So tonight the the title of my message is Dust and Destiny and
I'm going to talk to you about purpose because it's important
for us to hear from from the word.
How is what is God's overall purpose?
And then how do I personally fit into that?
See what we we have a problem in the United States and we're not
even filming. So I get to how could you come
off the stage. We have a problem in the United
States that we've made this gospel of Jesus a personal
gospel where Jesus came just for you, you only if he would have
died, you know, for for only you, he would have came and done
it. But what we've done is removed
one of the most important parts of the Word of God, which is the
corporate anointing or the corporate goal.
God has it. It is irrefutable.
God cares about you personally. However, He doesn't care about
you personally more than He cares about His corporate goal,
His corporate mission, His corporate plan.
You aren't His plan, but you fit in His plan and a lot of people
will will will, you know, around the world be ministering on.
Oh well, you know, it's your personal relationship with
Jesus. But tonight we're going to see
your personal purpose is always attached to God's corporate
purpose. But for us to really to to
understand where we fit in this, we have to look at God's big
picture. I can't, I can't ever get up
here and not give you the full context of the Bible because the
question that we ask in our hearts of where do I fit into
God's story that he's telling? He's the ultimate author.
There's never been a more epic, glorious story ever told than
the one that God has pinned with his own words and he's written
us into it. But the problem is too much of
humanity doesn't know where they fit into this story.
They think that they also have to pick up a pen and write
themselves into his notebook. And that's not the goal.
The goal is to find out what has he pinned about you before you
were ever born. So the first thing I want to
look at is the 1st chapter, the first page of the whole Bible.
God answers a deep theological question that so many places are
asking that every human heart is asking and that is why do we
exist? Why do we as humanity exist?
And in Genesis chapter one verse 26 y'all been here before verse
26 he says it says then God said who said this?
He says let us make man in our image.
Who's he making man or mankind? He says and let them rule over
the birds of the of the fish of the sea, over the birds of the
sky over the cattle, over all the earth and every creeping
thing that creeps upon the earth.
This verse sets the stage for the purpose of humanity.
He says the most powerful 3 words that he can say over human
beings and it's not I love you, it's let them rule.
That's the most powerful thing he's ever spoken to.
Your destiny that we were created for the Earth to rule
over this planet. Psalm 1/15/16 We've heard this
before, but it's worth repeating over and over and over again.
And I'll never get up in this platform and not say this until
I see everybody actually doing it and believing it.
But Psalm 1/15/16 says the heavens, the highest heavens of
the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons
of men. Who has he given the earth to?
So whenever we look, I'm going to, I'm going to, I have so
much. But what we're going to go
through briefly, I'm going to paraphrase the story in Genesis
that happened in the garden. Because truly all of us are
haunted by Eden. We're haunted by what happened
in there. It shows for some reason the
Eden story of humanity shows up in every other tale ever told.
It shows up in every moment of your life where you have to make
a decision. Eden shows up there somewhere.
What happened in that garden affects your decisions right
now. You're never free from that.
See, God said let us make man, and he gave him rulership and he
gave him a Kingdom and said you will rule this planet just like
I rule heaven. And then the enemy came in and
wanted that rulership. He tricked Eve.
Then Eve gave to her husband. They disobeyed the king.
Through disobeying God's way of doing things on the planet, they
forfeited their dominion. So I want to you, if you're
taking notes tonight, I want you to write this down.
Ignorance of your assignment always results in abusing your
dominion. Ignorance of your assignment
always results in abusing your dominion.
Every time. If you don't know why something
exists, you don't know what something is for, you will use
it for a purpose that was it was never intended for.
Eve was given a free will, and yet her ignorance of knowing why
she was in the planet and what God's will truly was, and her
arguing back and forth trying to determine what is God's will and
having a theological debate with the enemy is what she did.
It was a theological debate. What does the word say?
Oh, that's not what the word says.
Is that not what? That's what happened.
The same thing that happened in the garden is the same thing
that happens now in people's living rooms.
Oh, that's not what he said. That's not what he meant.
Can you imagine the serpent? He's like, listen, what are we
living in? We're living a day like 30.
That was 30 days ago. That was a different time.
He must have meant something else.
That was from the beginning. Don't eat that tree in the
beginning. But now we're we're deeper into
this. What did God say?
See, mankind was designed and destined to hear the word of the
King, obey the word of the king, and in doing so they would
dominate and rule their circumstances.
So we can stay the rest of the night right here in just this
one passage, because really, if you dissect and break this down
you we can see the opposite take place.
If mankind was designed to hear the word of the King, obey the
word of the king, and then dominate the earth.
That means if we go backwards, if mankind doesn't obey the word
of the king, what do they forfeit?
Their dominion, their overall general purpose.
So tonight I want you to know in starting out, people have asked
this question and they're going to it's it's a question that
everybody's going to have to ask at some point in their walk with
God. And that is what is my purpose?
But you will never walk in your personal assignment until you
understand and walk in God's general assignment for humanity.
You have to understand where your personal assignment fits
into the bigger picture because when we over personalize the
gospel, when we over personalize the work of Jesus that he did
through his death, burial, resurrection, what we do is try
to find ourselves isolated with just us and God when God is not
just a you and him God. He's always been a corporate
God. He's always been a God that
overseas nations and has covenants with nations and
multitudes of people. In the very end, he doesn't come
back just for Brian. He comes back for his whole
church, which means I want to be part of the corporate yet still
be an individual. So we say, well, what's my
purpose? We'll get there.
We got a, we got two hours. Pastor Chase is in there.
And I was like, man, I'm going to go a long time so you can go
as long as you want. We were like, yeah, fist bone
tonight. Let's look at Isaiah 96 kind of
reiterates and and sends this point home.
Isaiah Chapter 9 verse 6 is the prophet Isaiah foretelling of
Jesus coming and he says, listen, a child will be born to
us, a son will be given and the government say government will
rest on his shoulders. So then if we Fast forward to
the New Testament and we know that the church is the body of
Christ, where is the government of God?
Resting on his shoulders, which is on his body.
So we house the government of God.
So you have a part to play in God's Kingdom government on this
earth. But the reason the title of my
message starts out with dust is because when he formed Adam out
of the dust of the ground, where did he get that dust from?
You can answer, you can. It's we're not even filming the
message. You can respond.
The dust came from the earth. Adam was made out of the place
that he was assigned. His assignment was part of his
DNA. It says that he formed him out
of the dust of the ground and then he breathed life into him.
Which means Adam is made out of the earth and out of God.
But then where did God say was the best place for him to be?
It says and God placed him where?
In the garden? Where was the garden?
So God's very best for humanity when he created the perfect man
who didn't know sin was that he would be made out of the earth,
placed in the earth. And then God gave him an
assignment to be the first scientist, right?
Think about it. He he told him, name all the
animals that's science. And he's like, tend all these
plants. He's a botanist as well.
So God gave him this assignment to do a work to do in the place
he assigned him, which was planet earth.
