Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. Well, I am Brandon Hicks, Pastor
Brandon. I am the youth pastor here at
Anchor Bay Church. Everybody giving up for the
youth presidents do. Pastor Earl has been preaching
on pride. Is everybody been enjoying
these? Yep, one of the one of the
scriptures he gave him to get a little recap for him and it was
Second Peter chapter 3, verse three.
Say Second Peter chapter 3 verse 3.
NLT says. Most importantly, I want to
remind you. That in the last days scoffers
will come mocking the truth and following their desires.
This is not God's intent for his church, and I don't believe that
this is a building full of scoffers.
I'm encouraged to know that I am ministering to people who are
hungry, who desire the word of God, who want to rightly divide
the word of God, who. And I believe that you're going
to be drawing on me because, you know, whenever a person is
ministering, they can. Feel whether or not someone is
drawing on them or whether or not they're just waiting for
lunch time. Just check, you know?
But I believe that this house is a house that's ready.
We have a desire and a hunger for the Word, and we want to see
what God's going to have, because there's no scoffers in
here. Amen.
Say I am not a scoffer. Amen.
I believe that you said correctly.
So tonight, this morning I I said tonight because it usually
I'm ministering on a Wednesday night.
So it is this morning still. I think it is morning still
pierced by a choice say pierced by a choice.
Now the Lord gave me this title before Pastor Earl asked me to
minister on a specific subject. Because at first he said where
other staff mean. He said pastor random, I'll have
you do this Sunday. I'm not getting me.
I'm like, OK, cool. You know, I played it cool.
You know, I was like, awesome. Yeah, no problem, pastor.
I'm thinking awesome. So what am I going to tell him?
You know? So then you start asking the
Lord, you know? And the last thing I want to
give you is something that I've already preached in the current
because they could be easy. I've been doing this for like 13
years. So like I was a children's
pastor. It was a youth pastor.
So I'm like, it was easy. I have like.
Encyclopedia is full of just notes of messages.
I'm like, I could just pull something, but that's not what
God had for you this morning because the word is alive and
living and active and sharper than any two edges sword.
So I know that God has a fresh rainbow word for you today, and
if you'll have ears to hear, then you're going to receive
something. You're going to leave here today
better than you came in, right? Because that's the idea.
When we come to church, we want to leave better than we were
when we got here. We shouldn't be frowning after
serving our lunch. When we eat lunch, our waiters
and waitress were like, oh, I'm so sorry.
Are you having a bad day? You know what?
Seriously. We're children of God.
We have joy with the joy of the Lord.
We should get a ha ha ha up in our spirit everywhere we go
because we left the House of the Lord.
Amen. So Pierce by choice we have your
bibles turn to revelation. I saw pastor.
This is serious. Y'all laughing.
I'm serious. I saw pastor.
Earlier this once I was like. What?
He started his message in Revelation.
I'm like. I'm afraid to even read that.
Book like it's kind of no, no, no.
We're going to start. In your bibles in Revelation
chapter 5, verse 12, say chapter 5, verse 12, the new King James
Version says it this way, saying with a loud voice Worthy is the
Lamb who is slain to receive power and riches and wisdom.
And strength and honor. And glory and blessing.
Because he was slain, He was worthy of honor, you understand?
Jesus had a choice. He had a choice, he said.
Do you not know that I could call down a legion of angels at
anytime and rescue me from this cross?
He didn't have to do that. He's not some suffering servant
saved by grace. You know that the that the we
all look, I'm just a suffering, you know, I'm just holding on.
You know, God's going to get me through this.
No, that is not the church that Jesus is the head of.
He's the head of a victorious church.
He's the head of a bold church. He's the head of a church that
knows who they are because they read the word.
So he was pierced by a choice. He had a choice.
He said I would not even came. Had not my father sent me so the
greatest thing he could do to? Honor, his father was do the
thing that his father called him to do by his shops.
We were healed. It's because of that.
Piercing that he chose, it would have done.
We could have had no power without him shedding blood.
It's his blood that was shed, poured out for us, and he was
pierced by a choice. He had a choice to made.
He had a choice to make. The Strong's word for honor is
to esteem at the highest degree. So that word honor that you see
in Revelation means to esteem to the highest degree.
If you honor something, you hold it of utmost importance.
You are saying yes, this is what I choose.
We should have this hunger and esteem.
For the word of. God, it should be #1 on our
list. It's not something that we'll
get to if we're not too tired. It's not something that will do
on days that it doesn't affect my schedule.
No, it is something that we should have a high regard.
The first thing that wakes me up in the morning, though, it
should be the last thing I'm thinking about in the morning.
Throughout my day. I should be saying, how am I
honoring you today, Father? Because I'm showing everyone
that I'm a believer. Because the number one thing
that world the world calls unbelievable is a church that
does that, hears something true and does something different.
That's what unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable.
Someone said that I have no idea who it was.
It wasn't me. An unbelieving world calls that
absolutely unbelievable to see people that call themselves
Christians and go live church and they'll put their Jesus fish
sticker or their or their Jesus crosses on you know on the
window. But then they'll Hulk and flip
you the bird in traffic and acting all crazy and you know
like getting irate it to drive through because they can't get
your order right now see so we are believers.
This is not the nature of God. So this should not be who people
see when they see. That's a Christian.
Really. People should not be surprised
if if you're if you're people at your work, your associates at
your workplace found out you're a Christian, would they be
surprised? You don't have to answer.
It's just it's a question for you to say you're right.
I don't really represent God while I'm at work, but this is
just personal. As a side note, Jesus is not a
fad. You know, living a life for
Christ is not a fad. It's not something we go
through. You know, humanity operates in
fads. For example, in the 70s,
sixties, 70s, there were bell bottoms.
That was a fad. You know, I don't know.
I wasn't around yet. I'm an 82 baby holler for all
the 80s babies in the house. So, so.
