Imitate - Spiritual Fathers & Sons

Well, today is Father's Day. Happy Father's Day.

I hope you acknowledged your own Heavenly Father and said Happy

Father's Day to him. I'm thankful for who he is in my

life, and he is the chief Father.

All right, today I am going to be ministering on something that

we hear in the church often. And I will be the first to admit

to you, as we all should acknowledge, is that we say

statements without actually studying statements out.

We make references without actually studying it out to

determine what does that actually mean.

And today I'm going to be dealing with the subject of

spiritual fathers because in the body of Christ, it's, it's real

quick for people to say, well, you're my spiritual father.

But have you ever studied what a spiritual father is?

Because how can you call someone your spiritual father if you

don't know what the Bible says about spiritual fathers?

Because you could call someone a spiritual father that's not

actually a spiritual father at all.

And so we need to look at this today, but I'm more excited to

minister next week on spiritual sons 'cause no one's preaching

about spiritual sons because it's easy to call someone a

spiritual father, but are you a son of that spiritual father or

are you illegitimate? That's next week.

You don't want to miss it. It's going to be amazing.

Are you hearing me because there's responsibility for both?

I said there's responsibility for both and accountability.

Let me say it this way. There is no relationship without

responsibility and accountability.

Hallelujah. Can I get an Amen?

Would you stand for the reading of the Word?

First Corinthians chapter 4, verses 15 to 17, Paul writing to

1 Corinthians 4:15–17

the church at Corinth, the church he planted.

He said this. For if you were to have

countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers.

For in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel.

Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me.

For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved

and faithful child in the Lord, and he will remind you of my

ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every

church. You can be seated.

The key point in this particular passage of Scripture for us to

understand about fathers is the word tutors.

Tutors, because tutors are mentioned and Paul is having a

conversation concerning some things in the 4th chapter and

we'll talk more about this some next week specifically and maybe

even a little bit later tonight, today.

But he has to say there's a difference between a tutor and a

father. Now the problem between the two

is both are teaching but they both do not have the same

authority. Now this particular word tutors

out of the Thayer's commentary. It says this a tutor is a

guardian and guide of boys among the Greeks.

In the Romans, the name was applied to trustworthy slaves

who were charged with the duty of supervising the life and

morals of the boy's belonging to the better class.

The boys were not allowed so much as to step out of the house

without them before arriving at the man at the age of manhood.

So in essence, they were tutors. They were there to help instruct

these boys. And when we say better class,

don't get offended by by that because you are of the highest

class. You are children of God.

And so in essence, when they were young boys, the father of

the house would assign someone to his child to make sure the

instructions that were coming from the father, OK, from him or

the culture per SE, or the training was being followed

through and and they were a tutor of that information.

Yet Paul says, now you can have a lot of tutors, but you're not

going to have many fathers because as much as this person

functioned alongside the boy and gave instruction and correction,

you know, almost communicating to this boy, they were not their

father. And at no time should the son

associate the tutor as their father, even though this tutor

maybe on a day-to-day basis giving more instruction than the

father himself. Are you hearing what I'm saying

now says it this way in the New Testament and the ordinary

director or minister can contrasted with an apostle as a

tutor occupies an inferior position to a parent.

And so here Paul was saying, listen, there are plenty of

people out there that can give you instruction.

Now why is this important, 'cause in the body of Christ we

are all to become disciples, we are to be enlisted as pupils, we

are all to grow up into Christ. Which means anyone in this room

could talk to someone else and give them instruction from the

Word on behalf of the heavenly Father and give them good

counsel, give them right leading, give them right

instruction. That does not make them a

spiritual father. So a spiritual father is not

among Saints. It's not among Saints.

Why is that? Because that is a position that

is being reserved for the fivefold ministry.

In the fivefold ministry, you have apostles, prophets,

pastors, teachers, and evangelists.

And just as those graces give those individuals the ability to

have different layers of authority in the church still

submitted to the Head, Father, that is not within the Saints

themselves. All Saints should be disciples.

At a minimum, we should be disciples in essence.

We could say it this way. The Bible says if you receive a

righteous man in a name of a righteous man, you'll receive

what a righteous man reward will.

Everyone in this room ought to be a righteous person.

Yet then he'll say, but if you should receive a prophet in the

name of a prophet, you'll receive a prophet.

Now a prophet's reward is different than a righteous man's

reward. And not all righteous people

hold the gifting of prophet. So we recognize this.

So Paul is saying, listen, I planted this church.

You've come to Christ because I came because God sent me to your

community and out of the preaching instruction and the

anointing and grace on my life. You may have plenty of

instructors, tutors, but you do not have many fathers.