So was Adam's very best that he could operate in to do God's
will on this planet what he was made for and created for or was
his best to just be in the presence of God in heaven?
So we know that the that somewhere the gospel with finger
quotes. That's for the recording because
they don't see me. So I have to do this.
The gospel got off somewhere when it started to act like
God's very best was somewhere else.
No, God's very best for your life is right now right on this
place. If it wasn't, then why did Jesus
have to come and die if this whole thing was about holding on
until one day we gets better somewhere else, One day I'll be
living somewhere else with him and everything will be all put
together. That's old covenant that did not
require Jesus blood. Jesus's blood, his death, burial
and resurrection came and redeemed and restored you back
to what Adam lost. So your general purpose as human
beings is to reign and dominate this present life on this
planet. So the idea that I'll just hold
on until it gets better. No, no, no.
Jesus came so that you could make it better.
I need more Jesus. No, you don't.
You need more revelation and knowledge about what you already
have. See, when you're ignorant of
your assignment, when you're ignorant, you begin to abuse
whatever it is you're ignorant about.
So every human being born that doesn't hear the good news of
the Kingdom begins to abuse their lives.
Abuse is simply just using something for a purpose, for a
function that it was never intended to.
You know, there's a, there's a funny story and I, you know, I
kind of promised myself I wouldn't tell this story because
I think it's dumb, but you know what?
I'm going to tell it anyway. There's this, this, this funny
story. When I, when I was a kid, I
heard this and this, this gentleman would chop down trees
for a living. He used axes, OK?
And he would go in and chop down trees and somebody one day
brought him a chainsaw and he's like, wow.
They, they said this should make your job 10 times faster.
So he takes that chainsaw out and comes back drenched in sweat
the next day, gives it back to the man and throws the chainsaw
on the ground and goes, it took me all day to do 1 tree with
this stupid thing. The guy was like, sorry, I
thought this would help. He's like, he didn't help at
all. It's awful.
Guys like, well, let me see what's wrong with it.
And went and pulled the thing and the guy goes, whoa, what's
that? See, he didn't understand how it
was supposed to function. He didn't realize you turn it on
and it actually makes your life easier.
All he was given was something that he didn't know how it
operated and then goes out and begins to abuse himself and his
time in the resource that he was given because he just didn't
know how it was supposed to function yet.
All of us are born with God's word being available, but not
inside of us yet. We've got, we've got, you know,
a, a nation of people that are medicated that deal with
depression, that are, that are having to go on, you know,
vacations to try to escape their problems in their lives.
And they're having to get counseling from world counselors
that all they can ever give them is just, well, you know, maybe,
maybe try to think positive thoughts.
And nobody's going back to the word except for the church,
because the church is the one, the only ones that can help.
The church is the only source that you can go to to get the
actual user manual. If you don't know why you exist,
you'll abuse your life. You'll end up doing things with
your time and your dominion that actually are counterproductive
to your Kingdom assignment. Now when I keep saying purpose
in assignment, I think we should read Jeremiah chapter one verse
5. This speaks to the heart of God
and he's talking to the prophet Jeremiah that we know, you know,
lived in a in a difficult time, but had a direct communication
with God as a prophet. And he says before I formed you
in the womb, I knew you. Before I formed you in the womb,
I knew you. And before you were born, I
consecrated you. Consecrated is a very Bible word
that just means I set you apart for something special.
But this doesn't go just for this prophet.
Every human life born into this planet, God formed in the womb,
set apart for a special unique assignment.
That's why abortion is such a tragedy.
Don't tell me it's a cluster of cells.
Even if it is cells, it's cells that were formed by God with a
set apart special assignment. So every person with a beating
heart in this room, you were born for a reason.
See, let let's think about God and his nature.
He says before you were in the womb, I knew you.
So before he ever even began to put cells together, he knew God
does nothing reactively. He's a planner, He's an author,
He's a creator. So if you're here listening to
my words right now, you were born because God first needed
you. You weren't born.
And then God said, what do we do with them?
Stephen didn't come out and God win.
Well, got to find something for him to do.
You know, Stephen came out because God said, I have a need
in the planet and I'm going to have him be born just to fulfill
this need. But you see, the late Doctor
Miles Monroe has these these four statements that we've said
often here at the church, but they just bear repeating for
tonight. He says the greatest tragedy in
life is not death. It's not somebody dying.
It is somebody living and not fulfilling their purpose is
somebody living their whole life and never even tapping into the
reason they were born and given life.
A lot of times we think when somebody passes away that that
grieves the heart of God more than when somebody lives their
life and doesn't actually follow His instruction.
See, it's important for us to say this because these are
things that deeply shaped who I am.
These are the things that I grabbed a hold of as a, as a
teenager and as a as a young adult that I moved into
following the Lord for myself because I realized nobody else
can do my assignment but me. And I think sometimes people ask
and this comes up, you know, I teach a class in 318I have for
the, you know, last however long.
It's been a while and everybody inevitably comes to this point,
whether they're taking a discipleship course at Anchor
Faith Church or whether they just come and sit and hear the
word of God. Everybody comes to this point
and ask the question, how do I find my purpose?
How do I find out what my purpose is?
Because you can't read the Bible and see that God orchestrates
your life and says before you were born, I knew you before you
were born, I set you apart to do something special.
Then all of a sudden you come to this place and realize God
probably had a plan that I'm supposed to be doing.
It's an important question. So when we ask this question, we
have to first say God corporately.
What are you doing in me? Am I operating in my dominion?
How do we have dominion? Well, we have dominion because
we hear the Word of God and then we believe and act on the word
of God, and we just do that in general.
That's our general purpose. Nobody's free of that.
God's not calling you to a special thing, and you were born
to do a special thing without him.
But if God is the author of our purpose, that means our purpose
can only be found in Him. Look at Ephesians 1/4.
It says as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the
world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him.
He chose us in Him. This isn't some kind of
predestination thing. This is God, the heart of God,
dealing with you personally. He chose you, not just as a
person, not all by yourself, but He chose you in who you will
never ever truly find yourself outside of Him.
He chose you in him. See, This is why we have an
advantage. This is why I'm so thankful for
Anchor Faith Church, for the training that we have for the
pastoral staff that we have for the instruction, because the
world desperately needs this. The whole Pharmaceutical
industry would probably go bankrupt if if people just began
to realize I was born for a purpose.
They found the author of the purpose.
They said I submit to your lordship and then just did it.
You know, we've had many friends that have had had children.
You know what I would say at Anchor Faith Church, postpartum
depression just doesn't seem to be an epidemic here because I
think we have a bunch of Mamas that know their purpose in the
Kingdom and that baby fits into their purpose and they keep
moving on with purpose. Same thing.
We've got men that show up and we in in, in the what the work
that we do at Anchor Faith Church in marriages is is
phenomenal. The work that we do in men's
lives through the 318 discipleship through
relationships and men knowing each other.