But that was a fad they all had. Well, bottoms, that was just a
thing Then they it faded out OK then and now my late 80s, early
90s, I had a mullet haircut. I remember I have my elementary
school pictures and I remember I rocked A mullet with the with
with real short hair on the side.
I had a spike haircut. So I had a mullet and a spike
haircut. I went so far in this fad.
Then I put a perm in my mullet because if you'll notice, I
don't have curly hair, but I wanted curly hair because when a
perm gets wet, you see the real curls, it activates the perm,
you know, and it's real curly. So I would just get out of
shower and wet my hair. And then me and Devin, my little
brother, I don't even know if he's here today, but you know,
me and my little brother here we were play and we were just, I
would be like, you know, I'm like, I'm pretending to be Van
Dam. And I'm like, he won this more
of the movies. He had this real curly hair.
And I'm like. Man, this is it.
But that was a fad. Now you see, now you see that
the 70s and 60s is coming back around.
It's still in a circle. It's enter, it's coming in.
But oh, I want what? Why would Why do we do these
things? That's the question.
Fads. I think a fads kind of short for
fading away. It'll come and it'll fade out.
The Kingdom of God is not a fad. The Kingdom of God is not going
to fade away. It was the same.
He's the same yesterday, today and forever.
So in the beginning, he was the Word.
Now he's the Word. And in the end, he'll be the
Word. And when heaven and earth passes
away, he'll still be the Word. A new heaven and new earth will
come down. But he's still the Word.
The Word will not change. You know, we're not going to get
a new copy of the Bible. That's completely different.
When the new heaven and the new earth comes down, it's the same.
And it will always remain. Amen.
Funny story before I really get into it.
That was my intro. Buddy of mine Matt he's in the
building this morning and you know he mean him we share some
similar things that we liked as hobbies and one of them is
talking and so so he he's like hey man he's like hey hey he's
like hey I said I heard uh heard you got today's you got a word
today I said yes. I said I've got something to say
to him. I said worst case scenario, I'm
just going to have you come up here and we'll just tell
everyone who we are and that's 45 minutes in itself because the
only. Person that likes to talk more
than me. It's Matt Hunt and everyone that
knows him is. He knows that one last story
that I'm really going to get into.
Last story, the first time I ever, the first time I ever
preached in front of Pastor Earl was in Nicaragua and his
Vladimir. Vladimir might be in here.
Vladimir, He's in the back. I see him.
He was probably there. I'm as a matter of fact, I know
he was there. First time I ever preached.
I was so nervous. Now you got to understand the
demographics. Sit down until I asked them or
told them You may be seated. I I'm in Nicaragua, there was at
least 80 to 100 men, OK. In this group, it was a men's
camp and they're all in there and they stood up to honor the
speaker, and they have such great honor in this country that
they would. They stood, So I'm up here and
I'm so nervous. You know, Pastor Marcus, he just
got done singing and then I'm getting up here and I'm like,
OK, I've got my nose. I'm so nervous.
Pastor Earl, sitting here, I'm in another country.
It's really my first time preaching.
And I'm like, I'm like, you know, I'm like, so I just, I
just launched into, I just started, I introduced myself and
I just started and they're still standing.
I didn't notice. I'm just.
No big deal. They're still standing.
So finally and I'm so and I'm and there's no microphone and
I'm in this loud building and it's just hot and there's a
metal roof and there's, you know, it's just so I'm
projecting my voice. So I'm like, really?
Yelling, I'm like, I'm like, you know, I because I knew I was
projecting my voice, you know? So then all sudden I see, I see.
Pastor. No, it was John.
It was his son Sean. Sean was on that trip.
So Sean, his oldest son, Sean, he walked over the back.
And Sean's doing this. I'm like, I must be talking too
loud. So I start monotoning my voice
down a little bit. I started, you know, I started
talking a little lower. So finally now there's an
interpreter. It may have been Ernie.
Yeah, there's an interpreter. I'm sure it probably was there.
Ernie was. He's interpreted for me because
they have no idea what I'm saying.
I mean, I'm Appalachian English. There's Appalachian English, and
then the, you know, there's Spanish.
So they have no idea what I'm saying.
He's interpreting. To the best of his ability.
And and finally Pastor Earl says have him sit down real loud and
now they have no idea what he said.
And then finally I was like you may be seated and then he
interprets you may be sitting and they all sit down.
I was like, so I was reminded of that account this morning
because I just wanted to get you guys kind of the eyes, little
icebreaker, because you know, the word of God is not heavy.
The word of God sets us free. I'm gonna.
I'm gonna step on some sacred cows.
But I. It's not something for you to
say. You know it shouldn't raw you up
or man. It should set you free and
should say OK, yes, I see that now.
I see how your your love has done that for me.
I can honor you by reading your word and doing your word,
because that's the greatest form of honor.
The greatest form of honor that Jesus could have done for his
father was to do everything he sent him to do.
He said he wouldn't have even. Had not God sent him?
Chapter 13, verse 13. In other words, Jesus wasn't
sitting up there saying, let me go, let me go, let me go, let me
go. Get murdered.
Killed, you know, Beard ripped out.
Let me, let me. Just let me know.
No. He was sent and he willingly
obeyed. And it was his greatest form of
honor, for his father was to obey that what the Lord asking
so. This is where the message
starts. Says whosoever despiseth the
Word shall be destroyed, but he that feareth the commandment
shall be rewarded. That Word despise means to
disrespect. Fear of the Lord is more of
obedience, so let's try it this way.
Whosoever despises or disrespects the Word, shall be
destroyed. But he that.
Has obedience to the commandments of God will be
rewarded? Now that's a different way of
reading it, because I know no one would ever say I I ain't
reading the Bible. I I despise that no one's ever
done this, even. Unbelievers have a have a
reverence for the word of God, you know, because they know that
it's sacred. They know that they know that
it's right. They don't want to submit and
crucify their flesh yet, but they know it's right.
The other day they know it's right.
My dad, my dad, all he raised me up.
He just he was a great dad, but not a spiritual father.
Father, because he wasn't born again.