Well, think about it. If we just look at the fivefold

ministry, how many fathers can you then have in a church?

Just by right of great gifts, that would be 5.

Now, I don't believe that you only have 5 that serve in that

'cause we have multiple pastors, but you can't compare tutors to

the fivefold minister are Saints compared to the fivefold

ministries? There are way more Saints within

the local body then there are the fivefold ministry.

And listen, that is not an inferior place in the context.

It's less than, it's just different giftings.

And again, we are who we are by the grace of God.

You are who you are by the grace of God.

And you know what? There's nothing, there's nothing

wrong with that. You want to be exactly what

God's called you to be because you do not want to be something

you're not called to be. And any fivefold minister will

say if you're not called and you can do something else, do it.

They would say that because of the additional challenges,

responsibility and accountability associated with

the gifting. And I want to be very clear when

I say gifting because we are using terms that the Bible does

not use, offices or terms we use, titles or terms we use.

But the Bible doesn't call the ministry gifts, titles or

offices. They call them gifts.

That's very important because the minute you say title, you

bring over into a secular concept of of a hierarchy of

leadership. But when gifts get into play, it

is a gift that is to be distributed and served to the

body at greater responsibility, at greater responsibility.

So Paul says here, listen, if anyone is your father

spiritually, it's me. But then he goes into the very

next verse and he says, then this therefore I exert exhort

you be imitators of me, be imitators of me.

So as a spiritual father, he says, listen, if I'm not like

Christ, then I'm not positioned or qualified to be a spiritual

father. Are you hearing me?

All right, let me go on. Look what he says later on in

the same letter to the Corinthian church, First

Corinthians 11, when he says this, be imitators of me, just

as I am also of Christ. And so one thing that a

spiritual father recognizes is that if I'm in this position of

being a spiritual father, then reflection is a big deal.

It matters what I reflect. It matters.

It matters what I reflect, which is why real spiritual fathers

are living in places like they don't even want the appearance

of evil because they don't want the appearance of a reflection

of something. They don't want to be

acknowledged in certain ways. They want to flee those the best

way they can because they recognize in order to be a

spiritual father of reflection is is to take place.

You're going to, I'm going to ask you to imitate my life.

This is why, you know, we say who we are here is who we are

down there at the house, at the store, wherever we are, that's

who we are. We don't departmentalize and put

on our pastor or apostle role, but then take that off and leave

it at the front door when we walk out of Anchor Bay Church.

And then we just act like, you know, a St. wear this everywhere

we go because imitation is a big deal.

And Paul tells the church, you need to imitate me.

But in his imitating later on in this that he wants to make it

clear, listen, when I'm saying imitate me, you need to know I'm

imitating him. And why is that important?

Because the spiritual father is not gathering children.

So you'll like him. A spiritual father has children

that he's constantly pointing to the Father, and a spiritual

father sounds like the Christ, because what did Jesus say?

If you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

That's why, Toy told Toy said. How can you say show me the

Father? I'm imitating him.

I mean, everything I do, I don't do on my own accord, I don't do

on my own initiative. A spiritual father cannot stand

up and say, well, this is what I want to do when I want to do it.

A true spiritual father is submitted 100% seven days a

week, 24 hours a day to the cause of Christ and Christ

alone. And I'm to that cause in every

role that I'm in. That's right, in the ministry as

a husband, as a natural father, as a natural grandfather, as an

employer, which means I have no right to tell you, well, this is

what I think the reflection is. What does the Bible say?

So when you come to me to get advice from a spiritual father,

I'm always going to say, well, let's go to the Bible.

I cannot appeal to your emotions, your circumstance.

I can be compassionate and give you the answer which is found in

the book. I said it's found in the book

and I have to do that whether you accept me as a spiritual

father or not, because our Father in heaven has not

compromised His word to accept you.

He has lived his word and you need to accept him.

Come on, That's the difference. He's not accepting us, we are

accepting him. Can I get an AM?

Now? Let's deal with this other

thought because there's an elephant in the room for

religious people. And so I need to address the

religious. OK.

Paul obviously said you're going to have a lot of tutors.

You're going to have a lot, which you know, unfortunately in

our Western culture, there's not a whole lot of tutors out there.

It's not a whole lot of disciples, a lot of converts,

but not disciples. So I would say we're even

lacking in the tutor side. OK, I don't know where the

spiritual fathers are. OK, I'm not trying to run them

down myself and identify who one is or not.

I know who they are in my life and that's the only ones I care

about because I'm not trying to go find a bunch of them.

I'm just led to the one that God assigns to me.

In fact, if I had my children stand up, they would have to.

