Be A Good Influencer II

I am a doer and not just a hearer.

I am humble before the Lord.

I am obedient to the Lord.

I am mature in the Lord.

I am enthusiastic about the Lord.

I know that hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

Amen.

Let's give them another hand clap of praise.

Amen.

We thank God for sisters on Tellin' Everyone

who worked with our youth to allow them to come

and stand before you at a disappointed time.

Our scripture texts from Matthew chapter 5 verse 13 through 16.

Matthew 5:13–16

The Bible says, you are the salt of the earth.

But what good is salt if it loses its flavor?

Can you be made salty again?

It will be thrown out and trampled under feet as worthless.

Somebody say worthless.

You don't want to be considered worthless in the kingdom of God.

You don't want to be trampled under feet.

It's all because you don't lose your flavor.

Salt is supposed to influence things.

When you put it in something, it changes the dynamics.

You are the light of the world, like a city on a hilltop

that cannot be here.

You just can't hide light.

You just can't hide.

When light shows up, darkness has to...

So God didn't give you light to hide you.

He gave you light, young people, for you to shine.

As you go to the next level, God expects you to shine even brighter

at the next level.

And then, you know, as being that light,

then you ought to draw others to the light.

Amen.

He says, no one light a lamp and put it on a basket.

Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand

where it gives light to everyone in the house.

In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see

so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.

Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated.

Well, this is going to be our second sermon in the series that we've entitled

Be a Good Influencer.

And I said that we're living in a time where the magnitude of social media platforms

and the ability of people to flood their ways with various content.

And because that is so readily available and so easy to do,

some people are skillfully positioning themselves to be influencers.

And we know for us as Christians, God expects us to be good influencers.

Amen.

I showed you on last week that as followers of Christ,

you know, we should be influencing our families,

among our friends, on our jobs, in our social circles.

And in a space that we occupy, we ought to connect with people

with the intent that we're going to have some influence.

Amen.

And we said this about an influencer.

An influencer is the capacity to have an effect on the character,

the development, and the behavior of someone or something.

So God expects us to impact people in their moral qualities,

in their growth, their maturity, and success, and also in how they act.

You know when you got influenced, people don't just act in a counter way around.

Amen.

They know who you are and they respect you for who you are.

And because of that, they act a certain way.

And when they do that, that's in them.

As followers of Christ, He gave us authority and the means through the gospel

to share and spread influence around the world.

In Jesus' last words, He charged His disciple and gave them the command

to go therefore and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Then He said, teaching them.

Somebody say teaching.

I told you last week, teachers are influencers.

Amen.

So God expects us to teach them to observe all things that are commanded to you

and lo, I'm with you always to the end of the age.

Amen.

Now last week, we established that there are definitely evil influences in the world.

And we revealed that God, you know, and because that evil in the world,

we're not focusing on the evil, but we're just letting you know that just like we're to be good influencers,

there are people out there who are evil influencers.

And we showed you how evil came in the world back in the garden.

And we also saw last week that God expects us to be influencers over our children.

You know, we should be bringing them up in a certain way and acting a certain way around them

and teaching them and presenting certain things to them on a daily basis

so that they will know who God is in your life.

And as they know who He is in your life, it will spread to their life.

But you can't do that if you're not trying to influence them.

And I gave you examples from scripture last week, places and times when you can influence your children.

And last week, we closed with looking at how one church has such a good influence

when they was, you know, believed the gospel that that influence spread all over the world.

Other people heard about them because of how they responded to the gospel message.

Now today, we're going to see something of the continuation of that in John chapter 12.

John 12 · chapter mention

John chapter 12, I'm just going to read verse 9 and 3, 11.

John 12 · chapter mention

And what I want you to see here is that Jesus was arriving from,

people, Jews were arriving from all over the world for the Passover celebration.

And many of them had heard about what Jesus had done for Lazarus.

Most of you know the story, Lazarus was there, Jesus come to town and raised Lazarus from the dead.

And took him from that place.

And then by doing that, he gave Lazarus a testimony.

He became a living witness to the power of God.

And because he was such a powerful witness for the power of God,

there were people who started to believe in Jesus because of,

and because Lazarus became such an influencer,

those people who were coming out of one set of religion over and to follow in Jesus,

the leaders in that group said, hey, we don't only need to kill Jesus,

we got to kill Lazarus too.