He taught me how to do things naturally, but he could never
teach me how to do things spiritually.
But at the end of the day, he knew on Sunday mornings I would
try to go to him and that would be my way out.
Dad, let me stay home from church.
You know, I don't want moms making me go to church.
Didn't you know I shouldn't have to.
She shouldn't make me go to church.
Dad, come up. Tell her I'm not going to go.
You know she has to listen to you.
Your dad Now, son, you need to go to church with your mom, even
though he wasn't himself going. He knew that was right and
thankfully he was able to get in by the skin of his teeth.
You know, like he. Later, he passed away of cancer.
That he did not have to. He could have, he could have
received a word from God because there are other cancer people in
here. Randy somewhere.
Like he mentioned the Mayo Clinic during offering, Yeah,
there's two different sides of cancer.
There's a side that we just give into it and say, Oh my gosh,
it's cancer. It's uncurable.
Or there's a side where I'm going to believe God, and if I
die, I'm going to die believe. God, because it is not his will,
it is not his will for me to die and but my father never had
revelation of that so peace or come to his illness but at the
end of his Rd. He was able to confess with his
mouth, believe in his heart, become born again.
He was able to have water baptism, which we'll do here in
a little bit by sprinkling water, because he wasn't even
able to get out of bed at this point.
He's they sprinkle water on him and water baptized.
He got filled with a Holy Spirit.
He spoke in other tongues, I mean, but it wasn't a revelation
for him to change his life. It was just security of leaving
the planet. But that's not God's desire for
you. You don't have to get there.
That's his desire is never for you to die.
Ever. God's not putting a sickness on
you, teaching you a lesson He's not.
No. If you're sick, you need to
fight the good or fight of faith and come out of it.
Amen. All right, let's keep going.
Proverbs, Chapter 13, verse 13 in the Passion Translation says
despise the word, will you? Then you'll pay the price.
And it won't be pretty. But the one who honors the
Father's holy instructions will be rewarded.
The fear of the Lord is directly related to honor.
If you honor the word of God, then it'll produce life for you.
It can't produce anything else if you have a high.
Esteem and you honor the word of God as it was spoken and
written, then it cannot fail, he said.
My word will not return back to me empty or without power, but
it will accomplish everything that I sent it to accomplish.
So if you're wondering why God's word is not working for you,
then is a question of you. It's not a question of the word,
because if we fail to believe God at what he said, then we
will fail to have its outcome. My dad failed to believe the
power. I asked him one day.
Randy actually bought me a plane
ticket to go up there. Because I wanted to.
I wanted to be able to be with him and kind of walk him through
this. Because I had gained such great
revelation of the healing power of God.
I knew this was easy, but I had to get his mind changed because
Jesus said repent, for the Kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Repent means to change your thinking.
So I knew I had to get his thinking change because he's so,
you know what little bit of church his mother did bring him
up in was Southern Baptist, which was.
Just being born again. That was it.
If we're born again, that's all that matters.
And every time we go to church, we're going to get born again.
Again. Because that's the Hellfire
brimstone preaching. Let me tell you today about a
man named Jesus and how he died on the cross and how he rose.
Come on, you'll ever been in one of these churches.
It's exciting. It's exciting, It's exciting,
but but it will not empower you to live the Kingdom on the
earth. It will only give you a good
night's sleep, knowing that if you die before you wake the
Lord, your soul, he will take. That's it.
That's all it'll do for you. And that's the level of
understanding of the word that my dad had.
So in the end, he was able to become born again.
And I believe now he is present with the Lord because to be
absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
I will see him again one day. Amen.
The reverence for the Lord means deep respect.
Obedience is a form of honor. If I am honoring if I deeply.
Respect the word of God. Then I'm going to obey the what
it says. I'm going to obey the word of
God because if I have honor for the word, then I'm going to obey
it. My son, who's honoring me by
obeying, he's taking notes. I said, son, I want you to sell
the front seat today. I want you to take notes and I
want to read your notes and I'm gonna compare him to my notes
and we'll see how well you did. Because I want to equip him to
be a note taker. Pastor Mike coins this phrase he
says on on the paper off the mind because it is impossible
for you to remember everything that said when you leave, so
become good note takers. You can take notes on your phone
if you have your notifications turned off because the devil
will distract you. Oh, Facebook post, oh, Instagram
post, oh, grocery list reminder, Oh, there's all types of
distractions. Take notes.
Become a good note taker so that you can go back and read over
your notes. Review your notes.
I've got notes from every service I've ever said in here
because it's just that important, because it's
everything that I say to you and everything that Pastor Earl says
from the platform is not in our notes.
So it's not like we're going to say, Oh yeah, you missed
something, I'll. E-mail you my notes.
He did this once. He sent me his notes, he said.
Here, I'm going to say I'm going to give you some notes.
It's OK. Cool.
It's just scripture references. I'm like, hey pastor, got your
scriptures, send me your notes. Those are my notes.
Great. It's awesome.
Appreciate it. I'm going to read the Bible too.
So James chapter one, verse 22. Say James chapter one, verse 22.
I make my teenagers do this because if you hear me say it,
but then you yourself say it, there's twice, twice to get a
chance that you're going to retain it.
Because it's not about me. I've got it here.
I need you to get it. Amen James chapter one verse 22
says don't just listen to the word of truth and not respond to
it for that is the essence of self deception.
Notice it doesn't say the devil's deceiving you.
That's the essence of self deception.
So always let his word become like poetry, written and
fulfilled by your life. Response is an action.
If you're doing the word of God, you're it's a response.
That's an action. OK.
I can't say that I'm going to do God's word.
If you don't see me doing God's word, you understand because.
And then it says that God's word will come to pass.
He desires that it comes to pass through.
So he said my word will come to pass.
OK. And it's and it will.
Someone's going to do it. He desires it to come to pass
through you. He wants his word to come to
pass through. He wants to see his blessings
come and fulfilled being fulfilled in your life.
He wants to see his provision be provided to you in your life.
