Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. Here we are now, beyond 20
years, and the Lord has prepared us with another prophecy for the
Church concerning our reach. And it's not by accident that He
would use branches. For anyone who does construction
or, you know, you just drive around Saint Augustine long
enough or our county, you'll realize a lot of things are
being built. The thing that's that is being
built that we don't see most of the time is what's called the
infrastructure or what's underneath the ground.
When you go in and build a neighborhood, they're going to
come in. They're going to build all the
pipe that's going to run all the sewage and they're going to lay
all the curbs that are going to be able to get water, drainage,
all kinds of things take place, prepare the ground.
All these things take place before the 1st foundation of a
house hits. And then once that hits, there's
the foundational size where they're digging A footer and
they're putting the pipe in all that's underneath the foundation
itself and then the foundation. And once that's laid and it's
cured that they can build and the foundation is designed to
hold a certain amount above it. The larger the the building and
the more weight it is, the stronger the foundation must be.
So we obviously had a 20 year foundation build Hallelujah.
And so that's why the prophecy said all of a sudden there to be
there's some exponential things that will take place.
We are in this. Season of exponential.
Now things don't take place without faith.
Can I just say that things that I will talk about moving forward
from here, nothing is obtained in God's realm without faith,
period. If you come across something
without faith, somebody else's faith brought it to you.
Period. Somebody else's faith.
Brought it to you. The man that was at the pool of
Bethesda, he had no faith, but God did.
Jesus did, and it was Jesus's faith that brought that man up.
Are you hearing me? It wasn't God just did it.
Someone was in faith. Someone was pulling the unseen
realm into the scene realm, pulling heaven into the earth.
If anything good's happened to your life by God, somebody was
in faith that pulled it to you. It doesn't happen by chance.
It happens because faith's here. And let me just say this, it's
so much faith that faith can carry beyond a person's
lifetime. What do I mean by that?
It's not by chance that Joseph's bones leave Egypt.
It's because he said by faith, when you leave, carry my bones.
So that faith statement could go through generations.
And when someone had the thought, you know, we ought to
take Joseph's bones with us now that we're leaving was not a
coincidence. It was because faith was in the
earth to cause it to come to pass.
You may have had a great grandma praying for your generation
right now and some of the blessings and things that are
happening in your life is because of their faith is
pulling it into your life. So you understand God's not
mysterious in the context that he does what he wants to do,
when he wants to do and we have no clue.
No, somebody's active in faith somewhere at some season and
you're benefiting from it now. The cool thing is, is once you
learn how to live by faith yourself, you're not dependent
on someone else's faith. Not only can you use faith for
yourself, but in turn you can then activate your faith for
others. But you understand your faith
doesn't overcome everyone else's obstacles, so faith's required.
In fact, in the prophecy it said that seed we would reap of seed
planted in the earth, not because of what we did, but
because we positioned ourselves as a body.
I surmise that in Saint Augustine, which is considered
the oldest city in our nation. Why?
Because it's the oldest continuous city.
Once it got established, it did not close.
There were cities older than Saint Augustine, but they shut
down even if they were reincorporated.
There was a time it was off with Saint Augustine.
It is the oldest. Because of that, and because of
that, there are things that have happened in this community that
we may be walking in that someone else prayed back in the
1600s. Somebody else could have been
talking about things. In the end, God has spoken to
both men and women about future events beyond their lifetime.
I mean, we have whole books dedicated to things like Daniel
seeing things beyond his life, John seeing things beyond his
life. Enoch saw things.
And though we don't have tons of recording, here's a little bit
Jude. He saw things beyond his life
that hasn't even occurred yet, yet his faith has spoken it
already. And we're going to walk into
those things. We're going to begin to see in
fact right now some very strong end time events are taking place
because once again Israel is being attacked Hallelujah and as
a result of that we need to pray for Israel.
Some of these things are what's happening in the end.
They've been more attacked now. In fact, this generation is not
going to go before the the Kingdom returns.
And that's those who were born in 1948.
Are you hearing me? So we need to know what time it
is and then we also need to know our season.
And our season is a season of branching.
The branches will go out. We saw this in Isaiah 61 verses
one through 3. If you'll turn your attention
there, I'm just going to read the 1st 3 verses today.
It says this. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me because the Lord has. Anointed me to bring good news
to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the
broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and
freedom to the prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of
the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all who mourn, to grant those who mourn.
Enzyme giving them a Garland instead of ashes.
The oil of gladness instead of mourning the mantle of praise
instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called.
Oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he.
That he that he may be glorified.