It's phenomenal because what it does is broken men show up
because we pray a men Lord send broken men to this church, send
broken families, send broken marriages in because they can't
get fixed anywhere else. And then all of a sudden the
word of God begins to seep in and penetrate these men's hearts
and these families hearts. And then God begins to put
things together because only in him can true, true purpose be
found. The purpose of marriage can only
really be found in him. If you don't know why God
designed marriage and you don't understand your role in the
marriage, you find yourself at a Coldplay concert and you begin
to abuse your life and your family and you're abusing your
time and your energy and your resources and you're abusing
your dominion. My wife's shaking her head.
It's OK, but God has an individual purpose for each one
of us that fits into His corporate assignment for the
planet. If we look at Jeremiah 2911,
this begins to still speak to because for for for some reason,
whenever we start talking about your purpose, then you're
thinking, well, what if God asked what if?
What if I'm born to do something that I'm not doing right now?
See, I see I've, there's people that have said, well, I've built
this career. I've, I've, I've been at my job
for 20 years. I'm close to retirement.
But what, what if I ask God and then God tells me you were never
created to do that. Well, it's called courage.
It's called having the guts to step out and obey what God says,
no matter the cost. I, I remember sharing things
from my heart. I remember as a teenager, I
hated the, I hated hot weather. I still do.
And I grew up in Oklahoma and we had all Four Seasons and I, I
told my parents many times, like, you know what, someday I'm
going to move to Colorado because they have mountains and
snow and it's cold and like, I love it.
And then when God began to deal with me about purpose, I, my
purpose wasn't to do the family business.
It was to go into ministry. And he spoke that directly to my
heart. I know that.
But I had this thought that I had shared with some of my
friends, like what if God calls me like be a missionary to some
hot place? That would be horrible.
And then here I am. What?
How hot was it today? These last couple weeks have
been brutal and I was reminded of that.
Lord, you called me to a hot place.
I don't know if you did that on purpose, but in the end you have
to be willing to say, Lord, I want your lordship.
I want whatever you have for my life.
See, too many people have a big long list of things they don't
want to do for God and they're afraid to actually go to God and
ask the question. So when somebody really asks me,
oh, how do I find out my purpose?
The first thing that I want to say, and then I'll say right
here that I don't normally just say in person because it comes
off a little better from the platform, is you're going to
have to die to a lot of things. How do I find my purpose?
You get rid of a lot of other stuff that you're holding onto
because what if God is holding in his hands everything you ever
dreamed of and everything you ever wanted or needed and
reaches out to hand it to you, but your hands are so full of
your own selfish choices that you can't actually accept it.
And I think that's the place most people are in who are truly
discontented or frustrated or in a season of their life where
they're like, I don't, I just feel like I'm not doing what I
was, what I was created to do. And, you know, I don't know how
to find that. Well, maybe it's because you
just refused to let go of you because I'm here to tell you
right now, I was born for this. I was born for it.
As sure as my heart beats in my chest, I was born to be here at
Anchor Faith Church right now, tonight, there, there's no doubt
in my mind. There's no question.
There's no, there's no, there's no question marks zooming around
my head about what I'm assigned to.
I am called to be here with you right now.
I'm in the right place at the right time for my destiny.
And that confidence comes from me first asking a question when
I was 18 years old in my Jeep in a parking lot on 6th St. in
Tulsa, OK. When I said, God, I'm tired of
doing my own thing. I just want what you want from
me. What do you want me to do?
It wasn't a deep theological prayer.
It didn't rhyme. I didn't say you are great, you
are good. What's the destiny for this
dude? Like I didn't do that.
I just genuinely opened up and I realized in that moment I didn't
really know what was happening. But for the rest of my life,
there are markers that have been through my life and calling that
have pointed me towards where I am right now.
That moment is truly the moment I made him Lord of my life.
I prayed a prayer when I was a little kid.
I grew up in church. I grew up on a Pew.
I slept under my dad's desk at the church as he was an
associate pastor at the church I grew up, slept under his desk
every Sunday. But that didn't get me any
closer to my destiny. That moment in my Jeep when I
said I'm done with me, I only want you for the rest of my life
was a true heart commitment that was made in here.
I didn't purchase a billboard on the side of the road.
I didn't go call all of my friends and let them know.
In the end, it was something that happened deep within me and
in from that point on, he became Lord.
And it's important because when somebody's like, well, you know,
how do I know my purpose? Well, it has to start with you
knowing God's will, God's overall purpose.
Then the next point would have to be Lordship, because why
would he tell you what you were born for if he knows you've not
committed to actually enter into him?
See, he Jeremiah 2911 says, for I know the plans that I have for
you. Who has the plans for me?
Who else has the plans for me? At one time in my life, other
people had plans for me. My family had plans, my friends
had plans. Some of the mentors in my life
had plans for me, gave me advice, thought what I should
do. But in the end, God has the
plans. Why would I listen to anybody
else? In the end, He's the one who's
declared that for me and they're good plans.
It's not for me to suffer and just be hot all the time.
I know that I said that. But in the end, I love the life
that I have here. I met my wife here.
I've had my 4 awesome kids here. I have so many relationships and
when people start complaining about how hard it is to make
friends in your 30s or in your 40s or 50s, it's hard to have
friends. I don't know what they're
talking about. God has called me to a place
that I have such deep, rich relationships.
I could not ask for anything better.
I could not go anywhere else and find better than what God's
given me in the assignment that I said yes to.
So the plans he asked for me, they're good, they're for good,
They're not so that I would just suffer, no.
Has there been suffering along the way?
Sure. But guess what?
He's been with me in it. If I could give you another
bullet point whenever God calls you to something, your purpose
does not promise comfort, but it is promised it a comforter your
your personal assignment. When you begin to hear that from
on the inside and you receive that from God, comfort for your
flesh goes out the door, but he sends you a comforter for the
inside. So even when it's difficult on
the outside, he's there with you.
See, He says I'll never leave you or forsake you, but he's
talking to those in covenant with him that have submitted to
his lordship. And that should be noted because
a lot of times people think, well, if I just believe in God,
he's with me, He'll never leave me or forsake me.
Even Satan believes in God. He believes he exists.
So believing he exists isn't what qualifies you.
It's Romans 828 those he causes all things to work together for
good for those that love him and those that are called according
to his purpose. Whose purpose?
Your purpose? Not your purpose, not Chris's
purpose. He doesn't work everything
together for good just for Chris's purpose.
He works everything together for good for those that are called
according to his purposes. And I know that we're kind of
like saying your purpose. I'm not actually telling you
here's what your purpose is, which I think some people are on
the edge of their seat wondering.
He's going to tell me my purpose.
I don't want to forecast too far in advance, but I'm not going to
do that tonight. I'm not going to tell you what
your purpose is. You know, Mr. Eric's sitting
over here on the front row and you know what's not going to
happen? And I'm just, this may be
disappointing to you, but not tonight, not when another guest
minister comes, not when a prophet of God shows up.
