Every year has this opportunity for us to grow.
Do you know you cannot go through a year without having
something going on so you can grow?
Two things are inevitable challenges and victories.
When you follow the Lord, Amen. Because when you follow the
Lord, you're guaranteed that you're going to win.
Are you hearing me? He always causes us to triumph,
Amen. And aren't you glad that you are
the victor, that you're the one who has victory?
Say, well, I haven't experienced much victory.
Well, just stay with the Lord and you will because he's
victorious. He's never lost.
He's only known as a victor. Even when it seems like he lost,
he won when it looked like that the devil had accomplished
something. Jesus Christ on the third day
says no, no, no, no Hallelujah when it looked like we were gone
dead in our trespasses and sin. But God being rich in his mercy.
Come on because he loved us so much, die for us and man, when
we called on his name, we were snatched out of deaths grip in
that powerful. So you know, it's awesome to be
in the House of the Lord. But in 2024, you know, we have
goals, we have plans. There's things that God speaks
to us about doing. So I want us to run through last
year and show you some of the things that we have accomplished
as a church. We accomplish as a church.
I said we accomplished as a church.
And there's nothing I can stress more.
This is the greatest challenge that pastors or apostles have
when it comes to congregations. And that is this is that you're
not running the vision God's given me.
You're running the vision God's given you because the vision is
for all of us. Are you hearing me?
So in 2024 in our Ignite the City aspect, these are some
things we accomplished. Obviously we had our North
Florida Wildcat. That is a yearly evangelistic
opportunity that we have in our community.
And you understand, you may look around and say, but pastor, I
don't see a whole lot of people from the from from the ones that
I saw at the game. Listen, it's called seed time
and harvest. We just keep sowing into areas
and we'll reap the harvest in areas.
Osceola make a difference day, You know, next year I think
we'll go even bigger because in two hours we're always finished
with what they asked for. Amen.
And so we appreciate that investment, not only making the
difference of that day, but the fact that we go there on a
different times through the year to be a blessing to the faculty
and staff. And now we're also feeding
students Flagler women's basketball.
I mean, we had another extension of that outreach where Pastor
Mike and Angie went with the team, with the coach and the
assistant coach into in Colorado and did some team building that
was transforming their lives. Amen.
And then the fact that we can go to games and support that, what
it does allows us to be in a community.
People going to the game, they might as well see believers
there cheering them on so that when issues come in life, you
can, you know, be there for them, right?
Rick's family Christmas, once again, feeding the homeless for
Christmas. We appreciate everybody who came
and was a part of that. It was an awesome time.
We started some demo in JC Penney.
Hey, man. And we have some dates for this
year so that we can accomplish even more.
Last year, we did 42 total days of prayer and fasting.
We kicked off the year with 21. And then we in the next three
quarters, we did 7 days. And you know, we've been praying
currently for a peaceful transfer of power for our new
elected president. And so, you know, a lot of
things are going on in our nation.
We still need to pray. Amen.
And then we had a living faith conference here as well.
And so you obviously it's always great to have the Hagans come
and and infuse us with a Word of Faith, but also it brings people
from other churches in as well in in the impact the nation.
This is what we accomplished last year.
We did a Kingdom rise up in Valdosta, a global leadership
down in Kissimmee. We went to Plant City and did a
Word in Spirit conference, ministered to 3rd year pastors
in Oklahoma, had ministry at East Coast Camp with the largest
amount of teenagers. They had over 600 teenagers last
year, the largest number all up and down the East Coast that we
had an opportunity to make a direct impact.
We had a Rhema South Regional conference down in West Palm
Beach and minister to to minister there, and then the
Faith Initiative in Tallahassee where we were able to go and
pray for those that are representatives within our
community that represent us. We're able to go into their
offices and take time to pray for our leaders.
Amen. When it comes to influence the
world, what do we accomplish? Well, we had training and AFC
because we flipped a whole church.
OK, come on my construction guys, that when y'all should be
jumping up and shouting right now.
I mean that was what a schedule right?
We hit the hit the ground and painted the whole facility and
put a Reed, did some things there.
It was an awesome time. We had a Mediterranean trip that
took us into Italy, Greece, Albania and Cyprus last year,
touching an impact in different nations.
Obviously, the youth did their first ever foreign mission trip
and went to Anchorvade Church in Nicaragua and then the Brazil
conference. We were able to go and be a part
of celebrating 10 years of what the missionaries that we
support, Joshua and Hannah Adams, man, that experience
alone opened our eyes to some really awesome things that God
has put in our hearts to do. And so we're just really excited
for that opportunity. But all of us with you sewed or
you went on the trip yourself. These are the things that we
accomplished in 20/25/24. Amen.
Now let's move to 2025. I'm going to give you what we're
going to be doing before we get into the word today because
typically, you know, we minister a word and then we come to what
we want to do. I want to deal with what we're
going to do first because this word is life changing.
What God is asking are speaking to us concerning this year.
So let's talk. Go into 2025 and ignite the city
for 2025. This is what the Lords laid in
our hearts. Obviously, there are some things
that are going to continually be there.
Why? Because we live here.
So the North Florida Wildcats, obviously we want to continue
planting seeds and watering those seeds within the community
that we have here in our in our city.
Osceola again, Make a difference Day, Flagler's women's
basketball. We want to continue our Rick's
Family Christmas. And this year, man, we are going
to pull off the Christmas parade float.
We're going to figure out where we can put this thing so we can
participate and do that. Obviously we had the Family
Counts classes now, we did those last year.
We have those up again. This is that initiative from
First Lady DeSantis, and we're going to do two classes this
year. It has been a profound impact on
the community. We have had a lot of
opportunities to touch people outside of our church.
And here's the thing, the people we touch, they may not all come
here, but they've still been impacted by us.
And we have to understand that Jesus himself impacts everyone.
The churches impact multiple people.
We don't always experience the specific fruit of those impacts
because we have no idea where these families of this family
count may end up and eventually find themselves in church and
fellowship. But you can trace back their
decisions to the class that they're taking and it gives you
an opportunity to be able to invest in their life.
There is such a plethora of opportunities for the Saints of
Anchor Faith Church to be involved, to touch someone
beyond your own personal household.
It's really important. The civic engagement forums, now
we call, you know, they were town halls is what we've called
called them in the past. But really they are a civic
engagement forum and we may be doing another one because of the
special election that's up this year based upon our
president-elect appointing people from our state.
And so there is an election actually coming up on January
the 28th. You're going to need to be
informed. We'll get some information to
you. But we have some additional the
constitutional officers, we've done some tours with them.
We have the the judge that overseas, all the judges of St.
Johns County is going to be with us, I believe it's in March, so
that he can communicate how the judicial system works in our
county, he said. Pastor, why would we want to sit
and listen to that? Well, don't you want to make an
impact on the community in doing so?
Do you understand these? One of the judges when Pastor
Angie went down there for another particular deal, Not
personal, just something else to be involved.
They asked her, said would you write a curriculum that would
help in Co parenting? When the judicial system is
asking the church, we need to step up to the plate.
Now in order to do that, it requires some things, right?
So if the world is asking, well, it takes more than just people
on staff to accomplish it. It takes all of us saying, wait
a minute, there's mine. Let me jump into that fit.