We said last week that this is take that Jesus quotes the
Scripture in the Luke account concerning.
He opened up the Isaiah 61 account of this and began to
read this and said this Scripture has been fulfilled.
Meaning you know he stopped obviously at the favorable year
of the Lord and he said this scripture has been fulfilled in
front of your eyes. But he said the good news will
be preached. Now we went on and showed in
scripture last week that the the good news is the gospel of the
Kingdom. The good news is not isolated to
the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus.
The good news is actually about his Kingdom.
The death, burial, resurrection of Jesus has access to that
Kingdom because you cannot get there any other way.
You must be born of God, and Jesus had to pay the price so
you could become a child of God. Your sin has been paid for
through the blood of Jesus. His assignment was to save you
so he could get you back in the Kingdom and give you dominion
again. He's not.
He did not save you to take you to heaven.
He saved you to bring heaven to earth through your life.
Are you hearing me? And there's always going to be a
heaven on earth, existence, because in the end there'll be a
new heaven and a new earth, and the new Jerusalem will come down
out of heaven to the earth, and God himself will take up
residence on planet earth. Hallelujah.
So with that being said, the gospel that Jesus is preaching
is the good news of the Kingdom of God.
And so that's what we preach here, the Kingdom of God.
It's very important because the Kingdom of God is where life
exists. Jesus is the king.
He sits on the throne. His father sits on the throne.
He sits at the right hand of his father.
And if you're born again, you've been raised up and seated
together with him in Christ. You're in the king.
You are a child of the king. Amen.
You've been delivered, but you also have been appointed and
anointed. Hallelujah.
The same anointing that his own king Jesus has been conferred or
transferred to you. Hallelujah.
And as he is, so are we in this earth.
Jesus didn't walk around depressed, worried, concerned,
nor storing up treasures for himself on the planet.
He wasn't trying to retire. All he was wanting to do was do
the will of his father. And that's all we should want to
do is the will of our father in the power of his spirit.
Are you with me? So are you born again?
If you're born again, then turn over to John chapter 15.
John chapter 15. John chapter 15 has some things
to say about branches. He says this.
I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.
Every what is that, Every what, every what Branch in me that
does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that
bears fruit he prunes so that it will bear more fruit.
Jesus says you're already clean because of the word which I've
spoken. You abide in me, and I in you as
the branch. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself unless it abides in the bond, so neither can you, so
neither can you, unless you abide in me.
I am the bond. You are the branches.
He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit.
For apart from me. For apart from me you can do
nothing. No thing, nothing.
Verse six. If anyone does not abide in me,
he is thrown away as a branch and dries up.
They gather them, cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you
wish, and it will be done for you.
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit.
So. And.
So prove. To be my disciples, Hallelujah.
Now, there's a lot in this passage scripture.
We may or may not get through it.
Today we'll find out. Hallelujah.
Jesus said, I am the true bond. My father is the vine dresser.
So the Father is the vine dresser because Jesus only does
what the Father says. In essence, the vine can only do
what the what the Father ordained for it to do.
It's within itself to do that. When God spoke things into
creation, they do what they do because it was within the
design. Are you hearing me?
So Jesus said, now I am the true vine, but you understand it's my
Father who was addressing the vine itself.
I am the source, the roots, I'm the foundation, and off of me
are branches. Each branch in and of itself
will bear fruit, or should bear fruit is, let's put it this way,
is expected to bear fruit. God never intended for a person
to be a branch and have no fruit.
In God's Kingdom. He does not see branches alone.
He sees fruitful branches because if all he sees is a
branch. Then an axe is coming.
Oh y'all, don't want to hear this, OK, an axe is coming.
It's cut off. A branch connected to the true
vine is not allowed to suck resource without producing the
life of that resource. Amen.
How many want to do it Jesus's way?
Because Jesus is talking here. OK, just wanted to let me
preface a few things before I go further because I know where
we're going. Amen.
Is Jesus talking? Are these his words?
Is he the word? Does he have the right to define
himself? So it's not our job to convince
Jesus He's not saying what he's saying.
It's our job to renew our thinking to what Jesus is
saying. And Jesus says, now if a branch
shows up on my bond that has no fruit, it's going to get cut
off. Are you hearing me?
So Jesus Never The vine dresser is an inspector and he comes
down his vine because he knows the source is pure.
There's nothing wrong with the root because the root's pure.
The the true vine's pure. Jesus.
But the branches are determining whether or not fruit or fruit
are showing up or not because sources getting out to the
branch to produce fruit. The question is, is the branch
allowing the fruit to occur? If there's fruit in a season,
what's going to happen after the fruit manifests?