He wants to see health in your life.
He wants his word to come to pass through you.
He wants your testimony to be that what will cause people to
overcome their situation, because someone may be going
through something that you already went through.
So why don't you let them hear how God was faithful for you and
help encourage him? My gosh, He says he's no
respecter of persons. So if he'll do it for this
little apple actually got from Kentucky, then he's going to do
it for me. You understand what I'm saying?
He, he, He loves to perform His Word.
He loves it. It is a great honor for him to
see you applying your faith in His Word and having it coming to
pass in your life. Amen.
It says your your life should be flowing like a beautiful poem.
Now listen, I don't read poetry newsflash.
But when I think of poetry, I think of something that just.
Smoothly rolls off the lips when you're reading it.
It just flows. It's just a good smooth flow.
And that's how God desires your life to be.
Your life should be just a good smooth flow.
And now we live in a fallen world and there is an enemy.
He's the devil and he does not want you to succeed, just to let
you know he wants you to fail. But it is up to you because
Jesus already conquered him. Jesus conquered death hell in
the grave. He conquered.
He's gotten the keys to Hades. OK, so he's already fought the
fight. It is up to you to fight the
good fight of faith that Paul talks about and have what Jesus
did come to pass in your life. Because last time I checked, I
am seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
So if Jesus could overcome something that says that he was
tempted on all accounts. Which means well, now I'm
different. Pastor, this is not.
You know, they didn't have cell phones back when Jesus was
there. So how do we know he could have
overcome? No, he was tempted on all
accounts. That's what the word says.
So if he was able to overcome all temptation, then we can
overcome all temptation. That's it.
There's no temptation that will ever come to you.
That the blood of Jesus cannot overpower it is up to.
You say me. It's up to you to gain
revelation through the reading of the word and say, OK, I'm
going to apply this word to my life.
That is my job. That's my job.
Period. That is up to me.
If I'm if God's Word is failing for me, then it is my fault.
It is me failing to believe it and failing to apply that to
apply it. I I mean if you're a first time
guess, you cannot experience aggravate church in one service.
You have to come at least go back at least five times.
So just know I'm very passionate when it comes to word and when
it comes to obeying the word, you have to be equally as a
passionate. About it.
Because it doesn't matter what you know.
It says that you deceive yourself if you're doing.
If you're not doing the word you know, then you're deceiving
yourself right now. The sad thing about deception?
Is that people that are deceived don't know they're deceived.
Well, good news. I've got an answer.
Read the Bible so you can realize that's me.
I'm deceived. I need to repent.
I need to change my thinking because there was, you know,
like I said, my grandmother was Southern Baptist.
Ain't no speaking in tongues at a Southern Baptist church.
Y'all OK? And ain't having that died out
with the apostles. They say, OK, let's talk.
But that's false. That's there's no scripture to
to to give the evidence of that. There is evidence of a spirit
filled, tongue talking believing church that is in the planet
today. We are a spirit filled
organization. The word of God is is the He's
the helper, He's my helper. He's the one that Jude verse 20
says praying the Holy Ghost building yourselves up in your
most holy faith. That's why I'm doing it.
And Jude's the 2nd to last book of the Bible.
So if it was supposed to be gone away with it and probably been
the second book of the Bible, not the first book.
But there's nothing from just as a revelation.
Everything that's in there is applicable for today, and it is
for you today. And if you'll receive it, you
can grow by and be empowered by it.
Amen. So I got four things that we're
going to focus on this morning. Say 4 things.
You need to write these down, Text them to yourself.
Remind yourself. We're going to talk about four
things. It's interesting when the Holy
Ghost talks to other people that don't really know that someone
else got it. Like Pastor Marcus this morning
he talked about maintaining, you know, during praise the war
should be talked about a maintenance.
There's a maintenance and a maintain.
That's one of the four points that you're going to get.
So it's super exciting to see that God has went before us and
before we're. Before I ever even took the
first note, he already had a plan and a purpose because I'm
led by his spirit. Amen.
So number one, say #1. It's purpose.
You don't have to repeat everything.
Only if I Only if I tell you to say it.
I get this a lot. I get this a lot.
My teenagers, they did it on purpose.
I don't think you guys did it on purpose, but they'll just keep
your family like you're done. You don't have to repeat me
anymore. Our lives should have purpose
for God's Kingdom and His church.
I'm gonna say it again. Our lives should have purpose.
And those that purpose should be for God's Kingdom and for His
church. This purpose drives us.
This purpose is what we wake up. And I know that God has a plan
for me. God needs me.
You understand what I'm saying? He needs me, I said underneath
the teaching one time for several years of my life.
And I would constantly hear the person from the platform saying,
God doesn't need you, you know? He's gonna and he that God
doesn't need you. He's no he's going to do it
anyway. God wants to do it through us.
You know He needs us, He said. The earth is given to man, the
heavens are the heavens of the Lord.
But the earth He's given to man, He's given it to us to maintain
it. He's given to us to be able to
speak His word in it, half faith in it, as our our God's word
through our mouth is just as powerful as God's Word coming
out of his mouth. Because when I say I am healed
by His stripes, that's the same power as when God said you are
healed by my stripes. That's it.
When I believe it, it's the same.
It doesn't. It's the same.
Amen. It says the same #2, say #2.
Function. Say function.
You're good. All right.
And we'll get this. We'll get this before lunch.
We'll get it. Function our lives.
It should have a function for God's Kingdom in His church.
Notice His Kingdom, His church. Our lives should have a
function. There is a part we can play.
We can do more than just here, we can do.
If something has a function, that means it does something #3.
Performance. Say performance.
Our lives should be performing in God's Kingdom.
In His church, our lives should be performing and #4 what Pastor
Marcus was all over is maintenance.
Our lives should maintain themselves in God's Kingdom and
in His church. There's enough, if we're reading
the word, praying in the Spirit, building ourselves up there is
enough to maintain us. We shouldn't have to, you know.
Oh, we're so we got no, there's enough.