Let me help be a part of that. So you want to be a part of of
what's going on in our county all the way across the board.
We are going to paint the exterior of mall 2121.
Amen. We're definitely going to hit
the front of the interior of the mall.
I don't know, I'm going to touch JC Penney yet and I'm not really
touching belt currently. That's a negotiation to tear
down a wall. So with that being said, these
are some projects. Obviously we want to completely
demo JC Penney and actually start some remodel next year and
we are extremely close of finalizing our plans.
Every time we get a little close, something else adjusts,
but we're close again. The larger the space, the more
time things take, all right, the larger the space, the more
finance take. But at the end of the day, I
really don't want to have to go to two services.
So if we want to get somewhere, then we're going to have to sew
and believe with us because it's really easy to get on autopilot
when you're in an air conditioner or heat environment
in comfortable seats. When our architect was helping
us with it, he said, now Pastor Earl, you understand why we have
no problem with you preaching an hour or more because the seats
are so comfortable. I said we'll make sure we'll
have comfortable seats in the next one because we need to be
able to infuse the word of God into everyone's life because in
168 hours a week, man, you know, there's a lot of things we have
to get out to get in so that we can live this stuff.
Amen. Also, we're going to start on
another nonprofit organization called I3 Reach.
I3 is Ignite impact influence. That's what that stands for I3
Reach. And this is allowing us to be
able to tap into grants. You understand the wealth of the
wicked is laid up for the and you know there's some grants
that they're just not going to give to the church.
So we're being wise and we're going to create our own non
profit I3 reach so that we can tap into additional grants to
further advance what the Kingdom of God has asked us to do.
Then this is what I'm really excited.
Our Sunshine State Athletic Association.
This is for Washington. We are bringing Washington into
its into a athletic league because as the students get
older, you know, we've not have been able to have a good
organized athletics and we've always wanted that.
So we've already started that this year.
And so, you know, we're looking forward to continuing to build
that program. That way as our students
continue to grow and get into the upper grades, they can do
athletics with us. Amen.
And then the last thing in like the city is Governor Ron
DeSantis. We are still talking with the
office for him to come and speak at the church.
All right. And so we're just be in faith
that that door continues to open.
It's still there and it would be a blessing to us.
It would be a blessing to our community because God is is is
is causing every sector of society to tap into the church.
When we get into impact the nation.
Look at this. We're going to do a Kingdom rise
and Putnam correction this year again, Amen.
Hallelujah. We have a ministry in Plant
City. We're doing a Word and Spirit
conference. Go to Moundsville, Alabama to do
another one. Third year pastors at Rhema.
Again, we'll be going to East Coast Camp with our youth.
We have a Rhema district meetings.
I'm not doing a regional this year.
We're just going to focus on the district, specifically Global
Leadership Conference. And then again, when we say
Sunshine State Association, what we're talking about is the other
cities within our nation that we can play in sports.
So there you understand when your fan base shows up, you can
make an impact. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
So with that being said, you know, we're really going to want
to unpack the nation to this point.
Let me show you this particular map of Florida.
These are the coasts of Florida. OK Anchor Faith Church.
St. Augustine is on the First Coast
now. I remember years ago, actually
it was 1715 years ago, a conversation happened concerning
Valdosta become an Anchor Faith church.
Now I never in my wildest imagination thought I was
planting other churches. I had one directive and that is
I was coming to Saint Augustine, I was planting a church and
that's what we were doing. Then the next thing you know, it
surprised me when the Lord said ask if they want to be an Anchor
Faith Church, of which they said yes, 18 months later, only that
they're not going to stay there. Which was perplexing to me
because I thought, well, why did we do this in the 1st place?
So after traveling there for nine months, in essence giving
birth to the church so that it would be healthy and move
forward, God said that my children's pastor, Pastor Mark
and Ashley Brady, that I should plant them in that location of
which they answered the call and they've been there for 13 years
now. Hallelujah, Amen.
Well, after that experience, you know, and, and they were moving
and obviously, you know, we have this connection.
The next thing you know, all of a sudden Pastor Pedro in
Nicaragua has a brother named Pastor Ramon and he could not
pastor his churches with the Assembly of God because he had
been divorced. And he's and Pastor Pedro says,
Pastor Earl, you should start an anchor faith church here.
And I believe my brother would be a great one to do, you know,
so that minds, you know, you're like, wow, Lord, are you saying
something? And so, you know, I had a
conversation with him. But during that time, before we
actually officially launched Anchor Bay Church in Nicaragua,
my wife and I, as we travel the coast, you know, we love to
camp. We have camped on the Space
Coast. We've camped on the Treasure
Coast. We've camped.
I've camped on the Gold Coast. We've camped on Lee Island
Coast. We've camped over in the
Forgotten Coast and the Emerald Coast.
And we began to realize, I mean, if I was really planting
churches, I'd want to plant on all the coasts in Florida.
That's what I was getting, that I would plant here.
Well, lo and behold, you know, next thing you know, Pastor
Ramon shows up one year thinking we had a Kingdom rise, which was
full force Kingdom conference at the time and we were not doing.
We started to offset them every other year.
And here he is and next thing you know, we're having a
conversation and here's a church becoming anchor faith.
Then the next thing you know, he had some others that were kind
of in his sphere of influence that the next thing you know,
without our kind of knowing, we had two more.
We're like, OK, so church plants for us have been reactive, to
say the least. Everything else that we've done
as a ministry has been proactive.
I mean, we're like lining it out, administrative, getting
everything down and we're moving forward.
There's one church I was proactive in planting.
It was this one. Everything else, I'm reacting.
We're reacting. Next thing you know, this
thing's growing so much that you're like, we're going to have
to do something different. Then Pastor Jay comes and says,
I think I should be in Anchor Faith Church.
You're like, what is happening at that point?
Pastor Mark and IA year ago came together and we realized, well,
if this is happening, we're going to have to organize Anchor
Faith Ministerial Alliance, which we are not.
We have not touched, we have not done anything hardly with it's
in name only. There's no real guidelines.
There's nothing again, reactive, and at that point, a process of
true prayer, spending time looking at and examining it.
What would it look like? And then God sent me to Brazil.
And when he was sent me to Brazil, I saw the model.
It was amazing what Pastor Joshua and Hannah have done in
proactive church plants. They went down to Brazil with
the intent to plant, not with a afterthought, but with the
intentionality. And aren't you glad that God
puts you in relationships so that you don't have to start all
over again or they have to do everything from scratch?
I'm so excited about that. So you know, Pastor Mark and I
are looking at this and you understand at this point then
everything we're having to run a gamut of things.
I mean, from what's the legal ramification of this and how do
we this and what's our attorney going to have to see here?
And then next thing you know, Pastor Jay, you have to legally
organize that. Then Pastor Rick comes and says,
hey, Pastor Earl, after a summer for he was my Indiana Jones of
Washington, he would go away from the summer old mission
trips and come back and teach the students.
It was pretty amazing. And so he would come back and he
said, I believe that the Lord wants me to plant a church and
the Dominican Republican, it should be an anchor faith
church. Again, I'm reacting.
