Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast
from St. Augustine, FL.
Now enjoy this message. He's called every single one of
us to unify. To get together and to do what
God's called us to do. And we're going to talk about
that this morning, what it looks like, what the church is
supposed to look like and what we're supposed to do when we
come in this place. I love the word that Brianna
gave, and we're going to talk a little bit about that here in
just a minute. I have about 50 pages of Notes
Font 18, but this is like a Font 18 message OK.
This is like a font 20 message. Because I need you to get this.
I need you to get stirred up. I need you to ignite yourself,
get ignited by the Holy Ghost that we're called to this city.
And when the when the scripture tells us to go into the world,
it's not telling you that you have to go to India and it's not
telling you that you have to go to Albania and it's not telling
you that you have to go to Tanzania.
It's not telling you that you have to go to all these places.
It's saying you're called right here to this city.
And not all of us are going to go, and some of us are going to
go at sometimes, but most of us are going to stay right here and
do what God's called us to do here.
And if we're called to ignite this city, we have to know what
that looks. Like.
So let's dig into the scriptures.
This morning I'm here to kind of rally you and Brianna came up
with a little coach anointing, and I'm going to come up with a
another little coach anointing, OK?
Just to get us together. If we have to all huddle up and
say 123 at the end, then we will.
OK, whatever I got to do, If I got to run up and down the
aisles and slap you on the behind to get you motivated,
then we'll do it. OK, All right.
Now let me get spiritual, all right?
Now listen, this is the word that pastor, our, our shepherd,
our lead, Shepherd said we needed to have today, OK, to go
into all the world, what that means and what community
mobilization looks. Like.
So I want you right now, first thing, to just throw off the
cares that you brought in here. Because sometimes we get so
focused and we're going to talk about that And what the
Scripture says in the last days can happen to you, can happen to
me. Sometimes we get so focused on
our own lives, our own situations, our own issues that
we come in here and when somebody says go into the world
or. I have to do more.
I have to get more involved. We kind of lock up and we stop
and we go. I can't do anymore.
I got so much on my on my calendar.
I got so much on my schedule. God wants you to ignite and make
influence right where you are. And that's where you have to
start. In your workplace, in the
community. That's where we start.
So right now, I want you just to open up your heart and just cast
every care. Just throw it off.
Just get rid of it and open your heart to receive the word of
God. Amen.
All right, let's go to Mark, chapter 16.
I'm going to say a few things. While you're moving there, I
want you to get out of your comfort zone.
I want you to understand that your capacity, our capacity as a
church is increasing. There is there are so many open
doors, so many things that are happening and coming to us right
and left. Honestly things that God is
opening. The scripture says when God
opens the door, let no man shut it.
But The thing is, is we can't do all of these open doors, but we
can do all of these open doors and and God is opening these
things for us to walk into it because we have a body that is
ignited, that is one that knows the message, knows the Kingdom
of God, and we need to be able to go out and communicate it and
get people set free. To mobilize means the action of
a country. Or it's government preparing and
organizing the troops for active service.
You know the scripture says that you are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus for good works that he prepared already.
That you would do it. There's such a peace and such a
a rest in that faith of knowing that God's got a call on your
life and what he's called you to do.
You just have to take the steps. The Bible says the steps of a
righteous man and woman are ordered of God.
And so it's not just about me getting up every day and trying
to figure out what I'm going to do, trying to figure out what
God's called me to do. The scripture says that you know
his voice. You do know him and you hear
him, and the Bible says, another voice, you will not follow.
And so you're not going to follow another voice unless you
choose to follow another voice. So we need to put ourselves in a
position to say, God, what is it that you're asking me to do?
What is the the step of faith? If you're comfortable, then I'm
just going to. I just kind of want to make you
uncomfortable. A little bit.
If you're comfortable in your everyday life, your job, I just
want you to think about what kind of step do I need to take?
What kind of step of faith do I need to step out and do?
If we're going to take Dominion here on the earth, we got to get
out and do it. We got to go, and there's a
purpose for us coming here. I don't want to get ahead of
myself, but my prayer and my passion this morning is that we
would be ignited. To impact our community in our
city and it's not just me being a community pastor.
I can't do it all and I need you.
We need you to to come in and say we're going to feed the
homeless, we're going to do the families count class, We're
going to step into all these doors that God's opening.
We want to be the hands and feet.
We want to be the ones that are doing it, Ephesians Chapter 4
says. And he himself gave some to be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors
and teachers for the equipping of the Saints and the work of
the ministry. So we're here to mobilize.
We're here to equip. We're here to equip you to go
out and do the work of the Ministry.
That's what our job is to do, not for us to always be the ones
going out there and doing it. That's your job.
And so I'm here this morning. To do that is to mobilize you.
Mark Chapter 16. Let's bring some clarity to what
Jesus said after he rose from the grave.
It says later he appeared to the 11 as they sat at the table.
And he rebuked their unbelief and their hardness of heart
because they did not believe those who had seen him after he
had risen. And he said to them, go into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Right there is where we start to go.
OK, awesome. I'll finance, we'll send pastor,
we'll, we'll send those construction workers.
They can go do it. We'll send whoever is is called
to do do it. And that's not what the
Scripture is talking about. So it says.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature,
and he who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he
who does not believe will be condemned.
And these signs will follow those who believe in my name.
They will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues,
they will take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing,
it will by no means hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick
and they will recover. The signs come after the going.
The signs are not for right here, and it does not mean that
those signs cannot happen in this church on a Sunday morning
or a Wednesday. But you understand that you got
filled with the Holy Ghost when you got born again.
He came to live on the inside of you.
But when you got filled with the Spirit, the baptism of the Holy
Ghost, with the evidence of speaking in tongues, that is for
service. That is for you to be able to go
and for these signs to follow you.
Not so that we can come up in here and do do all the gifts of
the Spirit, but it's so that when you're in your workplace,
you can get a word of wisdom for someone.
You can get a word of knowledge for someone.
You can say you're not feeling good.
Do you mind? Can I just lay hands on you and
and pray for you? And when and we're going to,
we're going to squash any goofy fruit, loopy people going out
and being all super spiritual. You have to be led by the Holy
Ghost. That's why he's in you.
