01

Pastor Keith Craft

a person born in Israel that's not a practicing Jew. They're That's Jews by name, but they're not... Again, that's why I'm saying there's a distinction today between being a Christian and being truly a part of God's kingdom. If you're gonna be a part of God's kingdom, you gotta seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, which means his way of doing things and all these other things will be added unto you. If you're a part of the kingdom of God, you cannot vote Democrat.

73:30

Pastor Keith Craft

I'm just telling you. Can... Talarico calls himself a Christian. Yeah. You're not a Christ follower.

73:37

Pastor Keith Craft

You're not you're not a Christ follower when you're saying, Mohammed is equal to Christ. No, Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. So, other words, people can call themselves Christians, but that's the problem in America. We've got a lot of people. It's Christians, like dumb, ignorant white people who talk about white people and how that's some kind of bad thing to be a white person.

74:02

Pastor Keith Craft

It's Christians who give Christians a bad name because they don't live according to the Bible. Name They're only. They're the same ones saying, oh, we're not a Christian nation. Oh, but I'm a Christian.

74:15

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And you don't think that there's any maybe grace to be given to... I... I'm just thinking about my family. Right? Like Sure.

74:23

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Back in El Paso, because we vote differently, but we love each other.

74:27

Pastor Keith Craft

Sure.

74:29

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

They fundamentally believe, right, that because there are not Christian strong leading persons up for election, let's say. Let's say they are so dismayed and dismantled by just the lack of Christianity from everybody.

74:53

Pastor Keith Craft

Right.

74:54

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That the words spoken by someone like Talarico are so much more inviting and appealing and and kinder and accepting of all walks of life. So because there is this lack of Christian men and women in all systems of government, don't you think that like we should be giving them a little bit of grace and saying, God, I understand. I understand why you can't stand insert politician whomever who has had all of this corruption surrounding you that is running on the Republican ticket. So, I am constantly like, okay, yep, I have grace, I have grace and I love my family that votes different and my friends who vote differently

75:50

Pastor Keith Craft

for me.

75:53

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Isn't there like that small window of, or do you believe, nope, They they need to do a better job of aligning themselves on the issues and right because I don't know what to do.

76:09

Pastor Keith Craft

Well, now it's no longer about it's no longer about politics. It's it it really... People say it's political. But when you believe that you can murder a baby in a womb

76:20

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep. When And it is murder.

76:23

Pastor Keith Craft

When you believe that you can, you know, just choose whatever gender that you want. Yep. In other words... And what you're saying is, I'm God and he's not.

76:33

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

That's right.

76:34

Pastor Keith Craft

When you believe that, when when you believe that that being nice about something is more important than being truthful about something.

76:51

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yep.

76:53

Pastor Keith Craft

And the reason I say that is because everybody lives by a truth. For me, it's the word of God. I measure the truth. Is there grace for them? A 100% with God.

77:11

Pastor Keith Craft

I'm gonna always believe the best about people. So I'm not gonna say, oh, you're going to hell if you do that. What I will say is this, you're very deceived. And the Bible is very specific about what the devil's really good at. He's the accuser of the brethren.

77:33

Pastor Keith Craft

He's the father of all lies. And he's the sower of discord. So what happens, and getting back to men, when there's not strong male, godly, not strong male Christians, godly leaders who are living it themselves and helping to shape a man's job. My job is to shape the identity in my children, not my wife's. It's my job to shape the identity in them.

78:00

Pastor Keith Craft

If I'm all about my job, if I'm all about my business, if I'm all about other than that job, then guess what? They're gonna be on their own because I haven't done my job. That's man's number one job, is to reproduce after his own kind. And God meant for that. He meant cattle for cattle, birds for birds, fish for fish.

78:20

Pastor Keith Craft

Watch this. By the way, that's Genesis one twenty four-twenty five. You don't get this 26. So he says, Let every creature on earth reproduce after their own kind. Then he says, Now let us reproduce after our own kind.

78:36

Pastor Keith Craft

So he created them both male and female in his image. Why? Because we're supposed to reproduce after father, son, and holy spirit's own kind in the earth. When that's not happening in a family, you got all different kind of beliefs. Well, believe this and I believe that when you're a father that lives for God, you say, your last name's Craft.

78:57

Pastor Keith Craft

Here's what our values are. Honor, positive attitude, excellence, generosity, leadership based on the word of God. And this is how we, the crafts, live. This is how we vote. And why do we vote the way that we vote?