The good news is there wasn't 1. So it's not like we're
remodeling something or we're having to change over a culture
of something. All we are.
We're going to be at a planet right out the gate.
So I said, OK, we're going to do this one right.
From the beginning, you know, we're not going to have to
backtrack. And so he has legally, we have
our paperwork. We can now officially get a bank
account and have pastor Jay has one.
Now there are these aspects we're like, this is awesome.
So when we were down in Nicaragua, Pastor Mark and I and
we were talking about the anchor faith minister Alliance and what
it would do. We realized there was a couple
of legs that would happen. One that people because we have
had pastors come to us based upon things we're doing that
they're like, Hey, I, they tell me, I I sense the Lord wants me
to connect with you because of things you're doing.
Now they have their own churches, but just like me, not
only am IA Rhema pastor, I'm licensed with Rhema, but I'm
also with Pastor David Huffman, I mean Darryl Huffman's victory
ministry international. So every time I redo my
application for Rhema, they say, are you with any other
organization? I say yes, Victory Ministry
International, Darrell Huffman, he's on my board and I'm
connected to both entities. Why?
Because there's something that I draw from Pastor Darrell that
God has placed in my life. Although he was New Life Church,
I'm Anchor Faith Church, right? So the organization definitely
needs to have a Anchor Faith Minister Alliance where
potentially people could get involved just from a ministerial
level. But then there's another place
where it would be an Anchor Faith Minister Alliance plus
Anchor Faith Church. And if it's going to be Anchor
Faith Church, then the model has been given to us, or we're
seeing it based upon what Brazil has done.
So through the year, Pastor Mark and I were talking about it.
We're having conversations about this thing and along the wild,
obviously many things have. So I went to Valdosta last week
because these are some things that has taken time for us to
realize what we should do moving forward.
And then moving forward, we realized that if I'm going to
plant Anchor Faith Churches proactively, then the
organization has to look different.
And in order for it to look different, you know, there's
some things we have to do different.
But when we look at anchor faith Valdosta, they're thriving,
they're moving and they have vision.
In fact, Pastor Mark and Ashley has vision.
It was when I said, did God call you to Texas?
And he said, well, no. I said, well, I believe the Lord
wants you to take Valdosta. And so he has vision for the
location. And we began to ask questions
and it seemed right that we release Valdosta and let them
run their own vision. So last week I was up there
announcing that because we're always advancing and they have
vision for that location. Never was going to be in
Valdosta. I always saw this once I
realized God wanted us to plant. And so Pastor Mark last week
says, you know what, God gave us the organization and the
foundation to launch. But there's some things in our
heart that we want to do that it seems that we've come together
in agreement. And I came and echoed that.
Now he's not here on the stage to hug my neck for you to see
this as I was on his last week. Right now today, they're
launching a new vision, new name.
Come on now, you should get excited.
I mean why would we ever want to hold back what's going on in
peoples lives? You understand that?
I mean I would never want a relationship to go South just
because somebodies hearing God to do something when God's doing
stuff. Do you understand He's a big
God? And so I went and championed
that and I'm like, listen, they're going they've you've
always been ignited the city impact the nation, influence
world. You've kind of already done
stuff very specific to your community.
You're just going to change the name.
You're going to have the burdens on them to actually rebrand.
Not us. We are anchor faith.
It's what we are. And so I'm excited for them.
So let's pray for them and for their congregation right now as
they are releasing this new vision for them.
Amen. Let's pray, Father, in the name
of Jesus. I pray for Pastor Mark and
Ashley. I pray for the, the, the, the
vision, the things that you've shown them to do.
Very specific to that location. We recognize that a local body
has very strategic things to do. And Lord, they have been there
planted in that community for 13 years.
Lord, really, it's easy to release them to some things that
you've given them. I kind of look at it this way,
Lord. You know, my children started
kindergarten and then they graduate from high school.
It's a 13 year journey. And man, when I look at them,
man, have they gone from the beginning of a church that
they've been able to graduate on to some new things.
And Father, we're blessed to be a part of that now.
Lord, we thank you that you continue to bless them, bless
the work of their hand. We thank you, Lord, for the
divine connections that have been there.
And we thank you, Lord, that you're going to continue to
prosper that location because Lord, all that they're going to
be doing, we're excited about, just as the things you're doing
in us, because you've allowed us to release things into people's
lives, not only in Valdosta, but in other states already.
And Lord will continue to increase.
But when it comes to planning anchor faith churches in our own
nation, then Father, we're going to follow your format because it
best protects the ministry as a whole.
And we praise you and thank you for it in Jesus name.
And all God's people said Amen. So when you look at our future,
it's bright. But here's the thing, I've been
eyeballing the forgotten coast for quite some time and there's
already opportunities. But here's the thing, you cannot
launch out and have multiple locations if the foundation or
the headquarter, the planting church is not as strong as it
needs to be. When I mean by strength, we need
to move to the next level. We can't be thinking about that
in this space. We need to get to the next
space. And so we really need to be
deliberate for that next level of what God's asking us to do
because it that area starts to produce this.
And if the Lord is showing this, you know what that tells us?
There's probably some people in this room right now.
You're called the ministry and you need to get up off of it.
You can't stay comfortable here. It's time because the time has
come for you to be deployed and there's a place for you.
There are others that haven't even come yet that God's called
the ministry and will be instrumental in equipping,
strengthening, and deploying. Don't you want to be a part of
that to where this message of the Kingdom is going into
multiple locations within our state that they can be deployed
through our nation in the world. And God has given us that divine
task, and I'm so excited about it.
Let's look at our influence the world, All right?
Yeah, influence the world real quick.
And then let's get into the word.
We're going to be doing training in Anchor Faith, India this
year. In fact, the Lord spoke to me
and I am doing a Congo trip on Thursday.
I will be teaching at Raymond Bible Training College in Congo
and I'll leave on Thursday. It is the only trip outside of
Anchor Faith Church I will do this year.
The Lord spoke to me and says you focus entirely on Anchor
Faith Churches the rest of the year.
And so we're going to be here doing all that we need to do to
continue to push the things we need to push forward in this
location. But we're going to be doing
training in India. We're going to be doing training
and potentially construction and Anchor Faith Churches in
Nicaragua. We're going to be doing
launching an Anchor Faith Church in the Dominican Republic, which
means when we find the day it launches, could we take a team
with us to help with the launch day?
All right, we want to be able to develop an Anchor Church pastor
retreat because again, if you're going to be an Anchor Church
pastor, then we're going to have to really be connected on annual
basis. Obviously the Anchor Faith
Ministerial Alliance, it's global initiative needs to
occur. You understand, being in other
nations legally or one thing being in our nation, that's a
whole nother ball game. And then obviously there's the
Congo one trip. This is what we did not do last
year that I've brought it into this year because we still need
to do so. And that is purchase a vehicle
for Pastor Roman in Nicaragua and for Pastor Fought Meer in
Albania. Now Pastor Fought Meer, had a
heart attack. He had a blockage, they had to
put a stint in. He was having some chest pains
for hours, so much so that he finally went to the hospital and
they were shocked that he was alive.
Aren't you glad for the Holy Ghost, the sustainer of life?