That's why he's there to say he's the Lord of the harvest.
And sometimes we want to be the Lord of the harvest.
And we want to to push and we want to preach and we want to to
push people into the Kingdom of God.
And he says, no, I'm the Lord of the harvest, and I'll lead you
in these things. And if we'll just walk into
these places, in our workplaces, wherever we are, and just be
listening and yielding to the Holy Ghost on the inside instead
of just where's the butter, where's the stuff I got to get
in the grocery store? Where's what I need for my daily
task? Not just thinking about.
You but going out every day and saying I'm going to put first
the Kingdom of God and I'm going to be sensitive to the Holy
Ghost and I'm going to ask him, is there something you want me
to say? Is there something you want me
to do? The signs are going to follow
you when you go. We have to go.
So let's look at what this word world means.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
We typically think it's going, but this world is cosmos, and
that word cosmos means anything that is ordered, any system
found in any part of society. In other words, it means every
sector of society it is not talking about.
You having to leave the country necessarily, and that is part of
our vision. But when it says right here, go
into all the world and preach and these signs are going to
follow you, it means go into your sectors of society, go to
your workplace place, go to your government, go to your places
and expect God to be there and expect God to move.
I'm going to give you the different sectors of society.
ABCDEF&G KA is the arts. These are the different sectors
of society that's performing. Arts, filmmaking, photography,
architecture, the list goes on. The Arts B is business.
Business. OK, Some of us own businesses.
Many of us. Work in businesses.
C is congregations, that is organizations, assemblies,
boards, go. Ahead and jump.
On your little HOA board? Those are fun.
Go ahead and get on that HOA board and be a light in that
place. D is direct media, broadcasting,
Internet, radio, anything that has to do with media.
E is education, education. There's lots of places we can
jump in for education. Get on your school board.
Jump in these schools. I'm going to talk about it.
There's a shortage of a whole lot going on because people are
so broken and we can step in and fill the gap and we need to be
doing that. Families, FS Families, our
church has many open doors for this opportunity.
There is a a thing even on our our Saint Johns County website,
our government website called the Fatherhood Initiative.
And I'm going to look into that more.
But we have a whole lot of men in this church that are taking
mighty men and this fatherhood initiative.
There's there's these things that our county does that our
state will fund us for if we'll start helping these vulnerable
people and these vulnerable families.
And we need to start tapping into that.
You know the Bible says the wealth of the wicked is laid up
for the just. And so we need to start.
Do we not have some men in this place that could father a son,
could that could father these broken kids?
There's so many homeless and broken and foster kids in our
county. What are we doing?
Are we just going to work every day and just making paint?
Victor, are we thinking about what else we can do?
I just happened to look at Victor.
I love you. What?
What else can we do? What can we?
Who can we speak to? How can we say, Lord, I'm
willing. I want to speak a word of life
to somebody. I want to be available to heal
the broken hearted. Use me.
The last one is Government G Our political systems, our county
meetings. Anything that's happening with
our government, these are sectors of society that we are
all involved in. That's what it means when it
says go to the world, go to your cosmos, go to your sector of
society. 2nd Corinthians chapter 4/4.
It uses the same word cosmos for world.
There when it says Satan is the God of this world, Do you not
know? Do we understand that there are
demonic forces in every sector of society?
There is so much happening, so much influence, whether it's
money, greed, whatever is going on though, Satan is not
hesitating one bit to send his hordes of hell into every sector
of society. And we're just going to come up
in here and look cute and and hodgepodge with each other and
and go out and go home and make sure our bills are paid, make
sure what we're doing is done and not even think about or have
God's heart. To go out and say, Oh my gosh,
these people are so broken, they need help.
How can I help them? How can I go into their sector
of society and be a light when we go into our sectors of
society and we're still broken and we're still heavy and we're
still dealing with our own things?
The Holy Ghost will still use you.
It doesn't mean you're not going to walk through stuff in life,
But you need to be able to put yourself in a position to say,
Lord, I'm ready to deal with anything on the inside of me.
Use me, Lord. I thank you, Lord, that I'm
healed, that I'm whole, that I'm ready to be used so that I can
hear and be sensitive to what God wants to do in my place of
business or wherever I'm at. So this is where he the the
demonic influences invade and the church as a whole.
We've failed because we just want to make sure that our needs
are met. And how are we supposed to go
out when the scripture says take dominion and and take territory
and take authority? If we're not doing it in our own
lives, how are we going to do it out there?
So we got to start making making sure we can get our, I'm telling
you, Pastor Mike and I, sometimes when we deal with
married couples, we talk about there's a pastor that we had
heard years ago when married couples would would come and
they would be having issues, he would send them away together.
Just to spend. Time together.
To pray, to start doing things for each other.
You know when you get your focus off of you.
And start giving to someone else.
You know that the the Bible is is actually true when it says
it's more blessed to give than it is to receive.
That if you'll just go, you know what?
I do have this need. I do have this thing going on,
but but I'm going to yield and give this to some just going to
start baking cookies for my neighbor or I'm just going to
start going into the school and volunteering and mentoring.
I'm just going to start getting my focus off what's happening
with me all the time. And I'm going to go into every
sector that's around me and influence.
I'm telling you, people in our community are coming to this
church and they're saying we want you, we want you to take
over. We want you to help.
We want you to coach. We want to give you this
business. We want to give you this.
We want you to come be on this board.
They're asking us. They're coming to us.
This church truly is a city on a hill.
It really is that and you're part of a of a rally cry and A
and a church that does it. We're doers of the word and you
ought to get yourself like whatever, whatever you got to do
to stir yourself up. Sometimes you got to move.
Sometimes you just got to get get up and get out and do
something. Quit thinking about you in the
last days. That is going to be the biggest
thing that you're going to have to guard against.
Because the scripture says in the last days that believers,
you, me, are going to be lovers of themselves, lovers of their
own lives. Well, I don't want to serve
because I have something going on, and that's just the church.
That's just in the church. This work of ministry that
you're called to is not we're not talking about the the, the
nursery, we're talking about life if we can't even.