You know, my children are going to say I didn't get to pick you.

So why do I think I get to pick my spiritual father?

And let me just go on out here for you, since I am.

If you've never personally met your spiritual father and they

know you by name and spend time with you, they are not your

spiritual father. Even though you try to lay claim

to it. They're not your spiritual

father. I mean, they would be in the

natural called an absentee father, someone you never spend

time with, someone that you never get to converse with, yet

you're going to take their teaching on YouTube and say, oh,

wow, they're my spiritual daddy and they don't even know you

exist. I mean, that's kind of like, you

know, people who sleep around and the next thing you know,

years later, they found out they have a child.

Well, I'm shocked. I didn't know you were mine.

I know it's quad. I'm not here to remind you of

your past. Don't be afraid that something's

going to come up. But if it does, roll with it and

get it with the Lord. It's all you can do at this

point, right? Matthew 23133.

It says this. Then Jesus spoke to the crowds

and to his disciples, saying, The scribes and the Pharisees

have seated themselves in the chair of Moses.

Therefore all that they tell you do and observe, but do not do

according to their deeds, for they say things they do not do

them. Now this is a contradiction to

the things that Paul's talking about when he said I'm your

father, imitate me. Because the Pharisees and the

scribes by title by title, teach things that should be observed,

but you can't watch their lives to observe it.

And this is the central thing Jesus is addressing in this

chapter. When we get a little bit further

in. In fact, this whole chapter is

about the religious leader. OK, not a spiritual father, but

a religious leader. There is a difference.

If you jump down to verse 8, it says this, but do not be called

Rabbi. OK?

That was the the title they used for themselves.

Now I understand this is teacher and we do have a 5 fold ministry

gift called the teacher and it says this one your teacher, you

are all brothers. Then he goes on to say verse 9,

do not call anyone on earth your father for one is your Father

who was in heaven. Now again, if we just took time

and again, this is how people who do not rightly divide the

word of truth, they'll take one scripture and all of a sudden

take I see don't talk to any. I don't even call my own natural

father father because the Bible says right.

I remember one time my wife, when we were at Rhema, I was up

at the gym working out and there was a guy much older than us,

you know, ran into my wife there as she was downstairs and

happened to ask where I was. And she said, well, he's at the

gym finishing up. You know, I came to pick him up

and he said, well, don't your husband read the Bible the godly

that physical exercise profits little.

Well, he needed some, right? But again, it's easy to take it

out of context. Very easy, you know, And then my

wife, you know, she didn't rebuke him, you know, but she

thought how stupid to herself. Have the fruits of patience, you

know, long-suffering happen. Yeah.

But she did say, yes, he does read the Bible.

She didn't go back and quote and get a theological debate with

him. And he was gone before I came

down to help correct his doctrine.

But anyway, this is what people do.

They want to pull things out, you know, So when you hear

things said about spiritual fathers, people to go to this

and say, ah, there's only one father.

We shouldn't be calling people spiritual fathers yet Paul said

if there's a father, it's me. We're going to see the

difference here, says so again, he says do not be called on

earth a father. And what he's doing is he's

addressing these titles that they are using because they sit

themselves in the seat of Moses. They do not do anything they

preach. And because they do not do

anything, they preach, they have to have you tell them that they

are this title. Now that's different than

communicating a gift. And I'll get to that because the

minute I say that, people say, well, if you call yourself

pastor this or apostle that you're doing the same thing.

I will correct your doctrine as well.

And so here they were wanted to be known as Father.

In essence, we are the authority and This is why Jesus confronted

them at another time and says you understand this.

He tells them, he says you will not let the people take care of

their own families because you'll say all of their income

comes to the synagogue, which means now it's not available to

help their own households. In essence, I'm your father.

Your inheritance now comes to us.

Shall I meddle? I will right now in our Western

church churches all across, are you doing these life endowments

from their congregation members where their inheritance is

coming directly to the church? Now, if you have absolutely no

children, that's one thing. It's another thing entirely if

you do have those that are there, and if you happen to have

some that you are mentoring and discipling that God has allowed

you to be a natural father to the fatherless, it may be in

your best interest to leave that inheritance to them and not just

to the church. OK, it's getting quiet, man

shouldn't get this quiet at Anchor Bay Church.

It gets quiet everywhere else on YouTube.

It does not get quiet here. I'm just saying you got to know

your motive. It sounds good.

Let's go on, he says. Or do not be called leaders, for

one. Well, you were you were fast,

but I was faster, he said. But for one is your leader, that

is Christ, verse 11 But the greatest among you shall be your

servant. Whoever, who, whoever exalts

himself will be humbling, and whoever humbles himself will be

exalted. Key verse right there.