Because Lazarus is an influencer.

And every now and then when you are influencing, you change the dynamics in a situation,

somebody may not think you ought to be there.

Somebody may want to get rid of you, but that shouldn't stop you from being a...

It is your job to diligently do what you can to bring people to the Lord.

And so look at this, we said this in verse 9,

he says, when all the people heard Jesus' arrival, they flocked to see him,

and also to see Lazarus, the man who Jesus had raised from the dead.

Then the leading priests, religious folk.

Sometimes it is religious folk that is going to try to hinder you

from being the influencer that God has called you to be.

It is not going to always be people from the world,

it's going to be folks in religious circles that can't handle God using you to be an influencer.

And all because they won't do what they're supposed to do,

then now they're going to try to stop you.

But you got to know if you're operating under the power of God and the Holy Spirit,

you got to continue to be an influencer in spite of the opposite.

Somebody may be trying to take you out just because of what you believe

and how you live out your life every day.

He said, now look, the leading priests, not just anybody,

the leading priests decided to kill Lazarus too.

They already had Jesus on the hit list, we might as well add.

But it was because of him, Lazarus, that many people who had deserted them

and believed on God Almighty.

We got to make some coming people alive and believe that they can desert some something.

You know, they got to walk away from something, they got to turn for something,

and they can do that all because of your...

You got some people that may be in your life that you know that's drinking just too much.

You know they're going over the limit, but it's your job to be that...

You know, you got some people that's doing some things around you and you know them,

and God has put you in that life so that you can turn them from something

that they're doing that's hurting them to something that's good.

But what good are you in their life if you have no soul?

What good are you in their life if you turn your light off when you get around them?

You got to continue to influence everywhere you go on your job, at home, in the church,

everywhere you go, you got to be influenced, especially in the world.

It's time out for the church to be silent in the world.

Now I'm not telling you you got to go out there and protest every time someone come up and look here,

you got to have a voice when people ask you something about a situation,

you got to have a voice toward that situation,

and your voice ought to be in the corner of what the words say,

because it is the word and the power of God's word that can influence people,

but he needs us to be the influencers.

So the significant question would be, you know many of us have been saved for a long time,

but how many people have you?

How many people can you look back in your life and say,

because I came in contact with that person and I shared the gospel with them,

I can see fruits from that labor.

You know it's kind of an indictment against us if we've been saved for 20 years

and we can't show proof of influence over anybody.

Somebody say influencer.

You know that's rolling right now, I was looking the other day,

everybody want to be influenced, they're young people,

they don't want no serious job, they just want to be connected to a computer and the internet

and then figure out how to influence for them.

Don't even have to know them, all they got to do is put the right content out there

and get enough people listening to them,

once they get their following up to a couple thousand, three or four thousand,

then now they can take that influence and take it to somebody else and say,

look I can turn you on to a thousand, a three thousand, a four thousand, a five thousand people

just by clicking on this and now when you click on that, you owe me two thousand dollars.

Influence.

People are paying for influence.

Well let me get away from being a little serious, let's get to a situation with Paul.

Go to the book of Acts chapter 27 verse 30 through 44 when I get there.

Acts 27:30–44

I got to set this up because this is a pretty long chapter

but I'm not going to deal with the whole chapter, just paraphrase it to get us there.

Here we find the apostle Paul, he was a prisoner on a ship

along with a large contingent of other prisoners

so he was a prisoner among prisoners

and they were headed to Rome so they could stand trial before Caesar.

Now while at sea they started hitting some bad weather.

They was heading toward a severe storm, life-threatening storm,

something that we were equivalent to a hurricane or cyclone cliff.

And so Paul, you know, spoke to the ship's officer

and said, you know, I don't believe that we should continue going.

Maybe we ought to take port for the winter

because I believe as we go the Lord them told me that we're going to suffer shipwreck.

There going to be some loss of all the cargo, then there may be even a loss of life.

At that point Paul didn't have no influence

because it got hurting but he continued on.

But at some point in time they hit a severe storm, the storm got worse.

In fact they said that it ranged for many days,

blotting out the sun and the stars.

Now you know a sailor at sea, you need the sun and the stars

because when you don't have access to the sun and the star, you're operating in darkness.

And when you're operating in darkness for so long,

your attitude changed, your disposition changed, you started to change.