We're going to harvest it. The Bible says taste and see
that the Lord is good. See, when people encounter you,
they should taste and see that the Lord is good because your
harvest would look like that. You're giving the fruits of the
spirit away in the way you conduct in life.
When you get in a line and all of a sudden something's going on
and you want to be aggravated, instead, you pull off the fruit
of patience and long-suffering and you feed everybody these
things and then everybody tastes and sees that the Lord is good
through you. And once you give your fruit
away, then there's no more fruit on the branch and the Lord says
that was a good season, Let's go to the next one.
Well, how do you get more fruit in the next season?
You going to get cut if you're coming to church and you're
never getting cut? Oh y'all, don't want to hear
this. If you can sit in a congregation
year after year and never feel the prune.
Hallelujah. Be like man that cut me today.
You should just go ahead and start running and shouting and
dancing instead of crying and whining because many people want
to resist the prune. But then the next season comes
because God never listen. He's not satisfied with a branch
that only bears fruit or bears the same fruit every season.
Hallelujah. I mean, I'm not been planted in
this place for 20 years to not have more fruit, and you're not
my fruit. Just to let you know, how many
people attend this church are not my fruit.
OK, The number of people are not my fruit.
How many people I preach in front are not my fruit?
You can't define my fruit because my fruit's spiritual
Hallelujah. No, I produce my own fruit, and
man, I get cut in seasons upon seasons upon seasons so I can
bear more fruit. Will it ever end?
Nope. Not while I remain in the earth.
But I enjoy it because I know well, if I do that, that's more
fruit. I said that's more fruit.
More people have lost out with God because they will not go
through the pruning season. The pruning season, you run the
risk of bearing no fruit in the next one and then the vine
dresser comes down. It was like, how come there's no
fruit on this branch like last year?
Now you understand he's patient. I'm going to give you another
one. Jesus said No, I don't remember.
If it was a parable in and of itself, I'd have to go back
because it just came to me in the spirit.
He said he the the farmer came and there was a particular tree
bearing no fruit and he says cut the thing down man, just cut it
down. And the servant says hold on a
second, I know it's been 3. Years, Two years or three years,
I can't remember. Now we're off the top of my
head, he said. Whatever the year was, Two or
three, he says. Let me dig a trench around it,
put some fertilizer. Just go one more time if it
doesn't bear fruit. We'll cut it down.
Come on. So you know, the Lord can go
past you in a season, can go past you in a season unfruitful,
and you think that you're all right with God.
He swing through a second season, you doing the same thing
you've always been doing, not bearing any more fruit.
And he's like sums up with that branch.
He come through a third year you up here worshiping act like you
got everything right with God. But he know you know He knows
God knows it all. We only deceive ourselves.
He could pass through and be in a season.
We'll just cut that off that the true vine, say, let's give it
one more. But that doesn't stop the
inevitable if fruit doesn't come because even the the, the
servant doesn't say, God forbid it, let's just keep it, it
produces shade, he said. That thing was not designed to
just produce shade, it was produced designed to produce
fruit. Jesus had a problem with things
that look like they're bearing fruit but aren't.
Jesus himself took care of one tree in particular and did a.
King's decree on it. Well, nobody ever eat figs from
you again. And the next day it was withered
up at his roots. Quit sucking from the resources
if you're not producing fruit. Hallelujah, I said.
Hallelujah. Come on, are y'all with me?
All right. But let me break this down a
little bit, because I need to help you.
Who's the Truvon Jesus? Who are the branches we are?
Every branch is to be in him, In him, I said.
In him means you have. To be attached.
Notice the branch that did not produce fruit was cut off.
It's still a branch, but it's no longer attached.
You can be a branch, but that doesn't mean you're an attached
branch. And there's a difference.
I said there's a difference. We've got to be attached.
Now I'm going to have to expand this a little bit because again,
we try to interpret based upon our own personal preference and
as a result of that we misinterpret many things because
we do not take the Bible in full context.
Are you? Hearing me OK.
Verse five. I am the bind, You are the
branches. He who abides in me, He who
abides in me and I in him he bears much fruit, for apart from
me you can do nothing. I am the bind, you are the
branches. He who abides in me and I in him
he bears much fruit, for apart from me he can do nothing.
Verse 7 If conditional statement.
If you abide in me conditional statement, who's determining
who's abiding you are? So you can't say, Well, you know
the scripture says he'll never leave you nor forsake you.
Well, he'll never leave you nor forsake you.
But you can leave him because number one, we say it's a
relationship no one would consider A1 sided.
One person doing it all and the other doing nothing.