Because at the end of the day, if you walk humbly, you will be

exalted. So being in a position where you

know technically your influence is growing can be there

specifically because you were walking humbly.

However, the counterpart is if you're trying to make a name for

yourself without God and your name dropping everywhere you go

and you run into every conference and saying who all

your spiritual fathers are, well, then that's maybe another

thing. And I've just talked like this.

I mean, as an overseer, I have to have conversations.

Verse 13 But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,

because you shut off the Kingdom of heaven from people, for you

do not enter in yourself, nor do you allow those who are entering

in. Phineas date said it this way.

Concerning this Father's He said the fathers of Matthew 23 the

whole chapter, he said, were the hypocrites who lorded it over

others solely because of religious position and power.

Here He condemns all three titles that the Jewish doctors

chiefly cherished, OK, that they chiefly cherished that foster

their hypocrisy and religious pride.

And Jesus dealt with this. But look what Jesus says towards

the end of this chapter. Just so you understand there's a

difference in the 2030 seventh verse, Jesus says this

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the Now if he had a problem,

would you be a known as a prophet?

Why didn't he say, since he's in context of correcting who you

calling a leader? Who you calling a father?

Who you calling a rabbi? These Pharisees, scribes,

they're hypocrites. They don't do what they want to

do. And then he gives them a whole

list of things they're not doing but saying, but then he drops

down. He says, now there's Jerusalem,

Jerusalem, who kills the prophets.

Why didn't he say who kills the ones who serve the most?

Because he knows it's a gift and he released that gift and he has

no problem with that gift being recognized because when someone

is graced in that gift, that gift needs to be known and seen

because that's how you know how that person functions in the

body. So he says, who kills the

prophets and stoned those who were sent to her?

Oh my Mama, and how often I wanted to gather your children

together the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and

you were unwilling. So the question is, does Paul

contradict Jesus? Well, the answer has to be no

because Jesus Paul is functioning.

I thought, do you understand there is a doctrine in our

Western culture now that says do you believe Jesus or Paul?

Well, the Holy Spirit wrote it all, and the four gospels that

are the the account of Jesus's life were not written by Jesus

himself in the sense that Jesus penned it.

Now it is written by Jesus because he's the Word.

In fact, all scripture is then written by Jesus because he's

the Word. He's the word of Paul's letters

as he's the word of James letters, as he's the word of

Peter's letters, as he's the word of every other letter.

And so people get in debates about certain things because

Paul says something about marriage in First Corinthians 7,

but Jesus says something about marriage and the Gospels.

Who do you believe? I believe scripture, That's what

we believe. But because we haven't been

discipled properly and we're not keeping the Bible in full

context and we have shoved out part of the ministry gifts in

our modern day churches, in the Western culture where we only

accept pastors and teachers, we're at a deficit of the

others. But not here, not here because

we're going to live the Bible. So look how Paul starts out,

First Corinthians, the letter, First Corinthians 11.

Look how he starts it out. Paul called as an apostle of

Jesus Christ by the will of God. He starts the letter by saying

this is the gift I'm in now. If he believed in the things

that he had a personal account with the disciples.

He was on the planet with Mark, Matthew, Luke and John.

He went and talked to Peter personally to the pillars.

If anyone could have said, what in the world did Jesus mean by

that? He could have had the access.

So he's definitely not contradicting saying we're all

just brothers and there's plenty of say, well, we all should just

greet each other like brothers. Well, we are brothers, but we

all do not have the same function.

And that's the reality. We all do not have the same

function. And that's OK because God made

you the way he wanted to make you and he never makes a

mistake. So the minute you want to be

somebody else's gifting, in essence, you're saying to your

father, you missed it with me. And how does your father get it

wrong? He doesn't.

So if you're wanting some other gift that you're not assigned

that gift or wasn't given to you by the grace of God through the

will of God, well then by all rights you're coveting and

that's not from the Father anyway.

Say Amen. So he says, then he addresses

them right out the gate. I'm an apostle.

He had no problem announcing it. Zero.

In fact, if you read all of his letters, of which he has 12

specifically in name, 13, if you acknowledge him in Hebrews, 10

of them, he says he's an apostle and he had no problem saying it.

OK, well go on to the 4th chapter, look what he says.

If the 4th chapter, first Corinthians 4/1, he says, let a

man regard us in this manner as servants of Christ and stewards

of the mystery of God. So what is he saying?

My gifting by the grace of God called by Jesus himself, man did

not have to appoint me here. In fact, let me just say it this

way. Man cannot appoint you.