God's word is enough. Same in #1 we said was purpose.
Let's talk about purpose. Our purpose should wake us up in
the morning. Your purpose.
When you wake up in the morning, it's like yes, yes.
He didn't return last night, so I'm going to God.
I got another day. He's got a purpose for me in
this planet and I'm going to perform it.
I'm going to do it. Our purpose should drive us
through the day. Listen, we should be.
We'll be going down the road. What am I going to get to do?
Where am I going? Listening to the Holy Spirit,
the one that's alive, the one that's in the planet, the third
person, we've got God the Father, God the Son, God the
Holy Spirit. God is in heaven, on a throne.
Jesus is it, as at his right hand.
So he's in heaven. And now the Holy Spirit, that's
the third person, dwells on the inside of us who believe it and
received it by faith. Now he can let me know what the
will of my Heavenly Father is. And now if I'm in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, then this the holy I need that.
We need the Holy Spirit. Say we need the Holy Spirit.
He's our helper, our purpose. Our purpose should give us
peace. When we lay down to fall asleep
at night. My wife says that she hates it
because I fall asleep before she does.
You have ears to hears. Probably because that's the
word. That's why she hates it.
She doesn't hate it that her husband gets such good, restful
sleep before she does. It's because if she doesn't race
me to sleep, she's gonna have a hard time.
She's gonna have to turn like no rain noises up or turn the A/C
on or something. You know?
I went on a men stripped with Duncan Daly one time.
I don't know if we're Duncan that but Duncan Yeah, I was.
He's in the best sound, but they have black shirts on, so I have
no idea where he's at. I see a head.
So Duncan Daly was my roommate. And Duncan was like, he's super
nice as hey now, Pastor, he said.
Now I'm gonna let you know he's like, you know, I tend to snore,
especially when you know when I'm tired.
I said, you know what, That's no problem.
I snore too, especially when I'm tired.
So when he said I snore, I mean, I didn't realize I was think,
wow, he does snore. So, so, and I'm sure he thought
the same thing about me, because, I mean, I have to sound
like I'm trying to suck my nose through my skull like when I'm
asleep anyway. Anyway, it was a race for us.
We would get in our room at night and we knew we had to get
up early, so we wanted to get as much sleep as possible.
But if he fell asleep before I did, it's going to be rough.
It's going to be rough for me to fall asleep, but if.
You know, so we would race. All right, all right, good
night. And we like, we wouldn't even
say, yeah, we wasn't talking. We didn't say nothing like, all
right, man, I gotta say no more. And we just like try to fall
asleep. Try to fall asleep because we
knew that we need. To get some rest.
So our purpose should give us peace at night.
We should. It should be easy for us to fall
asleep, and if you're wrought up about something that's causing
you to lose sleep, you got to give it to the Lord.
You got to say, Lord, I'm going to cast my care on you.
It's just your burden to carry, not mine.
I'm a believer. I'm a tiger.
I am a candidate for your blessings in my life.
I should not be having a hard time sleeping at night.
I don't need to medicate myself or take another pill to make
myself fall asleep. I don't even care to take
melatonin. Because that's something like a
natural sleep aid. Well, you know, honestly,
natural sleep aid is falling asleep.
To me, that's that's the most natural form of sleep aid
possible. I don't want to become so
dependent on a melatonin. Then I get somewhere.
I don't have melatonin, so I can't fall asleep anymore
because I've just naturally medicated myself.
No. The peace of God gives me rest.
The peace of God gives me hope. It lets me know, yes, I'm doing
your word. I'm doing your will.
Your blessings are for my life. I am a candidate to have your
Kingdom manifest in my life. Amen.
Second thing we said was function.
Say function. We must know our function in
God's Kingdom and in His shirt. We need to know what our
function is because there are things that we're good at.
There are things that we're good at, and God did this on purpose.
Listen, He is the beginning and the end.
He knows the end from the beginning.
He's Alpha Omega. He is all knowing, all seeing,
all the time. And he has a plan for you in his
church. So we need to know what our
function is. Then the number one person asked
about your function is God. You pray and you pray it out and
you find out God. What would you have me put my
hand do? What would you have me do?
How can I bring honor? Our function will bring honor to
God if if it's the right thing, because the most unsuccessful
thing to be is successful in the wrong assignment, you know,
because we can be successful in a lot of things.
But if it is not what God has called you to do, it's the wrong
thing. The rich young ruler Rich young
ruler was very successful, had a lot of wealth.
And he comes up to Jesus excited.
Super excited. Like, hey, I'm so excited.
I want to do what you're doing. I want to, I want to live for
you. Jesus said, well, there's one
thing you lack. It's like, what do you mean one
thing I lack, I've done. I've done everything I've lived
right my whole life. I've given to the poor.
I've done this, I've done this, I've done this.
I've checked all the boxes. Jesus, I'm ready.
Put me in. Jesus said fine.
So everything you own, give it to the poor and then follow me.
The Bible says that he left troubled because he had many
possessions, so he was deceived by thinking all the things that
have been you know that I've acquired.
Surely God's blessing is on my life.
Surely? If I'm able to have all this
stuff, surely God must be pleased with me.
The Bible says he went off troubled because he had many
possessions. You could have things.
We're not against you having things.
But you have to ask yourself, which has which?
Do you have things or do things have you?
Because there's the difference. Amen.
I'm not go camp out there. That just came up, came out, and
our function will always line up with our purpose.
Your function will always line up with your purpose.
I have a lot of tools. It's taken me years and years.
I'm an electrician by trade. You know, Paul built tents.
I'm an electrician. It's fine.
Well, I have a lot of tools. Each one of those tools.
My wife is. I've heard this for 20 years.
Seriously. You buy another tool, usually
comes up just like seriously, you buy another tool?
What, $47 for a level? Why did you need a $47 level?
Because it's a conduit bending level.
It has a 30 degree bubble. It has a 45 degree bubble.