That's why it's important for you, when you see people operating in darkness for too long,

they started to get depressed, they started to feel down.

They don't want to eat, they don't want to do certain things.

But what you got to do is influence them when they're in darkness.

Sometime your best influence is to somebody that you know that's sitting there in darkness.

No sun, no moon, nothing for navigation.

I don't know if I'm going north or east or south

because the winds have been pushing the boat and carrying the boat.

And right now we're sitting out here in this storm.

But the Lord come back to Paul and tell him, hey, you'll talk to him.

And in this time you tell him this, he said that to tell him to be encouraged.

Even though you're in the storm, even though you're going through right now, be encouraged.

Because everybody's going to go through storms in life.

You're not unique, your storm is not unique.

Somebody else can been through it and got through it, you're going to get through it too.

I just dropped by to encourage you today.

They say, look, when you're in the midst of your storm, don't lose heart, don't lose faith.

Continue to believe that God is with you even in the midst of your storm.

And if you've come through a storm and you're all right now, you ought to be able to go back and help somebody

get through the storm they're going through.

Because somebody that you know is going through something right now.

And what you need to do is say, hey, when they're going through, it is not time for me to desert them.

Not time for me to leave them, not time for me to turn my back.

Because we're going to see that this is what the sailors wanted to do.

Why everybody else was in the midst of the storm.

Paul said this, he says last night, an angel of God whom I serve and who I belong.

He said, now who I belong and whom I serve.

The question, who do you belong to?

Who do you serve?

Now look at this.

He said the angel stood beside me and he said, do not be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand before Caesar.

What's more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone selling with you.

So take courage.

And Paul says, for I believe God and it would be just as he said.

You know, sometimes God needs to visit you in the midst of your storm.

And when he visits you in the midst of your storm and gives you instruction on what you need to do to get out of your storm, you need to take courage and do it.

In the storm, it's not time for you to start doubting God.

Sometimes I'm not sure if God said that.

Well, you ought to know his voice.

In the storm, you definitely need to be able to hear his voice so that you would know how to navigate your way out of the storm.

And when you navigate out of the storm, other than in that storm with you, then guess what?

You can influence others on how to get out of the storm.

We're going to see that here in a minute.

So then some of the sailors were getting ready to abandon the ship.

And we're going to see Paul's influence kick in, resulting in lives being saved in the midst of the storm.

And we're going to see how his influence, you know, changed the heart of the commanders of the ship.

Now what you've got to see is this.

There's about three different sets of people on the ship.

You've got sailors.

It's their job to take care of the ship.

They got to navigate the ship.

They know the shipping business.

They are marinas.

They understand high tide and low tide and rough seas and the depth of water.

When to put the sail down, when to put the rudder down.

They are the sailors.

Then on the ship, you've got the soldiers.

The soldiers' only job on the ship was to hold on to the prisoners, which Paul was a prisoner.

Then you've got the commanding officer of the ship and the commanding officer of the soldiers.

Because he was a centurion, so that means he had at least 100 soldiers under him.

And so what you've got to see here is now, if one part of the ship cut the food, it's going to impact the other part of the ship.

So now we see the guys, who are the experts, decided, hey, we know weather and we haven't been in the storm,

but this is the worst one we've never been in.

So we need to go ahead and jet.

We need to just come on and get out of here because chances are, because we didn't believe what Paul said.

He didn't tell us we were going to make it, but we didn't believe in that.

We don't know his God like that.

He's just a man trying to tell us something we didn't receive it.

So guess what these guys decided to do, Cliff?

They decided to desert us in the midst of the storm.

They decided they were just going to leave us to die.

You know, sometimes folks just don't care about you.

They just care about themselves.

They ain't going through what you're going through.

They ain't going to feel what you feel.

And then when they can get away out, they may not even be thinking about you

because you may not even fit in that escape plan.

That's why when you're in the storm, you need to make sure you got Jesus on your side.

Look at it when he said, verse 30, he said,

then the sailors tried to abandon the ship.

They lowered the lifeboat as though they were going to put out anchors from the front of the ship.

In other words, they were trying to see for.

But you know, when you're a man or woman of God, God can let you discern something.

You know, Paul wasn't even a sailor, but he can say, look here, this just don't look right.

This look kind of fishy. These guys are all over there.

They're the ones that's probably telling us what to do, keeping us calm.

And these boys letting out the lifeboat.