Man can recognize those gifts, but just because man recognizes

those gifts doesn't mean that's an appointment.

The appointment of the pastor, the prophet, the evangelist, the

fivefold teacher, and the apostle only come from the Lord.

If they're self appointed, they'll have no giftings

associated with the grace. Then they'll be labeled false.

But if the giftings are there, man's acknowledgement doesn't

make them any more of a pastor, prophet, evangelist, teacher or

apostle. They are what they are by the

grace of God. And the church is alive today,

which means they're all those giftings are alive today.

Aren't you glad you have these giftings at Anchor Fate Church?

So Paul saying though the gifting that I am functions as a

servant, I'm here to serve my gift.

So he's not a contradiction to Paul.

He is literally saying in fact, this the 4th chapter is where he

later on goes on and said now you got a lot of tutors, but if

anyone's the spiritual father, I am to you and by all right, any

church that an apostle plants, those that are part of those

congregations are their children.

He has a spiritual oversight to them.

That gift has a spiritual oversight to them.

That's why. And what what does that mean?

Look what we're doing, and I know I am Galatians 419 says

it's my children again, talking to one of the churches he

planted in Galatians, he said my children, if he's calling them

children, then he's acknowledging I'm your daddy

now, Father. God is our father.

He's chief Father, and I'm only exercising the gift of apostle

to you because of our Heavenly Father in the earth.

I oversee this church not only in Galatia, but in Thessaloniki

and in Corinth and every other place.

He planted a church. Those were all his children and

what he says with whom I am again in labor until Christ is

formed in you. It goes back to a statement.

Imitate me as I imitate Christ. How will I know that you're one

of my children? You're going to look like Christ

when I'm around you. You're not going to look like

me. You're going to like Christ.

But I gave you the example of what Christ looked like.

I did this. Say Amen.

Now turn over to Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 10, you must

Hebrews 10 · chapter mention

understand that I'm going to give you here in a minute what I

consider the top 10 things a spiritual father does.

All right, I'm going to give you the top ten, what I consider the

top 10 things a spiritual father does.

Look at this in Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

Again, we're using a term that there's a natural side, but then

there's a spiritual side. Again, as a spiritual father, I

will not come and spank your natural children.

That's your responsibility. You have a natural

responsibility as a parent. As a spiritual parent, I have a

responsibility to you. And there are types and shadows

of a natural parent to a spiritual parent.

Don't preach my message from the front row.

I gave you Mother's Day. I gave you Mother's Day.

Verse 9. Furthermore, Hebrews 12.

Verse 9. Furthermore, we had earthly

fathers. I need to stop there for one

second. I know we live in a time now

that many never knew their earthly father, but let me say

this. You still had one because you're

not here without them. So when we talk about

fatherless, there's only two ways you're fatherless.

One, they never show up, although they help with the

process of you being here. Or #2 they have passed away, but

they still help with the process of you being here.

OK, but you still have a father. We had earthly fathers to

discipline us. Now, this is a role a earthly

father is supposed to do. And he goes on and say we

respected them. Now, there's a lot of fathers

who don't want to discipline because they're afraid of how

their children are going to act towards them.

Can I do that, Lord? Yeah.

Thank you again. Bible is very important, right.

It said, was it Moses or Aaron or Abraham?

Please help me. Who was the friend of God?

Abraham. Abraham.

Abraham was a friend of God. You know we sing that today.

I am a friend of God, right? We love these things.

Nowhere in the New Testament does it say you're a friend of

God. Now why is Abraham a friend of

God? Because Abraham cannot be born

again. Abraham always had a dead

spirit, even though he was a father of faith.

He needed the redemption, he needed the blood, and he by

faith separated from the household of God, his whole

existence on earth. He was in covenant and God

allowed a relationship to the degree he could, but he was not

in God's nature. He was not born of God.

That came at the death of Jesus when he went to the grave and

saw Abraham, said Abraham we about to blow this popsicle

stand right here. We are coming out three days,

bro, we are out of here. You are finally going to go up

and see the heavenly Father. You are going to to the house.

You have been waiting for this moment to be in the household.

You have been. You have waited for this moment

to become a son of God. So the closest relationship he

could have with a father in the old covenant was a friend.

But in the new covenant we're sons and daughters of God.

But we have parents today, naturally that rather be friends

with their children then fathers and fathers Discipline to their

word. You're grounded.

How long a week and you're not getting paroled because we get

compassionate. We want to let things go when we

need to say stick to our guns. We would.

We're only here because of your action, not mine.

But what do our children do? They kick and scream.

They call us all bad names. You know, they act like they're

going to. You know what?

I'm a father. I'm not your best buddy.