He's recovering. Everything is good as far as
that's concerned. There were some things he wanted
to do in 2025, and I said I'm not coming.
I said I have focus here that I need to do.
I said let's plan that for 2026. He want a citywide men's
conference, OK. And so, but we need to get them
a vehicle again. He has this awesome looking
Ford, red Ford station wagon that has over 500,000
kilometers. The thing looks brand new.
I mean, he really takes care of his vehicles, but we need to get
him another one. Why?
Because we're in the nation where we can have the resources.
And so we're going to be getting you those numbers here pretty
soon. I can tell you right now 20K is
easy for both. I think they're going to be
probably a little bit more, but 20K easy for both.
And so we'll make some things available for you to be able to
open up and see that. Amen.
Aren't you glad that we are progressing?
You want to hear what the Lord spoke to us concerning 2025?
Last year we came off the reigning spirit.
Wow, the reigning spirit. And the theme of that is there's
many spirits talking. Now you need to understand this.
If the Lord has us minister in these areas anytime a message
comes, anytime, say anytime, anytime we preach any message,
healing, faith, prosperity, deliverance, forgiveness, any
subject we ever preach, the minute you walk out that door,
the devil's going to try to steal that from you by creating
a scenario to determine will you apply that or not.
Now we emphasize the reigning spirit and that there were other
spirits. Guess what the other spirits are
doing a lot of talking. You've been equipped to hear
correctly, but you need to fine tune your hearing because again,
the other spirits will come as an Angel of light to try to get
you off, get you out of your purpose, get you away from what
you're called to do if you don't.
And I'm not surprised when the Lord spoke to me about this year
for 2025 is the reigning church. It's the reigning church.
Now The thing is, is that we're going to need to see exactly
what God meant when he talked about church because in the
Western world as a whole, especially now does not is not
technically modeling what Jesus said he would build.
And so we are going to have to dive into the author of the
church and his Word in order for us to be able to see what his
church looks like. And I'm not surprised because,
you know, last year one of our key verses was that in the last
of the last days there will be seducing spirits and doctrines
of demons and some will fall away from the faith, right?
And be pulling. And then as you keep on reading,
it said that in these last days that Saints will heed to
themselves teachers. In essence, they will say, why
don't you build a church that teaches this and will come to it
will come and assemble if you will have this content.
And they will heap teachers to themselves so that they can hear
the content that they want, not necessarily what God wants.
And again, we saw where Paul told Timothy, he said, now
listen. And when it comes to the to the
Saints, you're going to give instruction, you're going to
give reproof and you're going to rebuke.
And I like what Doctor Rodney Howard Brown said.
He says, Saints, that means 2/3 of my preaching are going to
have a corrective tone. But you understand, we have a
generation that doesn't want to hear correction and they really
don't even want to hear instruction.
They want to hear things that are only telling them nice
things. Which again, this is the
problem. That's why we're preaching a
message on the negative mindset. Correction is the most positive
thing you could ever hear 'cause it's life.
I said it's life and if we'll change our thinking, then we'll
never have an issue with correction ever again.
We'll never have an issue with repute rebuke.
In fact, we will fall on our knees and say, thank God you
rebuke me from the path I was heading down.
Whoo, glory to God that make you want to run and shout Amen.
I mean, we're going to correct this kind of thinking so that we
can enjoy all that God has for his church.
Why is it that we can accept we were wrong for salvation, but
refuse to accept wrong thinking after we're born of God?
Amen. But we're talking about the
reigning church because he says, listen, there are going to be
pockets of assemblies that are going to rise up everywhere,
everywhere, not just in the US, all around the world that are
going to have congregations where the Saints determine what
is being preached. Are you hearing me?
God's not deciding. The Saints are deciding because
he says they will heap teachers to themselves.
This is what we want to hear. And if you'll do it, we will
financially support you. We'll financially do whatever
you want to be done. Just do what we need you to do.
Hallelujah. But that's not the church he's
building. You know where it's at.
Matthew chapter 16, verse 18. Let me press through.
And I said, and I also say to you that you are Peter, and on
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. You want to be a part of the
church where the gates of hell doesn't prevail because the one
that Saints caught, they bring their teachers in to tell them
what they want. Then the gates of hell will
prevail against those locations. But if you won't, you do not
want hell to prevail against you in your life.
Then you're going to have to be the one that Jesus is building.
In fact, the Passion translation gets this right when it says I
give you the name Peter a stone. And this truth of who I will I I
am will be the bedrock foundation on which I build my
church, my legislative assembly and the power of death will not
be able to overpower it. Jesus came to establish a
legislative assembly a called out once in essence, the King.
The church is like an embassy where the ambassadors come
together to hear from the home country so that they can walk
out in the policies and procedures and the directive of
the home country, The Kingdom itself, God Himself, who sits on
the throne and communicates what God wants to see done in the
earth because it is a global takeover.
At the end of the day, Jesus Christ is coming back and there
will be no alternative thinking. Are you hearing me?
Because His thinking is life. Martin Luther King said this.
Martin Luther King Junior, He says this.
There was a time when the church was very powerful.
It was during that period that the early Christians rejoiced
when they were deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed.
In those days, the church was not merely a thermometer that
recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion.
It was the thermostat that transformed the Moors of
society. Wow.
Think about it. When Jesus launched the church
in the book of Acts, it was not listening and hearing the world
and trying to identify with the world so that it could impress
the world to try to win the world.
It was the the power of God that was being demonstrated in
communities that caused all whole communities to give up
their idolatry, give up their witchcraft, turn, throw down
their idols and run to Jesus. It was casting out devils, it
was healing the sick, it was raising the dead, it was
speaking the word uncompromised and full of power.
It was amazing, this birth of a church and man.
Where has it gone? It was never God's intent for
the church to not have power. In fact, Colossians chapter one
verse 13 to 18 says, For he rescued us from the domain of
darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his beloved Son,
and whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin.
He is the image of the invisible God, the first born of all
creation. For by Him all things were
created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible,
whether Thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, All
things have been created through Him and for Him.
You've been created for Him. He did not die for you, you were
created for Him. He died so that you could come
back, because He, you were for Him.
He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together,
man. If you're not with Him, you
can't stay together. He is also the head of the body,
the church, and he is say He is the beginning, the first born
from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first
place in, in, in, in, in everything.
Those who are sold out to Jesus as Lord knows man, He has my
everything he says we are to love him with all of our and and
mind and stream. He gets the whole man, the
threefold nature man. Not only does he change your
spirit that you couldn't do, but then because you yield to him
and his spirit in you, you renew your mind because he gets your
mind, he gets your soul, he gets your affection.
He he deserves your emotional attachment, then he deserves.
Because your body, because your body's not your own, you can't.
Your body shouldn't tell you you're too tired to do the work
in a ministry or what God's called you to do, because it is
the Lord's. So He should get you straight.
Your strength should not go to your employer.
Your strength should not go to your business.
Your strength should go to the Lord.
Hallelujah. Your thoughts, your emotions,
your minds, your will, your intellect, all that you do
should be surrounded. There was a time when people
were so passionate about the things of God that they were
willing to die for it. You understand, if we don't
watch out and I listen, we're going to do some really creative
things this year with different things we'll bring on the stage
and different things we want to do.