I mean, we got to get in unity. You got to understand what what
unity does for a body of believers.
You know, when you see anything. My husband and I are very
similar in this. We're not when we watch a sports
movie. Or something where people get
unified. I'm not talking about even they
had to win a game. I'm just talking about the
moment in the movie where they get in Unity.
I mean, I'll cry and he cries. We'll sit there and cry at the
weirdest places because there's unity there.
When you see, when you see two people dancing and there's like
perfect unity, it's like, oh, I want to watch that again.
I want to watch that like 10 times When you see something
happening, you know, people are in agreement.
They're they're on the same page of sports team.
Whatever it is, there's something about it.
And the Scripture talks about it.
And so can we can we as a body, open our hearts to say, let's
get unified, let's do this thing, let's get out and ignite
our city. Let's let's do what we're
supposed to do. He not only here in the church,
but let's go out there and let's actually do this.
And let's 'cause people to come here when you come here.
This is just our this is just our mobilized time.
This is just our time to come together and say, here's your
marching orders, here's what, here's what we need you to do.
Make sure you're staying built up.
Let's get in unity and we're going to look at in scripture.
If I can ever get back to my notes, we're going to look at
what what that looks like when a church comes together and is
unified and even when evil people do it, what that looks
like. So let's first look at a woman.
A wise woman. Who saved her whole city?
I need you to get passionate about this city.
Second Samuel, Chapter 20, it says.
And there happened to be there. A rebel whose name was Sheba,
the son of Bickery the Benjamite.
And he blew a trumpet and said, we have no share in David.
So this rebel Sheba is saying we have no share in David, nor do
we have inheritance in the son of Jesse, every man to his tent,
so Israel. So every man of Israel deserted
David and follow this rebel Sheba the son of Bickery.
But the men of Judah from the Jordan, as far as Jerusalem,
remained loyal to their king. Verse six says David said.
Now Sheba the son of Bickery, will do more harm to us than
Absalom. Take your Lord's servants and
pursue him, lest he find for himself fortified cities, and
escape us So Joab's men with the those people and all the mighty
men went out after him. Verse 15.
Then they came and besieged him and Abel, and they cast up a
siege mount against the city, and it stood by the Rampart, and
all the people who are with Joab battered the wall to throw it
down. So.
So this rebel went into this city and Joab and all his men
are going to the city and they've got these battering Rams
and they're like, we're taking over this.
City. We're going to conquer this city
because we're going to get this rebel who's against David and
we're going to take him out. So look what happens.
Verse 16. Then a wise woman cried out from
her city. The city, I put her city.
Here, here please say to Joab come nearby that I may speak
with you. And when he had come near to
her, the woman said, Are you Joab?
And he answered, I am. And then she said to him, Hear
the words of your maidservant. So this woman was like a.
Watchman on the wall of this city.
And she said, hold on, what's happening?
Why are you hitting? Why are you coming against our
city with these battering Rams? What's going on?
Hear the Joab, hear me, hear the words of your maidservant.
And he answered, OK, I'm listening.
So she spoke, saying they used to talk in former times, saying
they shall surely seek guidance at Abel.
And so they would in disputes I am coming the peaceable and
faithful in Israel. I am among the peaceable and the
faithful in Israel. You seek to destroy a city and a
mother. In Israel there's something
about a Mama, you seek to destroy this city and a mother
in Israel, why would you swallow up the inheritance of the Lord?
And Joab answered and said, far be it from me that I should
swallow up or destroy. That is not so.
But a man from the mountains of Ephraim Sheba, the son of Bakery
by name, has raised his hand against the king, against David.
Deliver him only, and I'll depart from the city.
So the woman said to Joab, OK, she was like, time out, watch,
watch what I'm about to do watch.
His head will be thrown to you over the wall.
She is not playing. Then the woman in her wisdom
went to all the people. She went to all the people in
her city. And she said, we have sin in the
camp. We have a rebel in our city.
There's something happening here.
We're about to cut his head off and we're going to chunk it over
the wall. You got me one 2-3 go.
And they went and that's what they did.
And and then he blew, and they then the woman in her wisdom
went to all the people, and they cut off the head of Sheba, the
son of Bickery, and threw it out to Joab.
And then he blew the trumpet, and they withdrew from the city,
every man to his tent. And Joab returned to the king at
Jerusalem. The people rallied behind this
wise woman, who's not even named, rallied behind her.
And this woman saved her city, her family, herself, because she
said no, no, we're not going to do this.
We've got to, we've got to be like this woman and say, wait,
there's sin in our city. Wait, wait, wait, there's
poverty in our city. Wait, wait, time out.
There's corruption happening here.
No, no. We're going to rally our people
together and we're going to go take care of this.
We're going to go into these places that have poverty and
we're going to, we're going to believe God for wise ideas to
bring them out of poverty. Because it's not like you can go
in and and build them new houses, because they'll just
become the same if their hearts and their.
Minds are not changed. How do we go in there?
How do we bridge the gap? How do we bring all these
cultures and all these people together and ignite the city?
How do we do that? How do we become like this city,
this woman in this city, and say, no, we're not going to
allow this? Do you have that passion for
your city, or do you just have that passion for your house, for
your life? Is this the city?
How many, How many Vision Partners do we have in here?
That's a whole lot of you. So when you went through Vision
Partnership class, you learned there, maybe for the first time,
that the vision of this house is to ignite the city, impact the
nation and influence the world. And so you sat there and you
said, I want to be a part of that vision.
Me, me, call me, I want to be part of this vision.
But here we are igniting the city and we need you to get
involved. We need you.
When we say we're doing Osceola make a difference day, you know
we had eighteen women sign up for that and two men originally.
That's great, but but we had to say come on man, let's let's
tell it was a lot of yard work and a lot of which we did that
yesterday. And I'm going to tell you that
that school and that that man that runs the, the stuff of the
school was so blessed by us. And he said, I did not know you
were going to bring so many people.
And I said, well Joey, we've done this every year.
We always, excuse me, we always bring a bunch of people and we
always show up to help do this. We repainted for them.
We we did all kinds of trimming of trees and bushes and wedding
and and and digging, digging holes.