And all of us can't fit in that thing.

Some just don't look right.

You know, that's why you got to ask God to give you a discerned spirit every now and then.

So when folks around you start cutting the food and acting up, you got to say, that just don't.

You ought to be able to sense and see something in your spirit because God has revealed to you.

So Paul says this is verse 31, but Paul said to the commanding officer and the soldier,

he says, look here guys, them sailors going to put you in a position where you're going to die.

You know, when they start thinking about preservation, they know, hey, we got the weapons.

We can keep them around school on board.

We are going to die because they leave.

They critical to my life.

Then guess what?

They're going to stay right on this boat with me.

So Paul said to the commanding officer, you will all die.

All, not something, all die unless the sailors stay on.

Guess what?

Them soldiers say, look, I don't need, you know, five lessons in that.

I got that the first time.

We're going to die if we don't stop them guys.

So look what the soldiers did.

So the soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboat and let them drift away.

They're just telling them, say, we in this thing together.

If we go down, you go down.

You ain't going to do that.

You know, it's like if you flying and you hit some bad weather, you expect the stewardess to be still on the job telling you what to do.

You don't expect them to be life-vessing up and all that and don't tell you nothing.

And all of a sudden they ready to go and you sitting there and say, what's going on?

They're going to tell you, hey, we're going to hit some terrible air.

You need to buckle your seat belt, hold on tight, you know, put your drinks away, whatever you got doing.

We're going to hit some tough air.

You don't expect that when you hit tough air, they ain't telling you nothing.

And all of a sudden they got life-vessing on it.

You ain't even throwing nothing.

You know, some ain't right about this picture here.

So what I'm trying to tell you, you know, and I was thinking about that.

Sometimes delays ain't bad.

You know, I know we hate delays.

When you go to the airport and you travel, you want your flight to be on time right now, right now.

But sometimes delays ain't bad.

If these guys had a delay just a little bit, they wouldn't have ran it to the weather.

But because they didn't want no delay, you got to understand sometimes when God delays some things in your life,

it may be for your good.

But you get impatient during that time of delay.

You don't want to lay over in Atlanta for two hours.

You want to fly on and don't know that there's a storm waiting.

So look at the soldiers.

Soldiers cut the ropes of the lifeboat and let them drift away.

Now look at this.

Just as Dave was donning, Paul urged everyone to eat.

He says, you have been so worried, somebody said worried,

that you haven't touched food for two weeks, he said.

So please eat something for your own good.

You know, influences, if you're a good one, you ought to be telling people things that is for their own.

When you talk to people, you're not trying to tell them, you're trying to tell them something to hurt them.

You're trying to tell them something for their own good.

Paul knew that they need nourishment to have their strength back after not eating for about 14 days.

You know, not like they should have been eating.

He knew that they needed their strength for what was coming.

So now he is trying to urge them to eat for their own.

You know, when you're talking to your children, parents,

they get ready to go off to college and whatever you're telling them,

you got to let them know, I'm telling you this for your own.

When you get to the campus, don't lose your mind down there.

Because if you lose your mind on that campus, I'm not there with you.

So I'm going to tell you something for your own.

If you don't know about campus life, parents,

before you send your child on there, I encourage you right now,

investigate the school that your child is going to.

Understand what goes on down there because some schools are known for more partying than academics.

And you don't want your child to get down there and lose her mind or his mind

and forget everything you don't talk to them.

So I tell you now, encourage them and tell them before they leave something for their own.

If y'all let me pastor tell you what it's like when they get on a college campus,

they ain't never been exposed.

Because everybody on the college campus, like everybody on this boat, don't know Jesus.

It ain't going to like, they're going to run up on Christians in every class they go to.

They're going to run up on some people that came right off the street, still got the street in them

and operated thinking wise as the street.

And if you're only exposed in the how the street thing, they'll get on the college campus

and end up in a storm.

So I'm trying to tell you, you need to get them a weather report before they leave home.

Amen.

And if you don't know how to give them a weather report and you're a parent, come see me.

I'll tell you how the game is played.

Amen.

Your children stand a better chance of surviving in college

and they know how the game is played when they're not in the classroom.

The truth be known, some of your children may be just itching to get away from you.

They don't want no further delay.

They, they itching.

They just, and you better scratch.

That's right.

I wasn't supposed to say that, but since I said it's done now, I can't take it back.

