Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. Say the greatest.
Come on, say the greatest. Turn over to Matthew chapter 20.
We'll start in verse 20. Amen.
And I'm going to talk to you about the greatest today.
It says this. And the mother of Zebedee's sons
came and came to him. That's Jesus with her sons
kneeling down, asking something from him.
And he said to her, what do you wish?
And she said to him, grant that these two sons of mine may sit
one on your right hand and one on your left hand in your
Kingdom. But Jesus answer says you do not
know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup
that I'm about to drink and be baptized with the baptism that
I'm about to be baptized with? And they said to him, we are
able. You know you're always able
before the problem shows up, he said to them, though you will
indeed drink my cup and be baptized with the baptism that
I'm baptized with, but to sit on my right hand and on my left is
not mine to give, but it is for those.
For whom it is prepared? By my Father.
Jesus doesn't even tell you where you go.
That's up to the Father. When it comes to Kingdom
assignments. Are you hearing me?
And when the 10 heard it, they were greatly displeased with the
two brothers. So again, when they heard about
one wanting to be on the right and one on the left, the other
ten got what they were displayed.
In essence, a little jealous. Competition among the 12.
Are you hearing me? I want to be the guy.
I want to be the guy.
You know it's still in the church today, but Jesus called
to himself and said, you know that the rulers of the Gentiles
lorded over them, and those who are who are great exercise
authority over them. Yet it shall not say, shall not
be so among you. But whoever desires to become
great, say great. Notice Jesus didn't rebuke
greatness. He didn't rebuke it.
He didn't rebuke the desire to be great.
So there's nothing wrong with wanting to be great.
But if you want to be great in the Kingdom, you got to do it
Kingdom way in fact. We could almost say that Jesus
is encouraging you to be great. He's saying I've quit looking at
the world's example. It's the wrong way to be great
in the Kingdom. There's another way.
I said in the Kingdom, there's another way, right?
He said it's not going to be this way among you.
But whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your
servant. And whoever desires to be first
among you, which he had no problem with, somebody wanted to
be first. Let him be your slave, just as
the Son of Man did not come to serve but or to be served, but
to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
Now let's look at a Luke chapter 22 account.
Luke 22 account. Amen.
Hallelujah. Now again, if I was preaching on
joy right now. See what I'm saying?
See, this is really important to me because, again, we shouldn't
be prompted through a particular line of scripture to have a
response. When the word resonates as
truth, we should have a response.
Amen. Hallelujah.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? So it's very important, man.
Every truth when you're when you begin to see it, that should
prompt the Amen out of you. A Hallelujah.
It could get you to laugh for a moment.
I mean, you can receive that with joy, because not everyone
who receives something with joy lasts.
In fact, the very first seed sown is received with joy.
But when the trouble comes, it dies.
I said it dies. Joy has this place.
But joy is not the only expression of the spirit, I said
It's not the only expression. It needs to be an expression.
You should be happy person. We shouldn't be depressed.
I mean, depression should not be associated with us, not when you
have the greater one on the inside.
But joy is one of the fruits of the spirit.
There are others. That we should eat just as much
tap into. In fact, the Kingdom of God is
righteousness, peace. And I believe it's a
progression. Yeah, that's right.
You're not going to be able to have joy in the Holy Ghost if
you're not righteous. And righteousness will produce
peace and peace will cause you to have joy.
So you can you can fake laughter.
You can fake laughter. I'm not going to say fake joy,
because the joy of the Lord is a supernatural gift.
You can pretend you're happy. It could look like you're full
of joy. But we'll know if you're really
happy when the problem comes. Amen.
All right. So again, when something starts
to resonate, man, you should have some kind of response,
right? We are not a quiet church,
right? We are responsive church because
our spirit man is connected to the word we're preaching.
Amen. Praise the Lord And look,
chapter 22 verses 24 to 30th says there arose also a dispute
among them as to which one of them was regarded to be
greatest. And he said to them, the kings
of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who have
authority over them are called benefactors.
But it is not this way with you. But the one, say, the one who is
the greatest among you must become say must.
This isn't optional. Let's put it this way.
You can't become great greatest unless you're doing this.
So who is the greatest among you?
Must become like the youngest, and the leader, like the
servant, must become I said, must become verse 27.
For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table, or the
one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines
at the table? But I am among you as the one
who serves. You are those who have stood by
me and my trials. And just as my father has
granted me a Kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink
at my table in my Kingdom, and you will sit on Thrones judging
the 12 tribes of Israel. Why?
Because they served with Jesus. Which brings this thought to be
Do not abdicate your greatness. Do not abdicate your greatness.
Do not advocate your greatness. How?
Because you want to be served. Because you want to be served.
There are many pastors that they
seem great. Because of their entourage, they
seem great. They got their armor bears.
Y'all ain't talking to me. It's cause some of y'all ain't
never been associated with those churches before us.
You don't even know what we're talking about.
They got their armor bears. They got their whole entourage
with them. You know, they opening their
doors, they're doing all this stuff, you know, and it acts
like and and again, I understand there is an honoring of the man
of God and you should honor the man of God or the woman of God
for that matter. There should be honor, but if
you are the man of God and the woman of God being honored.