They're not going to come and say you were born to do such and
such. It's not how that happens.
It's on the inside. See, your personal assignment,
your purpose, is so sacred, so intimate, that God has to speak
it on the inside of you first. And I'll tell you why.
Because at some point you'll begin to operate in your purpose
and adversity will come because the enemy doesn't want you doing
it. Difficult times will come.
Even though you have peace and joy and a comforter available on
the inside of you, difficulty still shows up and you're going
to point to the person that called you.
So God doesn't send his prophets to come tell you your individual
purpose. Because then when it gets hard,
you'll be, well, that man of God prayed over me and he said this.
Then you're going to call him up, say, hey, jerk, you said
that I would do this purpose and it's really hard and it hurts.
And they've that's not how he works.
In fact, whenever I felt like God had called me to St.
Augustine, FL, I called Pastor Earl at the time I was like,
hey, I want to, you know, I feel like God's telling me to move to
Florida. You know what I wanted to hear?
We'd love to have you come on down.
And he didn't say that that was disappointing at the time, but
I'm so thankful for his God-given wisdom and his answer
that he gave. He said, well, you better hear
from God because when it gets tough, you got to remember He's
the one that called you, not me. You know what?
Over the last 20 years, it's gotten tough.
There's been times that I've said, Lord, Are you sure?
Are you sure You know what he said every time?
Yes. Stay the course.
You know where he says that same place that he called me?
It's deep. It's deep inside of me.
You know, often times this shows up even in pop culture things.
I'm going to give a Disney reference.
Just bear with me. But there's sometimes that
things echo in your heart that you watch because you realize
this is just kind of an allegory of something that God was doing
in in me or in in his ultimate plan.
And there's this movie, Moana. Has he ever seen Moana?
I'm not, you know, putting my state for approval.
Like you should go see it. I'm just saying I've seen it.
And there's this moment where she's trying to find her
destiny. And she says this statement that
in the movie theater, I sat there and I had this tear come
down and my daughter's like, what's wrong with you?
This is like a girls movie. But she's saying that her, her
destiny was calling to her. And she, she says this line, she
sings and says, but the call isn't out there at all.
It's inside me. And it's just I find God, man.
I find him wherever I'm at. But he sat there and he was
like, yeah, it's not out there. You're not gonna go find the
call out there. You're not gonna go find your
peace out there. You're not gonna go find your
comfort with your friends. It's inside right here.
So if you're writing another thing down, if you want to know
your purpose, you better get back good at prayer.
You better get good at hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit and
obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit and letting him speak to
your heart, because that's the only place he's going to reveal
it first. No, I'm not saying that somebody
can't come down here and be praying and say, I see you in
the future and you're, you're doing this thing.
But you know what that is? That's them confirming something
that's already on the inside. Because if they say, I see you
doing this because people have prayed over me before.
I've been here a long time. And sometimes we get this idea
in our heads. And I'm not saying this is any
of you, but it is. And it's, it's that a guest
minister will come and they start going, Lord, Oh my God,
Oh, they come over. I just see right now.
And then people in their chairs are like, I hope he hope he
comes over here. What's he going to say to me?
What if he comes over? Come on, come on, come here.
And you're like, you're not doing it outside, but on the
inside you're like, please come over here.
Please come over here and tell me what it is.
And even if they come over to you and say, I see you doing
this thing, you better have it on the inside first.
There's been times when somebody's prayed over me and
they've confirmed something I already knew was deep inside.
There's all been other times that somebody's come in that we
were at some other conference or some other place and somebody
spoken something to me and I thought that was that made no
sense to me. That wasn't for me.
That was over here, but in this house, I'm not craving some word
from some prophet or somebody to come over and lay hands on me to
get something started in my life.
It's really just to confirm what God's already done on the
inside. Because if I'm, if I look at
markers along my path, I was, you know, really kind of moved a
couple weeks ago when I started thinking, where did, when did I
get called to ministry? When did that even really
happen? And I realized it was at a kids
camp and they were playing a song.
Some of you may know this, some may not, but it was sung by
Darlene. Check it was called the Potter's
hands and I remember I mean it's like God can zoom me into that
moment and I and and I'm standing there, I'm down there
on my knees. I'm worshiping We're at a kids
camp. They were just playing ACD.
It wasn't live worship. And the song says take me, mold
me, use me, film me and I remember as a child I wasn't
crying. I probably look like a rude
little kid, like I was probably, you know, scratching and
touching my friends and, and, and, you know, whatever.
But in the end, as a child, I was, you know, probably Titus
his age. And I'm sitting down there and I
remember God spoke in here instead.
I've called you, I've set you apart.
And I knew that meant ministry. God spoke to me in a way that I
knew what that meant on the inside.
And I remember that moment. So I went back and I listened
that song and I just sat there and thought, God, thank you.
It's dear to me. I mean, in my whole 38 years of
living, that moment resounds the God.
God called me then. And then I can think of another
time there was a a, a, a minister that came into the
children's. He, he was a clown.
It was literally he had makeup on.
Listen, the 90s were wild. Most kids ministry people were
clowns. Like I don't know why, but this
guy came in and he was a Holy Ghost clown.
I guess because he had, he had a word, his name was Whiskers.
Somebody's now listening to some podcasts.
I don't remember Whiskers, but this guy would go do children's
ministry and he had puppet skits and he'd do, he would do, you
know, Bible memory verses and things.
And it was a great time. But as a little child, you know,
under probably around the age of 10, I remember he looked down,
he goes, is there anybody in here named Josh?
Which that wasn't fair because there were eight of us.
OK, most popular baby named 1987, but he goes is anybody in
your name, Josh and the kid in front of me was a good friend of
mine. His name was also Josh.
He raised his hand. He pointed directly at him and I
was sitting in the chair behind him.
He goes I feel strongly by the Lord God has called you to
ministry. And I remember sitting there
going think he missed me. And that was the genuine thought
that I had. I think he I don't think that
was for him and I took that moment to heart.
He pointed through him, the other Josh and that guy come to
find out years later, I just found out like 3 or 4 years ago,
he just came back to the Lord, which I'm thankful for, but he
ran, didn't have ministry in his heart, did his own life for a
while now. Remember, there were moments on
the inside that God started planting seeds even from
childhood of what I was created to do.
Now, I'd like to say that I just stuck with that forever.
As a child went, I'm called a ministry and walked around like
a robot and I was like told everybody I was, but I was
trying to figure it all out as a teenager, like anybody else was
trying to find out what does God have?
But I realized through this, and again, if you're going to write
something down, I realized that God's purpose for you is never
him dropping a title on you, but it's Him enrolling you on a path
towards your purpose. See, too often I think
everybody's like, I want to know my purpose, God, what's my
purpose? And they'll want him to say,
you'll be a dentist and you go, OK, you will be a missionary.
If you say God, I want to know my purpose.