I'll just tell you, some of our kids, they're highly educated, they're smart,

but sometimes intellectual wisdom don't equal the street wisdom.

Some of your parents ain't been in the streets in a long time,

and I'll tell you, you need to give them a little street education.

He said, now look, please eat something now for your own good.

Then he tell them Paul had confidence in God for not a hair on your head will pair.

In other words, you're going to be all right.

Stop worrying.

Because you stay worrying too long, you're going to be, you know, sitting in darkness too long,

then you're going to get dismayed, depressed, and you ain't going to want to live.

Not enough, it's true. Doc, you may tell me this afterward, or you can correct me now.

But I deal and see a lot of sick people, when they get to a certain point in their illness,

they want to stop eating.

They stop eating. When they stop eating for a long period of time, that is a bad sign.

So now we need to encourage them, hey, look, you got to eat because you need your nourishment, you need food.

And so therefore, when you find people that's depressed, they say, man, I don't feel like eating.

That ought to be a sign that something is going wrong in that person's life.

God created us to eat something.

Amen.

Now look at this.

He says, verse 35,

then he took some bread, and when y'all get real spiritual right here, y'all can see something in this.

And he gave thanks to God before all, them all.

And he broke a piece off and ate it.

You know, Paul on a ship with a majority of them heathens.

But in the midst of the storm, he looked like he's serving a little communion there with him.

In the midst of the storm, they probably don't even understand what's going on now,

but in the spirit, Paul knows I'm working something right here.

He said, look here, we're going to sit down and we're going to break bread together.

So when you get your mind off of the storm for a few minutes, and then look at while I'm with you,

I ain't going to forget that I still belong to God.

I'm not going to forget that. I'm going to bless this before we eat it.

I'm not going to get here and act like I'm afraid to mention Jesus' name all because I'm sitting in the midst of a bunch of...

When you go out to eat and you at the banquet everybody, bless your food.

And if you can bless it, bless it for the whole table, don't just...

No, hey, look at it. We're about here for a moment. We've been to pray for this food.

Don't forget to...

Don't forget to do what you're supposed to do all because you're in the storm with some people that don't know God.

That is an opportunity for you to bring God to the forefront because you got their attention.

You got a captive audience. They can't go nowhere.

Can't go nowhere.

So I got an opportunity to break some bread to give God thanks in the midst of the storm.

Some of the guys probably say, man, you thank God.

Don't you see this? This storm is still going. This boat is still rocking.

You talking about thanking in all things. Give thanks.

Not for all things, but in all things.

So in the midst of your storm you still give Him...

Why are you giving Him thanks? Don't stop eating in the midst of your...

Break off something and start eating again.

Amen. Don't let it get so worried that you stop eating.

You eat it. If you can't even think you can keep it down, you still try to eat it.

If you can't chew, get yourself in that stuff you got to drink.

Drink you four or five cans a day.

Amen. Because you got to get nourishment so you can get your strength.

So He gave thanks before them all.

Young people, when you leave here and you get to college, you get to your next phase in life,

and everybody around you is not going to be saved, but they ought to know you're saved.

Don't leave here and leave striving like you don't know Jesus.

When you get to FSU or FU or AU or Northwestern or Alabama, when you get there you take Jesus.

Amen.

We didn't hurt your testimony. We know how great you are.

Now we got to make sure you get to those campuses with some wisdom.

Amen.

Lord, have mercy.

You know, I wish we could have a session one day for all...

See, I didn't go to college. I just learned by observing.

I observed how college folk acted.

Observed. And I had three daughters that went to college.

So I know where they came from, but I know how they acted when they got there.

I...

And by me observing, I'm like, okay, okay, y'all, y'all, you got to stop that.

Nope, that don't work. They know how we play this game.

Uh-uh, uh-uh. You know, you getting in our bin now?

No, no.

I'm observing.

When you send your children off to college, don't just sit around and wait for the next text.

You engage them. They're going...

Whatever they do with them, they'll ask you what you call that.

They don't respond to you. They ain't going to let you know they...

But they get in your text. They're reading it. They just going to hit on red again.

You don't think they got it, but they got it.

Stay engaged with your children once they leave.

Because when they leave, you...

Other influence is going to come in their lives.

And all of them are not going to be...

It blew my mind when I first took Candace down to the University of Florida.