You should find yourself out serving your armor bearer.
You should be like I got the door today.
Gentlemen, come on in. Are you hearing me?
I'm telling you right now, many people are abdicating their
greatness because all of a sudden people want to serve
them. And they forfeit serving.
They stop. They quit.
They've arrived somewhere in the church or among the church body.
Are you hearing me? No.
You want to be finding out ways you can serve?
You want to be in a serving capacity?
You want to make sure you are putting your hand to something?
OK, let me just give you a case in point right now.
Who is the server? I am.
Thank you for a few that figured that out.
Right now, I'm serving you. I'm serving you the word.
Now. You could be like, well, pastor.
You're the pastor. You're the lead.
I'm the lead only because I'm serving you.
What the Lord wants me to say to you so that you can then do me a
doer of that word and continue to rise.
So I put down my flesh. I don't say, well, we just got
back. You know, we're not even going
to come in tonight. Today.
Are you hearing me? We're serving you.
I put my own mic on this morning.
Yeah. I mean sometimes they show up,
sometimes they're doing something else and I don't go,
hey, you need to get in my office and get my mic on cause
I'm well able to put a thing on myself.
Are you hearing me? I mean sometimes it's
challenging but at at the end of the day we do what we got to do
because it cause it's not about me coming into a place or you
shouldn't cause here's the thing if you're coming and always just
hearing me. All you do is hear me.
You show up and the parking lot serves you.
Then the greeters open the door and serve you.
Then the cafe serves you. Then the children's ministry
serves you. Then the ushers serve you.
Then I serve you. You abdicate your greatness
because we are supposed to all be serving in some capacity.
Because serving releases our greatness.
Or you hear me, because one of the greatest challenges of
believers today is being faithful in serving.
We've really kind of adopted the American mindset.
You know, the American mindset is work to retirement, then you
don't retire and everybody serves you.
Basically, I get to do what I want when I want to when I want.
I don't have to answer to anybody.
It's like it's in the church. We come and serve in a few areas
for a while and then all of a sudden we retire and we talk
about when we did it. And now so and so with, I'm
telling you there's plenty of room for everybody in this room
to do something, I said. To do something, to serve.
Now again, maybe you're not serving any service, but there
are opportunities. When you look at the vision that
we have as a ministry that you couldn't find yourself, how can
I serve in that area or do that? I mean, I understand sometimes
you're you're you're outside the church, you know, work may have
some kind of crazy schedule that will be very difficult for us to
technically pin you down on a schedule.
But that doesn't mean there's not an opportunity like man, I
can serve there, I can do that. They got this project happening
I'm going to. Come and do that, and you're
always looking for this opportunity because again, you
don't want to release your greatness in the Kingdom of God.
You don't want to find yourself only coming and being served
now. Paul understood this.
In Philippians chapter 3, verse 12, he says, not that I've
already obtained it or I've already become perfect, but I
press on so that I may lay hold of that which I was also laid
hold of by Christ. This is Philippians 312.
In essence, I was doing something and God apprehended
me. So he laid hold of me.
I'm trying to lay hold of that which I have been laid hold of
by Christ. Christ says this is your gift,
this is your purpose, this is how you are to serve the body.
And he goes, I'm trying to lay hold of that.
The Passion says it this way. I admit that I haven't yet
acquired the absolute fullness that I'm pursuing, but I run
with passion into His abundance so that I may reach the purpose
that Jesus Christ has called me to fulfill and wants me to
discover. And every one of us has this
opportunity. Why do we know this?
First Peter, chapter 4, verse 10.
Just to remind you he said this as each one say Each one say
that's me has received a special gift or a gift employ it.
What employ that means Put it to work.
Again, if you're not using the gift that you have, then by all
rights you are burying it. You say, well, where's it buried
at? In the dirt.
What dirt did you bury it in inside?
You remember you were made out of the dust of the your dirt.
So the the gift is buried in you because you're not letting it
out. You're not employing it, you're
not serving it. You're not allowing it to serve
others. The gift was never for you.
Because again, I gifted. I mean, I guess most people
today, especially maybe some believers, definitely not in our
church. Because again, I I want to
separate us from congregations that are not.
I realize these are challenges even in our own house, but we
push this from the word very specifically.
Again, I'm not of the person who buys myself.
Myself. Gifts.
Well, I'm just going to buy that for myself and I'm going to buy
that for myself and I'm going to buy that for myself.
Somebody's birthday comes around, but when it's my
birthday, I buy for myself. I'm always buying myself gifts
and nobody else. No gifts were designed to be to
be given. So again, Jesus.
Or the spirit of God has given you a gift to employ it.
How? In serving one another, not in
serving yourself. The gift is not for you.
The gift is for others. And your gift will may room for
you if you will be willing to serve your gift.
I said, if you're willing to serve your gift, see, This is
why when Pastor Marsh and I go anywhere to minister, it is the
most challenging thing for me to do.
Because I have this wealth on the inside of me of messages
that we have. Mind out, revelation, line upon
line, precept upon, precept here.
But then you go to a particular church and you may only get one
service. Maybe you'll get a few and
you're like, out of everything you've taught me, what do I say
to this group and how far can I even say it?
How deep can I even talk? How far can we go?