A relationship. Yet we treat Jesus this way.
Well, he did it all. I could do nothing.
I can still do nothing now that I'm saved.
Well that's not what Jesus says. He said you were created for
good works. If you actually read past where
it says you were saved by grace through faith.
It's not your work to please God and tell him, look what I did.
You have to accept me. It is his work that he did that
you accepted that. He said now that you're like me,
now walk like me, do like me, perform like me.
I've got some things prepare for you to walk with me, because
we're going to go labor together.
You cannot find anywhere, even in the old covenant, where God's
doing everything independent of man and man doesn't have some
layer of responsibility. Who brought manna in the
wilderness? God did.
But who had to pick it up if they were going to eat it
doesn't say. God brought manna.
Then the Lord sent angels to pick it up, and while they laid
in their tents, laid down in their tents, waiting for the
angels to come, and they would come and feed them the manna.
We have some more. I mean, this is how we're
treating Jesus. He does everything.
We just sit back. We're no good.
Sorry sinners, man. We just lucky to get in.
We can't do anything. I'm not going to do anything.
God forbid I put forth any effort.
The Lord's like. And I put my spirit in you.
And you go out like you can't do something.
Well, I expect you to do like I did.
I obey Dad. You obey dad.
I follow the spirit. You follow the Spirit.
Amen. No, There's a part we have to
do. And doing is our faith in action
because we trust the word. Come on.
Y'all with me. I am the bond.
You are the branches. He who abides in me and I and
him. He bears much fruit apart from
me. He can do nothing if you abide
in me. Conditional statement, verse 7.
If you abide in me, if you abide in me, now go, he goes.
On verse seven he says, and my notice he doesn't say, and I
abide in you. Here in verse five he says, If
you abide in me and I in him, meaning if you abide in me, and
I abide in you. But Jesus goes on and says, OK,
let me do another qualifier. If you abide in me and my words
abide in you. So He's giving you indication.
How am I abiding in you if you abide in Me?
But how am I abiding in you? It's my words.
Well, why? What's the big deal about His
words? Sure they are, but many people
know His word and have no life. So abiding in His word doesn't
mean that you know His word, 'cause many people by trivia
know the word. So there's something else about
this abiding. This abiding is more than just
being connected. It's about where the source or
the action or the governance or the behavior or the way you do
things. So again, if I'm in you and
you're in me, then my words in you and you're doing my word
correct. Well, what has His word said?
Because for some people, you would think the only thing Jesus
said was accept me as your savior.
That I died on the cross and rose from the grave asked me to
come into your heart so I'll save you, so that when you die
you get to go to heaven and that's all you need to abide.
In because that's all I'm talking about.
But does Jesus say more than just be born again?
Verse 7 If you abide in me and my what's that plural?
There are a lot more words. Jesus gave instruction well
beyond just be born again. In fact, he only communicated
being born again one time in John chapter 3, and that was at
2:00 in the morning. To a religious man, that wasn't
even a public preaching, but he had a lot to say about the
Kingdom of God and what it was like and how you're to behave
and how you're supposed to function, how you're supposed to
live and how you're supposed to move after God and what God's
done for you, but what you're supposed to do for God.
There are many things that he said beyond just being born
again. He made statements like this.
Well, if you're born again and I forgave you, well, then you got
to forgive others. So you can't say, well, I'm born
again. I'm going to heaven when I die,
but I can't forgive this person. Well, then his word doesn't
abide in you. And are we saying that word's
not Is optional? So how can you say you're
bearing fruit and not doing forgiveness?
That's just one example. I believe the word talked about
is being healed. I think the word happened to say
this. Listen, don't even go witness to
nobody till the power comes. There was much instruction that
comes from his word, so there's much we are to do.
Well, what else about Jesus does it say?
It says he. Let's go to Isaiah.
Isaiah 96 says this says the child will be.
Born a son will be given and the government will rest on his on
his what shoulders? There'll be no end to the
increase of his government, which is in his shoulders.
Bible says that Jesus Christ is the head.
And we are his. What are we?
We're His body. And again, a head cut off from
the body is not living. The body is definitely not
living without the head. So the context he's trying to
tell us is that Jesus and his body should be inseparable.
They should abide just like Jesus saying the vine and the
branch should be intimately connected, Paul said.
In Him we live and move and have our being.
But most people are only interpreting this as in Jesus,
or in His word that I read myself when I read it.
Jesus is the head of the body. Well, what's the body?
We are. We are.
But there's another description of the body.
It's His church, so if you're going to bind His word, He has
the word He says. Do not forsake the assembling of
yourselves. Together.