And he'll say, you know what? You should put in an application
at Treasure Harbor Preschool. God, I don't think you hear me.
Like they say, I said, what's my purpose?
And he says, maybe you should put in an application at the
preschool. It's kind of like when
somebody's like, God, I need, I need finance.
Lord bless me with finance. He's like, do you remember how
you talked to your wife? God, I was specific in my
question. I want you to be specific back.
But God always knows the root of what you need to get you where
you need to go. If you can't be obedient to his
spirit and his voice and whatever he's saying, then he's
not going to give you the specifics that you're actually
asking for Now. He says clearly if you seek you
will find if you knock the door will be answered.
He also says if anyone lacks wisdom, let Him ask.
However, we have to ask according to His will and we
have to ask Him the question that goes in line with His
purpose. Because the journey for me to
find my assignment, it was God speaking to me on the inside,
but it was also me obeying the still small things in every
given season. Every God-given assignment
begins in the heart, but God calls each one of us by name
into his greater purpose. So God's personal purpose for
you is to fit into his corporate mission.
So his corporate mission comes first.
So another thing that I've heard people say, I was like, oh, you
know, you know what God's called me to do.
I know what he's called me to do.
And it doesn't involve people. I'm called to be a veterinarian.
You know, I just have this heart and passion for animals.
And, you know, I just, you know, I don't deal with people.
Well, who do you think is going to pay you to deal with the
animal? We don't have the whole naked in
the garden thing anymore with the animals that went away
because of sin. Now we got to deal with people.
So I can promise you this. I can't tell you Brian, your,
your, your, your purpose and the reason you were born is this
specific thing. But what I can tell you is that
specifically your purpose is for people.
Every God-given personal assignment will affect the
corporate assignment of his Kingdom.
Every single call that God will put in your heart.
If you're saying, well, mine doesn't involve people, go back
and ask again, you're hearing something wrong.
Well, I'm not good with people. Listen, you weren't good with
righteousness when you were born.
You weren't good with not sinning and being selfish when
you were born. So I would hope to think that
once you get in the Kingdom, you'll get better at what God's
called you to be. Well, my personality, God
redeemed your personality. Well, you know I've been hurt.
He came to heal the hurts you don't know I've been through.
God does, and He's here to fix that so you can operate your
purpose. So maybe you don't know your
purpose because you won't forgive what's in your past.
Maybe. I know we're a little bit all
over the place, but this is good.
It didn't go the way that I thought, but I genuinely believe
we need to hear this. I mean, there's, there's too
many relationships I have. There's too many people that God
has called into Anchor Faith Church that haven't haven't
heard all the stuff that some of you have that have been here for
1015 years. I remember the first time I sat
in the service and they read Jeremiah 1/5 and read Jeremiah
2911 and it hit me like a ton of bricks.
God thought of me before I ever showed up.
God thought of me. Even if my parents had neglected
me, you know who still thought of me?
No, they didn't. But again, there's people that
show up. They're like, I had terrible
parents. They go, you don't know what my
life was like growing up. I'm like, I know that you were
held back from the one who loved you and planned for you.
Again, any story that's told or any any tale that that we read
or book, that fiction book that we see or movies that we watch
that resonates in us is really because somewhere Eden is still
creeping in there and calling out to your heart.
There's nobody watching the Tangled movie that doesn't
identify that woman being the devil.
She's rough. You know what?
She held that royal child back from her true loving parents
that wanted her and lied to her so that she wouldn't find them
until one day she saw the light. But why does that story resonate
with you? I got a bunch of children under
12. What do you want from me?
But why do these stories resonate with Don't act like
you're so holy you walk around. You only watch Chosen, you're
reading books, you're watching you're you're with your kids.
You got Bluey on. And you know that Bluey dad's a
good dad and you want to be a good dad.
Like you stop acting like you're so sacred at home.
You got Disney Plus, half of you.
But when you watch that movie, you realize that's the story of
humanity. That the enemy has come in and
stole you out of your royal birthright, your right to rule
and dominate the planet, and told you your daddy didn't love
you and that you all alone and that you can't go anywhere.
But all of a sudden, whenever you get the revelation or the
light that shows up in your heart, you realize my father's a
king that wanted me to reign with him.
And those things call and pull on your heart.
But then all of a sudden you don't know where really to find
it in scripture. And you're ignorant that you've
got an individual assignment like that.
I'm telling you, I've said in services just like this one
where my heart literally was burning inside of me because I
knew what was being said was true.
I just didn't know how. How do I fit into that until I
began to make Him first Lord of my life and then do the next
thing, which is John 15. Look at John 15.
This is Jesus speaking. And it's important to note Jesus
is the Word in this same, in this same book in John 11, it
says in the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God. The Word and God are the same.
Then in verse 14 the Word became flesh.
That's Jesus. So he says I am, which should be
noted. The Word is saying I am the vine
and my Father is the vine dresser.
Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and
every branch that bears fruit He prunes it so it may bear more
fruit. You are already clean because of
the Word which I have spoken to you.
Abide in me. Who's saying this?
So who is Jesus? So he says, Abide in me.
Let the Word abide in the Word, and let the Word abide in you.
And as a branch cannot bear any fruit of itself unless it abides
in the vine, so neither can you. Unless you abide in the Word.
You will never enter your individual purpose.
You will never even have a hint going into this purpose until
you have established in His Lordship that I'm abiding in His
word. His principles, His precepts,
they, they dictate what I think, say, and do.
He says you abide in the Word, the word will abide in you.
And that's when you can actually be productive in your
assignment. Because when we go back to
Doctor Miles Monroe and his other quotes, the final quote
that he has in the four quotes is he says the greatest failure
in life is to be successful in the wrong assignment.
You can have all the world's success, but if you don't know
why you were born, you'll use your dominion to succeed in
something that abuses your life. You were designed to abide in
him. So this next verse, verse 5 says
I am the vine and you are the branches.
I love how Jesus has to get so specific and really break it
down for us. He's like metaphor.
He's speaking in metaphor and all of a sudden he says listen,
listen, listen, listen. I'm the vine, you're the branch.
He who abides in me and I in Him, He bears much fruit, for
apart from me you can do nothing.
So the only fruitfulness, the only true purpose that can show
up in your life is if you're abiding in Him.
I know I didn't give you like, you know, the phenomenal job
that Pastor Mike does was saying points 1234.
But I'm going to, I'm going to break it down for you and give
you some point #1 to enter into your purpose.
You got to have. He's got to be Lord #2 you've
got to abide. You've got to abide in His word.
You've got to let His word richly dwell within you.
You've got to every day do what David did say Your principles,
Your precepts, Your commands. I cherish them.
They're like water to my soul. They're like breath in my lungs.
Your word is everything to me. Until that moment happens, Don't
go to prayer and ask Him What's my ultimate assignment?