Well, a lot of times I figure it out based upon their draw.
This is why I enjoy the Global Leadership Conference prior to
camp meeting because there's so many people from different, you
know. So we kind of categorize it as
camps, you know, different hubs of people and how they kind of,
you know, function within the body.
You know, sometimes you kind of got this like prophetic camp and
they just kind of want to focus on the prophetic, right.
And they're kind of like, you know, geared that way.
Then you get another one, You know, they kind of focus in
another Ave. like the moves of the spirit, right.
And so there's some function there.
They do. You know what?
How do we function? We function based upon the
purity of the word. At the end of the day, we want
the word to be pure. Slightly divided and whatever
happens happens, OK. But if you get around certain
camps, then certain things just happen.
Now when I say happen, I'm not saying it's always a move of
God. I'm just saying it's prone to go
that way because they're kind of known for that.
But we'll get in a room, man, and we can begin to discuss
things. And you get iron, sharpening
iron and different things. You're like cross pollinating on
things, right? But then all of a sudden,
because they're not used to you, they're used to theirs, you
start to minister under the anointing and all of a sudden
they'll start pulling on it. They'll get into that.
I ain't never heard it like that before because they're not
accustomed to that type of ministry.
Same thing. I get up underneath others that,
you know, you just don't hear it as often and you kind of start
pulling because you're like, OK, I'll pull on that.
I don't always hear that, so let me pull on that.
Now for me, when I pull on, I'm like, you're gonna have to make
the word test. Because if you don't make the
word test, you know, I mean, I I'll pull your stuff and throw
it to the ground pretty quick. You know, I'm pulling.
Nope, I'm pulling junk. I'm pulling junk.
Oh, that's good. I'll keep that.
Give me another thing. You understand what I'm saying?
And you all should do this pull on things, right?
Because the gift can be there. And there can be some really
Holy Ghost things that take place, even though you're not
familiar with something per se, but if it doesn't line up with
the words, you Kick It Out every time we Kick It Out, period.
But Paul is saying here that, look, he said I'm trying to
obtain this thing. I was, I became a part of him.
Peter says, look, all of us have this gift.
We are to employ it to serve one another as good stewards of the
manifold grace of God. The manifold grace of God.
So God has all graced us with a gift.
Do you believe that? Well, let's see, Paul says in an
Ephesians chapter 4, verse 7 to 8.
He says this, but to each one of us, grace was given to each one
of us, say that's me. So all of us have grace
according to the measure of Christ's gift.
In essence, the head of the church says this aspect of me.
I give this to you, I give this to you.
I pull this part of me and give it to you.
I pull this part of me and I give it to you so that when all
of us are working together, guess what?
We all look like Jesus. When I was ministering to the
youth, I was talking to them about the power of the tongue,
and I told them their tongue needs to be set up ablaze by the
spirit. They need to have, like on the
day of Pentacles, tongues of fire, you know, And the problem
is most of their tongues are set up on the the flame of hell.
They taught their carnality, their flesh, all kinds of stuff.
You know, they bless God on on a service and then they run off at
the mouth on their social media and that like the world.
And I said, it shouldn't be like that.
You need to keep your mouth connected.
But one way to help keep your mouth from running off is
praying in the Spirit. And so at that point, you know,
we need to people need to get filled with the Holy Ghost, get
baptized in the Spirit. Well, when that takes place, you
understand. And I have people.
I'm like, you know what? I'm not the only one grace with
this. In fact, Pastor Angie, she has a
very specific anointing to lay hands on people, to receive the
baptism, the Holy Spirit, whateverness to speak in the
tongues. So I called her out first.
And so she came to start laying hands.
But then I realized, man, if I wait on her to get around all
these people, but we're gonna be here all night.
You know, I got plenty that are praying in the spirit.
Not everybody is just getting it because it was in the room.
You can just receive it by faith.
Do you understand that? I mean, the power of God was in
the room. Youth could have just began to
release it. But many of them do, you know,
just based upon their middle capacity.
They just didn't do that. So then I started calling on
more call Pastor Craig. Pastor Denise.
I started calling Pastor Zach. I just started calling multiple
speakers and they just started flooding, laying hands and
people getting filled with the Holy Ghost.
Kids getting filled with the really goes, in fact, Pastor
Denise says, you know, usually when I lay hands on people, she
must be much like Pastor Angie that the minute she lays hands
on, they receive, she's laid hands on one received.
I lay hands on one girl she received and then she said laid
hand on. She wasn't getting it, she
wasn't getting it, she wasn't getting it.
So I just stepped back and I said, are you born again?
And they said no, She said, well, that's why you can't get
it. So let's get you born again.
So they got born. She were let her to be born
again, then laid hands on and immediately she spoke in other
tongues. Hallelujah.
But it's because of a grace.
We all can lay hands on people to be healed.
We can lay hands through the laying on a hands for people to
receive the baptism. Although some can have a little
bit based upon the grace on their life, it becomes a little
bit easier. Things do function with the
fivefold ministry, a little bit different than the Saints.
But we each have a gift and the gift was always designed to be
employed to serve somebody else. Amen.
And I just want us as Anchor Faith Church because man, you
know Pastor Marcy's message on Sunday just continue to light a
fire in me about the maturing of the church.