I'm not your pal. I'm not your friend.

I'm your daddy. And that earns respect because

your children will not respect you if you want to be their

friend. I didn't become a father to be

light. I came a father to reproduce a

kind and in order to reproduce that kind, I have to be like my

father in heaven. Hallelujah.

So dads, don't feel upset when you're holding your children to

the fire. And that goes to you Mamas as

well. And for the Mamas who do not

have a husband, your heavenly Father is the father to your

children. So when you're correct and say

your daddy in heaven would not be pleased with what's going on

right now and that bears weight, there's an anointing with you.

And that will not make your children hate him.

Because when you're disciplining in love and according to his

word, it will only cause them later in life to love and say

thank God. I had a Heavenly Father that

kept boundaries in my life, that kept me in life and didn't want

me in death. Yeah, that's good.

OK. Furthermore, we had earthly

fathers discipline us. We respected them.

Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits

and live. In order to live, you must be

subject. Your heavenly Father knows what

to do. And a spiritual Father is only

telling you what the Heavenly Father is saying.

For they discipline us for a short time, as seems best to

them, but He disciplines for our good, so that we may share His

Holiness. Wow.

He said, all discipline for a moment seems not to be joyful,

but sorrowful. Yet to those who have been

trained by it afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of

righteousness. Amen.

The peaceful fruit of righteousness.

Now I'm just going to do a quick paraphrase for you before I give

you the top 10 things that I consider based upon the life of

Paul that's very that's characterized that a spiritual

father will impart towards his spiritual sons.

Paul has written this letter to the First Corinthians where he

announced he's a father. So why we get this term

spiritual father in the 1st place?

He's writing them a second letter.

And in the second letter in chapters 1011 or 9 and 10, he is

having to defend his spiritual father position.

And he's having to defend it because people are coming in

trying to pull away his children.

This is the number one danger of Christian Church hopping #2

conference hopping. Because the minute you go

hopping because you're wanting a word, then what you're doing is

you're somebody is going to accommodate you, something to

pull you out of position. I have seen many talented people

come back with a word from a minister who does not even know

them, has no investment in them, has no thought process into

their lives, but gives them words that remove them from the

place they're in time and time again.

And then the next thing you know, when these things get

picked up, next thing you know, they're always following their

conferences are always going and they are no more submitted to a

local body. You know, we have Christians

today that are popping around conference to conference have

and they're calling all these things spiritual parents to

them, yet they have no root in the local body.

Church from the school I graduated from and many

Christian schools, I know we're not the only one.

There are many who have graduated with this diploma or

certificate that has acknowledged their knowledge and

now they have arrived above the local body church that all they

can do now is go to the known ministers through conferences in

order to be their spiritual children.

They have no pastors, no teachers in their lives, no

local output. I know it's getting quiet in

this apparently Presbyterian Church right now.

I don't know, maybe you're sucking all the wind out of the

room because the people here in this on.

I don't care. I mean, it's just be honest

wouldn't listen. I am doing the same thing I have

done since 2004 and before. I am but specific 2004 because I

moved into that position and whether I preach somewhere or

not doesn't change my mission. I've only had one plant church,

grow the church, strengthen the church, disciple the church.

That's it. Nothing else matters.

And that's going to be somewhere locally that you transform that

community somehow. And that transformation may be a

total revival. Things are done, different laws

are being changed. You know, it's making a positive

impact or it causes everyone to go crazy and you have to dust

your sandals off and leave town. Either way, I've done the work

of God that I've even, we've either come in and we have shown

the Kingdom and there's been a full blown rejection of it, or

we've shown the Kingdom and it starts to transform people's

lives and this is the best pulpit to be in.

This is the best place for me to be.

There is nothing better than doing just that, Nothing better

because what's important and anyone that I'm talking to

outside of you, I'm only saying, what are you doing at your local

church? What are you doing to express

yourself locally? So Paul has to defend because

he's got a bunch of people trying to pull.

This is why he said literally about the Church of Ephesus in

Acts. He says, you know that I'm, I am

innocent of the blood of all men, for I have not withheld

from you the full counsel of God, but I know because I'm

leaving. Savage wolves will come in among

your among yourselves and divide the flock, pulling people to

themselves. While he was there, he could

keep them at Bay. In fact, in the second letter he

says they are saying that I'm a weak person because if I'm not

present, they can talk about me all day long.

I wrote a letter to you and they are dissecting the letter.

They're telling you my motive. They're telling you how I am.

They're telling you I'm a weak person.

You can read it yourself, he said.

But I'm going to show up and they're going to find out.

I'm the same guy in that letter. I'm the same person.