You equally abide by being continually connected to the
church he assigned. You to Now we're gonna get
quiet, OK, That's. Fine.
Everybody wants their personal Jesus.
Let me tell you, he's not just personal.
He's personally aware of you. He personally cares for you.
He personally has a destiny for you, but it's not for yourself.
You've got to go bigger than you.
So it says my words are to abide in you.
And one of my words is you need to connect with a brother.
And in fact, if we were to go back and read this passage of
scripture because I omitted some, I went from 8 and jumped
on down to verse to we're going to jump to verse 16 here in a
minute. But if you read beyond eight, it
starts talking about how you're to love the brother.
Well, you learn about the brethren are your brothers and
sisters in Christ by connecting to His church.
Now this is no problem and really.
I should get a lot more amens right now for everybody who
comes to church all the time. I mean, you should be
championing this concept right now, you know, and don't get
quiet with the ones that are going with the Oh my gosh, OK,
leave that for online people. That's why they're online.
OK, we. Assemble.
Why? Because again, how do you expect
to produce grapefruit and be separated from the church?
Because at the end of the day, you can't talk to me about
church and it be the real church that Jesus is building.
Jesus said I will build. That's right.
Jesus did not say I will come and just save individuals so I
can take him to heaven when I die.
He said Peter upon the rock that I am the Christ, the revelation
that I'm bringing the Kingdom back because the Kingdom of
heaven is at hand. Upon this revelation I will
build my church. It includes people, and he wants
all of us to come into it. But at the end of the day, he
wants us to assemble, He wants us to come together.
He wants us to abide together, and so when he's talking about
I'm the bond, you're the branches.
If a man abides in me, he's equally saying if he abides in
me, because again, you can't really abide in Jesus other than
his word or in his recreation. But then you abide in his church
because he's the head of the church.
You abide there. That means it's a life source,
because if you think you can live outside the church, the
devil's got the first step of deception and is weakening your
fruit. When does a branch tell the vine
or the tree I'll connect with you next week.
Have you ever gone to a forest and seen a branch off the tree
and the next week see the same branch back in the tree?
Like, wow, wasn't wasn't that branch on the ground yesterday?
Oh, it went to church. I don't want to hear this.
Branches come from the source. I mean, we have created
churches. I'm going to use that term very
loose, where we are accommodating.
We had someone want to utilize them all.
They wanted to do some kind of fundraiser, of which I was open
for that, but they wanted a particular individual, a
fictitious character, to show up at the event of which that
fictitious character is not allowed.
To show up at the event, and so I gave them options without the
fictitious character being able to come to the event.
I'm being very general, I know. However, so they write back and
say, well the fictitious character has to come because
the community expects it. And So what we do is we're
building within our churches things to accommodate branches
and say instead of saying you you can't produce unless you're
connected. The vine doesn't come to the
branch. Let me just say this way the
vine didn't come because of you. The vine came because the father
spoke. Let man have dominion.
And so the father said I'm obligated to create a pathway so
man can have dominion. Since I said let man have
dominion, he'll have dominion over the all the things in
Genesis 126. And when Adam fell from
dominion, God said I will bring myself in the form of man to
give a pathway back So my word can come to pass for all the
those who choose. So the obligation to His word
was more powerful than his personal relationship with you.
God does not let personal relationship violate His word,
and He is not compromising what He says Church is How did dead
things tell life how to live? So what's happening is is the
branches are telling the vine what it was, and the fungus and
the disease that's on it is starting to spread to the vine.
Well, the Vine already bore that price once.
Oh y'all, don't want to hear this.
He's not bearing that anymore. He's already done that.
He's like, I'm just a life source now.
We'll talk about this next week, but you were engrafted in.
Why in the world would you want to be cut off?
Or why would you personally allow yourself to be separated?
You want to give a demonstration of how vitally important
branches are. Everybody hold their breath
right now. I'll tell.
You When to breathe. Ready.
Hold your breath. Do it.
Oh, see, you're not. You're laughing.
Hold your breath. You know the world records like
20 minutes, so we'll see if we can do 21.
OK, once you breathe, raise your hand.
Keep it up. I'm not intimidated by any of
y'all right now. Unless you know that.
Just keep them up. Put them up.
Huh? Yeah, there you go.
Because I'm looking around. Uh huh.
Wow. Keep them up.
Some of y'all keep your hands up.
I got a few over here holding out.
Wow. Y'all y'all must practice at the
House. Oh, there they go.
Because it's husband and wife. That's what I'm saying.
They're like, must sit in the bed at night and go.
Let's see how long we can hold our breath tonight is.