I plan to do another mud run to do an example illustrated
sermon. Again, I love those things.
I mean, how many enjoyed Christmas when we did the Doctor
Seuss, Seuss Christmas? I mean, those are great.
However, have we lost the ability or willingness to have
the persecution? Do you understand the very
English Bible that you're reading today cost somebody
their life that they were willing to go against the norms
of religion and be considered a heretic so that every St. could
have the right to read the word, The word that we are always
admonishing you every year to read cover to cover.
But you know as well as I do there's a lot of Saints that
aren't reading the book that someone poured out their blood
to make it in a language they could read.
Have we lost the cost? Have we failed to remember that
the church was not designed to be a social service, but to
bring the power of God? And there were people Steve and
died for his belief, many others that we had on the screen prior
to service. If you were looking, you could
have read them. And when we end this thing,
we're going to let you scan AQR code so that you can get our
vision book digitally where you can read the timeline of what
the church went through and the persecution that went on in
different places just so they could assemble.
I mean, again, Amos Wong, he, he, he flew into China to be
able to meet with a group of people that were waiting for
him. If they started to come in from
from so far where they couldn't ride in trains, they had to,
they had to come in different directions into a warehouse that
had no air, no heater, no air condition in the middle of
winter. And they would wait and they
would deploy them an hour at a time because if they had that
kind of movement and there were those sitting that had been
there for 12 hours waiting for Amos to come preach, they
brought him in and he minished for three hours, 3 hours.
Because they don't know when they'll get to assemble again To
hear the things that we have a great liberty.
Now, I'm not saying this so you feel bad.
I'm just saying in our world, there's a cost.
I mean, I thank God for the comfort we have.
I thank God for the conveniences we have.
But I don't want to lose the passion of God's church.
And I believe that the Lord is saying to the westernized
church, especially to the American church, wake up and see
the seriousness of my church and what I needed to be doing in the
last days. He wants his church to reign.
And so when he preached in this freezing warehouse with
thousands of people who had already been there, some for 12
hours, then they took him out, and then for the next 12 hours,
they had to slowly start being deployed away.
Right now in the world, people are being persecuted, still
martyred for their faith. There are multiple nations where
you just can't come and freely assemble.
And we debate on Sundays. I mean, when we put it in
perspective, William Tyndale became what was considered a
heretic. Was he the one burned?
Burned for translating the Bible so you could read it in English.
I hope we haven't become so callous of comfort, of being
comfortable because the reigning church can handle pressure or
more importantly, you're being so conscious of others that
don't have the comfort we have that we're driven to say how in
the world can we help those in those nations?
It will not hinder us from the things that we have nor the
things that we get to enjoy. But the reality is there are
still those today. We even have some martyrs that
we have. That is early as the end of the
20th century. In fact, there was another
particular man that was basically translating the Bible
in that in his language. And what was that?
Cameroon or And he was murdered for it because he just wanted
the language in his native tongue.
The church that we're in is victorious and powerful, but
it's victorious because we're not afraid to face opposition
nor to go into places that are oppositional.
And when you've been given the freedom, then you want to be the
catalyst that can help those that aren't in the same freedom.
Ephesians 117 to 23 says in God the Lord Jesus Christ the Father
glory. May He give us a spirit of
wisdom, revelation and the knowledge of him.
I pray that the eyes of our heart will be in light so that
we would know what is the hope of his calling, What are the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the same?
What is surpassing greatness of his power towards it?
Who's believed? This obviously is not just
salvation so that we know where we're going when we die.
These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His
might, which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from
the dead and seated him in his right hand in heavenly places.
Far above all rule and authority and power and demean in every
name that is named, not only in this age but also the one to
come. This act of Jesus is so powerful
that it goes to the next age and then eternity.
Glory to God where he's far above all rule and authority.
This church that he's building is powerful and he put all
things in subjection under his feet and gave him his head over
all things to the church which is his body, the fullness of him
who feels All in all. Eds have also said this.
He said the 1st century ecclesia or ecclesia introduced a radical
and revolutionary social agenda that launched a process that
literally changed the world. With the subsequent
institutionalization of the church.
However, what was a lifestyle that implemented Jesus agenda
became programs of good deeds that fall short of transforming
societies. You know what I have realized
more and more is that when I hear Saints say where are we
going to see the miracles? Where are we going to see the
power? When are we going to see this?
It's not that they're actually wanting to see the what they're
really asking is where's the powerful church that was there?
They if it's misplaced direction, we're not transformed
just because someone's healed. We're not transformed just
because someone's raised from the dead.
Jesus did this so much in his lifetime that he eventually
says, I'm not even going to do miracles in this city anymore
because you've rejected the thing that had the power.
It was my word because it's the word that transforms.
And you understand, if we would just go back to the passion of
wanting to live His Word and do His Word and let His Word be our
lifestyle, then the miracle signs and wonders are easy.
Why? Because they follow the
preaching of His Word. And I'm not saying me from the
pulpit as much as you preaching it with your lifestyle.
Martin Luther King junior said it this.
He said the church must be reminded that it is not the
master or the servant of the state, but rather the conscious
of the state, the conscience of the state.
It must be the guide and the critic of the state and never
its tool. If the church does not recapture
its prophetic zeal, it will become an irrelevant social club
without moral or spiritual authority.
Martin Luther King junior said this.
Why could we have gone through a whole time period of the
Emancipation Proclamation and it still be decades, centuries
later before we are addressing a civil rights issue when the
church should have been the proponent of every tongue tribe,
a nation? And if we don't watch out, we'll
go back to that. And don't think it's not in our
own nation. There's no such thing as a white
church, a black church. It doesn't exist in the Bible.
Every congregation should have something that looks like us and
we can still do better. Are you hearing me Sunday?
Adelaide said this. The church, a once respected
institution of truth and integrity, has lost her respect
due to ignorance of purpose and lack of insight into God's
original plan for His church. And you know, we're all about
original intention. We want the original plan.
Colossians chapter one verse 28 to 29 says this King James
Version, whom we preach, whom we what preach, warning every man
and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present
every man perfect in Christ Jesus.
Whereunto I also labor, striving according to his working, which
worketh in me mightily. You'll understand why I use the
King James here momentarily. Look at the amplified classic
version. It says it this way.
We preach and proclaim, warning and admonishing everyone and
instructing everyone in all wisdom, comprehensive insight
into the ways and purposes of God, that we may present every
person, say every person mature, fully grown, fully initiated,
complete and perfect in Christ the anointed one.
Verse 29. For this I Paul says, laborers
unto weariness, striving with all the superhuman energy which
he so modelly and Kindles, and works within me.
I must read an excerpt from Rick Renner, Sparkling Jim concerning
this passage of Scripture. It is very important for you to
understand as the reigning church what this means.
He says the word perfect or the amplified says mature in this
verse. In the Greek, Paul uses only
five times in the New Testament. Each time describes full grown
adults. It describes how a person
develops. He or she transitions from being
youthful and immature to an individual who is full grown and
mature. In addition, Paul uses this word
twice to denote spiritually mature individuals who are
living in accordance with the will of God.