I know the the number one thing that we have to do is maintain
our culture. And our culture is not our own.
It's the kingdom's culture. So you got to get rid of your
thinking, your way of living, your way of doing.
Your idea of church. Church and how we do it is
supposed to be God's idea, not ours.
We're not going to make God do church our way.
Cause make no mistake about if you read the Book of Revelation,
Jesus Christ himself will show up at the church and let him
know what's good about it and what do they need to fix, what
they need to fix. And he wants us to fix, because
if you don't fix what needs to be fixed, he has a warning.
I'll pull your lamp. I'll pull your lamp.
Now there's two ways to pull a lamp.
One is the pull revelation because at the end of the day
you're not following him anyway and the pastor can stay in the
pulpit and become a fair see then and there becomes no more
revelation in the church and ultimately they're just the
Galatians chapter 3 church, that they're doing it by the flesh
and not by the Spirit. But there's a second way.
You can pull the lamp. They can pull the pastor.
The pastor can be pulled from the congregation and assigned to
another that's hungry cause the flock is the Lord's and the
sheep can't make a demand on the overseer if they're not hungry
and growing. Some ministers have left
congregations not because they couldn't grow the church is
because the church decided they didn't want to grow.
They decided they were familiar with the man or woman of God,
and that the words that they heard, these vocal cords that
they keep hearing week in and week out, all of a sudden they
didn't value it anymore. And so they began to live their
own life. And basically they became the
Gentile rulers that say you serve us, made a demand that we
had to serve because I'm not going to do nothing.
That's your job. You're paid to do that.
You're the pastor. Well, there's many congregations
like that. And I feel for those pastors,
well, you're paid to do that, not me.
Oh, OK. So basically they turn the
church into a corporate model, and it becomes a bunch of
freeloaders. Go ahead and look at your name
and say I'm not a freeloader just because salvation is free
in the in the in the idea that you don't personally pay for it,
you receive it. It still costs Jesus everything,
and that doesn't entitle us to be freeloaders.
What else is mine that God gave me as free?
I'll just take us free because I'm a freeloader.
I just load me and never serve. Amen.
And the reason why some congregations are not more
influential in their communities because God can't raise up the
whole church because he's he's trying to raise up a greatness
church. A church that's has that is the
greatest because of how well they serve.
I love it when different sectors of society start calling anchor
Faith Church because we're developing the reputation of
those who serve. And if we develop a reputation
for those who serve, then really what we are is God saying, I'm
going to let you lead your community.
Amen. I'm going to let you lead your
community. All right, So he said.
But each one of us, grace was given accord to the measure of
Christ's gifts. Therefore it is said when he
ascended all high, he like captive, captive, a host of
captive. He gave gifts to man.
So every one of us have a gift. Everybody in here has a gift to
employ serving your number one thought process.
If you are truly a Matthew 633 person, seek first the Kingdom.
If you're seeking first the Kingdom, then the church has to
be the number. One thing on your mind has to be
because the head of the Kingdom, the King of the domain.
If you're seeking first the Kingdom and his righteousness,
then the king who's Jesus is communicating to us through the
church, and the church is the most important thing to Jesus
because when he returns, he's coming back for the Church and
the latter reign. The former reign was it poured
out for the lost? No, it was poured out to the
Saints. The believers received the
baptism of the Holy Ghost, but because they got the initial
outpouring, it was such a display, so much so they had to
explain what was going on. He never seen anything like this
before that. Then Peter under that anointing
cause, power came upon him which authorized him to now witness.
If you're witnessing without the power of the Holy Spirit, you're
not actually authorized. Don't think just because
someone's changed with the words you say, you're authorized.
Cause the word changes people. Period.
Jesus said this about the Pharisees who were unauthorized.
He said do what they say, just don't do what they do.
Cause they don't even do the words they're talking.
But the words life. Now, are you hearing me?
So there's a lot of people were born again witnessing, but
they're not witnessing as God intended.
And that was under the power of the Holy Ghost.
And when the power of the Holy Ghost comes upon you, you will
speak in an unknown tongue, which is just the language of
the Kingdom. No problem here.
But that power now authorizes you to be able to speak on
behalf of the King. And then miracle signs and
wonders will follow your preaching.
Demonstrations will follow you. Now again, don't confine the
miraculous to one person. And this is where the
shortcoming of the Church has come into play.
In fact, Kennethy Hagan had a prophecy.
He spoke, or he was explaining some things in a particular
meeting. He said that the Lord spoke to
him. He said.
Now the healing revivals were just an eyewitness of what the
church possessed. But the church missed it because
they focused on the men and women God was using to show the
demonstration instead of accepting.
I can do that. And so it was store.
So the so two things shut down the Healing revival.
One was finance because so many people came to get healed and
then offerings and then people showed up just to get the
offerings. That was one.
The second one was that the body missed it.
They put their attention on the people instead of on the power
that they could possess. As a believer, this is what I
loved about Pastorati at camp meeting when he had this
expression that we're going to lay hands okay in this and what
he was doing, he ended up pulling up all kind of people.
Now that doesn't mean one person can cause Pastor Marcy
definitely lay hands on a lot of people.