That what y'all do. I can hold it longer than you.
Whoever breathes first has to take care of the kids tonight.
That's what it is. I got it now.
That's how it is. All right, you can put your hand
down. Breathing's important, in fact,
if you to hell long enough for you to past out, right?
We know this. That's how important church is.
But we treat it like it's not. And I understand that hinders
our doctrine because we want to stay American.
We want to pick and choose when we come, what we do, how we do
it. Jump down to verse 16.
John 1516. A little salon moment real
quick. You did not choose me.
That's good. That's.
Good, you did not choose me, but I you didn't come by and say
look at that. Mine.
I think I'll jump on it. That's not how it worked.
No, the bond said. You look pretty dead.
I can give you a life. How about how about you come and
let me in, graft you in right now.
Let me start letting some life flow through you.
This. Is what's so awesome about God.
You can be a rotten, dead, lifeless branch, but God can cut
a piece of you off, which is called self.
That's what lordships about Let's cut self off.
Now I'm going to engraft you in and what seemed like there was
no hope, he resurrects you. Life starts flowing through you.
All of a sudden you're not brittle, brittle, like
everything hurts you. You're easily bruised.
He'll he'll get you hard, full of SAP, Vigor put bark on you.
He'll put you right back in there and then 'cause your fruit
to start showing up. He said you.
I did not. You did not choose me, but I
chose you and appointed you. Now look at this choosing, he
said. Now you didn't choose me, but I
chose you. But I didn't choose you.
Just so you look pretty. You're not supposed to be on the
bond looking pretty. Look at me.
Woo Hoo, wee, that's not you. That's not what God's like, man.
We don't look good. Let's put them in, right.
No. He chose you and appointed you
that you would go. And what?
Bear fruit. The reason you're getting
engrafted in is so fruit production can manifest.
And he's already said earlier, if I come through and fruit
production is not happening, well man, I'll just cut you back
off. He said that you would bear
fruit and that your fruit. Would remain so that whatever
you ask the Father in my name, he will give it to you.
When we read this scripture, we assume that it becomes obvious
when a branch has no fruit on it, but Jesus does talk about.
When he says no fruit, he's not saying fruitless.
This is why you have to read the Bible in context, because if the
branch does not stay with the. Bond.
It's its source. When you're born again, the Lord
will always instruct you to get to an assembly place.
And here's the thing. In our nation, to have one is
not difficult. But in other.
Nations, when they hear the opportunity to assemble, they
risk their lives. They don't go well in America.
Those just people watching on TV.
Even if when they are not allowed, they look for ways to.
Because in every nation, because in every believer, God says if
you're going to bind the vine, you're going to #1, you're going
to know me, you're going to be in my word, you're going to flow
with my spirit and you're going to be connected to my body.
That's what it means to abide. You cannot abide in His word
without coming to church unless there's not a place to assemble.
But you know, I have found that God has found places.
All over the planet. And at the end of the day,
there's no excuse in the US. So if you want it difficult to
assemble 'cause you hate going to church, then move to the
countries where it's illegal, leave so that you can stand
before your Lord one day and say, you know, I went to that
place, there was no churches there, Lord 'cause you know I'd
have done it. You cannot say you're abiding
and not. Be habitual in the Church
because tree branches that do not bear fruit doesn't mean
they're fruitless. Hallelujah, the same Jesus says
this in Matthew 7, Matthew 7. Just so you'll know, starting in
verse 15, he said. Beware of false prophets who
come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous
wolves. You will know them by their by
their what? By their fruits.
Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from
thistles, are they? Verse 17 Every good tree bears
good fruit, but the bad tree bears do.
They both bear fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad
fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.
But they both produce fruit. How do you know if one's good or
bad? Every tree that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire.
Let's read that verse together. Every tree that does not bear
good fruit. So that tells me there are trees
that are bearing fruit, but there's a condition that makes
it not good. And if it's bearing fruit that's
not good, it's the same as when the vine said to the branches,
if I come through and you're bearing no fruit, you're cut off
and you're thrown into the fire. Here, bad fruit gets the same
treatment. What's interesting about this
passive scripture is it starts out with false prophets, the
ones that have the illusion that they're right with God, but on
the inside they're full of self-interest.
In essence, they know how to speak things that have the
ability to produce good fruit, but they themselves don't have
the capacity. Are you hearing me?
And this is problematic, especially in our last days.
Look what it says here in Hebrews just to help you out.
In Hebrews chapter 895, verses 13 and 14, it says every for
everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the
word of righteousness. He is an and that's a born again
believer that sits in the place called church that only teaches
elementary principles. You want to know what elementary
principles are? Go on to the next chapter.