For this reason, the more recent translation, the Amplified says
that we may present every person mature, fully grown, fully
initiated, complete, and perfect in Christ.
Thus we see the word perfect that Paul referred to in
Colossians 128 as one who is spiritually mature and
endeavoring to live out his or her life in accordance to God's
perfect will. It tells us that we are not just
called to win masses to Christ and then leave them beside
behind as spiritual infants. Rather, our God-given task is to
help people walk out of immaturity while leading them
onward into spiritual maturity. Bringing people up to this level
of maturity is an undertaking so huge that Paul acknowledged it
could only be done with the power of God.
He said, Where unto I also labor, striving accordingly to
his working, which worketh in me mindedly.
Now before I finish reading this, you understand there came
a time after World war that some denominations came together and
said, Let us take the gospel to its simplest form.
And from there we began to preach you must be born again
alone. And that the role of the church
then became to win the lost and to win the lost really at all
cost, at the cost of his identity, at the cost of his
purpose, at the cost of spiritual growth.
We get so excited when we go into places and people get born
again but we have no idea where they're at after their new birth
experience. We come and tout in our great
assemble halls of all the people that were born again over a
particular outreach, yet we have no concept of where they are.
No follow up plan to be able to feed them, grow them, disciple
them or change them. In fact, Jesus literally said go
into all the world and make disciples, not converts.
In order for you to be a disciple, you must be converted.
You must be born again. But he never intended you just
to know that you're going to heaven when you die.
He expected you to grow up, look at your neighbor and say it's
time to grow up because Jesus Christ is coming back for the
church. That's mature.
He expects us to grow up. Paul goes on to say it this way.
He said the word labor here in Colossians 129 in the Greek
word. This Greek word describes the
most physically and mentally exhausting type of Labor.
OK, let me help clarify this verse 29 has to do with what
Paul's assignment was, which is my assignment, and he is saying
this is the most physically and mentally exhausting type of
Labor. By using this word, Paul
reminded us of the extremely hard work that is required to
help a person attain spiritual maturity.
According to this, Paul worked very hard to bring people from
spiritual infancy into spiritual adulthood.
In fact, the next word he choose, the word striving,
drives this point home. It comes with another Greek
word, which was the word we get, the English word agony.
This is why you should pray for us.
The use of these two words, labor and striving, tells us
that the task of helping individuals move from spiritual
empathy to spiritual adulthood requires focus, effort, and hard
work. And it can be all.
And it can often be as agonizing as raising a natural child to
become a level headed adult. And we're not just spiritually
raising one person, but many people at one time.
This would be humanly impossible if it were not for his working,
which as Paul said works in US mightily.
The word working here in the Greek word means is where we get
the word energy. Furthermore, the word mighty is
the word dunamis which Paul used to describe Christ divine
ability that resides in each true believer.
So Paul was acknowledging that it is only possible to present
every man perfect or mature in Christ of of his divine because
of his divine super natural energy that works within us.
We are insufficient in ourselves for such a task.
We can only accomplish it because of the infusion of
Christ's mighty dunamis power that works in US.
Hence, the task of helping someone grow from spiritual
empathy into spiritual adulthood is a supernatural feat that can
only be accomplished in cooperation with Christ's mighty
power that works in US and through US.
And I can tell you from first hand experience why it would be
mighty tempting as an apostle and pastor to only communicate
the salvation message. Why it's tempting.
In fact, I remember one time in the beginning stages of Anchor
Faith Church, because there's all kinds of models out there.
And I and I had people coming to the church say, Pastor Earl, you
know, if you just did this, you double and he they were right.
If all I did was talk about where you going to go when you
die, If I left off the baptism of the Holy Ghost.
If I didn't talk about moving on so that the fruits of the Spirit
can be possessed in your life. If I let you just live in your
carnality. And let's just all rejoice when
somebody who's out of God's household comes into God
household with the rest of the dysfunctional kids that are
assembled together. Amen.
Because many of you know the price you've had to pay, the
things you've had to put down in order for you to attain.
But here's the thing, you can attain the spiritual maturity,
but if you do not stay there, you can digress back to
immaturity. Paul said this.
If you feel that you have failed to stick it out to the end with
the individuals you've been called to help mature, take
heart. Yield to the Holy Spirit's
present in your heart for the task.
He ends this ends it by saying this as believers, we should
always be It should this should always be our purpose.
We must not only win people to Jesus, but also disciple them to
maturity so that they can live the balance the the balance of
their lives as fully mature spiritual adults who live to do
the will of God. Don't you want to look back on
your life and say that I live the majority of it mature?
Because the Scripture indicates that a person can arrive to
spiritual maturity within 4 three to seven years.
So it doesn't take long to attain to maturity or to arrive
there and then you can live the rest of your life in it.
And that would be amazing. Are you hearing me?
So he goes on. Then let me say this.
Then This is why we have Ephesians 411 and 13.
And he gave some of the apostles and some of his prophets and
some of his evangelists and some of his pastors and teachers for
the equipment of the Saints, for the work of service to the
building up of the body, until we all attained to the unity of
faith, of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man, to
the measure of the statue which belongs to the fullness of
Christ. Any babe in Christ can say,
that's my daddy too, because when the Father's your dad, he's
your dad. But babies say that verse 16
from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by what
every joint supplies according to the proper working of each
individual part calls of the growth of the body for the
building of of itself and love the keyword here that we've seen
in these past two scriptures, the Colossians now here in
Ephesians is the word mature. Mature means brought to
completion, fully accomplished, fully developed, full grown.
Sunday Adelaide said this people are supposed to come to church
and be aware that they are being trained and recruited.
The church is supposed to be a place like a classroom or a war
room where you have been equipped to go out from Monday
to Friday and fight for the cause of the Kingdom.
Not like fighting demons that have been defeated thousands of
years ago, they've already been defeated, but fighting to bring
the righteousness and rules of the Kingdom of God into your
sphere of influence. Sunday went on to say it this
way. The Church of Jesus Christ was
planted in this world to be a change agent for the
transformation of the world and of the particular society where
the church is located. And the reason why every town,
every city, every community should have a local church
somewhere in its surrounding territory where a local church
is present, is because it's there to transform that society.
Not to assimilate to it, but to be so different that only two
things can occur in that community.
Major opposition and persecution to those that hate the things of
God and righteousness, and those who run to the church because of
its integrity and the life of those who live it out day-to-day
victoriously. Hallelujah.
I have no problem being at opposition in our community to
those who do not want to follow God because we are the light of
the world and the Bible tells us Jesus says light has come in,
but they love their darkness instead.
And there are people in our community is going to love their
darkness, which means they'll hate our light, but there will
be many drawn to the light and be transformed.
Hallelujah, just like you have been transformed.
Aren't you glad you've been transformed?
What are the sector of societies?
One, religion, two family, 3. Government, 4.
Business, 5. Education, 6.
Arts, entertainment, sports and seven the media.
These are the sectors of society we are to infiltrate with the
Kingdom of God. When you get into your place of
business, you should be the light of the world.
You shouldn't be an ambassador. You should reflect the ideals
and lifestyles of the Kingdom of God.
When people are sick, they should come to you.