And again when I say that that was an authentic move because
she had no one that would have known her come to her and you
know was coming to her because of this massive anointing on her
life. Although do we know there's an
anointing on her life? But what Roddy was doing was
because camp meeting has always had that expression of what
Pastor Roddy was doing. It is the run, the shout, the
laughing. And he was trying to deflect it
from him and putting it back on. That really can't because then
he says now pastors, he just did a general call.
If you you know you got what you if you've been touched and you
got now go hit, do somebody. What was he trying to do?
Everybody has this ability to serve themselves.
Goes up and do this thing. OK, so again, the things we
teach are not exclusive. There are many things we can all
function in. But if you want it to function
well in your life, you have to actually keep it connected to
the church and serve it and serve it.
How do we know this? First Corinthians 4/1 says this.
Let a man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and
stewards of the mysteries of God.
Paul's writing this OK. He said he's giving gifts to
men. Now he's begin to talk about his
particular gift. Now he says, look in regards to
us, if you're going to be talking about us, see us as
servants of Christ. Then he jumps down to verse 9.
Now I'm gonna read verse nine. Out of the passion, we'll go to
verse 13. Look how he describes his gift
and his gift. He was called to be an apostle.
He says this. It seems to me that God has
appointed us apostles to be at the end of the line.
We are like those on to display at the end of the procession as
doom gladiators soon to be killed.
We have become theatrical spectacle.
A theatrical, theatrical spectacle to all creation, both
to people and to angels. We are fools for Christ, but you
are wise in Christ. We are the frail.
You are the powerful. You are celebrated.
We are humiliated. If you could see us now, you'd
find that we are hungry and thirsty, poorly clothed,
brutally treated, and with no roof over our heads.
We work hard, tolling with our own hands.
When people abuse and insult us, we respond with a blessing, and
when severely persecuted, we endure it with patience.
When we are slandered incessantly, we always answer
gently, ready to reconcile. Even now, in the world's
opinion, we are nothing but filth and the lowest scum.
Now why do I read this? Because when you really become a
servant for Christ in order to become great, you will feel like
you're the least thing from being great.
When you truly begin to serve, many times you're going to be
overlooked somewhere. It's going to be as if you
disappear. It's almost as if you don't even
exist. You don't even exist.
Which reminds me of a very powerful scripture that John
said I must decrease and he must now.
It takes greatness to get lost. It's difficult.
It's difficult again, Pastor Lynette when she announced.
She says he's not a stranger to this platform.
But the reality is they don't know how many times I've been
insulted. Talked about by serving others
empower them with the word. They begin to prosper because of
the word, begin to do. Then they quit serving and then
we became the ridicule. In fact, he went on to say this
earlier. He said, you know, you guys are
acting like kings, and I wish you were kings because then if
you were true kings, we would be rolling with you.
But the problem is you've taken what we've served you and you're
not serving. And now at the end of the day,
we're at the back of the line. But here's a cool thing.
Jesus said the last will be first.
Hallelujah. I said Hallelujah.
So you got to know that when you're serving and it seems like
nobody's looking, nobody's watching, nobody saw you pick
the trash up when you were coming in.
But you had such a desire for your church, for the facility
that you come to that if you saw that trash, you're like, it's
not acceptable that that the Lord's house would have junk
here. You didn't say, oh, hey, by the
way, you know you're some trash over there.
Y'all ought to pick it up. That's how the Gentiles talk.
No, you'll pick that trash up yourself.
Why? Because we're all in this thing
together. Nobody knows.
You don't think. Nobody knows.
But God knows. God knows.
God knows that you have not arrived at a place that you
can't still serve in any capacity.
And in doing so, God will always continue, exalt your influence
and give you opportunity. Why?
Because he knows you're there, just serving them.
You're not there to get a name for yourself.
You're not there to be popular. You're not there to be.
Next be, to be known as the next great CEO, great whatever.
All you want to do is just serve the Lord and it starts here in
this house. I said it starts here in this
house. So sometimes when we're serving,
I I, I understand that it seems like you could be like, you
know, I'm like the most mistreated thing here.
But how can you be when God sees it?
Just keep serving, Just keep doing.
Just keep serving. Just keep doing.
I remember last year, I believe it was when I was at camp
meeting. There's a particular usher that
when you come out of the green room to come on the platform to
go down the stairs to go out, he stands right here by the door.
He's basically the keeper of the door.
Nobody comes through, right. He's an older gentleman.
He's got to be in the 70s, easy and again serving.
And so I came through, right? I'm a speaker and every time I
come through that door, I'm, I look for him and I shake it,
say, hey, how you doing? Appreciate you serving.
You're doing an awesome job. So great seeing you today.
I mean, I'm every time, every time.
Last year I was coming up. I think it's towards the last
night. I shook his hands.
Say hey, I appreciate for you serving.
He held my hand, he said. Pastor, he said.
I've been at this post for many years.
I've done many camp meetings and I've never had a speaker come
through and talk to me ever. Thank you for noticing me.
He's just doing great work now. To him, it seems like it's not.
It could be and for all those years seemed unnoticed.
But God knew. This is why when you go to pick
up your child today, you should be like thank you so much for
serving. Thank you for serving, thank you
for serving. You know, when you get out of
the car, you know, and the golf cart comes by, you know what?