We didn't have enough. Shovels.
He's like, I'm going to have to go to Home Depot and get shovels
for you. We did all kinds of work for
them and they and they even the principal came out and he said,
well, we were. Out there on the courtyard
dancing a little bit and he called my phone and said is that
you out there dancing and and I said yes it is.
And so he came out there and he's like, this is amazing what
y'all, what y'all do, what you always do.
I talk about you all the time. I talk about your partnership
with our school all the time. And when I go up in our
faith-based board meetings once a month, you know that they use
Anchor Faith Church as the model church for partnerships with
schools. Our Superintendent, the people
there say if you want to know how to do a partnership, you go
see Anchor Faith because they know how to serve people.
We're not just up in there saying let's get this done.
What do we have to do? I'm like, send me the list.
We got a bunch of people. We're going to knock it out for
you. But we need everybody to hear
the rally cry. And that doesn't mean you have
to get involved in everything. But what is God saying for you
to do? What is he telling you to jump
in and be a part of? You need to quickly obey that
and jump in. It'll bless you.
I'm telling you, it'll bless you.
So the Kingdom of of heaven, the Bible says suffers violence, but
the violent take it by force. So we got to come in here like
this woman and say, no, no, I'm we're not going to go cut
people's heads off. That's not what I'm saying.
We're not going to go, you know, jumping on people and acting
awkward. But but what I am saying is that
we're going to take it by force, through prayer, through getting
involved, through being led by the Spirit, through loving on
people. That's how we're going to take
it by force. Not trying to give you a Wonder
Woman story, not trying to just talk about a woman.
But if I can just say, if you still have an issue with that,
then you probably ought to just sit up in here and not go out in
the community just yet. All right, How are we going to
ignite the city? How are we going to do this?
The the word ignite means to catch fire or to cause to catch
fire, to catch fire or to cause to catch fire.
Even in Acts Chapter 17, the the people that were coming against
the gospel said these people who have turned the world upside
down, they're coming to our city.
We want people to say, is that anchor Faith Church?
The ones who are turning this city upside down, the ones who
have bought the mall, the ones who are transforming things.
Everywhere I go, I show up at West Augustine.
There they are. I show up at Osceola.
There they are. I show up at a Flagler game.
Where Who are these people? Why are they everywhere that I
go? That ought to be us.
We need to be. Let me put a Flagler plug in
right here. We went to the women's game last
night. There's probably about 20 anchor
Faith people. But.
But when we do those cheers, I need about at least 50 of you.
OK, so I need y'all. Whether you like basketball or
not is irrelevant. Macy literally sits there and
asks what every single call is like.
What is that? What is that?
And we're having to educate. Her while we're cheering.
But but it doesn't matter if you love basketball or not.
Just come because our influence is happening.
It's for the girls we have. We is destiny here today we have
one of the girls that attends here faithfully that plays on
the Flagler team and I'm telling you they are coming to us.
We're feeding them. We just we just said what can we
do? How can we serve.
We started just feeding them. We started just, and we still do
that. We just take them, food,
minister to them, open our homes to them.
And now we have even more of an open door.
And we need to be the one stepping into that.
And it starts by going and supporting.
You know, we want to be cheered for.
We want our own lives to be cheered for.
But I need you to forget about yourself for a minute.
I need you to go out and cheer these young gals on, OK?
These women who are given their all on the court, I need you to
show up and be part of it. We have fun when we're at the
Flagler. Games come and just be a part of
it, Acts 432 Acts 432 says Now the multitude of those who
believed were of one heart and one soul.
What does it look like? What should we look like?
Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was
his own, But they had all things in common.
And with great power the apostles gave witness to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them
all. Nor was there anyone among them
who lacked, for all who were possessors, or of lands and
houses, sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that
were sold, and laid them at the apostles feet, and they
distributed to each one as they had need.
I I put that scripture in there and I have a few more on unity
because we need to understand what a big deal unity is.
What a big deal. If we're going to actually go
out, if we're going to take on this mobilization of of our
community, this rally cry for us to go out and start being a
light to people, we have to 1st understand what it means for us
to be in unity to unify Genesis Chapter 11.
Here is a negative example. But such a great picture of what
God says would happen when people get in unity.
It says now the whole earth had one language in one speech, and
it came to pass as they journeyed from the east, that
they found a plane in the land of Shinar and they dwelt there.
They then they said to one another, come and let us make
bricks and bake them thoroughly, And they had brick for stone,
and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, come, let us
build ourselves a city and a tower.
Whose top is the heavens? And let us listen to what they
said here. Let us make a name for
ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the
whole. Earth, but the Lord.
Came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men
have built, and the Lord said, indeed the people are one, and
they have one language, and this is what they begin to do now.
Nothing that they propose proposed to do will be withheld
from them come. Let us go down there and confuse
their language, that they may not understand one another's
speech. So the Lord scattered them
abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they
ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called
Babel because they're the Lord confused the language of all the
earth. So we see the power even in
their their issue was they wanted a name for themselves.
And you know, that's a big issue even in the church is that we
want a name for ourselves. We want to do something and we
want to be seen or we want the pastor to see us or we want
people in our city to see us. And that that is the issue here
is they wanted a name for themselves.
But God said they're of one language, they're of one heart,
they're of one mind. Nothing will be impossible for
them. So he had to go down and confuse
everything that they were doing. What would happen for us if we
don't have our eyes on us? If we don't have our our focus
on? I just want to be seen.
I just want to have the limelight.
I just want to preach. I just want everybody to see how
great I am with the kids or what I'm doing in the community or
whatever. If we get our focus off of that
and we really get unified, it is really true that God will meet
every one of your needs in overabundance because you've
forgotten about your own self and you've chosen to seek first
the Kingdom of God. That's when all your needs will
be met. But it's when we're trying to
put all of our stuff together and make sure all of our needs
are met and everything's working out for us that we always lack.
We always fall up, fall short in in whether it's finances or our
emotions or our health or whatever it is.
But God says just surrender. Just give your life.
Just just seek first the Kingdom of God, and I will give you all
of that. I will bless you with all of
that. So nothing that they had
imagined or purpose to do would be held from them.