It has a zero degree bubble. It is 4 bending condo and I
needed it, you know. Come on, all the men should be
like 1-2 three. Yes, because because you know
tools have purposes. Well, we also, we also are a
tool for God's Kingdom. We have a purpose.
We have a function that level that costs $47.
In my it was a torpedo level and I don't even think it's level
straight now. It was like it didn't.
It didn't last the test of time. Pray because I dropped it.
But anyway, it had a function and you have a function.
You know, I would have been ignorant of that function had I
not taken a chance to read. There's a 30 degree bubble on
it. I know that what that's for
because I know how. I know how to bend conduit, so I
know why that would be helpful. You have a function in God's
Kingdom and the only way you can find out how your your purpose
and your function can benefit God's Kingdom is to get in His
word and find yourself in the word.
Like Oh yeah, this is how God came through for this.
This is how a person that that had those tendencies was able to
be a blessing to God. This is Jesus. 12 itself.
This is why that This is why Jesus kept this guy around,
because, well, you know, I'm kind of good at things like
that. You understand what I'm saying?
You need to find out what your function is, how it can relate
to your purpose so that you can be all that God's called you to
be and advance the Kingdom. Because the Kingdom.
Always advancing. Always.
It's never looking back. It's always this.
Never pausing, never taking a break.
It's always advancing and He wants you to perform well in His
Kingdom. Amen.
And the number third, The third thing we said was performance.
Now how well we perform in His Kingdom and His church will tell
us how much honor we have for Him, I said.
How much? How I said.
How much we know or function? I said.
My wife hates my do that, she said.
Don't do that. I have the microphones.
This thing, our performance is measurable.
Your performance is measurable. Work on time, church on time,
serving on time, reading your day or your Bible reading plan
when it's due. Your These are areas that you
can measure your performance. How well am I doing for the
Kingdom of God? Do people constantly wait on me
to show up when I'm scheduled to serve somewhere?
Do do people this pastor have to?
Do I have to say on my daily question like are you reading
about when pastor asked me? Were you?
Reading about well, I'm a couple days behind.
Pastor, is this your? Usual response, or does it
happen every now and then? I'm not saying it won't happen
every now and then, because it will.
Life happens. But catch back up.
You need to see how you're performing.
A Bible reading plan helps you measure that because if it's
half empty and you know we're in December, like I'm not
performing very well, my dad, that my daily Bible reading plan
next year, I need to get this thing better.
Because at that point, if you're in December and it's halfway,
not field, just throw it away, start over.
You're not going to make, you're not going to make it up.
You're not going to shut down your life for the next three
weeks and read the Bible because that's what it would take.
Don't. Just don't focus on the past.
It's OK. That's all right.
I was. I was an OK Bible reader the
last year. I'm going to be a better Bible
reader this year. That's what you got to do.
You got to be, you know, you got to be encouraged.
Amen #4 we said was maintenance. There is a lot of value that we
have to put on maintenance. This is an easy subject for me
because I tend to be wired for maintenance.
I'm wired. That way I can see something
that needs fixed and the Lord will just give me a way to fix
it. And if if I can't fix it, he's
giving me people that can. You understand what I'm saying?
Like you, This is why we need the church.
It's why we need each other. We're never supposed to do this
on our own. We're supposed to do this
together. You know, when I if I get to a
plumbing issue, I'm like, hey Bill, bro, I need you.
I'm not going to tell his last name because all y'all be
calling him for plumber. He can give you your number, his
number, if he wants to. But we have to maintain our
daily seeking, His first, daily seeking first the Kingdom will
help us maintain. The reason it says seek first
the Kingdom and all of its righteousness is because that's
the number one thing we should be seeking.
The number one thing we should be thinking about when we wake
up, stumble through the house, turn the coffee pot on, but be
thinking about how I can maintain my life in Christ.
How can today be better than it was yesterday?
Because this is how advancing happens.
This is the point of advancing. You're always better.
You're going to be better tomorrow.
I'll be better tomorrow than I am today.
I tell my kids this all the time.
I'm going to be a better dad tomorrow than I was today.
I forgot we were supposed to go to the pool.
I forgot. I did say we're going to the
pool. But you know what?
Let's rain check. Let's do it.
I'm gonna be. I'm so sorry.
I'm gonna be a better dad tomorrow than I was today.
You know, there's things that it will say, you know.
We gotta be careful. We're not telling God to just
what he wants to hear. Yeah, God, I'm gonna do this.
Yeah, I'm gonna. Because that's what we we know
he wants to hear. We just say no.
This is my word. If your word is final, then my
words gonna be final. And that's the best way I can
make sure that God's playing and purposes come through in my life
to maintain it. Failure to lose focus on any of
these four things will hinder your ability to bring honor to
God. If you fail to take focus on any
of those four things we just mentioned, they were purpose,
function, performance, and maintenance.
We have to focus on all four of these things in order to
successfully live in God's Kingdom.
They all for flow like poetry. They all work together.
They all are just like whenever they're like a well oiled
machine. We have to honor God, focus God,
read the Bible. We have to read the Bible.
Because if we're not reading the Bible then we are going to have
a hard time having faith in it. You can't let you can't have.
You can't live a life in the Kingdom successfully on.
I've heard that before mentality you have to keep it in you.
You have to keep stirring yourself up, you know, I know
some of it, like when I read through like some of the numbers
and you know Deuteronomy, some of the this one, we got this
one, we got this one and these sons on these nations and I'm
like really? But I have to remind myself no
God. You chose to pin it in there,
and I know it's going to produce.
I know I'm going to be able to grow from it, so I'm going to
read through it. Don't read your Bible when
you're sleepy. Don't.
Especially if you're in some of the Old Testament stuff because
it's going to put you to sleep. It shouldn't.
We should. I mean, if we have to stand up
and read our read our Bible. You wanna read at night?
Stand up. Doing it.
He's like mom. What's that not on your head?
When I fell down last night because I was standing up, read
my Bible, I fell asleep. I'm kidding.
You should read the word every day.