Thanks for picking. You're you are awesome.
Again, we're not doing that to puff them up, but we are
acknowledging your greatness. Look at your greatness right
now. Look at your greatness right
now. Because here's the thing, if we
really want to mature as a church, then all of us have got
to be putting our hand to something.
Because when people come, I've had pastors come to me and say,
how do you get that many people to show up at these particular
events and serve like that? Well, we just want to be the
greatest, that's all. We just want to be the greatest.
Because the greatest one died for us.
The greatest one served us. The greatest one.
Lay down his life for us. How could we sit in his house
and say, you got to give me something, you give me
something, yo, you give me something and then we don't give
back. How can we do that?
Give me a word. I got a problem.
We're praying, asking God to get us out of stuff, and he serves a
word of deliverance and then we don't serve him.
We say we're serving because we asked him to come in our heart
and save us. So when we die, we go to heaven.
That's not serving. That was you got served by God,
salvation, eternal life. Serving is now you being
activated in the grace that God's given you and serving it
to the body. People say, well, I'm serving
the Lord. You're not serving the Lord if
you're not serving somebody else.
All right, I'm going to show you.
If he's in chapter 4, verse 12. The 16 says it this way.
Passion says it this way. And they're calling is to
nurture. These are the fivefold right for
the Saints is to nurture and prepare all the holy believers
to do their own works of ministry.
As they do this, they will enlarge and build up the body of
Christ, notice their own works of ministry.
But that is not an independent work of the church because you
got to keep it in. Well, I got my own ministry.
You don't have a ministry if it's not connected to the local
body. I'm going to say that again.
You do not have a ministry authorized by Jesus if you are
not connected to the local body, Period.
If there's a traveling minister, I ask, where's your church?
Who's your pastor? If they can't answer that
question, then you're not authorized to come speak in this
pulpit because your socalled revelation is really just
information. And you may preach it well, but
it'll come from a fair, cynical spirit and my my congregation
can grab hold of a word and grow with it, but you'll be deceived
that you were anointed, and I don't want to continue to help
your deception. You got to be connected to a
pastor. In fact, every traveling
minister honestly should take off from the road and sit a
certain amount of times under their pastor because if it like,
well, you know, I got to get out there, You know, this is how we
make our living. What God can't help you provide
for you by you showing that you are really connected to a local
body because you're giving a loan doesn't say you're
connected. We use finance to get out of
other areas of serving. I'm going to say that again.
We use finance to get out of other areas of serving.
Did Jesus provide financially to people?
Yes, he did. But he also provided other
things right? Okay.
Anyway, it says verse 13. These grace ministries will
function until we all attain to oneness in the faith, until we
all experience the fullness of what it means to know the Son of
God and finally become one perfect man with the full
dimensions of spiritual maturity and fully develop into the
abundance of Christ. Verse 14.
Then our immaturity will end. God wants our immaturity to end.
He wants the Church mature, and we will not be easily shaken by
trouble, nor let U.S. trade by novel teachings or by the false
doctrines of deceivers who teach clever lies.
But instead we will remain strong, always sincere in our
love as we express the truth. All our direction and ministries
will flow from Christ and lead us into a deep us, deeper into
Him, the anointed head of His body, the Church.
For His body has been formed in His image and is closely joined
together and constantly connected as one and every
member say. Every member has been given
divine gifts to contribute to the growth of all.
As these gifts operate effectively throughout the whole
body, we are built up and made perfect in love.
Verse 14 tells us that if we do not stay connected, if we do not
connect our Grace Ministries in the body where we're bringing
our supplies, those people who do not serve are always
susceptible to deception. They're always susceptible to
deception. It is you're connecting with the
body that allows you to grow up and will safeguard you from
deception. I guarantee you those that are
the most deceived Saints, wise, the majority of them are not
connected to a local body. If you talk to them, you're like
where you go to church. Most of them are going to not be
committed somewhere. Now I'm not going to say there
are whole ministries that are deceived.
I get it. That can happen.
I get that, OK. But the majority are because
they have in they are independent.
I know. God.
I don't need a pastor. I don't need somebody over me.
Right. OK, Well, you're you're telling
Jesus that, right? Because Jesus said you need to
have one. I said, Jesus said you need to
have one. All right.
So again, why is this important? Why is it there to serve?
Look at this in Matthew, chapter 25, y'all doing all right.
Say I want to be the greatest. Amen.
I mean, I'm teaching you how to be the greatest.
This is like, these are the running, shouting ones.
See, that's what gets me. That's what gets me.
Now again, if I had, you know, hundreds of dollars of bills
right now and I started giving them away, you know, and saying
so, then you know next thing you're going to get a harvest
and you're going to be get be millions.
You know, people get all crazy over this stuff and then we get
in a Holy Ghost meeting like this.
I said we getting a hole that goes meeting like this.
Don't think I don't know. Amen.
I mean, I I've gone to places that I've been tasked to do that
message. I mean, make no mistake about
it. It's it's tempting to want to be
liked, you know, it's tempting, you know, that everybody smiles
while you're preaching and laughing and just like really
and enjoying themselves. But God tells you to preach that
message and the anointings on that message and you got to
preach it and you're like, man, you know, because I remember
when I did Summer Bliss on Friday night, man, I'm like,
well, this ain't no running service right now and we ain't.