And I want to read verse 6 and the amplified it says And the
Lord said, Behold, they are one unified.
People, and they all have the same language, and this is only
the beginning of what they will do in rebellion against me.
And now no evil thing they imagine they can do will be
impossible for them. So he's saying they were one.
They were a unified people. They can do anything they
purpose to do anything they purpose to do.
Psalm 133, Psalms 133 says, Behold how good and how pleasant
it is. For brethren to dwell together
in unity, it's like the precious oil upon the head running down
on the beard, the beard of Aaron running down on the edge of his
garments. It's like the dew of Herman
descending upon the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord commanded the blessing life forevermore.
God's looking for unity. He's looking for unity with him,
with what the word of God says. He's looking for unity in your
families. If we could get our husbands and
wives unified, if we could get our parenting lined up with what
God says. If we can get unified here in
the church, what kind of territory, what kind of things
you think we're going to take over in this city?
He's called us and he's looking for you to get unified.
What? What would happen?
Like Brianna said when she when she had a word of exhortation
that she gave us, she said it's not just so that when we come up
in here, we can do this, but what are you saying at your
house? What are you saying when you get
up every day? If if me at my house and Donna
at her house and Marissa at her house, we wake up, all of us in
the morning, we say, this is the day that the Lord has made, I
will rejoice and be glad in it. And I'm not saying we have to
say that exact same scripture, but we jump out of bed and we
get in alignment with what God says if we all get unified with
him, get unified with each other.
Sometimes we're dealing so much with our little offenses right
here. The little, the little foxes
that spoil the vine so and so didn't say hi to me so and so
didn't talk to me like I thought they should.
I didn't like the way Brianna got up here and talked to.
Us like we were a team. I didn't like that.
I mean, we have all these little things that we nitpick and we
come at each other and we have offences towards each other.
You need to let those things go. You need to realize that this is
not about you. I don't know if you knew that or
not. This is not about you.
It's not about me. It's about the Kingdom of God
advancing on the earth. Why In Malachi, the scripture
says why did God make the family and why did he make them one?
Why? For godly offspring, it says he
asks the question and then it tells you the answer.
For godly offspring, why? So that the Kingdom of heaven
would just keep advancing on the earth, just keep moving on the
earth, and we're making influence.
But if we're out of control and our kids are out of control and
our life is a mess and we've got chaos all around us, how are we
going to go out when they're when they're going to look at us
and say, well, you're not any different.
You're just as stressed as I am. You're just as worried as I am.
You're in just as much bondage as I am.
We got to make sure that we're dealing with our own selves and
getting unified, get unified with God.
What God says about you. He said that you're free.
Indeed, he says that you don't
have to live in bondage anymore. You don't have to live that way
anymore. So what you choose every day is
up to you. So when you get up every day.
This is on page 50. I'll get back to this in a
minute. When you get up every day the
Bible says today I've set before you life and death.
Choose life, Choose life. So it so he gives you the
multiple choice and gives you the answer.
When you wake up in the morning, You going to choose life?
Are you going to choose death? Oh, I have so much to do.
Oh, I don't feel good. Whatever it is.
Are you going to get up and go? God, I thank you.
Lord, this is the day that you made.
What is it that you've called me to do?
What is it that you want me to say today?
When I'm in a workplace? What it where?
Where is it I'm supposed to go? Am I supposed to go this way
now? I'm not talking about being
goofy and saying what? Shirt.
Am I supposed to wear today? Just put your clothes on.
Just put your clothes on and get out there.
Do something. Don't be kooky weird
spiritually. Just get your Put your big girl
pants on and your big boy pants on and get out there and do it.
Quit leaving the house naked. The scripture says to put on
your clothes. Put on every day.
Not your natural clothes, but your spiritual clothes.
Put them on. Put on your armor.
Every day I've got my helmet of salvation on.
I've got my breast plate of righteousness.
I've got the sword of the Spirit.
I've got my feet fitted with these boots that I love.
Or the the gospel of peace. I meant my belt With the the
belt of truth buckled around my waist.
I can extinguish all the fiery darts of the evil.
All of them. Quit leaving the house without
your clothes on. Because when you leave and
you're frazzled and you're not in unity and unified with the
body of Christ and the word of God, then it messes you up and
it puts you in a mental position where you don't feel worthy.
You don't feel worthy to minister to anybody, and so you
won't. No more, no more.
This church how good and how pleasant.
It is for brethren to dwell together in uni.
That's where God commands the blessing.
That's where the blessing is Philippians chapter 2.
Therefore, if there's any consolation in Christ, if
there's any comfort of love, if there's any fellowship of the
Spirit, any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like
minded, having the same love, being of 1 accord, 1 accord, one
mind. Let nothing be done through
selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind.
Let each esteem others better than himself.
Do we do that. Let each of you look out not
only for your own interests, but also for the interests of
others. 1st Corinthians 110 Now plead with you, brethren.
By the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, That you all speak the
same thing, that there be no divisions among you, but that
you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and the same
judgment. What would it look like if we
all had the same mind? I wish I could see all of your
minds right now and what you're thinking and what's happening
right now. What if we all had the same
mind, the mind of Christ? What if we all thought on and
meditated on the scripture says meditate day and night meditated
on what he says about us? What if we all did that?
Do you believe that God is searching like the scripture
says, the the the earth. He's searching the earth looking
for someone whose heart is in unity with his looking for
someone whose heart is looking for a body of believers who are
joined together of the same mind, the same heart in one
accord. He's look, what's he going to
do? And he's looking.
Out. And he sees that church right
there. That church are, they're
unified. They're one.
They're thinking the same thing. They're saying the same thing.
Oh man, I got some territory for them to take over.
I got some things for them to do.
We got to get in unity. Acts Chapter 2 says that they
were with one accord in one place, not doing their own
thing. And you know Ephesians Chapter
4, Pastor Mike talked about it on these Wednesday nights.
You know when he's called us in the the ministry to equip the
Saints for the work of the ministry, it says until we all
come to the unity of the faith, The unity of the faith, Jesus
said, I, Lord, I pray that they would be one like we are one.