And you know what? I'm going to remind you of who I

am, what I've birth, what I all that I've labored, and all they

want to do is pull you with no labor.

Come on. No labor, no labor and they want

you to call them spiritual fathers.

Come on, sons and daughters, you got to be wiser than that.

It's got to be wiser than that. My top 10 is spiritual fathers

responsibility because if you're, if you, if a spiritual

father is happening, these are things that you should expect.

Number one prayer, number one responsibility for spiritual

fathers. He's going to pray.

In fact, the majority of a lot. Most of Paul's letters are

starting with a prayer. I'm praying you get it.

I pray that the odds of your understanding would be

enlightened, but you may know the hope of your calling.

I pray that you receive supernatural wisdom,

discernment. I pray that your love may abound

still more and more in all knowledge.

That's what a spiritual father. This is why we took those

prayers put Anchor Faith Church. Wow.

Because we know if you get it, we all get it.

We're praying for you #2 doctrine.

They are establishing rightly divided doctrine.

They are not entertainers. They are not soul preachers,

they are spirit preachers that transform your soul.

Doctrine. Doctrine had a powerful

testimony from a pastor who transitioned to church.

It was they took it from their father and now they pastor it

and they were PK. And this is such a powerful

testimony. I was talking with him this past

week and they said, you know, I got in the pulpit and in six

months, everything I knew, I preached.

Then I realized I don't know doctrine because I was raised in

this. I naturally knew how to do

things. But now I'm asking the question,

what do I know and why do I know it?

And so I went on a journey of my own self discovery of the Word,

been in church their whole life, and now has been pastoring for

six months. Because many of you can sit

right here today and you know how to naturally respond in the

Word, but you don't know why you are.

It's not in you, and if enough trials and tribulations come,

you'll run out of what you know. But today we have to know

doctrine, and we have to be able to touch every subject, even

stuff that people want to stay away from.

We have to do it because spiritual fathers do not

withhold the full counsel of God #3 Kingdom culture.

A spiritual father is going to show you the culture of the

Kingdom because it's not an American culture.

How you live in the US is not how you live in the Kingdom.

Two different cultures. Our culture is not of this

world. We cannot even look to the world

to determine how we are to live. Function #4 Kingdom character, A

spiritual father is going to always be working on your

character that it reflects the Kingdom.

So what they're going to do, because you'll never know the

culture of the Kingdom nor the character of the Kingdom if

we're not rightly dividing true doctrine from the Word of God

and being in prayer for ourselves and for you, 'cause I

can preach it right, doesn't mean you'll receive it right #5

put it up there. Spirit leading.

They're going to be led by the Spirit, led by the Spirit.

Paul was a teacher of how to be led by the Spirit.

They again, these are here's the top 5 already we're talking

about. He demonstrated these and Paul

was man. He was quite the father when he

came to doctrine. Remember he confronted Peter.

He didn't let the traditions of even the apostles of the lamb

revert back to Judaism type thinking and he considered

himself the least of all the apostles.

But he was correct in the way Peter was responding.

But it when you established doctrine and culture character

and obviously we're being LED. We know the voice of our father

through his spirit number six. He's an there an instructor and

corrector. They're not just instructing

you, they're correcting because the minute you receive

instruction, then the opportunity for correction comes

if you violate the instruction. And again, Father's discipline

for your good, for your good. Why?

So that two things can occur in your life, holiness and

righteousness. I do not accept you as you are.

I see you in Christ and there's a difference.

We'll just come as you are. We'll accept you.

I don't accept you. I can see your deficiencies and

I'm going to address the deficiencies because I see you

doing it in Christ and it's unacceptable to continue to see

you live less than what you can. And this isn't hard for us to

recognize. We allow the athletic world to

do this with our children. You see potential.

Run them more, put them here. What do you want them to do?

We'll do it and we'll give them free access to our children.

But the minute a pastor, a youth pastor shows up, says, you know,

your child is not worshiping God, we get all prune faced.

All right #7 maybe you'll think twice about a spiritual father.

It's easy to say, well, you're my spiritual father, but are you

accepting this from someone? I mean, it's easy whether my

spiritual father, you know why most people call people

spiritual father? You know, they've taught me so

much in the word. That's just one thing they would

do. That is not the only thing.

And they are not your spiritual father because they taught you

something in the Word. You know what?

A disciple, a tutor, can teach you something in the Word, but

they do not have the right to correct you #7 the gift

developer. A spiritual father is going to

develop your gift, to release your gift.

But you know what? A spiritual father is not

releasing your gift so your gift can be independent 'cause there

is no gift assigned to the body that is by itself.

Well, they won't let me do what I want.