79:10

Pastor Keith Craft

We vote because this more aligns... It's not perfect. This more aligns with the Bible than that does. It's not about that person in office. It's about this more aligns with what the Bible says than this does.

79:24

Pastor Keith Craft

So one of my children, they didn't particularly like Trump. They saw him as mean. They saw him as, you know, whatever in their own mind.

79:35

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah.

79:35

Pastor Keith Craft

And so so I said, let me just tell you something. Your personal opinion about Donald Trump has nothing to do with whether or not God's raised him up for such a time as this. As your father, I'm telling you. And again, I'm speaking to you not as your pastor, I'm speaking to you as your father. God's the one that's raised him up.

79:56

Pastor Keith Craft

He didn't raise himself. He may not even know that God's the one that's raised him up, but God's raised him up because there's never been ever a leader in American history that's been pro for faith, for God than him. And by the way, is he a godly man? No, he is not. But is he for the godly?

80:17

Pastor Keith Craft

Yes. So guess what? I'm going to vote for him. Not, Oh, he's mean, or he says stuff that hurts people's feelings, or he does whatever. There's such a weird, like I said, there's such a weird toxic empathy.

80:30

Pastor Keith Craft

Call it, well, it's not just me, but I can't remember the author.

80:34

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Suicidal on the Renee Brown. Oh, Renee Brown?

80:36

Pastor Keith Craft

Brown, I think calls it ruinous empathy. There's ruinous empathy. It ruins people because you give them so much empathy. And so, anyway, I know it's a long answer, but I have grace for everybody. I believe God can save anybody to the uttermost, But at the same time, as we take stands, it looks like we're just against that person.

81:01

Pastor Keith Craft

Now, more than me being against that person, I'm against what that person stands for. And so that's why I speak against Islam without attacking the Muslim. It's like, I mean, I'm sorry you were only exposed to that, but guess what? You're in The United States Of America and you have a chance to know the truth and the truth can set you free. Don't just bring your ways here, just come and be open.

81:23

Pastor Keith Craft

Yep. You know? But anyway. Yep.

81:25

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Thank you. We covered a lot of ground. We did. I didn't think that you were gonna go into those, you know, channels with me Yeah. Into the more political space.

81:35

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

But thank you.

81:36

Pastor Keith Craft

No, listen, I would run.

81:37

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Thank you.

81:38

Pastor Keith Craft

If I felt like God would give me the grace to do it, I would run for governor for the state of Texas.

81:45

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Really?

81:45

Pastor Keith Craft

Yeah, absolutely, a 100%. If I felt like God would give me the grace to do it and it would be something, because that's how passionate I am about it. I've been that way my whole life since I was a little boy. It's like, you know what? When I would pray, my dad did not know the Lord.

82:01

Pastor Keith Craft

I led him to the Lord later in life. Wow. But my dad didn't know the Lord. So when I talk about men who are not godly men, lived it. A good dad, but he wasn't godly.

82:11

Pastor Keith Craft

Sure. But when my mom and I would pray together, here I was like, I'm talking about 1966, I'm six years old, '67, communism was a big thing.

82:21

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Yeah. Oh

82:22

Pastor Keith Craft

yeah. And so I would go, God, I just ask that the communists wouldn't, you wouldn't allow them to take over. My mother would go, Why are you praying that way? Mom, it's a real deal. I mean, we have got to be aware.

82:34

Pastor Keith Craft

So it's deep on the inside of me. But my point is, I think I have a higher calling than to be the governor, but I'm just saying, if I was going to do something that I know that I could make a difference, that I felt like would be, would do it. So that's how passionate I am about it.

82:55

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Thank you, thank you, thank you for being here. I know you saw my eyes welling many times. Again, don't put this in your shed, I'm very sensitive to the Holy Spirit.

83:05

Pastor Keith Craft

Yes.

83:06

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And so sometimes I would just find myself being totally overwhelmed. Yeah. And I was just like, my Lord, this is this is real. This is real. This is real.

83:14

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

And so thank you for your boldness.

83:16

Pastor Keith Craft

Thank you.

83:17

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Or you can put it in there, don't care. Either way, it's

83:20

Pastor Keith Craft

Sure.

83:20

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

It truly a blessing to have you. Yeah. Thank you.

83:23

Pastor Keith Craft

Thank you.

83:23

Sarah Zubiate Bennett

Thank you.

Episode Timeline

Full Transcript

Episode Timeline

Full Transcript

Fight for The Truth

The Dallas Express reports what Legacy Media won’t.