I pray that they would be. One.
Now let's look at a type and shadow real quick from Second
Chronicles chapter 5 of What this Unity.
Looks like when a church does it.
Second Chronicles, chapter 5, verse one.
So all the work that Solomon had done for the House of the Lord
was finished. And Solomon brought in the
things which his father David had dedicated the silver and the
gold and all the furnishings, and he put them in the
treasuries of the House of God. Verses two through 10 is them
bringing the ark into the temple.
Let's jump down to verse 11, it says.
And it came to pass when the priests came out of the Most
Holy Place, for the priests who were present had sanctified
themselves. Without keeping to their
divisions, and the Levites, who were singers, all of those of
Asaph and Heman and Jedophant, with their sons and their
brethren, stood at the East End of the altar, clothed in white
linen, having symbols, stringed instruments, and harps, and with
them 120 priests sounding with trumpets.
Verse 13 Indeed, it came to pass when the trumpeters and the
singers were as one. To make one sound to be heard,
and praising and thanking the Lord.
And when they lifted up their voice with their trumpets and
symbols and instruments of music and praise the Lord saying For
He is good and His mercy endures forever.
That the house. This is what happened, that the
house, the House of the Lord was filled with a cloud so that the
priest could not even continue ministering because of the
cloud. For the glory of the Lord filled
the House of God. These people were one.
They they made one sound to be heard.
One sound. What is it like?
You know how you know what it's like when you hear a choir?
When you hear a choir making one sound all in harmony?
There's something about it. What if we're all making one?
We're not a choir. I'm not saying we're a choir in
here. But we're all making one sound,
one heart, one mind. 1 unification with the word of
God. And we're saying here we are.
We're we're here, pastor. We're here to receive our
orders. We're ready to ignite the city.
We're ready to impact the nation.
We're ready to influence the world.
What is it? What is it?
You've called us to come in and unify on today instead of coming
in here for us. You know, years ago the Lord had
spoke to me about when David used to go in and play for Saul,
and he was tormented. And every time David went in and
played for him, he got peace and he got relief.
And then and then when David left, the torment came right
back. And and unfortunately, sometimes
we come into the church that way and we come into the church and
we're we're hurting and we're broken.
And we just want some relief. And we come in here and we get
some relief and then we go out there and we're in the same
mindset and we're in the same brokenness.
When God has called us to live in victory every day, all the
time at home. Coming in here is for us, the
churches, the the pillar and support of truth.
So we come in here, we're just getting our getting our orders,
getting what we need to go out and do what we're called to do.
Getting in unity, enjoying the joy of being with other
believers. That's what we're called here to
do. Not that every time we come up
in here, we're having to lay our stuff down at the altar.
We're having to get our heart right because that's where Angie
made me mad. We're having to make all these
internal adjustments with each other.
When God's saying get your focus off those little foxes that keep
spoiling your vine and get at get in here, get unified, get
your mind on what it's supposed to be on, and let's go out here
and take the city for the Kingdom of God.
That's what he's called us to do.
You know, I can sense it even right now in this body that that
some of us are like, Oh my God, what is her deal?
Like, why is she spitting everywhere?
Like, like, we're so caught up. Come on, I need you to.
I need you to get out of it. We're so caught up with our own
stuff. I want to.
I want to come out and just kind of shake you.
I I just want to come out and and jump on top of you or
something and say, can you not see the cry?
Can you not see the brokenness that's right in front of you
Everywhere you go? Can you not see it?
When you're driving down the road and people are shooting you
#1, can you not see it? People are hurting, People are
broken. People need Jesus.
They need the Kingdom of God. How are they going to know if we
don't take it to them? The Bible says how beautiful are
the feet of those who go and do it.
You don't have to wait for a mission trip.
This city is your mission. This city is your call.
It's what you're called to do. It's what you're called to do.
We got to get together and get in unity and say where we
received the rally cry, we're going to do it.
Let's March out and do it. Let's go out and take dominion
in our city. People are coming to this church
because the Holy Ghost is leading them.
But I'm going to tell you the number one way people come.
It's their relationship. You've got to start connecting
with people. When years ago, when I was
working at the detention center, hey, Cody, when I was working at
the detention center in Tulsa, OK.
When I went in there, they knew I was a Rhema student.
And so, you know, they didn't know me, so.
So they just want to make sure, don't you come up in here and
start preaching to these people and these kids, these girls.
And so they were like, you can't talk about God.
You can't talk about God unless they ask you.
And I said that is fine, that is no problem.
That's how I like to operate anyway.
So I said OK, and so my prayer was God with every touch, with
every word, with every, every time I play basketball with
them, every time I whatever I do with them.
That they sense your love, that they sense your presence, and
that they ask. And they did.
And they asked several, several of them asked at different
times. When we worked at the boys home
here in Saint Augustine, we couldn't necessarily go up in
there and force them to come to. Church and and force them to
believe God. So our prayer was God.
When we're here, God's here you're here.
And if you're here, then they can't help but change because
your presence is here. And we saw a lot of healing.
These are the signs and the wonders that are supposed to
follow you because you're truly loving people, that you're just
going out and developing relationships with them,
developing a friendship with them, inviting them over for
dinner. And because they know you really
love them, they know you really care.
Then when you, when you say come to church with me, then they're
apartment to do it. Yesterday I met Barbara when we
were doing our Osceola make a Difference day and she came
because she lives by Marissa and and they were just Marissa was
walking her dog. You were walking your dog and
Barbara was walking her OK walking the dog and and you know
just started having conversation and just eventually just said
you know you want to come to church with me and and here she
is and not only here she is she's hooked up connected now
and and a a member of our church and that's how it happens not
because Marissa said oh koramaki love love and and slapped her
and said you got a demon in you come out that's weird.
That's weird. And it doesn't mean that you
can't ever, and you won't ever and God won't ever call you.
When we were at the group home one time, there was a boy who
was literally. Possessed with a demon.
Literally possessed with a demon.
And there we had to put a physical restraint on him, which
they allowed back in the day. They don't allow it now, but you
know anyway, let me be quiet. So.
So I can't remember I had restrained.