And you know, we come from a little old Northwest Florida.

You know, da-da-da here.

And they go down there and they say they got 50,000 students on that campus.

That's more folks than we got here before walking the beach and nights we all put together.

All of them folk on one campus.

And all of them don't know Jesus.

So it's a good possibility that all kind of influences is on that campus.

So stay engaged, parents.

You see, I don't look.

So everyone was encouraged to begin to eat.

All 276 of us who were on board.

Let us let me know, Luke must have been writing this, because he must have been on board.

Two.

Two.

All 70, 207 to say.

Now this is a dude who didn't have nobody's ear a few verses back.

But now he breaking bread with everybody.

The sailors, the army troops, and the prisoners.

All listening to this dude because he got...

That's what influences want.

They want everybody listening to.

Can you imagine the death you left here and you just had 276 people like your little blurb that you put out about this message?

Bam, just like that.

277.

Whoa, good point.

Yeah, I need to get... I need to tie my grip up on my kids and then get ready to go to college.

Good point.

Past the sale.

Past the sale.

If your daughter go into college, make sure she got her own food account.

101, don't let nobody buy your meals at college.

He may be nice and smiley, but the meal come at a price.

He broke two and he ain't about to give you his money just to feed you.

That's a free nugget right there, young ladies.

You miss a meal before you take a meal from some dude that you done met in two weeks, three weeks.

Because the upper class will think you're going to come there and get hungry.

Let me move on. I ain't supposed to met her.

I'm just talking about from experience.

I'm trying to help some of y'all because I'd rather you know up front.

So you don't have to come back to me with a sad face later saying, I wish you had a told us this past, but I'm telling you.

Being on a college campus before there's some time in the student is no joke.

Ah, Lord, let me move on.

Somebody say 276 people.

Can you imagine we walked out of here and just each one of us has influenced one person?

We ain't got to influence 276, just one.

That we can speak to their lives while they're going through something and can change their lives.

Look at this. After eating, the crew, somebody say the crew, the crew lighten the ship further by throwing the cargo of wheat overboard.

I need the same guys that will finish the dessert.

But now they're on board with Paul because of his influence.

So they understood that if we're going to ship wreck, the lighter the ship is, the higher it rides in the water.

So that means we can get closer to land before we run aground. But if we keep all this wheat on and all this other stuff and lower the ship,

then instead of hitting the rocks, you know, maybe at 100 yards from the shore, we may hit at 300 yards from the shore.

And some of y'all may not be able to swim 300, but you stand a chance that you can swim in life.

Sometimes when you're going through something, you just got to lighten.

When you weigh it down with everything that's happening in your life, you got to take a look at all that stuff and say,

looky, you got to go. I'm riding too low with you on board. You got to go.

I need to elevate a little bit, but you, and you got to, I love you, but look at you got to.

My life is on the line right now, baby girl. I ain't got time to play with you, but you got to.

Anything that's going to hinder me from rising to the occasion, you got to go.

Because my life is at stake. And sometimes your children life is at stake.

And you're going to have to tell them, baby girl son, you got to let somethings.

You got to lighten your load.

So they start further than that by throwing the cargo overboard.

Then look here in verse 39, they was disoriented.

He says, when morning dawn, they didn't recognize the coastline,

but they saw a bay with a beach and wondered if they could get to shore by running the ship abroad.

Neither the sailor's thinking now. And we don't know where we at.

Because we've been in the dark all this time. We're disoriented.

And we don't know north from south, east to west. We can't recognize the landmath to give us a pinpoint.

See, when you lost, man, it's terrible. It's one thing to be lost in the daytime.

You got a different attitude. But when you lost that night, man, it's a deal that you could spend on.

I'm lost at night in some place out on the whole country.

It's different than when I'm lost in the daytime. I got a different attitude.

But when you lost and dawn is coming out of dogs in the dawn,

and you're looking around, you've been in dogs for 14 days and all this time.

Now, where are we?

We see some land over there, but we don't recognize what's there.

But look here, we believe that we can make it to the land.

They didn't recognize where they were. So they saw this bay,

and they wondered if they could run the ship, run the ship of ground by going there.

Look at this, we're 40. So they cut off the anchor, landing that load again.

They don't want that holding the back. The anchor was down to keep us too far out.

We got to get closer. And they left them in the sea.

Then they lowered the rudders so they could start directing the ship where they want to go.