This ain't running right here. I Lord, how how's this conclude
this deal? Well, the Lord did it through
his own way, through the baptism and got some things and some
great purity. But it was quiet, wasn't it?
Pastor Marcy, you can hear a pin drop in that room because all of
a sudden we started pulling on responsibility.
And just because you're young doesn't mean you you can't.
You're not supposed to be responsible.
Hallelujah. And at the end of the day, if I
don't serve you, the word I gave away actually did give away $50
bills. Two teenagers who could tell me
things spoken previous in the week.
And my lesson was the word rewards.
Because if all they remember is a song or the pregame thing they
did, then what good is it, right?
But then I had $100 bill I wanted to give away.
And I said this goes to one who actually has scripture, not just
some nugget that they heard from somebody.
And I said, and I'm preaching this one.
Well, one was like, I heard you Wednesday, Wednesday.
Oh, you were in there. You actually came over to the
adults during the 2:30 because they didn't do a 230 youth.
So this one teenager started reading notes and they were
accurate what I was saying, I said give me the scriptures did
too. I said that's all you got 2
scriptures. I said girl I had at least 18.
I said I'm not giving us $100 away for two scriptures right
here. I said I need somebody that's
got some scriptures so I went over to other kid because one
team was like point and I said I said what do you got?
I don't have any scripture also let's forget it bro you got it.
I need some scripture. A girl said I got some so she
started giving points and then she started reading scriptures
and buddy she had. Just by every scripture I had I
said the knowing the word rewards.
Knowing the word rewards. Because at the end of the day if
I don't give you the word because they were set up by
chase at the beginning of the week.
If all you have is an experience with God, then when the
experience is gone, your relationship with God is gone
too. And there's many churches they
come and have a experience. Well, who's defining what the
experience is? He says no.
You need to get in the moment and learn from it so that you'll
maintain what the relationship was supposed to teach you.
So when you go, it's always with you.
Hallelujah. Amen.
Matthew 2534 says this. And the king will say, say the
king to those on his right. Come, you are blessed to my
father. Inherit the Kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world.
Now before I read the next scripture, why do you think the
majority of people will think the reason why that is available
to them is because they asked Jesus to come into their heart
and save them? What gives the right for the
king to tell someone Come. You are blessed to my father.
Inherit the king to prepare for you from the foundation of the
world before you ever born. It's been prepared for you.
You get to come. You get to come.
Well, it's cause you're born again.
Well, is that what Jesus says? Is that what Jesus says?
Now I'm not talking works, but I am talking responsibility.
I'm talking responsibility because God does not give you a
gift to bury. So he goes on and says, come
inherit the Kingdom, prepare for you from the foundation world
four. Why are you going to get this
inheritance for? I was hungry and you gave.
Say gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave,
say, gave need something to drink.
I was a stranger, and you invited me in.
Say, invite me in naked, and you clothed me.
I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to
me. Then the righteous will answer
and say, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or
thirsty and give you something to drink?
And when did we see you a stranger invite you in, or naked
and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in
prison? And come to you?
The king will answer and say to them truly, I say to you, to the
extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the
least of them, you did it to me. So the king is saying, you
served because you know what? It's not convenient to go to
prison. You got to take Tom.
It's not convenient to feed the hungry.
It's not convenient. You have to be intentional in
your serving. You had to be intentional.
You have to know I'm looking for opportunities and notice, he
says. You did this to my brothers.
This isn't even the lost, OK? This isn't even the lost.
This list is not to the world. Serving the world your gift.
This is serving your gift to the church that you were so
conscious about the church you don't want to hurt.
Somebody at the church needed something.
I'm here to help. Somebody needs some food, man.
What can we do? Somebody need some drink?
I'm do that. You know, someone has surgery.
I'm going to go over there and give them some food.
Somebody's sick, You know, we're praying for them.
You know, we're going to go over and visit them.
All of these are serving capacities on top of the
assignment of just serving the church as a whole.
And these are things God's looking for with his kids
because he wants them to become great.
He wants them to be the greatest.
He wants us to be the greatest influencers in the world, the
greatest influencers in the world.
But the only way we can be that is through serving, serving, let
me just say this, anchor Faith Church will get to a place that
we have 100% participation, 100%.
No retirees, no retirees. In fact, if you've retired from
your job, you have more opportunity to come serve.
What you doing with your time anyway?
Sitting around watching Bonanza now, people who retired know
what that's That is to me, young people.
I have no idea what that is. I mean, what are you doing now?
You understand what a nonserver will say?
Well, they're just exploiting me.
How can God exploit you? He gave you His life.
He's giving you eternal life. He's giving you all blessings.
He's healed your body and you can't come serve his church.
They just want all my time. Jesus does.
He wants it all, he said. Look, you going to love me with
all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your
strength. And if you retired, you got you
should be coming up here. What can I do, Pastor?
What can I do? Is there anything we can do?
Look, I can tell you right now. We can let let you serve
somewhere. There's no doubt about that.