It starts in verse one and it tells you that things being
preached that are elementary. That's milk, it's milk, it's
milk. And if all you hear is milk,
then we have a problem with what happens in verse 14.
Verse 14 says, But solid food is for the mature who?
Because of what? Practice, Practice.
What's that mean? That means you're doing what
you're hearing. You just don't hear it.
You actually do it. It says don't get mad.
So you don't get mad. You're in a situation that you
could get mad, but instead you bear the fruit of self-control.
You get in a situation where somebody's wronged you and the
Lord says forgive. So you bear that fruit and then
you treat them like they never blew it, and you bear that
fruit. You're bearing the fruit of
patience. You're bearing the fruit of
kindness. You're getting around people
that are not, that are always getting under your skin, yet you
can constantly keep producing kindness.
That's practice. Who, because of practice, have
their senses trained to what. So if you are not mature, you do
not know what's good or evil. Which tells me this you'll have
a hard time discerning fruit. But the Lord knows fruit.
He knows what's good and what's bad, I said.
He knows what's good and what's bad.
He knows. He knows because there are
branches that are bearing fruit that are not connected to the
bond. It's easy for a person to
disconnect from the church and go do their own thing because
there's plenty in the scripture to let you know what good things
are. Oh, y'all.
OK All right. Let's go on.
Let me give you some more. Matthew, Turn over to Matthew,
Chapter 19. Hallelujah.
I mean, because we act like we can exist in the bond, and
church is an option. Like we're really going to
understand the word without the equipping of the Saints.
Because again, I'm all excited about the prophecy of branches.
But you got to understand what a branch is.
So which means I this is who I'm looking for.
This is how I determine whether you're a branch with Anchor
Faith Church or not. You're not a branch.
Well, that's just 'cause you say you are.
Cause the minute I start preaching branches, everybody
thinks they're a branch. But if I don't qualify what a
branch is, they'll leave the church, do their own thing and
say they're connected. Well, what church do you go to?
Well, we don't. All right.
Well, we go to Anchor. Fay.
Well, I hadn't seen you forever. Oh, you know, we're just doing
the work of the Lord and you can go.
How are you doing? A work?
And you're not abiding. Oh, well, me and Jesus were
tight. Well, Jesus gave you a pastor.
He did that. Yeah.
I don't need a pastor. I just have the Holy Ghost.
Well, the Holy Ghost tell you you need a pastor because this
work you have is bigger than you.
Got to identify the branch. Matthew 19 verse 16 says this
and someone came to him and said teacher, what good?
Thing shall I do that I may obtain eternal life?
What good thing? And he said to him, Why are you
asking me about what is good? There's only one who is good,
but if you wish to enter into life.
Keep. The commandments then he said to
him. Which ones?
And Jesus said, You shall not commit murder, you shall not
commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false
witness. Honor your father and mother,
and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
And the young man said to him, all these things I have kept,
what am I still lacking? Jesus said to him.
If you wish to be complete, notice what Jesus didn't say.
You've got no. Fruit of that Jesus didn't say
that's not true. You've not done that.
No, he did it. It's how he was doing it,
though. So Jesus says, let me talk to
your trunk because you don't realize your branch ain't
connected to me. Your branch is connected to
another trunk. A different bond.
Now if you want to be complete, since you are trying to, you're
bearing fruit that looks like the fruit off of my branches.
However, it's not actually good. Lest any man should boast
they're fruit. But it's not my fruit, because
it didn't come from, he said. If you want to be complete, go
and sell your possessions, give to the poor, and you'll have
treasures in heaven to come. Follow me.
But when the young man heard this statement, he went away
grieving, for he was one who owned much property.
And Jesus said, Truly, I say to you, it's hard for a rich man to
enter the Kingdom of heaven. What did he realize?
He's cutting me off my tree? That's been my source.
It's what makes my decisions. It's why I've been so
benevolent. It's why I do what I do, and
he's telling me to cut myself off from that and come to him,
he said. Cut that off and let come and
get engrafted to me. Let me sever you off your trunk
and let me bring you into me. Now you need to in order to get
full understanding. Look it over in the Luke Mark
account. Mark chapter 10 verse 17 says
this and he was setting on out on a journey and a man ran up to
him and knelt down before. Him and said, Good teacher, what
shall I do? And to inherit eternal life.
And and Jesus said to him, why do you call me good?
No one is good except God alone. So he's questioning his ability
to determine what's good. OK?