Your children need direction. Even though they're leaving you, they still need some direction.

You need to stay in contact with them so that you can get out.

And children, when you get to college, don't turn your parents off and think you can figure this all out by yourself.

You cannot do it. You ain't there yet. Amen.

You're still learning. And as long as your parents are willing to pour into you,

you got to be willing to receive because they're doing it for your...

They wondered if they could run the ship of ground. Verse 40.

They cut off the anchors and left them in the sea. Then they lowered the rudders, raised the foresail, and headed toward the shore.

But they hit a shore, that's a sandbar, and ran the ship of ground too soon.

The boat broke the bow of the ship. That's the front part of the ship.

I had to look all this up for navigation. Bow. I'm reading that. Bow. What's a bow?

I got a series. What is a bow? Okay.

Navy don't just talk. I don't know why they couldn't just say the front of the ship.

But a navy talk, that's why they're the navy. If I knew it was, everybody would understand it when they talk.

So when they say the bow, I got a bow. Okay. The front of the ship stuck back. I mean, they hit something.

Then the stern. Then that must mean the back of the ship.

I don't know why they couldn't just use plain language. Go to the back of the ship.

You got to go to the stern. I'm listening to that. I don't know where to go. I'm going to the side. That's the F.

I'm going to the side. What I'm going to be going to the... That's why we ain't sailors.

We ain't required to know that we trust them to tell us which direction to go.

He said, as it was repeated, it smacked by the force of the waves and began to break apart.

Paul Prophets is coming through. They were going to be shipwrecked, shipwrecked, and now the ship is breaking apart.

When the ship started breaking apart, the soldiers started acting like the sailors.

See, at first it was the sailors who was cutting the food.

Now the soldiers started looking out for their own self-interest and say, hey, you know, we're accountable for Paul and Luke and all these other prisoners.

We're accountable. If them boys are swimmers and get to the shore, they may get free.

So the soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners to make sure that they were swimming shore and in Rome,

that Roman soldier was accountable for the prisoners that was under him.

And sometimes if you let the guy loose and let him get away, then it meant your life.

So these guys said, look here, rather than taking a chance with these guys out swimming us, they're just going to kill them now.

They're prisoners anyway. They ain't worth nothing. They're going to stand trial. They ain't worth...

But she said, when people see you as being worth nothing, God already got a value on you.

And you can't let people to turn with you. Some people just want to see you dead, just out of the picture. Just go.

But look here, God still see you as...

They wanted to kill the prisoners, but look at this influence again of Paul.

I told you, sometimes influence is better than power.

If you can influence the person with the power, they can get done what you need to get done to save your...

So the soldiers, Brother Wilson, they ready to just cut them up into pieces and throw them on the floor for shock bait.

But the commanding officer, the head man in charge, the big guy, the hefe, the one who called the shots, the big guy.

Sometimes you got to stop dealing with the little guy. You got to go straight to the big guy.

Sometimes the little guy can't tell you what you need. Every now and you need to go to the...

You don't talk to the intermediate supervisor enough. Now you need to get in the point with the...

Because the big guy may have some understanding that everybody else don't have.

And he got to know that, hey, there's a clause in the law that if this happened at sea, then we waived that.

You don't know that. You're just a soldier. You just want to kill him.

So every now and then, the big guy who got the big picture may know more than you know about something.

So every now and then, if you on a job, don't be afraid to go talk to the big.

If he got an open door policy and say you can come in and see him, go see the big.

When you get to college young people, if you know who the dean of your college is, and he got an open door policy, go introduce yourself to him.

Don't just go to the class with your professor and walk out.

At the end of the class, go and learn something about that, bro.

What is interest? What is like? See, it's dislike. Her likes, dislike. Learn something.

Get them to know you so that when it's time to weigh some grades and they got a choice, they can just change them because of who they are.

They make us that C to B.

Influence.

I was failed now, Debra, in college, but the professor, like me, influenced, gave me his test.

He told me he caveat it. He said, I know you ain't going to be no math teacher.

Math is not in your thing. So I know what you said. You here to play football.

So I ain't going to let math keep you from doing that.

I ain't got to worry about you discrediting my career because there's no way you're going to ever be a math professor.

So here's this. So you can maintain your grades, go out there and play football to get you a PE degree, whatever you're going to get.

Had influence.