Or you had restrained. I think he had restrained him
anyway, I had looked at him and said I'm going to do it because
we both knew there's a demon here and we got to deal with the
demon. And so we cast that demon out.
And when we did, when we cast that demon out, that boy who was
flipping all around, got up and sat on his bed and was just
limp, kind of started drooling for a minute.
Just was kind of limp for a minute because that demon had
possessed him. It wasn't just a demonic
oppression, it was a possession. And so there's times that that's
going to happen. There's times that you're going
to need to do things like that, but you better be led by the
Holy Ghost. Because if not, you're going to
cause people to be like you're weird.
And no, I don't want to come to your church.
Never. Never.
I'll never come. But but that's not this church.
We need to learn how to to have wisdom and love people and
embrace them. Love on them, no matter what
their lifestyle is. Love on them.
Let me wrap this up. Matthew 28.
When it says go into all the nations and make disciples, that
word nations is ethnos and it means every ethnic group.
It means gentile nations who don't believe.
So when it tells us again, go into all the world and go into
all the nations, quit thinking it's another country.
It's right here. It's right here where you are,
Luke 6. But if you love those who love
you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who
love them. And if you do good to those who
do good to you, what credit is that to you?
For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from
whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you?
For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.
But love your enemies. Love your enemies.
Do good and lend, hoping for
nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you
will indeed I'm adding the word indeed be sons of the Most High,
for he is kind to the unthankful and the evil.
He is kind. To them, God himself is kind to
the unthankful. And to the evil should we be
therefore be merciful, just as your father also is merciful.
John 435 In the Passion translation, as the crowds
immersed from the village, Jesus said to his disciples, Why would
you say the harvest is another four months away?
Look at all the people coming. Now is harvest time.
Their hearts are like vast fields of ripened grain ready
for harvest. It's harvest time.
Look around you. Schools are short staffed,
businesses are short staffed, There's volunteer positions that
are needed. And everywhere you go,
everywhere you go, Psalm 34, verses 15 through 18, says.
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are
attentive to their cry. But the face of the Lord is
against those who do evil to blot out their name from the
earth. The righteous cry out, and the
Lord hears them, and he delivers them from all their troubles.
Verse 18. The Lord is close to the broken
hearted, and he saves those who are crushed in spirit.
If He's close to the broken hearted, should we?
Should we be? I think about the story in the
Bible about the unjust judge and the widow that just kept going
to him. And I think about, you know,
things that are happening in our government that may not, that
may be corrupt, it may not be right even in our city, that may
not be right that the Scripture gives a picture, that she just
was persistent. She just didn't stop.
She wasn't moved by his. No, she wasn't moved by what he
was saying. She just kept going.
And finally he said because of her persistence, fine, I'll give
it to you. And and and what are some things
that we're getting nose on? What are some things that we're
getting, maybe getting some kick back on.
But we need to keep going, keep being persistent, keep pursuing
those buildings that we need. Keep pursuing those businesses
that should be turned over. Keep pursuing those lands in
those houses that we should be taking.
Don't take no. Don't quit it.
No. Be persistent, Psalm 147.
Three. He heals the broken hearted, and
he binds up their wounds, healing their pain and
comforting their sorrow. I want to go through a list of
some of the things as we close that we do here in our church.
We do. We are partner with Osceola,
which I already mentioned to you, and we have a faithful
team, really, of about four people every week.
They come in here and pack 110 bags and they come in here on
Wednesday and we have someone who delivers them to the school,
to families that need them. Every week we do this our.
Partnership with them, we We give cupcakes a business in our
church. We give cupcakes to two teachers
a month to appreciate them in our school.
We're there to say whatever you need.
We'll do it for several years in a row.
They've needed basketball coaches.
I coached for a couple of years. Coach Fred is still coaching
there. They need coaches.
I know to Tyus stepped up and and took the Murray coaching
position. I'm telling you, people are
falling by the wayside because of things going on in their
personal lives and mentally people are not able to handle
it. And we're there to help them,
but we're also there to step in and say I got this, I'll do
this, I'll take care of this. There's there's team after team
after team in our city that need to be coached.
Can you coach A-Team? Can you step in and and coach a
cheerleading squad? Step in and and volunteer in
these positions so that you can start to love on these people.
Love on these kids. To Tyus and Murray, we painted I
put on here. We painted a mural at Osceola,
the elementary school. Todd and Brianna actually
painted this awesome mural. The principal.
Called anytime they need something, they'll call me and
say, hey, you got anybody that could paint this cool?
This new principal came in this cool, this cool mural on our
wall because I wanted to like pop and be exciting.
I was like, yes, we do. Todd and Brianna did that
probably about a year ago. Was that about a year ago?
And The funny thing was, he wasn't.
Wasn't actually supposed to do that and kind of got a slap on
the hand for doing it. But it looks awesome.
It looks really good and and they joke about it,
Superintendent, they all joke about it because it wasn't
really in the protocol. But he he's a great principal
and he just wanted to come in and and do something.
But people in our body go in and say we got it.
We've got many artists in our body that can come and come and
do that. Our faith-based board meetings,
we attend those, we go to those and we find out what's going on
in the county, what's happening in our schools, how we can
partner with other schools. You know, there's a lot of other
schools that have needs but we're doing so much at Osceola,
we can't take over all of them. But but there are more that we
probably could do if we had more people say, hey, I want to help,
I could do that. I can come pack some bags, come
come pack some snacks. These things bring connections.
Feeding our Pedro football team, jumping in and and and getting
food. Say I'll make the lasagna.
I'll do that and realize your reward is great for doing those
things. It's not a chore.
It's not something just like Brianna said, you we can't just
come up here and be like I have to, have to.
Praise God, I have to lift my hands.
I have to. Oh my gosh, what a blessing to
be able to serve and to be able to give.
God truly is going to bless you. Bless not only your heart, but
bless your life, your finances, everything when you.
Learn how to say I'm going to take my focus off of me and I'm
just going to give. I'm just going to give my life
jail ministry, the jail ministry.
We have the men's and the women's jail ministry going on.
Pastor Marcus and some other men just went and did a Kingdom rise
in our in our jail ministry, in our women's ministry.