Isaiah chapter 53, say. Isaiah chapter 53, verse five
says he was pierced through for our transgressions.
He was crushed for our iniquities.
The Chast, the Chastening for our well-being fell upon him,
and by his scourging we are healed.
This is not just for salvation, This is for honor.
Jesus made a choice to be pierced.
He allowed them to Pierce his side because it was honoring his
Heavenly Father the highest. Form of honor is obedience to
His Word. It's the highest form of honor.
If you want to live your life and say truthfully that you
honor God, you need to be reading the Bible and doing what
it says. That's not bondage.
That's not rules. That's not law.
That's life. That's freedom.
Because the most freedom you'll ever have is knowing that you've
done everything God asks you to do.
That's what will get you a well done my good and faithful
servant. Enter in.
That's not the goal. I'm not trying to get to heaven
one day. The goal is to live heaven while
I'm here. The goal is to have everything
that God says I can have right now.
Because you know, that's a that's a that is a a deceiving
lie of religion that we're going to live for Jesus now, so when
we die, we get to heaven. Heaven is a byproduct of living
a life in the Kingdom. Heaven is awesome.
I'm not devaluing heaven, but that's not the main focus.
Jesus said OK, when you pray, pray this way.
Our fathers are in heaven. Your Kingdom come, your will be
done on earth as it is in heaven.
So when I'm praying, I'm not praying like Lord just take me
on into heaven because it's, you know, Lord, I pray that when I
get to heaven, you don't know I'm going to have heaven while
I'm living right now. That's what the Kingdom does.
The Kingdom brings religion and it takes religion out of the
equation and it makes it into life.
He's not about a religion, it's about a relationship.
Amen. God did not want you to be
successful in the religion called Christianity.
He wanted you to be successful with your relationship with him
in his Kingdom. That's the key.
That's the goal, John chapter 19, verse 34.
John say. John chapter 19, verse 34 says.
But one of the soldiers pierced his side with the spear, and
immediately blood and water came out.
This piercing was honor being manifested through obedience,
You understand? He allowed them to Pierce him,
you say? Well, he was nailed to a cross.
He had no choice. He had a choice.
At any moment he could have come down off that cross.
Make no mistake. Please don't buy the lie that it
was. He was sad that he was up there.
No, he was fulfilling his purpose in God's Kingdom of when
he was up there. That was a choice he made, he
told Pilot. He said, you know you don't.
You've only been given to me. You've only been given power
over me. What's been given by my Father
in heaven. In other words, make no mistake.
Your position of authority did not, did not allow you to put me
in chains. My Father in Heaven allowed you
to put me in chains. Amen.
You got to get this because we we have a years and decades of
religion that we have to get out of our mind.
Jesus constantly said repent, repent, repent.
The Kingdom of heaven is a hand. Repent.
Change your thinking, that word. Repent literally means change
your thing. So take away the old way of
thinking and put on my way of thinking.
Put on the Kingdom way of thinking.
You have to look the Bible through the lens of the Kingdom
of God. A living, breathing book.
It's a book that is a Rama book. It's a it is a book that was
breathed by God. It's full of life, and
everything that it produces is life.
If you want life, get in the word if you want.
Freedom, the Word, is the only place it's found.
I mean God Bless America and the NRA.
But the Word of God is the only place the the Word of God is the
only place they'll edit this out.
I'm sure the the Word of God is the only place.
The Word of God is the only place that true freedom can be
found. That's it.
There's no other place, Ephesians say Ephesians chapter
4, verse 2422 through 24. We're gonna read a few here that
you put off concerning your former conduct, the old man
which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust, and be
renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you.
Put on the Newman which was, which was created according to
God in true righteousness and holiness.
It's the only it's only this kind of lifestyle that brings
honor to God and His Kingdom. It is only this kind of living.
We have to put off that old person.
Well, I always do this well. I.
Well, my dad did this well. My grandmother.
It's just something we do in our family.
No, that's a lie. I'm a new man in Christ Jesus.
They said, behold, all things that were all were passed away
and all things are made new. So the minute I became in Christ
Jesus, I am brand new. From that point I started my
life in His Kingdom. Everything that was behind that
is irrelevant. It doesn't matter.
It's of little importance. Some things can be used as a
testimony, but not a place to camp at.
You understand? I'm not going to camp.
And the way I used to live, I'm gonna say no, thank God you
delivered me from the way I used to live.
I don't have to be that person anymore.
You know, I'm a I have freedom in Christ.
We're going to keep reading, but we're going to read this next
section, same chapter in the in the Passion translation.
So if he is chapter 4, we're going to read verses 25 through
27. And the Passion says so.
Discard every form of dishonesty, dishonesty, and
lying so that you will be known as one who always speaks the
truth, for we all belong to one another.
But don't let the passion of your emotions lead you to sin.
Don't let anger control you or be fuel for revenge, Not for
even a day. Verse 27 Don't give the
slanderous accuser that is the devil an opportunity to
manipulate you. If you're honoring God, then you
will not be dishonest. If you're if you're honoring
God, you're not going to be dishonest.
If you live a life of honor, you you will live an honest life.
Look to the word. Look the word dishonest.
It's completely the opposite of honor.
Look at it. Dishonest.
Is it up there? Where's it at?
Yeah, Dishonesty. It's got the word honor mixed in
there. So if you're living dishonestly,
you cannot live honorably. You see that?
You cannot live both a dishonest life and a life that honors God.
You can't. It can't happen.
Colossians say. Colossians chapter 3, verses two
and four, two through 4, says yes.
Feast on all the treasures of the heavenly realm and fill your
thoughts with heavenly realities and not with the distractions of
the natural realm. Your crucifixion with Christ has
severed the tide of this life, and now your true life is hidden
away in God, in Christ, verse four.
And as Christ himself is seen for who he really is, who you
really are will also be revealed.
For you know for you are now one with him in his glory.
The choice Christ made to be pierced severed the tide of this
life, and we're in Christ. If Christ's flesh had to be
crucified, then so does ours. We cannot live successfully in
God's Kingdom without crucifying the flesh.