Because I knew him. I talked to him long before it was time to get to grade.

Every day after class, because I was military, I let him know I don't work the 12 hour shift to get here.

I got a baby at home and a wife. I got to go and work another midnight shift to come to sit in your class at 9 o'clock in the morning.

I'm going to be pretty tired. So he knew if I dozed off, don't hold it against him.

This boy been out there protecting this nation.

And he's sitting up here in my class. Influence.

I got to be out there class.

I ain't shy, mother. I got to be out there class.

Amen.

So young people, I'm telling you, if I can do it, you're a lot smarter than me.

You don't need as much help as I need it.

So what I'm trying to tell you, get to know the people that's in charge.

Stop hanging around with all your friends who don't want to know nobody in charge.

The people in charge is not the enemy. They can be your friend.

Look at this. When they just heard what Paul was going to do to Paul, they said,

but verse 43, the commandant officer wanted to spare Paul.

So he didn't let them carry out their plan.

Then he ordered all who could swim to jump over the board first and make it to land.

So now the commandant officer spoke, hey, you can swim?

Don't worry about these guys. They ain't nobody going to kill you.

You go ahead and go to freedom if you can swim.

But if you like bolder and you can't swim, then when the ship break up, you need to just find your plank.

You just need to find your plank.

See, I tell you all the time, I don't need to know the whole Bible.

I just need to find me a...

I don't need to know Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,

Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 1st, 2nd Corinthians.

I don't need to know 1st, 2nd, 3rd, John.

I just need to know about a plank.

A plank can save my life.

Some of y'all are trying to learn the whole Bible, but you don't know the plank.

All you need to know is to know who Jesus is.

Jesus is your plank.

And even when you think the ship is going down in your life, hold on to the...

Hold on to the plank.

Hold on to him. You can learn about him in one hour class.

You don't need 36 hours to learn about...

I wish all of you could be theologian, but I know you can't.

But I'm going to tell you enough to save your life when life gets tough.

Hold on to them.

The ship don't break up all around you.

Folks don't leave you, but hold on to them.

And if you hold on to him, and just remember one scripture,

for God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, so that I could live.

I'm going to hold on to them.

He told me, hey, whatever the father has put into my head, no man can snatch it out.

I'm going to hold on to them.

Some of y'all are trying to hold on to something that's gone.

The ship is gone.

No matter where, stop trying to bring the ship back. The ship is...

You hold it on to something that can't do nothing for you, when there's a plank.

Some of you ladies, look here.

The next man that come in your life, maybe nothing but a...

Some of you brothers, the next woman that you don't got left at the altar,

you thought you had the ship, but she gone.

And now the plank just drifting by, and you too proud to hold on to your plank.

Your ship has sailed.

She is...

I know some of y'all say, why are you going there?

Because I know that there's some people trying to hold on to some things that's gone, that's destroyed.

You ain't going to bring it back like it was.

So you got to hold on to something that was good about it, to let you go to the next phase in your life.

That'll get you out of that depressed state of mind when you see hope in a plank.

Don't miss the opportunity when God is trying to speak to your heart, man,

with matters that pertain to your life.

And you miss it because you're looking for the grand.

And all he's trying to get you is a little simple message.

Hold on to the plank.

It's enough to get you to the shore.

Because right now all you trying to do is get out of water, because you can't swim.

Amen.

So I just dropped by to tell you today, Jesus is enough.

Your life is going to have some storms, young people.

Everybody has storms.

College is going to be a great success for all of you if you stay focused and do what you're supposed to do while you're there.

The pastor's not telling you don't have some fun, don't go out and have fun, do what you got to do.

But understand if you take an 18 to 20 or some hours, you know, they used to tell me to take you about three hours for every one hour or something that you're taking

that you got to put in effort to study.

So now you can't be partying for six, seven hours on the weekend when you ain't got but one hour.

I ain't saying don't go to the party because for me to think all y'all are going to just skip the party, you're going.

You're going.

I don't care who y'all.

You're just going to go check it out out of curiosity.

You're just going to take you to the party.

But when you get there, hit your watch.

Click.

I got one hour.

Because when I get back, I got to go and study.

I got to put three hours in and this is math because if I don't, I ain't going to pass this test.

Don't let the party or other people distract you from doing what you go into college to do.

Amen.

Amen.

Get a lot of hands up and praise if you will. I'm done.