For you'll pray. So you'll pray from when they're
in trouble, they should come to you and you would pray for them
because they know you just don't pray.
You have answered prayers. Hallelujah.
This is the reigning church. But equally, when you go to
work, people are going to persecute you.
They're going to talk bad about you.
They're not going to let you get promotion.
They're going to stand in the way.
They're going to do all kinds of things to try to hinder you.
But you stay with God. And if God's for you, who can be
against you can't be compromising.
You can't compromise an ideal for more money or more prestige.
How could you be more known than be known by Jesus Christ?
A title and promotion doesn't make you greater.
You're already great because the greater ones on the inside of
you, He's called you a son. He's called you a daughter.
I'm known by Jesus. Everything else is less than.
Any relationship I have outside of that is less than because I
know the King, and the King knows me.
Hallelujah. He knows my name, I said.
He knows my name. He knows your name.
In first Corinthians 1420 it says, brethren, do not be
children. Immature in your thinking.
Continue. Continue to be babes in matters
of evil if you want to be. If you want to be immature, then
get immature in evil. Amen.
If you want to be a babe, then do it in evil.
But in your minds, he says, be mature men Psalms 1/3 the
amplified says, and he will be like a tree firmly planted and
fed by the streams of water, which yields his fruit in its
season. Its leaf does not wither, and in
whatever he does, he prospers and comes to maturity.
The reason why most Saints can never get to maturity,
especially in the Western Church, is because they don't
stay planted because again, they they believe the lie of the
devil. Well, that's the pastor's
vision. He's trying to get you to do
what he's heard from God. No, this is not my vision.
This is our vision. How do I know this is true?
Did you save yourself? The Father had a vision.
I'm going to send my son. He's going to die on a cross.
He's going to pour out his blood for all your wrongdoing.
And he says, I see you in the vision, but if you're going to
be in the vision, you're going to have to make it your own.
Well, I'm only born again because it's God's vision.
No, you're like, I see myself a child of God because before the
foundation of the world, He had a plan for me, a purpose for me.
He always designed for me to be with dominion and rulership, and
I had fallen out of that. But He has a vision to bring me
back, and I'm going to be a part of that vision because that
vision is my vision. My vision is to be a child of
God, one who rules and reigns with Christ.
That's my vision, not just his. Well, if that's the case, then
guess what? The local body, it shouldn't be
mine that you're following. It should be yours you're
following and you are finding your fit in that vision, which
means you should drive, thrive, run again.
I use athletics all the time. Not everyone's the quarterback.
Not everyone, but those that are in their positions when they
function as they were designed can defeat the opposition and go
on to the next round and eventually be crowned champion.
Don't you know when Ohio State beat Texas that the quarterback
didn't say concerning that one defensive player who scooped the
ball up and ran down for a touchdown?
That he didn't say, look at him showing off.
You know, when I broke through that hole and nobody touched me,
I fell down at the 20 yard line. I mean, he could have fell down,
not look like he was showboating.
I mean, he's a defensive player. What's he think he's doing?
But we don't talk like that with athletics.
But why do we talk like this in the church?
Immaturity talks like that. No, when you get planted and you
quit running around, then you're going to finally hit maturity.
No plant in the natural can mature if it doesn't stay
planted. And again, people will say all
the time, oh man, I grew so much here.
I'm growing here, I'm growing here and I'm growing here.
They're not growing because the Bible doesn't support that kind
of growth to maturity, Nothing at all.
It doesn't support that kind of movement to maturity.
So when you find a place, you need to stay somewhere.
In fact, this is what I love about Pastor Mike.
Pastor Mike, stand up. Pastor Mike was born again.
What? What?
How old were you when you were born again?
9797, He's born again. He was planted in that church,
Apostle Scales Church. He only left that church because
God called him the ministry of which then he needed training.
Then he went to Oklahoma and he was went to Bible school.
But he didn't just go to Bible school.
He was planted in the local Church of the Bible school
called Rhema Bible Church. And he stayed there.
And then the Lord said, go to Saint Augustine and he's only
been in his whole life as a believer in three churches, only
three. And I would surmise if he would
not been called to ministry, he most likely would be an Apostle
Scales church still today. And man, he can grow there
because Apostle Scales is amazing, amazing teacher.
You know, Pastor Hagen would say this concerning Pastor.
Thank you, Pastor Mike, who graduated from Rhema.
And they become say, well, I've done 20 years of ministry, yet
they've only been in locations 3 years at a time.
They go in, start a church or take over a church, you know,
and then the honeymoon, 18 minutes, 18 months is over.
And now they're dealing with problems.
And then they say, well, the Lord's called me.
And then they find another church and they go somewhere
else. And Pastor Hagen says, don't
tell me you've been in ministry for 20 years.
You've only been in ministry for three years because you've only
experienced what three years will give you.
That's wisdom talking. Well, I'm spiritually mature.
No, you've only grown based upon how long you've stayed planted.
And if you've been planted, then are you staying in attainment?
Philippians chapter 3, verse 12. We are about to drive this thing
home, he says, not that I've already obtained it, that I've
already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold
of that which I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I do not regard myself as laying hold of it yet, but
one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward
to what lies ahead, I press on to the goal, towards the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude, and
if in anything you have a different attitude, God will
reveal that also to you. However, let us keep living by
the same standard to which we have attained.
Rick Renner says this concerning the word I press on is the Greek
word which translates as I Follow after is a fiercely
aggressive word in historical Greek literature.
It means to hunt, pursue, to chase, to track down and kill.
It is the picture of an outdoorsman who is so determined
to hunt down an animal that he will stop at nothing to pursue,
chase, track down, and ultimately get the game.
That is a driven individual. That means complacency should
never be in the mind of a believer that the minute you
were born again, you have this determination.
I will become all that my king saved me to.
He saved me from something to something, and I will obtain
that. And then when the whole body
gets that kind of drive, there's not a gate in hell in any sector
of society that can stand against that reigning church.
Can't happen. I said it can't happen because
you will not let those sectors of society impede you.
You will be so driven to hunt down and do exactly what you're
called to do in your community. The amplified says this.
So let those of us 1st 15 and 16 of First Timothy 3.
So let those of us who are spiritually mature and full
grown have this in mind and hold these conviction.
And if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God
will make that clear to you also.
Only let us hold true to what we have already obtained and walk
and order our lives that way. You understand in three to seven
years you can attain to spiritual maturity, but you must
maintain the standard you have come to.
I'm always perplexed how a believer can grow in the things
of God within a church, can go from salvation to the baptism of
Holy Ghost to the authority of the believer in healing and
prosperity and all the things that are associated with who you
are in Christ. And then go all the way back to
a denomination that only only preaches.
Where are you going to go when you die?
And to think that they're going to be spiritually mature in that
area. Another translation says it this
way. Therefore, let us who are
perfect again, mature. Embrace this point of view.
If you think otherwise, God will reveal to you the error of your
ways. In essence, He's saying what I'm
saying. You need to accept His truth and
don't think that you should not fiercely pursue that which God
has apprehended you. Then he says in verse 16,
Nevertheless, let us live up to the standard that we have
already attained that we have already attained.