Why? Because this is the greatest
thing on the planet. It is the Church of the living
God. It is the greatest thing ever
because the church is serving the world, the light.
And when we unify and we get around this message and we get
around this vision and we get around our call in this local
body and we are obsessed with this call, then everybody else
will be. They'll think we're fanaticals.
I get it. They'll think we're kind of
crazy. They'll think that we are
lording it over you. But you're like, you ain't
telling me what to do. I've come to serve.
I mean, do you know, Gee, how could you not serve your church?
I mean, that should be your attitude towards others that are
going somewhere else. How could you not?
How could you cheapen the price paid so that you can be in
relationship with God? How could there not be another
opportunity? And again, we do have a serving
church. Don't get me wrong, I am not
saying that we don't. I'm just here to remind you This
is why we will be the greatest and I'm not competing.
All other congregations can be the greatest too.
They just can't be better. Because we're the greatest,
We're the greatest. We are the greatest because we
serve, we serve, we serve. That's what we do.
The Cold War, following the head of the church's example, I
didn't come to be served, but to serve.
So some of you, you need to come out of retirement.
You need to get out of retirement.
Some of y'all been so trained. I mean, you've gone through
School of Life, Kingdom Institute, you've gone through
different discipleship things we've done.
You should be somewhere putting your hand to something,
somewhere you should be doing it and doing it with.
Not because I'm asking you, but because the head of the church
says I want you to be great and the way to do that is to serve
others. And we serve each other first.
Some of you are giving all your time to the lost.
In fact the even Jesus said don't give the don't don't give
the pearls before the swamp. Some of you are putting all your
effort towards people outside and they're getting you're
getting no movement. I'm not saying we are supposed
to be an example, but not at the expense that we can't have time
for the church. I'm too busy to serve the
church, yet Jesus is looking to determine if you're great is how
much are you serving in the local body He's assigned you,
and that's not works. It's a heart in love with the
place God has assigned you. And nobody can steal that
reward. Nobody.
In fact. I won't say who it is, but a
particular person joined this church because not too long ago
they were picking up their child from the preschool and they saw
myself and my wife on a ladder painting, painting, and they
went home and told their spouse I saw the pastor's painting.
I've never been to a church where the pastors painted, ever.
They'll even serve in that capacity.
And they said we're joining this church, we're joining this
church.
At the end of the day, there's no project too small for me.
There's nothing in this house that I won't do because at the
end of the day, if nobody's going to do it, I'm going to
serve my king. But they was never designed so
that the pastor did it all. It was designed so that all of
us did it together. And then when he is looking from
heaven and he's like Holy Spirit, it's time for the latter
rain, it's time for the maturing of the crop, It's time for that
last outpouring. Let's let's fly over, let's go
over the nation, the USA and let's look and see which
churches. Are moving in unity and oneness.
Let's see, the ones that are are are showing leadership.
Which ones are rising to the top because they're serving one
another? Let's see.
And man, can it be that when he comes across and say let's start
in Saint Augustine since it's the oldest city anyway?
Let's start in Saint Augustine, since it's the oldest city
anyway, because I'm reminded of a letter that was written by the
clergy back to the king and asked him not to shut the thing
down because they had mission work going on and for that
reason it stayed alive. Is there still the work of God
happening in Saint Augustine? Oh look, I have found a church.
I have found a church. I have found one.
It happens to me at 2121. You asked 1 S It happens to be
anchored in some faith. It happens to be serving at a
capacity that exceeds my expectations.
And I'm going to pour out my spirit on them.
And it's going to come exceedingly abundantly knowing
what they can think or imagine. Because we're candidates,
because we have the heart of the Father and we're serving by the
spirit. And I can never burn out.
I can't burn out. I can't burn out because the oil
in me is all the gladness is an oil that allows me to flow and
move and run and have great capacity.
Hallelujah, Father. We thank you for your word
today. We thank us alive and active,
sharper than any twist sword. I thank you for the culture of
your Kingdom here at Anchor Faith Church.
Father, I thank you for this culture.
I thank you for those you're assigning to us.
As you spoke to me not too long ago, you said I want you to call
this. Many people gave me a number for
the first time. Never had that before, but I
call it. But I knew that if that number
is to come in, there's only one way that number could be here.
And so that's why I declare that number.
You ask and I say they're submitted and committed to the
vision because you can get a crowd and they have no
commitment or submission to the vision.
We want those that are submitted and committed to the vision you
had for this church before the foundations of the world,
because you saw them jointed and fitted continually together,
bringing their supply of love for one another, allowing their
grace gifts to intertwine. Where one had a lack of ability,
the other one held up those arms and says, but I have that
ability, I've been graced with that.
And fathers, we all begin to interconnect and be jointed
together that we will continue to mature as a church.
And in doing so, it gives the ability for the brand new
believer, the one that just comes in to mature quicker than
they would if they'd have been planted somewhere else.
Because, Lord, I do believe in the prophecy you gave, that it
is seem in these last days when that manifestation or spirit,
it'd be as if they grew up overnight that they'll pass
those tests, the revelation of your word, they'll be that 11th
hour believer that gets the same anointing in less time.
And so, Father, we thank you that this church is maturing,
it's growing and it is the greatest church in Saint
Augustine because this does most serving church.
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