What is my title going to be one day when I enter into Your
purpose for me? Stop wasting time and
frustrating yourself. You were designed to abide in
Him. Psalm chapter 37, Psalm 3723
says the steps, the steps of a man are established by the Lord,
and he delights in his way. There's another verse, I believe
it's Psalm 119105. I don't know if he has this, but
I'll give him time because all through Scripture we can also
see that God's not about giving you just a moment.
The only moment you get is salvation.
Everything else is a process and a journey.
Everything else, everything about your purpose, everything
about your assignment, everything about season after
season will be a journey and a process for you.
The moment you get is whenever he takes out that old Stony
heart and that old spirit man, let's it die, be buried, and
then puts a brand new spirit inside of you.
That's a that happens in a moment at salvation, but the
rest of your life will be you walking with God through the
process. He says your word is a lamp to
my what feet and a light unto my path.
So why am I going to God asking what's at the end of the road?
I'm telling you right now you can't handle what's at the end
of the road right now, today, August 6th, 2025, you can't
handle what's at the end of your Rd.
If God dropped it right now and told you what it was, you'd pass
out or you would do what Moses did.
So let's look at let's, let's, let's paraphrase.
If we go to Exodus, we're going to paraphrase what happened with
Moses and Exodus, OK, He shows up.
He was born. I mean, he was set apart,
consecrated for a purpose to deliver Israel.
We know this from his birth. His mother saw him as like this
is a beautiful child, not meaning like he's a good looking
baby. We don't know.
He may have looked a little bit like an alien.
You know, he's born what sometimes babies, you know, they
look a little rough for a few days.
But she looked at him and knew, saw his purpose.
Then his purpose was so potent that all of a sudden the Pharaoh
comes up and wants to kill every other child to make sure he
wipes this one out. But he's protected, has divine
protection. Then he shows up and is raised
in the the household of Pharaoh. He's raised as a Prince in this
place. It's phenomenal story.
I love it. It's one of the greatest stories
ever told and it's real and it's history.
And God wrote it. The same God that wrote your
story, wrote that story. The same God that knew you
before you were born, knew Moses, and still chose you to
live right Now think of that. Every Bible story you've ever
read, every historical account of something powerful that's
happened. The same God that saw David in
the field with sheep, saw you working in the children's
ministry that night that the guest minister was there.
Same God. When I say I was born for this,
you understand, I, I don't wish I was born at some other time.
God saw all of eternity. He's the author and finisher of
the beginning and the end. He saw all of it and said, in
this time, I want Joshua Clay to be on the planet because there's
something that needs to happen through him and he only he can
accomplish it. And that same God is not a he's
not a, what is it respecter of persons, which means he also saw
Efron. He also saw Dustin and he said I
want you born at the same time. People wishing their lives were
different when in the end you want I just want my life to be
in God. But Moses was had this special
destiny. All of a sudden he goes out and
we see we can Fast forward through his story and it would
show up whenever he sees this burning Bush and he has what
everybody is really kind of wishing they had where the God
audibly tells them here's what you're going to do.
The voice of God is telling him you're going to deliver my
people. And Moses looks at him and goes,
OK, I hear you. It's a big task when forgetting
you were born for this, but OK, He goes, what?
Who do I say? Sent me the fire Bush guy.
God says no, you tell him I am. Boom, powerful moment.
We got theological everything from this point on.
He says I am. It's a powerful moment.
He's like, OK, OK, OK, what if he doesn't believe me?
God says, OK, put your hand in your jacket, pull it out.
Incurable disease that's got to do something puts it back.
He's healed. Moses is like, I don't know, is
that enough? OK, God's like, take the stick,
throw it on the ground, it becomes a living snake.
It has bones and blood, venom, whatever.
And then he picks it back up and it becomes a stick again.
Miracle. Moses is like, OK, what?
So, so you want me to do this and ask God multiple questions
and God answers every question about his purpose.
When God finally said I'm called you to do this, he's like, OK
and answers every question. Then Moses does the forbidden
thing. Then Moses says, you know what?
Send somebody else. And you know at that moment it
says the anger of the Lord burned against him.
God was not angry and walking through the process of his
destiny. God was not angry with him when
he said, I said, I've got questions, what should I do?
Where should I go? How do I speak?
How should I handle this? God was with him the whole time,
gave him miracles and power, but all of a sudden when he said I
don't want to do it, pick somebody else, God said no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no. That's not an option.
You're either in or you're out. He's like, I don't talk.
Well, God's like, obviously I've been here the whole time.
Sure, I've got your brother. He sent his brother to help him.
So when all of us are having this moment with God and God
speak into our hearts, understand God has called you to
do something only you can do. You've got to find what that
thing is. But once He tells you, you can't
shy away and go, whoa, that seems too big for just me, who
am I? Don't do that.
That's why we're going to be LED like a size of Psalm, whatever
that was. Psalm 10109, verse 5, 119105
Kevin, come on, help me out. It's a lamp into your feet a lot
into your path. The way He's leading us in this
new covenant is through His Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us
on the path of our destiny. So don't try to leapfrog down
the path. Don't try to jump to the end and
find out what's at the end. See some of y'all read books
that way. Some of y'all open up a book and
you listen, great story and you're like man, I can't handle
the pressure of what's happened to these characters.
Let me read the end and just see how it turns out so I can go
back. You don't get to do that with
your life. You don't get to read.
The end at the very, very end says that God shows up and we're
redeemed. We've been delivered by the
blood of the Lamb, by the word of our testimony.
Then there's a new heaven and a new earth.
So we know it's a good ending, but it doesn't say individually
what happens along the way. You're walking through that with
God and it just so happens, like Pastor Earl had mentioned on
Sunday, we've got the Holy Ghost that comes along and he's our
spirit of truth. What I love about the Holy
Spirit is that Jesus didn't say, I'm introducing you to this guy.
He's the spirit of doctrine. He's coming and he will just
talk to you about doctrine and theology only.
He's the spirit of truth, which means he's going to reveal the
doctrine and theology and truth of God's Word.
But also he can come along and help guide and direct you in the
truth of why you're here. But the truth of why you're here
will always line up with the corporate purpose of God, His
Word. The Holy Ghost isn't going to
give you again some special little assignment that no one
else has ever had because it doesn't have anything to do with
God. No, your assignment is special
and individual for you to be in God's big picture.
And I have to reiterate that because sometimes we get
ourselves on an island and we think, oh, it's just me and God.
It's never you and God. It's never just you and God.
Because if it's you and God, God's never just with you.
He's a corporate God. He's always with his church.
He's always with the nations that he's established.
God is. He's never just said, you know
what, I'm going to leave all this stuff behind.
You and I are going to go off and be together.
He ain't all open with you, but people do this in their own
personal prayer time. They're like, oh, you know God
and they, they act like it's just them too.
Listen, he's with you, He's for you.
If you love him, you've got a call according to his purpose.
But in the end, God loves his church more than just you as an
individual. See, because we get this weird
thing in our minds that all of a sudden if I start to fail and I
stand and I act selfishly, God's love for me is so strong that
He, he'll be OK with it because of our personal relationship.