You, your gift is tied to a local body.

Yeah, come on. It's tied.

That's right. Period.

It's tied. That's right, that's right.

And I'm just going to be absolutely honest.

Every gift is tied to a local body.

And if they are not in a local body giving that gift more,

they're not in the right fit. And I'll speak more on that when

I talk about the church. There's a lot of gross teaching

about the church. And that's why we're weak.

And there's a lot of giftings that are not here because of

insecure leaders or because people just want to be anywhere

else without being accountable anywhere.

Let me tell you, if I want to be popular, all I got to do is

travel because I can preach messages and make people really

excited, and then they don't get to know me.

And then I go to the next place. And the next place, by the time

I come back and borrow on the influence of the minister who

lets me preach, they're going to think I'm the greatest thing.

Why? Because they never get to know

anything about me to know about me.

But you'll know me because you're here and I'll know you.

And This is why we love the ministers that come in that

don't know us more than the ones that know.

You say Amen. Anyway, we're gift developers #8

and encourage her. We're going to encourage you,

man. We're going to encourage you.

We're going to encourage you to be exactly what God's called you

to be. I will not encourage you to be

something other #9 we are endurance builders.

This is a marathon, a race, and we will help you through

suffering, hardship, trials, tribulations.

I will be to you what my buddy in basic training and then with

AIT was to me in our last PT test because I was sick of

running. I'm in the best shape of my

life, but mentally I am done with the track. 2 miles, I'm out

done. It's over.

But I have to pass it and physically there's no excuse for

me not to. Mentally, I don't know why, but

I was just done. And my buddy was, you know, we

were running a quarter mile track and he was an eighth of a

mile ahead of me. And when he passed, he realized

I'm not going to make it. And he sacrificed.

He slowed his pace. He let me catch up.

And then he looked at me and he says you got to get it up,

you're not going to make it here.

And then he started singing cadence to me and paced me.

And brought me across the finish line passing endurance.

He helped me during this one time that should have been my

easiest, but for some reason became my most difficult.

And you need somebody who can look back and say, why are you

lagging? Come on, there's more.

We need to go somewhere. Why are you pushing all the

time? Because you're not going to get

across the finish line if we don't pick up the pace and #10

imitators of Christ. Because that's what Paul

stressed when he said you got a lot of tutors, not many fathers.

And if anybody's your father, I am because I planted this

church. I preached the gospel to you and

the gospel was not salvation alone people.

Paul preached the gospel of the Kingdom.

He preached to them a whole lot more than just in fact.

His letters are dissecting Kingdom culture and character, a

way to live holy and righteous and pleasing to the Lord full of

faith. Finishing your course

overcoming. He was amazing and he says, now

follow my example. You know, if I could just get

the church to follow my example of just coming to church, the

devil tells you I do it 'cause I'm paid.

I did it before I was paid. But a Workman is worthy of his

wage. So I don't come because this is

my job. I come, it's 'cause it's my

assignment, that's why I come. And I've done seasons without

pay if necessary. But why don't we just follow

that example? Because what would Anchor Faith

Church look like if everyone came every time?

Just that one alone. That is very important to

assemble. How about the example?

Seek first the Kingdom. If we could just get those two

going, they'd be amazing. Amazing, transformative.

Because when he says imitate, that's what he means imitate.

Why does Apostle Earl come all the time?

Because the Bible says do not forsake the assembling of

yourself together, as is the habit of some, but all the more

as you see the day approaching. We are jointed and fitted

together where every joint brings a supply.

How can I bring a supply to you if I'm not here?

No different than how can a center of a football team bring

his supply if he does not show up at the game.

Same in anyway, spiritual Father, I'm going to close with

this thought. The Bible can I see a minute the

Bible talks about in the natural about blessing your family and

you know if you look through the old covenant we see time and

time again that before a patriarch was going to go.

He would anoint to lay his hands on his children.

Jacob Israel brought all of his boys in all of his sons.

He spoke over their lives prophesied things that we're

going to happen based upon their life.

But you know he he touched his kids.

This is why Jesus said suffer not the little children he

blessed them. I'm not leaving so know that,

but if you since I birth with the Lord, the Lord assigned me

here as Mr. Berry has said multiple times, I I just didn't

come to Saint Augustine. I was sent here.

I was sent and I that alone is the definition of the apostle 1

cent. I'm only here today because I

was sent and because God has an assignment larger than our city

now, very active. It's very important for the

children, the sons and daughters for that matter, to take care of

the house when the Father's doing business.

Our heavenly Father was so confident in his Son that he

could do his business without him personally being there.

And what did Jesus say? Didn't you know I'd be about my

Father's business?