Isn't it amazing? This guy was confident, Good
teacher. What shall I do to inherit
eternal life now? Why does he call Jesus good?
OK. He's calling Jesus good based
upon certain things. Jesus says.
Don't you know that I'm from the If you don't, if you don't
believe that I came from the Father, at least believe what
the works. And what were the works?
It was the fruit of his obedience.
So this guy knew that Jesus was doing something.
He had some connection to God and he was able to determine it
from Jesus's fruits. So he says good teacher because
obviously I'm producing fruit, but I still feel like I'm
lacking or I'm producing fruit and I want you to justify it.
Because this is a question. Could it be that he was being
kind of. I don't know the term for that,
whether that's being ironic or what's the when you're asking
the question without asking the question?
Rhetorical, you know, good teacher, what shall I do to
inherit eternal life? Like surely you're going to say
I got it because all that I've done, right?
Jesus says, why do you call me good?
Only God's good alone. Then He goes, you know the
commandments and he goes through the list, right?
He gets in verse 20. And he said to him, teacher,
I've kept all these things from my youth up.
Looking at him, Jesus fell a love for him and said to him one
thing you lack. So he was moved.
He's like, man, this boy wants to produce fruit so bad, but
everything he produces is bad, is rotten to the core because
it's not connected to me. He's using me, he's using my
word, he's using my methods. He's, but he's not connected to,
you know how many people are born again and using God's word
but are not connected to his church?
They have nothing to do with his church.
They are not connected to a source.
They're not finding where their fit is.
They're not trying to get connected somewhere and get
submitted and get around other brothers and get around a vision
that's bigger than themselves. To change and transform a
community, they don't want to be around a vision.
Now all they want to do is do their own thing.
Their only vision is their only house and their one Jesus.
And and then they're going to read their scripture and do
their personal devotions whenever they want to.
And they're not always producing the fruit.
And then then when they don't produce the fruit in the
highways, in the byways, then you know, they make excuses.
Then they end up coming in misinterpreting God and saying,
you know, that he does different things, that a pastor that's
rightly divine. The word would help clean all
your thinking up so that you wouldn't think like that.
And then you get around a network of people that would
hold you accountable because it's easy to say when no one's
holding you accountable. And you're like, well, I'll just
go to the Lord. Well, you understand you are.
How come you keep going to the Lord when you could actually
elevate beyond that and quit walking in that sin and in that
stronghold all the time because you get around some people to be
in a whole new accountable, like, I'm not going to do that
because it will cost my team, my church, my the actions of my
life reflect bigger than me. See, when you stay isolated,
then you accept. Your own fruit.
That, by all rights, God's saying is bad.
We call it good, but the Lord doesn't.
Oh, you got fruit there, I got it, but it's not in me.
The rich young ruler Jesus, or the word he was doing, wasn't
pulling from the source of who said it.
Who's the branch? The one that's connected, the
one that stays committed, the one that stays submitted, the
one that says my life's not my own.
Yeah. And I think one of the most
exciting things about pastoring and being at this moment now and
hearing what the Lord has said about anchor of a church is to
say, man, there. There are a lot of committed
people and the reason why some of you, your branches are going
to get further out is because unfortunately not enough for
staying connected. You could have reached here, but
because. Someone leaves.
You're going to have to go further and get into the sphere
that was designed for them. Have you ever watched the Live
Oak? How it starts to go out and then
all of a sudden that limit just turn pop out in a different
direction? And the reason it does that is
because it's like this is where God wanted me to affect, but all
of a sudden someone got disconnected.
I'll go over here now to make influence where I never was
designed to, but I'll just keep growing because I stayed with
the source. I'm truly a branch.
I'm not trying to do my own thing.
I'm not trying to build my own name.
I'm not trying to do my own thing without having submission.
You say, well, you're the pastor.
Who are you submitted to Pastor Kenneth Wayne Hagan.
That's my pastor. And when he tells me to do
something, I do it and I'm connected.
And I actually work on stuff for him as well.
I'm not talking casual here, knowing him.
I'm talking about fully engrafted in.
I'm talking about bringing resource.
I'm talking about showing up. I'm talking about speaking out.
I'm talking about bringing other.
I'm talking about he can call and know even though he knows.
I oversee this because this branch reached out from Raima
and took a route right? Here and started to build.
What you don't really understand is that I kind of came out and I
dropped the acorn in Saint Augustine because I never left
Raima and I built a foundation of which my branch gets
engrafted in Hallelujah and I advance Rhema's cause.
Equally as I advance Anchor faith.
Equally because I'm a branch. I bear fruit.
Hallelujah. Thank you so much for listening
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