When his ultimate relationship is with His word and His mission
and His purpose, which is to re establish the Kingdom on this
planet and to also come back for a bribe.
That's without spot or wrinkle. He's not changed his mind about
that. He will not change his mind
about that. So he won't change that rule for
your personal mistakes. There's provision for your
mistakes that you can go confess them in first John 19 and it
says He's faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you as
long as you admit there was wrongdoing.
But this has to be said because too often we start thinking
about what's my purpose? It's just me and God.
It's not just you and God. Your purpose is with others.
Matthew chapter 6 verse 33 tells us the next step that obviously
if if we're wanting to walk in our individual purpose, we want
to find that so we can be part of God's grand purpose, then we
have to have him Lord of our lives.
He's got to be Lord. We also have to abide in his
word. But then from there we're going
to do what Jesus said. He said just continue to seek
the Kingdom. He doesn't say seek finance.
He doesn't say seek, you know, making sure your family is fed
and taken care of. He doesn't say make sure that
you seek a comfortable life for your American dream.
Now he says you pursue the Kingdom.
I'll take care of everything else that should be taken care
of. Jesus gives this whole
illustration about there's birds in the in the sky and God cares
for those birds. He gave them a purpose.
I've never seen a bird die of anxiety.
I've never walked by a dead bird on the street.
We were just downtown a month ago and we're walking down and
my son goes, Dad, look, he's holding a dead bird.
Son put it down. It's gross.
He's like, well, but you know what?
That bird didn't die because of stress.
See, God said if I take care of the birds in such a way that
every day they wake up and they have everything that they need,
don't I care about you more than I care about a bird?
In Matthew 6, the verse 25 on he says, what about the lilies of
the field, the flowers that are in the field, I adorn them, I
give them clothes to wear that they look even better than
Solomon ever looked in his fine silk.
But how much more do I care about you than flowers?
So when we're trying to find God, what do you want me to do?
And all of a sudden God shows up and starts to lead us in a way
that makes us uncomfortable or leads us in a way that is away
from our our own flesh being satisfied.
We have, we go, Oh, well, I don't know, maybe I should stay
at this job a little longer just to see how it works out.
You know what, what if, what if God calls me into a season where
I don't, I don't have a job. And I'm not saying everybody go
quit your jobs tonight. If you call, call me, call the
church office tomorrow and go Josh preached and he said quit
your job. That is not what I'm saying, but
I am saying have enough guts within you, enough grit.
Like Pastor Apostle Josh Adams said, you know, a couple Sundays
ago, have some grit about you that you say whatever God calls
me to do, I'll do that thing no matter what it costs me.
No matter if it seems crazy to my family, no matter if it seems
crazy to my friends. In the end, God is obligated to
take care of you. I think that's where a lot of
men really miss it is because they think my job is to provide
for my family when that's not your job.
Your job is to put yourself in a position that you're pursuing
the Kingdom in such a way that God is obligated to provide for
your family. It doesn't always look like just
a paycheck. So some people say, well, my
paycheck has to be such and such.
And you know, I, I've got to make sure I make this much a
month. Maybe God's telling you, hey,
I'm not capping your salary with the place I'm assigning you.
Maybe they'll pay you this much and I'll take care of the rest.
This is why sometimes people shy away from things because I
remember there there was a season whenever my wife Danny,
she's a she's a nationally certified interpreter and back
15-6, no 18 years ago, that was big money.
Now we didn't know how to budget.
We hadn't really met with Pastor Mike and Angie and then help us
out with our lives. So we ate out all the time and
wasted all of our money. But at the time she was making
quite a bit and she said, you know what God's called me Pastor
Earl launched, he's launching a preschool at the church.
God's called me to work at the preschool.
It's going to be a pay cut. And I was like, praise God,
let's do it. We're gutsy.
Let's do whatever God says. So the first week she goes,
there's they said it's only part time.
I'm like, part, I know how part time works.
No problem. So she said, all right, I start
next week Tuesday from 3:00 to 4:00.
I said, OK, no, that's a fragment of time.
That's not part time. I thought part time went up to
30 hours. I was like, oh, an hour.
She goes, yeah, there's a meeting we're having about
launching it and they'll pay me for that hour.
OK. The next week, praise God, it
only started increasing. She's like 3 hours.
Our budget had to had to manifest.
There was a time in US pursuing God where I was like, you're
making quite a bit of money. We're comfortable.
All of a sudden she said, God called me to work here, let's do
this. And it just seemed like, well,
the cash isn't there. But you know what?
We never, ever went without a meal.
We never missed a payment on anything.
Now, did it come just through a paycheck that we had?
No, we had a church body that we were part of that We weren't
telling everybody. We weren't going around saying,
hey, you know, we're struggling. Oh my gosh, you know, Danny just
took this job. We weren't sharing all that.
We were just believing God, saying God, you told us to do
this. We had complete joy in it.
There was never like a frustrating moment.
We had total joy like God, you got to take care of us.
We laughed. In fact, when she got the one
hour notification. I'm like, praise God.
You heard from him, right? All right, let's move on.
But you know what people sewed into US.
People blessed us. We didn't have to go and make a
GoFundMe for our monthly bills. That's tacky.
Don't do that. You know what that tells me?
Tell me you don't have friends without telling me you don't
have friends that you got to go out on the Internet and say I
need to make my mortgage payment.
No, we sewed into the church. We sewed into other people's
lives. It was it was an easy give and
take. In fact, I think with the times
that people have the most frustration in following God is
because they haven't sewed enough in anyway.
They've not sowed into other people's relationships.
So then they feel really weird to receive a blessing.
We can receive a blessing. You know why?
Because I know I've been a blessing.
I've got seed in the ground. So when something grows up and I
can harvest it, it makes sense. But it's it is awkward whenever
you're like, I don't, I don't tithe.
I don't give to the church. I don't treat anybody to meals.
I don't have any friends here. But now I don't know what to do
with my, with, you know, how do I pay my bills?
This wasn't necessarily in my notes, but this is good.
This is real life stuff. Have relationships.
Did God listen, you're in this room tonight.
Did God call you to Anchor Faith Church?
Raise your hand. There's a reason that you're
here and that reason is God said, I've got a local body
church that I want you to go get connected to that's going to
train you up. It's got all the five fold
ministry gifts in it, all of them.
They're going to equip you for your purpose.
So a couple things that I want to define real fast words that
that I want to define. One is ministry.
It says the fivefold ministry gifts.
Pastor just preached A phenomenal sermon series.
You can go on YouTube or go on Spotify and it's called the
fivefold. I said that fivefold effect, and
it outlines what the fivefold ministry gifts are for, but
they're there to equip you for your ministry.
Ministry sounds very churchy in Bible.
All that means is you're serving your work of service.