You know, that's what I love about God's mercy and compassion
because This is why he told, he said a righteous man may fall 7
times, but he, he gets back up. Do you understand?
We can have bumps along the way, we can make wrong choices along
the way and most of the time we make those wrong choices.
We say this, I know better, God will forgive you and let's move
on. But for some, they will allow it
to entirely derail their life. You know what I've seen?
You know, the one of the quickest ways that I've watched
spiritually mature Saints go to immaturity is when they see
someone who is spiritually mature fail and then the same
mercy and compassion they want in their lives.
When they fail, they don't extend it to the one that they
have held and esteemed as a spiritually mature person.
And they get so offended by that.
I've seen it through the years, they walk out of church, walk
out of fellowship, walk out away from God because someone they
thought were spiritually mature didn't make it, didn't do
something right. Now many times there they
repent, get right with God, go on as if it never happened.
Some of that's even in a relocation for some based upon
who whatever they were called to do.
But the reality is then that other person holds that to them
and holds on to that, and won't forgive them and justifies their
new flesh life. But yet we'll tell you Scripture
because they know it. Do you understand?
Once you attain knowledge of some things, you can retain
knowledge even though you're no longer applying the knowledge
you have retained. Which brings us our last two
passages of the Scripture. It's the reigning church and
Ephesians 5, 27. It says that he might present to
himself the church and all her and all her what having no spot
or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and
blameless. Now Pastor Angie and I tag team
this message years ago concerning the latter rain.
In fact, when you read that account, James, that the Lord is
patient as a farmer for the early and latter rain, that the
reality is the majority interpret that passive scripture
as harvest. And I'm not going to lie, it is
harvest. It is harvest.
OK, However, what is the latter rain for?
When we say harvest, what are we harvesting now?
Listen to me. You were dead in your trespasses
and sin, which means you were something different than what
you are today. All of us were a seed, and when
you farmer plants a seed, a seed has a potential in it, but the
only way that what's in it can come out or be seen is it must
die, Paul said. Unless a grain of wheat falls
into the ground and dies, it cannot produce after its own.
So when you plant yourself the word in you, you die to
yourself. Then the new person comes out.
Conversion is a plant. The the early rain comes so that
this new growth that has come out of a seed that has died is
there so its roots can get grounded and so that the plant
itself can grow for the purpose of producing fruit.
So the fruit is not the law saved.
The fruit is the believer showing its fruit it's
producing. The latter rain is so that the
fruit can get to maturity. In my backyard is a banana tree,
and I've been going out looking at it because there's an
indicator that lets me know those bananas are ready to
harvest and it hasn't gotten there yet.
Didn't know that plan before, didn't know how that worked
before. There they were.
They were never turning yellow. I'm like, why didn't it turn?
Maybe I need to cut them off. So I cut those things off,
brought them into the house, and sure enough, they started to
turn yellow. I'm like, there it was.
I peeled that banana. I ate that banana and all the
moisture in my mouth got sucked out.
I thought I was going to choke. It was the worst taste of banana
ever had in my life. I'm like, this is disgusting.
What in the world is going on with this fan?
It looked great. It it turned yellow.
It looked like you could, but it was so bitter.
It was bitter. It sucked all the moisture out
of my mouth. Well, I didn't realize that
there's this piece of it that has to completely fall off and
die, which is an indicator. Now it's ripe and I'm close.
I got about this much left of what's supposed to fall off that
I can cut that thing. Then you cut the top out of it
so that it would produce fruit again the next time you have to
prune it. OK, that's a different serves.
All right. I learned that I harvested it at
the right time. Then it went from green to
yellow. And when I they were the
sweetest bananas, the sweetest. So the latter rain is for the
maturing of the crop. The latter rain is not so much
for the loss to be saved as much as it is for the church to
mature. Now don't get me wrong, when the
church is mature, it'll change the world.
It'll all of a sudden become a transforming society again.
It'll be this massive moving force that walks in the power of
God that is only wanting to seek the purpose and plan of God.
When we receive this latter rain, it will cause the fruits
of the Spirit to be able to mature in such a way that when
we walk around, when we walk through the places, it'll be as
Miss Wigglesworth said one day when someone got on the bus and
says, your mere presence convicts me of my sin.
The glory of God will be in such full display as the outpouring
of the Spirit in the latter days for the maturing of the church.
And we want the latter rain, but in order to have the latter
rain, you're going to have to position yourself.
You're going to have to start producing fruit.
Now, glory, means of high repute, free from sin, a most
glorious condition, most exalted state.
There's another state of the Church that has yet to be seen
and it's not just falling on everyone because all you have to
do is read the book of Revelations to realize that that
not every church that Jesus was building did he continue some he
said if you don't repent and get this right, we're talking about
believers. I'm a pull the lamp, the one he
says I'm about to spew you out of my mouth.
Are you hearing me? So second Peter chapter 3, verse
14, we'll close with this. So beloved, since you are
looking forward to these things, be diligent.
Make every effort to be found by Him at his return, spotless and
blameless, in peace that is inwardly calm with a sense of
spiritual well-being and confidence, having lived a life
of obedience to Him. When the greatest things that I
get to do every day is to wake up and know that I'm obeying my
Heavenly Father, it gives me the greatest peace to know that I'm
doing His will. I'm in lockstep with Him.
I'm I'm doing exactly what He's asked me to do.
And it doesn't matter the opposition.
Because when I look at the ones that have gone before me and
endured much trials and tribulation but finished the
course, it encourages me to continue to press on.
And I can't help but press because I'm driven to accomplish
that which God's called me to do.
And I want to take a whole group of people with me.
In fact, God desires us as fivefold ministers to do just
that. And it is a lot of effort.
It is to weariness. Pastor, are you under a lot of
pressure? Always, But by the grace of God,
I said by the grace of God, I'm not complaining.
I'm just telling you like it is for what purpose?
To mature you so that when you attain to it, you'll retain it
and you'll walk in it. And man, when the next wave of
new believers come in and the next wave of new believers, you
know, what I've loved about Anchor Faith Church through the
years is that we create this layer of people that grow so
that then when the next layer comes, there's more than myself,
my wife, and a few others that are walking in spiritual
maturity. There's so many Saints doing it,
and it just keeps filtering out that the base of maturity keeps
to getting larger and larger. What's so awesome about a base
of maturity? It can sustain a larger base of
immaturity. If we want a larger harvest of
babes, then we must develop a stronger foundation of maturity.
That way, when they start to struggle, you'll be able to say
what does the word say? And they'll call you a cult
because you'll all say the same thing.
It is a culture. We live in a Kingdom and we say,
well, what does the king say about this?
What does the king say about this?
What does the word say? Well, how come everybody says
what does the word say? What else is there?
Peter says you have the words of life.
So this year's the Reigning Church and I want to kick this
year off because the most attacked organization on the
planet is in this building. This is why you're attacked,
because you house the power of God and the only way that we
survive and thrive is we are intentional to say I will never
let someone Take Me Out of my fit.
I will pursue it with passion till he returns or I go to be
with him. And I will be in unity with the
brethren. I'll be in unity.
I'm going to find my fit, do my part, because the people in this
room depends on it. They depend on me coming all the
time, showing up, doing what God's called me to do.