We go through a a book, a Bible study with them.
You know those the, the women up in the jail can get on iPads and
can talk to you. They can send you a message and
text you and and I do that with some of the women.
Maybe some of us could do that with some of the women.
Just that's when I have the most conversation with them is when
they say, hey, Pastor Angie, answer this.
For me, what is it? What does the Bible mean when it
says this and we are able to talk back and forth that way?
Jail, ministry. We need more people.
We need more people for that. Our detention centers.
I'm going to find out about getting in our detention
centers. We need people to step up.
And get involved in that W Augustine, as you know man,
we've had such a great turn out. I want to say thank you for all
that you've done getting involved in our W Augustine
community. You know, the new guy that came
in and and started leading that organization said who are these
people that show up all the time?
Who are these people that are that are here faithfully serving
all the time? And they said that's Anchor
Faith Church. And he said, I want to meet with
them. And so they came here and met
with me and then pastor and I went and met with them.
And they're like, we need you to actually be on the board and
make decisions because because this Saint Augustine, this West
Augustine youth development, and it's not just about football,
it's about it's about transforming the whole W
Augustine community. How can we come in there and how
can we help do that? We need people.
We need you. We need all.
Of us to step up and do that? Flagler feeding money.
Give give to that cause for feeding our teams.
They're so blessed every time we do it, let's just keep feeding.
I want to feed them every chance we get, every home game, some
away games even before they leave.
Make sure you're given towards that.
Dining with Dignity, Feeding the Homeless partnership, That's
another ministry that we've joined in on.
What a blessing. If you've never been a part of
that, you got to go through the right channels.
But jump in and love on these people.
We've been asked to take over Rick's family.
Christmas on Christmas Day, right, Christmas Day where we
minister to people love on people see them get born again
feed them. There are things happening where
we're we're like yeast kind of making our way out into this
community. And I'm telling you, you want to
be a part of it. You want to be a part of it.
Families count. You've heard me talk about
families count. There's some exciting thing
things happening with that where where DCF has it and it's in the
process of getting reviewed so that we can get it actually
either court mandated or just judicially approved.
So that it automatically is one that Family Integrity says you
need to go to Anchor Face parenting class for.
For people who are about to lose custody or have lost custody of
their kids, we have a few people in this congregation today that
have been through. Our family's class counts class
and we want that to be. In fact, it's already being
talked about because I had someone from Family Integrity
call me the other day and said, hey, when's your next parenting
class? I heard about it.
We had a local shelter just a couple of months ago.
Call us and say, hey, we heard about this mentoring you're
doing through this family's count.
Are you mentoring? Will you just mentor anyone?
And I said I would love to, but I can't fit it on my schedule.
But I wonder who could? I wonder in this body who could,
who could step up and say I want to be a mentor to somebody
that's living in the the shelter that needs just some guidance
here and there and help them. That's for us.
That's for all of us. Anila attends our county
Commission meetings, our, our government things that are going
on. Who else can show up for those
things? Who else can get involved and be
a part and run for different things that pop up, different
offices that pop up? But we want you to know what
you're doing. Have some wisdom, OK?
Not just, not just. I want to be political and I
want to, you know, just jump in here and have a voice.
No, You want to actually have some wisdom and know what needs
to happen According to the Bible, Saint Gerard, we help
there, our town halls. We have people come to our town
halls, our local parades. You know, we've we've built
floats before in years past for our parades.
And those were fun. We could do it again.
It's just a way for us to be a face in the community, you know?
I don't know if you saw recently on Facebook our mall.
The mall was being talked about and there was somebody.
Took a picture of the Christmas decorations.
And said what? What's happening in there?
And they had this. I read the thread and it's like
I thought it was just a church. What's going on?
And people were saying, no, there's businesses.
They're bringing them all back to life.
It was all pretty positive and all these people were like, I'm
coming, I'm coming to visit, I'm coming to see it.
I'm telling you, there's a moving, there's a shaking,
there's an igniting happening in our city and you need to get
fired up about it. You need to get ignited yourself
about it. Matthew chapter 10, Matthew
chapter 10 verses 5 through 8 says Jesus sent his 12 harvest
hands out with this charge. Don't begin by traveling to some
far off place to convert unbelievers, and don't try to be
dramatic by tackling some Public Enemy.
Go to the lost, confused people right here in your neighborhood.
Tell them that the Kingdom is here.
Bring health to the sick. Raise the dead.
Touch the untouchables. Kick out the demons.
You've been treated generously, so live generously.
Don't think you have to put on a fundraising campaign before you
start. You don't need a lot of
equipment. You are the equipment.
You are the equipment worship team.
You can come. We've got to start going to
these places, local shelters. He is kind to the unthankful and
the evil. God is kind to them.
First, Peter 29 says. You are a chosen generation, a
royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, that you
may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness
and into this marvelous light. Let me say this to you.
You got to forget those things that are behind.
You know, in Philippians chapter 3, it says one thing I do is
forget those things which are behind and I'm straining forward
towards the mark of the call That's in Christ Jesus, you
know, and in Joshua. God had to tell Joshua, listen,
Moses is dead. I need you to go in and I need
you to take the land, and I need you to understand that every
place that you put your foot is yours.
And I I sensed when I was studying this morning that that
we need to to to forget those things that are behind those
things that are weighing us down, that that are causing us
not to to step up and say, I'm going to, I'm going to put my
foot on the land. I'm going to, I'm going to put
my foot in the city. I'm going to step into this
school and and and start being yeast in this place.
Sometimes we're still carrying the weight of our past and God
does not want you to carry any kind of weight, any kind of
heaviness. You going to start remembering
to forget, remember to forget, forget those things that are
behind and press on towards the call.
You're anointed. The Scripture says the Spirit of
the Lord God is upon you because he's anointed you to set the
captives free. He's anointed you to proclaim
liberty. He's anointed you to give them
beauty for ashes. He's anointed you to do that.
You know God always chose a man and a woman.
He always chose a man. He always chose a woman.
He's choosing and has chosen us. He's chosen you, but you've got
to lay aside every way everything that so easily
entangles you. Thank you so much for listening
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