The flesh constantly sets its desires on itself.
The Spirit constantly sets its desires on others.
So if you. Live a life consumed with you.
You're going to miss what God wants to do through you and and
you're not going to be a blessing to His Kingdom.
Amen. Our choice to honor God will
keep our flesh pierced and our lives in Christ Jesus.
You know, I don't know where I can move on the cameras.
Our lives should honor God. Everything about our lives,
everything about our existence, should bring honor to Him.
If we're living our life according to His word, then
we're going to do that if we are obeying what we read.
Because remember, obedience is the key.
If you want to honor God, obey the word.
If you want to honor God, obey the you know.
Do the things you've been called to do.
If you don't know what they are, find it.
Get in the word. Honor is something that has been
fading out of society. When I was young, I remember my
grandparents would tell me, you know, give me certain
instructions. And now, looking back, I would
realize it's for honor. One of them, that's a little old
school. One of them was you're praying,
take your hat off. Now listen, God doesn't care if
your hat's on. OK?
But that was a form of honor, OK?
God does care if you honor him. So that was some honor.
She would say, you know, make sure you use your manners.
Make sure you say thank you. Make sure you say, you know
you're welcome. You know, do these, these are
kind things. And these are things that we
train our children because we want them to have honor It's all
form of honor but it's we're losing it as society goes on.
Now that's not know you know Jesus said be of good cheer.
I've overcome the world so it's not like well fine then we're
just going to be a dishonorable group.
No, the IT the buck stops here at choose that we choose to
honor God and we choose to bring those things that are God that
has godly character and make it come to pass.
Our phones sometimes can be tools of dishonor and it's
nothing. You know what?
Please. I told you I was I was gonna
kill some sacred cows today and as they were like cell phones
going to their pocket. No, I'm just kidding.
I have a phone. I leave a phone.
We all use their phones or phones are very useful tool.
OK, please don't get me wrong. They're a very useful tool.
However, they can also be very, very distracting.
So it's not popular because everyone has a phone.
Everyone has a phone. This is the society we live in.
When I was a kid, you know, in order to see certain things, I
had to like, go behind a counter when the cash register person
wasn't looking and tear a brown piece of paper off a magazine.
That's the only way I could ever be exposed to something like
that. Now it's free on every
electronic device. So we have to make a choice to
crucify our flesh. We have to make a choice to let
God empower it. He wants to empower you and
equip you, You know, don't be afraid.
Oh, my gosh. I'm gonna have to turn my phone
off. My kids got a phone with.
No. Teach them the right way.
You don't have to teach them, you know, Working in a bank.
Whenever you're working in a bank.
My motherinlaw. Who's right here?
Give a shout out Kim. Yep.
She's the mother. She's.
I call her the motherinlaw, because if you don't want to
have a Good Wife, is there going to be a motherinlaw?
There's just nothing you can do about it.
So we love so we so we love her. So we love her.
Well, so I brought her up. I brought her up because she
used to work in a bank. She used to do.
She's very well versed in banking and numbers, and
whenever you work at a bank, you are.
Taught money, not by counterfeit money.
You understand because there are counterfeit money that comes in
that looks really similar. The best thing they use to teach
you about counterfeit money is actual real money.
They don't bring Monopoly money in.
Now say now, Kim, if you ever get a person wanting to, you
know, put this $500 Monopoly money in there, we can't accept
this. It's not currency for us.
You know, they give her a real $100 bill, Kim.
This is the United States. These are the markings that you
have that lets us know it is not counterfeit, it is real.
So we they we have to find out the what is the truth?
Because the Word of God is the only real thing that exists in
the planet. It existed before the planet got
here. John won one in the beginning
was the Word. The Word was God.
The Word was with God. Then the Word became flesh.
So before the earth came was the word says heaven and earth shall
pass away, but my word lasts forever when the earth.
Passes away, the word will remain.
It is the only true factual evidence that we have of all
life in Christ. It's the only thing that leads
us to life. It's the only thing that leads
us to victory. It's the only thing that leads
us to healing. It's the only thing that leads
us to provision. It's the only thing that leads
us to walking in love with our brother.
Because look around you. There's a lot of different kinds
of people in here. Look around.
You have my permission. Look around at everybody.
Look around. There's a lot of different kinds
of people in here. Some.
Of them are easy to love, some of them are not.
I said, I know some of you. I'm like, I'm looking at
everyone. Some of you are not easy to
love. But God can give us.
God can give us the ability to love everyone.
Because it's been his love, His love has been shed abroad in my
heart. His love empowers me to love
each one of you with the God kind of love.
Amen. It's the Kingdom of God, and it
will not be shaken. It's the Kingdom of God that
will remain forever. You have to Pierce your flesh.
Every day when you wake up because you're not going to want
to read, you're not going to want to come to church, you're
not going to want to get up early and come to prayer.
Which is at 6:00 AM on Wednesday mornings, 6:00 AM.
This house is open every single week for prayer. 6:00 AM to 7:00
we pray for one hour, Jesus said.
You know, can you not pray for me for at least one hour?
So we at least do one hour. Now these this is vision
partners. If you're a vision partner Bank
of a church, this is the house is open for you to pray in now.
You should be praying other times also.
You can. You don't have to wait till
Wednesday morning to pray. You can pray often, Paul said.
I pray without ceasing, so he prayed all the time.
How can how can the Holy Spirit accurately say?
He said I pray in the Spirit more than you all.
Well, how do you know that? Because he lived a lifestyle of
praying in the Spirit. He lived a lifestyle of being
led by the Spirit that he was constantly dwelling on the
interest of his father. He was constantly seeking God
and everything he did. He was constantly about my
father's business. This is the church that he's
coming back for, the church that he's the head of, is the church
that seeks him and everything that they do.
The church that he's coming after is a church that has faith
in what he said. Applies what he said, does what
he said, maintains themselves in what he said, and they have
victory in everything that they do in Jesus name.
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