Because I'm going to tell you, if your purpose involves people,
your purpose every time will involve serving those people,
you pouring out your life and giving of your life, your time,
your energy, your sources. That is your ministry, whether
it's fivefold ministry that you can be called to, or it could be
business, or it could be that you're called to work with
children, or you could be called to, you know, go evangelize the
way. It doesn't matter.
But whatever that calling is, that's for you to serve your
gift to the world somehow. And it's always goes beyond your
own house. Because there's a lot of times
that I find people that are frustrated and they're like,
well, you know, my, my personal mission field is my home.
No, no, no, that's your first mission field.
Do not get that confused. Your house is not your total
assignment. That's where your assignment
begins. Like, well, God's just called me
to raise my babies. OK, but one day they'll be
raised and you'll find yourself back here asking the question,
what's my purpose? So you can't find your purpose
in your own house. Only it starts in your house.
But your purpose always goes beyond your own household.
See people sitting around praying, God bless me so that I
can pay my own bills. We're thinking too small.
If we've got business people that are only making money for
their own house and their own business, we're thinking too
small. That's not God's purpose.
That's you trying to take care of yourself.
God's purpose always involves other people.
It always involves you serving. So anytime you hear the word
ministry, it just means serving. When we say a ministry of Anchor
Faith Church, it means a way that Anchor Faith Church is
serving. Pastor Angie is our community
pastor. So whenever we have these
outreaches, we're like, oh, we've got a ministry going here.
We've got ministry happening at West Augustine.
We've got ministry. That means we're, it's a way for
us to serve. So when we have a sign up that
shows up on the on the screen, it says like W Augustine's
coming up, that's ministry. That's what day do you want to
minister? You're like, well, all I do is I
plug in the iPad and hit play on the music.
You're serving those people. That is a work of ministry, and
the fivefold gifts are there to equip you to find out what is
your service for the world and how to do it effectively.
Amen. I'll wrap up with these twelve
thoughts. In the end, we need to make sure
that He's Lord of our life. If we want to enter into our
purpose, He's got to be Lord of our life.
We've got to abide in His word. It has to be what we live and
breathe every day. Then from there, we have to
recognize it's gonna be me, God and the community, me, God and
the corporate anointing and the corporate purpose.
God's called you to anchor faith church, to participate in the
body. He's not called you just to come
hear what's being said and leave and dip out.
You can do that in Spotify and you can do that at any church.
But if God's called you here, he's called you to develop
relationships with people, He's called you to sow into the
ministry. There's, I can't tell.
I tell you how many times people say, oh, well, you know, I'm
struggling financially. I'm like, but are you, you're
personally struggling. So are you doing God's corporate
plan for finance, which is tithe and offering?
See, if you're not doing his corporate purpose for your
finances, then your personal purpose and finances is going to
struggle. So are you coming?
Are you giving of your time, your energy, your resources to
the local house and investing in relationships and investing
yourself in the vision? That's why God would call you
here. Well, I don't, you know, I'm not
good at making friends. If somebody gives you a chance,
don't be weird. I can't give you any more
practical, real advice than that.
If somebody reaches out to you and says, hey, good morning, how
are you doing? Don't go blessed and highly
favored of the most high brother, you're not getting
invited to lunch. It's not happening.
You're like, man, nobody want nobody wants to talk to me.
Do you stand in the back like this?
Is that what you're doing? Think, look at yourself.
But God's called you to not just have an individual purpose
that's just you and him. And in the end, I just want to
hammer that away. If you're going to take anything
away tonight, just know you have an individual assignment.
If you're asking a question, how do I find my purpose?
First, just take the first steps.
Let the word guide your first steps into saying where do you
want me in this season? What do you want me to do?
Where do you want me to serve? Who do you want me to spend time
with? Last thing I'll say is this we
need to stay in the course that we are set with the Lord.
Don't waver from it. Second Timothy chapter 4, we'll
look at this. This will be our last verse
tonight doesn't end with people coming at museum like if you
want to know your purpose, come down.
It's not how that happens. I'm going to lay hands on you
and pray the pray the purpose into you.
What you do is you go home and you have the conversation with
God. I said, what have you assigned
me in this season? And this goes for any age group.
You're never too old to find your purpose.
Moses LED them into the promised land.
He's like 80 years old, but also you're never too young.
God's speaking to me as a child. That's why I'm thankful for
Anchor Vey Church and we've got our children's ministry.
You know what? My son tonight came to me and
said you're preaching tonight. Papa said that you're preaching
tonight and I want can I sit in service?
I said, no, he's like, we don't want to hear my dad preach.
And I said, let me, let me tell you something.
Pastor Bradley is anointed to speak a word into your life at
your age right now that I don't want you to miss out on because
I know what I'm going to say and I know the audience.
I have it. But I also know the anointing
that's on his life to come and preach you a word that's going
to touch your heart where you're at right now.
That's why we have children's ministry.
It's not babysitting because they're annoying.
Pastor Earl's even said 1000 times, I don't care if your
baby's screaming in the back, that's fine.
That's not what we don't have that because we don't want
screaming babies in the room. We have it because we know
there's an individual message that can Pierce to the heart of
a child. Just like when I was a kid and
I'm sitting there worshipping to ACD track getting called in the
ministry. That can happen to your child in
that class. Same thing with my daughter
Charlie. Pastors Chase and Alyssa are
phenomenal youth pastors. I don't know if y'all ever get
out much but you can't go to another church and find better,
not for your kids. Has God called you to Anchor
Faith Church Then everything that you, your children, your
spouse, your relationships, everything you need can be found
here. But the last thing that I'll
leave you with is this. Whatever your individual purpose
is, once God reveals it, you'll realize everything in your heart
that you were born to do can be done at Anchor Faith Church.
It's a stupid thought from the enemy to think well, what God's
called me to do, I've got to go somewhere else.
Whatever's in your heart, God can utilize it here, but you
just got to make sure is he Lord, you got to make sure am I
submitted to the the word in my life?
Am I abiding in divine Am I abiding in the word and in this
course that he sent me on it. The apostle Paul's telling
Timothy, he says, listen, I'm already poured out as a drink
offering. This guy has done his purpose,
he said. The time of my departure has
come. I have fought the good fight.
I have finished the course. I have kept the faith.
This is a man who is at the end of his Rd. that has poured out
his whole life and he said what I did was I kept the course.
Go back to that last verse, he said.
I finished the course. He didn't say I arrived at my
final assignment, so I just stepped into being an apostle.
That's not what he said. He said I finished the course.
This whole thing was a journey. It was a path.
It was a course that he was on and he finished strong.
So I would venture to say many of you really have things in
your heart. You know God's tugging on you.
He's pulling on you whether you're in a service like this
and it's your heart's burning within you, or whether you're
reading your Bible and God's echoing things, or whether
you're watching some Disney movie and all of a sudden
something's pulling on you on the inside.
God's trying to get to you any way He can, but you have to
solidify in yourself. You have to commit.
He's Lord. I don't do my own thing.
The life that I now live, I live unto Him only wherever it takes
me. Stay the course.